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In Ms. Dunn’s 9^th grade English class we had to choose a topic that was important to us. We would be making blog posts that keep our audience up to date with the headlines of today or bring awareness to the topic. When I heard that we had to choose a topic I immediately knew I wanted to blog about the topic of immigrant rights, but more specifically, the DREAM Act.

The American Dream, it is the title of the wish that many foreigners wish to obtain in the land of America, the land of opportunity.

Most families from all over the world come to the U.S to escape tension, war, or poverty in their own countries. Most immigrants come to the U.S seeking a better life. The ones, who come here illegally or even stay when their visa has expired, are often deported to back to their own countries. To a bigger dismay, excellent students who have come to the country when they were young, are denied education past that of high school, even when they are willing to pay tuition and have had numerous chances for scholarships.

            Immigration is a very important topic to me personally, for I myself am an immigrant. I was born in Mexico and was brought over to the U.S when I was nine months old. Like many other immigrant teenagers I was brought here before we could make our own decisions. We were brought here because our parents wanted us to become greater than what we could become in our native homes. It is also not just Latinos, but people from Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean islands, who come to the U.S for better opportunities. Most of the kids who come to America for the American dream either have the dream turned into a nightmare because of not being able to speak English. When they do begin to succeed they are sometime faced with the problem of having no education after high school. For this reason, an act is in the process of being approved. The DREAM Act bill needs to be supported by legislators and signed into law, but this can only be done with support from people of this country. This bill will allow foreign illegal immigrant students be able to apply for residency and get an education after high school, if they meet several requirements.

             The requirements for being eligible for the DREAM Act is fair enough for both the person applying and the country. The country will benefit from the talented young minds that will become our future. The next generation is what the country will soon depend on and enabling the leaders of tomorrow, rather than deporting them, will benefit the U.S greatly. Is it really fair to deny immigrant teens the right to study here? By giving them a right to education we are accepting people for what they want to become; true Americans.  

My name is Raekwon Smith and I’m doing a post on a world topic that interests me for school. It’s called You and The World and you pick a problem going on in the world that you want to talk about and then do a series of blog posts on it. My topic is about how the government and individual states spend more money on prisoners than kids and education. This topic is important to me because this could affect our education in the future because all the money we have is going towards funding prisons and prisoners that don’t deserve the care they receive. Prisons cost taxpayers more than $32 billion a year. Every year that an inmate spends in prison costs $22,000. An individual sentenced to five years for a $300 theft costs the public more than $100,000. The cost of a life term averages $1.5 million.One year at New Jersey State Prison cost more than one year at Princeton university.

According to heartsandminds.org, States are spending more money on prisons than education. Over the course of the last 20 years, the amount of money spent on prisons was increased by 570% while that spent on elementary and secondary education was increased by only 21%. They provide prisoners with free health care, internet access, weight room, cable television, access to libraries, free sports programs, computer lab, laundry services, funding to earn a degree, free housing, three square meals a day, clothing, and free dental care. Not all kids are provided with that type of care and attention that they give to prisoners. Our state of Pennsylvania is second on the list of most prisons.

Pennsylvania cut the budget for education to spend it on the growing rate of criminals in 2007. There are 46,000 inmates in Pennsylvania and $90 is spent on each inmate per day—which covers food, health care recreation, etc. The national average is only $63. $3.3 billion was spent last year on prison health care services.  Every inmate is guaranteed access to health care when they require it. It is stated in articlebase.com that if 30% of the prison population went to private facilities then it would save $100 million dollars annually but only 28 states allow that.

Private places could provide better care for prisoners while saving money (which would cost tax payers less) and preparing them for when they are released into the real world again to get along with everyone else. Every day 200 new cells are built. There could be private places instead to have a better outcome in the future. Her is picture of a prison cell in a Pennsylvania prison http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/prison-5.jpg. Here is my bibliography.

For our “ You and the World” project my topic is cancer. In the past years cancer has become a well known sickness. Could it be the environment that is causing this? In the past years the pollution levels have gone up, people smoke more and drink a lot of heavy alcohol. They never really think what kind of effects this can have on your body. Statistics show that over the past 10 years more people are diagnosed with different types of cancer such as, lung cancer, breast cancer, etc.

