JosephTheGray

GO CRAWL IN A WHOLE A DIE!

It's no secret that there are many failed parents in our country today, and as a result of the failed parenting we are now seeing failed lives. By my definition, a good parent is somebody who both provides for the child's immediate and future needs, which means promoting that the child works hard to get ahead in life, encouraging creativity, not sheltering them, and helping them find something they are curious and passionate about in order to give them a general direction of where they want to take their lives. We need good parents in order to have kids thrive and become well rounded adults, and we need well rounded and creative adults who know how to learn to compete in the global market. However, as we see more and more teen parents, and parents who are more centered around their own lives rather than their child's we are seeing increases in gang violence, drug use, growing poverty, depression, and teen pregnancy; it's a deadly and vicious cycle has crippled entire neighborhoods. Better parenting and a good education can help significantly decrease the amount of people who get in gangs or become druggies, and increase the amount of curious and passionate people who know how to learn. There are few places in Washington where gang crime and depression are more pronounced than in Yakima, Washington. Seattle's rates are actually higher, but when you compare population sizes you'll notice that despite Yakima's smaller size, our crime rates still rival theirs. In Yakima, according to Poedit.org, there are 429 violent crimes, 8 murders, 49 forcible rapes, 133 robberies, and 239 aggravated assaults annually. Though these numbers are slightly less than Seattle's, it is still rather shocking because Yakima has a much smaller population. There are many beacons of hope to help solve these problems, but the one best suited for Yakima is the "Ready by Five" program. This program works as a sort of preschool for children in poverty, as well as enabling the parents of those children to use the same strategies the program does in order to help teach their kids. Therefore it helps both kids and their parents.
Now one might argue that with our unbalanced budget a new form of preschool is the last thing we need to be looking into. However, according to the New York Times ". . . a Nobel Prize-winning economist at the University of Chicago, has shown that investments in early childhood education pay for themselves. Indeed, he argues that they pay a return of 7 percent or more — better than many investments on Wall Street (NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF)". Although it would be spending more money, we are making more than we spend in the process. We need to be looking into something that instills curiosity and passion in children before they go to public schools that will not help them because as Friedman writes "School systems.. have.. from the dawn of the industrial age, [had] a main purpose: to produce employees for boxed positions in corporate  org charts"(Friedman pg.314). There are not enough jobs of that kind anymore, therefor we need to look for new ways to educate and I believe Ready By Five is a fantastic start.
To put their mission in their own words "Ready by Five provides family literacy and early learning programs to build school and life success for East Yakima children and families. We work with children, from birth to age eight, and their parents through a variety of literacy, language, and educational programs, all designed to build essential skills for children, adults, and families" (ReadyByFive.org home page). Ready by Five instructors go into the homes of the families who signed up and teach their children in front of the parents.  It educates both the parents and the children, which allows for the parent to duplicate most of what the program did. It works with the families in their homes which makes this program cheap because no facilities need to be created for the program. It also makes it a more personal experience which has proven to be a much more effective environment for learning and creating curiosity and passion  than when you have 50 students for one instructor. It targets children who are already at risk due to poverty and live in homes that may have parents who need help learning effective strategies for parenting, which will help promote greater upward mobility for the poor in our global market. This program was founded by, and co-funded by, private investors, which helps it to avoid the typical accusation of something from the government being socialist.
The New York Times also argues against this program, claiming that it is time to stop looking for fabulous teachers and programs to replace what this country's children really need: good parents who understand how important education is. The author of the article How About Better Parents? states that "Fifteen-year-old students whose parents often read books with them during their first year of primary school show markedly higher scores in PISA 2009 than students whose parents read with them infrequently or not at all . . ."(Friedman, How about better parents?).  Good parents don't just happen; there are critical skills that have to be learned. One of Ready By Five goals is to help people have the skills and tools that will help them be good parents, this is a precious opportunity for single parents. A single family is the kind of family I came from, and my mom simply didn't have the time to read books with us, although she always asked how our day in school went. To help parents who have a serious lack of time you need something beyond an ad or a teacher's conference. You need something they can take advantage of to have both them and their children learn in an active way, and Ready by Five does just that while the child is still at an impressionable age. While the Ready by Five program instructor is in the home, they show the child worthwhile things to do that prepare them for school life. These activities can then be easily duplicated by the parent, and since the parent is encouraged to be there at the time it shows them ways to be a good parent. This creates a solid foundation in academics before the child enters our much needed to be reformed schools and gives the parents tools to help their child stay ahead in our globally aggressively competitive job market. With Ready by Five specifically trying to reach out to children who are on or below the poverty level, it gives children in poverty a chance to catch up to many of the kids who are more well off than they are.
Lastly if we really intend on competing in the global market, if want our society to thrive, to one day grow into a reality that is the American dream, if our passion is to one day have as many people get into as many good careers as possible then we have to try as hard as we can to teach children in the best ways we can.


