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An Ode to Roy O. Disney: The People We Don’t Remember

The Walt Disney Company is one of the most recognizable brands in the world. Walt Disney, by extension, has become the epitome of a household name. Walt took the dreams and imagination alive in American children and brought them to screen, stage, and in the summer of 1955, theme park. Walt was a complicated man, although when we simplify his story, it becomes inspiring.

A young man comes from nothing. He does so poorly in school that he drops out. When he comes back from helping with WWI cleanup he starts his first animation company as a teenager. That company fails, but this man preservers and moves to California where he starts again. He struggles but works hard. Eventually, the young man proves how valuable animation is. He creates the first full length, animated feature film. Everyone loves it. He continues to defy the odds, and thirty(ish) years later, he opens the world’s first true theme park. Walt Disney creates the American dream.

That is the story we are told, and at the end of the day, it is not untrue. However this narrative ignores many key factors of The Walt Disney Company, more specifically the people other than Walt who greatly contributed to the company’s success. The most significant of these people can be summed up in Roy O. Disney, Walt’s older brother, and co-founder of the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, a company now known as The Walt Disney Company. Roy was eight years Walt’s senior, and would remain his most important relationship throughout his lifetime. Though only his older brother, to Walt, Roy functioned as a best friend, business partner, and a surrogate father.

However, it is not only Roy’s relationship with his brother that made him so valuable to the Walt Disney Company. If Walt was the heart of the company, Roy was the brain. Walt constantly worked on films and other projects, but it was always Roy who ran the company from the practical standpoint. Roy dealt with money, employees, board meetings, and all the other things Walt didn’t have the attention span for. When Walt had a crazy idea, Roy almost always agreed with everyone else that it was insane. Roy was with being fiscally responsible, and Walt never was, which lead to a lot of conflict between the two brother. However, in the end, Roy would always give in, and do everything in his power to make Walt’s dreams come true. Some might say while Walt was a dreamer, Roy was a realist, although it can be argued that both brothers were dreamers. The only difference was only one understood the reach of their budget.

This difference in attitudes may have painted an image of a cold, fiscal Roy as the opposite to the warm and loving uncle Walt that many Americans grew up with on their TV screens. In reality, this could not be more different from the truth. While Walt projected an overly friendly persona in public, his smiling face didn’t always translate behind the scenes. Walt was often described as a hard and cold boss. His perfectionism usually got the better of him, and an end product was always more important to Walt than the feelings of his employees. This was Walt’s world, and everyone else was just living in it. A boss to be admired but feared, Walt was in no way how people imagined him.

Roy, however, was often described in a way we might have expected of Walt. Roy was charismatic, and had a sense of humour about things. He had more interpersonal skills than his younger brother and got along much better with employees and people in general because of it. Animator Frank Thomas said of Roy that “You could put your arm around [his] shoulder.” followed by “Not with Walt.” Roy wasn’t consumed with the ideas of perfection like his brother was, and really cared about the well-being of his employees. He was said to have had a hard time firing or laying people off, at some points sacrificing his own paycheck and having Walt sacrifice his so that layoffs could be avoided. This lead to the people who knew the Disney’s, or at least the people who worked for them, to usually harbour a favour toward the elder brother.

When it comes to the “big stuff”- meaning the accomplishments Walt Disney is most famous for such as Snow White and The Seven Dwarves or Disneyland, none of them would have been possible without Roy. The creation of Disneyland began as a “personal project” of Walt’s, although quickly spiraled into something very real when Roy got a phone call from the bank asking for more information on this “theme park idea” that Walt had just secured a loan for. Walt would say he did it this way because Roy refused to seriously talk about it, but many (including Roy) would say that Walt liked to over-dramatise these conflicts with his brother to make himself seem like a genius that nobody ever listened to. These unclear reports may outline the problem of running a business with your brother.

Roy’s problem with Disneyland was the same as his problem with so many of Walt’s other ideas, the Disney company could simply not afford it. However, once the ball got rolling there was no stopping it. Begrudgingly agreeing that in case of absolute failure, the lot could be used for studio space and filming, Roy began working on getting Walt’s park paid for. Using Walt’s fascination with television and desire to start their own programs, Roy suggested a fifteen minute program that would promote Disneyland among the other shows that were being planned. ABC eventually bought this idea, a decision that they would benefit from greatly. Walt Disney’s Disneyland beginning to air on the network in 1954, a year before the park’s opening. However, this alone would not pay for the park, which was looking to cost a good 5.25 million dollars- nearly 50 million dollars by today’s standards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkwAvBuXZKs

To combat this problem, Roy began working on selling shares and making deals with companies small and large. Although the ABC show cost more to produce than it made, the network itself had invested in Disneyland, and the show garnered attention from other companies who were looking to invest in the recently marketed amusement park. At the same time Walt was hard at work making sure Disneyland was being built exactly to his specifications, Roy was doing the equally heavily-weighted job- making sure this wouldn’t send the company into bankruptcy.

