Tania Torres Textus First Draft In an age where casual dress has become the norm for every situation, there are few uni-forms that evoke such a response as the uniform of a catholic school girl. These uniforms represent wealth, perfection, and rebellion. Private schools have traditionally been for the children of the wealthy and powerful. It seems almost obligatory that one associate the uniforms worn by such offspring with the wealth of their parents. These uniforms traditionally consist of a plaid skirt, saddle shoes, white oxford blouse and a variety of navy blue sweaters priced highly. These expensive outfits accompany the large tuition that parents pay for these schools. The young ladies who wear these uniforms attend college preparatory schools with the intention of eventually attending a well-known college and earning the large paychecks their parents are all too familiar with. Their appearance contrasts sharply with that of those who attend public schools, who are automatically deemed to be less wealthy and successful. While normal children choose their school wardrobes freely, these young ladies are confined to the uniforms that define who they are in society. Movies and TV shows such as Gossip Girl have characters that wear private school uniforms. These characters are from extremely wealthy families and their uniforms reassure others that they are part of the elite. Girls from private schools proudly wear their uniforms after school hours, knowing that others will assume they are rich and have similar lives to those portrayed on television. Catholic school girls appear flawless and perfect when they parade around their school campus in their uniforms. Their uniforms are impeccable and every other aspect of their selves is perfect as well. These girls appear to be perfect in everything they try and have more opportuni-ties than their t-shirt and jean wearing friends at public schools. Uniforms evoke the images of girls who participate in sports and clubs at school, earn high grades, have a large social circle and still manage to follow their faith. Catholic schoolgirl uniforms also reflect a sense of rebellion. Music videos such as Aero-smith’s Crazy and Britney Spears’ ...Baby One More Time depict sexy school girls who rebel against the pure image usually associated these uniforms. Countless numbers of “Sexy School-girl” costumes are sold during Halloween only adding to the belief that these uniforms make the wearer seem more attractive and desirable.
Saman Karbalaei English 1A Professor Gallegos 5 November 2008
Textus(Polished)
There exist literary works in this world that truly change people’s lives. The knowledge conveyed in these texts have the power to free minds in their perception of reality. This was the case for me after reading a book assigned in my American Government class during my freshman year in college. It is not a standard history textbook, and it even discredits the standard textbooks taught in high schools and most college courses. This book is entitled A People’s History of the United States written by Howard Zinn, an unbiased recounting of our nation‘s past. The title of this text implies that this is the side of history that was not taught to us in our social studies classes throughout grade school. Standard history textbooks essentially focus on governments, geography, and very basic cultural aspects. A People’s History of the United States, on the other hand, describes the human experience; what the various groups of people went through as this country was established and developed throughout time. Our high school textbooks, Zinn explains, avoided this side of the story because “history is written by the winners”, and to reveal what people actually had to endure throughout the nation’s birth and development would not create such a formidable image in our children’s minds. There are many events in the establishment of the United States which would make its citizens question the moral standards of its founders and leaders throughout the decades. One of these major events was the “discovery” of America by Christopher Columbus. Obviously he did not discover anything, as numerous indigenous tribes already populated the north American islands and mainland; all this “discovery” marked was the date Europeans realized that there was a continent between western Europe and eastern Asia, and it was up for grabs. As the text describes, Columbus wrote in his logs that the Arawaks of the Bahamas (the first American land he encountered) were extremely wholesome and gentle people, contrary to the popular belief that Indians were savage and backwards; Columbus wrote that they were very hospitable people who were open to sharing and trading with the European sailors. “They would make fine servants…with fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” The indigenous people were ordered to gather gold for the Europeans, and incompliance would be punished by death. Gold wasn’t as abundant as Columbus thought, so when it became scarce thousands of Indians (men, women, and children) were slaughtered. Hundreds of babies were fed to hunting dogs. The natives that remained were enslaved on plantations and haciendas, many dying because of their mistreatment and poor living conditions. As more and more settlers arrived throughout time, the majority of the 10 million indigenous Americans were wiped out to make way for the new world. Andrew Jackson, best known as the face on our 20 dollar bill, was one of the most heartless men in history. After being elected president in 1828, he forced 70,000 Iroquois, Choctaws, Creeks and Cherokees out of their lands to be driven westward, and those who resisted had their villages burned