The Emphatic Civilisation: Reflection

           After watching The Emphatic Civilisation, both the short animated version and the long one he gave as a discussion, I got the whole point that empathy is what we have to feel towards each other because as he states, we have to feel and touch and see what the other person is feeling. In both of the lectures, he starts off with his main point about the monkey experiment and the opening of the peanut and how the monkey's brain neurons activated the same way the human's did when the human opened the nut. He calls this being soft wired and brings up the theory of mirror neurons. That's pretty much how he explains the idea of Empathy and the Emphatic Civilisation. The only difference that he does in the long lecture/ discussion that he makes is that here he goes in depth and starts with an actual introduction that relates to what he is going to talk about. Here in the long version he describes the different eras of consciousness and how it changes according to what the person is living through. Also he describes how the feeling of being tied in to something has gone through changes like starting with religion, to state, to country, to nationality and such.After doing all the analysis he predicts that by the end of the century the human race will be extinct because of the lack of empathy.

   

         One part that standed out in the long discussion is that he said that he can assure that there is no empathy in heaven and how he is giving some sort of apocalyptic imagery. In that part I do kind of agree with that because the whole point of heaven  is that it for those who have already achieved it by doing what the Holy text says. And empathy to me is sounding like that, live with what surrounds us and be who you are to give the best for your community.Because part of being a good person is loving your neighbor.

 

         This idea of empathy sound like the big message Father Gregory Boyle is trying to give in his book Tattoos in the Heart. Kingship and everything else falls into this and how we must live with the world in order to survive in the world. The sad part of all this is that we as Americans are so stuck with ourselves that we lack this idea because we are being sort of brainwashed to think a certain way with the media. Both Father G and Jeremy Rifkin are trying to emphasize this before it is too late to realize, just like it is said in both the lecture and the book. The main message overall is that we have to get free of that blinky consciousnesses that we have and start thing of the bigger picture that is happening in the community.

Final essay promt

Reflecting on this English class we have learned a lot in such a short period of time. We started with politics and economics with the book The Rich and the Rest of US, and then we went and talked a little about religion and how a Jesuit priest views the world by working with homies. During the time slot of the class in the real world, various events happened such as the government shutdown, Obama care, the event on Syria. Most recently was the typhoon that devastated the Philippines. After analyzing the couple of events that transpired in real life while the course of the semester and from the books that we read I came up with the following idea thinking of these books:

How do political and socio-economic as well as natural events that are considered disasters impact an individual’s spiritual life and their way to act upon the event? Does the action taken based upon something that we humans inherit due to the fact that we live here in this world? What is the name of that that makes us feel something for them and makes us commit action for it to the point thatg we write books and stories?

Letter to Chief...

The Hearts of my People

To the Head Chief of the Oakland Police Department,

                 I heard the other day that you have a proposed plan that with the amount of ten million dollars from the funding of the government, you plan to hire 10 new officers and also close the gap on gang violence in Oakland; mainly East Oakland, by approaching the 10 most notorious gang members and offering them job training/ classes using the accept the offer or using the stick method. With all due respect sir, there are a lot of life values that life throws that you should take consideration of before implementing the proposed plan that you currently have on your agenda. I will be focusing on 2 that I consider you should have in your mind when it comes to a good way to reach out to these so called “Notorious Gangsters”. Two of the factors that you should look at when seeing the struggles of these people that try to live day by day and what makes them choose that lifestyle are compassion and kinship

                Compassion is one of the first things that should come into the mind of someone when trying to “categorize” the person. It is the whole idea of walking in someone else’s shoes. As simple as that sounds, it is what most of us forget about when seeing another human beings actions. Gregory Boyles, Jesuit priest who works with homeboy industries and wrote the book Tattoos on the Heart ,he said in the book that “The strategy of Jesus is not centered in taking the right stand on issues, but rather standing in the right place”(pg. 72). Most of these people are somewhat chosen to live these lifestyles due to economic and political/social problems that this country is going through, especially in Our beautiful city of Oakland. To feel and reach out to these people, one must first see what is like to live in a particular neighborhood of Oakland; for example, Soborante Park. Also you can’t just say and automatically assume that because the person dresses in a certain way that person is a gangster and is all bad and always commits all the crimes. Boyles quotes in his book from the bible that “I called you by your name. You are mine…” (55). This means that you have to first cross the boundary of the gangster before you categorize that person in your circles. Also, you have to know the person and find out why they are living the way they are at the moment because something made them choose that lifestyle.

           After you do that step, the other thing you have to do and take into consideration is something that compliments it, which is to obtain kinship with them. “With kinship as the goal, other essential things fall into place; without it, no justice, and no peace” (pg187); Father Gregory Boyles expresses the idea of the result of kinship when you make them come to you naturally. We have to let them open up and make them choose the idea by themselves, instead of threatening them with such crazy idea of making them go to jail if they don’t accept them.

