CPS puts Safe Zones to the test By Jean Cruz Staff Writer School is back in session and many

CPS Students are already scheduled to have daily tests. These tests however will not require a Scantron and will have much more at stake than a simple bad grade. An alarming 12,700 CPS students will be attending new schools this fall since the Chicago Board of Educations decided to close the doors of 49 elementary schools and 1 high school across the city. What many have still failed to realize is that a lot of these students are leaving their community and are being transferred into schools that at many times have ties to rival community gangs. These students are leaving the safety of their communities and are entering unknown territories with their only form of protection from danger being these newly formed Safe Passage routes. The city has hired 600 people to spread out over 50 miles of Safe Passage routes to escort children and help their parents feel more at ease. More than 100 of Chicagos newest police officers have also joined the ranks in hopes of maintaining safety along the routes. With these Safe Routes the city is hoping to establish to parents and CPS staff that their much criticized decision to close schools was the correct one. But the question in everyones mind is if these so called Safe Routes are truly safe for the students? The answer to this, as of summer 2013 is unfortunately no. According to data released from The Chicago Police Department there has already been 133 shootings and 38 murders near Safe Passage routes so far in 2013. Even 10 days prior to the beginning of the school year a 28-yearold man was shot in one of the actual Safe Routes. Digging more into the subject, and thanks to a map of the school closings by location in the Chicago Tribune it was established, that the areas where the shootings have occurred are notorious for high crime rates and include neighborhoods such as Grand Boulevard, Garfield Park, Little Village, Humboldt Park, and Englewood. The fact of the matter is that the barriers that once maintained rival gang wars from happening are slowly coming down. The safety of many students is in jeopardy, and the decisions that the city has made are in question. However for the sake of the young students all anyone can do now is wait and hope for the best.

How 9/11 would be covered in the media today By Jean Cruz Staff Writer Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, smartphones, and the internet are necessities in the current lives of many in this day and age. However what if technology like the one currently obtained today existed in a time or occasion when it was more obsolete. Would it have changed the view or perspective of how many see past events today? Would we have been allowed to get more information from past events if these existed? I for one would like to think so. Let us now go back in time (if only in thought) to one of the most tragic days in Americas history. The day is September 11, 2001however in this particular scenario all our current technological advances exist. The current time is 8:40 am (which is around 5 to7 minutes before the first actual crash occurred) and people are beginning to open their twitter and Facebook accounts. At this time it would come as no surprise that a random distress tweet or Facebook posting would hit the worldwide web. However like many distress tweets the possibility for it to be ignored is immense. The first plane would hit the first tower in a matter of minutes and the news day would begin yet because of that one random tweet the words terrorist attack would have been imprinted in our minds a lot sooner than expected. In a matter of seconds the World Wide Web would have been filled with videos and trending hash tags based on the events. News reporters with personal twitter accounts would have expressed their true emotions trough that medium while doing their job in the best of their ability. The initial distress tweet would have been investigated in a matter of seconds leading to quicker information from the media and an even quicker conclusion that it was in fact a terrorist attack. With the possibility of stopping all air traffic right at that exact moment and the possible opportunity to stop the second plane. If after all the media attention the second plane still manages to hit then it would have been all the evidence needed to confirm that a terrorist attack was in fact happening in U.S soil. This could have led to media conformation from credible sources due to faster internet and mobile phone services. With the possibility to cause a quicker response from the U.S Military leading to combat air Patrols and air surveillance in order to calm and secure the U.S population. No one would have had the pressure to tell the worldwide media what was occurring in the U.S for every individual would have had the ability to do so and the amount of YouTube videos re-tweets and likes on Facebook would have been immense. I would like to believe that the ability to gain quicker information would have led to possibly stopping one or more of the planes from crashing, however this is simply a scenario and in life nothing is ever certain. During the actual events of 9/11 everyone reacted in shock not knowing what to do next. The possibility of not knowing how to react even with greater technology is immense after all we are only human and no one knows what to expect from themselves or others. What we do know is that the events of 9/11 did in fact occur. Although nothing positive can be said from the events that occurred, they made every individual and media source aware of the possibility that anything can happen when you least expect. We know live in a world were technological advances are occurring every day, if our tweets and videos can catch

the attention of news reporters everywhere than all we can do is continue to use that voice and hope it is heard when needed the most.

