Snow Days...I want more!!!

So, basically we had our first three snow days of the school year last week and now I and many others are looking for every possible hint of having another one. It becomes rather sad when you that it is snowing outside and your first response is no longer “Oh, how pretty!” but “Maybe we won’t have school tomorrow!” That happened to me today. I was baking cookies for Christmas, the first batch turned out terrible but I blame the recipe, and I looked out the window to see that it was snowing an actually descent amount and my first thought was to turn on the news to see if it would last long enough to get a possible snow day. We only have two days of school before winter break but I would still love another day off of school. It happens every year. After the first snow day we realize a simple way to get out of school and the homework that comes with it, snow! This year it was our first major snowfall too! We received either ten or eleven inches depending on where you lived and got three consecutive days off. I find myself checking the news to see when the next snowfall is supposed to be and what exactly we might get out of it. The conversation at school changes to “Well did you hear about the possible snow storm next weekend,” or “Do you think we will get off of school on Monday?” The possibility of a free day in the middle of the week to hang out with friends while the parents still have to go to work seems so appealing that people are not thinking about the fact that we have to make them up in the Spring term unless you are a senior. If you are a senior you are spending you winter very close to the weather channel hoping for every flurry to turn into a blizzard system because unlike the other kids you will leave high school before the snow make up days are even in sight. Next year, when I will be a senior, I know I will definitely be wishing for that. Ha! I may even participate in an ice/blizzard mix dance, just so I get the full use of my senior year’s perks that deal with weather. I mean seriously who wouldn’t? So even though I could probably manage to make it through school for two more days before break it would be just that much better if I only had one more day. So let’s hope for a freeze…it was misting earlier ;)

I just want to sleep

Lately I have been in a really weird slump. I don’t know if it is just this time of the year but I am just so sick of everything. It has gotten so bad that I cannot tell if I am just sick and just need to sleep it all off or if I am just ready to get away from everything and need a vacation! I am hoping it is just the first one because I just came back from a vacation and so one would think that I would still be somewhat relaxed from my trip, but that is definitely not the case. Anymore I feel that all I want to do is sleep! It seems rather abnormal because I can usually not stand to be asleep for more than six hours, which may sound strange to most people but that is just my needed amount of sleep, but this week I have been sleeping every possible minute I can. Let me tell you sleeping long hours is just not fun! When I am awake I either thinking about going back to bed or how pathetic it is that I have been sleeping so much. The worst part is my procrastination has grown exponentially! It is ridiculous how a little cold or whatever can do that but the amount of work I have done this week is rather little. Luckily, my teachers have been a caring mood, my guess is it has something to do with the season, and have not really been assigning too much homework for me to push off until the last moment. They have however been planning for quite a few tests!! Like seriously, we have only a few days left before week and I have a test in almost every class and in some classes I have more than one!!!!! Like I get that teachers are trying to wrap up what we are talking about so that we do not have to come back and supposedly do really bad on the tests but then isn’t the point of learning to retain the information?? If we can’t remember what we were taught a few weeks ago then why are we being taught at all? It seems pretty pointless to me if we cannot remember stuff from two weeks ago. Now that I have said this I am sure I will probably be asked a question about something I learned last week and not be able to answer….but I will most definitely be blaming the cold for that one ;)

Lady Gaga

I am part of this speech team group that is called radio news and I was researching some of the biggest things in entertainment since the beginning of the school year. Of course, the first thought in my mind was the Kanye West’s Taylor Swift VMA award attack but then I was looking back at the award show and remembered Lady Gaga’s unusual performance of her hit “Paparazzi.” I figured that it was another good subject to look up so I started researching it. For those of you who haven’t seen this performance that can only be described as something Lady Gaga would do. This means very abnormal costumes, all in white, that cover as little of the body as possible and anything else that could possibly be described as abnormal. I found an article from before the VMAs where Lady Gaga was explaining the theme for her performance. I thought it was very strange that she was not only ending the performance with a death but with the way she believes she will die. Below is the live performance and you will probably wonder the same thing I did after seeing it and hearing her statement about the performance; what the heck?!? Like seriously??? You can probably guess just from my response that it is a pretty strange way to die. It makes you think what kind of sick mind would actually want to die in such an awful manner. Perhaps she does not want to die in this exact manner but according to the article she seems to think that is how her last minutes are going to be spent. I have often admired Lady Gaga for her confidence and bravery for some of the berserk outfits she has worn out in public, but now I wonder just exactly how stable is she??? She does have some crazy ideas in her head and I guess that is what makes her so great and such a success. People admire her for her ability to go out into the public eye in the things she does, but truthfully you would never catch any of them in any of the things she wears! There and my admiration comes from a desire to be as open as she is, to be able to not give a darn if she ends up on the best or worst dressed list, she is often on either one of the other, and never feel the need to back down! You go, Lady Gaga.

Numb Body, Numb Mind

Whenever people ask me why my favorite season is winter, I usually respond with a response about how Christmas and my birthday fall in winter or the fact that I like it when it is snowing. These things are true there is another reason why I like the winter, the fact that it is cold. Ok, so that probably sound really strange but it is true, I like the fact that if I step outside it is cold. Now, this does not mean that I am a huge fan of below zero temperatures but there are times that I don’t mind a little bit of freezing temperatures. They can come in handy at least I like to think so. Whenever something is really weighing on my thoughts I like to go out into the cold for a little while because it kind of numbs everything so that I can look past stuff for a little while. When the cold air overtakes me it is almost stimulating to slowly disconnect from my body and whatever it is that is laying heavy on my mind. It is almost like as my body starts to numb so does my mind and whatever it is that is troubling me kind of slips out of focus. It is not like I am condoning going off into the cold for hours to get away from my problems it is just for a little while when I really need to get away from it the most. The cold not only takes my problem out of focus but it clears my mind overall from all other worries. When I go outside and it is really cold. I know that it is just me and my thoughts that are left, no worries and difficult emotions just raw, fresh thought. It is revitalizing to get away from the emotional part of thought if only for a moment. It really opens your eyes to what lies beneath it all. I find that it usually clears away the emotions to allow true, cold thought. When that is all you have left the sky is your limit. New ideas, new solutions pop into my head and before I realize it, I am at peace with my mind. It is usually by that time that I really cannot feel my toes and rush inside where the warmth of the house overtakes me and I am suddenly hit with the return of my emotions and feeling in my toes:) So that is secretly the reason why I love winter but if you ever ask me I will probably just say its because of my birthday or Christmas.

Gift System

Let’s face it we are all counting the days until Christmas. There is so much to love about the holiday: the specially gift-wrapped presents; the delicious, enticing feast; and for most people the family and friends that we enjoy good spirits with. Christmas is still a little way away so most people are still in the preparation mode, planning what to serve on Christmas dinner and getting everything needed to prepare it, decorating the house with a tree, nativity and whatever else is in the bins in their storage marked for Christmas, not to mention racking their brains for the perfect gift for everyone on their list. There is quite a lot of work that goes into the merry holiday. I think that it is not too quick to say that most people’s favorite part of the holiday is the gifts. I know that I love seeing people’s reactions to what I got them, if the reaction is good at least, and really love getting gifts :) Now, my mother is miserable about hiding the gifts she got me. Almost every year I have either guessed exactly what the gift was or have accidentally found it while messing around with little trinkets in her room. It has gotten to the point in recent years that she basically gives me my gift the day she buys it no matter how far away from Christmas, usually not wrapped either. But not this year! Today she told me that she was not going to let that happen this year. I do know one thing she must have bought whatever it is online because my brother and I were given explicit orders not to open any packages that come to the house. I asked my mother why we were no longer allowed to open the packages that come to the house, because we have always opened the packages no matter who they are addressed to. Shhh! I think that may be a crime although I don’t see what the big deal would be opening our mother’s packages. Anyways that is when she informed me of her plan to not let us see our gifts this year which is so against the system we have established for the past couple of years. It leaves me very curious for what it could possibly be…I guess I will just have to wait. The problem is that our system worked really well for me because I dislike waiting very much. I am rather impatient to find out if it will be something I like or not and whether or not I can really find a use for whatever it is. I guess I will just have to wait with anticipation…

