You Know Who You Are - Poem

You know who you are

You are there to protect, but instead incriminate.

You are there to guide,  but instead let us fall.

You are there to help, but instead scream and yell

You are there to love, but instead you show animosity

You are there to give, but instead you take

You are there to give her away, but instead you repudiate

You are there to be sweet and kind, but instead you are a cruel monster

You know who you are

This is a poem I wrote while feeling hurt. I have edited it a bit to make it sound a little better. After I wrote this, those hurt feelings went away. I found out more here then when I used to write in journals that words are powerful. Keeping them locked away in your head and in your heart eventually lead to no where good. When I wrote this it transferred my feelings out of my heart and head on to this paper. Now this paper holds my feelings until it no longer can. 
Tiffany D Eng 112-020

Is there satanic symbolism in music?

If you search YouTube for Illuminati and its relation to the music industry, you will find a treasure chest of information. Does the Illuminati really exist? Do they have a hand in the music industry and converting famous people into devil worship? What you see in these videos are scary and shocking. It will have you wondering. I personally think that a lot of individuals read to much into the whole thing, but watching videos like the one above makes me rethink it just a bit. What do you think?

"The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" -- some things to consider

"To light a candle casts a shadow." -- Ursula K. LeGuin

If you are thinking about writing your final essay about Ursula LeGuin's short story, "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas," I strongly encourage you to do some extra reading. Here are some timely, relevant, and helpful sites:

This essay compares the people of the fictional town of Omelas to the people who attend or work at or support Penn State University. The people of Happy Valley may -- or may not -- turn out to be very Omelas-like. What do you think? Truth in advertising: one of my best friends in the world has been a professor at Penn State for twenty years, and he is about to "walk away . . ."

 And here is a blog post written by a young man from Ireland. This essay convicts all of us. His argument is that in one way or another we all live in Omelas -- and we have not walked away.

UPDATE (12/06/2012):  Here is a link to a video clip from ABC News, which discusses a raid on a sweatshop in India.

ANOTHER UPDATE (5/1/2013):  Here is a link to a cool Tumblr page that might lead you to some thought-provoking questions.

ONE MORE UPDATE: (5/10/2019): You can find other journalists and cultural observers who have compared Omelas and its inhabitants to real-world situations. Here is one by David Brooks, published in New York Times in 2015. And here is one by one by Vandana Singh, written in 2018. Both are quite thought-provoking, and might help you organize your thoughts as you write about this short story.

There's more out there: timely writing about the state of the world RIGHT NOW, that uses this short story as a way of framing a particular argument. So my challenge to you is -- find it. Think about it. Respond to it. And then write about it. This is the true point of literature.

And dudes: Cite your sources!

Posted by Liz Holmes