Dear President Obama,

Let me first start out by addressing a reoccurring pattern in history. As I am sure you remember the Marshall Plan was meant to "rebuild" Europe after the destruction of World War II. “Marshall delivered his famous address on the idea for European recovery at Harvard University on June 5, 1947. In the following months, Marshall and others drafted a plan that embodied his conviction that economic recovery and stability were vital to the rebuilding of a democratic Europe.” It is clear to me that you were thinking along those lines when you invaded Libya. Your invasion of Libya has given the people of the United States a true look at your foreign policies in the Middle East and North Africa as well as some of your recent speeches such as when you were quoted as saying, “Born, as we are, out of a revolution by those who longed to be free, we welcome the fact that history is on the move in the Middle East and North Africa, and that young people are leading the way. Because wherever people long to be free, they will find a friend in the United States.” This tells us that your foreign policy echoes the Marshal Plan because it says that Americas should intervene when people are fighting for freedom and ask for help, when our interests are at stake (oil and security in Libya’s case and capitalism vs. communism in Europe’s case), when we have international support, and when other countries are prepared or willing to help us fight.
It is especially clear that it is important to you to have other countries support us when you say, “It is true that America cannot use our military wherever repression occurs. And given the costs and risks of intervention, we must always measure our interests against the need for action. But that cannot be an argument for never acting on behalf of what’s right. In this particular country – Libya; at this particular moment, we were faced with the prospect of violence on a horrific scale. We had a unique ability to stop that violence: an international mandate for action, a broad coalition prepared to join us, the support of Arab countries, and a plea for help from the Libyan people themselves. I support your “middle ground” stance on foreign policy. Your views are like a breath of fresh, air after having a president who was on one extreme side of not doing anything in a situation similar to Libya’s (President Clinton, Bosnia/ Rwanda) and a president on the other end of the spectrum who was extreme in his tactics of forcing regime change (President Bush, Iraq). In speaking of the previous comparison, your views would fall under a happy medium between the two polar opposites of doing something about the situation while not pushing change too hard on the people of that country.
Sincerely,
Malia Bence

Semester Dos, Blog 2

Dear Darla,

How are things going in New York for you? I miss it there... Tuskegee, Alabama just isn't my cup of tea. I have met many new young men that are becoming my friends though. They all have such interesting stories and perspective that they share with the rest of us and there are so many stories to be heard. There are 996 of us and those are just the pilots! There are also 15000 ground personnel! They are all from ranging states too. From Washington, to Los Angeles, to Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, and there are even a few other boys who are also from New York.
Anyways, I miss your cooking so much because there are simply long tables which we sit at to eat whatever the kitchen crew slops down in front of us. I also our sweet privacy that we had at home. Here at training camp, we are all crammed into bunk beds in relatively small rooms, but no matter, it will be worth it once I get my chance to serve in a war for my great country. You know, some of the boys and I were talking about it the other night and it may surprise people how dedicated we all are to our country considering the treatment this country has given us in the near past, but I guess our love is strong and true and cannot be broken.
You would be proud to hear that my commending officer was telling us the other day that since we are the first class and began our training in July 1941, we should be completing our training in only March of '42! There are thirteen men in our class and I plan on being one of the ones who complete the training!
My only complaint at this time would be that I heard that they are running low on qualified airmen for the war and even though we are perfect for the job, they still aren't letting us serve with them white men just because of the color of our skin! Boy, slavery may have ended 75 years ago, but I sure do still feel it in the air. All I can do at this point though is to just continue to hope that maybe one day all people of this great country will have the same rights and maybe even black pilots will be just as respected as them white folks. So maybe I can't get a promotion today because of my color but later I hope I might get one, I sure would love a promotion.
While everything is OK for me now, it could always be better. I am still worried about how you are doing back at home. I hope none of them neighbors are giving you any grief about having a black husband in the air force. If they do, you you have my complete permission to sick Rover on them. You wont have to deal with them for too much longer. However this brings me to my next fear (and I don't want you to go get upset), but there is always the possibility of my not returning home because of some accident that happened to me while at war. I am a little bit worried about this outcome just because I want you to be taken care of if in fact this situation were to come true. Even if I do return home, what will be the reactions of everyone once I arrive? Will they commend me? Will they be upset? Will they look down on me? I might even perform some heroic act at war and our country's government may not even honor me for it! All that work and I may still be looked down upon? Anyways, I am sorry to end this letter on a sad note, but it seems as though it is time for us to go to lunch now. I love you and hope to come home soon having assisted in winning our country a victory.

