TOW #28 - IRB - Love is a Mixtape

Listening to the radio in the car, there’s almost always one song that bring back memories.  For Rob Sheffield, music has enabled him to do many things in life, like creating memories.  It has also allowed him to form relationships with people that without music, may not have worked.  Sheffield’s reliance on music is shown with the anecdotes in his book.  They capture important moments in life that tie back to music.  Sheffield using these anecdotes emphasizes the importance of music, and how it impacts lives, especially his.

                Sheffield’s use of anecdotes describes the background of both him and Renée.  His late wife, Renée, held the same passion that he had for music.  He describes that, “Renée was a real cool hell-raising Appalachian punk-rock girl.  Her favorite song was the Rolling Stones’ ‘Let’s Spend the Night Together,” and “she bought too many shoes and dyed her hair red.  Her voice was full of the frazzle and crackle of music” (4).  In contrast, he describes himself as “a shy, skinny, Irish Catholic geek from Boston.  I’d never met anybody like Renée before,” additionally, “the first time I saw a possum in my driveway, I shook a bony fist at the sky and cursed this godforsaken rustic hellhole” (5).  These anecdotes detail the complete difference between him and Renée.  These polar opposites were able to connect with music.   He even says that, “we had nothing in common, except we both loved music” (6).  They depended on it to keep their relationship together.  Sheffield’s use of his stories help describe his situation, but this contributes to the idea that music formed his relationships.  Without it, he wouldn’t have formed a five-year long marriage with Renée.  Sheffield’s reliance on music helps show its importance in daily life.  It helped create relationships that he would not have had otherwise.  

TOW #27 - Why is Asian Salad Still on the Menu

Walking into a restaurant, it is not difficult to find culturally diverse and exotic foods.  However, one type of item often comes with an interesting name.  Asian foods are commonly given jokey names “Oriental Chop Chop.  Mr. Mao’s.  Secret Asian Man.  Asian Emperor.  China Island.  Chicken Asian Chop Chop.  Chinese-y Chicken” (Tsui 4).  These names reflect the common misrepresentation of Asian Americans.  Bonnie Tsui brings attention to this problem with the use of personal experience as research.  Utilizing this research has allowed Tsui to highlight the issue of unseen racism in our daily lives.

                Being an Asian American, Tsui documents the many things she’s seen in restaurants.  In her piece, she uses what she encounters as inspiration for her research.  She includes historical context on the creation of the title, “Asian Fusion.”  She notes that is was created in the 80’s and used by popular chefs like Wolfgang Puck and Roy Yamaguchi.  They sparked popularity of titling foods “Asian.”  Today, restaurants used this to their advantage, “A single Cheesecake Factory, Rainforest Café or Applebee’s could sell 500 Asian salads a week.  Each chain punched up the name to seem foreign yet familiar” (Tsui 10).  Not only does her factual evidence establish credibility in her article, but it also serves to expose these restaurants.  Applebee’s and other are utilizing Asian culture as a way to produce revenue.  Characterizing an item as Asian draws customer’s in since it sounds exotic and foreign. Not only are the restaurants just using the name, but they don’t even know the ingredients to their food.  Tsui asked Applebee’s for “more specifics on what made its Asian greens Asian and its Oriental vinaigrette Oriental, a spokesman told me the company was unable to ‘provide a thorough response” (Tsui 11).  Restaurants are solely using the Asian title as a marketing tool.

                Tsui documents the problems with restaurants through her own experiences.  Not only are restaurants using the name to draw customers, but they also don’t know what they’re putting into these foods or what makes it “Asian.”  This problem plays into the racism Asian Americans face in the country.  Their culture is taken advantage of so other companies and businesses can profit.

TOW #26 - To Stay Married, Embrace Change

“Till death do us part.”  A phrase said by almost every soon to be wife and husband.  Despite this promise, many marriages end with one partner, or both, filing for divorce.  Narrowing down the most common reason for splitting is difficult, There’s a myriad of reasons for why someone decides to leave their partner.  Ada Calhoun writes that often times the villain of marriage is change.  Whether it be too much change or not enough, partners lose their love for someone they once loved, or became someone new and their partner didn’t change along with them.  Calhoun emphasizes the need for accepting change through her use of first person further showing the importance of maintaining relationships in life.   

