Why is it that my seemingly “perfect” life is now falling apart?
Why is it that everyone I love is either leaving or dying?
How is it possible that after 15 years of life with nothing “bad” happening three family members die and one moves away within my 16th and 17th year?
I don’t understand. Are these horrible things a way for God to test me? But then I guess we are not suppose to understand all of the doings of Him…Maybe one day I will understand all of His reasonings.
I decided to take a week and just visit and comment on others. Here are some of the links:
Joseph and the coat of many colors is bible story we all learn about when we are young. A man named Jacob had many children-girls and boys alike-yet his favorite was his youngest son Joseph. His brothers were jealous of Joseph and did not like him, so they decided to get rid of him. They originally planned to kill him-blaming a wild animal-but deciding they should benefit from his “disappearance,” sold him into slavery in Egypt. Traditionally, the story we learn in Sunday School allows us to feel sympathy towards Joseph; however, a closer look reveals that Joseph might not be as innocent as we all believed. He was perfect when Father was around but as soon as Father left he became a whole new person who “rubbed” his favoritism in his siblings’ faces-hence the “coat of many colors.” Joseph was a deceptive hypocritical little boy who enjoyed the benefit of his father’s favoritism. Amazing, isn’t it, how the people of our society have played “follow the leader” by being just as deceptive and hypocritical, if not more, than Joseph.
Politicians are famous for being both deceptive and hypocritical; especially when the presidential election comes around. The candidates say exactly what we want to hear and the second they show their own opinions and feelings their votes drop in the polls. This is proven this year when Presidential candidate Senator John McCain made a comment about the U.S. being in war for the next 100 years. His polls immediately dropped. After realizing his “mistake” he issued a statement apologizing for his slip. When the audience heard what they wanted to hear and accepted his apology he gained all of his support again and then some.
I see deception and hypocrisy everyday I arrive at school;every time I walk through the halls-filled to the maximum capacity-between classes. Girls laughing and being “best friends” with each other before first period and by second, attacking each other like untamed animals and talking bad behind each others’ backs. Kids being “perfect” while in the teacher’s presence but the second she is gone, mocking her and saying cruel things. Adults are just as bad-if not worse-than teens are. At work we are so kind and do whatever the boss asks us to do -because he is “the boss”;however the moment his back is turned and we think he is not watching or listening, we are talking bad about him and making fun of anything about him that is possibly not “up to par.”
I’m not saying I have never been deceptive when it was to my advantage or hypocritical about others because-sadly-I have-who hasn’t? But isn’t it funny how we choose not to admit to the social problems our human nature allows us? In my twisted version of Joseph and the coat of many colors, Joseph’s coat-which was given to him by his Father-represents the multi-faceted attributes of young Joseph. At the end of the Bible story, Joseph is “forced” out of his deceptive and hypocritical nature by many years of being a slave. He ends up being the “savior” of the Egyptian people, when he is honored by becoming a prophet of God. Is it possible for our deceptive hypocritical world to outgrow our “nature” as Joseph did or will we be in the future as we were in the past?
Drag racing! Thrilling! Hyper acting! Deadly? Yet this is the “game” a lot of teens and some adults enjoy “playing.” As of 1999 there were 5,749 teens that died from motor vehicle crash injuries. What is it that makes teens and some adults want to “joy ride” and race each other going at top break neck speeds? Why do they act as if they have nothing to lose? I say the need for egos to be satisfied and the human need to be “thrilled.”
Many people might ask, “what is illegal street racing?” Illegal street racing is defined by dictionary.com asa race between two or more automobiles starting from a standstill. The winner being the car that can accelerate the fastest.
CNN.com-Addicted to the Rush of the Race: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/22/street.racing/index.html
Kids screaming in stores, throwing food in restaurants, screaming at and embarrassing their parents when they are told “NO!” This is the evidence of one of our biggest problems in society today-the lack of discipline children are subjected to. How do we address this problem? It is time to tell these parents that they are ruining their children’s lives by letting them act this way.
First of all, for those who do not know the official definition, a temper tantrum is defined by WebMD as “an unplanned, unintentional expression of anger, often with physical and verbal outbursts.” Tantrums are characterized, typically, by crying, yelling, and flailing the arms and legs. They can last between 30 seconds and 2 minutes and, just like a bad storm, are at their worst in the very beginning. The main age for tantrums are between 1 and 4 but older children, and even some adults, can throw them.
We must ask ourselves, on whose shoulders does the blame fall? I recently read an article about a 5 year old who threw a temper tantrum in school. The school officials had to call the police to take her away because she “swung” her fists at an assistant principal and a teacher “several times.” (complete article here-video included) Her mother has complained about the way the school “handled it.” But once again, the school had to handle it because the mother allowed the child to act like that. So whose responsibility is it that the future generation of our country doesn’t grow up believing that the whole world revolves around them? Our government? Our society?
