Final Paper

Kameron Fears

English 4

deWitt

    Life is full of uncertainties. I wonder how today is going to be? I hope I get to fulfill all of my dream? Is this our last day together with the people we love? You just do not know what is going to happen next in life sometimes. None of us are really have psychic powers, and predict the future for us or themselves. We sometimes can predict what is most likely going to happen base on the events that has happen, but even then what is being predicted may not even happen. Yet some people can still find happiness, while still not knowing what is to come of them or to the future ahead of them.  So you may ask, how do we live our lives with or past all these uncertainties? In Toni Morrison’s book Beloved, may hold the answer to that question, if not then at least lead you in the right direction to find the answer.

    Near the end of her book, Paul D. is talking to Sethe, who seems to be detached from to the world outside of 124, her house, and is staring at the face of uncertainty after Beloved is gone. When Sethe was talking to Paul D. she began to cry and tell him, “‘ She left me’ . . . ‘She was my best thing.’” (Morrison, 321) She then later would talk about how Beloved was the friend that she needed, how she kept Sethe grounded, and how she was able to bring back and put together all of the broken pieces of her life. Sethe would go on and say that, “ It’s good, you know, when you got a great woman who is a friend of your mind.’” (321)  While she was saying all this about Beloved, Paul D. is listening to what Sethe is saying, but at the same time thinking about Sethe. Then Paul D. tells Sethe that, “‘ You are your own best thing, Sethe, You are.’” (322), which is the answer to how live through life’s uncertainties.

    After hearing this, the story ends with Sethe asking, “‘Me, Me?’” (322) Now Sethe reaction would be just about anyone’s reaction to what Paul D. said whether or not you are in the same state of mind as Sethe was. When thinking about that statement Paul D. told her, you can interpret Sethe statement, “ Me, Me?” as her say, ‘Me, how can I be my own best thing?’ Answering that question may lead to understanding “You are your own best thing” Looking at Sethe and what she has been through in the roller coaster of a story, she has already answer her question to Paul D. about her being her own best thing when she said that Beloved was her own best.

Now at one point of the story, Beloved starts to become bigger and grows more and more each day, while at the same time Sethe seems like she is losing more and more of her energy and start to not care about everything around, like losing her job. All she was focused on was taking care of Beloved, which seem like at the same time suck all the life out of Sethe like a parasite latched on something. It got so bad to the point where all the women in the black community who once looked down upon came to 124 and began singing, she just ignored them like it was nothing. It was only when she mistakenly thinks that Mr. Bodwin was Schoolteacher, her old slavemaster, came to her daughter, Denver, away, when in reality Denver was waiting for Mr. Bodwin to pick her up for work. By this point,  Sethe was completely lost in her confusion with her nearing death. In this state of mind she is in all she could see is the uncertainties, which led to her mistakenly running after Mr. Bodwin thinking he was Schoolteacher. While running after Bodwin with an ice pick, she followed by Denver and all the women of the black community. All of this was unfolding while, “ Standing on the porch, Beloved is smiling. But now her hand is empty. Sethe is running away from her, running, and she feels the emptiness in the hand Sethe has been holding.” (309) The reason why Beloved is smiling, is that Sethe leaving her side, leaving her hand empty, is symbolic of Sethe rebirth. With this rebirth, she no longer having the past hold her back, the past being represented by Beloved. She is running to protect the future, Denver. Thus making Sethe her own best thing, by protecting her future which is Denver.

Denver displays another way of you being your own best thing, which helps her mature to the character we see at the end of this story. In the beginning we that Denver is the only child left of Sethe. She is also has been emotionally stunned years before the start of the story and is afraid of the of the world outside of her home, 124. Being emotionally stunned, she is a bit immature for her age, never really leaving 124 without someone. When Paul D. comes around, she starts to feel excluded from the family because Sethe spends all of her time and energy on Paul D., so she starts off acting bitter around Paul D. and giving him the cold shoulder. Denver, being always around 124, was more in tune with the spirit of her dead older sister that haunted them. When Beloved shows she starts to feel more comfortable when she is around, bonding with what she thinks is her sister’s spirit recanated. But nearing the end of the book when Sethe is spent basically all of her time with Beloved. Denver usually liked the silence in the house before, but, “ was surprised to learn hunger could do that: quiet you down and wear you out.” (281) The hunger came from Beloved who was blowing up in size and getting more plumper as she started eating everything and asking for more sweet, which was leading into more problems.

