Was the Iraq War Just or Unjust?

Highlight the white highlighted writing to see what it says, i copied and pasted a quote and this site hates when you do that -_-

The Iraq war is a very disputed war. George Bush stated that the war was “to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people.” He also said that Iraq’s WMDs threatened world peace. In 2005, the CIA released a report saying that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Many people point out that there was no evidence of there being any WMDs in Iraq. Therefore Iraq did not pose as a threat to world peace. Now onto the subject of Iraqi ties to terrorists. While George Bush and his administration were saying that Saddam Hussein supported terrorism, US inelegance analysts strongly disputed this. The CIA even said that Iraq had no ties to leaders of al-Qaeda. Now for freeing the people of Iraq, that was true and is just. Saddam Hussein killed hundreds of Shi’ites, put down many attempts to overthrow the government (which was run Sunnis, a minority group), invaded and looted Kuwait, and also had a genocidal campaign against the Kurds and other groups of peoples. There is no denying that he was a very brutal dictator and that removing him from power was needed because he was violating the dignity of humans.

            Now, is this war just? Saddam Hussein was not harming other nations, but was harming his own nation. He was murdering people of his country because they were of a different sect. He wanted to wipe out all of the Kurds. This is a just reason to start a war, to end this dictator’s cruel reign over the country of Iraq. But many believe that we invaded their country because they hold one of the world’s largest supplies of oil, and we wanted some of it. This would be an unjust reason for going to war. Bush told Saddam to surrender or we would invade, and Bush also told the UN to try to find a diplomatic solution but they couldn’t find one in the time given, which was one day.

            We knew we could easily take over Iraq, which we did in 21 days, but didn’t fully understand the Iraqi people. This is one of the unjust parts of the war. We did not understand the Iraqi people and therefore when we took over, many began to fight against us or with each other. Most of this was because people didn’t like the government we set up and each different sect wanted control of it. Once we overthrew the government, we thought it was over, but that was just the beginning, now we had to overthrow the people. This part of the war is unjust because we did not understand the Iraqi people, and therefore did not realize that overthrowing the government would lead to much more fighting for power.

            Saddam Hussein has been estimated to have caused the deaths of over 1.4 million people, many of whom were civilians. The death toll of the Iraq war is roughly more than 150,000, with 80% of that being civilian deaths. Of those civilian deaths, only around 12% were caused by US forces, which is around 14,400 civilian deaths. While the total number of “enemy” deaths is around 24,000. These numbers are just very disputed estimates.

            Was the Iraq war just? I would say it is too hard to say. Saddam Hussein killed over 1 million civilians while the war only caused around 120,000 civilian deaths. These numbers look good but then you have to look at the fact that only around 24,000 “enemies” were killed. Most of the civilian deaths were caused by insurgents or fighting within the sects of Iraq. We did not fully understand the Iraqi people and greatly misjudged how the war would turn out. Bush also did not give enough time to find a peaceful way to overthrow Saddam’s dictatorship and greatly exaggerated the amount WMDs, because there were none.  Many people also believe that the war was mostly started because we wanted to get oil that Iraq had.

After reviewing all of this I would say that this war was unjust. We rushed into the war without sufficient knowledge of the people we were freeing or of the threats of the current regime. I believe that if we had taken time to better analyze facts and get better information on the country then we would have been able to overthrow Saddam’s dictatorship without having all the fighting that came afterwards. I do not believe that we should never have had the Iraq war, I believe that it would have been more just to do it another way.     

The Growing Gap between the Rich and the Poor

            We all know there is a growing gap between the rich and the poor; we see it all the time with big corporate heads driving around in $80,000 cars while a growing number ride the bus. Some might think this is something new, but it isn’t. It happened before the revolutionary war. We see it both now a days and during the 1700s because of economic shifts. During the 1700s, the British milked the colonies for the money and the people who were struggling became poor, while the rich were able to stay afloat. It was also because of growing enterprises putting small businesses out of business. Now a days it is because of the recession; many businesses are laying people off and using the saved money to pay the corporate workers more.

            During the late 1700s life in the colonies was flourishing, for some people. It was a rough time, economically, for those who came from Europe to the colonies because many had trouble finding jobs. A substantial amount of people came over as indentured servants, but were not able to find work because many colonists had turned to slave labor. Slave labor helped many plantation owners become rich because they had a reproducing work force that could never quit and that were never paid. All the profits went straight to the plantation owner.

            People who came to the colonies to get into the tobacco growing industry also had a rough time. There wasn’t a lot of land available for use and as a new business most of your products will be more expensive than a business that has been around for many years, which will make it hard to find buyers. This all made it increasingly hard for new colonists to get started and become prosperous in the new land. Most who were rich were those who had been in the colonies for a few decades. But that is how the free market works, some fail and some exceed.

            Cities built workhouses to help the poor get jobs and get paid. Towns also collected money for the poor in greater amounts than ever before. Many of the poor were old or sick with no family to help them out. Poverty in the colonies was not even close to being as worse as it was in England or any other European countries. As much as one third of England was in poverty while only one tenth of the population in the colonies was needed public assistance in the worst of times. This was because, unlike in England, the colonies had a very large surplus of land, mainly taken from the Natives. Many people saw the widening gap between the rich and the poor as a good thing because it meant that the country was maturing and would become more stable and prosperous.

            This decade has been crippled by the economic downturn that has been witnessed by probably every country on the globe. Here in America we see it as more and more people lose their jobs and can’t find any others. The rich, though, have been able to survive and even prosper during this economic downturn. Many companies outsource and by outsourcing they are able to pay employees less money and therefore make more money for themselves. Corporate jobs are never outsourced, though, so the rich have their jobs secured.

            Our economy cannot grow with only the rich making money, and so we will be stuck in this economic downturn until someone can figure out how to get jobs for the poor. This is the main topic covered by Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.  Many large corporations are eating up the smaller ones because the smaller ones cannot survive this economic downturn while the larger ones have millions of dollars in reserve and have been around long enough that they know how to survive economic shifts. According to a 2010 analysis of Internal Revenue Service tax data by economist Emmanuel Saez of the University of California, Berkeley, the top 1% of families in America took in 52% of total income gains from 1993 to 2010.

            Tons more people are on food stamps and welfare then ever before. Many people think that the welfare system needs to be run by the state government rather than the national government so the welfare will better serve the people it was made for. Many people who are poor are old, sick, handicapped, or hooked on drugs. There are others who worked hard all their life but lost their job and have slipped into poverty. In this decade the poverty population has become more and more diverse.

            Many immigrants, who come into our country, are poor and are looking for a better life, and most find it. What they find is not exactly great in our eyes, but it is better than what it is like their countries. Many immigrants take jobs that normal Americans wouldn’t take, like sanitation jobs, lawn care, and other jobs. These jobs do not pay a lot and so many immigrants still live in poverty, but they are okay with it because it is better than their old life. Other immigrants who come to America looking for jobs can’t find any either because there aren’t any available or because of racial differences.

            Looking over these past paragraphs one can come to the realization that the economy in the late 1700s is much like that of the economy of today. In both times America is in poverty, but it is better than other countries so it still gets an influx of immigrants. During the late 1700s the poor was made up of old, sick, and laborers who couldn’t find jobs. Today the poor is made up of about the same people. The laborers in the 1700s couldn’t get jobs because a new cheaper labor source was available, slavery. In our economy, outsourcing to countries where we can pay them almost nothing is the new cheaper labor source.

