Welcome to an excellent, FREE resource to improve your English! I'm Daniel Gauss - MA Teachers College at Columbia University - at danielgauss31@gmail.com. If you add me at https://www.facebook.com/dgauss3 you'll get updates to this blog. (Google + works too.)
It seems that many people have been dying due to overdoses of the illegal drug heroin in NY City. (an 'overdose' is when you take too much of something that can kill you - heroin is an illegal and highly addictive narcotic drug) (if a drug is available 'over-the-counter', this means that you do not need a doctor's permission to buy the drug...US pharmacies often have lots of over-the-counter drugs on display that a person can buy, but a doctor's prescription (note) can only be filled by a licensed pharmacist behind a counter) There is a drug which can be taken if a person feels he/she is dying from an overdose of heroin, and this drug can save the person's life. This drug is called naloxone. Until recently only a doctor could provide the medicine directly or a person needed a prescription (a notice that a person could legally buy the medicine from a pharmacy). Because so many people have been dying, heroin users may now buy the drug naloxone and keep it with them while they are using heroin, in case they lose the ability to breathe (naloxone apparently helps a person breathe again after an overdose, thus saving the person's life). What do you think about this? Some folks say that by making naloxone easy to get we are encouraging people to use heroin. They argue that if it is safer to take heroin, more young people will now take heroin. Yet, it's true that there has been an increase in the number of young people who are dying from heroin overdoses. Should we allow some young people die in order not to encourage others to try heroin?
anti - this means to be against something; pro means to be for something opiates - these are drugs that come from the poppy plant; they are, basically, pain-killers a pharmacy - a place to buy medication, either over-the-counter or through a doctor's prescription De Blasio - the mayor (leader) of New York City sobering - information is sobering if it shocks you; the opposite of sober is drunk new stats - new statistics,new numbers about something ------------------- Please consider buying my ESL book. :) It is available as an e-book and I kept the price down to make sure that anyone who wants it can afford it. It is only $3.50 :) I hope you enjoy it. http://www.amazon.com/York-Sucks-Youll-Wanna-Anyway-ebook/dp/B004TSPAQS
It looks as if we have conflicting stories as to what happened in a taxi-driver's taxi-cab a few years ago in New York City. The driver claims that two lesbian passengers began kissing heavily in his backseat. He states they were also touching each other in a sexual manner. He then told them, basically, to stop it because the cab is his workplace and seeing people kissing and making out in his cab makes him feel uncomfortable. They left his cab and they and he exchanged insults. The lesbians have a different story. Based on what I have been able to learn, they seem to claim that they lightly kissed each other and the taxi driver over-reacted and threw them out of the cab because they are lesbians. There is, basically, no proof to determine who is telling the truth and who isn't, but the lesbian couple filed a complaint against the cab driver to the city and the City of New York decided that the lesbians were telling the truth and fined the taxi driver $15,000. He is now supposed to pay $5,000 to each woman and $5,000 to the city. I'm quite a bit shocked to read this story because it's a 'he-said/she-said' situation. A he-said/she-said situation is when you have two different stories by two different people (or groups of people) and there is no proof to show which story is true. Nevertheless the city sided with the lesbian couple. Why? I may be cynical for saying this, but the lesbians are white and lesbians. The cabbie is an Arabic gentleman. There are lots and lots of gay and lesbian folks in NY City and, as a group, they are pretty politically powerful. If you offend the gays and lesbians in New York City, there can be negative consequences. No politician wants to offend gays or lesbians. In fact, many politicians try to make the gay and lesbian community very happy. I believe that New York City tried to make a couple white, wealthy, powerful lesbian folks happy and created an injustice for the dark-skinned and relatively powerless cabbie. Basically the city administrators probably thought to themselves, "Who is more important to us? White gay people or poor Arabic taxi drivers?" There was no proof, so why choose to believe the lesbian folks? I think a real injustice was done to this cabbie. If they were kissing heavily in his taxi cab, he had the right, in my opinion, to make them leave. If you are a dentist and two people are kissing and touching in your waiting room, you will certainly kick them out or tell them to stop. It was his taxi cab and people have to respect his workplace. What do you think?
