Lincoln 2012

I have just listened to the new soundtrack for the Lincoln movie...OBSESSED!!! I love everything about this movie! They got the characters down perfectly and I am shocked to see that people are actually taking notice of such a historical film. I shall post more after I see the movie I can't wait!!!!!!!!!

Holding Onto Innocence

Most seniors are thinking about going off to college and getting a fresh start in a new place. They want to like new things and meet new people. Trust me, I'm looking forward to all that jazz, but I will be holding onto one thing from my childhood. That one thing would be my extensive collection of Disney movies!! I LOVE all of them (especially Newsies, which is the only non-animated one) and I watch them whenever I'm having a bad day. I think that it's good to grow up and expand out to bigger and better things. But before we all go off into the great unknown, take a step back and remember your childhood memories! Chorale is going to be singing Lion King at graduation becasue we want to hold onto our childhood memories and Lion King was a moive that most high school kids have seen. I think that it's wonderful that we are putting time into singing something that most people will know and enjoy. If we wanted to act like adults we would have picked a song that most people didn't know and you all wouldn't listen to it! So don't be upset that Lion King is from our childhood, love it and enjoy remembering your youth, because we won't be young forever!!

Lost Cause...Spring Breat 2012

Me at Tredegar Iron Works

This past Spring Break I went to Richmond, Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown in Virginia. Aside from all of the wonderful history, there was a lingering question in Richmond...has the Lost Cause died out? The answer is..NO!! Lost Cause is still alive and well in Richmond. I have been to places like Gettysburg before and no other battlefield had such a bias then the ones in Richmond. It seemed like the only places that were preserved were places where Confederates had won. It was crazy, even at Gettysburg they tell of the days that the Confederates won and Gettysburg is in the North! Not only were there Battlefields, but also a prison camp (Belle Isle) and the Museum of the Confederacy...walk in look up and then tell me Lost Cause is not a real thing! Cold Harbor was there too, all big and open, go back 150 years and you would have seen dead people all over the place! Belle Isle was the worst, the men there looked like Holocaust victims (it's these prison camps that helped Hitler get his idea for his death camps). The South just needs to grow up and accept defeat! The North won, it's time to move on! (That's just how I feel about it!)



Belle Isle prisoner

Tredegar

Civil War at Tredegar

Lost Cause at it's finest! (Museum of the Confederacy)

NRA...Guns Are Good!

The NRA (National Rifle Association) has been saying for years that guns are a good thing. I believe that guns are a good thing, they can protect people. Without guns we would be unprotected from harmful people. Sure, guns can kill people and when in the wrong hands they can cause a lot of damage, but when in the right hands they can be used for good. If you think about guns and our right to have them, that goes back to 1607 when Settlers came to Jamestown, VA. They needed guns to protect themselves from attacks and to get food. In the 1770s people in Willimasburg, VA needed guns to fight for Independence. in the 1860s guns were used to keep our Country together. After that they were used to keep people safe. Without guns in the house people could be killed or raped and killed when someone came into their home. People in the 1700s and 1800s didn't really have a problem with people running around shooting large groups of people, maybe because of the style of guns they had. Muskets and Springfield rifles were commonly used and they could do a lot of damage, but you had to reload them after you shot. Guns today are automatic which means you can fire many shots by using one cartridge. It's not the fact that we have guns that people are dying from them, it's the mass amouts of rounds you can fire to kill many people. If our army had the automatic rifles and people had Muskets or Springfield rifles than there maybe less deaths. Not to mention a lot of people would be happy to wear a tri-cornered hat or a Civil War cap (that wouldn't actually happen). People want to be able to protect themselves and their family and having guns is a method of protection. I'm not saying go out and stand watch in your front yard, but if someone breaks into your house you need a way to protect yourself. A lot of people down south have guns in their house and no one thinks anything of it except that they are used for hunting or protection. The people I have met wouldn't go out and bring their guns with them (call me a backwoods hick, but its true). People (normal ones at least) don't want to kill other people. Most people wouldn't think to kill anything, but some say they have a gun for protection and nothing more. I would never personally use a gun to kill, I wouldn't think "Oh if I shoot this intruder I'll kill him", if someone comes into my home and wants to harm me I'm going to think of my families lives and my own life, not the bad guy's. I think the only person that doesn't need a gun is Batman and his family. He's strong and can fight them off, but normal people wouldn't be able to fight off someone who is trying to harm you. Let's face it, none of us are Batman (at least I don't think anyone is...) we aren't going to think of fighting a bad guy, who could have a gun, with our bare hands. Guns are used for safty and they should be kept in homes. Our 2nd amendment says, "right to bare arms." we have a right to own guns and we need to use that right. Maybe they just need to edit it to say, "right to bare arms on one's own property." that way people won't go out and shoot a lot of people. That's what scared people about guns, the fact that people are going around and killing many people with one or two guns. If everyone had one rifle at home we wouldn't have such a big problem, it's hand guns that kill people. I think that people need to reconsider the topic of owning guns. We've had them for such a long time, we don't need to have them taken away, just don't let people buy hand guns anymore and I think we won't have such a HUGE problem with death by guns in this country. People are stupid and bring guns out in public with them and that is where the problem starts, leave it at home and we won't have as many gun deaths!

