Forgiving

Rochell Battle

ENC 1102

Professor Warren

30 April 2013 

The Jewish Holocaust was a devastatingly reality that showed the world how deep the evil mind can delve; the systematic dehumanizing, enslavement, and ultimate near extermination of an entire ethnic group of people in Europe and parts of Northern Africa opened the eyes of millions of people who couldn’t fathom the idea of annihilating an entire people. The years leading up to and during the Second World War, over six million Jews were killed by the Nazi party, whose base was located and centralized in Germany. Headed by the infamous Adolf Hitler and enforced by the SS, Hitler’s secret police, Jewish people became the scapegoats of a failing German economy. The “Angel of Death”, Josef Mengele, was a Nazi SS doctor who in most noted for the experiments he presided over at the Auschwitz death camp, with a keen focus on children and twins. The few who have survived his encounters have related the horrible experiences they’ve seen or faced directly while under the mercy of the “Angel of Death”.

            The idea of gruesomely experimenting on live humans is dreadful, but Mengele takes even that idea and compounds it exponentially by experimenting on young children. He seemed to enjoy satisfying a devilish curiosity that couldn’t be stopped, but to be indulged by the thousands. Mengele was the final authority at the Auschwitz death camp in terms of who lives and who dies, “It was in 1943, at the age of 32, when he was transferred to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. He initially gained notoriety as an SS physician who eagerly supervised the selection of arriving prisoners. Mengele would determine who would be killed and who would become a forced laborer and worked to death” (Mirror.co.uk).

Mengele had no heart or remorse for killing entire blocks and groups of Jews on a whim, one story of the survivor’s account: “The Angel of Death fed his legend by dramatizing murderous policies, such as his drawing a line on the wall of the children's block between 150 and 156 centimeters (about 5 feet or 5 feet 2 inches) from the floor. Then sending those whose heads could not reach the line to the gas chamber ... (Lifton, p. 346.)” (Angel of Death Josef Mengele). These harsh and sporatic outbursts added more fuel to his wicked legend, but he is said to have sewn to identical twins together in an attempt to create Siamese twins, both twins died in that case. Mengele was crazed with drawing blood from twins as well, “Mengele was almost fanatical about drawing blood from twins, mostly identical twins. He is reported to have bled some to death this way” (Angel of Death Josef Mengele). He is also rumored to have inserted chloroform into the eyes of children in an attempt to change their eye color, needless to say that those children died instantaneously.

With these stories and rumors, later confirmed as facts by the survivors of the Holocaust, how could the “Angel of Death” not be brought to justice? Weirdly enough, some of the twins looked to Mengele as a nice, gentle, kind man who “befriended them and gave them chocolates” (Angel of Death Josef Mengele). He became the father figure to most of the children since they were separated from their families upon entry of the concentration camp. It was known, but not spoken, that any of the children could be killed for any and every reason the Angel of Death so chose. “Mengele performed both physical and psychological experiments, experimental surgeries performed without anesthesia, transfusions of blood from one twin to another, isolation endurance, reaction to various stimuli. He made injections with lethal germs, sex change operations, the removal of organs and limbs, incestuous impregnations” (Angel of Death Josef Mengele). Would Mengele not be a “Most Wanted” suspect when the Allied Forces stormed the gates of Auschwitz?

Come to find out, Mengele was in custody of the Allied Forces twice! Both times the troops within Allied military forces failed to recognize him as a target of interest; perhaps one of the most sought after war criminals throughout World War II, behind the respective heads of states of the Axis powers, and Adolf Eichmann, Hitler’s second in command. “He escaped the Red Army and, incredibly, was released twice from American detention camps when they failed to realize he was a wanted war criminal” (Mirror.co.uk). The organization that is positively glorified in America, as well as worldwide, as one that will help less fortunate people is one of the main culprits in the reason for Mengele’s escape! The International Committee of the Red Cross is said to have unknowingly provided passports to no fewer than ten Nazi’s under various aliases:

“A statement issued by the ICRC, from its Geneva headquarters, said they were among thousands of people found in refugee camps who were given Red Cross travel documents. The ICRC said documents were provided unknowingly and it was committed to dealing openly with the "painful and regrettable experiences" of the past. ICRC spokesman Urs Boegli said: "The travel documents were swindled out of the ICRC." The Nazi deception was uncovered after the ICRC was given a list of aliases used by Nazi war criminals. But it remains unclear exactly how many Nazis used the Red Cross as a means of escaping war crime trials” (BBC News).

