education #6

       Young adults in America will do anything to get good grades, including cheating and plagiarism. We take tests such as the SAT or ACT to "test our knowledge" when really it just tests how well you can memorize what you are told and your test taking abilities. People are not good test takers and get nervous and anxious, and if you can't get a good grade on these standardized tests, sorry but you're not going to the college of your choice. The actual value of learning is taken away. No one cares how well they know the information as long as they get a good enough grade on the test and then they just forget the information anyway. And why does this happen? Because we have to make it look like we're intelligent and smart to help us get some kind of money to go to the college of our choice. And even if you get into that college, there's no guarantee you'll be going there because you may not have the money.
       Other countries offer college to students for FREE. No costs. Just learning. I would love to just learn information for the sake of knowing that information. Not worry about how test questions will be worded or memorizing random, useless facts because "there's going to be a question on the test like it!". And obviously in these other countries you still have to be accepted into the college, but it'll be easier because you would have a better under standing of the things you've learned for the past 18 years of your life and not just forgetting about it the day after that chapter's test is over. All I'm saying is these education system is messed up, and all it does is add unnecessary anxiety and stress to today's youth.

The Met #8

  Though it's been a few weeks since our trip to The Met I still found it relevant to discuss as a break from the Michael Brown case. I felt too heated last week to discuss our recent trip. Otherwise The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the largest art museum in the United States and one of the ten largest in the world; which was very apparent from this extensive view of the art.The Met is located along Manhattan's Museum Mile and notionally one of the best there (from what I've heard as I have not been to all 10 of them).

  It opened on February 20, 1872, and was originally located at 681 Fifth Avenue.Which was was founded in 1870 by a group of American citizens."The founders included businessmen and financiers, as well as artists and thinkers of the day, who wanted to open a museum to bring art and art education to the American people."

   The Met Contains a collection of works from Ancient Egypt, Classical antiquity, paintings and sculptures from nearly all the European masters, and an extensive collection of American and modern art. The Met also houses African, Asian, Oceanic, Byzantine, and Islamic art.The museum is also home to encyclopedic collections of musical instruments, costumes and accessories, and antique weapons and armor from around the world. First hand these items were magnificent and very well kept. I saw many paintings,antiques,furniture and sculptures that looked completely untouched though they stood very close to the masses. Yet on several occasions I heard many securities guards yell at people to stay away from the art.(Including a chaperone who will not be named.) It's great that they set it up in a way that you are so up close and personal with the art.

  It was a very educational field trip with its vast culture and diverse range of art which we thoroughly discussed in class. It further developed the material in class that we were drawing and the works by Van Gogh which we so thoroughly discussed. Speaking of Van Gogh my favorite gallery was from Van Gogh which displayed 17 of his famous works. The seventeen canvases sample a career of which all the phases from “early” to “late” span barely six years. Which included the vase with irises which we drew in class. It was very enlightening seeing theses famous paintings so close up along with many other spectators. It was a great experience besides getting lost a few times but the sheer amount of security guards always keeps you on the right path.

 Some Of My Favorites/Most Relevant Images From The Met:

"They did not listen, they did not know how." Post #6

Don McLean, an American musician known generally for his 1971 hit, "American Pie," wrote another song (among others) that was released on the same album that was entitled, "Vincent." This piece centered on the pain and beauty of Van Gogh's tumultuous life and resulting work. Much of the song revolves around Van Gogh's use of color and imagery in his paintings. Take, for example, this verse:

Starry, starry night

Flaming flowers that brightly blaze

Swirling clouds in violet haze

Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue

Colors changing hue

Morning fields of amber grain

Weathered faces lined in pain

Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand

McLean's gentle, flowing melody and vivid description of Van Gogh's skill and ease with the brush create an image of a pained, deeply saddened man who saw such beauty in a world that offered little to him.

I have known this song for years, yet I never fully grasped the true innovation and artistry of Van Gogh's work until I read a quote from a letter to his brother Theo written on the first or second day of June, 1888, while residing in Saints-Mariés: 

"The Mediterranean has colours of mackerel, changeable I mean. You don't always know if it is green or violet, you can't even say it's blue, because the next moment the changing light has taken on a tinge of pink or grey." 

I recall reading this and suddenly understanding just what Vincent saw: not things, but colors. He would look at the sunset and see yellows, pinks, blues, and greens. He gazed over the earth and saw purples and oranges. He could translate emotion into color, and what makes his work so emotive is that fact itself - people see what they feel when they look at his paintings.

