And the work continues...

Well.. So far my paper is coming together alright. I completley changed it around the other day. After Monday's class was over, I just looked at my paper and it was not good at all. The whole paper was confusing and unorganized. I decided to change it around, and I pretty much ended up changing the whole thing! I am a lot happier with this version and can say that I am almost done the paper, which is good!

Change to my paper!

ok well first i was just going to go more in depth on my last paper but i wanted to narrow it down a little. so i decided to focus on minimum wage in PA. I have more information to support it and I can still use my last paper for help.

final topic and paper

I decided to do my paper on society and adults teens sterotyping teens. It focuses on violence, sex, drugs, and how teens are viewed to have no futures and are ignorant. I have found statistical research on these subjects. I consider myself done with my paper. I just need to edit a few things to do with citing.

Advertising Part 2

I think that I'm going to do my research paper on Advertising. On my last paper I don't feel that I looked deep enough into it and I want to expand. I want to learn more about whats going on in that department and read up on current statistics. In the end I want to be able to prove how I feel about the topic.

UGH...research

For my research paper I'm going to extend my last paper on how teenagers are stereotyped in society by adults, how adults fear them, in Hine's essay "Goth's in Tomorrowland". However, to research further and in more depth, I'm going to look up all different kinds of teen stereotypes, not just Goths, and how these stereotypes affect society. I'm doing this to add variety and context to my paper,as well as having the opportunity to find more information for my paper. Let's hope it goes well!

Research Idea

As like everyone else I also do not feel that confident with what I want my topic to be. I guess im just not sure of all the information weve covered through out the semster and whether or not i will find enough research. The topic issues I have in mind are the Black English, Standards English controversey. I'm not sure what i'm going to talk about, but this is the topic I feel most comofortable researching

Final Paper

For my final paper I think I am going to use Barbara Ehrenreich's story Nickle and Dimed, and see how hard it really is to live on minnimum wage, while supporting children. I went to the library and got a few books out so I am going to look at them, but I don't know how well this will work out, so it may change.

Minimum Wage In Depth

I am going to to further my research from my last paper about minumum wage and how it needs an increase. I am going to look at my sources that i gathered from my last paper and try to expand on that to find more information to see if there is anything being done to raise minumum wage or if something has tried to be done but didn't get passed. This was a very interesting topic for me when I wrote my last paper and I had a lot of fun with it. I hope I am able to find the information I want and will be able to write 6-10 pages.

redneck dialect: a further study

for my research paper i will be further investigating and researching the redneck dialect while pushing this topic further with additional information about Appalachian Studies.
the format of my paper is not clear at this point, nor is my proposal or thesis question. however when more of my general research is complete, the paper itself should begin to come together quite nicely.

Research Ideas

For our research paper, I was thinking about expanding my first paper that we wrote for class, Language Analysis. For the first paper, we stuck to the "IS"s of the text, what the text actully said, point for point. But, for this research paper I was thinking about going a little more in depth, researching the authors sources and coming up with my own voice on Language Analysis.

Research Ideas

Well I am really not sure what I want to write about yet because I have not found anything that sticks out to me that I can see myself writing a good paper on. Maybe I will write about our very first piece of writing which involve culture and how it is ordinary. I could research more on that essay alone and then go into others and research on what is considered ordinary or not. But who knows...it's jsut an idea for now.

Research Topic

Well, the idea I wanted to do for my paper was very similar to E's. So yeah I've got nothing now. But here goes plan B:

I thought a lot of the articles in this portion of the course had a lot to do with identity. Some factor's affecting social standng that were pointed out in the articles had to do with wealth, outward appearance, race, familial country of origin, etc. So my problem is tieing all that together with a single question that could lead to some sort of thesis for a paper. I think I'll also have trouble with finding research relating to this sort of topic that isn't an editorial. Hooray.

Research Paper

Well, I'm not really sure what i'm gonna do my research paper on. But I think i'm gonna base it around discrimination and different social groups. So I'll read up on Goths in tomorrow land and the note passing stories. I think I'll be able to find alot of sources and I will be able to think back to highschool.

Research Paper

Just about the same as everybody else i am not sure what to write about, although i'm leaning towards the descrimination of the Goth's and other groups that would be similarly looked at the same way. I'm sure that there are many sources on the subject, and its very easy to just take a look on campus and see what groups of people hang together. High school would be a very close look at it because of its social segregations.

Research Topic(s)

I haven’t fully decided about what I’m going to do the research paper on, but my two ideas are propaganda or the misrepresentation of history. I was thinking about showing the importance of pictures but also the negative effects of them and that’s how I got the idea of propaganda. But I think it fits more with the articles about advertising. I would focus on how propaganda came about, different forms of propaganda and its effects on people. I got the idea of misrepresentation of history from the stories we read about the Indians. If I choose this topic, then I will go into all kinds of misrepresentation surrounding the Indians, Pilgrims, Africans and others within books, movies, and textbooks. Some examples of movies, Elizabeth, Alexander, Hidalgo. I will also focus on companies and authors who choose to re write history for the sake of entertainment (Frank Hopkins, Disney).

Topic for Final Paper

For this paper I am going to work off of the information from my last paper. In my last paper I worked off of Barbaba Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America". I focused on her information on minimum wage and homelessness and then found the updated version of the facts she gave. I used the same sources which Ehrenreich did and found new ones also. With this new paper, I plan to just take the research even farther and find out what people are saying about the topic. I want look into the debates and specific organizations to find new detailed information on the topics of minimum wage and homelessness.

Topic for my research paper

I think i'll look at the literacy aspect of this course again for my paper, specifically that used in internet forums. Some of these sites are very strict about the language used, the relevance to the topic, and the repetition of information, while others are next to impossibe to follow, yet valuable information can still be obtained there.

Civil Rights

This picture i feel is very significant to American History, it is one of the most memorable events in civil rights history. At the march on Washington is when Dr. Martin Luther King made his "I have a dream speech", which is one of the most decorated speeches in American History, it broke down barriers in our country. This era was very pivotal in the way we view things today. The crowd that gathered shows the change that was occuring at the time. http://www.picturehistory.com/find/p/3571/mcms.html

Mahoney's ENG 023 Blog

http://thewall-usa.com/wallpics/gallery.htm
http://www.nps.gov/mall/mortar/mortar.htm#vive

As I was trying to decide what piece of American History to use for this blog I realized one of the most honorable and moving moments of my life was when I went on a class trip to Washington D.C. with my Vietnam History class in high school. We were chosen along with many other people to read 20 names off of the wall. As I was waiting anxiously in line a vet approached me and told me how two of his friends were on my list, I forget his name but I will never forget his face and expression as he asked to stand next to me so he could read those names and tell a brief story about the two soldiers who died in combat. The whole experience of going to the Vietnam Veterans Monument was crazy, it was one of the most moving events of my life as I watched people by me who were hugging and crying, Marines constantly passing one another and saying "semper fi" and so much more. It was a great experience and it showed me the emotional side of a war and what the people of that time are still dealing with today.

911

The historic event I chose to pick a picture to was the tragic attack done to the world tradecenter that occurred on September 11. The pictures on the website show some firemen and their devastating facial expressions, wondering how someone could do something so evil to harm such a large quantity of people. This incident is considered the worst terrorist act ever done in the history of the United States.
http://www.911pictures.com/photos_catalog.phtml?category=fire- Im sorry Professor mahoney, but i cant figure out how to put the actual link on here. Im a dumby and i cant help it. sorry about that again.

Research proposal

For my research paper I think I'm going to write about stereotyping. How teenagers are stereotyped by others, mostly adults. I want to discuss the different people who are stereoptyped and how it affects the youth. This idea is based off of Thomas Hine's "Goths in Tomorrowland." I'm hoping to get different views on the issue. The teens point of view and the adults view. Let me know if you have any comments or ideas because I'm not quiet sure if I'm going to get enough information to make 7 pages!

My Lai Massacre

The Ditch Photo
These photos are of the chilling events that took place in Vietnam, named the My Lai Massacre. In high school, I took a course on the Vietnam War and the photo above is the one memory I have of that class, as well as the one photo that generated the biggest reaction from the students. The My Lai Massacre was one event during the Vietnam War (others: Agent Orange, Tet Offensive, Cuban Missile Crisis, Kent State shootings) that created a distrust of US soldiers by those back home. On March 16, 1968 in the Son My (My Lai) village, US soldiers took many unarmed Vietnamese people, mostly women and children, put them into a ditch and executed them under the orders of Lt. William Calley. After numerous investigations and cover ups, the My Lai Massacre was not made public until November 12, 1969. Of the 26 men charged, only one, Lt. Calley was convicted or pre-meditated murder.

Woman and Gun

When I learned about this, I couldn’t believe it. To think that our troops would kill innocent people for revenge is sickening and the fact that they weren’t punished for their actions is worse. If you look closely, you can see the bodies of at least 3 children, two being babies. I realize that these photos are gruesome and shocking but I think it is important for them to be seen. We constantly criticize other countries for brutality and look what representatives of our country have done as well as what our country has done to rectify the situation. The picture below is the ditch as it is today and the women in the photo are survivors. These women survived by burrowing under the bodies of their family members and hiding from the soldiers. I think that the pain of the memories is evident on their faces.

