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9TH GRADE HAS BEEN THE BEST YEAR OF MY SCHOOLING.
LOVE SLA.

With immigration being one of the least important problems in the US at the moment, it will be a little difficult to have anything done about illegal immigrants. Getting the government to actually do something productive about immigration would take lots of people to make it at the top of the priorities list. In order to change the minds of the decision makers in regards to immigration amnesty, I must contact bigger organizations that already have some sort of connection with the government. If the organizations isn’t big enough, it won’t have that much of an effect because chances are that there don’t have much of a connection with the government, which makes them as powerless as myself.

I plan to email a few organizations that I think are well acquainted with the government and explain to them why I think they should keep pushing the members of the government to put immigration amnesty as one of the top priorities on their list. One of the organizations I will be contacting about this issue is the National Immigration Forum. I chose them because, looking at their website, I see that they are very well on top of the status of all things surrounding immigration. They have information about the senate, the President, debates, and so much more. If the information hey give me is sufficient, which I’m confidant that it will be, they will be the only organization I will contact.

Through working with this organization we could put together events and spread the word to allow an immigration amnesty day for the illegal immigrants already here. We can help bring awareness to more communities because it seems as though nobody really cares about this issue. People who have immigrants in their families will be the easiest target because they could have family members who are illegal in the country and would like them to be legal citizens.

I called this organization and they didn’t answer. I guess I’ll have to try another one.

     This part of our project is the communication part. Where we reach out to an official so we can get our ideas out there and try to change our topic or lobby our voice. For my communication part i chose to write a letter to an editor, my person isn't exactly an editor but I'm sure he can get the word out there and make sure what I have to say is taking into consideration. He is the City Hall bureau chief Mike Dunn of KYW radio.

       Dear Mike Dunn,
                   Hello, My name is De'Lesha Jackson and I am a senior at Science Leadership Academy. I am trying to represent the 50-60% of young people who are not involved in the flash mobbing groups of Philadelphia. We don't think it is fair that everyone groups us together and that we have to suffer the consequence of those who didn't know how to behave. Once Mayor Nutter realizes that not every group of young people are flash mobbing then he can show everyone else. 
Mayor Nutter has made it so different age groups should have different curfew hours in certain parts of the city. But he hasn't gave any thought into the young people that just want to have fun and not hurt anyone. But he does agree that what they are doing is ridiculous. He wants equality and a safe environment for every one just like me but I feel as though his votes on this thing are not fair to every one. When reading this I hope you will have a realization of what I am saying and that you can help us to change this.
Thank you,

De'Lesha Jackson


I think this letter would be really effective, but more effective if I met him and took a group a young people who aren't involved in flash mobbing with me to help make my point known so that he can not only read but see the visual of what I am talking about. So I would try to get in contact with him to set up a meeting with him maybe even be on the radio so more people can witness this. It will be hard to get in touch with him but once I do I feel as though it would be easy after that I would just have to take the right people to help with the meeting and wonder what they will ask and be prepared to respond.

I would say that when spring comes around my issue of legislation, the cleaning of Philadelphia parks will be good. Despite the hard times that the economy is going through, people really love their parks and the beauty that it brings to the city. There are forums that people can find and add in their two bits to the issue. Mayor Nutter has put in place last year the "unlitter us" campaign to encourage people to clean up the city and the parks. There are also other groups that are dedicated to helping make parks look great and they have brought a mass amount of support and volunteers to the cause.

The only Philadelphia city council members that would be needed to make any bill to help the environment go smoother would be, Councilman O'Neill, Councilwoman Miller, Councilwoman Blackwell, and Councilwoman Krajewski. Those council people are not members of the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation and may cause a protest about the distribution of money, though if it comes to a vote, there will be something done to improve parks and make Philly move forward because the majority of the city council plus the mayor is in support for the cleaning of Philadelphia parks.

