Saving Mother Earth

I've seen people eating bags of potato chips, and discarding the plastic bag in the streets. I've seen some people drink out of a soda can, and litter it in forests. All these cases of littering are horrible; they ruin our earth. We don't want our earth to be ruined, it's where we live. This is why we need to step it up and do something before our earth gets more trashed (which it already is).

Many people litter throughout the world. I don't, because it is very bad for our earth, and for the people around us. Litter is dangerous and can carry diseases, like in pet feces. Glass bottles are also dangerous because it's made of glass, and if we step on glass, we get hurt. Bacteria can infect the cut, which is very dangerous. Glass bottles take one million years to biodegrade, so this means that more danger might come. Biodegrade is when an object is being broken down and decomposed by bacteria or decomposers. The most littered object around the world are cigarettes. It's not only dangerous to the smoker, and everyone around the smoker, but it is also dangerous to the environment, affecting plant life and wildlife. Each year, 52 billion cigarettes smoked by five billion Canadian smokers make up 5,000 tonnes of the world's pollutants.

FACTS ABOUT LITTER

• The average American throws out almost seven pounds of trash a day.
• Even though the population of the States is only about 5% of the world's population, it uses 30% of the world's resources, and lets out 30% of its waste.
• Garbage production has doubled in the past 30 years. 
• Around 80% of US products are used once, and then thrown away.
• 95% of all plastic, two-thirds of all glass containers, and 50% of all aluminum cans are never recycled, but instead they are burned or buried.
• Most litter is food wrap or containers and cigarettes. 
• The average distance that someone will carry trash before littering is 12 paces.
• There are 8,000 tonnes of cigarettes dropped by Canadians each year; at the most, within 10 feet of an ashtray. It takes 10 years for the filter to biodegrade.
• People under age of 25 are more likely to litter in a group, and people over the age of 25 are more likely to litter when alone.
• Glass bottles take 1 million years to biodegrade.

Currently, and for the past few years now, the United States has been the world's worst littering country. America accumulates at least 236 million tons of garbage every year. It is estimated that the average American produces 7 tons of garbage a day. Even though the population of the States is only about 5% of the world's population, it uses 30% of the world's resources, and lets out 30% of its waste. In my opinion, much of the US are greedy wasters. They take a lot of important things (food, water, natural resources) and waste a lot of it.

In 2004, China has passed America and became the world's worst littering country. 209 million tons of waste were littered in the urban areas of China. The pollution was also a big problem in China back then. It still was when I lived there a year ago. It was very rare to get a good, nice blue skied day, but now the pollution is getting much better. A few years ago, the pollution was at 500 almost every single day, which is the worst pollution rating. This is because China depends on coal for their electricity too much, The burnt coal pollutes the air in the urban areas of China. China is actually good and bad about cleaning up and recycling litter. Many poor Chinese people collect plastic bottles to recycle or sell.







Another problem the earth has is that trees are being cut down in the jungles, destroying animal life and plant life, but mostly, decreasing the amount of oxygen on earth. Trees take in Carbon Dioxide, and release it as oxygen, which we breathe. If all the trees on earth are cut down, we will have no more air to breathe. We need to save trees and plants!

The world is littering way too much. The earth is being polluted way too much. Too many litterers are hurting our home. We need to do something about our problem, for example, using less electricity, recycling more, using less plastic products, using solar powered items, buying and caring for a plant, and much more. This problem won't go away by itself. Saving mother Earth is  You need to help. YOU are the cure of litter.


Butler, Mark. "Why the USA Is One of the Biggest Waste Producers in the World."
Helium. N.p., 18 Aug. 2009. Web. Jan. 2012
<http://www.helium.com/items/251763-why-the-usa-is-one-of-the-biggest-waste-producers-in-the-world>

Webb, Flemmich. "UK Badly Disposed to Litter Problem." The Guardian. N.p., 26, May 2009. Web. 20 Jan. 2012.  <http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/19/environment-litter>

"Learning About Litter." The Litter Reduction Task Force. N.p., n.d., Web. 20 Jan. 2012.
<http://www.curelitter.ca/sef/page/id/6.html>

"What Countries Produce the Most Trash?" Green Answers.com. N.p., n.d. Web. Jan. 2012.
<http://greenanswers.com/q/63410/recycling-waste/garbage/what-countries-produce-most-trash>

