American Dream

My American Dream.  It consists of a good education, wealth and family.  To achieve these things we all have to work together.  The best thing about dreams is that you can work on them as you wish.  Wishing about your dreams is a great thing but doing something to make them come true is awesome.  I have been working on my American dream since I was about 11 years old.  I started working mowing yards and working for my dad.  He would have me help him with the rental houses that he has.  I never thought that I would be on the roof of a house at 11pm on a school night fixing a leaking roof.  This is how it all started.  I decided then that if I was going to make it in this world, it was going to take hard work.  At that moment and at such a young age, hard work and future thoughts should not have even been entering my mind.  Glad it did though, for this is what motivated me to get wealthy.  I know I have to have a good education, with going to high school for which I know now I should have done better.  I am smart but sometimes get discouraged.  My parents and grandparents told me that if I needed to go to college and get a good education because that is one thing that no one can take away from me.  I may lose money or a family member but I can never lose what school and life have taught me.  For the last year and a half I have been dating the same girl.
She is sweet, pretty and smart but we don't know where we will be in the future.  She is 2 years younger than I am.  So for my American Dream I have to work hard, study and become educated. The family thing is something that I can work on, too young to really worry about it now.  I know without dreams and a goal in mind, I will have a more difficult time.  So, I have a dream and goals.  For which I am working on now.

Race relations in the news

Census.gov data from 2010 showing stark differences in the population of Black of African Americans in Missouri.

https://medium.com/life-tips/i-never-spoke-to-black-man-until-i-went-to-mizzou-223d004a58cf#.q0hy5uhy0

I Never Spoke to a Black Man Until I Went to Mizzou

Jeff Huffman
A medium corporation US

Jeff Huffman was a sophomore at Mizzou and the leader of a Christian band "Evidence". He had never talked to a black person until his sophomore year of college. The guy he met is named Terry. Terry had an amazing gift and could throw down a tune. Jeff is from Dexter, Missouri and graduated with roughly 160 people and they were all white. He grew up with no diversity and didn't know anything but white race and Christianity. Jeff realizes that he was sheltered while he grew up but not by his parents, it was because the series of events and decisions of the leaders in his small Missouri home town of Dexter.

My childhood was almost like his but not completely. I grew up in a community that is mainly whites as well but I had a few black friends growing up. Friends that I had met at school and didn't hang out with them outside of school. Not that I was racist or anything but my closest friends were my neighbors and actually they are still really good friends to this day. My parents haven't ever brought a black person or any person of another race to my house while I was growing up so I didn't think that it would be okay for me to ask if I could bring one of my black friends over to hang out. My parents aren't racist that I know of, I think they just prefer to hang out with white families and they mainly hangout with the neighbors that are on my street. We have never had a person of another race live in our neighborhood.

Mizzou Students and Faculty take a stand

I don't necessarily agree with all of the decisions that were made about this racism on campus issue. I can agree with the students sending a letter to the president concerning the issues that are going on. The students wanted the issues to be resolved so they went about it the right way by sending in a letter concerning the issues. I don't agree with them basically making him resign from his job or they weren't going to play. The man probably has a family to support and they just put him out of a job. He can't support his family without a job; I think the players went a little extreme by making him resign. University of Missouri has had the problem with racism for decades. There is self-segregation that goes on on campus too. There is white-housing and black-housing. The white students went over to the black-housing one night and spread cotton balls all over their yards and trees. I think the protests that the students were doing are valid to get recognition for what they are trying to do. The things that have been happening to them are uncalled for and not right at all. There might be other ways to address racism but the most effective is sad to say but it is protesting in public. It gets the most attention and effects the most amount of people possible. Some of the other possible ways to address racism are: put up flyers in the hallways concerning the topic, write letters to higher authority, and trying to just avoid it as much as possible.

Police Brutality in SC

Police are using excessive force against mainly black people when arresting them. Well that's what we think they do. The media only puts stuff out there that will make people angry and want to riot. You hardly ever hear anything on the news that doesn't have something to do with racism. The cop in South Carolina didn't use excessive force while detaining the student. I saw one video where it looks like the student punched the cop in the face. Maybe that is why none of her classmates tried to help her out because they saw what she did. The teacher and vice principal were in the room when the officer did this. Neither of them said that the officer used excessive force. The officer did get fired but I think the only reason for it was because the sheriff’s department didn't want to look like the bad guy if they kept him. If the sheriff’s department would have kept him then there would have probably been some sort of riot. The sheriff’s office could have possibly been burnt down during the riot. People go to extremes when doing "Walks for Justice" or whatever they want to call them. Throwing glass bottles with fire coming out of them is a whole lot more than just a walk. That is destruction of government property and they should be charged for the crime to the fullest extent. I think the only way that the whole "White Privilege" thing could be true is only because whites aren't a minority in America. But people saying that whites have more privileges, get treated differently, etc. are just looking for someone to pity them and give them attention.

The "N-word"

I think that all students should read the book with the "N-word" in it. It is a part of American history. It's not a good part of our history but history is history, there's nothing we can do about it now but accept the fact that it happened. Reading books with that word in them doesn't bother at all when reading to myself but when reading out loud it makes me very uncomfortable. I try not to read that word out loud because I feel like people frown upon it. It also make me extremely uncomfortable while in the presence of other races to say that word even if it is out of a book. I don't want people saying "Oh he's a racist" or something to that effect which is complete nonsense but I wouldn't be surprised to hear that. Books that have the "N-word" in them should not ever be banned because it is history. The word should not be replaced either. If people start replacing the word just because they don't want to hear it or they get offended then before long history won't be taught in school. It's good for all kids to learn about history. I think that if certain races get pissed off about others using the word then they should get mad when their own race says it. It's a derogatory term no matter how it is used or who uses it. The "N-word" was slashed 219 times in the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and changed to the word "slave". People are trying so hard to erase the "N-word".

Strengths and Weaknesses

I am good at finishing an essay. I am good at finding details to throw in the paper to make it more interesting. I am also good at editing my mistakes. I can write pretty well once I overcome the struggle of getting started. I can become knowledgeable about a topic from very little research.

I am not good at starting a paper and collecting thoughts about it. I don’t know much about run-on sentences and comma splicing. I wasn’t taught much punctuation in high school. I haven’t tried to learn on my own because I am pretty lazy when it comes to work outside of school.

welcome to my blog

Hello, I am here. This is my first blog.