The park had its shortcomings in those first few years, but was an ultimate success. Of course, with hindsight over a half-century later we know what a massive phenomenon Disney Parks became, but at the time it was unprecedented, and an absolute marvel to see. With the success of the park, Disney was able to buy back all its shares in Disneyland in the next ten years, assuming full ownership. What had been Walt’s dream became a reality, allowing him to move on to envisioning Disney World. Disney World became a project actualized by Roy, as Walt died 5 years before the park’s opening. Roy would spend his dying days re-living the days of twenty years before, making sure every rock was laid in the manner his brother would have wanted. When the parks first opened in 1971, it was Roy who gave the dedication speech. It was also Roy who renamed the park from Walt’s original plans- Disney World became Walt Disney World, as a dedication of Roy’s admiration of his brother.

Roy was never one for the spotlight, which largely contributes to the reason that he’s not widely talked about like his brother. Roy never aspired fame the way Walt did. Despite being co-head of Disney for years one end, there aren’t many public photos or videos of him. Roy was rarely shown to the public, and while it is hard to remember what you do not see, it feels like we have forgotten Roy entirely. When searching for Roy O. Disney, most of what you will find are things named for him, buildings, concert halls, and trains, instead of records from his actual life. He is almost a foil character of his brother. In goals, strengths, and weaknesses, the two never quite matched up. This seems to have left us, almost 100 years after the Disney company was formed, worshiping one brother and ignoring the other. We may even run the risk of rendering Roy Disney completely unremembered.

Although at the end of the day, Roy built one of the biggest companies of all time from the ground up and stayed in the shadows while doing so. When that company is a media empire, it is clear that this was a conscious choice. Perhaps we haven’t done Roy a disservice by letting his memory stay in death how he liked to live his life- unbothered.

To commemorate his life, I completed a short timeline of some of the most important events in Roy’s life, while many are outlined by Disney, it was interesting to dive into his life before the mouse consumed his family name.

 

 

Sources:

Building a Company: Roy O. Disney and the Creation of an Entertainment Empire by Bob Thomas

Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler

 

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Alternative History

A long time ago, we did an assignment on the beginning of World War One. Even though there have been historians studying the causes of the first world war for- oh, I don’t know, 104 years, we had to come up with our own theory. How did World War One start? It’s a convoluted question, and the answer is just as messy.

Luckily, World War Two’s causes lend themselves in a much more understanding way. Essentially, you can tie it back to the consequences of the first World War. Lingering anger, disappointment, and fear came back on a European scale and slowly went global. Old alliances stayed the same, old enemies fought again.

But what if they didn’t? A million causes fed into the full-blown fighting spirit of the war, and just one change could have tipped everything to end up differently. We can take a key event- say the Munich Agreement, and twist it on its head, tracking where it might end up. Would we end up here, again? In the case of my reimagining of the agreement between Adolf Hitler and Neville Chamberlain, the answer is no.

Our story starts with the Munich Agreement. In 1938, the prime minister of Britain met with the chancellor of Germany. These two men, Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler, signed a very loose agreement heavily implying that Britain and Germany have no intention of ever going to war against each other again, although never doing so much as to promise it. Britain was trying to protect themselves, but at the same time, they were not looking to condone the behavior of Hitler and his regime. In a balance between these needs, the Munich Agreement came to be.

But what if it didn’t?

When coming up for options for Britain, I thought of one that is so opposite of history that it fascinated me. In a desperate effort to protect themselves from another devastating war, Britain allies itself with Germany. This is a decision that doesn’t include France. I made this a Britain-only historical change because it’s out of my realm of belief to even pretend there is a world where 1930’s France and Germany could have become friends. However, I do not find it unbelievable that a fearful Britain would abandon their morals in place of safety. Even after the First World War, Britain still had a “Britain First” international policy. Despite their unsettlement with Hitler’s actions, I don’t doubt that there is a reality where an Anglo-German alliance would exist. To show how this would have changed from the actual Munich Agreement, I took an old New York Times article from 1938, and altered it to reflect my alternative history.

