1 Can You See Their Viewpoint?

“First the @NFL forces me to choose between my favorite sport and my country. I chose country. Then @Nike forces me to choose between my favorite shoes and my country. Since when did the American Flag and the National Anthem become offensive?” Tweeted by Sean Clancy. Clancy initially explains the choices of either material values or his loyalty to his country. Without a doubt he chooses his country, although in my opinion, he misunderstood the message from the Nike 2018 commercial ad. After watching the commercial, I had only a sense of motivation and believing in one’s self. Unlike Clancy, I believe that the commercial did not put me in a position to select one thing over the country I live in. His last statement questioned if the American flag and the National Anthem were offensive. My answer is no, but the lyrics are not true to some people, thus causing them to take a different approach rather than pledging allegiance to untrue words. Lastly, I understand Clancy has a different view on the commercial and believes his loyalty must be stronger than anything, he just misjudged on the purpose of the ad.
https://www.vox.com/2018/9/4/17818148/nike-boycott-kaepernick

 

2 Part of the Resistance

I agree with this article and the senior official that wrote it. Donald Trump is a man of high power that does not know how to use it properly and for the good of this country. I personally appreciate the anonymous official that wrote this article. He states so many things that I agree with about Trump. “The root of the problem is the president’s amorality,” I believe that Trump does not take a moment to think about negative consequences of his decisions. Like the decision he made to take money away from the coast guard to support the ICE and border control. Who in their right mind would take a tremendous amount of money from something important just to put children in cages? Honestly that was a decision that was not fully thought through, and planned at the wrong time, due to the hurricane that just happened. Personally that could affect me and my family because we live close to the expected zone that would get hit by the hurricane. Also, the senior official expressed that most senior officials are against him, “senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.” They are determined to “preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.” I am elated that people are actually working to keep Trump from ultimately destroying this country. Lastly, I and this official agree that Trump is “impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective,” he is to haste to make decision, disregarding if they are good for the country or not. My expectation and hope is that America does not make the unwise decision of making him president for a second term. The question is should America continue consider him a “good” candidate for presidency?

 

3 Can You Spot the Fakest “Real” News?

This article is about a gay deputy headmaster of a boys’ school in Zimbabwe, Neal Hovelmeier, was forced to quit after he received death threats and pressure from parents. A local newspaper threatened to write an article exposing his sexuality, therefore causing him to come out. An announcement was also sent home informing parents that the teacher had come out. Parents’ had a meeting to discuss the issue and videos circulated around on social media. Hovelmeier’s leak has sparked discussions about homosexuality in the country. Some praised his bravery for coming out while others are angry by his decision do it in front of students. Same-sex marriage is banned in Zimbabwe, and gay sex is criminalized. “Former Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe spoke against homosexuality at the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, saying, ‘We equally reject attempts to prescribe new rights that contrary to our values, norms, traditions and beliefs. We are not gays.’” “His successor, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, holds the same stance. “In our constitution it is banned — and it is my duty to obey my constitution,’ he said.” This article is not giving Hovelmeier’s opinion or side, as well as other homosexuals that could be afraid to come out. It’s somewhat biased to the policies and beliefs of Zimbabwe and its officials.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/28/africa/gay-zimbabwe-deputy-head-teacher-resigns-intl/index.html

 

4 Experiencing Racism / Sexism

A time that I experienced sexism was when I was working at long john silvers, 2 years ago. One job for the cashier was to refill the ice machine. For months I would refill the ice machine by myself until I got another new manager. My manager’s name was James, an old school African American man, he only let the boys do the “hard” stuff. One day before I went on break, I filled two buckets with ice and carried one in each hand. As soon as James saw me carrying the buckets, he ran over to me and tried to fight them out of my hands. I tried to reassure him that I could do it myself, and always have been. Then he says, “A girl shouldn’t be lifting heavy stuff, that’s only meant for guys”. At first, I was happy that he took the buckets and did it for me. Then I realized I can do what a guy can do. He told me to tell him or any other male employee whenever the ice machine needed to be refilled. I tried to do it myself when they were all busy, but my manager told me that’s not my job anymore and I would get written up if I did it myself. So from then on I did not fill the ice machine.

