Yeka87's Weblog

The Green – Collar Solution

katia — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 18:14:17 +0000

The article persuades the public to be more concern about our environment. It is an interview of Van Jones who is a green environmentalist. His topic is concentrated on poor neighborhoods in West Oakland, California. The article talks about how life can be changed and improved for people in poverty. Jones tells an experiment that show how people in poverty do not care about environment because they are barely surviving themselves. As I read the article I got the filling that this person is interesting and funny, but he is serious in his work. His idea involves poverty level population and polar bears. To run green economy it takes a lot of work especially blue-collar work force. He is targeting those people who do not have college education and desperate for work, and instead of labeling blue-collar the label is green-collar. His proposition is that young black people would work for green organization and then they would own their own companies that make solar panel, or a wind farm. All this is a good plan more energy that would not pollute our earth and more time for polar bears to adjust for a warmer climate. Is there better solution then this one that is proposed by van Jones? Only if we could make this solution a reality our world would be much cleaner.

Failing Schools Strain to Meet No Child Law

katia — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 18:13:59 +0000

A No Child Left behind Law is failing to succeed what it have design to do. The children are failing in schools. Listen to this statistics, “7 in 100 students, 4 in 100 students” could pass the exit exam in Los Angeles High Schools. For example if we have a school about seven hundred students and use this ration, only 28 to 49 students would graduate high school. Such schools only have five years to improve and if they do not then government owns that school. The strategy some schools came up with is to have fewer students in school so teachers can give more attention to each individual. For example, Mrs. Gonzalo has a son who was failing at Algebra; the teacher would not help the student, but just call him “slow.” This shows that public schools do not always have the best teachers who would sacrifice their own time to make sure their students succeed. Mrs. Gonzalo son did not improve until she got him private tutor to improve her son skills in algebra. How can those parents afford a teacher that can actually teach their kids something; moreover, if the family barely have money to put food on their table? No wonder there is such a low rate of passing exit exams. The most important in schools are teachers without good teachers schools would not succeed.

Children Health: A Vital Vote Today

katia — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 18:13:42 +0000

On the same page as the blog, “Putting Poor Children Second” a column that is devoted to editor has four letters that criticize an issue on children’s health. The letters that are written are concern with future of America. The first letter written by Corinne Kyriacou said, “I implore those policy makers who continue to be blinded by dangerous and erroneous assumptions to remember that their override vote on Thursday is a vote for America’s future.” We need more people who care about our country. Such individuals make our world a better place. The author of this letter uses straw man fallacy to make this issue more important. In the other letter author uses fallacy of Ad Hominem to show that his point of view is better then his opponent. His argument is that people who do not have “children with chronic high cost conditions,” that those people are majority since S-chip are not expended to cover more children. I would love to hear your opinion on the issue of S-chip. If you want the President Bush to sign the child health bill what would you propose people should try to do to change the mind of the president?

Putting Poor Children Second

katia — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 18:13:26 +0000

An article in The New York Times under the editorial section it is dedicated to the children. The article that I found interesting was “Putting Poor Children Second.” The article talks about that President is finding ways to cut medicine for poor children. The message that the author of this article is trying to say is to stop Mr. Bush to waste money for his ideological priorities. The author of this article uses some fallacies to create more dramatic effect on the readers. The fallacies that he uses are called straw man or fallacy of extension by showing exaggerated reasons for President Bush’s justification of vetoing bills. If you had a chance to have a dinner with the President Bush would you bring up the topic of Medicare for poor children? In my geography class the teacher told us to name anyone who you would wanted to have invited for a dinner, and one of the students said President Bush so she could give him a piece of her mind. If I would have gotten a dinner with the president I would talk about poor children and all children in general because they are our future generation.

Report Recounts Horrors of Youth Boot Camps

katia — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 18:13:05 +0000

An Article in The New York Times brought my attention to youth boot camps. After reading the article I felt revulsion toward those people who do not straighten out troubled teenagers but tormented them. The elements that were involved in this torture were starvation, eating their own vomit, and hiking for many miles a day. These teenagers tried to find a way to survive. One of the boys ate dirt because he had no food or water. These boys couldn’t contact their parents and tell them what was going on in the boot camp and, anyway, some parents would not believe their children, especially those children who lost the trust in their parent’s eyes.

The interesting thing is that those people who are in charge of the boot camp got away with what they did. For example, Mr. Henry, who was involved in the homicide only got three years of probation and community service. This is a real problem. Can you develop a proposal which would eliminate people who torture boys in boot camp? In my opinion the government should take over these camps or camps should be inspected time to time. I believe in education and my proposal is that people who work with trouble children should have a degree in child development. For example, you would not give your dog to the trainer who would treat the dog shoddily and would not even teach your dog to sit.

