Repeating History?

           The use of chemical weapons in Syria caused a huge out roar in 2013. It was one of the hottest topics during the year. And while our government has made other issues more public lately, the topic of Syria still lies unresolved. The other day I came across an interesting article on foxnews.com. The article immediately grabbed my attention by its pretty "to the point" title, "Like it or not, Constitution allows Obama to strike Syria without Congressional approval."  The article states that "The White House again has decided it does not need Congress’s blessing to bomb targets in Syria related to the chemical weapons attack."

           Recently in my American Studies class, we have been studying past wars and conflicts in American history. One war in particular that fascinated me was the Vietnam war, not actually a war at all. That is because congress didn't actually declare war. The article reminds us that Article 1 Section 8 of the US constitution gives only congress the power to officially declare war. However, during Vietnam the Gulf of Tonkin resolution gave the president power to put troops in Vietnam. Some considered this the president declaring war, but technically this is not an official war because it was not declared by congress. Giving the executive branch the power to send troops to occupy an area, and carry out basically a war, was a very controversial thing. Millions of opposers nationwide gathered in anti-war rallies and unions across the nation (as shown in the video here). 

            The Vietnam war incident seems to sum up perfectly the public opposition caused when the government invests all power to take military action in the excessive branch. It seems odd that after such reaction before, now the government is giving Obama the power to do the same. To me, it seems odd that what so many people opposed before, could happen again. What if Obama was to start an unofficial war in Syria? I would argue that we would see such violent protests as during the Vietnam war. I wonder if our government, or Americans in general, really take history in account when making decisions. Or, if they choose to focus on certain successes and forget about some of the bad associated with it. What do you think? Do Americans really learn from their history? 

 

Have You Heard About It?

This week I was overjoyed when I was the first "like" on a Humans of New York Instagram post. With a screenshot proving that I, in fact, was the first like, I bragged to many of my friends and classmates about this amazing feat. For those of you who haven't heard of Humans of New York, I urge you to check it out, because it is truely amazing. 

  A few years back a man named Brandon moved to New York as a photographer, without much money and being unemployed, Brandon decided to start taking photos of random people on the streets of New York. As time went on, he began to ask the people simple but provoking questions, and turned their responses into the caption of the photo he took of them. Using these photos and quote captions, he began to publish them to Facebook, Tumbler, and Instagram, and compiling them into a book. Now with over 470,000 followers on Instagram, and 2.8 million likes on Facebook, Humans of New York has really become a trend.

 What really attracts me to the page, and what others say attracts them as well, is that the quotes are so intriguing but come from such everyday looking people. A man sipping casually on a coke in a restaurant after he has just been heartbroken. Or an young boy who admits that to him, grown-ups are grumpy. It reminds me, and all Humans of New York followers alike, that everyone has a story. And while you may just pass hundreds of these people on the street, some of the most ordinary people can say the most extraordinary things. 

Humans of New York Photographer, Brandon

          I believe that the blog and the success of the blog in general revel many things about American culture. The fact America is so fascinated by the words of everyday people shows how much we like to hear from others, maybe this is because when we listen to others' stories, we connect with them and feel like we can relate. Or maybe there is another reason why people are so intrigued by such a blog. What do you think is so fascinating to the American public about such a blog? What does the name of the blog do for your understanding of the blog in general? 

America's Favorite Genre?

Being a huge country music fan myself, I was happily surprised to see that in a poll taken by the NDP group country music was selected as "America's favorite genre" in 2012. While this was just one poll done, I think that the results may be telling us something. And of course I am bias to the wonderful genre of country, but maybe the poll revels something deeper, perhaps about what makes country music so appealing. It is the lyrics of everyday rural farm-boys loving life, and upbeat simple tunes prove to appeal to me, and I hypothesis that this is the same thing that allures other Americans as well. 

       The NDP group claims in their article that "Country music has become America’s favorite genre, mostly because of its diversity and the accessibility of its artists to young and old alike." While I agree with this statement, I think it is also really interesting to consider classic American stereotypes. Apple pie, farm boys driving Chevy trucks, "Main Street" USA, all things that people think about when picturing the US, and also the things primarily sung about in country music. I find an interesting parallel between these two. Is it the "diversity in artists" that makes country music so popular? Is it the way it fits into so many stereotypes? Or do you disagree with the survey in the first place and feel that country music is not America's favorite genre. Or maybe you think that since this survey was taken in 2012, things have changed. Please comment below with your thoughts. 

Don't Guys Like Gifts Too?!?

       As I entered my carpool this morning, I sat on the leather seats and made small talk with my fellow riders. The conversation was pretty limited, as it was 6:45am, but we seemed to discuss something that actually really made me think. One of the boys in the carpool made a joke about how the two girls were both carrying festively wrapped gifts with them and the two boys weren't. With Christmas approaching it seems to me that I couldn't even walk by a group I was involved with without them begging me to join their holiday gift exchange or secret santa of some sort, my fellow female rider said she couldn't agree more.  But apparently, as I was informed by the jealous boys in the car this morning, this wasn't the case with the male population. Neither of them had been invited into a gift exchange, and as I complained about my fear of having my secret santa identity revealed, the boys noted that they had never had such a worry, as they had NEVER participated in something like that. 

       This discussion really made me think about gender roles in our society, especially around the holidays. It hit me that it was so normal for girls to be involved in various gift exchanges, secret santas, cookie exchanges etc. While the very idea of adolescent boys sitting around a fire, listing to Taylor Swift's Christmas album, and exchanging homemade cookies was enough to make anyone laugh. Why was that I wondered? As I was informed by my male carpool-mates, "guys like presents too!" So then what is it that makes it so normal for girls to be doing such a thing and not guys?

