January 2020 Issue

opinion
JANUARY
County decides to replace
Marksmanship with Robotics
2020 • EDITOR JADA INGLETON 13
Comic books lose relevance
as superheroes gain popularity
FOCUSED: Senior Danielle Sardarsingh practices shooting an air rifle at
the prone position in their practicing range. The Olympic sport promotes
gun safety in range firing activities as well as discipline and concentration.
wPhoto by Paula Colon
Paula Colon
Editor in Chief
Programs incorporated into our county’s
high schools typically serve the purpose of
enhancing our skills and abilities as well as
creating a fun and stimulating extracurricular
environment. Yet many times, the future
of certain programs is called into question.
The school board of Broward county’s
office of the superintendent released a statement
addressing the phasing out of JROTC
Air Soft/Marksmanship: “After thoughtful
discussion and input from our Stakeholders,
the district will phase out the Junior
Reserve Officers’ Training Corp (JROTC)
Air Soft/Marksmanship and introduce Science,
Technology, Engineering and Math
(STEM) activities, specifically Robotics.
The integration of STEM/Robotics into the
JROTC curriculum and extracurricular activities
will provide Broward County and
the Science, Engineering, Communications
and Math Enrichment (SECME) Olympics
‘Robotics’ Program a pathway for JROTC
instructors and students to compete in annual
competitions.”
Senior army instructor at West Broward
High School, Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth
Merkel, coaches the JROTC program’s first
palace marksmanship team.
“The way I see it is that they are shifting
away from marksmanship shooting sports
in Broward county following the tragedy
at Stoneman Douglas in 2018,” Merkel
said. “The individual who was arrested for
the shooting had at one time been a part of
the JROTC program and tried out for the
marksmanship team.”
Because of the mental state of the individual
involved in the shooting, there was
a movement for psychological evaluation
of all students who participate in JROTC
marksmanship activities, which is not the
case for any other extracurricular activity in
Broward county. Psychological evaluations
cost anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000, an
expense the county is not willing to pay and
even less likely, the parents of students.
The disbandment of the Marksmanship
program will greatly impact not just the
functioning of the program, but the opportunities
which JROTC students are provided
for growth and development. Marksmanship
is widely known as an Olympic sport.
The sport stresses skills such as control, discipline,
precision, concentration and confidence
within its participants and improves
skills through competition.
The county argued that the introduction
of a Robotics program is designed to provide
more competitive opportunities in the
while developing skills promoted by a technological
workforce. Yet, the solution is not
to replace an already thriving program. If
the county’s motivation is truly to develop
future career interests through STEM, the
incorporation of a STEM program should
be additional to the other teams JROTC includes,
not a replacement of an already successful
extra curricular..
Joao Lucas Argenta
Staff Writer
As the superhero trend grows bigger year
after year, directors look for more stories to
incorporate in their movies. The majority of
the stories you see in the big screen comes
from the origin of most superheroes- comic
books. Unfortunately those origins have not
had the same importance as they used to.
When comic books first came out in 1933,
they were a huge game changer to the entertainment
industry. However, over the years
they have become less popular, even though
the superheroes have become more relevant.
With the increase in the popularity of superhero
movies, you would think that the
same would happen to comic books, but
even before the movies came about, comics
had already lost its relevance.
Comic books are the main reason superheroes
are what they are today. Without comics,
there would be no superheroes. Most of
today’s movies are based off comic book
stories that came out first. Big blockbusters
such as Captain America: Civil War, Avengers:
Ultimatum, and Justice League are only
a few examples of famous comic book stories
that were adapted to the big screen. Of
course there are changes to the stories, but
the base stays the same.
As a big superhero and comics enthusiast,
I love how superheroes have taken an
important role in the world of cinema, but
I still believe it is unfair and sad how comic
books are treated. Comics should receive
more attention from the public; comic books
are very enjoyable and have proven to be
profitable to its companies.
Now, it is understandable why the comic
book industry would focus more on its movies
than its comic books. The profit made
from the movies is far beyond the profit
made from comic book sales.
In 2014, Marvel Comics made $321.45
million dollars off comic books sales. In
the same year, Marvel studios released two
movies, making more than $500 million
dollars. With the creation of its cinematic
universe, which is delivered from comics,
Marvel Studios has dominated the movie
theatres worldwide.
However, DC Universe has struggled with
creating its own movie legacy. Since 2011,
they have put out seven movies, but only
made $5.28 billion dollars, making most of
its money from Batman. Their movies have
failed to hold the same impact as Marvel.
Comic books can be really intrguing and
pleasurable. and as a comic book lover, it
saddens me to see how people have forgotten
about the origins of the superhero movies
they love to watch nowadays. However,
the superhero legacy will keep growing with
the production of new movies based off its
original comics, and hopefully those movies
will spark a new hope that will cause comics
books to make the come back it deserves.