theLITTLE

issue three volume sixty-six City High School 1900 morningside drive, iowa city, iowa 52240

2000-2009, a decade sprinkled in catastro-phe, national patriotism, complete political meta-morphis, and a technological explosion beyond conceivable measure. At least for this generation, the dazing events of the past ten years seem to colossally override the 90’s, and vanquish the his-tory book’s version of the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. Emerging with the misconstrued Y2K prediction of computer-caused chaos, the decade leaped out with a bang.

Pop-Culture“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” flew

into success as Warner Bro’s opened the portal to the wizarding world through the big screen in 2001. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson transformed into instant figures on the red carpet.

2002 sparked the decade’s infatuation with com-petitive reality TV shows; with June 11th’s debut of vocal talent search phenomenon American Idol. With the critiques of Grammy award-winning mu-sic producer Randy Jackson, award-winning music manager and executive Simon Cowell, and Emmy award-winning choreographer and Grammy award-winning pop singer Paula Abdul, America eagerly clogged the phone lines with their votes for best performance. Winning 58% of the final vote, Kelly Clarkson prevailed, becoming the show’s first and largest success.

2003 stirred up a fiery scandal with the steamy smooch between legendary sex symbol Madonna and 21-year-old pop icon Britney Spears at the MTV VMA’s.

A Few EventsNov 4th 2000, the closest presidential election

in history; Gore vs. Bush divided the nation, lead-ing to a 31 day delay to finalize the vote of the first president of the 21st century. When the key swing state Florida eventually learned to count their bal-lots, George W. Bush prevailed (despite specula-tion), and the Republican party camped out in the White House for the next eight years.

The aftermath of the 2001 September 11th at-tacks ripped open the hearts of Americans, leaving the nation bleeding. Al-Queda coordinated the sui-cide missions hijacking four flights, succeeding in three of four terrorist attack attempts. Two flights collapses the New York World Trade Center, while the third flight acutely into the Pentagon, located in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth plane ended up in rural Shanksville, PA when passengers and crew at-tempted to re-take control of United Flight 93. The death toll reached devastating heights (3000 plus), with 6,000 more injured. The U.S. responded to the attacks by launching a war on terrorism in Afghani-stan and commencing the search for Osama Bin Laden.

“In my classroom, a student returned from a dental appointment, saying ‘Turn on the TV.’ We watched for the rest of the day. I’ll never forget that. I just couldn’t believe what was happening. The next day, one of the boys from that class came in and told us how much he loved us,” said Bonnie Hall.

Feb 12th, 2004; Massachusetts became the first state to allow gay marriage. By the end of the month, 4036 couples from 46 states and 8 countries were married in Massachusetts. The progressive act resulted in predominantly Roman-Catholic Spain to change laws regarding same-sex marriage, and the Cambodian king to support the view.

Forty-one-year old Terry Schiavo became a fo-cal point of the Nation as her parents desperately fought to maintain her brain-dead life by machine. Technological medical advances created an ethical dilemma involving definitions of life and death. Her parents crusade for her life ended when the seven-year legal dispute resulted in the removal of Terry’s life support on March 18th, 2005. She died two weeks later on March 25.

The decade held many dramatic changes. What started out as dreams of the new millinnium ended with sobering facts about the world today. Major is-sues like global warming, a sinking economy, and global insecurity can only be solved with the hope that starts a new era.

A recap of major events since the start of the 21st century

HAWK

by davisvonk

art by IZAAKTHOMPSON

Gore vs. Bush Apple unveils the iPod and explodes

September 11th US invades Afghanistan, Taliban falls

Osama Bin Laden escapesPatriot Act

Anthrax scareHarry Potter movie

American Idol premieresColumbia disintegrates over Texas

Martha Stewart goes to prisonMadonna kisses Britney

Terminator elected as gov of CASadam Huissein is found in a hole

Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction at SuperbowlFacebook launches

MA becomes first state to allow gay marriage Indian ocean tsunami, 230,000 lives taken

Ronald Regan dies at age 93John Kerry vs Bush

Bush’s 2nd term as presidentPope John Paul II dies

Pope Benedict instated Terry Schiavo

Katrina

Youtube explodes 2006Stem cell research vetoPluto leaves family of planetsPlaystation 3 and Wii igniteGerald Ford dies at 93Saddam Huissen hanged, cell videoNancy Pelosi, Speaker of the HouseVirginia Tech shooting 32 deadHuckabee and Obama win Iowa caucusBotox ragesPregnant manRickrolled on computersMichael Phelps wins goldObama and Biden bromanceMcCain and PalinWall Street panic700 billion bailoutMiracle on the HudsonObama electedStimulus packageSwine fluMichael Jackson diesClinton flies to North Korea to free two American journalistsTed Kennedy diesObama wins Nobel Peace Prize