*WERA *Pageant Boys: Competing for Beauty Crowns in a Girls' World *Andrea Canning and Mary Pflum *ABC's Good Morning America/abc.com *Nov. 15, 2010 *http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/pageant-boys-competing-crowns-girls-world/story?id=12056210&page=1
The norm being breached here would be that little boys are participating and competing in an event that has always been reserved for little girls. The fact that the mothers "pamper" their boys before the competition (things such as manicures and make-up application) only further makes people question whether or not this is an appropriate and/or healthy activity for a little boy. Certainly people will question whether the little boys will grow up with gender identification/confusion issues. It's also implied that the boys might have a higher chance of becoming homosexual later in life because of these activities. Granted there are certainly no laws being broken here, but people might question the ethicality of it. If it does prove to make little boys more likely to be homosexual later in life people will most likely claim that it is an ethical issue. Simply because society, as a whole, still considers homosexuality to be problem that can be fixed and/or cured not something that is normal and naturally occurs.
1. Pena 2. Rangel Is Found to Have Violated House Ethics Rules 3. David Kocieniewski 4. New York Times 5. November 16, 2010 6. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/nyregion/17rangel.html?src=me
Representative Charles B. Rangel was recently found guilty of ethical violations which will most certainly damage his identity. The recent convictions come as a result of Rangel failing to successfully perform his role of House Representative. Representatives are supposed to portray themselves as honest, ethical, and just. In the last two years, however, Rangel has not been able to uphold his performance.
Rangel was found guilty of such things as failure to pay taxes and preserving a tax loophole worth millions of dollars for an oil company. These actions have brought dishonor to the house and compelled Rangel to engage in some aligning actions. The most prevalent of Rangel’s aligning actions is his use of justification to avoid blame.
In regards to his conviction of avoiding paying taxes on a Dominican beach house, he asserts that the mishap occurred as a result of him not being able to speak Spanish. Rangel justifies not paying the taxes by implying that had the situation been different (if he could speak Spanish) then he would have paid the taxes. Rangel, not intending to give up his role of Representative just yet hopes that his use of justification will restore his previously damaged performance and identity. - Goffman
1. Aliakbar 2. Sunset for a Solar Subsidy? 3. Matthew L. Wald 4. New York Times 5. 11/16/10 6. http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/16/sunset-for-a-solar-subsidy/?partner=rss&emc=rss
This article highlights the fallen plans of a federal subsidy for solar in the U.S. In a nutshell, before the recession the federal government planned to provide tax cuts for companies who planned to install solar. However, with many companies not making profits, which means they could not install solar, the federal government decide to issue grants instead. This would help secure solar installation companies would survive and solar would be utilized. With the federal grants expiring on Dec. 31 of this year with a still drowning economy the government needs to decide what to do about the solar issue.
Relating this issue to Berger and Luckman with the Social Construction of Society, will the grants become the institutionalized action of the federal government about solar and how things are done, or will the government decide to take a different route on the issue. The government must make decisions on what it wants to do and shape the social and political world in which we live, it may be considered a breaching action like Garfinkle's theory to try something new like higher subsidies that may be met with mixed feelings. Regardless some decision needs to be made in the next month or so regarding the solar issue or many installation companies may have a big problem on their hands.
1. plebe 2.TSA chief likely to face lawmakers' questions on pat-downs, body scans 3.the CNN Wire Staff 4. CNN.com 5. Nov 17, 2010 6. http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/11/17/airport.security/index.html?hpt=Sbin
Berger & Luckman: I believe that traveling and "doing traveler" are examples of social institutions. As travelers, what we must do and go through at the airport has become habitual to those who are frequent flyers. We take off our shoes, unload our pockets, fill up the bins, push them along onto the conveyor-belt, keep our IDs out, etc. Most people who travel often are very familiar with this procedure, and think nothing of it anymore. They just think "this is the way things are done at the airport." Now, TSA has introduced new equipment and techniques which are currently unfamiliar to air travelers. Although these body scanners and invasive pat-downs are facing a lot of criticism right now, I believe that these will eventually be seen by the American public as simply part of "doing traveler." This institution might seem as though it is separate from and controlling individuals, but as is evident through the many objections and refusals of these techniques, we are creating this institution through our actions and reactions toward it.