Current Day Ditch

Sharp Shooter

This picture is from the battle of Gettysburg. It's a confederate sharpshooter in Devils Den. Devils Den is many rocks piled on top of each other in different formations. No one really knows how they were formed. On July 2nd the 2nd day of Gettysburg Battles the confederate and union army both fought here, not really a good place for ither side because there were so many rocks. When I look at this picture I think it's sad because you wonder what kind of life this guy left behind, did he have someone waiting back home. Did he really believe in what he was fighting for, if so why did he beleive in it so much he was willing to give his life?
http://www.historyplace.com/civilwar/photos.htm

The Japanese American Internment

Jumping on the WWII bandwagon...

FDR was awesome. So awesome that he ordered all Japanese and Japanese Americans in the San Francisco area to live in internment camps in 1942. 62 percent of these people were US citizens. This picture was taken during a camp baggage check.

I think it's unfortunate that the Japanese Internment is one of the lesser known events of WWII - of course it is, it was a major screw up on the part of our government. Still I think it needs to be brought out into the limelight more as it can easily be connected to the issue of racial profiling today.

Image source: http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/od9066ph.html

Pearl Harbor

I had this done before, but i didn't realize i saved it as a draft so it didn't show up today in class.




There was some information leading up to the attack of Pearl HArbor on Decmeber 7, 1941, but no one put all the information together. The Japanese attacked while all of the US officers were at church on Sunday morning. This attack brought the United States into the war. They attacked more then 200 planes on the ground, and 96 ships from the US fleet. The battleships Oklahoma, Maryland, and Arizona were all lost, along with 2,000 men.

Some History from my Home Town

http://boyertown-trolley.com/history.jpg

I wanted to do a bit of american history that was about my hometown of Boyertown Its about 20 miles SSE from here, and is very comparable to kutztown as far as size and surroundings, take this college away from Kutztown, and you have Boyertown.

The Boyertown Auto Body Works was one of the main industries in boyertown aside from a casket factory and knitting mills and a foundry. These industries have phased out and been replaced by plants owned by large corporations. Today the main plants in town are small branches Federal Mogul (automotive lighting) and Cabot Supermetals (a chemical plant).
Most of you are from PA or at least live here now, and probably have never heard the boyertown casket factory or auto body works. The only real issue i have with any of this is the loss of credit to the people who make these large corporations work, and the small businesses who may or may not become large ones.

I also miss the role my hometown used to play in the industries, today we monitor assembly pre-made parts into aftermarket(cheaper) lights for cars, instead of making from scratch the entire body of the car out of plain sheet metal.

So heres the american history part: I think this change in industry is typical of small towns across the nation. As the skilled labor of fabrication became automated, these small plants become less hands on, once important skills become totally invaluable for the most part. That what I would like to see: a better appreciation for skilled labor.


http://www.autoweek.com/images/articles/103260
this is just another pic of a truck whose body was made in a small plant in boyertown instead of a giant one with robots in Detroit.

Phillips vs. Neidichs

I was very confused when reading Christopher Phillips "Necessary Fictions: Warren Neidichs Early American Cover-ups". We all know that we do not know all the facts about what the Americans did to take Indians off their lands and move them onto reservations, and thats what Phillips tells us. Looking at the pictures from Warren Neidichs you feel a different sense of what really went on. Normally in history books we see pictures of Native Americans looking focused or sometimes sad/depressed. Never did I ever see a picture of Americans moving them out off of their land by blind-folding them and threatening to kill them. I wasn't really sure what else to get from the reading.

Fort Sumter

This is a picture of Fort Sumter. It was taken after its capture. This took place on April 14, 1861. This picture try's to capture all the damage that was done from the rebel bombardment of over 3000 shells. This was an extreme tragedy for many people and the image shows it.

Civil War*

Photo This image is of dead soldiers in the Wheatfield near the Emmittsburg Road in Gettysburg, PA. This image is from July 1863 and occurred during the Civil War. The Civil War was a conflict between the Northern states and the Southern states over establishing a new nation. Feelings such as sadness and sorrow are what first comes in mind when looking at this photo. The photo makes you wonder about each person and what kind of life they gave up to fight in the war. This picture stuck out to me for many reasons. One because in high school when I learned about the Civil War, I was never shown pictures like this. I always saw the action shots that were from the men fighting but this photo shows the aftermath of the war. The picture makes me think of silence. There are so many man laying on the grounds each with different lives they gave up to fight in this war. I think more people need to take time to actually look at the photo and think of what the men fighting for us are giving up for our freedom.

the american FLAG !

United States History is a very borad topic, so i decided to pick the american flag, this particular flag isnt just any pic. It is a flag graphicaly designed with mosaic pictures inside of it. Most of the pictures inside the flag are of hundreds of different photos of army life. The artist behind this work is Runaway Technology, they creat mosicas of many different things from a Newsweek magazine cover of Princess Diana to the Comecast remote to the American flag, each picture is made up of millions of tiny other pictures conveying a deeper meaning.

Don't Forget Child Labor

From The Hisroty Place, Lewis W. Hine

Child labor was a huge issue in the United States. Children would work 12 hours a day for six days a week with low pay and horrible working environments. Children in the United States worked under deplorable conditions until well into the mid-twentieth century. This picture from Hine is a boy who works in the mines. This boy looks filthy and well over exhausted. The mood that this picture creates is sad because when you look at him and see the expression on his face you can't help but feel bad for what this boy had to go through. Not only is mining physically stressful but it is harmful to ones health. Why were we so willing to throw our children out into the work world? During the time of child labor children did not recieve any type of education; therfore, many of them could not even read or write. How did we expect our children to make a better life for themsleves when we deprived them of the opportunity to gain a education.

The End of the Cold War

This is a photograph of Ronald Reagan speaking to East Berlin sometime during the later transitional periods of the Cold War. It was in this moment, Reagan demanded that Russia's leader, "tear down this wall!" The wall separating West Berlin and East Berlin/every other communist European country was created to show the democratic nations of the world that Communism could survive on its own, yet all "good" things must come to an end. During this time, the people of Russia and most of Eastern Europe were fed up with the Communist system, as well as not being fed. Essentially once the Soviet government had spent the vast majority of the country's money on bulking up the military and repressing their people into submission, they ran out of money and out of options. America, along with many many other nations decided enough was enough and it was time for these countries to join the world once again. Although Russia and some Eastern European nations are still struggling, the tearing down of the Berlin Wall is proof that its never too late to tear down the walls of ignorance, injustice, and inequality.

America's Longest War...

This here is a photo of a young Vietnamese girl receiving medical assistance during the Vietnam War. I chose a Vietnam War photograph because it was the longest, most devasting war in American History. The Vietnam War represented the longest military conflict between North Vietnam and the United States in which 58,000 Americans lost their lives, 304,000 were wounded and 4 million Vietnamese were killed. In this photo, you can see an innocent young child hurt and in pain in which, she was most likely caught in the line of fire and was wounded. This picture touched me the most because it was not a soldier injured but an innocent child. How can a war get so out of hand that a child becomes involved? It's a disgrace. I look at this picture and can almost feel the fear inside this poor child's eyes. She appears to be scared, very shooken up, and just in pain. This photo describes how one war can affect an entire group of people, especially children, the most innocent people in the world, who do not deserve to suffer in a time when a nation is in crisis because it is not their fault.

Representation of U.S. History

My photo is from The History Place: World War Two in the Pacific. It's a photo taken during World War II. It's a picture of a Catholic Navy praying in their "made up" church. They are praying for everyone they had lost in the intitial landings. I think it's a very emotional picture. It shows really how much the war has affected them, and the lives of others. It shows respect as well that they still had the time to sit down and pray for the ones they lost. It is evoking a feeling of grief and shows how meaningful the relationships with their fellow soldiers had been. It shows a feeling of respect for those who fought and risked their lives for the United States.

Photo of Skokomish

From the Edward Curtis Gallery.

Test page.

phillips and neidichs displaying indians

I really didn't get this assignment, Phillips writes about Indians and how they are different now from when they were very primative, basically like they commercialized their heritage. And about how Neidichs pictures don't give a clear sense about how events really happened and how we don't understand them, i agree with it in that we don't really get a clear picture from how they lived with the pictures in the books, it looks historic but the facts aren't concrete.

Indian History

Jane Tompkins "INDIANS": Textualism, Morality, and the Problem of History", talks about the relationship between the Europeans and the Indians. She takes information from different researchers to try and gain more information for herself to try and figure out what is fact and what is fiction. In the end she does not really seem to have any clue abou the information that she gained. It just seemed she had no point to her research and she did not get any where with what she was trying to prove.

Indian's ...What Indians ?

Over the years the relationship between native Americans and new Englanders has become some what vague. Some new Englanders acknowledged the Indians and used them as a source to build up colonies, this type of story is something more commonly known today, especially with thanksgiving. Then there is the other side, the other type of settler that doesn't acknowedge the Indians and saw the land as "theirs" to live on and build colonies. Most literary pieces written about Indians and puritans is biased and normally takes the side of a puritan showing the community to be in unity with each other. This is where Tompkins brings up some good questions, was the puritans unity a positive quality in development ? And who's to say that the Indians were neither disciplined or visionary? Because these storys were developed so many years ago and by so many different people in different areas there is not going to be any easy facts about the realtionship between indians and puritans.

