The Drinking Age

I am now researching the drinking age in the United States. I believe that the drinking age should be changed from 21 to 18. In the United States when a person turns 18 they are considered an adult; they can choose to join the army, they can vote, buy cigarettes, choose a college, live on their own, decide what they want to do with the rest of their life and they can go to jail. They are given all of the responsibilities and privileges of being an adult. I think that it is absurd that a person can choose to join the army and put their life on the line at the age of 18, but that their brains are not developed enough to drink alcohol. I think that this is lacking logic and needs to be reevaluated. If we are considered adults at 18 then the drinking age should correspond with when we are considered an adult. If people’s brains are not developed enough to have alcohol then there is no way that we should allow 18 year olds to make these other life changing decisions.

Child Poverty- "Take Action over Child Poverty"

Continuing my research on child poverty if found another article from the source the Evening Standard titled Take Action over Child Poverty. According to the article “the majority of a child’s learning and development takes place outside of the school gates” (paragraph 3). The author suggests that rather than investing funds in the schools in impoverished areas they should put it towards the families income so that they can support their families. To be continued…

Child Poverty

I have chosen to spend the remainder of the year learning about child poverty. The first article that I found on the topic was from the source: Our Sunday Visitor (from June 11, 2010) and titled Stemming the Rising Tide of Child Poverty by Michelle Martin. According to the Duke University Child and Youth well-being Index Project (conducted in June 2010) "about 21 percent of children in the United States will live below the poverty line this year" (paragraph 2). I found this statistic to be quite shocking and alarming. The recession has caused this percentage to rise. And it is extremely difficult to rise from poverty, in fact according to Ralph McCloud, executive director of CCHD and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops domestic anti-poverty effort, "people who grow up in poverty are likely to remain poor as they raise their own children" (paragraph 8). This is why we need to try to provide opportunities for the poor to get a good education so they have the opportunity to rise from the poverty. By allowing this cycle to continue we are creating a permanent lower class and this puts the children that were born into this poverty at an unearned disadvantage in our society. According to the Child and Youth well Being index Project "about one in five children are living in poverty this year [2010], in four states, that number approaches one in four" (Martin). This is clearly a big concern and needs to not be overlooked.

The State of the Union Address

I think that when I watched the state of the Union Address I was surprised to feel disappointed and unsatisfied. I felt like Obama made a large wish list on what he hopes to accomplish in the country and provided no explanation for how he was going to make it happen. I would have preferred if he had said fewer goals but included more details on how he was going to accomplish the goals he has said out to achieve. But he was trying to please the majority and that definitely worked because he used his very general statements to please both parties. He definitely seemed to focus his attention toward clean energy and education. I thought that his ideas for improving the education system would be very beneficial to the countries future. Overall there were definitely some great ideas made and it was very well written, but I hope that there is follow through on these ideas.
I will say that I have seen the State of the Union addresses in the past and having the republicans and democrats all sitting intermixed gave a much more united front than in years past. This was definitely my favorite part of the address. It changed the entire vibe and feel of the speeches in a great way.

Mock Trial Recap and Response

Recap the trial:
Trail 1
I agreed with the jury's verdict deeming that David Jones is innocent in the alleged rape of Susan Williams. I was chosen to defend Davis Jones in the case and found that the more I prepared for the case, the more that I agreed with David Jone's position. I think that charging someone with rape is a huge accusation and cannot be made unless you are absolutely certain that the accusations are in fact true. There was no physical evidence of any resistance shown from Susan Williams and she consented to sexual intercourse with David Jones in their relationship before. If Susan Williams really didn’t want it to happen then she could have left. David had let her leave before if she was feeling uncomfortable. I sympathize for Susan Williams because she is probably just confused with her feelings and looking back on their relationship she is probably just upset that she went that far with him. But you cannot blame David Jones because Susan showed no signs that she didn’t want to be there that night, in fact she was the one that kept continuing to kiss him.

