Blog 8: English as the National Language

In the National Dispute, there is an article titled “English as the National Language” which somewhat got me a little upset at his article. I do agree that our nation was found on the basis of the English Language when the Constitution was written in 1787. For the first couple of centuries, English was the dominate language since Caucasians and African Americans has used it while other countries other than English speaking countries didn’t immigrate here. But we have to face the facts that not only the Hispanic language but other languages like Korean, Chinese, French, African, etc are being spoken rather than English. To make English a law to be the dominate language is taking away people’s First Amendments and heritage and cultures. The colonist came from all over Europe to this land to be “free” from controlling countries and if we imposed a law about language, how can this country be title “the land of the free?”
In part of the article he states “I work with an entirely Mexican crew in a restaurant, all of whom continuously speak Spanish. To communicate with them, I am forced to speak in Spanish because they do not have the slightest desire to learn English.” Yes you are forced to speak their language, but you have to see the bigger picture. Why are they there? The reason why you have to speak their language to communicate to them is not their fault. Blame it on us, the American people; we are to “proud” to work in environments like that. Blame it on your employers, they are the ones that hired them to pay them minimum wage. Blame it on your friends and people you know that didn’t apply for the job. It is not their fault that they are willing to work the jobs that we don’t want to and we get upset because they are taking our jobs and complaining about their language.
Although this may not be related to Government but rather a personal statement, I am Korean American and honestly I would rather talk in my mother’s language. From movies, music, and people, I hear the English language used in disrespectful way especially towards our elders and women but unlike English, the Korean language is more respectable and is more tolerable to hear. You stated “pockets and ghettos are created based upon the language spoken”, your right it is, listen up and you will agree with your own statement.

The Government Could of Done Better

This past September marked our 8th anniversary of the 2001 terroristic attacks. Along with the 8 years that has pass, the United States is still in a war which in my opinion is unnecessary. Today, I came across an article on the front section of Yahoo, “Lack of coordination leaves bin laden at large” written by Golnar Motevalli. He conveyed a few surprising information that caught me off guard. The first information that surprised me was about President Obama, apparently he is deciding to send more troops to Afghanistan and the other was the fact that US troops were within reach of capturing Osama bin Laden in the Tora Bora Caves back in 2001 but with lack of intelligence, he slipped away.
The first information truly angers me. According to one of Obama’s promises that he made when running for the office, was to bring our troops back home. Although Obama is a better fit for president than Bush will ever be, it feels as though Obama is taking the same road as Bush did when he was president. By sending our troops overseas, we are doing nothing but losing our soldiers and loved ones.
The other surprising and not so surprising information because it involves Bush and his administration was the fact that they let Osama bin laden get away due to lack of coordination. A report from congress stated "The failure to finish the job represents a lost opportunity that forever altered the course of the conflict in Afghanistan and the future of international terrorism” and it also blames Bush and his administration for the failure. Nevertheless, again this angers me, with so many mishaps including this poorly coordinated intelligence, I wonder how George Bush got into office and why people voted for him to begin with. This president couldn’t defend our country, this president took us into war that is lasting more than any other wars in the US history, this president couldn’t find the weapons of mass destruction, and heck this president reads a book upside down!

Blog Stage 6: Illegal Aliens

In the article titled “Illegal Aliens” by Manuela Olivares, the person indicates how there is an unfair system of the people that come from Mexico illegally. As I read through the whole article, I couldn’t agree more with Manuela, on how a group of people can be treated so badly. Yes, people may be upset that our hard earned tax money is being used to keep the illegal aliens out but there are no results, Hispanics still manage to find a way into the US in record numbers. Going along side with the author, why doesn’t the government use our hard earned money to educate and help our southern neighbors with documentation and obtain citizenship? At least this way, there could be no objections on whether our money goes to a worthless cause.
I do however disagree on the comment about the twin towers, it is true that our Hispanic brothers and sisters were not part of the terroristic but that is not the reason why Americans fear Hispanics. In my opinion, it is all based on fear or prejudice of Hispanics invading a territory. For instance, I have witnessed a predominate Caucasian and Asian neighborhood with a prejudice mindset when a few African American families moved in. They felt as though the neighborhood was getting “ghetto”.
Manuela indicated that Hispanics are the ones that are doing the hard labor for less pay. I couldn’t agree more. The only reason why Hispanics are doing the hard work is because we Americans won’t do it and they take the initiative to do it. It’s also unfair that Hispanics are getting paid under the minimum pay rate for what they do and the government isn’t doing anything about it. Last I recalled, slavery ended with the 13th amendment! Why do I see all the Hispanics cutting grass and picking up trash while the white and even the black man is standing there under the shade drinking a cool glass of water?
I guess our country and government has forgotten that we are the land of opportunity and prosperity.

Blog Stage 5: Is Our Justice System Fair?

