I'm "Sorry"

ARTICLE
While reading this article the only thing I kept thinking about was how differently this situation would have been handled if middle eastern kids wrote ISIS on their shirts. Those kids would have probably been expelled from school and had the cops called on them. What makes this situation any different? Why are these girls allowed to return to a school where they deliberately insulted, offended and degraded their peers? Because only ONE said "sorry"? In all honesty that girl was only sorry that it brought such negative attention to her and her friends. Everyone knows how offensive that word is and the school should not tolerate it at all ESPECIALLY because it was done on school grounds!! 

O.J. and CTE

I know we talked about both topics in first semester, but I find the coincidence that both have been very popular in the media recently to be very funny/cool, because I feel like I have so much knowledge about both from Global. We talked about how O.J. (the Juice) and how he was a football player, and we talked about CTE (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy), but I can't recall ever putting the two together. From what we saw in the documentaries, CTE was a rejected topic, yet now there articles about it in magazines and online. In a new People magazine, upon reading an article about the O.J. case, there was a small subarticle titled "Could O.J. have CTE?" Also, this year there will be a new tv series coming out called "the People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story," which I think will be very interesting to see how things/people are portrayed, but also because in the last 20 years, there haven't really been any tv series or movies(other than documentaries) about the case. All in all, I think that we are lucky to have talked about both in depth in class, but I like how the media has brought attention recently to both topics so that others can be more informed.

As I was doing some more research for my senior project I came across this article: http://www.latimes.com/nation/immigration/la-na-detention-immigration-workers-20150803-story.html

What I would like to point out is the following; Some of these people being deported have lived in the United States for years and are usually said to have a criminal records, yet many of these individuals have traffic violations, driving without a license perhaps. Minimum things any-other person could have, yet since there here illegally it becomes a big deal. There is infinite reasons for why removing all illegal immigrants is the way of making America great again, which I don´t agree with. Yet America is so great it always try´s and exploits minorities for various reasons. My question is if all ¨illegal immigrants¨ are removed will America be great again? Can America even be great?

Phones

I feel that a big problem that our generation is starting to come to is that were becoming too dependent of the technology being made specifically looking at how attached people are to there cellphones and social media outlets(Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snap chat etc). Theres literally someone being kidnapped in this video and the only things these bystanders could do was record it laugh in the video and make funny remarks like "put him in the coffin" and then upload it to a social media outlet like Facebook. He really didn't do anything to even try to help and I feel like more and more often people just watch other people get hurt, put in danger and record it instead of trying to help or even calling the police to report it or something. Like I see people putting a snap chat after they just crashed, like who does that shit, Id be calling my insurance. I feel like next someones house is going to be getting robbed and instead of calling the cops there gonna just snap chat it and be like "oh shit my house is getting robbed, what should I do"

https://www.facebook.com/mediatakeout/videos/1194855513879727/

Conformity

We have been doing a lot of reading on Hitler and the events that happened as he was the Chancellor, very many interesting points have been brought up. One of my friends asked if I thought I would of followed Hitler as many German Citizens did. Obviously at this point of time I would say no. Obviously I don't have blonde hair and blue eyes, but many people at the time believed in him and the Nazis due to the depression. They were willing to give the extreme government a try and it ended up leading to one of the greatest world atrocities. It seems as if in time of need people are willing to give anything a try. This is the scary part about our world, people get desperate in time of need. This can vary from a relationship to a job or choosing a president. When it is crunch time, people have to make decisions, unfortunately these decisions can end up hurting us in the long run. People usually end up conforming to the majority, this isn't always a good thing..

