So-Called "Governer"

Just this past week, Illinois' so-called "Governer", Rod Blagojevich, was arrested for attempting to sell Barack Obama's senate seat postition to the highest bidder. Illinois continues to prove its corruptness. The person who was supposedly working to make our state a better and more succesful place, cares more about the money that it can offer him than the people that live in it. This disgusts me! But what I am wondering the most is what this will mean for our newly elected President, Barack Obama and our country's future with him. What if this scandal was uncovered before Obama was eleceted? This is a major question and I think that Obama would not have won Presidency becuase the Republicans would have used this against him and gotten more votes for McCain.

What is truelly crazy is that Blagojevich, despite his crimes, is still allowed to choose the next senate representative. Fox News writer writes in an article, http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/13/illinois-democrats-reeling-blagojevich-scandal/, that "sixty-six percent of Illinois voters" think that there should be an election held that allows the people of illinois to vote for the next senator for the state.

I think that Obama is going to be faced with major difficulties in the future. People are already questioning his possible involvment in this scandal which means that he is already posing trust issues and he has not even technically "entered" office yet. Yikes!! I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens...

Pressures Pushing Us To Our Absolute Limits

Henry David Thoreau addresses his writings to those who are "dissatisfied" with their lives. Even after the evaluation of the typical day in the life of a New Trier student, I believe I would categorize myself as "satisfied" with the life that I live. After the class discussion of New Trier's pressures to live a life full of academic, athletic, artistic extra curriculars, etc., I decieded to make a list of my own schedual, which is something that surprisingly enough, I have never done. I found that the "typical" student's day very closesly resembled that of my own: the early mornings, academically filled school day, physically and mentally tiring extra curriculars, large amounts of homework and miniscule amounts of sleep. How I am able to accomplish school, sports practice, voice lesson, ACT preparation tutoring, homework, and a sufficient amount of sleep in one day, is beyond me, but I have been doing it for so long that I do not even think twice about it. It is engrained into our minds at a very young age that the only way to be successful later in life, is to work ourselves to our absolute limits throughout highschool and college. But is this so wrong? I cannot decide whether the evaluation of my daily schedual has been beneficial or just disadvantageous for myself. Although I am aware that my highschool days are supposed to be the best part of my life, what is the hurt in working harder now so that I can live a more comfortable future. The pressures that students are dealing with at New Trier are, in my opinion, only going to help us succeed in the real world (if you consider being well-educated, and financially well-off to be success).

"Never Imitate"

"Insist on yourself; never imitate" ( Emerson, 21)
Ralph Waldo Emerson Writes in his essay, Self-Reliance, of his idea that people should not follow each other. He believes that we should "never imitate" each other. I, personally, have a hard time agreeing with him, here. We all must "imitate" at certain points in our lives, like when we are young children learning how to talk, walk, and eat without the help of another person. To do so, we have to imitate each other. A toddler learns to talk by listening to other people communicating verbally. We are taught to set examples for those who are of a younger age and who are less experienced than ourselves. Our society thrives off of imitation and for any single person to derive from the normal ways of our society would, without a doubt, put them on the outside, casting them as an non-conformist.

I am baffled as to why Self-Reliance is looked at as an amazing, inspiring peice of literature when we are living our lives and teaching each other to live their lives in a completely different way than Emerson believes that we should. I will take the pragmatic approach, here, and say that I do not think that there is any possible way that we could change our society or become non-conformists without struggling for the rest of our lives.

I also must point upon the fact that Ralph Waldo Emerson is promoting nonconformity and not imitating other people while, in the picture above, he is dressed in the typical costume of a male of his day and age. Maybe this is becasue Emerson is aware that he will be considered an outsider if he were to dress in a non-conformist way. I believe that he wrote this essay in the hope that someone in the future would have the courage and the ability to create a new society, in we do not win the game of life by playing follow-the-leader.

Advancement or Encumbrance?