WORK CITED
1. Various public records collected by poedit.org.  Wellcome to Yakima Washington.  2013.  2/1/2012 <www.poedit.org/state/washingto…>.
2. NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF.  Occupy the classroom.   October 19, 2011 .  1/26/2013 <www.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/opi…>.
3. Ready by Five.  Promoting success in our school, life and community.  2012.  1/26/2013 <www.readybyfive.org/>.
4. Thomas L. Friedman.  How About Better Parents?.  November 19, 2011 .  1/26/2013 <www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/opi…>.
5. "The Right Stuff." The World Is Flat: The Globalized World in the Twenty-first Century. Trans. Thomas L. Friedman. London: Penguin, 2006. 314. Print.

The debate on wind turbines has become something of a controversy here in Yakima. This is because the prime place to put wind turbines would be on the mountains surrounding the Yakama Nation, and that land is the last bits that are still the way it was when the Yakama natives were the only ones here. Wind turbines take up large quantities of land, and roads would have to be built in order for maintenance workers to get to the machines. Opponents of Wind turbines also site the high upfront costs as well as wind turbines inability to store energy, they also worry about wind turbines reputation for being a killer of birds of prey.
However the side in favor of green energy points to the rising problem of global warming: saying that we need to find cleaner sources of energy, as well as the sustainability of these new technologies. They also say that the hills beside the Yakama Nation have great potential because of constant 20 mph winds in that area. Lastly they also say that it would be a wise investment because of the low operational costs and that wind turbines are a fast growing market.
I believe regardless of how the debate is going, wind turbines will more than likely be the future for creating energy around the world because marketers have realized that oil and coal are fuels that cannot last forever, also according to "careers in wind energy". "Growth in wind power is expected to continue. According to a report by the Department of Energy, it may be feasible for wind power to provide 20 percent of U.S electricity needs by the year 2030." So if wind energy is the future that means that America should be leading in the innovation for these technologies. However, according to wind-energy-the-facts.org "Europe remains the leading market for wind energy and new installations represented 43 percent of the global total in 2007." As an ever larger amount of people realize that we live in a global economy, the more we must realize we need to find new ways to create energy in order to sustain a larger and increasingly complex global middle class. One of the ideas to create sustainable energy is wind turbines, and America has the potential to be a large energy supplier for that market.
I think wind turbines might be a great idea for the Yakima valley to help make us a hot spot for the global market; Yakima has everything it needs to harness wind power for electricity, and we must realize the world is changing. We must adapt with this changing world, or we will parish.
Wind turbines are a form of green energy because it creates electricity without any harmful byproducts in the air, so in that way it's extremely good because our planet currently is only running on coal and oil for energy. These methods will not last for forever and are having adverse effects on our ozone layer as well as our seas.  Wind turbines are a sustainable resource, which we could use as long as we have wind. Also, as I stated in my third paragraph, wind turbines are a rapidly growing market filled with jobs. If Yakima were to make this investment, it would most certainly give us an economic boost and provide much needed jobs. I will give credible evidence in my eleventh paragraph that Yakima has a huge potential for generating a constant amount of electricity because the hills surrounding the Yakama Nation average a constant of 20mph. In "the World Is Flat", Thomas Friedman states that "If horses could have voted, there would have never been cars" (Friedman. Pg.270) now at first this may sound simply comical, but it has an echoing deeper meaning for our time. Many people who have deep investments in oil and coal companies are saying that green energy presents too many problems, however I feel that although this small amount of elites may say no, we'll find that a majority will say yes. According to ewea.org "A 2011 Eurobarometer survey found that 89% of EU citizens are in favour of wind energy" and it is likely America will follow the same pattern. For those benefits listed I feel that the reality is that green energy is ultimately the future. So if Yakima wants to take advantage of the future, then we need to find ways to creatively use wind turbines and other green technology in order to help provide energy.
The problems with wind turbines so far is that we have no way to store electricity made by wind turbines, which means it has to be used as soon as its created. The other issue is that at times creating wind turbines is extremely hard on the environment around it since you may have to clear cut to make roads so workers can get to the turbines. These machines have become notorious for killing birds of prey, many of which are on shaky ground with their population to begin with. It's also hard to convince investors that these products are worth their time to build because it has a huge upfront cost and the wind turbines don't pay themselves off until about ten to twelve years later.
I believe Yakima has the ability and the resources to solve these problems with wind turbines, and if we were to do so we could promote ourselves as the town with the answers to help improve green energy. This would make Yakima a hot spot on the map in the global market in our ever flattening world, but first we need to use our resources to spur innovation to get the answers in the first place.
