Prologue Poem

Daniel Fatemi

He is taller then you can see

His profession is to dribble quickly

He was the most hated person in the NBA

Till he won his first ring on Friday

Now with all the haters proved wrong

All of them act like his friends through the fog

But none of them was present during his failure

So he ignored them and went to the tailor

He now has his ring on his finger

To show all the haters he is a winner

Earth Without People

Daniel Fatemi

Ms.Morrell

Honors English IV

10-03-12

Earth Without People

            Throughout the story Alan Weisman uses imagery to invoke the five senses and make it easier on the reader to visualize what he is talking about. In the story he uses adjectives to actively describe multiple environments and how they would change if the human element were taken out of the equation. Weisman vividly describes how New York would change if people disappeared. He states, “If New Yorkers disappeared, sewers would clog, some natural water courses would reappear, and others would form. Within 20 years, the water-soaked steel columns that support the street above the East Side’s subway tunnels would corrode and buckle, turning Lexington Avenue into a river.” Reading these two sentences I could clearly form a picture of New York. I could see the streets flooding and rivers and waterways forming. I could easily see Lexington Avenue turn into a river. Weisman’s adjectives paint a clear picture in my head. He also later states, “ Virginia creeper and poison ivy would claw at walls covered with lichens.” After reading this I could picture all the buildings of New York completely green with plants growing all around them and on them. Weisman uses all this imagery to literally show you how much we the people affect the Earth. Weisman paints picture in our heads of the world without humans. He not only tells us but also finds a way using imagery to get his point across and to get through to us ignorant humans, whom think nature is there to supply us and all of it is ours for the taking.  Weisman states on page 176 that if all humans were taken out of Korea many creatures would flourish, otters, Asiatic black bears and etc. would spread into slopes reforested with young daimyo oak and bird cherry. You cannot help but to imagine an area like the mountains of New Zealand where signs of human life are very minimal and the animals thrive and flourish. Weisman uses the imagery not only as a literary tool but also as a weapon in the fight for saving the environment. He paints pictures in your head where you cannot help to imagine and wish or world was less dominated by humans and more dominated by Mother Nature.

College Essay

         We landed at four in the morning, mere hours before the election booths opened in Tehran. My parents were both born and raised in Iran, but this was my first visit. It was an overwhelmingly strange feeling, being in a country where everything from the culture and tradition to food and religion was different. It felt surreal at first. It didn’t immediately occur to me that I was seven thousand miles away from home in a country where the Bill of Rights meant nothing; however, it didn’t take long for that realization to set in.

         After a short rest, my parents excitedly went to the voting booths. Every one in my family, along with millions of Iranians, voted for the pro-reform candidate Mir-Hossein Moussavi, who promised to lead the country toward democracy and open up Iran to the growing west. Every news station predicted Mr.Moussavi would be victorious, but when the results came in, the incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared victory. This meant at least four more years of social injustice and economic depression under a repressive theocratic regime. What I heard from my family and many others in Tehran was, “Where is my vote?” What I saw in the streets tied my stomach in knots.

         Millions of frustrated Iranians flooded the streets. Clashes erupted between the security forces and protesters. Tear gas burned people’s eyes, police dragged protesters by their legs, bullets pierced chests, and innocent lives were lost. The world saw the picture of Neda, the young woman who was shot and killed, and I saw the brutality of a government towards its own people with my frightened eyes. I felt so much anger towards my parents, and yet I felt so guilty to be angry. Why was I here when all my friends were enjoying their summer on the beautiful beaches in Florida? But then, how about my relatives in Iran, didn’t they have the right to taste freedom?

         One gloomy evening in my uncle’s house - he himself a man who carried the scars of this brutal regime-I started to replay the events in my head and thought about what I had witnessed during those three weeks in Iran. The famous words of Patrick Henry echoed in my head, “Give me Liberty, or give me Death.” Isn’t that what Neda died for?  Suddenly, I was not angry at my parents any more. I was grateful to be in Tehran to witness a nation’s struggle for democracy. For the first time I realized how fortunate I was to be an American. I understood how precious the gift of liberty is.

          We finally boarded the airplane to return home, and from the corner of my eyes, I saw tears streaming down my mother’s fresh wrinkles. I grabbed her hand and told her, “Mom things will get better for Grandma, I promise.” When I returned home, I was not the same person living in my own bubble in Florida. I had seen the world and how the other half lives.