Michelle's Blog

From the dawn of time, humans have been caught in a game of tug-of-war between the two major forces in their lives – government and religion – resulting in an age-old dilemma that still has not been resolved today.  Antigone, written almost two-thousand five hundred years ago, tells the story of a conflict that still has pertinence in the world today; one sister obeys religion over government, the other government over religion.  Just as in this tragedy, in modern times, the division between the laws of state and of God can be a matter of life and death.  The Church disagrees with practices such as stem cell research, which the government supports as a new field of science that could save lives, while the U.S. government has become divided over the issue of legalizing abortion (which is considered by some to be murder and by others to be a matter of free choice).  Those who choose religion over government sometimes risk being punished by the government for breaking laws, such as the Mormons who practice bigamy, even though U.S. law forbids the taking of more than one wife.  However, the rift between these two factions can hurt innocent victims as well, such as the parents who will not let their children be treated for cancer because chemotherapy is against their beliefs.  Pent-up tensions about religion and government have destroyed the Middle East, which is a battleground for the Jews, Muslims, and Christians, and has caused conflicts in Europe as well.  Recently, Belgium was the first nation to vote on a ban against the burqa, the long veil worn by Muslim women that covers their entire body except their eyes, and France could be the next to consider implementing such a law.  While the government views the burqa as a potential security risk (since someone wearing a burqa cannot be quickly identified) and an insult to women, some in the Muslim community are outraged at what they consider an attack on their way of life.  Most likely these issues between religion and government will continue until the end of time, leaving no clear winner.  For when one tries to weigh divine law against the laws of men, one usually gets nothing but a broken scale.

Just like Holden in the novel The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D. Salinger, I believe that many aspects of the world are phony.  Politicians, with their speeches pretending to promise the people what they want, are the phoniest of all and their words are never the same as their actions.  The presidential election campaigns, with the dream of change as the main focus of both political parties, were all a farce that was quickly revealed to be the same old politics as always.  Everything politicians do they claim is for the benefit of all, but really politicians frequently only help themselves.  Often the whole world seems phony: the movies with beautiful people who find adventure and love in the span of two hours, television commercials with false assurances that a certain product will dramatically change your life for the better, and celebrities with false, or true, scandals created just to increase their own popularity.  Sometimes one begins to doubt everything.  Reality television shows are revealed to be scripted and memoirs are revealed to be only the lies of an author.  One knows the world has reached a new low when authors pretend to be Holocaust survivors, just to create a best-selling book.

In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden accuses practically everyone of being phony, from actors and pianists to friends of his brother.  The teenager believes everyone is putting up a façade for the world and plastering false smiles on their faces.  Yet, in some parts of the novel he is too hasty to accuse others of living a lie.  Perhaps several of the characters in The Catcher in the Rye are truly sincere and honest, but Holden only believes that they are phony.  That is why it is often necessary to give people the benefit of the doubt, assuming that they really are friendly, rather than prematurely labeling them as phony.  Instead of doubting the world, one should imagine the best, for believing that the world is phony can only lead to unhappiness in the long run.  Therefore, I always try to be sincere as well, instead of adding more falseness to the world, and rather than being as phony as a politician.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gew_jmgHie4

My favorite hobby is collecting elephants, a tradition that began when I was young and has become more and more a part of my life.  Over the years, I have received stuffed elephants for every occasion – from birthdays to the holidays – and my collection has slowly grown to over eighty elephants.  My dream is that one day I can visit the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, where professionals care for elephants that have been mistreated in zoos and circuses.  At the Elephant Sanctuary, elephants are given acres of land to roam on and all their medical problems are addressed.

Another important aspect of my life is reading.  In my freshman year at Watchung Hills Regional High School, I read 323 books and I have always been an avid reader.  My favorite types of novels are fantasy (particularly the genre of steampunk), science fiction, and mystery, although I prefer humorous stories over serious ones.  Reading is often my way of relaxing after working hard all day at school and working hard all night to finish homework.  I do not have a favorite novel, because there are so many books that I really like, but some of my favorite authors include Diana Wynne Jones and Vivian Vande Velde.

The American public seems to love depressing stories – tales like The Book Thief, The Lovely Bones, and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas – that allow readers to think deep thoughts about the meaning of life and make people feel better about their own lives.  Yet, sometimes depressing fictional novels seem like a waste, with an author adding more unhappiness to an already unhappy world.  Only real-life sad stories can truly help us to discover the problems of humanity and show us what we can do to make a difference.

