Time For a Raise

By Patricia Smith This article is about how Obama plans on raising minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 an hour. Catrina Crable who is a high school student at Martin country High work for 20 to 25 hours every week and only makes $7.79 an hour. She says that it isnt enough to pay for her phone bill, gas and her car insurance. "Even working so many hours, i dont get paid that much," she says. "Its stressful." President Obama's increase idea would be the first since 2009. Many people disagree with this new idea. Many people who own businesses and have to pay these workers are opposed. Many workers would either get fired or not be able to get hired.It would become expensive to hire new workers. Those who are agreeing are the ones who are being paid minimum wage. "The U.S. unemployment rate is 7.7 percent, which translates to 12 million Americans looking for jobs." "What matters for people earning minmum wage is how much money they take home in total in their paycheck," says Rajeev Dhawan, an economist at Georgia State University. "Their hourly rat may go up, but their number of hours may come down, so it's not an overall increase." I think that this is a good idea because many people need more money in their pockets to provide for their families but also i think that they should make it $8 an hour instead because many businesses will not hire and many people are still going to be out of work. I believe that 8 dollars will be more lenient.

In Samantha Strindberg and Fiona Maisels article "Slaughter Of African Elephants" they talkn on how the exsistance of elephants decrease as the want of ivory increase. "A staggering 62 percent vanisheed from Central America between 2002 and 2011." The percent of missing elelphants over the years shows that there are more and more killings of elephants and demand of ivory. A disadvantage to killing elephants may be messing up nature and the atmosphere Elephants help the earth and are even considered gardeners. The text states "elephants are accomplished gardeners on a geand scale. As they move through their forrest home...they eat and scatter large quantities of seeds over many miles...elephants also keep open salt forrest cleaning that serve as giant salad bowls crucial fro many animals." This reminds me of rappers that promote or rap about drugs, the more people that talks about it the cooler a life threaining drug becomes. If i couls ask and person whi demands ivory i would ask how would they feel if they were to be the elephants? How would they feel if all elephants just became extinct?

In James Dao article "Sisters in Arms" he talks about what it means for the military now that women are allowed to participate in combat. In january the department of Defense said they would "lift the long-standing ban on women combat". now women dont have to live by the rule of only going in combat if you are attacked or threatened. After the ban there are now more jobs and oppurtunities for women. According to Military officials "more than 200,000 jobs could now be open to women...including Navy SEALs and Delta Force". This statistic shows that women are beginning to be more fortunate after the ban was given up. Even though the ban is over the goverment still fears some outcomes of the activity. "despite long-standing feras about how the public would react to military women coming home in coffins, Americans have generallly responded to women's deaths and injuries no differntly than to male casualities"says Dao. This shows that Americans arent treating the womens death any diffrently than the mens. This reminds me of a time when i asked my mom for a Hess truck for christmas and my mom said it was only for boys. I asked why is it only for boys and she said because its a car, but i always thought doesnt girls have cars to. A question i have is how would the goverment feel if there was a ban on a specific job for men and what cause them to take the ban away?

Blog #17

In Stephanie Coontz article "Historically Incorrect Canoodling" talks on how sex without marriage is being confused in century. Back in the early years Valentines day was made by a  Roman Catholic church to decrease plessurable intamitcy. This day was named after a Christian Preist Valentine who became a holiday because he refused to obey the emperor belief of Roman soliders fighting better without marriage, but Valentine disagreed and was illegally marrying couples. He was later sent to jail and fell in love with the jailor daughter and the last letter he wrote ended with "from your Valentine". Years later  Feb.14 was announced Valentine Feast day but this day wasnt for romance. Coontz states "Rather, the Church wanted to replace the exsiting holiday...According to Roman custom, on Feb.14-the night before Lupercalia-boys would draw names from a jar to find which girls would be their sexual partner for the rest of the year" I think that what today consider romane is way better than back in the day. In addition I think Valentine was doing the right thing and letting everyone know the real meaning of love. This reminds me of a house hold with strict parents. The children that live in this enviorment has no choices to make or rights what so ever. I wonder what made people think love was foolish?, how would they react if they saw the world today?

Blog#17

In Patricia Smith's article "Are you being tracked?" she talks about how the government frequent and accelerating method of tracking phones may be violating the constitution. One November morning a 16 year old girl was kidnapped and was found through her GPS which was found shortly after she called the police. Patricia also states "Police say phone tracking is a vulnerable weapon in emergencies erything has their negative traits. One disadvantage is "unreasonable search and seizure". Smith says "The practice is raising concerns about civil liberties in a debate that puts public safety against privacy rights." This shows that there are bad outcomes of phone surveillance. I think that it is good that the government is finding more affective ways of taking the bad guys out of the street but in order to do this they invade others privacy. Maybe the FBI should know what they're looking for before just going through. This reminds me of a relationship between a mother and their teenage child. A mother always wants to know where their child is at if they say it or not and most teenagers may lie about their location or the mom may just have trust issues. And she'll go through any information to find it out  

In Veronica Majerol's article "The New Face of America" she talks about how there are other races being born in the U.S than whites. Majerol also talks on what this means for the up coming economy. The minorities now outnumber whites in 348 out of 3,000 countries around the U.S. William H. Frey, a demographer in Washington, D.C is happy about this change. Frey describes this ethical change as "transformation from a mostly white baby-boomer culture to the more globalized multiethnic country that we are becoming. " This shows that the world need more ethnics to shine more then whites. Statistics says in the year of "1950 white people who were white took up 83% of Americas population, leaving only 11% for non-white people. Statistics also says that in the year of 2050, white will take up 43% of the world, leaving Hispanic with 30%, black with 15% Asian with 9%  and others to 5%".The cause for the minorities increase may be mixed-race marriages and mixed-race children. I think that the increasing in other races and out number the whites will be very negative. With the mixed-race children being born constantly it might leave the citizens in the world with all young mixed children and the older ones will be white, this isnt good because even though it sounds impossible whites might be on the risk of extinction. This remind me of my every day life with a person of a certain race trying to be known and heard or children trying to put their foot down and take their proper place, where they think they belong .

Blog#15

In CNN's article "Give lance another chance" CNN talks on if people around the world from fans to the cyclist community should forgive Lance for cheating and if it was necessary for lance to be banned from professional cycling forever.There are people who thinks is apology is phony and his actions were unacceptable. Roxanne Jones are one of these people. When asked her opinion Jones states "Lance Armstrong, who maliciously lied for more than a decade, who I watched from my sideline seat in sports try to crush the voice of anyone who dared to call him a cheater. No, he gets no second chance from me." This shows that Roxanne doesn't believe that there should be a come back for Armstrong. Others around the world that says Lance should get another chance. "Lance Armstrong's story of triumph over adversity captured the imagination of millions around the world, including people like me, who don't usually spend a lot of time absorbed in following sports news. That's because Armstrong's achievements -- recovering from cancer and then breaking records in the cycling world -- made him a source of inspiration, an icon of hope." says Frida Ghitis. I think Lance should get another chance, he took drugs because of cancer. Everyone cheats in their life and people just over exaggerated it, people need to get over it and if not lance forget about it