I just finished the book I was reading for the past few weeks, Night. It was a survivor’s first hand account of the Holocaust. It was a struggle to finish, just because of how sad it was, and the closer I got to the end, the worse it got. In the last few chapters, Elie’s foot becomes infected, making it hard for him to walk. He has a small surgery, and is told to rest it for a couple of weeks. The problem is, that the Russians are invading Germany, and the camp is going to be evacuated. Everyone in the infirmary will be allowed to stay, but they all believe that they will be killed, saying, “Hitler has made it clear that he will annihilate all Jews before the clock strikes twelve.”
So, Elie decides to evacuate with the rest of the camp. He is forced to run for hours straight, in the snow, with almost no food or water. His foot is bleeding the entire time, and the only thing keeping him alive is his father. Finally, they reach a camp, and are about to be loaded into train cars, when another selection happens. They let him live however, his father is about to be killed, when Elie saves him. Then, they are loaded into cattle cars- a hundred men on each one. They are given no food, water or fresh air for days. They live on snow alone. By the end of the journey, only twelve men in their car are alive. Then, Eli’s father contracts dysteria. Elie and his father have been there for each other the entire time, being the only thing that have kept them alive. But, then Father dies. The rest of the book Elie is alone, and hungry. He lives for his bread ration day after day, until the guards decide to kill all the prisoners. But, as Elie is walking outside the camp to die, “the resistance movement decided to act. Bursts of gunshots. Grenades exploding.” He is finally free. I believe the takeaway of Night is that bad things happen every single day, and we cannot ignore them. If we do, when we are being persecuted, who will protect us? My first piece of evidence is, “One day, all the foreigners were expelled from Sighet… Crammed into cattle cars by the Hungarian police, they cried silently. Standing on the Station Platform, we too were crying. The train disappeared over the horizon, all that was left was thick, dirty, smoke. Behind me someone said, sighing, ‘What do you expect? That’s war…” (Wiesel, 6) In the book, the village sat by, and let their neighbors be taken away, to die. Not one of them had tried to protect their neighbors Then, when they were persecuted, and no one tried to protect them. When we stand by and let others suffer, we cannot expect others to help us. My second piece of evidence is also from Night, it says, “There followed days and nights of traveling. Occasionally, we would pass through German towns. Usually, very early in the morning. German laborers were going to work. They would stop and look at us without surprise” (Wiesel, 100) The German citizens knew that every day, thousands of people were being killed and becoming victims of a genocide. Yet, they did nothing.
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One of the most important reasons we study the past, is to learn from our mistakes. As I finished the book is was reading called Night, about the holocaust (see my previous post), it occurred to me that the holocaust and the treatment of Muslim Americans today are very similar. In both, a man comes to power who claims he can make his country great again. He does this by claiming that certain religions/ethnicities are “ruining” their country, and he can get rid of them. In the holocaust, Hitler blames everything on primarily Jews, but also on Romas (gypsies), deaf, blind, mentally, and physically ill, and LGBT. Now, Trump is blaming primarily Muslim Americans, but also Mexican immigrants, and he is also going against women and LGBT. Also, both men have lots of control over the government. The Nazis had complete control, so that gave Hitler complete control.Trump also has a lot, since congress is mostly Republican. In the Holocaust, foreign Jews were the first to be punished. Trump has recently proposed a travel ban, that affects Libya,Yemen, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran- six primarily Muslim countries.
