The Christmas tree arriving at the White House shows the people of the USA how fast Christmas is approaching. This huge 19 foot tree symbolizes all of the other trees around the country which people will be putting up in their houses. Christmas is a time of being with the family, appreciating one another. Even though the White House has a huge tree, I do hope people realize that it isn't about the materialistic things but rather about love, friendship and having one another. Christmas is one of the holidays which many people associate with faith and spirituality, which I believe is a very good thing. I live by the quote "Walk by faith". My faith is the foundation of my strength. Also with Christmas being around the corner, it means the 2012 year is coming to an end. A new year to begin fresh and with a new mindset as well as goals. A tree can have so much effect on a person, especially one as important as the White House tree. http://abcnews.go.com/m/blogEntry?id=17793917&sid=77&cid=77

Stage six: Comment on a colleague's work #1

In my classmate Antonio Barletta’s blog post Get over big bird already, he writes about how he agrees with Mitt Romney's plan of not funding PBS. Also he writes about how people are blowing it out of proportion, just to make Romney look bad. I agree with what Antonio has to say. His first reason was saying how kids learn the same things that Sesame Street teaches them, such as counting, writing and reading. Sesame street is not the only place that kids learn all of these different things. I really do agree and feel that cutting the amount of money that we are borrowing from China is one of the best things that we can possibly do for this country. The USA is already so far in debt, so why add up more to it? PBS I'm sure will be able to manage on it's own.  So many other different channels are able to run without government subsidies and so PBS also doing so seems pretty fair, as well as equal. Blowing what Romney said about cutting funds out of proportion just to make him look bad is just not right at all.

Stage Five: Original Editorial or commentary #1

The article that I read was "Women, Latinos: Record Numbers In Congress" by Jake Miller. I am Hispanic, so seeing the title of the article I became interested in what the author had to say and report about. The author has so much to say about the fact that women and Latino Americans both are said to be at their record numbers on Capitol Hill. This is such a huge change, which involves way more diversity within Congress. Miller brings into question, that if more women participating and playing a part in Congress, whether the agenda will be more devoted towards families. Miller even quotes a person saying, "more women in Congress means an agenda that's better for American families." This change in Congress, the author acknowledges and see's as a positive change of the "cross-section of the American public." Although their still is way more to come about and their still has to be way more change in Congress, this is a step towards the right direction. I agree, that Congress should be equal and made up of all kinds of people of different races and such. In many years to come I see the continuation of change and a greater change coming about for Congress to be made up of all people. I believe that since the Congress is for the people, that it should be made up of all kinds of people which will be able to represent their people. Being that more woman are involved in Congress, I do believe that the agenda will be leaning more towards families and making sure everything is going smooth. I feel confident that woman will stay strong about issues regarding the family structure and will not pay much attention to smaller almost irrelevant issues. Having diversity is good because many people get their viewpoint across and many people are able to voice their opinion. Having a change is Congress is great, and although Congress still has a long way to go this is still tremendous and most definitely going in the right direction.