             So instead of making they get forced to accept the idea, why don’t we use that funding for creating alternative community programs so THEY can seek out what they like. Especially for our young population that is being exposed to that environment. If you put them something they like in front of them, they will get the idea of doing bad decisions fall behind. I agree that the additional officers will be beneficiary for our city, as the calls for the need of our people are going to be answered faster. But don’t use them for locking up people. Instead use community programs to reach out to these people to plant the seed. And with that, most likely a better Oakland will get created.

                                                                                                              Sincerely,

                                                                             A college student who has been exposed to                                                                                   that environment 

Mini essay about Tattoos in the Heart

Bringing together a community with love

God doesn’t discriminate you  because he is too busy loving you no matter what actions you take and knows you as a human being and what makes you genuine.

       

          Tattoos to the Heart, written by Father Gregory Boyle, talks about how different experiences he has had working with the homies has influenced on how he views and sees God and how he works on the humans that we are. One of the ideas that he has been thought working with these people is the idea of “Dis-grace”, or why we have the feeling of shame. One of the experiences that help him understand why homies dress and do whatever they do was when he asked a homie in prison if he had any brothers and sisters.  The homie said that they were good and he wasn’t because the fact that he was locked up. Father Gregory explains and says that “… they strut around in protective shells of posturing, which stunts their real and complete selves” (52), after having the thought that Jesuit scholar said that “the principal suffering of the poor is shame and disgrace” (52). The whole event there made things clear on why people wear what they wear in general and act on actions that lead to their own avenue of emptiness and loneliness. A lot of the homies in the vignettes that father Gregory tells in most of them are missing one thing that they feels they don’t have and that is: love.

          Love is what is missing in these homies and it is what changes completely.  In one of the vignettes; Rigo, the character in it says that his mom comes from very far to see him. “She… takes… seven…buses” (27) just to see him every Sunday after church. That action that she takes is what is meant when something is done with love.

      Another thing love does is get rid of the shame they have or change their view on what they consider the enemy or in general just change. According to Boyle, this “change” happens to everyone and it sometimes takes a long time for the action to happen but it will happen. Joey, a chubby cholo at the age of twenty one experienced this radical change. He would stay all the time hanging out, but one day he tells Boyle that he applied for a job and is working at Chuck E. Cheese as the mouse because Joey said that “in two months, my son’s gonna be born. I want him to come into this world and meet his father- a working man” (119). This story showed how one event in someone’s life can have an impact on what they believe in. The persona doesn’t change because the feeling of love is deep inside the tattoos and loose clothes of them that the only thing they need transpire to them is something to make them push it out and make their expressions show it.

        A lot of us need change in our lives, and that is what father Gregory is trying to emphasize in this book based on what he believes in. You need to allow all these feelings like love and compassion and kinship in order to have your conscience clear and live a good life with morality. Understanding others is understanding yourself because the way you view a person is the reflection of what you think of yourself. That is how the concept of morality works, what a person views as wrong is what someone else views as right. That is the reason you have the power to choose when to let the feeling of love come out because only you know your limits and what is harmful to you and what isn’t. Only you can decide when to bring your community into your life and not be an outcast. Because your persona reflects on the buildup of a community as a whole, making the community genuine and that is why others envy it. They are missing that in their lives and that is why those people try to break that apart. The whole idea of reflection takes place most of the time.

Tattoos on the Heart reflection

  After reading this book I was really I was so into  it that I didn't figure that it was a 207 page book. This book is challenging to capture every single detail due to the fact that it has a lot of short stories within the bigger picture of the chapter. I like how his short stories are written in Parable fashion, which gives us a choice on how to define the deeper meaning and come up with a conclusion after analyzing the story with our own "conscience". All of the stories were good, but the one that grabbed my attention was the one about Cesar and going to JC Penny to buy him some clothes due to the fact that he just got off from prison. The picture that stuck to me the most was when Cesar asked a couple that if he knew them from somewhere and they immediately said no. The reason why that particular image stuck to me was because I had a similar incident happen to me with my friend that was a couple years back in a gang. I was always dressed completely different from what he was wearing and rocked different hairstyles also. But to make things short, this story is the one that I connected most out of all the stories.This story really has thought me and made me reflect a couple of years back of my life. All my friend needed was love because after going to prison, he got himself together and found someone to make a life with. and now they live very happy with a child. This story about Cesar immediately got my attention because it was as if I was in it a couple of years back. And i can put myself in that setting.

