Newspaper Reflection

I feel like the newspaper project was the first project that I felt very pressed on time. Also, I was getting sick and missed the very last part of it, so I lost a major part of revision for my article. I think that I displayed leadership skills which got us ahead of most groups, within the first day we had chosen our city and date (which would change), also I made us decide on topics within the first day so we could begin brainstorming and research early. In the end it turned out well, I think.

Starting early will help me in MSB because I have already chosen on a topic that I am really passionate about and I have also begun on research, contacts, and my script for the November 5th critique, and I will be collecting beach footage around OB, NTC, and my neighborhood of point loma in the next few weeks. I have also already begun on graphic editing and looking for images and graphs relating to my topic.

MSB Blog (17)

D'Vaughn's blog: She basically said for MSB we're not limited to only beach based organizations and people (who work with beaches directly) for interviews. That we can also use government power to strengthen our arguments.

Thomas's blog: Basically says that he is considering making a movie on the pollution's affect on the public. Its an odd prompt for an MSB movie because almost everyone does direct beach related topics.

Shanna's blog: Shanna discusses a possible painting/mural depicting the marine's suffering of external pollution. The reason for me liking this idea so much is it's unique, like a new idea, something that hasn't been done before.

BLOG #15

Possible Project Products:

1. Write a sentence describing the final product:

A movie/documentary/video on the reverse osmosis filtration system and why its rejected by so many.

2. Post an example of a professional or other high-level product that could serve as a basis for your work.

http://mediasavesthebeach.org/ (What Do You Really Know? Keven Middleton)

3. List three specific ideas that you can take from your example to lead you to a high quality product. Write specifically how you will apply these ideas to your work here. Be as clear, exact & specific as you can!

• I like the way its structured, much more professional than the other videos.
• Interviews and B-roll
• I could present my facts in a more fun way in the video, and add more personality to the narration.

1. Write a sentence describing the final product:

A photo/Essay that has at least 6 pictures and each with a paragraph from an essay.

2. Post an example of a professional or other high-level product that could serve as a basis for your work.

http://mediasavesthebeach.org/ (Photo Essays)

3. List three specific ideas that you can take from your example to lead you to a high quality product. Write specifically how you will apply these ideas to your work here. Be as clear, exact & specific as you can!

• Professionalism
• Quality of photos
• Quality of writing

BLOG #14

"What is the Reverse osmosis system?

"How does it work?"

"Why is it being publicly rejected by so many?"

• Point Loma Sewage Treatment Plant
• Surfrider
• Coastkeeper

I posted these places because they might know a lot about the water system or someone or someplace I could contact and ask them or set up an interview.

Blog #13

"A big Pacific storm swept into California on Tuesday with damaging winds and downpours that put a central community under an evacuation advisory because of mudslide fears, while residents near hillsides denuded by wildfires in the south braced for a dangerous overnight drenching.

The main fear was that the rains would cause mud and debris to rush down hillsides made bare from the summer fire, state fire spokeswoman Colleen Baxter said"

The controversy covers a lot of issues stemming from money and the conditions of southern california. The condition of our water with be affected by the rain and pollution brought in due to the gravitational pull of the globe. If people were told more about the water quality after a rain storm, there would be more people working for change.

The information missing is where specifically did this take place and when. It says it was talking about San Diego from LA and it has a date published but doesn't talk about when.

I'm not sure, this is one of those 'downer' articles, no hope no solutions no fixes, just problem after problem. The next followup would definitely be about what people are trying to do about it.

Optional Assignment: Industrialization

Industrialization: NTC San Diego

In the mid-1920s, the City of San Diego hoped to strengthen its economic ties with the military, and offered more than 200 acres of land to the Navy at the north end of San Diego Bay to entice it to move the Recruit Training Station from San Francisco.

· 70-year history as a military base

· More than 133,000 uniformed personnel and another 30,000 civilians relying on the military for their livelihood.

· Beyond these payroll and visitor expenditures, the Navy spent an additional $10 million for base operation support contracts.

· The end of the Cold War led to military downsizing and the need to close surplus bases. In 1993, the federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission slated NTC for eventual closure.

Issue:

NTC or Liberty Station, has not been hit with any real issues. The main issue (1997-2005) was safety issues. At 1997 the navy ceased all operations in NTC, leaving it completely. Once they left, there was almost an 8 year period where it was left to rot, mold, and crumble. Beginning in 2004-2005, the NTC area began a largely time consuming face lift, that actually is still going on to this day. It's new name is Liberty Station, even though to most locals of the Point Loma area still call it NTC. It's now a mall...sort of...

