Reflections on NS after reading 'the soldier'
I feel that National Service is compulsory in Singapore because it helps Singapore to solve its problem of lack of proper defense and also help to ease racial and religious tensions as all males in Singapore will be together during National Service.
It is also important as it gives young men a sense of belonging while they serve their country. After all, Singapore is their home and all the more they should protect it.
I also feel the same spirit of patriotism as 'the soldier' although not to that much extent but I may feel a greater sense and spirit of patriotism for Singapore in the future. I do have the patriotic spirit for Singapore because it is my home and has helped me to be what I am now. It is safe, and very well-to-do as compared to other countries where there are many incidents of violence, riots and strikes. Many other countries around the world are also not as good as us in terms of living like in those third world countries. People there do not even know when or what their next meal will be while here we are in Singapore choosing what our next meal will be like. This make us very fortunate so we should not grumble about National Service or complain about it.
Nowadays, I find that there is not much patriotism in young men here in Singapore. I think that this is likely due to the fact that they are to pampered and do not like the discipline life in National service. Some others also feel that they are wasting their time. In fact, they might instead become tougher and more mature and even gain something out of National Service. They should be optimistic and think of it as giving back to Singapore after all Singapore had done for them. This is quite saddening and I hope that they will be enlightened and not complain about it.
HERE ARE SOME PICS
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Holiday Assignment (2 books)
Book 1
The Ghost Brigades
by John Scalzi
The Ghost Brigades
by John Scalzi
Introduction
The Ghost Brigades is the second book by John Scalzi set in the Old Man's War universe.
Summary
Jared Dirac is the main character in this book. He is instilled with the consciousness of a traitor, Charles Boutin, and has to deal with memories of a life he hasn't lived, while at the same time trying to find out who he really is himself. This was because he was a modified body. Jared is a member of the Special Forces, also known as The Ghost Brigades. Jane Sagan and Harry Wilson are the only primary characters returning from Old Man's War which is the first book.
All of the colonial defense forces are given genetically altered bodies with all sorts of upgrades, but it is the special forces that really get the most out of them. These soldiers are born into these bodies, and only through their BrainPal do they know what to do. This universe is a hostile place and these upgrades are the bare minimum the CDF can give them just to hold their own. Travel in the universe is done by skip drive, an instantaneous means of transportation.
I find that this book is a very interesting science fiction book that is very captivating and it might come to pass in the future.
Note: Please click on the links to understand more. Thank You.
Source: wikipedia
Book 2
Camouflage
by Joe Haldeman
Introduction
This is the only book.
Summary
This book is about two aliens have wandered Earth for centuries. The Changeling has survived by adapting the forms of many different organisms. The Chameleon destroys anything or anyone that threatens it.
The story tells us the life of both the Changeling and the Chameleon and it ends when both meet. I find that this book is also interesting as although it is not so action packed, it tells us in details what the Changeling and the Chameleon do and how they escape being noticed by humans. This book keeps the reader in suspense and I find this is what makes this book so special.
source: www.books.google.com
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
LA Online 24&25 May
Rainbow Death
America did not foresee
Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!
Expecting others to pay a high price.
Now thinking twice?
Toll on the innocent and unborn.
Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn.
Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead.
All the deceit continues to spread.
Nefariously America led astray -
Generations untold WILL pay -
Execrable effects of agent orange spray!
by Hubert Wilson
Task 1
Background/Conflict
Although this poem is based on a war that happened in the past, "Rainbow Death" still talks about a modern day ingredient of warfare, Agent Orange. Agent Orange is the code name for one of the herbicides and defoliants used by the U.S. military as part of its herbicidal warfare program, Operation Ranch Hand, during the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1971. This is an indication that Hubert was writing on the Vietnamese war. This poem may remind us that wars aren't over when the wars are over.
Sources:
Wikipedia
Task 2
Template
1. Point of view:
This is a first-person account by Hubert Wilson. He was a Vietnam War Veteran who has served in the USAF Security Service previously. His thoughts and disapproval of how America handled the war in Vietnam caused him to write this poem to express himself. The war also affected him as he was involved in the war. He is a respectable person as he is able to stand up on his own and give his opinions and what he is unsatisfied about. This can be seen in this poem.
2. Situation and setting:
The poem is talking about the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1971 and the situation is bad and sad in this poem. With the use of Agent Orange in the war, many people who were innocent were killed. This can be seen from " During the Vietnam War, between 1962 and 1971, the United States military sprayed 20,000,000 US gallons of chemical herbicides and defoliants in Vietnam, eastern Laos and parts of Cambodia, as part of Operation Ranch Hand. The program's goal was to defoliate forested and rural land, depriving guerrillas of cover; another goal was to induce forced draft urbanization, destroying the ability of peasants to support themselves in the countryside, and forcing them to flee to the U.S. dominated cities, thus depriving the guerrillas of their rural support base and food supply." These poem also shows the suffering of innocent people in Vietnam and how the Americans regretted their actions during the war.
3. Language:
This poem follows a
a-a-b-b-c-c rhyming pattern.
There is also a sense of sarcasm in this poem.
