Open Letter

Dear Mr. Bukowski,
               After reading your poem "Dinosauria, We", a couple of questions have come to me. First off, what happened to our society that caused this? I have come up with a theory to answer this question. My first thought was that a nuclear war caused "this", or some other sort of war. When you wrote, "Nuclear power will be taken over by the many. Explosions will continuously shake the earth. Radiated robot men will stalk each other", I thought of violence and some sort of bomb that did this (nuclear). What do you think?
                 I think, right now, in our society, this is not probable although it is possible. We have the capability to cover earth with nuclear bombs but that will most likely not happen for a while because I think countries use bombs to gain power however no country is stupid enough to kill/end all of humanity. Today, we obviously have wars, and many people die, but we the wars are not bad enough to cause something like this.
               In my opinion, there are many small things we can do to prevent this from happening although I believe that only one big thing could possibly prevent this, world peace.  We can achieve world peace by finding a way to unify all the countries. Of course, conflicts would arise but the problems would be solved by negotiation and in a peaceful manner. Other than world peace, I don't see a different way of preventing this.
              I would just like to say that enjoyed your poem greatly and I think you would be a very fascinating person to talk to, if you weren't dead, that is. I think the poem really shows what could happen if we continue our current lifestyle, but it really opened my eyes to what is possible.
                                                                                                                         Sincerely,
                                                                                                                             Filip

Father and Son

               In the current book we are reading in class, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, our two main characters are a father and his son. They are traveling south because of some sort of disaster that occurred. In my opinion, I think a nuclear war happened because ash is falling, and it's a nuclear winter. However, the author does not literally state what exactly happened that caused it.
               I think that there is no more hope for the father and the boy as they travel south. However, I believe that the boy is the only thing keeping the father realistic. For example, the father and the son are drinking cocoa but that father doesn't take any to save some for his boy. His son reminds him "if you break small promises, you'll break bigger ones too."I think that this shows the maturity of the kid. I can only assume that he is still young and yet this small child is keeping his father to his principles. The only thing keeping the father alive is the boy.
              I also think that the father wants to raise his son as if nothing had happened. He does this by reading the boy stories and keeping the light on while the boy sleeps. Those little things help the boy grow up like a normal boy. Due to the circumstance though, i'm sure the kid has seen things no child should ever see and in this way he is more mature than a child should be. I know that the father loves his son beyond words and will do anything for him.

John Proctor... Hero or Stooge?

               First of all, I can see why John Proctor could be considered both a hero and a stooge. However, my opinion lies right in between the two. He can be considered as a hero because he confessed to what he did and that is a heroic act, but at the same time he was confessing so that Abigail would get in trouble. Although he came forth with his information, and what Abigail told him, he did it in a manner that can make him a stooge-like person.

             To be honest, I really like John Proctor because he is so straight-forward. When reading a book in which, everyone is believing in non-existing things, John Proctor is that character that kind of brings you back to reality. You understand him better and could relate to him more because he is thinking along the same lines as we would.

               The reason I believe John Proctor is more a hero over a stooge because it really takes some balls to not follow what everyone else is doing. He could just as easily follow everyone and pretend he believes in the witchcraft nonsense. He is true to himself in that way, however he also isn't true to himself because he had and affair with Abigail and that again makes me think he can also be a stooge.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

              Jonathan Edwards was a well known preacher, in the year 1741, and his main goal was to scare the Puritans from God. He preached that God would punish you if you sinned. In the story, Jonathan Edwards tells us that God is pretty much ready at any moment to destroy you if you do something wrong. Edward was very known so all the smaller preachers would listen to him, and then they would go back to their town or wherever they came from, and preach the same thing. This fear spread throughout the the Puritans, and I think the reason for the fear was that if the Puritans lived their lives being scared they would not sin.
               The way I interpreted this story was that God is this evil monster who defines the word 'power'.  The Puritans are these tiny ants that cannot do anything because God will punish them. These ant live in constant fear of being stepped on, or in this case drowning or burning in hell.  God is just waiting with his arrow, ready to strike at any moment at whoever sins.
               In reality I find it extremely hard to believe how a theocracy could have been going on for quite some time. When I look at it, I can't even imagine in the slightest bit how the Puritans could have believed this. It's not like if I do one thing wrong all of the sudden God will come out of the sky and punish me. Speaking in reality, that isn't possible and I'm pretty sure God didn't do that in 1741 either. I could see that at the beginning when you could be scared that you will be punished if you sin, but because nobody is perfect, someone would sin and nothing would happen to them. Didn't the Puritans have common sense, or was Jonathan Edwards blinding them?

Arrivals… There goes the Neighborhood

          In our modern day society, when people hear that someone is moving into a new area, or house, they automatically think it is harder for the person who is moving in. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure it is extremely difficult leaving your life behind and in a way starting a new one. However, in my opinion, I feel that some people don’t realize that it is also very hard for the people who are welcoming the newcomers, they have to make important choices that will not only influence their life, but also the life of the newcomer.
          When Columbus encounters the Native Americans, I think it was a harder and more complicated situation for the Natives. If we look at it from the perspective of the Natives, here come men in big ships with fancy clothes and more advanced weapons, they were faced with two very crucial choices. Should we treat this person with respect as if he were a messenger of God? Or should we have a defensive mindset and be cautious of him because he has better weapons? Due to their religion, they chose the first choice and praised Christopher Columbus. This critical choice the Native Americans faced affected their future greatly.

Introduction

Hello, my name is Filip and I go to Whitney Young High School. This fall I am playing center midfield for my school JV soccer team. I am very interested in the English Barclays Premier League, specifically a team called Manchester United(Man U). I have a great passion for Man U and soccer.
During the winter nothing exists for me except skiing. Couple years ago I finished 7th in Nastar Championship in Park City, Utah, for my age group. Nastar is a race where you go down the slope by going through gates. Last spring I played volleyball, but this year I think I will join the tennis team. Aside from that, other things I like to do include ping-pong, cross-country and cliff diving.
Every summer I visit my grandparents in Poland for the whole summer. I own a house near the mountains and I spend a lot of my time running, jumping on our trampoline and having campfires. I also hike a lot if the weather allows me too.
My favorite movies are all of the James Bond movies as well as the Harry Potter movies. My favorite books include the Percy Jackson series and the Eragon series. The car I like the most is a Lamborghini and I really like Porsches.

http://amber2014m.blogspot.com/