Japanese Internment Memorial

I have walked passed this building many times and never knew that this was inside. The vignettes I found to be the most interesting was at the entrance there is a bronze memorial dedicated to Japanese Americans who were interned during World War II. This memorial stands at about five feet and tells the history of the Japanese Americans who were interned. The memorial shows figures in houses, coming off of boats, and working among other things. It was a very interesting piece. As I learned more about this piece I found out that the sculptor was Ruth Asawa who was interned at the age of 16. Another piece I found interesting was the panel that had a copy of the relocation instructions along with a map of the locations of the internment camps with the populations at each campsite. The next panel is called “Hysteria of War” and shows Japanese Americans boarding a train. With them are their belongings. Their faces are somber and most of them are looking down and have sad faces. Many of the women are hold young children in their arms. Next to the train are guards with big rifle looking guns. Just in case they get unruly. These people boarded the train to take them to the Santa Anita race track where they were many of them were held in horse stalls for close to six months. In the center there is a big watchtower glooming over the Japanese at the camp. It reminded me that “big brother” is always watching. In the panel there are scenes of the Japanese eating in the mess hall and even playing volleyball and baseball on the camp’s grounds. With guards watching from the watchtower of course. Like I mentioned before, I have walked passed this building many times before and never knew what the panels were about. Now I have more of an understanding and knowledge of the Japanese presence in San Jose and why there is Japan town in San Jose as well.

Word Count: 337

MIXT GREENS Broadcast

Blog Post Week #14

With the end of the semester upon us, it seems that teachers pile on the assignments. One assignment I have never enjoyed or seen the benefit in was group assignments. That is until now. For my organizational communication class we had to conduct and intervention project with a local non-profit organization. For this assignment we had groups of five people. We chose to do our project on The American Red Cross. For this we each had to conduct to personal interviews with representative’s form the organization. Together we created an interview guide to use and have consistent questions. So far the project was off to a good start. Then came the task of getting contacts for the group. This was not terribly difficult. We ended up finding enough contacts for all five of the members of the group. The struggle was with getting and ensuring that everyone conducted their interviews and on time. This is where the group fell apart. Out of the five members, only two completed the interviews thoroughly and on time. Being that I am someone who likes getting good grades and works hard to get them, I was not going to leave this assignment in the hands of the members of my group who did not pull through. In the end, myself and one other group member completed the project. We wrote the paper, designed the presentation, and put the whole package together. When the assignment was all done and completed, I felt no relief just exhaustion. When I was working on one portion of the assignment, my sister called me to try and arrange a time to get together and have dinner. She could sense the frustration in my voice and asked me what was wrong. I explained to her the group project and said “why do you do group projects in college? I just don’t get it!” My sister, being a graduate two years ago from the University of San Francisco, said to me that in college she never understood why professors assigned group projects but that when she was out of college and in the “real world” she realized that life is a group project and that was preparation. So in the end, what I learned is that I have a lifetime of group projects ahead of me where I am going to have to work with people I may not get along with or like or they may not pull their weight. But I will have to learn to deal with it and do the best job I can do.

Word Count: 431

Blog Post Week #13

Black Friday
Many of you already know that today is Black Friday. For people like my sister, this is her favorite unofficial holiday, literally. She lives for Thanksgiving just to go shopping the next day. For those of you who don't know what Black Friday is I'll explain. Black Friday for some is the best day of the year, while for others it is the worst. This is the day that people wake up at 4a.m. just get a good deal at Wal-Mart. Some people risk their lives staying out in the cold all night and risk getting trampled when the doors open in the morning. Here is a story from ABC 7 News about a women who was trampled today. I once worked in retail and Black Friday was nothing to look forward to. LOOONNNNGGGG lines, cranky customers, it is just a recipe for disaster. All week long you are bombarded with advertisements on television that stores open at 4 a.m. and have specials for the crazys that go there at these times. Is this what we are subjected to to get "good deal" and more importantly, are the deals really that good? Here is a list of discounts being offered posted on MSN.com. Headlines such as "Save 30%" and "Special Event" this is a marketers dream that people are in this much of frenzy to save a few bucks.

