Good Morning.

2009-04-28T06:35:00.000-07:00

"The moment when you first wake up in the morning is the most wonderful of the twenty-four hours. No matter how weary or dreary you may feel, you possess the certainty that, during the day that lies before you, absolutely anything may happen. And the fact that it practically always doesn't, matters not a jot. The possibility is always there." ~Monica Baldwin

I truly like this quote. Not just because the author who wrote it, has my last name. But because this quote is something you can live by something that you can remember and think of throughout the day.

I love just looking up quotes and saying , " wow, that is so true. I would have never thought of that." and this morning i found this quote and i thought i would share it(even though i barely have anyone to read this.)

So good morning, and try to have a good day today.

( just remember):

“Welcome every morning with a smile. Look on the new day as another special gift from your Creator, another golden opportunity to complete what you were unable to finish yesterday. Be a self-starter. Let your first hour set the theme of success and positive action that is certain to echo through your entire day. Today will never happen again. Don't waste it with a false start or no start at all. You were not born to fail.”

( first quote from: http://www.quotegarden.com/morning.html)
(second quote from: http://thinkexist.com/quotes/with/keyword/morning/)

-kelly.

Holocaust..,

2009-04-27T20:26:00.000-07:00

The word "Holocaust." Take two seconds, what does this word mean to you? Does it mean, Adolf Hitler, All the billions of Jews that were killed, a time in history where we found out evil actually existed, or even the time in history we found out one person can change the world forever? Well, actually "Holocaust" is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire." Which, is what it really means(to those who didn't look it up and actually thought about it, or even guessed.)

To me, the Holocaust was the ultimate example of what otherwise intelligent people will do when they are downtrodden (as the Germans were following WW1) and someone tells them what they want to hear and gives them someone to blame for their troubles. Anti-Semitism was always present--the Nazis put it to work for their own ends. As Josef Goebbels said: "The vast majority of people will believe a big lie more easily than a small one."

The Holocaust to me always leaves me speechless. There are no words to describe the horrors committed. To have experienced it, lived it day-to-day, in rotten barracks, starving, terrified, longing for death as a release from such Hell on earth, watching your friends and loved ones die in such agony...I think that it the only way to ever really understand what happened. The rest of us can only attempt a vague appreciation for the nightmare. But, everything happens for a reason. Or so its told like that.

For all those who don't know about Adolf Hitler, he was born in Braunau am Inn, in Austria, on April 20, 1889, the third son of Alois and Klara Hitler. The family moved around a lot, including to Linz, Leonding and other places. Hitler did well in school at the beginning, but his marks got progressively worse as time went on. His father died when he was 14, his mother when he was 18. He tried twice to enter the Academy for Art in Vienna, but was rejected both times. Between 1909 and 1913, he lived in Vienna. He then moved to Munich (Germany) in 1913, and was still there when World War I broke out in August 1914.

Hitler enlisted in the German army and saw four years of front-line service during which he was wounded several times and decorated for bravery twice. He was gassed near the end of the war. During this time, he served as an intelligence agent for the military authorities, in the course of which he attended a meeting of the tiny German Workers Party in 1919. He later joined the party, became its leader and changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers Party, later called the Nazi Party.

The Nazis tried to seize power by force in November 1923 (called the Beer Hall Putsch), but were thwarted by the Munich police. Hitler was

convicted of high treason and sentenced to prison, where he served about a year. During that time, he began to write Mein Kampf (which means"My Struggle"), then it later became the second Bible in Nazi Germany. Hitler resolved to achieve power legally, and after a series of events too numerous to detail here, was appointed Chancellor of Germany by President von Hindenburg on January 30, 1933.

Over the next 6 years, Hitler undertook a series of measures designed to rid Germany of its obligations under the Treaty of Versailles (imposed on Germany after World War I), restore the economy which had been devastated by the Great Depression, rearm the country, and acquire Lebensraum ("living space") for Germany. In Mein Kampf, he had written of the need for this "living space" which he said could only be acquired at the expense of countries to the east, notably Russia. In 1938, by a series of intrigues, Germany annexed Austria and the Sudeten portion of Czechoslovakia, and, in 1939, occupied the remainder of Czechoslovakia.

During this time, Hitler implemented a series of measures designed to eliminate the Jews from German life. Among these were gradual exclusion from most spheres of professional activity, rules as to where they could live, prohibition of marriage and other relations between Germans and Jews, economic sanctions and many others. Jews were harassed, attacked, beaten and otherwise persecuted. Many were incarcerated in concentration camps under "protective custody" orders which were tantamount to indefinite imprisonment. There they were beaten, abused and frequently murdered.

So tell me what now do you think the meaning of the "Holocaust" is? Still think it's what you were thinking at the beginning of this? Well, when you look at all the pictures what is the first thing that pops up in your head? For me, well i wanna cry truthfully. Seeing people being treated like they are the dirt under our shoes because of their race, makes me so angry. I can't believe you would even treat another person you know nothing about like Hitler did.

People have different beliefs. But, i think we all learned something from this.., and that is we all know what one person can do. I think that the most important thing we can do is to continually bear witness to the Holocaust and make sure that every one of those souls lost is remembered. We can not turn back in time and prevent the Holocaust, but we can use it as a means of studying the darkest bits of human nature and ending any similar events in the future before they are allowed to begin.

(first photo: http://www.historywiz.com/images/holocaust/prisoners.jpg)
(second photo : http://www.holocaust-history.org/short-essays/hitler-480.jpg)

-Kelly.

Skipping A Step.

Good Morning.

Holocaust..,