Amber's Poem

I chose to write my poem about Walt Disney, the dreamer and entertainment visionary. He created a golden age for animation films, starting with the first ever animated film in Technicolor, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Himself and his company today embody the ideal that every child's dream should come true.

Disney, the name everyone knows

In his world the imagination grows

As mad as the march hare

His genius continues to dare

You leave reality and enter fantasy, all full of color

Characters create a sense of true uniqueness, unlike any other

Meeska Mooska Mickey Mouse

With visions as big as a house

Into his movies he gave his heart

Exceptional like a work of art

Bringing dreams to life, coming to the screen

His work was about the story, not about the green

In his life he gave us magic and truth

With Snow White, Bambi, Tigger and Pooh

An icon in his time, creating a new era

He left us with the legacy of princes, castles, princesses and tiaras 

Aisha Hersi

Introduction: I have chosen Sojourner Truth, slave and abolitionist because I thought I could put myself into the shoes of Sojourner. The hard times she went through getting slaved and I liked how she beginning new rights for women. I like the fact that she stand out and Reading her biography was so amazing, For Example as she devoted her life to speak out in public speaking to express how she felt about  the evil of slavery and the oppression of women. She wanted to stand out for her gender.

The Poem:

Take down the blinds take down the chains

And even then the pain remains.

The caller of truth ignites the rain.

No mountain no caves could ever tame.

The hearts of man, as they dies in vain the pulse is weakened with freedoms name.

The blood written on stones, on cellar walls

The call of freedom cannot be stalled

Sojourner truth in her white apron mock

Leads the path, of liberties dock

She speaks of freedom as sweet as night

Remorse, regret, for families lost

Cannot diminish this heavenly cost,

To our defender, to out sojourn of youth

Live in the fight of freedoms rights

No exception, no pains, just equalities light

                                                    The image of the poem

Esah's Poem

For my poem, I decided to illustrate the greatness of Stephen Hawkings. A truly brilliant man, he is the new Einstein of our age. He is well known for his theories on relativity, astronomy, physics and even key concepts ranging from theoretical mathematics to quantum physics. His story is made even more amazing by the fact that he is nearly entirely paralyzed since catching pneumonia in 1985. Now, the only way he can communicate to other people is through his voice synthesizer which monitors the twitches in his cheeks. This method of communication means that to formulate only a simple sentence can take up to ten minutes. Still, and regardless of this illness, Mr. Hawkings has made several books commenting on various fields of math and science. Though his body may be crippled his mind is far from, and he is a living example of defying boundaries.

A man of great courage

and a being of strong will,

his mind is proactive

though his body is ill.

To most they see sorrow,

a bird's wings just clipped,

for smart Mr. Hawking,

the meaning is flipped.

With a voice long since muted

from sickness itself,

he perceives more quickly

and reads books from the shelf.

Gears  always turning

and his thoughts on track,

the scientist emerges

with a brilliant new fact.

Possessing good patients

and wisdom is smart,

to old Mr. Hawking,

it's simply fine art.

Behind eyes so glassy

seemingly free of thought,

his mind sits smoldering,

where logic had fought.

Piercing far into the stars

Hawking's queries did go,

the question an arrow

his imagination the bow.

In many ways he's lucky,

wanting to think over time.

Most people just act,

only later to wine.

Blessed is the man

gifted in  thinking,

for many and some

they have not an inkling.

Wise is the man

who can tell the season,

wiser is  a man

who can give the reason.

Exploration 8

If you click the following link and scroll down, just below the text there is a video that provides some facts about the current drug issues with Mexico and the US.

http://borderviolenceanalysis.typepad.com/mexicos_drug_war/page/2/

Illegal drugs have become a major export for Mexico.  The cartels use their money, power, and brutality to ensure that they will get away with their crimes.  With all of the violence related to the drug war, Mexican citizens live in fear.  They never know if or when they might be kidnapped, extorted, or killed.  Death rates are astonishingly high. 

A good source for information about this situation is the following link.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2695

Up to page 105, I think the most memorable scene in The Road is the scene where the man and his wife are discussing their opinions on suicide.  It is horrible to think that the world could become so terrible that suicide seems a reasonable solution.  This scene also shows the man’s will to survive and find a better life for the boy.  This is a major theme that carries throughout the book.

