It is official! The Nissan Leaf will come to the United States December of 2010.  The Nissan Leaf is a full electric car that seats five.  Finally, an electric car is coming out that does not look like a complete joke.  Unlike the Smart Car, the Leaf is a full electric vehicle.  Despite common belief, the Smart Car is not full electric.  In fact, it is not electric at all.  The Smart Car is entirely gas powered.  What is smart about that?  The fact is that the United States has had the ability to make an electric car for many years, but has neglected the responsibility for creating such a masterpiece.  In fact, in many cases America’s oil corporations have halted the growth of our economy.  Prices on gas are going up again in an attempt to get all the money left in our wallets before the Electric Car swoops in to save the day. However, the electric car is not for everyone due to its limited mileage, 100 miles per charge.  This would only fill 95% of Americans needs.  Electric car companies are working on the other 5%.

It is time that we use clean energy, clean fuel. At the end of 2009 there were approximately 246 million working cars in the United States.  But is a car really working when it is destroying the environment.  Cars exhaust pollutes the air.  In some cities it has left permanent gray hazy fog.  Car companies for years have been pushing their fuel-efficient cars, but use of cars is so excessive that fuel-efficient cars are still damaging the environment.  I am not saying that fuel-efficient cars are not good.  They are far superior to cars that are not fuel-efficient.  However, at this current moment fuel-efficient cars are not as beneficial as electric cars.  It is time that people just stop using gasoline in their cars.  The Leaf will finally make the United States people independent from the unavoidable prices of gasoline.

The oil companies cannot hold us captive any longer.  California Electric Standards state that the price of a full battery charge for the Leaf, which is equivalent to 100 miles per gallon, will cost 3 dollars.  One gallon of gas costs 3 dollars, and at one time it cost 4 dollars. Quick charge stations will be set up to charge an electric car for 30 minutes.  In 30 minutes 80% of the battery capacity will be filled.

I cannot wait until I purchase my very own electric car.  My brother and I have signed a petition stating that we will not buy a car until car companies have released an electric car.  Finally, an auto company has become so desperate that they will give the people what they want.  No other car company has created a full electric car.  They are holding out because at the moment they can afford to.  American car companies have neglected to make an electric car.  Japan stepped in and did the job for the world.  Sure they have alternative motives, but all businesses look for opportunities to make money.  Fortunately, for them they will control the electric car business.  Hopefully this will tempt other car companies to come out with a full electric car giving the people more options.

The price of the Nissan Leaf will not be determined until April.  The price is supposed to be like that of a normal new car, but who knows what a car company will do.  The Leaf will be a success.  The abundance of Priuses have increased dramatically in my own neighborhood and with news of an electric car there is hope for a brighter and superior future.  The Leaf will be the first electric car of many if the United States citizens fight for what is right.

Want to see the commercial for the Nissan Leaf?

Nissan Leaf Commercial

Sources:

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/nissan-leaf-electric-car-comes-to-new-york/

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/nissan-unveils-leaf-electric-car/

http://green.autoblog.com/2010/01/04/report-number-of-cars-in-the-u-s-dropped-by-four-million-in-20/

http://www.nutramed.com/environment/cars.htm

As I looked up USB on Google images I came across an interesting discovery and was introduced to the new world of USB.  Apparently the food world of USB is pretty big. USB is short for Universal Serial Bus and is also known as a flash drive or jump drive.  USB’s have become very popular in every day use, whether it is used for transporting work files or personal files.  Some USBs are simply used as software backups.  However, not only memory space can be varied. Throughout the last several years the world of flash drive has gotten extremely creative.

While I laughed and scrolled down, I could not help thinking why someone would have so many USBs if they were not simply collecting them.  The cheapest USBs sell for around five dollars and the price goes up based on storage space.  The creative 2GB post-it USB costs a total of $49.99, while an ordinary 2GB USB costs about $15.00.  There is of course a price for creativity, but that is over a 300% price difference. For the price of creativity a person could get three USBs and still have some cash left over.  Overall, it sounds too pricey to be a collection item.  I know that if I had one of these crazy USBs I would use it, rather than display it as decoration.

