War!

This is the second action project for my Humanities class called, “Policy”. In this unit we learned about the executive branch of our government. One of the things we did in this unit was create a timeline that shows the different cabinets in our government. In this action project we had to create an essay that explains a war that was fought by Americans and find out whether it’s just or not.). One of my struggles during this action project was finding out how the war changed in morality throughout the war. I ended up choosing to World War 2 because I immediately believed that it was a just war but I was interested in going into it further. Enjoy my project!

The beginning of World War II for the United States started with Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and ended after the bombing of Nagasaki on September 2, 1945. This war was right because the United States was trying to protect itself from future attacks from Japan and hopefully any other country. It is possible that there would have been another way to solve the issues between Japan and the United States, but after being attacked it is very human to want to fight back.

The United States got involved in World War II because of the attack on pearl harbor in 1941. This made us declare war on Japan and put us in the world war. Four days later Germany declared war on the United States. During this time Franklin D Roosevelt was the United States president. He delivered a speech that hugely impacted the mindset of the American people called the "Infamy Speech" which was spoken an hour before the United States declared war on Japan. This Speech was his reaction to the Pearl Harbor bombing and previous conflicts with Japan.

The first executive action of the war was the declaration of war on Japan when it was signed by Congress on December 8. Knowing that we were attacked just a day earlier, this set a policy that The United States has to be ready to defend itself if we were ever to be attacked. It was proposed by President Roosevelt because he believed that the attack from Japan on Pearl Harbor was what he called "a date which will live in infamy", meaning that he didn't want the United States to have this embarrassment. This policy was intended to protect the U.S. from future attacks as well as future embarrassment. The end of the war in Japan was fully decided in 1945 when the Japanese signed the Potsdam Declaration on September 2.

This policy was of course applied by sending troops to fight the Japanese. I personally think that the beginning of the war was justified since the Japanese did the first physical attack. Even though this was justified there were still serious consequences. One of them was the bombing of both Nagasaki and Hiroshima. These bombings killed over 129,000 people and is still affecting others with radiation.

The reasoning for this war initially was right but eventually it was taken too far. At first the war was meant to protect the United States from Japan, but eventually it turned into an unfair massacre. I believe that it is pretty logical to fight back if you are being fought. Even though we had to fight back, the bombing on Japan killed hundreds of thousands of people. If you compare that to the initial attack which started with over 2,000 deaths then you start to realize how far United States went to win the war. This was too far because it was more about ending the war instead of protecting the United States. If the United States had kept up with it’s original reasoning for the war then it would have been justified throughout the entire war, but at some point during the war America became too focused on winning.

Common Sense?

In this second project for my "Rhetoric" class we created a an art piece that challenges the status quo.  For our project, my partner and I had to create a video that questions the use of both common sense and the Rhetoric of the new Amazon HQ. In this unit we learned about the use of rhetoric in political speeches in order to learn how to inspire others for a cause. Me and my partner came up with the questions for the interviews. My partners job was to edit the different videos while my job was to conduct the actual interview.

