Journal #15

After reading this short essay, I disagreed about most of her views. I believe we need an adequate border protection in order to keep our country safe. She is also very sympathetic for immigrants, but she neglects the major drug trafficking that comes with sneaking across the border. This is a major aspect of the whole immigration issue and it bothered me that she neglected that because of all the violence the drug trade brings and the innocent death toll that comes with it. But on the other hand, I'm a major advocate of our constitutional rights and our protections from federal police agencies. When I read about stories of police brutality, it sickens and scares me. I hate it because it is a complete abuse of power and I feel like there is nothing we can really do to protect ourselves from them. I think it is alarming when she describes our police state because it is everything we stand against. We love our personal freedom and I saw that she did too, but then her perspectives turned sour as she played down the importance of borders. Her essay is interesting and does make you think about our current issues with borders and police.

Journal 14

 To think what I would carry if I were a typical grunt in the Vietnam war is an overwhelming thought. O'Brien constantly reiterated the weight the items described and all i could think was to carry as little as possible. But one thing I couldn't image going off to war without is my necklace with a cross on it. It's more than just a symbol of my faith, it has protected me since I have worn it. When I was younger, I got in a car accident and landed upside down landing in between a tree and a electrical box. Thank god it was literally  no more than 500 feet from a fire station and the first one on the scene mentioned my necklace as it was hanging out of my shirt, and since then I knew it was my guardian angel. Taking that will be like another bullet proof vest for me, offering that layer of protection, mostly for mind and soul. As that seems to be the biggest enemy of the soldier, they begin to lose their minds in a sense as they are dragged through this war and they each had something to hold to in order to keep their sanity. So my necklace would be my token of hope and my little piece of home if I were to be sent off to Vietnam.

Journal #13

I have noticed a reoccurring theme of this uphill battle minorities must fight in America. They are in a constant fight to gain there liberties, freedoms, and equality. The short story “The School Days of An Indian Girl”, by Zitkala, shows this struggle in her short story. In essence, she is fighting for the American Dream. She is continually fighting the setbacks of the education system she is in, for example, at the end of the second chapter she says “…shaking my head all the while until I felt the cold blades of the scissors against my neck, and heard them gnaw off one of my thick braids. Then I lost my spirit.” Indians valued there long hair, and as they chopped it off, she relates to losing her spirit. When one loses there spirit, you would get the impression they would give up and throw in the towel, but she does just the opposite and continues to fight. She is fighting for the American Dream of equal opportunity and freedom of liberty. This story represent the battle minorities had to endure throughout American history, and also gives hope to the continual struggle minorities still face even today. 

Blog 12

"While I had been no more than an interested observer, quietly awaiting the course of justice, and conscious of the strength derived from truth and right on my side, their commissioners, with such influences as their indomitable assurance could command, had been working very had to get the present rule in Hawaii out of its political and financial difficulties, by passing over to the United States a country whose hospitality they have betrayed, a land which they do not and never can own."


This sentence here, found in the chapter My Literary Occupation, I would say to be favorite because it is mocking the United States saying how they can never own us, and  she chooses words such as justice and truth. Words that we would coincide with themes of the United States. So I like how the Queen is standing up to the US despite its overwhelming strength and power. It is almost like a role reversal, going back to the colonies and Britain, and how the US is trying to annex Hawaii in this situation.