Obama's Plan for Afghanistan

This last Tuesday, December 1st marked the beginning of the end of the Iraq war, and a surge of 30,000 troops to be moved in to Afghanistan by Christmas. Obama spoke to Americans and the cadets at west point about his plans for the middle east.
Obama stated that the U.S. will be out of Afghanistan by 2011, right before the election. Democrats and Republicans were split on the issue. On Bill O'Reily's coverage after the speech, Dennis Kucinich (D Ohio) disagreed with Obama's plan for more troops. He believes that adding more troops will not help the United States, instead he proposed that we pull completely out of the region. Of course, there were "fundamental differences" between Kucinich and O'reily. O'reily and other Republicans believe that Obama was "too soft" and "lacked emotion" when addressing his plans to snuff out Taliban and Al-Qaeda operations.
I agree with O'reilys' opinion. I'm not gonna lie, I literally fell asleep during his speech. It did lack emotion and vigor, especially since he announced we will be leaving the region by mid-to-late 2011. If you're going to give an unstable government like Afghanistan's an ultimatum, make it feel serious. Obama's tone was not strong enough to resonate in the ears of the Afghan government. Maybe it's not Obama's style. I still believe in him, but like any good American, I'll criticise him.

GO HAWKEYES

I have a dilemma. I'm a senior in H.S. and I've gotten in to both Iowa and Iowa State. For the longest time I've been a Hawkeye fan, but now I must make a decision. State or Hawks? I'm really interested in the engineering program at State, and from what I understand, it's much better there. What do I do?

American Progress?

In this photo, I see regression in America. I remember the lack of aid for African Americans in need after Katrina. This relates to reconstruction and race. One might draw from the photo that it was taken in a helicopter that likely kept moving. Perhaps they didn’t stop because of the misspelled “please” and their racist attitudes towards blacks, thus a lack of progression. Or is it not miss-spelled, and thus has its own meaning? I remember the use of the flag in the civil rights movie, and wonder if this is a purposeful parallel to that usage of the flag?

Jesus Camp

A couple weeks ago on the main blog, anamericanstudies.com, there was a post about what should be taught in school, Creationism or Evolution? This topic resurfaced in a movie that I watched this morning on A&E called "Jesus Camp." Now, the second link brings you to a site called "Atheist Nation", but I'm not an atheist, this is the only site I could find with the video on it. This is a very interesting look at Evangelical Christians and their beliefs. It briefly goes over their beliefs on the Creationism vs. Evolution argument, but mostly it offers their prospect of training this generation to be God's army. You should definitely make time to watch it, it's not overly biased, it just shows how the Evangelical community operates.

Class Issues

Lately in American Studies, we've been talking about social class. The other day, while I was driving through Winnetka, I saw a woman mowing a lawn. This at first struck me as odd, because usually I see men mowing lawns. Then I began to think about that perception of mine, women should have equal opportunity without scrutiny as men do when doing normal jobs like mowing the lawn. Then, The idea/question of driving through Winnetka and seeing anybody mowing a lawn other than hired help dawned on me.

Winnetka, as we all know, is a wealthy, middle to upper class, community, and usually one sees the "Chalet" or other landscaping crews mowing lawns, not owners. This seemed to be an interesting indicator of class to me. We've been talking about Winnetka's train stations and the "Big Ditch" as indicators of class, but what about the simpler forms of class indicators, like who cleans your house and keeps up the garden, or even the fact of having a garden?

The Chalet is no slouch in the landscaping business, they probably provide some of the nicest lawn care on the Northshore, and this is not lost on the residents of Kenilworth and Winnetka. Just look at their logo. The typeface is elegant with sweeping curves and the background is a dark blue, contrasting the white curves nicely. This logo connotes a sense of higher class because of the font I believe. The well educated are often grouped into the higher class, as seen in the New York times gauge during class. I find cursive writing to be an indicator of schooling and thus class. This might be a stretch to some, but cursive just comes off more graceful compared to block letters.

Another marker of grace and class is speech. The parallels can be drawn between the graceful and the upper class as seen in The Great Gatsby. During the numerous parties that go on in the first few chapters, we see Nick at some upscale affairs and almost everyone there speaks in an aristocratic manner. Compare this speech to that of the type found in Huck Finn. Huck speaks in an inelegant fashion and we know he comes from a lower class. But I digress.

Anyway, I just thought that it was interesting to see someone mowing their lawn and it not being the Chalet or likewise companies. Perhaps this is only a sign of the failing economy and having to tighten our belts, but nonetheless, it's interesting.

What do you think, feel free to comment.

Live Free or Die!

This week in class we were assigned to take an original photo of an American flag and analyze it. I selected a photo that I took last year at the end of camp. I go to camp in Holderness, New Hampshire in the White Mountains of northern Appalachia.

I chose this photo because it truly resembles the beauty of this distinct region of America. The New Hampshire state motto is "live free or die," and this is not lost with the flying of the flag. Only a mere fifty miles from camp is the site where the "old man of the mountain" once stoically looked over the state. Here, the flag pole seems to be piercing into the sky as a sort of bridge from earth to heaven, and the flag itself is perfectly centered in a break in the clouds. The pine tree on the left provides a good parallel line to that of the pole and the pole is centered by the two boulders on each side of it. The children playing lacrosse below the flag are dwarfed by its large size and power. Squam Lake and the mountain range in the background contrast the vertical images of the pine and the pole by providing horizontal detail. The balding face of the hill in the foreground suggests the ware from the past 60 years of camp meetings and thus reflects the age of the pole and flag. The flag also appears as if it watches over the surroundings as a source of liberty, just like the "old man" did. This photo does justice to the beauty of not only this region, but America itself, from sea to shining sea.

So that's how I see it, what do you think of the photo?

Junior theme numéro cinq, conclusion

Otay, my paper is almost done, I'm just not 100% sure about my conclusion. Here it is along with my intro:

“In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.” -Thomas Jefferson

Despite the fact that “polygamy is a crime in all fifty states and police officers are sworn to uphold the law,” (Krakauer 25) there are an estimated 40,000 polygamists living in the United States. (Hewitt) Polygamy is the illegal act of marrying multiple spouses; so naturally, such a staggering statistic raises the question: Why are certain religious communities able to exist above the law? The reasons are complicated. Even though the mainstream Mormon Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS Church) abolished polygamy in 1890(Polygamy under Siege) the practice has continued relatively uninterrupted among breakaway sects, in particular, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). FLDS communities are capable of existing because they take advantage of the broadness of religious freedoms guaranteed through the U.S. Constitution; because they culturally indoctrinate, victims are rarely forthcoming; and because local governments are usually run by religious adherents, creating an artificially insulated community.

here's the conclusion:

The FLDS community’s practice of polygamy illustrates a difficult balance between protecting individuals from abuse and preserving people’s right to practice the religion of their choice. Thomas Jefferson warned that freedom of religion would come with broad interpretations and abuse, as is the case with FLDS members and officials. Polygamists defend themselves with the First Amendment echoing the verbiage that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” They say that they are guaranteed the right to practice their religion, yet ironically, members of their communities are effectively denied ordinary civil freedoms because FLDS communities are essentially theocracies. Looking forward, the gay rights movement for civil unions may aid polygamists in their efforts to receive legal recognition for marriages currently barred by law. The question remains however, how to protect the women and children in FLDS communities from abuses when the local law and church are one and the same.