Library Fiesta

I wrote this for the Sentinel Newspaper at the end of June, 2012.
     Mariachi music. Mexican food. Face painting. Multi-cultural community gathering. These all describe the atmosphere of the 5^th annual Community Fiesta. The Friends of the Cottage Grove Library, a non-profit organization, has put on this event once again.
 

     The Friends of the Library’s goal is to “encourage people to attend the library”, says James Burke, one of the organizers of this year’s party. This party is one of many events The Friends put on every year. They help put on Book Sales multiple times a year. They recently worked with the Habitat for Humanity to build a storage shack, and constructed 25 bat houses last month.

     In 2008, the Friends of the Library organized this fiesta. They wanted to reach out to the Hispanic community, and held bilingual tours and story-time at the library. This coincided with a large donation of Spanish books. The party was a celebration for diversity and for the library.

     The Fiesta is a free event for families to draw attention to the library and The Friends of the Library. There were activities for kids, which included face painting, and piñata making. There was Mexican food, donated by the local restaurants, “El Paraiso”, “Torero’s”, and “El Tapatio”. A Mariachi band, named Mariachi Herradura de Oro, played live music, which gave the whole place a festive flavor. The band, an eleven member ensemble, has existed for about three and a half years, and played a number of instruments: a Mexican Guitarron, along with trumpets and violins. They traveled from table to table, consistently asking for requests from the attentive audience. This is the second year they have attended the fiesta.

     The Friends of the Library decided to conduct the Fiesta during the Art Walk this week. They believed the Mariachi music would attract those walking from business to business. “People really enjoy parties,” said Samantha Duncan, another organizer of this year’s event. It seemed to work, as there was a constant supply of attendees. The kids seemed to be enjoying themselves as there was always a long line for face painting. A number of them claimed the party was “pretty cool”, and their parents agreed that it was a “great community event”.

     This Community Fiesta was “a great way to get the community out,” says Burke.  It brought together the cultures in a free family fun way. The Library parking lot will continue to be the location for this celebration in future years, and all families are invited to participate

Bike Fest

I wrote this article for The Sentinel in June:

     The 8^th annual Bike Fest transpired on Saturday, June 24th. John Logan, also known as “J-lo” by his compatriots, of “Star Touring and Riding” organized this event. He rides with the local “Star Chapter 339” motorcyclists, who put on this event for the benefit of the city and the promotion of their charity: Youth On Their Own (YOTO).

      Parent Partnership (YOTO) helps homeless teens make it through school, encourages them, and buys clothes and school supplies for them. All the profits made by “Star Touring and Riding” at the Bike Fest were given to this organization, to support their mission.

     This exploit seemed to be quite a success, as it has been in years past. Cottage Grove’s Main Street was closed and more than a hundred motorcycles of all shapes and sizes lined one side of the street. Vendors lined the other side and displayed their goods. The merchandise included motorcycle gear, hot dogs, popcorn, jewelry, and other vendors, such as Western States Insurance and Oregon Concealed. Participants came from all over Oregon.

      Star Chapter 339 raffled off many items, including t-shirts, motorcycle gear, etc, that sponsors donated. A large number of sponsors helped this event, with Big Stuff Barbecue, Budweiser, and Cottage Grove Yamaha Motorsports being a few of them.

     A bike show occurred in the morning, with a number of cycles set out for sale. They had Choppers, bikes with saddle bags, loud Harleys, and other nearly silent bikes. A live band, “No Way Out” played most of the day, giving the event a loud and macho atmosphere, which seemed to fit the motorcycles perfectly.

      They held motorcycle games in the afternoon at the western end of Main Street. These games were quite entertaining, if slightly unusual. Motorcycles raced, but only the last one across the finish line was the winner. Two-seater bikes took turns going through a course, with a passenger on the back, who tried to pick up stuffed animals off the road with a fishing-net. Again, the drivers who maintained the slowest steadiest speed appeared to do best. Another group of two-seater bikes contested in a clothes-pin drop, with seven buckets of different shapes and sizes. Many more games also took place.

