Monday, March 27, 2017

Drug Testing Welfare Recipients

Drug Test All of Us

In his article Drug Test All of Us, Adam Chodorow describes the different ideas behind whether the United States should drug test the recipients of welfare. Chodorow begins by saying the 15 states have recently passed laws that require people who receive welfare to be drug tested. He says that these laws have been said to be "an attempt to demonize the poor." Chodorow also notes that although the government wants to be sure that the welfare money is not used for drugs, he says that other forms of federal aid, such as farmers and businesses, are not required to be drug tested. He questions whether this shows that the government is only trying to make the poor seem like bad people.

I agree with what Chodorow is saying, even though I do not know much about how federal aid programs work. I understand that the government wants to make sure that the money that they give is used for things such as food and housing and not for drugs, but I think that it is unfair to assume that the people receiving help do drugs. I don't think that the government should be demonizing people who need help. Also, I am not sure how much drug tests cost, but I think that they are expensive. I don't think that the money spent on drug tests would be worth it in the long run. It is unfair to assume that only people of lower socioeconomic status do drugs and therefore are worthy of having drug tests, since different types of recipients of federal aid, that are typically a higher class, are not drug tested. I chose this topic because my sister was talking about how Arizona spent millions of dollars on drug testing welfare recipients, and they only found one person who tested positive. I thought that it was ridiculous and I wanted to learn more about it. I searched "drug testing welfare recipients" on Google, and found a reliable news source.



Monday, March 20, 2017

Learning Reflection

       I have learned a lot about myself as a student this year. This year I have learned to use my study hall a lot more wisely. In 8th grade I did not use my flex time wisely, which caused me to have a lot of homework every night. This year, and especially this past quarter I have used my study hall to complete most of my homework. Also this year I have learned a more efficient way of doing homework.
     Last year I would sit at the dinner table to do homework every night. I thought this was a good place, but there was too much noise and disruptions. Now I have been doing all of my homework either in study hall, or in my room where it is more quiet. The final thing I have learned about myself this year is that I study a lot better with someone else. Previously I would study by myself, which was not very effective. This year I now study with my friends, on facetime or in person. Overall I have learned about about myself this year.

Free Post

I love animals. We have three dogs and one cat. Bandit was the first dog that we got. We adopted him from Petco when he was just a baby and now he is about 10 years old. He barely had any hair when we got him because he had so many fleas. He had a brother that looked just like him and his name was A.J. I often wonder what happened to A.J. and if he has had a good life. Bandit is my sister's favorite dog. A few years after we got Bandit, we found Nacho. Nacho showed up at our doorstep and never left! Nacho is chihuahua and he has a cataract in one eye. He is around 13 years old now and he is my mom's favorite dog. Bella is our biggest dog. She is a white German Shepard and she is about 7 years old. Someone dropped her off at our barn and we took her in. She had heart worms really bad and my mom had her treated by the veterinarian. She is healthy now and she is my favorite dog.

Ricky's cat had a litter of kittens and I loved playing with these kittens. I begged my mom for one of the kittens and she gave me one for my 14th birthday. I named her Gizmo and we call her Gizzy. Gizzy is an indoor cat that loves to sleep.  Animals make me happy because they are always happy to see me and they love to play!

Monday, March 6, 2017

Mardi Gras

     Mardi Gras is one of the biggest holidays in my family. Every year my dad and his family would have a float in a very big parade. One year when I was still about 11 years old my dad made a huge bag with lots of beads, and other stuff. He promised that he would throw it to me once his float passed where I was standing, and he kept that promise and threw it right to me. The problem with that was that I was not looking, so the bag hit me right in the head.
      Since the bag was full with heavy beads, it knocked me out. After some lady saw me she decided to not make sure I was okay, or even breathings, she just picked up the bag and walked off. Once my mom made sure I was okay she chased after the other lady and told her to give me back my bag. The lady refused to do so, until we told her that it had my name on the side of it since my dad wrote it. Overall Mardi Gras is one of my favorite Holidays.
   

Song Analysis

Heathens by Twenty One Pilots
https://play.google.com/music/preview/Tpswmp7otsdxnrdask2xwm2hsdy?lyrics=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=lyrics&pcampaignid=kp-lyrics&u=0#

            "Wait for them to ask you who you know" In this part of the song I noticed that they used assonance. In this line there is a repetition of the "oo" sound. The use of assonance in this song helps it flow better. Another technique this song displays is Sibilance. IN the line "Why'd you come, you knew you should have stayed" he uses Sibilance. I think he uses this to help the song have a more creepy feeling.
     The final technique I noticed the singer using was consonance. In the line "Yeah, I trust issues, not to mention" he repeats the letter T. I think the singer uses this to keep the song flowing well. The writer uses this technique to create a very sharp sounding line. Also this could have just been a coincidence, and the writer didn't know about it.