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Families and schools in America need to discuss the drinking age
BY EDITORIAL STAFF

The United States prides itself on being an open democracy and a place where we discuss and address issues to find solutions. We have a national dialogue about how to deal with most issues from global warming to healthcare to illegal immigration. Until very recently one important topic has been missing from the conversation, underage drinking.
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Michael Phelps increases passion and patriotism for the Olympics
BY MAC TAMBLYN

Michael Phelps transformed me into a more optimistic American.
As a kid in the U.S., I did not care or understand what was going on in our country. I was just too young to be able to wrap my head around the big picture, so I focused on events that I could somewhat understand, most of these being bad.
What jumps into my mind when I think of America, is: the Clinton-Lewinski scandal, the Florida recount, 9/11, the controversial War on Terror and increasing gas prices. If the U.S. wants to build patriotism in my generation, they don’t have the greatest track record.
Phelps and his magical run to eight gold medals, as well as the other U.S. athletes, have shown me a different outlook. They have given me the opportunity to root for America in a time when the focus is on high gas prices and the dollar losing its value.

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Jonathan Stepp's battle with bone cancer serves as inspiration for cross country team
BY SAM LOGAN

feel like I’m a decent runner. I wear shorts that can show off my ghosty thighs. I’ve run down Belinder only to dip my head in the fountain at 65th and turn around. I’ve watched one of my best friends become the cross country team captain and the whole time I could tell I was getting better— but still, I’ve never won a race.
“What’s up man?” I got that in the hall the day after I joined cross country a month late. It came the next day, too… and the day after that, I sent it his way. I didn’t know his name, but I had pointed him out at practice as ‘the kid who looks like he has curly hair, but really doesn’t’.
Then someone told me his name was Jonathan Stepp.
Jonathan got me back to practice after the first week and provided a sense of team among a group of guys who weren’t quite “varsity material”.

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Harbinger staff member searches for his first car
BY TIM SHEDOR

“I’ll take you to get a car.”
Those magic seven words from mom signaled the end of my minivan days, and the start of a new, high-flying era of after-10 curfew and unlimited QuickTrip runs.
But like all things that come from the golden land of Detroit, there was fine print under this new lease on life. You have to pay for it.
I cashed grandpa’s birthday checks. I redeemed every I.O.U. since 2nd grade. I broke my Bugs Bunny souvenir bank. I felt like I had just betrayed my childhood innocence, but this was a moment I’d been waiting for since birth.


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