Essay 2 thingy about the government shutdown

Government Shutdown: the effects getting more effects 

             The government system of this country is essential to creating a nice flow to social living. Many of the people living in this country depend on government actions and decisions as this country is a “democratic” society, where the people choose their representatives. Now that the government is or was “shutdown” in these past few weeks, what is exactly “at-stake” now that this is happening in the modern world? Many of us argue that ideas such as the American dream and self-reliance are what is at-stake which in part is kind of true. But what we are missing here is that everybody in this country has a different perspective of what these ideas are for them. There are even those that think the opposite; that these ideas don’t exist and nothing is at stake with this government shutdown. But one thing is for sure, something had to be affected due to this shutdown due to the fact that they needed some time to think over some points that needed to be addressed in this upcoming year’s federal budget. As we know, money is what gives you power in a lot of cultures. With that in mind, we have to analyze and figure out what is happening in our society and go on out to the national and then an international level to figure out where we stand in a global scale because we know that the world isn’t perfect and everybody has something that is at stake, both politically and socially. There is a lot of ideas that are good and believed that are at stake, but two major ones that are most relevant in most of todays’ world are the affordable healthcare act and poverty going on in a local community level as well as national level due to the fact that these issues will and are always addressed to our future generations and their economic stability and social status compared to other industrialized nations.

             Obama care, or better known as the presidents’  affordable healthcare act, is an act passed that states in a simple way that “Starting January 1, 2014, most Americans will be required to have health insurance or pay a fine”(KQED).  Restrictions apply to this act and thus not favoring some Americans as well as the other way around the subject. There are a lot of reasons why some citizens love it and others hate it. One of the major ideas is because due to the political party that they believe in. Republicans basically don’t want it because they stand against giving money to social programs, while the democrats face the opposition. In major news sites such as fox news, they have been stating claims in news reports such that “Conservatives in Congress have been extremely vocal about their dislike of Obama's signature domestic policy achievement” (Fox news).  This means that most of the ideas come from the arguments that they have in the house, which then extends like a wave. It means that they are not against it, but rather they don’t like the way it is because of many issues that both parties agree on.

         Internally it seems easy for them, but outside here in society it is a whole different story. Medical insurance is expensive as a whole, but with this act, a lot of people are able to get a medical insurance that they wouldn’t of have been able to get before. But with that comes the negative, now that the are new numbers to get considered “poor”, a lot of people stand out of free health care benefits such as Medical and Medicaid, while others lie in the borderline and such. This makes it hard for people to get insured if they fall between these two especially in the economy that we live in. This is a really important issue that has to be handled as soon as possible because according to the live science staff when comparing the United States healthcare to 7 industrialized nations which are: Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, “the United States ranks last on several measures of health system performance compared with six other industrialized nations, according to a new report” (live science). What does that say about how we treat our people? We need to close the gap of uninsured people because being healthy means more productivity. But if we are not healthy, how could we expect for our country to do good economically and socially? No health care means more impoverishment.

           Poverty is a major social issue that is impacting our country as a whole right now. According to Tavis smiley and Cornel west in the book they wrote The Rich and the Rest of Us; “more and more people living in the suburbs are losing their economic stability and landing in the ranks of the poor” (175). Just this concept alone has never existed in America as a whole because it is believed only rich people live in these places. Now to make matters worse, Aaron Sankin in an article he wrote for the Huffington Post stated that “California has a poverty rate of 23.5 percent, the highest of any state in the country, according to figures released this week by the United States Census Bureau”. Now what does this mean? We are living poverty very close to home even though we are blinded with other ideas the media throw out on us.

           One of them is the concept of establishing a federal budget. The federal budget has 2 sections that they put the money they could spend on, which are mandatory and discretionary spending. Mandatory spending is the basic spending this country needs like social security and health care. Whereas discretionary is money that is left over from the mandatory spending and put to sections such as the military and education. According to the National Priorities Project, an organization that follows up in the federal budget, they state in their article Federal Budget 101 that in the 2014 fiscal year, “the federal government will spend around $3.8 trillion”, which makes up about 22 percent of the nation’s economy based on Gross Domestic product. Out of that $3.8 trillion, about “$1.15 trillion to discretionary spending” is how it is getting distributed between the two.

          Here it is with the discretionary spending, this is where the problem starts due to the fact that these funds don’t get distributed how people want them to be, especially political parties. Everything that relates to poverty is tied in to the federal budget because the more they are raising the federal budget gap; the more this country looks bad because of the bad calculations of spending on programs.

        This entire broad but yet intense word that runs in the mouths of everybody now a days is what separates America instead of unifying them, creating more poverty.  An example of this is the 1 percent and the 99 percent Tavis and Cornel talk in their book. What they refer to is that the “incomes of the richest 1 percent of Americans- those earning $380,000 or more- have grown over the past 20 years, the income growth for the 90 percent of Americans, including the middle class, has been virtual standstill” (15). What they are trying to impose here is that why is there is such a big gap and why the rich is becoming richer while the poor is becoming poorer?

            As we can see, these problems are what are being pushed back to our future generations. We have to do something to close that gap because if it doesn’t, matters will get worse. We have to rise and come up to be at the same level as the other industrialized nations. We can’t have our economy and social status to suffer because we didn’t address the issues early enough before it becomes almost impossible to fix. We have to battle our internal problems here first that are preventing our engine from starting before we realize that it has become salvage material. What is as stake is the future of our kids here in this country that is called “America”. It will just be a continuous cycle until it is not taken into account in the House of Representatives and the Senate

     

      Works cited

"Republicans Want to Repeal ObamaCare -- but Maybe They'd Keep Some of It." Fox News. FOX News Network, n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2013.

