1. Safely Changing a Situation
Abe Ott
As Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” To change an unjust situation you must have a compromise, in a violent situation one person is hurt and there is a sea of resentment it is much less stable and the cycle of violence is unbroken, however if you decide to come to a compromise both sides are in equal agreement and it is much less likely for the negative situation to reoccur.
In many ways it may seem like violence is always the answer. There are many examples of how quick and efficient violence can be. For example in the Falklands War although the casualties where high with Britain suffering 258 killed and 777 wounded, for Argentina, the Falklands War cost, 649 killed, 1,068 wounded, and 11,313 captured. The war only lasted 42 days this may seem like a long time but in the long run it is nothing. The British where able wipe out the Argentinian rebellion with one clean swoop and there have been few other reoccurring problems which suggests that although a lot of blood was spilt in just 42 days it was a long lasting solution.
The Hundred Years War consisted of a series of battles between England and France, beginning in 1337 and going to 1453. It began when King Edward III of England invaded France, claiming the throne of France for himself. His successors all kept the fight going (and kept ruling France), however, the Scots then helped the French, and a woman by the name of Joan of Arc led the French to several successes in 1429. Paris was finally liberated from English rule in 1436, and the French finally drove the English out of France completely in 1453. Now they just tell dirty jokes about each other, which is much more civilized. This is an example of how war ravaged the country side of, France, in this case, with renegade soldiers raping and pillaging wherever they pleased. In more recent times, French author Jose-Alain Fralon described the relationship between the countries as the British being "our most dear enemies". As you can see nearly 500 years have passed and tempers are still flaring and the tensions between the two are still present. This example clearly shows that although their relationship is stable it took so much blood and suffering it is impossible to justify the outcome. One thing that some people neglect to take into account is how devastating the destruction is and how many resources are required to rebuild these countries. The US spent billions of dollars rebuilding Europe, after WW2, and without their help it would have taken hundreds of years to rebuild.
The solution to this dilemma is not to stop the cat from getting out of the bag. The answer is never to spike a tree or sabotage a missile silo because that is a betrayal of principles and doing that would reduce you to the very thing you are trying to fight. So what can we do in a situation like this, what is the solution? Even when it seems that violence is the only option left, it is never the right one; When you do find a compromise, people are much more satisfied and there is over all much less stress and underlying resentment that might destroy all the progress you have made. Some may say that it takes more commitment from more people, but this is one of its greatest strengths. If you are able to inspire hundreds of people it is a powerful tool that is hard to counter act. You force your enemies to make a hard decision that has only one right answer. They can only hope to make a compromise and if the oppressors think to trick the people. The masses can immediately reunite and force compliance. Nonviolence is the most effective way to change an unjust situation it is much faster and effective than violence in every way and must be the way that all people and all countries solve their disputes.
Sometimes it may seem like violence is the faster and easier method. It is temporary. It takes a great effort to overcome a violent feud and the underlying tensions that result can take decades to overcome. Nonviolence breaks the cycle of violence and saves many lives as well as being much more time and resource efficient.
Being Peace
What does it mean to live in the present moment? Do you live in the present moment?
Living in the moment is not being so wrapped up in the past or the future that you lose the joy of the present. “We have to be in the present time, because only the present is real, only in the present moment can we be alive.” Living in the moment is not only a step toward becoming more peaceful, but it is important. It is important to live in the present, because it is the only time we have to actually live, and accomplish and create. The present is the only time we can be alive. “We will try not to lose ourselves in dispersion or be carried away by regrets about the past, worries about the future, or craving, anger, or jealousy in the present.” While it is okay to plan ahead or look at your past, you should not be so wrapped up in it that you cannot experience the occurrences of now. Living in the moment is not losing yourself, but looking around at what is happening now, knowing that it is the only time you can be alive, and understanding that this moment has the potential to change the past and the future.
