Obama and Occupy Wall Street

 According to Democracy Now, hundreds of protesters have been arrested across the Nation during the Occupy Wall street movement. They announce that the arrest totals include: 175 in Chicago; 100 in Arizona; 92 in New York City; 19 in Raleigh, 19 in Denver; and 19 in Washington, D.C., including Princeton University Professor Cornel West, on the steps of the Supreme Court. West was arrested at the new MLK memorial, where according to Democracy Now, Obamas dedication speech included words such as "It is right for us to celebrate Dr. King’s marvelous oratory, but it is worth remembering that progress did not come from words alone. Progress was hard. Progress was purchased through enduring the smack of billy clubs and the blast of fire hoses. It was bought with days in jail cells and nights of bomb threats."
I can’t decide if this is a warning, or simply encouragement from president Obama. He appears to understand where protesters are coming from; in a recent news conference he concluded that the protests revolved around a "broad-based frustration among Americans about how the U.S. financial system works.” According to The Las Angeles Times, Obama seems to feel what the 99% feels when he announces that "not only did the financial sector, with the Republican Party in Congress, fight us every step in the way. But now you've got these same folks arguing we should roll back all those reforms and go back to the way it was.” He then added that “that does not make sense to the American people. They are frustrated by it and they will continue to be frustrated by it until they get the sense that everyone is playing by the same rules."
True, but is Obama just saying what the American people want to hear? I find it hard to truly understand something until I have personally gone through it myself. Sure, you can use empathy and what not, but you can never really KNOW until it has actually happened to you. Obama is not going to lose his job because of the financial crisis. Well, actually he may, but not under the same terms or conditions. He will lose his job because he didn’t DO anything about financial crisis, whereas the 99% could easily lose their job as a victim of it. Obama does not have to worry about his home being foreclosed, or how to pay for supplies or admissions for his children in school. He doesn’t have to worry about filing for bankruptcy, or stress over the electric bill. So does Obama really understand? I think not. He has and never will be where most all of us are today, stuck in an economy where even something as simple as going to the grocery store can put grey hairs on your head. He hasn’t seen the other side, where you wonder where your tax dollars are going and can’t keep track of where all your hard earned money ended up.
If Obama truly realized that there was a problem with our current system, if he truly understood, then those 175 people in Chicago wouldn’t have been arrested. Same with the other cities. He would be doing more to protect the protesters from cops, one of which arrested a lady as she was innocently trying to withdrawal money from a bank, according to Democracy Now. Remember all that “change” Obama was talking about in 2008? Yeah, there would be a lot more of that.

Works Cited

Memoli, Michael A. "Obama Occupy Wall Street | Obama News Conference: Obama: Occupy Wall Street Protests Show Americans' Frustration - Los Angeles Times."Featured Articles From The Los Angeles Times. Las Angeles Times, 06 Oct. 2011. Web. 24 Oct. 2011. <http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/06/news/la-pn-obama-occupy-wall-street-20111006>.

Kamat, Anjali. A Daily TV/radio News Program, Hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, Airing on over 900 Stations, Pioneering the Largest Community Media Collaboration in the United States. Democracy Now, 16 Oct. 2011. Web. 24 Oct. 2011. <http://www.democracynow.org/>.

Occupying Wall Street: Making a Change For the Better.