"National Priorities Project: Democratizing the Federal Budget." National Priorities Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2013.

 "KQED." Public Media. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2013.

Sankin, Aaron. "California Poverty Rate Highest In Nation Based On New Census Department Figures." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 14 Nov. 2012. Web. 19 Oct. 2013.

Smiley, Tavis, and Cornel West. The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto. New York: Smiley, 2012. Print.

"U.S. Last in Health Care Among 7 Industrialized Countries." LiveScience.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2013.   

English 1A reflection

My reflection about this class

        When I walked into this classroom, I thought that it was going to be a normal class that a normal teacher usually teaches in an average university.With a written out schedule and such, as well as those boring lectures that make you do useless research. But as the weeks have gone by, I saw that everything wasn't going to be like those classrooms. After reading The Rich and the Rest of Us, my eyes opened and made me look at the world around me in a whole different perspective. I saw that there was people that were living in about the same economic situation or worse. And what made me upset is that is happening here around where I'm living in one of the strongest industrialized nations in the world. Also in the weeks in this classroom, I've increased my knowledge about what social and economic changes are happening here in the United States. Although with all the talk that happens in the classroom, sometimes I feel a bit overwhelmed with what it is being talked in the classroom. But for me, this "confusion" makes me want to know more about the topic, so I do a lot of research for both sides of what is being discussed. That way I can come up with my own standpoint in what I believe. All the talk that is happening in the class makes me want to take action, but since there is a lot of sides to the topic, it makes it hard to come up with a place to start. Even coming up with a thesis in the last essay was a bit overwhelming because I dint know how to start it or how to make my point clear on paper.

         As of now, I really don't know where I stand in this class and if I'm doing good or not due to the fact that there is a large amount of sides to the story, which makes it hard to come up with something good. Also the response time for the blogs is a bit confusing because I really don't know how I did in my homework and what I need to improve on when it comes to writing papers because the way I'm supposed to write in this class is something I have never done before in my previous classes. My previous classes gave me topics that usually were about something that happened in history but wasn't recent. Also the way to find information is kind of new because in my other English classes, I usually had to cite texts and articles that I found in school databases. In contrast, this class takes it a step further and actually makes you do research in the web as well as from books to websites that are for and against what your standpoint on the topic is. 

      

         To summarize, I like this class but it can be a bit overwhelming with all the information that we have to process.I felt that before I knew somewhat about politics, but this class has made me realize that it isn't how it is portrayed in the media and such. It makes me want to keep going to class and learn more even though it takes time to process.

Rant on education

Robyn Pulgarin 8/24/13 English 1A

Why do I have to support you?

       I’ve been standing up and supporting and going through all your bullshit in your classroom just because it is a “requirement” in order for us the student to graduate from college or high school. But why do I have to go through all of that wasted time of sitting our asses trying to learn such nonsense that we are probably are not going to use the rest of our life. Even you guys say it when your classroom is doing half bad halfway throughout the semester. But why do you care if either way if we fail your class you guys are still getting paid, while we have to find a way to redo the class just because it is a requirement. I know as well as my peers that there are instructors that really do care about their job, even though half of them don’t care one bit about their students and their overall academic standing. My respect goes to all those instructors that at least “try” (if you can call it that) to make what they teach fun.  Those are the type of instructors that we would all like to have in all our classes, the ones who BELIEVE in you and will do anything until the subject that you had trouble with sinks in. Sure part of it is the students’ job, but how will they have self-confidence if you (the people who have that diploma) don’t motivate the students because I know for sure you guys have done what we have done and as well have had lazy teachers who don’t care a single bit. I like to see the irony in that because I personally have seen teachers who aren’t suited for the job of teaching. For example, when you have a fat physical education teacher trying to teach you proper diet and exercise when they can’t even do it. Also, that grumpy old math teacher who assigns hell of a lot of homework that when it comes to going over it at school he/she takes the whole time trying to solve one problem. Does that ring a question on why most of the time we don’t bring complete homework? Doesn’t it ring a bell that we also have other classes where we must also spread out time to do the homework for that class? And most importantly, we also have outside duties that are not part of school that we must do such as work, take care of children, and at the same time deal with the assignments that you lazy asses don’t even check half of the time while we have to have sleepless nights trying to be ready for the next school day. And I know for a fact that you who sit on that chair in front of the classroom don’t read that ten page paper because I have tested it out where the first couple of pages I write and start good and after in the middle I write bullshit and finish it off with a slap of pure goodness. As for math, I have skipped, yes skipped some homework problems and you guys seem to not care because I have gotten full points for writing nonsense on a piece of paper. Most of you teachers don’t ever see this and not even bring the question on what we need help on. Well you can start by seeing the homework and checking where people are struggling on because how should we know what we need help on if we don’t even understand what the research question/ math problem is trying to ask? Isn’t that why you guys are getting paid for to do? I’m not saying that all of you teachers are all bad, because there is a lot of you guys that are worth admiring for.

