Me

Birth order in my case doesn’t really apply to me. As an only child, I possess some of the characteristics of the first born child.  Some of the same characteristics are; perfectionists, highly motivated to achieve success, leader, responsible, and center of attention.  I have to admit that I feel as I possess these characteristics. I am a perfectionist when it comes to the way projects are done. I have to plan all of the details out and they have to go as planned or I get very angry. In my life of course I want to achieve success on everything I do, but isn’t that true for everyone? I can be a leader in some of the activities I take part in. Truthfully I am terrified of death to be a leader and be in charge, but I now I know that I can overcome that. Now being the cheer captain that has broken the shell down. Yes I love to be the center of attention when I am at home mainly. In public I want to blend in and not stand out. Yes, I will speak my mind when necessary but otherwise I stay quiet.

                My parental characteristics are split down the middle on where I get them from either my mom or dad. My mom has passed down her caring and loving heart to help people, OCD on cleaning things, and a bad shopping habit. On the other hand, from my dad I get my anger issues, stubbornness and determination.  From these characteristics I have learned to become a well-rounded person.

                Where I have grown up, everybody knows everybody and if you need a helping hand your neighbor or community is right there to help you. I think that growing up in a small town has made me realize how lucky I am with my life. This had shaped me as a person where if someone is in need you help them out. Everybody knows your name and says hello to you when you see them. I think that is a great thing to grow up with, it shows support and love in the community. Not everyone is lucky enough to grow up in a small loving community.

                I think that heredity goes back to my parental characters. Each parent passes down certain traits and characteristics through genes, which in then we pass down to our kids if we have kids in our life.

                In conclusion, birth order to me doesn’t really matter. As an only child my life is different than others with siblings.  I tend to be a perfectionist and the center of attention of my family. These are ones that I feel that I possess the most as mentioned above. I get characteristics from both my parents and they are about equal but opposite.  I have learned to control my anger that I hold inside of me. By being a CNA I have noticed that my loving heart and caring has come out a lot more than usual. 

Veteran's Blog

I am supposed to be answering the question what are your thoughts on murder charges during war.  My thoughts are if we are going into war and then going to get charged on murder charges, then we should not even have guns when they go into war.  This makes me irate. Our men are willing going over there and fight for our country.  I would like to see all those office workers and people who don’t know what these men and women do for our country. They are risking their lives for us! Without weapons they would be exposed and wouldn’t have a chance.  I think if they are willing to go over there and fight for us then we shouldn’t be complaining and making charges like this on our soldiers. When it says citizenship is a duty, not a privilege, I think that is completely false. When you are born in the United State you automatically become a citizen. If you weren’t you take classes and become a citizen of the United States.  Yes we do have a duty to vote and get your word out on the elections, but that doesn’t mean it is a duty. I think that it is up to each person whether they want to vote or not.  Citizenship is a privilege.  We are very lucky in the United States that everyone has citizenship. In other countries those people are not as lucky as we are.  Yes I think that we need to keep up with our citizenship and put some back into the country.

Racism

             The first article that we had to read was titled “Is Racism a Western Idea?” In my eyes, racism has always been around; it just might not have always been called that. When we think of racism, we think of judging people by the color of their skin. Even by judging people by their skin is very wrong. But, in the western country not only did they judge people of their color of their skin but, their religion or anything they could find wrong with a person. They would punish or hurt anyone that was different. I know we are all humans and we all make mistakes. We all judge people at some points of our lives, whether you want to or not. We make think that we will never judge people, but we say that but we don’t even realize that that we are judging someone. We may say something that we don’t think is offensive or mean but, in reality, that could have crushed the other person you said it too. But, once you start thinking about what you had said, you realize that it was the worst thing you could have said to someone. This should make you feel terrible, and try not to do that again.

                The second article we had to read was “How Racist are We.” This article goes on talking about how everyone in the world today is racist, whether we like to think it or not. The one thing in this article that really caught my attention was the study of the preschoolers. Rebecca Bigler, the one who conducted this experiment, wanted to see if human bias was part of being racist. In her experiment, she gave some of the kids red shirts and some blue. As the days went on, kids from each group were comparing and picking out difference in each other. Kids from both the red and blue shirts thought that their group should be superior, and is better than the other group. This happened from kids wearing different shirts! How does this experiment show about our world today? We all think that whatever race you are is the best. Everyone wants to be the best at everything. This means doing whatever it takes to get there. That means hurting other peoples feeling because they are different than you, just because you want to be on top. This to me is just ridiculous! What is our world coming too? I don’t know how some people can be so bias. What has the other race done to you? If anything we should feel terrible on how we have treated other races. It goes back, from Native Americans, to Blacks, Chinese, and many others. We need to put an end to this right away.

