Nonfiction Reading Response MaxF 811

              The battle for democracy still wages. This time however, it centers in Hong Kong, where China is taking away its right to free speech and press. The battle first started with only a couple hundred people. They blocked off a government building, and the police responded by arresting and assaulting several with pepper spray. They are trying to end the protests, and so far have been unsuccessful. The protestors have also tried to bring the U.S. in, which frustrated Obama. The students still are keeping up with their classes, but the "war" will be long. This issue of democratic freedom has a long and bloody road, and has no end in sight.
             The "Umbrella Revolution" is gaining momentum as more and more people join. The protestors have used umbrellas to guard against pepper spray, which is where the name came from.  China's oppressive government is what has sparked this revolution in-the-making. China still isn't backing down, since it is in a bad position. If they concede, the government will have to deal with more protests, and if they don't, there will be a lot of bloodshed that follows. The full cause on why this started, is because the residents of Hong Kong "see that China's rejection of full democracy is an insult to Hong Kong's special status". They keep a "tight lid on dissent" and deny the freedoms that we have today. They also control politics by jailing opponents, and they control what their citizens see on the internet with what some call "The Great Firewall of China". This is history repeating itself, over and over, just like the protest in Beijing in 1989. Except, this time they can't massacre the protestors, it would be very bad for China's reputation, and hard on the country. Tibet is also stirring, the early signs of protests to come. And even after all this, they still aren't letting up on the Hong Kong protesters. The Chinese are acting on the promise allowing them to elect a leader, but in 2017. And rather than open nominations, it'll be screened by biased judges, loyal to China and their assimilation of Hong Kong. The students are making provisions such as cell phone apps, as well as food and water, and don't leave messes behind on the protesting sights. The war for free speech has no solid negotiations so far, and probably won't for a while.
              The battle has been fought for free speech many times. First in Europe, than the U.S., and now Hong Kong has joined the list. The Chinese have weaseled their way into another revolutionary protest and the military can't solve it. The right to choose our leader is one that is valued highly among all. Corruption is common is the world, and democracies are a step closer to a non-corrupt political world. Hong Kong is making an important event, as defying China even with the pressure against it, and is sure to go down in history.

Museum of The City of New York

             The Museum of The City of New York gave me a new group of activists to see, bikers, and the methods they used seemed a little unconventional. What they did was dress up as clowns, while a "cop car" followed them. When they saw a car parked in the bike lane, they would ride up to it, and fake crashing into the car, while the "cop car" pulled up to the driver, and gave them a "ticket" "This could have been a real ticket" Says the "cop", and the car owners move their car. At first I didn't know what the clown suits were for, but during the discussion, we figured out they were used to attract attention to their cause, to gain support. I also like this method because it seems unconventional and innovative, a clever way of protesting. Also, clowns are supposed to be silly, so they fake things to get laughter, that may be where that dress as clowns idea came from. I wonder why the people decided to do this in the first place, they must have a pretty big reason why. Maybe they got hit, or hit parked cars before.
            Another thing about activists, is the darker side of the job. Being attacked, arrested, even killed. We saw what Martin Luther King jr had to go through, with police setting dogs to attack them, and blasting them with fire truck hoses. This sort of intolerance is still around today. In one peaceful biker march, police arrested several, and impounded the bikes, even using a power saw to cut the locks on the bikes. On another march, police set up orange netting for preemptive arrests, and arrested many of the protestors. What I don't understand fully is why, they weren't damaging property or people, although they were disrupting traffic, but that's a minor offense. Another thing is apparently they were "disturbing the peace", although from what I saw the video, the police were the ones doing that. I think they were overreacting to the protestors, but I don't know why they were.

Reading Response 1984 Max F

              "1984" by George Orwell is about a rebel named Winston in a post World War II world. The time is one of depression, and oppression. The majority of the population is brainwashed, in which the Party and Big Brother are always right, and anything different is wrong. Essentially, it is a never-ending totalitarian government. This book also contains a lot of sex and torture and death, subjects adults think are inappropriate. 1984 is a mature book, meant for older kids. 1984 is inappropriate because of the sex in the book, and the bloodshed in the book.
             A lot of love scenes are in the book are described, and might be negative to the development of a child's mind. The first mention is in the beginning of the book when Winston decides to go "have fun" with a whore. After, he leaves and acts as if nothing had ever happened (Winston is divorced). Things heat up again when Julia falls on purpose, and gives Winston a note saying "I love you", and things start getting more dangerous. They meet at a secret hiding place, and make love to each other. They were making out for some hours before they stopped, and returned to their work place. Ever since then, they were meeting in random places carefully located, met and went to their next hideout, where in each meeting they would have sex. The amount of sex already mentioned is enough for some to ban kids from reading this book. "As soon as they arrived they would sprinkle everything with pepper bought on the black market, tear off their clothes, and make love with sweating bodies, then fall asleep...". This sort of thing is considered by many schools inappropriate, and it would be a bad influence on children. It can give kids the wrong ideas to this topic in the world, and this could end up hurting him in the real world, not to mention damaging his brain early on possibly. The book 1984 is inappropriate for kids because it involves a lot of sex scenes which can damage a child's understanding of the adult world.
            The bloodshed in 1984 I find gruesome. Between the rocket bombs killing hundreds, the Thought Police secretly arresting, killing, or making them an "unperson", and the wars taking hundreds of "war criminals" to be publicly executed, many can see why this book might be banned to kids. "Rocket bombs had been killing larger numbers of people than usual. One fell on a crowded theater in Stepney, burying hundreds. Another fell on a piece of waste which was used as a playground, and several dozen children were blown to bits." Not even children were untouched by the bloodshed, which really gets to parents. Not many books available to kids actually have young children dying, or people dying in general in a book. This book can show that are kids are in danger everywhere, and make them paranoid. If the paranoia gets out of control in the child, he might kill people on suspicion, or commit suicide. Nobody is safe from the murder. A couple of bombs were dropped very close to Winston, destroying a nearby building. Winston is even arrested and brought to the Ministry of Love, where he is beat up, starved, and tortured to insanity. He finally gives in when they make him experience his worst fear in "Room 101", which are rats. He betrays his lover, and is rehabilitated, and set free. They later meet, but the relationship between them is gone. They talk about what happened, about the betrayal and the treatment in prison. Winston was even waiting for them to shoot him later, "the long-hoped-for bullet was entering his brain", and he loves Big Brother now.
           An odd, but somewhat inappropriate thing in the book is simultaneously believing and not believing in something, a process known as doublethink. They use this process to control the people, this is how they make them believe that the Party and Big Brother are always right.
          1984 is a book that in many peoples eyes, is not meant for children to read. Winston's experiences with his lover, The prison known as The Ministry of Love,  This book contains potentially damaging content, that kids should not be able to read under 16.