Holocaust (World Studies)

Did the Holocaust exist? Well to all the nae sayers, it did happen.  I do not understand how someone can possibly think that this gruesome act had not occurred.  There are photos, buildings, and sightings. The Nazis even kept people's belongings before they were shot or gassed.  If one was to visit the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C. they would see prisoner’s belongings, belongings taken from them.  There are also journals written during that time.  Everyone does not have the same account but in every story people fear for their lives, for the lives of their loved ones.  The images show starvation and in what poor conditions the people were kept.  Many people were stripped of their cloths and shot in graves they dug themselves.  

thought in the book "Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland" It explains that the Nazis are ordinary people and did not want to kill so many but did not want to step out of line, due to fear of being ridiculed or killed.  The soldiers would drink while shooting people as well as after to try and forget the faces and screams of the young and old they have shot. There are accounts from the killers and the killed/survivors. For so many different types of proof to surface is irrefutable evidence of the occurrence on the holocaust. 

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/holocaust/essaypics/medicalexp.jpg

This is an example of how people were treated. Meir children were so underfed, under clothed, and kept in unsanitary conditions.  Their legs are the size of their arms and the heads do not seem like they are fit for those bodies. The children do not seem altogether pleased by being there.

http://www.shamash.org/holocaust/photos/images/EG3.jpg

This picture shows Nazis making men and young boys strip down naked before an execution. As if killing them was not enough Nazis embarrassed them and ridiculed them. 

http://www.shamash.org/holocaust/photos/images/EG4.jpg

This is when the German soldiers drank the most when they had to kill each person individually.  The strongest men were taken from the villages first to dig the grave and once the Nazis though the hole would be deep enough the people were executed.

Tell Tale Heart by Edger Allen Poe

The Tell Tale Heart by Edger Allen Poe what a confusing story. I think that the best lie is the one closest to the truth; even for a crazy person.  When the narrator expresses his extreme fear for the “vulture eye”, also known as the blind person’s eye, I am led to believe him.  I know that the “vulture eye” refers to the blind person’s eye because when the narrator shines a light on it he simply does not notice it. I believe that the narrator really did care about the old man but his terrible fear started to eat at him until he went mad and had to kill the eye sadly including the old man.  Once he kills the old man he feels successful until the guilt starts seeping in, bleeding in though every wall coming through the floor.  At first he is able to ignore it but as time goes by the guilt increases.  In the end he can no longer hide his feelings and gives in.  The beating he hears coming from the flood is made up it is just his guilt manifesting, like the bad feeling you get when you do something you know is wrong.  

The Beging of the Story

Jennifer Bouvagnet

Mr. McCarthy

American Literature

May 5, 2011

I wake to the sound of birds singing their good mornings to one another, the light flapping noise of wind moving my shades and all the sunlight poring in through my window. I open one eye and wonder what time it is, I wonder if I should break the warm beerier my blankets provide but sleep overcomes me and I close my eyes for a little more. Unable to fall back into my dreamless sleep and tugged by my empty stomach I rise out of bed to make myself some breakfast.

While shuffle down my stairs to the kitchen I ponder on what I want to eat this morning. Due to the light happy early feeling this morning I decide to make myself a favorite, crêpes. I go to my magical box of cold; people call the fridge and retrieve eggs, butter, milk and one cannot forget the most important, the succulent red strawberries to garnish my early morning treat. Quickly I grab the remaining ingredients and whisk everything in a blue mixing bowl. I am now all set to commence the cooking. I lick my lips in anticipation. Done! I drop a few cut and washed strawberries and dig in.

With a full stomach I go back to my room and get ready for the sunny day that awaits me. To commemorate the blooming flowers I decide to wear my equally bright floral romper. I secure my navy blue police arm cover over my arm and grab the semi stylish women’s hat to place it on my head. Before I leave the room I grab an eleven inch long golden brown smooth piece of wood, my wand. Though technically I don’t need my wand to perform any of my mystifying tricks I like the cold feeling of wood between my fingers, it gives me a sense of stability and it is where I draw my confidence.

It has been many years now that we sorcerers were able to come out of hiding. Grandmother told me that when her mother was young, she was not able to tell anyone about what she could do. It came to the point where the only people that would know about ones powers was the direct family, no one else.