Historical Perspective and Gullibility

I don't think Tompkins brings anything new to the table with her opinions on the bias in history concerning Native Americans. Yes, the European settlers have a long history of screwing over this country's original inhabitants, and yes, there will always be a huge question mark about the accuracy of "first-hand" accounts. Unfortunately this raises concern for me over the accuracy about other parts of history. How can we know if what is written in our text books what actually occurred? How do we know if our sources are accurate? We don't. So we'll continue to blindly believe just about everything we read and history will probably be doomed to repeat itself regardless.

lack of facts on indian history

There have always been disputes between the early settlers of the New England area and the native indians where they settled, as to what type of relationship they had. Although many people weigh in on the subject it really amounts to your biased opinion at the time. The people studying the subject now look back to books wrote by the settlers then during their encounters and base our opinions off of theirs. Although their "real facts" are all different, there are no concrete ideas of their relationship. One says that they really didn't exist in his eyes, and the land was there for the taking, others claim that we destroyed their civilization and brought disease and discomfort to their lifestyle. Another opinion is that the English didn't do anything different that they did to their own people which was to exploit and take over. Jane Tompkins overall feels that she has no real defenite feeling of what actually happened because she does not have first hand experience from a non biased point of view, all records are tainted because of their situation when arriving and encountering the Indians.

who to believe..

"INDIANS": "Textualism, Morality, and the Problem of History", by Jane Tompkins. In this reading Jane talks about all the conflicting stories about the European-Indian relations. Tompkins is not sure what to believe and not to believe, she tries to figure out which are facts and which are fiction. Tompkins research starts out with Perry Miller, then goes to Alden Vaughan, Francis Jennings, Martin and Hudson, Axtell and Heard, Rowlandson and Wood and Whitaker. Each of the authors had different things to say about the Indians and how they lived their lives. Tompkins soon realized that she had many different perspectives on the issue and not sure about the facts. Tompkins found she needed to just piece together the stories on European- Indian relations the best she could on what seemed reasonable to figure out issue of the Indians.

identity

In Grossberg's “Youth and American Identity,” he expresses the way he feels about America and how it has revolved around contradicting ones identity. What’s wrong with thinking or expressing the ways we feel? Everyone has the right to their own identity. Everything from the past can't get past on from generation to generation forever. Somewhere along the line there will always be people who feel a certain way about something. One's identity will always be contradicted because diversity will last forever and everyone has the right to identify themselves the way they want to be identified. Mary Gordon's story "More Than Just A Shrine" goes back to immigrants coming to the US. Americans felt some type of way about the diversity these immigrants had. The immigrants were strongly discriminated about their heritages. He goes to Ellis Island to find his identity and show the Ghosts on the Island he shared their beliefs and felt differently about the American ways.

Identity Huh...?

When I read both of these stories, the first thing that came to my mind was HISTORY. I hate living in the past, I like the present so much more. I found Grossberg's essay boring and drawn out. I never liked to follow those times because it was always so complicated to undestand. He just talked about youth as an american identity and that the U.S. has always been a nation without a center. Whats that? I thought thats Gordon's essay was better because it talked about real life stuff that I never knew and it was pretty interesting. I liked how she describes Ellis Island and what took place there and teh type of meaning that it held.

One Nation Defined

In reading "Youth and American Identity" and "More than just a Shrine" I realize that our nation is defined by the our citizens. Our country as a whole is very unique because of the background of all our people. In the early 1900's Ellis Island is the landmark that defined much of our culture with the sworm of people who came to persue freedom. It should not matter that our nation does not have a definitive answer to our identity because our Nation's identity lies within its borders, we are a country of freedom and the most powerful country in the world. Our country will continue to become stronger with the new immigrants who come to stay and our continuing emphasis on education. Therefore our country is defined as the United States of America because we are defined by our past and the continuing idea of freedom.

Wow Interesting stories!!

I just want to point out that I love reading real life stories, not that these were really real life...but they had to do with real life situations!

Okay! Mary Gordon's story was all about Ellis Island and the different type of things immigrants had to endure. She really made me more interested in Ellis Island. I found it interesting , although very discriminating, how people were marked with chalk with different letters that stand for heart disease or eye troubles I do however understand that, that was nessesary to make america the way that people thought it should be. It was sad to read that so many people were told they couldn't live in America and had to go back to whereever they came from, and because of that some of those people killed themselves.
Youth and american identity wasn't that interesting for me, but all in all okay. I really liked how this essay was set up and can remembering reading and enjoying these in highschool. I don't think anyone really knows what the future holds or what future generations of people will be like...we all think that people can only get smarter with time, but maybe the reverse is true. So I guess I believe what Grossburg's story is trying to say?.

developing a country.

Grossberg's essay is attempting to say how the nation in the post war years is putting the nations fate in the hands of the youth, the baby boomer generation. His questioning lays with how could they define the nation when they don't yet know how they want to shape the country. Basically we can't say what the future will ever look like because it is forever changing. I agree with this because nobody knows what the future holds, you can have an idea but there is no defenitive answer. Gordons essay puts down the people who started categorizing the immigrants coming into our country. And how she doesn't appreciate displaying their weaknesses writtin in chalk on their chests. She views it at biased because some were rejected from even entering due to diseases and other harmful traits. I don't agree with this point of view, this country's immigration policy was a great step into making America evolve. There are always downsides to progress, but so many people prospered there are always going to be those who were stepped on to make it possible.

American Identity.....

I found Grossberg's "Youth and American Identity" really boring. It just talked about youth as an american identity. That the United States has always been a country without a center, and that the United States is a nation of immigrants. I really had no interest in it or understood what the point of the text was. Gordan's "More than just a shrine" was more interesting because it related real life situations. It discussed how Ellis Island dehumanized immigrants. Putting letters on the immigrantas for certain illnesses kind of disturbed me. But it was something I never knew so I enjoyed reading it.

I found both of these text's hard to understand but from what i understood I liked Gordans text "More then Just a Shrine", better then Grossbergs "Youth and American Identity". I thought Gordans text was interesting, and it held my attention. It made me more intrested in Ellis Island and I learned about things that occured there that I never knew about. Grossbergs text I just did not understand the point. I think Grossberg was saying how future generations have to fufill Americas dream, and make younger generations the next leaders and role models. These two texts made me realize how different everyones backgrounds are, and how unique our country is.

Being an American..

"Youth and American Identity" by Lawrence Grossberg, describes how we want the future generations to become the American dream and become the best leaders of America. My only question is.. What is the American dream? Each generation becomes a better leader from the one before so can we ever really become the best? "More Than Just a Shrine" by Mary Gordon, I found this piece interesting. I never really knew much about Ellis Island and now after reading I am interested to go there. I am actually going to New York City this upcoming weekend and I want to go there and look at the things Gordon describes. I think its horrible that they use to stamp letters on people stating what problems they had. "E"- eye trouble, "K"- hernia, "L"-lameness, "X"- mental defects or "H"- heart disease. That is something that no one should have to be put through. Instead of rejecting them, they should have helped them with their problem!

National Identity?

Lawrence Grossberg's "Youth and American Identity" I found to be very boring. It was just going on about nothing. I don't have the attention span to read something like that, even if it is two pages long. All it talked about was youth as an American identity and that The United States is a country of immigrants. Mary Gordon's "More Than Just a Shrine" I found to be some what more interesting. It talked about historic events that I had never knew about. It was very interesting to see how they labeled the immigrants who passed through Ellis Island with letters to distinguish people with diseases and what diseases they had. It was something interesting to read since I had never read anything about it before.

Who ever said you Had to have a definable Identity?

Grossberg's "Youth and American Identity" is a perfect example of what America is. We are all immigrants who came to America to fulfill the famous American dream. Youth is looked at as the future of America which they are but why does their need to be a definition for everything. What's wrong with America not having an identity that can be written into words and put in a dictionary. Part of America is its randomness and its full and complete opportunity of one being themsleves and finding a way of succeeding. Grossberg has America defined as the future but that is as unclear as having no definition at all. Who knows what lies in the future. Mary Gordon's "More than Just a Shrine" was a little slow and less enjoyable but it also reflects upon Ellis Island in a meaningful way. She explains how we trace our families back to when they first came to America there on that Island. Ellis Island gives a sense of security and gives Americans the chance to go find who they are connected to.

A watched melting pot never boils

Reading Grossberg's essay "Youth and American Identity” reminded me of something my Sociology professor said the other day about how the baby-boomer generation is expected to be the last generation to surpass the previous generation’s success in terms of education, wealth and standard of living for awhile. I think Grossberg drove this point home to me indirectly by bringing light to this current generation’s lack of identity. I found Gordon’s article, “More than Just a Shrine” to be a pretty well written historical perspective piece on immigration to the US through Ellis Island.

