BROWNSTONES TO RED DIRT

(This potrait came from the the website btorposcard.blogspot.com)




'THE BROWNSTONES TO RED DIRT'






Brownstones to Red Dirt was a documentary film that I watched at the Seattle Film Festival on the 29th of May on Queene Anne Washington. My job today regarding this film, is to write a blog assignment in the comparison of one of the topics of we have duscussed in class.

This film is about a group of six grader children from Brooklyn's Bed-Study Projects and a group of six grader children who are ophans from Sierra Leone whose lives' were brutally distroyed during a civil war and happen to have one thing in commun and no one is willing to give them a chance.

The story discribes how these two groups find one another through a pen and Paper pal program that not only brings solution to their lives. But, also they want to show society that they can make this worl become a better place by counting on each other.

The Sierra Leone civil war began in 1991 by the Revolutionary United under Sanko more then ten thousands people died and 2 million lives were distroyed and displaced during this tragedy because of the 11 year conflict. Lots of refugees were attempting to get away, because they were afraid that there would be more trouble for them due to the fact the cival war was on and they did not want to deal with it. It was officially stopped on the 18th of January of 2002.

What really made the film one of the most powerful fimls ever is that after the mass devastastion, that was caused by the rebels in the village of Sierra Leone leaving so many people homeless. A group of six graders from Sierra Leone who were left parentless and this other group of six graders from Borookyn New York had found joy in becoming aquainted by exchanging letters to each other. The Sierra Leone's kids had a few things in their minds wondering if it is really true that in Ney York, people have light in their houses twenty four hours a day seven days a week. While the New York children kept asking themselves whether or not there is skateboarding in Sierra Leone. It was so great to see how those children wre connected by reading each others' letters and learning things about each others' lives, it was really fantastic to actually see their emotions and joy by learning each others' story.

The things these two groups have in commun is that most of them are in the same age group and are minorities. You could see their sincerity towards each other through their letters. It was so unforotunate for the Sierra children that some of the girls had to live adult's lives by becoming prostitutes, and some of the boys were forced to become male dominants, they got involeved into gangs in order to show retaliations. Due to the lack of insecurity and other inhumane circumstances,the children had no choice but doing anything the could just to survive. The Brooklyn children, fortunately for them, they had some parental guardians along with a roof over their heads that would give them some opportunities to enjoy life better than the the Sierra's Village children. Another simililarity that has occured between the two groups was that the poverty and gang violence in Bed-study/Marcy Park in Brooklyn New York seemed to kill its children. Both of the groups are literally, as they are either guned down or forced to premature adulthood. These two groups' correspondences of two different worlds is heart refreshing and rejoycing. Rather than seeing life as abnormal than it already is, they chose to rise and shine by bringing happiness and sharing their personal respective lives of each other.

I can mostly and honestly relate this film to two of the greatest Films that we had discussed in class as they were tow major topics. God Father was a movie that we watched outside of the calss as one of our assignments and Boys 'N' the Hoods was an in class note taking assignment. God Fsather was a movie that soke about masculinity, male dominated, capitalisms, people with power and high class including violences. Boys 'N' the Hoods was about poor class families living in poor-class neihborhoods where violence and gangs dwell. Young black males could not seem to get along to each other, so they found a way of guning eachother's down with rage in a way of showing their menhoods and musculinities.

In conclusion, the film was well done and it was also hard for me to watch as minority. As I was sitting in that movie theater watching that documentary, I saw myself in that film, being born and raised in a third world conuntry made me realized what it is like to deal with tough time. What made it harder for me was for the simple fact that the sierre Leone children had to go through this tough time as young as they were. In addition to that, the children from Brooklyn had to see and learn about the turmoils from this young group of children who has turned out to be one of their kinds were pretty painful.

My only critic on that film, is that those local movie producers/makers tend to use their power, vigorously, philosophically by going to these poor villages all over the worl in order to make a good living. As a result to that, my opinion is that they went to these less fortunate countries manipulatively by taking advantage of their powerless governments by making tons of million dollars. It has been very cleared to the worl that the children from Sierra Leone's lives have already been vandalized and distroyed drastically by the rebels of their own country. That would be the very last thing they would have endured to having movie makers enter their homeland, to making them into actors/actresses with pay, instead of supporting them financially, and couragously. I think it is away of stereo typically showing the society what it is like to be black and poor simulteneously, while many poor European countries are seemed to be ignored by the media. I wonder why is the media so diplomatic about showing the poverty in some poor European cities? The answer is very simple. It is just plain politics.

