Goodbye WWI

Part 2:
I have really enjoyed this class. At first I thought it would be hard to wake up and do writing early in the morning twice a week, but this class made me appreciate the first semester at Columbia that much more. I have met some really nice people and the class in general was really open minded. I think that we had awesome conversations and topic discussions. No one ever shot down others opinions and we worked well together to help each others writing improve in general.
I wish that we could have done some group projects so that I could have met people better, but I have networked with a few people in class and I am happy about that. It was nice to meet other freshman from other majors because these will be the people we grow up with the next four years, and hopefully the people that we graduate with. I also wished that this class was a full year long because the curriculum was interesting.
This second part of the blogpost is supposed to be a goodbye, but I think it should be a "see you later", because I bet a lot of us are signed up for WWII next semester and will probably run into each other again in other classes.
Hope you guys have an awesome holiday season! And rest of Freshman year.
-Taylor Jabin

Occupy Wallstreet

As we were supposed to watch more videos or do more research on Occupy wall street I found it frustrating to hear about what the government is doing with our money. Or what the general public is saying the politicians and government is doing with our money. I do not really understand for the most part. I don't follow the news nor do I watch recent events, so I have been out of the loop on this subject for a while now. But I wish I haven't been. My family is pretty well off, I come from an upper middle class family and money has never been something that we have had to "fight" for. And I was shocked to see other middle class families and citizens in the videos protesting. This doesn't only effect the people that live off their money day to day, it is effecting the entire economy, and that was one major point that really stood out to me within their arguments.
They also were saying, the money is just cycling through the rich instead of helping what the people really need to have fixed. If common americans were to be doing these things they would be considered "scams" and would be thrown in jail, but the rich can get away with this and then on top of it receive bonuses? Not Fair! Some people were yelling, "need good jobs and financial regulations". The banks need regulations on how much money they can keep giving out to big corporations, "big spenders". They do keep the economy growing, but only in the upper half. The lower parts are going to continue struggling. While all of this is going on the financial district is not even blinking an eye. They keep to their day to day activities and are spending more money than ever despite what is going on in their front yard. I thought it was interesting because they interviewed a 9 year old boy that was standing next to his dad and he said, This is just like the opposite of Robin Hood, they are stealing from the poor, taking away the things they need to live with, and giving it all to the rich. Its not right! At first I was upset that this father took is child to this protest, but I thought it was great that the kid could make a connection like that. That kid will be something some day lol. Others were chanting, "need real democracy not a corporate democracy!", along with a man saying, "corporate finance reports is what he would like this to come to".
I agree with with a lot of the general people are upset about. The banks, high rollers, and politicians do keep a lot of financial things secret from the people. But ultimately they have the power to do so, which is unfair. The way that the people are going about their arguments, herding and protesting, is not effective. People will not listen to people that are yelling and angry. We need a government official to stand up for the general public and be on our side, unfortunately that probably will not happen.

blog post #7

http://www.theonion.com/video/man-attempts-to-assassinate-obama-but-not-because,17220/
"Man attempts to assassinate Obama, 'But not because he's black or anything'."

 I was drawn to this video because it seemed interesting on how they could make a joke out of this topic. The Onion makes fun of a story that in real news probably would even be said. The president probably get threats regularly but we never hear about them in the public.
The writer throws in that he wasn't going to kill him because he is black, and that he was going to do that because his sister is married to a black guy. And then the guy goes on about how he has all these other black friends. It was funny. This guy was treading water not to seem racist, when the joke o the matter was that he was in trouble for wanting to kill our president.
The voice tried to sound serious throughout the video, but the video itself was ridiculous that the humor could not have been covered up.
The guy in the video was bald, and he almost looked like a skin head, but he went against everything that a "skin head" would really be. Saying that when he first meets a new "African American", he asks to be friends and hang out.
The onion totally changed the story around.
He was saying he wasn't going to kill Obama because he was black, but "because of his socialist policies", meaning an economic system in which the means of production are commonly owned and controlled cooperatively; or a political philosophy advocating such a system.
I dont think this video had much of a point, other than showing off how idiotic the man was that they were talking about.

Cher daughter or son?

This is Cher's daughter, but now Son. He or She got a sex change. This is a perfect image to question what gender they might be.

ReReading America (Book Post)

Well it's no question why they put the American Flag on the cover of the book, the title is "Rereading America". But I did find it interesting that there are two different images of the flag, one that is colored and one that is in black and white. Almost as if the author was giving us the feel that we are going to read deeper into the meaning of America, and its literature. Color makes things stand out, gives the reader a chance to catch something they might have missed the first time through. I think that is what the author is intending to show us with this cover. 

Honestly I was shocked on how interesting all the titles looked for the readings that were in the contents. Starting off with the Gay rights section and marriage laws drew me in right away. I'm a huge supporter for Gay Rights, and I think a man should be able to love another man, along with a woman loving another woman. My uncle is gay and my family has always been open to supporting everything. I think this gave me a good resource and life experience to live with, to be as open as I am today on this subject. I also thought the visual portfolios looked interesting. The second one I saw was the "images of individuals opportunities" This tied in with the Race section that I saw in table of contents. A reading that caught my eye was, "The boy in the mirror". It was interesting that he wrote he loved his family but somehow he didn't fit in, and that was because they were all black. This made me think that maybe they took a white child in from when he was very young. I thought it would be a good read to find out his story. The next section was "True women and Real men". This caught my attention at first glance. I took a Women's Literature class both my sophomore and senior year in high school and I enjoyed both immensely. And not because I'm some preaching young woman that bashes on men and their life strategies, but because i think its interesting how women were put down just like African American people where in the past. The reading "Girl" looks good. It brought the word "SLUT" into the equation. The last section was the Myths of our "Nature and environment". Now I love nature as much as the next person, but this section honestly did not catch my attention as much as the other ones. But we will see maybe some of the topics will totally change my mindset. 

I think a good piece for the class to read would be, "My big fat straight wedding". I just read this piece and its uplifting. The author, Andrew Sullivan, does a good job of having the reader feels for gays as a culture and how they felt as if they were separated from straight "individuals" in their lives. He mentioned the definition of an "individual citizen" from the courts eyes and stated, "defined as prior to his or her sexual orientation he or she exists as a person before he or she exists as straight or gay." I think a lot of people forget that when they hear someone is gay. They automatically put them in a different category, some people even feel awkward or angry. He also touched upon the fact that in the past gays were seen to have a disease, or make bad choices. Like they chose to be in love with the same sex. But in reality they had no choice. The history of the sexual revolution in 1970 was also mentioned, along with the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s. To NOW the present, with Will and Grace, a popular television show that up front acknowledges gay lifestyle, and Ellen, almost as popular as Opera. Gay people should have the right to be just as happy as straight people. Andrew mentioned his own wedding and talked to the reader about his feelings when he told his family members about his engagement. "At that first post engagement Christmas with the in-laws, I felt something shift. They had always been welcoming and supportive. But now I was family. I felt an end to an emotional displacement I had experienced since childhood." This touched me. Because straight people take for granted how easy we have it sometimes in our culture to feel "allowed". 

We go to school at Columbia College Chicago, we live in the third largest city and we are just a few stops on the red line away from "BOYS TOWN". This would be a very good read for all of us to discuss together.