Came a long way

Do you ever wonder how it would have been to live in the times our grandparents and great grandparents grew up in? I do, and it interests me how much we truly are privileged to live in a time where technology is advanced and people are more accepting (for the most part). Where both sets of my great grandparents lived was not like how it is now,  Guam and Mexico back then were both unstable places, one being the setting of the war and the other a rural desert where you have your own a farm just to get food. Imagine having to harvest everything on the farm or being in the middle of gunshots and chaos as a kid. I know this goes for many of your grandparents as well, since back then was full of historic events and things we definitely haven't had to go through. Just imagine being in their shoes, going from what were accustomed to now to what they went through. I find it amazing how far things have came, and to know our own relatives lived through it.

Sleep is priceless. Here at Los Altos High School the majority of students start school at 8:10 everyday except for Wednesday's. On Wednesday's we start class at 8:50 which surprisingly really makes a difference in how rested I feel.  As a teenager I find I need at least 8 hours of sleep a night in order to be successful and learn to my full ability. With school starting at 8:10 I find this very difficult to achieve 8 hours of sleep between homework, sports and family time.  Every Monday through Thursdays I have soccer practice in San Jose and don't get home until around 10ish. This doesn't help me when I am trying to get my full eight hours of sleep. If school were to start later in the day, I believe that people will be better rested, which will result in people having more energy to work harder for more hours out of the day.

Election Rhetoric: Where We Are Heading

Throughout the course of the presidential election, many of us know that the overall rhetoric of what we would consider conventional politics is changing. More often than not, we have seen differing degrees of this speech, whether it be inflammatory or merely grassroots, but this in turn begs the question, are the people finally speaking their minds on issues? Or are politicians merely manipulating the minds of those that feel disenfranchised? In terms of Donald Trump, I think it is the latter. Trump says that he "speaks for the people", but rather I believe he is simply saying the same babble that many Republicans have been thinking, but not willing to admit. This is synonymous to fear mongering, and shows us how the fulcrum has shifted in terms of electoral rhetoric, for many are supporting a man that believes in nothing genuine at all. However, in terms of Bernie Sanders, I do on some level admire his grassroots initiatives to continually raise money through voluntary donations, a tactic which I believe edges out any Super PAC funding, or shoveling your own money into a campaign because you sit on a golden toilet within Trump Towers. However, Bernie himself has his own flare that speaks to the socio-economically disadvantaged, and more and more you see people on both sides of the political aisle becoming angry with the "system". This election even marks a period where the candidates are grouped into "establishment" vs. "non-establishment". What does this mean for the parties? I think it means an ultimate split of ideals within the two major parties, and perhaps a large amount of people switching to smaller third parties within the United States. If this is the case, the campaign rhetoric we see today, could mean a greater range of ideals for the future...

How Lucky we Really Are

When African Americans began getting civil "rights", they weren't just granted to them, they needed to do a lot to even be eligible for rights. For example, to be able to register for voting, you have to pass a test that white people make up as they go along making it impossible for black people to pass. Later, they made a law that before even taking the test you had to get a ______ from a registered African American voter.
In the movie we're watching, I think it's so sad to hear that African American's literally planned go get beat half to death by police officers. Their marches were not violent, meaning they couldn't fight back to police so their only option was to be beaten. They drew sticks to see who would march in the front. The police would wrap barbed wire over bats and they would throw mace bombs causing big clouds of dark grey smoke, making it almost impossible to see through. They left African Americans with broken ribs, arms, legs and even fractured skulls lying in the street as they moved onto the next target.
Watching this video make me realize how lucky I am to live in a time where segregation doesn't exist in my everyday life.

Voting For Eighteen Year-Olds

Recently, I had a conversation with a friend about being eighteen and voting. Toward the end of the discussion I said that I wasn't registered to vote yet and he started how easy it was register. I really had no urge to expend any level of effort to place myself into eligibility to vote. It seemed like I didn't think my vote would make a different and that my right to vote is pretty irrelevant. While watching the civil rights documentaries, certain groups of people went on great endeavors to receive the right to vote. From what I observed, young voters aren't as motivated to make their voices heard, specifically those of the age of eighteen. Many eighteen year-olds are registered to vote and are using their rights. While this is happening, it also seems like less and less people are concerned with voting. This brings me to wonder why our generation is less driven to have our voices heard.

Casa de Paz

During 2015 summer, I participated in a non-profit organization called Soulforce. During that time we learned to self advocate and learn about peace.

Well during that process, a small group of us took a trip to Oakland to visit a peace activist named Francisco Ramos Stierle also known as Pancho. Pancho was born in Mexico, but registered for a student visa to come to America to study astrophysics in the Ph.D program at UC Berkeley. But he had great courage to leave the school because they were using the studies to do research on nuclear weapons development. He had strong feelings about it and he didn't think it was justice for him to focus his studies to create dangerous weapons.

Pancho then became a peace activist, he turned to meditation and peace techniques. He was going to be deported but people had his back and allowed him to  stay.

Fast forwarding.... he became well known because for meditating at Oscar Grant Plaza in Oakland early in the day to raid against police brutality. I think he mentioned that him and other activist started meditating since 5 in the morning. The meditation lasted hours. He was arrested and turned to immigration services, and to be deported. But luckily around 7,000 people signed a petition to free him. He was arrested for meditating.... makes no sense I know. What I found really fascinating was that the officer who arrested him was saying some disgusting words to Pancho, but Pancho replied to him by saying, "I love you Brother."  

