Class Debate: Rwandan Genocide

Yesterday in class we debated the topic of the genocide in Rwanda. My group represented Paul Kagame, and even though I think we had a pretty good idea of our part in the genocide, I’m still not exactly sure of everyone else. I feel like we do not know enough about the other groups, and the questions I have to ask and the questions of others are not entirely answered, they seem a bit opened ended. And I’m not exactly sure who to blame. But, for the rivalry of the Hutu and Tutsi, I definitely blame Belgium. First they favored the Tutsis, and then before they pulled out of Rwanda they switched the power over to the Hutu because they said that they had made a mistake favoring one over the other but how does switching the power to the other group make anything better? One would think that in order to restore peace between the groups, they would split the power evenly between the Hutu and Tutsi groups. I do not blame the U.S. or the U.N. because the United States had just come out of a war and placing myself in the shoes of the U.N. I ask myself, “What side do you take?” As for France, they decided to help the official military of Rwanda, which seems like the most logic thing to do.
This debate has become something that I don’t see myself too good at because I am able to see the situation from everyone’s view and you would think this helps, but I often find myself wondering why NOBODY sees their wrongs in this, because they ALL have done something they should not have done and I just want to ask everyone why they can’t forget their differences, realize they’ve made mistakes, stop what they are doing and restart, making sure that neither group has more power than the other to ensure peace for the future. I just don’t understand. They probably know they’ve done wrong, but they have too much pride to admit it was wrong and come up with reasons for their doings. I think that if the opposing groups were to work together to find out what started their dispute, they might come to find out whose fault it really is. From the debate on Thursday, it seemed like all the outrage began when the Belgians came in and favored one over the other because before the Belgians came, they were separated and yes, one had a higher status than the other but they were not favored in the way the Belgium did and I believe that this could be the origin of the chaos.

The American Scholar

Emerson’s argument that a person’s job has begun to define them in “The American Scholar” does not hold true today.
In the United States a person’s job does not have to define them. For example, if someone is a police officer, they can be much more than that as well. They can be a father, a cook, a handy man, a basketball player (probably not pro, or anything like that, but they can still enjoy playing the game); they could even go back to school to become a doctor if they wanted! It is their life and they can choose if whether or not they want their job to rule out all else. We can be “Man Thinking” if we choose to be so. In “The American Scholar” Emerson wrote, “The state of society is one in which the members have suffered amputation from the trunk, and strut about so many walking monsters - a good finger, a neck, a stomach, an elbow, but never a man.” This means we are never whole, never using all our parts, never using all our minds; only portions of them working at a time. Most people today use more than one portion, do more than just one job; in fact, many people have several jobs because they need the extra money.
When a police officer comes home after a busy day at the station and goes to the grocery store in need of food to make dinner, he does not watch for a speeder or for someone to run a red light; he may notice it, as any of us would but he would not memorize the plate number to report to the presently working officers. They keep work life separate from home life. Same goes for the majority of people. A teacher does not come home to her family and begin teaching her children geometry. A builder does not come home to start adding on to his house. If someone has two jobs, they keep them separate from one another, one often being much different from the other; in which case they would need several different skills. My best friend’s father is a college professor as well as a vice-president of a sporting goods store. Although these jobs keep him busy, he always finds time for family. He and many others surely don’t allow their jobs to define who they are.