To have an understanding of how wind turbines will effect Yakima Valley as a whole we ought to look to a town with a similar environmental and social situation, luckily an example is easy to find because our neighboring city of Ellensburg, according to an interview by Sarah Navoy, in "Ellensburg Testing Wind Turbines to Save You Money". " 'Instead of cursing the wind, now we are kind of applauding it,' says Ellensburg woman, Jennifer Downing. Jennifer invested in her own wind turbine. It's a giant neighbor she says is worth the noise. 'My husband calls it the sound of money,' says Jennifer. She's had the turbine for about three years now and sees the monthly savings on every utility bill. However, the cost to buy and install one ranges from $15-$25,000. It will take her about two more years to cover the cost." This shows that wind turbines were well received in Ellensburg, because of this I speculate that Wind Turbines will be well received by the public of Yakima. Despite the high upfront costs they still find wind turbines worth their time.
Now some opponents of wind power would point to wind turbines inability to store power as a reason for Yakima not to take advantage of this kind of energy, I say that's a load of bull, at least for Yakima anyway. When you consider that the area that investors are looking at putting the wind turbines averages a constant of 20 miles per hour and that according to  douglaspud.org "The turbines start producing power at wind speeds of 8 m.p.h., the optimal production speed is between 29 to 31 m.p.h." you can see that power storage won't be much of a problem because of the fact that we average a constant amount of power.
Now let's talk about how wind turbines will affect Yakima's wildlife. Biological diversity is important, without this our wilds will deteriorate and their food chain could potentially collapse. In light of that let's see how wind turbines have affected Ellensburg's avian creature's diversity. According to efsec.wa.gov "from February 15 through November 1, 2002. A total of 97 avian species were identified during the bald eagle surveys," Now this survey was done right next to where the turbines were at in Ellensburg and was conducted to see how much the wind turbines had effected the avian community. I feel that if 97 different species are still doing well while being next to the wind turbines then we can be sure that wind turbines aren't damaging any species specifically. However, we also know that these wind turbines are still killing birds, and more importantly birds of prey, but according to energyinformative.org a proponent of wind turbines "collisions with buildings may kill up to 976 million birds."  And that's just regular buildings so although  wind turbines do seem to effect birds and bats, man-made structures causing the death of birds is not a new phenomenon it's just wind turbines are getting the brunt of the blame. This is unfair because also according to energyinformative.org "some environmentalists have blown this issue out of proportions… Studies have estimated the number of annual avian fatalities by U.S. wind turbines from 10,000 all the way to 440,000" I know those seem like big numbers, but remember that those figures are a fraction of what regular old buildings do. I believe that we should try to reduce the amount of birds killed by wind turbines, but I believe this is simply a call for innovation, not a call to shun wind turbines.
For the Yakima Valley to be able to fully take advantage of wind turbines we will also need the cooperation of our neighbors in the Yakama Nation. The reason why the Yakama Nation has been reluctant to allow for wind turbines to be built on their land is because the land that it would take up is the last bit of land that is exactly the way it was before they had this valley stolen from them. To put in their own words according to earthisland.org "'These mountains are very important to... my people. On these mountains along the Columbia River is about one of the only places left more or less untouched for some of our Native foods and medicines. All of our upper valley... have all become farmlands. So what we have left are these mountains.'" (Chief Johnny Jackson of the Cascade Klickitat) However it is on these mountains that according to earthisland.org "Winds rolling over the Columbia Hills average a constant 20 miles per hour." So it has a huge potential for profit. My personal suggestion is to try to achieve some innovation in order to reach a compromise, and I for one already have an idea; let's build vertical wind farms, we could create a structure to help the wind mills be on top of each other which would have it take up horizontal space instead of vertical, this would save a significant amount of land from having to being used or modified. It would be practical, effective, and most importantly it would be new. Nobody's ever tried this idea so if it was successful the Yakama Nation would be cited as an exalted example of a new way of doing something, it would also give the Yakama Nation copy rights to this idea, which would allow for revenue to be brought in from other investors wanting to copy this idea.
Lastly I support wind turbines, they are a shining example of what our future could be. But I also feel it is high time for some innovation to take place in order to fix the problems with their effects on the environment and birds in general, and to me personally we must take the death of birds of prey seriously. I refuse to accept one environmental sin for another. To go from destroying our air and seas to destroying our birds and wildlife habitat doesn't give our children a better future, it just gives them a future with different problems. I know there must be another way that we can have electricity and still have a thriving wildlife. Therefore my call to action is for Yakima to take advantage of these new ideas, and make them even greater.





















