Focus Story

Word Count 146


Lillian Garland never thought that her new baby could cause her to be unemployed. Garland went on a pregnancy leave when she worked for the California Federal Savings & Loan. When she returned she was not given her job back.

After nine long nauseating months, she returned to work only to see her desk cleared, and a pink slip in her cubby. California law requires employers to pay their pregnant workers for four months under a disability leave. Employers are also required to give pregnant workers their jobs when they return. Garland did not receive anything and she sued her former employer.
Even though there are many laws against such treatment, many women still encounter the same situation. The U.S Supreme Court voted by 6-2 to uphold the rights of pregnant workers. However, the ruling was issued five years after Garland had her baby.

Japanesse Interment Camps

Word Count 538

The vignettes that I found most compelling were the barbed wire, the paper plane, and a Japanese family burning their culture items. The barbed wire went all around the memorial from the front to back. The paper plane was in the back of the memorial right above the barbed wire. The Japanese people burning their “ethnic” items were on the front of the memorial. This was compelling to me because it represented people of Japanese ancestry in the United States. The three vignettes paralleled many “minority” people’s experience of not being the “majority.”

The barbed wire was on the front, even before the Japanese people were put in the camps, and even after. This meant to me, that even though they were free there was still that resentfulness towards them. It’s significant because that is how a lot of “minorities” feel. The Japanese people might be out of the concentration camps, but many will still feel confined to one. Because of the racism towards them before the war, and the more they encountered after.

The paper plane is a symbol of childhood, and how Japanese children still managed to find fun during the interment. This also represents how some things cannot be broken. The Japanese people were enslaved for a period of time but still kept their traditions alive, and many still kept their faith in the United States.

The Japanese family burning their traditional items was the most compelling for me. Because these items are much more than material objects, they represented who they were. The Japanese people had to hide something about them because it was too “ethnic.” They had to cover up who they were in hopes that they would fit in to the majority culture.

I found these three particular vignettes compelling because it displayed a little bit of the Japanese experience at the time. I think that all of the things that have happened to the Japanese people have happened to other races at some point. Not the same exact thing as imprisonment, but a form of servitude to others.

It is a topic that people rarely discuss in history class. The way the Japanese people were treated before and after mirrors many immigrants. I do believe that something like this could and will happen again. The media and government can influence a great amount of people. They will able to ride on the fears of those non Japanese people who held resentment towards people of Japanese ancestry.

It really depends on how much people are willing to believe the media, in particular. A recent wave of racial profile like this can be seen towards people of Middle Eastern, and Indian descent after September 11^th. It did not go as far as the Japanese interment camps, but the situations are somewhat similar.

A major kamikaze bombing on Pearl Harbor, by a few extremists, caused dislike for an entire race. The internment camps could happen again because having a fear for something or someone is very strong. Fear does not have to be justified it just is. Many non Japanese people simply hatred Japanese people just because. This allowed the media and government to play on that hatred, and condition it to a fear.

Fish Out of Water

Word Count 370

This past spring break I went to New Orleans, Louisiana. During the week that I was there I spent a day with older people. The older people lived together in a large home called “Project Lazarus”, and their ages varied from late thirties to early seventies. They all were in a stage of the HIV virus, or had full blown aids. They now stayed in a home because they had no family to care for them.

I immediately felt like a fish out of water when I spent the day with these people. I could never again image what it would be like to have other people say what you can and cannot do. The residents were all limited to where they could go, and if they were able to go on different outings. I could never image having HIV/aids and watching my body slowly deteriorate.

“I can’t go! Because I called John a faggot,” said Ronicka Harrison a Project Lazarus resident.

I found this statement somewhat amusing, but it was a very serious matter for Harrison. The residents, other volunteers, and I were all going to the movie theater to see “Meet the Browns.” Harrison was punished for her statement, and could not attend the movies with us. This was a big deal, because the only time she goes outside is for her morning, lunch, and dinner smoke break. I felt that it was justified in her staying home, but at the same time it was sad to see her upset.

I felt like a fish out of water, because for the first time I truly felt sorry for someone else’s situation, it wasn’t the other way around. I felt that they were treated very child like by the workers. However, some residents still acted very child like given their ages. The people there had slowly lost their overall morale. The only things that brighten upped their day were having volunteers like myself go spend time with them. Because their families

It did not impacted me that day until I left and they were sad to see me go. Meeting these people changed me because it made me realize how simple things will make others feel better about themselves

Journal #2 - Media Audiences:

Word Count 336
I reviewed the news coverage on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of

Latter Day Saints recent child custody cases in Texas.

News Paper

The article in USA Today, “FLDS Children moved to sports arena; Texas

separates those 5 and older from sect mothers,” was fairly short. It only stating the

important facts of the children and wives conditions. The source who was quoted was

Marleigh Meisner a spokeswoman for Texas Child Protective Services. She is the only

person who is quoted in this article. Though the article does mentions that the attorney for

the FLDS church, Gerald Goldstein, “did not return a call seeking comment,” (USA

Today, William M. Welch). There were no photos or charts used in this article.

Television

The television broadcast on the children and wives in child custody was also very

short, 2 minutes and 3 seconds. There were a total of four sources quoted, three men, and

one woman. Two of the men were fundamentalist Mormons, the third man was an

attorney, and the one woman was a current guardian of some of the children in custody.

The details on television are much more intricate because the use of the many graphics. It

also showed the Mormons speaking on their views, and their gigantic houses, and their

bus loads of families.

http://cbsnews.com

Website

The online coverage of the custody issue was extremely long compared to both the

newspaper and television. The story is about 40+ pages when it is printed out. The story

has many sources, and they are sources most people would take their word for. For

example the website quoted The Los Angeles Times, The Salt Lake Tribune, and etc. The

story was more like a print coverage. Because it was very informative and used sources,

it was not like the broadcast because there were not photos used at all. It was also very

different from both because at the end it allowed comments of random people. The

comments were both for and against the courts decisions.

http://messengerandadvocate.wordpress.com/2008/04/18/texas-judge-rules-all-416-must-remain-in-state-custody/