Mmmmmmmmmmm... "Chinese" food...

Yes, i had "Chinese" food for dinner, and the reason why i call it "Chinese" food is because the only thing Chinese about it is the recipe, and maybe the ingredients.  It's still delicious tho!  and now I'm listening to "Firework," by Katy Perry, and its one of her few songs that are appropriate, AND it's inspirational!  OMG I need to go  to border's and a couple of other places for Christmas shopping (and late Hanukkah shopping)!  I'm gonna go around 6:00, so that I can finish some Hausaufgabe.  anyway, BYE!!!

ALMOST DONE CATCHING SOME FIRE!!!!

THIS BOOK IS SO AMAZING!!!!!!  I'm so hooked, i could barely put it down to eat!  of course, I've forgotten to do that before...  oh ya, i was wondering, would getting a Christmas gift for my Jewish girlfriend be a bad idea?  because i tried to get her a necklace for Christmas, but it cost to much... like $40 too much... so i was going to get it and give it to her for Christmas.  ya, so i'm gonna go catch some more fire before i go to sleep!  so for now, BYE!!!!!

GOOD DAY!!!!

OK, so today had a good day (hence the title)!  so ya, I wrote a poem during sociology today, because i forgot my book and couldn't participate.  the inspiration for this poem is an ^$$#@!&, i mean jerk, who sits a few seats behind me in sociology!  Stas is a kid who spends his time cracking jokes, and not paying attention.  he constantly cracks jokes at me, and because of my self defense mechanisms, i can, to some extent, forget about it!  but i just need to vent when I'm mad, so i wrote this!  hope you like it!

The Bully
by James

I see your face,
I want to scream.
My head soon fills
With that violent steam!
I want to run
But I know I can't.
You belittle me constantly,
I feel like an ant!

Why do you do this
Why do you try?
Because of you
Life wasn't worth the try!
Because of you,
I hated myself
I hated the mirror
Upon my bookshelf!

Your dagger words
Bring me to the present
Where I try desperately
To think of something pleasant.
I'm trying to fight
What my mind's thinking
Violent thoughts
Of fist and face linking

My body tenses up
Ready to attack
That's when i remember
My mind goes way back
I think of my best friend
And the promise I made
I swore to never fight
Unless another person it would aid

Then i relax
and look you in the eye
"I'm sorry you feel that way
I hope one day you'll fly!"

My speech so far! (15 minutes late)

I still need the second and third paragraph, which we will be doing in class... soon?

Introduction:

Instead of telling you my topic right from the start, I’m instead going to read Soeren Palumbo’s story.  Soeren Palumbo was a senior in high school when he wrote his speech entitled “Retard,” and his sister was an elementary school student with special needs.  This segment is only the introduction of his speech, and while I read it, I would like you, the audience, to draw conclusions about what my topic is.

---------------------------------*deep breath*------------------------------

I want to tell you a quick story before I start. I was walking through our hallways, not minding my own business, listening to the conversations around me. As I passed the front door on my way to my English classroom, I heard the dialog between two friends nearby. For reasons of privacy, I would rather not give away their race or gender.

So the one girl leans to the other, pointing to the back of a young man washing the glass panes of the front door, and says, "Oh my gaw! I think it is so cute that our school brings in the black kids from around the district to wash our windows!" The other girl looked up, widened her slanted Asian eyes and called to the window washer, easily loud enough for him to hear, "Hey, Negro! You missed a spot!" The young man did not turn around. The first girl smiled a bland smile that all white girls - hell, all white people - have and walked on.

A group of Mexicans stood by and laughed (that high pitch laugh that all of them have). So, now it's your turn. What do you think the black window washer did? What would you do in that situation? Do you think he turned and calmly explained the fallacies of racism and showed the girls the error of their way? That's the one thing that makes racism, or any discrimination, less powerful in my mind. No matter how biased or bigoted a comment or action may be, the guy can turnaround and explain why racism is wrong and, if worst comes to worst, punch em in the face.

