Julianna

=My Name is Kahn- Why were the Muslim people hated so much after 9/11?= I never really thought about how the Muslim people were affected by 9/11. I can see how Americans would place the blame on them for thr attack because we didn't know where the real attackers were and we needed someone to be mad at. We allowed ourselves to hate people for something that wasn't their fault, and the Muslim population suffered because of it. This movie showed Muslims harassed, beaten up, and even killed. The boy who was killed, Sameek, was targeted for having a Muslim lasr name, but he also encouraged his attackers. Rather than just accept what had happened and walk away, he continued to give them a reason to hate him by yelling back at them when they were ready to go home. While no one should be ashamed of their religion, I really wish that Sameek knew when to back off. I guess the real answer to this question is that Americans were scared and confused. We didn't know how to come back from such an attack without justice. We didn't have that at the time, so it was just easy to punish Muslims because they shared the religion of the attackers and believed in the motive behind it.

=My Favorite Person= I know a lot of wonderful people, but if I had to chose one as my favorite I'd chose my step-dad Dan. Dan married my mom when I was eight years old. It took me while to adjust to this new person in my life since my dad died the year before. Dan understood my hesitation, and didn't become an over-zealous step-dad who forced his authority on me. He focussed on getting to know me better. We've grown a lot closer since then. Something that I love about Dan is that he doesn't take life too seriously. He can find the bright side in any situation, and jokes about anything he can think of. He's also good at finding the perfect aspect to pick on someone about. In my case, he absolutely loves making fun of the fact that my head is slightly larger than normal. Not a days goes by where I don't hear some sort of joke about it. Dan's really intelligent, so it's hard to have an argument with him because he always has a comeback. As a dad, Dan always has my best interest in mind. He get's angry when I do something stupid, but never stays mad for long. He never holds grudges or dwells on past mistakes. I know that I can always go to him for help and advice in any situation. What I love and hate about Dan is that he's more of a teenager than I am. I love that his sense of humor and attitude is similar to mine, but I hate that he's always one step ahead of me. It's almost impossible to get away with anything with Dan around, but I guess that's a good thing in the long run. What I respect Dan the most for is that he's always been a supportive and consistent person in my life. I'm sure that it's not always easy for him to live with my mom and I, but he's always been there for us. He loves my mom and makes her a better person, and for that I'll always be grateful. Dan is more of a dad to me than my dad ever could be, and that's why he's my favorite person. =Cause and Effect- Divorce.= Divorce has commonly been referred to as a spreading plague on society, becoming more popular as the years pass. The national belief that 50% of all marriages end in divorce isn't quite correct. Americans for Divorce Reform has released statistics that show a steadily dropping divorce rate, falling from 47% in 1991 to 37% in 2004. Nonetheless, divorce is a real problem in our country. It's caused by many different issues; namely, communication problems, infidelity, financial hardships, and a lack of commitment or compatability. A lack of communication in a marriage is a leading cause of divorce. This includes talking through problems, sharing the events of your day and making important decisions together. When spouses cease to do this, they've lost their communication and trust. Marriage depends on these two things, and without them it often fails. This makes it important for spouses to be very involved in each other's lives so that they can detect these communcation problems before they become detrimental to their marriage. Another cause of divorce that stems from distrust is infidelity, when one spouse has an extramarrital affair. It is said that very few marriages can survive the pain of infidelity. In fact, studies show that 17% of all divorces are a result of infidelity and that one half of spouses are involved in extramarrital affairs. Infidelity goes against the freely consented to legal union, and does emotional damage to the spouses. It is also a common sign that the cheating spouse is unhappy and is looking for joy in a bad place (someone other than their spouse). Because of this, and the lack of trust going forward, divorce is often the best solution to guarantee the happiness of all involved. While financial hardships don't involve distrust, it poses as a major threat to marriage. Financial hardships generally refers to not having enough money to sustain a healthy lifestlye. It can also mean that the spouses have too much money, or have allowed making money be the most important thing. Problems that have to do with money are very straining on marriage because it places the importance of money over the importance of the other's spouse. It leads to emotional separation, frequent arguemnts and a lack of communication. Money involves almost everything in life, so it's easy to spark an arguement over the issue. A lack of commitment and compatability is often a result of the the cause I have previously mentioned. When these issues come between two spouses it tends to separate them and make them realize that they're not a good match. In other words, they realize that getting married was a mistake, and that they're not attracted to each other anymore. This realization is often a sign that two people got married to fast or for the wrong reasons. Marriage is a commitment, so if they're not committed anymore the marriage often fails. In the same way, two people get married because they're compatable and attracted to each other, so when that's lost there's nothing to hold the marriage together. A lack of communication, infidelity,financial hardships and committment/compatability issues are the main causes of divorce, but there are so many more. The reason our divorce rate is so high is because people get married too quickly and don't think things through. Marriage seems like a really cool expression of love, but it's more than that. It involves two people spending the rest of their lives together no matter what comes their way. This explains why the divorce rate is highest in Nevada, because people get drunk and think that marriage is something cool. The next day when they get sober and realized what happened, they instantly regret it and get divorced. In order to bring the divorce rate down, people need to be educated on the requirements of marriage and give their marriage an honest chance. =Morning Reflection #3= I'm really happy that it's raining right now. Ever since the other day, I've been praying for it to rain. I love everything about rain, how it sounds, how it looks. The only thing I don't like about it is the humidity that comes after. I'm pretty mellow about it right now though because I don't have anyone to look good so it doesn't matter if my hair frizzes. I hope that this is supposed to be like a diary type writing exercise. Ms. Kalpana wasn't overly clear about it, but everyone around me is writing a lot right now. Oh well, these people can't possibly be writing about anything else other than what they're thinking about. I guess then if this isn't supposed to a diary then everyone will know my personal thoughts for no reason. I think I'll stop writing now because this is sounding less and less intelligent the more i ramble.

