Paper written in class (for next years class)

When most people think of the United States, they think of the great land and how much freedom people have. Little do people know though the United States' dark hidden history. The United States is not always honest about its history and has failed to explain its dark moments in the past.

The United States government does not always teach and explain to its people some of its dark past. For example, during WWII the United States government forced Japanese people on the west coast to move inland on reservations. Not many people have heard about this tragic event, because of the lackof teaching on the touchy subject. Likewise, this would be like a teacher avoiding to tell her students something because it might upset them. Teaching is a key role in the U.S., but even when they do teach, sometimes they twist the past to make it sound good.

The government continuously twists the past in order to make its dark spots sound good. The government hales Christopher Columbus as a great man that founded the new world. What they always fail to mention though is the thousands of natives he tricked and killed. Likewise, most recently the government invaded Iraq with the excuse of nuclear arms in the country. However was known that they did not have them and just lied to invade. Yet, some still don't believe the stagering evidense.

Some people say on the other hand that the U.S. government is just trying to control its people. The problem is, there is a point when it goes from protecting the people to censorship. If they were just trying to protect, then they could find a way to teach it and protect.

Big Fish Paper (for next years class)

The city of Specter in The Big Fish represents heaven.

The city of Specter is hard to get into like heaven. To get to SPecter, you have to go through a long path of woods. The woods have entanglements and traps just like life. Carl said before Edward started on the path "Are you sute you want to go on that long path?" and Edward responded with "Yes it will be an adventure and a challenge." Likewise, to get to heaven you have to do good works and go through the path of life. When Edward got to Specter the man at the enterance had a clip board,like Saint Peter is suppose to have at the gates of heaven. At the end of every path there is a reward.

The city of Specter is a reward, just like heaven is for doing good works. When you get to Specter, everything is perfect and you can just relax. When you get to heaven there is no worries and you can just do what you want. The man at the entrance once said, "Not many people come because you have to take the long and hard path to get here." You have no jobs or worries either in Specter, because everything is provided for you. All you do all day is have fun, like dancing and eating wonderful pie.

Oil Wreck

Thesis- The oil spill is British Petroleum's fault.

British Petroleum (BP) is at fault for this oil spill in the gulf coast. BP should have had better checking on the plants safety and kept it up to date for the safety of its workers and nature around it(as the owners of the oil rig). Furthermore, they need to have good, planned, worked out ideas in case it ever happens again. This is a global issue that is going to be affecting the whole world and BP is to blame and be at fault for this.

Journey of a LIfetime

As I said in one of my past posts, I am in Boy Scouts. Over this coming summer my brother, dad, and I are going to be traveling down to the Sea Base in Key West Florida. Sea base is one of three high adventure trips that is in Boy Scouts. At Sea Base they lend you a boat with a captain to oversee things, but you basically sail down the Florida Keys for six days on your own with a crew of other scouts. On the way down you snorkel many times a day and can fish for big fish such as barracudas. On the way down we are going to make multiple stops to different areas.

One of the stops we will be making is in West Virginia to raft of rapids. These rapids are not just the wimpy ones children go on. These rapids are ranked class 4 out of 5 and have killed people before in its past. Along with the rafting, we will be stopping at a nuclear sub base on the way down. At the sub base we get to sleep in the army gym and tour the area. We will get to see and learn about their newest nuclear subs and see some of the massive missiles they have at the base. One of the most things I am looking forward to on the trip is when we stop at the Everglades in Florida. When there we get to tour the areas and see the different alligators and crocodiles they have. The best part of all though, is we get to ride on a boat with a huge fan in the back that glides over the water.

The trip is going to be very fun, but not all of it is going to be great. My leaders name is Mcarly and when we are traveling down he might say “10miles till rest stop,” but everyone else knows MCarly miles. So when he says 10miles we know he really means 50-60 miles until we stop. Also the drive down is very long and hot. Some days we travel up to nine-ten hours in a day. As you should know, it is also very hot on the way down (Especially when you have a full car of kids and adults for eight hours). Overall though, I think is going to be a great trip and I cannot wait to see the great and sights and hopefully not get sun burned.

Journey of a LIfetime

SIMUN Overview

When I was first researching my country, the United States, I was scared and nervous on what it was going to be like. Sure I knew my countries background and views, but I did not have a real grasp on what to expect. So all I could do to prepare was to know my countries views and history. Not to make things better, when I asked my brother what to expect and what is was going to be like he just said, “Don’t worry about it, it is easy.” Also the day before SIMUN we tried a practice scenario the day before, but since we were all freshmen the debate didn’t really take off.