These problems would lead into Denver maturing and finding out that she is her own best thing. Denver started to notice that Sethe was getting weaker, while Beloved was getting bigger.to her, it seemed like her mother was in a trance. Slowly, “ little by little it dawned on Denver that if Sethe didn’t wake up one morning and pick up a knife, Beloved might.” (285) She realized that this endless cycle Sethe in right now, may lead to her death by the hands of Beloved. Seeing how things were getting worse in 124, she knew that they needed help, but no one who come to the house of their own free will and help. She had to go out and find the help herself and it meant she had leave 124 by herself. But when she tried to leave, she stood on the porch and didn’t leave it. Then her grandma, Baby Suggs, spirit started talking to her to, “ go on out the yard. Go on.” (288) After that everything was coming back to her as she began remembering where to go in the town. By the end she had gotten a job working for the Bodwin, which lead to to Mr. Bodwin picking her up and the whole incident with Sethe chasing after him with an ice pick. After that you could tell that she matured from that whole thing, the conversation she had with Paul D. before he saw Sethe showed that she wasn’t so cold to him like before and was more sincere. Realizing that she could have her own opinions and not being held back by her fear of the outside world, this led to her being her own person and her finding out that she is her own best thing.

To live our lives past all of these uncertainties we face, the best way to do is to realize that “ you are your own best thing”. Sometimes we do not realize that we are already our best thing, it just take us time to get grasp of it. Other times we have to go out there and take it ourselves, despite the fears that hold us back from doing so. Sure it may not sound so easy by doing, but once you realize that you can and do it, so many things will open up. Sometimes life tries to knock you down, but after you get knock down it is how you respond to it. Do you stay down and let yourself be weighed down by the uncertainties, or do you get up and let it knock you down again because “you are your own best thing”, and nothing can take that away from you.

Post Midterm Pt. 2

So for the midterm, I decided on doing a group paper with Milkias and Michael. Just like with my subject group, I opened up a word  document and shared it with them and that was where the whole paper would be put together. Also it was a way we could look at each others work and get  a feel for each others sections we were working on. We basically split the work and focused on our own section of the paper mine was on both Health Care and the Affordable Care Act, which seemed easy for me because I focused on those when I did research on the class. In my opinion it went started off good, but we did hit a little bump in the road with communication issues. After we sorted out that whole issue with communicating with each others, we got back on track and finished the paper early Sunday morning. Then we edited the paper up until it was time for class. All in all this was another learning experience to take from. Though there was some issuses with communicating with each other, it got sorted out and toegther we produce one of the best papers I have been a part of.

Post Midterm Blog Pt. 1

So for my subject that I researched for the class was on Health Care. My group consisted of two others, Bianca and Jennifer. So after being assigned our subject we each did our own research on the topic, and then later came back in class and shared what we had digged up while researching. To be honest, I really only looked up on the Affordable Care Act, because I thought that it was a big deal with the whole government shut down, and it did involve health care in America so it seem relevant at the time to me so I went with it. So after we looked over what we had, I thought of the idea to open a google doc where we all can put our info in and create a handout for the class. So the next day I opened the document and shared it with them and we just put things on there to help out the class. When we had to share the info to the class, I volunteered to post our handout to the class on my blog so that if they wanted to see it for there midterm then they could look it up on my blog. After that I went around listening to others subjects and traded my info for their info, if they hadn’t already got it from Bianca or Jennifer already. Overall I was surprised about the whole shutdown thing for the government on a law that  has already been passed and could help benefit the citizen of our country. How I see the whole thing was just overzealous egoes of the Tea Party not wanting anything positive from Obama’s term as President, which is sad to see  because this only is hurt our struggling country instead of helping it. But all in all it was really an eye opener for me, and makes me want to look in on some more thing I really don’t understand about the government.

Work Cited

Johnson, Avery. "What You Need to Know About the Affordable Care Act." The Wall

Street

Journal. The Wall Street Journal, 28 Sept. 2013. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.