When thinking about advancements that we are living with that our parents might not have had the privilege and enjoyment of (if you consider it to be that), technologically, I have no problem coming up with examples. But when it comes to the non-technological advancements, difficulty arrises. I was wondering why this is, for I know that our society has advanced greatly in the last 20 or 30 years in many ways that do not involve technology, but becuase we have gotten to the point where our lives rely so heavily upon our electronic devices, it is a challenge to point upon anything else that has aided the forward movement of our society. Americans especially, are so focused on the cell phones, ipods, computers, internet, etc. But is this so wrong? Should we be allowing ourselves to grow attached to our compact electronics? Is it wrong that I feel like I am without a part of me when I do not have my cellular phone in hand? Or is this just the way of the future? We are living with so many things that people did not have 30 years ago. But whether they advance our society or just create a need for electronics I cannot say. I do know, though, that I cannot imagine my life without these things and for some reason, this idea scares me.

Inappriopriate Impositions

Politics have been a main focus in our nation in the last couple of years as we were preparing for the most recent election. So what better time for teachers to get their students educated on the matter than right now? Going over both the promises and arguments of each political parties' candidates and the changes that they could each potentially bring is essential to the learning process. But what is most unnacceptaple is the imposition of the teacher's personal opinions being put on the students. As most students are not yet educated enough on politics to form their own concrete views, it seems rediculous that a teacher, someone that students look up to, would express their favor for one political party over the other. (Luckily, my American Studies teachers are so amazing and would never do anything of the sort!) The line has most certainly been crossed when a teacher goes as far as to ridicule a student for their opinions that are opposite of those of the teachers. It is one thing when politics is being discussed in an english or history class but when it is being discussed in a second language class and not even in the language that is being learned , then there is a stretch. Becuase as students, we are like sponges, it is in our best interest to not be surrounded with the opinons of older, wiser and more educated adults who find it necessary to push their strong views on us. It is the job of the teachers to teach students how to form opinons not to be forced into taking-on other opinons.

"We can't take care of our own people"

"We can't take care of our own people" says a healthcare needer who waits along with the hundreds of other people, outside of a free healthcare clinic, hoping to be admitted. Many people travel hundreds of miles each day to get their only yearly treatment, but many of them are turned away without any treatment at all. Our nation is suffering because of our economic crisis and though not all of us are exposed to the direct effects, they are still taking place and many people are being denied the medical treatment that our country supposedly gives everyone. The U.S.A. is known as one of the wealthiest countries in the world and, yet, millions of people cannot maintain a proper health due to lack of money and medicare.
At seventeen, I am not yet old enough to vote but if I were, the struggles of this economic crisis would majorly effect my vote. In most cases I do not believe in raising taxes in order to help support people who need money. I think that the only way for our society to survive is if we have a minority, as bad as this may sound. In my opinion, financial equality is impossible with the way our world is set up. After reading this news article (link below) and watching this short film (link below), I have come to realize that it is not about keeping things the way they are, but it is important that we keep our country's pride. We need to help these people who are in need of medicine and treatment and in that we can give our counrty hope for the future. We need to dig ourselves out of the hole that our falling economy has put us in and we need to do it for the people who are suffering the most.
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/14/uninsured-americans-turning-to-mobile-clinics/
Here is an interesting short movie/news report that I found:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1459208140/bclid1454906906/bctid1845377695

Commiting Minds to Challenge, Hearts to Success, and Lives to the Admitance of a "Good College"

After discussing the topic in class, I found that I was forced to analyze my own opinon on the intentions of New Trier High School. What kind of institution is New Trier?...well to answer this question, I have to say that I do believe that New Trier wishes to give thier students more than just good grades that will carry them into a "good" college. The problem is, our competitive society has taught us that the true focus is the good grades, transcripts, and colleges. In all honesty, everything that I do at New Trier and outside of New Trier, as well, is for my transcript. I am involved in various extra-curricular activites that I do purely as aids to get into what is believed to be a "good college". I admit that some of these activities add nothing to my personal happiness but the idea that, someday, (God-knows-when) I reach success-whatever it may be. Although I believe that this instituion did have the primary intentions of "commiting minds to inquiry, hearts to compassion and lives to the service of humanity," I do not think that that is still the case, today. But is this a bad thing? No. New Trier's job is to get us ready for the "real world", in my opinon, and it is doing just that. It is pressuring us and challenging us to push ourselves to the fullest of our capabilities, and this is exactly what we are going to face in college and beyond.

