Minimum Wage

                                                                                                              May 1 2015

Minimum Wage
Grannt Epstein



       The last time the federal minimum wage was raised was back last increased on July 24, 2009, when it rose from $6.55 to $7.25 (according to the website which linked here). That was  six years ago. Six years. To put that in perspective six years ago teenagers who just entered High-school as a nooby Freshmen are now out of collage looking for a job on the still struggling market, and yet I sit here today with the same $7.25 per hour, 
      
      In the article "Why We Should Raise the Minimum Wage" by CNBC says that raising the minimum wage from $7.25  to $10.10 will lift "900,000 people out of poverty" which is an extraordinary thing to accomplish. That is nearly one million people. One million people is one and every three hundred people.  This effects more people than you might first originally think. It has even effected me.

      My friends father first graduated collage in the late 80's and had to work for a minimum wage job while he was looking for a job that fit his degree. It was like he was a leaf blowing in the wind, and he couldn't stop. He struggled. For a few years. Do you think that if he had an extra three dollars every hour, that maybe he wouldn't have to live on the borderline? Because that 900,000 would deferentially need it. But that is mainly what this article leaves out. 

      That people are people. All 900,000 is is a number. But to hear a story is different, which is what the article does wrong in my opinion.
  
      The article also mentions that there are some successes as well as fails. This is true in my life. I feel like many times it doesn't necessarily need to be the big victory, rather it can be a gradual change. You don't have to move a mountain all at once, rather you can move a pebble at a time. 

     The article shows these small victories when talking about things like how "Seattle, Washington.....[showed] that the minimum wage could be raised to as much as $15 dollars an hour". This is like how I was able to reach my goal. I wanted to run a 5k in less than 20 minutes. I did this not looking at the 20 every race and trying to brake it, rather I would go every race and try and take 10-30 seconds off. Guess what? It worked.

     Although it took me a while, I finally did break 20 and got 19:32. It was because like the article said to look at the small steps which will lead you to concur the mountain.

Nuke Deal

         

     Grannt Epstein
    Article: Obama Fights back against Israeli Criticism over Nuke Deal

     Prompt: Make a text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world connection to the book 

    This past week President Obama has made a historic deal with Iran. It is truly amazing. The group of nations, now on the cusp of 7 years working on the deal, have finally reached a deal. That is not what this article is about, Obama Fights back against Israeli Criticism over Nuke Deal.
 
   This article is about someone who didn't go to fight over a serious issue rather the two talked about the issues like mature adults. Even though there were some parties who didn't want to see this spectacular deal go through. Which is even a larger reason to praise the deal.

    In spite of all the odds. All the pressures from both side. Mature talks occurred. This reminds me of when I was about twelve years old and discussing something very important to me. My Bar Mitzvah..

    I was twelve years old and began my own negotiations with an opposition at the time. My parents. They had wanted me to have a more traditional style of party. What I had wanted wasn't what they had wanted for me. I wanted to go at Dave and Busters and have a huge party, with lots of people, and food.

    So what did we do? We did what mature people do. We sat down at a table and came back and forth discussing the issues. It took weeks, to me it was as long as seven years. We saw the different pros and cons for both of what we wanted. At the very end, we reach a deal, just like like with the nuke deal.

   In the end, I didn't get all I wanted, but neither did my parents. That is apart of life. You don't get a hundred percent of what you want. Rather life is a road filled with bumps, and you choose how they affect you and those around you.

   This article talks about how right wing Israeli leaders came to tell us why to go against peace. Thank goodness we didn't take the bate. Obama stood his ground and we got a fabulous deal. This means a lot for American-Iranian relations as well.

  Just like with me, good things come by talking and that is the most important thing to take away.  

    

Theme statement: Individual Self-Expression Is Important

Theme statement: Individual Self-Expression Is Important

Group Members: Marina Walters, Rebecca Shu, MacKenzie Miller, Grannt Epstein, and Anthony Lev

Bell 4

Three specific textual examples from the book that show how this theme is developing:      

1. “‘ It doesn’t think anything we don’t want it to think.’”

Bradbury, Ray. "The Hearth and the Salamander." Fahrenheit 451. New York: Del Rey Book, 1991. 27. Print.

2. ‘ Nobody listens anymore. I can’t talk to the walls because they’re yelling at me. I can’t talk to my wife; she listens to the walls. I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough, it’ll make sense. ‘“ (pg. 82)

Bradbury, Ray. "The Sieve and the Sand." Fahrenheit 451. New York: Del Rey Book, 1991.

82. Print.“

3. “...and if the men were silent it was because there was everything to think about and much to remember. Perhaps later… when the sun was up and had warmed them, they would begin to talk, or just say the things they remember...’” (pg.164-165)

Bradbury, Ray. "Burning Bright." Fahrenheit 451. New York: Del Rey Book, 1991. 164-65. Print.

Timeline of Theme

Part 1:

• Montag, in the beginning showed his patch to others to show that he was a fireman. (Firemen were those at the time lit fires instead of extinguish fires) The salamander was had thought to have lived in fire and wasn't affected by it. This was also given to the name of the firetrucks to “show the flame.”

