Journal 2

Life for Native Americans is all about their social and political organizations. I believe that we know a lot about the native Americans because we have lots of monuments for them and there are areas specifically dedicated to them for their tribes. Land is a huge issue because this has been their land for numbers of years and for someone to just come in and take over their land, with everything that they have done for it. life on a reservation might be hard because you have to do everything the same way that everyone else is doing and you have to use tradition.

This picture is of a really nice prison, not the typical kind at least. I choose to keep with the theme of Moreese Bickam, so I looked up how many people have been incarcerated in the United States. According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) there is over 7,225,800 in the year 2009 and according to the graph below, this number will just continue to grow. I think the idea of until the 1980s the US population was going up faster the incarceration rate, but then when 1980 rolls around the incarceration rate sky rockets. Now this many have to do with the idea that the number of execution went down almost to 0, but then why the rise? Was it because people know that they wouldn’t be killed for doing bad things so why not! Was it because turning to crime was the only way to keep their family’s a float? Was it the culture that is propagated by “Pop culture” throughout the United States? Whatever the reason I think it is safe to say that this is a serious problem indeed. Whenever you have generations of people being born in to a society that not only impresses criminals as pop figures, but the justice systems lets this people get away with their crimes because of their fame. This is just reinforces the idea that crime is ok, that you can get away with it too, just like these people did. What happened to doing an honest day’s work? What happened to doing the right thing, not because it’s easy, but because it’s RIGHT? I think America will be a sad place if this trend continues into future generations. I really enjoyed the Schillings and Pate profile and the story of their fox hunting trips. I always thought of fox hunting as in peopel on horses chasing as dogs that are chasing a fox, but these guys just camped in a spot and let the hounds chase foxes all night. It sorta makes me wounder how many foxes these guys get, but I guess that not what really matters to them. I also enjoy camping out under the stars and can just imagen how cool it would be to just sit around the camp fire listening to the chaos going on all around them. One thing I was woundering is does the sound the hounds make sound anything like wolves?

Writing Exercise 2

I researched information about the gay rights. I found that nowadays, gays, lesbians, etc have more rights than they did back in Sylvia's day. Today, there are several states where gays can get a marriage license. Also, gays can adopt children. However, they have a complicated process. They cannot adopt the child together right away. One of them has to sign for the child and then later, the other can try for joint custody. The gay rights are contnuing to advance.

Jim Searles from Holding On caught my attention because of the dedication him and his friends gave to checkers. They found something that they loved to do together and made sure they were able to play. It did not matter where they played or how long but just that they were together and able to play. These men loved to play. They rented space just to play and then the building got destroyed. So, they asked the Salvation Army. Here, they did not have to pay, they were able to play the game they loved for free. On page 116 it says, "A man don't quit what he love. Love is a great thing." This shows how it did not matter what happened to them, they were always going to play the game of checkers.

Exercise two

The gay American had more rights now than in Sylvia's day. The gay people can go to place were they want to go. The guy people have the equal right and it is a human being too. Not everyone had accepted the gay people. There had the equal right like the normal people but not with the married.

The profile that stood out to me is the Marie Coombs because she had work hard to keep the newspaper's edit place that her father give to her. The place called Saguache Crescent. She start to work at the Saguache Crescent at age 16 and help her father out at age 4. She had work there for her entiry life and want to keep that place running.

American Penal System

I researched the number of persons incarcerated in American Prisons. The number of people reached over two million last year. I think that this number is absolutely ridiculous. I think laws such as, the 3 strikes laws, need to be amended. They often lock people up who do not deserve to spend life behind bars. They could be better suited for rehabilitation. I believe major felonies, and violent criminals are the only people who deserve to spend life behind bars. Maybe we could save some tax dollars down the road.

The story that stuck out to me for the last readings was the story about Marie Coombs. She really fascinated me because of her long time work with the local newspaper. I think it is very admirable to be able to stay with something as long as she did. On top of being the editor, she was also the journalist who went out and collected the news from the community. This takes a lot of time and hard work. My favorite part of her story was the part where she talked about, making sure the paper was done before she made her husband's funeral arrangements. That takes serious dedication and love for her job, and service to the community.

Journal 3 Research

For Journal 3 I researched if gay Americans have more rights now than in Sylvia's day, and how things have improved or not improved. What I found was that today Sylvia would be considered a member of a larger community. The LGBT, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community in which they have gained more rights today and continue to seek improvement. Today, gay and lesbian couples can get a marriage license in CT, IA, MA, NH, VT, and Washington, D.C. Also, transgender Americans can get corrective surgeries, and legally change their name to reflect their new identity. Overall, I think that is a big step forward since the Stonewall Riots where they couldn't even gather in an establishment geared toward their community.

The profile that stood out the most to me was Jim Searles. I thought it was interesting how this brotherhood of checker players came to be. They became a second family, had their own rules of conduct, and viewed checkers as more of a sport than a "childhood" game or past time. I thought it was cool of him to mention how none of the checkers players are senile as a result of playing the game and how for some nothing comes between them and the game, "A man don't quit what he love. love is a great thing!"

Journal Two: Reading Response

For journal two I discussed the profile in Holding On with Sylvia Rivera and deputy Seymour Pine about the Stonewall riots. It was my favorite reading because I believe the gay rights movement is a big deal in society. It especially meant a lot to me because I believe people should stand up for their beliefs and who they are and this is exactly what took place. I also really liked it because the profile inserted two different prespectives of that night. We got to read about Sylvia's experience as well as deputy Pine's. I wrote about the progress the gay rights movement has made since Sylvia's day. The Stonewall riot symbolized the beginning of this movement and I believe has helped the gay community come out and stand up for their beliefs.

For today, my favorite profile was Jim Searles. This profile stood out to me because it was another case of a group of men standing up for what they wanted. Their love for the game of checkers made them strong and motivated to find a place to play. "Checker players is really a brotherhood-like family." This is a strong bond that brought people together. Stories that involve people coming together and fighting for what they believe in always stands out to me.