Reflections on Federal Immigration Policy essay

Reflections on Federal Immigration Policy essay Reflections on Federal Immigration Policy essay Reflections on Federal Immigration Policy essayThe major current federal immigration policy issues include illegal immigration, overcrowding, investment policy issues, national security and terrorism, and other issues. As the United States is considered to be the nation of immigrants, the federal immigration policy should be well-developed to address the needs of American citizens (Theodoulou    Kofinis, 2013).   Moreover, the federal immigration policy is closely connected with employment issues because those people who come to the United States with the intention to work and stay there should be useful to our state. In addition, racial and religious biases are linked to immigration policy. I feel concerned about related issues that relate to current federal immigration policy.Undoubtedly, if anything is changing in the current federal immigration policy, it will affect me personally because I am an American citizen and any changes in the governmental policies may have either po sitive or negative consequences for me, my family and the whole American society. For example, the permission to continue illegal immigration may have negative impact on my employment, security and even my health.My thoughts prior to reading this week’s reading assignments were vague about the nature immigration policy. Now I realize that it is necessary to understand the complexity of the immigration policy making process. The U.S. government should address the needs and requirements of citizens, providing the proper opportunities for the development of the nation in today’s global context. Immigration issues should not lead to economic decline of the country. As a result, it is necessary to follow current federal immigration laws. In general, my perspective has been reinforced now that I am more informed. I realize that illegal immigration is an issue of public concern that requires adequate response of the U.S. government.

The Life of Billie Holiday essays

The Life of Billie Holiday essays Billie Holiday, probably the singularly most popular jazz vocalist of all time, was plagued by tragedy her entire life. Her grandfather was one of 17 children of a black Virginia slave impregnated by the white Irish plantation owner. When born in Baltimore, MD, Billie's parents were only teenagers; her mother (Sally Fagan) the tender age of 13. Billie's real name was Eleanora Fagan. Shortly after birth, Billie's father (Clarence Holiday) ran off to go on tour and play guitar with Fletcher Henderson's band. Billie's mother often left her to be cared for by relatives. Billie's early relationship with immediate family was virtually non-existent. Billie essentially grew up alone, feeling unloved and gaining a lifelong inferiority complex that led to her taking great risks with her personal life and becoming self-destructive. At the age of 6, Billie was blamed for her grandmother's untimely death. At the age of ten, Billie was the victim of a violent rape. The future "Lady Day" first hea rd the music of Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith on a Victrola at Alice Dean's, the Baltimore brothel where she ran errands and scrubbed floors as a young girl. In 1927, Billie moved to New York and became a prostitute herself for a span of three years. Inspired by the love of singing, she talked the manager of an obscure Harlem nightclub into letting her sing a few tunes with the house band. She made $57 dollars that night in tips. After being discovered by John Hammond, Eleanora Fagan assumed the stage name of Billie Holiday after her favorite film star Billie Dove, and the name stuck. In 193 3, Hammond organized her first recording session with Benny Goodman. Although these recordings were not all that successful, it was the start of her career. Two years later she was teamed with a pickup band led by a pianist named Teddy Wilson and the combination clicked. During 1935-42 she would make some of the finest recordings of her career as word was spreadi...

Leymah Gbowee Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Leymah Gbowee - Essay Example sexual favors in return for accepting a girl to study at her school and also teenage girls being sold for prostitution on less than a dollar per night (Ted Talk, 2012). She was also lamenting on how we have policies such as the No Child Left Behind and UN Childrens Rights acts, but they do not seem to work. Most of these points are true such as the alarming teenage pregnancy rate among children and also that most girls, particularly in Africa, fail to go to school mostly because they lack the resources or society will not let them. Today, girls are married of at young age or sold to prostitution denying them a chance to go to school. What the speaker was trying to stress is that society sees girls as tools instead of human beings, which is mostly true in some parts of the world, for instance, Liberia (Ted Talk, 2012). The only part where I tend to disagree with the speaker is that policies such as No Child Left Behind an UN Childrens Rights. Most of these policies are effective in some regions, for example, the United States. It is up to these other regions like Liberia to effectively apply them. In such a speech, in order to greatly deliver your message, you need to make people truly feel what you are talking about. For example, when talking about the situation in Liberia it would be significant to use video clips or pictures or even bring the girls from the region to tell the story themselves. This will at least give the audience a clear picture of the message being delivered. However, these presentations should not be more of something fancy, but convey the topic of the talk. Your speech should be simple, with a clear start, middle and conclusion. Focus on one theme, and eliminate everything else. When Chris Anderson asked Gbowee what troubles her most about Liberia, she went into a lot of detail only to give a simple answer in her next response that it is teenage pregnancy (Ted Talk, 2012). An advice that I could give Gbowee to help her improve her speech