 

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Wikihow: How to Understand a Historical Event in 6 Easy Steps

For the past 6 classes, we’ve been preparing for our History portion of the year. Of course, our teachers were chilling in SoCal for these 6 classes, so we had to teach ourselves. To be fair, we were actually teaching each other, and then playing a kahoot to make sure we got it. (shout out to the one group that didn’t make a kahoot for following their own path). We proved to each other that we understood, but now we have to prove it to our teachers that we understood (or at least took notes).

I decided that to show my understand, I would make a comic. I’ve been reading a lot of comics lately, so it seemed appropriate. I’ve mostly been reading Spiderman comics. As a tangent, I will rank all the Spiderman series I have read so far. I added links so you can read them, if you want to. (Disclaimer: I haven’t read every issue of every series, but enough to know how much I like it)

  1. Spider-Man (2016)

This is the current “Spider-Man” comic. It features a teenaged Miles Morales, rather than Peter Parker (who still exists in this universe, this takes place alongside The Amazing Spider-Man (2015), and is very relationship driven. It doesn’t have as much action as some of the other comics, but it’s interesting as it’s very different from a lot of the other comics. Probably because it has a different main character who, while has many of the same mannerisms and goals as Peter Parker, has a different backstory that allows for the character to work outside of the limits of orphanisms.

2. Spidey (2016)

Spidey is fun. It’s very classic “teen Peter Parker” and has the same basic storyline as people expect from Spiderman (i.e the storyline from the Tobey Maguire movies). The difference is that this one is modern, which is basically why I like it the most out of all those basic storyline Spiderman comics. It’s not dated, and there’s a lot of jokes that are actually funny. It’s very humor based, and it doesn’t get too serious.

3. Spider-Man/Deadpool (2016)

This one is just funny. It does get a little dramatic, but it’s mostly just funny. I don’t think I would say anything insightful about this comic. Deadpool makes a lot of sexual innuendoes. But don’t worry, Peter Parker is an adult here so it’s not weird. It exists in the same universe as The Amazing Spider-Man (2015) and Spider-Man (2016).

4. The Amazing Spider-Man (2015)

This exists in the same universe as a lot of other Marvel Comics, and because I usually only read Spiderman ones I sometimes get really confused. This is Peter Parker where he’s basically Tony Stark in that he owns a massive company, but nobody knows he’s Spiderman. And he has a complicated relationship with the Avengers. This is a really good comic, but it gets to be in the middle because I get confused a lot.

5. Ultimate Spider-Man (2000)

Ultimate Spider-Man (2000) is incredibly iconic. It’s basically the Tobey Maguire movies in comic form, with a lot extra. I guess I just don’t really like Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker, or maybe it’s too dated for me. This comic is dated in the worst way. It’s like when you watch a sitcom from the early 2000’s and can’t stop cringing cause it’s kind of offensive. Nerd Peter Parker is just so boring to me, and I don’t like reading it.

6. Spider-Man 2099 (2015)

This comic is very different from any of the others I read. It’s like….the year is 2099 and…it’s very science fiction. I don’t really like science fiction in comics. Sorry, not my thing.

7. Spider-Verse (2015)

There’s like, a million spidermen (and women) in this one. It was only two issues, but I still don’t really understand it. Cool concept, though.

Okay, now that my tangent is over, I can show you the comic I made. Although I tried my best, I stuck with very basic art, because I am not an artist. I thought about using clipart, but I thought that stickmen were more authentic and easier to make emote. I think I got across all the information. I didn’t want to go into too much detail because I thought that would be boring and nobody needs that much. Anyways, here is my comic.

Although, now I have to show that I can actually apply these concepts to an event. I picked Columbine because I think it’s an event that can be applied to everything and I find it to be interesting and decently specific. Columbine was the tragic shooting of Columbine High School on April 20th of 1999. Two students when on a shooting spree, killing 13 people and wounding more than 20 others. The students then killed themselves, making the total death toll 15 people. It made a huge impact on America, and fuelled a national debate about gun control that continues to this day. Below are pictures of the two students who carried out the attacks.

Image result for columbine

The Columbine school shooting was historically significant in way of culture, politics, and economics. It sparked a national debate on gun control, both in and out of politics. Columbine changed how schools ran in many parts of America, turning many schools, mainly middle schools and high schools, into places of incredibly high security. Culturally, it marked a shift in teenager’s views on certain subcultures. The grunge and goth cultures that grew to prominence throughout the 1980’s and 90’s were now criminalized. Columbine could be pointed to as one of the reasons for the shift of teenager subculture towards a more preppy style in the early 21st century. At the time, the 15 deaths marked it as the deadliest school massacre to occur in modern history (often considered the deadliest, as many people discounted the Bath School Disaster in 1927 due to its nature and lack of historical significance). In 2018, Columbine is the 4th deadliest school shooting in modern history. However, it is often considered to be the first domino that fell in the ongoing struggle that is American school shootings.