The Meaning of America and It's History

Grossberg's "Youth and American Identity", and Gordon's "More than Just a Shrine" stresses how America has turned into a universal "melting pot" made up of diverse people and unique cultures . Since post-World War II, Grossberg describes how today's youth generation is a "problematic solution to America's search for identity." In simpler terms, Grossberg believes that a great deal of the world is trying to mold our younger generation to be the next leaders, role-models, and products of the American dream. The question is "How can we be sure this generation will fullfill the American dream?" I'm not sure that Americans know exactly what the American dream really is, but they surely have ideas drawn from history. History class taught me that the American dream is part of achieving manifest destiny. However, in Gordon's piece, certain people such as immigrants did not come from a country where they were able to achieve superiority among other nations, such as the immigrants of Ellis Island. In Gordon's essay, she pays homage to the immigrants of Ellis Island and gives a detailed account of what it was like for them to come to a new place and not seek freedom nor other essential aspects of an "American Dream." Overall, one line from Gordon's work struck me, "And to tell the ghosts what I have always thought: that American history was a very classy party that was not much fun until they arrived, brought the good food, turned up the music, and taught everyone to dance." For me, this statement is true, being raised Italian and growing up in an Itatlian family, with great food, a fun-loving family, and amazing traditions, just as those who are Irish, or German, or any other culture in the world. Were all different and we all bring something new to the world.

Malls and Churches??

Beginning to read John Fiske "Shopping for pleasure: Malls, Power, and Resistence" I was very confused why he was talking about churches and comparing them to malls. I started understanding what I was reading toward the end of the story. I do not see anything wrong with kids just going to the mall to just hangout with their friends and escape from their homes. From my own experience I would do the same. I would go to the mall just to hangout with my friends and just go in stores and look and leave. If i had any money with me I would use it to buy food never to buy anything in a clothing store, electronic store, etc. Saying kids go to malls to start trouble or to get drunk is crazy. My mall is a place where you would never see anyone ever drunk or starting a riot. But i am only able to compare my mall with the story other malls across the nation are completely different from mine. I think the story was a complete waste of time. Kids today don't have any place to go and feel safe and hang out with their friends without getting into trouble by the police just by loitering. I just didn't like the story overrall.

2 in 1

The text "Goths in Tomorrowland" is just really funny to me. I know someone who use to dress somewhat freakish when he was like 13 and he is the biggest sweetheart. Now he's preppy with no piercings and wears American Eagle, it's just a phase. Just because they wear black, have peircings, and listen to heavy metal it doesn't mean their evil and going to cause a corruption or hurt anyone. The topics these authors come up with just amazes me.

In "Shopping for pleasure: Malls, Power and Resistance"I had no idea what Fiske was talking about until the end of the text. I think the text was stupid and a pontless topic. Who cares if kids go to the mall, walk around, socialize and not buy anything. They are mostly young teens who don't have a license and have nothing better to do. I even did it. You have no money so you just browse. Kids don't just go to the mall thinking "Oh I'm going to start a mob today." The whole drinking thing I have never even thought of but I could definately believe it considering how the middle age school kids are nowadays. But just because someone has a bottle in their hand it doesn't mean there drinking! Fiske just completely overexaggerated in this text.

This guy's outside his mind.

Cathedrals and malls? I see no comparison between the two, i've only ever heard a cathedral compared to a sporting venue and that is because people come their to worship their team which makes alot of sense. I wasn't a fan of his twisting malls and everything about htme with the catholic religion and things associated within that. But yeah i have seen some adolescents cause a scene at a mall more than a few times, but not necessarily a mob type scene. Although what does he expect from a bunch of teenagers hangin out at the mall, the mall is somewhat their hangout for their group of friends, typically the ones making the scenes are the ones who can't drive yet and are pretty young and immature. Overall two thumbs way down for this topic of his.

Going to the mall DRUNK?!?!?

"Shopping for Pleasure: Malls, Power, and Resistance" By: John Fiske. Well.. When I started reading this piece I was so confused about comparing shopping malls to churches but I did understand more once I kept reading. Teens go to malls to hang out with friends, get away from their parents or even just for something to do. Fiske made it out to seem that teens go to the mall to start trouble. I know personally I have gone to the mall before to hang out with friends and just look around cause at that time I don't have any money to spend. I think all teens at some point just go to the mall to walk around or socialize but that doesn't mean that they are trying to fight the system. I thought it was very interesting when Fiske stated that teens go to the mall to get drunk. That teens bring there alcohol in water bottles/soda bottles. I have been to the mall many times and have never been drunk or seen any teens getting drunk while there. I think Fiske is taking that issue a little too far! Teens just want to walk around, have fun, maybe buy something, and most times cause no trouble at all.

O dear...

Ok, let me start out by saying I totally agree with Angel! In Fiske's story he jumped around so much, why....there's no reason for it.

I sidagree with hiim when he acusses adolesents of creating a mob scene, does he know that most of the stores in the mall are directed at pre-teens, teens, and young adults? Sometimes I go to the mall and I can walk in and out of stores and an hour later walk out of the mall an hour later with just a shirt! But I didn't creat a scene doing it. Lot's of teens walk around and window shop and when they know they have money they will go back and buy something.
I also don't know anyone who goes to the malls drunk. Why did he even bring that up, where does he come from?
I don't think this iske guy knows anything about anything...well atleast nothing about teens or malls.

Two Birds, One Post

I’m going to make a combined posting of my paper ideas and a response to the Fiske reading because I’m not exactly sure which we were supposed to do.

Honestly, I feel like this paper is going to end up as a giant rant with a few statistics thrown here or there – in kinder, fancier English teacher terms this will be mostly a persuasive writing piece. I’d like to do “Goths in Tommorowland” but I think I would have difficulty finding statistics to support an argument. I think if I used Naomi Klein’s article I would have enough to research, but I agree way too much with her and her position that stating my own opinions on the issue would be redundant. For this paper I’m going to pull out the political card and lean to the right of the fence in order to rip Mike Davis a new one. I know it’s crazy considering I call myself a moderate-liberal, but I think I’ll be able to put together a solid argument by disagreeing with Davis’s article “Fortress Los Angeles: The Militarization of Urban Space".

As for Fiske’s article: what a pompous critique on the art of mall-ratting.

A long stretch

Many things can be compared to each other. Some are compared by metaphors. In John Fiske's "Shopping for Pleasure: Malls, Power, and Resistance," he makes a long stretch using a metaphor to compare shopping malls with Catholic cathedrals. When he gets in to the story he explains how teenagers and the youth just use the mall as a place to hang out and to get drunk. WHenever I went to the mall I did not see this going on. Yeah there are alot of teenagfers and youth just walking around the mall looking and not buying much, but that is because many of them do not have the money to. I am sure that if the circumstances were different and they had money that the things that they look at that they might buy. I think that the mall is a perfectly acceptable place for teenagers to go to and to get out of the house just to hang out. To me there is no comparison from a mall to a cathedral.

Shopping malls are the new age cathedrals ?

In the beginning of this text Fiske uses the Catholics cathedrals as a metaphor for shopping malls. Saying that shopping, is like a religion and how "the exchange of money becomes a secular equivalent of holy communion". The downfall to this religion is not enough consumption of the product. That is when Fiske looks to adolescents, who flock to the malls but rarely buy anything. He talks about adolescents creating a mob scene, taking up the space at the mall, causing a riot. It is also known that if their is a group or teenagers, then they must have drugs or alcohol...Right? WRONG. While reading this article I could not believe the conclusions this guy jumped to about adolescents. Did it ever occur to him that just maybe teens don't have enough money to buy what they want all the time, and no other place to hang out ? Maybe they just want to get away from their parents for a little while, and the mall seems to be the only place where teenagers today can do just that. Why is it that when a group of teenagers get together, adult get scared ? In most cases teenagers are harmless, and just want a place to have fun, well at least that's how I felt when I went to the mall with my friends.

Fiske...I have no idea what your talking about

I think I have never been this confused in reading an essay or short story. I thought Edgar Allan Poe stories used to be tough to follow, but I think now I've changed my mind. Fiske starts out talking about how shopping malls are like a cult or religion for people, how they are a metaphor in some way to people. Then, he speaks about consumerism and how teens occupy malls in such a powerful way that they are taking over malls. What does all of this mean? He puts to many ideas together at one time, where I have no idea what to think about first. This essay was very difficult for me to follow. However, I understood the last few paragraphs about teens and going to the mall. Most of the time we do go to the mall to socialize with one another. So what? Maybe I'm a teen who works a low paying job where I do not earn enough money to buy new clothes and accessories all the time. Maybe I have to save my money for important investments like helping my parents pay for my phone bill or college tuition, things that actually matter most. I like to walk around the mall and talk, but I'm not a teen who brings alcohol to a mall in a water bottle or soda can. I mean c'mon, who really does that? Anyway, to me this article was not meaningful because I'm not a troubled teen who goes to a mall drunk, or someone who buys expensive clothing to enhance consumerism. I guess I'm just normal.

Whats the point of shopping for pleasure?

As with most of the readings assigned for I struggled to find an opinion or something intelligent to say about it, all this reading about theoretical stuff and intangables, tends to confuse me.