            As like plantation owners of the 1700s, big business eats up its competitors and makes it very hard for a small business to start up and become prosperous. Where in the 1700s towns collected money for the poor and built workhouses, today the national government just gives money to the poor and look where that’s landed us. Welfare should be handled on a state level so that the people running it know the needs of the poor better. Immigrants back then came for a better life and often couldn’t find job, and immigrants now come in search for a better life and often cannot find jobs, but still more come anyway. This just adds to the population of the poor while the rich population stays about the same.

            The economy today is much as it was right before the Revolutionary War. With big business making no room for the little guy, immigrants not finding jobs, and the old having no one to take care of them. Back then the Revolutionary War helped solve this problem, while today a politicians promise will supposedly help solve the problem. In a few years if the economy is not getting any better, I am betting there will be some major changes in leadership. Although some might argue that this is just the way the capitalist economy works.    

Poverty

Poverty, what many people in today’s world live in. Some people believe that those in poverty are lazy or uneducated bums, well the truth is, some are, but there are a lot who are not. What defines poverty? Is it living day by day, just trying to get what’s necessary to survive that day? Is it working several jobs just to keep the house over your roof? Or is it living on the streets knowing that you will never get back to wear to were before, knowing that this is now your life because no matter what job you had before, everyone will now label you as a useless vagabond.

            Let’s say a lawyer loses his job and makes some bad spending choices. He didn’t save a lot of money because he never thought he would go without a job for a while, but now it’s been a few years since he’s had a job. His friends have been helping him out but there is only so much they can do for him, and now he is on his own. Because he hasn’t had a job for a few years, no one will hire him, and he stays in poverty. He starts living on the street where people who make a lot less than he did when he was in his prime, look at him like he’s a blemish on the face of society that needs to be covered up with a little make up.

            This is the story of today’s society. Everyone is in a way on “the edge,” because losing your job can happen to anyone and with this economy that could lead to homelessness no matter how rich you are. This is something that needs to be fixed, and with projects like Cardboard City, we can make a difference that will help the homeless. Politicians always talk about helping the middle class, but they forget about those who are homeless, because most do not vote and therefore are not very important in a politician’s campaign. Also because many believe that we need to help the middle class so they don’t drop into poverty, and then once we get the middle class stabilized we can worry about the very poor.

            The church teaches us to practice preferential treatment for the poor and vulnerable. Which is where we “put the needs of the poor and vulnerable at the forefront of our agendas.” Jesus teaches us that “it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven.” Jesus often teaches us to help the poor, to give up our material possessions to help the poor, and to teach the poor the word of God. These missions are still being done by many Christians throughout the world. The church is what helps the poor, if you look around at all the homeless shelters and donations drives, they are mostly done by churches or communities of Christians who want to live out Jesus’ mission. In today’s society it seems that the government has given the job of helping the poor to the churches of our country.

            I believe that we need to help the poor, not by just giving them food and helping them live day by day, but helping them get their life back together and helping them get a job and live independently again. I think that a state government should put in place a law that says that businesses that hire people who haven’t had a job for over a year, get some sort tax cut. This would encourage businesses to hire people who are stuck in poverty, like the make believe lawyer I talked about earlier. I also think that there should be a community started for homeless people over 70, which only runs of donations and volunteer work and sells goods made by the homeless. I would not impose that this community be run by taxes because not everything has to be fixed by the government. 

In the Dominican Republic there was a pregnant teen who had leukemia and died because of a ban on abortion. In the Dominican Republic it is illegal to have an abortion, and there are no special cases where one can have an abortion. Rosa Hernandez’s 16-year-old daughter was 13 weeks pregnant and was suffering from leukemia. She needed treatment for the leukemia, but because of the ban on abortion, the doctors were hesitant about giving it to her because it might kill the baby. The mother knew that abortion was illegal and a sin but she believed that her daughter’s life came first and so tried convincing the government and hospital to make an exception.

            After a delay of 20 days, in which the family and hospital discussed the procedure, the doctors finally started treating the young girl for leukemia, but it was too late. Her body rejected a blood transfusion and didn’t respond to chemotherapy, and the next day she had a miscarriage then died of cardiac arrest. Her mother was devastated saying that she was now nothing, that her life had no meaning anymore. This caused a huge uproar with people who wanted the abortion ban to be fixed. According to Article 37 of the Dominican Constitution, “the right to life is inviolable from the moment of conception and until death.” So the death penalty is also illegal in the Dominican Republic.

            The church teaches that in cases like this, it is okay to have a procedure that would indirectly cause the baby to die. “You shall not kill” Exodus 20:13. This is why the church is against abortion, God told the Israelites, after they escaped Egypt, that killing was against His law. It is also why euthanasia and capitol punishment is wrong in Catholics eyes. But having a procedure to fix something wrong with you that indirectly kills someone is okay because the intentions are not to kill, the outcome just might happen to be that though.  

            This is the only time that the church allows for the killing of a baby, because it is not the point of the procedure. There’s no other scenario where something like this could happen. It is because we look at an unborn baby’s life differently than a person who has been alive for a while. We relate to the older person more than to the unborn baby. If we had to choose between the lives of two adults it would be much harder than choosing between the lives of an unborn baby and an adult. This is because we do not know if the baby will even survive till birth, we cannot communicate in any way with the baby, we do not know the baby personally, we don’t know if the baby will survive the procedure, and many more things. Basically, we relate more to a living person more than we do an unborn child, and we normally will choose the life of the person we can relate to better, it’s just the way our minds work.

            The CCC says, “It is therefore an error to judge the morality of human acts by considering only the intention that inspires them or the circumstances (environment, social pressure, duress or emergency, etc.) which supply their context. There are acts which, in and of themselves, independently of circumstances and intentions, are always gravely illicit by reason of their object; such as blasphemy and perjury, murder and adultery. One may not do evil so that good may result from it.” (CCC, n. 1756.) They say that the only time we can choose a woman’s life over a baby’s is if the baby is going to die. My opinion is that it is ultimately the mother’s choice. But if this ever happened to me and I had to choose between the life of my wife and my unborn child, I would choose my wife because ultimately I can relate to her more than my baby.   

The King calls Parliament into Session… after 150 years!

By Patrick Fitzgibbon 1640

            King Charles I called Parliament into session today after 11 years of ruling without it. He got rid of Parliament because the House of Commons was protesting against him when he disobeyed a document he signed. The document stated that he could not impose taxes without the agreement of Parliament, but he was still taxing people without their agreement. The House of Commons Protested against him, so he dismissed Parliament. The economy improved while Parliament was dismissed.

            Charles I wanted to make the Scots follow Anglican practices, but the Scots would not because they were Presbyterian, and thought these practices to be too Catholic. Charles I took troops to Scotland but could not put down the rebellion so he called Parliament into session, for the first time in 11 years! We are unsure how this is going to go, if Parliament is going to give him the funds he wants or if they are just going to talk about their complaints. All we know for sure, is if Charles I wants to defeat the Scottish rebellion, he will have to come to an agreement with parliament so he can pass taxes to get funds for his army.

Get the next copy of Crazy Politics Weekly to find out what happens next!

Being Human

What does it mean to be human? By scientific terms, to be human means that you are of the species Homo sapiens. By looking at this question more philosophically, we realize that there are more things to being human than just that. If we look at Frankenstein and his monster, then we discover that they both have human characteristics, but they also have characteristics that we would perceive to make them less human. This statement begs the question, who is more human, Frankenstein or his creation?

   First I will examine the human attributes of the creation, the supposed “monster.” The monster comes to life as an adult and was made as a science experiment, which is an attribute that makes him seem less human. He does have the same feelings as a human; he longs for friends, he wants to be loved and accepted, and he feels joy, anger, and sadness. The monster got nervous before talking to the old man, and then wanted revenge when the man’s children did not accept him. That is what any human would feel.

