Is Assimilation Necessary?

(Imagine that the bear is an immigrant dressed as an American, and the word "bear" was substituted with the word "immigrant")

For an assignment I recently interviewed a friend who came to America as a refugee from Liberia. When I asked him about what the differences in America and Africa he told me that he loved his culture and tried to keep it as much as possible; he also told me that he had a hard time in his new school because people were not that friendly. Last year I interviewed another friend for another assignment, and she told me about what it was like moving to America from Slovakia. She said that her boyfriend (who emigrated from Poland) did not want to assimilate in and did not have the need to fit in as an “American”. This was hard for her because she wanted to fit in as an American and live the “American dream”. He eventually learned English and they have assimilated in to American culture, but while doing so they lost a lot of their own culture.

Comparing the two of them, I asked myself whether or not a person needs to assimilate to become an American. While my one friend has tried to hold on to his African culture, he has not completely assimilated into America. On the other hand, my other friend assimilated but lost a lot of her culture. It seems that to become American it needs to be all or nothing with assimilation. This is clearly not the case for all immigrants, but for many that I know it is. To be able to fit in with their new country, they need to sacrifice a lot. Becoming “American” comes at a cost.

The question now is whether or not it is worth it. Everything comes at a cost, but the trouble is deciding whether or not it is worth it. Is losing your culture, your old life, worth making a new one? Exactly how much of your culture must you lose before becoming an assimilated American? There are too many questions that can be asked, and the answers are never clear cut, but in the end it really comes down to how much a person if willing to give up to get their new life.

In many countries Americans are seen negatively because they expect everyone to speak English when they come to the States, but when we go somewhere else we still expect them to speak English. For the most part Americans don’t have to worry about losing their own culture, and that makes it difficult to see the impact it can have on a person. The price of being American is a high one to pay, and assimilation may be the price.

Waterboarding and Our Country

The soldiers in the picture have smirks, almost smiles, on their faces while toturing this man

In an episode of Law and Order SVU, ADA (Assistant District Attorney) Novak becomes upset when the FBI refuses to give details on a suspect’s alibi. She says the police questioning these “people of interest” to verify the alibi would jeopardize an ongoing investigation. Novak becomes upset by the FBI’s self-appointed superiority and questions the hierarchy of the parties involved: “So your work trumps putting murders and rapists behind bars because there is a terrorist around every corner?” The FBI representative later says to ADA Novak that “there is a terrorist around every corner… you just don’t know about it”.

When sending troops to Iraq, the public was told that it was because of weapons of mass destruction. This was never proven, and it is questioned as to if it was a fabricated statement giving the government an excuse to deploy troops. They went in without the public having real knowledge and tried to justify the government’s actions by saying that we needed to go there because of information relating to national safety. Recently information about water boarding has been shown publicly, and the Obama administration has described it as illegal torture. Obama ordered that memos on these actions should be released to the public, hopefully in an attempt to change Bush’s secrecy that has caused many Americans to lose trust in the government.

It can be nearly impossible to draw a line in war, but one must be drawn. The War on Terror is debatable as is, but with torturous methods being used, Americans can lose faith in the war and the government as a whole. Still, the question remains: do the ends justify the means? This question can be applied to numerous topics, but in war it can be even more debatable. If the public cannot be sure about the justifications of a war, how can we be able to agree with these techniques? It can neither be confirmed nor denied on if this has even helped, because the public doesn’t know everything about what’s going on overseas, but as a general statement, torture is many times not a good thing. Not only do we hold the risk of putting innocent people trough a terrible ordeal, but torturing people in countries we are at war with only gives them motivation to do the same to our soldiers. A line can be hard to draw in war, but if one is not drawn, who knows what the consequential actions, to our country and from our country, could be.

An article talks about some of the details on waterboarding.

Can Patriotism Go Too Far?

