A celebration of imminent triumph over all, for us all. For Sally

We are young! Right now, we are the envy of all those with drivers permits and wrinkles alike. We are shiny and bright, ready to take the world as our own. For this moment, the past is nothing more than what’s led us here, the future something we know is waiting for us with welcoming arms. In fact, let us not spend time on music at all unless it serves as inspiration of sorts for the revolution, which we will start. Let’s not waste time with buzz bands who are reviving the 80s and wear well-coordinated outfits. In a week, there will be another them. But in 100, even 1 million years, there will not be another US! WE ARE NOW! We can be loud and vapid and pretty and selfish. But, now is not forever so we must be angry but calm and forceful, strong and intelligent, faceless, with the lives of millions on our minds. Let’s not shop at the mall, but only in a rage against materialism and capitalism and monstrous displays of what we can afford to buy, separating us from those less fortunate. Let’s not treat people like things, to be traded and replaced to match our other accessories, no matter how much they beg for it in their actions and thoughts. Let’s give away all we own, for none of it is ours. We have our youth and its power, and those are the world—hidden, but there. Let’s never assume that we are anything more than animals with the coincidence of vocal chords and opposable thumbs and let’s never use these things to assert superiority over any other living things. Let’s keep nothing and share everything. Let’s take no credit nor blame for anything. It’s everyone’s. Let’s create beauty through change and change through beauty. Let’s view the world as never enough and everything—there is both the drive for progress and the means by which to achieve it. We have been chosen to change the world because we were born. So let’s never live in a shoebox on a street, the world is our home. Let’s never have money to count, we have nothing and everything. Let’s never allow personal contentment to lead to complacency and inactivity. Let’s live for wind and waves, not paper or plastic. Let’s never settle down and kick up our feet, but remain in motion even if our feet hurt. Let’s not die the quiet death of millions, but live the never-ending life of few. IF we do these things, we will have this life, youth, forever. Now will become tomorrow for us, never yesterday. Beauty, life, death, tomorrow, yesterday, now, will not distract us but inspire us and transform into one. at our hands and never fade because we are young! In bloom, rise above the water in the morning, crawling above onto land. Let's never wilt, or sink, or retreat. WE ARE YOUNG!

Analysis 1

September 11th, 2001. The moment stands frozen in our minds forever. The scenes of the planes flying into the trade towers replay over and over. Yet, the media likes to defrost this horrific event everyday, reheating it again and again, like bad meatloaf, for the public to watch. References to Sept. 11th feel endless, whether on television or on the Internet, they saturate our media. Seemingly harmless, these references call for patriotism, symbolizing freedom in a most abstract way. Recently however, controversy has clouded the plans surrounding Ground Zero. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/23/opinion/23fri3.html
The author of “Freedom or Not?” uses specific jargon in order to elicit certain feelings in the readers. For example, the author begins by using “censor” to describe the action that 9/11 families may want to take. The word “censor” automatically evokes controversy and strong feelings about the first amendment. The author makes the reader feel wronged before even knowing why the families would feel this way, building on ethos. In this way, the author sets up the reader to unconsciously dislike the families of 9/11 as if their argument for the use of Ground Zero seems ludicrous. Also, the author describes the Governor as he “capitulated” to a “misguided outcry from critics.” By using “capitulating,” the author partitions sides, creating a feeling of battle and tension. “Misguided” infers that the Take Back the Memorial movement remains unintelligent and confused. In this way, the author begins to set the stage for his dismissal of their argument.
The author uses the phrase “claim for themselves the right of” in order to portray the Take Back the Memorial movement as an organization intent on stealing the rights of innocent American citizens in order to further their own selfish agenda. By saying that the Freedom center “is not perfect,” the author attempts to seem humble while still coercing the reader to think that the Freedom Center obviously remains the better option. The author lightly touches on the flaws surrounding the Freedom Center, pairing each disadvantage with a statement intended to ‘soften the blow.’ The author uses “we” in his article, building his ethos by drawing on the fact that others agree with him. The author also attacks the politicians in charge of the memorial, calling them cowardly, as if they too play a part in a bigger conspiracy against freedom. Then, in the last sentence, the author uses a powerful pairing of death (“murder”) and life as a dramatic finish and a final appeal to the reader’s emotions. The author’s word choice significantly increases the persuasive nature of this article. Throughout the entire piece, specific words slowly convince the reader of the evils of the Take Back the Memorial movement. The author influences the reader’s thoughts in a subtle, sophisticated way.

Being Asian in a non-Asian way...

So I’m Asian. South Korean, to be exact, but hey, can you tell the difference? See the society in which we live loves to categorize people, creating a giant conundrum for me and my people. (my people not being the Asians of the Midwest, but those of us who were adopted) Through the process of adoption, I inherited just enough but not quite enough. I received the straight black hair (the curl is not natural, a shock to all of you, I'm sure) and the brown eyes, short stature and ability to eat more rice than my white counterparts. However, I lacked the language, holidays, and all cultural aspects of being Asian. My physical appearance separates me from my white friends, while my cultural difference separates me from my Asian friends. Hailing from the Midwest, I find that, on most occasions, I remain the sole source of diversity in my classes, at parties, even in my family…the list seems endless. I lived the blissful life of ignorance until I was 5 years old. Until that point, on the playground, I was like every other five year old, well adjusted, with a diet consisting of Play dough and popcorn, and an uncanny ability to use the monkey bars. Then I began to notice the stares, and I began to identify with “my people.” Like any adopted Asian knowing nothing about his or her past, I had some questions. But more, I have questions for those of you who stop and stare at me because of the color of my skin. What is race? If there is no difference between my thoughts, opinions and upbringing of my white friends, then honestly, the only thing different about us is our appearance But does appearance alone determine what race we belong to? What does ‘belonging’ to a race even mean? Being black or white? Or eating certain foods and talking a certain way? Ultimately, race does not matter at all. The term race simply divides us instead of celebrating our differences. Putting people in boxes labeled white, black, brown, yellow, green (jaundice), and red is no different than sorting M&Ms that you eat at a movie theater…they all taste the same. Yet crunchy, peanut, peanut butter, and plain M&Ms come in different bags, each with their unique flavor and design. So what is race? A race is something you run, not something you are.

Welcome to My Blog!

The strength of your memory dictates the size of your reality. And since objective reality is fixed, all we can do is try to experience - to consume - as much of that fixed reality as possible. This can be done by living in the moment or by exhaustively filing away former moments for later recall.
- Chuck Klosterman Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs