progress?

I see brown sprouts reaching out, colors on the sprouts, shaped in a circle. I think the brown sprouts are branches; the colors are seasons, in a cycle. Nick Carraway says, “Cluster of leaves revolved…tracing… leg of transit…thin red circle in the water” (162). The seasons always seem new, but they repeat in the same cycle. America’s history repeats itself, in a cycle. Two parallels include the Iraq War to Vietnam, like the red circle of death and the recession to the Great Depression, both seem like the leg of transit of the economy. History is not identical, but similar.

welcome to san fran

I went to California this weekend for my cousins wedding and it was a very interesting experience. We spent quite a bit of time in San Francisco, and I experienced a totally different world. I have been there before but every time I go I see completely knew things. I will share a few of the many stories in this blog post. We took a public bus to the area we were going to shop in and it was interesting in itself. I witnessed all different types of people, looks, and smells. Most of the people on the bus in my opinion were out of the ordinary of my world. Once we got off of the bus, the streets were a whole new thing. One of the first things we saw was multiple groups of people spread out doing interpretive dances with music and strange movements and positions. There were street performers as well that were quite entertaining but usually crazy. There was this one man that wasn’t performing but he was making fur hats, the weird part of it was he had a dog, cat, and rat that would lie on top of each other like a tower and would lick each other and basically live on each other. He would say something to them and they would change positions. There were also many homeless people around and there was one that stuck out the most to me because he came up to my family and began pestering us. He was carrying a pretty big boom box but it had no batteries so he kept asking for batteries then would repeat this rap saying “all we need is a straight up beat” and dancing in our faces. It was entertaining but kind of scary because he wouldn’t go away and kept repeating the same few lines and questions to us. I could share many more stories but this blog would be pages long. San Francisco is definitely a people place because of the diversity of races and social class. I was thinking about social class and the markers that we see around us as I was in the city and then when I was in my aunt and uncle’s neighborhood where we were staying in Los Altos. Los Altos has less diversity and is much like the North Shore compared to the city of San Francisco or Chicago.
California is a great place! Everyone should try to go sometime!
Do you have any stories from California or any other vacations?

life in the North Shore

We have been talking about markers of class and class in general this past week. I feel as if the North Shore cares about making their markings of class more visible than other places. The saying “keeping up with the Jones’” is very prominent within this area. People feel as if they need to one up one another and get the newest and better things. I feel like it is pretty pathetic because it really does not matter in the grand scheme of things. It is not only with materialistic things though, it also occurs with colleges and careers. It feels as if everyone is judging you based on what colleges you get into and what college you decide to go to. Sometimes I feel like it is hard to live in this area when you’re not at the top of everything all of the time.

What are your feelings about living in the North Shore? What are the major markers of class in your opinion?

Proud To Be An American

I drove around my neighborhood to look for American flags and I made some very interesting observations. There were not many flags around and when they were the majority of them were not flying high and proud. The first flag that I saw was at a small bank and it was on the flag pole, it was one of the flags that were powerful. I then saw a flag in the window of an apartment, but it was a sticker and very small, it was in the midst of other stickers and did not make a strong appearance. Most of the flags that I saw were not the visible either. The flag that made the biggest impression on me was the flag that was completely tattered and looked like it had been through a lot and had been hanging outside for a long time.
During our discussion in class we were debating about when and where it is disrespectful to have the flag present. Some people believed that it was disrespectful to have the flag on silverware or on a dumpster, but I completely disagree with this. Shattering a mug that has an image of the American flag on it is not offensive, but tearing an American flag to pieces is offensive because it is the actual, tangible flag and the real symbol of America. When an American flag is completely tattered and dirty like one of the flags that I saw, it needs to be replaced. I think that is kind of insulting to hang an American flag that is destroyed. In my opinion it resembles vulnerability and weakness and that is not how America should be viewed. America is powerful and strong and American’s should have a lot of pride. The flag does represent that and I do believe that American’s should show that and the easiest way is to always have the flag raised or hung high and completely visible.

This is the American flag that was given to me and does hang in my house; it is not the flag that goes outside though. It is the flag that was flown over the capital and was dedicated to me.

This is the certificate that came with it as proof.

J.T. #5

I have just completed putting my packets together to turn in the final for junior theme. Although it has seemed like a long process to get to this point, it has really flown by. It has taken a lot of work and concentration. When we finally turn everything in tomorrow it will be a huge relief and burden off of our shoulders. There have been some very stressful moments but all in all I thought it was a pretty smooth process and a lot less painful then everyone makes it out to be. I can finally say that I have completed everything for my junior theme and it is a memory, not anticipation.

