Throughout this year, we have learned many different, interesting things in World History. We were taught to have our own opinions during different units and stand by it. During the third marking period, each student had to make a revolution guidebook digital story benchmark and the goal was to choose a key issue, investigate that issue, then using examples and quotes from different revolutions, explain your point of view about that specific idea and support it. My project evolved around the question, “which method makes a revolution more effective or successful, violence or non violence?”Here is my project.. Coming into this year, I used to think that violence is always more successful than non violence because the message doesn’t really get across and people don’t really take it seriously unless they are forced to. However, I decided that my point of view during this project is that the non violence method is the most effective one. Now I believe that non violence is the answer to every situation that is presented, violence is never a good idea no matter it is. Why? Let’s explore.

The second quarter highlighted some of the exciting things that we did. One of them was a mock trial that we did as a class. We were divided into groups and each group had to take turns prosecuting other groups and defending their own groups. The goal was for each group to convince everyone else that they are the most innocent one. This trial was for the Cortes invasion of the Aztec empire. During this trial, we saw that Cortes and his men to take control of the land and be forceful rulers. One would argue that this was a successful invasion except for the side issues since he accomplished his goal but I would argue otherwise. For the trial, we had used different characters of the invasion and my groups was the king. One of the statements that we used was, “Cortes’s group wiped out a country nearly completely. Cortes’ group set their own ship on fire so they could continue the violence when his group wanted to stop, but he wanted his men to continue the carnage making him a guilty person.This document can be found by clicking this. If you click here, you can see my group's document for another mock trial that we did as a class. We used this statement in an attempt to prove that the invasion was not out fault but indeed theirs. It is clear that there was massive murder while Cortes and his men were there and that led to nothing. They were not pleased with the way that the Aztecs were living their life while they were there but they did not realize that killing them was not the answer. This killing was unnecessary and they ended up turning on each other as time went by. This brought to my attention that maybe my conception of violence was wrong and that maybe I should find another way to perceive it.

Another unit that we did meant that we had to make a wiki document informing the public about a specific issue relating to religion. We were expected to use multiple religions for the one issue in order to go more in depth.This is the link to mine. During my project, which I used Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism as the religions that'll help me prove my point. I learned that homosexuals were being tortured, and even killed in certain religions because of their sexuality. They thought that that would help but instead that only created more protests and more violence. Violence only leads to more violence and that is never a helpful thing.

During my digital story, I used quotes from the famous Ghandi and Martin Luther King to emphasize my point. Non violence may take more time but it is worth it because of the lack of death and injuries. Human life should be more valued than an idea, no matter how brilliant it may sound. I used the Egyptian revolution and the French revolution to emphasize my point. During the Egyptian, there were peaceful protests while during the French revolution consisted of one too may deaths. While both revolutions seem to be successful since they both achieved their goal, a revolution should be judged by how little human lives were lost while the point was getting across. If this calculator is being used, the Egyptian revolution was many times better. This year’s learning helped me understand this important, key fact about violence and I am grateful for that. I never thought that violence was like an okay, normal thing but I always thought of it as an option. Now I know that I was wrong.

Journal Entries were another part of our learning in World History, below some of mine can be found:

1) Journal #40

2) Journal #50

Another piece of work that I created for this class is here.

"The Keystone XL pipeline would traverse six U.S. states and cross major rivers, including the Missouri River, Yellowstone, and Red Rivers, as well as key sources of drinking and agricultural water, such as the Ogallala Aquifer which supplies water to more than one fourth of America’s irrigated land and provides drinking water for two million Americans"                                                                                                                                                                                                                        "The construction of pipeline would add 20,000 jobs to the economy"

Part III:

Johnny-

(Johnny walks into class late and as punishment his teacher Ms. Anna gives him a different project by mistake)

