My Life on Earth Project
My life on Earth Personal Narrative Essay(Honors)
Personal Connection Essay
Peace
Where do you draw the line between peace and whatever you think the opposite may be? Because I cannot hold a pencil up to the sky and draw a line between two abstract ideas. The first peace is easy to describe, it is a feeling, to some it may mean law and order and to some it means calmness, whatever the context peace brings comfort. The second, the opposite of peace, is twisted, there is not only one opposite, it is war, it is noise, it is conflict and it is busy. The choice seems obvious: choose peace. This decision comes at a cost, say, getting what you want, enacting change, or choosing a day in a nighttime haze,nor is it always the simplest way.
We protest the things that we can see. Bringing awareness to climate change, race inequality, government and so much more we must fix in this world. When I was 12 I walked with so many others through the streets of our town, and marched with the rest of our country to oppose the election of Donald trump. I remember standing on top of the Buckley park sign chanting, with my brother, mother, friends, and town thinking this will make the papers, this will make a change, and this will re-establish the peace that our government had taken and replaced with fear. But I was 12 and I still believed in magic, myself, and altruism. If hundreds of thousands of people, thousands of signs, and hundreds of chants cannot change the course of our country what will?
We do the same walk, and talk for the races and sexes of our country, and same for the mistreatment of our planet and I do not see change. I see awareness and I see drive in the people who participate and their alliances. I see movement but it is not forward, and I see plans but I do not see action, I see the stillness that peace resides in. What if peace is the very thing keeping us from peace. You, me, America and the world are comfortable.
I use anger to make people hear me but it takes conversation to have them understand. We are all small scales of riot and protest, violence, and peace. This is where all great action starts within one's own mind and heart. Dealing with my own heart and mind has been a difficult thing dealing with the riots I insight within myself and the ones I start with the people I love has taught me more about the meaning of peace then a poet or activist could. It has taught me that things must break for them to be rebuilt and I have never broken something with “please” and “thankyou”, I have with “ fuck you” and “fuck you again”. So to the people who scream and smash, break and bash I understand and I wish it didn't have to be this way, but sometimes it does.
Believe it when I scream I cry, it is unsettling to cause violence and it is against everything that a red hearted person should believe. Once we see war, we focus on freedom. Freedom from the way things are and the way they continue to be. I wish I could say “stop” the things that make America rot. But it's in times when we fight that we get what we want. So I stand in a place not between right or left, good or evil, riot or protest,love and hate but surrounded by people that just cannot wait.
Where do you draw the line between peace and whatever you think the opposite may be? Because I cannot hold a pencil up to the sky and draw a line between two abstract ideas. The first peace is easy to describe, it is a feeling, to some it may mean law and order and to some it means calmness, whatever the context peace brings comfort. The second, the opposite of peace, is twisted, there is not only one opposite, it is war, it is noise, it is conflict and it is busy. The choice seems obvious: choose peace. This decision comes at a cost, say, getting what you want, enacting change, or choosing a day in a nighttime haze,nor is it always the simplest way.
We protest the things that we can see. Bringing awareness to climate change, race inequality, government and so much more we must fix in this world. When I was 12 I walked with so many others through the streets of our town, and marched with the rest of our country to oppose the election of Donald trump. I remember standing on top of the Buckley park sign chanting, with my brother, mother, friends, and town thinking this will make the papers, this will make a change, and this will re-establish the peace that our government had taken and replaced with fear. But I was 12 and I still believed in magic, myself, and altruism. If hundreds of thousands of people, thousands of signs, and hundreds of chants cannot change the course of our country what will?
We do the same walk, and talk for the races and sexes of our country, and same for the mistreatment of our planet and I do not see change. I see awareness and I see drive in the people who participate and their alliances. I see movement but it is not forward, and I see plans but I do not see action, I see the stillness that peace resides in. What if peace is the very thing keeping us from peace. You, me, America and the world are comfortable.