4. Personal Response:
After reading this poem, I can feel the anguish and sadness in Hubert as he experienced and went through the war seeing innocent people suffering. I can also sense the anger in him towards the Americans. A war is definitely devastating and also cruel and also very unfair for innocent people. If a war can be prevented, it should be prevented or it should not even happen.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
War - A personal Response
Now, I am going to discuss on this picture. This picture was taken by the world's most acclaimed photographers to mark his 75th year, Imperial War Museum North in Greater Manchester. This picture shows a scene during the war and it appears in black and white. It is probably taken quite some time back. It is clearly evident in that there are many remains of the destruction the war have left behind. There are also soldiers helping an injured soldier who may have gotten injured during the violent process of the war. Many had died during the process of the war too. With debris everywhere and the country in ruins it is really a great problem to the country.
The soldiers here are clearly trying their best to help one another in these times of war and it is inevitable that soldiers get injured. The injured soldier in the picture is in great agony and pain probably because he had gotten injured during the war. His fellow soldiers are helping to keep his situation under control. This scene is clearly devastating. As this is only one of the scenes, there are surely many more others who are injured after the war. It is sad to see that such a war had brought upon so much pain agony and literal destruction to a country like this. This war has changed the country itself and also the people and the only hope now is for the war to cease and start to rebuild the nation.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Letter writing(Japan Earthquake Victim)
7 Canberra Ave
S(627893)
Dear Ms. Sandra,
I am indeed sorry and sympathetic about the disaster that happened in Japan. I am writing this letter to you to encourage you to have the will to live through the disaster.
I have read your post on the opinion pages on the New York Times website. I am glad that your boyfriend is alright and you are safe too. It is really an unexpected event that has occurred to Japan. I sympathize with you on your plight. I am sure that Japan as a powerful country will soon recover from this incident and in the meantime, people like us around the world will surely give their full support to Japan in terms of funds and also moral support. In this case I really hope that you will not give up in hopes of the recovery of the Japanese earthquake.
I know that times like these may be hard to go through and saying it now like this to you may be easy but I do know that it is easier said than done. This is why you have to persevere and have hope. Japan has once also experienced an earthquake and recovered after it to be better and stronger and Japan could do it then, so can it now. So one must not give up hopes, you can try to help the surrounding people around you like neighbors if you are lonely, help them and you will surely feel better. Get to know them and pass through this difficult time with them.
I know that you can surely be strong and persevere through difficult times like these. I really feel sympathetic for Japan that such a disaster has happened and rest assured people here and elsewhere will definitely show their upmost support in the recovery of Japan.
Finally, I am very happy and glad to write to you and it also gives me pleasure to help and encourage you. Times like these are surely not the end of the world so have hope. All the best in your future and may you persevere on.
Yours Sincerely,
John
S(627893)
Dear Ms. Sandra,
I am indeed sorry and sympathetic about the disaster that happened in Japan. I am writing this letter to you to encourage you to have the will to live through the disaster.
I have read your post on the opinion pages on the New York Times website. I am glad that your boyfriend is alright and you are safe too. It is really an unexpected event that has occurred to Japan. I sympathize with you on your plight. I am sure that Japan as a powerful country will soon recover from this incident and in the meantime, people like us around the world will surely give their full support to Japan in terms of funds and also moral support. In this case I really hope that you will not give up in hopes of the recovery of the Japanese earthquake.
I know that times like these may be hard to go through and saying it now like this to you may be easy but I do know that it is easier said than done. This is why you have to persevere and have hope. Japan has once also experienced an earthquake and recovered after it to be better and stronger and Japan could do it then, so can it now. So one must not give up hopes, you can try to help the surrounding people around you like neighbors if you are lonely, help them and you will surely feel better. Get to know them and pass through this difficult time with them.
I know that you can surely be strong and persevere through difficult times like these. I really feel sympathetic for Japan that such a disaster has happened and rest assured people here and elsewhere will definitely show their upmost support in the recovery of Japan.
Finally, I am very happy and glad to write to you and it also gives me pleasure to help and encourage you. Times like these are surely not the end of the world so have hope. All the best in your future and may you persevere on.
Yours Sincerely,
John
Friday, February 25, 2011
MY FINAL DRAFT
T1 Summative Writing Assignment (Singaporean short story)
Title: MY TRUE INTEGRITY
It was another Language Arts class and everyone in class was listening attentively in class. This year’s Language Arts teacher was very friendly and what was more was that her lessons were very interesting. We had Language Arts lesson three times a week and everyone looked forward to it very much. As we was still studying in Secondary 1 in Singapore after taking PSLE and not much was expected from us in class as we were still new to the school.
This term we learnt analysis of stories and poems and many of us were very excited about it. Later in class, Ms Tan, our Language teacher told us that we were to do a project by ourselves. As it was our first time doing projects for Language Arts, we were of course as happy as a lark when we heard the news. Our assignment was to create our own poem and then give a presentation on our own poem about why we had written our poem in that particular way. Ms Tan even added that if we did well, she would award additional ACE points to us and also get a small token from her. Everyone was as busy as a bee and started discussing on the poem. I chatted along but I still did not have a speck of idea on what kind of poem to write about. I wanted to write an outstanding poem better than my friends and get the additional ACE points and also the small token.
We had to present our work in two days time which was on Friday since it was Wednesday then. That day, I went home and started to do my homework. I Worked as hard as an Alabama cotton picker and finally finished my other homework and decided to start on my Language Arts project. I spent much time brainstorming but still, after cracking my brain, I was still empty of any ideas. I surely cannot miss this good opportunity to get rewarded. Since I could not get any ideas, I decided to see what my friends had come up with the next day.