            The Angel of Death hid four years at an abandoned farmed in Germany, visited and sustained by his wealthy family, then fled to Geneva, Italy, in order to obtain passports and customs before he fled Europe 1949. It is said that he gave false names to obtain Italian residency. He lived first in Argentina, only fleeing when fellow Nazi Adolf Eichmann was captured by the Israeli security forces and taken for execution. Then he went to Paraguay, where the regime was sympathetic to him, before moving to Brazil. There he lived out the final years of his life as a fugitive in a bungalow in a slum suburb of São Paulo.

            Since the time of his escape, Mengele became a journalist and writer, nothing published of course, for he was a wanted man, but he did keep a journal where he displayed his feelings about his surroundings, or perhaps visiting old memories even prior to his Nazi days. As much as 95% of the auctioned material understood to have been donated by a Mengele family member has not been translated. The records take the form of thirty-one documents describing his time in Paraguay and Brazil from 1960 to 1975. Mengele speaks of himself in the third person throughout the text, or he refers to himself using a pseudonym, “Andreas”. “He complains about the number of unemployed in Germany from 1929 to 1932, the “shameful” peace after the First World War, how his ideology developed and that taxes were too high. He also explains that there couldn’t be any mistrust between himself and his son, since his son has no Jewish blood” (Mirror.co.uk).

Mengele is referred by some as the cruelest, most evil mind of the 20^th century. As many would agree to that notion, why hasn’t his work up for auction been translated? These journals contain information that could undoubtedly give each reader a more keen sense of the times that he lived in after the devastation he left, as well as a glimpse into a cruel, unforgiving past that most readers fear. It is that fear that all readers must conquer, it is a fear that the world must conquer, so says a very true quote, “Wherever there is fear, the righteous soul cannot dwell.”

Works Cited

Angel of Death Josef Mengele. 2012. 26 April 2013. <http://www.auschwitz.dk/mengele.htm>.

BBC News. Red Cross Admits It Helped Mengele And Other Nazis Flee. 17 February 1999. 26 April 2013. <http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/red_cross_nazis.htm>.

Mirror.co.uk. Secret diaries of Nazi doctor Josef Mengele offer glimpse into twisted mind. 30 July 2011. 26 April 2013. <http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/secret-diaries-of-nazi-doctor-josef-144698>.

Journal 8

Journal 8

During this class I have learned a lot about writing paper and looking at different articles and pointing out the main ideas and finding a thesis. Many of the assignments I didn’t agree with because we were going by a topic every time. I think that we could have gotten a free write not just based on what has been giving to us. It wasn’t  a lot of writing in my last English class this was new to me we didn’t have that many writing assignment it was just seem like it in this class it  was a paper back to back. Meanwhile I did enjoy the speakers that we had that came to visit the class. The way that I would review the blogs is by letting everyone comments on the post first and then email the three people who they have comment on. This was my first time doing a blog in class I was confused the first few weeks but as the course went on I got the hang of it. I really enjoyed the blog activity I think it should be used and it really keeps a way that the teacher can keeps up with the work. The bog can also is a way that people stay in touch. I really didn’t know that people used blog to make websites and to use them for other things. Overall I would give my teacher a good report when things were giving to be done it was communicate well and in an order and explain in details. I enjoyed being in your class hopefully I can used this in many ways. Thanks

Waiting for superman Final Draft

Rochell Battle

Professor Warren

ENC 1102

16 April 2013

Public School Issues

            The American public school system has been the topic of many disputes and discussions as of late, from presidential debates, to barbershop arguments; duly so, because the education system that is in place today has the future leaders of America falling behind in many major areas of education in comparison to other industrialized countries in the world. Test scores are falling, dropout rates are increasing, suspension and expulsion rates are rising at an alarming rate within minority groups, and increasing levels of violence within the schoolhouse, and falling standards for teachers, are all contributors to the cause. Budget cuts throughout the state and local level hasn’t helped the cause at all; teachers jobs have been cut and classroom aides have vanished. To fan the flames, curriculum publishers have been on a money hungry scheme to force school districts to repeatedly re-buy the same curriculum but with a different name. With so many factors working against the true progression of the public school system, it may be hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel; but there are ideas of reform that could work out into the favor the children of today, leaders of tomorrow.

