To Kill A Mockingbird

One of the best books discussed in this semester had to be To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The main themes in this book mesmerized me and made me instantly fall in love. Even though the book was analyzed in a briefer way than preferred, not all of the themes that I fell interpreted were discussed in too much detail. My favorite theme was innocence, but not about Boo Riley, but more about Scouts innocence. In the story, the reader watched her grow up. With every chapter, in a discreet way, her innocence was fading little by little because of all the things she started experiencing and seeing. Even though her innocence was decreasing, the reader can tell that Scout was maturing. The reason why I personally love Scout so much is because of how even though she was maturing, she was so different and intelligent that not only was she more ahead of the kids her age, but she was like an adult but had that simple-mindedness of a child. It is hard to explain, but my main point is that Scout was both losing innocence and also keeping it at the same time; if a person compared her to kids her age she was more mature and if she was compared to adults it shows her innocence. Scouts was caught right in the middle of the town, the world, and even her family. This stories main story revolved around the little girl growing up and having to grow up faster than the others because of the circumstances she was put in. Harper Lee managed to create an amazing world that had an amazing little girl in it. I wish I had a sister or a daughter just like Scout to be honest.

What's Happening to All of Our Babies?

Los Angeles Times
Salvador Rodriguez
November 30
In the past year, more babies have been named peculiar names like Apple, Mac, and even Siri. According to the BabyCenter website, seventeen babies were named Siri, forty-nine were named Mac, and six were names Apple. Are parents this obsessed over their phones that they would name them crazy names like these? The influence of Apple products over this past year have been growing drastically. Wherever you turn, you see an iPhone, whether it is a first grader that has the new iPhone 5 or a businessman who says his whole life and job relies on his cell phone. The addiction to technology is growing, and while it is quite terrifying, it is amazing to see how one company can play such a big role in our lives. The scary part comes in when people realize that not every product Apple releases is for the good of society. Quite the opposite really. Apple takes advantage of their influence by brainwashing children into wanting the newest iPod or iPhone by their advertisements. It is a parents job to make sure that these influences are channeled in the right way, and naming a child after the company itself does not seem like a step in the appropriate direction.

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-apple-baby-names-mac-siri-20121130,0,6706406.story

My Memory of My Father's Memories

When my father is not too tired, I like to ask him many questions about his childhood and mostly information I am curious about. For example I will ask him why we do not use diesel if it is cheaper, and the answer, thanks to my father, is that diesel is mostly used by trucks because if all of the world used diesel, it would be very harmful to the environment. My favorite memory is when my dad and I were sitting in the living room and talking about his childhood and his teenage years. It turns out that my dad was one of the cool kids. Not like the stupid jocks, but more like the mischievous musician. Of course he did play soccer, with his father as his coach, but that was normal for the kids in Armenia. If a kid did not play soccer they were either disabled or... that is the only excuse for why a child would not be on the team. My dad's team was the champion of Yerevan, and he said that the only reason they were not the best in Armenia was because the team opposing them had kids over the age limit. When I asked him why they did not report the team, he just laughed and told me that they were doing the same thing, but with fewer players. Another story he told me was about him getting an A in chemistry which he was clearly failing the class. My dad had made the front cover of a famous Yerevan newspaper because of his bands performance for his school. Because of all the typical pranks he had played on his poor teacher; putting a pin on the teachers chair and generally goofing around; the teacher hated him as a student, but after seeing how my father had brought up the schools reputation he wanted to reward him with an A for the semester. This taught me that even my father was a teenager once and he actually was a pretty fun guy. Now if only I could get him to understand that I should not be punished for the same things he did at my age...

How Not To Be A Mother

Los Angeles Times
Rick Rojas
November 6, 2012
A woman named Juana Perez Valencia decided to get pregnant, have her baby on the dirty bathroom floors of a Mexican restaurant, suffocate her newborn, healthy, six pound, seventeen inch baby, put her dead baby girl in a plastic bag, and use a dumpster in the back of an alley as burial grounds. Then, being the genius she is, Juana went to a hospital for help and denied giving birth, even though the doctors knew she was lying. The hospital contacted the police. That was when police found the cold, lifeless baby by the restaurant. On September 28, Juana was sentenced to fifteen years of prison with second degree murder and child assault charges. Why have a child if you're going to kill it? Abortion is one option, or an even better solution would be to use protection in the first place. If she was unable to pay for abortion, she would at least tired to give the baby up for adoption or give her to a friend or put the baby on the front porch of the police station. THAT would be better than to murder your own child, who has not  lived for over an hour,  in cold blood, with your bare hands. At twenty-one years old, Juana Perez Valencia managed to break every link that kept her human. Her sentence was too short, but hopefully her stay in prison will not be a fun one.