Here is the link to my resources. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xudY75BgLg1jWMxGISU4dtFSyZfTiu2QMbMkhTFk8RE/edit 

Below are pictures of damaged cells. ( cancer cells) 

In my English class we are focusing on a topic we are intrigued by, want to shout to the world to, and make a difference/change about it. We thought with our potential its about time that we put our voice out there and speak! Let the world hear the voice and see what really goes on in the mind of the educated youth in Philadelphia. This project is called “You and The World” where you develop a passion among a issues that you want to teach others about leading them to what your ideas ad thoughts about what we can do to change such a problem. I am here today to talk about the issues of STDs or if you prefer STIs.

I’m pretty sure almost everyone knows what an STD (STI) is if not an STD is a sexually transmitted disease or infections. Which you can easily catch if you are sexually active in any way with a partner that has the disease. I believe that in high school or near the end of middle school they have a health class that teach about these things but I also believe that there are some teens that don’t quite pay attention or take this issues seriously. That really bothers me. Next thing you know because they didn’t pay attention or cared they end up gaining such a disease. Of course they will have to deal with the consequences, suffer the pain that comes there way and live with regret.

In the last Quarter of school, our English teacher Ms.Dunn gave us a project called “You and the World”. In this project the issue I am going to bring up is school bullying. I think bullying is the big issue going on all over U.S. I am interested in this issue because I have been bullied in middle school, because I spoke different languages when other kids in my class did not. I moved here from Bangladesh when I was twelve years old. When I started school, I didn’t know much English and was shy to talk. Kids would push me, try to fight me and make fun of me because I was different.

I think bullying is the perfect reason why kids in middle school don’t like to be in school. Watch this video. It shows how unsafe some of our schools are in Philadelphia. After years of harassment and bullying, this video was taken by a 12 year old girl who wanted her mother to see what going on in her classroom everyday.

According to the New York Times, in Philadelphia seven teenagers were arrested for a bullying incident in which a 13-year-old student was kicked and beaten before being hung by his coat from a spiked fence post. This is what is happening in our School District schools and I don’t think those kids are safe in school. We as community members have to do something about this bullying and stop it as soon as possible.

To see my bibliography, click here. 

‘Imani:  novia

Allen:  novio

Marcus: el mesero

(Allen walks in  and imani is sitting down.)

Allen: Hola Imani

Imani: Hola Allen Que tal?

Allen: umm... muy bien y tu?

Imani: Mas o menos

Allen: por que 

(el mesero comida )

Marcus: Hola Como esta

Both: Muy bien

(allen y imani tomas la cuenta)

(Both of them look through)

Marcus: Que le traigo? 

Imani: Me gustaria arroz con pollo y brocoli.

Allen:  Apperitivos churros y chuletas de cochino

Marcus: Algo de tomar?

Imani: el te sin limon

Allen: el refresco de naranja

(Imani y Allen gives back the La cuenta)

Marcus: Gracias

Both: De nada

Marcus: Aqui es su el almuerzo

(Brings wrong food out)

Imani: yo (no) pedi esto

Allen: es todo 

Marcus: Lo siento un momento

(Brings out correct order)

Marcus: bueno, Buen provecho

(Nosotros comer)

Imani: La cuenta, por favor

Marcus: aqui esta la carta

Allen: AY AY AY!! ay madre mia

Imani: Los siento no denaro

Marcus: Lo siento pero necesito denaro para comida

(Allen Looks at Imani and the both take off running)

My english class at SLA has just started a project that requires us to choose a topic of importance to us and blog about it. Everyone is allowed to chose their own topic  but some people are doing the same ones. Our teacher will pick one of the topics from a student in my class and we will have to debate either for or against it. We weren’t necessarily asked to choose something controversial but a controversial topic allows for a better debate. 

