Justin, yes I do plan on sending my petition to government officials. I have already sent the first part of my petition to the government officials when we mailed the letters in week 8. And the website is not mines its one that I came across while searching the internet doing research for my project. But the website is basically a place where anyone can go and put their petitions online. It was started to help people find other people that have the same concerns and get them together to try to solve one problem. Everyone has that starts a petition has total control over the entire part of the petition. It’s sort of like how Dr. Homan moderates this website.

Jessica, yes the website is very effective. I have gotten a lot of feedback from people from all over the world. It was very interesting to actually see how many people actually think that my idea is a good one. As of right now I have 1,946 on-line signatures. What surprised me the most was how many people actually came across my petition on-line. I mean, the website has thousands of petitions and for that many people to see mine; it was really kind of weird.

Eboni, thanks for your support. It really was not hard getting the signatures, when I first started with the project I was thinking to myself how in the world I would get all these signatures. I am a really shy person and I knew that walking up to someone asking them to sign my petition would be hard for me. But surprisingly, it was quite easy. As soon as I began to describe my project to someone that agreed that my topic was really interesting and everyone can agree that a teacher, firefighter or police officer was there for them when they needed them.

Source criticism is when information was gathered straight from the source, with actual witnesses and accounts. A good example of source criticism would be something like the diary of Anne Frank. That diary contains information of the actual events that happened.

Textual criticism is when a historian derives something from a story or a letter written by someone around that time. Textual criticism is not really the best source because these letters or stories could possibly not be accurate. A good example of textual criticism would be the books written by the apostles and their views on how something in history happened.

The Book of Tobit is a book located in the Old Testament. The Book of Tobit is one of the more interesting stories in the bible. The book tells the story of a virtuous Jew from the Tribe of Naphtali named Tobit who was living in Nineveh after the deportation of the northern tribes of Israel to Assyria in 721 BC under Sargon II.

Tobit was was particularly noted for his diligence in attempting to provide proper burials for fallen Jews who had been slain by Sennacherib, for which the king seized all his property and exiled him. After Sennacherib’s death, he was allowed to return to Nineveh, but again buried a dead man who had been murdered on the street. That night, he slept in the open and was blinded by bird droppings that fell in his eyes. This put a strain on his marriage, and ultimately, he prayed for death.

Meanwhile, in faraway Media, a young woman named Sarah prays for death in despair. She has lost seven husbands to the demon of lust — Ashmodai (a demon frequently associated with homosexuality), who abducts and kills every man she marries on their wedding night before the marriage can be consummated. God sends the angel Raphael, disguised as a human, to heal Tobit and to free Sarah from the demon.

The main narrative is dedicated to Tobit’s son,Tobias, who is sent by his father to collect a sum of money that the latter had deposited some time previously in the far off land of Media. Raphael represents himself as Tobit’s kinsman Azariah, and offers to aid and protect Tobias on his journey. Under the guidance of Raphael, Tobias makes the journey to Media. Along the way, he is attacked by a giant fish, whose heart, liver and gall bladder are removed to make medicines. These organs become very important in the end of the book.

Upon arriving in Media, Raphael tells Tobias of the beautiful Sarah, whom Tobias has the right to marry, because she is related to his tribe. He instructs the young man to burn the fish’s liver and heart to drive away the demon when he attacks on the wedding night. The two are married, and the fumes of the burning organs drive the demon away to Upper Egypt, while Raphael follows him and binds him. Meanwhile, Sarah’s father has been digging a grave to secretly bury Tobias (who he assumes will be dead because of all the bad luck Sarah has had with her seven previous husbands). Surprised to find his son-in-law alive and well, he orders a double-length wedding feast and has the grave secretly filled. Since he cannot leave because of the feast, Tobias sends Raphael to recover his father’s money.

After the feast, Tobias and Sarah return to Nineveh. There, Raphael tells the youth to use the fish’s gall to cure his father’s blindness. Raphael then reveals his true identity and returns to heaven. Tobit sings a hymn of praise, and tells his son to leave Nineveh before God destroys it according to prophecy. After burying his father, Tobias returns to Media with his family.

The story of Tobit is very significant, the moral of the story was basically that God has a plan for everyone and some things just take time. But in the end everything will be worked out for the better. God has a plan for everyone and sometimes patience can be golden.

Some people consider the Maccabees to be heroic because it tells the story of heroic men like Judas Maccabees and how they freed Jerusalem.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 3rd, 2007 at 7:41 pm and is filed under Week 11: Respond Again. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.