The Sacrifice

Kathleen Benner Duble’s novel, The Sacrifice is full to the brim of conflict, both internal and external. First, at the beginning of this novel, Abigail Faulkner, a young, courageous girl of the 1600s, thinks her problems are bad when she gets caught running, here in shaming her family. Little does she know that things are just heating up and within a few months, this minor offense will be all but forgotten. The external conflict she is experiencing at this point in the story seems awful to her and her family but soon the conflict within them will rage to what seems beyond compare. Suddenly, the small town of Andover goes from peaceful to demon possessed. Is this possible? Could she really have been living next to witches her whole life and never known? Her suspicions are confirmed when she and her sister are accused of witchcraft. She knows she is not a witch and she now feels the pain of all the other falsely accused. Conflicts with the accusatory girls, and the jailor and almost everyone in the nearby town, Salem, get worse and worse. Will it ever get better? Last, internal conflict starts when Abigail’s mother, a loving and sensitive caretaker who will do any thing to free her children, tries to get her to tell the court that she was taught witchcraft by her mother. At first Abigail is appalled, but then she sees the urgency in her mother’s eyes. It is the only way to keep Abigail from hanging. Torn between the love of her mother and her mother’s wishes, Abigail is faced with the decision of her life. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone and everyone. Find out what happens to Abigail and her family. Don’t take my word for it, solve to conflict in your own mind.

What changes Obama?

It has come to my attention that Senator Obama’s main campaign slogan seems to be “CHANGE." My only question is, what change is he planning on making? I never hear any specification on that topic even though it seems to be the most prominent word in most all of his speeches.

I’m concerned about the rising of gas prices and the crashing of our economy just as every other American citizen. What will Obama do to change this present crisis? Does he have plans for these things? If so, he needs to tell us more about them. Elaborate and expand.

All I ever hear is change but I never see any difference. If he is to become my next president, I want to know that he will be able to handle the things that are going wrong in America. They aren’t going to just go away. He needs to tell us more about how he will solve these problems. Then and only then will I believe that he will truly change our country.

My personal Pioneer

In my opinion, the definition of a pioneer is a person who sticks to life no matter what and leads the way for those not as strong. In my mind my mom is the perfect depiction of a pioneer.

My mom has been a pioneer since she was young. Her life was far from the easy life we live now. I remember her telling me she would sometimes come home and wonder if there would even be food to put on the table. Her father was a small town pastor and her mother, a stay at home mom.

When my mom was a teenager, she was diagnosed with Chromes Disease, a very painful incurable disease of the intestines. She would have to live her whole life with this haunting pain.

As if this wasn’t a hard enough childhood, when she was in her twenties, her mother died of skin cancer, only a year before I was born. Not long afterwards, her father was diagnosed with liver cancer. After his surgery, he developed an infection in his effected area.

Yet, still my mother stands strong, courageous, and never bitter about this fate. That, I in my opinion, is a true pioneer.