“13.5 million people in Syria need humanitarian assistance due to a violent civil war that began in 2011.” (Syrian Refugee Crisis FAQ: What You Need to Know) More than half of the Syrian population has either been killed or was forced to leave because of the great risk. Even when they do find a way to leave the country, it is hard for them to build new lives there. In Syria, there are many people dying, and not just because of the war. After they finally get to a refugee camp, the refugees still are not safe. “Children affected by the Syrian conflict are at risk of becoming ill, malnourished, abused or exploited.” (Syrian Refugee Crisis FAQ: What You Need to Know). Even after they are in a refugee camp, they are exposed to many things, such as diseases. While being in a camp, you are risking catching one of these diseases because in most camps the diseases spread like wildfire.

Here are some of the diseases that tend to spread around the camps:

• Measles
• Polio
• Tuberculosis
  
• Hepatitis
• Cutaneous
• Mucocutaneous
• And More

Along with these Diseases, there are also needs that aren’t being met which causes other problems within the camps. They lack clean drinking water, food, and good health care and places to get it. Not only do they need the clean water, food, etc, they also need things things like mental care, or places for the children to play and learn. What do we do in situations like these? We need to find a way to help these people that almost everyone can agree upon. They are people who are in trouble, and have no where to go so we need to help them in some way. We can’t just take them all out of their country and send them somewhere else, and we certainly can’t just leave this alone, so what do we do? 

I have composed a plan to help our fellow people and hopefully everyone will agree with my solution. One of the reasons why so many people die after getting to the camps is because the camps are so unsanitary. I believe that we should set up ‘schools’ where we teach the people there how to make their surroundings more livable, and clean, even with so many people living there. We can also bring them out of the country and divide them between all the others. There are about 18,906,907 living in Syria now, and 233 other countries. If we divide them into the countries based on population, we can hopefully find a home for most, if not all the refugees. Once we figure out where they are headed, we will teach them all about their destination, which was another big problem. We can send them to the other countries, but they need to know how to live there too. Before they head to where they are going, we will teach them how to live there, and what people act like in the country.

Although we want to send the refugees to send them to the countries, and get them out of their current situations, a lot of people don’t want them coming because of the chance of them not being who they say they are. Because their countries have been destroyed, none of them have any papers to prove who they are. This is where the refugee’s lives can be put in danger, because people are afraid that the person that they’re taking into their country isn’t actually a refugee. It could be that one of the terrorists decide to get into another country and try and harm them while they were trying to help people. This is why there are so many people apposed to taking refugees in, because they don’t want to risk their lives to save others. This is why I suggested the schools, because they need to stay safe while they are stuck there.

“I can’t take this, look at my hands, I have blisters, I am starving. Why won’t they feed us more?” (Rena’s Promise). The book, Rena’s Promise, is about two sisters who survived the Holocaust together. This can relate to the crisis because both are mass murders that need and needed to be stopped. Luckily the refugees aren’t being killed in the camps, but they’re still dying, just in a different way. If we can find a way to help them, we can save millions of lives. Help your fellow man and help us build schools for them to learn, help them escape the horrors that they live in, and help them live.

Recommended books:

• Rena’s Promise
•  A Long Way Gone

Websites:

Syrian refugee crisis FAQ: What you need to know

In school, many of your teachers will ask you if something as awful as the Holocaust could happen again. Could there ever be someone as bad as Hitler, would we allow there to be more camps, is it possible to care so little that we’re willing to send people to places like the gas chambers, and is there someone that we could hate so much that we’re willing to do again? Millions upon millions of people died during the Holocaust, but the awful question is if there is the slightest possibility of this occurring once again. We have been taught to learn from our mistakes by being taught about the horrific events of the past, but is that really enough to keep people from hating? Although we learned about the Holocaust in history, and read about it in English there are so many cases in which we’re repeated history. Look at how many economic crashes we’ve had, assassinations, genocides, shipwrecks, engineering disasters, school massacres, mass extinctions, military miscalculations, the list goes on. Why would things be any different since we’ve already done it so many times? The Holocaust is one of those cases where we’ve learned about it for so long that we know it’s horrible and that it can never happen again, but is that really enough?

