Week 8 Monday, Apr 16 2012

A narration or narrative is a piece of writing that consists of some sort of story told in the literature. Codrescu’s article is a narrative because he is telling us his personal stories about food while giving us the history that comes with those various places he went to. Throughout his story he takes one of his friends that is visiting New Orleans around the city. By introducing his friend to the various restaurants in New Orleans he was able to give him important information about the history of New Orleans. During my first semester here at Xavier I was fairly new to New Orleans culture and didn’t know much about the food or the significance of the city. One weekend I went to go play flag football at the park down the street from Campus. It was a very hot day and we played for about a couple of hours at the park. Glad I got do something active instead working out in the gym but, after we finished playing we were dead hungry. So one of my friends that is a New Orleans native took me down to Johnny’s po-boys to get a po-boy. Now it wasn’t my first time getting a po-boy but it has been a long time since I had ever got one. I walked in the shop and started to look at the menu. Since its been awhile I decided to get a simple shrimp po-boy. The waiter asked me if I wanted it dressed and I was like huh? I didn’t understand what it meant, but I will always remember that day since I embarrassingly learned what “dressed” meant again.

 

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Week 9 Monday, Dec 5 2011

I recently interviewed a senior today about Xavier’s mission that is a part of SGA and I got a positive review from them. She basically said from the day that she got here on her first day of orientation like we had a couple of months ago, that she saw Xavier’s mission being displayed everyday by students and faculty. She just by seeing all the upperclassmen that replicate distinguished leaders. The first thing that caught her eye was the numerous amounts of students already accepted into Secondary education. Whether it was being accepted into medical or dental school it inspired her to know that if they can do it, then she could do it as well. She recently got accepted into a couple of dental schools. Then she moved on to the service part of the university. She said that is one of the biggest things that she saw was the stressing of community service in the community of New Orleans. Similar to our freshman orientation she said that they had to participate in Service Saturdays where they would go out into the community and complete various jobs. She also referred to the MAX volunteer club on campus, which has different volunteer clubs like Men on the Move, American Red Cross, and Girl Scouts at Xavier. She said that she was happy and proud that she went to a university that really replicates what their mission says. She is also happy that she will be one of the students that Xavier sends out into the world assuming leadership roles.

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Week 13 Monday, Dec 5 2011

My thoughts about Xavier after my first semester here are that it is a very dedicated institution in producing well educated students into the world. Xavier really strives in shaping their students into responsible, respectful, and educated grown men and women. From the academic perspective they really make it challenging by giving rigorous coursework that puts its students in the library every night. They really want their students to make it in life and that is why they give their students numerous opportunities to succeed academically and socially. Although it doesn’t represent a real college life experience by giving us curfews and making us have visitation, they have a reason for it. They want their student s to be grounded because they know the academics is rigorous and they want to make sure every student is getting their work done and getting enough rest and study time. The university has various offices like the Chemistry tutoring or student academic success office to make sure students get good grades. Ultimately we as students didn’t come to college for the parties we came here to get an education and that is what they want us to get. At first, I regretted coming to Xavier because of the curfews and I thought they were treating us like we were in high school, but I’m glad I came for the tough academics. I know that by coming here I will have numerous opportunities to make it to medical school because of the PRe-Med department. I’m certain that if I went to a different university I would not have people letting me know about the various things that I have to get done for Medical School. I believe that Xavier’s mission replicates what they truly believe and aspire to get out of every single one of their students.

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Week 12 Monday, Dec 5 2011

My initial thoughts when I recieved the book in the mail during the summer was “Why do I have to read during the summer? Don’t I get a break? But as I started to read the book I began to like reading again. That was a love that I lost as I kept getting older. Sitting down and reading a book to increase my knowledge of things. But the book itself opened my eyes to America’s food system and how corrupt it was. I mean I initially heard of the horrors that happen in the numerous slaughterhouses in America and the unhealthy fast food that us Americans consume everyday, but this book really got in depth with it. Showing us the conditions that the meat packing workers have to go through. That is the biggest part of the industry that most Americans are unaware of. The unsafe and dangerous machinery that they have to work with, and if they get injured they do not get any benefits for their hardwork. It’s sad to think that humans will take advantage of their own kind just to get a leg up in civilization, but I guess the saying “Survival of the fittest” is really true. That saying also goes in hand with how the major food corporations make it impossible for the farmers to succeed. There are some farmers that are making but the majority are dealing with poverty because of the strict contracts that they signed. The book enlightens people and broadens their knowledge of our food system on how their food is first made and how it gets to their shelves. The book makes us as students really reconsider what we are eating everyday, but in our situation we really do not have no say in what we eat. Glad that we were introduced to this topic.

