tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664016606253490042024-03-13T12:17:41.492-07:00More Nerve Than SenseAlyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.comBlogger62125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-74703988419185914362015-06-13T10:00:00.001-07:002015-06-13T10:00:54.926-07:00In Defense of Rachel DolezalRachel Dolezal is the media's latest tabloid pretending to be real news extravaganza. What has been missed in all the hoopla by seemingly most if not all who have written about this story, is the hypocrisy.<br />
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First, race is a social construct. Now that we have that out of the way, let's get to the hypocrisy. Days ago, Vanity Fair released the cover photo of Caitlyn formerly Bruce Jenner and most proclaimed it a joyous event and an iconic representation of how far the country has come with the acceptance of not only transgendered people, but of people choosing to live their lives on their terms. Then the story of Rachel Dolezal breaks. She is the president of the Spokane, WA chapter of the NAACP. Her story is news because she has been living and/or representing herself as a black woman, but her parents claim she is in fact white.<br />
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One would think in this newly crowned progressive and accepting society, that it would not be an issue. If Bruce Jenner's truth is that he is a woman and now wants to live his outside life the way he has always felt inside, then why can't the same be true of Rachel Dolezal? Perhaps she identifies more strongly with black culture. What is wrong with that? If we are to truly accept people who are living their lives authentically, that should not end with race. There are allegedly other issues at play here, like whether Dolezal falsified hate crime claims. That should be the focus of the articles about her, not necessarily claims of race. I say not necessarily because we don't know the full story. This race claim may be an elaborate scheme, but until we know that, the story shouldn't be that she can't or shouldn't live her life as a black woman especially if we are truly accepting and Bruce Jenner can now live his/her life as a woman.Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-34491777972855001872014-06-09T13:57:00.000-07:002014-06-09T13:57:20.911-07:00Aspen Dental or Teeth into DebtRemember that saying, "If it is too good to be true it probably is", ? Well, it is still holding true. Some scams like the Nigerian emails are easy to spot and ideally, there would be better economics and finance education along with fair lending standards to render title loan businesses unnecessary and non-existent. Unfortunately, that is not the case.<br />
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When I saw the <i>Coming Soon</i> sign for <i>Aspen Dental</i> in my area, I thought it odd because of the high concentration of dental offices in the area. Instinctively, I thought, something is awry here, but I surrendered that thought to hope. I hoped that this would be for people of low incomes seeking dental care, what retail clinics are bringing to the basic medical care of those with low incomes--options and access. My hope was heightened after the building was complete and I began to see advertisements indicating Aspen provides affordable dental care for the uninsured and under-insured. This is fantastic, I thought. The free market at work. The needs of the people being meeting wealth generation sans predatory practice. Retail clinics have proved profitability is possible offering a needed service without fleecing the poor. Although <a href="http://www.jabfm.org/content/23/1/42.full" target="_blank">research shows</a> that most retail clinics are in areas of higher socio-economic status and fewer are in areas with health professional shortages, there has been little indication that the clinics have been used as fish farms for up-selling or incorrect diagnoses to generate additional income. There has been some concern related to unnecessary prescriptions being written and filled at the owning pharmacy. However, there have not been extensive studies to track and analyze the data. Thus, it was fair for me to have hopeful expectations of Aspen Dental and the other corporate dental facilities cropping up around the country. Silly me.<br />
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What I had compartmentalized, was what the dental industry had become in recent decades. The industry in and of itself had become an amalgam (pun intended) of upselling of cosmetic procedures and over-treatment. There is nothing inherently wrong with offering additional cosmetic services so long as the procedures are truly billed as such. Yet, in some cases, that wasn't what was happening. Healthy teeth are being drilled and filled. Teeth could be saved with basic dental procedures, yet the dental industry was promoting more expensive procedures that in extreme situations wouldn't be cosmetic, but in situations where there are options for saving a tooth versus extraction and replacement with an implant, an implant would be the "cosmetic" and or more expensive and thus more profitable for the practitioner option. Just take a look at some of the reports <a href="http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/article/100963/Revealing-How-Dentists-Profit-By-Abusing-Children.aspx" target="_blank">here</a>. It is a real tragedy. The professionals with the knowledge and skills you should be able to trust are taking advantage of their patients.<br />
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Would Aspen Dental be the same? So far, it appears that the answer to that question is yes. While being marketed as affordable dental care, a <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/health-science-technology/dollars-and-dentists/patients-pressure-and-profits-at-aspen-dental/" target="_blank">Frontline investigation </a>found several occurrences of low-income patients walking into offices for fillings or extractions and walking out with debt in the thousands for dentures that they didn't need. The investigation also found high pressure tactics being taught to office managers and care providers to be used on patients to meet billing quotas and revenue targets. What is really horrific is that along with treatment descriptions, patients are too frequently given credit applications to cover the cost of the expensive and unnecessary treatments. In effect, Aspen Dental is the pawn shop or title loan store for dental care. Patients who could be treated with inexpensive procedures are upsold expensive procedures and debt. Aspen Dental and its in house creditors win. Patients lose more than their teeth. They lose much needed money for years to come.<br />
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In situations like this, we can't and shouldn't rely upon government regulations to save our poor from this debt trap and tooth demon. We must educate all of our citizens on the dangers of predatory lending even in medical and dental care. We must also seek ethical practitioners and seek more information on their ethical and affordable payment plans for necessary treatment. What is happening in the dental industry, shouldn't be happening.<br />
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If you or someone you know as been a victim of Aspen Dental or any other corporate dental practice's unnecessary and unscrupulous treatment, contact your local Better Business Bureau at www.bbb.org so at the very least we can improve awareness of this issue. Your state consumer protection agency may also be able to help. The best help in these cases is prevention. Take care of your teeth and when problems arise, don't be misled by unethical practices. Search for reviews and recommendations from people you know and trust. Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-19832855622674505572014-04-23T07:27:00.002-07:002014-04-23T07:30:39.890-07:00Stripping, the Sex Trafficking GatewayJada Pinkett Smith is in Atlanta shooting her CNN documentary on sex trafficking. During shooting, she had an epiphany that she shared on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152439160046320" target="_blank">a CNN vlog</a>. In her video, she shares what she has learned from interviewing women who are part of the sex trafficking industry. One of the women reveals that her entry into the industry started with her choosing to become a stripper. She began selling sexual favors intermittently and it has now become her life.<br />
The woman began stripping with excitement, as a means of being one of those women who is aggrandized in hip hop culture, music, and now apparently contemporary culture. Hearing this, Jada and now I, realize the generational disparity. Like Jada, I was always told and my generational culture reinforced that stripping was for women from the bottom (Yes, this is the language/word used in my household). Stripping or so called erotic dancing was degrading and for women of lower or no class. That's it and that's all. There was nothing praiseworthy or respectable about this profession regardless of the amount of money earned or celebrity bedded.<br />
What changed? When? Looking back, I now see the genesis of the cultural shift. Movies like <i>The Players Club</i>, which was released in 1998, ushered a more sympathetic view of stripping and became a cult classic in the process. In that movie, the main character, Diana, played by LisaRaye, is lured into stripping as a means of making more money she was making in retail to care for her child. Diana meets and begins dating a disc jokey (played by Jamie Foxx) and later leaves stripping becoming a reporter. Henceforth, stripping was idealized--becoming the contemporary fairytale, a stepping stone to a better life. I loathed the movie from the beginning and have yet to understand its appeal. <i>The Players Club </i>was not the only movie to depict stripping as a means to an end during that period. There was <i>Striptease</i> starring Demi Moore and <i>Showgirls </i>which was released in 1995. These kinds of movies combined with the seemingly innocuous films like <i>Pretty Woman</i> change the perspective of stripping and prostitution to near fairytale status. Film was not the only industry to exalt stripping. The music industry has been the most significant influence of making stripping an appealing profession to young women who would have otherwise viewed it as a degrading profession. Insert almost any contemporary hip hop or rap song and any of several R & B songs and you'll hear at least one reference to the wonderful world of stripping. Women themselves have also joined the stripper glorification game with songs like Rihanna's <i>Pour It Up</i>. <br />