The story of Danielle Crockett is that of a young girl who was nearly starved to death, kept in filthy living conditions, and, most importantly, never loved.  Lane DeGregory describes in her article, “The Girl in the Window,” that Danielle had never been “taken out in the sun, sung to sleep, even hugged or held.”  The thought that someone could be treated that terribly without anyone noticing is horrible.  That the Florida Department of Children and Family had investigated Danielle’s home several years before she was rescued and found nothing wrong is ridiculous.  All of America should be indignant that Danielle’s mother, Michelle, could have done this to her own child.  Michelle Crockett only received a punishment of three years probation for her mistreatment of Danielle (having traded twenty years in prison for losing parental rights to Danielle and being unable to complete her community service).  If Michael Vick served nineteen months in prison for “financing a dogfighting conspiracy,” is it fair that Michelle was barely punished and never served time for doing something much worse and permanently ruining the life of her child?

However, although Danielle’s tale shows the worst of humanity, it also reveals the best of humanity as well.  Bernie and Diane Lierow, Danielle’s adoptive parents, are practically saints in my eyes.  The Lierows decided to make Danielle a part of their family, even though they knew the problems they would face in trying to raise Danielle.  According to DeGregory, the couple saw a picture of Danielle and said, “She just looked like she needed us.”  For the people who never gave up on Danielle, there is always hope that one day she will be a normal girl, who can function in normal society.  Perhaps that is the best part of Danielle’s story – that love and care over long periods of time can undo some of the effects of mistreatment and neglect.  The truth can teach us what fiction cannot, and while Danielle’s life can make us cry, it also reveals some hope for the future.

In “‘Master Harold’ … and the Boys,” the main characters define a “man of magnitude” as someone who has benefited mankind the greatest throughout history.  Thomas Jefferson – the third President of the United States of American, writer of the Declaration of Independence, one of the leaders of the American Revolution, and founder of the University of Virginia – can certainly be considered a man of magnitude, influencing not only Americans, but everyone around the world.  Part of the reason that Thomas Jefferson can be considered a man of magnitude is that he has influenced many aspects of society, including protection of freedoms and natural rights, the government, education, and much more.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  In his writing of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson set forth a list of the constitutional rights of mankind that would be considered the true freedoms of people in the United States.  For the first time, the rights of mankind were acknowledged to be life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and all men were considered to be the same, no matter their rank or wealth.  This was an important moment for the world; today these rights are still preserved in the United States and are considered crucial to the structure of our nation.  The Declaration of Independence led to the colonies’ separation from England and to the creation of the democratic United States of America.  Today, democratic system of government advocated by Thomas Jefferson and the other revolutionaries has been imitated by numerous countries around the globe.  Thomas Jefferson also had a large impact on American government as governor of Virginia, secretary of state under George Washington, and President of the United States.  During his term as president, Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from France, which would greatly increase the size of America and would eventually make the United States a greater power.  Yet, some of Jefferson’s most important contributions were not directly related to government.  Thomas Jefferson sold many of his personal books to the government, creating what would become the Library of Congress.  Additionally, Jefferson created the American dollar, founded the University of Virginia, and studied European culture.  Due to his various contributions to America, Thomas Jefferson should be considered a man of magnitude and someone who positively impacted mankind.

Dreams may flutter on wings of paper

Soaring through a sky of words

If dreams are not lost in the lakes of ink

Turning the page can release them

Dreams may whisper through the night

Filling minds with hopes and wishes

If dreams are not lost in the depths of pillows

Waking to morning can unlock them

With books and sleep, anyone can dream

And with dreams, anything is possible

For if you hold onto those dreams

You can pull yourself up to the clouds

Dazzle in the radiance of the sun

And cover yourself in a blanket of stars

So let your dreams escape off the page

Let your dreams escape out of the night

Let your dreams escape into reality

And let your dreams loose into the world

“I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.” (Zusak, page 528)  In The Book Thief, the main character, Liesel, slowly comes to appreciate the power of words in influencing the opinions of others and understands the connection between words and actions.  Around her, Liesel sees Hitler using words of hatred to manipulate the Germans into following his command and considering themselves superior to the rest of the world.  Liesel herself attack Ilsa Hermann with the “injury of words” and the “brutality of words” (Zusak, page 252) when she feels she has been betrayed.  Yet, by the end of the novel, Liesel realizes that the words themselves are not evil, but rather the people who use those words, and that words can be used for good.