Race in America

The Project Implicit Race test shows that I have a slight privilege toward European Americans. I think that this is a somewhat accurate simply because of where I have grown up. I am not exposed to many of the racial injustices and because I don't see it I don’t know how prevalent it really is in society. But I think that because I am well educated, along with many of my peers, race isn't really an issue. But again, I may just not notice it. After reading the Chicago Tribune: Exploring Race tab I was shocked to see the amount of articles that were associated with racial injustices recently in the news. I had no idea that there are so many current racial issues in the news.

Whats going on in the world?

I think that it is going to take a long time for Egypt’s economy to stabilize. Right now the military has power over Egypt. Until the protests subside it is a good idea for the military to remain in power. Even though Mr. Mubarak stepped down on February 11, 2011 the protests still continue.

In addition, another huge thing that is going on in the world is the tsunami in Japan. It has resulted in fires in the four nuclear plants and is releasing so many chemicals into the air. The fallout zone of the air pollutant is in the Pacific Ocean and this happens to be where forty percent of the world gets their food from. I think that the media isn't doing a good enough job at informing the world on what is really going on there. To me it seems like a difficult situation for the world to deal with. Many countries have a lot of trouble offering aid to Japan because they are a wealthy and have not had a great reputation with the other countries. But I think that other countries need to start offering aid because this will affect the entire world, not only Japan.

EXTRA POST: Hurricane Katrina

After spending the last week focused on Hurricane Katrina I have found that my views on the matter have completely switched. I was extremely disappointed seeing how America handled the situation. It is absurd that it took five days to get help. Our government chose to deal with the politics of the matter before taking action. This resulted in far more deaths, mal nutrition because of the lack of food and water available in New Orleans and an increase in crime. Their primary concern should have been saving lives. I hope that America has learned from this situation for the future. The whole event was very poorly planned and executed. Although the government issued a mandatory evacuation, they didn’t offer ways for the poor and elderly to evacuate. Evacuation can be very costly and because there are a large percentage of underclass residents in New Orleans there should have been buses available for these people. It really disappointed me that America offers aid to many other countries but when our own citizens are in need they weren’t there to help them.