So what is the issue with stripping? Well, you take this pervasive cultural sanitation of a previously ignored and stigmatized profession and combine it with an industry that feeds upon these kinds of lax attitudes towards selling the simulation of sex (because truth be told, that is what stripping is) and selling sex and you have cornucopia of targets for the sex trafficking industry. Young women now view stripping as a job no different than being a hairstylist. I recently spoke with a stripper who told me she was "actually a real trained dancer." Stripping is a means to an end and not just any end nowadays. It is an avenue to become a video vixen who later becomes a reality television star and then an entrepreneur. It is a means to hundreds of thousands of YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook followers. In many a young girl's minds, it ends in fame and fortune, only that is far from how it ends for the majority of young women in the industry. Too often it ends in prostitution or sex trafficking.<br />
It is a gateway profession which brings me back to Jada's epiphany. She says that it is her age that has distorted her understanding of this. Hearing this, I realize that I was on the cusp of this generational gap. I came of age or into womanhood during the period when entertainment first began to aggrandize stripping and had friends who didn't really think stripping was bad by any means. While others of us saw it as just an avenue to drug abuse and/or prostitution. Fast forward 15 years and more and more young girls and women see stripping as a means to meet and procreate with or marry a celebrity or to become a celebrity in their own right.<br />
We must do better.Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-16288523653924156102013-05-11T05:26:00.002-07:002013-05-11T05:26:58.138-07:00Trust & BetrayalAn acquaintance and I recently had a conversation about trust in relationships. He has always been of the mindset that once trust is broken or betrayal is established, the relationship is irreparable. I disagree.<br />
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We both have arrived at our views from our individual experiences. He grew up in a household where there was not trust and betrayal was constant. The people who were supposed to care for him, did so intermittently and when care was present, it was only moderately so. I grew up in a different kind of household in which care was constant and trust was rarely breached; it it was it was not intentional. Thus, his life experiences tell him that if someone fails you once at any level whether intentionally or unintentionally, they can't be trusted. My life experiences tell me something entirely different--that people who love you are fallible, but mostly trustworthy. When they fail, because the mutual love, respect, and overall history of having proven to be trustworthy, they can earn forgiveness and regain trust.<br />
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I think this is especially true in intimate relationships. There have been two experiences in particular that have most influenced my beliefs on trust and betrayal. The first and earliest came from my grandparents divorce. As a young child I had not known that they had divorced because today they are buried together and when my grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer's it was my grandmother who cared for him until his death. Many years later, when I was a young adult, my mother told me that they had in fact divorced when she was a young child. My grandfather filed and my grandmother felt deeply betrayed at the time telling him that if he did it that was it; she would be done with him. In time, they mended their relationship and when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, she did not hesitate to take him in and care for him although she had previously declared that she would have nothing to do with him after the divorce.<br />
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The second experience is that of a very close friend. She and her husband were unfaithful to each other. Upon the discovery of each others infidelity, they were headed for divorce. Instead, they attended therapy for many months and remain married. I've known both of them since the beginning of their courtship and their marriage is much more solid than before the betrayal.<br />
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I will say that it takes mutual respect and understanding and most important a mutual desire to rebuild trust and work for it.<br />
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I think the difference between my acquaintance and me is that I view trust as a living component of all relationships that varies in strength at different times. He views it as an all or nothing. I choose the belief with more optimism. <br />
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<br />Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-19441083187952662552012-09-18T16:13:00.000-07:002012-09-18T16:37:11.883-07:00This Ain't Steve Jobs' iPhone 5I'll be the first to admit that I was not an early adopter of the iPhone. I didn't adopt a device until 2009 when I bought a second hand 3G handset. After a couple of weeks of a learning curve (I'd been using a Samsung Blackjack which had buttons--as I'm typing, I'm thinking how old that reads.), I really began to like my device. Okay, I'll admit it, I loved it. It was everything I wanted and needed in a smart phone, but didn't know. Since then, I've obtained and still have a 3GS and an iPad 2. I'm fond of my Mac devices, but am no fangirl.<br />
The release of the iPhone 5 has left me not only underwhelmed, but dismayed by Apple's departure from the legacy of its late leader, Steve Jobs. This brings me back to the genesis of this entry. There is an adage, <i>"You can't miss what you never had"</i>, well some where, some how, Steve Jobs discovered the weakness in this adage and exploited it in every iteration of the iPhone he oversaw. He proved to the world, particularly late adopters like me, that you can miss what you never had. Now we have the latest version of the iPhone--the first to be released postmortem and it is as clear as the touchscreen glass of the device and yet so simple a concept that its subtlety is indeed too complex for everyone other than the most attuned visionary to grasp--the iPhone became the iPhone, because it delivered what we needed, not what we wanted. It has been intuitive by capitalizing on the best jailbreak features and integrating those into an interface that reacts like involuntary muscles. The iPhone 5 still does all of this, but nothing more; and that's the problem. Without the notoriously harsh leadership of Jobs, Apple didn't push the limits, didn't reset the boundaries. Instead, Apple did what HTC has done, given consumers what they wanted--a larger screen and a faster processor. Meh. With Tom Tom, Apple has rid its devices of Google Maps, and that's good, but it isn't great.<br />
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Perhaps my expectations were too high, but if that is so, Apple set them there. I just wanted, after two years, to be wowed. I hoped for that new thing that I had a feeling I needed in a smartphone, but couldn't articulate. The ability to lock particular folders or applications (a jailbreak feature I love), the ability to text without entering the application, perhaps the ability to take a quicker photo from a locked device. I don't know--something I hadn't thought of because my mind isn't yet that free. I'll keep jailbreaking because this ain't Steve Jobs' iPhone. Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-38176432302159123142010-11-08T19:05:00.000-08:002010-11-08T19:25:12.327-08:00Bobby TillmanToday, the friends and family of 18 year old Bobby Tillman are grieving over his senseless and tragic death. I too share in the grief and can't imagine what his mother must be enduring. The <a href="http://www.ajc.com/news/witnesses-describe-fatal-beating-729168.html?cxtype=rss_business_87628">AJC reports</a> that Bobby Tillman, who had just graduated from high school, coached youth basketball and planned a career in sports management. He reminds me a great deal of my brother and his photographs and physical similarities suggest we could have most certainly shared kinship. Fair skin, small frame, gray eyes. This young man was simply engaging in an activity common among those his age. He was not at a club, he went to a house party and there in the drive-way of the home, he lost his life to a bunch of hoodlums who don't deserve to share oxygen with the rest of us.<br />What possessed these punks to beat another human being? What justification is there for such brutality? Why did none of the nearly 60 onlookers intervene? What kind of parents must the other boys have for their children to be so disconnected from the value of life?<br /><br />I am deeply troubled by this incident. I like to think that most people would act with integrity and stare evil in the eyes with courage and the vow to defeat it. Those boys are evil and yet it seems no one intervened. In PSYCH 310, we learned about a similar case, the case of <a href="http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/2009/08/02/a-fascinating-intersection-of-true-crime-psychology-and-media-misinformation/">Kitty Genovese which resulted in much research and reporting of The Bystander Effect</a>. Of three dozen witnesses to her murder, no one intervened. In psychology, this occurs due to a transference of responsibility--the idea that someone else will intervene, someone else will act with courage and integrity. What if Malcolm, Frederick Douglas, Thomas Jefferson, and others waited or depended upon someone else to do what was necessary to defeat evil?<br /><br />In the words of Edmund Burke, "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." Sunday morning, evil triumphed and a mother is burying her son.Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-77122149669508760932010-08-27T20:08:00.000-07:002010-09-27T17:37:06.689-07:00Taking Offense...<p class="ecxMsoNormal">I find it really ironic, no actually, I find it a marvelous demonstration of hypocrisy for those who proclaim love of the Constitution and decry excessive government involvement to take such grave offense to the construction of an Islamic Cultural Center and Mosque <b style="">near</b> Ground Zero. Mike Luckovich, editorial cartoonist for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, has provided wonderful perspective on this issue in both his <a href="http://blogs.ajc.com/mike-luckovich/2010/08/17/818-cartoon-mike-luckovich-on-mosque-controversy/" target="_blank">8/18 illustration</a> and his <a href="http://projects.ajc.com/gallery/view/opinion/luckovichaug10/" target="_blank">8/13</a> one.