An act of patriotism... Sounds like an honorable, and righteous thing no matter what the perspective... So right off the back the name is misleading! "America land of the free" is actually short for the real expression, it actually is said "America land of the free, unless your Black, Jewish, Italian, Asian, Indian, Poor, Latino, but ESPECIALLY Middle Eastern". The Patriot Act enables the American government to write a legal document to secretly spy on any citizen. Even better if they find any evidence of "suspicious activity" they can make arrests without even notifying the "alleged criminals" of their crimes or rights. Talk about unconstitutional, when this bill was written in 2001 congress pulled down their pants and left a nice one all over the 1st, 4th, 7th, and 14th amendments. 

I understand their are very valid debates to why this law can be for good. It does tighten security and makes it easier to catch the bad guys. The extremely evident problem I see is who decides who the bad guys are? I cant say that I’ve never made a racial stereotype but I can say I’ve never wanted to arrest someone for looking or acting a certain way without being certain of their guilt towards a crime. The level of ignorance and corruption in US politics that continues to flow through the media has completely turned me off to any idea that the American government is actually on the side of the people who aren't rich or white, and I’m saying this as a fucking well off white man!!!!  

Don’t get me wrong I’m 100% a patriot, I love America, I love Philadelphia, I love the communities in which I’ve been brought up in, and I love my life. However if there’s something I love more then America it’s a respect for human rights. I’ve never been oppressed and the one quality I was born with that links my ancestors to oppression is my mothers Judaism. That being said I consider myself an empathetic person who believes in social rights, and liberties for all people regardless of race or religion. The people who were involved in 9/11 are murderers, and animals for which I share no compassion, however to punish an entire race for the crimes of few is savage and putrid. In the The New York Times editorial of the patriot act their congressional research service committee gives a summery of the act. In the fourth sentence of the summery I quote “It creates new crimes, new penalties, and new procedural efficiencies for use against domestic and international terrorists.” HOWEVER it does not list what those new crimes, penalties, and procedural efficiencies are! That means there are laws that are private to the American public. Penalties that are not disclosed with the average citizen. Worst of all policies that only exist in clandestine government files. How in any way is that Patriotic?

Imagine a city under domestic military control, where the government has access to any amount of private information and has the ability to legally arrest and torture any citizen. Now imagine that the head of this military operation is a rich, racist, chauvinistic, white man, who got the military position from family connection rather then merit and personal accomplishment. In 1960 Bobby Kennedy was appointed as commanding general without any previous experience. (Not to bash Bobby Kennedy just an example of family connection leaking into office) That may not be the case but this “patriot act” is the first step in giving the government that kind of power. My criticism of the US government does not reach into all branches. I do believe that things could be a lot worse then they are, and that much of the government has righteous and morale intentions. My hope is that the Patriot Act is not abolished but instead refined. All information should be made public and it should be evident that the government works for the people, not the other way around. I don’t have a problem with catching the bad guys but the perception of what is right and wrong should not only be left to a specific number of government officials no matter how qualified or unqualified to make that decision they are. Citizens need to understand that its their responsibility to be informed of all laws and what could be considered suspicious behavior, however in order to do that the information needs to consistently be pushed in the publics face. The people should have a say in any law that affects them especially one like the Patriot Act.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/u/usa_patriot_act/index.html

http://www.fincen.gov/statutes_regs/patriot/index.html

Andrew Chalfen

Process Paper

3/29/12

When I heard that I had creative rights to make this project into my own artistic style I knew I was going to have fun with it. I was given the topic of school district funding something that I strongly feel is a large issue in modern day education systems around the world but especially in the Philadelphia public school district. I’ve had other opportunities to learn about school district funding so when this project was assigned I was actually quite prepared as far as ideas went. As far as actually creating the project I knew the things I wanted to avoid were a long written paper, or something that involves a lot of technical work. I don’t very often enjoy writing and I’ts hard for me to incorporate any type of visual component into a paper. I also get easily frustrated with computers so any advanced website or “prezzi” would have to be left for my other group members. The way I was best at contributing was through social media.

I brainstormed my favorite social media ideas and decided to go with the one that stuck out as the most interesting. I have a lot of connections to high school students from schools all across Philadelphia. I used these connections by asking a diverse variety of students a sequence of questions. I chose students from all different ethnicities and cultures in over fifteen different Philadelphia public and charter schools. The point of these questions was to ask the students how school district funding directly affects them and their school communities. Its not often students are given a voice in the decisions that affects their everyday lives so this project means more to me then just a grade. I honestly intend to keep up with this research and at some point submit my data and finished product to the school district itself. I will outline what data has been collected, what the data says about our school systems, and what positive suggestions students have contributed.

A major challenge I was faced with was identity. Many of the students I interviewed did not want to be identified given that their candid responses could be considered disrespectful. I opted to include pictures of the students but keep names out. This way I can show what exterior appearance the students choose to personify without giving anyone the opportunity to find out more about these students.

My group and I have worked together well. At the beginning of the project we all outlined goals for ourselves and for the group. Each member has contributed in their own way and had a positive impact on this project. I really enjoyed the idea and process of this project and would highly recommend Ms Pahomov to continue it in future years. One suggestion I would make however would be to mandate some sort of outside sources. Kind of like how I got information from students at other schools, any of the projects in the class could have used a source outside of SLA, I don’t know how many others took advantage of that. Overall I would say great project and I feel strong about what I contributed.

