"All Men Are Created Equal, Yeah Right" .

Promt: "All Men Are Created Equal, Yeah Right

True statement! We are not created equal, however we would like to be. It would be nice to know what the world would be like if we were created equal. Instead we are in a society were my sex and my brown skin are already a disadvantage. To top it off my name is Sheniqua, the most common names comedians and poloticians use to label black. "Created equal?" Yeah right!! is exactly what comes to mind. When that saying was said, we never were created equal, that was just Bull S#!t from the gate. I think when the person said this it was for those who he or she felt was equal to them in finacial class and skin tone. They did not have my great ancestors in mind.   -Sheniqua


Journal Writing
4/15

Guns kill people or people kill people

“I keep hearing “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” well, if we are being like that it’s the bullets that kill people. In the meantime, if in fact people kill people, should we just get rid of all the people to save the guns???” – Lakietha Elliot

I don't believe in getting rid of the people to stop the senseless killing because, people senselessly kill people without any remorse on a regular. If there were no guns we will use a knife, a rock, a bat or any other object that can be used as a weapon. People choose to use a gun because it doesn't require much energy or activity. Your index finger is doing all the work that leaves a permanent affect to someone's life. I feel if you want to leave something behind just save the bullets. Without the guns there isn't an easier way to kill people and without people they don't have to use much energy to use the guns to kill people. If I could travel back in time I will kill the guy who created the first gun. I believe the idea of guns came about during the civil war. They needed a quicker and efficient way to kill their enemy and the gun came involve. But the simplicity of the matter turned into something more complex. Guns comes in all shapes and sizes some are more precise and more efficient, some are automatic some are not. But in all reality guns kill people by people who choose to use guns to kill people!

-Kristal Ormsby

There is no Them.

Prompt: “There is no Them. There are only facets of Us.”

There is no Them. Your born alone, meaning everything you do in life is done alone. The same way you die alone. Them and us means nothing. Everything done in life is based on what you yourself can handle and what you are able to accomplish. Them and us can sometimes be the negative effect on life. No need for problems and troubles. It is good to avoid any serious problems because at the end everything depends on you. Because you, yourself is going to be the person that will always have your back and never fail you. You, yourself is your best friend, your life, your everything. Them and us are just a moment thing because if you depend on them at the moment you least expect it, they can turn their back on you. Expect the unexpected. Life is full of many obstacles but only you can face them and only you can prove to yourself that you are the best.  

Yadira Lizano 

Not even the very wise cannot see all death

"Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment for even the very wise cannot see all ends."

We all die as we all live. No one knows when the time will come for us to leave this world, not even the very wise cannot see all ends. We all have to live as if it was our very last day. Anything can happen so might as well make the best of it. We have to take chances because we live and learn. Life is very important. We have to make decisions wisely and responsible. We can live a wonderful life and be selfish, and maybe your next life time life will completely suck. Life is meant to be challenged, so why fight it. Death comes to everyone, no one can stop it or prevent it. We learn to deal with the consequences for our actions. Life is long but can be shorten at any time.

 

Yadira Lizano 

Passing by, waking up.

Jamie Goldstein

Writing II

Prompt 16

“I was just tired of losing... Life was passing me by” –Serena Williams

      Do you ever have those days where you wake up and think about how it’s been a year since you cared about anyone? Before you can even open your eyes, your heart drops and you get that crying-sort of feeling in your throat. You look around and the light is filtering through those stubborn, uncloseable venetian blinds. The whole world is already moving: people on their way to work, to class, to run their everyday errands. It’s one of those days when your heartbeat beats you back to the scene of the crime. 

      You roll out of bed and stumble to the bathroom. You look at your past self in the mirror and it’s hard not to wonder “what the hell happened? I’m no worse, maybe I’m no better, but am I even who I used to be?” The shower runs hot down your back and amid the inescapable smell of Irish Spring is that singular sense of something surreptitious. Maybe it’s something that you don’t talk to anyone about, but you know it's there, just underneath the surface. There’s that feeling of loss, gain, and an undeniable perception of controlled chaos.

      The steam condenses on the mirror and and the person you left there is now just a hazy shape. An oblong, featureless face. Behind the fog lies a million thoughts and feelings and emotions, but despite how hard you try to wipe away the mist, that person you left in the mirror has been passed by. He’s gone. 

