Fourth Quarter Meta Blog

NOTE: my favorite 4th quarter blog is "Retaliation for Bin Laden's Death" from May 14.

Well, this is it.  The final blog of my junior year.  I certainly have had an interesting relationship with my blog throughout this school year.  Before I talk about how my blogging style has changed, let me talk about how my view of blogging in general has been changed throughout the past nine months.

My relationship with blogging has been a wavy one, figuratively and literally.  I enjoy blogging when there is something newsworthy to blog about.  For instance, I truly enjoyed writing the blog about Bin Laden's death.  It allowed me to voice my opinion on something that was, and still is, a hot topic.  Blogs like these don't happen weekly, though.  There are some blogs that I write purely for the sake of my grade.  When there isn't anything big happening in the news and I don't have anything meaningful to say, blogging can be a pain.  I have to force words and ideas that i may not necessarily believe, and it is evident in some of my blogs.  None of my blogs are masterpieces by any means, but I am proud of them nonetheless.  However, there are a few where it is crystal clear that I half-assed the blog, and did not enjoy writing it at all.  At the end of nine months of blogging, my view is this: blogging is a great way for one to voice their opinion, but the blogger should not be forced to blog.  I feel that blogging is all about freedom, and the blogger should blog when they have something to say.  One blog per week is, in my opinion, a tad bit constricting.  There might be a week where nothing interesting happens, so what does the blogger do?  Write a post that they are not passionate about.  So, to generalize, blogs are great when the writer can control when to write them.

Now on to the content of my blogs.  To be honest, not a whole lot has changed since my last meta post.  I see a trend in my blogging style.  During the first quarter, my blogging style went under massive change.  Second quarter, I changed a fair amount, but considerably less than I did first quarter.  Third quarter may have consisted of one or two changes in my blogging style, and that helped me settle in to the style I have now.  Throughout the fourth quarter, my blogging has not changed at all.  Rather than a comparison of my blogging style at different points throughout the year, I would like to critique the style that I have now.

If I could describe my blogging style with one word, it would be "unrefined".  I know that this word has a somewhat negative connotation, but I view this aspect as a positive one.  In my opinion, blogs aren't meant to be refined, polished, or perfected.  They shouldn't be written in perfect English, and they shouldn't be too formal.  As corny as this may sound, I think that a blog comes from one's heart.  When people form thoughts and opinions, the don't do it with others in mind.  You think what you feel, and your blog should mirror your thoughts.  If you comb over your blog to get rid of grammatical errors, your blog will lose some of it's meaning.  It won't be what you truly felt at the time you wrote it, so it won't be true to your thoughts.  I feel that blogs are meant to be unrefined, and I am proud that my blog is not perfect.  If a blog was perfect, than it would not be true to the author. No one is perfect, and hiding behind a perfect blog rather that showing who you are is a huge mistake.

The Kentucky Cycle

Last week, we started reading/acting plays from The Kentucky Cycle by Robert Schenkkan.  On Wednesday, I acted the part of Dragging Canoe, and did a less than impressive job of reading his Cherokee lines. My Great-Great Grandmother (a Cherokee) probably would have not been satisfied.  Anyways, I was not at school on Thursday or Friday.  I read the next two plays over the weekend, and noticed one thing in particular...

The "Rowen Watch".  This watch has been in all three of the plays that I have read.  The only other thing that has accompanied the watch throughout all three plays in Michael Rowen.  Now that he is dead, however, he will not be in any more plays, other than perhaps a memory of him.  I expect the watch to keep traveling through the plays.  I wonder if we talked about the meaning of the watch on Thursday or Friday.  What does the watch mean?  Is it merely something valuable that the characters want, or will it be revealed to have a hidden meaning?

