The Tideline Project by David Suzuki forces people to think about rising tides. The artist uses mussel shells from local restaurants as well as other recycled materials and puts them in mundane places around the city.

Robert F. Slaman is a man who has inspired several generations. He is a man who served his country. He was the only one in his family to go to college. He is a man who built himself up from nothing. Robert F. Slaman is my greatest hero; and he just happens to be my grandfather. To my cousins and me, he is known affectionately as “Pops.” Growing up, I simply saw Pops as that fun-loving, trouble-making character who would always try to tickle me and steal bites of my dessert. To this day, at the age of 84, he is still just as playful and energetic. And even though he is in many ways childish at heart, and extremely quirky, I have nothing but the utmost respect for him. I have such fond memories of going to see him and my grandma as a child, even though they would always bicker like the typical old married couple. While my grandma was nurturing and protective, Pops encouraged my brother and I to be daring and adventurous, which oftentimes got us into trouble.

I always loved hearing the stories he told about his own childhood when he was quite the juvenile delinquent. He told us how one time, he and his friends snuck into the school pool at night to go swimming only to get chased around by a janitor and narrowly escape by crawling through the air ducts in the ceiling. Another classic story involved him leaping out of a first floor window in the middle of his Spanish class. He ran to the ice cream parlor and made it back to class without the teacher noticing a single thing.

Even today in his adulthood, he is still a very offbeat sort of fellow. A couple of years ago, he waged an increasingly violent war with the squirrels in his yard. He used to go out with a long stick and make a game of trying to knock them off the branches. When this failed to yield long-term results, he showed off his ingenuity by fashioning a more dangerous type of “squirrel stick.” He fastened a rusty nail to the end and wired it so that when plugged in, he could administer a stunning shock to his bushy-tailed victims. Since this new invention, the squirrel population in his yard has gone way down.

The only thing Pops hates more than squirrels is wasting money. This is a man famous for painting only the front of his house in order to avoid buying more than one can of paint. This past Christmas, my cousins gave him and my grandma a light-up Christmas wreath for the front of their house. He was so neurotic about wasting electricity, however that he sat for hours with the wreath plugged into an extension cord. When he saw a car pulling around the corner, he would plug the wreath in and then hurriedly unplug it as soon as the taillights faded into the distance.

I will not deny that my grandpa may be completely insane. So why is he my greatest inspiration? Born in 1930, as one of seven children, Pops grew up right in the thick of the Great Depression. With immigrant parents and six siblings, he had a childhood of scarcity. As he grew up, he had few options for a better life. Many of his siblings actually became alcoholics or drug addicts. But Pops was different. He enlisted in the Navy and was shipped off to Newfoundland. There, he worked as an electrician who helped build fighter planes to serve in the Korean War. He says one of his proudest moments was when the F6F Hellcat he had worked on successfully bombed a bridge in North Korea. Through these years he missed his family very much but in the end, this gave him his shot at a better life. He was the only one of his family to attend college after being given a full scholarship from the Navy to go to Farleigh Dickenson University where he earned a degree in Industrial Engineering.

Today, Pops lives with my grandma in the same house they bought 54 years ago as newlyweds. Due to his hard work and frugal ways, he lives a comfortable and healthy life. Even with 5 kids and 14 grandkids, he is always there when someone in the family is in need. He has done so much for me: starting out by pushing me to take risks and most recently, encouraging me to follow my dreams and come to Penn State. I cannot thank him enough. And because of him, I believe grandparents make the best role models.

For my Civic Issue blog, I have decided to take part in the politics category. I am very passionate about local and national politics because I know they are very important. However, I am mainly interested in politics on a global scale. I am really interested in the governments of other countries and how they interact with each other. Especially governments of the developing world because this is such a crucial time for them.

For my passion blog last semester, I talked about cultures and issues around the world. I think I would like to continue along the lines of this theme. This semester, however, I plan on becoming slightly more specific and focusing on history/politics/cultures of South Asia. This means I plan on talking about countries such as Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, etc. I also plan on talking about crucial regions and ethnic groups such as the Tibetans in southeast China and the Sherpas in Nepal.

This semester of RCL seems like it will be pretty busy but I really like the idea of activating the civic side of rhetoric in civic life. I like the idea if becoming more active in our communities and I hope this semester helps us all discover better ways to go about this.

Anyways for my “This I Believe” podcast, I have a couple of ideas. The first was to talk about how I think it’s important for people to have a connection to where their food came from. I guess that could be worded better and refined as I go along…but I really do think that people, especially in American society, should have a stronger connection with their food sources. I think it is really sad that probably the majority of Americans never think twice about where their food is coming from simply because they know they will never run out. One quick trip to the grocery store and a person can find pretty much anything from anywhere in the world. It’s actually crazy how much work goes into producing a simple item because there is a whole farming process plus a shipping process and people never really think about this. This is a topic I thought about since I worked on farm for about a month this past summer. It was definitely one of the most influential experience I have ever had. My other idea might have something to do with the importance of a best friend. I have lived down the street from my best friend for about 15 years now and it was terrifying moving away to separate colleges. But I feel incredibly lucky to have made some really close friends here…just something to think about.

For my specialty blog, I plan on continuing my passion blog. This past semester I wrote about obscure cultures and world events. I might try and write a bit about history this time? Still considering…

For my Civic Issues blog, I would love to do something environmental about factory farming or pollution, etc. I would also be interested in political issues especially global issues such as terrorism which is really relevant at this time. Maybe Eco-terrorism could be a good way to combine both of these topics?

My initial reaction to this image is just to laugh and not really take it seriously. It is obviously meant to be lighthearted and joking but it also poses opinions on serious issues in today’s political sphere. With three simple words, “Legalize gay marijuana,” this bumper sticker offers an opinion on both gay marriage and marijuana legalization. This message is meant to be somewhat satirical. This is done in order to point out the irony that while these are two very different issues, most people are on either one side or the other. Typical liberals feel that both recreational marijuana and gay marriage should be legalized, however typical conservatives feel that both of these things should remain illegal. The message of this bumper sticker is to point out that the government is restricting these two very prevalent activities and that while not everyone may feel too strongly about either of them, the government should at least listen to the concerns of the people. It also came across my mind however, that this might be a sarcastic bumper sticker posed by someone who does not agree with legalization of either of these things. It kind of implies the attitude that if we legalize gay marriage, we may as well legalize marijuana which are both completely ridiculous. Overall, though I think this sticker poses the more liberal opinion and shows support for both gay marriage and marijuana legalization. The fact that this sticker is kind of unclear probably shows that it is not the most effective logical argument. It does not really offer any logical appeal for either of the claims it makes and instead just shouts an opinion on multiple issues which may be confusing at first glance. Despite the fact that it is not too good at making an argument, this sticker does provide humor and I think that is the reason why it may be at least somewhat effective in bringing attention to the issues. People may not initially understand what is being stated here but at least it may make them rethink their opinions.