Sanitarium

A Conversation Between Unborn Twins:

1. Month 1
• *NOTHING YET!*
• “Hey, you’re the thing that got split from my thing….”
• “Yep! That was our chromosomes splitting, since we are identical twins”
• “La-la-la…I can’t hear you…*mumbling*(think you’re so smart….jdfghjgfkj)*
• “That’s because you don’t have ears yet.”
• “AHHHHH!!! SHUT UP!! You have no mouth, so stop talking!!!”
2. Month 2
• “Now I have a brain, which actually gives me a reason to be smart! HAH!!”
• “Awww man…now I have a heart, which will make me feel bad if I was to “”accidentally”” kill you.”
• “Don’t make me use my tail!”
3. Month 3
• “Ewwww….what is that horrible smell?!…it smells like New York!”
• “How’d you know what New York smells like?…You’re not born yet, remember….!”
• “I have a butt now. And you know what I hate most?”
• “What”
• “Since I finally grew some ears, I actually have to listen to you…, And I can’t even use my tail anymore, seems like the older I get, the smarter I have to be (to figure out how to torture you so, you will shut up).”
4. Month 4
• “Is that a frown I see?”
• “How’d you know…what’d you do grow some physic power or something?”
• “No, your facial muscles grew in.”
• “Ugh…more of your smartness?”
• “It’s called intelligence, and remember, I grew a brain about 2 months ago.”
• “I would smack you, but I don’t have any arms, I can’t move, and I can’t see, even though I have eyes.”
• “I’ve been dying to know, are you a boy or a girl? Cause it would feel weird if you were a guy, and since I’m a guy, and we are scrunched in this little space, so close together….ewww…”
• “Judging by my intelligence, I am definitely a girl, but you have a very sick mind, typical boy…uh!”
• “Very stereotypical, for a smart person!”
5. Month 5
• “I’m finally getting bigger, thank God, Buddha, Jesus, and all those other holy peoples, that I finally grew arms and legs, now I can smack you every time you use big words against me.”
• “Why so many deities? And just an FYI, you can’t move yet.”
• “First of all what is a deity? And WHY YOU LITTLE!!!”
• “All those “”holy peoples””.”
• “Oh, I don’t know what religion I am yet, so I may as well thank ‘em all.”
• “Hey, you’re fat now…haha.”
• “So are you, so SILENCIO!”
6. Month 6
• “Yay, I got fur on my head!”
• “It’s called hair, moron.”
• “Ouch! What was that?”
• “Finally I can hurt you with my hands instead of just words!”
• “Meaning we can move?”
• “Yep.”
• “Ow!”
• “Revenge is sweet!”
7. Month 7
• “Still getting fatter!!”
• “Don’t worry, by the time we start walking, we’ll be crazy enough o get rid off it.”
• “I have more hair than you!”
• “Not for Long!”
8. Month 8
• “Hey watch out, your fat is getting in the way of my growing area! Fatty.”
• “Hey you are fat too, so shut up.”
• “Such harsh language, just wait until I cry to mom.”
• “We still got a month to go, so you can’t cry to her yet! Looser!”
9. Month 9
• “What do ya know, my bones are growing.”
• “Bones?”
• “The hard stuff in your body. Moron.”
• “Oh.”
• “I can see again!”
10. Month 10
• “The mucous plug is gone…time to go!”
• “YAY!!!”

Birth:

“Look how filthy…dirty you are.”

“So, we were just born, enjoy the moment, it only happens once.”

“SPANK TIME!! I’ve waited all my life for this!”

“What is this, all your life thing?”

“Doesn’t matter. SPANK TIME!!!”

“Experience tells you what to do; confidence allows you to do it.” – Stan Smith

That’s just something you can think about as my speech follows.

Hi, my name is Imran Shah and I am running to be your Class Vice President once again.  This is going to be my fourth year involved with the student government.  In 7^th grade I was the Team Executive, and took my job very seriously.  In 8^th grade I took a step up on the political ladder, and served as Public Relations Director on the Montgomery County Junior Council (MCJC).  This past year, I again served on the county’s executive board, as Special Programs Coordinator for Montgomery County Region (MCR), and finally also this past year, I served as your Freshman Class Vice President.

