Hill-Topics
Last fall, I was sitting in the stands at the state volleyball tournament with Hillsboro High School principal Dale Honeck, talking about my new job as the editor of the Star-Journal.
I shared my dream of community newspapering, which includes mentoring young people to become journalists. Honeck suggested I look into becoming a mentor in the high school's independent study program.
And so I did.
He put the word out among the seniors that I was looking for someone to study at the Star-Journal, and that's how Lora Andrews came to be on the front page of today's paper.
Andrews, 17, has made headlines in recent years in tennis, basketball, softball, FFA, band, jazz band, H-Club, National Honor Society, and 4-H. She also works on committees, sings in the choir, and participates in youth group activities at her church.
Lora has the personality to win people over quickly, and the intellect to size up situations at a glance. And, as you can see from her first article, she's also a talented writer. I hope we can teach her a few things about newspapers.
I feel honored that she chose us for her senior project.
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In honor of next week's Trojan Classic basketball tournament, I regress to my childhood, when I was addicted to basketball. We played in the driveway. Shoveled away the snow. Played to 100, by ones. Couldn't feel our fingers, or our toes. Because we had a "Basketball Jones."
Cheech and Chong wrote a hit song of the same name. The single peaked at No. 15 in 1973.
Yes, I am the victim of a Basketball Jones. Ever since I was a little baby, I always be dribbling. In fact, I was the baddest dribbler in the whole neighborhood. Then one day, my mama bought me a basketball.
And I loved that basketball.
I took that basketball with me everywhere I went
I even put that basketball underneath my pillow. Maybe that's why I can't sleep at night. I need help, ladies and gentlemen. need someone to stand beside me. I need someone to set a pick for me at the free-throw line of life. Someone I can pass to.
Someone to hit the open man on the give-and-go and not end up in the popcorn machine, So cheerleaders, help me out
[Chorus:] [cheerleaders sing repeatedly
I got a Basketball Jones, oh baby, oo-oo-ooo).
I'll go one-on-one against the world, left-handed. I could stuff it from center court, with my toes. I could jump on top of the backboard, take off a quarter, leave fifteen cents change
Here I go down court. Try to stop me. You can't stop me 'cause I got a Basketball Jones
They just don't write songs like they used to.
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Hillsboro City Council member Len Coryea was only half joking last week when he asked if the city could seize the McDonald's property through the right of imminent domain.
Mayor Delores Dalke decried McDonald's treatment of small town America, saying, "They've closed Larned, Eureka, Lyons, Lindsborg, and Hillsboro. Because they said they weren't making enough money off these stores. I don't know how much they expect to make. I don't understand that corporate mentality. We look at economics a lot differently."
Our local McDonald's wasn't really a McDonald's. It was Dan D'Abini's McDonald's. He cared about Hillsboro, and donated lots of money to local projects, such as Little League sports. I heard someone say it was our Hometown McDonalds, the last of a dying breed.
From now on, when I'm out of town and hungry for a bite to eat, mark my words — I won't be dining at McDonald's.
I encourage all of you to join me in boycotting the world's largest fast food chain.
McDonald's continues to see sales growth and analysts expect the company to notch $22.1 billion in sales for 2006, besting its 2005 record of $20.5 billion. McDonald's (NYSE: MCD, $43.54) hit a seven-year high after it reporting November same-store sales had risen 6.2 percent worldwide, led by growth in Europe. It notched 5.1 percent growth in the U.S. on strong breakfast and late-night sales.
I also read that McDonald's alone feeds more than 46 million people a day — more people than the entire population of Spain.
Even if we all join hands against the hamburger giant, our boycott will be like the man who did his part to save the world by throwing starfish back into the ocean. With thousands of starfish washing up on shore, he was asked why he even bothered. He replied, "It might not matter to all of these starfish, but it matters to this one."
It might not matter to McDonald's where I eat, but it matters to me.
— GRANT OVERSTAKE
