Worksheet on Bluebook (legal format) citation, it's a 9 page worksheet -_-
Begin redrafting my outline for Contracts =/
woopdie dooo, just received an new assignment in the mail!
hahah yes the days go by
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Hello Again World!
One month into law school. The reality of it all has certainly set in and I can say I have begun a new phase in my life. I’m currently procrastinating on my assignments and one thing I’ve been putting off since I touched down here is writing some entries. Nearly 4 months have passed so I think an update is in order.
I decided to go to Hawai’i. I was pretty much feeling down and out in my last post and overall, which helped facilitate my decision. I also mentioned my folks were quite hesitant about Hawai’i, after finding out that Manoa rejected their friend’s daughter who went to law school they ended up switching their attitude. I think now they genuinely are proud of my accomplishment though, so that did help ease my decision.
I booked my flight without telling my parents and was actually surprised two months later when I found out my dad wanted to go with me (I was still in that not talking much phase with my parents). Luckily, there were four seats left on my flight and he was able to catch one a few rows in front of me. Leaving Honolulu 20 years ago it was raining when we touched down in San Diego, and I couldn’t help but feel a sense of nostalgia as the sky was blanketed by clouds when the plane took off.
There was no transition from working full time. My last day of work was Friday and orientation was the very next Monday. In that time my dad reacquainted himself with Oahu, we found out the Navy Exchange was rebuilt in a new location and is pretty ballin’. Last year, before I even considered the thought of going to school here, I had a dream of our home here out of the blue. I did somewhat take it as a sign the moment I got my acceptance call. However, we did try going back to our home at the Army housing. It was somewhat depressing because it’s demolished and under construction. But the good is that those houses have been there since the 70s, so the folks who are going to live there in the future are going to have better accommodations.
So I’m living at an off campus dorm run by the YMCA. It’s been here since the 1930s around the time when the campus was founded. A month in, my room is still a horrible mess, but it does feel like home. There are lots of international students, but what surprised me the most is that there’s folks from San Diego here. The first one I met is from Poway; afterwards I met another Pilipino from Mira Mesa who’s doing his Master’s in education, and then two weeks ago another kid from PQ moved in. It’s good to know there’s some older folk here, asides from the dude doing his Master’s there’s an international doing law who’s a 2L (second year law), and another one who’s a first year Med student.
Orientation was surreal. As I said in my previous post, I was accepted into the Part-time program, which I think they’re changing to Evening program because it definitely does not feel part time. But I got to meet my cohort which was a varied bunch. At first I felt bad cause it seemed like everyone was working full-time, there are a few parents trying to transition to new work for their children. But I eventually met some other students who didn’t get into the full time program and aren’t going to be working.
It definitely does not feel like part time. Maybe it’s the nature of the curriculum or that it’s a graduate program, but I literally have things I could be doing every second. A technique that my legal research and writing professor gave in order to avoid fatigue was to switch to one of the other multiple tasks I have in order to keep the brain energized, which I was doing until now haha. My first real writing project was to write an “email” to an associate attorney that dealt with a hypothetical client asserting American Indian hunting rights. That was a page and a half. The week before it was due we were also assigned to write a 10-13 page memo on another hypothetical client that happened to be parents whose daughter was from being cyber bullied at a prep school because she was smart and low income. This was intentional to simulate working for a firm.
Being Part-time they won’t allow us to go over 11 units (12 being full time). So I only have the legal research and writing class and one of the traditional 1L courses Contracts. Contracts is typically a two semester course, but they compressed it into a 1 semester course, so I have my final for it next month O_O. After having 5 years of the quarter system, it is nice being in the semester system.
That’s it in a nutshell really. Not only am I studying during the week, but if I don’t do work over the weekend I fall behind. Fabulous. Though honestly, I am enjoying the hell out of it so far. It’s been awhile since I’ve been challenged academically and it is nice being back in school. I just hope the economy clears up soon. So for now I’m off to interpret some Pennsylvania statutory law! -_-
I decided to go to Hawai’i. I was pretty much feeling down and out in my last post and overall, which helped facilitate my decision. I also mentioned my folks were quite hesitant about Hawai’i, after finding out that Manoa rejected their friend’s daughter who went to law school they ended up switching their attitude. I think now they genuinely are proud of my accomplishment though, so that did help ease my decision.