The next day, I asked my best friend Timmy if he had already started on the project that the Language Arts teacher had given. He said that he wrote about his school life and even had a rhyming pattern. As I still had not come up with an idea, I was indeed under going much stress since my peers had already done their poems.
That day after school, I was really desperate for help. The presentation was just tomorrow and I had not even written a single word. I had spent many countless hours thinking of my poem but still had not found an ideal poem. I became more and more desperate as the minute went by soon, I had a way to get a good poem. I decided to surf the web for an ideal poem. This will sure work I thought to myself. I will sure have additional ACE marks. After surfing for less than an hour, I found the most perfect and ideal poem. I immediately copied it and paste it in my powerpoint slides for my presentation the next day. I was truly satisfied with myself.
The next day, I went to school as bright as a button ready for my presentation. Finally, Language lesson came. I waited patiently until it was my turn to present. Soon, it was my turn. I confidently went up to give my presentation. At the end of my presentation, the class applauded for my fantastic presentation and my face flushed like a red tomato. When Ms Tan gave me my comment, she also told me to meet her after school that day. I thought that she was absolutely satisfied with my performance and wanted to praise me for it after school.
When the bell for the end of school rang that day, I went to the office with a spring in my steps towards the teachers’ office to meet Ms Tan. To my utter dismay, instead of praising me for my good work, she instead asked me if I had done it myself. I had no choice but to tell her the truth. She told me that it was wrong to take other people’s work and treat it as their own. This means to have integrity. Ms Tan told me to redo my project and told me to show it to her when I am done.
After a few days of thinking, I finished my original work and showed it to her. She praised me for it and said that this was a well done job. The feeling of the sense of achievement was even grater than I thought.
From this incident, I understand that it is important to have integrity in life so as to be successful in life. I admit that I felt the true sense of achievement only after I did my project on my own. I will surely never lose my integrity again as it does not make me a better person and only when you have integrity will you feel the real sense of achievement and happiness which cannot be compared to any other way my own live your life.
880 WORDS
THE END
Title: MY TRUE INTEGRITY
It was another Language Arts class and everyone in class was listening attentively in class. This year’s Language Arts teacher was very friendly and what was more was that her lessons were very interesting. We had Language Arts lesson three times a week and everyone looked forward to it very much. As we was still studying in Secondary 1 in Singapore after taking PSLE and not much was expected from us in class as we were still new to the school.
This term we learnt analysis of stories and poems and many of us were very excited about it. Later in class, Ms Tan, our Language teacher told us that we were to do a project by ourselves. As it was our first time doing projects for Language Arts, we were of course as happy as a lark when we heard the news. Our assignment was to create our own poem and then give a presentation on our own poem about why we had written our poem in that particular way. Ms Tan even added that if we did well, she would award additional ACE points to us and also get a small token from her. Everyone was as busy as a bee and started discussing on the poem. I chatted along but I still did not have a speck of idea on what kind of poem to write about. I wanted to write an outstanding poem better than my friends and get the additional ACE points and also the small token.
We had to present our work in two days time which was on Friday since it was Wednesday then. That day, I went home and started to do my homework. I Worked as hard as an Alabama cotton picker and finally finished my other homework and decided to start on my Language Arts project. I spent much time brainstorming but still, after cracking my brain, I was still empty of any ideas. I surely cannot miss this good opportunity to get rewarded. Since I could not get any ideas, I decided to see what my friends had come up with the next day.
The next day, I asked my best friend Timmy if he had already started on the project that the Language Arts teacher had given. He said that he wrote about his school life and even had a rhyming pattern. As I still had not come up with an idea, I was indeed under going much stress since my peers had already done their poems.
That day after school, I was really desperate for help. The presentation was just tomorrow and I had not even written a single word. I had spent many countless hours thinking of my poem but still had not found an ideal poem. I became more and more desperate as the minute went by soon, I had a way to get a good poem. I decided to surf the web for an ideal poem. This will sure work I thought to myself. I will sure have additional ACE marks. After surfing for less than an hour, I found the most perfect and ideal poem. I immediately copied it and paste it in my powerpoint slides for my presentation the next day. I was truly satisfied with myself.
The next day, I went to school as bright as a button ready for my presentation. Finally, Language lesson came. I waited patiently until it was my turn to present. Soon, it was my turn. I confidently went up to give my presentation. At the end of my presentation, the class applauded for my fantastic presentation and my face flushed like a red tomato. When Ms Tan gave me my comment, she also told me to meet her after school that day. I thought that she was absolutely satisfied with my performance and wanted to praise me for it after school.
When the bell for the end of school rang that day, I went to the office with a spring in my steps towards the teachers’ office to meet Ms Tan. To my utter dismay, instead of praising me for my good work, she instead asked me if I had done it myself. I had no choice but to tell her the truth. She told me that it was wrong to take other people’s work and treat it as their own. This means to have integrity. Ms Tan told me to redo my project and told me to show it to her when I am done.
After a few days of thinking, I finished my original work and showed it to her. She praised me for it and said that this was a well done job. The feeling of the sense of achievement was even grater than I thought.
From this incident, I understand that it is important to have integrity in life so as to be successful in life. I admit that I felt the true sense of achievement only after I did my project on my own. I will surely never lose my integrity again as it does not make me a better person and only when you have integrity will you feel the real sense of achievement and happiness which cannot be compared to any other way my own live your life.
