The First Gay President

 Obama has recently announced a switch on his stance on same sex marriage as a response to the comments of Joe Biden on the issue. Obama believes that the issue around the matter of same sex marriage is going to evolve in the next couple of years and that is why he is supporting it. Although this is not the most important issue today in politics, Obama also believes that this will help him win the November elections this year. Many voters still support Obama and will continue to support him throughout the rest of the year but some have started to change their support for Obama and his new policies based on this new decision. (Peter Baker and Dalia Sussman 2012) http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/15/us/politics/poll-sees-obama-gay-marriage-support-motivated-by-politics.html
I think this new change in Obama's direction is a positive choice but still was heavily influenced by politics. This seems to have been a sudden change without much personal reasoning behind it, he just really wants to win the election this year. If this was such an important issue it shouldn't have been so sudden and should have been discussed in greater detail before the announcement. I also believe this issue was going to reach the supreme court anyway and be decided as unconstitutional sooner or later.

The Social Superiority Stigma

Many people live with stigmas attached to them by society and are easily judged immediately by everyone else because of it. I have had to deal with a stinging stigma throughout all of my schooling; I was consistently the outsider to most, and was simply labeled as "that white kid". Every grade school and  both high schools I went to about 90-95% of the population was made up of every other race and ethnicity and only a very small portion of students were the same color as myself, making me to be the only white kid in most of my classes. A lot of students liked to judge me based solely on this and would work to intimidate me or make me feel less than them because they all probably felt less than me most of their time. Having to deal with mostly white teachers, white police officers, and authority figures throughout the majority of your life makes everyone feel that there seems to be an unbalance when it comes to the color of your skin. The notion that white skinned people think that they are better or more educated than others is sadly prevalent in today's time, and when I meet people who like to look down on other races because they truly feel that they are smarter and more "proper" disgusts me but mostly just makes me sad to see the continuation of such stereotypes (I mean come on now grow up).

A lot of teachers and authority figures have also given me this "extra privilege" or "free pass" to behave differently than others in my classes or to not receive as harsh a punishment than the other kids ALL throughout my school days. For some reason people would like to treat me as separate than the rest because of who I appeared to be but now I am glad to finally be treated as equal in Year Up where we all receive the same amount of attention and resources. I plan to change the minds of youth about this stigma in my future and really get children to appreciate who they are and to not feel less than anybody else or put down by these seemingly powerful greedy white authority figures who are way better off than everybody else because they were treated as better and they took advantage of their position in society. Right now I'm guessing that this stigma is the residue of all the crazy history in this country and really it is up to all of our generation now and ahead of us to change our thinking around it and finally put an end to past and make our own history.

Proper Pledges

For the next two modules of my learning and development phase at Year Up I am pledging to myself and my colleagues to succeed and achieve all of my goals. I have detailed these pledges below.

I Ray James Fleming, pledge to give my full focus and attention to all the tasks in front of me and to complete them with all of my knowledge and skills, on time. I can accomplish this by listening and following instructions and allotting myself the proper time to work in a non-distracting environment. In class I will need to stay focused on all current tasks and remain genuinely compassionate and helpful towards others completing the same tasks.

I Ray James Fleming, also pledge to avoid earning any infractions for being late or unprepared in class. I can accomplish this by always showing up at least five minutes early to class and never missing a deadline for an assignment.

I Ray James Fleming, finally pledge to bring a positive attitude to Year Up and contribute some more to class discussions and activities. This can be accomplished by positive self encouragement and also avoiding any negative distractions outside of Year Up. I can also practice public speaking and talking in front of groups during class as much as once or twice a day to develop this skill.

These are my pledges and I promise to keep them now that they are public. I am looking forward to the more productive and positive weeks ahead. Thank youuu~