By Alicia Pike

Student Correspondent
 

As January looms closer and people start looking towards 2008, it is time to take a step back and remember the events that shaped the past year. From celebrities to politics, students recall what they considered to be defining parts of 2007.

Though many things occurred over the course of the year, some students feel that throughout everything, the war in Iraq has remained at center stage. Student Heather Stephan believes that the war has had constant coverage because of the upcoming presidential election. 

“The war in Iraq and the conflict as to whether we should bring our soldiers home and or how is always debated. I think the hottest political issue is war. It’s what most of the presidential candidates have been talking about this past year. It’s what most are going to use to get elected,”  Stephan said. 

For student David McClean, the war was also a defining part of 2007. 

“What I found really interesting was the war. Even though we’ve been going through this for several years now, it was still a war year. Because of it, our economy is affected which means everyone suffers. You can’t escape something that is day to day. It’s constantly on everyone’s minds,” McClean said. 

As far as the economy went, McClean felt that this year has been difficult financially. 

“I think it’s been a hard year,” he said. “Even people who make fairly decent money have had to watch what they’re spending. Look at gas prices. There has been a lot of coverage on the price of oil because it’s just not going down. Because of the gas prices, people aren’t going as many places, businesses and people are suffering. It’s just been hard.”

Another hot topic of the past months has been violence. Whether relating to the war or within schools or the street, the topic has been an interest to many. 

“I feel like there were a lot more school shootings like at Virginia Tech. I don’t know if the media just covered more of them this year or what but I felt like there were a lot more,” Stephan said.

Others felt that violence associated with the war dropped towards the end of the year. 

“Last month it seems was one of the least violent months we have had in a long time as far as car bombings and suicide missions. It’s kind of interesting to see that it just sort of dropped off. Hopefully it stays that way,” McClean said.   

While politics kept everyone watching the news channels, celebrities have also been an interesting part of the year. 

“Everyone went to jail or rehab this year didn’t they? Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, they all pretty much just kept doing these awful things. But I think they deserved to go. I think that people in law enforcement are kind of sick of celebrities getting off because of their fame. While it was funny and entertaining to watch, it’s also kind of sad because sometimes there are children involved. From what I’ve seen, these celebrities just don’t hold any real value in society,” McClean said. 

Student Cassie Nichols felt much the same way.

“Celebrities just get too much coverage. They don’t use their fame for good and they need to. I can remember when people used to look up to Britney Spears and now she’s just being so stupid. I have two kids about the same age and it’s just hard to watch her do that to those children,” Nichols said.

The end of the year has also come as something of a relief to some students. 

“I’m just kind of tired of hearing the same things. This just sort of seemed like the year to beat things to death. There was nothing refreshing to me, I turned on any news channel and there was nothing about anything but the war. Things kind of come and go, I really do think it was just a hard year, I felt like there was always this threat of something worse happening,”  McClean said. 

Stephan felt that the year turned out to be the same as any other year. “The year has been about average. I don’t feel like it’s been much different from previous years really. I don’t think anything is going to change exactly because we’re in the middle of a war and we’re spending tons of money and it’s going to take awhile to change that,” she said.