         I’m not saying that I like the subject that you as teachers are teaching, but the way you guys are giving your lessons are fun to go and learn from. You teachers should keep on doing what you do best, as you have the talent to do so. Now for you teachers that don’t give a fuck, you better step your game and find an enthusiastic way for us to learn because you are not getting paid to just sit and throw at us a bunch of bullshit that we don’t know and we probably aren’t even going to need for the rest of our lives. Just like we earn our money working hard and paying for your classes, the bare minimum you guys should do is find a way for everybody to pass your class. It is in your own hands where the future of this country is, and your guys as instructor have to find a way to implement what we don’t like into our lives. For example, personally for English the thing I really hate for this class is writing papers because I have always struggled to put all my ideas on paper. But thanks to the instructor, ha has found a way to implement the lesson he is trying to teach in a writing assignment, which I don’t feel it as an assignment because it is me just being me and writing however I want.

           It is that that the education in the United States should change, in letting the teachers teach however style they want and set less standards that half of the time they can’t accomplish due to  the fact that they are too many to teach. Also get teacher that truly care about their job and not just let them teach for the money. Also you should put fewer standards to achieve certain diploma because it is proven for a fact that a student that is willing to learn something will do anything to achieve it and it will show. I can prove this by using the personal experiences of my peers and me. For example, a couple of years ago, I learned how to cut hair without going to any type of barber school, and now I can cut hair to the point that I can cut my own hair and I got to say that it comes out nice. Even you guys as board of director of schools say those hands on training is best for teaching rather than just teaching theoretical topics. That is why schools that have better equipment where we can learn from usually do better in you guys’ standardized test, which most of us take as a joke. It is very crucial that you guys distribute education money wisely because we are the future of this country. While it is true that some people are born with natural talent, there are others that need to work harder to achieve that goal. And it is up to you guys to communicate better with the student in order to learn those ideas that we don’t even need but unconsciously are very crucial to everyday living. Topics such as English and math are used in a wide array of areas such as counting population or trying to communicate an idea between one and another. The most important part of this puzzle is to find a way to make both sides of the party happy without any trifling events that might take place in the process. Some of you have that in your teaching style, while other have to work harder in order to make that possible. In the end, we want education that will really impact us in our style of living and will be able to use in our future. Although learning never stops, we need a little push to try out new things in order to expand our level of knowledge and creativity. And that is all that we ask, for you guys to put charisma in what you do and to pay attention to those that need more help, as there is different ways of teaching. Make us build confidence that we will sometime in the near future are going to need when we are independent and won’t have as much chance to making errors as we have now that we are in school. Believe in us just as we believe that you guys are guiding us to the right path.

Questions that I have about the main questions

1. What is the debate/ argument around the govt shutdown?

   1)Why is the government shutdown so important?
   2)What is each political party's standpoint/ argument for shutting the gov down?


2.Why are the republicans making this about Obamacare?
   
    1) What is the republican standpoint on this?
     2) why is obamacare a topic they must cover?

3.What is Obamacare?
    1)  what is the formal name of this?
     2) who will be affected?
      3) what will be the effect on the long run?

4. What is the situation about healthcare in the US?
     1) how many people have health insurance?dont?
     2) Who is the most affected?
     3) how does our health care compare to other industrialized nations?

5.What Happens if the Govt shuts down in the US?
   1) what gov aid peograms will get affected?
   2) what happens to public attractions?
   3) will the workers get fired or continue to get their pay?

6. What is considered "discretionary spending"? Why are these things discretionary?
  1) why doesnt the government decide on this soon?
  2) what is the affect of this if money doesn't get put in programs that fall in this category?

backgorund knowledege about healthcare...

Obamacare background information and what is is and why it is a law?
http://www.kqed.org/news/health/obamacare/obamacare-guide.jsp

President Obama's Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as "Obamacare" is an act that will take in affect next year on Jan 1, 2014. By then, citizens and permanent residents are required  to have some type of medical insurance. From the most basic emergency only plan, to the platinum insurance, that covers everything to everything in between. All these plans have different prices depending from which insurer you are getting the insurance from, as they each have different costs to pay for doctors and such. There are some exemptions to the law where some people are exempt from it, and it all depends on your economic status and household family size and such. Some people are not even required to have insurance, but then again it all depends on an individual familys income and how they are living. as of now, the insurance marketplace is open and is signing up people for medical insurance, and for those that qualify, you can get a deducteable from that. Also those that qualify for medical, they still continue to get those benefits.


