"We Are Training Our Kids to Kill"- Dave Grossman Pgs 495-504 Agueda Gomez

     In, "We Are Training Our Kids to Kill", by Dave Grossman, the author was military man who sees how we are unconsciously teaching our children how to kill throuhgout media. Grossman says proves how the killing rate in the Unitated States has quitupled since 1975 to 2002. Two reasons why these murder cases didn't increase or get worser were due to two factors: the increased imprisonmnet of violence offenders and keeping  the media technology. Thanks to prisons, we are able to keep sex offenders, sociopaths, and robbers away from socioty. If it weren't for the advanced techniques of medicine, many war heroes would have died and many victims would have died in hospitals as well. In Grossman's essay, he describes techniques used in war to teach soldiers how to kill and describes how we are doing the same thing to our children here in the United States. The first of three processes is called desensitization. Desesitization and brutalization is what they use in bootcamps, where a soldier is verbally and physically abused the moment they stp out of the bus. This process relates to our children today because children are learning violence when the are watching violent movies and violent video games. The second process is classical conditioning where soldiers in China are taught this procedure. In this procedure, they throw two soldiers in a pit where one soldier is forced to kill the other soldier in order to survive and you have a crowd watching and cheering for the winner. In this process, the soldier is taught to like killing. This process is not used in the United States, but it is used in our children today throughout violent video games that amuse the young children. The last of the three steps kto teach a soldier how to kill is called operating conditioning. The author talks about how we are teaching our children this skill because throughout video games, children learn how to be precise shopoters and they are conditioning their shooting abilities. The author talks about a young boy who robbed a liquor store and killed the clerk, without meaning to but because he was conditioned through the video games, he learned these natural instincts.
     I thought this essay was very persuasive because the author backed up his evidence with data and information that was absolutely true. The reason I felt that this essay was persuasive is because when I was sixteen years old, my sister and I were sent to boot camp and they treated us really bad but for some strange reason we were both thinking about joining the army because of that single week we experienced boot camp. They would make us drink water until we puke, they made us work out since five in the morning all the way until it was time to go to sleep, and they would laugh among themselved when they would say mean things to us or punish us for simply smiling. I was never much of a video game player or watched much TV growing up. However, due to Grossman's evidence of young teenagers killing human beings, I do believe that violence has something to do with it because how is a young child going to have outstanding shooting although he has never picked up a gun before? Children are being taugh to kill throughout media because even animals have an instinct to not kill their own kimd.

"Our Health Obsession"- Frank Furedi English 100 Agueda Gomez

     In "Our Health Obsession", by Frank Furedi, the author writes about society being obsessed with health. He says that there are four main reasons to why people are obsessed with being ill. This obsession exists in imparitive of medicalisatia, which means that government has found a disease to every problem you can possibly think of. Furedi gives an example on how even shyness has been diagnosed as "social phobia" in which doctors will probably wants to find a drug to cure this problem. The author's second reason to the illness obsession is the presupposition that illness is as normal as health. Today's people flaunt about being cancer survivors, but not embarrasing diseases such as gingivitis. This can result in not being able to get rid of an illness because that illness becomes a part of the person's identity. The third reason why Furedi believes that people are obsessed with being ill is because people use health to make sense of the human experience. For instance, people face to healath to save them from circumstances of moral or spiritual disorientation. Finally, Furedi expalins how politicisation of health relates to this obsession. Furedi explains that politicians try to promote health related topics with the purpose of getting money. This is why society makes you believe that you are more ill than you really are.
     I think this topic of health was rather interesting because I was able to connect with my nutrition class. In my nutrition class, I have learned about how corrupt the government is even when it comes to the health of its people. In last night's class, we watched  video a doctor who invented a formula that clearly stopped tumors and even cured cancer in more most of the patients cases. We also learned how this formula is not allowed to be practiced by doctors in the United States and is only found in Mexico, Japan, and Europe, I think. We learned how government has suppressed this formula for over 75 years and call this doctor crazy and never published his books. This formula persisted of a high concentration on juices freshly extracted from vegetables and fruits. I believe that this formula works because their is proof and the United States does not want people to know because the pharmacy would lose billions of dollars if Americans were to turn to this less-expensive remedy.

