Thanks to the COM352 students for contributing a bunch of new pages! I'll be moving these pages into the main area of the wiki soon.

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[edit] my writing

[edit] Unit 1 paper: My Country Tis’of Thee

It was the year 2000, and the day of the presidential election. I was in seventh grade and a die-hard conservative. I remember watching FOX with my family eagerly awaiting who had won the presidential election. To my relief and excitement, George Walker Bush had been elected. Even though I was only twelve years old, I vividly remember my excitement. Ever since I can remember, I have always been fascinated with politics. It is probably my truest passion. My parents are both avid republicans. Being I a child I automatically assumed my parents views and ideas were right and I began claiming I was a Republican too. I was a right-winged child who loved elephants. In middle school I found myself and other republicans to be the minority. Being a republican in Wellesley, Massachusetts, is like being a needle in the hay stack. I remember always trying to debate and stand up for being a republican. However, I didn’t really know what it meant. I just knew if my parents were republican, so I was too. When I was in eleventh grade, I was chosen to attend a conference in Washington DC for students interested in politics. The name of the program was Close-Up. It was honestly a life changing experience. While in DC, I met thousands of students from around the country who shared my passion. They might have had different beliefs and ideas however we all shared the same love for politics. While we were in DC we attended several conferences and debates. It was in DC that I finally understood that one does not have to be a specific party, for example republican, democrat, socialist, nationalist, ect. A person can have different ideas and opinions taken from many different parties. The thing that is so quintessential is that everyone has some idea or belief. While in DC, I also finally realized if someone is not conservative, that does not mean their ideas are wrong, rather just different. Lastly in DC, I reinforced my self as a republican. However, this was the first point in my life I could call myself a republican for the right reasons. It was not because my parents were or some other silly reason, I was a republican because I most nearly identified with their beliefs. Finding myself politically was so satisfying. I felt accomplished, educated, and useful. However trite it may sound, I had the power to make a difference. Democracy is a beautiful thing which we as Americans are so fortunate for. Democracy is suppose to let us voice our opinions and ideas and together come up with policies that work for us all. Currently our country is at war in the political parties. Republicans and Democrats cant even exchange ideas. It is good to have different our opinions and ideas, yet our differences can not divide us, it must make us stronger and help us grow. So I ask republicans, democrats, independent voters to remember we are one people. One great thing every citizen of this country shares is that we are all Americans. Whether we are black, white, men, women, young or old, we are all Americans and we must hold this dear to our hearts. That following summer, I went to Kennebunk Maine where my summer house is. Coincidentally, that is where the Bush estate is. The republican headquarters for the state of Maine were located in Kennebunk too. I interned the whole summer before the election. I called several patrons asking for donations. Also, I helped promote the town of Kennebunk to go Red. I gained vital experience and saw first hand how a campaign was run. My love for politics grew stronger. I met the Bush family several times. The first time I remember thinking to myself, this is the most powerful man in the world. He is the head commander and chief of our country. I was stuck by awe. I went back to school for my senior year. I was so excited for the election, however few students shared my anticipation. The majority of the school did not care. How could people not care about who was going be in charge of our country and how it was going to be run? This blew my mind. I was flabbergasted. It angered me so much that people complained about the president’s job, yet they were able to vote and didn’t. As John F. Kennedy said, “The ignorance of one voter in a democracy, impairs the security of all.” Every citizen needs to take the opportunity to vote and take advantage of it. After the 2004 elections when Bush won so many people were angry were mad about it. They complained and stated he should not have won. Yet how much of the country voted who were eligible? The answer is 58%. This is the highest amount of voters in the last 5 elections as well. That is disgusting. Only a little bit more then half of our country voted for the president: the most powerful and influential man in the world. More people had voted for American Idol then the 2004 presidential election. I didn’t understand how people did not care and did not get involved. After that election, I realized what I wanted to with the rest of my life. I want educate and promote people on American politics. It is my dream that one day everyone will vote. With each new generation, adolescents are caring less and less about politics. I believe many people feel they can not make a difference, yet this is not the case! We can not afford to fall back into a divided time and which American pride and equality was non-existent. It is evident how passionate politics are to me. I pride myself on my knowledge and awareness. I truly think I know more then most adults. I can not imagine my life without it. My life has been directly shaped and altered by my passion that my parents first interested me in. Many experiences I have had has been led to by my interest and enjoyment in politics. The rest of my life will also be forever shaped by politics because it is what I want to do when I am older. As stated earlier, I want to educate and promote involvement in our amazing country. Everyone of us is so lucky to live in a country where we are free to say what we want, practice any religion we want, look however we want, write however we want, ect. It is my personal goal to get others as excited and involved as I am. I am on my way, although I have just started and have a long journey ahead, I am on my way.