880 WORDS
THE END
Monday, February 21, 2011
3 Pics. SETTING
Here are the 3 pictures for settings
1. A lightning storm approaching
Description:
A huge storm blew up and before anyone knew it, it was raining very heavily with strikes of lightning appearing in the dark night sky. Villagers were terrified as their tattered huts were blown away.........
2. Green pastures in the open
Description: It was a sunny day and fluffy clouds were floating in the clear blue sky. Tom and hi family was driving on the road on their way to visit their relatives. Suddenly, a dark cloud was seen not far away......
3. Sunny day on the beach
Description.
It was a hot day and everyone was getting ready to go to the beach for a swim. Suddenly, the tide rose and waves grew stronger. The water started turning murky black.......
Please comment about their setting.
SOURCE: GOOGLE IMAGES
Friday, February 11, 2011
T1 Summative Writing Assignment(draft)
Title: The Singapore Hero
In the year 2045, Singapore had a bigger land area with man-made land. Singapore has become much more urban and also very much improved in technology. There were many large factories that took over the office buildings which have moved to other more advanced countries like China and many other countries around Singapore. These factories mostly produced raw materials for making devices, electronic equipment and also robots which were just invented. Robots that could help humans do all kinds of work. With all these large masses of production, pollution was inevitable. This continued for years to come by and technology also became extremely advanced.
Then, in 2068, the day finally came when the air in Singapore had become too polluted with all sorts of harmful pollutants. As the pollutants in the air increased, the people living in Singapore had no other choice but to leave for another country. Although this pollution of air may spread to other nearby countries, nobody really cared as they were too focused on earning money. How selfish they were. However, just as all seemed lost, there was still a scientist living in Singapore. He did not leave with the others though and could survive the polluted air as he lived in an underground research facility which was built by him. This great scientist, Jason would soon become a great inventor. How? No one really knows but you have to wait and see.
Jason lived in a highly developed research centre underground with his wife, Lucy who always gave him support in whatever he did. They had a dog named Ruffle who was cute and loving and not to mention two robots, eggy1 and grumpy5. Eggy1 was a newer and more advanced robot with the ability to do anything a human can and also had emotions he learns like a child and has to learn everything from scratch. However, grumpy5 is robot and do the house work and cooking. He has no emotions though. Jason and Lucy were very sad that Singapore would end up like a barren land with no one at all. It was indeed saddening to see the bursting city crumble down to become a wasted piece of land. Jason had not found a solution to the air pollution problem yet but he was determined to help Singapore revive.
2068 23 June
‘Good Morning Eggy! Nice day isn’t it?’ Jason woke up saying.
‘We could have our breakfast before you start your research on how to improve the air problem here’ said Lucy.
‘Well sure of course’ Jason said as he fumbled with his PDA to check up the Menu. It was scrambled eggs with bread again but Jason was not that fussy about his food. The Menu is updated daily by grumpy5 in the morning through the Central Control Computer (CCC) where one can access it at anytime of the day with PDA or a Touchscreen that appears in front of you when you call for it. The CCC stores all information about the electrical supply, solar energy stored and every other thing in the house. The house where Jason, Lucy, Ruffle and their robots live is also underground with just a 1 minute ride from the Research facility by the AllWays elevator. After his breakfast Jason continued his research.
‘Why is the air a problem here in Singapore sir?’ eggy1 asked as Jason was trying all ways to find some information for his research.
‘You have to understand eggy that the pollutants in the air is not healthy and very toxic and just 1 min in the open will knock a human out. You are a robot and do not need oxygen to survive so you may not understand.’ Jason replied.
Eggy1 frowned as if to be angry and went away to play with Ruffle. Lucy would spend her day above the ground with eggy1 or ruffle sometimes in search for raw materials like metal so as to aid Jason in case he had to build a prototype. Lucy would go out in a digger which is a machine that has giant tools to drill, dig and also had a compartment to collect things. The driver section is air sealed and does not allow the polluted air outside to enter it.
Many months past like this. Although progress was slow but still there was progress. Scientist Jason now became an inventor when he finished his research and invented a robot that could dig and pack the waste dust and scrap materials on the ground to clear the land of Singapore and also a building called the gasucker that could suck air in through a large hole at the top of the building and process the polluted air into energy stored in energy packets and are kept for use. This operation would take several years with only 3 of such building built around Singapore.
2075 Feb 12
‘Look! The pollution-o-meter has dropped to safe level!’ exclaimed Lucy.
‘Oh finally it has been done!’ exclaimed Jason.
‘Wow that is good, I can finally bring Ruffle out for a walk without sitting in a car!’ eggy1 commented. Ruffle upon hearing this leaped up and down and barked excitedly.
‘What are we waiting for, let’s tell everyone!’ Jason said.
Jason walked into his office satisfied with the results while eggy1 brought Ruffle out to play in the open for the first time. Lucy watched them amiably and a look of satisfaction was clearly written all over her face. Her husband had succeeded!
It wasn’t long before the whole world knew about it. People started returning to Singapore bringing their companies but all of them learnt a very valuable lesson ’do not pollute the Earth before it is too late to rectify’. Luckily, the pollution in Singapore did not spread as fast as expected and was saved in time by scientist Jason. He is indeed a hero and will never be forgotten in the history of Singapore. He now lives happily in Singapore and I heard he is inventing something new. His wife too is also very happy still living in the underground Research Facility where there are still sweet memories.
