h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oct. 4, 2005 (notes)
Nondiscrimination/Affirmative Action policy

The nondiscrimination policy is that no student is to be treated
differently or be denied the same opportunities as his/her peers. This
is in effect for resources students have access to as well as the
practices in classes, making it mandatory to include lessons focusing
on African-American history, the Holocaust and other genocides in the
past. The purpose of the team is to advance understanding and
tolerance of cultural diversity. A designated member of the team is
responsible for coordinating this with respect to Title IX
regulations. The officer in charge leads the team, ascertaining that
the district's affirmative action program complies with the
nondiscrimination policy in the schools.

Sept, 2005 (journal excerpt)
Is man born good, evil, or with a blank slate? Why?
Man is born mostly with a blank slate, although all men also
have a strong innate instinct for self-preservation and survival of
the fittest; whether that is "good" or "evil" depends on the
circumstances and the society which judges them. Men, before anything
else, good or evil or kind of good or evil, is afraid; what for? Well,
for the unknown, for death, for his life, for the loss of his gains
and pleasure, for loss of power because they'll always be someone to
oppose their views, someone more powerful, and someone more
influential.
The taste of fear is a powerful motivation for men's deeds of
evil, and good; what must it be like to kill another to protect your
own life? What could it be like to steal another's food so you'll
survive but they'll die; which one should die? A dictator governs your
country, but you have to worry about feeding your family. How do you
define what is right or wrong? We cannot live in a world without
strive; and we cannot avoid them, they are our history and present and
future. If one does not act according to his/her basic instincts, one
does not have a strong hold on his or her grasp on survival.
But for this one intrinsic, universal characteristic of caring
about self, self, self, humans are influenced to being what they are,
how they think, what they want by their environment, the people around
themespecially in their childhood, their past, their response to the
circumstances around them, and the level of which their priorities are
set. As Skinner realized, all men are conditioned by the worlds'
stimuli and response; either by imitation or early influences or
training for society' s standards.
The bane of man is indifference and ignorance. The best of men
in the world are those who care. It is said that the purpose of man's
existence is to help others, not destroy; it has always come down to
the sacrifices of a few to save many. Man is always achievable of
great good and compassion (some say the same amount of evil and
corruption) and it all comes down to going beyond the preservation of
self, but the preservation for others. But along with vast potential
for good, there is also capacity to do great harm upon our own people,
caused by the ignorance, misunderstanding, and indifference to what
happens.
For example, could someone, i.e. Hitler, been capable of great
evil if no evil had been done upon to make him act so in retaliation
and fight? Could Hitler have been capable of doing such great damage
if others had cared to stop and think to help Germany before it had
gotten to its disastrous state? Before we condemn, we should first
judge our inactions and ourselves. Who is to say our crime of
indifference is not worse than Hitler's heinous crimes? Why is it
acceptable to not do anything to help a dying country; is the harm
done by "we didn't do anything" any less than "we did do this"?
Man is born with a blank slate. Any way of thinking, any
societal norm could be natural to a man if that is the way he or she
is influenced. Some say war is natural to human nature, but that is
also because of society's conditioning and acceptance. If we lived in
a peaceful Indian tribe, we would probably not have wars. As we grow
older, we are blessed with the excellent tools of our brains and our
tongues and eyes and ears and hands; we question ourselves and others
around us, we could observe, research, judge and think for ourselves
to determine our own paths; but first, we must get past the mental
hurtle of caring for not ourselves so much as for others. What is
natural to man is love, no one is incapable of it; with love, it could
save the fate of man.



Currently listening :
What Happens Tomorrow, Pt. 1
By Duran Duran
Release date: By 22 February, 2005

"So he went on to tell all these tools that the old man didn't have, such as tv, ipod, and computers, and when he paused for breath, the old man interjected, yes you're right, we didn't have all these things when we were children, but we invented them so you can enjoy them. What would you do for this world?"

I couldn't resist returning the favour after Jas read my xanga to read her entry and last night's amazed me. She thanked everybody, from Chelsea to Mr. Halloran, with so much love and depth that her eulogy moved me and I think that no graduation could have been worded so perfectly as Jas's.

However a few minor points she missed in hers, I could add on because it touched me as much as anything she might have typed. The speaker our physics teacher called us both resilient, when we have been knocked down, will come right back up with more passion.

A peculiar thing struck me as I read the yearbook last night. Mutual friends and classmates always go in alphabetical order: Jasmine and Lily, while teachers write: Lily and Jasmine. School really doesn't tech us to be better people, but it gives us equal opportunities to be. I've been a good student, but rather unremarkable friend, as I always give up chances to study, or to read by myself because I couldn't be bothered. In my loneliness I have mistaken wants for needs, when really all I need were these people who showed me themselves.

