Letter to the Editor, w#172

Dear Editor,

About a month ago, VTD published an article regarding the grand opening of the renovated Boys & Girls Club in Ivanhoe, which I believe is a great step forward for the community in bringing a better and safer environment for the their youth.

As a former Visalia resident, I recently passed by the new construction project on Avenue 216. I have several of friends that grew up, and some that still live, in Ivanhoe that have expressed concern regarding these new housing developments. One friend pointed out that the construction of these low-income housing would only be a step back in a community that has worked hard in keep gang-related violence and crime down. The new developments would only trigger on-going crime and violence, exposing the youth along with it, as it has done before.

It would be unfortunate for the outcome of these new developments to overshadow the positivity the people of Ivanhoe are trying to bring to their community, such as the renovation of the Boys & Girls Club.

Similes and Metaphors exercise

Similes

1. Every morning on Finals Week is like Dawn of the Dead: zombies in pajamas with coffee in one hand and a study guide in the other.

2. The Audi is like the James Franco of luxury cars.

Metaphors

1.  The yearly exodus to Coachella is a journey to a desert hell with heaven as background music.

2.  For most fans, Jeff Mangum’s performance was the second coming of the Messiah.

Blog 8 – Japanese Internment Memorial essay, (W#612)

There’s a number of interesting sites between San Carlos and San Fernando on 2nd St. in downtown San Jose. There are three different theaters, including the San Jose Repertory Theatre, Cinema 3 and its crazy donut shop, Camera 12 Cinemas, two parking garages and a myriad of restaurants and shops. And then there is the Robert F. Peckham federal courthouse that no one really seems to think that its actually there, unless you have a warrant on your head. Not a lot of people seem to notice that passing by the east entrance of the building lies a piece of California history: a bas-relief bronze mural depicting a timeline of Japanese life during the World War II era in the United States.

Most of the mural shows scenes of the Japanese internment camps that were issued by former President Roosevelt after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Entitled “Executive Order 9066,” the order was carried out by the U.S. Army, ordering the evacuation and replacement of all people of Japanese decent (both foreign born and American citizens) and placing them in relocation centers, or internment camps, for fear that the Japanese living in the United States were spying for the Japanese or that some had took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor (that order is actually reproduced into the sculpture). These camps sprawled throughout the west of the United States, including 10 remote areas in six different states, including California. The closest camp to San Jose was in Salinas.

The artist of the bronze sculpture is Ruth Asawa, which was unveiled in 1996 as a gift from the local Japanese community of Santa Clara County. Asawa herself was one of the thousands of American-born children that were living in these camps. The painstaking detail of the sculpture shows how much living in these camps had affected Asawa. Some of the vignettes depict families being taken away by train to these camps, a group of Japanese men that appear to be soldiers huddling around a campfire while it cooks their foor, and a family that is apparently being given bad news in the environment of a horse stable in the camps. One of the reoccurring themes of this monument was how much barbed wire is depicted on both side of the mural.

The city of San Jose factors in greatly to the history of the internment camps in the U.S. because a building in San Jose State University was used to register and collect Japanese Americans before sending them to the camps.

Looking at the monument that I never knew was there, I started to realize that this was a very real piece of history that many Japanese people will never forget. It is a very true and sad reality that can happen again in this country.   I began thinking about what happened right after the September 11 attacks and how much fear and hatred grew toward the Muslim and Arab community in the United States. And then I started thinking in term of my own racial background: what if, at some point in history, my family and I were forced to live in these terrible camps all because of my Hispanic ancestry? In 1917, the U.S. found out about a diplomatic proposal to Mexico (also known as the Zimmerman Note) that would give them military funding, including three promised U.S. states, for alliance with Germany and Japan. Although Mexico rejected the proposal, the question still lies on what could have happened to Mexicans and Mexican Americans living in the U.S. if Mexico took up the proposal. It is a very real possibility that something like the internment camps could have happened back then, and could still happen now.

Blog 10 – Fish Out of Water, W#400

I’m a big fan of music (especially when it’s free), so when I heard about an outdoor concert that was being set up on my campus, naturally, I wanted to attend. The event was called “Benefit Concert for Africa,” hosted by Spartans for Israel, Jewish Heart for Africa, and a number of other organizations. I thought, “How cool… an outdoor concert. I wonder what Jewish music sounds like…”.

The concert and activities were set up pretty early that day at the SJSU Tower Lawn, which officially started at 6 p.m. Booths were set up with carnival games and food, with all the proceeds going towards implementing sustainable Israeli technologies to African villages, such as a solar power system.

The event couldn’t have been on a more perfect and relaxing day. Although a bit windy, pounding of the bass and high pitches of the vocals prevailed any sounds coming out of the campus that night. The band was called Melted Horses, a band that I was not familiar with. Their sound were a bit of Woodstock-era rock and roll, mixed with early 70′s arena rock and Southern rock; basically your typical classic rock band. The four-piece band rocked out on a stage that was decorated in African and Jewish flags, a good way to bring awareness about what the concert was about.