McLean takes a similar approach and turns the emotion of the artist's work into song; you can hear both his appreciation for Van Gogh's paintings and the images themselves speaking out to him when you listen to "Vincent," which I strongly suggest to anyone who may read this.

Racism? BLOG #6

The latest outburst in this country is the shooting of a man name Michael Brown by a police officer, Darren Wilson.  As known racism has always been a problem in America since slavery was abolished, but is racism the answer to everything that happens between two different races?  

As far as I know, Michael Brown robbed a store and Wilson tried to make him stay still.  Brown disrespected the authority and did not listen and forensics files show that Browns DNA was found inside the cop car. " Wilson, who is white, claimed Brown, who is black, tried to grab his gun and that he was forced to shoot the unarmed teen after Brown charged him. Some witnesses claimed Brown had his hands up when he was shot. The shooting ignited controversy and protests across the country and a discussion over race and policing." (nbcnews.com).  It is hard to trust the eye-witnesses because many perceptions are deceived.  Now I personally don't believe that it was necessary to kill Brown.  Was Wilson a racist? Or was it just self-defense?  Wilson also claimed that he was scared at the time.  We will never know if we have the right story but my opinion is that Wilson had to shoot Brown because of his actions toward an authoritative figure.  I don't believe that racism played a role in this.  If someone was coming after your trying to grab your gun.. what would you ?  Yea, maybe Wilson could've shot Brown in the leg to stop his action, but what if he couldn't think straight and needed to stop this kid from killing him?  I guess we will never actually know.

An outburst of riots was a result from this event.  Even the parents of Browns want the riots to stop.  What if a black officer shot and killed a black kid? These riots wouldn't be happening.  Since racism has always been a problem, everyone assumes that everything is based off of racism. But how would we ever know ??????

This event made me think of a similar one that took place in Ohio.  Two white officers killed a man because he had a sword and took it out as if he was going to hurt the officers with it.  There were many different opinions in this event.  The family of the black man are convinced that it was because of racism. 

Personally, I don't know what to think of these situations.  Is racism real or just an excuse?

Blog #5 (Emailed to your because blog didnt work for me but i just got it to work)

The rich man enjoyed the fruit of the poor man’s labor, and the latter were a thousand to one in proportion to the former; … the bulk of our people were forced to live miserably, by laboring every day for small wages, to make a few live plentifully.

—Jonathan Swift on British life, in Gulliver’s Travels

                Three years after Swift wrote Gulliver’s Travels, he created the Modest Proposal that exceeded 18 pages.  This satire was able to capture voice of a disinterested citizen and the struggles of living in the 1700s in Ireland.  Swifts story vividly describes poverty and the inability to sustain a family with the abundance of children.  He comically suggests that parents should turn their children into cash crops and sell them for meat to the rich.  At this time the English were in control and but obviously there were more Irish then English creating an unstable social class.  The rich saw the poor as a burden and wanted to get rid of them rather than help them. 

                I began to read this story with a very serious approach.  As I got further and further into the story I was rather confused and disturbed as to why Swift suggested eating children.  Learning that Swift was a priest was shocking because I thought that he was insane. I could not possibly believe that any human being would suggest others to eat children in the effort to reduce poverty to improve the economy, (Reminded me of the walking dead).  But after Professor Harris revealed the deeper meaning, Swifts proposal made logic sense in a sick way.  Swift was able to capture the reader’s attention by making up these crazy scenarios but was also able to raise awareness

Darren Wilson Resigned

Darren Wilson, the police officer who fatally shot an unarmed teenager in August, has resigned from the police department in Ferguson, Missouri, his attorney, Neil Bruntrager, confirmed to CNN Saturday night.

In a telephone interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Wilson said he resigned after the police department told him it received threats of violence if he remained an employee.

"I'm resigning of my own free will," he said. "I'm not willing to let someone else get hurt because of me."

The resignation, which is immediate, comes five days after a grand jury decided not to indict Wilson in the killing of Michael Brown, 18.

The shooting sparked worldwide protests and the Monday announcement of no indictment triggered another round of demonstrations that continued through the week and into the weekend.

As police and protesters clashed, a contentious national debate on race and law enforcement reopened, with many people complaining that police unfairly target black males. Wilson is white and Brown was black.