[edit] Unit 1 Reflection Paper

My Writing: A Work in Progress

Dear Kelley,

I remember in high school I always did pretty well in English class. In freshman and sophomore year I took honors English. In junior and senior year I took standard level two English. I attended Wellesley High School which is notorious for having quite a demanding school system. Since freshman year I have been assigned term papers or research papers ranging in length from anywhere of five to ten pages. I considered my self a pretty decent paper. Coming to the university I have learned college writing is quite different than high school writing. It is more formal and strict. In high school the context was what was the most important, grammar second. In college it is the opposite. This is illustrated in my paper by me having seventeen grammatical errors. I also feel like in college the writing we do is much more specific. The topic is more narrow and leaves less room for opinion and imagination (college in general, not this class per say). I do like writing when it is something that captivates me and interests me. However, when assignments are narrow and leave less room for creativity, my writing becomes very boring and dull I have noticed. I somehow need to find a way to balance this. This particular assignment was very interesting to me. It was broad and big and in summary let me write a paper about myself which showed my identity. I do believe my paper did a good job of this. It shows how important politics is in my life. It is my favorite thing. It also shows my passion for our country and the idea of patriotism. I was trying to display this but did not want to write it out for the writer. I think after getting my paper back I could have somehow left my interpretation about my identity to the reader rather then spelling it out. I also thought my paper followed one the of the five styles of identity writing. I was trying to show how one particular thing has shaped my life drastically. I tried to show how politics has influenced trips I have gone on, internships I have applied for, and jobs I hope to attain one day. It is a vital part of me and anyone who knows me would agree. Reading my paper now, I see how many grammatical mistakes I made. As stated earlier, in High School we didn’t focus as much on grammar as we did context. I think this was a struggle for me and will continue to be so. I will have to work extra hard on my other essays to compensate for my lack of grammar skills. Next time I have questions about my writing I will not hesitate to go straight to my penguin book and look the answers up. I wish I had time to redo my paper because I think I could make it much better. I would most importantly go over all grammatical errors because I have numerous. I also would also write my paper a little more strictly to the assignment and intern show my identity more then saying it. I am currently writing the second unit paper. For this paper I aim to do much better. I am going to follow the assignment more strictly and REALLY try to do better with grammatical errors. I am going to use that penguin book! This was my first paper for this class and was a learning experience. I now know what is expected of me and what I need to do to perform well. Joining this class late and having such a major personal problem has put me at a drastic disadvantage. However, I am hoping to overcome it and have my grade bounce back. It will be a challenge but I think I can do it. With hard work, dedication, and my trusty penguin note book, I think I will be able to demonstrate my writing skills which I do believe are good. They just need some polishing!