Student, 14, Shoot 4 and kills Himself in Cleveland School

katia — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 18:12:21 +0000

A fourteen year old boy shot two students and two teachers in Cleveland High School. The thing I do not understand is why such a young person already has so much hatred. In The New York Times article it said, that Coon got a suspension that week and the two teachers that he shot could have been involved in his suspension. One of the students witnessed Coon screaming “Shut up, Shut up; I hate this school” this phrase does express a lot of hate and especially toward the school. At the end, the student killed himself after injuring four people.

This article also touches the issue of security. Only if the metal detector was working, none of the injuries to the students and teachers would happen. In the article, this school was described as one of the best. Students and parents are to pass an interview to get into this school.Mr. Charney, a teacher at Cleveland High School said, “I taught for 32 years, and this was calmest school I ever taught in.”The article points out those students were well behaved and there was security, but still such a tragedy has happened. What would you predict will happen to this school in terms of security? In my opinion after the shooting, parents will demand more security and working metal detectors.

When Officers Debate About the War

katia — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 18:12:04 +0000

To bad everything cannot be solved with peace. That is why the mankind invented war, meaning settling an argument with weapons. Now United States is in somewhat state of war. In The New York Times in the editorial section there is letters on the topic “When Officers Debate About the War.” On of the letters that I am focusing on is written by Frederick A. Smith. He uses a reductive fallacy to make his point clear. He states that if people where braver we would of seen different outcomes from the war in Iraq. The fallacy is seen at the end of the letter when he states that young solders are not so experience that is why they die in such large quantities. There must be some other explanation to this problem.

Child Care, the Campaign issue That Isn’t

katia — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 18:10:33 +0000

The two letters are addressed for the Gail Collins who wrote an article “None Dare Call It Child Care.” Both letters agree with Collins that child care is an issue and the issue is not brought up during presidential campaign. Both writers have experience that children need their parents to spend time with their kids and stay home when a child is sick. But the world we are living in does not always allow us to do so. Parents have crazy hours and do not have many sick days to care for their children. There should be a better solution. What changes to child care issue would you recommend? I think new mothers should get more time from work and have more sick days. But people are preoccupied with hustle and bustle that they have little time left for their children. What I think should be done to eliminate this issue is every mother dream. If this issue would be raised up in presidential campaign something could be done.

An Internet Jihad Aims at U.S. Viewers

katia — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 21:51:06 +0000

Nowadays, people can not live without internet. Internet is used for shopping, entertainment, and chatting. To express an opinion people create blogs. In The New York Times a whole page is dedicated for an article about how internet creates groups of people in the United States who is against America. The though that internet is filled with so many negative and violent information makes us think twice if internet is a good thing after all. On the internet there is a video how to make a bomb and anyone can view it. And if we imagine that our teenagers would decide to make an experiment by making a bomb. Parents should protect their children from the negative and violent information.

Today, I heard a report on what is happening in Beslan; where a school was taken over by terrorist and terrorist killed over three-hundred students. On 5^th September, the school had their fist day of school and as a tradition all students would gather for an assembly. The horror that have happen on September 1^s, left some people with sad faces after the assembly. Mothers who lost their children came with a photo hidden in their clothing; children who did not experience the pain of being captured and tortured had a happy face. On this assembly there where many balloons and when one balloon popped and the kids stared to scream in mere moment they thought the horror of terrorism has came back. I am sure these kids would not think of making some explosive device because that is what killed their brothers and sisters. Sites as this one should be avoided since the information is now printed in the news paper. Now information on how to make a bomb is more known. I do not understand how people cannot tell bad from good. Bombs are dangerous there is no need for us to know how to make one. Even though, who made a video said he did not say go and make bomb but if information is available people would use it for fun or for evil purposes.

Generation Q

katia — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 22:38:10 +0000

What does Generation Q stands for? The answer is in The New York Times article “Generation Q.” Thomas L. Friedman wrote an article on how college students are not active toward changing our world for the better. He states in his article that Generation Q stands for Quiet Americans. With this article, we might argue because Friedman has generalized the students by saying that nowadays college students are more optimistic and idealistic. Also, he states that generation Q are not aware or do not care much about budget deficit: Social Security deficit and ecological deficit. I think that he should make a bigger study and use statistics for a change. He went to four different colleges that mostly are around in the same area; nevertheless, he did not use correct steps to draw such conclusion about our generation.

Truth Hurts

katia — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 02:44:57 +0000

Sometimes, when we know too much, it might hurt us. For example, secrets are one of the things that make us worry and generally people age faster. Journalists are braving people who bring truth to the public (most of the time). Some journalists take a lot risk to bring that truth. I think it is so because those people believe in truth. In Russia, the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which translates into New Newspaper, know a person who killed Anna Politkoskaya, a journalist. This investigation took about a year to at least find the ten people that were involved in this murder, yet no one knows who ordered this killing. I do not understand how it takes so much time to find the murderers because she is quite famous, she is a journalist; Also, I think the cause the unwanted information does not reach people is because the government is involved with the newspaper, generally, with a whole media. Even though it is said in The New York Newspaper in the article “Russian Journalist’s Killer Is Known, Editor Says” that Novaya Gazeta is independent, there still must be some leakage.