US

Chapter 32 US Notes

Intro: “The Youth Culture”

Two impulses of youth during the ‘60s and ‘70s:

- Create a new culture based on rule by people rather than by ‘elites’ in order to end the war and bring on social/economic justice

- “Liberation” movement: the move for racial groups, women, and gays to move into mainstream society and begin demanding things from society

The New Left

- Post-war baby boomers coming of age in the 1960s-70s

- More than 8 million American youths attending college

- Few youths rebel significantly, although the ones who do rebel powerfully enough to impact the cultural and political climate substantially

- Radicalization of many youth and college students: the New Left

- New Left is a large group of (predominantly) white men and women who rose up against the polarizing political climate of their day and challenged it

- New Leftists embraced the civil rights movement, but was mostly white students

- Some New Leftists were children of the “Old Left” (from the ‘30s and ‘40s) and took many ideas from the Old Left movements; C. Wright Mills (1950s) wrote a series of scathing reports on modern bureaucracies, which influenced New Leftists

- New Leftists enjoyed the works of Karl Marx and other modern day Marxists; looked to Che Guevara (Chay Gwey-var-uh), Ho Chi Minh and Mao Zedong as heroes; the New Left movement diverged from the AFL-CIO over the issue of the union’s anti-communism

- The movement drew ideals from the civil rights movement; many white students first experienced social injustice in the South, led many students to question social norms and others to consider “broader political commitments”(support for blacks)

- 1962: A group of students from prestigious colleges met in Michigan to form the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the principal organization for student radicalism; Declaration of beliefs is the Port Huron Document (written mostly by student activist Tom Hayden), expressed commitment to form a new political structure and disillusionment with society

- Some SDS members move into poor neighborhoods in the inner city in order to mobilize poor/working class people politically, in general a failure

- Students at the University of California – Berkeley begin the Free Speech Movement, gain national notoriety by

Extra, Extra

Read all about it. Rumor has it that Homecoming is in the cafeteria, you didn't hear that from me.


That's about it for today.

THIS IS SUMMER!

Intro: Plug for 300!!! The DVD comes out on the 31st of July, definitely expect a party at the Healy Residence to celebrate this monumental occation. The MDew will be a-flowin' and I expect this to be a clutch gathering.

Anyways! Hi, it's me, Josh Healy. Most of you have not heard very much from me this summer, and I can explain! All I do is work and sleep so I have energy for work. When I'm not engaging in these stimulating and fun activities, I'm playing Rome: Total War or World of Warcraft (i know, i succumbed to the evil yet again.) Every Tuesday and Thursday I enjoy a nice bout of tennis at the Southgate Lyons Park with the Miz and a great mix of merry folk.

Okay, since there was a massive break between my last two posts and the last post was on a different topic, let's review. Since June 17th, I've basically been working every day, and not doing a whole lot. I've been enjoying the fireworks season, I think I went to Trenton, Wyandotte and Taylor, then I also went to the Elizabeth Park ones last weekend with John.

I haven't taken any vacations or anything, I went to Irish Hills awhile back for two days for a little merriment. A few lagers were drank, a little swimming was done, and a lot of respect was lost. Sounds like a pretty typical Irish Hills run to me! I have to take a second here to thank Jillian for hosting this fantastic time and the folks who came for making it a decent time.

Random tennis interjection: Susie Zammit and I played mixed doubles in the GR alumni tournament and sucked. Well I sucked, she was sweet. Anyways, that was another thing that I did in the mean time and in between time.

Life has been pretty typical since I started my job. By the hand of fate I ended up with a full time job cooking breakfast for executives of the AAA Headquarters. The job is not too bad now that I am in the full swing of it, and pretty good at it to boot. Some customers are beyond ridiculous with their requests, but for the most part my job is enjoyable if not sometimes a bit complicated.

I will go off on a tangent here about black women, specifically the ones I work with: they are some of the best and worst customers a person could have. The bad part for me was that my predecessor was a late-20's black man who loved to flirt with them, so that was a negative for me. The good part is that they love a polite young white boy so it balances out. Let me tell you though, if you ever get a job cooking for the same people every day, get the black women on your side. Even though they might make you want to kill someone when they hold up a line of 10 people with their nagging about the crispness of their bacon, if you have them on your side you will be in a pretty good position for most of your time there. I split them about 50% on the first day and have since worked back into their good graces for the most part, but those first few days were rough. But like I said, they are also often the best customers you have. I get more ridiculous compliments for random shit for black women I cook good for than you could believe.

