Honan, Mat. "The Government's Gadget Habit Has Cost You Hundreds of Millions." Gizmodo, the Gadget Guide. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://gizmodo.com/5812233/the-governments-gadget-habit-has-cost-you-hundreds-of-millions>.

Andrews, Edmund L. "Tax Cuts Offer Most for Very Rich, Study Says - New York Times." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 29 Jan. 2012. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/08/washington/08tax.html>.

"The First Income Tax." Civil War Trust: Saving America's Civil War Battlefields. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/warfare-and-logistics/logistics/tax.html>.

"Presidental Address." C-Span Video. C-Span. Web. <http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/165970-1>.

"Salmon P. Chase." NNDB. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.nndb.com/people/808/000031715/salmon-p-chase.jpg>.

"Lincoln." History Place. History Place. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <History Place>.

"Army Representatives." Ontario County Fair. Ontario County Fair. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.ontariocountyfair.org/pix/2004%20updates/Army%20Representatives.jpg>.

"IPad." Venture Beat. Venture Beat. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://venturebeat.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/ipad-3.jpg>.

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.

            It seems as though in the year 2011, the immigration amnesty bill has lost some of its importance. The outlook for immigration legislation during the 2011-2012 debate seems to be getting worse as time goes on.. However, in July 2010, it was announced that 81% of citizens voted in support of the bill. As for the votes of the elected officials, it seems as though it is split down the middle. The bill has been voted on countless times and nothing has really moved us forward. There is a policy for immigration amnesty however it has not changed since 2007. It covers what is expected of undocumented workers currently in the US, border security, employment verification, the guest worker program, permanent residence through the Point System, and other things.

            There is only one non-profit immigration outreach center that is available for people who support immigration amnesty to have on their side to try and get the bill passed. The most important people in this issue are the congressmen and women. They are the ones going back and forth about the situation and the President is just sitting there waiting to sign the bill because he’s already down for it. In order to help try and pass this bill on to the President I would have to convince most of the congress that this isn’t a bad idea.

The other people who are working on this are all of the pro-immigration organizations. I think I could work with them. I would just have to make sure I know exactly what I’m talking about, which I do. I could also influence other people with family overseas who would love to come over to the US. They know what it’s like to have their family rejected for no reason just as much as I do. The more support we get, the more likely congress is to give in.

This has been going on for years, the first amnesty day was in 1986 and I’m hoping it isn’t the last. It’s been 25 years and we still can’t get it together. The only key date I could find was March 12^th, 2011 when Utah passed their amnesty bill.

The constitutional question of this Supreme Court case was the following: “Is Cheryl Perich a minister?” If Cheryl Perich is not a minister then all federal, state, and local anti-discrimination laws protect her even if her employer is religious.

The Hosanna-Tabor case was about a teacher, Cheryl Perich, whose job was to teach secular subjects as well as some religious teaching. At first, she was not hired as a real teacher but after taking education courses she became a qualified teacher. Her job was pretty much the same before and after she became qualified however. Later, Perich began to fall sick from narcolepsy and left the school for medical reasons. When she returned months later, the church told her that her job was unavailable and she could not return. Perich wasn’t having that, so she threatened to sue under the Americans with Disabilities Act, saying that the church should have worked with her so that she could keep her job. Instead of scaring them into giving her the job back, it just made it harder for her to get it. The church said that if she sued them then she would no longer be welcome as an employee because they believe that all disputes should be resolved peacefully. They said that she failed to take advantage of an internal procedure, rather than court. However, they never told Perich about this “internal procedure” until after she had mentioned her intent to use the ADA.

            When Justice Ginsburg if it was in the handbook, the church’s representative, Professor Douglas Laycock, completely dodged the question, saying that the handbook was irrelevant. So basically he knew they were wrong. He just didn’t want to admit it so they wouldn’t lose the case.