Vocabulary to help you understand the article: conflicting stories - the stories do not agree with each other, the stories contradict each other to file a complaint - to write out and submit a complaint about possible wrong behavior to side with - to agree with, to take the side of to be cynical - to question why a person really did something; to suspect that a person did not do something for the right reasons to bark orders at someone - to strongly tell someone to do or not to do something. A dog 'barks'. to discriminate against - to treat a person or persons differently and badly because they are from a minority group "Don't make me out to be an asshole!" - when the lesbians told the driver he was discriminating against them, he told them they should not try to make it look as if he was the type of person who would do that (an asshole). in damages - this means he hurt the lesbians and he has to pay for the damages or harm he caused b******, c**** - bitches, cunts (hey folks, the English language includes dirty, vulgar words and you have a right to know what they mean...someone may use these words in your presence one day! :P) a whore - a prostitute; a woman who sells her body for sex to others a peck on the lips - a light kiss a standard of decency - he tries to do the right thing all the time to appeal the decision - to go to a higher authority to have the decision over-turned to be substantiated - to be proved
As you probably know, North Korean hackers got into the computer system of Sony - a company that makes Hollywood films. They did this because the North Korean government objects to a movie developed by Sony, which was going to be shown, in which Kim Jong Un was going to be assassinated (murdered). President Obama criticized Sony for not showing the film (theaters in America were worried they might be attacked if they showed the movie) but I don't think Obama realizes what we all, in the USA, should learn from this situation. 1) We claim to value unlimited free speech - even free speech that attacks innocent people and can harm others. Even John Stuart Mill - one of the strongest advocates of free speech - did not think this was right. 2) We think we can impose our values on the rest of the world. Because extreme 'free' speech is allowed here, we think we can use this speech to attack religious prophets and leaders from around the world. Well, now we know folks can bite back. We should have learned this a long time ago. Most of the world does NOT share American values. Our internet companies and search engines and now our entertainment companies are learning that what goes on in America will not be tolerated in other parts of the world, where they view our lifestyle as extreme, self-indulgent, unethical and petty. 3) What happens in America does not stay in America any more. It used to be that what was said and written here pretty much stayed within the borders of the USA. Now, in this 'globalized' world, what we create goes world wide and we obviously do not consider how the rest of the world might feel about what we send out into the world. Obama seemed to think it was Ok that Sony made a film about the murder of a foreign leader. I am not so sure that was "OK". Our entertainment industry needs, perhaps, to consider the fact that the USA is one nation in a global community and just as one of us would not say anything overly offensive at a cocktail party (for fear of being hit in the face) maybe we should consider using the same approach with the other countries who share this planet with us. But of course you, the foreign reader of this blog, must already know that the USA simply never learns any lessons. For example, 30 years after Vietnam, we started more Vietnams. We just don't learn things here. So this big lesson will be lost and our communications companies will continue to alienate the rest of the world.
Yes, I know that Jeremy Lin is no longer on the New York Knicks basketball team, but the Knicks were the first NBA team to really give him a chance. He did something incredible for that team. In return, the Knicks dumped (got rid of, abandoned) Lin and he is now playing for Houston. Some film-makers have made a documentary about him.
Here is vocabulary to help you understand the article:
Linsanity - this is a combination of "Lin" and "insanity." Insanity means to go crazy. Basically, people in New York and around the world went 'crazy' (they became very excited) when Lin was playing in New York. They experienced "Linsanity!" a breakout star - a star who plays much better than others and distinguishes himself from others no NBA team drafted him - no team chose him during the selection process during which college players are chosen by professional teams. The selection process is called 'a draft.' a documentary is a 'true' story that is shown using real film/video footage of real people getting cut - being released from a team, getting kicked off a team, being removed from a team a free agent - basically this means nobody wanted him, he was free to try to get on any team he wanted to an underdog - someone not expected to win racial taunts - a taunt is a statement meant to be insulting and to make a person angry. A racial taunt is a statement about the person's race meant to upset the person. So people attacked Lin because he was Asian. spectators - people watching the game an amateur - a non-professional the film recounts - the film shows again an overnight sensation - someone who becomes hugely famous very quickly innuendos - subtle statements meant to insult or upset a person a chink in the armor - this insult is going to be difficult to explain. First of all, a 'chink in one's armor' means a flaw or a weakness that a person has. Here's armor:
So if there were a chink in this armor, that would mean there was a flaw or weakness in the armor that an enemy soldier could stick a sword through. But the word 'chink' is also a nasty slang term for a Chinese person. So the sportswriter deliberately used the word 'chink' in the sentence as an insult toward Jeremy Lin. a stereotype - this is the common but false way that certain people are thought to be, based on how they look. For example, certain stereotypes: Asians are good at math, Germans are hard-workers, Italians belong to the mafia etc. inspirational - if something inspires you, it motivates you, it makes you want to keep trying a roster - the list of players who are on the team
Believe it or not, until yesterday, if you were simply walking down the street in New York City, a police officer could have stopped you and frisked you. What is frisking? It's when a police officer makes you raise your arms and then feels up and down your body to see whether you have any weapons. This policy was called 'stop and frisk.' Yesterday a federal judge (a judge from the US government) determined that this policy is unconstitutional.
