America's Uninformed Voters

Many American voters don't know where the candidate they vote for stands on certain issues. Even more surprising, many American voters don't even know what party controls Congress, and THEY elected them. Media Malpractice created a video of twelve voters and asked them questions after they voted. Here is the link (you do not need to watch the whole thing, it's ten minutes long):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm1KOBMg1Y8

While the company that made this video is extremely right-wing biased, some good points are brought up here. Our country's voters are very uninformed! This may be because of a lack of caring on the part of the voter, but it's mostly because of the media now days. Most political advertisements are not talking one candidate up over the other, they're talking the other one down! How are voters supposed to know who to vote for if all the candidates do is sling mud? The media is not the only problem.

Here at MHS, Political Science is a required class to graduate. This is not true at many high schools. Some schools don't even offer a civics class at all. No wonder we have uninformed voters. How are voters supposed to vote properly if they don't understand why and how the system works as it does?

In conclusion, my questions for you are this: what are your reactions to the video? Does it's bias make it seem less reliable? Should the government control what goes into political ads and TV and otherwise? Lastly, should civics be a federally-required class to graduate from high school, to make people more informed voters?

The United States of Aristocracy

Since the ratification of the US Constitution in 1789, one thing has remained clear about American politics: it is run and manned by the wealthy. 4 out of the 5 of the first U.S. Presidents were part of the First Families of Virginia, or FFV's, and were rich plantation owners. The other one was a rich, well-educated man from Massachusetts.

As history progresses, we find that policiticians stay the same: wealthy people that believe they have the answer to the problems in our country. Granted, some of them like Lincoln and FDR did fix America's problems, but most found a mediocre solution, if any solution at all. So why doesn't a common person run for office and break the streak?

The answer is simply that it's too expensive. Getting the word out to over 300 million people is just too expensive for just anyone to do it. Only those with money can afford the cost of TV, radio and paper ads. It's always been expensive. Only those who owned property could vote in early America, and owning property was expensive in the 1780's. It's still expensive now.

The streak of the rich "elite" running American politics will not soon be broken--if it's ever broken at all. The higher campaign costs go and the more we grow, the more elitist we will become. That's what we'll be. The United States of Aristocracy.

Blog Activity Week 1: The Impact of TTTC

Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried is a very changing novel in the way it's written. The stories really make you think, really make you war through different eyes. After reading The Things They Carried, my opinion about the war in Vietnam was changed. I had some previous knowledge of Vietnam before I began reading the novel, but my previous knowledge still acclaimed that the war had justification and purpose. Once I finished the book, I realized something: the war had no justification at all.

Soldiers didn't know why they were there. People back home didn't realize our purpose for so many deaths. We were just there, bombing villages, shooting bystanders and burning homes. Even the Vietnamese didn't know why we were there. They thought we were there for money; this is present in the documentary Two Days in October.

As I was watching this film, my thoughts began to change about the war in Vietnam and what I had learned in history class about it. After watching the film and reading Tim O'Brien's novel, my opinion had totally changed. I am a fairly patriotic person, but after watching these media on the ten-year tragedy that was the Vietnam "war", I feel that I would have stood up and done what was right and justified.

Fear of Spiders

Growing up, I didn't really fear much. Swimming in a pool or lake was fun for me. The thought of death never phased me. I had slept in a sleeping bag many times. I had never seen an armadillo besides in pictures, and thought they were cute in their own way. I was fine with most insects, but there was one particular arachnid that just irked me in a certain indescribable way: spiders. Eight creepy, crawly legs. Eight giant eyes creepily watching me like a stalker watches its victim from behind a bush where it cannot see. The thought of those eyes upon me or the feeling of those legs upon my skin gave me the chills for years.

As I have grown up, my fear of spiders has developed into a shear hatred. I kill every spider I see, ridding the world of the thing I feared my entire life, one by one, until they are no longer there to glare at me. I guess I face my fears in the wrong way.

The Vietnam War and Genre's Impact on Our Opinion of It

The Vietnam War era was one of the most controversial time periods in the history of the United States. Protests, bombings in colleges, Woodstock, and broadcasting real footage of our boys in Vietnam were all part of the experience that was the Vietnam War. Genre can make a big impact on the way we look at different things in our lives, and the Vietnam War is no different.