As far as I know, no one else is working on the topic to make sure that Philadelphia parks are clean. I believe that I could influence some people in my school but there are already a lot of people who would love to see parks be pretty. The time frame for this would have to be in the nicer weather, around April or May would probably be the earliest of starting time frames before when anything will start moving.

The way that I thought about communicating with my organization and legislation members is to first contact them by phone and explain what it is i'm trying to do and then from there contact the organization directly and ask them what different things they are doing not just overall but in the city of Philadelphia. I have also decided a good way to get my point across is to post things on social media sites that have connections with the organization like Twitter and Facebook and use these mediums to allow people a chance to hear my message and what it is I would like to see changed through my work, an example of a post would look something like this

"Childhood obesity can lead to many lifelong illnesses like diabetes and heart disease but when so many schools are taking after school sports programs out of schools because of funding it only leaves kids with inadequate freedom to enjoy themselves and have fun. Through the play60 movement and the initiative to get children to play at least 60 minutes a day we can have this changed and reversed for the better"

This is a example of what one social media site post might look like, keeping in mind that I want to have the organization play60 named so that people can reference and see exactly what it is that they are doing.

For this portion of lobbying Ms. Julia Boyer & I have teamed up to organise 3 things. 
A petition, fundraise, and a protest. So far we have collected several signatures for our petition. We have planned to send the list of signatures directly to Governor Corbett in order for him to jump on board and support us with every Anti-Fracking move we make. 

We also plan to sell Buttons, T-Shirts, Bumper Stickers, etc. in order to promote the protest and have other citizens on board with the Anti-Fracking movement as well. And We also plan to especially inform people who are not aware of what may occur with their drinking water.

As far as the Protest goes, we plan to take a bus trip to rally in Harrisburg in order to get Gov. Corbett's attention so he can know how serious we are about this matter. 

All of these move combined should gather awareness within the media, which would help us to get other supporters.

​The most effective and efficient way to maintain people's attention and to make a change is by stepping in by making people realizes what they will have to deal with! One of the bigger idea that I have for this arrangement is to get down and dirty! 
How?
1. Block off all of biker lanes
2. Stop bikers from biking
3. Take up all of the bike paths
Bikers need to see and realize all of the possibility that will take away their rights to remain moving and biking in a safe and efficient condition. By stoping bikers from biking, they will soon to realize how important it is to have a bike lane and continue to bike without any disruption. 

70% of all citizen own a certain source of social network and anyone can get connected to one way or another. It'd be one interesting and quick idea to pass on the words by using social media. Many attentions will be grabbed by and many minds will be seeking into by the facts as well as the words passing on by the quickest method. I will be using my personal social network as well as connecting friends and family to spread the words for everyone to get involve! 

I will do what it takes to keep out  Philadelphia Bikers alive and moving! 

​ In recent weeks, net neutrality has become a huge issue thanks to the recent hearings on the Stop Piracy Online Act (SOPA). The act would have horrific consequences for the internet. As Adam Savage of Mythbusters put it, "SOPA could destroy the internet as we know it", and he'd be right. SOPA would effectively remove free speech from the internet by blocking websites that have any copyrighted content on them (youtube, facebook, tumblr etc). In the previous weeks Congress has been having hearings on SOPA discussing it, and it's quite concerning how well it's doing. 

Rick Kinard

English 12: Sexuality & Society in Literature

Quarter 2 BM-Research Design

Plan of Action How-To

 

 

Thesis: The environment that one grows up in has an affect on one’s sexual orientation.

 

What thesis-related questions to study? 

•   

•  What is sexual orientation?

•  How is sexual orientation determined?

•  Can one change their sexual orientation? Why/why not?

•  Is homosexuality a mental disorder ?

•  Is homosexuality passed down through genetics 

•  What causes homosexuality?

 

 

 

 

 

What data might be relevant to collect? (link to sources in your AB in this section, if applicable)

•   

•  Statistic/survey linking child abuse and sexuality

•  Statistic/survey linking sexuality of parents and children

•  Statistic/survey linking homosexuality sexuality of identical twins

•  Research done on brain function of homosexuals

•  Research done on genetic of homosexuals compared to heterosexual 

•  Research done on the causes of sexual orientation

 

 

 

How would I analyze the results?