I did gather that the article itself is pretty objective, like "goths in tomarrowland" it brings up the issue of space and shared with different people with different agenda's, but i fail to see the significance of it all. Teens go to the mall whether they have money or not, so what. But no, this Fiske guy thinks there is some kind of subliminal power going on, i dont know what hes talking about. I dont think that unemployed adolecents are going to the mall with the mindset of "I going to fight the system, I'm going to the mall without cash" nor do they walk in a store and think "I gonna stay in here for ten minutes then walk out without buying anything, that will trick the shopkeeper". I Do think teens go to the mall to socialize, eat, or just for something to do.

a thousand and one blogs

its been a long time since i've blogged on the site, so i'll try to get a bunch of them in together. if anyone gets lost, feel free to leave a comment to let me know.

"No Logo" by Naomi Klein and "Hype" by Kalle Lasn

These pieces covered the issues surrounding adverstising, how advertising companies use subversive techniques to capture its market, and how advertising in general effects the public as a whole. Many of these findings came to no surprise to me because I knew most of them that were being used, if not through research then by daily coming and goings of life. We as a public are forced at times to have our physical and mental space invaded...even now as I'm typing this post, there is a constant bombardment (sp?) of advertisements with pop ups. The sad part is, that is the point of advertisement which has evolved into overwhelming the viewer into submitting to the product they're trying to sell. As much as I hate to say it, putting ad's in a bathroom however invasive this is can be really effective. I don't think it should be done because personally I just want some peace and privacy in that situation. It does go to show though that companies are willing to do whatever it takes to keep its market or reach out to a new one. One such example that i could think of was McDonald's who start their market age very early with the Happy Meal. And they're not the only ones, because from a young age we're marketed. It actually frightens me to think what advertising can do to a certain point; I'll just take up my job to make my own decisions instead of letting advertising decide for me.

"Nickel-and-Dimed..." by Ehrenreich and "Pennies and Hour..." by Kernaghan
The sheer insanity of this article kept me rivetted. Though once again, I'm not completely surprised by the result Ehrenreich got when she went to look for work after leaving such a cushy job. In all honesty, it felt to me as though she had a condescending (sp?) tone at first to think that it would actually be easy to find a crap job since she is so over qualified. Speaking from experience it's difficult to find work anywhere that pays decently because there is always someone who, even if they're less than qualified, is more than willing to work for less than the standard pay. I give her kudos though for effort and the fact she did it at all.
On the point that there are plenty of people out there willing to work for far less than standard pay, there is enough proof overseas to demonstrate this well. Children and adults alike are crammed into unsafe conditions for pennies a day in order to have some sort of cash income. Unfortunately with the pay and working conditions, its much more of an uphill climb than most bargin for. It makes me ill to think that some little kid made me a hat for less than a fraction of what I bought it for.
All in all, I feel like hell for buying into the companies that advertise to me constantly, get their products made by poor little kids, and are getting the major cuts of their profit. thanks those sections of reading was a blast...


"Fortress Los Angeles" by Mike Davis and "Goths in Tomorrowland" by Thomas Hine
Goths in Disneyland; the two don't really belong in a sentence either. Let's take something pastel, bright, beautiful, and seemingly perfect and throw in an element of extreme darkness, sadness, and just plain morbidness. Along that note, lets take the homeless in a business district in a city like Los Angeles. The bigger issue here is a case of image. Its a matter of something clean, perfect, and idealized that is supposedly being invaded by that is considered dirty, dark, morbid, and "wrong" by society. For 'Goths' I came to a simple conclusion...who cares about image if these punks are giving you money? If they have no where else to go, let them be weird, but weird in a safe environment. For 'Fortress' my conclusion was, honestly if they want your garbage and refuse, then let them have it. If you don't want them rummaging around in your crap, then donate to charities, or set up a shelter for these people to go! Until you, and I am speaking to the authors, realize that circumstantially speaking these people have no other option to keep on doing what they're doing, I suggest you shut the hell up.

"Shopping for Pleasure" by John Fiske.
I'll make this one simple: this guy has way too much time on his hands and is looking to far into too simple of a subject matter.
Since i can't get away with a one sentence answer, i will continue on my point. True, there are instances, however few and far between where kids have gone to the mall drunk, which completely eludes me as to why. True, kids go to the mall to hang out and NOT BUY ANYTHING. This is because they're kids and kids typically DON'T HAVE JOBS TO EARN MONEY! However, once again they need a safe, controlled area to go and just chill. Now if companies have the opportunity to expose their products to future customers, i don't see a problem here. And the whole thing about the mall being a church, i've heard this metaphor before about malls becoming temples of excess. I've had enough of this metaphor because to an extent it may be true, but for crying out loud its not that bad. there is a world of difference between a church to worship, and a place to buy some khakis or something.
Finally, lets get one fact across here: adults are scared of teenagers. Always have, probably always will for whatever reason. So yeah, enough of that.

Paper Idea
I have no idea what I want to do for this paper, but I am leaning in the general directions of either "Goths in Tomorrowland", or "Nickel-and-Dimed..." for my paper. I'm choosing these particular essays because they seem to be issues I could follow up on very well.
comments or ideas welcome.

An evil city and a judgmental park...depending on your view

First starting to read Mike Davis's "Fortress Los Angeles: The Militarization of Urban Space" I was getting some what confused going a long with it but then after going back and re-reading it I was able to comprenhend most of it. I thought it was interesting how the city was spending so much money to keep the homeless people from sleeping anywhere. Wouldn't it be cheaper to set up shelter homes and food banks, instead of changing the way the park benches are designed, or installing sprinkler systems in the parks to keep them from sleeping in the parks, and designing special garbage systems to keep them out of their trash. They could have saved so much more money getting them off the streets and into safer places, but they don't seem to care about the people who try so hard to just find shelter from the out door envirnoment. Thomas Hine's "Goths in Tomorrowland" made me think that we judge people way too much. The parents of the kids who live in OC just need a safe place for their children to go and know that they will be safe. Expressing themselves with dressing up in black is the way their clinque is. The sterotypical jock always dresses in jerseys, computer geeks always seem to dress in overalls and have glasses with tape in the center of them and the goths dress in all black and decorate themselves with piercings and sharp objects. Even though Disneyland is labeled "the happiest place on earth" the way someone dresses shouldn't change anyone who sees them in the park. Their not doing anything wrong and don't seem to be physically bothering anyone. Why do people have to complain about them being there. If they had been bothering people physically then there would be a reason to get rid of them. With the changing of generations people, more teens though, are expressing themselves more with the way they dress. People cannont be offended by it since this is america and you have every right to dress the way you want to. I see no problem with having people look goth walking around disneyland as long as they don't come up to me and start bothering me.

LA vs Goths

"Fortress Los Angeles: The Militarization of Urban Space" By Mike Davis. Alright, I first wanted to start out saying that I was kind of lost when reading this piece. I believe that it was boring but I am still going to attempt to explain what I thought. Davis goes into detail about how the government is giving so much money to Los Angeles for the upperclass to benefit off of. At the same time the rest of Los Angeles society is being forgotten about. Davis says the government is only trying to help out the upperclass and tourist and not doing anything for anyone else. I think the government needs to stop worrying about the buildings and designs and pay a little more attention to the lower class and some of these problems can be helped. "Goths in Tomorrowland" By Thomas Hine. I found this article interesting because I could relate seeing this types of kids in high school and knowing about certain "clicks". I think there are good people within all types. Even though someone dresses like a "goth" doesn't mean they are trouble or bad. I feel that everyone expresses themselves differently and that should be accepted. I do not understand why if you didn't want to go to Disneyland ( a happy place) and be happy and have fun.. then why someone would go there? It ruins the atmosphere when you see someone sitting on a bench with an evil face at such a happy place, but that's just me!

"The mere presence of teenagers threatens us." (Hine)

After reading Hine's "Goths in Tomorrowland", I glanced in the mirror to take a look at myself and thought, do adults really fear teenagers? Could I have an appearance that intimidating to adults? That is crazy to me. If anything, I fear adults, they never fear me. This story made me realize just how paraniod the "older generation" can be. Teenagers should not make someone feel afraid let alone be talked about as if we are criminals. However, I do agree with Hine when she talks about goths, I know some that are good people and I know some that are not. Stereotypes are put on the wrong people today. I could say that I am afraid of old people driving on the road because 70 or more percent of the time old people are terrible drives just as teenagers can be. Most old people you could label "legally blind." Most importantly, I feel sorry for teenagers who wish to be different and to be accepted as different and I do not sympathize with teenagers who purposely try to rebel against society. What is the point in rebelling by the way you act and dress? That only makes a society more corrupt in my opinion.
Within Davis' story concerning Los Angeles and urbanization within cities, these storys are very similar. Those who are desperately trying to urbanization cities are also finding ways to evacuate the poor from society because they fear them, just like adults fear us teenagers. To me, I do not see poor people as a threat. I see them helpless and unknowing of their own self-worth. However, buisness companies throughout Los Angeles do not care about the feelings of others, they only care about making money. This aggrivates the poor, and to me, that is why I see "crazy" homeless people on the subway or park benches in Philly. These people have gone crazy due to society's high demands and beg for money, even are ready to abuse middle-class people in giving them money because they are so angry. Hell, I would be angry to. Altogether, I sympathize with both worlds, the poor and teenage population.

Southern California: Where They’ll Rob from the Poor to Give to the Rich and They’ll Kick You Out of Disneyland for Dressing Like a Hot Topic Cliché

Mike Davis’s “Fortress Los Angeles’ is a detailed account on the disproportionate amount of government money and resources that goes toward helping LA cater to the upper class residents and tourists. It’s pretty despicable how the city government took land away from low-income citizens for development and how their needs were completely ignored.