My partner and I chose to do the topic about common sense and Amazon's new HQ's because it was a thing . While deciding the topic of our video we thought that there was two options. We thought that we either had to choose common sense or amazon by itself. Then my partner thought about and idea of mixing the two ideas together since we could reinforce the idea of common sense. We chose video as our format because it is a medium that we are familiar with. While making this video we wanted people to think about all the different ideas of common sense there are in the world. Using Amazon as our topic works because it shows how everyone can have different ideas about decisions that they consider common sense. Since everyone is different these differences in opinions can range from being small to very large. In the process of making this video, we tried to focus this video towards the viewers logos and ethos. Logos is demonstrated when we give the interviewees the facts and let them think about the situation. Afterwards we use lead the viewer to think about ethos suggesting that not everyone has to have the same thought process. Our video is supposed to make the viewer understand that they have a unique decision making process. Amazon’s new headquarters is supposed to be able to supply up to 50,000 jobs and cost $5 billion to build. 238 cities throughout the continent have already proposed an offer to Amazon in order to be chosen as the new host of their second HQ.  The average salary of a worker at the Amazon HQ would be over $100,000.  I think that it makes sense for the artwork to be shown as an ad on Youtube so people would have to choose whether or not they want to watch it. This would mean that the viewer is curious and may possibly reflect on the message of our video. I chose to show the specific interviewees because of their differences, just to show the spectrum on how much contrast there is when it comes to thinking about common sense. Each of the interviewees had their own opinion about what amazon and chicago should do about the new headquarters being built. This perfectly proves the point that my partner and I are trying to convey by showing the differences in thought. Another thing we had to think about was whether or not they should be interviewed together. We thought this might work because it would show how common sense is created when everyone argues their side until they all agree. It was decided against because we wanted to make sure no one changed their initial opinion before stating it. This was the better decision because it helps the viewer focus on just the differences instead of confusing it with everyone changing their mind. Overall I think the video conveyed our point by dividing the similarities but more especially the differences between people’s thought process when it comes to the topic of common sense.

During this project my partner and I struggled with time and content. When we were making this action project we thought we would have more time to interview different people for  our project. Since we didn’t have as much time as we thought, we had less people to interview. In order to solve this issue we had to use less content and accept that we couldn’t get enough people in our interview. The biggest thing I took out of this action project was that it’s unrealistic to believe that common sense is actually common.  I enjoyed making this action project because there are so many different backgrounds that can change a person's view of any topic.

Works Cited

Amazon sent cities into a frenzy when it announced plans to build a second headquarters. “The city Amazon picks for its second headquarters will change forever.” CNNMoney, Cable News Network, 27 Oct. 17ADAD, 9:14

“Amazon HQ2 Will Likely Be One of These Six Cities.” Fortune, Fortune, 18 Oct. 2017, fortune.com/2017/10/18/amazon-hq2-top-cities/.

Randy Stufflebeam

In my first unit for my class called “Rhetoric” we learned about different types of ways to figure how to appeal to an audience using different stylistic devices. In this action project I had to create a speech for a candidate running for governor of Illinois. In this class we learned about simple machines and physics concepts which helped us with this action project.

Save Walter

This is my third and last action project for my class called “Drama”. In this unit we read a play called “A Raisin in the Sun”. For this action project, I created a prologue for the play and I wrote down tips for the characters based on people's feedback on my guiding question for the play. My favorite part of making this action project was making the prologue. The biggest problem I had while making this project was coming up with the chorus because I wasn’t exactly sure how to do it. I’m still mostly unsure that I was able to do the project right, but I did it to my best ability and in the end I  was able to finish my AP

.

Dialouge

Cafe, the Play

This is my first ap for Drama.



Script:

Cafe De Romans. People are in the cafe talking.  
             The audience sees Paul sitting down drinking coffee.  Door opens. You see Michelle walk in.  Door closes with a soft bang.  She goes up to the counter to order coffee. Michelle looks around to see if a spot is open.  Nora walks in and orders coffee.

Nora:   Michelle, is that you? Wow! I have not seen you in forever.

Michelle:  Oh wow, hey, Nora how are you?

Paul:  Michelle, Nora, wow, what a small world.

(Michelle and Nora recognize Paul and go over to him)

Michelle:  Hey Paul.  I am doing a campaign and wanted to know, since you guys are here,  what you thought of it.

Paul:  Sure (Nora looks with hesitation but agrees to do so.)

End of scene 1

Scene 2 starts

         Scene starts out looking at the door where you can see there is thunder.

Then you see Paul, Michelle and Nora sitting down drinking coffee.

             Michelle pulls out some papers and hands them to Paul and Nora.

                                    Michelle

                       It is about if men and women should have different roles in society but have to same benefits to the same jobs. I think men and woman should have the same roles in society of course because we've been working towards equip rights already.