Dave and Buster's Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Dave and Buster's - Essay Example In various places, Dave and Buster’s restaurants are constantly packed with guests; both regular and new. While days are usually fun packed with events and activities, nights have proved to be busiest as most patrons have enough time to spend unwinding after work. The company’s revenues have grown significantly over the years. By 1998, its revenues topped 13.2 million US dollars and the company achieved an average growth of 6% from the previous year. As of 2008, the company earned close to 536.4 million US dollars in revenues and employed about 7,500 people in different states and locations. Many commentators have noted that Dave and Buster’s original concept of providing a quality environment for relaxing with food and drink was indeed brilliant. From an initial capital investment of three million USD, the organization has managed to grow and out do many of its competitors including Hard Rock Cafà © international incorporated and Planet Hollywood International Incorporated. The company has also managed to gain international presence by trading its concept with overseas organizations through agreements and area licensing. Apart from engaging in business generating activities, Dave and Buster’s contributes to the community. This it does by sponsoring different events including Bowling for Soup rock band concert tour, World Wrestling Entertainment, and Dave Bevan’s Children funds drive. The organization also encourages people to visit its venues by posting commercial adverts on several television networks.

Unplanned Pregnancy and Abortion Laws Research Paper

Unplanned Pregnancy and Abortion Laws - Research Paper Example This is majorly because of lack of knowledge on the different methods of protection from pregnancy. Lack of finance also probes them to abort because they are afraid that they may not be able to give the child the basic needs. The contraceptives have become very costly for most of the American women who live under the poverty line. Normally, many women who abort are usually in the teen years. This is when peer influence is highest and many women try to fit in the society ending up getting pregnant and seeking abortion1. Abortion was legalized in America in 1973 by the Supreme Court. However, it became a very controversial issue. This is mainly because of the different ways that people look at abortion. Many are influenced by their religious beliefs, public health issues and ethics. Others believe that one should not suffer because of a pregnancy they had not even planned for in the first place. Before contraceptives became popular, may women in the United States had unplanned pregnancy. This was especially for young mothers who could not space out their children and thus had many maternal health problems. Later on, in the late twentieth century, the use of contraceptives reduces significantly, as the family planning methods became popular2. However, lately, due to politics interfering negatively with the use of contraceptives, unplanned pregnancies have drastically augmented. This is because the negative views of some politicians made some stakeholders to withdraw their financial support for family planning companies. In the recent past, the American lawmakers who belonged to the Republican Party were against abortions. Therefore, in the sittings that happened in 2011, they tried to make sure that the cost of having an abortion was very costly for women.