"Is Your Workplace Personality Out of (Birth) Order?"- Ben Dattner (pgs.332-335)

     In Ben Dattner's, "Is Your Workplace Personality Out of (Birth) Order?", the author talks about the effects that birth has with one's personality and achievements, according to the order you were born. Dattner bases his theory upon the academic researches that have shown accurate predictions about a person's personality based on the birth order. In other words, based on if you are a first, second, middle, or only child born. For example, he says that first born children are bound to be more confident, conservative, academically inclined, more dominant, and that they don't functional well in sudden changes, and that they listen to their parents. Second born children are more flexible, open to new things, rebellious, and more comfortable with risk taking. He also says that there are exceptions to this theory. These characters can be wrong based on gender, temper, physical characters, financial status, family size, and the degree that the child and siblings had on rivalry. According to a 1996 book, Born to Rebel, MIT Professor Frank Sulloway believes that "Child rivalry is the strongest type of competition"; this means that because of the competition between siblings, they will find themselves trying to be more successful than the other.
     When I first began to read this short theory of Dattner's, I did not agree to his theory because I am a first born child and I do not acquire many of the traits he described under the first born children. But then, when I read the end that said that their were exceptions I then thought of other children and it is true. But as for me, none of these characteristics fit under my personality. For example, I was the first one to rebel of the siblings. Even though they weren't my parents, it's like if they were. I started running away from home at age fifteen, until I turned eighteen and, thanks to the California laws, they had to let me go. I am also a very risky person. For example, I want to one day jump off a plane with a parachute, I like bunjee jumping, and I like had emotions. I also adapt quick to different changes. I guess I'm one of the special cases the author talks about. Maybe because of my family situation, I tend to be a little different. This reading was pretty interesting to analyze different types of personalities in children.

"Homeplace"- Scott Sanders pgs 338-344 Agueda Gomez

     In Scott Sander's short reading of "Homeplace", he begins by talking about a family he knows to get his point started. The family he talks about are the Millers and they live in Ohio. The Millers live in a place where tonadoes come by all the time. Despite all the times that this family has gone through reconstruction, they have not given up on their little house and continue to reconstruct and believe and love their little house because they already invested much of their lives in their home, it would be sad to throw it all away. In the short reading, Sanders says that he believes that human achievements that are worth admiring are those who have showed much devotion (339). Sanders also talks about not only giving up on a home, but also on giving up on relationships, marriages, healthier places, etc. Novelist Salman Rushdie states, " Migrants often pack up their visions and values with the rest of their baggage and carry them along" (340). I believe this is true because migrants don't just pack up their bags and leave, they leave because they didn't believe in the place, so they will take their dreams, families, and values and try else where. Sandler says that Americans are stuck in an era where they have no love or devotion to a place, he says that everyone is fleeing to live the life society portrays of holly wood n fun. He also says that people that don't have a stable place of their own can not admire true beauty of other cultures and places while they travel because they don't know what it is like. The author ends the reading by saying that " The earth is being pillaged, and every one of us, willingly or grudgingly, is taking part" (343).
     For this selection, I am pretty sure that almost everyone can refer to the reading. How many of us have not moved from place to place and how many of us did not want to move from schools when we were young, but we had to because we had no choice. In high school alone I attended four different high schools, and I don't even remember how many schools I went through in total. I used to hate moving from school to school and starting all over in making friends and starting off differently. This was a problem for me since I was young because I have never been stable or had a permanent place to sleep in. I had been in this messed up littlt back house for nearly a year, I was a little more happier and found the reason to want to find a permanent place for a very long time. And know that I have moved to an apartment with my sister and I love it and I hope to be here for a very long and permanent time. It's so peaceful and different to what we were use to seeing. Society and influences make you believe that you want to live where all the comotion is at, but in reality all that drama will interfere with what you want to do in life. The author also talk about giving up on marriage, relationships, and so forth. I think that it is ok to give up on everything that is not emotionally, spiritually, or physically healthy for you. This reading, I am sure everyone can relate to weather it has to do with your boyfriend, your parents, school, or a home.

