An Afternoon Stroll Through History

After watching Vice's documentary on the The KKK vs. the Crips vs. Memphis City Council, it got me thinking about history and the way things are presented to us. Memphis City Council wants to rename  Nathan Bedford Forrest park and take down his statue that is in the park because he was one of the founding members of the KKK and many people think it isn't right to pay tribute to such an awful man. 


One of the most interesting parts of this documentary I think is the interview with Lee Miller, the Sons of Confederate Veterans Spokesperson. The interview starts around 10:45. Miller says, "It's upsetting that people would attack history and try to erase history like this. It takes education to learn about somebody from 150 years in our past and the more people get educated about our past, the better off they are." He goes on to explain that the KKK was originally a social club with no anti-black intentions. The sympathetic music starts to play as he paints a picture of what the early Klan was like. His idea of the man and "social club" is very different than Myron Lowery, an african-american city council member. 


I personally think that the renaming of the park was necessary, but does Miller have a point? Are we denying people the education of our country's history by doing so? Ignoring history is one thing, but are we acting like it never happened just because we don't want a park to be named after a man like Nathan Bedford Forrest? I think what he is saying should be taken seriously. I think it is important to tell history in a somewhat unbiased way, but I think honoring those who have killed many innocent people is wrong. 

Who's Your ACT Tutor? You Have One, Right...?

Who's your ACT tutor? How often do you go to your tutor? What other successful kids went to he/she? How much ACT homework do you have? How experienced is your tutor? What kind of results are you getting? Where'd you hear about your tutor? A tutor is expensive and time consuming, but this is what you need if you're going to compete with the students that attend New Trier.

I just read this article. And the funny thing about it was, I wasn't even searching for an article about New Trier! I looked up "highest act scores from high schools" and this article, talking about a student from New Trier who received a 36 on their ACT popped up. New trier and Stevenson high school produce the most amount of kids that receive a 36 on their ACT.

"That pressure to eke out any extra point on the ACT has spawned a growing industrymarketing the prospect of improved ACT scores. An Internet search for "ACT test preparation" yields pages of results ranging from $20 practice test books to $1,000 five-week courses touting guaranteed four-point score increases." Writes Johnothan Bullington. ACT companies market towards schools like ours, where the pressure is high and our parent's salaries are higher. Academic Approach (an ACT tutoring company) isn't setting up shop in a lower-income South Side neighborhood, they're going to make themselves available to an area where the parents are willing to pay $160 a session for their kids to get ahead.

Schools in lower-income neighborhoods tend to have other things marketed towards them. Recruits from the military would never come to New Trier for the same reason: it isn't worth their time. My father grew up in a small town where practically every boy he knew was planning on going into the army because that was their best option. A lot of parents in this lower-income area went into the army so for the kids there that is the norm. The parents also usually don't make enough money to put their kids through college. Recruits wouldn't benefit from coming to New Trier because the students here usually aren't considering going into the army. I don't know one person from Winnetka that didn't go to college after high school. 

Every weekday when I go home I have to do my homework, but thats not the only academic- related thing I have to do. I also have to do my "daily reader," a form of torture given to me by my ACT tutor that my parents pay to improve my score. She's not messing around though, after taking the act in September, tutoring twice a week for a month and then taking it again in October, my friend raised her score by 2 points! I know a girl who raised hers by 7 points all together. With the help of 2 tutors, one for all around skills and a separate one just for math. What about you? Who's your tutor?

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

The struggle for gay marriage and The Civil Rights Movement are compared almost everyday in American Studies. Before, I had never thought to write a blog post about this issue because I thought it was taken care of. I simply did not think that I would have anything to contribute to this issue until I read this blogpost by Richard Alther on the Huffington Post.

I have two gay uncles, so this issue is something that is not far from me. Every year my uncles come to our house for Christmas Eve, and every Christmas Eve we go to church. But it was not until recently that my mom questioned wether or not it was morally correct to attend a Catholic church service with two people that aren't allowed to get married because of the beliefs of some of the people standing in the same room. Although not all people of this faith, including my family, believe that marriage should only be between a man and a woman, a lot of people do. Many representatives have used this excuse to prevent gay marriage from being legal in America.

Comparing the struggles of homosexual people and other groups of people that have been discriminated against throughout the history of America is accurate because of the way people people approached this issue at first, and how progress is countered by negative reactions. Richard Alther says, ""Forget these jerks," some say. My response: Forget them like we forget racists because it's decades after the Civil Rights Act and we have a black president? Forget them like we forget misogynists and the ongoing subjugation of women because Susan B. Anthony and Roe v. Wade happened so long ago? Forget them like we forget anti-Semites because the Holocaust is ancient history for so many under 40?" I think that this is such a smart way to address the problems with the lack of progress of gay rights. I am not saying that there is not progress because there is, but the fact that there still is this backlash everytime something good happens for this community of people (and America as a whole) represents that there is a long way to go. 

