Rebuttal to Fermin

Fermin talked about the question. "Should teens be allowed to vote," in his debate post. Fermin believes that teens should be allowed to vote at the age of 16, because he thinks that they are mature enough. He also states that teens should be allowed to vote, because there are many who he believes will play a big role in the society. Fermin make, some pretty good points in his debate post but what I think it's missing is concrete detail.
First off teens do not limit themselves to the age 16, teens turn into teens at the age of 13. What about the teens age 13, 14 , and 15? Should they be allowed to vote? I suggest you about these ages and what you think about them before stating that 16 year olds should be allowed to vote. The voting age has already been reduced once after passing the federal constitutional amendment to the age 18. Making it any lower,I think, is unnecessary,
Also there are alot of students who don't succeed in life and many of them are in high school. To lower the voting age to 16 would allow a bunch people who don't even know the basics of politics (like me) vote, which would destroy the community. Besides most of the power does not reside in the president, but in the Legislative house. They are the ones who decide if a law is passed, etc. Lowering the voting age is like lowering the driving to 14, which i would love, but would probably cause tons of more car accidents then usual.
Do that many high schoolers even read the news?
When one reaches the age 18, they are legally an adult, and they can do w.e they want to do with their life. The age to reach adulthood is a great age to be able to vote, because
1) they are an adult now
2) most of them graduated high school
3) the age where people start making decisions if not sooner
4) hopefully the brain is developed
5) body mature?
The age 18 is perfect for voting, and the age 16 is not. The voting age should not go down, because it is unnecessary, and the outcome of doing so would be destructive.
The 2 years aren't that long, just wait and boom after 2 short years of schoolwork and hanging out friends, you'll be at voting age.

Whew that was hard debating back to something I think should happen. I'll help you out, I found some good quotes and points you could choose from here while looking for my own points. http://www.slate.com/id/1006439/.

Color Purple Post 1- Celie

In the story "The Color Purple," the main character is Celie and the whole book are her letters to g@d. In her letters she writes about her days living as Mr.___'s wife. She tells about how she feels about herself and others, giving us a idea of who she is.
In this story, I can tell that Celie either doesn't live in the USA or lives in a place with very few white men. It seems to me that the laws are also not obeyed in this area, because women are being treated as servants. In the beginning of the book, Celie talks about her life living with her mom and dad. Her mom treats Celie really bad, but Celie abides to it believing that she shouldn't hate her mom not matter what she does. From this I can tell that Celie is a nice person with a good heart and she is someone who doesn't believe in violence.
In one her letters she states that she does not look at guys but she looks at girls instead. She also has a letter where she looks at Shug Avery naked and she doesn't feel as a women looking at her but as a man. From this I can tell that she likes Shug Avery and I feel sad for her, because she was forcefully married to Mr.___ without even loving him. In the quote, "I spend my wedding day running from the oldest boy," I can tell how terrible she is treated. Even when she is a married women, her new children make her miserable and she doesn't find happiness
In page 25, Mr.___ tells her to, "He tell me, wash this, iron that, look at this. Look for that. Find this. Find that. He groans over his socks." From this quote I can tell that most of what she does is not for herself, but for Mr.___, she is being treated as a slave and that's not right. the way they treat women in this book's era should be illegal.
So far, I'm finding this book to be not that interesting but I hope that i will find it interesting as I go further in.

Debate Post

Many people would love more time after they graduate graduate college to make a living.  School starts with preschool which then goes to kindergarten and then elementary school and then middle school which then goes to high school and then college and then graduate college to gain a master's or doctor's degree takes usually takes about 7 years in average (2 for masters and 5 for doctors). By the time the seven years of hardwork are over, half of the life before you retire would be gone. The years before you retire would also be spent earning money and trying to make a living with limited amount of vacation. This means that most of the time for relaxation would be after one retires. In my opinion, there 3 useless years that can be getting rid of.
First off there are too many years in elementary school. In the U.S right now, preschool teaches the same amount of material as kindergarten. Kindergarten is basically a review of preschool. In first grade, according to the first grade curriculum from http://www.time4learning.com/education/first_grade.shtml "First grade is also a year of exploration and discovery of the numbers in the world around us." key concepts are taught and so first grade is needed. In second grade and third grade, the material learned is very similar to each other and with a little push, both curriculum can be turned into 1 curriculum for one grade. Fourth through eighth grade seem to have the needed information transcending from grade to grade and so these grades are untouchable. In 9th grade and 10th grade, extra material can be learned just like in early college high schools to create a path for 11th and 12th graders to take college classes.
During the Junior year and Senior year, college classes can be taken to earn the AA degrees or even more which will cut of about a year or two off of classes off of your college life. Students who are prepared to take the stress of college level classes will have the luxury of graduating earlier or learn more to lessen the time it takes to graduate from graduate school. This extra time in college can also be used to take other classes which will lessen the time it takes to graduate.
With 3 years shaved of school, the average graduating age for a PH.D would be a 25, leaving a few years to start making a living and more.

