This I Believe

A beautiful sunny day seems perfect to many people. Nothing could be better than the shining sun on their backs, and the birds singing through the skies. Cheer seems to fill the air with its rays. But then the rain comes. The clouds slither in, the light is covered, and depression ensues. But I take a different approach. I embrace the darkness that surrounds the sky, and wait anxiously for my favorite activity of the day: dancing in the rain.

I believe in dancing in the rain
No need for umbrellas
My hair catches every drop just fine
Feeling the water drip from my head
To my face
And down my arms
Soaking wet until I can’t separate myself from the weather
The rain heals my problems
Cleans the slate
To create anew

I raise my arms to the pouring water
Engulfing every drop I can reach.
Anything to get a step closer to perfection
As the lightning surrounds the night sky
I begin to spin
Creating a whirl of shapes and colors
Watching the water fly around me
The rain protects me from reality
While the world swings by

After the funeral of a loved one I dance
After the failure of a test I dance
After the friends I once held leave I dance
I take refuge in the rain
And where it comes from

Music plays in my mind
Creating a rhythm
For me to move along to
I love this time of free expression
Ignoring the looks of confusion from my family
As I find the beat of the drops
Helping me release
And let go.

My faith says that God flooded the Earth in order to rid it of horrors. Every time I feel the rain wash against my skin while I dance I remember Him, and no matter what current troubles I am in, I know that after the 40 days and 40 nights, a rainbow will always be there, showing me that a new day of light shall come.

A Modest Proposal

I come to you with a sad heart, feeling distant and alone due to the rate of which people are ending their lives, far sooner than intended. This rate is very large and I must proclaim that something has got to be done in order to stop these events from occurring. After weighing whether or not this would hurt things like population control or a funeral home’s supply for business, I decided that the benefits out way the costs, leading me to my only possible conclusion. I propose that a society of children be raised to watch every person in the world, through the technology we have today, in order to prevent people from committing suicide.

This may seem like an invasion of your privacy, but if you truly loved your country and had a heart for your fellow man, you would not mind a little invasion, since governments already track your every move. In order to complete my plan of action, one child will be taken at birth from every family that has at least two children. The second child is the most obvious choice since parents only really love their first child anyway.

I can understand that one may believe this is not possible but, this idea could change the world in a way nobody has tried to do yet—believe me there aren’t many of these ways left. First, if a new society is raised just to watch people there would be more jobs left for the rest of that generation, decreasing unemployment rates which, coincidentally, can lead to depression, a cause of suicide.

Second, if one child is taken from homes with two or more children, that family’s financial burden will lesson, and their love will not have to be stretched out over a vast sea of offspring. This, in itself, will decrease the suicide rate since children will fell more loved and parents will not feel over worked.

Third, these children, turned spies, will not feel any emotion, so they will not be out in the world looking for their ‘one true love’ – this will give the rest of you mediocre people a change to feel love in your life.

Forth, this system will not be abused to monitor criminals, so their line of work will not be interrupted while the trained agents are looking for suicidal people. Therefore, no civil liberties will be violated by the proposal; at least ones the government hasn’t already violated.

I can think of nothing any one can say against this proposal due to my long thought process of over fifteen minutes of how to stop this problem. Thing such as being nicer to people, showing people close to us that we care about them, asking for professional help when we feel helpless, eliminating unnecessary stressors from our lives including: buying items we don’t have the money to pay for, trying to have perfect relationships with people who aren’t perfect, attempting to get A’s on every AP test we take, worrying about people we can’t help, wondering how we are going to support our habits of cigarettes and alcohol that we use to suppress these other stressors; are just a few of the things we can never accomplish to lesson the rate of suicide in the world.

After all of these reasons I do believe everyone should be on my side in agreeing that this is the only way to help suicide. Obviously, I am an objective judge to this since I have never wanted to commit suicide nor will I care if my child is taken since, I do not plan on having children.

1984 superiority

Two of the most terrifying novels or prophesies of the world could come to are still 1984 and Brave New World. Although these were both written many years ago, they are both very relevant in today’s society. In Brave New World, Huxley believes that the sensual pleasures people lead their lives in will eventually take control of everything, where as Orwell says in 1984 that a governmental power will eventually fear this world into submission. Even though the year of 1984 has past, as Postman says, “We, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.” However, this just because the year has come and gone does not mean that the reality of 1984 will never come true. Since a time line has actually been placed to one of these novels, the general public seems to believe that only one holds an impending doom over society, where as it is clear we are closer to the 1984 society than Brave New World’s civilization.