The Constitution is the law of the United States but it also contains a special type or set of laws called 'Amendments.' These amendments tell the government what it can't do to US citizens. The government can't stop me from speaking freely, it can't stop me from going to the church I wish to go to etc. Indeed, the Constitution even states (in the Second Amendment) that the government cannot stop US citizens from owning guns (many people would like to see that changed). "Stop and Frisk" was found to be unconstitutional because the 4th Amendment to the US Constitution (the amendments are the set of laws that protect the rights of US citizens) states that the police have to have a good reason before they stop anyone for anything. The police cannot just stop anyone because they want to. And, this was happening a lot - especially to black and Latino men. It seems that the New York Police Department regularly went into poor neighborhoods and stopped lots and lots of black and Latino men for no good reason. In only 1% of the cases did they find weapons. So for every 100 people who were illegally stopped by the police, they found 1 weapon. So how did this policy get stopped? We can thank Alexander Hamilton for that. Hamilton is the person on the 10 dollar bill. He was a handsome guy.
He was also a genius. He argued for a system of government called 'federalism.' In a federalist system, you have many states but one strong central government. The central government is stronger than any state or city government. So the US government in Washington D.C. is the federal government. Yesterday a federal judge helped the people of New York by declaring that the stop and frisk policy was unconstitutional. Here is a picture of the judge who decided 'stop and frisk' was wrong (Judge Shira Scheindlin):
This is a common image of what most people imagine a judge looks like:
Therefore, the policy is now useless. Stop and frisk is, basically, dead. Mayor Michael Bloomberg (perhaps the worst mayor in NY City history - a mayor is the leader of a city) is very upset and has stated he will try to go to a higher court. I think the higher court will have to agree, however, that stop and frisk was WRONG. This is supposed to be a free country. How can you have a free country if you have a bunch of cops running around frisking black and Latino folks? To be honest with you, however, Bloomberg never really cared that much about black and Latino folks. In this case, the American system worked. Alexander Hamilton is laughing at Michael Bloomberg somewhere, right now. Here's an article from Time magazine. I apologize - when you click on the link you are going to see huge advertisements - please ignore the ads and go to the story.
violated rights/federal intervention - a right is when some type of behavior or action is protected by the law. Americans have the right to free speech, freedom of religion etc. Federal intervention is when the federal government thinks that a state or city is stopping (violating) people's rights that are promised to the people in the Constitution and then the federal government steps in (intervenes) or interferes with this violation - the federal government stops the state or city government from harming the rights of the people.
controversial - if something is controversial many people like the thing and many people dislike it. Something controversial generates a lot of arguments.
a tactic - a strategy or a way to try to solve some type of problem.
to be dealt a blow - if something is dealt a blow it is hurt by something. A 'blow' is like a punch (when one person hits another person). To be dealt a blow means to be given a blow or punch. if something happens to eliminate something altogether, that something is dealt a death blow. In the 1950s there was a law that black children could not go to white schools. That law was dealt a death blow by the Supreme court in 1954.
siding with - if you side with someone, you favor or support that person as opposed to another person. If you take someone's side, you agree with or support that person.
to be targeted - if someone or a group is targeted, this means that they are the only ones who are affected by something; they are picked out for a different type of treatment.
widespread - all over the place.
racial profiling - this is when the police think that just because a person is black or Latino he might be more likely to commit a crime than a white or Asian person.
violating the 4th Amendment - the 4th Amendment states that the police cannot search people for no good reason, so the New York Police were breaking this law or violating this amendment. An amendment was an addition to the Constitution.
equal protection clause - a part of the Constitution that says every has to be protected regardless of race or sex or other reason.
tension between liberty and public safety - if there is tension between two things or two people, there is a type of struggle between them. It's as if freedom and safety are fighting against each other - Bloomberg would claim to believe in safety while the federal judge would claim to believe in freedom.