Springfield Rifle

Camelot...Best Show Ever!!!!

I think that it's stupid when people have to stop making good shows because other people don't watch them! Camelot on STARZ was an AMAZING show and they had to stop making it because most people were not watching it when it was on, they would watch it on Hulu or OnDemand. I am currently on Episoid 1 Season 2, it's hard to keep up with the whole thing unless you have seen each episod. The story line is not the one people are used to when they think of Camelot or King Arthur. It's been made into a dramatic story with love, lust, greed, passion, hate, murder, magic, and power. The characters are: Arthur, Morgan, Merlin, Guinevere, Kay, Igraine, Leontes, and Gawain. Arthur loves Guinevere, but she is married to Leontes. She secretly loves Arthur too, but she can't do anything about it because of Leontes. The quote that makes me think of Arthur and Guinevere is, "Ture love is when 2 people lying on the bed and they do absolutly nothing just looked in the eyes and they both cry from beauty!" That's what Guinevere and Arthurs love is like. I love this show and I am really upset that they cancled it. It's a FANTASTIC show!

White senator discovers family's African-American roots....responce




Marley, Rosie, Tay, my dad (talking politics), Grandma Avrit, Ryan. (in the back) Ariel and my mom

 

I think that it's great that the white southern senator is excited to meet his African-American cousins. I know when I first met my African-American cousins I was excited, but also a little bit nervous. I thought that they wouldn't like me or i wouldn't be cool enough for them. It's intimidating to meet someone for the first time. I wanted them to like me, and they do like me, but I was really careful about what I said around them. I didn't

want them to think I was racist if I said something wrong. They were cool and by the end of the night we were all cracking jokes about eachother. It didn't matter what race we were by the end of the night, we were family and that's all that we cared about. Families poke fun at eachother all the time and that's what we did.  I think that it's cool to have family of a different race. They bring a kind of diversity to the dinner table that people don't normally have. I think that more people should have a mulit-racial family...it's just more fun! I liked the quote from the article, "It's often said that a real Southerner can 'claim kin' with anyone." I think that this is really true. I think that anyone can be part of your family, you just need to learn to accept people.

Rosie (Tay and Tracy's friend) and Taylor







Mojo...Our Class Pet!



Mojo!!

 The turtle Mojo is the official class pet. He's cute and little and LOVES to talk about Issues!! He's an All-American turtle!! He's been in class for a month now and he really enjoys it! If you want to meet Mojo he's usually on my desk every day in class...just come over and say Hi! He loves meeting new friends!!


WE LOVE MOJO


Mojo eating





Drawing of Mojo meeting new friends

 

Speaker From Today...Thoughts....

After listening to the speaker today I felt conflicted. I thought that the police were helpful and not here to just convict people. If the police were here to help us than there wouldn't be so many wrongful convictions. I think that it's just horrible for people to be wrongfully convicted. I wanted to cry when our speaker was telling his story. Being convicted of a crime at age 17 that you didn't commit was so sad. I felt for him and I felt bad when he talked about adjusting to the outside world. It made me think of the Shawshank Redemption. It was so hard for the men to adjust to life outside the prison after they were set free. It would be so hard to be away for song long and then have everything change. We were talking about things changing in Theatre this week. When you move away from a house and you go back to visit it you start to think: "That didn't used to be the wall color." "That shouldn't go there." "These people set the room up all wrong." You want things to be the same as when you left, but that doesn't happen often. Things change as people grow older and grow apart from things. Things change to adjust with growing times too, that's why the world changes when people are in jail or prison. The outside world doesn't just stop because they are away. It would be nice if it did so the people who were away could feel like they didn't miss anything. I can't even imagine having to adjust to a world that I didn't know. I would feel scared and lost and afraid to walk out of my house. I am a person who doesn't like change and I would feel super overwhelmed by the world changing around me. I felt so bad for all the people who were named on the cards. All of these people were convicted of a crime they didn't commit and that breaks my heart. I don't want people to lose faith in our justice system and that makes my want to cry. We are supposed to have a great justice system and that makes me just feel like Americans are failing at justice. We should fix whats wrong so we can not have as many flaws.

