Fed up

Today I showed a girl on my bus a comic I received (I asked for it of course) from Peta explaining in a comic book form the life of a chicken. She didn't care at all. She even said, "Well people have to eat animals to live." If murder wasn't a crime... I can think of a million witty retorts now, but all I could say at the time was:
*look of shock, horror, disbelief*
Me: Well how do you think I live then?
Her(well call her blonde buddy): Well you excluded, I'm talking about other people.

These were not the exact words but it is the closest approximation I have. Now I understand what other vegans are talking about when they say, "It isn't the food part that's hard it's dealing with all the ***holes." I completely agree with them now. I'm not calling my friend that word (well she isn't even my friend, but I sit with her on the bus and we used to be friends in 6th grade so silence is awkward). We are completely different and bump a lot. She isn't nearly as opinonated as me, and if I want to see how a regular person would react to something I test it on her (so you could call her my guinea pig). I can't test this stuff on my friends, because let's face it they aren't normal. The one thing we do have in common is acne (I know how awful!) but my should be gone soon so we won't have that in common either (we both don't like the "pretty" preps too, me because they are annoying, snotty, narrcassitic, and always have to be the center of attention. Blonde guinea pig, because they get all the male attetion. I also dislike the "pretties" because of that reason, but not so much because all the guys are immature so they can have them.) I'm going to cut this post off before I start ranting off on differences and brains and junk like that!

Rewrite the pledge

A couple of days ago I was talking about how annoying the "writer in my head" was being. That night I could not sleep and as it was nearing midnight I whipped out my 5 subject spiral bound notebook and wrote away. Seeing as I'm feeling uninspired today I'll share that essay with you. Any comments or remarks you may have please share, I have no idea how to edit!

Key: original speech, just added now, omitted but written on original copy, omitted now my comments.
Word/Quote/Speech that inspired me throughout this essay:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America

and to the Republic for which it stands,

one nation, under god, indivisible with

liberty and justice for all."

Rough Draft

Quite Frankly the Pledge of Allegiance means nothing to me. If anything it is a daily reminder of the hypocrisy and injustice that occurs daily. There are 3 main region lines that I find undeniably contradictory as well as untruthful. "I pledge allegiance to the flag..." what has tho i How is a piece of fabric going to help me? "One nation under god.." What happened to freedom of religion, or therefore having to ability not to believe in god (atheism). "With liberty and justice for all." Is it justice that I have to my parents have to pay taxes for a pathetic excuse of a public school system? I think not.

I haven't even delved into the surface of these idiocies. I'll start out with "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America...." The flag really doesn't care about your allegiance. Actually the flag isn't even alive so I doubt it cares about much of anything. Of course I realize the flag is a silly symbolism of America and pledging your allegiance to your country, but if that is true why not say "I pledge allegiance to the people of the United states of America..." It makes seems more logical to ally with something that is actually alive.

I know Shocker! Some people don't believe in god. Run out and convert them as quickly as possible. (In case you didn't know, that was sarcasm back there a sarcastic remark). Isn't America supposed to welcome immigrants and other people who are different? (Welcome does not mean, "Make fun of accent or belief.") Even our your money says, "One nation under god." Coul With our your "American Ingenuity" couldn't you have come up with something more original and friendly than that? Such as, "One people united..." or "One people of common values." My use o The reason I changed nation to people is the gov nation is run by the people for the people. When I'm starting school I would rather think of people like my neighbors, than people like George W. Bush.

I saved the biggest bug for last. "Liberty and Justice for all...". The pledge should be based off of truth and reality. Not someones ideal of the perfect American society. Do I'm sure you or someone you know has complained about unjust treatment of people in America. Who is regulating that everyone gets justice? Well, the justice system of course. You complain, and they come skipping towards you offering to imprison your boss for firing you for no good reason your potential employer, because you suspect discrimination (again, sarcasm). I think the person (most likely a man, because a women aren't offered wouldn't be trusted to write something this important) I'm talking about a long time ago when people started saying a pledge thought that this was how the justice system actually works. When in fact it is very hard to prove you were in fact fired because of your race, religion, gender, appearance. discrimination. It wouldn't be worth it. There is the lawyer to pay and all that time you spent. an stress that you went through.

What is the solution? Rewrite the pledge! Or if you don't have the time use my version! It is based off of the original, but with my own improvements and suggest. Next time everyone stands up to pledge allegiance; look at the person next to you and say:

I pledge allegiance to the people of the United States of America

and to the gov nation for which they stand

one people of common values with free public lawyers for everyone.

