Hazardous Cargo

Throughout the story Gonzalez reveals hidden secrets that are considered a danger to those around them.  So hidden that the secret can go right by you without you blinking an eye it’s a secret hazardous to the environment and everything around it.  This secret is marker.  Marked by two simple letters.  Letters that stand for something much more than anyone would imagine.  The secret is a ticking time bomb inside thousands of trucks waiting.  Each truck traveling on the same marked highway.  A highway that is marked with signs only to be understood by the drivers of the unmarked trucks.  He proposes a problem and tries to not only get the reader to better understand it but himself as well.

This secret, this ticking time bomb, this hazardous cargo, is toxic hazardous waste being shipped in unmarked trucks to Mexico.  Gonzalez explains how he sat on a public road watching these unmarked mystery trucks when he was told he could not be there by an officer.  Why was he not allowed to be there? Most likely because there was something illegal going on.  He explains that someone marked the “transportation” highway with sign with the letters HC.  HC stands for hazardous cargo and that is exactly what it is, hazardous.  He tells about it in such detail and in such a mysterious way that it makes you want to keep reading to find out more.  This has gone on for years without anyone knowing or stopping it.  Gonzalez tells about highway I-25 and the HC that travels it every day.  He tells about the mystery that has snuck by thousands of people for years.

Gonzalez brings up something that no one knew about.  And lets everyone in on the secret.  It’s interesting to think that things like this could and probably do happen every day.  Things that people are completely unaware of yet could cost them their lives.  It’s also interesting to think how many other things like this go on every day every year.  Secret things that go unspoken undetected and have people completely unaware of what is going on.  I think this somewhat relates to the theme of progress that we see in Melissa Holbrook Pierceson’s book, The Place I love is Gone.  It takes that word progress and kind of twists it in a way.  It shows the negative side of progress.  It shows how progress can be turned into creating a dump area and putting HC inside to watch it steam into the atmosphere.  Throughout the years it tells about the creation of a highway which is progress and the creation of new laws about the dumping of hazardous cargo which is also progress.  Although when you hear the word progress you don’t think of the dumping of toxic materials and the possible harm of the environment and its people.  It puts a spin on what people usually think of the meaning of progress and makes you wonder about what all those big trucks are really carrying.

Becoming Metis

   Throughout Becoming Métis, Melissa demonstrates the struggles of getting to know one’s self and recovering her heritage.  “To learn who I am today, on this land I live on, I’ve had to recover that heritage and realize a multicultural self.”  I think what Melissa Nelson is trying to say here is that she needs to know and understand where she came from and the people that helped make her to better know herself.   Sometimes if you try to get to know someone the best way to is to ask them about their family and where their family came from.  Even to help yourself better know who you are you should ask your own family to give you some background information and ask questions.  The beginning of the reading took you through a journey of her taking for granted cultures and those cultural traditions.  She also struggles with the fact that her parents were more or less forced to forget their heritage, language, and culture to become Americans.  I believe this is why she feels so strong about rediscovering her heritage and where she really came from and who her family really is.  I think this piece relates to my own experiences because I know very little about my heritage only that I am a “mutt” of different things.  I would like to better understand where I came from and the types of cultures I have within myself.  I think the author’s purpose is to get other people much like her to become curious about where they come from.  I think she wants everyone to know more about themselves and discover something they didn’t know before.  “Today I am concerned with learning how to honor all parts of myself” (page 147).  I really like this quote because it shows that she is not just looking for who she really is just to tuck it away in the back of her head.  She wants to find out so that she can honor and represent her true heritage and culture.  She is looking for pieces of her to share with others and show that she is proud to be who she is.

In History

   According to Kincaid, history is all about names, dates, and who was around when those events happened.  Throughout "In History" Kincaid questions what the real meaning of history is.  She compares history to an open wound that with each breath she takes in it allows the wound to heal then as she releases each breath it reopens the wound.  I agree with this because with every discovered piece of history or new history you have to "open" up history and put something new in to cover the wound or "healing" the wound.  To be in history you would have to be there when the event took place and make sure that your name remains tied to that specific piece of history.  She talks a lot about the people who looked like her which I assume she means are her family or ancestors.  Once she is not living in the place where her ancestors were then she can explain the history.  Kind of like how she explains other people’s history.  I think according to Kincaid it does matter who is telling the story because it has to do with names, events, dates and what those people's experiences were.  History has to do with what the people of that time recorded.  Whatever was not recorded at that time did not make history.  The people’s experiences are what made the history books.  People cannot simply guess history, there has to be some definable evidence.   The ideas of landscape, history, and naming are all connected.  Every landscape has a history and every landscape has a name.  Every history has a landscape and every part of history has a name.  It is all connected because you need a piece of land to have history about it whether it is a small island or a whole continent. 

Creative Challenge

   When I first started to learn about the world at large I was around ten years old.  I, like many kids, were taught that Christopher Columbus discovered the world in 1492.  I learned that the world was round and that the Indians were very generous to the new comers of the land, Columbus and his men.  They were so generous that they gave them a feast of which they couldn’t refuse.  At that age I created a map.  It might have not been the best looking map or looked exactly like all the continents but it was relatively accurate.  I place all the geographical figures that I believe were correct with United States at the center of my world.  I can only associate these places in the world from stories that I am told from people that have been to those places.