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Week 11 Monday, Oct 24 2011

Automobile and interstates play an extremely huge part in culture being spread across the nation and the advancement of Fast Food corporations. Before interstates were created Fast Food businesses had no way of spreading their food to other parts of the nation. The people in that are were the only people exposed to that corporations business. The creation of interstates changed everything. Interstates were basically created so that the United States were able to ship resources from the east coast to the west coast. Another reason they were created was so that people were able to travel and visit other places and maybe migrate to the west coast. The reason why fast food corporations benefited from this because when people drove on the inters tae the drove for long periods of time to get to their destination. This forced people to stop and get food to eat because they weren’t able to just cook something up in their vehicle. They were able to stop and go off an exit and drive to the nearest fast food restaurant. Now when people from New York tried to make the drive to the west coast they ran into various fast for restaurants that never seen before. This exposed them to new fast food businesses. Basically when people enjoy something, of course they are going to let the relatives and friends know about the product. By this happening fast food businesses in the west coast got more attention and were getting bigger. Also, when word got out then these people wanted one of those fast food organizations in their hometown. So interstates and highways is just like how the silk road was in the middle east. Information of these fast food restaurants were being shared with other people all over the country due to the creation of interstates and highways.

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Week 10 Monday, Oct 24 2011

Dear Dr. Baker,

I was given the assignment in Freshman Seminar to write an e-mail to my favorite professor at Xavier and thank them for their work, preparation, and time. I choose you for many reasons. The biggest reason was the fact that I hated writing literature in high school. Whether it was a short memoir or one of those deep poems, I really did not have no interest in writing. When I got to Xavier I still had the same feeling in me that I was just going to write to just get the grade and hope that I come out with an A. It also sucked for me in high school because my brother was an english major in college and my parents always told me to send my paper to him but I don’t like asking others for help. But your class just makes everything different and more interesting. From the deep class discussions about rasicm and sexual abuse to the creative journals the class makes me want to write. For example, when you gave us our first paper prompt about making our own philosophy I was like here we go again with these type of topics, but after I started reading This I Believe it changed my whole perception. After that you told us we had to write our own poem, and then my heart really dropped. I had no liking of poetry at all. Even when we were reading poems in class I was still not interested because the poems we were reading were so difficult to understand, but in all actuality it just took a little more creative thinking. In all of this I just want to say thank you for showing and opening a love of writing my thoughts. And also giving me a stronger ability of creative thinking.

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Week 8 Monday, Oct 24 2011

Katherine Mary Drexel, better know as Saint Katherine Drexel, was born on November 26, 1858 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to her parents Francis Anthony Drexel and Hannah Langstroth. She was boron into a family who owned a wealthy banking fortune and her uncle was the founder of Drexel University. After becoming a nun she devoted her inheritance to oppressed Native americans and African-americans in the United States. She believed that she needed to help out the most oppressed ethnic groups. She also created an order called The Sister of the Blessed Sacrement for Native Americans and  Africa americans. With her inheritance she helped finance more than sixty schools and actually founded Xavier University of Louisiana. Currently Xavier University of Louisiana is the only historically black college this catholic. I think Katherine Drexel would be happy and unhappy in some aspects of Xavier today. For example, I’m positive that she would be proud of Xavier’s notoriety for being academically challenging. Another part that she would be proud of is the graduation rates and the acceptance rates into Graduate schooling. Finally I think she would be happy of the fact that although Xavier is considered a historically black college the campus is still diverse with other races on campus. One of her reasons for creating this university was too help the minority out in America. I’m sure Katherine Drexel had a vision of an academically strong and diverse university when she used her inheritance. One aspect of Xavier that she may not like is the amount of tuition for the school, but Xavier is beginning to help out with more monetary scholarships to their dedicated students. This year is the first year they have given out full scholarships for tuition, room, and board. I still believe Sister Katherine Drexel would be proud of her investment into a university.