down. Millions of acres of Indian territory was taken by force. Once the tribes would settle in an area promised to them by treaties, the treaties were quickly broken and they were again forced to migrate. The decades passed and with the booming establishment of the farming industry came the need for mass labor, thus came African slavery. Hundreds of thousands of African men were taken from their villages and forced across the Atlantic to America, more than half of them dying along the way because of the extremely poor conditions they were kept in aboard the transport ships. With all of the men gone, countless African tribes had their support structure shattered and were essentially ruined, and this is the prime reason for the crippled state of Africa today. In the 1860s, Congress was trying to pass bills to help the “freed” black slaves, attempting to outlaw exclusion of blacks in restaurants, hotels, etc. Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s vice president, vetoed all of these bills. The blacks endured decades of injustice, looked down upon and regarded as less than human. The Declaration of Independence claimed that the people had a god-given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; the “people” just did not include blacks, Indians, or women. The struggle was not exclusive to these groups however, as much of the lower class was made up of poor white families. These groups were constantly divided racially through propaganda to prevent them from uniting and igniting a mass socialist uprising. The real problem was not racism, it was class struggle. As America’s power grew, the era of modern imperialism began, to continue the global domination that western Europe had started long ago. As a result of World War I, ten million died in battle, and another twenty million from hunger and disease related to war. What was gained from this? What were they fighting for? It was a fight over boundaries and territories in the Balkans, Africa, and the Middle East; land and resources are very valuable assets to a growing capitalist empire. “American capitalism needed international rivalry -and periodic war- to create an artificial community of interest between rich and poor…a national consensus for war was needed, and the government quickly moved to create such a consensus. In 1953 Iran, a very popular figure had been elected prime minister, and his name was Mossadegh. This was a sincerely democratic man of the people, and his prime objective was to nationalize Iran’s oil to return the country‘s wealth to its people. It made sense that Iranians should benefit from Iranian oil, but the U.S. and Great Britain were receiving 40% of the oil revenues. Because Mossadegh wanted to bring an end to the Western hold on Iran’s resources, CIA jackals were sent in to spread lies against Mossadegh and pay masses of people to go into the streets and riot in opposition to him. Thus the democratically elected prime minister was overthrown, and the West installed the Shah as Iran’s new leader. Not only was the oil not nationalized, but the U.S. and U.K. doubled their take, taking control of 80% of revenues. If I were to list all of the countries that the United States has intervened in with the purpose of “regime change”, whether it be through overt force, covert operations, or subverted elections, this list would take up a very long paragraph. There is American military presence in over 100 countries. This empire remains unseen by the public because of the controlled mass media’s disinformation. Throughout it’s latter history the U.S. has expanded its sphere of influence globally to setup puppet governments and control the world’s economic market through their international banking system and the military-industrial complex. Give one control of a nation's banks and it makes no difference who holds executive office. It doesn’t take chains to enslave people anymore. Zinn recounts the human events throughout the history of the United States, painting a vivid picture of all of the immoral acts committed by the leaders of this nation. This has major significance because our society today is blindly ethnocentric. “We are the most powerful country in the world!“ Are we, the American people, truly powerful? I say we are simply the apparatus which runs the machine, allowing it to devour the rest of the world while our masters reap the spoils. Those who lead us have kept their family bloodlines in power for centuries, yet we are meant to believe that we live in a democratic society where we choose our leaders. The unfolding of our history is important to remember because it speaks very loudly about the nature of the leadership in this country, both in our past and present. Instead, our children are painted a fairytale-like picture of Columbus, the Indians and the settlers, the impacts of slavery are undermined, and in the countless wars the United States has gone to, we are always regarded as the heroes. In both World Wars American companies funded both sides, profiting greatly from the bloodshed of millions. Our general education system, the media, and our ethically void culture as a whole has conditioned us to forget the past and to believe that we are making progress. We are living in a hidden empire which goes beyond America and Europe, established and expanded throughout the many centuries through war, but the people are blinded from its true purpose: to enslave the masses through a perpetual debt monetary system, and to expand, centralize, and protect the power of the “elite“. We are blinded to the nature of the men who have led us since the corruption of civilization, but texts such as Howard Zinn’s shed some much needed light onto our world.
