A Good Scent From A Strange Mountain
My Reflection

A Good Scent From A Strange Mountain is a book of short stories complied by Robert Olen Butler. They are true tales of the life of a few Vietnamese people who lived in the US, particularly somewhere in Kentucky, after the Vietnam War. The writers of these stories use many literary devices to make their story more interesting to read while at the same time getting their point across. A story within this book titled "Mr. Green" uses metaphors, pathos, and theme to get her main idea across which is how her grandfather was condescending to her in a way because she was a woman.
Metaphors ,comparing two things, were used in the story a few times. Most of the time when the grandfather and the little girl were at the flee market looking at the birds. A perfect example of this is when he compares the blackbirds to old women. The text says "They did not need him to prompt their songs. He growled at them, 'You're just a bunch of old women'" From this text you can see how the grandfather would compare the way the blackbirds would make noise to the way women gossip and talk.
Another literary device used was pathos which is when writing makes you feel an emotion such as sympathy or pity for a character in the story. In this tale the grandfather tends to put the granddaughter down a lot for being a girl. In the story there was a part that said "I felt a strange thing inside me, a recoiling, like I'd stepped barefoot on a slug, but how can you recoil from your own body? And so I began to cry" Here, it makes you feel sympathy and/or pity for the little girl as she cries. This is an example of pathos which makes the writing more intense because it adds emotion.
The last literary device that stuck out to me was theme. I understand that theme is used a lot in literature. It is the main idea of the story, what the story is about. The theme of this story was how she loved her grandfather and although he loved her back he was still condescending to her because she was a a woman. The parrot, Mr. Green, that once belonged to her grandfather was something she thought of as the spirit of her grandfather after he passes away. When the bird dies, she feels her grandfather is finally spiritually gone from Earth and has now accepted the fact that her grandfather may have not favored the fact that she was a woman but she herself is now content with it. I feel that theme is important to any story because it gets a point across. It gives the reader a reason to read the story, to learn something they did not know.
The three literary devices used in this story made for an interestin piece to read as well as an emotionally moving one. I feel that the combination of these devices helped me feel what the author felt during the time this happen. Of course, these are not the only litetrary devices used in the story or even throughout the entire book but these ones stood out to me because they were the steeping stones that made this story capitvating and WANTING to read the story.

ACORN Scandal VS Vote Suppression

"Experts who have examined the allegations against ACORN have concluded that there is no significant threat of voter fraud."-CNN

From what I understand, the ACORN scandal was a voter's fraud. In the Wall Street Journal it stated "If voter fraud would ever be ripe for investigation, this would seem to be the year with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (Acorn) having been caught filing thousands of bogus voter registrations in at least 14 states." First off, what is ACORN? ACORN is a community organization of low and middle class families who work together to build a stronger community and gain social freedom.

The difference between the ACORN scandal and voter suppression is that the ACORN scandal is a voter fraud scandal and voter suppression is when people try to make it very difficult or nearly impossible for some people to vote.

The ACORN scandal was made out to be more of a scandal then it actually was. ACORN actually did nothing wrong. What the big hype was about was how ACORN submitted voter registrations that were for people who did not have their license to show to allow them to vote, so no information saying they can vote or they submitted forms with fictitious people on them. So why did ACORN submit the fake registration forms? From a editorial on the Washington post it says: "ACORN did flag some cards as questionable, but by law even those had to be turned in _ only the board can reject them." So by law, ACORN did nothing wrong and the "scandal" had more attention then it deserved.

Unlike the ACORN controversy, vote suppression is a real issue that should be discussed more so. Vote suppression is when people try to keep other people in certain areas from voting at all. Ways people achieve this is a variety of ways, they can prey on college students, inner city people, and even minority groups. An article I found on vote suppression talks about the ways people legally try to keep minority groups from voting. A piece of the text states: "They include letter-writing challenges, residence and citizenship challenges of non-native born Latino voters, and reliance on a provision in the Help America Vote Act on provisional ballots. Worst of all, these tactics are all perfectly legal." Because these people are not born here and may have not lived in the states as long as a native has it may be harder and discourage them to vote.