"Trash Planet: China." Earth911.com N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2012.
<http://earth911.com/news/2009/08/10/trash-planet-china/>

Povoledo, Elisabetta. "EU Criticizes Italy Over Trash Crisis in Naples." The New York Times.  N.p., 15, Jan. 2008. Web. 20 Jan. 2012
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/world/europe/15iht-italy.4.9237559.html>

"The Truth About Trash - The Throw-Away Society." Planet Thoughts. N.p., 27 Apr. 2011. Web. 20 Jan. 2012. <http://www.planetthoughts.org/?pg=pt/Whole&qid=1944>

Malone, Robert. "World's Worst Waste." Forbes.com. N.p., 24 May 2006. Web. 20 Jan. 2012.
<http://www.forbes.com/2006/05/23/waste-worlds-worst-cx_rm_0524waste.html>

Equal Rights

Who respected blacks back in the olden days? Nobody but blacks. Who respects them now? Many more, but not everyone. Many people in the old days despised blacks, because of their skin color. What's up with that?? Judging someone by their skin color? They set rules in American that the blacks couldn't do most things the whites could. Whites always came first.




In the 1900's, blacks couldn't many things that white people could. For example, on buses, blacks had to take the seats in the back of the bus, while the whites had the front, cleaner seats. If there was a seat open in the front, and no whites were standing up, then a black could sit there until a white person came. This is a law that has been vanquished by Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks truly is a memory in American History. She started the civil rights movement.




Rosa Parks lived in Montgomery City, Alabama. She worked as a seamstress. On December 1st, 1955, Rosa was heading home after a long day of work. She got on the bus, and paid the bus fee. Then she sat down in an empty seat in the front. The driver didn't do anything, because no whites were standing. He just drove off. A while after Rosa got on the bus, a white man came. The driver told her and three other men to get up and change their seat, because they were sitting in the white row. The white man had no seat. She refused to get out of her seat, no matter how loud the driver yelled. The police soon came, and arrested her. She was bailed out 24 hours later.


Blacks around the city heard of this, and decided to start a boycott. The Montgomery Improvement Association  organized the boycott. As their leader, they chose a young Baptist minister who was new to Montgomery: Martin Luther King Jr. They wouldn't ride the buses anymore. They either walked to work, or took taxis. This made the busing company lose a lot of money. The boycott lasted for 381 days, into late December of 1956. The United States Supreme Court said that segregation was unlawful, and that Montgomery had no right to do it to the blacks. The next month, the law was removed and people could sit anywhere they wanted to on the bus. Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. created the civil rights movement.

Rosa Parks. She is a very famous person, and to be remembered in history. 




Rosa Parks started the Civil Rights movement, and it will forever be an important marker in our American History. Racism is not right, you shouldn't judge somebody by the way they look on the outside, it's inner beauty that counts. 


"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." This was said by Martin Luther King Jr., in his "I have a Dream" Speech. 



Equal Rights is surely something worth fighting for. 






CITATIONS:


Stevens, Patsy. "Rosa Parks." Garden of Praise. N.p., 2006. Web. 23 Nov. 2011. 
<http://gardenofpraise.com/ibdrosa.htm>




Rosa Parks and Jim Haskins. Rosa Parks, My Story. United States of America: n.p., 1992. Print. 




"The Story Behind The Bus." The Henry Ford. N.p., 2002. Web. 23 Nov. 2011. 
<http://www.thehenryford.org/exhibits/rosaparks/story.asp>.  




Teare, Erin. "Martin Luther King Jr. Quotations." Infoplease. N.p., 2007. Web. 23 Nov. 2011. 
<http://www.infoplease.com/spot/mlkquotes1.html>

Keaton Wong-a boy who fought for his life

Last summer, as I was sitting in the back of my mom's car, she drove over a bump. When the bump shook me, I thought of obstacles in the way of life. I thought about my strong friend who fought so much for his life; so much just to stay alive. He went to bed every night, terrified that he wasn't going to make it through the night to the next day. That was his goal every night. Just making it to the next day. My eyes started to water in the car, and a lump started to form in my throat. I thought about the cancer that he was infected with, and how proud I was of him for fighting against it every single day, but it's OK. He's out there somewhere, much happier than when he was in the Hospital. Much happier than when he was fighting pain.