The saying "one step forward two steps back" seems to be a parallel to what Alther is saying. We can't just ignore the people who so violently reject the ideas of equality for gay people. We have to remember that during the Holocust, America turned a blind eye for quite some time. It was not until everyone was forced to face this horrible situation that it actually changed. There is no way to ignore these issues because if we do, we will only be changing part of America. I think that it is completely necessary to understand why people are so against this so that we are able to change the reaction to progress. 

Obamacare Deserves Religious Freedom

Religion has been a hot topic in my household lately, seeing as I will be going on a religious retreat in two weeks. Catholic morals were always a part of my upbringing. That's why when I was scrolling through the homepage of CNN, this article caught my eye.

We always hear about freedom of religion in schools, but I never thought about that right transferring into corporations. Elizabeth B. Wydra, the author of this piece, explains that people argue that the contraception coverage that Obamacare offers is offensive to those who are pro-life. To me it seems like people are always finding new problems with Obamacare. 

Wyndra suggests that, "Using unprecedented legal reasoning, three federal circuit courts of appeals have ruled that secular, for-profit business corporations and/or the individuals who own them have a valid claim that the mandate to provide no-cost, FDA-approved contraception in their employer-sponsored health plan violates their asserted right to the free exercise of religion." I agree with this. Even though I may not believe in the act of abortions, I do not think it is justified to limit Obamacare's ability to offer this service. Even though abortions are only part of Obamacare for certain states, it still causes issues when it comes to whether or not it is ethical. Birth control is also considered to be a method that is not supported by many catholics, but is offered through Obamacare. I think that it is indeed suggesting a religious bias if they were to take away contraception coverage. 

I believe in freedom of religion and I am not offended by Obamacare covering birth control or abortions in their services. The reason I think that so many people are strongly against this is because their own tax money is being put towards this health care. This is hard for people to justify to themselves when they are already against the concept of Obamacare. If they believe that Obamacare is supporting something that they do not think is morally correct, it makes it harder to support the care with your hard earned money. I understand why many people do not approve of this, but I think if Obamacare was unable to offer these services it would be restricting it's freedom.

Happy Birthday Sandy

The devastating effects of hurricane Sandy are obvious and almost a year later, I have to say that I am impressed with the resiliency of the east coast. Times were tough but an article that I found on CNN shows the day after hurricane Sandy one year later. It contrasts different pictures from a year ago and today. http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/27/us/gallery/sandy-then-and-now/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

After I saw this article, it jogged my memory of the storm and the many things that the American government and people did to help New Jersey and other eastern states get back on their feet. The improvement is remarkable and if a storm such as this one had happened anywhere else in the world, i'm not sure that the difference would be so great.

Another article that I found discusses the rebuilding of New York, but also what we still have to learn from this storm. While Adam Sobel admits that the weather technology (spotting the storm almost a week in advance) is hard to criticize, he says that the construction of the subways in New York were susceptible to flooding and better preparation could have minimized the effects of hurricane Sandy. I agree with Sobel, but I wonder if he is being a little too critical.

Another point that Sobel makes is that this storm indicates a bigger problem with our changing climate and this should be addressed when dealing with the effects of it. Natural disasters have always been a part of nature and it's hard for me to wrap my head around the point that he is making. I understand that no amount of preparation could truly eliminate any negative effects that a natural disaster typically has, but is it even a possibility to start at the root of this problem? If we are more "eco-friendly" will we be able to prevent things like this from happening in the future? I just don't know if Hurricane Sandy represents all the environmental issues that have developed in the recent past.

No Need to Skip the Sweets

I came across an article on CNN talking about how the use of palm oil is damaging to orangutans. They wrote the article because palm oil is often used in different types of candy such as, Skittles, Milky Way and all other MARS products. You can read more here.

My initial reaction was to text my mom and makes sure she was conscious of the issue when buying candy for trick-or- treaters this year. As I read on, I realized that this might not be necessary. The author, John D. Sutter suggests that it is best to start at the root of the problem. It is hard to get people to abandon their tradition on Halloween. It is much more convenient to run to the store and buy whatever kind of candy is the cheapest, rather than reading every label and seeing which types of candy don't have palm oil.  Moms already have enough to worry about this time of year.

