One Survivor Remembers

1.       In class today we watched a movie called One Survivor Remembers, it was a very touching movie that talked about the horrors of the “death walk” and other horrors of the Holocaust. The scene that I felt was the most powerful was the one were the US soldier came to bring the Holocaust survivors back t safety. Gerda said something that was as simple as holding the door for her was so warm and welcoming. Also, Gerda talked about how they were a winner if they had a crust of bread and life. That shows how many things we take for granted including food.

2.       The Nazis were very cruel people who dehumanized their fellow humans. In the book Night it said a way the Nazis dehumanized them was by shaving them and depriving them of so many things like food and clothes. In One Survivor Remembers ,they made them work and took away many food resources. They starved them and made them beg like a dog does.

3.       Question three asked about, what I would fantasize about to escape my environment if I was in the same situation. I answered XBOX360 because it just lets me escape reality. There are so many cool games out there that make me happy. But, I almost cry when I can’t play on it and that makes me realize how I take XBOX for granted. I also take food, shelter and clothes for granted. I try not to but sometimes I just do because it seems so normal to have.

4.       There is persecution currently happening in Pakistan. Some Palestinians are targeting Christians. Recent news talks about how a Christian couple in Pakistan was brutally beat for something they didn’t do. There have been other cases too. I feel that the king of Pakistan could sit down with the President of the US and come up with a solution to stop persecution. Maybe, they could put a law against discrimination in Pakistan.

5.       I think that Gerda’s father was a hero in the film. He always looked out for her as he should. Gerda’s father told her to where her ski boots in the middle of the spring. That may have saved her life in the Holocaust; she said that, “I saw girls breaking off their toes like twigs.” If she had have worn sandals like the other girls the winter might have killed her also.  That made me hopeful because, that makes me think about how our parents aren’t just talking to hear their voice; they’re talking to help us and me no harm no matter what. We could tell people this message and that could make the world a better place. Listen to your parents!

                                                                                                                      

Milkweed #5

I am reading the book “Milkweed” and the ghettos in this story are similar to the ones of reality. On the Holocaust Museums site they had stories from the Holocaust survivors. A portion of the site talked about how the transition from home in Misha’s case the shed was extremely difficult to the ghetto homes. The Nazis deprived the Jews of everything. In one case one of the Holocaust’s survivors was a rich girl. They took everything from her and now she lived in horrible conditions. She happens to recall the soldiers dragging dead bodies out of the house she was supposed to live in. The foods in ghettos were very limited and Misha happens to take the chance of getting shot just to get food. Also, in the story Misha and Janina’s family were in need of food so badly that they ended up eating rats. The harshness of the conditions they went through were terrible, and each thing the Nazis were putting them through dehumanized them each time. The hard thing to believe was that this didn’t happen too long ago, and that fact that no one knew about these events makes it even more mind boggling.

Blog #4

Milkweed and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, are all very similar books. They are all about the holocaust and both of them have kids die in them. But, you would be surprised of how different the protagonists are. The conflicts in the stories are very different. The conflict in the Boy in the Striped Pajamas is that the main character is to curious and that gets him into too much trouble. His friendliness is great but that later in the book gets him killed. In Milkweed, Misha wants to know the world and that gets him beat. He is also an orphan and knows nothing about the world. But, the things they are motivated by are very similar. They are both motivated by their curiosity and disobedience. Their age is the main cause to these traits but in Milkweed the main character is already maturing. He is on the inside of the barbed wire experiencing these horrible disasters when, the main character in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas was just watching it from outside the fence. They were both very naïve boys and were influenced by the things they saw. Bruno (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas main character) was just practicing what his dad did. In the first few pages of the book you didn’t know his dad’s occupation but, it said Bruno clicked his heels together stuck out his arm and said, “Hiel Hitler,” meaning his dad was a Nazi. Also, Misha witnessed the desperate thing people did for food and later caught on to the trend of robbing people of food. Misha and Bruno’s lives were very different, but the things that motivated them through the Holocaust were all the same.