KEATON WONG

I knew Keaton for a pretty long time. It was the summer of 2006 when we first met; I was eight and he was thirteen, five years older than me. Still, that didn't stop me from being his  friend. I played tag and Hide and Seek with him, his two brothers and some of his cousins, one was the girl who introduced me to him. I went over to his house a few times for barbecues, and we went camping with him and his cousins. My family did so much with Keaton and his family. He was a really great, nice person.

Keaton was a sophomore in high school when he got a pain in his abdomen. He was in quite a bit of pain, so he went to the doctor's and they said he just pulled a muscle. It was a while until the doctors found out that the muscle pull really wasn't a muscle pull. It was a type of cancer that had formed in his abdomen. The cancer was Neuroblastoma, a fatal type of cancer that develops in nerve tissue. Unfortunately, the doctors only found out about it when the cancer had reached stage four, the deadly stage.

NEUROBLASTOMA

Cancer is made up of different stages. Stage one, stage two, stage three and stage four. Stage one is the stage when the cancer starts to form. It's also the stage when the cancer starts to spread throughout the body. The next two stages, stage two and three, are the same as stage one, but more serious. Stage two and three are the stages when the cancer is rapidly spreading throughout the victim's body, almost reaching other organs. The higher the cancer stage, the higher it is to get rid of the cancer. Stage four is the most deadly stage. It's the stage when the cancer reaches another organ, which makes it almost impossible to get rid of the cancer completely.

Neuroblastoma can be treated in many ways, but the most effective way is one of the most dangerous ways. This type of treatment is taking radiation medicine, which fortunately, gets rid of the cancer, but unfortunately, also kills your healthy, live cells in your body, which makes you very weak after your cancer has gone away. Other ways you can treat Neuroblastoma is chemotherapy, surgery, bone marrow transplant, and stem cell treatment. These types aren't the most effective way, but they definitely DO help stop the cancer and slow it down. These treatments were working on Keaton for a while, and he made it through his junior year feeling, "almost normal."

He felt great for a while, until the fatal Neuroblastoma returned with reinforcements during the summer of 2010. 

KEATON'S GOALS

He had many goals, and his first goal, that was his goal everyday, was to make it through to the next day. Another one of his goals were to sing in the Kamehameha School song contest. He didn't want to sit in his wheelchair and watch from the crowd, and his friends weren't going to sing in the contest in their senior year without him, so they brought him onstage. Keaton sang along with the rest of the singers, with his soft, but determined voice.

Another one of his goals was to go to senior prom, and he did!! He went to his school for the prom, sitting in his wheelchair, weakly chatting with his friends. The last goal he had set before he died was to make it to his graduation. He just made it. On June 30th, he was at his school's graduation, receiving his diploma. 

GRADUATION DAY

Keaton got out of his Hospital Bed, he fought his cancer to get out of his hospital bed, to make it to his graduation. Keaton took off the oxygen mask that helped him breathe, to cross the stage. The crowd gave the loudest roar and the loudest cheer for Keaton as he received his diploma. He sang the class song with his classmates with the help of the teachers, staff and his friends. He fought to sing. He fought to have the best day of his life. He was very weak after his graduation. He sat in is school's reception area afterwards, his friends and family congratulating him over and over again, tearfully. Keaton responded these signs of affection, by giving a blink, a nod, or even a weak hug if he was strong enough to manage it. That's how weak he was. His dad kept asking him if he wanted to go back to the hospital to rest, but he didn't want to leave. He wanted to stay, partying with his friends like a real teenager would, like a strong teenager would, like a teenager who wasn't dying of cancer would. 

Keaton died four days after his graduation.

The Wong family had some true devastation in their lives. When Keaton was in fourth grade, his mom died. The whole family was devastated. Now Keaton died. Death is slowly eating away the members of their family. 

This is Keaton and his family. I know most of the people in this photo, I played tag with them when Keaton was alive and strong. Everyone congratulated him on his hard work. He fought so hard for this day, and he earned it. Chemotherapy makes hair fall out in Cancer patients, and that's why he's bald. He used to have brown hair, and his young, playful spirit will live in us forever. 

This is Keaton (and his prom date) after his cancer went away for awhile. It returned the summer after this picture was taken.