Enduring Legacy: Rhetoric and Ritual of the Lost Cause...How I Like the Book So Far

I started reading Enduring Legacy: Rhetoric and Ritual of the Lost Cause By: W. Stuart Towns. It's about the south and how they don't like the north and the fact that they lost the Civil War. I started reading this book knowing that people down south didn't have too much respect for the north, but I found out that they are extremely hurt by the fact that they lost the Civil War. It just bugs the crap out of them. A quote that stood out to me was "There are many shared memories we Americans cherish: Paul Revere's ride, Washington crossing the Delaware, Jackson at New Orleans, Custer at Little Big Horn, and Teddy Roosevelt charging up Kettle Hill in the San Juan Heights all come quickly to mind. The mythology and memories of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Gettysburg, Shiloh, Pea Ridge, and countless other battles and skirmishes, gallant leaders, heroic soldiers, faithful slaves, and staunch women on the home front form a similar mosaic of legend for many white southerners." (xi). It's funny how these people just won't let go of the past. It's like the past is the only thing they have, which isn't true at all. They have wonderful country side, they have great comfort food, and they have really good music. They shouldn't be living in a past that wasn't even good for them. They lost everything they had worked for before and during the war. I mean I feel bad for them, just because they lost so much, but at the same time, these are the people who owned slaves and treated them poorly. I think that those who are dwelling in the past are just upset because they lost the war and they want to be "Rebels" and raise Hell (It's kind of what Southerners are known for). I can't tell if the author likes the south or not yet, he mostly is listing facts. I think I'll have a better understanding when I read farther into the book.

White Like Me...Denial

I do not agree with these assertions. I don't think that racism helped white people at all. I believe that racism was a tool in an attempt for white people to help themselves, but I don't think that it worked. I think that if a white person is not a racist, than they can’t benefit from racism. The people who even come close to benefiting from it are the white people who are racist. Those who are not racist don’t gain anything by being around racist people or activities. They would want to stop racism and prevent one group of people from getting everything. In the article Tim Wise says “we teach history as an uninterrupted string of linear progress, where things were really bad, but slowly got better, and are always improving when it comes to race,…” (62). He’s saying that everything we learn in history about race is wrong. It did get better. Look at the 1800s than look at today and tell me it’s not better. We have a President who is not white, we don’t have slaves, and people who are black don’t have to sit in the back of the bus, if that’s not improvement than I don’t understand the meaning of the word.  I really don’t think this article was all that convincing. Wise talks about how members of his family owned slaves in the 1800s (they lived in the South). He then says that they should have known that it was wrong and that he doesn’t like them for keeping slaves. The truth is, people back then, especially in the South, saw slavery as economic growth. To the South a life without slaves would kill the economy, no one would work as hard, and they wouldn’t have as many workers. I’m not saying that slavery was right or good in any way; I think it was disgusting and horrible, but I can’t say that the people back then should have known better. Wise says “Their acts are neither excused by the times in which they lived, nor the passage of time since.” (66).Their acts should be look at differently because of the times they lived in. You shouldn’t judge these people as if they are people living today, they had a different mindset. It’s the way they were raised, the place they grew up, and the time period they lived in. Slavery was more about economics and status in society than about anything else. People are selfish, doesn’t matter what race you are. It could have easily been the other way around in slavery. People will look out for number one before looking out for others. I know this from my own person experiences. People help out themselves first. It’s just the way the world works, if you don’t look out for yourself you get swallowed up. White American enslaved Native Americans long before they enslaved black Americans. We never helped out Native Americans, I haven’t heard of one white person helping out a Native American. I have heard of white people helping out black people. I just personally didn’t like this article and the way the guy just had to say how horrible white people were for having slavery and all of the other things they did to black people. I also don’t like how he said we made no progress in history and that it isn’t getting better, when the truth is that things are getting better for black people in America.

But that's just my personal opinion.

