My Final Post

Well I haven't had like any time this week because of rehearsals and my crazy busy schedule to read through the websites to find a story that I could relate back to my reading, so I just decided to write my final blog about all the wonderful lessons I have learned this year in English. I started out my English year with the Christy Miller series by Robin Jones Gunn. Those books were some of the best I have ever read. The main character, Christy, went through so many of the same situations I have already experienced in high school or will experience some day and she was such a great example of how you should handle them. The books also had a big Christian influence in them and I learned so much about standing up for your faith and leading others to Christ. The books also, like any good book, had a love story in them which taught me many important lessons about taking things slow in a realtionship and working through the hard times. These books were truly amazing and every teenage girl should read them.

The next book I recall reading was To Kill a Mockingbird!! Wow, what a powerful book!! Even though it took forever to read and was difficult to understand at times, I am so glad I was given the oppurtunity to read it. There were so many valuable lessons to learn in that book as well. For example: when Atticus went ahead and defended Tom Robinson because he knew it was the right thing to do, despite all the teasing and mistreating he went through, and how Scout learned that she should have never have made assumptions and judged Boo the way she did before she met him and got to know him herself. These are both very important life lessons!! This book also made me realize how badly African American people were really treated back then. I mean how unfair is it that Tom Robinson didn't even get a fair trial just because of the color of his skin. I can't believe people could have been so mistreated in a country as powerful as America when in our own constitution our forefathers stated that all men are created equal. It just blows my mind. All young people should read this book for themselves and experince first hand what those people went through.

And last but not least Shakespeare's masterpiece, Romeo and Juliet. The most difficult, frustrating, and depressing work in literature that I have ever read. I will never forget how hard it was at first for me to understand at all what in the world Shakespeare was trying to say, but by the end of the play it seemed like just normal English to me. This is truly a remarkable play and it just amazes me that one man could think all of this stuff up. The poetry was absolutely gorgeous though. It all just had this rythm to it that made it seem so perfect. This play really demonstates how fate can never be changed no matter how hard you try to overcome it. Probably the most important lesson I learned from this incredible story, was to not take things to quickly. Most of the time in the story problems were created because different characters overreacted and moved to fast. I mean just imagine if Romeo and Juliet would have taken the time to date and actually get to know one another before running off and getting married. Maybe they would have found that the other wasn't as perfect as they thought. Or what if Romeo would have checked with the Friar before running to where Juliet was supposedly "buried" and killing himself. He could have found out that Juliet was only sleeping and then not have killed himself over nothing and saved both their lives. Being patient is so important!! Oh what a play!!

Well as you can tell I have learned very many valuable lessons from the books I have read this year!! I truly have enjoyed my semester in English and I am going to miss Ms. James very much!! Thanks for a great year everyone and keep up the blogging!!! Hope everyone has a fantastic summer!!

Kids having Kids

I went to the NPR web site and listened to Malissa who is an eight teen year old girl who is about to become a mom. She is eight months pregnant at the beginning of the interview. She didn't mean to get pregnant. As she puts it she was just starting school and a new job she was just starting her life. When I sate and listened to this interview it was really sad. We don't really know how it is to live a "hard" life. This girl was in foster and group homes all of her life. Her mom had her when she was eight ten and hadn't talked to her in over a year. She didn't have a caring dad for the baby. She was living in a one bedroom apartment paid for by the government. How could she raise a new born baby? She thought about abortion. Malissa said that she couldn't do that it would be like killing a human being. She thought of adoption but she was put up for adoption and she was in and out of group homes all of her life she was never adopted she couldn't make her baby go through that. She decided to keep the baby. Listen to this all of her friends had kids except one. Do any of your high school friends have kids? It put me in realization that this really does happen. She does have the baby who is a healthy 7 pound boy. I just wanted you guys to know that this does happen and we need to get it out there that it isn't always a good thing.

Here once again is the npr site http://www.radiodiaries.org/index.html please check it out!

summer fun

This is me, Kendra and my best friend, Robyn. We took this picture last weekend. She spent the night the whole weekend because I willbe gone this coming weekend because im going to a family reunion. Then after that, I am going to Ohio to Cedar Point for my birthday present from my aunt. My birthday was last April 14 but my aunt wanted me to wait after i got out of school and her get ff work for us to go.


I hope everyone has a great summer and i hope everyone will stay blogging beacause i will. Well good luck on all the finals you have to take. I hope to see everyone next year. Enjoy your summer and sleep read and BLOG!!!!


love ya all,
kendra


p.s other intresting blogs:

Lets Be Friends

Left behind in a fish bowl

once upon a feast

Soweto 1976

I was visiting the Radio Diaries website looking for an idea on what to do my final blog on when I ran across a story about black students in South Africa who , thirty years ago, started a new resistance against the racist apartheid system and oppression in their schools. About 12,ooo students protested on the streets of Soweto on June 16, 1976. They headed toward a local stadium to hold a mass meeting and were greeted my the local law enforcement who tried to stop them by spraying tear gas and releasing dogs on them. When this didn't stop the rapid movement they opened fire on the students and killed at least 23. They didn't give up and the next day more prostested and the police killed 100 more. The movement began to spread until every township in South Africa was protesting. One thousand workers at a local Chrysler plant went on strike with the students the next week.