contact me if you want to partner up: raphael.madrid@gmail.com
Hip Hop is the genre of music known to many as “urban poetry,” and it is no surprise to why it is considered as a type of poetry. The lyrics in many songs of this genre of music contain many explicit and implicit lines that tell some sort of story or convey a message of positivity. In the many songs of the underground group called the Visionaries, they often lyricize about messages of love, and blessings they have received. They’re song called “If You Can’t Say Love” envisions a strong message of increasing love and positivity in today’s society. This song is one of the… if not the best Hip Hop song conveying a positive message to society. It is one of the best positive Hip Hop songs because of its intricate lyrics, the positive effect it has on its listeners and the message of constant love throughout the difficulties and hardships we all face in our everyday lives. It is said that the melody is what makes a song what it is, and that might be true, but the lyrics are what makes the song true poetry. The song “If You Can’t Say Love” by the Visionaries has truly poetic meaning behind every set of lyrics. In one portion of the song, the member 2MEX states that if you can’t say love “then I’ll say it for you, travel the globe and tell everybody to aim love towards you, the feeling is better than bass drums, I’m not the only person that’s able to read the letter on your face hun/I’ll make an alternate ending, It would all be worth it if I were to fall for defending…” These lyrics definitely send a feeling of comfort to the listener, saying that if you can’t love then others will love you, and love for you. He also talks about that the feeling of love is better than the beat of bass drums, comparing the beating of one’s heart, to the beating of drums. 2MEX also describes the nobility of dying for peace and love within society and he would gladly fall for defending something he loves and is passionate about. In another part of the song which I would say is one of the best lines in this song comes from the member ZEN. He points out that he is “patiently taking all day waiting for the confrontations to cease and the nations to do as we’ve done… while worldwide peace is just a figment and now is where we’re living, we can hold on to the vision, do our ancestors right by our decisions, thanks giving to the most…” These strong lyrics powerfully emphasizes the wrong we have all caused in this world, that we constantly fight amongst ourselves, rather than take examples of peace from the great leaders and activists we have had in our lifetime such as Martin Luther King Jr. or Mohandas Gandhi. He points out the vision of peace throughout the world to be a figment of our imagination and we all have to live in a world where our decisions today shape out our future tomorrow. Those lyrics definitely put an image into my head of what our world has become due to our failures, and shortcomings in trying to bring this world closer and safer. The lyrics are poetic because like in common poetry, they have a constant rhyme in each line of the song. The Visionaries describe love and its meaning in a deeper sense, often giving examples of what love means, and what we can do to strengthen the love in this world. There aren’t many Hip Hop songs in today’s society that convey constant positivity to those who listen to it. The feeling “If You Can’t Say Love” brings to one’s self is a feeling of hope, passion, change and of course love. Throughout the song, the artists display feelings of positivity by showing love to the listeners, and giving them examples to follow in becoming a better member in society. They invoke positivity into their listeners, telling them the consequences of our life today and how each and every one of us can make it better, no matter how small the contribution is. In a section of the song sung by LMNO, he raps about how “it” all starts with love and “eradicate the hate, got a Phillips head in a case for your screw face brought a new pace.” This particular rhyme, he metaphorically speaks about the hate in the world and how it is our duty to exterminate it. He implicitly says that the world needs some change, and refers to a tool set analogy when talks about taking a Phillips screwdriver and “fixing” our mind to change the way we think about the world. We should embrace the graces we were given and take our place in helping out our own society that we live in in order to promote peace and love. Under the comments section for the music video of this song on the YouTube website, I found hundreds of people who found this song to be an inspiration; a new found feeling of a better love, and a new meaning to the word love.
