Poverty

Poverty: the state of being extremely poor. The American Dream: freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity and success. When you think of america, do you think of the "dream" that so many are after or poverty, what most dream chasers end up living in? In 2009, 45 million americans were living in poverty. Is it because they are lazy? Maybe, but I have a feeling that something else is causing this. Currently, the national minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. With more than one mouth to feed, that is far from enough money for the basic necessities of life. My school is full of wealthy people that don't really need to think about sad topics like this. We do a program every winter called Give-a-thon. The whole school brings in food to fill the local food bank as well as bring money to make a handful of families' holidays memorable. It is hard for me to criticize this because I participate, however, while we are giving back to the less fortunate, we never actually see the faces of poverty. In is hard to believe how many americans live in poverty when you are at such a wealthy school. Give-a-thon should give one more thing, the opportunity to see poverty which could be right around the corner. I feel participation would be up and it would make the whole program more meaningful. 

Social Class

In class we were watching a movie about different social classes in America. They interviewed people from elite classes like w.a.s.p.s and the complete opposite such as a family who lives in poverty in southern Ohio.  I found only one thing similar to what they were saying. It is frowned upon if you leave your class. Being a wasp, you are very rich and you have been rich your entire life. You would never even consider yourself being upper middle class. You look down on the lower classes because, you have more money, therefore everything about you is better. The lower class want to be middle class, but there is little hope for them. One son of the family in Ohio dresses as preppy as he can so at school he looks middle class. His mom isn't happy about it because she thinks he isn't proud of the true stuff he has in his life (ex. family or health).
I see similar things at my school. There are the very rich and the very poor. Everyone dresses based on who they hang out with, not based on the money they have. It is easily assumed all the preppy whites at my school are the rich ones. But, I bet if you ask all of them, they would all say they are middle class. They could me upper class, but because they see upper class people all the time, it is normal or average to them making them feel middle class. People dress down or dress up based on what they want to represent themselves as. In society today, it is all about the image, real or fake.

Drugs

                                                         Its just a flower... link
In class we learned how all crime is relative. Smoking tobacco is actually much more dangerous than smoking marijuana. However, when weed was introduced in America, it was seen as a threat to the tobacco industries. These industries had huge say in the government so marijuana was made illegal. Also, caffeine is a terrible drug on paper. With a long list of side effects  and warnings, it is the most accessible drug because any one can buy it in many different forums. My school now has a coffee stand. I would say the majority of students at my high school drink coffee or caffeinated drinks in the morning so it was probably a good investment. But why is the school making such a terrible drug even easier to get? It is all about the money. If it is legal and thereIts just a flower... linkis potential profit, my school and other school will jump on it. The United States can learn a good lesson from this. If they were to make marijuana legal, they could tax the hell out of it and I have a feeling it would have better sales than cigarettes. It could be the answer for the economy problem, but what would I know? I'm just a student who has no say in a country that is based off the people's voice.

equality?

After reading the story of Saints and Roughnecks, two gangs in the same town with different backgrounds.  I saw how society judges people. The saints were rich athletes that cheated and did well in school. The Roughnecks were not well off, didn't play sports and were "c" students without cheating. The Saints were looked up to in society where the Roughnecks were looked down upon. The saints committed worse crimes than the roughnecks but got away with it more than the roughnecks. The gangs also hung out in different places making it easier to see one of the gangs doing illegal things.

One Trillion Dollars link

My high school doesn't have a gang problem, but can easily be looked at the same way. The saints can be represented by all the white preppy, wealthy, jocks. They are the majority of the school and they pretty much run it too. The parents of these kids have very respectable jobs that pay amazingly.  When ever you hear about a wild party, its a saint, but it never gets busted. They are also the ones that get 36 on their ACT and never get detention once. Money buys these kids freedom, but does it buy them happiness?  The roughnecks are the minorities of the school. I'm not going to name specific groups so i don't sound racist, but they are definitely treated different. I'm not sure if it is just judgement by the deans or guilt by association. I remember their was an ipod stolen by a white kid in my gym class freshmen year. They questioned a lot of people, but not everyone. I was second behind an african american who was infamous for being caught doing bad things. He must have been talking to our dean for 10 minutes. I walk in  thinking this is going to be a long interrogation. The whole 30 second meeting went like this. Dean: "did you take an ipod during 7th hour gym?" Ben: "nope." Dean: "ok, have a nice day." I know i am not a perfect student. I have never been given a detention or any form of punishment while at the same time, there are kids that do equal things and get suspended.