            Calhoun’s firsthand experience with divorce is detailed in her piece through first person.  She explains how her marriage wasn’t a big deal to her or her husband, Nick.  In fact, they “told anyone who asked that the marriage was no big deal,” (22), hinting at the fact that neither of them felt impacted by their legal binding.  Furthermore, Calhoun includes how she “didn’t feel different the next day.  We still fell asleep to “Politically Incorrect” with our cats at our feet as we always had” (21).  This lack of change was detailed in first person, giving readers the truth of how she felt to reach to appeal to their emotions.  Nothing changed after her and Nick became husband and wife, instead they pushed their marriage off as insignificant.  In her case, marking marriage as unimportant made their life consistent and unchanging.  The audience reads how Calhoun’s lack of change led to how her husband become ex-husband.  As not many people want to experience divorce, Calhoun’s first person account of her failing marriage serves as a warning to readers, pushing them to create change in their own relationships, rather than let them be the same thing day after day.

            Human nature is built off of several relationships.  Whether it be friends, family, or love, maintaining these relationships serves to keep us happy in life.  As change tends to be unavoidable, adjusting to change or creating it yourself helps keep relationships going.  Calhoun emphasizes this in her use of first person to strike fear in her audience, as she urges them to not fall into an unchanging life.  She pushes this idea as a way to help others strengthen their relationships and help other be happier in life.

IRB Intro Post #4 - Love is a Mixtape

The book I chose to read for this marking period is "Love is a Mixtape" by Rob Sheffield. This book interested me because it uses songs to tell a love story between two very different people.  I have never read something like this before and it involves music from the 90s, which is a creative way of telling a story.  Additionally, the inside cover includes the metaphor, "Love is a mix tape," which is also the title. I am intrigued to see how this metaphor plays into the book as a whole.

TOW #25 - Visual Text

In this public advertisement created by UN Women, they are using the search engine Google to convey how women are viewed in the world.  UN Women is an organization formed in 2010 focused on the empowerment and equality of women.  Being an international organization, UN Women reach countries far and wide, and reach a large demographic.  By using the popular search engine Google, UN Women emphasize the need for women to be treated equally everywhere in the world.  An aspect of Google is that when someone searches something, popular results are listed underneath the search bar.  UN Women uses this aspect to list the way women are thought of.  The common results are that women need to “be put in their place,” “know their place,” “be controlled,” and “be disciplined.”  All of these play into their audience’s feeling of both shock and sadness that they feel when reading this advertisement.  It is shocking that there are thoughts on how women need to be in society.  The fact that people believe in restricting women’s rights and freedoms in some parts of the world emphasize the need to change these ideas.  In addition, using Google as the platform to show these views increase how modern these problems are.  UN Women then juxtapose these issues with the phrase “women need to be seen as equal.”  This contrast between positive and negative increases the stark difference between how women are seen, and how they should be viewed.  UN Women use this add to bring awareness to not only the unfair treatment of women but also hint at pushing their audience to stop ignoring these problems.  

TOW #24 - IRB - Bad Feminist

Roxane Gay’s enticing book Bad Feminist reveals truths in many aspects of our culture.  She covers books, movies, and public figures and examines the way all three of these things affects our culture.  Gay aims to emphasize the inequality minorities face in the public eye.  Not only that, she succeeds in evaluating the good and bad aspects of popular pieces of entertainments.  Through evaluating these pieces, Gay touches on how recognizing injustice can further better our society.

                In an attempt to follow with popular culture, Gay decides to watch Orange is the New Black (OITNB), an extremely popular TV show based on the experiences a woman faced during her time in prison.  At its release, OITNB captivated a large audience, known for its groundbreaking plot and diverse characters, OITNB was praised for its excellency.  Gay agrees, “the show is reasonably well written, there’s a ‘interesting’ premise, and the cast is diverse” (250).  Despite its showcase of several characters, Gay finds this aspect overly repetitive.  Every time someone mentions the show, its diversity never fails to be mentioned.  Laverne Cox and Tanya Wright, actresses on the show, “create beautifully acted scenes that are intimate, bittersweet, and honest” (251).  However, all many can say about the show is remarkably diverse” (251) is it.  Furthermore, with its diversity comes a possibility of mistakes.  For example, “so many opportunities for the show to be truly original and smart are missed by wide margins” (251).  The Haitian character on the show does not even seem Haitian.  Another con with the show is the fact that all of the character revolve around the main, Piper.  Instead, Gay emphasizes the importance of supporting character creating their own solar system, and revolving around their issues rather than another.  Despite the show’s popularity many viewers fall into the trap of recognizing its diversity rather than seeing some of its faults.

