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“I was not supposed to survive”
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Written by Sarah Parker, The Eagle Staff Writer
Mr. Denlinger, a ninth grade English teacher, just finished a unit with his class on the Holocaust. To finish the unit he had Moshe Baran, born in the 1920 and a Holocaust survivor, share his amazing story to Mr. D’s students on Wednesday, November 30. Mr.Baran started his presentation by giving us a brief lesson on Jewish history. He talked about Abraham and Sarah, Moses, and the reasons Jews celebrate Chanukah, then he gave us his background of his story, and finaly, we watched a documentary “A Look in the Eyes of Resistance”. This was very personal to me, because I myself am a Jew and have heard my own family’s survival story.
“My personal story is now a part of history”, Baran reminisced about his life during the Holocaust. “The Holocaust was not a part the war, it was during the war…A war is two sides fighting against each other, this was one side fighting and killing innocent children, women, and men”, said Mr.Baran’s belated wife in the documentary. Those memories are not kind.
It all started in his little hometown in Poland. When the Germans came, they announced that they had come to liberate them. The Germans claimed that Baran and his town were suffering and that they had come to help them.
Meanwhile, the police were now in power. They went to schools and told children to report their parents if they were speaking against the government. Jews were now ordered to wear the Star of David on the front and back of their clothes to separate them and make them known to others. The goal was to belittle the Jews as much as possible to make them seem less “human” and to bring down their esteem, to others, so they would be considered “animals”.
Mr.Baran told us that one day, it was raining heavily when Jewish men were taken to the marketplace, and forced to weed the cobblestone. Those who fought back were shot.
Mr.Baran and his family were sent to the Krasni ghetto shortly afterward,with only what they could carry, “The men (those who looked able to work), and the women, children, and elderly were separated, and during the liquidation, you could hear screams and cries. They machine gunned the people and set them on fire. All the children in my school perished in an inferno”.
The ghetto was blocked with three sides of barbed wire and the fourth side was a gate. They weren’t allowed to leave unless they were doing labor for the Germans. The Germans made the Jews in the ghettos collaborators to their “cause”. 300 families were to occupy 20 homes in the ghetto. There was no running water or plumbing.
But the ghetto was luxurious compared to the concentration camps. Baran worked and had access to the outside; he talked to the Russians, and told them he would get weapons because he wanted to join the resistance. He lost his father and sister in the ghetto, and his mother barely got out. She was rescued two days before the entire camp was slaughtered.
Mr.Baran was the “physical resistance” while his wife, who is no longer with us, was the “spiritual resistance”. At 15 years old, Moshe’s wife Malka, was sent to a concentration camp, where she worked on artillery. She lived in Poland before the Holocaust. She said that after the Holocaust ended and she was freed, “it was too painful to talk” about .
Malka talked about how some dealt with their pain through painting, theater, singing, but she expressed herself through writing. In the documentary she read some of her poems about her childhood, before the Holocaust. She talked about how she had two lives, one before and one after; she had no “life” during.
Malka told a story about how one night she heard sobbing in the bunker she was stationed at, and it was a young boy named David. All the women in the bunker loved him. He hid there, and he grew up in the concentration camp. One day their commander ordered an inspection and found young David.
He asked, “Do you want to go for a ride?”Of course, the boy didn’t know any better. All his life, he’d never seen the “outside world”, Malka and the others were shocked, they stood in place for what seemed an eternity. They were even more surprised when David came back, alive.
Another story she told us that really stood out to my classmates and I, was the story about the Barber. She was watching a documentary and she saw this man, who lived next door to her. He did her father’s and brother’s hair.
He was sobbing through the interview. All he could manage to say was that he cut the womens’ hair after they stripped down naked, which was the preparation to enter the camp to prevent lice and disease. He was so emotional and you could tell he had been through a lot of pain. He did Malka’s mother’s hair before she was sent to the camp, where she died.