• A woman in the book burnt herself with her books to symbolize that she would rather die than let firemen burn them. It states, “The woman's hand twitched on the single matchstick. The fumes of kerosene bloomed up about her.” (Page 49) Guy also shows his curiosity (his true self) by stealing a book and hiding it in his coat to read later.

 Part 2:

• Towards the middle of the book Montag had started to be more open with his thoughts about the burning of books. He was standing up for them and putting himself out there to try to save the books to show the society how important they really are. He believes that if he starts to show his feelings for the books then he could possibly make a change in making a more perfect society.

Part 3:

• In the middle of the book, Montag and the people in his society are censored from the government if they have books, this is a part of self-reflection. Though throughout the end of the book, things begin to change when the war starts. When the old government is destroyed, the men who will bring their own self-expression start to head towards the city. In the end of the book, when the “men were silent it was because there was everything to think about and much to remember”(pg164-5) shows how the theme had evolved throughout the book. At this point the people are now free from the government's control. Now that they are free from the censorship, they can be more open to self-expression.   

Individual self expression allows Montag to make changes to the world and create a different way of thinking for the people in the city, by the end of the book people are memorizing whole books about self expression without the self expression nothing would have changed.

Individual self-expression can be seen in our modern-day society when we look at the tv show “Modern Family” when individual characters such as how Cam chooses to express himself by trying to go back into teaching again, this is important to the theme by showing it in a modern contexts.

e-mail

Prompt: Discuss why you were interested in picking up this article.

           Here is a link to the article about Clinton's email  . I had heard about what had happen, and let me sum it up. What happened was is that when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, which was from 2009-2012. During this time she had been using a non government email. This means that anyone who wanted to see her emails couldn't as easily. She had said that it would have been too much work to have two phones. What is stating in the article is how this may ruin her chase for 2016, and how she it is going to effect her negatively.

           This first of all, isn't illegal like most people say it is. Under the guidelines, there is not specific penalty for using the private email. Also, Secretary of State's before Hillary also held a private email. Which shows the hypocrisy in the opposition who say this is a terrible thing. Even though they did not criticize previous Secretary of State's who did this before Hillary ever stepped foot in office.

         I think that this is a very minor thing that Hillary Clinton had done. This is just early Presidential politics talking. People who want to find, or create dirt on Hillary Clinton before she starts her campaign in 2016. This shows how weak the opposition is to Hillary. The best thing they could find was the fact she didn't use the government email she was given. It shouldn't be that big of a deal to people. If this is the strongest case against Hillary, then she is very likely will go on to do great in the Primaries. If she is lucky, she may do well too, in the General Election.

Fahrenheit 451

      In the book Fahrenheit 451, the use of fear is a large part of what happens in the book. The use of this fear can contribute to many of the things wrong in the book. Such as a society which rejects the knowledge of the past. So much so that a person who dares challenges this society will loose there house. I feel that the book was used not to spread the idea that Communism was bad, rather that a totalitarian society is wrong. Also that people need to change society, they don't need to be special. This can be seen when Faber takes it to himself that he should be the one who fixes the world by starting to print books again.
      This shows the multiple perspectives in the book, such as the fact that in the book Faber lives a life of fear, while Montag just wants to change things and doesn't care how. It seems that throughout the book, others who may appear as a 2D person, may actually be more than just that. Such as the head of the fire department, he seemed just to be a man who was doing his job, but in the end, he seemed different. He seemed to know that what he was doing was wrong, and didn't know what to do.

Fat Boy Chronicles

·       Book: Fat Boy chronicles 

      Prompt:   Write a post about predictions where you suggest future plot events and/or ask questions you have about what you have read so far.  

                    In the book The Fat Boy Chronicles Jimmy is a freshmen in high school. He is being bullied because he is over weight, and it is based off of a kid who went to Mason High School. He wanted a weight lifting set for Christmas and has just gotten it. So I think that Jimmy will start and loose weight by using the gym set, even though it seems like he is beginning to loose interest in trying to loose weight. Paul is one of Jimmy's friends and his father tears him down. I also predict that Paul, Jimmy's friend will begin to stop talking to him over time because his father is pushing him over the edge, and will cut himself off from the rest of the world. 

              In the book Allen (another over weight kid) and Jimmy are picked on so they go to the principle and talk to him (Mr. Gardener) about what is happening. I have is how come the Principle hasn't done anything even though he promised he would keep an eye out for Jimmy?In the book, a kid named Spencer is a friend of Jimmy's and had made the JV soccer team (he is a freshmen so it is a big deal to him) and is starting to sit at the "jocks" table, though he still sticks up for Jimmy. I also am curious about weather or not Spencer will still stick up for Jimmy even though he is becoming more and more disconnected with Allen and Jimmy. If you are interested in reading The Fat Boy Chronicle then you can click on the hyperlink. 

Aerospace Orion

Grannt Bell 4

·             Writing Prompt: Write a letter to the author about your thoughts/opinions on the book/article.