Wilson says he's sorry but his conscience is clear

I feel bad for Officer Wilson because he lost a job he loved because people pulled the race card. He was defending himself and now he is being punished for it. He feared for his life and acted as he saw fit. I don't think he should have to resign because of that. 

A Statistical Analysis of Poverty #6

Being that it's Thanksgiving I took plenty of time to think about all the great food I will eat, how great it will be to spend time with my family, and all the nice moments I've cherished from past years. However it also made me think about the flip side of the coin, all those who aren't fortunate enough to partake in the same Thanksgiving experience that I am lucky enough to receive every year.

So, embracing this mindset, I decided to a little research on poverty to get a better understanding of the numbers behind poverty in America. Currently in America, there are 45.3 million people living in poverty according to the U.S Census Bureau. Given the 310 million people living in America, that's roughly 15% of the population surviving in sub-par conditions struggling just to make due. Another frightening statistic is that 20% of children live in food insecure households, meaning that access to adequate food is often limited and sparse.

But what is the point of all these numbers? What do they really mean? Well allow me to put it into perspective, imagine you are sitting in class and your teacher decides to separate you into groups of five to do a worksheet, well as you sit down and get ready to go think about the fact that at least one person in your group is probably living in a food-insecure home. Same goes for everywhere else consider it this way, 1 person in every LAB group, 1 person on every volleyball court, 4 players on the football field, 5 people in all of your classes, 1 home within a 1 house radius of you, all living with the threat of hunger hanging over their heads.

It's not a pleasant thing to think about, but it's a real thing. And no my goal was not to depress you on Thanksgiving, or make you feel guilty for what you have, but to maybe inspire everyone to chip in a little and help out those who are in need. 20% is certainly a scary number but it's still the minority. That leaves 80% of households that are perfectly well off and able to help, the only sad part is that most choose not to. Statistically speaking, if everyone of the those 263.5 million remaining people gave just one supply of food to charity, we would outweigh what is needed to supplement the disparity four fold. So this Thanksgiving, give thanks for what you have, and give help to those who don't.

When People say,"Let's end world hunger..." do they really mean it? #5

         The poorest people will also have less access to health, education and other services. Problems of hunger, malnutrition and disease afflict the poorest in society. The poorest are also typically marginalized from society and have little representation or voice. The wealthier you are, the more likely you are to benefit from economic or political policies. The amount the world spends on military, financial bailouts and other areas that benefit the wealthy, compared to the amount spent to address the daily crisis of poverty and related problems are often staggering.
         Around the world, in rich or poor nations, poverty has always been present. In most nations today, inequality,the gap between the rich and the poor,is quite high and often widening.The causes are numerous, including a lack of individual responsibility, bad government policy, exploitation by people and businesses with power and influence, or some combination of these and other factors.
            Around 21,000 children die every day around the world. The silent killers are poverty, easily preventable diseases and illnesses, and other related causes. World hunger is a terrible symptom of world poverty. If efforts are only directed at providing food, or improving food production or distribution, then the structural root causes that create hunger, poverty and dependency would still remain.

#7 U.S Healthcare?

   The healthcare system in the U.S has been a very important issue both in and outside the class. It is a very import topic that many Americans are Aaffected by.  In class we discussed how far so many other countries have come while the U.S still struggles with their current system. The direst in the U.S is surprising.In a recent survey the U.S was ranked dead last among other countries healthcare systems. It’s fairly well accepted that the U.S. is the most expensive healthcare system in the world, but still many believe we pay so much to get the best healthcare out their. The evidence, however, clearly doesn’t support that view. So why pay so much?

  Over the last few decades, the United States has witnessed skyrocketing health care costs.Because of these out-of-control health care costs, there has been a steep rise in the number of uninsured Americans. Currently, more than 45 million Americans lack any form of health insurance, and millions more are “underinsured”.
Surprisingly the United States is the only industrialized nation that does not have some form of universal health care which is simply guide teeing health care to all it's citizens. While other countries have declared health care to be a basic right, the United States treats health care as a luxury, only available to those can afford it. It's becoming scarcer even to middle class Americans.