As much as I would like to, I do not live in the moment. Today I woke up, ready to go, and got ready so I could go to school. In math I sat wondering about what we would be doing in Spanish, in Spanish I sat worrying about dissection in Biology. In Biology, as I almost got sick because of the preservative smell, I was not worried about my personal being, but that I might not be able to conduct my presentation at Mountain Middle School. Not living in the moment is not just because of me; it is a byproduct of our hurry-up world where everyone wants to get things done, to move onto the next. Each moment I am constantly worried about the next thing that I have to do, so much that I cannot focus on my current task. That creates more stress and less peace in my life. Over Christmas break, when I didn’t have to worry about school or anything happening in the near future, I found myself happier than normal, able to think about the game I was playing; able to enjoy just sitting with my family. When I slow down, I find myself a much happier person, and I feel that I can fully enjoy the moment I am living in- as Hanh would say, I am more alive. While I would love to find myself like this more often, it is hard to; when constantly bombarded with school, homework, things to do, it is hard to slow down and enjoy my life, and fully live.
The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas
The Little Flute Boy
Abe Ott
Like many other little boys, my day started in the Omelas Public Preschool. As my parents raised me, with a will, dedication, and joy that could only be contagious, I began to notice that around me people would become strangely silent, then one night disappear. I would sometimes try to watch them when they left but they always left as quietly as leaves on a cool fall breeze. No one knew were they went and most seemed merely content with not knowing at all. Not I. some of my friends joked about an evil villain coming and taking them away and using them for his terrible and simply evil plans. I knew that it was not that simple. As the years of my life went on a certain longing developed in me; a longing that made me want to know what happened to these people. My friends thought I was crazy. When I asked my parents to explain they would become very serious and tell me that soon I would understand, but I was not old enough yet. There words did not sink very deep and my longing continued to strengthen with every passing day. I the mean time I was a little boy growing up in the city of Omelas with tons to things to do. Besides the silent people (for that is what I called them) it was the most beautiful city I had ever seen.
Suddenly tragedy struck. My mother came home in a daze, with a look that could have disheartened the first robin of spring. She looked as though she had just been informed that she was the last living human on planet earth. I tried to comfort her but to no avail.
I yelled at my dad, “DO SOMETHIG,”
But he just calmly said, “She’s too far gone son, you can’t help her, I can’t help her, no one can.”
The next morning she was gone, I went outside and called over and over but there wasn’t even a whisper in reply. My dad tried to comfort me but there was a big hole in the middle of my chest that I knew could never be filled. Just when things looked like they couldn’t get worse, they did. The same nightmarish scenario was repeated the next day. I had nowhere to go besides my fat old uncle’s house. The only good thing was that could spend some more time with Aunty Susan who besides my parents was the nicest person I knew. I tried to be grateful that I had somewhere to go but everything that I saw was through a film of tears. All I could do was mumble good buys that I never got to give.
For the next few months I just tried to forget. I even took up the flute; it seemed to fill me full of warm air until I could almost feel my toes lifting off the pavement. It seemed that it brought joy to others around me as well. But I still wanted to know why. Why did my parents leave? Finally I got up the nerve to ask my uncle. But the reply that I received created more questions than it answered.
All he said was, “They couldn’t appreciate what good they were given” and with that he went back to his newspaper.
When I asked my aunt, she said, with more warning than a blood-red sky on a cold, ocean morning, “Do you really want to know?”
This surprised me but I thought how bad could it be? I had been seeking this answer since I was a child.
So I said, with my chin held high, “Yes.”
“Very well”, she said and not another word could I pry from her lips.
The very next day she took me to a part of the city that I had never been in before we walked to a house that seemed to have been there since the city was built. The windows looked like they hadn’t had glass in them since the house was built and the boards where so warn that they looked like the lightest rap would shatter them into a hundred pieces. The whole building had a strangely sinister feeling about it. The last thing that I wanted to do was to follow my aunt through the front door, but I took a deep breath, forced my heart back down my throat and into my chest, and followed her in. I thought that the outside looked bad but as soon as I entered I could smell the distinct smell of human feces. The whole of the house was covered in at least 2 inches of dust there was no furniture to be seen and the only path that was not covered in dust was leading strait to a small door in the wall.
