My Heritage

            For an English assignment, I must divulge into the story of my own heritage. The following is said story:

 Because of the birthplaces of my ancestors and how certain events in history have affected how they are classified, there are a few variations on how you could interpret my heritage. First I will tell you how I, personally, view my heritage. I am a quarter Swiss, a quarter Polish, and half Taiwanese. However, if I am to be more specific and take into account certain factors of that heritage, that description changes.

            For example, Switzerland is a country divided by ethnic regions. To the northeast is the German region of Switzerland, to the east is the French region, to the south the Italian region, and a small part of the center-east of Switzerland whose peoples are known as the Romansh. The majority of Swiss people are either Swiss-German or Swiss-French. My Swiss ancestry can be traced back to the city of St. Gallen, in the Swiss-German part of Switzerland near the Austrian border. Thus I can be considered Swiss-German. My ancestors from Poland actually come from Warsaw and there is little to derive or interpret from that. My Taiwanese heritage, however, has room for interpretation. My mother was born and raised in the city of Taipei in Taiwan. Taiwan is a country whose populace is largely occupied by Chinese Nationalists that fled the Communist Revolution in China. My grandparents were one of these themselves. When the Communist Revolution was happening, my grandparents were large landowners and were considered “enemies of the state” and fled to Taiwan. Until that time, however, my ancestors lived in China. So some people, including many Taiwanese and Chinese, would consider me Chinese and not Taiwanese.  

            That is the story of my heritage. To me, it s a source of pride and identification. 

Crime and Immigration: Why Immigration Causes Crime Across the Border

"The enormous amount of delinquency, juvenile and adult [in urban communities]... is due in part, though not entirely, to the fact that migrants are not able to accommodate themselves at once to a new and relatively strange environment (Park, 1925a: 108). " (Lee 21)

This blog post's aim is to divulge into the reasons why illegal immigration into the United States has caused a significant increase in crime. This increase is responsible for crime, not only across the border, but in the rest of the country as well.

Assignment:

• Create a "video journal" of an illegal immigrant who becomes involved in criminal activity. Be sure to show how the situation of being an illegal immigrant determines the sequence of events that eventually lead to your criminalization. Take care to depict real life struggles and tribulations faced by the wide spread majority of illegal immigrants that become involved in crime. (To post the video online create a youtube account at www.youtube.com and upload the video there.)
  


• Also include with your video a blog post describing the reasons behind your actions in the video.

Quotes from Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle:

• "'This society isn't what it was - and it won't be until we get control the borders.'
  
  'That's racist, Jack, and you know it.'
  
  'Not in the least - it's a question of national sovereignty. Did you know that the U.S. accepted more immigrants last year than all the other countries of the world combined - and that half of them settled in California? And that's legal immigrants, people with skills, money, education. The ones coming through the Tortilla Curtain down here, those are the ones that are killing us.'"


• “ One coyote, who makes his living on the fringes of my community… has learned to simply chew his way through the plastic irrigation pipes whenever he wants a drink.”
  


• “Now [Candido] had to worry about this stinking crack-toothed pendejo nosing around down in the canyon, as if he didn’t have enough problems already.”
  


• "They ain't human. A human being wouldn't live like they do. A human being couldn't stand it to be so dirty and miserable." -this quote is actually from The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. However, it is how Tortilla Curtain opens up and speaks volumes about the inhumane lifestyle of many Illegal Immigrants.

iTunes Podcast:

• Log on to iTunes


• Go to the iTunes Store


• Search “Obama immigration”


• Under Podcasts




• Click on “I’m the Divider Channel”


• Watch episode “videpisodeone”.


• Pay attention to the conflicts created by illegal immigration and how they can influence the proportional and positively correlated rise in crime.

The Cozy Cabin

-The Cozy Cabin is a blog made by a fellow peer that contains an interesting opinion on illegal immigration. The author of the blog attempts to draw parallels between the pilgrims that founded the original Plymouth Colony and the illegal immigrants of Mexico.

Immigration Chronicles

-Immigration Chronicles is a blog made by an author outside of my English class. This blog regularly posts articles about or discussing issues about immigration.

Delicious

• This is my delicious page. On here are a number of helpful links that will aid you in understanding the thesis of your assignment.