     As we discussed in class why can't universal healthcare exist in the U.S as it does in Europe and many other countries? Why can't it come from taxes? Well simply big business wouldn't allow it. To expand on the ideas touched upon in class, the pharmaceutical lobby or the drug lobby refers to large pharmaceutical and biomedicine companies with politicians in their back pockets. They dump money into politician's campaigns which is relatively unregulated due to Citizens United(which I wrote about in a recent blog post) to seek influence in government policies. Supposedly "pharmaceutical companies spent $900 million on lobbying between 1998 and 2005, more than any other industry. During the same period, they donated $89.9 million to federal candidates and political parties, giving approximately three times as much to Republicans as to Democrats."So when the facts are out their how could you see such a shift when all the power is vested in these giant companies and politicians. Even though we have a democracy it's very hard to fight such power. A report I found online estimates that "220 lobbyists are active in Europe on behalf of the pharmaceutical industry, which pales in comparison to nearly 1500 industry lobbyists documented in the US in 2011. Clear and enforced reporting rules in the US yield a more accurate picture of pharma's lobby contingent in America as compared to the EU." Though it could be more accurate it seems as thought the drug lobbyists still exist in Europe it seems to be more manageable. It isn't completely gone but does prove the fact that these drug lobbyists are a larger part of the U.S policies.

    How can we stop this? I don't think I can answer that question, but what I do believe is that something must be done to limit these large companies in this back door diplomacy that has been so prevalent in U.S politics. As my generation gets older and this issue proves itself more important we must make strides in changing such a problem. Europe seems to have it figured out. It would be one less thing for us to worry about and provides a hassle free way to take care of ourselves and our family. I can only hope more is done in the following years as many other attempts throughout the years has been so unsuccessful.

blog 5- tristan

Poverty is a major problem. No one should be living on the streets. This cartoon is showing how this man dressed poorly is tired of walking with the struggle of poverty. He is dressed in overalls with patches and does not look like he has much, any money. Poverty is a struggle around the world.

5. Reflection of Van Gogh's Characteristics

“Theo, I am so very happy with my paintbox, and I think my getting it now, after having drawn almost exclusively for at least a year, better than if I had started with it immediately…

For, Theo, with painting my real career begins. Don't you think I am right to consider it so?”

     One of my favorite characteristics of Van Gogh is reflected so potently in this simple quote. You can almost feel the emotion coming out of each word, just from a minor letter written to his brother Theo.  Even with times of hardship and financial difficulties, he was able to bring himself to paint, no matter how intense his depression had struck him. He would find joy in just seeing slight progression in his work, and would be encouraged to study and practice more diligently. 

“Although I find myself in financial difficulties, I nevertheless have the feeling that there is nothing more solid than a `handicraft' in the literal sense of working with one's hands. If you became a painter, one of the things that would surprise you is that painting and everything connected with it is quite hard work in physical terms. Leaving aside the mental exertion, the hard thought, it demands considerable physical effort, and that day after day.”

     He also speaks from the point of view of a physical laborer, portraying painting as a needs for physical and mental endurance. Rather than merely valuing art as a visual attraction, Van Gogh valued it on a whole different level, appreciating each color and imaging each brush stroke put into a piece of work. He was able to sympathize with the mental exhaustion emphasized by the day to day labor, as well as the immense physical effort applied to it.

#5

When I heard we were studying poverty however many months ago, this image immediately came to my mind. I remember studying it in god's only knows when, probably eighth grade when learning not to assume when looking at photographs or jumping to conclusions. This shot was taken during the Great Depression by Dorothea Lange. Dorothea Lange (1895 – 1965) was an influential American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Lange's photographs humanized the consequences of the Great Depression and influenced the development of documentary photography. We've all seen this photograph and are familiar at the most basic level with what it stands for, and I thought it tied perfectly into everything we have discussed this year especially as a country we focus on being a world superpower to such an extent that we forget about internal and domestic issues.

This photo called "Migrant Mother" was of is one of a series of photographs that Dorothea Lange made of Florence Owens Thompson and her children in early 1936 in Nipomo, California. Lange was concluding a month's trip photographing migratory farm labor around the state for what was then the Resettlement Administration. 

On the moment of this photo, Lange explains it better than anyone ever could:
"I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean- to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it. (From: Popular Photography, Feb. 1960)."

In March 1936, after picking beets, Thompson and her family were traveling in hopes to find work in the lettuce fields of the valley. On the road, the car timing chain snapped and they coasted to a stop just inside a pea-pickers camp. They were shocked to find so many people camping there, as many as 3,500. A notice had been sent out for pickers, but the crops had been destroyed by freezing rain, leaving them without work or pay. Florence would relate in an interview years later, that when she cooked food for her children that day, little children appeared from the pea picker's camp asking, "Can I have a bite?"

