Final Opinion Article

More than 1,000 United States WWII veterans die every day.

This staggering statistic reveals the bleak truth that soon, those who fought in WWII will only be names and memories.

My grandfather Lou Brown was a pilot for the Air force during WWII.

Last month we lost Lou to cancer.

It was an emotional reality check that made me realize how important and necessary it is to commemorate the fallen. 

On this day I try to imagine what it felt like for those who served in the military 70 years ago.  Waking up each day, stressing, wondering if the U.S. would enter the war against Germany, Japan and Russia.  Then suddenly being told "We were attacked by Japanese aircraft at Pearl Harbor," and knowing it meant war.

It must have been terribly frightening knowing that you were going to be sent to Europe or Japan to fight the second world war.  But those men and women who took an oath to defend this country will forever be remembered.

We honor these soldiers with memorials and holidays to commemorate what they did to put an end to the Axis regime.   

59 years and 10 months later, passengers aboard U.S. Airlines flight 93 stood up against terrorists who hijacked the plane intending to crash into Washington D.C.  Whatever their motives, those passengers helped defend the U.S. from enemies.

We honor them and the 3,000 others who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001. 

It is vital to humanity that we commemorate those who lost their lives in both the attacks on Pearl Harbor and 9/11.

George Santayana, a Spanish philosopher, once said, "Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it." 

Santayana's quote shows why it is vital to our race to remember events such as these for the rest of our existence.

We must educate every generation to come about these events to honor the fallen and to ensure that it does not happen again.

Fairy Tale Story

A flock of sheep was scattered on Saturday when a wolf entered the grazing area, authorities said.

A young shepherds boy, who wishes to remain anonymous, was watching the sheep when the wolf appeared.

The boy alerted the townspeople by calling for help to which not a single person responded.

A member of the community stated that earlier in the day the shepherds boy lied twice about spotting a wolf in an attempt to amuse himself.    

 

The townspeople did not respond to the third and only real call for help and the boy, unable to defend the sheep, watched as they scattered. 

A search and rescue team is being formed to locate the missing sheep, according to local townsfolk.   


Word Count: 116

Word of the week 9

1. Chorine
2. My friend was showing me a video of himself titled Chorine.  I didn't know what the word meant so I looked it up and used it as my word of the week.
3. The piece is called Chorine.
4. Noun. A chorus girl.
5. The chorine sang the notes beautifully.

Japanese Internment Memorial

            While their families lived in ramshackle huts behind barbed wire, young Japanese men served in the U.S. army during World War Two. 

           

            In 1942 the U.S. government relocated more than 100,000 Japanese people into internment camps.

           

            To remember the hardships these people went through, a memorial was created in downtown San Jose that contains dozens of vignettes.

           

            The vignettes depicted a variety of scenes, some showed what life was like in the camps and others showed how people were transported to the camps via trains.

           

            Two vignettes on the south facing wall grabbed my attention in particular.

           

            One shows a group of six Japanese U.S. army soldiers making soup in their helmets.

           

            This vignette reminds us of the thousands of Japanese men who fought and died in service to the United States.

            This vignette struck me the most because of the fact that these men fought for a country that imprisoned their families. 

           

            The amount of courage these men had was inspiring and should be recognized by all.

           

            The other vignette that grabbed my attention depicts a large group of politicians standing in front of a governmental building. 

           

            This vignette told the story of how the U.S. government paid reparations to those who were affected.

           

            This vignette is significant to me because I do not believe that this was sufficient consolation in light of what happened. 

            

Word count:  233

word of the week 8

1. Piste
2. The other day I was talking to my uncle who lives in Mammoth and he said he can't wait for us to come skiing with him this winter.  He used the word piste to describe a new trail he was going to take us down.  I didn't know what this word meant so I decided to make it my word of the week.
3. "it's a hidden piste on the Tamarak side of Mammoth, its called Hole In the Wall.
4. Noun. A ski run of compacted snow.
5. The snowboarders flew down the piste with great speed.

word of the week 8

1. Piste
2. The other day I was talking to my uncle who lives in Mammoth and he said he can't wait for us to come skiing with him this winter.  He used the word piste to describe a new trail he was going to take us down.  I didn't know what this word meant so I decided to make it my word of the week.
3. "it's a hidden piste on the Tamarak side of Mammoth, its called Hole In the Wall.
4. Noun. A ski run of compacted snow.
5. The snowboarders flew down the piste with great speed.

Word of the week # 7

1. Esoteric
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esoteric_programming_language  
While browsing a Wikipedia article I found the word Esoteric. I did not know the meaning of it so I decided this to be my word of the week.
3. An esoteric programming language (sometimes shortened to esolang) is a programming language designed as a test of the boundaries of computer programming language design, as a proof of concept, or as a joke.
4. Adj. Intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest.
5. The process to build a computer is somewhat esoteric.