Mrs. Matlack, was she stunning in her message for us. I think I will always treasure her Jane Austen quotes. I miss them already, and we will all keep in touch even as we move on.

All this time I've been struggling with myself to define myself. But it will make less of me than I am. I love how I'm finding out new things, and the connections that I make, which would make sense one minute, and be void of any meaning the next. This journey I have is long, but gratifying. All I am I have in myself, and I cannot express these enough except that you, my friends and teachers have been with me, and in you I find the person I am now.

As for my dearest Jasmine, oh you've shared everything with me, all these marvelous days and nights of laughter intermingled with tears. We may have disagreed vehemently on many issues, felt the same sentiments on others, but boy - have we lived, read, played and gotten to know one another not even the closest friends do. You have put up with the mess in our room that is mostly in my mind, and I have followed, then learned to be free as shown, in thinking, in action, in to lose that panicky confusion I had a shadow of me the feeling of helplessness vanishes when you are with me. I trust you completely, and I will always love you no matter what.

Changes will be inevitable. There may be fights, though we have not fought so much as to cover up the all-pervasive forgiveness, there will be confusion even though we're always in the clear enough of to know we can rediscover ourselves over and over once again. How fearful it will be, and simultaneously exciting!

How come I've been all gloom and doom of late? The world is beautiful, and everything shines with more beauty! Sure there are going to be challenges, but that's the love of solving for me. As Jas would say, "Watch out, world" because we're here!

The first place I intend to be is where my grandparents are. After so long we have been parted, but we will help them even as they helped us when we needed that protection (and in some ways we still need it) to grow even more brilliant, though it can never repay them for their roles in our lives, I want to give them all of me, the best of me if I can, and now I know I can.

Chelsea's coming over in half-hour. I should go.

Dec. 11, 2005
As for the clemency hearing I would not care to wait but I guess we
all have to do a bit of waiting as he decision whether to grant him
one or not will be revealed to the world on Monday, perhaps the
Governor himself does not know his mind yet or perhaps we're just
trying to stall the demonstrations and seem like we're doing something
for publicity's sake.

Narnia should be awesome because they're holding many people's
childhoods in their production

The London bombing was a lesson for all. I cannot help admiring some
of the spirited response you showed there in the midst of the terror
yet somehow that makes me feel as if America is paralyzed in our
tolerance of every view, desperate to make everybody happy and in the
process affronting many. The fall of our less than united nation will
come from within as we don't make up our minds anymore and a few
appointed men get to make choices in their interpretation of justice
that most of us are no longer aware of because we're so caught up on
being tolerable or patriotically true to the meaning of America, which
dwindles as we bicker unless we are attacked first by an external
force and no longer do I think there can be any force that is willing
to show itself except within us

Perhaps why we imprison so many is because we seek to punish the
prisoners by raising bars and walling ourselves off from the rabble no
realizing that our taxes could be employed to cure the root of the
problem not try to isolate the symptoms because now people are
complaining about overcrowded jails and not getting to the solution;
you cannot keep surrounding yourselves by building more prison bars
and walls

It's almost as if we'd rather punish than rehabilitate our people

Funny how that's mentioned, we went to the maximum security prison
Rahway and the lifers there explained their thoughts on crime and well
that they should be doing a great deal of thinking as they served
their (deserved?) sentences

Some thought it was the parents working and others were talking about
the cycle of poverty

But most of the prisoners pointed out the attitude of no return, this
blind fear of not wanting to associate with those who have chosen
wrongly

To me, the death penalty remains the symbol of that avoidance of
what's logic. A German friend asked me "Just theoretically if you
could, would you allow Stalin, Hitler and people like Nero to live in
prison for the rest of their lives or would you sentence them to
death?" Yes, hypothetically I would let them live with their
consciences. Give the people a chance to either wrap their brains
around what they've done and feel remorse, or simply live as a madman;
but who are we to judge what is just? We cannot. Of course if they
touched my family I might feel differently from impassiveness but I
doubt it. I won't condemn them to death because it makes a martyr
nobody rises up and rallies to an old decrepit man but I reckon their
parties will grow to see the "enemy" who is me as brutal beasts in
it's either them or us mentality and while the kind of people that
would flock to these aforementioned fanatics are dubious anyway at
least they'll see that mercy given

Anywho, moving back to Capital Punishment, it's not like we're going
to release them I think lost of trust that they can govern themselves,
the loss of personal freedom is enough to punish them. I don't like
how our entire penal system is geared toward the punishment and they
deserve this mindset but I am repeating myself

