Ayelen

A picture portraying the symbols and date of the international Peace Day, which has become official and is celebrated yearly by millions. It is September 29. It is celebrated with the hope that one day, there will be peace. And it is this hope, this desire that united our High School International class, containing students from about grade, with those of Elemantary-Mr. Danny's third grade class. Together we have joined, peacefully, to further understand the connsequences of war, to understand how we as humans unethically are only hindering our own existence, to comprehend why peace is desperately needed. The High Schoolers got together according to the projects they wanted to work on. My group and I got together, discussed and organized our thoughts and ideas which would later be presented in a slide show that lasted five minutes. In our group, we had further divisions, Omar and I worked on Truman's desicion on the dropping of the atomic bomb, while other subdivisions dealt with the development and consequences of this horrendous decision. Meanwhile the third grade class read a story called Sadako and the 10000 Paper Cranes. They presented it to us in an oral way. I learnt that Sadako was a Japanese girl who suffered the pains of radiation and therefore contracted leukemia. I can only remember that she liked lentils, that she had siblings and on the anniversary of the dropping of the bomb she was happy because she woke up to the smell of food and was therefore happy. But her mother explained that she should not be happy because her family was suffering. She also had a deep passion for running and won her competitions. As the story continues she gets more exhausted, more sick and weaker, so as hopeful as she was, she decided and undertook the task of creating a thousand paper cranes, faithfully hoping that she will be saved and continue her existenece. Sadly she could not finish because she was dying and did so in the end. Although of her age, she made this story relevant to our theme because we got to hear and see an innocent Japanese's point of view. Instead of heaing about it, we lived a little of what she lived while reading the book, walking all the way with her till her death. we lived everything with her. And reading this book, especially from a child's point of view really impacted us the reader's because we realize the degree in which it harmed them, what they overwent and while reading the book we come to like her as a "person" and watching her die really hurts us and brigns sadness to our hearts- to the point that we thihnk "aww, that is so sad. No one deserves this, especially a child who has nothing to do with the politcal struggles." Why in the first place would a government want to murder women, children, handicapped and older people. If the governments are having problems, why don't they just fight themselves? pic of sadako

MEETING THE 3RD GRADERS:

Meeting the third grade was definately an experience. As I was walking into the room I thought to myslef "Aw, they are so cute!" But when I chose one of the kids, Adam, I was so overwhelmed at his intelligence!!!!! I was never this astonished with a little boy. THe vocabulary he used, his analyzations, his ideas, they always, in some way or another, shocked me. I had always thought that kids at that age, just knew and wanted to play, that they did not yet have the capacity to hear, think, and have a stand. I was impressed, so impressed. When I asked him how we was he went on to say that he was not doing well and that he got into an argument with another boy at his same table adn he did not know how to express his feelings to him or to make him understand his mistakes. All the kids surprised me. What also caught my attention was that they were always paying attention to our presentations, and so attentively. And when Mr. Danny said anything they would obey. Children are definately maturing at a tremendously quick pace. I'm not sure if they are eve enjoying their innocence, their childhood to the fullest, not like I had done. pics with 3rd graders

WHAT I LEARNT AND SHOCKED ME

I must say that the most surprising thing that I learnt about the topic-the Nuclear bomb was the lack of informations about the bomb and its consequences on the dropping of the bomb the American government had. Bulidings were wiped out, massive quantity of people's lives were destroyed. And today, the Japanese still struggle with diseases and pains that radiation brought about. What bothered me was that the American government, especially Truman, had not thoroughly thought over the cons and pros of the bombment of Hiroshima. They knew they were creating a bomb, a dangerous nuclear weapon. They were not well aware of the power that this bomb would have. And as political, economical and sociological leaders their job was to be sure of the decisions they were making, knowing exactly what the results would be. They just acted out of impulse and that really bothers me because acting in this animal-like manner will never bring about goodness but solely brings forth destruction and grief. They were so blinded by a good reputation-that of being the wolrd's power and the only one to possess a nuclear weapon, that they did not philosophize, analyze and really understand what it was that they were doing to the Japanese, the world and themselves. The military though should have intervened,as is their duty to know why they are defending a nation, why they might lose their lives and being able to accept it and defend it. Just because you are a soldier does not mean that you surrender to higher positioned powers-those of a president for example simply because you were told. If the government has made a war decision, both the military and the president should discuss it, think about the benefits and problems and deeply think out the means by which they will be using in combat, always being ethical. This lack of knowing really goes on to show, that we humans do act like beasts and that we are not doing our duty-that of taking care and reaching out to others with the goal of reaching peace. That we put ourselves and desires for power above others in order for us to continue existing but as we continue to do so we only astray farther away for our goal of peace. That is not the case nor the solution. If we seek to watch out for others, for believing in others, and leaving behind our interests we will find peace. When there is peace in us, it will eb reflected upon the world.First we must start with ourselves, it is hopeful and useless to rely on the government. We can make that difference. And it's up to you, How badly do you want peace?

MY QUESTIONS:

1) How did Truman feel years after he dropped the bomb? 2) How do the scientists feel after about not warning or intervening strongly enough? 3) Why would they even think of creating a weapon that could end our human existnce? 4) How long will our hunger for power continue for? 5) How did Japan get back on its feet after? What processes in a rebirth of Hiroshima did they go through? 6) Did American troops, aids, doctors and nurses travel to Hiroshima to help the sick, to help rebuild, to help the economy boost, to provide jobs, to push the government? In what ways did American aid after seeing the mess they created? 7) With this already in our history why are nations still insisting in creating atomic bombs when they have this as an example and foreshadowment of the consequences?

CONCLUSION:

With the help of the third grade class, I realized that age, gender, nationality, religion, backgrounds don't matter. They are not obstacles but ties. Nothing can ever seperate us because Love conquers all. Love is out there, it can't hide, it can't run away, it can't be destroyed it is just sleeping. When we are able to awaken our capacity and will to love, THEN we will have peace. Otherwise it is hopeless. In order for a result to be fruitful, the intentions and work put into it must be of good. The connections we had with the third graders made me conclude that our differences is what unites us, that with these differences peace is more beautiful and stronger. Wouldn't you agree that perhaps the end of the world will be when we have peace? To have peace we must be utilitarianists. It is necessary to put ourselves to a side and look around us, what is REALLY going? We must stop being superficial but look into what really is causing this epidemie and vanish it before it ends with us. If you can't love, then live in fear, live in war and don't see the victory and the joy in peace. Gove in to love. Governments struggle to love, to give in to feelings. They constantly think, not loving, not living. Start by loving your neighbor, it makes all the difference...

QUOTE AND PIC!