The Silence of The Night

I was quite surprised about at Elie in the show with Oprah and his feeling toward the silence in the camp. In his book, He is quoted saying he would never "...forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky". I always thought that the silence he felt that night hurt him even more. All of us sometimes experience something so horrible and shocking, that the silence feels unnatural. It's as if we want the forces of nature to intervene and make everything right, but when they don't, we feel as if we want to break the silence and scream. Why would Elie want to feel that silence again during that visit? wouldn't that bring back painful memories of what he saw?

18 Badass Women You Probably Didn't Hear About in 2014

http://www.buzzfeed.com/rossalynwarren/badass-women-alert

This is an article about some really cool breakthroughs and achievements of some notable women in the past year. The achievements range from a 13 year old girl calling out a magazine for their depiction of women to a woman defying the Taliban. One of the greatest things about this article is it that it depicts alot of amazing women of different ethnic backgrounds, which is something that you don't see often. With 2014 nearing an end, there has been alot of big strides forward in the feminist movement. Countless celebrities have publicly declared themselves feminists, it's becoming more and more "socially acceptable" for women to not shave their body hair, and there has been a huge surge in girl to girl positivity. Yes, these things may seem small in comparison to some of the horrific things happening around the world. But, these things are the first few stepping stones to a future with equal rights for men and women (and transgendered men and women, and non gender binary persons as well) and overall acceptance of each other.

Learn about "Confirmation Bias"

Check this out...

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-rivers-confirmation-bias-race-20141212-story.html

After Schindler Documentary

Today we watched a documentary that was made in the 1980's. We started coming onto the topic of whether or not when someone you love is accused of something do you defend them. In Goeths mistress' case, she felt the need that she had to defend her lover. I believe that she thought that all the accusations that were against her lover, were also against her. She was personally upset and angry when asked with whether or not Goeth hated the Jews. I believe the only way she could live with herself and how she let jews get murdered in front of her was by defending her lover.

UN Power

Recently we have been talking a bit about the UN and its power after World War II. After WW2 there was a lot of questions as to how the people who perpetrated the Holocaust would be punished. Some people believed that they should be killed on the spot with no trial. After much deliberation the UN decided to hold a fair trial for the criminals of the Nazi party. When this decision was made and the trial happened, it gave immense power to the UN. The only problem that I can see with this power is the lack of power to enforce it. The UN may have a lot of power but they have no force that can make sure people follow those rules. I believe until the UN can enforce these rules, there power will be only a fraction of what its true potential is.

Holocaust Camp Song

Separated from the world by barbed wire, We’re rounded up from everywhere The longing woven into our hearts, Throbs like a ringing bell. You with the striped rag on your back, Could you forget who you are—and where? They stitched a number to your breast, A red triangle and the letter “P”. And your shaved head reminds you, Of your burden of sins unknown, And you yearn for the day When your will and your purpose return. Neither stars nor sun bring you happiness, Neither day nor night yields joy. You stand and wait, dressed in stripes and shaved bare; With thousands of others like you. The words of this song are stained with our blood, Within them are sorrow and grief, Yet your camp song will carry beyond these barbed wires To a distant place unknown to you. Yet your camp song will carry beyond these barbed wires To a distant place unknown to you.

Harsh Truth about Humanity

Finishing Schindler's list has opened my eyes to the harsh and brutal truth about the Holocaust. Before watching Schindler's list I didn't have something that I could visually use to understand the Holocaust. Seeing how Nazis treated people, showed me the truth about humanity and how humans react during times of struggle. Although their was a lot of horrible things going on at the time, because of this movie I have seen that there are good people in the world. Even in all the hate and destruction, people like Schindler emerge as heroes. But, this also shows us the brutal truth about the war. The fact that people could kill and do such horrible things to just normal people shows me that we are capable of beautiful and horrible things.

OJ simpson case

I know that we studied the OJ Simpson case a while ago, but I wanted to share my opinion on it. I believe that in the criminal trial, the outcome was correct. I definitely believe OJ committed these murders, but there was so much doubt that he couldnt be convicted. There was so much evidence that he committed the crime, yet the prosecutors either poorly explained it to the jury, or didnt even bring it up at all. The fact that they let oj put the gloves on himself was a huge mistake. I completely understand the outcome of the criminal trial because there was a lot of reasonable doubt, including a lying policeman, not fitting gloves, and suspicious lab work. I believe, however, that the civil trial brought justice to the crimes. The prosecutors did a better job, the judge was much more strict, and the jury was not biased. Although he couldnt be put in jail, he could be stripped of almost everything he owned. I think that if he couldnt be put in jail for life, that this was the second best punishment.

Finishing Schindler's List

At the beginning of the movie, we knew Schindler as a business man who only cared about making money, and saw the jews as an opportunity to finally become successful. He was a Nazi and made connections very early on with powerful men in the SS. He was able to get Jews from Krakow to make pots and mans for the war. The Jews who worked for Schindler saw the factory as a haven, and Schindler began to give more and more people jobs so they wouldn't risk being killed by Goeth. After a while, he began to realize that these Jews were actually humans, and that they didn't deserve to die. He knew that everyone from plaszow was going to be sent from Auschwitz, so he bought of over 1000 Jews to go work in his "camp" in the Sudetenland. This story shows that even in times of evil, there will always be people who realize what is happening and will do the right thing. I really liked the fact that most of the movie was in black and white, i feel like it gave a deeper meaning to the story.

United Nations

So this week we talked about what happened post WWII and the creation of the UN. The UN is a peaceful international organization comprised of 193 countries. Their goals are to maintain international peace, promoting human rights, protecting the environment, and providing aid in cases of famine, national disasters, and armed conflict. They are supposed to prevent and stop a genocide from ever happening again, yet we have sen the UN fail in doing so with the Rwandan genocide. The main reason I believe that the UN will never successfully stop anything from war to genocide from happening is because they have no power. They are a peaceful organization, so they cannot physically stop countries from committing the things that the UN tries to prevent. I believe that in order for the UN to actually stop anything, they need to have UN bases in every participating country and create a military for each base. This will destroy the entire idea that its supposed to be peaceful, but I dont think that the UN will be able to function properly without it.

A semester in review

Over the past 3 months, in both big and small group, we have learned about a myriad of topics. From Machiavelli's "The Prince" to Marcus Dupree to Nazi Germany. One of the more interesting aspects of our class is the ability to study such diverse topics and to see how they develop within themselves and to see how they develop in relation to each other. In the spirit of expanding our knowledge, I would like to introduce one of Plato's allegories to you all.

Imagine, a cave and let us assume that a person is inside the cave and is bound such that he can only see directly in front of himself. Behind him is an exit to a cave and a fire above the exit that casts shadows on the wall in front of him. Imagine, a dog walking behind the bound man, but in front of the fire, causing a great shadow on the wall. The bound man whom has only ever seen the shadow of the dog assumes that the shadow of the dog, is indeed the dog. Similarly, because the man only has a small vantage point, he assumes that the shadow of all the objects are indeed the objects themselves. However, when the man is released from the cave he is able to see a dog. Now that his vantage point is widen, he knows what a real dog is, not the shadow of a dog as before. This principle of enlightenment can be applied to any and every object. The primary notion of the allegory of the cave is that once a person has become enlightened he cannot go back to being unenlightened. 

This is a very powerful notion and I think it applies heavily to our class. Global Connection has allowed us to be unbound from our "caves" and has broaden our view. It has enlightened us on many subjects, and now that we know the truth, we can never become unenlightened again.

Schindler's List -- Haiku

Liegt fur Die Juden 

Halt! Achtung! "Arbiet macht frie" 

The List Provides Life

My opinion of Schindler's List

I wanted to take some time to talk about the movie we just finished watching, Schindler's List. I want to mention the importance, at least in my opinion as to why the director decided to include a limited amount of color in the development of the movie. To me, this movie was meant to be in black and white in order for the audience to get a better grasp of what was going on, since in fact color does tend to distract us many times, we notice this level of distraction mostly in action movies, since there are constant explosions going on. Whereas if a movie holds it plot in black and white, we can focus on the main message of the movie, we can let our imagination fill in the colors that the camera doesn't show. It was rather an incredible decision to make this movie in black and white since it completely captivated me. Not only was the movie fantastic, but the use of color in specific parts made us realize the importance that it holds in the plot of the movie, or in the experiences that the characters were facing. For example the little girl with the red coat, in my opinion, the moment that Schindler saw her at the camp, killed and headed to the crematorium, that was the turning point for Schindler, since he realized the almost inescapable faith that the Jews were facing, thus turning from a bystander, to an up stander. This movie and its limited use of color was in fact, sad and depressing, but motivating at the same time due to Schindler's righteousness.