An American Dream

I was not at school last Friday, which was when our class received a packet titled "American Dreams and Nightmares".  Since I did not get a chance to read it and speak my thoughts in class, I thought that I would share them in a blog post.  The first question asks us to state our five goals/dreams in life. Here are mine (in order of when they would happen):
1) Get accepted and attend a good college
2) Get a job that I enjoy
3) Get married
4) Have kids
5) Raise my kids to be good people
The next question asked us to identify which dream is most important to us.  For me, it was a no brainer.  I chose number five.  I may have a lovely wife, a high paying job that I enjoy, and great children.  But if when I die my kids aren't able to live good lives as good people, then I will have failed.  My parents have done an incredible job raising me.  I am very privileged to live with the amenities that I have, and the economic freedom that our family has.  I feel that when I am an adult, it will be my duty to follow in my parents' footsteps and raise a new generation of children, who will then in turn raise their own children, etc.  I want to leave a mark on this world when I die, and the best way for me to do that is to leave several new human beings who are ready to help the world and tackle any problems that may come their way.  I personally feel that no matter how great of a life one lives, it is meaningless if one cannot somehow leave something behind to further help after one's death.

Social Class Markers

Earlier this week, we discussed things that marked social class.  Mr. Bolos showed us a video of a class of his analyzing the Kennilworth train station. Students commented on a huge variety of things, from what newspapers were being sold to what cars were in the parking lot. Ever since there were mentioned, I could not help but notice aspects of my surroundings that may hint at social class.  When I took a trip to downtown Chicago this weekend, I noticed some major differences, that could be class markers.  First off were merely the sides of the streets.  In the North shore, nearly every road has grass by its side.  In downtown Chicago, on the other hand, the only vegetation that can be seen on the sides of roads are the trees that are planted in holes in the concrete sidewalk.   Another class marker are the shops that are on the sides of the road.  In downtown Wilmette, some of the shops are Lad and Lassie (clothes), The Crystal Cave (glass sculptures, plates, etc.), and CJ Arthur's.  None of these shops are part of a chain, and all are expensive compared to what I found in Chicago.  McDonalds littered the streets of downtown Chicago, and nearly every restaurant was an inexpensive chain restaurant.  One final thing that I noticed was this: the duration of a yellow light on traffic signals.  I noticed that yellow lights last significantly longer in the North Shore than they do downtown.  Maybe they are longer in the North Shore to prevent accidents, and shorter in Chicago, to prevent traffic jams.  I am honestly not sure, but I just wanted to get this out there.  Do you think yellow lights are social class markers? Also, please share any other class markers that you may find

Retaliation for Bin Laden's Death

I know that by now, this is old news.  But for those of you who have been living in a hole for the past two weeks, Osama Bin Laden died on May 2nd.  When this news hit, mixed emotions spread throughout America.  Some were ecstatic about the death of this monster.  Others acknowledged that he was a cruel person, but did not celebrate his death.  Others felt a sense of closure; many innocent Americans who died on 9-11-2001were now avenged.  Others were worried about possible retaliation from Al-Qaeda.  As for myself, at first I felt relieved that he died.  However, now that the initial shock of this death has passed over, I feel worried. Al-Qaeda has already threatened to retaliate against the US.  To learn about this threat, read this article.  Also, I am worried about what might happen to further anger Al-Qaeda.  For example, take the video game Call of Duty Black Ops.  In this game, there is a mission where the player assassinates Fidel Castro.  Here is a YouTube video which shows this scene (caution: even though it is a video game, it is still gory).  After Black Ops was released back in November 2010, Cuba was furious.  An article was published in a Cuban news paper, and the article said that Black Ops "glorifies the illegal assassination attempts the United States government planned against the Cuban leader."  The article went on to say that the video game "stimulates sociopathic attitudes in North America children and adolescents."  I fear that other video games and television shows may follow in Black Ops' footsteps, and have Bin Laden as the target rather than Castro.  Cuba only published an angry article, but I fear Al-Qaeda will want blood if millions of American kids are killing Osama in a video game.  I hope that other Americans realize how serious this situation is, and that if we keep celebrating Osama's death, things could get ugly in the near future.

Junior Theme Blog #5. ITS OVER!!!!!

