In the article, ”Witch Hunt: A Global Problem in the 21st Century” (https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.dw.com/en/witch-hunts-a-global-problem-in-the-21st-century/a-54495289), Akua Denteh was beaten to death in Ghana’s East Gonja District last month after being accused of being a witch. She was 90-years old and was accused of being a witch of Ghana that was in a group of older women. The arrest was made in early August but still has the attention of the people. She and others were persecuted and killed in organised witch hunts. Women are constantly being accused of witchcraft to this day when it was supposed to “stop” hundreds of years ago. Many women are forced to live in camps because they are shut off from society.

Catholic churches encouraged witch hunts from the 15th to 18th centuries. The deaths caused then is still less than the deaths in this century alone. While there are no laws against witchcraft as such in Tanzanian law, village tribunals often decide that specific individuals should be killed,” Behringer told DW. I think that these witch hunts should not be happening today. Why these are still happening are for no other reason than selfishness. They want to believe something that only might be real because they don’t want to admit to the truth. They said they just “feel” that people should die, but for what reason?

For this weeks blog, I watched a Ted Talk. It was called “Distraction is literally killing us,” spoken by Paul Atchley. https://youtu.be/S9TwTOtNr60 My topic is about the culture of distraction, so this Ted Talk speaks about how our distractions effect us. The most distracting object is the cellphone, Paul emphasizes. He states that based on research, it is more dangerous to be on your phone while driving than it is to drink and drive. Due to many experiments that were done in many countries, it was proven that this statement is true. “It takes Your brain to drive,” Atchley says. When people are in their phone while driving, they are “mentally checked out” and cannot comprehend what is happening on the road in front of them as fast as they could when they aren’t distracted by the device. Despite technology in cars getting better and a better chance to getting to the hospital fast enough and survive, more people are dying because of being on the phone while driving. The “cure” is to put down our devices and go outside sometimes.

In my paper, I am going to use his stories and explanations to state that the culture of distraction impacts us greatly on a day to day basis. Using what he said in the Ted Talk is a good way to accurately present my opinion on distractions that more than not include our phones and other devices.

Within the past few years, the issue with guns has reached a devastating point. The United States had never recorded so many school shootings in such short amount of time before. Of course, the argument is about whether or not Americans should be allowed to bare arms. That is a common issue with our country these days. They ask “should it or should it not?” rather than asking “how can we make what we have better?”. Instead of getting rid of the right completely, they could perfect the law we have now to make it safer. I read Despite Parkland Shooting, Florida Trails Other States in Gun Control Efforts By Noreen Marcus to justify my response.

In the article I read, it talks about Florida not being able to pass the new laws for better gun control. Since it is the second Amendment, people want their rights to stay the same. These were mostly people from the southern states. Though, I believe the laws should only need to be adjusted. They should make it difficult to get a gun with proof of a background check on each individual attempting to purchase. These students who are attacking schools are mostly young in age. This means either the people selling did not make sure they were of age or their parents did not carefully look after the weapon. Therefore, the law should be adjusted to make sure guns do not fall into the wrong hands.

This past year has been the weirdest and most interesting. I feel that I was lucky to be in the grade that I am in as well as the classes I took. I did not have to take any AP tests and I wasn’t graduating. In the beginning of the year, I was a little annoyed how difficult it was for an english class, since english is known to be easy. Throughout the year, though, I realised ow lucky I was to have a teacher that pushed us harder. It got harder to keep up the work since I started procrastinating as the year went on. Although, I still tried hard, It wasn’t my best. I learned more this year in english than I have an any other english class. I was pushed to try harder rather than having an easy class I learned nothing from. I appreciate how much Mrs. Calvert taught us. How patient she was when the class was talking to much or being annoying.