I booked my flight without telling my parents and was actually surprised two months later when I found out my dad wanted to go with me (I was still in that not talking much phase with my parents). Luckily, there were four seats left on my flight and he was able to catch one a few rows in front of me. Leaving Honolulu 20 years ago it was raining when we touched down in San Diego, and I couldn’t help but feel a sense of nostalgia as the sky was blanketed by clouds when the plane took off.
There was no transition from working full time. My last day of work was Friday and orientation was the very next Monday. In that time my dad reacquainted himself with Oahu, we found out the Navy Exchange was rebuilt in a new location and is pretty ballin’. Last year, before I even considered the thought of going to school here, I had a dream of our home here out of the blue. I did somewhat take it as a sign the moment I got my acceptance call. However, we did try going back to our home at the Army housing. It was somewhat depressing because it’s demolished and under construction. But the good is that those houses have been there since the 70s, so the folks who are going to live there in the future are going to have better accommodations.
So I’m living at an off campus dorm run by the YMCA. It’s been here since the 1930s around the time when the campus was founded. A month in, my room is still a horrible mess, but it does feel like home. There are lots of international students, but what surprised me the most is that there’s folks from San Diego here. The first one I met is from Poway; afterwards I met another Pilipino from Mira Mesa who’s doing his Master’s in education, and then two weeks ago another kid from PQ moved in. It’s good to know there’s some older folk here, asides from the dude doing his Master’s there’s an international doing law who’s a 2L (second year law), and another one who’s a first year Med student.
Orientation was surreal. As I said in my previous post, I was accepted into the Part-time program, which I think they’re changing to Evening program because it definitely does not feel part time. But I got to meet my cohort which was a varied bunch. At first I felt bad cause it seemed like everyone was working full-time, there are a few parents trying to transition to new work for their children. But I eventually met some other students who didn’t get into the full time program and aren’t going to be working.
It definitely does not feel like part time. Maybe it’s the nature of the curriculum or that it’s a graduate program, but I literally have things I could be doing every second. A technique that my legal research and writing professor gave in order to avoid fatigue was to switch to one of the other multiple tasks I have in order to keep the brain energized, which I was doing until now haha. My first real writing project was to write an “email” to an associate attorney that dealt with a hypothetical client asserting American Indian hunting rights. That was a page and a half. The week before it was due we were also assigned to write a 10-13 page memo on another hypothetical client that happened to be parents whose daughter was from being cyber bullied at a prep school because she was smart and low income. This was intentional to simulate working for a firm.
Being Part-time they won’t allow us to go over 11 units (12 being full time). So I only have the legal research and writing class and one of the traditional 1L courses Contracts. Contracts is typically a two semester course, but they compressed it into a 1 semester course, so I have my final for it next month O_O. After having 5 years of the quarter system, it is nice being in the semester system.
That’s it in a nutshell really. Not only am I studying during the week, but if I don’t do work over the weekend I fall behind. Fabulous. Though honestly, I am enjoying the hell out of it so far. It’s been awhile since I’ve been challenged academically and it is nice being back in school. I just hope the economy clears up soon. So for now I’m off to interpret some Pennsylvania statutory law! -_-
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Getting my Life in Order
I got three main categories stuck on my mind right now: Law School, credit card debts, relationship issues.
As far as credit card debt goes, right now I've got a hefty one. I have finished writing up a repayment schedule and it's got good news and bad news. The bad news, after my contract work with sony, I'll have absolutely no cash. Good news: I'll be credit card debt free. It's definitely a strict budget and I haven't accounted for finance charges so it's really a rough draft contingent on how much I actually work and that I don't get sick.
Relationship wise, frankly I feel I have nothing left for me in California. Family is family and they'll always be there no matter how rocky the relationship is, but in terms of friendships and romance...I just don't know. I feel that I purposefully neglected forming strong relationships with friends in Irvine out of some fear of being that person who forgets their friends from high school just cause they left. It was a big mistake on my part because I don't really feel that those friendships I prioritized were that strong in the long run. Needless to say I feel pretty alone sometimes and that I'm in a position where I can't get full understanding sometimes.
