Eve’s message is that everyone has been oppressed not just one type of person. She believes all humans, man or woman have lost their inner girls. This is very different from all the other speakers because they all focused on one group of people and how they were oppressed. Eve does specify one specific group which are young ladies who have been physically violated, but these woman began her movement and started her whole thought process about the inner girl being lost. Eve is a very unique empowering woman. She wants everyone to allow feelings and confusion back into our lives. She believes being a girl is very unique and that its powerful that’s why everyone has been trained not to be one. Eve showed many other sides of woman, and the benefits of how they are genetically wired. She said shes proud that she is an emotional creature! Shes proud she creates the way she does. It is who she is and it allows her to be her. I agree with Eve 100%, everyone needs to allow that vulnerability back into their lives, allow themselves to feel every emotion out there. While traveling and listening to these women, helping them repair them selves she has realized all women want to please. Whether they want to make their fathers proud of them or some other male figure, they want to do the best they can and be the best they can all the time. And I for one feel this most of the time, I always want to please everyone which most of the time is impossible. And needs to be changed I am all for changing the verb to educate or empower or any other verb. Girls have been this was since the beginning of time. Eve has a very different message, she wants everyone to find and connect their inner girl.
Let me start off by saying, I am new to the political world. I have never really paid attention to the whole rat race. I have never watched a full debate whether presidential or vice presidential but I have seen clips. My first opinion to VP Biden is what in the world! Act your age! He seemed so immature and cocky up there on the platform. All the smirks and talking out of turn just seemed as if he was blowing this off and not taking it seriously. Being a Delawarean I automatically was embarrassed, but then quickly realized his smart-a** comments and ways are those typical to one of us. What was I to suspect, you can dress him up but you can’t take him out. I didn’t really have a clear idea of every topic they were questioned but I tried my best to follow along and had my friends laughing because I took so many notes. They all are more politically correct than me and often were laughing at my questions. I was constantly getting annoyed with the talking over each other and asking if they would too get a turn to answer the question Martha was asking. Personally, I feel as if neither of the candidates really did what they were supposed to during this debate. Biden often went off track and had the wonderful “monkey mind” and Ryan just sort of would ramble off facts which I have no clue where he kept those filed away. I did the fact check on Google after the debate and realized they both were kind of just saying things and changing them as politicians normally do. But what really bugged me was that Ryan being from Scranton couldn’t even get his own unemployment rates correct, whether he was just trying to make the situation seem worse or what but he actually made himself look ignorant on the topic. Biden had me laughing when he kept referring to Ryan as “my friend”. Throughout the debate I saw the reoccurring theme of Ryan trying to pull the heart strings of America with stories of people he knew, or things he experience, I don’t really want to hear about that I want to hear what you have to offer us. This was particularly evident when taking about the Automobile industry and he brought up a family who went to Romney’s church, but yet he never met and how they lost two sons but of course Biden would bring up his lose too but my whole thing is that WHO CARES! That has nothing to do with supporting the bailouts or not supporting the bail outs. Also Ryan told the story of his wife and their first ultrasound of their little “bean”, when questioned on the topic of abortion and contraception. Once again Ryan, I don’t want your stories this is not circle story time this is a debate. I agree with Biden’s overall take on that particular topic, it is something that is between them and their doctor. I agree, just as if its ones choice to smoke, get married or purchase a burger, it is there personal business. After watching the debate, I realized I need to know a lot more before the election in November and I actually changed my opinion of not caring and not really being a political person. I now want to learn more and actually understand what all the politicians are saying, that is when it actually means something.
So far, the research process for me is…. a pain in the ass! I love to learn about new topics, often googling and searching to find others opinions but this is just driving me nuts! There is so much on the topic of glass ceilings and women discrimination in the workplace but some how at the same time almost no valuable information! I have found that once you find a source it is very difficult to locate it again. Often when I think I found an excellent creditable source and I print it out the first few pages are great but then they go off into some statistical tangent. Yes, I know statistics are needed to complete studies but when they talk about them I feel as if it is pointless. I can understand some of it since I took AP Stat in high school but most of it just seems irrelevant for my paper topic. I found one really valuable source so far and it is an eBook in the JWU library and well, every time i want to access it i have go and search for it again. No matter how many times I save it and log in it just disappears. And quite frankly it is annoying to have to read something in a little window half the screen. It just is not convenient. I for one was looking forward to this research paper mainly because the topic does pertain to me, being a female beginning to enter the workforce where many women do not get to the positions they deserve. Recently, aka the last two days I have been wanting to kill myself over this stress of finding sources which support or even have to do with my topic. It is just plain FRUSTRATING! Many of the articles also pertain to a direct topic such as lawyers or Indian women in the workplace or just blacks and these are great little facts to add diversity to my paper but I need a more meaty over view and generalized information source!