From my past experiences, when ever we vote for any position, after a few weeks, maybe a month, we never know what is going on.  I do not wish to be the sort of politician that gets voted in and is never heard about again.  I am not the type of person that will take the seat and leave the work to everyone else.

Before I was appointed as the Special Programs Coordinator on Montgomery County Region, I was interviewed, and apparently the rest of the officers, thought me skilled enough to plan out and organize events.  Two years of middle school experience, and last years office of 9^th grade Vice President, of pulling off events like the Tsunami relief efforts, and organizing dances, helping out with Homecoming, and doing small projects like the showcase earlier this year, has taught me what students can improve and change.  And that’s just what I plan to do, with your help.  I am also involved in the community, in my mosque and other schools.  For two years I have helped poor countries in South America and Africa donating school supplies, as part of Drive for Supplies.

Unlike many others, I believe that I am a regular every day high schooler and I know what we, as 10^th graders, want.

I definitely want a great sophomore year, and I bet you do too, so remember, Vote Experience, Vote Imran Shah for sophomore Class Vice President.

GO BLUE DEVILS!!

According to the dictionary, Institution basically means an organization, society, or union devoted to one specific article.  Factors that made slavery an institution were such things as the several rebellions that were stopped in a very violent manner, and those involved were severely punished or even killed in a brutal manner.  Other factors incorporated were things such as their hard work just to please the worthless slave owners, and the preservation of plantation life.  The work they did was part of their every day work, and proves to make slavery part of an institution because slaves were a community forced, by the slave masters, to be devoted to doing all the white man’s work.  The preservation of plantation life makes slavery appear as an institution because it shows how long a black man in the south was considered a slave.

          George Orwell believed that “nothing has contributed so much to the corruption of the original idea of socialism as the belief that Russia is a socialist country.”  The way that Napoleon ran the farm (his style of government) was comparable to that of Joseph Stalin.  Which is the way that the literate pigs sat and received the full benefit of the work of the rest of his country (farm)?  Napoleon took the dream of Old Major and turned it into a Dictatorship.  The way Hitler did.  Hitler wanted Germany to have power, and be able to speak up, contrasting the way the old Chancellor was doing.  Hitler took it upon himself to make it come to pass, and completed Germany into a Dictatorship.  Back to Stalin, he wanted Russia to be a socialist country so bad he killed the idea of socialism.  Alike, Napoleon wanted all humans gone so bad, that he killed Old Major’s dream.

The idea of animals starting and running a society seems absurd, but is the basic idea of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. This book was written during the rule of Joseph Stalin in communist Russia, which gave people around the world the fear that their country would fall to a communist government. The purpose of this story was to spread knowledge about the threat of communism and totalitarianism in the time period that he was living in, which Orwell tends to do in his writing.  Orwell uses personification in this story to depict animals in human roles, but still makes for a story that is believable to some extent. The characters in the story relate to people these days. There are lower, animals that have no control on any thing that could affect people everywhere. The higher ranked animals are pigs, which make decisions for the decisions for the entire farm. Pigs like Napoleon and Snowball have the greatest impact on the story, being the leaders of their country (farm). Other animals like Boxer, a strong and emotional horse, are given roles that carry through the story in their own kind way. All of these characters set up something for a story that has many twists and turns that is written in Orwell’s unique style.

George Orwell also shows how governments twist the truth and disseave the people of their country to fit their needs.  Orwell shows this in a very humorous way.  Before the death of Old Major, some of the seven commandments of Animalism were as follows; 1) all animals were equal.  2) No animal shall kill any other animal.   3) No animal should resemble humans in any way.  Later in the story, the pigs began dressing like humans, sleeping in beds, and worst of all, they drank whiskey.  They changed the commandments to read as follows; 1) all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others, ect… The pigs disseaved the animals by letting them vote, then only used the votes of the pigs.  As well as when Boxer got sick, they sent him to the glue factor/ slaughter house.  In conclusion, George Orwell’s style of government that was portrayed in Animal Farm was a Dictatorship.