Keaton died on June 3, 2011, and I only found out about it in July. He still acted like a little child, and loved Pooh Bear. One of his wishes before he died was to put on a Pooh Bear costume and skateboard down a little hill. He absolutely LOVED Pooh Bear, so his ashes were spread in Disney Land, his most favorite place in the world. I still get emotional and teary-eyed when I think of him, and about all the fun times we had together. I will never forget him; my great, strong, fighting friend.

References:

"Keaton Loses Battle with Cancer." Hot Boxing News. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. <http://www.hotboxingnews.com/NEWS2011/njews060311tributetokeaton.htm>

Tsai, Michael. "Boy Dying of Cancer Held on Long Enough for Graduation." Star Advertiser. N.p., 6 June 2011. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. <http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/incidentallives/20110606_Boy_dying_of_cancer_held_on_long_enough_for_graduation.html>

Tsai, Michael. "Kamehameha Student Takes Cancer Battle a Day at a Time." Star Advertiser. N.p., 21 Mar. 2011. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. <http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/incidentallives/20110321_Kamehameha_student_takes_cancer_battle_a_day_at_a_time.html>

"Neuroblastoma." PubMed Health. A.D.A.M., 28 Dec. 2010. Web. 15 Oct. 2011. 

     <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002381/>.

"Cancer Staging." National Cancer Institute. N.p., 22 Sept. 2010. Web. 16 Oct. 2011
<http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/detection/staging>


"Neuroblastoma Treatment." National Cancer Institute. N.p., 13 Oct. 2011. Web. 16 Oct. 2011.

<http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/treatment/neuroblastoma/HealthProfessional/page1>


"Chemotherapy." Breast Cancer.org. N.p., 28 Oct. 2009. Web. 16 Oct. 2011.

<http://www.breastcancer.org/treatment/chemotherapy/>

"Why and How Hair Loss happens." Breast Cancer.org. N.p., 9 July 2011. Web. 16 Oct. 2011.

<http://www.breastcancer.org/tips/hair_skin_nails/hair_loss.jsp>

The Wong Family

Respect

Have you ever understood


what if feels like to be left aside, and forgotten?


Or to be treated worse than others?


The world should welcome everybody, to love everybody.


Nobody should be left out. 


Nobody.


Not one little soul.


Yet people still disrespect others, 


which isn't right, because everyone is someone. 


Not anyone is a no one.


People feel like they are, because of the way some treat them.


To me, treating people disrespectfully is like killing an angel,


and if you were that angel, would you want to be killed?


If you felt like a loser, would you want to be treated disrespectfully?


Wouldn't you want to join the popular crowd?


So listen to me.


Others are more sensitive than others.


Treat everyone with respect.


Leave no one out.


And you will be known for your respect and kindness.


--


Naomi

My Noise

My Noise thinks about many things. For one, it worries a lot. I always leave the house for school worrying and wondering if I have everything. I also wonder if I forgot to finish a piece of my homework. I need to chillax!  I also think of what happened in the past, or all the cool things that have happened to me, for example, touring the set of Hawaii Five-0, meeting the mayor of Hawaii, getting a famous actor's autograph, etc. I also think about the things I have to do. Although I may seem like a shy and nice person on the outside, I'm actually pretty goofy and violent on the inside. I love music, and I listen to my iPod all the time, so I'm singing songs and rocking out on the inside. I also don't want people to look into and read my Noise. If Noise were real, and girls had Noise, the phrase, "DO NOT READ ME" or "DO NOT SEARCH ME" would fill my Noise. I also think about things that have to do with the environment, like  REDUCE, REUSE AND RECYCLE. I love the world and Nature, so I think about how we should improve the way we treat our world. Overall, I think of a lot of things. Thoughts just buzz around my head, overlapping other thoughts. There's not really a specific subject my Noise thinks of. I'm kind of a random person.

Helen Keller

 "Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn whatever state I am in, therin to be content"
-Helen Keller


          I think education is worth fighting for. If you have disorders, like dyslexia, you shouldn't quit trying to read. You should work hard to learn how to read or make it easier on you. Helen Keller never gave up, and she wasn't dyslexic. She was deaf and blind. Could you imagine how hard her life must have been? Even though she had these problems, she never gave up on her education. Education is very important. She never wanted to stop learning, and she fought to improve her education. She struggled through hard times, and became very famous. 


