Names of the Decade

There is no official name for the decade for the years 2000-2009. Some options are "The Ohs", "The Aughts", "The Naughts" and "The Naughty Aughties" (uh). With the approaching new year and decade, I've found myself thinking about the past decade a lot. I've been thinking about how most decades in the 20th century had a certain feel - I can associate different images in my mind with them every time I think or hear about them, most good.

What I couldn't help but thinking at first was that this decade wasn't really that cool (to me). Superficially, the 20s or 60s sound much more appealing. But, The Beatles' album 1 was in fact the best selling album of this decade.

I used wikipedia as a source for the options of names, but it also provided me with timelines, new innovations, and events that took place. It wasn't very cheerful - the economic crisis, energy crisis, wars, MJ, 9/11, and internal conflicts listed can really bring ya down.

But, I decided I must not be so pessimistic on New Year's Eve Eve. I have to think about all the good:

• Barack Obama
• HD Television
• Mac OS X
• CGI

I stopped because as I tried to create this list, it slowly became filled with more and more technological things.

I feel as though I've associated technology with good too often. Hasn't America's modernity caused heated tensions in regards to Islamic nations and distractions in regards to nations facing genocide and mass atrocities? (Bear in mind, I'm not blaming the US for those things) Has our undying love for capitalism caused our once booming economy to dwindle?

What do you think the America's greatest point was in this decade? Why? Do you think America will be able to address more of the bad and focus on the $ less? Will our priorities change in the decade to come?

Up in The Air

Today, I went and saw Up in the Air, and was shocked to find out some things about the "Firing Industry." George Clooney worked as someone who flew across the nation to fire multiple employees of a company and leave. He was paid well to do so, and felt like he was living a great life.

Now I'm not 100% sure as to whether or not companies such as these exist - but I wouldn't be surprised. The timing was sort of perfect for this movie to come out (if you saw it, you'd know why a bit more). The economy has often caused unemployment rates to soar, and it can be difficult to let a loyal, employee or friend of 30 years go.

So what?

You spend money to fire someone YOU hired because you don't have enough money? I'm not sure this is very ethical.

What do you think? Does getting less personal and more efficient outweigh decency?

United Nations Scandals

I was watching The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on Thursday night and he made a comment that I found a little surprising during the show. He was talking about the climate change summit in Copenhagen, and said quite sarcastically that whenever the UN tackles a problem, they succeed.

I remember visiting the United Nations when I was younger and dreaming about being a part of it all. I thought the idea sounded so perfect - maybe a little too perfect. The idea that all 192 countries involved would agree on every little thing and would look out for everyone's best interests was a little naive of me. As the years passed, I learned about the whole Sudan/China oil deal and the ineffectiveness of peacekeepers. But that was pretty much it.

So I googled the United Nations and saw on Wikipedia that there have been accusations of sexual abuse, rape, and the soliciting of prostitutes made against peacekeepers in numerous countries. I was so surprised, and I knew I had to find something more substantial than Wiki. In a fit of confusion, I googled "peacekeepers abuse" and found this essay or book about UN scandals (page 5).

I thought it was ironic and weird timing because I just commented on Mr. Bolos' latest blog post about if there are more males or females in the world. I said there were more males, maybe not numerically, but in Darfur and Congo, rape is used as a weapon of war - to take away social status and respect.

So, I was astonished to find that peacekeepers, of all people, that are being sent to help others are doing exactly what the oppressors are.

Did you know about this? What does it say about overall peacekeeping efforts? What does it say about a reputation that a certain organization (or even its name) holds and how it can cloud one's judgement?

"One article described a fourteen year-old girl

named Yvette who is called the “one-dollar girl” or the kidogo

usharati, “little prostitute,” in her community in Bunia because that is

what she charges U.N. peacekeepers for sex."

George Washington Letter Worth Millions

A four-page letter written by George Washington was recently sold for $3.2 million dollars. Upon reading, I wondered why and what kind of (most likely, awesome) person would want the letter so bad. All I could picture was Nicolas Cage in National Treasure over and over again. I mean, it was an unidentified buyer, and I figured a museum would be open to announce this new purchase. We'll stick with it. So, what is the motivation behind this wealthy Mr. Cage?

In it, George Washington wrote (apparently with slanted penmanship) that he was in full approval of the Constitution, drafted in 1787. To the public, he remained neutral, but he felt that a stronger, central government was needed, and displayed his strong opinion in this letter.