Love,
Bobby

Sources:
1. http://www.tuskegeeairmen.org/uploads/Who_Were_The_Tuskegee_Airmen.pdf

Semester Dos, Blog 10

During the second world war, my grandfather wanted to enlist in the military and serve his country extremely badly. When he turned 18 and he was finally old enough to serve, he went to the drafting board and signed up. However as a requirement to join the military you had to have a physical completed. When he got his physical, the doctors discovered that he had Tuberculosis in his lungs and so he was forbidden from serving. He was extremely sad about this news and also felt very ashamed since during the time of world war two everyone wanted to join the military and make their country proud. To this day he is still embarrassed and ashamed by the fact the he did not serve in World War Two.

1) 1941 - 1945

I see this poster as a recruitment and/or encouragement poster for all the young men that are fighting in the war or want to. It attempts to make you angry by the statistics and then it tells you what you can do about it by telling you to enlist.

2) When I first saw this piece of propaganda, I thought that it was a little ridiculous. It is portraying Hitler and all of the Japanese people as one huge horrific monster that is tearing America apart. This poster then goes on to say that any average American citizen can stop this so called monster simply by producing as much war supplies as they humanly possibly can.

3) by Henry Koerner, 1943

Printed by the Government Printing Office for the Office of War Information NARA Still Picture Branch

This poster is interesting to me because I did not know that they were asking for all American citizens to save their fats that they would have thrown away and take them to their "local meat dealer" so that they could then be used for explosives in the war.

Semester Dos, Blog 8

#1: One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest by Ken Kesey is a book that expresses how the times of the 1960's were a time of rebellion against the authorities in America. A time of hippies and protests. This is show through McMurphey and his constant challenging of Nurse Ratchet who is the "Big Nurse" and calls all of the shots and when her authority is challenged she would pull back and try to restrict the patients even more which then caused the patients to rebel even more. An example of how the patients feel as though they have no choice in what happens to them is when Harding says, "This world... belongs to the strong, my friend! The ritual of our existence is based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the weak. We must face up to this. No more than right law of the natural world. The rabbits accept their role in this ritual and recognize the wolf as the strong."

Honors Blog

On September 11, 2001, 9/11 was born. His birth was sort of a "crash landing" and resulted in the two tall nurses who delivered him crumbling under the pressure. The mother of poor 9/11 was unknown for he was found on the doorstep of the United States hospital. The police investigated who might have dropped little 9/11 off because they knew he would cause many events after him to erupt, and the police did find one suspect who they arrested immediately, but rumors are that they never found his true mother or that they found her, they just wanted to play the part of God and arrest someone else for being the mother and leaving 9/11 on their step.

http://iamallysonmoder64.blogspot.com/

The reason why I found Ally's Ampersand article idea to stand out to me is because I thought they were ones that I would not only be able to write about, but also ones that if I did write about them for my article I know that they would turn out well. I especially liked her idea to write her article on how to be aware of your surroundings because on several occations you forget where you are.

http://malsh7712.blogspot.com/

I found Megans Ampersand article pitches to be good ideas because all three of them were ideas that were specific and interesting while also conveying the basic information that a reader would need to know about her internship as well. My favorite idea of hers was her idea to write her Ampersand article on about how even though, "dentists are usually seen as scary horrific people, they are actually some of the hero's of the world."

http://shoshmahgosh.blogspot.com/

Finally, I also found Shoshannas Ampersand articles to be interesting as well because they were not simply average descriptions or proposals that she would write. She would be taking a more creative approach to writing her Ampersand article. For example, I particularly liked her proposal to write a, "step by step guide to help a new worker or incoming intern with communication in the office with tips to help communication go more smoothly."