I have chosen the involvement of the Pro-Choice Movement in politics, mainly this upcoming election. The Pro-Choice Movement is the movement that’s goal is to give women their rights and legalize things like contraception and abortion. This topic is very controversial and is one of the main platforms some politicians run their campaigns on. For the most part Republicans are against it and for the most part, Democrats are for it. If you want to put political differences aside, the two groups can be split up by people that are against abortion and birth control, “pro-life supporters,” and people that support the issue, “pro-choice supporters.” 

In ancient times abortion was just considered a form of family planning and population control. In today’s world, the main deterrent from abortion and contraception is religion. Part of President Obama’s healthcare overhaul in 2009 was that employers provide free birth control coverage. "Every woman should be in control of the decisions that affect her own health," said the president. Recently he announced that religious groups were exempt from that law. Under the new plan, religious institutions are not required to provide birth control to their employees but the institution’s insurance company still has to offer coverage without raising the premium. 

For those who argue against abortion and contraception, it is usually a question of ethics and morals. The main Pro-Life argument is that an unborn fetus is a living being and therefor should not be terminated under any circumstances. For the most part  the politicians arguing for the Pro-Life movement are men and there are very little women advocating against contraception and abortion.

            Our wonderful teacher, Mrs. Dunn, has given this project to us. This project is all about worrying less about yourself, and more about different issues that are going on in the world, or in this country, or even in your own neighborhoods. So with that I am going to jump right into the issue at hand. Now my issue is on somewhat of a bigger scale than just my own neighborhood, this issue includes all of Philadelphia, and that issue is, the continuously growing homicide rate in Philadelphia, and that among teens towards each other.

            This is an increasingly troubling topic, and very interesting and alarming to me. Not only do I know people who have died due to useless teen violence, but also I have seen how these deaths can impact the family members of those diseased. For these reasons, teenage homicides, as well as all homicides in Philadelphia have a great personal, and interesting touch on me, and it should you as well.

            The Philadelphia homicide rate was the highest in 2010 throughout the entire country, with a 19.6% homicide rate. This is nothing compared to the fact that so far there has been 122 homicides in Philadelphia alone. Considering it is only May, this is a staggering total. You also see that since it is only about half way through the year, if this rate stays the same, we will have over 250 homicides by the end of the year. That is 250 people who died due to the selfishness of others, and who obviously died before their times. If that weren’t enough, here are more staggering statistics about the homicides in Philly over the past few years:

·      In 2011 there was a total of 324 homicides in Philadelphia with a 20.7% homicide rate, which was more than any other large city.

·      Philadelphia has had 1,654 homicides over the past 5 years, with 2007, being the worst year, with 391 homicides that year alone.

·      During 2006 and 2007, Philadelphia was the only city with a population of over 1,000,000 to be on the 10 most murderous cities list.

            So from this you can see that the homicide rate in Philadelphia is a serious issue. Although I am not yet an expert on this topic, I would like to try and become one by learning more about Philadelphia and its unbelievable murder rate. Some things that I still question and would like to learn are; where in Philadelphia is there the most murders? What nationality of people is doing the most murdering? What age group does the most murdering and how can we change this so that it doesn’t happen more often?

Here are all of my sources at this link.

• http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=34174

• http://saigonecho.com/eng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=938:testimony-of-rev-john-tran-cong-nghi-on-international-religious-freedom&catid=57:featurednews&Itemid=119
• http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,,,VAT,,4f55c6bc11,0.html
  

For our English class we are doing a “you and the world” project, for my topic I chose abortion.  Now a day’s in the United States abortion is legal but it is still a topic that raises a lot of controversy. Over the years there have been many debates on whether or not a women should or should not be able to make the choice on whether they want an abortion. As a fourteen-year-old girl this issue becomes one that is close to home. Not because I have ever been pregnant nor have I ever had a need for an abortion, but it brings up an issue on a larger scale of civil rights for women. A mere century ago women gained their civil rights in America, what does it mean when the government starts deciding what we can do with our bodies? Have women taken three steps forward just to take four steps back? My blog will focus on what it means to have an abortion in America, and whether or not it should be legal for women to make the decision on their own. 

