Essential Questions

So i not sure what i should write so i'll just post my ideas for some of my own essential questions...

the usuals:

-what kind of world is this?

-how are we supposed to live in this world?

Mine:

-how do you know when youre in love/what really is true love?

-is a person who does a ton of community service for the wrong reasons doing more good than a person who does only a little for the right?

sorri thats all i could think of at the moment....

Labels

Why is it that nowadays no one really looks at what clothes really look like but what label they have on it. I have a friend who loves ruehl because she thinks it's "made nicely". Well idk in my opinion abercrombie, hollister, and ruehl things are over priced. I dont own anything from ruehl because i think its just too expensive. abercrombie and hollister are ok but the only thing i'll buy are the t-shirts or jackets beause i think theyre more worth it than the super thin spaghetti strap tops there. I think people are too concerned with name brands. I buy what i think is nice not just because it has a moose embroidered on the corner. Our focus on name brands is kind of worse due to the fact that we have dress code. Dress code only allows us to have our own knee length pants, jackets and jewelry. Because of this, people splurge on buying many pairs of 7 for all mankind, citizens of humanity, and frankie b jeans. These jeans cost at least $100. Then there are the various ruehl, hollister and abercrombie jackets. And of course the many kinds of tiffany's jewelry that adorn almost every girl on campus (except me lol). I think we all just pay too much attention to labels and having clothes that display your wealth.

This i Believe Reflection

For homework, I reviewed three "this i believe" articles dealing with the broad category of love.
1. The Power of Love To Transform and Heal
2. People Who Love You When No One Else Will
3. Faithfulness
After reading all three, i realized that love can become a part of your life in so many ways. In the power of love, a woman adopts a child from asia who was abused and scarred for the six years of his life that he had been living. The orphanage owners quickly dropped the boy off in her custody and sped off only bothering to tell her his favorite thing was noodles. He put up a fight for a little six year old, but throughout his tantrums that night, she held him close. She showed him love when he seemed not to show her any in return. He was terrified of his change in environment and was confused. She constantly showed compassion towards the poor little boy and four years later he is in the fourth grade. He's now a smart, hard working, and happy child, all because of the love he was shown.
The second essay involved a woman who as a 15 year old was taken in by her best friend's family. She could have been treated like an outsider but her new family welcomed her with open arms and treated her like their own daughter. Since her real dad couldn't handle taking care of her and her mom had died, she always thought that the only person she could rely on was herself. Without her friend's family's unconditional love she would've turned into a lonely self dependant woman. But she is now a woman touched by the power of love.
The third essay was about a woman's faithfulness to her husband in jail. Her husbad was convicted of a terrible crime and instead of running from it, she stood by his side through the court hearings, and jail time. She visits her husband often and calls him and never once has she thought of leaving him. He really needs her and she believes in the definition of marriage and that nothing can tear them apart. Without the love she has shown her husband in his time of need, he may have given up hope and lost faith in turning his life around.
These three essays taught me that giving love unconditionally always creates good things. These people gave or were given love and it stayed with them forever. Connecting this to the singer solution and water buffalo, instead of giving away as much money as you can to the unfortunate, simple acts of kindness can go much farther. When you show love it's like a chain that keeps going and if you do one good deed to another person, chances are they will want to do more.

Water Buffalo

For our homework, we were asked to watch the short movie "4 Generations", and juxtapose it with the Singer solution essay. After viewing the short film, I realized that if I were to ever help out overseas, I would want to do what Robert Thompson did in his film instead of what Peter Singer suggested. Singer's thoughts were to give all the money you could to others who needed it more, while Robert Thompson chose to do a simple but truly wonderful act upon a needy family. The 4 generations video sent out a message opposing Singer's, which was that sometimes you can do more good with a simple act of kindness rather than excessive donating. Robert Thompson's team was connected to the family in a more personal way because they themselves bought the gift and presented it. Americans reading Singer's essay on the other hand may consider themselves good Samaritans just because they type in their credit card number once a month on a random poverty site. This helps but in a less personal way. It takes less effort to give some money to a website than it is to actually pick out a gift and deliver it to a chosen family/person. This impersonal way of giving money for others reminded me of the book Woman Warrior. (yeah idk how i still remember that) Well, i forget who but one lady's husband lived in America as a rich doctor, while she lived in China collecting a monthly envelope full of money from him. He didn't bother to tell her that he had gotten remarried and that he tried as hard as he could to distance himself from his Chinese heritage. He thought that he was doing a good thing by just sending money to her, but what she really needed was to talk to him. Simply sending money isn't always the most thoughtful way of aiding poverty. If i had the choice, i'd chose a less expensive and more personal way of giving.

Singer's Solution to World Poverty

In his essay, Peter Singer raised quite a few interesting and original analogies to the poverty that our world has at hand. The line that struck me the most was a question about two given situations..."In the end, what is the ethical distinction between a Brazilian who sells a homeless child to organ peddlers and an American who already has a TV and upgrades to a better one-knowing that the money could be donated to an organization that would use it to save the lives of kids in need?" Obviously most everyone say that the Brazilian is ethically wrong because a life is being lost due to that decision. But, as Singer investigates the scenario, he reasons that the American has the money and the opportunity to use it but choses not to. The middle-class citizen instead is sitting back enjoying his new television ignoring the needs of others. Because of their decision, even though they're not witnessing it, children across the world die because they lack the money for even a bit of food. This told me that we are all at fault in some way for what's happening around the world. Instead of purchasing my cherry chocolate cellphone, my family could've donated the money. But this point draws us to Singer's other point that addresses the question "Are you therefore obliged to keep giving until you have nothing left? At what point can you stop?" Well, all a person really needs to survive is food/drink, shelter, healthcare, and in this world, education. Does that mean that as long as my family has enough to eat and drink, a shelter to live under, can support eachother financially if we become ill, and keep sending me to school, the rest of our money should go to others? As you can see, this is an impossible thing to ask of the average American citizen. We have all gotten used to checking out myspaces on our laptops and looking for new songs on itunes for our ipod nanos. Peter Singer's solution is an interesting one but in this current world as I see it, it is impossible.

Introduction (first post)

Hey! this is Alysha and this is my commonplace blog for english...i'm unsure of what my essential question will be so i'm looking at different ideas that i drew from my brain box. btw using a blog for english is so much more fun than writing it in a journal ;)
♥Alysha