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Week Seven Monday, Oct 17 2011

Political agenda is defined as a “set of policies or issues to be addressed or pursued by an individual or group”, and I believe that Schlosser did have a political agenda in the novel Fast Food Nation. From the title of the book readers get the perception that Schlosser main ideology in the book was how fast food is hurting Americans, but instead it is how the big corporations are taking advantage of the suppliers, workers, and consumers who contribute a lot to their success. Throughout the book he gives many examples of farmers and loyal workers that were taken advantage of to solidify his political agenda. He wanted to inform America of the unknowns and to reinforce the knowns of the fast food industry. He informed us on how workers were obtaining serious and unthinkable injuries and were not getting the proper healthcare for them. He informed us on how potato farmers really didn’t have a chance to make it in their industry because the Corporations had too much power over the cost of their potatoes. Schlosser was sure that he got all of his information and examples because he wanted to go far in depth to expose the government and the Fast Food corporations. He had a political agenda also because he needed a purpose to write this book and to put in the research to complete this book. His political agenda gave him the inspiration needed to write a book of this type. He tried to inform people like Upton Sinclair did about the meat packing industry although it didn’t get the same impact. Although he informed America about the fast food industry and corporations, actions speak louder than words, and in order for his message to work Americans are going to have seen the images Schlosser and Sinclair have seen.

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Week 4 Thursday, Sep 29 2011

In 1906, Upton Sinclair was able to get his book, The Jungle, published after many denies because of its controversial text. The novel opened the eyes of many americans about the harsh and inhumane working conditions of the workers in the meat packing industry. The one american that got its attention was Theordore Roosevelt, the president at the time, who did not believe half of the information that was given in the novel. Although Roosevelt didn’t believe any of what Sinclair published, Sinclair researched the meat packing industry and went undercover to obtain the truths about the meat packing industry. Sinclair’s novel was the talk of the american government and caused them to initiate some rules and regulations for the food industry. They had to prevent all of the horrible accidents and put policies in that will benefit the workers. Even though the policies stopped some of the unfair treatments and accidents, some of these misfortunes still happen today. Workers today are still not getting the workers compensation that they should be getting and are still getting seriously injured. Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation explains various examples of how the fast food industry cheats their workers and their suppliers, but his book did not have the same impact Sinclair’s novel did. Whether it is because most people in 20th century did not believe people could let this happen to other humans or that today’s government has a lot of ties with the fast food industry that not much will get changed, but Sinclair’s novel was just more impactful. Although Schlosser proves good points and describes horrible situations his novel will just not catch the attention of the media or the government. It could also be that more people read books during that time cause there was less technology, but both books contributed to the knowledge of the fast food industry.

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Week 6 Thursday, Sep 29 2011

In Fast Food Nation, Schlosser informs us about a loyal worker by the name of Kenny Dobbins who was treated horribly. Dobbins worked for a slaughterhouse in Nebraska by the name of Monfort. Kenny would take jobs that most of his co-workers would not take. For example, he dealt with harmful chlorine chemicals and lifted very heavy boxes. Throughout  his tenure at Monfort Dobbins suffered many serious injuries. For example, he suffered a serious heart attack, broken leg, and exposure to harmful chemicals that were not treated or diagnosed correctly. He was constantly referred to nurses that did not have his best interest and his company’s health insurance wash’ t able to cover his injuries. Even though he had these misfortunes, he kept going back to work, but eventually it didn’t turn out for the best. Today Kenny is unemployed and his health is declining. He is unable to provide for his wife and two kids and his situation isn’t getting better. He is still receiving some social security checks but the checks aren’t getting the whole job done. Kenny thought that for being a loyal and obedient worker that the company would help out and be more considerate to his situation. From experience I do not know anybody that went through Kenny’s situation of not getting good medical care and insurance, but I know my uncle was injured in an accident when driving his company car. The accident wasn’t his fault, but he suffered a broken jaw and a broken leg in the accident. I’m not sure of all of the insurance and medical compensation from his employers but I know he was able to receive medical care and get surgery for his jaw and leg. His accident was a very serious one, and our family is thankful that it wasn’t any worse than what it was.

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