263 year sentence

Daniel Holtzclaw, an "ex-officer" of Oklahoma was recently sentenced to 263 years in prison on charges of rape and preying on women while on the job. He is probably better known as the cop that cried while his sentencing was being read to him. I saw this and it immediately brought me back to when we discussed earlier in the year about the dilemma of police officers abusing the power of their badges. Holtzclaw was being charged on 36 counts of rape, only convicted guilty on 18 counts. On a later report, the Oklahoma P.D. said that they agreed with the verdict. At least in the case, justice was served and he will go to prison for life, yet I still don't understand this belief that just because one has a badge, they believe that it puts them above the law and excuses their misconduct. I am glad that more cops that are committing these crimes are being punished for them.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkVkf0w6zWg

Thinking before we speak

When Mr. Stewart mentioned on  the first day of class the phrase “think about the things, you think about”. I immediately began to ask myself why do I think about such things? After watching the documentary in class about the Protocols of Zion, I asked myself why don’t people think before they open their mouth and spread lies, hate, negativity, stupidity?

People have the tendency of quickly answering back, yet the answers given by them are always so simple and effortless. Exactly like some of the answers given by people in the documentary, yet can we really blame these people for such lack of knowledge?

At work I asked the cooks if they knew about the Holocaust, they quickly replied wasn’t it just crazy white people killing each other? I then asked them what they thought/ knew about slavery in the United States, they said “well at the end it wasn’t as bad, slavery doesn’t exist anymore.” I felt the need to explain to them to give them a different point of view, however if they cared they would of asked questions, they would have thought before answering, not just give me the first thing that popped in their head. My point is that people who believe in “PEPSI”, “No jews died on 9/11”, “Not even that many jews died”, “Slavery is over, why does it even matter”, “let's make america great again”, are ignorant individuals by choice. With so many resources, tools, available to us it's almost impossible to not see both sides to a specific topic. Think about thinking, questioning, try and see both sides, don’t stop because conformity.

Former Auschwitz medic

https://www.facebook.com/topic/Auschwitz/107932805901735?source=whfrt&position=1&trqid=6242140786519133674

I saw this article on Facebook about a former medic from the Auschwitz camp during WWII and is now getting charged for over 3,000 counts of murder. It gives a bunch of different websites leading to different, separate articles about this man's charges.

The UK Attempting to Ban Trump

Recently, the UK brought up the idea to ban Donald Trump from coming to the UK.  Their arguments were all against Trump, claiming that he should not be allowed in the UK because of his racism and political views.  But why the UK, of all countries, would try and do this?  Why wouldn't Mexico try and ban Trump, who has made comments about Mexican immigrants that have offended the whole nation of Mexico.  The point I'm getting to is that if Trump is considered so evil in the UK that he may possibly be banned from being there, why don't more Americans see him this way.  I know that the UK and Republicans in America have different views, but I find it even more sad that so many Republicans support him.  Maybe my views are biased because I was raised learning the more democratic and liberal views in our nation.  I believe that Trump's racism is blasted all over the place to make him look more racist than he actually is, but I am not saying he's not racist.  I believe Trump is racist, but I wouldn't compare him to Adolf Hitler.  Time will tell, maybe this could all be an act, but why have most Republicans been supporting Trump and not the other candidates.  One of my ideas is that Trump is the little voice in most Republicans' heads, saying what they all have been wanting to say for years, and Trump is the guy.  Trump is the guts of the Republican party but he has gone over the line with some ideas.

Should We Learn About the Protocols of Zion in History?

Before my senior year of high school, I had never heard of the Protocols of Zion. As we watched Marc Levin's documentary in class, it seemed as if many people, of all different backgrounds, knew about them and had an opinion about whether or not they are true. It really made me wonder about how people come to believe the protocols to be true and from what source they heard about them. In class, we looked up the protocols on Google and found many websites that explained what they are and basically said that Jews are trying to take over the world. None of these websites said that what they claimed to be true, was actually not a proven fact. There are people that believe anything they see. Obviously, the internet must be a huge source. However, I have had access to the internet, yet I had never heard of the protocols. Are the protocols more known in certain parts of America? Are they more believed in certain parts of the world? To prevent people from believing these outrageous ideas, I think it would be smart to educate students about the Protocols of Zion in a history class. Not every student takes Global Connections in high school. History teachers should make a point to bring up the protocols, so all students are aware of their validity and the fact that they exist.