Johnny: Why do I always get harder projects. Its not fair. She hates me I know she hates me. Why should I have her class anyway. Now I have to waste my whole week on finding out stuff for this stupid pipeline. (Johnny slowly walks into the house so he won’t wake his mom) If my mom finds out I have a project thats worth my whole grade she’ll make me spend all day and night working on it. Hey mom my day was fine I’ll just leave you be, oh and I don’t have any homework so I’m bout to go chill wit Mike. Ugh come on why she always gotta draw. I always do my projects its just I like to get all the thoughts together then do the rest of the work on sunday nights. The project is on the keystone pipeline. She says ( in a sarcastic voice) it may really open your eye’s on life. Man fuck this shit Imma just look at the plans. Okay okay its a pipeline for oil and it looks likes it goes straight down through america. Wait that can’t be legal. Hey mom is it legal to build things on another country and not have their permission. Oh it is as long as they have permission before building okay thanks mom. Okay so they have permission but I don’t see how it affects us as americans. Hey mom we live in Montana right. Cool this pipeline is going to be built not to far from our house then. Mom calm down it’s not that serious. Wait let me show you the plans for it. It’s really cool and this government site says that it will create jobs and other cool things for people who live near it. That means that you could work for them. This says that it will create 20,000 jobs and give back millions of dollars in tax money. Most of the jobs go to the canadians but like 900 of them go to american citizens. It also says about $585 million dollars in tax money. That means we’re gonna be rich… oh the government gets the money. But wait this says the money we be given to people who live near the pipeline and gas will be cheaper. It also says that the country might go in debt by 7 million. Thats okay, we can just use some of the money we make from it to pay them back then boom we’re out of debt. Oh how much are we in debt. BILLIONS!! but millions are the biggest number. (At school the next day working on his project) Oh my god this will be super awesome. Think about it, I can be standing there washing my hands when a robber comes in all I have to do is splash him with water then throw a match at him. Oh my fault I forgot to tell you but this thing I read said that if the keystone pipeline breaks or leaks out any toxic chemicals, once built in our lake, then our water supply would be flammable. Hey miss. Janet didn’t you say your sister Jane was working on this pipeline? Can you tell her that she’s awesome I love everything about it. I hope they go through with it.

Josh-

(Josh is walking home from school and he’s hearing construction noise. With no idea what’s going on, he stays calm. He then stumbles into a friend of his and they start joking around. After a while, he decides to finally head home and they go separate ways)

What’s going on? Why are people digging around my house? Where’s mom? They have no right to do that, at least I think. Is this a joke? I aint got time to play if this is a prank, someone’s gonna pay like for real yo. (Josh is so surprised that he stands still like for 20 minutes). Wait what am I doing? I gotta start asking these people to leave my house alone. ( He goes and asks what’s going and the workers tell him about the pipeline). Whoa whoa whoa, heck no. They are transporting tar sands oil to America? We shouldn’t even have thought about accepting this offer and yet we accepted it? I don’t care how much we currently need money, we can’t be the energy sacrifice zone, we can’t be the place where most of the carbon-based energy flows and spills anymore. If there’s one thing I learned it’s that our country is way too polluted already, and now we accept to let Canada transport, not regular oil, but tar sands oil. That’s one of the dumbest mistakes that the government has made from what I know of. I don’t really care about all of that, well I care, but that’s not the most important point. This is my house, well it’s my parents house but still I live here. I’m pretty sure you gotta have a permit for that. Well, do you?  (He gets no answer, all the construction workers just ignored him because he’s just a teenager) This is not fair. Oh I get it, they’re ignoring me cause I’m black and I’m just a kid. Everyone needs a voice in this society, I’m pretty sure we live in a democratic country. I don’t get this crap, whatever’s happening in the country shouldn’t affect me and my family all the way in Alabama, that’s one of the reasons why we moved here. I need to find a way to contact the president and let him know how I feel. This transportation cannot go through, I’ll start a revolution if I have to. I’d even use violence, me and my gang don’t play.