[edit] take out your pencils

This article really bothered me. My notes on the first two pages were about he kept referring to September 11 as a past event. He stated that it was an event people got over rather quickly if they didn’t have a loved one involved. This angered me so much. He stated, "...Banfield scrutinizing those ferocious trial fighters through her designer spectacles." This quote and paragraph really upset me. He stated how the camera was still meant for the same people and never hesitated. This almost seems to me like reverse psychology. Perhaps the writer is trying evoke this emotion from the reader in order to get them mad and to remember. In his next part titled Fabrication, he talks about different types of reality. He criticizes those who believe that reality and fantasy are different. He argues that all reality is fabricated. This again evoked from me such an uproar. How dare he challenge what is real. His section regarding Finitude I firmly agree with. It is the state of having definite limits and being aware of them. When reading this I instantly felt a connection with this. This opinion I can comprehend and agree with. The last section which made me ponder was his last section Fast. It discussed if stress is good and makes your realize the good things in life. I think this is true. Its like a person doesn’t realize what they have until their gone. Also one cant realize how something is if they don’t know how bad it could potentially be. This article was very interesting to me. I believe it is because it caused emotion. In my opinion it does not matter if you agreed or disagreed with what was written as long as it caused a feeling or reaction.

[edit] unit 2 paper

“Las Diferencias Son Hermosas” (Differences are beautiful)

The world’s population is estimated to be 6,525,170,264 people. Each person has their own ideas, beliefs, and opinions. These 6,525,170,264 people are dispersed among the world in seven continents, in approximately two-hundred countries. Naturally people are going to unite, forming cultures and societies and speaking different languages to communicate. Each culture or society has different practices, ideas, beliefs and variation of languages. The success of our world as a whole depends on everyone’s different ideas and opinions and synthesizing them together. Gloria Anzaldua’s piece titled, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” discusses her experiences of people not permitting her do so. Gloria was forced by others to try to hide her Chicano culture and either identify herself as an American or a Mexican. Gloria was not able to be proud of she was or the culture she identified with because the society she was living in wanted her to hide it. The sad part was Gloria at first tried to change herself. She was shunned in school for speaking in Spanish. Her mother would also reprimand her for doing so too. Her mother wanted Gloria to assimilate into American culture because her mother was taught by society that Gloria wouldn’t be able to be successful if she did not do so. However, people who were one-hundred percent Spanish also out-casted Gloria for her being a Chicano and giving into the American way. Gloria was stuck between a rock and hard place simply because of her language, culture, and geographical location. Gloria identified herself as Spanish and American. As did many people living near her. Thus they called themselves Chicanos. The Chicanos were a culture created because of two boarder lands. These two cultures were the Spanish and the English. Here two different cultures collide. Many geographical places in the world where borderlands exist create a new group of people with a new culture. They combine cultures from other groups surrounding them and use ideas and practices to form something new. Naturally the Chicanos were geographically located in an area where they could identify with both cultures. They had traits from both cultures as well. They even formed a Chicano language which is similar to “Tex-Mex” or “Spanglish.” Language is a vital part on one’s culture, and culture is a vital part of everyone’s identity. Trying to manipulate one’s identity is like stealing someone’s soul away. “Who is to say that robbing a people of its language is less violent than war?” This quote was said by Ray Gwyn Smith. This perfectly illustrates how severe and horrific trying to change a person, language, or identity is. The biggest minority in the United States right now are Spanish speakers. However Gloria states that,”…a country where students in and high school are encouraged to take French classes because French is considered more ‘cultured.’ But for a language to remain alive it must be used. By the end of this century English, and not Spanish, will be the mother tongue of most Chicanos and Latinos.” This quote is unbelievable. Spanish, after English, is the most commonly spoken language in the United States. Yet, instead of encouraging pupils to learn Spanish where they would be able to communicate with many more people, schools encourage students to take French or German because as stated before, it is more “cultured.” This is very dangerous in my opinion. The Chicanos, as well as many other minority groups in this country are at risk of loosing their culture and language. Language is much more that something which helps people in the same geographical location communicate. It defines people. Language helps people identify who they are and who they can identify with. It helps people realize who is different from them and who they can relate to. For example, even in the United States, there are numerous different ways of how people communicate. People from the south have different accents than people from Boston, or Boston people have different accents than people in New York. Hearing how other people communicate tells somebody where they are from and a lot about their personality. People also communicate differently depending on who they speaking to. For example, a grandchild is going to communicate with her grandmother much differently than she would with her best friend or her boyfriend. It has been taught that depending where one is or who one is speaking to requires different ways of communicating. How people use language shows where they are from, how comfortable they are in a situation, the relationship between the people communicating, the formality of the conversation, and many other things. “Identity is the essential core of who we are as individuals, the conscious experience of the self inside,” stated by Gershan Kaufman. The last month this course has been trying to help establish and write about our own personal identities. Having doing so, we are now at the position to look at other people’s identities. As previously stated our identity is who are. It is what makes each one of us different. Language is a vital to establishing identity. In conclusion. It is so essential not to force the majority ways on the minorities, or try to assimilate others with difference. Because in doing so, we are robbing people of their inherent right to have an identity, “an experience of the self inside.”

