Me Against The World

Today they told me bout how dad's an alcoholic. Yesterday they said I am a "grandma's boy" and the day before that they talked about Aunt Bennie, who "couldn't just stay in the kitchen like all the other women." Everyday they come up with something new, and everyday it stings as fresh as before. I've tried everything to get them to stop; I been nice, I tried fighting, I told the teacher (she don't care a bit), they just don't get that they is making me real sad. I can't tell Mama or Pop bout it; they have too much else to worry about. I do believe that being a kid isn't supposed to be like this, all I's supposed to do is play and learn and have fun. Instead I gots to carry groceries and do odd jobs for strangers so I can just maybe buy a piece of fruit or something. "I can't make up my mind... Sometimes I want to be like you [Daddy]" (108) but I know that whatever I turn out to be, I'll be better off running away. Mom, Dad, Mama, Bennie: I'm sorry, I had to go. Y'all need the money and I needs to make my own life. Don't know where I'm going or what I'll do, but don't worry bout me none. I can take care of myself. Once I get some more money maybe I'll send some back if I can figure out where y'all live now. I don't know if you went out to Clybourne Park or not but I hope you didn't, someone is gonna get hurt if you do. I love all of you and I will see you again someday, I hope y'all can forgive me.

Love,
Travis

Skip about 30 seconds into the video and then read the piece.

I have no idea what I am doing

While others might say that they know how to express the deep emotion they feel through writing, I know something that they do not. Expression through writing is a funny thing- so very few people in every generation are truly gifted with it- it cannot be taught or learned, it simply is something one is born with. Or maybe its given by God, or the fates, those crazy mythological ladies with the string, who knows? The point is that in his poetry, Langston Hughes can make you feel things by just reading some lines about a black man singing the blues. He makes you realize just how much whites looked down their noses at blacks through saying things like, " With his ebony hands on each ivory key he made that poor piano moan..." Expression lives in many other types besides literary expression of course; there is musical, verbal, humorous, and behavioral. Everybody has at least one method of conveying emotion that they are truly gifted in. While some of these are more natural, like behavioral and verbal, the most powerful (in my opinion) is musical expression. Music can make you feel happy or sad or excited or calm all from some notes and some lyrics. The man in Weary Blues made his piano "moan," if there was ever a man who could make an instrument moan, its Jimi Hendrix. The things that man did to a guitar were unreal. He can make any sound emanate from his guitar, including the national anthem, all of it. He would use his guitar to purge his emotion, playing for hours every day. This fresh start given to him by the guitar is similar to how Jeannette Walls had fire in her life to signal a fresh start. Every time something in her life caught fire, she rebuilt and recovered. This may seem crazy, however, Jeanette used it to her advantage; she was able to see the significance of fire in her life and used it to be ready to rebuild. She expressed herself in her rebuilding. So next time you gaze into the night sky and stare at the wonder of outer space, think about the ways that you best express yourself; then use those ways to share your emotions with others. After all, if we can't communicate and share our ideas, what is the point of existing?

Memories

 Listen to the song in another tab while reading, its a good song and is kind of related.
"Hey remember that time that we hiked up to that waterfall in the woods and dove off the top?"
"Yeah that was sweet! It was like 100 feet tall!"

I'm sure that you've heard a conversation like this before. A stark over exaggeration of the actual events that transpired is so common in society that we don't even realize it anymore. This romanticizing of the past is prevalent in society as well as in The Great Gatsby. Gatsby has an idea that "'...you can! [repeat the past]'" (110) He has blown up his memory of Daisy so much that she can never live up to his standards. He has had so much time to reflect on his time with Daisy that he kept remembering it better than it was, like the cliff in the example wasn't really 100 feet tall. Every time he thinks of her he remembers her better than before. Thus the sense of "nostalgia" he feels for her is very skewed because his memories are not pure and he has boosted what she was actually like. We as humans are all guilty of this. We all remember things better, or worse, than they were in order to make our lives more exciting. The truth is that only a few of us truly experience fun, amazing adventures that are worth remembering, and everyone else pretends that they have had fun things like that in their lives too. Gatsby has sailed "three times around the continent" (100) that's an adventure worth remembering. So the message today is that next time you can go adventuring or do something random and fun, do it. I know its cliché but life's too short man. Way too short.

