I am interested in writing about gay and lesbian families and relate issues of homosexuality to television shows like Ellen, Will and Grace, and Roseanne. I can't wait to hear others ideas monday in class. This past week of class I really enjoyed hearing others opinions and thoughts. ****Christina will you be teaching any classes next fall? IF so, any Junior Tiers. I recommended your class. Plus I would like to take a class with you again.

I chose to answer the question that delt with the issue of teen pregnancies. I chose this question because I found it to be one of the more intersting topics that we read about. Also, I feel that it is a very imortant issue that is becoming a problem among teenagers. I feet personally that america in general is "lazy" when it comes to topics such as these. Our government needs to start getting involved with the issue instead of just brushing it aside, like offering free or reduced birth control instead of charging the ridiculous prices that they do. I also feel if there weren't as many teenage pregnancies then maybe this would help solve the problem of so many people being dependent on welfare. Just a little something to think about.

Edited by author 05-17-2002 03:27 PM
Well, I thought I liked the text, "American Families" more than "The Way We Never Were," but I am now convinced I don't. The essays are one-sided and unfair the way they are written. As we mentioned before, Coontz knows a lot about this topic, but pushes her own personal view onto the reader too much. As for the test essay, I wrote on the way America is changing in the workplace. I understand the points of the workers interviewed, and how they want to protect their jobs. However, I have traveled overseas quite a lot, and I have dealt with people in the business industry to see how they conduct business and observe their work ethic. It is by far, better than what I have be subjected to here in the states-especially in the United Kingdom. I personally feel America has become lazy, and we need to take a hard look at some of the immigrants that come here with nothing, and prosper. I recall many times getting on the phone to call a company pertaining to business, only to be bounced around ending up on some answering machine. Furthermore, I have worked in offices where people purposely set the answer machine to say they are out of the office so they don't have to be bothered. We in America have lost that professionalism, not only in the workplace, but in our colleges and schools. I think we need to wake up and take notice of what is happening to out ethical views, and not go off complaining about finding an Indian here, and and Asian there, but look at ourselves and ask how we can do better. I still remember JFK's words, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," and believe we need to apply this kind of philosophy to our to our inner self

I chose to answer the question about same-sex marriages. I decided to write about this topic, not only because it was the last topic discussed in class, but because I know a same-sex couple personally. Now, they have been together for a long time, and even helped raise one of the partner's children, however they do not want to get married. Even though that is the case, I think they should have that option if they wanted. Since they have been together for so long and live together, what would happen to one partner if they decided to break up. That partner has no rights to any of the possessions that they have obtained together. Is it me, or does that not seem fair?

I chose to answer the question pertaining to teenage childbearing. It is an extremely complicated issue and it is impossible to come to one simple conclusion to solve the problem, therefore I found it difficult to organize my thoughts in an essay format. My emotions played a big part in the way I answered my question. It angers me the way some people stereotype young mothers as wanting children just to get $90 more in welfare. And although I've never known an impoverished mother personally, it still angers me when they are blamed for their situation. There are so many factors that come into play that result in a vicious cycle of poverty, and although it's easy for many to say that these people are lazy, which some of them most certainly are, it is not true that all of them are. Many of them have no other choice, or very limited and poor ones at that.

Larae, like me, wrote on an emotional topic. Mine, however, will remain for the most part a mystery, since I am no longer working with a friend who became a lesbian several years after I first knew her. This week our topic in class about gays and the ensuing brouhaha over it made me challenge some long-held ideas and beliefs. I don't believe we have the right as individuals to foist our personal belief systems on certain sections of the population. This is tatamount to discrimination of another kind, only this time, it blankets not only blacks, but all races who may have gays in their ranks. And blankets smother. We need to understand that everyone--man, woman, child, black, ethnic, gay, or straight--has the inalienable right to pursue their own happiness in whatever manner they so choose, as long as no one is harmed in that pursuit. We don't have to approve it or condone it. It is not our right as human beings to judge what others clearly see as right for them. We only need to judge what is right for ourselves as individuals. To that end, whether we like the idea of gay or not, we need only accept it and those who choose to practice it. Put yourself in their shoes and try to feel how they must feel. They are only trying to give love in the only way comfortable and natural for them. And isn't that what we do? Think about being heterosexual in a GAY society, and having to endure ridicule and hate because of who you are and what you represent. Paints a quite different picture, doesn't it? All I'm saying is, as Lennon very eloquently put it--"Give Peace a chance." Until we can live in harmony, accept others as we hope to be accepted, there will be no peace. Reflect on that. (And forgive the soapbox.)

I chose to complete Question #2 involving Gabrielle Raley's article "No Good Choices". It took me quite some time to thoughtfully answer this question. Although I had both read and reread the essay, drawn a rough outline of my argument and answer, and reconsidered it several times, I still found it difficult to provide what I felt was a justified, adequate answer. There is so much to be said about the issue of teenage childbearing. When given a chance, one may not know where to begin, nor where to end. I suppose that this is where the mechanics of rhetoric comes into play. I found, through this exercise, that I often go for the "pathos" appeal. In most instances, I balance it with logic.

For this particular quiz, and on this particular issue, I let my emotion attached to it cloud and confuse my writing. I do not live in poverty. I have not carried or bore a child. I have had expensive, college preparoatory training. In other words, the desolate teen in Raley's essay does not represent me. But it represents many of those I know. I could live in a well-to-do neighborhood. I could afford to go to a college prep high school. I received support and education about sexual commodification. But why is that? Because my mother has gained an economic foothold that has left me advantaged. And how did she gain that foothold? Through her father, my grandfather, who was determined to send her through college (here at OU to be exact) so that she could do so in her lifetime. You see, I look at my family and see that I have been one of the few lucky ones who are not in the cycle of despair, yet my position allows me to observes others and see this desperate cycle taking place before my eyes. I see my friends who couldn't attend private schools drop out of disadvantaged public ones where they used our old books. I see them struggle with work at McDonald's. I see them become pregnant. I see them hopeless and regretful. That is where my emotion comes from. And it is from that emotional basis that I answered the question about teenage childbearing.

I am anxious to see how THAT turned out!