Semester Reflection

The biggest thing I learned in the semester was what a thesis statement actually is. I now know that you don't need to put your support in the statement, that's what the following paragraphs a for. Also, I learned that your whole peice you are writing is based on the thesis statement. What I mean by that is, your support has to make sense.

The Paul Rusesabagina letters that we wrote really showed me how hard it is to write for someone else. My first thought was "I can't imagine how he felt during the genocide, so if I can't imagine his point of view, how can I write the letter?" I kind of just thought back to when we watched Hotel Rwanda. I took everything I learned from that movie and tried to make sense of it on paper. The letter probably wasn't even close to his thought or what his words would be if he actually wrote the letter, but it definitley helped me understand what was going on. Also writing the analogy I did in the letter, gave me a good comparison.

I really liked doing the group myth. It was really fun coming up with ideas. I also like the question you gave our group, it was definitley a challenge. I loved coming up with the names of lands we were talking about. Also, developing the characters was a good way for us to think of what a god in a myth would be named.

I loved watching The Power of One. Each day I was so excited to come to class to finish it. It is such a good story. Even though we watched it with very little knowledge of the apartheid, I honestly learned more about apartheid from the movie better than researching and writing an overview about it. After the movie I learned that all of the South African natives were smushed into this small camp. There were people everywhere, you couldn't even see one spot of land! It was interesting to see the hate between the Germans and the British. In the school that P. K. went to when he was younger, he almost got killed for being the only Brtish boy! Also the way the older boys were all for Hitler was crazy. The movie was really sad, but my new favorite!

Q.C.V.Is really help me with understanding the stories we have to read. It's good for me to write down my questions, because I know I will forget them. It's also good because it's a challenge to come up with a good discussion question. Connections give me a better way to understand the story because I compare it to other events in my life. Vocabulary steps up my understaning even better because there are a lot of words that I don't know, and I would be completley lost reading. Writing down important passages is my favorite thing to do, because in the myth Osiris and Isis there sure was a lot of them, like how Isis put the queens baby in the fire thinking that the baby will gain immortality.I'm not so sure how to explain why I think They are important though. I just like them.

I would want to be a native in Rwanda when it is first being colonized.

Even though Rwanda was under the control of another country, they never got their lives taken away. Their was no slavery, and you were a free man. Sure you got discriminated against, and you were considered underclass(assuming I am Hutu) but that is way better than the life of slavery. I also would rather be paid cheap for my hard work. I might be concluding that the Tutsi's attacks to regain power were not very harsh, but I would not mind someone trying to take power because I certainly am not a leader. I don't like the fact that there was so much segregation in Rwanda, but then again it is something you could live with.

I would not want to be a native American because of getting my home taken a way from me. I also would not want to be a subject of war. They also didn't get the rights of the average whit citizen. As for the native Australians, I would not want my culture, and my people to die out by the time my own child has their kids. Even though that is the only thing that happened to the Aborigines, I wouldn't want my descendants to lose the life that I had grown up with. Last, I would not want to be South Africa because I would get kicked out of my home, and cramped into this little refugee camp. Although there were laws that said they were free, they truly had little rights of a free man.

It's a new decade.

It's a new year and I don't feel different at all. I never did on a new year. Everyone else makes a huge deal about everything, & the way I was raised, I believed in everything about the new year. From the partying to the believing everything's going to get better and all that junk. Now I only go along with it to please everyone else.
The biggest thing I don't get about it is why people talk about getting wasted and partying until you pass out? Why in the world would you want to start off your year like that? I get the celebration part, but it bugs me how people need to get trashed to have fun or to start their year. I dunno, it's just always got me.
I can't forget the topic of resolutions. They're a stupid list of things you want to achieve in the new year. No one ever follows through with them anyway. The most common thing I hear from everyone on each January 1st is "This year I'll actually do my resolutions!" Haha, we all know you won't. The way I think of it is, why do you need January to improve? I mean just because it's the start of the year doesn't mean everything's gonna become good all of a sudden & you're going to improve everything. It is all just an excuse to continue your bad habits until January.
What bugs me even more than resolutions and the talk of getting wasted is the way people say Happy New Year. They make it plural, so it's "HAPPY NEW YEARS!" Ahhhhh!!! It just gets on my nerves. 'Cause it's like they're talking about more than one year. Also It's hard to say it without making it plural. So I don't know if I am saying it right by making it plural or not? Hmmm, now I just killed m night thinking about it, but it's sooooo annoying. & I don't even know if I should capitalize it when I sat "the new year" so please don't take points off for that Mr.Fielder. (:
What I'm trying to get at here is people make the new year sound glamourous and everything is just automatically gets better after the clock strikes twelve. In reality though, the new year is nothing more than the new year. And a new year is just a brand new revolution around the sun. Nothing special. It makes me have so many questions about the whole controversy of the new year, and why people act like there's so much to it.

Class Debate on Rwanda Genocide.