Which gets me to law school. It's been a month since I was accepted to the part time program at the William Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii Manoa. Since then I've been rejected at Berkeley, UCLA, USC, UC Irvine, Duke, USD and have been placed on the waitlist for USF and Santa Clara University. My only other acceptance was to the McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific with a scholarship package of $12k as well as first year books and $12k for the remainder of the years contingent on securing a spot at the top 30%. Even though it's a part time offer, I'm pretty set on going to Hawaii.
My folks are pretty hesitant about me going and I'm trying to pinpoint what their issue is. I understand their argument about it being a move and the difficulty in going back home. I think it stems from the fact that cousin Ralph has been at UCLA and suffers from homesickness quite a bit. However, I do not get homesick; throughout my time in Irvine I rarely felt the need or desire to drive back home and often disliked commuting back and forth all the time. They're really pushing me to visit the school to "make sure" I want to go there. I think there's an underlying issue that U of H isn't a big name like Berkeley or Harvard and deep down they're upset they can't brag about it to their friends who, like themselves, have no understanding of law schools and the legal market. Which is also to my benefit. While Hawaii respectably sits ranked 72 out of 195 law schools, placing it in the tier 2 category, most t2 schools are regional in nature in terms of employment aspects. So my actual stay is more along the lines of 5-8 years rather than 4.
I have given this a lot of thought. I reviewed the employment statistics coupled with the average salaries of law firms in the region. I coupled this with a projection of how much federal loans I will be using to complete my 4 years of school, which at worst case scenario comes to about $170k before adding in the interest.
I've considered how I plan to repay this if I take up a career in private practice, but the main path I want to go is the public service sector. Seeing as I will be taking federal loans they have income based repayment plans which will limit your monthly payment depending on your earnings as well as a public service debt forgiveness option where the government will pay the remaining balance and interest after 10 years working in a non profit or local/federal/military career.
Another option I have been looking into is working as a JAG (Judge Advocate General) for the military which would qualify for the debt forgiveness, in addition they have incentive bonus for JAG officers which I think is around 20k per year of service. They start off at 0-3 upon bar passage with an auto promote to 0-4 after 6 months which seems alright in terms of pay.
I think the thing I'm trying to convey is that I've done a lot of thinking. I'm not going in with wild expectations of making top of the class and transferring to Harvard, though it would be awesome. I'm just getting ready to start school and be awesome. My folks want to go with me in July to visit the school, I mean I'm already set so if they want to give me a free trip to Hawaii, I'm down.
What I do need to take care of is:
securing my housing (i sent in an application and deposit)
finding a way to transport my items
getting my vision corrected again
getting a new notebook
As far as credit card debt goes, right now I've got a hefty one. I have finished writing up a repayment schedule and it's got good news and bad news. The bad news, after my contract work with sony, I'll have absolutely no cash. Good news: I'll be credit card debt free. It's definitely a strict budget and I haven't accounted for finance charges so it's really a rough draft contingent on how much I actually work and that I don't get sick.
Relationship wise, frankly I feel I have nothing left for me in California. Family is family and they'll always be there no matter how rocky the relationship is, but in terms of friendships and romance...I just don't know. I feel that I purposefully neglected forming strong relationships with friends in Irvine out of some fear of being that person who forgets their friends from high school just cause they left. It was a big mistake on my part because I don't really feel that those friendships I prioritized were that strong in the long run. Needless to say I feel pretty alone sometimes and that I'm in a position where I can't get full understanding sometimes.
Which gets me to law school. It's been a month since I was accepted to the part time program at the William Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii Manoa. Since then I've been rejected at Berkeley, UCLA, USC, UC Irvine, Duke, USD and have been placed on the waitlist for USF and Santa Clara University. My only other acceptance was to the McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific with a scholarship package of $12k as well as first year books and $12k for the remainder of the years contingent on securing a spot at the top 30%. Even though it's a part time offer, I'm pretty set on going to Hawaii.
