The Judge Has Spoken

Overall, I enjoyed this assignment and I thought it was a really creative and fun way to get the students into really thinking about the Mongols. It was not just another average school project, but something that was good enough to look forward too. It was a lot of fun watching the actual trial (when it's not your turn...). I think it had it's ups and downs. The research was definitely a lot easier than performing the actual thing. If you were a character then you couldn't predict what the cross-examinator was going to grill out of you. I thought that it was more entertaining to brainstorm and conjure the back stories. I especially liked Sarah's back story; when I read in the textbook that intermarriage was outlawed, I knew that a heartwarming yet unfortunate love story had to take place. It was destined to be.
I don't think I have any regrets because even if I didn't do an excellent job, I felt as if I did the best I could. Public speaking isn't my best attribute. I couldn't even do poetry out loud properly in front of 5 people during class (yes, we only have 5 girls in our class. our knowledge of the english language scared the boys off). Since my character was sort of made up (a chinese peasant) I had to create a story for myself and since I didn't really have specific hardcore details to refer to during the trial, I think I did a pretty good job improvising.
Although Futaba made several good arguments today and I was proud to be on her team, my opinion on Genghis Khan stands. So even now, I still believe that the Mongols are not insane. They may have been guilty of murder and kidnapping among several other things, many other empires and conquerors have done the same thing. History seems to repeat itself. I think that how we should view them is very ambivalent seeing as how they could be seen as crazy murderers but they also were strategic and intelligent. So I would have to say that even though I do see good traits about them, from a logical, lawful standpoint: I would have to say that they are guilty of terrorism, kidnapping, and genocide.,