Thursday, October 27, 2011

Hardly In the Halloween Spirit

With Halloween quickly approaching I have totally lost my spirit.  I wish that Halloween had the magical effect that it had on me as a child.  Halloween used to be such an amazing night with all of the luxuries of being a child; staying up late, eating way too much candy and playing dress up. I loved trick or treating more than anything and I'll never forget the nights trading candy with my siblings and friends.  Today, Halloween is a joke.  It is an excuse for girls to look abnormally slutty and wear lingerie with no regard.  I have just lost all appreciation for this night and don't even really want to celebrate.  In my life, every weekend has a different celebration, so when a real holiday comes around, it is supposed to be extra special.  In my mind, it is the same idea as the boy who cried wolf, but with girls and partying.  All major holidays and events become devalued with alcohol.  I love to have a good time but personally, I don't think that every event attended needs to be an excuse to be belligerent. As I have precipitated into my college career I notice how more and more events are based around alcohol.  At this point, I am ready to graduate and move on with my big girl life. That is all for now =).

Precipitated- falling deeply

Devalued- losing value of something

Thursday, October 20, 2011

A Female President

It's that time of the year again- I can smell it.  All of the big projects are coming and the big ball of stress which I turn into is rapidly approaching. UGH.  Whenever I am given the liberty to choose a topic of choice for a paper or project, I honestly try to picks something which I know that I will enjoy learning about and researching.  Usually these are related to some women's issue.  I love learning about women's history and will use any project as an excuse to learn more.  For 100W I have chosen to do my final portfolio on women in the military; I really don't know anything about this subject but figured that I would enjoy reading more about it.  In my opinion, one of the ultimate goals of the women's liberation which has progressed over the last century is a female president.

Sarah Palin used to be my role model; yes, you really did just read that and I did say it.  I was 17 when she and McCain took on Obama and she was everything that I admired in a candidate.  She was strong in her beliefs, willing to take a chance and never backed down from a fight.  Her words were often jumbled for the sake of a joke and her entire reputation was defamed once the public knew about her pregnant teenage daughter.  I followed her closely  throughout the election and never understood what problem the public had with her. At the time she was not only an incredible political candidate but also an amazing woman.  Just like my mother, Sarah was publicly able to do everything at once.  She was raising a family whilst running to have one of the most important political positions in the government.  Today, I have lost a lot of my respect for Sarah Palin.  After losing the campaign, McCain went into hiding while Sarah took it upon herself to become a TV star.  As an openly republican women, people often ask me what I think of Palin, expecting me to put her on a theoretical pedestal. Her TLC "reality" show made me lose all respect for her.  It was vapid and stupid, making women politicians look like a joke, something which I did not appreciate with the 2012 campaign around the corner.

In the wake of the Palin era, the next female presidential hopeful was on the minds of many.  Republican    house representative Michelle Bachmann stepped up to plate announcing her candidacy for the position of the United States President.  Bachmann was amazing to me in the beginning- hot headed but still politically correct and conservative, I was listening when she had something to say.  I knew from the beginning that I would have to do my research in order to support Bachmann.  At this point I think that she is too far right for me.  Her blatant Tea Party views contradict mine and with her tactics, she doesn't have the appeal to win the votes of mass America.  I was erroneous in thinking that Bachmann would become president.  She has dug herself a hole and it is too late to get out.

My hope is that in the next few elections there will be a female candidate who I can proudly support and not worry about the next wacky thing to come out of her mouth.

Defamed- to attack the good name or reputation of.
erroneous-  mistaken

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Mixed Fall Feelings

It's 11:38 on a Wednesday night.  Things on my mind: Homecoming, boyfriend, Constitutional Law midterm, and how I am absolutely petrified of being on San Jose State's campus.  Ironically, I had planned on blogging about safety at this school and how I am generally fearful of being on this campus when the sun is down. Then, I got a text alert from the SJSU PD saying that there has been yet another sexual assault on this campus. WHAT THE HELL?