          On June 27th, 1880, Helen's parents were delighted. Their daughter was finally born. They named her Helen. She was a very happy, healthy child. She was already learning how to speak, she could say a few words. She was very happy, until she got a very high fever. The fever (which was later thought to be Scarlet Fever) made her lose her eyesight and hearing. The happy, healthy child was now a very unhappy child. 


          She couldn't see, or hear, so she couldn't speak. Helen became frustrated because of this, so she began to throw temper tantrums. Her parents knew they had to do something. They asked Alexander Graham Bell (the telephone inventor) for advice. He suggested that they write to Michael Anagnos, the director of  the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, to try and find a teacher for Helen. He immediately sent Anne Sullivan to teach Helen. She used to be blind, too, so she understood how Helen felt. 


          Anne was also a miracle child. When she was five years old, she lost all of her eyesight. Her mom died, and her dad left her. She was sent to a poorhouse with her brother, Jimmie. Jimmie died in the poorhouse, and Anne was all alone. In October 1880, she was brought to the Perkins Institution to commence her education. One summer, at the institute, she had two operations on her eyes, and she regained her eyesight. 


          Anne graduated from Perkins in 1886 and began to search for work. After a few years of searching, Michael Anagnos gave her an offer to work as the teacher of Helen Keller. She accepted, luckily, or Helen and her family would've been in some trouble.


          Anne Sullivan was a great teacher. She taught Helen words, but how could she if Helen was deaf? Well, Anne spelled out the word on her hand. One day, Anne led Helen to the water pump, and poured water on her hand. She spelled out the word "water" on her hand using sign language. She pressed the sign language letter on her hand. She did this a few times, and finally, Helen understood what she meant. It was like someone opened a key to the world for her. Everything was suddenly easier. 


          There began a tough life for Helen. Anne Sullivan spelled out every word for her. After a long time, she learned many, many words. They communicated using their hands. Anne Sullivan then taught her how to read. There is a certain type of language that lets blind people read, called Braille.  It's just a series of bumps in the paper that blind people feel. The bumps  represent letters.  The Braille alphabet is listed below:

The dots that are black show that those are the ones that are raised, so blind people can read.


          Anne also taught Helen how to type. Not with a pencil and a paper, but with typewriters. They first began with a braille typewriter. The braille letters were on the typing keys, and she immediately knew what to do. She typed up what she wanted to type, and had Anne read it. She kept practicing on the braille typewriter, until she remembered where the keys were. By that time, she started using ordinary typewriters.


          Helen was a very smart girl. She continued to work hard and continue her education with Anne Sullivan. She read braille, and understood everything Anne said, on her hand. She also began to learn how to speak. Learning how to speak was very difficult. Some say it is an impossible thing to accomplish for a deaf-blind mute, but for Helen, nothing was impossible. 

In Mach, 1890, Helen heard of a little girl in Norway, who was also a deaf blind mute. This girl learned how to speak. Helen didn't know that deaf blind mutes could speak, so when she heard of this girl, she really wanted to learn how to speak. She told Anne she wanted to learn how to speak. Anne told her it was very difficult and tried to discourage her. Helen insisted and Anne knew she had to find the best teacher available to teach her how to speak. Anne asked Sarah Fuller, an expert on education and the principle of the Horace Mann School for the deaf. Sarah agreed and started teaching her how to speak.           Helen was very excited. She wanted to learn how to speak for a very long time. She knew others could speak, and she wanted to communicate with them too. She later wrote in one of her books, "Sometimes I stood between two persons who were conversing and touched their lips. I could not understand, and was vexed. I moved my lips frantically without results. This made me so angry at times that I kicked and screamed until I was exhausted.           One day, Ms. Fuller was successful. She began the lesson by putting Helen's hand on her face and mouth. This allowed Helen to feel the position of Ms. Fuller's tongue and lips when she made a sound. She then shaped Helen's mouth for making basic vowel sounds. She took Helen's hand and put it on her throat, so she could feel the vibrations in her throat when she talked. Helen touched Ms. Fuller's mouth, tongue and throat. It took her a long time to be able to speak, but when she learned how, her first sentence was "It is too warm."

          Helen was very educated, and by the time she was 17 years old, she got into Radcliffe College, and became the first ever deaf blind person to enroll into an institution of higher learning. Anne went with her, to translate what the instructor said into her hand. 


