My Found Poem

“ My life is ruined and I don't even remember how” He admits the truth, which is that she was blacked out, passed out From morning to evening and most of the night Haley had no choice... but to fight The truth she holds has been locked up and never been told The attackers had took photos of the incident She was a little girl filled with innocence “I have a reputation for a night I don’t even remember” It was a late night in November The 15- year old Saratoga girl had killed herself All the boys cared about was their-self

Reflection paper on AP Language and Composition Throughout the year of taking Advanced Placement English Language and Composition, I have become more knowledgeable of logical fallacies, rhetorical strategies to approach an essay and have developed ways to improve my use of sophisticated terminology, writing skills and also increase my speed which will all help me during my attendance of a University and in my future professional life.

                      My favorite piece of work in my portfolio would be my Civil Disobedience essay because it was my first essay in which i wrote more than the basic five paragraph essay style but instead I wrote a 500 word essay and I felt proud of myself after for that accomplishment even though I got a C on it. The most improvement I see when I go through my portfolio would be the length and writing improvements. I used to only get a page done in 40 minutes before I took this class but now I can finish 2 pages and a half or even three and formulate my argument instantly after I read the prompt. My formulation skills have improved and also my speed has improved along with it. If there was anything I wished to work on more throughout this year, it would be vocabulary words. My goal is to learn as much vocabulary words as I can to improve and have a vast knowledge of terminology that can use and apply to the sophistication of my writing because I believe that is a very important aspect for a person to improve on no matter what age or grade you are in.

                  The best work I have excelled in and had the best grade in would be on Question 3, and also it is my favorite. Question three’s prompts are very random and can be about any subject which I love writing about also my descriptive essay was my favorite piece of writing because I enjoyed writing about anything and just taking my time. I believe the best part of writing is you can take your time with it and formulate your thoughts without a hurry and there is no right or wrong answer that you can be penalized on.

                      As I started this school year, My focus was on neurology and it remains as it is on neurology. I have taken classes such as Psychology and Physiology to confirm my interests in such a subject and as my classes come to an end, my love for this subject as solely done one thing, grown.

                     This year is almost coming to an end and if I had to choose something in which I loved it would be the discussions the whole class had. I believe the Socratic Seminars were great ways to interact with our fellow classmates and listen to everyone’s opinion about the world and the major problems that are conquering the world and how to solve or approach them like how we discussed discrimination and sexisim. I enjoy listening to what other people have to say and formulating my thoughts based on the pros and cons of other people’s arguments.  I enjoyed these discussions a lot because they didn’t feel as a debate or who’s right or who’s wrong but as people were discussing it felt more as an open place to share your ideas and thoughts with everyone contributing and understanding where you are coming from which I really enjoyed. Even though I haven’t participated a lot because I get super anxious when talking in front of a crowd but I enjoyed listening to people contributing their ideas because it affected my personal thinking in a positive way and It also may have changed my views and caused me to realize many things about this world that I haven’t before. Also, I loved how classmates played the teacher and corrected eachothers writing (Peer Commentary) because it was interesting to see how other people who are at the same level as you view your writing.
           My least favorite task we did was rating people’s essay because I found myself disagreeing with many people on who was the high, medium, and low. Some people chose essays who were in-completed and contained many errors as the medium or the high which frustrated me and the group also did not cooperate and most of the time the group was off task. I believe separating the whole class in 5 different groups is a bad idea because most of the people go off task and never complete the assignment. I have learned throughout this year that I would rather work alone than with a group because I don’t rely on anyone to finish my work and frankly, I don’t trust anyone either with my grade and to finish the assignment how I want it to be done or how it’s supposed to be. I don’t mind working with other people but I prefer working alone. Also, I have learned that I am a very determined person, I am determined to do well in school and in college. I am determined to follow my goals in life and not give up even if it gets really hard, the only person I can rely on to get to the finish line is myself and therefore I will encourage my self motivation to resume until I become a neurologist.

