supermoon

On Saturday night, the forcast predicted fog, clouds and a chance of rain. The lunar cycle also predicted the rare lunar phenomenon commonly known as "supermoon." Supermoon is the biggest, brightest moon of the year due to it being 15,000 miles closer to the earth on this day. NASA officials predicted the moon to be 16% brighter than an average full moon but do to a fluke in the lunar orbit, the supermoon of 2012 ended up actually being 30% brighter. Last year on March 19, 2011, the supermoon was a little bit closer to the Earth than it was this past Saturday night by about 248 miles. Spectaters were nervous about their ability to see the supermoon on Saturday because of the overcast weather and unclear conditions. However, in our area the weather began to clear up around 6 PM and I was able to see the supermoon! It was amazing to see such a bright moon and amazing spectacle. People all over the world were able to see the supermoon and the amazement of such a spectacle united our global community.

Furniture by political prisoners

Lately I have become pretty obsessed with shopping for furniture and decorative pieces for my dorm room for next year. One place that I often shop for these types of things is Ikea. Ikea is less expensive then their competiters, easy to assmble and who doesn't enjoy a ride on their giant escalater or a trip to their swedish cafe? However, threatening to tarnish the squeaky clean reputation of Ikea, are new allegations that the furniture manufacturer utilized free labor from political prisoners in Germany and Cuba. Ikea has responded to these allegations made by a swedish news station by launching their own investigation and interviewing employees.

Too young to be trusted?

Recently this weekened, the case of two year old Caliegh Anne Harrison developed and gained coverege from several news stations. Harrison was playing on the beach on the day of her disappearance; her mother stepped away for a short time to retrieve a ball that had bounced away and Harrison was left with her four year old sibling, the only direct witness at the time of the girls dissapearance. Harrison's sister claims that the two year old girl was carried out to the ocean by the strong rip tide. Authorities are now struggling to determine if this story is likely or a fable manufactured by a child's imagination; which raises the question, at what age do we allow ourselves to believe the words of a child. Is there a reason to doubt the story of Harrison's sister? When it would be the most likely story and she was the only direct witness... Another issue within this case is the fact that Harrison's mother left two young children unattended near the ocean and that her story has been modified a couple of times since her original questioning. This story seems mysterious. I think that Harrison's four year old sister is reliable seeing as shes the only witness. In my experience, four year olds are very verbal, and though imaginitive, know when a situation is serious and know when to stop playing make believe.

The Fresh Water Crisis

In the morning I drink a glass of water, take a shower and make breakfast. Using a lot of fresh water to complete my morning routines. With the close proximity of our community to Lake Michigan this seems obvious. However, stated in the constitution, is that nobody has complete power over lakes and rivers. Therefore, states like Nevada, Arizona and Texas have just as much access to our fresh water resources as we do. Can you imagine a giant pipeline running from Lake Michigan to Nevada? Desert states would suck the Great Lakes dry. People sometimes do not take the fresh water crisis seriously because they believe that we will be able to utilize desalinization or have new technology that will solve our issues with shortages on fresh water. However, this is our one planet and we have limited resources, so we need to start respecting these resources and stop pollutting them in an effort to avoid a crisis involving fresh water.

Overcoming a Reputation

Recently, Nadia Suleman, or more commonly known as 'Octomom' has recently come out in the media to say that she is ready to change her seemingly tainted reputation. A story about this 'breaking news' appeared on ABC. The reporter, had a sarcastic undertone in their presentation and conveyed the message that overcoming such a reputation would be nearly impossible. Is changing the way one is perceived by their peers impossible? In our sociecty, many factors point to yes. As a graduating senior I have heard countless numbers of my friends say that they wantt to change certain aspects of their identity in college or look forward to the fresh start. People who attempt to change their identity in high school often get ridiculed. With the inability to seek change, or even growth, it seems that as a society we are stunting our own growth by not allowing each other to change. It seems that, once someone has been stereotyped in a certain way they can't be taken seriously. This could be one factor that contributes to the stereotypical 'teenage angst' among adolescence.

Tumblr Fights Against Self Harm Among Users

"We aim to sustain Tumblr as a place that facilitates awareness, support and recovery, and to remove only those blogs that cross the line into active promotion or glorification of self-harm." Recently, many social media websites have vowed to crack down on posts and information regarding the promotion or glorification of eating disorders. Tumblr, being at the forefront of this movement has revised many of their policies with this motion in mind.

I think that this is a really interesting aspect of the social media world to sort of take on this issue. Why this issue? Why not censor posts regarding the glorification of gangs? Or drugs? Or the glorification of crude humor? I think that its a positive thing that eating disorders are getting this attention so that there isn't an online community created (or further sustained) via Facebook.

