"Favorite" Piece of Literature

When thinking of a “favorite” of mine, I always have trouble. Can someone really have one thing that they like above all else? Personally speaking, I do not think so. Though I do think that one can have a collection of favorites. One of my personal favorite pieces of literature that we read this year was The Death of a Moth. Although extremely odd, this piece was very intriguing. While reading it the first time, I felt uncomfortable; it made me squirm and my skin crawl, but after further analyzing and in-class discussion, I found it to be very different—in a good way. The darkness of the subject, along with the sadistic words, was very good at catching my attention and keeping it throughout the entire piece. The way it was written was also extremely descriptive; I felt as though I was actually there, staring at a moth struggle for its life in front of my eyes. Being very interested in psychology, reading such sick and twisted stories such as these, that definitely indicate some sort of problem in the writer, intrigue me greatly. While reading the story, I was not only trying to analyze what the writer was saying, but I was also trying to analyze the reader. The fact that a short story had such a big effect on me and my thoughts is what makes it one of my favorites. It made me think more than any other story I have ever read and that is what I love most about it. 

Once in a Lifetime...

If money were no object, what would you do for your “once in a lifetime” aspect?

If money were no object, I would choose to get into a van with a group of musically talented strangers and travel the world together. First, we would start off touring small places, such as cities and towns in not-so-popular states. Then once the word got out about our band, we would start going to much more popular states in America, such as New York, California, Texas. All of our concerts would be free concerts merely performed for the pleasure of the people, not for the materialism that comes along with the money. After we become very famous and widely known throughout the world, we will start performing in different countries as well, starting from small, unpopular ones and building our way up once again. This has to do with nature because we will be touring in that van throughout and living in the van as well. We will also be doing all of our performances in nature, such as in fields or farms, just to make it more personal and intimate. We will basically be looked at as the group of “musically talented hippies” because of the fact that we will be living in our vans with the exception of stopping by at hotels to shower and restaurants to eat. Once we get popular enough, we will go to Armenia and perform our songs as well as Armenian songs. This will not only increase our popularity, but also Armenia’s. This is truly a dream of mine because I will be surrounded by people who have the same interests as I do and I will be doing what I love most every day as free entertainment for the world and be able to connect with people on a different level. 

Pope Francis Speaks the Truth

"Francis Uses 'Genocide' To Describe Armenian Killing, Turkey Reacts"
Source: Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/12/pope-francis-armenian-genocide_n_7049802.html

On Sunday, April 12th, 2015, Pope Francis recognized the massacred of 1915 in Armenia as the first genocide of the 19th century. He said that denial is evil; "Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without bandaging it" (1). He continued to say, "Silence encourages the tormentor, not the tormented" (1). This shows Turkey a justification as to why he recognized it as a genocide, although a justification was not at all necessary.Turkey was of course very shocked and upset by his statement and immediately called upon the Vatican ambassador to complain and mention that the country would release an official response later in the day. The minister of Turkey, Mevlut Cavusoglu, released his statement, saying that what the Pope said was "far from historic and [the] legal truth is unacceptable" (1). Pope Francis showed that he is not for public relations with countries, like America for example, and chose to speak out the truth in order to get justice for the men, women, and children who were senselessly massacred by the Ottoman Turks. Aram I, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, immediately heard and thanked the Pope for the recognition.
As previously stated, this showed that the Pope is not for pubic relations. By saying this, I mean that the Pope does not care for relations between the countries and how they can benefit from one another as much as he cares for what is right. Turkey is stuck in a corner. More and more publicity and recognition is occurring throughout the world; the best thing for Turkey  is to finally grow up and admit to their faults. Not only is it their last option, but it is the only one that is morally correct that is morally correct after a century of different kinds of torture to the Armenian people.

Injustices Occur All Around the World

"Arrests after woman beaten, set ablaze in Afghanistan"

By Greg Botelho and Masoud Popalzai 

Source: CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/20/asia/afghanistan-woman-killed/index.html

On Thusday, April 19^th, 2015, an Afghan woman was brutally abused and burned alive in Kabul. She was dragged onto a roof and hit with a stick, while many angry, screaming men surrounded her and started beating her. A video was released, showing the woman’s face covered in blood, before she is pushed to the floor and beaten with rocks, boards, and kicked multiple times. In the last part of the video, it shows her being engulfed in flames. It is not known for sure whether or not she was alive during the time she was put on fire. The reasoning behind this horrific and inhumane act was due to the assumption that she had burned the Quran. CNN says they have not seen any proof that she had done such a thing; Afghanistan’s Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs found no evidence either.