The sad part was that he knew many of the women being sent to the camp.
At the end of the presentation Mr.Baran talked and provided us with words of wisdom, like “Instead of trying to change the world, change the world around you”, “Look at the world as a scale”, and “All of us we have a role to play, and I hope when the time comes you take advantage of it”.
Moritz is a nineteen year old, who came to the states from Berlin, Germany. He is serving a year of volunteering at the Holocaust center. His great grandparents were a part of the Hitler youth. Germans still have some guilt on the Holocaust, and at first many blamed only Hitler. All they wanted was to forget this period had ever happened, but in 1958 some said that they needed to take responsibility for what had happened and that they could’ve done more to help.
“Germany finally faced its path,” he said.
He feels like there needs to be “atonement” for what happened.
“I feel responsibility to engage,” Moritz said.
During his travels through Europe he saw the effect of the Holocaust on the communities in Europe.
Thanks to the efforts of Moshe Baran and Moritz, one can only hope that the Holocaust is a time period that will never be forgotten. It is mankind’s responsibility to remember and to ensure it never happens again.
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HS Focus: Seniors continued girls volleyball tradition of excellence
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Written by Miriam Levenson, The Eagle Staff Reporter
Many people have seen the volleyball team walking around school wearing their gold medals, looking as if they just won 4 city championships in a row. Well, a part of these champions are our two seniors, Naomi Purnell and Tayaunna Jackson. Naomi has been able to pursue her passion for a total of seven years, and Tayaunna has done the same for six years. Both girls agree this experience was not just another activity to do when bored. This sport became a passion they were willing to work hard at each and every day.
Though their journey on the girls Obama volleyball team is over, their memories are not even close to fading. As Naomi recalls, the most exciting moment in her four years was the OLSH Tournament, when our team beat the hated North Catholic Trojanettes. Naomi continues by explaining how the team progressed faster during this match, resulting in the win. She also exclaims, “I was proud of the team during championships, but this was the proudest I have ever been.” Both girls also added how the whole season was only made possible by their coach, Mr. Vitti. They go on about how he knows the game very well and can teach it even better.
The seniors are in unison when they say they will miss the team the most. They explain to me some of the team bonding experiences during this season. To begin, the team had a sleepover, played laser tag, went to a college level volleyball game, and worked together through 4 months of difficult practices.
Not only did these event help make the underclassmen feel welcome, but it also helped on the court. All of these activities built trust in one another, which showed when the team played. Tayaunna expands on this statement by saying, “The bonding developed a relationship of feeling like sisters.” Naomi related this personally in discussing the relationship she developed with Anna Vitti (a third year junior).
These two girls played side by side for five years. Not surprisingly, the girls could basically read each others’ minds when it came to the next move to be made. This resulted in a very effective way of playing, soon to be acquired by the rest of the team. Tayaunna Jackson and Noami Purnell are both very sad to be leaving the Obama girls Volleyball team but know their tradition will last forever.
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Robert’s Small Observations: So when did monsters become sexy?
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Written by Robert Pell, The Eagle Columnist
Fear: one of the most powerful emotions in the human body. Fear can turn the most pure, innocent men into the most moral-deprived scum of the earth. Fear has even become an art form, scaring people out of their seats in movie theaters and continuing to cause countless nightmares afterward with their horrifying characters. These legendary figures include but aren’t limited to Dracula, the were-wolf, Frankenstein, etc. but there is just one problem. Nowadays, people aren’t scared of that stuff anymore. What has happened to the image of these demonic beings and what has the fear industry done to make up for it?
