What Do I Want From High School?

I want what I suppose every teenager wants out of high school; an education and a good time. Most teenagers simply sail through school, partying their way until graduation. As long as you can keep up a decent grade average, who cares? Senior year is when most kids worry their brains off. Then there are those kids who actually care about what happens with their grades before senior year. That would be me…..kind of.

I want to be able to get into an amazing college and have a successful career. But I also don’t want to be worrying away my high school experience with what’s going to happen after I graduate. College is a huge thing for me, but really, it’s not even college that I’m worried about. It’s whether or not the college I get into can fully prepare me for the future I want. My life practically revolves around my love of music and my passion for writing. I can fully understand that both careers are difficult to make a future in, but I also know that you are most likely going to be a successful writer than a famous musician. So that’s what I hope to achieve through high school. I want it to teach me as much as it possibly can about writing and how I can be an amazing writer.

Also, I find it ridiculous when people are too uptight and worrisome to actually get out and have some fun. High school is a time to get out and party. It’s a time to try new experiences and find out who you are so that when you finally mature enough to get out of your parents house, you know who you are and what/ where you need to be. I know that you shouldn’t do drugs or drink or be a complete slut, but you don’t need to sit in the house all day, studying over some huge textbook. That doesn’t make you relax more because you think you know the information, it worries you that you aren’t studying hard enough or working enough. It’s actually okay to go out and have fun.

Lastly, I hope to show the world that I am who I am, to find myself so that when I move out I never have to question it. I know most people hope to find themselves one day or even say that they’ll just be who they think themselves to be, but I’m not them. I don’t feel like I fully know exactly who I am. I get who I want to be, things that I enjoy, but there’s a difference between knowing who you are and doing what you know. I want to be who I am, accomplish what I want, and make sure everyone around me knows that I’m not about to change the way I am or who I am for anyone.

So, what do I want from High School? I want to find myself, get an education, and have the experience of a lifetime.

The Little old Lady Who Live in a Shoe: Remake

Why would a little old lady live in a shoe? You have a dozen kids and yet you manage to be a widow who lives in a smelly old shoe. Let’s say that your husband left you after the first two kids, and then you met one man after another and had a bunch of other kids. But the sad thing is only a couple of them have the same father. Because why? Because after you had kids with one guy he would leave you and whatever kids you had together or before you met him.

By kid number ten you’re probably feeling a little bit….unwanted. You only have a very small paying job as a waitress in the local pub and can only afford the shoe house that some high architect built thinking it was ingenious…until it wasn’t. But by the time he realized it wasn’t it was too late. But hey, it was lucky for you because you found a house that can fit you and your dozens of children and fit into your budget. Yeah! Now you have a ton of kids, a low paying job, and a stinky shoe of a house…literally.

            So now you are well aged and guys no longer find you appealing. You lost your youth and beauty to years of child birth and the raising of children. You are to the point where you are wondering why on earth you thought having kids with all those guys, who didn’t even stay around, was a good idea. Not to mention the fact that it doesn’t matter how many people know your story, not one of them know your name. Instead they whisper behind your back about how unfortunate your situation is and how they find you to be a very unholy woman to have so many children and only have a couple that have the same father. You aren’t just a piece of the town gossip, you are the town gossip.

               

            You are mean and nasty due to the years of misfortune in your life. You can barely feed your kids and only give them some broth. That’s it. Not even a measly piece of bread, you save all the bread for you plus all the scraps you get from the pub. But you don’t want to give your children what you think you disserve after so many hard years of raising your ungrateful children.

Not once have they thanked or shown appreciation to you for giving them some broth and keeping them around when you could just as easily put them into an orphanage.

            To make up for their error, you whip them soundly before sending them to bed. Well, bed might be an over exaggeration. Some of them have beds, all of them share a bed, and some even have to sleep in cupboards or on the cold, hard floor.

