Civic Duty: All People Should

All people should let other cars merge into their lane. For some reason, everyone seems to think that if you let someone in front of you, you will arrive at your destination later.  I mean perhaps you will be a bit tardy by fractions of a second, and what a shame that would be. I think the roads would actually move a lot smoother if we could just make a little space for someone else to quickly jump into our lane. Then we could move on with our lives instead of having a battle to keep someone from merging in front of you. I'm sure we could prevent a ton of accidents as well.

But on the other side of things, you shouldn't push your way into a lane when it is clearly not a good time to merge. I hate seeing people who drive all the way to the end of the merging lane in an attempt to jump in front of all the cars already on the highway. I hate when 3 or 4 cars will merge at the same time in front of one car, because clearly the other 2 or 3 cars should have merged earlier so as not to make that poor car already on the highway let so many people in.

If we could all just be a bit more courteous, our lives would be a bit easier.

Is Poverty a Choice?

  To be able to attack this argument properly you need to define poverty, which is an extraordinarily difficult thing to do. Poverty in the United States is very different from poverty around the world. But for the sake of this blog, I'll use the poverty line in the United States as a definition. 

The Poverty Line

One person family: $10,890
Two person family: $14,710
Three person family $18,530
Four person family: $22,350

http://reference.yourdictionary.com/word-definitions/define-poverty-rate.html

       14.5% of people live below the poverty line, meaning that 49 million Americans live in poverty. Are all these people choosing to live like this? Well 16.2 million of these people are children, who legally cannot work, and cannot change their circumstances, so they are not choosing to live in poverty. This still leaves 32.8 million people below the poverty line. 10 million of these people are mentally ill, and cannot work, so they aren't choosing to be poor. Now we are left with 22.8 million people living in poverty who could be choosing to live that way.

      If you are living in poverty and are not a child or mentally ill, the only way to get out of poverty would be to get a job, yes? Well minimum wage doesn't reach above the poverty line. And guess what! We need people to work these low income jobs in order for this capitalistic society to work. As long as we have these big corporations, we will have jobs to fill and people who will take them. 

      But the question 'is poverty a choice' is flawed. No one makes one single decision that leads them to poverty or wealth for that matter. Its a series of choices, that can take you down different paths depending on the situation you were born into. If you are born into a family living below the poverty line, and choose to work full time at a minimum wage job, you might not make it out of poverty. But someone born into an extremely wealthy family could choose never to work a day in their life, and they would never know what its like to go hungry for a day. 

      The fact that this question is even asked, shows that we live in a First World Country. Nobody in the slums of Afganistan or Democratic Republic of the Congo is questioning wether they choose the life they live in. Do we as Americans even know what its like to be poor?

    

Malcolm X; Response

      I think many people read this book like its a thing of the past. People like to pretend that racism isn't apart of society today. But when I read this book I can only think about how recently this all took place. It really astounds me that people can talk about racism and slavery as if it is something that is irrelevant. This man, Malcolm X, who fought for the rights of the black man, could have been alive today if he were not killed.
      This book was so recent in fact, that I could introduce you to a person who was born before Malcolm X, and is still alive today. My great grandmother was born in 1915. I remember asking her about the 20s. I used to have an obsession with flappers and I really wanted to know about the Roaring Twenties. The only thing she could tell me was the amount of poverty she lived in. My great grandmother remembers a time when she couldn't ride at the front of the bus. My great grandmother, is the granddaughter of slaves.
      There are things in this book that I can personally relate to. When Malcolm was a boy, his teacher told him that he couldn't be a lawyer because its not a realistic job for a Negro. His teacher wasn't being intentionally malicious, in fact he thought that he was helping Malcolm. I've never experienced such harsh and dangerous racism as Malcolm, but that scene in the book reminded me of people today who are racist without knowing it.
      My skin is as thick as the next persons, but sometimes the jokes I hear aren't very funny. I've met a lot of people who would never call themselves racist, and yet they judge others and make fun of someones race. I'm not saying everyone who tells a joke should be burned at the stake, but it gets to a point where its not cute anymore.
       I recently saw an interview of Louis C.K. It's pretty relevant to what we are talking about in class, and it made me laugh.

http://www.upworthy.com/sometimes-it-takes-a-white-dude-to-get-real-about-racism?g=2

Music Blog

      I don't really listen to any music that you cant find on the top 40 list, unless you we are talking about my extensive collection of Disney music. I think a lot of people would then assume that I just listen to pop garbage, and to that I beg to differ. One of my favorite artists is Alicia Keys. While she is definitely a popular artist, she is so much different than cookie-cutter band.
    

