Kathryn Stockett, behind the scenes.

Ablene Cooper, a 60-year-old woman who has long worked as a maid in Mississippi has filed a lawsuit against Kathryn Stockett, the author of the best-selling novel “The Help,” In the complaint, Ms. Cooper argues that one of the book’s principal characters Aibileen Clark, is an unpermitted appropriation of her name and image, which she finds emotionally distressing. It is more complicated than that. For the past dozen years, Ms. Cooper has worked for Ms. Stockett’s older brother and sister in law, and still does. She has also said that “The Help” was coolly received by some in her hometown. “Not everybody in Jackson, Mississippi is thrilled,” acknowledging that a few “close family members” were so unhappy that they were not talking to her. Ms. Cooper and her lawyers point out that the character Aibileen’s grown son died five months before her white employers’ first child was born, a sequence that closely mirrors the death of one of Ms. Cooper’s grown sons from cancer, several months before the birth of the Stocketts’ first child. Also, despite the spellings, the two names are pronounced similarly. However, Ms. Stockett is certain that she made up the characters on her own.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2011/02/help-author-kathryn-stockett-fights-lawsuit/1

Indifference is not a beginning, it is an end.

In "The Perils of Indifference", Elie Weisal argues statements explaining the nature of indifference and followed it up with the damages that can be caused by indifference. He spoke of the people and countries that knew about the events but did nothing. The events were not directly related to their well being and to be indifferent meant to have no response or emotion to a situation like the men who wore blankets in the camps. They were left  dead to the world feeling nothing inside, not even hunger.
After reading "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson it reminded me of a story I had heard called "The Salem Which Trials".  The first connection that I made was that both stories are based on a woman, or women who are in jeopardy. I also  found that both of these stories started out in the same type of environment, small villages. "The Salem Witch Trials" is based on a story of the daughter and niece of a Reverend who was very strict. The girls were not allowed to play or have toys, they were only supposed to do their chores and read prayers. However, they would go behind the reverends back spending late evenings with a woman slave who would entertain them with stories, magic, fortune telling, and other forbidden activities. Later on, the two girls started to experience strange feelings or actions like twitching, and rolling on the floors throwing fits while screaming. Then, came the first public display as one girl started a fit barking like a dog. Another girl then began to flap her arms like a bird, and another girl showing signs of being choked. After this display the towns people believed the girls to be victims of witchcraft. Everybody became deeply scared and started asking the girls to identify their tormentors. The girls then named three of the towns people who were social out casts and deeply distrusted, including the slave who had been spending time with the girls. The slave confessed of other witches in the town, which began to terrify everyone even more. The girls would say that spirits would secretly visit them, causing the towns people to accuse anyone and everyone. This began the Salem Witch Trials where they would hang any person that was named to be a witch, with or without proof of the accused being innocent. They would even be killed if they denied or tried to fight it. These events continued until the girls began to name the most respected people. Everyone then began to doubt the girls accusations. The rest of the accused were pardoned in the end, and everyone went back to their daily lives.
Therefore, some connections that I made from these stories are this; It was from the fear of the villagers that enforced these rituals. "The Lottery" is a sacrifice to the Gods to insure that the crops grow, and "The Salem Witch Trials" was based on the belief of Witchcraft. Neither crop Gods nor Witches are real, they are both superstitions resulting in the death of many innocent people.

A good thing gone bad

It's crazy to think about how an amazing memory can be trampled all over and ruined completely. When you're young its so easy to give your heart out and use your imagination. You don't think about the risks or the consequences as much as you do when you're an adult. You don't recognize when things change, but it still happens and you keep going day by day. Your mind changes, your heart changes, your body changes, and people change from experience because they gain knowledge. He was the nicest person I had ever known and he would go above and beyond for me if it meant helping me out or making me happy. We had fun together and we laughed together. We grew together and our friendship eventually grew into love. I always thought that it was a 1 in a thousand chance of finding your true love at 15 and being together for all that time, that was until I fell in love with him. I just didn't think I could be that in love with someone and have it last. Maybe that's what broke us in the end. He didn't trust me with his heart really and I took him for granted way too many times. I assumed that our love could withstand wild fire. Then before I knew it everything changed and we were enemies and our fights burned our memories leaving nothing but ashes in the wind. Something had just changed in us that neither of us knew coming until it bit us in the ass. We did and said things that were so tragically horrible, things we couldn't just say 'sorry' to and take back, though I wish we could have. I distanced myself from him and for a while I thought that we would one day be able to be friends again. Until he started doing whatever he possibly could to make my life a living hell, and he did, it worked, and I burned. He was the complete opposite from when I had first met him and the more he scarred me the more I realized that who he used to be was gone completely. That relationship taught me alot and it also scarred me, it made it hard for me to trust people and love again because he first changed my heart for the better, and then he simply ruined me. I felt like it was all my fault, I blamed myself for the way he changed and I still to this day don't know why. I had given him all of me but that wasn't good enough, I gained many insecurities and weaknesses but after time I healed and I used our experience as a reason to become stronger and wiser. It's been roughly two years and we get along fine now, but we will never be the same.

21st Century Education

To me the most important skills are obvious, don't be late, dress appropriately, finish your assignments on time. We learn to make it on schedule, we learn manners, and deadlines. Though over half of us ignore these things they're still there and we should take them seriously because after high school, we aren't going to be given an extra day or two from Mrs. Searcy to hand in our assignments. In high school I've been learning, what to me are the basic skills we need to make it anywhere higher than here.
The perfect school... What does that even mean? My perfect school would certainly have a carnival every year on the last day before summer, but in reality for future generations I would create a school that lets the students decide what they want to learn. One that would provide classes where they share what they already know to teach other. A school where the student can take a basic class of their interest. They would be allowed to sit on the floor if thats what made them comfortable and take a brake when their heads got sore from taking in all the information. When my head gets loaded in a matter of hours, I can't think straight until I sit down and take a break..
Next year I want to go to Texas and travel, though that's not what I'm doing. I'm taking a 22 week course here in Penticton so that I can get a decent job sooner. After that I will travel and decide from there where I'm going to go.