Jane- (alice has just gotten home and is now laying out the blueprint for the keystone pipeline. When suddenly she finds out that the plans for the pipeline are scheduled to go straight through her family's land)

OH MY GOD THIS CAN'T BE RIGHT! I’ve gotta change this before we get permission to dig on American soil. This has to be wrong. Let me call the president. Hello, these plans say the pipeline goes through Montana, please tell me that this is either the wrong copy of the blueprint or that I’m looking at the wrong line. Okay are you sure? I’m asking because my family still lives there. Where will they go? I know I know it’s something we have to do but…… ugh okay let me call my family. (hangs up and calls her sister) Hey sis how’s it going, its been a long time since we talked but I called to ask you a quick question, do you and mommy still live at daddy’s old farm? Oh you do, well if you don’t mind me asking, when are y'all moving out? Well you remember how I got that job in Canada and I told you we build pipelines? Well long story short I need you to vacate the premises and find a new place to stay because I got a pipeline that needs to be built right where the farm is. Calm down sis you won’t be homeless you all can come live with me because that pipeline is gonna save us millions especially since I’m the vice president of this project. If you move to canada then you won’t be affected by the gas fumes that will spread in the waterline, the $7million debt the U.S will owe to private sector funding, you won’t have to worry about the 830,000 barrels of tar sand oil, which is dirtier than normal oil by the way, and you won’t have to worry about mom getting laid off because the pipeline is basically gonna take jobs from the U.S and give them to  Canadians. Yes I understand that our family has been there for hundreds of years but this pipeline will basically help us bond as a family. Okay Im listening. Yes, 7 million in debt, 830,000 barrels of poisonous oil, jobs employment decrease, water may be flammable and/or cease to exist, and thousands of people getting evicted from their own property. Now that you say it like that It does sound like our family would suffer from it along with other families in that thousand mile radius. I’ll call my boss and see what I can do, okay love you bye. (hangs up and calls her boss) Hey boss I just talked to my sister Janet and she really opened my eyes, we can’t do this to America. No I’m not going to tell you that we need to change the plans we spent years developing but I do know that this project can’t be built if I, the creator of this pipeline quits. Even if you replace me the pipeline can’t be built without the final signature from the original staff so I’m not asking, I’m telling you that we aren’t building that pipeline through america so goodnight and see you at work.

Marta- (waiting to be introduced she is impatient as she has been waiting all month for this speech. now that the day has come she just wants to get it over with.)

Marta- Hello everyone and a special hello for all of the american citizens visiting canada today. I would like to start off by saying God bless canada and God bless america. Today I’m here to discuss the keystone pipeline with mostly the americans because we  already have canadians who started building this precious pipe that God has forsaken us with. Now lets begin to break down this “bad business”. Jobs- created, gas prices- lowered, tax money- separated between important american industries which means anyone near the pipeline pays less taxes. This pipeline won’t cause any new problems that we as a world haven't already found a solution to. Fracking is the only real issue in play all of the other issues are just rumors. America is in debt of 16.7 trillion dollars. 7 million dollars more won’t affect you especially since it will limit the oil you buy from foreign countries by at least 40%. I believe it was America who came up with the phase “you have to spend money to make money” I would happily spend 7 million dollars in order to save almost 300 billion dollars in the near future. Now how can that sound any better? Oh I know, how about with the fact that the pipeline is being built by the top pipeline construction workers money can buy? These pipeline builders have spent months learning how to build a pipeline, and this is after the years of experience they already had building other pipelines. Once we hired them we forced them to take more classes on pipeline building so in a way we overeducated them to do the work. It’s like sending an American football player to training camp every year. Why does he take time to review things he knows? Well let me tell you: its not for him it’s for his coach. His coach will have the satisfaction of knowing that the player does not forget any of the skills he learned.  The rumor that the water we be flammable is in fact true, but it’s not because of the oil, it’s because of chemicals released in the water. Chemicals that were released by fracking. Tar sands oil will affect america as much as tv does young children. Fracking for fossil fuel is what’s gonna kill you. Think of the children, if you allow yourselves to buy foreign oil for too long your children will get use to it. They along with the rest of these beautiful children are the future of not only america but canada, mexico, brazil, spain, haiti, japan, and one of your nations biggest trading markets, (pause) china. The future of america starts by eliminating the thought of your children having to pay off your debt of 16 trillion or 16 quadrillion or, and god please forbid, 16 quintillion dollars, although it would be a piece of cake for them since there are some really creative children out there who won’t struggle to find ways to increase america's debt. Speaking of struggles it was once said that “If their is no struggle then there can be no progress” -great american activist Frederick Douglas. So lets show children the struggle now and they (pause) (with great pride and enthusiasm) will show us progress. Goodnight and may God bless you all.