 

5 The Voters Both Parties Are Ignoring (“The Daily”)

This podcast is about the voter turnout of Latino Americans and how the Hispanic electorate is not being targeted. The Hispanic community feels as if democrats and republicans are not doing anything to increase their turnout. The podcast informs that 60% of the Hispanic community has not been contacted by any campaigns.  I like how the podcast gave facts and how it was not completely biased. Also, how the host talked to actual Latino people about their opinions. It was interesting the percent of people that voted for Trump, even knowing the policies he wants to establish. That only showed that there is diversity in their beliefs. One thing I learned was that Latinos care so much about different thing, jobs, mental health, and immigration. Some even side with Trump which his border control policies. One Hispanic man, Jose Alvarez, says he likes Trump and says that he only wants to deport gang members and sex traffickers. I agree that there are some people that are bad and should be kept out, but we can just stop everyone from coming to America. Then I would think about America, is it not the land of the free? Of course, we would not want bad people roaming the streets and causing havoc. Still we can not keep a whole people out, when this land promised freedom and opportunities.

 

6 A Shooting at the Tree Of Life Synagogue (“The Daily”)

This podcast is about anti-Semitism, hate towards Jews, in a Pittsburgh synagogue. Robert Bowers was the suspect of the mass shooting and killing of people in the synagogue. Bowers posted hate speech on an app called Gab, a free speech network. Not only do they focus on the actual killing, but the growing problem of hate speech becoming more than words. I found that Trump speaking on this topic contradictory to his idea of “building the wall” or keeping people out. Which should be considered another form prejudice against immigrants. I am interested to know about what people thought about Bowers posts before committing the crime. Did people even wonder if he would act and harm the Jews? Was it all just talk to them? The thing that interested me the most people made hashtags in supporting Brower even after the crime. Is their hate that much to support a murderer? Freedom of speech is one thing physical prejudice is another.

 

7 Why Trump Is Firing Sessions Now (“The Daily”)

This is about Donald Trump and Jeff Session building a bond through endorsement. They both agreed on a “passion of cracking down on immigration”. Session helps and supports Trump and becomes attorney general. Later he allegedly is accused of having relations with Russians. Session accuses himself, after that he cleans his hands of Trump and his campaign. Trump holds onto a resignation letter from Sessions only because it would hurt him. The thing I find so hilarious is that Trump attacks Sessions through twitter and press conferences, saying that he is working in Hilary Clinton’s campaign. Trump stood firm that Session should be fired due to the fact he cannot trust him no more. What happens to Session after accusing himself of having relations with Russia? I believe that it should be a requirement for the whole Trump admin should have background checks and investigations.

8  What Facebook Knew and Tried to Hide (“The Daily”)

This podcast is about Facebook being accused of knowing about possible Russian interference and hiding it. Mark Zuckerberg claims that he had no clue about anything. When this scandal was spreading to the government and the public, Zuckerberg assures that they are “working on it”. This podcast interested me, because I once had a Facebook and now, I am wondering if I still had it would I be safe? Even if this scandal is not completely true, how would we be guaranteed our information is not being used or in danger?  Honestly out of all social medias I believe Facebook is the most to unsafe for the public. Truly, there is so much information about people being shared throughout all social media, but Facebook takes the lead. There are so many scam links that will take your information at just a click. So for this scandal I am not that surprised, but I am worried even more that it is popping up more and more recently.

9 Memoir Reflection 

My memoir, which was about me moving to a new school, and how my name was judged because it was different, I would use more pathos. Pathos is an appeal to emotion. I would write about how I felt or what I was thinking at times of being mocked and made fun of. I would relate the embarrassment I went to sad appropriate events. Also, I would use description more, I would make it feel as if the reader was going through the same things. If there weren’t a restriction on the word count, would add every little detail as if I were explaining a movie. I would describe and introduce all people encountered that day. Not only that, I would describe their appearance and personality. Even I would describe what I wore, how I looked like, and my attitude that day. I would fix the transitions between events and fix the comma errors.

10 Best and Worst

The overall English 110 class was a great class. My favorite assignments to do were the memoir, food review and the opinionated weekly journals. I like how our first writing was us writing a story, that was easy to do. The food review was fun because we got to eat and watching the food review videos were funny and helpful. The “Daily” podcast journals were nice to listen to and give an opinion on. The only thing I honestly did not mind were the readings and the quizzes. I like taking my own notes and going over them with the teacher the next day. That helps me reinforce what I learned and makes my notes stick. The thing about remembering to read kind of threw me off, and the length of the writings in the readings. Lastly the rhetorical analysis seemed like I was not going to enjoy it (or even do well on it) turned out to me liking it. There is nothing really that I can say I disliked, because my instructor made it a fun class.