Monday, February 21, 2011

It Was Heard 'Round the World

"No!" Kopano screamed over and over again as the simple word leaped from his lungs and ripped through the hot South African air. It was December in 1774. This month not only brought the end of the year, but the end of Kopano's only son, Huru's, life.

When Kopano had left a few days earlier to go hunting, Huru had been the healthiest man in the tribe. "How could he be dead from a sickness in such a short period of time?" thought Kopano. As Kopano, weeping over the loss of his son, picked the limp body up off the ground to take it to the burial place, he saw two marks that looked like a bite from a spider on Huru's neck. Kopano examined these marks carefully and suddenly realized where they had come from. "Buibui!" Kopano mumbles under his breath.

Buibui was the tribe's leader - a brutal and harsh leader. He carried an elegantly designed staff with him wherever he went that had a depiction of the sand crab spider carved at the top. Located somewhere on the staff was a button that, when pushed, revealed two fang like spikes coming out of the spider's mouth. These two spikes were drenched with poison from the sand crab spider, therefore anyone who was struck with this staff died in a matter of days.

The tribe Kopano lived in was one of the largest tribes in all South Africa containing over 10,000 inhabitants in several different locations all within close proximity of each other. Almost every one of the citizens had experienced Buibui's wrath in some way and were getting tired of his persecution. Those who were affected by his wrath hated him, while those who were close to him received lush gifts and food. The people wished to rebel against Buibui, but were too scared and needed a leader to manage them. Kopano had been asked to lead the rebellion but he said, "No," every time because he thought the persecution wouldn't last long. Now that he had felt the sting of Buibui, he was ready to say, "No more," and lead the people against their tyrannical leader.

Over three months had gone by since the death of Huru, and Kopano had already gathered up an army of persecuted tribesmen. They were not well-trained like the men in Buibui's army but they fought for freedom and for their families - whereas Buibui's army fought for money. There lay but one problem in front of Kopano, and that was that his army had no weapons so the revolt would have to be held off until enough weapons were made.

On April 7th, 1775, a man by the name of Sadiki came to Kopano with a very interesting offer. " I can get you the weapons you need." Sadiki proclaimed to Kopano.

"Why would you do such a thing? Are you not Buibui's right hand man?" Kopano asked.

"I know you may not trust me, but I have seen what Buibui does to his people. To our people. I have seen the tears and the blood shed and I have grown tired of watching this persecution draw on day after day. I offer to you my services because I believe you can defeat Buibui."

"Your words have been spoken well, but I am still leery to trust you. There is but one way to gain my entire trust."

"I will do anything," Sadiki said a little hesitantly.

"Very well, in two nights you shall meet me in the field by the caves. When you arrive there you will be informed of what you are to do next." With that said, Kopano stood up and walked away.

Two nights later Sadiki found Kopano sitting in the field around a fire with some of the other leaders of his army.

"I have come as you have instructed me to do, what now?" Sadiki asked.

"We wish to discuss pressing issues with you. Come, sit with us." Kopano gestured to Sadiki to sit with them by the fire. But as Sadiki began to sit down, soldiers from Buibui's army came out of the brush and put bags over the men's heads. Sadiki fainted.

Upon awakening, Sadiki found himself bound by rope in a cold wet corner of a cave. There were men in front of him around a fire, laughing and talking. One of them spotted him and dragged him to the fire.

"What were you doing out in the field this night?" one of the men asked angrily.

"I was just meeting with some friends," Sadiki said boldly.

"About what? You were plotting a rebellion against Buibui weren't you?"

"No. I am Buibui's right hand man and I would never betray him."

"No? Tell me the truth or I shall kill you like I killed the others we caught!"

"I am! I swear I am!" Sadiki screamed.

A soldier standing behind Sadiki pushed him to the ground and said, "Prepare to taste my club!"

Sadiki let out a little scream and readied himself for the blow when he heard a voice from behind say, "Enough!"

He turned to look and saw Kopano standing at the mouth of the cave with a smile on his face.

"Very well Sadiki, you have gained my trust. These mean are part of the revolt and were testing you to see if you would betray us. You have not and we see you are willing to die for the cause. We can now trust your word," explained Kopano. "Now, when can we receive these weapons?"

Sadiki breathed a sigh of relief and said, " I can get them to you in ten days. I am very happy that you have chosen to believe me, but I must retire to my home and be with my family. I have never been threatened like this before and wish to be in the comfort of their laughter and talk."

