more thoughts for my paper

This whole weekend, as I was doing research, I kept on going back to the idea that I should start promoting/advocating my topic of legality in real life. I really want to promote how great the Dream Act is and how I'd like everyone to petition for it. I will probably end up doing just that promoting the act, but maybe under a group's name. Also, tonight I have been pondering titles for my paper. So far I like this titles: Opportunity for all...SIKE, I'm Just an ILLEGAL because You Say So!, Is It Because I'm Brown? and lastly, Becoming Legal is like Winning the Lottery NEVER Going to Happen. It is so hard to choose one, but I'm leaning more to I'm Just an ILLEGAL because You Say So!

More plans (thoughts) for my research paper

Today in Mexican American studies I learned briefly about the Dream Act that was somewhat decided for March 26 of this year. I learned that helps , but I'm not completely sure, undocumented people become citizens. The people have to show they finished high school in the U.S and then 2 years of college, in which then they can apply for citizenship. Or the people after high school who don't go to college and want to be citizens have to go to the army for 2 years, then they are able to apply for citizenship. I think that is what the Dream Act will have the undocumented do in order to become citizens faster, but I'm not sure if I understood the act right in class. Obama still has to sign it too. Also, this afternoon, as I was looking at the newspaper: Spartan Daily, I came across an article titled I fought the law, and the law lost written by Angelo Lanham. This article spoke about the unnessary ticket VTA police issued him for not placing the new stickers on his license plates. Within the article, I thought it was so wierd how randomly Lanham spoke about how these unfair tickets are done/issued to single out Hispanics. I was left to wonder why he said this, and he continued saying how Latinos make up 70% of the disturbing peace charges in San Jose. That was all Lanham, had to say about the Latinos/Hispanics, it was all strange and kind of an out of place spot to mention them. It was interesting too, because it gave me a person who acknowledged how the Hispanos disrupt the peace of the city.

Statement of Purpose

I want to persuade both Cathy and Josh that my reason to write about illegal immigration has valid reason. I do not want to show that I support the illegality these people are doing but how these people did not emigrate that way with mal intentions. I am for legality and people following the laws. I want these people to be citizens of this country and live here without the worry of deportation. I am passionate about this issue of immigration, and am aware that illegal immigration has been increasing daily and causing a lot of unnecessary problems in the U.S. I want to promote how important being legal is in this country is. An immigrant coming to this country legally is possible. All it takes is people taking a moment out of their stressful, busy, daily lives to see the real reasons the illegals are coming in this country, and step in their shoes.

What I'm thinking to do for my paper

Well, to do further research my paper on illegal I've decided to do a couple of interviews. I plan to ask my aunt who is an immigration attorney some questions I plan to make and a friend I have who is has first hand experience with the issue. I'm getting excited about the potential layout for my paper. I hope my final product of my paper shows how into the topic I am. :D

We need the immigrants to continue our melting pot image!!

Rethinking my research topic from budget cuts in education, I think I may also like to write a research paper on peoples of different cultures and backgrounds.Being half Italian and half Ecuadorian, I have much diversity in my life and am very proud of it. As I was searching for articles related on cultures, and immigration I found an article in the Mercury News titled, "Immigrant Chinese, Indian tech workers increasingly return home." I was intrigued by the title, about why and what were the reasons these particular ethnic groups are deciding and have left back to their countries. I read strangely how the Indians and Chinese would make more money in jobs in their home countries. I couldn't grasp that concept of them having better jobs at home, when the whole reason immigrants for centuries have be emigrating to the U.S has been for better jobs, stable futures, and most importantly, having money to send back home to their loved ones. I guess the tables have turned and the U.S is no longer a country of success and prosperity. A lot of that lack of success and prosperity is as we all know is the difficult economic times as a nation we are facing: job losses and no job security.
Vivek Wadwha, a researcher on immigration and labor issues at Duke and Harvard told SJMN why many immigrants are returning back home, "Having worked in the U.S., they have skills that make them more valuable back home.They go back home and live like kings."
Wow, the U.S is truly at it's downfall, if with all respect, going back to other countries, people are "living like kings." The U.S is in dire need to maintain its skilled workers to maintain competition and remain one of the top leading countries. Vish Mishra, president of The Indus Entrepreneurs group, a Silicon Valley-based organization for tech executives with roots in the Indus region mentions a way to get immigrants who have left to come back, "In fact, nearly 40 percent of the Indians and 53.8 percent of the Chinese said they'd seriously consider an offer to return to an equivalent job in the United States." Basically, all the U.S has to do is offer or find a way to offer better jobs than the competing countries are doing... it is as simple as that...but not exactly...