                                    Paul

                       You know I agree with you

I strongly agree with Michelle for many reasons. I believe in equality and Michelle brings up prime examples of ways we can make everyone equal.

                                    Nora

                        Well I kind of don’t agree with you guys

              (Nora says while moving her coffee cup around the table)

                                    Michelle

                        Why don’t you agree with it. I accustomed that you would have.

          (Cut to door rain has stopped)

Nora was not saying anything for a little bit, but then.

          

              

                                    Nora

  I think men should have a higher job than us, well that's what my husband says.

                                     Paul

Your husband sounds wicked.

                                    Michelle

That does not explain why you don’t want men and women to be equal.

                                    Paul

                       

Michelle is right

                                   Nora

Why are you guys disagreeing with me. I am right. Why are you speaking nonsense.

              (Nora shoots them a look)

          (Nora looked up at the ceiling, then back down.)

              

              Nora handing the paper back to Michelle

                                    Michelle

                        You are not even going to take a look at my campaign?

(Nora shoving the papers back to Michelle)

              Paul

Yea, I mean men and women should have the same benefits and be equal but not the same jobs.

Nora

Why are you guys against me, why.

(She says while pacing around)

Michelle

Nora I have patience for you don’t get mad. We are not against you but men and women should have to same jobs.

Nora

Yea but it causes conflict.

Ending

Paul and Michelle disagree with Nora

Nora

I am done with you guys! Don’t you see

Petruchio's Advice

This is my first action project for my class called Drama. In this unit we learned about the different types of ways William Shakespeare has changed modern theater, by creating an immersive setting, and how he pushed for women to play in women’s roles. For this action project, I created an Elizabethan sonnet that gave advice to one of the characters in a play we read in class called “The Taming of the Shrew”. My favorite part of making this action project was being able to tell the most annoying character what he should or shouldn’t do in a way that Shakespeare would’ve done it. The biggest problem I had while making this project was trying to come up with words that fit the sonnet style because each line had to have ten syllables and every other line had to rhyme. I eventually was able to come up with the right words with a little help from my teacher and a couple of my classmates.

My sonnet is written below:

Petruchio's Advice

Petruchio, you have to stop right now!

No human is meant to be so controlled.

Your tongue is curst, so to Kate you should bow,

So you might as well play your cards right or fold.

Maybe she’ll enjoy versatility;

You once said words that made her flowery,

“Then I'll commend her volubility.”

Marriage should be about love, not dowry

Why not help marriage be consensual?

It would be nice if you loved each other;

Why not make all your love sensual?

Stop making your wife feel like your brother.

This will change once you are more tolerant.

Now, your voice is a din so no comments.

MixTape

This is my only action project for my class called Mix Tapes. In this class we learned about different types of ways music has spread throughout the world and how it affects people today. For this action project, I created a mixtape and made a podcast that talked about how that music fit into a mixtape and what links the music together. My favorite part of making this action project was listening to the music that seemed to have no connection but still being able to find the way they have a similarity. The biggest problem I had while making this project was trying to finish my action project in the time that we were given. The problem I had was that we had three field experiences that took up all of class the same week that we started working on it in class. I eventually was able to spend a couple of long nights working on it and end up finishing it on the due date.

I’m a pretty random person who likes music that makes fun of things. For example I like parodies which make fun of the original song. I want my strong emotions to show up in my mix tape. The world around me is filled with music. It's also filled with rules that restrict certain types of music and other freedoms. Musically I sound loud and confusing lyrically, because I try to think about everything I can possibly think about. My world sounds loud and distracting because there are so many possibilities both physically and musically. I want there to be an aspect of all types of music or conflicting ideas in each of these songs on my playlist.

