Eastern Change

I read the article "On The Road in Iran" by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times Up Front. The article was about how the younger generation in Iran is more educated and less conservative. Throughout the article as Kristof conducted mini interviews he showed how a lot of the older people in Iran have a much weaker education, like when he talks to a 38 year old man who he says has a 9th grade education. Later in the article Kristof talks about kids playing banned videogames like Battlefield 3 and Grand Theft Auto, showing how liberal the younger generations are becoming. Towards the end of the article Kristof talks about seeing a police officer yell at a women for rolling up her sleeves. "Finally, she covered her forearms a bit more, and he accepted a truce." The article showed a really strong contrast in the generations, and how the older generations are treated stricter whereas the younger generations are allowed to play illegal videogames.

The author wants me to feel hopeful for Iran. He talks about Iran possibly being the most pro-America country in the middle east, and interviews several people who are also very pro-America, many of whom are younger. Kristof is CLEARLY trying to point out how younger generations around the world are becoming consistently more and more liberal. Kristof is trying to show what a problem the older conservative generations are in clashing with the younger liberal generations by showing interview after interview with completely opposite views and opinions. Kristof gives much lengthier quotes/interviews from people who oppose the strict government which helps you to understand and connect with their views, which persuades you to absorb their views and oppose their conservative government.

I think that the conservative government in Iran should be more liberal, or just moderate. To be fair, they should let people live. I was disturbed when I read that it was illegal to play certain videogames, and that you could get fined for having satellite TV. "So they just take the dish and go away," without imposing the fine." I took away from the article that it's important to know how others live and how they treat things like TV that we take for granted, they have to hide and be careful about because they can get fined, or thrown in jail for having luxuries that we don't acknowledge.

http://upfront.scholastic.com/issues/02_18_13/book#/12

Non-existant Doom

I just finished The Doom Machine by Mark Teague, which I found to be a relatively easy book after learning it's surprisingly for 8-10 year olds, though I still found a deeper meaning.

In The Doom Machine Jack and Isadora are abducted by aliens and travel across the universe to try and save Earth, which I found to be a pretty basic plot. Throughout the book I saw them being faced with moral challenges, where they could either save Earth, or succumb to an alien authority and let Earth be captured. Jack and Isadora's goal was to destroy the doom machine, created by Jack's uncle Bud. If the Skreeps were able to figure out how to use the machine, they would've used it to create tunnels in space to make it easier to capture and eventually colonize Earth. The overall purpose of the Skreeps existence is to ultimately take over everything that exists and rule with immense greed and apathy.

Throughout the book I noticed the Skreeps being unnecessarily cruel and repeatedly untrustworthy to their prisoners (Jack and Isadora) who at any point could've allowed the Skreeps to use the machine and just become one of them. The four human main characters in the book all showed their different views of how to deal with the challenge at hand. I think morally, Isadora wouldn't have succumbed because of what an intelligent character she was, especially compared to Jack. I think Isadora, believing strongly in science and knowledge, felt like she could've found a more logical way to overcome the Skreeps. I think someone like Jack on the other hand would've been more excited to try something ridiculous like infiltrating their land with aggressive force. Bud on the other hand had a mindset between Isadora and Jack, where he was up for an adventure, but also used science and logic to be able to *SPOILERS* save Earth. I interpreted Bud as a character who would be more likely to lean towards Jack and want to blow something up versus persuading the Skreeps to stop. I saw Isadora's mom, Dr. Shumway as someone who would just be an older version of Isadora, who through the story line was paired with Bud for the majority of the book, and I thought she treated him just as Isadora was treating Jack. I thought both of the female characters in the book treated the males as wild, unintelligent beings, whereas I felt like they were looking at themselves as the intellectual superiors (which I agreed with), though they never questioned what the doom truly was.

I feel like the moral dilemmas brought up in The Doom Machine can easily be extended to our world. I think a lot of the time people can be faced with something simple, where they can either just feel nothing for others and let these bad things happen to them, or stand up for others and really fight back. I think this could be simplified into bullying, where the Skreeps are the bullies, and they're bullying Earth. Part of Earth sees this happening, and can either side with the Skreeps, and let the rest of Earth be bullied, or stand up to the Skreeps and fight back to protect the rest of Earth, and in the book, Jack and Isadora do fight back and end up saving Earth.

Revenge

I'm reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Liesel and her foster dad, Hans, are at a parade of Jews that are being marched to Dachau to a concentration camp. Hans sees one man who comes up to him and Hans gives him a piece of bread. This is followed by Hans being beaten in the street along with the man, and a lot of dirty looks in the days following.

I think that Hans felt that he had to give him the bread. Hans has this view of Germany and how the Nazis have destroyed his homeland that he feels the need to help the ones who are being hurt by the ones who are hurting him; the Nazis. Hans only wants to good, which is a reoccurring theme in the book. Hans starts off by adopting two children, (Liesel's brother dies on the train heading to Molching), and then goes on to adopt a Jew, Max. Hans works extra hard to ensure that Max can be fed the little that they are able to give him, and to ensure that he can stay in the basement and write and paint. Hans goes out of his way to protect Max and worries not only about himself being killed for hiding Max, but what would happen to Max if he were to be found.

