While racism is still around I think that it really isn’t as bad as it once was, because now most racism is just from peoples words and hate speech. While back then it from laws that made black people sit at the back of the bus and other forms of segregation. I also think that the media now tends to exaggerate on certain events to try to make it seem more racist because that’ll get the media more views. As well as now most people who are racist aren’t very smart and are very ignorant, while back then it was common and tended to just be the way things were. The KKK are still around but back then they were far more prominent and did some truly horrible things when now there are laws that prevent them from doing those things and those laws are strongly enforced. Which is why I believe that racism is far less then it was back then.
English 10
PlentyPoem
- This poem has a strong voice running through it. How would you describe the speaker’s mood? Speakers mood is lighthearted and the author thinks the world is great and then towards the end he realizes that sometimes its not so great
- Look at some of the more unexpected things the speaker in the poem finds beautiful, like leaves in the gutter or salt stains on shoes. Why are these details more interesting than a more obvious example of beauty, like flowers, would be? I think these are more interesting then flowers because they are unique and show flaws and normal thing.
- What is the effect of the poet’s use of similes that offer more than one comparison of an image, such as “the sky, lit up like a question or / an applause meter” or “raindrops / like jewels or glass or those bright beads / girls put between the letters of the / bracelets that spell out their beautiful names”? How does this technique add to the overall feeling of the poem? This technique adds to the feeling because they show how the items make the author feel.
- What actually happens in this poem? What do you know about the speaker’s life? In this poem the author goes to the grocery store to get something for dinner and he thinks the world is great but on his way back home he sees stuff that makes him think its not as great.
- The poem follows the speaker moving through space (down the street, into the grocery store, then back outside looking at the sky) and through the speaker’s associative thought patterns (jumping from thinking of the sky to thinking of the name Skye; from thinking of the name Miranda to thinking of the word verandah). Write a poem in which you try to capture the way your own mind makes connections between seemingly unrelated things and try to maintain a consistent mood throughout.
I opened the freezer door to the frozen box
full of frost and fudgesicles
Plenty of food to choose from
yet I’m as indecisive as a leaf in the wind
Maybe later I will decide
but for now I leave with only a cup of water.
Life is about experiences Josh Thompson & Sway
Life is about experiences: Baseball provincials
I awoke and instantly felt butterfly’s in my stomach. It wasn’t too early but I still felt like I could use another 2 hours of sleep. I crawled out of bed and made my way to my shower. I turned on the shower and got in, the water burned but it felt good on my aching muscles and creaking bones from my baseball practise from the night before. I finished up in the shower and looked at myself in the mirror and told myself that I was ready for provincials. I quickly ate my breakfast and then I put on my white pants, red jersey, and hat with the Poco Cardinals logo on it. I grabbed my bag and headed out to my car. As I stepped outside I admired how smoggy it was outside and how it made the sun pink. On the car ride to the field I was listening to my music in a futile attempt to calm my nerves. Before I knew it we had arrived at the field and that’s when it really hit me that this could be the biggest baseball event I will ever play in.
As I stepped out of my car I instantly heard the sounds of parents cheering and baseball games being played. I could smell the concession as I walked past, the thought of eating a hotdog or getting some fries oddly calmed me. When I arrived at the dugout I was the 3rd person to arrive. I put on my cleats and instantly starting warming up. Before long the whole team had arrived and we were all in a line throwing. We saw a 7 feet tall monster warming up with the other team. We were convinced he was a coach until he started warming up pitching. We all were nervous after seeing him throw a couple of pitches at what looked like 90 miles per hour. After a while the umps called in the coaches and we got ready to play. As soon as I hit the dugout I put a piece of bubble gum in my mouth and was ready to go. Our coaches gave us a pep talk and told us it was ok to be nervous. I was up to bat 3rd so I put on my helmet and my gloves and got ready and started to time up the pitcher. Fortunately for us the 7 foot monster was only playing 1st base and didn’t look as threatening after he made a few mistakes.
We had out best pitcher pitching so the game went by pretty fast and it was really uneventful. I didn’t have to much which was really nice because I was really nervous. By the time the last inning came around it was 5-4 for us and all we had to do was shut them down. Our pitcher had done it with ease and that was the first win for provincials. After the game a bunch of us had stuck around because there was a opening ceremony followed by a skills competition. I was exhausted but I still managed to make my way to the concession to buy some food. As I approached the front of the line I was met by the fragrance of french fries and grilled onions. I ordered fries and blue raspberry slushie, in an attempt to not get over heated. As I waited for my order I watched one of the other games being played, they were interesting but I wasn’t invested in watching them because the teams were in the other pool and we wouldn’t play them until play offs. After I got my food I went back and sat with my other team mates who had stuck around. After a bit of time had passed the rest of our team had began to show up again in time for the opening ceremonies. After the ceremonies there was a skill competition. The first part was a home run derby our teams power hitter, Scott Helmhold was up for our team. During the derby all I could hear was the pings from the bats, along with everyone going “ohhhh” and then “awww” when it didn’t make it as well as the occasional clapping and cheering when it went over. After that there was a rely and then a race around the bases. I was on the running team. I got ready to go as soon as my team mate came around and ran as hard as I could, as I rounded 2nd I felt something pop in my knee cap but I kept going because I didn’t want to let my team down. After everyone had finished, the host had announced that my team were the winners of the relay race.
The day after the opening ceremonies we had the rest of our pool games on the following Saturday and Sunday. We were tied for 2nd in our pool but because of the rules we advanced to the playoffs. Our 1st playoff game was against a team from the island. It was a close game but we won it in the end due to a incredible grand slam from my team mate when we were down by 2. In the finals we met our rivals the team from Vancouver. Our team hated them because of their cocky attitudes and arrogant. Unfortunately we got blown out and the Vancouver team won due a walk off home run. As soon as I saw the hit my heart sank, and I was ready to break down and cry. Our team got our 2nd place medals, then we took some pictures, and finally our coaches talked to us and congratulated us for such a great season. I grabbed my stuff said my goodbyes to my team mates and friends, and headed home looking forward to the off season.