The evidence from this event, at least the evidence prevalent at the time of the massacre, is varied in its factuality. There were many factual errors in the New York Times article published after the attack, such as claiming there were “at least 25 deaths”. As the days went on, more evidence came out that was backed up by witness recall and the school security camera footage. The evidence we have today is considered very trustworthy, as it has been backed up by both hard footage and the accounts of dozens of people who were in the school at the time of the attack. The events that occurred on April 20th, 1999, are rarely disputed and widely accepted. I have included the footage in a video below. The video is very graphic and highly disturbing, so watch at your own risk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCqlcG_ZmwE

America has both changed greatly and been at a standstill since 1999. While preventative actions have taken place such as high security at high-risk schools, America has stayed at a standstill for the actual issue of gun control. However, many people believe America’s stance on gun control was cemented in 2012 when a school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary killed 20 first grade children and there was nothing more than a continued debate on gun laws. While some actions have been taken to stop school shootings, 4 shootings similar to the Columbine shooting have taken place within the last six weeks.

What caused these two young men to massacre their own classmates has been disputed since the day of the event, and because the shooters killed themselves on the same day, the causes will likely never be fully understood. At the time, many people but blame on goth culture and violent video games, however, that narrative quickly turned to bullying and mental health. The type of people that the perpetrators were, their reasoning, and simply who they were as people continues to be disputed, and many people believe we will truly never know. However, In some class photos they can be seen pretending to shoot the camera with their friends, which has indicated this attack to be a highly thought out plan.

Image result for columbine

To put myself in the shoes of the people of 1999 receiving this news is both difficult and incredibly easy. I will never be able to understand the horror of such horrific events happening in my own country, as they rarely do to the scale that these events occur in America. However, I feel that I can understand the horror of seeing the events unfold. The five worst mass shootings in American history have occurred within my lifetime, two of those being school shootings. Of all these shootings, I remember all but Virgina Tech. While the shootings in 2016 and 2017 have had less impact on me after each one due to the frequency of these events in past years, I do remember the horror of Sandy Hook in 2012. At 12 years old, and a student in an elementary school, I could not help but wonder if this could happen to me. This reaction, I would imagine, was fairly similar to how many children, teenagers, and parents would have felt after the 1999 Columbine shooting.

It is obvious that this event was not ethical, there is no debate on that, and any sane person would tell you that they are horrified by the mere idea of a school shooting. The more important ethical discussion lies in the issue of gun control. I am fully and completely opposed to guns on an ethical level. I believe that a higher amount of gun control is always the best option. While I understand that this is a combination of where and how I was raised, I also believe in looking at the facts. The countries with the highest gun control have less murder and suicide per capita, simply by removing the easiest option. While I understand that there are other arguments for the allowance of guns, I believe that none of them compare to the need of having a safe country for everyone.

UPDATE: ONE WEEK LATER

The attacks on Columbine high school have shown to have an incredible amount of significance carrying through to today. In the past week, there has been a highly deadly massacre at a Florida high school, very similar to the attacks on Columbine. Many students across America feel unsafe, and want to take a stand against gun violence.

Whether it will happen or not, an idea of students walking out of schools on April 20th, the anniversary of the Columbine attacks, has been gaining traction online. Although it is an ambitious plan, and may be more effective in some areas than others, it looks like it may very well happen. Even CNN is reporting on it.

This proves that this event has lead us somewhere. Columbine changed America, in some way. Hopefully, it’s memory can help be the thing to repair the state of gun laws in America.

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Make a Movie: $0 Edition

When we first got assigned this project my only thoughts were “What the hell are my teachers thinking?”

That sentiment hasn’t changed much. Over the course of this assignment, I came to realize one thing more than any other: my class does not work well as one big group. We are good a group work, but once the group exceeds about 5 people, everything goes out the table.

Our teachers wanted us to become a film crew. The problem with this is that we are not a film crew. We are seventeen year olds. Seventeen years olds who aren’t passionate about filmmaking, in most cases. And more than that, we are headstrong. All of us. Everybody has opinions, and nobody wants to give up on theirs, because theirs is obviously the best. This may serve us all well in the future.

Needless to say, it didn’t here. We had power struggles, scheduling issues, and creative differences. If you want to know how it went just go read my post about the Macbeth video from last year, and dial it from 11 to about a 9.

