The most captive audience

       The article "The Most Captive Audience" by Jeff Deskovic talks about an inmate who was in prison for 16 years. Deskovic talks about how sports in the prison system has saved his life for the past 16 years incarcerated.  In prison, Deskovic explains how watching sports with his fellow inmates had brought them closer to each other and strengthened bonds, not only for him and the inmates but also with the guards. For someone like Deskovic, who was falsely accused of his crime, he often played basketball imagining he was Micheal Jordan himself. With doing this, he got away from it all by pretending he was in a big game himself. No matter what sport they had been playing, everyone respected the game or a "sense of honor" for the game. No matter whether it was sports on the t.v. or sports on the radio; it made it just a little easier to pass the hard times of prison. after 16 years in prison, Deskovic was realeased due to a innocence project, a project that was dedicated to overturning mistaken convictions.

I think sports is a great way for inmates to take their minds off the their time in prison. It is a good way to stay out of trouble and even make stronger bonds between inmates and faculty. Like deskovic states, it plays a large part in inmates life's to help cope and pass the time. If they ever took it away I think it was have terrible consequences for the whole prison.

Mcdonalds is not our kind of place

In the article, "McDonalds Is Not Our Kind Place" the author, Amitai Etzioni argues that jobs like fast food establishments, bowling alleys, etc. are not good places for teens to learn good working skills. Etzioni talks about how different it was in the past when teens used to have lemonade stands and paper routes, which the money was often used to help the family. Etzioni argues that the jobs teens have these day don't provide an opportunity for "self discipline, and self scheduling , like the old-fashioned paper route." He states that these jobs do not give todays teens the opportunity to take initiative nor use their creativity.  These jobs are said to provide a low probability for career incentives and provides no marketable skills. Due to the long hours of these "teenage jobs," kids tend to ignore their school work; thereby, reflects on the grades of these working teens. Etzioni says that even though some needy teens due use their money to support themselves, others put away their money for college tuitions, cars, or for a major purchase. He also states that many teens spend their money on "elements of American consumerism" like trendy clothes, trinkets, and other things that are big at the time for teens. The fact that these teens get money to buy the things they want, it is not suprising that they would rather work than go to school or do their homework.


Response:

I believe Etzioni does bring up some good points, but also seems like he lacks of experience and knowledge of an American teenager. These days there are many teens that do work at these places and do provide some income to their family, especially if they are in poor conditions. It is true that most of these jobs lead to almost no career but I believe everyone has to start somewhere. There are obviously more places out there than McDonalds that can let a teen learn self discipline and use their creativity, which can help in the future. I think Etzioni focuses on a lot of the negatives of having one of the teen jobs when I believe that having a job at all does a lot of good for teenagers, from keeping them out of trouble to being able to learn the responsibilities of having a job to spending and spending money responsibly.   

Blog #9

   In "Serve or Fail," Dave Eggers talks about how volunteer work can not only benefit our communities, but also benefit the college community. Eggers talks about the possibility of making a service requirement, which he says "wont work everywhere" but would be more likely for college students at four-year institutions. Eggers states that even though many community colleges will not work with this requirement, that it still leaves over six-million other students with more time to volunteer. Eggers brings up the idea that colleges could possibly give credits to students in return of volunteer work, stating "Perhaps every 25 hours of service could be traded for one class credit, with a maximum of three credits a year." Eggers brings up the argument of the time a student spends working at a shelter or a church could be equal to or surpass what he or she learns from other non volunteer activities. Eggers talks about what would happen if college students instead of becoming athletes, become life long volunteers and how it would be "good for everybody."

blog 8

In the article" North Carolina wants state religion, defying First Amendment" link By Riya Bhattacharjee the author talks about Rowan County, a county that wanted to only have one set religion in the area. Most of the county is made up of Christians, but some citizens were left feeling unwelcome because they believed in a different religious view. The fact that they are trying to do this goes against the first amendment but are still trying to get it passed for the state. Some think it is a good idea and some think it is a shame that they are even trying to consider going through with the plan.

I think it is a shame that they are trying to go through with it because doing so can make a lot of people in the county feel very unwelcome. If it goes through, it can even make the entire state look bad, therefore, many may not even want to associate themselves with North Carolina for that reason. They shouldn't be able to go against the first amendment and they should have to follow the same rules as every one else.