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.