 

I believe the environment and lifestyle one lives has a impact on their sexual orientation. If the from the data about brain functions show that homosexuals and a health heterosexual are similar, it will rule of the possibility of homosexuality being considered mental illness. If the research on genetics and the statistic/survey linking sexuality of parents and children show it now genetic, I can rule out the argument of it being a disorder passed down for parent to child. If the statistic/survey of homosexuality sexuality and identical twins don’t seem to show any trends it cans also rule out the genetics argument because identical twins has very similar biological make ups.

 

Boeree, George. "General Psychology Sexual Orientation." Sexual Orientation. N/A, N/A. Web. 1 Nov 2011. <http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/sexualorientation.html>.

 

This article is about biology and genetic and how a people behaviors are based off of them. It states that men with less testosterone tend to look and act somewhat more like women, and women with more testosterone than other women tend to look and act somewhat more like men. It also go on to say there is no direct link from testosterone to homosexuality. The helps support my topic because even though the genetic the genetic structure of a person my have some effect on a person’s sexual behavior it isn’t the cause of homosexuality.

 

Goldstein, Dora. "Biological basis of sexual orientation." stanford.edu. Stanford University, 03/10/95. Web. 1 Nov 2011. <http://news.stanford.edu/pr/95/950310Arc5328.html>.

 

This article’s information is mainly on puberty. Is stated a week before and after birth, testosterone has an irreversible organizing effect on the body and brain of males. If the hormone is absent during this period, the individuals’ anatomy and behavior never can become wholly male. Also, that during puberty males gets a surge of testosterone, which activates their male sexual development and behavior. This gives some hints that testosterone levels affect sexual behavior. This source and be use to support both nature and nurture arguments.

Hidalgo, Hilda. "Sexual Orientation." healthy minds. american psychological association, N/A. Web. 1 Nov 2011. <http://www.healthyminds.org/More-Info-For/GayLesbianBisexuals.asp&xgt;.

 

This document give some basic information of what sexual orientation is. It also lists some cause that is believed to effect ones sexuality. It states homosexuality was believed to be the result of troubled experiences or environment, and it is not a form of mental illness .The information I receive for this document I can use to introduce my topic and give general information on sexual orientation and how ones environment is believe to effect it.

 

Johnson, Ryan. "Homosexuality: Nature or Nurture." AllPsych Online. N/A, 4/30/03. Web. 1 Nov 2011. <http://allpsych.com/journal/homosexuality.html>.

There are statics identical twins in this document. I can use this because identical twins have very similar biological structures. If the both of them are the same sexual orientation there is a chance that the biological build has a part to play in their sexual orientation. If the studies show that identical twins have the same sexual orientation this could prove my idea wrong

 

Jones, Michael. "Nature vs. Nurture Debates Over Sexuality." Change.org. N/A, 10/05/08. Web. 1 Nov 2011. <http://news.change.org/stories/nature-vs-nurture-debates-over-sexuality>.

This article suggests that both the nature and the nurture have valid evidence on what can affect a child’s sexual orientation. It says proven Research suggests that the homosexual orientation is in place very early in the life cycle, possibly even before birth. Its also that suggest that nurture could be a cause homosexuality. Some causes are estranged relationships between gay children and their parents, allowing male children to play with dolls, not forming healthy same-sex bonds with peers as a toddler, and sexual abuse at a young age. 

 

Swidey, Niel. "What Makes People Gay?." Boston.com. Boston Global, 08/14/05. Web. 1 Nov 2011. <http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2005/08/14/what_makes_people_gay/>.

 

In this document there is information on childhood gender nonconformity. It is a child not being comfortable in his or her own body. In this one of a pair of twins is showing signs of childhood gender nonconformity. In this situation the mother is open minded and what’s her children to have freedom of expression and allow the behavior.  