Virtues

Benjamin Franklin had decided to follow thirteen main virtues for him to be able to reach perfection, but both for him and me, it turned out successful and unsuccessful at the same time. I picked Resolution, Sincerity, and Tranquility for my experiment. 
The first virtue, Resolution was very helpful because I always do things part-way and never finish anything. This made me do my homework fully, without skipping any math problems that I had beforehand decided that I was unable to solve. My mom liked this particular virtue also because it involved me doing my entire family's laundry instead of doing just mine. It completely killed my Saturday, but I ended up finishing all of my laundry, when most of the time I end up leaving the blacks or whites in a pile on the floor.
Sincerity is something I truly respect and expect from people. Most of the time, I try to be honest and I wanted to see just how sincere I really was. This virtue was hard because I ended up telling my mom that her dress actually did make her look fat, but I realized that it was better that I told her than to have her come out terrible in pictures. That is what I would have wanted my mom to do if the situation ever arose.
The hardest virtue to follow was Tranquility. Hotheadedness and aggressiveness is in my genes, not making me a tranquil person. When my sister was getting mad at me for something that I still do not believe was my fault made me very mad and resulted in us having a fight. After the fight I decided that I should probably apologize, but since I am also too proud to come outright and say sorry, I folded all of her laundry and vacuumed her room. She might not acknowledge my apology, but I know that I did my part. 

Hurricane Sandy

New York City, the "Big Apple", is packing its bags and getting ready to head to safety, far away from Sandy. The incoming hurricane is said to include life-threatening floods and other disasters. the storm has traveled north from the Caribbean, where 60 people had been lost in the storm. New York has already evacuated more than 370,000 people from Brooklyn to Manhattan and plan to shut down the transit system. The 1.1 million kids were probably excited because they get to skip school on Monday. However, the rest of the city is frightened by the idea that the people and the city will take too long to bounce back from the hurricane. People are preparing for the storm and are making sure that they can do their best to minimize the damages that are bound to happen. Construction workers have been blocking air vents and closing the subways to prevent flooding and destruction. By Monday, it is believed that the 75 miles per hour winds will hit the mid-Atlantic coast. These storm surges will not only hit New York, but also North Carolina, Delaware, New Jersey, and most of the upper east coast. People are being forced to evacuate from the coast. Everything east of the Mississippi River is expected to be affected by Hurricane Sandy. Equipment is being secured, people being evacuated, and houses and building being boarded up so that people will be able to have something to come back to, if they can come back...

New York Times
October 28, 2012
James Barron
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/29/us/east-coast-braces-for-severe-storm-surge.html?_r=0

Sympathy

The blog post Mrs. Kirkman asked the class to write was about who the individual person sympathized with the most. Having a hard time picking between two of the characters, I decided to write about four of them. Sympathy for Roger Chillingworth is surely uncommon and probably uncalled for. But honestly, it was not his fault. Imagine a man finally being able to travel to a new world to be with his wife, and bam, he sees that she is holding another man's child in her hands. Yes, revenge was not the smartest or most righteous thing to turn to, but the reader cannot blame the man. He was hurt and felt betrayed, so he acted on impulse and hunted for revenge. The part that does not warrant sympathy from Chillingworth is the fact that even after seven years, he still did not change, and continued to feel a need to acquire his revenge. Arthur Dimmesdale on the other hand basically died because of the guilt that was eating him away. In the beginning of the story, Arthur was selfish and kept his secret to himself while the girl he loved was being punished for a crime she only halfway committed. However, towards the end of the story, Arthur basically sacrificed himself. He revealed his sin and died to repay Hester and the townspeople back the punishment that could be repaid in no other way. Hester Prynne was the main sufferer in this story. She had to be punished for her sins, watch her husband turn into a revenge loving monster, watch her lover slowly die, all while raising a little girl all by herself. Hester truly had a distraught life and never found a shrivel of relief in all her years. Even when Pear grew up and Hester grew old, Hester felt the need to go back to Boston, because only there was Hester, in a way, comfortable. That was where Hester had loved, sinned, punished, hurt, and truly where her life and womanhood died. The last person to sympathize for is Pearl. Pearl had to grow up in a town that believed she was a devil spawned, evil, elf child. She grew up without a father, and grew up out of place, different. Even in the story, it is shown that Pearl is mentally unstable because of all that she went through during the first years of her life. How sad is that? The kid is psychologically unbalanced from the beginning of her life. The happy part about Pearl's life is that she finally grows up and gets married, and is most likely happy with her new life. But that still does not make up for all the hardships that she had to overcome in the past.

