And I'll get away with anything i want because i enliven people's lives

Second post at the death! Uncooperative Blogger and less-than-optimal time management do not go well together. But still, I've pulled it off!
Original article found here:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6637855.stm

Hilton backs online pardon appeal

Celebrity heiress Paris Hilton is backing an online petition seeking a pardon of her 45-day prison sentence because she enlivens "mundane" lives.

The petition to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger also claims she was being used as a scapegoat to highlight the dangers of drink-driving.

Hilton was sentenced after being found guilty of violating her probation for a drink-driving conviction.

She must start her jail term by 5 June or risk a doubling of her sentence.

'Role model'

In a message on a MySpace website, Ms Hilton apparently endorsed the online appeal, saying: "My friend Joshua started his petition, please help and sihn it (sic). I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!"

The petition paints Ms Hilton as a role model who "provides hope for young people all over the US and the world. She provides beauty and excitement to (most of) our otherwise mundane lives".

It also draws parallels between other high-profile US figures who were forgiven for their misdeeds.

"If the late former President Gerald Ford could find it in his heart to pardon the late former President Richard Nixon after his mistake(s), we undeniably support Paris Hilton being pardoned for her honest mistake," it says.

Mr Schwarzenegger's press secretary, Aaron McLear, said the governor would not become involved in any case "until the individual has exhausted their judicial remedies".

Ms Hilton's representative, Elliot Mintz, could not verify whether the MySpace message attributed to his celebrity client was genuine, but he did say the petition "appeared to be authentic".

Separately, her lawyers have said they will appeal against the sentence.

Reflection

It was with mixed amusement and chagrin that I read this article. I have never been a celebrity-worshipper, and I harbour a particular distaste for the especially trashy ones. The blatant disregard of all wrongdoings in view of Ms Hilton’s celebrity status was so childish in its premises that I could not help breaking into a smile.

The petition claimed Ms Hilton (it’s strange, calling her Ms; she hardly behaves maturely enough to warrant it) was being made a scapegoat to highlight the dangers of drink-driving (DUI). The petition fails to note that Ms Hilton received the same sentence any other driver would get; it was the hordes of paparazzi that had trumped up things. The way I see it, she has brought this upon herself. It is laughable, how she seems to want the good without the bad, using the media to catalyse her rise to fame, and then resenting having this notorious episode publicised.

I was tickled further by how Ms Hilton was made out as a role model, providing a guiding light in our sad lives. If we all lived our lives like Ms Hilton the world would fall to pieces. Just imagine: everyone traipsing around partying like animals, wearing what appear to be clothes but are really just illusions of clothes, and generally behaving like they’ve had one too many martinis. Scared yet? The petition also insinuates that our lives would not be worth living if not for the bright spark called Ms Hilton. My dislike of trashy celebrities might impair my rational thinking, but I think it safe to assert that life will go on without a blonde girl’s crazy idiosyncrasies. Or do I fall outside the category of ‘most of our otherwise mundane lives’? I’ll not judge that.

What was less amusing though was the comparison with Richard Nixon. Nixon was a president of the United States; he actually made contributions to his country, and even then his pardon was not well-received. Ms Hilton has made a sex video and contributed slightly to the economy by selling tabloids. Some say Nixon’s Watergate crime is more serious, but Ms Hilton, like it or not, is influential among youths, and popularising a lifestyle such as hers is a serious offence in its own way. I still believe that most parents want their children to stay away from drink-driving and lead respectable lives, but with today’s rapidly changing values I am not so sure anymore.

Isn’t it sad when the only thing we respond to is celebrity? More serious accidents involving DUI happen with regrettable regularity, but people only notice when the victim is a famous bimbo. That said, perhaps the high profile is needed to raise awareness. Ancient Greek Tragedy had heroes of high standing in order to make their downfall all the more tragic. My only wish is that people would not make heroes out of flighty heiresses, and if these are the only heroes we have then life is indeed no longer worth living.

500 words.

Shell

just reread the rubrics and saw the bold 'regularly'. i seriously wish i could update this thing more, just that there's no TIME. less than optimal time management undoubtedly plays a factor, but it can't be the only reason.

maybe the hols will see more activity. for now its back to history assignment.

A hollow memorial?

Article: Site of Colo. Indian massacre honored

By Robert Weller, Associated Press Writer
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070428/ap_on_re_us/sand_creek_massacre
In order to deal with dead links i shall post the article here. Its horribly long, but there isn't any other option.

SAND CREEK MASSACRE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE, Colo. - More than 142 years after a band of state militia volunteers massacred 150 sleeping Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians in a misdirected act of vengeance, a memorial to the tragic event was officially dedicated Saturday.

The Sand Creek Massacre National Historic site, located 160 miles southeast of Denver on Big Sandy Creek in Kiowa County, pays tribute to those killed in the shameful Nov. 29, 1864, attack.

Seeking revenge for the killings of several settlers by Indians, 700 militia members slaughtered nearly everyone in the village. Most were women or children.

Descendants of some of the victims were among several hundred people at Saturday's dedication on the rolling hills of the southeastern Colorado plains. A mock village of a dozen tepees was set up in a grove of cottonwood trees along the creek that historians believe marks the site of the killings.

