True Enough Response

True Enough is definitely not the type of book I would randomly choose to read, which is why I was surprised how the book was able to grab my attention in the first few pages.  The story about the little girl with AIDS really stayed with me during the reading, and even after I finished.  I just though that it was so sad and unfair that she wasn't provided with the medical attention that she needed.  Although the the book started off very sad, it got me hooked and I wondered what was yet to come.  I wasn't as interested in the rest of the section about the Bush/Kerry election drama, simply because I don't find politics very interesting to read about but I hope that the book has more stories like the first one that make me really think about the choices people make in our society.     

Segarra Wins Democratic Mayoral Primary

Last week Hartford's mayor Pedro Segarra won the Democratic mayoral primary election.  He defeated candidate Edwin Vargas 4,137-1,506.  He attributes his win to the support of voters by running a positive campaign and proving his devotion to the city. Because Hartford is a predominantly democratic city (Democrats outnumber Republicans 18-1), he believes that winning the primary is one step closer to another term.

Segarra has received overwhelming amount of support and he says that he won the primary because "What I wanted to do was communicate with as many voters on a personal level as I could."  17% of registered Democrat voters participated in the election.
It is clear that Segarra is popular in Hartford.  Here are some quotes from people who voted for him:

"I think he's doing an excellent job, and I want to see him continue to do that job.  Things are getting done." said Hartford resident Jeff Capelle.

"He had the courage, the knowledge and the strength to bring the assurance of leadership.  Definitely, you can see the impact." said Perez Silva.

"I just feel like he's for the people," said Norman Neal.

It is very likely that Segarra will be Hartford's mayor once again, and if he is elected I will definitely be interested in seeing what he is doing to help the city.

      
  

Come to Amherst!

Before coming to Trinity, I had lived in Amherst, Massachusetts for my whole life.  I grew up reading the local newspapers and following town news.  For this assignment I decided to do a little research on the town's newspaper website, the Amherst Bulletin.
  I read an article about a newly created tourism council that has recently received $200,000 in state funding to promote tourism in Amherst and surrounding towns.  The tourism council is one of 16 in the state and was authorized by the Legislature last year.  Executive director of the Greater Northampton (a town about 15 minutes away from Amherst) Chamber of Commerce Suzanne Beck, is a part of the committee and said that in the next month a visitors council will be created to help make decisions about creating a destination and marketing program and start promoting local attractions in the region through the state's Office of Travel and Tourism and Massvacation.com.  Tourism councils are required to market to visitors from at least 50 miles away.                
 According to Beck, tourism is the third largest industry in the state and for every dollar spent in promoting tourism in a region, $40 is created in revenue.  Tony Maroulis, executive director of the Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce has been working with Beck on the project and he believes that the most unique things about Amherst and the region is "Art is not just visual art, but also performing arts. Agriculture includes working farms and agri-tourism, as well as hiking trails in state parks and kayaking on the Connecticut River. Education ranges from world-class lecturers to Division I basketball."
  I thought it was really interesting that this council was created because as much of an Amherst enthusiast that I am, I had never thought of Amherst as a tourist hot spot.  It is true that Amherst is a very diverse and unique town because of the town's three colleges.  There are a lot of great restaurants and quaint shops in town that make it fun to hang out in the center of town.  There are a lot of places to go hiking or take nature walks, historical sights and community events to attend.  I hope that this tourism committee really takes off and that more people come visit my wonderful home town!    

1984 Reflection

            Overall, I really liked 1984.  I thought that it was really suspenseful and the concept of the book was really interesting.  Just when I thought the book couldn’t get more suspenseful, it did.  I had a feeling that Winston and Julia would be caught because their situation was too good to be true.  I was skeptical of O’Brien when he was explaining The Brotherhood to Winston.  It sounded a lot like The Party in the sense that members don’t really know what they’re doing or why they are doing it.  It was blind faith and willing to agree to do horrible things such as killing, lying and cheating which are all aspects of The Party.  I had a feeling that O’Brien was a liar.

