Meta Post: The Sequel

The blogging world has surprisingly always appeared very glamorous to me. Real people expressing their real opinions that they write on their own time.

So, this year when I learned that we were all going to make blogs-I was ecstatic. And I still love blogging. I'm so glad that I have had the chance to realize this thanks to AmStudz.

This year, I have grown immensely as a blogger. I cringe now as I reread my first post; Illegitimate sources-terrible intro- and overall messy organization.

Thankfully, I continued to improve throughout first semester. By the time I wrote my first meta post I had noticed the issues in my first semester blogging and I set two goals for myself:

1. Expand the variety of my topic sentences. (Most of my topic sentences from first semester started with a weekday and then informed when the topic of the post was first introduced to me. For example: Thursday, while I was watching the news I was informed that....etc.)

2. Relate my blog posts to what we are discussing in class more often.

To start off, there were way more than just two problems with my blogging at that time of the year, and while I think I succeeded in my first goal, I did not succeed in my second. But that does not mean my blog posts this semester have not improved in quality, they have. Tenfold.

White Flag-Jasper Johns
This painting does not pertain to my blog post.

My favorite blog post fourth quarter is entitled Dumbing Down Politics. 


The main reason why this is my favorite blog post is because as I wrote it, I changed my mind on the topic. At first, I was angered by the news that our congressmen speak at such a level, but by writing a blog post about it, I was forced to step back and look at both sides of the issue and do research on both sides. By doing this, I ultimately changed my mind, and I think that this is an important trait to have not only as a blogger, but as an American as well: The ability to disown your preconceived notions on an issue after educating yourself. I was not able to do this until taking this American Studies class.

Another thing I think is strong about this post are my embedded images. Specifically, the second image. I believe I was successfully able to prove a point simply within the caption which also added purpose to the image. Before this post, my captions were not as meaningful and many of the images were not explained.

Lastly, I did accomplish one of the goals from my first semester meta post, the topic sentence goal. I did not begin this post with a weekday reference but with a rather (in my opinion)  witty joke. This topic sentence also helps to entice readers into reading my post.

I am not a perfect blogger, I have made many mistakes, but I'm much better than when I started. And honestly, knowing that makes me extremely content.

Thank you American Studies. 

Dumbing Down Politics

If in the past 15 years you have found it easier to understand America's politician's speeches, I feel obliged to tell you, you have not been getting smarter, congress has just been getting dumber. According to a report by the Sunlight Foundation, a foundation, "that uses the power of the Internet to catalyze greater government openness and transparency, and provides new tools and resources for media and citizens, alike" (SunlightFoundation), members of congress currently speak at the vocabulary level of high school sophmores. 

Congress...is that you?

When I first heard this statistic, I was appaled. Our great country's prominent politicians speak like a bunch of 15 year old girls? That is not acceptable! Politicians should be highly educated, well spoken individuals, that's why we elect them to be responsible for our country! There is a certain amount of trust that goes along with being smart that politicians such as Barack Obama, graduate of Columbia, or George Bush, graduate of Yale (mind his grades) receive. 

Therefore, our congressmen should definitely not speak at the level of high school sophmores, right? 

Rep. Mick Mulvaney, (R-S.C) speaks at a lower grade
level (7.9) then any other US Congressmen,
yet he graduated with honors from Georgetown U. 

Wrong! As I contemplate it more and more, perhaps it is not such of a bad thing. Politics should be comprehendible for all Americans, no matter how large their vocabulary. 

Although, it is not clear if congressmen are dumbing down their vocabulary on purpose, as it may seem to be a bad thing, it may not be so bad at all. 

What do you think? 

Click HERE to learn more about this topic!