Schindler and Flacke

Nazi Germany, is quite possibly one of the most morally and ethically bankrupt time periods in all of recorded history. Never before had such mass murder occurred in such a short time period. As countless German SS and Gestapo members continually withdrew from  a moral bank account that would ultimately go into debt.  Amidst all the morally bankrupt German Nazis, two men rose above the situation and remained morally steadfast, these men were Schindler and Flacke.

Schindler was a wealthy German man who initially set out to profit on the war. However, throughout the movie, Schindler begins to develop a fondness for the Jews and also begins to realize just how awful the actions of the Nazis were. Some time in the movie, Schindler's goals shift from self gain and monetary profit to saving as many Jews as possible.  Schindler's actions saved over 4,000 people directly and tens of thousand more decedents of these people.

Similarly, in the Babice Labour Camp or "island of peace" as it was affectionately known, a man named Flacke ran a clean and good camp. Flacke did not succumb to the evil that surrounded him and ran a camp that was so "nice", the females in the camp called him "daddy".

I admire both Flacke and Schindler for being able to act morally in such a bleak and immoral time period. The just actions of both these men saved thousands of live and thousands more to come.

Final Thoughts about Schindler's List

Today we finished watching Schindler's List in class and I have really enjoyed watching this movie throughout the past week. It was really interesting to see how Schindler developed throughout the movie and how he had changed by witnessing and being involved in the Holocaust. By the end of the film, Schindler realizes that what was being done by the German soldiers to prisoners was not humane. One of the last scenes of the movie that I found really interesting was when Schindler was about to flee and he starts to breakdown. Schindler starts thinking that if he had given more money, gold, and valuable objects to give away he would have even been able to save more lives. I think this was a huge moment for Schindler. He realizes that he had done something great and saved many lives, but he wishes he could have done more. It took Schindler a long time for him to realize that what the German soldiers were doing was wrong and that no one should be treated that way. In this moment, I think this is when Schindler wishes he had realized this sooner. This demonstrates Schindler's character a lot because even though had save thousands of lives, he hoped that he could have saved more.

Thursday 12/11/14 large group

Today we finished Schindler's List. When we picked up, Schindler had just finished his list and his plan to move many Jewish prisoners to his new labor camp. At this point, Schindler has fully changed from a bystander to an up stander. He is spending extreme amounts of money to save the workers, because he must bribe the SS and pay to run his own camp. You can tell that at this point, Schindler hates what the Nazi party is doing, and his goal it to run the munitions factory without producing a single working shell. This is because he wants the Nazis to lose the war, which would free all of the Jews he cannot save himself. When the war ends and Schindler has a talk with all of the people he saved, it is showed that Schindler truly saved people for the right reason, and not to make money. He expresses that he will most likely be arrested because he was connected to the Nazi party and utilized slave labor. This story showed that during this extremely horrific time, there were still some good people who saw what was going on and tried to help.

Schindler's List

Finishing up the movie today in class we finally got to see how it all ended for Schindler and the group of Jews he saved. Although the movie was based on such a terrible time in our history Steven Spielberg was still able to capture the moment and still tell a really amazing story. The part that I found most interesting was when Schindler made a speech to his workers that at midnight they would be free but then he would be hunted. The change in roles surprised me and it showed how strong of a bond the workers had with Schindler. He had saved their lives by keeping them safe, and when Schindler had to go on the run they all signed a paper showing proof of how Schindler helped them. This leads me to ask what was your favorite part of the movie or which part fascinated you the most?

Wednesday Block summary

Today in the block period we continued to watch the Nuremberg trials documentary, as well started to watch a similar documentary about the Vietnam War. Both of the videos showed what happens when someone commits a war crime. All of the war crime trials we have viewed there has been a common theme of who is responsible when many people are involved in a crime. It is hard to decide whether to charge the individual listening to orders, or the person who is commanding them. In the case of the Nazis, almost every SS officer involved was charged with something, if they were found. It was very easy to prove that the higher up officers had committed war crimes because there had been so much evidence available proving that they did. In the Vietnam war with the My Lai massacre it was slightly different. The highest up commander claimed that he did not know what his men were doing, and when he realized what they were doing was wrong he stopped them right away. It was a big question whether or not he should be responsible for the massacre. He told his troops to destroy everything, kill all the livestock, poison the wells, and kill all people, but the people had turned out to be innocent. Because the soldiers were told that everyone at the compound were enemies, upon their arrival they walked in believing everyone was enemies which allowed this massacre to happen.
They had pre judged who they were up against so it was hard to change their beliefs and think that they were all innocent civilians. Because both the individuals and the Commanders in both situations had reasons they could be innocent or guilty it was hard to determine who actually committed the war crime.

Sir Nicholas Winton

We have discussed in class the idea of defiance and "choosing to be good or evil". Whether it be an SS officer such as Flacke or Shindler, or a citizen that defies Nazi orders, the difference that an individual can make is immense.

I recently came across the story of Sir Nicholas Winton, a young stockbroker from London, and how he saved the lives of 669 children refugees. Winton organized the transportation of children from Prague into the UK.


This 60 Minutes focuses of Sir Nicholas Winton and his story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0aoifNziKQ

WWII Factories

Similar to Schindler's factory, many factories during World War II began producing supplies for the war effort.
Here are a few videos that focus on these efforts:

German factories:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ3YZ4foFHk


US factories:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfdIKOZyzBQ


Extra footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW6IxDtMvT4

Immigration to America

While on the topic of the Holocaust and the mistreatment of the Jewish people as well as countless minority groups, I can contribute a personal perspective:

My mother's grandmother, Ida, and her mother and sister immigrated to America from Russia in 1908. They were amongst the millions of people trying to escape the religious, racial, and political persecution in Europe. Ida's family was extremely poor and could not provide education or the basic necessities. This was the case for many Jewish people living in the Russian Empire during the 19th century. After the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, the Jewish population in Russian were subject to "pogroms". Pogroms were "large-scale, targeted, and repeated anti-Jewish riots". Ida, her mother, and her sister traveled to America in the steerage class of a steamship in an attempt to escape the violence. However, America's immigration regulations were becoming stricter due to the massive increase in immigration. Therefore, Ida's sister was not allowed off the boat due to her hunchback. Deciding to accompany Ida's sister, Ida's mother traveled back to Russia, accepting their unfortunate fate. This left Ida alone in an unfamiliar country at the age 16. There was a family that had been arranged to house Ida. However, this family treated her like a slave and eventually kicked her out of the house. Luckily, she met a woman named Sarah who took her in and let her live with her. Eventually, Ida met and married Sarah's son Morris. 

Night Reflection

There was a quote in the reading assessment that talked about how the narrator felt when he saw his father be hit right in front of him. This idea came up again in the more recent reading when Idek, a German soldier takes out a lot of his anger on the prisoners. Elie was first beaten by Idek and his next victim was Elie's father. Elie was once again shocked by how he had reacted to see his father being beaten. He had no reaction and knew that being in these camps had truly started to change him. When I read this, I was not surprised that Elie did not try to step in and stop Idek because just like the first time he saw his father being beaten, Elie knew there was nothing he could do. By living in these camps for so long, Elie starts to see absolutely no point in rebelling or standing up to the German soldiers because he knows it will bring no good. The camp has made him so weak and broken that he can't even react to seeing his father being beaten right in front of him.

12/09/14 Class Summary

Small group:
Today in small group we started a new documentary about the Nuremberg Trials. The trials were in place to charge the Nazi party leaders with various crimes. The crimes included Conspiracy to start a world war, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The idea that the trial was ran by the allies, who had just defeated Germany, brought up many questions. A main question was how this trial would be fair to the defense because most countries did not like the Nazis at this point. Also what the punishments should be given out to each individual defendant.

Large group:
We continued to watch Schindler's List today. In the film, we see Schindler slowly move from being a bystander in the Holocaust, to an upstander. He originally hired all the Jews so that he could get maximum profit from free labor, but because Stern is hiring workers who otherwise would be killed, Schindler starts to get the reputation as a savior. As he sees that he is helping so many people, he starts to help more and more people until today when we saw that he is in the process of buying mostly everyone from the labor camp with his own funds. This shift from bystander to upstander can be very dangerous for Schindler because if he is caught helping Jewish people he will be jailed or even killed.