So then what can we do to help? Turning a blind eye has had a lot of consequences in the past when it comes to the environment. Instead of skipping sweets on halloween, Sutter sends us to a website on which people post pictures of the orangutans and other parts of the rainforest to raise awareness. The website is called Rainforest Action Network. It basically shows snack food companies and other industries the  affect they have on the environment and lets people get involved who are interested in the issue.

I think that this is a very effective way of going about  raising awareness and eventually solving the problem of extinction and pollution.  This, rather than telling people to stop buying candy and snacks, is going to make more of a difference because this gives people a reason to care. Looking through the website it makes it easier for me to understand the issue, and the convenience  of the links makes getting involved just a click away. This is the right way to make people care about an issue.

Cheaters Never Win, Right?

After reading this article about corruption in China,  I started to think about the corruption that I see all the time in every day life. The author, Lijia Zhang, describes a scene when his mother urged him to deliver gifts to his boss's house in order to get ahead in his career. Zhang refused, and his mother said "'You'll never go far in life if you dont know how to la guanxi!'" La guanxi is a network of connections that a Chinese family traditionally has. When I first read this I thought of many different times when my mother said something like this to me. Wether or not people are willing to admit it, I believe that connections in certain places can help you out a lot and make things a lot easier. You can get what you want through connections without having to work as hard to prove yourself, because of a preconceived idea someone has of you based on that connection.

So is this right to call it corruption? Is the fact that my sister got an internship in Paris based on my dad's connections rather than her own abilities really corruption? When you put it that way, maybe, but when we live in a world that turns a blind eye to such advantages it's hard to see this as wrong. So what would happen if we stopped using our connections to get places? I don't think that the difference in people's success would be as great as i'd like to believe, but I do think it would be much more difficult to get started in a certain industry. People are not usually hired if they are not at all qualified; however, they are not always the best choice if they are hired through connections.

Lijia Zhang goes on to talk about how the corruption is an important part of the Chinese economy. He talks about a conversation with a successful Chinese businessman, "'Your business can't survive a day if you are not corrupt,' he told me. He has to smooth every step of his business with gifts or outright bribes."If corruption is so crucial to the society of China, is it possible to get ahead without it? Some people might think it's not even worth competing with cheaters because there is no possibility of being on the same level. I think that there are benefits to being truthful when it comes to business but when everything is corrupt as Zhang suggests, i'm not sure that it is worth the clean conscience. Cheaters always have the threat of getting caught, but who is there to enforce the rules if everyone is involved?

Pink and Blue is Fine by Me

The issue of gender roles has come up multiple times in class. Since last week when we talked about it I can't help but notice these subtle stereotypes everywhere in my life. When my parents ask my brother and I to help out around the house it always goes like this: my mom will ask me to do the dishes and my brother always takes out the trash or mows the lawn. My mom always says that I have to learn how to do certain things like how to clean the kitchen, how to make banana bread or hem up a dress. My dad always takes trips with my brother to go camping and fishing and I never get the invite. I assume that it is the same way in most homes but I wonder if this is so appalling.

I believe that women should be given the same opportunities as men but lets be honest: girls and boys are different. Women should be viewed as equal to men, yes, but when it comes to preferences and appealing to different genders, I think that it is reasonable to assume that boys and girls have different opinions. When I go to the store I am drawn to the things that are "girly" and I probably still would be without the pressures of having to look a certain way. I don't think that I would want to buy a lotion that promised anything other than "soft" or "gentle" skin; however, this the opposite for my brother and dad. When I asked them if they had ever seen a men's skincare product that used those adjectives they laughed and said no. I asked them if they were offended by this and they told me that if they wanted to buy something that was geared towards women then they would, but they just don't care about that stuff. I think that the way advertisers promote their product towards one gender is honestly the best way for them to sell products and if they tried to make it any more gender- neutral it would just be confusing.

 My adviser once talked to us about how she was appalled by the majority of the little girl's costume options compared to the boys in halloween magazines. She claimed that the frilly dresses made girls feel like they had to dress a certain way. I know when I was a little girl I would choose to wear a blue dress with the cookie monsters face on it rather than a full on cookie monster suit, but maybe I was just a "girly-girl." Either way, parents have the option to buy their kid any kind of costume they want. I just think that judging by the amount of girls costumes they are making in that style, they must be selling. I know that women have worked hard to get the same rights as men and I am not saying that that is of major importance, i'm just saying that sometimes it's okay to acknowledge that boys and girls have different taste. It's okay if they have the same tastes but not always the case.

I Want Freedom! But Not my License.