1) My first idea that I propose that I could do for Ampersand would be to write my article about a certain co-worker of mine while I was interning at MeadsDurket marketing firm. Her name was Georgie and she wore an article of clothing that somehow had something to do with cats almost every single day I was at my internship. I could also hear her talking on the phone throughout the work days about some cats she was rescuing and how she cried when she could not keep them all for her own.

2) My second idea that I propose that I could do for Ampersand would be to write my article about how my internship experience allowed me to test out and see how my organization skills (or lack of) and my various medical issues would affect my ability to work and complete tasks in the real world especially considering the fact that I hope to be very successful at whatever career I choose to pursue.

3) My final idea that I propose that I could do for Ampersand would be to write my article about how my internship allowed me to see how it felt to actually be part of the career world and how it felt to be part of the machine that is constantly at work in order for our world and our way of life to fully function at all times.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/01/17/110117fa_fact_brooks

This New Yorker article has a couple elements throughout it that I would like to include in my article that I will eventually write for Ampersand. First of all, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. This of course is one aspect that I would hope that I could include in my Ampersand article. The other thing that I will pull from this New Yorker article is I might start by setting the scene in my article just like the author of this New Yorker did by describing a situation or a setting before diving strait into telling a full on story or providing all of my information.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8326605/Baby-boomers-must-pay-for-their-own-elderly-care.html

This article includes several writing tools that were used throughout it. This is what I will take away from reading it and I will try and include several uses of the writing tips in my article for Ampersand as well. One example of when a writing tip was used in this article was when the author wrote, "He warned that the “squeezed” middle-classes face potentially the greatest burden, amid concerns that it is already too late to help ease the “catastrophic” costs likely to hit the recently retired." This example shows how the writing tip, make meaning early was used throughout this article, which I will hopefully also be able to include in my final Ampersand article.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/01/24/110124fa_fact_lizza

This article, written in the New Yorker, was another good example of an article to base my article for Ampersand off of. This is because this article also used many of the writing tips we have been taught during class throughout it as well. For example, this article uses the writing tip of Concerts Not Pancakes. An example of where this writing tip is used is when the article says, "Kurt is actually a phenomenal dart player, but Jason, once he gets about six beers in him, is also phenomenal. They call him Dead-Eye.” Not only does the word "phenomenal" catch your attention at the beginning, but the phrase "Dead-Eye" ends the sentence with a bang as well.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2007/sep/07/greatinterviews1

The main "technique" that I noticed being used was the author was very argumentative and blunt while conducting the interview. This lead to a very interesting, exciting, and even controversial interview in the end.

In this interview, I think that the format that the author organized it into was definitely a "writing technique" because if he had not organized in the way that it is now, I don't think it would have provided the same amount of drama and suspense as it does when reading it. The style that it is written in is that it is written out almost exactly as it was most likely said except for a few lines being bolded according to who is speaking at that time. This provided the reader with some extra drama when it was needed I think because you were not pausing throughout your reading experience in order to go back and read who is saying what, but at the same time you are also not "drifting" and getting lost in any extra writing about facts or comments. This format for an interview is clearly best for dramatic ones such as this one.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2007/sep/11/greatinterviews

When he wrote about his interview that he conducted about Marlon Brando, the interviewer chose to use the writing technique of including all of the quotes within what seemed to be a solid narrative which included some dialogue of what was said at this visit.

The interviewer may have chosen to use this style of formatting the interview in order to possibly show how laid back and relaxed the interviewee and his style of life were. In the introduction the interviewer describes the environment in which the interviewee lived in and he described it as having tea bags and bamboo cluttering up his house which these items then lead to believe that the interviewee was a very calm and peaceful person which set up a background knowledge or image in the readers brain for as to how the interview may proceed.

Semester Two, Blog Two

I have always been a twisted or dark book lover, but recently I have began to read a book called, It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be and so far I have actually really enjoyed it. I have always been skeptical of inspirational or "self-help" books but this book was recommended to me and so far I am loving it! The advertising guru, Paul Arden, writes it and it is a handbook of how to succeed in life. This book caught my attention because of my curiosity and when I flipped through it and read little tid bits I agreed with everything it said and enjoyed all of the photos it provided.