            Response #6

             
 I’m sure most have heard about the recent protests/encampments given the name “Occupy Wall Street.” This protest originally started In NYC on Wall Street, but has begun to spread not only into other cities in America, but up into Canada and other countries over seas as well. The main purpose for these protests is not only to point out some of the major problems occurring in America, but to ask for some major changes for these problems as well. Problems such as economic inequality, corporate greed, along with the power and influence of corporations, particularly from the financial service sector. According to Roberto "Múcaro" Borrero of the United Confederation of Taíno People, “There needs to be an end to the cycle of colonialism and greed.”
Though these are considered to be mostly peaceful protests, there is indeed some chaos going on as well. Chaos not caused from the protesters, but from the police officers instead. This can be considered something bittersweet though. Bitter, because the police are obviously taking advantage of their positions, which is causing pain upon the protesters. Sweet, because it has brought this country, along with other countries together in a wave of support for the Occupy Wall Street movement. According to Justin Wedes, an organizer with Occupy Wall Street, “New York City police have arrested people for peacefully demonstrating and exerting their free speech rights. The reaction has been—and I think the whole world sees it now—that every time that you try to silence peaceful protests, you just get an explosion of new support. And I think that’s what’s happened. And it really bares sort of naked the truth about who the NYPD serve and protect. And if that’s not the people… then we have a problem.”
On msnbc’s The Last Word with Lawrence O‘Donnell, Lawrence announces that “Everyday in America, police are too tough. Everyday in America, police cross the line and abuse citizens. Everyday in America, police get away with that.” He then shows numerous video clips of police officers stepping over the line; literally and figuratively. One clip shows a policeman actually reaching across the orange boundary line, only to drag an innocent woman across the ground to the other side, and handcuff her for no reason at all. Another clip depicts a police officer abusing his ability to carry pepper spray, catching a woman in the eyes, yet again for no apparent reason at all. Policeman are obviously taking advantage of this situation, using brutal and unnecessary force for no logical purpose what so ever. As O’Donnell points out, they do so only because they know that they can get away with it. They realize that the media will not cling on to the attack stories unless someone gets seriously injured or killed. They also realize that their department will neglect to serve a serious investigation on their manners. It makes me sick.
Occupy Wall Street isn’t just about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. It is about much more than that. It is about people finally raising their voices and taking a stand against the mistreatment the American people have gone through. It is about making a change for the better over all.

Works Cited

"Democracy Now: Special Broadcast on the Occupy Wall Street Protests, October 11, 2011." Dialogic. Blogger, 12 Oct. 2011. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://dialogic.blogspot.com/2011/10/democracy-now-special-broadcast-on.html>.

O'Donnell, Lawrence. "MSNBC on NYPD Police Brutality during Occupy Wall Street Lawrence O'donnell with "The Last Word" - YouTube." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Msnbc, 26 Sept. 2011. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgr3DiqWYCI>.

Educational Riches

Response #5

Schooling is something that I have never been much of a fan of. I started to dislike it around the time I learned the word ‘like‘ had an antonym, and it continues to disgust me to this day. Of course my reasons have changed from then and now, I no longer detest school because of its lack of eight hour recesses, but instead because of its lack of actual purpose. Sure, the social aspect was always great, and I appreciate the knowledge that I have gained throughout, but sadly enough, that is all the thanks that can be accounted for. I can tell you what I am NOT thankful for though, hell, I could rant if I felt like writing a novel, but for sanities sake I will just sum it up.
The most bittersweet part of my educational journey so far was no doubt my four years of high school. Sweet; because I passed most all of my classes, even though at the end of the year I couldn’t tell you one thing I actually learned. Bitter; because now that I’m in college, I realize how incredibly unprepared I am. During my years in public high school, the teachers passed students regardless of whether or not they were actually prepared to move on or not. I skipped school frequently, cheated on every final, and did not do my homework. Yet, here I am; graduated. It would have been nice to have been pushed to actually do my work occasionally, so that when it came time to walk out of that building four years later, I would be ready for college; knowledge and insight intact. I now realize that it was because it didn’t really matter whether or not I took in the information. All that was important was that I did indeed continue on to college, not exactly to learn, but to become an employer of sorts as well. Apparently, I am not the only one who feels this way.
According to John Bellamy Foster at Monthly Review, “very little of schooling at the elementary and secondary levels is oriented to developing actual skills, much less knowledge-which, to the extent that they are needed for later employment, can be obtained on the job or in post-secondary education.” So this is why it did not actually matter whether or not I leaned in high school. All that mattered was that I got sent onto the next grade, my teachers got their tiny checks, and life went on. This is not the teachers fault I believe. As John points out, fault lies with the economic shortcomings of our capitalistic society instead. Little skills are required in capitalistic society jobs, and that is why students aren’t learning actual skills at school.
Education is just another victim of corporate America, and our schools suffer from that; especially college. Shit pay for teachers yet we pay thousands of dollars to go to school each year, multimillion dollar collegiate sports programs… its all just money not real worth. All that matters in America is that the guy at the top of the corporation gets his riches.

