Immigration

So during the final weeks of school i thought that any video i watched during a class would be a joke. haha i was wrong, in spanish class we just finished the movie "El Norte" and we also watched a documentary called "Crossing Arizona", both of which were very eye opening. After watching the videos i am split 50-50 on my thoughts of immigration. Illegal immigrants are crossing the border to america in order to have a better life for themselves and their families, and in doing so they are doing the jobs that most americans would not want to do. so for this instance i believe that since they are making the long journey to america and risking life and death to help their family who cant afford barely anything. they should be helped and not deported. and people are helping the immigrants by putting out water and food for them were they normally cross. on the other hand i believe that immigrants have no place to stay in america, first of all they are taking jobs from some americans and getting benefits that most americans dont even have. the immigrants are also leaving many tons of trash where they are crossing and along the way are shooting cattle and just leaving them. this is wrong. i cannot make up my mind where i stand so i will stay in the middle.

Since we have been talking about the flag alot recently something surpirised me during the videos. for one during a protests to stop immigrants from crossing the border many people were carrying the american flag and a couple from washington said they were never patriotic untill they got associated in the protest. So is that what it takes for people to be patriotic?

Questions for the audience

I really enjoyed american studies day, although all of the classes were great i liked louis masur and mississippi heat the best. Masur speech was very interesting and got me thinking, and i had some questions that i would like you to answer. Is a staged photo as powerfull as a original non-staged photo? Does cropping a photo ruin the true meaning of the photo? And what is more memorable a video or a picture? I will be making another blog post answering these questions for myself but i want to hear what you have to say first.

Patriotic sweet dreams

As we have been learning about what we feel the flag symbolizes in class it really made my thinking juices start flowing. people said that it symbolizes peace or hope or freedom and should not be wrongfully used like on napkins. while i believe that alot of people think the flag symbolizes these things I, on the contrary, feel a little bit different. i think that the flag is just an identity of a country. every country has different colors and different representations on the flag, and this identifies a country. i also believe that it is not wrong to use a flag on a towel or napkin because it is just a drawing and not the real thing. now if a person took a flag down from a flagpole just to wipe off their face on it then that would be disrespectful

Our assignment was to find a flag and photograph it. i had never really critically looked around to see flags but this weekend i did. one thing i saw was American flag covers on a bed. Who would not want to sleep in the flags of their country? i feel that these covers were not meant to spark a big controversy or even make you second guess the fact that there are flags. i believe that covers were made just for decoration. I dont think that there can be anything said about them like the walls are a lighter blue then the blue in the flags so that means america is darker then the outside or something like that. there is although one problem i saw with the flags, instead of having stars it has really small stars and half moons. why would there be a need to chnage the flag for these covers anyways?

Obesity is the theme

As i was doing research i learned a new thing about my topic. according to the article i read it turns out that obesity and overweight problems started when our ancestors started to use agriculture and farming instead of hunting. When humans first walked the earth there was a scarcity of food and people worked hard to get that food. everything that tasted good they would try to eat. but even as they were getting this food they were running or working increadible hard to get it, and the game they ate were much lower in fat then today. but the problem of obeseity started when agriculture was invented, even though they had more food the food did not have as many benefits as wild food and had more fat, as a result of this our early ancestors had calcium deficiencies, artery clogging problems, and other health related problems. but even though they had agriculture they were still working and doing physical labor. even though they had these obesity related problems obesity really kicked into higher gear when vehicles were invented and completely removed physical exercise from our lifestyle.

Junior Theme

So i started my junior theme and quite frankly i am pleased. my why question is Why are americans becomming increasingly obese? and my book is called "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan, who i hope to have my interview with. during the 1980's food were being taken off the shelves and being replaced by cholesterol, fiber, and saturated fats, and this can lead to different health diseases and obesesity. before "foods" were being replaced the obesity rate in america was much lower then it is today. today people are eating more bad foods and not execising, they are eating by themselves or shoved in front of a television. when people eat they should eat to the point where they are not hungry and not to the point where they are completely full. also just because you eat healthy food doesnt mean you are not going to be obese, people are increasingly eating more and more quantities of healthy foods at each sitting, and in reality this does nothing. the growth of fastfood restaurants causes people to take in almost two-thirds of their daily calorie intake in just one meal. during 1998, 97 million adults (55% of the adult population) were obese. to add to this there were around 300,00 deaths annually due to obesity.

Drugs

I just switched topics from drugs to food and obesity and since i am not writing about drugs in my paper i would like to say what i wanted to say now. My topic was why are some drugs illegal while others are legalized? I thought that it was a little arbitrary that marijuana was illegal when alcohol which also is a drug is legal. It doesnt make sense that people can drink and get extremely intoxicated and put their health and others at risk, and people can not smoke marijuana and just sit in someones house. Now i have never done drugs and i would like to make that clear, but i feel that marijuana should be legalized. First it would cut back on alot of crime and gang violence and in turn might make alot of places safer. second underground selling of marijuana makes billions of dollars that is just going to more getting and selling more drugs. i believe that the government could legalize the drug and tax it as alcohol is, and this might help make the economy better. also roughly 50% of the nation has tried marijuana and if that many people have tried it and bought it then why not legalize it? i believe that the drug would then be very useful for people that have chronic pain and would reduce the pain they have. the people would not have to worry about possessing it and using it also.

Horrible

As i was driving home today i recieved a text message that stunned me. Just a couple blocks from my house a man killed his wife, son, and then killed himself. i never thought anything like this would happen so close to where i live and i feel so sad for the family and relatives of these people. i dont understand how a father could do that to the rest of his family. the mom and son had the house as a safe haven and i would believe they never felt in danger at their house, and yet the father took that away from them. i thought that my neighborhood and area around where i live nothing would ever happen like this. i send out my prayers and sympathy for the relatives and friends of this family.