Weekly Reading, October 29th, 2008

I read an article on startribune.com called Matthews sentenced to life for former girlfriend's murder. It explained how in December of 2007, Zachery Matthews brutally killed his girlfriend Kristine Larson. Matthews killed her in their apartment right in front of their two year old son. He then shoved her in the trunk of his car and attempted to burn the car and the body. He was convicted of first degree murder, plus two murder accounts and interference with a body. While Kristine's family and friends went up to testify Matthews couldn't look up and even started to plug his ears. Their relationship was abusive right from the start but Larson wanted to try to lure Matthews away from his gang and make him a better person. In the end he received a life sentence and their child was put in the care of family. This is an extremely sad story and i feel badly for their child who will never know who his real parents were.

Weekly Reading, October 26th, 2008

I read another article in the People magazine called "I'm Thankful I'm Still Here." It was all about DJ AM, a deejay and Travis Barkers best friend, who was in a plane crash with Barker, Lil' Chris, and Charles Still. DJ AM, aka Adam Goldstein, and Travis Barker were the only survivors of this deadly crash. Charles Still, Lil' Chris, the pilot and the copilot tragically died as a result of this. Upon exiting the plane, DJ AM and Travis caught on fire and had to stop,drop and roll to stop the flames. Adam had to help Travis which caused him even more burns as a result of taking off a sock that was engulfed with flames on Travis's foot. It was a very slow healing process because he had burns all over his body and he drifted in and out of consciousness daily. He is finally on the track to recover and through this traumatic has realized the thousands of friends he has that care for and love him.

Weekly Reading, October 21th, 2008

This week I read an article called Dealers, Beware in the People's Heroes among us section. This article explained about a man named Lance Merrill who founded an organization called Dads Against Drug Dealers to catch drug dealers and get them off the streets. His purpose of doing this was the death of his 19 year old daughter Jani who died October 1st, 2006. Starting at age 17 she became addicted to painkillers and heroin and it eventually lead to an overdose when she checked out of her third time at a rehabilitation center. This organization has a website where Lance posts addresses, names and other useful information to inform people of these dangerous drug people and a reward of 500 dollars on information about them. Since 2000, the number of people entering rehab centers for drug use has increased greatly. With the help of Lance Merrill, drug dealers are being found and fined and he is helping the community become a better and safer place.

HEROS Assignment: Celebrity Heroes

Celebrity Heroes

In life, my definition of a hero is one that helps the needy in a way that makes the community and globe a better place. It is doing the small things in life that could end up saving someone's life. While the average joe can donate to charity and help make the world a better place, it's the celebrities wealth that can accomplish big scale projects and greatly impact multiple people. It's their millions of dollars that create foundations to serve the people, cure diseases and get rid of poverty to make the world a more equal and peaceful place to life in. Here are just a handful of celebrities who greatly impact the world and are heroes to a large number of people.






Bono and Oprah give to charity by helping stop AIDS in Africa. Here they are working with the foundation RED organized by the store GAP. Since the charity originated just two years ago over 2.5 million people have been impacted by the success of this.

Heroes By: David Bowie

I

I wish you could swim

Like the dolphins

Like dolphins can swim

Though nothing

Will keep us together

We can beat them

For ever and ever

Oh we can be heroes

Just for one day

I

I will be king

And you

You will be queen

Though nothing

Will drive them away

We can be heroes

Just for one day

We can be us

Just for one day

I

I can remember

(I remember)

Standing

By the wall

(By the wall)

And the guards

Shout above our heads

(Over our heads)

And we kissed

As though nothing could fall

(Nothing could fall)

And the shame

Was on the other side

Oh we can beat them

For ever and ever

Then we can be heroes

Just for one day

We can be heroes

We can be heroes

We can be heroes

Just for one day

We can be heroes

We're nothing

And nothing will help us

Maybe we're lying

Then you better not stay

But we could be safer

Just for one day

These lyrics explain how anyone can be a hero. Though the main idea of this research is celebrities this shows that you don't have to be made of millions to be a hero and help someone out.

I'm Like A Lawyer With The Way I'm Always Trying To Get To You By: Fall Out Boy

This music video depicts the war in Africa and the struggles they have to go through every day just to make it. It shows the story of a mother having to give up her son for the war and it shows the relationship of a girl and a boy and how they are reunited when his term to fight is up. This shows how Fall Out Boy contributes to society and is a hero to the people of Africa.

Angelina Jolie is one of the main Celebrity Heroes when it comes to helping people in need. She has adopted two orphaned children from foreign places to help them live a better life. Angelina is extremely involved in the United Nations High Commission for Refugees where she has visited many camps to help out Refugees of other countries. She is a worldwide success and is credited with helping the lives of millions.





Another star greatly involved with charitable things is George Clooney. Along with donating millions of dollars to different charities, he is very involved with helping out victims of the genocide in the Darfur region.