Works Cited

Foster, John Bellamy. "Education and the Structural Crisis of Capital :: Monthly Review."Monthly Review, An Independent Socialist Magazine. Monthly Review, 11 Apr. 2011. Web. 24 Sept. 2011. <http://monthlyreview.org/2011/07/01/education-and-the-structural-crisis-of-capital>.

Paper One Proposal

There is a large amount of debate regarding animal interests, and what kind of rights they are entitled to. Cruelty and mistreatment of animals are seen in slaughter houses with cows, chickens, and hogs. These farm animals are kept in unsanitary conditions, being starved due to lack of care, and are accumulating diseases daily. Thousands are packed into tiny spaces, and treated in extreme inhumane ways. Everyday, animals are being sacrificed and mistreated for the “betterment” of human lives, whether it’s for our food, monetary gain, or our own entertainment.
Please keep in mind, it is the cruelty that I am focusing on. In my opinion, most of the things I am talking about would be completely okay if the animals were treated right in the process. It is the neglect of these animals, the absurdity of which they are treated, that I really want to take a look at.
According to the Animal Legal Defense Fund, it is federal law that all mammals be stunned prior to being slaughtered. Vegan Outreach states that the methods used to stun animals include using an electric current to induce a heart attack and/or seizure; or a captive bolt gun to deliver a blow to the skull or shoot a rod into the animal’s brain. Though this may sound reasonable, it is not uncommon that animals suffer from two or three failed stuns during this procedure.
These are not the only unsettling facts. We kill and eat approximately 56 billion land animals a year according to Gary L. Francione and Robert Garner, writers of The Animal Rights Debate. Smaller animals, including chickens, account for about 95% of the animals slaughtered for food in the United States. Yet, there is no law such as the Humane Slaughter Act to help protect smaller animals and birds such as chickens.
Hogs on factory farms are castrated and have hunks of flesh ripped from their ears, bits of their teeth torn out with wire cutters, and their tails chopped off—all without painkillers. Not only is this kind of mistreatment witnessed with Hogs, it is also seen with chickens as well. To increase profits, farmers drug and genetically manipulate broiler chickens; as a result, many birds suffer from painful, crippling bone disorders and spinal defects.
It is important for people to become aware of these cruelty issues because in my opinion, the more people who know of these problems, just means more people to fight the cause. I plan on writing this paper as if I were a writer for PETA, the largest animals rights organization in the world. Their audience is considered as general public, seeing as they work through public education, cruelty investigations, and even legislation. It doesn’t take a scientist to recognize that a life is in danger, whether it be a human or an animal. It takes people just like you and me, to face this problem head on and do something about it.

Works Cited

"If Slaughterhouses Had Glass Walls | Why Vegan? | Vegan Outreach." Vegan Outreach | Working to End Cruelty to Animals. Vegan Outreach, 04 Oct. 2001. Web. 13 Sept. 2011. <http://www.veganoutreach.org/whyvegan/slaughterhouses.html>.


Marcus, Erik. Meat Market: Animals, Ethics, & Money. Boston, MA: Brio, 2005. Print.


"Animal Legal Defense Fund : Farmed Animals and the Law." Animal Legal Defense Fund : Index. Animal Legal Defense Fund, 2011. Web. 13 Sept. 2011. <http://www.aldf.org/article.php?id=1027>.


