Lia+Gordon

Lia Gordon Period 5/6

9/15/10

The US at a Glace... New York City: Miracle Landing

After reading the story about the man in the city who unsuccessfully tried to end his life, I feel sad and awful for him. Although what he was trying to do was an awful thing, if he really did feel that strongly about his life and chose to do what he did, its even worse that it didn't work out for him. If he were to be successful he would have gone out without any "fame" and without anyone knowing. The fact that he landed in the back seat of a car must have made it somewhat humiliating for him so for that I also feel bad for the guy.

9/20/10

Role of Women:

I am an American woman living though the times of World War II. Although it may seem like the men are most needed during this time with being drafted and fighting for our country, but as a woman i am also holding up a large responsibility. Not only do we have to make up for what the men can't do anymore, but we have things to do on top of that to further keep everything in place. With the men gone off to war we must take over their jobs, helping to "fight" in the war and also keep up with running the house.

Once all the men, starting at age 18, had left to go fight, there became many job openings. All these jobs that had been left were all important and had to be refilled in order for everything to continue to run the same way. We are the ones who are taking over these positions such as factory workers making automobiles, bank tellers, sales people, government positions, and anything else that we can handle.

Because of the war that's going on, we also have our own way to "fight" in it. It may not actually be fighting in the sense of holding a gun, but we are able to voluntarily become nurses, part of the Red Cross, and USO that aide the men who are fighting. By being there to help out the hurt soldiers is our way to fight for the US in our way. We are also able to involve ourselves in the war by becoming female pilots.Being directed by the US Air Force we can fly the planes for the US to free up the pilots so they can suit up to join in the combat.

Our "normal" job of just being a house mom also stood while the involved in war. We still have other, younger, children that need care. This job is a mentlaly tough one to keep up with during this time. While caring for children and taking over the other positions, we still have to think about how none of us know when or even if any our our husbands and/or sons will be returning. This World War II is impacting everyone, and also seriously changing the lives for us women.

9/26/10 The World at a Glance... Teen banned from US:

After reading about Luke Angel, the 17 year old from the U.K. who was banned from the U.S. for life, I think that it is somewhat ridiculous. I understand that what he did by sending an email to the president is a threat, but it could have been much more serious than it was. He had done this while he was under the influence and was obviously not reacting as he would have if he was sober. Although what he did was disrespectful and abusive he shouldn't have the been given the punishment he did. It would make more sense in my opinion to make him pay for it in some way in the U.K. instead of just not letting him in the U.S. Even if the goverments and police decided that a good punishment should have been to ban him from the U.S., he should have at least still gotten a chance to prove himself in a trial. If i had the chance i would have handled this much differently, i believe that they overreacted about it.


 * P= You did a very nice job. Your writing style is informative and easy to read.**
 * C= Up the vocabulary. Instead of saying ridiculous, use "inane" or something of that nature. It will increase the level of your writing.**

10/7/10 Austin:Student goes on shooting spree

When I read about how sophomore Colton Tooley, a math major at the University of Texas, it kind of made me upset. I could tell he was a good kid by the way other people talked about him saying he was "brilliant, meticulous, and respectful" it must have been a surprise to all these people that his anger got out of hand and what it resulted in. He must have had something going on in his life that caused him to become so angry or overwhelmed that he would do such a thing as go on a shooting spree. Although he didn't hurt anyone and may have not even shot them in the first place, and it seemed like that was on purpose that he didn't shoot anyone. It is awful that he ended his life after wards, he could have done so much more for himself and gotten through his problems another way, but it is good that he didn't cause anyone else any problems with his decision.


 * Good job quoting from the article. Try going a little more in depth with some of your premises to make the writing a little more informative. Good job all around though.**

11/2/10 The Iraq War: wiki leaks Recently there were leaks from the website “WikiLeaks” of 400,000 very important military documents from 2004-2009 showing that the U.S. was killing Iraqi citizens. These documents that were leaked made it clear that the U.S was wrong. They had killed 100,000 Iraqis by the beginning of 2009. When asked about it, Geoff Morrell, Pentagon Press Secretary, said that it was “shameful” and “could potentially undermine our nation’s security” which is understandable because Iraq lost some a chunk of their population and are now suffering from it. I personally think that what we did as the U.S was wrong. If we had never done it at all then everything would be better and definitely not as endangered now. Even if the WikiLeaks got out and people heard things about the military and what they were doing, if the things they heard were good or simply not as bad as this, then there wouldn’t be as much for the U.S as a country to be worrying about now.