       Maybe it dates back to a time where women were in the kitchen, or cleaning the home while the men went out and hunted. But now-a-days women are running corporate positions, owning companies, and holding high ranking medical positions. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2011 women accounted for 47% of all employment. So it seems to me that although women are no longer the homemakers that they once were, they still carry the stigma that they are the ones who are interested in homely things. Or maybe it is socially unacceptable from a male's perspective to want to bake cookies and exchange gifts? 

       Either way it is evident that there is a gender divide in such activities. And while I am surely not complaining about all the new nail-polish, Starbucks gift cards, and peppermint bark I have received from my classmates this past week, I do think it is worth a critical look, for as I have been told, "guys like presents too!" 

Randomly Selected?

         I came across a picture yesterday posted. Well, not really a picture. It was actually a screen-shot of a Snapchat. The world of Snapchat is one for a later discussion, but what I wanted to look at now was the content of this screen-shot Snap.

  The photo, shown here, is of a man with a turban. The man is relatively young, and is going through airport security. Although the photographer, the man pictured himself, seems to make light of an actually serious issue. The face of the man resembles a funny/shocked look common in many "selfies" (photographs of yourself, taken by yourself). The caption, which is typed across the screen and complete with a few emojis of a man in a turban, reads, "' Bout to get randomly selected." The word randomly is the one that has the most emphasis to me. I think if snapchat allowed more characters in the text line he would have put the word "randomly" in parentheses. As he is making a comment about racial profiling, and how the "random" searches, are actually not so random. 

This is a controversial topic. Whether or not the people who select who to use for these searches, uses racial profiling. And to what extent it is acceptable to use this racial profiling. From what I understand, the officers feel it necessary to profile people, to a slight extent, because there are so many people and not enough time to check them all. For example if they are looking for someone to search airport security they will choose a twenty something man with a turban over an eighty something white woman. It's hard for me, though, to see how this slight need to profile wouldn't be abused. If the only people the TSA scans are young middle eastern men, then they will miss real potential terrorists because the ones who aren't being searched will learn that they are not watched as closely. While I'm not suggesting that my grandma will be trying to sneak bombs through the airport, I think it is worth thinking about the extent that racial profiling is used, and whether or not it should be used at all.     

Baby's Future?

Yesterday I saw an interesting a documentary on America's "failed" drug war called The House I Live In. It discusses how drugs are represented in our society, and how race and class play a role in arrests for the War on Drugs. One thing that stuck out to me was something Harvard professor William Julius Wilson said. He claimed noticing a sad reality in our country, that if one were to walk through the halls of a hospital and pass by new born babies, one could determine each baby's future just by knowing their race and class.
According to American ideals, we can be as successful as we want to be. We can move up in social class with enough hard work and determination, right? Well, not according to Wilson's claim. He seems to believe that it is actually very hard for a poor minority baby to rise above the violence and lack of education, to succeed in the same way as say a wealthy white baby. Unfortunately, it seems that when I thought about it further, Wilson's claim seemed to be true. When we hear about a poor African American, who grew up in a low income neighborhood, rising above it and becoming successful, we think it to be an amazing feat. "Wow! He was a really remarkable person!" Or, "wow! Oprah is an inspiration for overcoming such a difficult situation."
While I believe that it is important to recognize these accomplishments, should we really be that surprised that this kind of thing can happen? Don't American ideals tell us that no matter where we start, we can end up anywhere? So why are these accomplishments so rare.
And although while walking past hundreds of babies at a hospital you may see the next Oprah, will the other babies all just become another high school drop out or an imprisoned drug dealer?

Family Ties Stronger then Iron Bars?

          With the holiday season amongst us, I have been seeing signs of strong family ties everywhere I look. Children are taught to make poems and turkey cut-outs that include the statement "I am thankful for my family." As cliche as it may sound, I think this time of year really reminds us how important family really is. What Americans go through in order to see their loved ones during the holidays, for just a day, or a few hours or even a minute, really reflects the American value of family.
         

 With this in mind, I thought carefully as my American Studies class talked about the "Prison  Industrial Complex." An intimidating phrase at best, loaded with controversy, statistics, and pain. In short, the Prison Industrial Complex (or PIC for short), is a term used to describe the current state that many see in America's prison system. As the prison systems are becoming supplied by private sectors, these private sectors are starting to own the prisons. With private groups owning anything, there is a clear desire for profit, and with this desire comes the controversy. To these private groups, more inmates means more profit, so the more people arrested, the richer these groups get. As selfish as it sounds, it is reality. More people are being arrested today then ever before. As is clear in the graph shown, the prison population rates have increased dramatically over the past 30+ years, however the violent crime rate has gone down. A conclusion can easily be made that the things people are getting arrested for these days is not violent crimes, but rather more menial crimes that result in arrests for the prison's profit.
            With all of this in mind regarding the PIC, I go back to my original thought of family ties. I am quite aware that to be in prison, you must have done something wrong, and often times it is something extremely wrong that prisoners were sentenced for. However, it seems that with the PIC there have been more arrests then ever made on people who really shouldn't be serving a sentence at all. I suddenly began to feel a lot of sympathy toward the young children of imprisoned parents. I thought about the family ties, and how much Americans value family. So when these children go and visit their parents, I can't help but wonder what is going through their mind. The children give so much just to have a quick conversation with their beloved parent. I wonder however, what kid of respect these kids can have for their parents. If their parent was a victim of an unjust sentence, do the children know that, or do they see their Mom or Dad as just another bad guy. I would be interested in hearing about how others feel these children's lives are effected by their parents imprisonment, and if you believe the PIC is a direct cause for these children's potential misery.