                     After reading the Magazine called Aerospace, the article I am commenting on is about how the missions for Orion. It is the new space capsule for NASA. I like how they are trying to move forward with the space program after the space shuttle program ended. The only problem is that the program is moving to slow. The first crew launch for the Orion craft is for 2021. By this point other nations will begin to catch up with the USA when the USA is going to have it's first crew launch. For the past few decades NASA has been leading in space innovation and now that the space shuttle program is over, NASA has been doing non-man missions now for the past few years, while other nations like China and Russia begin to catch up to us. Also when an idea for the space program comes around, you see it not work out after one administration comes to an end.   

                   The other problem with the SLS (Space Launch System, the name of the rocket on Orion) is that there is no planned goals for it. You have some mission outlines, but traditionally the rocket is given a clear purpose. An example would be the Saturn V, which was used to get the US to the moon. While with the SLS there is no clear goal. You can see this because of the mission outline. The first mission is to go around the moon then to go to a asteroid. But this doesn't give a clear goal for the rocket rather a series of missions for the rocket. But I do like how the wanting of exploration with the rocket to further our knowledge about manned space exploration. In conclusion I think that the space program needs a more clear path for SLS and move along faster then they are doing so right now. 

I Am Malala

    11/4/14

       

     Grannt 
       
       For me the central idea for my book, I am Malala  is struggle. I have seen this throughout the text that for Malala and all of those around her It's all about the struggle. Malala is a girl in Pakistan and her struggle is her fight for education. Her father is owner of a school and he is struggling to keep it alive. A picture is shown to give you an idea of what these characters look like. The struggle of the characters changes throughout the story of Malala's life. Like seen when she is having to choose if she should still go to school even when the Taliban are threatening her indirectly. Her father has to go through the struggle of his life dream (which is the school) or his own life when the it becomes dangerous to have a school when the Taliban are going around and killing people who don't follow there ways. 
      I like how the article about how poor children struggle more then those who have money in school. It also talks about how collages are charging a higher rate at an increasingly fast rate. This causes those student to not be able to afforded collage, or have to drop out because the loans are too high. You can see connections to the story about Malala and how she fights for education. This would lead her to search for opportunities for herself in order to improve her life through education. Both of the pieces have an emphasis on the importance of education. Both talk about the struggle for those who aren't necessarily going to get the higher education like they should be given. In Pakistan it is for girls above the age of 10, while in the article it is for people who are trying to go to collage.

       

Grannt's third post on the Color of Water

·        10/16/14

         Book: The Color of Water

     Grannt 

     Prompt: Make a text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world connection to the book (You could easily write a paragraph on each and create links to other sites, videos, etc).

    

                 A text to self connection between me and The Color of Water is the fact me and Ruth are both Jewish. This will give me a deeper connection to the book. I get the connection by seeing things in my Jewish life, and seeing in the book. When I see things like how Ruth speaks Yiddish, and how my grandmother speaks Yiddish as well, I can fee the connection to Ruth as is with my grandmother. I could also have a connection with Ruth in the fact that she has strong morals just like the Rabbi at my Synagogue.

               

               I also have a connection with James in the book because I too was curious about my heritage.  You could see this when James is asking questions to his mom about where she is from and what happened to her family members. I did the same thing with my parents when I was young. The difference is that when I ask, I got a very detailed responds from both my parents. This connection allows me to get a deeper feel for the character of James, along with the books as a whole. 

       -Grannt Bell 4 

  

1984

Grannt Epstein

•  Describe the setting of the novel.  Include details about the time and place as well as lines from the book that include good imagery.  

                  In the book 1984, George Orwell talks about how life is in the totalitarian state of Oceania in London after a nuclear war. The main characters name is Winston Smith. You are not allowed to keep a journal, yet Winston does. London is a gloomy place in this timeline. Winston begins to question the role of government in his journal. Also the mentality of the people is different as children are interested in hangings. " ' They're dissipation that they couldn't see the hanging'..... 'Want to see the hanging! Chanted the little girl,"(pg 23). 

g               Also you see the mentality of the government with the slogan of "War is peace, freedom is slavery". This shows how the government is taking control of the people by changing the way they think. And Winston is beginning to question all of it. This is a brave think of him to do, when the thought police is watching you even in your house. The houses are very plain and in bad condition because they were made in the 1930's. I find the book to be really good. 

g

- -Grannt Epstein 

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Grannt Epstein

         Book/Magazine: October 2014:  Astronomy Magazine

         Prompt:

  What have you learned? Discuss new ideas, concepts, or facts you have gained by reading.

             There are many things that I learned when I read the October edition of Astronomy. Some of the things I have learned is that Titan (one of Saturn's largest moons) has a different history than the history of Saturn. This may suggest that Titan formed by itself, in the earlier times of the solar system, and was caught by Saturn's gravity. A NASA article is shown http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Titan, this is giving more information on the topic. 

              Also other interesting information about Titan is coming out. Scientist may think that Titan may have waves. "Now scientists say they may have seen short lived structures atop a sea- surface waves," (pg 14). This shows how the scientists think that they have seen a small island appear and disappear because of the waves on Titan. This is intersecting because we have only seen waves on our planet.