“Well now,” said Aunty Susan, “you need to go the rest of the way all by your lonesome.”
“Why?” I said, just stalling for time.
“That’s just the way that it is,” she replied, “run along now, we don’t got all day.”
So with a disproving conscience and reluctant feet I slowly crept towards the door. I grasped the handle and pulled it open to reveal a small child. Not just any child this child could have been anywhere from 8 to 13 the exact age was impossible to tell as it was almost completely naked with only a small loincloth to cover its self.
Jihad Vs. McWorld
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Jihad Vs McWorld Poster DescriptionThe two possible options for our future are either McWorld or Jihad I say that Jihad is the much more likely as well as the more desirable. McWorld may sound appealing with its promise of peace and stability but the cold hard truth is that to achieve peace and stability you must destroy all human nature and erase all exclusion. This is completely unrealistic for the conceivable future. Jihad thrives on human nature and is the much more stable in the long run. The crosses on the aviators show that religion is important and the flags show all the different countries fighting for attention the different colored solders encourage you to show your identity but the flags show that that are all fighting under the same banner.
All Quiet On The Western Front
1. I don’t remember exactly who said it but it went along the lines of “It doesn’t mater how many chemicals we put in a carrot it is still a carrot and it comes from the ground”. I find this quite depressing because it means that people don’t understand that if your soil is dead your plants are dead. Carrots contain 90% less vitamin A than 30 years ago so even if you feel good about your self for getting a strawberry instead of a pizza at city market its not that much better. We have a food crisis and it’s up to us to fix it.
2. I now know that we are in a worse predicament than I thought.
3. I felt like that I was in a far less organized family meeting because one we had similar ideas flowing and growing. This was a good thing and a bad thing because one we could get off track easier but if we had a great we where able to develop like modifying rabbits so that they are 5 feet tall and they are our main source of food.
4. I feel that I was an active listener and was able to bring a lot to the seminar as a hole if there was any confusion I tried to clear it up as best as I could. I also was glad to hear what everyone had to say all in all I think that I deserve an A on this project.
Slaughterhouse Five
Seminar Reflection S5
1. React to a comment or idea from the seminar. Walk the reader through what that comment makes you think, and why.
The thing that Brittany said about how if Billy pilgrim used emotion he would have such crazy mood swings that he would be reduced to a crying blob of human flesh in two flicks of a lambs tail. When she said this
2. Write a two paragraph response to one of the main seminar questions. Make sure you are using EVIDENCE. Quote the book!!!
Why would Billy Pilgrim want to believe in the Tralfamadorian views of time and free will?
It is the easy way out. The Tralfamadorian’s view on time is like Calvinism the tralls think that they know what is going to happen (see page117). In Calvinism you are told whether or not you are going to heaven or hell long before you die this brings in the concept of destiny. Then people stop thinking and only know that it does not matter what they do because it will always end up the same any way so why not have some fun on the way.
3. Make a connection between the ideas in S5 the seminar and something else. You could connect it to a personal experience, a movie, another book or text, an art piece, a play, a philosophical idea...anything!
I watched a movie recently called oceans 12; it was almost as dis organi zedand hardto fol lowas S5 you had to read/watch the whole thing through before you had the slightest chance of understanding. But once you suffered through it from start to end it did make a fragment of sense and gave you the choice of whether or not to agree with it.
4. What connections can you make between AQotWF and Slaughterhouse Five? Think about themes they share, and use evidence from the books to back up your opinion.
I think that they both show how disorganized war is in AQotWF page 134 it talks about all of their different injuries people crawling for miles with a shattered knee. Vondigut completes the same purpose thorough the very way that he structures his book, fragmented and confused.
