English 2100: Identity and Representation

According to the news “L.A. immigration activist files suit claiming DACA application was rejected as ‘political retaliation’” from Los Angeles Times, a Los Angeles Immigrant claimed that her application for protection from deportation as a “Dreamer” was unfairly rejected on the basis of her political speech and activism against Defendants’ immigration practices. Rueda, who has referred to her own arrest as a “kidnapping,” said she hopes her suit will stop ICE and the Border Patrol from responding to criticism with what she believes are unjustified arrests. She also said “Homeland Security, this whole agency, they’re using their power to suppress any activists who are fighting for immigration rights, and that’s not right.”
I think this suit would be very important. The rejection of Rueda’s DACA application violated the Department of Homeland Security’s internal policies and was unfair. Fighting against the Homeland Security is a brave and right action. I agree with Rueda that “Fighting is the only way to show how immigration activists are being politically repressed for speaking out.” I really hope Rueda’s case helps to stop the targeting of immigration activists.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-claudia-rueda-lawsuit-dreamer-20181029-story.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/learning/learning-with-pipe-bombs-sent-to-hillary-clinton-barack-obama-and-cnn-offices.html

This NY times article poses questions about the nature and reflections of the recent bomb scares. It includes a few excerpts from Alexander Soros and other well known officials yet I don’t think they are close to grasping the magnitude of the situation. The significance of this is yes politics has become volatile, however the influence it has on individuals to edge them to take action into their own hands is a far worse threat to democracy than the wars the American government starts in the Middle East. Although the most recent tragedies to the public such as the Pittsburgh shooting at a synagogue were perpetrated by elderly men, I feel as if that we must impeach Trump for inciting national violence or highly deescalate the credibility people give to Trump or other fake news sources such as Info Wars by Alex Jones. Not only should their credibility be tarnished but people should be educated enough to not listen to these vile people. In my opinion I don’t think it’s good to infringe on their freedom and rights as seen with YouTube’s, Facebook, and Spotify’s actions in banning Alex Jones from all videos including videos not made by Alex Jones. Lastly, the fact that people are actually believing the “Illuminati” conspiracies to the point of attempting to kill those involved such George Soros without even the notion of evidence is demonic but is a demonstration of the miseducation and sheep like mentality of the current general public. If anything, this situation has the same attitudes of negligence present as is in the current actions taken for climate change, Yemen genocide, and the escalating tensions with China.

My article is related to the recent Pittsburgh shooting but it focuses more on how the suspect bought his weapons legally. The suspect, Robert Bowers, used his legally bought Ar-15 assault rifle and his three hand guna to kill 11 people in the synagogue. Mr. Bowers did not have any criminal records and signs of mental illness which allowed him to purchase the firearms. However, it was clear that the law failed to detect his strong hatred for Jews that resulted in the shooting. In addition to the four guns used in the shooting, investigation found out that Mr. Bowers owned 6 more guns, 4 hand guns and 1 shotgun. Former president Barack Obama commented saying “we have to stop making it so easy for those who want to harm the innocent to get their hands on a gun.”

I chose this article because I had a paper about gun control in my communications class yesterday. In the paper, I mentioned how we won’t be able to resolve this issue because of public debate. This article proves that the gun control issue still hasn’t been resolved as yet another shooting occured. In addition, this issue will spark again after Obama’s comment on how easy it was to obtain such firearms.

Sardar (Chief) Vallabhbhai Patel, was the first Deputy Prime Minister of India, the Minister of Home Affairs, and the first Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Armed Forces. He was a barrister, a politician, an activist and a Freedom Fighter. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna (the highest civilian award in the Republic of India). He is a true inspiration for many people.

Today, on 31st October 2018, Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, unveiled the Statue of Unity. At 182 meters, it’s the tallest statue in the world today. It’s a tribute to freedom icon Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on his 143rd birth anniversary. During the inauguration, there was a lot of celebration and a grand ceremony where the Air Force planes showered flowers on statue. Surrounded by a 4.6 sq miles artificial lake, this statue is made up of bronze cladding, steel framing and reinforced concrete. The project was contracted to Larsen & Toubro in October 2014 for its lowest bid of ₹2,989 crore (US$420 million) for the design, construction and maintenance. It took 33 months for them to complete the project. This statue is double the height of the Statue of Liberty.

“Today is a day that will be remembered in the history of India. No Indian will ever forget this day,” Prime Minister Modi said, paying glowing tribute to Sardar Patel.

Link : https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/statue-of-unity-pm-modi-to-unveil-sardar-vallabhbhai-patels-statue-of-unity-today-10-points-1940311

This article is about Dr. Sandeep Jauhar’s book where he talks about the external components of people having heart problems. This article opens up with a discovery made by scientist Karl Pearson, he noticed that many husband and wives died a year of eachother. Recent discoveries show that being sad all the time and having a lot of stress in your life can significantly influence your health. He talks about a syndrome called “broken heart syndrome” where “the death of a spouse, financial worries or some other emotional event severely weakens the heart, causing symptoms that mimic a heart attack”. This story is important to me because I had witnessed this happening and it also makes people think about how important it is to try to eliminate all the stress in your life and try to always be positive.