Over the past few days we have been watching Schindler’s List, and throughout the film we have seen how Amon Goeth's personality changes so drastically. At one moment he is showing the darkest and most ruthless side of him, shooting at the Jewish prisoners and beating his maid senseless. However, we have also seen how he truly feels for his Jewish maid, telling her how he feels affection for her, and how he can pardon his prisoners for failing simple tasks that would usually get them killed. Near the end, Goeth even agrees to sell his Jewish prisoners to Schindler, including his maid who he cares so dearly for. But what I want to know is, why does he change so drastically throughout the movie? Does he know what he is doing is wrong and has conflicting ideas about exterminating the Jews, like so many other Nazi officials? But if he truly felt deep down that what was going on in the camp was so wrong, why didn't he stop it? During our reading in The Kingdom of Auschwitz, we read of certain Nazi officials who did not treat their prisoners so cruelly and were never punished by the Nazis, such as the camp that was ran by Flacke. Flacke not only didn't treat his prisoners like they were subhuman, but treated them so well that he was called “Daddy” by his prisoners. So why didn't Goeth do the same?

Schindler and Stern

In the beginning Schindler and Stern had very different views. Schindler being a business man had a somewhat selfish view of doing things. Stern recognizing that Schindler was German always was skeptical of Schindler's plans. We could see this when Schindler offered Stern drinks yet time and time again Stern would deny his offer. As time went on there needs for each other quickly evened out. Stern needing Schindler to keep him alive along with other Jews. Schindler needed Stern in order to run his business effectively and make money. In class today we saw yet another change in their relationship. There needs for each other were still present but they connected on another level when Stern finds out Schindler has agreed to buy almost all the people living in the camp from Goeth. Stern must have realized at this point that Schindler really cared about these people, although he is just making another factory that fact that he spent so much of his money to buy the workers showed his sympathy. Schindler had said himself he had more than enough money to move away and never work again but he spent the money he earned from the workers to buy them back. This potentially saved them from death for the time being because the rest of the workers were sent to Auschwitz.

12/08/14 Class summary

Small group:
Today in small group we talked more about questions in the "Kingdom of Auschwitz". We talked about how it was possible for the death/ concentration camps to be so private. The idea that the Germans were taking people and mass killing them as well as making them work until they die from exhaustion was very unbelievable to many people. Like in night when Moshe the Beadle tells people what is going on but nobody believes him and thinks he is crazy. He is seen as crazy for trying to spread such crazy stories but in reality its true. He was almost like an Alex Jones of that time, so it is understandable how what was going on was an exaggeration or a lie.

Large group:
We continued to watch Schindler's List and the concept of disbelief was further shown. Even people who where working in labor camps could not believe that in other camps people were being mass exterminated. It was too hard for people to grasp because they simply did not want to believe what they were hearing. Also the  movie showed how Germans could feel connections to Jews although they had been taught that Jews were vermin, and sub-human. This was shown when the main labor camp leader realized that his Jewish maid was actually a nice person, who had skills.

Uplifting Holocaust Article...

Check it out if you'd like...

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-beat-holocaust-friendship-20141207-story.html#page=1

Choices at Auschwitz (by Danny Rabin)

Hi, everyone. This is Danny Rabin writing. Long story why I'm using Jorge's account, but anyways this is Danny. While reading The Kingdom of Auschwitz this week, we read the story of a Nazi officer named Flacke who chose to treat his prisoners with kindness rather than cruelty. This reminded me of a story that my former Hebrew teacher told me years ago about when her mother was interred at Auschwitz. She worked in a factory assembling machine guns. It was considered a good job to have and she was thankful she wasn't doing hard labor. She would sit at a table and put the firing pin in each gun, then when she was done, she would put the gun in a drawer which opened on both ends. One day, an SS officer came in to inspect the factory. He walked around and when he came to her station, he started yelling at her furiously. My teacher's mother was absolutely terrified. She didn't speak German so she had no idea what he was saying and she had seen this sort of thing happen before and it usually ended with the person being yelled at being beaten or even shot. The officer finished his tirade and stormed out of the room. Before he left, however, he discreetly pointed at the gun drawer and smiled. My teacher's mother looked in the drawer and saw a fresh apple. The officer had slipped her an apple! One apple may not seem like much, but she was emaciated and to her, an apple seemed like a feast. She believes that there is no way that she would have survived without the officer's kindness. This story shows that, even when in absolutely horrible situations, people are capable of rising to the occasion and letting good triumph over evil. Like Flacke, this officer had a choice of whether he wanted to do nothing, do something awful or do something good. He chose to be an upstander and do something seemingly minor, but which had such great results. He saved a young girl's life because he chose that he would rather do something good than evil. The stories of Flacke and this officer show that even at Auschwitz, sometimes the best in human nature could triumph and people were able to defy the pressure to treat other human beings with extreme cruelty and instead act out of altruism. Thanks, Jorge for letting me use your account!

Schindler and Stern

At the end of big group, we stopped the at the scene where Stern was talking with Schindler for the first time after the liquidation of the ghettos.  We also noted a change in relationship when Stern accepted food from Schindler for the first time at this point in the movie.  We didn't look to far into this scene because the class ended, but I've been thinking about this change in character.

Either Stern has grown to like Schindler or he feels safer around him.  In the former, it would mean that within the short amount of time that they actually have been together, Stern has begun to appreciate Schindler as a character.  In the latter, Stern still thinks the same of Schindler, but because of  all the SS around and the recent liquidation that occurred to transport them to Krakow, Stern is in a situation where he needs all the help he can get in order survive, and that he is using Schindler for this purpose.  I don't know what his exact motivations are, so I decided to post it here to know what you guys think.

Summary of Thursday, 12/4 through Friday, 12/5

Large Group of Thursday and Friday:

-Watched approximately the first half of Schindler's List. Main point is that Oscar Schindler, a business man, runs a company those aides the Nazi war effort by producing cooking pots for the German army. He depends on members of the Jewish community to provide labor and organization for his business, and as the Jews are deported into concentration camps, Schindler's company suffers due to the loss of many of his workers. He is, at this point, also developing sympathy for the Jewish community. 

Small Group (Friday):

- Finish the Kingdom of Auschwitz article in the HHB reader. 

Dr. Mengele: Story of the Seven Dwarves

Dr. Mengele was a evil doctor of the Auschwitz camp. He was known for his unusual experiments upon the prisoners. The following is an article link about the story of 7 dwarves that endured his experiments. - - - - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2279410/How-seven-dwarfs-Auschwitz-fell-spell-Dr-Death-The-hideous-experiments-carried-Nazi-Josef-Mengele-seven-trusting-brothers-sisters.html

What we did on Dec 5th

Today in Small Groups we finished the Kingdom of Auschwitz questions up to question 25. In Large Group we continued watching the Schindler's List. There was the introduction of a new SS officer that opened a work camp for the Jews. He moved all the Jews including Stern and Schindler's workers from the Ghettos to the camp. Any Jews that tried to hide the movement were shot. Schindler strikes a deal with the SS officer to allow him to have his workers, but Stern stays on the camp. The class ends with a show of Stern and Schindler getting more connected than before. Earlier in the film Stern never took Schindler's thanks such as drinks. But at the end of class Stern says thanks for the first time.

12/04/14 class summary

Today in large group we started to watch the movie Schindler's List. It showed the early steps of "ethnic cleansing" like the separation of Jews into ghettos. It also showed how some people were trying to help other Jews by creating jobs for them. If they were considered valuable workers for the German war effort they could be saved from concentration/ death camps for the time being. The film also showed why the Jews did not try to fight back, because they believed that being in the ghettos was the worst it could get. In the train scene, the government inefficiency was shown when Schindler wanted his employee back, and gets it by threatening to send the german soldiers to Russia.

Brief info of Zyklon B

Zyklon B was a deadly modified pesticide used by the Nazis for the gas chambers. It is a modified form of hydrogen cyanide to be easily transported in canisters. It can be obtained from pits of fruits such as cherries, apricots, and apples. These pits emit this hydrogen cyanide slowly. 100 grams of crushed apple seeds can yield about 70 mg of hydrogen cyanide. Zyklon B provided the Nazis with an extremely effective genocide weapon which claimed millions.

Upon reading the first chapter of Night, it is very apparent where the rest of the story is going. It started out happy, but the story soon took a dark turn, as German military personell took over their community. It is obvious that people were unaware of the horrors that were in store for them. I was shocked that the people would not believe Mosche when he miraculously returned to Sighet. But the more I though about it, the more I realized that his stories were so outrageous and unbelievable, that it would be extremely difficult for anyone to believe such far fetched tales. The only reason we as readers believe Mosche, is because were are already informed about the Camps, Ghettos, etc...

Summary of Tuesday, 12/2

A brief summary of today's class for those absent:

Small Group:

-Read Kingdom of Auschwitz to question 12 in the reflection. Focused on the disorganized way that Auschwitz functioned as well as the Auschwitz hospital and doctors. 

Large Group:

-Watched Nazi Documentary, Episode 6, approximately halfway completed. This section of the episode went over the last efforts of the Nazis in WWII, particularly how they allowed members of the "inferior races" to join SS forces. The Nazis rallied new recruits behind the idea that they would go on to defeat communism, an idea that they would later try to use to justify the entire war. 