When SIMUN was all said and done, I felt that I played a key role in the debates and participated a lot, even though I’m only a freshman. I tried to represent the United States to the best of my abilities and to stand by their views, even when I didn’t agree with them (which was almost never). I tried to constantly ask questions to the speaker and to be on the speakers list. I caucused with my allies such as Germany, France, India, and Mexico. We worked together to pass resolutions and so voice our countries opinions.

Overall I felt that SIMUN was a great experience and was very fun to debate with other countries such as China and Cuba. I feel that this has not only opened my eyes to current events happening in the world, it has also helped me to learn to debate better and speak in front of others much better without stuttering or saying “um” every five seconds. It has also helped me to understand what really happens in the United Nations on a daily basis and to meet some of the upper classmen in Global Education.

SIMUN was a whole lot of fun in itself, but there are some areas of the experience that I could have done better on. Next year I plan to not only look up how my country feels about a current, but also how the opposing countries feel about it. I also need to work on my debating and speaking skills before next year so I can sound more professional. In the end SIMUN was a great experience for me and other Globies and I can’t wait until next year to do it again.

SIMUN Overview

Free Blog- The Kite Runner

For every one who has not read the book “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, it is about a boy named Amir who grows up in Afghanistan for the first few years of his life with his father(a well respected Afghani man) and a few males servants. Amir grows up not knowing how females are treated a lot of the times because he was raised in a all male environment in his home in Afghanistan. Later in his life he is forced to flee and run to the United States with his father. In the United States, Amir's dad teaches him more about how to live up to the duties of an Afghan man before he dies and how to treat a wife. When they made the trip to the United States, they also took their culture with them. Amir later tries to marry a young Afghani women but is scrutinized by his actions because of their views on women and later marries her.

In the Afghani culture, just as in the past United States culture and mostly all around the world, women were seen as lesser individuals and not equal to men. This has opened my mind to other cultures, some that are very different from the United States’ culture. Even though Amir and his wife are living in the United States, their Afghani culture is still there and women are still suppressed a little. In the book, if a man sleeps with many females it is all right and they blow it off because he is a male and is just said to be “playing the field“. While if a female sleeps with a lot of men, like Amir’s wife once did, then she is scrutinized by the Afghani people and denounced a slut. Amir’s wife was still being talked about, and in the middle of a lot of gossip even after two years after the incident. Another reason for example, in conversations the men have the final say of things and were suppose to lead the house with a good job for his family. While the wife had to listen to the male and was not always aloud to work, and in Afghanistan were sometimes not even aloud to leave the house without a males presence. Also in Afghanistan women were not allowed to drink in public. They could still drink in private but it was frowned upon. Men on the other hand could drink in public and smoke.

SIMUN Blog

I am the delegate from the United States. If the Taliban were to approach Pakistan and try to take over its nuclear supply, it would be a devastating blow for the whole world. Everyone in the middle east would have the fear of being nuked and there is no real area where they could retaliate back with a nuke. If this situation were to happen, the United States would do everything in its power to protect the rest of the world and its allies. If the Pakistani government decided to not focusing on the issue or were being overwhelmed by the terrorist group, then United States would be more than happy to send in troupes to protect the missile areas from Taliban control.

Some people might say that this would just be another case of what happened in Iraq on the United States’ part, but there is a major difference. In Iraq we were going in, in retaliation and we would be going into Pakistan to prevent a world wide catastrophe. The United States would have the backing of its foreign allies such as the U.K., France, Germany, and most definitely Israel (as they are a mostly Jewish nation that many terrorist groups hate and defy). If these monstrous weapons fell into the hands of the Taliban, it could set off a rampage of the terrorist group trying to take over countries threatening to nuke them and possibly set off a nuclear war. This is a very serious situation that could happen in the future and needs real precise consideration on behalf of all the countries around the world.

Dan The Man

There once was a far away land with rolling hills, huge mountains, and rivers cutting through the land. This was the great land called Roflol; This great and wonderful land was ruled by a king, named Bob, who had a wife named Jill. One day Bob came home from a peace talk trip to their neighboring country called Likew, hoping to see his beautiful wife. Hurriedly, Bob walked into his castle searching for his wife. He searched high; He searched low; He even searched his pond in the courtyard, but his wife was nowhere to be found. Throat gulping, stomach filled with butterflies, his court jester walked in and said “The Likew people took Jill to go feed her to the evil dragon while you were gone my highness.” Heart on fire, eyes bulging out, fist clenching his seat, he called on all of his soldiers to go get the queen back. The king’s men were not stupid though; They were not willing to go a for sure death sentence just to save a women. When the king realized this he was furious, and had to go send a select group of bounty hunters to go get her back.