Semester Two, Blog Number One!

1) The main thing that I am taking away from my internship is confidence. Before I started my internship I was afraid that once I gained more independence, I would not be able to continue with my time management and organizational skills. Once I actually started my internship though, I surprised myself by being able to enforce my ability to use my organizational and time management skills even more than I had before

2) I will be able to use these newly enhanced skills in the coming semester when it comes to completing projects and assignments on time. I will also be able to use my newly enhanced organizational skills to hopefully keep my bag and school supplies in general clean and organized at all time.

Honors Blog #4:

I am glad that I chose to be an honors student for the 2010-2011 school year first semester because I really gained some important skills and opportunities from being in honors. I have noticed lately that my writing has improved greatly since the beginning of the school year and I believe that a large portion of the reason for that is because of all of the Honors reading and Honors writing that I have been completing.

The reading I have been completing has been of all classic and historical novels which has expanded my knowledge on not only Humanities related topics, but other topics as well and the reading has also (most likely) improved my writing just because I was absorbing and unconsciously learning new vocabulary and writing techniques/styles that was being used throughout the books that I read.

The Honors writing I had to complete was not that much extra, but it was an additional amount of writing that I had to do. This writing helped me because it provided additional practice for applying the writing skills that I learned in class and it also usually required some additional research to be done on the certain topic that the Honors Blog was about for that particular night.

If I were to do this past Honors semester over again I would probably access after school extra help from Randy more often for topics that didn't make sense to my that we were learning about or assignment that were particularly challenging for me. This is because while I did access the office hours that were available to me on occasion I still feel like I would have had a less stressful time completing my work for English Honors and would have completed a better quality of work had I gone in on my own time more frequently.

My goals for English Honors in the second semester would be that first of all I hope to keep a solid A in my honors class by ensuring that I always turn my assignments in and to go in for office hours more often.

My grade for the first semester started out strong but then as the semester continued on my grade dropped from and A+ to a B-, but luckily I have been able to pull my grade up from a B- to a B+ so far, but I would have still much have rathered an A. I think that the reason for this was that I would not stay completely on top of my assignments and writer them down every second that I heard something additional that I had to do. I would also just forget or not double check with my teacher that he saw my homework and marked me as having it complete and on time.

As I said previously I came to office hours a few times for English but I still did not fully take advantage of the office hours being available to me. If I had gone in for office hours more often I think that my work would have turned out better and I would have improved my understanding of all the topics slightly as well.

The history that I am interested in is any kind of Art History and I also like learning about Philosophy and philosophers and their beliefs. I also enjoy learning about the history of religions, but considering this year the main focus is on American History I would say that I would like to learn about the different cultural groups or cults in America like the Klu Klux Klan because I am interested also in anything culture related. I feel that this past first semester in Honors English has relatively been a success and I am looking forward to continuing on and raising my standard in the coming semester.

Honors Blog #3:

One of the programs that were created as part of The New Deal was the start of Social Security. This program is still a part of the United States today, but I would also like to make a few adjustments to it in order to modernize it a little more to how today's society works. The changes I would like to make to it is that I think it should no longer include the Unemployment Insurance.

Social Security is a social insurance program that is funded through "dedicated payroll taxes" and is the federal Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program. It was started in 1935 and the president at that time was Franklin D. Roosevelt who was a relatively well-liked president in our history partly because he did so much better at making a difference in solving America's problems at the time that the prior president who was McKinley. Social Security was started in a difficult period of time when we were in the Great Depression and it was a part of The New Deal and its new set of programs that it started.

The way that we should modernize social security for today society is that I think that it would be better if we dropped the Unemployment Insurance that is provided as a part of Social Security. This is because while in 1935 there were many people who were unemployed due to the depression, now although there are people who are unemployed from the current economy, there are still a lot less people who have a legitimate excuse for why they are unemployed so the Unemployment Insurance that we are spending our money on as a part of Social Security just doesn't seem to be as necessary as it was during the Great Depression.