adult

What is it that makes us an adult. On paper, it is when you turn 18,  but in reality it is when you aren't dependent on your family or friends to live. I am almost 17, I don't feel any closer to being an adult than I did when I was 13. I understand that kids want to grow up faster and experience things that they can't yet. But in all honesty, being a kid is fantastic. All we have to do is go to school and prove we learn something. We don't have to worry about anything. As a kid, I can sit back and watch the world go by without having a single thought of if I'm going to be alive tomorrow. It really is wonderful being able to live life like this. Then in a couple of years, i will most likely be graduating college. Where will I go? back home? i couldn't, I'm not a kid now and need to fend for myself. If all goes to plan, I will get a job right out of college and be able to support myself alone. If the economy keeps up, this plan is gonna look more like a dream. The day I can fully support myself and not have to ask my parents for help, I will consider myself a kid. However, I would like to be treated like an adult to help my process of becoming independent.

girl

Girl's are influenced by everything to be something they aren't. They see models and want to be tall, unhealthily skinny and overall fake. So much production goes into making a model look like a "perfect" girl. The studios do a good job of this, they also do a good job of making normal healthy girls go crazy. They see these models as what they want to look like. From a guys point of view, I like to see a little meat on the bone. Girls have eating disorders trying to look like the fake woman they see. When they don't succeed, because they can't, some might get depressed and could harm them selves even more. Today is dress up day for halloween at my school. I have "Bieber Fever" as my costume. After 30 minutes, four sexy nurses treated me. It is disgusting how girls dress on halloween. Its like an excuse to wear something even skimpier than normal. When did  it become acceptable for girls to be hookers for halloween? It is because society says that girls have to dress like that to be "hot." I would rather have a girl that comes up with a creative costume, not a girl who pays more for less. And once again, society has pissed me off.

Girls Costume Warehouse video

Society still sucks

What has society done to screw up humans this time? Well, it is telling boys/girls how to act. You think it could hold off its attack until maybe high school or college, but it throws everything at you the day you are born. They wrap girls in pink and boys in blue blankets. What makes pink a girl color? Kids are like sponges, the absorb everything and anything and it shows pretty early on in life. I am 4 years younger than my sister. I always looked up to my sister and followed her around and pretty much wanted to be like her as a little kid. She was playing with barbies in her room so I wanted to join her, my mom stops me and says that barbies aren't for boys and that I should go play with my trucks. I never questioned my mom because I knew she was boss in my house. From such a young age, I started learning how society wanted a boy to act. I recently found this experiment that is pretty much sums up everything.

Monkey Experiment

Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result, and all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon the monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth.

Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey. After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know that’s the way it’s always been done around here.

Where the Wild Things are... our backyard?

Children that are neglected always end up not "normal." Normal meaning they go through  the stages of life at a ordinary time. A neglected child might act more like a wild animal than a human. Walking and talking all might be very difficult tasks for a neglected child at the age of 8. Last night I volunteered in a soup kitchen in Uptown. As the huge crowd  started to slow down, I had time to think about and talk to the guests that were there. I wondered what had happened that caused these people to be in the situation they were in. My teacher explained that there was a huge population of mentally ill people in uptown. The government cut funding for clinics, so the patients had no where to go but the streets. I wonder if anyone I saw last night was one of the patients. They were probably neglected because there families couldn't take care of them so they sent them to an institute. Some people at the soup kitchen had poor communication skills as well as poor motor skills. One man struggled to shake my hand after I had a pretty simple conversation with him. We just made normal small talk and then he had to go. The only thing that actually stuck in my head that he said was, "stay in school, you got your whole life to work." I wish I got to hear about his background. I often walk past homeless people without even giving them a thought. They actually might be more wise from living on the streets with the bare minimum than a person who has a PHD.  I had an amazing experience in the soup kitchen and highly recommend everyone volunteering.

STOP! DO NOTHING!