One example that is happening all around us is the case with Muslims. Donald Trump, the new president of the United States, has talked about cutting off all immigration with the people of the Muslim religion because they are a threat to our country. This is a similar situation to the Jews because they are being judged and turned down because of their religion. What happens next? Do we kick all Muslims out of our country? Maybe after that we’ll confide them all into one country. Then after we get them all in one general place we’ll put them into ghettos. Do you see where I’m going with this? It’s sad to say, but this is the same general idea. We’re really far off from this at the moment, but if we continue to treat people the way that we are, this won’t be too far off. What about the Muslims that need help? The reason why these people want into this country is to be free from what’s happening in their own. They are running from what we are trying to prevent from happening here, so why is it so impossible for us to let them in? If someone wants to hurt our country, they’re going to find a way. In the Universal Declaration of Independence Article three states “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” These people that we’re preventing from coming into our country are trying to get some security because they just don’t have it now.

The Holocaust is considered a genocide, “the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.” Although the Holocaust was so awful, it is not the only one we’ve had. Between 1915 and 1923, 1.5 million Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks  were killed. During the Rwandan genocide, 800,000 people were killed. With the Bosnian genocide, an estimated 100,000 died. In 2003 there was the Darfur genocide killing 300,000 and displacing over 2 million people.

Although we have been taught about tragedies such as the Holocaust, that doesn’t mean that it can’t happen again. When we learn about things to prevent them from happening, we need to really learn about it and what makes it so awful. We should talk about our morals so that we know where our limits are. This cannot happen again and if our way of preventing it is by teaching, then we need to make it one hundred percent clear that it really can’t happen. There needs to be no chance of the Holocaust repeating itself, and although that is impossible, it’s what needs to be done.

http://endgenocide.org/learn/past-genocides/

http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/

Aristotle, a famous Greek philosopher, said that a tragic hero must demonstrate positive characteristics and must have a tragic flaw that eventually leads to the downfall of the character. Many consider both Othello and Oedipus as tragic heroes, but why? What do these two have in common and do they meet all of the requirements to be named a tragic hero?

We will start out by analyzing Othello. The first thing that you should look for is the noble characteristic, so what is Othello’s noble characteristic? In the play Othello was a good leader and husband, at least until the end. Othello’s flaw on the other hand was much easier to decide for this character. Although Othello was a good leader and husband, he was very self-centered, jealous, and gullible. He was especially gullible towards Iago and his plot of revenge and when Iago told him that Desdemona was cheating on him, his jealousy took over. At the end of the story, Desdemona, Emilia, and Roderigo died. Not only that, but after Othello killed Desdemona he stabbed Iago then killed himself, which was his downfall.

Let’s now start analyzing Oedipus. Just by watching the story unfold, you can tell that Oedipus is a classic tragic hero. Like Othello, Oedipus was a great leader, but in different ways. Oedipus ended up becoming king because of his good traits and his help in freeing the city from the monster. Although like all other tragic heroes, Oedipus had a flaw which lead to his fall. Oedipus had excessive pride which lead to him finding out that the stories were true. Oedipus had killed his father because he had too much pride, then when he moved to the city and became king he married the queen and had children with her, and it wasn’t until later that he found out that the queen was his mother. At the end of it all his mother/wife took her life, and Oedipus bulged his  eyes out with her pin.

How are Othello and Oedipus the same? How are they different? Oedipus and Othello were both very effective leaders, but they also had a lot of pride in themselves. In the end of both stories there are domestic tragedies, as in both of their wives die. Not only that but they even had similar jobs, Othello was commander of the army and Oedipus was king which are both very powerful leadership roles. Although these two characters acted very similar, the plots to both of these stories were very different. In Othello, the villain of the story was Iago who tried to sabotage everything, but in Oedipus, his fate was already planned.