      John Logan seemed happy with the turnout, and how the “Star Chapter 339” was benefitting the community. “We just want to help,” he stated. This event was much more difficult to plan than it appeared, and “it took nearly 6 months to organize”. Though it’s the eighth annual meet, it’s only the third to actually take place on Main Street, where it will most likely be continued in later years, hopefully with equal or better success.

The Hunger Games series

     I recently read the popular book trilogy written by Suzanne Collins, known as "The Hunger Games". I enjoyed them all, more than I thought I would, especially the second two.
     I had a friend approach me the other day, and he had the audacity to accuse Collins of being a feminist. I had to take some time to think about this, but I decided that I did not agree with him. A feminist is someone who believes that women should be treated as completely equal to men. Some feminists would take it farther and out-rightly say that women are superior and should therefore be in charge. I will say that I do not have a serious problem will women being in charge at times and even agree that they are better than men in SOME areas. My friend gave me a number of reasons why he believed the book was written by a feminist and I am going to be so bold as to disagree.
[Spoiler Alert]

      Friend: Throughout The Hunger Games Trilogy, it becomes apparent that Suzanne believes men should not be leaders, and that women in general do not need the men, except to have kids... This is shone as it becomes clear that ALL of the District Leaders in the rebellion are women, along with most of the leaders in the book. President Snow is the only exception, and he obviously is not to be looked upon as a good leader. He's twisted and evil, and the major Antagonist for the entirety of the series.
      I would say that simply having female leaders in the book doesn't make her a feminist. I personally know a number of women and men who are equally able to be good leaders, and if I was writing a book, I would also put female leaders in, though probably not as many. I also think that for characters to be important, they don't necessarily have to be the leaders. Collins shows a number of men and women, most of whom have equally serious problems.

     My friend then recounted to me how each of the male characters were deliberately shown to be failures and not true men, or true heroes:
     Friend: Gale was simply an angry young man, who though fully willing to take control and lead the rebels to victory like a hero, was not compassionate at all. He was more than willing to kill a few hundred innocent people in order to stop Snow. This cruelty somewhat ruined his character, especially for Katniss. He was a symbol of aggression and rebellion, an extremist.
     I agree that Gale was an extremist, and that he made several major mistakes, however, sometimes it takes an extremist to get a job done. If he had spared the hundred innocent people, would the Capital simply have killed them the next day? But then again, I'm using his justification process to decide would gets to live and who gets to die. That is a major difference between "good guys" and "bad guys". The bad don't care who they step on as they rise to power, which makes them evil. But the good are compassionate and do care, which makes them pure, if slightly unrealistic.

     Friend: Peeta could have been a leader, but was not given the chance. It was continually stated throughout the story that he should be the leader, because everyone liked him more than Katniss, and he always knew what to say. But he didn't really want to be the leader. All he wanted was to keep Katniss safe, which put him at her mercy. Though this could be considered "heroic" and honorable, he was not the strong specimen of a man that Gale was. He didn't do much in any of the games, physically or mentally, and was consistently getting in Katniss' way. In this way, Collins portrays him as weak.
     I agree that Peeta never really wanted to be the leader. That was because he already was. Everyone listened when he talked. He already controlled more than most of the rest of the characters. And yet, he didn't want to be like Coin, or Gale, and especially not Snow, who got the power and wanted more. Power corrupts and I believe Peeta was somehow aware of that. It is true he would have died for Katniss, but what girl doesn't want a man who would be willing to die for her? What more of a man do you need?

     Friend: Haymitch could also be considered a leader, but he hid from his past by getting drunk and staying unconscious. Again, though he did attempt to help Katniss and the Districts, he was not really one to look up to.
      All true, but don't we all know someone like this? His position may not be excusable, but it is understandable. The Games were pretty horrible.

     Friend: Finnick was one of the manliest figures from the series, but still not enough. He acts like a pervert in the beginning, but Collins explains the reasons for that later, since he was used by the Capital as "sex symbol".  Finnick was also in love with a crazy girl. Would a strong guy like him really fall for an infirm?
     Finnick's love for Annie shows that he had a very tender side, and it gave us more compassion for his predicament. He also dies a hero, which increases our love for him as a character. I don't see anything unmanly about him.

