Make A Change

*Author's Note- This is a poem I wrote to the tune of one of my favorite songs. 
The song is called Lessons Learned, and it was written by Carrie Underwood.  I'm
not really used to writing poems,  so I'd really appreciate comments and
constructive criticism .

A very long, long time ago,
The world was clean, so bright it glowed,
But now, can't you see what we've done?
The rivers, they were once unharmed,
Animals were not alarmed,
By these bulldozers tearing up their homes.
Don't say that it don't matter,
The people can work harder,
To make our planet stronger,
And you know,
Our home's at stake,
It's time we take,
This chance to make a change.

CHORUS
With every tree that falls to the ground, every one
With every time we go and let the water run
With every car belching exhaust by the ton
We're polluting our once clean, fresh air
So stop using aerosol for your hair!
Our home's at stake,
It's time we take,
This chance to make a change.

There's pollution in the air,
Bombs are flying everywhere,
But fighting
Will never help our planet.
We're trashing the world's land and sea,
Hurting our earth needlessly,
Children
Do you really want to inherit this?
Don't say it don't make a difference,
The future's still unwritten
Let's fix the world we're given
Our home's at stake,
It's time we take,
This chance to make a change

CHORUS
With every tree that falls to the ground, every one
With every time we go and let the water run
With every car belching exhaust by the ton
We're polluting our once clean, fresh air
So stop using aerosol for your hair!
Our home's at stake,
It's time we take,
This chance to make a change.

And everything that you do,
Can make a difference, you know it.
We can change our actions
For the earth's benefit
And we just gotta keep on working
So we can all
Make a change

CHORUS
With every tree that falls to the ground, every one
With every time we go and let the water run
With every car belching exhaust by the ton
We're polluting our once clean, fresh air
So stop using aerosol for your hair!
Our home's at stake,
It's time we take,
This chance to make a change.

Alas, Babylon Quote

*Authors Note:  This is a response to a writing assignment given to me where I have to pick a quote in my independant reading book and discuss its importance.

"When a man dies, and his children die with him, then he is dead entirely, leaving nothing to show."

-Mark Bragg

Randy's brother Mark already knows there will be a nuclear war, and since he's stationed at an important military base, and that's exactly where the Soviet Union will be pointing their weapons, he knows he's going to die.  But he also knows that just because he dies, doesn't mean his family has to, so he sends his wife and children down to live in Florida with Randy.  The quote above is extremely important in the book, because it's where he decides to deliver his family to Randy.  If Randy didn't have the wife and children there, he most certainly would've died almost immediately, because although Randy leads them, without their contribution and ideas, he wouldn't have stood a chance to survive.

Alas, Babylon- Setting

*Authors Note 
This is a response to a writing assignment. 
The setting of Alas, Babylon is one of the most important things about the 
novel, because without it, there would be no story.  I say this because this book was set in the era of the Cold War.  The Cold War was "fought" between the US and the Soviet Union.  What really happened throughout this war was that both countries had control over nuclear weapons and both countries were threatening to attack each other with them.  Neither ended up following through with the threat, but this book is about what would've happened if Russia really did follow through and there was a nuclear attack on the country.  If this wasn't set in the era of the Cold War, then there really wouldn't be a story.  
 
 
The place, of course, is also very important.  The main character Randy lives in Fort Repose, a town in Florida.  The reason it's so important for him to live in a small town like this is because it's not too close to any big military bases.  
The military bases are the direct targets of the Soviet Union's nuclear attack, so if he lives at or near any of the cities with military bases in them, no matter how deep he digs to hide from the radiation and the explosions, they will still kill him almost immediately. 

Alas, Babylon Character Actions

*Authors Note
-This is a response to a writing assignment on our current novel

-Alas, Babylon is set in the time period of the Cold War (1945-1991).  For those of you who don't know what the Cold War is, it was basically an era of hostility between the US and the Soviet Union, where each threatened to attack each others territory with nuclear weapons.

 In Alas, Babylon, the novel I have chosen for our next assignment,  the main character's name is Randy.  He's 32 years old, and is well known for his drinking habits, his player-like style, and most of all, his time running for mayor, in which he was shot down, the overall ratio of votes 5 to 1.  But in the first chapter of the book, Randy learns a terrible secret.  The Soviet Union is really following through this time.  They're going to launch a nuclear attack.  His brother Mark, who works in military, has told him this and sent his children and wife to live with Randy, because Randy lives in a place farther away from any major targets of the Soviet Union's attack.   Of course, Randy can't tell anybody about this, because if the people believe him, it will spark a nationwide panic.  If he tells anyone, it could also get his brother Mark killed for sharing the information, as it was highly classified. 
When Randy learns about the horrible fate of his country, he immediately goes to the store and stocks up on as much food and other necessities as possible, for him and his brother's family.  I think that this was a smart move on his part, because without food they'd survive maybe a week at the most.  I believe that his actions say that he wants to survive, needs to survive, if not for him, for Mark's family.  This is very important, because even though I've only just started the book, I have a feeling the theme might be survival.