I enjoyed how the article was wraped up with a few words from Wadwha on the ecomony, "we're shooting ourselves in the foot by taking our economic recovery — which is our most skilled people — and shipping 'em off to India and China." Basically, loosing all these skilled working immigrants recovering from our struggling economy will be difficult...This is a scarey thought!! We need the immigrants to continue our melting pot image!

Can I help?!? AVODAH and author, Finnegan explain...

Yes... you can...under one condition... you help the POOR!

In both AVODAH and After Seatle the message of helping others was stressed. "AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps" looks for social change. AVODAH looks to change the lives of people suffering poverty. This change is accomplished through improvement of the people's neighborhoods and providing opportunities. (Lynch,Wysocki 117) After Seatle spoke about outreaching to the less fortunate through such as Global free trade. Global free trade promotes economic growth and in the long run, provides the poor foreign countries with conditions in which democracy and respect of rights can be attained. (Lynch,Wysocki 122)

I do believe that AVODAH website considers their work "advocacy" because throughout the whole website it stressed justice, and doing what's right as if no one nowadays was...The Alumni profiles they chose also showed how AVODAH's motto is "advocate." One particular Alumni, Abby Miller summed up how well AVODAH has influenced her, "'AVODAH faciliated the collaboration of faith, working for JUSTICE, trying to understand poverty, looking for community...all of these things I had been trying to figure out on my own. My year in AVODAH put it all in one place'" (Lynch,Wysocki 119). Alumni's can either make great or bad advertisement...and AVODAH chose well...

Finnegan's After Seatle, is text that internationally would be appreciated for its recognition of such orgs as WTO, but sympathically speaking, readers who are passionate in helping the less fortunate would be more intrigued to read this.

Both articles made me take a step back from my comfortable life, and think...MAYBE I CAN HELP TOO =)

Animals do the darndest things!! XD

Pick a boo I got you.
That is what one curious sea otter did at Montery Bay, surprising the heck out of one photographer named Enrique Aguirre. The San Jose Mercury News tells us the story.
Aguirre is a photographer that goes once a month to the bay and takes pictures of such sea life as seals and sea otters. On this particular visit the photographer got more than he expected, a sea otter with a video camera in its paws aimed at him. Aguirre told SJMN about his intial reaction to what he saw the otto doing, "I was like, did I actually see an otter with a video camera or was I hallucinating?" Hallucinating, is right, I can just imagine how surprised I'd be to see such a creature with the equipment, and how well it was managing it. The video camera is speculated to have been from a kyaking tourist. With the accumulated rust, the camera is thought to have been dropped in the water for some time. Since that one encounter with the otter, Aguirre has come back to the spot where he saw the unforgetable sight, but no sight of the video camera otter. Aguirre concludes his thoughts about seeing the otter with these humerous words, "I know I can go down there another million times and I will never see another otter with a video camera, I think I have more chance of a penguin coming up to me and actually speaking English." Wouldn't that be a sight to see?!?!

crediblity DEPENDS on WHO'S "reading"