Blasting Bloomberg

"At our nation’s founding, African-Americans were held in bondage. Those without property could not vote. Catholics could not hold office. Women could not vote or hold office. And homosexuality was, in some places, a crime punishable by death.Throughout our history, each and every generation has expanded upon the freedoms won by their parents and grandparents. Each and every generation has removed some barrier to full participation in the American dream. That work is not over. Far from it… Last week’s referendum banning same-sex marriage (amendment one) shows just how much more work needs to be done to ensure freedom and equality for all people.”
                                                                                                              -Michael Bloomberg

When UNC Chapel Hill asked New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to deliver the commencement speech for the graduating class of 2012, they most likely did not anticipate him slamming North Carolina's newly instated Amendment One. North Carolina Amendment One (often refereed to simply Amendment One) bans all same-sex unions of any kind in the state of North Carolina. 

There has been a huge divide on the subject of Bloomberg's comments; Were they appropriate, were they not?  In fact, I took the liberty of finding a message board on this topic with comments from real Americans, here are some I'd like to highlight:

"Mayor Bloomberg....do us all a favor....keep your opinions in NY. The rest of the country could care less what you think....Your city is a mess..." -Tea Party United

"I don't care what side of the issue you're on, but Bloomie should stay in NY, and dictate his views to his sheeple. The rest of the country doesn't care what he thinks. Rule your little fiefdom as you wish. They like being ruled up there. Liberty is a foreign concept to them."

"I guess bloomberg & obama go the same spa!"

If you want to read moreof these ridiculous comments,which are much more offensive than anything that came out of Bloomberg's mouth at UNC  click here.

Were Mayor Bloomberg's comments appropriate? In my point of view, yes. Yes because there is never an inappropriate time to preach equality. Yes because Bloomberg has a right to preach his opinion no matter what college he is at. Yes because commencement speeches are traditionally supposed to refer to the future and inspire young minds, and Bloomberg's speech accomplished both. 

And above all of that, if they are college grads anyways, they were more likely to vote against amendment one as proved by these graphs from buzzfeed.com. The first graph displays the percent of people over 25 with a bachelors degree or higher by county. The darker green counties the are the counties with a higher volume of college grads. The second graph displays which counties voted for and against Amendment One. The green symbolizes the "yes" counties and the red symbolizes the "no" counties. 

Pretty shocking right? It seems that counties with a higher volume of college grads are the counties that voted against the equality of gays.

Nonetheless-everyone- leave Bloomie alone!

Drowning in Logos

A new iphone application entitled "Logos Quiz Game" has gained quite a bit of popularity recently. I wanted to try it out for myself, so I downloaded it to my iphone and started playing, and now I can't stop. I'm hooked! I beat the first five levels in a day! That's over 200 logos. 


Though, when I closed the application I realized that it was kind of weird that I was playing a quiz game identifying big companies' logos. Why am I able to recognize so many logos off the top of my head?  


It's not only me who is extremely skilled at identifying logos, it's our whole country. According to Jay Walker-Smith, President of Yankelovich (a market research firm), "We've gone from being exposed to about 500 ads a day back in the 1970's to as many as 5,000 a day today" (CBS). 


At first when I read this statistic, I was skeptical, 5,000 is a enormous amount of ads. But, then I started thinking about it and I realized, ads are everywhere: Your tv, your newspaper, on the radio, on billboards, on the internet, on facebook, in movies, in music videos, the sides of trains, the sides of buses, the side of buildings, the sides of boats, vending machines, iphone apps, tray tables on airplanes, examining tables in a doctor’s office, taxi video screens, subway turnstiles, sports stadiums, benches, even your coffee cup has an advertisement on it. 




So, are we drowning in logos? I think yes. If high school students had to take a test on identifying countries on a world map and a test on identifying logos, which one do you think they would score stronger on? 

To Measure an Education

Growing up in an upper-middle class neighborhood, I've been told repeatedly just how lucky I am to be receiving such a high quality education. Due to some ignorance, I never truly understood what I was being told--until I began writing my junior theme. I'm doing my junior theme on the cutting of arts education is America's schools.

Did you know that fewer than 50% of 18 year olds have received an arts education? That in itself is a pretty staggering number, but the shock only continues once you learn how much that percentage drops when applied to minorities; particularly minorities living in lower class neighborhoods. 26% of 18 year old African Americans and 28% of 18 year old hispanics have received an arts education in their lifetime.

