TSIS

Summary:

In the essay " Hiding from Reality," author Bob Herbert defined American Dream there is not much of it that's left anymore.  Standard of living are declining, American parents increasingly believe that their children will inherit a very bad deal.  There is a progressive downfall in our economy that is getting worse and worse.  Herbert also point out that the government is continuing to spend money on the less beneficial areas for the economy, our employment rate is increasing and U.S market salary isn't enough to provide for the average American family.

Response:

I agree with Bob Herbert because i do believe the U.S econmy is in a great slump with our budget and spending.  As of today, many American families still not make enough money to support their family and many people can't afford luxury lives as they want to.  The government should be spending money on things that are benefits our economy.  The government needs to take action now in order to once again pursue the American Dream like the idea of Bob Herbert is that the once proclaimed " American Dream" is still existent; our economy just needs to find a way to pursue that dream.

Summary:

In TSIS " The American Dream: Dead, Alive, Or on Hold?" author Brandon King redefines the American Dream as the potential to work for an honesty secure way of life and save for the future.  King's redefinition affects his argument saying "Is the American Dream still around, waiting to be achieved by those who work hard enough, or is it effectively dead, killed off by the Great Recession and the economic hardships that many Americans have come to face?  Brandon King believes that the ideals and value of he American Dream are still alive. American Dream used to be owning expensive items such as cars, homes, and more material wealth. But, as of today one can focus on saving moey for the future and having a secure employment. American Dream of today is a trimmed down version of its former self.

Response:

I agree with Brandon King because I see in today society not many people owning houses but instead they rather have a secure employment and plenty of saving for the future.  So many people are renting instead of buying house, limit their spending, and own less expensive items.

Small Change: Why the Revolution Will not be Tweeted

Summary: In this article “Small Change” by Malcolm Gladwell begins with a protest started by 4 African-American college students. One of the students ordered a coffee of which the waitress replied with, “Sorry we don’t serve Negro here,” where the four students decided to stand their ground and ignore all threats. Many days later the protest expanded from four people to a somewhat seventy thousand people, running from North Carolina all the way to west Texas. This whole protest happened in the early 1960’s, where acts like this were considered a civil-rights war, and the entire time this happened, they did it without e-mail, texting, Facebook, or Twitter. This is what an act of activism looks like, something we don’t see very often in today’s media. Mark Pfeifle , former national-security advisor, suggested that Twitter allows the shy and unheard be noticed and heard, and later nominated Twitter for the Nobel Peace Prize. Back to the original protest of 1964, it is stated that the four students, during the first few days, were given death threats but refused to moved, even without the knowledge of the threats being bluffs or not. Everything that happened back with those college students are most likely not to happen in today’s social media, for to many people believe everything they see on the internet.

Respond:I can’t imagine how those students took place during the activism during that time period because there was no so called social media as of today, ever where you go you’ll see people with social media device in hand.  Social media has brought people around the world to come together, shared information, news around the world, can see what’s going on in our community.

                                            2b or Not 2b?

Summary: In this article “2b or Not 2b,” by David Crystal did a short report on how texting has made people illiterate. It gives examples of people who give abbreviations instead of the actual words. A great example of this would be the contest between two people on page 342, where the winner wrote conventionally and the runner up wrote in “text talk.” One thing children don’t understand is that in order to be “good” at texting, they would need to first develop considerable literacy awareness. This goes for people of all ages, without proper literacy, we would all sound to simple and great pieces of art, such as Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” would be non-existent.

Response:  I agree that texting is making more and more people illiterate. Judging by today’s teenagers and the way they speak, it appears to me that most of them have no idea how to use correct grammar. Most things I hear from them are phrases such as “finna” which is apparently a replacement for “gonna” which isn’t a word either, it should be “going to” or “about to.” In my honest opinion is that we in society have downgraded in terms of correct grammar and over abuse of abbreviations. Aside from the lack of proper grammar use in today’s society this article was interesting to read and happened to be something that could relate to.

                                        A Lifetime of Student Debt? Not Likely

Summary:

In the article :" A Lifetime of Student Debt? Not Likely" Robin Wilson states in his issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education despite stories of a large number of students who face gargantuan debt, about a third of graduates leave college with no debt at all for their education while  65 percent faces debt, the average they owe is around $20,000.  Problems with student-loan debt are very real, about 8 percent of undergraduates borrow at double the national average.  Most people borrow a reasonable amount of money, they pay it back.  Why do some students borrow more than $40,000 for a bachelor's degree when average borrowing is only half that?  More often, the problem among students who go heavily into debt is that they are determined to attend their dream college, no matter the cost.  In 2006 a CNN report that called a student loans " A Life Sentence" and said " Forget about getting married and buying a home. This generation is thinking about next month's payment".  But data on the average student-loan borrower tell a very different story.  A college graduate can expect to earn nearly $1 million more in lifetime earnings than a high-school graduate can. 

Response:

Student-loan can be a lifetime debt but at the same I think it's all depend on how we look at it, how we handle our situation with student-loan.  Yes when you have a good income, paying student loan is not an issue, but if you're one of the person that borrowed student loan and ends up at a job where you hardly can make a living of course having student payment on top it's a struggle.  Each one of us look at the student loan differently.

TIB: The Kindnesses We Give Each Other

Summary:  Mary Popham believes kindness is the cornerstone of her belief.  Giving time, attention, or more tangible things to relieve someone's pain or just make their day a little better, then kindnesses are returned to her, magnified and guaranteed.  When she was 4 years old, one of her neighbor named Dorothy and she was 4 years older than her, she had a hear condition that prevented her from running and playing like the rest of the kids.  One day her neighbor Dorothy was playing  back riding ( riding horsie) out side with Mary's little sister and her little bother. Mary was waiting for her turn but Dorothy said Mary was to big to ride on her back.  Too young to know that Dorothy had a rheumatic heart and shouldn't have been carrying children on her back, Mary cried with heartache that her aunt has to take her to room to calm her down.  Mary's aunt handed her one of her aunt's favorite thing to help makes Mary feel better and it was a set of plastic bells.  Years later, one of the lady in the cafeteria from her school, her house was caught on fire.  After Mary heard what happen she went over to see the cafeteria lady and handed the lady the plastic bells that she got from her auntie years ago.  Mary was so happy to see a smile on the cafeteria lady's face.

Response:  This story just reminded me what happen at a starbucks coffee drive thru on Saturday morning.   I normally go to starbucks to get my coffee every here and there.  On Saturday morning when I pulled up to pay for my drink the cashier told me that the car in front of me had paid for my drink, I was surprise.  So I decided to pay the drink for the car behind me.  Sometimes it only takes a small thing to make other people happy and yes I believe in it because it did make me happy and i hope i make others happy too.

This I Believe: A Kind and Generous Heart

Eight years ago her 13 years old son  were lived on a life support after diagnosing with a heart enlarged to double it's size.  Both pRents and people around him were praying for a heart to become available but at the same time the parents angry because someone's child would have to die.  One morning they got a call that there was a heart.  The surgery when perfectly.  The family was very appreciated be their son had another chance in life to do things with his family and friends.  After son turn 16, the new heart fail.  Their son pass away leaving the memories that they have for last few year.  When their son died, the parents knew that it would be their son's wish to give back.  His eyes went to someone who wanted to see.  That's selfless gift.

This story touches very much.  I can't imagine seeing your child dying waiting for a second chance from a donor but at the same time some other person's child die.  I think the world is too cruel with young children.