3December 2012Hi Times Issue 3 Vol. 104

LPHS student spreads love to the less fortunate

at New Life Children’s home. The second time I went was to bring Christmas toys and food, and just spend time with the

kids to show them they are loved by God and us.” Fryer and her group stayed in a home built by Haitian Support Min-istries specifi-cally for mis-

sion teams and the pastor of one of the churches the foundation built. “On this trip I was able to use my knowledge of French, thanks to the best French teacher in the world Madame Koselke, to com-municate and translate. One day, we were stuck in a hotel we stopped at to get drinks. Some other missionaries were in the same situation, but their point of the trip was to give prescrip-

President Obama to serve four more years

Photo Provided

Abbi Fryer poses with girls from New Life Children’s Home

By Hannah DemchakStaff Writer

Talk has been going on for years of the supposed 2012 apoca-lypse. Some say the world will end with a zombie uprising; others say it will end with months of horrific natural disasters or even a deadly disease all leading up to doomsday. How did these predic-tions come to be? Will the world really end in 2012? The apocalyptic theory began with the Mayans who predicted the world would end in 2012 by using “meshing spiritual cycles”, or the Mayan’s calendar. The Mayans believed that this apoca-lypse would occur on December 21, 2012 A.D. As well as the Ma-yans, many Indian tribes also believe the apocalypse will happen. They believe that on this date the world will enter a new era, be destroyed completely, or the world will experience a spiritual awakening. The Mayans made errors in their predictions like not taking into account that there are leap years. The Mayans were known for having eccentric artistic ability and great ar- c h i t e c t u r a l skills. They put compli-cated carv- ings of future dates into various stones and pyramids around the world hop- ing that future generations would find them and be warned. There are very many e l a b o r a t e ideas about the apoca- lypse. The Mayans were s t a r g a z e r s who were familiar with astrological cycles, also called “Pre- cision of the Equinoxes”. They believe that once the earth passes through each of the 12 signs of the Zodiac from about 2000- 2152 years, the world would end. The Ma-yans predict- ed during the 2012 winter solstice that the sun would directly align with the Milky Way for the first time in about 26,000 years. This meant that the energy that streams from the universe to the earth will be disrupted at 11:11 p.m. on December 21, 2012. According to Adrian Gilbert and Maurice Cotterell, authors of the book The Mayan Prophecies, the world will end due to sev-eral long-term sunspot cycles that will eventually flip the sun’s magnetic field and cause disastrous earthquakes and flooding in 2012. Sophomore Keegan Kuzdas said, “I doubt that there will be an apocalypse. People are crazy, but if there was an apocalypse, what if a zombie showed up in my bathroom? I’d have to break out my ninja skills!” Hopefully the world will not end in December. Only time will tell how the world will end. Be Prepared! Junior Delaney Christy said, “I don’t think the world would ever end. How could it?”

Apocalypse 2012: Will the world end?

“I doubt that there will be an apoca-lypse. People are crazy, but if there was an apoca-lypse, what if a zombie showed up in my bath-room? I’d have to break out my nin-

ja skills!” ~ Keegan Kuzdas

By Megan BooStaff Writer

Over Thanksgiving Break, LaPorte High School senior Abbi Fryer took the rare opportunity to go on a mission trip to Haiti and help out the less fortunate. Along with her church group from Victory Christian Acad-emy, Fryer spent a week in Haiti to spread the love of Jesus. The group contributed to helping the Haitian children and fami-lies by supplying food, clothes, presents and necessities needed for living. Fryer and her group stayed in Jacmel, Haiti, which was struck by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake in 2010. This area of Haiti is known for the earthquake that left the country in ruins, leaving millions homeless and struggling for sur-vival. Also, it’s known for cor-ruption in the government and extreme poverty. The living con-ditions are so severe it is often considered a fourth world country. “I went into the trip hop-ing to show the people of Haiti that they are loved by Je-sus,” Fryer said. “There were no specific goals on this trip, I was just open to what God had in store.” Although there may be some nerves with traveling to another country, Fryer has a bit of expe-rience in the country of Haiti. “I’ve been to this area of Haiti two times before,” Fryer said, “The first time was to film a mov-ie showing what short term mis-sions do when they go to Jacmel. We also did a VBS for the kids

tion glasses to the people. The roads were blocked by boulders and burning tires so both teams were stuck with no communica-tion or translators. I was able to translate for the other mission-aries and give the Haitian people eye drops, glasses, and diagnose their conditions. That was awe-some to be able to help in a way I did not expect. It was incredible to see God at work in the midst of chaos.” Going on a mission trip is an opportunity to leave the coun-try, and to explore how other countries live compared to the United States. “One of my friend’s moms is the coordinator, and knew I would be interested in going back,” Fryer said. Many churches and youth groups take trips yearly, all over the world. They are a great op-portunity to not only help peo-ple in need, but also to grow in your own faith.

