The Worst Things In Life Come Free to Us

A Team by Ed Sheeran

So I don’t really have a favorite song, but I chose A Team by Ed Sheeran because that’s what I’m listening to. I think that two of the main themes of this song are that life is not perfect at all, and that you have to look deeper into someone before you judge them.

In the chorus, he says, ‘But lately her face seems/ Slowly sinking, wasting/ Crumbling like pastries/ And they scream/ The worst things in life come free to us’ I think that he wants to express that we have to work for good things to happen, but bad things can happen to anyone no matter how much they deserve it. People sometime’s can’t deal with this, and turn to other things to try and help them get through life. He also said, ‘Cos we're just under the upperhand/ Go mad for a couple grams’, which says that It’s not the girl’s fault entirely that she turned to drugs, but her life in general. She needs something to keep her from becoming nothing, and didn’t think that she could go to anyone. People can’t prevent bad things from happening, and you can’t always judge people completely for making bad choices.

Sheeran also says that,’ Struggling to pay rent/ Long nights, strange men’, which means that she needed to make money to try and survive, and she probably didn’t think through turning to prostitution because she didn’t have time. She made a bad decision, but she needed to do something and didn’t have anyone to guide her. She shouldn’t be judged for that. People make bad choices when they are stressed, or exhausted, or need help fast. And she couldn’t help that. I think that people shouldn’t be that quick to judge others when they don’t know the full story behind what they did.

So many people are judged too harshly. Sometimes they had no other choice and did something bad. Sometimes they don’t have people to help them and they don’t have a role model to help them. No one knows this, so the person is an outcast. People don’t have perfect lives, and if they want to become a better person with a better life, they have to really work for it. As Sheeran said, ‘The worst things in life come free to us’.

Secrets Kept

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

Spoiler Alert!

A Great and Terrible beauty is about Gemma Doyle, a girl who grew up in India but has always wanted to go to school in England, where she is from. When she sees a vision of her mom dying after they fought and finds out that it's true, she moves to Spence, a boarding school for young women. There, she finds a diary from a girl who also had visions. Supposedly, that girl died in a fire, but Gemma finds out that it is her mother. 

One big part of the book is whether a secret should have been kept or not. One of Gemma's friends, Pippa, has epilepsy, but her fiance doesn't know that. She knows that if she tells him, both him and her parents will shun her. In the end, she decides to tell him because she doesn't like him. I think that she did the right thing by telling him. She hated him, and that let her let him go. If she hadn't told him, she would have had a seizure and he wouldn't know what to do. He would probably disown her anyway.

One thing that happened is that Gemma started having visions and she didn't know what to do. I'm not sure if this should've been kept a secret. It helped Gemma understand herself better and challenged her to do what was right, but there are some things that happened that didn't have to happen and wouldn't have if Gemma's mom had helped her with the visions before she died. For example, Pippa wouldn't have died in their spirit world if Gemma knew about the magic of the Runes.

I think that the secret of Gemma's mom being Mary Dowd, the writer of the diary, should have been revealed. Gemma would have known so much more about the Rune and how to deal with them. Her mom thought that she was protecting Gemma, and in the beginning she was, but she should have told her when they were in the spirit world. She could have warned Gemma of Sarah, which would have saved Pippa. There are so many bad things that wouldn't have happened if Gemma knew.

Sometimes, the characters made good choices, but sometimes they didn't. Based on the small amount of evidence I've given, what do you think?

Free Speech on Facebook

. "Are Facebook "likes" protected by the First Amendment? A recent ruling by a court in Virginia raises questions about free speech in the digital age.." Upfront Magazine 2012. 14 Jan. 2013 <http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Are+Facebook+%22likes%22+protected+by+the+First+Amendment%3F+A+recent...-a0310150547>.

Upfront Magazine,

Are Facebook "likes" protected by the First Amendment? A recent ruling by a court in Virginia raises questions about free speech in the digital age.

 

This week i read an article in Upfront Magazine called, 'Are Facebook "likes" protected by the First Amendment? A recent ruling by a court in Virginia raises questions about free speech in the digital age.' It's about a public worker, Daniel Ray Carter, who got fired for liking his boss's competitor's facebook page. As a public employee, he has the right to free speech without being fired. ut last spring, Judge Raymond A. Jackson of the Federal District Court in Norfolk, Virginia said that liking a page on facebook wasn't making a statement, so that wasn't included in his rights. There is a similar issue in school, with kids saying something on facebook or twitter about faculty, and the principals not knowing if they can be punished. There is a fine line between home and work life.

 

I think that the author wants you to decide for yourself whether the judge was right or wrong. They are not really biased, though I think that they might be leaning more towards Carter's side. They probably want you to think about what the difference between home life and wor life is, and where those should meet. They used examples that relate to anyone, whether it be work or school, so that we can all understand better what is happening. They make you feel like that is a really weird reason to fire someone, which I think it is, and that the writers of the Bill of Rights didn't foresee this happening. The judges have nothing to go on, and this is what is causing controversy.

I think that this is ridiculous and that you shouldn't be fired for liking an opponents page, especially if you are a public worker and you have the right to free speech. Liking something on facebook is like saying, "Oh, I agree with you", which is a statement, which would count as free speech. Carter's boss shouldn't have the right to look on his facebook page and then fire him because of doing something that was supposed to be part of Carter's home, not work, life. I also think that schools shouldn't have the right to punish children for things they do at home. The courts ruled with me, so the same thing should go for work. And maybe Carter only liked the page because he wanted to see what his opponent was doing. Unlikely, but still. He shouldn't have been fired for 'liking' something on facebook.