Hispanic - Latino
a person's life was interrupted - the judge is saying that every time an innocent person was stopped, his life was kind of messed up. Nobody wants to be stopped by the police for no reason. When the police stopped innocent people, it was as if they stopped the person's life and bothered the person so much that the person's life was interrupted.
it punts the decision - to punt is an American football term. If a team is not successful it will often punt the football, which means it will give the football to the other team but it will kick the ball very far down the field so the other team has to work hard to score points. So if you punt something to someone else, you hand a problem over to them. Here is a punt - in this case the team that caught the punt ran the ball all the way back.
the legacy - a politician's legacy is how the politician will be remembered. Basically Bloomberg will not be remembered for anything good. He will either be forgotten or remembered as the mayor who did nothing for 12 years.
vigorously defended - strongly defended.
integral to the drop in crime - an important reason, or the important reason, as to why crime numbers dropped. Actually Bloomberg has been following a policy that many cities are following. They are making American cities too expensive for the very poor to live in them and so poor people are moving out of cities and into suburbs (areas around the city). If you push very poor people out and bring very rich people in, the crime rate of a city will drop. You are not solving the crime problem, however, you are just pushing it away. Bloomberg was very good at pushing problems away.
tenure - the amount of time that a person works at a job.
vowing to appeal the decision - he promised to take this court case to a higher court. To appeal a decision is to ask a higher judge to reconsider the opinion.
deterring crime - to deter something means you punish one person to scare others from doing something. So deterring crime means doing something to scare people from committing crimes.
to detain a person - to hold onto a person; to stop a person
reasonable suspicion - is you feel suspicion, you feel that someone is doing something wrong. reasonable suspicion means you have a good reason to believe a person is doing something wrong.
probable cause - this is a legal term which means that you are very very sure someone is doing something wrong or will do it. If a person seems angry and is walking through the streets with a knife and a police officer sees this, he has probable cause to stop the person.
proactive - very active
crime-tracking - keeping count or keeping track or keeping a record of the number of crimes that happen
an incentive for more stops - an incentive means a reward for doing something. If a baseball player is told that he will be paid double if he hits 50 home runs, that is his incentive to hit more home runs. So cops (police officers) were rewarded for the high number of stop and frisks they made.
uniformly - if something is uniform it is the same
cumulative - all together. If you have a cumulative number of something, you have one number of everything of a certain type that happened.
criminalize everyone - basically they are saying that if you live in a certain area, the police will just assume or guess that you are a criminal. Or if you have dark skin, the police will assume you are a criminal.
alleged bias - it is said that this is a bias. A bias is a prejudice. You are biased if you like or dislike someone because of his skin color.
a monitor - someone to watch over the New York Police Department.
to pledge - to promise.
cheered - showed approval, showed a liking for something
oversight - oversight means monitoring - when people watch over something.
compelled - forced
to reform - to change something for the better.
to implement - to implement something is to put something in place, to make something work.
delay becoming an art form - the city of Oakland has become really good at delaying - at not doing something they should be doing. they are almost like artists at delaying.
kabuki - a type of theater in Japan.
furious - very angry.
reputation - how people feel about a person or group. You can have a good reputation or a bad reputation.
civil liberties - freedom you should have if you are an American citizen.
best case fantasy - what is happening in LA would be what many people would like to see in New York City. A fantasy is a dream.
beneficial - good
hostility - anger, hatred
Discussion/writing topics:
What is more important: freedom or safety? When should freedom be sacrificed for safety? Based on the article, do you agree with the judge or Bloomberg?
In America, if a person is arrested (taken by the police) and if the person has to go to trial (the process, in a courtroom, where the person is determined to be guilty or innocent) the person who was arrested can choose either a judge or a jury. This is a judge:
This is a jury:
Basically a jury is usually made up of 12 people, chosen randomly (chosen by chance), who decide whether a person is guilty or innocent. In Florida, sometimes there are just 6 jurors. Yes, a person on a jury is a juror.
In the recent Zimmerman case, the jury was 'sequestered.' That means that the jury was not allowed to know what was happening in the world during the course/process of the trial. They were kept in hotel rooms for 22 days. The reason this is done is to make sure that they are not influenced by newspapers or TV stations or the internet during the trial. But, this is America, where everyone likes to enjoy himself and have fun, so the court system spent a huge amount of money to entertain the jurors! Here's kind of a funny article about how the Florida court system tried to keep the jury happy and in touch with their families during the Zimmerman trial. (You can read about the Zimmerman trial elsewhere on this blog.)
to acquit - to find 'not guilty.' to convict - to find 'guilty'.
fatally shooting - shooting someone to death.
an excursion - a trip.
bowling -
screened - officials read the messages (so the jurors were not able to send or receive private messages.
logged - the date and time the messages were sent or received was listed.
distance themselves - one juror went on a TV show and made various statements. The other jurors wrote that they did not necessarily agree with these statements.
This story is disgusting to me. The vocabulary isn't that difficult - here is the article. You can see the video from the ABC - TV article. "Hawthorne" is apparently a suburb (a type of town) right outside of Los Angeles.
A racist is someone who hates another person because of his skin color. It seems clear to me, from watching the video, that these were racist white cops who were upset because a black man was using his smart phone to record what the police were doing.