While watching the movie “Born on the Fourth of July” in class, Ron Kovic, while in high school, said that he was willing to die for his country in Vietnam. “That lack of comprehension for his own mortality is what makes him a great soldier,” (as Mrs. Logan said), that he is willing to do anything. It isn’t until after he returns home, paralyzed, that his views on the war change. He becomes an anti-war protestor, but is still just as patriotic as ever. It takes an incredibly strong person to fight in a war, risking their lives for their country, and they should be seen as just that; however, it takes an even stronger person to be able to speak out against war, to say that we can “fight communism” without guns. This should not take away from the bravery of soldiers; we should be supporting our soldiers in Iraq right now, by bringing them home. When he demands to his parents that he will die for his country if he needs to, it seems melodramatic and childish, but that may be necessary. If a soldier didn’t demand that they were willing to die for their country, for what they think is right, we would have no military. Kovic went to fight, while some were forced to fight. During the draft many young men were proud to fight, but there were many that tried to afford it by all costs. If people do not want to be in a war, it will be easy to see based on how they respond to it. People should not be forced into a war, and war should not be made with false pretenses.

Earlier this month in a “rampage in a West Bank settlement,” a Palestinian man, Moussa Tayet, killed an Israeli child and injured another. The murderer confessed and even turned in the knife used, but that doesn’t seem to change much. An innocent child is still dead, and a family will never be the same. After the attack, a Palestinian group falsely claimed responsibility, as if they were proud, as if they would have been happy if it was their killing. The killing was premeditative, as an article in the Chicago Times said, and Tayet said it was religiously motivated. I don’t know any religion that would say to kill an innocent child, and although I am not religious, it insults me that people try to misinterpret religion to justify killing.

Although the murder occurred the day after Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's new Prime Minister, took office, his foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said “there is no reason to begin negotiations on a final peace accord with the Palestinians” because they “shouldn't be freed from their obligations”. But why? Tayet should not be vindicated from his responsibility for murdering a 13 year old boy, but in order to stop the killings to come, some sort of peace must be reached. The Middle East’s violence is not going to stop unless proactive measures are taken. Just like any other war, there will not be change unless both sides are willing to work together. This is clearly more easily said than done, but unless people and countries are willing to try, peace remains a distant thought, an idea of what the world could be like, an image that doesn’t seem real. A proverb says that “he who sweats more in peace, bleeds less in war.” If we are not willing to work for peace, then we should be expecting war. Peace is not something that happens on a whim, but it seems like war is. We know war is bad; we know it is so bad that we aren’t even willing to admit it. With numerous US wars in our history, an actual declaration of war has sparsely been made. We are currently in a “War on Terror,” but technically, it is not a war. To put an end to war, we must first be willing to end it.

War, what is it good for? If innocent children are being killed and countries aren’t even trying to resolve their problems, then absolutely nothing.

The effects of the holocaust and World War II are not completely gone… yet

An article titled Tattoos from Auschwitz Horror Reunite Lost Inmates tells the story of four men who suffered through the holocaust, never knowing or talking to each other, reunited. Not only were these men together at Auschwitz, but they were together in line, with consecutive serial number tattoos. These men, once treated as sub-human, have become men, not serial numbers, to hundreds of thousands of people who are now going to hear their story. Holocaust deniers can say what they want, but these men are no longer B-14594, B-14595, B-14596, and B-14597. These men are Menachem Sholowicz, Anshel Sieradzki Shaul Zawadzki, and Yaakov Zawadzki. People said “never again,” we need to say not now? Genocide is a war that needs to be fought. These men are around the age of 80 now, and they are not the only living survivors, but soon there will be no one left. There will be no more survivors to prove the effects of the holocaust, and there will be not survivors left to tell their story. This genocide could become a thing of the past, a history lesson that we read about in our text books, a thing thought about that seems almost unrealistic. Unfortunately, genocide is not going to be a thing of the past. There are still people dying from genocide, from war, in Darfur. This cycle of war and killing needs to stop before the world can know peace. We will not be silent. It is within our control to stop genocide. These men are real examples of what war can do to people, and it needs to end here.