Was it perhaps the fact that there are some pretty juicy secrets revealed? Should the British descendant of our Founding Father be auctioning it away to someone who could choose to do anything with it? Should it be stowed away, on display for those who pay for an admission ticket?

Pentagon Pictures

Today in class, we discussed Daniel Ellsberg's decision to turn over 4,000 pages of the Pentagon Papers, the document that recorded the U.S.'s actions in Vietnam throughout the war. Ellsberg was asked if he would ever do it again, and he said absolutely. He also very strongly urged those who knew anything about the Wars in Iraq or Afghanistan to let it be known.

There is a large debate over whether or not pictures displaying the torture of suspected terrorists and foreign soldiers in U.S. custody should be released to the public. Many reasons as to why they shouldn't be released are stated in the article: Obama was all for the release at first, but was urged not to approve by military leaders; it would not be good for Pakistan and other U.S. partners; it would weaken our reputation and strengthen the enemy's.

What kind of Espionage Act are we under? What civil liberties are being limited, or are they?

Criminal charges have already been placed on some of the soldiers. Laws and bills have been signed in response to this incident preventing the release of such photos.

It makes me wonder, why do we need photos when we know the reality of the situation? Should there the next step be something more than "show us the pictures"?

"Will you be attending Kick A Ginger Day?"

I just read an article about a boy who was beaten up by a group of kids at his school for being a redhead. The Los Angeles police say that the beating may have been linked to a Facebook event titled "Kick A Ginger Day." There is speculation that the South Park TV series may have inspired it.

During our WWI Civil Liberties presentation, we talked about the Shenck v. United States Supreme Court Case. Justice Holmes referred to shouting "fire" in a theater to illustrate his point; that Schenck was posing a clear and present danger while passing out anti-conscription (conscription = compulsory military service) leaflets.

I began to wonder, does creating a facebook group targeted at a specific group of people that incorporates violent aims pose a clear and present danger? Should pop culture make it justifiable? Should their be a punishment set forth for the creator of this event?

What do you think?

"Hey Hey, Ho Ho. This Genocide Has Got To Go!"

Last weekend was probably one of the greatest weekends of my life. I went to Washington D.C. with the New Trier STAND chapter. STAND is the student-led division of the Genocide Intervention Network. We were there four 4 days; we went to workshops, listened to amazing speakers, asked people to sign petitions on the street, and marched on Capitol Hill. The main goal of the conference was to help us help others learn about genocide and mass atrocities in the world. It was the biggest anti-genocide movement conference to ever take place, with almost 1,ooo people (mostly students) coming together to share ways to educate, fundraise, and advocate. Coming back to school, I'm so excited to tell everyone everything I know about Darfur, Congo, and Burma, along with ways to help. 

Layla Amjadi, the STAND student director and senior at Harvard University, mentioned an inspiring experience at a previous conference. Someone had asked about Darfur fatigue, which is when your efforts seem too little and your impatience takes over, and you don't even feel like trying to help before. It's a pretty common feeling - it was addressed quite frequently during the conference. In response to that question, a Sudanese man on the panel stood up and said "The only people that should be having Darfur fatigue are those that are in Darfur." 

How true!! If you're reading this, there are so many little things you can do, and we can stop Darfur fatigue together/forever!

You ready?

Call 1-800-GENOCIDE

Join.

Donate.

Come to the club meetings room 301 on Thursdays after school and Friday mornings before school!

We're going downtown on Thursday so we can canvass and get a bunch of people's signatures together so we can pressure politicians and let them know that we want them to address what is going on.

I thought that with a class of almost 40 blogging people, we could all raise awareness easily and efficiently. Not only do more Americans need to get involved, but our age group absolutely needs to! High school and college kids need to step up if anyone is going to listen. We have the resources, the blogs, the facebook, time, school clubs..everything. 

We have learned about how our American civil liberties have been molded in times of pressure and stress; imagine not being able to live because a harsh military regime was being encouraged to kill your tribe. Or imagine the leader of your political party of choice being under house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years. 

"They was going to take me to court, and I was going to lose"

While browsing the news, a title of a story interested me, mainly because it seemed like it pertained to lots of class discussion. The topic of race, laws, free speech, and civil liberties has been quite a popular one (in my French class, too!), so when I saw Louisiana justice who refused interracial marriage, I knew I had to read it.

What struck me the most at first was the fact that Keith Bardwell felt his actions were justified because he felt he wasn't being racist, but was just worried about the future of the children and marriage itself. 

But, when it said that he was advised, "that I needed to step down because they was going to take me to court, and I was going to lose," I began thinking about something else entirely.