First, if one takes into perspective the idea of doublespeak, it seems that we already have seen this ability to speak around what we are trying to say in order to lull the public into a false sense of security. If one listens to a political speech, no matter the affiliation, it is clear that there are certain words used in order to bamboozle the general population into believing one idea rather than another. Words are powerful, and one in power, such as a high political office, can use this to their power, just like in 1984. When dealing with an illiterate, incompetent population, history will tell you that it is easy to be an absolute ruler, but when you educate the masses, the task to have complete control becomes more difficult. This seems to have lead to more and more elitists throughout the world, needed to make them sound more intelligent in order to fool the masses of now educated peoples. “What Orwell feared were those who would ban books.” (Postman) This is clearly an example of our society because in order to create an absolute power in one place, education and the ability to acquire knowledge would have to be cut off completely. Simply believe that “…There would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.” would not make any sense since most of humanity is educated.

Another point that Orwell had correct was the idea of complete government control without our knowledge. Although my knowledge of government secret procedure is not very lengthy, I am aware that some of the technology they have has enabled they to listen to and track nearly everything one says or types. This type of control with “Big Brother watching” clearly shows that there are many secrets in governments the general public does not know about. “Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information.” Evidently, this has happened is we are all not given every piece of information that could affect things such as our civil liberties.

Huxley did make some relevant points in his idea of the future regarding the expansion of science and the love of pleasure that the public feels. However, Orwell’s somewhat paranoid idea of the control that the government can have, without society even knowing this control is happening, has taken precedence in the world we live in today where power is what nearly all strive for, in their own unique ways.

Arguement

There are many students that work very hard throughout their entire schooling career in order to prepare themselves for college and to eventually get a degree in a field of their choice. However, until college choices are limited as far as scheduling in high school and are non-existent in this aspect in elementary school. The only two classes designated to be taken all four years of one’s college education are English and physical education. Insisting that these two subjects are taken throughout one’s high school education is insinuating that these subjects are more important than others such as math, science, and history, which all have much broader aspects for students to learn. Electives can end up giving a student more knowledge in a field they specifically are interested in, yet other classes are held as more important. Although all students should have knowledge in the four main subjects throughout high school, students should not be forced to take more years of one subject in order to get a diploma.

English, a very important subject and necessary in almost all aspects of life, is a class must be taken all four years of high school. However, students are not forced to increase their levels of study. One can take a modified English class throughout high school, coasting their way through, not learning new things each year. Unless one increases their level of education to an honors or AP class they are missing out on useful information, such as fallacies, rhetorical devices, ect. This space allotted to these English classes could be used to further one’s development in another subject, such as history, where new things are learned each year and there are many more ways to expand without increasing difficulty. Physical education classes are also required each year of high school, in an effort to reduce the obesity in teenagers. This is a very noble attempt, but that is a period everyday that one could use to further their education of knowledge, rather than to exercise. These classes are necessary in order to facilitate labs for science courses but there are students already forced to take a lab out of other courses due to scheduling issue so it can be done. One does not learn new things every year in physical education the way one can learn something in history or math.

There are many different electives that can be taken in order to help a student focus on a field of their choice, however most of these electives are not considered core courses so they do not count to fulfill graduation requirements. One example of this is in the science field. A class such as forensic science does not count as a year, even though it has a lab period and students do just as much work as in other science classes. The requirements to graduate do not apply to this course, thus depriving a student of taking it if a required class conflicts with it. There are many other electives rich in educational value that students may overlook because they are too busy taking required classes that many not be as beneficial to that particular student.

One may say that not requiring a certain number of years in the core classes would cause students to take easy classes to attempt to not do any work during high school. This would be prevented by the consideration of colleges, which will commonly not take students unless they take a certain number of classes in certain subjects of study. This new way of organizing a student’s schedule would allow for more freedom for the student and a focused path to their future instead of a generic path their peers are on. Putting more responsibility on the student would force them to plan ahead and better prepare them for college.

Mark Twain once said, "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." In forcing students to take classes they are not interested in, the system is trying to control a student’s schooling, not thinking about the effect it will have on their future education. Maintaining a rigorous schedule should not be based on specific classes but rather helpful classes to enhance a student’s knowledge. Students have many things to worry about throughout their school lives, trying to schedule classes they have interest and a requirement in should not be one of them.