I think I understand and respect the people who advocate the death
penalty because contrary to placing too little value on human life,
they value it so much that they are punishing others with what they
think is most important, which is to live. It's more cruel to make the
really twisted ones to live with what they've done thinking about
their lives than dying, which is simple and the easy way out, almost

On the other hand, capital punishment is incredibly expensive and the
appeals process takes years of raising hope and dashing it. Ironically
if somebody is on Death Row he or she cannot die until their appointed
hour. If the state cannot stop them from being killed in a inmate
fight or something the State is sued for irresponsibility because the
prisoner had died before Justice is served

Stanley Tookie William's possible fate of going to the gas chamber on
the 13th if we all remain silent (thought clemency looks very slim)
remind me of the Holocaust

I too become cynical. Maybe I just don't approve that Society is
making this decision. There's too much emotion, like fear and disgust
that clouds us when we say by our devised standards "thus and thus
should die" we are not all knowing, and our standards are not knowing
either again who are we to make the decision to kill?

Sometimes while studying the genocides in Issues of Conscience,
particular the Holocaust I wonder if the Jews weren't better off for
the Holocaust

But here, I am conscious of myself rambling.

Late night chat with my roommate Ingo! So provoking about the gulags I saved this
as my fav.
04:10:17 [zemiocro] Do you think people that committed these horrid
crimes in Nazi Germany would have ever stopped if they had not been
forced to stop?
04:10:46 [Lily] Oh Ingo, yes I do.
04:11:37 [Lily] Just look at the rebellions, the White Rose was at the
University of Munich, the Warsaw ghetto uprising all the kind ppl of
the Kindertransport helping out
04:11:56 [Lily] Denmark an entire nation against Nazi rule, defiant and united
04:12:22 [Lily] There is good in mankind exposed through persecution,
have you ever heard of Le Chambon?
04:12:36 [Lily] It's an village in southern France
04:13:03 [zemiocro] But how did that end? The white rose leaders were
executed. Warsaw ghetto slaughtered
04:13:05 [Lily] Poor farming community, hid five thousand Jewish
refugees in four years
04:13:35 [Lily] It inspired people! The six pamphlets were distributed
04:14:25 [zemiocro] brb
04:14:34 [Lily] though the seventh was never published, it talks about
the future of Germany. People in the past weren't stupid. They knew
what's going on, and they don't like it. It's just that in the
beginning they were too engrossed in themselves and living.
04:14:57 [Lily] Warsaw ghetto was unexpected. Led to the Poles
rebelling as well.
04:16:39 [Lily] Now about Le Chambon I want to state that it's strange
that it was Christian fundamentalists who were the avid rescuers of
the needy, the Jewish and they respected their distinct faiths while
the so called big churches stepped aside because they too were
persecuted
04:18:14 [Lily] yet many Christian stood up for a higher order an the
rules conjured by men, Corrie ten Boom and her family in the Dutch
underground network in Holland, and german gentile families like these
who helped Anne Frank
04:18:49 [Lily] When asked why they risked their own lives and family,
they said "I don't know. It just happened to be the right thing to
do."
04:19:04 [Lily] I love that integrity, Ingo. I really do.
04:21:11 [zemiocro] But Lily these examples are teardrops in the ocean
of pain that was only stopped by the allies marching in
04:22:31 [Lily] *scoff* the allies
04:22:57 [Lily] Maybe I'm being a bloody ungrateful brat but I don't think so
04:23:43 [Lily] It's the spirit for what you believe in; the allies
were fighting abstractly for ideals that their leaders declared when
they said war
04:24:14 [Lily] Nobody knows war unless they themselves are invaded
then you are personally involved then you have something worth dying
for
04:24:49 [Lily] By infringing on the rights of one, you do so on
everybody's but you try and tell the Americans of 1939 that
04:25:35 [Lily] Nobody in the influential positions cared about the
Jews. The Evian conference was a publicity stunt and did squat
04:26:29 [zemiocro] I agree with you on that, Lily, prisons only
"cure" the symptoms but not the true disease
04:26:42 [Lily] Ask Wagner and Rogers the two senators who wanted to
lower the quotas how their reasonable proposal was taken by the
depression struck paranoid assembly
04:26:43 [zemiocro] And you are right that no one cared about the Jews
04:27:02 [Lily] So why the heck do we pretend we're ah so righteous?
04:27:19 [Lily] Jews have been persecuted for ages, centuries