The strikes continued through the fall and students started sit-ins, boycotts, and night raids where they destroyed police outposts and other signs of their power. The nationwide resitance went on for 18 months and resulted in over 1,000 deaths before the law enforecement could regain control. The movement did help with some new improvements including urban black the right to a permanent residence in the city even though they were still segregated. Most important of all a new generation of leaders had emerged who were trained in the struggle and who would help the new fight within a few years. You can go and listen to all of their stories aat this link, http://www.radiodiaries.org/

Black Hawk Down!! (Final)

Do you believe in the war in the Middle East?

I was reading the book Black Hawk Down and that reminded me of the war in the Middle East.

my thoughts of it is that i believe that we went in for a good reason but i don't understand why we are not getting anywhere with the Middle Easterners. i think that the reason why we went over there was too capture Saddam Hussein, and to help the people there make their own army. What everyone is wondering about like myself is why are we still in there when we did both of those things. It does not make any sense to me why we keep our own soldiers in their, and they are still getting killed. Why do you guys think that we are still in the Middle East.

This also brings me to another topic, and it is about the same type of issue. My next issue to talk about is why does the US think that they have to get into everybody's business when we are not even involved in the conflict. We are not the conflict doctor of what ever they think. I don't understand why we have to kill our own soldiers for something we didn't even have to get into. Its just my opinion that we did a mistake by even attempting to help the Middle East, and instead of helping the Middle east we Killed our soldiers.

Another thing is that we went to the war supposedly becuase they bombed us with the plains. My reasoning for that is that we dont even have evidence that the bombers were Middle Easterners, they could have been Korean or any other culture so that is only my opinion.

If you have any opinions of your own i would love to hear them!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Can you believe it? [FINAL]

Have you ever thought about how race can effect getting hired? A young African American, is in college and is working on a degree in health education and a minor in biology. She is also taking Nursing school outside of everything else. Have you ever thought how hard that would be? I mean come on thats a lot of time and school. It just makes upset when i read that she was saying i am happy to be going to school working on nursing, but because i am black it wont be easy to get a job. I really believe that even if you are another race that shouldn't matter. Even if your pink purple or black you should be treated the same and have the same advantages. She also states that people are not wanting colored to be in a higher position in a career. I believe that racism is getting better than before but its still happening...alot. It should not matter, everyone is the same and everyone knows it. But, careers are not everything that can be effected. Anything in life can be effected by race. I am white, and i respect african americans just as much as i respect people my race. I guess i just don't see what people that are racist see? But, you also have to take into consideration if the african americans are acting in an inappropriate then people might not treat them like others, i mean anyone can act inappropriate im just saying. I think that everyone should respect everyone and it would make a very good impact on the world:)

Great Reading Lessons from the Year (FINAL!!)

This year we read To Kill a Mockingbird. I loved reading To Kill a Mockingbird. The book was so meaningful; I got a lot out of this book. All the racial differences in the book taught lessons to everyone. It expressed the message that even though everyone might have a different opinion than you, it is okay. This sounds a bit cliché, but you have to stand up for what you believe in. Do not let anyone change your mind, if you know that what you believe is right and fair. That is one of the most valuable lessons I learned from the book.

I read another book, Pink Angels; it and To Kill a Mockingbird have something in common. They both conveyed the message that you should never give up when times are hard. In To Kill a Mocking Bird the Finch family struggled with standing up for Mr. Robinson, a man of African American descent. They knew that he didn’t do anything wrong and they never stopped trying to give him a fair trial. In Pink Angels a girl has a mother with MS. The girl volunteers at the hospital to be a volunteer for the summer. She has a really hard time trying to balance her life because her mom feels like they should be together all the time. Everyone else knows that she needs to do somethings for herself. Her mom gets really sick and has to stay in the hospital to get a major surgery on her heart. The mother and daughter pair never give up on each other. In the end the mother got better and got to go home. Also the mom ended up understanding why her daughter had to do things for herself. In both of the books they express the same thought, but in totally different ways; never give up.

Lets Talk About This! (fInAl)

lets all settle at this. We all know that no matter who you are living with, the person who cares for you, is basically your family. And in a family, sometimes there comes brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmothers, grandfathers, and so on down the family line! And sometimes you have multiples of these groups. Lets take brothers and sisters as an example, I have one younger sister, and we both have alkies and differences, and we fight like we were cats and dogs, like we were Caine and Able. But other times, if we want something from the other, we be nice to them! I know its kind of mean, but we all do it! But even though I might not show my love towards my sister, I actually really do! In fact, in some ways she inspires me! I'll break it off into lists for you,
1.) she doesn’t have the best luck with friends and she still sticks trough thick and thin trying to find a place in this world.
2.) She is one heck of a writer! I know Ms. J will love her! She can take some random happening, and make it into one beautiful poem or story,
3.) She can do it all on the basketball court! She is like a point guard/post, and if she would figure out a way to pass it to herself, then I’m sure she would.
4.) When kids are not being the nicest to them, She doesn’t let her emotions show! she keeps cool I guess.
I love her to death, and I know she sometimes doesn’t see that, and I might not show it a lot, but I'd take a bullet for her, and I want her to know that.
You know the times where you are like " I wish we could go back to the day, where blah blah blah! " Well when my sister was about 2 years old, she would follow me every where, and yes I did get annoyed by her a lot, but now days, she doesn’t want anything to do with me.
People might think I’m crazy, and I guess I kind of am, but I’m trying to keep a sisterly bond with my sister, something that a lot of people don’t really care about! ♥

