Journal #17 Peaceful Protests

I think that peaceful protests are not only important to the United States but, also very important to the whole world overall. There is so much violence in this world that whenever someone or a group of people have a violent or extreme protest it just adds violence into the already chaotic world that is not needed. Back in history, there have been many peaceful protests that have really helped for rights for people. Today peaceful protests are still popular with protests such as boycotts. Unfortunately, people also protest in violent ways in the present day world. One example of this is the war going on the Middle East where the Shiites and Muslims protest something very violently and with chaos. These very violent protests are not only dangerous for the protesters and whom they are protesting against but; they are also dangerous for the people around where they are protesting. In history, two very famous peaceful protesters were Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. These two men used non-violent and peaceful protests to get their point across and try to get the rights are things that they wanted. Gandhi wanted the British to leave India, so they could rule themselves. Gandhi demonstrated his dislike for British rule and how the people of India could run themselves, by using peace and trying to use as little of violence as possible. His famous quote “be the change you wish to be in the World” exemplifies everything that he stood for and is one of the most famous quotes of all time. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a more recent peaceful protester trying to get African American equal rights in America. In his time in America, black people and white people were segrated and forced to use different bathrooms, restaurants, etc. so they would not be close to white people. King tried to get equal rights by using peaceful protests, but these quickly turned violent because, of people attacking the protesters. Peaceful protests are very important and reliable; hopefully people continue to use these peaceful protests to get their points across.

Journal #16 Importance of Self-Reflection and a Break from Society

Taking a break from society and to self-reflect is very important to someone’s life. If you never self-reflect then you will never fix your mistakes you are making or fix some of the problems you are having. Self-reflecting is so important to your relationships with other people. If you upset someone and it is because you made a mistake, then you need to self-reflect on yourself to try to see what you did wrong and what you can to make it better. In addition, when you self-reflect it lets you do something better then next time you try something. Fro example if you drop a pass in a football game then you if self-reflect you can find out what you are doing wrong and catch the ball next time it is thrown to you. Self-reflecting is very important to every sport you participate in. I already talked about football but, other sports such as baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, swimming, or pretty much any other sport. Like in baseball if you make a bad pitch, self-reflection will let you not throw a bad pitch like that again, and do better on the next pitch. If you miss a shot in basketball or hockey, you can think about what you did wrong to try to improve on that next time you take a shot. I think it is also very important for someone to take a break from society for a little while. So much goes on in daily life that sometimes you just need some time to give yourself time to take a break. If you just to do everything everyone tells you all the time and never take some time for yourself, you will probably have a mental breakdown. That is why the weekend is so great. It gives you a break from your routine, and some time to do what you want to do or maybe get some things done you been trying to get to for awhile now. Without self-reflection and escaping socitey, life would be much more complicated.

Journal #15 What I Read for Entertainmet

First, off I will just start by saying that I am not a real big reader. I pretty much only read for school projects or for English summer reading. On that note, I read a little bit for fun or entertainment. I am a really big sports fan so my dad has a subscription to both Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine. I love to go over there and have a new sports magazine to read. The articles usually go beyond what you see on the surface of a sports story, and I think that the stories, articles, and features are very well written and entertaining. I prefer ESPN more than Sports Illustrated because, the articles are a little bit more deeper in ESPN than SI. SI does a lot of stories about the current teams and league updates, while ESPN does a lot more about individual players and the problems they are faced with or are facing and also they a lot of stuff about players who battle thorough adversity to become a great player. I think this feature a lot more than reading about the NFL midseason report, that I pretty much already know the jest of. With the much more in depth player articles, I think it not only makes you feel like you are closer to a player but, it also makes you feel like you closer to a professional league or team because you know the players more closely. I also think one reason that I like ESPN more than I like SI is that SI is a weekly thing, and ESPN is every two weeks. It makes the anticipation to greater to receive my magizaine if I have to wait for every two weeks. I not only enjoy sports magazines but, I also really enjoy reading magazines that deal with new car news or something new that concerns science. My mom is really big on the news magazines but, I would much rather read about sports, cars, or science. Overall, I think magazines are the biggest thing that I read for fun.

Journal #14 My Ideal United States

Even though we are the land of the free, America is still not perfect and never will be. Even though it is a very good nation, and one of the best in the World, it still has its indiviual problems along with the global problems that every nation deals with. One of the biggest problems facing this country is racism and sexism. Many people segregrate against people just because, they are of a different race or sex of them. Every person is born equal to everyone else and this is not fair. A person may or may not just because, of the color of their skin or what gender they are. Generally non caucassion people and females are the ones who get segregated against the worst, but everyone gets sterotyeped sometime in their life. Also I think my ideal United States would be to end hunger and violence. I know this is a cliché but, it would trully make this a better country if people were not starving and all the violence in our everyday lives were not their anymore. Another thing I would change in this nation would be to end cruelty to animals. There are many people who tortue animals or use unfairlly to make a profit. Just because the animals cannot protest the mistreatment does not mean that it is write. This would make a better living enviroment for everyone overall I think. Also I believe that if we ended global warming and the power crisis we would be a better nation. We pollute our Earth so bad by our cars and other forms of power, that it is ruining it. Not only does this harm the Earth but it also effects a lot of generations that are to follow us in this great nation. Realistically all of these problems will probably never be solved in my lifetime or many others, but just solving one or two of these would make a huge difference.