If I Were A Poor Black Kid...Responce

I agree with this article, because I believe that anyone can do anything that they set their mind to. If anyone works hard enough than they can do anything and achieve big goals in life. I think that the author used good ideas to express what he thinks about being a poor black kid. I'm not poor, or black, so I can't speak on behalf of those who are poor and/or black, but I think that if they saw that they could be anything they wanted to if they just worked hard, than they would want the chance to do that. I know that there are many poor black kids that have been on shows like Oprah who dream of going to college and getting fantastic jobs so they can have money for their children. I read a book by Horatio Alger Jr. called "Ragged Dick, or, Street Life in New York with the Boot-blacks". This book was not about poor black kids, but it was about kids who are poor. These kids had nothing and they found that if they worked hard and had the aspiration to be amazing, then they could do anything. I saw a musical called "Bowery Boys" that was based off of the book "Ragged Dick". The lead character Dick Hunter (played by my friend Brian) really wanted to be a business man. He worked hard and found new ways to make money, with the help of his friends Bronski (played by my friend Christian), Mickey (played by my friend Andrew), Squirt, and Mary. All of Dick's hard work payed off when he got a position working for a Mr. Marshall Fields.
This is what poor black kids should be doing. Working hard and finding a way to make it in the world. America is not an easy country to make it in, you don't hear of many rags-to-riches stories anymore. Anyone can make their future brighter, you just have to know how to start the spark.



"Mary" and Brian




Brian rallying the boys




Christian, Johnny, and Brian




Christian As Bronski



"Ragged Dick"

The second article I read was a response to "If I Was a Poor Black Kid". I understand where the author is coming from, but I just don't see why he thinks that it's so far fetched to think that someone who is poor and/or black could work hard and succeed in life. I just don't think that they worked hard at all and they are just upset that they didn't. Some of the things said in the first article are things that a white middle aged man would say and do, but that doesn't mean that poor black kids can't say and do them either. I just believe that everyone's future is in their own hands and other people can't do anything to change that.



Christian

 


Andrew, Max, and Christian



Brian









Hidden Bias Test...What it Says About Me

Marley: The oldest of the three!

My Cousin Tracy and I (At an Oregon Ducks game)

My Aunt Alicia, Uncle Otis, and my cousin Taylor (Tracy and him are twins!!)

After taking the Hidden Bias test I found out that I have little to no automatic preference between African Americans and Europeans. I believe this comes from my family. My uncle is African Ameircan and I have 3 African American cousins. I love all of them and it doesn't matter what their race is. I wouldn't trade them for the world!! <3 I think I may have been more bias toward European people if I didn't have 4 wonderful African Americans in my life. I was always raised to respect and accept everyone, but it can be hard when you grow up in a mostly white suburb. I'm also not a minority, so I don't have to deal with people not accepting me because of my race (other things may make people not accept me, but not race). I don't like other people to not have friends, so I have always been open to hanging out with new people and making them feel like they have at least one person on their side. I think that race shouldn't stop people from doing anything or becoming anything they want to be. I have zero respect for White Supremacy groups. I think that they have free speech, but I don't condone any of what they are doing. It also bothers me when people who are white say "you can't say/do that...you aren't black enough." Who are they to judge things based on race. People had said only black people could rap, but Eminem still did it. People said a black man could never be President, but Obama did it! Last I checked this was America, the Melting Pot of the World. We accept all people, no matter what their skin color. That was what we were founded on. My favorite quote from the song Home by Dirks Bentley is "Think, wonder what they'd think if they could see us now." He's talking about the founding fathers, would they be proud of us, or would they hate how we have taking what this country was founded on and destroyed it? I guess it's up to our generation to stop hating other races and just accept people as people and friends.


PEACE, LOVE, HAPPINESS

ONE LOVE, ONE HEART

Fast Food Nation...The Final Chapter



Fast Food Nation Movie Poster


As I finished reading Fast Food Nation I realized how much I changed. When I started this book I really didn't like it. I didn't care about the food I was eating and I didn't understand what happens in slaughter houses to cows. I had grown up knowing that cows were used as food, but I didn't understand how horrible cows are treated before they are killed. They are pushed into small places and killed by men with large knifes. It's freaky to think of people being able to kill something that's living. I also learned about the people who have these jobs, most of them are illegal people from Mexico or South America. The big companies take these people from Mexico or South America, get them across the border, and give them jobs. If a worker gets injured they get sent back to their homeland for a week (if they are hurt bad) to recover, if they are not hurt bad and they don't want to report it they get put on an easier job until they heal. I think that is just wrong. If someone gets hurt they should be going to the hospital, it doesn't matter if they are only hurt a little, these jobs are dangerous and people should not be in them just so they can make a few bucks. I don't like the idea of people being used at cheep labor. Personally, I think that we use illegals because Americans don't want to do the job. If Americans think that the job is bad and disgusting than why still have the slaughter house open? It's money!! That's the thing that controls America today, money. I think that people should take a step back and not think about money for just a second to see how people (and Animlas) are being treated in the slaughter houses.