Some of the USB drives seemed a bit unpractical, like the over sized bagel. However, others were hysterical.  It is amazing how many different USBs there are.  There was a collection of diamond jewelry USBs, toy USBs, and an endless collection of foodstuff USBs.  The increasing number of food revolved USBs reminded me of America and China’s increasing obesity problems.  Is food in reality an obsession?  Is it a hobby?  Could and obsession for food ever be as great as an obsession with a TV show? The other USBs reflected an aspect of a persons life and what they like.  For example, the Lego piece USB might belong to someone who likes Legos. The grenade/army USB might belong to a soldier or someone very found of action war movies and guns.  I personally hope that food is not a hobby, but let me know how you feel on the issue.

Here are some further examples of what I found:

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive

http://abduzeedo.com/25-really-cool-usb-drivers

http://www.gizmine.com/#ProductPage=CategoryCode=gzus&productURLCode=notepadusb

http://www.pricescan.com/ACP-EP-2GB-USB-2.0-Mini-Flash-Drive/co/191209.html

FernGully to Avatar

Have you recently seen a movie with such enchanting creatures that the ground beneath there feet leaves a glowing footprint?  Did they enter a world unknown to themselves and change so that they would blend in to their background?  A tree binds the creatures together and they feel the pain of their home.   Seeds glow and float like magic.  A woman interprets the signs.  Then mankind rears an ugly head and threatens the very nature of their civilization.  They must fight for their home.  In the end the human will know that there is more to the forest than trees.  If you have, then what were you doing watching FernGully when you could have been watching Avatar.

If there is not a lawsuit coming up then I will be very surprised considering the fact that the script for Avatar was stolen from FernGully.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with FernGully, FernGully: The Last Rainforest was released in 1992.  It is an Australian animated feature produced by Kroyer Films, about a fairy’s world and humankind.  I watched Ferngully a lot as a kid and recognized these facts immediately.  As I attempted to locate a plot line for Avatar, I discovered that James Cameron is being accused of plagiarizing from multiple different movies, and could not locate a real plot line.  It is hard to begin to name the similarities between FernGully and Avatar because there is such an excessive amount.  So I will start at the beginning and work my way down the end in a list formation.

• Used to have a relationship with humans, but that relationship was destroyed.

Well in FernGully the fairies used to live amongst the humans in harmony until a hideous creature made out of vile black smoke drove the humans out of the forest.

In Avatar the humans used to have a relationship with the Na’vi, blue creatures, until the army got involved.  The army did not care about the Na’vi. The US Army shot first and asked questions later, driving a stake between human and creature.

• Human originally doesn’t understand the other civilization and was originally employed to help destroy their world.

Ferngully: Zak, the human, worked marking trees of the fairies forest with red Xs.  Every tree with a red X, was a tree that would be destroyed. When Zak was welcomed into the fairies big tree, he neglected to tell the fairies what he was really doing in the forest.

Avatar: Jake Sully, the main human, worked in the army and his mission was to figure out how to get the Na’vi to leave their home tree so that the Army could destroy it and mine for the element Unobtainium (very subtle).  When he started caring for the Na’vi people, he too neglected to tell them the role that he played in destroying them.

• Shrinking as opposed to growing.

FernGully: Zak shrinks down to the size of a fairy.

Avatar: Jake goes into a chamber and becomes a huge blue Na’vi.

• Both worlds were very big.

Enough said.

• Glowing ground

In FernGully, everything lights up and glows when it is touched.  As they walk and run the floor lights up to reveal a footprint.  What a surprise that the same exact thing, the same exact way happened in Avatar.

• Weird glowing seeds

The only difference between FernGully’s seeds and Avatar’s seeds was shape.  The seed in Ferngully looked like your average small seed from a fruit.  The seed in Avatar looked more like a dandelion seed.