Discrimination against those who can defend themselves, obviously, cannot survive. What would be far worse is if we discriminated against those who cannot defend themselves. What then, could be worse than racism? Look around you and thank God that we don't live in a world that discriminates and despises those who cannot defend themselves. Thank God that every one of us in this room, in this school hates racism and sexism and by that logic discrimination in general. Thank God that every one in this institution is dedicated to the ideal of mutual respect and love for our fellow human beings. Then pinch yourself for living in a dream. Then pinch the hypocrites sitting next to you. Then pinch the hypocrite that is you. Pinch yourself once for each time you have looked at one of your fellow human beings with a mental handicap and laughed. Pinch yourself for each and every time you denounced discrimination only to turn and hate those around you without the ability to defend themselves, the only ones around you without the ability to defend themselves. Pinch yourself for each time you have called yourself or someone else a "retard".

If you have been wondering about my opening story, I'll tell you that it didn't happen, not as I described it. Can you guess what I changed? No, it wasn't the focused hate on one person, and no it wasn't the slanted Asian eyes or cookie cutter features white people have or that shrill Hispanic hyena laugh (yeah, it hurts when people make assumptions about your person and use them against you doesn't it?). The girl didn't say "hey Negro." There was no black person. It was a mentally handicapped boy washing the windows. It was "Hey retard." I removed the word retard. I removed the word that destroys the dignity of our most innocent. I removed the single most hateful word in the entire English language. I don't understand why we use the word; I don't think I ever will.

            ------------------------------------*Deep Breath*------------------------------------

For those who haven’t already guessed, my purpose here is to inform you of the harmful social and emotional effects of the word “retard.”  Most of you may not know what you are saying when you use the word “retard.”  Most of you probably think it means stupid, idiotic, or slow.  Having been in the special education system for several years, I know that there is absolutely NO reason to incur any sort of hatred on the mentally handicapped.  I know that they will love you even when you hurt them.  That’s what you do when you use the word “retard.”  The word retard is a hurtful word intended to insult a large group of people without the ability to defend themselves.  The three main topics of my speech are definitions and etymologies of words pertinent to my topic, ways that people with special needs, as well as those who love them, are hurt, and how giving kindness to those who give nothing but kindness can benefit both you and them.

First Main Point:

         In order to understand why this word is so hateful, you first need to understand some other key terms.  First, according to Webster’s online dictionary, Retard is defined as an often offensive term describing a person held to resemble a retarded person in behavior.   Etymonline, an online etymology dictionary records the first modern use of the word as 1970, being an offensive term referring to a mentally handicapped person, or someone exhibiting qualities of a mentally handicapped person.  Since both sources agree that this word is offensive, why are we still using it?  Second, the word discrimination is vital to understanding why the word retard started being used.  In Webster’s online dictionary, it is defined as the act, practice, or an instance of discriminating categorically rather than individually.  Christopher Hitchens made this quote about racism, but it applies to any form of stereotyping, “It especially annoys me when racists are accused of 'discrimination.' The ability to discriminate is a precious facility; by judging all members of one 'race' to be the same, the racist precisely shows himself incapable of discrimination.” 

********** I would have had a transition here, but its on a different copy************

Third, unconditional love is when a person gives love, despite any sort of mistreatment.  This is why many people find it so easy to hurt those with a mental handicap, because often times, they give unconditional love.  Finally, there are many different types of special needs, among which, the main two are Autism and Down’s Syndrome.  Autism is a spectrum ranging from severe to mild with several types in between, such as Aspergers, which is marked by average or superior intelligence, which is undermined by strongly lacking social skills.  Autism has no known cause, and early detection is nearly impossible.  Down’s Syndrome is also a spectrum ranging from mild to severe.  It is caused by and extra 23^rd chromosome, and is marked by physical differences, thus making early detection easy.  Both autism and down syndrome affect social and mental function.  Now that you have an understanding of the key definitions used in my speech, it is vital that an understanding of how those with mental handicap and those who love them are insulted and how people with mental handicap are loved and give unconditional love.

