International Justice Mission

"Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence."

-Henry David Thoreau

As I was sitting in class on Thursday, I could see the passion that our guest speaker had for her mission. She has devoted her whole life to promote peace by doing acts of civil disobedience. She does not only claim that war is wrong, but spends her whole life trying to stop the violence. She is using her "whole influence" to try to stop the ongoing wars. There are many people who are using their "whole influence" to not only end wars, but injustice.

In church today, a speaker named Gary Haugen talked about how he has devoted his whole life to fighting injustice. In 1997, Haugen chose to start a "human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression" called International Justice Mission. This agency is made up of lawyers who "work with local officials to ensure immediate victim rescue and aftercare, to prosecute perpetrators and to promote functioning public justice systems." When he was talking about the injustice in the world, I could see the passion he had for rescuing the abused just like our guest speaker in class had passion for peace. These two people have devoted their whole lives to their cause and take action in trying to solve the problems they see in our world. I believe that Thoreau would have commended both of these people because they have used their "whole influence" to solve the issues they are passionate about. Haugen is making a large impact in the world because he is trying to establish justice in our world and free abused men and women. The question I ask myself is: What am I doing to use my "whole influence?" And now I ask you: What are you doing to use your "Whole influence?"

Wyoming Land Rush

While gazing over the new York Times website, I was intrigued by the article "A Land Rush in Wyoming Spurred by Wind Power." The previous day we had watched an epic film of Tom Cruise racing to snatch his piece of land in the Oklahoma land rush. I visualized a whole swarm of cars racing out to Wyoming to stake out their piece of land and set up wind turbines that would produce electricity for their home and town. In actuality, the Wyoming land rush was a little more subtle than that. There are companies searching for "wind-rich land" who spotted a few counties in Wyoming where the land could be made into "wind farms." Since there are people who own these windy lands, the wind companies are not going to snatch there piece of land for free like those in the 1889 land rush. But, hold on. I thought in the 1889 land rush the Indians owned that land. That was until the federal government said it was open to the public. Why is it that the Indians are always being pushed out of where they have settled from?

I was so upset to hear the tragedies the Indians went through during the Westward Expansion, the mass killings, and the treaties that were broken. Even though I am only one-sixteenth Creek Indian, I felt the pain that some of my ancestors went through. I had an opportunity while reading Zinn to see the asterisk of the Indians. I got a glimpse of how the Indians felt when they were being betrayed by the "white society." While watching the epic land rush of 1889, I noticed the Indians on the side, watching their land being taken from them, only to be moved into an unknown new land.

The Klan is back?

"Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

As we watch the Bush administration come to an end, we are excited to see what Barack Obama will do to improve and advance our country. Americans are very optimistic and see Obama making change to move our country forward. If our society is advancing, wouldn't Emerson argue that our society is receding as well? He was right. I opened the Chicago Tribune and saw the headline "Hate Incidents in U.S. Surge." This article explains that a surge in white supremacist groups have been noticed because of President-elect Obama. The Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group, has hung "effigies of President-elect Barack Obama." Emerson's idea that "society never advances" rings true. Our nation should be in a time of change and advancement, but that has been halted by the rise in hate crimes. A lady from Angie, La., Judy Robinson, "decided to place an Obama campaign sign outside her home a few weeks before the election. On the morning after Halloween, she awoke to find 'KKK' and 'White Power' spray-painted around her yard." It is frightening to hear that the KKK is reviving and terrorising people for supporting our new President. Emerson's beliefs are clearly shown through the surge of hate crimes.

Rugby Linked to Progress??

Yesterday, I had a conversation with a teammate about how to play rugby. The game seemed very interesting and I think I would enjoy playing it. Coincidentally, I looked online and saw an article from the New York Times named "The Unlikely Scrum." After just hearing the positions and how the game of rugby is played, I knew that article dealt with rugby. This sport has become more and more popular around New Trier, but in this article, I was shocked to hear that Hyde Leadership Public Charter School has the "nation's first all African-American high school rugby team." When I think of Rugby, I think of large English brutes hitting each other as hard as they possibly can. I never knew that African-Americans played the sport of rugby.

When the first students from Hyde asked their friends and family about playing the sport, a common response was, "You're crazy, that's a white person's sport." Regardless of what they said, the students began to pursue the sport of Rugby. Tal Bayer, the rugby coach at Hyde, encouraged the students to play "a pick-up game after school." These pick-up games led "to the birth of a team in 2000." The sport has become very popular at Hyde school and "now, 45 of the high school's 110 boys play." It is amazing to see how a game that was own known to these students is now something they all look forward to after school. Not only has Hyde created a school full of Rugby players but, "Hyde has become one of the city's top programs, finishing second out of seven teams in the Metro Area Varsity Rugby Conference."