I use anger to make people hear me but it takes conversation to have them understand. We are all small scales of riot and protest, violence, and peace. This is where all great action starts within one's own mind and heart. Dealing with my own heart and mind has been a difficult thing dealing with the riots I insight within myself and the ones I start with the people I love has taught me more about the meaning of peace then a poet or activist could. It has taught me that things must break for them to be rebuilt and I have never broken something with “please” and “thankyou”, I have with “ fuck you” and “fuck you again”. So to the people who scream and smash, break and bash I understand and I wish it didn't have to be this way, but sometimes it does.
Believe it when I scream I cry, it is unsettling to cause violence and it is against everything that a red hearted person should believe. Once we see war, we focus on freedom. Freedom from the way things are and the way they continue to be. I wish I could say “stop” the things that make America rot. But it's in times when we fight that we get what we want. So I stand in a place not between right or left, good or evil, riot or protest,love and hate but surrounded by people that just cannot wait.
Rhetorical and Ideology Discourse Project
Rogerian Rhetoric
Seeds of Change
Cassidy Novak
Let's plant a tree for every person that believes in a better world
Many scratchy voices, dragging feet, and limp arms
hard at work for a chance at a better world
Many broken windows, burning buildings, and pain to be seen
this is war for a better world
With all this space we could grow an orchard
My name is peace
and I have already planted my seed
I want a tall tree full of colorful birds and opportunities
Inspired by a painting of a summered willow
For its flowing soul, and 1000 branches to hold
And I’ll sit from my window admiring it in the breeze
Each willowy sinewy branch …. I watch observe through the glass
My name is riot
I was born to fear
I am so scared that our world is too broken to heal
the people too corrupt to feel,
and the ground too dry
to plant a tiny little seed
So I water the ground with blood
dig a hole with a crowbar
and force the seed to take root
The seeds do not take to the ground that is fake
Paved by the people who pretend to save us
But upon closer inspection we find
They actually enslave us
They are shameless
leaking poison in the water
shading our seeds with pillsy doctors
Games and nonsense
The lying is often
And it's not stopping
I will speak for my sprout as it has no voice of its own
stop the pollution,
stop the delusion,
stop the violence and the riots,
the manipulation and their lying faces”
I will fight for my sprout
as it cannot fight for itself
Break down the system
so it can be rebuilt,
gain attention from staged rejection,
more noise, more voice,
more smashing more crashing
Nobody can see the sprouting willow tree
through thick smoke and fiery blaze
All they can see is destruction
not knowing its purpose and function
The willow is dying from smoke,
it chokes our needs
and halts our pleads
Peace cannot prevail behind a veil
of shattered glass,
a tree cannot grow on a battlefield
I plant where i am told
So it will grow where you want it to grow
Be as tall as you'd like
As green as you'd like
As alive as you'd like
There is no change in our world
With a tree on government soil
Then where can we go to plant our orchard
Where it will not become old and fried
from trying to be something it’s not
its whole rule-following life
You cannot plant a seed in the street,
under peoples marching feet
I went on a walk one late afternoon
With my dog called Poet and my music on
I walked all the way to the top of a very tall mountain
where i could see bellow me all of the people
with missguided passion
moving along in their everyday habits
I saw the smoke from the destruction
I saw the signs from mothers and husbands
And i saw the people with power
up in their tower
sipping their double shot espresso
Watching the chaos as it turns into shadows
I sit on a rock
My fingers in the untouched dirt
Close to the sun, no sign of shade
Just me, my dog, and a little seed
I found a place free from the manipulation,
the pain, and the unchanging “change”
There is a place where things can change
Not all of us see it until our own special days
A tree can only grow in a place with no cage
No shade
No 100 people parades
No fire
No fear
only a place of hope
and no one near
Poet Statement:
This is a poem about change. It takes in consideration people who believe that protest changes things to people that believe riot is the answer to change. The first stanza acts as an overview highlighting the difference between protest and riot. The second stanza is a reference to peaceful protest, how it comes from inspiration towards a topic, oppositely the third stanza refers to riot which stems from fear and emphasizes that fear does not create change in the ways we expect it to. I included imagery that we associate with rioting. The fourth stanza clarifies what is hindering change from both methods. I am vague during this part because it is a broad topic that is also controversial. I mean it in a way that we are being oppressed as a country and even as the world by those in power and in government. I also bring in 2 specific examples of how we need to change and these are also very controversial but them being