Saturday, August 28, 2010
Welcome 100/100A students
Please visit my blog, cleoandme@blogspot.com I posted a new message today that is 204 words to give you an idea of how long to make your blog entries when you get your blog up and running. Considering you need to write around 500 words a week in our class, and since your reading responses will run at least 100 words on the class blog, two entries a week as long as mine, or one longer one, or several shorter ones will easily fulfill the requirement. Happy blogging. s
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This is my response to an article about the mosque, here is the link
ReplyDeletewww.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/06/06/a_mosque_at_ground_zero/
The article in question seems to have a view against the building of the mosque at ground zero. Several things have led me to be convinced of that, it seems to state from both sides. It talks with a Muslim from the area and he says how building the mosque so close to ground zero is wrong because it offends so many people. The Mosque or Islamic Center is fifteen stories tall and several blocks away from ground zero. People however seem to be up in arms at the recent developments that have caused the mosque to be built. A lot of people are angry because they don't want the mosque to be built there. However lower Manhattan’s Community Board No. 1 voted in favor of building the mosque near to ground zero. As for what will happen that only remains to be seen as more and more people join both sides of the argument in the hope that what happens will rest in their favor.
The article in question seems to have a view against the building of the mosque at ground zero. Several things have led me to be convinced of that, it seems to state from both sides. It talks with a Muslim from the area and he says how building the mosque so close to ground zero is wrong because it offends so many people. The Mosque or Islamic Center is fifteen stories tall and several blocks away from ground zero. People however seem to be up in arms at the recent developments that have caused the mosque to be built. A lot of people are angry because they don't want the mosque to be built there. However lower Manhattan’s Community Board No. 1 voted in favor of building the mosque near to ground zero. As for what will happen that only remains to be seen as more and more people join both sides of the argument in the hope that what happens will rest in their favor.
Kyla Hockman
this is fun ... what am i doing with my life ?????????? :D blogging is fun now
ReplyDeleteAlyssa Fraijo: this is in response to the health care article
ReplyDeleteReading Response
The article entitled “Unprotected Californians: Health Care as the New Civil Rights Issue” by John and Judith Glass, explained thoroughly their side of the issue. Their essay made a lot of very good points about universal health care insurance.
I personally think that both John and Judith succeeded at stating their opinions by using harsh words to describe the situation at hand. Words such as ‘catastrophic,’ ‘conflicting’ and ‘shameful’ were just a few used in the article; thus, making a good argument.
Before I even read the article, I wasn’t too familiar with the health care issue at all. However, I was aware that a large majority of the people are in fact opposed to universal health care. They are opposed because the government will be taking money out of the working class pay checks to pay for other peoples’ health that are not insured. I do agree with this point. This alone just seems unfair to the people that work for a living. They are obviously working because they have their own payments and responsibilities to take care of, such as raising a family and providing necessities.
After reading this article, I became more knowledgeable of the situation and the issues that come along with it; both opposing and in favor of it. Although this is a very informative and well written article, I am not going to base my opinions about this subject on just this, especially when such a paper hasn’t provided enough information for both sides of the argument.
I do believe in equality for all and I feel that health care is a right and should be exercised as one. However, I am still uneasy about the whole thing knowing that it will hurt the working people when it comes to money.
Blog URL for Angel Rivas: http://legna28resistance.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteThe Mosque
ReplyDeleteIn class, we read an article about a mosque being built near ground zero in New York City. The people of New York are divided on the issue. Some are very enraged that the Muslim community would even think to build a mosque near ground zero. They say it would be giving in to terrorism. The Muslim community is enraged because not every Muslim is a terrorist, and they deserve the right to practice their religion wherever they want. Just like anyone who practices Catholicism, or Judaism.
I understand both sides,if i was a family member of someone that died on 9/11, I would be very upset about this. I would push for the Mosque to be built somewhere else. On the other hand if I was a person of Muslim faith, I would be just as upset being racially profiled. I would push for the mosque to be built exactly where it was planned to be built.