The strangest demons from hell were once feared by all and no one would ever say otherwise, but now those once fearful monsters are considered heartthrobs, mainly among the youths. The once loathed vampires and were-wolves are now considered two of the world’s sexiest creatures. Why is this? Well honestly, there has always been a subtle attraction between vampires and their audiences; in the case of the were-wolf this was never true – still, even vampires have definitely jumped in attraction. This newly found super attraction started with the very popular book/movie series Twilight. In this book/movie series, the vampires and were-wolves are not seen as hideous beasts, but as beautiful creatures. In fact the plot line of the series is based around the main character debating which race of creatures she wants to fall in love with. This craze started with Twilight but that’s not where it ended. In some colleges there is now a major for romantic vampire novels and there are several TV shows in which these used to be demonic beings have become super sex objects.
With the historic figures now being craved by young viewers for affection, who will fill their spot as the newest object of fear? Well surprisingly it’s no longer an object created from imagination, but from realistic situations. Homicides, coincidental deaths, people with psychological issues doing awful things; all of these are examples of the plot lines of recent horror films. Most horror films are now based around the idea the more realistic it is, the better.
These monsters were said to be eternalized in the eyes of their viewers forever as the symbols of horror films, but is this true? Right now it doesn’t seem that way – it seems as though everyone has completely forgotten about their past work and can only remember them for the romantic aroma that they now give off. Just remember next time you see a picture of vampires and were-wolves, it’s supposed to be scary.
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Sophomore blues: of substitutes and cigarettes
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Written by Emma Embar and Devaughn Hester for The Eagle
Everyone waits for the day when the teacher they absolutely hate is sick, has a doctors appointment, is extra late, or just doesn’t show up, and you’re assigned a substitute teacher, but who assigns them? Is anything really required to be a substitute teacher?
It’s great having a period or two off, but sometimes the subs are a bit iffy. They can be old, harsh, creepy, overly happy or nervous, or better yet, classes have been left with no sub at all!
It’s unbelievable when your teacher leaves assigned work and the sub thinks they have to go out of the way to give us more work when we aren’t going to complete what they gave us in the first place…
And every year the same strange Spanish substitute always seems to show up who ignores all of the work Mrs. Shaffer leaves us to put one warm up question on the board: What Do You Call Someone Who Loves Spanish Culture? The answer is Spanophile.
Tell me again who assigns subs and what are the requirements?
By DeVaughn Hester
Every day I leave my home in the Overbrook neighborhood ofPittsburgh, which is the very border of the city. Two blocks from my house is the borough ofBrentwood. And school is in the Northeastern portion of town. So basically my journey to school and home is as long as can be. I spend an hour of my 90-minute trek from home to school and home to school on the bus.
And occasionally I end up sitting next to a smoker.
I want to laugh at them and make sure they know its them I’m laughing at. It’s funny to me that someone can walk into an office or wherever they work and smell like nothing but smoke.
It’s ridiculous if you ask me.
Maybe I don’t understand the motives behind smoking, but I don’t ever understand why someone would want to do that. Well I hope these people get how deadly smoking can be. A recent study concluded that for every year one smokes, an additional three years of life span is lost. One’s family and friends are hurt too. Second hand smoke is proven to be just as deadly as smoking itself.
So before you decide you want to smoke, consider your family and friends. Why would you want to hurt them? Why would you want to hurt yourself?
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The view from CAPA: He’s back in the saddle again
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Written by Donovan Petri, The Eagle Guest Columnist
Editor’s note: One of our founding columnists, Donovan Petri bolted from Obama after his freshman year to take up creatuve writing at CAPA. Yes, we’re trying to figure that one out, too. Anyway, Donovan has said many times that he would be coming back and writing guest columns. Here is his latest stream of thinking.
Hey there kids how’s the word, I know it’s been awhile since I’ve been writing to you but today I was just kind of thinking to myself “It’s time to start writing again” so I suppose this is my homecoming article.
First off I would just like to say that The Eagle has been doing so well since I’ve been gone. Big shout out to people like Robert and Nick who are new to the whole journalism scene, and also to Caz (still writing about comic books and video games I see), plus congratulations Walter for finally gaining that senior columnist status you’ve always wanted!
Now it’s time for something a little more serious; I know I know. “Boo hoo come on Donovan something serious?” Well just shut up and listen for a minute, it’s political.