<span style=""> </span>This pseudo hysteria is both sad and alarming. It demonstrates the lack of integrity and rational thinking that is now pervasive within American culture. Of course a minority group within the opponents of the structure continues to say this is not about the center’s legal right to be there, but rather is about the offense of it. Yet, we all know their goal is to have their offense reign supreme and result in construction plans being canceled. In the US, we enjoy significant freedoms because we perpetually pay a tremendous personal price of respecting the freedom of others even when we find their exercise of said right an egregious offense. </p> <p class="ecxMsoNormal">In his <a href="http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/19/mosque-ground-zero-religion-opinions-columnists-warren-meyer_2.html#readerComments" target="_blank">8/19/10 Forbes editorial</a>, Warren Meyer writes a wonderfully objective article about the issue. I concur with him and admire his integrity. This is less about offense and more about those offended respecting both their freedom and the freedom of those by whom they allege to be offended. I am deeply offended by the sagging pants that adorn the male youth of today. I am even more offended by poor grammar, particularly by the incorrect use of reflexive pronouns, an error President Obama has committed. Yet, I would not protest outside of the White House that he should no longer be allowed to speak or that he be levied a fine. Nor would I petition state legislatures to bring forth legislation making such an offense a misdemeanor. First, it is an assault on the very freedom that I am exercising by declaring my offense.<span style=""> </span>Second, it is an enormous waste of time and energy when we certainly have bigger fish to fry. The irony in it all is that the very people who want the offense to their sensibilities addressed are some of the very people who say blacks are too easily offended by matters of race. Pot is that you? It is I, Kettle!</p>Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-62710358988185091872010-07-23T15:39:00.000-07:002010-07-23T15:40:35.967-07:00Apple Fanboys<p class="ecxMsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Apple Fanboys are the most annoying group of droids (pun intended) since <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/jonestown/" target="_blank">Jonestown</a>. They take any and every criticism of Apple and their <i style="">dear leader</i>, Kim Jong-il—eh em, Steve Jobs. Apple fanboys are rabid in their response to any and all criticisms of Apple products. It is utterly impossible for one of them to accept any fault in the business practices, much less the products marketed and designed by Apple (I won’t even get into the <a href="http://labornotes.org/blogs/2010/06/suicides-apple-factory-china-rock-sweatshop-supply-system" target="_blank">suicides</a> at the manufacturing factory where the products are made). </span></p> <p class="ecxMsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">First, Apple designs some great products that are visually appealing and enable the creatively inclined to bring wonders to life much more easily than a MS operating system ever has. With that said, everyone makes mistakes, just as Toyota. I have an IPhone 3G and it works well. I experience dropped calls in two areas on the same street each and every time I drive through there, but I know this is an issue with AT&T. I do not own an IPhone 4, but I’ve followed the issues with the antenna design. From the anecdotal responses by fanboys to these stories, one would believe these incidents are only isolated to four or five people even though Apple acknowledges otherwise. </span></p> <p class="ecxMsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">I do not begrudge those who have chosen to purchase the IPhone 4 in spite of the apparent flaws with the antennae. It is a great product otherwise. I find it really sad and disappointing that Apple and its fanboys are unwilling to accept criticism and instead act like ungrateful adolescents. The truth is, it was insulting to tell customers they are <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/24/apple-responds-over-iphone-4-reception-issues-youre-holding-th/" target="_blank">holding the phone wrong</a>; it was juvenile to later acknowledge problems only to <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-07-19/news/ct-talk-iphone-antenna-motorola-0720-20100719_1_iphone-rival-phones-smart-phones" target="_blank">point the finger</a> at other smartphone makers; it is absolutely inane for fanboys to support Apple’s tacit stance of return the product for “<a href="http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/20/apple-iphone-personal-finance-stock-buying-opportunity.html?partner=mostcommented" target="_blank">more deserving</a>” consumers—as one fanboy so eloquently commented on Forbes. <span style=""> </span>This is an issue of operating a business with integrity which involves apologies when something—albeit beyond the control of the company—goes wrong. Apple has essentially said some people are too stupid and gullible to own or use its products. The company is right; its fanboys are too gullible to be critical and walk away if necessary from a product while perhaps not inferior by market standards, is inferior by the standards the company itself has set. </span></p> <p class="ecxMsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">If I visit my favorite five star restaurant and during this visit receive sea bass that is less than perfection and even worse, over-cooked, I would be appalled if the owner responds to my concern with “I ate the fish wrong.” Further, such a response would make me wonder if the five star reputation is well earned. For fanboys to defend such uncouth behavior is disconcerting to say the least. It is setting the stage for Apple to become the next Microsoft—heaping inferior products onto the market simply because idiot consumers don’t know they hold the power in a capitalist economy.</span></p> <p class="ecxMsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Apple demonstrates American arrogance and hypocrisy--unwilling to be criticized because of prior triumphs in excellence and unfortunately taking on the persona of those whom they previously criticized and defeated for acts of tyranny. When Toyota was the center of media attention for alleged sticking accelerators, the company president was contrite and pledged to resolve the issue the issue following an investigation. It is apparently a cultural thing, and this is one <b style="">cult</b>ure that has no shame.</span></p> <p class="ecxMsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">A smart<b style="">phone</b> that doesn’t work well as a <b style="">phone</b> isn’t very smart.</span></p>Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-73448682953070551882010-07-23T15:36:00.000-07:002010-07-23T15:37:07.146-07:00A Moment of Silence<p class="ecxMsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">This entire Shirley Sherrod snafu demonstrates live and in living color how true my grandfather’s words were: “The less you say, the less you have to take back.” Now this is applicable to all parties involved, but is most applicable to President Obama. If I could only get this man to close his mouth. I so tire of seeing his or Press Secretary Gibbs daily press conferences. I don’t need to see you to know that you are doing your job. Whatever happened to no comment? President Obama could certainly learn from his predecessor in answering only what he deems necessary and nothing else. By responding to any and everyone’s criticisms, he is rendering himself not only unlikeable, but also impotent. </span></p> <p class="ecxMsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">For the three of you who may be unfamiliar with this situation, an edited You Tube video (that’s right, everyone knows how credible You Tube is) suggested that former USDA official, Shirley Sherrod, discriminated against a white farmer. Ms. Sherrod defended herself against the video and claims of pundit, Bill O’Reilly and it was later revealed, along with the rest of the video, that she was sharing an experience that taught her the value of integrity. Within the video going “viral” and the truth of the matter, Ms. Sherrod was forced to resign, allegedly at the request of the White House. </span></p> <p class="ecxMsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The irony in all of this is that Bill O’Reilly, who was the first person to publicly scold Ms. Sherrod and call for her termination, has remained relatively unscathed though he is just as culpable in this hoopla as is the president. Nevertheless, I find error in the fact that President Obama has even dignified any of this insanity with a response. Why he insists upon responding to attacks and fake outrage is beyond me. The nation remains as polarized as it was in 1996. Attempting to appease both sides only adds rocket fuel laced with hydrogen to the fire. Mr. President, please for the sake of all of us who simply want to <i style="">keep it moving</i>, be quiet. </span></p>Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-88844877629124719122010-07-13T16:54:00.000-07:002010-07-13T17:36:42.303-07:00King James The AbolitionistMuch has been said about Lebron James' decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat. The media would like to make more of the way in which his decision was broadcast a much larger issue than it really is. Even the NBA commissioner David Stern has called Lebron James' "The Decision", "<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/13/sportsline/main6673969.shtml?tag=cbsnewsSectionContent.14">ill conceived</a>."<br /><br />I for one (of millions) find Jesse Jackson unnerving, opportunistic, and a supercilious, obnoxious, idiot; but am inclined, much to my surprise, to agree with him on Dan Gilbert's response to Lebron James' departure. This is, in fact, no different than Katie Couric leaving the Today Show or Meredith Viera leaving the View. However, in culture, in the understood relationship of athlete and team owner, it is very different. Lebron has usurped control from Dan Gilbert and David Stern. He has stepped forward as a man and stood for his freedom and Dan Gilbert responded like a slave master or perhaps a jilted lover. Hell hath no fury and the hunt knows no better hunter than a slave owner scorned.<br /><br />Upon reading the initial response of David Stern, I was at first hopeful because he iterated that Mr. James had fulfilled his contractual obligations. As I continued to read, Stern also demonstrated slave master mentality or at the very least hypocrisy in saying that Mr. James' broadcast of "<a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5360533">The Decision</a>" was ill conceived. So in essence, he is saying that this man, making a manly decision and making some of the money, to donate to the Boys & Girls Club no less, that would have otherwise been retained by ESPN and the NBA solely, was ill conceived. What hypocrisy! Each year, David Stern, and the NBA broadcasts their decisions of whom to draft to what team. How is this any different? Other than it being the slave, eh em, player taking control of the situation and assuming the role of the NBA, there is none.