Worth The Risk?

On January 7th, 2016, only 2 weeks ago an article was posted about some research done by Stanford University about gambling choices.  According to the article, "gambling choices are influenced by a single brain connection.  In our brain we have two regions related to risk, one being "oh yay, I could win something" while in another region it is saying, "uh-oh, I can loose some money".  According to the article however, every ones brain is different, so some people are more attracted to the risk, while some are scared off.  This research is rather new and is thought to possibly be one key to help understanding gambling addiction.  I personally find myself having a stronger, "oh yay, I could win something" and enjoy taking risks. This does not mean I am gambling away my life savings, but I think it is important to be able to identify yourself and be careful if you find yourself starting to make a habit of bad choices and losing money at a fast rate.

Bias in Recruiting

Ever since I was a freshman, I've been going to recruiting camps along with thousands of other kids. However, it always seems to be the same kids getting recruited. It's always the tallest, fastest or strongest kids. Although these are the most looked for traits in athletes, there is some traits they should also consider. The amount of determination and heart the athletes play with. Who in the world thought Christian McCaffrey on Stanford would be a top contender in College Football. He is a 6 foot 200 pound running back, but the thing that surprised most people was that he is white. What people don't consider is his family background. His dad was an NFL player and his grandpa competed in the Olympics as a sprinter. There seems that there should be a lot more factors that go into recruiting, however, were stuck with them limiting all of our talents to Size. Strength. Speed.

Who's to Blame in Protocols

In class we were watching a documentary on the Protocols of Zion and the conspiracies that come along with it. It was said that the Protocols of Zion were the Jewish people's plans to take over the world, but in reality that seems absurd. However, we still have people that buy into that and people tend to question why? How is it possible to believe that out of the hundreds or thousands of Jews that worked in the World Trade Center,  none died. As many people were interviewed, it showed a lot of people bought into this theory and I believe it is because they want an answer. Since there is no one we can truly blame it has to fall on someones shoulders and unfortunately that ended up being the Jews. Al-qaeda took credit for this crash, but we have no proof over who did it. So when we have no answers in the future for a tragedy, who will be the next group of people blamed?

Idiots

I know that Ana touched on this in her last post, but I am really annoyed with the people from the Protocols of Zion documentary. I think most of us would agree that the people who believe the Protocols are oblivious to the fact the Protocols are not true. While thinking about this, I had a connection to Donald Trump, because I feel that both are stupid (sorry to anyone who likes Trump...). When I think of Trump and how many followers he has, especially after all the things that he has said to the public, I can't believe that anyone could really fully support him and his ideology. I find this very frustrating, because to me, using common sense anyone should be able to tell that Trump and the Protocols are clearly whack.
Any thoughts?

Why are people so ignorant?

As we have been watching, "The Protocols of Zion," I was kinda surprised how idiotic some people can be. I found it so funny how people love to believe everything they are told, or what they hear or see without having proof. Especially when its about judging and making false judgement and assumptions about specific groups of people. I had no idea that after the 9/11 tragedy, people turned to Jewish to blame for. One thing humans are really good to do when something tragedy  occurs is turn to someone or others to blame. Not fully knowing the facts or who/what/why things happen. During the video it was humiliating watching knowledgeable people speak so badly about Jewish people, contradicting themselves making no sense. I don't fully understand why people have to be so knowledgeable and gullible. I truly believe that "The Protocols of Zion," was written so that people could have "proof" to support their "ideas" of Jewish people being the most evil people alive.

Conspiracies in High School?

