"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.