<http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB100014240527023042139045790933713

8509610>

Breaking the Status Quo

Breaking the Status Quo

by

Kameron Fears

Milkhais Haile

Michael Hubbard

English 4

Tom deWitt

Americans, like every other society to call Earth their home are constantly adapting to an evolving society. What we face as obstacles today will be a mere chapter in our history books tomorrow. One generation’s taboo is another’s status quo; one generation’s ceiling is another’s carpet. Today, American youth face numerous new battles and benefit from the previous generation’s overcomings. In the past decade Americans have had to and are constantly learning to cope with obstacles such as outsourcing, healthcare reform and one of the worst mortgage crisis in the history of the nation. History bears witness to our ability to grow stronger and more united from social and financial downfalls such as these.

America is the home to many corporate big shot companies such as Apple, Nike and Microsoft that generate an estimated 92 billion dollars of the countries tax revenue. The problem is, less and less of that money is remaining in US soil due to outsourcing. This heavily deprives America from much needed source of capital to pour into social programs, financial aid for students, school districts, and emergency responders, health care. The list of programs and departments that are handicapped are endless. Offshore accounts have been safe havens for these multi-billion dollar companies that are flooding the US with product and advertisement but keeping the profits for self without any intent to sew it back into the fallen American ecosystem and the next generation of Americans. Everyday the American working class is being taxed on every dollar made, while corporations dodge their responsibility to give back to Uncle Sam and contribute in pulling the US out of a 17 TRILLION dollar debt. With a population of 317 million each citizen of America would have to pay nearly 55,000 dollars just to break even with the deficit. With 7.2 percent unemployed and another 635,000 homeless and increasing daily we are already in a losing situation, and that’s just scratching the surface.

Outsourcing within corporate America has become so common it’s nearly a mandatory practice in the business world. Almost every big company imaginable is outsources in some type of way. Whether its call center jobs or manufacturing jobs the elimination of these positions cause a major setback not just for the economy but also the youth. “Manufacturing jobs being outsourced overseas, weakened labor unions, corporations that place profit over working people, and a rapidly growing divide between the rich and the poor have virtually eliminated the middle class”-Tavis pg. 37. In Detroit Michigan AKA motor city thrived off manufacturing jobs for years up until the economy went sour. Now with the majority of those jobs are eliminated elders who were there for numerous years went jobless; which now puts the young and the old in competition with each other. So who wins the battle for the lack of jobs? The fresh and energetic, or old and experienced.

Entry level positions like CSR’s (customer service reps) are stepping stones for young men and women to gain experience in the working world. Realistically not every 18 year old fresh out of high school wants to go to college, some have their eyes set on the workforce the day they receive their diplomas, but outsourcing isn’t solely responsible for the downfall of the economy and employment rate, manufacturing jobs and call center jobs have the highest turnover rates as far as employment goes. Unless you’re old or getting paid an excessive amount, the average American has some aspiration to move up or move on. Looking at outsourcing from a business aspect it’s the most logical thing to do, price of production is cheaper and low overhead, all things that keep a company afloat, but the biggest benefit is health care. In America companies are obligated to provide healthcare to employees after working a number of months, which can get extremely expensive. If a company moves its operation overseas to a country like Japan and many others, they’ll pay lower wages and be completely exempt from providing benefits due to Japan and other countries being a part of a free healthcare system. The young needs to be aware of the moves corporate America makes, as young adults we fall victim to the fancy gadgets, stylish clothes, and bright advertisement. Spend countless time and money worrying about the newly released products these companies provide, not realizing we’re nothing but monopoly pieces to a corporate game.

Another issue that has affected the youth and much of America alongside outsourcing is Health care reform. One of the reasons for this is that there are less and less jobs in the country that offer healthcare coverage. This ties back into the whole outsourcing problem, a lot of the manufacturing jobs that were once here in America had health care coverage as part of their benefits. But since it cost more to offer all of that to their workers along with it cutting into their profits, it help lead the CEOs to outsource these jobs. So in the end of it, they wouldn’t have to worry about providing healthcare to their workers because they shipped those jobs overseas to workers who will get paid less and the gain more of a profit off of it.

Though that is one of the many problems being dealt with, it is not the only one that is involved. Sure right now you may think you were okay with the health insurance that you already had, but when you need a major surgery or someone in your family need a certain procedure done on, the insurance denies you. This is called to some insurance companies a lifetime cap. These lifetime caps are basically telling you that you have a limit on what you can spend on your entire, and once that was done you had to basically pay the rest out of your pocket. And people were being denied some of their surgeries for small little things like having the chicken pox or for some other small minute things from your past. Because of this we have seen many either lost or put into debt because of these life caps.

