The article named "Graffiti Causes Officialls to Close National Park" by Tamara Audi, is about how officials are closing down Joshua National Park because of the graffiti all around the park. Almost 300 acres have been closed down due to graffiti. Most of the park is still open, but the problem affects the Rattlesnake Canyon which is remote and vacant. Investigators with the park are investigating the problem to know where the graffiti came from. Park officials said that they are also trying to clean the graffiti off without messing anything else up.

I believe that this is a problem that desperately needs to be fixed because this is a famous park that has been there for years and I would hate to see it get closed because of people who like to do vandalism. I wish the investigators could find these people because poeple are getting mad because of this. Almost 1.3 million people a year comes to see this park and it would be a shame to see it go to waste.
Times like this, people need to protest for what they believe in, just like during the civil rights movement. Those poeple marched for their freedom to sit anywhere on the bus that they wanted to. Now us Americans need to protest for what we believe in and not let them close the park. The people that did this need to stand up and take the consecuences because that's not something to play with. This is the National Park and everyone should admire it for it's nationality.

korean war part: 2

The article by Choe Sang-Hun called " Korean War Part 2?", is about South Korean leader named Kim Jong Un threatning to fire a nuclear missile at the United States and South Korea. No one actually knows what Kim's intensions are but, they are being taken seriously so the United States has sent B-2 stealth bombers to Sout Korea tgo show their force. North Korea started to test their nuclear bombs in 2008. They tried to do their test but, China tried to tell them that it wouldn't be a good idea. "The Korean  peninsula is heading into a difficult and very dangerous period", says a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, Donald Gregg.

For what reason do he have to do this, what ever has happened, him making threats isn't the best thing right now. The U.S. is already suffering from a lack of money and now the U.S. has to use more money that they don't have to build missiles.
I believe that we should help but at the same time we should't because the U.S. need to help their people. If the U.S. help other people, that's just spending on another country that they don't have and that is a setback for them.
Times like this should be handled, North Korea has no right to threaten the U.S. for what reasons, I don't know, but all we have to do is just wait untill it happends and hopefully we will bw ready for them.

TIME FOR A RAISE?

The article, "Time For A Raise?" by Patricia Smith, is about President Obama wanting to increase federal minimum wage to $9 an hour for minimum wage workers. If Obama will be able to get his way, lots of minimum wage workers will be able to get a raise. Many labor groups believe increasing the minimum wage puts money in the hands of people wouldn't save the money, they would spend it.

Overall, this is a good thing because if inflation increased. People with low minimum wage would have to pay alot of money for things that have higher prices. With the minimum wage increasing, people would be able to stop on top of increasing inflation because when the inflatio goes higher, so does minimum wage. At the same time though, this also would not to be good because not all people deserve more money. Just as the labor groups said, you would be giving money to people who would spend it on junk and not save it.
This is like the time I watched someone in the store getting angry just because he found out the prices in the store had gone up. He has been complaining that his little bit of money that he makes wasn't enough. The store managers were trying to make him understand that this wasn't their faults but, he wouldn't listen. I could understand what he goes through but, how would I know if he isn't using the money for good.

WE NEED HELP!

We need help

theres catastrophic damage to the city.

with violence, sexual assault,

and trash sitting out in the open.

 

We need help

it's overcrowded,

exchanged money over dice games,

and more bullets in the rounds from a handgun.

 

This puts me in a tricky position

 that can be fixed

without money.

 

I'm in between the two extremes

of being at the bottom

and to having a chance of

rising to the rich world

which indeed,

 is a great victory

 

 

 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/us/new-orleans-jail-videos-bring-shock-at-hearihttp://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/obamas-shift-from-freezing-settlements-to-drawing-borders-creates-new-problems-for-israel/ng.html?_r=0

 

 

REFLECTION:

I've choosen these articles to make the poem because they caught my attention. Each story had something for me to use and went on and try my best to use the info. Also, I wanted to have competition to work with, so I got the most challenging articles. My poem has one thing to say about one of the articles which is that at hard times you might be at the bottom, but you have to try to do something to get yourself out. The poem was alittle hard to make because it to me almost fourtyfive minutes for me to right the first eight lines but, it all came through at the end. I thought if I couldn't come up with something easy, but then I thought about movies i've watched and things I seen around me and got influenced. I came so far to find something that was so easy that it took a long time to figure out.

 



 

 

 

 

Sisters in Arm

The article by James Dao called, "Sisters in Arm" is about U.S. military lifting the ban against women being able to serve in the army. Military officials said that 200,000 jobs open for women. A former marine named Greg Jacob supports the change. He says, "If the best shot in the platoon is a women, I can make her a sniper. But until now, I couldn't do that." Also, Isreal has allowed women on the battlefield since the Arab-Isreali war of 1973.