I really don’t know why it’s so shocking that Disneyland would kick out “Goth” kids. During the 60’s and 70’s it was common practice for them to turn away male customers with long hair. It’s all part of Disney’s reactionary way of preserving nostalgia. The rest of Thomas Hine’s article “Goths in Tommorowland” goes on to explain how much marketing has an affect on adolescents. I found myself agreeing with Hine’s closing statement: “Young people are caught in a paradox. They drive themselves to extremes to create space in which to be themselves. Yet the commercial machine they think they’re escaping is always on their back, ready to sell them something new” (72)

The urban and youth downslide

Mike Davis's article was interesting about the lengths they will go to or not go to with ending homelessness. We all know that in a rich buisness area there would be nice places to eat and shop as well as comfortable park benches to relax on, just as we knew that in poorer areas the benches are almost unbearable to sit on even for a homeless person also with turning the sprinklers on at night to avoid vagrancy. Hine's article begins about goth's invasion of Disneyland but then goes deeper about what type of groups teens are linked to, especially how segregated they are, we all know this from going to high school. I think he was on point when he says we are now more concerned with individualism these days rather than the pre-mtv days.

Goths and Homeless are Rejected

In Thomas Hine's "Goths in Tomorrowland" he describes how there are few safe places where teens are welcome. Disneyland, one of the minority places left, teen goths were beginning to take over. Disneyland's safety was one of the attractions for these goths. Many of the teens had not even been goths when their parents dropped them off at the edge of the parking lot. Rather, they changed into their black and sometimes gender-bending garments, applied their white makeup accented with black eyeliner and gray blush-on (Hine 68). The word "teenager" is in question whether if it is sufficient to encompass all the different teens. The goths that invaded Tomorrowland are examples of another kind of diversity (70). They have become a stereotypical group such as "jocks", "preps", "freaks", "geeks", etc. Teens will go to extremes in order to express themselves and create space for them to be their own person but it is seen that they are only escaping themselves but in reality their is no escaping. In Mike Davis' "Fortress Los Angleles: The Militarization of Urban Space" he explains how Los Angeles tries to keep the underclass out of its city. They attempt this by offering few public lavatories then any other major North American city. Also, there is a lack of outside water sources for drinking or washing. City leaders periodically propose schemes for removing indigents en masse -self consiously adopting the idiom of the cold war, has promoted the "containment" of the homeless in Skid Row (Davis 278). Skid Row is has become probably the most dangerous ten blocks in the world. The police play a major role in the Los Angeles city. They stop visitors to be frisked and the police routinely oreder residents back into their apartments at night. The domestic life is subjected to constant police scrutiny (280).

Time to post another blog....

Okay , so as I was reading Mike Davis's "Fortress Los Angelees : The militarization of urban space, I became very lost. Maybe it's just me but this story was not interesting to me at all! I'm not quite sure at what he was trying to get at, perhaps i'll take a shot at it. So, I understand that he thinks that Los Angeles is not the same, and that it's very much seperated by classes, or people. He also explains how things have changed, he says " Taxes previously targeted for traditional public spaces and recreational facilities havebeen redirected to support corporate redevelopment"...so basically the people are getting help or funding for childrens park, but instead big companies are getting the money. He says that once booming towns/cities are now home to a community of different races living in tenement homes, but " will soon fall to redevelopent's bulldozers."
In the story " Goths in tomorrowland" by Thomas Hine, he writes about teens and how it affects culture. In this story he is mearly talking about the, shall we say " goth era", sure we all know someone who is a " goth" I went to school with many people who dressed in black wore shoes with a 6 in heel, and black eyeliner and white faces seemed to be thier thing. Diseny land is supposed to be for happy people, not people who look angrey or sad. What affect does it have on little children? But according to parents disneyland was a safe place. Adults seem to have a problem with the goth trend even today, they usually just don't want to subject their children to it, I just think they don't understand it. All in al this story was better than the first.

In Mike Davis' article "Fortress Los Angeles: The Militarization of urban space," he shows that's the Los Angeles governments are privatizing public space and subsiding new exclusive enclaves. The main reason he wrote this was to show how racist the government is towards helping the higher class citizens and leaving the lower class races who live the urban life with nothing to live for. The reason for this is to increase the amount of sites for for tourist and also for their safety. I think in a way its fair, but at the same time cutting off the limits of civilians will only cost the government more trouble because there going to disobey the law even more than they were before. Maybe if they take some of the money their spending on these buildings and help the lower class environments, it will make it easier for them and there will be less problems. In Thomas Heins "Goths In Tomorrowland," he shows the other side of teenagers and how the way they dress affects certain environment. I think teens who dress gothic to go into Disney world should be banned or atleast get in trouble because it is supposed a place of happiness. Teenagers dressing like this are scaring the little ones. Anyone who chooses to dress like that should be sent to a psychiatrist immediately. Why would you do anything to ruin your reputation or make yourself look bad, its just something I never understood.

Wrong doings in the Economy

"...1998 it took, on average nationwide, an hourly wage of $8.89 to afford a one-bedroom apartment." (Ehrenreich 377) How can this be when, in America the mini. wage for employees is $5.15 an hour. Although some employers pay a dollar or two more, this still isnt a wage that many americans can live off of and raise a family with. In the artical Nickel-and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich, she went undercover to "experience poverty" (375) and the hardships of welfare. Through her experiment she found that in the end of one month she had earned $22 of 'left over' money which is less then what she started with and this dosnt include buying clothes or medical supply. In another part of the world, poor women are facing much different working conditions. Women in bangladesh on get paied 1.6 cents for every harvard baseball cap they make. (Hayden and Karnaghn 385) Eventhough, this is a horrable situation for third world countries, if we changed this how would it effect our economie in america? Would raising sweatshop wages also raise prices for everyday products, toys and other sporting goods? Both of these articiles make very good and valid points, but what can we do to save our economy ?

Rock Bottom

"Pennies an Hour and No Way up" made me understand how hard it must be for people in a sweatshop to support themselves and their families. The problem with the sweatshops is terrible, but I also asked myself what would they do if there was no sweatshop. Would they have any work at all? It is a issue which I try to understand but it isn't my position to fix it, the governemnt of that country, of the U.S. and the Companies leaders are the people who should fix the problem with kids as workers and the miniscule wages. It upsets me how there are CEO's and many other leaders of companies who are flying on private jets but don't care about the workers who are making them richer than some small countries. "Nickel-and-Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" already showed me something that I know, it is very hard to get by in America on minimum wage, this is why I'm in college. I don't want that to sound bad but I'm sure the minimum wage workers didn't have a great education and there is nothing the U.S. or we could do to stop this problem, accept preach education and realize there will always be a lower class in our country.

I don't know that I agree

When reading these two stories, which were very interesting, seemed to be a little over the top for me. I was trying to read these stories with an open mind, but found it hard when I got to the end of the story. If you think about it, there are many programs out there where lower class society can get help. For example, mothers or families that don't have enough cash to get the food they need for their family may qualify for WIC http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/ Also, in the story nickel and dimmed the author explains that she had enough money to do what she needed to do with 22$ left over. Although she complained that she wouldn't have enough money to buy medial supplies. The access card http://www.togetherrxaccess.com/en/about_together_rx_access.html services families or individuals that can't always afford their medical needs. Along with those services there are also food pantry's and soup kitchens along with others. I'm sure that if a person looks hard enough they can find people or the government to help them.
I do agree that living on no money or very little is hard. But there may be ways around it, the services may not solve all your problems, but they can help some.

The Bottom Rung

It is interesting how Ehrenreich did a study like thi, with making sacrifices to drop down to a lower class economic lifestyle. She wanted to feel what poverty was like, and answers the question of can you live on minimum wage (6-7 $'s an hour). Her answer is that low wages will not end poverty, she goes on about applications and what they really wanted of her, no jailtime and legally a resident. I notice she gets alittle sarcastic when she says "I have left behind so much...what i miss most is competence". Implying negative things about her co-workers. The article says that it is hte hardest to succed as compared to being and upper, middles class person or even being on welfare. Then you read Kristof and WuDunn's article about how sweatshop workers live on 1$ a day and if they get 2 then they feel blessed. And that sweatshops actually help the economy. Most Americans get the wrong idea about sweatshops, they overall help the people. Yes some of the conditrions are really bad but it means industrial revolution is now incorporated in that country and living standards will be raised. It is just funny to see the articles aside eachother for how 6-7$ a day won't keep you afloat and in East Asia 1-2$ a day is a great income.

"Pennies, Nickels, Dimes" What Can I Buy?

This is a first, but I actually like the longer reading rather than the long one. this time! I enjoyed reading Nickel-and-Dimed because it really put things into perspective for me. Reading how Barbara Ehrenreich took enough pride in her job to just leave her life to experiment what another life would be like was incredible and very courageous. It seems like a scarey task, but it kind of makes me want to do something like that. I think that if people did that, they would realize what the people living in poverty feel liek and live like. It could be a new way of understanding. That might just be what this world needs. This reading provided a lot of good facts and issues. On the other hand when I read Pennies an Hour and No Way Up, I didn't feel as interested. It basically was showing the hardships people face in sweatshops. I think that things will never change because people just don't understand.