• Creatures are connected to the forest and the trees.

Avatar: The relationship is as simple as that.

FernGully: The fairies can feel the pain of the forest and the trees.  Both communicate with the trees.

• The creatures all gather together and their powers are greater, but that is true in most movies.
• The guy, who was already the heroine’s boyfriend equivalent, automatically hates the human intruder.  This guy later has to accept that the human is trying to help and that the human knows what he is doing. But again this is a recurring theme in many movies.
• Flying on the bugs/dragons.

FernGully: In FernGully the little creatures that were not able to fly, rode on flying bugs.  They were the weirdest part of the movie.

Avatar: The Na’vi can connect and control dragons and a creature that is the equivalent of a horse.

• Big magic tree, and they all live in a tree.

• Mother figure/Woman who interprets everything.
• Falling unconscious, the heroine has to drag the human out of harm.
• Machine knocking down trees, human in disguise waving fiercely to stop the machine.
• Trying to destroy the machine.
• Blowing up of the tree.
• Human redeems himself.

Despite this rip-off, Avatar could not have been better.  It was amazingly scripted, even though the plot line came from another movie.  I advise those that have not seen it to go out immediately and see it, and those who have already seen it, go again.  The world was enchanting, mysterious, and dangerous.  If you are into high-quality movies, this is the movie for you.  Avatar had a 400 million dollar budget and you can bet that a lot of that money went into the pocket of James Cameron.  However, the money also went into this great movie that people say will revolutionize the way that we make movies.

Sources: http://www.chacha.com/question/how-much-money-was-spent-on-the-movie-avatar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferngully

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_%282009_film%29

“Man’s best friend.”  I am not sure who created the quote, “Man’s best friend,” but it has become a common phrase.  Of course when I talk about mans best friend I am talking about the dog.  Anyone who would like to argue that cats are man’s best friend should know that, “Your either a animal lover, or a cat person.” Cats are not your friends, they are simple acquaintances that only arrive when they need something and vanish when you need them.  Dogs truly are paragons that no other animal can truly match.  The bond between humans and dogs has been around since the cavemen.  Dogs deserve tribute and love for the centuries that they have stuck by us.

Led Zeppelin 1971

Paul McCartney from The Beetles with his sheepdog.

There are hundreds of interesting facts about humans and dogs intertwining history. One interesting fact is that the bible mentions dogs 14 times. People show their love and affection for dogs in a unique ways.”  Led Zeppelin named one of their popular songs “Black Dog”, after a black Labrador retriever walked into the Headley Grange studios while they were recording an unnamed song.  The dog sat around for the song and then left. “At the end of the Beatles’ song “A Day in the Life”(1967), a high-pitched dog whistle was recorded by Paul McCartney for his sheepdog.” In 1957, the first life form went into space.  This life form was a dog named Laika.  Laika was sent up in space in an earth satellite.  In 1912, three dogs survived the sinking of the Titanic.  Two of the dogs were small.  One was a Pomeranian, the other a Pekinese.  The other dog was a Newfoundland, a rather large dog.  George Washington, Americas first President, had thirty-six foxhounds.  Before the eighth century in China, Pekingese were very popular. They were used as Lap or Sleeve Dogs. Most commonly it was the puppies that were kept in the sleeves and the older dogs were Lap dogs.  Long sleeves became very popular and so did the Pekingese. In the imperial palace eight different types of Pekingese were being bred.  In the nineteenth century the Empress had over 100 Pekingese as pets. Her dogs were guarded fiercely.  After China’s war with England in 1860, Pekingese were brought to Queen Victoria of England. The oldest dog breed is believed to be the Saluki.  The Saluki was trained by the Egyptians to help track down game.

