inauguration

We watched the inauguration together in Copeland's and Manley's rooms. It was all of us sitting together, clapping together and booing together. There was this sense that we were a part of something big, that we were experiencing something we would always remember.
Obama's first line of the speech was "My fellow citizens", which gave us this sense of unity, making us feel as if we were all in this together. That he wasn't someone who now had this great amount of power over us. Instead, he was just another citizen, and we were all working together to better America. The entire speech was essentially how there is much that needs to be changed about our country, and in order to change it, we are all going to have to work together for it.
This speech gives us a sense of what is considered meaningful in life from a folk point of view. It's telling us that what's meaningful is feeling like you're a part of something bigger. Being a part of a movement and feeling like you make a difference. We long for that feeling of importance and greatness, that we actually matter in this big world.

kindergarten speech

Don't pay attention to what I'm saying. Talk to the people sitting next to you. Look outside and daydream about how much fun it's going to be when you go to the park later. Don't care about what these people are saying to you. You're a kid, so act like it. Play video games. Pretend to be a dinosaur. Play dress up. Do what you want. Don't be in a rush. The world sucks once you get out of here. Love it for now.


I can't think of anything else to say in my speech. I'm sure I listened to speeches when I was in kindergarten that was all about how amazing the world is, how I could do anything and everything if I put my mind to it. I also got the speeches from teachers about the future and how to obey people in charge and how to do my work on time cause if I don't I'll end up on the street and die alone. I don't remember any of those speeches, even though I'm sure I got them. At that age I was so happy. Anything bad that happened to me sucked briefly for a moment, and then I moved on. Nothing hurt me too badly. It wasn't until I was older and spiteful that I started to look BACK at those times and get angry over them. I don't want to be the prophet to their revelation, because I don't think they should even have one yet. I don't want to open them up to the world out here. I want them to stay as young as they can for as long as possible, because I know there are times where all you want to do is get older. I don't know how to tell them that in a way that they haven't heard before, because I'm sure they have. And I'm sure I was told it too at that age.

holidays- christmas

Christmas seems to be like the biggest holiday within our culture. It's odd because we're supposed to be such a multicultural country, yet the most amped up holiday is one with a major religious aspect to it.
Within my family, Christmas day is usually spent in our pajamas. At some point we change to dress rather nicely for christmas dinner. When looking at this in terms of what it means in regards to living a meaningful life, it's showing us that appearance accounts for a lot. We start out the day being comfortable, spending time with close family members. But once it gets time to spend it with the rest of the family, we're supposed to change and put our best foot forward. It's odd because, since it's for our family, you would think we wouldn't need to "dress to impress". This is supposed to be the people who should love us no matter what, caring about us for who we really are. And yet, we still feel the need to make sure we look perfect, flawless even.
One of the most major and obvious aspects of the holiday, is the fact that it's all about consuming, and purchasing, for the sake of giving. As kids, we're immediately taught that the holiday is about presents, and getting what we want. Starting from an early age, we are taught to write letters to Santa Claus, listing everything we want that year. There's this sense of fear put into us by our parents, that if we weren't good enough all year, we won't get any of the things we want. It seems to all just be a major ploy to trick us into acting good. We are being taught that a major component of having a meaningful life, is being "good" and obeying the rules. In return, if we do good things, we will be rewarded. It's never simply "be good for the sake of being good". We aren't taught to feel any satisfaction from the good acts themselves. Instead we need to have this guarantee that we will be rewarded, in order to actually want to do anything good.
Another aspect of the holiday, as per most other holidays, is the big dinner we share with families. A major part of most holidays involves big meals. It shows us how we as a culture value meals a lot. We feel like somehow this brings us together, taking part in a huge meal together. It's one of the few really raw animal characteristics of our species we still consider really acceptable. It's something natural, one of the few things natural about this holiday.
Another huge component of the holiday is shopping for presents for others. It's a major consumer holiday. It teaches us to shop and that will somehow get us to this warm and fuzzy feeling of the holidays. It's teaching us that in order to live a meaningful life, we have to purchase the newest clothes or gadgets or toys. Then we will feel whole and satisfied with another year of our life being over.
It's strange because there's so much hype over this holiday. Commercials feature graphics of snowflakes, Google decorates it's web page with trees and snowmen, television stations play christmas movies where they pan across a house that's all lit up as friends and family laugh and eat inside next to a fireplace. And yet, the day finally comes, and I'm searching for this feeling of comfort and warmth and happiness and laughter and fireplaces, and it happens for maybe a moment as we first sit around the tree and begin opening presents, but after a few minutes, it feels like just another day. After all the presents have been opened and eggnogg has been drunken, we sit and watch tv as Grandma finishes cooking. It feels like any other day. I never feel that moment that the television portrays. It's as if this feeling has been entirely made up by all of those tv stations and websites and commercials. I look forward to it so much every year, and every year it ends the same. I get that feeling for a split second, and then suddenly its over.
I think this shows us that a meaningful life is all about looking for that feeling. Looking for that stimulation that comes with each different holiday. This one specifically being that happiness and that warmth. But does it even exist? Is that feeling even real? Because so far, I haven't found it.

