~On the Reservation~

Reservations were a way for Americans to give some of the land back to the Indians without having to lose much on their own end. Reservation life was not nearly as well off as the lives Americans lived. There was poor schooling, not enough food, and disease running rampant. The living conditions were horrible and there were usually too many people forced into an area that couldn't hold that kind of capacity.

While reservations did have some sort of community set up in them, they were still just a place the whites pushed all the Indians off to. Americans, at that time, were extremely racist when it came to people who weren't of the same skin color as they were. So to make sure they were still supreme, they made their own areas and neighborhoods to segregate themselves from anyone who wasn't white. Even if it meant those people had to live in conditions no person could or should ever live in.

I don't think anyone would ever want to have lived on a reservation, but we still forced people to live like that. Why is it that Americans could never see past skin color to truly understand who a person was? We always manage to judge a book by its cover and never actually read it for ourselves. We've missed out on a lot of great books in the course of generations of living here in America.

~Propaganda Today~

Propaganda-information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.

 

Today, we see many examples of propaganda, from the smallest advertisement in a magazine to the biggest political endorsement commercial whenever some election comes around. Propaganda has been around for years, and there's definitely no shortage foreseeable in the near future. Propaganda today has the connotation of being something bad. We don't see much propaganda helping people in a positive way anymore. The only way it "helps" people is by making everyone else look bad, thus putting them in some pathetic kind of "hero spotlight" for everyone to look up to.

 

Propaganda usually comes in the form of something relating to politics or our country. For instance, there was the HUGE bp oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. That had just about everybody up in arms about it in some way or another. And what was right beneath the surface of that accident? You guessed it: politics. See more bp logo redesigns here: http://twistedsifter.com/2010/05/funny-creative-bp-logos-competition/

Politics always seems to somehow squirm its way into anything and everything that comes up in the news these days. No matter where you go, you can't avoid it. The worst are those TV advertisements where politicians running for an office blatantly put down their opposition by bringing up instances where their opponents stated this or that, making them seem bad in the public eye. I personally hate those. I just don't understand why people can't go and talk about all the "great" things they could do if elected instead of bashing their opponent to make themselves look better. We could really do without all the mud slinging.

 

Let's face it: propaganda is something we will all have to deal with, probably for the rest of our lives. It has become something so "vital" to the political scene today that politicians can't seem to run for anything without it. They physically cannot be elected if they don't go out, drag their opponents' names through the mud, and make it seem as though they have a deal with the devil. What ever happened to go ole' honesty and showing people what YOU can do to fix things instead? It went down the drain, along with the economy and our country.

~Hungry For Attention~

There are times in everyone's life when they want attention. A lot of times it is because something or someone has taken away the attention from you, attention that you're very used to getting. But then there are times when you might feel neglected. You want attention merely to let people know that you are still there.

Richard is more of a combination of both. He starts off wanting attention because he feels that he isn't getting enough from others. That's why he set the curtains on fire. He thought his grandmother was getting more attention than him because she was sick. And then later he wanted attention because he had basically been abandoned by everyone he saw as family. Richard didn't grow up the way normal kids do. Most six year-olds don't earn money by going to saloons, getting drunk, and telling people things for others in the saloon. Richard was getting attention, but it was from the wrong type of people.

Attention is something most people enjoy getting, but sometimes not for the best reasons. Richard is young, so it's normal that he would want attention, but he got it from the wrong places. It's not a childhood anyone would wish on even their worst enemy. Attention is something that can truly go to your head.

~Read and Respond: Walden~

In Thoreau's Walden, he tells the story of how he wanted to get away from all the material things in life that take away from the true human being. So he decides to live in the woods in a cabin to try to get as simplified a life as he can possible manage. He manages to do so for two years but then returns to his old life because he realizes that he has been subjected to so many "necessities" of the common world that it becomes hard for one to give those things up entirely.

What appealed to me in this story was how someone was wanting to actually "degrade" themselves, according to what people think is the normal life and what is a lower, poorer life. But it was because Thoreau wanted to live without all these strings attached. He was trying to achieve the simple life by doing what he did. And I'm sure all of you have thought about going out and trying to live off the land. We may think at first it would be really cool and that it wouldn't be that hard to do, but it's the exact opposite. We've lived with so many common necessities that if we had to give those up, most people wouldn't be able to. And the few that could, you probably wouldn't last very long out there.

In the end, you even see that Thoreau came back to his old life. He realized that not only is going and having to do everything for yourself a challenge, but the fact that you have to completely change your lifestyle so you live without commodities you use every day is very taxing. Not many people can stand up and say "I want to be a farmer," and then go off and be a farmer. We've lived with too many things that make our lives easier that giving them up would be next to impossible.

So I commend Thoreau on what he tried to do, because it's something that was not easy in the least. But he found something out for all of us when he tried to live on the land by himself. It proves that there is no simple life: no matter if you live with everything you can imagine, or next to nothing, you will still meet challenges in life that will require you to actually do something about it. If anything, we've learned that what we call "the simple life" is actually way harder than our "pampered" lifestyle.

