Three fifths compromise

I learned about something at school today, it is called the three fifths compromise. Basically they states didn't know how to count slaves with taxes, and count them in the population. So they counted 3/5 of the slave population of that state. Just a fun fact, it has nothing what so ever to do with my post. My mom is getting really mad at my school, and for some reason I love this! She drove me and my brother to school today (we normally take the bus, even though our bus driver is psycho. We want to carpool and save the Earth! I'm kidding, my parents don't want to waste gas, but it is basically the same thing.) Anyways this lady in front of her was going really slow so my mom screams, "Is she waiting for the second coming of Christ?!?!"It was more the way she said it than what she actually said. My friends found it funny so I thought I would give it a shot.

That brings up the next question why was my mom so mad at my school? Well she wants to get a form so I can be in an pre-IB program at another school. She called 5 times and asked for them to give me a form, so finally today she got one.

I'm not doing very well with my goals, on Monday I have to tell my reading teacher The Devil's Arthimetic thing. I have no clue what she is going to say and that is why I'm scared.

I'm reading the book Jane Eyre I'm on Chapter 2, but I like it so far. I'm going to try and read all of the classics before I get out of school. They are the only books that actually challenge me. I have to read slow and sometimes re-read. I like Dracula so far, I love the way Bram describes this guy's fear, it is so real.

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.

*laugh* *laugh* wait it wasn't even funny!

That title just randomly appeared in my head. My parents aren't even giving me a chance, here is the conversation:

Me: Why can't I be home schooled?
P: Because we don't know anything about it.
Me: What do you need to know?
P: YOU don't understand! You can't just jump into this!!
Me: I would be doing this online and you wouldn't do anything!
P: YOU CAN'T HOME SCHOOL YOURSELF!

This is the point the conversation ends. Notice how my parents strategically avoid the answer, kind of like politicians. I can't understand their logic one bit, but oh well I blame the generation gap. I have dance tomorrow! Yay!
Yesterday I gave a letter to my guidance counselor (apparently she has to approve my online courses). Well actually I gave the letter to a lady at the front desk (guidance counselor GC was in a meeting). Today they call me into the front office saying it's all approved. I go home and check online and guess what? IT isn't! My gosh these people! Good thing the course starts in Nov. otherwise I would be messed up. So that is my compliant about school for today.