All I Want for Christmas

Today my blog is going to be about the Christmas present the United States really needs. A lot of people want laptops, game systems, and other gifts, but this Christmas we need to think of something that doesn’t just satisfy our wants, but satisfies our needs as well.

If I could give a gift to the United States, it would be to elevate the education system here. When my mom was traveling all over the country she was learning about the education systems in every state. I came with her to some places and learned about the systems. Some stories were very hard to hear. A lot of the schools weren’t safe environments for the kids. For example, students in New Orleans would have to be in a school with armed cops. Even though there are many other problems I could have written about, the problem about education stuck with me the most.

I used to go to a charter school where there was a lot of violence that almost never got resolved. I was bullied at that school and it was very hard for me. My mom did everything in her power to help me, but nothing worked. Finally, she took me out of school and started to home-school me. I’ve been doing that for a year and a half. This is really why I am so concerned about the education system.

If I could create a school system, I would be sure that it had these parts to it: an equal education and a safe and loving environment for all students. I picked these two parts because I think that these are the most important qualities to have in a school. If every student had an equal education in a safe and loving environment then the percentage of kids dropping out wouldn’t be so high.

Having a good education is very important because knowledge can lead you anywhere in you want to go. It will give you the opportunity to be anyone you want to be. All students deserve a place on this planet to shine.
Happy holidays to everyone!

Becoming a Vegetarian

As a part of my health curriculum I watched a documentary called Food Inc. Food Inc. examines food corporations in the United States. They talk about the abuse animals have to go though when they live in industrial farms, and how these companies are environmentally harmful. I saw baby chickens getting their eyes stapled shut and also the chemicals they use on the farms are dangerous and go out into the air. I learned that the meat they package is filled with hormones, antibiotics and more toxic chemicals. Once I watched the whole documentary I didn’t have a craving for chicken of beef any more. When I saw those animals in Food Inc. get abused, I wasn’t able to eat them. That is how I became a vegetarian.
Becoming a vegetarian was difficult at first but my mom helped me by becoming one as well. We went shopping at special food stores so I could have special vegetarian meals. We still went to the same restaurants but we just had vegetarian meals. My mom and I were eating more fruits and vegetables. I even created new recipes. I was reading more vegetarian and vegan cook books and that helped a lot with changing my diet. It was a big change for us and we think it made a little change in the world.
As I changed my eating habits I saw changes in my body. I started to have more energy and my skin was brighter. I would have better sleep by not eating dessert before bed and drinking tea instead. I was also introducing myself to a healthier state for my mind and for my body.
When I became a vegetarian there were only a few people who supported me. Many of friends and family wanted me to eat meat and I couldn’t. This change was one of the hardest but I had to keep faith in myself and never give up. This was the accomplishment that was most important to me. I wasn’t going to let temptations of friends stop me from making a change. This was most important to me because I knew I was helping a lot of things: the Earth, animals, and my body.
I wish people would become vegetarian because they would be healthier. If people can’t become vegetarians they can start out with four things so they can be healthier. First, you shouldn’t eat foods being produced from a large industrial farm. Choose small family farming. Second, stay away from fast foods. Fast foods are just high in calories and low in nutrition. Third, eat organic foods. Organic foods aren’t sprayed with pesticides. They don’t fill meats with hormones or antibiotics. Fourth, make foods at home instead of eating out. You always know what you put in your food at home, not like restaurants.
Overall I decided to become a vegetarian because I was disgusted with the way the large industrial farms were treating animals and our Earth and I wanted to do something about it.

All Life Matters!

Hi it’s me and I’m back blogging again! I’ve been away for the summer doing many fun things. I traveled around the country visiting different cities, and went to my New Afrikan Scouts camp in Mississippi. I hope you had a wonderful summer just like I did.

But what I want to talk to you about right now is something that came up when I was recently with my mom’s friend. She told us about how people who live near the Brooklyn college she attends, torture cats. She’s seen cats with their legs purposely broken just laying there and crying. That’s horrible! I am an animal lover and a lover of all life so this really concerns and hurts me.

People shouldn’t be harming any living thing. It worries me because killing any type of animal can lead to its extinction or endangerment. This has happened to a lot of fish in places where humans over-fish. And if you are a kid hurting animals, I’ve read where it can lead to you being a killer as you get older. Kids who torture animals become less sensitive to suffering, which makes it easier for them to kill as adults. This is a big problem that we need to solve.

My big question is: why somebody would hurt animals in the first place? I think it’s because people want to feel powerful as if they need to control something. Little cats and dogs are easier to control then somebody older than you (or even a very big animal like a lion). This is just being a bully and bullying is always wrong. If you’re a kid, it might also be because you have felt peer pressure from a friend. Either way it is wrong and we need to do something about it.

Here it what we can do about it. If you see someone hurt an animal, do something about it. Tell your parents or tell them to stop. Get help. Don’t just watch it or ignore it. Also, you can get a parent or friend to help you join a group where people are trained in fighting animal cruelty. Whatever you decide, stand up to bullying wherever you see it!

