this article is the this i beileve piece that we discussed in class this week. it is called “Telling Kids the Whole Truth.” in it the woman describes how she believes that children have the right to know the truth about almost everything. if adults expect kids to tell the truth then they should do the same. she tells the story of when she told her 6 year old son what a condom was and what it was used for. SHe says that telling kids the truth will make for a better relationship between them and the parents, it will build more trust.

i completely disagree with what this woman has to say. sure i think that kids should know the truth to some extent but telling them things like what a condom is if a little overboard. i think that parents should in some way screen what their children are told and what they hear.

i read the article simply for the title ” Criminal Masterminds.”in it the author describes her life story and the difficulties she had growing up ad the only girl in her family and being on of very few Jews in her town. she moved from Kansas to Chicago when she was a girl and has been writing stories and novels ever since. as a child since she was the only girl in her family she was rid of her dolls and toys at the age of 9 and was required to tend to her brothers. she also wasn’t allowed to just sit inside and write she had to go outside and socialize. she said that her purpose in writing is to tell the stories of those she knew or met so that they wouldn’t be forgotten.

i love two things about the style of this piece. First the title, even though i don’t really get how it related to the piece i think it does a good job of catching the interest of anyone that happens to be skimming along the page . the second thing in her piece that i like is the analogy that she makes between giraffes and the small Jewish population in the town she lived in. she said that they were ” an oddity that invited starring,” and she better not do anything to make ashame them or offend their little group. i agree with her and like this analogy because giraffes are so awkward to look at they don’t really blend in just like their group must have stuck out.

in the article “Slavery’s staying power
“the author discusses the facts that there are more slaves in the world today than there were before the civil war. He estimates that there are somewhere between 12 and 27 million in the world. Most of them are women and children who need to make money. He tells a story of one little boy whose mom sold him for $15 to work in a rug making factory when he was 9. He also says that there are more people in the US involved in trafficking slavery than sexual slavery, and the US government isn’t spending enough money to try and stop the problem. He concludes by stating that for most of the people in these situations it isn’t their fault the have to pay their bills somehow and they end up in bad situations.

i agree with this piece completely. I had no idea that there were that many slaves in the world today but i do think that the US should do something more about it. when He said in the article that more than half the money for this sort of problem is going toward stopping sexual slavery i agree with him that they need to spend more on the other areas that are affecting many more people. over all i think that it is good that this man is so aware of the situation of many people in the world today and that many of them can’t help it.

the Banham zoo had four giraffes named Hannah, Aisling, Fiona and Jonathan who were the center of the zoo’s 40th birthday party the other day the zoo and its owner have been trying to save animals from their biggest predator, humans in search for resources. “We have in our care some of the world’s most beautiful and yet vulnerable species with which mankind is privileged to share this planet. Yet, due to the insatiable greed for resources by a species which breeds unchecked with no predators, all other species of life on this planet face an uncertain future. said the director of the zoo, Martin Goymour. this man is very concerned about the wellbeing of animals that really have no way to defend themselves against humans. so he has been doing his best to get the word out about protecting these gentle giants.

it seems that this article is written kind of as a public service announcement. it is full of facts and just seems to be getting the word out about these animals that cant defend themselves so we need to help them out and be less greedy and more cautious about what we are taking and from where we are taking it. i like that someone is taking the time and is willing to not make as much money, to save these endangered animals.

this article titled “the elephants do the work, but they benefit too” describes the safari of some tourist at the Elephant Back Safaris’ Abu Camp. this camp rescues elephant from bad situations and returns them to the wild in Africa. here the larger elephants are the “stars of the show,” they take the humans on a tour of the vast savanna well the small Abu  provides entertainment with his curiosity. In this article the little elephant pranced right into a lagoon full of hippos while all the tourist were scared. the article also describes the  camp itself and how nice it is to visit.

i love the idea of going and rescuing elephants from bad situations and returning them to their natural habitat. i think that it would be so much fun to visit this place. in the article the mentioned that because the people are on top of the elephants and not in vehicles  they are more likely to see the top 5 animals that you want to see on a safari, a lion, leopard, buffalo, rhinoceros, and other elephants. i think that this is a wonderful idea.

when reading a second “This i believe”piece i realized that we had read the intro to it in class, but i continued to see what it was about. it is about how this astronaut sees the world as a whole when he is in space. he doesn’t see all the wars and poverty and bad stuff he just sees a world, the place where we live. this makes him optimistic, he believes that if 16 very different nations can work together to make a space station, two of which were enemies not that long ago, then there is hope for our planet.  i think hes right

i think that the intro to this piece isn’t very good. its boring and very unclear. i think i only kept reading because the title was interesting. the piece as a whole didn’t end up being that bad but i think that it would have helped to have a much catchier intro paragraph.

in this “This I believe” piece a woman describes how her dad pretty much worked himself to death. even when he was dying of liver cancer he still insisted on going to work. he died three months after he collapsed on day when he got home from work. this woman now, 10 years later, doesnt work that hard. she leaves work at 5 pm and goes home to watch the sunset and have diner with her family. she realizes that this might not help her get ahead in her work but spending time with her family is important to her.

i like the way this woman thinks. i think that family time is very important, even if it means not working late. its good to take time to enjoy a bike ride or watch a sun set ever now and then. this type of routine is important to family relationships but also to your health. its not healthy to work long hours with no time for your body to rest. thats why her father died so soon, because he shouldn’t stop working to take care of himself.

this article is kind of confusing it starts off talking about some bad things that have happened then it explains that a baby giraffes was born at the San Fransisco zoo. it also explains that baby giraffes fall more than 6 feet when they are born. this is so the baby will get a slight shock and it will get up and be able to walk right away so it can run from any predators.

I like the style of this piece. it isn’t written in a normal form but it is more like a  casual conversation. the genere isn’t at all like an essay. it kind of just jumps around all over the place. i think it was a great change of pace.

this piece is an essay by a woman for the this “i believe contest.”in her essay she describes how she is a very busy mother that doesn’t always have the time to focus on God as she would like to do. she said that since she can’t ever find a quiet place in the house she often will take a walk to be alone and have it quiet for a while.

i think that this woman has a lovely idea. i myself have been on quite a few walks and i often find that they are very relaxing. you don’t have anyone bugging you and you can just walk without any stress. but walking isn’t for everyone so i think that you could climb a tree for a while or ride your bike. all those things would give you some quiet time, whether it is to focus on God or to just be alone.

in this piece a woman describes how we all need mending she uses a story of her grandmother to describe that mending something doesn’t make it go away. there is still always going to be a scar or a patch. she describes how her grand mother used to make all new clothes all the time, then when she was raped on night she stopped. now all she does is mend the old clothes. this woman says that her grandmothers scar will never go away even though over time she may have a mended heart.

i like the style of writing she uses in this article. i like that to get her point across she uses a story. that is partly why this piece interested me. i have a broken heart like the lady and this story that she used really hit home for me. the fact that there will always be a scar, whether it is on your heart or on your favorite jeans. i think that the fact that this story makes the essay come to life makes it a good “This I believe” piece. i think to have a piece that is like that you need to be able to relate to people and telling a story will relate to people.