Freewrite in the Style of Susan Griffins Our Secret Scholarship Essay

Freewrite in the Style of Susan Griffins Our Secret - Scholarship Essay Example It reminds us of our humanity. We weep for a piece of bread at night. Let bygones be bygones, but if I have the soul of a Jew I will never again buy a German car, no matter how much I want a BMW. If I have the soul of a Jew I will never truly understand how we can look at disasters like Haiti and not be one of the people who constitute $396 M in donations to our darker brothers and sisters living on one-half of an island in the Caribbean. If I have the soul of a Jew I will never be able to look back at WWII history and not learn its lessons. The wisdom it teaches us. Freedom is a privilege, not a right. Many of us are yet still not free in this world. Tough times, repeated rhymes. Fourscore and seven years ago becomes a whimper in the background. Even though this life is full of sound and fury and signifying nothing, even though it may start with a bang and end with a whimper, still, this life is magnificent no matter how one slices it. This life is wonderful, no matter what happens, who tries to put you down, or who tries to destroy your good name. Men like myself are like torpedoes. From the inside out we distance ourselves away from others, aiming for the target, to pierce others with our consciousness. Silently we are thinking to ourselves, "And who are we to destroy" But deep within our consciousness lies the subtle fact that we owe our own destinies a shot at finding true meaning and relevance in a rickety world so poorly and yet so magnificently built. Truth was never yet found where darkness is considered king. But all of these days, we consider that man is simply a leave of grass that will be blown away with the summer wind. Nothing satiates our desires more perfectly than finding the right person with whom to share these personal pestilences, these difficulties, these mired-down missions in our petty lives. Nothing. With all of the history we refer back to, we realize that in the shadows, in the darkest recesses of our minds, nothing can compare to the hope we have when we come back and take ownership of our own destinies. Like the wind, we fly. Sincerest victory is not won by sitting idly by the sidelines. We must fight, we must struggle, we must dance to the death, our victory dance. We must realize ourselves. We must self-actualize. Dearly, we hold each other. In the light of each others' arms, we realize our true purpose in life, which is to love and be loved. "Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forward."2 Because I have the soul of a Jew, I realize all my mistakes must be remedied by love, kindness, compassion, caring, and understanding. I realize my love must be like an overflowing ocean or river in order to manifest love. Because I have the soul of a Jew, I recognize all human pain and suffering. I will not turn a blind eye to the homeless, the destitute, or those who have needs and problems. My mind is racing. Without love in the world, there can be no great change. Without love in the world, there can be no catharsis. Without love in the world, there can be no healing. Because I see with the eyes of the oppressed, I am more free in my own being. I have more of an ability to identify with the needs of the suffering. I see the problems. I do not ignore them. I will not turn a blind eye to suffering when I see it in my life. When I see others in pain, I will see and do something. I will take action. I will be a force for change. I will do the right thing. I will get involved. I am trying to be the best man I can be. I am trying to be the best human being I can be. With God as my witness, I take an

