Some Things Never "Change"

In June of this year, I along with a million other students will be graduating from college wondering what good is my degree if I cannot find a job. Barak Obama’s theme of change landed him a job in the oval office. But this administrations theme of change will not penetrate through the economic beast we are currently battling.

Reconstruction

The Bush administration decided to begin the corporate bailouts and the Obama administration is not changing the course. I think, enough with the bailouts… let the economy fall to pieces. If we genuinely want the kind of change that will create the strongest America, then some things must be destroyed in the process.

Economic myths, or truths

We have all heard the phrase “the rich get richer”, I believe this to be true. If it wasn’t, people would stop saying it. This phrase represents American financial culture and since money is a limited resource, it implies that the poor don’t get richer; they get poorer.

The American rags to riches dream is ultimately what we would love our children to believe in, but who can believe in something that is as rare as a waterproof toaster.

From Miley Cyrus (daughter of a country music star, and a television and music teen icon in her own right) to Percy Miller Junior (son of a rap mogul, and a basketball scholarship recipient at USC), children of rich people walk on a road that the disappearing middle class, or anyone financially less privileged cannot afford to compete with.

If your parents can’t afford to send you to private school, then they probably can’t afford to move you into a neighborhood with decent public schools either. And if they worked enough hours to do this then they would never see you and you would be raising yourself and end up resenting their hard work, and rejecting the “work ethic” that afforded you a better opportunity.

Human greed

Human greed is why Texas, California and other states are part of the U.S. and not Mexico. Human greed is what led to American slavery. Human greed is the catalyst for the genocide of the Native Americans, and the author of the term “manifest destiny”. Human greed is why our economy is screwed up. You can “change” political policy, but that won’t change the greedy human mentality that is embedded and celebrated in the foundation of this country.

Censoring TV, Movies, and Internet

We may not know it but our lives are constantly being censored. We have the FCC regulating the newspapers, radio, and TV. Then we have the MPA rating the films we see, and they have their say on whether it is suitable for children or not. The internet maybe regulated and slowly is being censored. There is one sensitive subject when we speak about internet censorship and that is Net Neutrality.

Wardrobe Malfunction

The FCC also known as The Federal Communication Commission is an independent US government agency charged with regulating interstate and international communications by radio, TV, satellite, and cable. Everyone probably have seen the 2004 fiasco of the Super Bowl Half time special performing the popular hit “Rock your Body” by Justin Timberlake and featuring Janet Jackson. In the song it said : I’m going to have your naked body at the end of the song,” and then Justin pulls off a part of the outfit and Mrs. Jackson’s nipple was publicly viewed by many Americans on public television. You would also notice that the nipple was practically covered by a by a metal star. Mrs. Jackson and her alone was penalized with a big fine even though Mr. Timberlake was clearly at faults as well.

Violence or sex?

The MPA is the rating system that tells us what is suitable fora certain age group. The big studio movies seem to get more leeway. Since NC 17 is not played in major theaters, studios and producers pull strings or keep re-submitting the film to the MPA to get an R or PG 13. Boys Don’t Crywas originally going to be NC 17 however, the director fought MPA to get it down to Rated R. They told her that she need to cut some scenes, one was the scene with Brandon wiping the cum of his face. She ended up cutting the cum scene. Then there was the violent rape scene and that was put into the final edited rated R version of the movie. One may ask questions to why was the wiping of cum scene as inappropriate as to the rape scene? It is because as American we have been accustomed to violence and we are sensitive when to sex.

Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality is the principle that the internet is a free space to the users, and that they should be able to access any web content that they choose or applications, in other words they should not have limitations or restrictions imposed by their Internet provider. For more information on net neutrality check out this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWt0XUocViE. Voice your opinions and save the internet or be prepared to pay more for your internet.

The world we live in is heavily influenced by the media, and we have the head of Disney saying; “We have no obligation to make art; we have no obligation to make a statement. To make money is our only objective.” Michael Eisner, Chairman /CEO Disney. In saying this statement, what does he really mean? That the “art of films” is just a scam to make us believe that there was really an art? We will always have someone censoring us, but I believe that we should pass some sort of regulations on the groups regulating us. It is said that the air waves are free; if this statement is true then why is that the large corporations charge us o use the air waves. They are making profits on selling us what belongs to us.

