For my capstone, I researched and analyzed the environmental and financial consequences of converting SEPTA’s current bus fleet into all-electric, zero-emission fleet.

Global warming is causing severe damage to our planet. It is destroying habitats, increasing weather-related disasters, and leading to higher sea levels, all of which harm people and wildlife. Greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by human activity are a main contributor to climate change.

About 30% of US’s total emissions and about 15% of global emissions come from the transportation sector. About 80% of these emissions are from burning fossil fuels to power road vehicles. About a quarter of transportation emissions come from medium or heavy duty vehicles, including commercial buses.

One way to decrease transportation-related emissions is to switch fuels, to not only use vehicles that are powered by fossil fuels. An example is to convert gas-powered vehicles to electric or hybrid ones that rely on electricity from renewable sources.

As a frequent rider of public transportation, I wondered: Would it make a difference, in terms of emissions and cost, if SEPTA’s bus fleet were converted to e-buses?

Capstone (More sources are listed in the last few pages of the paper): First Link

Bibliography: Second Link

Pages 120-123

The last day of the World Series. Imma bring up a vote again. I swear these rules will be the death of me.

“So remember that vote we had a day or so back — about the TV time? Well, today’s Friday and I thought I might just bring it up again, just to see if anybody else has picked up a little guts.”

The Big Nurse speaks to the group with a monotone voice and a smile on her face, as she always does. “Mr. McMurphy, the purpose of this meeting is therapy, group therapy, and I’m not certain these petty grievances —” Group therapy? More like group torture.

“Yeah, yeah, the hell with that, we’ve heard it before. Me and some of the rest of the guys decided —”

The damn nurse interrupts me, her voice a tad bit more annoyed.

“One moment, Mr. McMurphy, let me pose a question to the group: do any of you feel that Mr. McMurphy is perhaps imposing his personal desires on some of you too much? I’ve been thinking you might be happier if he were moved to a different ward.”

Damn. I’ve been here for less than a week and they already want to get rid of me? Is it so wrong to speak my fucking mind here?

Then I hear, “Let him vote, why dontcha? Why ya want to ship him to Disturbed just for bringing up a vote? What’s so wrong with changing time?”

Finally, someone has some sense.

There is nothing wrong with starting a vote.

What is so wrong with changing the fucking time?

Wait, what is Disturbed?

“Why, Mr. Scanlon, as I recall, you refused to eat for three days until we allowed you to turn the set on at six instead of six-thirty.” The Nurse responds. Ah, the time has been changed before, so it can be done again.

I tap out for a minute. The Big Nurse and the Scanlon guy are talking, but who the hell knows what they’re talking about?

At last, I hear, “A vote is now before the group. Will a show of hands be adequate, Mr. McMurphy, or are you going to insist on a secret ballot?” What a pain in the ass. I don’t want no fucking secret ballot.

“I want to see the hands. I want to see the hands that don’t go up too.” C’mon people, wake up.

“Everyone in favor of changing the television time to the afternoon, raise his hand.” As soon as the Nurse finishes her sentence, I shoot my hand up, and watch the rest of the Acutes raise theirs. The room is tense. Everyone, the patients and the staff, are stunned. The nurse is carefully watching everyone, counting the votes.

“I count only twenty, Mr. McMurphy.” She says, her face calm, but I sense smugness.

“Twenty? Well, why not? Twenty is all of us there—” I stop. There aren’t twenty of us. There’s forty of us. It’s a fucking tie!

“Now hold on just a goddamned minute, lady—” I say, as calmly as possible, my fists opening and closing.

I don’t remember what happens next. My heart is pounding in my ears and my face and neck are hot with fury.

I stand up.

“Wait! Wait a minute, let me talk to those old guys.”

I hear the nurse say something, but at this point, her voice sounds like the soft squeak of a mouse. I walk towards some random ass Chronic and ask him, “What about you buddy? You want to watch the World Series? Baseball? Baseball games? Just raise that hand up there—” Man interrupts me, saying, “Ffffffffuck da wife.”