Our class doesn’t not work well in a large group.

This is why I’m glad that I was on script. I was the DRI (aka the boss) of script, and Matthew, Gabi, and Tom were working with me. In the beginning, it was kind of nerve wracking. We had to come up and start ASAP a script that would

  1. be realistic
  2. won’t piss off our class
  3. please the teachers
  4. could be written REALLY FAST

After about half a class and two spares of discussion, we decided that not pissing off our class didn’t matter as much as the other three, because we only had about two weeks to do this whole project and nobody could do anything until we had a script.

I think the hardest part about writing the script was that our teachers wanted us to use emojis. That and making sure all of our script made sense/would be possible for the class to film. Our locations, number of actors, costumes/props were all limited because our budget was approximately zero dollars.

Although none of these issues mattered, because we had a time crunch. Teva, the producer, wanted us to have 6 scenes done in 4 days.

We finished the whole script in 5. I’m actually proud of this part. The four of us worked really hard to get this done, and while the script is obviously not perfect, I think it’s okay.

Okay, I honestly think it’s better than the movie. I’m not blaming anyone for that, I just think the scene that makes the story

  1. make sense
  2. have a sense of horror
  3. MAKE SENSE

The movie’s production obviously involved our input as well, and I worked with the directors about rewrites a bit. Once production begun, I ended up stepping back a bit. This isn’t because I thought it was better for the movie (it wasn’t), but because I figured if I stepped back and let the directors do what they want, the movie would at least get finished. When the directors and producers  told me they wanted “one at max” scriptwriter on set, I obliged because I know if we spent any time arguing whatsoever, it would eat into the filming time. And lord knows we didn’t have enough of it already. There were a few occasions where the scriptwriters on set got into arguments with the directors, but I just had to remind everyone and myself that once a scriptwriter hands a script over, the studio and directors can do whatever they want to it.

Even if it doesn’t make sense.

Not my problem anymore.

In all honestly, this could have gone better, but it could have gone worse as well. Personally I think if we had been able to film the teacher scene, which was the one thing I begged them to do that didn’t get finished, the movie would just be…..so much better.

So despite that failure, I think I did pretty okay.

For good measure, I’m taking that script on the end here.

HORROR SCRIPT FINAL REAL-2372kij

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Is Innocence Beneficial or Detrimental to Society?

In 1937, Walt Disney released the first fully animated feature film in history. What was seen as a massive risk paid off, with Snow White and The Seven Dwarves being such a success that 80 years later, the film still holds a 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The film was revered by audiences and critics alike, as it was thought to capture a beautiful childlike innocence that was previously considered too silly for a full motion picture. A critic by the name of John C. Flinn Sr. would write “So perfect is the illusion [of the film], so tender the romance and fantasy,” predicting the success of Seven Dwarves and the entire career of Walt Disney. The entire world was in love with Walt Disney’s smart yet wonderful world, until suddenly, not everybody was.

The same people who were calling praising Disney’s work would turn against him in the years to follow. The praise of Seven Dwarves and Fantasia would slowly turn into bitter remarks of how Disney had lost his magic, murdering the classics like Peter Pan with his all too innocent take on them.  While the masses were still flocking to Walt Disney Pictures, critics and “intellectuals” began to criticize Disney’s films. They would begin to believe that “Walt Disney had the innate bad taste of the American public”. This criticism of Disney’s films would continue from the 1940’s all the way until the 1990’s, with some critics still believing that Disney is entirely too innocent.

But what does that mean? Does innocence really harm out society as much as the critics like to think it does? I asked some of my friends what they thought about Disney movies being too innocent,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwrHO6lW51g&t=0s

although I figured that I should probably look beyond the people I sit lunch with.

In, Lord of The Flies, a novel that my class read this term, (and you probably read in high school, too), there is a very signifigant quote near the end of the book on this topic. The quote states that “Ralph wept for the end of innocence”. To me, this quote means that innocence is something that benefits society. Although I could directly say that if Ralph was still innocent, he would not be crying, there is more than that to the quote. This quote proves that humanity relies on innocence to be reminded of the good in the world.

This exact concept is also explored in the Shakespeare play Macbeth. Macbeth, at the beginning of the play, is a medieval lord version of innocent.  Although the man was a war hero, meaning he sliced off the heads of a lot of people, he was doing so out of what he believed was a true belief in the good. At this point, Macbeth was innocent to the corruption and thoughts of power that would overtake him once he was exposed to them. Once evil ideas were put into his head by the 3 Witches and his wife Lady Macbeth, he loses himself and becomes a completely different person, showing once again that without innocence, goodness is lost.

