The Social Gap

In big urban cities like LA, you can't help but notice that there is a significant population of homeless people who are living right at the doorsteps of multi-millionaires.  Neither one of the groups of people interacts much with the other, almost like they live in separate worlds, despite the fact that they breathe the same air.  This socio-economic gap is not just a reality in Southern California, not even just in America, but you can see this in big cities all over the world.

Read this article about a man in London who experiences this first hand.  On the other hand, this article asks a 66-year old business owner “about the widening gap between rich and poor” and he says, “I think the definition of poor today is they don’t have a 50-inch flat-screen TV...How can you be poor, Tom… how can you say somebody is poor if they have a cell phone?”  Many people blame homeless people for not working hard enough and many other people blame rich people for not being philanthropic.

Write a blog post to explore this topic.  Include the following:

1.     Respond to the two articles above.  Who do you think is right? 

2.     Why do you think this gap between the rich and poor happens?

3.     Whose job is it to fix the gap?  Can it even be fixed?

4.     200-300 word minimum

Speak Free Write assignment

Welcome back – this time with English Answer (Wo)man!  As you continue to read Speak, you need to respond to each of the Free Write Journal Topics below.  You can post these to your blog, but you must also turn in a hardcopy at the end.  I recommend you complete these as you read and not all in one sitting.  Each response needs to be around 100-300 words.

Continue doing excellent work!

1.    Why do we sometimes not like people who are really good at things, like sports, music, art, or school? Is this fair? Are adults like this? (20).

2.    Mr. Neck doesn't understand Free Speech as David Petrakis does, but through this part of the novel, the reader can think about what it means to have the freedom to say what one believes. What does free speech mean to you?

3.    Are we sometimes different people on the outside than we are on the inside? Which characters from the novel fit this description? Why is this true about people, do you think?

4.    Melinda's parents tell her that she's too old to go trick or treating and she pretends to be mad. Why do you think Melinda is both relieved and sad not to go trick or treating? What does it feel like to leave childhood traditions behind? (39).

5.    Why is it that people sometimes "like us" more when they can get something out of us? Are the Marthas good friends to Heather? Why or why not? (82).

6.    Write about one of Mr. Freeman’s “words of wisdom” and how it is either true or false, based on your learning and experience: (choose another quote if you like)

                                    -"You must walk alone to find your soul" (118)

            -"Art is about making mistakes and learning from them" (122).

-"Nothing is perfect. Flaws are interesting" (153).

7.    David is a true friend to Melinda, but he tells her something she may not want to hear. He says that people have to speak up for their rights, referring to the suffragettes. What should his words mean to her? (159).

8.    Melinda's father explains to her that the arborists are cutting off disease and damage to make it possible for the tree to grow again. How can the pruning of the tree be compared to Melinda's life? (187).

Vote for a Poem!

First up we have a lovely ode to a man and his bicycle:

Ode to Mr. V's Bike 

                                                                 In the classroom
                                                                   there is a teacher who rides a
                                                                   bike
       
                                                             With his firetruck red helmet
                                                                 swerving up and down the streets to
                                                                      work
   
                                                                 At every stoplight
                                                                    he stops waiting for the light to turn
                                                                                green

                                                                     A blue Jay singing
                                                                        Tweet Tweet

                                                                 In the bike lane
                                                                   almost at work

                           
                                                                 The world is overflowing
                                                                          with rocks
                                                                               why can't the tire ever pop 

Followed by a sleepy fish:

"The Fish That Slept"

Such a magestic thing
damned to a hell to live in,
it is my fault you are no longer living
I am helpless, so rest now with the others of your kin.

You survived for years
even when the others slept
I held you so dear
in my heart you are always kept.

I watched you for days
yet you seemed as if the same
thinking you would live forever
a fool I was, I realize that today,
for my new prison is shame
none shall replace you, none, not ever.

Goodbye my friend
we had a good run
sorry this is the end
it was such fun...

but I was a fool to think it was forever
when in reality, it is now never.

...and then death:

A sweet thing, but also painful.
The pain is over,
But only for the ones lucky enough to die.

There are the lucky ones.
There misery ends by taking there lives.
No more hate,
No more fake love.

Then there's the ones who are happy.
Happy with there lives.
Happy with everything.

Then there's me.
I live day to day suffering the pain.
The pain of losing a loved one,
The memories flooding in my head.
The memories of that lucky one.

You left me behind.
You left m in this creul,sick world,
The world we all call home.

