January 2020

Civil Rights & MLK Days

Parker Paradice ~ January 15, 2020

Monday, January 20th, for most Americans is known as Martin Luther King, Jr Day, but for a few, it is remembered as Civil Rights Day. All across the US for forty-eight states, January 20th is the day to remember and celebrate Martin Luther King Jr, but for the two remaining states citizens know the date for something else. In Arizona and New Hampshire, the third Monday of January is a date known as Civil Rights Day.

Civil Rights Day for the small percentage of Americans who celebrate it is a public holiday that doesn't differ much from Martin Luther King, Jr Day. This serves as a day off for the general state population as schools and some businesses are closed. This gives the citizens the day to honor the entire civil rights movement as a whole and all of the civil rights activists who helped bring equality along.

Although Civil Rights Day is combined with Martin Luther King, Jr Day and shares the main goals, for the ones who celebrate Civil Rights Day, it is seen as more than its shared holiday. The national holiday of Martin Luther King Jr, Day is all about celebrating the life and achievements of Martin Luther King, an influential American civil rights leader. It solely focuses on his campaigns to end racial segregation and for shared equality as he was one of the most prominent faces behind this movement. But Civil Rights Day differs in the aspect that this date is for the celebrating of the entire racial equality movement and everyone who was apart of it, not just the most significant leader in Martin Luther King Jr. That is what separates these two holidays. Although they both share the same goal, one focuses on an individual while the other focuses on the entirety of the movement that was being promoted.

Even with the two holidays being different in some aspects, they still share a date and a goal of recognizing the Civil Rights movement and are again seen and gone about as similar or even the same. Many people from the two states that celebrate Civil Rights Day associate Martin Luther King's name with their state holiday as he was one of America's most respected and well known civil rights activists. And Martin Luther isn't the only thing people associate with Civil Rights Day; they mix both holidays together into a single celebration.

I know before I did my research, I thought MLK Day and Civil Rights Day were the same things. I knew nothing different between them. And I am not the only one to mix these two.

"No, I had no clue they were different," said classmate Hannah Brown when asked if she knew that Civil Rights Day and Martin Luther King Jr, Day were not the same. Since these two holidays are seen by many as the same or similar they tend to blend together on the third Monday in January as one celebration.

Civil Rights Day Background

Austin Marquis ~ January 15, 2020

This past Monday marked the 28th Civil Rights day in New Hampshire and Arizona. It is a public holiday where people honor the civil rights movement as well as the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. This idea of holiday originated from labor unions that had negotiated King’s birthday as a holiday. After King’s assassination, a bill was introduced to Congress to make his birthday a national holiday. In 1979 the House of Representatives voted to make it a national holiday, but it fell short, needing five more votes. There were two main reasons why it failed; the first was that it would be too expensive to pay federal employees for a paid holiday, and the second was that they thought that it wouldn’t be right to honor a private citizen because nobody else had ever been.

A campaign was created and gained popularity very quickly. In 1981 the Rally for Peaces Press Conference was held where over six million signatures were collected for a petition. Two years later, Representative Katie Hall of Indiana proposed the bill to create a federal holiday in honor of King. President Raegan signed the bill, and the Senate and the House eventually passed it. It wasn't until January 20, 1986, that Martin Luther King Jr Day was observed for the first time. However, not every state chose to observe the holiday until 1992, which was when New Hampshire created Civil Rights Day.

New Hampshire used to observe Fast days, which were days of fasting and praying. These days were created to avoid issues like plagues, earthquakes, and bad crops. In May of 1991, the New Hampshire legislature abolished its Fasts Days and replaced it with Civils Rights Day. It was scheduled to be the third Monday of January, coinciding with Martin Luther King Day. The different names were because New Hampshire wanted to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday as well as all the civil rights activists.

In New Hampshire, many schools are closed for the day. The week before Civil Rights day, some schools teach lessons about the Civil Rights Movement and also include quizzes and class reports. Schools that participate in these activities teach their students more about the importance and history of civil rights. State Offices and many businesses are closed as well. There can be vehicle travel restrictions, and if you use public transportation, you should check in with your local transport authorities.

Arizona is the only other state that observes Civil Rights Day. In 1986, state Governor Bruce Babbitt created a paid state Martin Luther King holiday. In 1987 Evan Mecham took office and declared the third Sunday every January to be Martin Luther King, Jr. - Civil Rights Day. Mecham believed that the paid holiday was illegal, and after just a few days in office, he changed it back to an unpaid holiday. Five years later, Arizona voters passed Proposition 300. This established a paid Civil Rights holiday on the third Monday of every January. In 1993 Arizona observed this holiday for the first time and always has since.

