Beating The System.

The holocaust was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews. A genocide is the deliberate destruction of an ethnic or racial group. In 1933 when Adolf Hitler came into power, the Holocaust began. The Jews were targeted because they were blamed for the current situation that Germany was in. After world war one, Germany began to struggle. The Germans were in a great depression. At the time, Adolf Hitler seemed like he could give Germany a promising future. Little did the Germans know that this would lead to the deaths of their friends, their neighbors. Hitler began blaming the Jews for what happened to the Germans.Even though many people tried to help the Jews, I believe that the most notable was Oskar Schindler.

During the winter break, I watched a movie titled Schindler's List. It was about the life of Schindler and how he used his business in order to save the Jews. Oskar Schindler owned factories around Europe. These factories manufactured enamelware and ammunition for the Nazis. Schindler saved the lives of these Jews by claiming that he needed people to work in his factories and that most 'normal' Germans already had jobs. He claimed that he needed children so that their fingers could fit in the shell casings in order to polish them. He claimed he needed women to clean, men to assemble. He found a use for every kind of Jew at his factory.

Oskar Schindler believed that every person had a purpose and that no one should be harmed for no reason. Schindler fought for what he believed in resulting in the safety of many people. I took a special liking to Oskar Schindler because he is like me in a way. I strongly believe that every human being has a purpose in this earth and that they deserve to be protected and happy and healthy and they should not have to fear for their lives because of their religions or beliefs. I admire the way Schindler fought for what he believed in so subtly without causing a bunch of drama. I also admire how he took in anyone who he thought could do work and how he found work for all kinds of people to do.

Another thing I admired about Oskar Schindler was how accepting he was. Not just of the Jews but of their customs and the way they chose to live their lives. Schindler believed that everyone deserved to be who they wanted to be and that they should never be punished for that and I agree with that. I also love how Schindler's wife, Emilie Pelzl stood by him throughout the entire war and supported him even though it put them both in great danger. That showed that she believed in her husband and she believed in what he believed in. I believe that one of the major contributors towards Schindler's actions was the fact that he didn't care about religion. He didn't think greatly of it and that is why he was so accepting of the Jews.

Schindler once said 'I will do everything in my power to defeat the system' and I believe that he did do everything in his power to defeat the system. He also said ' If you saw a dog that was about to be rung over, wouldn't you help it?'. Not only did Schindler beat the system, but he saved many 'dogs' from being run over. Oskar Schindler is one of the most inspiring people that has ever lived because he managed to do something so significant no matter the consequences. Compared to his achievements and his courage, it makes us look like wimps. If one man can put his life on the line for thousands of people he probably doesn't even know, then why can't we take more risks? Why don't we challenge the system? Why are we so afraid of standing up for what we believe in? Why do we always fear the consequences without even bothering to try?

Dream On!

Soul Surfer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWeOjBCi3c4&ob=av3e- Soul Surfer Trailer.

Have you ever thought about what it would be like to loose something you can't live without? Have you ever thought about what happens to a person when they loose that one thing that made them their own person? What if everything you knew, was suddenly taken away?

Bethany Hamilton thought that she had her entire future planned out. She was going to become a famous surfer and spend all her time riding waves with her best friend Alana. That was until she lost something that could never be replaced. On October 31st, 2003, Bethany was attacked by a 14 foot tiger shark. Her left arm was bitten off leaving only her shoulder intact. She was 13 at the time, my age. Bethany thought that her life

was over because she could not surf anymore. She felt like she had no future and that everything about her previous life was gone.

After the attack, Bethany tried to get back in the water which is a big step after being attack

ed by a shark. If it were me, I would never go near

the ocean again. Bethany tried surfing but it was kind of hard with only one hand. I'm a surfer and I know that sometimes you need two hands, to get enough power to push down so you go under waves and to balance yourself. Even though she failed the first few times, Bethany kept trying to pursue her dream with the help of fans all over the world. Bethany was inspired to continue her dream when she received mail from kids all over the world saying how much they admired her and her courage.

Bethany knew she wanted to be a surfer since her first surfing competition at the age of 8 years old. She won the competition and that was when she knew that she had fallen in love with something new. The attack changed her life forever

because it showed her and the world that even in the hardest situations, you never, EVER give up hope. Bethany wrote an autobiography highlighting the events of the shark attack and her life afterwards. Her book was published in 2004, only a year after her attack. Her book was made into a major motion picture in 2011 starring Annasophia Bobb, Dennis Quaid, Carrie Underwood and award winning actress, Helen Hunt.