            You spend the rest of your life complaining about what you don’t have or how hard your life is instead of actually enjoying what you do have or the children that you have. So, when you die, your kids bury you in the backyard, next to the heel of the old shoe, have a simple funeral and move on. Occasionally they’ll have nightmares of the mother they had, but they still manage to find more fortune and happiness in their lives than you ever managed to.

The Young Death of Pripyat

     Pripyat was a young city with barely even a chance to begin. Relatively new the city was modernized and had a small population of people. But, after a fatal nuclear disaster the city was cleaned out. Now all that remains of this new city is remains. Cars rusting on the streets where they were last used, children’s toys and books lying around in classrooms that would most likely never be used again, and infant sized gas masks scattered among the debris. Animals occasionally will roam through here, or people will take safe guarded tours to this burial ground, but other than this, Pripyat is now a ghost town with no soul in sight.          

      This poor city was only around 16 years old when it died. How could something so awful happen to a place as innocent as this? There were children, elderly, and young couples just finding a beginning here, but then it was taken away from them.  One nuclear disaster later and everything is gone and wiped out. I don’t know if someone can ever recover from this, or if they ever will. I can’t believe that this could happen to them, and when I read that children had been hurt as well, or even infants? It’s almost too much to bear. I really hope that the people can figure out a way to clean up this mess, or to fix what has been done. I think this just goes to show that you can never be too careful with things like this. But I wish that I could be there to help these people or do something for the families of these people, because it is such a hard loss to bear. This world is full of changes that occur through the hardest of circumstances, but I know that if they can pull through it something great can rise from its ashes.

Hiroshima- False Credit

                Charles Pellegrino wrote a book about the atomic destruction of Hiroshima, but it was later found that one of his main sources for the book, Joseph Fuoco, was actually a fake and lied about being there. The actual pilot that was on that plane was in fact flown by a James R. Corliss. Apparently Mr. Fuoco was an alternate pilot who did NOT fly that night. Mr. Pellegrino’s book was based off of his story and upset Corliss’s family and others who read it and saw that it was not the true information of what actually occurred that day. People are saying that Pellegrino should go back and rewrite those accounts in the book to the True information. He has said that he will go back and fix the book to be republished with the real information.

                The amazing story of how they flew over that explosion, it just astonishes me. I would be scared to death, but those brave people in that plane flew over it and survived. It was indeed a very dangerous experience and they were very lucky to make it. Fuocco should be ashamed that he tried to take credit for flying that plane when the real credit for flying it goes to James R. Corliss. If I were Corliss or even his family I would be extremely upset. Credit should go where credit is earned. Pellegrino obviously did not do a whole lot of research or background checks to make sure that his information was correct; otherwise he would’ve realized that Fuocco had given him False information. It just goes to show that you have to be careful with the information you’re given. Also, I’m glad there are honest people still in this world that stood up to open the eyes of people to tell them the truth of what happened that terrifying day.

   

Yitta Schwartz dies leaving around 2,000 descendants! Claims it to be her duty to God

        Yitta Schwartz died leaving around 2,000 descendants to carry down the family line. She had 15 children, more than 200 grandchildren, and so many great- and great great grandchildren that the number is not known for sure. She was born in 1916 and lived throughout the Holocaust and even had children during that time period. She claims that the reason she had so many children was that it was something that God wanted her to do. That the more kids or descendants that she had, the more she fulfilled what she was meant to. She was a very kind old woman and faithfully attended first haircuts, bar mitzvahs, engagements and weddings of her descendants. She was loved and cherished by her family very much. Even after her husband died she never seemed like a widow and even said, “When there are so many problems in life, I should put myself on the scale?” She always saw the upside to life and helped those that needed to see that as well.

        I can’t believe there was someone like this amazing woman in the world. She helped so many and did so much for people that she didn’t even know. She even buried a woman who had died when she was in a camp. She also took in strangers just because they needed her help. But with how large her family was and how little they actually had, it just goes to show that she did so much more than what she had to. Everyone has a duty to fulfill, to their people, and to their family. But what Yitta did was above and beyond the call of duty. She really was an amazing person.

