To the Future...

Just like in our Junior Theme conclusions where we were supposed to look to the future and beyond i am trying that here by doing the same thing. As we finish up our junior year i can actually say that i took away more than just information from this class. I realized that most of my friends classes were all about dates and years. Which is not to say those are not more important but i feel that the understanding why and how questions can help us to understand history more than dates. Thanks Bolos and O'Connor for letting us truly understand that this class is a two way street. We know that we have learned from you, and we do also hope that you have learned from us. 

Wealth Contributors

In class we have covered the fact that land ownership has a direct correlation to wealth. I began to think if any other factors so directly impacts a social status. Maybe not so directly, but a good education can help push people into the direction of perhaps owning a lot of land. 

A good education can help people also in social status because it does a couple of things, 1 if your education allows you to meet other people with the same or greater degree, than you can make strong connections helping you in getting ahead in the world. the 2nd reason is because it allows multiple options for your career. By having a greater career choice your options for attaining a more power prominent job that you actually enjoy are a little higher. 

Other that education, some things that directly relate to wealth we cannot control. Your family name and the amount of respect already placed upon you are huge impacts into your position in the world. Though in class today we learned about people from England who came over were granted land per head they brought. Someone with a lesser class could move up the ranks to a class with great wealth. This is essentially the american dream and how people wish to live their lives today, moving up that social economic latter. 

Road Trip

On my family road trip through Indiana this weekend in noticed a few things that I just had to analyze. The first thing was that the license plates have “in god we trust” in big letters written on them. I was completely shell shocked when I saw this. That would be very controversial in our area but I think that because people in Indiana are more conservative and religions that they are more partial to it than we would ever be.

Now lets relate this to my junior theme, sprawl. On the way driving down I saw many billboards and signs talking about the new development. Many Americans in this area were raised in rural areas and are not used to the idea of developments. Many children of these farm land families are deciding to move to theses developments in order to achieve the so called “American dream” of buying land

Land has been a reoccurring substance throughout the year. Just last Thursday we discussed how land was a way to climb the social latter. In the play The Kentucky Cycles, Michael asked for his life, and for land. This just demonstrates the importance of land ownership.

 Today, one of the most important factors when deciding on home ownership is the land surrounding the property. The average American lot has increased tremendously within the past few years. This is all due to the incredible demand to be viewed as “great” just like the “Great Gatsby”. People with more land have more money and everyone wants to be friends with people who have more money

Physics Day- Secret Messages...

Last friday for physics day we headed out to 6 flags. Located in Gurnee Illinois, a sprawling community I related this to my theme topic of sprawl. 

This was not the only AIS related thought i had this day though, while waiting in line at the Raging Bull, T.Vs surrounding us after playing a Beyonce music video switched over to a "Go Army" commercial. I though this was an interesting place to play those commercials. Why Great America? Why is the military appealing to their costumers and not to people who buy bulls tickets? 

Though i have no proven information or studies, i think this relates to two topics of AIS discussion, Secret Messages and Class from Geography. The Gurnee area is generally of a lower class than the north shore, people from these areas are not as well of and do not have as many advantages as other people do. The army commercials might be playing there because people after high school are at a loss about what to pursue. Around here 95% of students will attend college after high school. That is obviously not the case almost anywhere else in the United States. 

Because these students are at a loss, they are open to many more ideas and opportunities than someone who has already been enrolled in school. 

By playing these commercials at a 6-Flags, they are implying that the people who attend will not pursue a further education and would be available to join the army. This is taken from the secret messages of geographic location. 

Class Assumptions

In American communities class is often looked down towards. Many people to not feel comfortable when talking about social standpoints especially when those conversations are directed and related to wealth and class. After polling my parents about where we stand social-economically they had polar opposite feelings. When asking my father about where we stand, he said the poor one. I assumed that was a joke because of our obvious surroundings. Then he later replied by saying that we were fine.  Maybe he assumed i was asking these questions because i was worried about that. 

This relates to how Americans are curious about everyone else's situations financially. I believe that people judge other people based on classes. I mean this is obvious considering our surrounding environment. When people go to poorer areas to talk with the people their it is called community service. Granted most of community service is a great service and i highly endorse it. Some people think they they are better and because they are wealthier they are more knowledgeable. 

Connections

The past discussions we have had in class about levels in society have significantly related to my Junior Theme topic about sprawl. It might not seem like they relate but the do more than you would think. Much of sprawl is created in order to separate upper from middle from lower class. 