When the men walked in the king told them all that happen and the reward for bringing the queen back alive. The king was hoping though with all his heart that his dear beloved Jill wasn’t already cast into the dragons fiery mouth. So the bounty hunters set off for the dragons cave. On the way there they encountered several traps set by the Likew’s. One of the men were walking, without paying attention, and fell into a pit fall trap and was impaled by a set of pointed blades in the ground. Another man was walking and tripped a line tide across the ground and two huge tree trunks came swinging down crushing his skull in between. After the long and fearsome journey, there was two men left. There was a man named Dan and the other named Mat. Mat and Dan were good friends, but when it came to money they were as greedy as a spoiled little kid. The next night, the two men reached the cave. Dan hesitated to go in first, so Mat just went running in and was picked up by his head and killed instantly by the dragon. Lips trembling, legs shaking, arms trembling, Dan went in. They beast and the great warrior fought a long battle, but only one of them could live; With the thrust of Dan’s sword he pierced the dragon right through its neck and killed it. So Dan returned home with the queen, hoping he could live without his friend Mat. Dan from then on out was knight by the king Sir Dan The Man. Word Count- 466

The Gathering of the Nations

Every four years, nations from all over the world gather to take part in the Olympics. The Olympics is a two week long series of different sport events. There are two different types of Olympics, winter and summer. The Winter Olympics are held every four years ad the same with the summer. The Olympic Games first started thousands of years ago in Greece. When the games were rediscovered the modern world started the series of sports games all over again. Just recently a new set of games started, the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. The opening ceremony started with a torch that was lit all the way in the starting place of the first Olympics in Greece. Then it slowly makes a relay across the world and then into the city that is hosting the Olympics. Next there is always an opening ceremony and all the nations walk in. Greece always walks in first then in alphabetical order then the hosting country.

So far in the Olympics the United States of America is leading the way with twenty eight medals. Next is Germany. The United States of America have won medals in Men’s Half-pipe and downhill skiing. Just recently the United States beat Canada in a hockey game that put the hopes of all the Canadians down. IT was the first the United States had beat Canada in hockey in over 50 years. Shaun White just recently got the gold for men’s half-pipe, which he won in the previous Olympics. The Olympics isn’t always fun and games though, just before the games started a Gorgian luger died when he got lifted off the track and thrown into a steel pole.

The Olympics are always a fun and exciting series of games to watch on TV. They have all different types of sports in case you don’t like one or another. You can cheer for your home country or another one you like. Some of the sports in the Winter games is, hockey, luging, downhill skiing, half-pipe, curling, cross county skiing, and many others. I enjoy seeing all the different athletes all compete for just a single medal. Most of the athletes wait their whole lives for just one chance to win a gold medal. The Olympics are a fun time for the United States and the rest of the world just to compete for once and take away the daily politics. Word Count- 401

The Big Tale

It all started when I was just a little child. My brother and I went to the lake to go fishing for fun and to see what great things we could catch. Little did I know, that this day would be a day that I would never forget. We arrived at the lake excited and ready to cast our lures into the dark depths of the lake. For hours we just sat there waiting....and waiting.......and waiting. Soon my brother was ready to eat lunch. I told him that I would meet up with him after I do one last cast. So he went off getting lunch ready and i threw my bait in as usual. Little did i know, this is where my adventure was just about to start. As i was reeling the line in, I got a bite! I tried with all my might to pull this massive fish in, but I was not able to then out of nowhere, the fished used all of its might and pulled me to into the lake. As he started to descend into the deep dark murky depths of the lake i thought "Oh no what am i going to do, this rod is caught in my pants!'

Just when I lost all hope and was ready to give up, I noticed i was suddenly able to breath underwater. I couldn't explain how I was able to keep breathing, but i wanted to take this advantage to look around. This is when i noticed that the great fish had taken me to a whole underwater city. Here there was many great fish from small lake fish, to the massive one's feat in length. There were fish playing all around me, but that is not why i was here. The great fish had plans for me. He took me to his king and there the king explained how his fish city has been slowly dieing from a great threat. He told me that I would not have been able to leave until i helped him. So i embarked on my journey to find out that there was just some garbage stuck in the reefs that needed to be taken out.

After I helped him, I was finally released and was able to go back to land. After was seemed like hours I surfaced and saw my brother. He said i was only gone for a few minutes and that I must have gone bonkers or hit my head hard. Just as i was about to accept what he said i turned around and say a great fin descend slowly into the deep murky water of the lake never to be
seen again.

This story relates to the day my brother I were fishing and I fell in.

The Invisible War

Question- Should the United States intervene in the war in the Congo?
Thesis- Yes the United States should help in the assistance of the women in the Congo.