Obviously, there are laws and acts such as the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment and the Supreme Court case of Loving v. Virginia that foreshadowed his loss, but this statement got me thinking about the Crucible and inevitably of "judicial" outcomes. 

This may be a stretch, but it's kind of like the Michael Jackson example. He was never convicted of molestation, but he was associated with it nonetheless. I'm sure his career was affected, as well as Bardwell's. Or if any of you watch Grey's Anatomy, the threat of a malpractice suit looms over the O.R. during hard times.

Does public opinion have too great a hand in determining the fate of your career and reputation? Without everyone knowing about our "mistakes", would our lives be more secure?

"Mary Warren, with greater impatience with him: I told you the proof. It's hard proof, hard as rock, the judges said," (Miller, 55). 

Manor Care

On Mondays after school, I go to Manor Care, the nursing home in Wilmette. It's just one of the many social service groups, but I'm glad I chose this one. We usually just try to keep the residents that stay or live there company.  

I remember talking about retirement homes in Modern World History last year and I remember my teacher saying that people in other countries are astonished by the fact that some Americans send their parents away. 

Obviously, there are reasons for doing so, but it just makes you sad when a resident tells you they've never been unhappier. 

Is there a reason why putting elderly in homes has become such a trend? What does it say about American culture/family life?

Capitalism: A Love Story

Ruchi and I planned on seeing Capitalism: A Love Story this weekend, but by the time we got to Evanston, the movie was 15 minutes in, and we kind of really wanted to see Paranormal Activity. So we saw the notorious MTV produced "documentary" instead, but caught a good 35 minutes of Capitalism before curfew.

Ruchi and I walked into a theater of adults, ready to learn and absorb what Mr. O'Connor was talking about in class earlier on in the week. I can't decide which movie was scarier. 

I am still in awe of one particular fact; airplane pilots get paid $19,000-23,000 a year. Moore interviewed a few pilots for major airlines, and one who refused to show his face on camera told him he used food stamps for 4 months and had $10,000 of credit card debt (only for the necessities). This website says that in 2004, the median salary of all airline pilots was $129, 250 per year.

It made me upset to hear that airlines will take advantage of the fact that pilots love flying and won't ever stop. 

I can't imagine having to decide between having my dream job or having enough money to eat.

What would you do? Would you do what you love forever or would you pay the bills on time?

THANKSGIVING

It's more than a month away, but this quote struck me as I read it from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass a minute ago: "...this living word of faith and spirit of hope departed not from me, but remained like ministering angels to cheer me through the gloom. This good spirit was from God, and to him I offer thanksgiving and praise," (19).

I get caught up with everything that's going 

to "terribly" in my life that I forget to be thankful for what I do have. If Freddy D can live as a slave and still find time to be thankful and to assure himself that he will always be thankful, I can too.

So, I'm just going to throw random things that I'm thankful of out there. PLEASE join me! It's cheesy, but that's okay. Off the top of my head, I'm thankful for...

laundry machines

rainbow suspenders

xbox

blue pens

Frederick Douglass

panda express

good books

taylor swift

doctors

grey's anatomy

funny people

memories

...freedom

foreign languages

gypsies

kind of embarrassing,  but worth it.

Community College

I just read something on Obama's plan to invest $12 billion dollars in American Community Colleges. I think it's a great thing - I definitely have made jokes about how "I probably can't even get into Oakton - ha ha," but these two-year institutions do help a lot of people out.

The only bad thing is, these community colleges don't want to stay "community" colleges. Many of them have changed their names and institutions - becoming universities that give Bachelors' degrees. It's great that they're becoming more prestigious, but that's not necessarily what they're here for, at least not in my opinion. 

Being a student who is stressed about college, knowing that these $12 billion dollars can possibly make admission to any college, community or not, more difficult, is not the easiest thing to hear. It begs the question, if you aren't "good enough" to get into Community College, where do you go?

Should these institutions be REALLY REALLY good ones now that cater to anyone that needs them? Or should they grown to be up-and-coming, competitive universities?

What do you think?

Anorexia is Aspirational

"The websites don't cause the eating disorders don't cause the eating disorders, they just make them aspirational."

I watched this video and was shocked to see what it said. Apparently, there are websites where girls can post pictures of how thin they've become in order to gain support from other people suffering from eating disorders. I feel like it allows members to think of anorexia as a trend rather than a serious problem. I've also read about websites that encourage people with depression to commit suicide -- they code words that won't expose the message they're going for in chats.

