Proposal 1

Title: A state in crisis.  The Effects of Proposition 30 and Proposition 13 on California Residents
Author: Payton Schwarz
Date: 9/30/12
Topic: Voting to instate Proposition 30 and abolish Proposition 13 to save the education system and bring revenue to the state of California.
Exigence: Without Prop 30, more classes will be cut for California colleges, tuition will increase, and teachers will get paid less.  And with Prop 13, new California home buyers will be guaranteed to buy at a higher tax bracket than the generation before them.
Intended Audience: Students, young home buyers, anyone making less than $250,000 a year.
Purpose: to persuade individuals to vote for Prop30 and against Prop13
Claim: without Prop30, there will be billions cut from education, and Prop13 staying in effect will guarantee the rich will continue to get richer as the poor get poorer.

Writer's Strategy #1: Reel the readers in utilizing Logos.  Stating that budget cuts of several billion dollars WILL happen to the education system if it is not passed (quoting LA Times article).  This had to the potential to lead to a midyear tuition hike of 20%. Then a brief into to Prop30.  With ongoing tuition hikes year after year, this downward spiral will continue.  What this is going to do is discourage potential students from enrolling in college as the prices of tuition continue to escalate.
Readers Effect #1: My introduction with Logos will hopefully make a logical appeal and relation that cuts WILL be made, classes WILL be cut, and that teachers WILL take another hit in their pay.  Seeing as how they haven't had a pay raise in 4 years now.

Writer's Strategy #2:  My plan is to then utilize Pathos, the emotional appeal, to relate with the reader and show them the serious impact it will make as individuals will suffer greatly as the rich see no impact on their day-to-day life.  Teachers will be lost, classes will be harder to get in to, and class sizes will rise.  Prop30 will ensure that the rich get taxed the appropriate amount, even though sales tax will rise .25%.  Then adding that this proposition is intended to be temporary to see how it plays out.  Then mention Prop13 to further prove how "the rich are getting richer as the poor get poorer" via their tax breaks after "obtaining" property at a lower tax rate compared to buying the property at current tax-rate.
Readers Effect #2: Using Pathos will the audience should help me build a foundation of my argument as I portray that homes that make $250,000+ annually will not feel the brunt of these cuts, but the majority of California, then soon the rest of the nation, will be suffering greatly.  Creating a new tax bracket for the wealthy is a very lucrative tactic for California.

Writer's Strategy #3:  Lastly, my plan is to use Ethos to tie everything together.  I'm going to pronounce my credibility by talking about how Prop30 has personally affected me with tuition rising every year, making it financially difficult for me to stay in college.  Then I'm going to mention how several of my friends are choosing to not enroll due to the ever-raising tuition.  The I plan on mentioning my roommate, who just got released from the Marine's and is just now enrolling in college, with little money to his name and being thrusted into school after recently being in combat.
Readers Effect #3: What this should do for the reader is solidify everything I previously mentioned, showing the very real, drastic effects happening to current students.

My Response: Defending Prop30 and refuting Prop13.  I am then going to bring up a rebuttal of: the hiked sales tax, where the tax money is going, and the conspiracy that this could all be a ploy to get Jerry Brown re-elected.  My plan is to state that: the Prop is temporary to see how it plays out, and that even if 100% of the money isn't going to schools right off, it could be adjusted to make it be, and that California needs the money regardless.  Then address the sales tax hike by stating how shared sacrifice is necessary, even though it is much less than what the new tax bracket will bring in for the rich.

Annotated Bibliography

Bradley, William. "Jerry Brown: Gearing Up a Campaign at Last?" The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 22 Sept. 2012. Web. 24 Sept. 2012. . 



          This article, written by Bradley William was chosen because it provided a very concise unbiased explanation of Prop 30, along with an introduction to relevant Propositions such as 32 and 13. The Post writer then goes on to explain his distaste for 30, which he then provides voter approximations to verify his statements. He believes that this Bill could drastically help fund institutions, such as the education system and the like, if it didn’t have an “Achilles Heel”. This Proposition will not only raise the taxes of Upper class homes, but will also bare a higher sales tax rate. This puts our Governor in an awkward position. He needs to convince lower income families to pay more money, to get back money. The writer also explains the conspiracy of how this could all be a ploy to get Brown re-elected. Sources are cited via video clips of Brown at conventions, etc. 


      Berman, Jillian. "Why Stockton, California, Is Bankrupt, And Your Town Isn't." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 28 June 2012. Web. 24 Sept. 2012. . 



         This article, albeit older than the first, was still very relevant to the Higher Education Crisis. This article was chosen, not only because I’m a fan of the Huffington Post, but because this article was written about a town that is in worst case scenario. Bankrupt. Stockton is a prime example of how the now standing Prop 13 is not working. The writer breaks it down, step by step of how exactly Stockton fell. The article then ties into how the rest of California is falling, as well as on a national level. “And a national lesson: Nobody, anywhere, should ever issue pension obligation bonds! Let’s think for a moment about what these really are. They are commonly described as a way of exchanging a pension liability for a bond liability. But really, when a city issues pension obligation bonds, it gets a bond liability and keeps its pension liability -- plus it gains an asset that offsets the bond liability. Typically, the jurisdiction invests the bond proceeds in an equity-heavy portfolio, which may lose value, but the bond liability remains fixed.” He also explains how we can “prevent more Stocktons”, as depressing as that is. The solution is very clear-cut and obvious. Explanations of how other states are coping without Prop 13 and being able to raise and lower property tax value based on the economy. 