fluoride in our water, and big pharma and their negative connotations. The fifth and sixth stanzas clarify the metaphor that the seeds represent change, the fifth is about how protesters change which is through voice, and the sixth which is the rioter's perspective which is fighting for change. The seventh talks about how nothing can change when it is within that which you want to change parameters. An example of this would be the government if you want to change something within it you cannot do that by following their rules, this is focused on the bias of a rioter but is true no matter what side you agree with. The sentence that makes up stanza eight is showing how protesters agree with the statements in stanza seven, even though it is a different perspective it explains that change cannot happen when it is orchestrated under government terms. This also explains the bias that our government is creating protests and even riots, perhaps even against the government itself just to create chaos. The rest of the poem combines a personal story with the rest of the world. The message I try to convey is that if you can get away from the distractions of protest, and riots, and government and see it for what it is you will realize change comes from unconforming methods, not playing into the manipulation game, that getting away and not participating in the things that need to change is the best answer. To dive deeper into this than my poem was able I must explain the unconforming method. At its root, it is the matter between division and unity. In a divided country such as ours, it is hard to change anything because of the plethora of opinions. First, we must all realize how we are being manipulated. This will give us our first wake-up call to unity. Once we all know that our government is not all so altruistic is when we will begin to rely on each other, power in numbers, and unity to break free from the manipulation. The top of the mountain in the poem is this state of being, it is seeing the manipulation and realizing that the people must not only fight the rules or protest against the rules that they disagree with but not conform to or obey them at all, that is why the willow can grow at the top of the mountain, or how change can happen once we realize the madness.
Cassidy Novak
Let's plant a tree for every person that believes in a better world
Many scratchy voices, dragging feet, and limp arms
hard at work for a chance at a better world
Many broken windows, burning buildings, and pain to be seen
this is war for a better world
With all this space we could grow an orchard
My name is peace
and I have already planted my seed
I want a tall tree full of colorful birds and opportunities
Inspired by a painting of a summered willow
For its flowing soul, and 1000 branches to hold
And I’ll sit from my window admiring it in the breeze
Each willowy sinewy branch …. I watch observe through the glass
My name is riot
I was born to fear
I am so scared that our world is too broken to heal
the people too corrupt to feel,
and the ground too dry
to plant a tiny little seed
So I water the ground with blood
dig a hole with a crowbar
and force the seed to take root
The seeds do not take to the ground that is fake
Paved by the people who pretend to save us
But upon closer inspection we find
They actually enslave us
They are shameless
leaking poison in the water
shading our seeds with pillsy doctors
Games and nonsense
The lying is often
And it's not stopping
I will speak for my sprout as it has no voice of its own
stop the pollution,
stop the delusion,
stop the violence and the riots,
the manipulation and their lying faces”
I will fight for my sprout
as it cannot fight for itself
Break down the system
so it can be rebuilt,
gain attention from staged rejection,
more noise, more voice,
more smashing more crashing
Nobody can see the sprouting willow tree
through thick smoke and fiery blaze
All they can see is destruction
not knowing its purpose and function
The willow is dying from smoke,
it chokes our needs
and halts our pleads
Peace cannot prevail behind a veil
of shattered glass,
a tree cannot grow on a battlefield
I plant where i am told
So it will grow where you want it to grow
Be as tall as you'd like
As green as you'd like
As alive as you'd like
There is no change in our world
With a tree on government soil
Then where can we go to plant our orchard
Where it will not become old and fried
from trying to be something it’s not
its whole rule-following life
You cannot plant a seed in the street,
under peoples marching feet
I went on a walk one late afternoon
With my dog called Poet and my music on
I walked all the way to the top of a very tall mountain
where i could see bellow me all of the people
with missguided passion
moving along in their everyday habits
I saw the smoke from the destruction
I saw the signs from mothers and husbands
And i saw the people with power
up in their tower
sipping their double shot espresso
Watching the chaos as it turns into shadows
I sit on a rock
My fingers in the untouched dirt
Close to the sun, no sign of shade
Just me, my dog, and a little seed
I found a place free from the manipulation,
the pain, and the unchanging “change”
There is a place where things can change
Not all of us see it until our own special days
A tree can only grow in a place with no cage
No shade
No 100 people parades
No fire
No fear
only a place of hope
