Typing with Taryn

Stuart Scott, an ESPN anchor, moved the crowd at the ESPY’s last night with his insightful speech on living life to its fullest extent.

Stuart Scott was awarded the Jimmy V Award at the ESPY’s in honor of his perseverance and determination in his battle with cancer.

The award itself was presented to Scott by Jack Bauer, and Scott was more than honored to receive this award from him.

In Scott’s touching speech, he speaks on his current battle with cancer. Scott told the crowd, “When you die, that does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live and in the manner in which you live.”

These powerful sentences left the crowd applauding in his name. Scott mentioned how he was hospitalized this past week as well.

“As of Sunday, I didn’t even know if I’d make it here. I couldn’t fight. But doctors and nurses could. The people that I love and my friends and family – they could fight.” In Scott’s speech, he says how he couldn’t fight this battle without his support system by his side.

He has an overwhelming amount of love in his corner, and he is beyond grateful for it.

To conclude his speech, he speaks on his daughters and how thankful he is for them. Scott said, “But Taelor and Sydni, I love you guys more than I will ever be able to express. You two are my heartbeat. I am standing on this stage here tonight because of you.”

His speech is concluded with one of his daughters, Sydni, coming on the stage to give her father a hug. This act of love moved the crowd greatly and was the cherry on top of a beautiful speech.

Stuart Scott is a humble, deserving man who has made an impact on many people. This speech and the crowd’s reaction shows this much to be true.

St. Louis school gunman was armed with AR-15 style rifle and over 600 rounds of ammunition, officials say

The lead for the article written about this story was “The 19-year-old gunman who killed two people at a St. Louis high school Monday was armed with an AR-15 style rifle and over 600 rounds of ammunition, and left behind a note referencing mass shootings, police said.”

Whereas the lead for the video was “This morning, another community traumatized and heartbroken by a school shooting that killed a teacher and sophomore. A local news chopper capturing the terrifying scene as hundreds of students and staff scramble to safety.”

The biggest difference here falls in the fact that the video is telling us much more about the “what happened in that very moment” type of news and the article is stating more information after the fact, such as how many rounds the gun had.

Length wise, the video definitely has much more information. It took me about a minute to read the article, and the video was over 2 minutes long.

The video also had many more sources on the scene such as students, faculty, and parents. The article, on the other hand, uses sources such as the Police Chief.

I think seeing the footage on the video definitely made me more interested to keep watching. It allowed me to feel sympathy for those people in St. Louis because I was able to hear their voices and see their faces.

Overall, I think the video’s content was much better than the article’s.

Article:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/st-louis-school-gunman-was-armed-ar-15-style-rifle-600-rounds-ammuniti-rcna53938

Video:

https://www.today.com/video/teenage-gunman-kills-2-in-st-louis-high-school-shooting-151460933763

Why Are the Giants and Jets Still Considered Underdogs?

“Bookmakers aren’t yet sold on the teams, despite winning records and solid upsets. Their distrust comes down to close games and weak schedules.”

The article itself talks about the past of the Giants and the Jets history of winning/losing and what it means for fans this season. Most of the article is talking about the current season statistics for the two teams and how unimpressive it is.

The Lead: “It’s an exciting year to be a fan of New York metropolitan area pro football teams. The Jets and the Giants, long afterthoughts or even laughingstocks in the N.F.L., are riding high.”

This lead would indicate to the reader that the person who wrote this is going to talk about the team’s successes so far. However, this is not the case. Most of the middle of the article is talking about how poor the Giants’ and Jet’s stats are this year.

I didn’t really care for this part of the article (and that’s not because I’m a Giants fan… okay, maybe slightly) because of this. It doesn’t really make sense to start the article with hyping the teams up and then going to say these stats, in my opinion.

I did enjoy the end of the article, although. I like the way the author concluded everything by saying while a playoff is unrealistic (true) the Giants and Jets have still had an enormous amount of success thus far.

BATMAN CANDY

The batman candy had a combination of a tart taste and a minty taste. The candy itself was a medium shade of blue, was quite small, and had the batman emblem on it. When biting into the candy, it had a chalky texture and broke into many small pieces. There was no distinct scent to the piece of candy, although. It reminded me of a sweet tart combined with an altoid. I don’t care to try this candy again, and will probably never end up purchasing it on my own.

MONSTER ENERGY DRINK

The Monster Energy Zero Ultra is in a 16 ounce white can with metallic decals around it. When you open the tab, it makes a distinct clicking noise. The drink itself has a very sweet and carbonated taste to it. When drinking the Monster, it goes down very smoothly. I usually never have any trouble drinking this unless it is very cold and I’m chugging it. I recommend this drink to anyone and will definitely have it again… (I have one every day)

In recent years, Morningside University students have expressed major concern for the low-rate security systems among the campus.

