Our Nation Has Come A long Way

February is black history month, which in itself, shows just how far we’ve come. When Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech he was considered a rebel and hated by many, but now we celebrate his life and we learn about all the things that he accomplished in our classes. Furthermore we elected our first black president into office in 2008, a huge transformation from the feelings that whites had towards African Americans just 40 years prior. The generation that lived during the height of black prejudice feelings are starting to age and pass away, and the newer generations don’t even think twice about a person’s skin color or race.

This week we started reading The Secret Life of Bee’s in class which takes place in the 1960’s where the color of one’s skin played a big role in society. Rosaleen, a black woman who Lily’s father got to do the “women’s” work around the house, went into town to register to vote and while doing so she was beaten by three men. Whites who felt superior to other races had no problem and felt no guilt in beating those they felt were inferior to them.

It’s absolutely shocking to hear about the horrible things blacks had to endure to get to where they are today. I have a lot of respect for people like Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman, Fredrick Douglas, and Barack Obama who worked so hard to change the way their people were being treated, to make a good name for themselves, and to better the lives of others. I can’t even imagine living in a world where no one was equal.  The Declaration of Independence starts out with “All men are created equal”, so why did it take us so long to figure that out for ourselves?

Truth Vs. Fiction

How can you determine the truth from a lie? Is it even possible? I used to think that a true story and a made up story were obviously different and easy to tell apart, but after reading The Things They Carried I realized that this is not necessarily true. There are a lot of things that can change a true story to a fiction story, little details can be left out or untrue details can be added in, still making the story party true, but not all.

                In the video we watched in class about Tim O’Brien he stressed the point that most of the things in his book were based on a sliver of the truth, but had many added details and people that made it untrue. After watching this video and hearing him talk about his book it really made me question the validity everything ive learned and every story ive heard. How can I be positive that what im hearing or reading is 100% true? It really makes you think.

                I really liked the book The Things They Carried, it was a good book, but when I found out that what I had read had all been a lie and never actually happened it made me mad. I read this book believing these events to be true and believing that all that actually happened to him. I felt his emotions along with him and I had great admiration for him for being able to go through everything he talked about in his book. So to find out that it was all a lie was very disappointing.

Reading Isn't For Everyone

                Reading is not one of my favorite things to do. When I was littler it wasn’t as bad but now I rarely enjoy it, and I have a hard time sitting still for that long and keeping my mind focused. When we are assigned to read for school I put it off for as long as I possibly can because I dread it. Every once in awhile I find a good book that I can’t stop reading until I finish, but that is rare for me.

                When I was little my mom used to read to me every night before bed. She would read books like Harry Potter, When You Give a Moose a Muffin, A Bad Case of the Stripes, Brown Bear Brown Bear, Tikki Tikki Tembo, Scooby Doo books, and Dr. Suess books. I really enjoyed that, maybe that’s because I didn’t have to do all the work. While I don’t like reading I do enjoy reading books to my nieces, but that could be because those are children’s books, short books for a short attention span.

                As I said before I will sometimes find a really good book that I can’t put down. Some of my friends who read a lot refer books to me that are pretty good. Some of the books that I love are Its Kind Of A Funny Story, Killing Britney, the Twilight series, Purpose for the Pain, The Diary of Anne Frank, and Sight. There are a couple books that I want to read that I am waiting to get from the library. Maybe I can still learn to like reading; it would be very good for me.

The Future Is a Scary Thing

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” such a simple question to a naïve child. Thinking back to when I was a child my answer to that question was instantaneous, a teacher. Now when asked that same question that came so simply before I find myself racking my brain for an answer, so many options, and so little clue. I honestly can’t even think of a general answer to that question. A lot of people have some kind of idea about what profession their like to go into, I however do not.

I work a minimum wage job at pick ‘n save and I have more than handful of coworkers over the age of forty that are still cashiers working for a little over minimum wage. One of my biggest fears in life is not being able to make enough to support the lifestyle I wish to have and that I’ll have to become a homeless person or be living out of my car.

 Coworkers of Barbara Ehrenreich in Nickel and Dimed may have not had the same opportunities as she had to go to college and the minimum wage jobs are all they are qualified to do. While no one wants to have to work a minimum wage job for the rest of their lives, try to imagine life without someone to do those “undesirable” jobs. While teens work a good portion of minimum wage jobs, there’s still a need for adults at these jobs. At my job I need my older coworkers to help me out to train me and help me when I don’t know what I’m doing. Just think about life without minimum wage workers for a minute, it’s almost impossible. There would be no one to clean hotels, serve you your meals at a restaurant, sell you alcohol, or provide public transportation. We need people to do those jobs.

Reality Of A Minimum Wage Worker

In today’s world, minimum wage, in my opinion, does not generate the same negative opinions that it did in the past. Today, in the face of the high unemployment rates, many American’s would rather work a minimum wage job than face unemployment, loss of their homes, and face the inability to feed and clothe their families. While I do believe there are still those that look down on people (especially adults) who make minimum wage, there is a much larger acceptance in today’s America.

The Senate race here in Wisconsin, as with elections throughout the country,  focus largely on unemployment, tax credits for working families and small business and how to create more jobs. Both candidates, Russ Feingold and Ron Johnson, feel they have the answers. And, depending on your political views, and whether you are a Republican or Democrat, influences how much you believe the ads you see on TV, print and on the internet. If you are undecided, these same ads can influence how you vote. What either will accomplish if elected is an unknown. They don’t call them campaign promises for nothing!! What a candidate promises and what they deliver are typically two different things.

With all this said, neither Russ Feingold nor Ron Johnson live on minimum wage, worry about where their next meal is coming from, health insurance and living paycheck to paycheck. As with Barbara in Nickel and Dimed, until she had actually lived the life of a person making minimum wage, she had no idea of how hard it really was. Barbara learns, through first-hand experience, while working more than one job, what obstacles face the poor, such as low wages, housing and being treated rudely. That is something most politicians need to experience and understand if they really want to help the poor, and maybe they should all be made to live and experience what Barbara has in her experiment/assignment. Things would probably change a lot quicker and for the better if this was a “requirement” of the job

     

Importance of the Declaration of Independence

I believe the Declaration of Independence still applies today in some ways. It still applies because it is what has helped shape our country and make it what it is today. We still follow/live by a lot of the guidelines set down by the Declaration of Independence. But there are certain parts that no longer apply. The Declaration never mentions women and when it mentions men, it does not include anyone besides wealthier, white men. That is because when it was written women were looked down upon and had few, if any rights, and black people and other races were not seen as equals, but workers. Today “all men are created equal” but not just men, all mankind. I cannot imagine life without the Declaration of Independence because then we would be living in a country of complete chaos. Without it we would not be the strong, powerful country we are today.