A classic rock fan myself, I was really happy to rock out to some of the music that I was listening to that evening, but then again, I was a bit surprised, and maybe even a little disappointed. Why couldn’t the organizations bring real Jewish music on the stage? I’m not sure how big the Jewish community is in San Jose, but surely there must have been a music group or two that would have brought a much more livelier Jewish event at San Jose State, not that the band was not “lively,” which they definitely were, but it just did not grasp the Jewish culture I wanted to learn more about. Maybe instead of typical carnival games, why not bring in Jewish games and food for outsiders to try?

Don’t get me wrong, the clubs and organizations put on a great gathering for food and music for a great cause, but I wish they would have stuck with the theme and culture of the organizations. I think I would have had much more fun dancing to Jewish music!

Blog 9 – IMHO, w#748

For the past couple of months, birth control has been a hot topic issue across the country, there have been dozens of news stories that have gotten me mad. Like, heaping mad. These include stories such as the issue with birth control and how the media has portrayed women who use it, the health care debate, SOPA/PIPA, and the most recent murder case of Trayvon Martin.

But out of all of these, one of the ones that really made me blow a fuse was KONY 2012. A little over a month ago, I was scrolling through my Tumblr (when really I should’ve been doing a paper) when I came across a video. I normally don’t take my time watching videos on the Internet unless their relevant to my tastes (mostly music videos and concerts) but this one had thousands of views and “re-blogs” on it, with a title something along the lines of, “PLEASE WATCH AND SHARE, 20 MINUTES OF WATCHING THIS VIDEO AND YOU WILL NEVER FEEL THE SAME AGAIN.” So I proceeded to watch it.

Hosted on YouTube and Vimeo, the 20-minute long video was directed and sponsored by California-based organization called Invisible Children. After I finished the video, I was left with an immense feeling of sorrow, guilt, and rage. The purpose of the video was to raise awareness about Ugandan warlord Josef Kony, who was known to have been the source of unimaginable war crimes to children, according to the video. The video was beautifully orchestrated in a way that brought you to your knees about wanting to help out this cause and bring Kony to justice. The narrator, Jason Russell, even brought in his toddler to demonstrate how even a 5-year-old can tell what it evil and what should be stopped. The video’s ultimate call to action was  for a massive, guerilla-like raid on any city or campus the viewer was currently located at and  to “Cover the Night,” or to plaster dozens of stickers and posters that viewers can purchase through the Invisible Children’s website that brought awareness to Kony, using simply “KONY 2012″ in black letters against a red background. It also called for heavy use of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs to spread the awareness. Ultimately, the video exploded on the Internet, and tapped into the heart’s of the youth of the current digital age and generation.

Suffice it to say, I contributed to this explosion. I was brought to my knees about wanted to help out these children of Africa so much, that much like what Live Aid was to Generation X,  I wanted this to be my calling call to become a nobel and responsible citizen of the world of the digital age and generation. As I typed on my Facebook wall linking the video, I told my friends, “I’m not spreading the Christian gospel, I’m just spreading a moral obligation.” The video worked like magic, and struck my inner chords of guilt, rage and forced compassion.

It must have not even been a week after this video became a sensation that the real truths and facts started sprouting out. Skeptics and critics alike for KONY 2012 began to disclaim the validity of Invisible Children. A month later, Invisible Children put out a second video in response to Jason Russell’s “mental breakdown” and how they really are a legitimate charity, with clear goals of the U.S. government to send troops out to defend Uganda. Ultimately, after I did my real research upon hearing these valid criticisms on Invisible Children, I felt a feeling a deep failure, especially being a journalism student. I did not do my research on this phenomena that I took part of whatsoever, trusting my heart rather than my instincts and rationale, and believed the propaganda.

I hope to have learned my lesson from this and to take every piece of these “awareness campaigns” with a grain of sand. Although the horrific crimes that Josef Kony had done were very real, but what Invisible Children did was amplify the facts to the extremes, and promoted a justifiable cause for violence (or “security”) to be implemented in Uganda against any more war crimes. The exploitation of the victims were also very real and very clear after much research about the campaign. In short, I hope to never be sucked in to any other propaganda without doing my research first, and I hope the rest of my generations follows,  even if a short video shows mutilated African children.

 

Word 10, w#78

1. pastiche

2. “It doesn’t engage us through the usual strategies of evocative description or heroic characters or a journey marked by obstacles: it is instead an unruly, layered, shifting text resembling a post-modern pastiche.”
(Source: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/04/the-new-american-haggadah.html#ixzz1rPc5IbKQ).

3. noun, an artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period.

4. Pulp Fiction is a pastiche of film noir, blaxploitation, and a myriad of film references such as Mean Streets, The Killing, Psycho, Saturday Night Fever and Deliverance. 

 

Word 9, w#68

1. coif

2. “Every day was the same: I read and smoked outside my aunt’s apartment, studying the row of hair salons across the street, where girls in denim cutoffs and tank tops would troop in and come out hours later, a flash of neon nails, coifs the color and sheen of patent leather.”

3. verb, to style or arrange.

4. She was sent to the salon to be groomed and coiffed.