nike

I watched a video in my Contemperay living class about how nike treates the peopel who make all of their products. these amazing people are forced to work in these factories for hours with only $1.25 an hour. they barely have any money for food, water, shelter. these people are living off of nothing. while these poeple are slaving away all day and only making $1.25 an hour they are making the people who represent nike millionairs! nike has the money to supply these poeple with food and water and shelter and yet they do literally nothing to help these people. these people are happy to work they are proud they are making money to try and support their family. theyve been tought they deserve better. they deserve so much more then their making. no one ever thinks about the people who work behind the scenes of these company. we go and buy all their products and the people who are making these products we are using are literally dying from starvation and disease becuase the million dollar company they work for doesnt pay them or give them any type of insurance so they can support them selves and their family. something needs to be done about this. these people are amazingly strong poeple who deserve so much better. we need to find a way to help them.

So at my school theres one day "class colors day" where every grade dresses up in their own class color. freshmen=white, sophmores=grey,juniors= red, seniors=black. we have this dress up day every year the day before homecoming. the whole day is supossed to be about the school uniting and having school spirit. a lot of the teachers are debating not doing class colors anymore because they feel like that only unites each grade instead of the school as a whole. its true that each grade is more excited to dress up for their grade then they really care about uniting as a school. but in dressing up for class colors we are all uniting and class colors gives us all something to look forward to. each year when we get to dress up in a new color it makes us feel good about how far we've come. we unite as a grade and a school. we look at each person in every grade and we comend them for how far theyve come. everyone looks forward to the year where they can dress up and wear black. by taking away class colors we lose our sense of pride and that will only hurt the uniting of the school.

9/11

In my Issues and America class we saw this documentary on what happened during the 9/11 terrorist attack. The documentary we saw was originally going to be a documentary on becoming firemen. During the process of making that documentary the fire fighters were fixing an oil leak a block from the twin towers and you can literally see the first airplane hit. In this documentary you see the first fire fighters to enter the building right after the first plan hit. I’ve seen videos of the planes hitting the towers but it was such a crazy experience to watch this video of what it was like for the people INSIDE the towers. At first it looked like the firemen were just standing in the lobby talking while all these people were running out. I was really confused as to why the firemen weren’t going up to go save people. Then about a half hour into the attack, the video shows the elevator doors open and people get out and they had noo idea what happened. They were completely clueless. I found out later that all the other elevators were on fire and that’s why the fire fighters couldn’t go up the stairs right away. A lot of the video we see the firemen in the lobby discussing tactics to get up to the people and as were watching this we can see the actual people jumping out of the building and you can see them fall and hit the ground through the windows. This lobby was mostly all windows so we could see something drop and then hear a bomb when they landed. It was crazy to see the actual people. Knowing all this was real was just crazy. My heart goes out to all the people who died or lost loved ones. The documentary I saw was so heart breaking and watching that showed me that there is such a thing as evil. The bravery the firemen had to run up those stairs when everyone else is running down is incredible. And it was more then just people running down. Some were on fire, bleeding, screaming, and missing arms. It was ridiculously hard to run up to a death trap while watching all these people around you dying. The firemen were running up to what they knew could have been there death. Watching this documentary made me cry and I even felt my chest get heavy. I cant imagine what all of those people must have felt.  

Freedom of Speech

In my new issues in America class we've been discussing freedom of speech and whether certain forms of freedom of speech should be restricted. It does need to be restricted in some forms because having full rights to freedom of speech can be dangerous, start confrontation, go against the law, disturb the natural flow of society. We went over some discussions in class and there was one that really stood out to me. I thought the answer to whether or not this man should have been punished was an easy conclusion to make, yet my class had many different opinions and reasoning for how they came up with their conclusions. Situation was about a man who was drafted and he is against the draft so he burned his draft letter. Burning a draft letter is against the law. He was sentenced to jail. So the question is, was it wrong to punish him for this when he was just protesting against the draft. Did the government go against his right to freedom of speech? I thought that they did not go against his right to freedom of speech because our freedom of speech is limited. If your act of freedom of speech involves committing a crime then you should be punished for it. I think that there are better ways to protest against the draft than to commit a crime. Another person made the argument that everyone should be able to protest against things they don’t believe in and if they don’t believe in the draft then they should have the right not to join. My opinion is that just because you don’t believe in a law doesn’t mean you don’t have to follow it. This person did have the right to protest against the draft but in the manner he did it he still committed a crime and should still be punished for the crime he committed.

