Honors History Blog #4

1. What did you gain from your experiences as an honors student in the first semester (please consider novels, leadership opportunities, writing, history, projects, etc.)?

 I think I gained a lot of extra knowledge as an honors student. I've never been much of a book reader so this is probably good for me. Having an extra role for projects (Art Director) was fine and I it was beneficial to the class (hopefully) 

2. Discuss what you might have done differently if you could do this past semester of honors over again.

I would probably just have written a lot more for my reviews. I don't know why, but I just make my reviews really short. Also I would have directed more during the Life: The Book project, I should have been more critical with my critiques so that the art would have looked better for the book.

 

3. Discuss your goals for honors in the second semester.

Well, as I just said, my reviews are really short. So I plan to write much longer ones next year. Maybe helping more people out when they need it as well.

 

4. If you could choose any specific parts of literature and or history for our honors work next semester, what would you pick and why?

For the last book we got to pick, I picked a story about World War II, and I really enjoyed it. I think we should have a war book to read next year, that would be awesome. I think more people would enjoy reading it because war stories can't be boring! The senate hearing was pretty interesting as well, I didn't know most of the stuff that went on in a hearing until you taught us, so that was helpful.

Honors History Blog #3

A program I would want to bring back from Roosevelt's New Deal would be the Public Works Administration (PWA). The rate unemployment decreased significantly when this was created. The PWA hired people to create public works like bridges. It also stabilized our purchasing power at the time; something that we could use right now. I don't see why this program isn't still around today; we could really use it.

I think that we should create a new program similar to PWA or even the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The CCC is similar to the PWA, it created a lot of jobs (Over 3 million) for young men to build new parks. If we created programs like these, but maybe had them do other jobs rather than just parks or bridges, it would be great for our tough times. There is a large portion of the United States of America that have no jobs. Programs like these are something that we could do easily. It would help our country to build nice things and employ a lot of people.

I think that PWA would be the best plan to bring back (CCC is a bit restrictive as to who can work) but we should also tweak it so that the job is more versatile. We could build great things for our country like schools, libraries, etc. A lot of people in America would definitely benefit from having a program like this.

Honors History Blog #2

Dear President Obama,


I understand that there are a lot of issues you are currently dealing with. The recession is something that cannot be fixed very easily. However you aren't the first president to deal with this; Franklin D. Roosevelt had to get out of a recession as well. Mr. Obama, I hope you consider recollecting what Roosevelt did during his term to help you out, during your term.


Roosevelt's main plan to get America out of the recession was called the New Deal. It's main focuses were called the 3 R's: relief, recovery, and reform. Relief for the unemployed and the people in poverty, recovery of the economy, and reform of the financial system. Alon with the 3 R's were five other programs: Rural Electrification Administration (REA), Federal Deposit Insurance Cooperation (FDIC), the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). In a summary, all these programs gave a major boost to America's economy and pumped out a lot of needed money.

I believe if you did something similar to what Roosevelt did, America would be in better shape. The programs that he created are something that you can do as well and we definitely need them. Maybe you could also take an Anti-Federalist approach to this problem and have every state input some help, that might be a good idea. In general when problems are created and help is spread out, the problem gets resolved sooner, so take that into consideration.

I hope this helps, because this is probably the biggest issue in America right now and something needs to be done. Roosevelt may have had the right idea and I think you should look at him as an example.


Sincerely,

Nathaniel A. Ross


Works Cited
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal>
<http://www.essortment.com/all/fdrnewdealfra_rgst.htm>

Honors History Blog #1

 In my opinion, Medicaid is the most significant element of health care in America. Medicaid, created in 1969, helps low income families be eligible for a health care plan. I think it's so significant because a large part of the population is classified under the low income level. Medicaid not only covers the poor though; "These other requirements include, but are not limited to, assets, age, pregnancy, disability, blindness, income and resources, and one's status as a U.S. citizen or a lawfully admitted immigrant." Without Medicaid, these people would most likely have had a difficult time trying to pay for health care.

 Medicaid has helped so many people and I think this shows that programs such as this one, just work. It's really effective for treating a large sum of people who fall below a level of poverty and disability. But this brings up the question; What about the people who are just above the poverty level? This is a real issue in America. The rich can pay for their own health care plans and the poor can receive Medicaid, however, the people who are in the middle are in a horrible position. There should be an expanded health care system in my personal opinion because there are so many people who are in the middle.