Question 3

America is a place where all binds of different cultures and beliefs combine to form a uniquely American society. Many countries view America as paradisaical, a place where dreams come true and where opportunities are given for those who are in desperate need of it. America is a “land of opportunity,” it is a place that represents many possibilities for people to earn a prosperous living and succeed in their economic or social objectives. In the passage from “Rights of Man,” by Thomas Paine, Paine discusses how America is a place of fairness and how no conflicts are occurring in America which is why riots have not been formed. Paine makes America look like a peaceful country and a place where the majority of people would want to go to. America is a place where the people come first in substantial cases; it is the land for financial assistance for the lower class. Many laws and acts have been passed in the history of America just for the people and the Union. Most of the time, America makes their citizens their number one priority for the prosperity of the country. “It would appear that the Union of such a people was impracticable; but by the simple operation of constructing government on the principles of society and the rights of a man, every difficulty retires and all the parts are brought into cordial unison,” says Paine in his passage in 1791. Most of the amendments in the Constitution are made for the citizens’ sake. For an example, the nineteenth amendment would be women’s rights, the thirteenth amendment would be freedom of African Americans, and the fifteenth amendment would be male suffrage. All the amendments are examples of how the “difficulties” of America has retired by these amendments. America has been known as the “land of freedom” where you will not get penalized for doing what you believe in and it says so in the Constitution. “Made up as it is of people from different nations, accustomed to different forms and habits of government, speaking different languages, and more different in their modes of worship,” says Paine. America is place where you can find every culture in every corner you walk to. It is not based on one belief or one religion like for an example, Egypt. America welcomes all cultures, races, beliefs, and languages or linguistics. College Assistance with financial needs is one of the things America is well-known for. Financial aid has helped many people achieve their goals in life. Not only does America help with students trying to pay for college but America also helps families pay for their bills and pay for their food. “There, the poor are not oppressed; the rich are not privileged…. There taxes are low, because their government is just,” says Paine. The government has been assisting many low income families to give them a chance in life and also assisting college students and many others. All the factors that were previously states have all been great characteristics of America that holds true today. America is the land in which you come to for a great possibility in making your dreams come true. Many people through the world have traveled to America to accomplish and take for advantage the great privileges that America has brought to the fellow citizens.