...for now.  As all American Studies students know, hours of revisions are looming ahead of us in this upcoming month.  These torrential April showers we've been having better bring some really pretty May flowers, because I'm going to need something positive while I revise my paper.  This is the second major research paper that I have done in my life, and the two could not have been more different.  The first one was just around this time last year, and it was a research paper for geography.  This paper was 6 pages single spaced, whereas my theme was seven pages, double spaced.  One might assume that with half as many pages in the theme, it would seem easy compared to my geography paper, right?
WRONG.  In my geography paper last year, I probably had about ten sources, and a half page single-spaced to explain my source.  This meant that I could elaborately explain my sources with ease.  In my theme, I had about 20 sources, and much less space to explain them in.  Anyone can explain a quote if given enough space to explain it, but it takes an extremely skilled writer to analyze a quote in a limited amount of space.  I fear that this may be one of the problems with my paper.  I applied much too lengthy analyses to some quotes, and that means some quotes were not explained enough.  Regardless of this problem,. I am still happy to be temporarily done with my theme, but I fear that happiness won't last long.

Junior Theme Blog #4

Well, as a follow up to my last blog, I DID schedule and hold an interview, which took place on this past Sunday.  I interviewed Neil Golden, who works for McDonalds.  It ran quite smoothly.  I asked all three questions that I planned to ask, and he was not reluctant.  He answered all of my questions fully, and gave me some great info that I know I will be able to use in my paper.  The interview lasted about seventeen minutes, and I was able to record the interview with my laptop.  The only issue was that, as Franklin Roosevelt might say, he "[spoke] softly, and [carried] a big stick". The big stick would be all of the info he provided, but he did speak quietly.  I had a little bit of trouble understanding him at some points.  I have finished transcribing the entire seventeen minutes, and have already selected a couple of quotes that might fit well into my paper.  Also, in terms of the paper itself, I have an outline that contains some quotes.  My plan is to start the essay itself in the second half of this period.  Hopefully in blog #5, I will be talking about how smoothly the paper is going, but one can never be too sure...

Junior Theme Blog #3

Coming back from a week in Florida, I was bummed to be back in the 30 degree Chicago weather.  But knowing that I got to come back to my junior theme cheered me up!  My family drove to Florida, so I got to spend some good time reading up on junior theme material.  Then I got a rude awakening on Monday.  I completely spaced on the interview, and I had no clue who I was going to interview.  I am still at a loss as to who I should request an interview with.  I am probably going to do some research, but hopefully I will be able to think of someone quickly, in order to compile quotes more quickly.

Note to Teachers: the blog I want to be looked at is the "Tokenism at New Trier?" one from March 13th

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Junior Theme Blog #2

Okay, this week was running smoothly...until yesterday.  I had articles printed out from ProQuest, JSTOR, and NYTimes.com.  I had gone through about ten of them, until I realized that the URLs at the top didn't end with characters.   Rather, they ended with ...  This bothered me.  I had not kept track of the URLs, since I had made the mistake of assuming that they were printed fully at the top.  At first I was devastated.  I had to comb through all the websites to retrieve the articles I had printed.  It wasted half an hour, but eventually I found them all again.  Then, to make sure that I wouldn't lose them again, I decided to put them all into my NoodleBib, and then just delete the ones at the end that I don't end up using.  I now have around 8 sources entered, and am very pleased.  I remember my sister, who was a junior 2 years ago, had finished her paper early.  The reason I remember this, though, Is because I was kept awake into the early hours of the morning by the light in her room, as she labored over her bibliography.  I am pleased that I was able to enter some of my sources now, because that means I will get to sleep longer when crunch time comes.  Even though I lost a good half hour of time that could have been spent researching, in the end, I think it had a beneficial effect.

Junior Theme Blog #1

To be quite honest, over the past weekend, I kind of bent the rules that were given to us regarding junior theme topics.  We were told to come to class on Monday with three to five why questions, and that all of our questions should be valid options.  We were told to not come to school with one solid topic that we thought would definitely be the basis for our argument in this infamous paper.  And while I did come to school with five legitimate why questions on Monday, only one stood out to me.  My question was: "Why have video games and television shows targeted at children become increasingly violent?"  Even though this question is way too broad, I though for sure that I would write mypaper in regards to this topic.