If you have the September 23 issue of TIME Magazine nearby, flip to page 70. On this page there is an article called "I Brake for Teenage Drivers," all about how the drop in the number of teenagers with their license suggests that we don't want freedom. I, being someone who waited a long time to get their license, disagree with this argument. I chose to not get my license for so long because I knew I would not have my own car, therefore I found that it wasn't an urgent thing to do. I realize that this may not be the case for every kid my age who is holding off on getting their license, but I don't think the only reason people are doing so is because they would rather sit at home or be chauffeured around by their parents. 

"One-third fewer kids are getting driver's licenses than in 1983. There are two conclusions you can draw from this. One is that this is a generation that is environmentally concerned and economically challenged. The other is correct. They are dead inside." says Joel Stein, one of my favorite columnists. I just don't think that this is a fair conclusion to draw. With the many economical issues our country is having, is it really more reasonable to say that the average teenager is spending all of their time at home on expensive electronics rather than not having the money to pay for gas and maintenance for a car that already costs so much? I love being able to go to my friends house without the help of my parents and being able to eat at whatever restaurant I want when I want, but that freedom dom may not be as important when i'm only able to exercise it Saturday/Sunday mornings and weeknights after my dad gets home, when there is more than one car at home. 

Sure our generation has it's problems, but I don't think that this issue is a reflection of the lazy-ness of the average teen today.

How to Tell You've Gained Equality

The question of whether or not we've accomplished the goals that Martin Luther King Jr. once spoke of in his "I Have a Dream" speech is difficult to answer. But how are we able to tell if our citizens are equal when the definition of equality calls for different things than it did before? How are we able to see how far we've come when we are not sure if we've been fighting for the same things? An article on CNN that I found suggests that people identify with their class now more than ever, and that it has almost become more of an issue than race when it comes to equality. You can read more of it here. 

The author says " It's not that all battles for racial equality have been won -- they haven't -- or that we live in a post-racial society. But, in some remarkable and troubling ways, class has become an increasingly significant barrier to equality in modern America. The gap between rich and poor has been growing in the United States since the late 1970s, and our level of income inequality, one proxy measure for that gap, is now on par with many sub-Saharan African countries." I think that the reason people see class as something that is so a part of them is because it effects so much of our lives. While before we were fighting for equal rights for everyone in America, we are now starting to realize that even with all of the rights we are guaranteed, it is not enough. The gap between the rich and poor is making the income inequality impossible to ignore. It is making the ladder of class harder to climb and it's making it easier for people to fall into poverty. This is why class has become something that is as important as race, because it is becoming harder for people to be where they want to be financially. 

In a recent speech that Obama made he said, "we must remind ourselves that the measure of progress for those who marched 50 years ago was not merely how many blacks had joined the ranks of millionaires; it was whether this country would admit all people who were willing to work hard, regardless of race, into the ranks of a middle-class life," How are we supposed to not acknowledge the fact that class is something that determines who we are friends with, where we live, what we look like etc? I think that class has possibly become the new race because it is so hard to say you are fighting for equal opportunities when the main deciding factor on what opportunities you get is how much money you have and what your money can do for you. Race is no longer the main issue when it comes to the things you are able to do in life.

The Newest Thing on Your Wish List

Unless you haven't been on safari on an apple product today, you probably know that a whole new line of iPhones have been released. The story automatically came up on my home screen on my iPad, Macbook and iPhone so after seeing it multiple times I figured it was necessary to see what the team of geniuses had come up with. I watched the whole video all the while asking myself the same questions I do every time I am confronted with a new apple product: What makes this so much better than every other smart phone? What is different about this one compared to the last release? Is it worth begging my parents for? According to Jony Ives (Senior Vice President of Design at Apple) "The iPhone 5c is in many ways the distillation of what people love about the iPhone 5. It's simpler, more essential, yet its more capable." This seems to be such a hard thing to do especially with technology, but somehow I believe that Apple accomplishes this task with every new product that they release. This is how they move forward in technology and beat the competition. While winning to some companies might mean the most complicated product, Apple knows better. They make things simpler and give people what they want without them really knowing what to ask for. He later goes on to describe the iPhone as an "experience," which I think is accurate. The iPhone is the best on the market because amongst all the competition and innovation happening in the world of technology, Apple finds a way to appeal to both those who are interested in exploring all of its capabilities and those who prefer a basic and easy- to- use product. The iPhone is "Something is familiar but new at the same time." I think this is the key to their success. When shopping for a phone I do not want to be introduced to an entire new software. Apple has found a way to work itself into to lives of so many Americans. For example, our school is expected to have almost every class be an iPad class by the end of the year. They have spread their influence to foreign countries as well. Even my dad (who doesn't know what "idk" means) is anxious to get his hands on the new iPhone!