Energized by Candy

This past weekend was Halloween and even though all I thought of for most of October was Homecoming, I was really excited for Halloween as well. My friends and I didn’t really make plans until the week of and we literally decided on a costume two days before Halloween; we were sailors. And even if we did make plans a little late, it was definitely the best Halloween yet!
For Halloween, I went trick-or-treating with Taylor Cieslak, Gabe Baugher, Brooke Kucha, Kelly Glynn, Sam Spokaeski, Bridget Fitzgerald, Rachel Zuckerman, and Ally Koltunchik. We went to Sam’s house for pizza and stuff before trick-or-treating. I didn’t realize how cold it was until we were out walking around, and I was freezing because I had a thin shirt one, cropped pants and ballet flats. But we all froze together, except for Ally who had the brilliant idea to be and Eskimo for Halloween! We went around in Sam’s neighborhood for a while, stopped at her house where we several of us borrowed sweatshirts from Sam and we went into a couple other neighborhoods as well. When we were done trick-or-treating, we had heard of this haunted house/yard that someone had set up on a street off of Newburgh. We decided to go. When we pulled up there was a man, dressed in a black cape and wearing a scary mask that crept toward our car until he was up against the window. All of a sudden, he banged the widow and made a terrible noise! Even though we were all ready for him to do something like this, we all screamed, and I felt bad for the mom who was driving us. He kept near our car, hitting the windows and looking in them, us screaming the entire time. And at one point, when he had left the car, Taylor, Sam, Rachel and I decided to get out of the car! At first it was only Tay and I who had gotten out of the car, because as soon as we stopped and got out, the man ran towards the car! And when Taylor and I were the only ones who got out, he began to chase us! But being the cross country runners that we are, he couldn’t touch us! Although, I will admit we ran straight for the car and piled in. When we finally returned to Sam’s house, we all stayed over late, sorted our candy and watched a movie.
After that, Tay, Brooke, Gabe and I spent the night at Brooke’s house. Gabe fell asleep as we began to watch Silence of the Lambs and after the movie was over, Tay, Brooke and I stayed up to about four, energized by our newly acquired candy stash.

For as Long as I Can Remember...I've Been Drawing

I have been drawing since I was about two, starting by tracing my hand with the help of my mother. We were always drawing together, my mother and I, with me attempting her star and heart doodles as well as the bubble letters in which she wrote my name. And quite often I would ask her to draw Ariel, my favorite Disney Princess, for me so that I could color her in. Again, I was tried to draw my own princesses as I watched her draw Ariel. When I started pre-school at the age of three, one of my favorite activities, of course, was drawing. I must have drawn a lot of people, mostly princesses, because one day my teacher asked my mom if we drew a lot at home (which we did) and told her that for such a young age, she was amazed at the detail I put into my pictures.
I continued to draw in my free time, for my pure enjoyment of it and when we had free time in kindergarten, I drew there too. I can remember one girl asking me for drawing lessons because I drew so well! These drawings would not seem so amazing now, but back then, they were the best drawings we had ever seen. In second grade I started going to Art 101, located on Farmington, just a couple buildings north of Bates. It was there that my art skills began to flourish. It started with the simple face of a character of my choice. I chose Ariel (Big surprise there, right?). I can remember Scott, the owner, showing me for the first time of many how to get the basic shape of your drawing down first. I can remember watching and noting in my mind the way he sketched, just dark enough for it to be visible on paper and just light enough so when erased, no one would ever know the lines had been there to guide me. After that I went on to drawing in more detail, like where her eyes would be and the way her hair is shaped, afloat in the non-visible water. With some help from Scott, and probably a few others who worked at Art 101 at the time, I had drawn Ariel pretty well and it was time to add color. First I had to trace over every line with a black Sharpie and erase all pencil marks beneath. Scott then had me add marker, red for her hair, a peach color for skin and so on. And these markers were not just mere Crayola markers, I don’t actually know what kind they were, but they were much better than I had ever used at school or home. After that, I learned how to shade. Start dark with your color pencil and get lighter as you go until it fades into the color of the marker (you always use a color pencil slightly darker than the color of your marker). Once I had done that, I was finished and Scott had me sign it.
Since then my drawing skills have blossomed. As I grew older, I began to do much, much more on my own. About a year ago, Scott decided that I was ready to actually draw a person, a real person. Something I have waited for since the day I started. I chose a picture of Audrey Hepburn and started to work on it at art. It took me a while and it was done in pencil, when I finished it…Scott thought it was so good, he wanted to keep it to hang up in Art 101, with all the other amazing pictures done by students who have gone there. Of course I let him keep it, for having a picture hanging up there is another thing I had always worked towards.