Everyones Got Love (final blog)

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
You remember these beautiful and famous words? Well these words are from romeo and Juliet. Juliet is the one that says this lovely quote. The last book we read in English. Romeo and Juliet have the greatest love anyone could possibly have. We all wish we could find someone like them and yet some do. These two lovers fell in love yet their families hated each other. They couldn't be together, but they made that happen. They met at Juliet's parents party. They quickly fell in love and found ways to see each other. They got married so Juliet didn't have to marry Paris and so they could be with each other at all times. Then Romeo kills Tybalt and gets banished from the town. Juliet is going to get married to Paris. So she makes a plan to Drink a potion that makes her sleep. Romeo was suppose to get a note saying Juliet is alive, but he gets news she is dead and kills himself with poison. Then Juliet sees him dead and kills herself. This shows how in love this couple was, to kill their own self because of seeing the other "dead" or really dead.





I'll always love you Winnie Foster!
Do you know what movie/book this is off of? In Tuck Everlasting. Jesse Tuck blurts this quote out at the end of the story right before his family leaves the jail. Winnie meets Jesse in the woods. Winnie's parents thought someone kidnapped her, so they set out a search for her. This man follows Jesse Tuck and Winnie back to Jesse's place. Then the man turns in where the Foster's daughter is in exchange for their woods. The tucks have been living for a long time. One time, while searching the woods, the Tucks came up to a tree with a puddle of water in it's roots. So all the Tucks took a drink and lived forever. Well the water was in the forest of the Woods that the Fosters owned and the man knew about this. That's why he wanted the woods. Well Winnie's father and the search team found the Fosters and Winnie. They also found the man dead because of May Tuck had killed him. Winnie and Jesse were just like Romeo and Juliet. They were so in love with each other. Well May went to jail to be hung and if she was hung, she wouldn't of died. So Jesse, his brother and Winnie helped Tuck and May get out of jail. Jesse wanted Winnie to go with them but she couldn't. So Jesse told her to go to the tree and drink the water. He also said he would come back to her. Well he went back and she was dead.





I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks.
You may not remember this quote, but this quote is from Scout in To Kill A Mockingbird. This book ties in this love circle. Mayella Ewell did not have any friends. When she met Tom Robinson, she became friends with him. She talked to him every time he went by. She thought he liked her just like she liked him and tried to kiss him. She soon found out that he was just being nice to her because he knew she did not have any friends. Well Mayella's father saw them kissing and Tom had to go to court because of that. Tom Robinson ended up trying to escape from a camp and got shot several times. Also there is another kind of love in this book. The love Scout and Jem had for their Father, Atticus. They obeyed him several times and helped him out when he needed help. They also showed him love when ever he was feeling down or lonely. They showed him that he had them to love because their mother was not there.




I think this song "Don't Matter" goes with all this love that these 4 characters have with each other. The lyrics say that no body wants the two to be together. They Will fight for the right to love each other. I hope the music plays and i hope u enjoy my post!

MY LAST BLOG.

In my last blog I have decided to sum up all of my favorite readings & favorite books. This collage to your left is one that I made to sum all of the books up & to show the covers. Two of my favorite authors are, Ellen Hopkins and Cecily von Ziegesar. There are links to both of the authors title lists and biographys. You might know of the books Crank, Burned, Impulse, ect. These are by Ellen Hopkins. All of the It Girl Novels & the Gossip Girl Novels are by von Ziegesar. These are two very talented authors.

The reason I enjoy these authors so much is because they both right about very realistic things and they both relate to teens. The characters in these books range from 13-21 & they are a lot like me and my friends. I absolutly love these authors a& their wonderful creations. You should take a look on Amazon or Google to purchase or read summaries on these books:)

Women Who Work (final)

What could you do with 2 million dollars? It sounds like a crazy question, but if your a working woman that's how much money you could be missing out on just because of your gender.
On average women make 77% cents to every dollar a man makes, according to an article by Evelyn Murphy. Two people with the same education, doing the same job, working the same hours, and putting in the same effort. Yet because one is a women she gets only 77% of what the man gets. It's discrimination, and it's illegal.
Most companies would rather pay a one time fine, then make the necessary costly changes that would even the playing field. Some women are trying to get these problems fixed, but others don't think of the money as as big of a deal. They don't realize that the money multiplies, end of the year bonuses are smaller because they are a percentage of their salary. They were passed up for project, or weren't given a promotion because it was given to a man.
Also the number of single mothers in the U.S. is much more then the number of single fathers. If anything women need to be payed more then men, because they have children to support. With each pay check a women is jipped, its braces her daughter couldn't get, or baseball lessons her son couldn't take. So, who are we hurting? The working women? Their children? The entire American work force.
As I was reading this article I started to think about Scout from to Kill a Mockingbird. How would she feel about this? Even that long ago I don't think she would have stood for it. Scout is a perfect example of how women are just as intelligent as men. Want to read stories of other women who have conquered the discrimination? Click this link. Also here's 2 more articles by Murphy for more information called What should you do now? and Recent Sex Discrimination Lawsuits. So if your a women with aspirations in this world then I think this is a case you can get behind, because our generation can make a difference in the unfair treatment.