Who would have thought that a group of inner-city high school boys would be playing rugby? Since this team has been able to compete against white affluent schools, it is a "barrier that rugby has broken down." Seeing an African-American rugby team excel and play against teams who have only encountered white opponents is progress in braking down racial barriers. It is amazing to see how our Constitution has allowed for once slaves to now be accepted in our American society. I have always seen the videos of Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play in the M.L.B., and how he broke down racial barriers by playing in a "white mans sport." America is making progress! This rugby team is one of the thousands of examples of how our country is progressing in the right direction.

The Reality of Moving into the White House

When I think of Barack Obama, I think of the word "Change." Everyone is anticipating when Obama gives his inaugural speech and becomes the President of the United Sates of America. The question I ask is, how much change will he bring once he faces the realities of our country?

I opened up the Sunday Chicago Tribune to a huge picture of Obama with the title, "Great Expectations: Harsh economic, political realities will test Obama's mettle and ideas." It is great to see so much optimism out of our President-elect, but what will be his first objective to accomplish? On the front page of the Tribune it said that Obama will begin by stimulating the economy with a "stimulus package around energy development" which will start "creating manufacturing jobs in the alternative energy sector." This approach is killing two birds with one stone. It will help stimulate the economy by providing jobs, and it will also help our country slowly move form dependency on foreign oil. This is a very realistic goal that he can pursue, because honestly, there is no way he can just solve all the problems quickly, he can only take it step by step. Even though his campaign was about "change," Obama will need to look at all the problems he is facing,"a plunging economy, ongoing wars and a massive federal deficit," and deal with them pragmatically. Our new president is a very intelligent man and will do everything in his power to help the American people. He may not heal all the wounds of our country right away, but give him time and he will be able to move our country in the right direction.

Space Sports?!

In 1969, people were amazed that two men, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, walked on the moon. In the early 2oth century, idealists were dreaming about the day an American would walk on the moon, but pragmatists thought it would be an impossible task.
As I was surfing the web, I saw a headline that shocked me, "For Ex-N.F.L. Star, a Dream of Sports in Space." Ken Harvey, a retired Washington Redskin football player, has high hopes for "Float Ball." This would be a sport, a mixture of "basketball, football and the Lionel Richie video for 'Dancing on the Ceiling'", played in space. This "space sport" would be very expensive unless the rate for space travel decreased dramatically. One thing that caught my eye was when Ken Harvey said,"Sometimes it doesn't happen in your generation, but you plan to see it in the next generation." When I read that, I immediately thought of how the first Puritans were trying to set up a better place in America for their children. The Puritans had a dream to live life with religious freedom, and Ken Harvey has a dream of playing sports in space.
In my previous blog, I established how I am an idealist. If Ken Harvey has a passion for "Float Ball", I believe that he can make his dream a reality. A realist would say that playing sports in space is almost impossible, but I beg to differ. If one man can make a space traveling device that is cheap and affordable, sports in space might become a reality. I am positive that many people would be interested in playing if it was affordable. I hope that Ken Harvey stays optimistic and tries to find a way to make his dream into a reality.

State in '08!

After our football game vs. GBS, Coach Davies said to our team, "Even though we had a tough loss today, you have a clean slate in the playoffs. Lets go out there and win our next game!" Our teams record is 5-4, and we are matched up against Lane Tech, a city school power house, who has an 8-1 record. I always try to be optimistic, but to be honest with you, this game is going to be a battle. We are going to have to work for every yard and every tackle. It will be a great game to watch.

I opened up the Sunday news this morning and saw the bracket for the 8A playoffs. I quickly looked for my team and it said "#14 Winnetka (New Trier) (5-4) at #3 Chicago (Lane) (8-1)." Always being an optimist, I know that we can beat any team in the state even if they are the #3 seed and we are the #14 seed. More pragmatic people would say that Lane Tech is going to put a beating on the Trevians. With the odds against our team, we are going to prepare the most we ever have to be the Cinderella story in this years playoffs. If we beat Lane Tech, then we could run into our arch nemesis, #7 seeded Loyola. Pragmatists would say it would be unbelievable if we won two games in the playoffs, but I know we have the desire and ability to win it all. The Trevians will not go down without a battle!

