Critical Analisis

We all have to take Philosophy 132 and the majority of us just don't want to. Most of the other people in my class show how much they don't want to be there on a daily basis due to many different aspects. Personally, I was dreading taking the class but have found it quite interesting. We talk a lot about culture and how we are subconsciously effected by it on a daily basis. We talked about sex in advertising which I thought was extremely interesting, so interesting that I wrote a paper on it. The last thing we talked about in the class was the Women's Suffrage Movement by watching Iron Jawed Angels and connected that with Martin Luther King Jr's "Letter from Birmingham Jail." It was really interesting to compare the two activist groups and the way that they peacefully protested for their rights. 

Apocalipsis

*A poem I originally wrote in Spanish, then translated back to English for your viewing purposes. Enjoy!*

Una mañana me despierto

a la salida del sol

El barrio por la ventana me parece

lo mismo de ayer

A perfección habían tallado los céspedes

Siguen brillando las luces de los garajes

El mundo queda sereno

No actividad, no caos

Nadie.

El mundo está desierto

 Dónde están?

mis amigos con quién hago memorias

mi familia con quién paso tiempo

Un amor con quién comparto mi vida

No tengo nada.

Me despierto con un sobresalto,

cubierto de sudor

Sólo un sueño.

Apocalypse

One morning I woke

to the rising of the sun

The neighborhood through the window seemed 

the same as yesterday

To perfection the lawns have been cut

The lights of the garages still shine

The world remains serene

No activitiy, no chaos

No one.

The world is deserted

Where are ?

my friends with whom to make memories

my family with whom to spend time

A love with whom to share my life

I have nothing.

I woke in shock

covered in sweat

It was only a dream.

Great Futures Start Here

The buzz of voices and children greet visitors at the front door of the Boys & Girls Club of Fond du Lac Johnsonville Site. At the end of the school day, elementary children begin filing in by the bus load to find their classrooms. The stairs lead you to the Teen Center, a space set aside for teens to hang out.

 Filled with games and laughter, there is always a big crowd of middle and high school students. The elementary section of the building has several rooms, one for each grade level, and a computer lab. The classrooms are filled with voices, laughing, and learning until the place closes at 6 p.m. each night.

For those of you who are unaware, the Boys &Girls Club of Fond du Lac is just one part of the large non-profit organization spread throughout the country. In the Fond du Lac area alone, there are three separate sites: Johnsonville Unit and Teen Center, Chegwin Boys & Girls Club, and Pier Rocks Boys & Girls Club. Children can become a member starting in first grade. Of those members who begin at a young age, most of them stick with the program well into their high school days.

The afterschool program provides a place that’s more than just a daycare. When a child walks into a Boys & Girls Club, they are provided with a warm meal, homework help, and structured programming, including tech lab training, healthy eating tips, plenty of exercise, and the common core subjects.

As a Program Aide at the Boys & Girls Club, I have the privilege of working with a group of first graders on a daily basis. I am on a basic level their teacher, helping them with homework and leading them through programs. The students in my class come from several different ethnic groups and learn at different speeds, providing my classroom with a variety of personalities.

Every day is a new and exciting adventure. No matter what kind of day I’m having, my class can always make me smile. The same kids come daily making it easy to build a great connection with them. They look up to me as a mentor and watch my every move. I’m bombarded with hugs after a long weekend. It’s amazing how much they learn from me but it’s even more amazing how much I learn from them.

It’s a great privilege to be part of a program that affects children so positively. The club provides a place for kids to go afterschool to be safe and make friends. The staff members honestly care about each child individually and want them to succeed in the future. Great futures truly start here. 

Controversial Issue

For some reason all of my classes, despite how different  I thought they would be, have become interlinked. They have all ended up in the advertising field. It all began in Philosophy where we talked about sex in advertising. This topic really struck my interest. We've all seen that sexual advertisement promoting the newest perfume fragrance or the half naked slutty referee promoting beer. Before Philosophy, I didn't think twice about the accepted nudity on television these days. But then we began discussing it further in class and talked about how it's the sexual image of the females (and in less cases males) that sells the product more than the quality of the product itself.

When a girl watches flawless models on tv, she begins to doubt herself, finding flaws within her own image, and desperately wanting to change. Then she begins thinking..."If I buy that (enter product name here), I'll look like that model"... and that is how they suck you in and get you to buy their product. Sneaky, yes. But it works and so they keep using it to make profits. On the one hand, I think the lack of self esteem women receive from these images is an awful after effect of a great marketing tool and they should maybe lay off this technique a bit. But on the other hand, I applaud the ad companies for finding this tactic and using it to the full. But it's getting more common and now commercials blend together because they resemble each other. No matter how far one company goes, another one will just go a step further. How far are these ad companies willing to go?