Many people would ask “Okay, so what are your suggestions?” I think we should stop indulging their every whim. Just the other day I went to the movies with my friends and as we were standing in the lobby talking we heard this little girl throwing a fit because he dad told her she could not get a toy out of the little machines. Of course her dad pulled out a dollar as soon as her screaming got louder and bought her a toy. As a result, the sleeping baby that her mother was holding woke up and also started screaming. What should the father have done instead of giving the child the money for the toy? He should have spanked her, told her no, and then left the theater so as to not bother the other occupants. Or at least that is what would have happened to me. I can honestly say I do not know a lot of suggestions for this problem our society faces, but I can say that the children of the next generation need to be spanked.
When reading a magazine at my grandparents house at Christmas there was a little caption that said (and I’m paraphasing) “If you ever repeat any of this I will beat the snot out of you” and then in parenthesis it said “of course we can’t do that know a days of someone will call DHS on you.” I just thought it was hilarious because it is so true. My dad has a friend that was spanking his child in Wal*Mart one day and an old lady interfered and told him to stop “hitting” him. The dad looked at her and said “lady if you don’t want the same thing then you should leave and leave us alone.” I also thought that was hilarious. My point is people think that children are these fragile things that don’t need to be punished when they do bad things, but in reality, when these children grow up, they won’t be the “good” children that listen when authority is talking to them but they will be the ones who text in class when you get 8 hours of Saturday school for it, or the ones that roll their eyes when an authority figure tells them to do something they don’t want to do. What I am saying is that the children who were punished for doing the wrong thing when they were little, are the children who will grow up with the best morality.
I don’t claim to know all the answers because I don’t. But what we need to do as a society is come together and help come up with ideas. How do we combat this problem? How do we effect our children’s future by never punishing them? How do we change the way society looks upon the parents?
Scantily clad females, sex scenes, flesh eating monsters, pyromaniacs blowing things up! Everyday, when watching t.v., we see new trailers for movies and most of these movies can be categorized under three subjects: Bloody gore, Extremely sexual, or Dangerously violent. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that I don’t watch movies that have gore, sex, or violence, but what we, as the next generation, need to realize is whether or not we want our children growing up watching these shows.
What is it that makes people want to watch others “have sex” or beat someone up or a gross dead “thing” eat someone who is screaming the whole time? I say boredom. We were the “sheltered” generation as children and now, that we are older, we are “rebelling.” As a little girl I can remember getting up at 7 o’clock in the morning and, because I obviously had nothing else to do, sneaking downstairs to watch the “forbidden” Power Rangers (here). I would sit right up close to the t.v. and just stare and watch the whole thing. The pink ranger was my favorite because, at the time, pink was my favorite color. The first few times I stealthily stomped my way downstairs, I got caught. But they never did catch me actually watching the Power Rangers (here). For that, I was grateful. As a little girl I was never really interested in Barney (here) because of the obvious like I saw in my younger siblings. I was more of a Sesame Street (here) and closet Power Ranger fan.
Now when you go to rent movies you are barely able to find a movie that is not PG-13 or R rated for sex or violence. While watching t.v. the other day, I saw the previews for a new movie called The Eye (here). Naturally, given the title, it is under the horror category. I, not being one for scary movies AT ALL, decided I was definitely not going to the movies to watch that. Then, maybe a week later, I saw the commercial for Step Up 2 (here). I have seen the Step Up (here) so I obviously decided that I was going to see the second one. This movie would have to be put under the sexuality category.
I think one reason people want to watch scary horror movies is that their bodies get a jolt of exhilaration. When I watch a scary movie it is like the suspense makes my endorphines go crazy. When I was in the sixth grade I went to a birthday party for one of my friends and we watched Resident Evil (here). Well being the scaredy cat that I am, I shot the little plastic darts from my little plastic gun at their big screen t.v. pretty much the whole time. Her mom and brother (they were watching the movie with us) kinda got mad at me. But ever since that birthday party it became a tradition that we watch a scary movie so they could laugh at me.
As for watching something sexual, I think people watch it, and are fascinated by it, because it is like you are watching something forbidden. As children we don’t really know much about it and our parents keep us from it; therefore, my theory is that when we’re teens we watch it (or for some, experience it). And I’m not talking about full blown sex scenes. I’m just talking about the provocative way the actors and actresses dance in Step Up and Step Up 2 for example. Or the implied sex scenes in other movies.
Now that I am older, and constantly exposed to the blatancy of the world, I see why my parents tried to shelter my sisters and I from the the Power Rangers and other such shows. They were just trying to force us to keep our “innocence” a little longer. I realize that my parents really were smarter than I thought.
Models, Actresses, Music Artists and other “A-List” celebrities. These are the kind of people that teens, and pre-teens, alike compare themselves to everyday. When little girls think that they must look like Britney Spears or Heidi Klum to get somewhere in the world, it leaves them with the thought that they always need to be thinner and, for the ones who can afford it, the need for plastic surgery.
Four% of plastic surgeries performed today are on teens. The percentage is not a lot but when you really think about it, 4% is a lot for something that should be on a strictly needed basis. As of 2003, the most popular procedure was rhinoplasty (nose surgery) with almost 43,000 done. The second most popular was otoplasty (ear surgery) which is a procedure that reshapes the ears so they lay flat on the head. Some non-invasive procedures done on teens are chemical peels, microdermabrasion, and collagen injections (a “filler” used to reduce the sagging of skin) to reduce to visibility of acne scars.
