prop·a·gan·da

  

[prop-uh-gan-duh]  

1. information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation,etc.

This past summer, my sister went to Palestine and Israel. She’s Jewish, and wanted to see for herself what life was like for Palestinians and Israelis. A couple months later, the FBI called her and tells her she is going to be subpoenaed (an order to go before a Grand Jury without a lawyer). The FBI is trying to investigate my sister to collect evidence that she supports terrorism just for going to Palestine. She didn’t go to the Grand Jury when she was supposed to, but if the FBI asks her again to go to the Grand Jury and she denies again, she can face jail time.

The US government says that Palestinians are “terrorists” so when my sister went there, they believe she must be supporting terrorism. Our government gives money to Israel and supports them; our government does not want Americans to speak out against Israel, travel in support of Palestine, and organizing in the US against Israel. If people (such as my sister) see for themselves the truth about Palestine and Israel, then the US cannot pretend that Palestinians are terrorists instead of victims of Israel.

These rumors about my sister supporting terrorism has caused some of her friends and family members to stop talking to her because they believe she is associated with people involved in terrorism. One of my sister’s “best friends” from high school did not even support my sister despite their long friendship they had shared. 

Since my sister has been subpoenaed, along with 22 others, there is still no evidence of material support of terrorism. Instead, my sister has had to defend herself publicly to educate Americans that her and the 22 others are not involved in this support of terrorism.

http://www.stopfbi.net/profile/sarah-smith

http://chtodelat.wordpress.com/2010/12/11/sarah-smith-i-am-being-subpoenaed-by-the-fbi/

Beat Street

Open Response:
The music is good, the dancing is good, the rapping is good, the movie is good.
This movie may not be modern, and catch people's attention compared to Step Up 3, but it was the base, or foundation of our dancing, rapping, and graffiti nowadays.
The scene at the train station, where the actors have a dance battle, the famous Michael Jackson took that idea and made it into something huge. The rapping is really amazing, it focuses on the problems they had, what was going on in their lives. Now its about women or sex and it has been changed for the mainstream. However, some graffiti that I see around the city is ugly, but the idea from the movie, to make something beautiful, to express meaning, has been developed. There are now murals around the city and paintings on the building walls. To see a  graffiti piece like in the movie would be amazing. The movie is filled with talent, but the people also loved to do what they did, which I think has been changed nowadays. Someone would stop doing their graffiti pieces because there is no profit for it, and find a job they do not like. People change their music style to become more popular and to make more money. In the movie, the actors didn't care about the money, it was what they loved to do, so they did it.

Hungry?

In the novel, Black Boy, Richard is constantly hungry. He's hungry for not only food, but attention, love, and knowledge. 
However, he is not the only one who is hungry. There are many kids who are literally hungry for food. Everyday, more than 16,000 children die from hunger related problems. When I went to India on vacation, there were many little kids in the street begging for some change to feed themselves, like what Richard did. There are also a lot of people hungry for attention. Some people are so hungry for attention, they want a spotlight on them at all times, and there are people who just want to be noticed, to have some appreciation. There are people who are hungry for knowledge, people who are curious. For instance, I feel like my dad is hungry for knowledge because he loves to read books about the world, history, books in Spanish, the boring stuff. He watches so many educational videos like dinosaurs, the universe, history of science, nature, Malcom X, etcc. Richard wanted to learn, hungry for the books to read, counting to a hundred endlessly. 
Richard isn't alone when it comes to hunger. Many kids are just like him, and every child should be (not hungry for food). I know I was.