The Keystone XL Pipeline is a pipeline that has run through the United States since 2010. It was owned by TC energy until 2020, when the ownership went to the government of Alberta in Canada. The argument of this pipeline being placed has been going on for over several years now and still a decision has not been finalized. Biden has recently declined this bill being placed which caused an outrage by politicians who claim this bill is a no brainer and should be put through and acted upon.This pipeline is such a great decision because it will have big positive and negative impacts. This bill however will have a greater negative impact than a positive one.

 Firstly building this pipeline will be bad for the climate. When burning the recoverable tar sands oil the earth’s temperature will increase by 2 degrees celsius. This could cause an even greater price on things like negative weather events like doubts due to the increasing temperature. With the U.S already being in debt, this will just add to the already big cost. 

Secondly this pipeline will not be creating jobs, but instead cutting them. Despite the opinion that with this pipeline being installed people will have job opportunities and become employed, this bill will instead just have more people become minimum wage workers for a job that could create more problems then fix them. These companies will also fire their employees, an example of this is in 2010 alone, the top five oil companies slashed their global workforce by 4,400 employees. So what’s to say this won’t happen again? These oil companies that would promise these minimum wage jobs would also fire this many employees in one year which cause even more unemployment. 

Overall, this pipeline will only create more problems then it will fix. It will increase our global warming problem, possibly worsen the U.S debt and worsin unemployment. This is why Biden should not have said yes to the pipeline being installed.

In 1992, Toni Morrison wrote a book called Jazz which tells the story of mostly four characters. These characters are all being connected in some way to each other by either blood or relationships to each other. The whole story is told from different points of view, but mostly by a single narrator who we don’t know the identity of. This narrator you would think would know all the information but that’s not the case, so you could be misled or told false information by the narrator but you wouldn’t know unless you knew the other sides of that story. Jazz deals with many themes but it mostly deals with the theme of perspective.

When the book begins we get introduced to some of the characters. Those being Dorcus, Joe, Violet, and some other side characters. When this story of Joe and colet being in an unhappy marriage turns into Joe cheating on Violet with Dorcus. It ends with Dorcus telling Joe she no longer wishes to be with him and wants to be with someone who’s the same age as her, not older. Angered, Joe kills Dorcus and at her funeral Violet attacks her corpse. Now when this all happens there’s a feeling of anger towards Joe and Violet, that is until the narrator allows the reader to understand these two characters point of view and the reason behind their decisions. It shows their actions come from a violent and suppressed childhood.

In Joe’s story, it recounts how he never knew his mother and got taken care of by his adopted parents. Joe went in search of his mother and heard she was a homeless woman. When he tracked her down she just told him he could not make out making Joe question who he is. Meanwhile Violet grew up in a poor household with her mother and grandmother who came to live with them when Violet’s father abandoned them. Violet’s mother committed suicide however leaving Violet with her grandmother. Violet and Joe met and after getting married, moved to Harlem. With both of these two characters we can now understand that they both lost their parents by either death or abandonment. 

With these characters fleshed out and their stories told through the book, the reader can start to feel sympathy for the characters that they originally didn’t like. Toni Morrison brilliantly makes it seem that she’s showing the reader a story through one version and then lets the reader know another perspective or a history of these same characters. So now the reader has to reevaluate their feelings and thoughts on that character. 

Hello my name is Briana Mackie and I am a student at the Ann Richards school for young women leaders. In this paper I will be talking about in more detail a brag sheet that we’re told to fill out so here is my version of it. A bit about me is that I love making films and am currently studying in the film department. Anyway back to the essay. 

    I think my most proud accomplishments are passing my AP world history class. I also got the chance to make a short animated film, although I didn’t get to finish it and is only in animatic form due to the pandemic. With these Achievements I believe my greatest strengths are being creative but realistic when faced with a problem and imaginative when it comes to creating animation and films. The problem though is that my weakness is that I can’t stay focused on one task for too long before I need a break or go work on something else and I’m also not a big planer meaning I plan the big picture or make the plan really vague and don’t go into detail about it.

