Blog #7

Viewing many films about the Vietnam war and talking with Veterans has brought me some insight on the war. In my mind, the Vietnam War was brutal. It was the first war that used guerrilla warfare and the soldiers were not even aware of what they were doing over there. The book The Things They Carried brought me more insight than anything else. The book was touching and explained the horrors that these soldiers went through. It showed it from their minds as well which gave even more insight. My mother was engaged to a Vietnam war veteran, Paul. He was an awesome man, but it was obvious that he has gone through a lot in his life time. Paul worked at a middle school as a social worker or something. He told me a story of this one time when he went into work and he had a meeting with many other workers. They were sitting in the meeting room when the school bell went off. This bell goes of many times a day, it tells the students when to switch classes. Paul had horrible Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, so as soon as the alarm went off he yelled something and jumped under the table.

I know very little about the present wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but a war is still a war. There are families living their lives right now wondering how their loved one is doing oversees. There are soldiers watching their best friends get killed. The difference would be that technology has advanced greatly since the Vietnam war.

Blog #6

Although it is very hard, it is possible to break free of our cultural heritage. Finance is a major way that society uses to keep us in line. For example, the child of a rich family will grow up with money. He or she will never have to worry about not having food on the table for dinner. He or she will be involved in sports and activities that involve having a lot of money; skiing, horseback riding, piano lessons. He or she will be very intelligent because he or she went to a private school and traveled around the globe. It is very hard for an individual who grew up in that type of environment to just wake up one morning and say "I want to go drive a school bus" or "lets go to McDonalds today" even if they may greatly enjoy that.

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, shows how difficult it can be for many people to break from tradition. The stoning of a villager is a pointless, horrible tradition. Just because "There's always been a lottery"(871) does not mean that there always has to be a lottery. It is possible to break free, but there is danger. The majority of people do not like change, therefore they blindly follow tradition. Once one person speaks out, then others might agree or they might not. There must have been someone who spoke up in north village because "they're talking of giving up the lottery". The benefits of doing this would be breaking away from the norms, and making new, better traditions.

Blog #5

Although what Jermey and China did was extremely foolish and sickened me, Boyle showed me how such an event could occur. If i ever heard about a baby being thrown into a dumpster i would automatically assume it was done by druggies, psycho people, or very abusive people. This story displayed how it could be done by two "normal" people.

The actions these two teens were still not correct in any way. I don't believe they were exactly condemned by their peers. Teen pregnancy is very common in our generation. They have shows dazzling teen pregnancy all over the television. Yes, it is a burden and could possible mess up China and Jeremy's life, but if they had the decency to tell someone, anyone, than they could get help. There are so many possibilities and opportunities that can come out of unplanned pregnancy. For example, they could give the baby up for adoption; a loving women who is unable to have children could finally become a mother. They could keep the baby and find that they love being parents and could end up working hard to still be able to finish their schooling. Even going to the doctor and having a safe abortion would be a better decision than what they chose. Talking to someone would have given them guidance and take some of the burden off of their shoulders. It is true that it would be embarrassing having a kid in college, but it is even more embarrassing to be that random crazy girl. If they had talked to their parents, a doctor, or even a friend, they would be able to get it out of their minds and keep themselves from going insane. I understand they were very scared, but they are very bright teens and should have done the responsible thing.

Blog #4

Passing our essays around in our peer groups helped a lot. They gave me many helpful tips and help me cut down on my word count. Reading my peers essays reinforced my own arguments. Other students would either have lots of quotes from people or many facts; i had a good combination of both. My essay still needs much revision. Although i have a lot of good arguments, its very unorganized. I need to set out my main points and write about each in an organized fashion.