Honors Blog#2

Dear Mr. President Barack Obama,

I write to you bearing but a few resourceful references or facts that I have collected throughout my research that I have conducted on how to improve the economy of our great nation. I have spent some time reading over what the "final straw" was to boost our country out of a very deep depression between the years, 1933 and 1936 and what I have come up with stems from the New Deal act created by Theodore Delano Roosevelt. First I suggest that we follow suit and close all of the banks in the country so that then one all of the necessary legislation has been passed billions of dollars can flood back into the banks therefore stabilizing Americas banking system.

Now allow me to explain my reasoning thus far. As you know, the Great Depression began with President Herbert Hoover in charge. Because of his lack of ability to handle the situation at hand when the next election came around and the Great Depression was still in full swing, it was not surprising that the senates view swung strongly to the democratic side, the vote for the new president along with it. This resulted in President Theodore Roosevelt becoming elected.

Roosevelt was greatly liked by almost all citizens of the US. He took some great, even debatably risky steps in order to get to the root of the problems in our country back then as to then be able to cure it. He even had his own radio station titled, "Fireside Chats", where he would turn to the people in hopes of having his agenda passed. The word "chat" was even used because it indicated that the President was confident that the US could survive and defeat the Great Depression. They instilled confidence in the government under his leadership.

Since times have indeed changed since the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, and my proposition of closing the banks for a while and then reopening them to have cash flood through and revive them all may not work, My main advice to you would be to simply get creative like President Roosevelt did. From his radio talk show where he communicated directly with the people, to his closing of all the banks in our country, there were no shortages of risks taking place yet maybe that is all our economy needs today, a leap of faith that just might solve everything.

Sincerely,

Malia Bence

"Climbing Out of the Great Depression." Brad DeLong's Website Home Page. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. .

"Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Great Depression." Lycos. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. .

Erickson, Arthur. "The New Deal: Franklin D. Roosevelt's Solution to the Great Depression."Associated Content from Yahoo! - Associatedcontent.com. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. .

"Fireside Chats." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. .

"The Test : The New Yorker." National and World News, Profiles, Culture, Reviews, Fiction, Poetry : The New Yorker. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. .

"Obama, the Economic Crisis, and the Democrats : The New Yorker." National and World News, Profiles, Culture, Reviews, Fiction, Poetry : The New Yorker. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. .

Honors Blog #1

Medicare is a system that was first started by President Lyndon Johnson that was set up in 1965. President Johnson felt that "it was the government's duty to provide medical insurance to its elderly residents." This plans purpose was originally to provide a hospital insurance program for the elderly under the Social Security Act with a "supplementary medical benefits program and an extended program of medical assistance", to better the benefits under the Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance System, to improve the Federal-State public assistance programs, and for other purposes. This plan did not just develop over night. There was 20 years of debate that lead up to the passing of Medicare, but Lyndon Johnson lead the way until the end.

The Medicare system is made up of two parts. The first part is Part A and the second part it Part B. Part A Medicare covers all hospital expenses such as diagnostic tests, doctors' fees, inpatient stays and meals. The Part B plan then offers standard medical coverage for expenses such as outpatient surgery, medical equipment and "primary care". Today, the Medicare system has additional parts to it such as Part C and Part D. These parts allow the Medicare costumers to choose between an HMO or PPO plan to customize an insurance policy that fits their needs, and for prescriptions, the Part D plan uses private insurance companies to help the Medicare customers to pay for their medications. All citizens of the United States that are or over 65 or have a disability can have Medicare.

One thing that people commonly think about Medicare is that Medicare is a free health care program. In reality, the technical truth is that all US citizens are paying to have Medicare available because the tax money that the government receives pays for Medicare and that total amount that they receive each year is about two hundred and seventy seven dollars in total. While Medicare does not come cheap technically, it is still something that every US citizen should care about having around because eventually, it will affect us all.

Blog #20:

Should the government have control over "personal" issues such as violent video games, marijuana, gay marriage, etc.? Questions like these have been surfacing for many years now. A main topic of interest in whether the government should control whether or not it happens is, the issue of gay marriage/rights. The period of granting licenses for marriage and such to gays first began on June 16, 2008, due to a ruling by the Supreme Court of California that was based on an equal protection argument and ended November 5, 2008, because of the passage ofProposition 8. Today another "gay" topic that has been surfacing is whether the rule of "don't ask don't tell" should be continued or to be shut down or gotten rid of. In fact senator John McCain has taken on a position of trying to prevent the "don't ask don't tell" rule to be eliminated.