       I don’t know if I would ever have that many kids…. because, ummm…. that’s a lot. One child sounds like plenty to me. But I think that now I will try a lot harder to go above and beyond. I want to be like Yitta and help people that need it, whether or not I have a lot of resources for myself. She just shows us all, that even if you have a little, you can really make it stretch to a lot of what matters.

Uzbekistan photographer convicted of publishing an "unflattering" picture

            Photographer, Umida Akhemdova, was convicted of publishing a picture that was said to intentionally show village life, in Uzbekistan, in an “unflattering light.” She was found guilty of “slandering and insulting” the Uzbek people, but was granted amnesty in honor of the anniversary of Uzbek independence.

            People, artists really, are scared to state their opinion or show their work with the possibility that it could be seen as offensive or “against the government.” They can’t freely state what they feel or see. It’s almost like they are caged away from their true potential or their inner artistic reality. Akhemdova now doesn’t think that she would ever be able to sell or publish her work because of this incident and hopefully can have it repealed. She is a talented photographer and doesn’t deserve to have her work so cruelly judged for showing what she saw. It is understandable that they could see her picture as offensive, but artists show what they see. The world doesn’t have to share it, but they shouldn’t shut down what they don’t fully understand.

            If this had ever happened to me I probably wouldn’t take it well. I think that people should state their opinions. Show who they are and what they stand for. Fake isn’t real, and this isn’t a fake world. The world is real, why shouldn’t the people be as well?

(This is the picture that started it all)

Alexa Loo, a Canadian snowboarder's story

    Alexa Loo is a snowboarder from Canada. She grew up next to the mountains and took her first ride on a board at the age of 15, not racing until 6 years later. In the Olympics of 2006 she was going down her second run when she took a nasty fall and came in 20th place. Then, in early 2007 she tore a knee ligament. She then partnered up with two humble business men, the Kin brothers, and made herself into a hero and idol to young people everywhere. The Kin brothers became wealthy business owners and Loo's story was published and she went from school to school telling her story. She also won a World Cup silver medal in Australia, and will once again represent Canada at the Winter Olympics.
    This article shows how people like the Kin brothers or Alexa Loo can start off from something small or difficult and reach and strive for their goals. The Kin brothers came from China, didn't know any English, and yet still managed to start a small business which later grew off into several stores. Loo started as a kid just messing around, went to the Olympics, got injured, and still managed to push past that and reach her ultimate goal of competing in races (and another Olympics), on top of all that she teamed up with the Kin brothers and got a book published about her story which she now goes around and tells to other people. If something as hard as an injury like hers had happened to me, or even moving to a completely different country, I would have found great strength in this article. I find strength in it regardless. It just goes to show you that giving up is never the answer. No matter how hard life gets for you, you need to push past the pain and hardships to make something great out of them. I don't think that you should ever let something like this limit you or what you do in life, your goals can always be accomplished. You just have to try and work for them, and that's exactly what the Kin brothers and Loo did. 
   If I felt the need to see more into this article I would definitely look up her book, or even just look up Alexa Loo online. I'm sure you could easily find information about her and her life, her hardships, and her successes. We set goals to achieve them, she set goals to strive for them.

GoDaddy.com founder criticized for shooting elephant

                  GoDaddy.com founder, Bob Parsons, is under fire for posting a video onto his Twitter page of him shooting an elephant. The video was filmed March 8^th and shows him hunting an elephant on a farm and then after shooting it he is standing next to it and posing. The locals then crowd around the dead elephant and start cutting off pieces of its meat.

            Now the PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has begun an online protest against GoDaddy.com and its services until Parsons “stops shooting animals,” according to their website.  Parson’s own website has been constantly bombarded with negative comments and protest against his cruel and inhumane video.

            Parsons claim that the only people that are upset by this video are animal lovers. That their hearts are in the right place, but that they just do not understand what it is that he is doing. Parsons claimed that he killed the animal for the good of the local farmers whose crops were and are getting destroyed by the elephants. The field that he is walking through in the video is flattened sorghum plants, which he said had been crushed by wondering elephants.