Although the monster does do some violence in this story, wouldn’t any of us perform such violence if we were so hated and shunned from society? We see things like this happen in our society; people who feel alone and hated by society take their anger out by hurting their fellow man. Although we would call these acts inhumane, the people were human before. The line between being human and a monster depends on love; love can make a man human, love can keep people from doing harmful things. If the monster was only loved by his creator, then he would not have done all those violent things.

  The monster asks Frankenstein for a companion, a wife that will love him like Safie loves Felix. The monster knows that the love of this future companion will stop him from harming human kind and he knows that the love they will share will keep them both from becoming monsters. The monster is only less than human, by his looks and by his violent actions. The monster does not look like a normal human, and even he, himself, does not like the way he looks. He knows he does not look human.

 The monster killed the young boy, in revenge for his miserable life. The monster might look older than what he is, but we must remember that he is really only a little over a year old. Although he learns many things about life, superhumanly fast, we must consider that maybe he does not know fully what he is doing because some knowledge comes with time. By taking a closer look at this, I realize that the monster does know what he is doing because he did not feel remorse once he killed the boy and then framed it on the girl Justine, fully knowing that she would die because of it. These actions are what really make the monster less than human.

Frankenstein is a normal human being, but he has many characteristics that make him more like a monster. For instance he worked for many months with dead bodies in the hopes to create a super human. That statement describes a mad scientist, and that’s what Frankenstein was. He got so into his project that even when it horrified him, he still had to keep going. If the people he loved and cared about saw him then, they would think he was a monster.  He finally realized what he had become once the monster had come to life. Frankenstein had finally realized that he had become a monster. I think that Frankenstein was even acting like a monster when he wouldn’t tell anyone about the monster, he just sat by and watched a innocent girl get jailed then executed.

Frankenstein also has human attributes. He was born like any other human, had the want for more knowledge, has morals, and many other things like other humans. He loves Elizabeth, which as I said before can make someone human, but I think he lost site of that love when he made the monster and when he had the idea that no one would accept him if he told them about his creation. I think at some points he has forgotten about the love that she also has for him. He does not consider her emotions when he does things. I believe that for most of this book, Frankenstein is more of a monster than he is a human.

What I believe makes you human, is if you share love with something or someone that inspires virtues in yourself. Mary Shelley defines being human as being able to experience and reveal emotion, acting in accordance with the said emotions, and the ability to be aware of others feelings. Her definition is very much like mine. Love inspires emotions, and without love, one can lose site of others emotions and can totally lose emotions in themselves. 

Frankenstein

Frankenstein delved deep into the natural sciences and natural philosophy. He studied hard and took long hours to figure out how he was going to reanimate a dead body. He took parts from several bodies and put them together, and made sure his creature would be very agile and strong. Frankenstein created an 8-foot, burly, hideous, and misjudged monster. I do not think that he went to far in his search for knowledge.

You can never go to far when searching for knowledge. Frankenstein wanted to find out if he could bring a human being back to life. He didn’t just find a whole dead body and do it that way; he created his own human body. No one had ever even reanimated a normal body before, so doing this was taking it a step farther. Although I say that he did not go too far in his quest for knowledge, I do think that he was ill prepared for it; too young, not wise enough, did not think of the future, ect…

No one else had ever brought a human being back from the dead before, so he did not have the luxury of having advice from others. He also didn’t tell anyone of his experiments so no one could help him or give him advice. He needed a group of people with him while he was making his creature so that once the creature came to life, they could keep him from running away from it. After the monster came to life, Frankenstein ran from it, and basically left it unattended in his apartment. He, the monster, could have attacked someone, burnt down the apartment, or done something else horrible, but Frankenstein did not think of that. He only thought about his himself and his personal safety.

 Frankenstein did not think of the after part of creating the monster, he only wanted to see it come to life. Once he realized that he had no idea what to do with the monster, he ran and hoped to leave the problem to another person. Frankenstein was not prepared for the consequences of making this monster, and once the consequences came, handled them horribly. I will stand by the fact that if he had older and wiser scientists with him that they would have thought of these things and helped him out, and the monster would not have been left alone to escape by a frightened man.

In the world that Mary Shelley created in Frankenstein, reanimating human life is possible. If Frankenstein had not done it, someone else would have. I believe that man thirsting for knowledge is just human nature and that there should not be boundaries to it. Frankenstein was not wrong in creating a live human being, but he was not prepared for it. Creating human life is very elaborate. You have to think of all the things that could come from creating the life, and Frankenstein did not do this. So Frankenstein had the right to go as far as he wanted in his search for knowledge, but I believe he should have been better prepared and should have thought his experiment through, not just until the monster awoke, but until it returned back to death.  

The Diary of Finn O'Leary, an Irish Monk in 843.

Finn O'Leary-Irish Monk (Papar)
Donegal, Ireland. 843

It is almost winter and times are getting tough for the people around St. Mark's Monastery. I talk to some people and they say this could be a very harsh winter. I try to share what I have with the other people. Other of my fellow monks have told me to conserve what food I have so I can survive. I gave out some of my old robes to the poorer of my town today. As i was strolling about, a pagan man came up to me and same a cold wind will come from the northeast and destroy our town. "How do you know this sir?" I asked him. "I saw it in my dreams!" He spat back in my face. I felt bad for the old pagan man, for I believe he was homeless, and gave him a robe. I patted him on the shoulder and bade him farewell. I then walked back to the monastery for dinner. I discussed what the old man had told me in the street with the other monks. They told me that he was an old drunkard and to heed him no more. "You have to stop giving out your clothes Finn, its going to be a cold winter, and you going to need all the warmth you can get." Pat O'Sullivan, my good friend, warned me. "I have none left to give Patty." After we had finished up dinner and talking, I went off to my chambers for the night and pondered on the prophecy the pagan had told me.

Finn O’Leary

It’s been a week since the old man told me about his prophecy, and so far nothing bad has come. Although the weather has gone for the worse. People are burning their furniture just to stay warm. I mostly stay in the Monastery, only going out for minutes at a time. Yesterday when I went out side I could feel the biting cold against my face. I grew a beard to keep my face warm but it didn’t matter. While I was waling around checking up on some of the elder of the community, I saw a young boy walking along alone. I went up to him and sought to find out why he was out when it was so cold. “Why are you out little one? Where are you parents?” The boy didn’t answer me. “Where do you live?” Still nothing from the boy. “Hmm, would you like to walk with me?” The boy nodded his head at this and I felt good that I finally got him to respond and now I made it my job to befriend the young boy. He must have only been about 10 or 12 years old, stood only about 5 feet tall, had dark brown hair, and dark brown eyes. His eyes looked to be filled with sorrow, more sorrow than a young boy should ever endure. We walked to the rest of my visits and once done I asked him again where he lived. This time he started walking away and so I followed him. We walked for quite a long time and I grew very cold. I wanted to go back for the sun was also going down but I didn’t want to leave this young boy. My superior would also be mad at me for I was late to come back for prayer. We came upon a small shack. It had cracked boards and broken windows. Part of the roof had caved in and I wondered if this was where the boy lived. The boy stopped and looked up at me with his dark sorrowful eyes. I have to go, I’ll write again later!