Musical Release

This week has been another toughie. We just got off a vacation not too long ago and so we are still trying to get into the normal swing of classes while dealing with a blizzard and the fact that Christmas and the break that comes with it is just a few weeks away. It is getting overly exhausting trudging to school for the two days we actually made it there. I get to the point that I do not want to get out of bed during the winter. Personally if I could I would just collect all my homework for December and January and tell everyone I will see them later. Not only am I tired of waking up early to go to school when I would much rather be asleep next to a fire but the past couple of weeks have been hard on my psyche. A lot is going on in my head and in school that makes me just want to go away for a little bit and separate myself to clear my head. One of my favorite ways to take a quick release from the world is to turn off all the lights and listen to music. I do not really know what it is about the darkness mixed with my favorite songs that just lets me release from this place but it works and why question a good thing? One of my favorite songs to turn to these days is Fireflies by Owl City because of it soothing tunes and magical lyrics it really helps to just let go of my inhibitions and do whatever I feel like doing which has kind of been a theme for my life these days. I am so sick and tired of parts of the life I have lead and working to change them and be more care free but that is much easier said than done. I am searching for a new me and I guess music helps me to realize the kind of person I really am. I think that is why I like the song Fireflies so much because it has these really mystical, surreal lyrics about dreaming and reality kind of mixed together which is really quite inspiring. I see it as a really great song that I can listen to when I really feel like going off into thinking about my crazier dreams, about really whatever I could possibly want to do with my life. That and it is just really catchy. :) So if your like me and want to turn off all the lights and explore your wildest dreams, enjoy!

Miley Cyrus

So basically I love Miley Cyrus. She is like amazing! I know that people either lover her or hate but I am a definite fan. She has to deal with a lot because of her success. Everyone seems to constantly be inspecting her little move and saying that she shouldn’t be doing whatever she is doing because she is the idol of so many little girls and should really act more like an appropriate role model. Well that I kind of agree with but on the other hand she is a teenager and we do stupid things, that’s how we learn! If they think what she is doing is wrong than “Boo WHO! Stop digging into her personal life and let your little kid just focus on the Hannah Montana series and the parts of her franchise that deal with Hannah Montana and ignore the Miley Cyrus side. That is basically what I do with the Hannah Montana side of her. Personally I can’t really stand the show, a lot of the Disney shows are way too over-the-top or cheesy…correction all of the Disney shows are way too over-the-top or cheesy, but her songs as Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana are both really cool and so I really like to listen to them. There is also another portion of Miley Cyrus’s Franchise that I love… her clothing line!!! Omgsh I absolutely love her clothing line because it is a lot like my fashion style, a little on the different side. I feel like a super star when I put on my black/grey skinny jeans that have leopard print ever so slightly on them. It is nice because not only are they different, which makes me happy, but they give my style a little edge which is fun and flirty ;) haha

Well, I recently got my Seventeen Magazine and practically screamed when I saw that she had been named their style star of the year!!! She totally deserves it because her style has always been amazing and so I was super excited to hear that. I ran to the couch with the magazine and read the article immediately. I gave a little cheer when she talked about slowly going away from Hannah Montana and doing more professional work outside of the Disney Channel because she is talented enough to do that and I am glad for her to finally get past that. I cannot wait to see her upcoming movie The Last Song aka her first movie that has nothing to do with Hannah Montana!!! It was also really cool to read about what her take on fashion and how she has grown in her style and it has inspired me to do the same! I cant wait!!!

Playtime Poppy

I just finished up a playtime poppy production of “A Year with Frog and Toad.” Some of you may not know what playtime poppy is so I will do my best to explain it. Basically our school puts on a play/musical each year that is directed toward a younger audience aka little kids and this year was “A Year with Frog and Toad.” It was really fun because it was my first time trying out for playtime poppy and I was a mouse! We got to interact with the little kids throughout the show and they all seemed to really like it because I know several that came to more than one show! It was all super fun and I am kind of sad to see it be over because I met a lot of new people and made a lot of new friends. There was a lot of bonding because we had all spent so much time together, we even ate dinner as a group between the performances on Thursday and Friday, and then when it came down to the show we had to feed off each other to make the show great. It didn’t hurt that we all had our very unique costumes to laugh about. Like seriously I was supposed to be a mouse and I was wearing a jail suit with a blue vest over it along with white pants and a red tutu over the jail suit, not to mention the giant mouse ears and the afro… I am not saying the costumes were bad actually the opposite they were unique and had the air of avant-garde. It was funny though when I was asked by a little kid if I had done time because of course my jail numbers were showing :) Basically the last night which was yesterday was like the highlight of the whole experience; not only did we rock our two performances but then I went to dinner some of my besties before hanging out at the cast party with the new friends we had made. It was really crazy how much we had bonded. While changing out of our costumes for the very last time the girl’s dressing room broke into “In the Jungle” from “The Lion King!” It was like hysterical that we had all been around each other for soo long that we could all burst into song without one word of planning. It just goes to show you how close you get to people after being in close contact for so long. To all my fellow Playtime Poppy friends, “It was fun!” and to the girls click here:)

oh and check out these costumes:)

Break Loose

So, I have decided to revamp my blog. I mean I really liked my old concept because poetry and politics really do interest me but I was really starting to bother me. I felt so constrained. It was this path that I had put myself on and the farther along I went the more I saw all these pretty flowers off the path that made me want to go and pick them. And after resisting for so long I finally couldn’t take it anymore so I left the guided path and went and picked another flower. This is kind of where I got the concept for my revisions. I changed the name to Break Loose because I broke from the path I had provided myself as a safety net and decided to follow the flowers so that they may guide me where they so choose. Not only am I providing this theme to my blog but also to other aspects of my life. I have always felt like there was this path that I was following everyday and I have finally decided to Break Loose from some of my restraints. I am not talking about going crazy here and breaking every rule I have ever set for myself but just a few of them that seem so silly. For instance, I am tired of worrying about every little detail in my life, some things I just need to not freak about and so I am just not going too. Haha ok. I know it is like totally easier said than done and will likely take time but that is ok with me because as far as I know I have the time, I am a teenager after all :) So, I guess I really haven’t said much about what this blog is going to be like now and there is a very good reason for that. I have no idea! I mean for right now I think I am just going to blog about the first thing comes to mind truthfully. Which means it will probably be very relaxed and sometimes full of fluff and other times I may just rant about something my little brother did to annoy me ;) haha Well whoever follows this blog, if anyone :P haha but really I hope you enjoy it and if you don’t well then sucks for you! Oh, by the way that is kind of, exactly why I chose the Dr. Suess quote for my description!! That and I just absolutely love the playfulness of Dr. Seuss.

Halloween Experiments

This is a little different than what I normally do but it is a special week. It is Halloween week! So because I love chemistry and science I think everyone does.....haha not. But this is a pretty cool video. I know you actually learn something but just move pass that and watch the pumpkins go BOOM!!!! YAY! haha I hope that you enjoy!