It is always very important to stay optimistic when you are on a sports team. If you think you are going to loose, you most likely will. But, if you believe that your team will win, you push yourself to your limits to accomplish your goal. Being optimistic is not only important in sports, but important in life. If you have any dreams, you better be optimistic because if your not, you probably will not work your hardest to make your dreams a reality. This reminds me of how the "Americans" wanted freedom form Britain. They fought in one of the bloodiest wars ever so that they could make their dream of freedom and liberty a reality.

Dependence on Foreign Oil? Not in 10 years!

Now, I am not an election enthusiast who would not miss one second of the debates. But, when I do have some free time, I will sit down on the couch and watch my Tivo'ed programs. I scrolled down the list of recorded programs and I noticed the last debate was recorded. While watching it, I saw many idealistic and pragmatic approaches to our countries problems. One thing that both McCain and Obama had a similar pragmatic approach toward, is how to rid our country of dependence on foreign oil.
The question asked was, how much do think you can reduce foreign oil imports during your first term? When the candidates responded to the question, they both answered with a similar time frame in which they can escape dependency on foreign oil. McCain believes that he can escape dependency on foreign oil in 7 to 8 years while Obama believes it would take 10 years. Now, these approaches are very pragmatic and tangible. Usually, presidential candidates like to give idealistic answers, but on this topic they both answered with a realistic answer. I think this issue is extremely important and to give an empty promise would do no good. Also, Americans realize that it will take a long time to rid our dependency of foreign oil, so it could only hurt a candidates campaign to say they can solve the problem in a time frame such as 4 years. As an American (who will eventually vote), it is much more helpful to hear realistic answers on a candidates approach than idealistic answers. It's helpful because then you actually know how the candidate will deal with the issue instead of an empty promise that will never be fulfilled. This debate was very interesting that showed a lot about both candidates.

+936, NO WAY!

I was intrigued by an article that said "Stocks Soar 11 Percent" because I am used to seeing "down 600 points" or something of that sort. The Dow Industrial went up 936 points today which is the "biggest gain in the American stock market since the 1930s". Now, we all know about the $700 billion bailout plan, but I am sure some of us were waiting for some results. Well, now they have shown, in record highs. Many stock buyers were pessimistic of the market and did not want to invest. They were afraid that if they bought, their stocks would only go down. Over the weekend, the stock buyers began to realize that this was a very good time to buy and it could only get better. Today when the market opened, stock buyers bought many shares and that is the reason for the the massive increase of points in the Dow. 'Ryan Larson, head equity trader at Voyageur Asset Management in Chicago. “The key thing to take away from this is the key pieces of this puzzle, of this fix, are beginning to appear.”' This article uses pathos when they explain the high position Ryan Larson has which gives the notion that what he is saying is true. So, from what he says, the economy is only going to get better and America is on the road to recovery.

This incident is so interesting because this huge jump in points also happened during the road to recovery during the Great Depression. Now, the Great Depression is obviously worse than the situation we are in, but it gives me hope and optimism for the future. I am very excited to see how the markets react tomorrow after such a massive increase of points. Ryan Larson does say,"In this process you’re going to have up days, with five-plus percentage swings, and you’re going to see down days, five-plus percentage swings." If the market goes down a little tomorrow, I will not be surprised, but I am more optimistic about our future because of the record gain today. America is on the road to economic recovery.

Give Me My $250,000!!!

We put our hands in and cheered, "North Shore Community Bank, FDIC Insured!" I remember those days in 4th grade playing baseball. Hitting home runs, tagging people out at home plate, and pitching scoreless innings was what our team was all about. While reminiscing, I began to ask myself, what does FDIC insured mean?Where did FDIC insured come from?
Franklin D. Roosevelt came into the depression with the attitude of change. He was going to reform our economy so that we would leave the perilous time behind and begin to prosper. F.D.R. set up the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation so that when people deposited their money into banks that are FDIC insured, they were guaranteed a certain amount of money back if that bank failed. This corporation was created because many Americans lost all of their money when banks failed during the depression. We all know that our economy right now is in the dumps and people have started to compare these times to the depression. Legislatures are trying to prevent history from occurring again by approving the Bailout Plan. Within this Bailout Plan the FDIC will guarantee $250,000 instead of the previous $100,000. Since people are guaranteed more money, they will be less likely to go on a "bank run", which will result in banks still having money to function. This economic situation today is extremely similar to the times in the 1920's. But now I ask a question, will our country be able to bounce back from the economic peril?
America is one of the best countries in the world, and as always, we will rebound and become prosperous again. With the election ahead, we have to consider who will help our economy prosper most. Will it be Obama or McCain? I hope that whoever obtains the presidency will act similar to F.D.R, who helped our economy get back on the track towards global supremacy.