Finn O’Leary

Sorry about that. It was time for night prayers and I had to go. Where was I, oh yes the house. I slowly walked over to the front door and timidly pushed open the door. What I saw inside astounded me, 10 kids about the same age as this boy and one young man of about 17. “What are you all doing here?” I yelled in shock. The younger kids kept their heads down but the young man came up to me and privately talked to me. “We are all orphans, papar, we have nothing but each other. The young boy who brought you here is Bryan, his family died during a fire last year and he walked 10 miles from his house to our city. I took him in and have cared for him, I care for all these kids.” He was tall, gaunt, long curly dark hair, freckles, and looked much older than he was. He also had a small beard. “By the way, my name is Sean.” The young man said and put his hand out for me to shake. I shook it then told him we had to get the children out of here. “Some do not have the strength to get up, let alone walk.” I looked around and saw that it was true. “We’ll carry the ones who can’t walk then. We will bring them to the Monastery.” The young man said no more and went over to the children. He told them what we were to do and then showed me the ones we needed to carry. I prayed to God that I would have the strength to carry them, and took 2 kids on each shoulder and another on my back. The young man then grabbed the last two who couldn’t walk. We went out the door and the rest of the children followed. They must have been confused; I would be if I just suddenly left my home with a stranger.

Finn O’Leary

Sorry about the abrupt ending there, I had to give care to one of the children. This answers what you probably thought; we made it back to the Monastery. Even though I was dead tired, I felt happiness in my heart for I had helped these kids. The monks and I have been caring for the children and I convinced the other monks to share their rations with the kids. The Monastery was also very warm for the kids because we had fires in every rooms going at all times. We have a tree garden in the back of the church, where we grow trees and cut them down for firewood. We replant every year. We do not give out much wood to the public for our town is surrounded by woods, but we do teach to replant trees after cutting them down so we never run out of firewood. The children have started to talk more and we are teaching them to pray, read, and write. This is a privilege for them because most people don’t learn read or writing. We teach the kids because they have nothing else and learning excites them. I even taught a few to juggle. They are starting to really like it here and we appreciate them here too. While we teach them, they teach us to have fun. We often go outside to play with them in the snow when the weather is mild. The snow is picking up and it has gotten so cold that it is unsafe for me on occasions to check up on the community. I pray for them often. I still think about that pagan man and how he is doing. I pray to Mary, the mother of God, to help the man. Sean often plays with the kids but doesn’t want to learn, saying he would rather work with his hands in a garden or building things. 

Finn O’Leary

Today we got a visitor, a young nun from a convent in Dublin. Her name was Kaitlyn, she was a quite a pretty girl, long red hair, and was average height. She came with news that some monks were coming back from the main land of Europe after a long evangelization journey. We were happy about this because we needed more help around the Monastery. They were to come back during the summer. While walking the halls I came upon Sean and the young nun talking. I overheard him say, “Thank you so much, I will make sure to be your very best student.” I found this odd because he didn’t want to learn. I hoped it wasn’t because of the girl’s beauty that he wanted it, because that’s the wrong reason. Although the young woman, as I should call her, is very new, maybe the convent wasn’t God’s path for her. We’ll just have to wait and see. At dinner we ate but I realized that Kaitlyn was not present. I excused myself and went to find her. I was lucky and found her in a few minutes at the chapel. She was praying out loud and noticed me coming in. She immediately got up and came to me. “Paper Finn, I need your help. I don’t know hat to do, I’m so confused.” She said to me. “What is the problem child?” I asked with care. She responded telling me of how she had joined the convent because her parents told her it was the only way she would get an education and live a good life. She said that she liked the convent but now that she met Sean wasn’t sure if it was the right choice. She didn’t want to disappoint her parents, but she said she wanted to be around Sean. I told her the only solution was to pray to God for the answer, and wait. While waiting I told her to get to know Sean and teach him because a good man like him shouldn’t go without an education.    

Finn O’Leary

It’s been a few days since I last wrote in here. I had been spending time with the children. Sean and Kaitlyn had been developing their relationship. I went outside and went for a check up on the community when I saw the old pagan running around wildly. I came up to him and grasped him by the shoulders and yell, “What is the matter sir?” “The cold wind is here.” At this I started hearing screams from all over the place, coming from houses, the woods, and far off. Then I saw them, the Vikings. “Everyone come! Come! Follow me! Get over here!” I started yelling, but for some it was too late. A Viking ran into a house and I could hear screams coming fro inside it. Several came running to me, and I grabbed the pagan and told him to run back to the monastery and warn the monks. “Everyone follow him!” I stayed back and tried holding off the Vikings. I was trained when I was younger as a squire but decided to become a monk instead, but I still remember the moves. A Viking ran up to me and swung at me and I ducked and punched him in the kidney. He fell to the ground crippled and I grabbed his sword and fought off four more Vikings before they swarmed my position. I ran back to the monastery and looked up and saw Sean with a bow aiming at the Vikings. I kept running and made it to the door. “How are we going to keep them out?” Yelled one of the monks. “Grab a sword and a bow, and barricade the doors. We are not losing this monastery.”  

Finn O’Leary

“We cannot fight, we are just monks, we must save the children and the sacred texts. We must find a safe route out.” Said Pat O’Sullivan. The other monks agreed and ran off to fetch the children and the bibles and other holy objects. Sean came running down the stairs to me and yell, “There’s too many of them, we will never make it out!” “We must keep them back as long as we can then, you and I Sean.” He nodded in agreement, and we both looked at the main door, which was now shaking madly and had a few ax heads in it. We backed up and took our stance, shield and sword in hand, and a bow on our backs. Behind us we could hear the scuffling of feet as the monks scrambled to get out. “Are you coming?” Yelled one of them. I shouted back that we meet up with them later. He ran out, and then all hell broke loose. The door blew open and the Vikings rushed towards us, more than I can count. Long beards on all of them, they had axes and lances and swords, shields, and helmets with horns. They had rage in their eyes, and wanted blood. Sean and I waited for them to take the first move, ducking then slicing them in the ribs. We’d slam others with our shields and pierce their amour with our swords. They were about to over take us so we ran up the stairs, some followed while others ran off to sack the monastery.   

Finn O’Leary

We fought off those who followed us, throwing them down the stairs to their death. We killed off around 30 of them before the stairs were clear again. I motioned to Sean to be quite and that he should follow me. I walked over to the Chapel, there were at least 12 inside. I walked slowly in and motioned to Sean to take them out quietly. We took out our bows and were able to take them out without a sound. They didn’t have enough time to realize what was happening before they too got an arrow through their back. We then went and retrieved the arrows. “Where to next? There are so many of them.” “We must find the small groups and eliminate them first.” I answered back. From there we went around to all the small rooms, taking out Vikings one by one. Retrieving the arrows and reusing them. We must have killed 50, maybe even more by then. I made sure to ask God for forgiveness after killing everyone of them. These men were savages and did not have good will in their hearts. We ran into the rooms of the monks and found Kaitlyn in there, dead. She had several bruises and broken limbs, stab wounds and cuts, and was lying askew across a bed with her dress ripped open.  This threw Sean into an angry rage, I tried to quite him but he ran out of the room to find the men responsible. I followed him all the way into the main hall where there were at least 60 Vikings destroying things and eating food.       

Finn O’Leary

Sean immediately started fighting them; I stood back and shot at them with my bow, used up all 20 arrows taking down 20 men. Then I got into the fight, slashing away at my right and left. A wild looking man with an orange beard hacked at my arm with a small ax. I yelled in anguish then returned the blow with a mighty swing that took the man’s arm off. We fought them like we were many men, taking out 2 or 3 at a time.  It felt like we had been fighting for hours when the largest of the Vikings came forward, breaking through the crowd, and stabbed his huge sword straight through Sean’s chest. He then lifted Sean up and threw him off his sword. I yelled as loud as I could, then ran back to the end of the hall and broke open the barrels of oil we used for lanterns. I then grabbed a stick from the fireplace and threw it in the oil. It lit up the whole place as I ran forward, and the barrels started exploding. I had anger in my eyes as I ran towards them. I had struck fear into them, and they now stood perplexed. I starting knocking them over with my shield and slashing their chests open with my sword. They finally realized what was going on and started fighting back but by now almost the whole hall was on fire. The walls were collapsing around us as our epic battle was going on. I had slain 20 men when I saw the large one. I ran towards him, he picked up his sword and brought it above his head ready to slice me in two. I was too quick for him and slid under his legs, blocking his sword with my shield as I sliced his leg off with my sword. Everyone stopped moving after this, not because the large Viking was dead but because we could hear a ferocious wind. Then it happened, the breath of God came and blew the walls down.