Operation Illegal Immigration

Concern for the rate of crime committed by undocumented and illegal immigrants has begun to spur action in Utah. Utah state legislator Brad Dee has proposed legislation to fund a “strike force” to target immigrants committing felonies. Recent federal studies have given credence to immigrant community activists’ fears that the new strike force could lead to racial profiling and foster distrust between illegal immigrants and law enforcement. This task force, pushed by Representative Brad Dee, is going to cost taxpayers nearly $1 million to target felonies in the immigrant community. The list of felonies under the jurisdiction of the strike force ranges from document fraud to human and drug trafficking.

In my opinion, this is something that is long overdue. Illegal immigrants, referred to in the article as “undocumented residents”, are not American citizens and are extremely “undocumented”. This means that they have no birth certificates, social security numbers, insurance, driver’s licenses, and are not registered on our system’s databases. Thus, going by the protocol when it comes to dealing with dangerous or criminal immigrants is going to result in incomplete and shallow investigation and procedure. The book I am reading, Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle, deals heavily with the issue of illegal immigrants.

On the one hand these immigrants deserve sympathy for their conditions. It certainly cannot be easy to make the decision to leave one’s home country for any reason, and try to start a new life in a strange and foreign land. Many immigrants go through great, and sometimes terrible,  lengths to make it into America. To make it and then be sent home, for some people, can be a dismal and tragic event. Yet I still maintain my opinion that this task force would be beneficial because it specifically targets immigrants who have committed felonies.

Coming to America to try and make a decent living by doing an honest day’s work is fine, but when someone enters this country off the books and begins murdering, gang banging, and doing other unlawful acts, than they should lose their privilege to be here. Because these people are not documented and require some kind of expertise or specialized knowledge(and this is a very large and complex problem within the U.S.A.) this country requires a specialized task force to deal with this problem.

Works Cited

1.) McFarland, Sheena. "Crackdown on illegal immigration brings distrust, racial profiling risks." Salt Lake Tribune. Salt Lake Tribune. 12 Mar. 2009 http://www.sltrib.com source="most_viewed".

2.) "Strike force to target illegal criminals?" Immigrant Chronicles. 12 Mar. 2009
http://blogs.chron.com/immigration.

"Gay Witch Hunt" and the Tribulations of American Homosexuals

The episode “Gay Witch Hunt” , from the popular present day TV series “The Office”, portrays the forced revelation, to an office community, that one of their co-workers, Oscar, is a homosexual. The episode begins with one of the main characters, Michael, who is the manager of the office, discovering that one of his employees is gay when the human resources representative informs him that an employee, whom he had called “faggy”, was an actual homosexual. Michael responds to this, in a soliloquy with the camera, saying that if he had known Oscar was a homosexual he would have not behaved so inappropriately. This demonstrates many things. Not only does it demonstrate how homosexuality is generally regarded as something negative in our culture and society but it also demonstrates the fact that homosexuality is just a sexual preference and nothing more. As Michael says in a later episode, “Your [homosexuality] is not what defines you…”. The episode also shows that the stereotypes of gays in America most certainly can be false. In one scene, Michael turns to his employee Dwight and asks him if he can tell a gay man from a straight man. To this, Dwight says “Of course”. When Michael asks him whether or not Oscar is gay, Dwight says “Absolutely not.” This is a clear cut example of how the gay-stereotypes do not apply to all gay men. However, the episode does not stop there in its portrayal of the difficulties of male homosexual Americans.
When Michael apologizes to Oscar for calling him “faggy”, a number of other co-workers overhear their conversation. Sooner than later, word spreads and the entire office becomes aware of Oscar’s homosexuality. Soon Oscar begins feeling discriminated for his homosexuality and informs the human resources representative, Toby, once again. The co-workers all have different approaches to this new revelation. Some find hilarity in it, others compliment him, and some gain a new distrust in him and look at him in another light. Still, there are also those that express their lack of concern with the fact that Oscar is gay and treat him as they would normally. This reaction from society is representative of the many kinds of reactions possible when learning that someone you know is in fact, a homosexual.



