Barack Obama's Inauguration

January 20, 2008 was a very historic moment. Today Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States of America. Many people lined Pennsylvania Ave. and the road to the white house. Even though the weather was very cold more then 100 thousand people showed up to witness this historic event. Though I noticed everywhere race was being payed attention to more and blacks especially. The media was portraying his inauguration most life changing to blacks. Even in his speech he mentioned them and someone told me that he also mentioned the things he was affiliated with like "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus". In his speech he goes on to talk about all of Americas hardships and how they will all be addressed but may not be solved as soon as people hope. With a big president like this the expectations are set even higher. Everyone will expect him to be like God and with a sweep of his hand save all of our troubles. They might even set him up to fail. For he may not meet the expectations and face hash criticism from everyone who waited for miracles to happen. In watching his speech and all the people watching him you can see some messages on how to live a good and meaningful life. Change and going in the right direction is important and meaningful. Voting for him as president and getting him inaugurated made a big difference in peoples lives. During these moments their lives were meaningful because they had a hand in history and they know that anything is possible now. What's meaningful is that for once they hold the power. And who knows, maybe they still hold the power. For I feel that everyone who had a hand in this still does, they can be as every bit as helpful to make difference in the world. They should not just sit there and think their work is over and expect that he will do it with out any help. Like Ghandi once said " we must be the change we wish to see in the world". I feel that now that everyone is so hyped about our new president their lives will seem more meaningful and filled with hope and will try to focus on what role they can play.

Martin Luther King Jr.

On the 19Th of January everyone will remember a great man. Martin Luther King Jr. stood up for blacks and was a big figure in the civil rights movement. This year is is especially special because it is the day before Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president. If you payed close enough attention to Obama's speech and you knew MLK's I Had a Dream speech you will be able to see many similarities. They both speak of change and making a difference in the world. Martin Luther King Jr. is considered a hero yet there are many things that people do not know about him. In the world today we do not actually lie about the truth we just do not speak it. Children are taught about him and how he was against non-violence and when he died everyone was upset. Yet there is speculation that the government had played a hand if not an obvious one in his death. There have also been many rumors about Martin Luther King Jr. like he worked with prostitutes and that he was not faithful to his wife. Many people can argue about this as much as they like but the fact remains that our national hero was no different from me or you. He was no some immortal god that did no wrong. He was normal and any of us can one day be held that statue and make a difference in the world. Then there is all of his followers. I for one have never heard of some of the people that we talked about in class like John Lewis or many of the other men that supported Martin Luther King Jr. John Lewis gave a speech after the march in 1963 and it speaks of many problems that the black community is facing. Yet at school when we learn about the civil rights movement we only hear one name and thats Martin Luther King Jr's.
All this hype about him I doubt that many people actually stop and reflect about this man. Although this year might be different cause its so close to a historic event. The first black president in history although he is really half black. I know for one that I do not. It might be a small thought but I usually am just happy to get the day off. I hang out with my friends or just relax from actually having to go to school and do work. I like to read or for example this year me and my friends are actually going to have a movie marathon.

How do people decide to live a good and meaningful life

Fith Draft:
there are not just dominant messages that control how people see what a good and meaningful life is and how to live one. There are also marginal messages that people are not even aware of. These such messages still come from some of the same things as dominant messages such as movies and music. Some messages that can be considered marginal are that you have the right to be different and creative and that sometimes you need to go against the athoritive figure.
Thesis ideas:
People have little control over ideas on how to live a good and meaningful life due to the constent messages that popular culture have been giving out.
Is it possible to be completely free of soceitys messages adnt to create your own idea on how to view a good and meaningful life. Corporate culture causes us to be puppets controlled by the strings of dominant and marginal messages. hi kateee