Conclusion:

            In closing, the word “retard” is mostly used because people don’t understand what they are really saying when they use it.  Again, the word “retard” is a hurtful word intended to insult a large group of people without the ability to defend themselves!  The point of this speech was to impart crucial knowledge onto you, the audience.  I wanted you to understand the true meanings of words, both connotative and denotative.  I wanted you to understand how you affect those around you with mental handicap.  And I wanted you to understand something that for a few of you may be far too profound.  I wanted you to understand how they affect you.  How they affect you on the inside.  In Soeren Palumbo’s speech, the speech in the beginning, he states two more vitally important things.  He says, in reference to his mentally handicapped sister, “I have learned infinitely more from her simple words and love than I have from any classroom of ‘higher education’.”  He also says four extremely powerful words.  These words are, “I love you, Olivia.”  He says this because honestly, who else would?  Who else would give her the love and kindness he gave her?  I honestly believe one person can change the world.  Whether or not you try is your choice.  Thank you.

STAGE MANAGER!!!!! (sounds official, don't it?)

YIPPEEEEEEEE!!!!!  ok, so i was hangin out at the rehearsal of my friends play, and Mrs. Lieb, the play director at my middle school, also happens to direct plays at MJDS, and she asked me to be the stage director for their play, Dear Edwina!  ok, so if anyone wants to spread this to the other people in the play *cough JESSICA cough cough*, pleas tell the kids to quit freaking out about how "mean" she is!  she's INSANE, and i get that, but opening day, being around her is like the eye of a hurricane!  she's extremely calm, and never yells once (hopefully), even with all the crazy stuff goin on around her!  seriously guys, chill out about her freaking out! you would NOT be holding up as well as she is if you were in her position!  anyways, i'm going to post what i have of my speech at 9:00 central time!  and i have decided I SHALL COMPETE IN YONDER FORENSICS TOURNAMENTS!!!  so ya, BU-BYES!!!

Words of advice/encouragement!

Hey yall, i'm super bored, and have "Hola Lola" stuck in my head!  It's from a play that my friends are in, called Dear Edwina.  It's a really funny (partially because not many people listened to Mrs. Lieb, which is a FATAL mistake!), and has a "deeper meaning" as Mrs. Lieb put it.  so my words of advice to the one person who i know FOR SURE reads my blog, would be to drop an octave if you can, because if a girl tries to sing too high, her voice gets drowned out, and the same thing happens with guys singing to low!  I will try my best to be in the front row at... umm... 2 PM sunday, right?  ugh wheres Sharon when you need her...  anyways, IF YOU LISTEN TO MRS. LIEB, YOU CANNOT FAIL!!!!  unless she has a nervous breakdown... well anyways, good luck at the play, i might show up tomorrow, you know maybe eat more clementines!  i'll probably help Mrs. Lieb put up those window thingies, or something!  ok, well imma go eat some tastyness, then i'll maybe (just kidding) do some homework!  and then it's just me, my food, and my nighttime sitcoms... so BYE!!!!!!

OUCH! I hope my mother can take me to a doctor tomorrow...

Yes, i have an injury... no, not a break, or even a fracture! i've never done either!  i have a REALLY bad infection, on my toe! That's why my mom is hopefully going to take me to the doctor to get it checked out...  ugh, so in other news, i'm just about on schedule with me English speech, worth most of my grade...  hmmm... OOH!!!! I HAVE AN IDEA!!!!  how about tomorrow i put my speech so far in as a blog post? then just tell me whether you liked it or not!  hmmm... i'll have to start on wednesday if my mom takes me to the doctor tomorrow, so either way, i'm going to post my speech so far on WEDNESDAY!  well, sleep helps me feel better, so gnite!!!

Trading with Joe!

ya, we weren't actually trading with a guy named Joe, but we wen't to trader joes today and got bunches and bunches of foodfulness! i'm still coming down from a huge sugar high, so i'm going to try to make this blog short... so, if you read my last post, we went to see the new chronicles of narnia movie, which was EPIC!!!!! the characters were very well picked actors! my only regret was that there were people patroling the halls, so we couldn't movie hop :(.  anyways, i have gummy tummies, and pistachios and dried pineapple! mmmmmmm... o and i found out about an amazing song! It's called Major Tom, by the shiny toy guns! it was on a lincoln car commercial... its so awesome! its also really sad... and mildly depressing... but its techno, and a ballad, so its a techno ballad! ok, i probably should go, so bye!