Civil Rights

Martin Luther King Jr.

"If man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live." Speech in Detroit 23rd June 1963.

I think that what Martin Luther King Jr. is trying to say is that he feels strongly about getting African Americans equal rights. While he was fighting for the rights of African Americans he was shot in 1968.

I think that I feel very strongly about child abuse. I think that the people that hurt the children of today should be killed or put away kill death. If I saw that a baby was getting hurt physically or emotionally I would step in and say "STOP!" I would not care if people came after me or stepped to me with a gun. Because you know when taking a risk like that there are consequences. Just to stand for what you believe in is very hard. No matter what you do there is always a risk of something. I think that we should always should have had the free dome of speech, or when we do have the free dome of speech we should not be punished for what we say.

Poem(Apple)

A Single Slice Reveals Them
By:Naomi Shihab-Nye

An Apple on the table
hides its seeds
so neatly under seamless skin.

But we talk and talk and talk
to let somebody
in.

This poem really relates to the book A Long Way Gone because Ishmael doesn't like to show his real feelings, no matter what they are. He is very good at not telling anyone how he is feeling. When you talk to him you have to sit down and get to know him. As soon as you do then you will now him. And then you will see under the seamed skin. Inside he feels like he has hate, anger and aggression. He wants and needs to have someone to sit down and talk to. He doesn't act like he wants someone to talk to because he doesn't like to show his true emotions. This is going to take quite along time for Ishmael because, he does not like to talk. So doing this for him will be quite harder than usual. Ismael is living know at this shelter. The consulers there are trying to bring the "Boy" back out from in him. Every time something goes wrong Ishmael would go up and punch someone in the face, put people in the hospital. But when they would come back, they looked at Ishmael and say, "This is not your fault".

Little Rambo

L acking fear.

I ntense feeling.

T o the end we will be friends.

T ogether we will make it happen.

L ust is here.

E veryone killing their neighbors, friends and family.

R evenge is in the air.

A ttempts to kill.

M achete killing left and right.

B ullets are flying everywhere.

O pportunities for revenge are everywhere.

The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie

This book is about a indian boy named Arnold who is living on a reservation and he is in a struggle every day. He fights just to go to school that was not on the reservation. This book relates to real life, I felt very strongly about this book. He went off to real school so that he could have a real life and not be a drunk his whole life like the rest of the people on the reservation. He wants to become a basketball player but he thinks that he will never make it. Arnold had two different personalities he had one for white and one for indian. He was kinda like two different people everyday.

Keeping Things Wholes, "Mark Strand"

In a field

I am the absence

of field.

This is

always the case.

wherever I am

I am what is missing.

When I walk

I part the air

and always

the air moves in

too fill the spaces

were my body's been.

We all have reasons

for moving.

I move

to keep things whole.

Explanation:

This poem relates the book A Long Way Gone because Ishmael is missing his family and he is what is missing from his family. Ishmael and his friends are walking around trying to find his family. When the poem talks about when the air is being parted, that makes me think about when he is somewhere no one knows because when he steps forward the air fills back in like he was never there. When the poem also says, "We all have reasons/ for moving" that makes me think that there is always a reason for moving on, trying to win!

God Grew Tired Of Us(Movie Reaction.)

We watched the movie God Grew Tired Of Us. I thought that it was a good movie because it showed us how people lived in Sudan and how they lived. When the African came to the U.S. They had to become a U.S. citizen. So they had to fill out a whole bunch of paper work and they had to go out and get an apartment and at least one or more jobs just to be able to eat, never mind living in their own apartments. They need to make a good living for themselves. One of them wanted to go to college and start his life until one day when he got a letter in the mail, his family was alive and he had to pay to get them back. They had to try to get enough money working two jobs to pay to get his mother and sister and he had to pay a certain amount of money for them each. He found out that more of his family was alive but he could only have two family members come to the U.S.

The book had some similarities to the book, like when Ishmael lost his family and he had no hope left. They both left their homelands to be where there was no civil war going on. They both had to leave their friends and family because they were all separated from them.

Text To Self Connection

"We were simply told to follow the path until we received instructions on what to do next."

This really relates to my life because, as you grow up you are taught a certain way until you are told other wise. Like when you are growing up you have certain things to do and you have to obey by your parents way and you are not to disobey. And if you do you get punished for doing the wrong thing or just not lessoning.