-----THE END-----
Monday, January 31, 2011
31 Jan
Q1) The setting of the story is at the stairwell in the evening.The setting of the second story is in Watson's house in the morning. The third story's setting is in the neighborhood of a town.
Q2)The first story was set in the modern day. The second story was set in 1883, early April in the morning. The third story was set in the early 19th century England.
Q3) The setting of the first story tells us that the story was to be moody and sad. The setting of the second story tells us that the story was going to be suspicious and mysterious. The setting of the third story gives us a very amiable feeling and and gives us warm and loving effect.
Q2)The first story was set in the modern day. The second story was set in 1883, early April in the morning. The third story was set in the early 19th century England.
Q3) The setting of the first story tells us that the story was to be moody and sad. The setting of the second story tells us that the story was going to be suspicious and mysterious. The setting of the third story gives us a very amiable feeling and and gives us warm and loving effect.
Q4)In to KILL A MOCKING BIRD, the setting is in Maycomb county, the town where the Finchs’ live. Maycomb, some twenty miles east of Finch’s Landing, was the county seat of Maycomb County。 The story tells that Mr. Finch works in the area. Maycomb is repeated many times in the story and there is a vivid description of it “Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer’s day”. Maycomb is also a white town as there are description of the Finch’s neighbours. “It was customary for every circle hostess to invite her neighbors in for refreshments, be they Baptists or Presbyterians, which accounted for the presence of Miss Rachel (sober as a judge), Miss Maudie and Miss Stephanie Crawford.” It describes the fine ladies in town and how they live their lives in Maycomb County.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
LA lesson 26 Jan
The Civil Rights Movement
The Civil Rights movement began on December 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks (1913– ), a black seamstress, refused to cooperate with a segregation law. As she boarded a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama, she took a seat in the designated "black" rows in the back. When the bus filled up she was asked to move so that a white man could have her spot. She refused to give the man her seat and was then arrested. This event sparked what would become a national movement of resistance to racial segregation (separation of black people from white people) and discrimination. Local black leaders organized around Parks with Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) as their leader. They decided to start a citywide boycott of the Montgomery bus system on December 5, 1955. The boycott lasted 382 days and ended only when the case had reached the Supreme Court, which ruled...
Civil rights movement, mass protest movement against racial segregation and discrimination in the southern United States that came to national prominence during the mid-1950s. This movement had its roots in the centuries-long efforts of African slaves and their descendants to resist racial oppression and abolish the institution of slavery. Although American slaves were emancipated as a result of the Civil War and were then granted basic civil rights through the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution, struggles to secure federal protection of these rights continued during the next century. Through nonviolent protest, the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s broke the pattern of public facilities’ being segregated by “race” in the South and achieved the most important breakthrough in equal-rights legislation for African Americans since the Reconstruction period (1865–77). Although the passage in 1964 and 1965 of major civil rights legislation was victorious for the movement, by then militant black activists had begun to see their struggle as a freedom or liberation movement not just seeking civil rights reforms but instead confronting the enduring economic, political, and cultural consequences of past racial oppression.
The main events that took place during the civil rights movement from 1954-1979 were the "sit-in movement", and the "Bus Boycotts".
President John F. Kennedy
As a result to the civil rights movement african-americans are now as equal as whites.
Montgomery Bus Boycott and Scottsboro trials
ere are many parallels between the trial of Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird and one of the most notorious series of trials in the nation's history ?the Scottsboro Trials. On March 25, 1931, a freight train was stopped in Paint Rock, a tiny community in Northern Alabama, and nine young African American men who had been riding the rails were arrested. As two white women - one underage - descended from the freight cars, they accused the men of raping them on the train. Within a month the first man was found guilty and sentenced to death. There followed a series of sensational trials condemning the other men solely on the testimony of the older woman, a known prostitute, who was attempting to avoid prosecution under the Mann Act, prohibiting taking a minor across state lines for immoral purposes, like prostitution.
Although none of the accused were executed, a number remained on death row for many years. The case was not settled until 1976 with the pardon of the last of the Scottsboro defendants.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56 is widely regarded as the event which began the modern civil rights movement. That may overstate the case, but the 381-day boycott was the first sustained mass protest against Jim Crow segregation, it did launch the civil rights careers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, and Fred D. Gray, and it made a worldwide hero of a small, quiet woman named Rosa Parks.
African American citizens in many cities had for years complained bitterly about treatment on segregated city buses. Earlier in 1955, Sarah Mae Flemming had sued the city of Columbia, S.C., over its segregated bus seating, and in July 1955 the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the case that segregated seating was unconstitutional. In July 1955, James M. Ritter had refused a driver's order to move to the rear of a Richmond, Va., bus and was fined $10. In Montgomery, bus-related disputes were common. On March 2, 1955, teenager Claudette Colvin was arrested for violating the same segregation law that Mrs. Parks ran afoul of on December 1, 1955. Colvin was the first person to plead not guilty to such a charge. Her attorney, Fred Gray, raised constitutional issues in her defense but she was convicted. The Women's Political Council (WPC), headed by JoAnn Robinson and Mary Fair Burks, had written letters to city officials protesting the lack of black bus drivers, rudeness on the part of white drivers, and the seating policies in general. But the arrest of Parks, the secretary of the local NAACP, galvanized local black leaders, including E. D. Nixon, who bailed her out of jail, and the members of the WPC, who on December 2 wrote and disseminated a flyer calling for a boycott for December 5, the day Parks was to be tried in municipal court.