I received an assignment telling me to do nothing, easy enough; I would have probably done that anyway. The catch was, we had to reflect on it after. I had to be me and act like a smart ass, I planed on doing exactly what the project said, nothing. I drew some doodles and in huge print wrote, “nothing” where the reflection was support to be written. I showed some people around me, I though I would get a laugh or two, but I was completely wrong. I was called stupid and people looked at me with disbelief. In a primarily senior elective class, I was actually called stupid and other variations of that for not doing an assignment.

            That was when I realized that I was going to do my own study. I was going to show people connected to Stevenson High School my assignment. I started by reading the assignment and then proceeding to show my friends, faculty and my parents my interpretation of the assignment. I sat back and listened to all the comments I got. The only people that actually laughed were my friends who know me and had to think it was a joke.

            I continued to do this for the rest of the week. I soon found how interesting Stevenson’s culture is. People care more about grades than anything. In a Zen community, an acceptable response would be mine because their belief is that nothing exists. It’s said that once you can get past the illusions you see, you will be enlightened. Stevenson ain’t  very Zen. Not once, did a student ask what class it was for or why I did that. They commonly asked about my saneness and if I cared.  The thing that surprised me most was the next day, some people actually asked me what grade I got. Stevenson has taught us to be so competitive that we actually care about someone else’s grades so we can compare them to our ranking. High School may be teaching us book smarts and competiveness, but I wonder how those kids with a perfect GPA and high ACT scores do in real life.  

American Values with help from My Chemical Romance

My Chemical Romance released a new song call "Na Na Na." Besides the fact that it is amazing, the lyrics are catchy as well as eye opening to american culture. I'm gonna break down the lyrics and show all the american values.


link to Na Na NA by My Chemical Romance


Drugs                                                                    
Gimme drugs  (Materialism)
Gimme drugs
I don't need 'em
But I'll sell what you got (competition, future orientation, action/work)
Take the cash
And I'll keep it
Eight legs to the wall
Hit the gas
Kill 'em all
And we crawl    (personal control over the environment)
And we crawl
And we crawl                                                                                                      
You be my detonator
Love
Gimme love
Gimme love
I don't need it
But I'll take what I want
From your heart
And I'll keep it in a bag     (materialism)
In a box
Put an X on the floor
Gimme more
Gimme more
Gimme more
Shut up and sing it with me

(Na Na Na...)
For mall security
To every enemy            ( work, competition)
We're on your property
Standing in a V formation  
(Na Na Na...)
Let's blow an artery
Eat plastic surgery    (materialism, efficiency, informality, self-help, change seen as positive)
Keep your apology
Give us more detonation

(More! Gimme more! Gimme more!)  ( materialism)

Oh, let me tell ya 'bout the sad man
Shut up and let me see your jazz hands
Remember when you were a madman
Thought you was Batman
Hit the party with a gas can
Kiss me you animal

(Na Na Na...)
You run the company    ( competition, work, time and it's control)
F*** like a Kennedy
I think we'd rather be;
Burning your information
Let's blow an artery
Eat plastic surgery        (materialism, efficiency, informality, self-help, change seen as positive)Keep your apology
Give us more detonation

And right here
Right now;
All the way in Battery City
Little children                              (f uture orientation)
Raise their open filthy palms
Like tiny daggers up to heaven
And all the juvie halls
And ritalin rats
And the angels
Made from neon and f***ing garbage
Scream out "What will save us?"
And the sky opened up

Everybody wants to change the world
Everybody wants to change the world
But no one,
No one wants to die                             (initiative, future orientation)
Wanna try, wanna try, wanna try
Wanna try, wanna try, now
I'll be your detonator

(Na Na Na...)
Make no apologies
It's death or victory
On my authority
Crash and burn
Young and loaded
Drop like a bullet shell      (personal control over the environment)
Dress like a sleeper cell
I'd rather go to hell
Than be in a purgatory
Cut my hair
Gag and bore me
Pull this pin
Let this world explode 

Tacky Tourist Thursday Blog

Life is easy for us in our home country. We know the language, the foods and just how to act. Imagine living in a place totally different from home. You wouldn't be able to read this blog, you would think the food is disgusting and you would probably act inappropriately. Culture is what makes each area different from one another.  When traveling, you must be aware of the culture you are traveling too. You could offend someone just by shaking with your left hand or keeping your shoes on in a house. I have a friend from Mexico. He comes to visit at least once a year. The first time he was here, he was in complete culture shock. He wanted to go out for american food, he was in awe when he saw tacos on the menu. He was also amazed when we went to the mall. His views on malls are just stands of knock off products in the streets. He loved the huge indoor mall, but hated the high prices. He tried bargaining with store clerks and they all looked at him like he was crazy. One store actually asked him to leave. Culture makes it very easy to show who is an outsider and who is not.