What Can You Do To Help the Earth?

Today I will write about global warming. Global warming is an increase in the average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and the consequences are climate change. Global warming is caused by many different things, but the main cause is human activity. When people drive cars and they have used all the gas the carbon is instantly released into carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. That is killing many things including our Earth and animals. Global warming is threatening one of the most popular animals of Antarctica - the penguin. Global warming is causing many penguins to diebecause they lack food to eat. Polar bears are dying of globalwarming because they are losing their homes. Ice is melting which means they can’t walk and they are drowning. Seals are dying as well. Once a seal loses itshome it swims around until it can find ice to live on. Most seals swimaround day and night to look for shelter, and when they don’t findhomes they drown. Now I could name many other names of animalsthat are dying but let’s focus on the positive side. How can we stop global warming? I know how I can. Here arefive things I can do to help the Earth and make it a better place:I will start to walk more and ride my bike more, (that’s good for the body and lives of other animals.) I will take shorter showers.Change all the light bulbs to go-green bulbs.Use less heat in the winter and less air conditioning in the summer.Use cold water more than hot. Those are some things I am doing. What can you do to help the Earth?

Global Warming

Happy Poetry Month

Since it is poetry month, I have decided to write my blog about my favorite poet because she inspires me so much. Her name is Nikki Giovanni. I like her because she speaks in a language that I can understand and relate to. Nikki Giovanni’s famous poem Ego Trippin makes me feel proud to be black. I like poetry because it allows you to look at something in a new way. When I read poetry I learn how to be more creative and express my feelings in a different way. Even though poetry seems like it has no rules, I have learned that there are lots poetic forms, like sonnets (14 lines each) or haikus (3 lines each with a syllable count like this: 5 – 7 – 5). But even though I studied these forms, I also got to create my own form (7 syllables in each line and there are 7 lines). Being able to get out there and write my own poetry is why I love Nikki Giovanni.

Her first book came out in 1968, a year before she had her son. Since then she has written almost thirty books. Here are some great lines from Ego Trippin:

I am so hip - even my errors are correct
I turned myself into myself-and was Jesus!
The tears from my birth pains created the Nile
He gave me Rome for Mother’s Day
I mean ... I ... can fly
like a bird in the sky ...


In part because of her work, I was able to write this poem, which is how I will close my blog out today.

Where I’m From

I’m from the house that plays loud Bob Marley music
I’m from my mom making mashed potatoes
I’m from every new ipod, laptop, cell phone and TVI’m from my friends coming to my birthday parties and going shopping
with them
Buying all the cute baby phat shirts and skinny jeans
I’m from my fashion designs
I’m from the Louis Vuitton bags
I’m from the soft sheets on my bed
I’m from people loving all my blogs
I’m from many New Year’s Eves with all the fireworks
gleaming in the sky
I’m from Kwanzaa celebrations to Christmas parties to baby showers to Easter dinners
I’m from my pre-K Little Sun People
I’m from my family
Most importantly I’m from my house that plays loud Bob Marley music.
c. 2010 by Nisa Rashid

Everybody remembers the January 12th earthquake that hit Haiti. Hundreds of thousands were killed. Many of my friends were very scared and worried. When I heard about the earthquake my Haitian friend was at my house. She worried about her baby cousins, grandfather and aunts and uncles. Many people rushed to help them. But now the world is pretending like it didn’t happen. As I was reading the New York Times today I read about the girls in Haiti getting abused, and how the shelters people made are falling apart, and how there is still not enough water.

Since this is women’s history month we should take this time to be like Harriet Tubman. No matter how big or terrible the problem of slavery was, she was always committed, never gave up, always paid attention, and was always brave. Right now for Haiti we can all do something. Why don’t you share your ideas about what we can do now to help Haiti!

Lately many things have bothered me, but what I am writing about today has especially bothered me. Many of my friends put themselves down, talk about how they wish they looked like a famous person, and how they don’t love themselves.

This bothers me because I hear too often about how they don’t like themselves. I feel like people should always appreciate themselves. Too many of us girls talk about how we could get a nose job or get weaves just like Mariah Carey or Beyonce. Many girls say this because that’s what’s put out into the world.

Our everyday singers, actresses and models have long weaves. Miley Cyrus, Beyonce, Naomi Campbell, Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj are who we look at and say “I wanna look like her”. My mother told me that girls used to think about the good they could do for the community, not how “good” they should look, but this was long before videos.

Real beauty is what makes a person. Kindness, friendship, hard work, passion and faith is what makes everyone have real beauty. If you have faith in yourself everyone will have faith in you. Kindness is the key to friendship. Hard work is what you need to do anything. Anybody who wants to be a painter, teacher, veterinarian or poet, has to work hard and have passion. Passion is what makes you to be a better person. A better person is a more beautiful person.

Listen to the Children

Today my blog will be about adults listening to children more often. What makes me want to talk about this right now is that there was an incident in my fashion design class where a student threw an eraser at my eye. I then replied with great anger “I’m not a dog, I don’t fetch things.” My fashion design teacher yelled at me saying that I can’t say that. She was accusing me of being the bully to the other girl. I tried to explain to my teacher that she threw something at me but I was cut off. I walked out at the end of the class furious telling myself that I should never go back to that program again.
This was a pretty bad situation but not the worst.