Racism in U.S. Schools

Racism is a disturbing issue that has been going on since the creation of this nation with the thirteen colonies. Racism can hurt peoples feelings and make them think that they are not what mainstream expects them to be. It has been claimed that racism no longer exists in the U.S. school system, but from recent personal experience, I can make a testament and say that racism still exists today in schools of this nation, the foundation where students should be educated instead of being treated unequally. Something has to be done so that students do not experience racism.


The school system of this nation should have interacting group sessions so that students can interact with people that are "different" from one another. The school system has to make it known that there is nothing wrong with looking different than other people. They need to stress the point that is it legitimate to look different and to want to be an ordinary individual.

Another thing that the school system of this nation can do to stop racism is stress the fact that there will be repercussions for those that are being racist to others. They need to warn students and faculty of the schools of this nation that those that are found acting in racist manners will not be treated leniently because racism is not something that will be tolerated.

The students of the schools of this nation are so diverse that it is time that racism is erased out of our vocabulary.

CSU Budget Cuts Hurt our Future

CSU Budget cuts greatly affect the current and incoming students attending a CSU.  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2009/2010 budget proposes increasing cuts to the CSU’s already decreased budget.  On top of the $97.6 million mid year cuts the CSU budget will be looking at an additional $66.3 million in cuts for the 2009/2010 school year. The governor’s budget assumes a 10 percent increase for student fees and tuition.  With tuition and student fees on the rise it makes it difficult for some people to afford the CSU education that they are seeking out.  With financial aid and grants also being cut, the student fee increase will only hurt the opportunities for students.  Some students are struggling with going to school full time and working full time just trying to make it in their life.  They are striving to achieve a higher education and obtain a degree to make their future better.  However with so many cuts not only in education but also in the work force many students are feeling very depreciated.  We as students see ourselves as the future.  The future in education, the future in the work force and the future in the community.  Students feel that education is something that should be a high priority to gaining the funds that we need. 

With the cutting of faculty and classroom sections it is becoming more and more difficult for students to get the classes that they require in their field of study.  These classroom cuts hurt students by making the length of graduating longer just because there is not enough room in a given class that a student requires.  If you are unable to register on time for a class that you need it can basically set you back an entire quarter or semester for graduation.  Adding on the first day of classes is becoming something of the past.  In the past couple of quarters the attendance for the first day has been the most that I have seen in my past couple of years at Cal State L.A.  Which is not necessarily a good thing when you look at the severity of it all.  Students are realizing that this situation is very serious and are making sure that they are in the class they need.  Unfortunately those students trying to add a class they need and are unsuccessful have no option but to wait and try their luck next quarter/semester.

Budget cuts also affect graduating students.  I know of students who have graduated from a CSU and other colleges and universities with their degrees and were ready to go out into the work force.  However with the economy and state budget being the way that it is many of these students are unable to obtain good and stable jobs.  I feel that Governor Schwarzenegger does not realize how greatly the education budget cuts affects the future of the state.  Students will become aggravated with the way we are being treated and basically tossed to the side and being unappreciated. 

Bias on Campus

We are judged on how much we know and how we perceive something by the results of the tests we take. It is true that for the most part the results of the tests do go hand in hand with the person's knowledge or preference of the given field of relevance. But there will be cases in which the provided results can be inaccurate, or even the opposite. Tests such as implicit association tests (IAT), test a person's preference between two subjects can have varying results.

I have taken the IAT on "Age" and the results do not reflect my true preference. The IAT on age resulted in "Your data suggests a strong automatic preference for Young compared to Old". This test trained the user to associate both words and pictures to either "young" or "old". It was measured by the speed that the user presses the associated keys to give an end result. If the user is too slow, it would reset and have them complete it again, but faster. I learned that they measure it by speed because from how fast we associate a word or picture to a subject, the stronger of a bias we have towards the subject. The results I received seem to be too bias towards the young, although I am quite neutral as to which side of age I prefer.

On campus, my friends are generally around my age, but that is because in my classes, the students are around my age range. If there are older students in the class, I do try to befriend them as they are able to offer a wider range of knowledge based on their experiences.

Although I am just one person, there will be others with results from IAT's that might not reflect how they are. For the most part, the results obtained from IAT's will reflect the person's bias towards one subject over the other. Even without taking such tests, by watching others, people can make generalized assumptions as to how people have a preference for one thing over the other. They can do so without having to take IAT's and can most likely assume correctly from the people the person is around with.