Audiences, time, location, religion, practices, etc. add to credibility of the writer. Ethos as Chapter 13 refreshes our minds about is what the writer does to persuade the reader to be interested in what they are reading. I enjoyed reading the first editorial also known as a broadside from the 1799.Looking at that text "To the Public" by Thomas Cooper and later comparing it to the electronic text, and written texts of my time, I felt Cooper got more out of writing. Reading what happened to Cooper for voices his opinions against the president John Adams took courage, took a strong great writer to do. Of course he knew the time was bad to saw what he said about the government, but he did it anyway. Writers who take a chance, risk their jobs, lives are the writers we readers nowadays are attracted to. Cooper being sent to jail would make anyone quit their job, and rethink another path, but I'm sure he didn't. His written work and courage reminded me of Martin Luther King Jr. MLKJ risked not only his life, but that of his family, but he knew if he didn't voice what he had to say no change would happen in the black community or at least some change within the black community. For his words, for his memorable speech at the Lincoln Memorial, he was soon followed, had his house bombed and was asinated. Right now freedom of speech, ideas, etc is more voice able, and people are more tolerant. People nowadays see what others have to say as their opinion, and know that if they'd like to have their own opinion they can.

Aren't big classes horrible!?!?

The article I chose from the SJMN (San Jose Mercury News) was about student teacher ratios as a result of the budget cuts. The title of this article is “Teachers launch effort to save small classes.” This topic about teachers and student class sizes interests me because I plan to become a teacher within the next four years. I’d like to teach if possible in California. As a student in California, I know and am aware of the budget cuts. Public schools really don’t have much money and teachers are paid pennies, figuratively speaking. The article spoke about how the budget cuts have forced schools to make big decisions about either having more than twenty students per classroom or smaller classes with new teachers who have little experience or lack credentials. Education is so valuable and that is one of the main reasons I want to be a teacher. I want to teach my students vital information they can use in the future. Without teachers there wouldn’t be the professionals there currently are. Each grade level counts, and having bigger classes will only affect the students learning as one San Jose mother commented on the issue, “I only have two kids, and on a lot of days I’m tearing my hair out. Just going to the grocery store is a nightmare. I can’t even fathom 20 students, much less 30.” Each child requires different amount of attention and time. I can just imagine when I start teaching how outrageous class sizes will be. Big classes are distracting for students, I can speak for myself. Beck Parker, a teacher also said a few reflective words on the situation, “The best thing California did was go to 20 to 1. To take it away is like going back in time.” Ms. Parker has worked as a kindergarten teacher in San Jose for seventeen years, so she has seen the ups and downs of schools. I strongly believe we should invest more money in our schools and find a way to maintain class sizes 20 to 1.

Wow these people have time

The blogging article which I enjoyed reading the most was the “How I Became an Academic Who Blogs” by Billy Clark the Senior Lecturer from Middlesex University, London. I liked this article because Mr. Clark added the detail that he is a linguist. Being a language lover myself, I was intrigued to see what he had to say about blogs. Later Clark wrote about a blog that he himself became a member of called linguabloggers. I soon found myself clicking on that particular blog link. Once I clicked the link sadly it doesn’t exist anymore. I thought it was nice how he mentioned at the end he ended his blog a few encouraging words of why readers should write a blog, “One of the pleasures of blogging is that you never know how things will develop. Maybe the blog will take off as an educational tool for my students. Maybe even others will benefit from it. Or maybe the interest will be low. It'll be fun finding out.” I really liked the way he made it clear how fun blogging can be, and how blogging can be educational, but also beneficial to know how to use for i.e. as a journal, etc.
Another blog article I found interesting and odd at the same time is titled “Knit Blogging: Considering an Online Community” by Amy E. Earhart a lecturer and coordinator of Instructional Technology at Texas A&M University. It was interesting to read because all the blogs on the Lore website focused mainly on talking about blogs, how they write in them, and how they make their students write in their own blogs. This blog on the other hand focused on Earhart’s love in knitting and how she was able to find a community of knitters within the knitting blog she joined. She spoke directly how she benefited from the blog in that she was able to learn different knitting styles, and how she herself could become a better knitter. The article was odd in that I didn’t know how important blogs can be for so many people on a daily basis.