Dreams are worth fighting for because if it is really important to you, you will work your butt off to make sure that your dream comes true. Bethany Hamilton fought many obstacles in order for her one dream to come true. One minute you think that you have your entire life planned out and the next it is just taken away from you. So here's the question that's really important, would you fight for what you want, or would you give up hope? Bethany was our age when this happened to her and she fought so why can't we, it's not like we are missing an arm.

Citations.

http://bethanyhamilton.com/about/timeline/- timeline of Bethany's life

http://bethanyhamilton.com/about/- Bethany's Biography

http://bethanyhamilton.com/- Bethany's website

I got all my images from Google images or Bethany's website.

Love and Kindess Makes The World Go Round

" Treat people the way you want to be treated"- Almost Every Parent

The way that people treat each other is amazing. Walking through the eight grade hallway today, I heard two girls talking and i don't think they saw me because they were talking about me. They were saying some really mean things about me that really hurt my feelings. Little did I know that they were both two girls that I thought were my friends. I try to treat everyone with kindness and I must admit that sometimes I don't succeed. It was really funny to me today because I tried so hard to be nice to these girls and then they repay me by talking about me behind my back.

Kindness is worth fighting for because if people were kinder to each other, then there probably would not be as much conflict in the world. A few weeks ago, we had to write pledges stating what we would do to try and make the world a better place. I pledged that I would be kinder to the people around me. It is a small step but hey I'm a small person. I have been a lot kinder to the people around me lately and most of them have been kinder in return. I treated people the way I want to be treated and today I felt like all the time I've been taking to make sure that I was kind to everyone around me was a complete waste.

Kindness is worth fighting for because it is an important way of life because without kindness, then there is nothing for me to look forward to in life. I need kindness to survive because when I see other people being mean to each other, it makes me feel so sad because I know that people are not naturally mean people. So why do we treat the people around us so badly?

Disguises: Found Poem

Is it wrong to believe in what you say?

Is it wrong to challenge society?

Is it clever to disguise our opinions?

Is it tragically uncool to speak your mind?

Is it wrong to have determination?

Is it wrong to be uncertain?

Why is it that we never question authority?

Why do we fear speaking with a declarative tone?

Why have our lives been infected with the evil ways of this aggressively inarticulate generation?

No it is not wrong to believe in yourself and what you say,

It is not wrong to challenge society,

we are just to afraid to do it.

We are always afraid of what people will think of us that we loose our selves to the society

We always let others lead our lives for us without even knowing it

it is time for the people to speak their minds without being scared of what people will think.

My poem represents a dystopia because it symbolizes that people are afraid to voice their opinions and they are afraid to challenge society. The reason i chose to format my poem like this was because the questions I asked in my poem are actually always running through my mind and I think I finally understand why people do the things they do. It is because they are afraid of what the society around them will think. This is a dystopia because the people live in fear of the society.

People Who Fought For What They Believed In.

All around the world today, people are fighting. They are fighting for what they believe in. Usually people fighting or what they believe in is very iconic however their are some people who take their fight to far. To me everyone has something different to fight for. Some people fight for independence and peace while others fight for equality and perfection. Some people spend their entire lives fighting for what they believe in, some even die trying. Fighting for your beliefs is important however some peoples belief lead great consequences.

Adolf Hitler believed that the perfect world was possible. He fought what he believed in which sadly led to the deaths of millions of people all over Europe. In Hitler's eyes the perfect world consisted of blond haired, blue eyed, fair skinned and mostly Christian people. This was the reason for so many deaths in Europe. Hitler thought the only way to make the perfect world was to exterminate all of the imperfect people in Europe starting with Germany and Austria. The reason for his actions was because Germany was in a downward spiral and the Germans believed that Hitler could help them out of it so they voted for him in all the parties and once he started the Nazi organization, the votes for the Nazi's were much higher than that for any other political party. As the Nazi's rose to power, the Jewish population was slowly dropping. Using all sorts of propaganda, the Nazi's managed to turn most of the non Jewish German population against the Jews blaming them for the country's problems. This was when he began to make his hopes of a perfect world become a reality. His first victims were the Jewish of Germany. He then began to conquer the rest of Europe firstly eliminating the Jewish then turning to the more imperfect people of his territories. I don't believe that Hitler was fighting for a good cause because humans will never be perfect, it's part of what makes us human and the fact that he had to dehumanize these people and murder them just because they were different was proof of that. Hitler later killed himself for the crimes he committed and even though he took his own life it will never make up for the millions of lives he destroyed.

