We Are All Immigrants

After reading the "The Framing of Immigration," I was shocked; I have heard of and seen debates concerning immigration, but Lakoff's explanation for it opened my eyes. As a daughter of immigrants from Colombia, I understand what you need to do in life to succeed for your family because I've watched my parents each day working their butts off to do what they can for my siblings and I; even if they are U.S citizens. I liked the face that Lakoff chose to defend "illegal" immigrants because I've only read in the past the articles that degrade them even more than the title "illegal immigrants." Sadly, the majority of Americans do not see that they are an asset to our country and that have the same rights as us. Placing these names upon them frames them as criminals and such even if all they want is the same we want-the American Dream. What I find funny is that America was founded by immigrants and made by them as well; so why do we see them as such horrible people if they are exactly like us. They maybe from a different culture, but we are all the same.
Sadly, people have been placing the blame mostly on immigrants from Mexico and Central America, but they are not the only immigrants coming here. Just because some immigrants are white doesn't mean that they should be treated better or not reffered to as an "immigrant" because I feel that is what they are doing in America. Throughout America's history we have housed people from Asia, Africa, India, Spain, Europe, etc; that is why we are called the melting pot. However, now that it is a new era where most of the immigrants are hispanics, Americans are now turning their backs on them and saying they are criminals for taking "their jobs" or "invading their lands." It seems to me that every race needs to pick on another one to make themselves feel better. For example, African Americans were treated cruelly and discriminated against, but now that they "are not," they pick on the hispanics (example in reading). I believe that America should hold its truth to the title of "the land of opportunities".

"The Family"

After reviewing the family models for today's blog, I've seen how perfectly matched these two families are for their parties.  For example, since Conservatives follow the strict father model, they basically display every trait that is given here as a description.Here, the father is the head of the house with sole responsiblity while the mother watches from the sidelines, but plays her part as a supporter. Through his perspective that life is hard and dangerous, he tries to protect his family in every possible aspect in life. Meanwhile, "the father" embodies every good there is such as being morally strong and self-disciplined. He sees retribution as he sees fit while holding himself to a high strandard as an example for his family. As sort of speak it is "tough love" and once the kids have grown up, they are on their own to make it or break it. (explains why the view of topics such as abortion and homosexuality)
Nurturing parent model is, on the otherhand, unlike the strict father model, this model allows both parents to actively play a part in their child's life. The first and for most goal in this family is to be cared for and about. Protection for them means from external dangers such as drugs and crime since the world is "filled with evils that can harm a child." Unlike the "tough love", we saw earlier, here parents do teach self discpline, but also "hold your hand" through life.

He did what?!

The article I chose to write about revolved around Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his regrets about sexual assualting a maid in France. Sadly, this is not his first time being reprimanded for this kind of charge. He also has record of assaulting a 24 year old about ten years back. In contrast to all the evidence and statements, the article frames the former IMF chief as a good citizen that might run for president next year. Even though he could be charged with sexual assault and has been locked up in a "jail cell," interviewers waste percious air time on a man who should not be valued at all for his "morally" unjust actions. 

Instead of showing its viewers with a good solid showing that he is a bad candidate for his repeated actions towards women, they accuse him of the actions and nothing more. Yes, there are a few statements that contradict his views, but they are so small that they are easily avoided. The reason why I believe the writer wrote the way he did was to support the man because he may, in someway, support the paper he is writing for. In that case, then the writer needs to chose his words carefully and depict the man charged with sexual assault in good light.

The way the writer wrote his articles gives off the notion that this former IMF chief is important because he even states that he was giving his opinion of the candidates this year and well, I believe if someone just got accused of sexual assault, their opinions should not matter. The importance the article gives to this person shows that the case agaisnt him isnt strong and that there are other things about him that should be accoutanted for instead of the accusations. The text even aids this former IMF chief because they quote him several times saying I am sorry, I have a very exceptional wife (because she was strong enough to stand next to him during all of this), and that the evidence agasint him was minium. Overall, the article was very ironic in the way that it showed the man in a good light instead of what the article was supposed to be intended for.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/dominique-strauss-kahn/8772501/Former-IMF-chief-Dominique-Strauss-Kahn-regrets-moral-failure-of-liaison-with-New-York-hotel-maid.html

Students' Blog

After reviewing some of my fellow classmates' blogs, I considered to focus mainly on Tina's and Calvert's blog because of their great and clear explainations. (Not that any of the others did not do the same) Tina addressed in her "Work" blog that she thought of work as work and I believe that this is a good, decent outlook on what everyone calls a job. Work shouldn't be a place of hate that you dread going to and she knew what work really is. Tina has been working since the age of 13 and she know what the value of a dollar is and this is a lesson I believe we all should take into consideration because there are people out there that have it all and have never even lifted a finger in there life for something that is called "work". The link to Tina's blog is http://tchurley216.blogspot.com/ .In addition to Tina's blog, I also commented on Calvert's because of his assertiveness in the reasons he gave for the child who was reframed wrongly. His view points on why the media does this sort of stuff really spoke to me because its so sad, but true. We should focus on the real story instead on what we want to get out there because the truth is what we should know. We shouldn't fear others for false accusations. Calvert's blog is http://cmiles7949.blogspot.com/

Where can i find the truth?