            I think that Cheryl Perich will win this case primarily because she was not a minister, only a teacher, which means she has all the laws by her side. The church has none except that you cannot sue the church. However, she was not suing the church, she was suing the employers. Also, the church’s story was backwards and there were some questions they refused to answer or tried to dodge because they knew they were wrong. It’s obvious, so they’re going to lose.

Robert Brady and I are pretty different people however we have the same belief when it comes to amnesty day. He was born and raised in Philadelphia while I was born in New York, raised there for a while and then moved to Philadelphia.  He graduated from St. Thomas More High School then later became a carpenter and was soon part of the leadership of the Carpenters’ union. He is still a member of both the Carpenters’ and Teachers’ unions. On January 5, 2011, Congressman Brady was sworn into office for his 8^th term representing the first congressional district of Pennsylvania.

Congressman Brady is very supportive of helping foreign countries. Foreign policies are his biggest interest. Some of the policies he supports are democratic institutions in Pakistan, stopping foreign arms transfers to China, keeping the Cuba travel ban until political prisoners are released, $156 million to IMF for 3^rd-world debt reduction, $15.2 billion for foreign operations, allowing Americans to travel to Cuba, and much more. I find this pretty awesome because it seems as though he is more understand of foreign need than the rest of the congressmen and women. It explains why he is also supportive of another amnesty day.

Robert Brady is very active within the community, as previously stated, he is still a member of both the Carpenter’s and Teacher’s union. He has also improved dogs’ working conditions, shows interest in sports like citizens, speaks out about ways to help demolish poverty and get more people employed, and many other things that benefit us in our community.

            Congressman Brady and I seem quite a like. He seems like the simple thinker that I am as well, and we think of some of the same solutions to problems in our state.

http://www.issues2000.org/PA/Robert_Brady_Foreign_Policy.htm

http://brady.house.gov/

            I am lobbying for another Amnesty day. A large amount of the immigrants in America are here illegally. However, a lot of them have been living here peacefully, working, and contributing positively in some way to the United States. Though not all illegal immigrants are contributing positively to the US, all illegal immigrants should still be granted citizenship. That way we can crackdown on more of the crimes going on with them because they actually exist in our system. Deportation is always an option as well, but I feel like prejudice is playing a role in this too. It seems as though the government doesn't want anyone else from outside the country to be here. It's already difficult to get into the US legally, so why on Earth would they let illegal immigrants stay?
            I chose this topic for two reasons. The first reason is simply because it's interesting to know that instead of pardoning people for trying to live a better life, they're wasting their lives away trying to find and deport them. Twelve million is a huge number to be trying to get rid of when we have so many other things to worry about in the US. We might as well just give them citizenship. Most of them aren't planning on leaving anyway. The second is reason is because I understand what these illegal immigrants are going through. I have so many family members in Nigeria praying to get their Visa to come over to visit at least. Most of them have been denied. Their intentions are in no way harmful to the US, they are all healthy beings, and can contribute loads of things to the US but for some reason they were all denied. Nigeria is filled with extremely obvious corruption. Though the US is corrupt as well, they're better off here where the corruption is sugarcoated to the max and can still walk the streets without having to see a huge war tank and it’s launcher pointed in their direction. Basically, these people mean no harm. They're not here purposely to break the rules. They're running from something or looking forward to something, that's pretty much it.

The main supporters of my lobbying idea are immigrants. The main opponents of my lobbying idea are the majority of the government (seeing as how they have yet to have another amnesty day). There is a pending legislation dealing with my lobbying idea. It talks about securing the border and granting the immigrant workers legal access to actual jobs.

