Master Plan or Failed Plan?

                       "Want to go to 21 Choices?,"  I ask as my friend. 
                       "Yeah, we better stock up that before it's torn down!"  This response from my friend blows me away.
                       "What do you mean?!"
                       "You didn't hear?  They may be tearing down the University Village."

The news my friend informs of me is shocking for me to hear but...true.  To meet the ideals expressed in its Role and Mission Statement, the University of Southern California seeks to contribute to the community it is apart of and its residents.  According to the website on which the University Plan is detailed, the University of Southern California, through the combined efforts of faculty, staff and alumni, have contributed $4 billion to the Los Angeles county economy already.  Through the gentrification plans, they plan to add on to this $4 billion. 

University Plan Blueprint



Sonia Nazario's Journey

On the day of the SI Debate in Bovard, I was not too excited about the meeting.  Part of the reason was because I had no clue what I would be sitting and listening to and the other part of the reason was because I was gloomy from the rain.  However, my spirits were lifted when I learned we were to be discussing Enrique's Journey.  In high school I had always heard of my classmates reading the novel and heard their rave reviews of it.  Despite this, I never was inspired to crack open the book myself. 

Unexpectantly, one day on vacation in Palm Springs with my family, me and my mother were scrolling through the hotel's channel selection and stumbled upon a documentary.  Watching HBO shows is a thing me and my mother like doing together and we had nothing planned for the rest of that night so we sat down and tuned in.  This documentary happened to be everything Nazario discussed in the presentation last week.  Watching the documentary was so depressing.  I couldn't fathom risking my life 28 times to see my mother.  The determination and courage many immigrants have is unmeasurable!  Today, me and so many other teenage Americans are so lazy that we hesitate to respond to our mothers after she has cooked a meal for us.  Traveling through four countries with no food, water, shower, safe transportation and healthy conditions to see a family member is unheard of in this country. 

The presentation left me with the following questions:

• If we were to improve relations with other countrys' immigrants, what would the government do to ensure this happens?
• How much money is spent on patroling the border?
• Why is this not taught more widely in elementary, middle and high schools?
• How was Sonia Nazario able to make all those trips without being hurt, robbed, attacked, etc.?

New Discoveries Withing My Research

For this assignment I wanted to choose a topic which I was pretty familiar with.  Although I know much about the Black Panther Party, there is still much that I do not know.  I pretty much knew about the missions, ideologies and story of the party, however, I was unfamiliar with the specifiic events that made the group what it was. 

For example, I knew the group was built on a set of doctrines called the 10 Point Plan by which they drove the group on.  This plan was what the group sought to achieve for Blacks and all minorities.  In summation, they wanted equality in education, housing, employment, and civil rights.

 

1. WE WANT FREEDOM. WE WANT POWER TO DETERMINE THE DESTINY OF OUR BLACK AND OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES.
2. WE WANT FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR OUR PEOPLE.
3. WE WANT AN END TO THE ROBBERY BY THE CAPITALISTS OF OUR BLACK AND OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES.
4. WE WANT DECENT HOUSING, FIT FOR THE SHELTER OF HUMAN BEINGS.
5. WE WANT DECENT EDUCATION FOR OUR PEOPLE THAT EXPOSES THE TRUE NATURE OF THIS DECADENT AMERICAN SOCIETY. WE WANT EDUCATION THAT TEACHES US OUR TRUE HISTORY AND OUR ROLE IN THE PRESENT-DAY SOCIETY.
6. WE WANT COMPLETELY FREE HEALTH CARE FOR All BLACK AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE.
7. WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO POLICE BRUTALITY AND MURDER OF BLACK PEOPLE, OTHER PEOPLE OF COLOR, All OPPRESSED PEOPLE INSIDE THE UNITED STATES.
8. WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO ALL WARS OF AGGRESSION.
9. WE WANT FREEDOM FOR ALL BLACK AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE NOW HELD IN U. S. FEDERAL, STATE, COUNTY, CITY AND MILITARY PRISONS AND JAILS. WE WANT TRIALS BY A JURY OF PEERS FOR All PERSONS CHARGED WITH SO-CALLED CRIMES UNDER THE LAWS OF THIS COUNTRY.
10. WE WANT LAND, BREAD, HOUSING, EDUCATION, CLOTHING, JUSTICE, PEACE AND PEOPLE'S COMMUNITY CONTROL OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY.

I also did not know that they were based on Maoism, the philosophy created by Mao Zedong and his associates in the Chinese Communist Party.  Closely related to Marxism, Maoism is the philosophy which believes that the proletarian class of society naturally has a well developed skill for violent activity and thus maintains the potential to create a revolution in which the oppressing government bureaucrats will be overthrown.  This is what the Black Panther Party sought to achieve.  They wanted the poor minorities to start a revolution against the government and bring about change that will benefit them.

Mao Zedong, creator of Maoism

The past isn't over; it isn't even past.  --William Faulkner
What's past is prologue.  --William Shakespear


I interpreted these following quotes as history repeats itself.  The past will have influence on the present.  We can never forget the past.  Our past sets our future.  How we interpret the past will affect how we conduct our present and thus our future.  And finally, the ever cliche, without the past, there is NO future.

"You are becoming more and more like your father everyday!"  My mother sporadically proclaimed this in one of our conversations one afternoon as she noticed that me and my father are so very similar.  Not only is he my twin with a beard, my father has a big influence over the things I do, the ideas I have and the decisions I make.  Many of the things he enjoys I follow suit and end up liking them.  We do many of the same activities and are interested in some of the same topics.  One thing my father is interested in is the movements for freedom and equality Blacks have made and are making.  He idolizes leaders and speakers such as Malcolm X (Nation of Islam), Martin Luther King Jr. (Nonviolent protests of the 1950s and 1960s), Bob Marley (Rastafari Movement), and Huey P. Newton (Black Panther Party).  Since I have grown up around him and have learned so much from him, I have been able to expand my knowledge on those people and those groups.

Huey P. Newton

Malcolm X

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Bob Marley

The group I have chose to focus on for this paper is the Black Panther Party.  This organization, active from the mid 1960s-1970s, advocated self-defense.  Blacks, after Martin Luther King Jr.'s anti-racists and anti-segregationists movements, were still heavily discriminated upon.  One group that delivered much of this unequal treatment where the police.  The police harassed and attacked Blacks and killed many innocent people.   To combat this the Black Panther Party advocated protection.  Many times, this protection would be with firearms.  They believed in the philosophy an eye for and eye, a tooth for a tooth.  

The Black Panther Party is associated with negativity.  They are viewed as a militant group and are commonly seen wielding large guns and wearing and mean, hostile expressions.  However, one major thing about the party is overlooked.  They believed in protection, not spontaneous violence.  They were associated with negativity because of this despite the fact that this is one of the rights all American's are entitled to, a right to bear arms and protect oneself.

Aside from this the group also believed in lifting up the Black race and educating their Black communities.  They fed the hungry and were against drug abuse.

Black Panther Party Free Breakfast Club

2006 Black Panther Party Reunion