The stack of articles our group received on Tuesday consisted mainly of the the brutality of torture, mainly done by a Lt. John Burge. Lt. John Burge had been charged with lying about not torturing his "criminals" and was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison even though the sentence was said to could have been up to 45 years in prison. Although throughout the articles there appeared to be differences in the way they explained, whether it was in alot of details or not, all the articles did consist of the main topic: Lt. John Burge. Yes, this seems obscure since obviously he was the main purpose behind these articles, but this also shows proof of the lack of consistancy between the articles as well. Every article excelled at making Lt. John Burge look like the bad guy, and beyond all means I am not defending him, but these "criminals" must have done something as well to be in these shoes.

Each article's "attempt at faming" was based on associating Lt. Burge with racism towards African Americans and horrific tortures. For example, in one new station Mr. Burge sentenced a man to 100 years in prison while the prisoner claimed to have been wrongly accused and confessed because he was tortured and of course, as stated, he was African American. This is not the only cause to follow that claims to have been wrongly accused of their crimes and as a result, Lt. Burge was sentenced for the lying; however, strangely, not for the torturing. 

The "truth" is hard to identify within these articles. While some claimed that Mr. Burge discriminated against, tortured, and locked up only African Americans, some articles insisted it to had been both African Americans and Latinos. News Stations also differed in dialect throughout each article. Stations like Fox News and The New York Times focused on the trials while other articles aimed at getting information such as who was tortured or what Lt. Burge did. These frames that these articles targeted all made sense from their own political or social standpoint. The reason why I claim this is because every single station tried to frame the same person, but through different viewpoints to get to the point. An example from a social standpoint was from a news article of a page long that consistently viewed Burge as a rascist through just writings that repeatedly stated "only African Americans" while others, from a political standpoint, talked concerning Mayor Dailey and the trials in relation to Burges. Insufficient evidence, in my belief, was given for and agaisnt Burge (even though I do agree that he should go jail for torturing others). In other words, I am not satisfied with each news station because every article did not focus and did not prove well enough what was supposed to be done. Overall, every new station took advantage of their articles and made it in the way they wanted the readers to see it; by structuring the story to their specific needs, news stations got what they wanted out of the stories. Through their methods, whether it was the repitition of words or by just mentioning the message they wanted to send out (and not the other half of the story), these articles created the frame.

What?? I didn't say that...

Misrepresentation is a serious matter that should not be intenionally done to get viewers attention; however, CBS 2 did it when interviewing a 4 year old child concerning guns! Misrepresentation in general, especially on this topic, is wrong on so many levels because miscommunication can lead to bad results. Altering the truth will never be seen as a light subject. This news station did this intentionally and like it or not, created a whole different problem in addition to just airing the wrong footage.The media in general define reality because they are capable of manipulating stories by shaping them and editing them (Writing, Politics, Power), and this story was no exception. The edited version of the 4 year old "wanting a gun" helps associate these negative actions to African American, children, and guns. Maybe that was not CBS 2's intention, but by framing the child's words as so, it supported and reinforced what people like to call a stereotype. As a result, the video evoked several different means to the same event (Writing, Politics, Power). This misconception can cause alot of damage to people of this race because this can form some link between African Americans and guns. If CBS 2 continuously misrepresented African Americans or even children of this age, it would create this frame associating them with guns like mentioned by Lakoff's rules of framing (Rule #2).  Even through small stories, such as this one, new stations should realize that the everlasting effective will impact people. The media is supposed to "mirror society" (Writting, Politics, Power) and by airing this mis representation of a 4 year old African American boy, people will view it as "reality".
Although the editing done by CBS 2 looks obvious, viewers may have believed the clip and may consider it true. By re-framing the story, the news station have established a different outlook on children. Even the newscasters at the end of the clip state how horrified they were, but sadly, we should be the ones horrified of them because they misled the audience to think that this child could think like that. CBS 2  created a whole different story when they re-framed the videoclip. The news was concentrated around a drive by shooting that injuried two teenagers; however, when they interviewed this small child, they thought that they could make the story a little bit more interesting by re-framing what was actually said. By doing this, they captured the attention of their auidence in a fearful matter because it makes us believe that our future generations, that are as little as four years old, have ideas of owning guns. Like I've stated before, these stories can re-frame views on people and by evoking them, it can establish that certain frame that will be kept. The media has the power, this capablity of structuring stories and this station knew that. As for the orginal story, audiences that viewed the news created a certain image that the gunmen must have been African Americans because even though the evidence was not given to be African Americans, it was socially produced. This may have not been the case for every viewer, but the hard proof that the gunmen were not identified and having a young African American child "approve" of guns in matter that showed admiration instead of fear, is hard to deny. Uneditting versions help fight these negative notions towards certain groups or certain age groups by revealing, in this case, the truth that the child had orginally stated.