4 comments:
Tania Torres
Textus First Draft
In an age where casual dress has become the norm for every situation, there are few uni-forms that evoke such a response as the uniform of a catholic school girl. These uniforms represent wealth, perfection, and rebellion.
Private schools have traditionally been for the children of the wealthy and powerful. It seems almost obligatory that one associate the uniforms worn by such offspring with the wealth of their parents. These uniforms traditionally consist of a plaid skirt, saddle shoes, white oxford blouse and a variety of navy blue sweaters priced highly. These expensive outfits accompany the large tuition that parents pay for these schools. The young ladies who wear these uniforms attend college preparatory schools with the intention of eventually attending a well-known college and earning the large paychecks their parents are all too familiar with. Their appearance contrasts sharply with that of those who attend public schools, who are automatically deemed to be less wealthy and successful. While normal children choose their school wardrobes freely, these young ladies are confined to the uniforms that define who they are in society. Movies and TV shows such as Gossip Girl have characters that wear private school uniforms. These characters are from extremely wealthy families and their uniforms reassure others that they are part of the elite. Girls from private schools proudly wear their uniforms after school hours, knowing that others will assume they are rich and have similar lives to those portrayed on television.
Catholic school girls appear flawless and perfect when they parade around their school campus in their uniforms. Their uniforms are impeccable and every other aspect of their selves is perfect as well. These girls appear to be perfect in everything they try and have more opportuni-ties than their t-shirt and jean wearing friends at public schools. Uniforms evoke the images of girls who participate in sports and clubs at school, earn high grades, have a large social circle and still manage to follow their faith.
Catholic schoolgirl uniforms also reflect a sense of rebellion. Music videos such as Aero-smith’s Crazy and Britney Spears’ ...Baby One More Time depict sexy school girls who rebel against the pure image usually associated these uniforms. Countless numbers of “Sexy School-girl” costumes are sold during Halloween only adding to the belief that these uniforms make the wearer seem more attractive and desirable.
Saman Karbalaei
English 1A
Professor Gallegos
5 November 2008
Textus(Polished)
There exist literary works in this world that truly change people’s lives. The knowledge conveyed in these texts have the power to free minds in their perception of reality. This was the case for me after reading a book assigned in my American Government class during my freshman year in college. It is not a standard history textbook, and it even discredits the standard textbooks taught in high schools and most college courses. This book is entitled A People’s History of the United States written by Howard Zinn, an unbiased recounting of our nation‘s past.
The title of this text implies that this is the side of history that was not taught to us in our social studies classes throughout grade school. Standard history textbooks essentially focus on governments, geography, and very basic cultural aspects. A People’s History of the United States, on the other hand, describes the human experience; what the various groups of people went through as this country was established and developed throughout time. Our high school textbooks, Zinn explains, avoided this side of the story because “history is written by the winners”, and to reveal what people actually had to endure throughout the nation’s birth and development would not create such a formidable image in our children’s minds.
There are many events in the establishment of the United States which would make its citizens question the moral standards of its founders and leaders throughout the decades. One of these major events was the “discovery” of America by Christopher Columbus. Obviously he did not discover anything, as numerous indigenous tribes already populated the north American islands and mainland; all this “discovery” marked was the date Europeans realized that there was a continent between western Europe and eastern Asia, and it was up for grabs. As the text describes, Columbus wrote in his logs that the Arawaks of the Bahamas (the first American land he encountered) were extremely wholesome and gentle people, contrary to the popular belief that Indians were savage and backwards; Columbus wrote that they were very hospitable people who were open to sharing and trading with the European sailors. “They would make fine servants…with fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”
The indigenous people were ordered to gather gold for the Europeans, and incompliance would be punished by death. Gold wasn’t as abundant as Columbus thought, so when it became scarce thousands of Indians (men, women, and children) were slaughtered. Hundreds of babies were fed to hunting dogs. The natives that remained were enslaved on plantations and haciendas, many dying because of their mistreatment and poor living conditions. As more and more settlers arrived throughout time, the majority of the 10 million indigenous Americans were wiped out to make way for the new world.