Don't Hate On Palin

While looking through some editorials on the Chicago Tribune website, I came across an article,written by Mary Schmich, that grasped my attention with the headline "Tracing Source of Women's Hate for Palin." The first question I ask is, how can you say you "hate" someone when you have only seen them on T.V. and heard about them on the radio? Schmich goes on to say "the hatred many profess for Palin is rooted in the feeling that she has ascended to power she hasn't earned". This leads to Schmich's main claim: Palin is not ready to be vice president. This article begins by explaining that Schmich is confronted by many women saying that they hate Palin and then Schmich receives "mystified" looks when she says "I don't". Even though Schmich doesn't hate Palin, she critiques her political views and "credentials for this job." Later, Schmich goes on to infer that the one to hate is Mccain, because he picked an unqualified running mate. Although critizing Palin, Schmich says "there's a lot to admire."

While looking at the article, I came across a biography for Schmich which said she went Stanford and Harvard to study Journalism. Also, she has been with the Tribune since 1985. Sounds like a credible source to me. I would have to say that going to Stanford and Harvard might give you some ethos points, and did I forget that shes been doing this for 23 years? Her writing shows that she went to two of the top schools in the country. She uses logos by stating the political beliefs of Palin and reminding the reader of how she "stumble[d]" through the interview with Katie Couric. Not only does Schmich clearly articulate the facts about Palin, but she makes the reader feel like she cares about her. Schmich says, "it hurt to watch her fumble through her interview," which shows that she is using pathos to urge the reader sympathize for Palin. Schmich also says, "the real bad guys were the folks who seduced her for their political gain into thinking she was ready." The writer obviously believes Palin is not ready, but more importantly says that McCain "seduced" her into think she could take on the task of being the vice president. I was shocked to see the word "seduced" since it has such a negative connotation, and I think Schmich specifically placed that word in there to have the reader feel badly for Palin.

This article was extremely well written and changed my views about Palin. I agree with Schmich and felt like she used logos, ethos, and pathos to make her editorial very powerful. Also, I felt like I was in conversation with the author, which allowed me to really understand and believe what the article was trying to convey. This was a fantastic article and I enjoyed analyzing every word of it.

It Is All Your Fault!!

When I think of Puritans, I think of "the city on the hill" and the model for the new world. Sounds like a perfect community, right? Well. not really. The Puritans dreamed of having a "model" community for their folk back home, but who would have dreamed of a perilous time full of suspicion? Since the community was not as perfect as they dreamed it would be, they began to blame it on "unnatural things"(Miller 9). In Arthur Miller's, The Crucible, Parris' daughter Betty has become ill and will not awaken. The Puritans begin to think "it is surly a stroke of hell"(12). They begin to use the devil as a scapegoat and are suspicious that witchcraft has caused there children to be ill. Why does there always need to be some one to blame?
Lately, the economy has been, in my terms, down in the dumps. One of the USA's largest insurance companies, AIG, was just bailed out by the government. Lehman Brothers, a large investment banking company, files for bankruptcy. The economy is in a perilous time. From watching the television, it seems like each annalist has someone to blame, even the presidential candidates. McCain claims that"[Obama] is part of the problem in Washington". This boggles my mind. I do not understand why people always have to blame someone. Have people ever considered trying to work together and fix the problem, rather than blaming people ? It seems to me that during rough, perilous times, we want to find a quick answer to why the hardship has happened, so we find a scapegoat. Human nature is so fascinating because it never changes; it happened in 1692 and it happens in 2008.

"Please stand for our National Anthem!"

On a dark and rainy Friday night, all my teammates, wearing our green uniforms, toed the sideline and put our helmets in our right hands to listen to the Star Spangled Banner. At the south end of the field flew the flag of the United States of America. Usually, I am so nervous for a sports event that I do not even listen to the words of our national anthem, but this gloomy Friday night was different. I stared deeply at the red, white and blue flag and was startled when I heard, "Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight".
Our flag, one that represents freedom, survived the "perilous fight" at Fort McHenry during the Battle of 1812. Along with the American flag, the American people survived the "perilous fight" because they all came together and defended for our countries freedom. This reminds me of September 11, 2001; when America came together and overcame the devastating attack on the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon. There seems to be a similar trend of when our country is in a perilous time, we Americans join hands to support our country. We seem to forget about ouselves and try to help our country and those in need. When hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and surrounding cities, the American people responded by setting up fundraisers to help those who had been affected by the storm. This brings me to the question: Why do Americans only come together when it is a perilous time?
We Americans should be just as close during a prosperous time as we in a perilous time. Why do we need tragedy to bring us together? America is one big family and we need to be there during the good and the bad times.

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