For the last few weeks the topic of the refugees from Honduras escaping towards the United States has been a popular topic. Now, as they close in on the border, Trump sent 5200 troops to halt and prevent all of them from entering. The people left everything that they ever owned in Honduras to try find a better place in United States and they are met with an army that is telling them to go backwards. Literally a whole army including attack helicopters with night vision and special forces would be present on the border to “harden” it. This huge amount of people would cause a problem because it will be practically impossible to control them and the people are desperate, therefore they would do anything to get in (such as breaking the border between Guatemala and mexico). This story is imporant to me because my family are similar to those people who are trying to move from one place to another. I moved from Dominican Republic to United States in the hopes of finding something better and so are these people by walking across several countries.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/article/White-House-prepares-large-troop-deployment-to-13345287.php

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/us/what-is-birthright-citizenship.html

The article “For Many American Families, Abolishing Birthright Citizenship Is ‘Unthinkable’” begins with a story about an immigrant family and the difference in benefits of a citizen and non-citizen, which serves as the foundation of the main idea of the article.  The article talks about President’s Trump’s effort to remove the right and citizenship of babies of non-citizen or illegal immigrants born in the territories of America. Many American born children of illegal immigrants gained legal permanent residence for their parents. Proponents of strict immigration laws argued that illegal immigrants are taking advantages of the birthright citizenship. However, opponents of the removal birthright citizenship said many undocumented immigrants who gained right through their children worked hard for it. They pay taxes, work, and maintain a clean criminal records. Many opponents advocated that the idea of abolishing birthright citizenship is “unthinkable”.  

I purposely picked this article out of all the news articles because I was able to relate to this since I am an anchor baby. I dislike the fact that the proponents of strict immigration law said that undocumented immigrants came here simply to give birth to American babies because I believed that many immigrants came here for a better economic status and life, not just to give birth. I am also glad that the 14th Amendment is able to protect me even if the legislation is abolished.

This article in the LA Times is about how SB 277 impacted vaccinations rate in California. SB 277 was a bill passed in 2015 that eliminated the “Personal Belief Exemption” which allowed children to attend school without the required immunizations. The passage of the bill decreased student’s exposure to deadly diseases. The article states how it has increased the number of students vaccinated which has contributed to a safer school environment. This is very important because California can be a trendsetter as the bill has produced viable results.  Unfortunately, people have also circumvented the law by receiving Personal Belief Exemptions disguised as medical exemptions. By doing so, it is as if the bill was never passed and diminishes the progress that the bill has created. I think that this is important because the bill did make significant progress and has made California healthier and safer for children; however if doctors continue to stretch the rules then we, as a state, will return to the way things used to be.

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-vaccine-medical-exemptions-20181029-story.html

I read a New York times article called “Newark Insisted Its Water Was Safe. Then It Offered Filters for Lead.” by Liz Leyden. In this article Liz talks about how Newark’s top officials hid the fact that there was lead in the water. Poisoning the 285,000 people in the city and possibly causing an epidemic. This is something that shouldn’t be treated lightly because the Newark officials knew about the poisoning and still didn’t tell the people. It’s sad that even in a first world country we are having water problems even though it’s notin the scale as other countries it’s non the less it’s still a problem. Imagine if your new born drank lead contaminated water and it could have been avoided by the state government telling you about it. There’s poisoning in our waters and government we need to find a way to filter out the bad officials and put in honest officials to make government more trusting.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/29/us/pittsburgh-shooting-suspect-robert-bowers-court/index.html

On October 27th, A man entered a synagogue in Pittsburgh and opened fire on Jewish worshippers, killing 11. The news is heartbreaking and it is saddening that an action like this can occur in a country that prides itself with “freedom” and “opportunity”. People cannot even worship their own faith without the fear of getting discriminated against or killed. Even with constant protest and the proposal of gun laws, mass shootings still occur at frequent rates. Debates spark up after every shooting, calling for more strict gun laws, but they never get passed. After all of the other mass shootings, the question raised was, “What can be done to prevent mass shootings?”. However, this frequent Pittsburgh shooting brings up the question, “Will/Can anything be done to prevent mass shootings?”. There have been a countless amount of debates, proposals, and protests that have went over what can be done to prevent these shootings. However, they just keep on happening, so is there really anything that can be done? Or do the people of the US have to keep living in constant fear? Specifically, the importance of this article is that the government refuses to change gun laws even after the frequent occurence of mass shootings. The government would rather accept money from the NRA instead of protecting the people of the US.