Pollan, Michael. "Slaughterhouse - Inside The Slaughterhouse | Modern Meat | FRONTLINE | PBS." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Public Broadcasting Service, 31 Mar. 2002. Web. 08 Oct. 2011. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/meat/slaughter/slaughterhouse.html>

Quite a Predicament

Response #4

Whether through reading articles, watching videos, or own personal encounters, I’m sure most all of us have been informed about the controversy orbiting around our current education system. Because this is such as large argument, this is no doubt a lot to be said about it. Several writers and speakers have recently become engaged in this dispute, creating works that either represent their stance on the subject, or simply establishes facts for readers to form their own opinion.
There are of course several ways to approach this matter, such as Ken Robinsons RSA Animate “Changing Education Paradigms.” This eleven minute video informs about the problems of education, and the stratification of knowledge, all the while illustrating pictures as he speaks. He presses that we need to change the paradigms of standard education, for our children and their future. While this is quite unique and visual, the more common approach is through articles, such as “Chained Ethnic Students Take Over School Board At Tuscan School” by Jeff Briggs and the Common Dreams Organization. This article tells of courageous students, and their fight to save their Ethnic Studies program before it becomes terminated by the board.
In Ken Robinsons video, he speaks of two reasons as to why “every country on earth, at the moment, is currently reforming public education.” The reasons are economic and cultural. Economic asking how to get our children to take their place in the twenty first century, and cultural asking how to educate children to keep cultural beliefs. He makes note that it is nearly impossible for students to find their place in the economy, when we don’t even know where its is going to be at the end of the week. Robinson also points out that because of globalization, it is ever more challenging for students to establish their cultural identity, to recognize where they came from and how they got here.
As I briefly mentioned before, in Jeff Briggs article, he informs us about students who chained themselves to board members chairs to stop a controversial resolution to cancel the Ethnic Studies/Mexican American studies  program. According to the University of California Riversides own program, “the scholarly practices of Ethnic Studies are both practical and theoretical, addressing questions of power, social movement, freedom, liberation, community, culture, and history.” They also state that “We neither imitate nor replicate the paradigms and curricula of traditional academic departments. The political-intellectual work of Ethnic Studies is guided by deep engagements with the living histories of people’s struggles to survive and transform forms of institutionalized social and cultural violence.”
In regards to Robinsons video, the board was most likely terminating the Tuscan program due to financial instability… Economic instability. The students mentioned in the article were standing up, and letting it be known that they are fed up with the attacks on their education and on their future. They want cultural identity, to be able to keep their beliefs and background.. Something that receive through their Ethnic Studies program.
As you can see, these are just dents in our educational peril. There are several more problems, questions, and answers to acknowledge. Regardless of the method or topic leading into this controversy though, most works seem to be screaming the same thing.. “our current education system is jacked up, and there is something to be done about it.”


                                                                         Works Cited


Rodríguez, Dylan. "Critical Ethnic Studies and the Future of Genocide: Settler Colonialism/Heteropatriarchy/White Supremacy." UCR Department of Ethnic Studies. University Of California Riverside, Mar. 2010. Web. 06 Sept. 2011. <http://ethnicstudies.ucr.edu/>. 


Briggs, Jeff. "Chained Ethnic Studies Students Take Over School Board in Tucson | Common Dreams." Home | Common Dreams. Common Dreams Organization, 27 Apr. 2011. Web. 06 Sept. 2011. <http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/04/27-0>.  


Robinson, Ken. "RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms - YouTube." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. The RSA Organization, 14 Oct. 2010. Web. 06 Sept. 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U>.

"We The People"