Adopted Town

   My understanding of "Adopted Town" in The Place You Love is Gone is that Melissa Holbrook Pierson moved from her old town of Akron Ohio to Hoboken New Jersey.  She had a very hard time getting used to the change of a different town. "But of course: New Jersey sold its soul to the devil for as many car as it could drive."  I feel that this quote shows her being negative toward her first impressions of Hoboken.  I think she is trying to say that she believes that town may be materialistic or maybe even over populated.  "Still, maybe this was meant to be. You cannot stop progress, after all."  I really liked this quote because I feel like it finally gives Melissa something positive.  Although she is not enjoying her change to Hoboken I feel like that quote shows that she is being somewhat optimistic, maybe sarcastic, but she is giving it a thought that "hey maybe this was just meant to be,it was meant to happen,and I am here for a reason." These quotes help be better understand her writing because I can pick certain quotes that I enjoy and then go back to them and break down what I believe she is trying to say.  I make a very good connection between the text and my own experiences.  I too have witnessed progress hit my hometown and I've felt very negative toward it.  I watched my old house transform into something unrecognizable and had to move to a different town that I hated.  I felt trapped in a little town where there was nothing to do but sit at home in front of a TV.

   In some ways Salem has become my adopted town because I go to school here so I spend a lot of my time here.  Although I do go to school here I don't consider it to be my town because I am a commuter so I don't spend all of my time here.  Salem State University really hasn't become my adopted home.  Again, I believe this is because I am a commuter so I don't live on campus.  I think of Peabody and the new house that I am in as my adopted city and home.  Salem and Salem State University to me can only connect to the reading because I used to live in the town over from Salem so I have seen progress hit Salem and have watched it changed over the years.  But I don't feel angry or sad about these changes because this has never been my hometown.

The Place and Memory Project

    Right away when I went on The Place and Memory website I went straight to stories about homes that have been lost because of progress.  I chose story called, My Childhood Home.  It is a small story about a beautiful house that the writer of the story loved and explained how there is even a pathway in the backyard that goes straight to his/her grandmother's house.  That house got knocked down to put up condominiums but the grandmother's house still stands so he/she can still have a piece of history.  

    This made me think about my old home.  I loved that yellow house and it hold so many memories that helped make me who I am today.  It was always full of laughter and love that anybody felt welcome and right at home.  My grandmother lived right down stairs so it's almost like a pathway to her house.  I always thought of my house as beautiful but the people that live in it now changed it completely.  It doesn't look the same at all, like the rest of my old hometown.

    This story relates to our class because it is a prime example of change and progress.  In this case progress didn't take over the whole neighborhood because the grandmother's house is still standing but in the book progress took over everything.  In class we do a lot of the activities/in class writings that have to do with a place that we love that has changed.  As soon as I read this story I thought about our class and how we make lists of things that are different about our hometown, progress.  To some they may be okay with progress but to others, like me, progress took away apart of them. 

"Why is Nostalgia Such a Bad Thing"

MHP- "Yeah, I think so. I mean, I’ve sort of gotten past the point of thinking that nostalgia is something shameful. If we didn’t love things, then we couldn’t feel their loss. The flip side of loving is losing. This is why we’re here. I mean, you can’t experience one without the other, so am I not supposed to talk about what losing feels like? Is it supposed to go unmentioned? We’re only supposed to be happy? I mean, I’m not necessarily a happy person. I don’t think that happiness is always the right response to a situation."

I really enjoy this quote and I completely agree.  Part of loving things and having things is losing them. It's life, life is full of loss whether you want to recognize it or not.  I think she gets her point across with this quote in the book because she explains about loss and really focuses on the way loss and progress can make someone feel. She doesn't show the happy aspect of progress, but why should she if she never experienced happiness with the progress that hit her hard.

MHP- "How many times have you heard someone say they’ve gone back home and it’s changed or it’s gone? I mean, people weep over this. Is it sadness or is it nostalgia? Why is nostalgia such a bad thing? I mean, nostalgia is a longing to return. If you really loved where you came from, if, in essence, you really loved yourself—because that’s what created you—how can you not want that to exist?"

I've experienced going home and it was completely changed.  It's a hard thing to accept.  That home was the place that made me how I 'am today.  I agree with her on this quote one hundred percent.  I think that sadness goes right along with nostalgia because a lot of the time if you are wanting to go back to the past you must be upset that its gone.  I always want to be able to go back to my past but I know its not possible, so this creates sadness.  I think she really gets this point across in the book very well by expressing her emotions when looking back on her old home in Ohio.

MHP- "I feel like human beings can’t help but destroy, but if our numbers are small we don’t destroy as much as we do now when our numbers are this huge and out of control. I wonder, what’s the carrying capacity for human beings? When do we get to the point when we can’t take it anymore, when it becomes too unpleasant to us just to be here because there’s too many of us and there’s no solitude anymore and all you see is wall-to-wall people and their effects? When does that start to do something to us? I think we might have already reached that point."

I believe that this is true.  Humans destroy, rebuild and reshape this world everyday. When IS it enough?  I agree with her that we might have already reached that point.  This so much traffic, apartments and more roads and highways being built everyday just to house the new people the seem to pop up everywhere.  Maybe people should take a look around and see what they have done to this world.

I don't believe that nostalgia is such a bad thing.  It human emotion and human instinct to want things that we once loved but lost.  It's healthy to look back on the past and want it to once again be part of our present.  If we didn't want or love the things we once lost then we would probably lose a lot more things, we wouldn't want to hold on to things so long.  I lived in a yellow house since the time I was born until I was about twelve.  This house has been in my family since my great grandmother, so it holds not only a lot of memories but my family history.  I moved out of that house seven years now and there isn't a year that goes by that I wish I had that house back.  Not only the house has changed but that town did.  It was my town and my house before, but now I barely recognize it.  That's sadness, nostalgia, loss and unfortunately progress.