The earliest fossil of a dog can be dated to 10,000 B.C.E. Ironically this was over 12,000 years ago and humans have kept dogs as pets during those 12,000 years. Cavemen were the first to domesticate dogs.  Pets are important to many people. “An estimated 1,000,000 dogs in the U.S. have been named as the primary beneficiaries in their owner’s will.”  That is a lot of dogs receiving a lot of money.  More than one in every three families in America own a dog.  Many dog owners have multiple dogs. The limit before a person has to obtain a kenneling license in California is three dogs.  For each dog there is a ten-dollar license fee plus all immunizations.  If the dog is not fixed the price for a license can be over 125 dollars. There are more than 5,000,000 puppies born in the United States every year.  Not every puppy receives a loving home.

Dogs have been very loyal to humans for 12,000 years.  Some people have abused the trust of “man’s best friend.”  There has been dog fighting, debarking, torturing, and beating of dogs.  There has been neglect for our companions.  Many dog owners get a dog without being fully prepared for a dog.  People think that having a dog is nothing, but dogs call for attention and love.  If you do not really want a dog then you should not have a dog.  Christmas is a time when many people become dog owners.  Kids still receive dogs for Christmas along with their toys. Be prepared for the mischief that a little puppy can bring when not a creature is stirring through the house.  A special time of the year is coming and I hope that you do not put your dog outside or in a kennel for Christmas. They are a part of the family and they have been there since 10,000 B.C.E. alongside man, woman, and child.

Sources: http://www.thefoundbin.com/lost-and-found-articles/102-weird-facts-you-never-knew-about-dogs

http://www.dogcardart.com/pekingese/

What must it be like when your best explanation of your childhood is “Little Girl Lost?” Most people in my generation may not know that when Drew Barrymore was growing up her life was far from easy. We may all know the movies that she has been in now and that when she was a child she played the little sister in the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.  However, there is a huge chunk of her life that is missing.  Drew Barrymore may be bright and cheerful today, but there was a time when life could not have been more difficult.

When Drew Barrymore was nine years old she had begun smoking.  She began drinking alcohol at age eleven. Each time she moved on to a drug more dangerous than the last.  She began smoking marijuana at age twelve.  She was not even a teenager when she was drinking and smoking cigarettes and pot. When she turned thirteen and became a teenager she started snorting crack cocaine, which landed her in rehab.  No one likes to admit that they have a problem and neither did Drew.  Drew denied her problems, but was eventually let out of rehab.  When she was only fourteen years old Drew had attempted suicide.  After her suicide attempt she was immediately rushed back into rehab.  Drew finished rehab, but did not go back to her family.  Instead, David Crosby and Mrs. Crosby had Drew Barrymore live with them for a period of three months to make sure that she did not experience any relapses.  David Crosby stepped up to help Drew get her life back because he knew how hard it was to battle against drugs once you are hooked.  He served eleven months jail time in 1982 and had his two children taken away from him and put up for adoption.

Drew Barrymore on the cover of Teen People March 1998

In 1990, Drew Barrymore released her autobiography entitled Little Girl Lost. She was only fifteen years old when she published her story.  She was striving to change her life and age sixteen Drew was emancipated and moved into her own apartment. She has never relapsed with drugs.  Her life began turning around.  She emerged back into the movie industries in 1992, starring in Poison Ivy at age seventeen.  Her movie was a failure, but she moved on.  At age seventeen not only was Drew Barrymore engaged, but she also posed nude with her fiancé, Jamie Walters, for the cover of a magazine. The same year she underwent breast reduction surgery. There were still many doubts about Drew Barrymore. However, at eighteen years old, she earned a second Golden Globe nomination for her role in Guncrazy.  In 1995, she posed for Playboy and on her twentieth birthday she received a gift from Steven Spielberg, the director of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Enclosed there was a quilt, a note, and a photo-shopped version of her Playboy pictures. The note read, “Cover yourself up,” and her pictures had been altered to look as though she was fully clothed.  She did not take his advice and latter appeared nude in five of her films, and flashed David Letterman on the Late Show.