   Her single Unbreakable  was released in 2005, and it really represents Alicia Keys' music as a whole. Her songs never seem to have a predictable melody, which is different than a lot of other R&B singers. Her voice is also is sort of raspy, which I think makes her songs sound more genuine. You can hear the honesty in her voice, as opposed to using auto-tune.
   I really love the music video for this song too, because she is trying to show that she hasn't lost her sense of community.  She isn't wearing flashy clothes, and a lot of the video focuses the people that have gathered to watch her. The song is about how she isn't any different from all of these people, and while her wealth say otherwise....I actually believe her.
   

Alone

    When I was seven, I moved from Chicago to Florida. I lived in three different cities; Orlando, Jacksonville and Key West. I lived in Key West for about 6 months. It was really beautiful there, but the 6 months I spent in Key West were loneliest of my life.
     I entered the 3rd grade at St. Adams Elementary, in the middle of the year. I remember walking into class the first day and really hating the looks that my new classmates were giving me. The first few weeks weren't so bad. I didn't have any friends but it could have been worse. 
     One day, about a month into school, I had dropped my pencil on the floor on accident. I was about to pick it up when I saw a boy walking towards it. I thought he was going to pick it up, but he purposely stepped on it, then looked me in the eyes and told me I should have never come to 'his' school. What nine year old says things like that? He was obviously psychotic. From that day on he continued to bully me and made sure I had no friends.
     After he started bullying me, some other girl started spreading a rumor that I was really poor. She actually created a long back story as to how I ended up in such poverty. Looking back on it, I'm actually quite impressed as to how much detail she put in the story and I'm flattered that she would spend so long thinking about me.
     Needless to say, I was pretty depressed when I lived there. I felt like I would be put down my entire life, which is pretty ridiculous for a 3rd grader to say. After I told my mother how unhappy I was we moved back to Chicago, and so ended the lowest point in my life.

I Know This Means Somthing

   The holiday season is an especially good time to have this blog. That time of year where you and your family gather around a giant turkey and stuff yourselves silly to celebrate the roof over your heads. We forgive that really offensive thing our uncle said last Christmas. We ignore the fact that our crazy cousins, who live in the Bible belt, still refuse to condone gay marriage. The holidays remind me just how important family is to me. I know it means something to have a blood connection to a group of people. Family is this big group of people that you might not like, but are required to love because you know they are the people who will be there for you.
  I think life is more than just family though. Life is about interacting with other people. It's about agreeing and disagreeing with others. It's about laughing and helping others. I know it means something to have a connection with a friend over a favorite song or show. Friends are people who bring out the best in you. They are the ones you go to when you can't exactly tell your mother something for fear of being grounded. In some ways they are your family. They are more people to share experiences with.  Life is sharing with other people, and if you don't, what's the point?

First Quater Philosphy

       I have thoroughly enjoyed the first couple weeks in Philosophy. I have been forced to rethink a lot of my ideals that I have previously thought to be set in stone. Listening to other people's points of view allow me to strengthen my own points. However, I think a lot of people don't get heard as much as others. Part of that being because they aren't as confident when speaking, but its also due to other people's tendency to dominate the conversation.
         I like the books we've read but I'm not a big fan of group work. I like it a lot better when we can discuss the book as a class. I like being able to discuss philosophical ideas in a big group, because having more ideas in the conversation makes it a lot easier to wrap you head around the idea. Other than that, I've really liked the first quarter and I look forward to the second.