I'm not joking, and I'm not making the Pledge of Allegiance a joke. I believe that it should tell the truth, just as witnesses on a trial are expected to. I also think my pledge will appeal to more people seeing as it is in layman's terms, so everyone is able to understand the meaning. I'm not forcing this on anyone. If you want to continue talking to a piece of fabric by all means go ahead. Don't be surprised disappointed if it doesn't live up to it's do all it promises.

2nd copy

Quite Frankly the Pledge of Allegiance means nothing to me. If anything it is a daily reminder of the hypocrisy and injustice that occurs daily. There are 3 main lines that I find undeniably contradictory as well as untruthful. "I pledge allegiance to the flag..." How is a piece of fabric going to help me? "One nation under god.." What happened to freedom of religion, or therefore having to ability not to believe in god (atheism)? "With liberty and justice for all." Is it justice my parents have to pay taxes for a pathetic excuse of a public school system? I think not.

I haven't even delved into the surface of these idiocies. I'll start out with "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America...." The flag really doesn't care about your allegiance. Actually the flag isn't even alive so I doubt it cares about much of anything. Of course I realize the flag is a symbolism of America, and pledging your allegiance to your country, but if that is true why not say "I pledge allegiance to the people of the United states of America..." It seems more logical to ally with something that is actually alive.

Shocker! Some people don't believe in god. Run out and convert them as quickly as possible. (In case you didn't know, that was a sarcastic remark). Isn't America supposed to welcome immigrants and other people who are different? (Welcome does not mean, "Make fun of accent or belief.") Even our your money says, "One nation under god." With your "American Ingenuity" couldn't you have come up with something more original and friendly than that? Such as, "One people united..." or "One people of common values." The reason I changed nation to people is the nation is run by the people, for the people. When I'm starting school I would rather think of people like my neighbors, than people like George W. Bush.

I saved the biggest bug for last. "Liberty and Justice for all...". The pledge should be based off of truth and reality. Not someones ideal of the perfect American society. I'm sure you or someone you know has complained about unjust treatment of people in America. Who is regulating that everyone gets justice? Well, the justice system of course. You complain, and they come skipping towards you offering to imprison your potential employer, because you suspect discrimination (again, sarcasm). I think the person thought that this was how the justice system actually works. When in fact it is very hard to prove you were in fact not hired because of discrimination. It wouldn't be worth it. There is all that time and stress that you went through.

What is the solution? Rewrite the pledge! It is based off of the original, but with my own improvements. Next time everyone stands up to pledge allegiance; look at the person next to you and say:

I pledge allegiance to the people of the United States of America

and to the nation for which they stand

one people of common values

with public lawyers for everyone.

I'm not joking, and I'm not making the Pledge of Allegiance a joke. I believe that it should tell the truth, just as witnesses on a trial are expected to. I also think my pledge will appeal to more people seeing as it is in layman's terms, so everyone is able to understand the meaning. I'm not forcing this on anyone. If you want to continue talking to a piece of fabric by all means go ahead. Don't be disappointed if it doesn't live up to it's promises.

The 2nd copy is the completed essay all put together and edited as of now. I would like to apologize in advance if this hurts any one's feelings or anyone feels I'm making fun of the pledge. If you want to use my pledge please do, but don't take credit for it. (my blog is licensed under a

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License) This license means you can share or distribute and transmit my work, as long as you give me credit and don't sell or alter anything on this page. I'm certainly going to recite my pledge at school on Monday, though I doubt anyone will notice.

Delete, Delete, Delete!

I do this thing where I form blog entries, novel ideas, or short stories inside my head. Oh no horrible you; you have creativity!(sarcastic of course) It is starting to bug me. Just when I close my eyes to drift off to dream land BOOM! my mind starts composing blog entries, or poems. That isn't even the worst part, eventually I convince myself *well that doesn't sound half bad* then I go to right and I remember maybe half of what (Just 1 minute ago) I composed. Wanna guess who I'm going to blame for this? Me (No, I'm a kid, remember, that whole I don't accept responsibilties for my actions thing =) ), My Parents (No).....The Public school system! =) Yes! They are not challenging me what so ever! If I had a chance to excercise my mind writing creativily thourghout the day I would not have this problem. This is why my blog is ever so important at this time. If I can't leave the public school system I'm determined to be the biggest pain in the neck who ever lived (Move over Dracula!)
Speaking of Dracula, I found this really great used book store place. You can drop your old books off for credit. Then when you buy books 50% of the payment is in store credit, and 50% in cash. My dad bought four books for me (as well as a puzzle for my mom, a couple books for himself, and a book for my brother; I know you really care about that!) They are

• The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
• The Jungle (Upton Sinclair)
• The Plague Tales (Ann Benson)
• Dracula (Bram Stoker)