and no one near
Poet Statement:
This is a poem about change. It takes in consideration people who believe that protest changes things to people that believe riot is the answer to change. The first stanza acts as an overview highlighting the difference between protest and riot. The second stanza is a reference to peaceful protest, how it comes from inspiration towards a topic, oppositely the third stanza refers to riot which stems from fear and emphasizes that fear does not create change in the ways we expect it to. I included imagery that we associate with rioting. The fourth stanza clarifies what is hindering change from both methods. I am vague during this part because it is a broad topic that is also controversial. I mean it in a way that we are being oppressed as a country and even as the world by those in power and in government. I also bring in 2 specific examples of how we need to change and these are also very controversial but them being fluoride in our water, and big pharma and their negative connotations. The fifth and sixth stanzas clarify the metaphor that the seeds represent change, the fifth is about how protesters change which is through voice, and the sixth which is the rioter's perspective which is fighting for change. The seventh talks about how nothing can change when it is within that which you want to change parameters. An example of this would be the government if you want to change something within it you cannot do that by following their rules, this is focused on the bias of a rioter but is true no matter what side you agree with. The sentence that makes up stanza eight is showing how protesters agree with the statements in stanza seven, even though it is a different perspective it explains that change cannot happen when it is orchestrated under government terms. This also explains the bias that our government is creating protests and even riots, perhaps even against the government itself just to create chaos. The rest of the poem combines a personal story with the rest of the world. The message I try to convey is that if you can get away from the distractions of protest, and riots, and government and see it for what it is you will realize change comes from unconforming methods, not playing into the manipulation game, that getting away and not participating in the things that need to change is the best answer. To dive deeper into this than my poem was able I must explain the unconforming method. At its root, it is the matter between division and unity. In a divided country such as ours, it is hard to change anything because of the plethora of opinions. First, we must all realize how we are being manipulated. This will give us our first wake-up call to unity. Once we all know that our government is not all so altruistic is when we will begin to rely on each other, power in numbers, and unity to break free from the manipulation. The top of the mountain in the poem is this state of being, it is seeing the manipulation and realizing that the people must not only fight the rules or protest against the rules that they disagree with but not conform to or obey them at all, that is why the willow can grow at the top of the mountain, or how change can happen once we realize the madness.
Project Reflection
I guarantee we have all had our disagreements with one another, with a whole group of people, even within ourselves. I chose this unifying fact to write my poem on, it is about the disagreement of change. How do different people enact change? What is the best way to change things? What must we change? and so many more questions had my mind in a knot researching and writing my personal connections essay as well as my poem. After all the loops, twists, and cinches I have untied this knot in a way I think all people and sides should not only agree on but use and it unties into a method that I call uncompliance. I believe that change is difficult and most of us have tried to change something on a small or large scale but we have gone about it by communication, action, patience, and sometimes more often than not violence. One of the most valuable things I learned is that even if something starts in a protesesque fashion that things escalate and can turn within seconds, so how do we change if we can't even control ourselves or the people we associate with, and most difficultly the people we disagree with. This made me realize the key problem of our country and wold, that is the center of all of my peers and I's work, it is that we are far to divided to change anything for the good of us all. That is why uncompliance is our best bet, it starts with not complying, if I disagree with you so passionately that I am willing to destroy the things you love we will only cause more pain in our world, and we can all agree that that is the last thing we want. Knowing that fact unanimously creates unity, but it starts with one person just not doing what you are telling them. This vague concept is easily exampled with the government. In my scenario if you disagree with something they are forcing upon you say taxes, then don't pay them, then maybe the next person won't pay them, soon enough we have a uncomplying country, and then taxes wouldn't be such a issue because you can't tax a nation if most of them do not answer to you like dogs, and worship you like gods, instead the power will be transferred to the people.
