Torture of A person who is a threat to our country is acceptable as long as the person doesn't die.

   

    I disagree with this statement because if we as a society see that just because a person is a threat to our country that we should just beat them and make their lives miserable. That doesn't make us any better than the terrorist groups of the world. They do the exact same thing because if they think somebody is a threat to their country or even their beliefs then they do the exact same type of thing to that person. So basically the United States would become one big terrorist organization. Don't get me wrong I think our country's freedom is very important. It's this freedom that separates us from these other countries. That's why all these immigrants come over here and want to stay. You hear on the news all the time about people coming over the border illegally. I don't ever hear of an American jumping the fence to get into Mexico.

    I think that torture is wrong, just because there is a threat they haven’t done anything yet.  Also what if all the information you have on this person is wrong or is a mistake. In that case they could be torturing a completely innocent person which is a crime. Speaking of crime, torture should be one because of the immediate and the longer lasting effects can be devastating. Just think of the psychological damage that suffering from the things they do to you would cause, water boarding and the feeling of drowning it causes could leave the person with a fear of water itself for example. In conclusion I think that torture is wrong because they could get the wrong person and the lasting effects it leaves on a person are terrible. Putting people through torture is just disgusting.  

Dallas Lovejoy

Ms. Fordahl

English 11

4/9/14

 

Stories of the New World

            The stories we read took place during the 16^th and 17^th centuries. These stories were about settlers arriving in America. The settlers are the Puritans and the Quakers are the people who were coming to America during this time. There is a lot going on in the world right now people are leaving their home countries to explore new land. Quakers and Puritans have a few differences one being the Puritans lived life by a strict code. The Quakers on the other hand lived life a bit more care free. One more is the Quakers took in peoples beliefs while the Puritans kicked you out if you didn’t believe what they believed in. An idea that came up in the video was that the Puritans were actually jealous of the Quakers and their way of life. 

The General History of Virginia is about the early 1600’s encounter between John Smith, Pocahontas, and her father. The story takes place during the 16^th and 17^th centuries. The story tells the tale of how John Smith was captured and beaten by the Indians that captured him because his boat was sunk. They took him to a place called Werowocomoco. The King greeted him there but then they just brought John over to a shack and left him there. Two days later John met Pocahontas. She was the one who comforted him when he was hurting and she even gave him some food when he was lacking energy.  John Smith was an English explorer, soldier, and author. He was the Prince of Transylvania and was considered to be very important in the establishment of the first English colonies.

The story Of Plymouth Plantation is about the journey the Pilgrams took to get to America. It chronicles their struggles on the ship to get here and how a lot of the people on the ship died before the ship even arrived on land. Then when the settlers got to land it didn’t get any better because they still had no idea how to make food or where to wash their clothes or anything. Then they also didn’t realize that there were other people on this land already. The Native Americans were stunned to see white people now on their land. The Natives helped the white people get started and taught them how to grow other crops like corn and potatoes. William Bradford was founder and longtime governor of the of the Plymouth colony. Bradford was among the members on the mayflower trans-Atlantic. Bradford helped draft its legal code.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is a story about how the author is telling us about how we as a society need to be more respectful of god and the things we take for granted. We also need to realize that at any moment god could just drop us out of his hand and we will land in Hell.  The author also says that we are already going to hell and that there is nothing that we can do about it. The author does say that the only way we can escape this is to go towards Jesus at the door. Jonathan Edwards is widely acknowledged to be america’s most important physiological theologian and one of America’s greatest intellectual’s.

I think this history just infatuated the events that occurred during the Salem witch trials.  I know the Salem Witch trials is when the Puritans hung a bunch of Quakers over a period of weeks. I think the crucible is going to be about the Puritans preparing for the executions of the Quakers. The Quakers will have no idea it’s coming and they will be totally shocked. I think the crucible will be the turning point of the relationship between the Quakers and Puritans.     

 

 

Dallas Lovejoy

English 3

Ms. Fordahl

2/18/14

Language Usage in America

The languages used in America differ a lot more than people think. Some people might think that only English and Spanish are spoken in the U.S. Well I’m here to tell you there is actually many languages spoken in the U.S some of which people don’t even know about. Some other languages spoken in the U.S are French, Norwegian, and German just to name a few. Some of these languages however are not used very often so therefore some people just think they don’t exist in this country. Spanish and English are the two most prominent languages in the U.S though.

The story How To Tame A Wild Tongue talks about the differences between the Spanish and English language. This story chronicles the life of a student who speaks Spanish and is punished for doing so. She goes to a new school and the teachers get mad at her for speaking Spanish and tell her to speak English so she starts to speak English and then they tell her that she’s not speaking English correctly. The teachers tell her that she’s speaking American not English. She has no idea what they are talking about she is speaking English as best she could and now they they tell her she is not even speaking that correctly.

So what languages are used the most in the U.S English is obviously number 1 and Spanish is 2nd but what is third most popular language chinese is the third most popular language. People don’t realize this but 2.8 million people in the U.S speak chinese. That’s a pretty significant amount of people. Of course there is many other languages used in the U.S. those are the three most commonly used in the U.S.

So I guess the main points I think the story How To Tame A Wild Tongue is trying to get across is that there are many different languages used in the world and people can’t be so closed minded about the kinds of languages used in America. I also think the story is trying to tell Americans to not bully people for the type of language they speak or the way they speak it. I think the story does a great job portraying it.

Dallas Lovejoy

2/4/14

English 3

Ms.Fordahl

 

Native Voices

Scott Momaday wrote the story The Way To Rainy Mountain. In this story Scott Momaday describes his voyage to visit his grandma’s grave, along the way he revisits sites of great significance to the kiowa heritage. Northwest of the wichita range in Oklahoma City, the Kiowa Indians gave this place the name Rainy Mountain. The weather was horrible at this place year round, it was also isolated and not near any civilization. Loneliness is a given in the Rainy Mountains due to the fact that there is nobody there if there is someone there they are alone. In July Momaday returned to the Rainy Mountains. Momaday then goes to see his dead grandma in the spring. She only has one living daughter that was with her when she died.

When Momaday’s grandma was a child they were in the last great moment of their history. The kiowas had controlled a large range of land from the smoky hill river  to the red, headwaters of canada, and Arkansas. They were great at war. They surrendered to the U.S. army, at fort sill. They were imprisoned in a corral which is now a museum.  Louise Erdrich was born in Little Falls Minnesota, She was a chippewa indian who had a german american heritage. She used both of witch in her stories.

In Saint Marie there isn’t as much about the land and sacred heritage, and things like that.This story is mostly about the relationship between a girl and nuns. The nuns think that the girl is crazy and influenced by the devil. The nuns abuse the girl and try to beat the devil out of her. I think this story is really messed up. So what did the girl do to get away from all the abuse she went and hid behind an oven. But that didn’t work because when the nuns found her behind the ove the nuns beat her some more.

So I guess what these stories are all about is Native American heritage and the tough times they had in their early years not just right now. I like how the stories contrast with the ways they describe the Native Americans struggle one story is about family and one man’s desire to discover the true meanings of his heritage and where he came from. The other story describes there struggles in a different way and talks about how the Native Americans were forced off their land by the white government which was basically like being abused and beaten and stuff.