Honors Blog #4

4. If you could choose any specific parts of literature and.or history for our honors work next semester, what would you pick and why?

1. I think that through being an honors student I have gained a few skills that have helped me in the regular humanities class and will help me in the future. I think that one thing that being an honors student has helped me with already is learning history. I believe this because after researching for one of the honors blog I learned a lot about Social Security. I think that the honors blog forced me to look deeper so I understood more about it. This helped me on a test we took a few days later.

I think something that being an honors student will help me with in the future is my time management because the extra honors assignments and the regular class assignments kind of piled up at first but it forced me to focus on one thing at a time and to look at my deadlines to find out what assignment is most important.

The last thing I think being an honors student will help me with is leadership opportunities. Even though I am taking honors again next semester, honors this semester has inspired me to take as many leadership opportunities as I can because I think that being a leader is a sign of strength and I like that. haha

2. This only thing I would do differently through honors would be my first honors book review because I didn't understand what to do for the review but I kind of already did it because I thought we were supposed to. I'm not really sure what I'd re-do because I'm proud of everything I've done in as an honors student.

3. My goals for honors next semester is just to keep working hard and to not get behind like I almost did this semester. I also want to make sure to try very hard on each assignment. 

4. I'd like to read the novel Our Strange New Land: Elizabeth's Diary, Jamestown, Virginia, 1609 by Patricia Hermes

I had heard about this book form someone and it sounds really interesting its about "Nine year old Elizabeth keeps a journal of her experiences in the New World as she encounters Indians, suffers hunger and the death of friends, and helps her father build their first home."

I find Indians interesting and the whole coming to a new world interesting. I also really like novels that are like journals like this one and The Diary of Ann Frank. :) Yay!

Honors Blog #3

If I could modernize one program from the FDR’s new deal I would change the social security act of 1965, which was a created as a “fix” for the “Great Depression”. Social Security provided pensions, unemployment insurance, and aid to blind, deaf, disabled, and needy children.

I believe that since we are in the “Great Recession” the government needs to expand on Social Security or create another program which mimics it. When I say expand Social Security I mean adding something like an expansion pack and calling it the Social Security reform of 2010 or 2011, depending on when it is approved. I think what needs to be changed or added is the amount of people eligible for Social Security.

I think that veterans, even ones who aren’t disabled after war, should also receive aid because even if they got lucky and weren’t tremendously hurt in war doesn’t mean they weren’t fighting for our country like the others did. I think that all veterans deserve extra help because they are fighting for everyone.

I believe that another thing that should be changed about Social Security is the price because it can be too high especially for retired people who don’t have any income so that their families can better afford it.

I believe that if the expansion of Social Security doesn’t work another program should be created that can be used as another option. It would have the same things as social security plus aid to all veterans and it would be more affordable. I think that this second option would help people live better lives because they can use money not spent on Social Security to purchase other things that are needed for life.  

Honors Blog #2

Dear President Obama,

                I’d like to take this time to talk to you about how to succeed in the "Great Recession” until the end of your first term and possibly your second if you are reelected. The “Great Recession” can be compared to the “Great Depression” of 1929 and you can also be compared to Franklin Roosevelt depending on how you take care of the problem with the economy.

                Like FDR, you came into office in the middle of an economic crisis. You, also like FDR, are trying to get through policies that don’t just “fix” the immediate problem but also to benefit Americans in the future. I believe that this will be challenging for you to do because your new ideas resemble FDR’s new deal and some people believe that was helpful while others thought it wasn’t necessary. I’m afraid people will see the resemblance and she your ides as unnecessary.

                FDR’s new deal was a series of economic programs to get the people out of the “Great Depression”. This was done through the “3 R’s”: relief, recovery and reform.  You have brought up a few ideas for improving the US and getting it out of the “Great Recession”. These include health care for all, a green revolution, expanded voting rights, due process for terror suspects, more powerful unions, financial regulation, and a shift of the tax burden upward. The idea that of yours that is most like FDR’s “New Deal” is your health care for all, or Universal Health Care plan.

                The difference is that people already have an idea of what could happen because they have seen the effects of FDR’s “New Deal”. Some people argue that it caused relief but did not cause recovery and people are afraid that the same will happen after Universal Health Care comes into play. I think that even if Universal Health Care causes recovery instead of relief you will still be helping the US and since something needs to be done, this will be perfect.

                Thank you for your time Mr. President Obama, I know you are a busy man, so it means a lot that you are taking the time to consider my advice.

Sincerely,

Advisor Shoshannah Michaelsen

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2008/11/10/081110taco_talk_coll
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/17/081117fa_fact_packer
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1906802_1906838_1906745,00.html

Blog #20

 Desegregation in Schools

When thinking about school I think about my peers and how many of them are of a different race. This seems so normal to me. It feels like it's always been that way but in reality it hasn't. Up until 1954 schools were separated by race and "dominant race", which was white, received the better education and books. This all changed through the Brown vs. Board of Education trial in supreme court where it was declared that state laws supporting separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The supreme court took a federalist stand and changed the law to desegregate schools and it has been that way since.

