More History

Hello my wonderful people!
Wow. I learned so much today; I really hope I don't forget too much of it! I must write it down! So after Anam and I gave the quiz, the rest of the class period was filled with student presentations. 
The first one was about Barefoot Gen, a manga on Japan during WWII. I remember the extremely graphic anime scene where people melted from the A bomb. At first, when Austen said it was pretty graphic, with people melting and stuff, I thought he was just using the wrong word. People don't melt! But then the clip showed otherwise... It started rather peacefully, with a little Japanese boy and girl walking on the street. The boy dropped something and bent down to pick it up when the American fighter jet dropped the A bomb. The scenes flashed black and white as the bomb hit. The drawings of the people turned red as their eyeballs and skin melted. It was SO DISTURBING. I don't understand why the U.S. thought this was appropriate at all! Why did we think it was okay to do this to people? They must have known it wouldn't be pleasant dropping an A bomb, and yet, they went through with it! Huh, how can educated people support such horrible treatment?
At least I learned a little more about what the bombing situation was like... It wasn't very enjoyable to watch, though.
So then a few people gave interesting presentations on Pedro and Me, which was about AIDs awareness. I feel so bad for Pedro! I can't believe how intolerable people can be, treating him differently just because he was gay! Ugh, why can't people just enjoy each other's differences? If we were all the same, life would be SO BORING. All the stories would be the same! This situation of homophobia reminds me of Lily Allen's song. I'll post the censored one, but you can click here for the uncensored one (which sounds way better).
I can't believe Pedro died at 22! Life is so unfair. He didn't do anything to deserve this fate! People should have educated him more! Why does disease even exist? It should all be terminated >:[
Go go Terminator!






It was also interesting to hear that comics were not popular back then. I always thought since old people always liked comic books, comics must have been super "in" back then. But then the presenter said that when the U.S. tried to use comics to gain support for the Vietnam War, they weren't very successful. I feel like that may have been because people were very against the war. I mean, it's understandable. Nothing can be solved by killing people! Jeeze, why has humanity even resorted to this horribleness?!
That kind of leads to the next thing covered--torture. Man, listening to the brutality of humankind was torture in itself! I can't believe some people think it's okay to put people through pain to get them to do something. Even if the person contains knowledge that could potentially save some people from dying, I don't think he or she should suffer! Well, actually I don't know. Those other people have a right to life as well. That is a tough question.
I really enjoyed listening to Hok and Miguel though! Their personal stories were really engaging! Since Hok had to go through training, he shared with us what he had to learn. I'm really glad that they teach the military that their prisoners have human rights as well! 
I hope the soldiers have enough integrity to follow those rules, so the other side won't be tortured or abused if they're caught! 
Miguel had such a powerful voice! I didn't know he wanted to become a pastor! I'm sure he's going to make a fabulous one some day :) Anyway, what he said about torture really enlightened me, especially when he defined it as anything that makes you lose hope. Hope is really a powerful force. I guess you could say it's what gets people through their days. I think hope is even needed when people aren't going through tough times. If nothing is wrong with my life, personally, I still need hope that other people's lives are going well. I need hope that problems around the world are going to get solved soon. Otherwise, if I accept that problems are going to constantly exist and worsen, I would be very depressed. So when I get up every day, I hope that people are making an effort to better the lives of themselves and others! 
It was also interesting to listen to Miguel emphasize mental torture, especially when he gave the example of taking away our phones! He has the best sense of humor! I guess that makes him rather intelligent, according to Marjane! 
I always thought of torture and physical, but when he explained the other methods of torture, I realized that everyone goes through torture. We just don't realize it! If we realize that our mental health is just as important as our physical health, then I think we would be able to pin point problems faster and feel much better!
Another shocking presentation was about Iran's execution rates. Every 8 hours, 1 person in Iran is executed, in 2011, at least. That's ridiculous! And the reasons for the public hangings were bogus! Jeeze, we must end all this injustice! I truly hope something is being done. Amnesty International is supposed to be heavily against torture and has demonstrations, which perhaps helps spread awareness. That's good. At least more people are finding out about this situation.
Even though the presentation topics were a bit depressing, they were incredibly interesting. That reminds me of the quote about ordinary people doing extraordinary things. All my classmates are just normal people and they produced such wonderful work! I was truly amazed.

'Till next time!
Angie :)



Wow, what a deadening period of presentations. I don't mean the presentations put the class to sleep or anything, but they kind of killed the mood. I guess when you talk about torture and AIDs, not much happiness can come out of it.

Atomic Bomb Victim

I don't know if I agree that dropping the A bomb was the best idea. We'll never know if more lives were saved by dropping it. I don't know if more lives would have been affected if it hadn't been dropped, since those affected by the radiation faced so many problems afterwards. They had organ failure and unhealthy children because of it. However, if we let the war play out, then more people probably would have been killed or tortured. It's a tough say. The video in class was highly disturbing, but I'm glad it was made. People should know the effects of what the U.S. did and plans to do in the future. Making it an anime probably de-emphasized the visuals, since people could distance themselves from what they were seeing, but it was an appropriate start. Maybe they can make more realistic interpretations in the future and spread the word that way. Of course, it may be better to keep the public in the dark about some things. What if it really was better to use the bomb and save the soldiers who would have died? Then many more would have had to suffer because the public didn't think killing a few so brutally would be worth saving the rest.
From the Pedro and Me presentations, I learned that people are ambitious enough to try to spread the word about sexual education. It amazes me that individuals believe they have the power to significantly affect others. So many times, people handing out fliers to spread awareness and ask for donations are ignored. They stand outside of Target and grocery stores, but 99% of people turn away and avoid eye contact. No one likes to give money. People think that they worked hard for it and they deserve it, so why should someone else take it away from them? I guess that's like the fundamental U.S. value of property. We all have the right to what we make or own. So I find it hard to believe that these people trying to raise money or spread awareness will affect anyone in their community. So rarely do people give strangers the time of day.
I wonder why that is. Is it only now that people are more kept to themselves? Or has it always been like this? I think now since we're so focused on creating the best lives for ourselves through making money, we don't care about others. How lovely.

Then there's this whole business about torture again. Honestly, people are just monsters. All these things that people disagree about are really just so trivial. It's all just because people have too much time on their hands. When it used to be that all people could think about was getting enough food to eat and fending off predators, they wouldn't kill and torture each other! There was no time for it! Everyone was needed to do their part in the community just to get by. But then humans just had to "advance" and develop new technology to make life "easier". Really, it's just making people lazier. Now that the internet lets them look up anything instantly, all the hard work and effort that went in to figuring out that information is not acknowledged. Sure we can know a lot more now, but half of it isn't even true! In addition, since it's so easy to get the information, that it becomes quickly forgotten.
Right, back to torture. Well, I can see why it might seem necessary at times. If you can save more people by torturing a few, it seems more humane. Of course, torturing in itself is not humane at all. I guess it's all too easy for people to not think of torture and what the people might be going through, though. They might think that the person deserves the pain anyway, since he or she is keeping information and hurting others. However, everyone's image of justice is different. In Iran, what they might think deserves punishment is very different from what we think deserves punishment in the U.S.
So it is very difficult to find a middle ground.
Well, perhaps that wasn't the most satisfying end to this post, but situations rarely end satisfyingly.

Deb.