This is one of seven papers written by my 9th grade students describing how they feel about President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima and the words he spoke there. I will be posting the remaining six over the weekend. This Independence Day weekend is an excellent time to post these kids’ thoughts — to remind us that America can find greatness not in making war, but in working for peace.
President Obama’s speech in Hiroshima was very meaningful for two reasons. Firstly, he showed the feeling of mourning for the victims who were killed by atomic bombs during World War Two. Secondly, he talked about the contradiction in mankind that makes people destroy each other and how morality has not advanced along with technological advancement. He gave the three examples of religions, nations and science.
He told us that “Every great religion promises a pathway to love and peace and righteousness,” but then he says that some people use their religion as a reason to fight wars. He gave the example of how, “Nations are telling a story that binds people together…,” but people go to war for national pride. And, finally he explained how “Science allows us to communicate across the seas and fly above the clouds,” but technology is also used to make weapons of war.
But while people were developing these things they only thought about standing at the top of the world, and they forgot their moral mind and because of this, so many people have been killed. I wish a moral revolution had occurred side by side with the scientific revolution. People should not be tempted by immediate fortunes or profits and we should not be selfish and we shouldn’t lose our moral mind.
This is one of seven papers written by my 9th grade students describing how they feel about President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima and the words he spoke there. I will be posting the remaining six over the weekend. This Independence Day weekend is an excellent time to post these kids’ thoughts — to remind us that America can find greatness not in making war, but in working for peace.
President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima became a big topic in Japan. I think it was an important sign of the mutual understanding between America and Japan. I can tell you the reasons for my opinion of his speech.
The biggest point was that it was the first time an American president visited either of the two cities that were destroyed by atom bombs. Also, in the very first part of his speech he expressed his condolence to the people who died there. He didn’t actually say any apologies about the nuclear attack, but I felt his sympathy.
He also spoke of specific examples of hibakusha (atomic bomb victims). I think he tried to show us his thoughtfulness and create a close feeling with those people. I guess it must be difficult for an American president to interact with Japanese hibakusha, I was impressed by his amicable gesture.
President Obama came to Hiroshima and he prayed for peace all over the world. We mustn’t forget this meaningful occurrence. I want to always keep his words in my heart.
This is one of seven papers written by my 9th grade students describing how they feel about President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima and the words he spoke there. I will be posting the remaining six over the weekend. This Independence Day weekend is an excellent time to post these kids’ thoughts — to remind us that America can find greatness not in making war, but in working for peace.
When I first heard this speech, I remembered the words my great-grandmother once told me; “War is the worst thing to ever happen between humans.” She survived WWII, and I was surprised that President Obama said about the same thing even though he has never experienced war. So, I was reminded how important peace is.
I used to live in Norway and I had a chance to go to the Nobel Peace Prize Museum in Oslo. There were a lot of exhibits of peace prize winners, talking about peace, but each in different way; one wanted peace for children’s education, another for women’s rights, and others for different reasons. There was a display of President Obama there, saying nuclear weapons are a great threat to peace. Nevertheless, even though so many people talk about peace, war does not end. Actually, weapons even worse than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima have been invented.
I think what we must do is to keep on saying what my great grand-mother said to me and what President Obama said to the world. It may seem common, but I’m sure that it is a key step for keeping peace in the world.
This is one of seven papers written by my 9th grade students describing how they feel about President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima and the words he spoke there. I will be posting the remaining six over the weekend. This Independence Day weekend is an excellent time to post these kids’ thoughts — to remind us that America can find greatness not in making war, but in working for peace.
I was so surprised to hear the news that President Obama visited Hiroshima.
For 71 years, successive American presidents avoided coming to Hiroshima during their term. Maybe they wanted to come but they were not able to because many Americans think it was a natural choice to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So, I thought President Obama had courage to decide to be the first.
Actually I didn’t expect this event. He won the Nobel prize for peace in 2009 for the speech he made in Prague about reducing nuclear weapons. When I heard that speech I thought he was only speaking ‘formally’ and did not really mean what he said. When I heard his Hiroshima speech, I realized my thinking was actually wrong, he really does care about ending nuclear weapons.
I hope President Obama will come to Hiroshima or Nagasaki again and tell future generations of Americans what a horrible thing happened to those two poor cities.
This is one of seven papers written by my 9th grade students describing how they feel about President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima and the words he spoke there. I will be posting the remaining six over the weekend. This Independence Day weekend is an excellent time to post these kids’ thoughts — to remind us that America can find greatness not in making war, but in working for peace.