As the news spread, other leaders joined in and a meeting was held to plan a one-day boycott. Ministers announced the boycott on Sunday, December 4, and on the morning of December 5, the boycott was almost completely observed by Montgomery's black citizens. When Mrs. Parks was convicted and fined $10, the leaders met that afternoon to form the Montgomery Improvement Association, elected King, then 26, as president, and held a meeting that evening at the Holt Street Baptist Church attended by more than 5,000 people who proclaimed their willingness to stay off the buses as long as necessary. The initial demands of the boycott leaders did not include changing the segregation law itself, but sought courtesy, hiring of at least some black drivers, and a first-come, first-seated policy with whites filling the buses from the front and blacks from the rear. Bus company officials, facing mounting losses, were eager to compromise, but intransigence on the part of city officials and rising violence against black citizens--included bombings, beatings, and petty harassment--led attorney Gray, then 25, to attack the segregation ordinance itself. This strategy ultimately succeeded. Meanwhile, the nation was focused on the philosophy and strategy of non-violence being articulated through King's powerful oratory, and the quiet perseverance of the black citizens of the city which a hundred years earlier had been the birthplace of the Confederacy. The significance of these 2 trials is that they treat the blacks unfairly.
b)
c)
Trials of a true Southern Belle and Southern Gentleman
a) 1. Understand that while you may not originally come from the South, you can still acquire the mannerisms of a Southern gentleman. They are not inherited, they are learned.
2. First, you must know how to dress the part. A Southern gentleman takes time to dress up for a lady. He would never wear the same thing he wears while hunting with his buddies around a lady. Therefore, invest in some high quality clothing. A few good suits (Brooks Brothers and J. Press are very class) and some nice shoes, always polished, are a must for your wardrobe.
3. Learn how to speak while with a lady. A true Southern gentleman does not curse or tell off-colored jokes around a member of the opposite sex. He is all refinement and respect. The way he talks around his buddies does not carry over into how he talks to ladies. They understand that men and women are fundamentally different and they respect and cherish that difference
4. Southern gentleman are voracious flirts. They flirt with most women they meet--be it their wife/girlfriend, the lady serving them coffee, the little old lady who lives next door--everybody. But by flirtation I don't mean in a vulgar or sexual way. They simply know how to make women feel good about themselves. They are not shy. They will tell a woman how beautiful her eyes are or how pretty she looks in the dress she's wearing. They will look them up and down with an admiring glance. Oh, and another thing. Don't say "very" as in: "You look very beautiful today ma'am." Say "awfully" as in: "You look awfully beautiful today ma'am." No one says "very" south of the Mason-Dixon line.
5. Learn the basic gestures of old school chivalry--this isn't intended to be comprehensive but this will have the basics of chivalrous actions: Hold doors open for ladies (don't walk in front of them and hold the door open, let them go first), pull out her chair for her while dining, help a lady with her coat, offer your coat to her when it's cold outside, bring flowers whenever you are on a date (to the lady and her mother), bring a nice little gift whenever you are visiting a lady's house, walk on the outside of the street when walking with a lady, remove your hat when in the presence of a lady, give up your seat to a lady if on a train or subway, always stand when a lady enters the room, offer to light a lady's cigarette for her, open the car door for your date (and any other woman for that matter), and always insist on paying for a lady's meal.
6. Say "ma'am" and "sir" when talking to people who are older than you and/or in a position of authority. Remember, all ladies are "ma'am", it doesn't matter what age she is. Be effusive with gratitude too: You can never say "please" or "thank you" too many times.
7. Always defend a lady's honor. If a man is giving her a hard time at a bar or someone is telling a nasty joke to her, step in. Always offer to walk a lady home if she is alone late at night. Remember, a woman will always admire a man who can offer her his masculine protection.
8. Finally, a Southern gentleman is a man of his word. He is faithful to his wife, faithful to his church (is he is religiously inclined), unfailingly honest, and lives by a code of nobility. He is a genuine man in a world full of posers.
Harper Lee
a. Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926, to Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch Lee. Harper Lee grew up in the small southwestern Alabama town of Monroeville. Her father, a former newspaper editor and proprietor, was a lawyer who also served on the state legislature (1926-38). As a child, Lee was a tomboy and a precocious reader, and she enjoyed the friendship of her schoolmate and neighbor, the young Truman Capote, who provided the basis of the character of Dill in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird.
b. --- Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926 in Monroeville Alabama.
--- Lee was the youngest of four children born to Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Finch Lee.
--- She attended Huntingdon College 1944-45, studied law at the University of Alabama 1945-49, and studied one year at Oxford University.
--- In the 1950s she worked as a reservation clerk with Eastern Air Lines and BOAC in New York City.
--- In 1957 Lee submitted the manuscript of her novel to the J. B. Lippincott Company.
--- After being instructed to rewrite it, Lee worked on it for two and a half more years
--- In 1960 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, Lee's only book, was published.
--- In 1961 she had two articles published: "Love --- In Other Words" in Vogue, and "Christmas To Me" in McCalls.
--- In June of 1966, Harper Lee was one of two persons named by President Johnson to the National Council of Arts.
c.
