Environmental thinking

"The degree to which we are all involved in the control of the earth's life is just beginning to dawn on most of us, and it means another revolution for human thought." (Thomas 915)

We humans create and destroy. We create technology that betters our lives yet the power it uses causes us to destroy the environment. As we find new ways to help the environment, it, in turn, has a destructive thing follow. Take, for instance, cryptocurrency. You don't need to waste materials for tangible money, but mining it (getting it from graphics cards that are used in computers in some cases) uses a lot of power. It seems as the world dies, we will start to notice the changes for the worse in the environment around us. It seems that most of the time we don't see problems until they are right in front of our face or if we are personally affected by it. Most of us are starting to see the problems of climate change, but many are to yet see them as others do. As time progresses, we will most likely see the problems that others are claiming as well as our claims being accepted by others. This will cause a new revolution of think, as Thomas says, of human thought on how we can save the earth we inhabit. Nothing will come quickly and effortlessly, we need all of us to invent and think of solutions to the problems and consequences we are facing due to climate change. We can be earth's greatest threat, but we don't intend to be that at all, so let us fix our problems so that we and future generations can live in a world that isn't crumbling in front of them.

Grades Kill and Destroy

Getting a B is unforgivable. Life is fading away from my very eyes, is it still worth living for? How could I ever do this? I have failed, let everybody down, I am eternally screwed until the very day I die. The amount of money I would give to get an A, the people I will destroy in my path to get an A, I will sacrifice everything I have saved up and looked forward to, and much more, for an A. Thousands of dollars will be spent to get that filthy, no life B changed to the celebrated war hero A. My sanity is at stake, and my privilege is supreme. "As my eyes glaze overall I can see is the B becoming fuzzy in my vision. I have gone to hell and back to get A's and I have made enemies. Many enemies have been made through this treacherous path. This is for the singular purpose of completion and to be superior to all." And also dives them away from me.

My grades compensate for my lack of social life.
My grades control me like a puppeteer
My grades are the number in which I am defined by society
And finally, my grades are the reason why I drive my friends to insanity

I'm not happy, I'm not sad, just disappointed in myself because of the pain a B can cause to me.

My Use of English

My first language is English, and I do not know how to speak any other languages fluently. My mom's side of the family is Polish, but my great grandpa was the last one that could speak polish in my family before he passed. He did not pass down any part of that language, and everyone else in my family is strictly American. Growing up in the north, we speak "normal American" English, no southern or British accents. When growing up, your vocabulary starts to grow and broaden, which a younger generation of kids may not understand. Since I am the oldest cousin in my immediate family, I tend to speak more simple and easier to comprehend English to the younger kids. I have to censor my language sometimes to keep the "innocence" of my younger cousins and other relatives. Keywords such as "die", "kill", "suicide", "shut up", and "idiot" are FORBIDDEN when kids are nearby. For instance, my cousin was curious about 9/11.  He was talking about it to his mom (my aunt) when I joined in on the discussion. He asked "what happened to the terrorist piolets?", my aunt responded in a smart and innocent way, and I responded with something that involved the word "suicide", my aunt scolded me for that. I quickly retracted my statement and didn't stay for too much longer because I knew I was most likely going to say another "no-no" word.

Cousins (oldest on left, youngest on right)

When talking to my friends, I loosen my language barriers. It seems like I have a good filter switch when talking to family vs. friends (but now since I have said that I will slip up the next time I talk). We talk with more "inside jokes", which others may not understand the meaning of. There's your standard texting language (lol, hmu, ect.) that I sometimes use, but for the most part, I don't heavily rely on these to shorten my texts. With friends, keywords like "bruh moment" have a meaning that is very hard to place, so it is understood by a few people, those few being adults and maybe some kids. Language that would be considered harsh and mean to adults might be taken lightly by us. Some of these words we use ironically, for comedy, or they can have satirical meaning to them, which justifies why those harsh words are used among a group and not publicly.

These English switches, as I will call them, are used for specific people and in specific situations. They establish a type of credibility among the people you are talking to. If you were to use texting language with adults that are not familiar with the technology, you don't seem credible in their eyes because it looks as if you don't fully know the English language, just messy abbreviations that can lose meaning. If using complex and regular English among friends and peers, it gives off the feeling that you are not "in touch" with technology. These English switches establish credibility to different groups of people, being your peers or family. It helps establish your knowledge and helps better communicate and relate to your peers and family.

Metacognitive Reflection

I have remained stagnant as a writer over the course of this semester. I have made sure to make good claims and use good evidence to support it. The more and more I write, I feel like I am getting better, but I still seem to be in the median of writing good essays. I feel like I have improved in my evidence and quote placement. I am also starting to feel a little more comfortable when writing claims and having significant evidence to support it. I really need to focus in on my analysis. I plan on focusing on improving my analysis and looking at examples of how others write an analysis. Looking up examples online should help out greatly. With better analysis, I should be able to push my essays forward and have them be more meaningful. I am proud of my Gatsby Short answer because I feel like I had good evidence and a good argument. I lacked the analysis in it, but everything else seemed to be a very strong argument. I need some more help with using better analysis. I know that I need to improve it, but I'm not too sure what exactly I need to do. 