The third and final article we read wad titled. “Cultural Bias for Racism.” In today’s world everyone has a source to get media, whether it’s by phone, computer, TV, or any other device. Today in our media everyone is very stereotypical. Not to just blacks or any other race too whites too. Our media is shaping the way we look at ourselves and at others too. You see commercials where the girls are all skinny and white. Then you start judging yourself, saying why I am not skinny. Then when we do see someone that is skinny deep down inside you are judging them. Thinking how did that person deserve to be skinny and I’m not? Our culture also is to blame for racism.  America tries to be the best at everything it does. Whether that’s helping other countries or just the way we run our country. I do think some people have changed now that we have a black president. Some people might have changed their mind on how if he can become president anyone can if you set your mind to it.  I think it was a great thing that we have a black president. But, on the other hand, some people oppose this. They think that the color of their skin is going to make the whole decision on whether they are good or bad, or smart or not.

Why is it that we judge others? I have been thinking of the question for a while. I got to thinking after reading these articles, that in the end we are all the same. No matter what, it doesn’t matter the color of your skin or the religion that you practice we are all the same. Why do some people have to be so cruel and evil towards others? Is there life so bad that they have to go around making other feel worse, so they can feel better about themselves?  To think of that it makes me sick. In my eyes we should not judge people on what they look like. What would happen if you put yourself in their shoes for a day? Say that would happen where you trades lives with an African American. You would probably get nasty stares and those secrets between people when you know they are talking about you. How would that make you feel? If I were in those shoes, I would feel absolutely terrible. I would think why does everyone hate me and judge me when I have done nothing wrong. We also are racist about religions. People think that Christianity has to be the number one religion. But, in the big picture, all religions are about one thing, God. So why go and punish someone for thinking other things than you. We also treat and say things about atheists. Like, they are going to hell and they will never make it to heaven. Well, that is wrong. God loves each and every one of us no matter what. So next time you go out, don’t think about judging or making comments. If everyone could just see everyone equal, we wouldn’t have to go through this entire feeling like you are not good enough or that your race is nothing and would rather be gone and forgotten. I think we all need to reflect back on ourselves and make a difference and stop racism.

Welfare

Welfare can be both a blessing and a curse. Welfare in my eyes causes great benefits. Welfare can help unborn children and young children.  The WIK office can help unborn children and their mothers. The WIK office will provide expecting mothers with credit cards with around fifty dollars to spend on groceries. I think this can be very beneficial because groceries can be very expensive. This helps the child grow and help their future as a young adult. Welfare also helps unemployed people get back on their feet. Bill Clinton doesn’t agree with welfare. I think that if we didn’t have welfare we would have even more unemployed people.  I think we need to keep welfare.  Bill Clinton thinks that if we keep welfare people will stay lazy and won’t want to work. I think that is not true. I think that is stereotypical of people on welfare.  When most people think of welfare, they think the people are lazy and don’t want to work. Well that is not true, some people on welfare cannot work.  We cannot punish these people just because they can’t work. They still need help and need money. We need to keep welfare around today.

Can You be Civil?

In Lord of the Flies, there are several kids stuck on an island, after their plane crashes. At first they are civil and everything is ok. But, Jack, the oldest and manlier, decides he doesn’t like the way Ralph is running the island. So he and some others take off to form another group. This is like society because some people do not like the way our government runs the country, so they try and set up their own group. As the book goes on, there is little to no structure going on.  Soon the boys turn on each other and the savages in you come out.  What would have happened if there would have been girls on the island when the plane crashed? I think if there would have been girls on the island when the plane crashed, they would have kept everyone in line and civil.  Girls have different wiring in their brains than guys. Guys think about the small things first not the big picture. Girls come up with a plan before they start a project. That Is why, if this would have been girls on the island, the book would have been completely opposite. The girls would have made sure everyone is in order and nothing gets out of line.  Girls try to stay as civil as possible and not start anything. I think that girls are more likely to stay civil than guys. Girls we can talk things out that aren’t going to plan, as guys they just resort to war and violence to solve their problems.  That is why our world is made up with girls and guys, because if it wasn’t for the girls keeping the boys in line, we would have mass chaos, just like the book. So in our life we need to stay civil not matter what.

28th Amendment

For my amendment, I would propose to add the 28^th amendment would be to lower the drinking age to 18. Our legal smoking age is 18 also so why not make the drinking age the same. 70 and 80 countries in the world right now have the legal drinking age at the age of 18. Eighteen is our legal age where you become an adult, so we should have the right to make decisions about drinking alcohol or not.  Most people who drink before 21 feel like rebels and want to break the law. This would diminish the thrill of breaking the law. When the repeal of alcohol by the 21^st amendment, allowed each state to set its own laws on alcohol; the Supreme Court made the states that lowered their drinking age to rise the age back to 21. I believe that we should lower the national drinking age to 18. This could possibly stop some of the breaking of the laws.