                 The rights to our freedom of speech need to be somewhat restricted because if it’s not than we will have a lot of people breaking the law, and being put in dangerous situations. Everyone knows the examples screaming "BOMB!" in the middle of an airport and "FIRE!" in the middle of a movie theater. Yes people have the right to freedom of speech but screaming things like that in those places that are filled with a lotto of people is not safe and your freedom of speech should be stopped if it involves causing the unsafe of others. I went to a Catholic school for one year in fourth grade (even though I’m not catholic). We had to wear uniforms of Corse and that included no makeup, only black headbands, clips or hair ties and no nail polish. So the school would give you your uniform early on and you have to wear that same uniform every day and every year you attended the school. People grow? Maybe the school district forgot about that but kids grow. A lot. So on my first day of school I showed up in this tiny short dress I wasn’t yet comfortable wearing, nail polish and a hot pink headband. I was sent home for wearing nail polish and a colorful headband. I got over it. I didn’t mind looking the same as everyone else because then I would be fitting in, in this new school and I would be drawing any unwanted attention to myself. After maybe a month I was just way to uncomfortable about the length of my dress. God forbid i were to drop a pencil I would be exposing myself. My mom came up with this idea that I could just wear shorts under my dress and no one would know. Silly me. I didn’t think about all of the extreme jealousy I would be getting from all of the other girls when I would be able to pick up my pencil off of the ground with no problem. Of Corse the teachers found out and I was sent home. Again. My parents were furious at the school and the next day I dressed exactly the way the school wanted me too but I didn’t speak to anyone or do any work. I just sat there with a note from my parents saying that if my freedom of speech isn’t allowed there then I might as well not speak at all.

college stress

Its the 3rd day of my senior year and i'am already beyond stressed out about what I have to do to get ready for college not to mention all the things I have to do to get in college. I am completely clueless about everything involving college. I have no idea how to find the schools that I even want to apply to. I live in the northshore where everyyyone goes to college and they know everyyything about how to get in and all the steps they need to take to get there. Most of them have their parents helping them apply to colleges, taking them on college tours, applying to colleges. Me? No. i do not have parents like that. My dad went in the military right out of college and my mom never went either. My parents are just as clueless about the college process as I am. I know this is the year I have to step up and take control of my grades and set out to look at colleges and be a responsible young adult, but what some adults now dont realize is that I just turned 17 a week ago. I also dont have as many of the resources to help me, such as parents. How can kids my age be expected to know what it is we want to do for the rest of our lives? iv been 17 a week and i have to aply to the college that basically will determine the type of life I am going to have, in a matter of a month. Wednesday was my first day of school this year and the seniors had to stay after school for a college meeting. One of the teachers were giving a presentation of different colleges, how to send a transcript, scholarships, college cost. The whole time i'm sitting there i'm like "what???". I cant be expected to wake up out of bed one morning at 17 years old and automatically know the college I wan't to go to, my major, the cost of the school, how to send a transcript, write an essay, and apply. How do I even find colleges to apply to? Dont get me wrong, I know for a fact that i want to go to a great four year college. I know I wan't to go to a school with a small campus but a lot of students, and I wan't everything to be with in walking distance. I also want to join a sorority. I don't how ever know what I wan't to major in. I LOVE kids. I worked at an elemtary school in the after school program and I absolutely loved it. But I know that I don't want to be a teacher. I can handle kids for 3hrs a day but to be teaching them for 6hours a day, I would go crazyyy. I'am also really girly and love to color my hair, cut it in different ways and play around with it. I would love to do hair for a living. my problem is that the chances of me making it big or owning a hair salon is very slim. i need to find something that I love that can make me successful and I dont know what that is yet. Also don't even get me started about how I'am going to pay for college. Most of the college cost I will have to pay myself.I have a job right now but there is no chance in hell i'll come even close to being able to pay. my dad is also making this hard on me. He wont even let me look into a college if it's one that he doesnt want me to go to. He also wont let me now when he will be available to take me on college tours and it's not like my dad will let me drive acouple hours away and visit a college by myself. Besides the normal teenage stress like boys, grades, friends, looking my best, exc. I have so much college stuff to worry about too. I need help.