IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) #2

Upon searching around several sites, and sitting in front of the TV while attempting homework, a recent news story caught my attention. ABC’s evening local news reported on an arrest that took place in West Oakland at a BART station on Saturday. Michael Joseph Gibson, a 37 year old man was causing a disturbance while on board. He was considered intoxicated and was yelling at other passengers. Soon after a BART policeman boards and takes him off the train. The policeman makes his way toward a wall to complete his arrest, the plait glass from the window in front of the pair shatters.

The recount is accompanied with a video taken from a witness’s cell phone. The video is taken from afar, and at an angle where you mostly see the policeman’s back. Many people are saying that this is another display of police using unnecessary force, and relating it to a previous BART incident where police shot a civilian on accident.

The article from the San Jose Mercury unravels Gibson’s background of mentally instability and being bipolar.

One thing I want to address is the fact that the YouTube video played a key part. Without it, this news piece wouldn’t have as much impact if it was just reported by the news casters and read by newspaper readers. With everyone jumping on the trend of upgrading their phones, especially phones with cameras, there is a slow growing trend of videos that are blurry, sometimes with out-of-sync audio beginning to surface as resources for news stories. Sure it is convenient, and it does give us more visuals about the situation, but it also has some negative impacts. These videos are usually shot at vague angles that do give the gist of events but sometimes not enough details. In the case for Gibson and the unnamed policeman, many people are speculating that it’s the policeman’s fault the glass broke, because he slammed Gibson hard into the glass. When watched the first time, it looks like he did, but after watching it a second time you begin to notice Gibson’s arm that the policeman isn’t holding on it is thrown out. For some this video is just another bad impression of the police force. For others it’s an example of a mentally unsound drunk man, someone who should be avoided.

So who is at fault for the broken glass? In my opinion, I believe both of them contributed to breaking the glass window. It is a known fact that when one is about to collide with any surface, by instinct hands are thrown out to cushion the impact. Such is demonstrated by Gibson’s free arm being thrown out. And in order to complete an arrest, an officer usually forces the person up against the wall, or on the ground. In the policeman’s case, he was pushing Gibson’s body up against the wall to arrest him which requires force to direct the man forward. With the aide of the policeman’s force, the strength in Gibson’s outstretched hand penetrated the glass, causing it to break.

My conclusion is based off of what I call common sense, and my budding imagination. So it’s possible I may be wrong.

sources:

http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_13848161

fish out of water

The last fish out of water experience that I had took place last year at De Anza community college, the quarter before I transferred to San Jose State. It was a bright and sunny spring day where I was spending my lunch hour sitting in the sunken garden by the library. Apparently at the same time, a club event was going on around the same area. Among the many students that were leisurely lounging around in the spring sun on the benches, and on the grassy field, several people were standing, some were in small groups discussing, while others were roaming, gravitating towards the students that were there before them. I was seated at a bench, under a quite corner shaded by trees and accompanied by ducks as I was flipping through a Japanese magazine with buds blasting with music tucked in my ears. Suddenly one of the people who were roaming around makes her way towards me. She was a middle-aged Asian woman, who was dressed in a nice button up shirt and black slacks. Tucked in the fold of her arm was a file folder, she towed a smaller and older Asian woman behind her. For someone who doesn’t like to talk to strangers, I was already feeling a bit uncomfortable when she smiled as she made her way towards me. At first the words that came out of her mouth were mute because of the music I was listening to, but out of politeness I had to pull one out and ask her to repeat her statement again. She asks if I would allow her to talk to me for a few minutes, and being a person who doesn’t like to turn people down, I agreed. She seats herself next to me on the bench and introduced herself as a woman from a near by Korean Christian church, and that today they were having an open event where they gathered and informed people. Her companion takes a seat at the end of the bench next to her. She first asks me if I’m Christian or Catholic. Still a bit uncomfortable, I tell her that I’m Buddhist, despite the fact that I’m only a Buddhist in name and not in practice. She pulls out a sheet of paper from the folder and produces a pen out of her pocket. She held the paper in the same manner a teacher would in explaining a worksheet. She starts explaining the contents, about how if you are faithful enough, God will forgive you of your sins. She asked me for personal stories and I told her about my brother’s behavior, and she applied it to her paper. I respect other people’s religions and belief but from the spontaneity of this all, I was starting to feel out of place, and it was quite difficult for me to pay attention and understand what she was talking about. I found myself checking my cell phone frequently, the time drew near for my math class, and while she was explaining to me. I wanted to tell her that I had to go so many time, but being someone who can’t handle being rude to people I stayed with her and listened to everything she had to say until she finally said that she had to go, ten minutes before my class started.

Although it took place on the campus that I was so familiar with, that one moment seriously made me feel as if I was somewhere unfamiliar.