                In recognizing the diversity of a show, Gay agrees with its popularity when it was released.  However, now it is all anyone can talk about.  Gay questions the bar set by our culture when it comes to “different” TV shows.  Is a small piece of diversity considered ground breaking, or are our standards for what’s new too low?  Yes, Orange is the New Black is different, and exciting, but one shouldn’t let that overpass the faults in the show itself.  Perhaps seeing these issues can create more shows changing entertainment’s platform, and work towards exposing more racial issues at hand.

TOW #23 - The Seasons Aren't What They Used to Be

Last month the east coast was basking in 70-degree weather, and now snow covers the ground.  At first, early spring seemed glorious, a break from harsh winter chills.  However, this bipolar weather is a tell-tale sign of one of our planet’s biggest threats, global warming.  Scientists have been tracking the change of the seasons for decades now, and it is clear that the seasons have been coming earlier each year.  As David Haskell writes, it is imperative that we pay more attention to the world around us to save future generations from losing the seasonal changes we know now. 

                As a way to raise awareness of the seasonal changes, Haskell uses harrowing facts to reveal the severity of Earth’s situation.  It’s not obvious the planet is changing, spring comes earlier, snow still falls after spring is announced, yet with the help of scientists, the change is increasingly evident.  In fact, “the spring emergence of leaves, frogs, birds and flowers advanced in the Northern Hemisphere by 2.8 days per decade” (3), and for the author, who is around 50 years old, spring has moved forward about 2 weeks in his lifetime.  Spring moving forward has disrupted nature and all of the creatures that rely on seasonal change to survive.  Bears emerge from hibernation early, flowers and other plants grow 2 weeks ahead.  Climate change hasn’t taken the pedestal since the Environmental Movement’s rise in the 60s.  Now more than ever it is becoming more important to combat seasonal change, or at least raise awareness of it.  “Spring came about 20 days early in the Eastern and Midwestern United States” (6), and bird populations are struggling thanks to arriving early and finding out their insect food isn’t there.  All of these problems have “affected 82 percent of the biological processes that underpin all life” (11).  These issues highlighted emphasize the importance of realizing what is wrong with the planet, and how we need to pay more attention in order to fix these problems.

                Our role on this earth when it comes to the environment is to not just be aware of the changes we face.  Instead, we play an essential role in being the ones to change or reverse the issues at hand.  More research and the work of scientists have only revealed the problems at hand, and the next step is to create fixes to these problems.  All together, the idea of fixing our planet better the world for the future.  Though it won’t be our future that we’re working for, instead it is the future generations that have no control over what happens today.

TOW #22 - Want to Fix Schools? Go to the Principal's Office

Schools are composed of various positions and people that all play into the success of their students.  Whether it is teachers, board members, guidance counselors, or principals, they all play a role.  Yet these day teachers seem to be held more responsible for the success of students than other workers.  Although it is obvious teachers are essential to a school’s success, the role of a principal has been overlooked in comparison to a teacher’s.  That is why more schools are beginning to evaluate their principals in addition to other staff members.  By evaluating school principals, schools in states like Chicago have been seen to improve drastically.

