Memoirs and wHat not.

I read A Day to Remember, by Ivory B., age twelve, Illinois.  I thought all of the elements of story telling and memoir writing were their except for character development, but due to the short timeframe of the story character development would have a very minor role.  I think that besides the timeframe this was a very good template for a story, but the content seemed awful, even if written by a twelve year old.  The writing is alright as far as grammar and flow go, but everything that happens is really uninteresting.  The story was also missing a rich, descriptive vocabulary, but that is understandable on grounds that the writer is a twelve year old.  There was a lack of reflection, which I think has to do with the content.  The nature of this content doesn't have implications whether you ride the water slide or not.  There wasn't major reflection in any way.  I don't think there was a significant message in the story.  As far as story telling elements went, there was a show of voice and tone, although morals couldn't be seen because of the plot.  There is a surprising amount of imagery, for being written by a twelve year old.  The story lacked dialogue, but again, due to the content of the story dialogue wouldn't give any insight to the conflict, which is not present, in the story.  All in all, I think this is a good template, with the exception of timeframe, dialogue, and descriptive language for a good memoir.  This brought to my attention that a memoir has much more meaning if there is a sort of conflict in the story, if there is no conflict, then there is no significance to the story, nothing is bettered, nothing is worsened, everything simply doesn't matter past its literal meaning, which is bad for a story.

The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was really a completely political war.  It was a proxy war between the United States and Russia.  Russia and the United States fought many proxy wars so as to have beacons of communism and capitalism all around the world.  It began when  communist North Vietnam attacked South Vietnam.  The North Koreans saw this as a colonial war, fighting away the French who were aided by the United States and later South Vietnam.  The war started in 1955 and ended in 1975 with the fall of Saigon to the Vietnam People's Army.  The war greatly affected Laos and Cambodia as well, leaving up to 500,000 people dead.  Estimates of Vietnamese casualties vary from under 1 million to above 3 million.  It was opposed by a very large proportion of the population on grounds that it was seen as an imperialist or colonial war, and that the United States's involvement in the war was greatening tensions in the region and leading to more bloodshed.  The United States involvement in the war officially ended in 1973, although fighting lasted until 1975, though all United States combat troops had been home for 2 years.  I think that this was one of the most useless wars for America to have gotten involved with.  It was entered for political reasons such as fighting communism, but the political benefit was lost relatively early on in the war.  The war was opposed from 1962 and the United States then tripled the number of troops in Vietnam.  This war was also a failure in protecting the world from the threat of communism, for the United States left the war before it was over and allowed the communist North Vietnam to take over South Vietnam.  This war was very unsuccessful, hurt America, and made America look like a fool, for we failed to accomplish anything but prolonging the conflict.

http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War

Let America Be America Again

The poem discusses the oppressed and the free of America and how really all are one, and how most people will go through different lives all in one life, the poem singles out how every race, even white people are weak, but later tells us of the dreamers of the American Dream, who, though still working and poor, are truly free, for they can, in time, do anything.  The poem then assesses the current situation, which nationally is very bad, for there is much disregard of the law and a lack of legitimate upward mobility, but it then reinstates hope that we will regain the American Dream.  I don't agree with this assessment of the American Dream in several ways.  I believe a limited form of the American Dream can be achieved, and that is of reasonable financial security, but happiness is never a guarantee, and the United States is becoming less of the hegemon it once was in the global scale, so that in itself hurts much of the American Dream, for no longer can Americans have that sense of national pride as being the best, for once they are no longer the hegemon they cannot even boast culture for the United States is so new.  The only thing the Unites States has is diversity, so the interpretation of the American Dream must change.  Also, I believe in complete relaxation of the government, as an agent solely to keep the peace, so I think that for us to have the highest potential for upward mobility, we must all be able to manipulate markets and commodities in an almost backstabbing way.  I think that gives the fairest chance to everybody, because then everybody has the chance to cheat, in a way that requires  skill.  I'm ranting, I believe in Laizzes-faire economics, and I think the American Dream as far as happiness is concerned isn't real, but exists only to have people work for something.