Eventually Drew Barrymore’s life seemed to calm down and people began to accept Drew and see her talent as an actress.  She has appeared in countless movies.  Her carefree, smiley, and funny personality has gotten her far. She has lived more life than any typical person will ever live.  In many ways she has lived different lives.  She really cannot be blamed for her actions as a young girl, I mean who was watching her and looking out for her. Drew Barrymore was born on February 22, 1975 to John Drew Barrymore and Ildikó Jaid Barrymore. Her mother, Ildikó Jaid Barrymore, got her daughter into more trouble than anything else.  She would ask Drew to get her into clubs and such.  Drew Barrymore is still not speaking to her mother.  Drew’s father, John Drew Barrymore, was rarely around at one time he was not even living with his wife and child.  However, Drew had a chance to mend her relationship with her father before he died in 2004.

Drew Barrymore on the cover of Teen People January 1999

Despite her crazy childhood and teenage years, Drew Barrymore has really changed her life for the better.  She has once again been welcomed into most of our homes.  Her fans love her.  She went from being completely wild and a danger to herself into a loveable actress.  She has a bubbly feel good attitude about everything that she does.  She was able to change her life as fifteen-year-old girl and now she is a successful thirty-four year old actress showing off her natural talent.  She has been in over 50 TV shows and movies.  Including E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Charlie’s Angels, Riding in Cars with Boys, 50 First Dates, Curious George, Beverley Hills Chihuahua, and much more.  She directed her latest movie, Whip It. Drew Barrymore changed her life, and she can be an inspiration to all of the people struggling with drugs and extreme childhood neglect.  Her life may not have started off well, but she has taken the opportunity to learn and grow as a person.  She remains optimistic and her career and talent is growing exponentially.  She continues to challenge herself with different roles and now she is even experimenting with directing.

Sources:

http://www.casenet.com/people/drewbarrymore.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Barrymore

http://www.orchidrecoverycenter.com/blog/childhood-drug-addiction-drew-barrymore/

This Cartoon immediately caught my attention.  Not only did the vibrant red color of the truck attract my eye, but also its overall message.  Society has gotten so crazy with overstocking and carrying Christmas supplies.  Have you ever noticed how before Halloween has even begun the Christmas decorations have already been brought out?  Thanks Giving just is not as important of a holiday as Christmas.  Thanks Giving certainly does not bring in the same amount of money as Christmas. Why should Christmas, a religious holiday, be celebrated at such a higher intensity? Thanks Giving is not receiving proper thanks and recognition in the United States today.

Typically the busiest day for shoppers is on the November 27, the day after Thanks Giving.  Despite what you may believe, these people are not late to Thanks Giving.  They are just really early for Christmas.  People do not waste time trying to get the best deals.  Which is a good thing considering loss of jobs and that families have to maintain a lower budget to stay in their homes.  But what does this lack of spending do to the little turkey’s self esteem?  Thanks Giving does not bring in the same amount of money as Christmas does.  Thanks Giving cannot compete with Christmas sales.  There just is not enough to buy, and no one wants to over pay.  Many people would like to be overpaid, but when it comes to shopping they would like to underpay and get a deal.

The importance of Thanks Giving is to bring families together, and Christmas is seen as the same thing.  Thanks Giving is like Christmas without presents.  As a teenager who understands that I am still in childhood, a holiday with presents is much more appealing than a holiday without presents.  However, the Turkey does not have to be thrown under the bus.  Thanks Giving and Christmas should both be celebrated.  Perhaps these holidays value should differentiate economically, but they both should be treated with equal compassion.  After all, two holidays are better than one. Do not skip a holiday just because the next holiday coming up is more fun.  Fun things can be saved for last.

Talking to my friends over the last several years I have noticed how Thanks Giving is not as widely celebrated.  I wondered why, but I knew the answer.  People just do not find Thanks Giving to be important.  In fact, in 1939 President Roosevelt moved Thanks Giving to the third Thursday in the month of November to lengthen the time for Christmas shopping.  In 1941, Roosevelt was forced to repeal his act and change Thanks Giving back to the fourth Thursday of November.  How could people be so outraged in 1939 and not even celebrate in 2009?  The world has changed.  I know that Thanks Giving is just now starting to become important in my life, because I did not use to celebrate it.  I was convinced that chicken was the perfect alternative dish, which was good for the turkeys.