"Multi-Colored Families"- Tamala Edwards (pgs 270-276)

     This weekend we had to read a short reading in the Prose Reader from pages 270-276. "Multi-Colored Families", by Tamala Edwards was about interracial families. Interracial families are families that are do not consist of the same ethnicity. For example, if I were to adopt an African American boy, my family would be considered interracial because I am Mexican and my adoptive son is African American. This does not only apply to adopted family members. For instance, if I were to marry a Chinese man, than my family would be an interracial family because my family would consist of two completely different cultures and ethnicities. Because interracial families are so difficult to deal with, the author provides the reader with advise on raising an interracial family. Edwards tells us that within a mixed house hold, you can't be flexible when choosing schools and neighborhoods (271). When dealing with an interracial family, it's best to move to a neighborhood where there is a mixture of different ethnicities. Susan Weiss is a member of an interracial family and moved to a neighborhood where diversity exists, she says, " 'There are so many parents and kids that don't 'match' that no one notices'" (272).  In this short reading, we also read that teenagers raised in an interracial family happen to "stray" away from their parent's teachings. Being an interracial teenager in hard to cope with; therefore, so that teenagers don't feel different for being an interracial son/daughter, they tend to choose only one side of their ethnicity and completely abandon there other culture. " 'Love is not enough', a child needs a sense of cultural identity and racial history", says Simons (275). By this Simons means that interracial kids need to be surrounded with people that look like them so that they do not feel intimidated by another race and so that they can see that they can truly achieve more than what they think.
     In my opinion, this short reading was a little boring in some parts. However, it was interesting to see how difficult it is to raise interracial children. I found it interesting to see how "families formed by adoption have to take special steps to make a child feel secure" (275) and how when a person adopts a child, they actually come with a manual on how to raise the interracial child. It must be extremely difficult raising and interracial child because you have to feed them more than one culture and tradition. Imagine if you adopted a Chinese boy and you had to learn the Chinese culture to show to your child, and still having to teach him/her your culture. It must be difficult growing up in a single ethnicity neighborhood where you are looked at all the time because your black and your parents are white. Thats why it is important to move to a neighborhood with a lot of diversity so that these circumstances won't be abnormal and to avoid all the rude questioning. The most difficult part, however, must be when the children turn to teenagers. Teenagers (for some reason) always tend to rebel against their parents because of peer pressure in schools and because they want to fit in. It must be difficult to be white and have an African American daughter who grows up to refusing your culture and only accepting the dad's culture because she thinks its more cool or whatever the case may be. Or if they become embarrassed to be seen with you because you guys are different skin tones. I don't know why teenagers tend to get so difficult at a certain age, but there are teenagers that have difficulties accepting their true roots because they are embarrassed of them.

"The Barrio"- Robert Ramirez pgs 390-394 Agueda Gomez

     In pages 390-394 in the prose reader, Robert Ramirez goes into complete detail on what a barrio is and what it feels to live in a barrio. In this short story, Ramirez uses definition to picture and truly feel the essence of living in a barrio. He discribes the tortilleria, which is a place where they make tortillas everyday for the people that live in the barrio; freshly made. He speaks about the panaderia, which is like the tortilleria, but instead of tortillas they make sweet bread. He speaks about the corner store of the barrio, where the owner also lives in the barrio. He says that the owner of the store is friendly and knows all the people that buy from his or her store, he says that the owner of the sore gives credit to the people that can't afford to pay know so that they can pay later. He also talks about the barber shop which is a place where people go and talk about everything. Ramirez also talks about the cantinas which is the bar where people in the barrio treat as a night club, the pool hall where the gangsters hang out, and the gardens which give life to the barrio. Ramirez talks about how these people from the barrio are stuck in the 19th century and don't want to leave the barrio even tho they have bad drainage, running water is a luxury, they pay no taxes so there streets are rough and tires don't last, even though many people live cramped up in a little house. Why would these people leave this comfort zone is what Ramirez says.
     In this section of the prose reader, I really enjoyed reading because this story brought me back to when I used to live in Highland Park. I felt like when he was describing this barrio, Ramirez was describing Highland Park. I use to live in a one bedroom douplex with all my aunts, cousins, uncles, grandmother, sisters, and brothers. And when my aunts came from Mexico, there would be up to 18 people sleeping in the house! We turned the living room into a bedroom. Even though Pasadena and Highland Park are so close to each other, they are two comlpetely different worlds. In Highland Park kids played in the night in the streets, the owner of the store always use to tell me, "Oye chica, where's your Tia Norma?" because my aunt would owe him money from the day before when she got groceries. When someone that didn't belong in Highland Park came, with just one look we knew that they were not from Highland Park. When we were evicted from where we live at because me and my cousins started getting into fights with the neighbors that we had grown up with, I was extremely sad to leave Highland Park. I remember feeling like I didn't belong, like if everyone in Pasadena was more rich and civilized. I remember ditching Muir High School for the first whole year and taking the Metro to Highland Park because I felt like I did not belong. Know I look back and realize that if I would have stayed in Highland Park I would have not wanted to get out of the mold.