I write sins not tragedies


Feel good inc

Paper Planes

Sail

Handlebars

TCP Review

This is my final action project for my class called Forbidden Books. In this unit called “Diversity”, we learned about why certain books were banned for promoting different diverse communities, and how they were protested against. For this action project, I wrote an essay review on the movie “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker, and I talked about why people were against it. My favorite part of making this action project was getting to watch the movie, since I never watched it, and I actually learned a lot more than I expected. The biggest problem I had while making this project that I would’ve changed was that I have never actually seen the movie before. The problem I had was that since I never saw the movie it made it harder for me to do my review because I had to keep going back and looking at certain parts. I eventually was able to collect enough information to finish my action project.

The Color Purple Cover (2012) Pintrest

The movie, “The Color Purple” is a controversial film and book made Steven Spielberg and Alice Walker. It takes place in the early 1900’s in the southern part of America. At this time, there is still racism and you were able to get married at much younger ages. The story talks about at the beginning that the main character (Celie) has had two children with her father, and that he sold one those children to other parents and gave the other away for free.

One of the reasons people who wanted the movie banned for was because it was filled with scenes of domestic violence. When the book came out, everyone couldn’t stand that Celie was always being beaten. For example, in one of the scenes in the movie Celie is brushing the hair of her husband's daughter and the daughter can’t stop screaming in pain. When her husband asked Celie if she would make his daughter stop screaming she told him she couldn't. When she said that she couldn’t, Her husband ended up hitting Celie for talking back. Scenes like these were just one of the reasons why people fought to get the book banned.

Another reason that people wanted to get the movie banned was because it had a disturbing amount of racism towards black people. This especially made the black community upset because some of the scenes in the book would seriously offend them. An example of one of those scenes is when a white woman asks a black woman to quit her job and work for her as a maid. When the black woman said “Hell no”, a white man walked towards her in order to intimidate the black woman. When he attacked her she punched him in self defense, but she was soon surrounded and she was forced to leave her kids while she was attacked and sent to jail. This scene shocked the community who watched the film and it even made some of the watchers mad enough to fight against it.

The final large reason “The Color Purple” community tried to get the movie banned, was because it referenced a lot of “mature content” like sex and cursing. In the movie basically every other scene is either talking about or having sex, and cursing. A good scene that portrays this argument is when Celie and her sister Nettie are talking about how their dad keeps trying to make more children with Celie while waiting to do the same to Nettie when she’s old enough. They keep making fun of it, but you could tell they were really sad to have to go through that. This was mostly disturbing for parents because they were afraid their children would read the book and talk to them about it.

I honestly don’t think the book or the movie should be banned because every reason that people tried to get it banned actually happened to people. I feel like this book is more of realistic version of history with all those factors that were mentioned. If we always banned books with content similar to “The Color Purple” then we wouldn’t have a real version of history or anything to work away from, like slavery, or racism.

NWA

This is my second action project for my class called Forbidden Books. In the unit called “Dogma”, we learned about different religions that are dominating the world, as well as the different ways these religions are perceived. For this action project I made a slideshow where I had to choose a song and talk about why it was banned. My favorite part of making this action project was getting to listen to the music and seeing weird reasons for songs to get banned. The biggest problem I had while making this project that I would’ve changed was figuring out which song that I wanted to do first. The problem I had was that it was hard for me to choose a song that I connected with because I thought that it would be tough to do a song that I didn’t understand. I eventually was able to choose a song and get a pretty good slideshow out of it.

Trump versus Socrates

This is my first action project for my Forbidden Books class. The unit called  “Politics” was about why books have been forbidden for political reasons, through the study of "The Apology" by Socrates. For this action project I made a video where a reporter was using the socratic method to bring Donald Trump to a stump and make him rethink his values. Then I edited it together in order to make it presentable and added some bloopers to make it fun. My favorite part of making this action project was taping the bloopers because the actors mad really silly mistakes and funny accidents. Even though I had fun, the biggest problem I had while making this project was working with the actors.The problem I had was that it was hard for me to keep a schedule with the people in my video and they wouldn’t be available when I needed them. I eventually was able to work with them between classes and made the most of the time we had by preparing everything early.