My folks are pretty hesitant about me going and I'm trying to pinpoint what their issue is. I understand their argument about it being a move and the difficulty in going back home. I think it stems from the fact that cousin Ralph has been at UCLA and suffers from homesickness quite a bit. However, I do not get homesick; throughout my time in Irvine I rarely felt the need or desire to drive back home and often disliked commuting back and forth all the time. They're really pushing me to visit the school to "make sure" I want to go there. I think there's an underlying issue that U of H isn't a big name like Berkeley or Harvard and deep down they're upset they can't brag about it to their friends who, like themselves, have no understanding of law schools and the legal market. Which is also to my benefit. While Hawaii respectably sits ranked 72 out of 195 law schools, placing it in the tier 2 category, most t2 schools are regional in nature in terms of employment aspects. So my actual stay is more along the lines of 5-8 years rather than 4.
I have given this a lot of thought. I reviewed the employment statistics coupled with the average salaries of law firms in the region. I coupled this with a projection of how much federal loans I will be using to complete my 4 years of school, which at worst case scenario comes to about $170k before adding in the interest.
I've considered how I plan to repay this if I take up a career in private practice, but the main path I want to go is the public service sector. Seeing as I will be taking federal loans they have income based repayment plans which will limit your monthly payment depending on your earnings as well as a public service debt forgiveness option where the government will pay the remaining balance and interest after 10 years working in a non profit or local/federal/military career.
Another option I have been looking into is working as a JAG (Judge Advocate General) for the military which would qualify for the debt forgiveness, in addition they have incentive bonus for JAG officers which I think is around 20k per year of service. They start off at 0-3 upon bar passage with an auto promote to 0-4 after 6 months which seems alright in terms of pay.
I think the thing I'm trying to convey is that I've done a lot of thinking. I'm not going in with wild expectations of making top of the class and transferring to Harvard, though it would be awesome. I'm just getting ready to start school and be awesome. My folks want to go with me in July to visit the school, I mean I'm already set so if they want to give me a free trip to Hawaii, I'm down.
What I do need to take care of is:
securing my housing (i sent in an application and deposit)
finding a way to transport my items
getting my vision corrected again
getting a new notebook
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Post on UC Racial turmoil
Despite the election of a Black (or Half Black, depending on your perspective) President, we are far from the Promised Land that Martin Luther King Jr. saw. Lots of disappointing and sad events have happened within the past few weeks for students of the University of California system, but one silver lining is that it has sparked a serious discussion about the ways we look at oppression and the very systemic exclusion and marginalization of people since the passage of Prop 209 that ended Affirmative Action in California.
Racism has become an extremely loaded term, especially after being co-opted by the Right isle of the political spectrum to denote anything that points out differences in color. So now in society if you mention someone is Black or White some people believe you are being Racist. As such, I would like to clarify my perspective. When I think of Racism I think of Institutional Racism as coined by Stokely Carmichael, which would be described as the differential access to goods, services, and opportunities in society to promote the superiority of one race over the other. I don’t find programs like Affirmative Action (AA) to be racist because while they may give preferential treatment to certain groups they were not created with the idea of superiority and the end results of their establishment do not subjugate Whites. In fact the greatest beneficiaries of AA have been White womyn. To me, racism deals with issues of actual power, so I can’t buy into this notion of Reverse Racism because there aren’t hundreds of board rooms filled with non-White people saying Whites are an inferior breed of humanity so let’s deny this one a job. One analogy an African American Studies professor gave me was you have one man standing with his foot over the throat of another man. It means an entirely different thing when the man whose throat being stepped on says: I’ll kill you, than when the man doing the stepping says the exact same thing. With that said, I do not believe individual acts, such as name calling or the events I’m going to describe, can be classified as racist. I believe individuals can discriminate or be discriminatory, but not racist unless they are in a position of power. However, the occurrences of such discriminatory acts are the inevitable results of institutional racism and this is what needs to be addressed far more than punitive action for individuals (which doesn’t mean to say no punishment should be given.)
Wow, that actually took longer than I thought. As many of you know, February is Black History month in the United States. A few weeks ago, just 20 minutes away from my home in the suburban community of Mira Mesa, a group of students who belonged to a fraternity seemed upset that Black History month exists. So they decided to throw a themed party called the “Compton Cookout” in which attendees were to arrive dressed up in every derogatory stereotype of Blacks that they could conjure up from their very privileged experiences. These privileged experiences most likely lacked actual experiences with Black people because one would have a lot more respect and not to mention common sense than to make an appearance at such a party.