In the end both characters seemed to be good people, but things were drastically different by the end of the story. If Othello would’ve found out what Iago was doing, no one would’ve died. In Oedipus, if he knew who his real parents were, or was killed when he was supposed to, we could’ve avoided that dreadful ending. Although these stories ended in the way they did, they’re just stories and if Othello would’ve found out what Iago was up to,it wouldn’t have been as entertaining and we may not have even read it.

othello-vs-oedipus-tragic-hero

One of these plagues is not (genetically) like the others

By Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times

This week I read the article One of these plagues is not (genetically) like the others by Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times. They spoke about the 2 most well known plagues in this article, “the Justinian Plague and the Black Plague.” Some scientists were curious about whether or not the same bacteria caused both plagues. They did some testing and came to the conclusion this conclusion: “the genetic fingerprint of the Black Plague is sufficiently distinct from the Justinian Plague that researchers concluded it is highly unlikely that they are related, or that one of the Justinian strains evolved into the strains that caused the “Black Death.” They found out that the 2 DNAs were from the same family, but are very different. Although they are the same family the Justinian plague was much deadlier. “For now, the authors can only conjecture that either human populations evolved to become less susceptible to its deadly ways or that climatic changes taking place at the time created a less hospitable environment for the Justinian Plague pathogen.” In the article they mentioned how they would have placid years then all of a sudden a plague, but they disappeared. They believe, from what they have gathered, that the reason that the plagues eventually disappeared is because people developed an immunity and climate changes which tempered it.

While reading the article I was looking for the signposts they used. If you read my post last week you might remember how I taught you what signposts were and why they’re used. I told you that signposts were things to look for in a text that people use to help them better understand what they are reading. You may come across things like Contrasts and Contradictions, Extreme and Absolute Language, Quoted Words, Word Gaps, or Numbers and Stats. After reading the article I believe they used numbers and stats the most. “The Justinian Plague appeared to have been even deadlier to its victims than the Y. pestis strains that re-emerged 800 years later.” In this quote from the article they actually told you how many years later. “To plague aficionados, the Justinian Plague, which in the 6th century AD is thought to have killed 30 million to 50 million from Asia to Africa to Europe, is hardly a footnote.” This quote includes when it occurred and how many people it killed.

Where I don’t have a, like most people, a connection to this disease, just about everyone knows about them. I’ve learned about the Black Death practically every year since 2nd grade. I probably know so many weird facts about that plague and know every line of every Youtube video concerning it. To most people it’s probably gratuitous, but I’m oddly complacent with it. That’s why they’re all docile students. Although it is something that is repetitive, I always end up learning something new about and I find that time period very interesting, so I’m not completely tired of it. Unlike me, everyone is very ingrate about not having this spreading around you and likely getting it and dying. That’s why I chose to read this article, because I’m so familiar with the subject and it seemed like the article I’d enjoy reading the most.

Vocabulary used:

complacent, placid, gratuitous, ingrate, docile, temper

Study reveals possibility of hurricanes “unlike anything you’ve seen”

By Chris Mooney, Washington Post

This week’s article was Study reveals possibility of hurricanes “unlike anything you’ve seen.” It was about how global warming could make our hurricanes bigger and much more dangerous. “Hurricane Katrina, the most destructive hurricane in U.S. history. As bad as the storm was, though, it wasn’t the worst storm that could have possibly hit New Orleans, Louisiana.” They are starting to find just how bad these hurricanes could, and are going to get. After these new storms come threw Katrina might not be comparable. “hypercane” with winds approaching 500 mph is possible in scenarios where an asteroid hits the Earth and radically heats up ocean waters, far beyond their normal temperature.” and “Indeed, it found that with 3,100 simulated events in today’s climate, it is theoretically possible to get a hurricane with winds of over 250 mph” A category 5 hurricane is 157 mph and Katrina was 174 mph knowing that, imagine what a 250 mph or a 500 mph hurricane would look like. “perhaps most strikingly, it also suggests that an extremely powerful hurricane is theoretically possible where we’ve never yet seen them occur: the Persian Gulf.” They also talked about how places that have never experienced a hurricane could in fact be hit.