By Addie BoardmanStaff Writer

On Nov. 6, polls closed at ap-proximately 6 p.m. and voters anxiously awaited the final out-come of the 2012 Presidential Election. Current President Barack Obama seemed to trail Senator Mitt Romney in popular and electoral votes for most of the night. However, at around 11 p.m., it was announced nationwide that Barack Obama had indeed won the election and would serve as President of the United States with Joe Biden as his Vice Presi-dent for another four years. Obama won the election with roughly 51 percent of the popu-lar vote and 332 of the electoral votes. A president needs at least 270 electoral votes to win an election, and Obama exceeded Romneys 203 electoral votes. With his reelection, Obama has six main economical issues that as President, are his job to improve. First, Obama is planning to grow the economy from the mid-dle class out. Rather than trying to improve the economy from the upper class down, his focus will be on the diminishing group of middle class people. Obama wants to create more jobs, espe-cially in the manufacturing busi-nesses. Second, Obama is planning to reform the tax code to create jobs and pay down the deficit.

Third, he is planning to official-ly end all of the wars and truly begin to rebuild America. Obama’s fourth economical issue that he wants to improve is to invest more into clean en-ergy that is made here in Amer-ica. With this, he is looking to improve the environment and national security and to create more jobs. Fifth, Obama is making invest-ments in education to create op-portunities for all Americans. He is also fighting to help save the jobs of teachers and hire more to maximize learning ability to its full potential. Lastly, Obama wants to expand access for health care and lower costs for families. President Barack Obama is working hard to make changes that are necessary to keep the United States prospering.

President ObamaPhoto Provided by whitehouse.gov

“There were no spe-cific goals on this trip, I was just open to what God had in

store.” ~Abbi Fryer

By Addie BoardmanStaff Writer

As 2012 comes to a close, there are a handful of events that have changed America for the bet-ter, or for the worse. Whether it be sports, politics, movies or super stars, Americans will forever remember these events that occurred in 2012. On November 6, 2012 the 57th quadrennial presidential elec-tion took place between Presi-dent Barack Obama and Sena-tor Mitt Romney. At around 1 a.m. on November 7, President Obama was elected back into office to serve his second term. Obama plans to turn the U.S. economy around, and Ameri-cans are giving him four short years to do it. While some peo-ple remain optimistic, Obama will always have his haters. Another man who gained many critics in 2012 was bik-ing legend Lance Armstrong. On October 22, 2012, Lance Armstrong was accused of dop-ing, stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned from the sport of cycling for life. While Lance still remains a hero to sports fans around the country, many people have turned their backs on this cy-cling extraordinaire. “I think that whoever accused Lance was in the right. It was right that all of his awards were revoked because performance-enhancing drugs should not be tolerated in any major sport,” said senior Austin Wells. Another phenomenon catch-ing the eye of sports fans across the nation was the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team. Currently ranked number

one in the nation with a 12-0 record, the Irish are headed to the national championship for the first time in 24 years. “I really want to see Notre Dame beat Alabama. Too bad I can’t afford to go to Florida for the game,” said freshman Cur-tis Sharman. Hurricane Sandy was the most devastating natural di-saster of the year, as well as the largest hurricane to ever form in the Atlantic Basin. Causing over 85 deaths and leaving much of the east coast in shambles, Hurricane Sandy was felt in the hearts of Ameri-cans nation wide. The hurri-cane caused roughly $60 bil-lion in damage on the eastern seaboard. Another devastating event occurred on the night of the premier of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Aurora, Colorado. On July 20, 2012, James Hol-mes was accused of shooting and killing 12 people at the midnight premier of the movie. 58 others were also critically injured. “The Dark Knight shooting was very sad and just goes to show you can't be safe any-

where. I grew a lot of respect for Christian Bale for visiting the victims in the hospital,” said senior Chris Hernandez. 2012 was also the year for the summer Olympics, which were hosted in London, England and lasted for 16 days. During the Olympics, the Americans were immensely victorious in sports such as gymnastics, swimming, diving, women’s soccer, basketball, track and field, rowing and beach volleyball. One of the most successful movies of the year, “The Hun-ger Games” was released in theaters on March 23, 2012. “The Hunger Games” movie starred Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth, who captured the audience from the moment they appeared on screen. “Josh Hutcherson was pretty much the best thing in the en-tire movie,” said senior Abbi Meinhard. Even though all of these events had a significant impact on the year 2012, new events will soon take their place with the beginning of 2013.

2012 year in review