Morningside University is located in Sioux City, Iowa and offers undergraduate students a small residential campus setting complete with immersive academic programs and more than 50 student organizations and clubs that span a wide range of interests. 

On Morningside’s public website, campus security says to have the following for security services – 24 hour escort to and from buildings, parking lots, or cars, vehicle assistance program, and transportation for those who have limited mobility. 

Morningside also offers programs including crime prevention, sexual assault awareness, self-defense classes, fire prevention, and alcohol and drug abuse prevention.

While there are a multitude of safety classes and precautions for the campus, many students continue to feel unsafe. The lack of security cameras around campus leave many students feeling concerned.

Kirstin VerPlanke is a sophomore at Morningside University who swims and lives in the apartment complexes. VerPlanke said, “Not having cameras around campus brings danger and discomfort to students, especially when living quarters are so close to major streets. Our safety and security should be a top priority to faculty and staff.”

Many incidents involving adults who do not live on campus have not only occurred in previous years, but this year as well. Students such as Kirstin express this feeling to others who live on campus, but rarely mention any of this to campus security.

Before school had started at Morningside in 2021, many car break-ins had occurred. Someone was shattering windows and stealing students and staff’s belongings including wallets, watches, and athletic equipment. 

Laken Harnly, a Junior at Morningside, was one of the students who had his car broken into. Harnly said, “Last year, I had my car window broken into and shattered before school started. I had my wallet, ray-ban’s, tools, and a basketball stolen from my car. I wish there would have been more cameras and lights in place to give more protection in our parking lots.” 

Maddy Slaughter also had car troubles last year. Slaughter’s car was involved in a hit and run in one of the Morningside parking lots. Slaughter told us, “Last year, my car got hit in the tennis court lot. Whoever hit me drove away and I was very upset to come out and see my car had been hit without any note left. I feel like if there would have been cameras, they would have been able to see who hit me so campus security could take care of the damages they caused.”

Recurring instances such as these are primary examples as to why Morningside would benefit in investing in security cameras for parking lots across campus.

Pastor Andy has been Morningside’s campus chaplain since 2017. He spends his time here with students, staff, and community members connect with their faith. 

Pastor Andy grew up in a small town in Southeastern Minnesota with about 15,000 people in the community. Faith has been a big part of his life from a young age. When asked if being a chaplain/pastor had always been a dream of his, he said, “I always got asked at my church if I had ever thought about becoming a pastor once I get older.”

Throughout college, Andy was back and forth in deciding if he wanted to be a chaplain upon graduation. 

He looked into a gap year as well. Looking back at his college years, he wished he would have taken the gap year to have a new experience with different communities and people.

What drew Pastor Andy into his final decision of becoming a chaplain was engaging with others. 

He told the class, “Being able to ask questions, to not only go along with what you’re saying, but engaging in an intellectual way… something about this I never lost and that’s part of what drew me to becoming a campus chaplain.”

The author Dietrich Bonhoeffer has a means of significance to Andy. Bonhoeffer’s theology stuck out the most to him.

This German author wrote about being in one’s community and what true faith looks like. Bonhoeffer’s writing sticks out to Andy because of his belief in acting within the world rather than retreating from it.

Before working at Morningside, Andy commuted from Sioux City to the University of South Dakota to be a campus chaplain there. Once the position here opened up, he applied and has been working here, along with his wife, since. 

At Morningside, Pastor Andy prioritizes each student’s faith, no matter what it may be. He also helps students get connected with worshiping communities. Andy’s open door policy allows students to openly discuss anything he or she may need to speak about.

While Pastor Andy’s faith has been a steady part of his life and he continues to share this love of the Word with staff, faculty, and community members.

Amazon Suspends Workers After Protest Over Warehouse Fire

“Several dozen night-shift employees at a Staten Island site that recently voted to unionize had refused to work amid safety concerns.”

Amazon suspended more than two dozen employees at a warehouse on Tuesday. The works who were fired had previously refused to work their shifts because a cardboard compactor had caught fire the previous evening.

The employees were concerned for the disregard of fire safety and didn’t feel safe working around the toxic fumes/smoke.

I think the lede of this story is solid. It gives the reader enough information to know what generally happened, but it also leaves the reader wanting to know more information.

I think the author covered a decent amount of what we should know at this moment. There’s still quite a bit of information not covered because it is so recent. We don’t know if/when these workers will join the Labor Union, so there’s only so much information to be told.