Asking him is useless. Asking all of these Chronics is fucking useless. Why can’t they see that we just need one more vote to give us the upper hand? Wait. I missed someone.

“Chief, you’re our last bet.”

I hear the creak of the chairs as the nurses and doctors stand up, but I’m watching Chief, feeling all the eyes on me and him as everyone pauses in anticipation.

Finally, after a beat, his hand slowly lifts up. Chief did it. He fucking did it.

“Twenty-one! The Chief’s vote makes it twenty-one! And by god if that ain’t majority I’ll eat my hat!” I’m shaking with excitement. I hear someone else say, “Yippee.”

“The meeting was closed.” The nurse says, her smile still there. But everyone can tell she’s about to explode with fury.

STYLISTIC CHOICES:

I chose to narrate McMurphy because he is arrogant, manipulative, and rebellious. Unlike the current narrator, Bromden, who is more of a bystander and gets all of his information objectively, but McMurphy is in the center of the events happening in the ward. He notices the oppression and decides to do something about it. Written from McMurphy’s perspective, what he was thinking and saying would be a lot more colorful and interesting for the reader. In this narrative, I tried to imitate his emotions and behaviors as best as I could by incorporating dialogue from the book and using that as a springboard for the narrative.

Song 1: You Don’t Own Me By Lesley Gore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iyg_tF-mJk

An excerpt of the lyrics:

You don’t own me/ I’m not just one of your many toys/ You don’t own me/ Don’t say I can’t go with other boys

…

You don’t own me/ Don’t try to change me in any way/ You don’t own me/ Don’t tie me down ‘cause I’d never stay/

…

I’m young and I love to be young/ I’m free and I love to be free/ To live my life the way I want/ To say and do whatever I please

This song by Lesley Gore is about a woman who is in a controlling relationship and wants to tell her boyfriend that he doesn’t own her like an object and that he can’t make rules about what she can’t or cannot do. Moira’s sentiment relates to that of the song because she doesn’t allow Gilead’s rules to control her. All the handmaids are treated as sex objects. Moira doesn’t want to be used. Moira has her own will, but unlike the character portrayed in the song, she doesn’t have the ability to do and say whatever she wants, as the government restricts everyone’s actions and speech. The singer is likely able to leave her relationship, but Moira cannot do the same. Instead, Moira ran away.

Song 2: We Belong Together by Mariah Carey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ09L3sOOUY

An excerpt of the lyrics:

I couldn’t have fathomed that I would ever/ Be without your love/ Never imagined I’d be/ Sitting here beside myself

I never felt/ The feeling that I’m feeling/ Now that I don’t/ Hear your voice/ Or have your touch and kiss your lips/ ‘Cause I don’t have a choice/ Oh, what I wouldn’t give/ To have you lying by my side/ Right here, ‘cause baby/ I can’t sleep at night/ When you are on my mind/

I only think of you/ And it’s breaking my heart/ I’m trying to keep it together/ But I’m falling apart/

This song, by Mariah Carey, is about longing. The lyrics convey the sadness she feels when she’s not around her ex-lover. They also communicate Offred’s feelings as she longs for Luke. She longs to be touched, to have Luke’s attention, and to be in love. “I wanted to feel Luke lying beside me” (52) “I want to be held and told my name. I want to be valued, in ways that I am not.” (97) Carey expresses the same feelings throughout the song.

Offred also misses her daughter. “I close my eyes, and she’s there with me, suddenly, without warning […]I put my face against the soft hair at the back of her neck and breathe her in, baby powder and child’s washed flesh and shampoo […].” (61) She talks about Luke and her daughter all the time and interrupts her story of Gilead with memories of them. Offred feels melancholy when thinking about her family, which is how Carey feels when she thinks about her ex: “ it’s breaking my heart [..] I’m falling apart.”