Rwandan Genocide:Final Blog

I have been reading about the Rwanda genocide.In Rwanda which is in central Africa,east of Democratic Republic of the Congo.In the 1920s Belgian ethnologists analyzed lots of Rwandans on analogous racial criteria.Documents were made giving each person a ethnic identity.The Belgians declared the group called the Tutsi to be superior over the Hutu.
The Tutsi started to rule over Rwandans.Before the Belgians came into Rwanda the Hutu and Tutsi were considered to be friends.They shared many traditions such as food,dance,drum, and spirituality.They could intermarry and people could be promoted and become a Tutsi or demoted and become a Hutu.

In 1994 the genocide began the Hutu rebelled against the Tutsi because they were superior.The genocide was the mass killing of thousands of ethnic Tutsis and sympathetic Hutu.The two Hutu groups that carried out the genocide was the Inerahamwe and the Impuzamugambi.The genocide was carried out for about 100 days ,from April through July.The death toll is between 800,000 to 1,000,000.The genocide ended when the Tutsi rebel movement known as the Rwandan Patriotic Front overthrew the Hutu government and seized power.Thousands of Hutu and other refugees went to Zaire(the Congo).The tension between the Tutsi and Hutu then fueled the Burundi Civil War.

This event really connects to the book "To Kill A Mockingbird" because innocent Tom Robinsion was killed just because of his race.This was a major issue in the genocide lots of innocent people were killed because they were Hutu or Tutsi.This event connects to Romeo and Juliet in a few obvious ways.In the Rwandan genocide we have to major groups that hate each other so much they are willing to die.The only way that both their problems were solved was when the loss of lives were great.This event can also connect to the Odessey because in Rwanda they have been fighting forever just like the Greeks and the Trojans.Both groups have so much hatred. The movie Hotel Rwanda is a great movie that shows the tension between the to groups.I hope I hear your opinions on this event.

The War

This Picture is an Iraq war cemetery.

The war in Iraq is one of the most controversial topics in America right now. Even people that are in the same political party disagree on this subject. (Here is a link that shows that presidential candidates even disagree on the Iraq subject. This website tells that Hilary Clinton is in support of the war and her competitor John Edwards against it.) Some people think that we need to pull out of the war because it is getting to expensive. Others think that if we pull out now that everything will go back to the way it was and that it would be a pointless war if we pulled out People now feel hatred towards the President. Others just don’t care what he does and try to support what he does. Even though both of these are wrong because we elected the President, I think that the second choice is the better one because we should try to honor the person that is in authority over us. We chose to make him in charge so we should try to listen to what he has to say. We should also support the actions he takes when he is trying to do the things that are best for the country.

Our country has so many problems with authority because we just can’t listen to it. The majority of teens rebel against some type of authority but that is mostly caused by their parents or other adults leading that type of lifestyle. If our country could just agree or at least not rebel against people in authority so much we would be much better off.

The Most Hated Family in America

America is a country of patriotism and love towards soldiers, but there aren't many actions more provocative than the picketing of soldiers funerals. Picketing is when someone attaches a sign to a picket and goes around yelling about the topic. Take Summer Fresh for example, there's always people out there whining about something that doesn't do anything but make people mad at the picketers.

The reason I told you about picketers is because that is one of the tactics of the Phelps family(the most hated family in America). They don't picket grocery stores or any other business, but they picket soldiers funerals. Some of the signs they use are "God is your enemy, The World is doomed, All Soldiers are Homosexual, Soldiers Die, God Laughs, and one of the most provocative is Thank God For 9/11." These people are serious about this, they eat sleep and breathe this religion.

The church they belong to is the Westboro Baptist Church. The church has 71 members made up of mainly the Phelps family. The kids of the family are born into the this religion and if they want to leave they are rebuked and not allowed back into the family. The kids are forced to do all of these horrible things until they are of adulthood, age 18.

I found out about this family through youtube here is a link to watch the videos. Louis Theroux of BBC was the reporter that followed them around. He has done many reports on provocative things, but he said this was the worse. They loved there family but he asked them if one of them became gay would they care if they died and they are replied simultaneously NO!

This is a very weird family. Here is a link to there website, I suggest you don't go though, it is very creepy. I wish these people would see the wrong in there actions but they are all guided by there ruthless Grandpa who shoves these bad thoughts down there throats.

The reason I wrote about this topic is because I sometimes read through http://BBC.com. It is a good sight that has a lot of news on today's topics. I enjoyed reading an article but what I really liked was the T.V. series on http://youtube.com, it was very interesting.

"Everything Was Beautiful, And Nothing Hurt."