                  Parsons says that what he is doing is helping out the local farmers. If their crop is not harvested, they do not eat. He said that the he put the video up to show people “what goes on over there.” “There were people who walked 25 miles to get to that elephant,” Parsons said, referring to the food crisis that has often occurred in developing countries.

                  He said that the fact that the elephant provided meat for the people to be “a bonus.”

                  “They literally have nothing and they’re on the brink of starvation,” Parsons claims.

                  He has been traveling to Zimbabwe for several years, but only last year began actually hunting elephants “at the request of local farmers,” he said. And it is completely legal for him to kill them too. Also adding to the issue, Parsons has admitted to killing five other elephants.

                  Killing these elephants can be seen as a “helpful” thing to the villagers who see it has a way to help save their farms and crops. But, if he really wanted to help these people, why did he not just give the people some money or supplies? Or why could he not just set up a fundraiser for the people and used to money to set up a nonlethal and completely humane method of keeping the elephants away from their crops?

                  PETA says that Parsons could have used these methods instead of acting “like a little boy with a gun.”

                  In a press release, PETA said it was pulling its business from GoDaddy.com and their group even went as far as to label Parsons as “Scummiest CEO of the Year.”                  

                  Company spokeswoman of GoDaddy.com was asked if PETA’s boycott had affected their business to which she responded, “There has been no significant change in business.”

                  Parsons thinks that it takes guys like him to protect villagers from rouge elephants. But, it is not just the villagers who need the protection. Elephants cannot just be shot off or killed, whether or not it’s illegal. These beautiful animals need protection too. There has to be a humane way that Parsons could have taken in order to help the villagers with their crops and kept those elephants alive. A fence, a barricade, or even giving the elephants a safe location to roam free, but far enough away from the villagers crops that they would not have caused a problem. There are multiple solutions to every problem, and Parsons is under inspection as to whether or not he took the right one. And according to PETA and others, he did not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcX-2sgw070   (this is the video)

Mom injects her 8-year old daughter with botox

  

Kerry Campell (34) injects her 8- year old daughter with botox she has purchased online and also waxes her legs and bikini line. The mother claims she is helping her daughter to become a "superstar". And that by doing this for Britney now that the high hopes she has for her daughters future will come true. She seems to think that Britney will grow up to be a model, singer, actress, or some famous important person and that the treatment she is giving her now will give her an advantage in the future. Ridding her of wrinkles and helping to rid her of hair on her legs, bikini line, and other unwanted places.

Britney, an 8-year old pageant contestant, say that now she doesn’t cry as much and is even looking forward to a boob and nose job when she gets older. She thinks that what her mother is doing is helping her to become beautiful and more successful in the world of fashion and looks. This 8-year old girl willingly shares the dream of her life that her mother has pushed her into.

 But just where is Kerry finding all of these materials that she uses on her daughter? She orders and purchases all of the botox, wax, and supplies online. Kerry claims that what she is doing is totally safe due to the fact that she tests it out on herself before injecting Britney with it. She also says that most of the other girls in the pageants will use similar methods (botox and waxing) to help with their appearance.

Kerry also tries to justify it by saying that she hear other mothers at pageants talking about how they give their daughter a little extra to plump up their lips or get rid of any nonexistent wrinkles before a big competition (pageant). She says that she gives Britney the same stuff to better equal her chances in a pageant or contest. She says it would be unfair if her daughter did not have the same treatment or extra boost that the other girls will get as well.

It’s not uncommon for mothers to do this to their daughters. Whether it’s for a contest or a pageant or to even just help their looks out a little bit so that one day they can be a “superstar”. They do this to their little girls to help give them the superstar lives that they wanted for themselves. It’s like living through their daughter’s lives.

They will claim that by doing these treatments now they help to make sure that it won’t be a problem in the future. That they will make them have the look of a model in order for them to be a model. But, botox has only been claimed safe for adults, how could it be safe for teens or children, let alone 8-year old girls? How could they know whether or not the poisons and toxins released into their daughters for botox now, at such an earlier age, won’t in fact make them deformed or have troubles with a plastic, fake look in the future?