The Scarlet Letter

"It now writhed in convulsions of pain, and was a forcible type, in its little frame, of the moral agony which Hester Prynne had Bourne throughout the day." - The Scarlet Letter (49)
During this time of the novel, Hester had gone back to the prison with Pearl after a long and hard day in the market place. The baby was in pain and needed a doctor. The reason for Pearl's agony was the because she drank Hester's anguished and disparity filled breast milk. The quote shows that Hester did a good job in hiding all of the anger and humiliation, but she could not completely ignore it. Because she kept everything inside, she was starting to affect her own child's health. Poor Pearl was born into an unfair and cruel world. Now it is understood that Pearl will be discriminated against and would not fit in as part of the town because of who her mother is and because of how she came into the world. Later on in the story, Pearl does have a hard time with all the kids calling her terrible names. Not only is it mentally disturbing to be called names, but I feel like it is worse when they also hurt Hester physically and mentally. In some cases, Pearl ended up fighting off the kids for that specific reason. The difference between the other children in town and Pearl was obvious in that which Pearl was much more intelligent at only three years old. That is one of the upsides of being born because of sin, she was not taught to be ignorant and judgemental from day one. She was born different, but a good different. 

Leave Us Alone

Lady Gaga in Amsterdam, Holland 

Women all over the world have difficulties dealing with their appearances and how society expects them to look, but lately, women have been ignoring society and telling it to shove it. Singers like Christina Aguilera and even Lady Gaga have been criticized about their weight gain and they pushed those people back by defending themselves. When I read about Lady Gaga's 25 pound weight gain I actually had to see it to believe it. The pictures I saw was of her wearing a skimpy outfit (her usual getup) with a not so flattering figure. The first thing I thought was "EW! I cant believe how bad she looks" But then I realized that she really was not that disgusting, but was normal... Just because she was not size triple zero did not automatically mean that she was ugly. The thing that really got me was the outfits though. She showed the world that she liked the way she looked and that she was proud of it. Lady Gaga, even though I do not like her music, to me she is truly a hero because she does not act the way people want her to. She acts the way she wants to and does not back down. This was especially hard on her, because ever since the age of fifteen, she has suffered from bulimia and anorexia. As a role model, she is telling girls that there is no such thing as being perfect, so stop trying to be. That is honestly the best thing a self-hating and insecure girl has to hear. So I thank Lady Gaga for being insane and also an amazing person who goes above and beyond most celebrities of today. 
An article regarding this issue was written by Marlo Thomas on October 14 on the Huffington Post.
 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marlo-thomas/a-size-zero-dress-does-not-equal-sussess_b_1948066.html#slide=1592801

The Scarlet Letter

Hester Prynne, the main character of the story, has committed adultery by cheating on her husband. The only reason people found out about her sin was the bump she grew on her stomach. Hester was asked who the father was, but she refused to admit who the impregnated her in order to protect him from the rest of the townspeople. I have not completely finished the reading assignment, but I am pretty sure that the young minister, Arthur, was the one who impregnated Hester. The first clue was shown when Arthur had tried to convince Hester to come forth and reveal who the father was. He was giving Hester a chance to rat him out and save her from her misery, but Hester refused. It is only logical that Arthur is the father because no one else in the town had as much to lose from sinning than Arthur did. Arthur is loved by everyone in town. If word got out that he is the father of Pearl, Hester's daughter, he would be stripped of his ranking in the church and forever shunned by the people in town. I believe that if Arthur really was a good man, and if he really was a believer of God's word, then he should reveal himself rather than hide behind poor, suffering Hester. I think Arthur is a coward and does not deserve Hester's love, devotion, or sacrifice. It is not only Hester's fault that she committed a sin. Arthur, knowing that Hester was a married woman, still decided to be with her. Therefore, Arthur should come out and be honest with the townspeople to spare Hester at least some resemblance of misery.