Yet the issue arises also that Michael has unwittingly “outted” Oscar. This means that Michael has forced Oscar to reveal his homosexuality to his fellow peers without Oscar’s consent. This demonstrates probably one of the more momentous aspects and difficulties of being a homosexual. When each baby is born, none of them are assumed to be gay. Therefore, each and every homosexual will have to, if they chose to be an outspoken homosexual, come out to his/her parents/friends/peers at one time or another in his/her life. This is a huge moment in the gay man or woman’s life and is a feeling that is not shared with heterosexuals.

In conclusion the episode “Gay Witch Hunt” depicts, with humor, the folly of homosexual stereotypes and the dangers of ignorance. By walking the audience through a number of different difficult situations experienced by gay men in American society in a comical and fantastic way, “Gay Witch Hunt” has exposed some real truths and events that happen to everyday people across the country. Perhaps in this way we all may be more prepared, unlike Michael, for any related or similar situations if they should arise in reality.

Gender Roles

Recent studies have revealed evidence that homosexual marriages contain positive aspects that are not found as often in heterosexual marriages. Indeed, the research shows that there are “surprisingly few differences”(Parker-Pope 2) between straight and gay marriages yet these differences highlight issues that threaten the well-being of marriages. For instance, it is suggested that the reason for the high-rate of short-lived homosexual marriages is due to the psychological effects of a “lack of legal and social recognition”(Parker-Pope 6). The new research also demonstrated that homosexual couples tended to equally distribute work and duties between each other than heterosexual couples; or at least feel as if they do. The differences range from conflict resolutions to cardiac palpitation fluctuation. The overall suggestion of the data is that it is harder for heterosexual couples to find a common perspective with each other, as compared to homosexual couples that have an easier time reaching a common ground and seeing the world from within each other’s eyes.
The article begins with the statement that same-sex couples “have a great deal to teach everyone about marriage and relationships”(Parker-Pope 2). Whether or not this is even true, I think that the reason that it may be true is if Parker-Pope is talking about homosexuals in America. Homosexuals in America are in a very unique situation. A good part of American society urges for Gay Rights and supports homosexual unions. Truth be told, a loud minority are intolerant of homosexuals, but under American law homosexuals have just as many rights as do non-homosexuals and are thus protected under the law as individuals, as is anyone else. This is not true around the world however, and has also not been true throughout history. In some Middle Eastern countries, for example, such as Saudi Arabia, homosexuality can be a crime punishable by death. In history, homosexuals have been tortured, abused, dubbed heretics and Satanists, and murdered. The average American homosexual would know something about this.
Perhaps that is what the average American homosexual has to teach heterosexual couples. That it is important to be grateful for the opportunities you have in meeting someone you truly care about and that you are also able to show them affection. People participate in their relationships in very different ways. I would never say that there is a textbook definition or explanations on how to show someone you truly care. Regardless of your sexual orientation, I’m sure there are many aspects to a relationship everyone can appreciate and uphold. Commitment, responsibility, companionship, and honesty are just a few; and I’m sure all kinds of relationships deal with those four things in one-way or another. It’s not fair to say that one type of relationship knows more about one than the other. Everything works out differently for everyone, whether you are homosexual or not.

Gender Role Socratic Seminar

Do you think that making a child an "x" is the right thing to do for raising a child?

Is making a child an "x" ethical? Is it playing God or the more natural thing to do?

Do you think today's society is too influential on determining gender roles?

In the movie When Harry Met Sally, what do you think is the difference between how men view relationships and how women view relationships?

Based on the poem Girl by Jamaica Kincaid, would you say that life is full of routine?

Does your train of thought mimic the style of Girl?

Are there pressures for boys and girls to act a certain way in society? Have you ever felt pressured to act ladylike or manly?

Are men and women both capable leaders? If so, why? If not, why is one more capable than the other?

The Artwork of Jeff Jordan

I think that today it becomes harder and harder to find things that are truly original. Thing such as music and artwork today are more often then not variations, reconstructions, or interpretations of someone else's previous work.  

That is why I believe that Jeff Jordan's  artwork is one that truly pushes the boundaries and truly walks the untrodden path. Below is a sampling of some of his artwork and the link disclosed in this paragraph leads you to his home website. 

"stranded muse"

"eggman"

"believe"