Let My People Know

     This week in my American Studies class we discussed papers we wrote on restricting civil liberties during perilous times such as, times of war. One of the wars I talked about in my paper was the War on Terror. Even though I use it as an example in my paper and I am currently living during it, I still don't know a lot about this war (maybe that it why I have a lot of revising to do). Then, when I was searching through my classmates' blogs to post a comment, I came across a blog by Sarah H called "Faces of the Fallen". In Sarah's blog she also found that there was a lack of information about the War on Terror.
     In "Faces of the Fallen" Sarah discussed a Washington Post article that was about all the service members who have died this past year in the war and how the article was very vague about the causes of death. Sarah's blog inspired me to start thinking about who gets to decide how much information we as American citizens get to know? I now think that the government might restrict our knowledge of the war in order to decrease the number of people against the war. Maybe if we don't hear about the painful deaths some of these soldiers went through, then maybe the War on Terror will seem less harmless. If the government is really in charge of withholding information about the War on Terror, then this very much connects to my paper that I wrote about in the beginning. The government has a lot of power over the American citizens and I think they abuse it sometimes.
     Would you like to have more information about the war, even if some of the details were about gruesome deaths of American soldiers? How much information do you think the government should be allowed to withhold for the citizens?

He Ain't No Morgan Freeman but He Makes a Good Point

     In the week before my school's winter break my American Studies class dedicated some time to a discussion about the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The same day, I went home to read a post on Facebook about Morgan Freeman's "thoughts" on the Sandy Hook shooting. However, when I did more research on the post I discovered that it was a hoax. Morgan Freeman had not made any of his thoughts public about Sandy Hook, and the Facebook post had been written by a man from Canada. To read the post written by the man in Canada and the story about the whole hoax scandal read this article.
    Even though the widely read Facebook post was not written by an Academy Award winning actor, I think the author brought up some good points. The man talked about how the media is partly to blame for the shootings at Sandy Hook and others multiple victim shootings. The murderers in the shootings always become instantly famous after. People across the nation know more about the killer than the victims that lost their lives. And therefore killers have the incentive of becoming famous when they kill innocent people. I think that this is a good point. If the media didn't put the killers in such a spotlight maybe devastating incidents like Sandy Hook wouldn't happen as often.
    How do you think people who watch the news would react to less attention being put on the killers? Do you think the media could have an affect on the number of multiple shootings?

Can we come up with a new plot?

     In my American Studies class, this week, we talking about authors writing about their own lives. How did they chose what part went into the book? Why did they pick those selected parts? This week I was watching the TV show The Walking Dead and I started thinking about how writers come up with plot ideas that are non-fiction. However they create their idea, a lot of writer must think a lot alike because now-a-days there are a lot of shows, movies, and books about post-apocalyptic societies.
     On TV right now there are about ten shows about post-apocalyptic societies. I think that we can blame all of these shows on the Mayans prediction of our upcoming apocolypse. A lot of the plots especially focus on apocolypses with zombies. I wonder if these writers actually believe in what they are writing or if they are writing to entertain?
     I wonder how so many shows, books, and movies can have the same plot and can be so popular?

The Cuban Prisoner Crisis

     In my American Studies class we just turned in a paper about  civil liberties in perilous times. One of the historical examples I used in my paper had to do with prisoners at Guantanamo Bay during The War on Terror. The U.S. government was not giving prisoners the same rights as American citizens. In the news this week, I read an article about an American man who is being held in prison and needs the U.S. government's help to be released.
     Alan Gross, the prisoner, has not had any help from the U.S. government for the three years he has been there and is still waiting for some. The prisoner was arrested in Cuba for "smuggling sophisticated satellite and other telecommunications equipment into the country to give to the island's tiny Jewish community"(article). However, Gross claims he was trying "increase internet access" and he claims he was a pawn in a U.S. government program to change the Castro regime. I think that no matter what is true the U.S. should help Gross even to just get a trial because as an American citizen he should have to his constitutional rights. 
    Other than the fact that Gross just wants to come home, he also has a sick mother back in the U.S. who he wants to see before it is too late. Do you think the government should start helping Gross to be released? Do you feel that Alan Gross is guilty?

Do You Really Need College?

     This blog post was inspired by a post written by Sarah, a fellow American Studies classmate. Her post, "The Price of Quality Education" was about Harvard University's new plan to bring education to those who can't afford it. This post got me thinking about how expensive college is these days for students. Many students can't attend college because of the price and some others who do end up attending are left with a large amount of debt. With all these students worrying about money I was wondering, is college really worth it?
     I have heard about a couple of very successful people who didn't go to college, but I always thought those were very special cases. When researching for this blog post I came across an article written by a mom with three kids. Two of her children both went to college and graduated while her third child had dropped out. In her eyes, all of her kids had become successful in the path they had chosen. This was just an ordinary family. So, if a regular joe can be successful without a degree, do students need college to be successful? In my opinion, I think it depends on the student and how that student defines success. For some, looking out the window of their large office at a law firm means they have found success. And for some others, success is found in things like getting married or successfully climbing Mt. Everest. College is not necessary for everyone.

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs (two college drop-outs
 that have found a lot of success)

     What are your thoughts on not going to college? Who has to go to college in order to be successful? If you could be successful without a degree would you still go to college?

Do People Know That There Are Still 43 Days Till Christmas?

     While scanning the blogosphere i came across a fellow classmates post. Hannah W discussed her thoughts on Christmas advertising in her post "Christmas in October". I decided to write this post to show Hannah my thoughts on the subject. Christmas is without a doubt my favorite holiday. I love the food, the family, the christmas spirit and the sweaters. However, I am also a fan of Thanksgiving. This year, I have noticed how companies are already advertising for christmas even 43 days in advance. Because of this Christmas has been overshadowing Thanksgiving.
     ABC Family has started a countdown to there annual countdown called, "25 Days of Christmas" and the radio station 93.9 FM is now playing Christmas music around the clock. Personally I agree with Hannah that starting these yearly events before December even begins is annoying. If they start playing Christmas music and movies over a month in advance then by the end things get so repetitive that you have a personal vendetta on "The Jingle Bell Rock" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". However this may just be a problem for Hannah and I because the companies obviously have people ready for Christmas who are already watching and listening.
     I can see why stores would start advertising. They want people to start buying earlier and purchasing more. So the stores have all those extra commercials to get the idea into people's heads that Christmas is right around the corner when, in reality they still have months.
     Are you already in the Christmas spirit? Why do you think the music and movies are playing?

Hurricane Sandy Votes For Obama

     For the last two weeks Hurricane Sandy has been the star of a lot of news. For those who don't know, Hurricane Sandy was the largest Atlantic hurricane on record and effected 24 states in the U.S.. Particularly Sandy caused a lot of damage in New York and New Jersey. Anyways I bring up Sandy because I think that this hurricane contributed to Obama's win in the presidential election. I know what you're think "what? No!" but come on I'll show you. 

     Mitt Romney, who was running on the Republican ticket for president, may have shot himself in the foot when he mentioned he planned to eliminate FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency).  FEMA is a group from the government who responds to national diasters to help victims in the affected areas. So, when Sandy hit, thousands of affected people felt the relief efforts of FEMA. Since the victims had been through a situation where FEMA was of help, they probably started questioning Romney. People who really did not like Romney's idea of getting rid of FEMA, probably voted for Obama. In the map below you can see that Obama won a lot of the states that were mainly affected by the hurricane. This a link to an article talking about what I just discussed.

     

Election Map 2012 from politico.com

     Is it a coincidence that Obama won those affected states? Would the election have changed if Sandy hadn't happened? Do you think FEMA should be kept?