<br /><br />I applaud Mr. James, that is right, Mr. James for such a business minded and philanthropic move. It was courageous and very respectable. Other players are more content to be pawns and mockeries than to step forward as men. Mr. James decided he would no longer be just Lebron or the so-called "self-proclaimed king." He demonstrated that he has truly earned that name and commanded respect obviously not truly bestowed upon him by Dan Gilbert (a man who has made his fortune <a href="https://www.quickenloans.com/about/press-room/quicken-loans-buys-back-from-intuit">through sub-prime lending as owner of Quicken Loans</a>). Get over yourself Dan Gilbert, there are still plenty of other slaves on your plantation and many more who would jump at the opportunity to be one of your slaves. Mr. James chooses greener pastures and perhaps he'll be allowed in the house this time.Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-46201493907669628132010-04-28T17:03:00.000-07:002010-04-28T17:56:47.434-07:00Arizona Immigration Law SB 1070Goldman Sachs is the target of Congressional hearings for its alleged role in the financial meltdown of 2008, the TEA Party demanding reduced spending and smaller government--and Arizona has stolen the thunder from all with its new immigration legislation--<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/us/politics/24immig.html">SB 1070</a>. Just as this bill was being signed into law, I was watching an episode of <a href="http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/30days/">30 Days</a> in which a <a href="http://www.minutemanhq.com/">Minuteman</a> spent 30 days living with an illegal immigrant family of seven.<br /><br />In the episode, the minuteman, a Cuban immigrant himself, visited the Mexican hometown of the family--in all its abject poverty. It truly was a sad situation. Yet there are millions of other sad and sadder situations throughout the world. My daughter, who is extremely compassionate, expressed her deepest sympathy and support of the family taking the trek to and living within the borders of the US illegally. She asked me what I thought about it. I explained to her that while I am certainly sympathetic to the plight of that family and others in situations like that, I do not condone their presence here illegally. I explained that there are legal means of immigrating here. Moreover, there are thousands of people <em>in line</em> who have gone through the proper channels. She still insisted that what they had done was okay. I love and admire her for such independence of thought.<br /><br />I provided my daughter with this analogy. What that family has done is essentially walked into the home of someone else as a stowaway so to speak. I asked my daughter if it would be okay for us to go into the basement of a home in Buckhead and live there in secrecy below the family that owns or has rightful claim to that home because we found this home to be better than ours. If we were to do that, I explained, the family owning that home could and in all likelihood would have us arrested and removed. As they should. There are homes and neighborhoods all across metro Atlanta that I would love to call mine. Some that might offer much better schools and opportunities than my current place of residence. Nonetheless, I am choosing the legal means of living there. If illegal immigrants are granted amnesty, what of all those who are going through the legal process of citizenship? What are we really encouraging here? Are drug dealers excused of their crimes simply because they are looking for a better life for their family?<br /><br />If they are given citizenship after illegally coming and residing here, I'm on my way to Buckhead to claim my house and I'll request amnesty. Sure, it may be a private property, but let's go all out.Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-7434251511428117292010-03-24T16:14:00.000-07:002010-03-24T16:17:09.442-07:00The Problem Without the Public OptionTo understand why so many were fervently against the removal of the now notorious public option, hindsight is the best teacher. The worst part of the new health care legislation is its mandate to purchase insurance or face financial penalty. Insurance mandates in and of themselves are nothing new. States mandate at a minimum liability insurance on vehicles because the use of vehicles carries inherent risk. Homeowners’ insurance is also mandated, again because of the inherent risk—not necessarily for the owner/occupants, but for the mortgage holders and in some ways communities. From a public health perspective, which should really be the primary perspective in controlling and reducing health care costs, risk protection strategies and mandates are necessary and long overdue in the US.<br />When someone without insurance exhibits risky behavior through poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, reckless motorcycle use, or heck let’s face it just living within our crime ridden nation, and they visit the emergency room instead of seeking care from a primary or urgent care facility, the public pays dearly. The <a href="http://www.kff.org/" target="_blank">government already pays the tab</a> on 42% of health care costs, <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/24/politics/main6328357.shtml?tag=latest" target="_blank">anticipated to reach 50%</a> within a year without reform. So something had to be done. In the US we practice curative care or care after the fact of disease or chronic condition onset. Other nations with healthy universal coverage systems devote more resources to preventive care and <a href="http://www.cfr.org/publication/13325/" target="_blank">spend a smaller percentage</a> of their national budgets on health care. Because we invest very little and have no comprehensive or organized system to incentivize preventive care, we pay the cost in much more expensive curative care.<br />The public option as part of the current legislation would have worked to curb costs in the long run more effectively than the legislation that passed because it would have modeled successful systems in other nations which provide public universal coverage with options to purchase additional private insurance for perks like private rooms (in the US we don’t like being told to share, we believe that passive sharing through checkbooks is enough). With the public option, the insurance mandates would not have been the burden that they are likely to become. However, the insurance industry flexed some muscle and in this capitalist economy cried “unfair”. Well, life isn’t fair, but opportunity should be equal. Capitalism in the US requires entities to compete among both public and private. The <a href="http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/reprint/13/4/22.pdf" target="_blank">Germans</a> manage a successful universal system with a much older population and are much happier than with it, spending quite a bit less than we do. Of course the propaganda machines rarely if ever mention Germany or Japan; only Canada and the UK are mentioned usually with only anecdotal references.<br />To understand this, one must examine cultural differences, a lengthy examination no doubt, but the nuts and bolts of it are that the US is a staunchly individualistic society that prides itself on individual achievements over collective ones intra-nationally. Collective achievements are only lauded internationally. Is the reform an expensive endeavor? Yes. The debt was already on pace to be catastrophic and would have cut into defense and capital projects budgets without reform sooner than it will now. The insurance mandate without the public option is a bad idea, but with our pay per procedure (capitalist) medical system, we will be paying through our you know whats anyway. Rationing already occurs in the fact that those with less money and little to no insurance do not receive the same level of care as those with good insurance and/or money. Moreover, the public option along with mandates or incentives to reduce or eliminate the practice of pay per procedure, would effectively reduce costs in the long run.Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-68656040513558502982010-03-24T16:10:00.000-07:002010-03-24T16:12:59.449-07:00Health Care Reform 2010It has taken me some time to compose a coherent response to the passage of the Health Care Reform Bill, not because I oppose it, because I’m befuddled at and ashamed of the behavior of its detractors. The similarities between the current response and the responses of a significant number of citizens and legislators from the period of Reconstruction through and even after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 are disconcerting if not frightening. Before some of you decry “race card”, please continue to read. It was Rush Limbaugh who first publicly coined the bill as the “new Civil Rights Bill” and “reparations” and thanks to his and his comrades’ spewing of such propaganda, the public is responding accordingly. Dr. King, Presidents Kennedy, and Johnson were accused of communism and socialism just as President Obama, Senators Pelosi, and Reid are today. This is not coincidental for it foments the creation of the most powerful barrier to thinking and change: fear.<br />Today, there is certainly an element of race involved as minorities, particularly those of African descent are often associated with poverty and consequently welfare. Because this bill is an entitlement policy, deemed by those on the right as wealth redistribution (a nice way of saying the government is playing Robin Hood—robbing the rich to give to the poor. This does not mention how the impoverished are often robbed of opportunities and disenfranchised by policies designed to assist the wealthy in maintaining most of their wealth through tax shelters and off shore accounts, but I digress). I am not saying that the wealthy are exclusively greedy and undeserving, nor am I saying the poor are exclusively downtrodden and deserving. I am only stating the obvious which is that separate and unequal still exists and it is a matter of class and not simply race. However, separate and unequal is a fundamental component within capitalism. It must be. There can be no pursuit and attainment of wealth and the upper echelons of society without there being lower and middle classes. If all was equal, there would be nothing for which to strive. Again, I digress.<br />Since when did it become appropriate to spit at legislators or anyone for that matter because you disagree with their politics? Scream xenophobic epithets at them? Accuse them of treason? The law has been followed even with the strong arm tactics employed. Many want to make an issue of the division 219 to 212. This is still a majority, albeit a slim one, similar in fact to the slim majority that elected Bush in 2000. Democrats were incensed, particularly following a Supreme Court ruling which solidified the Electoral College’s decision. Nonetheless, the law was followed and the judicial branch, as it is designed to do, ruled on the legality of the decision. Such is the case here. The law has been followed. The bill has been passed by a slim margin. President Bush was elected by a slim margin. The best thing the country can do is get over both decisions and make the best of them.