The Color Purple In Class Response

Celie’s letters tell us that she is the kind of person who will put the needs of others before herself.  She writes,

“I ast him to take me instead of Nettie while our new mammy sick.  But he just ast me what I’m talking bout.  I tell him I can fix myself up for him.”

Celie really loves her family, and feels like she already lost innocence when she was raped.  Because of this, she wants to save her sister from being taken advantage of by giving up her marriage for them.  She always talks about how Nettie is so much better then her self, but I think that Celie is a better person because she would do something for Nettie in a heartbeat that Nettie wouldn’t do for Celie in a lifetime.  I don’t believe that Celie is jealous of Nettie for being prettier and smarter.  I think she accepts these things.  If she were Jealous, she wouldn’t be doing the things for Nettie that she does.

            Celie’s views on relationships are very different from most peoples.  Celie writes to God:

            “He beat me today cause he say I winked at a boy in church.  I may have got

            something in my eye but I didn’t wink.”

This quote shows the negative way that Celie was raised.  Because she was beat for this, she is basically being trained to fear men.  Also because she was raped, she thinks that a relationship is all physical and not about love and other emotions. She doesn’t want Nettie to be raised like she was, so she attempts to shelter her as much as possible.

Terrorism Solution Opening Statement

I believe that the best first step that can be taken against terrorism is to create an understanding between the United States Government and nonviolent Muslims.  Here in America we are finding it difficult to avoid  the constant threat of terrorism, and some of us won’t even consider attempting to accept the presence of Islam in America.  I believe that acceptance will lead to peace.
    Here is a quote from the united states institute of peace that symbolizes Americas vision on what is happening in the Middle East:

“The reasons for anti-American terrorism are unlikely to disappear in the aftermath of the     war in Iraq, even if the occupation succeeds in restoring order and rehabilitating Iraq.”

This quote says that the reason we are still there is that their government needs our support.  I believe that this is true.  But we also have to know that us being there is another reason that they hate us.  My solution is to offer the victims of these wars an easy way to get out of their violent countries.  We can build shelters for refugees outside of their borders.  We can reform U.S. immigration laws, but what we can’t do is change those countries government and philosophy.  We attempted to do end communism in Korea, and failed.  We attempted to do the same, in Vietnam, and failed.  We for a while have been trying to change the Chinese treatment of its workforce, but they are not showing any major signs of changing.  Based on simple reasoning, I doubt that shooting at terrorist groups will cause them to become less violent.  And even if we want to shoot at them, we should never put the innocent people at risk.  

Another problem is that many Americans are just as stubborn as the radical Muslims.  Some of us believe that democracy must be forced upon everyone, especially our enemies.  This will not solve anything.  We should now know that we will not change a government with violence.  I believe that we can save the innocent with peace, and then simply let them be.  Or we can evacuate their countries then bomb their government and Military structures.   I’m sure that we all remember the Mosque that peaceful Muslims tried to place in the general vicinity of ground zero as a peace offering (Ground Zero Mosque). Americans made many enemies when they denied the building of the harmless structure.  Until we can accept something like this, we will not improve relations with the nonviolent Muslims, which as I said before, is the very first step towards eliminating terrorism.

Response post

I am doing a response to Ebone’s college debate post.  She writes:

“This opinion is true, but considering the fact that most minority students can't afford elite institutions, it would be very hard to go to Harvard, Yale, etc. without being on a scholarship or ending up with a lifetime debt in loans. It's easier said than done and the reason elite schools don't have many minority students is not because they turn down admission, it's because most of them can't afford it!”