Song 3: Chopin’s Funeral March

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZY5DBmgC_A

Chopin wrote this mournful piece in the 1830s when he was in exile, away from his home in Poland. The Polish were revolting against the Russians, so Chopin was fearing for his family and friends’ lives. In one scene of the Handmaid’s Tale, Offred—in a dream—relived the memory of her daughter being taken away. It was a time of sadness and heartbreak. Offred was also fearing for the safety of her daughter. The listener can feel Chopin’s pain and grief when writing this piece, which also conveys Offred’s emotions in the scene. When Offred wakes up from her dream, she wakes up crying, because “of all the dreams this is the worst.”

Song 4: All By Myself by Irving Berlin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBzTzIbwZg0

Lyrics:

All by myself in the mornin’ / All by myself in the night/ I sit alone with a table and a chair/ So unhappy there/ Playin’ solitaire./ All by myself I get lonely/ Watchin’ the clock on the shelf/ I’d love to rest my weary head/ On somebody’s shoulder/ I hate to grow older/ All by myself./

This song is about someone who is by himself, living a single but unhappy life. In the Handmaid’s Tale, the reader can infer that Offred is lonely because she doesn’t have anyone to really talk to and experience life with. She feels down when she’s alone. Sometimes she cries when she remembers the memories of her family because she misses them and wants more freedom. “[N]obody dies from lack of sex. It’s lack of love we die from. There’s nobody here I can love, all the people I could love are dead or elsewhere.” (103) Berlin sings about wanting to rest his head on somebody’s shoulder, but there’s nobody there.

Song 5: A Change is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke

https://youtu.be/wEBlaMOmKV4

It’s been a long/ A long time coming, but I know/ A change gon’ come/ Oh yes, it will/

There been times that I thought/ I couldn’t last for long/ But now, I think I’m able/ To carry on/

“A Change is Gonna Come” is a song that was written in 1964 about hope and that things will eventually change. Cooke is hopeful that our society will become more accepting of African Americans and those who identify as minorities. Offred also has a feeling of hopefulness at one point in the Handmaid’s Tale, when she anticipates a letter from Luke, signifying that he is alive and that help is coming. To Offred, a letter would mean that change is close, that something good could occur. “Any day now there may be a message from him. […] The message will say that I must have patience: sooner or later he will get me out, we will find her, wherever they’ve put her. She’ll remember us and we will be all three of us together. (106) Cooke says that his hope for a better future keeps him alive. “I think I’m able to carry on.” It’s the same with Offred. Her hope to be reunited with her family keeps her going. “It’s this message that keeps me alive.” (106)

https://www.wevideo.com/view/2604902243

ESSAY:

¡Hola! Me llamo Navlea. Soy china. Tengo catorce años. Tengo ojos marrones y el pelo negro y largo. Soy muy vaga, divertida, simpática y desordenada. Soy un poco callada, atlética y trabajadora. Mi familia es muy grande, tengo muchas personas en mi familia. Tengo una hermana. Tengo muchos tias, tios, y primos, hay demasiados para yo contar. En mi casa, hay mi mamá, papá, mi hermana, y yo.

Mi madre se llama Yenche. Mi mamá tiene el pelo negro, corto, y lacio. Mi mamá tiene ojos marrones y es alta y flaca. Mi mamá es agradable pero estricta a veces. Es trabajadora, sincera, responsable, y empollona. Mi mamá es muy inteligente. Mi mamá es muy cariñosa. Realmente no lo sé, ella es tan amable. :) Mi mama es de Indonesia. Mi mamá tiene cuarenta y cinco años.

Esta es mi Prima, Maraella (Ma - rae - la). Mi Prima tiene el pelo negro, largo, y lacio. Mi prima tiene ojos marrones. Tiene hoyuelos. Mi prima es alta y peso medio. Mi prima es simpática, sincera, divertida, y vaga. Mi prima es un poco inteligente. Mi prima es muy cariñosa y divertida. Mi prima no es atlética. Mi prima es asiática americana. Mi prima tiene trece años. Mi prima y yo somos muy parecidas. Somos simpáticas, sinceras, divertidas y vagas. Ambas somos asiáticas americanas.

WEVIDEO: https://www.wevideo.com/view/2080583033