Thank you vey much,

POSTED BY: ABNER RICHET

PROFESSORS: RUTH GRGORY AND RACHEL DAVID

RISE N' SHINE

"RISE N' SHINE"



The 22nd of May, I was instructed by my professor Ruth Grogory to watch 5 short films at the Seattle International Film Festival in Capitol Hills Seattle, Washington. The cause for watching those short films, is a wayof showing my participation in the class. Furthermore, I would write a blog on one of the films that I enjoyed the most and compare it to one of the topics we have been discussing in class. And post the blog as part of my final grades. My job is to write one blog or two about those short 5 films I watched and give my thoughts and how they're related between one of the topics we have discussed in class.


One of the movies that I really enjoyed and payed close attention to was Rise n' Shine. I can definitely relate the Rise in Shine film to disabled people which has appeard to be one of the most interesting subjects that we have been discussing in class on week 7 assignments. After listening to Ms. Miller's testimonies, it reminded me of the disabled people who have been taking advantaged of by abled people because of their conditions. On the book, America on Film (360). It talks about how the society sees people with disability diferently as signs of evil, and the medical model treats them as genetic or biological conditions that objectively could affect anyone. A lot of forign countries in the world that are misdeveloped, seem to have the tendency of treating disabled people in a different way because of their disability situations. Some people are afraid of being asciated with disabled pepeole because they think, being disable is a contagious deasese, and they think that they can become infected if there is any closeness.


Rise n' Shine is about a young woman named Relina Miller who was only fourteen years old, and found herself at the wrong place and in the wron time. From what I observed from watching the movie, she was in a wild party which included alchohol, adults, young adults, some family members, profanity languages were beeing used. Then, one thing lead to another, so, she became a victimizer by being rapped by a relative of her who happend to be her uncle. Later, she found out that she was affected with HIV. From that moment on, her life has changed very drastically, she has been humiliated by her friends, her class-mates would not give her a chance to get closer to them because they were afraid that they would be getting infected by illness.




Ms. Miller became a great support for other teens who are HIV positve by telling them what can happen to them as a result if they are not careful who they are associating with. She traveled all over the nation speaking lively to others such as people her age by giving them advise. She has been in many organizations such as TV shows being an activist for people who are HIV positive especially teenagers. She wants them to know it is not easy to be an HIV positive in America, and that they need to be very cautious and know who their surroundings are if not, it would be a great risk taken for their lives as young-teens.



It was so unfortunate for Ms. Relina miller To go through such a horrible time in her life as young as she was. I really admired her for her determination and encouragement, inspide of what has happened, she chose to move forward and learned how tro beat the depression of sickeness. She's shown the society that people who are HIV positive and disable can live life just as normal as non-HIV and abled people. She is now 31 years old and still living in the Seattle area as a single mother raising 2 beautiful daughters from the age of 5 to 11. According to her testimony, she is one the infected women to live longer with HIV in America.



My point is, the society dos not need to be so hard and skeptical on people who are different from others who are fortunate and capable of doing normal things in life . HIV andf disabeled people are people just like the rest of us, They need to be treated like human being and be seen like normal poeple, and be accepted like everyone else. Relina's willingness gives people who are HIV positive hope, she wants them to know you can stfill enjoy life if you think positively and follow your doctor's advises.



POSTED BY: ABNER T. RICHET



PROFESSORS: RUTH GREGORY AND RACHEL DAVID



CLASS: INTERDISCIPLINARY

RACE IN THE UNITED STATES

This blog has been posted several weeks ago, but I was asked by Rachel and Ruth to rewrite it again, so if you like to leave comments, please, feel free to do so. It's mainly for professor Ruth Gregory and Rachel David...................Thank you,

Today I want to rewrite my blog on Race in the United States of America

I myself as a black man living in America as an immigrant I see myself fitted in the same category as African American, because that is how the American society see me as When they see me, in their mind, I belong to the African American Community until they start hearing my accent. Their assumption is that I am either African or an islander. Does it really matter what race you are? Why do some people in America make such a big deal on race? Why cannot we live our lives as one people?

What is race?

To some people, race can be defined in different ways.