The reason we had to come out of hiding was because creators from the Old World were looking for a new source of food. Hundreds of wizards rose up to protect their new planet. Which brings us back to the present, it is my duty to serve and protect Chicago. I am part of a task force used to destroy the dangers from the Old World.

Today is May 8, 2057 and for some time now there have been one too many dragon attacks for my liking. I step out onto my front yard and breathe in the crisp air which has a slight after taste of smoke. Around my house I can see baby birds chirping in their nest waiting for the mama bird to come back and feed them their morning breakfast; big bugs and little bugs alike hurrying to catch some of the morning dew sparkling on the dark lush and half singed grass, and Jell-O my faithful 200 year old pooch peeing next to a tree. Lovely J

I stole out and greet the usual neighbors and I start paroling the streets. Nothing usually happens in the mornings; well nothing I cannot easily take care of. I run into a 3 foot tall, oily, wart covered troll racing down Wells Street holding a white purse with a strap much too long to be his. And in the distance I see an old women screaming “STOP HIM! HE HAS MY PURSE!” I think on my toes and conjure up a freezing spell. “Frigidus!” A cool snow reflective blue come swearing out of my sleeve, around the wand and smack dap in between the troll’s pointy shoulder blades.

With an accomplished feeling I trot over to the troll delicately grab the bag from the troll, I am not sure if it is just his face, but has the most horrific grimace and is giving me the stink eye. I unfreeze and handcuff the troll, apparently named Albert. 

The old woman who finally was able to get to us thanks me and takes the purse. She attempts to hit the troll but I quickly step in her way. She protests with “But he is just a slime ball troll he is nothing!” Repulsed I tell her that they are people to no better or no worse then her and that I do not tolerate that kind of behavior. I tell her she should read a history book about when black people were treated the same. I guess history really does always repeat its self.

The rest of my shift went by pretty smooth I just had to break up a fight at the chess tables about who won the game by W. Menomonee Street.

On my way home, to finish off the day I stop by the original Twin Anchors founded in 1932 (which is located in a building that dates back to 1881) that still makes the best tender, fall to the floor delicious, baby back ribs. I sit down on one of the green swiveling chairs at the bar and saver those glaze covered brown jewels. There is nothing better than good old fashioned baby back ribs. Before I leave I have to look at myself in the mirror behind the bar to make sure I wiped all of the rib sauce off my face.

It is getting dark and people are rushing home. It is the danger time, the most danger filled time of every day.  Dragons, thought beautiful with their various colors, sizes and shapes, come swooping down to find their dinner.  The city has designated areas where fresh, raw, bleeding meat is left out for them but there are always a few dragons that like the hunt.

Sorcerers are on high alert during this time.  I station myself with a couple of my compatriots in the middle of the LaSalle school play ground. It is the easiest place to battle a dragon and the place that is most likely going to have the least amount of damage done to it. The air’s balance of crisp air and smoke is changing. I begin to take short breaths to try and keep my lungs as clean as possible we have to squint to see things in the distance. The silence that accompanies these things makes everything three times eerier.    

TO BE CONTINUED.....

Northern Downpour by Panic At the Disco

^ This is the song I picked. It dose not violate any of McCarthy's rules, and is not a straight forward song.

'If all our life is but a dream
Fantastic posing greed
Then we should feed our jewelery to the sea
For diamonds do appear to be
Just like broken glass to me'

It is saying that if we lived in our dreams riches mean nothing, they are worth the equivalent of broken glass that washes up on the sandy beaches.

'And then she said she can't believe
Genius only comes along
In storms of fabled foreign tongues
Tripping eyes, and flooded lungs
Northern downpour sends its love'

There is a young girl that falls in love with someone. The only problem is he is from far away, and their love just cannot work out. When she realizes this she cries.

'Hey moon, please forget to fall down
Hey moon, don't you go down'

There it is probably saying that in the girl's dreams they can be together and she dose not want her dream to end because it is the only time they can be "together"

'The ink is running toward the page
It's chasin' off the days
Look back at boat feet
And that winding knee
I missed your skin when you were east
You clicked your heels and wished for me'

The two lovers write to each other but it has been a while since they have seen each other. They remember good times together on a boat and getting a windup doll. But they still long to be reunited again.

