Work I am Proud of

• H2O Project; Petition Letters

We just completed our Water Quality Project and I'm really proud at what I was able to create and accomplish. I decided to make a petition e-mail/letter to bring awareness and change to pollution in Imperial Beach. I'm proud of this because it was an issue that I actually do care about. I'm also proud because I spent a lot of time and put a lot of effort into making this what it was. Not just at the very beginning or the very end of the project, but throughout the whole process. I didn't procrastinate and I aimed for high-quality work.

I wrote two letters--one to the reader and one to Imperial Beach City Council members. I worked really hard on the letters because they were the main compenent of my project. It was important to me that the writing was my best and that the message was clear. I did this by writing many, many drafts and getting each one critiqued and revised. I wrote about 18 drafts of letters and with each draft, came higher quality writing. It was also important that I was able to stay organized througout this project and keep all of my work in one place. I did this by keeping every paper and every draft organized in a folder dedicated to this project. I also made a banner for the top of the page, which was a huge challenge for me because I don't know anything about Photoshop. I did multiple drafts on this, as well. I did my best and I'm proud of what I was able to do.

• Blog

I think that some of my best work is written in this blog. Throughout the entire course of the semester, we have been assigned a blog to update twice weekly. Most often, we are given a prompt that asks us to explore and explain our opinions on current events and topics related to what was learned in class that day. I feel that my blog is a display of some of my best work because I give my detailed thoughts on topics that, otherwise, I may not have been interested in. When I write each blog, I try to become interested in the topic, if I'm not already. This makes it much easier to write, not to mention more honest and reflective. For example, the blog about the whaling controversy wasn't something I would really be interested in. However, after reading and learning about it, I found that it actually is a very interesting topic and writing the blog was much easier. I try to show my knowledge about a certain topic, even if it's not much. I've kept up with each Tuesday/Thursday blog entry, and this helps me from becoming too overwhelmed with blogs that I have to catch up with and write. I check to see if there is a blog assigned each night and if there is, I write it as soon as I can so that it gets done.

Who is right in the whaling controversy?

"Neptune's Navy", By Raffi Khatchadourian
The New Yorker, Published November 5th, 2007

Prior to reading the article about Paul Watson and his attempt at putting an end to whale hunting, I was sure that he would be the "right" one in the situation. However, after reading about it, it's difficult to say which side is right. Watson is passionate about his effort to save whales and the Japanese have been hunting whales since the 1930s.

The article states, "Whaling is not banned, but it is not exactly permitted, either--an ambiguity resulting from political comprimise and shortsigtedness." The article then went on to introduce the International Whaling Commission and explain that whaling for science has always been allowed. However, the article also said that "The Japanese fleet is run by the government-subsized Institute for Cetacean Research, in Tokyo, but the institute has produced virtually no research of any regard, and all the whales that are purported to be under study are also butchered for the purpose of selling whale meat to the Japanese public." This makes it seem like some Japanese whalers have no intention of hunting whales for science, but rather for profit. The article by Khatchadourian mentioned two types of whales that were being hunted by Japanese fleet in the Antartic every year. I decided to research the whales and found that fin whales were a big target for whale hunters from 1904-1975, "As other whale species became over-hunted, the whaling industry turned to the still-abundant Fin Whale as a substitute. It was primarily hunted for its blubber, oil, and baleen. Approximately 704,000 Fin Whales were caught in Antarctic whaling operations alone between 1904 and 1975." (Wikipedia.com).

I think that if the whaling laws weren't so ambiguous and there were concrete laws either for it or against it, it would be easier to determine who was right and wrong in the situation. While whale hunting, especially of possibly endangered whales, is sad to me, I'm not sure Watson has the best ways of dealing with it. He has many celebrity endorsers and funding in support of his cause. However, when Watson is on his ship and out in the middle of the ocean, it seems like he forgets about laws and regulations. He once said, "No words can describe the personal liberation that heading seaward bestows on me. In this aquatic realm no man or woman is subject to the petty decrees of social bereaucracy." It seems like Watson does whatever he wants on the water, including attacking whaling boats and using his own boat as a tool to ram into theirs. Running a large boat into another large boat does not seem safe at all, especially in possible stormy, winter ocean weather. While I think whaling issues should be brought to public attention and action should be taken, I don't believe this is the right kind of action. It seems like Watson is fighing fire with fire and this has been spoken against by the enviroment minister of Austrailia, Malcom Turnbull--"Threatening to put lives at rist, or vessels at risk, is completely unacceptable. They must act safely and peacefully. They are not advancing the anti-whaling cause they espouse by threatening lives in this way."