 

Van Buskirk, James E. "Nature And Causes Of Homosexuality (Book)." Library Journal 106.21 (1981): 2321. Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts. Web. 1 Nov. 2011.

 

These articles talk about one environment and sexuality. It says that a family of homosexuals it is more likely for a child to come out homosexual. It also states that some events and/or relationship with parents can influence a child's sexuality. This directly contributes to my idea that one environment influence ones sexuality.  

 

"sexual orientation and homosexuality." psychology.org. Australian psychological society, N/A. Web. 1 Nov 2011. <http://www.psychology.org.au/publications/tip_sheets/orientation/>.

 

This article rules out a popular belief that homosexuality is a choice. It states that ones sexual orientation is determined at a young age before there is any kind of sexual act. It shows how some were not comfortable with their homosexuality and tried to change it. In the end their homosexuality didn’t go away. I can use this to kill the argument that sexual orientation is choice when in the end leaves the arguments that it is either nurture or nature.

Issue: In a criminal case, is a court required to exclude eyewitness identification evidence whenever the identification was made under the circumstances that make the identification unreliable because they tend to suggest that the defendant was responsible for the crime, or only when  the police are responsible for the circumstances that make the identification unreliable.

Basically in this case Barion Perry, the guy who is being prosecuted for breaking into someone's car. The thing that is making this case so difficult is because the person who saw him do it, could not identify him what so ever. When the cops put him in a line up she had no clue who it was.  To me she pretty much  took a wild guess  there perry came out. The information  being used in this case isn't reliable information because they are not sure  if the police were their or not. The eyewitness was not sure  if perry was the person or not and they are trying to say that the police were there but then again they are now going to have to put the case on hold because the they don't have enough evidence.

Since I am lobbying for music and athletic programs to be brought back as well as stop cutting them, I decided to try and get in contact with the superintended of the School District of Philadelphia and attack the problem right on the head. I soon noticed that this was a really hard task because it was extremely hard to find his own personal email. I then looked for a way to get in contact with someone who could relay the message and when browsing the school district of Philadelphia's website, I came across a link that provided phone numbers to the schools in the district. I wanted to get my voice heard on a larger scale so I decided to call Central, Roxbourough and Sayre. I targeted these three schools because they are larger schools that have large music and athletic programs so they can understand my concern. Unfortunately they haven't responded to me yet.

https://webapps.philasd.org/school_profile

​

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is the form used by the U.S. Department of Education to determine your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) by looking at your financial information, such as income, and household information. 

https://www.lucidchart.com/documents/view#448c-bcd8-4edff2b2-8c60-40280a5ac729?branch=82a33e52-b82d-423e-bc72-a220b3e33d9c

​Federal Student Aid, an office of the U.S. Department of Education, ensures that all eligible individuals can benefit from federally funded financial assistance for education beyond high school. We consistently champion the promise of postsecondary education to all Americans and its value to our society.


Lucid Chart:

https://www.lucidchart.com/documents/view#448c-bcd8-4edff2b2-8c60-40280a5ac729?branch=b317a48f-5df6-425e-93b0-dc26066ae7ff


if I could change one thing I would change the length of the whole process itself.


I believe it became so complicated because they don't want just everyone to get it, they want the people who actually need it to receive it first.

    In order for my lobbying topic to come to the attention of big city officials, I have to get the attention of the council members who make up the Rules Committee  for the city of Philadelphia.  There are many methods I can take to capture their attention that will all be effective for me.

The person that I really need to get in contact with would be Anna C. Verna because she is the chair of the rules committee but if I am not able to get in touch with her, I have 8 other options of people to get in contact with including James F. Kenney who is the vice chair of the committee.


Speaking hypothetically, I send out letters, e-mails and make calls to both the chair and the vice chair and I do not get in contact with them and I never hear anything back, I’ll first contact Donna Reed Miller who is one of the members on the committee. The reason why I’ll contact her is because she serves the 8th district, which is my districts’ councilwoman.