“Despite reform efforts, school performance is improving slowly, if at all, and continues to be very inequitable between racial and income groups. Though the causes are typically presumed to be located within the classroom, the system itself perpetuates inequity and poor performance. This paper proposes two systemic changes: allow funding to follow children to the school their parents choose and remove the exclusive franchise of school districts, thereby allowing multiple providers of public education within one geographic region. Together these changes would provide the framework for an education system that offers students and professionals a wide range of opportunity and freedom to pursue success” (Richard Meinhard).

Funding that allows parents to choose the school that their children can attend would send seismic shock waves throughout the education community; granted this is one of the major producers of inequality due to districts and zoning. Impoverished families who don’t qualify for the magnet programs are forced to settle for their neighborhood schools that have low test scores and letter grades, as well as a low morale. These families do not have the money to send their children to private schools, so they boxed into a situation that they do not want to be in. This is a legal, more subtle form of segregation; the wealthy people do not care about school zoning due to the fact that it doesn’t matter where they live, the wealthy have the funds to send their children to the best. Even if they sent their children to public schools, the geographic area that they live in would have the highest graded public schools. This is a flaw in the educational system that needs to be addressed as soon as possible.

Another flaw in the public school system is the exclusive franchise of school districts; in friendly competition between businesses the consumer always wins, the same goes for the school system, in which the consumer is the student. Any monopoly will cause the business become stagnant, knowing has a captive audience and it doesn’t matter what prices it has the consumer will always have to come back for more. This is the same theory within the school system; if there were friendly competition between schools in a certain district, then both schools would compete with each other in an attempt to attract the best students in that district. If there is only one school per district, as it is currently set within the system in place now, then the school has a monopoly in on the families and students in that district; as it is not concerned with providing the best product (education) for the student, but are just required to provide the basic necessities to the student, especially if they are located in an impoverished area.

“America lacks a theory that would explain how its current system of public schooling could function at an acceptable level. Such a theory would describe how the several components of schooling—finances, administration, curriculum, teaching and student characteristics—could come together in a way that yields educated children…Standards and testing are not a reform strategy; they are only a hope for high performance. The public school system will not significantly change with these types of ‘reforms’” (Richard Meinhard).

            The public school system currently in place is not geared toward the individual student; instead it attempts to cover millions of individual students in a broad brushstroke with a few different programs for exceptional and special needs students. Any system that doesn’t pay attention to detail is not efficient; it is the attention to many small details that make up the whole of the machine. Hence the saying “the whole is greater than sum of its parts.” The American public school system is a perfect example of how a machine is ran incorrectly. Founded on standard based programs, it sweeps many different learning styles into very general groups; if those standards are not met, and then there is no reprisal for that student, only failure.

“One of the problems with the American education system is that it has yet to form a consensus about the role of religion in the classroom. While this is not a statement meant to argue whether or not religion has a valid place in the public schools, it is fair to state that this is certainly an area of contention as opposing sides attempt to standardize how religion is treated, particularly in textbooks. Because of a lack of agreement, proponents on both sides use litigation and other actions to determine religion’s status in schools and this has caused textbook publishers and other educational entities to have to take a dramatic stance. For instance, some argue that the efforts to stay away from this debate ‘has pushed textbook publishers to excise religion altogether, even from history class. It is not just the teaching of religion that has become taboo…It is the teaching of religion’ (Goodman 1). No matter where one stands in the midst of this controversy, it is necessary to at least admit that a large portion of Western history revolves around religious ideas” (Smith).