     My friend, of course, skipped my favorite character in the book, Cinna, who I believe is the greatest symbol of a man. He openly showed his rebellion against the Capital, but in a way that 1) caused him to be the only one physically hurt, 2) helped the Districts immensely, and 3) he thought ahead to what would be needed at later times (such as the Mocking Jay suit) before his time came. He was not a creep to Katniss, and truly cared about her and the Districts. He wasn't greedy for power. He wanted to make a statement with his life, before it ended. I would say he definitely succeeded. Unlike Gale, he kept himself even-headed at all times, and thought about how his actions would affect everyone. Unlike Haymitch, he was willing to face the facts, and take the consequences, knowing full well that he would die. Unlike Finnick and Peeta, he had no family or friends to miss. He was one man making a stand. If Collins was a feminist, she would have made Cinna female, because if any of the characters in the books are to be considered real heroes/heroines, it would be him.

     Friend: Coin, leader of District 13, was obviously the head of the show. She called all the shots and took credit for organizing the rebellion in the first place, or at least to kept it going. No-one questioned her, and she made everything run smoothly.
     True, however, Coin was not perfect. She was not everyone's favorite and did not have the power to run the "show" by herself. She made this pretty clear when she explained that she needed Katniss to be the face of the rebellion. Also, Coin was greedy for power. Like I said earlier, power corrupts. When she thought she had enough, she no longer cared about the safety of Katniss, or Peeta, or the children in the Capital. Katniss/Collins obviously agreed or else she would not have taken her life prematurely.

     Friend: Of course, when Coin's life was suddenly and unexpectedly ended, Paylor, leader of District 8, took command. She was also a strong, able-bodied woman, who took no flack, and organized things to run smoothly. Why didn't Plutarch take command?
     Paylor was much like Coin, except not quite as power hungry. She had proved herself earlier in taking care of District 8 that she was competent, and I don't believe the rebellion leaders would have elected her had she been power hungry. Plutarch, the Head Gamemaker, had enough problems. The newly conquered Capital and Districts would not have been trusted by the community at large, since he had been chiefly involved with Snow earlier on.

     Friend: Last, but not least, there was Katniss, who told the story through her eyes. She was an arrogant feminist, who believed that she could do it all herself. She didn't want Peeta or Gale, except when it was convenient, and she constantly complained of how Peeta constantly got into her way. She disobeyed orders, because like most teenagers, she thought she knew best. As was repeatedly pointed out in the book, she wasn't even well liked, except by what Peeta said about her, and how the cameras helped her.
     Here, I pointed out that my friend had dug his one grave, so-to-speak. If Collins had been a feminist, she would have showed how Katniss succeeded by herself too, or with only the help of other women. That obviously wasn't the case. Peeta and Gale helped her throughout most of the book. Finnick saves her life by giving his own. Cinna helped her as much as anyone. Also, even before the end, she realizes that she does need Peeta. She wants him to hold her and tell her she was safe. She wants him to protect her. And though she does carry herself for most of the book as though she was better and superior to most of the people around her, she knew she wasn't.

     There are other instances throughout the series which show that Suzanne Collins was no feminist. Since she took on the view of an arrogant teenage girl, the "invincible, I-can-do-it-myself" traits are to be expected. Also Katniss, like many girls her age and adults, had been deeply hurt as a child. In response, she closed the world out, and decided that she couldn't trust anyone else, without fear of getting hurt. Thus her "superiority" came more from her fear of being hurt again than from anything else. In truth, this is probably where feminism came from in the first place: a group of women who had been hurt and whose husbands/father's/etc would not help them or protect. If the men would rise up and take care of their wives and daughters, I doubt feminists would even exist. In that case, we need more people like Peeta and Cinna.

YWA's Writing Contest

Where Nightmare’s Reign

 

What if you couldn't tell what was real?

And tangible things had no feel,

But use reality's blinds to conceal...