My plan of action is the following:

1.    Write a letter addressing my issues and ways I chose to go about fixing the issue (Just in case I need to send a letter)

2.    Call Verna to get in contact with her first and work my way down the line if my plan doesn’t work.

3.    Attend a meeting to figure out their viewpoints they already have on curfew. The point of the meeting would be to be observant of
    what plans they have already made and see how can I add to it or tie my ideas into their laws.
   
4.    Set up a meeting with whoever is willing to meet with me and discuss my ideas with them and try to get them to agree with me to represent this to a larger audience.

5.    Hopefully get feedback from the larger audience and see if my issue can be brought before the mayor and see what he says about it.
   

.

Vice Chair James F. Kenney 

      

 Chair Anna C. Verna

  

 

Council Woman Donna Reed Miller

​Issue: Whether a generic drug manufacturer may sue the company that produces the brand-name version of the drug to require it to correct information filed with the Food and Drug Administration, information that is relevant to the agency's decision whether to approve the generic version of the drug.

Caraco is a pharmaceutical laboratory who's main job is to create affordable medication for patients

Novo Nordisk is a healthcare company and worldwide leader in diabetes care and medication 

The case which revolves around Caraco  diabetes drug repaglinide, Caraco certified that its' drug label wouldn't conflict with respondent novo nordisk repaglinide-metformin use combination

National Meat Association vs. Harris:

In this supreme court case, the National Meat association of California is going up against Federal law. In this particular case State law is being challenged by federal law, which usually comes out on top in terms of supreme court cases. California state law dictates that a sickly animal must be destroyed immediately while federal law outlines that the animal must be quarantined and observed so an illness can be pinpointed to see if the rest of the slaughterhouse animals could possibly be affected by the disease. The animal would also be quarantined to find out the symptoms of the disease or infection in order to find it in other animals (pigs in this case). Part of California's argument included that leaving a quarantined animal to die from a horrid infection or illness is a form of cruelty while those backing the federal law stuck to their argument that finding the root of the illness and preventing an outbreak of disease among a group of animals bound for the slaughterhouse has a much greater reward than risk. Since the case is relatively straightforward, officials will most likely come to a decision in the early months of the upcoming year after the weigh the pro's and con's of each dictated law.

    ​I decided that the mobilizing activity that I will undertake will be a personalized letter to the targeted decision maker.I decided to do this because I feel as though this will be most affective. Also because its a direct messaga and I believer it will have a much better impact that creating post cards or rallies and demonstrations. 
     I plan on writing a letter to Blondell Reynolds as well as meeting with her in person to discuss the curfew issue and a better way of going abou the curfew. I would express my views on the situation as well as the view of my peers. Also though the ultimate decision maker is the Mayer, Blondell Reynolds also has a large influence on the decision as well and it was mainly her idea to enforce the curfew. 

Plan of Action 

1.    Write a letter addressing my issues and discuss and different way to discipline youth that do cause trouble and not you the approach were everyone if affected because of someones actions. 

2.    Call Blondell Reynolds to set up a meeting with her to discuss her reasoning and the way she feels about the subject. Also to see if my letter had any impact on her. 

3.    Attend one or two meetings to see things from their viewpoint. Get their opinions they already have on curfew law.  The point of the meeting would be to be to simply observe and see how they come to a concisus. 
    
4.    Set up a meeting with the Mayor if possible as well as Blondell Reynolds so that we could all talk together,

5.    Hopefully get feedback from the larger audience and see if my issue can be brought before the mayor and see what he says about it.
    