Next year, I hope will be back to normal. It will be weird to transition and people will be more aware of people coughing and sneezing. At least we will be back to school like it should have been this year. I would like to have more podcasts to listen and write an essay over in the future. The podcast kept me interested. I even took time to listen ahead. If we do have to do AHL, I would ask that the teachers communicate more. I felt overwhelmed with work sometimes. It felt like I had more work than when we were in class. Otherwise, it was helpful and I felt that I learned what I needed for the time being. Thank you for a great year where I feel I learned a lot more than in the past years.

Subjects of this novel are totalitarianism, love, and loyalty. Totalitarianism will mostly affect those who stand against the one in complete control. The leader of a totalitarian government does not care about the needs for the people of their country as much as they care about having the power over the people themselves. Big Brother is the totalitarian leader of the novel 1984 and is almost seen as a ‘god-like’ figure to those who worship him the most. Throughout the story, you can see how in the beginning, they put you in the middle of the peak of his leadership rather than how it really began. This shows me that Orwell wanted us to feel confused and see how different it really could have been. As you read on in the book, it later shows the effects this type of economy has on the people and their minds. It turns its own people against one another, and as soon as one person sees how the economy looks on the outside, they make sure they never speak of it. Winston is an example of this situation. He falls in love with a woman he is forbidden to see, as well as seeing the truth, hating Big Brother. Basically, just having his own opinions and being against the government. When he is caught for both things, they torture him until he surrendered to them and was nothing but another human blinded by the power of the government. Orwell wrote this with this theme to show what could have happened if we would have lost the war. The world could have been run like this with our own Big Brother and torture to make sure we are brainwashed into believing and agreeing to everything the government said, not saying what we really think otherwise we would be punished.

The podcast has been on of the most interesting units that we have done this semester, maybe even school year. Sarah Koenig did an extraordinary job at the organization of her podcast. My opinion on the case is specific to what was given by police and people involved in this case. This is because I didn’t think about who did it, but why they would if it were them to begin with. If I were to choose who did it, I would have to conclude that it was Adnan. This is mostly because, if the professionals and people with actual knowledge of murder cases voted him guilty, then maybe that was the right option. With this being said, I have other opinions as to why he isn’t guilty. Starting with the evidence given.

The evidence that is given was minimal. It wasn’t enough, in my opinion, to convict Adnan. Other people that Sarah spoke with and had on the podcast agree with this. Most of them said that there wasn’t enough evidence provided by the police against Adnan. One of the main reasons for his conviction was Jay’s testimony, but even that could have been by chance. The detectives on the case at the time should have tested the bottles found near Hae’s body, like the students said. It would also help if they questioned the suspected people more, rather than coming to the quick conclusion that it was Adnan. Mr. S, Jay, Don, and the other friends were asked about how Adnan might have done it and what they remembered from that day. The detectives didn’t ask as though they could have been the one to do it like they should.

Another factor was racism. The jury had a lot of stories of how they had bad experiences with Muslims. They said that friends of theirs had been beaten by their Muslim spouses, or witnessed the Muslim kids turning into what their father is. Disrespecting and downgrading the women in their family. Although, this was completely unfair. Adnan was not born in Pakistan, but in the United States. With this being said, it would be just if they chose people with fresh minds to vote based on facts and not on personal feelings. I feel that the trial would have gone a completely different direction if this was done.

The podcast, ’Serial’, has been one of my favorite units in the year. I haven’t been bored while listening at all. I have actually listened ahead, because the suspense makes me want to listen to more. My opinion about Adnan is minimal. It also changes more than it doesn’t. I sometimes believe that he did kill Hae, because the evidence doesn’t always lean toward his favor. Other times, I feel that he wouldn’t be capable of the crime because of his beliefs and morals. I agree with Enright, when she asks why Dawn wasn’t questioned. They never suspected it was him, just that it was Adnan, because Hae broke up with him. In high school, that it one of the most common occurrences.