I do not really think either side is right, I don't believe that either side is being more respectful. If the mosque is built in the near future, it will most likely be vandalized, that is the ugly truth. I feel that the project should be put on hold for a while until some sort of agreement is made.
I do not think it is fair that everything that I have learned all my life and everything I have been taught is socially constructed. One of the best things about college is that it allows me to rethink and relearn what has been passed down for generations. What about those who did not make it to college? For instance today in my Ethic Studies 108 class we discussed the reconstruction of Race, Class, and Gender. Society leads us to believe that these are policed boxes that people throw themselves in. In our discussion today my teacher presented the idea of religion and if the bible is REAL. I do believe there is a god and heaven and hell is real; however there were people in my class who disagreed with me. Most people in class believe that the bible is filled with contradictions and it is not accurate. Others believe that church is just a business and there is NO god. This end up turning into a heated debate and the tension in the atmosphere you could have cut with a knife. From this class I realized that in order to make it in this world you should never close your mind to one's opinion. I have learned that it is okay to go against social structure in our society. This class has broadened my eyes to so many forms of interpersonal education.
ReplyDeleteReading Response
ReplyDeleteMy response to the article “9 years gone, everyone’s a ground zero stakeholder” written by Samantha Gross of the associated press is, that too many people believe that they are a significant part of what happened in the sense they feel like they lost something extremely valuable on 9/11/2001. I will agree that 9/11 was a traumatic event for many people and an event that has sparked a lot of change in society but people need to realize that it happened almost a decade ago and it’s time to begin to move forward. We can’t live our lives always worrying about what buildings will be built near other buildings or if it is insensitive to have a religious center close to an area a traumatic event happened. To put this idea in perspective the KKK was a radical christian group that went around torturing and tormenting african americans, should christianity be banned in the regions where the KKK resided? No, because what they were doing wasn’t the viewpoint taken by all christians just as not all muslims take the same viewpoints as radicals associated with the same religion.
The article goes on to describe the city life around ground zero and how there is a guy hocking photos taken of the wreckage, a store having a sale, polos 85% off, and how there is a strip club 3 blocks away to show this isn’t the sacred place that people are fighting over, it’s just a regular city of people moving on with their lives. I believe that’s what everyone needs to do, try to move on with their life and remember 9/11 as a day where something tragic occurred and rebuild what has been taken away. It’s a greater message to repair and rebuild showing whatever happens we can as a whole bounce back instead of having resentment toward those who most likely had no part in what went happened on 9/11.
Gianna Cavallaro
ReplyDeleteReading Response
Samantha Gross, author of the article, "9 years gone, everyone's a ground zero stakeholder" couldn't have put the mosque controversy into a better perspective. Gross uses innovative tactics by persuading through abundantly sweet imagery. She paints a picture of ground zero; the street man selling 9/11 merchandise outside of the "sacred" ground, the alleged strip club resting around the corner, and Mcdonald's dwellers waddling into the entrance. The shear consumerism surrounding the burial ground, is enough to turn my head. Ground zero is far from sacred.
I hadn't developed an opinion about this subject until after Gross's article. She gave me a view of ground zero I had never seen before, due to the fact I hadn't been to New York since pre 9/11. The mosque/ community center has every right to nudge there way into the crowded streets of New York. Despite the surroundings of ground zero, the mosque issue is purely discrimination based.
I very much enjoyed the article. I thought Gross was enlightening and creative. Descriptive writing is my favorite writing style and Gross's article proved to be that and more. She manipulated and molded words in a unique way and the article constantly flowed. I can guess I wasn't the only person she persuaded.