 

Your sister suddenly disappears –

No-one saw a single thing –

But you find her dress and bloodied shears.

 

You walk through a garden of flowers,

And slip into sinking sand –

An unseen hole where you fall for hours.

 

Your family dog, a lifelong friend,

Transforms into a rabid wolf.

You're forced to kill it; not pretend.

 

Then you awake, and all is back,

but you have an awkward feeling,

since you're tied to a railroad track.

 

As the engine closes in,

You flee at full speed, and look behind

To see the devil with a morbid grin.

 

You trip over a corpse and scream

and struggle away from the evil

to find yourself in bed, a dream.

 

Daring yourself to awake,

You step into the familiar hall,

and everything begins to shake.

 

The house splits into two

And a trench opens beneath, falling,

the heat increases to burn you.

 

Fire licks and teeth bite both your feet

You cannot escape no-matter

how you shake and tear the bed sheet.

 

Back out on the lamp-lit street,

Where jack-o-lanterns smile in the dark,

You go door-to-door to trick-or-treat.

 

Not knowing what they put inside

the candy bits, you bite one open,

and poison seeps in like a tide.

 

It crashes over you: drowned.

Pulling you under: suffocation.

Until you cannot hear a sound.

 

Screams erupt with a sounding boom,

And you throw yourself to dry ground,

Discovering a zombie-filled tomb.

 

Undead attack of all size and shape.

You run along car-infested streets

And realize it's all real: No escape.

 

If no chills have run from your brain,

Know that you're probably insane,

And can't see the place where nightmares reign.

 

 

 

I wrote this poem for the “Young Writers Association’s Scary Writing Contest”. I had to write something scary, but not gory in 300 words or less. I started by writing a couple short stories, but soon found that my writing was strange and weird, not scary. So, I decided to try another approach. I wrote this poem, aiming more for creepy, rather than scary, but hoped it would give chills. Reading the poem now, it still doesn’t quite accomplish that unless you think about what the underlying idea is…

 

When I began writing this, I decided to make as many three line stanzas as would amount to 300 words, with the last words of the 1^st and 3^rd lines in each stanza rhyming. (I later changed the format for the first and final stanzas so that all three lines rhyme. I thought it added an extra flourish and sounded cool too.) I ended up with 16 stanzas, but my simple structure didn't quite fit what I wanted.

 

After about 5 stanzas, I saw that I had only succeeded in writing somewhat random creepy thoughts, but the stanzas had no links to each other. Re-reading the few that I had, I realized that I could link each stanza to the next, simply by putting an idea at the end of one, which I continued into the next.

 

For example: the “shears” at the end of the 2^nd would be used in the “garden” of the 3^rd. The “hole” in the 3^rd could have been made by the “dog” in the 4^th. “Pretend” in the 4^th contrasts sharply with the “awake”-ning from a dream in the 5^th, etc.

 

At the point when I was working on the 14th stanza, I decided I needed to re-evaluate what the point of my poem was. Could it be more than a collection of creepy incidents? So starting around stanza 14, the lines became more complicated.

 

Stanza 14 continues from 13 as if the flood carried you under water and threw you up into a deserted cavern, which reveals itself as a “tomb”. The tomb comes to life in 15, since they are almost always filled with “undead” anyway. 15 then reveals that it really was all to real-life, everyone in the world is dead (or undead), and there is “no escape” from that life… a true nightmare.

 

My poem was finished. If anyone read the poem for what it was truelly saying, they would see past the semi-random incidents and see the deeper point. I knew that the poem wasn’t necessarily scary by itself, so maybe it wouldn’t cause “chills”, but I told my readers that if they could “see” what our world for what it really is (with all its horrible problems as exagerated in the body of the poem), they would come to realize that we live in a place “where nightmares reign”.

 

Once that was discovered, we must ask ourselves, is this all life is? "Reality's blinds" might decieve us for a little while so that we cannot see what our lives are, but unless we're insane we can't go through life without asking, "is there nothing more?" This poem is meant to inspire that question, the answer to which should make us embrace our broken world all the more.