So I came to school on Monday, and thought that I would have my list of five questions ready, but really not need them because I already knew which topic I was going to address.  I was wrong.  After spending the first twenty minutes of the period running into nothing but dead ends, I felt dejected.  I could not find any good books, web articles, etc. to support my argument.  So I turned back to the remaining four questions on my list.  The one that stood out to me was about obesity in America.  Immediately, I was able to find resources for my new topic.  Doc Oc pointed out a book to me called Fast Food Nation, which seems like it would be a great read for my paper.  When all was said and done, the lesson that I learned on the first day of junior theme research was to keep an open mind.  Once I opened myself up to new ideas, the research came much more easily.  If you are stuck in a corner with this menacing paper, then just keep an open mind and you will find a way out.

Tokenism at New Trier?

Over the past two weeks, we have been discussing racial tokenism in the media.  TV shows, movies, and many other things we discussed display tokenism.  Some other things that went unmentioned were books, comic strips, and video games.  I can think of examples from all of the above that display tokenism.  Another example that was mentioned was how colleges photoshop African American faces into brochures in order to make their school seem more diverse.  I knew that these kinds of events took place at colleges.  But at high schools, where students are not yet adults? Preposterous.

...Or so I thought.  Last week, my mom went to a meeting for post-high school counselling.  She brought home a binder that all the parents received.  On the cover is some standard info: New Trier High School, class of 2012, etc.  But the one thing that stands out is the picture.  It is a clip art picture of students in graduation caps and gowns, holding diplomas.  Unfortunately, I could not find the image online, and am not tech savvy enough to know how to scan it in.  But the picture basically has four students: two African American, and two Caucasian.  Now some may think that New Trier chose this picture because it was the first one that came up in Google images.  But when I searched for this image, there were significantly more pictures with only Caucasian students. So New Trier must have combed through several pages of images in order to find this one.  Quite obviously, the ratio of white to black students at New Trier is not one to one.  So why did New Trier choose this images above all others?  Were they, like the colleges trying to give a false sense of diversity, or was there some other reason?

An extreme blog

A couple of days ago we received a copy of a quite lengthy letter that Martin Luther King Jr. wrote while imprisoned in Birmingham jail.  Throughout the letter, King makes many powerful historical connections to refute the opposition's arguments.  One of the opposition's arguments was that King was being an extremist by advocating the equal rights for African Americans.  King responds to this argument by saying: "Was not Paul an extremist for the gospel of Jesus Christ?--'I beat in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.'  Was not Martin Luther an extremist?--'Here I stand; I can do no other so help me God.'  Was not John Bunyan an extremist?-- 'I will stay in jail until the end of my days before I make a mockery of my conscience.'  Was notAbraham Lincoln an extremist?-- 'This nation cannot survive half equal.'  Was not Thomas Jefferson an extremist?-- 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal' "(4).  All of the above are very powerful examples of famous extremists who, in my eyes, were right with what they were standing up for.  But I am curious about the less famous extremists, those who make extreme decisions daily


Right after King gives the examples above, he states that "The question is not whether we will be extremist, but what kind of extremists we will be" (4).   The answer to this question was meant to be what side King, as an "extremist", would be fighting for, but this inquiry brought a different thought to my mind.  Rather than idea vs. idea, I thought more about the scale of the extremity of a choice.  I don't think you have to be famous or infamous in order to be considered an extremist.  I think i was an extremist this morning when I chose between my Colgate or Michigan State sweatshirt.  There is no neutral ground, no combination of the two.  Whichever on I chose, it would be an "extreme" decision.  Also there is the example of the Huck Finn papers we just wrote.  We couldn't fuse all five prompts into one essay, we all had to be an extremist and choose only one.  I feel that since everyone has to make these types of choices, everyone is an extremist,but feel free to argue against that.