J.T. #4

I feel as if I am in a pretty good place with my paper. This week I completed my annotated bibliography, which took a pretty long time. It was helpful while I was writing my paper because I could look there to see what major points I got from my different sources. I also listened to my interview that I conducted last week to write down direct quotes to put into my paper. I have completed my paper. The one part that I have struggled with is successfully addressing the other side. I am going to keep working on it today to make it stronger. With where I am now I am hoping to have a final by Friday.

J.T. #3

The most stressful part of my junior theme so far was finding an expert on my topic to interview. I emailed at least 15 people and only a few responded. Only 1 of them said that they would be happy to do it. I interview her today and she was very helpful and gave great, thorough responses. I was able to accomplish the one thing that I did not have much control over for the paper. I have been working on a rough draft of my paper for most of the day today and I am close to being done. I have also completed citing all of my sources into noodle bib, so all I have left for that aspect are my annotations. The hardest part of all of this has just been getting started and getting all of the ideas out and flowing. Once that starts, it’s all downhill (in a positive way). Right now I am struggling with choosing my quotes for my body paragraphs and making sure they are the strongest and wisest ones. I feel pretty good about my position with the paper right now.

J.T. #2

So far for my junior theme I have collected many articles from my research and have annotated them all to see what materials I have to use to create my paper. I have also read the book To Hell With All That by Caitlin Flanagan. I am probably going to end up reading another book as well because I was not able to get as much as I wanted out of this book although it did have some great insights for my paper. The one thing that I have struggled with is figuring out what information will support my paper and what is pointless information. I wrote my intro and thesis statement, but I am not too sure about my map and the paragraph overall yet. I am hoping I will be able to get some feedback this weekend or early in the week about it.

J.T. #1

It has finally begun, the one, the only junior theme! This is the time in every junior’s life that unbelievable stress is supposed to kick in. Thanks to Mr. Bolos and Mr. O’Connor the stress may not be as bad as it is in other American Studies or regular English classes. Our junior theme is incredibly different than other classes, as our whole course has been this whole year. When I first started brainstorming topics I thought I would do something leaning towards a medical aspect, but I couldn’t think of something that really clicked for me. Mr. Bolos and Mr. O’Connor have shut down some of my ideas, but now as I look back it was rightfully so. My overall question now is why are American women still responsible for the majority of household labor? I was surprised to find so many statistics on this topic of men vs. women within a household, but there are a lot out there. It is interesting because most families with children are two career families (both the husband and wife work) yet the mother is responsible for most all of the duties at home as well and does the most child care. I am anxious to find out the reasoning behind it all, especially since the times of all women only being the housewife and the men working to make all of the money are over.

should we treat them or not?

As I was looking through the Chicago Tribune a story came up about a woman who came to the U.S. from Mexico illegally. She used someone else’s identification to access health care. She had cervical cancer and did not have medical insurance in Mexico. When she came to Chicago she got three rounds of chemotherapy at the University of Chicago Medical Center, costing $530,000 in care. The argument that she made was that she did not put anyone in danger and was only doing it so she wouldn’t be in pain anymore.
This raises the question, is she a criminal? Although identity theft and fraud are crimes, is there also a moral question of the entitlement to medical care? Should everyone be entitled to health care and insurance, no matter what the cost? This is a major question within U.S. citizens, so should the people who are here illegally be treated?

LOOK FAST!

After leaving class today I really started to think critically about my surroundings. The first thing I saw was a locker decorated for the varsity basketball team; I realized that there wasn’t an announcement about them having an unfortunate loss last night. It is interesting because the only time anything about sports or achievements of anyone in the school is if they are the best. It is unfortunate that our community is like this. The saying if you aren’t first, you’re last really sums up how the New Trier community is. This does not only apply to activities at school either. There have been many tragedies that have gone on while I have lived in this area and it seems like it is the worst community to be in during hard times. It is as if people become embarrassed of their down times and have to cover it up because their persona of perfection is gone. I think it is a horrible way to live life. There are going to be ups and downs and times in the middle and that is life. I think people need to be more open and glorify the small things in life as well or else no one will appreciate life unless the grandest events happen. Everyone needs to get a reality check on life and really realize what it is all about.
What have you noticed about New Trier? What are your thoughts about how everyone acts?

want to join the Mickey Mouse Club?

TV tokenism has been a major theme within our American Studies class this year. Going back a few decades, Annette on the Mickey Mouse Club became the most well know and famous mouseketeer because she was the most ethnic looking person on TV during the 50’s. They used her most on the show for that purpose. They wanted to show the best of what America was. This completely goes along with the idea of TV tokenism. It has been going on forever. She was the only person on the show that was ethnic looking. It is interesting that it is not just a current idea for shows to succeed. The Mickey Mouse Club was the most popular show for kids for many years. It is unfortunate that shows like this are not able to stay around anymore. I feel like there aren’t any shows like this on TV currently.

Did your parents watch the Mickey Mouse Club when they were growing up? Don’t you feel like there aren’t any real American icon shows anymore? Doesn’t it seem like most everything on TV is trash?

how appealing is a bear or a chimp mauling you?