While Jim Hill, her husband, and two of Thompson's sons took the radiator, which had also been damaged, to town for repair, Thompson and some of the children set up a temporary camp. As Thompson waited, the photographer drove up and started taking photos of Florence and her family. Over 10 minutes she took 6 images.

Lange's field notes of the images read:

"Seven hungry children. Father is native Californian. Destitute in pea pickers’ camp … because of failure of the early pea crop. These people had just sold their tires to buy food."

Lange later wrote of the meeting:

"I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was 32. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food."

It is just painted in her face, and the story behind her shows the devastation of poverty in the US.

                                                               Migrant Mother, taken by Dorothea Lange in 1936

Vincent van Gogh's Letters (#5)

Something that I found fascinating about Vincent van Gogh is that he wrote letters to has family and friends describing major events in his life and the feelings that he had about certain situations. It is through these letters that we were able to learn so much about his life. I find it so interesting that we are able to read letters written by van Gogh to attempt to understand his emotions rather than having to rely solely on his artwork to piece the puzzle together.

There are a total of 928 surviving letters either written or received by van Gogh. The majority of these letters were written to or sent from his best friend and brother, Theo. The collection also includes letters written by van Gogh to his sister Wil, his mother, various other relatives, and other artists such as Paul Gauguin and Anthon van Rappard.

When looking at the letters, I also found it interesting that van Gogh sent his brother Theo small sketches of the landscapes of famous paintings that he would later create. For example, this letter shows a small, rough sketch of a tree that later appears in van Gogh's painting "Small Pear Tree in Blossom."  

Vincent van Gogh also includes a sketch of "The Potato Eaters" in another letter.

The Future of Technology (and Poverty) #5

One of my all time favorite YouTubers and overall educational mastermind is CGP Grey. Grey has a variety of videos that he creates to educate people on controversial topics relating to science, politics, history, and philosophy, all of which are very interesting to watch and highly informative; I would highly recommend anyone to check him out.

Anyway to get to the point, Grey published a video known as "Humans Need Not Apply" in which he covers the current progression of the impact of technology in our lives today and gives insight on what the future of automation might entail. From Self-Driving cars and machines, to lawyer and doctor bots, and even creative bots capable of creating works of art both physical and musical the future of technology definitely has a lot in store for us but the big question is, are we ready?

Many of these ideas may seem fantastical or highly dangerous but it is not science fiction. All of these things already exist today in some form. Self-driven cars are not futuristic technology anymore, they are real and they are here. Many of these prototypes have already been tested countless amounts of times on highways and through cities with astounding results. Likewise IBM's "Watson" is an MD bot whose focus is to become the world's greatest doctor; capable of analyzing patients symptoms and giving accurate diagnosis with confidence levels equal to or greater than that of actual doctors. One may think, "well how can that be safe? What if the car's automation malfunctions and drives into another car? Or what if Watson misdiagnoses someone?" All of these things are very real possibilities but what needs to be understood is that these machines do not need to be perfect to be viable, they just need to be better than humans, and for that they already are. Humans are responsible for hundreds of thousands of car accidents each year and the rate of doctor misdiagnosis is alarming so its not hard to see how  a machine might better suit the job at hand. Not to mention a robot will never drink and get behind the wheel, or talk on the phone, or fall asleep, ect.

Now how does all of this relate to poverty? Quite simply, employment. With all of these new robots capable of doing your job twice as efficiently as you can and at only pennies of the cost your employment will no longer be a necessity. Pretty soon most humans in many different professions will be unemployable due to better available options in machines. To give a basic idea of how bad this might be, Grey states that "The unemployment rate during the Great Depression was 25%, the amount jobs that can be easily automated in some form represent 45% of the work force" an unemployment rate of 45% is so astronomical that if a solution is not found poverty will no longer be a problem, but a exorbitant epidemic of colossal proportions.