Finn O’Leary

I got up, opened my eyes and saw around me the rubble of the great hall. It was freezing and the cold wind blew hard against me as snow fell to the ground. The rest of the monastery was still standing, but barely. I looked around and saw that I had been almost killed, when the walls fell down, the piece that flew towards me hit the ground and was stuck deep in the earth. I thanked God for saving me, and went off into the woods where I found the rest of the monks, the children, and the townspeople that had survived. It was a very somber feeling and no one said a word. I lead them all to the ocean where we had our boat. We all got on and cast off. As we left we heard the crashing noise of the rest of the monastery falling. People were crying, others were praying, some sat shivering from the extreme cold and one man sat stooped over in the corner of the cabin. It was the pagan man; he had lost an arm in the raid. I went over to him and sat down next to him. “Don’t worry sir, we are off to Thule, where we have some monks stationed.” 

Epilogue

            Northern Ireland was attacked and raided by the Vikings during the 800s and 900s. Thule was an old name for Iceland, and in the early 900s, it was attacked by the Vikings and taken over. It is said that the Irish monks had come to Iceland before the Vikings did though. 

Can Wisdom be Taught?

            Can wisdom be taught? All throughout Siddhartha, Siddhartha is trying to acquire knowledge; he wants to learn how to reach nirvana. When he was younger he was a very bright boy. He learned things much easier and quicker than other children. Because of this he was ahead of many other kids and knew more then they did. This created the thirst for more knowledge that would control over most of Siddhartha’s life.

            Siddhartha leaves his family when he is young and goes off to live with the Shramanas. His father didn’t want him to go but Siddhartha believed that not one of the Brahmins could teach him anymore and that he must move on and find a new teacher. His best friend, Govinda also went along with him but not because he wanted to but because of his loyalty to Siddhartha. After spending a few years with the Shramanas, Siddhartha realizes that none of the Shramanas have reached nirvana. He does meditation to separate himself from his inner I and try to get to the dream like state, which is supposedly what heaven is like, but always ends up coming back to his body. Siddhartha tells Govinda how he has had a thirst for knowledge and that none of his teachers has been able to quench that thirst. Siddhartha does not believe that what his teachers do will lead them or him to nirvana. Siddhartha later leaves the Shramanas with Govinda by bewitching the eldest of the Shramanas and making him perform the necessary rituals to let them leave. Siddhartha showed the old man what he had learned by bewitching him. 

            Siddhartha and Govinda then traveled to the city of Savatthi. Here they found out that Gautama, the Buddha, is in the city. Govinda really wants to listen to the Buddha’s teachings but Siddhartha doesn’t want to because he’s heard them from other people. Siddhartha sees the Buddha and realizes that every part of the Buddha, even his fingers, radiate truth. Siddhartha now knows that the Buddha is a holy man. Siddhartha listens to the Buddha’s teachings but has a problem with it. He tells the Buddha that he teaches that all life is like a circle and that we are going around it constantly without stopping, but then there becomes a giant gap in this circle and that is what deliverance is, that is reaching nirvana. Gautama listens and Siddhartha goes on to tell how his followers will not reach nirvana because everyone has different ways of reaching it and they must find their own path. He then goes on to say that he will continue his journey and will not find another teacher for no one can teach him how to reach nirvana, only he can find his way. The Buddha then warns him to not become too clever. 

            This is a main turning point in the story. Ever since the beginning, Siddhartha has wanted to find a teacher so great that they can teach him how to reach nirvana. Now Siddhartha realizes that they are no such teachers and that he must find the way to nirvana by himself. Govinda does become a follower of Gautama but Siddhartha isn’t mad because that might be Govinda’s way and he must let Govinda find his own way. Siddhartha now believes wisdom cannot be taught and that he must find it himself. Siddhartha changes his path in life like has done before and now goes off to reach nirvana alone. Siddhartha gains the wisdom that there are no teachers that can teach him how to attain nirvana, he doesn’t learn this from the Buddha, he learns this himself from his past experiences and the Buddha’s teachings help Siddartha realize it further. Siddhartha does not want to get away from his inner I but now to know his inner eye.

            Siddhartha now knows he must center his thought on himself to reach nirvana. He thinks he got lost with all the teachings and went off track. He wants to get to know himself better to figure out what he is going to do. Siddhartha wants to center his attention on himself so he can become and know the fullest of himself. He no longer thought the world to be an illusion and to avoid it so now he learned much on his wonderings. He learned from nature and animals and everything under the sun. All this he was learning was knowledge, not wisdom. Siddhartha then takes a ferry across a river and the ferryman tells him that everything returns and that Siddhartha will too come back to this river.

             This is the beginning of a new chapter in Siddhartha’s life. After crossing this river he will not return to that state he was in. He was a young man ready to find nirvana but he did not know how. Because he did not know how and because he no longer believed the world was illusion he would learn many things from the child people, people who were not trying to reach nirvana. Siddartha first met Kamala who would teach him how to make love. Kamala taught him that he needs clothes, money, and shoes to make it in the world. Remember all this is just knowledge, Siddhartha does not gain knowledge until he leaves this city.

            Siddhartha gets a job as a merchant’s apprentice and makes money from that. At first he doesn’t care about the money and if he loses money or gains money, it doesn’t bother him. He lives in the city for quite a long time and after a while starts to forget his path and that he must reach nirvana. He starts drifting away from his path and becomes one of the child people; he becomes what he had always scorned. He had become rich from business and now cared about money. He gambled and now cared if he lost, which he never used to. He loved the feeling of fear while gambling, the fear of losing it all or winning it all. He never used to have possessions but now he did and this was a big change for him. He no longer begged for food but ate delicacies, he had parties with people, and still practiced love making with Kamala. The only thing that hadn’t changed in him was that he still didn’t love; he didn’t love Kamala like a wife and didn’t love anything else. Siddhartha was like a man that was living another man’s life and at first didn’t take much interest in it but later came to become engulfed in this other man’s life, but would never love this life because it wasn’t his own.

            After coming home from dinner, Siddhartha falls asleep in Kamala’s pleasure garden and has a dream; his dream is that the pretty little songbird that Kamala owns dies. The bird represents this life he has been living and that it is not the way and that it will end because it is human of nature. Siddartha then sits under the mango tree and thinks about his life. He has realized he has just been living this fake life, this life he considers a game. He had looked at everything of this life as being a game, getting money, losing money, becoming rich, living like a rich person, and now realizes he shouldn’t live to play this game, he shouldn’t play it over and over. He realizes that this game is at an end and that he must move on.

            Here is where he gains wisdom and no one taught it to him, he realized it on his own. He had been living this game of samsara, the game of the child people, and learned many things from it. He had learned how to live like a wealthy person but this was only knowledge that didn’t matter. Knowledge is good to know, but is useless in the long run. Wisdom is what helps you get through life and attain inner peace.

            Siddhartha gets up and leaves the city and goes to the river. At the river he wishes himself to be dead because he had became engulfed by samsara. It had almost become his life and now he couldn’t get back to his old ways. He grabbed onto a tree and was hanging over the river, ready to let himself go, when he heard it. The holy Om was coming from the depths of his soul. At the sound of the holy Om Siddhartha realized his wrong doings in trying to kill himself. He realized that death was not the right way to release oneself from the body. He then fell asleep and woke up later feeling better than ever. He realized that his sleep was just a long meditation of Om, of perfection. He had remembered all the divine things. He awoke rejuvenated, refreshed, and knowing that he has forgotten much of what he had learned when he was younger and that he must learn it again. He was not sad about it but laughed and found it ironic.