Milkweed #3 Blog

I have just started the book, Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli and I’m  kind of disturbed. You have orphans running around the slums but the things they do for food are incredible. Also, the things they consider themselves since they are Jewish. One part of the book said, “He fell to his knees and scrabbled in the straw near the horse flop. He found something. He held it out to me. It was a small brown insect. “This is a Jew…” “A Jew is and animal.” All of this was directed to one kid named Misha Pilsudski who is the main character. He is an orphan who can’t even remember the simplest detail. The worst thing is that he can’t even remember his name. Misha Pilsudski was given to him by the orphan’s leader named Uri. Uri warned Misha about the realities of life and how awful people can be, especially the Jackboots otherwise known as the Nazis. I am assuming that this book takes place in a ghetto but you can never be sure due to the moving of the characters, in order to avoid the Jackboots. Later in the book the Jews were being moved to a ghetto and that is what is weird. The disasters in the town they are living matched up with what a ghetto would look like but, they are allowed to do a lot of things. Wherever they are in the world Nazis have take over the space and that is a big problem. Since Misha does not know where he is from he doesn’t know his religion. He was left with a yellow stone around his neck. Very majestic! Due to the stone Uri believes that he is a gypsy. That is a problem because in the story I learned that there wasn’t anything Nazis hated more than gypsies. That puts him in an even deeper ditch. Since he has to avoid the Jackboots and he can’t go to school he is not educated. Everywhere he goes he is telling everybody he is a gypsy. That has cost him abuse from the Nazis who have beaten him and shot of his earlobe. Once he is educated he may do well in life. But, if he continues his life this way he may end his life a lot shorter than he had planned.

Night #2

          

We just read an exert from Night, in class. I could infer that the reason they were starved and being shipped was because they were going to a concentration camp. A woman named Mrs. Schachter was screaming about fire on the train ride there. The narrator of the story mentioned that she may have been hallucinating, but there is a problem with that. You usually hallucinate about your needs, but she may have been hallucinating about death. She kept screaming, "Fire" and "My fellow Jews." I can infer that she may have been thinking that they were in Hell. There were people dying and being tortured and that may have been where she thought she was. She was annoying everybody and was loud, but why would men beat her. Also, why would she start screaming again if they just beat her? None of that makes sense.

#1 Blog, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

 I have just started the book, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and I'm already shell shocked. It started off with the main character Bruno having a magnificent life. He had everything, a beautiful house, friends and he was rich. The story starts of in Berlin, Germany in a wealthy environment. Bruno and his sister Gretel don't get along, but that soon changes when he moves to his new house next to a rural part of town. His family and butlers leave everything behind in Berlin when they are forced to move, because of his father’s job as a member of the German army. Everything is super different than what it used to be. He now has no friends, a smaller house, and he lives in a rural part of Germany. The first thing he did when he got to his new house was look out his window. He saw out of his window children that he could possibly play with. He tells Gretel about the kids and his sister follows him to his room and they look out the window together. That was the closest they had been in a while but it was in such a bad moment. When they thought what they saw was the country side it was something totally different. It was really a concentration camp. Bruno is a little rattled from the sites, and now the only person that really made him comfortable was his sister Gretel.

Flyers go BIG again!

The flyers are off to a great start this year, two games into the season and I can already picture them in the Stanley cup. The first game of the season they beat the Boston Bruins, the defending Stanley cup champs. The next game they won and are off to a 2 wins no losses season. The seasons long but it already looks promising for us. Go FLYERS!

My interpertation of the Flower Garden

The Flower Garden by Shirley Jackson, is about a woman named Mrs. MacLane who moves into a town where everybody is friendly. But, not friendly enough, because when Mrs. MacLane hired black people to work in her garden the people of the town expressed feeling’s of hatred towards her. It gets to the point when Mrs. MacLane and her son have to leave the once friendly town.

 All Mrs. MacLane wanted to do was help make an impact on someone else’s life that was in need. Mrs. Winnings was friends with Mrs. MacLane and had the chance to help stand up for Mrs. MacLane, because she made an impact on the black gardeners lives by hiring them. She then gave them a place to stay, but in order to keep her image she blew her chance. Mrs. MacLane let the people get under her skin and Mrs. MacLane then left the town because she felt too much hatred towards her.  This book has a connection with the book I am currently reading Black &White. The character black took the blame for something white did and now black is going to have to go to jail and serve time for what white did.

During the time of the story we sadly got to know the full round character of Mrs. Winnings. In the beginning of the book Mrs. Winnings was a great lady, always caring for her family and friends, but at the end of the book her reputation was too big to stand up for Mrs. MacLane. After the event of Mrs. MacLane hiring the gardeners her second to last friend let her go, Ms. Winnings. In the passage it says, “Mrs. MacLane and Mr. Jones both turned, and Mrs. MacLane waved and called out, “Hello!” Mrs. Winning swung around without speaking and started, with great dignity, back up the hill toward the old Winning house. This parts show the mean streak inside of her. Due to Mrs. MacLane’s feelings for people in need Mrs. Winning’s couldn’t hang out with her because she hang out with “different” people.