Like I said before, This unit has been the most interesting. During class, I look forward to listening to the podcast. This is a unit I would like to keep in the future this semester. It has been very easy to listen to, because usually, when I listen to someone or read for too long, I start to get tired. With this unit, I have been too intrigued to fall asleep. I have gone back to listen to the past podcasts when we didn’t have time to finish in class. When I finished the past ones, I wanted to listen to more, so I listened to the next episode before class. After I listened, I did my own research to find out if they have found anything else important to the investigation. I found that there was another season to ‘Serial’ and that they are choosing not to reopen the case.

The subject, trial, has always been something that’s interested me, but have never taken the time to expand my knowledge about. Like most subjects that cross my path, this particular one caught my eye. The irony about this, though, is my recent backtrack to having an interest for this topic. A while ago, I had a slight passion for jury. Slowly, throughout the years, my interest grew. Before I knew it, as fast as I learned to love it, I forgot I even loved it in the first place. I would love to enhance my knowledge of trials and prosecution. For now, I will share my current familiarity. To others, it may be minimal. For me, I believe I have enough awareness to hold a conversation or to understand someone that was speaking about the subject.

We all know the saying “All men are innocent until proven guilty”. This saying is to show that you can not blame someone and have them sent away without the prove they deserve. This goes back to long before today, when if someone with a high ranking were to accuse you, you would be punished immediately. For example, we have a king. If he made the decision to accuse you of being a witch, you would be burned at the stake. Now, we have to make sure all the facts add up, and be positive the suspect was truly guilty. Anyone can offer proof to defend or testify against the suspect, but only certain people are allowed to share those thoughts to the jury or judge. They make it this way so it isn’t hectic, having everyone speak their side of the story at once. I believe this the most fair way to make a trial work and move along swiftly, but there are times that the suspect is sent free, when they could possibly be the one they were looking for. Legally, to my knowledge, you can’t send them back to jury if they were already found innocent.

This list might be short, but I am willing to learn more about topic. It genuinely interests me, and I am open to opinions and corrections for any facts I might have mixed up.

I feel that if the time were to come, I would choose to risk or give my life for something. It would depend on who or what it was. If it was a total stranger, I most likely wouldn’t. If it was my family, the chances are much higher. The latter of the two is important to me. Much more important than I am to myself. If it came down to losing them or me, I would sacrifice myself. I know every single one of them would do the same if the tables were turned. A stranger would not be worth my sacrifice unless I could tell they genuinely deserved it. For example, if someone had lost so much already and was younger than me by a lot, with a lot of potential in their foreseeable future.

Those are all the people/human beings I would die for. There are limited things that aren’t my family that I would do that for. One would be my grandmother’s dog. Growing up, I was used to staying away from dogs. The reason for this was my severe allergy to the animal. That being said, I was terrified of every one I saw. This dog, though, was the first that didn’t scare me, and the first one I loved. The love I have for that dog makes me want to do anything for her, which includes me dying. No other object nor living thing would live up to be worth such a major sacrifice.

This semester was different than last year and surprised me at times. Sometimes it was easier than last year and had less homework, but sometimes we had days that were packed full and made us stay up all the night. I did well on easy things, creative things, and overall just things that didn’t take much time to do. I have always struggled with tests and quizzes, whether I studied or not. This characteristic does not seem to be changing anytime soon. Hopefully I can make some changes.

I want to try and procrastinate less when getting my work done. I don’t want to have to rush to finish something last minute and not do as well because of that. I want to work on getting better at test taking and stop second guess my. One of my favorite projects we did this year is probably the poem portfolio. It was only recent, but it was the best, in my opinion. I liked how it was easy to get my work done fast and be able to do extra to get more points. This class has had its ups and downs for me, liking and not liking it. The times I liked it was when we just had quiet time to read or work on homework. When it wasn’t my favorite class, it’s when we have a really hard test or quiz that everyone does bad on. That implies to my advice; make some of the things we do not so difficult that when we study hard, we can be confident. Maybe making our working schedule and due date not so close to other projects that take a lot of time to finish.