1. Aurora 2. Pentagon's Budget On The Chopping Block 3. Alan Greenblatt 4. NPR.org 5. 11/17/10 6. http://www.npr.org/2010/11/16/131360666/pentagon-s-budget-on-the-chopping-block In this article the pentagon's budget is being looked at and there might be budget cuts up to one hundred billion dollars. The pentagon is a institution that the people have stood behind for many years to protect us. Berger and Luckman would argue that the idea that the pentagon deserves a giant proportion of our budget can be an institution. The way we set up this institution to protect us and the way they can protect us is by using an extreme amount of resources to have a larger force than anyone who threatens the people. Since the day when we were under threat of invasion we have moved to just accept the fact that most of the taxes we pay go to the pentagon. This action of giving our money had become a habit and it is just assumed that the rest of the country needs to adjust to the left over money that the military does not use up. This can also be looked at in terms of Garfunkel's breaching. The pentagon's budget has never experiences a budget cuts of this size. Our country's image is usually one of our military might. We are breaking the idea that the military needs to be a super power in the world in order to decrease the deficit. A lot of people will most likely be uncomfortable with the idea that our military is shrinking. That is to be expected with a change that no one would of expected especially so suddenly.
CoAnd Study: Women With High Job Stress Face Heart Risks The Associated Press NPR 11/14/10 http://www.npr.org/2010/11/14/131315220/study-women-with-high-job-stress-face-heart-risks?ft=1&f=1024
Berger and Luckman: It has been discovered by a U.S. government study that women with stressful jobs face more health risks, such as heart attacks. It is important to note that, one: this scientific knowledge is not a direct representation of the natural world, so not all women in highly-stressful jobs will face such health risks. It is a study which was based on thoughts previously “assumed,” and the participants in the study more than likely knew what they were being studied for, which could have altered the results of the study. Two: theories are socially constructed and reflect the historical context in which they were developed, which again backs up my assertion that because women historically has been viewed as inferior to men that idea could have been a push to highlight female weaknesses, as if to say that women cannot handle stress well because we are known to be more emotional. Thirdly: what constitutes a stressful job? How was this measured? One of the basic assumptions of symbolic interactionism is how people assign meaning to things and how that meaning may affect how they feel and act. If one believes their job is stressful, they will assign that meaning into how they define the job and other social contexts can affect their own health risks. The “stressful” job however one defines stressful could be a factor, but an individual’s health habits and social environment could also affect this notion. There is no absolute meaning to anything, but more so that meaning assigned through a person’s negotiation with others and that individual’s interpretation of that meaning is emphasized by their own thought processes. I believe this study was conducted under the premise that women are inferior to men and so as a way of highlighting the popular notion that they are emotional folks who cannot handle stressful situations as good as men, this study was conducted. The U.S. government serving as an institution has the power to control individual behaviors, and the depth that this study was conducted--could have affected how a woman assigned her job as being stressful; especially if she knew she what the study primarily is interested in finding. Thus, again this study is not representative of women who face more health risks because of being in a “stressful” job; It is more representative of women who have reacted to the society’s assumptions, and whose actions have become objectified because of this, and there habitualized actions becoming institutionalized by means of verifying what was thought to be so.