[edit] Unit 3

/Unit 3; American Youth and politics

[edit] Unit 4 paper

What I Still Needed to Tell You

I am not scared of much. In fact I can only think of two things I am truly scared of, being buried alive and school violence. Out of the those two, school violence scares me the most. I remember when I was twelve years old and Columbine happened. It was one of the worst school shootings in history. I was terrified. I could not comprehend how a school, a learning environment full of children, became a murderer’s playground. When I think of a school, I automatically think of a safe, friendly, learning zone filled with young people full of potential. I never would have thought of it as a place to be scared because “Joe Shmo” sitting next to you could whip out a gun. After Columbine occurred, bomb threats and shooting scares sprung up around schools nationally, including my school at the time, Wellesley Middle School. Although nothing happened at most of the schools (including my own) who received the threats, the fact that they even did receive the threats is nauseating. This year, the “mother” of all school shootings happened at Virginia Tech. Over 30 men, women, students, and professors died. They died for no reason other then a sick individual decided to go on a killing spree. The scariest thing to me is why, why did he do it. In my mind there is no answer which is even scarier. For all we know it could happen at UMASS today, tomorrow, or next year. There are no answers to school shootings about why they happen. Sure people will say well the killers were victims of cruelty by others, they had no friends or they were even black listed at school. This to me is absolute horse crap. There is no one to blame but the people who committed the act. Not having friends, a bad childhood, playing video games, the news, is just a pathetic excuse of trying to justify the deaths of innocent people. I do not think we can stop sick and twisted intervals from wanting to do a school shooting, however we can take many preventative measures to make it much harder to be able to execute school shootings. The question is what is more important, security or freedom? This is a very tough question that is at the root of every single political issue today. What is the correct balance, where is the middle ground? In my opinion the middle ground is where school shootings can not happen and innocent people do not go to class and never make it out of it. If it means putting medal detectors up and hiring more security guards then so be it. Others may say your comprising what a school is suppose to be by having medal detectors up and security guards. My answer to this is I would rather compromise some freedom and guarantee my security. The balance of security and freedom is going to be an issue never to be agreed upon. I could write a thirty page paper on it and make but yet a small dent on the issue. All I am doing in this paper is voicing my opinion, what I still need to say about school violence conversation we had in class. This issue evokes so much emotion from me. It makes me so sad and angry that school violence happens. What gets me even more upset is when the cold hearted murderers, are some how looked upon as victims of society. “It was the video games” or “there so is much bad stuff on the news, that’s where kids learn it.” This is false. There is over 100 hundred million people in this country who watch the news, who have played video games, who at some point in their life were bullied. There is no one to blame but the murderers in my opinion. When we discussed this issue in class I wanted to say much more then I did, however I wanted to be reserved and politically correct. This paper allowed me to voice how I feel and what I think, it let me “continue the conversation.” I know many may argue with me and I know I could be wrong, this is just how I feel, “it’s what I still needed to tell you.”