Igorance is (not) Bliss

This week in class we talked about the 1920's and the era of extreme consumerism that developed during that time. Ignorance is bliss. This common, horrendously overused cliché could not be more relevant. Here are these happy people of the 1920's (pre stock market crash mind you) who are spending like there is no tomorrow. Now claiming that for these people that ignorance is bliss is absurd, because they had to live through the Depression post 1929. If this ignorance really is bliss, its a very temporary, very fragile bliss. These people cannot claim ignorance either, the National Thrift Committee published this warning; advising citizens to "invest carefully," and "make a budget," things that, if they did, they could have avoided the Depression. These 10 steps were supposed to lead to "Success and happiness" but instead they got the hardship of a deep recession. The people of the 1920's had warning signs, and they eventually had the hardships of the Depression. This makes it safe to say that they were neither ignorant nor blissful. If this isn't a sign for people today to be on the watch for these warnings, I don't know what is. The 1920's is a perfect example of how there is no possible way for ignorance to be bliss.

Rules Rules Rules

Punctuation is still highly valuable in the ever changing world that we live, as it allows us to connect to those in the future and understand those in the past.

Throughout the history of the United States, the Constitution and the rules which it lays out have remained constant. Sometimes in history it became necessary to make amendments and revisions; but the base meaning of the Constitution has remained the same. Just as it has been necessary for these laws to remain the same, it is crucial for the communication of people that punctuation stay in use. Through the base rules we can gather enough meaning from any piece of text to draw conclusions from it and understand the author's message. Digital communication and its code and lack of grammar has led to the, "downfall of literacy," (Hitchings) and the loss of expression among teenagers. The thought that punctuation isn't needed because poetry can function without out it is preposterous, writing can be divided into two subsections, creative expression and technical writing. In creative expression such as "On Punctuation" by Elizabeth Austen, Austen can convey to us as readers that she is not a fan of the "formality or tight-lipped fence/ of the colon," (Austen) as this is a simple thought and doesn't require definite limits on it. But if Dr. Lewis Thomas was writing instructions on how to take the prescription pill he gave a patient, I would feel more comfortable if he wrote with proper punctuation and grammar. The agreement between author and reader for the transfer of "grocery bags" (Dolenick) as the author gives the reader responsibility is crucial for the continuation of literature in society. We must not change the rules or usage of punctuation in today's society or else we will doom ourselves into a "dystopian [world]" (Hitchings).

Haunting Beauty

If you play the song I linked in the background it just adds to the atmosphere of the piece.

"Frieda lowered her head, too pleased to answer. I reached for it. He snapped his thumb and forefinger, and the penny disappeared. Our shock was laced with delight. We searched all over him, poking our fingers into his socks, looking up the inside of the back of his coat. If happiness is anticipation with certainty, we were happy. (page 16)
This passage is beautiful to me for many reasons. One is that it details none other than pure child excitement. Frieda and Claudia are probably the happiest that they have ever been, and they can forget all the other bad things going on in their life right in the moment. Every child deserves to get the chance to play and run and be a kid. Due to their situation Frieda and Claudia were forced to act 'adult' and 'proper.' A second reason that this piece speaks to me is that I enjoy the use of a simple basic magic trick to mesmerize the kids. It is interesting because one will often see something similar to this trick on TV being used to entertain kids of any race-typically white- but here we see it being used to entertain the two black girls. This is a nice cross-over of racial standards, and one that is probably over looked at a quick glance. Later in the passage Claudia says, "We loved him..." (16) in regards to Mr. Henry. It is strange for two little girls who have such a distant relationship with their parents to feel so close to a random stranger who walks through the door. It shows how isolated the girls really are, that they think they love a man whom they just met because he simply talks to them and amuses them. While this may seem like a negative thing, in my eyes it is a hauntingly beautiful comment on just how bad the girls situation really is. It is extremely scary thing but it is disguised in such a positive and happy story that it seems strange.