1.RayRay 2.Pageant Boys: Competing for Beauty Crowns in a Girls' World 3.Andrea Canning and Mary Pflum 4.ABC's Good Morning America/abc.com 5.Nov. 15, 2010 6.http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/pageant-boys-competing-crowns-girls-world/story?id=12056210&page=1
At some point you have to draw a line somewhere. These pageants that are meant for girls, but are being taken place by little boys need to stop. This is definitely out of the norm. When I first seen the title of the article I thought it was a breaching exercise. Had me on the edge of my seat anxious to see people's reactions to what they were about to experience. This would have been the ideal example of a breaching exercise. I find it ridiculous for the parents to take part in this. I understand that you may have wanted a daughter, but you have to accept the gifts that God give to you. I was two sided with this article because one side of me wanted to stop reading but yet the other side wanted to keep going just to see if this was really a joke. These parents are setting up their kids to becoming the laughing stalk and to get picked on for the rest of their life. Not only that, but they're going to be questioning their own sexuality. This is all they know and was brought into it from birth...literally.
1. Gottenyu 2. I’m Sorry, Embarrassed: Tiger Woods 3. Unknown 4. Indian Express.Com 5. 19 February, 2010 6. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/i-am-sorry-embarrassed-tiger-woods/581980/ The article discusses Tiger Woods’ revealed affair as well as his public apology to his fans, wife, and family. Goffman would see this public apology as an aligning action. The discovery of Tiger’s affair ruined his performance by bringing his backstage, the affair, onto his front stage, his marriage and golf performances, marking him with the stigma of being an adulterer. In order to fix his spoiled performance and try to slough this stigma he implemented impression management with aligning actions. By offering an account of his actions, as well as an apology, he hoped to draw sympathy from the audience, lose his stigma, and regain control of his performance.
1. Shrapnel 2. Body Scanners, Pat Downs Violate law and privacy 3. Marc Rotenberg 4. CNN 5. November 17, 2010 6. http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/11/17/rotenberg.scanners.privacy/index.html
Personal space is something that is often taken for granted in the United States. We assume and take for granted that each and every person is entitled to personal privacy, surrounded by a little bubble where no one but our most intimate friends, families, and partner(s) may enter (but only on occasion). The case of these news body scanners, strip-down searches, and groping our bodies for dangerous artifacts is a direct breach of our sacred personal privacy. What makes the breach even more troubling is that even though the TSA workers know it’s a breach in privacy and makes people feel uncomfortable, they routinely do it to everyone as if there’s nothing wrong with it. This causes confusion for everyone: should this breach in norm be allowed? At what point does a person’s privacy have to be given up for safety? It seems strange that officials advocating for these extensive searches act as though nothing is wrong when everyone knows this is a breach in personal privacy.
Sacala What do women really want? Oxytocin Jon Hamilton NPR November 15th, 2010 http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/11/15/131336097/what-do-women-really-want-oxytocin?ft=1&f=1024
According to Berger & Luckman, scientific knowledge is not a "direct representation" of the natural world, but is based on systems of thought that are culturally and historically bonded. For centuries, men have been trying to figure out what makes women happy, and what they really want. By discovering the hormone Oxytocin in women, and understanding how it has a direct correlation on how the feelings and trust within a women, can directly be related to how we as a society use and processes meanings that determine how people feel and act. By women having the ability to release more Oxytocin, then we as humans, males in particular, will have a better understanding on how to derive meaning more socially toards situations that arise when it comes to social interaction with women. These new socially constructed meanings, and how they can be derived, can only help to expalin the one thing that men want to know; What do women really want?
1. Curtrell 2. Punishment phase for Rangel set for Thursday 3. Associated Press 4. The Wall Street Journal 5. November 17, 2010 6. http://online.wsj.com/article/AP353e4fb03e8342fb9747de233ab2814b.html Social Theorist Herold Garfinkel: Charles Rangel has been in Congress for 40 years and failed to breach the rules of interaction when it came to his own finances. He thought that he was above the law even thought he was in charge of making the law as the chairman of the tax writing Ways and Means Committee. Rangel did not see or admit that his trips to the Caribbean were not appropriate. He did not see that asking for money for a New York College Center that would be designed as a monument to him was also a misleading use of money. He did not see that using his subsidized New York apartment as a campaign office was not honest. He could not redefine his reality because he had been in charge of things for so long. Other people wondered “What is he doing?” “What is wrong with him?” “Can’t he see what the problem is?” Even his lawyers quit on him. He still denies that he did anything wrong. Rangel breached what everyone knew was the correct way to interact. You should pay your taxes if you are in charge of the tax committee!
