IMHO #2

A story that is still on my mind is the one about little Madeleine McCann. Madeleine disappeared exactly five years ago today on May 3, 2007. The Today show recapped Madeleine’s story and I remembered it as if it wasn’t that long ago. Madeleine and her family were on vacation in Praia da Luz, Portugal. Kate and Gerry McCann (her parents) were eating at a restaurant while they left the children unsupervised; when the parents came back she was gone and has been missing ever since. The Portuguese criminal investigation police believed she had been abducted. A man named Robert Murat was a possible suspect but was cleared. Kate and Gerry McCann were named suspects as well but were cleared too. Usually when children disappear, the parents are named suspects and then have to have alibi. This case has been archived but it can be reopened if there is new evidence. Madeleine’s parents don’t want to give up and ask for the case to be reopened. They are hoping Madeleine is still alive. Madeleine’s photo has been altered to show how she would look now. Her parents have heard the American story of Jaycee Dugard missing for more than 18 years and finding her alive and hope something similar can happen to them.

Every time I hear stories of children and teenagers disappearing it makes me sad. Why would people want to abduct children? As bad as it sounds I feel like if they are missing for a long time they are probably dead. I really hope they are alive though. I commend the parents for having so much hope. I feel like the McCann’s parenting was a big part in Madeleine’s disappearance. Why would they leave their small young children unattended in a foreign country? I feel like that is really irresponsible. When children disappear, the parents are usual suspects and I can understand that. They were the last ones who probably saw them. If the parents don’t speak out it looks really bad and looks like they are trying to hide something. Since this event happened in a foreign land I feel like the authorities aren’t trying hard enough to look for her.

http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/43003515#43003515

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2138286/Madeleine-McCann-latest-news-Antonio-Castela-claims-picked-girl-taxi.html

Copy Edit the World

This is from my Sweet Tomatoes handbook. It says alk and it should be walk.

Copy Edit the World

This is from my sister’s softball team picture. Softall is supposed to be Softball.

Japanese Internment Memorial essay

On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, killing more than 2,300 Americans.  In response to the attack, United States Attorney General Francis Biddle set out an order to arrest enemy aliens.  Under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, citizens from Japan, Germany and Italy were sent to internment camps run by the Department of Justice.  By the end of the day, more than 700 Japanese Americans were taken into federal custody.  On December 8, 1941, the United States declared war on Japan. 

On February 19, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which led to the mass evacuation, relocation and internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast.  The order established military areas that were meant to protect the interests of the United States and its citizens by controlling the enemy.

Ruth Asawa is a Japanese American artist who, at 16, was interned in the West Coast after the Pearl Harbor attack.  During her internment, she became deeply interested in art. She created the Japanese American Internment Memorial in San Jose, CA.   The memorial can be found in front of the Federal Building on Second Street.  Asawa credits the internment for shaping who she is and isn’t resentful for what happened. The whole memorial uses vivid imagery to depict the life and trials of being a Japanese American during World War II.

Uchida Hall in SJSU was a transfer point of detainees to internment camps.  The building is named after an SJSU alumnus, Yoshihiro Uchida, a judo coach and pioneer of the sport in the United States.  His parents and siblings were among those held and processed at Uchida Hall.

In Japantown in San Jose, every single business was shut down because of the internment. Within the next decade, post-internment, Japanese-Americans rebuilt their businesses in San Jose.

The memorial really opened my eyes to what America did to Japanese-Americans amongst the panic and chaos of the Pearl Harbor attack. The memorial pictures families leaving behind their pets, family heirlooms, homes, belongings, and other valuables.

The first vignette that stuck out to me was the Japanese Americans that had to sell their belongings, especially those that represented their Japanese heritage and those who had worked hard and opened up businesses just for the American government to shut it down because of their ethnicity.

The second vignette that I found compelling was the section that had the horse stables. It is so inhumane to place families or just people in general in horse stables. People are not animals.

The next vignette that spoke to me was the one of two families separated by a curtain. There was not enough space that they had to put more than one family in one house.

After seeing the memorial and hearing about Japanese internment, I believe that something like this could not happen again. I believe Americans have grown and are more educated. Although there are still some racial tensions since 9/11, we have learned from the past that it’s not beneficial to do something like this.

