Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson, people have very different views of him. Some people think he is the "King of Pop" others think he's really stupid and messed up. I personally don't have much of an opinion of him, some of his songs are fun, but I have to admit he is a bit weird. Really, who else has changed their whole skin colour? People can say a lot of bad things about him, but at the end of it all almost every knows that he was actually a great singer and performer.

Have you noticed that he became even more popular after he died? Why is that? It's happened before, think of Mozart and musicians like him, their music was hated until after they died. When he was alive he was definetly popular, but after he died it's hard to go a day without someone talking about him or hearing one of his songs! Michael Jackson even made an album to only be released once he died. For a long time after he died he was all over the news, radio and internet. But I think that people really don't understand that he was a person like you and me. He had siblings, parents, a wife and kids! They all would have been very upset when he died. People just think of Michael Jackson as a stupid singer that maybe made some bad choices, or choices that we don't agree with.

I think that his death was very public. I kind of wonder what his family felt like. Imagine if your brother was very famous and maybe a bit weird, then suddenly died and everyone was talking about it. Also wherever you went there would be cameras and people asking you about his death. After someone dies you don't really want to talk about it or even think about it, but if it was someone famous you're kind of forced to.

Michael Jackson was a great musician and performer, but we need to think of him more as a person than some entertaining thing. It was awful when he died, but I think that it isn't right that he's more popular when he's dead.

-Fiona XOX

RIP Michael Jackson

The Holocaust

"The Holocaust was one of the worst things in our

history", "The Holocaust is very much alive.

The wounds are still there. The scars are still there.

The influence is still there." Those are some

quotes about what people thought about the Holocaust.

A few days ago a holocaust surviver, Eva Olsson, came to speak to my school about the horrors of the holocaust. She was a very great speaker and gave me a better idea about how life would have been like if I was like her. Her speech was very moving and touching, I couldn't believe what awful things people would do to each other.

Some things that impacted me the most were how she lost all of her family, they took her younger cousin away from her and she got separated from her mother and father. She told us how mothers who were holding children would have a shot through them both to save a bullet. I can't imagine how hard that would've been. Other mothers were forced to watch their children suffer and slowly die. I can't believe that people would do things like that!

I will always remember how many people were killed for the smallest differences! Hitler hated a certain religion and decided just to kill them off. That is very wrong, and is such an awful thing to happen! I don't think anyone will ever be able to forget what happened because of hate.

I really wish I knew what was going through Hitler's mind at the times when he thought about killing people and while he was doing it, did he ever feel bad about what he had done or did he think it was right? I would also like to know what the people were thinking who were being killed, or watching their family and friends die, it must have been awful. I would like to know how people stayed strong through the whole time. If I was in their situation I would've completely broke down, which they must have, but I have no idea how I would get through it.

The lessons Eva was really trying to teach us was not to hate ever. You shouldn't hate anyone or anything, not a certain religion, or a person originating from one place, or some place not the same as you. All of that killing was because they hated them and decided to eliminate them. People can easily put those instructions into use everyday, I mean everyday you hear people saying: "I hate math!" or even "Wow, I really hate Joshua!" Eva was encouraging people to say: "I don't like math" instead of using the word "hate". So in every day life don't hate anything, you can strongly dislike it, but not hate.

So in conclusion, don't hate things, the holocaust and all of those deaths was caused by hate. The holocaust was a very awful time and we can't let it happen again.

-Fiona XOX