Gallagher, Patrick. “Glass Ceiling Shows Cracks, Yet Endures.” Westchester County Business Journal 48.7 (2012): 19. Regional Business News. Web. 10 Oct. 2012.
Gallagher shows both side of the argument of “glass ceilings”, he acknowledges that yes some women have exceeded and surpassed this invisible barrier but most have not. Gallagher uses statistics from Fortune 500 companies such as Pepsico and ITT Corporation to show how a few women have successfully climbed the ladder but also informs the audience that women only held 16.1% of board seats on these companies in 2011. Gallaghers article does an excellent job of giving the facts of both sides and will be very useful in my paper. He supports that it is definitely difficult for women to break through the glass ceiling but not impossible.
Jennica Webster, et al. “Managers’ Beliefs About The Glass Ceiling: Interpersonal And Organizational Factors.” Psychology Of Women Quarterly 33.3 (2009): 285-294. Academic Search Complete. Web. 10 Oct. 2012.
“Even with the inroads women have made into management, the glass ceiling phenomenon has not been eliminated”, according to Webster’s opening sentence. This article is all about how managers view the glass ceiling, this article is an excellent example of not being biased due to the fact the authors are interviewing many different people. Many viewpoints are being shown, those who believe in the glass ceiling and those who think it is just women aren’t doing as they should or that statistics are being manipulated. “Women occupied only 16.4% of corporate office positions in 2008” , shows that many women have jobs but just are not being promoted up to higher positions as their men counterparts. This article is a good source to support my thesis because it shows why women are not being promoted or at least one reason which is the organizational factors.
Today during our library information session I learned how to access the databases and catalogs. Before today I have never used the library or any of its resources in great detail more of just a glance and quickly searched. Now I feel as if I will be able to find many articles to use for information research gathering. I actually have already saved some resources that I found while searching today. The concept map in CREDO Reference is great when trying to find a topic for future papers, this would have been helpful last week while trying to narrow down my topic. I feel this little class information session was very valuable because I know that personally I had no clue how to use any of these things located either virtually in the library or physically in the library. And honestly I probably wouldn’t of asked questions either. This was very beneficial in my research for my freshman research paper. I feel as if this will help make my life alittle bit less stressful.
Aaron Huey is all about the Sioux Native Americans, the ones who live on Pine Ridge Reservation. He starts off his TED talk with the native word for white people, which in translation basically means the one who takes the best meat, Huey spent five years with these people getting close to them trying to learn about their culture and what they are going through. Many of the Natives were unwilling to talk or get close to him, his skin color being the main barrier. The few who did allow him to pry into their lives he became very close with, often being called uncle or brother. Throughout Huey’s speech he was showing the timeline of ancestry and what these people of been through, the real information not what the government said students should learn. While speaking he had the photographs he had taken of present day Pine Ridge Reservation showing, this was real poverty, real injustice. Most of the history he talked about was how mistreated and cheated these people were, out of land, rights and most of all their culture. Last night while watching this short video often stopped took out my earphones and would tell my friends and suitemates what I had just learned. The statistics were just unbearable; the pictures often brought tears to my eyes. I just could not believe this was going on right now in present day Lakota. Aaron showed how unfortunate these people have been since the very beginning, they have had a few moments where they have come out on top but even then it is just a slight victory and then quickly pushed aside. This is all social injustice, these people deserve better, and they overall need better. They are left to do without and basically ignored by all of the United States unless it has to do with taking their land or someway hurting them. This was something I was completely oblivious too, I had no clue with was going on out by North and South Dakota. I had no clue that Lincoln, who we were taught was Honest Abe and one of the best presidents, had ordered the mass execution of women and children just two days after the Emancipation Proclamation. It seems if our society turns a blind eye to what our ancestors have done wrong, and still are doing wrong. It just astonishes me that more Medals of Honor have been given out to American soldiers to mass murder these human beings than to any soldier who participated in any battle in World War 1 or 2, Iraq and Afghanistan. Huey ended his TED talk with asking for us to return the Black Hills to the Lakota, and that it doesn’t matter what they do with them.