Anthony Ratto
ReplyDeleteReading Response
The article we read by Samantha Gross was a very neutral article. She did a great job of not choosing sides, and giving information from both perspectives. She showed how "life goes on" in the consumers eye giving examples of sales on polo shirts across the street, or business men and women packing into the McDonalds on the corner. She also mentions in her article that ground zero is "sacred ground". She supports that by saying that it is the burial ground for those who were never found in the debris from the attacks. However she goes on to mention that there is a man on the outskirts of ground zero "hawking" 9/11 merchandise. This gave me the sense that this "sacred ground" was not as sacred as everyone was implying. Or it was indeed sacred but those who claim it to be sacred do not to respect it.
I am still neutral on the whole issue, however this article was very interesting and extremely informative.
Mosque Reading Respnse:
ReplyDeleteI don’t really understand what the big deal is about opening a Mosque near ground zero. I understand that its Muslim and the “terrorist” were supposedly Muslim but why, because of those groups of people, deny the rest of the race their freedom and their respect? It reminds me of the whole Pit bull situation. The media made these poor animals out to look like vicious monster when in reality they all aren’t like that. Just because one dog was bad they black listed the whole breed. This is unfair…
The Mosque is barely a mosque to begin with. It’s more of a community center for Muslims. And I totally understand that. I’m sure after 9/11 many Muslim people were probably tortured because of their race. This place can be a sanctuary, a safe place where they don’t have to be judged and ridiculed. There is also no problem for it to be close to Ground Zero. They aren’t the terrorist… They are just people looking for a place to worship. To be American, isn’t that what we impose? Freedom of Religion? We Americans obviously don’t follow our constitution.
Really this whole thing baffles me. How selfish Americans can be. Denying people their freedom because of the location of what they want to build. It makes no sense to me whatsoever. Its not going to bother anybody. What is the Mosque going to do to the families that lost people in the crash? Nothing, its not going to take another life from them nor bring any back… So to me there is really no reason why it shouldn’t be built.
After reading several different articles on the topic of there should be a mosque built i came to the conclusion that people don't want the mosque at ground zero are misinformed and that there opinion on the subject is very judgmental . The fact is that the mosque is not going to built on the actual ground zero site , the plan is that the mosque to be built several built away from ground. The articles explained that the entire building is not going to be just a mosque , it is going to be a community center that includes a YMCA , a swimming pool , conference rooms , along with a mosque. I believe that the people opposing the mosque are very judgmental and racist again Muslim people because they believe that all muslim people were responsible for the attack on the world trade center , but that fact is that the people responsible for 9/11 were terrorists and they just happen to be Muslim . A lot of people also believe that if the government lets the mosque to be built than it would be un-American . But the fact is that this nation was found on religious freedom and I believe that anybody should be able to practice there own religion beliefs and that the government should not put limitations on religious practice just because of a single incident of terrorism . If the american public knew the real facts about that issue of the mosque then I believe that many people would change their minds and most likely support the mosque being built .
ReplyDeleteAfter listening about the story of a young Japanese girl who hated being Japanese and how a very tall man who used to be a short teenager . I could understand were these people are coming because I have my own personal experience. This young japanese girl hated her cultural back-round because she had a traditional japanese name and everybody keeps on mispronouncing her name over and over again even after they she told them how to spell and pronounce her name. She also did not like the stereo - types associated with the Asian cultural such as all Asian are bad drivers and she just did not like being part of a stereo- type . I also completely understood why the young boy who was short as a teenage and got made fun of everyday by his classmate for being short but grow up to be very tall as a adult . He was looking at a apartment building with low ceiling , after being disrespected from the receptionist , he felt he was back in his childhood because he was being made fun of for being different. Well just about my entire life I was been a big, overweight and even obese kid , though- out my childhood , I was constantly being made fun of for being and I hated it . When a normal kid of normal weight saw me , they put me in the stereotype that fat kids are weird, that they should be fun of , that they are not normal , and that they should be outcast. From many of my own personal experience I agree with both of these people that once you get made fun of , you will change the way you look at yourself for the rest of your life and being part of a stereo-type is never a good thing .