So enjoy Thanks Giving during its time.  Spend countless hours with friends, family members, and people who you love.  Christmas will come soon enough.  We must be prepared for the future, but this does not mean that we have to live in the future.  I don’t like to go into stores on the very first days of October and see Christmas decorations all around the store.  I do not want to live with Christmas before I have gotten my candy from Halloween.   Live life and take it slow.  Do not let your troubles or worries over pass you.  Right now we all have huge trucks chasing after us. These trucks are loaded with all of the things we have to do.  But what is most important is that we just breathe.

Sources: http://www.cagle.com/news/Turkeys09/3.asp

http://www.allbusiness.com/trends-events/holidays-observances-thanksgiving/11836337-1.html

http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2009/nr09-25.html

http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2005/11/21/daily1.html

What would people do without music?  Everywhere we go music is there to brighten our day.  Occasionally it gets stuck on a song we despise and cannot stop thinking about how much we want to switch the song.  But when we hear a song that we really like sometimes our actions are uncontrollable.  We feel delighted and free.  We might even bob our heads or tap our feet. Music has been defining people for generations, allowing emotional release that can be mental, physical or spiritual.

There have been countless cases throughout history where music has been used to calm a persons mind.  “Egyptians used music to calm their insane,” and in the Bible story of David and King Saul, David controlled the Kings emotions by playing the different notes on a harp.  In the present day, 2009, we use music for just about everything.  We use music when we are exercising, driving or going on a trip, relaxing, and partying.   However, is this all we use music for?  Absolutely not, we use music for plenty of other things.  Music is everywhere we go.  Music is in all different types of stores, from clothing stores to car lots.  It is in hospitals, dentist offices, workplaces, restaurants, movie theaters and movies themselves, and religious buildings.  There is no mandate that companies must play music at all times and yet they do.  Music makes people more comfortable.

Music can always calm me down after an extremely stressful day full of homework, and apparently music is known to have calming affects on the majority of all people.  Now people have jobs dedicated to music therapy, because science has proven that music can change our blood volume, blood pressure, circulation, pulse, and even our metabolism.  It is hard to believe that music could have anything to do with our metabolism, but truth of the matter is that a human beings metabolism can be related to music.  Researchers have theorized that music affects us in such ways because our bodies and organs work in a rhythmic way.  Rhythm can be found in a persons respiration, heartbeats, brain waves, and speech patterns.  If you think about it, the way that we talk and form sentences is very rhythmic, with our long or brief pauses and the stress that we put on individual words.   Each individual can be found to have a unique speech pattern, but our speech is in fact a pattern.

If a person is musically active than their life and body will be most likely to be affected in a positive way.  For example, researchers have noticed that those who play the piano are benefited not only mentally, but physically as well.  People who play the piano are less likely to develop arthritis in their hands.   I wonder if typing helps to stop arthritis in a person’s hand, because in a certain sense it is the same thing.  Of course piano is more pleasant to the ears, but nonetheless it is the same motions.  Active participation in music can also eliminate stress.  Eliminating stress is very import to both a person’s physical health and mental health.  Stress affects a person’s body in horrible ways.  Sometimes it causes little things like gaining weight, and other times it causes depression.  I am sure we have all heard the commercials, “Depression can hurt.” And depression does hurt.  It lowers self-esteem and makes a person feel alone. Stress is not beneficial to our bodies, and the sooner we get rid of it the better we feel.  Musical experts say that singers rarely develop any sort of chest pains, but this is not unheard of.  As much as music can help a person physically, a person still has to have genetics in which they would never develop any sort of problems to have a completely accurate survey.