In one of the articles I read it stated that the government needs to be more worried about vote suppression more so then the ACORN scandal that is said to be a "myth" by McCain.

On the Acorn site here is what they had to say about voter suppression:
"ACORN recently worked to stop Republican voter suppression tactics in New Mexico and Michigan." From this statement it means that the ACORN association wanted to make it easier for people to vote and make it an equal opportunity activity. I think that is a good thing because I think everyone who lives in the US legally should be able to have a say in what and who runs this country.

CNN-ACORN
ACORN site
Video about ACORN
Voter Suppression Incidents 2008
Washington Post ACORN
Legal Vote Suppression Article

Presidential Debates

The presidential debates now a days can relate to past debates by issues going on in society and each candidate talking about how they can change the problem and make society better for the people.

In the Lincoln Douglas debates an issue that was discussed was slavery. Douglas believed that slavery was natural and was nothing more then popular sovereignty, while Lincoln believed it was morally wrong. Douglas stated the following about slavery in the very first debate that took place in Ottawa, Illanois :

"One of the reserved rights of the States, was the right to regulate the relations between Master and Servant, on the slavery question. At the time the Constitution was framed, there were thirteen States in the Union, twelve of which were slaveholding States and one free State."

Lincoln made a come back to Douglas stating the following:

"I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world-enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites-causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity,"

In today's presidential debate there are plenty of issues that effect the people that make up our society. Like how slavery effected the colored races freedom, abortion in our society threatens some women's choice to be able to have one. It seems that it would be correct that whether or not a woman has a baby is her own choice but abortion is an issue that is discussed still to this day.
Obama stated the following about abortion in the third presidential debate:

"But I am somebody who believes that Roe versus Wade was rightly decided. I think that abortion is a very difficult issue and it is a moral issue and one that I think good people on both sides can disagree on."

As you can see from this quote, Obama is for abortion and women having the right to decide whether or not a they want to have the baby or not. While McCain stated the following about the topic:

"I thought it was a bad decision. I think there were a lot of decisions that were bad. I think that decisions should rest in the hands of the states."

What McCain was talking about in this quote is the decision of Roe VS Wade in the first place. He believes that abortion should be a state issue rather then a federal issue meaning that each state should decided whether or not they should legalize abortion in that very state rather then having abortion be legal or illegal in all states.
So if you compare today's debates to those that were held in the past you can see that they still relate by issues that effect peoples freedom or the "social contract".

Lincoln-Douglas Debate
McCain-Obama Debate

Internet and Democracy

"Thanks to the Internet, it has become easier than ever to see what you want when you want, and filter out all the rest."

I think the internet has effected the way democracy is by having so much information being accessible to everyone so easily. Not only that but the internet gives out information that isn't even necessarily correct. So many people alter the information to have it mean what they mean and not what the actual information is saying.
I think this effects history and our democracy by when people need to find information on something and they go to look it up, they can possibly get the wrong information which can soon lead to other people thinking the same thing.


NYTimes.com

By STEPHEN LABATON

Published: May 13, 2001

Link

Newspaper Reflection

Something I contributed to our newspaper "The Daily Ari" that I really liked is the pull-out quotes. I like the layout of them because I feel it looks very professional and clean. The lines surrounding them give them a clean break away from the text. I enlarged the text within the lines and bolded them so the stood out more and I feel by doing that, it achieved exactly what I wanted which was to make them stand out from the text and be eye catching.

Something I contributed that I would improve on would be the text of my article. I feel like maybe one more draft and it could have been a lot better. There was some evidence that I wanted to include but I felt like my article was already so long I wouldn't have the room on the newspaper to fit it all on there. I think the story I have on the newspaper is good but it just could have been better if I added that extra evidence, that way my article could be more informative because I know when I read an article I like to know as much as possible about what I'm reading. Something else I would improve on is the empty space at the bottom of three of the articles. Visually, that is not appealing. I feel like in those three articles, maybe I should have added another pull-quote or filled the space with a creative ad or something along those lines. The reason why is because in real newspapers all the space is filled up, each space is used to fit more information to inform the reader on even more things or make it fun for the reader and that's what I wanted to do with our newspaper.