And what did this poor shovel ever do to anyone?

So much depends upon

The shovel in the rain

Rusting steadily away

Beside the house

Bustling with life

Warm and dry

While the shovel is left to die

Without a cry

Goodbye.....

But enough about shovels. Let's talk about us.

Us

Little waves push at my ankles as I hold your hand.

I treasure these walks where water meets land.

Even though we’ve had our troubles,

I have no problem sifting through the rubble,

And piecing the pieces together,

So I can say us forever.

At the end of the day, you always have your family.

Family

Once upon a time
In a house so big and wide
The family that lived there
Were so happy inside

They danced and sang sweet songs there
How close the family was
The love was great they shared
You see they should they cared

And as you all grow older
You will always know
In times of trials and troubles
To your family you can go

Take your pick. Voting closes on Friday. :)

Great job on all the poems everyone! There are some excellent pieces of work on those blogs that don't show up here. Check the links to the other blogs on my sidebar and see for yourself!

In Defense of the Mullet: No Haircut Has Ever Been Closer to the Truth

It was 1980-something.

David Hasselhoff was launching to stardom alongside his talking car Kit, Billy Ray Cyrus propelled country music into popularity with his achey-breaky heart, and AC Slater redefined "ladies man" within the walls of Bayside High on Saved By the Bell while Uncle Jesse did the same on Full House. Time fails me to tell of Wayne Gretzky, Andre Agassi, and Hulk Hogan, all respectable pop culture icons in their own right. They all wore mullets, and they wore them with dignity and distinction.

In past two decades however, this signature style has plunged from its pedestal--there has perhaps never been a personal grooming trend that meets with more disgust and disdain than the mullet.

How can a hairstyle once so iconic become so universally reviled? Our "progressive" modern culture calls on us to condemn the mullet as hair-care crime. However, I will argue that the hate, fear, and disgust of the mullet is illogical and backward. In fact, those who hate the mullet may suffer from the same ignorance and lack of sophistication that they associate with an innocent hair cut.

Shed your cultural prejudices and immature superstitions for a moment and embrace enlightenment:

 The mullet makes sense. 

We know that the mullet makes sense. It is both natural, and an improvement on nature. Consider this: there are two basic states of hair: short and long. Cosmetology attempts to hybridize the two in an effort to improve personal appearance. Bangs, the ponytail, and even the warrior's braid hint at a basic cultural preference. We like our hair to appear shorter in front, and longer in back. The mullet confronts us with that stark reality, boldly proclaiming what other hairstyles attempt to imitate.

The Ponytail

All ponytail-wearers: Perched atop your head is the essence of the mullet. Yes, your hair is long all over, but you use technology to create the appearance of what the mullet accomplishes naturally. I'm glancing at a woman with blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail as I type this sentence. If I relax my eyes and shed my preconceptions, the mullet emerges: hair pulled tight, short against the skull in the front. Risking another awkward glance, I follow the curve of her dome backward and down, as the long locks of yellow cascade down to the top of her shoulders.

The ponytail is a mullet in disguise.

Bangs

If you have bangs, you have a mullet. The only difference is that with bangs, the party gets started about 6 inches earlier. Short in the front, long in the back. Undeniable truth.

The Logical Extension of the Mullet Principle

Shakespeare may have taken this idea to the extreme: Short in the front Bald in the front was a mark of distinction. Ripping the forehead hair out by the roots takes this business to a whole new level.

Even Nature Bears Witness

Have you ever seen a more regal manifestation of the mullet than a lion's mane? Probably not, and yet we subconsciously suppress our adoration out of a backward cultural superstition. Take moment to admire this magnificent beast, and notice the short tufts of hair at the front as they cascade in amber waves down the torso of the king of the jungle. Deny it all you want, but lions wear mullets.

So why all the vitriol toward the mullet? Why the hate? Why the vilification? Don't trot out a picture of some awkward, out-of-shape goober sporting a mullet and stained t-shirt as justification for your prejudices. The fact is that mullets are everywhere, even though they may be thinly veiled by socially acceptable labels like "bangs" and "ponytails."

The Truth

So what are we so afraid of? Why do we allow a few fellas with missing teeth and a beer belly define how we feel about a hair cut as innocent and influential as the mullet?

Perhaps it's because the mullet confronts us. We cannot hide from it's stark reality, and maybe that is why we hate it so much. It's a reminder of the little lies we tell ourselves, the half-truths and rationalizations that allow us to avoid confronting uncomfortable realities about ourselves and our choices. 