"To Kill a Mockingbird." (1960)
"Christmas to Me". (December 1961)
"When Children Discover America". (August 1965). "Cold Blood" (1966) Capote and lee collaborated "The Long Goodbye" (mid-1980s)
d. Pulitzer Prize (1961)
Brotherhood Award of the National Conference of Christians and Jews (1961)
Alabama Library Association Award (1961)
Bestsellers Paperback of the Year Award (1962)
Member, National Council on the Arts (1966)
Best Novel of the Century, Library Journal (1999)
Alabama Humanities Award (2002)
ATTY Award, Spector Gadon & Rosen Foundation (2005)
Los Angeles Public Library Literary Award (2005)
Honorary degree, University of Notre Dame (2006)
American Academy of Arts and Letters (2007)
Presidential Medal of Freedom (2007)
e. To Kill a Mockingbird was written and published amidst the most significant and conflict-ridden social change in the South since the Civil War and Reconstruction. Inevitably, despite its mid-1930s setting, the story told from the perspective of the 1950s voices the conflicts, tensions, and fears induced by this transition.
The Civil Rights movement began on December 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks (1913– ), a black seamstress, refused to cooperate with a segregation law. As she boarded a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama, she took a seat in the designated "black" rows in the back. When the bus filled up she was asked to move so that a white man could have her spot. She refused to give the man her seat and was then arrested. This event sparked what would become a national movement of resistance to racial segregation (separation of black people from white people) and discrimination. Local black leaders organized around Parks with Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) as their leader. They decided to start a citywide boycott of the Montgomery bus system on December 5, 1955. The boycott lasted 382 days and ended only when the case had reached the Supreme Court, which ruled...
Civil rights movement, mass protest movement against racial segregation and discrimination in the southern United States that came to national prominence during the mid-1950s. This movement had its roots in the centuries-long efforts of African slaves and their descendants to resist racial oppression and abolish the institution of slavery. Although American slaves were emancipated as a result of the Civil War and were then granted basic civil rights through the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution, struggles to secure federal protection of these rights continued during the next century. Through nonviolent protest, the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s broke the pattern of public facilities’ being segregated by “race” in the South and achieved the most important breakthrough in equal-rights legislation for African Americans since the Reconstruction period (1865–77). Although the passage in 1964 and 1965 of major civil rights legislation was victorious for the movement, by then militant black activists had begun to see their struggle as a freedom or liberation movement not just seeking civil rights reforms but instead confronting the enduring economic, political, and cultural consequences of past racial oppression.
The main events that took place during the civil rights movement from 1954-1979 were the "sit-in movement", and the "Bus Boycotts".
President John F. Kennedy
As a result to the civil rights movement african-americans are now as equal as whites.
Montgomery Bus Boycott and Scottsboro trials
ere are many parallels between the trial of Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird and one of the most notorious series of trials in the nation's history ?the Scottsboro Trials. On March 25, 1931, a freight train was stopped in Paint Rock, a tiny community in Northern Alabama, and nine young African American men who had been riding the rails were arrested. As two white women - one underage - descended from the freight cars, they accused the men of raping them on the train. Within a month the first man was found guilty and sentenced to death. There followed a series of sensational trials condemning the other men solely on the testimony of the older woman, a known prostitute, who was attempting to avoid prosecution under the Mann Act, prohibiting taking a minor across state lines for immoral purposes, like prostitution.
Although none of the accused were executed, a number remained on death row for many years. The case was not settled until 1976 with the pardon of the last of the Scottsboro defendants.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56 is widely regarded as the event which began the modern civil rights movement. That may overstate the case, but the 381-day boycott was the first sustained mass protest against Jim Crow segregation, it did launch the civil rights careers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, and Fred D. Gray, and it made a worldwide hero of a small, quiet woman named Rosa Parks.
African American citizens in many cities had for years complained bitterly about treatment on segregated city buses. Earlier in 1955, Sarah Mae Flemming had sued the city of Columbia, S.C., over its segregated bus seating, and in July 1955 the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the case that segregated seating was unconstitutional. In July 1955, James M. Ritter had refused a driver's order to move to the rear of a Richmond, Va., bus and was fined $10. In Montgomery, bus-related disputes were common. On March 2, 1955, teenager Claudette Colvin was arrested for violating the same segregation law that Mrs. Parks ran afoul of on December 1, 1955. Colvin was the first person to plead not guilty to such a charge. Her attorney, Fred Gray, raised constitutional issues in her defense but she was convicted. The Women's Political Council (WPC), headed by JoAnn Robinson and Mary Fair Burks, had written letters to city officials protesting the lack of black bus drivers, rudeness on the part of white drivers, and the seating policies in general. But the arrest of Parks, the secretary of the local NAACP, galvanized local black leaders, including E. D. Nixon, who bailed her out of jail, and the members of the WPC, who on December 2 wrote and disseminated a flyer calling for a boycott for December 5, the day Parks was to be tried in municipal court.
As the news spread, other leaders joined in and a meeting was held to plan a one-day boycott. Ministers announced the boycott on Sunday, December 4, and on the morning of December 5, the boycott was almost completely observed by Montgomery's black citizens. When Mrs. Parks was convicted and fined $10, the leaders met that afternoon to form the Montgomery Improvement Association, elected King, then 26, as president, and held a meeting that evening at the Holt Street Baptist Church attended by more than 5,000 people who proclaimed their willingness to stay off the buses as long as necessary. The initial demands of the boycott leaders did not include changing the segregation law itself, but sought courtesy, hiring of at least some black drivers, and a first-come, first-seated policy with whites filling the buses from the front and blacks from the rear. Bus company officials, facing mounting losses, were eager to compromise, but intransigence on the part of city officials and rising violence against black citizens--included bombings, beatings, and petty harassment--led attorney Gray, then 25, to attack the segregation ordinance itself. This strategy ultimately succeeded. Meanwhile, the nation was focused on the philosophy and strategy of non-violence being articulated through King's powerful oratory, and the quiet perseverance of the black citizens of the city which a hundred years earlier had been the birthplace of the Confederacy. The significance of these 2 trials is that they treat the blacks unfairly.
b)
c)
Trials of a true Southern Belle and Southern Gentleman
a) 1. Understand that while you may not originally come from the South, you can still acquire the mannerisms of a Southern gentleman. They are not inherited, they are learned.
