A Teacher's Dispute of Watterson

Recently, an old friend of mine was sitting in her English class when her teacher asked her asked to write her favorite author on a piece of paper. She did not even think about hesitating as she put down Bill Watterson, creator of the comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes, for her answer. After this answer was read allowed her teacher responded by returning the paper back to her desk and said that cartoonists do not count as authors and had her write someone else who wrote “real stories.” As smart as this teacher may be, in that moment, she could not have been more wrong. Cartoonists put just as much, if not more work, into their writings than writers of books do.

Bill Watterson dedicated 10 years of his life to making Calvin and Hobbes and with each week he came up with at least one entirely different circumstance for the two characters. Calvin and Hobbes became real to everyone who read them. These characters had their own club, school, friends, home, parents, and tons of readers who loved Watterson’s work. When the strip was discontinued many people were disappointed and I am sure not one of these saddened people would say Watterson was not an author. Outside of being in newspapers for this many years, Watterson also compiled all his comics and placed them in about a dozen books. If making a book does not make you an author, then nothing does.

All the thought that goes into just one week of comics can easily add up to a children’s book and the people who write children’s books are all considered authors, so why did this teacher insist Bill Watterson was not one? Someone with her education, especially having been an English major, should know better and be able to recognize great work when she sees it. It disappoints me that she is also passing on this mindset to all her students.

Watterson put so much hard work and thought into everything he did and not just in drawing the characters and the great detail he put into their expressions, but also with what they said. These characters quoted many of Shakespeare’s plays and many of our founding fathers, such as Thomas Jefferson. All his comics taught life lessons or just made the reader think about life in general or their standing on a certain subject. Watterson had all of his fans thinking like a six year, but a very intelligent six year old. After reading Watterson’s works you could understand how a child must feel in almost any situation, but of course there was always the flip side as well, how does the parent feel. This comic strip does not allow you to escape from life as many fictional novels pride in having you do, but allows you to think twice about everything going on around you and make your life better. Calvin and Hobbes creates more progress than many novels. It makes me think twice as much as many novels have. This teacher in question needs to listen to herself and come to the realization that Watterson may actually be one of the greatest writers ever, specializing in short stories.

The Good of the American People

This past Wednesday was the day the media announced who our new president would be. I voted for George W. Bush, but was still surprised when I discovered he was the new president. I was so shocked because so many celebrities backed Kerry, his opponent in the race, up and how many people I came in contact with everyday who were voting for Kerry. I thought with all this publicity, positive for Kerry and negative for Bush, such as books and films including Michael Moore's film 9/11, Bush would lose, not drastically, but that he still would.

I was wrong about the Presidential election's outcome, but I couldn't understand why for a while and then it hit me like a bolt of lightning, I had underestimated America and all its citizens, people like me. I thought that just because people like Brad Pitt, Sheryl Crow, Jon Bon Jovi, and rapper, P. Diddy supported Kerry that all the American people would just go along with them. I would never do that and now that I think about it, why did I assume everyone else would? I was very mistaken, both about American citizens and the outcome of the election, but I am very glad I was wrong about both. This alone proves there is great hope for America and maybe the media should concentrate more on that than all the negative things happening.

I do not think all of the people who voted for Kerry were just doing what celebrities or authors said. I am just making the point that just because these celebrities did say that, 80% of America did not vote for Kerry. Even though this can not be proven, all this could mean that having celebrity endorsements is a bad thing for politics. A lot of people, especially parents, look upon all these musical figures as negative influences on their children or as people involved in crimes or people corrupting their listeners by using bad language in their lyrics. With such reputations, voters may conclude that who ever these people support can not be good without even looking at the actual platform of the candidate.

Along with all this publicity for Kerry was even more negative publicity for Bush. One of the top people against Bush in the past few month has been Michael Moore, who put out a movie called 9/11, which basically attempted to give Bush a bad name and for the first few weeks it was it, this movie impacted the public quite drastically, but apparently it did not work well enough, because Bush is still our president even after the election. Other negative things about Bush included many books, talking about how he helped to destroy America and how he has been plotting to get oil and doesn’t care about the independence of any country. I’m not justifying nor denying and of these things, because my view does not matter in the points I am trying to make. I am simply saying, that with all this media point all in favor of Kerry, one would only assume the winner would end up being John Kerry, but the American people showed me and everyone a thing or two, including how much they care about their morals. This country is not what Hollywood makes it to be and thank God for that. I hope everyone who reads this will hesitate before ever doubting the judgment of the American people again, because I know I will.

I Voted

My Parents and I Go to the Carnival

When I was seven years old, my mother and father took me to an exciting carnival. The entire thing was set up on a large field on Norfolk Naval Base, which we lived near, right in front of a Marine Exchange. There were great rides there, along with music, games, and a ton of junk food. I was very excited and could not wait to start having fun.

First, we all played some carnival games. Many were hard and we lost, but my dad won the tough dart game. The dart game was not normal darts though, it was when you were given three darts and had to throw them at a target covered with water balloons and if you popped the balloons worth a certain number of point you won a teddy bear. After winning this prize, he gave the teddy bear to me and my face lit up like there could never be a better gift. My mom and I also won a game, a much simple one, Ring Toss. This was when we through wide rings at empty soda bottle that were lined up and if you got more than one ring over one you would win. We achieved this and for winning this game we each got bouncy balls and got to choose what color of ball we could get.

When we were done with al the great games, we decided to go no some rides, but on our way we passed a big stage. On it were local bands and after them were some people singing karaoke. We stayed and watched the amateur entertainment for a w while. I was amused at first, but after three or four acts I began to get restless to go on the rises, so we left and headed toward the Octopus. This ride consisted of eight different seats made to hold two to three people each. Once the ride began each seat would start spinning individually. Then the entire ride would spin in the opposite direction of the seats. It also had a picture of an octopus printed on it, giving it its name. That ride scared me a lot and made me dizzy, but my dad made it fun by joking around and laughing a lot. After this thrilling ride we all went on my favorite ride, the Ferris wheel. I loved this ride, because you could see really far when you were on the top, including the entire carnival and all the lights.

We had a great time on the rides, but soon we all became hungry so we got the only thing you could get to eat at a carnival, junk food. This made me quite happy and I was able to choose what to eat all night. By the end of the night, I had eaten cotton candy, ice cream, and a caramel apple. I was stuffed after all that and nearly exhausted from everything that happened all day. So all three of us decide it was a good time to go home. We were home before nine and it may have been a short night for my parents, but I will never forget that carnival when it was just me and my parents, totally happy together.