A lot of what we are talking about in class revolves around conspiracies and assumptions. The 

funny thing is there are so many conspiracy theories we face on a daily basis that we don't even 

realize. The definition of a conspiracy is, "a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or 

harmful". Well when you think about it, cant rumors be considered conspiracies? It is usually 

two people talking about another person of something they heard. Well it starts from one 

person telling a friend of something that may be true or false. Overtime, this rumor spreads 

like a wild fire and people all have heard this rumor that they have to consider if it is true or

 false. Usually, these rumors end up hurting the person who it's about and causes drama. High 

school seems to be full of conspiracies, and unfortunately, I don't think it will ever stop. From 

the smallest rumors to life threatening rumors, they all seem to affect us in a negative way.

Part 2

So I recently came across a video of a Donald Trump rally, and someone got kicked out. Just guess who.........that's right it was a Muslim woman who was standing in silent protest. Rose Hamid and several protester were escorted out for what she said had " intentions to stand up when he said something that was offensive, not just for Muslims but for anyone".  Trump had made a suggestion that refugees fleeing war in Syria were affiliated with ISIS so when she stood up a chant began that eventually got Trumps attention. Once he saw the Muslim Woman and a fellow protester wearing yellow patches that resembled what was forced on Jewish people during the Holocaust. He had security escort them out. I couldn't believe the things that were being yelled at this woman , people even accused her of having a bomb. The Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a call to the campaign of the GOP contender to apologize about Hamids treatment Friday night. Trump never responded.  The next day how ever, Trump didn't address the apology but did defended his proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country during the first rally in Ottumwa. He said his call had changed the dialogue and drawn attention to radical Islamic terrorism, which he described as "a very deep-seated problem that we have in this country and throughout the world.'" He made similar comments later in Clear Lake, Iowa.

Just watch: http://www.9news.com/story/news/2016/01/11/muslim-woman-talks-being-kicked-out-trump-rally/78653670/

Response to Armenian Genocide Documentary

We just finished a documentary on the Armenian Genocide. I was curious as to what response Turkey would have of this documentary. There was a column written about the response to this documentary on the PBS website that I found. Interesting enough, 93% of 340+ PBS affiliated programs showed this documentary around the country when it first aired. The amount of people who watched this documentary was slightly above the average number of people that tuned in for programs at that time.

After this documentary, PBS commissioned a follow up, which included the American and Turkish scholars in the documentary discussing if they was a genocide or not. This became controversial because it seem that PBS had took a public stance that the Armenian Genocide did occur. Interesting enough, only 60% of the PBS affiliated programs aired this, and in major city with bigger stations and markets such as LA, NYC, Boston, Washington DC, etc did not air this follow up discussion. The viewer audience rate for this also went down by 50%.

There was two Ombudsman column before this current one I'm commenting on right now. In the April 14 column, one of the letters was from David Saltzman, the Counsel for the Assembly of Turkish American Associations. Saltzman reminded PBS in his letter that PBS must follow CPB's mandate to ensure "strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature." He talked about how PBS's standards is to assure "that its overall content offerings contain a broad range of opinions and points of view, including those from outside society's existing consensus, presented in a responsible manner. . ."  However, in his opinion, PBS failed to met the standards "in the case of controversial Armenian allegation of genocide"

You can read more about this here: http://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/2006/04/documenting_and_debating_a_genocide.html

The April 14 Column is also very interesting if you want to read about actual people's opinion and response to the column.  http://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/2006/04/the_ombudsmans_mailbag_2.html