The people that Uganda is blaming for the Rwandan genocide is the MRND. We're blaming them for using the radio station to promote violence against the Tutsis. They pretty much planned their attack to their fellow Hutus of the radio. They encouraged them to go on this killing spree.
We're also blaming The UN & The U.S. for their lack of actions in during the genocide. Even though the U.S. just got done with Somalia, it doesn't mean they shouldn't do anything for people whose lives were being put at risk. We thought America was all about the protection of people & would be against the whole cause of the genocide. The UN also didn't play much in the genocide. Apparently because they "didn't have enough troops"? Haha, okay. We think that They should have helped the innocent people regardless of any costs. I mean, people are dieing here.
Uganda was being blamed for "harboring terrorists". Us Ugandans beg to differ. We were a base for the RPF because we supported their idea of self defense for their kind; the Tutsis. Hundreds of thousands of Tutsis were being killed & the Rwandan government & rest of the worl did nothing to help. Their only hope was us and the RPF. We helped them by being a hiding place.
Another big part of the genocide was Belgium. While they had control over Rwanda they favored the Tutsis, but when Rwanda became independent They just changed their mind magically and favored the Hutus. The Hutus Wanted to get back at the Tutsis now thaat they were more powerful, and Belgium just sat back and watched this fight begin to happen.
We all had part in the cause of the genocide, but us Ugandans must speak up for the RPF and Paul Kagame. It was all self defense for them. YOu can call them terrorists but we know they aren't.

The American Scholar.

Emerson's argument in The American Scholar about American society still holds true today.
What Emerson was saying in Man Thinking is that people in today's society only focus on one thing--their thing. People don't think outside the box, they only know what they can or were taught to do. It's like we all have our own specific role in the world, and don't realize we have other purposes. In this quote, Emerson is getting at that point,"The old fable covers a doctrine ever new and sublime; that there is One Man,--present to all particular men only partially, or through one faculty; and that you must take the whole society to find the whole man. Man is not a farmer, or a professor, or an engineer, but he is all." American society can not be based on only one thing. People become so into their one thing ,they begin to look down on other people's "one thing. " It's just like joining a sport. Let's say, soccer. You spend your time on that one sport and then you forget or have no idea how to play softball.

Michael Jackson Should Get a Nobel Peace Prize

Michael Jackson should most definitely get a Nobel Peace Prize! The king of pop is the most influential musician in history. I'm not gonna lie, at one point in everyone's life they fell in love with his music. He can reach out to people of every age with his lyrics.
People want him to get nominated for a peace prize so bad, that over 15, 000 have signed a petition for it to happen. more on the petition here.
He has seriously made a difference in the world. He loved kids and he dedicated his life to them. He wrote songs that spread a positive message to everyone in the world. An example of one of his songs is "Man in the Mirror". It has meaning, and can motivate anyone.
Michael has supported 39 charities, some of them include Make A Wish, Volunteers of America, YMCA, and AIDS project. you can check out the other ones here.
Though a lot of people diss him, you've got to admit, everyone has loved Michael Jackson's music at one point. It's all catchy and fun. You really can't deny a musical genius like him. He's got the moves, and the voice.

He also worked very hard to get where he was and he succeeded. He has been dedicated to music ever since he was a kid. He had some amazing talent and it paid off very well for him.
He decided to use his fame and fortune for good. His whole career he dedicated to charities, wrote moving songs, and he even made an amusement park for kids. It's called Neverland.

Michael is so loved that even President Obama had something to say about him. He said that Michael will "go down in history as one of our greatest entertainers." want more on that? My favorite thing that he said is, "I’m just like anyone. I cut and I bleed. And I embarrass easily." He shows that he is human, and thats another reason why he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

Michael Jackson is the greatest man in musical history. He's made people from all over the world fall in love with him. I know this because every music artist I listen to say that Michael Jackson has influenced their music. Ever since before I was born he was so big and right after I was born he still was. Michael Jackson and his music will never die out. He's made too much of an impact on the world for that to happen.

It's Fall!

Fall is actually one of my favorite seasons. Summer is too hot and humid, Spring is too rainy, and Winter is too lifeless and dead, but Fall on the other hand is perfect weather. Also It's so colorful outside, you know all the leaves all over the place! In fall you have all sorts of fun events. Like Halloween, MY BIRTHDAY(:, Thanksgiving, and you can never forget going to the cider mill and apple orchard! OH, AND THERE'S NO MOSQUITOES OUT TO BUG YOU!

I love the weather in Fall so much. When It's 50 degrees out, I get a nice big smile on my face because I know that's my signal to grab a blanket, a warm drink and cuddle on the couch! In Winter I seriously hate wearing a big puffy coat, so that's another thing that makes me happy about fall... I get to wear hoodies. So for you're wardrobe, you have the perfect amount of layers. Jeans, a tee, and a hoodie. It couldn't get anymore simpler than that.

Fall is so festive. Everybody gets their pumpkins out on their front porch, along with their scarecrows and Halloween decorations! I love seeing everyone get excited for Halloween, I love dressing up too. You can't forget Thanksgiving either! Spending some quality time with your family is good, even if you can't stand them sometimes. What's even better though, is the food! This year I became a vegetarian, so compared to my family, I'll have a little less variety. One thing I'm bummed out for though, is the fact that I didn't go to the apple orchard yet! That's the first thing I look forward to when Fall comes.

Now that I've said most of the things I love about Fall, of course there's some that I hate. Like raking the leave in the front yard. It take forever, but I guess you get a workout out of it. haha. Also I don't like the fact that it's mostly night in fall. I like it light out so when I am with a friend, I don't have to come in early because "it's too dark to be walking around." Those are the only bad things about fall though, it's great!

Wait. I forgot another good thing about fall... THE PUMPKINS. (: They're fun to carve, they have the best seeds to eat, and you can actually make a pie with them!