I interviewed a fellow student at High Tech High Media Arts about her opinions on what the government has control over and if it should be warranted. I asked her about video games, gay marriage, etc. When asked about violent video games being controlled by the government she responded with, "the government should control things such as video games and movies just so there is control and young people aren't exposed to violence or sexuality."

Although she was alright with the government having control over violent media, when ask about the government being able to control gay marriage and/or don't ask don't tell, she said that the difference is, "gay marriage is a choice that an adult makes and obviously if they want to get married and have strong feelings, then the government has no right to make laws that interfere with love." Finally, further asked about her opinions on the governments involvement with "gay" laws or restrictions she said, "I feel like the topic of "gay" shouldn't be discussed or debated by anyone in the government especially anyone who is strait. They have no right trying to make a law on something that I see as a right to happiness which comes from love." While in some places I may have a slight variation of opinion about these topics being controlled by the government, I pretty much share a common opinion with my interviewee.

1. I am VERY proud of everything about how I completed this project. I am proud of how although I had a really hard time starting out the project, I was able to push through my hardship and actually come out with my best piece of writing so far in this class. I am proud that I was able to fumble around with and figure out Adobe Illustrator enough to be able to create an impressive art component that followed all of the guidelines, and as I said before I am proud of the piece of writing I came out with in the end.

2. A way that my writing has changed from at the beginning of the semester is that I have begun to include many of the Writing Tips that we have learned in class in my writing. Some main writing tips that I incorporate in my writing are, MME (make meaning early), concerts not pancakes, the loop, and more.

3. Honestly I am pretty proud of the piece of writing that I came out with in the end and I don't think that I would change anything about it, but if I absolutely HAD to change something I would probably just continue to critique it and go over it and I would probably end up including more advanced vocabulary or more uses of the writing tips.

4. I now realize how important the element of peer critiquing and having other people read over your writing several times because a lot of times you will have things that you may have read over several times and thought was perfectly fine, but everyone else sees it as being awkwardly worded or something which you can the change if you want to after reading over it again with a new fresh perspective.

1. My main goal for the Senate Health Care Hearings is mainly for Austins bill to get passed since the bill he is proposing would save me money as a small business owner when I am paying and providing quality health care to all of my employees.

2. Ultimately I just hope to come away from the Senate Health Care Hearing with some more money in my pockets as a result of a government-controlled "private" health care system that would have been hopefully put into place after the Hearings.

3. I plan on including how what I am trying to accomplish also has a positive effect for all of the rest of the country instead of only me. This will hopefully then prove to all of those who will be voting on the bills that approving Austins bill would be worthwhile.

4. So far I have been working with Austin mostly because he is my senator that will be questioning me, but in addition to Austin I have also been working with Louis, and Ally who have both been assisting me in finally understanding what my role is and really just everything that is going on around me.

Blog #17:

Since my topic is not one that is often something that is "treated", these two articles applied less to my article but still, these articles really just impact any kind of health issues in general because they simply describe the pros and cons of just one certain topic... health care which applies to any form of health topic. The reason why it applies to all of the health topics is because almost every health topic should have some form of a cure, process of diagnosing, or even some form of relief efforts for the patient.

My opinion on the topic would side more towards what Joel A Harrison was saying about how, "Recognizing the hidden costs that U.S. households pay for health care today makes it far easier to see how a universal single-payer system—with all of its obvious advantages—can cost most Americans less than the one we have today." I did not agree with Larry Kudlow especially since his style of stating his opinion was so smug and almost rude like the way he started out his article by saying, "Does anybody really believe that adding 50 million people to the public health-care rolls will not cost the government more money?" Even just his picture alone offendedd me when I looked at it. At least the way that George Will phrased his opinion (which was similar to Kudlows) he did not phrase it in such a rude and up-front way. For example in his article he said as though stateing a fact, "As is said, if you think health care is expensive now, just wait until it is free."