At the top of each post you must list the following information: 1. Your Codeword 2. Title of the news article you choose (see suggestions below) 3. Author of the news article 4. Source of the news article 5. Date of the news article 6. Link (url) to the news article
Those six lines should be followed by your reflection from the perspective of the social theorist you choose from the list of options for each due date. A reflection is not a summary. Instead, what you are expected to do is to thoroughly read the news article of your choice and reflect on it from the perspective of one of the assigned Social Theorists. Note that your reflection may include a bit of summary, but it must not consist entirely of summarizing the article. Good reflections will analyze the issue discussed in the article from the perspective of one of the assigned Social Theorists; outstanding posts will even take the voice (write in the tone and style of) the Social Theorist. Reflections should be a minimum of one paragraph. They must be posted no later than 4pm on the due date below and the article you choose must have been published within two weeks of the due date. There are 3 points possible of Extra Credit for each post.
#1 - W. 9/29 - Marx, Engels, Durkheim #2 - W. 10/13 - Weber, Gilman, Dubois, Cooper, James, Cooley, Mead #3 - W. 10/20 - Popper, Parsons #4 - W. 11/10 - Mills, Habermas #5 - W. 11/17 - Berger & Luckman, Garfinkel, Goffman
*WERA
ReplyDelete*Pageant Boys: Competing for Beauty Crowns in a Girls' World
*Andrea Canning and Mary Pflum
*ABC's Good Morning America/abc.com
*Nov. 15, 2010
*http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/pageant-boys-competing-crowns-girls-world/story?id=12056210&page=1
The norm being breached here would be that little boys are participating and competing in an event that has always been reserved for little girls. The fact that the mothers "pamper" their boys before the competition (things such as manicures and make-up application) only further makes people question whether or not this is an appropriate and/or healthy activity for a little boy. Certainly people will question whether the little boys will grow up with gender identification/confusion issues. It's also implied that the boys might have a higher chance of becoming homosexual later in life because of these activities. Granted there are certainly no laws being broken here, but people might question the ethicality of it. If it does prove to make little boys more likely to be homosexual later in life people will most likely claim that it is an ethical issue. Simply because society, as a whole, still considers homosexuality to be problem that can be fixed and/or cured not something that is normal and naturally occurs.
1. Pena
ReplyDelete2. Rangel Is Found to Have Violated House Ethics Rules
3. David Kocieniewski
4. New York Times
5. November 16, 2010
6. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/nyregion/17rangel.html?src=me
Representative Charles B. Rangel was recently found guilty of ethical violations which will most certainly damage his identity. The recent convictions come as a result of Rangel failing to successfully perform his role of House Representative. Representatives are supposed to portray themselves as honest, ethical, and just. In the last two years, however, Rangel has not been able to uphold his performance.
Rangel was found guilty of such things as failure to pay taxes and preserving a tax loophole worth millions of dollars for an oil company. These actions have brought dishonor to the house and compelled Rangel to engage in some aligning actions. The most prevalent of Rangel’s aligning actions is his use of justification to avoid blame.
In regards to his conviction of avoiding paying taxes on a Dominican beach house, he asserts that the mishap occurred as a result of him not being able to speak Spanish. Rangel justifies not paying the taxes by implying that had the situation been different (if he could speak Spanish) then he would have paid the taxes. Rangel, not intending to give up his role of Representative just yet hopes that his use of justification will restore his previously damaged performance and identity.