 

van gogh and sien (#5)

Vincent Van Gogh painted many pictures of a woman named Clasina Maria Hoornik, better known as Sien. Sien was a pregnant prostitute who he used as a model for his work. Vincent and Sien eventually were in a relationship but after Sien had her second child she was told by her mother to go back to being a prostitute, as she would make more money than she did as a model for Van Gogh. All the paintings of her are domestic and sorrowful. She's shown old, aged, and worn out. It seems to me that the two of them had a complicated relaitionship, or that she was unhappy. You would think that Sien didn't actually love him from these pictures, but that is not the case. She loved him so much that when she had to leave him she led a life filled with tradegy and profound unhappiness.

Sien seems to be the only woman to have ever truly loved Vincent. After she left him, she went on to live a miserable life. She had to give custody of her children to her siblings and married a man, Arnoldos Franciscus van Wijk, for convience. She had once told Vincent, "Yes, I am a whore...it's bound to end up with me jumping in the water" which she later fulfilled that in 1904 by drowning herself in the Schelde River.  Van Gogh then wrote, in Letter 216, "As long as I drown at the same time, I don't care. But we felt distinctly enough that her life and my life are as one . . . .".  The two of them loved eachother very much, which is not what I would of thought after seeing all the sorrowful and pained images of her.

Homes for Vets (#5)

After some thorough research regarding the lives of United States War Veterans, it has come to my attention that 40% (131,000) of America's homeless citizens are brave civilians who were at one point risking their lives for our country. As if these people aren't sacrificing enough by serving our country; they also now have to sacrifice their lives outside of war as well. Many veterans suffer from PTSD and may not be able to work for a living due to the traumatic experience of being in a deadly situation. The United States Government should be embarrassed by these statistics. Finally, something is being done about the homeless veterans in America...Better late than never, i suppose. The Department Of Veteran Affairs has began funding temporary housing for homeless veterans. The program consists of housing for two years, but it is limited to the first 8,000 people. Obviously this is not enough for all 131 thousand people, but at least something is being done. There is also long term care provided by the Domiciliary Care for Homeless Veterans Program. Another program that supplies jobs for homeless vets, called the Compensated Work Therapy/ Transitional Residence (CWT/TR) provide jobs in which vets work for about 33 hours a week and earn 732 dollars a month to help them get back on their feet. I think programs such as these are a great start at cutting down the amount of war veterans who are homeless in America. I gathered this information on the link that is listed below.



http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/veterans.html

#5 Mr. Van Gogh, Not just another star in the sky

                With a quick glance Van Gogh’s pieces  appear to be just sloppy strokes of color that form an image, but are they really only that? Many know one of his most prominent paintings, The Starry night yet not all that know the painting can place his name to it. This although sad is one of the features that make Van Gogh art more than just art by some guy with a cool name. His works are elegant in their own respect. For example the way he often left his strokes unblended and robust. This emphasizes the shapes of buildings and structures but it also provides an eerie sense of movement. It is as if the painting is alive and slightly swaying. This can be seen best in his landscapes but it also provides a heavy undertone in his portraits. In his painting of the potato eaters you have to look but the movement is there. The lack of perfectly straight lines offers a softer atmosphere to the piece.

             The soft facial features are sharpened by the harsh shadows that loom over them.  Van Gogh used shadows to portray both age but also the harshness of the life the people led. The potato eaters are just that, people eating potatoes. However it is through the brush strokes that the viewer can see emotions in the people’s eyes and strain and fatigue in their bodies as they gather around the table. Van Gogh can often be tied to the brightly colored paintings of sunflowers and nighttime landscapes but it is in his dimmer darker pieces that you can really feel the emotion both within and behind the piece.So if in parallel you can attribute this painting to Van Gogh’s own state of mind and soul. The dark palette, dim lighting and grim subject matter open a window into the subconscious. 

Van Gogh's Suicide

Adeline Ravoux, the innkeeper's daughter who was only 13 at the time, clearly recalls the incidents of July 1890. In an account written when she was 76, reinforced by her father's repeated reminders, she explains how on 27 July, van Gogh left the inn after breakfast. When he had not returned by dusk, given the artist's regular habits, the family became worried. He finally arrived after nightfall, probably around 9 pm, holding his stomach. Adeline's mother asked whether there was a problem. van Gogh started to answer with difficulty, "No, but I have..." as he climbed the stairs up to his room. Her father thought he could hear groans and found van Gogh curled up in bed. When he asked whether he was ill, van Gogh showed him a wound near his heart explaining: "I tried to kill myself." During the night, van Gogh explained he had set out for the wheat field where he had recently been painting. During the afternoon he had shot himself with a revolver and passed out. Revived by the coolness of the evening, he had tried in vain to find the revolver to complete the act. He then returned to the inn. 