However, there is one huge differences between the holocaust and the treatment of Muslim Americans today. It's the people. In Germany, the people listened to everything Hitler said, and did everything he wanted them to do. Americans are not like that. When Trump was inaugurated, we marched, when he tries to persecute people, we have a court who can block him, and we know right from wrong, so we can and will protect those who are being affected by his actions. So,im conclusion, while Trump has not learned anything from the past, we have learned from other’s mistakes, and are doing our best to not let them happen again. Because today is Holocaust Remembrance Day (April 24th), I'm going to talk about the book I'm reading, Night. Night is a book about the Holocaust, and how the author, Elie Wiesel, survived it. The book starts in Sighet, Hungary, around 1941. This is the time, Hungary- who was part of the Axis powers- was deporting 20,000 foreign Jews who are unable to obtain citizenship, because of Nazi influence. In the book it says “And then, one day all foreign Jews were expelled from Sighet...Crammed into cattle cars by the Hungarian police, they cried silently.”Hungary gained a lot of things, like territory, from Germany, and was almost completely influenced by Germany. Because of this, Hungary goes to war with the Allies from 1942- 1943, looking for an armistice when Germany was sure to lose the war. But, Germany quickly invaded and occupied Hungary in order to prevent this. In April 1944, Germany ordered all Jews living outside Budapest to concentrate into ghettos. In May 1944, deportations to concentration camps start. Night is a non-fiction book, so the book is completely true. However, since it is one person’s perspective, some events may be missed. The perspective is of Elie Wiesel, the author. Elie is a Jew in Hungary, who was deported to Auschwitz, before being sent to Burma. His entire family was sent to concentration camps, including his mother, father, and three sisters. He never saw his mother or youngest sister again, and his father died a couple weeks before the liberation. The book is extremely moving, and emotional, and I would highly recommend it. Introduction to Homeless Animals
Wake County animal shelters are extremely overcrowded which leads to the countless deaths of these animals everyday.These animals are being sent to these shelters so often that other animals have to be euthanized to allow space for new animals. There are many organizations that are trying to start their own shelters that are “no kill” shelters but these organizations need a lot of funding. The largest “no kill” organization in Wake County is the SPCA (http://spcawc.convio.net/site/PageServer). This issue interests everyone in our group because we all have pets and we know how much one of these animals could mean to a family. A lot of people don't realize how severe this issue is and how many animals are getting euthanized. If this information gets out I believe people will reconsider adopting a pet because they will be saving it's life. “Across the US 1 out of every 10 pets find a permanent home” (Mosby Foundation 2015), everyone in our community needs to help out and raise the percentage of animals that have permanent homes. The Issue In 2010, the Wake County ASPCA had more than 4,000 incoming animals. They also had more than more than than 4,000 outgoing animals, however, more than 800 animals were euthanized, more than 100 were transferred, and 100 more died. (Guidestar.org 2010) This means that around ¼ of the animals in that shelter didn't find homes. When you add that to the fact that of the 70 million stray animals in the US, only 6.5 million are adopted by shelters, you realize how little we are helping stray animals. (ASPCA.org 2014) In October 2009, the Wake County Animal Center had over 1,000 dogs in one weekend. While some were adopted, the shelter was filled so much to capacity that almost all pets dropped off were euthanized. The next year, they euthanized about 59% of their animals. In 2012 they euthanized over 700 more.(Indyweek.com 2015) While this issue may seem minor to you, it is life and death to those animals. This has always been an issue in Wake County, and we need to solve it. This is a problem in our community, because it puts life at risk. Even though it may not seem important, because it doesn't really impact you, it is. Each animal killed because there is no room for it has feelings, hopes and they just want to be loved. If we let this problem continue, we could let thousands of pets die for no reason. Also, if we let overcrowding continue, many pet owners might just release a pet they can't take care of into the wild, which is even more dangerous. Current Solutions Despite the major problem, there have been many attempts to fix it. People in the community are making sure that they only adopt animals that they are sure they are fit to take care of. Others serve by fostering the homeless animals in their crowded shelters. Some organizations serve the animals by helping in their own ways. C.A.R.E. For Animals works with responsible, caring foster homes for homeless animals.They also provide pet owner assistance for those needing help taking care of their animals who might lose them because of complications preventing animals in homes from losing their homes. (http://www.careforanimals-nc.org/). The SPCA is a no kill animal shelter. Despite being no kill, they generally aren’t overcrowded. This is because of a low cost in their spay/neuter clinic, people see the no-kill and want to help, a good local government that cares about rehoming the animals, and a good community of people determined to help. The Saving Grace also helps the cause especially people who want to help but only want the “perfect dog.” They are a non-profit organization that hand picks their dogs to be compatible with other dogs and children. They also train the dogs a little as well. This organization is perfect for someone who wants to help but