Here's a story of mob justice in a village of Bolivia. A mob is a group of people - actually, usually an angry group of people is referred to as a 'mob.' When we speak of 'mob justice' we are being a bit ironic. Mob justice is usually when a mob becomes angry and harms a person they feel is guilty of some crime. So it's not really a case of 'justice,' it's a case of a mob taking illegal action to satisfy its need for what it feels would be justice.
In this story, a mob caught a teenager they believed had murdered a woman and they buried him alive. They threw him on top of the dead woman's coffin (the wooden box a dead person is buried in) and covered him with dirt (earth).
To bury something is to dig a hole in the ground and then place something in it and cover the hole with dirt again.
suspected - thought to be; if someone is suspected of being a criminal, he is thought to be a criminal.
a funeral - the ceremony before a dead person's body (corpse) is disposed of (gotten rid of). A dead person can be buried in a cemetery or cremated (burned) in America.
allegedly - supposedly. If a person allegedly did something, someone claims he did it, but it hasn't been proved in court yet.
sexual assault - to attack a person for sexual motives.
to strangle - to cut off a person's ability to breathe using one's hands or a rope or other thing. A person can strangle another person by placing his hands around the other person's neck and squeezing.
reportedly - apparently.
thrown in her grave - they threw him into the hole they had dug for her coffin (the box they placed her in).
to be buried alive - to throw someone into a hole and then to have dirt covering the person so that he suffocates (cannot breathe and dies).
to be apprehended - to be caught.
vigilante/vigilantes - a vigilante is someone or a group of people who do not trust the police and so they get 'justice' for themselves.
a casket - a coffin, the box you put a dead person in.
raping and murdering - rape is a terrible crime in which a man forces himself sexually on a woman. Murder is the killing of another human being.
grieving - if you are grieving you are feeling the emotional pain of someone's death.
to grieve - the verb form.
grief - the noun form.
to capture - to catch.
a coffin - a box you put a dead body in.
to stone someone to death - to throw stones at a person until you kill him/her.
to be busted - to be arrested by the police. To be held by the police.
a lynching - this is when a mob takes action on its own to get justice.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Questions for discussion/writing:
According to the article, the police in this area of Bolivia are corrupt and unreliable. Do you think the villagers were justified in doing this to the apparent rapist/murderer?
Do you think the villagers who did this should be arrested and prosecuted for murder? After all, it was never proved that this young man killed the woman.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you like art, you might like my new blog about artists who show their work in New York City: http://artgallerystuff.blogspot.com/
----------------------------------------------------------- Yes, I'm the guy who created the scandal in Asia awhile ago. :P
If this page is useful to you, please buy the book (it's quite inexpensive and useful!!!!). If you don't have an e-reader, drop me a line at djg51qu@gmail.com and I'll send you a free copy via Word file. Let me know whether you have Word 2010 or an earlier version.
Words to be used (answers are below the exercise):
to be based on something, a curriculum, common sense to be appalled by something, inappropriate, nonchalant to be ticked off by something, a whistleblower, to haggle over {By the way: to be ticked off by something means you are a little upset. To be appalled by something means you are shocked.}
Exercise:
In some foreign countries there are no price tags on products sold in markets. People are expected to ________________ the price of the item. In America, most people dislike this type of negotiation - they want to see a price tag and will either accept or reject that final offer. In the 1800s a man named Horace Mann worked hard to create a public school system in the United States. He thought this would help ensure equality of opportunity for everyone. A central aspect of his public school system idea was to have a uniform _____________, or, in other words, to make sure that every child in the system studied the same educational materials. (uniform means 'the same') By the expression on Bob's face I could see that he had been _______________ by someone of something. It turned out that a clerk at a Starbucks had been rude to him and he was a little upset. Although it is _______________ that a person should carry an umbrella when it rains, Bob just hated carrying an umbrella. Therefore, the last time it rained he got soaked and caught a cold. Many visitors to New York City are _________________ how dirty and disgusting the subway system is. It is a very old and ugly system that often runs unpredictably. The current economic policies that the Obama administration is using seem to be ___________________ the suggestions made by John Maynard Keynes to president Roosevelt in the 1930s. Although women have gained a great deal of equality to men in America, they are still sometimes subjected to ________________ comments about their beauty or sexiness by male workers. This is sometimes called 'sexual harassment' in America. Often when an honest person sees something wrong and complains about it, the wrongdoer will try to get revenge against the ___________________. There are now laws in America that attempt to protect these concerned and honest people from the reprisals (revenge) of those who are guilty. Bob was an easy-going guy who smiled a lot and who was quite friendly. Yet, despite his apparently _______________ attitude, he was a hard worker who never missed a deadline.
