Tuesday, August 1, 2006

   Wasting Valuable Summer Homework Time
::dies:: I can't believe I have 2 days left to make an extensive journal for 2 books I had to read. I have to have a minimum of 12 quotes and I have to give a response and analysis for each quote and state the reason I chose it and the importance it is to the book. Whooo total fun!!!! ::rolls eyes:: Then I have to write an evaluation of the book and focus on the way the author uses language to create an effect. Wow that was almost a magical moment. ::watches the fireworks go off:: The I have to write about how the writing stands out and makes the work distinctive and what I liked/disliked about the work and what did I learn by reading the work. ::pulls out Spark Note book:: Ha my life savers!!!!! If doing that for 2 books wasn't bad enough I have to read Henry David Thoreau's essay "Civil Disobedience." Then I have to write a "well-organized" essay that addresses the following: How do u think Thoreau wanted his reader to react to this essay? Well I for one counldn't get past the first page of his 30 page essay. What did he want them to feel? Certainly not bored but hey that's what he gets. What did he want them to think? Yet again I doubt he wanted me thinking how boring his essay was. What did he want them to think? ::falls asleep:: What did he want them to do? Oh I'm sorry did I fall asleep? Sorry Thoreau I didn't get that far in your essay to know what u want me to do. How do u know? Well I'm not that sure considering I didn't read the other 29 pages. Point to specific places in the essay that help u to determine Thoreau's purpose. I'll make sure to do that. ::pulls out highlighter and goes crazy highlighting the great words of Thoreau:: Oh just so u understand where I'm coming from...here's several paragraphs of Thoreau's lovely essay "Civil Disobedience".....



I HEARTILY ACCEPT the motto,—"That government is best which governs least";(1) and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe,—"That government is best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness the present Mexican war,(2) the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for, in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure.

[2] This American government—what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves. But it is not the less necessary for this; for the people must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of government which they have. Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage. It is excellent, we must all allow. Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way. For government is an expedient by which men would fain succeed in letting one another alone; and, as has been said, when it is most expedient, the governed are most let alone by it. Trade and commerce, if they were not made of India rubber,(3) would never manage to bounce over the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way; and, if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of their actions, and not partly by their intentions, they would deserve to be classed and punished with those mischievous persons who put obstructions on the railroads.


Idk what that has to do with English but I guess somethings are best unknown. I hate AP English already and English is usually my favorite class. Anyways I'm off to go do my lovely homework.

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