Your Desire is Your Mask

It is all Hallows Eve, time for the spirits to come out and play! Ah, yes most people are sitting down, getting ready to watch a scary movie or getting dressed up to go to a Halloween Party. It is simple you see, Halloween is a holiday people like to celebrate because people like to be scared. They dress up their houses and homes alike to scare those who dare to visit. What other day is it acceptable for children to go around to stranger’s houses asking for treats, which will probably rot their teeth? There seems to be a festive atmosphere for most as they get out the decorations and celebrate again the scariest day of the year. As we go back in time, when witches and wizards were real and practiced their wicken deeds.
It is absurd to think about, young and old alike dressing up as what they truly are not. It is the one day where you can be someone or something other than who you truly are. Then again, who truly are you? Is Halloween just a holiday where we dress up like in costumes that we buy at the local grocery store or is it a holiday where we show more of our inner thoughts? People are really revealing a bit of their true personality as they head for the extravagant makeup. Halloween is a day where you can magnify your inner desires in costume form and show the world without them truly realizing what has been revealed.
Little kids are the best example to the belief that Halloween is for people to illustrate their inner desires. What little girl doesn’t want to literally be a pretty princess or a little boy be a strong superhero? It is obvious to anyone that little children choose costumes for Halloween that are their actual desires. They really want to be that fairy or angel or batman or Thomas the train. So, why would it be such a leap to say that we don’t continue that tradition as we get older? Sure, costumes get more violent as the age grows but maybe that has more to do with the anger and aggression that grows within people as they get older. Who has ever seen a little kid keep a grudge for more than ten minutes? I know I even have kept grudges for years. It is a fact of life, as we grow we loose our innocence and we become angrier and so our costumes usually just correlate back to that.
Not everyone wears scary costumes as they get older though. Some still want to be that pretty princess or superhero. Those people are either genuinely sweet or they just cannot let go of their childhood yet. I know that I never want to fully grow up. I like the age I am at and kind of just want to stay here. I find this to be very apparent in my costume choice as well. I went as a teenager in the 80s. If you look past the obnoxiously bright colors of my costume and the overall 80s fashion you would see a teenager. I went as myself just in a different decade because I do not want to grow up.
Through my costume I realized this just as anyone can look deeper into their costume and find their desires blasted across the makeup. For instance, my brother went as a hunter. He says that he was an army man or whatever. He was a hunter. Now that does not mean he wants to be a hunter when he grows up but if you look closer it does reveal something about him. Hunters go out and kill because that is what they want to do. They are still human but they kill. My brother is a very aggressive person. You get in his way, make him mad. You better run! It ain’t pretty. He is like this most of the time too. He really likes to shoot at his friends, with air soft guns yes but still. He likes to also hide himself from people in my belief because underneath it all, he still knows he needs his mommy. His camouflaged costume hides what normally the aggression hides, himself.
Well, I hope you all have fun dressing up in your masks and makeup. Have fun letting your desires go free. Happy Halloween!

Be wise in disagreeing with the government

Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction. -Pablo Picasso

In recent weeks there has been obvious hostility between the Chamber of Commerce and the White House. It seems that now that the Chamber has started to disagree with the White House on certain issues, they have become enemies in the eyes of the White House. The conflict that they are disagreeing on the most is, of course, the Health Care reform. The Chamber of Commerce is concerned that if not handled properly a move in our health care policies will create overall downfall in the economy; as of current date one sixth of the economy deals with health care. The Chamber is not the only ones feeling the heat. Anyone who presents information against the health care reform is discredited by the White House by any means necessary. The Chamber is receiving comments from both the Energy Secretary Chu and the President Barrack Obama. Secretary Chu has made comments about how good it is that major companies are withdrawing from the Chamber, which has 300,000 companies, and Obama has tried to discredit the Chamber through comments on their spending throughout the years. It seems that the White House not only wants to discredit the Chamber of Commerce but is leaning towards its demise. The strangest part about the situation is that they had no problem with the Chamber of Commerce when they agreed earlier on things such as the stimulus package that the Chamber helped push through.
It seems that people should really be worried if the disagree with the government. The right to free speech seems to have been lost on the new government that wishes for anyone that disagrees with it to be destroyed, no matter the past. This is very worrisome. It makes you wonder what kind of society we are turning into. The health care reform to people is the first step to a socialist, or worse, communist government. Yes, there are problems with our system of health care right now but I do not see reason to change the parts of it that are working. It is really not that bad and putting too much money into it is really not going to help our nation’s debt problems. Now, where is our freedom of speech going? If the government doesn’t like what an organization is saying they start to discredit it and call for disbandment?? It sounds to me like the new people in charge has let power get to their head a bit. I mean seriously I understand that you don’t want people to be telling information that goes against what you want, but find a better way. If your plan cannot withstand the critics that are trying to discredit it through information then it probably just is not good enough. LET IT GO AND MOVE ON!!! There is a reason why we don’t have this type of health care system; it is because the people have not wanted it. It is a bad idea. That is why not a single president before Obama who has suggested this has been able to do it. It is too costly a risk and it will likely be the downfall of the Obama administration. This reform has lead to the government feeling the need to do some pretty hard core censuring and rebutting, in the wrong way, and may even end freedom of speech. What I do know is that the White House needs to sit down and take a good look at what they are doing and determine if they really think it is right. If they continue on this path, I fear for America. I would also advise looking into moving somewhere else.

For the information used in this post click here.

It's a School day? Oh, no. I'm sick!

If you treat a sick child like an adult and a sick adult like a child, everything usually works out pretty well. – Ruth Carlisle

We all have had days where we have just not wanted to get up in the morning. I however seem to have quite a few of these days where I would have given anything to stay in bed. Sure school is a time to meet with one’s friends; to talk about what happened last night on your favorite television show; to build new relationships; and to learn of course. But there are so many days where I will wake up in the morning and just know that it is better for me to stay in bed or other days when I just feel like my time would be better spent outside than in a brick building. Well, continuing on in my ode to Shel Silverstein I could not pass up the opportunity to blog about one of the silliest poems about attempts to not go to school, “Sick.” Let’s face it we all have done it claimed to be deathly ill when in reality we just wanted a break from learning and a day to relax and watch TV. Well in “Sick,” little Peggy Ann McKay gives a list of excuses as to why she just cannot go to school today, all of them dealing with her being supposedly ill. If you read the poem close enough though, you realize that as her excuses go on they start to have nothing to do with being ill but are actually just how some parts of the body function; such as, her belly button caving in and her elbow being bent. In the end after listing a ton of reasons not to go to school, someone tells little Peggy Ann McKay that it was actually Saturday! All the attempts to get out of school and she actually did not even have school that day. So little Peggy responds to the news that it is actually Saturday by telling the person, who she had just complained about all these illnesses to, that she was going out to play. Shel Silverstein really out did himself again in this poem with his ability to tell a story so smoothly while still being self-conscience about keeping up with his rhyme scheme. This poem just makes you have to giggle about all the effort little Peggy put into not having to go to school. It’s something to think about next time you want to be ‘sick’ and skip school.

One Dollar equals Five Pennies :)

You are led through you lifetime by the inner learning creature, the playful spiritual being that is your real self. Don’t turn away from possible futures before you’re certain you don’t have anything to learn from them.-Richard Bach

This week has been a very interesting one for me. It was my first week back to school after the wretched swine flu attack and so I was still recovering a little bit. I found myself taking quite a bit of cough syrup this week. If you know me well enough you would be very frightened by that last sentence. You see, I react very strangely when it comes to cough syrup. I have several times been accused of being high because I act a little strange; ok, I act extremely strange. Well I guess it is probably because I was acting so strangely, that I remembered one of my favorite poets when I was younger. Since his poetry is aimed at a younger audience it has been quite awhile since I have opened Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein but today I did. Shel Silverstein is a genius, if I do say so myself. His poetry is so light and humorous that it makes you just want to giggle. You can tell just from the title of his books that he is a man who likes to have fun and is also very creative. One of my favorite poems from Where the Sidewalk Ends has to be “Smart.” In this humorous poem a boy is given one dollar bill by his father and by the end of the story he had traded it for five pennies. Because five is more than one, the boy thought his father was too proud of him to speak when he showed his father the final outcome of the dollar bill. This poem is an excellent example of the ability that Shel Silverstein has. Silverstein uses an intricate rhyme scheme in this light-hearted poem while also giving a moral that quantity does not beat out quality in money. The poem is taken from this little boy’s perspective and how he thinks he has tricked all these people out of something but in reality he is the one who has been tricked. The progression in the story is eloquent yet peppy at the same time. The boy goes around trading his one dollar bill for two quarters, his two quarters for three dimes, his three dimes for four nickels and finally his four nickels for five pennies. Shel conveniently runs through our currency by quantity in this poem while supporting the theme that quality is better than quantity. Overall the imagery in this poem is also so amazing that you really can imagine this scene as it happens. If you are ever in need for a laugh I urge you to read this poem about a boy who learns a lesson about money.