Deadly Unna Film Essay Example for Free

Deadly Unna Film Essay Australian Rules A comparative review by Anita Jetnikoff (QUT) for Australian Screen Education. Published as: Jetnikoff, Anita (2003) Australian Rules: a comparative review. Australian Screen Education(30):36-38. The title may mislead some viewers, as this is not a film about a football code, anymore than Bend it with Beckham is about soccer. This powerful, brave and rather brutal feature is the debut of Paul Goldman, who co-wrote the screenplay with the novelist Phillip Gwynne. Both the storylines and characters from Gwynne’s awardwinning novel Deadly Unna? nd its sequel Nukkin Ya, have been combined in the film, which was commissioned by South Australian Film Corporation for the Adelaide Festival of Arts 2002, and caused a furore with the local Aboriginal community. The film was screened after much deliberation over the objections against depictions of a character resembling a member of the Penninsular community. This certainly suggests collaboration with Indigenous communities could have been sought at earlier stages of the project. In my reading of the film, however, it is the white community who emerge the more brutal, bigoted and shameful. The Aboriginal community, on the other hand, represent solidarity, and sharing. The film was released and promoted by Palace, with the slogan ‘live by the rules play by the rules’. There is, however, an almost apartheid divide between the black [Nunga) and white [Goonya) communities in this film and the central character’s personal navigating between the two, means he must break unwritten rules. The film is based on aspects of two novels, the partly autobiographical novel Deadly Unna, and its sequel, Nukkin Ya, Nunga expressions for ‘Great hey’ and ‘See you later’. Both novels were easy to read and full of humour in spite of the serious subject matter of racism, interracial relationships, adolescent angst, death and revenge. The novels belong to the adolescent problem or coming-of-age genre and are being studied in secondary schools. The film has little of the novels’ lightness and the narrator’s ability to laugh at himself and his community’s foibles. This sometimes disturbing film’s tone is brutal, the landscape stark, sordid and in decay. Most of the characters occupying the saline, arid coastal town are nasty. The adult men are barflies, maggot breeders, fornicators and losers and the women are victims or sluts. This hopeless adult world offers nothing for the young in this fishing town. Viewers are invited to identify with the young, for whom hope lies in escape. The central figure of Blacky (Nathan Phillips), is an intelligent 14 year old caught between the literary world of his imagination and the literal world of his small towns’ bigotry. His mother, who encourages him to play football and to do well at school, is a battler, a victim of his father’s brutality. The dilapidated house the Black family occupy oozes poverty and neglect. These are white fringe dwellers. In the novel Blacky refers to what kind of chops the family will consume as indicative of the ‘pov metre’. They shop at the local op shop. Like many small rural Australian towns, this coastal community struggles to survive. The black and white communities in the region are divided, separated physically by a stretch of coastline, whites at the port and blacks at the point. Even the local pub segregates the Aboriginal drinkers from the white ones. The irony is that the local football team is only viable when the Aboriginal boys come over from the point to play. The sporting fixture allows the communities to merge, but the union stops there. Blacky crosses the racial divide to befriend Dumby Red (Luke Carroll) a talented Aboriginal Australian Rules Player from the Point and to romance Dumby’s sister Clarence (Lisa Flanagan). Whereas book built up the friendship through Blacky’s doubt and hesitation about Dumby, this is not dealt with in the film. The film opens with the two characters already mates, sitting together in the dilapidated shed of the red dirt football field, commiserating over the ineffectiveness of their coach, Arks (Kevin Harrington). Dumby’s spectacular football prowess has been spotted by a city talent scout, which sets up the need for him to win best Player in the final against a much stronger team. A contract to a city football team would mean a possible escape from the bigotry and emptiness of the Penninsular—his chance to be a sporting success. Blacky finds himself an unwitting hero and awarded best team man for winning the premiership game. He unwittingly collides with the toughest star player on the opposing team and is knocked unconscious, along with his gigantic opponent. The shooting sequences of the match were not especially riveting, but this was in keeping with the importance of the game to the story. The film is not about winning or losing, but the personal integrity of the play or the journey in the ongoing process of discovering identity. The medal for ‘Best on the Ground’, rightly belonged to Dumby Red. His ticket out of the hopeless community, however, was denied to him, because rather than kicking a sure goal, he had passed a ball to a cousin who had not handled the ball all day. The cultural code of sharing was stronger than the competitive need to win. In the film, the loss of the award to the coach’s son paves the way for Dumby’s tragic demise. He joins Pretty (Tony Briggs) in an armed robbery of the pub, perhaps to extract an alternative prize to the one he’d been denied. The publican, Mac, laid out in a drunken stupor on the pool table, is beaten even more senseless by Pretty. The noise rouses Blacky’s father (Simon Westaway) who shoots and kills his son’s friend Dumby Red in revenge for the publican’s beating. In the novel the publican was the murderer, but the film’s central villain is Blacky’s father, Bob, who represents fear, loathing and menace. His violent rages left his own family in fear of