Words are more powerful than actions, contradicting the saying “do as I say, not as I do.”  Someone’s words can be used to trick others into acting against their morals or to plant false beliefs into one’s head.  However, when words are used for the right reasons – to reveal the truth within a sea of lies and free those who have been unjustly mistreated – then words can be noble and majestic.  If Martin Luther King, Jr. had never gotten on that podium in 1963 and shouted to a crowd of thousands “I have a dream,” then perhaps the African American community would have never been considered entirely equal.  King used words to paint a picture of the future, a future that has been made possible due to him.  If President Ronald Reagan had never stood up for what was right and commanded “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate/ Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” then maybe Germany would still be divided into communist East Germany and democratic West Germany.  Reagan saw that Germany should be whole again and, because of his words, that vision has been realized.  Words can lead the suppressed to freedom and bring hope to the future.

Today, words are everywhere, bombarding Americans from every angle.  On the television, advertisements attempt to persuade us into thinking one product is better than another, while political attacks try to convince us that a candidate should not be elected.  Books win our hearts with words and the internet overwhelms us with information.  However, when someone says something like “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” or “ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country,” only then the public realizes the power of words.  Those words, used to their full potential, have the possibility to change the world.

Sixty-four years have passed since the Holocaust occurred in Europe, yet the world has not forgotten the Holocaust.  The number of people killed during the Holocaust is horrifying – eleven million between 1933 and 1945 (http://library.thinkquest.org/12663/summary/whatframe.html). The loss of those eleven million individuals is devastating and the world can only imagine what great potential each of those killed might have had.  Maybe the world lost a great scientist, writer, or artist during the Holocaust.  Anne Frank, author of the world-famous Anne Frank’s Diary, which she never expected to be published, would have turned eighty this year, if she had not been killed in a concentration camp (http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/af/htmlsite/).  Perhaps if Anne Frank was still alive today, she would be a famous actress like those she envied.  Perhaps young Bertha Adler or Hans Rudelsheim (http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/phistories/) would have become heroes if only they had survived the genocide.

Looking back on the Holocaust, one cannot understand how people rationalized the existence of death camps like Auschwitz, Belzec, Sobibór, Majdanek, Treblinka, and Chelmno (http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/MAPS/SNDMAP/MAPP.htm). How could people have enough hatred to throw books considered “un-German” into a burning fire (http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/gallery/01622.htm) or shove unwanted people like Jews into ghettos in which “about 37% of the greater Warsaw population was squeezed into 4.6% of the area of the city” (http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/gallery/p095.htm)?  Could Holocaust deniers today really believe that Auschwitz was really just a work camp, as declared by the sign “Arbeit Macht Frei” – work makes one free (http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/GALL31R/00001.htm)?  I find it unbelievable to think that the creators of Nazi propaganda could feel that they were right to attack the Jewish population using hate language and unsubstantiated claims.  Could they sleep easy knowing that their words were helping to bring Jews and millions of others to their deaths?  As Hitler said after the war, “propaganda is a truly terrible weapon in the hands of an expert” (http://www.ushmm.org/propaganda/resources/).   I disagree: hatred is the most terrible weapon of all.

Tonight is Halloween.  I stare at the moon, a blinding golden orb of hope and contentment, as it is slowly enveloped by a layer of murky gray clouds that changes the atmosphere from one of cheerfulness to one of gloom. As the moon is blotted out, a deep black fills the sky and underscores the scariness of the night. Looking up at the starless night, the black begins to make me feel hopeless, like I am falling into the endless darkness of a bottomless well. Around me, the colors have changed in the shadows, a crisp dark green glistening in the grass and a comfortable, reassuring brown sparkling in the dirt.  The dazzling colors of passing treat-or-treaters are a shock compared to the restful tones of nature, with brilliant neon costumes and shiny metallic candy wrappers. After sitting on the cold gray of the concrete steps for a few minutes, I begin to hear faint inhuman laughter from behind me.  Whirling around, I see nothing but the eerie yellow smile of the jack-o-lantern and his radiant eyes shinning at me. But he couldn’t be laughing at me, could he?

Summer 1914

The hope is here

Within our hearts

Our nation’s strong

Our enemy weak

We cannot lose

And we must serve

Because we’re right

And they are wrong

Fall 1915

Our people struggle

To save our land

Our army marches

Night after night

There is no doubt

Of our victory

But must we fight

For eternity?

Winter 1917

The wind just howls

And the guns just fire

Our stomachs growl

The injured moan

We’re dirty, hungry,

And tired men

And we must fight

Or else we’re dead

Spring 1919

The hope is gone

It is not here

With these shells

Of former men

It does not matter

If we won or lost

Because we were wrong,

The whole wide world