Taking A Stand

We strongly believe that you should go out on a limb.
We implore you to cleverly oppose society.
To challenge with determination the manner that has somehow tragically infected our generation.
We have walked with conviction, yet nothing has happened.
By actually talking we have noticed that somehow
the challenge of wisdom has aggressively frightened society
and disguised conviction.

By Georgina Irvine and Rachel McKinley.

To Turn The Other Cheek

I think the world could learn more about forgiveness. I feel like forgiveness is so important and the world is slowly forgetting how to forgive. When someone does something horrible to you, do you have the humility to turn the other cheek? For some people, it comes easily. They can see the greater good in others, they always see the shining light in others. But to some, it takes all they have to walk away.

I believe in God. I was born into christianity and I know no other life outside of my religion. Every night when I go to pray, I am supposed to pray for those who have done wrong to me, no matter how angry I am. Despite this religious belief, I have the hardest time forgiving others. It's hard to think how they have hurt me and try to walk away or to turn the other cheek. My religion believes in a sermon. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, but I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also..." Matthew 5:38-42. Being a teenager, I guess I will have to go through loads of drama, whether I want too or not. There is always going to be something she did to me or he said about me, but that's the thing. What good is it going to do for either of us by hurting each other? Even if I'm telling the world that people need to forgive, I know that I too need to forgive, even if it is the most difficult thing that I can do. Also, you don't have to be a big into society to make an impact. Just forgiving one of your friends can be the simplest step.

One current story that I know about forgiveness is about Fatmire Feka, who was separated from her brother and sister ten years ago in Kosovo. She founded the Kids Club For Peace, which helps kids to see past ethnicity issues that one might have. In an interview, she tells us how horrible it was for everyone during the war. The economy was horrible and houses were torched. She remembers children having to go through horrible traumatic experiences that she herself being a child had to go though. "I wanted peace because.... I had never had peace in my entire life" quoted by Fatmire Feka. I find this person to be quite amazing because even though her family was torn apart by war, she still found the integrity inside of her to help children with stories like hers to change their hearts about those who may have destroyed their lives.

Even in the past we've had people forgiving others and trying as hard as possible to forgive themselves. In 1930's during the start of Hitler's regime, Trudy, a Jew, had her father taken away and sent to a labour camp, however Trudy was able to escape on a boat to America. Weeks after weeks she would get letters from her father asking her to come save him. So by the time she had worked up enough money to bail out her father, she found it was too late. Decades later, she decides to share her father's letter's with her daughter. She was invited to a church organization in Austria for Holocaust survivors. They were coming together to help each other forgive what traumatic experiences that changed their lives forever. I find this so amazing that the Holocaust people are so forgiving. After what everyone has done to them and said about them, that they have the humility to forgive. Trudy was able to forgive those who had done horrible things to her, and she was also able to forgive herself for not saving her father. I think that the survivors are really amazing because they were able to forgive.

There are so many examples of people forgiving each other. So than why are there people going out there to murder, to steal, to lie, and so on? Even if there are good people out there who are so willing to forgive, doesn't mean that the others are willing to say they're sorry. I find it sad when people hate each other. That they aren't willing to humble themselves because they think that they're right. I wish we were more forgiving. In the past we've been able to forgive each other, in the current time we've also been able to forgive, so I hope in the future we are still able to forgive. I hope that we are all able to forgive each other because with forgiveness comes love.

A Democratic New Word

My first few choices that I had to pick for my one characteristic that I would hope for in this new world were equal, just, democratic, multi-cultural, and educated. I figured that equal and just could go into the same category as democracy. Also I thought that to be multi-cultural, you must be educated to have a good open mind to others. So in the end, I had two options, education and democracy. I picked democracy because in the new world that is being created, I would want everyone to have a voice to help improve and cultivate the new world to a fair society.