We can mirror this concept a third time in the novel Three Day Road. Before heading off to war,  both Xavier and Elijah are innocent to the horrors of war. Being exposed to these horrors is what turns Elijah into a ruthless and insane killer, while Xavier, who removes himself from the other men as much as possible, stays somewhat innocent and therefore does not go crazy like his friend.

All of these examples point to one thing: Innocence is beneficial. Perhaps not on a global, political, or community scale. However, innocence is important when it comes to personal well-being. Without innocence, we become shells of who we once were, as we are exposed to evils and lose the faith and hope we once had. This is why it is important for there to be innocent movies for our children, so that they may grow up believing there is good in the world. Without that belief, it is likely that nobody would strive towards goodness, and humanity would have been gone a long time ago.

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Is Nuclear Testing Bad For The Tourism Industry?

Hoooooo boy.

This one was a doozy.

I don’t know exactly where to start with this unit. It was a lot for me to take in, and I’m not really sure how to talk about it, so I guess I’ll just be honest with my feelings on the internet. That’s always a good idea.

This unit involved the concept of fear, the history surrounding the cold war, and, well, a whole lot of other stuff. With this, we were to create a video to answer this question: How does fear affect behavior?

Part of me feels like I lived the answer. Since I was a small child, I have dealt with a pretty big fear of natural disasters, global warming, war, bombs, black holes, asteroids, and pretty much anything that had the power to end the world. I’ve always been deathly afraid of the end of the world. Of course, our unit focusing on fear during the cold war all revolved around that topic. My anxiety got really bad, the worst it’s ever been. There was an entire weekend where I walked up and down the street all day, counting my steps because I couldn’t stand the thought of thinking about the reasons I was so afraid. Trump had just gotten into office, and the whole world seemed mad at each other (they still are, but I’m better at ignoring it now). While studying the cold war and looking at current events, I couldn’t help but see the parallels.

I learned a lot about how fear affects behavior in those few months.

Fear can stop you from going to class.

Fear can stop you from getting out of bed.

Fear can make you delete Facebook because you can’t stand to see a news article.

Fear can completely control your life.

Although you can’t let that happen. If you let fear completely take over your brain, you’re barely a person anymore. You become a shaking ball of anxiety that doesn’t have a life quality over that of a mollusk. That’s not okay. Which is why I forced myself to get better and calm down. Of course, it wasn’t as easy as that sentence made it sound, but I’m okay now. That’s really all that matters.

After I got over that minor (major) hiccup, I had to focus on putting that to words, and to video. I wrote an essay, then re-wrote it, and I’m still not really sure if I re-wrote it better or worse because I don’t thin I got feedback the second time, but that’s okay. I’m pretty sure it got better. I’ll attach my final essay below.

Finally, I had to put it to video. I did my video twice, just like my essay, because my first video was kind of lame and also I decided to switch to using Final Cut Pro on my laptop instead of continuing with iMovie because iMovie and I have a long and complicated history and I no longer trust it. I’m not really sure what to say about making this video.

It’s not like it was super challenging. It was pretty time-consuming. I worked on it for many hours, over many days.

I’m tired. Here’s the end result.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLxapP1D8FU

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A High School Sargent

Throughout my entire childhood, I have been reminded of World War II. When you’re a child, you tend to think that these wars happened a lot longer ago than they did. In my mind, World War II has always been a lifetime ago. The soldiers that died in that war didn’t have any weight in my mind until recently. I was, for the longest time, under the impression that war no longer existed anywhere near my life. I didn’t realize that soldiers death’s affected me at all. I understood the weight of the holocaust long before I understood the weight of our own soldiers. I never thought about how in the time of wars past, putting your life on the line was often something that was expected of you, not a personal choice. War affects me, and it affects all of us. Every single soldier’s life or death shapes our country, and it shapes our world. I never thought about it. I think about it now as we enter a state of unrest, all across the globe. It’s easy to think  you are safe, and you are in a bubble that cannot be touched. Now, we are all forced to think about the realities of war, and how it was possible and real. And people before us bravely experienced it. I am aware that at least two of my great-grandfathers were in the second world war. If one of them were to have died in combat instead of the thousands of men and women who did, I could have never been born. I am affected by every soldier, and so is every single one of us. With that being said, I want to recognize that the soldier I cover in this post, I hold to the upmost respect. I do not mean to put words in the mouth of a soldier, but use this assignment as educational experience where I do my best to understand life in those times.