Separation of church and state didn’t only take religion out of schools, it also made sure the educational system “politically correct” in not wanting to offend any of the religious or political groups of the time, which takes away from the educational experience due to the fact that America was founded on religion and escape from religious persecution. Many students do not get to speak freely about religion until post-secondary education in a humanities class. This is a vital part of education, to where students can at least learn about the origin of the different religions of the world without the bias of mainstream media.

All in all, the current educational system in America is flawed in some major ways, but there are alternatives that will help America to ascend back into greatness in the scholarly eyes of the world. Money cannot be a driving force, because money is the root of all evil. There must be an approach to the individual student instead of a widespread general approach. These factors, coupled with the steady drive of the students to want to succeed regardless of the situation, America can achieve greatness once again.

Works Cited

Archung, Kim Nesta. "School: The Story of American Public Education." n.d. PBS.org. ERIC Clearinghouse. 13 April 2013. <http://www.pbs.org/kcet/publicschool/pdf/aacte.pdf>.

Richard Meinhard, Nick Weller. "Improving Public Schools Requires Changing the System." Policy Perspective (2003): 1-7. 13 April 2013. <http://cascadepolicy.org/pdf/edref/PP_1024.pdf>.

Smith, Nicole. "Problems and Weaknesses in the American Educational System." 15 December 2011. Article Myriad. 13 April 2013. <http://www.articlemyriad.com/problems-weaknesses-american-educational-system/>.

Thomas D. Snyder, Sally A. Dillow. "Digest of Education Statistics." Statistical Analysis. National Center for Educational Statistics, 2011. <http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2012/2012001.pdf>.

           

            

Waiting for superman

After watching the movie waiting for superman, it really made me realize of the things that go on in the schools and do these things really happen the way they do. In the time that I was in school I didn’t worry about the things like the parents should be concern now. I know education is something that all parents should be worrying about. I am an mother of one and I haven’t gotten to a point of him going to school yet but the things that I have experience and I am looking at other parents experience it’s not good. The public schools have been through a lot of things with budget cuts, losing teachers and also the students are not getting taught correctly. The students are failing and when that happens the school grades are going down and that’s not good on the schools behave. I have visit a school that the teacher wasn’t doing anything they were just letting the students have fun and no work was giving. As I look I realized how does this really happen in the school house because when I was young I always had something to do my teachers never had a free day for us. They used to tell us there wasn’t a day like that in this world. The students are getting comfortable of doing nothing in the classroom, it has been so many dropout and student not just wanting to attended school. It making the parents looks bad I just think that a child shouldn’t make their own decision if they are under the age of 18 living in their household.  

Rochell Battle

Professor Warren

ENC1102

9April 2013

           

The exploitation of today’s collegiate student-athletes, especially the athletes who play in sports that generate massive amounts of income, has been a controversial issue for years. Student-athletes are considered amateur athletes, meaning that they cannot be paid for their services like a professional athlete would. In most cases, these athletes are on some type of athletic scholarship, meaning that their athletic ability is enough to make the university pay for their post-secondary schooling, whether fully or partially. These scholarships are may equal up to several hundreds of thousands of dollars when tuition, lodging, books, travel expenses, equipment, medical attention, and paraphernalia are taken into consideration as well. The hundreds of thousands of dollars that these schools pay for these student athletes pale in comparison to the hundreds of millions of dollars that the universities are making off these same student athletes year around.

 On a deeper note, many collegiate athletes aren’t provided with the necessary social, psychological, and academic support system that matches up with the strenuous workload that students shoulder; these are reflected in an alarmingly increasing rate of dropouts and declining graduation rates. There have been talks of a compensation plan for these student-athletes, but all in all students aren’t getting the proper support system that they need.

Here are some major findings from the National College Players Association: “College athletes on a full scholarship do not receive a “free ride”. In the 2009-2010 academic year, the average annual scholarship shortfall (out of pocket expenses) for Football Bowl Series (FBS) "full" scholarship athletes was $3,222. The compensation of student athletes who are on “full scholarship” receive for living expenses (room and board, other expenses) situates the vast majority at or below the poverty level. The average FBS “full” scholarship athlete earns less than the federal poverty line by $1,874 on campus and $1,794 off campus. If allowed to access the fair market like the pro, the average FBS (Division 1) football player and basketball player would be worth approximately  $121,048 and $265,027 respectively (not counting individual commercial endorsement deals). The year-old NCAA TV contract with CBS will average about $270 million in new revenues above and beyond its previous TV deal with CBS.” (Staurowsky).