Hans is completely selfless and wants to even bring him along when the bomb raids begin, though he knows that he would certainly be killed.
' "It's a shame we can't take you with us. It's a disgrace."
"It's how it is." ' - Page 372
This quote just further proves Hans' selflessness, and love for all. Hans wants to bring Max to the Fiedler's basement to protect him from the possibility of radiation from the bombs in their basement. If Himmel street was bombed, and everything was destroyed, even possibly everyone in the Fiedler's basement, no matter how deep it is, all Hans is concerned about is if Max will be alright in their not as deep basement six doors down.

When the bombs do inevitably come, and the ash washes over everything, Hans wants to go out and help.
'At home, Pap told Max all about it. "There's fog and ash--I think they let us out too early." He looked to Rosa. "Should I go out? To see if they need help where the bombs dropped?" ' - Page 383
Hans again, is willing to risk his health to go out and save people from the ash, and risk getting something like Lung cancer, just because there's a possibility that someone needs help.

Hans is a perfect role model of someone who just cares and loves too much to a point where he can be stupid, and has to be told by others (Rosa, his wife) to stop.

Ed is the Hope

I'm almost done reading I am The Messenger by Marcus Zusak. The protagonist, Ed Kennedy, is a 19 year old cabdriver, who gets playing cards (specifically aces) in the mail giving him missions, through riddles. It becomes very clear that all of these missions are to make people happy, or make their lives better.

I think that Ed is the symbol of hope, because everything he does makes families and people so happy, and give them hope and faith in other people and humanity. Ed starts off by not caring about anyone or anything, being perfectly happy with his life as terrible as it was. After the first ace Ed doesn't care at all, I think that was because he just didn't want to do anything or have to care about someone else. The first ace forced him to see the social injustices in his world, and made him aware of what other people have to deal with on a daily basis. He sees a woman repeatedly raped, a lonely old woman, and a girl named Sophie trying to achieve her dreams facing poverty. I think he helped the old woman because he felt bad from his own family issues with his mother that he just wanted to help, and after feeling like he had a really caring mother, found he had actually made a difference to the woman, Milla. I think after this Ed felt like he might be worth something. Sophie wanted to be an athlete, specifically in track and field, and Ed saw that she thought she wasn't good enough because of her junky running shoes, so he gave her an empty box, after seeing her run barefoot in the morning. I thought this was such a great gift, because he knew that she really didn't need fancy expensive shoes to make her a great athlete, and this made me really happy seeing Ed make an actual difference in Sophie's life, even after she doesn't win the race while barefoot. When Ed finally returns to the abusive husband and almost kills him, he realizes that he isn't some prophet, or some great man going out to save humanity and bring hope. He think he's just as worthless again, and I really disagreed with him. I thought that Ed was really noble, after letting the man live, but scaring him out of the town. After the first ace I really saw Ed grow as a character, into what I saw as a symbol of hope. He was finally seeing his purpose, though he kept on driving his cab, and took this as a great opportunity to go ahead and take action against the social injustices he was seeing in the world around him.

In my life, to make a positive change, I've done charity work. My friend Akash started a charity called Kids For a Better Future several years ago, and I've repeatedly volunteered for that over and over. Last year we sponsored Seeds of Peace, which helps children living in the Middle East. Through fundraising I was not given an actual mission or an actual problem, but I was given the problems in the Middle East, and by fundraising, raised several thousand dollars for Seeds of Peace, and gave a little push towards helping resolve those conflicts, without having a specific direct conflict to resolve, but just to spread hope and make little things better like Ed did.

http://www.seedsofpeace.org

Shouldn't They Be Sad?

In Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles, two children living in the south adventure through town on a summer day as civil rights begin to stir and change everything. I noticed that this inequality of race doesn't really make anyone sad which confused me.

John Henry isn't allowed in the general store. He doesn't seem to mind standing outside while Joe goes in to get Ice Pops for them. I wonder if because life has always been like this for John Henry and his family that he doesn't think of life any other way. He doesn't want to stand up for his rights, and he doesn't want to make a big scene trying to change everything. He's fine with Joe going into the store and he doesn't get upset over it. Joe doesn't think much of his friend having to stand outside, it's almost tradition. Later on when Joe and John Henry see the pool as it closes, John Henry makes a transition from apathy to action, as he later goes in the general store with Joe to show that he isn't afraid, and won't have his opportunities denied because of his race.

I think that John Henry doesn't care at the beginning of the book because he doesn't realize how unfair segregation is. If he was an adult wandering through the town on his own he would see how intense the segregation was and how unfair it really was. I'm sure John Henry's mother tells him some things about how it isn't fair for them but I'm sure he doesn't know a lot of things and because of this he isn't so frustrated by this until the pool closes. The pool closing is an emotional climax for John Henry because he really wanted to swim in the pool and forget about the unfairness in the south and be just like Joe. He wanted to do everything Joe could do, with Joe, but because of the racial segregation John Henry cannot, and is upset by this. I think John Henry wants revenge, in a mild way. He wants to stand up for his rights and get revenge by swimming in that pool or going into the general store with Joe. When the pool closes, John Henry obviously can't swim in it now and I felt like that motivated him to go into the general store.

I've not been allowed to do certain things but not because of race, only because of age. For example, I can't drive. This is nowhere near not being able to swim in a pool or go into a store but it's something that eventually I can do. John Henry would not be able to one day swim in that pool. John Henry wouldn't just be able to go into the general store one day. This is his life and how it will always be whereas I, as I grow older, will have even more opportunities.