Who am I? pt duex

The first unit of sociology is over and it was awesome. I learned what makes people the way they are and how to study them. Everything made perfect sense until I thought about one thing. Who am I and what really makes me me? And after thinking about it over and over, I still have absolutely no clue who I am. I know I'm sixteen, but time is irrelevant. I know their is a black president, but is he doing anything different then all the white presidents we had before for me? I live a normal suburban life, going with the flow and just letting life run its course. I learned all these things  for why people act the ways they do and I can study everyone but myself. What makes me different from taco man at the top of my page. What is even causing me to write all of this? I can ask all these questions, but I'm not really proving a point. Who am I? I'm a very confused boy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09qFkke-z18

uh oh, gang activity!

After reading the story, Gang Leader for a Day, I learned a better way to studyt groups of people. You can't just show up to a random place with a survey and expect good results. You have to work questions into small talk and really get a feel for the group. Why would anyone want to spend all their time in a run down project that smells like urine? You can't just ask that question, you need to live it. It could be because that is the gang's turf or possibly because it is a good spot to conduct drug deals. Possibly it is just the only spot that gang has ever known as their home. What ever it is, the question can't be answered just be asking someone a question. In 8th grade I really started getting into music. I mainly liked classic rock because that is what my friends listened to. I thought emo music was too depressing, rap was only for african americans, and reggae was only for stoners. One day I thought I would listen to scremo as a joke. Funny part is, I loved it. I had to have spent 3 months listening to scremo or as my mom calls it "devil music." I then expanded my horizon even more and got into reggae. Now I listen to everything.  You can't ask someone why they like a certain kind of music. You have to experience it to really get into it.

Spit...or is it?

What is reality? Is it what you actually think it is. Well consider this, saliva in your mouth is perfectly normal. Sharing a water bottle is just fine. Spit on the ground, thats disgusting!?! Spit and saliva are the exact same thing. Why is it that we think this way? It is because society has told us what is acceptable, what is wrong, what smells good and what taste exquisite. The smell of a rose  could actually be the most vile smell in the world, but because we were taught a rose smells good, it smells good. I thought about this and realized that reality can't actually be reached. Our mind is so full of "facts" that we might not be able to process reality. It brings up the famous stoner question; is your red my blue? I honestly feel that it could be because our brain and society tells us so. Enlightenment in Buddhism is actually clearing your head and being set free from what society tells you to  believe.  It is demonstrated in the movie the Matrix. When Neo sees that the Matrix is just one big computer program. He is set free from the fact that his life is real. Personally, I feel i am not ready to be enlightened or see a bunch of green numbers scrolling up and down. I often ask for the truth, but actual reality might be to heavy for me. Would you take the red pill to see the real truth, or would you take the blue pill and stay in your personal reality?

                  

Mindful Sociology

Starting over the summer, I tried practicing parts of Buddhism. One huge part of Buddhism is meditation. My favorite meditation is staring at your meal before you eat it. You think about every possible thing that had to happen for that exact moment to exist. You have to try it to believe it, but the food taste so much better. Although that is a very cool way to meditate and be mindful of things, life in America moves way to fast to stop and think about every single moment. However, if you think about a couple moments a day, your day might be better as you will get more out of it. Right now, think about everything that had to happen for you to be sitting at a computer reading a blog that I wrote. I have to agree with the theory that if you are mindful, you will live a better life and leave a mark on the world after you die.

                                                                                   -ama nesciri

Who am I?

I am a 16 year old junior in high school. I spend most my free time listening to music. I go through phases and currently I'm in my indie phase. My favorite band is Ra Ra Riot. The biggest influences in my life are my parents. Things aren't going well at home with the economy being a big part of that, but they still find a way to have fun and love each other even though they show it in weird ways. I have absolutely no clue what my purpose is in life right now.  My goals in life are to make people smile and just live happily. I hope that money won't control my life and that I am successful in my own way.