Andrew Jackson, best known as the face on our 20 dollar bill, was one of the most heartless men in history. After being elected president in 1828, he forced 70,000 Iroquois, Choctaws, Creeks and Cherokees out of their lands to be driven westward, and those who resisted had their villages burned down. Millions of acres of Indian territory was taken by force. Once the tribes would settle in an area promised to them by treaties, the treaties were quickly broken and they were again forced to migrate.
The decades passed and with the booming establishment of the farming industry came the need for mass labor, thus came African slavery. Hundreds of thousands of African men were taken from their villages and forced across the Atlantic to America, more than half of them dying along the way because of the extremely poor conditions they were kept in aboard the transport ships. With all of the men gone, countless African tribes had their support structure shattered and were essentially ruined, and this is the prime reason for the crippled state of Africa today. In the 1860s, Congress was trying to pass bills to help the “freed” black slaves, attempting to outlaw exclusion of blacks in restaurants, hotels, etc. Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s vice president, vetoed all of these bills. The blacks endured decades of injustice, looked down upon and regarded as less than human. The Declaration of Independence claimed that the people had a god-given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; the “people” just did not include blacks, Indians, or women. The struggle was not exclusive to these groups however, as much of the lower class was made up of poor white families. These groups were constantly divided racially through propaganda to prevent them from uniting and igniting a mass socialist uprising. The real problem was not racism, it was class struggle.
As America’s power grew, the era of modern imperialism began, to continue the global domination that western Europe had started long ago. As a result of World War I, ten million died in battle, and another twenty million from hunger and disease related to war. What was gained from this? What were they fighting for? It was a fight over boundaries and territories in the Balkans, Africa, and the Middle East; land and resources are very valuable assets to a growing capitalist empire. “American capitalism needed international rivalry -and periodic war- to create an artificial community of interest between rich and poor…a national consensus for war was needed, and the government quickly moved to create such a consensus.
In 1953 Iran, a very popular figure had been elected prime minister, and his name was Mossadegh. This was a sincerely democratic man of the people, and his prime objective was to nationalize Iran’s oil to return the country‘s wealth to its people. It made sense that Iranians should benefit from Iranian oil, but the U.S. and Great Britain were receiving 40% of the oil revenues. Because Mossadegh wanted to bring an end to the Western hold on Iran’s resources, CIA jackals were sent in to spread lies against Mossadegh and pay masses of people to go into the streets and riot in opposition to him. Thus the democratically elected prime minister was overthrown, and the West installed the Shah as Iran’s new leader. Not only was the oil not nationalized, but the U.S. and U.K. doubled their take, taking control of 80% of revenues.
If I were to list all of the countries that the United States has intervened in with the purpose of “regime change”, whether it be through overt force, covert operations, or subverted elections, this list would take up a very long paragraph. There is American military presence in over 100 countries. This empire remains unseen by the public because of the controlled mass media’s disinformation. Throughout it’s latter history the U.S. has expanded its sphere of influence globally to setup puppet governments and control the world’s economic market through their international banking system and the military-industrial complex. Give one control of a nation's banks and it makes no difference who holds executive office. It doesn’t take chains to enslave people anymore.
Zinn recounts the human events throughout the history of the United States, painting a vivid picture of all of the immoral acts committed by the leaders of this nation. This has major significance because our society today is blindly ethnocentric. “We are the most powerful country in the world!“ Are we, the American people, truly powerful? I say we are simply the apparatus which runs the machine, allowing it to devour the rest of the world while our masters reap the spoils. Those who lead us have kept their family bloodlines in power for centuries, yet we are meant to believe that we live in a democratic society where we choose our leaders.