Nahid, a 45 year old woman, was a witness to what happened. She said she heard a group of women and the victim yelling at each other, which got the attention of men nearby. Police tried to keep everything under control and closed the gates to keep them out, but it did not work, as the men jumped the fence and started beating the woman. The physical abuse ended once one of the men poured fuel on the woman and lit her on fire. After they burned her, they threw her corpse away in the Kabul River.

On Saturday, 11 men were arrested in connection to the death of the woman, but the investigation is still ongoing. The President spoke up and assured that his government is meant to protect and safeguard all Islamic values, including prohibitions of burning the Quran, if that is even what the woman did. But he continued on to say that judging this was the job of the nation’s security and legal system and not the job of citizens. "No individual is allowed to make oneself a judge and use violence to punish others in degrading manners," the President said. "Launching personal trials and choosing who to punish stands in clear contradiction to Sharia and Islamic justice."

Gender Roles are Simply Made Up

What is the impact of gender roles that society creates and enforces?

       According to the dictionary, the definition of the word ‘gender’ is the state of being male or female. But in my opinion, the word ‘gender’ should not be a permanent way to differentiate people from one another. The definition of the words ‘gender role’ put together is the public image of being male or female that a person presents to others.But again, this image of being male or female is not the same image throughout the entire human population. The way a person wants to present themselves to others should solely consist of their own opinion of what that gender does. In reality though, it is not that easy. Society unfortunately contributes to this image and what the ‘right’ image should be among each gender. It is a known fact that most people do not like the idea of ‘different’, therefore they set expectations on everything; even the way each gender should act. This does not only apply to gender roles, but also to people who might be confused with their gender in the first place. Unfortunately for people who are confused with their gender, gender roles, or sexuality, they are frowned upon by society. Although there are many people, including myself, who do not go by most of what society does or thinks, the whole idea of ‘society’ is very contradictory.  It is contradictory because we as a people make up society, so we as a people can change the mentality of society. We can change the impact of things that society creates and enforces if we just open our minds up a little. It is okay for a man to be a nurse or a woman to be a doctor; it is okay for a man to wear a wig or nail polish or for a woman to have short hair and never wear dresses; it is okay for a man or woman to stray away from society’s “perfect image” because it is okay to be different and have your own “perfect image”. 

Orphaned Baby Girl

'Baby found alive hours after car overturns in river'

By Vivian Kuo and Joe Sutton

Source: CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/08/us/utah-baby-alive-submerged-car/index.html

On Saturday, March 7, 2015, a man was out at a Utah river in hopes of some great fishing, but instead found an upside-down car with a baby girl trapped inside. The four door car was founded upside-down in the water. Rescuers arrived and tipped the car onto its side, finding the 18-month-old girl strapped in her car seat, alive, and her mother dead in the front seat. Her mother, Lynn Jennifer Groesbeck, died at 25 years old. The baby was taken to a Salt Lake City hospital, where she was in critical condition. According to a resident nearby, he had heard a loud crash the night before around 10:30 but saw nothing unusual when he stepped outside (1). If that noise of the crash was the car going into the river, that means the baby survived in the cold water, upside-down for 14 hours. The police are not sure yet as to what happened for the car to end up in the river, but took the car in for examination to check for break failures or malfunctions. Members of the mother’s family said that she had left Salem, Utah and was supposed to be on her way home in Springfield, which was about 9 more miles away. The baby’s condition is still unclear, but it was confirmed that she had not been submerged into the cold water during this tragic incident and did not get hypothermia, but three police officers and four firefighters were treated at a hospital for hypothermia. 

HANDS UP

In this episode of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart uses satire to express his opinion of the “hands up” movement all around America. Members of the football team,the St. Louis Rams, ran out before a game holding their hands up in respect of the Ferguson case. The St. Louis Police Association complained, saying that they are deeply offended and expect an apology and punishment for the players. They stated the action to be “tasteless, offensive, and inflammatory” (1).   Jeff Roorda states, “To us, it seems like rather than allowing wounds to heal, that they are picking at the scabs”. To this comment, Jon Stewart states very sarcastically that the police think that punishment and apology is the only way to get past this ‘outraging’ incident. The players and coach refused to apologize, but according to the police and media, they had apologized. The Rams official and players, however, denied they ever apologized at all. The police department tweeted the definition of apology and one of the responses from the Rams players.

“Apology: “Expression of regret for not being able to do something”

@KDEMOFF: “I regretted any offense their officers may have taken” “

What the officers did not realize is that this response was merely passive-aggressive and not at all sincere. Stewart’s satirical response to this was creating various tweets between the St. Louis County PD and the St. Louis Rams. He also states that the Rams released a ‘non-apology’ and that instead of rejecting this ‘non-apology’ like a group of normal people, they accepted, making it a “he said, she said” type of situation.