While reading the article I looked at some of the Notice and Note signposts. Notice and Note is a technique that many teachers use to help their students expound and construe what it is that they are reading. In Notice and Note they have signposts that make your reading much more facile. The sign posts are the things that you are looking for. The signposts are contrasts and contradictions, words of the wiser, aha moment, again and again, memory moment, and tough questions. When I was finished reading it was obvious that they used numbers and stats the most. “Tampa Bay. It hasn’t been hit by a major hurricane since 1921” This is an example of all the statistics in the article, but they also displayed a lot of quotes. “to raise awareness of what a very low probability, very high impact hurricane event might look like,” said Emanuel.” Princeton University’s Ning Lin and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT)  proficient Kerry Emanuel spoke in a good portion of this article. The quotes and statistics help the reader understand what the author is trying to tell them.

Before I moved back here there was a hurricane that came through, hurricane Hugo. I know Hugo did a lot of damage to southern North Carolina and Wilmington. It did damage really specifically to union county which is where I live now.  When we moved here my mom said that all the kids were petrified every time it rained because they thought it was a hurricane. She said that it was really sad to watch, but she’s glad that we didn’t have to go through that too. During Katrina we also had a lot of people move here. My mom has had destitute students that moved here after Katrina hit. I haven’t personally experienced a hurricane, but I know a lot of people who have.

https://newsela.com/articles/hypercane-forecast/id/11912/

Opinion: My college story can be yours

By Michelle Obama

This week’s article was Opinion: My college story can be yours. It was about young people getting into college, how we can help, and how they could prepare themselves for college. “I’ve also heard about the challenges they’re facing — the rising costs of tuition, their overstretched school counselors, and the insecurities and fears that come along with being first-generation college students.”  College can also be a troubling task when you’re the first generation in your family to go to college. Most colleges want to have as many first generations in their school, but it would probably be more pressure on the student. College could be troubling for those who aren’t even first generation. Theres other problems like the expense of college or even profuse counselors. “My message to these young people is that while all of us adults — teachers, administrators and policymakers — have to do a better job of giving them the best schools and opportunities for their future, at the end of the day, they also need to step up and take responsibility for their education themselves.” We want students to feel comfortable and be able to make the best decision while being prepared at the same time. Where adults will be there to help, the students will have to work diligently to get this. They also talked about a girl named Rocio, “Rocio’s family came to the United States when she was a child, and they lived together in one tiny, crumbling room.” Her father helped her sell things outside of her school, but eventually pushed her to college.

In this article there were no really difficult to understand phrases or words. This was mostly because she was trying to get a message across to all students and it needed to be easy to understand. She can’t be saying words no one knows or phrases that no one understands if she is trying to present this idea to the common person let alone common student.

This week we had to describe why and how our articles were so biased. My article was an opinion article so I really have a lot that I could say about this. First of all I would just like to point out that the whole college thing is her opinion which means many may not agree with her. “The good news is we know that all of this is possible. Every day, we’re seeing examples of communities stepping up to support their young people” This may not be good news to everyone. She also mentions how adults need to help, but the students must try their hardest. Although it’s basically a fact that the student really has to work, it is still what she believes and therefore is her opinion. Education is an inherent idea that will forever be everywhere and it will continue to get more rigorous.