Cheese

Many that know me personally would not think “fan of cheese” as a way to describe my taste. However, there are many things that are intriguing about cheese. I like the white cheeses such as Parmesan, especially shredded, and mozzarella. I am not fond of Swiss because the unnatural holes throughout. How did those hole get there? If you slice a block of Swiss cheese the holes are not the same throughout they are in different places, which seems sketchy. The yellow cheeses are not appetizing at all, for my taste. From Gouda to Munster both having suspicious edges of darker yellow. Then there are cheeses like pepper jack that have weird seasonings throughout. Now cheese gets moldy after a certain time but with pepper jack, how would you know if it was mold or seasonings? How did these mysterious seasonings get there? Could they possibly just be little specks of mold and this is the company’s way of selling old cheese? Speaking of mold, blue cheese is just moldy cheese, and it comes in 75 different kinds. That is quite a bit of types of moldy cheese. Now there are also some cheeses that I am not sure if they are considered cheese. Cottage cheese, near a liquid with solid parts, is this a cheese? You can’t cut it up and put it on crackers but it is still edible so is this an addition to the cheese family or not?
Some cheeses are kept from the public so that they can get better with age. This is also the way that wine and other alcoholic products are made but cheese? There is encouraged eating of moldy cheese throughout the world because it is a delicacy. Some cheeses are also proven to have results on sleeping, positive and negative. Plus, some people should not eat cheese such as pregnant women because of listeria, a bacteria known to cause miscarriages.
A few unknown facts: The United States leads in the world producer of cheese, doubling what the second country, Germany, makes. However, we are not even on the list for cheese exporters or consumers.
So, in the end my point is this, don’t trust cheese, unless it is one straight color and texture.

Statement on Life

The philosophy on life expresses by Tim is that no matter how old one becomes, they are still the same person throughout their existence. This, however, is not my philosophy. The fact that he has experienced war and yet believes he can still see himself as a little boy is shocking since Tim expresses many times that the war has changed him. Also, one goes through many different life-changing moments that can completely harm or help a person change.
Tim states in his quote that he can see in his eyes the same boy that once was although he has gone through war, a terrifying and life changing experience. This, however, I disagree with because there are two types of people in this world, those that have taken another person’s life and those that haven’t. Something that powerful extracts all of the innocence one has within them. They can never go back to before this instance because this type of baggage is carried throughout their life.
Tim states, “The human life is all one thing…” (236), which I agree with, only in the fact that at the end of one’s life they have all of their experiences with them, however, as these experiences grow in importance people evolve within themselves. One’s life is one complete entity, but only the severely important good and bad times stay and effect future choices.
Different levels of emotions are experienced throughout ones cycle of life; the sadness that a four year old feels when he loses his toy is not the same as when a fifteen year old loses their grandparent. Varying levels of the same emotion cause different memories or life lessons to stick with the individual. Losing that toy may be forgotten after that day, not effecting the person’s life at all, but the lose of a grandparent has a much greater effect. If one never changed at all then there would be no point for emotions such as love because one would always love the same person in the same way their entire life. It is necessary to change throughout our lives otherwise things such as maturity level would never improve, and there would be no longer to continue existing if how I was at five is the same way I am going to be at fifty-five.

Why I write- by Frank McCourt (author of Angela's Ashes)

Why do I write? The answer is in the question. I write in order to let out the ‘I’ in me out since I was just one of many since my early childhood. I had brothers and sisters; my mother and father; family and friends; the men at the pub and Uncle Pa Keating who was dropped on his head. There were always so many others that I was lost in the mix of the Irish poverty. I was thumped on the head and always hungry. I write try and explain the pain of my childhood and how even after everything, I lived.
My horrifying childhood spread from America to Ireland and the worst part is that I can remember since I was four years old. The most I remember is the worst times, the times of death of my siblings and the breakdowns of my mother. I held in for so long the stories of Cuchulain, the confessions I never told the priest, and how I always had to die, dance, and sing for Ireland.
I write in order to give eulogy to my siblings that did not make it through, to show how Malachy was favored over me, and to simply learn to forgive my mother and father for never keeping their promises. They were always smoking the fags or drinking the black stuff when we had no food to eat. They blamed me for all that Malachy did wrong, yet he was the only one that made it through life with me. I write to expose the Angel of the seventh step as the one person I can talk to. I want to be able to finally let out what I would be thumped on the head for if I ever spoke that way in Grandma’s house. To let everyone know that I threw up God in her backyard, yet trying to confess about it led the Priest to casting me out. I write because the poor pig in the pot that a had to drag down the street gave me such shame that it ended up in a book about my life. I write because everyone died anyway so I am the only one left that cares to remember Margaret, Eugene, Oliver, and my childhood that was buried with them.