          Life at Radcliffe College was tough for Helen and Anne. The huge amount of work they needed to do stressed them out. During college, Helen wrote a book about her life, in braille and in normal letters, so both blind and normal people could read it. Helen met John Albert Macy, and he helped her edit her book. It was published in 1903. It didn't sell very well, but now, it's a classic. 


          On June 28th, 1904, Helen graduated from Radcliffe, becoming also the first deaf blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. 


          Helen had an amazing memory. She could remember almost everything the instructor said (Anne translated it, of course). She also had some amazing skills very few people had. She could put her fingers on somebody's mouth, and while they were speaking, she understood what they were saying. 


          John Macy became very good friends with Helen and Anne, and in 1905, Anne and John were married. Anne's name was changed to Anne Sullivan Macy. Because they were married, they all lived in Wrentham, Massachusetts. Helen continued writing books, and John continued to edit them. Soon, she wrote "The World I Live in" and "Out of the Dark."
"The World I Live in" revealed her thoughts about the world for the first time. "Out of the Dark" was a book with essays in them, about socialism. In 1909, John introduced Helen to a new and revolutionary way of viewing the world. She then became a member of the Socialist Party of Massachusetts. 


          Helen and Anne filled the following years of their life by going to countries and giving lectures about her experiences and beliefs. Anne interpreted every sentence for the crowd. Mane people had questions, and they answered them all. They travelled around the world lecturing people, and got a decent amount of money. By 1918, demands for Helen's lectures had decreased, so they travelled to countries showing them a video about how Helen learned the word "water." This show was very popular, so Hollywood movie producers offered to make a movie about her. They agreed, and in a while, the movie was released. Anne told Helen how it went (because unfortunately, Helen couldn't see). She didn't like it, and it didn't seem to be as much of a success as they hoped for. She continued giving lectures, which were becoming more and more popular, so they earned about two thousand dollars a week!! 


          Unfortunately, Helen's mom died of an unknown disease, and Anne fell ill, too. She had a  bad case of Bronchitis, which left her not being able to speak louder than a whisper. She couldn't interpret Helen's words on stage anymore, so Polly Thomson, who started working as Helen and Anne's secretary in 1914, started to help Helen on stage. 


          Anne's health was getting worse, and she died on October 20, 1936. Polly continued to tour the world with Helen, until she got a stroke in 1957. She didn't recover, and died on March 21st, 1960. Her ashes were put right next to Anne Sullivan's, which was at the National Cathedral in Washington DC. 


          Winnie Corbally, Polly Thomson's nurse, started to help Helen on stage. It wasn't until a year later that Helen started getting stokes. She couldn't tour the world anymore. She spent her remaining years at her home in Arcan Ridge. While she was recovering, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian award, by President Lyndon Johnson. A year later, she was elected to the Women's Hall of Fame at the New York World's Fair. 

          On June 1st, 1968, Helen died in her sleep. Her ashes were put next to Anne Sullivan's and Polly Thomson. The National Cathedral in Washington DC is a very popular tourist attraction now, and there is a bronze plaque that says, "Helen Keller and her beloved companion Anne Sullivan Macy are interred in the columbarium behind this chapel," in braille. So many people visited the Chapel and touched the braille letters, that the plaque had to be replaced twice. 




          Helen is very famous around the world, for starting a hard, educated life and not wanting to give up on anything. She wanted to learn as much as she could; she never quit. Helen is one of my role models, she has persuaded me not to give up and to keep trying something if I can't accomplish it, so if you're feeling down, or stuck, or you feel like you're not good or smart enough to do something, think of Helen Keller. She is a trooper and a miracle worker, and she led a harder and more complicated life than you. If she can do it, so can you.






Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan learning together

http://gardenofpraise.com/ibdkell.htm


http://www.rnib.org.uk/aboutus/aboutsightloss/famous/Pages/helenkeller.aspx


http://www.pharmabraille.com/pharmaceutical-braille/braille-alphabet.htm


http://www.afb.org/braillebug/askkeller.asp?issueid=20058

What's worth fighting for quotes

"Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it... It really is worth fighting for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk everything, you risk even more."

Erica Jong

"Anything you truly want must be worth fighting for"

J. Johnson


"Voldemort has power, but we have something he doesn't. Something worth fighting for."
Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix