Teach for America

In class this past week, the topic of Teach for America was brought up. I knew only a little bit about this program, and after hearing both positive and negative comments about it, I wanted to learn more about it. According to Teach for Americas website their mission "is to build the movement to eliminate educational inequity by developing such leaders." Basically what TFA does is take recent college graduates, put them in urban and rural public schools, and have them teach for about two years.

Some of the positives of this program include new teachers who are eager and excited to teach in these schools. They bring fresh energy to the schools and are really committed to helping these kids. And probably even more importantly, TFA is doing something to try and help change our public school system that is failing. According to the TFA website, "8% of kids growing up in low-income communities graduate from college by age 2" which shows how much change is needed.

However, this program is definitely not perfect and not everyone agrees that it is doing that much. People argue that placing new college graduates into struggling classrooms is just a recipe for disaster. These teachers have no experience and are replacing teachers who have worked at the school for years. Whats your opinion on Teach for America? Comment below.

Violence Against Women Act

This week, I started reading about a new act called the Violence Against Women Act. This act would "authorize $659 million over 5 years for VAWA programs and include new protections for victims of domestic violence" according to this Huffington Post article. This act was supposed to be a bipartisan bill, and the Senate just passed it 78 to 22. Not surprisingly, senators who voted against the act were all Republican males. The question that I had right after I read this article was why would anyone vote against this bill, that would help countless people?

I found some sort of answer when reading a quote from a House Republican, Eric Cantor. He said, "We blocked the Violence Against Women Act because the Senate forced it on us without our consent. I'm sure women understand." It shocked me that any elected official could ever say something so horrible and just plain dumb. Hopefully, other Republicans in the House don't share this same view, and pass this crucial bill.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Referring to the Sandy Hook shooting, President Obama said, “That was the worst day of my presidency.” Today, I found myself looking at a photo the White House released of President Obama shooting a gun at Camp David. The photo was taken on August 4^th , 2012, so the fact that it just happened to be released February 2^nd, 2013, this photo seemed like a strange thing for the White House to release.

Was the White House trying to silence anti-gun control critics by showing President Obama is just like them? If that was the case, according to an article by the New York Times, which gave a quote by Chris Cox, the Chief Lobbyist for the National Rife Association, they failed. Mr. Cox said,  “But in his effort to pursue a political agenda, he apparently is willing to convince gun owners that he’s one of us, that he’s a Second Amendment supporter.” The question now is what is President Obamas political agenda. A gun control activist or a “Second Amendment supporter?”

I couldn’t find any definitive statements from President Obama addressing his exact viewpoints on gun control. Instead, I found statements like, “I will use all the powers of this office to help advance efforts aimed at preventing more tragedies (referring to recent mass shootings) like this” and “proposals (referring to gun control laws) that I then intend to push without delay.” President Obama’s quotes use vague language and his statements don’t seem very convincing. However, this picture released by the White House speaks much more then any of his previous statements in his various speeches and interviews. What does this picture say to you and do you think President Obama will take action on gun control based off his statements? 

Broken Promises

As I was scrolling through the New York Times website a Op-Ed piece caught my eye. This article by Andrew Rosenthal is titled, "Obama Administration Seems to Give Up on Closing Guantanamo." This really caught my attention because Obama made a widely known promise to close Guantanamo during his presidency. Not only has he NOT done this, according to Mr. Rosenthal, he has shut down the lone office in the state department that was working on "repatriating or resettling detainees held at Guantanamo.

I remember when the lawyer, David Grossman, who worked for a firm who represented detainees came to talk to our American Studies class. He discussed how it was nearly impossible for lawyers to talk to the prisoners because of how the United States workers there made the rules. And now the Obama Administration has completely closed down the one government worker who was trying to "help" the detainees. Now these people at Guantanamo Bay will have to find private lawyers to help them, which is often really costly.

I wonder if President Obama will go and do a complete reverse of some of his promises mentioned in his inauguration speech? It was only 4 years ago he promised to shut down Guantanamo Bay for good. What do you think- will President Obama keep his promises?

Do The Ends Justify The Means?

John F. Kennedy addressed the United States during the Cuban Missile Crisis by saying, “The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is that path of surrender, or submission.” But, what exactly is the “cost of freedom” for Americans? Must we preserve the basic values and principles on which the country was founded at all times? Or does it mean continuing to fight for your country no matter the cost as long as we never “surrender.” I will address those questions by analyzing this still from the movie, Zero Dark Thirty, which is an important contemporary artifact because it visually displays the question on if the ends justified the means in the United States War on Terror.

 This still shows Maya, the protagonist dressed plainly, in barren room with wooden walls and plastic chairs. The only decoration and color is a framed American flag, which her back is turned away from. At a first glance this still contradicts much of what the movie is assumed to be about: Americans fighting for their country by torturing, researching and finally capturing/killing Osama Bin Laden. Only when one delves deeper does the real question come out, how far and at what costs will these American CIA operatives go to capture Bin Laden and did the ends justify the means?

 David Grossman, a former lawyer, provided much needed representation to the Guantanamo Bay detainees. He spoke of the physiological harm that United States government officials would inflict on these detainees. While these methods of torture wouldn’t leave any physical marks- the signs of mental deterioration were clear. This brings back the question of how much will the United States pay to keep our freedom. Do these interrogation techniques even provide crucial information that would lead to success on the United States side?

 In the poem, Waiting For The Barbarians, it addresses that the “barbarians” are really serving as more of a solution to the problem, then the actual problem itself. It states, “Now what’s going to happen to us without barbarians? Those people were kind of a solution.” The “barbarians” in this poem are actually referring to the United States government officials and how they are the uncivilized, barbaric people. I believe this poem accurately displays how barbaric the United States government is because of how these detainees are locked up, with no court hearing, and tortured in many physical and physiological ways. These detainees are a way of showing the American people that the government is continuing to protect our freedoms by displaying that we have made progress in capturing the “bad guys.”

 A rich, happy, successful society all depends on one child who is enslaved and unhappy, locked up far away, according to the short story, The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas. But what about prisoners from far away countries, locked up, and tortured just to display to the American public that we fighting the War On Terror and protecting our freedoms? “They feel anger, outrage, impotence, despite all explanations,” says the narrator. Surely, people in the United States feel this way toward Guantanamo Bay but eventually they accept that in order to be “safe” and “happy” nothing can truly be done and move on. American citizens turn their back towards these detainees just like in the still how Maya has her back turned away from the flag. Maya seems that she is making a statement on how she feels about United States government use of torture to gain information. While the end result of the movie and real life was the same (Osama Bin Laden was killed), Maya truly seems to wonder if the ends justified the means in capturing Bin Laden. Have Americans truly paid the price for the cost of freedom this time?

To Catch Bin Laden

Over the winter break, I went to see the movie "Zero Dark Thirty." The movie was said to be a portrayal of the events leading up to the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden. It mainly followed the work of a young women in the CIA who spends 8 years in Pakistan trying to find bin Laden. Personally, I thought the movie was really entertaining and fast paced, and the overall acting was pretty quality. However, I watched the movie knowing that the events in the movie were not exactly the same as how they happened in real life or the characters who were portraying real people. What really struck me about the movie, was that the opening scene was an almost black screen with the words along the lines of these events actually happened.

In class we have been talking a lot about the difference between "fiction" and "non-fiction" and how some movies, books, etc. bend the lines in what is true and what is not. I believe "Zero Dark Thirty" does this as well. The majority of the events actually happened from the bombing of a Marriott hotel to the raid on Osama Bin Ladens house. However, how the events actually played out were different from the movie. This could be because a movies main job is to provide entertainment and sometimes things need to be made more exciting then how they actually happened. I thought this movie was really well directed but some others disagree. What do you think? Do you think the movie was an accurate portrayl of the events?

Enough is Enough Part 2

Only two weeks ago, I wrote a blog post called, "Enough is Enough" about the murder-suicide of Jovan Belcher and his girlfriend Kasandra Perkins and how there is a need for stricter gun control laws. I discussed how politicians have mainly stayed away from this controversial topic probably because they are worried about their own reelection. However, this past Thursday, another horrible and tragic event occurred at a school in Connecticut. A 20 year old man entered Sandy Hook Elementary school and murdered 12 little girls and 8 little boys all of the ages six through seven. The gunman also killed his own mother, as well as seven other adults including the school principal, psychologist, and teachers. While it is still early for all of the facts of exactly what happened, the nation is now being brought back to the debate of gun control.

The democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein from California has been the first senator since the tragedy to present a bill for immediate action against assault weapons. According to the article on the Huffington Post the bill to be presented to Congress, "will ban the sale, transfer, importation, and possession" of military-style assault weapons, and "ban the sale of clips of more then ten bullets." I agree with Senator Feinstein and the immediate need to ban military style assault weapons. United States citizens do not need these types of weapons, even if they argue the Second Amendment allows them to bare arms.

It is hard to describe just how horrific this event was, but what happened has happened. Now the only thing to do is remember the very young victims as well as the school principal, psychologist, and the brave teachers who sacrificed their own lives to protect their students. What America can only do now is demand immediate action from their Senators and House members to pass bills that allow much stricter gun control laws. What do you think? Do you think after this horrible tragedy the American public will finally demand action?

           A image from Friday after the shooting shows children being led out of the elementary school.