      But maybe that’s not so bad. Maybe passing by is just part of waking up.

"I keep learning, "guns don't kill people, people kill people....should we just get rid of all of the people to save the guns??? -- Lakietha Elliot

While it may be true that people kill people, the gun of itself is a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands and should not be made accessible to the public at large; but then again, guns are not the only weapons that kill.  There are other man-made equipment that are just as deadly. e.g. knives.  If we get rid of people to save guns, who will purchase or use it?  It becomes useless.  What we need are laws that make it difficult for people to acquire.  There's another weapon far more deadlier and dangerous and that is, according to the Bible, is the tongue. What we say with our tongue can kill a person spiritually, as well as emotionally and physically.  Many have gone to their graves broken-hearted by hurtful words or lies which have kill them.  Even parents and teachers telling a child that they wouldn't amount to anything or they hate them is very deadly......

Light or Darkness

"I keep hearing 'guns don't kill people, people kill people' well, if we are being like that actually, it's the bullets that kill people. In the mean time, if in fact people kill people, should we just get rid of all the people to save the guns???" - Lakietha Elliot

     Hatchets don't kill people. You don't see knives uprising and stabbing unsuspecting citizens. People stab people, people shoot people, people kill people. It sounds about right to say we should get rid of the people to save the sharp utensils, the guns, and everything else on this planet. It seems everything we create begins to wither and become tainted. Just poof us out of existence and the balance of nature will be restored. All the problems of humanity will be solved. No more deaths, no more epidemics. There will be no more poverty, no hunger or debt. Animals will thrive and the environment will return to its rightful throne. But we can't just poof away. There would be no love, no laughter. Romance would be dead. Smiles of families and friends would vanish. Humanity and all of its goodness and light would cease to exist. The question is, which weighs more? The darkness or light of humanity?

-Rico

"GUN KILL PEOPLE,"-Elliot Lakieth

Gun isn't the problem in the situation that Elliot Lakieth make because that just the surface but if you dig a little deeper you'll find from where this all starts is actually from the mind of the people. People thought of gun so it was created. People then thought why not eliminate people out of the way with gun? So that came to happen with so many death. From the mind, the thinking to the killings and dying, that is how I see it. Its a problem that has to be solved. Remember the problem isn't the gun but their corrupted mind that has to get fixed. If it don't then it would really be the end for guns and people.

-Estefany Perez

Believing Is Seeing

“Believing is seeing.” When you completely dedicate yourself to an idea – or even just entertain the thought of that idea to be the truest of true, a guaranteed existence in reality – you are able to develop a vision in your mind of that idea as if it actually stood before you. And maybe for the sake of your mental health and for the sake of understanding what reality is, this is good solely for artistic reasons, but nonetheless, it’s a pretty fantastic aspect of our being: imagination. What makes “believing is seeing” such a beautiful thing is that it gives you all the power, and as humans, that’s something we crave for. You have the power to believe or not to believe, which is in a bigger context the power over existence. You have the power over detail. And ultimately, you have the power to project. For many, “seeing is believing”. And that’s fabulous and all. But the ability to believe and from that see is what gives us Picassos and Superman and Hogwarts.

-KR

Thank God?

Jamie Goldstein

Writing II

Prompt 15

“I keep hearing ‘Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.’ Well, if we are being like that, actually, it’s the bullets that kill people. In the meantime, if in fact people kill people, should we just get rid of all the people to save the guns???” –Lakietha Elliot

Thank God, my loved ones are safe. I’m from Boston, so yesterday’s news hit close to home. My mom called me, saying that my brother, who was watching the marathon, was nowhere near the attack. I called Dani and Mikhael, my two best friends from home; They were both safe. Dani was at home, and Mikhael was in school, in lockdown. I told them both to keep me posted, but I haven’t heard from them since. I called Eugene, who was still on the bus going back to Boston. Had it not been for the fact that he was visiting me over the weekend, would have been right where the blast had occurred. I called Beatrice, my ex-girlfriend. She was safe, but had been at the attack-site an hour prior to the explosions. She was in hysterics, not that I blame her, but she told me she’d call me when she had calmed down. She never did, but that’s what I expected. 