​For this project my partner and I decided to file for marriage papers. We searched online in order to find the paperwork but we couldnt. We discussed it with our teacher and decided to give them a call. When I called the office the first thing they asked was whether the two people getting married were over 18 and then a list of things I'd need to bring down to their offices in order to legalize the marriage. I didnt have much of a chance to speak and got a little confused. I tried to get my teacher on the phone, but it was something I had to do myself. I found that I could not get a copy of the papers, in order to even see the papers we had to actually get married. By the time I got back on the phone the lady hung up on me. I then tried again the next day and received some information we needed to complete our project but were still unable to see the documents. Our final product was based on our process and all other data we gathered. I found this project very informative, different and very nice to work with because I now know the process one has to take in order to be legally married. 



               

  

Background Info On Blondell:

Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown has been a long time champion of children and youth, the arts and culture community, and small business development. She is now an emerging leader in energy conservation and environmental matters and is infusing her policy initiatives to reflect this new and important priority.

Some of her Accomplishments Include:

-Persuading the Phillies and Eagles, along with Mayor John F. Street , during the sports stadium negotiations, to establish a “Fund for Children” requiring each team to contribute $1 million annually for 30 years.

-Structured the new Department of Parks and Recreation to reflect national best practices.

-Sponsored resolutions that supported organized labor unions (SEIU – Janitors and 1199C – Childcare Teachers) in their efforts to gain fair contracts and fought for amendments to protect union jobs from privatization (DC33).

-Equipped police officers with a new and stronger curfew law to complement the opening of 11 citywide curfew centers.

-Created and implemented the “Groceries for Guns” initiative, a gun buyback program that resulted in an unprecedented number of gun buybacks, to help curtain gun violence in the city.

She has shown a great deal of involvement in the city of Philadelphia's affairs that have to do with child safety, recreation of homes and sponsoring programs.

I'm Lobbying laws that can possibly help the Youth in Philadelphia become less liable to be incarcerated. I called the Philadelphia Prison System Office (@2156858395) and was transferred to the Criminal Justice Center near 15th St. I was able to get a few statistics from the man I spoke to about the incarceration rate of Philadelphia, some of his thoughts on how the city is run, and how he deals with youth who come through to the trials.

"It's just heart wrenching to see kids who look like they barely got the hang of high school yet, come through here and get processed. I wish I could have possibly saved some of them, because they all just look so angry at the world, or angry at themselves, and it's truly heartbreaking. A lot of us officers do our jobs to keep the streets safe, but we don't always like it. Especially when another young kid is being convicted of a crime that could possibly ruin his teenage years." - Mr. Carl Washington 

He didn't give me an exact percentage, but he did tell me that the incarceration rate and drop out rate are higher than the graduation rate of students in Philadelphia. He also said "The more they undereducate, they Over incarcerate." When he told me this, I felt as if he knows that theres a way to save our youth in Philadelphia, and he has hope for the future.

My plan of action is to get Ms. Blondell Brown to come out to my mom's 3rd Annual "Positive Impact: Young Men's Conference" on January 28th and speak to the youth.

Information I plan to send

(Flyer from Second Annual) 

Positive Impact Motorcycle Events Presents

Young Men's Leadership Conference 

Date: January 28th, 2012

This event is for Young Males between he ages of 10-17

Positive Impact has lined up 7 Dynamic Professionals to speak at our event 

"Our focus is to change lives, instill integrity and build character so the the next emerging generation of husbands and fathers will take these skills and vision to make a positive difference in the world." 

During the First Annual Young Men's Conference in 2010, we've had between 90-120 Young Men come out to learn about different things that can benefit their lives positively, and they got to meet keynote speakers who have taught Anger Management, Making Passions into careers, cooking, and Leadership. Some speakers we're ex cons, some were accountants and relater. I want to Contact Ms. Blondell to be apart of this event, because the purpose of the "Young Men's Conference" is too educate and inform the youth of Philadelphia, Chester, Delaware, and New Jersey on the different opportunities that they have to succeed, and they teach them about the jail systems, and the different extra curricula's that go on around the city they live in. It's important to keep our youth busy, and keep them off the streets and caught up in things that could potentially ruin their futures.

http://www.blondellonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1&Itemid=3