“When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace” –Jimi Hendrix

A War or Not a War?...It Doesn't Really Matter

The definition of war is definitely debatable, and while some people think that war is sometimes necessary, one type of “war” is never necessary: genocide. To me, war is people dying unnecessarily or as a result of others’ mistakes. Genocide, which may not be classified as a war, is definitely an unnecessary killing because of and supported by a lot of mistakes. This weekend I went to a Darfur Rally downtown. It was cold and rainy, which was probably why the turnout was good, not great, but what a speaker said made a big impact on me. He was a Lost Boy of Sudan, and said that he was not sorry it was raining, because the rain is the tears of the refugees in Darfur.

Not everyone may agree that this is an example of a war, and it may not be, but considering the facts, it should be treated like a one-sided war. First of all, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was recently indicted on war crimes by the International Criminal Court. 400,000 people have died in Darfur, and too many are in refugee camps in Chad and other places. Sudan does everything in its power to stop outside help, but should that stop us? Several aid groups from Sudan were forced out of the country by al-Bashir during a meningitis outbreak. Just because Sudan is saying jump does not mean that we need to say how high, or even jump at all. If we cannot even help to stop this obvious genocide, how can we ever expect to have peace?

At the rally there was a man handing out fliers. I took one, assuming that it was information on Darfur, and didn’t look over it until later. Before I read it, my friend said that the guy was talking to people, and once again I assumed it was about Darfur. Once again I was wrong. This man was preaching that we need to destroy Israel’s government by “non-violent” measures. He said he was a pacifist and against any group that makes war, and he stood there with the diluted idea that destroying a country by any means is anti violence. He went on to describe how it was Israel’s fault that countries across the world had gun problems and war, and other similar statements that were equally as ridiculous.

Luckily, every time he preached there were people there who argued with him. At one point I asked him how he could think that he was a pacifist when he handed out papers with swastikas on it. He spurred off a mumbled response and changed the subject. With this amount of hate in the world, it’s hard to see peace in sight, but it needs to start somewhere, and ending this genocide and standing up to people like this man is a good start.

This article talks about how Sudan has tried to keep aid out of the country.

Does the poor's health not matter?

A recent article from the Chicago Tribune portrayed the flaws in health care system. “Indigent and under-insured patients” were sent to Cook County's Stroger Hospital after not getting treated fully at other non-profit hospitals. Some of these patients came to the ER at Stroger's with discharge slips and prescriptions from the non-profit hospitals. People with broken jaws and tumors were sent with discharge slips saying to go to a Cook County Hospital, as well as a woman who came with one saying to get a follow up on a uterine tumor surgery. This hospital that is trying to help people without insurance is being overloaded with patients, and in this economy resources are scarce. It’s hard enough not being able to afford health insurance, but then being turned away from hospitals after major surgery, or with broken bones or tumors just seems ridiculous. Universal Health care definitely has its ups and downs, but things like this make it seem pretty good. Privilege entitles people to a lot of things because of status and resources, but that doesn’t mean that others should be left behind. A lot of things in life come at a price, but for health care it doesn’t seem right. In class we read "Being Poor." Being poor isn't a choice, it isn't because some people work less hard, it is a situation that is difficult to get out of, and people’s health should not be penalized. People are too quick to judge, and too slow to put themselves in other people's shoes. Not having insurance can be a scary thing, and fear of not getting any medical attention should not even have to be a thought.

WARNING: Falling Cigarette May Kill You

Talking about advertisements in class, it seems that everyone is trying to trick you into buying something, saying that it will make your life better in some way or another. I googled "advertisements" to look for an idea for my blog this week, and came across this:

This was at the Vancouver Art Gallery during National Non-Smoking Week. The red sign on the car reads as follow: Death from car accidents: 370, Death from smoking-related causes: 6,027, Quit now before it kills you. This reminds me a little bit of Everything's an Argument, but it made me realize the other side of advertising. This is set up not to get you to buy a pack of cigarettes or a car, but the opposite. Advertisements for the most part are to get the consumer to buy a product, but in this case, it was used for the benefit of the consumer. This shows the relationship of all-too-common deaths. A car related death is one that is many times hard to avoid; death by cigarette is easy to avoid. Here, the advertisement's plan was to get their message across, and it's a nice break to see a message that isn't about consumption. Listening to advertisements can sometimes seem almost like it has a subliminal message, and in this case, the message is at least a good one. Advertisements have a point, and getting that point across is what matters, and at least sometimes it is being used for some good.