Why I LOVE Cows

I am a vegetarian, I don't eat any sort of meat, and I think that eating a cow is just wrong. I'm not saying that other people shouldn't eat cows, I'm just stating my opinion. Cows may not be people, but they don't need to be treated the way that people treat them. I watched a video yesterday and within 58 seconds a man who worked in a slaughter house was kicking a cow in the head to get the cow up after she slipped and broke her back leg. I had to stop watching it. I ended up crying over the fact that this cow was defenceless against the brutality of people. If that's how animals are killed and made into food for us, than I want no part of eating one. They may not be people, but they are living and they can feel pain, just like people, they also have emotions, like people. We can't understand what they are saying, but they don't like being beaten before being killed. They are living in their own crap and other dead cows that have died before reaching the slaughter house. My family used to own a meat packing industry, Wilson Meats, the same people that made Wilson sports gear. They had prize cows and entered them in fairs, that is not bad, but after they would kill them just for meat. I just shudder at the thought of killing something that's alive and looking at you when you kill it. I LOVE cows! They are my second favorite animal (behind the penguin). It's sad that other people don't realize what people are doing to cows in slaughter houses. I was trying to tell my parents and my mom said "People don't want to know because if they did they would stop eating meat." That's just wrong, I'm sorry but I feel that people should know what's going on to these cows.



Cute little baby cow!





My Cousin Thomas E. Wilson



Theatre Fest...Time to Break Out the Monologue!!

I am going to theatre fest tomorrow at noon and I need to pick a monologue to do at a workshop. I am either going to use one from Rome and Julite, or Newsies (big shock I know). The one I may do from Rome and Juliet is:

JULIET: Thou knowest the mask of night is on my face;

Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek

For that which thou hast heard me speak to-night.

Fain would I dwell on form -- fain, fain deny

What I have spoke; but farewell compliment!

Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say 'Ay';

And I will take thy word. Yet, if thou swear'st,

Thou mayst prove false. At lovers' perjuries,

They say Jove laughs. O gentle Romeo,

If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully.

Or if thou thinkest I am too quickly won,

I'll frown, and be perverse, and say thee nay,

So thou wilt woo; but else, not for the world.

In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond,

And therefore thou mayst think my havior light;

But trust me, gentleman, I'll prove more true

Than those that have more cunning to be strange.

I should have been more strange, I must confess,

But that thou overheard'st, ere I was ware,

My true-love passion. Therefore pardon me,

And not impute this yielding to light love,

Which the dark night hath so discovered.

There are three from Newises I may do the first is: Racetrack: In 1899, the streets of New York City echoed with the voices of newsies, peddling the papers of Joseph Pulitzer, William Randalph Hearst, and other giants of the newspaper world. On every corner you saw them carrying the banner. Bringing you the news for a penny a pape. Poor orphans and runaways, the newsies were a ragged army without a leader, until one day all that changed.
The second is: Jack Kelly: Oh, what'd being a Newsie ever give me but a dime a day and a few black eyes? You know, I can't afford to be a kid no more, Dave. For the first time in my life, I got money in my pockets. Real money. Money, you understand? I got more on the way and as soon as I collect, I'm gone, I'm away, all right?
The third is my favorite: Jack Kelly: I'm just not used to havin' whether I stay or whether I go matter to anybody. I'm not sayin' that it should matter to you. I'm just sayin', um- but does it? Matter?




Jack and David (not the litte kid that's Les)

 


Sarah Jacobs (David and Les's sister & Jack's girlfriend) My family says I look like her




David and Jack (note the old guy behind Davey! LOLZ it's kinda wonderful)

If anyone has an opinion of which monologue I should do please let me know!! Thanks guys! :D
P.S. Jack is the one with the bandana (Christian Bale) David is the one wearing a tie (David Moscow)