I don’t know why President Obama came to Hiroshima. Some people said it is a wonderful thing, but I don’t think so. He came now, 71 years after the end of World War Two. His visit will not change anything.
One high school student said, “He is just kidding us.” He made some folded paper cranes for symbols of peace, but they are just origami and they can’t do anything. The dead of the war can never come back. Their families’ sadness can never end.
I don’t want President Obama to say I’m sorry because it’s useless and it’s too late. I want a real plan to make the world peaceful. No war any more! I thought that, of course, he had a plan, but I never heard that kind of thing. (Is it just my problem?) I think this is very regrettable.
I don’t know how the war was. Even a lot of adults don’t know about war. If Donald Trump becomes the next American president, maybe there will be another world war. No one I know wants war; we want to live safely and peacefully.
I think we all must learn more about war from many different angles and we must stop any new wars from happening. That is what we should do now and what I want President Obama to do. Nothing will change by just visiting Hiroshima, so I hope that President Obama will do more to show us the right path. One thing his visit taught me is that we have to learn more about war if we want to have peace in the future.
“How long America, before the consequences of: Keeping the schools segregated, Allowing the press to be intimidated, Watching the price of everything soar, And hearing complaints because the rich want more?
It seems that MacBeth, and not his lady, went mad. We’ve let ‘em eliminate the whole middle class. The dollar’s the only thing we can’t inflate, While the poor go on without a minimum wage.”
Gil Scott Heron & Brian Jackson –
For the above quote, jump to 4:06
from Winter in America 1974
I was driving to a class this morning when I heard an oddly alluring black voice singing a very pleasant melody. I stopped the car and listened, mesmerized. When it came to an end, I strained to hear the Japanese announcer, hoping I to understand his pronunciation. I clearly heard him say, “Be Good”. I Googled it tonight when I got home and found the video is as surprising and charming as the music. So, very much for your listening and viewing pleasure, I am happy to pass on Gregory Porter performing “Be Good”.
It seems like every summer Japan and South Korea get into some kind of nasty squabble. This summer’s hot topic is an on-again, off-again territorial dispute over a couple of rocks in the sea that separates America’s two East Asian allies. These guys can’t even agree on what they’re fighting over; for the Japanese it’s the Takeshima Islands in the Sea of Japan and for the South Koreans it’s the Dokto Islands in the East Sea. Same sea, same islands.
Well, things got sillier than ever last week when President Lee refused to receive a letter from Prime Minister Noda. His personal courier was turned away from the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo when he tried to return the letter in person. Korea then announced that they would send the unopened letter back special delivery.
All the time I was reading about this I couldn’t stop hearing a constant replay of an old Elvis song, Return to Sender
This is a photo from a fashion show on nearby Ulleung island to promote South Korean sovereignty over the Liancourt Islands (Takeshima/Dokto) on Aug. 10, 2012.
This is the most outrageous sampling, splicing, mixed bit of pop culture I’ve seen yet. And, it’s a pretty sexy bit of 80s schmaltz.
CLICK ON SCHWARTZY FOR “HELLO” HOLLYWOOD MISH-MASH
CLICK ON LIONEL FOR HIS ORIGINAL MUSIC VIDEO
HELLO (Album Can’t Slow Down – 1983)
I’ve been alone with you inside my mind
And in my dreams I’ve kissed your lips a thousand times
I sometimes see you pass outside my door
Hello, is it me you’re looking for?
I can see it in your eyes
I can see it in your smile
You’re all I’ve ever wanted, (and) my arms are open wide
‘Cause you know just what to say
And you know just what to do
And I want to tell you so much, I love you
I long to see the sunlight in your hair
And tell you time and time again how much I care
Sometimes I feel my heart will overflow
Hello, I’ve just got to let you know
‘Cause I wonder where you are
And I wonder what you do
Are you somewhere feeling lonely, or is someone loving you?
Tell me how to win your heart
For I haven’t got a clue
But let me start by saying, I love you
Hello, is it me you’re looking for?
‘Cause I wonder where you are
And I wonder what you do
Are you somewhere feeling lonely or is someone loving you?
Tell me how to win your heart
For I haven’t got a clue
But let me start by saying I love you
This was the second #1 song from Richie’s second solo album after leaving The Commodores. Can’t Slow Down won the 1984 Grammy for Album of the Year, and is the biggest selling album in the history of Motown Records. (thanks, Charles – Charlotte, NC)
When he was young, Richie watched beautiful women walk past but was too shy to talk to them. He thought to himself, “Hello, is it me you’re looking for.” Years later he started to write a song using the phrase but got stuck and gave up, but his record producer liked the line and urged him to finish it.