In Chicago, a state where success in school has been historically low, new ways of improving schools have led to more success for students.  Chicago has done multiple things in order to improve schools, they have required parents and teachers to evaluate their principals with a survey and also allowed people with various backgrounds to take the position.  The surveys parents and teachers take help the school board “oversee each school and principal” (13).  By examining each principal, which is easier than examining every teacher, the board can hire, fire, or keep the principals of each school.  Through these surveys, a principal’s efficiency and impact on each school is seen.  A principal is one of the highest leaders in the school, they all hold the key to creating a school that teaches its students the curriculum, and also teaches them methods to success, rather than just passing.  Surveys are not the only ways Chicago ha improved their schools.  Principals with nontraditional backgrounds have also been hired.  For example, “Armando Rodriguez, who runs a gleaming new science high school” (22).  He used to be an engineer at Motorola.  Principals who may not have come from common background are not a downfall of schools.  Instead they are able to understand certain subjects better.  Since Rodriquez knows how places like factories work, he has a better understanding of what his students need in his science based school.  A combination of evaluating principals and hiring ones that have knowledge over other subjects have led to great success in Chicago schools.  Students have improved greatly in reading and math, and the graduation rate rose to 85 percent compared to last year’s 74 percent 2012.  When aiming to improve schools, it is important to evaluate the entirely of it, because all staff members intertwine to make students successful.  Overlooking principals has been a mistake too many schools make, and Chicago has been extremely successful in not making it.

TOW #21 - Visual Text - Guerrilla Girls

As a part of the new take home essay, I wanted to evaluate the role art plays in changing the views of society.  One of my examples, The Guerrilla Girls, used public ads to exploit aspects of art.  The Guerilla Girls first appeared in New York City in the 80s.  They kicked off their disobedient movement through protests.  They protested outside of the MoMA, yet had little success.  Now they use shocking statistics to provoke readers into seeing the unfair representation of women in art culture. 

                One of their many ads they’ve created compared 1985 to 2015.  The image features a list of art museums and counted the number of exhibitions women have had in them.  Both dates feature the Museums: Guggenheim, Metropolitan, Modern, and Whitney.  The Guggenheim, Metropolitan, and Whitney count zero exhibitions by women in 1985.  Modern counts one.  30 years later the Guerrilla Girls counted again, in 2015.  Each museum only increased exhibitions by one, Guggenheim, Metropolitan, and Whitney went to a grand total of one, and the Modern a mind blowing two.  The Guerrilla Girls refused to stay quiet about the inequality in the art world, including these blunt statistics allows their viewers to see how incredibly unjust women are treated in society.  Never being featured in museums, never getting recognition and praise for their work, the Guerrilla Girls refused to let this slide by.  Although they were able to expose various art museums, more importantly they are forcing their viewers to reflect.  Reflect on how nothing has changed since the 80s, women are still not being treated equally, despite it being 30 years later.  Disobedient actions like the ones the Guerrilla Girls used inspires public to engage in action.  Encouraging society to fight back against inequality is an important role disobedience plays.  If there were no groups like the Guerrilla Groups pushing society to see harsh truths, change would not happen. 

 

TOW #20 - IRB - Bad Feminist

Bad Feminist is composed of many essays where Roxane Gay touches on the topic of feminism.  Whether her essays are positive or negative Gay is especially effective in paralleling her life to things she sees in society, such as media, school, etc.  Paralleling her life to other aspects in society not only allow readers to see Gay in a more personal way, but they also reveal truths in an honest yet straightforward manner. 

Gay connects her life to TV shows she’s seen to make perfection less needed.  Talking about her life in her twenties, Gay emphasizes how difficult and messy it was.  She “lived a generally crappy life” and generally being “lost and awkward, having terrible sex with terrible people, being perpetually broke.”  The overall unhappiness Gay feels, as do many other 20-year-old women, is reflected in the TV show she highlights.  Girlfriends, a show Gay watches that debuted in the 2000s effectively captures the despair and troubling times Gay and many women faced in their twenties.  However, despite it’s scary accuracy, Gay is sure to mention that the show is not perfect.  What is more important is the fact that, “the women were human and they were portrayed humanely.”  In this imperfect show Gay connects the mess her young life was to the show.  Not everything that people desire to be perfect is in reality, perfect.  In fact, that’s what makes it better.  Not everything is perfect, just like Gay’s experiences when she was twenty, it was full of twists and turns, but she was trying live the only way she knew how.  The show Girlfriends captured real life struggles and even though it didn’t touch on everything, it was human, and it was significant.  Girlfriends captured the human struggle in a way many modern shows do not, and revealed that not all media can be as inclusive and desirable and one wishes. 

