Change is Occuring

In American Studies class today we were discussing TV Tokenism. Many believe that minorities, specifically African Americans, are not getting a fair shot at television and movie roles. These people feel that changes need to be made in order to solve this issue. But I feel that this change has already begun. The population in the United states consists of around 75% White Americans and approximately 12% African Americans. Looking at these statistics one should infer that the number of African American actors and actresses would be much less than Caucasian's. Studios are still criticized for having African Americans in supporting roles as opposed to the main characters. I do not agree with this criticizm because the studios are certainly making an effort to have African Americans in main roles. Just a few of many African American movie stars include names such as Will Smith, Hallie Berry, Eddie Murphy, Denzel Washington, Queen Latifah, and Chris Rock. Also, in the very popular television show Gray's Anatomy, two of the main characters are African American and another is Asian American. Although this is not the ideal situation for many minorities and this is still a major problem that needs to be addressed, our society is in the middle of a change and hopefully in the near future this problem will be solved.

A Government in Need of a Leader

The United States of America is in a very difficult situation and the government has many places that need their attention and support.  At this time Barrack Obama is the president elect and he is waiting for his time to step into office.  Because of the delicate spot that America is in there needs to be a president to the nation and make the decisions necessary to get our country back on track. Unfortunately our current President George W. Bush does not feel that he should play as much of an active role in the government now that Obama has been elected. At the same time Obama does not believe that he should take any action until he is officially named the president. During these two and a half months between Obama's election and him being placed in office we really have no leader of our nation. This is a huge problem because we are in a crisis and a president to lead the United States out of this jam is a necessity. I believe that the layoff period between the presidential elections and when the president elect is placed into office should be shortened by at least one month. This would hopefully contribute to solving the controversy of who should act as president an make the decisions to run the nation.

Who's at fault?

In class we have been discussing a video clip about a section of a book written by Al Gore that is promoting the impeachment of Goerge Bush. In the video he relates the situaion to a past situation that was tried in court. There was a teacher who for the past ten years was abusing boys that were students at the school he worked at. And the conflict was who should be punished? The "pathological" abuser or the teachers and adminisrators that knew about these terrible acts but did not do anything to stop him. Although the abuser was "pathological" and could not be reformed, I still believe that it was his actio and he should be penalized. It would have been the ethical thing for the teachers to try and stop this act, but at the same time, can you convict someone for not being ethical. Unless there was a rule or law that enforced the teachers to report this type of thing, just as there is at New Trier, I do not believe that the teachers should be convivted of anything. I agree that it was morally and ethically wrong, but as much as it disgusts me, they did not break any laws and therefor the judge made the correct decision in not convicting the bystanders. I believe that the abuser was the one who broke the law and he is should be rightfully convicted for his actions.

A Flawed System

In college football the champion is not decided by a playoff of a number of the best teams. The wat that it is done is a computer chooses two teams to play in one game against each other. The rest of the top teams don't even get the chance to compete. Also, the only teams that are eligable for the championship game are the teams in one of the six major confrences. These confrences include the Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, Big East, Pac 10, and ACC. Other teams like Utah, who went undefeated this season and beat many big confrence teams, will never get the chance to play for the national championship. Many fans and analysts of the game would prefer to see a playoff of the top eight teams no matter what confrence they come from. Althought it will initially lose money for the NCAA, I feel that keeping the fans happy is much more important and that will ultimately meaqn more money for the NCAA. With a playoff system the BCS will not have to choose the teams they think are the best.

This season was a very contraversial season in college football. There were many teams worthy of playing in the Championship game. This season the game will be between Florida and Oklahoma. Both of these temas have lost a game at some point throughout the regular season. I think that Florida certainly has the right to be in this game, but many would argue that Oklahoma was not the next best team. They did lose to Texas on a nuetral field and many people believe that Texas is the most deserving team seeing as they only lost one game also.

As you can see, the entire system is all very confusing and base on opinion. With a playoff this problem will be solved and there will be no more contraversy.

Big "EGO"

As you may have heard already, one of the premier receivers in the NFL, Plaxico Burress, accidentally shot himself in the thigh. He was at a night club and he had an unauthorized weapon in his pocket. He supposedly accidentally pulled the trigger and shot himself in the leg. What I don't understand is why he was carrying a gun in the first place? and Where is he going that he would need a gun? In my opinion, anyplace where you need a gun to protect yourself is not the best place to be. It was said that he was at a night club. I personally don't know of any night clubs that someone needs a gun to protect themselves. I think that Plaxico thinks he is a target to many average citizens because he is a big time professional athlete. He believes that many people are out to get him, and he is a target to some degree. But that is still no reason to bring an unauthorized gun to night clubs. If your ego is so big that you think people at a night club are out to get you, it would be wise not to go to those types of places. Rather than making that smart decision, Burress decided to bring a gun and put not only himself in danger, but everyone else also. At the very least he could have at least put the safety on. This was just a pathetic decision on the part of Plaxico Burress.

A Change is Needed

In the NFL there are six teams that make it to the playoffs from each confrence. There are 4 divisions in each confrence and the winners of those divisions recieve an automatic bid into the playoffs along with two teams that get wild card slots. In the first roung the two teams with the best records recieve a by into the second round. Then the other two division winners play against the wild card teams to see who advances to the next round. In many cases the wild card teams have a better record than some of the division winners. In the first round the winners of the divisions have home field advantage even if their record is not better than their opponent. I feele that this is a flawed element in the playoffs because I believe that the team with the better record should be rewarded with the advantage. With the current system a team that is clearly better than their opponent may lose because they have to travel a far distance and not have the comfortabuility of being at home. For example, the San Diego Chargers were in a very poor division and won with a record of 8-8. There opponent in the first round was the Indianappolis Colts who came in second in a great division with a record of 12-4. I think that almost evryone picked the colts to win this game and believed that they were the better team. Yet, they still had to go into San diego and win on the road, which is very hard to do. I believe that if the rule was changed so that the team with the best regular season record should recieved home field advantage. This should help to keep the best teams in the playoffs and ultimately find the true champion.