"That is fine. You may go. Be safe Sadiki!"

During the ten day wait, Kopano began preparing his army with uplifting words. He spoke to them about tasting the sweetness of freedom, about waking up every morning knowing that their children and their children's children will be free for the rest of their lives. The men in the army began to get restless for the soon-to-come battle.

When the day finally came to revolt against Buibui, there was no hesitation when Kopano yelled from deep within his soul, "For freedom!" That day proved to be a loss for Kopano but even though the battle was lost, the war had yet to be won. The men that fought in that battle say that when Kopano let loose his war cry, "For freedom!" there was a loud explosion that seemed to echo across the earth. April 19th, 1775, will always be remembered as the day a shot was heard around the world.


Jacob Blankenship

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Like Oh My Gosh

I am in a particularly good mood this week. There seems to be multiple reasons for this. The major reason however is because of Laura. Every day my affection for her grows. I haven't seen her face to face in over a month and I am longing to be with her again but I don't need to see her to be happy. All she has to do is something as simple as texting me to put a smile on my face. God has blessed me so much to have a friend as good as Laura. She is definitely becoming my best friend as we get to know each other more and more. I pray to God every day that she would be the "one" and I am almost definitely sure that she is. She loves Jesus with all her heart which is very improtant to me. She meets all of my major things that I want in a wife (not things like I want her to love the movie Napoleon Dynamite because she doesn't). These things have been told to me from many married men and women, and I have over time come to accept some of them for myself. I have not accepted some of them too because those are personal for the people that have told me. I don't know if I am even making any sense anymore.

Other than me being over the top happy, what else has been going on? Well, I turned 16 on the 6th. Yes, my birthday was on the Super Bowl this year. I have to say though Super Bowl 45 was really stupid. Most of the commercials weren't funny at all. But they did have some REALLY funny ones. "It looks like a girl," best one by far! Half time show sucked though.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

DQ Blizzards Are Amazing

I am in the middle of a huge blizzard. There is no where to go. My birthday is in 4 days. Will I be able to even do anything for my birthday? Hopefully.

I like answering my own questions. You do? Yes, I do. FTW! means "For the Win!" which just might be my new band name. Yes, it is true I am already in The Conviction, however, I wanted to try something a little softer. So FTW just might be coming out soon. With me as the guitarist and possible singer; Zac Nelson as drummer; Braden Griman as bass player; and looking for a girl singer or a really good guy singer. It would be sweet to find someone who can play the ukulele!

In other news, I received my glasses just yesterday. It's a little weird getting used to them but they do help me see a lot better. Just heard that Owl City, blessthefall, and A Skylit Drive are all coming out with brand new C.D.s and from the singles I've heard from A Skylit Drive, their new album is gonna blow up the entire world because of it's awesomeness. Owl City, I have hopes for too just because Ocean Eyes was good, and the fact that the dude said that he likes how it sounds a lot helps me to believe that it is going to be good. Now blessthefall... I have no clue what to expect from them. I have very high hopes that their new C.D. will be just as good as "His Last Walk" and "Witness" but I have not heard any songs from it. Blessthefall will probably surprise the firetrucks out of me. Will it be a good surprise or a bad surprise? I just don't know.

I just ate some donuts and I must say that I am getting a little sick of them. I haven't had a donut in like 3 months but still, it's like we're eating very sweetened bread with sugar on top. Lots of sugar on top. I don't know, it was kind of disgusting as I was eating them after I thought about it.

Prom update. First one of the year since last prom. This year I plan on going with Lexi Hoffman again. This year she and I are gonna have a ton more fun too because I am going to get her to dance her head off! Last year I probably looked really retarded dancing but it's not about how you look, it's about having fun right?! So Lexi, look out! We are gonna dance our heads clean off!

School... School is good for the most part. Nothing special. Oh but I am in a play now. It is entitled "God Meant It For Good" and I am Levi in this play. I get a whole credit for doing nothing but having fun for an entire week! I'm doing this until I get out of highschool! I might be out of highschool next year though. Even though it is technically my Junior year next year, I only have like 10 or 12 credits left which will be really easy to get. The reason for it being super easy is because here we get 2 credits for each subject so that's 5-6 subjects! Which will be extremely easy to get done! I do not plan on going to college right out of highschool though because I wish to stay here or in my home town for a year, get a job, and save up all my money for an entire year then go to college in Chicago!

Well somewhere it's 5:00 and I am going to leave you with this. I Love You.... well maybe not you, but you oh yes I love you!