The faults Gay parallels between her life and the show Girlfriends emphasizes the lack of perfection occurring in life.  But the imperfection does not necessarily mean it’s bad, because imperfection is human.  Her short essay allows readers to see that making mistakes is just a part of life.  Bad Feminist includes highs and lows such as the ones in the essay Girls, Girls, Girls because not everyone is perfect.  The mistakes made contribute to the greater idea that someone is trying, rather than not attempting something at all.  

TOW #19 - Bill Frist: The Case for Keeping America’s AIDS Relief Plan

The HIV/AIDS epidemic hit the world hard in the 1980s; ranking no. 4 in causing the most deaths in the world, and no. 1 in Africa.  Since the 80’s many nations have tried to reduce the prevalence of this disease.  One program, Pepfar, was created by the United States to help other nations, mainly third world ones, with combatting HIV and AIDS.  Bill Frist, who helped pass the plan in 2003, uses his piece to explain the essentiality of this plan and how it should continue to be reauthorized.  By employing hopeful statistics and also refuting questions about Pepfar, Frist reveals to his readers how important Pepfar is to developing countries.

            Pepfar was created after HIV/AIDS started growing in the world, and it was able to help many countries after being put into action.  Frist highlights the beneficial effects of the plan by using statistics that induce hope in readers.  More specifically, Pepfar “reached 11.5 million people with antiretroviral drugs” and “Two million babies with infected mother have been born H.I.V.-free” (3).  The huge amount of people being aided emphasizes how influential Pepfar is.  In addition, by mentioning innocent children who could have been affected by the disease but weren’t, readers feel emotion for babies that could die from HIV/AIDS.  For many developing countries, Pepfar can be the only hope for people infected.  In addition to inspiring statistics, Frist also refutes what many people may think is wrong with Pepfar.  Some official worry that Pepfar may not be worth the investment when there are many security concerns in Africa, and Frist agrees.  But he also mentions how “Pepfar has helped Stabilize much of Africa” (8).  In addition to that “from 2004 to 2013, political instability and violence fell by 40 percent in countries that received Pepfar assistance versus just 3 percent in similar countries that did not” (9).  Refuting what many people think strengthens the fact that Pepfar may seem risky, but in the end it is beneficial to countries that truly need help.

            Frist using both hopeful statistics and refuting arguments allow readers to see how essential Pepfar is to countries and the people living in them.  By saving babies born by infected mothers and decreasing instability in countries, Pepfar is far more influential than one may think.  Frist uses his piece not only to reveal Pepfar’s importance, but also reveals how countries with the means to help others should do everything they can to help third world countries.  When countries come together for a common cause, they are far more beneficial to the world than when countries are apart.

TOW #18 - Why Does the United States Still Let 12-Year-Olds Get Married?

In Fraidy Reiss’s piece Why Does the United States Still Let 12-Year-Olds Get Married details the unknown practice occurring in the United States.  Seen in various cultures and countries, child marriage still exists and is hidden in America.  Revealing the detrimental effects of this practice, Fraidy Reiss- founder and executive director of Unchained At Last- reprimands the United States government for not doing enough to end child marriage. 

Reiss’s argument that the government had not done enough to eliminate child marriage is agreeable due to the way the government has always created exceptions to laws created to protect children.  In 2016, Virginia finally passed a bill to end child marriage, yet legislators combatted it with an exception to the bill.  Emancipated minors, youngest 16, are an exception.  Although Virginia has moved to stop child marriages, with the creation of exceptions, minors are still subject to marriages that lead to poverty, pregnancy, and a higher percentage of a myriad of harmful diseases.  With legislators creating exceptions, minors are still subjected to child marriage.

Not only to exceptions ruin freedom for children, but avoidance does too.  Two states, New York and Maryland, proposed bills but they failed.  Some states have not even acted at all.  This lack of action has led to around 248,000 children wed in American in the span of 10 years (2000-2010).  When Michelle De Mello was 16 and pregnant, she was pressured into marrying the 19-year-old father.  Thinking that the law would save her from this fate, DeMello had hope that being a minor protected her from marriage.  Contrary to her thoughts, the law did not protect her.  In fact, all states have the exception that children under 18 can marry with parental or judicial approval.  27 states do not have an age where children are not allowed to marry, meaning there is no limit as to when these minors can be legally married.  Without any states taking action, the US government can be accused of not working hard enough to end child marriage.