Dominant Holidays: Halloween

Halloween allows people to be someone else other then themselves. They can stop being themselves and be something they may have never gotten a chance to be. Its a day of fun and it emphasizes little children. Kids go out wearing costumes and they go trick or treating. In New York there is even a huge parade in the village. Many people go and watch it in their own costumes so as your walking down town you see people in many different and cool costumes and everyone is out having a good time. The meaning of Halloween is to buy candy and costumes for kids to go trick or treating and buying decorations for parties and haunted houses that are set up. People usually dress up as princesses, clowns, ghosts, and I have seen some weird ones like a black eye, and the most popular this year was Barack Obama. The music consists of scary music talking about monsters and witches, a classic I know is the "Monster Mash". We have created or corrupted the original holiday that was stolen from the pagans. In Mexico its called the Day of the Dead where the dead come back to life on this day and are among the living once again. People bring food to the graves of loved ones and everything is decorated in beautiful colors. Its a day of celebration with candy and parties. We have made it a day of fun and scares. There are many parties and kids going around getting candy. There is also the sense where we enjoy the supernatural and even if you do not believe in such things this day you would secretly go around hoping to see something. Halloween I would think makes kids' lives meaningful. Its a day for fun to hang out with your friends and getting tons of candy. Then its meaningful to the parents to see how it is important to the kids.

Dominant messages revised

Magazines are a big source of dominant messages coming from corporate culture. Magazines like “People”, “Star” and “Entertainment Weekly” make it alright to be gossiping about other people’s lives. They say its ok to disrespect privacy and so many people watch the news and read magazines to find out what is happening in other stars’ lives. They are obsessed to see how some one screwed up to make themselves feel better about their life. When looking at Magazines to see what popular culture was saying about how to live a good and meaningful life most of the messages came from ads that companies paid to have people look at. Most of the ads were about having new and nicer things. There were many ads about cars, jewelry and clothes. Ads targeting women were about how they could look younger and be healthier. From these ads we can tell that popular culture says that in order to live a good and meaningful life you need to look younger and have many new and materialistic goods. This is how corporate makes you spend money. They play on your desires and portray them as “life important” goods and believing them people go out and buy them. Spending is the biggest corporate message that there can be. Every source like magazines, movies, ads, books, and music send messages saying that you should buy things. Some times they are discrete like when an actor wears name brand clothes and you find yourself wanting those same brands. Like in the music video “Lip Gloss” by Lil Mamma she goes on and on about how her lip-gloss is so cool and that everyone likes her because of it. In the video when they show you the lip-gloss you can see the brand name is L'Oreal. The producers do this so when you see it you start to think that if I had this lip-gloss I can be popular to. They reel you in like this and hope you will buy their product that was sponsored on the music video. Then there are the movies that talk about happy endings and finding true love. In most of the movies there is a kind of romance with the main characters. There is also the message that says men are strong and dominant and women are the weak damsels in distress and the men have to save them. James Bond is a secret agent and in the movies he often gets paired up with a women spy who is like his equal. Except the ending is always the same the women gets caught and Bond has to save her and then they fall in love and kiss. Even though they portray the women as strong and self-reliant she still falls for the “strong man” who saved her.