            Siddhartha was depressed and was ready to kill himself because he had forgotten so much and did not think he could get back to the way of life he used to have. After hearing the holy Om and sleeping he realized how divine life was and that he cannot kill himself to be released from his body. He had in that moment been able to go back to the way he was when he first entered the city. He now knew what to do, but this wisdom was not new to him. It had been in him but had just been covered up by years of living samsara. The Om that his soul uttered was like its last attempt at saving itself and it worked. It caused Siddhartha to realize what he was doing wrong. This wisdom he now had back was not taught to him but was always in him. This wisdom was that he does not know his way in life and that he may live one way but then change and change again and that is just the rule of things. He must live the life of many other people to find the path of his own life.

            Siddhartha learns from the river that it is ever flowing but is always there but at the same time is always new. He believes that the one who understands all of the river’s secrets knows also many more secrets, all secrets. He then works for the ferryman, Vasudeva. Vasudeva and Siddhartha both learn from the river, both have learned that nothing is past or future but everything is present. Vasudeva taught Siddhartha that the river has all voices and when you can hear all of the rivers voices at once, that sound is Om, perfection. Hearing all the voices is understanding all, so that is why you hear Om.

            Siddhartha then sees Kamala for the last time when she comes for the Buddha’s death but she gets bitten by a poisonous creature and dies. Siddhartha is left with her child, which is also his child. He tries being nice to the child and lets him get away with anything. Vasudeva sees Siddhartha’s wrong doing but does not tell him because he wants him to realize it on his own. Finally though Vasudeva tells Siddhartha that this boy does not want to live with them because this is not his path. Siddhartha loves the boy though and doesn’t want to let him go. Love, that is the thing Siddhartha thought he would never feel. One day his son runs away and Siddhartha goes into the city to try and find him. He does not see him and sits down and meditates on Om, trying to make the wound of love he felt for the child blossom and not hurt him anymore.

            He went back with the ferryman and it took a while before the wound blossomed. It blossomed when he realized the unity of the world, the unity of all life. He was able to breathe unity, feel unity, to think the thought of unity at every moment of life. This wisdom he gained through thinking about it but he first learned about the unity of all life from the Buddha’s teachings. Siddhartha’s wound still pained him and he went across the river but heard the river laughing at him and looked at it and saw his fathers face. At this he remembered how his father didn’t want to let him go but did because he knew he couldn’t hold back his son. Siddhartha never saw his father again. His father died alone without his son. Siddhartha wondered if that is what his life would be like, if his life was just a cruel circle and that all sufferings would come back. Siddhartha then tells Vasudeva about this and Vasudeva tells him he hasn’t heard everything. They go back to the river and look into it. Siddhartha sees the images of friends and family flowing into each other in the river, the rivers voice is of longing and pain. He sees the goals of all humans in the river. He saw the river striving to reach its goal, to go to the many lakes or rivers or waterfalls. To become vapor and to rise to the clouds only to come back down to the river. He then heard different voices of the river and then heard thousands of voices of the river. He listened harder and could no longer tell the difference between the voices, all the voices were now together. All the goals, all the voices, all the suffering and desire, all the good and evil, everything he saw and heard and felt in the river was the world. He didn’t listen to one voice of the river, but listened to all then he heard Om, perfection. He had heard it and now his wound blossomed and his inner I flowed into unity. He accepts everything and no longer toils with his fate. He has reached perfection, nirvana. Vasudeva then leaves him and goes into the forest. Vasudeva had nirvana too but only after Siddhartha had reached it.

            All that he has learned since he has come back from the city seems like he learned it from the river. This is somewhat true, the river did teach Siddhartha much wisdom, so much wisdom that he reached nirvana. But the river represents the world and all its feelings and goals so wasn’t it really the whole world that taught Siddhartha this wisdom? Wasn’t he part of this world so didn’t he also teach himself wisdom? The river brought everything together for Siddhartha to understand. So the answer is, no, wisdom cannot be taught, at least not by any teacher. It was through meditation and concentration that Siddhartha saw these things in the river. The river didn’t teach him perfection and wisdom, it only put the things before him to understand. He had to understand these things to gain perfection and perfection was knowing all wisdom.

                 This story is a lot like my life. I do not know what I will do when I am older and am constantly thinking about it. I do know one thing though and that is that is that small negative things that happen during my life will not affect my whole life. I do not see each day is its own, I see my whole life. I do not worry about a big test or project because I know I will get it done. I know the test will not last forever. Before an oral presentation I am nervous, but then think, “Tomorrow morning this will all be over, and will it really make a huge difference in my life? Is it so bad as to lose sleep over? No it’s not.” If I get a bad grade, I don’t worry because I know I can get my grade back up. I want to travel the world one day and maybe I won’t have the money or maybe I will. I don’t worry about my future because I know it will turn out well. This is what Siddhartha finally realizes at the end. You can’t make your own fate, you have to let fate guide you where it wants.                          

Tank man, the brave man who stood down five tanks that could have easily run him over. No one really knows who he is, or what happened to him after he stood down the tanks. Most young Chinese do not even know who he is or what he did. He fueled a revolution in the USSR, and what he did changed China forever. What he did changed the world forever.

On June 4^th, 1989 Chinese troops open fired on innocent civilians, killing hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people in the Tiananmen Square. There were tens of thousands of people in the Tiananmen Square, ranging from little children to old people, but mostly there were a lot of students protesting. The government would not have cared if it was just students, but since almost everyone was protesting the government got scared. They sent in troops to get rid of the protesters without causing any bloodshed. The troops started firing on the protesters though because they would not move. This got them to move.

This incident cost many people their lives and caused many more to get injured. The students decided to leave the square and not risk any more deaths. A day later five tanks came rolling down the street, and one man stepped out into their way, that man was tank man. The tank turned several times to pass him but he kept getting in front of it and once climbed on top of it. He was then pulled of the road by two people, who are also unknown. Tank man was a symbol, a symbol that showed that even a small force could stop a seemingly unstoppable force.

 The sad thing is that China has totally forgotten about this, actually it is more like they covered it up. They do not tell students about this, it is not on their Google. The Chinese government has basically covered the whole thing up pretty well. The only good thing that came out of this is that China gave freedom to economics; people can get as rich or as poor as they can. China has become paranoid about their people revolting against them, so they are very strict with the internet, cameras, what people say, like if your being interviewed you have to say things that will make China look like the best place in the world. Let us just say that if China had the ability to monitor what people think, they would. If the Chinese people could be shown what happened June 4^th and 5^th of 1989 I am sure that they would protest maybe even try to revolt against the government, like many other people are doing these days.     

There are over 182,000 solar panels at the Nevada Solar One. The solar panels heat oil in pipes up to 750 degrees Fahrenheit, then the hot oil pours into giant radiators, which extract the heat and turn water into steam. The steam then drives a turbine and dynamo, pushing as much as 64 megawatts onto the grid. That would be enough energy to power 14,000 households. The Nevada Solar One is the largest solar power plant built in the last 17 years.

Nevada Solar One can convert 21% of the suns rays into electricity. Although gas plants are more efficient, the solar power is free. Small motors move the solar panels so they will always be facing the sun. President Barack Obama promise to “harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories." Energy from the sun is virtually unlimited.