- Goffman
1. Aliakbar
ReplyDelete2. Sunset for a Solar Subsidy?
3. Matthew L. Wald
4. New York Times
5. 11/16/10
6. http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/16/sunset-for-a-solar-subsidy/?partner=rss&emc=rss
This article highlights the fallen plans of a federal subsidy for solar in the U.S. In a nutshell, before the recession the federal government planned to provide tax cuts for companies who planned to install solar. However, with many companies not making profits, which means they could not install solar, the federal government decide to issue grants instead. This would help secure solar installation companies would survive and solar would be utilized. With the federal grants expiring on Dec. 31 of this year with a still drowning economy the government needs to decide what to do about the solar issue.
Relating this issue to Berger and Luckman with the Social Construction of Society, will the grants become the institutionalized action of the federal government about solar and how things are done, or will the government decide to take a different route on the issue. The government must make decisions on what it wants to do and shape the social and political world in which we live, it may be considered a breaching action like Garfinkle's theory to try something new like higher subsidies that may be met with mixed feelings. Regardless some decision needs to be made in the next month or so regarding the solar issue or many installation companies may have a big problem on their hands.
1. plebe
ReplyDelete2.TSA chief likely to face lawmakers' questions on pat-downs, body scans
3.the CNN Wire Staff
4. CNN.com
5. Nov 17, 2010
6. http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/11/17/airport.security/index.html?hpt=Sbin
Berger & Luckman:
I believe that traveling and "doing traveler" are examples of social institutions. As travelers, what we must do and go through at the airport has become habitual to those who are frequent flyers. We take off our shoes, unload our pockets, fill up the bins, push them along onto the conveyor-belt, keep our IDs out, etc. Most people who travel often are very familiar with this procedure, and think nothing of it anymore. They just think "this is the way things are done at the airport."
Now, TSA has introduced new equipment and techniques which are currently unfamiliar to air travelers. Although these body scanners and invasive pat-downs are facing a lot of criticism right now, I believe that these will eventually be seen by the American public as simply part of "doing traveler."
This institution might seem as though it is separate from and controlling individuals, but as is evident through the many objections and refusals of these techniques, we are creating this institution through our actions and reactions toward it.
1. Aurora
ReplyDelete2. Pentagon's Budget On The Chopping Block
3. Alan Greenblatt
4. NPR.org
5. 11/17/10
6. http://www.npr.org/2010/11/16/131360666/pentagon-s-budget-on-the-chopping-block
In this article the pentagon's budget is being looked at and there might be budget cuts up to one hundred billion dollars. The pentagon is a institution that the people have stood behind for many years to protect us. Berger and Luckman would argue that the idea that the pentagon deserves a giant proportion of our budget can be an institution. The way we set up this institution to protect us and the way they can protect us is by using an extreme amount of resources to have a larger force than anyone who threatens the people. Since the day when we were under threat of invasion we have moved to just accept the fact that most of the taxes we pay go to the pentagon. This action of giving our money had become a habit and it is just assumed that the rest of the country needs to adjust to the left over money that the military does not use up.
This can also be looked at in terms of Garfunkel's breaching. The pentagon's budget has never experiences a budget cuts of this size. Our country's image is usually one of our military might. We are breaking the idea that the military needs to be a super power in the world in order to decrease the deficit. A lot of people will most likely be uncomfortable with the idea that our military is shrinking. That is to be expected with a change that no one would of expected especially so suddenly.