<br />I do not agree with everything in the bill, particularly mandatory purchase of insurance without a public option (which is the “backroom deal” everyone should be angry about—a topic for a later blog). There are always going to be obstacles to progression. After reconstruction, many states passed Jim Crow Laws to obstruct the 14th and 15th Amendments effectively nullifying the 13th Amendment all the while proclaiming the supremacy of states’ rights. Citizens spat on and protested the Little Rock Nine—black school children who were simply following federal law desegregating schools. The people angry about the Health Care Reform Bill are acting the same. It is truly a shame. This is exactly the level of anarchy the republicans seem to have desired for if it were not, they would have actively participated in the design and composition of the bill instead of the hatemongering they exhibited. LBJ and Senator <a href="http://www.lib.niu.edu/1996/iht319648.html" target="_blank">Dirksen</a> (ironically from IL) had to strong arm Congress to pass the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 with a vote of 290 to 130. Does this mean that since 130 (44.8%) voted against the bill, that it should be repealed? Some of the pundits today would have you believe so. This is not a popularity contest. Lincoln made an unpopular move to sign the Emancipation Proclamation; Kennedy, Johnson, and Dirksen made similar moves and usurped states’ rights and even some private rights to provide equality for all citizens.Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-66441397816846755892010-03-02T14:24:00.000-08:002010-03-02T14:29:31.456-08:00NCLB Striving to be Average<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">No Child Left Behind is really a misnomer. The federal initiative is perhaps more appropriately termed, Every Child Average, Set the Bar Lower, or Teach to the Test and Forget Substantive Learning—the latter was probably too long and not catchy enough.</p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "> </p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">I’m not too far removed from grade school education; I graduated from high school in the late 90s. When I was in elementary, there were two required tests: The California Achievement Test (yes, I know, who would want to live up to CA’s less than lofty standards?) and the Stanford Achievement Test. Today, we have state developed/approved and state specific tests. <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/schools/etc/guide.html" target="_blank" style="font-weight: inherit; text-decoration: underline; color: blue; cursor: pointer; ">PBS</a> provides great descriptions of how these state tests are different from achievement tests. At the rudimentary level—which let’s face it, is the most important—achievement tests measure content knowledge; criterion referencing tests (i.e. NCLB state tests) measure students against state set benchmarks or acceptable ranges. In other words, achievement tests measure how well or poorly students are learning or mastering concepts; criterion referencing tests simply make sure that children are at least average or on par with state minimum standards. Understanding these fundamental differences provides insight as to how and why instructors have abandoned teaching concepts which are applicable across a broad range of subjects and life for teaching test taking 101.</p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "> </p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">I am neither staunchly for nor against standardized tests. What I am against are benchmark tests which are means of testing only for the sake of testing. I am averse to multiple choice and true/false tests as they are lazy means of measurement, but I understand the need for them especially in an effort to glean insight. These tests should not be used as the primary means of making determinations of admission or advancement, nonetheless. Further, <a href="http://counselingoutfitters.com/vistas/vistas09/Bailey_social.doc" target="_blank" style="font-weight: inherit; text-decoration: underline; color: blue; cursor: pointer; ">studies</a> have demonstrated that gifted children have difficulty with multiple choice tests because of their ability to make connections to broader concepts and inability to diminish concepts to the smaller framework/parameters allowed in multiple choice.</p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "> </p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">I recall one of my best and hardest working teachers deplored the use of multiple choice—Mrs. Barksdale. For our weekly vocabulary tests, we were required to write the meaning of each word or if given the meaning, provide the word—no multiple choice. Her goal was mastery, the enhancement of vocabulary and ultimately our knowledge. This should be our collective strife, mastery of concepts, not a race of whom can be the best of the worst.</p></span>Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-57631922209582398942010-03-02T14:21:00.000-08:002010-03-02T14:32:45.027-08:00Backwards Georgia<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family:'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">To be clear, I am not a native Georgian. This is certainly evident by my regular use of sentences with subject verb agreement, my use of the helping verb “have” with its appropriate main verb to make the perfect tense, and my lack of Appalachian twang. Until last night, I thought Georgians' lack of command of the English language was due to some genetic predisposition or the mountain air.</p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><br /></p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">I have children in grade school who are required by the State of Georgia to complete the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT) annually. Allegedly, this grade specific test is used to assess students’ grasp of standardized curricula and the quality of Georgia education. Well Georgia, you deserve a D-. From October through April, each teacher in Georgia, instead of teaching fundamental concepts (which I thought was the purpose of educational institutions), teach methods of getting <i style="font-style: italic; ">passing</i> scores on the CRCT because school funding and teacher assignment may be significantly based upon the results. So each week, my children receive worksheets designed with questions which are likely to be on the CRCT. Imagine my sheer disappointment and outright anger when one of my children’s worksheet packets had five egregious errors. These were not printing errors, rather grammatical errors. Might one please explain to me how an instructional device is fundamentally flawed in its purpose and execution—comprised of errors pertaining to the very concepts and topics of instruction? Here are the egregious errors:</p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "> </p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">EX 1</p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">That is the funniest movie I ever ______.</p><p class="ecxMsoListParagraph" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; font-family:Calibri, sans-serif;font-size:11pt;"><span>A.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span>saw</p><p class="ecxMsoListParagraph" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; font-family:Calibri, sans-serif;font-size:11pt;"><span>B.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span>seed</p><p class="ecxMsoListParagraph" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; font-family:Calibri, sans-serif;font-size:11pt;"><span>C.<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span>seen</p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "> </p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">In the above example there is no option which provides for completing the sentence with the verb having the appropriate tense. The sentence should be changed to read, <i style="font-style: italic; ">“That was the funniest movie I ever_____”</i> or the choice <i style="font-style: italic; ">C</i> should be changed to <i style="font-style: italic; ">have seen</i>.</p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "> </p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">There is another question which appears to be either an algebraic equation or a simple addition problem. However, there are no instructions even though each of the prior and subsequent problems have specific directions.</p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "> </p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">EX 2</p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "> </p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">87 + 42=</p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">F. 129 – 42</p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">G. 42+87</p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">H. 42-87</p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">I. 87+129</p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "> </p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">I’m guessing the purpose of this question is to demonstrate that number arrangement in addition is of no consequence to the sum?? This is a guess, nonetheless, something I should have to do before I even begin to work the problem.</p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "> </p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Finally, each of the three fraction questions was structured with subject verb disagreement. I’ll provide you with one example.</p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "> </p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">EX 3</p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "> </p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><i style="font-style: italic; ">What fraction of the balloons are shaded?</i></p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><i style="font-style: italic; "> </i></p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Even as I type this, MS Word recognizes the error. Perhaps the authors and editors of the worksheet use typewriters. This is a really simple concept. <i style="font-style: italic; ">Fraction</i> is the singular subject and therefore takes a singular verb which in this case should have been <i style="font-style: italic; ">is</i>. The phrase, <i style="font-style: italic; ">“of the balloons”</i> is the prepositional phrase and it does not change the number of the subject or the verb.</p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "> </p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">I shared this with my mother who replied, “Wow, so do they teach the same way they speak in Georgia?”