The first one probably wasn’t such a smash hit because a few weeks ago individuals once again attempted to (or did) throw another “Compton Cookout” (this time adding in a II just to make sure people realized they still didn’t understand it probably wasn’t a good idea) and did so under the banner of exercising “free speech.” While I’m all for free speech, folks should understand that also allows other people to exercise their disagreement with the speech you are freeing. Also, speech that places folks under duress such as threats like: I’m going to kill you, legally known as “fighting words,” true story, or yelling bomb in a theater are not protected under the First Amendment.
News of this “Compton Cookout II” spread like wild fire due to the social networking site, Facebook. In addition to catching national attention from various news outlets organizations like the NAACP have commented and are attempting to take action. This came like a sucker punch with the individuals’ own fraternity condemning the party and the UCSD administration making various statements to legally cover themselves by repeatedly mentioning the event was an off campus one not sponsored by the school. Student reaction has also varied as well, with members of a student run shock value paper known as the Koala calling all those in support of the Black students N****rs on campus television. This all came to a boiling point when last week a noose was found at the Theodore Geisel Library, a female student has admitted to being the culprit and has now been suspended.
Across various campuses in the UC system demonstrations have been organized and as of this past Friday a large contingent of students have occupied the office of the Chancellor at UCSD as well as Murphy Hall at UCLA asking for the following demands of the Black Student Union to be met: 1) Closure of UCSD until there is a full investigation of events surrounding Compton Cook Out and the noose left hanging for 3 days in Library, 2) Expulsion of offending students and dismantling of The Koala newspaper, and 3) Diversity needs be met by March 4th. In addition, this past weekend two other instances of hate have erupted. At UC Davis a swatzika was carved into the door of a Jewish student’s dorm and the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center on the same campus was found to be severely vandalized.
It’s actually been quite difficult to classify what should be done with these students for people like me who are both for the expression of unpopular ideas and against discrimination (though I do believe racial discrimination is still quite popular just not out in the open like it was in the 40s). While I think one does have the right to shout every Racist I’m superior than you claims they want, this has a very different impact than if I were to say I believe in the fall of Capitalism. It hasn’t even been half a century since the passage of the Civil Rights Act which was created to actually enforce the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments that were passed 145 years ago. To say one is persecuted by an overly politically correct culture is a gross overstatement considering the lack of representation certain groups in our country have received and the very real harassment by our own government other groups have received. Carlos Bulosan, the Pilipino American author of America is in the Heart, died a penniless drunk falling to Bronchopneumonia due to the blacklisting of the FBI because he had pro Socialist leanings. Fred Hampton, a college aged Black Panther was murdered in his bed after being drugged in a planned hit coordinated by the FBI and local law enforcement.
Someone commented how the BSU was over reacting about feeling there safety was threatened by the noose being hung. Whether these incidents were done as a prank or not, they represent real threats just as the Swatzika being carved on a student’s dorm is a real threat. While they are the actions of individuals and not condoned under university policy they are endemic of the UC institution’s drive to heighten their prestige at the cost of their original mission statement to serve the people of California. UCSD has a 1.3% Black population, although 44% of their student body classifies as Asian this does not even delve into the various subcultures of East and South East Asia and also is representative of the campuses attempts to woo foreign students in order to cash in on the out-of-state tuition these students pay. Racial ignorance and intolerance certainly does sprout from a lack of diversified experiences and the recent outbursts of hate and ignorance are indicative of a failure to achieve that diversity not only in the student body but the faculty, staff, and curriculum of the institution as well. The ball is most certainly in the court of the UC administration and Regents; I most certainly hope they can diffuse this racial/sexist/homophobic powder keg they have on their hands.