In my three and a half years as an SJSU student I have always been fairly careful about my safety.  I don't go out of my way all the time to be as safe as I possibly could but I frequently try to not be on campus by myself at night and if I am, have a man with me to walk me home.  I hate having to rely on a man for safety but at this point I do not really have a choice.  Recently there has been an undeniable spike in the violence and crime in, on and around the San Jose State campus.  There will never be a way to solve all crime but the amount of murders and sexual assaults just this semester is ridiculous. The crux of this issue is that downtown San Jose isn't the safest place to hang as it is, and now I have lost all desire to live here.

This past weekend tragedy hit home in the Greek community.   Kristina, a student and member of Delta Gamma was murdered along with her boyfriend near campus.  Although the details of this investigation are being kept under wrap, it has sent a collective chill up the spine of those students who know that it happened.  The loss of innocent lives is both unjust and terrifying.  I wasn't Kristina's sister or friend, for that matter, but I can empathize with her sisters and family, praying for justice in this awful situation.  SJSU PD and SJPD need to step their games up.  This school becomes more and more unappealing by the day knowing that at any time something horrible could happen; and the police might not be there to defend us.  The truism is that crimes happen all day every day all over the world, but it is certainly uncomfortable living somewhere that has had a mentionable crime spike in recent history.

Crux: a pivotal point.
Truism: an obvious and self evident truth.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Political Particiation

I apologize for the lateness of this blog-  I had every intention of doing it every day for the last 7 days and had terrible writers blog-  I blame it on the horrible week that last week was.  In any event,  the recent protests in down town San Jose have inspired my thoughts on political participation; not that these thoughts are ever far from my mind with my thought provoking major.

Living in downtown San Jose is scary enough for a petite blonde with no street cred- but when protests occur, my fear factor rises.  I am all for passion and wanting change.  Actually, I love it.  Something that I have always admired about Americans is their ability to gather as a collective voice and evoke the change which they want to see.  This past week in San Jose protestors have been camped outside of city hall for "Occupy Wall Street" a protest in agreement with similar ones around the country; showing a ssense of solidarity towards on another about the injustices which they believe are occurring on Wall Street and in our banks. Truthfully, I have no feelings about the protest- but I do appreciate the efforts which these passionate citizens are putting forth.

When I was 12, My Uncle Michael came to visit our family and he was talking about voting.  Obviously at this point I couldn't vote and my political knowledge was limited to elementary school history classes. He said something about voting which I will never forget, "If you want to bitch about something you have to vote".. very very wise words.  For a long time I didn't really understand what this meant but now I completely agree with his thought.  I now vote whenever I can and will go out of my way to go home to do so. I LOVE voting.  I don't see why any American wouldn't take advantage of such an important opportunity.  So many people get caught up with their own issues that they avoid politics, or don't see why another vote matters. EVERY vote counts! If you aren't willing to take 15 minutes out of your day (once every few years in fact) to vote for those people who make critical decisions about the future of our nation then you have no right to complain about anything political.  I have never heard an excuse which I considered to be valid about why someone won't vote.

Sometimes I think that I am too politically opinionated but I see no reason not to be. Voting isn't the only way to show a person's feelings on a political issue.  Two years ago I got up at 5 am with two of my sorority sisters to venture up to Sacramento to march for higher eduction.  I didn't really know what to expect; so when we arrived in Sacramento to a field full of charter busses from public universities all over California I became really excited.  We spent the day rallying around the capital, peacefully expressing our desire as real life students to have better funding for CSUs.  Even though I really don't care to continuously fight for more CSU funding, this was an amazing experience and I fully support this movement.

I am so tired of people complaining about political issues whilst still being to lazy to write a letter or participate in a movement.  It is so easy to help make a change in this country and we as Americans are so fortunate to have our freedoms and liberties; why not use them?!?!

GONE VOTING =]