It could, for all they know, be making it so that their faces and skin will become tight and painful or scared for the rest of their lives. People don’t like looking at a magazine with the cover being a plastic faced Barbie doll. They like looking at a real girl, that has real beauty that isn’t fake or “helped along” by injections.

But the possibility of a bad ending doesn’t stop mothers from doing this to their little girls. It’s legal so we can’t do anything about it either. Daughters will continue to be injected with botox just so that their mothers can make them into their own personal little “superstars”. While injecting and waxing a little 8-year old girl is disturbing, it’s legal and until someone sees how dangerous or cruel this is, it will remain that way.

News Article Blurb and Link

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/51451179-76/davis-conner-sarah-police.html.csp?page=1

     Sarah Davis was separated from her husband at the time and went to go pick up their two kids, (a two-year old son, and a five-year old daughter) at the house her husband had been staying at. Sarah had only recently become serious about getting a divorce between her and her husband,Stephen Davis. When she went to go pick up her kids an argument broke out followed by to gunshots. police found Sarah dead her car and Stephen had a gunshot wound to the head, but was still alive. He later died in the hospital on Wednesday.

My Extra Photojournalism contibution

(I couldn't resist. I had a lot of fun with my camera (: ) (I promise only to do a couple more....if I had room and time I would gladly post all my favorite pictures that I've taken in the Spring and Summer, but I don't, not matter how cool I think they are so...too bad)

 Anyway. This one was taken on my little walk this afternoon. My little sister decided to fight off the scary looking trees, and I liked how they all looked together, so...tada!

 Summer actually took this one (at least I'm giving her credit for her work...and she's 6) but I thought it actually looked pretty cool. (I'm sorry to say, but we didn't actually stop. Oh well! (she doesn't fully comprehend what a stop sign is, so I am not a bad example...yet)

And this is another photo masterpiece done by none other than Summer Martin. (last name excluded for safety precautions.) Pretty good for a 6 year old right? Guess she's starting to take after her big sis. :) (meaning me) Anyway, I liked how it captured something so simple in kind of a cool way. I guess it's kinda lame, but I liked it.

And last of all, my personal favorite, Summer climbing over the fence instead of going around. :) I told her that the sign meant that no horses could take that route today (we were on the horse trail) and she took that to mean that she was more than welcome to. (guess I should've explained a little better)

:) well, at least I put the pictures in, and they do look great if I do say so myself. Hopefully whoever read this was able to stand my humor throughout it. But, once it hits 9:00, I consider myself to be the funniest person out there. :)

Photojournalism

 So, this picture (well, all of them) I took while I was on a walk earlier today. This is one of the types of photos I like to take (obviously) and I thought that it looked really cool. It's actually pretty simple and plain. The regular house and tree showed darker, so it makes the sky seem bright, but not somehow.

 This is another one I took earlier today. I'm kind of a nerd for skys like these ones shown. I like the way each cloud contributes to this photos differently, but corrispondes the way it needs to so that it really brings the sky to life.

 Again, taken today. This one is one of my favorites. It shows a simple fence on the bottom, which, luckily, is actually really beat up. That's one of my favorite parts because it lets the light from the sky seep through its cracks.

 This one actually was supposed to show the hill more. I thought I could bring out the land and show how it blends or corresponds to the sky. Instead I got black on the bottom and bright beauty on the top. (and I love it!)

Lastly, (for this post anyway) is this simple pictue. I didn't intend on having it look this way. All I wanted was to get a picture of that weird looking cloud. It seemed really odd to me in comparisson to the others, but I think it's what makes the picture.