Poverty in Latin America

This is a piece I wrote to publicize the poverty in El Salvador but also to criticize the ignorance of people around the world, including Americans. I'm thinking of going further with this but am looking to see if anyone actually likes it. Please comment. Any feedback is welcomed.

Life is so easy where you come from. It’s handed to you on a silver platter, gold spoon and all the fixings included. Because that’s the way life is for you people. You wouldn’t know life any other way. You’re so self-centered, caring only for the people in the close proximity of your own life; your own personal bubble. You have no idea what’s going on in my country. Not that you’d care if you did. I bet you couldn’t point to it on a map, without extensively searching, even if I paid you for it. I bet you’d need a clue. I wouldn’t need a clue to find yours. For god’s sake, it takes up the entire width the continent, leaving little space for my country to reside.  Yet with all of the space and power your country is known for, the people of my country know how to survive, at least the people I live amongst. If you got stuck in my country for a year, you’d go insane. I am an El Salvadorian Campesino; a farmer who takes everything off the land. Nothing is simply handed to us. I have to work for everything. If I don’t, we starve. I’m sure you don’t know what I truly mean, so let me spell it out for you.

Let’s start with the basics. If you counted your clothes, how many do you think you have? How many pairs of shoes? I wonder how much time you waste by trying to decide what to wear. Must be nice to have that many options. It’s never something I’ve encountered. Where I live, we’re lucky if we have two shirts: one for work and one for church. I’m lucky if I can buy a new pair of shoes for my kids. Otherwise, they run bare foot.  My kids aren’t the only ones that suffer. There are more. There’ll always be more.

An essential part of life is shelter, a home. Tell me about yours. Wow, 2 story: 3 bedroom, 2 bath, furnished basement, 3 car garage, full heating and electricity, basketball hoop in the front. Oh, you just redesigned your kitchen? Sounds amazing… Wanna hear about mine? We live in a 2 room house. You heard me right, I didn’t mean 2 story. We have a room that is our: kitchen, dining room, living room, and children’s bedroom all in one. Then we have a separate room for my wife and I, something to call our own. Our house is made of sticks and a mixture of mud. There are gaps that will never stay filled in, giving us holes where sun and wind can easily enter. It gets cold at night, so we stoke the fire instead of turning on the heat. Otherwise we just huddle together, feeding off of each other’s warmth. If we have to use the bathroom, we go outside. Oh that’s what you do when you go camping? Like on vacation to have fun? Hmm, come live in El Salvador for a while, it’ll stop being fun.

How are the schools where you live? Pretty nice, I’m guessing. Oh, the second grade class just got a new smart board? Yes, I understand the concept of a smart board; you don’t need to explain it to me. I’m not an idiot, I’m poor.  What about my kids? They go to school for now. If I can’t provide paper for them to write on, and books for them to read, they get beat. They physically suffer for my lack of money. Eventually they will have to stop going to school so they can work as well. Every little bit helps, and we rely on every little bit. I wish I wouldn’t have to pull them out, but that’s how life is for us. That’s how it was when I was a kid, that’s how it is for my kids, and there’s a good chance that’s how life will be for their kids. The cycle never ends; a never-ending cycle of misery.

I see you’re holding your new baby. Congratulations. What’s his name? Samuel. Very common, American name. I’m sure he will grow up to be a fine man. We just had a baby also.  Unfortunately, she passed on. From what you ask? Doesn’t matter… something you can take a pill for I’m sure. If only we could afford it. I couldn’t take her to the pediatrician because we don’t have one. Even if we did, there’s no way to pay for it. So I took her motionless body to the hillside and buried her amongst the rocks and flowers. Oh that’s what you did with your dog? That’s nice…I’m glad my daughter reminds you of a dog.

Gilmore Girls

My favorite type of humor is sarcastic humor. I don't mind dumb humor or silly humor but this one is my favorite. Lorelei and Rory Gilmore are mother and daughter but act more as best friends than anything else. Rory and Lorelei live in a town full of people with very strange people. These people, including Taylor and Kirk, are often subject to the sarcastic conversations between the two. They also tend to go off on random tangents talking about one subject and switching to the exact opposite of the spectrum but it still usually makes sense. Lorelei is nothing like her parents, which often leads to many sarcastic arguments and "under your breath" comments. The script and the acting job of this show makes me giggle still, even after seeing each episode multiple times.

Alabama teachers change grades

I read an article recently on the New York Times website that talked about the fact that teachers were changing the grades of their students in order to boost the level of academic excellence of the district. This irritates me because the whole point of "getting an education" is to actually learn something. By boosting their grades to passing doesn't help the student learn anything and the "education" they are receiving won't help them in the future. There's no point in studying if teachers are going to pass their students regardless of their performance in the classroom. In the beginning, the school may have seemed like a good school but now that the truth has emerged, no one will give credit to the students and teachers who actually deserved the praise. Going forward, everyone will be skeptical of those schools and teachers.