"Crusader Chronicles" All the Rage

Josh Finkle ~ January 15, 2020

The Crusader Chronicles is an ongoing journal of the Littleton Crusaders 2019-2020 varsity basketball season. I was assigned this from the one and only Mr. Stinehour and immediately accepted. I thought it would be a very fun assignment and it could improve my writing skills, as I want to be a sportswriter and or broadcaster.

Included in the “Chronicles” will be a little bit of everything, from game analysis to interviews with the players and even inside jokes as well and often roasts of our boy Steve. Not everyone on our team knows about the “Chronicles” but hopefully, with this light advertisement, it will spread the word so people are waiting to read it.

As of now, I have written about six games and I documented tryouts and all of the preseason. I also like to include funny things that happen during a game, practice or just in general with my teammates. For example, here is an excerpt: “... I woke up with a bruise on the left side of my chest due to my teammate Steves’s unethical post moves in practice. He continuously thinks ramming into me will move me so he can score, (keep in mind I am 6’1” 255lbs), and I am pretty hard to move, especially for him who is 6’3” 180 lbs with bony shoulders, so it hurt pretty bad.” Steve is just always getting picked on, in a good way, but he does a lot for us on the court and off, which can be found documented in “The Crusader Chronicles”.

The success of Crusader basketball may be going downhill in the coming years as two starters will be graduating this year and the year after there will be eight or more juniors now graduating, so the team which is known for nine straight Final Four appearances will be rebuilding. One player who may surprise a lot of people in the coming years is Dre Aikins, an eighth-grader in our middle school. Dre will be a very good point guard here, as he is already tearing up middle school basketball. I expect him to grow as he sits at 5’2” and with the added height he will immediately be much better as he can score and is insanely athletic already. Keep an eye out for Dre!

There will be a new segment starting this week called Player Spotlight. Steve Lucas was our first Player Spotlight focus and it was a good one. Steve has been one of the biggest surprises so far this year as he has really embraced the sixth man role. Steve is also always getting picked on, but he knows we love him. Steve is one of the funnier people in the organization and he is a great friend as well, all which will be highlighted in the “Chronicles”.

“The Crusader Chronicles” will be out in the beginning to the middle of April once the season is over. Look forward to reading it. You know you want to!

Crusader Boys Holding Court in D4

Stephen Lucas ~ January 16, 2020

It's finally the time of the season where basketball is ramping up as teams are starting to differentiate from each other. So far, there have been some excellent games with there being upsets, some teams on the rise from the years past, plus some teams that are still looking to stay atop the division. There have already been some really good matchups that have happened, such as Littleton Crusaders against the Newmarket Mules. The Crusaders topped them with a 60-49 win. There are only two teams left undefeated: Littleton at 6-0 and Groveton at 7-0 ahead of their match up Friday, January 17, in Littleton.

The Crusaders are a team that has been looking very promising after losing seniors Jason Brammer and Chris Silvera, while also missing Danny Kubkowski due to a knee injury incurred at the beginning of the playoffs last year. The team has been led by senior Parker Briggs, who is having an excellent year and is third in the division in points per game. The team hopes to make its seventh straight appearance at Plymouth State University, which means making it to the final four and then onto the championship.

There have been some new additions to the team, such as Cole Hadlock, Austin Marquis, Spenser Stevens, Grady Millen, and Jean Carlos Diaz Flores. There are also some players who are now getting some big minutes they did not see from last year, such as Quinton Eastman, Jason Hamilton, and Stephen Lucas.

Junior Spenser Stevens says, "The team this year looks outstanding because we got a lot of people who can do good things such as score, rebound, pass, and defend. I feel like we can win the championship this year because the team has already built a good chemistry with each other because we've been playing together for so long."

Jason Hamilton, on how the team will fare compared to last year's teams, says, "Last year probably was the better all-around team because we lost a lot of offense with losing Danny and Brammer, but other people have stepped into their roles, and the offense is looking really good."

So far, the team has had some excellent games with opening night winning against Lin-Wood, plus the team having some pretty good games against Lisbon and Profile. The best game so far has been against Newmarket, as that game was at NHTI Community College, so it was already on a bigger stage, but also the teams were ranked one and two seeds in the preseason standings.

You can't forget about the game against the White Mountains for the first game of the new year when Littleton won on a buzzer-beater by Todd Krol-Corliss, winning 51-50. Littleton was down by 12 with three and a half minutes to play when the team went on a 13-0 run to close the game and win. There have been so many good games, and it's only been a few games, and there is the rest of the regular season plus the playoffs, which are poised to be great.

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