With that out of the way, I am going to tell you about Norman Andrews Ash.

Norman was born in Edmonton, Alberta on June 2nd, 1922. At the time of his enlistment, he was 18 years old and living in Peace River, Alberta. He had two younger brothers, and one older sister. He had just graduated from high school. He was an athlete, doing exceptionally well in hockey and skiing, but had tried nearly every sport under the sun. He was a leader at his local church. Norman was highly regarded by the figures of authority in his life, saying he had “initiative and an unusual ability in leadership”. He got good grades in school, and enjoyed photography. He also loved model airplanes, which is perhaps what got him interested in becoming a pilot in the war.

In the forces, he was well liked by his peers. Norman was said to be “very popular with everyone on the squadron”. Although some reports called him “slightly irresponsible”, his superiors seemed to like him as well. I’d like to think that was linked to how young he was. By the time he would die in a night flying practicing incident in England, he was 20 years old. In his personal affects sent back home, included was a camera, photo album, and book of poems. He was said to be confident, likeable, and from what I can see pretty well-rounded.

I’ve tried my best to bring Norman to light in the fake letter I have written to his family from him. This is Norman Ash, from my perspective.

”

Dear Father,

Thank you for your last letter. It’s good to know that everyone is doing well. I wish I could be home to see Sidney Jr. graduate from school. I am so happy to hear that he is going off the university. I am sure whatever he decides to do, he will do it well. He has always been smarter than I am, even though I am two years older than him.

Learning to fly is just as exciting as I thought it would be. I always imagined flying an airplane, and here I am, really doing it! I feel like a bird up in the air, like nobody can stop me. I must admit that I am but an average pilot, though I am doing quite well. My superiors seem to like me, and are surprisingly patient when I make a mistake. Which isn’t very often, don’t worry about that.

I am getting along well with my entire squadron. Everyone seem stop like me here. I wasn’t sure if anyone was going to take me seriously, though there are lots of guys my age out here. I was especially worried about the older men, but they seem to all respect us for enlisting in the first place. I didn’t expect things to go so well for me, but I feel confident and at ease. I’m sure if I keep that demeanour I will come back home without a scratch.

In this letter, I am enclosed one of the photographs I have taken with my bullet camera of some men doing repair work on some planes. Please give everyone my regards.

Your son,

Norman

“

 

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Document Face Off: How Important Was The Civil Rights Act of 1964?

ULTIMATE FACE OFF

The other day my dad weirdly asked me what I thought what the most important human rights document ever written. After I didn’t answer him, he answered himself, with the Magna Carta. This whole, one sided conversation was weird, and I did my best to forget about it until the other day, when I was reading about The Civil Rights Act of 1964. After that, I was reminded of the dreaded conversation and decided to actually look up the Magna Carta, because I had no idea what it was.

Once I realized what the Magna Carta was, I was firstly confused why so many people cared to crowd around it when I was at the archives museum in DC. Then I started listing all the reasons why all the civil rights documents seem wayyyy more important. Especially The Civil Rights Act of 1964. THEN I looked up to see if people agreed with my point, and they did (just read the first sentence of this article). So this is going to be the theme I go with this week.

Modern society would not be the same without the Civil Rights Act. Without us outruling systematic oppression and discrimination at the time that we did, our society would have an ever worse power imbalance than it already has.

This is versus the Magna Carta, which was written in 1215. The reason I bring this up is I personally believe that in 1215, nothing important could have ever been signed. I think without the Magna Carta, not much would be different. Because of the fact that people were generally really stupid until AT LEAST the 1800’s, figuring out the rules of justice even, like, a century later probably wouldn’t have made much difference.

Because of the fast-progressing nature of the 20th century (I mean, we got common household electricity in the same 100 years as space travel), even putting off The Civil Rights Act of 1964 for 5 years could have deeply harmed our society. It would have prolonged our protests, both against and for equal rights and integration. It could have also possibly prolonged other issues like LGBTQ+ rights.

Without the progression of civil rights being exactly where it was, North America would not be what it is today. I mean, there’s already SO MANY AWFUL THINGS IN OUR CONTINENT. If we didn’t have important documents like the Civil Rights Act signed when they were, things would be SO. MUCH. WORSE.

Without the Magna Carta, I mean, we probably would have figured out the stuff in there before anything important happened. I’m not saying that stuff that happened in the 13th century wasn’t important, but it seems like the history you learn in school jumps straight from the fall of the Roman Empire to the 1600’s. Plus, I seriously doubt anybody in the 13th century followed the fair justice stuff written in the Magna Carta. If you don’t believe me, just look at the wikipedia page for the century. Nothing but violence and wars. Yeesh.