As of now, about 7 million Californians do not any type of health care, and that is just in California. and most of these Californians are living paycheck to paycheck.  Also about 4 million of these Californians are legal and have proper documentation, Whereas another 6 million are illegal and don't have any type of documentation. sadly these people wont have the Obamacare benefits at all. But then again it depends on the situation

rich vs poor in mexico

Blog on the rich and poor division in mexico

    Source:  http://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/20/world/income-gap-in-mexico-grows-and-so-do-protests.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

   The division between the  rich in the poor; according to the article that is just read in the New York Times, is very noticeable to the point that 10% of the extremely rich in mexico own about 40% of the wealth. then it jumps down to the extremely poor in mexico,  which only own about 16% of the wealth. The labor force is divided as well as the country in a way that basically the better jobs are in the north while the south holds all the farming and rural areas. One thing that both of these groups share in common is that they rely on the american economy in order to survive. All of this has been off and on ever since the revolution, which is a strong indication that there is corruption that leads to the strong division between the two groups. They each have a reason to fight with each other, and one thing is for sure, it is all because of the economy and the distribution of power and all that surrounds it, from both tangible and intangible assets.

national security essay

Robyn Pulgarin 9/16/13 English 1A

America’s National Security: Outside or Inside Threats?

            What is National Security and the purpose of it in this country that we call America? What are the factors that contribute to the making of this “theory”? People of this country that we call America have different standpoints on where our national security should be focused on and where the threats of our country come from. Two of the clearest points that this country usually sides with is outside threats; for example, other countries that implement terrorism in their people and can potentially bring a form of attack on this country; and inside threats, social problems that can in the future affect the overall standing of this country in the future.  Even though the most logical idea to agree with is that outside threats will affect this country, the reality is that that it is just a diversion for the inside threats that the government has to take care of and in the long run is what affects the country as a whole in many aspects such as the economy and among other things. The government should focus on the inside threats that this country has because in the long run that is what makes the country look good , it stabilizes the economy, and most importantly, it will go toward the right path to have a prosperous America in the near future.

        

                America is viewed as the most prosperous country in this world due to the fact that most people around the world have the ideology of the “American dream”. But what is the American dream? Is it being part of that 1 percent that earns $380,000 or more, or is it earning $33,000 or less working a minimum wage job like jack in the box? Is it having a nice car, a somewhat good-looking house in the suburbs, and a nice family? Who knows what it means to live that American dream. In reality none of the American dream is true in an average family, only in Disney movies because the reality is that a lot of homes since 2007 began to get foreclosed and also a lot of car loans couldn’t be paid off due to the large amounts of interest they had that it was ridiculous. All of this caused a recession in the United States and until this date it just began to go downhill that it moved a lot of numbers down that now there’s a new type of “poverty” that describes the people who lost everything because of the recession. Now until this date the poverty rate of this country is of about 15.1 percent, and who knows where this is going to. The fact is that no matter what type of situation you live in education is the key to make a society prosper.

             

                 Education in the United States is essential because it takes the role of freedom, because you in theory have an equal opportunity to study in this country and it’s your choice to accept the education or not and to go against it. But why is it that the education centers are in bad condition and lack the latest technology while others are the complete opposite? Where is the equal opportunity? And not only are that, the majority of children studying in these centers impoverished to the point that they can’t do some homework assignments because they lack the technology at home to do it. We have to keep in mind that this world as it goes is becoming so dependent in technology that it is a shame how this country that is great in other people’s eyes can’t give the basic technology to 21.6% of the nation’s future, which is believed that they live in poverty. Where is the help of the government to these children if the point of making a strong national security is to make the children feel secure of society’s economic and social struggles first? And how can that happen if a large chunk of children are living through them? Willie “J.R” Fleming, co-founder of the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign said in an interview “our struggle is related to education, labor, and housing cuts- all of these struggles are intertwined.”(pg 97) In order to reverse the effect we need to analyze America’s social and economic struggles first and then spread out, like the rock that is thrown at the water and the waves spread out.

        

                 Obama gave a speech about Syria’s struggles when it comes to social problems that they have with a group of people and the government. Sure it is good to be informed about it, but why does this have to reflect on this nations national security issue? Just like he said in his speech referring to what the veteran wrote on his letter that was sent to the president; “we should not be the world’s policemen”-Pres. Obama. How does the gassing of children and innocent people reflect a hit on our nation’s national security when we have nothing in this nation that correlates with the issue that is happening in Syria? It’s not like our government would do something of the sort to control people if Obama said in his speech that almost 98%of the world is against using those types of weapons because they agreed on it. So why is he saying that our national security should be focused on outside threats? It just doesn’t make sense when the problem that is happening is that this nation’s youth are suffering because the lack of educational opportunities and the new type of poverty that is spreading throughout this nation’s cities and towns that didn’t have any of the sort happening. We should be focusing on how to bring poverty down and how to help the future of this country prosper, as “poverty is 21^st- century- style slavery…”(pg 103). We don’t want to have that happening again, as the whole idea of the violence that led to the eradication of slavery would not have any significance behind it. And that is what national security should be focused on, to make sure every kid in this country has the opportunity to deal with society’s problems and be able to fix it without any violence if possible. And we want to minimize the relationships that can lead to problems; or in other words, fix those relationships.