It’s weird, saying thank God. I said it a million times yesterday. I mean, what am I saying, "thank God?" Thank you God that these people, my family and loved ones, weren’t caught in the blast? That someone else took there place? I can’t thank God for that. I have one thing to be thankful for: My world wasn’t impacted by this attack. That’s it. I’m thankful, but I’m also at a loss. So I guess thank God for that.

Guns or People

4/16/13

“I keep hearing “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” well, if we are being like that it’s the bullets that kill people. In the meantime, if in fact people kill people, should we just get rid of all the people to save the guns???” – Lakietha Elliot

I guess this is in light of the bombing at the Boston marathon yesterday, which is devastating but I’d rather not. I think its both the guns and the people together that kill people. That makes sense right? I mean without the people the gun wouldn’t randomly spew venomous bullets into innocent humans’ chest and without the gun people wouldn’t kill. That thought is a little whittled down because there are a hundred ways people could kill people without guns. They could use knives, they could use their bare hands and they could use bombs. But at least the first part is more or less accurate. Guns are inanimate; they don’t shoot for themselves. If a gun was lying on a table, it’s not going to get up and shoot you. Someone has to operate it. I also think the guns are a bit to blame, they are a temptation and they make it all too easy to kill someone and then the murder rates are sky-high. It’s easy to acquire one, it’s easy to load one and it’s easy to fire one. Or so I assume because I’ve never had to do any of the above. But yeah that’s my view as wary as it sounds. You can’t pin the blame on one thing entirely, but each has a role to play. It just could all be avoided. I don’t like when these things happen because the first thing that enters my mind is I’m glad that wasn’t me or I wasn’t there. Completely selfish I know, but at least I’m honest.

-KB 

What is Truth?

Truth is like medicine, timeless it may be. It is the thin line between falsehood and reality. Of course its the same old story, centuries gone past. When truth shows up, lies cannot last. Be true to thine own self no matter what you do, for the living God is always watching you, and he never changes and neither does truth. It is eternal

Samuel Douglas Nash III

Loneliness.

Jamie Goldstein

Writing II

Prompt 14

      “If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?” –Vince Lombardi

      I do well at the bar game. Sometimes I smoke first, sometimes I down a few beers before I go. I try not to keep score but I probably hook up more than I should. It’s getting boring, honestly. “Oh, where do you go to school?” “What are you studying?” “That’s so interesting!” “What do you want to do with that?” “Has that always been a dream of yours?” “Hey, let’s go up to the bar, I’ll buy you a drink!”

      I’ve had that same fucking conversation a few dozen times. I’m so sick of these superficial dialogues, which hardly even deserve the “di” prefix. I never really know know who you are. But I guess that’s the point, right? That’s why we go to these college bars. We’re lonely souls who are just searching for a warm body to stay the night with. 

      I drift from face to face, never recognizing a one. It’s not their fault, I very rarely remember a person. I don’t like to trivialize these people, after all, I’m here looking for the same thing.

      Maybe I should stop winning this game. It doesn’t make me any happier. Sure I can talk a girl out of her dress, and don’t think for a second that I take advantage of anyone,  but really, what’s the point? 

      I think what I’m trying to say here is that honestly, I’m pretty lonely. I’m sick of everyone trying to meet up, hook up, fuck. I want something real, steady, emotive. I can’t stand this fucking superficiality anymore. But I guess that’s just how things are freshman year. It’s not a game, but I guess everyone keeps score.

Class 4/09

“If winning isn’t everything, then why do they keep score?” – Vince Lombardi

Maybe the question isn’t whether or not winning means everything, whether success is a constant and necessary goal, but is instead, “Even though they keep score, do we ever know who really wins?”After all, can we quantify our lifetime achievement through a series of numbers and statistics, and truly be satisfied by such? Of course winning in a game or sport, a closed-universe if you will, is satisfying, but perhaps it is only so because such satisfaction in unachievable in life. There’s no way to tally up a ‘score’ on your death bed, and, in a world that seems possessed by the exact definitions of ‘win’ and ‘lose,’ such a proposition is honestly frightening. Maybe in reality, that’s why winning is so important to some, to Mr. Lombardi. If so, though, could it not be said that winning is, instead of something for the strong, a concession for the weak, for those unable to face the subjectivity of the ever-changing world. 

-Reid Williams

Nut up or shut up.