These findings confirm the fact that collegiate athletes are being exploited the moment they step foot on campus; living below the poverty line while their coaches get paid millions of dollars, coupled with shouldering a full time course load, among a plethora of other things that may lead to psychological and social ailments. This could be explained by the declining graduation rates within the student athlete community, especially minority athletes that come from impoverished situations.

“Put differently, there are challenges minority student-athletes encounter which are not commonly experienced by non-minority student-athletes, and this as well warrants them receiving social support. These challenges have been well documented (Brooks & Althouse, 2000; Harris, Altekruse, & Engels, 2003). For instance, researchers have called attention to the racism and discrimination minority student athletes encounter from people within and beyond the university community, such as being treated differently than their White counterparts, being dealt with rudely or unfairly, and being denied access to campus leadership positions (Singer, 2005; Smedley, Myers, & Harrell, 1993). Further, minority student-athletes have often been perceived as competent in their sport, yet intellectually inferior to White student-athletes (Sailes, 1993; Harrison & Lawrence, 2004). In fact, it has been noted that, generally, individuals tend to give greater attention to the athletic prowess rather than the academic ability of minority student-athletes (Lapchick, 1996b), and this happens quite often with particularly Black male student-athletes (Hodge, Burden, Robinson, & Bennett, 2008). The challenges that minority student-athletes encounter at PWIs have also included prevailing racial stereotypes. For example, minority student-athletes have encountered professors who stereotype them as having been matriculated at the college/university based on affirmative action policies, or because general admission standards were lowered to help admit them (Scales, 1991). In other words, some professors have believed minority student-athletes to be incapable of gaining entry into their respective institution based solely on merit. Other scholars, such as Fries-Britt and Turner (2002), discovered that minority college students felt that they were stereotyped as the “token representative” in their class. For that reason, they felt enormous stress and pressure to prove that they belonged and could meet the demands of higher education (FriesBritt & Turner, 2002). Minority students also felt they were stereotyped by their White peers as being the one and only voice expected to represent all opinions of minority people” (Thompson).

The graduation rate is ultimately the main issue at hand, because it is the education of these athletes that makes the biggest difference in their lives. This is why the main focus of a university, of the athletic department, of the coaches, and finally the players should be graduation. Although the sport of choice should be a focal point as well, nothing should supersede education in any case during a student athlete’s tenure at a university. “Recently, the low rate of student-athlete graduation success has become a concern of the NCAA, individual universities, and the public. Although more recent studies have found that there has been a slight increase in the graduation rates of NCAA athletes, they are still sub-par and usually below those of the non-athlete undergraduates” (Heydorn).

All in all, there a many factors that goes into the proper molding and shaping of a young student athlete’s life. These years are vital and can shape the student athletes lives forever, so there must be tools to help shape the lives of student athletes in a positive light. Student athletes are the pistons run a multi-million dollar engine that is collegiate athletics; the least the NCAA and these universities can do is make sure that they are living above the poverty line, are duly compensated, have a great support system on and off the field, and make sure that they are graduating. Many groups are being exploited in today’s society, like in Miss Understood, and collegiate athletes are one of those groups.

Works Cited

Heydorn, Ellen. "Explaining the Graduation Gap - Athletes vs. Non-Athletes: A Study of Big Ten and Missouri Valley Conferences." The Park Place Economist (2011): 25-33.

Staurowsky, Ramogi Huma & Ellen J. "The Price of Poverty in Big Time College Sports." n.d. National College Players Association. 9 April 2013. <http://assets.usw.org/ncpa/The-Price-of-Poverty-in-Big-Time-College-Sport.pdf>.

Thompson, Jason. "Social Support and Minority Student-Athletes." Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletes (2010): 234-252.