As you can see the ideological progression from my connections essay to my poem is a bit dramatic. My whole life I have believed in peaceful protest, but as more and more protest arises I still do not see change and so I though well if peaceful protest does not get the job done then maybe a riot will. I made the statement something must break for it to be rebuilt, referring to riot, but through research and my interview I realized the same statement is true but dose not work through violence. To me, to break something now means to not do something and in-turn and in-time it will fall on its own. It is at this point where it can be rebuilt.
Are you willing to be disturbed? And I would be carful about your answer because your mind may be disturbed to the point of no return. So go back to living life they way you have, it is much easier. But without you we may not be able to save our world. So again are you willing to be disturbed, at the price of your piece of mind, for the good of our world, and for the prospect to change it for the better. Yes. Your intrigued, and thankfully so because it is the truth that is disturbing, the truth about our government, politics, climate change, war, protest, riot, and I would hate to see you living your lie-fe as you so comfortably do. But it is not just a scratch beneath the surface that reveals the lies but a wound that will affect your perspective forever. I have disturbed you to your skin, you can feel the questions rushing in, but I am scared to cut any further because then you might get scared, just as I was once, and turn back to you life the way it was. I can take you on my journey if you'd like just be willing to be disturbed.
As you can see the ideological progression from my connections essay to my poem is a bit dramatic. My whole life I have believed in peaceful protest, but as more and more protest arises I still do not see change and so I though well if peaceful protest does not get the job done then maybe a riot will. I made the statement something must break for it to be rebuilt, referring to riot, but through research and my interview I realized the same statement is true but dose not work through violence. To me, to break something now means to not do something and in-turn and in-time it will fall on its own. It is at this point where it can be rebuilt.
Are you willing to be disturbed? And I would be carful about your answer because your mind may be disturbed to the point of no return. So go back to living life they way you have, it is much easier. But without you we may not be able to save our world. So again are you willing to be disturbed, at the price of your piece of mind, for the good of our world, and for the prospect to change it for the better. Yes. Your intrigued, and thankfully so because it is the truth that is disturbing, the truth about our government, politics, climate change, war, protest, riot, and I would hate to see you living your lie-fe as you so comfortably do. But it is not just a scratch beneath the surface that reveals the lies but a wound that will affect your perspective forever. I have disturbed you to your skin, you can feel the questions rushing in, but I am scared to cut any further because then you might get scared, just as I was once, and turn back to you life the way it was. I can take you on my journey if you'd like just be willing to be disturbed.
Bibliography
“2021 Will See More Global Protest: Can It Remain Peaceful?” United States Institute of Peace, 21 Jan. 2021, https://www.usip.org/publications/2021/01/2021-will-see-more-global-protest-can-it-remain-peaceful
“7 Influential Protests in American History, Serving as Acts of Patriotism.” University of Central Florida News | UCF Today, 27 Nov. 2020, https://www.ucf.edu/news/7-influential-protests-in-american-history/ “Capitol Protests.” Fox News, FOX News Network, https://www.foxnews.com/category/us/capitol-protests Chavez, Nicole. “Rioters Breached US Capitol Security on Wednesday. This Was the Police Response When It Was Black Protesters on DC Streets Last Year.” CNN, Cable News Network, 11 Jan. 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/07/us/police-response-black-lives-matter-protest-us-capitol/index.html News, FOX 13, director. Interview with Alleged US Capitol Rioter. Facebook Watch, 26 May 2021, Accessed 14 Dec. 2021.https://www.facebook.com/fox13newsutah/videos/qa-interview-with-alleged-us-capitol-rioter/298821855043030 Novak, Jamie. “Change Interview Apposing Opinion.” 20 Nov. 2021. “There's a Riot Goin' on: Riots in U.S. History (Part One).” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/list/theres-a-riot-goin-on-riots-in-us-history-part-one “US Protests.” Fox News, FOX News Network, https://www.foxnews.com/category/us/us-protests |