The American Revolution

 

  “Give me liberty, or give me death.” The famous words spoken in Patrick Henry's "Give me Liberty or Give me Death" speech not only showed how he felt but also how the American people felt about the Revolution. This revolution takes place in the late 1700’s between America and Britain. America’s Declaration of Independence really got Britain to pay attention to the colonies that they had been unjust and tyrannical to. America was right to rebel against the monarch of Great Britain because Britain was taxing the colonists unjustly, British troops were being allowed to stay in the colonists’ homes against the will of the colonists, and they had eventually reached the point of no return.

     The Providence Gazette Extraordinary states, “Resolved that his majesty’s liege subjects in these colonies are entitled to all the inherent rights and liberties of his natural born subjects within the kingdom of Great Britain.” This quote shows us that the colonists wanted the same freedoms that the people of Britain had. But this was not so. The King had imposed taxes on the colonists. The colonists were pushed to revolt against the monarchy by all the unnecessary taxes that were placed on them. The taxes kept them from being able to buy goods without having to pay extra. The colonists were taxed on sugar, tea and their postage stamps. It was bad enough that they were being taxed but to make matters worse they were not being represented by the British in Parliament. They had no say. As the Providence Gazette Extraordinary puts it again, “Resolved that it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people and the undoubted right of Englishmen, that no tax be imposed on them, but with their own consent, given personally or by their representatives.” The taxes made the colonists want desperately to break away from the king and the Parliament.

     An additional concern that made the colonists want to break from the king was that the British soldiers were being allowed to stay in the houses of the colonists. The soldiers were also mistreating the colonists. This restricted the colonists again. They now had to feed more people and these extra unwelcome guests were not being kind in return. To make things even more desperate, Britain was not supporting the colonists or the soldiers as much as they should have, making the colonists have to fight for themselves.

     After a while, the colonists had reached the point of no return. They had to do or die. The Boston Massacre sparked the Revolution a little and led to the Declaration of Independence. In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “Gentlemen, we must all hang together or else we will all hang separately.” The Declaration was the pivot of the Revolution. The colonists now had something on which to base their actions. But something that motivated the colonists to revolt even more, was that they needed and wanted freedom. They wanted their children to grow up in a free world.

      The American colonists really labored and toiled to bring about the Revolution.  Finally, they were rewarded by seeing their children grow up in a more free world. It was not easy, but there were many things that led up to the Rebellion, like being taxed unjustly, enemy troops staying in their houses, and the American people had eventually reached the point of no return. We all can learn something good from the story of the Revolution, like to fight for a fair deal. And we all should care about the Revolution because it is the story of America! It is not a fairy tale. It is a non-fictional story and it actually happened.

Benjamin Franklin

             Benjamin Franklin was a brilliant man who hatched genius ideas that were crucial to the founding of America. He was an excellent statesman as well as an author and an inventor.

           

            Benjamin Franklin was a great statesman. At an early age he was reading great books and reading of the great philosophers like Plato. This helped him think and feel about things in a whole new way, which made him a good statesman. He represented the colonies in Britain when the colonies were not happy with the way they were being treated by parliament. Franklin was one of the five who drafted the Declaration of Independence, the document that we still base our government on today. Benjamin Franklin was an emissary or an ambassador to the French for about ten years. The French were intrigued by this man’s fur cap that he always wore. The cap made the French look at the American people as so very rustic.

            Benjamin Franklin was a great author. When he worked for his older brother as an apprentice in a printing shop he anonymously published the famous Silence Dogood letters. The letters ended up putting Ben’s brother in jail for publishing such controversial material. After learning the printing trade, he ran away to Pennsylvania hoping to work as a printer and live there. His apprenticeship really helped him get a steady living progressing. Perhaps his most well known work is the Poor Richard’s Almanack. The Almanack is full of phrases meant to help the human character such as “a penny saved is two pence dear.”

            Benjamin was an inventor. He invented the bifocal glasses, the urinary catheter, the Franklin stove, and much more. He thought he had discovered electricity, but he learned, much to his disappointment, that some guy in Russia discovered it first. Franklin flew his kite in the middle of a storm with a key attached to it and performed many other experiments like this to gain knowledge of electricity. When he invented things, they were’ not silly things like the Snuggie blankets. They were things that the people needed and also that he needed. Listening to people is a good quality.

             Franklin was perhaps the foremost important founding father. He was a great statesman as well as an author and an inventor. He served his country well for as long as he could. He was born January 17, 1706 and died April 17 1790.

           

hamlet

             We just finished reading Shakespeares Hamlet for school and my favorite character was Rosencrantz. I liked rosencrantz not only because his name is fun to say three times fast but because he had some amazing virtues that more people in the play should have had (especially Hamlet). He had a faithfulness to his king and country that eventually was the death of him and polonius. he never hesitated when he was told to do some thing even if it was spying on his best friend for the king and always tried to do whatever he was told the first time and to do it right the first time.
           My least favorite character in the play was the main character, Prince Hamlet. To me, Hamlet seemed to be a lousy prince and heir to the throne. He arranged the deathe of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, broke poor Ophelia's heart, killed polonius and stained his whole family's name due to the murder of his uncle.The play Hamlet was enjoyable to me and I loved it.

