[JRC 학생기자] Caribou Coffee Causes Controversy
Heather Shin
As tradition for the school’s Homecoming week, Glenbrook North High School held their annual Paint-the-Town event on Monday, September 23. The students of the different clubs at Glenbrook North arrived in Downtown Northbrook after school and painted their assigned windows. As celebration of the Homecoming dance, the different clubs are required to paint the windows with a design that will coalesce into one picture the club’s main objective with the dance’s theme. These pictures are displayed for the entire Homecoming week to showcase the dance’s festivity before being washed off the following week by the students. However, this year, one club’s painting was taken down even before the Homecoming dance could take place.
Gay-Straight Alliance, or GSA, is a long-standing club of Glenbrook North. Consisting of students both gay and straight, the club members work together to build up tolerance of different sexualities in the community. In a day and age when society is becoming more accepting of what was once considered against the norm, the club is well-supported by students and Northbrook residents alike. Gay-Straight Alliance was able to take part in the Paint-the-Town event. Up to the date, the club has had little conflict within the community, until recently.
Just a few years ago, Caribou Coffee opened a shop in Downtown Northbrook, bringing in a lot business with its close proximity to the high school as well as its convenient location for the residents. Many were fans of the coffee house. As it is close to the high school, they offered their consent to the students to allow them to decorate the windows for Paint-the-Town.
Gay-Straight Alliance was assigned three consecutive window panels of Caribou Coffee. Their painting, to keep up with the ‘Star-Spangled Spartans’ Homecoming theme, was of an American flag. However, in place of red and white stripes, the stripes were rainbow. The traditional fifty white stars on a blue rectangle were replaced with gender symbols. At the bottom of the flag, the club’s name was displayed, ‘Gay-Straight Alliance.’ The windows were brightly decorated alongside the other stores within downtown.
But within the next couple of days, the painting was washed off. Due to several customers’ complaints of the windows, the manager of the Caribou Coffee washed the rainbow flag off. This action did not go unnoticed. The residents and students responded almost immediately. Awareness of the flag’s erasing has spread, and many regular customers of the Caribou Coffee are now boycotting in show of support for the Gay-Straight Alliance Club as well as for people gay and straight.
Gravity, Full of Breathtaking Suspense
Charles Yoon
Remember when you were a child and you gazed at the stars wondering what was past the horizon? Looking upon the moon we wished to be like Obi-wan Kenobi slashing away at the evil droids. Is that an enemy spaceship? BOOM! Mission accomplished.
If this was what you can recall from your childhood or even now, it’s time to watch Gravity. Gravity takes on the reality of our dreams and sums it into 93 minutes of ‘breathtaking’ experience. Get it? Director Alfonso Cuarón has made this film an experience, not just a movie. Gravity will be made to be 3D, giving viewers insight on how space would look.
The movie starts with two astronauts named Dr. Ryan Stone and Matt Kowalski who are working at the International Hubble Station. The two astronauts are sent up thousands of miles above earth to the Hubble Station where they work on their daily jobs. Pretty casual. However, the alignment of the station falls in the path of an asteroid, sending the station tangent to its course. All that’s left for these two astronauts is some air and dried food.
Imagine putting your feet in their two ton shoes. You are suspended in a vacuum of nothing and spinning continuously, realizing that home is unquestionably far. That’s a pretty scary thought to think about. Alfonso Cuarón is making our imagination a reality by showing the perils of space. How will the astronauts return home?
The movie will be coming out soon on DVD and Blu-ray. The suspense is suspending.
New suggestion of Korean military service law
Young Joon Suh
On September 15th 2013, Korean Media first reported the specific stories of the Military Manpower Administration(MMA)'s new suggestion for military service law.
According to Korean Media, there will be changes to the rules on exemption from military service for Korean men. Prior to the changes, Korean men could be exempt from military service by contributing to Korea in other ways. For example, athletes could earn exemption by placing in the top three at the Olympic Games or any big international matches and by receiving a gold medal at the Asian Games. As a result, many athletes did not have to serve in the military and could concentrate on their sports careers.
However, the MMA thought that the prior law instigated unequal competition and produced too many cases of military exemption. So they proposed new law.
According to the new suggestion, athletes can be exempt only by getting a gold or silver medal at the Olympics or two gold medals at the Asian Games. Under this new suggestion, only six out of fifty-one players who would have been exempt before would still get an exemption. The new law would work by assigning points to person’s contribution in world-wide competitions.
However, there is controversy over these points because of discrepancies between the International Arts Competition and the World Championships. The events are held every two and three years, yet twice as many points are given for the International Arts competition than for the World Championships. The head of the National Team Coach Committee announced their opposition, stating that it is unfair to give different numbers of points and that doing so would drop the athletes’ morale. So the MMA and the world of sports met on September 25th, and the MMA said they would revise the law. They will have another meeting in October to discuss more specific amendments.