ThanksGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! During this holiday, it always crosses my mind that there are so many people less fortunate than myself, who don't get the privilege of sitting down to a delicious thanksgiving dinner like I do. Thats why I was so happy when I found this video. It tells the story of a charity in Ohio that serves thousands of hungry people on Thanksgiving. Here is a link so you can watch the video Click Here!
It's so nice to know that there are people in the world who are willing to spend their Thanksgiving helping others in need. I think that that is what the holiday is all about.

A Modern Day Wizard

Last night I got the opportunity to go see Tom DeLuca, the hypnotist, at New Trier. His claim to fame is being able to hypnotize people and then proceed to make them do completely outrageous things. Some of these "things" included hypnotizing a boy to believe he is Jackie Chan's younger brother, or hypnotizing another person to believe he is America's greatest spy. Needless to say, it was hilarious, and Tom DeLuca really convinced me that hypnosis is actually possible.
Now, I know this could seem like somewhat of a stretch, but in some ways, his act made me think of The Crucible, and how Tom DeLuca is like a modern day wizard. He "possesses" others, and makes them do whatever he wants, somewhat like The Crucible. Those accused of witchcraft in The Crucible are often accused of possessing their victims as well. After thinking about it more, it seemed interesting to me how witches in the Crucible were persecuted and put in jail, but now, "wizards", such as Tom DeLuca, are paid to perform and entertain people. Why do you think throughout time witches and wizards changed from being criminals, to being entertainers?

Harry Potter: A Defender of Civil Liberties

In the spirit of the opening week of Harry Potter (5 more days!), I decided to start to re-read the seventh book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Originally, I wasn't looking for anything in particular, but suddenly, around the middle of the book, I began to notice some connections to what we were discussing in American Studies! (Crazy, I know.) It all started with the break in to the Ministry of Magic. Harry and friends were all breaking into the Ministry of Magic and stumbled in on a court case involving a Mrs. Mary Cattermole, who was under suspicion of being a Mudblood (A wizard or witch born from two non-magical parents). This was one of many court cases involving thousands of Mudbloods who were accused of stealing their powers (rather than being born with them) and who were considered a threat to society. As I continued to read, I began to see some civil liberty violations going on. These people were citizens like everyone else, the only difference being they were born from two muggles. Yet, they were being put in Azkaban (prison) for something that was clearly out of their control. However, some may argue that this was a time of war and the imprisonment of Mudbloods was merely a precaution.
The situation in Harry Potter somewhat resembles the Japanese Internment Camps during World War Two. Japanese Americans were put in camps across the west coast after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in order to ensure national security, but many thought that that was a complete violation of the Japanese American's civil liberties. But once again, it was a time of war, so many considered it essential for the safety of America. However, both situations bring up an important question that we have been discussing in class. Should civil liberties be limited in times of war? In my opinion, they should not. Rights are rights, and they should not be taken away under any circumstances, but it is definitely something to think about.

Lost and Found

This week during our school's Literary Festival I had the privilege of seeing Davy Rothbart, the creator of Found magazine. This magazine is compiled of lost letters, photos, notes, advertisements, or anything that someone finds and sends in. The reason that I found this magazine so interesting is that every letter or scrap of paper that they find, they deem significant. While other's may think of these letters as trash, to them it is treasure. Oddly enough, this made me think about the books we read in school. The books we read in class are most likely chosen by the teachers because they are of some literary importance. These books are deemed significant by the school, and therefore they are chosen as our class curriculum. But after learning about Found magazine, I began to wonder, what makes these books more important than any other piece of literature? What makes them more significant? In my opinion, the letters published in Found are in some ways more significant than the books we read in class. They are true accounts of human emotion that would be hard to come across in a classroom book. Rather than being edited and scrutinized under a magnifying glass, they are handwritten, rarely edited, and come straight from somebody's deepest thoughts. And in my opinion that makes them almost more interesting and significant than most of the books we read in school. So the next time you come across a piece of paper being shuffled across the floor, pick it up, because you never know what it could say.