04:27:29 [zemiocro] And I am not saying the allies are much better
then Nazi Germany was
04:28:23 [zemiocro] In fact US soldiers ended racism in Germany, but
colored people were still less then equal for a long time in the US
04:28:31 [Lily] The Nazis didn't start anti-Semitism, they put a
scientific spin on that the Jews are subhuman thanks to ironically a
man by the surname of Rosenburg but still, it's always been isolated
in ghettos of fear
04:29:41 [Lily] *hug* I agree; we only better ourselves internally and
I think that humans are the only people (lol) who have to help
themselves not wait for superiors because there are none
04:29:45 [zemiocro] What I am saying Lily is, the ideological idea of
an external power coming to Germany and ending what was going on, was
right
04:30:02 [Lily] Meh
04:30:26 [zemiocro] And in that respect I think it is the same with
people and nations
04:30:58 [zemiocro] If a person or a nation goes to far astray the
community has to step in and stop them from harming themselves and
others further
04:31:05 [Lily] I think that the Jews may be better off because of the
Holocaust. Ingo, is this cruel of me to think so?
04:31:53 [zemiocro] This is a tricky subject you are addressing...
certainly they have understood to put the subject up when they needed
to
04:32:08 [Lily] Yet the US is paralyzed for a reason. Our people
cannot make up their minds. We tolerate all viewpoints we want to
please everybody and in the end nobody is pleased.
04:32:37 [zemiocro] Funny that you say that, that is what could be
said about Germany too
04:33:07 [Lily] I know. We'll not mention it again, except that
history is surprising, doubly so to those who love it.
04:33:43 [Lily] It's too great a blame on Germany. I can understand
how it all escalated
04:34:11 [zemiocro] There is one thing that makes me sad you know
04:34:31 [Lily] It's simple to come up with solutions when one is
distant. If I had a family though I cannot risk them to help the
people I want to.
04:34:52 [zemiocro] And that it is that it is sometimes being portrays
as being a purely German phenomenon.
04:35:21 [Lily] I love my family too much. If it was just myself I
still do not know what I might have done, but I know that I will want
to help do what I think is fair.
04:35:26 [Lily] It's not.
04:35:46 [zemiocro] What happened should have been a lesson to all
mankind. But portraying it as such makes it seem as if the lesson was
not learned.
04:36:27 [zemiocro] I mean, did you know that the turks killed a
million Armenians in WW1?
04:36:32 [Lily] Why did France collaborate so quickly with Nazi
Germany after the armistice if it was solely the Germans? Why had the
rest of the world closed their havens to the poor, the needy, and the
hunted if they were indeed better?
04:37:09 [Lily] The Armenian genocide - did you know that Hitler
learned from that?
04:37:16 [zemiocro] What about the million that died in Cambodia(?)
because of political ideologies? And no one cared!
04:37:41 [zemiocro] Did he? No I did not know that
04:38:38 [zemiocro] It is irritating that no one talks about the
russian gulacs where more russians died then hitler killed in battle
04:39:29 [Lily] He tapped into the apathy of the world. At first it
was purely for a Judenrien (?) yet the Evian conference was a boost
for FDR popularity and a go green light for Hitler to commence the
Final Solution. At first he wanted only war, all the while lying to
his people (though he wasn't born a German).
04:40:47 [Lily] It's irritating about Dresdan where the Americans
knowingly bombed US POWs, how would it feel to return home knowing
your own county decided to sacrifice you and that you only survived
because you were placed in a meat locker in a slaughter house?
04:41:01 [Lily] The Russian gulacs? What is that?
04:41:19 [Lily] *that
04:41:34 [Lily] Sorry my spelling's gone downhill
04:43:14 [zemiocro] Oh, mine is not much better... I meant Gulag...
the Russian concentration camps
04:43:17 [Lily] You know what's really irking? All the documentary all
the preserved evidence all the passed down genetic knowledge from
perhaps unethical medical experiments; and here are some who will deny
that the genocides, particularly the Holocaust ever happened, that it
was all a conspiracy, these revision
04:44:17 [Lily] revisionists really really get on my case when I try
to explain things, I'm sorry I took on a lecturing tone, lol my poor
pupils that I tutor US History have to listen to me twice a week
04:45:23 [Lily] and one of my mates Olie complains that I sometimes
treat people as if they're three. I apologize it's just that sometimes
I get carried away and I want to clarify so there's a minimum of
misunderstandings
04:45:46 [Lily] I'll shut up now Tell me about the Russian Gulag
