Election Day
Tuesday was election day, as I’m sure almost everyone knows. Like a lot of people I didn’t vote, because I recently moved from Saratoga to Guilderland and have yet to change my registration. Being registered to vote in Saratoga and receiving the political campaigning news for Guilderland I didn’t feel that I knew enough about the different candidates or their platforms to make an informed decision.
After the polls closed I was talking to my mother and it turns out that the new govenmental system that was proposed for Saratoga lost. Apparently what had happened was the current mayor was trying to increase the amount of power the position receives. The position was planned to be promoted from a part time to full time mayoral position and receive an increase in salary as well. In addition, the mayor was supposed to be able to the different city offices that are currently elected by the residents. Needless to say a lot of people were upset by the proposed change. It was very poorly thought out and the details were put together very last minute in time for the election. Many people felt as though this proposed change was a an attempt to take away their right to choose their city officals. The attempt failed.
Julie Lindquist piece
When reading the Julie Lindquist piece I found that I could relate to everything she was saying due to the fact that I have worked in the restaurant/bar business for over 5 years now. She made some interesting observations about the nature of the business that one doesn’t really think about until after someone else points them out & then you become much more aware of those points. Primarily like how you can play an active role in conversations taking place or you can choose to remain an observer . The other idea that I could easily identify with came in the story of Jack, a regular at the bar. He being a long standing client had a seat around the bar which had come to be known as “his”. What’s more, Jack did not sit at his place at the bar he would stand, and if someone else were occupying his place they would relinquish it upon his arrival. This story reminded me of a regular in the Saratoga TGI Fridays were I worked for about 6 months before transfering to the Albany store. There was a older man who would come in for lunch on week days. His name was Georgio. He would hobble into the restaurant with his cane and sit at the same bar stool everyday. If his seat were occupied or if none of the female bartenders were working that day, he would leave and go to Applebee’s down the street instead.
Although I found the piece easy to read and identifiable, I felt that she never accomplished her goal. The title of the piece is Class Identity and the Politics of Dissent: The Culture of Argument in a Chicago Neighborhood Bar. She explains at the beginning of the piece that she made a clear observation about people of different classes and how a restaurant/bar works as a melting pot where they all can come together. However, I don’t feel that she ever really made this point through the descriptions in the rest of the piece. She stated her main focal point in the introduction of her piece, established her intended dialogue and then abandonned that idea entirely.
Laura Returns to Port Charles
Actress Genie Francis and her character Laura have returned to Port Charles, the setting of the ABC Soap Opera General Hospital. The reunion of Luke, played by actor Tony Geary, and Laura happened not a week ago. Genie Francis originally left the show when her contract expired many years ago, and while negotiating a new one was told there was not enough money in the show’s budget to meet her demands. As opposed to recasting the character The Powers That Be, as soap fans refer to the writers, wrote Laura into a catatonic state causing her to be locked away in an institution.
As a soap fan, and more specifically a viewer of General Hospital, I understand and respect how significant Francis’ return to the show is. However, the reunion of the couple I was most excited about is Sam McCall and Jason Morgan. When actress Kelly Monaco, who plays Sam, came to General Hospital from another soap she was paired with almost every leading man on the show, and by accident was paired with Steve Burton, who plays Jason. They have become the best couple on the show, and TPTB should never have split them up to begin.
The Achievement of Desire – Richard Rodriguez
I think the reason so many of us were able to relate to this piece is because it deals with an era in the narrators life that we are all experiencing currently. Obviously the major difference is that he is a grown man looking back and reflecting on the different influences around him, and his family life during this time period. At the end of the piece I wasn’t really sure if the author was trying to make a specific point or pass on learned wisdom. Of course as an author there is always a point that your trying to convey, but I feel as though this is a text that requires more than one reading to fully grasp the message.
If others enjoyed this passage, or found it an easy read and are looking for something similar a great short novel is The Perks of Being a Wallflower. It’s a great book about the experiences of a teenage boy, the story beings as he starts high school and progress as he approaches graduation. We meet his family, and friends. The entire story is told through a series of letters, almost the way The Diary of Anne Frank would read. The difference is that these are letters that this character writes routinely to a third party we never meet, as opposed to diary entries. Whats really special about the book is that the reader is able to learn just as much about all the major characters as in any other traditional novel.
Is there such a thing as separation of the powers?
Our country was founded on the ideas of several French philosophers. One of the major prinicples being the separation of powers over three distinct and different branches so that one might not have too much control. We ventured one step further dividing governmental power into the local, state, and federal levels. What I wonder is whether or not this system we’ve created actually exsists in practice. Many major political issues have first appeared on the state level and progressed to the national/federal level. Two of the biggest over the course of history were probably the abolition of slavery and the right of women to vote. More recently we have seen similar trends for the rights of same sex couples to marry. Is stem cells research the next?
Michael J. Fox has done much for the medical world to raise awareness of Parkinson’s Disease, and other related illnesses, and to raise funds to cure these diesases since his diagnosis with Young Onset Parkinson’s. He continues to do so to this day, even though his condition is clearly worsening. He has been campaigning in favor of stem cell research since before G.W. Bush left Texas for the White House. His credibility derives from the fact that he is not simply a celebrity out to use his face for charity, nor is he a politican looking to win a percentage of the vote. He is credible because he is a victim who has to live on a daily basis suffering from the ailments of Parkinson’s. For him finding a cure isn’t simply the humane thing to do; a cure will benefit his health, the lives of his children, and the lives of all the other families that face these diseases everyday.