So those with little interest in social problems should stop reading…..SIKE!
It’s actually just an account about my stay at Occupy Pittsburgh. I used to think Occupy was just a bunch of hippies staying in a park because of the social reform they refuse to enter now that it’s the 21st century, but in reality they are actually some pretty smart guys.
My first misjudgment was that it was just a park full of tents; that was proven false. They incorporated a library, kitchen, hospital, and social area for foreign people called the “Canada club”, and many people run small businesses from their tents.
This also goes to say they have a small government set up. They hold meetings to discuss social issues going within the community, food rations, and systematic problems they see with outsiders.
On my short stay at Occupy they were holding a meeting to discuss the possible eviction of an occupant who allegedly brought illicit substances into the area. This broke my other stereotype that they were just mindless stoners who needed a place to crash.
They are all just fun people and I had an incredible time talking with them.
-My next topic of discussion–going off of Roberts “teen love” column—is teen love, but not the sexy side of it, more the romantic side of it. Teens everywhere hook up, it’s what we do, but that’s not to say we don’t try a sophisticated relationship (well, some of us at least).
There have been a few changes, though, since our parents were kids that mainly entail the methods we use to get ourselves a girl (or boy). You used to have to take a girl out on dates! Yeah I know, so much work and money (I should know for this is my preferred method of romantic interaction), however I notice these days more and more people are opting for…what is in my mind the worst way to ask a girl out, the phrase…you wanna go out with me?” sometimes shortened to simply “wanna go with me.” Whatever happened to the good old fashioned dinner and a movie? Now I don’t know about you, but when I take girls out to dinner, it’s always a good night!
Well I suppose that’s enough space and time in class wasted, but before I go I have a question for you. It’s a simple question but it’s also a good way to end the column, “How do you like this school year so far? And if you could give a name to this year what would it be?”
Here are my answers; I’m definitely liking this school year so far, yeah my wallet was stolen, along with like $40 and my bus pass, but there’s so much good counteracting the bad. This school year is definitely a“year of girls and guns” as in I’m going to love, and finally start being less passive, and stick up for myself more. (‘guns’ is just a metaphor and should not be taken literally.)
Bye Kiddies!!!!
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Obama: A good, tolerant school that can improve
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Written by Leo Johnson, The Eagle Editor
Obama is a tolerant school, at first glance. I came out on the first day when someone asked me if I was gay – and even before I answered, she added it was okay if I was.
This may not seem like a big deal, but gay bashing can and has caused suicide and murders. It is a bigger deal than the adults and the silliness of the word lead you to believe – just like any other kind of bullying.
I know this from personal experience. At my middle school in seventh grade, a school distract that was new to me, I was out of gay – one of two students at the school.
I immediately said goodbye to having friends, even if I didn’t realize it. Kids I didn’t know walked up to me and said I was going to hell in the hallways. Others refused to work with me on groups, causing problems with my cooperation grades – after all, if everyone else is fine, it must have been my fault. My language arts teacher threatened to call my parents when I wrote a personal essay on coming out as gay.
So Obama is much, much better – but is it enough? People still use “Gay” as a slur. Boys still call each other “fags.” And who knows what’s happening to students who are more fragile and with fewer friends than me?
No one is there to protect our GLBTQ (that’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer) kids, except guidance counselors overwhelmed with students. And what if they, too, call our parents over this issue? One in four gay teenagers, after all, spends time living on the street after parents kick them out or home becomes too dangerous to stay.
We are a good school for GLBTQ students. We need to get better. We need a visible gay community in this school, to help out kids still in anguish due to torment from their families, their classmates, and finally themselves, If Obama is such a tolerant school, where is our GSA? There are “Gay straight alliances” in a sizable fraction of the country’s high schools. They offer support for GLBTQ students, support that we don’t have. Step up to the plate, Obama – it’s time we protected all of our students.