With many states creating exceptions to bills and some taking absolutely no actions, child marriage does not seem to be eliminated in the near future.  But where the responsibility lies to fix this problem falls into the government’s lap.  Only the government can abolish child marriage, without exceptions.  Reiss emphasizes the government’s importance in ridding child marriage by highlighting the faults many states have.  Failing to eliminate marriage with minors has led to many women on economic deprivation and instability, not to mention the more women being married has led to a high chance of these girls dropping out of high school and increasingly likely to drop out of college.  The girls forced into marriages deserve more protection and should settle for nothing less, only now we must rely on the government to provide this protection.

TOW #17 - Visual Text

Surfrider is a foundation dedicated to the protection of oceans, coasts, and beaches.  Their advertisement, published in 2011, is raising awareness of littering in oceans and on beaches.  The ad features two large sushi rolls composed of garbage.  Instead of seaweed wrapped around the outside, it is plastic bags.  Rather than fish and vegetables inside the rice, it is blue trash and more plastic.  Underneath the rolls of sushi is the phrase, “What goes in the ocean goes in you” accompanied with a figure about how fish consumes 12,000 tons of plastic a year.  Surfrider’s advertisement reveals to viewers the honest reality of littering; what is put into the ocean is coming right back into us. 

Using trash to represent food scares viewers into seeing how their littering affects what they eat.  When trash is put into the ocean, fish and other marine animals ingest a majority of the waste.  Consequently, this trash is consumed again when we eat fish in dishes such as sushi.  Creating this image with trash as food evokes horror in viewers.  They are forced to realize they are eating the same trash they’re feeding sea creatures.  Pairing this visual with statistical evidence also enforces the harshness of littering, “fish off the West Coast ingest over 12,000 tons of plastic a year.”  Appealing to viewers’ sense of logic, this fact clearly indicates the excessive amount of litter that is thrown into the ocean yearly.  Effectively pairing visuals with evidence, Surfriders’s advertisement implants fear into viewers since they are eating trash which was eaten by fish, and the fact that tons of waste is thrown in to the oceans.  The foundation’s advertisement emphasizes the importance of preventing littering.  Not only does it hurt the oceans, but it affects all creatures on Earth.  It is essential to realize this to sustain life on the planet many call home.

                

TOW #16 - IRB - The Glass Castle

Nature vs. nurture, a controversial theory in psychology, contemplates whether the way one is raised determines who someone is or if their genes determine their characteristics.  Although Jeanette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle does not explicitly mention this theory, Walls’ life reflects ideas from nurture, rather than nature.  Her life consists of sporadic adventures with her family and they never had a permanent home, instead their home was wherever they went.  Although as a child Walls enjoyed her unusual upbringing, approaching adulthood opened her eyes to the dissatisfaction she felt in her life.  By the time she was 18, she moved away, went to college, and became a reporter.  Stabilizing her life, Walls married and moved into his home in New York.  But talking with her parents as an adult changed Walls, she’s not comfortable with who she is now.  By contrasting stability and instability in her memoir, Walls connects to the theory that the way one is raised determines who they are.  As a result, Walls relies on the ever changing lifestyle she grew up with.

After graduating college and becoming a reporter, Walls moved into a home and married a man names Eric.  However, after speaking with her mother and the death of her father, Walls moves into a new apartment and changes her life.  Before changing her life, Walls felt that “life with Eric was calm and predictable.  I liked it that way” (272).  Walls thought that turning her life into one completely opposite of her childhood was what she desired.  Instead she found herself, “wanting to be somewhere other than where I was” (280).  The life she thought she wanted turned out to be not satisfactory: if she “was at work, I’d wish I were at home.  If I was in the apartment, I couldn’t wait to get out of it” (280).  This discomfort she found in her current life led to her leaving her husband Eric and finding a new apartment.  Additionally, she “took up ice-skating” and “felt best when I was on the move, going someplace rather than being there” (280).  The stark contrast between her stable and normal life into one that is unpredictable and always moving reflects the way she was raised.  Always on the move, her family never stayed in the same place for too long.  Taking up these tendencies play into the theory that nurture affects who you are.  More importantly, Walls is led to realize that sometimes change isn’t always beneficial.  Instead, going back to what makes you happy and healthy in life is essential.  Just because your life strays from the normal of others’ does not mean it’s wrong and needs to change.

