“I can’t fail at being Gay/ a Lesbian!!”

"Where can I go for help if no one sees me as a victim?" Thank you for making this class so engaging. As you read in the readings there are few to no resources for the LGBT DV victims within that community. As you saw in your 'Looping' exercise, it's easy to say one thing but feel another. How can we separate what Professor Stein brought up about the 'Feminist Theory' of DV and the challenges of how to address these very real issues about DV within this specific population? As Cynthia pointed out; HIV and LGBT victims of DV are not qualified for the services that the organization provides. How can we as a society say that one life is greater than the other based on the sex of the batterer? It all goes back to how we perceive victims to be and how we "like" our victims. As Dani suggested, some educational classes to the NYPD on how to address these calls would be great. As you think of those looping words you jotted down, what ways can you think of in regards to changing your own mindset so that DV victims regardless of their class and sex can get free of both the batterer and the LGBT community expectancies?

Expand VA-WHAT? Not in this economy.

First of thank you all for your cooperation this past Thursday. Your participation in this class was phenomenal. Ruby and Popy, special thanks to you and your wonderful collaboration with your testimonies about how this issue also had impact in each of your lives. One article that we spoke very little about was the New York Times article on the legislation of reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). This article spoke about the heated discussion from the politicians of moving forward with this piece of legislation. The purpose is to expand the programs and services of VAWA in order to reach awareness and help populations such as immigrants. The legislations also looks to help same- sex couples, which is something many Republicans are opposing because they are a conservative party. VAWA has been expanded over the years and this expansion is looking to create more outreach in order to prevent worse abuse and help survivors on time. Why else do you think that certain politicians oppose the reauthorization of VAWA? How would this legislation affect our economy? Why? What would you add or remove from this legislation and why?

Are You Wit' It?

Karen Pittman once said, “The ongoing growth process in which all youth are engaged in attempting to: 1) meet their basic personal and social needs to be safe, feel cared for, be valued, be useful and be spiritually grounded, and 2) build skills and competencies in their daily lives.” I truly believe that youth development is a shared responsibility between family, school, community-based organizations, religious organizations, civic groups and youth themselves. However, in many cases we see otherwise. Youth are the center of their growth, and each youth person meets their needs through their own context. Youth development is ACTIVE not PASSIVE, which places value on making intentional connections with the youth.

In Gray’s article, “The Lord of Rikers,” inmates call “One Main,” the most dangerous facility on Rikers, the “House of Pain.” Inmates are described to be “minorities from broken homes in public housing, awaiting robbery and murder charges. They have all the ordinary problems of youth: impaired judgment, poor impulse control, and invincibility complexes, distorted and amplified by hard life on the streets.” Former prison commissioner Marty Horn calls Rikers an “asylum,” and says, “There’s nothing you can do, or anyone else, to make them stop fighting.” He then continues and says, “They are kids, and they want to fight each other. That’s what they want to do. And some are stronger than others. Jail is like the ocean…You got your bluefish, your barracudas, and your great whites.” Youth offender’s needs and issues are identified, however, we see how correctional officers who work in the facilities condone violent behavior against other inmates. An asylum is a shelter that protects from danger; it shouldn’t sharpen violent behaviors of youth offenders to become better offenders. There are many cases where correctional officers are accessories to the killings of inmates. Fellow inmates beat Christopher Robinson--a teenager that violated parole by showing up at his new job as an overnight stock boy--to death in his cell. In this killing, correctional officer, McKie and a partner were charged with “running a criminal enterprise inside their housing area and outsourcing their duties to teenagers who killed Robinson.” McKie was arrested, convicted, and served a short sentence for such a tremendous offense.

Some of us will ask, “Was there any justice for this teenager and his family?” or “Why are correctional officers behaving in this manner?” Now in the “Gray Zone,” Primo Levi would argue that it is difficult to judge everyone involved in a criminal act. The “gray zone,” which refers to the motives of guilt, torture, terror, and the desire to obtain power amongst two parties that converge and diverge, in this case, correctional officers and inmates. Although the fault lies within the system, as outsiders, we cannot judge or justify the motives of others because we have not experienced it ourselves.

Given these gray zones, are programs and organizations really helping to empower youth to change or is it all a show for society to watch and be comforted with for the time being?

Everyone needs a kryptonite?

BY ROBERTO CELESTIN

Every heroine/villain needs a weakness. Superman’s weakness was red or green kryptonite, Hulk’s weakness was his own anger and Cyclops could not even control his own optic blasts. For if they are too strong what’s the point of even trying. But what happens when there is nothing/no one powerful enough to counter a powerful and ambitious entity? We were reminded what were the possibilities of what a powerful and ambitious entity could do last Thursday.