I talked to my grandma who told me about her experience with the desegregation in schools. She said that it didn't seem to make a difference in California, at her high school there was one black boy who was encouraged to go there because he was very good at Track and Field. I asked her how she reacted and she said she reacted like everyone else in the school. She said he was excepted because he was athletic and people saw him as one of the "jocks". I then asked her what she knew what federalism and anti federalism was and she told me she had the federalist papers at home but didn't know too much because she hasn't read them. I describe them to her as federalists are for the man while anti federalists are not. She nodded her head in agreement. I then asked her if the desegregation of schools was considered fed or anti fed. She told me it was federalist because the government was in change and changed the law. We then shifte conversation to other topics about the family and never came back to the subject.

Honors Blog #1

In a thoughtful, thoroughly researched and well-revised essay that is 500 words or less, make the case for what you consider the most significant element of health care legislation in American history. Be sure to organize your writing around a specific thesis statement and series of direct quotes from thoughtfully-chosen pieces of evidence and inlcude a works cited at the end of your writing (your works cited does not count towards your word count).

                The most significant element of health care legislation is the Social Security reform because it has continued to make changes for the better since 1935 when it was created. Social Security is also most significant because even though the system isn’t perfect and hasn’t ever been the government is still working to improve it to improve the life for people enrolled.

The first step of the reform was on August 14, 1935 when Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. The Social Security act was originally made to provide security economically to people during the great depression but went on to aid the unemployed, elderly and children, and many state health and welfare programs. It also created a system which gave benefits fanatically to retired workers in “commerce or industry, except railroad workers,” that are of the age 65 or higher. According to the 1935 law, the system was funded by payroll taxes which started out at 2 percent.

                The first change that was made to Social Security was made in 1939, when the payroll tax turned into the Federal Insurance Contribution Act, or FICA. The Federal Reorganization Act begins making the Social Security Board a part of the newly established Federal Security Agency, which removed the status of an independent agency. New amendments expanded Social Security to and added benefits for the families with dead workers and retirees' descendents, like their children and spouses.

                After inflation on August 28, 1950 President Truman signed the 1950 Social Security Amendments. These enacted the first "cost-of-living-adjustment", which ultimately changed the benefits of Social Security, making it more affordable for people enrolled.

                Payroll taxes continued to rise reaching 9.2 percent in 1972 and 11.4 percent in 1983. This raised taxes for everyone not just the people with Social Security.

                In 1995 the Social Security Administration became an independent agency again.

                On August 22, 1996 President Clinton signed a welfare reform bill, which eliminated eligibility benefits if alcoholism or drug addiction had something to do with the disability.

                President Clinton approved the Senior Citizens' Freedom to Work Act on April 7, 2000, which eliminated the Retirement Earnings Test for beneficiaries at or above normal retirement age of 66. This suede about 900,000 people to want keep their jobs instead retiring for another year so they wouldn’t miss out on any benefits.

                Social Security has changed over its existence and will continue to until it is gone, if that ever happens. There have been advancements and drawbacks and decisions that didn’t make sense, which is the exact reason it’s most significant. Although there are problems with the program and decision making, the government is looking to change Social Security. People still deal with program today and it is something everyone comes in contact with in their life.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/social_security/reform/timeline.html

Blog #19

1. What are you most proud of in your Life: The Book writing? Try to describe this is detail!
In my Life: The Book writing, I wrote about many different "mini topics" pertaining to my topic of Gene Therapy to treat immune system diseases. I believe that the best part of my writing was was the flow. I believe this because it is the part of writing I'm usually not very good at. The article was a challenge to do so because I had to make stories flow into ethic arguments and the arguments had to flow into the scientific aspects of the therapy such as the procedure. I think that after taking all the steps of revising my outline is what helped me to do so. 

2. What are some changes or new ideas that you have developed in your writing through the course of this semester?

Besides what I had said in the question above I believe a change or new idea I have developed in my writing is after receiving a critique I don't just go back an fix what they said needed to change, especially if they don't say much, instead I go back and make another critique for myself to improve my writing even further. This year is the first year I have actually tried to work really hard on my writing and I think that it has made a huge difference. I believe that taking these few extra steps of critique has helped me improve A LOT from last year and will only further continue to improve my writing in the future.

3. If you had a little more time to work on your writing for LifE: The Book, what would you do differently? What would you change about your writing?

When I look back at my writing next to other students I notice a couple things. I notice that my article is shorter than a lot of other peoples so I might want to go back and just try to add more detail to make the article longer. I know that doing that is sort of pointless hearing from multiple people that it was very clear and understandable I think I could paint a better picture in peoples mind with better language. Another main thing I'd change is to research more about the first gene therapy. I know that I did TONS of research and still found nothing but I feel as though I might have been able to find more on the little girl. The last thing I'd change is when I talked about the ethical issues it was very difficult to find people who actually said the things I talked about so I couldn't be very specific so I would go back and try to find those even though when doing research I couldn't find those things.

4. How has the additional element of publication in a book affected the way you approach writing?
The only thing that the publication has really changed about my approach on my writing would be the fact that it is very difficult to reword things that I research so I had to go back and change things that were to similar to the resources I took the information from. This was a problem because My job for publication was to make a timeline for the book and it set me back for a little bit but in all honesty it didn't take to long to fix the things I needed to so it wasn't very hard at all to get my article to the book editors and get to working on the timeline. My major concern with my problem of rewording my research is that I won't get good at it and I will be accused of copying someone else work, which isn't good obviously.