Journal 6

Watching the movie Misrepresentation I must say that it’s going to be a tough topic for me. By looking at the movie in a women view it really open my eyes to pay attention to different things that people are doing to get them and name or to get on the front cover or the magazine. Social networking is really common in this day in time to make yourself known or to get around the world for different people to know you. While parents are doing other things or not playing attention to their children little do they know that they are picking up bad habits of things on television or looking at different movies that is played on television that is consider of having their bodies exposed. Parents need to be careful of what is watching on television and their children are around. Most of our young ladies want to be like the celebrities on television and wanting to be like that person and using everything to be like them. They are cutting their hair body is changing it’s a lot going on. They are using to many details to used their bodies. In my time my parents didn’t let me look at what I wanted I had to watch something on television that is educated and that’s in a child place it is so different because we have young parents that is having babies and they is young they self. It doesn’t make it bad because they have magazines in the stores that have naked people inside it.

Surviving the streets

Rochell Battle

Professor Warren

ENC1102

19March2013

Surviving the Streets

                Life is not easy. We are in a surviving mode every day. There are many people living on the street looking for a way out. People are looking for clothes, food and other surviving products to make it through the day. There are many homeless shelters available for people living on the streets. These programs help with food, clothes and other personal items. People are donating items to help support the homeless organizations. When a person is homeless and in the streets, there are many obstacles they come in contact with such as drugs, violence, sexual abuse and other serious act of violence.

 There were a census report done on the children on the street in all nine districts of Delhi in 2010,  they found out that there are around 51,000 street children in Delhi (20% are girls; dalit represent 36% and adivasi 17%); 70% fend for themselves on the street despite having a home in Delhi; 50.5% are illiterate; 87% earn a living (20% as ragpickers, 15.8% as street vendors, 15% by begging); Over 50% have suffered verbal, physical or sexual abuse; Fewer than 20% have ID cards or birth certificates, so they miss out on government schemes (Bhaskaran & Mehta, 2010) .   

There were over 96 million people wasting food in 2010 according to a movie called Dive. Many people is going around and looking for food. There are homeless people everywhere.  People do not realize that other foreign counties have starving children and they are dying for the lack of food. We take a lot of stuff for granted because we have new shoes, clothes and a roof over our heads.   I hate seeing people like this. When I was young I used to talk about them and laugh because they used to look dirty. As I got older, I realized why they like that. I never want to be like this in my life. I question myself a lot. How can they let themselves get in this situation? Growing up with my parents, I use to want to through away food and my parents taught me how to save food. We had many leftovers after meals and we would put them up for the next day. My daddy always said he didn’t like to eat leftovers. 

            While watching the movie, it really made me sadden and almost in tears. By looking at homeless people, I wanted to help them out more. When I’m riding around town, I see people sleep everywhere also I see people digging in the trash cans for food. By watching people on the streets, It makes me want to start saving and trying to open up a community shelter. That’s mean that anytime they need food or need a place to stay they can come and just sign in to get the necessary help needed.     

            Meeting people at their needs are very important because everybody have needs. In order to help support the homeless and others out in the streets, it takes a community, families, churches and other faith- based organization to help with providing shelter, support not only in giving food but having programs set up to help the hopeless get out of this rut they are in. The whole society need to come together as one body (Grabham, 2013). I know that we can’t when them all but we can’t give up trying to help save someone life. The homeless is hungry for that love and affection. We have to show them a better way to survive.

            When I look at the phase “Surviving on the Streets”, it gives me an outlook on life and where I could have been if it was not for the Lord on my side. Overall, people did not asked to be that way but it is God way of life. One day we are up and the other day we could be down. It is not good to pick on a person lively hood because one day it just might be you. We will not give up until we reach every person living on the streets. One day at a time, and one person at a time, we will make it through this trail and tribulation this world is up against.  I really pray that I won’t ever get like this because it is serious in these days in life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reference

   Bhaskaran, R & Mehta, B, 2011. Surviving the streets: save the children.

   Grabham, M.2013. http://www.survivethestreets.org/

  Stiegel,2013 Movie Dive.