Niagara Catholic News

As many of us know, Niagara Catholic closed today due to the large number of illness' of students and faculty. Many students were relieved of this due to the pressure of coming in just because of college finals this week or other important events. Ultimately, many of us would not of done our best if this did not happen. A day to let this sickness ware off was much needed. The rate that this cold spread is scary. For half of a school to either be out sick or in school with the same symptoms shows how fast this germ is spreading. Unfortunately, when this news was taken to major news networks such as WGRZ on twitter, the responses to their simple informational tweet was very shocking. 

Many people, mostly adults, made rude comments about the school being closed. I was very confused and angry as to why people would respond like this as if we are all disgusting. Obviously something had to be done to let the kids that were sick have a day to rest and recover and for the people that were not sick to have more of a chance to remain healthy! Thank you Mr. Buggs!

Too Young

Ciarra Johnson of Monroe, La. is being charged with two counts of negligent homicide. Her two daughters, Tashae, 4, and Clifton, 3, were found dead in their house. Ciarra had a hair appointment at 1:30 that day, however was gone since 10 am. She told police that she had made arrangements for someone to watch the girls but investigations prove that she did not. Two space heaters were left on all day with flammable materials to close and are reported to have been the cause of why the wood framed house caught on fire. Johnson was found locked in her car at the house. 

This story is so sad and unbelievable.The fact that a mother of two young girls would leave them home alone for such a long time and not even bother to call someone to watch them sickens me. I feel horrible and cannot even imagine what their life must of been like if their mom left them home when they were barley potty trained. R.I.P to Tashae Thompson Johnson and Clifton Thompson Johnson. 

Lost Hope

An extreme snowmobiler was riding one day into an area that was not meant to be visited. He was so confident in his ridings that he didn't have basic needs like water and food,  part of the mindset was to ride without any survival gear. The 54-year-old Idaho man said he was snowmobiling along a steep ridge last Sunday. The snow apparently cut loose beneath him, sending him 3,000 feet down hill. His snowmobile landed on top of him but he was able to push it off, and ran its engine for heat over the next 30-plus hours. Lost and with no hope for survival left, he wrote goodbye notes to his wife and kids on his cellphone. But about two hours later, five friends who had followed his snowmobile tracks rescued him. The men gave Sadler dry clothes, blankets and food. However, it took five hours to hike out of the drainage and they had to walk another two miles to reach the snowmobiles they rode in on. It took another six miles to get to Sadler’s home. Sadler suffered some broken bones in his hands and had frostbite. Thank gosh this man had trustworthy and caring friends like he did. 

NYS Ready for the Snow

   Governor Cuomo is preparing the state for another hit from the snow on its way. Plans have already been made to close major parts of the I-90 and I-190 starting at 12:00 a.m. tonight. Cuomo said New York State has prepared a total of 1,793 plows, 4,184 plow drivers, 55 front-end loaders and nearly 500,000 tons of salt in preparation for the snow. He activated the emergency operations center to monitor the storm and storm response. This sends out a message of relief to Western New Yorkers who had bad experiences regarding the last storm. Knowing that precautions are being taken before the storm hits rather then after can make such a difference in situations such as driving accidents, stranded people outside and in cars, lack of supplies, and assistance and responders. 
  This is a step in the right direction of avoiding the obvious and that is very reassuring! 
 

One Survivor

In Kentucky, a man named Larry Wilkins opened a door to a little 7 year old girl named Sailor Gutzler. She had been in a horrible plane crash that killed her parents, sister, and cousin. Somehow the little girl miraculously survived, got out of the plane, and walked about three quarters of a mile to his house, which is the only one of the three houses near her that were occupied at that time. How a girl so young and alone could find her way out of the plane, leaving her family, and make it to safety is amazing. No one may have found her for days or weeks if she hadn't. This story is very heart breaking since Sailor is now left alone, with no immediate family at such a young age were she may be just starting to make memories that stick with her. Hopefully she has many family members that can take her in and give her all the love this brave girl needs.

Out of Control

"Even the children are dying on the frontline in the war against terror," said Khawaja Asif, the defense minister. "The smaller the coffin, the heavier it is to carry." 
This quote has so much meaning behind it. This is unlike any "war" we have seen. The Taliban targeted this school and children because they were children of army men and because they are who ran the school. They say they do not want these kids growing up to be like them. The Taliban went in with enough ammunition for days and knew they would not come out alive. It is so impossible for me to understand how twisted and brainwashed these people are. To kill for such horrible reasons the most innocent and know you will not live either just blows me away. 
Children were a main target but also an office assistant who was shot and burned alive. The Pakistan government has attempted to peacefully end this in the past by releasing Taliban noncombatants but ended when attacks kept occurring. A major problem is this group is going far beyond their "Conservative Islam Teachings" and seem to have no limits anymore except to kill whoever is not with them. Even Taliban In Afghanistan who are close with this group criticize the killing of women and children being against Islamic teachings. What is their goal anymore? They are far beyond their religions teachings and need to be completely stopped. The violence is out of hand and a disgrace to the world. In our time and generation, nothing like this should exist. They have no will to end this and will stop at nothing. They do not fear death so what is the government left to do?
 http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/17/world/asia/pakistan-peshawar-school-attack/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

Live

On a weekend trip to New York City to visit my brother, Anthony, Michael and I encountered a scene that we had been learning about. On Saturday night on December 13th, we were walking to a smoothie place when we noticed an unusual scene. A street not filled with cars but with people, thousands of people. Earlier that day we had noticed police on every street corner as if preparing for something bu thought nothing of it until then. As we got closer we began to realize this march was about the justice system and how unhappy they were with it. We saw people leading cheers such as "Whose streets? Our streets!" being yelled with the crowd and motions where one person would up their hands and everyone would follow in suit saying "I can't breathe." We were in East Village near Manhattan where we saw them at around 5 and later that night around 1 am we saw them in Times Square. That is an extremely long march and from what I experienced was very peaceful and appropriate. The only news I heard on it was that it caused major traffic problems.  We were amazed by how large this was and how many people participated. 1/10 people were holding signs and everyone was participating in chants. Many people, including Michael and I, stopped on the sidewalk to take videos and pictures of this. This was the first time we ever saw something like this and was just amazed as to how something we talked alot about in school was right infront of our eyes. I looked up news on the march and here is the link. From reading this I learned that there were MILLIONS there. Wow.
http://occupywallstreet.net/story/join-millions-march-new-york-city-saturday-december-13