Richie left this off his first solo album, but his wife Brenda liked it and insisted he include it on Can’t Slow Down.
Lionel Richie had to challenge an allegation from Marjorie White that this was based on her song, “I’m Not Ready To Go,” but he won.
This was Motown’s first ever UK million selling single.
The song was promoted with a much derided video which included dialogue. Lionel Richie plays a teacher, Mr. Reynolds, who falls in love with a blind pottery student, Laura. When he looks in at her class, he finds that she has made a perfect clay model of his head During the making of the video, Richie protested to the director Bob Giraldi that the story about the blind woman had no relationship to the song. Giraldi replied to him, “You’re not creating the story, I am.” The video was voted the worst music video of all time in a poll of 8,000 music fans by UK TV music channel The Box.
The girl who played the blind sculptress in the video was a 26-year-old fully-sighted aspiring actress named Laura Carrington. She played Dr. Simone Ravelle Hardy #1 on General Hospital in the late 1980s. (thanks, Edward Pearce – Ashford, Kent, England, for above 6)
This was featured in the 2005 movie The 40 Year Old Virgin. It was used in a scene when Andy receives a collection of dirty movies.
Another September gone and what do you remember, the sultry start or the chilly end? Chances are, whatever the weather, the memories remain in a sentimental refrain. Probably no other month has inspired poets and musicians more than September, the time when the fantasies of summer are abandoned for the realities of autumn. Summer loves depart, fall duties return. This is when the year and life itself transition to a more somber state. Here are some songs that capture the September sentiment.
AUTUMN LEAVES – Joseph Kosma, Johnny Mercer (1947)
The falling leaves drift by the window
The autumn leaves of red and gold
I see your lips, the summer kisses
The sun-burned hands I used to hold
Since you went away the days grow long
And soon I’ll hear old winter’s song
But I miss you most of all my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall
LES FEULLIES MORTES – Joseph Kosma/Jacques Prévert (1945)
SEPTEMBER SONG – Kurt Weill, Maxwell Anderson (1938)
When I was a young man courting the girls
I played me a waiting game
If a maid refused me with tossing curls
While I plied her with tears in lieu of pearls
I’d let the old Earth make a couple of whirls
And as time came around she came my way
As time came around, she came
Oh, it’s a long, long time from May to December
But the days grow short when you reach September
When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame
One hasn’t got time for the waiting game
Oh, the days dwindle down to a precious few
September, November
And these few precious days I’ll spend with you
These precious days I’ll spend with you
SEPTEMBER OF MY YEARS – J. Van Heusen, S. Cahn (1965)
One day you turn around and it’s summer
Next day you turn around and it’s fall
And the springs and the winters of a lifetime
Whatever happened to them all?
As a man who has always had the wand’ring ways
Now I’m reaching back for yesterdays
‘Til a long-forgotten love appears
And I find that I’m sighing softly
As I near September, the warm September of my years
As I man who has never paused at wishing wells
Now I’m watching children’s carousels
And their laughter’s music to my ears
And I find that I’m smiling gently
As I near September, the warm September of my years
All the golden warm Septembers of my years
SEPTEMBER, IN THE RAIN – Harry Warren/Al Dubin (1937)
The leaves of brown, came tumbling down, remember
That September, in the rain
The sun went out just like a dying ember
That September, in the rain
To every word of love I heard you whisper
All the raindrops seem to play a sweet refrain
Though spring is here, to me it’s still September
That September, in the rain
TRY TO REMEMBER – Harvey Schmidt/Tom Jones (1960)
Try to remember the kind of September
when life was slow and oh so mellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
when grass was green and grain was yellow.
Try to remember the kind of September
when you were a tender and callow fellow,
Try to remember and if you remember then follow.
Try to remember when life was so tender
that no one wept except the willow.
Try to remember when life was so tender
that dreams were kept beside your pillow.
Try to remember when life was so tender
when love was an ember about to billow.
Try to remember and if you remember then follow.
Deep in December it’s nice to remember
although you know the snow will follow.
Deep in December it’s nice to remember
without the hurt the heart is hollow.
Deep in December it’s nice to remember
the fire of September that made us mellow.
Deep in December our hearts should remember and follow.
And just to show September is not all melancholy, here’s one just for fun.