A quarter of some minorities in our country have not received an arts education.

An arts education that allows students to grow intellectually, socially, and emotionally. An arts education that has been proven to raise test scores and reduce tardies and truancies.

Three in four children of these minorities have never received that.

And we as Americans wonder why minorities have an extremely high, high school drop out rate?

What if--what if 100 percent of minorities had the ability to receive an arts education, would their drop out rate decrease? I sure think so.

I finally understand how lucky I am, but with this understanding comes guilt. Every school I have attended throughout my life has offered art classes. If I'm going to a public school shouldn't everyone else enrolled in public schools be receiving the same kind of education I am? I think that for what lower classes' property taxes (that fund public schools) lack, the government should make up in. Aren't we supposed to be a "fair" country?

My statistics for this post can be found here and here.

Thanks for reading,

Chrisanthy

Rush's Hoodie

Rush changing into his hoodie on the floor

If you have turned on a television in the past week, you may have noticed the massive amount of media coverage that the Trayvon Martin (the Florida teen unjustly killed by George Zimmerman) case is receiving. As if the case has not been compelling enough, the subplots that have spun off of this case have turned out equally as fascinating. My favorite being Illinois State Representative's Bobby Rush bold attire choice at a recent chamber meeting. 

While Rush was on the house floor discussing the Trayvon Martin case to his fellow congressmen, he began taking off his suit jacket to reveal a hoodie, symbolic of the one Trayvon wore on the night of his death. Almost immediately after this action, Rush was kicked off the house floor for breaking the chamber dress code. (Click here to watch Rush getting kicked off the floor). 

The big argument here is that other congressmen break the dress code all the time, but they have never been penalized like Rush was. Many government officials in support Rush have also noticed the unfair enforcement of the dress code, such as house minority leader Nancy Pelosi who stated, “If you’re going to enforce it {the dress code}, enforce it, but don’t be selective about it.” 

So, why isn't the dress code being enforced for the whole house?  Also, if they're not making a statement like Rush was, why would a congressman show up to a house meeting underdressed? Congressmen fifty years ago never had the nerve to show up to a formal house meeting underdressed, so why is it normal now? 

In my opinion, not just the house, but we as a society are becoming increasingly casual dressers. But, when did this happen? Are our values changing with appearance decreasing in importance? 

And finally, do you think If Trayvon Martin was wearing a sport coat instead of a hoodie he would have still been murdered? 

Pro Doctor Killing?

Pro Life or Pro Choice? That seems to be the buzzing question nowadays. As if the arguments behind abortion weren't complicated enough, our pals down in Tennessee have decided to kick it up a notch. A new bill entitled The Life Defense Act of 2012 is currently making its way through the Tennessee House of Representatives. This bill would make it mandatory for the state to publish the names of every doctor who performs an abortion and detailed statistics about the women who have undergone the procedure. Tennessee wishes to pass this bill in hopes of frightening abortion doctors into discontinuing their practice. 

If you have not yet realized how dangerous this bill could potentially be, allow me to explain. 

Abortion doctor George Tiller was shot to death as he entered
his church in Wichita, Kansas in 2009.

In the past 35 years, abortion doctors have faced, 8 murders, 17 attempted murders, 42 bombs, 176 cases of arson, 99 cases of attempted arson, 191 cases of assault and battery, 420 death threats, 524 cases of stalking, and 4 kidnappings (NFA).

If this bill passes  these numbers will only increase. The state, regardless of their viewpoints, should not be able to utilize the threat of illegal violence onto doctors for doing something legal. I'm aware that some of you reading this blog may be morally opposed to abortions and support pro life, but shouldn't you also support the lives of the doctors that have now been put under threat by their state government? Why aren't the doctors' lives considered as important as the life of a fetus in the eyes of the politicians who wrote The Life Defense Act of 2012?

I don't care who you are, what your views are, or where you're from, I think we can all agree here that the government in no context should accommodate crimes and criminals.