Op/Ed article ~February 12,2010

I chose to write on the article entitled “Principal forbids 5th grader to wear Obama shirt to school” off of the WISTV web site. The article is about a school in Sumter South Carolina that forbid its’ students to wear political paraphernalia to school until the president Obama was sworn in.
There has been a lot of debate surrounding this decision. One of the arguments was that they were not allowed to wear those t- shirts and other paraphernalia because the president is black and therefore the people in the state of South Carolina are racist because they do not want black people to rub it in that they have a black person in office. Another argument is that if the fifth grader did wear that shirt to school that he would have been expelled and people didn’t see why he would have been punished for just wearing a shirt.
This is where I start to get an opinion because of my future career. In Elementary school, when something happens or if they don’t want something to happen, the staff of the school is really good at notifying parents of these happenings. With proper warning from the school of what will happen if you do something against their will, and the student still decides to do it, I believe that the student and the parents have full responsibility to accept all punishment. The argument was that he was just in fifth grade and he didn’t know any better. Last time I checked, children learned how to read in kindergarten and sometimes even before then. Therefore the student should have been able to read the notification sent home and also been able to comprehend that it was against the rules for him to wear such a t- shirt.


That's all for now!
~Ali

Wanting what we can not have ~ February 8, 2010

Isn’t it funny that we humans, especially Americans, always wish for things that we don’t have right at that moment? Americans have always had the worst case of the stuff wanting. Back in the sixties we had to be the first to the moon and claim it as ours. Given that we were scared that other counties were going to put satellites into the sky so that they can spy on us. Even currently if we see a new version of a cell phone or a play station game, we have to run right out to the store and snatch it up real fast so we can have the best of the best all the time.
I caught myself just today wishing that it was spring or summer again just because I missed the nice warm weather. However when it is spring or summer experiencing the hottest pits of the seasons, we wish that it was winter or fall again just so we can cool off. We constantly wish for something we can not have, be it materialistic or emotionally.
Another example of wanting something we can not have is on an emotional level. For example, my best friend has this guy constantly around her asking her out, telling her that he loves her and that she is beautiful. He asked her out probably around 5 times and on the fifth time, she told him to go find someone else to date. So he took her advice and is now in a relationship with another girl. However since he does not pay attention to my friend anymore, she misses it and wants him to tell her how beautiful she is, but he does not! When trying to get someone to notice you, always play hard to get because if you give up too easily, you are not worth the chase and they will be board.

That's all for now!
~Ali

Visual Argument~ February 3, 2010

My favorite visual artwork is one with a road that doesn’t go straight but all different directions then after all the loops, it straightens back out again. I feel that this visual artwork makes the claim that though the path may seem unclear at the beginning; you are always going to get back on track to where you are supposed to be going. This is a claim that can be connected to life in general, relationships, school, or even work no matter the age of the person viewing it.
I enjoy this particular piece of visual art because it reminds me of my own life sometimes. Just when it seems like I am making all the right decisions that I need to get to my ultimate goals, my like decides to throw me a curve ball. For example, just when I thought that I had found the absolute love of my life and decided to make things official, he started doing drugs and hid it from me. My life was going to be great! He was from a well respected family and he showed me that he loved me in ways that I knew that it was true. Then after 2 years of dating, he told me that he had been doing drugs for 6 months and he was hiding it from me. Life threw me a curve ball so I decided to throw one back. I chose to break up with him and start over when I got to college and so far, I’m doing great!
I think that this visual argument is important because it shows that people can go a lot of different ways but then again find their way to the right path they were intended to go down. People from different ages, backgrounds, and cultures can all relate to this picture because everyone has taken a wrong turn at one point in their life and now they are on the right path one more.

Here is my pic

That's all for now!
~Ali

"Don't ask, Don't tell" ~February 5, 2010

I chose to write on the article “A Smoke the Bigots Out of the Closet” by Frank Rich in the Ney York Times opinion section. In this article, the author made it very clear of who really supported the men of the military no matter what it was made of. He reported that John McCain spoke out against the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in the military. This made the republican side of the government look like they were against open gay and lesbian people into the military, when in fact it does quite the opposite.
The “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was implemented when Bill Clinton was elected after assuring the American people that the acts of harm against gay and lesbian men and women in the military. The case that Bill Clinton cited when campaigning the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was that of U.S. Navy Radioman third class Schindler and shipmate Terry M. Helvey. This case was when Schindler beat and killed Shipmate Terry M. Helvey to the point that the corpse was not even recognizable. After implementing the policy, these acts of violence taking place in the military had a distinct punishment for this discriminatory act of violence.
.Some people are against repealing this policy because they feel that a person should be who they are without having to hide who they really are. Repealing this policy would mean that these acts of violence would not be as harshly punishable for the person who committed that crime. If people knew that these men and women who are openly gay or lesbian were gay, then that would open up so much more violence towards these men and women who are protecting our country. So if they are protecting us, why can’t we stand up and protect them?