Essay two

         Essay two, I did my paper on Abdi Jama.Abdi Jama is a very prominent business man in Columbus, Ohio. He owns few businesses, he a consultant. Abdi when through a lot of hard time during he childhood. 

         My name is Abdi Jama. I was born March 8, 1979 in Mogadishu, Somali. About my story am a dreamer. Family life as growing up it was actually we where middle class family back where we came from Somalia. We had very decent life style. We weren’t the riches but at same time we weren’t the poorest it was middle class. But my childhood was interrupted by a tragedy situation that happen in my home land do to civil war. So Growing up, so I actually seen a lot of violence and that it sort of become part of my life it became the norm do to the condition the environment that we were in. I have not actually witness a gun fighting and have been exchange to different sides but I have seen the casualties of many people who had shed tears. We were forced to take the belongings what we could from our residents. We took very limits items, just maybe small items of money that we had at that time. We left every single thing that we had one day. After the fight continues couples years later we ended up at refugee camp, little girl born at the refugee camp unfortunately here we are don’t know what to do because we are running away from the militia military.

I picked this paragraph because he talks about how hard it was for him during civil war.

essay two

SEYMOUR ALLEYNE

SOCCOR COACH/ HEAD DIRECTOR of Santos FC

                 I enjoyed doing my interview with couch Seymour. what I had in mind before was; when I hear the word ‘interview’ the first thing that comes up to my mind is ‘job interview’ where you spend your time talking about your previous job experiences and how you are hard worker and so on. Unfortunately this interview was a whole different experience for me and it was also a great opportunity for me to have a conversation with this interesting person, Mr. Seymour. Seymour and I have many things in common, we both love the game of soccer in terms of playing, watching and talking about soccer except he couches soccer for living and I’m not. Since we both have a similar interest and hobby our interview turned out to be more exciting and we have agreed upon many things.  I learned that writing out the transcript for the interview is harder than doing the interview itself.

 “My interest is soccer, I played soccer as a kid, I played in college, I played some pro level and now I coach for a living. So my interest is helping the kids and passing on what I know about the game, for me it’s not about winning or losing but it’s the love for the game, so I try to pass that on. If I can help kids from low income neighborhoods, then I will love to do that, it’s tough because the kids in American from the low income neighborhoods, they really interested in basketball and American football pretty much. So soccer is a hard cell, but the good thing about soccer is that you don’t have to be certain size to play, and as you know the best players in the world, Lionel Messi is like 5,5 or 5,6 height’ it’s all about his skills and his intelligence. So a lot of the kids who aren’t 6,2 6,5 or 250 lbs that even can’t play basketball or those whose smaller it’s easier fit for them to come and play soccer. So that’s what I do and interested in “I live, breathe, eat soccer” Laughs, if I am not playing it, I am coaching it. Because of the high level that I play at and because I can play the game, I’m good at this game, as we get older you can’t play anymore, so the fun for me and the motivation for me is to be able to see kids play, and with a certain potential and I can get them better, I can get them to another level.”

I picked out this specific paragraph because Seymour explained to me what soccer is all about and how his interest and passionate for soccer helped him pass on his experience to today’s generation.  

Exploration 8

http://www.cato.org/publications/economic-development-bulletin/mexicos-failed-drug-war

Part One: The drug war in Mexico is affecting its citizens in more ways than one. Not only is there major increases in violence and innocent deaths, "In 2007, approximately 2,500 Mexicans lost their lives in DTO (Drug Trafficking Organizations) related violence. As of July 2008, the death toll was 2,000, on track to exceed 4,000 by the end of the year." ,but also there were increased tensions between the U.S. and Mexico making their normal lives difficult as well because of more stress on politics.

Part Two: The most striking part of "The Road" to me was when the two were going to sleep and they had this conversation: "And then later in the darkness: Can I ask you something? Yes. Of course you can. What would you do if I died? If you died I would want to die too. So you could be with me? Yes. So I could be with you. Okay."  This passage really shows the closeness and love between the father and son while trying to survive by themselves.