The Nazis

Learning about the Nazis and how Hitler came to rule a big part of Europe has given me an new understanding of the Nazi era. My original thought of the Nazis was a complete lethal group during the 1940s that killed off many Jews and Nazi opposers. After watching the documentaries in class I was surprised to find how unorganized the Nazis really were. The Nazis seemed to be making it up as they went along. Even though Hitler had terrible views of what he wanted while ruling Germany he had very good leadership skills. One that stood out was when he put in charge specific Nazi leaders. He made sure that they did not favor each other so there was a small possibility of them joining together and taking over Hitlers role. If the Nazis had better planned how they were going to "ethically cleanse” Germany they would have killed many more than what they had accomplished with such little planning.

Night-Chapter 1 Reflection

After reading the first chapter a question came into my mind, would have more Jews survived and escaped if they had reacted a different way or defended themselves earlier and didn't try to ignore what was happening. The biggest surprise from reading the first chapter is The Jews of Sighet refused to believe what was actually happening at the death camps even after Moshe the Beadle told them about his experience there, I agree with the previous posts about admiring them for having an optimistic view on everything during such a hard time but at the same time I feel like in doing so they ignored the bigger problem and like Coca said previously its almost as if they were hiding from the truth, from reality. They refused to believe that the Nazi could possibly be this evil. It was also very intense and difficult to read as he described how terribly the Jews were treated during deportation.

Night-chapter one

During tonight reading I realized why people refused to believe that the Nazis would ever create such horrible  atrocities. I realized this by the stories that Beadle was telling to the people of the community and no one would believe him. The stories he told seemed a little to unreal to the normal person so its understandable and it made it clear why people were not trying to escape. But, I do admire the way they tried to remain positive in such a hard time where everything is changing so fast from what they know.

Night Chapter 1

I actually have read this book before, but that was a few years ago so this was a good refresher. I think it's extremely thought provoking how they simply did not believe that something bad was going to happen to them. It's like what we talked about today in class; no one wants to believe that human beings could do these evil things to each other. It's very admirable how everyone tried to stay optimistic, and I think optimism played a big part in any one who survived being in one of the concentration camps. It's also interesting how religion plays a big part in the young boys life.

Night-Chapter one

After reading the first chapter I had many conflicting thoughts. I admired that they were able to be optimistic through the harsh situation but I also feel like they were just hiding themselves from the truth. I was also somewhat mad that no one listened to beadle. It bothered me because he came back not to save his own skin but to warn his community and he was ignored by those whom he was trying to save.

Chapter 1 reflection

I have seen a few posts about Moshe, so I want to talk about something else.

I noticed that the Jews where always optimistic, and always made excuses for why they would not be sent to concentration camps, and the Russians would come to save them. I think they had valid reasons for believing they would be spared until Moshe came to warn them about what was to come. The part about the reaction of the Jews that amazes me the most is that nobody in the town bothered to leave. I would expect for one or two families to leave because they believed Moshe, so this is the biggest surprise for me.

However, I don't understand why the Jews still thought nothing would happen to them when they where moved into the smaller ghetto. They saw what had happened to the previous occupants, and they managed to ignore this and think they where different from the people before them. While optimism is generally a good thing, I think this shows that an extreme of anything, including optimism can be disastrous.

Chapter 1 Thoughts

I found it interesting how after Moshe the Beadle had told the town about what was happening, they didn't believe him. Perhaps they didn't want to believe the news. Instead, they deluded themselves into thinking he wanted pity, or that he was insane. They couldn't accept what he was saying as truth.

This attitude continued even after the Jews were rounded up and put in ghettos. Some were happy that they appeared to have their own little community, and I found it interesting how they set up their own Council, police, committees, etc. They were convinced that they would be allowed to remain there. I was also surprised to hear how many people had offered to move their family to safety, but they declined each offer. I can only guess that people didn't realize what really laid in store until it was too late.

Night: Thoughts on Chapter One

      The thing that struck me the most was the fact that no one believed Moshe the Beadle when he told the people around Sighet about what he had seen. People seemed to want to ignore his warnings and pretend like they were the thoughts of a madman. This made me wonder whether people were ignoring him to remain optimistic of what was happening or if they genuinely knew nothing of what was happening. Later, it mentioned that they were listening to The London radio and felt that it gave them heartening news that Germany might lose as well as the good news from the Russian front solidifying it. Was this heartening because they knew of what was going down to other Jews in Europe or because of the general knowledge that the Nazis believed the Jews to be inferior? If they knew that Jews were being killed, why would they ignore Moshe's warnings?

Night Chapter 1

The book goes by very quickly which is probably how it felt for the people in that situation. Like everything was happening so quickly but really slowly at the same time if that makes sense. Also its crazy how people kept convincing themselves to be optimistic.

Hitler Assassination Attempts

The following is a link to a list of the major attempts made on Hitler's life:

http://valkyrie.greyfalcon.us/hitlermurd.htm

Summary of Monday, 12/1

A brief summary of today's class for those absent:

Small Group:

-Obtained Night by Elie Wiesel as well as reading guides and reflection sheets

- Read first 3 pages or so of the Kingdom of Auschwitz article in HHB reader which covered the first 3 reflection questions.

Large Group:

 -Started the 6th and final episode of the Nazi documentary which covered the beginning of the end for Germany in WWII. Essentially, the Allies begin to push back into territory previously invaded by the Nazis and the German cause gradually becomes hopeless. Top German officials organize an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Hitler’s life as a result.  

Book Assignment pushed back until January 16^th. 

"Night" Chapter 1

After reading chapter one, I started thinking about the charade the German soldiers put on to the Jewish people before the ghettos and deportation began. When the German soldiers first invaded Hungary and the town that Wiesel lived, they were polite and considerate to their hosts, even bringing them chocolates. Due to the attitude the German soldiers had toward the Jews at that point, no one believed that they could harm them in any way. When the start of the arrests began, and the Jews were bustled into ghettos, and it showed the attitude change in the German soldiers. Although the Germans had to take part in herding and deporting the Jews, there could have been some soldiers, like the one who gave his hostess chocolates, who did not share the same attitude as his fellow comrades, but refused to go against the oath.

Another follow up to NFL Concussion Suit...

If interested...

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11899196/nfl-concussion-settlement-bob-stern-objection

In light of recent topics...

Check it out...

http://www.latimes.com/world/great-reads/la-fg-c1-black-russian-americans-20141119-story.html#page=2

More on the Grand Jury

Check it out.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-ferguson-fear-20141127-story.html

An interesting article that could provide insight to you...

For those who do read the blog please check this out...

http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/26/us/ferguson-racism-or-racial-bias/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

More Wrongful Convictions...

Just so that you can give thanks...think about this guy.

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-wrongfully-convicted-20141125-story.html

Treblinka

Today in Global, the documentary The Road to Treblinka finally got to the part where they described the death camp in Treblinka.  The camp itself looked like a regular train station, complete with train schedules and waiting seats.  The passengers on the train were told to undress for decontamination before their next destination, however, there wasn't going to be a next destination.  The naked passengers will then walk into the shower room, where they were gassed to death.  Their clothes and possessions left behind at the undressing stations were pillaged through.  Those who complained of disease and illness were taken to a hospital to be shot in the head and left in a ditch.  Over 700,000 people were killed in this concentration camp.

What struck me as a bit odd was the secrecy behind it.  At this point, most Germans have accepted that Jews were inferior to them, but now they're trying to cover it up.  The camp was clearly made to be dismantled quickly, and there is no trace of any camp left today.  This cover up would imply that they knew that what they were doing was bad.  Does this mean that all the workers there were just evil, or is it just the order from the Fuhrer?

Einsatzgruppen

Today in the small groups we watched the videos on how the Nazi's were able to do what they did. One of the most notorious acts committed by the Nazis was the attempted extermination of the Jews. A large influence on the amount of fallen Jews was the EINSATZGRUPPEN. The Einsatzgruppen were killing squads that would follow the front lines to exterminate Jews and people against the ideas of Nazism. The Einsatzgruppen were very efficient in what they did. By using the cooperation of average citizens and swift extermination methods the Einsatzgruppen got their hands on 1 million Jews in two years. The actions of the Einsatzgruppen were discovered after the war when the Soviet Union was investigating German war crimes. The trial of the Einsatzgruppen was the ninth out of twelve trials about German war crimes. There were four commanding officers of four different death squads, squads A, B, C, and D. Squad leaders from B and D were sentenced to death by hanging. Squad leader A received life in prison. Squad leader C was removed from the trial due to medical reasons and died a few months later.