Van Gogh turned down medical treatments and chose to just lie in bed until his death. Theo got their before he died which made him happy. Van Gogh truly had some demons and chose to end his life so he could find the rest that eluded him on earth. It is truly sad he never found success in his lifetime. 

Ferguson: The next Civil War?

You all remember during the summer with the situation in Ferguson involving the young Michael Brown and Ferguson PD officer Darren Wilson. During that time, we saw a dramatic turn in the media towards the incident. With protestors in the streets and military-like vehicles patrolling the town, the small Missouri town found itself as the center of attention in the United States. Even eclipsing certain topics such as ISIS at the time. Then with the increase in violent protests, more media hounded the town.

This conflict stemmed a entire race controversy throughout the United States. Having Michael Brown be black and officer Wilson white, many were saying that the encounter was stemmed from race. It seemed as Officer Wilson were to be ripped apart by not only protestors but the liberal media as well.

BUT, as the tension grew more and more, shocking evidence came to light, forensics studies showed that not only did Brown make an attempt to grab Wilson's firearm but perhaps charged at him again while outside of the vehicle. Surveillance video from a local connivence store showed Brown and his friend he was walking on the road robbing the store for expensive cigars and physically harming the store vendor. And the final nail in the coffin to the case was that a Mr. Johnson, the man Brown was walking with, admitted to Brown making an attack on the officer after lying to the media in the first week or so. With all of this information flowing in, the fight to have Brown's name not fall to dust failed. With an almost embarrassing filter on their protests, things seemed to simmer down, until another issue arose.

Those who still felt that even though Brown's case failed, a fight for race equality emerged. So once again, protests began and the police responded tenfold. And to the shock of many, the Klu Klux Klan has recently released a statement and threats against the protestors claiming that lethal actions will be taken against them if protests do not stay "peaceful". With the PD of the area now in awe of the KKK's involvement, they have backed off a touch in fear of an all out race war between the protestors of Ferguson and the Klan. Now in waiting of future events to take place, the country is watching and waiting to see how things play out.

Once again, a new chapter of American history may unfold in this small southern town causing a widespread movement in the country. But any drastic events are very unlikely. These threats are similar to a Cold War like scenario.

I would write more but the bell is about to ring

#6 The Van Gogh Story

   Though we only glanced over the story of Vincent van gogh I found it vital to elaborate on his crazy life. He has a very interesting story. I found out that his father was was a minster. He was named after his grandfather and stillborn brother. So at a very young age he was grossly exposed to many deaths. Imagine a child

going to see a tombstone with his name on it. His life is very tragic to begin with. He had two brothers and 3 sisters. Art ran in the family as his aunts and uncles were art dealers and his great grandfather who was a successful sculptor. When van gogh was sent to boarding school he was exposed to Constantijn C. Huysmans a successful artist in Paris who taught van gogh to draw. He began to enjoy drawing and wanted to paint for a living. After he left school his uncle got him a job as an art vender. He finally decided to follow his passion to become a minister. He failed to make it but carried out his missionary work.

    In 1880 he moved to Brussels and became an artist. His brother Theo helped him financially in his journey. Through this journey he experienced some very strange love interests. He was attracted to some very troubled women. He became in love with his cousin who fled to Amersterdam in disgusted. Then he fell in love with an alcoholic prostitute. She modeled for his paintings which we discussed in class.

    He began studying Japanese art and eastern philosophy. At this time Theo was worried about Vincent and his declining health. He suffered seizures and supposedly eat led paint. Vincent and his brother were constantly arguing and one day Vincent van gogh went to a brothel with a razor and cut his ear off which he gave to a prostitute. They had to admit him to a hospital.

   Theo had a baby with his wife and named him Vincent after his brother. On July 27 1890 van gogh shot himself in the chest. He did not die immediately and bled profusely. He was fixed up and sent to his brothers house which he died only a few days later in his brothers arms. Not too long after Theo died. His wife Johanna collected Vincent's paintings and displayed them in Paris.

   Then we all know how famous he has become after his death. But through my research I found true,y how disturbed he really was. Between the death in his early childhood and his continued feelings of what some would categorize as depression. He lived a tough life and was always in a shadow. He didn't have his own identity as his dead brother was named after him then his brother named his kid after him he must of felt as though he wasn't his own person. It's a sad story but, I'm glad I learned more background into such an amazing story that everyone should be familiar with. 