A Prize Won for Good Intentions

Since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been awarded to men and women from around the world for achievements in chemistry, physics, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace. The prize was founded by a man named Alfred Nobel, who, in his will left much of his wealth to the establishment of the Nobel Prize. You see, he was the inventor of dynamite, which he used to blast rock in his family’s business of construction work. However, the market for dynamite grew quickly and his business was exporting the dynamite to other countries in Europe, America and Australia; he also founded factories and laboratories in 90 different places in more than 20 centuries. As he grew old he put an advertisement in the newspaper looking for a “lady of mature age…as secretary and supervisor of household.” A woman came, but soon decided to leave in order to marry a man back in Austria (where she came from). But they did keep in touch and she became a prominent figure in peace, which no doubt influenced him to write a peace prize into his will. He died in 1896 and when his will was opened he surprised everyone with the fact that his fortune was to be used as a prize in the few fields above.
Very recently, the Nobel Prizes have once again been awarded to a select few people for the year of 2009. The Peace Prize, which just may be the best know of them all was awarded to the United States own president, Barack Obama for “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”. When I heard this I was extremely surprised. I wondered to myself, why? Why has he won the Nobel Peace Prize? He hasn’t accomplished any big peace agreement or anything, what has he done to earn this? His extreme efforts are what they all say. Personally, I was under the impression that the prize is presented for an accomplishment, not a set of goals made that haven’t been reached. Even the President himself wondered what he had done to have such an honor thrust upon him. He didn’t have to accept it, of course, but he did accept it, he said “as a call to action.” Although I feel that to have won this extraordinary prize, action should have already taken place. When he actually accepts the award, on December 10th, 2009 he will also receive his cash prize of 1.4 million dollars, which he intends to give to charity. This fact alone makes me feel a little better about his winning the prize.
Again I wonder what he has accomplished to win this prize. He hasn’t. He has been given the reward for his efforts towards nuclear disarmament and American engagement. And the former president of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari “saw the award as an endorsement of Mr. Obama’s goal of achieving Middle East peace." In each of the previous sentences, I think we need to look at a few key words, such as “efforts” and “goals”, especially “goals”. I do not believe the Nobel Peace Prize should be won for setting “goals.” Reaching these goals, yes, but not by setting them. And by setting these goals and achieving this prize, there is now quite a bit of pressure on President Obama to reach them. But the wars are not over yet and there isn’t peace in the Middle East, when someone actually achieves this they have definitely earned a Nobel Peace Prize. But for now, I guess we’ll just continue to fight.
For more information on Alfred Nobel or President Obama accepting the Nobel Peace Prize got to:
nobelprize.org
www.nytime.com

I've Been Thinking Lately...

Recently a friend told me a story of how her friend’s house burned down. It was started by something wrong with the cars in their garage and the fire spread through the house. I can’t possibly imagine what that would be like, they lost everything; their clothes, pictures, things you cannot replace and anything with meaning to it was lost in the fire. As hard as I try, I can’t possibly imagine what must have been like, losing everything.

So, lately I have been thinking what I would do if my house was to burn down. You are always told to get out right away, but I honestly don’t think I could do that without grabbing a few things (ok, maybe a lot of things) that are important to me. I think that if I were in that situation, I would grab my purse first and throw in my ipod and camera (my phone too, if it wasn’t already in there). I would then find the biggest bag in sight and start throwing stuff in there. Right now those items would probably be my Homecoming dress, all my art books, my journals, probably as many clothes as I could, and all my pictures. I would also probably grab a few of my favorite books since they are right on top of my desk. I also think that if I had time to, I would run downstairs to get my drawings off the stairway to the basement, because those things mean a lot to me! I put so much in to those, I can’t ever imagine losing them to fire. Then again, I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose anything in a fire.

I say this now, but I really don’t think I realize the intensity of having a fire in your home. And what if it happened while I was out and nobody was home? I would for sure lose everything then. And what if there was no time to grab all those items (which there probably wouldn’t be)? I would be so devastated. For me, the past week has given me time to realize how lucky I am to be living where I am, and have a roof over my head with a house containing everything I need. First it was the fire and then I went to the Invisible Children Night on the Field, which really woke me up. I couldn’t believe the things I saw during the video that night. I thought of the things I take for granted every day and compared my life to the lives of child soldiers in Uganda, realizing how inhuman some people can be and how thankful I am to be here today. Sometimes I think my life is hard, but it’s nothing compared to the lives of many.