Ted Talk on Cult Mentality

In case anyone still needs inspiration for their Nazi paper, here is a Ted Talk that explains a little bit about how one becomes indoctrinated into a cult mentality.

http://www.ted.com/talks/ex_moonie_diane_benscoter_how_cults_think?language=en

In re: Ferguson

For those who want some reading material on Ferguson, Missouri and events detailed from there here a collection of essay (within the links to the article).

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-ferguson-guide-20141113-story.html#page=2

Follow up on Adam Lanza

You might find this article detailing a report on Adam Lanza of interest.

Better to act or not to act?

Ponder.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-adam-lanza-20141121-story.html#page=3

Polish Jewish Concentration Camps

I found it interesting how the people surrounding the concentration camps for Jews in Poland were willing to turn a cold shoulder towards the Jews. Many people interviewed were saying that they couldn't do anything about the concentration camps, but they were still willing to exploit the Jews as much as they can. They sold food to those in the concentration camps at astronomically higher prices than they bought it for. Although they claimed to feel discomfort over what was happening, they convinced themselves that there was nothing they could do. However, if they truly cared about helping those in the concentration camps, they would have helped the Jews and provided food without the intent of making money.

I also found it interesting how Nazi officials had the Jews in the concentration camps make goods, so they could earn money for themselves, which they would use as gifts to gain favor with high-ranking German officials. All they cared about was themselves, their position, and their wealth.

Both these examples illustrate how selfish people can be. Many times people only think about themselves, and not the needs of others.


I also found it interesting how other European leaders dealt with Hitler. France and England stood by and watched as Nazis started to take control over land, and drastically increased military spending and power, all in violation of post-WWI treaties. They only tried to stop Hitler after he had taken land without any Germans actually living there. Previously, they had hoped that if they allowed Hitler to do certain things, it would satisfy him. However, the lesson to be learned is that we shouldn't underestimate people and their ambition. As soon as Hitler took neighboring lands without any objections, he kept expanding and didn't stop.

This makes me think about Russia and its desire to occupy parts of Ukraine that has Russians. We should learn from Hitler that the international community has to stop countries from seizing land that is parts of other countries, as it can quickly grow out of control and lead to a World War.

Update on NFL Concussion Lawsuit...

Check it out if you wish to!

http://www.latimes.com/sports/nfl/la-sp-nfl-concussions-20141118-story.html#page=2

Police and the Use of Lethal Force

Though many cases involving police force remain etched in our minds (Rodney King, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown) it might be interesting to ponder why some cases are emphasized by the media and others do not.  Check out these links if you are interested in pondering...

Provocative.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-police-prosecution-20141116-story.html#page=2

http://graphics.latimes.com/towergraphic-controversial-police-cases/

Nazi Sterilization

Today during small group, some people had questions on how the Nazis were able to get all the disabled citizens sterilized and how they enforced it. They created a law called the "Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseased Offspring". The Nazis main goal behind sterilization was to create a racially pure society of "Aryans" by having "genetically sound families with many children of high racial value". The Nazis didn't just plan to sterilize disabled citizens, they wanted to sterilize people of inferior races, like Jews, Africans, and "Gypsies". To enforce the law, the Nazis created the Department for Gene and Race Care as well as "genetic health courts". Here, doctors and lawyers would work together to decide who would be sterilized; the individual had no say in whether they were sterilized or not. Often times, police force was used to bring the individual to the operation table. Between 1933 and 1939, approximately 320,000 German women and young girls were sterilized.

http://history1900s.about.com/od/holocaust/a/sterilization.htm

Time Magazine puts the word "feminist" in a poll for "words that should be banned in 2015"

Time Magazine puts out an annual poll of the "worst" words of the year, with past polls including words like "yolo" and "twerk". So, basically, it's a a list of slang words or internet coined terms. On this years poll, they included the word "feminist"..... along with words like "bae" "yaaaasss" and "turnt". I'm sorry, Time Magazine, but since when is it appropriate to put a movement towards equal rights on a list with slang terms like "om nom nom nom"? Time Magazine's description for "feminist" is as follows: 
"You have nothing against feminism itself, but when did it become a thing that every celebrity had to state their position on whether this word applies to them, like some politician declaring a party? Let’s stick to the issues and quit throwing this label around like ticker tape at a Susan B. Anthony parade."
First of all, you cannot claim "you have nothing against feminism" and then follow it up with a "but...". Either you support feminism (YAY) or you don't (ummm...).  There is no in between. Second, what is the problem with celebrities stating their beliefs? What is wrong with them standing up for what they believe in? I'm incredibly proud of all the celebrities who have publicly proclaimed themselves as feminists. It's amazing that they are using their social power and place in the social hierarchy to do good for the world. Third, Time Magazine says "Let's stick to the issues". The issues? Okay, Time Magazine, do you not think the fact the women get paid 77 cents for every dollar a man makes is an issue? Do you not think the lack of easy access to birth control for women is a problem? Do you not think the fact that 1 in every 4 women will get raped in their lives is an issue? Feminism is not a joke. It is not a slang term to throw around lightly with terms like "obvi" and "I can't even". Feminism is a serious movement towards gender equality, and I am very disappointed in Time Magazine for publicly derogating such a serious issue. 

Wrongful Death

Families who have had members die due negligence or some sort of misconduct can sue following the criminal trial. A suit for wrongful death can only be filed by a representative of the deceased person's estate. Each state has a "wrongful death statute" that establishes the procedures for wrongful death actions. In California, only people directly related to the deceased can file a lawsuit, and if the suit is successful, the defendant has to pay the decedent's survivors expenses for the death. In order to have a successful lawsuit, there needs to be a death, caused by negligence or an intent to harm, family members who suffered from monetary injury, and a representative for the decedent's estate. The damages awarded to the decedent's survivors are decided based on pecuniary loss, or the relevance to the decedent's character, and adjustments in the jury's award, if the jury decides to change the award based on the family's livings. Legal action can be taken against wrongful deaths caused by company or entity, and can be filed with a personal legal attorney.



Works Cited:
http://injury.findlaw.com/torts-and-personal-injuries/wrongful-death-overview.html
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/wrongful-death-lawsuits-california.html

Prussian Blue Twins found marijuana and they are now more open-minded

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/nazi-twins-lynx-and-lamb-gaede-941546

School tries to ban a deaf kid from signing his own name because it looks too much like a "gun gesture" and goes against their "gun policy"

Last year a school tried to ban a 3 year old deaf child named Hunter from signing his own name because it looks too much like a "gun gesture" and goes against their "gun policy". He didn't end up having to change his name, but it's still crazy that a school asked a 3 year old's parents to legally change his sign name!
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/education/nebraska-school-says-deaf-boys-name-sign-too-similar-gun 

Talking about stories from the "Now" and the advent of social media...

After reading the story you might find the comments either more entertaining or disturbing...

http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/04/living/alex-from-target/index.html?hpt=hp_bn11

An interesting view...

Particularly focus on the motivation for the dissenting storylines...

http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/04/opinion/bergen-seals-bin-laden-killing/index.html?hpt=hp_t4

Cyberbullying!

Beware!

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-exboyfriend-nude-photos-pasadena-teacher-20141031-story.html

Band Hazing Case Study Update

If anyone wants an update and the hazing case study...

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-man-convicted-florida-band-member-20141031-story.html

How to Deny Evil

To me, it's unimaginable that someone would try to plaster a genocide with lies, false assumptions, and general dishonesty in order to greedily or shamelessly preserve something. Specifically, I cannot wrap my head around why the Turks or Japanese would not only ignore atrocities such as the Armenian Genocide and the Rape of Nanking, but actively deny that these are atrocities at all. The Turkish government in particular is guilty of ignoring the Armenian Genocide. The Turks have a perfect environment to cover this up with a little bit of dirt and say nothing is buried underneath. First off, they have a monetary motive to deny the Armenian Genocide. If they acknowledge the genocide, they would need to pay an obscene amount of money to compensate the Armenians. Lawsuits will be filed over atrocities, stolen goods, and possibly other claims. Another reasons the Turks deny the genocide is a sense of false national pride. The idea that the Turks embrace is that if that wasn't a genocide, their record is clean and they can continue being a proud people. However, if I was a teenager in Turkey with adequate access to information, I would be even more ashamed of the Turkish government trying to deny the genocide than the actual genocide. One of the worst aspects of this fiasco is that the Turks force all of their allies to say that the Armenian Genocide never happened. With all of the chaos surrounding the Middle East nowadays, Turkey is an important NATO base of operations. If some NATO nations suddenly said that the Armenian Genocide happened and was perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks, Turkey will kick everyone out and the Middle East situation could deteriorate even further. Because of all of the extortion, lying, and greed, the denial the Turkish government is spewing, the denial of the Armenian Genocide is immoral beyond belief and should be discontinued as a political policy as soon as possible.