That's all for now!
~Ali

link

Guido Lifestyle~ February 1, 2010

In both the show and the article, there is a certain stereotype in which Italian males and females try and squeeze themselves into. The males decide that having extremely tight shirts, muscular abs and enough hair gel in their hair to make all the children’s hair in America act right, makes them look like a Guido. Now Guidetts are a whole other species in themselves. These girls, from “Italian Decent”, walk around in tight clothes that make their fat stick out on their bodies, lots of lip gloss, hair as big as a mountain, and heels tall enough that if she accidently fell, she would twist her ankle. Appearance is key in a Guido world. If you don’t have the look, you do not have the right to call yourself a Guido. Also another similarity is that they both live on the Jersey Shore in beach houses. This gives them access to all the night life on the shore including night clubs, bars, and the beach. The way that they let others know about their house is also similar. In pumping the music up really loud and standing on the roof deck and yelling at “hot catches” from above. One more thing that makes the show and the article the same in Guido aspects is the fact that they all they really want to do is get drunk. Their life revolves around getting money for alcohol, spending the money on alcohol, and consuming the alcohol. Nothing else matters other than those few steps to getting drunk. Going to clubs, working , and getting chick all have something or another to do with their life’s goal, getting drunk.
In the article we read, the main difference from the TV show is that there are no girls living in the house, besides Moo’s girl, so there are no ugly cat fights over jealous house mates and slutty girls.

That's all for now!
~Ali

Sex Ed ~ January 29,2010

Sex protection or abstinence? This has been the question for teachers and parents alike who have to teach kids about sex. Parents often choose the abstinence choice because they do not want to become a grandparent at a young age. However everyone knows how teenage hormones tend to take control of their minds and make bad decisions for them. In the New York times opinion column, “Sex Ed in Washington” by Ross Douthat was written to raise the awareness of how the politicians in Washington plan to deal with this debate.
Blaming Bush, yet again, for the rise in teenage pregnancies, politicians believe that since Bush stressed the abstinence approach of birth control, more teenagers were not educated about “safe sex” and thus became pregnant. I don’t think that this problem is because of Bush. As it said in the article kids make their decisions based upon who they hang out with, what morals their parents taught them, and what kind of morals the kids themselves have.
In the topic of what we should teach our kids in school, I think we should teach both abstinence and protected sex. I was taught from a very young age that abstinence is the best choice because you don’t have to even think about becoming pregnant, unless your name is Mary and you have a baby because of Immaculate Conception. Kids should be taught with the emphasis on abstinence, but because kids do what they want when they want, they should also be taught on how to avoid becoming pregnant. I don’t believe there is such thing as “safe sex” but there are ways to increase your chances of not becoming pregnant. Also, when a girl does become pregnant, she has to know what to do and how to tell when she does become pregnant.

That's all for now!
~Ali

Campaign Financeing~ January 27,2010

With the ability to give huge financial donations, big corporations will have power over politicians. Giving money, especially large amounts of money, to any one person always blurs the line of if it should be considered bribery or not.
In the case of what happened in Florida, I can see what the bail makers were trying to do, save their own pay check; however, making a bigger pay check for yourself does not help any one else. If it saves the county or state large amounts of money and if it keeps prisoners a second chance to prove themselves, I think that they should think about the positive sides rather than just being self centered and think just about you and what this decision is for you.
When running a campaign for a political position, or any other position for that matter, you have to be very careful of things people are willing to give you and why. Normally people would jump at the chance to just accept a large amount of money; however, you have to think of the repercussions that accepting the money might bring along. If you do decide to accept the money, you have to see what the person or the company is associated with because what they are associated with, you magically become associated with. Also you have to read between the lines and see what they really want you to do. No person is going to do something for you without expecting something in return, it’s human nature. Why scratch someone else’s back if they won’t scratch yours? Finally before accepting money from an organization or a person, you have to be willing to do something for them. Being nice is all fine and dandy, but in order to keep the relationship on the right track to have to give a little to get a little.


That's all for now!
~Ali