Words Unspoken: First Day of High School Memoir

At five in the morning my alarm clock began to buzz and I awoke in a daze, slightly nervous and extremely excited for the day ahead. With breakfast on the mind I flicked my lamp on and stumbled downstairs in search of food. I found some cereal and figured that would be as good as anything else; the cereal, loud against the walls of a glass bowl, and the milk looked rather smooth, flowing over cereal like a shallow stream over pebbles. When finished with breakfast, I headed back upstairs, brushed my teeth and stressed out because on my first day of high school I didn’t have a clue what to wear.
Not knowing what I’d wear on the first day of school was a first for me. I have always, always known what I was going to wear at least a week before school had even started! But now I wasn’t sure at all. I was going to HIGH SCHOOL and I wanted to make a good first impression. Many times I feel that a person’s clothes can say a lot of unspoken words about someone’s personality and I sometimes think of them as a projection of who they are inside. If someone is wearing smelly, wrinkled clothes, to everyone around this person their outfit is screaming words such as careless, messy and unorganized, and even though this may not be the case for this person (I mean, who doesn’t have a bad hair day once in while?) it is what people will think about them without getting to know them, especially if it’s the first time they see you. Personally, I don’t want people thinking the wrong things about me because of what I was wearing the first time they saw me.
Do I wear jeans? Probably, I hope it’s not too hot in school…it’s supposed to rain, I thought to myself, jeans are definitely a go. Now for a top; tank tops are definitely out of question, (Who owns a tank top with three-inch straps?) so I’d better go for short sleeves. Which actually worked out perfectly because I had just gotten a white, v-neck t-shirt. With coral, orange and light yellow “paint” strokes printed on it. My outfit was beginning to say everything I wanted it to about myself; art has a lot to do with who I am, making this shirt absolutely perfect for my first day. There was just one small problem: jeans and a tee seemed too plain for a first day of anything. So, I threw on a thick, brown, braided belt with a large buckle around my hips to complete the ensemble.
The next step in my morning routine was by far the easiest: hair and make up. I’d pin up some of my hair using bobby pins and let the rest of my spiraling chestnut waves fall freely in front of my shoulders and down my back. Make up was a piece of cake and as soon as l was finished with it, I quickly made my lunch (peanut butter and jelly), grabbed a folder, my purse, cross country bag, slid flip flops on and walked out the door in just enough time to be driven by my mother to the bus stop and not miss the bus (being late can say quite a bit about someone as well).
After only a few moments the darkness was broken by the bright lights of a yellow school bus coming from the left.
“Have a good day! Love you!” my mom called as I hopped out of the car and approached the bus. The doors to the bus opened and a familiar breeze blew hair away from my face. As I walked up the bus’s steep steps, I searched for a familiar face to sit by. Thinking that one of my two best friends would have already been on, I was disappointed to find that she had not yet been picked up. I plopped down in an empty seat behind a couple of boys about a year older than me and waited, staring out the window and watching as the morning light grew brighter with every minute that passed. Turn, stop, pick up a group of kids and keep going was the bus routine, one which I have become much too familiar with throughout the years. I hadn’t been waiting that long, maybe a stop or two when the bus got to my friend’s stop. As she entered the bus we immediately saw each other and smiled. Sitting next to me, we talked of our hectic mornings and the unknown territories of high school we were about to enter.
Arriving at school with at least twenty-five minutes to kill, I made my way to B hall in search of my locker. Now I was walking amongst guys, four years older, who towered above me like giants. And at that point, I wasn’t about to walk anywhere alone and soon found a friend whose locker was in B hall as well. The difference between the halls here and the hallways I’d grown comfortable with at Holmes Middle School is huge; so many more people and the age difference seems so big. This is place is crazy and confusing! I thought to myself, although I knew I was more than ready and extremely excited for the four years ahead.
While searching for my locker, I passed it and turned around to realize it wasn’t as deep down the hall as I had thought. I was a little worried that I had forgotten my combination, but surprised myself in having memorized it after looking at only once or twice during my last week of summer. I struggled for a moment, jamming my cross country bag into the sliver of a locker and was off again in search of friends whom I hadn’t seen over the summer; luckily a few of them were right down the hall. I also passed a bunch of friends (upperclassmen!!) that I had made over summer conditioning for cross country.
Twenty minutes has never gone by so fast! Suddenly I was in first hour seated next to the few people that I knew in the class. Now that the day had officially started, excitement overtook any nervousness I had left and the rest of the day flew by like a breeze, even cross country practice had been easy, although that may have been because our first meet was the following day. I never worried about not knowing people in classes or getting lost and at the end of the day, my thoughts traveled back the strategic outfit I had chosen to wear that morning and what unspoken words it had whispered to the people surrounding me throughout the day.