Vignettes: Food for Thought
Vignettes: Food
for Thought
On a warm fall morning, Saranya Spinuan walked into Tower 1 in the World Trade Center where she worked as an assistant trader for a company called Canter Fitzgerald. She looked forward to the email her brother sent her every day. He’d share something funny that happened along the way to work. As usual, her brother sent the email, but that day there was no answer from Saranya. For days after the attack, her brother handed out fliers with his favorite picture of his sister: smiling, dressed in a cap and gown at her graduation from college. She, like thousands of other Americans, had vanished in a moment of insanity
On a cold winter day, a veteran kneels, places his hand on a name, and weeps quietly. He keeps a vigil at the Vietnam War Memorial, a place created to heal a nation's wounds, a place to honor brothers, aunts, fathers and friends...
For many years she had dreamed of this moment. Reverently she approached the wall that connected her to her Jewish roots. There was something mystical knowing that you were carrying out a ritual that had been done for generations...
The very magnitude of this wall took his breath away. Zigzagging for 6000 km. across the Chinese countryside- large enough to be viewed from space...
Its a strange feeling to touch a wall that divided a city and a country for 28 years. To know that at one time there was no possibility of touching both sides at one time...
Project Overview
The walls around the world are coming down
They say this time it's nice to be around
Walls around the world
Walls around the world-Stephen Goodfellow (1990)
Examining various walls in our world moves us past the basic issues of construction right into the lives of the people that envisioned the walls, built the walls and lived under the influence of the walls. Understanding "why" walls are constructed helps to identify the very things that cause people to build divisions between themselves. It is in this place that we will recognize the biases, discrimination and intolerance that still surrounds us today.
"Let the Walls Come Down" will provide online experiences for students to move beyond bare information to real revelation as they tour the Berlin Wall, the Western Wall in Jerusalem, the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial and the Great Wall of China. Students will write a short report about the visible and invisible “ Walls” in our world.
MidLink Magazine Snapshot
WHO? Ages 10 - 18 WHAT? 300 word report WHEN? Established October, 2001: On-going--Join any time! HOW? Submit your reports to Brenda Dyck dyckba@home.com for posting: or post on your school web site. Questions? Contact Brenda dyckba@home.com . WHERE? Resources for this project are found below.
Wall Links
| Berlin Wall | Western Wall |Great Wall of China |
| Viet Nam Memorial | Invisible Walls |
http://aish.com/seminars/tunneltour/ http://aish.com/wallcam/
http://www.nps.gov/vive/home.htm http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/knuk9903.htm http://www.thevirtualwall.org/ http://www.teachvietnam.org/ http://www.warwidows.org/