It's December 6, 1991, the police found 4 young girls gagged, shot, and burned inside of a yogurt shop in Austin, Texas. 13-year-old Amy Ayers, 17-year-old Jennifer Harbison, 15-year-old Sarah Harbison, and 17-year-old Eliza Thomas lost their lives way to soon. This awful crime was and is now known as “I cannot believe it is yogurt murders” For 8 years, Austin Police interrogated suspects trying to get some leads to arrest the murderers. Some denied it while others admitted to the killings but were then released. The evidence that could have been used was destroyed by fire and water from the fire department.
8 years has gone by till Austin Police Department arrest 2 men, Robert Springsteen IV and Michael Scott, for confessing to the murder.
Michael Scott received life in prison while Robert Springsteen received the death penalty. Fortunately for Robert Springsteen, the Supreme Court found his case unconstitutional since juveniles at the time of the murder is not allowed to receive the death penalty.
Now it’s October 29, 2009 and on Thursday, both Robert Springsteen and Michael Scott were set free after prosecutors dismissed their case because of new evidence was found. The evidence was another man’s DNA in the vaginal cavity of the females.
Upon reading this, I asked myself, “Is our justice system really fair? Why do innocent people go to jail while others are set free?”
My heart goes out to not only the families that has lost their daughters in this tragic incident but also to the families that lost their sons for 18 years. Because of Detective Hector Polanco, the man that made these men confess with a coercive manner, Robert Springsteen IV and Michael Scott lost 18 years of their lives to the justice system. I also found out that Detective Hector Polanco lost his job for what he has done.
Because of the unfair justice system, the families of the four young girls are back to square one with pain in their hearts, knowing that the man that killed them is still out there.
Because of the unfair justice system, the man who is really responsible for this murder is still out there lurking in the darkness.
Because of this justice system, we now need to come up of a new way to stop putting innocent people in jail and letting the wrongdoers go free!

Allison Kilkenny on Grandma getting Tasered

I came across this blog about a grandma getting tasered in Travis County of this year written by Allison Kilkenny on The Smirking Chimp. To my surprised, she was actually defending the 72 year old great grandma who is named Kathryn Winkfein that got tasered on May 11, 2009. She also included “Winkfein deserved compensation, but she did nothing to warrant being tasered by a power hungry police officer. Victims, stop the apologies.”

What the heck is Allison thinking!? Has she not seen the dashboard camera that captured the whole fiasco? Maybe she needs to watch it multiple times!

I know what many of you are thinking? How could you be cold hearted to see an old woman getting tasered? Look, old woman or not, she should not have acted the way she did. Just because you are a senior citizen does not grant you to drive 65 on a 40 and also does not give you the right to act aggressively to a police officer.

Another thing I wanted to add that I disagree with Allison is the compensation for the action. In my opinion, Kathryn does not deserve to get one penny for her meltdown, it’s like rewarding a child a piece of candy when they did something wrong. According to Richard McCain, a Travis County Constable, he said “When the County wrote a check for $40,000 it rewarded this defendant for bad behavior, which is wrong." – I agree!

I will give Ms. Kilkenny credibility on this blog however. Not because of her biased blog on the issue but because of the fact that tasers are indeed harmful and/or fatal. I do agree that 50,000 volts of electricity could be a daring way to stop a heart from beating.

In conclusion, I would hate to see my grandma getting tasered and I will be very upset as well if she did (I know this will never happen). But Allison needs to realize that when a human being no matter the age puts herself or another person in danger, maybe the only way to solve the problem is getting tasered.

President's Race to Olympics

In The New York Times editorial named “Wonderful Copenhagen” written by Gail Collins. She explains that President Obama is flying off to Denmark to help the United States get an Olympic Bid for 2016. She goes to say that there has never been a president that has gone for the United States to win a bid.
Unfortunately though, our other political party like to think negative about this matter. For instance, the House Minority Leader, John Boehner, would like President Obama to stay here in the US and take care of our current issues instead of flying to Denmark. Senator Christopher Bond of Missouri is complaining that President Obama needs to keep our country safe instead of flying to Denmark.
If the president of Brazil, prime minister of Japan, and even the King of Spain are all attending for a lobby in the Olympic bid, shouldn’t the President of United States take a couple of days to fly out and give us a chance to have to Olympic in Chicago in 2016?
Even though Gail Collins is for President Obama to help get United States a bid of the Olympics; she had an open mind to also include the negative side affects that could affect Chicago personally. First is the fact that Chicago would have to spend a lot of money to make the city look presentable to the Olympic Committee. Which brings up the second issue, the citizens of Chicago are having doubts as to this event being a positive thing. The third and final, which is also the worst downside, President Obama himself said that he would not go because he wanted to keep his “promise” in making affordable health care for the Americans.
I agree with Gail Collin’s writing from the positives to the negatives of President Obama going to Denmark to win us a Olympic bid. It’s wonderful that he is thinking about the United States and putting the country on the world spotlight. But at the same time, it is not free and it will cost a major city millions of dollars just to showcase an event.
Gail’s writing in my opinion was not attended for any specific audience. The way I see it is that she was being unbiased about the issue. She had positive and negative aspects of the President going to Denmark. She had arguments for both sides of the debate.
Gail Collins is a remarkable woman. She joined The New York Times in 1995 and became the first woman to be appointed editor in the editor’s page 6 years later. She also wrote a book named “When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present”

Missle Defence System

Sept. 17, 2009

Today, President Obama stated that he is coming with a “new approach” for the missile system that former president Bush started to build during his office. Remember the one that made Poland and Czech happy and Russia very angry with us? Well with the new system that President Obama issuing has a complete opposite effect on the nation. He stated that the new system will be “smarter, safer, swifter” than the last missile defense. Mainly because they will be using smaller SM-3 Missiles instead of 10 ground-based interceptors.

President Obama and I agree on is that we need to have a missile defense in that region just like president Bush suggested. With Iran being a threat, we need to protect our fellow Allies.

Not to sound upset with our Republicans…but WHAT is the Republicans thinking? Republicans like John McCain of Arizona fear that Russia will renew their adventurism. Did we fear their “adventurism” when we first set up the missile defense by George Bush? Geoff Morrell stated that we are only “adjusting the system” which I agree. We need to adjust our system of defense because in reality Iran is adjusting their system as well.

Ultimately in the end, it is not about upsetting Poland, Czech, or even Russia. It’s about protecting innocent people of Poland, Czech, Russia, and the rest of the world from dangerous countries like Iran.