Arthur Jarvis, and Abraham Lincoln, have a very similar way of presenting themselves in writing.  Their choice of diction and the way they choose to explain things is what makes their writings so comparable.

Not specifically in their writing, although it was a presented argument, both spoke much of and extraordinarily of God.  In Lincoln’s  ‘Second Inaugural Address’ he claimed that both [north and south] read the same Bible, prayed to the same God, and both invoked His aid against the other.  “The Almighty has his own purposes”, this was a direct quote from his speech.  Immediately after, he [Lincoln] quoted a sentence from the Bible.  On pages 187-188 of Cry, The Beloved Country Arthur Jarvis also speaks highly of God, but in a very different manner.  He relays God as a white man, who thinks, blacks inferior to the white man., “We believe in help for the underdog, but we want him to stay under.”  (This is the one thing that I personally hated about Jarvis’ writing).  Jarvis also repeatedly says that it is God’s will to keep the black man at the bottom, “He gives Divine Approval to any human action that is designed to keep black men from advancement.” and this he is saying this in a native black country, clearly in Africa.

The difference between Jarvis and Lincoln is what I respect most.  The fact that Lincoln, even as a white man, fought to abolish slavery, and wished for the advancement of the country, to grow and respect every human being, whether they be black, white, brown, yellow, or orange, and this Mr. Griffiths is why I believe that Lincoln was a just and dignified man.  Arthur Jarvis, to me, was an ignorant and arrogant man.  When one, who reads the Bible, and whishes to please God to the best of his abilities, believes himself above another human being, he needs to take a good look, and do much contemplating on the real meaning of God’s words.

In the ‘Second Inaugural Address’ that Lincoln gave, he very often, used euphemisms, and beat around the bush to get to his point.  Likewise, Jarvis purposefully repeated the word ‘permissible’ to get to the point that men were allowed to do certain things, but many of them to a certain extent only.

Unlike Lincoln, Arthur Jarvis did not have such an open mind.  In the ‘Second Inaugural Address’ Lincoln said, “It may seem strange that any man should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we may not be judged.”  This shows that Lincoln had a very open mind towards all people.  Also, nearing the end of his address, Lincoln stated that everything has a purpose, and that events in time are moving along with God’s will.  He is explaining to the people that people do not know what God has planned, but that by praying, and asking for his guidance, should fight for what they believe is right, and if it is not, then God will make sure that nothing is made of it.  From reading those few pages from Cry, The Beloved Country, it did not seem as though Arthur Jarvis accepted much, or kept an open mind about things.  When I hear/read people saying things about certain groups or ethnicities being only good for unskilled work, “It was permissible to use unskilled men for unskilled work.” and that they should be denied employment, even by God, “Thus even our God becomes a confused an inconsistent creature, giving gifts and denying them employment.” It makes me feel that those kinds of people do not deserve a life to make others feel inferior, and make their lives miserable.

In the ‘Gettysburg Address’ Lincoln makes a connection between the first and last paragraphs by stating in the first paragraph, “Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Meaning that the founding father of the United States of America created this nation on the basis of freedom, and equality for all.  In the last paragraph, he mentions, “…,that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that the government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”  By this he meant that after all these years of fighting and going against the real foundations of this beautiful nation, that once slavery is gone, this nation will be reborn, as it was meant to be.  Both are connected in such a way that both talk of freedom and equality for all.  Jarvis’ connections are not as bold, but in the beginning he stares, “The truth is that our Christian civilization is riddled through and through with dilemma.”  And in the end he repeats himself in the form of a question, but also in a way contradicts himself.  “Is it strange that our civilization is riddled through and through with dilemma?  The truth is that our civilization is not Christian; it is a tragic compound of great ideal and fearful practice, of high assurance and desperate anxiety, of loving charity and fearful clutching of possessions.”  In this last (complete) sentence he states that what they are doing in South Africa is not Christian, but of their own desire.

Lincoln’s and Jarvis’ writings had much in common, as well as much in difference.