Mr. F. Haney Lopez, who is a Professor at Harvard University defines “race as a vast group of people loosely bound by historically contingent, socially significant elements of their morphology and/ancestry”. He continues by saying “that I argue that race must be understood a sui generis social phenomenon in which contested system of meaning serve as the connections between physical features, races, and personal characteristic.”

Race plays a major role in America which includes African American, Hispanic, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American, and Middle Eastern. United States of America is a great place of success that gives everybody opportunity to become anything you choose to be. To me personally, it should not matter what race you come from, the opportunity should be there for everyone to be successful.

When it comes to people of color, especially Black Americans, it can appear to be a little challenging for them. In order for African-Americans to make it big in America they have to work twice as hard to be on the top because of their race. As an example I am using Ms. Josephine Baker, that woman was born and raised in the United States. She was on her way to becoming a super star and enjoying life like any individual as a citizen of this country (United States). Because she was a woman of color, she found life very difficult to enjoy her career in her own country. After all the turmoil she was facing, she felt the obligation to leave the United States and moved to a European Country (France) to enjoy life. There, she was not seen as a black woman rather than a regular super star entertaining people in general. After she gained her fame, she was able to return to America (Foolish her for coming back) If I were in her position, I would not come back to a place were I was not accepted.

Growing up in Haiti which is considered one of the most poor countries in the Northern Hemisphere makes me realize what it is like to be a minority. When I was in Haiti, I had witnessed prejudice and racism as well.....Haiti is one of the countries in the Western Caribbean Islands that has what we call caste system. There, we find High Class and Poor Class, the middle class is so little. In Haiti, there is a race that is called mutates which is stand for light skinned people. Those are the ones who are in control of that island. They see the dark skinned people as inferiors and non-educated. To be dark skinned in Haiti and be successful, you have to work really hard and earn an education from one of the top of well known institutions there. That way you would get access to lots of great things; you can even date the President’s daughter whether she is a light skinned or not. As far as Racism is concerned, I did not have a better idea what racism meant until I came to The United States to actually see the whole picture.



Posted by: Abner Richet

Interdisciplinary class

By: Professors Ruth Gregory, and Rachel David

RACE IN THE UNITED STATES

'RACE IN THE UNITED STATES.'

Today I want to rewrite my blog on Race in the United States of America

I myself as a black man living in America as an immigrant I see myself fitted in the same category as African American, because that is how the American society see me as When they see me, in their mind, I belong to the African American Community until they start hearing my accent. Their assumption is that I am either African or an islander. Does it really matter what race you are? Why do some people in America make such a big deal on race? Why cannot we live our lives as one people?

What is race?

To some people, race can be defined in different ways.

Mr. F. Haney Lopez, who is a Professor at Harvard University defines “race as a vast group of people loosely bound by historically contingent, socially significant elements of their morphology and/ancestry”. He continues by saying “that I argue that race must be understood a sui generis social phenomenon in which contested system of meaning serve as the connections between physical features, races, and personal characteristic.”

Race plays a major role in America which includes African American, Hispanic, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American, Whites, and Middle Eastern. United States of America is a great place of success that gives everybody opportunity to become anything you choose to be. To me personally, it should not matter what race you come from, the opportunity should be there for everyone to be successful.

When it comes to people of color, especially Black Americans, it can appear to be a little challenging for them. In order for African-Americans to make it big in America they have to work twice as hard to be on the top because of their race. As an example I am using Ms. Josephine Baker, that woman was born and raised in the United States. She was on her way to becoming a super star and enjoying life like any individual as a citizen of this country (United States). Because she was a woman of color, she found life very difficult to enjoy her career in her own country. After all the turmoil she was facing, she felt the obligation to leave the United States and moved to a European Country (France) to enjoy life. There, she was not seen as a black woman rather than a regular super star entertaining people in general. After she gained her fame, she was able to return to America (Foolish her for coming back) If I were in her position, I would not come back to a place were I was not accepted.

