Semester Two: Blog 12

Dear Mr. President,

Its now finally the end of the war with Afghanistan, and I want to definitely address having a Marshall Plan with the country. I think we should always have Marshall Plans with countries, I know that would cost a lot of money but it would also be a step closer to world peace through our alliances. A prime example of why we should almost always do the Marshall Plan is when American chose to fight through the Afghani rebels to bring down the USSR. We trained them, gave them supplies and weapons until they finally held them off long enough to have the USSR think they were defeated. This was a great victory for Afghanistan, but once the war was over we just stopped giving them money and support. But because of the war all of the houses and building were in ruin and instead of helping and using the Marshall Plan we left them there alone. This later led to the 9/11 World Trade Center attack and the war we are in now. So please consider having a Marshall Plan with Afghanistan.

Sincerely,

Maira Vierheller

http://www.cacianalyst.org/?q=node/5132

http://www.matrixmasters.com/world/america/afghanistan/warafghanistan%20home.html

http://waronterrornews.typepad.com/home/2010/06/the-marshall-plan-for-afghanistan-.html

Semester Two: Blog Eleven

If I were President Obama and I had to deal with the Geneva Conventions I would first sit down and discuss as many peoples opinions on the matter as possible. I would then weight out the pros and cons of each decision and make a logical decision. But overall I think I would chose to have the prisoners back over here, in the United States, to live in different jails. Because I agree with what John Stewart on the Daily Show says in this video( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8RybipyTFI, the video is down at the bottom). I feel that they should be treated fairly and like human beings, just like they were in World War Two. This would probably be the final decision I would make.

Semester Two: Honors Blog

Dear Old Friend,

The times have really changed. Over here in New York all of our lives have been flipped upside down. With all of the men have gone in war, its leaving a lot of jobs open for women to take. We finally have the chance to prove that we can hold our own and support ourselves. Are you planning on getting a job? I just recently went down to the factory and finally got a job creating bullets and ammunition for the war, I’m honestly a little scared. Having this job is new for me, I’m used to only helping out at home but now I’m supporting myself and I feel like I’m really helping our country in this war. Now that I’m making the ammunition I feel needed and like I’m helping for once. There are many things I’ve been thinking about like how things will change when this war is over. Will there now be too many jobs? Or will the women be forced out of the ones we have now? Because I know that some of the other girls and I don’t want to stop helping and want to finally stop that feeling of being useless. Plus I keep seeing these posters around town with a picture of a woman on it that says, “We can do it.” This is great for us; it gives me some hope that we will finally be recognized. I hope so, and despite all of these new changes I still constantly worry and pray for my brother and husband over fighting in Germany. I also hope your husband will come home safely and unharmed.

Much Love,

Maira Vierheller

1914

Semester Two: Blog Nine

1.)

The first piece of propaganda I chose was Disney's anti-war propaganda. This was a video made during World War Two and was shown before movies in movie theaters in America. This video surprised me a lot because I had never known that Disney had created a video like this and showed it to people. It also surprised me that there were little subtle things in the video that caught my attention and made me see how strongly the Americans were pushing propaganda.

2.)

This was a World War Two propaganda film that was also created during World War Two. It was made to show Americans how horrible Hitler was and what we should be doing. The first thing that surprised me was at the very beginning and how it started out saying exactly what it was meant to do and how it was related to Hitler. There were also little things that caught my attention like on the little pigs door it said no "japs" allowed.

3.)

This is another video made by the Americans to prove how bad the opposing side was in World War Two. This was made to make people hate the opposite side of us in the war. There were many things that surprised me when I first saw this video. One the title is "Tokio Jokio", second everything in it is against Japan and is making fun of the Japanese people and briefly all the other countries against us, it was just a very racist video.

Semester Two: Blog 8

I Chose to Write About Symbolism:

When I read the book Maus for Humanities class many things stood out to me, one main thing was the symbolism within the book. Maus is a book about World War Two and the Holocaust. It’s a personal account and told through an old war victims experiences. The entire story is filled with symbolism, just like how the author made all of the Jewish people mice and all of the German Nazi’s cats. I feel that the author did this to make the story less graphic and difficult to read. I know personally it made looking at and reading about all of the horrific things the Nazi’s did less difficult. But overall this story was very interesting to me, because of how it was written and told. I liked how they made it like telling a story and gave you little breaks by bringing it back into the present. This gave all of the characters more personality and you see how they turned out in the end. By doing this it helped me get a full understanding about World War two and its after affects. It was also interesting to watch the fathers story unfold in the war and how he escaped, it kept me wanted to read more and more to find out what happened. But overall this story was filled with symbolism and was very interesting and enlightening to read.

Semester Two: Blog Seven

Throughout the 1700’s racism was normal and part of everyday lives. But like anything in life it has slowly faded down to almost death. Racism was a big part of any one persons life, it was just naturally thought the one race was more superior to the other for generations. This idea of superiority had been living strong until people started to question this “superior” idea. They started cutting it down and re-examining what had made the white race so much better. I mean everyone has red blood and breathes the same air and has the same body structure so why is one color of skin so much better than the other? People started wondering the same thing and finally did something about it in 1861 by starting a Civil War. This is when the idea of racism fought strongly against the idea of all men are created equal.