There is a solution to a lot of these big problems, but even that is now running into problems. The solution is the Affordable Care Act or what the Republicans like to call it “Obamacare”, which was passed on March 23, 2010. With this it changes what was wrong with the old health system and tries to improve them for the better and easier to access if you don’t have it. Before about 60% of healthcare went to actual health care, while the other 40% went to paperwork and paying the higher ups. With the ACA (Affordable Care Act) those number shift from 60/40 to 80/20. Also it gets rid of the lifetime caps and requires businesses that employ 50 or more workers to buy health care for their workers. On top of that it lengthens the time you can spend under your parents health care if they have it from the age of 25 to the new age limit of 26. Though under this act, we have until March 31, 2014 to register for healthcare, if we don’t will get either fined or have it taken out of our income. Small price to pay, but worth the benefits.

Even after it’s been past and made into a law, this a big factor in the whole government shutdown. The extreme conservatives of the Republican Party want this LAW to be gone or they won’t settle the budget. In other words they want to bring back the old system with all its flaws, the lifetime caps; they get their 40% of the whole health care budget, etc. They want the hospital to be run like a business instead of a hospital where patients are not seen as people but just as money.

Probably the most reported but never overstated cause of the recession and a lot of the economic problems our nation’s youth face today are the great Housing Bubble Burst. In 2008 we saw millions of American families being thrown out of their homes while Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac received hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. This will probably be looked at in the future as the saddest irony in our nation’s history. The majority of the blame rests on lenders who gave families loans for short term profit knowing that the family was sure to default in the long term. The guilty finger is also sure to point at our politicians whom were too deep in the checkbooks of the big banks to facilitate any kind of regulations but were quick to bail out their corporate sugar daddies because “they were too big to fail.”

The housing bubble came to existence because there was an increasing demand for homes. This wasn’t due to a massive population growth but rather because, people who weren't previously in a financial position to afford a house were convinced they could and the elusive market made real estate a guaranteed short and long term investment.

Home values were at an all-time high dating as far back to when data records existed. Big time home builders such as D. R. Horton, Pulte, and Lennar saw their shares go from $3 in early 1997 to all-time high of $42.82. Just In 2005, 1,283,000 new single-family houses were sold, compared with an average of 609,000 per year during 1990–1995. According to US Federal Reserve estimates, in 2005 homeowners extracted $750 billion of equity from their homes (up from $106 billion in 1996), spending two thirds of it on personal consumption, home improvements, and credit card debt. But in 2006, just as it was predicted by experts and ignored by lenders, the housing bubble busted sending our economy into a free fall. In 2007 more than 25 subprime lenders declaring bankruptcy and the once impeccable United States' subprime mortgage industry collapsed. According RealtyTrac, Federal Reserve, and Equifax from 2006-2012 there have been 21, 5 million foreclosures.

The solution or better yet the hope for a future with limited to no outsourcing, a health care system that puts the American citizens before insurance companies and free from another housing bubble and a big bank free reign rests on the youth of America to learn from the mistakes and mishaps of today. Elements such as greed, corruption, and classism will always be around but if the youth of America grow politically alert and mobilize with modern weapons such as social media, we can see a new standard of accountability in our government and private sectors.

Work Cited

"Employment Situation Summary." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor

Statistics,

22 Oct. 2029. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.

Irrefutable Argument For Healthcare Reform. Dir. Kyle Kulinski. YouTube. YouTube, 03

Oct. 2013. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.

Johnson, Avery. "What You Need to Know About the Affordable Care Act." The Wall Street

Journal. The Wall Street Journal, 28 Sept. 2013. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.

<http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB100014240527023042139045790933713

8509610>

Smiley, Tavis, and Cornel West. The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto. New

York: Smiley, 2012. Print.

Toppo, Greg. "Homeless Population Dips." USA Today. Gannett, 3 Sept. 2013. Web. 28

Oct. 2013.

"U.S. National Debt Clock." U.S. National Debt Clock. N.p., 24 Oct. 2013. Web. 28 Oct.

2013.

My own Personal Blog separate from this one

Hey I have another blog that is a bit more personal, and I don't care if you read it. But if you want to then here is the Link: http://heyokam.blogspot.com/

What is the state if healthcare

Would you rather have obamacare or affordable health care?