Growing up in Haiti which is considered one of the most poor countries in the Northern Hemisphere makes me realize what it is like to be a minority. When I was in Haiti, I had witnessed prejudice and racism as well.....Haiti is one of the countries in the Western Caribbean Islands that has what we call caste system. There, we find High Class and Poor Class, the middle class is so little. In Haiti, there is a race that is called mutates which is stand for light skinned people. Those are the ones who are in control of that island. They see the dark skinned people as inferiors and non-educated. To be dark skinned in Haiti and be successful, you have to work really hard and earn an education from one of the top of well known institutions there. That way you would get access to lots of great things; you can even date the President’s daughter whether she is a light skinned or not. As far as Racism is concerned, I did not have a better idea what racism meant until I came to The United States to actually see the whole picture.

Posted by Abner Richet

Interdisciplinary class

Professors: Rught Gregory and Rachel David

HOW SHOULD SEXUALITY BE EXPRESSED PUBLICALLY?

Attention: This blog is not for Professor Ruth Gregory nor Rachel David to grade, but they can read it as long as they choose to. It is for my readers who want to leave their comments. This blog is originally from the first one which has already been posted on time. I just feel the desire to make some corrections that I just discovered by proof reading it.



Dear Ruth and Rachel, my blog was on time and posted the 20th of my before 11.59 p.m.

Below is the on time original blog, please take a look at it
Abner





SEXUALITY IN TODAY'S SOCIETY

'SEXUALITY'

Merriam-Webster Dictionary Describes Sexuality as follows:

"The quality or state of being sexual:"
a:” The condition of having sex"
b: "sexual activity"
c: "The expression of sexual receptivity interest especially when excessive."

In my opinion, the quality of being sexual can be defined as many different aspects when it comes to sexuality. It can be disrobed as caring, kindness, caring for others, and touch in a loving way. The condition of having sex is to be ready and to wait for the right time to come, and to wait for the right person that you know you feel the desire to have it with consensually. The condition of having sex is something that people should not play with, because if you're not careful when it comes to having sex, chances are you may put your life in high risk without being aware of what that can lead to.
For example, you can jeopardize your life by catching diseases if you are doing it in the wrong way with wrong partners, and if a woman who is having sex out of wedlock with different people, she may end up having a hard time raising that child as a single mother.

The expression of sexual receptivity is people who are in the same-sex relationship. Gay and lesbian who are not afraid of showing their sexuality in public and want to be seen and accepted just as well as heterosexual.


When I signed up for, the interdisciplinary class, I did not have any idea that we were actually going to discuss subjects that I am not familiar with. I found it very interesting to learn and to understand different people's background biologically and educationally, especially, the sexuality subject that we have been discussing for the week 8 assignments. We have been learning about heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bi-sexuality. I certainly think it is fun to know about these things in life but at the same time, it can appear to be very uncomfortable for some people to speak in public.
Some people, including me, can feel pretty uncomfortable speaking about sex. Everybody sees sexuality in a different way; maybe it has something to do with the culture that we were raised in. In my Haitian culture, mostly people do not feel open to speak about sex; they think it should be kept private. Especially in respectful family homes, young people can discuss sex with their peers individually. When it comes to discussing sex with parents, it would appear to be a very big step to take. I completely agree with the idea the fact that sex should not be discussed openly. I think it would be very embarrassing, to me, personally as a man to actually bring up the sexual topic as a subject to my mother because I have never been exposed to this type of situation.

In America, people see sex as something normal and feel free to speak about it very openly. They have the freedom to talk about it at any place such as in school, TV, at home, in public etc. Some parents are not afraid to talk to their kids about it, neither some kids, would not have any problems to come to their folks and tell them who they are sleeping with. Sex education is a good way to prevent young girls from getting pregnant at an early age, but not publically. Sex education would also help for young men from making babies with different young women at a very young age as well. In that case, it is a great way to get counseling for stuff like sex in order to avoid these tragedies. I am not speaking about young people specifically but everybody in general.

For an example, I am using the pop singer from American Idol (Adam Lambert). Mr. Lambert was a guest of an American music award show in 2009. When he was called to perform on stage, he started singing very professionally. In the middle of the song, somehow he got carried away or something, and could not help himself. Mr. Lambert allegedly started grabbing himself, doing some dirty dancing, on top of that he actually went to one of his background male dancers, and he aggressively grabbed him towards himself and placed a passionate lasting sexual French kiss onto his lips while millions viewers were watching worldwide. Not to mention, he insulted the American audience with their under aged kids whom he was performing to. After the show, people all over the world, including American people had some unpleasant comments to make on Adam's bad behavior's sexual act. Some of his fans came out with some blog comments stating that he was being stereotyped while others thought he was singled out for exposing himself on stage. He himself said to the American people, that it was a way of showing his sexuality.