GITMO

I was eight years old, and, in theory, old enough to know that hitting my brother was not okay. Though, I did it anyway even after my mother had blatently told me not to. Of course, I was caught in the action and reprimanded immediatly. But my mother did not hit me to teach me that it is not okay to hit people because that would not be successfull, and, in essence, this is exactly what our country is doing with Guantamo Bay. We capture our enemies and put them in a caged torture chambre so that we can do to them what they did to get themselves into the prison in the first place. Sounds stupid, right? One might argue that they should get a "taste of their own medecine" but what are we teaching people by doing to the criminals what we do not want people to do? I am not arguing, here, that it is our job as a country to teach the criminals of the world about right and wrong becuase it is not. But it is our job to represent ourselves well, and if it is thought that Guantanamo Bay fulfills that duty, then goodbye, USA. Plain and simple: we are stooping to an extremely-low level. I do not understand how we, as a country, can lock people up for the terrible crimes that they have commited, and then commit the same crime against them.

As punishment for my own eight-year old crime, I was sent to my room, to think my actions over. I was not reprimanded with the same wrong that, I, myself commited. That would have been a crime, in and of itself.

Idealism in the Limelight

Pragmatist or idealist?

When seeing these two words in correspondance with each other, my mind places a halo above the word "idealist", and a pair of devil's horns above the word "pragmatic". Why? I am unexplainably draw to the idea of being an idealist and where this habit originated from, I could not tell you. In evaluating my own personality, opinions, ideas, and actions, I admit to the world that I AM A PRAGMATIST! There, I said it. But why do I feel so guilty? I feel as if I am admitting to terroristic acts, or criminality. I am not an idealist and I never will be. But there is something so free and beautiful about idealism; it draws me in. Why is it that pragmatism has been swept under the carpet and picked from everyone's garden like a weed? How can we put idealism in the spotlight and ignore the issues that our world is dealing with? We cannot keep looking past our problems with idealistic views, in search of a world that we cannot even find. I do not doubt the possibility of something beyond the life that we are living but putting our focus on that is not helping our lives go any smoother. Our society has idealism on the throne and it is, clearly, not working. Our economy is failing and we need to wake up and smell the coffee! I think that if pragmatism can become more predominant, then our persuit for happiness can be more successfull.

I guess that this, alone, is a pragmatic piece of writting. My guilt remains stagnant.

Is it possible that our potential future vice president is racially biased? One would hope that after all that our country has learned from past mistakes, we would not have to even address this question. I, as well, have hoped that but I am beginning to think that Senetor Sarah Palin, the Republican Party's running Vice President is using her skin color to over power Obama. A recent news article that I read at http://news.aol.com/elections/article/palin-says-obama-pals-with-terrorists, discusses Palin and her claim that Senetor Barrack Obama has been "palling around with terrorists". She accusses him and then makes a statement that I see to be quite questionable. She argues, "this is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America". She is implying that she knows how American citizens see their country and that she sees it the same way. It seems that she is implying that Obama is some sort of foreigner/outsider with a alienated view of our country, and it just so happens that Obama is of a different race than the stereotypical "American". Palin is using her "American" appearance as a way to reel-in voters. According to the article, "donors on a greeting line had encouraged her and McCain to get tougher on Obama" but it looks like she is only going to hurt her own campaign with this one.

Although I do not agree with Palin's attempts to win over the crowd, and her claim that Obama is involved with terrorists, I must, shortly, note upon on Obama's corrupted view on Foreign Policy issues. He thinks he is going to be able to solve all of the issues that our country has by sitting down with the ruthless leaders of some of the most corrupted countries in the world, by talking with them? By doing this, he would be giving them a chance to justify their wrong-doings. Why should that ever be allowed? He thinks he can convince the leader of Iran to stop nuclear weaponry. Obama is more focused on global warming issues than he is about our conflicts with the Middle East. Obama seems to be a little too non-chalant in this area, for me. Other than that, i think his motivations and intentions are going to take him very far in the upcoming election.