Response Post

I agree and disagree with Jessica's response post about Oakland.

   Seriously, Oakland residents aren’t really into killing however the only reason that people are doing violence is because they are poor and need money to live a life. Everywhere in this world have violence and is dangerous. Oakland had been referred to that it was ranked as the number 3 or 4 most dangerous city in the US or something, however they should realize that there are still rich people who live in Oakland like in the Oakland hills. When I think about Oakland, I think about the word diversity because our communities are always diverse which is something that I really like about Oakland. Whenever my parents ask me if we should move out of Oakland, I would always give them a NO! 

First off, I agree that Oakland residents only kill because they need money, because most of the killings heard on the news are from killing a guy because the guy wouldn't give up his cash or drive-by. I also agree that this world is dangerous everywhere and just because Oakland is ranked in the top 30 or something as a dangerous city dosen't mean that there isn't any other danger around. Because there are so many people on the world and so many gangs, mafia, etc. the world is not a safe place. There is danger everywhere.
The thing that I don't disagree with this or not understand is the part about "dangerous city" and "rich people in Oakland." There are rich people in Oakland and in the Oakland hills, but that doesn't really make the hills a safe place. In fact all the trees and stuff cover the sunlight every night making it even easier for murder or silent killing.
Plus there are snakes and goats.... and deer.
In my opinion East Oakland can be really peaceful in the day and night. In the day everyone is either gone to school or work so that's pretty safe. In the night as long as you lock your doors and like lock your cars then no one will really bother to smash your car if you left it out in the street or in your open parking lot. An car in the open is like telling everyone there's nothing important in there.

Response - College

In the 7- way debate of "Does it matter where you go to college?," I think that What you do vs. Where you go has the best persuasive point because I think that It matters more of what you do in the college than where you attend. I think that one of Martha's best points is her second to last sentence because it basically summarizes her point and talks about the mos important component which is ambition and desire.

In a summary of the findings, the bureau says that "evidently, students' motivation, ambition and desire to learn have a much stronger effect on their subsequent success than average academic ability of their classmates.”

I think that Martha has a point when she says this because if a student goes to a college like SF state and has the motivation and desire to learn and get a good job for themselves, they can easily do it because they have the something to push them even if they struggle. If a student only cares that they got into a college like Yale and has no motivation to keep going, then they can easily drop out and go work in a cubicle while the student who went to SF state works easily in their dream job.

The one that I think has the least persuasive point is Kevin Carey's Skip The Admission Game because he either sounds like he's joking or he's trying to piss people off. In the second paragraph he clearly suggests that college is a place to hang out and not doing anything but learn a little.

They're nice places to hang out for four years and you'll probably learn a few things. Even if you don't, you'll still get a piece of paper signifying that you were smart enough to get in and rich enough to pay for it. People care about stuff like that.

In here Kevin says that it only matters where you go to college because that's the only thing people look for and I think that this idea is wrong. If college was really just like that, then what you get on the SAT wouldn't really matter and there wouldn't be job interviewers to see how smart you were. The rest of his point is just so infuriating to talk about and I think that he just wants people to read his paper and get a laugh out of it while they read it, so that's what i'll do.. laugh lol.

Thoughts Final

I said to her, “Disgusting ain’t it?”
She stared at it for a few seconds to open her mouth but she replied, “It was a lot worse when i lived here.”

Then she started talking about her childhood.

We stood their looking at the river and she said, “dead bodies would sometimes float  from there to here;” she pointed to the left and explained that a few miles away lies the start of the river connecting to the bay and a few miles to the right would be the end. She tells me that during night time when darkness surrounds the village, the only things visible is the moon and the reflection of it on the water’s surface. Everything else is completely masked in black and night time was the only time when she could take a shower in the river.
The she started to walk along the road and motions me and my sister to follow her. After a minute or two of walking, she stepped down on one of the steps leading to basement looking house with a big hole as a door and smaller holes as windows. I followed her and stepped into the house. I looked around, saw a wooden bucket, a slab of stone on the ground, and some really old wood. The house had three rooms, a living room the size of half a classroom, and two bedrooms about the size of a bathroom each. My mom looked around and her eyes filled with water after each glance of the rooms but she held back her tears. I went over and comforted her and imagined the harsh years she spent living in hear enduring starvation, typhoons, diseases, and other disastrous things. Finally, we walked out and she reminisced with several of her past friends who lived in the village before leaving. We said nothing on the way back; the car filled with a heavy atmosphere.

That night i thought about what happened in the village. I thought about my mom’s uncomfortable childhood and the great one I faced now.