I wonder how much say the government will have in this issue. This kind of censorship is interesting to me; should these people be allowed to show the world what makes them feel beautiful? Do you think it'll go on for much longer?

What do you think?

Megan Fox. Nuff said?

Before Transformers, no one knew who she was. Okay, so I did watch Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, so I knew who she was, but that's not the point. She is probably the most lusted after actress in Hollywood today, but does she really want to act? Being a student at New Trier, I know a group of kids who would die to be in a film with Shia LaBeouf or under the direction of Michael Bay. They are known as Theater Kids.

"He’s like Napoleon and he wants to create this insane, infamous mad-man reputation. He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is. So he's a nightmare to work for but when you get him away from set, and he's not in director mode, I kind of really enjoy his personality because he's so awkward, so hopelessly awkward. He has no social skills at all. And it's endearing to watch him. He's vulnerable and fragile in real life and then on set he's a tyrant. Shia and I almost die when we make a Transformers movie. He has you do some really insane things that insurance would never let you do."

I was checking out Perez Hilton's latest daily posts today when I came across an article about her. Apparently, a group of crew members that have worked with Bay for years defended him after Fox compared him to Napoleon and Hitler, defended him and trash-talked Megan. I'm not here to jump on the bandwagon and egg them on, but some of the things they said about her work ethic, along with the ungrateful/disgusting comments she has made (above) have just made me so angry.

It makes me wonder, why do people praise actresses that aren't taking their work seriously? Is it because these comments she makes are funny? Is it her looks? Has the quality of actresses/actors decreased recently? Why do I care so much about what she has to say? 

A part of me wishes we didn't know this much about people we watched on screen or TV.A large part of me hopes that the kids around us today that really want to be in her shoes make it, but are more grateful people. Thoughts?

Obama's Prepared Remarks

I came to class on Friday not knowing what the topic of discussion would be-- that President Obama would be streaming a message about education and schooling live to students across the country. We did not know where he would be speaking, or which students he would be speaking to. There is a link provided by an article on CNN.com to a copy of the remarks he will have today.

I eagerly clicked on the 4-page link, scanning to find scandalous new plans for high school teens, etc. There was absolutely nothing I could personally find that would infuriate parents so much. People are taking their kids out of class and schools are refusing to broadcast this message.

I can't figure out why. Can you? If I was a parent, I would definitely want someone else telling my kids to try as hard as they can. He mentions people who have grown up without money going to Brown University and becoming doctors...but he also mentions the value of just graduating high school. He even wants kids to wash their hands more to prevent the flu from spreading around school this Winter and Fall. He's not pressuring everyone to become rocket scientists or professors with a countless number of degrees. Parents obviously have control over their kids, but I wonder, if it was anyone other than Obama telling their kids to follow their dreams, would they be this upset? Is their argument that the most powerful man in the country should not be telling my kids what to do valid because someone else could have the same exact beliefs?

Crimes of Passion?

While browsing through the latest news reports on CNN. com, I half-reluctantly clicked on "Death row woman: They can take us at any time" on the home page. I had no idea where the woman being described in the article would be from until I saw that the title of the article: "Iraqi women fears execution, can't stop thinking of gallows." President Jamal Talabani, torture, murder by accessory. These were all words I scanned through quickly, thinking to my ignorant self "Yeah, yeah, whatever," until a particular part of the story struck me. A man walked into Samar Saed Abdullah's home. He locked her in the kitchen, shot her cousin, aunt, and uncle, and pointed a gun to her head. Fortunately, he left without hurting a hair on her head, but had taken almost $1000 with him, as well. He threatened to kill her and her family if she ever went to the authorities.

Sound like a jerk?

He was her fiancé. This woman fell in love with this man after knowing him for about two months. Her family opposed the romance, but wanted to ensure Samar's happiness and gave in. There is a reason why families, particularly in the Middle East prefer arranged marriages over preconceived romances. Indian families also have the same sort of thinking; my parents had an arranged marriage. They believe that the relationship created after the marriage will grow with better intentions. Whenever I tell them about my happily-arranged-marriage-parents, they are astonished. I personally prefer the idea of a not-so-arranged marriage but I wonder how Samar is feeling...

Are romances too dangerous today? In the U.S., I feel that arranged marriages are nonexistent. The dating scene is rapidly changing; stalkers and online predators are terms being thrown around much too often today. Maybe we think that arranged marriages are outdated and too traditional. Do young people today have too much of an agenda to go through with a marriage?