CBS 2 could have produced a story that even though had a tragic base to it, focused also on the goodness of children and how they are capable of realizing how bad this situation was. If I were the reporter I would have stressed on this issue of how the children see these actions because this creates some sort of relief in us all to know that even through troubled times, we can count that "our future" will no the difference between right and wrong. 

Work

 The term work can be defined in a range of definitions; however, when a student speaks of work, they often relate work with homework and this was the first type of work I was introduced to as a student. Throughout each grade level, I learned the difficulty that homework differed in, but I also knew that this type of work helped me expand my thought process and the continuously repeated execrises called "homework" helped engrave the information into our heads. First off, it was because of all the subjects I had to accomplish which included math and science where I struggled the most with. Now that I love the subjects that I am taking because they all fall under my major for English, I cannot find the time to finish my work load because they are lengthy and I have other things to do other than homework because, as we all know it, when you get older we each receive different responsibilites we have to complete everyday and mine includes running on a team and a job that requires labor, everyone's favorite type of work. Overall the concept of work in terms of homework has always been a dreadful one, but I have always kept going because I know that I can get somewhere with an education and to get that education, homework or work has to be done. The ultimate goal is to live a peaceful, good life and work has to be a part of that life; everyone has to endure it, you just have to be strong and I believe that I have that strong mentality to keep going. Furthermore than the usually day to day take home assignments that teachers were unable to finish in class, work is something we all dread, whatever the age we are at because at any stage, work is something we have to put effort into to achieve a goal, whether its to learn or to make money at a job. My attitude towards my job is not the same as how I view my school work because of just the simple fact that my homework is much enjoyable than my job. A job, or what many call it "work" is rewarded with money you earn doing that type of labor for a reason. Labor is not always what you want it to be, but you need it to survive and as a student, I have to confirm with anything I can get at the moment to pay for college or atleast the little I need to survive in today's world. When imagining labor, two images come to mind which are complete contrasts of each other : one includes someone enjoying their employment and the other is stuck in a dirty factory with a blank expression. The reasons why these two images come to mind is because one can do what they love to do and some others cannot and while I want to be that person that enjoys their job, I know there are others out their without that chance that get stuck in those hard labor jobs that will continue on doing that until they cannot because it is all about survival at that point. Growing up, I have always been taught with the notion that education is everything, and it is. It may require work, but that is where the line divides the lazy people and the hard working people that want to succeed. My father always influenced me heavily on my beliefs on work because everyday he came home from work with the same answer when I asked him how his day at work had gone. His response, "well, I get paid mija, that's how great work is." The translation is a loose one, but you get the jist of it. Work is work for a reason and that is why if you are passionate in something, work hard to achieve it because that's what you want to do all your life and not the image of the factory worker. I first handly got to experience what it was like to work in a factory this summer and although I knew it was only a summer job, the feeling of waking up so early every morning to do a repetitive motion for 8 hours straight was the worse feeling ever and seeing young people like myself in that same position was awful; the worse part of seeing them there was that the job they were doing was their career because they had chosen not to continue in their education and start earning a wage of 9.50 an hour.

Work is just a four lettered word, but behind it, is an array of means. The definition of work involves effort to accomplish something even though sometimes we don't feel like we have accomplished anything. Work can be described as a punishment in many circumstances because of its long hours and repetitive state. According to the Conservatives in Lakoff's article, framing words, such as work, takes time to develope and through common use, the word sends many a chill up their spine when said because it has been connected to something bigger than just an "effort to accomplish something." Work is the kind of word that frames a tough image and makes me feel like it is unescapable, something you have to do to get to that "new level." The "new level," I would like to think is a better and richer life in the sense that I am happier and capcable of surviving, not needing to be a millionaire. Since we have spent so much time dreading work, when the time comes for it, we cannot resemble our brains into thinking positive and in turn, your efforts to accomplish those goals will not be to your full potiental.

Your social class, your economic state, and your cultural envionment, in most cases, help you perceive work differently because depending on where your grew up, you were taught differently. A child brought up in Hollywood will definitely not view work the same way as someone who grows up in the ghetto part of the south side of Chicago. For one, the child in Hollywood might not even get the chance to know what work is like because she or he will not need to earn any money since her parents have everything covered; however, the child living in the ghettos on the south side of Chicago sees work as a way of moving up the ladder to a better life. Work for this person can become a better oportunity if she or he lets it become that way since they know what being poor feels like. Different experiences make different view points because not everyone will know or have been through what others suffered or gained and because of this, work is framed as a good or a bad. If work reminds you of a better life, then work will be a tremedous opportunity for growth and for a great feeling of accomplishment, but likewise, if your view of work is disasterous, your outcome will be bad. Knowing this, I try to abolish the framing that work contains and I try to stay positive throughout my workdays because everyday will lead me to something greater. Although it matters the way in which you perceive work, everyone should understand that work is something that must be done in order to achieve in life and it may have various forms of labor, but only one goal, which is to succeed.