I believe that this is a great accomplishment because now women don't have to be downgraded becasue of what the can't do. The government has did something good because also women could probably do better than a man, no matter how strong he might be. I know some people probably think that this isn't good because these are the mothers of children, but the men are fathers of children too and they can't grow up without  a father either. Some poeple should be more up to considering this cause and that should be able to support the women out in battle.
This article did help me think more deeply about the topic because now I know that women are capable of doing manly things. I also realized that the world is changing and opening up to new things because sometimes new ideas are the best thing to solve a problem.

slaughter of the Africans elephants

The article " Slaughter of the African Elephants", by Samantha Strindberg and Fiona Maisels is about poachers  killing elephants for their ivory and selling it to people for money. Some people believe that we should stop buying the ivory because the elephants help the environment by help planting seeds and growing trees which we need to survive. Poaching is a crime and a 62 percent of elephants has disappeared between 2002 to 2011 according to 60 scientist in the journal PLoS. China has been a place that is full of ivory trinkets.
I believe that this is horrible because elephants (as it says in the article) help the environment by planting seeds as they migrate through the forests. We need trees in the world for oxygen to breath and the poachers are messing it up. Also because elephants are apart of mother nature and they are almost extinct and all the poachers are doing is making them die even faster. We should try to protest because we love our environment and we should try to keep it beautiful, which the elephants were doing.
But I wonder, is  anyone doing to support this cause? Are they trying their best? I would like to know because God didn't put animals on earth to be killed, he put them on earth to roam and take care of it in their own way. How do these poachers fell about killing them? And do they have a heart? Because in order to kill God's creation, you have to be souless.

blog 22: choice

The article, " South Dakota Law To Allow Teachers To Be Armed" by the wall street journal, is about the South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard signing a bill on Friday allowing teachers and staff be armed with guns and the law will go in effect on July 1. Supporters believe that it could prevent tragedies in schools, such as the Connecticut school shooting in Dec. Several representatives of school boards opposed to the situation. They believe that they are putting guns in the hands of people who don't know how to use them in emergency situations.
I believe that this is wrong because they are putting guns in the hands of people who don't know how to use them. People could get hurt because they don't know if that person could be crazy or insane. Different people react to different situations. So someone could be alert during the problem and know what their doing and other people could stand in shock and not do anything.
This reminds me of the time when one of my friends was given the chance to sing. She was so bad at  it that no one wanted to listen, but since she wanted to do it so bad they let her. It didn't sound good at all and she was embarressed and she got laughed at. I tried to tell her but she didn't didn't listen. This type of thing could happen but instead people could get hurt or even get shot just because somoeone didn't know how to use a gun.

California Cold snap Threatens $2 Billion Citrus Harvest

The article called " California Cold Snap Threatens $2 Billion Citrus Harvest", by Brandon Lowrey is about the artic air mass pluging temperatures down in California which is harming the lucrative citrus harvest. The temperatures fell as low as 20 degrees below normal. The weather service alerted the farmers to take precautions, but there still might be great loss, meteorologist Jeff Barlow has said. Barlow also said, " This is going to be a pretty significant breeze event for the central California citrus crop."
This bad because the high selling Citrus fruits will be on the line. The farmers would be taking cuts for this because now they wouldn't be able to grow their fruits.  Their crops will be damaged, frozen or even parished.this wouldn't be good at all.
 This reminds me of a time when I bought a water melon seed plant and my mom told me to water my plant before the sun makes is dry. I didn't listen to her and two days later it got dry and died. I was really hoping to grow a water melon to give it to some one and my money went to waste. I should have listened to her because the sun rays ruined it just like how the temperatures in California will ruin the citrus fruits. This will be the worst because people wouldn't be able to get their favorite fruits and this will be terrible.

UpFront: Winter Break on the Moon

By the writers of upfront magazine called "Winter Break on the Moon?' is about space tours are expected to happen in 2014. The prices to get to take the trip is 95,000$ to 150$ million and you would get to take a 38,000-mile trip past the moon. There has already been 500 customers who said that they would want to do it, including teanagers and 90-yearolds.
I believe that this would be good, but at the same time it wouldn't because people would get to see the moon up close for the first and get to have an experience they wouldn't forget. Coversely, this would be bad because what if the trip goes wrong, people could get stuck in space without any help. Maybe they would have help, but they should think this over.
This is like the time when my friend was trying to do an experiment in class. The first time she did it, it was a success, so she wanted to do it again. But this time she was charging people to see it because everyone liked it. When she did it, something went wrong, she put to much of the powerful chemical she had. It was everywhere, somepeople got sick because of the smell she created. This is something she should have thought about, so should the poeple who thought of the space tour idea.
Somethings I wonder like if they are making emergency packs, or have extra security there, just to make sure everyone is okay.

THE NEW FACE OF AMERICA

The main idea of the article "The New Face Of America", by Veronica Majerol is about people believing that over time non-monority percentages are not going to be a majority anymore due to people that are monority. In four different states plus washington, monorities make up more than 50 percent of the population. The Census Buraeu announced last spring that monority births like asians, hispanics, african american ect, now outnumber  the people who are of non-hispanic white. They also estimate that by 2024, monorities will be on the pace to collectively outnubering whites.