"Democracy- the practice or principles of social equality" -Dictionary

This was found off the dictionary and I liked how they said social equality. In democracy, everyone has a voice, no matter where they are from, who they are, or what they look like. I reasoned that if everyone has a voice, and the government listened, than we would have a fair or just society. I think that if you have a new world where every one's voice is heard, than you can start building up the foundation of the world. For example, if the government put down some basic laws, and not everyone was happy about it, than those people could speak their mind, they would be able to compromise with the government to make the world a fair place to be in.

"In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme." -Aristotle

I really liked this quote because it talked about how when you have a democracy, your government won't put richer people before the poorer people. In some countries, if you have more money, you have more power. This happens most often in poorer countries with some corruption in government, but in this quote, it tells you it doesn't matter if you have more money than others, you will have the same equality as another. I also really liked this quote because it talks about how in democracy, the majority is supreme. The government doesn't choose for you, the majority wins. This shows how everyone has an opinion and it's fair for society.

"Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely for the safe guard of democracy"

This quote was good because it showed how hard my choice was between education or democracy. To have a really good democracy the people should be educated to make educated votes or when they express their opinions. I would hope that my people would be educated so that they could advance in almost everything at once. These two characteristics go hand in hand. It's like when you're giving a teenager a responsibility. They have the choice to handle it carefully or they can handle it with not such great care, but they can also choose to accept the responsibility or not. So I thought that if my country is to be good in education, they would have democracy because it's a reasonable idea, every one gets their own voice, and they wouldn't tear down the country, they would try and build it up.

Democracy to me is one of the best characteristics for a country. There are other important characteristics, but I feel that democracy comes first. I feel this way because I feel strongly about everyone having a voice. I think it's important that a country is equal and not oppressive. I feel this way because if you want to build up a country, you should have rules that everyone can agree with, and everyone should be able to speak freely. This is what I think will help build a strong community.

The Night Of Chrystal (Kristalnacht)

On November 10th 1933, this is the night of chrystal, when the Nazis came into town and all over Germany, burned the Jewish buisness, and burnt all the synagogues. In the end, after all the windows have been shattered, chaos passed, reality set in and the destruction was seen, an estimation of over 100 Jews, were killed, but an unknown amount of Jews commited sucicude, many died in the hospitial, and 30,000 Jews were forced into concentration camp.

On account of some survivors, they recall this horrific night, and the propaganda used against them.

Susan Strauss Taube recalls how they were about to go to school and than they saw all the synagogues burn, turning on the radio, they were told to stay inside their homes. Her father was thrown into a concentration camp for 4 weeks and told to leave Germany imediately. Her father released but was not seen for a few more weeks, he escaped and fled to Holland. Everything was confiscated. When I saw this I felt awful. I can't believe after the surrounding countries sat around watching and didn't even assisting. What I want to know is, why didn't anyone stand up to the bully? After watching someone go against the flow, don't you think other countries would've been less passive and stand up to Germany? Germany had just went through turmoil, they couldn't have been too powerful yet.

Hitler has been setting Germany up for the worst. I think Kristalnacht was the serious turning point. Actually it was more like the fall. So everything that was happening before Kristalnacht was like little steps slowly descending, than Kristalnacht was like the empty missing steps. Hitler thought he was helping Germany regain her pride, he was manipulating all of Germany and they helped him create Genocide. Than when they knew they had lost, Hitler turned his back on them and killed himself, rather than taking the consequences. People were forced to go in and kill innocent people and they aren't allowed to oppose, only if they wish for death.

The Jews were targeted and along with the Communists. The Communists were targets because they were seen as a threat to Germany. Other people such as Gays, Lesebians, people with mental issues were also put into because they were seen as "staining" Germany. So they would be placed into Concentration Camps

This part of history is horrific and it has scarred many people. However we shouldn't blame Germany. We all stood by and watched. We all just sat there thinking of what we should do. We had thought of helping, but that doesn't matter, we didn't help. Therefore we are also to blame. Think about Canada who didn't come to aid people. Or the USA who came in later rather than jumping in and helping. We all watched Germany build and expand their pyramid of hate. We are as much to blame as Germany is. Despite everything awful that has happened, we have this as an example. To teach generations to come, the horrible actions, the watching, the seeing, the propaganda, we can still learn from our mistakes. We can't turn around the past, but we can turn the future.