The following week after the show, he was seen in numerous TV shows, such as CNN, The View, Ellen DeGeneres, Oprah, Joy Behar you name it he was actually all over the place being interviewed by the media. He was severely being interrogated with some tough questions demanding an apology from him for his behavior to the American people that thought his on stage homosexual behavior was inappropriate for a night time TV show. A lot of families and their kids were in the audience and at home watching the show that night. When He was told that what he did was wrong that he owed the viewers an apology, he replied with a negative attitude by saying, "I am not these kids' babysitter, and it is not my job to monitor what they are watching." In other words I think he meant, as long there would be a show like that music award, it is the parents' job to tell their kids to go outside and play with friends or go to their room and shut the door, and not to come out until the show is over.

This is what I have to say as someone who was watching the show that night, and I was very disgusted by Mr. Lambert's behavior. I have no problem with Adam being gay or bi-sexual. Besides, I could care less about his sexuality. The show was obviously a public show; family members paid their money to go see it, to have a great time with their friends, and kids. Even his parents were at home watching the show that night and I am sure they were not too pleased with his sexual action. He should have procured some type of respect and not to insult others with such behavior, especially when he was a guest and not on his own private show. Madonna did the same thing several years ago with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, these types of behaviors cannot continue to be made in today’s world, if they are claiming to be role models for our children. What kind of lessons are they sending out there for our kids in this society as role models? I can understand that nobody can control who they fall in love with, and neither have any control his/her sexuality. We do not need to provoke people with sexuality when we know real well that there would be folks out there that would be feeling bad with these impoverished insults.


Speaking about Madonna, this is a woman who has been in show business for quite some time,and called to be a role model for young females. Over the years during her career, there have been lots of questions regarding her sexuality by the media. She makes it really obvious publicly for people to acknowledge what kind of a woman she actually is by her provocative behavior.

Ms. Madonna was performing in one of the American Grammy musical shows. During the performance, she invited Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears to perform along with her. As they started the performance, right in the middle of it, she turned to the right side of Britney and gave her a huge passionate kiss then she turned to the left on Christina's side and gave her a long passionate kiss. This is a woman who supposedly claimed to be a great example to those two young ladies, and she is old enough to be their mother.

Janet Jackson And Justin Timberlake were performing at the 2004 Super bowl by the end of the performance, Justin ripped Janet’s bra…Wow what a wardrobe malfunction for Ms. Jackson nasty boy!!! Her breast was all over the place showing the public how sexy she was just to promote her album which was in title Damita Jo. Can somebody please tell me how the things that these people are doing in the public eyes are a good way of showing morals to our American families? Is that how we choose to set great examples to our children in America? Where are the moralities and wisdom? Whatever happened to the good examples that were supposed to come from these experienced adults to influence by our younger generation?

The coordination of the American culture fascinates me, such as, its policy, democracy and freedom. It seems like people sometimes misunderstand the whole concept of the system. I love America; I would never dare think to choose another country over the United States of America, because America gives me the freedom, the opportunity, and the ability to speak freely and to do anything I want to do in life. But that does not mean I have to go overboard by forgetting its rules and regulations that need to be followed, and think that I can do anything I want to do by disrespecting others with my bad behavior.

Just because we are Americans, and have the authority of freedom to do anything we want to do, and speak freely against our government does not mean we can go down the street, and take our clothes off, and prove to the society which gender we are sexually. If we have the power to do such poor things in order to be recognized which gender we actually are sexually,then why can't we take our weapons and go into some neighborhoods and start killing people? Why can't we get together with our peers and go to the banks and start robbing? Why can't we take our vehicles to the express-way and start driving on the opposite side of the free way and causing problems for the city? The reason we cannot make these poor, horrible choices is because there are laws against it. Besides, we know its the wrong thing to do, and if we do, we would put ourselves in jeopardy with the law and be punished severely for our bad actions, because we are not free to do whatever we want.