I think this movement stems from the general public in America becoming more accustomed to eating disorders, its becoming less of a stigma and less taboo to talk about. This is a good thing for those who are suffering from the diseases affiliated with body dismorphia but this openess shouldn't trancend to those who are aware they suffer from the disease but do not want to get better because it negatively affects the recovery of others.

"It Gets Better" MTV special

I think that this MTV special served as an uplifting and positive take on the situation of being a gay teen in the US. Although I did not feel that the made for TV special was entirely accurate (demonstrating only positive stories and none that might not have been so fluid) I think that the impact on the gay teenage community will be a positive one. The film makers might be critisized for their innacurate portrayal of life as a gay teen, but the name of the movement is "It Gets Better," not "It might get better for some of you but for others it might go horribly wrong for several more years to come."

This movement is really inspirational and I think help builds an online community for kids who might be feeling frustrated that they do not have anyone to connect with who is feeling the same way as them. Maybe if the kids we read about in the Rolling Stone article had a community like this, the outcome would have been different.

I also believe that the movement provides hope for these kids. Hope can be a very strong thing and its what a lot of people who are suffering from depression, suicidal thoughts or apathy, are lacking in their life. If this movement helps even just one kid to have hope that their life will improve then its doing a positive thing. I hope that these kids realize that they are not alone and that as a society we embrace each others differences rather than shunning them.

Bowling for Columbine and George Zimmerman

One of the first lessons that my parents taught me as a kindergartener was 'stranger danger.' Sometimes in elementary school, I would walk home a couple of short blocks from school. My parents would remind me to be aware of all of the bad people that might be out there and were constantly nervous about letting me go home by myself. The fear of strangers, is a phenomenon in the US that I believe is contributing to the surplus in deaths by gun fire. The fear that is instilled in our nation is driving people to believe that they need to protect themeslves and guns are often a justifiable mechinism for doing so.

In the film "Bowling for Columbine," Michael Moore makes the not so subtle arguement that people in our nation are overly paranoid, driving them to purchase weapons like guns. I agree with this arguement and believe that if our nations people were less paranoid then we woud have less deaths by gun.

Why did George Zimmerman, a man living in a gated community in a residential area of Florida feel the need to posses a concealed fire arm? Why did he feel that it was neccisary to protect himself from a child armed with skittles? Yesterday, Zimmerman was arrested for the murder of Trayvon Martin and I feel relieved that justice is being served finally.

If the US limited civilian access to fire arms then we would have less situation like the killing of Trayvon Martin, however, I feel like the paranoia that we experience as a society may never disipate.

Terrill Swift

When I walked into the room on Tuesday to hear our guest speaker, I was initially shocked at how young he looked. My friend and I began to discuss how this was possible, and then we realized that he must have been convicted at an extremely young age. As Terrill commenced his presentation, he shared that he had been wrongfully convicted at the age of 17. This is a scary concept to think about, because being 17, if the police told me that I could leave and go with my mom just by signing a paper I would probably do it.

I think one thing that was interesting, was how he had us write our names then sign our names next to it. I didn't even think twice about doing this, and didn't even review what exactly I was signing. It's scary to think how naive 17 year olds can be, and how much weight a signature can carry.

I was also shocked by how much injustice our legal system had done Terrill and how it isn't fair that the people that wrongfully convicted him don't have to suffer any consequences for their actions or inaction's. I think to make our legal system more just and to reduce the number of wrongful convictions that occur in our nation, we need to have a repercussion for officials who wrongfully convict an innocent person or for police who talk someone into signing their life away without being aware, or for police who bully false confessions out of people. In order for this to stop, we need to have punishments for those who do wrong.

I really enjoyed hearing Terrill speak and I think that the real world application was extremely interesting and relevant.

Affirmative Action

Ultimately, should race be a factor in college admissions?

This fall, I filled out 11 college applications. As I recall, each one asked my gender, race and even religion. And I have to admit, stating that I was a white, Roman Catholic, female, made me wonder if I was making myself seem 'average.' A lot of my friends wondered the same thing and complained that they wished they had some aspect of their heritage to make them self stand out. One of my friends even boasted about being 1/32 Native American (Cherokee to be exact). I constantly hear kids at DHS whining about how they wished that there was something about their race, ethnicity or religion that would make them 'stand out' or have an 'edge,' solely for the purpose of applying to schools.

I have two very qualified friends applying to similar schools. One who is white and one who is of a minority race. They both have very high GPAs and very high ACT scores, and they both are extremely involved in diverse clubs and activities. When my white friend got deffered from a school and my minority friend was accepted to the same institution, my white friend instantly explained that it was because of race. Regardless, if I agree or not, that race played a roll in the admissions decision, this topic if more than relevant for people at our age.