1. Stupid
2. Nothing, I didn't know what to expect
3. When no one knew what was going on
4. I didn't I just sat there
5. It made me angry and just didn't want to participate
6. Yes because every culture has different ways and rules that you have to follow
7. Yes because it will be mass chaos and fighting
8. Everyone is differnet and takes rules different ways

Barnga Blog

26 Amendment

• The 26 Amendments guarantees anyone at the age of eighteen to vote.
• The amendment today makes sure that everyone in the country has the right to vote and have a say on what is going on in our government.
• The issue today that we have with voting is that younger people (18-24) don't vote. This is an issue because our population consist of many younger people. They think that their vote doesn't count, but it does.

27 Amendment

• The 27 Amendment regulates the pay of the senators and representatives until the election of new representatives.
• The amendment today makes sure that people in congress gets paid fairly. This amendment makes sure that people running for congress can not vote for themselves so they can get a pay raise.
• This amendment took 200 years to be ratified. Only six states ratified this amendment and you need 11 to pass the amendment.

Bacha Bazi

Bacha Bazi is a terrible thing that is going on in Afghanistan right now. Afghanistan leaders and armed forces have been raping boys, and the United States has been told not to interfere with what is going on. I think this is very terrible on both parts. I think that we need to stop what is going on to these young boys. The United States would never let this happen on US soil, so why let it happen elsewhere when we can prevent it. I think we should get up camps for boys who have been abused. We should also be arresting the officers that are abusing the boys. Also, the Afghanistan’s should know better not to do this to boys. You as a person how could you even get yourself to do that to someone else. What if you put yourself in their shoes? How would you like being rapped? You wouldn’t like it. You would want the US to stop these people from doing this wouldn’t you? This is a custom that shouldn’t be a custom. There is no point and is very wrong. I think that the Afghanistan officers are brainwashing the boys to think this is the right thing to do and it’s ok that they are doing bad things to them. I think we need to step in and teach them not to do this.   

Dear Aunt,

Dear Aunt,

                I have some bad news for you. Our plane crashed and we are stranded on an island with no adults. I have made some new friends, Jack, Ralph, and Simon. Jack is the oldest boy on the island. He also is very bossy and tries to be the leader of the group. No one really likes him. He is also very wild and wants no one to be over him and he thinks he makes all of the rules and we must follow him. Ralph is one of the nicer boys. He is the first on I met on the island. He is very calm and smart. He is trying to get everyone in a group and try and figure out how to be rescued in a civilized manner. Simon is very quiet and doesn’t really talk that much. He just goes along with what everyone is saying and tries to be friends with everyone and doesn’t want to start fights. Ralph also found a conch; he used this to get everyone to come to a certain place when we hear the sound. This is very helpful because we know where to go if we are lost. I have also noticed there is a beast in men. It scares me to death knowing that some of us can’t control the anger in each of us. I hope that we can all contain the beast within. We also started fires. We are using these fires to keep us warm, and maybe other people will see the smoke or flames and come rescue us. We are hoping that someone will come rescue us soon so we can all get back to our normal life.

                With love, Piggy

Macro vs. Micro

In our world we have the big picture and the not so big picture. Right now in high school it’s all about the not so big picture, or microsociology. Microsociology is defined the social interaction between a small group. In my life right now it’s all about fitting in and being in the right group. You may feel if you are not in the popular group, you are a loser and don’t fit in. Just like in the short video we watched, we had to pick out each individual that we would let go and not save. If you think about how many people in the world there are millions of people.  So letting a few people go wouldn’t be such a big deal in macrosociology. Macrosociology is the study on a large scale, such as a city. Macrosociology is related to high school as once you graduate you are just one of the millions of people in the world. When you thought that you weren’t popular, it wasn’t a big deal and it doesn’t even matter in the real world. In high school we don’t always see the big picture and how it will affect our lives. In Langford we are so sheltered and don’t really know what the real life really is. Not every day do we have shootings or killings? In Macrosociology we view how the different huge groups interact.

Step into New Shoes

       In today’s world most everyone thinks about themselves, not about anyone else. This has become a major problem in our world; we fight for power and to always be right. We as American’s could avoid some of the fights we get into. Just maybe there is one person that can look beyond his or her own selfish way, we could avoid some conflict. The world today, no one wants to admit they are wrong, or apologize for something that they have done. Let’s put yourself into a situation where you can look either way on the situation. You are a cop in Aberdeen; you arrest a guy stealing groceries. As the cop you see this as a crime and a wrong doing and want to punish this person for stealing. But, if you take a second and go into the other guy’s shoes, you may find out the motive why he’s stealing. The guy may have a family at home that he is trying to provide for, or he has a loved one that has nothing and wants to give something to them. I’m not saying stealing is the right thing to do; we just never take the time look at both sides of the story that is presented.  If we could all just take a second to look at both sides of the story our perspective might change and the outcome of the situation could change. I agree with Sam Richards, we all need to take a step back in our life, when something goes wrong or an argument comes up why not look and find out the cause on the other side, rather than blaming and not taking blame. I feel that some of us are afraid to take the blame that it will hurt our reputation. But if you really look at it you are the one to blame for being selfish and not helping other people out because you are too caught up in your own world. We all need to step out of our shoes and face all of our problems in a new perspective.