"OUT OF THE CLOSET, BUT NOT OUT OF MIDDLE SCHOOL"

"Out of the closet" is an essay that is written by Libby Copeland,which we read in class as one of our class assignments. In that essay, on page (451) David Crossman who is a young, brilliant, 13 year-old boy who was tired of living a double life style. On the last day of his 7th grade, he decided to gather together some of his friends who are gay to put a rally on. He said "I am sick of pretending," then, he announced into a cheap loudspeaker, "I am gay." His school’s principal was afraid that his rally was going to cause lots of distractions for others, so he asked him to move his makeshift stage and rainbow flags away from the school grounds. Dave Crossman went beyond boundries by disobeying the school's rules by having the rally. That rally was a big disturbance for others, such as staff members and other innocent students. Even Dave's mother did not approve of the trouble her son was causing. His mother ended up transferring him to a private school where he would not have the opportunity to put rallies on about his sexuality.

I strongly do not support Dave Crossman for his agenda which I found very inappropriate. He was far too young to find out whether he was gay or straight. He should have waited until he turned 18 years of age as an adult to have this type of disturbing propaganda. Plus, he caused lots of problems for other children who were attending that school. Since he decided to conduct the rally, he should have done it on his private time and in other private areas. Not in the institution where he was getting his education from, and caused problems for the rest of his class-mates and staff members.

Posted by: Abner T. Richet
Interdisciplinary Class
Professors Ruth Gregory and Rachel David

WHAT IS SEXUALITY?

'SEXUALITY'


Merriam-Webster Dictionary Describes Sexuality as follows:

"The quality or state of being sexual:"

a:"The condition of having sex"

b: "sexual activity"


c: "The expression of sexual receptivity interest especially when excessive."

In my opinion, the quality of being sexual can be defined as many different aspects when it comes to sexuality. It can be disrobed as caring, kindness, caring for others, and touch in a loving way. The condition of having sex is to be ready and to wait for the right time to come, and to wait for the right person that you know you feel the desire to have it with consensually. The condition of having sex is something that people should not play with, because if you're not careful when it comes to having sex, chances are you may put your life in high risk without being aware of what that can lead to.

For example, you can jeopardize your life by catching diseases if you are doing it in the wrong way with wrong partners, and if a woman who is having sex out of a wedlock with different people, she may end up having a hard time raising that child as a single mother.


The expression of sexual receptivity is people who are in the same-sex relationship. Gay and lesbian who are not afraid of showing their sexuality in public and want to be seen and accepted just as well as heterosexual.


When I signed up for, the Interdisciplinary class, I did not have any idea that we were actually going to discuss subjects that I am not familiar with. I found it very interesting to learn and to understand different people's back aground biologically and educationally. Especially the sexuality subject that we have been discussing for the week 8 assignment. Learning about heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bi-sexuality. I certainly think it is fun to know about these things in life but at the same time,it can appear to be very uncomfortable for some people to speak in public.


Some people, including me, can feel pretty uncomfortable speaking about sex. Everybody sees sexuality in a different way, maybe it has something to do in the culture that you were raised in. In my culture, people do not feel too open to speak about sex too largely; they think it should be kept private. Especially in respectful family homes, young people can discuss sex with their peers individually. When it comes to discussing sex with parents , it would appear to be a very big step to take. I completely agree with the idea of discussing sex in my culture. I think it would be very embarrassing, to me, personally as a man to actually bring up the sexual topic as a subject to my mother because I have never been exposed to this type of situation.

In America, people see sex as something normal and feel free to speak about it very openly. They have the freedom to talk about it at any place such as in school, TV, at home, in public etc.. Some parents are not afraid to talk to their kids about it, neither some kids would not have any problems to come to their folks and tell them who they are sleeping with. Sex education is a good way to prevent young girls from getting pregnant at an early age. It is also help for young men from making babies with different young women at a very young age as well. In that case, it is a very great way to get counseling for stuff like sex in order to avoid these tragedies. I am not speaking about young people specifically but everybody in general.

For an example, I am using the pop singer from American Idol (Adam Lambert). Mr. Lambert was a guest of an American music award show in 2009. When he was called to perform on stage, he started singing very professionally. In the middle of the song, somehow something came up into his mind or he got carried away or something, and could not help himself. Mr. Lambert allegedly started grabbing himself, doing some dirty dancing, on top of that he actually went to one of his background male dancers, and he aggressively grabbed him towards himself and placed a passionate lasted sexual french kiss onto his lips while millions viewers were watching world wide. Not to mention, the American audience with their under aged kids whom he was performing suggestionsto. After the show, people all over the world, including American people, had some unpleasant comments to make on Adam's bad behavior's sexual act. Some of his fans came out with some blogs comments stating that he was being stereotyped while others thought he was singled out for exposing himself on stage. He himself said to the American people, that it was a way of showing his sexuality.