Even though Medicaid has it's issues I still believe that it's one of the most significant parts of the current health care system in America. I think that it encourages people to expand on the idea of a more universal health care system and less of a free market. I really don't think that a free market health care system would benefit all of America as well as a universal system would. Obama's health care reform was something that I think helped a lot. From what I know, it helped a lot of people and I think that things like that are what we need in today's economy. In short, if Medicaid could be expanded, it would be perfect.

Work Cited

<https://www.cms.gov/MedicaidGenInfo/>

< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicaid>

Federalist vs Anti-Federlist Interview

We have talked about Prop 19 a few times in the class so I thought that interviewing someone about it would be interesting. Basically, if Prop 19 passed, marijuana would be legal in California. However, the FDA is currently fighting "A War on Drugs" in all of America. If the prop passed, the FDA would still be able to arrest people who had anything to do with marijuana because it would still be illegal under federal law. It's a pretty strange thing that it's legal and illegal at the same time so I thought it would be good to interview someone about this.

Interview of Kelsie Rich on Prop 19
{via gmail}

me: What do you know about Federalism and Anti-Federalism?

kelsierichy: so like... federalism is when you  want every law to be passed as a county and anti-federalism is when every law brought up is only in states

like in Oregon pumping your own gas is illegal but here it isnt

 

me: Have you heard of Prop 19, which failed this November?

kelsierichy: yes

 

me: What do you know about it?

kelsierichy: To Legalize Marijuana. Which I am glad failed because everyone would have taken advantage of the medical use of this drug.

 

me: Did you know that even if it passed, it would still be illegal under Federal Law?

kelsierichy: Kinda. Cause the different branches have to work in unison in order to pass a law. WHICH makes it very difficult for any new law to be passed

 

me: So Prop 19 is an Anti-Federalist movement, right?

kelsierichy: Yes

 

me: Does this remind you of any other Anti-Federalist movements?

kelsierichy: The difference between Slave states in the south compared to the Free states in the North

 

Life: The Book Reflection

I kind of overwrote this blog with my new reflection by accident. Currently trying to find my old reflection (Accidentally deleted it Wednesday. 12/08/2010)

1. Go back and read the prompts at the top of the page (the parts that describe the project). How well does your final draft fully answer the prompt? Which parts of the prompt are answered well? Which parts could be answered more completely?

I believe my article answered most of the prompts well. I put a lot of science related subjects in my article, but I think I did a good job making it non-jargon. I also added in stem cell research because it is a very controversial topic that relates to my topic. I could have added a bit more economic issues, but I did include how pharmaceutical companies put out products for Parkinson’s disease but a large sum of people who took the medicine ended up having heart problems. Because of that, they lost a lot of money because of the FDA.

2. What aspects of my final product stand out and stand on their own as examples of high quality, informative writing? What makes these great?

Some aspects of my article that stand out are, how I said, my non-jargon scientific explanations, and how I talked about the effects, side effects, and medication of the disease. When I was talking about the disease I tried to explain it like how I would want it to be explained to me: “The more dopamine that is lost, the more severe the disease’s effects are.”

3. What aspects of my final product could be revised? Why? How could they improve?

If I could have gotten to have a very thorough interview with someone that had Parkinson’s, I think my article would be much better. I could write a lot more and I think it would just be way better in general. Everything in my article could be related to the person I interviewed.

4. Which of our class' writing tips were used best in the final product? What makes these specific sections stand out?

The writing tip that helped me the most was the loop as well as Concerts, not Pancakes. Both are pretty similar and I think that they really helped me with my article. I tried to make my opening paragraph draw readers in so that they want to read it and I tried to end it with leaving them thinking about the issues.


Self assessment...
5. Overall, this final draft deserves 45 out of 50 points, when judged purely on it's own as a high quality, informative piece of writing, because..

I believe a 45 out 50 would be a fair grade for me. I feel like I wrote a pretty damn good article but I think it could be improved. If I took more time I think it could’ve been better but I really think that the final product I wrote stands up on it’s own.