Swine Epidemic

In spite of your fear, do what you have to do. Chin-Ning Chu

President Barrack Obama has declared the recent outbreak of the H1N1 virus a medical emergency. But what does that truly mean? Not much, to the average person actually. The proclamation of swine flu as a medical emergency does not give reason to hide it out under your covers; it merely means that now hospitals can skip over some red tape to keep sick people away from the rest of the sick population. With more and more cases of swine flu being acknowledged everyday it is hard on hospitals to room all their sick patients. An even more daunting task is keeping patients, whose immune systems are already down, away from the risk of the H1N1 virus. Now that the proclamation has been made, hospitals can work to create off-site facilities for people with flu symptoms to go to get the proper help. These off-site facilities are a barrier for other sick people against the raging virus and have been greatly needed. The red tape that hospitals had great difficulty passing in past months has been lifted by this announcement made by President Obama. The true question though, is why did he wait so long? The H1N1 virus has been attacking our neighbors to the south since last year; it managed to kill hundreds of Mexicans and the fear it would migrate north was realized not many months after. Sure, the cases slowed down for a couple of months but this past month you turn to any channel and you will hear more news about the spread of the swine. It had been previously predicted that the flu would return in the coming months after its break and once it did the president should have immediately made it a health emergency. Personally, I have never been a fan of any kind of red tape. I am not really sure I see a reason for it other than financially and the way Obama has been throwing money around doesn’t seem like it should matter even in that case. It seems like a risk was being taken on the health of people for the past month and for no true reason. Swine flu is not only a force to contend with but evidence has shown it comes with some troublesome friends that can bring harm, even death, to the elderly and young. I think this proclamation is long over due and I just hope no one’s life was actually risked by slow reaction to this harmful virus.

To see a map of Swine Flu activity click here.

Acting OUT

My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.- John Lennon

I thought I would turn again to a song this week for a little poerty inspiration. Ashley Tisdale is known to most as Sharpay Evans, aka the mean girl, in the High School Musical Series. After High School Musical, she started to take her music career a little more seriously and has recently released her second album. For some reason the album has not actually been very popular even though I think it is amazing. My favorite song is "Acting Out" which is a very empowering song that talks about well a girl wanting to act out. I decided to add the youtube video to the post of the song for you to hear for yourselves. It has a very different beginning but a nice beat that goes along with the up beat lyrics of girl about to jump out of this skin that people have percieved her as. It is definitely a different type of expression than most of the poems I have presented but I believe that songs are poetry just put to music. My favorite part of the song is the lyrics and just how they really motivate you to do something that you havent done before to show people a different side of yourself just like she has shown a new side of herself in her new album. Hope you enjoy this song as much as I do!

Dream a Little Dream of Me

Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today. -James Dean

Another renowned poet that I have yet to share with my fellow bloggers is Langston Hughes. The first time I became familiar with the work of Langston Hughes was during a poetry unit sophomore year. My class analyzed his poem “Theme for English B” and I found his work to be very refreshing and different than the other works we had read. He is probably one of the most renowned black poets for his time. Not only did he work magic when writing he was one of the first poets to experiment with jazz poetry. I was looking through an archive of his works and found this very pleasant poem called “Dreams.”

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

Though it is a fairly short poem it manages to hold a lot of meaning in its words about dreaming. Langston Hughes was also a very technical writer and poet. This poem reads so easily because of his ability to take technical skill and create an easy flow in his poetry. In this essay Langston Hughes describes the importance of dreams and that you must dream or your life will have no meaning and you might as well be dead if your life has no meaning. Hughes uses two very interesting analogies to represent a life with no dreams; he relates not holding tight to your dreams to a bird that cannot fly and frozen dirt laden with snow. Using both of the analogies, it can be stated that Langston believes that a person’s dreams are what give people the urge to live and without them people have nothing to pull themselves up from whatever mess they were given. I think this message is easy to understand when you look back on Langston Hughes childhood which was not very easy for him but he obviously managed to come out of the mess and become a successful poet that was influenced by the troubles of his early childhood.

Health Care

At their core, Americans all want the same basic things: a quality education for their children, a good job so they can provide for their families, healthcare and affordable prescription drugs, security during retirement, a strongly equipped military and national security. -Ruben Hinojosa

Everyone knows about President Obama’s push for universal health care in the United States. He has given several of speeches about the need for a reform in our health care system and he intends to get one. Personally, I have always feared this idea because of problems that have been heard from other countries taking on health care. When it comes to get everyone in a country adequate health care it seems to me like an impossible task. There are so many problems that come with reforming the health care system. The first major problem is financial. How is our government supposed to pay for everyone to get the proper help they need from doctors. Our national debt is all ready through the roof and adding the burden of providing health care would just add to the debt even more. Right now, people receive health care through their employers. I understand that this is not the best, especially with so many people unemployed, but it is what the country can truly handle at this moment. Are priority should be somehow figuring out how to pay for such an extreme project and get some funding before trying to pass bills in congress that would get to this new health care system. Another issue is if this new health care system is what we really want or need as a people. Think about it for a moment, if you knew the government was providing free health care for you, you would likely go to the doctor for every little sickness because you don’t have to care about paying for it. With everyone having this same mindset the hospitals, doctors would become overwhelmed by patients, become understaffed, under resourced and the overall ability of our health care system would halt. I recently became very ill and my mom decided to take me to a walk-in clinic. We had tried to get an appointment with our family doctor but there were no opening. My family had gotten really concerned because I had been getting increasingly sick. By the time we headed out for the clinic my fever had reached 104 degrees Fahrenheit which is fairly dangerous. My mom called in to the walk-in clinic hoping that I would be seen as soon as I got there, because of my increasing fever. When we got there the waiting area was very crowded and we sat down and waited for my name to be called. I was still very sick because of the fever and decided to lie down along a couple of the chairs and try and get comfortable. Even after calling in early and being probably the sickest person in the waiting room, I had to wait forty-five minutes to be seen by a doctor. Afterwards I was thinking to myself, if we have a health care reform like President Obama wants, who knows how much longer it would have taken them to see me. By the time they did see me my temperature had increased to 104.5 degrees Fahrenheit. We as a nation are in the middle of a health scare with H1N1 virus all over the place and so more people are going in and getting checked for Swine Flu already putting the hospitals and medical centers on the edge. If everyone in the nation had health care and felt the need to get checked out for the flu or a virus that is spreading all over, our medical centers probably would be unable to function properly and there would be even longer waits to be checked or be seen by a doctor even if you were extremely sick like I was this past week. If we do end up having a health care reform the first thing we need to do is make sure that we have not only the financial resources but the medical resources prepared well enough for an increase in patients because that is inevitably what will happen. I would rather stick with the health care system we have, as messed up as it may be, and be able to be seen by a doctor in a decent amount of time when I am truly ill than have to wait around slowly dying to be seen by a doctor who is exhausted and expended on an overflow of patients that he can barely do his job.

Words, Words, Words...Alive and Well

Have the courage to live. Anyone can die. -Robert Cody

I was searching through a website where I find my Emily Dickinson poems. It has this index of the first lines of each poem. As I was searching for a poem to dicuss in my last blog for the week, I saw the first line of the poem this entry is about and I laughed. "A word is dead." seems like such an unusual topic for a poem that I found myself wondering what makes a word dead. Read what Emily Dickinson's thoughts are on the situation:

A WORD is dead.
When it is said,
Some say.