There are many things in the world in which we live, that shudder with injustice and evil. There are many things in the past that we are not proud of, and especially the way that people used to be treated. In times that people were treated like another piece of property or as an animal in an exhibition. The caliber example of this kind of evil is the story of "The Pygmy in the Zoo."
In 1904, the World's Fair was to be held in St. Louis and the Fair was in need of something new and interesting that would attract many people. As a result, Samuel Phillips Verner, a missionary, was hired by the fair to travel to Africa and bring some natives back to the fair. He traveled to Africa and brought back some natives of Africa, one of them being a pygmy named Ota Benga. Benga was a member of a pygmy tribe named the Batwas in the Belgian Congo. Pygmies are types of people who are abnormally short, usually the same size as a pre- teen child. Ota Benga was obtained by Verner when Verner met with a tribe who had Benga help as a captive. Verner offered the tribe a trade for Benga which consisted of sugar, salt, and other miscellaneous items. The natives were brought to the fair and then they were returned home as promised by Verner. When they arrived home, however, Benga's people had been wiped from existence while he was gone and he did'nt seem to fit in with the other tribes. He decided to return to America and to try life there.

While living in America in 1906, Ota was put in the Monkey Cage in the Bronx Zoo as an exhibition. He was placed in there with a chimpanzee and was an isntant hit. It is estimated that over 40,000 people visited the exhibit daily to see Benga. This was seen immoral and unethical in many eyes, including the African- American ministers of the country. They protested to the point that the exhibit was abandoned and Ota was sent to the Howard Colored Orphan Asylum and then was sent to Lynchburg, Virginia where he tried living with numerous families. He was to be civilized and follow the American ways but was mostly seen spending his time in the woods and seemed as though he missed his old life back in Africa. One day in March of 1916, Ota borrowed a gun from one of the host families, went to the edge of the town in a woodland area, built a bonfire, and committed suicide by shooting himself. He believed this would help him "send his soul back to Africa."

After reading this story, it was very hard for me to soak in. It made me realize how immoral people can be and it really flat out angers me. Step into someone else's shoes and think about how it would feel. People like the administrators of the Bronx Zoo make me sick and almost make me ashamed to call myself a human being. To treat a fellow human being as an exhibit and not as a fellow human is not only inhumane, but evil and disturbing. Ota was so homesick and filled with pain that it drove him to his own suicide.

Ota Benga is very much related to Tom Robinson in " To Kill a Mockingbird." Both of them were put in a very bad situation that they should have had no part in and were treated as property. They were put in front of society to be mocked and jeered at for the way they were. Most importantly, they were both so unhappy that they both took their own lives. They may have in different ways, but essentially, both ended their own lives because of their anguish and unhappiness. Ota can also be related to "Romeo and Juliet." They both were expected to live certain way in which they were told what to do and not to make any choices for themselves. Because of this confinement, they took their own lives so that they could be in better places and happy there.

Let us never forgot the story of Ota Benga and how he was treated.

" If we do not learn from our mistakes, then we are bound to repeat them."- Anonymous

Jail Sucks

When I was at the NPR site I looked at the audio of a person in prison. His name is John Mills and he is serving 7-9 years in prison for committing over 75 armed robberies. He is 21 now and still has about 3 years to go. In his story he talks about what prison is really like. He has became very lonley and misses his old life. He said whenever he would rob someone or something he would always get a thrill out of it. It was the thing gave him excitement. He said one of the hardest things all is missing the girls. He said even homosexual people miss the girls. Just someone to hold and to hol him is all he wants. Its funny, when john was a kid he dreames of being a police officer, but now he is putting a gun in peoples faces and is in jail. This story really made me think how well i have it and how I could lose it easily. I think people need to really think of the consequences before they act. Your actions could really mess up your life if you are not carefull. If you want to read or listen to John Mills complete story here is the link.

Laura's Story (final)

Laura is a 21 year old college student. She tries her best to fit in, and really just wants to be like her peers. This is very difficult for her, because she is living with cystic fibrosis. Cystic fibrosis is a chronic disease that mainly affects one's lungs. Laura was first diagnosed with CF when she was three days old. At that time, in 1981, the life expectancy of someone living with CF was lower than it is now, which is only around 30 years old. I think it would very difficult to grow up not knowing if you were going to live to have another birthday or not. Laura spent a lot of time in the hospital. Enough time to be on a first name basis with almost everyone, and she describes how she's seen medical students become interns become attendants. She spent a lot of time growing up inside the hospitals walls due to her "tune ups" that she had to get regularly as a child. She could never forget her own mortality because she grew up watching her friends with CF all die off. Laura's childhood was anything but easy living with her condition.



some information on CF-
Cystic fibrosis (CF), also called mucoviscidosis, is a hereditary disease that affects the entire body, causing progressive disability and early death. Formerly known as cystic fibrosis of the pancreas, this entity has increasingly been labeled simply 'cystic fibrosis.'[1]
Difficulty breathing and insufficient enzyme production in the pancreas are the most common symptoms. Thick mucous production as well as a low immune system results in frequent lung infections, which are treated, though not always cured, by oral and intravenous antibiotics and other medications. A multitude of other symptoms, including sinus infections, poor growth, diarrhea, and potential infertility (mostly in males, due to the condition Congenital bilateral absence of the vas Deferens) result from the effects of CF on other parts of the body. Often, symptoms of CF appear in infancy and childhood; these include meconium ileus, failure to thrive, and recurrent lung infections.
Cystic fibrosis is one of the most common life-shortening, childhood-onset inherited diseases. In the United States, 1 in 3900 children are born with CF.[2] It is most common among Europeans and Ashkenazi Jews; one in twenty-two people of European descent carry one gene for CF, making it the most common genetic disease among them.
Individuals with cystic fibrosis can be diagnosed prior to birth by genetic testing (See also Dor Yeshorim) or in early childhood by a sweat test. Newborn screening tests are increasingly common and effective. There is no cure for CF, and most individuals with cystic fibrosis die young — many in their 20s and 30s from lung failure although with many new treatments being introduced the life expectancy of a person with CF is increasing. Ultimately, lung transplantation is often necessary as CF worsens.
CF is caused by a mutation in a gene called the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). The product of this gene helps create sweat, digestive juices, and mucus. Although most people without CF have two working copies of the CFTR gene, only one is needed to prevent cystic fibrosis. CF develops when neither gene works normally. Therefore, CF is considered an autosomal recessive disease. The name cystic fibrosis refers to the characteristic 'fibrosis' (tissue scarring) and cyst formation within the pancreas, first recognized in the 1930s