Answers are below:
Answers: 1. haggle over 2. curriculum 3. ticked off 4. common sense 5. appalled by 6. based on 7. inappropriate 8. whistleblower 9. nonchalant
to pledge, a memorial, an outcry a protest, to elaborate, an atrocity a landmark decision, to be convicted, a symbol
Exercise:
1) Brown vs. The Board of Education was a ____________________ by the US Supreme Court, which made it illegal for a public school system to prevent African American students from attending schools with white students. 2) When Coca Cola tried to change the formula of its drink a few years ago, there was an ______________ and many people pledged that they would not drink the new version. 3) The American Eagle is the official ____________ of the United States of America. It holds arrows in one claw and an olive branch in the other. What does this mean? Basically it means that the US wishes to have peace with other countries, but will fight if necessary. (a 'claw' is a bird's foot) 4) Recently many organizations around the USA raised a lot of money so that a ______________ could be built to honor the memory of Martin Luther King Jr., the Civil Rights activist. 5) Although Richard Nixon did many things that were morally wrong as president of the United States, he was never actually ______________ of a crime. 6) Hiroshima was a Japanese city which did not have any military purpose. When the USA dropped an atomic bomb on that city, many innocent people died. Yet, this has never been classified as an ________________ in history books, since the US government claimed it was necessary to drop the bomb to end the war quickly. 7) When I went off to college, my parents _____________ that they would support me as well as they could financially, even though they were relatively poor. 8) I didn't quite understand the plan fully. It seemed to vague. That's the reason why I asked him to ___________________. 9) Many historians believe that the Vietnam War might have lasted longer if so many young Americans had not ______________ the war as being morally wrong.
Answers are below:
Farther down:
Answers:
1) landmark decision
2) outcry
3) symbol
4) memorial
5) convicted
6) atrocity
7) pledged
8) elaborate
9) protested
In America there are two political parties: The Democrats and The Republicans. The Democrats are considered liberal and the Republicans are considered conservative. (The Republican Party is also referred to as the Grand Old Party or GOP). To be honest with you, I think that, basically, the Democratic Party is corrupt and the Republican Party is evil. So America will continue to lose as long as the Democratic Party condones the corruption that has seen many of its politicians go to jail and the Republican Party continues to be the party of "whiteness" and rich people. The Republican Party is now asking "average" people for advice. (Or pretending to ask people for advice..)
Here's what I wrote to them (I have no doubt they ignored my e-mail):
I am happy to see that the GOP is soliciting feedback from non-politicians who care about the future of the country. I would like to please offer some advice.
I am a MA graduate of Columbia University and have become disgruntled with the Democratic Party after voting Democratic in many elections (I was born and raised in Chicago).
It really bothers me that the Republican Party, basically, has no room, nor wants to make room, for diversity. The GOP was and should be the party of economic development and equal opportunity
for advancement for everyone.
Yet, the GOP has never, to my knowledge, launched an anti-poverty program. Approximately 15% of Americans live beneath the poverty line and need help rising above it. The Democratic Party has no plans to do anything about poverty. The Democratic Party offers services, but no solutions. Why can't the Republican Party challenge business to address this issue? Why can't the GOP come up with creative plans to eliminate poverty and help create greater wealth for America?
During the era of slavery, Hamilton (a proto-Republican) pointed out that slavery was not only wrong but an ineffective economic system. Human potential was being wasted. More wealth and a healthier society could be developed by eliminating slavery and assisting everyone to enter the economic system.
Poverty is also wrong. And, it is wasteful. If the Republican Party wants to reclaim its heritage and demonstrate a more human side, it has to show that business development is not just meant to make fat cats fatter, but to advance the entire society. Basically Romney lost because Obama was able to frame him as a fat cat out to protect other fat cats, instead of a person interested in more idealistic issues involving the full integration of all members of our society into the economic system.
Four years from now, I am convinced, the economic situation will look nearly exactly as it does now (but with a greater amount of debt to pay). The Republican Party has to reclaim what made it a dynamic force for good in the history of the USA. The greatest republican presidents were the presidents who favored equality of opportunity: Lincoln, T.R. and Eisenhower. I think you folks have to step back to the icons and take a lesson from them.
Thank you for allowing me to provide this feedback -
Daniel Gauss
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Yes, I'm the guy who caused the "scandal" in Asia two years ago by pointing out that Korean pop stars were not being treated as well as they should have been in NY City. This was the 6th biggest story in Korea for the year 2010. http://nwww.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20100511000742
In one of the most absurd stories I've read about New York City Police Department abuses in the city, we can read about how two people were arrested by the NYPD (NY Police Department) for DANCING on a subway platform.