White "Guilt"

I'm a privileged white male. I was born into a well off family in a very prestigious suburb in south eastern Michigan. Being born a white male was no choice, it just happened. Just like I didn't choose for white people to start slavery years ago; just like I don't discriminate against women nor did I tell any other man to. In class the words "white standards" and "male ideals" are thrown around quite often, and with more scorn than you might realize. When you say that those are just the way "white people" see things, you're being a bit general, and dare I say racist. Yes I can see the sideways glances thrown my way because I am white and a guy. I can hear the accusatory undertone in your voice. I didn't choose for other whites to be bigoted, or to oppress women. All I'm asking is that when you continue to discuss how white men throughout history have been so terrible, you stop looking at me as if I'm one of them. You might not notice it but I am sure that the one other Caucasian male in the class knows what I mean because we've talked about it. It is hurtful, to be generalized for what others have done. "There are inequalities everywhere." (Williams) In his article Williams talks about how facts regarding women's and men's pay being unequal are used frequently but they are false and incomplete. "A study shows that female doctors earn only 64 percent of what male doctors earn. But it turns out that only 16 percent of surgeons are women, whereas 50 percent of pediatricians are women. Even though surgeons have put in many more years of education and training than pediatricians and earn higher pay" (Williams)  It is assumptions like these that hurt men. The first everyone blames is the white men and it is tiring, so please stop blaming me for the "standards of white men." I just want to not feel threatened while sitting in class, as does everyone else. So please stop pretending like I'm such a bad guy, just because of what other white people did in the past. Williams Article

Rap Music Messages

For the sake of decency I have linked to the clean version of the song. If you wish to find an un-edited version, it isn't hard to find.

Ok, lets talk about rap music. Rap and its overuse of the "N-word" as we discussed in class is obviously not a good thing, it's a misuse of such a terrible word. That isn't what I want to talk about though; what I want to talk about, is how rap as a genre is typically associated with "gangsta" and "ghetto" themes. This association given to rap walks hand in hand with a negative connotation. Yes, rap does have roots in tough urban streets, yes rap often uses many expletives, yes rap does typically objectify women, yes rap is often vulgar and violent. Despite all these negative things, rap can still teach us a lesson. It is inspired by the struggle, the work and the rough times faced by rappers. Rap is inspired by passion and yeah, sometimes that passion causes rappers to swear, or say vulgar things, but that doesn't mean we should count out rap as a genre. Lets examine the song "Runaway" by Kanye West. Runaway was released shortly after the Taylor Swift incident at the VMAs. While Kanye uses vulgar language in the chorus such as "a***ole" and "scumbag" and "do*****ag" he still wrote this song as an apology to Taylor. He uses such harsh language to highlight how he feels about his actions. "I I I I did it, alright alright I admit it, now pick your next move you can leave or live with it." Kanye, does his best to apologize in this line (he is highly egoistic and can't just say sorry but that's a different story)  and he succeeds in not only merging a meaningful message of sorrow but also creating a chart topping song. Kanye is a prime example of how rappers can mix foul language and insightful messages, showing that there is more to the genre than the words themselves. Much like an analysis of an essay, it is necessary to ask why the author uses certain rhetorical devices just like it is necessary to ask why a rapper uses certain curses and lines. Looking past the base level will reveal a deeper meaning that is trying to be conveyed. So give rap a second chance and look past the foul language, and find what the artist is really trying to tell you.