Journal #13 My Favorite....

I have many favorite things in this world but, one of my most favorite things to talk about with someone is my favorite sports teams. My favorite professional teams are all from the city of St. Louis. My favorite Major League Baseball team is the St. Louis Cardinals, my favorite National Football League team is the St. Louis Blues, and my favorite National Hockey League team is the St. Louis Blues. Recently St. Louis has been a very good sports town so it is very easy to cheer on my favorite teams if they are winning. The Rams won the Super Bowl in 1999 and made it back to the Super Bowl in 2001. In the last couple of seasons, they have become the laughing stock of the NFL winning very few games, and being winless this season. The Cardinals won the World Series in 2006 and made it to the World Series in 2004. They looked very promising this year but, they played very bad and got swept in the first round of the playoffs. That was a major dissapointment because, many people that the Cardinals were gonna win the World Series or at least make it to it. My favorite hockey team the Blues has a lot of potential this year with a very young core of players. Up until I think 2004 the Blues made the playoffs for 24 straight years, but then they did not make it for four straight years. Last year they made the playoffs again but, got knocked out in the first round. Since they have been bad the last few years except last years, they have got some really good draft picks. Along with these draft picks and free agency, they have built a very good young core of talent that should be very good in the next few years. Overall, it’s a lot easier to root for your teams when they are winning but, they are my parent teams so I always root for them.

Journal #12 Declaration of Freedom

I am writing about the Delaration of Freedom. Being free is one of the most important things a person can have in their life. What do I classify as free? Having the options of freedom of speech, assembly, press, and basically have in your possission ways to express your opinion in mnay different ways. In the United States of America we are very lucky enough to have all of these freedoms. Many middle eastern countries and nations do not have these freedoms. Woman in these countries and nations have to wear something to cover their faces and they do not have the right to openly express their opionion in some way. Not only woman but, also men in these countries can not express their opinions openly. The leaders in these countries are scared of what could happen if they let the people make their own choices and believe that the people could cause a rebellion in the government. Since they are scared of the people, they do not let people have such freedoms of speech and assembly. The governments of these nations produce the newspaper and also produce the t.v. shows that the people of these nations are allowed to watch. In America, our forefathers created the Declaration of Independace so that we could have these freedoms and luxuries. We can read whatever newspaper we want, or watch whatever televison show that we want to watch. If I choose to start a club of some sort than I can hold meetings whenever and wherever I so choose to hold those. Even though the government may not like what I am holding the meeting for or not agree with it but, they mostly have to let me do whatever I want unless, it is a terroist or some illegal organization I am associating with. I like the freedom we have in the United States and I can not imagine what my world would be like without the freedoms I currently have.

Journal #11 Logic/Reasoning vs. Emotion

There are two main ways to support your main point in an essay: logic/reasoning and emotion. If you are writing a persuading essay then you will more than likely be using one of these techniques or maybe even both. I personally believe logic/reasoning is the best way to support your side of the story if you are trying to persuade someone. If you use logic/reasoning then you can actually have proof to back up your point. Usually logic/reasoning then it is usually factual and you can back up your point. Plus I also think that usually logic and reasoning persuades the reader more because, you actually have facts to back it up not just emotion. Using emotion can also be a very powerful way to persuade someone to see your side of the argument or to persuade them. If you are powerful speaker and writer with your emotions then emotion is probably a much better route to take when you are supporting your essay. Also through the years many generations used these two types to support their arguments. The Puritans infamously used emotion over logic and reasoning to support their arguments. Their religion was so strong that they used it to support their arguments they made. The used emotion and religion to try and persuade or support their topic or argument that they are trying to make. They used their emotion towards religion and how they believed everything came from God that they use them in almost every written work they produced. They used religion and emotion to support their arguments in novels, stories, poetry and any other works that they did. The Enlightenment was famous for having people very logically and reasoned very well. The people of the Enlightenment carried this over to their support in their literary works. They included very logical and reasonable support that is usually backed up. With these two main types of support, you can use either one logically for support, it just depends on your preference.

Journal #10 School Spirit

School spirit is a great thing to have. It is great to show support for your school and show that you care about your fellow class mates, sports teams, and also the school itself. This week we are having spirit week for Homecoming and there are many ways to show school spirit during this week. Each day has its own theme and if you do that theme then you earn your class points. Each class competes to see who can get the most points. The themes were hat/jersey on Monday, cowboy/cowgirl on Tuesday, mis-match on Wednesday, class color on Thursday, and spirit day on Friday. Along with the spirit week days to earn points you also earn for your class float in the parade as well as various activities during the Friday prep rally in the afternoon. There are many activities during the prep rally and participating in them shows that you have much school spirit. These activities include the tug of war, baby bottle chug, partner dress, refrigerator box run, and also the balloon stop. Doing on of these or a whole bunch of these of these activities show you want to participate for your class as well as you showing school spirit. To show school spirit is very important. You should be very proud of your school and proud to go there. Having a spirit week not only shows school spirit to the fullest but, it also gets you excitied to go to school and try and beat all the other classes. The teachers show school spirit because, they do not usually give homework during Homecoming week so that the students can have as much fun with the week as possible and show their school spirit. Along with not giving homework the teachers also showed school spirit themeselves by dressing up.