Witchcraft! Is real or is it fake? Well back in the times of Arthur Miller's Novel "The Crucible", they thought it did and it drove a town nuts. But this is how any society will react to knowledge of engaging in evil acts. The witchcraft theory led to mass histeria around the town which led to the Salem Witch Trials. Reverand Perris's daughter had been caught up in a situation saying she performed witchcraft on a townswomen. A big crowd came to question Perris and his daughter. The witchcraft theory around town is in relation with The Illuminati now-a-days. The same way society went into Mass Histeria (a condition in which a large group of people exhibit the same state of violent mental agitation), The Illuminati has had a similar effect to society in present day. Being Reverand of the town, which heads the church, you had to have a clean record. People had already been on Perris' case due to prior problems which would have people on edge for anything iffy on his name. "Parris, studies here, then nods, half convinced:Abigail, I have fought here three long years to bend these stiff-necked people to me, and now, just now when some good respect is rising for me in the parish, you compromise my very character. I have given you a home, child. I have put cloths upon your back—now give me an upright answer. Your name in the town— it is entirely white, is it not?" (103). Her wrong doings led to the town breathing down his and her neck. This wasn't the first time her name was brought up in dark so the mass histeria was begginning to build and quickly. With something so wrong in the town people's eyes, they wearn't to willing to be open to the fact that it might not be something dealing with witch craft. In modern day, something that may be as equal to witchcraft back then is the Illuminati claims. This situation is of similar people being involved in witchcraft scandels during this time. A lot of people of power and fame in our society today has been accused of being apart of this devil worshipping "secret society". People in the industry including Jay Z, Beyonce, Jamie Foxx, P.Diddy, Lil Wayne, 2 Pac, Dr. Dre and many many more have been pointed out to have been involved. This secret society has been said to have sold their souls to the devil for fame and money. They illegely have secret handshakes, meetings and gay relations. This, like Witchcraft left/leaves people who are aware in mass histeria. People do not know who to trust or work with in the industry. Its left fans in the balance of not being sure if they could trust their favorite entertainers. Witchcraft and the Illuminati are both ideas/concepts that caused some sort of mass histeria in society. The different in effects is the time period. Back in the day, towns had more reign to be able to punish people if they wanted to. And people believed more in unrealistic things easier then people of today. The idea of witchcraft would not be so credible to many people of todays age. But just like witchcraft back then, if there evidence to prove that there may be hope for the evil, it gains credibility. People of the town believe that they had some evidence of the witchcraft which is what caused the mass histeria because you cannot knock evidence. A person of power (Perris, Abigail) is involved with evil. This is the same with the illuminati. There have been videos and pictures of evidence of illuminati existance and people of power being involved. Pictures of special handshakes, hugs, conversations and more. Also certain events/ and inconviences were put on the illumaniti being in existance. Just as how once witchcraft was being brought out people could blame anything bad on the super natural. In conclusion the mass hysteria that occurred in the Salem Witch Trials applies towards the existance of the Illumaniti in present day. Knowledge of evil drove people in society nuts and wanting to punish people involved in both instances. Both left the society in paranoia of knowing who and who not to trust and if the person in power is genuine.

What is it to be American

What does it mean to be American? Over history in this country we have struggled to find this identity. In the founding years of what made this country to be who it is today, when immigrants were coming from all over (by force or will), ambiguity ran high in distinguishing who got to title them-selves as Americans. People from different countries felt sometimes that they live in America so they should be able to be receiving the label. But this is definitely not the case. There are many cases in which you can be called an American.

First off, an American is a person born in America. To have any chance of being American you have to be born here, but it gets tricky. Canada and South America are included in what we call North America. So for short, they could call themselves Americans if they want. This is usually not the case though. The United States and its citizens are usually known as the Americans around the globe. This is probably because of our popularity (good or bad) and power that we have globally.

This is around America, but in America its gets tricky also. Because of the diversity that fills the melting pot itself, we are not all considered just American even if you were born here. We are grouped into different categories and groups. People are Latin-Americans, African-Americans, and Asian-Americans and so on and so forth. But that’s just being political in the big picture. Really people are just classified as their prefix. People see others as just Black, Asian, White, or Latino. We are not just all seen as plain Americans. That’s not the way society or this country works because of the history of it. We were separated in the past, and will remain for ages.

The government and people of power have the citizens of this country trained to think a certain way. And it is considered the right way with no discrepancy. The labels that groups receive are justifiable. I don’t have a problem with it because it makes sense. But what if one was to think outside the box or people were brought up to think different. Why isn’t anybody who is born here (and their parents) just considered an American? It’s just the way things are. Around the world your American, but in your own home your ethnic.