The unfolding of our history is important to remember because it speaks very loudly about the nature of the leadership in this country, both in our past and present. Instead, our children are painted a fairytale-like picture of Columbus, the Indians and the settlers, the impacts of slavery are undermined, and in the countless wars the United States has gone to, we are always regarded as the heroes. In both World Wars American companies funded both sides, profiting greatly from the bloodshed of millions. Our general education system, the media, and our ethically void culture as a whole has conditioned us to forget the past and to believe that we are making progress. We are living in a hidden empire which goes beyond America and Europe, established and expanded throughout the many centuries through war, but the people are blinded from its true purpose: to enslave the masses through a perpetual debt monetary system, and to expand, centralize, and protect the power of the “elite“. We are blinded to the nature of the men who have led us since the corruption of civilization, but texts such as Howard Zinn’s shed some much needed light onto our world.
contact me if you want to partner up: raphael.madrid@gmail.com
Hip Hop is the genre of music known to many as “urban poetry,” and it is no surprise to why it is considered as a type of poetry. The lyrics in many songs of this genre of music contain many explicit and implicit lines that tell some sort of story or convey a message of positivity. In the many songs of the underground group called the Visionaries, they often lyricize about messages of love, and blessings they have received. They’re song called “If You Can’t Say Love” envisions a strong message of increasing love and positivity in today’s society. This song is one of the… if not the best Hip Hop song conveying a positive message to society. It is one of the best positive Hip Hop songs because of its intricate lyrics, the positive effect it has on its listeners and the message of constant love throughout the difficulties and hardships we all face in our everyday lives.
It is said that the melody is what makes a song what it is, and that might be true, but the lyrics are what makes the song true poetry. The song “If You Can’t Say Love” by the Visionaries has truly poetic meaning behind every set of lyrics. In one portion of the song, the member 2MEX states that if you can’t say love “then I’ll say it for you, travel the globe and tell everybody to aim love towards you, the feeling is better than bass drums, I’m not the only person that’s able to read the letter on your face hun/I’ll make an alternate ending, It would all be worth it if I were to fall for defending…” These lyrics definitely send a feeling of comfort to the listener, saying that if you can’t love then others will love you, and love for you. He also talks about that the feeling of love is better than the beat of bass drums, comparing the beating of one’s heart, to the beating of drums. 2MEX also describes the nobility of dying for peace and love within society and he would gladly fall for defending something he loves and is passionate about. In another part of the song which I would say is one of the best lines in this song comes from the member ZEN. He points out that he is “patiently taking all day waiting for the confrontations to cease and the nations to do as we’ve done… while worldwide peace is just a figment and now is where we’re living, we can hold on to the vision, do our ancestors right by our decisions, thanks giving to the most…” These strong lyrics powerfully emphasizes the wrong we have all caused in this world, that we constantly fight amongst ourselves, rather than take examples of peace from the great leaders and activists we have had in our lifetime such as Martin Luther King Jr. or Mohandas Gandhi. He points out the vision of peace throughout the world to be a figment of our imagination and we all have to live in a world where our decisions today shape out our future tomorrow. Those lyrics definitely put an image into my head of what our world has become due to our failures, and shortcomings in trying to bring this world closer and safer. The lyrics are poetic because like in common poetry, they have a constant rhyme in each line of the song. The Visionaries describe love and its meaning in a deeper sense, often giving examples of what love means, and what we can do to strengthen the love in this world.
There aren’t many Hip Hop songs in today’s society that convey constant positivity to those who listen to it. The feeling “If You Can’t Say Love” brings to one’s self is a feeling of hope, passion, change and of course love. Throughout the song, the artists display feelings of positivity by showing love to the listeners, and giving them examples to follow in becoming a better member in society. They invoke positivity into their listeners, telling them the consequences of our life today and how each and every one of us can make it better, no matter how small the contribution is. In a section of the song sung by LMNO, he raps about how “it” all starts with love and “eradicate the hate, got a Phillips head in a case for your screw face brought a new pace.” This particular rhyme, he metaphorically speaks about the hate in the world and how it is our duty to exterminate it. He implicitly says that the world needs some change, and refers to a tool set analogy when talks about taking a Phillips screwdriver and “fixing” our mind to change the way we think about the world. We should embrace the graces we were given and take our place in helping out our own society that we live in in order to promote peace and love. Under the comments section for the music video of this song on the YouTube website, I found hundreds of people who found this song to be an inspiration; a new found feeling of a better love, and a new meaning to the word love.
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