I decided to write about this article because education is something I strongly believe in. It’s one of those things where you take what your parents believe and form a very similar opinion because my mom is an elementary vice principle. I think that education is what runs every country and if we want it to get better our education needs to get better. If we’re the future of this country, you’re not going to want a bunch of incoherent idiots running for president (kind of already happening.) One of our family friends is high up in the secret service (not telling who) and he has been working with Michelle Obama. He said that he has so much respect for her and believes in everything that she does, so he is hoping to stay with her after the election. He is definitely adherent to Michelle Obama and it sounds like my family is too.

https://newsela.com/articles/flotus-reachhigher/id/16209/

The Breadwinner Haiku

By Katlin Haney

Trembling hands are still

When I am myself again, but

I’ll never feel safe

Trump rejects criticism of his proposal to ban Muslims

By Jill Colvin and Bruce Smith, Associated Press

This week I have chosen to read the article Trump Rejects Criticism of His Proposal to Ban Muslims. Donald Trump is the republican candidate. As you may know There have been several terrorist attacks around the world where the attackers are muslim (people who follow the Islamic religion.) Trump’s plan to stop these terrorist attacks is keep all muslims out of our country altogether. Many people believe that this is both a horrible, immoral idea that should not be carried out. “British leader David Cameron said it was “quite simply wrong.” Not only does the common person see how bad of an idea this is, so do many political leaders such as David Cameron. This is an example of ethos because it’s a political leader telling you what they think about this idea, and I couldn’t agree more. Not only does David Cameron believe in this idea, but neither do other republicans. “Some Republican candidates criticized Trump’s idea. Jeb Bush said Trump’s “proposals are not serious.” Ted Cruz said, “That is not my policy.” When multiple important political leaders say no to an idea, maybe you should start questioning it. Trump thinks that his plan is fair and that it’s the best solution, but I think that we can think of something far better. Sure we need to stop these attacks, but we can’t deny someone’s right because of their religion.

Although the author doesn’t use much extreme and absolute language, this article is obviously perspicacious. “Volpp explained that the U.S. has never stopped people from a religion.” This was the only section that I could find using an extreme word (never), but that never meant the article didn’t show the writer’s opinion. The author wrote about how wrong this was and how no one agreed with it. What about the people who do agree? Of course that would be horrible because these are people too and they shouldn’t be punished for practicing a religion, but there are of course people who think that this is an amazing idea.”Trump defended his plan. He compared his plan to one during World War II. In 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt put many Japanese-Americans in a type of prison camp. They had less freedom and rights at the camp.” Trump said he was like a man who put people in camps that some have compared to a slightly less extreme Nazi camp. Sure Rosevelt had some good points in his presidency, but this certainly was not one of them. Envisage how bad this was and then think about how it would look today. Sure we’re just not going to let people in, but thats still infringing on people’s rights.

I decided to write about this because being the daughter of a teacher I have a lot to say about Donald Trump.  Where my Dad is a republican and my Mom is a democrat I tend to side with my mom and now more than ever. I probably shouldn’t write what she says about him (they’re not inappropriate, just not very nice.) This is one of the many reasons I don’t want Trump to be our president, he’s basically going to pull us back into the 60s where we were all had the aspects of racist, sexist people. In retrospect I am also a very biased person, but this is my opinion you can have yours. I hope that after reading this you have an epiphany of what I’m trying to say and understand where I’m coming from. If you agree with Trump I obviously don’t, but I hope you know that I respect your opinion and like most I don’t love Hillary either. I just think that I’d prefer the outcome with her than with Trump.