A couple (in their 50s) had gone to a jazz performance at Lincoln Center (where a person can hear alot of different types of musical performances) and decided to dance a little while they were waiting for their train to go home.
They were arrested for this by two (idiotic) cops. Of course, this couple decided to sue the city and will now receive $75,000 for being falsely arrested while innocently dancing.
In the article you'll see they received a settlement. A settlement is an offer of money by the party being sued to end a case before a trial.
They are not the only people who decided to sue the NYPD recently. Last year there were 2,004 law suits filed against police officers from the NYPD. The city has had to pay millions of tax-payer dollars to people because of the illegal and abusive behavior of some New York cops.
1) Does the number of law suits against NY Police Officers surprise you?
2) How do you feel about the fact that these two (harmless) people were arrested? Do you think the police officers might have been justified in arresting them?
3) Do you think that the cops who arrested this innocent couple should be fired? Should they be disciplined?
4) The police officers who break the law and abuse people do not have to pay for these law suits. The people of NY City have to pay the victims of police crimes. Is this right?
5) What kind of message is the police sending to the rest of world by arresting people for dancing in New York City?
6) It seems as if these types of activities by NY police officers are relatively common. Why do you think such abuses occur? How can they be stopped? Is the Mayor responsible? The Police Chief?
7) When something like this happens, some people say, "Well, you can't judge the entire NYPD based on the crazy and irresponsible actions of one or two cops." Do you agree or disagree? If 2,000 law suits were filed against police last year, that is an average of 5 law suits a day.
Apparently a young woman made various pornographic films in the mid 2000s, and then gave up this line of work in order to become a teacher.
She received good reviews as a teacher and was respected by her fellow teachers and students, yet, when some of her pornographic films were discovered last year (online), she was fired.
She attempted to regain her job through the court system, but a judge has ruled that she is not qualified to be a teacher because of her past.
The following story is very meaningful to me since I used to be a real dog lover. In fact, in the neighborhood in Chicago, where I grew up, I used to try to feed stray dogs and often took stray dogs home and tried to keep them. (A 'stray' dog is a dog without a home.). My parents had a two-story house with a backyard, so at one point we had FIVE (big) dogs.
In this story we see that there is a huge stray dog problem in Mexico City. In fact, it initially looked as if there were groups of wild dogs (feral dogs) which were attacking and killing people in a Mexican park (now it is believed drug gangs are killing the people and leaving them for the hungry dogs to eat).
The authorities are now rounding up stray dogs and would like to "euthanize" (kill) them. Residents of Mexico City, however, are very upset about this issue and one person even claimed that these dogs are "political prisoners" or scapegoats (someone or something innocent which is blamed for someone else's harmful action) and that the "killer" dogs are a myth to hide the fact that drug gangs are so powerful in Mexico City.
(update: Now many people are asserting that the dogs did not kill the victims. It is being asserted that drug gangs are killing these people and leaving them for the dogs to eat them.)
1) What do you think should be done about this stray dog problem? Will spaying and neutering be enough? (Spaying and neutering means that veterinarians - animal doctors - perform an operation to make sure a dog cannot reproduce.)
2) If people are being killed by packs of wild dogs, this is certainly a serious problem. Do you think the authorities are justified in rounding up these dogs and euthanizing them?
3) What else can the authorities do in regard to this situation?
4) What can the people of Mexico City do?
5) There are many human political prisoners in jails around the world, but it seems that an entire city has become obsessed with justice for 25 dogs. Does this seem peculiar to you? Why do we sometimes seem to care more about animals than our fellow human beings (and I ask this as a dog lover myself!)?
The Economist magazine ran this story a few weeks ago. The purpose was to identify, basically, the best countries in which to live. As you can see, the first several countries are small nations with little or no diversity. Indeed, Singapore, a dictatorship, is ranked highly, while Turkey, a dynamic and democratic society, is ranked toward the middle of the list. Also, I've been reading a great deal about the nation of Vietnam lately, which is a developing and beautiful country, yet it is not ranked highly on this list.
Please take a look at the list and form your own impressions. My impression is that the standards used are too random. My "perfect" country would be one with freedom, diversity, exciting things to do and interesting people (maybe that's why I live in New York City :P).
America has a slightly different system, in regard to higher education choices, than other countries. Students may go to a "college" or a "university." Also, there are a huge number of colleges and universities in the USA.
What's the difference between a college and a university?
Basically, a college provides Bachelors and Masters degrees but a student may receive a Bachelors, Masters and a PhD from a university.
America also has community colleges for students who may not be sure what they want to study or who struggled as students in high school. These community colleges only provide two years of study, at the most, but allow a student to transfer to a college or university.
