Blog Posts

Blog Post 1:

Bhutto, Mandela, and Democracy

Democracy is a governmental policy that can be perceived in several different ways in several different places around the world. The ultimate goal of Democracy among the people fighting for it is freedom. People all around the world want freedom and equal rights for all. There is democracy and political stand points all throughout the world, whether that is in different countries like Pakistan in the Bhutto article or in a prison in the Mandela article. No matter where you are, people will fight for what they believe is right.

In the writing about Benazir Bhutto, she talks about the democracy in the Islamic culture. “Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007) was the first woman prime minister of Pakistan and thus the first woman leader of an Islamic country.” She was imprisoned several times and was terrorized for what she believed in. But that didn’t stop her, she kept on fighting for what she believed in and kept working to make Pakistan a better place for her people. Bhutto tried to show the extremists of Islam that terrorizing and killing was against their religious beliefs and that they will not gain anything from their hatred. “She returned to Pakistan in 2007 and was greeted by crowds, but her entourage was quickly attacked by a suicide bomber who killed 136 people.” I believe that Bhutto did the best she possibly could to fight for her beliefs but it seemed like everyone was against her. Every time she would get one step forward, she would be pushed two steps back because of the extremists in Pakistan. Even when having everyone against her, Bhutto strived to fight for democracy and was elected to serve two terms as prime minister for Pakistan. Unfortunately, Benazir was assassinated before having a chance at a third term, but she died doing what she promised she would: fighting to restore democracy across the Islamic Nations.

Mandela’s story is quite different from Bhutto’s but the two go hand in hand. Mandela was imprisoned on an island among all African-American prisoners. In this prison, every prisoner was black, and every official was white. Because of that, Mandela had to find a way to fight for equal rights for his fellow prisoners and himself. Mandela stated “It would be very hard if not impossible for one man alone to resist.”. First, Mandela had to get all the prisoners together and form a sort of alliance between everyone if they were going to get their equal rights. Whenever a problem was thrown at Mandela, he would find a way to push back. “When I walked out of prison, that was my mission, to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor both.” Mandela knew that once he got out of prison, the fight for equal rights among all races was not over. He would have to keep fighting for what he believed in, and that fight was just getting started. Mandela’s story to me was quite interesting because I thought it was cool to see how he could start democracy inside of a prison. The whole concept was just very fascinating to me.

Frederick Douglass was a very important black man who was born into slavery in Maryland. In the narrative about his life, I found one section in particular to be very interesting. “But, alas! This kind heart had but a short time to remain to such. The fatal poison of irresponsible power was already in her hands, and soon commenced its infernal work. The cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red with rage; that voice, made all of sweet accord, changed to one of harsh and horrid discord; and that angelic face gave to that of a demon.” This passage peaked my interest because it kind of brings you in and helps you realize how slavery was really affecting people. It changed them in so many ways and could completely change a truly beautiful person to become enraged.

All of these stories prove that the fight for democracy and equal rights for all people occurs everywhere in our world. Reading these passages have personally helped open my eyes to the democratic problems going around in the world. It’s hard to understand why everybody doesn’t want equal rights after reading these passages. The fight for Democracy may never be over, but there will always be people fighting to make it grow throughout the world.

Blog Post 2:

Idea Focused Writing

Over the last few weeks of class, we have looked at several different writings and videos that are focused on a main idea. Whether it was the MLK letter, the Outliers book, or even the Selma film, they were all focused around one main idea. In this writing, I’m going to show how MLK and chapter one of the Outliers book were focused around a main idea. Typically, in any writing, people have an idea or a point to prove and they use their writing to back up their idea further.

In the MLK letter, he focused his writing around one main idea to prove what he was fighting for made sense. MLK focused his letter on the idea that racial problems were going on everywhere and that his non-violent acts of protesting were necessary to put a stop to this problem. MLK stated in his letter,” In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action. We have gone through all of these steps in Birmingham. There can be no gainsaying of the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States.” In this passage, MLK was backing up his idea by stating how bad the racial problems were and that they were trying to stop them through non-violent acts.

In the “Outliers” book by Malcolm Gladwell, his main idea behind the first chapter is proving that a lot of people who are successful in different fields are successful because we set it up that way. Gladwell states “It’s simply that in Canada the eligibility cut-off for age-class hockey is January 1.”(24). Here, Gladwell was backing up his main idea that we set certain kids up to succeed and others to fail because of the cut-offs that are implemented into sports and education and other things.

These two writings are completely different from each other but both go to show that most writings are focused around an idea. They both use evidence to back up their main idea by using facts or even statistics. This is the way most writing, films, and even forms of advertising are made. They focus around a main idea or point and then use their evidence to pull you in.

Blog Post 3:

What is Citizenship?