A Sorry Attempt at a Synthesis Essay

"Synthesize: v. to combine a number of things into a coherent whole." -Oxford Dictionary

This week we were encouraged to take a shot at writing a synthesis essay for our blog post. Before beginning such daunting task (how can I write something we haven't even talked about?!? Surely I will die trying) I thought I would ponder the ideas of synthesizing. To bring together and find an underlying meaning throughout multiple works is essentially a compare/contrast minus the contrast right? I simply am trying to make this as basic as I can so that I can understand what exactly I'm supposed to do, because I'm in need of guidance. Anyway here's my shot at an brief body paragraph for a synthesis essay we worked on earlier this week. (Also my picture is of my council from stugo camp this summer because I've never "come together" with a group of people like those and we became one close unit and I still talk to all of them.  It's kind of like a Synthesis since it was us coming together as a group, I had no clue of what to do for a picture so I did that.)

     Through the oppression of those seen as "different" a group can dehumanize themselves and create a "mob mentality" that essentially protects them from feeling guilty. This oppression is nothing new in our society, quite the contrary actually, even in the 1800's people like Edwards said that God would, "tread on" and "cast out sinners" (Source D). This ostracizing of those who are different leads to the group losing their single identity and being seen as the "Ideal" people. Just as Indians are cast out of white society, Alexie was cast out of Indian society because skin color, "doesn't make two men brothers" (Source E). This example of how the group that is being oppressed chooses to oppress one of their own shows how deep rooted the dehumanization can be. Alexie has nobody to relate to; not whites and certainly not Indians. The dehumanization of oppressed and oppressor is deep seeded in human nature and not likely to go anywhere anytime soon.

Scarlet Letter to Writer's Block to Dreams

This week was a relatively slow week in class due to the heavy load of Scarlet Letter analysis we did. This light week is leading me to have trouble thinking of what to write about. Yes, I have it, writer's block; the bane of every author's existence. As I sit and type this I wonder if any famous writers encounter writer's block in this same manner. A quick search of the interwebs (yes I say interwebs) revealed that many did. Ray Bradbury said of facing writer's block, "You can cure it this evening by stopping what you're writing and doing something you enjoy." (flavorwire.com) Bradbury goes on to say that his love of writing lets him avoid block because he writes about things he has passion for, thus he enjoys what he does. Isn't that all you can ask for in life? To do what makes you happy? My brother was home this weekend, and I had a deep conversation with him about following your dreams, one thing he told me was, "Forget money, forget success, if you peruse your dream you will achieve happiness." So I guess the real reason for writing this today is for me to tell you to follow your dreams. Just like Will Smith says in the clip, don't let anyone take your dream from you. It doesn't matter how big, how small, how strange, how insignificant others might say your dream is, it is yours. They can never take that from you. So let this be your inspiration to go change the world, invent something new, lead a revolution, or maybe become a teacher, or a lawyer or whatever it is. Just go do it. If you follow that dream, you will find happiness. (Also if you've never seen "The Pursuit of Happyness" you need to, its inspiring.)
Link to article on writer's block

Feminism or Chivalry?

Before starting I would just like to clarify that I am not anti-feminist. I agree that women deserve equal pay, equal rights and equal opportunity. The problem I have is with the way most go about fighting for feminism. They so often make use of harsh double standards and contradictions that I can’t not be bothered by the ignorance of what they say.  One of the most common problems I see is that women say, “Chivalry is dead,” see this one gets me angry. If I hold open the door for a girl, she tells me that we are equal and she don’t need the door to be held open; and if I don’t hold the door for her, she complains that I am not courteous enough towards women (yes this has happened to me.) I am not saying that all feminists act in this manner but there certainly are a decent handful that do, Tannen seems to me to be one of these “on the fence” feminists. Based on her essay it seems as if she wants the best of both sides and is just going to switch back and forth for whatever is best for her. This is present when she says, "have her cake and eat it too" (Tannen 391) she tries to make this cliché work for her but it just solidifies her wavering views of feminism. Tannen also never speaks about how in languages like Spanish there is el and la to represent gender, but she does talk about how a "doctorette" (Tannen) is less powerful than a doctor. I suppose that all people have this self-oriented drive, much like Chillingworth has demonstrated in the Scarlet Letter, he is only out to satisfy his own need for revenge and he cares for nothing else. Not really sure how I just related feminism to Chillingworth but yeah, that happened.