Song of The Sky Loom

Oh our Mother the Earth, oh our Father the sky,
Your children are we, and with tired backs
We bring you the gifts that you love.
Then weave for us a garment of brightness;
May the warp be the white light of morning,
May the weft be the red light of evening,
May the border be the standing rainbow.
Thus weave for us a garment of brightness
That we may walk fittinggly where birds sing,
That we may walk fittingly where grass us green,
Oh our Mother the Earth oh our Father the Sky!



I like this poem by Tewa because it is about the nature around us. The author gives power to things that have power in our lives unknowingly. Calling Earth and Sky mother and father because we depend on these things to live in peace. If any of these things mentened like morning, evening, and rain began to falter, we would have problems. Big problems

This poem is loaded with figuerative language. From metaphors to personification. The personification comes in where Tewa says the Earth is our mother, and the sky is our father and we are its children. The author gives human like qualities to something not human. The tone of the poem is very calm and nomadic. The author just make connections/comparisions of things the Earth provides with things that she knows (sewing and knitting).
My favorite area of the poem starts at line three. I start to make connections of things that we could do to make the Earth's Health good enough to continue to take care of us. If we cut down on bad things like fossil fuel usage, global warming would not be a problem and the Earth could continue to bring us fair weather without outragous changes that we have witnessed lately. If we didnt spill things like oil and such in the sea, we would have healthier fish to catch and eat so we could feed our families. The weather would not be on constant rise and dicrease which causes sea levels to rise and glaciers to melt. Which happens to have a domino effect. It effect animals which effects mammals(which includes us). If we continued to bring gifts to the Earth and not destroy its habitats and tree's, our Earth's health would be at a better level. Who knows now how crazy it will get in my lifetime. It's crazy and it's not fair because it's not even my (generation's) fault. But we are the ones who are going to have to deal with it. Hopefully our Mother and Father will hold strong and take care of us.

Cival Disobedience

The civil rights movement of the 1960s was the biggest act of civil disobedience that this country has ever seen. This movement joined millions of people together against the government for change. People are ignorant of the civil rights movement and how grand it was, not knowing many important details of it. People think this was movement for blacks and blacks only. That is not true. There was a lot going on in this time. People were fighting for the rights of coloreds. “Coloreds” does not just include the black race. It is for anybody who is not white because we all were not seen as equal to whites. But blacks were very involved and basically the face of the movement so people tend to think that. Also around this time, women were fighting for their rights in society also. This movement included all women, black, white, and whoever standing up to the man. Even though suffrage rights had been granted to women earlier in the century, that was not the only right that made women not as equal to men. Back then, a man and a woman could have the same job, work the same hours and the man would come out with higher pay. Rights for gays, religious movements and others all combined during this time for the civil rights movement. Just certain movements were bigger than others.

For civil disobedience to occur, many components need to be in place in a society. There needs to be a group of people who are in agreement/disappointment that something is wrong or not fair in society. On the other side there needs to be a group of people who back what is not fair in society even if it is a small group. The disappointed group will come to the power and ask for change even if it is slight. If the power does not want to change things, BOOM. Civil disobedience will occur slowly but surely when the disappointed group gets fed up.

This is exactly what occurred across America in the 60s. Except it was on a very large scale. The disappointed group was at a huge number, and society was going crazy. The groups were sprawled out all over the country though and brought together at times for certain events for change. Marches, speeches, boycotts and sit-ins brought people from all over together for a certain cause; civil rights. That was the one goal all groups fighting during this movement had in mind. To eventually be seen as equal to anybody in the country that you stood next to.

During the movement, an author that was even part of the movement made an interesting quote. Martin Luther King, one of the biggest leaders of the movement said “to accept passively, an unjust system is to cooperate with that system thereby, the oppressed become as evil as the oppressor.” (Martin Luther King page 303 from Stride toward freedom) This is an interesting quote that can be interpreted in many ways. I feel this relates to the civil rights movement because it was of course based on what the movement was about. It was one of the main causes that caused the shaky society in the 1960s. Some of the things that the people did (not people who followed King, but others) were just as evil as the white people that made the oppressed angry. This was because some felt evil was being done so they felt the need to strike back. This was a time of striking back and not standing for anything. A time for objection and showing heart for the things you believed was wrong.

King inspired many people across the country to get involved in his acts of civil disobedience. The way he approached the problems in this country got many people who were on the opposite side to jump on board. With his persuasive voice and words, he caused many to see the truth. Things were not fair and right and it went against the constitutional ideas this country was based upon. It went hand and hand with the very things this country fought for independence for.