Thanksgiving/Black Friday and/or Buy Nothing Day

My thanksgiving was spent with my moms side of the family. They're big church goers. They don't really like me and mom but we went anyway. My mom played piano the whole time and me and my cousins rode around in the gator. No one really discussed anything about the day. We didn't do that thing where you go around and say what you're thankful for. It was creepy cause we were in my aunts new house which was her friends who killed himself in the bedroom of the house and it was weird because they kept talking about him like about how much of a good person he was. It was creepy. They told me to go up in the attic and take anything I want out of all his stuff. I chose not to because I believe in ghosts.
I got texts from some of my moms friends saying happy genocide day but that was the most of what was discussed about the day itself. My aunt kept saying how nice it was to be with family. My uncle got drunk cause he always does and he's my favorite family member. My cousin also got drunk and told me she's going to take me out dancing soon. That probably won't ever happen.
I think the American people often try to blind themselves to ignore the evil things we've done to other cultures, and focus more on how good we are. We sit around proclaiming thanks for all these things that are in our lives, and we feel better about ourselves afterwards, as if somehow giving all that thanks shows how grateful and kind we are. We play ignorant from the destruction we've caused. This doesn't reveal much about how to live a good and meaningful life. It reveals what not to do, which is to pretend we're something we aren't. We focus on how we are going to be perceived, and if that means sitting around stuffing our faces and pretending to be thankful for those around us shows what grateful and good people we are, we will do it.
We drove back that same night. I spent Black Friday at home. The only thing I bought that day was a metrocard. I did buy soup that night but it was after midnight so I figured it doesn't count as Black Friday, so I guess you could say I participated in buy nothing day. I didn't really do it intentionally. I just hate big crowds and people who push and I knew everyone would be out that day and even if I wasn't shopping I'd probably get really annoyed. By midnight, it was nice out. I bought french onion soup and a coke.
It's strange that the day we're supposed to sit around discussing all these amazing things in our life that we are thankful for and how we can't be greedy because we've got so many amazing things, is followed by a day in which we rush out and try to buy new things to make us happy. It's all about temporary stimulation for the American people, and then denying it. We put up this false persona as if we have everything we need from our family and from what we've been given, and then we rush out to consume more and more. We're just a bunch of liars.

big paper-dom messages

It's no secret that we live in a world controlled by corporate media. We are sent messages through these corporations, telling us the best ways to live. These supposedly best ways to live, are usually those that consume the most. Within media, we find there are three different types of messages. The first are dominate messages, which are the messages we see the most often, and those that are most visible. The next are marginal messages. These are messages that we only occasionally see. Finally, there are prohibited messages, messages which corporate media would not want to be sent to the public.
One of the most dominate messages we can find is that we are not as good as we could be. We are shown things that would somehow improve the state we are at, whether that be our appearance or through our relationships with others. We are constantly being told that we are good how we are, but we could be better with the help of what they can provide.
We can see this dominate message a lot through magazines.

election

I never wrote my response to the election so i'll do it now.
It was really exciting to watch that happen. The second it was announced people were screaming and cheering around my neighborhood. The buzz around the election and voting had been going on for so long that I had never actually stopped and considered how greatly things might change if Obama were elected. I think this was an incredible feat for our generation, especially because it was the first time for many of us to actually vote. I think it was amazing that we were able to participate in such a drastic change, we were able to see that we are capable of change, and we are capable of being heard. Our generation has been so jaded when it comes to politics. The first most of us ever heard of politics was when the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal came to light. Shortly after that, when we grew older and were finally capable of really comprehending political issues, all we have ever known was this Bush administration. We've grown up with such a negative and jaded view of politics and what its capable of, and its all we've ever known as for politics. It's incredible to see that for the first time many of us have had the option to vote, we were able to basically control the outcome of the election. A huge victory for a generation that has been so let down for so long.

worker dies at long island wal mart

It's really disturbing that people would be capable of something like that. And it's even worse that they continued into the store to shop, despite the guy dying on the floor. I think it is proof that people can be corporate zombies. I don't think someone can really use this and respond saying "Oh but that was only in one place in long island, it doesn't happen everywhere", but the fact that it happened anywhere at all, it matters. Even if the people had stopped and walked out of the wal mart, I still would have seen that and been proud that people were capable of realizing how horrible an act that was. I wouldnt simply say "oh but only some people did that". I would just be happy anyone did that.
It's scary when you really think about how it must have been like to be there. The people sound like animals, bombarding the door and trying to break it down.