Patrick Swayze Biography

    Partick Swayze was born August 18th 1952 in Houston, Texas. He is best known for his roles in more romatic movies, such as Dirty Dancing and Ghost. Also, his role as the eldest greaser brother in The Outsiders.
    As well as being an extrememly talented and attractive actor, he was an excellent and trained ballet dancer. His mother Patsy Swayze was the owner of a dance school in Houston, where Patrick was a student. While attending dance lessons at his mothers school, he, at the age of 19, met his wife Lisa Niemi; who, at the time was 15. Later in his life, he then left to New York City where he attended Harkness Ballet School and Joffery Ballet School. He first danced professionally as "Prince Charming" in "Disney on Parade".
    He got his start in acting on the New York stage, and after his success in the production of Grease his career in Hollywood took off. Then, after his role in The Outsiders, Patrick Swayze proved his talent as a leading actor. He recieved a Golden Globe nomination for his role as "Johnny Castle" in the romantic movie Dirty Dancing (1987); and recived a second nomination for is role as the ghost "Sam Wheat" in the movie Ghost.      
     January of 2008, Patrick, a recovering alcoholic, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He fought cancer for over a year and continued to work as well, but alas he couldn't fight hard enough and died September 14th, 2009.

Parent vs. Children

    Parents vs. children. A battle that's been going on for as long as we as a people can remember. Every child has their own individual problem with their parents. Just as every parents has some sort of problem with their child.
    Granted parents feel like that they are only doing what is the best thing for their children, whereas us kids just want our parents out of our hair. As a teenager, I know personally that parents that try to be as involved in their kids lives as possible are quite annoying and come off as very controlling. My parents are the worst when it comes to this. There is a point where parents pass concerned and go straight to demanding and controlling.
     Kids, especially teenagers, are a lot more likely to rebel and do exactly what their parents don't want them to do when they have strict limitations on their lives. We feel that our lives are our own. We don't know every little detail about our parents lives; why do they need to know every little detail about ours? We are likely to go along with reasonable rules that are set. Like, no phones in church, no hanging with friends on Sunday, or no texting at the dinner table or during big family get together. But when it comes to having to let you (parents) read every text that you write or making sure that you can read everything they talk about, even if they delete it because it's not something you need to know, just by going online and looking up their texts.
     Also, I see my parents point of view when it comes to dating, and I agree with it; but I will not agree with the rules they set before dating. Obviously we are going to have friends that are different genders than we are. Who doesn't? But if we don't want to date them, or we actually want to follow our parents dating rules, then I feel that to show that they can actually trust us, they shouldn't freak out every time we try to hang out with one of them when it isn't a big group of friends. It's okay to be a girl and have a close guy friend, and visa verse. If I want to hang out with one of my friends, who just happens to be a guy, I don't want to have to look for five other people to hang out with too. He was the person I wanted to talk to, not them. I am more likely to lie to my parents about it and go hang out with him anyway, just because I want to and I know they would never allow it.
     Teenagers and kids aren't just these hugely over dramatic people that find every reason possible to fight. That's just some lame stereotype we were given. My friends, and myself are actually very reasonable when it comes to rules we are given, but that doesn't mean that you have to place huge rules on us to keep us from ever doing anything. We are going to get hurt, we are going to make mistakes, and sometimes we aren't going to make the best choices. But those were our choices to make. This is our life too. I know that parents are responsible for us as long as we live in their houses, but how can we ever become responsible on our own if we aren't given the chance.
     I would love to know that I have free will to do what I want. I would love to not have to worry about everything I tell my friends, just because I don't want my parents to know because it's too personal. I would love to be able to hang with just one of my guy friends and know that my parents trust me not to do anything, because I don't want to and I know the rules. If we are given rights and opportunities to become responsible and make decisions that we can learn from, we learn how life works. In my opinion, trusting in your kids is one of the best ways to prepare them for the life they will lead after they leave your home. It will also strengthen your relationship between you and your child. They will become responsible, they learn what it means to be trustworthy and how to earn a persons trust, they will learn what a healthy relationship is for a parents and their children, so that they too can have a good relationship with their kids. If parents could just learn this and apply it, you'd be amazed what the results would be.