Work cited
-Hamilton, James, and Drew Liming. "Careers in Wind Energy." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.
- EWEU. "PART IV: INDUSTRY AND MARKETS." Wind Energy the Facts. Intelligent Energy Europe, n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2013.
- Friedman, Thomas L. "America and Free Trade." The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005. 270. Print.
- EWEU. "European Wind Energy Association." EWEA is the voice of the wind industry, actively promoting wind power in Europe and worldwide. It has over 700 members from almost 60 countries making EWEA the world's largest and most powerful wind energy network. EWEA RSS. European Wind Energy Association, 2012. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.
- Navoy, Sarah. "Ellensburg Testing Wind Turbines to save You Money." Ellensburg Testing Wind Turbines to save You Money (2012): n. pag. KIMA News. Y Broadcast Interactive Media., 3 Jan. 2012. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.
- United States Of America. Douglas County. Public Utility District. Wind Power. By Douglas County. N.p., 2013. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.
- United States Of America. "west, Inc" and "northwest Wildlife Consultants, Inc" "2003 Central Avenue Cheyenne, WY 82001." and "815 NW 4 Th St. Pendleton, OR 97801" Wildlife Baseline Study for the Kittitas Valley Wind Project Summary of Results from 2002 Wildlife Surveys. By Wallace Erickson, Jay Jeffry, David Young, Kimberly Bay, Rhett Good, and Karyn Sernka. Zilk

Joseph Gray
Inspirational Speech
2/21/2013

"We have the power to shape the civilization that we want. But we need your will, your labor, your hearts, if we are to build that society. When our forefathers came here, the sought more than to build just a new country, they sought to build a new world. So I have come here today.. to say that you can make their vision a reality. So let us from this moment begin our work so that in the future men will look back and say: It was then, after a long and weary way, that man turned the exploits of his genius to the full enrichment of his life".
I believe the American dream is still alive today, that through hard work we can still make it in life, and that if we have ideas we can make them a reality. America has always been special, from our pre-columbian history all the way up to now, America stands out. Let me give you an example; nowhere in the world except America has as many different kinds of people as we do, we have Jews, gentiles, blacks, whites, Arabs, Latino's, Asians, the list goes on forever! Its this diversity that makes us strong. Many great leaders have realized the strength America inherently has strength, even some of our enemies great leaders have come to realize it in the past, when Isoroku Yamamoto said "I fear I have awoken a sleeping giant and filled him with terrible a resolve" its because he understood that in America there is great strength, part of why is because we aren't united by an ethnicity but by our belief in the ideals of freedom, and ideas are incredibly strong. I know right now its hard to see how America is as great as we prop it up to be, but I still firmly believe that this country, is one where dreams can come true, and dreams can come alive.

Joseph
Journal entry 2
Entry type: Political statement.

Try this on for size; its one thing for a government to only have people who are unintelligent dislike it, like the stereotyped conspiracy theorist living out in the woods. But its another for that government to be criticized heavily by intelligent people.
So lets take a look at what kind of political opponents America has today.  
For starters, Anonymous: A hack-tivist organization that targets any institution or government that threatens free speech or internet freedom. Anonymous also played vital role in the Arab spring (Which Wiki-leaks ignited). Yet the FBI is tracking and has arrested some of these hack-tivist; Keep in mind that the skills it takes to hack requires large IT skills that you have to be intelligent to obtain.
Then there's Wikileaks, this organization is dedicated to promoting transparency throughout the globe and has exposed a multitude of different countries and corporations; the found of this organization (Julian Assange) has actually  attended the University of Melbourne and the University of Canberra. So again we are dealing with intelligent people.
Lastly, the man who created the "Conspiracy theory video" that spoke against the legitimacy of the story of the massacre at Sandy elementary was actually created by a TENURED FOUR YEAR COLLEGE PROFESSOR; the professors name is James Tracy.
It is my firm beliefs that as corruption in our country increases the amount of intelligent people who will be punished for speaking out will increase.