A Possible Disposition for Murder

Is it possible for a person to be born who is almost fated to commit a murder due to certain mental triggers or conditions? For example, we saw a movie about Adam Lanza, who perpetrated the Sandy Hook shootings. He could have been screened and put into a mental hospital before he went on a rampage. To take this idea to an extreme, imagine a technologically advanced society that can scan people's brains and determine their capacity to commit a crime instantly. Assuming this technological system has no flaws, every person in society could be scanned and their mental state would instantly be uploaded to a supercomputer which classifies people as harmless or dangerous. If Adam Lanza was scanned by this system, he would immediately be detained and held as a dangerous person. This system is obviously impossible in America with its current Constitution, but as a system it would certainly be flawed. We have seen a documentary about a man who has psychopathic tendencies but manages to live a normal life. This system would detect the man, flag him as dangerous, and he would be dealt with without being able to live a normal life as he does now. The question is: "Is it worth sacrificing the freedom of people with violent predispositions for the sake of a peaceful society?" I say that a system like this is a terrible idea for two main reasons. The first is that if humans can build and establish a system, humans can also find loopholes and ways to break the system down. The second is that people could also be unjustly detained when they have a possibility to lead perfectly normal lives despite certain warning flags in their brains. In a sense, somebody has to be removed from society. Either a few normal people via death by murder or thousands of "irregulars" via detention. Death is extremely dark and extremely cruel, but in the grand scheme of things, stripping the freedom of thousands of people just because of the way they were born is even more evil.

Interesting Views on Gun Debate

You might find these links useful for your position paper...realize some articles present multiple sides while others are more argumentative.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/10/us/guns-race/index.html?hpt=ju_r1

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/15/opinion/frum-guns-race/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/09/politics/btn-guns-in-america/index.html?hpt=ju_r1

http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/11/opinion/omara-oregon-shooting/index.html?hpt=ju_r1

Enjoy and utilize!

Genocide and Gun Control

The Armenian Genocide is a very volatile topic that has been discussed everywhere from modern diplomacy to humanitarian conventions. In class, we were given background events in the Ottoman Empire that led up to the Genocide. There were several causes for the anger that allowed this atrocity to happen. The Ottomans were losing battle after battle all over the edges of their vast empire, and the nation had shrunk considerably since its prime. The Turks did not want to admit their weakness, so they started blaming all of the ethnic groups they subjugated. This was especially bad after the Balkan Wars since a huge wave of fear and distrust of Christians swept the Ottoman Empire. The unstable political climate of the Ottoman Empire did not help. Control of the government was seized in a coup d'etat by the Young Turks from the sultan, and the Committee of Unity and Progress seized the government from the Young Turks shortly after. I believe that much of the anger that caused the Armenian Genocide was due to the CUP's incompetence. For example, the minister of defense failed miserably at war, losing to the mediocre Russian army by invading over a mountain. If the Ottomans focused more on their own people and problems instead of forcing down the Armenians to make themselves feel better, not as many Armenians would have defected to the Russian army and the climate before the genocide would never have happened.

The gun control issues movie continued with a look at proposed gun control laws and possible limits and regulations on civilian owned arms. One popular idea is to ban the sales of any fully automatic weapon, but this does not make any sense. The idea that someone could shoot up a crowd to kill thirty people with thirty bullets in a clip is flawed. If someone can kill with an assault rifle, then someone can kill with a large clip handgun or a wide spread shotgun. If gun laws are to be stricter, then all types of guns would need to be limited. The way to do this is to limit who can buy a gun by enforcing stricter tests to see who is capable of owning one. As an extreme example, a diagnosed psychopath should not be able to buy a gun from a large retailer. Laws aimed at the people rather than the weapons will be more effective, although the constitutionality of these laws may be questionable.

Ottawa Canada Shooting

Today as some of the biggest and most memorable shootings were brought up in class I remembered that not even a week ago I heard about a shooting in Ottawa, Canada and when I got home I decided to look into it. As I understood it, on October 23rd Canada's national parliament was attacked by a gunman, leading to the death of a solider. And on Thursday the prime minister Stephen Harper led a tribute to the soldier as well as the official who took charge and shoot down the gunman. Many leaders including the former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee have used this sad event as examples in criticizing Obama's gun control plans. Huckabee talked about how a what could have been a mass murder was stopped by a guy who had a gun on him. Besides the fact some people believe that gun control is a violations of their right but they also believe that in times such  as the Ottawa incident guns have been proven to prevent mass shootings and save the lives of hundreds of people. 

Gun Control Day 1

After every big shooting over the past few years whether it was the 2012 Aurora Shooting or 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting or the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing the media is filled with the never ending controversial debate about Gun Control. I have never done any research of my own and have previously tried to stay away from such a controversial topic. However, after today's video it brought to my attention many important aspects that must be taken into consideration before deciding what side of the gun control topic you are on. I had also never realized how important weapons have been in forming our society and country.  Anywhere from the Revolution in Great Britain, to the Civil War, to both World Wars, to present day guns have had a great impact in our lives and as our lives improved the quality of guns has as well and they still continue to become more advanced and more powerful. Mr.Stewart along with the video brought up many important questions about Gun Control; What is the role of guns in our society? What ways can it and should it be limited? What happens to the populations when the government doesn't allow them to have guns? I hope by the end of the week as we continue learning about the effects of weapons in our society and I have the opportunity to learn the views of both sides and be able to answer those important question about such an important and controversial topic and even possibly make my own opinion about it because as of Day 1 I am in the middle.

Potty mouthed princesses

Everyone should watch this awesome video! http://vimeo.com/109731596

Self-Reflection

      Self-reflection is a common theme in our class now that we have started the Personal Portfolio Project and I have realized how much of myself I really either don't remember or understand. When starting this project my initial thoughts were, "How hard could this be?" and "It's a project about us, how could anyone struggle about writing about themselves?", now that I am much deeper into the project, I have realized what a struggle it could be to just think of ourselves for once. Where did we come from? Where are we going individually? What defines our lives and the world around us? These are all questions all of us probably will have to face at some point while doing this project. This project is being a great help for college personal statements, however, I have uncovered so much about myself that I have forgotten that could seriously aid me in my application process. My experience of the PPProject so far has been very confusing not because it is a difficult project to understand, but because I find myself difficult to understand.

Rough Draft and Thoughts on Labels

Scientific View of Race - Can’t Be Rid of the Labels

Looking back at my notes from the Scientific View of Race documentary I’m personally realizing society needs the labels of race. Labels, in general, can be good or bad. They’re good because they categorize different subjects. However, this categorization can be used to demean and discriminate. When I think of race I realize that we need the label and we can’t just change the categorization of human being to be just “human beings.” Labels and race have been integrated so deep into our society for centuries that it would be impossible and irresponsible to try and reverse this. The human population will always feel the need to categorize and label objects and organisms that aren’t truly known to us. To be rid of this would be to try and reverse the way humans think. Without the label of race we would not feel the need to be different or the need to belong to a group. These to feelings of need is necessary for society because these are the basics of belonging to a society: joining it or separating from it. Without labels, without race, there would be neutrality. When society is neutral there will be less opportunities to advance the name of the label and the natural fight to be the best. If there are no labels, if there is no race we will have a plain form of society. With labels, with race, we can learn to try and become the best; we learn to defy our improve our given label and race because humans always desire to be the best naturally. We can’t have a neutral society; humans must advance, must fight to be the best and the only way we can do this better is to keep or incorporation of race and labels in our society.

Obfuscated Defenses

      Defense Attorneys really have a talent of finding the most ridiculous stories as defense for their clients, but what is terrifying is that it sometimes works. Cases like the case study we saw today where the client is obviously guilty and there is a mountain of evidence pointing to how the murders White perpetrated were premeditated and despite all the evidence, the defense attorney managed to use twinkies as a defense stating that the sudden binge of sugar caused White's depression to escalate to the point where he didn't know what he was doing. That may sound absolutely ridiculous, but it worked and it begs the question, is White's defense attorney a genius or just lucky that such a seemingly desperate defense worked? 

      

      Mr. Stewart brought to light today how the legal system functions properly if both the prosecution and defense do their job really well, as well as the rest involved with the whole trial. I would agree, but I believe there are additions to that. The legal system functions properly if everyone does well without falsifying any information and if the jury withdraws all bias. So with that, like Mr. Stewart said, the legal system is not perfect. I believe this to be true because in order for it to be perfect, all of those involved have to be completely objective and unbiased, which again, I do not believe is possible (my argument To be Unbiased?). Also, there are a lot of times when irrelevant defenses are used and succeed to convince the jury that the defendant is innocent. So do you think the justice system still functions properly even with people bringing false and irrelevant information to persuade a jury, or is it unfair?

fights at the games

Fights in stadiums were starting to get more and more common especially with people starting to drink alcohol and get more confident and start to use profound language, which can lead to violence and someone can get hurt. When watching this video I rememberd that my dads friend went to a baseball game, started to drink and started to insult people for going for the other team and he got in someones face, and the other guy didn't hold back which led him to punch him in the face because he was getting fed up that he kept talking back to him. But my dads friend didn't get hurt like the people in the video, he just got a bruised nose. This made me realize that in the future whenever i go to a game its better to keep quiet and to keep on walking than to get in a fight that can risk your life or can cause severe damage.