Relevant News Story:

http://www.ntcfoundation.org/events/index.php?com=detail&eID=10723

Map:

Media Saves The Beach!

Questions:

1. What is the Toilet To Tap filtration system and why is it being rejected by so many people?

The toilet to tap system (or reverse osmosis) is something that I feel very strongly about. I believe that it is one of the only inventions that could save the world (in this case, from running out of water). I do plan on doing my project about it.

1. What is the Seal controversy? Why is it such a problem?

I hate the seal controversy because I do not see a problem in it. I feel like out of all of the beaches in San Diego can't we give one to the seals?

1. Why is our potable water running out? What are some proposed ideas to solve this problem and how does this work?

People are stupid. Simply put. Global warming can be solved by planting trees, essentially the water problem can be solved in a simple way, similar to that. Plant for gardens everywhere, they are natures natural, biological water filter and they are healthy for everything. That's just on idea, there are endless amounts and none of the relatively smart effective ways are being passed on.

Endless Struggle

Endless Struggle

Just because something is proclaimed to be one way or another does not mean that it is. The Civil War ended in favor of the North and that was believed to signify the ending of slavery and equal rights for the former slaves, the masses assumed emancipation would be finally realized. Although laws and amendments were passed to maintain this belief, the Union failed in their attempts to reconstruct the South. To have such patriots of the Confederacy stop flying their flag and suddenly flying their enemies was too much for Reconstruction to handle, too much to just be amended.

In Tony Horwitz’s book, “Confederates in the Attic”, he discusses the death of a man named Michael Westerman, a 19-year old high school grad gunned down through his truck’s tinted windows because of his Confederate flag, and the area he lived in and died in. The town of Guthrie, described in the book, is a backwards, small American town. Still separated by race, it’s a wonder that not more people have been murdered over the hate symbol.

In his book, Horwitz explores a world where Confederate flags are raised high and proudly, and racism is practiced and taught as something normal. It is, in a way, a cliché world inhabited by Southern stereotypes. Most people laugh at this world, but in reality it has a very dark history. Reading about this area in Kentucky, I was quite affected by this reading; mainly because I was one of the people who didn’t/don’t believe it exists. Reconstruction ended abruptly and the many compromises struck with the North and South to keep out of each others business did not help. Hundreds of people all across America have been killed since the end of the Civil War over race.

There is a reason why we consider the end of the Civil War to be the beginning of modern America, and that’s mainly because it shot us out from the dark ages of thinking. Some people say that it was the start of Modern-America; some people think it was the start of Modern problems. “They say that war ended a long time ago. But around here it’s like it’s still going on.” In many respects to what happens in people’s minds, it is still going on. The paramilitary racist factions that struck their high point during the early 1900s are mostly still here today. The Ku Klux Klan is believed to have anywhere between 6,000-8,000 members, and use modern day technology to hide and still spread the word of White Christianity. Basically, that’s what happened to the Confederate radicals and that’s kind of why people believe the war not to be over, people are still fighting for change.

In all of the written and legitimate ways the Civil War is over, but that doesn’t mean people are not still fighting. Some people don’t believe it is, yes they’ll agree that the Confederacy isn’t still around, but they still fight, just under new names. Neo-Nazis, The Ku Klux Klan, passed on from generation to generation, the beliefs and practices of the South are still carried out, and the United States tried to deny this until the point when it becomes problematic. The Confederate flag still flies high, so high it has become a legitimate United States symbol for public schooling, for example the school that Westerman went too, along with the four black students who killed, all went to that high school. I am surprised that the Confederate flag problem has not gained as much press as you would think. We fought against the South, and here was its flag standing in for legitimate government symbols. I guess I was just suppressed that it’s a part of the government and not just hanging from people’s backyards.

I do not know what is more horrible, the Confederate flag, a blatant symbol for hatred, religious and skin color superiority, and Anti-Americanism, being used for a public symbol or a man being killed, shot in the heart, in front of his wife. Its not that racism isn’t a stranger to California, but this historical problem lasting longer than one hundred years is beyond racism. Yes the Civil War ended in 1865, yes it abolished Slavery, and yes America was one notch more accepting, but just because slavery is absent, does not mean the belief of skin color superiority is. If humans can’t get past skin color than we are doomed, guaranteed.

Sources:

1. KKK Main Site, “http://www.kkk.com/” (Updated 2009)

2. US History Post-Civil War Conditions,” http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h409.html” (2002)

3. Authentic History Civil War Timeline, http://www.authentichistory.com/postcw.html (Updated 2006)