Recently Laura has been trying to stay optomistic. She has many friends from her college, but she feels like they don't fully understand her disease. She gets very sad sometimes still, especially when she has to stay inside on Friday nights because of her disease. She has a loving relationship with her dad. Her dad often cries in the audio tapes and says it would be his dream for her to outlive him. Laura received a lung transplant in 2001. This is what she has to say about it.

"This is Laura. And I'm sitting here with my cat Gus who is asleep. I haven't talked in a while. On Monday it will be a year since my lung transplant. So, I'm happy I made it a year, but it is not the year that I'd dreamed of: complication, after complication, after surgery, after surgery, and rejection and lymphoma. I've had to get a feeding tube up back in because I lost so much weight. You know I think to get to the transplant, I really had to pretend that the transplant would do more than it realistically could do for me. My whole life, I've been searching for something to fix me. And it hasn't. "

Laura has a book published, titled "Breathing For A Living"
You can pick it up at Barnes & Noble.

The Holocaust (Final)

To the left you can see a group of Jewish people gathering around their recently deceased friends who died from starvation, disease, beatings, or just getting brutally murdered by the Nazis. To the right are shoes...hundreds of thousands of shoes that belong to the Jewish people who died at Auschwitz. I'm sure everyone has heard of the Holocaust, and if you haven't you have had your head in a hole in the ground your entire life! The Holocaust is usually described as the killing of about six million European Jews during World War II, which was part of a program of deliberate genocide against the Jewish people planned and executed by the Nazi regime in Germany led by Adolf Hitler. Here is a link about the Holocaust on wikipedia, not the most trusted site but it is filled with links to various info about the mass genocide against the Jews.

I recently watched a movie that reminded me of the German government from the 1930's, "V for Vendetta." The movie is about the British government going corrupt just like the German's did. There are many good movies that recreate the holocaust and give an in depth look at what really happened during the long six years. One of the best movies that is specifically about the holocaust is "Schindler's List" which was made in 1993. The movie is in black and white but it really gives a better understanding of what really happened on the streets of Germany during those times. If you are interested in watching the movie you can watch it on youtube, it is fairly easy to find. Here is a link to it's official web site.

I think it is important to remember the Jewish people who were literally pulled out of their homes for absolutely no reason and shot, dead, on the streets. The streets ran red with the blood of the innocent and Hitler is to blame. It is sad to think there are still genocides that you hear about from time to time even in the year 2007. It goes to show that we really need to learn from history to stop things before they really get bad. In my opinion the United States didn't act fast enough to stop Hitler, but instead hid away on the other side of the Atlantic while countless thousands died every week. But that is just my opinion. If you have an opinion about the Holocaust or a story please do leave a comment and we can discuss it!

Consumer Courage (Final)

Possible Blood Diamonds

This could possibly be

one of RUF's many Boy Soldiers

one day

Sierra Leone Flag

The Cast of "Blood Diamond"

According to CBS News Blood diamonds are "conflict, or blood diamonds are mined in a war zone and sold, usually clandestinely, in order to finance an insurgent or invading army's war efforts."

Also according to CBS News "The diamond industry estimates that conflict diamonds represent 4 percent of the total trade in rough diamonds. Others have estimated that conflict diamonds could amount to as high as 15 percent of the total trade. In 2001, the diamond industry produced rough diamonds with a market value of $7.9 billion. At the end of the diamond chain, this was converted into jewelry worth $54.1 billion. "

The countries affected by the blood diamond trade is Central and Western African Countries like Sierra Leone. Which is where the movie Blood Diamond takes place. Staring Leonardo DiCaprio. Which according to diamondfacts.org, "An estimated 65% of the world's diamonds come from African countries." In the movie you see a war torn country being over took by the Revolutionary Untied Front(RUF). The RUF go to villages around Sierra Leone and kill all the people but they will keep the able bodies and have them work in the mining areas. They will also take little boys of maybe 10-12 and turn them into killing soldiers of RUF. So you have the people running from the RUF and trying to obey the Government. You have RUF who mine diamonds, kill people and fight the Government's army by getting money from the diamonds. Then you have the poor Government trying to protect people when RUF have better equipment because of the diamonds. Also according to another part of CBS News "The 1991 to 2002 civil war between the government and the RUF resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and the displacement of more than 2 million people (about one-third of the population), many of whom are now refugees in neighboring countries." So many of the people in Sierra Leone have their lives taken away all for a little blood diamond.