This week I did Senior pictures, I already have them and they actually didn't turn out too bad.

Okay, so there is the recap on my life between the 17th of June and the 25th of July, so I will now turn to the present and future.

Work will continue for me until I think the week before school, so I will be occupied with that every Monday-Friday for the rest of summer.

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Student Government had it's July meeting last Friday, and I have some updates for you. Student Government plans on making this school year unique and enjoyable, and we have actually started to take steps so our school isn't so fucking boring this year!

Homecoming:
Our theme this year is Casino Royale.

The confirmed location for HC is the GR gym, joy I know but the faculty and Junior moderator pretty much screwed our Juniors and finding a place became impossible.

Our t-shirt/hallway/board theme is Favorite European Country.

• Seniors: Italy
• Juniors: The British Isles
• Sophomores: France
• and the Freshman got defaulted Spain

Fall Sports Assembly:
Hopefully we will be able to hold it outside

We plan on doing some ridiculous Conestoga Wagon thing, more details on that when I understand wtf is going on.

The Month of October:
We will be hallway decorating for the month of October, so plan on pigs running around with hay stacks all around Senior hall.

We plan on having a dance and a "Scary Movie Night", which is kind of fulfilling the function of TGIF for the month of October, hopefully it will be fun.

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Alright, that is all for now, I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I liked writing it. Congrats to all of you blog subscribers, you get insider scoops on Student Government straight from your President himself, so good work reading my blog, and see you later!

-Josh

That lovely thing called I.

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This is my preface and disclaimer: If you don't like egregious use of the noun "I", "me", or hearing me blab on about myself and my feelings for the next several paragraphs of text, just scroll down to the bottom and I have a convenient summary for you. If you want to hear me rant and use your fangs to suck on every piece of succulent meat this blog post provides, continue on normally

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As my title implies, I have been doing a lot of reflection and I guess philosophizing and most of it has to do with me. Now as most of you know, I have been (technically) 100% single throughout my high school career, and until just recently it hasn't necessarily bothered me, but there was always that side-quest of kind of getting a real relationship or "finding" that little Holy Grail known as love. Well, I have been doing a whole lot of reflection and have come to several conclusions, which I will title "That lovely thing called I." This title is exceedingly ironic, lololol.

My first conclusion deals with the opposite gender, tea-- oh I mean females. After really thinking and really paying attention, I think that the fact that girls are ultimately teases has finally repulsed me past a certain point. As my friend John Travolta, or Vincent Vega once said, "I'm a race car in the red. And all I'm saying is that it's dangerous to have a race car in the red." Now I'm not saying I'm some sort of Ricky Bobby asshole, but the point is-- I hope-- received. Somewhere in the past two months I have gotten past really wanting a girlfriend, or really to hook up with girls at all. Now this is not to say I'm about to start hitting on dudes, or am gay. I have just been pushed to the point where the risk versus reward with the female chase is not worth it. I can have just as much fun anywhere being by myself or in a group of people, and when I picture both of these scenarios I no longer see a girl, I just see, well, me.

I would like to expound further on my feelings on females. You people are great, and I love you. But your gender has managed to in fact douse my romantic fire. Now I'm not going to go and call a Crusade, alls I'm saying is that the teaseyness ingrained into your system has just really butchered my feelings for you. The fact that I went through three years of just being like "Wtf?" about girls I like, and now having realized why, is sad to me. I won't claim to have you all figured out, but let's be honest here, you tease guys and you love it when they chase after you. For some of you I'm pretty fucking sure it's what drives you to wake up in the morning, but for others you likely do it innocently or inadvertently. For me, it's just no longer worth bothering to find out whether or not you are affectionate, whether you are mature enough to handle some of my habits, and whether you are the type of girl I am looking for. Not like it really mattered anyways, you were probably just out to tease me in the first place so you probably weren't planning on a relationship.

I will add a disclaimer onto this also: This does not mean I will refuse to go at a girl, but let's be honest here, if she's not throwing herself at me and personally stating it to me, I'm not going to bother noticing the shit you do any more. Like I said, if you'd like to reduce my risk and increase my reward, then you go right on ahead.