Also (!) there are "liberal arts colleges" in America. These are usually small colleges in rural (non-city) areas where the "liberal arts" are emphasized. Students who go to a liberal arts college usually major in literature, philosophy, history, sociology etc. In this article, it is pointed out that liberal arts colleges in America are dying because more students are becoming more practical - they want to study business-related subjects instead of subjects which might enrich their inner-lives.
1) How do you feel about the trend mentioned in the article? Do you feel that students are neglecting
important subjects (like the arts) in order to make money?
2) Do you think these schools should be compromising, or should they hold to the strong tradition of purely liberal arts classes?
3) How do you feel about the emphasis on sports at American universities? Many universities make a huge amount of money through (American) football and basketball programs. Yet, football is a dangerous sport that causes physical harm and even brain damage to those who play it for too long.
According to the following article, many parents are refusing to buy toy guns for their children, or are hiding or throwing away the toy guns that children already have, in the wake of (following) the Newtown, Connecticut shooting massacre.
Yet, I think that most children who play with guns like to imagine themselves as defending their country or fighting "bad guys."
1) If you were a parent (or if you are a parent), would/should you take toy guns away from your child?
2) Which is worse: toy guns or violent video games? Or are both of these harmless?
3) There are movie posters all throughout the NY City subway system for a movie called Final Stand. On the poster one actor is shooting a machine gun and another actor is smiling. How harmful do you think this type of poster/movie is? Should this type of poster be featured after this recent shooting spree?
Even in the 21st century, in America, where women have made huge achievements and are approaching full equality of opportunity, rights, power and income with men, we still see absolutely STUPID instances of sexism and the hatred of women in advertising.
Virgin Mobile USA was running an ad which seemed to joke about the issue of rape. Virgin Mobile is owned by Sprint/Nextel.
Basically, in the ad, a man is considering whether he should buy "chloroform" (a chemical that causes a person to lose his/her consciousness) to use on a woman he knows. The implication is clearly that by chloroforming this woman, he will be able to rape her easily.
1) Virgin Mobile claims they did not know about this ad. Do you believe them?
2) Does seeing an ad like this make you angry? How angry?
3) After seeing an ad like this, how influenced are you to change your judgment of a company? Would you consider not buying a Virgin Mobile product because of such a terrible ad? Honestly, why WOULD a woman ever buy a Virgin Mobile product again? It seems that Sprint/Nextel owns Virgin Mobile. If you are a woman, would you be inclined to buy a Sprint/Nextel product when they joke about an issue like rape?
4) Many people immediately went online to protest this ad. Does this seem to indicate to you that normal people, in general, are fed up with sexism and will not tolerate this type of joke? Should we be proud of ourselves, so to speak, that ordinary people forced this company to take down this disgusting ad?
5) Should executives at Virgin Mobile be held accountable (punished) for this attack against women?
More than half of the states in the US have banned gay marriage. Other states, including New York, have made gay marriage legal. Interestingly, California, which is known as a liberal state, has banned gay marriage.
Even in states where gay marriage is legal, however, same-sex couples do not receive the types of benefits from the US government which heterosexual couples receive. Therefore the US Supreme Court will determine whether states can ban same-sex marriages and whether or not homosexual couples should receive the same types of benefits as heterosexual couples.
It has been revealed that the Korean performer "Psy" once participated in anti-American performances in which he advocated that American military personnel, as well as their families, be killed.
Many Americans are, therefore, quite upset that Psy has been invited to perform at a concert which the president of the United States will attend.
1) At the time of the anti-American performance, two Korean teenagers had been accidentally killed by US military personnel and there were reports of American soldiers torturing prisoners in Iraq. Do you feel he was justified in singing the lyrics he sang at that time?
2) Do you feel that Psy was hypocritical in that he came to make money in a country he had previously attacked? (In the past he seems to have protested the presence of American soldiers in South Korea.)
3) Do you think that Psy is a hypocrite for apologizing to Americans for the song? Why didn't he just say, "Yes, I said what I said and I meant it at the time. There is no need for an apology."
4) Why do you think he apologized?
5) Does it seem to you, as it seems to me, that Psy will sing or say anything to benefit himself at any time?
6) Does this situation change your attitude or feelings toward this performer?
7) Psy is a so-called "K-pop" performer. Although his production company (YG) does not have a bad reputation, K-pop entertainment companies generally have a terrible reputation around Asia. (You can google: K-pop slave contracts, K-pop plagiarism, K-pop sexualization of teens etc.)
Indeed, I used to teach English to K-pop performers based in New York and I quit because I became disgusted with their entertainment company on so many levels.