Underpaid and Underprivileged

I found Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Nickel-and-Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America”, an account on living at the poverty level in America, to be disturbing. If anything her writing made me feel kind of guilty about how I take my current financial position and education for granted. The hands on a/step into their shoes approach made this piece slightly more authentic than just throwing out statistics.

Tom Hayden’s sweatshop article, “Pennies an Hour and No Way Up”, further reinforced my feelings against the evils of foreign sweatshop labor for American companies. I find it frustrating that our government hasn’t done much lately in order to prevent such exploitation – but then again we live in George W. Bush’s America and it’s been awhile since anyone’s bashed Kathie Lee Gifford.

America is cheap

After reading the "Nickel-and-Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America" by Barbara Ehrenreich, I was able to relate it to myself in a way. I started working at minimum wage and it took me 3 years to actually start making more to live off of. No matter how hard i would work i still couldn't get any more than a few cent raise which wasn't helping me. It was interesting to see how Ehrenreich actually went out into the work force and tried to see if she could live off of minimum wage and live in an up scale place, but she realized she wouldn't be able to afford and upscale place and had to look at places like trailors and such. In Tom Hayden and Charles Kernaghans "Pennies an Hour and No way up" it was interesting to see how lucky some of us are with the way we are paid for the work we do. Someone who spent so much time making a sweater or a type of clothing getting paid only 5cents, to find out that a retail store sells it for 17.99. Its sad to think america has become this. People should get paid right for the amount of time and effort they put in to their work. I really enjoyed reading both pieces as informative to how the american soceity is being ripped off from their work no matter how hard they might work and how much of their time they might put into their work.

Can you Survive?

In Barbara Ehrenreich's article, "Nickel-and-Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America," she lives in the place of an article she wants to write about. I very much disagree with her because i think that just because there are low paying jobs out there, she did not find all the ways of getting help to be able to live on a low wage paying job. I feel that she did not live in the way of a low paying job life for long enough to figure out that there is alot of help out there from different programs. I guess the main reason why I have to disagree with her is because I have lived my whole life seeing my parents make low wages on their jobs and they still seemed to get by, with some bumps along the way. In Kernaghan's "Pennies an Hour and No Way Up," he talks about sweat shops and all the conditions that are involved with them. I think that it is good that people write about these issues, but I think that the fact that they exist is just wrong. There is no reason why a country would have to employ their population on such low wages. I think that Barb should take a look around and see that her experience could have been worse in a different place. Sweat shops may be wrong, but all in all, they help out the american economy and that is why many people do not say much about them.

The American Way

I found Nickels and Dimes very interesting. The author Barbara Ehrenreich acts as an anthropologist towards how poverty feels and the struggles of the everyday lives of the individuals. Ehrenreich shows how devastating it would be to live in poverty and how difficult it is to find a good paying job that can support everyday needs. Many of these people living in poverty chose to live how they live. Eventually they realize where they went wrong and want to change their lifestyle. Most of the time it is to late and they are financially out of contact with further ways to make their life better. Kids growing up in poverty today need to realize anything they want to do is possible. Hard work just has to be put forth. That’s why there are so many people living in poverty today because they've failed to put hard work in to encounter success. On the other hand I found Pennies an hour and no way up also intriguing. It is reverse in other countries the way poverty works. The people out of country work extremely hard for nothing except a couple cents an hour. The US should be ashamed of how greatly they profit off of the workers in sweatshops. In the US people living in poverty sit back and rely on welfare. These citizens to other countries work hard everyday of their life and can't rely on anything. That is where our government is going wrong.

Take a look around you lately?

As seen in Lasn's "Hype," there are more advertisements around us then I could have imagined. For there to be over 12 billion display ads, 3 million radio ads, and 200,000 TV commercials in a day. Around three thousand of them are seen by any given person a day. When you think about it, there are more ads everywhere everyday. Something I would disagree with on advertising being put there, eventhough a lot of people would see it, is advertising on the roofs of schools. Yeah, the schools could make money off of it but school is a place to learn, not to drill ads into students. On the other hand, "No Logo" by Naomi Klein talked about brands, not products. She shows that ads, on the most part do not worry about the product itself, that the consumer will buy the product based on the image that is given off by the ad or product. No matter how much the product costs, cheap or expensive, if someone thinks, or does, need it they will buy it. It helps to portray the product, when the advertisement is seen everywhere.

Wait, what's that you ask?

Oh, that’s just the sound of the American Dream being flushed

So much for the American Dream.  The streets aren’t paved with gold and there certainly aren’t any silver platters, except for the Donald Trumps, George Bushs (ugh), and any of the Kennedys.  I think it’s safe to say that, at one point in our lives, each of us were told that if we worked hard, gave it our best and that if we put our mind to it, we could do anything.  In fact, Nas told us to repeat “If I work hard at it, I'll be where I want to be” but as encouraging as it sounds, sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way.

Rather than simply interview subjects or replicate statistics, Ehrenreich took the time to submit herself to the conditions that so many in America—land of the free shullbit—live in, live with, and live through.  While this wasn’t the first, and certainly won’t be the last article written about the paralleling issues, it’s saddening to think…no…to know that in our lifetime this will never change.  Why would they? As long as companies can pay just enough to allow a person to afford bread and water (just enough to keep one alive and make it to work the next day) and pocket millions of dollars, things are going to remain just as they are.  It’s a dog eat dog world and someone always has to be smarter, quicker, richer and this country wasn’t built for everyone to be wealthy. As we know, money begets power, power begets respect and when you have respect there isn’t much you can’t do.

I'm ashamed to be an American sometimes...

After reading "Nickel-and-Dimed" and "Pennies an Hour and No Way Up", I felt ashamed to call myself an American. I live in the richest c0untry in the world, I have everything and more, but somehow I feel ashamed to say so. It's not morally right to make anyone, black or white, indian or chinese, to work a low-wage job just because they are not doctors, lawyers, or at a higher competency in society. How can our government not take a stand against this rational? I was devasted and shocked to read in "Pennies an Hour..." that two billion people in the world make less than two American dollars a day. Some of these people are grown adults while I'm a young teen bagger at a Genuardi's grocery store making five or more dollars then they are. Moreover, I found it interesting that Barbara Ehrenreich chose to live the life of a low-wage worker in her story," Nickel-and-Dimed." Through her article, I could relate to a lot of the things she was talking about while she was a waitress. My first money-paying job was being a busser and a hostess at a small cafe and deli back home. I remember thinking to myself about how badly the waitresses would be treated, how little they were paid for working so hard, sweating in and out of the kitchens, and especially putting up with sexual harrassment from the cooks. I guess what amazed me the most was how beautiful of a people they were despite the working class they came from. Just because your a waitress or a hotel housekeeper does not mean your personality is poor or that someone else is better than you. However, I still wish like Enrenreich says, for these people to come to know what they're really worth and stand up for themselves, they deserve better, much better.

1.6 cents..WHAT? is that possible?

In "Nickel-and-Dimed: on (Not) Getting by in America" I was amazed about how Erenreich conducted an experiment to see what it is like living on wages paid in most service jobs. She wanted to experience poverty and see how it feels to be a long term low waged worker. She lived in a rundown home, struggling to pay rent. She went on many job searches and realized how hard it was to get a job even getting paid six to seven dollars an hour. She could barely survive herself, and she couldn't possibly imagine how single mothers on welfare managed to survive. She realized she'd never be able to hold two jobs, and she couldn't even live off of one job. In the end she realized the low waged workers she had encountered were far too nice and worthy of something than to be paid such low wages. She hopes that they can realize and take appropriate action. I give her a lot of credit for doing this experiment. She is someone well off and now knows hands on what it is like to live in poverty. I know I would never be able to go through with it, lets face it money is sweet and we all love it and we all want more of it, and when we dont have any, were not happy. Maybe were all just spoiled, or lucky? Maybe theres something very wrong with this world? "Pennies an Hour and No Way up" was just very disturbing. It was information I and I'm sure many others are unaware of. A woman works very hard to sew a shirt and earns her ever so rewarding 5 cents and then America goes and sells it for $17.99! I just find it outrageous. It makes me not want to buy things because you don't know where it has come from, the "background" of the object you would like to purchase. I think it's unbelievable and yea are countries rich, but that's just messed up. Somone should do something.

I've Been Branded

First Off, I need to say good title Scott.
Now, I titled my blog "I've Been Branded" because everyday I walk around wearing the name brand clothes that I spend a lot of money on. For some reason Nike, Timberland, Enyce, and many more companies have gotten my attention and tricked me into spending more money than I need to on clothes even though I could find clothes for much less. I've been branded mentally as well because there are certain brands, like reebok and adidas, that I would never even think about buying, which in Naomi Klein's article "No Logo" shows that the company as reached me in what it is trying to do. The companies don't worry about the product one-fourth as much as they do about their "brand". I don't think I'm a walking advertisement but I've heard people say they would never wear a brand-name for that reason. As Kalle Lasn, talks about the obsurd ways of advertising in "Hype" I had to laugh at the actual things people have done. I couldn't believe that a school kid has a different advertisement shaved into his head for everyone else to see, or how a company is trying to get a advertisement to go into orbit. I personally think that advertising is becoming complete bullshit and has ruined much of our cultural landscape in the country. The only problem is the companies aren't going to change and we the consumers will probably see an advertisement for something we like and go out and buy it.