My next conclusion is that I think I am going to accept the title of bachelor and just roll with the punches, see where it gets me. Relationships are too arduous these days to really even make me want to deal with them. Unfortunately, I am not the kind of person who enjoys.. like.. doing things. If something gets fucked up in a relationship, my apathy takes over and I like to let the problem fix itself rather than fix it myself. This has already been demonstrated, and it ended up not working out. Well, if all my energy wasn't dedicated towards a single thing (school, work) then maybe I would feel up to the task. Honestly though, I won't get into my feelings about fighting in relationships (tomorrow is not promised to anybody, lol.) but people do love drama, and some of us who have bad luck with relationships in the first place really don't love it.

Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for tuning in folks, hate to make you wait so long for these but really, Grignon's is actually interesting, mine is just kind of discourses and shit. I feel like a professor or something, and that's not a compliment towards myself.

Adios.

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Paragraph 1: this is about me
Paragraph 2: Rawr girls suck
Paragraph 3: Rawr girls suck (pt. 2)
Paragraph 4: Lol, if you want it come and take it
Paragraph 5: Bachelor and loving it.

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Insert title here. (that's what she said)

Okay so I promised June blogging and indeed, I will grant June blogging. My summer has thus yet been something of an unsuccess. I have squandered a person who really cares about me, have made no more than 1 red cent on a legitimate job, and have not done anything I promised myself I would for the next school year.

With that in mind, I plan on doing a little housecleaning, because God knows my life needs it. I think I will start caring again, because life is much easier that way. Tomorrow I start work. "Oh Josh, where are you working this summer?" (God knows people who read my info all the time will still ask me). I am working at the Triple A building in Dearborn. "But Josh, doesn't your mother manage a cafeteria there?" Lol, ding ding ding. Lalala yes I am working for my mom, kind of. More like working for a guy who is pretty much the equivalent on the corporate chain as her, but she will still nag me. Whatever. It's work, and at this point I can't pretend to care. As far as school goes, lol. I pulled a 3.3 career at the end of my Junior year. I'm screwed. This pretty much means scholarships will be hard to get, and I can kiss NHS goodbye. Well, some things just weren't meant to be. Oh well, I think I'll be okay. As soon as I get out of school, well, I've got a plan. We'll talk about that later, ha. Anyways, yeah.


So football starts tomorrow. Let me take this opportunity to formally wish the GR Pioneer football team of 2007-8 a very good season. I won't be a dick about it, I hope you guys kick ass. Football simply doesn't interest me very much any more, and tennis is something I enjoy endlessly. So, good luck men, and it's really a shame I can't be with you guys this season, but some things just aren't meant to be.


Hey, I liked it too. Adios!


-love, Josh.

O hay

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I didn't forget about this, I'll post an update in a few days or so when I have something interesting to say













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2007

Well, as my personal final hurrah to the seniors that I know, I will write you emo poetry because I am tired and sleeping means i have to acknowledge you're gone, and I really don't want to do that right now.

Hanging in the Night Sky

I see the moon hanging high in the night
It reminds me of failure, and delight.
This field of grass I lay in has been here
for me when I have needed it most dear.
Tonight, though, no comfort here can be found
For great trouble, of which I will expound
Has come to me and my partners in crime
And now I'm choked up, at least I can rhyme.
The leaves on the trees have fallen off, this
sad cycle of life has fucked up my bliss.
As I lay here it is hard to believe
The threshold of adolescence, achieved
By those I knew most close to me this year.
Now I feel it in the air, chilling fear
Pervading deep into my bones, but no
Warmth from my memory can be found, oh!
I can't believe the time has come so soon
That we say goodbye. But, all things must bloom
And so will we in time, next year. Never
fear, for we will be rejoined forever!

The leaves fade into the ground I lay on
And I, a simple seed, know it is my
time to grow into the lofty tree from
which I too was born, and so must return.

My leaves will fade in time, but just tonight
The faded leaves leave me with dread and fright.

The pale moon hangs high in the night sky. The
leaves of grass I lay among are indeed
The last vestiges of my memory
And the only constant I can now feel.
Soon I will rise high into the night sky,
But without my past friends, I am not sure
The sky would be much worth it, after all.




Emo, yes, and also thrown together just now. It's iambic, it's emo, it's sobby and gay but hey, I guess it's how I feel. Also I usually never rhyme my iambic so you know when I do it is pretty special to me.