</p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "> </p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Apparently so.</p></span>Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-6406645408062747142010-02-15T18:57:00.000-08:002010-02-15T19:35:35.226-08:00Holyfield's Holy Beating for godFirst, please someone riddle for me exactly why it is that people feel so compelled to tithe? Now, on to the story. Allegedly, <a href="http://www.fox8.com/news/wjw-evander-holyfiled-abuse-charges-txt,0,6011406.story">Evander Holyfield attacked his wife</a> last week for not producing proof of tithes for him. Just when I thought it couldn't get funnier...Mrs. Holyfield says that he demonstrated sorrow when he saw what he had done to her face. Wow, ungodliness for god! Of course this is nothing new, the hypocrisy that is. <div>It never ceases to amaze me how far people will go in the name of god. To avoid ridicule perhaps, Holyfield wanted to ensure that payments to the church were made regularly. It is sad, that he deemed a financial payment to a church was more important than respecting his wife. Unfortunately, so many share such thoughts. There are many people in dire straits who will continue to tithe while their homes enter foreclosure, utilities are disconnected, and car insurance coverage lapses. Again, will someone please explain that to me? Better still, I'm glad I do not understand it. </div><div>While people continue to tithe thoughtlessly with the apparent hopes that their tithing will result in blessings, homelessness rises in the very communities with churches on every corner, drug use is rampant, and of course crime has become the norm. Yet, the sheep continue to tithe. Blacks are especially prone to tithing mindlessly and yet have the worst outcomes of any demographic for every measure. <a href="http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/10/21/the-black-church-and-the-recession/">Research</a> has demonstrated that the cheerfullest of givers are the uneducated hoping for blessings in return. Thus, the church is used as some kind of holy lottery (no wonder religious organizations so vehemently oppose legalized gambling). The Holyfield incident clearly highlights the obvious paradox of organized religion. Regardless of good deeds and faith, there is a price for admission. Why do few question this? If Xians believe as they claim that Jehovah is the creator and ruler of all, then what need would he have for money? Further, how do they know the dollar is his currency of choice? Wouldn't he prefer the euro?</div><div>Please don't misunderstand. I am not discouraging tithing in the form of time and devotion to improving communities in which churches exist, for that is what I believe tithing is. It is a travesty and in fact grand larceny to rob communities of much needed resources without contributing anything positive. The state of the black community and the black family clearly demonstrate this to be an active practice among black churches in particular and in general. Holyfield beats his wife for not producing proof of their monetary tithes. Had he been truly tithing with her then his faith would be in tact and there would be no reason for proof. So now the real question--is the church an accessory in this beating?</div>Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-65477078638273655602010-01-28T18:01:00.000-08:002010-01-28T18:48:42.974-08:00Tebow, CBS, and ChoiceNow, I make no bones and certainly no apologies about being staunchly pro-life without exception. Therefore, it is with little irony that I weigh in on the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Tebow</span> Super Bowl advertisement controversy. First, as usual, the always complaining and nagging feminist groups are making much ado about nothing. These groups which claim to be "pro-choice" are revealing their true colors. They are barking, petitioning, and whining, "no fair" because CBS has accepted an advertisement from the Xian conservative group <a href="http://www.focusonthefamily.com/">Focus on the Family</a>. The feminists would like to deny this group their First Amendment Rights in favor of a right to privacy and a freedom of choice they say without even having seen the commercial. Further, these groups say that CBS is violating its policy of not airing commercials from advocacy groups during the Super Bowl, and I must admit until CBS recently changed this policy they had grounds of merit, that is if that were their real reason for opposing it. I have a great deal of difficulty believing that. <div><br /></div><div>I do believe, as NPR suggested, that <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123035871&ps=cprs">CBS isn't so much supporting one ideology or another as much as they are supporting revenue. </a> It is no secret that the cost of airing a 30 second spot has been lowered this year as the country's economic troubles continue. Even more important, however, is that television networks have made no secret of their favor for money over integrity or even morality. Now this is where the feminist groups NOW, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">NARAL</span>, and any of the other ones should be able to relate to the CBS decision. They are in fact getting a great dose of their very own hypocritical medicine. These same groups attacked <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/32187.html"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Palin</span></a> for being the very kind of woman they allege represents the pinnacle of achievement in women's rights and in this case these same groups oppose an ad which demonstrates a woman exercising choice over her reproductive rights. Nonetheless, these hypocrites don't want the exercise of reproductive rights to include reproduction. Now isn't that ironic? </div><div><br /></div><div>Despite the "medical advice" given to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Palin</span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Tebow</span>, these women chose to respect their unborn children and give them life, apparently much to the dismay of NOW, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">NARAL</span>, and other feminists. Feminists, please get over yourselves. This ad demonstrates exactly what you claim to advocate which is choice. Because the choice happens to be life and how precious it truly is, you have a problem with that? Now that is hypocrisy. CBS is only demonstrating the same double standards that are fundamental to your ideology. I implore you to create your version of a pro-choice commercial. Perhaps one of you will come forward in the commercial and confess to choosing to abort a baby. I mean since it is only a choice regarding only your body and your reproductive rights, of what do you have to be ashamed? </div>Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-14557599189745252822010-01-28T17:12:00.000-08:002010-01-28T17:50:04.922-08:00Terrorizing Our Way Out of the RecessionIf you think terror or the war on it isn't about the almighty dollar, then you have another thing coming. Psychologists have long studied fear and determined it to be a powerful motivator. People try harder fearing failure, stay in unhappy marriages fearing loneliness, fear challenging superiors for losing opportunities for advancement, fear rabid animals for preservation of life...and so on and so forth. Some fear is primal, part of evolution, necessary for survival and in those cases fear can be good and necessary for survival. However, in many more instances, fear is not a good thing for in psychology it does not fall upon the list of motivators, rather the list of barriers. Fear discourages. Fear deters. Fear ultimately prohibits, functioning according to its nature as a barrier.<div><br /></div><div>During a recent trip, while waiting in a very long line awaiting the ever so delightful transportation security administration screening, I noticed an advertisement in the bottom of one of the screening bins--yes an advertisement. Now isn't that something? These bins are supposed to be used to assist in the screening process. Specifically, these bins are supposed to enable screeners to determine whether a passenger has contraband within his or her carry on luggage. Why are they now also being used to advertise products and services? </div><div><br /></div><div>Please don't think the bins are the first or the last airline travel related items to receive a "boost" from terrorism. Airport restaurants and other vendors certainly received a boost from the asinine "no liquids beyond security checkpoints" rule. Every time a true or would be terrorist does anything, there is a knee jerk reaction to prohibit that thing from air travel in an effort to give the allusion of safety. More often than not, these efforts and allusions men money for some entity, rest assured. If you recall, a year or so ago, most people were averse to full body scanners for fear of privacy. Then comes along the would be "fruit of kaboom" underwear bomber (have to give credit to Rush for that phrase). Recent polls indicate the majority of Americans now favor those same full body scanners. Surprise surprise. As usual, people fell for everything hook, line and sinker. During some international flights, passengers had to raise their hands above their heads and were prohibited from going to the restroom just prior to landing. Now to the average and below average minds, this seemed appropriate--even the right thing to do for our "safety". Really? Why then, do we pay billions of dollars for intelligence? Is that not for our safety? Why should my comfort and rights be compromised and outright denied because intelligence failed? Why are we doing the same things over and over that continue to fail? </div><div><br /></div><div>Each full body scanner costs <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2009-02-19-airport-scanners_N.htm">$170k</a> and several will be coming to an airport near you. So will the failing intelligence budget be reduced by that same amount multiplied by the number of scanners purchased and installed in airports? Well, ration would assume it should be if this in fact is designed to work. </div><div><br /></div><div>What is really sad is that the same people who favor this and any new invasion of privacy and denial of rights with regard to air travel, are the same people who would protest the denial of any amendment guaranteed rights related to any other area of life. The point I wish to make is that we continue to exist as drones and are hoodwinked daily into frivolous government spending. Yet, some would have you believe that insurance reform, welfare, or educational investment are what really erode federal and state finances and corrupt government. Really? Oh well, if Tom Brokaw still reported the evening news, this would be a feature on <i>The Fleecing of America</i>. </div>Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-5591604543644649832010-01-06T17:48:00.000-08:002010-01-06T18:04:02.376-08:00Gilbert Arenas--the dumbest