"Theresienstadt's Hospital" Butterfly, Stanley Suter

Once, happier people lived here
in the gray building
Now, death moves silently towards other creatures,
those with typhoid, who moan and writhe
in their own diarrhea,
who lie and don't understand
why they are being fed bread and margarine.
I enter and become silent.

"You shiny new doorknobs,
you pretty painted walls in the bright ward,
can you make up for the stench of excrement?
Can you appease the hunger
of those who are ashamed of their underwear,
and brought here to die,
day by day?

The paint looks at me
and doesn't answer.
"Why? I don't understand why!"
It seems the doorknob would say,
when it opened for me,
a free soul, with a full stomach,
"I can tell you
and then you will come to me!"

Night, By Stanley Suter

          Prompt- Who is your favorite character and why? Who is your least favorite character?

          This week we have started to read "Night", byt Elie Wiesel and so far I really like it. It is about this child who was taken away from his home at the age of twelve, and is going to be sent to a concentration camp. He lives in a town called "Sighet", where German forces have recently struck a deal with hungary allowing them to controll many of their cities. As the Facist party takes control of Sighet, they group the Jews in Ghettos in order to segregate them from the general public after making laws specifically for Jews by penalty of death. I have only read the first chapter, but so far I really like the book.

          My favorite character so far would be the main character. Even though I haven't read much of the book, I can tell what type of person he is. He studies hard and gets education outside of both school and the permission of his father. He has strong respect for his father, and refuses to be seperated from the rest of his family when they have the chance to escape and be free. They deal with the oncoming danger without getting on anyone's nerves. He is helpful when he is requested to wake up his neighbors, warning them of the movement to a concentration camp away from the front lines of the war. He is a strong moral character.

          My least favorite character is "Moishe the Beatle." He has a cool name, but his attempts to warn everybody of the German's wrongdoing are in vain. He acts insane, seemingly over exadurating and giving up after a while. However, he does inform the Elie that the Germans were forming a genocide, and that he only survived because he broke his leg and had been left to die. Regardless of this, if I were him I would have tried harder to stay calm and warn them of the German hatred towards my religion in an attempt to save them.

Holocaust Remembrance Blog, Stanley Suter

          This week I chose an article about how survivors of the Holocaust have a higher rate of PTSD and other mental Illnesses. This is because of lower levels of Cortisol that they have adapted because of the Holocaust. Cortisol is a chemical in your body that eliminates Enzymes, and the extra Enzymes would allow these people to store a much higher amount of protein and sugar, allowing them to survive a much longer time without food. However, this means that the children of survivors are more susceptible to mental illnesses. So this is where you decide, become un-killable (but insane), or stay un-mutated but mentally sound.

          Some of the other Aow's that I viewed today were about how we have recovered from the Holocaust, and how others celebrate it. In Israel, they don't have a designated Holocaust remembrance day because they feel that one is essential. They think that they will continue to remember the death and cruelty shown through human nature, and that the Holocaust is really depressing and shouldn't be celebrated. Other articles showed reuniting of Liberators and Jews from the death camps, explaining how indebted that the Jewish were to these American saviors. The article also focused on how this could have been the last reunion, because many of the survivors and U.S. soldiers are getting old or may have already passed on.

Stanley S, Jewish Memorial

1- What did you learn?
         
          I learned the masses of laws that the Germans strategically placed to weaken the Jews, to an extent that they could not fight back. For example, right at the beginning the lawyers and Judges that were of Jewish decent were removed from court, so that they could not deem German laws un-german constitutional.

2- Why do you think this monument was built?
          
          I think that this monument was built because they needed to remember what their hate towards a type of person completely based off of religion has done for them.

3- What did you notice about the number of laws passed in certain years?
          
          I noticed that they would pass a few laws, then go slow for a year, then put a couple of more laws, then skip a year, then in 1944 or so they dumped 20 or so laws on the Jews so they couldn't fight the Nazi's back.

4- Which restrictions do you think you would have the most trouble dealing with and why?

          The restriction that I would have the most trouble dealing with would have to be the having to leave my school. So much of my life is based off school, my friends, my education, and many of my extracurriculars are all at school, so taking them away would make my life pretty boring (or maybe more fun.)

3rd Quarter Reflection; Stanley Suter

- Of the books you have read this quarter, which was your favorite? Why?

          I think the best book I have read this quarter was American Sniper. It is so different from any of the other books that I've read that it's unique. It tells the story of the most lethal sniper in U.S. history from his point of view through the wars.

- *In what area do you think you made your biggest improvements in English Language Arts? 
           
          I think the biggest improvement that I've made was the amount of content that I packed into my righting. I have been looking at my work from the beginning of the year, and I really have improved from turning in small 4-5 sentence paragraphs to having 7-8 full sentences in my righting.

- *What is something you have accomplished since the new year that you are proud of?

          I am proud of having obtained a scholarship commemorating my leadership at school and in my community.

- *What has been the most challenging part of 3rd Quarter for you?
     
         The most challenging part of third quarter for me has been getting enough sleep. After school, I can't even start my homework until about seven, and I am taking on an extra class from a high school that gives homework every day that we don't have tests.

- How have your blogs been progressing since August? 

         My blogs since last August have improved in the sense that my use of vocabulary and using proper symbols in my righting has improved after Mrs.Larson gave us the website that gave us the rules when to use them.

- What strategies have benefited you? 

          The strategies that benefitted me the most for school work are to not procrastinate, but still take my time while I work. It has improve the quality and allowed me to do better in school overall.

- What have you learned about the world? 

          I learned that I should listen to others and be more open to suggestion about my work.

- How have your research skills improved?

          My research skills have improved because I am now able to differentiate a reliable source from one that cannot be trusted, and so I can get information that I can now trust.

Bio-Poem of Chris Kyle, By: Stanley Suter

      Chris Kyle
      Brave, tough, loyal, and knowledgeable.
      A character in Chris Kyle's story
      Lover of family, country, and God
      Who notices traps, dangers, and Insurgents
      Who feels strength, happiness, and detachment from his family
      Who learns to never give up, to be vigilant, and to stay calm.
      Who says "The army isn't thank enough"
      Who used to think God before Country, before Family, but now knows Family should be before Country.
      Main character in "American Sniper"
      A book that brings you through the life and knowledge of the most lethal sniper in U.S. history.

AOW Interpretations, Stanley Suter.

          This week during the AOW Interpretations, we focused on what we seem to do every week. ISIS. They always seem to be making big news because they are aggravating so many different countries. Just last week they were being bombed for having killed christians, and this week they are releasing 19 because they want to "follow the law." They have also been luring children from America to try and get them to join. Earlier this week, two teens were spotted in Turkey after having talked to the ISIS recruiter trying to cross the border into Syria. After listening to the class's articles, I think that ISIS is finally stepping down from what they were doing before because some countries have finally caught notice and attacked them.

         
          Some other articles had to do with how parents were refusing to get vaccinations for the flu and other common diseases. Measles have had recent outbreaks and California, and a lot of rumors are going around claiming that the vaccinations create a higher chance for autism in children. This is a rumor, and vaccinations are being promoted by the recent outbreaks, however many children still do not get the vaccinations that they need to stay safe each year.