         

                  If we don’t start from the internal problems and then go out, then it will almost be impossible to makes the country look good in other peoples minds,  stabilize the economy, and most importantly, lead this country toward the right path to have what we really want, a strong national security. The government should make sure the children who are suffering here are taken care of first before they get involved in another country. They have to keep that mindset that if we don’t hurt you, then you don’t hurt us. We have to remember that the children are the future, and with them lacking education, then how are they supposed to deal with threats when they really need to? National security is a multi-step     process to handle it, and with one step at the time, it can be accomplished.

Bibliography

 "President Obama Address To The Nation On Syria! - FULL SPEECH!! - 9/10/2013."YouTube. YouTube, 10 Sept. 2013. Web. 15 Sept. 2013.

Smiley, Tavis, and Cornel West. The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto. New York: Smiley, 2012. Print.

Chapter 2 summary

Robyn Pulgarin 9/8/13 English 1A

Chapter 2 summary: The rich and the rest of us

    This chapter of the book tells us how the recession has impacted different groups of society from people who are about to retire; like jack who is still waiting on his pension, to the future of America, whom the author in the book describes as the children. Also this chapter emphasizes the point that various politicians of important caliber haven’t once embedded the word that starts with the letter “P” in their speeches that they have made. The word that starts with the letter “P” is poverty, which is an important issue that the author is trying to make as a point because you can see various charts and examples on how people of the different social classes have suffered in their class due to the lack of funding such as education for the children and retirement funds for the elderly. In fact, you can see that various people of different social classes get bothered when they hear that poverty is going around their neighborhood, which In theory shouldn't happen.  But what is put special attention to is the fact that various children are losing their chance of opportunity to prosper due to the fact that their classrooms and homes are missing funds to support the children education wise. The lack of technology and parental education is what holds back a lot of the youth in the society of poor Americans. One example of this is the little girl Chasity, who lives with her grandma who can’t help her with her education due to the fact that the grandma can’t read nor write.

topics that I find are interesting from the first three chapter of the book

1. The new definition of poverty in the united states and how and what led to it

2. the correlation of unemployment and the definition of poverty

My Ted talk response

Robyn Pulgarin 9/1/13 English 1A

Tedtalk on poverty and my response

          Poverty is an important question that comes up in all societies in the world. But the question that comes up always is what exactly is poverty? And the other question that comes with it as a sub question is how do we define it and what are the characteristics of it? Looking at a couple of videos on Tedtalk, a nonprofit site in the internet that is “devoted to ideas worth spreading”, I managed to come up as well as back up and discard my view of what is poverty and also come up with an answer that perhaps is able to answer the question. After browsing through some videos on the topic of poverty, one particular one that caught my attention when I read the title of the video was one titled Iqbal Quadir: How mobile phones can fight poverty. The reason I found the title to be interesting was because I saw the word mobile phone, which almost everybody in America has as well as the word poverty. This video talks about how Iqbal Quadir is a humanitarian who helps out with the poverty with his business GrameenPhone, a phone company that serves in the poor country of Bangladesh. One key idea that he emphasized in the discussion/ presentation that he made is the idea that “connectivity leads to productivity”. He explained the concept of this and after looking at the presentation, his logic did make sense.  He said that Bangladesh gets more revenue with his company than with the aid they get from the more powerful nations. His presentation does seem reasonable and the numbers do seem to add up because I have seen that happen in real life in México where I am from. Before, there used to be no phone whatsoever, and now there is all that types of technology like cell phones and house phones, there is a lot more activity happening and as the guy calls it, a lot more “productivity” in the whole ranch as a whole. The other video that really caught my attention was a video called Becky Blanton: The year I was homeless, which talks about basically how from one day to another she became homeless because in part she wanted to because she wanted to experiment and also because she didn’t have a job. She called herself a “working homeless”, which is the new term they came up with the trained professionals that lost their job due to the recession. Then she said something like there is still other people that are straight up homeless. The ones that straight up don’t have anything except the money they get panhandling and the junk they collect from street garbage can. One main idea that I got from these two videos is that poverty can be characterized in many different groups such as the amount of income they have as well as the social status and what society defines as “poor”. What we consider as poor might now be the same if we say a person was in a different country. For example, when I go to Mexico they consider me rich because due to the fact that I’m well dressed and have a lot of money when I go over there, when in reality I’m just as the same as them but just because the social norms change. In the end I say that poverty is just a lifestyle that people characterize in a different way. A person with a good car can still be poor but just doesn’t reflect it. Also, that can happen the other way around. But in the end, it all has to do with the society that you live in. These Tedtalks are really interesting and also very informative cause it gives you different views of what people consider as poor.

1^st video:

http://www.ted.com/talks/iqbal_quadir_says_mobiles_fight_poverty.html

2^nd video:

http://www.ted.com/talks/becky_blanton_the_year_i_was_homeless.html

Robyn Pulgarin 8/24/13 English 1A

Why do I have to support you?