gun slinger in the westJust when you thought it was safe to say you are a fan of the NBA some idiotic player finds some way to shame you once again. By now you are aware, and Tiger Woods is certainly happy, that <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,582292,00.html">Gilbert Arenas allegedly stored and brandished a weapon</a> or weapons in his team's locker room. As if that isn't the most asinine situation you've heard in a minute, his excuse surely is. <div><br /></div><div>Now all of this came to light when Mr. Arenas allegedly brandished one or more of his weapons threatening a teammate in an incident related to a gambling debt, a debt which Arenas denies exists. Nevertheless, the primary issue still remains---he brought to and stored weapons at his place of employment. His excuse, he didn't want the weapons in his home because of his children. Nice. Dilbert, eh em, I mean Gilbert did you ever think of a safe deposit box? A weapons exchange program? Selling them? There are several alternatives more appealing and certainly more appropriate than storing weapons at work. He should lose his job and should have been escorted from the premises in handcuffs. At any other place of business this would have been the case even if the weapons were only stored in the trunk of a vehicle on company property. Unless he moonlights as a police officer, bouncer, security guard, FBI agent, CIA agent, or member of the armed forces, I see no reason for him bringing a weapon to work. His stupidity is especially egregious considering the level of security that is standard for NBA players at work. </div><div><br /></div><div>Commissioner Stern has suspended Gilbert Arenas indefinitely. He should be terminated, though the history of punishment of the NBA makes that look unlikely. I would ask Gilbert, "How stupid can you be?", but I am afraid he may answer.</div>Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-77169455752234090422010-01-06T17:15:00.000-08:002010-01-06T18:12:32.095-08:00Facebooking & Tweeting--the End of Intelligence & Couth<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Obviously I blog so I'm no stranger or dissenter to electronic communication. I firmly believe that it has made business and documentation more efficient and more important, given virtually everyone an opportunity to participate in news and entertainment. However, when it comes to interpersonal communication and establishing and maintaining relationships, electronic communication devices, particularly facebook, twitter, and text messaging are the Armageddon of Nostradamus prophecy.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I'll admit, I was quick to embrace email for it provided a quick communication method for keeping in touch with colleagues, friends, and instructors. Further, it aided the tree hugger in me in saving paper. During my undergraduate years, instructors began accepting electronic versions of assignments in lieu of hard copies occasionally. By the time I enrolled in graduate school, each assignment was to be submitted electronically. Awesome! However, electronic communication has gone too far. When you receive important messages via text message such as, "I'm married" or "grandpa just died" something is seriously awry. People quickly became drones, addicted to text messaging and incapable of real interpersonal communication. These drones were even texting before full qwerty keyboards became standard fixtures on mobile phones. I've now accepted text messaging, but only now that I have a "smart phone". Prior to that depressing numerical keys several times to simply say "on my way" was just a demonstration in stupidity. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Just when I thought people couldn't get any more moronic along comes facebook and twitter. What is it about these alleged social networks that encourages idiocy? People have been fired for being on "sick leave" and posting vacation pictures during that time, had their homes burglarized after announcing extended vacations, and been victims of assault. I mean seriously drones, this is border line retarded. Actually I think it's beyond retarded. The facebook drones no longer interact or even live. I've been to happy hours with acquaintances and friends who peck away at their phones about how much fun they are having hanging out with the girls. Really? You must be kidding me if you think that having a phone glued to your hand with the facebook application running constantly is engaging in any means. It is downright rude. I limit my interaction with those drones. People with hundreds and even thousands of facebook friends demonstrate the shallowness and insignificance of the uber social network. Many of these people spend their days posting away instead of living. "Good morning FBF. I wiped my ass FBF. I'm breathing FBF. Goodnight FBF. It is utter insanity. They clearly have no lives. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I joined under pressure of friends and relatives to "stay connected" and the initial intoxication of catching up seemed worthwhile until you witnessed how little facebook members actually lived and how much they facebooked instead. I've not joined twitter but have visited friends' pages and it is even worse. It encourages all of the already intellectually limited to post short "tweets" instead of composing actual sentences--as if we needed another excuse not to learn the rules of grammar. Each of the tweeters and facebook addicts seems to get dumber with every post sliding deeper into the depths of retardation losing every ounce of refinement and manners. They post aimlessly day in and day out sending data through fiber optic cables and wireless networks all the while missing the real human connections that bind, uplift, and inspire us. What's next? The holy church of twitter? Facebook united methodist episicopalian baptist holy roman catholic synagogue? Religious organizations and leaders have already logged in and will be tweeting and facebooking during, before, and after regularly scheduled sermons. I guess you don't go to heaven unless you're god's facebook friend or follower on twitter. It's invasive, it is uncouth, and it is beating genetics at creating more retards.</span></span></div>Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-41283732568100140152009-12-07T19:45:00.000-08:002009-12-07T19:49:51.298-08:00The Problem with Ivy Leagues & Think Tanks<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 17px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Intellects, particularly those at Ivy Leagues and other Think Tanks, always over analyze and attempt reduce a system to a singular device, when in fact it is the system that produces the desired result. The Harlem Zone is just what it declares in its name: a Zone. It is not a trick or a device. It is a systems approach that is a systematic engagement of its residents, and particularly its children on all fronts consistently. I first learned of Geoffrey Canada’s Harlem Zone three and a half years ago when <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/04/60minutes/main5889558.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody">CBS</a> first reported about his “experiment”. I knew then that his passion alone would get positive results for he demands of himself and of parents, educators, donors, and community members--earnest dedication and accountability. Now, more than three years later, Anderson Cooper returns to the Harlem Zone to follow up on the story originally reported by the late Ed Bradley and reports remarkable success in closing the academic disparity between blacks and whites. </p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 17px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">Instead of accepting the success for what it is, the intellectuals and think tanks are as usual, looking for the magic bullet, the “pill” as <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/04/60minutes/main5889558.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody">Harvard’s Fryer</a> calls it, which is generating all the success. It is blatantly obvious that in any and all dealings with human behavior, and that is indeed the crux of educational success and failure, there is no one device or method of instruction that works successfully for all or some may argue even for one. Conversely, it is an all hands on deck approach that is proving to be the success behind the Harlem Zone as is the case with any other successful educational institution. There is in place a system of motivation, support, intervention, discipline, and accountability, which like our government of checks and balances, acts to keep each part of the human behavior and institutional engine working to support each other and the whole of the mission and objective. </p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 17px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">This is the very manifestation of the African Proverb “it takes a village” in action. There is no single person or single method of instruction that can uplift ignorance. Just as history has demonstrated there is no single person or method of battle that has lifted a nation to eternal dominance. Human behavior is dynamic and therefore influencing human behavior, particularly the speed and level at which one learns, must also be dynamic. The static approaches commonly and currently in use, fail to meet the needs of a constantly evolving and technologically engaged people. </p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 17px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">The systems approach and the advocacy for its implementation is nothing new. Accountability has become the mantra of the last four presidential administrations and yet, no enforcement or means of measuring accountability standards has been devised or implemented within any system or institution run by the bureaucracy. Excuses for failure to achieve have become the new normal. Meanwhile, children of poverty and of color, continue to be the biggest victims of the excuse game. Everyone is afraid to set the standards high in fear of emotionally damaging children when in reality the greatest emotional and intellectual damage is done by standards that are so low that children are manipulated into believing they are successes when actually they are failures. In public health, experts have long demanded the implementation of a systems approach which would correct fragmented delivery systems and employ checks and balances to improve and streamline quality of care. Yet, the selfishness, greed, and power tripping of each entity involved have muddled the sounds of those demands and resulted in the hodgepodge of care that lacks continuity, accountability, and delivers inequitable care to hundreds of millions. The same can be said for education. Too many hands in the cookie jar and too many control freaks have wreaked havoc on our most valuable assets, our children.