Website URL

http://sites.google.com/site/southwesternillusion/

Wild Website Project

For our website project Pasha and I decided to focus on illegal immigration, using Pat Mora's poem, "La Migra". Pasha explained perfectly in his blog why he chose the this topic. My reason is just that I found it interesting, a very highly debated topic. Pasha made a clear outline for us which made it much easier. We have a home page, the poem itself, the analazation of the 2 parts of the poem (we are not taking a side, so we thought it would be important to focus on both). Pasha did the side of the patrol officer, and I the Mexican woman. Then we have a Biography of Pat Mora, then 4 different pages of information using a couple books and articles as references, and of course a bibliography and about us page. The book I'm using as one of my references is called Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives, By Peter Orner. It has stories about real immigrants. I've only read a few of the stories but it is really good!
Pasha had a really good idea on how not to make it look like we're taking a side, alternate the information from the border patrol and the immigrants, something he learned in his psychology class. If you read his blog he explains it. Since we're all giving presentations there's no point in giving too much away, so I'll stop here. I'm meeting Pasha one more time today to go over the website and make sure we have everything, so I'll post the URL later.

Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight In Heaven

Out of all of the readings we've done in class The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight In Heaven by Sherman Alexie was definitely my favorite. Maybe part of it was that the way it was written was easier to read, but I really liked that it was broken down into short stories but had a lot of the same characters throughout the whole book. I enjoyed the style of writing, all the unique characters, the setting, and most of all the symbolism.
One of my favorites was "Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play 'The Star Spangled Banner' at Woodstock". It seems like it uses the playing of that song as a recurring symbol of Victors attachment to his father. As I said in my last post it's hard for me to decipher the symbolism sometimes, but it definitely makes it more fun to read, it'll be interesting in class tomorrow to hear what people made of all the symbols.
"2. When I heard my fathers pickup, I would run upstairs and throw Jimi's tape into the stereo... 4. My father would weep, attempt to hum along with Jimi, and then pass out with his head on the kitchen table. 5. I would fall asleep under the table with my head near his feet. 6. We'd dream together until the sun came up." I read that part so many times, maybe because I was trying to read further into it, or I just found it interesting and somewhat humorous and sad at the same time.
Well since Peter Ray and I are doing our presentation about some of these stories tomorrow, I'll save the rest for then. Especially since this website is driving me crazy, something always goes wrong when I try to post, so no picture this time. It looks so plain:(

How Far Would You Go?

Since I’ve never watched the show I did some reading about it online, here are a few of the things I found. In its first five seasons there were nearly 70 scenes of torture, more than any other show on television, Melissa Caldwell, the Parents Television Council's Senior Director of Programs, said, "24 is the worst offender on television: the most frequent, most graphic, and the leader in the trend of showing the protagonists using torture."
The illustrations of torture as effective and necessary have brought quite some criticism from human rights activists, military officials, experts in questioning and interrogation, and even from fans of the TV show. Stephan King, an admitted fan of 24, wrote, "There's also a queasily gleeful subtext to 24 that suggests, 'If things are this bad, why, I guess we can torture anybody we want! In fact, we have an obligation to torture in order to protect the country! Hooray! Yet Jack Bauer's face — increasingly lined, increasingly haggard — suggests that extreme measures eventually catch up with the human soul."
One of the FBI's best experts in questioning techniques, Joe Navarro, also attended the meeting. He told The New Yorker, "Only a psychopath can torture and be unaffected. You don’t want people like that in your organization. They are untrustworthy, and tend to have grotesque other problems."
I’ve been thinking long and hard about where I stand on this issue, but I just don’t know. I’ve never been the kind of person to enjoy watching violent movies, but this is different. It’s about protecting our country. If someone took your family for instance, and was going to hurt them, and you had a hunch who that person was, to what extent would you go to get them to talk? To save your family? What if it was hundreds or thousands of people in danger? I wish there were another alternative but unfortunately its effectiveness would probably be minimal in comparison
On the second page of the reading “What Would Jack Bauer Do?” there is a quote by General Patrick Finnegan, dean of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he said “The disturbing thing is that although torture may cause Jack Bauer some angst, it is always the patriotic thing to do.” The patriotic thing to do? That just sounds horrible, although swaying on the whole subject of torture, I can’t bring myself to agree with that statement. To me it just makes the whole idea of patriotism sound unethical. I can see why in some cases it may be absolutely necessary, but to say it’s the patriotic thing to do is going a little too far for me.
I was talking to Kathleen in the library about all this, and I’ve come to the decision that I just don’t want to know, maybe I can convince myself that it’s for the best if I don’t see or hear about it. That might sound ignorant, but it’s all I can handle right now. Oh, here's a funny little comic I found-

http://www.rall.com/uploaded_images/2-16-08-739618.jpg