American Studies

2009-06-01T11:01:00.004-05:00

I think America is going in cycles
In this image I see a donkey fighting with an elephant over a puppet, which is a little boy with an american flag on it's chest that is hanging liply from the the wood X that the two animals are holding. I think the donkey represents the Deomcratic party and the elephant represents the Republican party. I think the puppet with the American flag represents the country or the President (The leader of the country). I think the two parties are fighting over who gets to "pull the strings" and controll the country. I think the puppet cant move without the elephant and donkey moving it, just like the nation cant move forward without the Republicans and Democrats working with each other instead of against them.
I think this image represents the political parties that are too busy fighting each because they want to deal with the issue their way that neither party is actually coming up with a resolution to anything. So instead of the parties working together to move the country forward, America simply hangs limply in the balance, being tugged from right to left, but never moving forward. This is like in Gatsby where Tom and Jay are fighting not Daisy’s love, but more for her ownership and in the end neither one really wins.

What happened to shades of gray?

2009-01-11T13:23:00.002-06:00

Lately all this talk about TV tokenism has got me thinking about what we in our "politically correct" society consider to be racist or prejudice. I feel that when looking at something like tokenism, people tend to see things in a very definite, yes or no, manner. For example in response to the question is TV tokenism a problem? You could say that yes it is, because it shows that people in a minority group(Racial minorities, homosexuals, women..)are all interchangeable, and that it encourages people to see the group label and not the person. However you could also argue that tokenism ensures that people from minority groups that might normally be passed over are getting on TV, and that it is a step toward minorities having a more central role on TV. So, I think there are always more than one side to issues of prejudice, but that often people are so worried about saying anything that could make them sound prejudice that they look for some definite, black and white argument to prove that they're not. For example I've over heard someone say, "I'm not racist I've got lots of black friends." This statement could be interpreted in a number of different ways. You could say, the fact that they are talking about their views of a few individuals to represent their views of all African Americans is racist because it's talking about those friends as a group, and not as individual people. Or this could be seen as the racial differences don't matter to this person, he's friends with these people because he likes them as people. Now I'm not saying one point is right and one is wrong, I'm simply saying that we need to see things from different perspectives, and not see things in such deffininte terms.

Getting carried away...

2009-01-10T14:45:00.003-06:00

During class we talked about how the army mainly targets low income minorities for recruitment. In that discussion many people accused the army of taking advantage of those people and "forcing" them into enlisting by making them feel that because of their economic circumstances they had no other options.
Now, I think that it is terrible that the army uses propaganda like advertisements and video games that glorify war to give people a false impression about just how horrific it can be. However, I think that saying the it is the army that is making low income recruits feel that they have no other option is taking it a step too far. The majority of the people who are in those types of circumstances already felt they don't have other choices, because they have been told by society at large, which could include family, people in their communities, the general media... To say that the military is what is really behind the whole notion, and that if not for them these people would find better ways to live, is ridiculous. Also, don't the people who are enlisting have any personal responsibility to find out some information about what they're signing up for? Beyond that of simply listening to a recruiter or watching a TV add?

How do you deal?

2008-11-02T23:57:00.004-06:00

I don't know about you, but lately I feel like everything is just going wrong. The economy sucks, gas is expensive, we're in the middle of a war. It's just one bad thing after another. How do you not let all these things get to you? How do you deal with what's going on without wanting to jump out the window? My theory is humor. I think that if you can find something funny in a situation it makes that situation a little less daunting. A great example of using humor to cope, is comedian Christopher Titus. Christopher Titus has had a rough life, his mother was insane, his father was an alcholic, he was in all kinds of abusive relationships, but instead of freaking out and being depressed about his life he turned his story into a hilarious comedy routine. He even talks about how humor is like his therapy. below is a clip of one of his shows, Norman Rockwell is Bleeding.

How many points is that worth?

2008-10-26T22:26:00.004-05:00

In class before our disscusion of the history behind The Crucible, we had a disscusion about note takeing in gerneral, a seemingly odd topic. The first idea that pops into my head when I hear "a disscusion about note takeing" is that the teachers want notes in a certain format because they will later be collected and graded. However in actuality the disscussion was about the opposite. That our Notes are our interpretations of what we think is most importatnt, and will help us to understand the material. My automatic mind as a student almost couldnt understand; teachers were talking about something that we as students do, but they wern't talking about points, grades, acceptable or unacceptable headings. They were simply talking about ways to better our understanding. Whoa. I feel like we are so constantly bombarded with the idea of the absolute importance on grades and how they will dictate the course of our lives, that we often forgett to actualy learn what we are being taught as apposed to memorizing it for the test. I feel like there is so much emphasis put on getting the "A" or doing a good score on the test by both teachers and parents that we as students consider the actual learning of the material to be secound behind just "knowing it for the test." Do you think that all the grade hype has damaged actual learning?

I'm a what now?