Parkour Teach-In

This is my first and final action project for my Global Peace class. This unit was about the different kinds of violence we see in the world and how we as a community can stop it. For this action project I first I chose a topic about violence that I could fight. Then I created a Parkour presentation and made a slideshow of me presenting Parkour in order to help involve kids in a new hobby. My favorite part of making this project was editing the slideshow because it’s always fun for me to see myself doing Parkour. For example I don’t normally get to see what I’m doing from a 3rd person perspective. Even though I had fun, the biggest problem I had while making this project was the weather on the day I had to present my Parkour class. I ended up having to do it without anyone being there because the weather was too cold for anyone to want to come.

One of the worst things anyone can do is be unproductive. Being unproductive can lead to growing up and not graduating high school or college. One of the worst things it can lead to is juveniles joining gangs. Around 40% of the gang members in the United States are Juveniles (under 18), while the other 60% are over 18. In other words this means that around over 400,000 teenagers are in gangs and 600,000 are adults. This is the product of not being productive. If we could get every child and teen to find a hobby that gives them something to do then this could substantially lower the amount of juveniles in gangs.

The issue that I am addressing is children who don’t have any hobbies. While it may seem like it is a small issue, I believe that is at the root of many other issues in the world and leads to to constant violence that can hurt their lives as well as those around them. The type of violence I’m trying to address is both cultural and structural. This violence is cultural because once teenagers see that they aren’t being productive then they see that a large amount of people in American culture are in gangs. It is also structural violence because the way the US has been built prevents certain people from being productive.

I used the Tree Model of Conflict Analysis to diagram the causes and effects of not having a hobby. Not having a hobby is terrible because the effects can lead you into a terrible life. The causes are not good either since a lot of them revolve around lack of self worth. For example, some of the causes include not thinking you’re good at anything, being lazy, and a lack of confidence.This conflict is happening because some children are being manipulated into not having a hobby.

The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago is fighting the same problem as me while also helping clean up the earth. What they do is gather kids in both middle school and high school, and take them to a place in Chicago and work on removing invasive plant species, pick up trash, etc. After that, they do something fun like Ice Skating, Rock Climbing, etc.

One of the nonviolent actions I chose to use as a tool to intervene with my conflict was a teach in. I decided to teach people how to do Parkour as a hobby. Parkour is a sport where you use different movement styles to get from one point to another. Normally, Parkour includes gymnastics, but it can also include martial arts and dancing. The reason I wanted to use Parkour as an intervention was because I think I’m pretty good at making Parkour something that people want to do. It also gets people in shape while given them something to brag about.

There are four principles that Gandhi used to promote world peace. The principle I used for my action project was Swadeshi. The meaning of Swadeshi is “local economy”.My intervention relates to Swadeshi because I was able to use the local economy in order to promote a peaceful way to get kids to find a hobby. I was also able to use Sarvodoya (meaning “rising of all”) because I was able to get a group of people who didn’t have a hobby to start looking.

Works Cited 

Ojotriste, Jimmy. "Gang Statistics Last Update 2012 - New Update in Progress." Helpinggangyouth.com. Arturo Hernandez, 2015. Web. 13 Dec. 2016.

"Shedd Stewards." Shedd Stewards | Shedd Aquarium. Shedd Aquarium, 2016. Web. 13 Dec. 2016.

Bruce Lee

This is my final action project for my “Stories” class. This unit was titled “Heroes” and it was about how heroes all follow the same path to become a hero. For this action project I worked with RZD and KM created a slideshow to show the path Bruce Lee took. My favorite part of this project was having a reason to research Bruce Lee at school.I think the biggest challenge we had to face was working on the project after school without being able to interact with each other. All we could really do was text each other, but I think we were able to do an exceptional job overall.