Genghis Khan

So, we went to the Genghis Khan exhibit at the Tech Museum in San Jose and it was awesome. I think my favorite part of the exhibit was the model of the Mongolian huts called Gers. In these huts, the Mongolian people would play games, eat food, tell stories and, of course, sleep. It was weird to see that Genghis Khan was not only a war leader but also a statesman. It seemed that Genghis had a lot of good proverb-type things to say about speaking out against cruelty and obeying your leaders. Another one of my favorite exhibits was the weapons and armor display. Their weapons were mostly curved scimitar like devices as well as spears and bows. The armor was mainly reinforced leather and studded leather with helmets made of leather on the inside and covered with iron to make it hard.

The Genghis Khan exhibit was so much fun and super interesting and was well worth the time.

The Ranger's Apprentice

     The book series, the Ranger's Apprentice, is a good adventure story that young adults would enjoy reading. The main character, Will, possesses some outstanding traits that make the book worth reading.

    The basic storyline is about a group of specially trained combat masters called ranger who must keep the kingdom of Araluen and the surrounding provinces safe from invasions from hostile forces. A large part of this was recorded in the second book of the series in which Will, his friend Horace and another ranger named Gilan, must stop the Wargals from communicating with the Skandians, and from invading Araluen. They did this by trying to burn the bridge that the Wargals were going to use to invade Araluen. This attempt failed miserably and Will and Evanlyn were captured by the Skandians and taken to Skandia, the others escaped and defeated the Wargal army. In the next book,  Will's mentor Halt embarks on a rescue mission with Horace to go and rescue Will from the hands of the Skandians. In the meanwhile, Will and Evanlyn escaped with the help of the same man that captured them who saw that what he did was wrong. They eventually met up with Halt and Horace, only to find that Skandia was about to be invaded by the Temu' jai army. They resolved to make a treaty with the Skandians and try to defeat the enemy. They succeed in the end, saving both Skandia and Araluen.

     Some of Wills traits are self confidence; eagerness to become better at what he does, and a good sense of humor. Will is self confident. In fights and battles, Will sometimes has to surprise his enemy with his archery skills. He is very confident that he will hit the target wherever he is aiming for. His sureness is because of the hours and hours of practice that his mentor, Halt, put him through. Will is always eager to become better at what he does.  Whether it requires practice, or getting advice from his elders, he strives to excell at his Ranger training. When Will has to make a decision, he often remembers the advice and words of Halt. Will has a good sense of humor. He and his friend Horace are always joking around. When he was working as a musician in Macindaw, people often insulted him and Will decided not to take it personally. He would turn the remark around and make it funny. All in all, Will has some useful traits of character.

    The story of Will is set in the realm of Araluen. This adventure takes place in medieval times. During this time period, almost everyone is superstitious. This comes in handy when Will and Horace need to get inside Castle Macindaw and take control until support can come and help them. So, to create a diversion they have a healer, who everyone thinks is a wizard, use things like fireworks to get the enemy's attention while Will and Horace get into the castle and take control. The superstitious people thought the fireworks were demons coming to kill them. They did not realize they were being attacked. I really liked the time period and setting of the books.

I enjoyed this story. The plot was intriguing, Will had outstanding character traits, and the setting was exciting. I recommend this book to young adults. It was amazing.

Assignment - Tall Tale

One day my friend Jacob and I went to the fair to see the horse races. As we were walking through the contest areas we saw a bubble gum blowing contest. We stopped to watch for a little while. As we watched, we noticed that one contestant was doing exceptionally well. Her name appeared to be Angie. She had already blown a bubble that was the size of a microwave. Now it was the size of a piano. Suddenly a huge gust of wind blew through the fairground. As a result, Angie was blown away with it.

I went to go get help. I was going to go to the fire department, when I had a better idea. I thought I would go get my pellet gun and try to pop the bubble. The only problem was that if I shot the bubble, she would fall and probably die. Then I thought that if I had a big trampoline and placed it under her when she fell it would work. So I told Jacob to go get Sammy Williamson's trampoline and bring it under the place where she would fall. In the meanwhile, I went to my house and grabbed my air rifle. I raced back to the spot where I thought she would fall. Jacob was ready with the trampoline. Now I lifted my rifle up to the aim position, loaded it, and pulled the trigger. It worked like a charm. The pellet popped the bubble and Angie fell onto the trampoline. That week, Jacob and I received a medal of honor from the mayor.

The Bible and Tradition

God speaks to us through the Bible and tradition as well. Tradition is not the inspired word of God. The Bible is. The term partim... partim... (which means part, part) was used to say that the church should teach using part scripture and some tradition. At the church I used to go to, we would recite the apostles creed or the nicene creed. I preffered the apostles creed because it was shorter. These creeds were not in the Bible, nor are they the inspired word of God, but they hold much truth. They affirm truths in the Bible. The early creeds were formed because the authors of them were opposing heretical ideas being spread throughout the church community. We do not hold to all the traditions. We only hold to those that present Biblical truth.