By William Woods

Many people are having a hard time buying gifts, food, and clothing for the holiday season because cargo ships are not being unloaded fast enough. Those cargo ships are full of items that people and businesses desperately want. And due to the ships not being unloaded, shelves are bare without items. Now the question is how did it get this way?

Many businesses point to covid 19 as the cause of this problem because of the rise of online shopping and a major change in buying habits. This sounds like a simple explanation for a more complex problem. The problem starts with the newer cargo ships. They add more storage space so more items can be imported to other countries. But that's a problem because they are a lot bigger than their predecessors so unpacking takes a lot more time. The second problem is that not only are the ships bigger but the ports are backed up and have no space so until one of the ships is emptied. As of Tuesday, according to the port authority of Los Angeles, 25 billion dollars worth of cargo are stuck on 80 container ships off California. Ships have been waiting as long as September to dock in port. The lack of port workers to unload these ships causes yet another delay. Then there is the problem of the shortage of truckers to move the supplies across the states. And the final problem is the lack of store workers to move the items off the truck to fill the store shelves.

Businesses have always looked forward to the holiday season. It's when they can receive the most profit for their products. But now, for many businesses, it is the exact opposite problem. Because of items being stuck on cargo ships, businesses have to make do with what they have. It has messed up supply chains causing factories to stop or slow down production and driving up prices for consumers. For example, “Nike has cut back their sales and earning targets because they’re concerned about shipments they were counting on in time for the holidays”.

The end result from this mess of a problem is people are going to have a hard time buying this holiday. Purchases will be dependent on what is in stock and what is not. So expect the worst when buying for this time of year and remember it is the thought that matters anyways.

By William Woods

The “devious lick challenge” or willful destruction, as most people otherwise would call it, is when students destroy public restrooms for enjoyment. This all started in the second week of school when a Tik Tock challenge was made by students destroying restrooms. Then it spread like a plague destroying the school restrooms across the country. The number of students who started this online challenge is unknown. If there were any ramifications for starting this challenge is also unknown. Unfortunately, Liberty Local schools were not immune to this challenge. As we conclude the ninth week of school it is good to know that all restrooms are almost up to full working capacity.

The challenge at our school started with the destruction of a handicap restroom. Mrs. Joseph said that they tried to fix this problem by shutting down the stall upon receiving information. However, that did not work because the vandelles continued to destroy the restroom. Then another bathroom fell victim to this challenge as another restroom sink was destroyed. This challenge was not limited to the men’s bathroom but also the ladies’ restroom. This challenge encouraged students to destroy locks on bathroom stall doors, destroying toilets, paper towel dispensers, toilet paper rolls, and soap dispensers. Overall, thus causing inconvenient bathroom closures throughout the first quarter of school.

Mrs. Joseph said that she is not sure who all was responsible for the damages but she was able to seize some of the culprits. Punitive action had been taken against those responsible. She was not able to divulge their identity because of privacy. Damages to the bathrooms were paid out through the general repair funds given to the district. General funds may be from tax payers or perhaps from grants. Mrs.Joseph said that the last two bathrooms that are closed will be open in a week.

With all the information that I have gathered I do believe this problem is getting better. However, I wonder if we could just avoid this problem altogether if we just changed our thinking a bit. I recently read about a freshman from Mathews High School, Kaylee Scott. She helped her elementary school by adding artwork and motivational quotes on the doors of stalls in the girls bathroom. Perhaps we too should consider positively enhancing our school rather than tearing it apart.