Mens Team starts out the year 2-0-0 By Jean Cruz Staff Writer Two games into the mens 2013 soccer season, the Cyclones change in gameplay is giving the fans plenty of reasons to jump for joy. You always have to adjust, stated head coach Chuck Bales. After the rule to limit the amount of international players imposed by the NJCAA, and the lack of players coming into to the school, we ended up with a small team last season, which led us to a more defensive style of play than we would have liked. The lack of players and conforming to a different style of play took its toll on the team last season as the mens soccer squad ended the 2012 campaign with a (4-7-2) overall record. However, early into this season things are already beginning to look different for the team as they currently hold a (2-0-0) record after defeating Kennedy King College 3-1. Still, Bales is not looking at the current stats. The team shouldnt get big headed or imagine things are better than what they are, said Bales. Its early in the season and there is still a long way to go. There has been a complete change in how we play since last season. The NJCAA rule has been changed and the new team is back to playing the offensive passing style that we are used to. Nevertheless, the most dangerous thing is to believe that you have nothing to improve on. Aside from telling his players to maintain their focus, Bales has attempted to make it clear to them that they are not in a particularly easy conference. There are no Patsy teams, said Bales. This means that there will be harder matches for the Cyclones as the season progresses. The team has seven players returning from the previous season. Midfielder Joe Mastej, defender Marko Enciso, and forward Lukasz Duda are expected to have a bigger impact on the team this year since they are playing in positions that are more natural to them unlike the previous season. Aside from the returning players, the team has been able to acquire a lot of new talent that will be vital to reinforcing the offense as the 2013 campaign continues. According to Bales, some of the freshmen that hes expecting more from as the season progresses are defender Jorge Martinez and Ranulfo Pantaleon, and forwards Patryk Paprocki and Fuad Haleem who have already scored this season. Bales stated that, The ultimate goal of the season is for the team to learn to play right, and to win titles. It is still a fresh campaign for the mens soccer squad, but the goals set seem obtainable. This ultimately leaves the fans hopeful for a possible title in 2013.

MGMT by MGMT: Album Review By Jean Cruz Staff Writer It has been five years since the Indie-Electronic Duo MGMT captivated audiences with a unique sound in their first albumOracular Spectacular. However, if you decide to walk to the record store on September 17 hoping to get songs with a similar sound to the ever popular Kids and Electric Feel on the bands new self-titled album, simply turn around and walk away. The new self-titled MGMT album is simply worlds apart from Oracular Spectacular and Congratulations, the more experimental LPs released in 2010. The IndieElectronic sound that captured the attention of music lovers everywhere is nowhere to be found in the new album. In its place, is a darker more psychedelic-rock sound that often sounds like instruments and sounds were compressed on top of each other. The new self-titled album by the duo is not bad; it is different. The album kicks off with the song Alien Days, a song that will make listeners reminisce about how MGMT caught their attention in the first place. It is the only song in the album with a sound closest to that ofOracular Spectacular. However after Alien Days, the rest of the music in the album will be a completely foreign sound compared to the upbeat fun lyrics that we are used to from the duo. A great example of this is the song Your Life is a Lie which was the second single released by the band. The song starts up fairly upbeat with a very noticeable cowbell sound in the tempo; however, the more you listen to the song it becomes darker, repetitive, and more absurd, especially with lyrics like Count your friends, on your hand, now look again, theyre not your friends playing over and over. A track that stands out from the rest, and should be looked for in this album is the song I Love you too, Death. This song sounds more like a complete and finished project, compared to the other tracks that sounded more experimental with this new sound the duo has transitioned to. Ironically the lyrics on the track say, You always leave me wanting more which is how listeners will feel after playing the album. Another track is called Introspection, which is probably the best way to describe the album, for the duo seem to be examining their feelings and thoughts with a completely new sound. Overall the self-titled album isnt bad but the sound that MGMT once had should not be expected, and it certainly will be missed.

Moraines campus should be smoke free By Jean Cruz Staff Writer Smoking has always been one of the most talked about health issues in our country. Though the debate of whether Moraine Valley should be a smoke-free campus is bound to bring controversy, is the idea truly a bad one? The answer to that question is simply no. According to the CDC website (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) approximately 19.0% of all adults in the U.S. (43.8 million people) are current smokers. Out of that 43.8 million, 69% of the individuals want to quit smoking and from that percentage, a mere 52% of individuals have actually attempted to quit. It is fairly common for an individual to hear friends, family members, or simply other students talk about their desire to quit smoking. However, it is also common for their response to be it helps me relax or the typical its too hard to quit after being questioned, why dont you? A rule that wouldnt allow smoking at Moraine Valley may not help the entire U.S population to stop smoking, but it would encourage friends or colleagues that we see around campus every day to stay away from a habit that is not only bad for them but also bad for the individuals that are usually around due to the effects of second-hand smoking. According to the Americans for Non-smokers Rights Foundation, more than 1159 college and university campuses across the U.S have implemented tobacco or smoke-free policies. Out of the 1159 schools that have smoke-free policies, 11 of those institutions are community colleges in Illinois such as College of DuPage as well as all of the City Colleges of Chicago. Making a school healthy is not a competition; however, Moraine Valley is the second largest community school in Illinois. With that being said, our school should be striving to be an example for future schools that also want to be smoke-free campuses. A smoke-free campus may not help every individual quit smoking, but individuals who take advantage of an opportunity such as this may one day look back at our institution as one of the reasons for having a healthier lifestyle in the future. We currently live in a society where health issues are brought up almost on a daily basis. Individuals are constantly bombarded with advertisements that it is not unusual to see a person conflicted with a crossroads of what choices to make. When a choice is made, no one but the individual making the decision should have the authority to state whether his decision was right or wrong. However, if a decision is made that not only you as an individual benefit but those who surround do as well the best thing anyone can do is to try take advantage of it especially if the outcome is a healthier future.