In every state in America it is legal to have an abortion. Whether or not it is accepted, or even accessible is a different story. However this wasn’t true 30 years ago, but it all changed with Roe V. Wade which was a Supreme Court case in 1973 that legalized early term abortions. Abortion was legalized but because of the cost it is still difficult for many to get it, it can cost any where between 350 to 1000 dollars. Only 17 states in America provide funding for poor women who want abortions. For many this still makes it difficult to go through with abortion because they are living in low-income households.

            Most women who have abortions get them because it isn’t the right time for them and because of situations that they don’t want to put a young child in. For this reason 52% of women who get abortions are under 25. Being 25 it is difficult to afford it and that’s why organizations like Planned Parenthood are important because most health insurance companies don’t cover abortion or contraception. Over the past years in a study done by the Washington Post an increase in the percent of people who think abortion should be legal has risen. However there still is an issue on the underlying issue of how the government feels about it.

     My topic for the "You and the World” project is Genetic Testing: A New Improvement In Our Lives Or A New Era of Social Injustice. I specially chose this topic because I am fascinated by my own identity based on my DNA. To first know myself is an essential step to interact and associate with other people based on the knowledge of my personality, behavior, and etc. 

      Imagine you could one day look at your genome straight from your tablet. This scenario was thought to be an inconceivable task decades ago. But, as the Human Genome project took an remarkable achievement in humanity, sequencing genomes is possible. But, it would took $350,000 and an extensive time to sequence one genome. But, everything was starting to change as new technology made sequencing genomes faster and less costly (less than $500). It may gave rise to an era about self-acknowledgement or, is it? 

      Biotech companies, like DeCode me, and 23andMe placed a feature called the odds calculator to predict the possibility for that individual to contact certain diseases. To avoid these risks, people will adjust their lifestyle, prevent, and ask for treatment before the illness strikes. It means that people’s health rates and life-expectancy of the world will increase. However, sometimes people could not distinguish from possibilities that have countless variations from facts. Therefore, resulting the individual to be overwhelmed by results that are tested by only a fraction of their total genome.   

    There is a Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) that guarantee security and privacy for all people’s genome results, but who will stop the economy from choosing the best people into their companies, colleges, athletes, and etc? Even with the protection of the GINA, will it prevent any and all future possible invasions of privacy toward genetic information as this technology become more and more popular and efficient? Will we proceed into the society featured in “Gattaca”?

   You in The World Project

Our English class project is called You and the World. This project is for us to get interested in events that are current and research information about an issue and tell others about it so we can educate ourselves and other people. We have to post our information on our blog and debate about our topics with the class.

My issue is how hard it is to found a job. There are alot less job openings in the U.S. today. The number of job openings in U.S. declined again in December. There was a decline in the economy, it was usually 4.5 to 5 million open jobs in America, now there are only 3 million. The U.S. economy is supplying an extremely low number of jobs. The government said that there were only 36,000 jobs added in January. Although an upgrade 150,000 jobs per month is enough just to keep up with our population growth. We begin to fall farther and farther behind.

All across the nation, state and local governments are swiftly cutting jobs. Government jobs use to be considered some of the safest jobs accessible, but now all government jobs local and state are facing terrible budget crunches. Actually it has gotten so serious that some cities are cutting their police forces by up to 50 percent.

Recent college grads are having a hard time finding a job.  Today’s graduates understand how bad the economy is now and how hard it will be to land their first meaningful job. Those who graduated between 2006-2008, their salary was $30,000 but for recent grads it has dropped to $27,000. According to Kate Helfrich a graduate from Case Western Reserve University, says “ I’m definetley feeling a little anxiety regarding the loan payment. You hear about programs that offer loan repayment and sign on bonuses, I don’t feel like we’ve seen that as much since the recession hit.” Bridget Coyle, who is also a graduate, wants to be a social worker, but this desolating unemployment rate is making it extremely tough. Besides this she is still very confident.

One idea of reducing unemployment is to break the cycle. There are many ways to break it.  One way is to provide government funding to companies who are becoming bankrupt. Another is get involved in technology because that is now in demand of our industry.

Bibliography:

Video, Slim Job Growth In April

Click here for more information.

 Click here for my bibliography.