</p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 17px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; ">So while you Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford intellectuals and government and private think tanks meet and discuss ad <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">nauseum</span>, our children are slipping further and further into the abysmal cycle of ignorance which begets poverty and crime (you know more fodder for your analyses). Stop talking and analyzing and accept the dynamic which is and reject perpetual attempts to find and categorize the device that is not.</p><p class="ecxMsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 17px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "> </p></span>Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-90441866041633562512009-12-02T18:47:00.000-08:002009-12-02T18:51:41.315-08:00The Gap<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">The other day, I exchanged some jeans at Old Navy and upon entering the store the alarms went off as they had when I exited the store on the day of original purchase. The original purchase day, one of the employees very politely assisted me in attempting to disarm the tags and apologized for the inconvenience. Essentially the same thing happened the other day when I exited the same old navy the second time with the new pairs of jeans, children in tow. the sales girl waved it off and said don't worry about it. So off to the Gap Kids we go. Well upon entering the Gap Kids the alarms went off because both stores are owned by the Gap and use the same theft deterrent system. I told the clerk it kept happening at with the Old Navy purchases and proceeded to get assistance for the item for which I had come. They didn't have it so we left only to have the alarms go off again. the young man whom had assisted me was like don't worry and asked the twit who appeared to be training him if they could deactivate it in their store. She said I don't know and asked him to check my bag & emphatically said check the receipt. both were white. The young man was obviously uncomfortable with it because hell, he saw just as she did that the alarm had gone off when I walked in. I repeated that this had been a problem three times already at Old Navy and that the mechanism will not deactivate. Now, my experiences could easily tell me that she did that because I'm a person of color; my experiences could also say she was just doing her job of inventory control or plain being a bitch. Either way, the way she handled the situation was unprofessional and demeaning. Why couldn't she have handled it the same way the old navy employee, whom prior to the alarm going off, had not had any interaction with me whatsoever. Why couldn't she have been polite and said maam do you mind if we check your receipt. hell, the store is little and I had been with an associate the entire time.<br /><br />I share this with you because A) it pissed me off; I was with my children for crying out loud in a suit (not that this precludes theft, but it certainly abates suspicion among most) B) just to offer some perspective (I'm sure someone white has had similar or nearly identical encounters, but their experiences, cultural and social, likely led them to different reactions.) While I would like people to always act in a fair and just manner, this is not always the case. I employ the ideology of giving everyone the benefit of the doubt in most circumstances, but there are moments in which that ideology is inappropriate and makes more a fool of me than a principled person. Nevertheless, I being of conscious body and mind, do not take that as representation of the Gap and certainly not of all caucasians. She is as I said before, the one twit who acted unprofessionally and could in effect be labeled as a racist or a bigot from one unfortunate decision had she encountered someone bitter. I'll just call her stupid. </span>Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-85175776042025408382009-10-14T16:43:00.000-07:002009-10-22T15:36:59.607-07:00Still Begging Massah (Master)As has become customary for blacks, once again, a prominent figure is begging for something from the establishment, which in this case happens to be the State of South Carolina. Blacks have begged for an <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">apology</span> for slavery, to have the rebel flag removed from public structures, and more. Most recently, Tom Joyner has added to the legacy of begging by petitioning the the State of South Carolina to <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/08/ap/entertainment/main5370780.shtml">pardon his great uncles for wrongful conviction that resulted in their execution in 1915. </a><br /><br />This is so inane. How this helps in any way other than to guilt-trip <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">caucasians</span> or to put the justice system on trial is beyond me. As usual, Mr. Joyner begging for apologies and symbolism that do nothing to affect the status <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">quo</span>. Why one continues to engage in agitation that does not bring about changes in the economic or educational status I shall never understand. Why is the effort not made for economic justice? Why hasn't the demand been made to mandate economic and financial management courses throughout grade school to truly empower minority youth out of disenfranchisement. No more begging, no more waiting for a symbolic handout. This so sickens me. This is no better than galvanizing thousands behind the ignorant young men of Jena, LA. Why not galvanize those same thousands and more behind the youth who are finding quality educations in poverty and low performing schools? Why are we not cheering on and supporting the <a href="http://www.hcz.org/">Harlem Zone</a>? No, we continue to take up non-issues like who does or doesn't provide paid leave for the King holiday. Black people, get it together and agitate on real issues. If we must beg, beg for the <em>forty acres and a mule </em>promised by the Freedman's Bureau (which didn't have the right to enforce or uphold such a promise--for another day). If it doesn't make money, then it doesn't make sense otherwise, you continue to be good slaves.Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-42899916475513520362009-08-18T16:05:00.000-07:002009-08-18T16:26:01.487-07:00Ban Black People from Customer ServiceEmployers across America, I beseech you, please refrain from selecting black people to fill your customer service positions. Unfortunately, customer service happens to be a skill lacking among black people. (Before you write rhyming Jesse or telephone permed Al Sharpton, there are exceptions to every rule and I am not the Creator. I do not speak in absolutes.)<br />Allow me to share with you some anecdotal evidence. The other day I telephoned a physician's office regarding a prescription with the intent of having the physician or a nurse respond to my inquiry. When I called, Shaquandalika (my standard name for these types--because their multi-syllabic names are always something identically or nearly that repulsive) answered. I knew it was she because I'd just met her at the office a couple of days prior and witnessed, in person, her less than courteous manner. Well, when I called and explained very politely that I would like to have a nurse return my call, she asked which nurse. I told her that it didn't matter (this is a specialty practice, not a clinic or urgent care center for whatever ails you). She abruptly responded, "Yes it does matter too ma'am." I suppose the "ma'am" was intended to assuage my discontent. What she should have asked is what physician I had seen or stated that nurses work alongside specific physicians (which would have been a stretch of the truth, but far more professional than her response).<br /><br />This is just too much. The previous receptionist was a very polite and professional woman who happened to be caucasian. This is not to say that all blacks are impolite or that all caucasians are polite. It is only to say that polite service from someone black has become the exception and not the rule. Another example, my mother visited my brother's school and encountered the office attendant with one hand in a chip bag (I've come to find this standard practice among most black women working a "desk" job.) My mother inquired about contact information for a faculty member and the attendant asks my mother for the person's email stating "Come on now, you supposed to help me out." Seriously?? The lack of professionalism among blacks, particularly those who loosen what little professionalism they have even more when the customer is black is disappointing and appalling. Needless to say, due to such experiences, I often cringe when a black person is the only one available to assist me fully expecting to receive hood service. I'm rarely disappointed.Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2266401660625349004.post-46139349267013755442009-06-26T16:30:00.000-07:002009-06-26T16:53:35.541-07:00Never Can Say Goodbye...I wasn't sure what the title for this post should be. Of course this is about the greatest entertainer of all time, Michael Jackson. I LOVED Michael and have so many memories in front the the television watching the premier of the latest MJ video. My favorite video of all time and arguably the best to have ever been produced, Thriller, is the first to come to mind. The dancing, the cinematography, the killer beat, the story line--simply unbelievable by the standards of the early 80s and certainly by the standards of today.<br /><br />Gifted beyond measure, a musical genius, Michael to many was music. He set the standard that no one else has achieved. He truly brought music to life and I shall forever be in awe of his tremendous talent. Today at work, we all struggled to determine which of Michael's songs was our favorite. How could there be only one? There simply can't be. One of my favorites, performed along with the other members of the Jackson Five, is "Can You Feel It?" Awww man, when I here that I just get crazy happy. It is just one of those songs that elevates your mood. In elementary, we must have watched <em>Moonwalker</em> a hundred times. After "Smooth Criminal" Michael proved once and for all that he was the baddest performer to walk the earth. Then there is "Lady in my Life", "Man in the Mirror", "Dirty Diana", ohhh and "Butterflies". Look I just love the man and we are forever blessed to have lived while he lived, to hear his music, to see his performances. I was even fortunate enough to see him perform live. He gave so much of himself as a performer and truly fulfilled his destiny. He has said he wanted to provide "magic and some type of escapism to people". Michael you truly were magical and your music will lie on forever in my spirit and in the spirit of hundreds of millions of others throughout the world.Alyssa Jacobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02264485723020480103noreply@blogger.com0