      Zhao, Emmeline. "Nevada Asks Battered Universities To Solve Its Economic Crisis." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 21 Sept. 2012. Web. 24 Sept. 2012. . 



      This article was useful to me because it gave a brief overview of the Higher Education Crisis, and how it’s affecting individuals and colleges alike. As programs are getting cut, tuition is soaring. They provide the case of Nevada, which is another prime example of how bad this system is getting. Nevada now has the nation’s worst unemployment as well as foreclosure rates. They state higher education is the key to solving this financial and judicial predicament.

RR #1

Michael Moore’s article “Idiot Nation” is a stab at how Americans choose to educate themselves in the present day. He goes on to say that Americans are not necessarily completely helpless, we just choose to memorize trivial facts about popular culture, versus challenging our minds with anything relevant or viable to how our country is operating. We even go as far as not researching who we’re putting into political offices, who are just as illiterate and jaded as the majority of American citizens. Moore states that it is the politicians who are ruining our country, contrary to what the politicians themselves say. In the article, it is said that political leaders accuse teacher unions and education school faculties as being the primary downfall to this country’s declining education rate. Which is absolutely ridiculous. Moore states, very effectively, the way teachers SHOULD be treated; “I don’t know about you, but I want the people who have the direct attention of my child more hours a day than I do treated with tender loving care. Those are my kids they’re ‘preparing’ for this world, so why on earth would I want to piss them off?” This gets the point across in my mind. Politicians today are so ass-backwards that they believe spending gratuitous amounts of money on the military will better our nation more than educating the new generations with the upmost importance. I think everyone’s heard the term “knowledge is power”, and I don’t think this statement fits any truer than right now. The Fed is trying to overcompensate for our incompetent politicians by overly arming our nation and practically imperializing our countries. If this hasn’t made an alarm go off in your head yet, something is wrong with you. I whole-heartedly agree with Moore in his approach to this issue. We need to dump all these old-farts in government that are littered with lobbyists, and get this country back to its roots of freedoms and liberties. In 2010, the average teacher’s salary in Sweden was $112,000, compared to our current wages for educators (around $35,000). Something like this needs to be done. The United States is so overly concerned with other country’s issues that we can’t seem to focus on our own. My proposition is to completely dismantle the Federal government. This corporation is what is driving our country into the dust, driving the power back into the people’s hands is what’s going to bring us back to glory. It’s pretty obvious to tell that I agree with Moore when it comes to the state of the nation. He utilizes Aristotle’s Appeals throughout the article, but personally, they were simply confirmations for me. I already had the majority of these feelings towards the State. This article simply brought them more to the surface. One appeal that did stick out to me though, was his use of Pathos in his portrayal of “children as billboards”. I was horrified at how low the school system had to sink to simply stay afloat. These schools were so deeply in bed with these corporate sponsors that they even had days named after the companies. I will not name them, due to my personal politics about keeping brands out of education. But what this statement did, was made me look back at my education, which was primarily private, and I could not imagine being assaulted with corporate media in the class room. This tugged at my heart strings and made me more engaged in the text as I contemplated their situation.

Week One

The article that was assigned to my group, (the Turtles), was the introduction to Rereading America. This introduction put a lot of ideas into perspective for me and made me think about the education system in a whole new way. The correlation between cultural myths and how the human brain works is baffling. Even more so that different myths can affect different societies in completely different ways. What stood out to me the most was how America functions based off of these myths. At first the article states that “there are no simple solutions to dealing with new stresses” and to question everything we read and are exposed to. A trait which I believe the American public is extremely lacking in. The article goes on to say that our culture molds us from birth. Even if we think that we are completely independent and can think for ourselves, society has these traits so well ingrained in us that they go by completely subliminally and unnoticed. Take “The American Dream” for example. According to this reading, America’s foundation is liberty, freedom and the pursuit of happiness for everyone. We even go as far to state that America is the “melting pot” and the land of the “self-made man”, which isn’t necessarily true in some circumstances. Depending on how one measures success, the idea of the American Dream could mean polar opposites for different people. A good comparison is Wall Street, compared to…well, the majority of society. They profit off of the working class’s labor. And if the Big-Wigs can keep workers motivated to work at shit wages, all in the hopes that someday THEY could be the ones in charge. But unfortunately our society doesn’t work like that. One can work themselves to the bone and still not make it past their $10 an hour job. This is just one example of how America categorizes people. There is also the issue pertaining to the “Nuclear Family”. This highly unrealistic view of American families has hindered many individuals who are failing at being “normal”. The idea of a husband, wife, two kids, a dog, and a big house with a white picket fence is hardly ever achieved, even back when divorce rates were much, much lower than today. It doesn’t help that we live in a throw away society that believes that all our problems can be solved by ditching the source and getting a new thing to replace it. But then again, forcing someone to stay in a relationship, or any situation that causes them constant stress and sadness could come off as being a tad cruel. Basically, I’m angered that our society promotes certain values that are “idealistic” but impractical for today’s civilians. Our country is revolving around an older style of living, and the current people in power are trying to reinforce this primitive lifestyle, even though it contradicts most people’s habits. Which can only promote sadness as our people are feeling inadequate because we can’t be normal in the eyes of our leaders.

Prop.30 Op-Ed Article

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/16/local/la-me-brown-taxes-20120816

I am and Gifts

I am a 20 year old boy with no clue what I'm doing. I have a few different majors I've narrowed it down to but for now I'm just feeling things out and keeping my head on straight. My "gifts" I would say are my cycling abilities, I'm a sponsored fixed-freestyle rider, as well as moderate computer knowledge. I am currently learning how to program using C++ and am recovering from 3 hairline fractures on my ribs.