McCarthyism

Monday, October 15th 2007, Wake up time: 6:45am


I had a cinnamon waffle and syrup for breakfast before setting off for school. My first lesson was algebra, where I found out that I'd unfortunately failed the test! I'll be honest and say this, it was the one and only class where I honestly didn't give that much of a damn how I did. I enjoyed the teacher, who was a funny, friendly guy and I ended up with a C...so why try so hard? ;) I then had my usual drama lesson, where we continued practising for the Freshmen assembly. 


In American literature, we began looking at the period of history called the 'McCarthy era.' We had just finished studying 'The Crucible' which is an allegory for this era. Essentially, McCarthy was a scoundrel of a man. He rose to fame quickly by naming various people as Communists during the fifties, when the red scare was taking over America. World War Two had just ended, but America and Russia were not the best of friends. There was a lot of espionage done by both countries, and there was a fear of nuclear war. The Russians were Communist, which went against America's Capitalist society. 'The Crucible' was written to point out how ludicrous the whole process was. McCarthy just named people who may be Communists, to gain power and respect and money. He named various people, and held a bunch of trials so that people were sent to jail or deported because he'd said they were affiliated with a political ideal! It was absurd, and really highlighted how stupid a country can be when they fear something strongly. McCarthyism is now a term used to describe someone making accusations of treasons, disloyalty or subversion without a regard for evidence. 


After that interesting study into America's history, I had a psychology lesson. We had an equally interesting, though slightly disturbing study of hermaphrodites. It was then time for lunch, so I pushed it from the mind! I sat down and enjoyed turkey sandwiches for lunch. I sat with Jimmy and his girlfriend Elma and a kid called Max. We hung out, enjoying each other's company before I left for my history class.


In history, we studied poor conditions and people who lived in areas that needed financial support from the government. I then had my film class, where we continued watching The Philadelphia Story. I loved it! But then James Stewart and Cary Grant in one film is superb. After class, I had my usual rehearsals...where I got grilled some more for not knowing all my lines yet! I made a mental note to learn them tomorrow. I realise it must be confusing, I sometimes switch between tenses, it's just hard to keep to one! By tomorrow, I obviously mean tomorrow in terms of the the 16th October 2007 ;) 


I saw Julia, Cecille and Talia in my favourite hang out spot. Seriously, it was our Central Perk, it's so sad that it's closed down now :/ We hung out for a little while, before deciding that we should go watch the end of the school football game. I can't remember the score, but I'm pretty sure we lost! I finally headed home. On arriving home, I did my literature homework before dinner of spaghetti and meatballs. I finished the evening off by watching the third Red Sox play off game. Unfortunately they lost by 4 runs to 2! That meant they were down 2 games to 1. It was the best of 7...so we were worried they wouldn't make it to the World Series. As you know, they did ;) But stay tuned to learn the epic way in which they won it!


Thanks for listening.