The following week after the show,he was seen in numerous TV shows, such as CNN, The View, Ellen DeGeneres, Oprah, Joy Behar you name it he was actually allover the place interviewing by the Media. He was severely being interrogated with some tough questions demanding an apology from him for his behavior to the American people that thought his on stage homosexual behavior was inappropriate for a night time TV show. A lot of families and their kids were in the audience and at home watching the show that night. When He's told that what he did was wrong that he owed the viewers an apology. He replied with a negative attitude by saying "I am not these kids' babysitter, and it is not my job to monitor what they are watching." In other words I think he meant, as long there would be a show like that music award, it is the parents' job to tell their kids to go outside and play with friends or go to their room and shut the door, and not to come out until the show is over.

Here what I have to say as someone who was watching the show that night and I was very disgusted by Mr. Lambert's behavior. I have no problem with Adam being gay or bi-sexual. Besides, I could careless about his sexuality. The show was obviously a public show, family members paid their money to go see it, to have a great time with their friends, and kids. Even his parents were at home watching the show that night and i am sure they were not too please with his sexual action. He should have procured some type respect and not to insult others with such behavior. Especially when he was a guest and not his own private show, Madonna did the same thing several years ago with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, these types of behaviors cannot continue to be made in our today world, if they are claiming to be role models for our children. What kind of lessons are they sending out there for our kids in this society as role models? I can understand that nobody can control who they fall in love with, and neither have any control on our sexualities. We do not need to provoke people with it when we know real well that there would be folks out there that would be in the impression of feeling bad with these impoverish insults. Speaking about Madonna, this is a woman who have been in show business for quite sometime and called to be a role model for young females. Over the years during her career, there have been lots of questions in regard of her sexuality by the media. She makes it really obvious publicly for people to acknowledge what kind of a woman she actually is by her provocative behavior.

Ms. Madonna was performing in one American Grammy musical show. During the performance. She invited Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears to perform along with her. As they started the performance, right in the middle of it, she turned to the right side of Britney and give her a huge passionate kiss then she turned to the left on Christina's side and gave her a long passionate kiss. This is a woman who supposedly claimed to be a great example for those two young ladies and old enough to even be their mother. Can some body please tells me what she did was pleased to our American families? was that a great way way of being a role model for our children in America? Where are the moralities and wisdom's? whatever happened to the good examples that were supposed to come from these experienced adults and be influenced by our younger generation?

The coordination of the American culture is certainly fascinated by me such as, its policy, democracy and freedom. It seem people are sometime misunderstand the whole concept of the system. I love America, I would never dare thinking to choose another country over the United States of America. Because America gives me the freedom, the opportunity, and the ability to speak freely and to do anything I want to do in life. But that does not mean I have to go over board by forgetting its rules and regulations that need to be followed, and think that I can do anything I want to do by disrespecting others with my impoverish insults.

Just because we are Americans, and have the authority of freedom to do anything we wan to do, and speak freely against our government does not mean we can go down the street, and take our close off and prove to the society which gender we are sexually. If we have the power to do such poor things in order to be recognized which gender we actually are sexually, then why can't we take our weapons and go into some neighborhoods and start killing people, why can't we get together with our peers and go to the banks and start rubbing, why can't we take our vehicles to the express-way and start driving on the opposite side of the free way and causing problems for the City? The reason we cannot make these poor horrible choices is because we know its a wrong, and if we do, we would put ourselves in jeopardy with the law in be punished severely for our bad actions.

"OUT OF THE CLOSET, BUT NOT OUT OF MIDDLE SCHOOL" is an essay that was written by Libby Copeland.

In that essay, on page (451) David Crossman who is a little brilliant, smart 13 years old boy who was tired in living a double life style. On the last day of his 7th grade, he was decided to gather together some of his friends who are gay to put a rally on. He said "I am sick of of pretending, he announced into a cheap loudspeaker I am gay." His school 's principal was afraid that his rally was going to cause lots of distractions for others, he asked him to move his makeshift stage and rainbow flags away from the school grounds. He went beyond his way against the school's rules by having the rally. That rally was a big disturbance for others such; as staff members and other Innocent students. Even Dave's mother did not approve of the trouble her son was causing. His mother ended up transferring him to a private school where he would not have the opportunity to put rallies on about his sexuality.