Probably the genre with the most influence on this time period is music. There are almost countless songs about the war, both protesting and approving it. "Goodnight Saigon" by the great Billy Joel paints a true picture of what life was like for a soldier in Vietnam. Men went into Vietnam "spastic, like tameless horses" and left "in plastic, as numbered corpses." This song really changes the way civilians think about the war. It tells about brotherhood and bravery, saying "we'd all go down together" in the chorus. The lyrics to "Goodnight Saigon" can be found here: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/b/billy_joel/goodnight_saigon.html

Movies can also change the way we think about things. Inception modifies how we percieve dreams. Titanic shows us how financial class makes no difference to cupid, and how that love can be strong enough to last after someone dies. The Star Wars series of movies tells us the story of how one man let his emotions kill everyone near and dear to him, but he made the right decision before his only son was killed. Movies do the same thing for our opinion on Vietnam. Jacob's Ladder is the story of a soldier's return home after serving in Vietnam. He suffers through psychological trauma from a drug he was given, and he becomes almost deranged. The Wikipedia page for the movie is located here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob's_Ladder_(film. This movie makes us think if other soldiers were part of weird experiments to make them suffer from the trauma they suffer, and makes us feel resentment for the government if they did. This is a U.S. fovernment protest movie at its finest.

Novels can also change us. Uncle Tom's Cabin changed the way people thought about slavery throughout the world. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers is the story of a black teenager and his tour of duty in an all-black squad in Vietnam. The story deals with the main character's emotions while fighting. He feels sorrow for the enemy he's fighting, because they are someone's father, brother, son, husband, or friend. It changed the way I thought about our enemies in Vietnam. They weren't evil, just the government that controlled them was. They were just poor, regular farmers forced to fight in order to survive. Here's the Barnes & Noble page for Fallen Angels: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Fallen-Angels/Walter-Dean-Myers/e/9780590409438/

Writing as a Metaphor

There are many metaphors, similes, comparisons, and contrasts that people have used to describe what writing is to them. For me, writing is like sports, like the big game that everyone will be tuning in to watch. If you don't enter the game with a game plan, you aren't going to be very successful. The same goes with writing. If you come to the blank page with nothing to write about, then your writing isn't going to be very good.

Sports are all about preparation and practice. Those who practice and prepare hard will play hard on game day, and those who don't, won't. Those who play hard win, and those who don't--well, there's only one option left! Writing is the same way. You have to prepare for your writing by doing prewriting and research to back up your opinions, which gives more life to your writing. You also have to practice writing by keeping a journal or a blog, among other things.

Improving the mistakes you make is another part of sports. Learning from your mistakes is an important part of becoming a better athlete. Just the same goes for authors. Writers will make mistakes. There's no denying that. No writers' first edition of a novel or work is perfect. It goes through hours of editing and revision to make the final copy.

Writing is like many different things to many different people, but for me it's like a sport. Coming out with a plan, preparation and practice, and correcting mistakes are all important parts of writing, as they are in sports as well.

Everything One Needs to Know About Being an NFL Superstar

Michael Strahan, former super-bowl defensive end for the New York Giants and seven-time Pro Bowl selection, is the author for my summer reading. His book, Inside the Helmet: My Life as a Sunday Afternoon Warrior, is a collection of memoirs, stories, strategies, and "inside tips" on everything about being an NFL superstar such as himself.

Strahan begins by explaining the environment right before a game, the moment when both teams stare each other down while the national anthem is played. Sure, it seems like they are focused on their patriotic duty of the anthem, but the only thing on their minds is the faces of the opponents on the other side of the sideline.

He then breaks down everything that leads up to that particular moment on game day. From the meetings, to the player-coach relationship, the player-player relationship, fights, pranks, strategy and communication, among other things. Each chapter discusses a different topic, so boredom doesn't occur will reading this piece.

One part of the game that Strahan discusses is the "business" side of pro football. Players and the franchises they work for often don't cooperate, and they say "money talks". Well, in this case, it does. If a player doesn't like the contract they're offered, they'll just request a trade or go find another franchise that's willing to pay top dollar for a player that's capable of bringing a Lombardi trophy back with them from the Super Bowl. So, teams do the best they possibly can to ensure that all the players on their roster, especially those who have acquired "superstar" status, such as Brett Favre or Ray Lewis (why do you think the Vikings are paying Favre $20M to play this year?!).

I love Strahan's style in this book. It's laid-back to the point where you don't struggle to grasp what he's trying to say from reading one sentence, yet still sophisticated enough to the point where there are words in this book that are on my vocab list. Strahan uses a lot of expressions and sayings while recollecting his stories and memoirs, that, if you have ever heard Michael Strahan talk, you can hear him saying inside your head. The expressions are just him. Only he could say these words like him. He also gives a very vivid picture of the event he's attempting to explain, yet he doesn't rant off onto a tangent on the descriptions that lead you away from the point of the whole thing.

I would recommend this book to any NFL fan, or anyone who wants a look "inside the helmet" (pun intended) of the life of a pro athlete. Through the stories, explanations, strategies, and sayings, Michael Strahan really captures the essence of what it's like to be an NFL superstar in my summer reading, his book Inside the Helmet: My Life as a Sunday Afternoon Warrior.