Bloggging vs. Journalism

    Is blogging journalism? It's a question that many poeple have asked, what with the world changing and becoming more and more revolved around technology. In my opinion I would have to say that blogging is journalism. As sad as that fact is, it's true. Journalism is reporting news and facts. There are blogs out there that do just that. I would love to be able to tell you that no, our world of newspapers and facts that have to be read on paper are still going strong, but they're not. Newspapers have started putting their information onto a computer, and now you can look up facts simply by going to a search engine.
     There are those that say that blogging isn't journalism, but what is journalism really? It's facts, stories, and most of the time, truth. I can easily go out into the world, find a fact, find a story, and find some truth and put it onto my blog. That post is an easy example of journalism. I would rather have journalism only be the way it was, like in the good old days, but it's not. The world is changing and so is the world of journalism. So yes, blogging is in fact journalism. Deal with it. Life must go on, even if the old ways don't.

Search The City - In This Scene You're Just An Extra

   The rights of animals is seen as insufficent when compared to those of humans. I will never understand how people feel the need to harm such a beautiful and helpless creature. Animals can be brave and strong and powerful, but when placed at the hands of a cruel people they become weak and needy.
    It breaks my heart to see somethings as pure as an animal be destroyed by something as evil as a man. The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated... I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.
--Mahatma Gandhi
   As Gandhi has said, animals require protection from man, by man. It is people like him that see the true way that man treat animals. It's a harsh and cruel torture placed on them. Their lives are subjected to death, if lucky the death they see will be natural and peaceful. People turn their faces and minds away from the food they eat. They place it in their mouth and chew; never thinking about where their meat came from. They like to think that the animal died peacefully and of natural causes, but that is not the case. If that ever happens it is very rare indeed.
    Animals are forced into slaughter houses and raised there in most cases. Never to see a normal, peaceful life. Chicks will be hatched and debeaked, often they are debeaked incorrectly and it causes serious injury to the chick; but as long as it grows up to be cooked for someones meal they take no care to treat the chick. If it's lucky it will make it. When they grow up they are forced to either boxes to be shipped to a place that will kill them for their meat, or they go into a cage to lay more eggs. Cages are cramped and hard and often the hens will become violent. The boxes the others are shipped in are large, but for how many they stick in there, there is never enough room. Often chickens will be pressed up against eachother and will sometimes sufficate before they reach their destination.
     Cows, in my opinion, are by far the most cruely tortured of the food chain. Milking cows never leave their stalls, and are forced to give milk all day, every day. Cows have an average lifespan of about 20 years, but milking cows have an average lifespan of about 4 years old. The cows that end up in the actual slaughter house are most commonly bled. A slit to the throat is the "humane" way that they are killed. The people don't make sure their dead either, they let them bleed it out and most often they are left alive, bleeding to death, as they continue down the conveyer, until finally they reached the end and die. If they are to be kosher meat, the people can't touch them at all. The cut them, then lay them on a floor and wait for as long as it takes for the cow to slowly and painfully wait for its release.
   People around us often overlook what goes on in the world around us. They ignore the suffering some see day to day. And others enjoy the pain they inflict onto the poor creatures. I will never understand why, but they do. House pets can also be cruely tortured or killed. But people overlook the cruelty of this world. Granted not all people are like this. Some help to fight and stop this. Some commit themselves to a life meat free and dedicated to helping the poor creatures some never will. I am on the road to a meat free life and a life dedicated to helping any creature in need. This world, those animals need people like that. And if you can't beat them, join them. But join what you know is right. And animal cruelty is not just; it is not right.

I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men.
--Leonardo Da Vinci

The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them, that's the essence of inhumanity.
--George Bernard Shaw

But for the sake of some little mouthful of flesh, we deprive a soul of the sun and light and of that proportion of life and time it had been born into the world to enjoy.

"Earth can provide enough to satisfy everyone's need, but not everyone's greed."
- Mahatma Ghandi

As these great men have stated, the Earth was made for all of us. We are all Earthlings. Creatures of the Earth. And we all deserve to be here. Animals too, not just man. (If you are interested about this information, you can hear more from this awesome documentary called "Earthlings")

POWER TO THE HIPPIES!