Tiger Woods Overcoming Odds

I watched this video of Tiger Woods playing at the 2008 US Open. This shows how he overcomes odds because first of all, in the video, you see tough shot after tough shot that you see him make. Above all of his hard shots that he keeps on making, he has a torn acl tendon. This is huge because winning one of the most prestigious golf tournaments in the world is one thing, but winning it with a torn acl is another. In order for him to win, he clearly had to overcome the odds. This relates back to my life because in the summer of seventh grade, I broke my glove-hand thumb in a baseball game and continued to play with it for 5 innings. This shows how I overcame the odds like Tiger Woods because my injury, like his, was to a part of the body which was needed to be health in order to play well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhOW_vUrCFo

Love on Valentine's Day

Today, Valentine's Day is a day of candy, flowers, and of course love filled cards. I read an article titled, Valentine's Day- Not Like it Used to Be!", by Jerry Wilson. The title is fitting, because today's Valentine's Day is really not how it used to be. Valentine's Day first started off as a day in mid-February where men pick women's names from a hat to have a sexual companion for the rest of the year (Wilson). Pope Gelasius later changed this to a day where men and women picked saint's names and it was there job to act like them for the rest of the year (Wilson). Today, like I said before, Valentine's Day is a day of candy, flowers, and cards full of love. The first official Valentine's Day card was sent "in 1425 by Charles, duke of Orleans, to his wife. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London at the time" (Wilson). Valentine's Day has clearly come a long way and today, I feel that it is an unneeded day of temptations. Yes, the Valentine's Day season is great for our struggling economy, but with Valentine's Day come a day of temptations for teenagers. This day adds unneeded pressure for us teenagers to have boy and girl friends. In my opinion, I feel that just as Pope Gelasius changed the day, some one else should change this day again to give it a different meaning.

http://wilstar.com/holidays/valentn.htm

Wilson, Jerry. "Valentine's Day- Not Like it Used to Be!." 17 Mar 2009 .

Causes of the Civil War

I read an article titled, Top Five Causes of the Civil War, written by Martin Kelly. His first cause of the Civil War was the "economic and social differences between the North and the South" (Kelly). This is important because this helped set up the sides of the war because if they were all equal economically and socially, then there wouldn't have been any clear cut borders for the different sides. His second cause of the Civil War was the "states versus federal rights" (Kelly). This is important because this gives the people something to fight about. His third cause of the Civil war was "the fight between slave and non-slave state proponents" (Kelly). This is important because it gives a clear cut two sided war. His fourth cause of the Civil War was the "growth of the abolition movement" (Kelly). With this growth, the south where the pro-slavery people are need to fight back so slaves won't get abolished and the north where the anti-slavery people are need to fight back at the south so the south won't get its way and end the movement. His last cause of Civil War he says in this article was "the election of Abraham Lincoln" (Kelly). This is important because he was anti-slavery, and therefore, a huge advocate for the abolition movement which the south was against. This all relates to my life because I have many black friends and I can not imagine not even knowing them because they were supposedly a 'lesser being'. In my opinion, they are a 'greater being' because after going through so many years of horrible prosecution, blacks everywhere have risen up and now we have a black president of one of the most powerful nations in the world.

http://americanhistory.about.com/od/civilwarmenu/a/cause_civil_war.htm

Kelly, Martin. "Top Five Causes of the Civil War." About.com. About.com. 15 Mar 2009 .

Causes of Colonization in Africa

I read an article titled, What Caused the Scramble for Africa?, by Alistair Boddy-Evans. This article talks about many causes of the colonization of Africa, but I found two of them particularly interesting. First of all, this article says that a reason for the colonization of Africa was the end of the slave trade. When Europeans heard that there were still slaves being used and traded in inland Africa, they felt the need to go in there and stop it, which naturally led to them just colonizing all of where they were. I can't help but relate this to the US today when we felt that we needed to go into Iraq and stop Saddam Hussein, which is good, but now we are not leaving. This is just like the Europeans who went in with good intentions, but never left. A second reason that stuck out to me was how in the late 1860s, Europeans really separated themselves from Africa militarisictly with the invetion of percussion caps and breach loading rifles (Boddy- Evans). This stuck out to me because it just reenforces a life lesson of just because you can do something, it doesn't mean you should. Again, I see this directly in Iraq with the US because just because we can do something over there doesn't mean we should.

http://africanhistory.about.com/od/eracolonialism/a/ScrambleWhy.htm

Boddy-Evans, Alistair. "What Caused the Scramble for Africa?." About.com. About.com. 11 Mar 2009 .

Hunger

I read an article that talks about world hunger and how it and poverty fit so well together. This article says that "in 2005, almost 1.4 billion people lived below the international poverty line, earning less than $1.25 per day" (Hunger Facts). With out the money to buy food, hunger and starving is imminent. Another way this article demonstrates how hunger and poverty go together is when it says that "947 million people in the developing world are undernourished" (Hunger Facts). This shows a direct relationship between poverty, because most all of developing worlds are impoverished, and hunger, because undernourishment causes hunger because they do not have the right nourishment to keep them on their feet and health. This relates to my life because I am living in this world with these people that are constantly hungry. I feel that I have a certain responsibility to attempt to make a difference. To make differences, I have my relatives buy me chickens for Christmas to give to third-world countries. I also donate about 500 grains of rice through freerice.com everyday. I hope that I am not the only one doing stuff like this because this is a problem that I believe can only be fixed with the help of people around the world.

http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/hunger-facts-international.html

Thanksgiving

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt6pxrPInsU

I watched this video, done by the History Channel, about the origins of Thanksgiving. After watching this video, I think it is interesting how such a commercial holiday started so long ago when people were actually giving thanks. For me, I have never thought of this holiday as a day to give thanks, but as a day to eat amazing food and relax while watching football. I always thought the whole pilgrim idea was just a fun story that we learned in elementary school. Now watching this video, I realize that story was actually true. My favorite holiday now has a new meaning to me. Looking back, I feel that my giving thanks should have been on the top of my list on this holiday. If the pilgrims were giving thanks for having enough food to last them through the winter, I for sure need to be giving thanks for all of our advanced technology and good health. I feel that as dorky as this sounds, this video has changed me because I will now actually think of Thanksgiving as a day to give thanks as opposed to just a day of amazing food and watching football.