At the beginning of the year we watched part of the movie “Grizzly Man”. It was a pretty memorable film about a man in Alaska who thought he had a major connection with bears and nature. It turned out that after being with them for years, there was one moment in time that the bears did not give him their usual response. He ended up getting mauled to death by one of the bears that he had a connection with. As I was watching parts of the news with my mom last night, a terrifying story came up. A woman in Connecticut had a pet chimpanzee that was considered part of the family. This chimp, named Travis had been a star on T.V. and Travis had been considered to be very tame and would do nothing to harm anyone. This was obviously proven wrong when the owner had a friend over and the chimp went crazy. He had been on anxiety medicine that may have caused him to be a little off. He mauled the woman (friend of the owner) for 12 minutes; he bit off both of her hands and tore up her face. The owner did try to stop him by stabbing him and bribing him and called the police, but when the police came he tried to attack them and so all they could do was hide in their cars and shoot him. He did not die instantly but he ran back inside to his play room and died there. The woman was sent to the hospital and had 7 teams of trauma surgeons trying to stabilize her since she was in such critical conditions.

The parallel between these two situations is pretty clear. They both show that even though you can tame a wild animal to a certain extent, they still have their wild life instincts. Nobody has any business acting as if a wild animal is a member of their family. If you are dealing with wild animals you need to be trained for the job you do, not as a leisure activity.

Would you ever consider working with wild animals or taming one to be your pet? What would you do if you were ever in a situation like these?

hey do you want to be my friend?

In class last week, Mr. O’Connor posed a question about how conversations start and made some comments on conversation “etiquette”. I have actually thought about it a lot how conversations really start and how they differ from person to person. When I am in a long conversation I think about it after how we got to the last part of the conversation. It is so interesting how the mind works and what words or sentences trigger your brain to something else that is sometimes relevant and sometimes completely random.
There are those certain people your friendly with but are exactly “friends” per say and the only type of conversations you have is small talk. Those are the worst because not only is it awkward during the conversation but then to leave it even worse. The conversations you have with people you have the most common ground with usually tend to be the most successful and longest if you have the time.
When I don’t have something that I need to ask or tell a person when we start to have a conversation I think of the last conversation we had or something I know we have talked about before and say something about it then start from there. Conversations can get really rough really fast if certain topics are brought up. Transitions are Mr. O’Connor’s specialty but most people have problems with them, in writing and in conversations. If certain topics just don’t flow together they need to have something in between to connect them somehow. It is hard to do this on the spot sometimes or even if you have time.
How do your conversations differ from person to person? Do you like to start the conversations or end them? Do you have any tips for people who have trouble conversing with people in person?

changing his mind

When former President George W. Bush deployed troops to the Middle East, he faced serious criticism. Then when he felt a surge of troops was needed many people said it would not work. The tables have turned now. President Barack Obama said throughout his campaign that he was going to bring the troops home and get them out of harm’s way, and there would be no way that he would deploy more soldiers. The funny thing is, now that he is in office and is getting the reality of the situations at hand, he has changed his course of action drastically. Now he is planning on sending thousands more soldiers overseas. Now that he is the president, what is the general public going to think of it? Is he going to be beat to shreds as was Bush, or is he going to be glorified? Is his whole campaign of “change” going down the drain? Will we find out more of who he really is and what he stands for now that he is actually in office? Realistically everything he said he was going to do is not going to happen. He is probably going to need to change his opinion and stance on many issues, as he has already. It will be interesting to watch out for is if he will be glorified or judged in a negative way.

money money money

As we were talking about misleading narrators and depicting what the underlying meaning is, we led into talking about athletes. The mythology unit really coincided with athletes. It all started with Michael Vick. The question brought up was if he “broke” the myth that athletes are untouchable by the law. Since he was sentenced to 23 months of jail time, obviously he did not, at least with the case with him and the dog fighting. Everything that happens within the professional athletic world is surreal and strange to me. Although they put a lot of wear and tear on their bodies, I don’t understand why they are paid as much as they are. There are so many other jobs that people have that make the world a better place and save lives and do actually good for the country, but they don’t get paid nearly as much as they should or as much as the athletes. I love sports and I could only watch sports for the rest of my life but I don’t think that the athletes deserve how much they get paid. Most of the time and with most of the money they earn, it is not even put to good use. The athletes buy multimillion dollar houses, hundred of the thousand dollars worth of cars, and it is all blown away. They should save it and use it for things that are necessary, not just things they want. I think that the main reason for it is that some of them come from families that had almost no money and now they don’t know how to manage the huge pay checks that they get because they don’t look at the big picture of life. Overall the money needs to be put towards better uses, before it all gets to the athletes and once the athletes have it.