    Due to animation being my dream job when I’m older, my favorite classes are art and media tech. I can stay focused in these classes and get to have practice with what I love. With these two classes that are being taught I believe my teachers would describe me as artistic, passionate, and flexible because I am almost always drawing in their classes, I always ask what opportunities I have with what I want to do and I’m always open to criticism and change of plans to anything I’m working on. 

    With these strengths and positives I also of course have negatives. I used to be shy and not open to public speaking so I decided to take theaters. I took theatre for about two years in middle school and one in high school and the end result was I am better at public speaking and am open to do new things and speak my thoughts and ideas. 

Throughout the years at Ann Richards I learned discipline in my work, dedication to what I love, loyalty to friends, and enthusiasm for anything coming my way. I will always treasure my time and lessons at this school that sculpted me into the person I am now. I will always work my hardest on anything I’m given, but if it’s on a subject I love then you can never worry about me slacking off. Instead you might have to worry about getting me to shut up about it. Anyway all jokes aside, thank you for reading this brag sheet about me and hope you have a good rest of your day.

Dear Ms. Langley,

This six weeks has been an interesting six weeks in terms of the stress over midterms and other important tests and projects for different classes. As an English student, these weeks have been a little easier than the other class work. This is due to the writings and readings. I believe I deserve an 80 or a 90 due to all the work I’ve done.

I have read about five books this semester. One of the books is of course Citizen and another book is The Illusion of Life which is a pretty heavy(as in weight) book. The other three books were The Hobbit, The Hate You Give, and The nine old men. These books were books that I wanted to read and Citizen was a school book. I usually read fantasy books and this semester I transitioned from fiction to fact/nonfiction. My plans for the next six weeks/semester is to read Nonfiction and books on real life at the same rate as I was reading fantasy and fiction books.

For the writing, I have written the Citizen essay recently and writing it wasn’t that hard to write. This is probably due to all the practices this semester. I have also written the response to that New York times news article that was done before the essay. I have also tried to update in the padlet a lot this semester. 

Throughout this semester I have gotten better at turning stuff in and getting things done not too long after they were assigned. So my goals for this next semester is being able to turn things in the day they were assigned. I want to get better at planning so that my grades can be hopefully better than this semester.

In conclusion, I believe that I deserve an 80 or 90 this six weeks because I have improved over these six weeks and this semester. Even over the holiday break I didn’t fall off the cliff and kept keeping the same pace.

John Lewis was an african american man who sadly died on July 17th, 2020. Before his death though, he wrote an essay called ‘Together, you can redeem the soul of our nation.’ In this essay Lewis wrote a lot about what he observed in our world and country but also gave instruction to following generations. He told the generation, who he saw protesting outside and younger generations that will follow to do some important things. To look, listin, act, and learn in a safe and calculated manner.

Lewis recalled a time when he went out and saw the Black Lives Matter protests and it reminded him that the fight for equality is still raging on. He then reminded the readers that he had people who died and they had people to want justice for them too. “ Emmett Till was my George Floyd. He was my Rayshard Brooks, Sandra Bland and Breonna Taylor. He was 14 when he was killed, and I was only 15 years old at the time. I will never ever forget the moment when it became so clear that he could easily have been me.” Lewis reminds the audience that this has been going on for years, but he sees the similarities between the reason why the protests are going on.

Lewis goes on to say that he remembered hearing Dr Martin Luther King Jr. talking on the radio. “Like so many young people today, I was searching for a way out, or some might say a way in, and then I heard the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on an old radio. He was talking about the philosophy and discipline of nonviolence. He said we are all complicit when we tolerate injustice. He said it is not enough to say it will get better by and by. He said each of us has a moral obligation to stand up, speak up and speak out. When you see something that is not right, you must say something.” Which leads into the next topic Lewis spoke about.