Derek The Homeless Man, and How I Felt Obligated To Him

Today in Global we discussed the idea of Universe of Obligation, and how many people feel like they will do deeds, but often will not ever complete those deeds. Here, I would like to talk about a time, my girlfriend and I felt obligated to help someone in need. We were in Downtown Mountain View, nearing an ending street, just outside of Tapioca Express (a dive that serves pearl tea and a variety of different cuisines). As we were about to enter the building, we were accosted by someone who seemed to have been waiting out in the cold for hours, and presumably had no one to talk to. He said his name was Derek, and that no one had even stopped to talk to him at all since he was waiting outside by himself. The man, standing in front of the rather minute but well furnished establishment, was not asking for money, or any sort of handout. Instead, he was asking merely for a meal, something he said he had not had in a very long time. I don't think I could be able to quote him exactly, but It was something like; "People have been walking by me all night, all I needed was a bite to eat man...". Seeing him in his condition, my girlfriend and I decided to take him into the warm eatery, and buy him two bags of mild crispy chicken, and sat and ate with him for about an hour. As it turned out, he was kicked out of his apartment recently by his housemate, and had been living on the street for about a week or so, but very rarely within the week had had a decent meal. As we were leaving, he hugged both of us, and said that we were true blessings on his life. I believe that is what really stuck with me about Derek, maybe I do not know his full story, but I still wonder why no one felt the obligation to help him. I do not speak for all homeless individuals, or any homeless community in general. But, if someone is asking for food, and an hour of your time, why not change their world, just for a little while?

Bill Cosby

READ THIS 
What the fuck does it matter how long it took a rape victim to tell their story? Regardless of how long ago it was it is a traumatic experience and no one has the right to dictate the time frame in which it is appropriate for these victims to come out. OJ was portrayed as this nice loving person on media just like Bill Cosby played a loving character in his shows BUT that does NOT make either of them good people. Bill Cosby may or may NOT be the same person that Cliff Huxtable was and people need to understand that before they begin to use his career as evidence as to why he could not have done certain things. This case is being dismissed as unfair because it took these women some time to speak out but is it too hard to understand that a woman whose body had just been violated might NOT want to walk into a police station to talk about what happened reliving the details, then have that same violated body poked and invaded for tests?

Don't get me wrong I understand that you need sufficient evidence of rape for this to be a fair trial but I just feel that people are so insensitive to this entire case. I just feel that most people are trying to determine Bill Cosby's innocence simply because those women took a few years to speak out.

How the justice system is handling this case is different story. People are outraged that Bill Cosby is not being treated fairly. Why is it that when a black man is simply accused of rape with no concrete evidence, his bail is set to one million dollars and his entire career is tarnished, and his shows taken down, but Charley Sheen walks free even though he hides his HIV and has sex with women without telling them? Why is it that Woody Allen who molested his seven year old daughter is free, and I can go on Netflix and find some of his movies still playing? Maybe race has nothing to do with it, but maybe it has everything to do with why the severity of these punishments are so different. 

Pros and Cons in the NFL

During the first semester, we talked a lot about concussions in the NFL and the effects that many NFL players face later in life. The question is do the benefits of the NFL outweigh the chance of concussions and your mental health. The average NFL player lasts 3 to 5 years in the league and the average football player makes 1.9 million according to Forbes. If you were to play 5 years of football, that would end up being 9.5 million dollars. Also, a lot of players end up running football camps, starting businesses and may even get into sportscasting. There are many different careers that open up for professional athletes. However, there are also many side effects. In extreme cases such as Junior Seau, he ended up killing himself from the impact of football over many years. Although football is a passion of many, would you give up your family life and mental health for money and fame? I guess that is up to you all to decide.

The Idea of Senioritis

In the last couple of days, many people have been talking about being a second semester senior and the work ethic that comes along with it. The funny thing is that I've heard this from all different types of students, from your average student to a student that takes all AP classes. Why is Senioritis a thing all across the country? Throughout our educational career, we've all been competing to hopefully get into a good University and as some students have already gotten in and a number of us haven't. So why give up know? I believe there is a psychological standpoint to this and as one student begins to emphasize this idea of Senioritis, it acts as a domino effect. I believe it can also be looked at as a tradition overtime. It has seemed as my parents have also talked about their last semester of high school and the fun that came along with it. I'm just curious in the idea of Senioritis and it's effect on students around the nation.