Scyther the Boomslang Snake

This is my second action project for my “Stories” class. This unit was about different fables and character types. For this action project I created my own fable to teach a lesson. The way I made my story was just by writing it down. My favorite part of this project was making the drawing of the main character of the story which was a Boomslang Snake. I struggled with making the drawing the most even though I had fun. It was annoying to have to draw all the scales on the snake. All I had to do was come up with a strategy to make the scales quickly and, I eventually finished it.

MJF (2016) Boomslang

I am Scyther the Boomslang Snake. Ever since I was born I had to be both prey and a predator. There has always been one predator that has been in my life for as long as I can remember though. His name is Vincent the Verreaux's eagle-owl. He is an apex predator meaning that he is bigger, stronger, and faster than anyone in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, but I have always been able to evade him with my cunning strategic manipulative mind. Even though I am able to trick him often, this just makes him want to eat me even more. Recently he has been getting closer to catching me, even with me trying my hardest to outsmart him. He is growing wiser and I have to come up with a plan to stop him from eating me soon. As long as I’m in my tree home I’ll be safe.

I have to look at my advantages so I could know how to keep myself safe. I have green scales that can help me blend into trees, I am poisonous, and I am smart. Now all I have to do is come up with a plan for my next encounter with Vincent. Maybe I should hide in the trees for the rest of my life. That wouldn’t work because eventually I would have to come out to get water. What if I tried to use my poison to kill him first? That probably wouldn’t work either because he still has a strength, speed, and flight advantage. I think the best way to get hi from trying to eat me is to keep him to full to be hungry. All I have to do is find animals that I could manipulate or kill and give them to Vincent.

I decided to go looking for other small animals that I could easily kill and bring to Vincent. So I made my way to the ground to look for some hedgehogs. Eventually I found one named Harry. “Hello”, I said in the smoothest way possible, “I need someone who can help me move some branches out of the way of my home.” “If I help you, you’ll kill me” said the hedgehog. “If you don’t help me I’ll kill you. Besides, if I wanted to kill you I would’ve done it by now.” “Ok…, but if I help you, you have to promise not to eat me.”, Harry said. “I promise”. So we made my way to my tree where Iive in. Even though I wasn’t the one who was going to die, I was still nervous that I wouldn’t be able to pull off my plan.

As we arrived at the tree I heard a screech. It was Vincent, and  think he saw me on the way to my home. Luckily this is what I had planned for. As Vincent came to a landing in front of me I wrapped around the hedgehog. “ What’s this?” said Vincent. “I brought you a gift.”, I said calmly. “Oh?” said the giant owl. I slowly let go of the hedgehog and he started to run, but he was immediately grabbed by Vincent. “Thankyou”, he said “ I expect to see more of this in the future.” “Of course Vincent, as long as you promise not to eat me”. “ I promise”, he said slowly. Then he threw up the hedgehog into the sky and caught it in his mouth, and with that he flw away.

That last encounter was a close one, but I don’t know how I can keep doing this. If I keep this up then I’ll starve. I don’t care though, as long as I don’t die then I should keep going. While I was climbing up my tree, I was already thinking about the next meal I should give Vincent. Should I kill the next hedgehog before giving it to him or would he want him alive to eat. I heard he likes to play with his prey before eating it, so maybe I should bring him alive. The next day I decided to set out with the same goal as yesterday, which meant that I had to catch another living hedgehog. I was able to use the same strategy as the day before and bring him to my home.

I heard the same screech as yesterday but when the owl came, he seemed much happier than usual. I let the hedgehog loose, but this time Vincent didn’t try to catch the hedgehog. He looked at me like he knew something that I didn’t. Suddenly he grabbed me and I couldn’t move. “ Did you really think I would let you live after you have tricked me so many times?” he said as he laughed maniacally. I didn’t know what to do so I tried to bite him, but he clamped my mouth with his enormous talons. I should’ve known that this was going to happen. He was finally able to outsmart me in the end. Then  he slowly put me into his mouth while laughing and ate me.

Don’t sink to the level of your enemies.