2008-10-22T01:23:00.003-05:00

Identity, one simple word with a huge variety of meanings. What is your identity? How is it defined? By race? Religion? Taste in music? I think Identity is a complex combination of many traits and characteristics, and can never clearly be simplified down to one solid definition. We are often told that your identity is "who you are," however we are also often told (especially teens and young adults) that we are still looking for "who we are." Dose this mean that when we are young and still searching that we have no identity? Or mearly that it is incomplete? I think that part of what makes us individuals is that our identities are constantly changing, along with our thoughts and beliefs. Who defines our identity? Do we choose for ourselves or do other choose for us. When we label people and put them into groups like "Black" "Jewish" "Geeky"... are we defining that person's identity?

2008-10-19T20:28:00.003-05:00

During our in class discussion we talked about how in the foreword of Fires in the Mirror Cornel West says that people too often see others as symbols or groups rather than people. I think it's incredible how often we dehumanize other humans. Whether it's a soldier thinking of the another soldier as "The Enemy," or it's the student walking down the hall labeling others as "The Jock" "The Geek" "A Goth." In some cases such as the one with the soldier this dehumanization is done intentionally to make it easier for us to do or think believe something. But I also think that in cases like the one with the student it is done mostly subconsciously. Like our minds need to put people in groups in order to simplify how we view others. Maybe we put people into these groups because it would be too overwhelming for us too see everyone as individual with many different traits and personalities. Maybe our minds just wouldn't be able to handle and process that much information, and so we find ways to organize the people around us into neat little groups. My question is What do we gain (if anything) by grouping people like this? what do we loose?

Say How?

2008-10-06T00:03:00.003-05:00

I've been thinking about our discussions in class about how writers use word choice to put in "secret messages" and it got me thinking about all the non-writen secret messages we recive. For example if you are watching an interveiw on the news not only what questions are asked, but how they are asked can change it's meaning. For example in an interveiw if the interviewer asks a question useing a negative or angry tone that sends out a different message to the interviewie than if they ask that question with a positive tone. Can you think of an circumstance where how a question was asked has sent you a hidden message? (ie. Teachers, parents,ext)

Should we or shouldn't we?

2008-09-29T02:12:00.003-05:00

Last week I was talking to my friend who was mad at her science teacher because he had talked about politics in class. She said that he had talked about how the democrats were right and the republicans were "evil" and he had gotten people very upset. My question is should we talk about politics in school, knowing that it may cause tension? Personally I think the answer is yes. Even though my friends teacher did not go about doing it in the right way, I believe it is incredibly important to discus politics in school. I think it is necessary to teach the future voters that go to school about what is happening in the country. Too many Americans are ignorant of the world around them and make poor or uninformed decisions because of it. I think the more information and discussion there is in school, the more informed decisions the presant and future voters of America will make.

Is it all just talk?

2008-09-21T23:23:00.003-05:00

I am an Obama supporter, and I've been listening to information about the election and I've found that some people are saying that Obama's a good speaker, but "that's it." This is usually followed by a list of qualities they believe Obama dose not posses, but I would like to focus on this point. I think that many people underestimate the importance, and power of a good speaker. In fact I think it is necessary for a leader to be a good speaker, because good speakers are the people who inspire, who motivate. And I believe that America, especially in our current economic situation,needs a leader that can motivate the people of this country to help ourselves out of this hole we're in. Historically Americans have accomplished amazing things when we had the proper inspiration and motivation to do so. For example the civil rights movement. And no, the purpose of this point is not to compare Obama to Martin Luther King. It is an example of how people in this country came together and changed the way things were. And I think that now things need to change in order for America to recover and we need a leader who can inspire us to make those changes.

Where are they getting this?

2008-09-14T22:18:00.006-05:00

I was looking on youtube and I came across this great clip from NBC. In the clip it said that studies had shown that 83% of 18-29 year olds get most of their political information from The Daily Show, and other similar political satires. The clip included an interview with John Stewart the host of the daily show on his increasing "Political Pull." I thought that was so interesting. What dose it say about young Americans that we are looking to pure entertainment shows to get important political information, as appose to a New station? Do Americans find the information more reliable? Personally, at times I feel like all the information on the presidential campaigns, such as interviews and speeches, feel so fake, and "scripted" that there isn't much of a difference. Of course I'm not saying that people should rely solely on programmes like The Daily Show for information, I'm just saying that it's nice to hear someone point out the stupidity. I also think that people appreciate the humor, and simplicity of the information they are being given. It can get pretty boring listening to all those long speeches and interviews, and shows like The Daily show offer simplified, and more comical versions that are appealing to younger viewers.

Obama, Paris, Palin?

2008-09-05T03:32:00.006-05:00

Today while I was in the bookstore I saw a copy of US magazine. What caught my eye was that on the cover was vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her baby, the title of the issue was Babies Lies and Scandals. I did not look through the magazine so I can not describe the content. The reason I'm bringing this up is because I have to wonder just how hypocritical can the republicans get? They launched a political ad against Obama saying that he's just a celebrity and even compared him to Paris Hilton, and yet now their vice presidential candidate is on the cover of a popular celebrity gossip magazine?! Of course that not the only contradiction, throughout his campaign McCain has called Obama out for being too young and too inexperienced to be able to be president, and yet his vice presidential candidate Palin isn't much better. It could be argued that Palin is only running for vice president, but with McCain being in his seventies and having had cancer twice, it is definatly important that we have a vice president that is ready to fulfil all presidential duties from day one.