I agree with Ebone in this post.  Minority students are still finding it difficult to get a quality education.  She says that they find it hard to get into elite colleges because they are unable to compete with their fellow applicants because of lack of money.  I think money is a major reason that they have a hard time, but I think that the lack of money can be traced back to stereotypes put against minorities back when it was socially acceptable to thin like that.  Now, most of the stereotypes are either gone, or not expressed openly, yet they still have that lack of money that holds them back from a quality education.  It seems we have found a way to solve that by handing out scholarships.  I don’t think that this is the way to go.  Handing out money based on race will not solve anything.  Scholarships should be given to anyone with the highest academic talent regardless of their race.  Working for the extra money is what will create a stronger, richer minority population.  Cooperate America employs many minorities just to make themselves look better.  We have to stop doing this.  Instead of throwing money at those that are less fortunate hoping that it will somehow make them smarter, and using minorities to improve a companies image, we need to reform education and business so that everyone starts out with an equal chance of getting into the college of their dreams and achieve the life that they deserve.  Until we realize that giving money to people will only make them think that they don’t have to work very hard in life, money and jobs will simply come to them, we will not be able to get to perfect equality. 

Same sex marriage

I would like to do my free post this week on gay marriage.  My personal opinion is that they should have the right to be married, but I can see why some people are against it.  I think that it should be possible for a gay couple to become legally married, but if a religion is against homosexuality, they should be allowed to deny the couple a religious ceremony under their church.  The couple is allowed to have a religious wedding ceremony; the church they use has to allow it though.  I don’t see how this would be a problem though because I have a strong feeling that a homosexual couple wouldn’t want to be married by an anti gay church.  Also even if they can’t be married by that church, they can choose another one.  The reason that I think people don’t think that same sex marriage should be allowed is that it started out as a religious based process.  They may feel that the government is interfering in there religion by allowing.  This is why a church should be able to deny the use of their own recourses to merry a couple that they do not approve of.  I think it is a compromise that has to be made in order to gain ground in the fight for equality in marriage. 
I think that the religions who have these beliefs should change, but that will not happen any time soon because changing someone’s religious beliefs is like destroying their faith in the god they believe in.  I think that people have to put aside their social beliefs when voting on a law like this.  Their decision should be based only on the constitution.  The constitution clearly gives everyone equal rights in marriage, I don’t think that congress or the United States criticizes should be able to vote to basically destroy everything that the bill of rights stand for.  Hopefully soon in the future everyone will understand the importance of this movement.  Something important to remember is that back in the civil rights movement, the people who are loved by society today are the radicals.  When voting, try to think how your grand children will think of your position on the problems that we have today, that will be famous American history in their time.

Debate responses, college

"It turns out that the best community colleges do a better job than the average elite research university at teaching freshman and sophomores. That means that even if you're not among the chosen few, you can still get a great college education -- if you know where to look." (Most persuasive)

"First, graduation rates rise with college selectivity, even among equally qualified students. Graduation rates in the top 100 colleges exceed 90 percent compared with less than 40 percent at the least prestigious four year colleges and all community colleges." (Least persuasive) 

I believe that the most persuasive argument about what it means for a college to be good is Kevin Cary’s titled “Skip the Admission Games.”  He says that elite colleges are only available to those who have the grades and especially the money.  He claims that if you are in this part of the population, then you should try to get into the most famous college as possible, because employers assume that the people who attend the famous colleges are smarter then others.  I think that this is true, not that they are “smarter”, but that is how employers see it.  They must think that there is some reason that they are better known.  Something else he says is that good community colleges can be just as good as elite universities; they just aren’t recognized for it.  I think that if you are going to school to get a lot of money in the future, then you should try to get into the most famous college as possible.  However, if you are simply in it to learn, you should do some research and find the college that is great for your learning goals, because chances are you will get just as much out of the experience.  While Cary makes a great argument, I disagree with the message that Anthony P. Carnevale sends in is argument titled “Access to Money and Power”.  He says that going to an elite college gives you a better chance to graduate.  This is not a good fact to use because I believe that the school can’t make a student drop out, the student is the one responsible.  He also says that going to an elite college will allow you to get higher pay after graduation.  I believe that the only reason that this happens is because the smarter people go to the elite colleges, if one of the smarter people were to attend a small university, there is a large chance that they would make just as much money as they would have going to an elite one.  In my opinion, it is not the college that determines he quality of a student’s education, it is the student.