That's a little bit of background info.

But when we went to visit him in Oakland, we went to what is known as Casa de paz. Technically it's a house that the community helps pay for. This house is literally open to anyone, there is no lock. It's opened 24/7. And Pancho is not afraid of doing that. In this house he has food, shower, rooms and a meditation room for those who are in need and need a place to stay at whenever they would like. And plus he has this huge and beautiful garden that he plants himself, and a lot of chickens and  parakeets.

When I met him and hugged him, I felt like i had known him for a long time. When we were meditation, I felt his positive energy and I felt at peace. He is a true inspiration and I am more than pleased to have met someone like him. It's hard  to write about him in this post but if you're interest to know more and in more detail check these websites.... 




  http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=4616 
http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/pancho-ramos-stierle-nonviolence-is-radical 
http://www.dailygood.org/view.php?sid=127


 

Good book suggestion.

I don't know how many of you have read this book last year... I really love this book. "Always Running," by Luis J. Rodriguez, he wrote this book on his own experience growing up in East LA. Being a chicano affiliated with gangs and drugs at age of twelve, and facing many obstacles with discrimination and violence. This is a very interesting book that once you start reading, you won't be able to put it down. I don't want to give a lot away, so.... I suggested this book because it relates to a lot of what we are talking about chicanos and mexican american movement and it gives out a really good message.

Textbooks suck

Yesterday I have overheard a girl in my class talk about how different Chicago is compared to California. She mentioned that while in school in Chicago, the history textbooks go into depth about themes such as the black panthers and movement. While in California, the textbooks barely touch base on the theme about the black panthers. It's weird to think that even in states in the U.S they  have differences on textbooks and what they teach. I honestly think they should all contain the same amount of material because they are living out important history that is important to learn.  For example, in history the teachers don't talk about the Mexican movement and I wasn't to be in global, I would've never learned about the movement because the U.S textbooks exclude that thinking it's not important to its history. Perfervidly because they're ashamed of proving the people the resources needed.

Judging students success

On Wednesday during Mr. Stewart's 2nd period, we were discussing why and how do they decide who to sent to alta.  The issue is that there are three types of students who receive the same or similar amount of tardies and absences and receive different "punishments"

1) they receive the letter home warning them that if they reach 15 absences and tardies combined, they will be sent to alta or saturday school BUT they keep missing classes but they NOTHING EVER HAPPENS TO THEM.

2) they receive the same letter as person 1, and after missing one more class they automatically get sent to alta.  

3) they miss the same amount of tardies and absences as person 1 & 2, but they never  get the letter sent home

So, if they all have almost the same amount of tardies/absences what exactly adds to decide who goes and who doesn't?

Everyone, including myself, thought that they were sent to alta if they had a bad reputation and bad grades.

But then Mr. Stewart broke the "secret." He said that the administration asks the student's teachers  if they believe they will pass their class? Obviously if the teacher sees that the students doesn't have the possibility to pass their class, they will sent the student to alta because there is  no point for them being here if they get too many tardies and aren't passing their classes.

so the question is, why do they send home a letter warming the students based on their attendance? when the administration makes the decisions based on the grades.    

Hernandez v. Texas

Throughout my high school career, I have heard extensively of the African American struggle for civil rights, and the Brown v. Board of Education initiative for de-segregation. However, I do not ever remember hearing of Brown v. Board's predecessor, Hernandez vs. Texas. After seeing the documentary, A Class Apart, it made me wonder why exactly this section had not been taught to the extent as Brown v. Board. Was this simply because of the scope of the African American struggle? Or was this simply on the aspect of favoritism? The answer to me is unclear, but nonetheless the question should be addressed, why can't we allocate our lessons equitably? I would advocate a lesson plan centered around civil rights, in History/English classes, fairly dividing the different civil rights movements within America. What we can better figure out about our history, taught to our youth, lays the foundation for analyzing future events, and possibly even giving youth such as us, a look at the exuberance and energy, driven by the civil rights movements.

Ashamed to be latina

A few months ago, I was really close with this one girl. She would always talk to me about how she feel stuck. She didn't speak Spanish, so her relative felt like she wasn't a part of the Latino community. She told me how her relatives would always tell her how she will never make it far in life- how her life is predestined to teen pregnancy, drug addiction, and poverty. I know she wanted to prove people wrong-that she can succeed in life, but she also holds a lot of bitterness for being a latina even though she denies it.

One time, she told me that she was fat and chubby because she was genetically predisposed to be fat due to the fact that she was latina. When she started dating a white guy, she said that she felt weird when she tried to say her full name, but with his last name. She said it sounded "too white" for her and how because of it, she thinks the relationship will never work out.

When we began to have a falling out because I got annoyed at her blowing me off at the last minute, she got all passive aggressive and said, "It's because I'm latina right? You don't like me because I'm Mexican. You like our friend better because she's white. In your eyes, she must be so much better and so much smarter than me" It was really sad to see and to hear her say that. I think she holds a lot of bitterness for being a latina, and I wonder if that kind of thinking is ever-present in the latino community.

Personally, I feel like being Chinese, instead of being told that we are not good enough, we are mocked by others for being "too smart". And if we are not as "smart" as other people expects us to be, we are viewed as failures. In freshman year, someone in geometry class actually turn to me and said, "What do you mean you're not good at math? You're Asian. You're supposed to be good at it"

An article of interest..."black privilege"

Check it out if you like...

http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/30/us/black-privilege/?iid=ob_homepage_deskrecommended_pool&iref=obnetwork