Reconstructing the Nation

These reconstruction projects that we have been working on in class have been quite tricky.  No matter what path we choose to take, there will always be complications and criticisms.  One of those big issues is money.  The country needs money for many issues, but there is very little extra money to throw around.  There is physical damage that has to be paid for.  Schools and other public institutions that have to be built and payed for.  Almost anything that might aid the country must be paid for somehow, so the question is: where do we get all of that money?


After the war, there were not a lot of sources to get money.  Since the South lost the war, it would make sense to get money from them.  Unfortunately, all  the rich Southern plantation owners had invested their money into confederate bonds, which were now useless.  Another option is to tax cotton.  But with slavery abolished, it was very likely that there would be a decline in cotton production, since the main labor force was slaves.  Another option was to subtract from the defense budget, since the war was over.  But after a war on our own soil, our country would be especially vulnerable, so subtracting from the defense budget may make us susceptible to attacks or wars from European countries.  Almost anywhere there was money, it was untouchable.  This lack of money plagued the country.


I wonder, though, if any of the lessons that we learned back during Reconstruction are applicable today.  Obviously the economy is weak, and we need to exit this depression.  Do any of you have plans on how to get money in your reconstruction project that you think would be applicable today? And do you feel that today's issue can be dealt with the same way as it was 140 years ago?

Reconstructing the Nation

The More Eloquent Side to Jay-Z

  A couple of days ago, Doc Oc mentioned how his least favorite college basketball player, Nolan Smith for the Duke Blue Devils, has been described as being a “surprisingly articulate” young man.   We discussed the racial problems that are associated with that description.  Is it just naturally assumed that all whites are articulate?  I’ve heard some very insightful Caucasian speakers, and yet never heard of them being “surprisingly” good with words.  Also, on the other end of the spectrum, would a white person who don’t speak too good be thought of as surprisingly unintelligent?  And then does our society feel that the majority of African Americans do not speak very eloquently?  I would hope not, but I think that I have proved myself wrong.
    It would be hard to find a teenager in America who doesn’t know who Jay-Z is.  He is one of the most famous rappers in the world, and appeals to a great number of teenagers.  I personally prefer other genres of music, but I acknowledge Jay-Z’s talent and success.  Jay-Z, like most other rappers, raps about drugs, sex, and murder.  He also tosses around curse words as if no one would take offense.  Jay-Z is, quite honestly, not the type of person who I would think of as articulate.  Yet Jay-Z proved me wrong when he appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher (click here to watch a segment).  In this interview, Jay-Z touched on some very important issues, and spoke with high intellect.  I remember being surprised at how insightful he was.  It took me by surprise that someone who uses such vulgar language for a living could speak with such grace and intellect.  I would like to think that the only reason that this took me by surprise is that he is a rapper, and that I would think the same think for all rappers, regardless of race.  Yet, I can’t help but wonder whether this is more of a  racial issue than it appears to be.
 

Can I Eat Fried Chicken?

As we finished up Adventures of Huckleberry Finn this week, we touched on one last issue involving the portrayal of African Americans.  We discussed how they appear in the media, and how those appearances shape our opinions of African Americans today.  I said how they are portrayed to be users of vulgar language, due to rap songs and press conferences with African American  athletes, where there are almost always words that are censored.  Anyways, The channel that I watch the most in my free time is ESPN.  Since so many professional athletes are African American, and there are also many commercials involving African American actors, I am constantly seeing the media's portrayal of them.  In the commercials, it is very evenly balanced.  Both black and white people are shown doing stupid things in beer commercial, both black and white people are shown buying and driving cars, and both black and white people are shown evenly in almost every type of commercial.  The one red flag that I found though, is fast food.

It is a common stereotype: African Americans love fried chicken.  Even though a large portion of African Americans may enjoy fried chicken, it is still rude to group them all together, and make it seem like there is not a single African American who doesn't like fried chicken.  I thought that the commercials on ESPN would try to be more balanced, showing both whites and blacks enjoying fried chicken.  In McDonalds commercials, Taco Bell commercials, and Burger King commercials, there are both blacks and whites.  Yet, I still remember a certain Popeyes add that made me cringe.  I could not find this specific add on YouTube, but I found plenty of others that showed only African Americans eating their fried chicken.  Personally, I love fried chicken, and would eat it all the time it it weren't so unhealthy.  Yet it seems like in our society, fried chicken is viewed as an African American's food, which is an unacceptable stereotype.