Societal Divisions

This week we read in The Scarlet Letter about how society can be divided by something as simple as a letter stitched to someone's chest. If we stopped trying to separate ourselves from everyone else we could help foster peace throughout the earth. Remember when you were little and your parents told you that you were special?  They were separating you from society,  and creating an initial division. We always do those activities throughout school where the teacher says, "tell me one thing about you that is unique." THEY ARE ASKING US TO TELL THEM WHY WE ARE MORE SPECIAL THAN EVERYONE ELSE! The exact thing they teach us later, that everyone is equal, isn't even close to what they subliminally teach us. Then they wonder why we struggle to comprehend that we are equal with everyone, maybe that's because we have been told our entire life that yes, we are in fact above all others. In the ACT we took,  the prompt was regarding high school and "majors," but isn't this just another way to divide us? There is already so many rifts formed from all the cliques and clubs, do we really want another one? All this focus on what makes us special (or different) fosters a belief that we live in an "us against the the world" society.  If we stopped putting ourselves above others like Rat does in the comic we could accomplish more and have a more peaceful place to live.

Oh yeah and those of you that thought I might not rant this weekend, don't worry I snuck one in the middle there for you.

God: Destroyer of All...

This morning, I woke up and went to mass with my parents. As we sat and listened to the sermon I heard how God is compassionate and forgiving. The priest spoke about how God forgives sinners every day. Never once did the priest yell that God may, "destroy any wicked man," (Edwards 122) at any given moment. I strongly disliked having to read Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, it felt as if my religion was being personally insulted. Now I understand that back in the time of 1741 catholic priests were trying to gain followers for their religion and such; but the sad perversion of facts and twisting of the message of the Bible was sickening. Comparing God to the Devil so easily is in it's own way a sin. God's wrath may be painful but it doesn't mean we are set to experience it from day 1.  It reminded me of how a politician of today's time will twist and contort facts to get the public to believe whatever the politician wants them to. In addition to going to church every Sunday I teach religious education classes to fourth graders on Sunday mornings and never in any of my time studying the catholic faith did I hear about God hanging a man, "over the pit of hell" (Edwards 122). This sermon we had to read was simply an inflammatory argument meant to scare Puritans into joining the church because it lacked true religious backgrounds and ideals. No true priest would use such harsh lies about God to "inspire" (and I use that term loosely) people to join the church.

Wrath in fire

Honoring Those Who Have Served

Flag at Maryland Football

During the past week we talked at length about war memorials and the ideas behind their architecture. We also observed 9-11 on Thursday. This is where my post for today picks up. While listening to the announcements Thursday morning the speakers in our classroom were crackling in and out. Several of the underclassmen in the room thought this was funny, not simply funny, they thought it was hilarious. They laughed throughout the announcement and the "Moment of Silence" How they can think that such a solemn topic is funny is sickening to me. This younger generation-the freshmen were born in 2000 - have no concept of how grave this day is. They have no respect for the people who have died at war willingly, or those who were slain innocently. I myself have two family members in the military and it makes me want to scream at them when they laugh during something so serious. The rest of the country has no problem honoring those who have fallen. This weekend at Maryland University before the football game they had a flag the size of the entire football field. When that flag was unfurled it was the loudest stadium I've ever heard through the TV. Teachers have said "I found that some don’t understand how you cannot support the war but still support our soldiers who are fighting." (Crabtree) This disrespect for those who willingly go into harm’s way to let you sit at that desk every day is disheartening. How can they not have respect? Maybe it's that these kids need to learn about what happened in school as kids in Carolina do. Maybe with a teacher explaining it to them the kids will learn it better, but if we don't educate our kids about this tragedy they will never learn the necessary respect for those who have served, and fallen.