Will There Ever be a Last Tree?

Reading Robert Pinsky's poem, Shirt, made me think about all the things in my life that I use without even thinking about how many other people are effected by them. I have a reusable water bottle that I have with me all the time, so I don't buy plastic water bottles. I try to recycle as much as possible, and I try to reduce instead of reusing. But I have overlooked something: when I bring a lunch to school, without thinking about it, I use paper bags. It seems obvious that a paper bag can be recycled, and yet, I never put that into perspective with a normal sheet of paper of a pop can that I would always recycle. Every year 4 billion trees are cut down for paper, that's 10 million a day, and currently the ratio of trees to person in the world is about 61:1. Now imagine how many paper products are used by just the US, just Chicago, just New Trier, just you. Without even knowing it we are killing off forests around the world. It's true that people need some paper products, but I don't see the ends justifying the means. People also believe that cures to diseases can be found in nature, but what if it is lost by the logging. Because of my use of paper bags, loggers are working for bad pay in all weather conditions, near falling trees and with dangerous equipment. Because of my use of paper bags, more trees are being cut down than necessary. Because of my use of paper bags, we may never know if that cure was out there. That one last tree could be the tree with a cure, it could be the tree that hurts a logger, it could be the tree that had the last of an endangered species. That one last tree will never be the last tree.

If you look closely at the cartoon above, you may notice that there is a crocodile piled up with the trees. Logging is done so routinely and so blindly that people don't even think about the consequences of it, and humans aren't the only ones affected.

Does Money Matter?

At the beginning of the year the inner city school protest at New Trier called attention to the relationship of money and schooling. This protest made me realize how the relationship between money and schooling is important, and money does play a role in school. After watching the movie Coach Carter this weekend, I saw an example of how this is the case. Coach Carter is a true story of a high school basketball team at a school in which learning was not a priority to many. While I'm not sure if these statistics are the exact number from the real school, the coach stated in the movie that only 50% of kids at this high school graduate, and of those only 6% go on to college. When I think of graduating high school, it doesn't seem like an option, "it's just what you do". Very few people do not graduate from New Trier, and almost all go to college, if not the year after graduation, soon after. Hearing these percentages seem almost unrealistic compared to what I know from my school, and I wonder is money makes that much of a difference. Money does not make a student smarter or work harder, but what it can effect the general atmosphere of a school. In the school in Coach Carter, the principal said that the basketball season could be the highlight of some of these boys' lives. That is the problem. This school is portrayed as authority figures not believing in the kids because of the statistics, and as well, hearing these statistics can make it hard to believe in yourself. There is no motivation to work if you think that it won't matter, you won't graduate. Imagine going to a school where they can't afford books, or up-to-date classroom text books- many people don't have to image this because it is a reality. This is not to say that money is everything in schooling. There are plenty of people attending schools with very limited resources, and are still great students; there are also lots of people attending great schools with all the resources in the world, and still just do not care. Money is not everything when it comes to schooling, but it does do a lot. It's easy to take for granted the resources New Trier has, because it's all many people have ever known, but that does not take away the reality that not every school is able to have these resources.


Just as a side note, I watched the movie on TV, and I had already seen it in theaters. In the movie there is a scene where one black student refers to another as the n-word. The coach immediately intervenes and says that calling each other that names makes white people think that they can say it too. It is a powerful scene, and in the TV edited version, it was deleted. There is a scene where someone gets shot, and there are others that can be seen as inappropriate, but they were not deleted. Deleting a scene like this just because it can cause controversy is just a way to ignore the problem, to sweep it under the rug instead of addressing it, and I was pretty disappointed that it was edited out.

Finally.

When will the KKK end?

On Wednesday February 11, 2009 at Gaston Memorial Hospital, Virgil Griffin died. There is now one less KKK member, and yet it is not because he changed his ways. For those of you who do not know, Griffin was the leader of the Ku Klux Klan's North Carolina chapter. An article from Comcast News spread the word.