One Idea could change a whole life

            A man of simplicity once said, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” That man was Albert Einstein. An example of his words could be smiling to someone on the street or at school. If you’re shy like me you wouldn’t even have to start a conversation. You could also have fun with this testimony.
You have probably practiced this act by inviting someone over your house. All these decisions you make could brighten someone’s day. But how do you know if you’re changing their lives.
        

       I find simplicity could be interpreted as a big whisper down the lane game. What you say or do could change someone else’s life. So, as an eighth grade leader, that responsibility falls on the shoulders of me and my fellow classmates. According to Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” So our job is to set an example for the grades below us. Do something that you would want to see passed on to others. Here is an example of an ordinary action that changed someone else’s day.

(Video.)

    

 This week’s query is: How can you make a small decision to change someone else’s life?

           

      http://www.values.com/inspirational-stories-tv-spots/102-Pi-ata

Simplicity

I choose the first article to write about because I do feel there is only one really important place; and that is your heart. Everything is built around your heart, all of your thoughts all of your actions. That is why I also believe, "Simplicity means centering in on that which is important and letting go of the rest.

As an American we are so privileged and we tend to lose track of our wants and needs. Including me. We should be able to live with few possessions because there are only three priorities we need. Food, clothes and shelter. We are so caught up with looking like a "big shot" that we forget about the people that live within 50 miles of us that are homeless. We should have a goal to live with few possessions so everybody can be equal. We should, "Live with few possessions and entanglements, but more broadly simplicity is and attitude, an approach to life.

I agree with the statement, "Simplicity helps us to maintain clarity of mind and purpose." I think that we should put other people who are in struggle before us. They do not have too much hope without a hand but neither do we. With simplicity in the world everyone would consume less. Then we would all be equal and the world would live in a more simple state of mind.
Source- http://www.wisdomcommons.org/118-simpicity/essay

Read the simplicity packet.
Choose an idea from the packet and write about it.
Be sure to quote the article or passage you are referring to and make sure you cite your source.
3 paragraph minimum
Crammar and mechanics must be correct

The Bigger They Are the Harder They Fall So Giving Up's Not A Option.

As a kid I was very energetic but not very athletic. At the age of 7 I lost my first soccer game and on the car ride home I started crying. My mom told me to stop crying and get back up, heartbreaking but that pushed me to believe in a hard work ethic. At the age of 8 I made the all-star team is soccer. In baseball I made the A team and played up a year, all of this great stuff happened in my life but still I remembered why I had accomplished these goals. I had never given up. Just like Tony Hawk you should strive to do your best. To only strengthen my beliefs I went to my grandfather’s house one evening and he sat me down and asked me, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" I told him an architect. He then looked me in the eye and told me his life story he told me that he grew up in Ahoskie’s, NC in a 2 bedroom home and he had 3 sisters and a mom. At a young age he wanted to be a doctor but his race and where he came from held him back for a while. He then went into the army so they could pay for his high school education. He graduated top of class and then went to Howard University. He got his M.D and became a doctor. Every day I try my hardest at whatever I do. Every day in school I try to do my best to study hard and pick other people up when needed. I try my best to have that always happy attitude and never let anything get to me. Being a Christian that has also shaped what I believe in. I have learned to forgive and forget. I may get down on myself but I will always get through it. I let nothing bother me. I try my best to do well in sports to because I may not always be the biggest one out there. There may be someone twice my size but that doesn’t matter. That is why I believe no one no matter what circumstances should give up.

As a kid I was very energetic but not very athletic. At the age of 7 I lost my first soccer game and on the car ride home I started crying. My mom told me to stop crying and get back up, heartbreaking but that pushed me to believe in a hard work ethic. At the age of 8 I made the all-star team is soccer. In baseball I made the A team and played up a year, all of this great stuff happened in my life but still I remembered why I had accomplished these goals. I had never given up. Just like Tony Hawk you should strive to do your best.            To only strengthen my beliefs I went to my grandfather’s house one evening and he sat me down and asked me, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" I told him an architect. He then looked me in the eye and told me his life story he told me that he grew up in Ahoskie’s, NC in a 2 bedroom home and he had 3 sisters and a mom. At a young age he wanted to be a doctor but his race and where he came from held him back for a while. He then went into the army so they could pay for his high school education. He graduated top of class and then went to Howard University. He got his M.D and became a doctor. Every day I try my hardest at whatever I do.            Every day in school I try to do my best to study hard and pick other people up when needed. I try my best to have that always happy attitude and never let anything get to me. Being a Christian that has also shaped what I believe in. I have learned to forgive and forget. I may get down on myself but I will always get through it. I let nothing bother me. I try my best to do well in sports to because I may not always be the biggest one out there. There may be someone twice my size but that doesn’t matter. That is why I believe no one no matter what circumstances should give up.