If you’re going to take anything away from this giant blog post that is just text that I’m not even sure is written in an appropriate style for a school assignment, let it be this: When everyone was the Magna Carta when I was in DC, they should have been crowding around the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Even though I’m pretty sure it wasn’t on display.

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I Would Much Rather Synthesize Perry The Platypus vs Doctor Doofenshmirtz

It’s been awhile, blog that nobody reads.

Though here we are, back again, with a new assignment: essays. Which I actually don’t hate, to be honest. I read a lot of personal essays on buzzfeed and other websites that I get linked to from buzzfeed, and I actually don’t mind writing essays.

But then comes planning essays, and it’s like it all gets 1000x worse. Then comes planning synthesis essays, and everything feels like a soggy sock. All gross and uncomfortable. You can’t really take your soggy sock off until you get home though, and the same rules apply here. There’s no way around it, you just have to face the uncomfortable feelings until you’re done with the goal. I had to finish the essay to take off the soggy sock.

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The first thing I had to do was make a venn diagram comparing the two stories we read. I’m not going to post that here because it’s:

a) very boring

b) honestly not that good

c) if you haven’t read both pieces of writing it probably won’t make any sense anyways

Since there’s no point in making you sit through that torture, I will explain my own in the next step. Actual essay planning. Coming up with key sentences and points isn’t all that hard, you just have to use big words and people will believe anything you say. No, the real torture comes with finding quotes.

I’m hoping for the actual exam we have to do in January this will be easier because the stories will be shorter and fresher in my mind, but finding at least three quotes from two long-ish stories proved a difficult task. I pretty much had to read both texts again because I didn’t mark the quotes when I saw them. Granted re-reading only took me about two hours, I could have been napping in that time.

Finally we wrote the essay, which took longer than it should have. Two classes and some time that evening, but I finished it, and here it is for your reading pleasure.

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The Bread Man’s Cheeky Grin

One of the characters in Romeo and Juliet that I don’t see as idiotic, is oddly enough, Juliet’s Nurse. She may not seem very bright in the play, but I think she is one of the most compassionate and caring characters. The Nurse seems to be used by Shakespeare as a tool of convenience and some comic relief, but I would have liked to see her character have some more substance. When an assignment to write where she was in some spare time allowed me to create that for her, I really wanted to do it.

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(Juliet’s Nurse was tired of running Juliet’s silly little errands. The Nurse found Juliet, despite being a very bright young lady, to be very naive with her personal endeavours. The Nurse knew after meeting Juliet’s love Romeo, that both children had their heads off in the clouds. Their forbidden love would bring nothing but trouble upon both houses. But, when she remembered the feeling she felt with her deceased husband, the Nurse knew Romeo and Juliet needed to be together. She could see their love pouring out of their childlike eyes.

The Nurse knew when Juliet expected her to return with the news, and that it was nearing that time when she departed with young Romeo. She did not want to return to Juliet’s hectic affairs just yet, though, and found herself wandering off towards the market. The Nurse had no intention of buying anything, or even looking at the various product being sold off. The Nurse went to the market to watch the people.

Her favourite person in the market today was an older man, his face creased with experience. He was selling soft bread that smelled like a caring innocence. The bread man smiled gently at the young boys who would run through the market from time to time, instead of screaming at them as his fellow sellers did. The Nurse studied his face carefully, noticing his features, which were similar to her deceased husband. She imagined if her husband were to still be with her today, she would like him to be like this gentle man in the market.

As the Nurse looked at the bread man for the last time, he stared right back at her, and they held a lingering eye contact, broken when the man started to shake with a hearty man. The Nurse smiled silently to herself, thinking how lucky the man’s wife must be. She thought of Romeo and Juliet as she walked home to bring Juliet her news. The Nurse wished that they would have many moments of peace in their future together, as she had just experienced with the bread man.)

To write this, I first came up with ideas. My first plan was to have the Nurse have a romantic affair with the Friar, but I quickly realized that would some with some serious moral and religious questions, and quickly scraped it. I wanted to have the Nurse have some romance, but I didn’t really want to create a character and whole backstory for their love. I then remembered the Nurse was widowed, and I know women back then rarely got remarried. I decided to focus my story on the Nurse’s thoughts and let her have some relaxing alone time, because Juliet and Lady Capulet don’t seem to leave her alone. I hope you enjoyed my interpretation of Juliet’s Nurse.

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