Accepting the mullet requires us to take a cold hard look at ourselves and the world around us. No haircut has ever been closer to the truth.

Photo: Hasselhoff
Photo: Stamos
Photo: Slater
Photo: Ponytail
Photo: Bangs
Photo: Lion
Photo: Shakespeare

Bring on the Hobbits

The Lord of the Rings trilogy was and has been one of my all-time favorites. The scope and immensity of Tolkien's world still blow my mind, and I think any fantasy novel written since then would not have existed without Gandalf, hobbits, the dark lord, the ring, and the rest of Tolkien's Middle Earth.

It is with no small amount of anticipation, then, that I await the big screen debut of The Hobbit. I always thought this book, while a great story, was a bit more childish than the Lord of the Rings. But the big screen edition looks like a lot of fun, and it's been almost a decade since I saw The Fellowship of the Ring right around this time of year.

I'm currently rereading the book, and I'll see the film tonight. Yeah I'm a grown man with a couple of kids, and I'm stoked to see a movie about a small dude with furry feet on a journey to get some treasure back from a dragon. It could be worse, though:

Most people have no problem watching a film with a whiny heroine victim, a half-naked wolf man, and a vampire with a cold stone chest who sparkles in the sunlight. I don't care what Stephanie Meyer says--vampires DIE if they get hit with the sun. They sleep in coffins, they ALL eat human blood, and they most certainly don't strike up syrupy romances with crybaby high school chicks.

I'll stick with wizards, dwarves, and hobbits. Don't let me down, Peter Jackson.

Photo Credit

Online Text of "Flowers for Algernon"

For those of you who need it, here is a link to an online version of the short story.

Click Here

Power: The Ultimate Body Snatcher

Power corrupts. You've heard it in English class when your teacher runs out of good topics. You saw it happen to Prospero in Poe's "Masque of the Red Death." Even Thomas Jefferson wondered whether or not man could be trusted to govern others if he can't even handle governing himself.

I have come to the scholarly conclusion that power is like the little facehugger in the original Alien movie. First it gets all in your face, and you get a taste. Then it starts growing inside you, chewing up your guts until it bursts out in a full-blown alien rage birth. Or maybe it just hangs out inside and completely changes who you are so you run around messing up everyone else's lives, including your own, because the rules don't apply to you.

Consider Lance Armstrong, the now infamous US cycling extraordinaire. Cancer comeback kid, multiple Tour de France champion, and most recently: cheater. Most people wouldn't immediately equate cheating with a power corruption problem, but I argue that the power that comes with athletic success may be just as toxic as that gained by military conquest or political victory.

Richard Pound, the founding member of the World Anti Doping Agency, writes at CNN.com that Armstrong's legacy might continue strong, even though the evidence almost undoubtedly condemns him as a cheater. But notice WHY he says his legacy will live on:

The cheating involved was highly organized, well financed and well-coordinated. It was not simply a few athletes trying to get an edge by surreptitious use of banned substances. Instead it was an essential part of the USPS team strategy, and it involved participants in several countries, all working to achieve better competitive results by deliberately breaking agreed upon rules at the expense of athletes who competed clean.

Got that? An organized strategy spanning multiple countries, and it was all about winning at all costs. As victories mount, the pressure increases to keep winning. Get a little taste of that power, then help yourself to some more--even if it means trampling the hard work, discipline, and sportsmanship of those who played by the rules. Lance and Co. basically gave themselves an illegal head start; they just didn't think the world was watching them do it.

Now we all see that what these and other cheaters (hello Mr. Bonds, Mr. Sosa, Mr. Clemens) have done: line themselves up in front of all the honest competitors, doing whatever it takes to maintain their position of (fill in the blank, class)______________________. *

Would I have done any different? Maybe not. And that's the point. Power eats you up, snatches your body, and bursts out of your sorry excuse for a corpse on its way to damaging everyone else around you. I know this doesn't sound too sunny, but I don't think anyone can beat this beast. Perhaps the best solution is to avoid pursuing power, and for those of us who must occupy positions of authority, success, and fame: when you feel your body being snatched away, you may have to pull a Sigourney Weaver in Alien III (I think). Put your hands over that sucker, and jump into flaming pile of liquid metal. (Walk away from your power; don't really jump into a vat of liquid metal).



*Answers: POWER

Photo Credit