Turn to page 394... Why everyone should read Harry Potter

 If you know the reference to that quote you might just have read Harry Potter or heard of his works sometime in your life. This article was the best one that I have read. Being in my early twenties  I have not read the Harry Potter series but have seen all the movies. I grew up in the 90's ,so we had discussion about these books in class and when it came time for a fun day in the classroom at the end of the school year we were allowed to watch the movies only if your parents signed a strip of paper stating that you were allowed to watch the movie because  they had witchcraft and sorcery. The article mentions that Christian groups had seen a problem with the books, myself being a Christian did not see anything wrong in the first movie but as Harry and his friend's grow up and he evolves into an adult he does become much deeper into his teaching. My point-of-view is that I compared and contrasted how the movie was turning out to be. I was in elementary starting middle school when the books came out and the characters in the movie were also around the same age so it was almost as if one could relate to Harry and his friends. The books teach us how to have diverse friends and how we get along with people that are different from one another. Another way to think about the books and movies was it was between good and evil, but during those times it was about growing up, relationships, and friendships happened or dispersed. A group of children in the article was split up and they had to read the book and then compare how they felt and in the end of the research found that the children had a different view about culture and diversity with other people.  

Current topic - Baltimore Police

I enjoyed reading this paper about the Baltimore Police, I think that not every police officer is a bad one, or that one police officer should all be compared the same.I understand that Freddie Gray had died because of a spinal injury, then there was a small peaceful protest about what had happened. It almost seemed like the peaceful protest wasn't enough that they had to go and make an uproar about this man. Freddie Gray, is not hurting anymore, even though he was apart of someone's life, I believe that taking these types of riots are helping anything. Making a mess and throwing bricks at police officers, burning down buildings and even taking from the less fortunate!! This makes me the most angry because of stealing and breaking into buildings and thinking they could get by with this. I love how one woman and mother found her son in participating in the streets, and she goes and takes him and tells him to go back home! Good for her, I'm not saying that most parents would want their children to be in this mess, it was just by chance that she seen her son in that large crowd and she went to get him. Then there's the topic about the baseball game where there is not going to be any spectators watching the games, so then the games are going to loose money, other than the baseball players who will get money regardless. I hope that this world comes to a close soon. I am not sure how much more of this kind of insane type of news I can handle.  

America's Getting Less White, and That Will Save It

This article was a really cool read. I thought that the way that the article gave us charts and circle graphs were great for people that are visual like me. The paper discussed the way America has reached a different milestone, where minority babies were born instead of white babies in a year. The paper said that in about three decades, white people will constitute minority of all Americans. The baby boom era was where a lot of citizens were getting ready to leave for war and before they left they left a lot of baby mothers back at home. Now, most of those children that were born during that time are getting older and in this generation of people we are having fewer children and having them later in life. The future will have "new minorities" ;such as, Hispanics, Asians, and other multiracial populations. A fact that I found interesting said the America that has large numbers of today's older and middle-aged adults grew up with civic lives. One of these shifts will be larger multiracial populations because of multiracial marriages are going to be far more common. Even though, whites are still a minority in the United States this will eventually change because of minority members will take on more responsibility, more political clout, and show their strengths as consumers to be taken seriously.  

Beyond the Burqa

The article in my classroom textbook was a different article than what I was expecting. I did enjoy reading about the what women have to endure in different countries; such as, the types of clothing that they have to wear,or who they will marry. The story that caught my eye the most in the book was about how a soap opera T.V. show was considered risque for citizens to watch because of the way the women were acting in this show. I thought that in another women's case was that she had wanted to go to school and learn something, but she had to bargain with her parents to see if she was allowed to go to school the parents were allowed to pick out who she was going to marry. I thought that was very unfair! As an American it's hard to even imagine these traditions are carried out. One of my traditions that I have in my family/religious traditions is that we believe that women do not wear pants, or cut their hair. I have never personally cut my hair in all of my 23 years of living. Some people may call me crazy,but this is my tradition and also my belief. I am not going to say that my belief is better than another, because who is really to know if one is better? This is how I was raised and brought up ;therefore, it has been hard for me as a female. As a child in elementary and throughout grade school I was picked on and always asked "why do you wear a skirt all the time?" Being different is always hard. I think of these song lyrics from a Christian band that keep my feet on the ground, so I do not say anything bad or think different of myself. " If you don't stand for something, you might fall for anything." - Thousand Foot Krutch

I read an article on Military Diversity on PBS.org

The article that I read about had to deal with the Pentagon. The Government has made goals to have diversity in lower ranks in the military,but they have found that diversity lacks as the ranks are higher as you go up the officer ranks. The officers are less in Diversity than the enlisted soldiers they lead. Non-Hispanic whites made up at least 66 percent, blacks accounted for the 12 percent and only represent only 8% of the active duty officers. In 2009 the Army was the most diverse branch making up 10% of the generals. Gender diversity was another topic that lead to fifty-one percent of Women Americans and only accounted for 16 percent of officers. The two reasons for the shortage in women were because of the higher turnover rates than the males, and having women in combat arms which could lead to promotion. The article says that women are less likely to stay in the military, since staying in one location and high risk of deployment were reasons to separate. The recommendations for changing racial and gender diversity were to have more training in diverse situations to improve women in the group of qualified enlisted. To have more transparency in promotion system;therefore, service members have better performance for promotion. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/military-report/ 

How Diversity Makes Us Smarter

The article about How Diversity Makes Us Smarter was an interesting and an easy read. I thought it was very free flowing and seemed as though it was written as someone were discussing the topics in the article. My favorite topics were when the title called How Diversity Provokes Thought that they did studies with groups of different genders and races on how people interacted with each other and were given a topic or were told what their subject would be about ;such as, a murder mystery exercise. In those sets of groups certain people were told about information pertaining to the case. The groups then had to talk to each other about the case and share information about what they knew. Studies found that the groups with race had outperformed the group that had no racial diversity. So, being in groups with different race and gender made a difference in figuring out the murder case.

Heartache of an Immigrant Family

I read the article titled The Heartache of an Immigrant Family from the New York Times. The article talks about immigration to America. This is such a difficult topic to talk about without hurting someone's feelings,or offending someone. This topic also talks about that for the poor immigration can take a dramatic affect on people and families. Lourdes Pineda was single mother who had a 5 year old boy and a 7 year old girl. She had to sell tortillas and sold used clothes only to make barely enough money to feed her children.She had to leave Honduras to support her family, so that they could be able to go to school because if she didn't then her children's education would stop at the sixth grade. She left Mexico and came to the United States to be a nanny. Her daughter went to live with her mother's mom and her son went to live with his father's mother. Enrique, was passed from family member to family member. He wondered why his mother didn't love him enough to be with him? When he turned 16 he went to find her. He crossed the border eight times to get into the U.S. Enrique had to also leave behind ones he loved ;such as, his girlfriend who he later realized was pregnant. Maria, Enrique's girlfriend, then also set off to find him leaving their daughter behind. Enrique did not want the same type of treatment he received , so he sent for her to come to Jacksonville ,Fla. where they had established a home. After Enrique came to the U.S. more migrants came to the U.S. a thousand laws were passed addressing unlawful migrants. Adult migrants were being sent back ,but children born in the United States stayed. The children had to live in foster care homes. In 2011, Enrique was at a friend's motel when the police had arrived and arrested Enrique for not paying a ticket without a license. Maria was pregnant with his second child. Enrique never got to hold his newborn son,and if he were sent back to Mexico then his children would be fatherless. Two lawyers changed that around, Enrique and Maria both received a visa to stay in the U.S. legally.