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Jordan McDonald’s Living on the edge: American Television–Survivor
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Written by Jordan McDonald, The Eagle Senior Columnist
Survivor is the sole reason why I’m ashamed to be American. It shows just how savage we are as a country. Look at the stuff they do on the show. Other countries do it to survive, and we do it as a game – where you get money if you win. This has taken reality T.V. to a whole new level of stupidity. No wonder we’re in debt. We spend money funding our own entertainment rather than our real “survival.”
Despite how appalling this show is, Survivor is broadcast on every populated continent except Africa. You know why? It wouldn’t be fair. Everyone would win. America would be an even bigger laughing stock than it is now. What Americans do on the show is what Africans do daily. I honestly don’t know why other countries have picked up on it. Can people not see the problem here?
All jokes aside, I think this show is really insulting for this exact reason. You can’t justify glamorizing peoples’ day-to-day struggles as a game. And everyone’s so focused on forming “alliances.” No matter who you’re with, when you’re in the jungle, you’re on your own. If this show was real in any way, it would show that. Everyone fights with each other. It takes away from the severity of the situation, therefore the realism of the show.
What surprises me is that the show has decent ratings. It’s become so successful to the point that it’s received it’s own thrill ride and video game. Don’t ask me how they managed that, because we’ll never know. I wonder what genre of video game it is – Open-World or first-person explorer? How can you play a game like that? It reminds me of the American Idol video game, even though that’s easier to understand.
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Caz’s Comments: In admiration of comic books
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Written by Lewis 'Caz' Tidrick, The Eagle Senior Columnist
As many of you know…I love comics. Comic books are pretty amazing, honestly. And I am saying that without bias. While you have to have a certain taste…I think that everyone can agree that comics are some kind of interesting topic. There is always a character someone can get into. There is always a character that someone can connect and relate and feel for.
In modern day, comics have started to fall. But the characters are still well-known. Movies about characters like Wolverine, Batman, Superman, and Spider-Man come out all the time. This has become the movement of everything. Everything is going to either the movies or the TV. But that’s not the point of this column.
Not only is the series finale of Christian Bale/Christopher Nolan’s run on Batman in “Dark Knight Rises,” part of which was filmed in Pittsburgh, coming out in mid-2012, in 2013 a new “Batman” animated tv show will begin on Cartoon Network. Its following a new initiative by DC to brainwash kid’s minds at a young age via tv. Taking over Cartoon Network (which is also owned by Warner Bros., just like DC) is the latest move by DC that Marvel hasn’t followed-up on. “Green Lantern: The Animated Series” had an hour-long series premiere on Friday the 11th. “Young Justice” premiered last year around this time of year. Next year a new “theme-show” named “DC Nation” will come on. Also, DC owns the “MAD” magazines, which also has a comedy show on Cartoon Network.
But what about the paper comics? They seem to be sinking into nothingness. DC Comics had record sales in September when their “New 52” initiative launched with 52 ongoing series. Now, two months later, sales are returning to just-above-normal. Granted, a few DC series are still selling more than any Marvel series (there was about a good 7 series better than the best-selling Marvel Comics series in October). Before the “New 52” happened, DC was losing fans left and right. Apparently this is the time to be a fan of DC.
Marvel is slowly losing fans, because of the fact that they are not pushing a similar new-reader-friendly move. They have so much history, that its honestly kind of scary for someone who is just getting into reading Marvel, as I am.
I came in at an odd time for DC. They were at the culmination of a 3-event-series from the Green Lantern family of stories. There was so much back-story, that I had to go to Wikipedia and find it all myself. I didn’t have the kind of money needed to go out and buy all of the back-stories. But it was simple enough, that I got it.
I’ve done that to try and understand Marvel’s stories, but… It isn’t the same.
