Tammy's Story

Although I felt sorry for Tammy, I found it unfathomable how she treated her son. I don't think her son was rude in trying to better himself. He seemed like a smart kid with a lot of awards. He could probably get a scholarship to college or something, so why wasn't Tammy encouraging him? Tammy was also trying to better herself, although she was against huge odds. It makes sense to me that she would want her children to strive to better themselves. I am not sure how proper the movies depiction of Tammy was, but what they showed concerning her son portrayed Tammy in a negative light. I wish that Tammy could receive a better job and graduate from school and become a teacher, but is that even possible for her? She does not have a car, lives in a trailer, and works a minimum wage job cleaning toilets. How will she better herself is she does not have the resources to do it? I do, however, give props to her for trying. I just wish that the American dream was a possible reality for everyone. Guess our streets are not really paved with gold after all, but paved by the poor.

Chintz or Shag

I am so sorry that I forgot to blog over the weekend! I recently took the chintz or shag quiz. I believe it was interesting but not exactly correct. My quiz answer told me that I was middle middle class, which is close but not right. By the middle of the quiz, I was choosing furniture based on whether if fit with the rest, not if I really liked it. I wanted the room to look good, so I do not believe my quiz answers were consistent. I really enjoy the movie that we are watching in class. It is interesting. I love the rich woman because she is hilarious in her condescending ways. Like seriously Edward from Twilight drives a VOLVO! She was so rude. Did she fake that awful accent? What I did notice from the movie right away was the accents poor and rich people had. I think that the differences in voice tone were due to education. The rich people spoke my eloquently because of the education money bought them.

Deviance at SHS & Prisons

Deviance. Differing from a norm or socially accepted standards. Deviance is very prevalent at Stevenson High School. Everyone texts at school, goes late to class, and disobeys ridiculous rules. It's the bad kids, or at least the ones that look bad, that get caught. Many innocent and angelic looking people who know how to charm others to get away with everything. They get called down to the Dean for ditching a class, and they'll get away with it. My friend ditched a class and did not get in trouble because she told her Dean she was sick. For a bad kid, that would never work. Bad kids are the one's swearing at teachers, listening to music during school, ditching classes, skipping detention, and wearing dirty clothes. The ones who are well-groomed and charismatic get away with a whole lot more. Now, to change my topic, I would like to discuss prisons. Prisons are supposed to be rehabilitation and re institutionalization centers; instead prisons are just crowded places to lock criminals up. In fact, more people executed from the death penalty have actually been proven innocent than guilty years later. So why the rush? What is wrong with out penal system that innocent people are getting killed for crimes they did not commit? Why is it that 2/3 of prisoners released return to prison? In order to make America safer, we need to improve our prisons. This means better, cleaner, less crowded facilities. This change needs to come quick. Hopefully, President-elect Barack Obama will help.

When are you supposed to be Independent?

Independence. It is the word that every senior hears. You'll be independent when you go to college. But are you really independent? Few seniors at Stevenson will pay for college and most will return home for breaks. So when do you truly become an adult? My cousin is twenty-one years old, she is a senior in college, and recently I asked her if she felt like an adult. She laughed, replying "No, not at all. I am home for about five months out of the year give or take. I think I'll finally feel like an independent adult when I can call another place besides my parent's home or college home." She went on to say that when she is married, she'll feel independent from her parents. I think she is correct. Until we can completely move out of our parent's homes, we are still dependent upon them for many adult things like taxes and bills. Once we move away from our parent's homes, we have new responsibilities. These new responsibilities like financially taking care of ourselves and others makes us independent. However, what truly makes you an adult is being able to balance your new responsible role with your old one as a son or daughter because your parents will always want to take care of you.

The Masks Men Wear

I have always known that guys in general are more violent than girls, but seeing the statistics was mind baffling. The movie we watched made it seem like guys are these horribly violent monsters in order to prove they're not gay. I never thought that guys were so mean to one another. The Kimmel article states that homophobia is the fear of being called gay, which seemed to ring true in the case of the school shooters. The one girl that Kimmel mentioned involved in a shooting was the one who chickened out. I think it would have beeen more interesting to delve into the girl's reasons for wanting to participate in the first place. Generally, society sees men as strong and girls as weak, which is why mainstream media has always shown men as violent people. In One Tree Hill, a guy was a school shooter and in many other shows guys are always the one's getting in fights. Why not girls? In real life, girls tend to use words and hold grudges, guys fight and move on. The other day at school, I witnessed a fight between two girls. About 100 hundred people were are watching shocked that girls would actually hit one another. I think most girls view actually attacking another girl as trashy, whereas guys hit eachother to gain respect.