2. First, you must know how to dress the part. A Southern gentleman takes time to dress up for a lady. He would never wear the same thing he wears while hunting with his buddies around a lady. Therefore, invest in some high quality clothing. A few good suits (Brooks Brothers and J. Press are very class) and some nice shoes, always polished, are a must for your wardrobe.
3. Learn how to speak while with a lady. A true Southern gentleman does not curse or tell off-colored jokes around a member of the opposite sex. He is all refinement and respect. The way he talks around his buddies does not carry over into how he talks to ladies. They understand that men and women are fundamentally different and they respect and cherish that difference
4. Southern gentleman are voracious flirts. They flirt with most women they meet--be it their wife/girlfriend, the lady serving them coffee, the little old lady who lives next door--everybody. But by flirtation I don't mean in a vulgar or sexual way. They simply know how to make women feel good about themselves. They are not shy. They will tell a woman how beautiful her eyes are or how pretty she looks in the dress she's wearing. They will look them up and down with an admiring glance. Oh, and another thing. Don't say "very" as in: "You look very beautiful today ma'am." Say "awfully" as in: "You look awfully beautiful today ma'am." No one says "very" south of the Mason-Dixon line.
5. Learn the basic gestures of old school chivalry--this isn't intended to be comprehensive but this will have the basics of chivalrous actions: Hold doors open for ladies (don't walk in front of them and hold the door open, let them go first), pull out her chair for her while dining, help a lady with her coat, offer your coat to her when it's cold outside, bring flowers whenever you are on a date (to the lady and her mother), bring a nice little gift whenever you are visiting a lady's house, walk on the outside of the street when walking with a lady, remove your hat when in the presence of a lady, give up your seat to a lady if on a train or subway, always stand when a lady enters the room, offer to light a lady's cigarette for her, open the car door for your date (and any other woman for that matter), and always insist on paying for a lady's meal.
6. Say "ma'am" and "sir" when talking to people who are older than you and/or in a position of authority. Remember, all ladies are "ma'am", it doesn't matter what age she is. Be effusive with gratitude too: You can never say "please" or "thank you" too many times.
7. Always defend a lady's honor. If a man is giving her a hard time at a bar or someone is telling a nasty joke to her, step in. Always offer to walk a lady home if she is alone late at night. Remember, a woman will always admire a man who can offer her his masculine protection.
8. Finally, a Southern gentleman is a man of his word. He is faithful to his wife, faithful to his church (is he is religiously inclined), unfailingly honest, and lives by a code of nobility. He is a genuine man in a world full of posers.
Harper Lee
a. Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926, to Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch Lee. Harper Lee grew up in the small southwestern Alabama town of Monroeville. Her father, a former newspaper editor and proprietor, was a lawyer who also served on the state legislature (1926-38). As a child, Lee was a tomboy and a precocious reader, and she enjoyed the friendship of her schoolmate and neighbor, the young Truman Capote, who provided the basis of the character of Dill in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird.
b. --- Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926 in Monroeville Alabama.
--- Lee was the youngest of four children born to Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Finch Lee.
--- She attended Huntingdon College 1944-45, studied law at the University of Alabama 1945-49, and studied one year at Oxford University.
--- In the 1950s she worked as a reservation clerk with Eastern Air Lines and BOAC in New York City.
--- In 1957 Lee submitted the manuscript of her novel to the J. B. Lippincott Company.
--- After being instructed to rewrite it, Lee worked on it for two and a half more years
--- In 1960 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, Lee's only book, was published.
--- In 1961 she had two articles published: "Love --- In Other Words" in Vogue, and "Christmas To Me" in McCalls.
--- In June of 1966, Harper Lee was one of two persons named by President Johnson to the National Council of Arts.
c.
"To Kill a Mockingbird." (1960)
"Christmas to Me". (December 1961)
"When Children Discover America". (August 1965). "Cold Blood" (1966) Capote and lee collaborated "The Long Goodbye" (mid-1980s)
d. Pulitzer Prize (1961)
Brotherhood Award of the National Conference of Christians and Jews (1961)
Alabama Library Association Award (1961)
Bestsellers Paperback of the Year Award (1962)
Member, National Council on the Arts (1966)
Best Novel of the Century, Library Journal (1999)
Alabama Humanities Award (2002)
ATTY Award, Spector Gadon & Rosen Foundation (2005)
Los Angeles Public Library Literary Award (2005)
Honorary degree, University of Notre Dame (2006)
American Academy of Arts and Letters (2007)
Presidential Medal of Freedom (2007)
e. To Kill a Mockingbird was written and published amidst the most significant and conflict-ridden social change in the South since the Civil War and Reconstruction. Inevitably, despite its mid-1930s setting, the story told from the perspective of the 1950s voices the conflicts, tensions, and fears induced by this transition.
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