I say it just
Begins to live
That day.

Before I read this poem I thought to myself for a moment what I thought about a word being dead. I came up with dead languages such as Latin and so I came to the conclusion that a dead word would be a word that had dropped out of the use of the population. According to Emily Dickinson most people think a word is dead when it is first said but she believed that is the day that it begins just to live. I then realized that Emily Dickinson was trying to convey that words were not just a combination of vowels and consonants but have actual meaning and their meanings also give them a life source. Words are living beasts that surround our society which is one hundred percent true. People use words with purposes of hurting, loving, appreciating, criticizing, or informing. It is a new way of looking at words and is actually really thought provoking. Words are given their purpose by the person but they then hold onto that purpose. People give them purpose and life and then sustain it.

And the Noble Peace prize goes to.....

It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright. -Benjamin Franklin

It has been brought to everyone’s attention that President Barrack Obama has been named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and it has also become a major debate on whether he was truly deserving of such an award. Well today I woke up and turned on the television only to watch a show called Fox news Sunday that was discussing this very topic. A panel of political analysts seemed to all be in agreement that President Barrack Obama did not truthfully win the award on his own actions but none of them agreed upon how the situation should be handled. It is not wrong to say that the Bush’s Administration was not well liked by the Nobel committee and most of Europe. One of the panelists said the committee had made it clear in previous years that they would not award the Nobel peace prize to anyone who had made accomplishments that dealt with 9/11 and Iraq because they did not believe those accomplishments commendable for the award because of the controversy that came with the topics. I searched for this information online but could not find a direct statement from the committee saying such but that is partly because the online community is at a major buzz over President Obama receiving the award. I went to the Fox News Sunday website and noticed a poll off to the side that asked people how they felt about President Obama winning the award and the majority of the votes went to the choice of someone else deserved it more. I think the public as a whole does not believe that this decision by the committee made much sense. This award is given to people who are to be commended for their accomplishments and Obama has yet to really accomplish anything. I will admit that the man is a very eloquent speaker and knows how to inspire people through his words but that is no reason to give him a Nobel Peace prize. I do not wish to relate President Obama to a con artist but every time I hear someone talk about how amazing President Obama is at speaking part of me thinks back to how con artists can only be successful if they have the same eloquence in voice as our President yet they are never going to be given any awards for their speaking abilities because it is frowned upon. Another issue the panel explained was that the list of names in the running for the Nobel Peace Prize had to be registered by February 1, 2009. President Obama was sworn into office on January 20, 2009 had he really done anything substantial to get his name on that list a mere 12 days after becoming president? I think not and I do believe that the only reason that President Obama received the award is because he was not Bush. The first few days in office President Obama spent the majority of his time undoing a lot of what Bush had done in his eight years and Europe had become so Anti-Bush that they saw Obama’s work as Nobel Peace prize worthy. A few of the panelists chose to see this as the reason for President Obama receiving the award and some of the more extremists on the panel saw it as an award of Anti-Americanism and thought Obama should politely decline the award. I am not saying that he should truly go that far and I am sure he will not but it brings up a good point, what should be done with the money that comes with the award and how does Obama view this award. Well I believe the money should go directly to the countries debt amounts that Obama insists on multiplying and President Obama says that he sees this award as a promise to complete what he has set out to complete. The problem with that belief is that many people believe that he should have already accomplished what he set out to accomplish to receive the award because the recipients of the Nobel Peace prize had already made their accomplishments to society before winning, not just made promises to accomplish it. I do find it somewhat reassuring that Obama does not feel that he truly deserves this award either because I would be slightly disturbed about America’s future if he thought so. Let us hope this award does not go to his head. Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Jimmy Carter and now Barrack Obama, oh dear oh my.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/10/09/nobel.peace.prize/index.html

http://fns.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/10/09/wallace-unplugged-obama%e2%80%99s-peace-prize/

The Winter Skyscape

God's promises are like the stars; the darker the night the brighter they shine. -David Nicholas

This weekend we had our first snowfall, though none of the snow actually stuck to the ground it was kind of a wakeup call that winter is coming early this year. Now most people relate the snow and winter to cold and depression, but I love the winter. First of all, the nights are longer in the winter which gives you a longer time to just lay beneath the stars and the moon and reflect upon anything and, secondly, snow is this amazing thing that coats the world and turns everything white which just reminds me of purity and letting go of the world because everything is lost in the snow. I find winter to be this very refreshing and enlightening period of the year. Well it is not a surprise that I went searching for a poem about the night sky and snowfall. So I wasn’t surprised to find one by Robert Frost. “Stars” by Robert Frost is a poem that describes the night sky after a snowfall and just how beautiful it is in that moment. Frost paints this landscape in your minds of everything covered in a new and glorious snow that seems to coexist with these bright, meaningful stars that seem so much more exuberant above the snowfall. He tells about how the night is at this ominous peace and a type of rest that leaves at dawn’s break. In the last stanza, Frost describes the stars as so snowy white and relates them back to Minerva, the Roman Goddess of wisdom. In essence his starts to relate the stars to a blind wisdom which is very interesting because it shows that he too believes that the stars are this symbol of enlightenment and power source for pondering through our problems and souls. I think that the stars have always had this symbol since the age of enlightenment when the philosophers and astronomers were so busy looking for answers in the sky and it is really mind blowing how much information the stars give us as a people whether it is just the empowering symbol they provide some or it is actually information about what else lies in this universe, the stars are always there to be versed about.

http://www.ketzle.com/frost/stars.htm

The Tempting Fruit

"Tis one thng to be tempted, another to fall." William Shakespeare

Temptation can be one of the hardest things man must overcome and man is often placed in situations where the temptation seems to great to resist. I decided to break away from the love poems for a time and step into temptation…at least a poem about temptation. Emily Dickinson described temptation best in her poem “Forbidden fruit a flavor has”. It is a one stanza poem which means it is fairly short so I decided I would simply copy and paste it into my entry rather than give you the link like I would normally do.

FORBIDDEN fruit a flavor has

That lawful orchards mocks;

How luscious lies the pea within

The pod that Duty locks!

Emily Dickinson chose a topic that people have dealt with from the beginning of man in this poem, temptation. One would assume that Emily Dickinson purposefully gave this piece religious connotation by referring to forbidden fruit. Forbidden fruit are referred to from the Bible, when Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit and are later expelled from the Garden of Eden because they admit to God that they had eaten the fruit he has forbidden them from eating. Temptation has several meanings when referring to religion such as in Dickinson’s poem. It can mean committing a sin such a lying all the way to sinning through murder. Resisting temptation in modern day is related back to honoring a bond or relationship you have with another being and not cheating or deceiving this person. Unfortunately, temptation has grown in modern world and many find it hard to resist by remaining faithful which is cause for the failure of far too many relationships. Emily Dickinson died in 1886 in older times when temptation was not so easily taken in so it is curious to think about how she would she the world today seeing this poem was written over one hundred years ago. Is it possible that people has lost the will power that many used to have and cheat and lie making marriage no longer a lasting union for many. It is disheartening to hear that about only 50% of marriages in modern day are a success. At that frightening rate one of every two marriages fail which really brings a damper on the whole point of marriage. It makes me wonder why we have let marriage success rates drop so enormously and what the cause is. It is something to think about, has temptation become too hard to resist or have people lost their willpower to resist it?

Congrats Rio de Janeiro!