ReplyDeleteRecently one of my roommates had a friend over who had some opinions on immigrants and how all of them should have more requirements before becoming a citizen including learning English. Coming from a family of immigrants from all over Latin America I was amazed at how ignorant this girl was being. The story about the Japanese girl that was read in class today, and the artical about the controversal mosque on ground zero just confermed my feelings on this topic. In a country with so many different backrounds, cultures, skin colors, and religions, and orientations...How are we so judgemental and close minded? How has it came to be that we have turned this positive environment of diversity into a negative? I was talking to this girl about why all "citizens" need to know English. With all the different dialects and languages in this country why is English so important? Any immigrant could get by on whatever language they have grown up with here, and thats one of the beauties of this country! not everyone can afford to go to English school when they first get here, and if they want to put down the money to learn English thats great but it shouldnt be a requirement I would love to see her try and get by in neighborhoods such as the Mission of San Francsico without using Spanish. Immigrants and races all over this country segregate themselves into communities with their "own" people as a survival technique that they have learned to live by. My family is no exception, when my grandparents first came here from Mexico and El Salvador, they met each other in English school and moved straight to the Mission district in San Francisco. It was their children, my mother and her siblings, born citizens of the US that had to break the barriers and date outside their race.
ReplyDeleteI could keep going on this topic forever, because it has always been an issue for me to prove to people that I dont have to be "purely" their race for them to be friends with me, in someways you could say that its a blessing that I have grown up mixed in a society that is so against it, because my personality is what I had to show them to and to break perceptive bounderies. All of my friends are of different backrounds and cultures, and thats wierd to some people, but to me its not their skin color that I admire.
For whoever is reading this, I dont know what your opions are on this topic of immigration to the US, but just think back to when you were growing up as a kid, before you could even see race, before society put a lense over your eyes and tainted your vision and all you could see was the personalities of the people around you. Was it really the outside exterior of people that attracted you? or was it something deeper? like the fact that maybe race and ethicity are made up terms, and that even us humans have not been able to prove these terms to be biological factors...
Mosque Madness At Ground Zero
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, i think that people are making this incident a bigger deal than it needs to be. There are two sides to the story, and pros and cons that come with each of them. For the American New Yorkers, putting a mosque in the very place where Islamic terrorists crashed their plane and killed thousands of people would be the ultimate insult. How dare muslim people mock them that way, and how could they be so insensitive? Even though 9/11 is done and over with, the damage that it inflicted on people will never be over. Parents that have lost their children will always remember, and ground zero is a kind of memorial place for them. Building a mosque there for the muslims would seem to be an abomination to some people.
On the other hand, a lot of Islam and muslim people have suffered for the damage that the terrorists have inflicted upon our country. Their nationality and culture as a whole has been put under pressure, suspicion, and even been harrassed because of 9/11. To them, the mosque would be a place of of remembrance also, but more importantly, it would be a place of sanctuary and connection for the people that have suffered form the damage that the terrorist have done. It would be a mosque, and a very large cultersl center. The erection of the mosque would be a symbol to the people of New York, and the rest of the country that muslims, and muslim americans, are apart of our country. They need to be included in our society, and accepted as regular people, without prejudice.
I thik that the author did a fairly decent job of presenting both sides of the conflict. He made sure to include everybody's opinion;good, bad or ugly. The article was not substantially biased or unfair. It was just a full description of the conflict at hand.
I personally think that both sides could be a little more compassionate and understanding towards each other. The muslims wouldn't necessarily have to build their mosque in that exact spot, and Americans could make an effort to not hold things against muslims as a whole people. They didn't do anything wrong. People should be willing to work together, so that some sort of arrangement or compromise could be made. If not, then nobody is going to be happy.