Gas Prices Reach Record Breaking Levels in California

LA Times covered an article on gas prices in California. The average cost of gas in all of California has reached $4.655 in just a couple of days. This is due to the fact that California has a special blend of gasoline for the summer. The summer blend was made to decrease pollution levels in California. From the beginning of the summer till approximately October 31, California uses the summer blend. Because of power shortages in Exxon Mobil Corp. and fires near Chevron Corp., summer blend gasoline production has slowed, thus increasing the price of gas. Governor Jerry Brown has been trying to import winter blend gasoline into California so people will be able to afford gas again. When the gas reaches California, the prices will drop from 15 to 20 cents, but the gas will not arrive until later next week. In the meantime, all Californians; workers, students, and everyone else; have to hang on and maybe reduce their traveling distance in order to save some gas. If gas prices are this high now, I wonder how high they will be when my children will be driving. Maybe the only solution to lowering gas prices are to find a new way to fuel our cars.

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-gov-brown-gas-prices-20121007,0,2291534.story

Hit and Run

Today, LA Times reported about a man who was arrested after fleeing from a car accident. The pedestrian, Harvey Mayo, was walking in the intersection at around 2:15 AM, when the motorist hit him. Mayo died at the scene of the crime, not even able to make it to the hospital. The driver "handed himself in" by returning to the crime scene. 38 year old Ricardo Gomez was arrested for suspision of hit and run and outstanding warrants. It turns out that no drugs or alcohol were involved in the incident on both sides. Some parts of this accident are confusing though. Was it really an acciedent? Why did the man flee from the scene? But more importantly, why did he return? Maybe the man was filled with guilt and decided that he would rather give himself up and face the consequences than have to live with himself and the ugly truth that followed him wherever. It would be nice to believe that, but a more realistic outlook of the situation would include the man deciding that the consequences he would face after giving himself up now would be much easier on him than having a worse punishment later.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/09/motorist-arrested-in-fountain-valley-hit-and-run.html

Sharing is Caring

LA Times wrote an article about the growing organization of SHARE, Self-Help and Recovery Exchange, and their "never-give-up experiment". In this experiment, homeless people or people diagnosed with mental illnesses are taken into private houses and given homes. Out of the 90,000 homeless people in Los Angeles, one-third of them have mental illnesses. This organization is only 16 years old but has open hands. There are over 1,200 people off the streets and into the about 200 private homes. The tenants of the houses are chosen by the County Department of Mental Health and independent counselors, and they need to have a monthly income of at least $500, but pay no lease. Other than that, the tenants are given a set of rules, a roommate, chores, and must attend counseling sessions. This organization is not just giving people a place to live, but it is also saving the lives and the sanity of the people living on the streets. These people will now learn what a family is. They will have a home to call their own. They will not be considered as homeless anymore, and that in itself is already a great step up.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-share-homeless-20120923,0,7734576,full.story

SOAPST: "Speech in the Virginia Convention" by Patrick Henry

Patrick Henry gave a speech during the American revolution to gather up an army to face the British. The main purpose of the speech was to persuade people to realize that there is going to be a war and that they do have to fight. There was no turning back; it came down to being treated as slaves or freeing themselves. If they did not fight, the British would not just forgive them, they would use them as slaves. Because of this, the only logical thing to do would be to fight. This theory was what Henry tried to make people accept. He wanted to inspire people to fight for liberty. During his speech, Henry was keen on addressing the President, but he was also speaking to the rest of the congressmen and the people of the, soon to be, United States. Because he was speaking to higher officials, his tone was scholarly and diplomatic, but towards the end he sounded more demanding and enthusiastic to "pump up" the audience and to make them fight for their rights and their freedom.

Is America Really Free?

Huffington Post's Valarie Plame Wilson, a former CIA operations officer, wrote about the way the United States treats their heroes. One of the soldiers present at the mission to take down Osama bin Laden decided to publish a book under a pseudonym. This book did not leak any classified information that had not already been mentioned by the government, then why is the government criticizing him cruelly? Some even went as far as calling it the "height of irresponsibility". But I do not see how that is fair at all. Do we not have a freedom of press? Do we not have the right to let our voices be heard? Especially when the author did not even harm anyone in the publishing of this book. The author of the article used to be a covert officer in the CIA, but was betrayed by the government and the white house because of her husbands actions. Her husband had spoken the truth, and the government did not want anyone to hear the truth, and because of this, they decided to punish his family. If America is considered a free and independent country, then I do not want to know what a suppressed and controlling country is like. 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/valerie-plame-wilson/bin-laden-book_b_1885408.html

BMWs + Alcohol = Bad Stuff

LA Times reported today about a car crash that happened early in the morning. Three people were killed, the driver and two passengers. Friends of the deceased told authorities that they were just going home from a 21st birthday party that took place in a restaurant. The driver and passengers had been drinking, but authorities were a little confused about how they managed to crash into Studio City pizzeria. Right after impact, the car burst into flames instantly killing the people in the car. Drunk driving kills half of all accidents in California are caused by drunk driving. That is 1,355 people! These accidents could have been prevented. Should have been prevented! Do not let your friends drink and drive. Nothing good will ever come out of it. Not only are drunk drivers a hazard to themselves, but also to all the other people on the streets. What if there had been people in that pizzeria? How many people would have died then? 