“Olympics—A lifetime of training for just ten seconds.” –Jesse Owens
Congratulations are in order for Rio de Janeiro for winning the Olympic bid for the 2016 Olympics. It will be the first time that the Olympics will be hosted by a South American country so there was some great pride associated with this win. While most people were rejoicing this great feat, the people of Chicago were speechless by the outcome. Chicago had often been considered the likely host for the 2016 Olympics but was actually the first voted out of the bid. This came as a great disappointing shock to the city last Friday and many still do not understand fully what happened. Rumors have actually leaked that the Olympic committee actually voted Chicago out first because of bruised pride. Now here is where the politics comes into play. President Obama and his wife, Michelle, flew to Copenhagen, where the vote was held, and gave speeches to the committee asking them to select Chicago for 2016 Olympics hoping that the gesture would put Chicago far enough ahead of the other cities that it would be the obvious candidate. This tactic might have worked, if the Obamas would have stayed in Copenhagen for the vote and watched Chicago advance throughout the rounds of voting. Instead the Obamas, after giving their speeches about why Chicago deserved to host the 2016 Olympics, jumped onto a plane and left before even the first round of voting commenced. This move is said to have insulted the committee because it made their speeches feel too political rather than a kind gesture. This was what some cried out yet I still believe that is not exactly the truth. Chicago was followed by Tokyo in being dropped from the race which makes since because both cities are from countries that have hosted the Olympics in more recent years. Obama was not the only political leader who has spent time persuading IOC members to vote for his country. Luiz Silva, President of Brazil, has spent the past few months traveling the world to talk with IOC members and influencers about how Rio de Janeiro needed the 2016 Olympics while the other cities merely wanted it. When he heard that Obama was to make a speech before the IOC members he was actually convinced of a defeat, but his pleas obviously helped Brazil receive the host position and on confirming his victory for Brazil he was brought to tears. Now that is the showing of someone who truly deserves to host the 2016 Olympics and I raise my glass to him. BRAVO!! President Obama has made a statement about Chicago’s defeat and it contained the clique phrase ‘you win some and you lose some’ but that is not of importance anymore because there is nothing that can be done to change the IOC’s decision. Congrats BRAZIL!!!!

http://news.aol.com/article/rio-de-janeiro-picked-for-2016-olympics/700048?icid=mainhp-laptopdl1link3http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Frio-de-janeiro-picked-for-2016-olympics%2F700048#

Soul and Heart

“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.” –Mother Teresa

As with so many of the other poems I have fondly blogged about, it seems that I have found yet another Emily Dickinson poem about the heart and love. The poem “Heart not so heavy as mine” is the topic of my blog today because it talks about the heart but with a different meaning than love. The story within the poem is about a person who whistles a free-spirited tune that annoys yet at the same time pleases the speaker. ‘Heart not so heavy as mine, wending late home, as it passed my window whistled itself a tune’ refers to the heart as the person’s soul which is lighter in mood than the speaker and therefore is whistling a little jingle. It can be inferred that the speaker is obviously sad since her soul is in a drearier mood than that of the whistler and it may be that the speaker has been sad for some time. The next two stanzas of the poem are spent describing the song the whistler plays and how the speaker finds it irritatingly sweet. It seems that this description would be an oxymoron yet Dickinson describes the speaker’s feeling with great skill that the reader intuitively accepts the description of what the song means to the speaker. The last stanza describes the desperate longing the speaker has to have such a light soul as the whistler by the speaker’s need to hear the whistler again. Emily Dickinson is a very note worthy poet who in this poem showed her true magic with a pen by her amazing ways of conveying such feeling into this four stanza poem. There is much to say about the beautiful images that the poem conveys and its excellent flow and rhyme. This poem speaks of the heart in a very interesting way that it is rarely used today. Many a writer has associated the heart with love and passion but very few have used it to describe a person’s happiness and soul. This piece is very easy to relate to because everyone has been down in the dumps at one time or another and then heard or saw something that just made them laugh that they forget about the hurt for awhile and enjoyed the light-heartedness of the moment. I think that is why this piece really jumped out at me when I was searching the poem archives because just recently I was so upset at my brother and the pain he seems to always try and cause me when my best friend in the world sent me a video text message of her dancing around her room to this song she has been obsessing over and it just made me laugh and I forgot for an instant all the hurt that had been heavy on my heart before and just laughed. For that I dedicate this entry to my bestie in the world, you know who you are trick!


http://www.bartleby.com/113/1072.html

School Takeover

Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils. - (Louis) Hector Berlioz

Education has become Obama’s next target. In recent reports Obama wants to lengthen the class day for students in hopes that the playing field will be leveled against students in other countries. This is just another reason to add to my list, Reasons why Voters Were Wrong November 4, 2008, no joke, there is a list. ;) According to Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan this is the most reasonable idea and has shown success in some Charter schools in America. What I don’t understand is that we already spend more hours in the classroom than kids in schools in Asian countries who seem to be passing us by so how is adding even more hours going to help. Obviously it is not the number of hours spent in school that affect the lowering scores of American students compared to Asian students. Personally, I can barely stay awake through some of my classes that seem to go on and would probably shoot myself if I had to go to school an extra three hours out of the day. Seriously, the time I already have to dedicate after school to homework is a pain in the butt let alone having to add three more hours in class. I would appreciate a life outside of school. If they were to add three hours to the school day students would not get out of school before 5 or 6 pm. By that time it is starting to get dark during some parts of the year and would make it hard on afterschool sports teams because students would need to eat dinner before practice. Also it is likely that teachers would still assign homework which then takes another two to three hours out of their evenings. Overall a student would go to school, have sports practice, do homework and then go to sleep. Even if this was all they were to do students, which is an improbable idea, student would get few hours of sleep without even getting time to relax. There are few kids that would be satisfied with dedicating their entire lives to school and having no time to escape the stress that school brings would likely cause them to take their school time less seriously. I know that in classes where I feel my time is being wasted I started texting my friends, daydreaming or working on my drawing techniques also known as doodles :) Overall I feel that adding hours to the day will just increase the amount of time students including myself goof off and pay less attention which will not result in any better test scores.

***one of the websites that discusses this issue:

http://www.examiner.com/x-12767-US-Headlines-Examiner~y2009m9d28-President-Obama-wants-shorter-summers-and-longer-school-days-for-American-kids

The One Thing He Got Right

There are wrongs which even the grave does not bury. Harriet Ann Jacobs

When it comes to Bill Clinton, there is not much that I actually believed he got right. In fact one of the few things that I did believe he got right, opposition to gay marriage, he has changed his mind on. In a recent interview he has claimed that he personally no longer feels a reason to oppose it because of changing times. He claims that his issues with it were that he was born in a different era and that times have evolved and so his beliefs need to as well. To this I say, “Are You Serious?? Really?” I could not believe that he blamed age as a reason to change his belief system about being against same sex marriage. Why not just call all old people stubborn and set in their old ways? I can understand using the age excuse for subjects like knowledge in electronics and you ability to use a computer properly but not you beliefs on gay marriage. Not only is that comment ageist, but it is one hundred percent false. I know plenty of people in the younger generations who are against homosexuality and I think if anything it is a base for your morals not your age. It is very frustrating to hear the man who was once a president of our country say that gay marriage is basically accepted now and he was wrong before because he had to get past the times and accept gay marriage. Obviously not everyone accepts gay marriage in this time because there are so many arguments and debates over whether it should be legal or not in each state. California is an excellent example of how much of an issue gay marriage still is because of their dealings with it. The California legislature overturned the law that marriage had to be between a man and a woman but was met with so many complaints over the topic that the state held a vote that resulted in gay marriage again becoming illegal there. Obviously this shows that there are many people who still feel that gay marriage is inappropriate and obviously not even accepted in many areas. Also, this shows that you really cannot rely on the state legislature to know what is best for the people in that state because so many people in California disagreed with its legislature’s decision that the legislature had to repeal its decision. I doubt that California is the only state that has legalized gay marriage that will in fact repeal its decision because so many people still believe against their morals and do not wish to live in such a place that would accept it. This is always been the feeling of people so I am curious as to what the heck Bill Clinton was thinking when he said that times have changed and he has decided that he was wrong, oh I know he just was not thinking.