Many people die trying to fight for what they believe in. Martin Luther King Jr. is a great example. He fought for the civil rights of African-Americans most of his life. He even won the Nobel Prize for his efforts and had all the money donated to the civil rights organization. King believed that it was the right thing to do to fight for equal rights for African-Americans because it was the right thing to do and the fair thing to do because everyone deserves to be treated equally and everyone should have fair rights. On April 4th 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated while standing on the balcony of his Memphis motel room preparing to lead a protest march. Unlike Hitler, Martin Luther King's belief was worth fighting for and even though the laws were passed, there is still room for improvement in equity among people around the world today and that is why what Martin Luther King Jr. was fighting for was so important. Martin Luther King Jr. died for nothing because if he lived a little longer, I am positive that his work would have reached out to millions of people all over the world.

People have all different beliefs and I believe that everyone of them is worth fighting for however some people think that the only way they can make their belief possible is by bringing harm to others cough cough Hitler however others die because of how hard they fight like Martin Luther King Jr. Millions spend their life fighting for what they believe in and everyone believes in something different and sometimes you might not understand why some body believes in something but every one deserves a chance to fight and even if they loose their battle, they know that they tried. Some people do take their fight to extremes which could be a danger to them and to the people around them but the fact that they have the courage to fight for their beliefs is iconic and more people should stand up for what they believe in because one day it could make a huge impact on the world and help millions of people.

Hope For a New World!

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow."-Albert Einstein

Equity- The act of being fair and impartial. Sameness.

In the new world, I hope for equity among the people because even today, people around the world are treated differently based on their race, gender and looks. In the new world people would be treated fairly no matter what.

My mom always tells me to treat people the way you want to be treated and in return they will treat you right. She, I am sad to say, was wrong. I see it all the time at school during the day, there are these kids who feel like they have to be mean to others because they are superior when the truth is, all humans are equal. We all want the same things and I believe that that is happiness. However being happy means different things to different people and it sometimes means that making another person feel bad makes somebody else feel great about themselves.

Dalai Lama "Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible."

The quote above states that you should be kind to people whenever possible and that it is always possible. So why don't people do it? Why do people feel the need to treat others differently based on biases when they don't even take the time to get to know the person. I find that people nowadays are so rapped up in their own worlds that they don't even consider the other people around them. My great grandmother was telling me that wen she was young, children were alwys so polite and kind to one another and it is completely different today because kids could not care less about the people around them.

I would wish for equity because that is what would make me happy. Evveryone wants different things and this is one of the things that I want. And I hope that one day, on this world or a new one, that it is possible.

Sudan: What's going on and why we should care.

Right now in Sudan, the people are voting. They are debating whether to separate into two parts, the aboriginals and the immigrants, or if to stay together. The people in southern Sudan , the originals, found oil on their land but the people in the north, the immigrants, wanted the oil. This vote took place because the people in the south decided that they had had enough. They didn't want to be pushed around by the immigrants, this was their land and they decided that they should have it. So Sudan voted.

How did the vote take place?

The voting began very early or at least people lined up early. There was definite excitement in the air but there was also a cloud of insecurity or fear. Because the many of the southern Sudanese can not read, these symbols were written on small pieces of paper and the people circled which one they wanted. The people went behind a small curtain, quickly circled which one they wanted and then dropped it into a box and left.

If you could finally decide you future for the first time, wouldn't you be excited? But what if, there was someone stronger than you who could just pluck that away because they don't want you to have it? Wouldn't you be scared to say what you wanted? Well that is exactly what happened to these poor Sudanese of the south. They were afraid of the power the immigrants have. They were afraid that if they won, then they would go to war, or even worse. Many people said that they were afraid at first but then realized that what else could they possibly take from them. One lady said to George Clooney that she didn't care if she died because she knew it meant that they had won.

Why on earth should we care?

Well how would you like it if you voted and then your vote didn't matter because it was taken away from you? Wouldn't you want to fight? Sudan is being kept on war watch because people are afraid that if the originals get more votes, that the immigrants will start war against them. We could help them by knowing. Knowing that they are there and helping them. We can't vote but we can definitely keep close tabs on what is going on. It would help them just to know that some people are looking out for them. The UN has sent peace keepers but a few of them were killed. We could help them by informing people. It's not like aids where you can raise money for the disease. It's not like we can vote. All we can do is inform people and the only way to inform people is to get the word out. We can make posters, we can watch the news, we can tell our friends and family when we see them. It is up to us to help them, because we would want some one to do the same for us.