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/09/bmw-hits-studio-city-pizzeria.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lanowblog+%28L.A.+Now%29

A Scoop of Heaven

Ice cream might just be the greatest creation made by mankind. Here in the US we produce over 1.6 BILLION gallons of ice cream a year! 40 million of it goes to other countries, while the other 60 is sold in markets, gas stations, liquor stores, ice cream trucks, food stands, and even off the streets! With this many pounds of ice cream comes thousands of different kinds of flavors. Some are wacky, others are bizarre.  New York even has flavors such as ketchup or potato chip flavor. And out of all of those flavors, which one is the best, you ask? But the, without a doubt, and without a question, - hands down - best ice cream flavor is chocolate chip ice cream. It is absolutely immoral to think that there is a flavor better than chocolate chip, but completely moral to think that there is a flavor worse than chocolate chip. Nothing can compare to it's ooey, gooey, yummy, and chewy taste.For me, ice cream is life, and life is ice cream. I completely love it, so sometimes I just eat and eat and eat and eat and eat. It seems as though I am actually in love. It seems as though I cannot get enough of it. It seem as though I had picked my favorite flavor of ice cream, but truly, the ice cream had picked me as its favorite. Spoon, bowl, ice cream, scoop, eat, slurp, lick, drink, disappointed, get more. That is my daily routine. Whenever I eat chocolate chip ice cream I remember my dad. When I was little, I would love chocolate chip ice cream so much, that sometimes I would not sleep until I got what I wanted (I was quite spoiled). My dad would always drive to the Baskin Robins on Glendale Boulevard to buy me my ice cream. We would sit by the T.V. and watch Tom and Jerry and sometimes Bugs Bunny if I was lucky. The best part of the ice cream is the bitterness of the chocolate chips mixed with the vanilla sweetness of the ice cream. The contrasting flavors make the 40 minute treadmill run worth the while. As I eat my chocolate chip ice cream, emotions like joy, and excitement, and satisfaction, and happiness, and elation, and cheer run through my mind. Call me crazy, insane, batty, bezerk, in love, obsessed. Call me whatever you want, but who asked you anyway?

SAVE THE WHALES!!!

LA Times reported today about 22 whales who were stranded on the coast of Florida's Avlon Beach State Park. No one knows what happened or why, but soon the whole beach was surrounded by people with wet towel and buckets of water. Some even managed to push the whales back into the ocean. But once the whales were back in their homes, they quickly jumped back out. Later on marine biologists explained that whales, just like wolves, have groups they travel with. They call it pods. These pods are so close and tight nit, that they cannot bear to be separated. Once one gets pushed in the water, it quickly pops back out to rejoin its family. Only five of them had survived and were taken to the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute. Two of them were males while the other three female. They have made incredibly progress and are healing after only one day after being rescued. They are now being fed "fish milkshakes" every three to four hours to make sure they get their strength back. The marine biologists there believe that the whales will have a great recovery and will soon be sent back home to whatever family they have left.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-22-whales-beached-5-survivors-20120902,0,64069.story

It's OK To Be Gay

On August 22, LA Times reported about Mitt Romney directing his campaign in order to bend the Republican party's idea that there should be no homosexuals serving in the army. During the 2008 elections the Republican party commented on this subject; “the incompatibility of homosexuality with military service” was mentioned, which was also followed by; “protect our servicemen and women” and “the benefits of traditional military culture.” If this comment made me mad, I wonder how infuriated actual homosexuals were. The republicans mentioned our servicemen and women by stating that they are in "danger" from homosexuals, as if homosexuality is a disease that threatens others. It is actually quite funny how our government refuses the help of homosexuals in the army, but are dying to draft other people. Homosexuals are NOT a different species. They are human too, just like the rest of us. If the government needs those volunteers to serve in the army then why refuse the help of certain people just because of the gender they are attracted to? This year, the Republican party did not comment on homosexuality yet, thanks to Romney. They also did not mention the fact that Obama had dropped the "don't ask don't tell" policy. This policy stated that the gays that were serving in the army should not talk about or ever mention that they were gay. That is like telling a person to not mention their own ethnicity. They try to shove down and hide the fact that there are people who are gay, but things are slowly changing. Who knows? Maybe gay marriage will be accepted all over America. Or maybe all over the world.


http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-romneys-gop-drops-cuba-gays-in-the-military-from-platform-20120820,0,4730203.story

"Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King Jr.