Coming a MM (milimeter) closer to knowing myself

Mr. Whitting and Mrs. Narsiman both enter the classroom. They hand us sheets with weird figures drawn on them, two eyes, two eye sockets, two ears, two hands, two legs. They explain about the brain, how our brains have two hemispheres. The right, which controls the left side of the body, and the left side, which controls the right. Kids who had health or are doing health, all groan in unision and some even hiss to their neighbor "I already know what I am, we did this in health!" the people who haven't done this, look around awkwardly and pretend to know what is going on. Mr. Whitting explains more about the brain and how we shut down if go through too much stress. We all did the little tests, and each of us got one of the profiles that were piled into a black binder. Mine was MM.

I learn from metaphors, examples, and associations. I look and listen for intention and emotion. I am also highly intuitive, often I will do things that just feel right, not knowing the truth or the reasoning behind my decision. I am also very physically and emotionally expressive. The best way to talk to me, is by me turning my head to my left ear, and rather looking at the person, I must listen to the tone, pitch, and rhythm. I learn best when I am moving and I need to see the whole context, or the whole picture and having an emotional relevance to myself before I actually have it best learnt.

I learn best when I move around. I am a kinesthetic learner so I must move around. I was suggested to do Lazy 8's during while I am sitting. It will help if I do cross lateral movements, cross crawl, and Hook Ups from Brain Gym. I can learn well by focusing the whole picture, context and emotional relevance to self. I must be able to see, hear, move or verbalize the whole context before learning the details. I must be moving myself to help me think (it will most likely be my hands)

I often will understand the main idea, but I might have a great trouble seeing and communicating the details. I have trouble following step by step instructions, I will tend to follow my intuition and do what seems apropriate. I will often start imagining what will happen in the end rather than thinking about it. My movemens tend to be relaxed and energetic when I am relaxed, but when I'm stressed, I willbe cautious, clumsy and stuck.

My teacheres should know, I have difficulty with pennmanship, but I benefit from fine motor, hand-eye coordinations as well. My left eye reads right to left, I may have trouble reading or writting langues that move from left to right like English. I may reverse or tanspose letters/numbers.

A Bloody Collage

Picasso made a collage based on the attack of Guernica, a village where women and children mainly lived. Guernica was bombed by the Germans however and Picasso painted this picture to show everyone what's it's like to get bombed.

My thoughts on this picture is everything looks really confusing. I mean you can't see what exactly is going on and everything is distorted. So I wondered why everything was messy and everything is very distorted. Than I realized, if your city was getting bombed, than wouldn't everything be really confusing? You would have people screaming and running for their lives, you'd have dead people on the street, injured people everywhere. So I think that the chaotic feel to this painting is because Picasso wanted to show everyone what it would be like to get bombed.

The painting Guernica, gives off a really weird feeling. It gives off a sort of disturbing feeling. I think that feeling comes from the facial expressions from the people and than it just makes you feel really weird. Also the other feeling it gives off is more of a intruding feeling. I feel like I don't really belong, and I feel like this isn't something I should be looking at. I think I feel this because of the distorted people, like they're different and I'm just here watching.

One of the questions I had was 'How did people feel in Picasso's time when they first saw this?' Often in times in history, when people saw things they didn't like or disagreed with, they destroyed it, or hated the person who created it. People who saw this, and disagreed with what they saw, like they thought "Oh it's not that bad, and what we're doing is right, those people deserved what we doing to them". People would think that because everyone had an opinion in the war. So what did those people think?

The most interesting thing in this painting, is the facial expressions. Everyone has a certain facial expression, confusion, uncertainty, surprised. Even the horse has a surprised look on it's face. Picasso probably put this like this because in a bombing, everyone would be very surprised and confused and really scared.

Picasso did an amazing job potraying the scene of a bombing. He was able to collide everything and make it look scary and confused. He maked an amazing job in showing the facial expressions and I think that this is a wonderful painting.