I think overall, I did a good job managing my time and using my resources. I think Wednesday I could have used my time better by waiting to look for pictures at home and continuing revising and adding to my article because for me, writing the article was more challenging then finding the picture I wanted to use. Also, on Wednesday if I was looking for pictures I should have photoshopped them to make them more creative and so that no one else in the class would have the same photo as me. I don't know why I didn't do that. It just didn't occur to me but if I could do this over again, I would find a day where I had a little bit of extra time and photoshop a picture. Also, if given more time I would add that extra evidence to my article, seeing how when I put the actual paper together and I hade some extra room I should have done that but I didn't think of it. I was trying to get the paper done and make it so it looked nice but knowing what I know now and after looking our paper over, I would have done that to my article.

Interesting Topic We Have Discussed

A topic that we have discussed in class that I found particularly interesting is how debates between candidates have changed over the year. It has become more easier for candidates to answer and just say what pleases the crowd rather then back then when they had much more time to talk and say an actual speech rather then just a short two minute answer to a specific question. It just goes to show how things have changed over time. The reason I say this is because when I think of the presidential debates now of days and compare it to the debates that took place before, it seems like those aren't the only things that have changed over the course of time.

We briefly discussed in math how math education levels have gone down. It now seems more socially acceptable to be illiterate in math but not so much in something such as reading. For me, it just seems that knowledge back then was much more valuable to people. I know that certain readings back then, such as Common Sense by Thomas Paine, was read to people who didn't know how to read, just for the fun of it. I'm sure it was a lot "cooler" back then to be an educated person, compared to now, it's acceptable not to understand something and at the same time not even want to give an effort to learn it.

Just like the debates that seem to have grown easier over time, I feel that everything is growing to be so much easier for us. Thanks to the help of technology, I feel like people depend more on a machine then their own brain. But I'm not blaming technology or anything.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates

The Lincoln-Douglas debates were a series a debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas for an Illinois seat in the United States Senate. The debates were held in seven different towns and normally ran about 3 hours long, one candidate speaking for an hour, the other candidate speaking for 90 minutes, and the other candidate speaking again for another thirty minutes.

The main issue that was discussed during the debates was slavery. Douglas was for slavery and popular soverignty which is where states can decide for themselves if they should keep slavery in their state or not. Lincoln, on the other hand, was against slavery and against letting other states vote for if they want to keep slavery around or not.

Regarding the Dred Scott case, Douglas stated the following in the second debate:

"Then again, I wish to call his attention to the fact that at the time the Nebraska bill was passed, the Dred Scott case was not before the Supreme Court at all; it was not upon the docket of the Supreme Court; it had not been brought there, and the Judges in all probability knew nothing of it. Thus the history of the country proves the charge to be false as against them"

From this quote you can see how Douglas acts as if the Dred Scott case isn't even important.

The following is Lincoln's response to the Dred Scott case.

"He denounces all who question the correctness of that decision, as offering violent resistance to it. But who resists it? Who has, in spite of the decision, declared Dred Scott free, and resisted the authority of his master over him?"

From this quote, I know that Lincoln is defending the Dred Scott case. Early in the speeche Lincoln also states:

" That decision declares two propositions—first, that a negro cannot sue in the U.S. Courts; and secondly, that Congress cannot prohibit slavery in the Territories"

Lincoln blames the the Supreme Court rather then saying Dred Scott can't sue becuase of his color. So in terms of the Dred Scott case, it is very clear that Douglas would be against Dred Scott suing for his freedom, while Lincoln was more accepting of it.

To me, I feel that the Lincoln-Douglas debates were more challenging then the 2008 debates going on now. Reason being, the candidates now are given a minute or two to answer a question given to them. The answers given usually sound very rehearsed and sound like something they made up just to please the crowd to get them to vote for them.
With the Lincoln-Douglas debates I feel they spoke more from what they really wanted America to be rather then just saying what the people wanted to hear. Also, they had a longer amount of time to talk so they had to have the skill to speak very well and also be able to transition from one subject to another.
Overall, I think the debates back then were more challenging and better.