Land vs. Water

In our shortened week, we discussed the difference between land and water in Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  The water is viewed of as a safe haven by Huck.  Whenever he gets in trouble for lying, or whatever it may be, he escapes to the raft, where he is safe to be himself, and he does not have to worry about problems.  Dry land, on the other hand, is problematic for Huck.  When he is on land, he has to always be scheming of how to not get caught.  Also, he is separated from his only companion, Jim, when he is on land.  There is a clear difference between land and water in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and I wonder whether or not this difference holds true in the real world.

The first thing that came to mind relating to this topic is Holy Water.  I do not know a lot about Holy Water, but I know that babies are baptized with it.  So there's one real life example supporting Huck's viewpoint.  After that, I tried to think of more...but none came to mind. Other than that one example, I could not think of anything to support Huck's thoughts.  In fact, I personally feel the other way.  On dry land, I feel at ease, whereas in the water, I might drown.  That is just my opinion, though, and if you feel differently, please tell me why.  Also, if you find more examples than Holy Water, I would like to know.

How to Deal with Guilt

In class this week, we got together with small groups and discussed different aspects of Twain's novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  My group was assigned Huck's guilt.  One thing that I noticed about how Huck deals with his guilt is that it is very unpredictable.  He feels guilty in many spots in this book, and each time, he deals with this guilt in a new way, most of which are somewhat obscure.  When the Duke and the King con the Wilks family, Huck feels guilty about stealing copious amounts of gold from such nice people.  What I would do in this situation is simply tell the family that they are being conned.  Yet Huck, for some reason, resolves that "There ain't no good way but one.  I got to steal that money, somehow; and I got to steal it some way that they won't suspicion that I done it" (147).  I personally fail to see the logic behind this decision.  If he were caught, then he would get in trouble, and regret his actions.  If he was not caught, then the Wilks family would be in even more distress, since their money was stolen.  Either way, it is a lose-lose situation for Huck.  Perhaps others are seeing something here that I am not, but regardless, I think that this was a stupid decision of Huck's.  Do you think that this was the right decision by Huck, and if, like me, you disagree with his actions, why?

Metablog: the Sequel

To be honest, I don't think my blogging has changed during second quarter as much as it did first.  I was a new blogger, completely lost, and experimented with many different techniques during first quarter.  After the first few blogs, I kind of settled down into a style that I see in the majority of my posts.  I feel that my style consists of a short, but to-the-point body about a singular current issue coupled with a question or opinion at the end.  This has remained consistent throughout second quarter, but there are three small details that I have changed, or am at least trying to.  First off, I have been putting more links and sources in recent blogs.  Next, the ending sentences to my blogs have changed as well.  The final variation in my blogging experience has to do with my attitude towards blogging.

I am inserting more links into my recent blogs because this website said so: Blogging Tips.  Sarcasm aside, I am really doing this because it is mutually beneficial for my readers and I.  Out of my first quarter blogs (excluding the first Metablog), 4 of them came without a link, and none of them had more than one link.  In my second quarter blogs, however, only two have no links, and one blog has a whopping THREE LINKS!  That blog is from 12-11-10, and is titled "Julian Assange: The International Manhunt".  I provide a link to a video that I talk about, and also give links for two articles related to the topic I am talking about.  When I bring up a topic, such as Julian Assange, that some people may not know a lot about, it helps for me to include a link to a page that talks solely about Assange.  This way the reader can have a better understanding of the context, and in turn will lead to me having a more successful blog.