The Frosted Butterfly

Life lives, life dies. Life laughs, life cries. Life gives up and life tries. But life looks different through everyone's eyes. -Anonymous

One of my all time favorite poets would have to be Robert Frost and so I figured that I would pick one of his poems to discuss this week. It is a surprise that I haven’t picked one of his poems before because he just has so many excellent poems to select from. Now I will admit I was tempted to do “The Road Not Taken” because it is my all time favorite poem but I decided to stretch myself and pick a poem of his that I had not read before. This poem “My Butterfly” really caught my interest because it was one of Robert Frost’s first poems. Robert Frost uses an excellent voice in this poem seemingly very smooth and educated for only being nineteen when it was written. The speaker talks about the winter coming and how this butterfly has been gone or dead due to the winter’s harsh landscape. Even though the butterfly is no more at the beginning of the poem Frost speaks about the beauty of its careless wings and show deep, loving emotions toward it. It could be said that the butterfly actually represents a person that Frost cared for, who was likely to have been very care-free in life. The speaker talks more about the time he had with the butterfly and how he remembers it so dear flying with the winds above and gliding on its light wings. ‘It seemed God let thee flutter from his gentle clasp: then fearful he had let thee win too far beyond him to be gathered in, snatched thee, o'ereager, with ungentle gasp,’ is the unique and out of the ordinary way Frost described the death of this butterfly. The fascinating imagery does not end in this one portion of the poem; in fact, if you read the poem aloud and close your eyes you get this wonderful imagination of this butterfly depicted inside your head that it almost overwhelms you with sadness to realize that it is dead. Frost goes on to describe the time spent with the butterfly during warmer times such as spring or summer. Actually in my opinion the seasons in this poem actually describe the emotions of the time rather than the weather; in winter Frost seems to describe the coldness of the time as if he truly means the sadness, death and loneliness and in spring the speaker seems to talk of warmth or possibly happier, more loved times. The poem ends with this realization that in fact the butterfly is dead and the speaker is upset once again about how his loved butterfly is surely dead. :’(

http://www.internal.org/view_poem.phtml?poemID=121

Media Pressure and Race

I hope that people will finally come to realize that there is only one 'race' - the human race - and that we are all members of it. -Margaret Atwood

The concept that was part of the presidential race has returned again; race. If you say that race played no part in the presidential election you are either an idiot or naïve unfortunately. As much as it hurts to say that race was part of “the race” it was because we made it part of the race. News made it about the possibility of the first black president, which I thought did not need to be said because everyone knew that and so making a big deal about it made it become a deal with race. People were accused of being racist if they did not vote for him; others just wanted to make history, and then finally the people who actually agreed with his topics. It puts to thought the possibility that if Obama and McCain were of the same race that we might now have a different president. It is hard to type because I wish that is was not true but inevitably it is the truth for some people. Now the issue has come up again as recent reports start to question if the criticism that Obama is receiving is from the basis of his race. COME ON PEOPLE? This brings up the issue of people feeling pressured into voting for Obama because otherwise they would be perceived as racist all over again. Saying that people are complaining about his presidency because of his race is once again media and public pressure that tells people that complaining about Obama’s plans is a route to being called racist. I am glad to hear that Obama has said that he believes this to be false but now that the idea has been placed in the minds of some people it will be hard to get out. It is frustrating because no one wants to be labeled a racist but they still feel that they should be able to voice their opinions about Obama’s ideas, which are very controversial. Obama has added over two billion dollars to our national debt, wants to pass a bill for government funded health care, and has other plans which will possibly add to our national debt even more, which is all very controversial. His plans for his next four years and our next four years is likely to be cause a lot of talk, be it good or bad. People should be allowed to feel however they so choose to about our president without the fear of being attacked and labeled as a racist. I mean is that not our first amendment right?

Poem in the Song

You think it horrible that lust and rage Should dance attention upon my old age; They were not such a plague when I was young; What else have I to spur me into song? -William Butler Yeats

I thought I would mix things up a little for this post and talk about a poetic work that might not be considered poetry to some people. A song is as much a poem as any work of any great poet. In fact, several poems have been put to song, several from the poet Emily Dickinson. Now I am not talking of a song that was originally a known poet’s work but I thought I would show you followers the poetry hidden in pop songs that we all hear on the radio. I woke up this morning with this concept in my head and suddenly I knew what song I was going to choose to talk about. It is a song that I am not 100% familiar with but I have heard and has peaked my interest, "Sober" by Pink. When you look at the lyrics of this song it shows something more than a catchy tune. The lyrics begin with describing types of girls that differ from the speaker and then talks about why the speaker refused to be those types of girls. At the beginning of the song the speaker is obviously under the influence of alcohol and for some time. It seems to keep the speaker satisfied with extreme ignorance that makes you think that the speaker was actually the types of girls she described while she was drunk and now that she has reached the level of complete ignorance in her drunken state she has found peace. Each stanza of the song shows more of the depression and desperate actions of the speaker when under the influence of alcohol and yet the chorus reveals that there is still hope in her sobriety. The chorus of the song shows repetition that has an important meaning which in this case is the true peace that comes from sobriety. Besides the chorus and the stanzas the speaker is actually confronted with this overwhelming desire and need to feel the high that comes with her drunken state and her desperate beliefs that her drunken state is the safest for herself. This song describes a struggle that has become issue for so many people in the world today. Abuse of alcohol and drugs seems to be a phenomenon that has hit hard in many cities and has taken the lives of a vast group of people all searching for an outlet from their inner pain. “Sober” overall is a song and poem that describes the troubles and difficulties on the road to sobriety but overall I believe it has an uplifting, empowering meaning that will hopefully find its way into the hearts of people who are suffering and need saving from not only their inner pain but addiction to alcohol or drugs. http://www.metrolyrics.com/sober-lyrics-pink.html

Love Song

Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a teardrop. -Anonymous

I guess when it comes to expression, poetry, love is a common topic. Last week I talked about Emily Dickinson's Heart, "We Will Forget Him!" and how it was about a love that had to be forgotten but would not leave the minds easily. This week I was searching the archives of Sylvia Plath's works and came across another interesting poem entitled "Mad Girl's Love Song." Now I am actually a big fan of Sylvia Plath ever since I was introduced to her "Daddy" poem last year. I find her writing to be very harsh and raw in emotion yet eloquently written. Her book intrigued my palate of reading and so when I came across this poem I was very excited to share with my blogger family and my view on its author and the poem as a whole. “Mad Girl’s Love Song” is a poem that talks about the relationship between the speaker and a man. It is obvious that the speaker cared very deeply for this man and thought very highly of him because of the repetition of the line ‘(I think I made you up inside my head)’ implying that he was such a great guy that he couldn’t possibly exist. Repetition is a common theme in this poem as the line ‘I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.’ This line actually gives us this feeling of depression but also shows that the speaker just wishes to escape the world and go into herself. Obviously the speaker believes that the world reminds her of this man, who at the end of the poem it is revealed has missing from her life for some time. The overall voice of the poem is on the more depressing side but that is what Sylvia Plath is most known for. The speaker starts the poem talking about falling in love with this man she finds to be so special and how he romanced her off her feet and made her world make sense, but at the end of the poem the speaker says she has grown old waiting for the man to return and wished she had loved someone that she knew would return. I think that the second part of the poem is her present state, wanting to get away from the world because her world has crumbled and stopped because of this man who made her love him and then left her to live in this world that he had created for her, making it hard for her to forget his love and yet still wanting to forget because he obviously hurt her very much. The speaker is obviously confused as to why this man never returned and thinks it is practically the end of the world because he has yet to return.

http://www.angelfire.com/tn/plath/madgirl.html

Is this Congress or High School????