Reading Response
ReplyDeleteMy response to “Being japanese can be pretty cool” is that the author was worried about where she fit into society like most high school students and thought that disregarding her japanese heritage and becoming “american” would help her fit in more. She didn’t want to be associated with the FOB’s (fresh off the boat) students who were in english second language classes and had problems reading. She was sent to japanese school to be shown from a young age that being japanese should be something to be proud of, but that same idea of being proud was turned into being ashamed due to the fact she had to wake up on saturdays and go learn about japanese culture and history for eight hours. The author used her name as another example as to why she didn’t like to be japanese, on the first day of school during roll call when her name was reached all her teachers would stop and stare with a puzzled look and pronounce her name wrong, making her correct them before having to spell it out for them. It wasn’t until the author went to a different country were japanese people were not the majority for her to see that people were studying japanese culture and learning how to speak japanese. Seeing people working so hard to learn about Japan made her feel lazy because her whole life she has been surrounded japanese culture and been trying to avoid it. After leaving to return to America she began to feel lucky to be japanese, she stopped caring as much about what group she was in. The author who before rejected the idea of japanese music and tv now embraces it and even watches japanese tv programs her parents watch.
My response to the auto ethnography "Japanese can be pretty cool" is that the author was afraid that she didn't fit into society just because of her race. But like most high school students she was very self conscious about what people would think about her. When in turn there are a lot of people who pride themselves based on what race they are. She thought that to be american meant that all of her japanese heritage did not mean as much. But little did she know that all of the Saturdays she spent at school keeping up with her culture made her who she was and always will be. The author also was angry about how people who mess up her name during roll call on the first day of school, and how she had to always correct them. She came to love her Japanese culture after she had gone to another country and saw how people are amazed and want to learn more about the Japanese culture. When she saw all of the people there working so hard to learn japanese and understand it she realized that she was being lazy and ungrateful because her whole entire life she was surrounded by it and the whole time she was trying to avoid it. When she arrived back to America she felt so lucky to be Japanese and to share her culture with a bunch of different people. She embraces her culture now and is more opt to listening to japanese music, and even watching tv shows that her parents watched; that she never watched before.
ReplyDelete"Japanese can be pretty cool" was an auto ethnography about a Japanese girl who was ashamed of being Japanese at a young age. She was embarrassed to go to Japanese school on Saturdays because she did not like being associated with her Japanese classmates. She did not realize that her parents sent her to Japanese school so she would gain a sense of pride to be who she is. It took visiting another country for her to realize that she should be proud of who she is and not worry about trying to fit in. She saw how people studied and worked so hard to try to learn about her culture and speak her language. People asked her to write their names or certain words in Japanese, and she finally felt proud to be able to do that. She was finally understand why she went to Japanese school on Saturdays and began to embrace her culture.
ReplyDeleteIn class we read on article about a mosque being built close to the area of Ground Zero in New York. This brought controversy and concerned Americans nationally. One side fought that building a mosque in an area previously attacked by Islamic terrorists would be an insult and would perhaps question American pride. The other side argues that we are indeed a large melting pot, made up of any and all races and religions, and we should all be treated as one. I think that Americans are making a large deal about a small issue and overall need to stop being hypocritical.
ReplyDeleteBeing offended by a mosque being built just shows ignorance in my opinion. In the article it explains that there is also a local strip club closer to Ground Zero then where the mosque would potentially be built. Now what does that say about America? Americans would not like there to be a mosque built near ground zero for it is the same religion of the people who committed the attack on 9/11. When we Americans are supposed to coexist and except all races. The people worshiping in this mosque are obviously not the same people who committed the catastrophe of 9/11. These Americans that are fighting for this mosque not to be built are saying that they are more comfortable with a business in which women get naked for money, then a place where Americans can practice their religion. To all uneducated Americans, take a step back, recap.