In class, reading about Huck Fin and the racism that lived in the South made me think of the still present racism around the country. It's easy to think of the KKK as a terrible group that terrorized people mostly during the civil rights movement. But this is wrong. The KKK, while not as common as in the past, is still very much alive, and their white-supremest views are still spoken. Not to speak ill of the dead, but Griffin's death is not one that I will be mourning. His death being in the news simply reminds people that racism is still in this country today. In the time of Huck Fin, racism was a way of life. That is not to say at all that it is excused, but in those times racial slurs were the norm. Today, people are disgusted by the idea of the KKK being around still, and yet, our society has not been able to completely rid itself of racism. That last group of ignorant people still remain, thinking that the color of their skin makes them better or worse than another human being, ranking themselves higher simply because they decide to. I don't think I will ever understand how people can think this way, think that skin color makes us any different from the person sitting next to us. The worst and scariest part seems to be that no matter who is left on this earth, people can still find a way to think this racist way, and speak this racist way. For every word spoken, there is someone to listen and someone to agree, and that scares me.

Football Players Are God.

Last weekend was Superbowl XLIII. Parties were held, bets were made, beer was drunk (by those over 21), and it was allover a great time. This year's game was especially great because of the intensity, it's not like everyone thought that the Steelers were going to win, and because of the commercials, even though many thought they were the worst in years. Even with all the hype, what makes this game so great, so different than any other? Don't get me wrong, I love Superbowl parties just as much as the next girl who doesn't really watch the game itself, but eats and sees a commercial or two, but I still never really got it. What makes this game so great? What makes any game so great? People watch reruns of the last minutes and attend parades after the win, but why?! What makes this game so great, and along with the game, what makes the player so great. People run up to football players if they see one in "normal life" asking for autographs and pictures as if they are some sort of mega-humans. I know some people who play sports at New Trier really well, and I've never seen someone go up and ask for their pictures or autographs. I also know people who are really smart, really pretty, really good at art, and still, they have never been asked. Americans love to think of people such as athletes as basically god-like, just because they can play a sport. The idea of them is better than the actual them, as far as their fans know, and yet they become the idols of people as young as 3 or 4. They are romanticized by Americans across the country, and some of us still just don't see the point.

Steve Carrel, the Office, and Racism

For the first time in American history, we have a black president. The month of February being Black History Month is now another emphasis on Obama and the progress of our country moving further away from racism; however, Dr. Carter G. Woodson noted that in this month "We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice." That one statement is a strong one: the history of the world void of race hate. I do agree with him that we should be focusing on a world moving away from race hate, but a world void of it? As great as this idea sounds, I wonder if it is possible to become a complete reality. Obama becoming president is a momentous occasion that will be remembered in history as a step foreword from racism, but that does not mean racism is gone. In Huck Fin, blacks are openly referred to as the n-word, and while today this is not considered politically correct, it still is said and racism is still present. What about jokes, is it acceptable to make a racist joke, or laugh at one, if you are not racist? The popular TV sitcom, the Office, is about the daily life of working under Michael Scott (Steve Carrel), a crazy boss who talks before he thinks, and even after he speaks he just doesn't quite get it. Although this is one of my favorite shows, and a popular one across the country, in the new episode a line stuck out to me. One of the office employees passes out during what they thought was a fire, and in response Michael runs over, and in attempt to wake him up yells: "Stanley, Stanley, you will not die!... Stanley, Barack is president! You are black Stanley!..." Now, whether you know that character or not, you can see that he is openly ignorant in his comments, as proven in this quote. The idea of keeping someone alive by reminding him that he is black is so stupid, and yet the ignorance of Michael Scott is amusing to viewers. Of course not everybody who laughs at this remark is a racist, but the idea of this comment appears racist and pointless. A person being "saved" by being reminded that they are black is as ridiculous as be reminded that they are a boy, have brown hair, or are wearing a red t-shirt, and yet it is said, and people laugh. This scene is a hyperbole, but even so, it is a comparison of what kind of racism takes place in real life.