Pamela Smart's Jury

As our class looks at the Pamela Smart trial we see that many jurors are rejected because they admit to having bias before the case due to the media coverage concerning Smart. I say this is an easy out for many selected jurors. The media did cover Pamela Smart and establish biases against her before trial but that does not necessarily mean the bias has to come into play during trail. As a juror, their job is to determine guilty or not guilty by the evidence and defense provided. The media does create a form of bias but as jurors it is their job to empty that bias and make a decision based off whether or not evidence proved Pamela Smart was guilty or not guilty. I know it is hard to do but easy to say "simply empty one's bias" but to me it seems a simple concept. The media is doing their job, providing stories and entertainment to the public. These selected jurors were not doing their job by allowing media bias to get in their way. Jurors need to act as judges, look at the evidence, look at the arguments and defense then make a decision based on the materials provided. Media influence did not have to be an issue during this trial but I feel people allowed it to distract from the actual function of being a juror.

Today in Ms. B's class we watched a video on road rage and how people can take their anger to a different level, and people that you would never guess to be violent like for example when I saw the video it showed a lawyer and a retired officer fighting, I would expect them to be more professional in public and workout it not using violence. This video made me think about the time an ederly lady was honking at my mom, knowing my mom couldn't move because there was traffic my mom got out of the car and started to use profound language to the elderly woman, knowing my mom should've handled the situation better, road rage got the best of her as well also for the elderly lady because she drove off and flipped off my mom minutes later. It makes me realize that we leave our house not knowing what will happen in the road which can lead to dangerous situations, like how an older man got out of his car and started to be violent to these teenage kids and they started to defend themselves and gave the older man a bloody nose but couple minutes later the older man's wife handed him a gun and he started to shoot as they drove off and hit the back window. This made me look at how people can react on the road and not care about their safety and others.

To be Unbiased?

Today, we touched on the concept of, is it possible to be completely unbiased? I believe that it is completely impossible for someone to be unbiased. There is always something in the back of peoples' minds that influence the way they think of people, even if people attempt to think positively of others, that counts as a bias. There have been many cases that we have viewed in class that show this, namely the Rodney King case. That particular case was moved to another location to avoid media coverage bias for the officers that were tried, but they moved to a location where they were mostly conservative and more likely to favor the police and put a negative bias against Rodney King. So, in order to avoid a bias, they moved to a new location that automatically had another bias. Bias comes from our standards in morals and ethics as well as the society we come from and the experiences had in it. For a person to be completely unbiased, they would have to have no moral standards, no experience in society, and masters of controlling their minds. It is because humans can't help but to formulate opinions and assumptions that I believe that being completely unbiased is not possible.

Psychopaths or Good People gone bad?

Check out this article relating to hazing.  The second link is an opinion piece so feel free to agree or disagree.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/10/us/new-jersey-football-abuse-scandal/index.html?iref=allsearch

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/12/opinion/robbins-sayreville-football-sex-assault/index.html?iref=allsearch

The Court of Public Opinion

      The Court of Public Opinions is a concept mentioned a lot in most of the case studies we view. Today, we saw how the public can influence the direction of a case by giving the Jurors a bias. Pamela Smart couldn't have been tried fairly due to the fact that her case was under a lot of publicity and that the publicity in question was severely biased against her being innocent. That portrayal of her almost forced the Jury to be biased against her, one Juror even said after a trial that there was no defense for her, they had to vote guilty because that is what the public wanted.

      The Pamela Smart case was not the first case we have come across that takes into question the strength and place of the Court of Public Opinion. Cases like the dog mauling in San Fransisco and the "Thou Shalt not Kill" case are more great examples of  how the public have greatly influenced a Jury's decisions. In the dog mauling case, the couple was also hated by the public greatly because the case was televised and they were portrayed as people without remorse and rather selfish, not to mention the completely irrelevant introduction of Cornfed only weakened their public image to the point that they were sentenced for crimes that the evidence did not merit. In the "Thou Shalt not Kill" case, Bob was just acting completely abnormal for a person whose wife was just killed, even if they were getting a divorce anyway.

      When I look at these cases where the Court of Public Opinion had influenced the outcome of a case, I noticed that the publicity of the case honestly just went too far. In my opinion, I believe that crimes should be only publicized with minor details and with the restriction of the mention of names to insure that the trial and the Jury are unbiased. What is your opinion on the matter, should cases be publicized despite the risk of biases forming, or do you believe that the Court of Public Opinion doesn't have the proper strength to influence a case in such a way?

A reminder about the justice system...

One thing to realize the justice system works only if every participant fulfills their role effectively.

Check it out.

http://www.latimes.com/local/great-reads/la-me-c1-murder-conviction-doubts-20140930-story.html#page=1

10/10/14

Today in class we watched another case study. This one was especially interesting because it involved the spouse actually being responsible for the murder of her husband. Even though she had an alibi and wasn't home she was still responsible for her husbands death. She had an affair with one of her students whom she convinced to kill her husband. He did it because he was scared that she would break off the relationship. This shows how you can never discredit a suspect even if it seems like they would never be capable of the crime. 

10/09/14

Today, in class we watched another case study. I thought it was an interesting case, because it had to do with a 12 year old boy killing a 6 year old girl very violently. The big question was if it should be dealt with in juvenile court or in actual court that usually deals with people that are 18 and above. They decided not to put him on trial in juvenile court because of the degree of the murder. During the case, the biggest question was if this murder was involuntary man slaughter or in fact, first degree murder. The boy claimed that him and the girl were wrestling and that he was trying out wrestling moves that he had seen on tv. His story was questionable, because he never mentioned any of that in his original statement that he gave right after the girl got hurt and the consistency of the injuries on the girls body could not have happened, unless he actually tried to hurt her. She had 40 different blunt trauma injuries which said that this must have been a very violent beating. I definitely think that his trial went well, except the fact that his mother did not take the plea bargain the first time around.

Issues With Lionel Tate's Trials

First Degree Murder is defined as "unlawful killing that is both willful and premeditated." I do not know how this definition relates to Florida's state laws concerning First Degree but for the moment let's assume their state law fits this definition. Lionel Tate is charged for the murder of Eunick as an adult when he is 12 years old. His first trial continues with him being charged as an adult, when clearly this is extreme. The jury, judge and Florida Justice System should have stepped in with logic and changed this child's charge to juvenile status. That is my first issue: how the system didn't recognize his age and charged him as an adult. Now, even if he was tried as an adult he does not fit the role to being charged with first degree murder successfully. There is no evidence provided during the whole trial of premeditation, intent to kill, or malice aforethought (which can be viewed as premeditation). If Florida State's Justice System follows the general definition of First Degree Murder then Tate's indictment would be viewed as unjustified. I also have an issue with Tate's lawyer and how he didn't acknowledge Tate's absence of motive, intent to kill, and premeditation. If he was a good lawyer he would've argued this to the end. The Justice System should have taken many factors into Tate's favor. We know he is guilty of Eunick's murder but we can argue it was unintentional and can be charged as manslaughter. I don't understand how motive, a very large factor, could be so easily overlooked when charging of 12 year old (as an adult) of First Degree Murder; it all could've been done and argued better. Again, this is all an argument revolved around the assumption of Florida's law concerning First Degree Murder to match the general prerequisites of the charge.

How does someone come to be sociopathic or psychopathic?

Today while watching the "Good or Evil" video I really contested their method and way of determining whether the child was morally good or bad because it related to determining whether someone was capable of psychopathy or sociopathy; this made me think if we can even determine sociopathy or psychopathy at such a young age. In the experiment the child had to choose between just two dogs to decide whether they were "good" or "bad". This is a ridiculous way to determine because the margin of error is so high. The baby has a 50/50 chance of being categorized as good or bad. If feel adults who are psychopathic or sociopathic are effected by nurture instead of nature too. As far as we can tell these kind of people have had traumatic experiences or upsets that have influenced their motives and the way they think. Who knows what other factors play a role into the development of a sociopath or psychopath too? It is very logical to assume many traits and characteristics inherited from their mother and father can play a role into this too. But this is a more vague area of determining this character. Many traits are capable of influencing each category and when they mix with nurture we do not know how they will affect childhood development. In the end I feel it comes down to nurture. There are other factors that contend or agree with the nurture like if someone doesn't really connect with people and feel their emotions. However, if this person is raised right and understand the rules and laws of society he can be  a perfectly normal human being but without emotional attachments.