After the Martin Luther King Jr. piece we went over, Mrs.Cassidy pointed out that DNA doesn't determine ethnicity, and ethnicity is a big part of equality. I found this article on it:
http://www.genebase.com/support/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=378

Many people think their race is superior.  Equality seems like such an easy concept but it's so hard to be enforced. Can we all just be born equal? Is it that easy? On the outside yeah, but we're conditioned to view certain groups of people certain ways. We all have different views religiously and that really is a basis for so many things. Atheists are looked at as sinners, just like homosexuals are. We're also conditioned to see women as the weaker sex. And certain racial groups to be less important/more important. And we as children see these people being shunned and made to look like outkasts and like they are weak. We adapt those thoughts and beliefs. Imagine everyone just cleared their heads and started new, didn't tell anyone any info about their religion, heritage, sexual preference, income, etc, and we had to determine if we liked them on what really matters, their interests, and how nice they are and not the material things. We're all humans. We all have out own opinions and goals and obviously we're not always going to like everyone we meet. But that doesn't mean we have to judge them, and it doesn't mean we have to treat them like we're superior. It really is a pride thing and envy thing. And I'm not sure how big it is around the world but I know it's bad in America. Martin Luther king jr is right when he said we're all born equal. Even though we're all different, our biological makeup isn't all that different. We all have potential and we can all do big things. We should open our eyes and see that were not all that different. We should stop judging people and start seeing that we're all just human.

1 out of 4 homeless men have served our country

According to usverteransmagazine.com one out of every four homeless men have served our country and this week in humanities we learned that Long Island has the highest homeless rate. If you choose to fight for our country I think for life you should be guaranteed assistance on a place to live, food and basic necessities. The men that go and fight don't sit here and think about retirement and when they're done fighting where they are going to live and I don't think they should have to worry about things like that. They're putting their life on the line for our freedom I think they should all be guaranteed at least  roof over their head and not just homeless shelters that take them in. They should have ptsd counseling for life after serving to try and get back to the place they were once in before going to war. I don't think we give these men and women enough credit for what they do for us and I don't think any of them should be going to sleep hungry, cold or without a place to sleep.

A look into the life of Jonathan Swift (5)

In the early 1700s, Ireland was in economic turmoil.  It was controlled by England, which was mainly Protestant.  For this reason, the wealth and power was held by the Protestants of Ireland, the minority.  Most of the Irish were Catholic, and were living in extreme poverty.  Similar to the aristocrats living in Versailles, France in the 1600s and 1700s, the wealthy class in Ireland was relatively blind to, and did not understand, the plight of the poor.  The pervasive attitude among the upper-class, Protestant Irishmen was that the poor Catholics were a burden.  They did not seek to find a way to solve the issue of poverty, but instead wished they would disappear.

Jonathan Swift was a wealthy, Protestant man living in Ireland around this time.  In 1729, he mocked the opinion of wealthy Protestants in his satirical piece, "A Modest Proposal."  To highlight the ignorance of this class of people, Swift wrote that the upper classes should kill the poor children and use them for food and clothing.  Jonathan Swift's point of view was ironic, because he himself was not horribly affected by the tumultuous economic times.  This irony struck me as quite odd, and I decided to research more on Swift.

When Jonathan Swift was born in 1667, he did not have the same wealth that he eventually garnered by the time he wrote "A Modest Proposal."  His father died when he was just two months old, and Swift's mother struggled to raise him without a steady income.  Additionally, Jonathan Swift was constantly sick, adding to the struggle.  In hopes of bettering the situation, his mother gave Jonathan to his uncle who was a member of an attorney and judge group.  Jonathan was then able to enroll in a private school and receive a sound education that would create a pathway towards his later success.

Because Jonathan experienced the hardship of poverty first-hand, he did not share the same perspective as other wealthy men.  Instead, he was clearly bothered by their ignorance.  Jonathan Swift knew that the poor were still people, not just objects taking up space.  By writing "A Modest Proposal", Swift was able to grab the attention of both the wealthy Protestants and the poor Catholics.  Because he was well known in the religious community, his words were not ignored.  Jonathan's words spoke so loud that, even today, we see relevance in each and every one of them.