http://mondediplo.com/2008/10/04/obama

An Emotionally Captivating Argument

I read the article "I have a great life" just recently. It was written by Colleen Mastony ( a tribune reporter) and I found it in the Chicago Tribune. It was focused on the life of a young girl with Down Syndrome and through learning about the girl's life and happiness, Mastony discussed a very controversial topic: parents and their choices to keep or terminate a fetus with Down Syndrome. In her writing, Mastony argues that doctors need to portray Down Syndrome to parents in a better way. She argues that parents who chose to kill their unborn Down Syndrome baby, are killing all of the potential that the child has. She believes that children and families that are effected by the disease will still be able to live a full and happy life. I believe that this argument did open my eyes to something that is very unknown to me, personally. This argument was very heavily pathos and that, in a way, gives it much more strength then just any other argument. Mastony used pictures and quotes from the girl with Down Syndrome that she focused on with gave allowed myself, as the reader, the ability to feel like I could connect to the argument. I felt like I knew the girl with Down Syndrome which made it difficult for me to read the article and then not agree completely with Mastony. Her argument is valid and logical and it is a relevant issue. The way the writer expresses her argument is persuasive in the way that it makes me want to take action. She was able to give the counter-argument and still keep her argument dominant. I think that in giving a pathos argument and supporting it with real life information, it is almost impossible for the argument to be unsuccessful.

Our Better Lives

I think that it is very interresting that, in our society, a "good" parent is defined by their desire to give their child a "better" life. We discussed in class, the other day, the Puritans' motives to move to America as being driven, mainly, by the goal of giving their children a "better life". This made me think of all the times that I have heard of this idea, and the times when I was dissatisfied with my life and I swore to myself that i would give my own future children a better life than what I am living. I am forced to see the inequal comparison between the obviously difficult lifestyle that the Puritans had and the opposite lifestyle that I am living. My life may be seen as "difficult" to myself at times, but one may argue that it is seen by a lot of the world as the stereotypical, "better" life. I can not help but feel ashamed to even admit this. I realized that i have never heard it ever said or seen it written that a person is content with their own life to the extent that they would want to "give their child a life like theirs". It just seems that people are never content with their lives and they need to fix it through the lives of someone else and what other way to do that then by creating another person and controlling their lifestyle. By evaluating the Puritan idea to move to America so that their children can grow up in a life that they see as being "better" just proves to us that maybe it is impossible to achieve the "American Dream" for the sole reason that our version of the "American Dream" is based off of the dreams of our parents and guardians. Some want to go to college but never get the chance to, so they work hard throughout their lives to give their children the chance to go to college, when in the end, their children will want a "better life" for their children because they had to live someone else's dream. Maybe those children do not want to go to college. They will never really know, though, becuase they were never taught to create their own dreams. Our version of the "American Dream" is only a vision that is formed by another person. We are incapable of achieving our true dreams because we do not even know what our true dreams are. We still have to follow these false dreams in order to fit into society. Those children have to go to college so that they will get a good job, earn money, and survive in our society with their life of dissatissfaction. They will not even be aware that they failed to achieve their "American Dream" until it becomes the desire to have children. Then will not send their children to college but perhaps those kids will want to go to college. It is an endless circle. With this, i question what a "Dream" really is.

An Unknown Truth

I had absolutely no idea that there were such things as "Indian Reform Boarding Schools" prior to our recent lesson about them in American Studies class. I decided to do a little research on my own and found some interesting information.

http://http//www.kporterfield.com/aicttw/articles/boardingschool.html#section2

In the schools, not only were the Indian children taught a new religion, new values, traditions, ideas, etc., but they were taught that the religion, values and traditions that they had before coming to the reform schools, were inferior to the "white culture". The students were expected to watch each other for any sort of rebellion and then they were to relay any "sightings" to the teachers. The Indians who aggreed to the reform were refferred to as "good indians" and the ones who refused to change their ways were referred to as "bad indians". The boarding schools had "brainwashing techniques" that included filling the students' school days with so much activity and work that they had little or no time to do any personal thinking.

I must say, i found myself a little bit disturbed after learning about "Indain Reform Schools". I cannot believe how people think they have the right to take someone from their homes and families. And then to think that these students are being forced to learn about ideas that completely contradict everything that they have been raised to believe. No one has this right! The whole idea of an "Indian Reform School" just seems so rediculous!