Civil Disobedience “Unjust laws exist : shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once, Men, generally, unders such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. it makes it worse,”said Henry David Thoreau.Henry David Thoreau came up with the term “Civil Disobedience” in 1848 in his essay about his refusal as an abolitionist to pay the poll tax. Thoreau argued that citizens should break the law if it interferes with their moral beliefs.Thoreau is saying that you should protest by breaking the law but that you should shoulder the consequences of doing so. The idea is not merely for you to “get away with it” but to get the law changed for the better. Gandhi used nonviolent civil disobedience to protest for India's Independence struggle in England, it was called the famous Salt March against the British monopoly to salt. Martin Luther King Junior also used nonviolent civil disobedience to highlight racial injustice. Sometimes there are laws and regulations that go against a person’s core beliefs. if you refuse to follow that law or regulation because it goes against these beliefs, for the reason that human freedoms and values are more important than any law made by man, that is civil disobedience. It is a philosophy that some laws are just plain wrong, and it;s acceptable to disregard them for that reason.Thoreau believed that individuals could be free only if their actions were true to their own beliefs, with or without the support or approval of the community, or of friends and family. There are many examples throughout history that contemplates civil disobedience for the idea of justice, the righteous action, or law. Laws are supposed to be righteous and protective but what if a law is unfair and brutal. An historical example of civil disobedience would come from the old segregation laws which were common in the United States of America: Blacks were required by law to ride in the black of the bus, and even e give up their seat to a white person. To refuse to ride in the back, or to refuse to give up your seat, would be examples of civil disobedience. Martin Luther King Junior was iconic for his strategy of nonviolent civil disobedience, which he used to advance the civil rights of black Americans, who had been treats as second low class citizens for more than a century. Dr. King was influenced in his philosophy and theology of non-violent civil disobedience by Mahatma Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau. While many people were against Martin luther King Junior and his dream of securing civil rights for blacks, King responded with an analysis of the nature of non-violent political action. Like Thoreau, Martin Luther King Junior was persistent on the moral righteousness and duty of citizens to disobey unjust laws. Also, he affirmed the importance of accepting the penalty, which many activists know can be extremely stressful personally. Dr.King’s response was the "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," published on April 16, 1963.“One may well ask, "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer is found in the fact that there are two types of laws: there are just and there are unjust laws. I would agree with Saint Augustine that "An unjust law is no law at all." ... One who breaks an unjust law must do it openly, lovingly... and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for law.” King distinguishes between two different kinds of laws; the unjust and the just. For an example, the unjust are the laws that not righteous, they are brutal like how blacks could not vote or become educated because of the color of their skin. King found that people had to stand up for these unjust laws because that’s what it had said in the Declaration of Independence.The quotation "...whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government...," the quotation bears a much closer resemblance to King’s comment in his famous letter from Birmingham Jail: "One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws." Martin Luther King Jr found himself ambushed at every turn of the civil movement, and not only by those who outright rejected the moral arguments of civil rights but also by those he considered moderate in the white community. In the following extract from his letter, he goes so far as to suggest that these moderates were in fact the root of the problem.”Over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action.” … Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”King';s struggle and his legacy of civil disobedience are most often misunderstood because the moderates urged restraint and were the "allies" of the movement. When King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, he was given support by the government. The next year the Civil Rights Act in 1964 was passed into law and went some way to diffusing racial tensions in the U.S., though all of this became reality because, in no small measure, the alternative was unthinkable for those in power. One of the great people who influence Martin Luther King Junior was Mahatma Gandhi and his use of nonviolent civil disobedience in India. Ghandi once said, "nonviolence is a weapon of the strong." This means that nonviolence is a tactic best employed by protest and resistance movements that are in a position of strength. Martin Luther King Junior’s civil rights movement was very similar to Gandhi's independence movement, they were both a nonviolent civil disobedience act that proved strength from the more militant Black Nationalists. A major step for the fight for Indian Independence in England was fought by Gandhi, the famed Salt Marsh where Gandhi led tens of thousands of Indians on a 250- mile trek. The British "salt tax" and monopoly throughout colonial India is what the march was solely aimed at. Support for the Indian independence movement was strengthened when the brutal crackdown by British police on the nonviolent protesters achieved international media attention. Henry David Thoreau inspired both Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Junior with his essay on Civil Disobedience. Individuals could resist immoral government action by simply refusing to cooperate was what Thoreau suggested in his essay.. Gandhi followed many of Thoreau’s thoughts in developing his concept of non-cooperation, or Truth Force. One of the most significant and tangible effects India has had on life in the United States was Mahatma Gandhi’s influence on the Civil Rights leader, Martin Luther King, who adapted Gandhi’s idea of civil disobedience to the civil rights movement in the United States. Martin Luther King always paid tribute to Gandhi as one of the most important sources of his own values. In 1959, Dr. King made a pilgrimage to India to honor Gandhi’s legacy. Civil Disobedience is what shapes up America into a better place that it is today. Without doing something about an unjust law, America today would still be a place where blacks are prejudiced upon. Martin Luther King Jr and Gandhi made great brave drastic changes for the justice of all citizens. When faced with unjust laws, Thoreau proposed that people could “obey them, amend them, . . . or transgress them.” With respect to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, Thoreau chose to transgress. Non-violent oppositions to brutal governments had a good track record in the late twentieth century. Many people such as ordinary or righteous people like King and Gandhi have proven Thoreau to be correct: “When all subjects have refused allegiance, and all officers have resigned from office, then the revolution is accomplished.”