 

 

Fish Out of Water

I got invited to go bowling for my friend Fatima’s birthday get together at Moonlite lanes in Santa Clara. My stomach was starting to tighten from anxiousness because I knew her sister Laura was going to be there and we hadn’t spoken to each other in over a year and a half. Back then, I considered her a good friend. Laura and I got into an argument about something stupid and left things on bad terms. When I arrived, the first person to greet me was Laura! I was pleasantly surprised because I had a plan of what I was going to say, but it’s like the whole thing never happened. I was so glad because I hate confrontation. I like to make everyone happy. We chatted and informed each other what was going on in our lives. When we started bowling I noticed Fatima’s new friends. I felt a little awkward because I’m a quiet person. Her friends are the type that have a different sense of style, different hygiene regimen, piercings in weird places, and Fatima herself was different. I just thought to myself these people are weird and I don’t know who to talk to. I actually talked to Laura more than Fatima. I personally don’t hang out with people who look like they smoke marijuana and that are a different clique. I just kept to myself part of the time and talked to Fatima and Laura. Although I would say the group was diverse, some Latinos and white people and one black guy, I felt like I didn’t connect with any group deeply, not even my own. I feel that usually same ethnicities like to hang out together. Now that I think about it Fatima has changed and we don’t have much in common anymore. Either way, I’m glad I conquered my fear of encountering her sister alone. The year before, Fatima had a hotel birthday party that I didn’t attend because I was afraid of the awkwardness I was going to face. I learned that it is important to forgive because you only live once and to fight about stupid things is stupid.

IMHO #1

A story that has gained nationwide attention, mine included, is the Trayvon Martin one. George Zimmerman, the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on February 26, 2012 in Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman has recently been charged with second-degree murder without bail. He turned himself in to police. Zimmerman told police he was attacked by Martin and was acting in self-defense. Martin was wearing a hoodie walking to a home in the gated community. Zimmerman was following Martin thinking his behavior was suspicious. There was later a confrontation between them that ended up with Zimmerman fatally shooting unarmed Martin. Zimmerman was arrested and was eventually released because there was insufficient evidence to contradict his story. Racial discrimination and police misconduct have been the issues in this story.

What is embarrassing is that Zimmerman is Latino and I’m part of that ethnicity. He just made the Latino community look bad. No one knows what happened that night except for Zimmerman and Martin and Martin is now dead so he can’t tell his part of the story.  If Martin was armed, this would have been a different story. What bothers the nation is why it took so long to do something about this crime. It seems like killing a human isn’t a big deal. From when this crime occurred until now an arrest was finally made. This has caused many tensions and protests throughout the nation. People have been wearing hoodies in Martin’s honor. This conviction should have happened a long time ago. Our justice system is so slow at times. For example, it took police a long time to arrest Drew Peterson. His third wife died suspiciously in his home and his fourth wife is currently missing. Doesn’t that look suspicious? Prolonged arrests give the suspects a chance to run away. Whether we like it or not racism still exists today. Martin probably looked suspicious to Zimmerman because he was wearing a hoodie and was African American. People think that African Americans are usually violent, but that’s not always the case. I’m glad that justice was finally served because taking a human life can’t go unpunished.

 

 

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/zimmerman-charged-2nd-degree-murder-trayvon-martin-shooting-220301336.html

Word #10

1. Compendium
2. Sociology of North American Sport
3. Any doubt about that can be quickly dispelled by a perusal of the book Combat Sports in the Ancient World: Competition, Violence, and Culture, which is a compendium of sports with varying degrees of violence that were popular in ancient societies.
4. (n) A brief summary of a larger work or of a field of knowledge.
5. He wrote a compendium about heart disease.

Copy Edit

SpPort should be Sport

Copy Edit

Co-coperation should be cooperation

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

I read the chapters “Brownies” and “Every Tongue Shall Confess” in the book Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer. ZZ Packer does an amazing job of setting scene descriptions. I love her writing because she tells these stories with great detail that you can picture yourself in the scene. When she described the white girls from Troop 909 “..their complexions a blend of ice cream: strawberry, vanilla,” instead of just using the word white she uses a different word choice to show that maybe the girls were sunburned. A line that made me laugh out loud was “A few seemed to be lolling their heads in slow circles …as if exercising the muscles of their necks, half ecstatically, like Stevie Wonder.” Right then I pictured Stevie Wonder doing his famous move. ZZ Packer likes to use similes such as “The stars sprinkled the sky like spilled salt,” I thought to myself what a unique way to describe the sky. It actually does look like that! The dialogue she uses is like the characters are talking and having a real conversation. It is not awkward at all. In the chapter “Brownie” she tackles the issue of race and uses the N word. The little girls cuss which is how some speak in the real world. I like how even though these stories are fiction, they seem like they could be real situations.