Prompt #13

Jamie Goldstein

Writing II

      “There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust” –Fidel Castro

      Can’t we all just get along? I mean really! Why the fuck do we hate everyone? Why can’t we accept the underground, the other, the different? It’s time to pluralize. It’s time to say “yeah, I DON’T get you, but I want to.” We see something foreign and we revile it like last week’s leftovers. It’s shit like the Holocaust, Darfur, and the fucking traditional marriage skinheads that turn our world to shit. 

      We need to take our place back. We’re young. We have all the time in the world. We need to change things now. This isn’t a call to change you profile picture to an equals sign, it’s a call to war. It’s time to nut up or shut up. Make the difference. Be the new change. We have to cut out our intolerance. Pluralism is the chemo to the cancer of our society. This isn’t the time to play nice. We’ve been beaten down and repressed for years. It’s time to change that. It’s time for us to level the playing field. No I’m not a communist, but our overly capitalist, xenophobic, and dog-eat-dog world has got to end now. The only other option is the status quo, the norm, the same shit we’ve always dealt with with passive acceptance. Sure, it annoyed us, but who ever spoke up for change? 

      We need to rock normalcy to its core. It’s high time this shit ended. Pluralism is our brave new world. I mean really, can’t we all just get along?

Land of Unicorns

"I'm not afraid of Death. I just don't want to be there when it happens." - Woody Allen

     A touchy subject. One that has touched all of us. Death has gripped friends, family, co-workers and strangers. the hand Hades is not so easily dodged. And in these days, it seems the mighty Zeus himself has fallen asleep on his throne. Death is a human occurrence, and one that will take all of us but the question that arises from our mortal lives, is then what?

Some have said, not to worry about death. We are merely passing through this life. And our goal is to observe, change and continue on. There is no guarantee, in heaven or hell; purgatory or the abyss; Mt. Olympus or the Underworld; Complete Darkness or Emptiness. You can believe in the Land of Unicorns and fairy tales. None of us truly knows the next step. So what is the point of taking anguish from a land and dimension separate from our own. Come to terms with death. Know that it is coming and beyond it, is the unknown. Take what time you have now and grasp it like the hilt of a sword. It is your last, it is your only. Live the only life you have to what means you want it. Death, its a touchy subject. It will touch, it has touched all of mankind.

-Rico

Bang

"Communism is like prohibition, it's a good idea but it won't work" - Will Rodgers

 

         Gun control is like prohibition of alcohol, it's a bad idea and it won't work. You take away something a few people have, they don't have the power to argue. You take something away that more than half the population uses, you get a civil war. Politics is a puppet with each string pulled by a politician. One wrong pull and the puppet will fall. All the wrong pulls and the puppet doesn't move. I would name this little doll the U.S. of A. I can run down the list of reasons why firearms should be allowed. I would run down it but in a room full of liberals, it would end up a slobbery and gibberish alien language. It enters their ear canals as they prepare to shout back a monotonous idea about guns. What's a gun? Something many liberals can define. What exactly is an action? slide? clip? chamber? safety? automatic? semi-automatic? bolt-action? Simple on the outside, complicated on the inside. Don't it the wrong way, I'm not all Republican and Conservative. I support liberal things too and I'm sure if I was arguing with a conservative about gay marriage, he'll shoot some slur I wouldn't understand. It seems arguing with another human being is tough. They don't want to listen to things they don't like or want. Amen.

-Rico

“If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re clothed, fed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking…is freedom” –Dwight Eisenhower

                What comes to mind is government. A government in the form of a total governmental controlled police state. It would be the safest for the people in any nation. The government would have rigid and firm control of every part of one’s life. They would control your nutrition, your communications, your education and your politics. The connection is that the only form of police state in America are prisons where you are taken are of but your rights are removed which is how a police state works. The population is seen as a whole that needs to be maintained and made healthy, but it is without thought. Without freedom, many ideas would have not come to be. Many inventions like personal computers would have not come into existence. Oppositely, in an anarchy state there is not a functioning government, all the social benefits such as healthcare, a military, hospitals and police would not exist which is the entire purpose of a government. Any great nation must find the balance between freedom and control. A powerful social democracy.

Fun fact: because of odd wifi connection I have been accidently signed into this Google account for a week now.