                What was most surprising for me was Winston’s betrayal.  In the second section of the book he seems to be really focused on humanizing himself.  He has the epiphany about his mother and what love is: “If you love someone, you loved him, and when you had nothing else to give, you still gave him love” (168).  I thought that this realization meant that he would be willing to die defending Julia.  He is able to tolerate all the abuse and torture in jail but when he is confronted with the rats he sells her out and says “Do it to Julia!  Do it to Julia!  Not me!  Julia!  I don’t care what you do to her.  Tear her face off, strip her to the bones.  Not me!  Julia!  Not me!” (297). This was such a change in attitude because before his love for Julia and his desire to stay “human” sustained him in his cruel society.  Looking back on the reading, I realize that it was only natural for Winston to be selfish and sacrifice Julia but when I read it I was surprised.  I had been skeptical of their relationship because I didn’t think that love could exist in their society.  Winston’s feelings for Julia changed so much throughout the book.  He went from wanting to rape her to wanting to kill her to using her as an act of rebellion to falling in love with her.  His feelings for her were never really stable.  What was most surprising for me was her understanding.  She isn’t mad at him because she betrayed him in exchange.  She realizes how The Party has dehumanized her and taken away her feelings and says, “They threaten you with something…you can’t stand up to…and then you say ‘Don’t do it to me, do it to somebody else…And perhaps you might pretend, afterwards, that it was only a trick and that you just said it to make them stop and didn’t really mean it.  But that isn’t true…..You want it to happen to the other person.  You don’t give a damn what they suffer.  All you care about is yourself” (303). 

Proving to prisoners that they have no regard for others is what The Party intended on doing all along, and for me that is the saddest part of the book.  Although I obviously would have wanted an ending where Winston and Julia are able to cling on to their humanity, I’m glad it ended the way it did because it was realistic.  The book really shows how people’s morals can become compromised.  On page 168 Winston realizes that “The terrible thing that the Party had done was to persuade you those mere impulses, mere feelings, were of no account”.  The Party succeeds in doing this and that is why after all the sacrifices they have made, Winston and Julia ultimately betray each other.                      

A More Promising Future for Hartford Youth

As the ambassador of Hartford, I have been interested in finding information about the betterment of Hartford.  I know that I share the same apprehensions about the city that my peers have which is why I think it is important to learn about the proactive measures taken to try to improve the quality of life for Hartford citizens.  As I mentioned in my blog post, I am interested in learning about public school education in Hartford.  I came across an article on The Hartford Currant website about a scholarship fund that would enable graduates of Hartford public high schools to attend Connecticut state universities. 

                Superintendent Christina Kishimoto proposed the scholarship program on Tuesday.  She is currently looking for businesses willing to pay for the scholarships and although she recognizes that finding enough donors is a difficult task, especially during a time where the economy is not at its greatest, she believes that this scholarship program has the potential to be very successful.  Promise Kalamazoo, a similar scholarship program in Michigan that provides high school graduates with free tuition to a public university in Michigan, has raised $17 million for Kalamazoo students.  Being able to provide full scholarships for all Hartford public school graduates seems unrealistic right now but Kishimoto is hoping that partial scholarships will be offered along with public colleges reserving seats for Hartford graduates.  Because of the widespread poverty in Hartford, a program like this could really make a positive impact in the lives of underprivileged students who would not be able to attend college due to the costs.  Kishimoto notes that with the improvements in state wide testing, more students will be academically capable of going to college than in the past. 

                I really hope that this program receives adequate funding so that more students from the area are able to attend college.  I think that if this program works out there will be a notable change in the crime rates. If students are able to focus on maintaining good grades with the goal of graduating and attending college they will stay off of the streets and away from the gang activity and violence that plagues the city.  If younger students have the long term goal of going to college in the back of their mind and are surrounded by college educated role models they will be less likely to get involved in crime.  A safer city will attract more people into Hartford and there will be less fear about going into the city.  This scholarship program is desperately needed and I hope that it will provide better futures for Hartford youth.       