There are two main ways to capture the suns rays. The first way is to produce steam, with either parabolic troughs or with a field of flat, computer-guided mirrors that focus sunlight on a receiver on top of an enormous tower called a "power tower." The second way to capture the sun’s rays is to convert sunlight directly into electricity with photovoltaic panels made of semiconductors, for example silicon. Solar power became popular in the Carter era but then died down.

Europe is far ahead of us in renewable energy. In Germany, utility companies are required to pay for even the smallest producers of solar power of about 50 euro cents an hour. PS10 is probably the most spectacular showcase for future solar power. It is a 377-foot power tower surrounded by 624 sun-tracking mirrors that reflect light beams towards its crown. During the Great Depression the Hoover Dam was built and many other power plants were built. Maybe during this depression more solar power plants will be built or renewable resources used.     

Persia was a country that conquered other countries, but was also one of the more glorious civilizations of antiquity. Tehran, Iran’s capitol is an exciting, pollution-choked city beneath the Elburz Mountains. Guests in Iran are treated like royalty; they are given the best of everything. They do this while hiding their true feelings, and it is considered an enormous social asset. Iran is right in the middle of a main trading, culture changing area; between West Asia and East Asia and Africa and Europe.

You have to go through Iran to get to these places, because it is smack dab in the middle. Iran was right in the way of one of the most dramatic expansions of any people in history, the spreading of Islam. When countries invaded Persia, old Iran, they did not change the culture of the Persians but the opposite happened, the invaders became like Persians. The Persians got along with other people so well that others became like them, adopting their culture. This even happened to Alexander the Great; he married a Persian woman and wanted his troops to do the same.

The beginning of Iran dates back some 10,000 years. Persia was most likely the world’s first super power. Iran wants to become a superpower again, doing it by acquiring nuclear weapons. The U.S. government says that the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is sending weapons and munitions to extremist militias that are using these to attack Iraqis and U.S. forces. The Iranians mostly speak Farsi, one of the oldest languages in the world. The Iranians hold high esteem for their poets, who sometimes risked their lives writing the poems.

The Iranian New Year is a 13-day celebration focused around the spring equinox. Persians were probably the first people to worship one God. Iran claims to be sitting on 135 billion barrels of proven conventional oil reserves, the second largest in the world after Saudi Arabia. Iranians are not very good with getting along with new things like western culture or religion. Many Iranians thought the movie 300 portrayed the Persians in a bad way, and one man, Yas, rapped about it. Many Iranians still have a little bit of Persians in them and they are not going to give it up.      

      

The oil sand industry first moved into Alberta in 1963. Syncrude is Canada’s largest oil producer. There are 6 mines of different companies in a 20-mile radius, and they produce three quarters of a million barrels of oil a day. In one April around 500 migrating ducks landed in one of the tailing ponds thinking it was a lake, and died. Greenpeace then broke into the Syncrude facility and hung a banner of a skull and a sign that read “World’s Dirtiest Oil: Stop the Tar Sands” over the pipe discharging tailings. There’s always someone to protest things that go wrong in the world.

The United States of America imports more oil from Canada than any other country, and half of that comes from the oil sands. To move the sand from the oil sand mines, they use the largest dump trucks that can be made, towering 3 stories high. Some believe that producing oil from oil sand is just the tip of the ice burg, and that soon people will start making oil from oil shale and coal, which would greatly affect the atmosphere/cause global warming. The Alberta government believes that there is an estimated 173 billion barrels of oil that can be extracted with the tools of today.

If they could get most of the oil out then there would be a total of 1.7 trillion barrels of oil available for use. They aren’t planning on slowing down with the oil sand industry either because it has been gold for its economy.    The dump trucks used burn 50 gallons of diesel fuel an hour. It takes a stupendous amount of energy to create the hydrocarbons we use to fuel our gas tanks. One man who works for Alberta Environment says that the tailings ponds are his number one priority. The mines are somehow supposed to reclaim these ponds, but they have not fully reclaimed one to this day. The oil companies are trying to balance the needs of today and tomorrow but have been forgetting about tomorrow and just thinking about today.  

The conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis dates back to the time of Abraham. God told Abraham to take his son up on a mountain and sacrifice him. Abraham did so and right before he sacrificed his son an angel came and told him not to and that God was just testing Abraham’s faith. Then God promised Abraham and his son many descendants, land, and a kingship. Now this is where the conflict begins, Jews descended from Abraham’s son Isaac and Muslims (Palestinians) descended from Abraham’s son Ishmael and Jews and Muslims disagree on which son was supposed to be sacrificed. So they both think that God gave them the Holy Land and they do not want to share it.

            That started their forever long bickering. The Jews lived in the Holy Land for a long time until they tried overthrowing the Romans in 66 AD, where they were crushed by the Romans, and the Romans moved them out of the Holy Land and spread them all throughout their empire. Since the Jews were out of the Holy Land, the Muslims decided to move in. The Muslims then lived there for hundreds of years. Then almost 2000 years after the Muslims moved in the Jews started a movement called Zionism, where Jews move back to the Holy Land. The Jews just expected the Muslims to give back the land and move out, but the Jews had been gone for almost 2000 years so the land, in my opinion, rightfully belongs to the Muslims.

            After WWII (on May 14, 1948) the Jews decided to make Israel a country again, and who was going to refuse? They had just been hunted down and murdered in mass numbers by the Nazis, everyone felt bad for them. So now Israel is a new country, but the Muslims did not like this. Mainly, no one in the Middle East liked this. Immediately a couple of the countries in the Middle East declared war on Israel. Egypt and Israel always fought because of the Sinai Peninsula, which both countries wanted control of. There has been peace between the two countries but because of the recent revolution in Egypt, we do not know how long this peace will last. Also the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, wants to kill every Jew on the face of the planet. The conflict between the two races has lasted thousands of years and will most likely last thousands of years more.          

I turned to my brother and said, “I have to write a paper on why the Mid East hates America,” he then said “The whole world hates America.” That reminded me of the fact that my neighbor travels all over the world for his job, and he said he has learned to say that he is Canadian and not American. It is kind of true that most countries hate America. A lot of people see America as fat and rich, but then again a lot of people want to come to America and live here. A lot of foreigners see Americans as ignorant because when we travel to other countries we usually do not know their language and expect everyone to just understand us bend over backwards for us. Also we are not that nice to other races. The comedians in America make racist jokes all the time, and at my old school, Presentation of Mary Academy, the grade below us had around ten Indian kids. A lot of the kids in that grade made fun of and excluded the Indians, so the next year, not one came back.

Now, why does the Mid East hate us? Well, they absolutely hate western culture and the USA is the epitome of western culture. Iran does not allow people to wear neckties because neckties are western culture. I also think they hate us because we always jump into their wars. Some of them probably do not want us over there fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is like the line from the movie Green Zone  “It’s not for you to decide what happens here.” It is their country; let them decide what happens there.

 Have you ever wondered if there is a connection between us getting into these wars that don’t matter to us in anyway except that they cause our gas prices to go up? I have, and sometimes I wonder if America stopped using oil and used some renewable resource if we would pull out of the Mid East. The sheiks over in the Mid East are probably laughing at us, the great country of America jumping into wars that they can never end just to drop the price of gas. Plus whenever we win a war we try making that country we beat, or helped liberate, a democracy. A democracy is western culture, and they hate western culture, so they hate when we come over and fight in their wars. They would probably like us to just stay in America and mind our own business.  

Some people feel that America should give back some if all of the land America gained by winning the Mexican-American War. I think that that is a totally ridiculous idea. First of all, we’ve had that land for around 200 years, why just give it back now? I’m pretty sure Mexico doesn’t care that we still have it. If they did, they probably would have started a war to gain it back along time ago. It’s just a horrible idea.