American Son

Number 1
The book American Son by Brian Ascalon Rowley begins in California with Tomas, Gabe and their mother. Gabe is the youngest son and the narrator of the book. Tomas is Gabe’s older brother. The mother is now single after the father decided to leave her. Despite the fact that her husband left she continues to wear her wedding ring. Since they are living with a single parent, in order to make ends meet Tomas sell attack dogs to celebrities and the wealthy people of California. Tomas seems to have fully immersed himself into this new culture after coming from the Philippines. He now has gangster tattoos all over his body, a short haircut and does drugs. It upsets Tomas’s mother that he “dresses like a Mexican […] she cannot understand why if he wants to be something that he is not he at least try to look white” (15). Tomas’s mother has left everything behind in the Philippines so she simply wants what’s best for her sons. She knows that if Tomas continues on this path he will have a much harder time economically advancing. But it is easy for Tomas to do whatever he so desires because his mother “relies on him to tell her how things work in America, and it has become easy for him to convince her of things” (25). But lucky for the mother, Gabe hasn’t followed this rebellious path that Tomas has chosen. The mother seems unsatisfied with life in America and seems to be considering moving back to the Philippines. Her former husband was from America but now that he has left she has not husband and she feels that her children won’t take care of her either because “American children put their mothers in nursing homes”(29). This clearly displays the culture differences between America and other countries. In other countries the elderly people are highly recognized and admirably viewed by the youth. But in America we don’t have enough time to take care of our elders. Tomas and Gabe’s mother is simply afraid that she will be forgotten if her sons continue to immerse themselves in American culture.
Number 2
The mother continues to be uncomfortable with the idea of selling these guard dogs. She seems ashamed for her family to see Tomas selling these dogs. Her brother tries to convince her to move back to the Philippines. He is convinced the boys will be better off with more discipline and other Filipino children to hang out with. As I continued reading the novel, Tomas continued to reveal his insecurities about his heritage. Gabe explains that Tomas “started hanging out with Mexicans, because they are tougher” (30). And he continues to act as if he truly is Mexican. He has a large tattoo of the Virgin of Guadalupe on his back to convince those around him that he is of Mexican descent. Tomas “did not understand Spanish, though he nodded and tried to make it look as if he understood” (39), this proves the lengths that Tomas would go to in order to convince those around him that he is Mexican. Interestingly, the mother doesn’t understand why Tomas is ashamed of his Filipino background yet the mother seems to be ashamed of selling the dogs even though it is providing the money for them to stay afloat financially.
Number 3
One day Tomas had to go to a celebrities home to drop off a dog. Gabe had never gone to a celebrities home before so he decided to wake up early so that he was ready when his brother woke up in the morning. Tomas reluctantly allowed Gabe to join him to the client’s home. But Gabe noticed that Tomas seemed particularly tense driving into the luxurious neighborhood. He explained that because he drives a white Oldsmobile (typically the car of Mexican gangsters) he gets randomly pulled over with no explanation. The policemen would even go so far as to ask them to step outside of the car so that they can search them. All because of the connotation with the car that they drive. This shows how the have to deal with different treatment than everyone else. Gabe explains, “I could see how tense he is, though he tries not to show it” (40). Part of Tomas’s “though guy” persona means that he is afraid of showing emotions. We see this again when they are leaving the mansion and the clients wanted to purchase their family dog buster. Tomas started crying on the way out and when Gabe commented on it he was beaten up by Tomas.
Number 4
Gabe was always considered the good child. He was quiet and obedient. The mother had always been relieved that Gabe didn’t turn out like the Americanized version of Tomas. But one day that all changed. Gabe decided to run away so he stole his brother’s car and sold their family pet in order to have enough money. He begins driving through California and as he drives Gabe’s insecurities on his Filipino heritage are revealed. I think that a lot of this insecurity stems from his brothers mockery before Gabe ran away. Tomas always seemed to be making some comment on his heritage whether it was spoken or simply expressed through his actions. Because Tomas is Gabe’s older brother, although he may not want to admit it, Gabe does look up to him a lot and his actions seem to be carried down to Gabe.
Number 5
I don’t think that the mother would have ever expected this life for her boys prior to her leaving the Philippines. I feel bad for her because she seems to be trying her best to raise her sons but she is being scrutinized on every level. Her brother is constantly saying that the boys would have turned out better if they were raised in the Philippines. In addition she doesn’t approve of the boys lifestyle that they are taking on, but she doesn’t know enough about American culture to stop this behavior. I sympathize with the mother because she is simply trying to do what is best for her children. It would have been much easier for her to simply move back to the Philippines and live a comfortable life there. Instead she chooses to stay in California and be poor because she believes that that will pay off in the long run for her children. The brother Benito explains, “I could teach them [Tomas and Gabe] the values of education, work, discipline, and respect for their elders and Asian and Spanish heritage” (133). He wants them to move back to the Philippines so badly so that he can turn their life around. I think that Benito isn’t recognizing the positive things that she has done as a single mother; he seems to only recognize the negative things.
Conclusion
After completing the novel American Son by Brian Ascalon Rowley I have a greater insight into the challenges that immigrants face on a day to day basis. They are exposed to far more peer pressure and hardships than I have ever or probably will ever be exposed to. Although they face great challenges in America the immigrants know that these hardships are small in comparison to lifestyle that they would be living in their native country. At the beginning of each part there is a letter from their uncle Benito (the mother’s brother). The letter always seems to describe how much easier life is in the Philippines and is trying to persuade them to consider moving back. Even after reading these letters the mother knows that she and her boys are better off in America.