CATEGORIES
Celebrities who help with foreign military crisis's
George Clooney: Darfur
Angelina Jolie: United Nations High Commission for Refugees
Fall Out Boy: www.invisiblechildren.com -helps bring back children lost at war in Uganda


Celebrities who help with foreign sickness/poverty
Jay-Z: UN's water for life, which provides water to poverty strucken people
Bono: Working with GAP for the charity program RED to get rid of Aids in Africa
Madonna: Work with AIDS

Celebrities who help out with World Events
Jamie-Lynn Sigler: National Eating Disorders Association
Huge Jackman: Global Poverty
http://www.looktothestars.org/video/84-global-poverty-project-narrated-by-hugh-jackman



All in all, celebrities are real life heroes that help out the poor and unfortunate people to shape their life for the better. They use their highpower which influences others to do the same which gives people in need even more help. From doing small things such as donating a dollar to charity to big things such as donating 150 million, every penny makes a difference in helping another person's life. Whether you are Fall Out Boy working on a specific project such as helping people return from the war in Uganda to worldwide issues such as Jamie-Lynn Sigler's National Eating Disorders Association project everything makes a difference in one way or another. Thanks to the help of celebrities lives have been changed and safed to make the world a better place. Celebrities are truely one of a kind people who are heroes and influences for the world and its inhabitants.

Weekly Reading, October 19th, 2008

This weekend I read another section in the book The Perks of Being A Wallflower by: Stephen Chbosky. From section 2-half way through section 3 there are many different significant events that occur. To begin the chapter it explains Patrick and Brad's confusing and secretive relationship as well as, how Charlie attends his first showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show which he ends up really liking. During this section, it is around the time of his birthday and Christmas. He has to spend it with extended family whom he does not particularly like and this time is around the time his aunt Helen died which causes him to have a panic attack and be rushed to the hospital. Other important events that occur in section 2 are Charlie gets to drive to his cousin's house, he has a blast at his friends Christmas party and he gets his license. In the first part of section 3: Charlie tries LSD and becomes addicted to cigarettes,  Mary Elizabeth asks him to Sadie's and they begin to like each other and date and his sister becomes pregnant and get's an abortion. This is a very random book and it is one of my all time favorites.

Weekly Reading, October 14th, 2008

For this weeks reading I went to startribune.com and read an article about a shooting settlement about a shooting that occurred in 2005. 3 years ago a 16 year old named Jeff Weise killed his grandfather and his girlfriend, then went to school and killed 7 people and injured many more. The families who lost loved ones received a one million dollar grant back in July 2006 to be split among the families who lost a family member. Recently, they were granted another 1.5 million dollars, which is seen as some as a historic grant from a historic event in history. With this new amount of money, they are questioning how it should be split between families who were injured vs families that had to burry someone. Guidelines on how to split it up evenly according to what they deserve are still in the making. 

Weekly Reading: Sunday, October 12th, 2008

Recently I read an article in the People magazine devoted to explaining the life of Paul Newman who passed away September 26th. Paul was an actor who appeared in many films throughout his life of 83 years. Some include Hud, Cool Hand Luke, Exodus, and the latest film Road To Perdition. Paul Newman who was married to his wife for 50 years had 5 children all of whom range in age from 43-55, which he dearly loved. Throughout his years of being alive, Paul slowly grew into a big wig actor and began creating an estate of millions of dollars. He became the role model of millions of people and many decided to follow in his footsteps. Over the course of his life Paul has done many things to help charity. He created an organization called Newman's One, which has a line of products that's profits go to handpicked charities supported by him. Paul helped raise over 250 million dollars for these charities, 120 million came from 2007 alone. He also created a camp called Hole in the Wall that was created for poor kids who can attend camp free of charge. These camps have been attended by over 135,000 children, who all got to attend free of charge. Paul Newman has done many great deads in his lifetime and he will be greatly missed by family, friends and people who looked up to him as a role model. Paul Newman will always be remembered and he will never be forgotten. 

Weekly Reading: Tuesday October 7th, 2008

Currently, I'm reading a book called The Perks Of Being A Wallflower by: Stephen Chbosky. It's about a guy named Charlie who lives at home with his sister, mom and dad while his brother is playing professional football at college. This novel is written in the form of diary entry's that Charlie writes to a nameless friend. It starts off with him describing the death of his only and closest friend Michael. This makes him extremely sad and he no longer has anyone to hang out with or care for him. Charlie is a very antisocial person who does very well in school because all he does is study's and reads. His english teacher becomes concerned and tells him to start attending social events. One day in his work shop class he is entertained by a guy of the real name of Patrick but everyone calls nobody. While attending a football game, Charlie sees nobody and ends up becoming friends with him and his stepsister. Charlie developes a crush on her and tells her about it while crying because he is very emotionally unstable. I've only completed the first of four sections in the book and I really like it and it should be a very good book.

Weekly Reading: Sunday, October 5th, 2008

Recently I read an article on nytimes.com that explained a new way of measuring how well a teacher teaches. In New York, teachers will be evaluated on the letter grade scale by how much they improve in a certain time period on their standardized test scores. To avoid controversy the City Department of Education has decided to make these private and not available to the public hand. To initiate it they've devised a pilot program of 2500 teachers just to test it out and see what works, what doesn't work, and what needs to be fixed. This new study will provide valuable information for the progression of more intelligent teachers to produce smarter students to populate and maintain the world. One of the things wished to be accomplished by this plan is to close the intellectual gap between minority groups and white students so that everyone will be educated with the same knowledge making it easier for teachers to teach. This is what i've learned in this weeks weekly reading.