Some leaders took violent approach to this movement. Martin Luther King was not one of the people who did. One that did was Malcolm X. People don’t realize he wasn’t for violence though and going out attacking whites to get back at them. “..In areas of this country where the government has proven it’s- either inability or unwillingness to protect lives and property of our people, then it’s only fair to expect us to do whatever is necessary to protect ourselves. And in situation like Mississippi, places like Mississippi where the government actually has proven it’s inability to protect us and it has been proven that off-times the police officers and sheriffs themselves are involved in the murder that takes place against our people-then I feel, and I say that anywhere, that our people should start doing what is necessary to protect ourselves.” (Malcolm X, page 305 of “Protect Ourselves”) Was he not right for having this approach? After so much has been done to you and your families, should you continue to sit around and let it happen? The violence being done to coloreds, mainly blacks, was something that could be ignored and let by anymore in his eyes. He felt you cannot continue to treat humans like they are animals that you can abuse and kill when you feel is time. So his reasonably approach was to strike back.

Even though violence was used to try and get things changed for the oppressed, non-violence was the more effective approach to the situation. Martin Luther King got the attention of the whites/government because he attacked them in the legal/right way. Not to say violence went unnoticed. Of course violence drew attention but that just caused law enforcement to come down harder which they had no problem doing. When they attacked Martin’s marches, protest or boycotts they were wrong because they were in their legal rights to do so. Whites just couldn’t stand to see people stand for things that they did not want in their society. King did not get full results when he was alive. It took till after his death for people to realize that things were not right. People started to realize that the way society was being run and handled was unfair. Change began to occur slowly but surely. You could tell that this was because of King’s non-violent approach. He gained a lot of respect for that because he was still an honorable man while fighting for a cause. On the other hand, change did not occur as much when Malcolm was killed. This was because of his approaches, attitude and character. The other side didn’t respect him as much as King. King showed coloreds can be people and not savages like society saw us to be.

This movement, the leaders and the people involved changed society in the United States forever. The way The States is today socially is totally different from how it was being run a couple decades back. And it will not go back to the way it used to be. The people’s act of civil disobedience was for a cause that is now respected across most of the country. Now everybody is seen as equal and given fair opportunities to do something with the life you are given. Now if you come up short, there is no excuse or reason you can pin it too because if you put your mind to it, you have the opportunity to make it to a different situation other than the one you are stuck in. You can make the same money as the person you saw in a suit, male or female, if you work hard towards that goal. You can live in the same neighborhood as the high class guy without hassle if you put in the work for it. This is what the people before us, the people of this movement fought for.

Acedemic autobiography

My academic career began at Mt.Calvery Christian School. Then I transferred to Baldwin Hills Magnet School from kindergarten through the 5^th grade. I graduated kindergarten at the young age of four but had to repeat it when I switched to Baldwin Hills. From Baldwin I went to Daniel Webster Middle for all three years. Last I went to Lou Dantzler Charter and now West Adams. It has been a long run of school and several good and bad teachers, but it is not over.                    

Through my long years of schooling, my favorite subject has become English. It’s crazy because throughout the earlier stages of my school life it was the complete opposite. I was a math head and just naturally did well in English. But as I grew and each grade/course passed, Math began to not be as fun to me anymore. Formulas and things of that sort don’t seem to click with me anymore. I don’t really favor any subject because I feel they are all work in which I need to complete so I just do it. But out of all the subjects, I feel there is a part of English that I kind of like; reading and writing.                                                                                                                   

  In the future, I am not sure where my little knack for English and good grades will take me exactly. I know for sure that I will be at a four year university. Most likely Morehouse if I don’t have a change of heart by my senior year. I’m just not sure what I will major or minor in so I’m not sure where life will take me after a couple years in college. Then I also engage in extracurricular activities that I might indulge in after graduation that could take me to who knows where in life. I feel that’s the beauty of education. You always can have education as a backup or first plan if you don’t have extracurricular things going for you.                                                     

  As a student, I just don’t feel that I am the most diligent, but I can figure out things and complete most of my assignments. I feel I do well in school because of the mentality that I have. I don’t like C’s and I barely like B’s so I’m going to do what it takes to get the grade that I want. That’s just the way I have approached class since forever.                                                                                

 My English history began at birth. Of course, since I was born I began to hear and pick up things from my surroundings (I have always been a person who tries to pick things up). I was able to talk by one or two and able to read and write by three. I left pre-school at three and graduated kinder at four. In junior high I was sort of a natural at English even though I had a strong love for math. I had A’s in English throughout middle school and on through high school. I received my first F in English and life last quarter. My grade point average through the 10^th grade was a 3.8 or 3.9 depending on the number of classes I took. I always ended up with at least on B on my report card. I could never get a 4.0 for some reason.

My specific goal for this class is to come out with an A. I need to redeem myself for the ugly grade I received last quarter. As a teacher I expect you to get me more on board with rhetorical devices. At my old school, we did not really hit off with those as much. Also I think I need to be better with textual analysis. I don’t think that that is one of my strong points in English. I’m not sure though may be if we get into it I’ll be able to pick it up. Lastly I expect for the class to be made sort of interesting at certain times if possible.