If we gave the Mexicans back that land we would most likely start another civil war. All the people in the states that were being given back would get angry and most likely revolt, and cause a war. It would not be just the people in those states fighting back; it would most likely be everyone in the United Sates fighting back. We also have most of our soldiers out in the Middle East, so there would not be enough to fight back against everyone. Also if the soldiers opposed it they would probably decide not to fight.

See that is the thing, I would think that probably 99.9% of Americans would oppose this idea. If they would support this idea, I would call them un-American, or commies. The only people who I can see supporting this would be the hippies. They are all about ant-war and all that peace and spiritual stuff. They probably want the entire world to be one big country.

If we gave back this land, we would lose California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and part of Colorado and New Mexico. I don’t think people would take too kindly to losing the Lakers, Las Vegas, and the Grand Canyon, or really any of those states. It is just such a terrible idea and I don’t think many people would support it.   

2-17-11                      America, Found and Lost

Tobacco was very popular back during the 1600s. When bringing tobacco back to England the sailors would dump out stones and soil, which most likely contained English earthworms. The earthworms ate the leaves that had piled up on the forest floor. This caused many small plants in the woods to die because they used the leaves for food. America was worm free until the English came over.

On May 14^th, 1607, 104 colonists disembarked on Jamestown peninsula. These settlers arrived in the middle of a small but rapidly growing nation called Tsenacomoco. Its leader was Powhatan, and he had tripled his nations size to about 8,000 square miles and about 14,000 people. The people lived in villages with a couple hundred people in them, and large areas of cleared land surrounded the villages. In the fall the Native Americans burned the underbrush in the forests, which made the forests look park like.

The settlement at Jamestown was one of the only settlements that wasn’t destroyed by the Powhatan Indians. Jamestown was a very bad place to settle because there were lots of mosquitoes there and the water was gross and terrible to drink. Many people died at Jamestown but many more were brought in. John Smith took charge and Jamestown started going uphill but then he left for medical treatment in England and the death toll rose again that winter.

The colonists became friendly with the Native Americans and started using their “abandoned” land as farming soil for tobacco. The colonists also brought over lots of farm animals, which trod all over the Native Americans farmland, but they were not allowed to shoot them. The Native Americans ended up fighting for food with the animals. The Native Americans also didn’t like the honeybee because it was what helped the colonies survive. The colonists kept pushing the Native Americans farther and farther west, and Powhatan never fought back.

George Washington once said that when America was founded, it had two things going for it: land and good timing. I am not too sure about what this quote means but I can guarantee that once I research it, I will find out what it means. I know that America is a lot larger in land than England, so that is probably what that part means. I do not know how it had good timing though.

America is several times larger than England in land size, which means that America has more areas for farming and mining. Which means that we would have a large income from selling materials to other countries. We also had a lot of land in which to colonize. I believe we should have shared land with the Native Americans, instead of kicking them out. We could have learned a lot from them.

There are also many animals found in America that aren’t found in England or other counties. So hunters and trappers would sell fur coats to people over seas for lots of money. During the 1800s there was a gold rush and lots of people moved out west to search for wealth in gold. Having lots of land has helped our nation, like how Alaska produces lots of oil. Those silly Russians. 

It was good timing to form our country then because if we had waited longer we might have ended up like Canada, and have the Queen on our money. It was also good timing because after the Revolutionary War England and France went to war. If we were still part of England we would have been sucked into the war, and if we revolted then England would have to split their army to fight both France and us. We most likely would have sided with France and we probably could have taken England over. So it was also good timing for England.  

4-18-11                      Will we be in the Middle East forever?

There are many points of views on this, and many variables surrounding this. Some might say we will be there forever, and others think we will be out of there soon. It all depends on many factors. The main thing is terrorists, they are there, but we do not know exactly where. That is mainly why we are over, to kill terrorists.

Terrorists are mainly just radical religious people who murder people, blow buildings up, blow themselves up in order to kill other people, all in the name of God. A group of terrorists known as Al Queda hijacked four passenger airplanes on September 11^th, 2001. They crashed two of the airplanes into the Twin Towers, one into the Pentagon, and one was headed for the White House but the brave souls in that last airplane fought back and the plane crashed in Pennsylvania. Almost 3,000 innocent people died because of these attacks. This is why we went over there, to seek revenge.

Terrorists will most likely never go away, unless the countries that harbor them change their minds and put strict laws in place to stop the terrorists, and that will most likely never happen. At first we went over to fight the terrorists, then it turned into getting rid of Saddam Hussein, then putting in place a democratic government in Iraq, and I do not think it will end. Every time we invade a country and throw out their leaders we put in a democratic government and that is not easy, and if we keep doing that we will end up staying over there for a very long time.

I think we should stay over there and fight the terrorists and anyone who gets in our way, and like in Libya, if some government is oppressing their people/killing their people we should go there and fight against their government, but only after coming up with a legitimate plan that will simplify things and allow us to be in and out in a short period of time. The thing with Iraq is that they are like our child, and we do not want to let them go on their own, we want to keep supporting them because we do not want them to fail. But parents have to let go at some point, so we should let go of Iraq and wait and see how they fair. We can bring the troops back, let them rest for a few years, and then bring the ones, who want to go back, back to the Middle East to fight terrorists.

But while they are back, we should come up with a new game plan. It is like in sports, it is hard for the coach to get his players to perform a specific play, or show them a new play, without calling a time out. I think America should call a time out, write up a new playbook, put in the bench players, and then teach the starters the new plays. Once the starters are ready we should put them back in, and keep the bench players in too even though that is impossible in sports, and have them teach the bench players the new plays. I do not think we should leave the Middle East until we kill every terrorist and scared straight anyone thinking of being a terrorist.           

-         Time zones are different areas of the world. The time zones start at the prime meridian. Time zones are based off of when the sun rises in a certain location.

-         Demographics are characteristics or attributes of a place.

-         Solar Energy is a renewable resource. It is using the energy from the sun to power things that need electricity.

-         Lines of Latitude are the lines that go from east to west on a map. They measure how far north or south something is from the equator.

-         A Solstice takes place at the beginning of summer and winter. It is when the poles point towards or away from the sun.

-         23.44 Degrees is the degree at which Earth is tilted. It is the degree of tilt of the invisible like that goes through the center of Earth and to it poles.

-         Equinoxes are at the beginning of spring or fall. It is when neither the of the poles point towards or away from the sun but point sideways.

-         365 ¼ days is the amount of time it takes for Earth to revolve around the sun. Every four years we add an extra day to February because of the ¼ day.

-         Pangaea is the large landmass that all the continents used to be. It broke up because of the shifting plates in Earth’s crust.

-         The 5 circles of latitude are the Artic Circle, Tropic of Cancer, Equator, Tropic of Capricorn, and the Antarctic Circle.

-         The seasons begin on March 21^st  (spring), June 21^st (summer), September 21^st (fall), and December 21^st (winter).

-         The 8 Planets in the right order from the sun are:

1)      Mercury

2)      Venus

3)      Earth

4)      Mars

5)      Jupiter

6)      Saturn

7)      Uranus 

8)      Neptune 

-         The equator divides the world into the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere.

-         The Prime Meridian divides the Earth into the Eastern Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere.

-         Parallels go east to west

-         It takes Earth 24 hours to rotate.

-         The Earth’s rotation causes day and night.

-         The Earth’s revolution causes seasons.

-         The seven continents are:

1)      South America

2)      North America

3)      Australia

4)      Asia

5)      Africa

6)      Europe

7)      Antarctica

-         The five oceans are:

1)      Pacific Ocean

2)      Atlantic Ocean

3)      Indian Ocean

4)      Antarctic Ocean

5)      Arctic Ocean