I strongly do not support Dave Crossman for his agenda which I found very inappropriate as young as he was. He was weigh first for most too young to find out whether he was gay or straight. He should have waited until he turned 18 years of age as an adult to have this type of disturbing propaganda. Plus, he caused lots of problems for other children who were attending that school. And if he had decided to conduct the rally, he should have done it on his prime time or other public areas. Not in the institution where he was getting his education at, and caused problems for the rest of his class-mates and staff members.

Posted by: Abner T. Richet
Interdisciplinary Class

Professors Ruth Gregory and Rachel David

WHAT IS DISABILITY?

The World Health Organization defines disability as follows:


"Disabilities is an umbrella term covering impairment, action limitation, and participation restrictions. It is also a problem in body function or structure; an activity limitiation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action. Disability is a complex phenomenon reflecting an interaction between features or a person's body and features of the society in which he or she lives" (Wikipedia).

I learned from America on Film, that for many centuries, disabled people have been neglected, mistreated, disregarded, and they also have been discriminated against by people who are not disabled. It also tells me that in Hollywood, directors felt people with disabilites were incapable to play leading roles in movies. They were only allowed to play extras in the background. As an example, classical movies such as The Wizard of OZ used little people in the background as supporting cast, but there not fortunate enough to play a major a role such as The Wizard of OZ himself.


I, myself, used to have a different aspect of thinking about people with disabilities. I used to think that they were not normal as other people until I came to Shoreline Community College when I met Jana Norton at The Writing & Learning Center Studio. My first quarter as a student at Shoreline Community College. I was enrolled in English 099. I remember I was having problems putting words together. I was really lost, and I found the English language was very hard for me as someone who speaks English as a third language. Finally, I showed up to the Studio to get help with that one assignment that I was having problems with. As soon as I entered the TWLS, I seemed to be so distracted and not knowing what to do. I saw a handicaped woman who barely can raise her hands. She came and introduced herself to me as Jana Norton with a soft tender voice, "May I help you?" In my critical thinking mind, "I hope she will not be the one to help me with my assignment." (Foolish me) for for thinking that way, I certainly did not have any idea that disabled people, like Jana, as a handicap could actually turn out to be just as smart as some normal philosophers in our world society.


I was amazed to see how Ms. Jana Norton changed my whole entire perspective towards disabled people. I remember she took her time by guiding me through my bad spellings,

clauses, paraphrases, in addition to that, I was having hard times with my enunciation with some words that were not too familiar to me. She was very patient by taking her time to help me out with the assignment. From that moment on until now, every time I find myself stock with some hard projects, I would not go anywher rather than to the TWLS just to get help from Jana Norton, including some of her colleagues. Therefore, I would encourage anybody who seems to be having difficulties with English homework assgnments to come to the TWLC and get help.

As the world begins to develope more and more, disabled people start being acknowledged differently by the ssociety. America on Film also talks about instead of shunning people with disabilities, the medical models has to do research to actually understand the cause of disabilities and to bring disabled people into the realm of everyday life like everyone else. I also learned from the America on Film, that with de development of the medical model, for a long period of time that people with disabilities began to be treated in a more better ways such as being seen as human.

Their acceptabilty gives them access to be part in the world society but not to be seen as normal as others. Untill now, people with disabilties are still fighting for their rights of acknowledgement. People with disabilities have come a long way to be where they are in the world society today. With them fighting for their rights to be seen as human in America, special schools were created for them, like the Columbia Institution for Deaf, Which is now known as Gallaudet University.

Lots of foreign countries are failing to recognize the importancy of people with disabilities. I am using my birth country, Haiti, as an example. Port Au Prince, which is considered Haiti's capital, has at least two or three very good boarding schools for people with disabilities such as deafness. In order to take avantage of these institutions, you have to come from a family with wealth; otherwise people with disabilities would be seen as inferiors, outsiders and less than human. I give lots of credit to North America, for the fact that there are lots of opportunities which are created by the government to enable people with disabilities to be part of the society.

Posted By: Abner Richet

Calass : America On Film Class

Teach By : Ruth Gregory and Rachel Davdid