http://theaggie.org/article/letter-lgbtrc-vandalized - The Aggie Online: UC Davis LGBT Resource Center Vandalized
http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=76212 – ABC News 10: UC Davis: Swastika carved into Jewish student's door probed as hate crime
http://stopracismucsd.wordpress.com/ - STOP THE RACISM, SEXISM AND HOMOPHOBIA AT UC SAN DIEGO, a more detailed account of the occurrences at UCSD
http://stopracismucsd.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/racial-intimidation-at-ucsd-escalates-noose-found-at-geisel-library/ - ““, direct link to the Noose Incident
http://ucregentlive.wordpress.com/ - UC Student Regent’s blog, lots of information regarding the recent events (the hate crimes, student organizing, etc) on all UC campuses can be found here
Racism has become an extremely loaded term, especially after being co-opted by the Right isle of the political spectrum to denote anything that points out differences in color. So now in society if you mention someone is Black or White some people believe you are being Racist. As such, I would like to clarify my perspective. When I think of Racism I think of Institutional Racism as coined by Stokely Carmichael, which would be described as the differential access to goods, services, and opportunities in society to promote the superiority of one race over the other. I don’t find programs like Affirmative Action (AA) to be racist because while they may give preferential treatment to certain groups they were not created with the idea of superiority and the end results of their establishment do not subjugate Whites. In fact the greatest beneficiaries of AA have been White womyn. To me, racism deals with issues of actual power, so I can’t buy into this notion of Reverse Racism because there aren’t hundreds of board rooms filled with non-White people saying Whites are an inferior breed of humanity so let’s deny this one a job. One analogy an African American Studies professor gave me was you have one man standing with his foot over the throat of another man. It means an entirely different thing when the man whose throat being stepped on says: I’ll kill you, than when the man doing the stepping says the exact same thing. With that said, I do not believe individual acts, such as name calling or the events I’m going to describe, can be classified as racist. I believe individuals can discriminate or be discriminatory, but not racist unless they are in a position of power. However, the occurrences of such discriminatory acts are the inevitable results of institutional racism and this is what needs to be addressed far more than punitive action for individuals (which doesn’t mean to say no punishment should be given.)
Wow, that actually took longer than I thought. As many of you know, February is Black History month in the United States. A few weeks ago, just 20 minutes away from my home in the suburban community of Mira Mesa, a group of students who belonged to a fraternity seemed upset that Black History month exists. So they decided to throw a themed party called the “Compton Cookout” in which attendees were to arrive dressed up in every derogatory stereotype of Blacks that they could conjure up from their very privileged experiences. These privileged experiences most likely lacked actual experiences with Black people because one would have a lot more respect and not to mention common sense than to make an appearance at such a party.
The first one probably wasn’t such a smash hit because a few weeks ago individuals once again attempted to (or did) throw another “Compton Cookout” (this time adding in a II just to make sure people realized they still didn’t understand it probably wasn’t a good idea) and did so under the banner of exercising “free speech.” While I’m all for free speech, folks should understand that also allows other people to exercise their disagreement with the speech you are freeing. Also, speech that places folks under duress such as threats like: I’m going to kill you, legally known as “fighting words,” true story, or yelling bomb in a theater are not protected under the First Amendment.
News of this “Compton Cookout II” spread like wild fire due to the social networking site, Facebook. In addition to catching national attention from various news outlets organizations like the NAACP have commented and are attempting to take action. This came like a sucker punch with the individuals’ own fraternity condemning the party and the UCSD administration making various statements to legally cover themselves by repeatedly mentioning the event was an off campus one not sponsored by the school. Student reaction has also varied as well, with members of a student run shock value paper known as the Koala calling all those in support of the Black students N****rs on campus television. This all came to a boiling point when last week a noose was found at the Theodore Geisel Library, a female student has admitted to being the culprit and has now been suspended.
Across various campuses in the UC system demonstrations have been organized and as of this past Friday a large contingent of students have occupied the office of the Chancellor at UCSD as well as Murphy Hall at UCLA asking for the following demands of the Black Student Union to be met: 1) Closure of UCSD until there is a full investigation of events surrounding Compton Cook Out and the noose left hanging for 3 days in Library, 2) Expulsion of offending students and dismantling of The Koala newspaper, and 3) Diversity needs be met by March 4th. In addition, this past weekend two other instances of hate have erupted. At UC Davis a swatzika was carved into the door of a Jewish student’s dorm and the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center on the same campus was found to be severely vandalized.
