Journal Entry - Lesson 9

Entry one-
I plan to continue to follow SJR 21 in the Alaska Legislature to see if there is any more information available for my research paper. I will also continue to check the newspapers in both Fairbanks and Anchorage as well as view the comments from the Financial Committee. I would like to make a chart showing a few other states and how many legislators they have per population. Then it will be easier to compare the statistics with Alaska.

Entry two-
For my research paper I have already visited the Division of Elections office here in Fairbanks. I may need to go back and gather some more information on the district boundaries. I also plan to visit the Writing Center weekly to have them check my paper for errors and see if they have any ideas as far as expanding or improving my paper.

Entry three-
A research paper that is eight to ten pages long can be threatening, but I don’t feel threaten. I also don’t feel confident. I feel more overwhelmed because of the time involved for research, pre-writes including drafts, and the final touches. The paper is my FINAL! I have never had to write a paper for a final. To me, English is a very hard subject compared to Math. Math is black and white. There may be different ways to come up with the answer for a problem, but the answer will always be the same. There are rules in English, but every instructor grades differently. I have found this out from getting help at the Writing Center up on UAF's campus. What one person thinks needs to be changed, another person will disagree. Se-la-vie.

Journal Entry - Lesson 8

Entry One-
The ad for Old Spice Cologne in the essay ""Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt"; Advertising and Violence" on pp. 421 of Rereading America, shows a young man leaning over a young woman. The young woman has her hand pushing against the young man’s chest. They both appear to be laughing. Above the picture is the word “NO” in very large letters. Then down on the bottom is a lot of small print with two words “sweat” and “proof” printed in bold letter. This ad clearly is sending two messages. Supposedly the young woman is saying no to the young man, and yet it shows them both smiling and laughing. This gives viewers the impression that when a woman says no, she really does not mean it. This clearly dehumanizes women and leads to the abuse of woman. It is no different than pornography! Women are shown as objects and not as a person with feelings. It is very demoralizing!

Entry Two-
My research paper is on a bill that will increases the Alaska State Legislature from sixty seats to seventy-two seats. If it is approved by the Legislature, Alaska State Voters will be voting on it in November. The Legislature states that one of their reasons for wanted to add more legislators is to help reduce the boundaries on some of the bush districts, specifically Senator Kookesh’s district. The senators district spans over 1000 square miles. Looking at the House District map provided by the Division of Elections (http://www.elections.alaska.gov/maps.php), it is hard to imagine how adding more legislature will improve this condition. According to the Legislative notes, the population in the rural areas is decreasing while the population in the larger cities like Anchorage and Fairbanks continues to increase. This means that the larger rural districts will continue to remain large in order to maintain an average population in each of the districts.

Entry Three
My thesis statement for my research paper is: Increasing the Alaska State Legislature from sixty members to seventy-two members will not benefit Alaska State residents because it will increase the costs of government without giving better representations to the people. It also will not change the fact that population in the larger cities continues to increase while population in the bush areas continues to drop. I believe it is a strong statement. It has a central idea and supportive evidence.

Reading Another Person's Blog

I must say that I enjoy reading another person's blog, especially when it is one of my children. It is a great way to keep in touch and share pictures. English journal blogs are not as interesting. I did view a few blogs from my English class. I commented on Zack Richard's blog. It was interesting because he talked about Tiger Woods and all the media coverage on him. Do we get extra credit points for commenting on someone else's blog?

Journal Entry - Lesson 7

My essay on "Amendment to Expand the Legislature," is directed to the voters of Alaska. The essay’s thesis is: "Increasing the Alaska State Legislature from sixty members to seventy-two members will not benefit Alaska State residents because it will increase the costs of government without giving better representations to the people. Also, it will not change the fact that population in the larger cities continues to increase while population in the bush areas continues to drop." It has a strong thesis because it has a claim with three supporting reasons.

I believe the audience can be swayed by this essay because the works cited from the legislative notes are contradictory. In one place a senator says that this will make the district boundaries in the rural areas smaller and in another place another senator states that the boundaries in the rural areas will stay pretty much the same due to population decreases in those areas. The legislators that are over districts covering large areas will continue to have a hard time being able to visit all of the villages and cities in their area. Another reason is because the voters in the State of Alaska have continued to vote against more government spending.

I have used sources from the U.S. government as well as from the Alaska State Constitution and Legislature. Even though these sources are from the web, they are very creditable.

Journal Entry - Lesson 6

Political cartoon by Sven Van Assche

The political cartoon by Sven Van Assche from the Darien Times depicts a young girl standing in front of an open door. The opening is dark and has many pairs of eyes staring back. On the door is labeled “Internet Chat Rooms.” On the side is written, “Knock, knock” and “Who’s there.” The cartoon is portraying the controversy over whether there needs to be some kind of regulation of the internet to protect children from predators.

With the increase of accessibility to the internet by children, is it legally right for the government to regulate the internet for the protection of children? Does this violate a person’s civil rights? Whose responsibility is it to keep our children safe?

We have talked in our church about what we can do as parents, so if I were going to write a paper on this cartoon, the thesis would be:

They are three things that a parent can do in order to protect their child from predators on the internet. First, make sure their computer is placed in a high traffic area of the home. Second, use an internet filtering tool. Third, teach your children how to use the internet safely.

Discrimination against Alaskan workers

The website http://alaskaworkers.com explains that Project Labor Agreements (PLA) discriminates against Alaska’s workforce. Many of the recent government jobs have union only PLAs. In Alaska, only about 17% of the construction workers are union employees. This means that the most construction workers do not qualify for government jobs and are finding it difficult to obtain employment. The Alaska Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) urge voters to contact their legislator and ask them to quit discriminating against Alaskan hire by eliminating the PLA.

My thesis would be:

Project Labor Agreements (PLA) discriminates against Alaskan worker because only a small percentage of the workers in Alaska are union employees; because taxes from non-union workers go to support many of the projects that have a PLA; and because unions generally hire workers by seniority which could place a worker living outside of Alaska being hired before an Alaskan worker.