Music’s impact has been known for generations and I am so glad that many of my peers openly embrace the musical side of themselves.  Unfortunately for some there is no musical side.  I like to say that I am not musically inclined, which is sad when my father can pick up just about any stringed instrument and make it sound good.  He likes to say that I can play lots of things, like the radio and the I-pod.  However, I can listen to music and appreciate it.  I can also use music to melt away my stress and so can you.

Let me know how music does or does not affect your lives.

Original Site: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0826/is_n4_v8/ai_12426666/pg_3/?tag=content;col1

Everywhere we look there is segregation.  There is segregation between sexes, cultures, and religions.  Do we intend to have these segregations?  Do we want to categorize ourselves?  Absolutely we do.  We have engraved in our minds this idea of unity, yet we keep ourselves from being truly united.  We have come a long way, but there are so many simple things that should have been changed long ago.

I have just read an article on racial segregation in the United States.  According to this article “ the Alabama Constitution still mandates that separate schools shall be provided for white and colored children, and no child of either race shall be permitted to attend a school of the other race”(2).  An unsuccessful attempt was made in 2004 to revoke this act.  I personally feel that there is no greater failure in a nation than separating its citizens.  You have no control over what race you are.

When people ask me, “What are you?” I respond by saying I am American.  Now this tends to either make the person laugh, or it just confuses or aggravates them.  But why?  The constant question annoys me.  “What are you?” I am American, that is were I was born.  That is where I am loyal.  A more appropriate question would be what ethnicity are you?  I myself am a mix of many ethnicities.  I am a combination of 1/4 Sicilian (Italian), about 1/4 Austrian mixed in with the people who used to live in Germany, before Germany, and Czechoslovakians, a little over 1/4 Hungarian, 1/16 Cherokee Indian, and 3/16 American.  I say 3/16 American because some sides of my family had been in American for many generations.  It boils down to I am white or Caucasian.  That is what I have to write on District Tests and applications.  None of those ethnicities define me; they just explain how I came to exist.  It is not about what you are.  It is about who you are.

How are we segregated?  As children, boys are friends with boys and girls are friends with girls.  It is what we as children are taught.  It might be that boys and girls have nothing in common, but that seems highly unlikely.  So why is it always battle of the sexes?  It is because we made it that way.  They are different and we want to be part of something.  We want to be with our own group.  Eventually, it ends up that interests differ from one another, but originally it is because we are physically different from one another.

I am fascinated and outraged at the clubs that my school has to offer.  There are good clubs like Speech and Debate, CSF, and Red Cross.  However, there are segregated clubs like Armenian club, Asian club, BSU (Black Student Union), Christian club, Indian club, Muslim club, Latinos Unidos, Jewish club, and Gay Club.  Since when are any of these clubs interests?  They are not interests, they are things that separate us from one another.   They are not Running club, Science club, or Art club.  Things that people take interest in or do as a hobby.  The most they could do is learn about their religion and their heritage, but it’s not about that.   Not to offend any Armenians, some of my closest friends are Armenian, but there were people standing in front of the Armenian club sign ups shouting, “If you are not Armenian, you can’t sign up.”  That sounds like segregation.  With all these clubs our multicultural school becomes empty. Armenian, Asian, Black, Christian, Indian, Muslim, Latinos, Jewish people, and Gays are all American.  They are in America and most of them were born in America.  Why do they choose to separate themselves from one another, and how can a school let them separate themselves from one another?

If you are a United States citizen, you are American!  I did not say if you are in America than you are American, because people visit from other countries and if they are not American maybe they do want to be American.  But whether you are Armenian, Asian, Black, Christian, Indian, Muslim, Latino, Jewish, or Gay you should want to be American.  Let hobbies describe who you are.  Do not let your skin color, eye color, hair color, or religion control how and what you decide to do.  It is time we become one, because background of people who are not you, does not count for who you are.  We should all be ourselves, but still live together as one.  We are one nation of many different backgrounds.  But that is all that they are, backgrounds.  It is time to create something new.  Under one nation, we are the same.

Original Site:    http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Racial_segregation_-_USA/id/1990959