It’s actually been quite difficult to classify what should be done with these students for people like me who are both for the expression of unpopular ideas and against discrimination (though I do believe racial discrimination is still quite popular just not out in the open like it was in the 40s). While I think one does have the right to shout every Racist I’m superior than you claims they want, this has a very different impact than if I were to say I believe in the fall of Capitalism. It hasn’t even been half a century since the passage of the Civil Rights Act which was created to actually enforce the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments that were passed 145 years ago. To say one is persecuted by an overly politically correct culture is a gross overstatement considering the lack of representation certain groups in our country have received and the very real harassment by our own government other groups have received. Carlos Bulosan, the Pilipino American author of America is in the Heart, died a penniless drunk falling to Bronchopneumonia due to the blacklisting of the FBI because he had pro Socialist leanings. Fred Hampton, a college aged Black Panther was murdered in his bed after being drugged in a planned hit coordinated by the FBI and local law enforcement.
Someone commented how the BSU was over reacting about feeling there safety was threatened by the noose being hung. Whether these incidents were done as a prank or not, they represent real threats just as the Swatzika being carved on a student’s dorm is a real threat. While they are the actions of individuals and not condoned under university policy they are endemic of the UC institution’s drive to heighten their prestige at the cost of their original mission statement to serve the people of California. UCSD has a 1.3% Black population, although 44% of their student body classifies as Asian this does not even delve into the various subcultures of East and South East Asia and also is representative of the campuses attempts to woo foreign students in order to cash in on the out-of-state tuition these students pay. Racial ignorance and intolerance certainly does sprout from a lack of diversified experiences and the recent outbursts of hate and ignorance are indicative of a failure to achieve that diversity not only in the student body but the faculty, staff, and curriculum of the institution as well. The ball is most certainly in the court of the UC administration and Regents; I most certainly hope they can diffuse this racial/sexist/homophobic powder keg they have on their hands.
http://theaggie.org/article/letter-lgbtrc-vandalized - The Aggie Online: UC Davis LGBT Resource Center Vandalized
http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=76212 – ABC News 10: UC Davis: Swastika carved into Jewish student's door probed as hate crime
http://stopracismucsd.wordpress.com/ - STOP THE RACISM, SEXISM AND HOMOPHOBIA AT UC SAN DIEGO, a more detailed account of the occurrences at UCSD
http://stopracismucsd.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/racial-intimidation-at-ucsd-escalates-noose-found-at-geisel-library/ - ““, direct link to the Noose Incident
http://ucregentlive.wordpress.com/ - UC Student Regent’s blog, lots of information regarding the recent events (the hate crimes, student organizing, etc) on all UC campuses can be found here
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Sunday, November 29, 2009
collected quotes
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."
- Dr. Seuss
"Half of writing history is hiding the truth"
-Mal from Serenity
"I shall write peace upon your wings, and you shall fly around the world so that children will no longer have to die this way." -Sadako Sasaki (1/7/43 – 10/25/55)
"it's not enough to just live, you need something to live for"
"passion is a temporary madness, love is what's left over when passion has burned away"
"Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come." - Victor Hugo
"Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery." -Malcolm X
"Concerning non-violence, it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks." - " "
"Since I learned the truth in Mecca, my dearest friends have come to include all kinds -- some Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, agnostics, and even atheists! I have friends who are called capitalists, Socialists, and Communists! Some of my friends are moderates, conservatives, extremists -- some are even Uncle Toms! My friends today are black, brown, red, yellow, and white!" - El Hajj Malik el-Shabazz aka Malcolm X
To announce that there must be no criticism of the president... is morally treasonable to the American public. - Teddy Roosevelt
Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president. - " "
- Dr. Seuss
"Half of writing history is hiding the truth"
-Mal from Serenity
"I shall write peace upon your wings, and you shall fly around the world so that children will no longer have to die this way." -Sadako Sasaki (1/7/43 – 10/25/55)
"it's not enough to just live, you need something to live for"
"passion is a temporary madness, love is what's left over when passion has burned away"
"Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come." - Victor Hugo
"Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery." -Malcolm X
"Concerning non-violence, it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks." - " "
"Since I learned the truth in Mecca, my dearest friends have come to include all kinds -- some Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, agnostics, and even atheists! I have friends who are called capitalists, Socialists, and Communists! Some of my friends are moderates, conservatives, extremists -- some are even Uncle Toms! My friends today are black, brown, red, yellow, and white!" - El Hajj Malik el-Shabazz aka Malcolm X
To announce that there must be no criticism of the president... is morally treasonable to the American public. - Teddy Roosevelt
Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president. - " "
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