only wants a really good dog or has a family situation only a dog from here could suit. Although these organizations have helped, there is still a need. No-kill shelters have limited space. Other ones, such as the Wake County Animal Care, Control and Adoption Center, have more room because they put animals down. Places like this are the ones mostly in need of help. “Through May 31, according to county records, the shelter had taken in 10,406 animals in 2015, and had euthanized 3,143 of them, just over 30 percent.” (Montgomery 2015). The sad part of this is that is improvement from the weekend in October in 2009 and the years following. This many animals being euthanized with all of the help already being given is why there is still a need in the community. Only you can help. Our Solution As kids there is only so much we can do to help with this problem. We can't build a shelter, or adopt animals. But, we can help organizations that are already protecting these animals. C.A.R.E. for Animals is a non profit volunteer organization. Their mission is “To improve the quality of life of our animal friends by strengthening the bond between humans and animals; ending suffering due to abandonment, abuse, and neglect; and eliminating the need for euthanasia of healthy, adoptable animals in our shelters.” So, as our community project, we will be donating supplies to them. (C.A.R.E.for Animals-nc.org 2017) Starting on May 15th, we will be collecting toys, beds, bowls, blankets, comforters, collars, leashes, dog crates, cat litter, cat carriers and towels for the C.A.R.E. for Animals organization. We will be collecting the supplies in bins outside the cafeteria. The drive will end at the end of the week on May 19th. We will then use a truck that a parent will volunteer to drive, to transport the supplies to C.A.R.E. for Animals. This is a good idea to help with overcrowding in shelters because everyone can help. If we volunteer one day, some students may be busy, not have transportation or forget about it. If we do a drive, it will happen at Martin during school hours, so everyone can participate. Also, everyone will know about it, since we will advertise it with posters and a video on the news. Our goal for this project is to collect one bin full of supplies from each home room. We will know we have achieved it when every bin from the drive is full. While we cannot wave a magic wand and fix this problem, we hope this will help to solve it .Find our action plan here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12NaQqLhODqUl5CIMhKeLlnmQN22gFkjO6KsvsFTFeb4/edit?usp=sharing Bibliography "Welcome." C.A.R.E. For Animals. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2017. "SPCA of Wake County." The SPCA of Wake County. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2017. N.p., n.d. Web. 2017. "No Room at the Wake County Animal Center." Indy Week. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2017. "SPCA of Wake County FAQ about No-Kill - SPCA of Wake County." SPCA of Wake County FAQ about No-Kill - SPCA of Wake County. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2017. Wral. "NC Shelter Kills 99 Percent of Animals, Records Show." WRAL.com. N.p., 15 Nov. 2012. Web. 24 Mar. 2017. N.p., 3 Mar. 2016. Web. 21 Mar. 2017. Images Cute Kitten. N.d. Amazingly Cute Kittens. Web. <https://www.tes.com/lessons/-ZIzCY-Wm24Ttw/amazingly-cute-kittens>. Puppy. N.d. Playbuzz. Web. <http://www.playbuzz.com/laureni11/what-cute-baby-animal-are-you>. Redcoon Hound. N.d. Pinterest. Web. <https://www.pinterest.com/source/dog-trainer.pw/>. Sad Puppy. N.d. Daily Dot. Web. <https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/hugo-award-nominees-sad-puppies/>. On Saturday, March 11th, roughly 35 undocumented immigrants gathered near the State Capitol to protest their status. They spoke about their journeys to America and how they want to become a citizen of this country. They held up signs that said things like, "No Human Being Is Illegal." They chanted, "Undocumented, unafraid!!"
Why should you care? Because, there are roughly 11 million illegal immigrants in the US, so imagine how many there are that you know. The man who always smiles when he checks out your groceries. The boy in your math class. The paralegal for your firm. The family that owns your favorite restaurant. With Trump's agenda, many of these people face mass deportation and abuse. That's not ok. Illegal immigrants are a huge part of our city, and Raleigh wouldn't be the same without them. We need to take action. Write letters to our politicians telling to protect illegal immigrants. Sponsor an illegal immigrant, so they can gain citizenship. Tell your friends to protect them too. We are part of a government for the people, by the people. That means everyone is welcome, and everyone has a say. For more info go to http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article137983253.html The flu is on the rise in North Carolina, and it’s just going to get worse. As of February 21st, over thirty two people have died from the flu, but that number keeps rising. This is issue is important, because it affects everyone. It affects the hospitals, because they are overflowing with patients. It affects schools, because it lowers attendance. It affects businesses, because they lose employees. No one is safe. This issue interests me, because there have been lots of absences at my school, and I want to keep everyone safe, and healthy. But, why should you be interested? You should be interested, because you can be infected in seconds, and spread it even more, and if you are infected, the flu pauses your entire life, and may even put it in danger, Luckily, I have come up with some ways for you to protect yourself and others. You should wash your hands, cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze, wear a mask when you come near an infected person, and if you are sick stay home! Going out in public while infected only spreads the virus even more Stay safe! For more info click here. |