So honestly, where are coming books headed now? All digital, people. They’re all going digital. Everything is. From books, to school, to comic books. And just so you know, the “Green Lantern” sequel that the first movie so obviously set up, probably won’t happen. After the poor reviews and sales and reactions…I think DC is going to try and keep it as quiet as that “Steel” movie they did in the 90s starring “Shaq.”
“Steel? We never did a movie named…what did you say? “Steel?””
“Green Lantern? We’d like to make a movie about Hal Jordan, but we’ve never… A movie? Green Lantern? Ridiculous.” That’s what I’m viewing being the sad truth in a few years.
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Nobody asked Sierra, but…
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Written by Sierra Mittermeier, The Eagle Staff Reporter
~~What is “popular”? Is it something we all have to like or something one person gets and now everyone has to have it as well? There’s something called “popular students”, but how do they get popular? What is popular?
~~Everyone loves fast food. It’s fast, convenient and super popular; but not me. I’m sick of it. It’s hard for me to remember the last time my parents cooked. I love my parents’ cooking, but instead of 6 days of cooking and one day eating out, they cook maybe 2-3 times a week. My parents teach my sister and me about eating healthy, but then they turn around and hand us greasy, fat-building fast food. What has happened to a happy, loving, homemade, family meal?
~~Why does it seem all the best classes, are electives? Why are they more exciting than our core classes? Is it because we get to choose them, like our clubs? I’ve been in the same elective since 7th grade and it’s my favorite. I just wonder….
~~Do our teachers really teach to help us learn, or because it’s the one job they could get with our economy today? Well, I think one of my teachers is one of those who just needed a job. They just yell at me and my peers and then, are late with our grades (they waited until last minute, literally). How are we supposed to correct the mistakes, if there is any? We, students never get to see our test or know the grades we got on them. Once, our teacher said, “I’m not here because I want to be, but because I have to be.” The teacher makes it seem this is just a job to pay their bills with. But, is it really worth it?
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Molly Newell, Walter Robinson: Just sayin’….
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Written by Molly Newell, Walter Robinson, The Eagle Staff Writers/Columnists
Everyone at Obama has a language that they have to learn. The problem is, when we are ever going to use it? Some people enjoy the languages they get to learn; I personally enjoy learning how to speak and read a different language, but it’s not like I’ll ever go to that country, or run into a person who speaks it in America.
-Reality TV has never really been that interesting to me and still isn’t. Some of the stuff on TV now has gone from a “might get better” to the point where I lost all hope in it. It’s not just that it’s the people who actually support it. If you see something that’s awful, do something. Shows such as Jersey Shore, and others like it, never sucked me in. In fact, it actually pushed me away farther from it. Stupid people do stupid things and I’m not catching it. Sure, not all the shows are bad but a pretty decently huge chunk is just horrible.
-Lifetime TV is a nightmare. It is the complete opposite of Spike TV. Sure people tell you don’t judge a book by its cover but I’ve been through the pages and was atrocious. All their movies are sappy; with a guy or a girl in some problem with a lot of crying involved (you’d think that they would’ve drowned if it weren’t for scene changes). Another thing is that it’s probably more for women than men like me, but I still think that it is boring and lame. When the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, it missed one called Lifetime TV (Why can’t it ever end? I thought the FCC hated stupid things but they kept this). So you can keep watching your Lifetime TV, I’m not joining you.
–Walter Robinson
–I don’t really like fall. Don’t get me wrong, the leaves changing color is very pretty and everything, but that’s it. The weather can’t make up its mind! It’s either nice out or really cold out. Also, all the leaves falling down and then cleaning them up is very annoying. Then, the dead ones smell horribly awful and for those of us who have to walk, it’s not a very fun time.
– I strongly believe that we should be the Obama Llamas instead of the Obama Eagles, but no one agrees. Maybe I’m just telling this to the wrong people. But I mean, it’s so original, and it rhymes! I know this will never happen but it would be awesome if it did. Not that there’s anything wrong with the Eagles…just the Llamas would be better.
-Molly Newell
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