Citizenship is a word that has a strong meaning but has not always been used up to its meaning. To be a citizen is to live in a place where you feel safe, a country that will give you your personal rights. The sad thing about this is that in the United States, being labeled a citizen was not always just that. Just because you were a citizen of the United States did not mean that you were treated equally with all the same rights as the people around you. Back then, everything about you was taken into account especially when it came to your race.

For example, when Martin Luther King jr. was a citizen he was not treated with the same rights as those of a white person. In fact, that was the number one thing that he was fighting for his whole life until he was assassinated. Imagine being assassinated because all that you wanted to do was gain equal rights for your race and be treated equally as if you actually were a citizen. That’s all that MLK wanted to do and he was assassinated for it. In MLK’s letter from Birmingham Jail he states, “when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she cannot go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her little eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children.” and I think just that short section out of the letter is enough to show you how painful it must have been for him to be treated this way.

Luckily for a lot of the people that grow up in the United States now, most of us are born a citizen. We get to grow up in a country having equal rights and get to be treated like citizens. I’m not saying that all things in the United States are fixed or that every single person is treated equally because that is not true, but things are a lot better than they used to be. Most of us get to grow up never having to feel the pain that MLK and plenty of other people had to grow up around back then.

I believe that citizenship will never be something that every person in the world will be able to have but I do believe that it will continue to get better. Being a citizen of a country is something that makes you feel like you belong. It makes you feel safer growing up as a citizen because you have rights as a citizen and you can relate to the people around you. I truly hope that everyone gets the chance to become a citizen no matter where they live so that they can have personal rights and live their lives the way they want to.

Blog Post 4:

Amazing Grace Response

In the book Amazing Grace, the author, Jonathan Kozol, takes several trips to the South Bronx and questions people on what life is really like living there. Just on the other side of the city is Manhattan, which is where all of the rich people live. But then if you just travel a little bit into the South Bronx, you will quickly realize that life is completely different there. The South Bronx is filled with some of the worst poverty in the United States and the environment is terrible. It is truly an environment that no one should ever have to live in or grow up in. Throughout his journey through the South Bronx, Jonathan begins to quickly realize just how bad this place is.

He begins his book with a story about his first time visiting the city. Cliffie, a young seven year old boy takes Jonathan on a walk around the parts of the city close to his home. The things that Jonathan begins to see and hear about the city just during this short walk is devastating. Everywhere around him there is poverty, prostitution, drugs being sold, drugs being taken, and plenty of other crimes and horrors that just blow my mind. The place is filled disgusting, filled with rats and other vermons. Several sights on the streets mark places where people, young and old, have been murdered. And the saddest thing of all is that to Cliffie, this is all just so normal to him. This is his everyday life and just something that he has grown up around and began to just see as normal things that go on. The fact that a seven year old boy has seen stuff that most other people will never have to see in their entire lives is very upsetting. No kid should ever have to grow up in an environment like this one.

Later in chapter two, Jonathan talks with Mrs. Washington about what life is like for her in the South Bronx. She explains how everything that he has seen is just stuff that happens around there every single day. Mrs. Washington told Jonathan a story about when she needed to go to the hospital and she was so scared to do so because the hospitals in the area are disgusting and not a good place to be. She explains that the patients that go there often have to make their own beds and if they were ever in need for anything, they’d most likely have to wait half an hour before and nurses came to help them. Basically, if one of the patients was in a terrible situation and they were about to die, no one is going to come help them in time. The fact that a hospital, a place where you go when you’re sick and expect to be taken care of, can’t even do its job is so sad to see. Mrs. Washington also brings up how bad the schooling system is in the South Bronx. They have some of the worst public schools in the country when it comes to testing scores and almost every single kid in the schools are on the free lunch program because of how poor everyone is there.

In chapter five, Jonathan is talking to Reverend Overall about what happens to newborn children when their mothers are in prison. The Reverend explains that the mother is taken to the hospital and then after the surgery, the children are sent back to the prison with their mothers. The babys are then put into a nursery in the prison while their mothers go back to their cells. The fact that some people think that this is civil is terrible, a baby should never have to be placed in a prison no matter what the circumstances are. Also in chapter six, Jonathan begins to talk to Mrs. Washington’s doctor. Her doctor explains to Jonathan that a quarter of all of their general admissions are known to be HIV positive. She explains, “ the area served by the hospital, according to a study of blood samples tested at the hospital apparently has one of the highest AIDS rates in the world.”. This just goes to show just how bad it really is living in the South Bronx.

I think that all of these stories just go to show an example of how bad life can really be in certain parts of the world. Not everything is as it seems and there are places, right around the corner from us, that are in worse shape than we could ever imagine. I believe that Kozol was trying to show his readers that there are things going around in places like this that need to be changed as soon as possible. I believe that this issue is huge and is something that needs to be acted on right away because kids should never have to grow up in a place like this and these living conditions are not even okay for a criminal in my opinion.