TOW #15 - Finding Myself Through My College Major

Joshua Kam, a junior in college born to Malaysian-Chinese parents, often gets questioned on his origins.  Clearly looking foreign due to his ancestry, “Where are you from?” is a question he is all too used to.  But what he isn’t used to, is an answer.  Kam was born in Montana, raised in Malaysia, and is going to college in Michigan.  But explaining this to others left his audience in a flurry of various places with no clear answer.  However, after two years in college, Kam finds himself answering this question with newfound ease.  In Joshua Kam's, "Finding Myself Through My College Major," Kam shows progression in answering questions about his ancestry through anecdotes.  By displaying progression, Kam highlights his comfort in his background and attributes it to his life in college.

            Kam’s piece starts out with an experience from his freshman year in college.  While in church an old man asked him, “So you’re from one of those Oriental nations, right?” (1).  Kam had heard questions like these before, but as he tried to explain the multiple places he has lived, the mans “eyes were glazed over and I was fumbling for the door” (1).  Kam found it difficult to accurately explain where he came from and this left his audience confused and him desperate to leave the situation.  But as time progressed, Kam found a simpler way to answer this question.  Instead he now says Montana and thus sparks a delightful conversation about the state and all its wonders.  Although he found a way to please his interrogators, Kam still dreads the questions, and wonders if he is even answering it fully to himself.  This is where his education in college comes to the rescue.  Through “studying history and the classics” (11), Kam learns the background behind his ancestry and sees how he is who he is because “an 11-year-old leapt onto a schooner in South China and landed on British Malaya to work the fruit orchards” (10) and he has “two sets of founding fathers who carved forth from their great continents new nations” (10).  By studying in college, Kam has his eyes opened by past stories and experiences about his ancestors.  Without his education, his answers to the question, “Where are you from?” may not have come so easily.

TOW #14 - I Made My Son Cannabis Cookies. They Changed His Life

Legalizing recreational drugs seemed like fantasy talk until California allowed medical use of marijuana in 1996.  Following California’s lead, Colorado and Washington then legalized it recreationally in 2012.  Many far right conservatives oppose marijuana due to the fact that it is a drug and categorize it with others such as crystal meth and heroin. Contrary to their beliefs, marijuana is one of the few substances that is not fatal.  Due to its positive effects on certain diseases, Marie Myung-Ok Lee, mother of a child with a gut disease and autism, decided to use it for her child.  In her piece, Lee details the problems with finding the right way to treat her son, from cookies to oil, and her struggles in finding the right type of marijuana and provider.  With more problems becoming evident each day, Lee struggles to maintain her supply of medication to keep her son safe without breaking the law.  Her emotional story emphasizes the fact that marijuana should be legalized for medical use in more states.

Lee’s son has had medical problems since he was young.  By including anecdotes on her son’s struggles, Lee appeals to other parents who struggle with similar problems.  Lee’s son, “was consumed by violent rages.  He would bang his head, scream for hours and literally eat his shirts” (2).  At one point, her son “put his head through a window and cut his face in a frenzy of pain” (18).  Not only was it hard to prevent these violent flare ups from happening, but it was difficult to stop them when they started.  Lee resorted to cannabis cookies and oil to calm him down and prevent harmful actions.  After throwing his head through a window, cannabis oil was able to calm him “down enough that we could bring him to the ER” (18).  Tugging at other parents’ heartstrings, Lee’s own problems emphasize the parental need to keep their child safe.  No mother or father wants to see their child hurt themselves in fits of anger and pain.  Unfortunately for Lee the only way to curb the fits is with an illegal substance.  By including painful memories of her son, parents sympathize and are shown the beneficial effects of medical marijuana. Marijuana is able to treat many peoples's problems when it comes to health. When there is no other option to take, it is essential for those struggling to take medical marijuana to relive pain and suffering. With laws stopping those in need from having better lives, many are advocates of legalizing cannabis. Lee's story brings to question, to what extent does one's political views on drugs stop others from achieving a more safe and painless life?