Thanksgiving/ Black Friday revised

Thanksgiving is supposed to be filled with being thankful for the things in your life that make it meaningful. For my family Thanksgiving is about spending time together. Though when my mom tells everyone to come at 1 we know by now to expect them by maybe 2. Though when they finally arrive all annoyance is gone. We settle down and eat and we each share a memory that is meaningful to us. Though the younger generation as soon as they’re done get up and leave and look for something to do. They don't understand that the dinner is not just about eating but being able to spend time together. It seems as the years have passed Thanksgiving traditions have faded and in their place are sort of restlessness. These changes make me notice and miss what's important to me. My family is important to me and I hardly get to see them so I always look forward to the holidays when I can get to see them. We always have fun. Usually after dinner we play games and have dessert. I guess in a way traditions are also meaningful to me because I have grown up with them and they have been with us since I was a kid.
Black Friday is when the stores bring out their biggest sales for the season. Everyone goes out early in the morning and waits in big lines to be able to get the things they want. I cannot really remember if my mom or me ever really participated in this event. I never usually go shopping on Black Friday because of all the people that are out and about. I find the whole idea stupid that people need to make such a fuss about all the sales. Its like people lose all their moral standings and become so consumed with buying things they turn into ugly versions of themselves. During the time after Thanksgiving my mom and I usually go down to New Jersey. We do our shopping on Saturday because their will still be sales with less of a mob of people. There are also bigger malls in New Jersey to shop in. But for some reason we deiced to go shopping on Black Friday. We went to Wal-Mart and even though it was late there was a fair amount of people there. The place was very busy and when you looked at the shelves you could see gaps where things once stood. The registers were very busy and lines were long. I guess like most people we wanted to start on our Christmas chopping because like during black Friday the weeks leading up to Christmas can be very crowded with last minute shopping. I do not get so excited with the sales and start freaking out but I do enjoy them. Having a lot of friends and buying them all gifts can be tricky when you have a budget so the sales help. Only after we went home and turned on the news did we hear about the day’s events with the Wal-Mart in Long island and the people that got hurt. My mom thought is was ridiculous how the people acted and how the Wal-Mart opened again even after the event.

Winter Holidays

Christmas is on the 25th of December, a day when presents are exchanged and when families get together. But in reality there are three different kinds of Christmases. There is the corporate culture Christmas, family Christmas and then there is the religious Christmas. The two most popular are corporate and family Christmas. Though if you were to put on the radio during December you would most definitely hear a combination of corporate and religious Christmas music. This is where the two come together though I doubt many people notice. They are to busy getting in the spirit of Christmas. The spirit of Christmas is when people listen to Christmas music and start buying gifts, which I guess is influenced with corporate culture.
The corporate culture version of Christmas has drilled into people’s heads that buying gifts and spending money is what Christmas is all about. It has created an image of Santa Claus who goes around and gives presents to kids who are nice. Kids beg parents to buy toys while the stores have holiday sales that invite people to come and spend their money. Everyone is consumed with spending. Even if you’re not Christian you still celebrate this version of Christmas. It’s about buying loved ones gifts and buying trees. These trees are put up and are decorated with all sorts of ornaments. On Christmas Eve the presents are placed under the tree while the kids are sleeping and then early in the morning the kids wake the parents up and they all gather underneath the tree to open and exchange presents.
Then there is family Christmas. When families get together to spend Christmas with each other. It’s a day of hanging out and getting back into the flow of every body’s lives. Christmas is another chance to see everyone again. Most families only get together when there are holidays and celebrations to be held. That’s like my family, who only really get together during the holidays. We are all to busy to visit any other time. Christmas is also about forgetting about the bad things and focusing on all the good things in your life. In my opinion corporate culture and family culture are the most connected. Everyone has adopted both versions cause they are easy to follow and it has become its own culture. Christmas brings people together. A day where there should be peace and positive energy. Though people seem to think this day has an invisible rule of no negative energy and they all work to prevent it. Is it wrong to believe in something that doesn’t exist if it brings everyone together, even if it is only a day?
Religious Christmas I am sorry to say I know little about. I never grew up religious and was not surrounded by strong religious beliefs. Though from what I heard Christmas was forced upon people who were not Christian. These people used to gather around a tree and celebrate life. During winter most of the plants died except of certain trees like the “Christmas tree”. Then Christians banned their belief and started cutting down the trees that they had celebrated (not sure worship is the right word) and put them up in their houses. Christians believe that the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus. Though there are many stories, many different versions of what happened from here. Even the Christian faith cannot hold onto on idea. They change it to fit their purpose. Jesus left the message that on December 25th you were supposed to give away all of your possessions and give them to the poor and yet everyone goes out and buys more things.
Christmas is a time where people choose to believe in something, it is a time for magic and forgiveness. Most of the religious beliefs that had started Christmas have been tuned into something that fits the times. Through out the years Christmas has lost its true value and hardly anyone remembers what it is supposed to represent.