=Tolerating Intolerance Reflection= This story brings the light the importance of respecting the opinions and beliefs of others in every situation. My opinion is that we must abide by the laws of our country and respect each American citizen's freedoms of speech and religion. While his beliefs are disgusting to me as a product of interracial marriage, I respect the courage it took for him to express his controversial opinions so freely. America has improved through the years as far as accepting people with different races, religions and and gender as regular people, so I feel that this particular situation should be included. If I was placed in this situation, I would temporarily overlook the outrageously ridiculous and baseless claims and focus on the grammatical construction of his paper. I would taje advantage of my time outside of class to address his claims and express my dissent. This story also calls attention to using stereotypes to classify people before actually knowing them. In this case, the teacher was surprised that this particular student would have these beliefs because he didnt fit the personality of a white supremasist. Presumptious judgements separate us in this country, so for America to be the "Land of the Free' we must eliminate stereotypes from our minds and focus our energy on getting to know peolple.

=Picture Book Reflection= When we were shown the pictures in the book, we had to determine whtat each picture was illustrating without seeing the text. It was difficult to use the entire context of one picture to determine the story behind each one. While I misinterpreted some of the pictures, I would say that I got the main point of the story. But, as each picture passed, I grew more and more excited to finally hear the story. Quick summary: Masako moves with her parents from San Francisco, California to Japan but doesn't fit in. She misses her country and tries to leave, but gets drawn to a department store where she gets a job and later meets her husband. Masako gets excited to return to America, but stays with her husband because of his job. It seems as though each action in this story was insired by love: Masako's parents return to their native country, Masako almost goes back to America and stays in Japan to stay with her husband. It requires selfless love, where you chose to act in a way that benefits someone more important than yourself. While this was just a picture book meant to exercise our ability to determine the meaning of pictures, I really appreciated the theme and meaning of this story.

=Mexican Whiteboy Reflection #2= The next 50 pages bring new problems for Uno and Danny's relationships with their parents. Uno's dad, Senior, visits and invited Uno to come live with him and his family. HIs mother overhears and gets very upset, pushing Uno to spend time away from the house for a while. Danny meets his mom's boyfriend Randy and is invited to spend the summer with them in San Francisco. Danny is disgusted by the invitation and declines immediately. He couldn't comprehend how she could betray his dad by being with a white man. Danny instead decides to live with his dad's family where he is often depended on and definied by his intelligence. For some reason Danny feels ashamed of being smart because "tru Mexicans' aren't smart. I feel that Danny should honestly get over his obsession to impress his dad and just be himself. If his dad isn't impressed by all that Danny really is, then he doesn't deserve to be a father. Both boys should also give their mothers a break. There's a way to maintain a satisfactory relationship with their fathers without blaming them for something completely inavoidable.

