The Hatchet #3

"Treasure. Unbelievable riches. He could not believe the contents of the survival pack" (Paulson 171).

Every year the United States spends millions of dollars on aid for other countries in need. But does it have the same impact it did on Brian? Throughout the book, Brian did everything from scratch. He made fire from rocks. He made bows and arrows from trees and stones. He made shelter from the nature around him. Everything he did was natural and was completely his own. When the survival pack came, Brian almost didn't like. At first, he couldn't believe how much there was and how easy it would've been to survive. But then he started wondering if the survival pack took anything away from him. He began feeling detached from nature and from everything he accomplished. Is it the same way with the rest of world? The United States seems to just dump aid on all these different, seemingly aid hungry places. Do the people and villages that had survived on their own with no outside help feel as though the aid is helping them, or taking things away? I'm sure in some aspects, aid is helping people survive, but in other ways it may be taking away from the traditions of villages. The United States needs to pay more attention to the distribution of aid and make sure that our aid is going where it's needed and not necessarily where it's accepted.

The Hatchet #2

"The thinking started. Always it started with a single word. Divorce. It was an ugly word, he thought. A tearing, ugly word that meant fights and yelling, lawyers-God, he thought, how he hated lawyers who sat with their comfortable smiles and tried to explain to him in legal terms how all that he lived in was coming apart-and the breaking and shattering of all the solid things. His home, his life-all the solid things. Divorce. A breaking word, an ugly breaking word" (Paulson 2-3).

It's a known fact that about 50% of all marriages end in a divorce. What people tend not to do, is look beyond the numbers and see the total impact. It doesn't only effect the spouses who break up. It effects everyone around them. In Brian's case, his parents had gotten a divorce, and the whole process stuck with him. In fact, if it hadn't been for the divorce, Brian would never have been on the plane that crashed. In addition to being put in that situation, the word haunted Brian. As shown in the quote above, the only thing Brian could think about is the divorce and how hopeless he feels in the whole thing. People make mistakes, so I'm not saying by any means that we should eliminate divorces all together. What I am saying is that people need to do a better job of realizing the impact of their decisions for not only them but the people around them.

The Hatchet #1

The first time I read The Hatchet by Gary Paulson, I was 13 years old. The same age as the main character, Brian Robeson. Well, since it had been 5 years since I last read, I decided to read it again, this time blogging about multiple issued that arise from the book. The first and most frequent issue in the novel, is Brian's fight with hunger. Although this seems to be at a very individualized level, Brian's fight signifies the millions and millions of other people who are hungry. For many people, the sight of available bread is the highlight of their day. In Brian's case, he didn't even have bread. For over two months, he survived on fruit and meat. Nothing was handed to him, and everyday was a fight for survival. This is how most of the world lives. People fight everyday for survival. Here in Deerfield, it seems like the end of the world is when we do poorly on a test grade. People have earned the right to live here through hard work, but the majority of the world's population doesn't have the same rights and opportunities we do. I'm not sure it's possible to ever completely eliminate hunger, but the only thing we can do is raise awareness. In Brian's case, he was entangled in a fight with hunger each and everyday with no one to lean on. People who starve often feel this way, but it should be our job to make them feel secure and hopeful.

The Future of Fuel

It's predicted that in 40 years, the world's supply of oil will run out. My hypothesis is that we need to spend more energy on creating renewable energy sources. If our reliance on oil continues to increase, than it may be too late. I'm trying to get everyone to agree to a personal contract. The contract states that everyone will do their part to become more eco-friendly. I'm sure you've heard that before, but if we keep pushing it off like it's no big deal, it will be too late. I belive that the future of energy will be created from solar, hydro, wind, and nuclear power. Solar power has the greatest potential, and that may very well be the future of energy. Within the next 50 years, renewable energy will be the source of our energy. If it isn't, mankind will change forever due to wars and greed.

Final Baseball Update

There is one week left of the season. We are 11-18 or 12-17 or something like that. Yeah it's a little disappointing but look on the bright side. The weather's been nicer this year.A few of us have been having good years. Aidan and I are leading the pitching. Ben and Ethan are leading the hitting. In the fielding category, Ethan is definitely not leading (sorry). Everyone's been fielding okay. Truth is, our record is pretty crappy, but we've lost a lot of close games. With a few runs here and there our record could be flip flopped. But it's not, so I'm still disappointed. The season isn't over! We still have playoffs next week and who knows how far we can go. If we have success in the playoffs then I'll be sure to blog about it, but don't count on it. I still have about 7 blogs to complete before the end of the week, so get ready for a blog explosion!

Gun Control

I have one question for people who think owning a gun should be legal, actually maybe a few questions. What is a gun meant to be used for? Shooting someone in the foot for being naughty?!? No, it's meant to kill. Guns were made for war. People may come back and say, "guns are also used for self defense." Self defense from what? If there are no guns, then what are you afraid of? Your neighbors knife? Lemme tell you something, everyone has a knife. Knifes are actually used for something useful. Please let me know if you have a gun that can cut food, because if you do, I'm never going to your house to eat. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say, it isn't even natural for humans to own a gun. There's a reason humans are failing at life! We are irrational, emotional, and we tend to not think through things even though we are "the center of the universe." Yeah, people are the hierarchy of everything. Not really, actually humans are just clumps of space dust running around on a little blue rock we call earth. If an alien species were to observe man kind for as much as a week, and we asked them if we were mature enough to own weapons that can easily kill other beings. The answer would be no. Caveman fought each other with sticks. We are fighting each other with frickin atomic bombs. In the grand scheme of geologic time, we are cavemen, you realize that right? We are the same thing as cavemen except with less hair. My point? Humans should not be allowed to own guns. Humans would be such much more better off if guns hadn't even been invented.

Baseball Results So Far

You know how when there's a shutout in baseball, it means either the pitcher was really good or the team was just really bad at hitting. So basically if someone shuts out a team that's a very good accomplishment. Yeah, we've been shut out 6 times this year out of 12 games. 4 of those 6 have been decided by 1 run, the other two were not so close. But, because we've lost three 1-0 games, and one 3-2 in extra innings game, I don't think we're actually doing that badly. We're are at a dismal 4-8 so far. But if we had just scored 2 more runs a game, we'd be 8-4...That's the story of the season so far. I've pitched in 4 games. I have a 1-3 record, but all three of my losses were 1-0, 1-0, and 3-2 in extras. Max M is also 1-3 with a 1-0 loss. Paul D is 1-1, but his games have been a little different. He's lost 10-0 and he's won 19-0! Why couldn't the team have saved some of those runs for me and max?!? Sorry if I'm rambling on a little bit here but it truly is frustrating. Our team is so close to being what we could be. The schedule is really starting to pick up so I'll update the blog world (which really seems like just Mr. Kramer) soon.