Japanese Internment Essay

In the midst of World War II, and after the event of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. This order called for evacuation and relocation of Japanese people living in America including citizens to interment camps. The reason for this order was to prevent possibilities of Japanese spies in the US to send messages to Japanese battleships. These possibilities were mere assumptions. Approximately 1,800 out of 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans were forced into internment. In the Santa Clara county nearly 3,000 Japanese people were forced to leave their homes and possessions in order to move to San Jose State University’s gym where they would wait to be transported out to interment camps all over the country. Many entrusted their possessions to Buddhist and Methodist churches for safekeeping. These internment camps were first established on horse race tracks, fairgrounds and other large areas, and were sometimes shared with other internment groups such as the Italian American and German American internment camps.

Among those that experienced life in the internment camps was Ruth Asawa. When she was 16, she and her family which consisted of her mother and five siblings were taken to the Santa Anita race track in Arcadia, Califfornia. Although the living conditions were crowded, there wasn’t much for her to do, as opposed to the hard work that she had to do on the family farm. She learned art from other internees that worked as animators from the Walt Disney Studios and when she was free she expressed herself artistically. Thanks to the help of the Japanese American Student Relocation Council, a Quaker organization, she only spent eighteen months at the internment camp. The organization made it possible for Asawa to attend college in Milwaukee Wisconsin.

In 1994 the city of San Jose commissioned Asawa to create a Japanese American Interment Memorial which is a cast bronze relief sculpture that sits in front of the Robert Peckham Federal Building in downtown San Jose. The bronze sculpture has many vignettes that depict scenes from the arrival of Japanese immigrants to the events of internment up to the aftermath of the whole ordeal.

I think that the vignettes that depict the arrival of Japanese immigrants and the image of having to take them away on a bus and forced out are compelling. It is the combination of both of these vignettes that is compelling. The arrival vignette depicts curiosity, hope and bravery. It shows the beginning of the Japanese-American culture and the harmony and diversity that the city had. From the position of that image, it spreads out to depict the hard work and achievements they made after arriving. In contrast, the image of the bus that takes them away is positioned in a way that all those achievements the Japanese Americans have made since they arrived are being taken away. Especially since it is at the other end of the memorial, it marks the end of the rights and privileges that they have earned.

There is a possibility that history may repeat itself. It may be possible that a similar situation will happen in the future. But due to the human rights that we have today, if such an event should ever arise then the factors would be quite complex. The reasons will go beyond racial backgrounds, national decent and physical attributes.

sources:

http://www.japantownsanjose.org/history.html

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/630390/posts

http://www.pbs.org/childofcamp/history/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment

http://www.ruthasawa.com/index.html

Word of the Week: Word #11

1: The Word: Soliloquy
2: Where I read it: Short story titled "Andante" written by Tablo
3: The sentence I found it in: My father raised a hand, gesturing into empty space. A soliloquy in some forgotten play.
4: Dictionary definition: an utterance or discourse by a person who is talking to himself or herself or is disregardful of or oblivious to any hearers present
5: New Sentence: Melissa's singing was messy and loud, a soliloquy meant for just her shadow. She was unaware that Kurt was listening at the doorway with a smile on his face.

Word of the Week: Word #10

1: The Word: vehemently
2: Where I read it: A news article from the San Jose Mercury website
3:The sentence I found it in:But Richard Konda, executive director of the Asian Law Alliance, said he "vehemently disagrees" with the police assertion that kowledge of Pham's illness would have changed nothing.
4:Dictionary definition: characterized by rancor or anger; violent; strongly emotional; passionate or intense
5: New Sentence: The way she vehemently tapped her finger, it was obvious she was unhappy about the outcome of their argument.

Copy Edit the World #2

This is a handout for a lecture that my friend received. In the sentence "To learn more come and here Dr. Berman speak and answer questions", there should be a comma after come, and instead of here it should be hear.



This is a flyer for a meeting on the health care bills. On the line that tells the date and time, I think from should be deleted because there is already a hyphen inbetween 5:00 and 6:00 which already indicates the "from" factor.




This is the last page of my Art History syllabus. Under the section titled "How to fail this class" there are several mistakes. For number 3, instead of a period, there should be a comma. For number 4 delete the w in classmates, study group should be lower case, and there should be a period at the end.



I don't know if this counts, but this is from an oragami book. There should be an "a" inbetween is and Dinosaur. And dinosaur should be lower case.

Word of the Week: Word #9

1. The word: absconded
2. Where I read it: I read it...in the captions while watching the season two of Pushing Dasies...
3. The sentence I found it in: Lily absconded with herself. First time in 30 years, I don't know where she is.
4. Dictionary definition: To leave quickly and secretly and hide oneself, often to avoid arrest or prosecution.
5. New sentence: The group was rejoicing at the fact that they have absconded successfully out of town, unaware that a witness had pointed out their eye-catching vehicle to authorities and were being secretly followed.