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A place for Writing 12 students to read each other's writing, to critique, to suggest, to improve.
About Me
- Brad
- Former adult teacher who loves island beaches. Happy homebody and family man; once devoted dog owner, now without Tashi, my Tibetan Terrier. I prefer the absurdity of the imagination to the absurdity of imagining nothing.
3 comments:
My wife has an aster that is popular with our neighbourhood's bees. Each and every sunny day its abundant flowers are visited by hundreds of bees (simultaneously).
Bees are threatened in North America by something called "Colony Collapse Disorder." Whole hives die. Why should we care? If you love blueberries and walnuts as I do, remember that, without bees, few or no fruits would set on plants.
So, when I see my wife's flower and its happy bees I think that, in some small way, she is helping bees. It makes me happy to think that.
Online notebook, Oct.1-Oct.8:
I don’t even know how I should start this horrible and inhumane news to you guys. And even now, my hands are shaky, my palms are sweaty, and my heart’s are beating so fast just thinking about it.
Right now in Korea, a young, sweet, innocent, nine year old girl was victimized by this horrible and inhumane rape. This case is called “Na-Young’s case.” She was dragged by 50 year old man and she was put into a washroom stall. And, of course, she fought him back with all her strength, but he hit her and pushed her into a toilet for a several times until she fainted. And when she fainted, he raped her again and again, and again. And when she woke up, he hit her and pushed her to the toilet, and he raped her again. Finally, when it was over, her body was totally ruined and she had to undergo a surgery for 7 to 8 hours. But, her genital was gone in the end, and her large intestine was gone too. And, even more tragic is she couldn’t speak after that incident. Who could blame her, right; I mean, how could she after all that happening? And just imagine, she has to live like that, whenever she’s standing, sitting, and/or to look at herself, even? The tears are rolling down from my eyes, and my heart just thinking about her.
The more shocking news after that is the man who raped her was arrested and sentenced. And guess, how many years did he get from the court? Just guess how many years . . . 15 years, 20 years, or maybe a life? Wrong, he got a 12 years, and an electronic ankle thingy that put around his ankles, and that was it. How, I mean how could this be, after all that happening? And, here’s the shameless part; that man is now appealing. How shocking is that? I believe he should have a capital punishment right away without having to have trial, (to be frank, I think a trial is waste time for everyone, in this case) or someone should cut off his penis. I mean, seriously who knows after his sentencing was over, and then he’s doing that again to other children, huh? So, just simply someone should cut off his penis, simple as that, right?
401 words.
Last week, in our Writing 12 class, we had a short discussion about the difference between sympathy and empathy. Some said, empathy has more deeper meaning than sympathy. Brad said, empathy more on doing something; about taking actions. Somehow, those words lingered inside my head, as if telling me that I should do something as well. I should turn my sympathy for the Filipinos in distress, into empathy. When I arrived home, after the Writing12 class, I immediately phoned some of my friends. I asked them for used clothing, canned foods, or whatever they have that they wanted to donate. After two days of asking for donations, I gathered two boxes of clothes and other donations. The problem I had then, was how to send them back to the Philippines. I called up a cargo company that sends goods to the Philippines and asked for the cost of my goods. The cost was more that what I expected. I checked my money balance, and thank God, I had some extra money. The following day, the shipping company picked up my goods. Now, they are one their way to give a little relief for those who are in the struggle. I guess, what I had done was empathy. The feelings alone was not enough. A heart full of sympathy for others is a mere organ that pumps blood while a heart full of empathy and compassion is not just a mere heart—it is love.
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