Final Debate

I didn't care for this style of debating. The Tibetan style is too confusing and obnoxious for me, maybe if we were in a small group setting the debate would be more successful. I also didn't like the topic because no one could agree on what qualities were considered male and which ones were female. Nothing really got accomplised because no one was willing to agree on terms of qualities. Also there is no way we could agree without making stereotypes, which is unfair to the groups. If we were able to do this debate again I think  a different topic would make this debate more successful.

Amelia Earhart

"Please know I am quite aware of the hazards, I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others."


Amelia Earhart is simply a courageous women who fought to prove that women are capable of accomplishing their dreams just as much as men are. At an early age Amelia had the dream of becoming a pilot and was determined to live it. Amelia was a strong woman who challenged conventional women behavior in order to pursue being a pilot. She worked hard as a nurses aid to earn money to buy her first plane. Through her continuous determination, Amelia's pilot career took off soaring as she began to set and break many records. At the age of 40, she was ready for a monumental, and final, challenge. She wanted to be the first woman to fly around the world. Even though she never completed her mission, Amelia Earhart proved to the world that women are strong and can have their own dreams. She became an icon for women and will always be remembered for her courage, vision, and groundbreaking achievements, both in aviation and for women. 

Debate Round 2

This style of debating was much more effective than the first time. Everyone had the chance to voice their opinion and listen to the opposing views. Also the class seemed more prepared and ready to speak their mind. I enjoyed listening to all the debates because everyone came out swinging especially the religious debate. I was glad to see no blood shed on that one. Religion is a very touchy subject and debating on it is very hard since people take it personally. I do believe that the opposing side of religion was a little disrespectful and did more bashing then trying to prove it to be fiction. I don't think the point of this assignment was to claim God of being a "bitch". Other than that, I enjoyed these debates and the interesting views of my classmates.

Abusive Mothers

A fetus is a living being
So fragile and helpless 
Depending on their mothers to provide,
To nourish, and to protect them from danger


So why do mothers abuse these beings?
Why do they drink, smoke, and use drugs?
Do they not see what a beautiful being they are creating?
Don't they want to give their being a chance to have a flourishing life?


Mothers are loving, caring, and affectionate
Or are they?
Some mothers choose not to be
Some mothers are selfish and choose their wants over their fetuses needs


Drugs and alcohol are addicting
But should a mothers fetus be more important to her?
Not always


Death 
Aren't children supposed to out live their parents?
Not when the mother abuses substances 

Banksy Project Review

The Banksy project is by far my favorite project I have done in college so far. It was so nice to see that everyone participated to get their voices heard. I think it's important for students to have a voice in their education system and this project helped students get their opinions out to improve the system. The only upset of the day was that the maintenance department would not leave the projects up longer for everyone to see, but thankfully they did not tear them down before the class got to view them. Everyone worked hard to make a statement, but my favorite project was the one with the student looking at UCLA with a ball and chain attached to his ankle representing how students dream of well known universities but are held back due to the cost. It was a perfect way to get his point across because the picture was bold and captured a lot of peoples attention. Becoming Banksy for the day was a wonderful experience. I'm glad to have been apart of this activity!

Exit Through the Gift Shop Assignment

     Wow, this documentary is amazing! I honestly am not into art nor am I very artistic, but Banksy is highly talented. It is inspiring that he just began showing his talent in street art and is now selling his pieces for thousands of dollars. His talent is truly original which is proved by the millions of people who have fallen in love with his art. I think a lot of the reason why Banksy is so famous now is due to Guetta who always carried around his video camera. Another fascinating thing about this documentary is that we never discover who Banksy is, but we do know that Banksy gets away with displaying his art wherever he may choose and that his painting may disclose who Banksy really is. 

Debate Points on Censorship

    First of all,  I feel like the debate on Wednesday had no resolution considering neither side listed to the opposing views points and both sides kept interrupting each other. I do realize that people get heated in certain situations, but in order for everyone to get their point across we must listen to each other and have an open mind.    Concerning the topic, I agree that advertising should be censored to a certain degree in order to protect the corruption of children, the inequality of races and communities, the pornographic view of men and women, and the customers from the exaggerated claims of certain products. It is the older generation's job to protect the younger generations in order for them to continue to build a striving country but if our advertisements continue to corrupt the younger generations what will our country be like in the future? What will our country be like if certain races continue to be shown inequality in ads? Will we begin to see fully naked people in ads around town? It is moral to lie about your product? These are some questions we as a society need to be thinking about for our future.

Advertisements

     Are advertisements pornographic? 

     In my opinion, most of the advertisements shown in today's society use sex appeal to persuade the customer to buy or use their product, but to determine whether or not the ad is considered pornographic depends on what is being revealed on the person and also the gender of that person.  I also think a society's view of "normal" contributes to the opinion of whether ads are pornographic or not. For example, if a man were to have his shirt off in an ad selling cologne I do not think that is considered porn because it is normal for a man to be seen without a shirt on. Now if a woman was in an advertisement with her shirt off selling perfume, that would be considered porn because our society is not used to seeing women walk around without their shirt on. These circumstances could be different based on where you live, how you were raised, and many other factors.

State of Oregon v. Jesse Caufield

     In the case of Jesse Caufield, Jesse was wrongly accused of holding Cooper Chase at gun point and stealing her car and wallet based on officer Nighthorse's stereotypical view of African Americans. Officer Nighthorse already had a preconcieved notion that the suspect must black because the victum said the man with the gun appeared to be Afican American so he immediately excluded out every race except for African Americans even though other races have darker skin that could resemble an African American in the dark. The officer also had a negative attitude against this specific race because he said, "these kinds of kids have no respect for the law' and 'it was crap- just people hiding behind race." Based on these two examples Jesse Caufield fell into the trap of stereotyping. Caufield was automatically made into a criminal in Nighthorses eyes because he was an African American, when in reality Caufield was a hardworking college student going to school to be a social worker. If the officer looked further into the case without immediately making judgments, he would have realized that Jesse was an innocent person trying to be a good citizen. Unfortunately stereotyping is everywhere even in our legal system where everyone is supposed to be treated equally.

Field Day Assignment

After doing this project, we came to the conclusion that being a critical thinker has many qualities involved. A critical thinker can be determined by many different ways as long as you have an open mind and willingness to listen to both sides by tolerating other people's views. To be a critical thinker, you have to be able to eliminate your emotions when judging a subject or topic because when your emotions get into the way you become bias. There is not always going to be a wrong or right answer but you have to be able to back up your view with statistics, examples, and good sufficient reasoning rather than personal preferences. These examples reflect on how our group believes what a good critical thinker should posses.

Evaluation Sheet: 1-5 (1=lowest, 5=highest)
1. Did he contradict himself? [1]
2. Is he elaborating on his points by giving examples? [5]
3. Is he being relevant, sticking to the main points? [5]
4. Does his emotions come into play? [3]
5. Is he being ignorant or staying humble? [1]
6. Is he really biased? [3]
7. Is he sympathizing with logic, emotion, and experience of his perspective? [4]
8. Is he making assumptions? [4]
9. Is his purpose clear? [5]
10. Are his reasons good and sufficient? [5]

Credit:
Lauren Bock and Whitney Mann: evaluation sheet
Ashly Appleby: video taped
Cody McVey: person we interviewed
Brian Schlatter: Interviewer
Lauren, Whitney, Brian, and Ashly wrote the paragraph