First Quarter Reflection

The most interesting work I've read this quarter would have to be many of the articles based on peoples opinions or data on the effects of media use today, it was pretty interesting because I never really recognized the concept of the authors opinion until a few days later when I was sudden;y spacing out and losing track of time on my new smartphone. I have also learned so much about writing paragraphs, it's more than just writing it's brain storming, outlining, formatting, etc... I have caught on very quickly and feel I have caught up with class expectation if not exceeding it, I do my work when I'm told, hand everything in on time, think and write efficiently and I participate very well in class. Coming into this class it felt as if my weaknesses in writing were major but after being in this class for the amount of time I have I feel that my weaknesses are slowly starting to be noticed and masked. My strengths involve writing about opinionated subjects or persuasive subjects, my weaknesses in writing include organization and punctiation. I would like to study from more of a reporters or journalists perspective. The overall nature of this course is to improve ones general knowledge and improve on writing skills and qualities.

Criticizism Through Activism

There has been a major subject that has come to America’s attention, there are many issues in this world and many charities and Activists are often met with criticism. It’s hard to understand why people don’t trust a charity or activist when they’re trying to do good, right? Well unfortunately this world is filled with selfish people that get involved with certain events or issues for personal gains and it’s hard to tell who the good guy is or even who the bad guy is.

For example, recently a video was posted to YouTube titled “Kony2012”, the video talks about a man who had an army of children and explained how he’s ruined family and committed crimes against humanity. The issue with the video is that the events they’re talking about took place more than 7 years ago and has gone away in that span of time, the video is all propaganda brought to you by a film documenter and his charity makes an excess of 4 million dollars a year and doesn’t report what they do with their excess. There are many other people who do similar things, like Bernie Madoff. Bernie said he would take your money and invest it and expand your money by a certain percent, in 2008 he was caught for money laundering and scamming his clients out of 50 billion dollars! It just goes to show that it’s tough to put your trust in a business or corporation. Even past presidents have done very shady things such as Nixon and the Watergate, it’s sad but in todays society It’s hard to trust anyone so be careful about what you see or read.

Angst Towards Todays Peers

Recently I have noticed a steep decline in intelligence with todays youth, it is as if todays youth has no future for a better tomorrow. No one seems interested in following politics or how our country might end up in five to ten years, academic expectations have lowered and I have no faith in my generation. The only thing that teens seem to care about is a shallow and fake culture portrayed by many so called reality shows(jersey shore), not the fact that our currency has lost more than thirty percent of its value since the 1930's and I'm disgusted by it. I have interests but I must say that my interests are of a higher important than most, my goals and interests are to change the issues brought to todays society that include gay rights, abortion, limited government and many other things that I have witnessed throughout the seventeen years I have experienced.

If todays youth put as much effort into changing the social and political issues involved with America as they put into keeping their Nikes "fresh" or into social networking than people such as myself wouldn't have to worry about what this world is coming to.

Internet Surfing Observations

I have participated in a class project to assess my self by making reflections on what I search for and watch or read on the internet. I was only given 20 minutes to conduct what I normally do on the internet which is mainly watch videos on YouTube that involve pranks and stunts and read articles about Marijuana. I never recently realized how I managed my time on the internet until I recorded it and to be quite honest I must say that reflecting upon this I'm just the type of person who likes to have a good laugh, joke constantly and relax.

I've noticed that some of my interests have no redeeming social value and are stupid, but I'm not bothered by it.  Instead I would like to think of it as having a sense of humor, a soft spot for stupidity, and an interest in certain recreational activities.

Why is Marijuana Illegal?

I've been pondering through this question for many years and so many other have probably stumbled upon this question too, but why is Marijuana illegal?  According to an article by Pete Guither "many people thought that marijuana was made illegal through some kind of process involving scientific, medical, and government hearings; that it was to protect the citizens from what was determined to be a dangerous drug." As the article continues, it shows you the history of the criminalization of marijuana. There's a common misconception that Marijuana was criminalized because the paper mills would lose profit, the paper mills contributed to it but the main cause was racism and corrupt Legislatures.  Harry J. Anslinger recognized the Bureau of Narcotics and how much of a career oppurtunity it would be for him so he automatically threw the themes of racism and violence to draw attention to the public so he could build his agency, some of the ideas quoted by Harry Anslinger are a bit racist so please do not take offense, but according to Harry Anslinger “…the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.”, “Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.”
 and also “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.” These statements are very invalid and pose no strong point but that's the main reason why Marijuana was deemed illegal in the 1930's and it's still illegal today.