At the charter school my mother took me out of, one administrator, for example regularly believed the class bully over some of the best students. The bully knew how to manipulate teachers and make them believe her. On the particular day I’m talking about, it was early in the school year and my friends and I were having our daily cheerleading practice. The bully goes over to the administrator Ms. Davidson and tells her that our cheerleading is inappropriate and that we were talking about her. That was all a lie. We tried to tell Ms. Davidson that she was wrong, but she didn’t believe us. She made me and my friends do a pyramid on the concrete as punishment. We were all wearing shorts or skirts so it was really embarrassing and it really hurt girls who were on the bottom row. More than a year later some of us were talking about how badly we were hurt by that incident and only then did we find out from my mom and my friend’s mom that what that woman was actually abuse. We started talking about how important it was for children to talk to and be heard by adults. In my house, sometimes my mom yells at me for something I didn’t do, but she always says I’m sorry when she listens to me and realizes she was wrong. So the outcome is that I always feel like I can always talk to my mom and I can always talk in my house. I would like to feel that everywhere.

To every adult who is reading this, please listen to every child. If it is a situation about choosing who’s right, listen to ALL the information before you judge!

To every child who is reading this, don’t be shy to tell someone, because you have a voice that everyone wants to hear.

Black women being sheros

During Black History Month I always learned about men making changes and helping black people, but this year I wanted to acknowledge the women who made our lives better. I begin with Shirley Chisholm. She participated in mainstream politics she tried to make all communities better. She became a Congresswoman in 1969, making her the first black woman to be elected to Congress. On January 25, 1972 Shirley became the first major party black candidate for the President of the United States. On January 1, 2005 Shirley Chisholm died but she left a legacy behind that we see today in Barack Obama becoming the first Black president of the United States.

The second African-American leader I want to write about is Ruby Bridges. Ruby Bridges was born September 8, 1954 in Tylertown, Mississippi. Her parents moved to New Orleans when she was four years old. The historic decision by the Supreme Court, Brown v Board of Education had already passed the year Ruby was born. It said that in education separate was not equal and that black and white children could go to school together. Ruby then was chosen to take a test so she could get a better education—at an all-white school. After passing the admissions test, Ruby became the first child in New Orleans to integrate the public schools. It was very scary for her because of all the racism. She had to school with police walking her and secrurity being posted around her. There was only one willing adult to teach her. Her name was Barbara Henry and Ruby said that she was the most loving teacher she had. She would always help Ruby with her struggles being the only black kid in the school.

The third person I am writing about is Assata Shakur. Her birth name was JoAnne Chesimard and she was born on July 16, 1947. She was a member of the New York chapter of the Black Panther Party. She became a Black Panther because of all the poverty and unfair treatment from police that black people recived. The Panthers made free breakfast for children and provided medical help for people who needed it. On May 2, 1973 Assata was driving down the New Jersey Turnpike when she got pulled over by the police and was arrested. Her friend Zayd Shakur was killed. Assata was also shot two times and was convicted of killing a cop, even though there was no evidince. She was framed. After 6 years and 6 months she decided to escape from prison. She is now living in Cuba were she is protected by the government and where no one can hurt her.

Even though they led different lives, all of these women teach me the same things: to have hope, to be courageous and to stand our ground and not let anyone push you away.

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What Goal Have You Achieved?

Everyone knows I home school and my mom can't teach me everything. So I take many classes out home. For art I take a fashion design class on Saturdays. Last week we finished our first big project. We made tote bags! In that time period I learned how to use a sewing machine, I learned how to tread a sewing machine, sew a basic stitch and base thread. We all used African cloth. At the end I felt very accomplished and I felt I achieved my goal. I had great pride in everyone and I can't wait until we start our next project.

The re-make of We are the World is terrible

Now everybody knows the famous song We are the World by Michael Jackson. After the earthquake Wyclef got people together this Monday to do a remake. It's for a great cause again (my mom told me original was in response to famine in East Africa). But there's one problem and it has my head spinning. Quincy Jones, one of the best music producers ever, didn't have the talent to work with that he had 25 years ago. The remake God awful remake. First of all I hate Justin Beiber. He is racist and always makes fun of black people. He stereotypes us. He shouldn't be in there. Also, a lot of the singers are just plain bad, like Nick Jonas. He killed my eardrums. So did Miley Cyrus who also stereotypes people including Jamaican and Chinese people. She can't even come close to sounding as good as Cindy Lauper or Whitney Houston's auntie (I forgot her name). Plus Celine Dion is overdramtic and annoying. Why does she always beat her chest? I like the point of it, how they are doing it for Haiti. But the sound is awful. What do you think?

Welocme :))

Welcome Everybody! Today I just created my blog and so far it is fantastic! I hope you will read my blog and love it.


Yours Truly,
Nisa