Though back in 2002 the UN interfered and disarmed the RUF using the World bank. They continued to try and make Sierra Leone a peaceful country but they need help. So next time you buy a diamond make sure it is not a conflict diamond. With courage you can do this. Be different and do whats right. Like Romeo and Juliet, they loved each other and showed courage to get married. In The Odyssey, Ulysses showed courage to get past the sirens and cyclopes. If Romeo, Juliet or Ulysses didn't have courage then they couldn't have conquered marriage or an epic adventure. You don't have to kill yourself for your love or fight evil monsters, all you need is a little consumer courage.

I couldn't put my song on here but I think this link will take you to music video of "Shine on em" by NAS. You can't see the video at school but you should be able to at home.

Women's Rights

I recently read a book called Star-Crossed. The main character, Patricia, was trying to get back home where her father had left her his sugar plantation. The only problem was she was a woman. Meaning she could not own her own land. She would have to marry a man if she wanted to get the plantation. But instead of marrying some one, she dresses up like a man and works on a naval ship as a surgeon's mate, in order to get money to get to the island where the plantation is located. She had to disguise herself as a man because women could not get a job that payed very well, if it even payed at all. Because during this time period women did not have very many rights.

I found a website that talks about early attitudes shown towards women, the legal status of women, and more. I found the facts to be very interesting to see how women used to be treated.

Another website that I found showed how women from different countries around the world fought for their rights.


When I first decided to choose this topic I thought that it was no longer a problem. But through further research I have found that it is a problem, not necessarily in the U.S. but in other countries. I believe that women's rights is not a very big issue in the U.S. But it is a big issue in other countries, such as Iraq, where women's rights are endangered on a daily basis.

Visit the websites and then share you opinion.

Pearl Harbor and Being Japanese-American

On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was struck by the Japanese and caused country-wide chaos and panic. The country was terrified and were afraid of the possibility that spies were around them. This caused many Japanese-American people to fear for their lives. Many people accused them of spying and even the police accused them. A Japanese-American woman tells her story of what she went through when Pearl Harbor was struck. This is the original transcript of her interview: Story <-----

Kiyo Sato-Viacrucis is a Japanese-American woman who lived through fear and injustice. The police came to her house and they searched everything. They found her diary and read through it, but they didn't actually find anything incriminating in their house, but she was himiliated and embarrassed. If that ever happened to me, I'd probably cry. She told of how her family and other Japanese-American families were humiliated because they were accused of doing things, but they were really inncocent. They felt totally unwelcome in their own country where they were supposed to be free. One guy hung himself after being harassed by the police. It was just so unfair to them. I remember reading in U.S. History about how they were put in camps and were treated like criminals. Many years later, the court found this act inhumane and unfair. They tried to make up for what they did to them, but I don't think it really made up for how their own country had treated them. I do believe that the court was sincerely sorry for what they did, and I think they acted out of fear for their safety and for their lives. They just learned from their mistakes. So, what do you think?

*This is my final blog*

-peanutbutterisyummy-Y

BENCHMARK TEST

The Benchmark Test wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. I really enjoyed using the computer. It made writing a whole lot easier and I like to use spell check and the thesaurus. The final is alot different then anything I've ever done, it's kind of exciting. NPR is also very helpful.

Locked Up!

As a part of a Bronx Zoo exhibit in 1906 Ota Benga from the Batwa people who lived in the Belgian Congo was locked in a cage to live with the monkeys to be viewed by the people. He was brought to the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 with several of his people, but after the fairhe went back to Africa and all of his people were dead so he decided to come back to the U.S. After he was put in the cage he became very popular and everyone would go to the zoo to watch him, but also mock and laugh at him.

After Ota was released from the exhibit he was sent to live with several foster families. He spent of his time in the wood and wilderness because it seemed that he really missed Africa. So one day Ota borrowed a gun from his host family at the time, went to the woods built a bonfire and shot himself, committing suicide. He believed that by dieing his sole would go back to Africa.

If you think about it you can compare this to when Romeo was banished from Verona and wasn't allowed to enter the city almost as if he was an animal locked in a cage not allowed to have his freedom, so he couldn't be with his love. Ota Benga was the same way he was locked in the cage like an animal with no freedom. It was also the same thing with Tom Robinson in To Kill A Mockingbird, he was wrongly accused of rape and was jailed and also held captive like an animal in jail before he was killed. Tom Robinson and Ota Benga were both treated as if they were property and they were set in front of all society to be mocked and laughed at. All three of these stories are very similar and somewhat sad.

To learn more about Ota Benga's click here. Also to see more about Ota's story and hear peoples interviews about his story on a national radio broadcast click here. If any of you agree with my post or even disagree please comment me back, Thanks!

garage

wow. I was just looking through blogger and i found this blog post about garages! There is a little joural about it. is the link. It talks about the old days where people road buggys and things and didnt really need to use a garage. Then it brings us to the 20th century and talks about how people use garages to store cars and things. ENJOY!
The Link

Alcohol and Its Effects on the Body [Final]

MADD Mothers Against Drunk Driving Ad, A Must See! - For more of the funniest videos, click here

A person is killed every 30 mintes due to alcohol consumption. In Missouri the legal limit for your BAC (Blood Alcohol Concentration) is .08, for anyone under 21 the limit is .025. Hopefully, everyone remembers when Bob Ewell got drunk and attacked Scout and Jem. Well alcohol effected his judgement also. If Bob Ewell wasn't intoxicated he might not have attacked Scout and Jem. However, he might have anyways because he was just a big jerk, but alcohol definately altered his mindset and morals. In 2005 there were 16,885 alcohol-related fatalities, this was 39% of the total traffic fatalities for the year.