What is your take on it all? Do you think that the athletes deserve all of the money they get? How else do you think the money should be used or distributed?

WE NEED WATER!

I have no idea what I would do if one day there was no access to fresh water. For one thing I would rush to the grocery stores and buy as many water bottles as I could. After watching the movie, “American Future: American Plenty”, it really made me think about my water usage, and hopefully it did to others as well. I am usually water conscience when I am using water, except for when I am in the shower. I am just like Mr. Bolos when it comes to wanting the water at a certain temperature. I will then take a long shower. Ironically yesterday, while I was in the shower, our hot water stopped working. I was just thinking, if I had actually listened to the movie in class, I would have been done already and I wouldn’t be in cold water right now. But it is not even close to not having water at all.

Luckily the water crises probably won’t hit home completely with our generation because there are enough resources, hopefully, for us to outlast but it is the future generations to worry about. One of the main topics in class was about watering lawns and being obsessive over it. The water being used to water the lawns, in my mind, is useless and should be used for more important things. One of the main questions is if new technology should be made for desalinization and use the salt water rather than the already fresh water, once it runs out. When should the process start?

What do you do or don’t do to save water? Did the video and discussions in class change your view?

fair pay? womens rights?

Although equal rights for women and men have come a long way in the U.S. there are still aspects of this country that women do not have as fair of a chance. A major discrimination towards women that has continued is that women make 78 cents to a male colleague’s dollar. There have been many acts passed to make it closer, but it is still not equal. There are two bills that are trying to be passed within the very near future, The Paycheck Fairness Act and the Fair Pay Act. If employers do not follow the laws the penalties will be greater than before. The question of this all is, are the employers aware that they are paying the men more than the women, and is it intentional? If it is intentional, can it be justified?

"we're gonna be in the hudson"!

Think about if you were on a plane and just took off. Within a minute after take-off, you looked out of the windows, saw the engines on fire and hear the captain say, “we’re going down, brace yourself.” This is exactly what happened a few days ago to the U.S. Airways flight 1549 flying out of LaGuardia Airport in New York. The flight ended up landing in the Hudson River. The reasoning for the plane to go down was because it flew through a flock of geese and they got caught in the engines, shutting them down. The pilot flying the plane happened to be an expert glider pilot, which is a plane with no engines; this was a miracle for the passengers. The pilot used the Washington Bridge as the land mark to guide the plane into the river, and landed smoothly into the river, not crashed. Nobody on the flight was killed, there were only a couple of wounded people, and this was amazing.
This whole experience must have been extremely shocking for everyone on the plane, but even more so for the people who already have fears of flying. If this was happening while you were on a flight, or something similar, what would you do with your remaining time, in the case that you have a chance you may not survive? Would you text someone, would you pray, would you hug the people around you, would stay silent, would you talk as much as you could in the time you had, what would you do?

WAR!

There are multiple wars going on that the U.S is involved with currently. My family happens to have close friends who are in both wars, who have recently been in harm’s way. Jeremy is part of the psyops at the outpost cobra in Afghanistan, where he has had the dangerous mission of searching for Osama Bin Laden for more than a year. He has to deal with the tribal leaders and try to bring them to our side and have them give us information about the movement of the Taliban. The goal is to show them we are doing more for them than the Taliban. Ian was just deployed to Baghdad. His mission is to protect the commanders of the U.S army. He follows them wherever they go and protects them. He is a gunner/ body guard.
Do you know anyone who is fighting in any of the wars right now or did?
It is unbelievable that the American citizens would put their life on the line and go through all of the hardship in this way, just to protect our country. They have a lot of courage, and it is an honor to know some of the people who are out there doing this. How many of us would be willing to sacrifice as they do?
There are a lot of ways to show support of the troops. My family sent a care package with cigars, and homemade cookies. We got a letter back from Jeremy saying that they really appreciated it and they also really enjoy receiving, magazines and books for their down time and even wipes because showers are considered a luxury.
Since these men and women are doing so much for our country, I think that everyone, whether they agree with the reasoning for the wars or not, should support the troops in some way! Maybe our class could do something all together.

definitely materialistic!

During this holiday break the materialistic views of the U.S. have really shown. Instead of the celebrations of the meanings of the holidays and the coming together of family, the main focus is the presents. On many of the commercials I heard and saw the people would be saying how the presents and where you get the presents from is more important than the holiday itself. The focus is on the retail sales and what stores are doing the best, worst, and what types of things are being sold. As the years have gone on the buying and the gifts have become more prevalent rather than the notion of giving. Although the economy was considered to be the worst in decades this year, people were still shopping all day on the days of the sales and even on the days with no sales.
What does giving really mean? Is it about monetary things, sharing time, sharing love, sharing friendships, sharing talents, sharing appreciation? The real question is where do you have to go and what do you have to do to realize the real meaning of it all?