him. In one memorable scene they escape his menacing torment of their mother behind closed doors by escaping through the window and sleeping in the chicken coop. The feeling is that this experience was not new to them. Blacky is torn in the novel between his initial attraction to Clarence in Deadly Unna, which he conceals from his white ‘friends’ in order to attract the attention of a rich white ‘camper’ girl. In the sequel this relationship between Blacky and Clarence and Blacky and his father represent two kinds of coming of age. His masculinity is tested early on in a storm at sea and later when he was caught in the shed stealing paint to cover a racist slogan in the local boatshed. His intelligence means little to his father, and his good grades and scholarship to Kings College in Adelaide are ignored. In the sequel Nukkin Ya, the filial relationship seems almost mended when his father takes on the renovation of a ‘windjammer’ to bring potential tourism to the town. His father’s project becomes obsessive at the expense of putting food on the family’s table, but the male relationship seems to be temporarily repaired along with the boat, which becomes symbolic of rebuilding strength, unity and hope around the fantasy of the future. In the novels we experience Blacky’s angst at discovering his father’s infidelity to his mother. Blacky and his friend Pickles, stumble upon their adulterous fathers visiting the Aboriginal women at the point. The irony of this is that the entire community seemed set gainst the burgeoning love relationship between Blacky and Dumby’s sister Clarence. The fact that the cross-race relationship of the father is not dealt with in the film makes his violent reaction to finding Clarence innocently sleeping alongside Blacky in his bedroom connected more with his hatred of Aboriginal people, than it is to do with his guilt over murdering Dumby Red. It is a response reduced to racism alone, rather than his own guilt and hypocrisy, which in the novels is built up subtly through the two volumes. The antagonist in the second novel, having moved away from the father, is embodied by the figure of Lovely (Pretty, in the film) who menaces Blacky over his relationship with Clarence. Lovely sports a hate tattoo on his fingers and is a violent instigator in both book and film. The disclosure of the white men’s infidelity at the expense of the black women, who remain nameless and faceless, leads to the climax of the second novel. The boat is set alight, which symbolizes the death of the relationships between Blacky and his father and his community. Lovely is framed, Blacky absolves Lovely in court by taking the blame, but Pickles (Tom Budge ) was the real arsonist. This false confession, leads to Blacky becoming a cipher in his own town, where boats and the sea are peoples workplaces. He becomes a ‘boat burner’ in the cultural imaginary and is forced to leave. In the film this purging is less powerful and seems to emerge from some kind of corporate malice rather than revenge. Pickles manically sets alight rival maggot breeder Darcy’s breeding drums, which has less symbolic poignancy than the boat burning in the novel. Blacky’s central challenge in the film is to reaffirm his masculinity by standing up to his father, through the relationship with Clarence. Blacky is constructed by his father as a ‘gutless wonder. ’ Blacky’s painful journey to manhood, is much harsher in the film than the book. In the novel the father is a violent adulterer, but in the film, he kills Blacky’s best friend. Blacky’s attendance at Dumby’s funeral represents a betrayal of familial solidarity in the eyes of the father. The relationship was not strong enough however, for Blacky to take his father’s side. At this point, Blacky abdicates from identifying with his father. He has begun to flee the emasculated self constructed by his father, towards a more potent, sexual self, embodied by his attraction and identification with the other through the literal ‘body’ of Dumby and the physical, sexual body of Clarence. What is morally worrisome is that the father, who both Blacky and the viewer see as a murderer, continues to live in the community with impugnity, the ‘common sense’ gap we fill is that he claims he shot Dumby in selfdefense. Blacky courageously resists his father’s imperative to stay away from the funeral. In the film’s powerful and moving climax, the battered, but united family in the background witnesses the final stand off between father and son. Blacky literally stands up to his father, not by competing in battle of fists, but resisting by sheer will and strength of character. The father leaves in a vicious rage and we can’t help feeling that the family will be better off with him gone. The second novel Nukkin Ya begins with hope of Blacky taking a scholarship at Kings in Adelaide. His girlfriend Clarence achieves a scholarship to art school and Blacky has a reason to follow her. The film ends with the two young lovers romantically swimming in the clear waters, symbolically cleansing themselves of the grime and grease of prejudice, which had tainted their relationship until that point. The film treats the romance in a much lighter way than the books. There is no stand off between the characters; in fact Clarence becomes Blacky’s bridge between the two cultures. In the film it is Clarence who stands up to Bob Black in Blacky’s bedroom with dignity and silent resistance. Lisa Flanagan’s performance was elegant and dignified. It was Clarence who gently cut through the wall of hostility from the Nunga boys at her brother’s funeral- allowing Blacky to mourn his friend’s death. It was Clarence who understood Blacky’s poetic allusions to dying stars- these two are cosmically connected and there is an almost Shakespearean sense of their fate. The love scenes provide the film’s only softness and the resolution, although moving, is not sentimental. The young people must leave the still-divided community, to survive together.