Do you want to know what I think? I think that there should be a little box in all the bars, and if you order an alcoholic beverage, you should have to put your keys in this box. When you first put your keys in the box they will take your fingerprint and give you a card with a number on it. The number card would help you remember what box is yours. When you are ready to leave that bar you have to blow in a breathalizer that is connected to the key box. If you blow a .08 BAC or below than it allows you to give your fingerprint and it opens the box with your keys in it. I believe that this would stop the legal drinkers from leaving bars and driving while intoxicated. This idea wouldn't stop underage drinkers from driving while intoxicated, however, there are more legal drinkers that are driving while intoxicated than there are underage drinkers. I hope this might have changed your viewpoint on DWI and I hope you realize that DWI is a big problem and it needs to be addressed, and fast.

Benchmark

If you ask me the Benchmark test was long. It seems like we've been taking the same test since like 2nd grade. English is not my subject and I don't like writing essays so, i kind of dread the Benchmark.

I also really like how Ms. James is letting our final be over the blog, since we've been doing the blog since the beginning of the semester. And it's a lot less stressful then a regular test.

Ten Goals

I thought the "10 goals" post was a good idea. Just 10 vague goals.

1. Don't bomb finals.

2. Get a job.

3. Get some wheels.

4. Graduate Highschool.

5. Go to College.

6. Find something to major in.

7. Do something with my degree.

8. Make enough money to get into the stock market.

9. Buy some happiness.

10. Have a son.

The Atomic Bomb (final)

Death and devastation do not even begin to describe the horrors that were created by the atomic bombs. I went on to the NPR site and read a couple stories on the witnesses of the atomic bombs. These stories were graphic in great detail of the suffering of the victims of the a-bombs. I would really encourage you guys to read a few stories from this link. The stories may be long, but they are really worth reading over. Make sure you click on the transcript and the first two bullets under explore.

I saw this audio clip that talked about a man named Jack Aeby who took the only picture of the Trinity test explosion of the atomic bomb on south east Sorroco in New Mexico. This is the picture he took of Trinity (with a link included), the first test bomb. A child who's skin is starting to die and fall off from the exposure to the bomb is pictured above.

Do you guys think that the atomic bombs should have been dropped? In my way I think that there are two ways of thinking of the delima ; no, the bomb shouldn't have been dropped because it harmed many innocent civilians, or yes, the bomb should have been dropped to save the lives of American soldiers by getting out of the war sooner. Do you guys have any other opinions on this or any other ways of thinking of this event in history? If you were the President what would you have done?

I think that this event in history relates, strangely enough, to Romeo and Juliet. In Romeo and Juliet, the two families were fighting. It cost the two lovers their lives to create peace between the families. So it took death to create peace and save future lives. The atomic bombs are like a more extreme version of this principle. Once the atomic bombs were dropped the war ended, so it took death to create peace. This, in my opinion, is a sad but true reality of war.

Thanks for all the fun classes together! Have a fun summer everyone!

what man does to man

To see pictures click here

The story I listened to was about Ota Benga who was held in an exhibition at a zoo in the Bronx. He was 22 years old and a member of the Batwa people who were pygmies. He was brought over by an American explorer with a few other pygmies. They were thought to be "interesting" to look at because they were very small. The average height of a male was the height of an eleven year old boy. People would come from all over to see these pygmies and they thought it was so cool to laugh and look at them. However, when they took them back to Africa Ota did not fit in so he came back to the states and was was put in an ape exhibit where he stayed for a year. Everyday people would stare at him and often times they would just come to laugh. The bad thing was that the people who put him in the exhibit thought that they were doing something good, they did not realize their actions at all. Finally, a family took him in but, he just could not adjust to the everyday world so he shot himself. The last thing he said was that he wanted his soul to go back to Africa where it belonged.
It amazes me how man can treat man. How they can look at one another and believe that they were better then the other person, so much better that they can put the other in an ape exhibit, keep each other as slaves, or put each other in concentration camps. This just amazes me. I do not understand what makes people just decide they are better then someone else, and I do not think I ever will.
Ota was part of a time period where the theory of evolution was heated and they used him as if he was the void between ape and man that had been missing. Even though I can see why they might think that can they not also think that he is a man that deserves to be treated like one. Listening to this made me very disturbed and I would hope that this story could set an example for the future so that it does not repeat itself. I believe Ota deserved a better life, a life back in Africa. To hear his story click here.
The story of Ota relates to everything we have been doing this year because it shows how times have changed. Just as times have changed from the times of Greek gods to the times of arranged marriages in Romeo and Juliet. In the case of Ota's story times have definitely changed for the better. It also relates to Romeo and Juliet because of how the Capulets treat the Montegues. Both houses think they are better then the other so they constantly fight with each other. This relates directly to the title of my post "what man does to man." It hurts to think that we will never live in a world that has people think of eachother equally, but we can try to make it better by trying to do better as an individual. To learn more about Ota Benga's story click here

~♥~ Braven Gilmore Girl