       I’ve been standing up and supporting and going through all your bullshit in your classroom just because it is a “requirement” in order for us the student to graduate from college or high school. But why do I have to go through all of that wasted time of sitting our asses trying to learn such nonsense that we are probably are not going to use the rest of our life. Even you guys say it when your classroom is doing half bad halfway throughout the semester. But why do you care if either way if we fail your class you guys are still getting paid, while we have to find a way to redo the class just because it is a requirement. I know as well as my peers that there are instructors that really do care about their job, even though half of them don’t care one bit about their students and their overall academic standing. My respect goes to all those instructors that at least “try” (if you can call it that) to make what they teach fun.  Those are the type of instructors that we would all like to have in all our classes, the ones who BELIEVE in you and will do anything until the subject that you had trouble with sinks in. Sure part of it is the students’ job, but how will they have self-confidence if you (the people who have that diploma) don’t motivate the students because I know for sure you guys have done what we have done and as well have had lazy teachers who don’t care a single bit. I like to see the irony in that because I personally have seen teachers who aren’t suited for the job of teaching. For example, when you have a fat physical education teacher trying to teach you proper diet and exercise when they can’t even do it. Also, that grumpy old math teacher who assigns hell of a lot of homework that when it comes to going over it at school he/she takes the whole time trying to solve one problem. Does that ring a question on why most of the time we don’t bring complete homework? Doesn’t it ring a bell that we also have other classes where we must also spread out time to do the homework for that class? And most importantly, we also have outside duties that are not part of school that we must do such as work, take care of children, and at the same time deal with the assignments that you lazy asses don’t even check half of the time while we have to have sleepless nights trying to be ready for the next school day. And I know for a fact that you who sit on that chair in front of the classroom don’t read that ten page paper because I have tested it out where the first couple of pages I write and start good and after in the middle I write bullshit and finish it off with a slap of pure goodness. As for math, I have skipped, yes skipped some homework problems and you guys seem to not care because I have gotten full points for writing nonsense on a piece of paper. Most of you teachers don’t ever see this and not even bring the question on what we need help on. Well you can start by seeing the homework and checking where people are struggling on because how should we know what we need help on if we don’t even understand what the research question/ math problem is trying to ask? Isn’t that why you guys are getting paid for to do? I’m not saying that all of you teachers are all bad, because there is a lot of you guys that are worth admiring for.

         I’m not saying that I like the subject that you as teachers are teaching, but the way you guys are giving your lessons are fun to go and learn from. You teachers should keep on doing what you do best, as you have the talent to do so. Now for you teachers that don’t give a fuck, you better step your game and find an enthusiastic way for us to learn because you are not getting paid to just sit and throw at us a bunch of bullshit that we don’t know and we probably aren’t even going to need for the rest of our lives. Just like we earn our money working hard and paying for your classes, the bare minimum you guys should do is find a way for everybody to pass your class. It is in your own hands where the future of this country is, and your guys as instructor have to find a way to implement what we don’t like into our lives. For example, personally for English the thing I really hate for this class is writing papers because I have always struggled to put all my ideas on paper. But thanks to the instructor, ha has found a way to implement the lesson he is trying to teach in a writing assignment, which I don’t feel it as an assignment because it is me just being me and writing however I want.

           It is that that the education in the United States should change, in letting the teachers teach however style they want and set less standards that half of the time they can’t accomplish due to  the fact that they are too many to teach. Also get teacher that truly care about their job and not just let them teach for the money. Also you should put fewer standards to achieve certain diploma because it is proven for a fact that a student that is willing to learn something will do anything to achieve it and it will show. I can prove this by using the personal experiences of my peers and me. For example, a couple of years ago, I learned how to cut hair without going to any type of barber school, and now I can cut hair to the point that I can cut my own hair and I got to say that it comes out nice. Even you guys as board of director of schools say those hands on training is best for teaching rather than just teaching theoretical topics. That is why schools that have better equipment where we can learn from usually do better in you guys’ standardized test, which most of us take as a joke. It is very crucial that you guys distribute education money wisely because we are the future of this country. While it is true that some people are born with natural talent, there are others that need to work harder to achieve that goal. And it is up to you guys to communicate better with the student in order to learn those ideas that we don’t even need but unconsciously are very crucial to everyday living. Topics such as English and math are used in a wide array of areas such as counting population or trying to communicate an idea between one and another. The most important part of this puzzle is to find a way to make both sides of the party happy without any trifling events that might take place in the process. Some of you have that in your teaching style, while other have to work harder in order to make that possible. In the end, we want education that will really impact us in our style of living and will be able to use in our future. Although learning never stops, we need a little push to try out new things in order to expand our level of knowledge and creativity. And that is all that we ask, for you guys to put charisma in what you do and to pay attention to those that need more help, as there is different ways of teaching. Make us build confidence that we will sometime in the near future are going to need when we are independent and won’t have as much chance to making errors as we have now that we are in school. Believe in us just as we believe that you guys are guiding us to the right path.