Americans feel more comfortable with their "own kind" some one in the middle class might feel out of place with say some one in the extreme upper class. The same goes for some one in the extreme upper class feeling uncomfortable with some one in the middle class. Because of this trend developers are now creating divisions or differently priced real-estate to accommodate these feelings.  

In Duanys Suburban Nation he created an image of a sign that showed moderate homes to the left, middle upper-class homes to the right and the largest sign was for the upper class to the north. This just further displays the separation. 

Junior Theme 3

Theses... check
Rough Intro... check
Why question... check
Book read... check

Interview...

The perfect candidate for my interview, Robert Brugemann, a professor at UIC, has still not responded to any of the emails i have sent him on his two accounts. I realize that the worst thing for me would be to hound him with so many calls and emails that he might be scared to contact me. If he is indeed not responding to me, then i need a new candidate.

My topic of suburban sprawl is kinda narrow in the professional world. I was thinking i could use a real estate agent to interview. Any thoughts on this. I think they are qualified in the field on sprawl and could tell me about the issue.

Junior Theme #2

This break i had some time to think about possible topics for my junior theme. Instead of a more suburbia related topic, i think i would like to analysis the differences of "city living" and suburb living and decide which is a better live style for children or place to raise a family. I could look closely at defining features of both areas and compare and contrast something like school systems or health care. 

Right now i think that the suburbs are the best place to have kids and raise kids in, they have better health systems and health cares. However i think i will skim "Price of Privilege" by Madeline Levine, It will hopefully give me incite to the child's thought and reasons of certain behaviors, and because the book is based in the suburbs it would tell me something about that as well. 

Right now i am really looking for a book that would tell me more about how children react to different environments, whether it be city or suburbs. Any help would be more than appreciated 

Junior Theme

Looking for topics on my junior theme, there were several things that came to mind. The first thing i wanted to focus on was right away something relating to geography so i came up with urban sprawl and suburbia. Then i decided well it would be cool to contrast the crime rates with the expansion rates and see if people are really moving away from crime. Then i thought it would be nice i include environmental effects of sprawl and maybe even heath changes. Are these all things i can include in my topic of sprawl? Is this a to narrow topic? Should i expand it to all of suburbia. I think i can find a lot of information on all of this, but i am no expert. Any advise would be helpful.  

The War of the Guns

 

With all the crazy things happenign in the world today, i decided to take a closer look at what i feel is a escalating problem in the United States. Gun Violence. Looking at the top countires with the highest murder rates. The United States ranks 24th. 24th!!!!!!!!!! That might seem low on the scale, but when you take into account that their are over 200 countries in the world, a 1st world country in almost the top 10% of most murderous countries blows my mind. Countries following our high rank go as follows... 

25. Armenia 

26. India 

27. Yemen 

28. Dominincana 

29. Azerbaijan 

30. Finland ( The only other 1st world country in the top 30 countries) 

I truly and full heartily believe that we need stricter laws that can be enforced with more ease. Though i do recognize that to some people guns are a way of live what else would gun store owners sell? How would hit men take out their targets? 

If I was president i would take away guns from all citizens, only law enforcement such as police, security, and other law enforcement agency's similar to those would have access to weapons. I can see no reason for a regular civilian to own a gun! The only thing i can see coming from that situation is a child finding it and learning to be comfortable around guns, maybe buying one later on and perhaps using it to murder or hurt people. 

This is an outrageous issue and their need to be updates laws supporting a better safer nation. If that means changing the 2nd amendment " right to bear arms" than so be it. Change is a part of evolution. 

The Good Life, For who?

Women have always been subordinate to men in society. This is apparent in almost everything you look at. From advertisement's portraying women as sex objects to society telling women that they are only perfect if the have the bodies the models do. I remember that freshman year in health class, we talked about how ads affect womens self esteem this is still apparent today.

While watching Kanye Wests music video the "Good Life" their is a women who is just viewed as a sexual object. In the video Kanye boozes her up so she is easier go get. "Whether you are broke or rich you have got to get this" pointing at the woman he was objectifying. This is a perfect line showing how women are sex symbols.

I am Patriotic, How Dare You!

This weekend while campaigning in Rhode Island, Michelle Obama responded to a comment she made earlier this week. That comment was relating to whether or not she loved America before this election. I think it is very insulting politically, and emotionally to question one love for the country they are trying to improve.