It was a pleasure having Mr. Thomas Giovanni reminding us that the constitution doesn’t guarantee us much as we would like to think it does. And that the government through agents i.e. prosecutors/legislators/judges abuse their powers to get a conviction or fast resolution to complex issues. In doing so their abuses usually lead to unjust rulings/unfair laws which could possibly ruin life’s and destroys communities. When Mr. Giovanni asked if there was any way we could suppress or control these abuses we were stumped. A few Verons gave reasonable solutions to the issue but were struck down with the reality better known as bureaucracy. As Mr. Giovanni demonstrated to us it is much easier and faster for us as students to remove a failing grade then then for a convicted felon to appeal a court case which could possibly save an inmate’s life. I am sorry but, shouldn’t it be the other way around? Yes we as students deserve these rights but when someone is on the verge of losing their life shouldn’t we treat them with more empathy. But since our views of criminals are so negative we feel that they should suffer, whether or not they are innocent or not. Or even it was ambitious government agents abused their powers to brand them as criminals. Whether it is in my agency Common Justice or in my neighborhood I have seen how people you expect to protect and serve you could possibly ruin your life just so they could reach a quota. This needs to change.

With bureaucracy rampant within our government how do we maintain control of superman without a kryptonite? After having several days to think about it is there any kryptonite for legislator/prosecutorial/judges? In other words is there any way we could combat the powers of the government from hurting the little rights we do have? Is there any way we could make politicians, prosecutors, and police offices more responsive to the people they serve rather than themselves or the culture they are within? BE CREATIVE HELP ME FIND THAT KRYPTONITE.

This be the WAR! This war be OUR war too!

What an amazing play. Katori Hall has truly overdone herself with this one. I know that it's later in the week but please leave your thoughts and feelings post the play . Here are some thought provoking questions:

How does the depiction of the underprivileged family affect your idea on poverty?

Why do you think the playwright chose to have a thirteen year old girl as the main character and last but not least , In what ways can this family depiction be seen offensive to others? Be honest and open . Healthy debates are always welcome.

ICE Agent states, "Your marriage is considered fraudulent." DENIED!

Finding a solution on how to deal with immigration is important for our government. On the other hand, trying to become legalized in this country is an immigrant's main concern. The government should be stricter or at least conduct well in-depth investigations on marriages where a green card is trying to be obtained. It is not right for immigrants to evade the immigration laws and kind of get away with it if their marriage is not detected. You may ask why? Well, it affects our economy and society. Terrorism, which our country fears and has experienced, is correlated to fraudulent marriages. There is a relationship because the way terrorists make it inside this country is by marrying someone just to gain legal status in the United States. The Center of Immigration Studies states, "Half of the 36 suspected 9/11 terrorists gained legal status by marrying Americans, 10 through sham marriages." If the government is truly trying to prevent terrorism than their first step should be to look and determine if the marriage is valid. Do you not think our economic recession and the war in Iraq could have been prevented if we focused on fraudulent marriages more instead of deporting illegal immigrants who just come here to do our so called "dirty" work?

I understand that every immigrant comes here to live the "American Dream", but it would be right if they were here with a legal status. Most illegal immigrants work for the most minimum wages, which in a way throws other businesses out of business, causing professional and certified people to be unemployed. So, they are basically like a competition in our society. I do not agree with the Dream Act because it is not being fair to its own American citizens who are trying to go to school or find a job. Another point that I mentioned in class was being legal or illegal you may still become a burden to our government. If the legal immigrant cannot find a job, they will obviously turn to the government services for support. For the illegal immigrant, most of them do not file taxes, which is not right because they too are part of this country. If they have a children that was born in the United States, they can qualify for a lot of types of government services which they benefit too. Who is paying for WIC, Medicare, etc.? We are! It is not fair that American citizens who work hard are being taken advantage by illegal immigrants. What do you think should we keep on putting this issue to the side or do something about it?

Internet Censorship

So the class time was not used the way I expected it to be used, but it was definitely used well. Even I learned some stuff as I never thought about the idea of self-censorship. However, it is related to the something else I wanted to discuss; who is doing the censorship. One of the article that we didn't go over in class was the one about the Mexican drug cartels that executed bloggers. My own thought when reading this was the same as the way I felt in class. I would have never thought about the possibility that there would be another entity aside from politicians and industry leaders that might push for censoring the internet. Despite the disclaimer at the bottom of the article that claims the man murdered was just a scapegoat, the 3 who were murdered before him were not scapegoats (the previous 3 cases aren't mentioned in the article. The 2 shown in the picture were the first 2). When I first went into this topic of internet censorship, I wanted say the right to free speech would be the most important aspect that might be affected by internet censorship. However, here is a situation where something even more important than freedom of speech is affected by internet censorship (in a round-about way).

Another topic that I wanted to talk about is the OPEN Act and ACTA treaty. The OPEN Act is basically another bill aimed at tackling piracy, but has help being drafted by new media groups that actually depend more on the internet, such as Google. ACTA treaty is an international treaty signed by multiple countries, but drafted in secrecy since the 1960s. It was meant to protect medicinal patents, but has been used by movie industries to tighten the grip on their products. ACTA is very similar to SOPA and PIPA in the way it works, while the OPEN Act would try to be very precise in trying to find and take down websites dedicated to piracy. Despite the way the act and the treaty are portrayed, ACTA has been signed by the U.S. and OPEN has not obtained much popular support from people online. I wanted to know what everybody else thinks about all of these bills and treaties that try to regulate piracy, but end up being worded too strongly. Personally, I don't like all of these extra bills trying to put more regulation on the internet. If anything, the OPEN Act is the best option so far, but the problem of cost of regulation comes into play.