• http://scienceleadership.org/blog/Lola_Akisnola-s_Bunch_of_Drawings
• http://scienceleadership.org/blog/Lola_Akinsola_Artist_Focus:Pablo_Picasso
  

​​​            For this marking period I had a lot of difficulties drawing these pictures. I'm not good at drawing from life and I am absolutely terrible at shading. The most difficult drawing for me was the hand. My hand has two totally different shades and it felt impossible to blend the two shades in like it looks on my hand. So instead of having a nice blend of dark and light shades I had a straight line dividing the two shades, making it look even more unrealistic. I also had a problem matching up where the shades were on my hand. Where the division of shades is on my hand is not a straight line so when I tried so draw the rest of my hand it came out inaccurate due to the confusion of the lines.
               The second most difficult drawing was the clear bottle drawing. The hardest part of this was, of course, figuring out where to shade the dark and light spots of the container. Anyone would think that a clear container has no dark or light spots because it has no color. However, when you look at an actual drawing of one you do see some gray and black shading here and there. Another problem I had with this drawing was the curves of the container. The pitcher that I was drawing had a lot of curves and detail and it was hard to make those visible the same way it was visible when I was drawing it. Also, the lines that went up and down the pitcher were sort of round so it threw me off when I was drawing it and made my lines look crooked.

Surprisingly, the easiest thing for me was the cluster of objects on the table. I personally liked this drawing the best. I did have some trouble drawing it, but it was not as tedious as all of the others. The shapes were much easier to make out than the others. The second easiest was the self-portrait. The problem that I had with the self-portrait however, was the shading of course. I had no clue how to determine the dark and light spots on my face so instead of applying more charcoal to the picture I just tried to bring out as much color from the sides as possible and onto my face and chest. It doesn't look like I shaded it that much but it is better than if I had applied more charcoal to the picture. Lastly, the full portrait that I draw of Trevor was in the middle. It was easy to make out the outside shape, but once I got to the actual detail drawing it became very complex. The eyes and the lips were all uneven and crooked, but overall I think I did okay.

I do the work I do because it is what fits most with what I am thinking at the moment. I don’t think about anything else but what I want to do. I may receive certain requirements for whatever project I am working on, but I turn those requirements into my requirements. For this project, we were given the opportunity to choose whatever we wanted to do for the quarter project.

The way I chose my project was pretty simple. I was not done with the project from the last quarter and I was curious to know what it would look like if I had finished it completely. I also wanted to continue the experience of a sewing machine. It took me about four months to complete this bag whereas if I was using an electric sewing machine it would have only taken me a couple of days, one week at the most. I also chose these tools because I have never sewn anything before. I’ve always wondered how well I would do on my first time sewing something together. Using empty Capri Sun pouches, a needle, thread, a hot glue gun, and old bag handles from a different bag, I created a hand made Capri Sun tote bag.

Link

I do the work I do because I just simply like it. I get the assignment and own the requirements. What I mean by that is that I sort of take the black and white requirements and color them in my favorite colors. The requirements are still there, you just see my likings all over them. My goal was always to try and help as much as I can to clean up the world and stop trashing it and harming the animals.

The way I make decisions when it comes to my work is pretty simple. I just do what I like. I always have my own idea of things so I take that idea out of my head and into the art. I select materials by determining the difficulty of working with them and if it will open eyes. I do this because I don’t want my art to be something everybody has been before. I want my art to be unique so I take risks and use odd things. I chose to sew the bag by hand because I wanted to feel like a sewing machine. Usually people just take the easy way out and use a sewing machine. I wanted to see what the sewing machine went through even though it is an inanimate object. It still uses up energy and part of my inspiration for this bag was saving resources and energy and keeping the ocean clean because these Caprisun pouches end up right in the water or just on the floor somewhere.

My current work, stated before, is a handbag made entirely out of Caprisun juice pouches. I never thought of where these Caprisun pouches went when they are thrown away until I was given this assignment. I was looking up ideas for my project while I was drinking a Caprisun. Then I looked up a Caprisun bag and there it was. I went home and started thinking more of where the pouches go and it drove me deeper and made me more interested in making this bag. Also, I am a bit interested in the fashion world so it just made it all the more exciting. I was going to get a sewing machine but I figured it would defeat the purpose of babying the world and not harming it anymore. I am attempting to make recycled art fashionable. I may even start making accessories and clothes out of recycled things.