Lewis talked about how he understands that democracy won’t always be forever, so he encouraged young people to safely protest and make a change by voting because you don’t know how long you will have that right before someone decides to take it away. “ You must do something. Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.

Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.” 

Lewis then goes on to talk about learning your history and your country’s history and learn from their past mistakes and victories and understand why and where they came from and what it caused. “You must also study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time. People on every continent have stood in your shoes, through decades and centuries before you. The truth does not change, and that is why the answers worked out long ago can help you find solutions to the challenges of our time. Continue to build union between movements stretching across the globe because we must put away our willingness to profit from the exploitation of others. Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe. In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring. When historians pick up their pens to write the story of the 21st century, let them say that it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that peace finally triumphed over violence, aggression and war.” 

In conclusion, John Lewis understood why the protests were and are still raging on but he also remembers what was the cost and how it started. He reminds his audience, being that of the future generations, that if they see foul play they need to call it out. He tells them to look, listen, act and learn from everything in their day to day lives. Now even though John Lewis is no longer with us, his words should still be remembered and acted now and forever.

History has been written by different people throughout the years and with these writing we learn what went on during these times. A lot of people don’t realize that not everything is written down but instead the information is lost for no one to know. That or history is written from the winning side and a lot of the time not the losing side. There are many examples of history not giving communities or people the justice they deserve. Not everything written in History is as it happened or quit like it seems.

One example of this is a moment that so many know as The Age of Colonization, specifically Jamestown. Historians would say it was a successful way for Europeans to escape British’s heavy rule over them. Most would say that it was a great way to escape and later earn their independence. Though they forget who was there before. There were people who were living and thriving in their homes when strangers came in and decided they would take and destroy their homes. Those people couldn’t do much about it though, because History was written in a language they had to learn and it was written from the winners.

Another example is what we all know as the vikings. Vikings were always taught as being ruthless killers and always mad when actually yes some vikings or Norsemen were killers, not all of them were. Most of the Norsemen were farmers and saw the lands they sailed upon as wonderful opportunities for farming. Those Norsemen who did kill, killed monks and those monks were the only ones who knew how to read and write so when they wrote the Norsemen down in their books they wrote them violent untamed people who in reality just had a different culture then them and they didn’t know what was being recorded about them until it was too long gone. 

One last example is talked about in a book called Citizen an american lyric by Claudia Rankine. This is a book that brings to light how just because someone has a different skin tone than the authorities they feel they have to fear for their life of being shot just because the authorities say they felt nervous or someone made a call exaggerating a story about an event. This causes the authorities feeling scared for their life wondering if they’ll be able to go home that night, not taking into account that maybe the person their nervous about is also wondering if they’ll live long enough to say goodbye to their family and friends and maybe wonder if someone will be around to tell their side of the story.  

In conclusion, History is always written by the winners or those who know how to write it down and there are so many stories that were never written and are now lost for all time. There are so many points of view that aren’t taught in schools because History is usually taught from the winnings and not always the losses. This has gone on for years and we still don’t seem to see where we make the mistakes. In our world today, there are people who make and inspire changes to be made so that these problems will hopefully never happen again but just because they are solved doesn’t mean they should be forgotten.

I love animating my characters. I love the pencil as it glides across the paper as it slowly creates life. With the papers stacking up on top of each other and the light underneath it all my creations seem to come alive. It takes a long time but it is always worth it. I give them personalities that I see with a bit of myself each time. These characters are mine and I will take them to my grave.

The first few weeks of this school year have been confusing at first but now I think it’s all starting to make sense. I think I earned a 75 or an 80 this six weeks. The reason I believe I earn this grade is because I have been reading for an hour every day, writing what I need to write, and I’ve been paying attention in class. 