The idea of racism poorly lost and has been pushed down ever since the end of the war and has dying ever since. But like everything in life when one thing dies something else must replace it. And now in the 20th century there is another idea and another that is strongly contradicting it. That idea is same sex marriage. There are two strong sides that are either fighting to have same sex marriage and to not have same sex marriage. Both of these ideas are strong and fighting against each other, one is sexist and the other is for equality. This reminds me very much so of the racism and a less violent form of the civil war. So hopefully soon the idea against same sex marriage will die as well.

Semester Two: Blog 6

1.) "Experience starts the learning process. I will talk about my main experiences and why they are important to learn from. Tips to help someone remember that all mistakes create the process of learning."

The first pitch I found interesting was Shoshannah's, I thought this will turn out to be a great article because I think learning through someone's learning process and the main experiences they went through about their internship would be fun and different. This would help the reader relate to the article and feel like they are going through it with them.

2.) "Communication in the Work Place"

The second pitch I chose was Brandi's, I think explaining your article through communication between all the employees would be a great way to write an article. This stood out to me because my internship was very social and I think a article written from the employees conversations and what they are really thinking and saying would be a very interesting and intriguing article.

3.) "Answer a key question, Build off of that, Answer at the end with cumulative ideas"

The third pitch I picked was Jeff's, I chose his pitch because I think that an article that was all based off of one driving question would keep the read wanting more and would make the article very interesting.

Semester Two: Blog Five

Pitch Number One:

I was thinking about writing my article based off of a few main quotes. I would have a my first quote to start the essay, and that would lead to me explaining how my day was based off of that. Then my next quote could help me move into the next subject of how I grew. And I could write the essay like that.

Pitch Number Two:

I could write the essay in a timeline format, I could start out with the time I wake up and how I start my day all the way until I finish the day. All the while I could be adding things that have improved my life and how certain things affected me,etc.

Pitch Number Three:

I could also write my article like from the viewpoint of either the camera I borrowed to take all of my pictures, or my laptop that I took to the internship quite a few days, or even my coffee mug I took to the internship everyday. This way I could have things from a different perspective and explain how it would seem things are and then later add what I was thinking into the story.

Semester Two: Blog 4

1.) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/7928784/Bill-Withers-interview.html

The Bill Withers interview is an example of how I would write my Ampersand article because I like how it was a story still but it also included quotes and main points. I would make it more personalized to a specific style that I would find works for me, but I would like to base my article off of this interview.

2.) http://www.biographyonline.net/people/joan-of-arc.html

I chose this biography on Joan of Arc as my second article because I liked the way it was formated. This to me is the way I would like to format my Ampersand article, with a quote to start out the article and then quote through out the article to prove different points.

3.) http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/obama-in-command-br-the-rolling-stone-interview-20100928

I chose the Obama article as my third article to base my Ampersand article off of because I like how the article gave you a specific time and place you could imagine yourself in. It made me connect with the piece more and also I want to maybe used some of my interview question and answers in my final Ampersand piece.

Semester Two: Blog Three

1.)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8599597/
The first interview I chose was done by Katie Couric to JK Rowling. The reason I chose this interview was because I like the way it was structured. I liked how they had a short anecdote at the beginning and then went into a question and answer format. This is something I was maybe going to try when writing my second draft of the interview.

2.)
http://www.bookbrowse.com/author_interviews/full/index.cfm?author_number=226
This was the second interview I chose because I liked how it was just a simple question and answer format. This seems like I something I would like to try because I like the straight forward style of writing with my interview.

Semester Two: Blog 2

What have you read lately (say, since last semester), that you found interesting?

A piece of writing that I found interesting was a newspaper article in the St. Louis Post- Dispatch. It was an article titled St. Louis Zoo favorite for nearly two decades. It was an article written about a gorilla named Phil, he died in the St. Louis zoo recently, he had lived there since 1941. Something I found interesting about this article was all of the facts they decided to share with the public, like Phil's diet and what he loved to do, how long he was at the zoo, etc. This only made me love the gorilla more, just like everyone else who loved Phil and was very sad to see him die.

Why did it catch your attention?

The reason this article caught my attention is because Phil was the gorilla that my great uncle, a major founder of the St. Louis Zoo, had brought with him to the zoo. It was a famous story because my uncle believed that animals should not be caged in some small cage while traveling. So he famously let them ride in his car with him to the St. Louis zoo. This was a major part of my history, so I was interested in seeing how Phil's story ended. That is why I chose this as something interesting I've read recently.

Semester Two: Blog One

What are the big ideas that you are taking from internship into the next steps in your life?
Well the main big ideas I will take away with me from my internship at Rehab United are how everything in the body is connected, how to adapt to my surroundings, and what a real work place is like. Learning about how everything in the human body is connected is important to me because it originally surprised me how someone could hurt their back but it would affect they’re ankle. This made me research and read some of the anatomy books they had at my internship. Also learning how to adapt to a different environment than just school was interesting and fun to me. This also will help me in the future when I get a job or go to college and just throughout my life. This also feeds into how I liked learning about the work place, and even though Rehab United’s environment was different it still was interesting to see how everyone worked together and what a normal work day is like.

What are your plans for the coming semester?
My plans for this upcoming semester are to work as hard as possible and try to finish work earlier, to ask more questions, and to try different styles of learning. These all I feel will help me get my work done to its best ability and to get done more efficiently.