Reaction to Jim Crow laws.

Everyone knows that segregation occurred in the south and that the civil rights movement fought to bring equality, but it is really hard to grasp how severe it really was until you read the Jim Crow laws. I knew that buses were separated front to back, and that black and white people had separate bathrooms, but I didn't realize there were laws against a white and black person getting married. I was shocked by the level of segregation and the fact that it was everywhere! Hospitals had to have separate wards, buses had to have separate bus stations, trains had to have separate compartments, restaurants had to have separate rooms, bars, and entrances, circuses had to have separate seating, libraries had to have separate areas for reading, and prisons had to have separate wards. Whites couldn't rent a room in their home to a black person and vice versa. Text books in a school could not be shared between races. A white and black person could not get married to each other. Whites and Blacks were not even allowed to play pool/billiard together! These laws are from Georgia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, Mississippi, Missouri, Virginia, Florida, and Alabama. That is over 1/5 of the states. The worst part is that the civil rights act was only passed in 1964! That is less than 50 years ago. It seems impossible that such injustice could have been occurring so recently in our past. I know that some black people and some white people must have been friends with each other but it sure would have been hard because there wasn't anywhere they could go in public together. I understand why MLK was so upset with the article in the paper from the 8 clergymen who wanted him to go through the court system instead of taking direct action. People had tried using the justice system to end segregation, but clearly it wasn't working so it was time to take it a step further. Segregation had lasted long enough and it was time to end it.

Response to William Kennedy's essay

I did some background reading on William Kennedy. He was born in Albany NY. His books were fiction but many of them took place in Albany. He had an "Albany cycle" where he wrote many books about a fictional family line in Albany NY.

This was my favorite essay from the packet because it was the most down to earth. I was able to relate to it the most. Also, it was funny. I liked how confident he was about "eggs" and how he never gave up. I lot of people would have thrown it away if their parents told them it was stupid, but he didn't. He sent it in to colliers anyways (probably less just to get it accepted, but more to get the letter of acceptance, and rub it in his fathers face). Nobody can be successful without an attitude like that.

I know what Kennedy is talking about when he rereads "Eggs" and realizes how horrible it actually was. We keep boxes with our old work from elementary school, and I went through it to try and organize it one day. I read some of my old stories and I realized how bad they were. This would make sense because I am still going through school and improving on my writing skills. Of course something that I wrote in elementary school would sound bad. What about professional writers though? What do they think when they look back on a book that they wrote ten years ago? Is J.K. Rowling still happy with the first harry potter book or does she look at it and see changes she would want to make if she were publishing it today? I suppose it depends on the author.

I also liked what Kennedy said about how fiction cannot be good without an element of mystery. That tends to be what I look for in a good fiction book. I read the back of the book, and if there aren't any unknowns, why bother reading it?

Helium

I just learned a few days ago that we are actually running out of helium! It is actually a pretty big deal and I am surprised that it hasn't been covered by the news more. I guess it isn't as important or worth as much as oil, but it has some very important uses. Helium is used to cool MRI machines. It is used in large solar telescopes, and it is mixed into air tanks for deep sea diving. One of the largest helium reserves is actually in the united states.  It is in Amarillo Texas. But a law was created in 1996 which stated that the united states had to sell all of its helium by 2015. This has caused the price of helium to go way down, even though it should really cost a lot more due to how much we have left. Helium isn't renewable because it is created by radioactive decay. After helium is used, it is lost in the atmosphere. It stays on earth but it would cost a lot of money to extract it from the air. According to Robert Richardson, the scientist who is trying to raise awareness about this problem, a birthday balloon should actually be worth at least $100 for its helium content! He says that at the rate it is being sold and used, we could run out of helium within forty years. So don't take your party balloons for granted. You may not be able to buy them for a quarter in a few years! 

sources: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/why-the-world-is-running-out-of-helium-2059357.html

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/08/25/nobel-prize-winner-warns-world-were-running-out-of-helium/

Why I Write

I wish I could say that I write on my own time, and that I have written something outside of a school assignment but that isn't true. Everything I have written was because it was assigned for a class, I took the SAT, or because the common app requires an essay. The one exception to this, was right after our haiku unit in elementary school. When I finished my haiku for class, I attempted to write some of my own, but I quickly gave up when I realized how bad I was at it.

I am not opposed writing. In fact, I have some good ideas for a few stories. My only problem is that I don't know how to expand. When writing stories for school, I have always found that it is hard expand it into a decent story, let alone a book. My diaglog sound cheesy. I don't know where to add details, and I don't use enough imagery. Even though I know what is wrong with my writing, I don't know how to fix it. It should be easy right? I have read hundreds of books so I should know by now how the author does it. Yet to this day it still fascinates me how authors are able to expand an idea into a four hundred page book. When you read, a good book doesn't feel like the author has filled the book with extra nonsense to make it longer. It feels like each word adds to the final product.

Off on a tangent, I have always wondered how so many people can write books. It can't be that easy can it? Politicians and comedians are always coming out with books but I never know if the person actually wrote it or if they hired somebody to write it for them. So I went online and figured out that many of these books are written by ghost writers http://www.worldwidefreelance.com/freelance-writing/ghostwriting/28-what-is-a-ghostwriter.   So at least it's not everyone but me who can write. Even famous politicians need help!

Although I think if I did write, I would write for fun and entertainment. I don't like books where the characters have some deep inner turmoil, and then end up killing themselves by the end of the book.  I would want to write something that people could enjoy, something that would expand the imagination. Personally, I like science fiction, and I think that would be what I would write. I like to image the unknown and think about what our future may hold. I am frustrated by the fact that we are stuck on earth. It would be a lot more exciting to get in a space ship and travel across the universe meeting strange creatures and discovering new things. But because I can't hop in a spaceship and leave, I settle for reading about it, and I hope that someday I can give my own adventures to the public.