Mark-

(On the phone with his boss)

Yes, yes, I understand that you need to save money to pay other workers, but I need to provide my family with their needs. I know that it’s not your problem but would you please.... Oh come on, just this time. Don’t make me beg, it’s not pretty when a grown man begs. Boss, I am your best worker, how would you feel if I walked away from this stupid pipeline? There are other important constructions that would love.... Oh you dare me to walk away? I would do it but I have pity for you so, I wont. You don’t need me? (infuriated) We’ll see about that, I quit! (Hangs up the phone) (To himself) No wonder this man is hated, he has no sensitivity whatsoever. All he cares about is that the works gets done. You know what? I’m going to make sure the work doesn’t get done. He says he can get it done without me, I’ll prove him wrong. This pipeline is not getting built. (He gets out his house and goes the the construction site) Hello boss, or should I say ex boss? You weren’t expecting me huh? I know I quitted, I’m just here to stop you from going through with this construction. How will I do that? Oh no, not with violence. I’ll do it the best way possible. I’m not telling you, just watch me. (to his coworkers) Hey my fellow brothers, what are you doing? Do you not know the cruelty of your present actions? We are destroying the environment. No no no, not just USA, the entire world. This pipeline could, no, will devastate ecosystems, pollute water sources and jeopardize public health. In other words by doing this we are putting ourselves in danger. Nature will not be able to protect us anymore, instead, it will turn against us. No boss, I will not “shut up”, I have to speak my mind and let these people know the truth. Did you know that tar sands oil is one of the dirtiest fuels? The pipeline would carry 830,000 barrels of dirty tar sands oil into the United States daily, and result in climate-damaging emissions equal to adding more than 5.6 million new cars to U.S. roads. The tar sands oil will even augment rates of cancer. We don’t want to be part of this madness. I too, thought that this pipeline was being built for a good cause under good circumstances, but after finding outa bout these side effects, it’s not worth it. Let’s all stand up and walk away from the pipeline construction. (Proudly) Let’s all go home with a clear conscience.

The most exciting portion of this project was figuring out the height of my building. It’s because I think architecture is cool and since I could not measure it, I had to figure it out using the methods we learned. I think it was kind of exciting doing something like this, it will come in handy eventually. I think that the least exciting part of the project was the fact that I got many different results for my building height. It’s because I got two almost completely different results from my two calculations and I was confused. That confusion kind of took the excitement away.

I learned many things after completing this project. I learned about different ways that we can determine a building height. I learned about the mirror method and the stick method. I also learned about how we can verify that we got right answers from our calculations. I learned about the picture method and google earth. I learned that you can  look at a building on google earth and the mouth cursor will tell you the elevation and eye altitude. I also learned that the height of the building is the elevation minus the eye altitude. I learned to respect all the buildings I see and all the jobs related to math because of the hard work they do. I learned to not take anything for granted in the world like for example google maps.

Yo: Soy Tomy Fleurine. Soy de Haiti pero vivo en Filadelfia. Soy muy deportista y también simpático. Tengo el pelo negro y los ojos cafés. Me fascina cantar y tocar la guitarra. No me gusta nada estudiar. Mi cumpleaños es el tres de julio.