Regretting Past, Changing Future

This is a story of a man named Jesús Colón. Jesús Colón was on a subway. He's a black, Hispanic, and he's living in a racist time period. He sees a white young lady, with two young children, and a baby. He knows what he should do. He should help the young lady. But he doesn't. He rushes right past them, as he rushes out of the problem that he could've helped. I believe that he should've helped even if he may have gotten in trouble.

Jesús Colón is black and he's Hispanic which is a way he describes himself. He is living in a racist time and that's exactly how he described himself. He also described the young blonde woman as white, and as a woman. This was what held him back from helping her. The fact that he was worried she would call the police on him because it was late at night, she was alone with three children, she was white, and he was black. However he didn't not stop to help her off the train worrying about himself, because he may have gotten in trouble or the lady may have thought something of it rather than actually him helping her. He was being selfish and put himself in front of her and didn't want to get in trouble instead of taking an chance and helping her.

The skin color in this time period was a big barrier to everyone. Black people were segregated from white people so I understand why he wouldn't help her. He may have been worried that she would've gotten the wrong idea that he was trying to help her, she might have thought that he was being to friendly. So the skin color was one of the reasons he didn't help, but I think that he should've tried to see past that even though the larger society says that because of someone's skin color they will either be accepted into society or not be accepted and the blacks at this time did not feel accepted.

Jesús Colón regrets not helping the lady out of the subway. He didn't make the right choice. It's the thought that counts to at least bothered to help her and what I think is, I don't think she would've acted racist in front of her own children because what if they copied her to their friends or repeated some of the words that she said to him. So I think that he made the wrong choice in rushing off and not helping her. He knows he didn't make the right choice and he wishes he could've done something to help her.

If Jesús Colón were white would my answer be different in how he reacted? No, if he rushed off without even helping her than that would be just wrong. Jesús Colón's dilemma was that he was black and she was white, so she might have thought something different, but if he were white and she were white than he should help her, because they are the same race and she might not think anything of except for the fact that he's trying to help her.

I think that the victims in this story are the woman and Jesús Colón. But more of Colón because first of all he wouldn't help her because he was worried she might call the police on her and he was black so she might think something else rather than he was trying to helper her. The woman was a victim not so much because she had trouble getting off the train and he didn't help her. The Larger Society victimized them because if there were no racial problems, he wouldn't think or even worry about him being black and there wouldn't be a problem helping her. But everyone thinks of racism then people worry about it and they hate one another because of people's skin color.

I chose this photo because it's a photo of the 'Larger Society' and what we have here is a group of black people in a restaurant. There are no white people because white people wouldn't go into that restaurant during this particular time because of racial problems. So this represents the Larger Society and right now the Larger Society doesn't allow black people to mix with white people.

This is related to the story we read in class called 'The Blokes' by Alan Gibbons. Hashim was not accepted into The Blokes because he was a foreigner. The Blokes represent the Larger Society because what they say goes "What the Blokes say goes" and so the Larger Society are the white people, they think that they are the greatest rather than being equal. So Hashim represents the other races, different and non-white. When they aren't accepted they don't do anything because they are powerless unlike the Larger Society. The kids who keep their heads down, and don't say anything represent the people who could make a change but don't. John, Hashim's friend, represents the people who do make a change in the society and help the 'Hashim's".

This story is connected in my life because, when I was in third grade, we would all play together at recess. My friends and I always stuck together and we would go into different groups to play games. There was one girl, who didn't fit in. She told "out of the world" lies and we all knew that she was lying. One day she decided to hang out with my friends and she was telling us all about how she could do flips off a bar. My friends and she were having an arguement. I said nothing and they were still arguing and I told my friends to shut up about her. I didn't stop and "rush off the bus" I stopped and "helped the lady" I feel really good about this and after that I heard the girl say, "Rachel is a really great friend" I still feel pretty good about what I said over 4 years ago.

URL: http://ltcsociety.in/files/2009/08/ltcs.jpg