Amid outcry over police shootings, departments adopt cameras for cops

By Richard A. Serrano and Joel Rubin, McClatchy -Tribune

In Rialto, California there was a shooting that was caught on someone’s phone. It looked like the officer that shot the man did it for no real reason, but the officer was also wearing a camera which showed that the man was in the road waving around a gun. “The footage allowed police to defend themselves against allegations of excessive force. “We were very, very upset about how they reacted,” said Captain Randy De Anda. “We said, ‘If you want transparency, here are the actual facts.’” This bit of information was left out of the camera video. Police cameras are starting to be used more and more today. Where some people disagree with it, it can show what we need to see if there was ever an important case that the officer was involved in. So far about a dozen cities use cameras and it looks like they’re working. Police misconduct has dropped. If it doesn’t prove that they’re not guilty, then maybe it will prevent them from doing anything that could get them into trouble. With the cameras the officers know they’re being watched and will perform better at their job. “By the end of next month, about 440 sworn officers on duty will be equipped with them, he said. Around the country, he said, about a dozen cities use cameras.” They are trying to proliferate the amount of body cameras used today. They’re used in 12 cities in the country today, but hopefully there’ll be more.

The author wanted to inform us of this because they probably want us to feel safer. If we know that the police have cameras, they’ll be doing their best to look as good as possible. Where the police may slack some times its not really that bad, but things would be twice as good with the cameras. They will comport like the officer they are. Not that police are slackers, but we all have those days where we just take shortcuts. The body cameras might eliminate or cut out a lot of those shortcuts.

I read and did an assignment on an article similar to this a couple years ago when the idea was pretty new. I inferred how it’d be used in the case of a shooting or to keep push the officers to do their jobs correctly and to stop deviation. The officers might obviate from thing that would get them into trouble and study the laws more.

Original article: https://newsela.com/articles/police-cameras/id/5075/

When most people think of their personal legend’s they are unsure and hardly have a valid response, and I sadly fall into that category. Since I was little I’ve always been interested in writing stories and making movies. As you can probably tell from this blog post I never went down the writing path, but more so the film portion. Like most other people I want to pick the career that will both support me and be incredibly enjoyable. This could be a range of options for me because I love so many things in the arts. Some examples might be lighting for theater or concert, stage manager, film producer, music video producer, and so many more. I honestly can’t tell if that’s a good thing or a bad thing because it gives me so many options, but doesn’t tell me what I should focus on.

A personal legend doesn’t necessarily mean a job. You could hate your job, but have the life you always wanted. For me I think my dream place would be where I could do what I love around my family and friends. Some people want to get as far away from their family as possible, but I love them too much to want to leave. Of course this doesn’t mean living in my current room for the rest of my life. I mean I live close enough to have dinner with them every so often and be able to visit at least once or twice a month without having to throw money away. A good example of this might be my Dad. He is a project manager for Childress Kline where they build the large buildings uptown, but we still go to my grandparent’s every week for dinner with his brother and sister. Of course I don’t need my siblings there it would be amazing if they came to visit every once in a while. I know this probably sounds really lame, but I’m sure a lot of people would agree with me on this and it’s not about looking weird, but having a good future.

Many people don’t know this, but when I was little I had really bad social anxiety which still affects me to this day. Although I don’t technically have it anymore, it makes me very shy when I’m not surrounded by people I feel comfortable around. Even though I have problems with this very often I will not let it get i the way of me having a happy future because either I’m going to be outgoing and or not be as happy as I would be with this type of career and life style in my future. I love the arts, especially when it comes to film, and I would rather get over myself and have a great future than be shy forever.

In the Alchemist, Santiago’s personal legend and mine are almost opposite. My dream is to do what I love, but stay with the people I love. Santiago’s dream was to escape and travel the world. Santiago asks so many people about his legend and what to do, what it means and I can somewhat relate to that. I’ve never known what I want to do, and neither has Santiago. We both have an idea, but neither of us actually know. I don’t have any real steps to achieve what I want, but I know what I’m going to do. I will take all honors courses, advance in math, and take as many theater and film classes as I possibly can. I’ve also been helping out as stage hand in some of the plays at Theater Charlotte and have an active YouTube channel with Carina Blomberg. Where I’m not certain, I am very optimistic and prepared. Similar to Santiago neither of us are certain, but once we find it, I’m sure we will be happy.

Here are some examples of what I love to do: (insert the abject videos)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs85Mo3aVK15hW6Boh14dJw