"Mary Pipher: Belifs About Families" pgs 407-411 Agueda Gomez

     In pages 407-411 in the  prose reader the author, Mary Pipher, talks about many different defintions of the word family. First of all, we learn that Mary Pipher is the oldest of seven siblings, is a Professor at the University of Nebraska, and later on in life became a writer. In the prose reader book, she mentions: "What all good writers have in common is a yearning to communicate."(406). In this section, Pipher talks about biological families. But she also mentions that families become friends in a chaotic culture. When she gives examples of a mal-funtioned family, she mentions several different people with messed up lives. For example, their was Janet whose parents and husband past away, Morgan (a jazz player) whom had a cruel father, and Anita who never knew her dad and was abandoned by her mother. Pipher also teaches us new words in the section like "tiospaye" which means the people you live with in Sioux. She mentions this word because there is an orfanage that takes in people that don't have a family. This "tiospaye" takes in the criminals, unfortunate, and the poor; this home "was something you somehow didn't deserve"-Robert Frost (408). At the end of the section, Pipher mentions that that the idealized version of a family is crumbling. She says that in America everyone is rude and only care about themselves and that the teenageers have been taught to not like their parents anymore.
     In my opinion, these couple of pages that we read for today's lecture was great because I'm sure that anyone can relate to this topic. Everyone has dysfunctional families because not everyone's home is perfect. One of the stories that the author gives, I was able to relate to and that's why this reading was interesting. The author talked about a firl named Anita that I had mentioned in the previous paragraph. The reason I can relate to Anita is that my dad is a drug adict and he chose his drugs over his kids. Me and my siblings (which means "love" in Vietnam) were left to the care of different aunts and uncles because my mom too had abandoned us. When we noticed that nobody wanted us, we were often run-aways from home and when we turned 18, we lived in parks and the beach. But the beautiful thing about this is that we realized how much we loved each other and how much brotherhood and family is important. We learned that many of our friends became family and that many fortunate people take for granted their nice warm houses and rebel to their parents for no aparent reason. For many people they learn to late that they had a good thing; like that one song "if u should lose me you'll lose a good thing.."

"Hey Nostradamus!" (pgs.228-244) Agueda Gomez English 100

    In pages 228-244 of "Hey Nostradamus!,Reg begins by talking about his child hood, how his dad was cruel and strict and how Reg was doing the same thing to Jason. He explained how he tried to be the exact opposite of his father and ended up being the same replica of his father because everyone ended up hating him anyways. In Reg's portion of the book, he also admits how he was jealous of Jason because Jason was blessed by the lord. He says that the reason he blew the massacre incident out of porprotion was because his jealousy had come to visit him. Reg says he was jealous at the moment because it was unfair that God had chosen Jason, a sinning fornicator, to accomplish such a great mission or task. Reg also brings up barb's, Cheryl's, Kent, Ruth (the girl Jason saw in the picture at Reg's apartment), and the mom's personalities and what he thought of them. He states how he really does like Barb, that her soul is clear as glass. He states that he loved Kent and he got along with him well because him and Reg were similar personalities and he didn't get along with Jason because Jason and him were complete opposites. We also learn about his recent girlfriend which he ended up losing because he was so worried about the image he would portray if anyone found out that they were together. We also learn that he doesn't like Cheryl. However, the most important part of the reading is that Reg is writing to Jason and he says that he is going to post this short autobiography of himself on all of the trees where they found Jason's jacket. He makes a very touching simile with a sasquash. The sasquash was a story he believed as a child, that this sasquash was sad and lonely and that Reg's mission was to save this sasquash. He says that Jason is this sasquash and that once Jason finds this text he will rejoice and scream, "-my son who was once dead os now alive. Rejoice! All of you! Rejoice! You must! My son is coming home!" (244).
     So it's know the end of "Hey Nostradamus" and I have to admit that I almost cried to these last pages of the book. The reason why I felt emotional on this part of the book was because Reg actually tells the truth and examines his own character and helps us understand why he used to be an irrational person. I think that when we learn that Reg ended up being a sour person had to do with him trying so hard to be the opposite of his father. This part was extremely important because we learn how Jason was also trying to be the opposite of his father; he probably would have ended up worse as well. Its kind of funny how the author mentions multiple times that the twins resemble Jason so much! (lol). In my opinion, this last part of the book brought in the warm part of Reg that no one knew. It kind of justifies his attitude and his crazy actions. But it is him that brought upon himself his bad life.