I think the statement above is a good summation of my answer of who is right in this situation. While I admire and share the same passion for animals ans Watson, I think he takes it to an extreme level and he is endangering the lives of others. I think this relates to civil disobedience and the act of protest to make a statement. You have to answer questions like, "How far is too far?" when you intend to break the law in order to bring attention to a larger issue. I think there are other ways to change the whaling business and to go after the Japanese fleet, but I don't think ramming their boat is the best possible way.

Outdated Language of Racial Identity

"He's Not Black", By Marie Arana
Published November 30, 2008.

"He's Not Black" is an article written by Marie Arana that talks about issues in society revolving around race and how we as a society tend to categorize people as one race, based on appearance. The author begins by talking about Barack Obama, who is seen as black, yet as the author states, "He is also half white. Unless the one-drop rule still applies, our president-elect is not black." She then gives her own personal history and talks about how she always thought of herself as bi-racial, but when she took a DNA test, she found that she was also a descendant of many other races. At one point in the article, Arana relays a story from a student she met who was half German and half African-American. She was born in Germany, speaks German, and sees herself as a German-American. Arana said the girl had light-black skin, curly hair, and dark eyes. The woman said, "I am fifty percent German. But no one who sees me believes it." I thought this was especially interesting, and I will use myself as an example because it's something I find I actually can relate to. My mother is Mexican, and though neither she or myself speak Spanish, basically all of our family traditions are "Mexican". The weddings, the birthdays, the reunions--everything has Mexican influence and tradition. I've visited my family in Mexico, I've met my aunts, uncles, and cousins that are still living in the small town in central Mexico where my great-grandparents were born. I know they're there and I know they're my family. Yet over here, no one believes when I tell them I'm Mexican. What I'm wondering is, how do we as a society decide what makes someone a certain race. I've had people question me, "But you don't speak Spanish right?" I say no and they tell me, "Oh, well then you're not Mexican." Do I have to speak Spanish at home to be considered Mexican? I've heard friends say that they're Irish or that they're German, yet they only speak English, yet I don't think they should be denied their family's history.

I've always felt uncomfortable when I have to check a box about race on a test and I always wonder if anyone else does too. Like recently on the PSATs. I've always checked the "Caucasian/White" box. I would feel wrong if I checked anything else, just because someone else probably would have questioned it. If I had my mother's maiden name, people would probably have an easier time believing me. It just feels strange checking a box and labeling myself as "white" when the truth is, I feel like that's the smallest part of me, but it's what everyone besides my family identifies me as. I wonder if anyone else has ever been frustrated with the fact that most times, people only see each other as one race. This is something Arana based much of her writing off of and was a recurring theme throughout the article. No one is full anything, yet its what everyone is referred to. When talking about Barack Obama, she says, "After more than 300 years and much difficult history, we hew to the old racist rule: Part-black is all black. Fifty percent equals a hundred. There's no in-between."

The truth is, I've never thought much about this and I've never been offended by any of this. But now that I think about it, I realize that I care a lot about family's history. And no matter who denies the fact that I'm Mexican, it's there and I know that. The question I'm left with is, what/who determines what race someone is? Do they have to speak the language? Is it based on appearance? When it comes to the language of racial identity that exists today, I think it can have a large impact on the way someone views themselves. For nine years, I went to a school where I was the "white girl". Everyone in my class was either Asian or Mexican. I felt weird identifying myself as Mexican because I didn't cross the border everyday like most of my friends. Or I didn't speak Spanish at home with my family. For me, this is where the language comes into play and I realize now that much of what people tell me has shaped the way I feel about my own culture. I know that I'm Mexican, but by being told that I'm not, I feel somewhat uncomfortable saying that I am. I don't think it should be this way and I do think that language has something to do with this. I'm not sure if the language has to change but I think our society should be more open to the idea of people being a mix of many different races and cultures. Arana ties in an example from today and says, "The evidence is everywhere. If not in our neighborhoods, in our culture. We see it in Tiger Woods, Halle Berry, Ben Kingsley, Nancy Kwan, Ne-Yo, Mariah Carey. Yet we insist on calling these hybrids by a reductive name: Berry is Black. Kingsly is white. Kwan is yellow. Even they label themselves by the apparent color of their skin. With language like that, how can we claim to live in a post-racial society." I think the fact of the matter is that we should be accepting of the fact that people are made of all different cultures and not base labels off of first impressions and appearance.