After a prayer and a blessing for the troops in Top of FormBottom of FormIraq, members of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes chanted and played drums.

"It's a site of shame, but it's finally being memorialized properly," said David Halaas, a former state historian.

Eyewitness accounts of the attack include a letter from Lt. Joseph Cranmer: "A squaw ripped open and a child taken from her. Little children shot while begging for their lives."

Tribe descendants claim they can still hear the children cry when they visit the site.

"If there were any savages that day, it was not the Indian people," said former Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., a member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe.

Campbell, who sponsored the legislation making the spot a national historic site, said he slept beside the creek Friday night "to get a picture" of what the people saw before the attack.

"I think it is the greatest testimony of the strength of a nation — that you are big enough and strong enough to acknowledge the cruelties and injuries of the past," said Patricia Limerick, chairwoman of the University of Colorado's Center of the American West and author of "Legacy of Conquest."

The attack was recognized almost immediately as criminal. Congress condemned it and President Lincoln fired territorial Gov. John Evans.

Witnesses told a congressional hearing that the victims were not hostile. Indian trader John S. Smith testified that the militia's leader, Col. John Chivington, knew the band at Sand Creek was peaceful and was not involved in the attacks on settlers.

But Chivington, a Methodist minister known as "the fighting parson," was feted by Denver residents as a hero after the raid. They were terrified that the Confederacy would use Indians as their surrogates to wage war on them.

"Among the brilliant feats of arms in Indian warfare, the recent campaign of our Colorado volunteers will stand in history with few rivals, and none to exceed it in final results," read an editorial in the Rocky Mountain News at the time.

A Civil War memorial installed at the Colorado Capitol in 1909 listed Sand Creek as a great Union victory. But a plaque was added in 2002 giving details of the massacre to set the record straight.

The Indians were camped at a site assigned to them by the Army. When the attack started, Southern Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle hurriedly hoisted a U.S. flag above his lodge, but to no avail. Black Kettle survived but was killed in an attack at Washita, Okla., in 1868 by soldiers led by Col. George Armstrong Custer.

Since some of the victims of the attack were of mixed blood — the descendants of Indians and white fur traders — whites today also have a reason to revere the memorial, Limerick said.

"There may be stories of equal anguish in our history but this is right up at the top. In a strange way, it is a basis for national pride," she said.

Reflection

Rarely can an article seem so cheery but in reality be so bleak. Although the optimist in me pointed to how the Sand Creek massacre was finally being remembered, the pessimist gestured resignedly to its superficial nature, and how it would have little effect in changing mindsets.

Too often has George Santayana been quoted, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it". The Sand Creek memorialisation would then be a step in the right direction. I for one was ignorant of the atrocity until I read of the dedication ceremony. That is the one thing I credit the memorial with; not only did it remind those who knew, it reached out to those who did not.

However, I am disenchanted because despite the plethora of monuments and memorials attitudes do not seem to be changing. The misjudgments made nearly one and a half centuries ago are still being made today.

First, people still fear the unknown. This though is not the main problem; it would be solved if people just bothered to inform themselves about what they so feared. The problem is that information they receive is often false or distorted, which exacerbates fear and misunderstanding. Just as the Denver residents of 1864 thought a band of women and children were warmongering savages, many modern Americans view anyone with a turban as a religious fanatic.

An even more disturbing fact is that people who know the truth choose to disregard it. Colonel John Chivington knew the Sand Creek band to be peaceful, but still ordered his troops to attack. Why? We will probably never know. What we do know is that today, ‘all Chinese own takeaways’ and ‘all blacks are immoral’ are phrases still prevalent in American life, despite them being obviously untrue.

The worst problem though is that, due partly to the above two human flaws, people wanting to assimilate themselves into society find it nigh impossible. Black Kettle was a pragmatic chief who wished to co-exist harmoniously with the white settlers but was repeatedly shortchanged. Despite complying with demands by raising an American flag over his lodge, he could not stop Chivington’s men from overrunning his camp. Such behaviour is frighteningly evident in the modern clique found everywhere, not just in America. I was part of such a group; no matter how hard a person tried to change, we would still mock and ostracise that person. The similarity is startling.

The misconceptions that caused the Sand Creek massacre still permeate the American psyche. If they are not corrected, what is in place to prevent a repeat of such a shameful chapter?

Patricia Limerick believes that “it is the greatest testimony of the strength of a nation — that you are big enough and strong enough to acknowledge the cruelties and injuries of the past”. I disagree. Acknowledgement is but the first part. The nation must then work to ensure such cruelties never happen again; that is the true mark of strength.

495 words

A lone foraging emperor penguin 'toboggans' on its belly across the frozen Ross Sea, with the live volcano Mount Erebus in the background, off Ross Island, Antarctica, December 9, 2006.



Don't you just feel so POWERLESS to stop the ravaging of the earth when you see this picture? I mean, just look at the solitude and loneliness and you feel like you can't make a difference. Or maybe it's just me.


ps I'm tempted to use this as a markable entry. Brevity is wit, isn't it? But then there's the problem of the 350-500 word limit. Shackled by the need to score good marks....