~Is King Still King?~

Every year when January rolls around, we get out of school for Martin Luther King Jr. day. But do people still think about why we get this day off anymore? I know I still do. King was a great man in our history. He truly believed that for this country to be called the United States of America, we would all have to accept one another for who we were, without any discrimination and segregation. He was one of the few people who wasn't afraid to go out and tell the world what needed to be done. That took great courage and determination from one person. And it proved that you can make a difference if you try hard enough.

I like to believe that people today still remember that what King did had a huge affect on our lives. Without people like him, we probably not be where we are today. Out country would still be horribly racist and everywhere would be segregated. Think about it: some of your best friends wouldn't be your friends or even in the same school as you if things were still the way they were back then. You wouldn't know the same people, and you wouldn't have the same wonderful experiences that you've had because you've been able to get to know so many different people. That's what truly makes us so diverse as a community, a state, and a country. And to think all this spawned from the actions of a few people who truly wished to see, or at least set in motion, a place where everyone's children could play together without being judged by the color of their skin. Really makes you think, doesn't it?

So when Martin Luther King Jr. day comes each year, think back to what he did and how it affects your life and the whole world. It wasn't something that had a big effect when it happened and has since only been written into history, it was something truly radical that changed the life of the country as a whole.

~Read and Respond: Children of the Sea~

The short story that caught and held my attention the most out of the ones we read was Children of the Sea. The story is written in the form of letters written back and forth between two young lovers who were living in Haiti. The boy had made it onto a boat that set sail to America for a better life but the girl  was still back in Haiti with her parents so there was no way these letters could reach the recipients. But it was a touching story nonetheless.
Your typical 'love story' (if you can even call this a love story) wouldn't normally be found in this format, or even surrounding this topic. Most love stories are the classic hackneyed Romeo and Juliet romances. Bleh. But this story was more than just about two lovers; it also majorly focused on what was happening in Haiti and why people were fleeing. During that time, the government was in turmoil and wanted to eradicate all those who spoke out against the government. The people were literally like slaves in their country, forced to do horrible things for the amusement of the soldiers just to stay alive. It was a very hard time indeed, which is partially why I was drawn to this story.
What's also nice about reading a story written in an epistolary style is that we can get two or more (in this case two) points of view. We are able to see what both the boy and the girl are facing on the boat and back in Haiti. It's so touching how they continued to write to each other even though they knew neither one was going to get these letters. And it's interesting how the letters from the boy stopped, leaving us to try and fill in the blank as to what happened to him (did he drown, is he alive, etc.).
All in all this was a very interesting story (from what we read) and a bittersweet one at that. It's nice to see something other than some sappy love story surface in the great sea of literature. And one that I found interesting too.

~Song Review~

It's so hard to choose just one song or album for this review, so I'll name a couple of my favorites. First has got to be Within Temptation, a Dutch band that is classified as "symphonic metal rock". Now while that's a mouthful, their unique style of music is utterly fantastic. The way they blend their background beats with their wicked guitar playing and outstanding lead vocalist, Sharon den Adel, makes for a truly interesting experience. Some of my favorites include The Howling, The Truth Beneath the Rose, and Stand My Ground, just to name 3 of my 21 songs by them. Definitely check them out if you're into that kind of music.

Another of my favorites is Nightwish. While similar to Within Temptation, Nightwish is a Finnish rock band that has more of a variety of styles. For instance, their earlier works with their previous lead vocalist, Tarja Turunen, has a more 'opera' feel to it because her vocal range was so high and melodic. Their current music is what you would compare more to Within Temptation, with the fast beats and the hardcore background. Their current lead vocalist, Anette Olzon, has a deeper voice, but can still hit those high notes. A few favorites with Tarja are Wishmaster and Nemo, and a few with Anette are Sahara, Amaranth, and Bye Bye Beautiful.

Lastly, I gotta say I'm a huge sucker for soundtracks. If I see a movie that has music I love in it, I go buy the whole soundtrack. Probably my most recent buy was the soundtrack to Robin Hood, the 2010 film starring Russell Crowe. No vocals, just plain instrumentals with astounding swooping notes and falling scales that perfectly capture the moods of each scene. And then there's the music from The Secret of Kells, a 2009 animated movie loosely based on The Book of Kells. While I love every song in that movie as well, the one that stands out the most is Aisling's Song (pronounced 'Ashley' or 'Ashlyn'). The song switches between English and Irish Gaelic, a dying language I am beginning to learn. Check it out some time. You'd be surprised at what comes off to be a childish movie is actually quite the contrary.

So I guess that's my music in a nutshell. I'm not one to run off and listen to all the pop culture songs out there. I'd much rather listen to my vaguely obscure bands and movie soundtracks that few people have actually heard of (as in listened to the songs, not just one lyric).