04:46:55 [Lily] Oh but have you ever watched the Killing Fields? It's
about the political camps in Cambodia at the time. Very graphic though
vivid.
04:46:56 [zemiocro] lol... I am just trying to find proper sources
04:47:44 [zemiocro] There is a lot of talk and sometimes it is hard to
know what is fact and what fiction
04:47:46 [Lily] lol... are you at work? I think I'll leave you be
before I start being the scary person that I find I am.
04:48:26 [Lily] *nod* yes, when I first read Kurt Vonnegut's
Slaughterhouse five I took out a book on Dresdan just so I get some
facts too
04:49:25 [Lily] Movies perk my interest so I read up I'm going to read
the Age of Innocence lol it's so corny but I'm very fond of the movie
04:50:12 [Lily] hehe, sorry for ranting *scrabble/scrounge for a light topic*
04:50:26 [Lily] how are you faring?
04:52:12 [zemiocro] sorry phone
04:53:06 [zemiocro] this site is quoting all kind of numbers:
http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm
04:53:13 [Lily] You know it's funny how a lot of my peers blame the
Germans for WWII but the ones who suffered the most besides the Jews
would be the Germans. Nobody wanted to kill or to be killed. And by
making the war debts and then leaving a weak republic we've actually
formed this WWII, which is why I reckon
04:53:21 [Lily] numbers? *goes*
04:53:28 [zemiocro] such as: Davies, Norman (Europe A History, 1998:
c. 50 million killed 1924-53, excluding WW2 war losses. This would
divide (more or less) into 33M pre-war and 17M after 1939.
04:53:46 [Lily] lol you hear five million and there's no way to comprehend
04:54:06 [Lily] I think the human capacity to imagine numbers is only
up to five hundred
04:54:19 [Lily] after that it's statistics, ppl become numbers
04:54:40 [zemiocro] Rummel, 1990: 61,911,000 democides in the USSR
1917-87, of which 51,755,000 occurred during the Stalin years. This
divides up into:
04:54:59 [Lily] I'd much rather present personal stories, even if it's
just one person than impress with overwhelming numbers
04:55:24 [Lily] oh good god, the dissenting parties all were
suppressed, either scared off or killed?
04:55:40 [Lily] then there was the great reform of the year plans in Russia, ugh
04:56:17 [Lily] of course, the depression did not help matters
04:56:48 [Lily] *envision hungry peasants dying even as the leaders
promised glory*
04:58:28 [zemiocro] It was worse then that lily
04:58:35 [Lily] Ingo when I think about how many people wanted the
death penalty I wonder about the nature of man. Can it be that we are
unable to govern ourselves with reason as Locke thought, and must have
authority from a tyrant?
04:58:44 [zemiocro] Russia suffered great purges
04:59:01 [Lily] Probably I'm not too knowledgeable about the Russians
04:59:19 [zemiocro] Stalin was paranoid
04:59:19 [Lily] Purges as in pograms?
04:59:41 [Lily] Yes he would be *mutter darkly/cynically*
04:59:58 [Lily] You mean he cleansed and turned on his own party?
05:01:31 [Lily] lol to clarify Locke thought man is all sentient
beings with reason, the tyrant I was referring to would be described
in The Prince (which I began but never finished for odd reasons), and
to take it a step further can we assume that Locke's reason is
conscience?
05:02:37 [Lily] But wait, explain to me your views about Russia
05:03:12 [Lily] Your site... all these numbers mean little expect that
Europe was devastated for generations by this conflict
05:03:31 [Lily] *except
05:04:22 [zemiocro] Sorry, phone again
05:04:45 [zemiocro] Stalin did not just clean his political party
05:04:54 [Lily] lol guess what I bought at a sale the other day? A
modern history of europe. I thought it was a bit worn but got the book
anyway then at home looked at the publishing date and it was 1910 or
soemthing *chuckle*
05:05:17 [zemiocro] There were political officers that went through
all of Russia searching for those opposing his idealism
05:05:44 [zemiocro] Each area was assigned numbers of people they had
to find each month guilty of thinking wrong
05:05:45 [zemiocro] g
05:05:59 [Lily] so the dissenting parties had no voice
05:06:11 [zemiocro] it was said: You have to find this month 500
people to turn in
05:06:33 [zemiocro] but the political officers never just turned in
500. They "found" 600, 700,
05:06:39 [Lily] Oh dear. This makes the red scares of US look like a party
05:06:52 [zemiocro] if they only found 500, it could look as if they
lacked enthusiasm
05:07:02 [Lily] I'm not trying to poke fun. I'm stunned.
05:07:21 [Lily] were the political officers turned in too?
05:08:21 [Lily] That's cruel. Under these circumstances, where is the
blame? Do these officers deserve death for turning in innocent people
because they also wanted to live? Ah me, what a complex tangle of the
will for survival.