=__Morning Reflection #2:__= Not much has changed since yesterday except that this room seems to get colder and colder each time I walk in. I'm trying to focus on other things though, like the fact that it looks like it's going to rain today. The sky is completely grey, and each tree branch is blowing back and forth in the wind. I like the way it looks while it's raining, it's really relaxing and romantic in a way. Normally I'd be worried about that humidity ruining my hair, but it doesn't look to good right now so it doesn't matter too much to me. Of course now that I want it to rain, it'll dry, get really sunny, and be 95 degrees all day. I came in a little late, so I don't have much time to write today. I guess I'll keep looking at the trees outside and prays that it rains. = = =__Mexican Whiteboy reflection #1:__= The first 50 pages of Mexican Whiteboy introduce a theme of familial dignity: a sense of a responsibility to carry out some family legacy, making everyone around you proud. This book has discussed a lot of prevalent issues in our world today so far. One, the feeling that you don't fit in somewhere or that you're not good enough for someone. It's easy for us to to feel like we're not good enough when there's so much pressure to be perfect by someone else's standards. In this case, Danny blames himself for his father leaving and tries to make himself seem perfect to his him. Two, no matter what we come from or where we go in life, we're going to protect our family in any way possible. Uno got so angry that Danny hurt his stepbrother that he went into a rage and punched him. Sofia got so angry when he hurt her cousin that he went after Uno herself. Danny loved his dad so much that he tried to prove himself Mexican enough for him by changing his environment. Familial bonds are stronger than those with friends, and we as people will always (hopefully) chose to protect our families. Three, The desire to feel like you belong to something and have a respectable role in making it succeed. We as humans want to feel needed, but mostly we want something to call ours. In Danny's case, he felt like he belonged to something important when he played baseball, and knowing that he was the pitcher, which he learned controled the game and commanded respect by all, he felt powerful and thrived on the energy from that power. He knew he was talented when he played, and didn't constantly think about impressing his father.

//Nice work and good reading// =__Neighborhood Problems__= My neighborhood is home to a lot of noisy people and creatures. I live three houses down from a wannabe rockstar who plays the same song on his drums every single day. It never seems to cross his mind that the rest of the neighborhood has no interest in his ability to play one song. It seems like every person who lives in my neighborhood own really small friendly dogs who like to sneak out or really bid and loud dogs who bark at each other from across the street. Along with the numerous dogs, there are also a fair amount of stray cats that roam my neighborhood. They like sleeping on to op cars, hiding in trees, or mating with each other very loudly in the middle of the night. And just to add to my lack of patience with noisy animals, there's a bird's nest right outside my window with birds chirping all day long. It's no wonder why I get no sleep.

=__Brain video reflection:__= I learned from this video that there are several parts of brain that work together to help me learn from everything I do each day and retain the information for the future. They all work together, so without one part my memory wouldn't be as good and my daily life would be compromised. A lot of people compared it to a car and how every random part and wire work together to get you where you need to be. I compare it to our country. __America isn't free and safe because of one person. It took millions of people dying and sacrificing to get us where we are today__. And so with the brain, we didn't just come out of the womb speaking english and walking. It took the parts of your brain working hard together to adapt to the world arround you and picking up on what everyone else is doing.

=__Name Game__= I interviewed my friend Ivy. She told me that parents had opposite choices for her first name. Her mom liked the name Chesna, while her dad like the name Ivy better. Her dad won in the end, and today she says she really enjoys her name becaues it's short, creative and different from everyone else. The name Ivy is said to be either English or Italian and it refers to the ivy vines that decorate gardens. Her last name is Italian. Overall, she likes her name, but if she could change her first name, she'd like to change it to Sky.

=__Morning reflection:__= There's not that much on my mind right now. This room is kind of freezing, but I guess it beats the 90+ degree weather outside. Texas is not somewhere I enjoy being during the summer. I'm kind of stressed about college. I'm going to be sophomore, so I need to start looking but I honestly have no idea what I want to do with my life so I don't know which school to keep in mind. I definitely want to do something with Liberal Arts, but that's such a broad category. I could do Graphic Design, Journalism, Fashion distribution etc. But I'm also a secret history fanatic, so I have a lot of options to chose from. I don't play sports, sing, do any clubs at school (they're lame at my school) and I don't dance, so I feel dissappointing in some ways. I want to go to college and not come back unti l Ihave a good degree and a successful career in hand. I don't want to be an average person who works at USAA all my life, then realize in fifty years that I wasted my time. Nicely done

Movie Questions Kayanna - In the airport, did the officers search him because he was distracted or because he was of a different race? Why was Khan's brother against the marriage even though they were raised by an accepting mother? Aristeo - What you think Khan really wants to tell the president of the USA? Why do you think the other muslims did not pray with Rizvan on the bus? Aubrey - Why do they presume that Khan is a terriorist? Why did Khan give $500 to a different religion(christian only event)? Augusta - Why does he have such a hard time talking to people? Why are people so amazed by the way Khan prays? Ivy - Why does he want to fly all the way to DC to tell the president that he was not a terrorist? Why was Mandira mad at her sister-in-law? Julianna - How does autism affect someone's ability to communicate? Why was Khan willing to go through so much pain/struggle to tell the president that he was a not a terroist? Why was Mandira so mad at Khan after the killing and why does she leave him? Josh - What is he playing with in the airport? Will khan be with his wife Mandira again? Jonah - Why does Khan want to meet the president? What happens to the kids who killed Sam? Alyssa - Why didn't Reese tell the cops about who killed Sam? Sydney - Will Reeses ever tell the truth and regret?