I believe that this is a good  thing because overtime we could have another president who at least is black, indian, asian, ect. We as black people are expecting to see more interracial presidents  because back then, only whites were able to vote. But now it doesn't really matter and everyone can vote. I also believe that this is good because the United States is a free country and they should allow people who are from different continents that are in harms way or without a home because I know if they come here that would do fine.

I wonder why people have such a problem with it. This should be something that good because we could have more of a better view of things. We could learn new languages so when we go to different countries we would know how to speak to people. This could be great.

ALL WORK AND NO PLAY

The article " All Work And No Play: Why Your Kids Are More Anxious, Depressed", by Esther Entin is about parents not giving there children enough play time which can resolve in children being depressed. In the passage Peter Grey, a Professor of Psyscology, states that as children play they can get a sense of mastery over their world. He also states: "Children who do not have the opportunity to control their own actions, to make and follow through on their own decisions, to solve their problems,....". In the article it says that the suicide rate has increased from 1950 to 2005 for children less that fifteen and for teens and young adults.
Children should get more play time because they can gain street smarts and will be able to learn more about where the live from where they play at. They can also learn about themselves and others from experiencing problems from other people.
As a kid, my parents let me have playtime because they told me that I could meet new friends and learn to take care of my own prolems so I wouldn't be dependant when I got older. They also told that if I didn't go outside, I would be depressed and be sad from being non-social and board all day. Parents out there should trusts their children more because their mistakes is apart of learning.

civil war in syria

The article by Ja'anai Delaney for NewsHour Extra called ''Civil War in Syria Raises Questions About When to Intervene" is about if the U.S.government thinking if they should help the people in Syria who in a crisis. To back this up, the article says that The United Nation estimates that as many as 2.5 million people have been affected by the crisis and many of them need food, shelter, and medicine. Though these people are in trouble, U.S. said that they will not intervene millitary unless Assad uses chemical weapons.
I believe that the U.S. should help the people in Syria that need it because innocent people like adults and children are being hurt and the U.S. could go and help but they just don't want to. They need to stick up for those people before something really get's out of hand before they won't have anyone to help.
There was a time when I had a dream that people were in trouble. I didn't help them because I didn't think it could get out of hand. As soon as I turned the corner they were all injured and some were dead. i felt sad because I could have done something but I didn't. The same as the U.S., they need to help those people before they will be no more.

lance armstong

This article made by CNN called "Give Lance another Chance" is about CNN asking viewers if Lance Armstong should get another chane to redeem himself, and he was interviewed by Ophrah Winfrey where he admitted to using enhancing drugs to improve his athletic ability. Frida Ghitis from the Miami Herald, belives that Lance should have another chance. She thinks that he should make a career of speaking to people about living a lie. Anothe person is Roxanne Jones who belives that Lance is not trustworthy of getting another chance. She thinks that someone who lied for a decade shouldn't get another chance because he had a whole decade to confess and was caught up in the cameras.
I believe that he should get another chance because everyone makes mistakes. He's also a inspiration to many because of his recovery from cancer. People shouldn't be so closed minded, they should be open to many ideas because maybe this time he could do something that could surprise more people and that time he might not cheat or lie, maybe he might redeem himself.
There was a time when a girl I knew in my class lied to everyone. She told everyone that she had been raped. Everyone felt sorry and had so much sympathy for her, some even cryed when she told the story. The teacher heard about it and wanted to give her condolence to the girl's mother. When the teacher talked to her mother, her mother looked at her with a puzzled face like she didn't understand what she was talking about. Then the mother told her that her daughter never been raped. Everyone was devastated to hear it because she lied to someone for so long. Most of the people stopped talking to her, but I didn't because I give people second chance and maybe she needs one.
Everyone diserves a second chance because the second time could be something special.

SCHOOL CLOSING

The article " Philadelphia superintedent identifies schools he intends to close", by Kristen A. Graham is about the philadelphia school didsrict superintedent, William R. Hite Jr., closing down schools and binding them together to save and get more money.
The superintedent says that all of the closing decisions were made with two goals: boosting academics and ensuring its long-tgerm financial viability. Also, thirty-seven school buildings would be closed down for savings of about $28 million, money nearly broke district says it needs to survive.
The article is informal but it's outrageous because adding these schools together could resolve in fighting because actually some of these schools do not get along, there could be a real problem.
There was a time when a teacher wasn't at the school and the students that was in that classroom had no where to go. They had totry to fix the problem so they spit them up. It wasn't a really good idea because some of the student were fighting and some were being bullyed and that resulted in some students getting hurt or suspended fron school.
I hope they understand what their doing is wrong and that this could end really badly.This is something that I don't want to sit back and watch.