Word Count: 231

Fish Out Of Water

This past week I had a friend of the family pass away. Being that I am not Catholic I am literally a fish out of water when it comes to Catholic practices. Funeral’s in general are creepy, especially when it is an open casket. That’s right, open casket. So for those of you who are unfamiliar with how these ceremonies typically go, here is a recap. The night before the funeral, there is a rosary. The traditional rosary can last up to an hour or so. For each bead on the rosary there is a prayer. Just to let you know there are a lot of beads on the rosary. At the rosary I was unfamiliar with these prayers, while many of the others there knew them all by heart. Also many knew when the Priest would say a prayer and they knew exactly what to say after. Whether that was “thanks be to god,” “Amen,” or even “And also with you.” And then there is the body lying in the open casket at the front of the room. This was what everyone was looking at. Since I had never seen a dead person before, I was intrigued. My mom had always told me stories of when my Grandfather passed and had an open casket and how she never forgot what it looked like. Waxy is how she describes it. I would have to agree. The hands and face look waxy as if the body was dipped in a wax coating; creepy yet interesting. People would come to the front of the room and look at the body. Many were Catholics so they would cross themselves (father, sun, and holy spirit) traditionally done in this religion. I do not practice Catholicism, so I wondered if I should go up there and do I mimic what the others are doing to fit in? I paid my respects but I decided not to cross myself. The next day is the funeral. We went back to the mortuary in the morning to view the body one last time. If you wanted to place a note or memento into the casket you do that at this time. The casket is closed and then brought to the front and placed in the hearse. The whole time at the mortuary I was reminded of the movie “My Girl.” If you have ever seen this movie, you know why. We had a police escort, which is really retired cops escorting the procession. This is where you get to run red lights and stop signs. Then we went to the church and had a mass, which also takes about one hour. Again the questions arose, do you cross yourself like everyone else, and do you take communion, all of these questions for someone who literally was a fish out of water. After the mass is the drive to the burial sight. At this point, it was more like a funeral that I had been to before. Another prayer and the body is laid to rest. There really is no way to know what you are getting yourself into when going to a funeral. If you can, bone up on the religious practices or do what feels comfortable. Although I was a fish out of water, it was interesting and a valuable lesson to learn.

Word Count: 560

Blog Post Week #12

Yahoo and Chinese Journalists
The recent events between Yahoo and Chinese journalists have been a big discussion in two of my classes. In my introduction to public relations, we are discussing conflict management and how Yahoo dealt with this conflict. And in my organizational communication class, we have been discussing cultural differences when companies from one country (example the United States) go into another country (example China). These companies going into other countries have to abide by those country’s rules and customs of their culture. So basically what happened was that two Chinese journalists were arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison and according to some, it is all Yahoo’s fault. The journalists were told by the Chinese government not to report on the anniversary of Tiananmen Square. The journalists forwarded this information to human rights activists. The Chinese government pressured Yahoo to turn over information about the journalists that sent out that information. Yahoo complied with the government and the men were then put into prison. Yahoo has just settled with the families of the journalists in an amount not released. I guess it is compensation for these families. It raises great questions as to weather this was ethical on behalf of Yahoo. What do you think, should they have done what they have done?

Word Count: 213

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Blog Post Week #11

McGurk Gives Public Relations Insight

Michelle McGurk, Senior Policy Advisor and Public Information Officer for San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, spoke with Public Relations students on Tuesday, November 6, 2007. San Jose State students majoring in Public Relations attended the keynote speech given by McGurk, for the department’s annual PR Day.

McGurk informed the audience about what exactly she does for the mayor. She explained that her main focus is to “connect the mayor with the press.” McGurk prepares the mayor to be in front of the camera and to answer the press’ questions.

She also explained that most people think of a mayor’s press secretary to be in front of the camera answering tough questions from reporters, however that is not the case. “We want the mayor on camera, in front of the press as much as possible,” said McGurk. For a city as large and diverse as San Jose, McGurk explained that it is important for the city to see their mayor. Especially since the prior mayors for the city, were hardly seen by the public.

McGurk gave a brief history of her career in public relations. She started out as a news reporter for seven years. After reporting she worked for non-profits and community relations. She previously was the Senior Director for Media and Community Relations for the $1.7 billion Silicon Valley Community Foundation. At that position, McGurk managed press outreach for the organization and community and civic leadership.

McGurk was editor for a major trade magazine and decided to leave that position to work for political campaigns. She was the legislative aide and then chief of staff for former San Jose Vice Mayor Frank Fiscalini in 1995 to 2000. The problem with political relations is that “once the politicians term is up, it’s time to find a new job,” said McGurk.

She had no problem finding a new job, as she now works for the current mayor of San Jose. She explained that recently with the earthquake, she experienced an emergency first hand and how it plays out. She said everything went well and worked as planned and stated that “that night we did about fifteen to twenty press interviews in two hours.”

At the end of her speech, McGurk gave the audience some words of advice:
1. Be a news junkie. If you don’t watch the news you can’t pitch it. Know local and national reporters.
2. Networking, networking, networking. It is very important.
3. Very important to be able to write well and know grammar skills.
4. On a resume, you should highlight your experience in customer service. This shows you have people skills.
5. A few things she wishes she was told 20 years ago:
• Better to have a job you love than to make a lot of money.
• If you want to travel do it now.
• Start saving for retirement now, even if it is $10 a month.
• Only use credit cards for emergencies.
• Send handwritten thank you cards.

This was an informative speech. I learned a lot and found McGurk to be very interesting and the words of advice were great to hear from someone other than my mother.

Word Count: 537