Learning from a Child

“All right, then, I'll go to hell.” 
― Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1835605-adventures-of-huckleberry-finn

Huck Finn is not a reliable narrator in the slightest bit. He has many holes in his story, and his morals are still developing. Yet, when we hear about attempts people have made to try and civilize him, they have failed. He believes that no prayer will be answered from him due to all of his past actions. You can take away that in the south, many morals are skewed in society. It seems to be very different from northern morals. So when he is faced with a decision to save Jim or to run away, he saves Jim because they are friends and he would not want to let him down. This makes Huck believe he will go to Hell. When you help anybody in dire need, it is praised in society today. As the reader, you learn about the morals Huck has forced upon him in society. He teaches an important lesson about not conforming to social norms and breaking away from popular beliefs to do what is right in human nature.

Huck knows that he did the right thing when Jim thanks him and he feels good about saving his friend, he ignores to social norms around him and does the action he believes is correct. You need to break out of social norms to make a change. At first, people will not accept that you did this action, but as time goes by, it will become the new social norm. The first step into making a change is by going against what others believe, and Huck makes this change in his "adventure" with Jim. Although he may believe it was wrong at first, it was the beginning of something bigger to come.

America in Rock Music

Many bands in America have an album or a couple of songs that have some reference or lyrics that talk about America. For instance "Eye of the Beholder" by Metallica talks about freedom of speech and freedom of choice. The pre-chorus says, "Doesn't matter what you see, Or into it what you read, You can do it your own way, If it's done just how I say". It brings up the question of how much freedom and liberty we have, and how the two are defined. "But as the expanding use of ''freedom'' makes every policy and program a part of the national mission, ''liberty'' has receded from the patriotic vocabulary." (Nunberg). Although the song is around 15 years older than the article mentioned, it still puts into question how liberty and freedom are taken away for certain situations of national security. "One" is another song in the album, it does not mention liberty or freedom, but rather a song that relates to "Johnny Got His Gun", a movie about a soldier injured in World War I. The song talks about Joe Bonham, an amputee that has lost all of his limbs and sight and is left trapped inside his mind. It shows the horrors of war, and the question of fighting for freedom and liberty can be brought up again. To what extent does fighting go too far, and how does it damage everybody that tries and participate in it to help a country with unclear and fading beliefs? Our liberty and freedom are changing with the new age in technology, how much of it will stay and be defined, and how much of it will be gotten rid of to try and "protect" the people of the nation?

Rage Against the Machine was a band that had very political lyrics about the government, and police brutality. They have strong lyrics that show "rage" against the "the Machine", or government and police forces. "Killing in the Name of" by Rage Against the Machine is one of their most popular songs, and their chorus is "Those who died are justified, For wearing the badge, they're the chosen whites, You justify those that died, By wearing the badge, they're the chosen whites" this talks about police brutality, and how it is unfair and unjustifiable. System of a down is another political rock ban that has many great hits. In their song "Toxicity" the chorus is "You!, What do you own the world, How do you own disorder, disorder" talking about how some countries think the world is theirs, and they can do whatever they want. American sometimes fits into this role, and it shows how our freedom can lead to becoming overconfident.

These bands either mainly focus on politics are have other songs/albums that talk about America. All of these songs have interesting points on how the government works, and it is a good way to start a protest and try and help the government become better.

Sources
https://genius.com/
https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/23/weekinreview/nation-freedom-vs-liberty-more-than-just-another-word-for-nothing-left-lose.html

The Horrors of False Confession

People can break like a pencil. Too much pressure and they will break in half. So when someone is being tortured verbally for something they did not do, they might confess to doing that action. People break under pressure and will try to get away from the source of pressure. It is a basic human response.  Psychological scientist and lead researcher Julia Shaw of the University of Bedfordshire in the UK did a study on interrogations and she said, "Our findings show that false memories of committing crime with police contact can be surprisingly easy to generate, and can have all the same kinds of complex details as real memories,". So when under intense interrogation, someone might confess to doing the action they were accused of. Why? Because it is a basic human action of "Fight or Flight", and they chose "Flight", or confessing falsely due to the interrogation techniques they might have used in this situation.

In "The Crucible", you can see examples of people falsely confessing in being apart of the witch situation that is occurring in Salem. The people in the town of Salem are scared of the situation, and when any blame is put on them, they try to push it off to someone else. So when Hale comes in to help solve the situation, his interrogation techniques make the people of Salem sometimes falsely confess. It can be a scary thing because your livelihood and your life itself are at stake. But some will crack under the pressure, and they will hope that with God they can be pure again, even though they did nothing wrong and their faith is still strong. It is a scary thing, and all of this fear is spreading throughout Salem and its people. It makes all the people question, "Do I have a part in this?". This situation can be serious in today's world too. That's why there are many horrors in false confessions and can be a very big problem in bringing justice to those that are actually guilty.

Source: https://americanvision.org/14201/study-on-false-confessions-shocker-why-the-innocent-should-not-talk-to-police/