A story about me is last year’s summer break my grandpa got a letter in the mail. The letter was a confirmation of him being in the Cherokee nation. I asked him what that meant and he told me that he was part Native American Cherokee and so was my father and I. Since then I’ve been trying to learn everything I could about that part of my ancestry. I don’t tell people about it because I don’t look like a Native American to everyone else and I don’t know many things about the culture except some of the language and the history. I remember you telling us in class that people might be talking to a Native American and they won’t even know it. 

I really wanted to get better at reading informational books so I’ve been reading an informational book on animation so that I’m reading about what I love but it’s full of informational help. I have been reading everyday which is a big improvement because I really only read when I was told to in class but now I’m doing it everyday without being told. I really want this next six weeks to go smoothly but I do have my doubts with people going back to school this next six weeks and the schedule is changing. 

In conclusion, I have been improving my reading and writing skills. I do still need to improve on breakout rooms because I want to talk more on my own without anyone telling me to. That is why I think I earn a 75 or an 80 this six weeks.

In the poem, The Bookstall by Linda Pastan is a poem about bibliography. The author shares a message how books can be an open passage to a new world. A quote from the poem to prove this is “ these inked paths opening into the future, page after page, every book its own receding horizon.” The quote describes how when opening a book it can be full of different horizons and worlds with different paths full of them. Someone might claim the poem is only about real life instead of lives from a book, and they might get that idea from this quote “ For life is continuous long as they wait.” This quote might make the reader believe that Linda Pastan is talking about life lessons or how life’s paths are different for everyone. 

June 27, 2020

Pulitzer prize judging board

Columbia University, 709 Pulitzer Hall, 2950 Broadway, New York, NY 10027

Dear Pulitzer prize judges,

I am writing to you about a certain book that I believe should earn the Pulitzer prize. For a book to earn the Pulitzer prize it needs to inform us, challenge our conventional notions of creative expression and push us to consider and embrace new ideas and perspectives. This year I believe that book should be The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. The Goldfinch presents themes in the book about lost love, loss of innocence, crime in art, identity, friendship, and fate vs free will. These subjects have been written in books before but The Goldfinch does it in a different way. In The Goldfinch the story is told through the eyes of Theo and how he sees the world after his mother passes away through an accident but he believes that she died because of him and that if he never got in trouble then they wouldn’t have been at the art gallery. After the accident, he witnesses death in a way no child his age ever should, so when he continues through his life he sees things through a different lens. The main conflict in this book is Theo stealing the painting after the explosion and as he grows he expresses the fact that he has a connection with the painting through his mother who saw it and was inspired to become a model. Throughout the book Theo expresses how much he loves his mother and hates his father for leaving them alone, so when Xandra tells him he is much like his father he begins to question his identity and purpose in life. After the explosion he finds that no one can understand him anymore, not even his friends, so he becomes close to Boris and Pippa because they have also lost a loved one and know how he feels and can sympathise with him. For a large part of the novel, Theo believes that his actions are dictated by his mother’s death, symbolized by his possession of the Goldfinch. However, when Theo discovers that Boris had stolen the painting even before he returned to New York, he questions whether he simply believed he was controlled by fate. He goes to Hobie’s store led by the ring given to him after his mother’s death, and creates connections for life. The novel illustrates the struggle of whether it was his fate in receiving the ring or his free will in choosing to pursue its owner that led Theo to form lifelong passions and connections. Moreover, when reflecting on his life choices while almost overdosing, Theo analyzes how much of his actions were driven by fate or free will. These include his stay with the Barbours, his relation with Pippa, and his friendship with Boris. This story was based off of a real explosion at a museum, on Oct. 12, 1654, the young Fabritius was living in the western Netherlands town of Delft when a gunpowder warehouse exploded after a worker inspected the area with a lantern. The talented student of Rembrandt was one of the victims, as were most of his paintings. The book is about the aftermath through a child’s eyes which start out as innocent and slowly become grown up but in this situation they grow up quicker than most. I hope this letter will give you reason to see that this book deserves the Pulitzer prize. 

Sincerely

Briana M Mackie