What is affordable health care?

Everything you need to know about health care

• The deadline

Open enrollment runs between October 1 and March 31. You don't have to sign up that first day. In fact, you may want to put off paying for it until December. Plans bought through the exchanges won't start until January 1.

December 14 is the cut-off date if you want your plan to start January 1. Open enrollment runs through March 31. If you sign up in January or February your coverage will start the following month

• If you don't get insurance

If you don't sign up to get insurance, you'll list that on your 2014 tax return.

The fee for the first year is $95 per adult and $47.50 per child (up to $285 per family), or 1% of your income, whatever is higher.

In 2015, it jumps to 2% of your income, or $325 per adult and $162.50 per child. In 2016, it will jump to 2.5% of your income.

• Where to start

If you have Internet access, start with the Web. Beginning October 1, Healthcare.gov will have the information you need. The government site will link to where you sign up for the program.

Go first to "get insurance." That tab will get you to a page that will walk you through whatever marketplace is available to you. Some states set up their own; the federal government runs the rest. On this site you can also compare the plans available in your area.

You may also want to see if you are eligible for Medicaid here. So far, 26 states are moving toward expanding who is eligible for the federal government-funded health program for lower income families and individuals.

You can also enroll by mail.

Obama offers funding to help communities understand Obamacare

The government has set up call centers to help people with open enrollment. Call 1-800-318-2596 (TTY: 1-855-889-4325). The number is staffed around-the-clock. Information is available in more than 150 languages.

There will also be specially trained advisers in communities. These "navigators," as they are known, can help you in person. There will also be federally authorized marketplace-designated organizations. They will be based in community health centers, at the mall, in drug stores and in churches. Depending on state law, traditional agents and insurance brokers can also help.

Unlike brokers or agents, navigators and marketplace-designated organizations can educate you about the plans, but they cannot tell you which plan to pick. Their advice is free. If someone who is a navigator or a federally designated organization tries to charge you, it is a scam

How does Obamacare affect Medicaid recipients?

In August, Michigan became the 25th state to approve the Medicaid expansion, a key part of the ACA. Under new Medicaid expansion rules starting April 2014, people who previously were ineligible may now qualify. New rules state that anyone earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level (which currently is about $15,800 for a single person and $32,500 for a family of four, according to www.healthcare.gov) qualifies. To see whether you qualify for Medicaid in Michigan, contact a state Medicaid agency or fill out an application for coverage in the Health Insurance Marketplace. After submitting the application, applicants will be notified of plans for which they qualify. If they’re eligible for Medicaid, the Medicaid agency will be notified so coverage can start in 2014.

How are businesses affected by ACA?

The law does not require employers to provide health insurance, however, any employer with 50 or more full-time employees that doesn’t provide this coverage must pay a fee. Employers that do provide coverage must meet the minimum ACA “qualifying plan” requirements. Smaller businesses (with less than 25 employees) that pay all or part of employees’ health insurance may be eligible for a tax credit.

What about individuals who are self-employed, retired, US veterans or currently uninsured?

The insurance marketplace (www.healthcare.gov) allows the self-employed and uninsured to shop for “more affordable” health care options. Retirees may find supplemental plans that are less expensive or offer more comprehensive coverage at the marketplace. For people enrolled in a VA health care plan, no action is necessary as the plan meets ACA requirements.


Other sites to look up:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/healthreform/healthcare-overview

https://www.coveredca.com/

Jimmy Kimmel Affordable care act: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx2scvIFGjE

Even Odds Response

The article by Jill Tucker entitled Even Odds was a very interesting article about young African American males growing up in Oakland. It shows the struggles they have to endure so they don't end up as another statistic of the senseless crime that happen frequently in Oakland. Some main points that I think that can be taken away from this and can be applied to not just surviving in Oakland but surviving in life in general for all young African American males growing up. One of them is to be aware of your surroundings. If you have a bad feeling about where you are then it's a good idea to probably get out of there. Another one is to think before you act. Every action has a reaction, that means everything whether it's a small thing or a gigantic problem something always come from it, sometimes good and sometimes bad. One more, is that you need to find a positive role model. Find someone to look up that has a positive influence on the world that helped or helps makes this world better, and if you can't find one , then become that positive role model yourself because you never know what that can do for others.