The next topic I'll talk about that has changed in my second quarter blogs is the nature of my ending sentences.  First quarter, all I did was pose a question at the end of each post.  Even though some of these questions were insightful (of course there were those that weren't), they were one-dimensional.  They only asked one question, and nothing else.  Now, I am ending my blogs more openly.  Rather than narrowing down the ending idea to one issue, I leave them more open ended.  This way, the comments on my blogs (if I ever get any!) can be on a variety of topics.  For example,  my blog from 1-8-11 titled "The Game of Life" ands more broadly.  I provide one real life example to support my opinion, and rather than asking a question at the end, I asked my readers if they had any examples.  This way there could be a variety of topics broached in the comments, and perhaps promote more comments.  All in all, leaving the end of my blog in a more open ended way could lead to having my readers be more inclined to comment.

One last detail that has, unlike the others, been a undesired change, is my attitude towards blogging.  During the first quarter, I never missed a single deadline: all nine of my weekly blogs were completed punctually.  However, I skipped two weeks during second quarter, and had to make up for that by doing two extra posts.  Hopefully this isn't a trend, and I will be back on track third quarter.  At least I got the Metablog in on time.  But to sum it all up, my second quarter experience with blogging has gone through less change than first quarter, but has still been an enlightening one.


p.s. the blog i want looked at is "Julian Assange: The International Manhunt", from 12-11-10

The Censorship of Huck Finn

A recent topic that has been brought up in both the classroom and in the media is the censorship of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  There has been much controversy about Twain's classic novel, and there always will be.  This debate is centered around the word nigger, which most people view as being extremely offensive and hateful.  The proposed censorship would replace the n-word with "slave".  I strongly disagree with this decision on nearly every issue.
First off, those in favor of the censorship argue that the book cannot be read by children due to the presence of the n-word.  I certainly agree that that is one reason children should not read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,  but it is definitely not the only one.  So far, Huck has ran away from home, stolen, and lied to many people.  I personally don't think that those are the lessons we should be teaching our kids.  Also, there are some scenes and words that are easy for us to understand, but may be a problem for children.  Those are just a few of the reasons why kids should not be reading this book in the first place.  Another reason is the fact that replacing the n-word with slave would alter the meaning of some passages.  For example, on page 68 in our edition of the book, Huck realizes that "You can't learn a nigger to argue."  In my opinion, this passage would be completely different if it said slave instead of nigger.  In the quote, Huck is clearly referring to the issue being that Jim is black, not the fact that Jim is a slave.  One final reason that I think the censorship of this book is bad is because of the constant changing of a word's meaning.  With each new generation comes new meanings for words.  For example the word "cool" meant nothing but chilly 100 years ago, and now it has a different meaning.  My point is, who knows what words we may find offensive in the future.  Whether it be tomorrow, or in 1000 years, if other words in Huck Finn are then profane, then those could be censored, until you finally have something that looks nothing like the original book.
Also, one last thought.  If the censorship does occur, then I feel the book needs a new title and author.  It would be a crime to call it Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.  I might be fine with Censored Version of What was Once a Book Called Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by (insert publisher here).  What do you think should happen if these changes to the book were made?

The Game of Life

During class this week I brought up the game of Life.  In this game, for those of you who are not familiar with it, you progress through your character's "life" by being assigned at random a career.  The possible career choices are the following: doctor, computer consultant, police officer, athlete, entertainer, artist, salesperson, accountant, and teacher.  Based on which career you get, you are then given a salary to fit your job.  If you want to find out more about this game, click here.  Some of the jobs that have the highest salary choices are athlete and entertainer, whereas those jobs like teacher and salesperson have less luxurious salaries.  This game is mainly for younger kids, so this means that our youth is being taught that athletes are more important than teachers, which I disagree with.  I started thinking about this topic, and realized that the Game of Life is not the only thing that is telling our youth that athletes and entertainers are more important than teachers.

Take trading cards for example.  When I was around 12 years old, baseball cards were popular among boys my age.  We were always competing to see who had the most, the best, the rarest, and so on.  These cards taught us to idolize athletes, and wish that we could grow up to be athletes ourselves.  At that same age, when school was starting to get a little challenging, our teachers were evil in our eyes, piling on the tests and homework assignments.  So naturally, when given the choice, any twelve year old boy would choose athlete over teacher.  This is just one example of how kids these days idolize the wrong people.  If you have another example, please feel free to leave it in a comment below.