 Response #3

"This is a warning to all tree people. You are not welcome here in Santa Barbra. I will make life difficult for you. I have a faithful and respected group of citizens behind me. You bastards are low life scum and will not endure; I promise you." These are the cruel words posted on trees and lightposts in 1984 Santa Barbra by an angered citizen, after the murder of a thirty five year old homeless man by the name of Kenneth Burr. The identity of the writer is still unknown, considering the fliers were signed as “B.Ware.” As if America didn’t have enough problems already, the last thing we need to do is whip the swords out on one another. In the face of economic diversity, instead of people pulling together, there is hatred spread throughout the nation and the government continues to do little to help.
The more that the economy struggles, the more people struggle, and on top of all this suffering, there is malice and violence torward the people that are already at their lowest. America is like a young child. Insted of facing the problems head on, they instead place the blame on someone else, in this case the homeless, and are kicking them while they are already down... Literally and metaphorically. This is a sad fact, but as Dale Maharidge points out in “Someplace Like America,” America will recover. "We are a strong people, but it will not be the government who pulls us out of the recession. It will instead be the drive of the lower class, the "true Americans", the ones that have seen the hardships, and been at their lowest. It will be the determination of these people that will propel us forward." Only when we decide to stop living in a nation fueled by greed, and start having compassion for our fellow citizens, will the economy rise.
If I were a "tree person", there would be a few words that I could put on some fliers of my own. They would read something along the lines of "This is a peaceful letter to all "tree people" haters. Having empathy is obviously something too insignificant for ‘well respected’ citizens to bother with. If you stopped to put yourself in our shoes for once, you may have a change of heart. We are not low life scum, we are or were working citizens; just like you. We have been sucked into the labyrinth of darkness this economy provides, therefore we continue to struggle yet have no home or fancy cars to show for it, as you do. When you find yourself spiraling in this direction, (which at the rate this government and economy continues to fuck America over, you very well might end up here soon), we will be here to help. We know already how it feels to be on the other side, and we will welcome you to our battle of equality. You will see life as we know it, as most people know it, where fairness and greed does not exist. As you long for the ghost of a life you once had, you will finally understand. What size shoe do you wear? Signed "the tree people."
Instead of focusing entirely on fixing the economy, America should instead turn to look at its own citizens. When police officers are running homeless people out of parks, instead of stopping murders such as that of Kenneth Burr, something is incredibly wrong. If America is to ever change, and pull out of its economic crisis, it must start with a change that goes far deeper than that of any petty financial woes. It must instead start with "we the people."

Works Cited

Maharidge, Dale, and Michael Williamson. "SOMEPLACE LIKE AMERCA AN INTRODUCTION." Introduction. Someplace like America: Tales from the New Great Depression. Berkeley: University of California, 2011. Print.

Hacker

Response #1

The most common definition that comes to mind when I encounter the word “hacker” is a person who uses a computer to gain (hack) information that is not theirs. For obvious reasons, hackers naturally aren’t shown in a positive light.  This is because in popular media, the word “hacker” is used to describe a person to breaks through a computers security system for either monetary gain, maliciously, or just to prove that they can. Not exactly someone I would give a Nobel prize to. Some may argue this though, due to the fact that it actually takes some serious skill to become a hacker. A person who has unreal computer knowledge, can break through firewalls and bypass passwords in computer programs has got to be none other than a genius. Does this make them a good person though? I think not. Just because you’re smart doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re honorable as well.
A great hacking story that I once heard told of a 19 year old boy in Wales, who acquired 23,000 online shoppers details and posted them to various websites. He ended up pleading guilty, claiming that he only did it to prove security weakness in internet shopping. As I mentioned earlier, some hackers hack to make a point, or just to prove that they can.
Another profound story that grabbed my attention lately was a hack of the Fox News Twitter feed. Someone hacked into their Twitter, and reported that Barack Obama had passed away on July 4th, 2011. This obviously caused an uproar, scaring the American People. The rumor was soon diminished though, and we all slept a little better that night I suppose.
A very common hacking technique that most all of us know about is through email. Click on a message that is not from a trusted friend or website, and Boom! You suddenly have a virus. Thankfully though, internet users have been greatly informed about this technique. Hackers are still making leeway through emails each day, but the more informed we stay, the less likely they are to succeed.
I have never had any personal experience with a hacker, and for that, I’m grateful yet unsurprised. If I were talented at hacking, I don’t believe that I would waste my time breaking into a 19 year olds computer only to find a Facebook password and some other worthless nonsense. I do consider myself lucky though to have not gotten a virus yet, which most hackers are responsible for. Like I said before, hackers can break through firewalls, which are typically used to protect your computer from viruses and such. In my eyes, hackers are no bueno and I’m glad to say I’ve been fortunate enough to have avoided them thus far!