Advertising Sucks

Advertising is everywhere. What else is new? This is not something new to our generation, we've all grown up on the commercials and the snappy signature lines from our favorite fast food place. "Have you had your break today?" I think it's probable that most of us can identify that one as being the McDonalds logo. "Hype" by Kalle Lasn clearly shows the pent up fustration she has had with these ads consuming our daily lives.
"You reach down to pull your golf ball out of the hole and there, at the bottom of the cup, is an as for a brokerage firm. You fill your car with gas, there's an ad on the nozzle. You wait for your bank machine to spit out money and an as pushing GIC's scrolls by in the little window." (Lasn 200)
It doesn't stop there, Kalle goes on for another page about different advertisments. This article is perfectly acceptable in venting her annoyence with advertisers, however, Naomi Klein's article "No Logo" is just unacceptable. The need for a complete history of advertising and branding or a stunning incidence like "Marlboro friday" is not so stunning. We all know about the dark secrets of brand name companies making our clothes or whatever it is that we buy for under 5 cents, and yeh we buy the stuff anyway for absurd amounts of money. This will never change, the need for brand names is too demanding today. Most kids want to be seen wearing the expensive name brand clothing. Most people will pick Pepsi over Weis Coke. The advertising industry will always come up with new different schemes to making us chose their product. Whether it be from making an inhuman object have a personality to the catchy music behind a coffee commercial, we are stuck in the advertising world and that's it. Short and simple fustration is all we need with the brand name advertising world.

Could you live off of making less than $2.00 a day?

Nickel-and-Dimed:On (Not) Getting By in America- I found this piece interesting that Ehrenreich stopped living her life of wealth and money to see what it was like to live off of wages of most service jobs (about 6 or 7 dollars an hour). It was harder than she thought to even find a job, and when she did it did not pay a lot. Ehrenreich did not understand how people on welfare or single mothers can even survive. Ehrenreich completed her study and noted that the people she met were too nice, funny and caring to make such low wages. People in need to stand up for themselves and do something about it!
Pennies an Hour and No Way Up- "Two billion people in the world make less than two American dollars a day" (Hayden, 385) Could you live off of that? I know there is no way I could. After reading this piece I found it interesting what people in such places like Bangladesh and China earned as their wages. Female workers in Bangladesh made 1.6 cents for each cap they sewed. Is that fair? Chinese woman made as low as 12 cents an hour to make 80% of sport goods and toys sold in the US. Is that fair? Hayden and Kernaghan were right when they said something needs to be done to change these facts. The changes need to happen in the US itself!

F*ck advertising

Now that i've got your attention, the article "No Logo" by Naomi Klein gave an insight into the world of brands as opposed to products and how you aren't selling the actual item but an image that it portrays. The brand has to seem appealing to all and necessary in your life, this is what sells no matter how cheaply made the product should be. Not only that you need the image to be seen everywhere, from the bathroom to the bus, it is disgusting, how many times do i need to see the marlboro man through my daily routine. "Hype" by Kalle Lasn makes these points in her writing about how sick she also is of this cramming of images of miracle products down our throats. She also states that we are so enthralled by this marketing that we don't see how absurd it is, and possibly we are blinded by the hype. In closing i agree that it is annoying until you take a step back and finally look at what is going on around you, but by tomorrow

as i turn on the tv and see a beer commercial with countless model girls i'll forget all about how redundant the commercial is.

Advertising Frenzy!

Advertising controls our TV, radios, roadsides, newspapers, and magazines. Today's world is obsessed with the constant competition of brand names. "Hype" by Kalle Lasn and "No Logo" by Naomi Klein both talk about how advertisements are a huge part of our every day lives. Advertisements are "dumped" into North America's collective unconscious in huge amounts each and every day. Lasn` essay more describes the history of advertising and the evolution of the whole ordeal. Both authors make the same point about the way advertising gets into our heads by the constant repetetivness of each ad. No matter which way your eyes look they will come across at least one or more ads in a matter of minutes. Advertising is about hawking products ( Lasn 246). Ads are seen as a way for poeple to buy thier product but in reality most people find advertising to be an annoyance, I know I feel that way. When paying $35 for a little T-shirt that says, for example, Hollister is a ridiculous price, but along with buying that shirt you are now a free advertisment for their company brand which many people do not realize.

The "Brand Wagon"

The corporations of today’s market, perform their market practices very different from over twenty years ago. Before the mid “1980’s, manufacturer’s only focused on the production of goods. But now, the sellers are aware that consumers don’t really believe there are any differences between the products a company sells and its competitors. With this in mind, companies don’t worry about the quality of their product but rather the marketing strategies and image behind their products. Some company’s like Nike, for example, spend over $250 million dollars annually on marketing. But company’s like Nike don’t even manufacture their products but instead have international contractor’s make all their products for them. So the only thing Nike does is work on what is called its “Brand Name”. It has come to the point, that the corporations who have the fewest on payroll but produce the most powerful images, instead of their products, gain the most wealth and recognition. These corporations have also taking their advertising strategies to a whole new level. Not only are their ads confined to the usual places like the billboards and buses, but Corporate America has found new and creative ways to advertise their products to the general public. They have put up ads anywhere your eyes can possibly come to rest from selling billboards on top of public schools so airliners can see them from above to IBM beaming there logo into the clouds above San Francisco.

HyPe & No LoGo...WhAtS ThE DiFfErEnCe!?

It seemed as though both short stories tied right in with each other. In "Hype" by Kalle Lasn, she expressed deeply how advertisements are the main mental pollutions in this world today. We can thank the radio, billboards, and television for most of that. It's said that corporate advertising is the largest single psychological project. But on the other hand in "No Logo" by Naomi Klein, she talked about how corporations became extremely oversized and owned too much, employed too many people, and became weighed down with too many things. There she stated the obvious. In the world today corporations that are successful have to produce brands, not products. That seems out of touch with the good old traditional way. Klein said, "Corporations dont produce products and advertise them, they buy products and brand them." After reading both stories I understood what's really going on out there and how things have changed over the years. What's going to be next?

Have you advertised anything lately?

So if the answer to my question was no...I'm sorry but you are sadly mistaken. Without being to envasivel, what are you wearing today? Are you wearing a shirt that says Abercrombie, American Eagle, or Aeropostale? Did you have coffee this morning from your local coffee house or gas station for that matter? Did the cup say the name of that coffee house, or the brand of coffee? Are you wearing a pair of shoes? are they nike or addidas? If you answered yes to any of these question, you have been advirtising, and you've probably been doing it since you were little. I know that most people who whatch there favorite television show have said more than once " I hate Commercials" who wouldn't they take up almost 15 minutes of your favorite show that you wait every week for! But how many times has a Taco Bell commercial came on at like 8 O'clock at night and you're like " Boy I'm hungry" " O they have a late night drive through" " I could go for some tacos after this show" you actually gave it thought to go out and spend your money on tacos even though you probably have food in your kitchen cabinets that you can have.
"Hype" was a great story it really showed me how big advirtising is. Really, think about it! Everywhere you go, you see something that says " buy me, try me". Right? You're in the car, on the bus, whatching TV, shopping, or eating. Those advirtising people are always out to get more money! Companies have great ways to get you to buy. How about NIKE and the ever popular SWOOSH. Everyone wanted to swoosh at one time. In the Story Hype, she shows that all this advirtings is really just hype. To quote " There is nowhere to run. N oone is exemt and no one will be spared..." Kalle Lasn HYPE pg. 201.

Adveristment

I found both Hype and No-Logo very interesting. No-Logo was a very informative piece that talked about the advertising market in the mid 80's leading to the 90s and how they dealt with problems such as "marlboro friday". It was interesting to see how with the announcement that marlboro was going to cut their prices 20 %. It showed how the different companies dealt with it and how some suffered and eventually fell apart, but how others are still surviving today. With Hype it was very short and to the point. It was interesting to read about how places such as schools would allow adverisers to place their advertisment on the roof of the school just to get a profit from it. I found it funny when they talked about all the places that have advertisments now like in bathrooms but its the honest truth, advertisers will go to get lengths to get their product out their in the publics eye. If you really think about it advertisment is everywhere and there is no stopping it.

Marketing Strategies

In today's society advertisements and brand names have taken over our culture. Corporations spend billions of dollars a year planning out there advertisement strategies. They spend more time on advertising than developing the product they are actually selling. Businesses such as Coke-a-cola, Nike, and Starbucks truly believe that the product they are selling is not just a piece of merchandise but it is "a way of life, attitude, a set of values, a look, and an idea." ( Logo 247). The billions of dollars spent each year have not gone unnoticed. "Everyday an estimated 12 billion display ads, 3 million radio commercials, and more than 200,000 TV commercials are dumped into North America's collective pollution flood. " ( Lasn 199) This type of marketing strategies seem to work on America's youth. Working at a retailer myself, I have noticed that its not the quality of the clothing that makes teens buy them, but the brand they are wearing and how well known it is through out society.