Link to Speeches

Demographics of San Diego

Describe questions you have regarding demographics

A question I have regarding demographics of the US is why does it seem there are more other nationalities but when you look at a demographics sites with demographics and statistics it says that race only makes up about 16% or less. To me, this seems like such a low number because I see so many different races more so then white people but the demographics sites say that the dominant race is the white race. At times, it seems to me that other races are more dominant then the white race.

I also noticed today while on American Fact Finder that people living along the coast, closer to the beach, make more then the average American. I saw that in Point Loma families made at least $20,00 dollars more then a family living inland. I can kind of understand how they would need more money to live along the coast because living near the beach can be more expensive then living inland but what I want to know is what are these families jobs where they are making so much money?

Explain how a particular demographic may be impacted by—or could impact—the election of one of the candidates for President.

I feel that the issue of abortion will have an effect on who they will vote for in this coming election. I know that McCain is opposed to abortion unless having to do with incest or rape and I feel that women will be against that. I feel that women will think that it is a woman's right to decide if they want to have the baby or not but I feel that sometimes women do take advantage of being able to have an abortion. I have heard stories of women using abortion as a form of birth control, having up to four abortions in their life. I know that not all women do that but I think that women will vote for at least being able to have the comfort of having an abortion if they need to, therefore swaying their vote to the candidate who is for abortion.

Abortion Article
Demographics of San Diego

Civil Rights After the Civil War

After slavery was abolished in 1865, colored Americans had their freedom but were still discriminated against
It seems that when slavery was discarded, the blacks were still treated unfairly. They had to use separate bathrooms from the white, attend different school from the whites, and were even considered the very bottom of a racial hierarchy. This is confusing to me because the time the Declaration of Independence was around so it made me think is this Constitutional? It states in the Deceleration of Independence “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,”. Did this not apply to the colored Americans?
(Colored Only Hotel)--->
Even when the blacks fought for the US they were still treated unfairly. AN excerpt from a letter from James Henry Gooding, a black soldier, to president Lincoln stated, “On the 6th of the last month, the paymaster of the department informed us that if we would decide to receive the sum of $10 per month, he would come and pay us that sum, but that, on the sitting of Congress, the regiment would, in his opinion, be allowed the other $3” He goes on to talk about how white soldiers were paid $10 plus $3.50 for clothing expenses. A question that pops into my head as well as in James’s letter is, were they soldiers or were they laborers?
In 1964 the 24th amendment abolished the poll tax which was instituted to make it harder for poor coloreds to vote. This was good progress for blacks trying to achieve equality.
The day all discrimination was legally prohibited was July 2, 1964 when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, outlawing segregation in schools, public places, and employment.
(The Civil Rights Act of 1964 below)
A part in the Civil Rights Act that I find especially important was an excerpt that talks about how blacks are entitled to the same education as the whites "SEC. 402. The Commissioner shall conduct a survey and make a report to the President and the Congress, within two years of the enactment of this title, concerning the lack of availability of equal educational opportunities for individuals by reason of race, color, religion, or national origin in public educational institutions at all levels in the United States, its territories and possessions, and the District of Columbia."
Before the Civil Rights Act, coloreds went to school separate from whites, which meant a poorer education for the coloreds, which was bad because education was and still is extremely powerful. If you wish to read more about school segregation you should read Jasmine Bell’s blog.
I think that a good education was and still is the most important thing in someone's life especially in today's society. Without an education you would not be able to survive, you would not be able to get a job which means no money which means no materials to assist you in living.
The Civil Rights did not just change life for blacks it helped mold how all society is today.

"Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964."

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). 3 Oct. 2008 .

"The Declaration of Independence : full text."

Founding Fathers quotes, Bible and Abortion, Free Patriotic Music Downloads, Homeschooling. 3 Oct. 2008 .

"Letter to Pres. Lincoln from James Henry Gooding."

The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War. 3 Oct. 2008 .