As of now I'm looking up vocab words for Dracula, because I'm going to read that first and I'm not a wordy person. My reading teacher better be ready for Monday because there is a storm coming! My class isn't allowed to read books below a certain level (It is called a lexile and some magical system labels books a number between 1-1500, most of the books being 600+). The whole system is stupid to me, if this (http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/sri/pdfs/Lexile_Map.pdf) chart is accurate I've been reading at a high school level since 4th grade.This year my class isn't allowed to read books below 900 because aparently they don't "challenge us enough" (If you want to "challenge us" why are you making me take reading class in the 8th grade?). Well this "novel" we are reading in class (It is required to be read) is a 730 lexile book! So contradicting, I want to scream at her. If she doesn't change it I will get my entire class to refuse to read it! I feel that class is a waste of time anyways and I want my parents to write a note asking me to take another class at that time. My friend at another middle school doesn't have to take reading because she scored above average on the standardized tests. Well guess what, I got a perfect score and I'm wasting 45 minutes a day "learning reading strategies". Hopefully next year will be better, my parents are trying to get me into some elitest program, I have little faith. "Everyone" my dad talks to says how wonderful, great and challenging it is. Well that is what people told me about middle school and here I am in 8th grade waiting for stuff to get harder. I don't want more worksheets, critical review quesitons or logic puzzles.

Do I really care?

Well my mom found a stray cat and bird the other day. My neighbors are keeping the cat until they can give her to a no-kill animal shelter (or unhopefully -not full of hope- me). We couldn't catch the bird and we don't know where s/he went. My dad is getting on my last nerve. It seems like everything I ask for (that is you know, when actually do ask for something) he says no. My parents don't even seem to have a genuine interest in my life. I'm thankful that they take me to dance and my L.A. fitness classes, and buy me special food; but those are material things and they never really talk to me. The most I get is a 5 minute conversation about which classes I want to go to this week, or my mom asks me if I want to go to class, because if not she is going to go to my brother's game. I don't understand how the people that do everything right, get nothing back. I've gotten straight A's my entire life and it has been rotten. My brother meanwhile has been all over the place A-B's D's C's! He has $300 worth of video games and DVDs, meanwhile I get the whole "Well we appreciate you more-you have a laptop-you have cellphone-don't be such a spoiled brat speech.". I don't even know what it could possibly be that get nothing. I would like to talk to the greater power who gives out all the magnificent gifts, beauty-intelligence-and other wonderful talents. I would tell him/her what a stupid thing it is to have intelligence, because you just realize how awful the world is. Bottom line, I'm mad, I'm sad and I feel under appreciated.

Genius

Ideas have been poping to me out of no where the past few days and I'm starting to like it. Of course I think these ideas are brillant some other people (*parents*) not so much.

1. Homeschool

• Public School Stinks
• It takes up too much time
• Teachers don't listen
• I'm not LEARNING anything
• the whole system is messed up

Brillant Idea number 2

• Go to sleep when I get home then wake up in the morning and do my homework

My parents really can't disagree with number two (so far). However they refuse to take me out of public school. It goes something like this

blah blah blah No blah blah blah No time blah blah blah Why can't you just do the same thing as everyone else blah blah blah Too much money blah blah blah blah We'll see (which means no, and if you ask about it again I'm taking your iPod away).

But you just wait, next time I ask I'm going to come at them with a powerpoint and index cards. (Oh yeah I'm bad). This reminds me of the time I was in 1st grade and I wanted to take the French offered at the school, mom said no and I didn't argue. Looking back I regret it (I was only seven and I could have only taken it for a year) it stinks. Right now I might be able to speak Frech, but thanks to the people who (supposedly) have my best interests in mind (most of the time) the only language I'm fluent in is English. I'm not mad at my parents it isn't really their falt. They are just small town farm kids. They don't know what a podcast is and my dad recently discovered Youtube. I sometimes feel bad for my mom, she hasn't even experienced the internet world yet.

I'm trying to look at people with out judging them. For instance, there is a guy walking to the bus stop. Instead of ewww fat dude walking to the bus stop, Is that beer in his hand?!?! He looks like a slob, and why does he have on flipflops? I'm also applying this technique to my classroom setting. I am upset at certain classmates because they are okay people when they aren't trying to be the center of attention, or flirt with some one. But if they aren't doing one of those two things they are probably asleep. I think it challenges your brain to have to talk to people you haven't talked to in awhile, or you don't talk to a lot.

Okay well I could go on forever, but I'll stop here. If you are homeschooled or you were or know know anything about it, email me, or leave comment.