'Through playful lips made of yarn
That fragile Capricorn
Unraveled words like moths upon old scarves
I know the world's a broken bone
But melt your headaches, call it home'

The girl remembers the fun they had but understands that it is all fake. He is to far away for them to be happy. The yarn refers to a yarn doll, she can play with but it soon is not enough. And the way he tells her that he loves her become old and do not have the same meaning behind them. She is sad but this is the way it has to be.

'Sugarcane in the easy mornin'
Weathervanes my one and lonely '

They had a summer love. The sugar cane reminds them of each other and the love they shared.

'Hey moon, please forget to fall down
Hey moon, don't you go down
You are at the top of my lungs
Drawn to the ones who never yawn'

The boy doesn't want life to end even though it is a living hell without the girl. He is singing this song about her, telling her that he still loves her more than anything, but living without her, is bringing him more and more closer to his death.

On the Reservation

On the reservation…. What do YOU think about when you here that? Mr. McCarthy thinks about the T.V. show “No Reservations” hosted by Anthony Bourdain. I think about an Indian reservation, not the ones with tepees but the ones with casinos. I think an arid piece of land almost uninhabitable but because the first people understood Mother Nature and what she had to offer they somehow survived.

A reservation to me is a bad piece of land with little resources, where people of the same race live together.  Though on Indian reservations they live by different laws, I see communities within our everyday lives to be like reservations. Think about it, in China Town there are restaurants with menus solely written in Chinese. They also have a larger about of Buddhist temples and their churches are in Chinese as well. The neighborhood has to be brought up. I am pretty sure that they did not get the cleanliest most prosperous land out there.

It is the same for almost all communities because no matter how much people like to say it we are still segregated. Thought people do not think much about someone’s skin color, where groups of people live, that is significant. When people immigrate to a new country they try to find people they can relate to, thus communities what are build with the same race of people.

prop·a·gan·da Say it Right or Don't Say it at All

Propaganda what is propaganda?

WEBSTER SAYS: prop·a·gan·da

   [prop-uh-gan-duh] 

–noun

1.

information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely tohelp or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.

There was propaganda way back when you grandmother was born, when your great grandmother was born, when your great great great great great great greatygreat grandmother was born.  There has always been propaganda.  Many time you here about people using propaganda to get what they want, so in wars and in advertisements. 

In history we are talking about the First Indian Rebellion or as Americans call it the Sepoy Mutiny. This rebellion was started with propaganda.  There was a rumor going around that the bullets the British were giving the Sepoy were greased in cow and pig fat.  This posed a problem because to Hindu people, cows are sacred and to Muslims pigs are taboo.  This caused the people to revolt against the British.

Another war related form of propaganda but more resent is the war in Iraq.  America invaded because the government was saying that they had weapons of mass destruction.  And even after multiple spies came back saying they found none with all the propaganda the government had enough people behind them to go to war. 

One last thing that uses propaganda is ads.  I will zero in on McDonalds because I am sure that everyone knows then and has seen a commercial from them.  In all their ads they say it is fresh and healthy for you but that is a lie.  Everyone knows that is clogs ones arteries and increases their chances of plank buildup thus heart attacks.  And that the ingredients are pretty far from being fresh.  But in an advertisement they are not going to say that to get people to get people to buy their food. 

Graffiti Where Is It?

Graffiti is a way to express oneself and show off ones work to the world.   In the movie Beat Street I totally agree with Ramon’s point of view with tagging.  He does great things that have true meaning behind it while there are some that want to write their name quickly and be done with it.  Though I don’t condone writing on people houses without permission I do believe that there are areas that should be brightened up.  In France whenever I take the highway the walls around are always covers in people’s art! I honestly would rather see people spray painting whatever they want in colorfulness, and seeing each person one after another blend their thoughts with other’s thoughts, than a plain gray wall.  I also think it is so cool when we drive under a bridge and you can see graffiti all along it.  It amazes me that people can get there, probably be in mid air and still do such intricate designs. I miss seeing that.  Now in Chicago all I see are little black scribbles in marker on the train chairs and windows.  Occasionally when I walk around I come across really cool things and wonder who did it.  I feel like they have just showed me a little bit of their soul.