I started this project unknowing to the amount of interest I would find myself having, and the amount of desire I craved for information. As my research broadened I began to discover facts that went beyond basketball. Characteristics of humanity, that shocked and appalled me. The basketball fan in me enjoyed seeing the past and how our future has evolved so much. It is extremely interesting to compare someone like Earl Lloyd to a modern day player such as Kobe Bryant. The contrast is evident but considering the amount of time that has passed since these two first put on their jerseys it is understandable. What is really interesting are the similarities. Players like Kobe and Jordan dominated their era, era’s with constant media coverage. Earl dominated his era but with much less publicity so he gets much less credit then he deserves. Moving past basketball I saw the effects of social movements and integration happen around Earls career. He directly affect the way people perceived African Americans in a very tense time. His demeanor and professionalism on and off the court are beyond admirable and his play speaks for itself. After reflecting on this project I have found how interested I am in the past of basketball. The great players who didn’t get a chance to have their name imprinted in every media clip of the decade. Without Earl Lloyd basketball could have had its first African American player be a sham and ruin the credibility of all African Americans simply based off the enormous stereotyping pressure that was put on whoever first integrated the NBA. The world changed because of him and we still feel the impacts today. How many kids were inspired by the famous dunks of Michael Jordan? or the Showtime glamour of Magic Johnson and his Lakers? Athletes are treated as role models and idols in today’s society and the integration of the NBA was a crucial turning point in the public’s ongoing battle against segregation. Earl Lloyd exemplified courage on this day and should be recognized as not only a great player but also a great icon of humanity and equality. As I complete this project I will remember everything I learned not only about Earl Lloyd but about what interesting facts can be revealed just by starting to look in the right places at the right times.

Both of my parents speak a very high-class sophisticated English dialect and that’s because that’s how they were raised. When I was younger, I would say that’s the only English I could speak as well. As I got older and started making my own friends, I learned new slangs, words, accents, and definitions. For example the word bad has changed a lot for me. The way I first learned it “bad” was a way of expressing something not good or wrong. Such as, “Every time you go get into trouble, it’s bad.”

Then as I started hanging out with more friends from my private school school, and they would use bad this way “Sneaking into the movies is so bad! Way to go!”

After a couple of years I graduated from that private school, this is when I started making a lot of new groups of friends. Some of my good friends came from playing basketball in west Philly. Their definition of bad would go like this, “That girl is so hot she’s just so bad”

Another of group of close friends are involved in a rap group called “OCD” Since there rappers they find creative ways to use words. When their talking about “bad” it means real or true reality for example “I’m living it big so completely bad, don’t even hate because I know you mad”

Now-a-days one language isn’t enough. You’ll need to have two different languages and at least three dialects for each. For me I speak Spanish and English. My dialects in Spanish are whatever I learn in class but in English I create or choose my own dialects. There’s prep, ghetto, church, sincere, political, respectful, and many more. I’m a pretty diverse person when it comes to groups of friends and I’d say I could fluently speak all those dialects of English.

Maybe if I had traveled more I would have picked up even more dialects but Philly is a pretty diverse city. Different areas require different words so sometimes I do have to consciously switch my dialects to sound respectable. The thing is, if your speaking in the wrong dialect your in for some serious ridicule. If I spoke slang to my parents they’d ask me if id forgotten how to speak English, but if spoke prep to my neighborhood friends they’d tell me I sounded like a bitch. If you don’t know the people the key is to listen to how they speak and then imitate their dialect. You have to be careful with this because you don’t want to sound like a poser. Another rule to imitating speech is to stay consistent with that dialect, you don’t want to be talking like a hipster for an hour and then tell a story speaking like your mom. I’ve had times where I didn’t recognize a dialect. This just makes you feel awkward because even if you have something interesting to say you don’t know how to say it without sounding stupid. I was in North Carolina visiting my cousins he was with his friends using words I didn’t understand with inside jokes that could only be recognizable if you lived in the area. The worst was when they asked me how Philly cheese steaks were and I responded, “what’s a Philly cheese steak” because to me it was just a Cheese Steak. Next time my cousin comes to Philly ill be sure to tell him to get some “wuder ice” and that “use guys” should get some “baagel’s”

Mike Rose wrote that “Growing up where I did I understood and admired physical powers and there was an abundance of muscle here.” Here Mike rose it talking about how when your young the strong or most mature kids have an easier time then anyone else. I find this to be true and that for the most part stronger people do well throughout life. But this is not to say that being strong is all that is required to have a successful life. Now relating physical strength to language switching is connected to the amount of social interaction that a “popular” kid will have. The more popular you are the more people will try to talk to you and that translates to an improvement in social skills. People with more social skills will be better speakers because they will know how to use words to their advantage. One problem with this though is that some people will dedicate their adolescent life to social skills and not develop academic skills, which are also extremely important. This creates an unbalanced society.

Society is an idea of civilization coming together to create a social and community-based world. As the human race advances so does our society. Human’s advance through industry, economics, government and humans advance through culture. A culture grows through constant reconstruction. The amount that the today’s world is different just from two thousand and one is marvelous. When talking about culture speech is one of the most important pieces. Languages changes from culture to culture and since there are millions of cultures there are millions of languages. This vast pool of language creates a necessity to learn many dialects per language.

Some languages become so used though that they become a main basis for all speech like proper English, proper English is somewhat used by every person who speaks English because that was the starting point for the English language.