NY Yankees’ Cory Lidle Dies Unexpectedly
The first thing I heard when I got to work tonight was “Our pitchers dead” from one of my co-workers. My response was what is she talking about. I had yet to see the news reports about the Yankees’ pitcher. Cory Lidle had apparently been piloting a small private jet, registered in his name, which had crashed into the side of a building in Manhattan. His body had yet to be found, but he was presumed dead.
The knee jerk reaction is of course could it have been terrorism. Homeland Security and the Pentagon released statements to the contrary. Another co-worker made, what I thought was an interesting speculation. She wondered if it was a deliberate action on Lidle’s part after the Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs on Saturday. Although either idea seems a bit extreme for the situation, I honestly think it was a matter either of mechanical malfunction or pilot error that resulted in an unfortunate and fatal accident.
What I Want My Words to do to You
I found the film, What I Want My Words to do to You, very interesting. Interesting may not be the right word. I thought the film provides an eye opening experience for the otherwise ignorant public. Most people, like I did before viewing the film, are under the impression that anyone who is locked away in a maximum security prison is a hardened criminal, who cannot be trusted to co-exist in a civilized society.
As we learn very quickly this preconceived idea is incorrect. Obviously we cannot learn everything about these women or why they are in the position they are now through such a short film, but what we learn is that these people are not inhumane. They are women who possess the same emotions we do: joy, love, sadness, hurt, regret/remorse, and sorrow.
The film reminds me of the motion picture Max, starring John Cusack, in that it offers a new perspective on a specific subject that the vast majority of people don’t want to consider could be a reality because it is too uncomfortable. Max is set in post-WWI Germany, during a time when an aspiring painter cultivated a love for the classical periods, but was also encouraged as a politcal public speaker by the Nazi Regime. The artist’s name was Adolf Hitler. Although some of the characters in the film are ficticous, there is a strong historical influence/accuracy. As we all know how the story ends, at the end of the movie, you can help but ask what if he chose to continue painting? Would Hitler have grown to hate the followers of the Jewish faith, and discredit all modern art and literature?
Harvard Cancels Early Admissions Program
Last week Harvard University (located in Cambridge, Massachusetts), announced that they would be discontinuing the early admissions process beginning with the incoming freshmen of 2008. The article Harvard to end early admissions program on the MSNBC website explains that the University administration has noticed that the process tends to place applicants of low-income or minority backgrounds at a disadvantage. They hope that by announcing the change this quickly will cause other leading colleges and universities reconsider their policies as well.
In the article they mention schools like Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Columbia University and Brown University. With the exception of MIT which neighbors Harvard, all other schools named were also Ivy Leagues but are located to far away, geographically, for this to have a dramatic effect so quickly.
I attended my first to years of college at the other neighboring school, Boston University. Although I am a few years removed from that experience and the admissions process experience I do very strongly remember the high competition between Harvard, BU, and MIT. Over the summer between my two years at BU, Harvard announced that they were raising the tuition costs. The “sticker price” raised from $38K of the previous year to $42K. Not 24 hours later, Boston University, and MIT, had both announced raises in their tuition costs. Both schools, whose tuition had been priced at $38K were raising to match Harvard’s cost to the penny.
If any schools are to be effected by this decision I wouldn’t anticipate seeing in the other Ivy Leagues, but in the policies of the two neighbors along the Charles River.
Liar’s Club
When I began reading The Liar’s Club excerpt I expected the story to be about how the author/narrator, and her family, dealt with the effects of her father’s stroke.
As explained to the reader with great description the way an event like that impacts a family is extremely profound. We learned about what it is like to have to care for a full grown adult as if they were a newborn baby: feeding, clothing, changing sheets, etc. What amazed me is even the help of a medical aid didn’t seem to relieve the family, particularly the mother, of some of the burden’s of such an overwhelming feat.
As a reader, I expected the story to continue on this path of how the father’s stroke effected the family, but to turn the focus onto the financial ramifications. One of the father’s former commanding officers hears the news and comes to visit. During his visit he expains to the mother how, as of late, he’s been able to help familys receive military funding for their medical bills if whatever the problem occurred as a result of their service. I assumed that the rest of the story was going to be about the family’s fight with the military in search of aid with the medical bills.
I was wrong. The story took a very unexpected shift from focusing around the father’s condition, to a life-long secret the mother had been keeping from her children. Overall I think it was this twist in the storyline that was most interesting.
Woman Accused of MySpace Hit
I was on the MSNBC website checking out the daily news and this story jumped out at me: Woman accused of attempting MySpace hit.
I think the reason that I found this interesting had nothing to do with the tabloid-esque sort of news story that it is, but because My Space has become the AOL Instant Messenger of the previous generation. I remember the stories of the older preditors that used to lerk online for young impressionable children and pretend to be a peer and arrange a meeting. I remember having parents warn us not to talk to anyone we didn’t know because through that type of communication there is now way to tell if someone actually is who they claim they are.
Has My Space replaced AOL IM in the newer, more advanced generation of internet technology, as a place for sexual preditors? I can’t help but wonder and worry. I have a 16 year old sister who lives on her My Space page, that is when she’s not at rowing practice. Do I need to fear for her the same way my parents used to worry about me, and my friends? I can’t help but question then how advanced is this new technology really, if we’re experiencing the same security and privacy risks repeatedly? Is it really the convience that it is claimed to be?
Kristin Jones' ENG 105 Blog 