If we were the true Americans that we represent ourselves to be we would be accepting of this controversial decision. If we are supposed to be a nation free of speech, religion, and assembly, then why do conflicts like these arise in the first place? Americans tend to give the majority of their focus to whatever causes the most hoo haw. In addition, I believe that this particular controversy became so big because we are scared. Anything that makes headlines that impedes the success of our country is scary to Americans. In my opinion naked women sliding upside down a pole in front of sex hungry men is much more frightening then a mosque next to Ground Zero.
Japanese can be Pretty Cool
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article it was very helpful in understanding what an auto ethnography is and what it should provide for the reader. I attended the same High School and grew up in the same town as the author of this article, which made me feel for the author. At Palos Verdes Peninsula High School, the Asian population is almost a majority. There are many students in the same place as the author. Many students spoke very little English. I feel that her experience was also greatly influenced by the area she happened to move to. Palos Verdes is a very white elite community, filled with harsh judgmental children. It would have been hard enough for her to attend high school in America, but it had to be this one. Throughout my four years of high school, FOB was a term that I heard quite often. There were indeed large groups of Asians, not only Japanese but Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese and Vietnamese that hung out in their cultural groups and did not often converse with students of other races. From the perspective of a white person, I felt as though The Asian population were the ones being racist and shielding themselves, because they were the only visually obvious group that did not let in other races. I did not think, until reading this article that perhaps the reason the Asian students did not converse with anyone else was because they felt unwelcome. Now looking back on it, this makes a lot more scene. In high school my group of friends consisted of all races, Mexican, Armenian, Philippinos, Chinese and Korean. My Asian friends were second or third generation American, meaning they were not "fresh off the Boat. My friends of Asian descent were not filled with the feelings of segregation because they have already learned the social structures and values of Americans, for they have grown up here their entire lives.
This article was written with good perspectives, those of the author and by her surrounding high school peers, helping me understand what my auto ethnography should be composed of.
Call Me Crazy, But I Have To Be Myself, by Mary Seymour
ReplyDeleteThis was the short story that my group and i picked for a class reading. The title just caught my eye. Who wouldn't want to read a book about a crazy person? All the other stories looked boring too,. We had a strategy about picking the perfect story. We looked at the index and picked out all the stories that looked interesting and then we took turns reading them. We read one about how a girl was the victim of the ghetto and it caused her to be a criminal. That one was just a little too much for me. What a lame story. I can see how an environment has an effect on you, but i don't know about causing you to become a criminal and having no opinion about it. That just doesn't work out.
Another one we read was about an African American who had insomnia. When he couldn't sleep at night he would walk the city streets and people would think he was a gangster or rapist. They would walk down another street to avoid him or lock their car doors as they saw him approaching. He thought it was grossly unfair to make disparaging judgements based on looks or the profile you have in the dark. Our group wanted to save that one for another time. The last one we read was about a teenager from a divorced home, but that sounded like too many of our claasmates' autoethnographies so we decided against it. We settled on the crazy story, about a woman with manic-depression and how hard it was to act normal in the every-day world.
She had several mental breakdowns and was locked up in a nuthouse for awhile. Once she got out she got a job and had to act like she was a normal person, when in fact she took meds to keep her moods normal and attended weekly therapy sessions to stay sane. She felt like she was lucky to blend in with a crowd and appear normal, but she also wanted to be her crazy, bipolar self too. She wanted people to know about what she went through and what it was like to be crazy. I thought it was quite interesting.
Today I read an article that changed my perception about the (mis)use of language. What are words but a cultural expression, inhibiting cross cultural understanding. In math and science terms and equations are universally equivalent. Au contraire in philosophy and sociology understanding is contextualized by cultural development. Thus if one relies solely on the expectation of oral communication to convey feeling and emotion then one limits sensuous experience with those of the same culturally conditioned background, excluding one's own self from potentially purposeful and meaningful interaction, in a period of globalization. Which brings me to the point of the article I read and the premise of the article you are currently reading. Imagine a universal language understood by all with a capacity and yearning to communicate. Communication unbound by linguistic barriers. A language spoken from the heart to the heart.
ReplyDelete