Most teens believe that plastic surgery is a godsend; however, as we all know, nothing good comes without the bad. The side effects of plastic surgery can be horrific if not sometimes fatal. For example one doctor, a staff pediatrician at Ochsner Clinic Foundation, had one of his patients lose part of his ear after his otoplasty because he contracted an infection while it was healing. The cartilage of the ear has poor blood supply and good blood supply is imperative in healing properly. See this full article here.
Not to long ago, in November of 2007, a prominent figure’s, Kanye West, mother died following a tummy tuck and breast reduction. Many people have also gone in and had simple procedures done and have ended up looking “worse” than before. We all know about Michael Jackson, Demi Moore, and Salma Hayek and many more. Before and after pictures here.
Nevertheless, what makes these already beautiful celebrities, these people who little girls and teenagers look up to and admire, want to mess with their faces and bodies? The media and the people for which they work.If the celebrities start to gain weight then the media will attack them and shred them to pieces like they did to Britney Spears, who I might add has had two babies back to back, when she did a show for the MTV Music Video Awards.
Another problem that tells teens they need plastic surgery is the hit t.v. show Nip Tuck. This show makes reality look like life is a non stop party for the rich and beautiful. Although that is what life is probably like for most of the rich and beautiful, they are not perfect despite the way it seems on t.v.
If the media did not play such a huge role in our lives, we would not have eating disorders, the thought of plastic surgery and the other problems that our society must face today. So the next time a teenage girl goes into a doctor’s office and decides she wants a nose like Ashley Tisdale or another A-list celebrity and the doctor performs the surgery maybe he will realize what he is doing to her. Or a teen who has always been told that she should model because she is so pretty goes into a modeling agency and they tell her she isn’t skinny enough or pretty enough maybe they will realize, and care, that they are slowly ruining that girl’s image of herself if it isn’t already gone.
They’re everywhere! Everywhere you look, if you have the right training, you can find “hidden” rhetorical strategies with your “rhetorical eyes.”
Allusion to the Bible by Casting Crowns, The Voice of Truth
“The kind of strength it takes to stand before a giant
With just a Sling and a stone
Surrounded by the sound of a thousand warriors
Shaking in their armor
Wishing they’d have had the strength to stand”
Polysyndeton by Reba McEntire, So, So Long
“So long, so good, so fine, so real, so right,
so long, so fine, so long…”
Anaphora by Julius Caesar
“Veni, Vidi, Vici”
“We came, We saw, We conquered”
Personification by Antony in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
“O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth…”
Not everyone understands it, not everyone sees it, but isn’t it funny how everywhere you look you see these funny little things. I bet the next time you look at a poem or listen to a song you will notice these rhetorical strategies with your “rhetorical eyes.”
As of 1999, there were 968,000 illegals in the United States. The number of illegal immigrants has approximately increased to about 11 to 13 million today. School registration should be one ways to identify illegal immigrants and the children of illegal immigrants need to be banned from attending our schools because their parents do not pay taxes.
Illegal immigrants do not pay taxes because they do not have social security numbers and are not registered. No matter what anyone says, education is not free and yet the children of the illegals are receiving a free education at the cost of the taxpayers. The schools are paid with taxpayers money to allow children the opportunity of “free education”. 90% of the taxes that homeowners pay go to the schools for the upkeep, maintenance, supplies and other needs of the school. The illegal immigrants do not pay these taxes because most of them do not own houses; they just rent them.
The funds spent on special requirements for illegal immigrants are taken away from the taxpayers’ children. The schools have to use money to hire someone to teach these students in Spanish or his or her native language; thus resulting in less and less money to be “spread” around to the “regular” classes. The schools then have to hire more teachers to teach the same classes because there are too many students to have just one class for that subject.
There has been a 14% increase in school enrollment between 1990 and 2000. About 250,000 illegal immigrant children are enrolled in our school systems every year. To be put plainly, the illegal immigrants are overcrowding our schools. There are no places to sit in lunchrooms. The cafeteria in my school is constantly being added on to because there are not enough tables for everyone to sit at comfortably. Another overcrowded area is the most important: our learning environment: the classrooms. My school has had to use mobile homes, a.k.a. module buildings, so each teacher could have his or her own classroom. Some classrooms, like my English room for example, were even cut in half by adding a dividing wall so they would have enough room on the school grounds for the “mod” buildings. We have also had a shortage of books that are needed for the classes taken. My math teacher had to re-order about 10 more books because she had not planned to have so many “move-ins”. The result of which, she had to spend money that she had not planned on spending and thus cutting her budget more than was expected.
Many people believe that illegal immigration to be “good” for our economy. However, most of the people who believe this have jobs that require a higher education and are, therefore, “untouchable”. What happens to the people who are laid off because an immigrant is willing to do hard labor for less money than they are?