I do believe that affirmative action should be a factor when admissions boards are deciding on who to accept to specific schools. However, I also think that economic status (regardless of race) and social standings (regardless of race) should be considered with the same regard.

I don't like the way University of Michigan conducted this with a point system, because it was basically saying here are several points for being born the way you are (for race) and here are only a few points for explaining what you have gone through, what tribulations you have faced and the economic struggles you have endured (for the personal statement). I think that the best way to approach affirmative action is in a holistic way where all factors of admissions are considered.

Race Relations in the US

I think one of the most interesting ideas that I discovered while looking at these articles, is the concept that in the middle of the century, white will be the minority. Personally, I think that one of the reasons for this change in demographic, besides the obvious population influx of minorities, is the idea that maybe people in our nation are more willing to marry and have a family of people outside of their own race. I don't think the change in demographics has anything to do with white people leaving our country or that the influx of immigrants is so great that it alone would cause the percentage of minorities in Lake County to go increase 10 percent. I think that there has been a shift with younger generations to look past race when seeking suitors, and that the reason for a decrease in the white population would be due to more children being of mixed race.

I think that this shift in demographics is kind of exciting and demonstrates how our society is changing for the better. Race is no longer an exclusive club. I think that as a society we might be on the break of overcoming a lot of racisim and issues involving race, because the younger generations are so willing to interact with other races.

As white as the minority, I wonder what social and cultural issues will be presented in the future. I wonder if when my kids apply for college if affirmitive action will work in the opposite way it does today, to provide opportunities for white people.

"White Like Me"

Based on the chapter you read, do you agree with these assertions? Does racism and privelege benefit whites? Did you think the chapter was convincing even though it used anecdotal rather than statistical evidence? How does your own personal experience match up or relate to what Wise describes?

After reading the chapter titled "Privilege" of this book I was kind of annoyed. I feel like this author kind of exaggerated certain aspects to frame his 'stories' in a way that would put a twist on them that involved racism. I honestly don't see a correlation between some of these stories and to racism. For example, Tim Wise talks about a time when he was permitted to enter a classroom after a test had begun, he connects this to the concept that he must have not been turned away because of the fact that he is white. I see absolutely no way how this connects. And in my own experience have seen the exact opposite occur while taking the ACT.

I feel like Tim Wise is trying to make me feel guilty for being white and in fact chooses a quote by James Baldwin that exemplifies exactly this idea, "guilt is a luxury." The source of this quote is Playboy and this shows how Wise needed to look to outlandish sources in order to find evidence that supported this thesis.

While I do recognize some of the 'benefits' and 'priviliges' that Wise nods to, I don't think it is fair to compare these socially and culturally constructed notions, to cases involving the law and legality. His examples are a stretch to say the least.

One thing that I found interesting was his ideas regarding teachers. On page 20 and 21 Wise explains how our nation could be much more fair if all educators were not racist and were fair. However, one thing from this section that I don't neccisarily agree with the idea that whites/asians try harder or perform better than lations/blacks. I feel like the kids I know who aren't white try harder than the white kids in school because they often feel like they have something to overcome or their parents 'want better for them.'

All in all, I feel like Wise had some good points and I appreciated that he used stories rather than statistics to get his point accross, but I think that he is being slightly dramatic in his linking of the stories to racism. I don't think racism in our country at this point of time is as bad as Wise framed it to be. There is still a lot of room for improvement in the social and cultural sense, but in a legal sense things are fair in the United States.

Hidden Bias

Before taking the hidden bias test, I assumed that my results would show a slight preference for the white race as opposed to the black race. I have grown up in an almost completely white community and have not had much interaction with people that are black. Where one is comfortable is where one will prefer. I would in no way consider myself a racist, I am accepting of all people.
My results did indicate a slight preference for the white faces and revealed my 'hidden bias,' which wasn't so hidden because it was exactly what I was expecting. I am curious about how results over different parts of the city and the Chicagoland area vary. I wonder if there is an area where the majority of people's results would show no bias.
In the explanation of the test, they say that hidden bias' come from conformity. I don't think this is true. I think that hidden bias' come from the type of environment you live in. In Deerfield, I am not exposed to much diversity but that doesn't mean that I have negative feelings towards people who aren't white. Another thing that I am wondering is, how do communities where people are almost all the same race form? My parents always say that they chose to live in Deerfield because it is a safe community. This is true, but even the safest communities have major flaws. There have been bomb threats at my school, a murder in my neighborhood and the poverty rate in our town is at an all time high. I wonder if my parents associate safety with racial stereotypes.