The very fact that people are arguing with this woman about her views is a clear step from many previous elections. Because i was not alive, i asked my parents if they could remember any election where their were this many women involved. Michelle is campaigning without her husband in Rhode Island, Hillary is running for president and her daughter is also playing a key role by campaigning just this week in Hawaii. 

I think its very interesting because the unit were studying now, Women and Children, directly relates to modern day occurrences though we are in U.S history, not U.S current events. This also goes to back to the beginning of the unit when we asked the question, Do women and children still come first. I think that because of all these women getting involved in politics they are beginning to break down the barrier between men and women. Do you guys feel the same? Where do women stand in societies perspective? 

STRIKE!!!

With news of the writers strike ending i felt a little misplaced. I realized it was nice to live life without having to revolve my time around my shows. I can now do things i never thought i could before!!! With no new T.V shows, i have so much more free time for more AiS homework. It got me thinking that if so many more americans were not watching their T.Vs what else they could be doing. Maybe if the strike was forever, our obesity rate would decrease, out students would be back at the top of the world. Maybe a new era similar to western Europe's renaissance age would begin. That would be rock'n

Huckleberries Adventures Through Society

The movie we watched in class brought up some very interesting points in regards to the use of the N word in his novel. I believe that this shouldn't even be an issue. People want to whitewash a primary source! That's crazy to me you cannot just forget a part of history and even thought it might hurt and you might feel offended by it you simply cannon forget it. That would be like just forgetting in 100 years from now the Darfur Genocide, or in 50 years trying to pretend the Holocaust even happened. The "slogan" of the holocaust today, i would say is "Never Forget". Why would anyone want to simply forget the hardships their people faced in the past. It just doesn't register with me.  

I also don't like how schools actually were listening to the parents about banning this book. In most districts the parents are blue collar workers. Why would educators listen to non-educators in relation to a education issue who do you think knows better, parents or teacher. 

People need to get over the offensive aspect of the book. Sometimes learning takes more that just listening to a teacher, it takes self thought and actually thinking how this word affects you today, and how this word was used in the past. 

How are Women Treated Today?

The Idea of women and children still being pushed before men in society is still applicable today. Many instances of this are apparent, Still on cruise ships, they command that women and children be but in life vests and boats before men do. In media sources, their is always more sympathy towards women rather than men. Because they are viewed at the weaker sex they need more protection. In those underdog movies, a women is usually part of the "weaker"team. A hidden message that allows people to always believe that men dominate women in most aspects. I believe that women like Hilliary Clinton and breaking that rule. Though i dont believe genderisum to be a large problem in this country at all, it is an issue that many males, and females need to be familiarized. 

Maybe VP for Richardson?

Bill Richardson the 4th place democratic candidate has just dropped out of the election now leaving 3 big runners, Clinton, Obama and Edwards. After winning a small 2% of Iowa and only 8% of NH, governor Richardson just did not see it feasible to run any more. I felt i could connect with him on a multitude of issues such as education reform and the environment. He had a proposed a starting wage of 40,000 for all new teachers in order to encourage a decrease in the student to teachers ratio. His views on the environment are strong, he calls for a 50% decrease in oil by 2020 and a 90% reduction in green house gases by 2050. He believes we should make our efforts stronger because we are leading the world, and they will be following. If people were also looking for diversity in their candidate, he was hispanic. However he did not use this fact to his advantage with in the end i believe lost him his chance. 

Maybe this drop out will not be the end for Richardson, I can only hope that if the winner is democratic, they choose him as their VP. That would be grand. 

Candidates Advantage

While looking for interesting articles on the Washington post web site. I came across the election ’08 category. There was a link to this page that could tell you the candidate your views were most similar to. I decided to try this out. In my opinion, Obama and Clinton are two of the most publicized candidates out there. Because of that I have heard very little about any of the other democratic candidates. After taking the quiz, they show the results in a bar graph and the larger the bar the more similar you are to that certain candidate. Shockingly I was more compatible with someone who I had never even heard of, Bill Richardson.

Not that I do not agree with many of the arguments of Obama and Clinton. I believe that their different characteristics than all presidents past, like skin color and gender, cause many people to only look at them for our future because Americans are tolerant and we can adapt to new ideas. Not that I do not want America to become diverse in all aspects, I just feel that because some is diverse or different, their odds at wining should be the same as everyone else. I believe that theses candidates are using their characteristics for publicity and not allowing any more room for other candidates to be in the spotlight.

Just because a candidate is more diverse does not mean they should be valued over other candidates.