10/3/2014

    In the small group we watched the video of the first black quarterback and it made me think about how there should always be a first person. The first person who breaks off the spell and how someone should step up and be the first person to make a move for moderation and change. If no one would've stepped up, now we wouldn't have had any civilization.
    In the big group we also discussed the power and importance of stepping up. We talked about how evil would be able to do anything if the good doesn't do anything. If there is no person disagreeing with someone doing something wrong we would never stop the evil.

10/07/2014

Today in class we continued watching the documentary on the way people are wired mentally from a social point. I was really surprised when we watched the clip of the woman getting stabbed to death in front of her apartment building because no one helped her even though they all knew that there was something wrong. The person who lived on the bottom floor even opened his door and saw what was going on but still did nothing. From this scene I concluded that the reason why this happened was because if there are a lot of people witnessing an incident then they all assume that someone else has already called 911 and won't do it themselves anymore. This relates back to the office fire experiment. In this experiment people take a survey and smoke starts coming from under the door. When there was only one person taking it he got up right away and told someone about the fire. On the other hand when there were 3 people in the room taking the survey, the smoke started to rise from the door but no one did anything. They all looked like they assumed that the other person would take action for what was happening.

10/06/2014

Today in class we started discussing the effect that people of authority can have on an individuals behavior. I thought it was very interesting how in the shock experiment ruffly %66 of the people who were tested would shock the victim until they had hit the highest voltage. They had to shock the victim every time he gave them a wrong answer. They kept going even though they knew they were hurting someone. They even continued after the person stopped yelling which meant they knew that there was something wrong. The reason why they went so far is because the experimenter overseeing everything said that he would take full responsibility if anything happened to the person. Many of the people reacted to the screams of the victim with laughter and other kinds of behaviors that indicated that they were uncomfortable with the situation. They concluded that the reason why the germans had committed the Holocaust was because they were all under a certain figure of authority which made them feel like it was okay to do so. People tend to think that they are not responsible for their actions if someone of authority tell them to do so.

Supreme Court Action!

Check it out...you can probably find more stories about this on any major newsfeed.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-supreme-court-gay-marriage-20141006-story.html

Human Behavior Experiments

In small group we started watching clips mainly focused on Human Behavior and the different experiments that had been conducted in the past to test why ordinary people had conducted these horrific events in history. A main example of this was the Holocaust, histories questioned why the German people acted the way they did under Hitler's rule. An experiment was conducted where two men were "randomly" chosen to participate in a study. In reality only one person was chosen at random and had no idea what to expect. The other man was part of the social experiment and knew what was going on. The man that the experiment was going to be tested on was told to give an assessment to the other person while he was in the other room "hooked up" to an electricity panel. As the assessment went on every wrong answer would result in the man sending an electric current towards the man in the room. As a tape recording played the man being experimented on would continue to zap the student being tested. He would question whether it was correct but every time he was told that he wouldn't bare any responsibility so he would continue. Later we saw an act done not as an experiment but by a random person. He had pretended to be an Officer and called various fast food services and had convinced managers to treat their employs inhumanly such as strip searches. It's things like these that make me question how truthful and how much thought people put into answering the question of what would they do when put in these situations.

David Cash -- Is Inaction Illegal?

If you knew that a young girl was to be raped and then strangled to death in a casino bathroom, would you do anything and everything in your power to prevent this? For most of us, nothing would stand in our way. Even if we suffered as a result of our intervention. However, what if we didn't know that the end result of the the incident resulted in the rape and murder of a young girl. What if we were scared for our own well being and safety. These factors were just a few of the myriad that David Cash had running through his mind that early morning. David choose to run away from the scene, effectively washing his hands of the responsibility just as Pilot had done. It is no secret that what David did was morally bankrupt. Throughout history, men have been held accountable and consequently punished for their actions. Is it now possible to punish a member of society for something that he didn't do? I personally do not think that that men should be held accountable for their inaction. While I do believe that what Cash did was very weak and morally wrong, he should not be held accountable for his actions in a court of law.

Another Dog Mauling Case

Feel free to read and compare...

http://www.latimes.com/local/crime/la-me-dog-mauling-sentence-20141004-story.html

Andrea Yates, knew it was wrong?

    Andrea Yates was a mother of 5 who murdered all of her children knowing what she was doing and then she called 911 requesting police and ambulance. She believed she was a bad mother and she wanted her children to go to heaven before then sin. She had committed suicide multiple times and had been in psychiatric hospital. The doctor didn't mention that she is diagnosed with psychosis which is rare to her husband. The question is weather she knew what she was doing was wrong or not? I believe people who are mentally ill should go to psychiatric hospital and they can't be charged with the same crimes as mentally sane.

Interracial Dating, Race in America

    Morals in families generally are like we are not racist, we think everyone have the same rights, and stereotypes are wrong. Yet dating and intimate relationships are completely different in the minds of parents and the whole family. It's interesting how the race of people matters when a friendship becomes a relationship. One of the other factors that parents could worry about is rejecting one's own culture/race.
    On the other hand we watched the beginning of a documentary about the science and social-psychological facts about race. By science there is no such thing as race. Scientists have tried and tried and tried to prove there is some difference in different races but were faced to a dead end. Social-Psychological view shows that we in the past have tried to use race as an excuse for saying a certain race in inferior.

Racism Runnig Rampant in the Land of the Free

We began watching a documentary called "Race in America" today in class. Apparently the "Land of the Free" isn't as accepting and loving as it is made out to be. White children and their families were interviewed, and asked about what would happen if they brought someone of "color" home. The answers were shocking to say the least. One boy said that if he were to start dating a black girl, he wouldn't think that his parents would approve of it because if they were to get married the two families would be tied together and you don't know what the black family has done. Another family was interviewed, this time black, and their son was the first to be approached. He was in elementary school and was already being put down by fellow classmates because of his race. He was told racist jokes that aren't appropriate in any given social setting; especially not in elementary school. This just goes to show that even though America has come to be known as the land of the free and equal, racism may never go away.  

Thursday: Andrea Yates case

Today's case of study was by far the most disturbing and difficult case to both watch and discuss about. This was the case of the mother Andrea Yates drowning her 5 children in a bathtub one-by-one. The case overall introduced us the history before the murders which really looked like a completely healthy and well-functioning family of God with Andrea Yates and Rusty Yates being the married couple. All was in the norm until the 4th child was born. By this time, Andrea reached a sudden point of severe depression and postpartum psychosis which was basically an extremely rare effect that mothers can receive after a series of child births. Unfortunately, Andrea was a victim to it and went rather mentally unstable for she attempted suicide twice and was institutionalized. Over time she attempted to recover with medication, until a 5th child was born and she stopped her medication without her doctor's permission. Afterwards, she reached an even worse condition and was once again institutionalized and made a turn for the worst. She was actually released very early for her state of mind in the other institution and had no choice but to return home. As she tried to live normally once again, it was until mid 2001 where she drowned her 5 children.
The difficulty of this case is the fact that Andrea had many mental issues that could have been the reasons for these atrocities to occur and there's no telling at the moment for the class to decide if she intentionally murdered them. She stated however that Satan told her to literally murder her children for they have sinned and their lives could only be saved if they were to be ended innocently.
The case shall continue with more factors being discovered that will tell in which if she's guitly or just completely mentally insane.

Wednesday: Discrimination, etc. Docs

Today in class we went completely over the few selected terms that we learned about yesterday which were Discrimination, Prejudice, Bigot, Racism, Stereotype, and Scapegoat. We specifically went over documented events of some of these words taking proper place and examples of them. First was being Gareth Thomas, a famous rugby player, being discriminated against for his secretly gay orientation and the documentary went in depth towards why he was afraid to open up because he feared of not being accepted and his reputation being gone since rugby is known for being extremely manly and masculine. It ended with him being open and proud and currently a competitor ice-skater however.
After watching Gareth Thomas, we pursued to watch Chivas USA which was all about the Mexican soccer team, the Chivas, being only open to Mexican soccer players. These were examples of discrimination and racism since they were only open to Mexican players. The most shocking part of the case to the class was that two non-Mexican coaches for the youth soccer team were fired because of the fact they weren't Mexican, despite the fact they were excellent coaches. Afterwards we watched Interracial Dating which was mainly in depth towards how parents of one specific race view their children dating others of different ethnic backgrounds. The results were rather neutral for the parents that were interviewed since they didn't really have a fixed view of whether it's fine. However, the parents did state that they taught their children to respect all races and to hate none. Overall, each of these cases showed solid examples of certain negative acts of others like discrimination and stereotypes, and racism and these will surely guide the class later on in the course.