I loved Bryan’s TED talk video, he is a great public speaker. He starts off with stories about his child hood incorporating them into his speech mainly to talk about creating an identity for oneself. He talks about his grandmother who pulled each child aside and told them that they were special and made them keep three promises, 1. To always love their mother, 2. Always do the right thing even when it is the hard thing and 3. To never touch alcohol. Well when Bryan was told this he thought he was the only one who got this speech and really did think he was special, when actually all the grandkids got this little talk. But Bryan realized this was what helped him build his identity, and when one has an identity they can do more for not just themselves but for others. Its almost like spreading the word, if you have a amazing non-profit organization or charity but you don’t get the word out than what good does it do? None! Bryan is an attorney for young children who are in jail and never really had a chance to better their lives, they got caught up in some hometown problems and now are most likely being tried as an adult. Bryan tells another story about how he wrote this “awful” proposal about one of his clients and went on and on about how this 14 year old poor black boy should be tried as a 75 year old rich white man, since we tend to let them off easier which I agree with a lot. “The opposite of poverty is not wealth. … In too many places, the opposite of poverty is justice” Bryan said this in his speech, and he is right, poverty isn’t just being poor it is how they are treated and people in poverty are being treated unequally, they are getting injustice in the court system. Stevenson gives many different statistics regarding the black population and poverty. One which sticks out and amazes me is 1 in 3 black males have or will be incarcerated and some point in their lives. This is just mind boggling, this number is so high because our country now focuses on placing everyone in jail just because of petty crimes instead of having that person give back what they have done wrong. Bryan Stevenson has been involved with social justice and injustice for quite awhile. He would go sit and listen to Rosa Parks and Mrs. Carr about what they felt, they would often turn and ask what he thought and then he would go into telling her about his plans to stop or prevent injustice and she tells him that its going to make him tired, tired, tired.
Tayo, the main character of Ceremony has multiple conflicts right off the bat and throughout the novel. Tayo has a major conflict with man v. self; he has this PTSD in taking over his mind. Tayo constantly is upset about something in his past whether it pertains to the Japanese war, his relationship with all of his family members or even other Indians on the reservation. All of these memories are triggers for his PTSD which is a conflict within him. Tayo also has a man versus man conflict, well let’s just say woman if you can even call Auntie this. Through his whole life from the time he was left by his mother with his Grandma, Josiah, Auntie and Rocky until now Tayo has this ongoing conflict with Auntie. She treats him differently that her own precious son Rocky, it isn’t as if she ignores him or keeps him away she just keeps him at a distance so he can see what he is missing out on, a loving mother who adores him. Auntie also goes to Tayo multiple times and tells him little tid-bits of information about his mother or his uncle or even others on the reservation that is just uncalled for. There is no reason to tell a child of his drunken mother ways and how she behaved before and even after Tayo was born, why ruin his memory of his own mother. Tayo has this very odd conflict with nature, he was in the war and it rained almost every day and floods often came through the jungle where he was most of the time. Tayo once wished that it would stop raining and now he believes he’s to blame for the drought they are dealing with now. Man versus Society, this is what I believe to be the biggest conflict Tayo is forced to deal with out of all of them. Tayo is half white and half Native American, he is living on the reservation in his community but everyone including his own Auntie view him differently. Tayo doesn’t really fit in anywhere, in the white community he is considered an alcoholic and useless but then in the Indian community they call him white trash. Tayo just has one conflict after another building up back to back and he cannot just overcome them. His outcast conflict, man versus society causes other conflicts and just becomes a vicious circle.
I was unable to find a place to go to during our walk this morning; I do not know if it was because my head is filled with so many other things right now. I just couldn’t clear my mind to allow it to move freely and imagine these different stops along the way. My body was here and so was my mind, neither participated. I started with the breathing and could feel the tension leaving my body but once it was time to find that comfortable place in nature my mind began thinking of my bed, which then jumped to studying. Monkey mind has set in and taken over at this point. Normally my monkey mind will allow me these few moments to relax but I guess today I just have too much on my mind that it decided I couldn’t afford a few minutes to myself. Having late night study sessions, completing readings and video lectures for my classes cause stress so through quiet moments I am running through my checklists. I also start my Work Study today and have my first major test back to back so that was just taken over my mind, kind of like move on over relaxation stress is moving in today. Maybe during the end meditation I will be able to focus more on the relaxation and less of the other crap filling that time.
Coming back from my first meditation experience I actually do feel calmed and refreshed a little bit. But since its so early in the morning I caught myself dosing off a couple times. I also could not get the fact that I just had a banana and I am still hungry, so I had that annoying pain in my stomach constantly nipping at my mind. I did actually clear my mind for a few of those moments which was a complete shock to me since I always am thinking or worrying about something. But now that I am sitting here I just want to put my head down and go to sleep. If this meditation were to take place later in the day I do believe it would have benefited me more so than at 8:30 in the morning after a night of crappy sleep.
Kasey Anderson 