Hartford Research

I started researching on The Hartford Currant's website and was most interested in researching crime and education.   
I read an article about Hartford's gun violence.  On July 5th, Mayor Pedro Sagarra reinstated a multi-department task force to combat gun violence which has been a major problem in the city.  So far the task force has made twenty-five arrests and the number of shootings has been reduced by 80%.  Jim Rovella who is the chief inspector of the task force attributes their success to the fact that they have been focusing more on nonfatal shootings, because he believes that nonfatal shootings can escalate into homicides.  He also believes that it is a group of 75 to 125 who are doing the shootings, and most shootings are out of retaliation or are drug related.  It is no mystery that violence is a major problem in Hartford which was something that I was initially nervous about before coming to Trinity, but I'm happy to know that the police and the mayor are being proactive and their efforts are obviously working.
I read another article about public schools in Hartford. As schools in the city have just opened for the new school year students were welcomed back with a longer school day and a strong emphasis on bettering the school systems.  The new school day will be 7 hours and 15 minutes, half an hour longer than what it was last school year.  The new superintendent Christina Kishimoto is encouraging teachers to pay extra attention to students' feelings about school in the first few weeks because she believes achieving success early on in the year will lead to a more promising school year.  As a proud former public school student, I am really interested in the school systems in Hartford.  I was fortunate enough to live in a town where the public schools had a strong curriculum and reputation and I believe that students everywhere should have access to a good, free education that will prepare them for college. I hope that Hartford public schools are able to further improve.   

After Class, Skimpy Equality Response

"After Class, Skimpy Equality" was an eye opening article to read, especially now that I am in college.  For me it brought up many mixed feelings.  Looking back on what people wore this weekend to go out to parties, Belkin's descriptions were spot on.  In the article she asks a junior about his opinion of sexual inequality in terms of what girls and boys wear to parties and he describes that "'When the guys go to the Street they are laid-back, casual, like they are going to class,” he said. “But the women come in, in short cocktail dresses, makeup, high heels'" (1), which is exactly how I have seen people in my dorm dress before going to parties.  Reading this made me wonder if girls feel a need to dress in this way to seem, as Belkin said "sexually available", or if it is a personal decision. 
I believe that women should be able to dress however they want without men feeling that they are entitled to them.  There is a disturbing part of the article where Belkin mentions frat boys at Yale who created a slogan saying "No means yes" and a fraternity member from USC who referred to women as "targets".  Fraternity parties are supposed to be fun but when people in attendance think of the parties as a place to violate women, there is a problem.  Just because a woman dresses more provocatively than usual when going to a party does not mean that she should be objectified and preyed upon by her male peers. 
A quote from a student from a female student from University of Utah really stuck with me, she said “Personally, I think that this is the time in your life when you’re most experimental,” she said. “It’s the designated time to try new things and get stuff out of your system. If parents were still in our mindset, they would understand. I think that every person has been there, but I think when I grow up I will look back and think it’s unhealthy. Because it’s animalistic. But it’s just what happens at this stage.”(2).  I believe this to be true because college is a time in a person's life where young people are finally free from their parents and are able to make their own decisions in how they spend their time, who they hang out with and and how they dress.  Partying is popular in college because it is the only time in a person's life when it's possible, because after college graduates are faced with the looming responsibilities of finding a career.  Overall, I have mixed feelings about this article but I know that it will definitely make me think twice about the fashion choices of me and my fellow female peers. 
   

Mountains Beyond Mountains Response Q #5

I believe that because Farmer grew up in poverty he was able to dedicate his life to working with Haitians because from an early age he learned how to live a low maintenance lifestyle.  Farmer moved several times as a child and spent time living in a bus, tent and boat.  Living in those undesirable places allowed him to easily get accustomed to living in a small shack in Haiti.  On page 54 Kidder describes Farmer's ability to "sleep in a dentist's chair, as he did at night for most of one summer in a clinic in Haiti, and consider it improvement over other places he had slept". Also, Farmer tells Kidder that "I never had a sense of a hometown.  It was, 'This is my campground.'" (54).  I think that Farmer's lack of an attachment to a home in the United States made it easier for him to move to Haiti because in a sense he was not leaving anything behind.  Throughout Mountains Beyond Mountains Farmer expresses his belief that he is more of a global citizen than an American.  He focuses more on the principle that people are the same and he does not care about race or ethnicity.  He simply wants to help whoever is in need. His beliefs can be attributed to his work with Haitian farmers when as a child he was forced to pick citrus with them and told his father "But, Dad, white people don't pick citrus" only to be told "Yeah, I'll give you white people" (51).  This lesson really grounded Farmer.  Had it not been for these experiences, Paul Farmer might have become a more "conventional" doctor practicing in the United States.