The "Letter from Birmingham Jail" was an essay written by Martin Luther King and was not intended to be published. The purpose of the essay was to respond to the comments of the clergymen that had written about Martin Luther King's actions. King had read the newspaper in jail and had decided to reply back but had no paper in his cell. He chose to write on the only thing provided to him; the newspaper with the clergymen's article. King was so determined to respond back to them, that he mailed them their newspaper with a full essay written on every blank space possible on a newspaper. The audience for this essay was the clergymen. King was hurt and a little angry with what the clergymen had to say. The clergymen thought that King was wrong to protest nonviolently and they wanted to start killing and battering the whites just as the whites had done to them. But none of their words were heard by King. Martin Luther King still believed that by not harming anyone, he was proving to the whites that they could be just as good as them without being as violent and destructive as them. Even though King had every right to be angry and disrespectful in the essay, his tone was very diplomatic and civil. King showed everyone just how educated and calm he was. He never dropped down to anyone's level but still never considered himself to be better than anyone. King wrote the way he did so that people would take him seriously.

"No Name Woman" SOAPST

"No Name Woman" by Maxine Hong Kingston was one of the books we read in class. The three SOAPST aspects that I will be writing about are occasion, purpose, and audience. Maxine writes about her childhood years and how she grew up in a different country than her parents. The occasion involves immigration and culture. Maxine's parents had immigrated from China to America because they had better opportunities here in America. But that did not mean that they left their traditions back in China. Her parents brought them along to the new country. Maxine writes about how, at that time, she struggled understanding both her parents and the world she lived in.

The audience for the story is mainly first generation immigrants like Maxine's parents. Maxine wanted to get her point across to people like her parents. The purpose of the story was  to inform and persuade the audience to be a little more open-minded towards not only the younger generation, but also to each other. Maxine also wanted to inspire other younger generations to not grow up only understanding one culture, their parents' cultures, but also the culture and environment they find themselves in.

Good Cop, Bad Cop

Last Thursday in Marikana, South Africa, 34 miners were shot and killed while 78 were hospitalized. What really happened that day is unknown, considering that there are two different sides of the story. One side, the miners' side, claims that while protesting, the police attacked and started killing off the miners. The miners were told to stop running, but they were too overwhelmed by the tear gas to listen to the polices' warnings. That was when the shooting started. The other side of this incident, the polices' side, involved the police claiming self defense. Most of the miners wielded a variety of weapons including machetes, spears, clubs, and even pistols off of fallen police officers. 
These miners have been protesting for better working and living conditions. "According to the report released Tuesday, workers often live in deteriorating shacks without electricity. Some children suffer from chronic illnesses due to sewage spills caused by broken drainage.(The Huffington Post)"
There are videos online showing the police shooting the strikers but also show no violence on the strikers behalf. Basically, the videos show the cops killing off the strikers. But did the videos catch everything? Did the strikers start this brutal fight? Were the cops the heroes or the enemies?

This article was written by Thomas Phakane and Michelle Faul on the Huffingtonpost.com. The article is called "South Africa Police Say They Killed 34 Miners".
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/17/south-africa-police_n_1796082.html?ir=World

My Favorite Book

I have multiple books that can be considered my favorites, but one of books I recently reread was The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. The first time I read this book was when I was in the fifth grade. We read it with the class, but I do not remember how much of the book we actually went over. I wanted to read it again so I could remember what the book was about, but instead I realized how much symbolism and meaning the book had. One of the main themes of the book was that no matter where we come from or who we are, we are all still people - human beings. Ponyboy felt that they, “greasers” and “socs”, should not be fighting because of which part of town they lived or were born in. Ponyboy hated unfairness, and he realizes that he lives in an unfair world. But yet, he tries to find a way to get away from all the fighting and the killing. He tries to make a better life for himself. The other reason I love this book is because the main characters name is Ponyboy and his brother’s name is Soda. That gives me enough reason to love this book.