Take our politicians: they're a bunch of yo-yos. The presidency is now a cross between a popularity contest and a high school debate, with an encyclopedia of cliches the first prize. ~Saul Bellow

President Obama has been pushing for a new health care plan that has been the point of many debates among people and speeches of his own. It is a very frustrating topic that I might speak more on later but is not the main point of this blog entry. This entry's main focus is how Congress has been responding to President Obama's health care plan, which is not a pleasant one. At the bottom of this post is a hyperlink to his recent speech to congress about health care and if you watch it you will discover how congress is starting to resemble high school. The biggest conflict people have about this video is actually when Republican Senator Joe Wilson yelled, "You lie." in the middle of President Obama's speech which I agree was the wrong way to go about getting his point across but was not totally uncalled for. When I was watching a report about his speech it made me laugh because they actually had footage of one of the said congress members holding up signs that belittled Obama's speech and reporters said he was not alone. Congress is losing control and respect for the new president. How is he supposed to work with them for his next four years if he cant even get their respect? I think that the senators are not actually the ones to blame but rather Obama's insistence on a health care plan that our country is not ready to handle financially and so probably seems almost childish in the minds of the members of congress. This problem is causing them to almost revert back to the ways of high school and have obviously written off this plan so why will Obama just let it rest for now? But that is a question for another post and I feel the need to get back to my point before I start rambling off the problems with his health care plan. Back to Joe Wilson, my teacher told our class that Wilson is in the middle of an election year and that his running opponent had actually recieved a bunch of election money since it was announced that Joe Wilson was the man who yelled, "You lie." by annoyomous donors. This information caused me to respond louder than originally planned the question "WHY?" My teacher was kind of confused as to why I would ask that question and responding by telling me that what Joe Wilson did was inappropriate, but that still does not answer my question. If Joe Wilson did something inappropriate than why not just withdraw you donations to him rather then go off and support his opponent? It just seems childish to me that people would decide that this other man now was worthy of large donations because of his opponent's mistake. No, not only is it childish it is what you would expect from high school girls not adults. I mean seriously people come on??? I guess it is true that we never do get away from high school. His opponent probably would have never gotten most of those donations if it were not for that slip of Joe Wilson's tongue. People are deciding to help this other guy win not based on his views but because they want to hurt Wilson! Another Issue I have with the situation is that he was not the only person who was responding in a negative way. The members of congress I mentioned ealrier, with the signs, were doing basically the same thing they just did not vocalize their opinions.

Yes, these actions were disrespectful but I ask you how many of you who were so against Bush ever said anything bad or disrespectful about him? I can think of one situation that I am still bothered by the total disrespect of Bush and I think I am going to tell you why because it goes back to relating congress' response to Obama to a high schoolers about Bush. One of these girls is one who I attend school with who is always ready to debate politics, but unfortunately has no idea what she is talking about. I often had to fight myself on whether to laugh at her or yell at her because of her total stupidity on some of the things she debated about and her reasons for despising President Bush. This girl comletely crossed the line last year when during a class project, we were supposed to make a collage that described us, she presented a collage that contained a picture of President Bush (he was still in office) with red lines slashed through the picture. That is no way to treat the picture of our president, especially in a public school and I still do not know what frustrated me more; the fact that this girl was an idiot, that she was being completely disrespectful, or that the teacher actually allowed for it to be posted up in the classroom. Now I find this totally disrespectful but the collage still stayed stapled to board with the rest of the collages for the rest of the term and kind of reminds me of the signs that congress members were holding up during his speech to a certain degree. This in no way means that I disagree with these congressman! In truth, I agree with them completely and I know I am not alone. I do wish however that they had acted their age and gotten their points across in a different way that would have been considered less juvenile because why make a good point in a way that makes you look childish?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgce06Yw2ro&feature=fvst

We Will Never Forget

I know for certain that we never lose the people we love, even to death. They continue to participate in every act, thought and decision we make. Their love leaves an indelible imprint in our memories. We find comfort in knowing that our lives have been enriched by having shared their love.-Leo Buscaglia

Today marks the eighth anniversary of the greatest tragedy in America’s history. September 11, 2001 will remain a memory in the hearts of millions across our proud nation as we grieve for the lives lost in that previously unconceivable tragedy. If you were asked where you were when you first heard the news of the devastating acts of terrorism that occurred eight years ago, I am sure most of you could recall that moment instantly. I was still a young child at the time but can still remember waking up for school with my mom upset about something saying that we were not going to school that day. It was later when I watched the videos of the chaos in New York that I finally grasped the severity of what had occurred. A horrifying 3,000 lives were lost that day at the Twin Towers in New York, the Pentagon, and in a field (Flight United 93 which rebelled against the hijackers and stopped them from reaching their target) by four commercial planes hijacked by 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists. Between the hours of 8 and 11 am our country was in total shock and disarray, fear struck the souls of many that day who were unsure if the attacks would ever stop, and all feelings of safety disappeared. Grief came quickly and painfully as our country tried to pick up the pieces of our broken land; the glorious twin towers had crumbled to the ground and the pentagon was badly damaged. In the days following, spine-chilling reports were released from witnesses of the twin towers collapsing as photos and stories of people jumping from the twin towers in attempts to escape the collapse of the towers themselves were printed on the cover of every newspaper. Through our pain came heroism and unity as firefighters and police in New York searched the rubble for survivors, many actually being harmed or killed in the process and the government tried to assess and take control. Now, permanent memorials have either been made or our being discussed at each crash site. The past seven years President George W. Bush had always called for a moment of silence to remember that fateful day when so many lives were lost along with a speech directed toward victims’ families, and the placing of white flowered wreaths on the crash site at the Pentagon. With remembrance and grief comes a sort of unity that lets us forget political differences as shown today by our new president, Barrack Obama, who held similar services today as those held by former president George Bush. Although Barrack has often mentioned the problems with the Bush administration it was nice to see that he would still keep up with what can be only described as a tradition of remembrance through his actions today. Though there have been conflicts between the two political parties about the events leading to the attack and the reactions afterward, overall we blur those lines today to remember our grief and those who are no longer here. WE WILL NEVER FORGET.

The Heart

"The heart has its reasons which reason knows not of." Blaise Pascal

If you have not already guessed today's blog is over the heart and what the heart wants. This seems to be a topic that has bombarded the school I attend at full force, but that is not unusual since Homecoming is next week and many people are searching for their dates. With all the love or hunt for love in the air I could not have found a more perfect time to find this poem by Emily Dickinson, "Heart, we will forget him!" http://www.poetry-archive.com/d/heart_we_will_forget_him.html This is a very touching poem to me because I believe it is speaking of a person who is trying to forget about a lost love which everyone can relate to. Dickinson captured the essence of a girl whose love can no longer exist but still does in her heart and her efforts to forget seem half-hearted. This poem really spoke to me as a reader because I have felt that way many a time when it comes to a boy. The poem starts with the declaration that the speaker will forget this love that can be no more,yet by the end the poet has made it clear that she cannot forget to easily nor does she want too, Haste! lest while you're lagging, I may remember him! (Heart, we will forget him!)

First Beginnings

"From quiet homes and first beginning, Out to the undiscovered ends, There's nothing worth the wear of winning, But laughter and the love of friends." Hilaire Belloc


Today is the first beginning of my blog, Poet and Politician. The title is basically a very short description of what my blog will be about. I plan to read poems from famous poets and give my opinions and beliefs about what the poet was trying to convey to his or her readers. Also because I like to be well informed on politics and definitely like to debate about it:) I plan on also talking about news in politics and giving my opinions what is going on in our government. The juicy scandals, the progress or lack thereof in our recently changed government, and anything that else that I think has to do with politics are up for discussion in this blog. I think that I might also make a point to start every post with a quote that deals with the overall mood of the post. Enjoy. :)