The United States needs to make a push to help the women in the Congo. The innocent women are being raped so that the rouge groups can take over villages and the country. The U.S. needs to send in a force, this could easily turn into another case like Rwanda or Somalia and they really do not want to make that mistake again of ignoring the people in need. With the force they could try to make safe houses for women and children and try to push back some of the rouge forces to set up a stable government.

The United States also should help the Congo financially. Sure, the United States is not the best economic condition at the moment, but there are much worse places such as the Congo that are is desperate need of help. If the U.S. could help to support their government by giving them money, they could try to make a army to fight back against the rouge forces. Then the Congo could take back their government and protect it's people. If the United States does not act now, many more women and children could die from the violent rapes and attacks in the Congo.

Others to counter this might say to sanction the Congo. This would really have no effect though. The rouge groups are doing the killing not the country itself. If they were to sanction the Congo, then that would just weaken their hold over the forces even less.

What have I Learned?

This semester has been very eye opening and I have learned many things i never knew before about cultures and English. One of the many things have learned has been how to margin note. Margin noting is writing down your ideas and other things you are thinking about as your read a story. You can write down emotions of how you felt, questions you have about a part, vocabulary questions, or even just plain out comments on how you feel on what the author is saying. It is also a way to help keep your thoughts organized.

Along with margin notes I learned that discrimination and segregation happens in almost all new colonies and cultures. Segregation has occurred in many of the stories we have read in class or movies we have watched. In Rabbit Proof Fence the Aboriginal people were segregated against and forced to change their cultural ways. In South Africa we learned that the whites turned the black population into slaves and made them live in run down parts of town. Last, even where the two groups of people have lived in the same area there is segregation. In Rwanda the Hutu wanted to get revenge after all of the many years of the Tutsi whipping them and treating them bad. So segregation is not only among blacks and whites, but among all different cultures.

Along with these important things we learned how to find credible sources while looking for information on papers or projects we are doing. Having a credible source is one of the most important things to having a good paper. For instance, when your are writing a persuasive paper, you are trying to change the other person's mind on a certain view point. They might not believe your research though if you get a paper from Bob' Blogs over a credible site like the CNN or the BBC (It is hard to find a good credible site to use so i suggested that Google make an advanced search option that you could choose credible or non credible).

Another important topic I learned about was colonization. What I learned about colonization was, that dominate cultures take over the lesser one's and try to change the natives culture to make it like theirs. There are countless examples of this through out history such as in South Africa. When the Dutch and British came they basically kick the native bushmen out and took over their land. In Australia they tried to breed the Aboriginal out of the people there and make them British citizens. This has even happened in America. When the Americas were colonized the pilgrims acted like friends to the Native Americans at first then later on, they turned on them and forced them onto reservations.

Last but not least, I learned how to wrap my head around the whole story and see the big picture not just the obvious. In class we described this as a ice berg. A story is like an ice berg, you may only see the outer part of the ice berg, but there is much much more to it under water. Likewise in stories there is the obvious that you can understand, but there is also a bigger picture and hidden meanings. Like in the story The Man in the Well, there is the obvious that a man fell into the well, but there is also more to it than that. It goes deeper into the story and can sometimes even have a more religious or spiritual meaning. This semester was very eye opening and I learned many new and useful things and tactics that I can use in the future for projects, papers, and just reading stories.

Colonizing the World

Thesis- When places with people already on the lands get colonized, they lose their culture.


For centuries dominate European powers have taken over weaker nations to gain more power, wealth, and land. European countries have always wanted to be the most powerful country in the world. Whether they have to do it colony by colony or by war they want power. One of the many ways Europe would gain more land was from colonization. When British people, Dutch, or other countries colonize areas they would always have many things in common. For example, when South Africa and other colonies are take over. The higher class of people make the native inferior class their slaves to work in mines, on farms, or just the average house maid. Europe has always found it their job to make the rest of the world more "civilized." So when they would take over an area, besides making the natives their slaves. They would try to suck out the peoples old cultures and "breed" them into their culture. They found this as doing them a favor for the future.

This was not the case in all situations though. In Australia they tried to breed them out, but in South Africa they did not want to teach them anything, because they thought the natives would overthrow the white leaders. Along with all these things that would happen to the natives, often time they were segregated against. In South Africa, the natives were forced to live in a slum part of the outskirts of towns. While the white higher in class lived in the nice towns. Even though higher cultures have taken over weaker cultures throughout history, some in even more brutal ways. The native people should at least have been allowed some rights that they were not given. Colonization is a way of life and it is similar in almost all cases throughout time.