CoAnd
ReplyDeleteStudy: Women With High Job Stress Face Heart Risks
The Associated Press
NPR
11/14/10
http://www.npr.org/2010/11/14/131315220/study-women-with-high-job-stress-face-heart-risks?ft=1&f=1024
Berger and Luckman: It has been discovered by a U.S. government study that women with stressful jobs face more health risks, such as heart attacks. It is important to note that, one: this scientific knowledge is not a direct representation of the natural world, so not all women in highly-stressful jobs will face such health risks. It is a study which was based on thoughts previously “assumed,” and the participants in the study more than likely knew what they were being studied for, which could have altered the results of the study. Two: theories are socially constructed and reflect the historical context in which they were developed, which again backs up my assertion that because women historically has been viewed as inferior to men that idea could have been a push to highlight female weaknesses, as if to say that women cannot handle stress well because we are known to be more emotional. Thirdly: what constitutes a stressful job? How was this measured? One of the basic assumptions of symbolic interactionism is how people assign meaning to things and how that meaning may affect how they feel and act. If one believes their job is stressful, they will assign that meaning into how they define the job and other social contexts can affect their own health risks.
The “stressful” job however one defines stressful could be a factor, but an individual’s health habits and social environment could also affect this notion. There is no absolute meaning to anything, but more so that meaning assigned through a person’s negotiation with others and that individual’s interpretation of that meaning is emphasized by their own thought processes. I believe this study was conducted under the premise that women are inferior to men and so as a way of highlighting the popular notion that they are emotional folks who cannot handle stressful situations as good as men, this study was conducted. The U.S. government serving as an institution has the power to control individual behaviors, and the depth that this study was conducted--could have affected how a woman assigned her job as being stressful; especially if she knew she what the study primarily is interested in finding. Thus, again this study is not representative of women who face more health risks because of being in a “stressful” job; It is more representative of women who have reacted to the society’s assumptions, and whose actions have become objectified because of this, and there habitualized actions becoming institutionalized by means of verifying what was thought to be so.
1.RayRay
ReplyDelete2.Pageant Boys: Competing for Beauty Crowns in a Girls' World
3.Andrea Canning and Mary Pflum
4.ABC's Good Morning America/abc.com
5.Nov. 15, 2010
6.http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/pageant-boys-competing-crowns-girls-world/story?id=12056210&page=1
At some point you have to draw a line somewhere. These pageants that are meant for girls, but are being taken place by little boys need to stop. This is definitely out of the norm. When I first seen the title of the article I thought it was a breaching exercise. Had me on the edge of my seat anxious to see people's reactions to what they were about to experience. This would have been the ideal example of a breaching exercise. I find it ridiculous for the parents to take part in this. I understand that you may have wanted a daughter, but you have to accept the gifts that God give to you. I was two sided with this article because one side of me wanted to stop reading but yet the other side wanted to keep going just to see if this was really a joke. These parents are setting up their kids to becoming the laughing stalk and to get picked on for the rest of their life. Not only that, but they're going to be questioning their own sexuality. This is all they know and was brought into it from birth...literally.
1. Gottenyu
ReplyDelete2. I’m Sorry, Embarrassed: Tiger Woods
3. Unknown
4. Indian Express.Com
5. 19 February, 2010
6. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/i-am-sorry-embarrassed-tiger-woods/581980/
The article discusses Tiger Woods’ revealed affair as well as his public apology to his fans, wife, and family. Goffman would see this public apology as an aligning action. The discovery of Tiger’s affair ruined his performance by bringing his backstage, the affair, onto his front stage, his marriage and golf performances, marking him with the stigma of being an adulterer. In order to fix his spoiled performance and try to slough this stigma he implemented impression management with aligning actions. By offering an account of his actions, as well as an apology, he hoped to draw sympathy from the audience, lose his stigma, and regain control of his performance.
1. Shrapnel
ReplyDelete2. Body Scanners, Pat Downs Violate law and privacy
3. Marc Rotenberg
4. CNN
5. November 17, 2010
6. http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/11/17/rotenberg.scanners.privacy/index.html
Personal space is something that is often taken for granted in the United States. We assume and take for granted that each and every person is entitled to personal privacy, surrounded by a little bubble where no one but our most intimate friends, families, and partner(s) may enter (but only on occasion). The case of these news body scanners, strip-down searches, and groping our bodies for dangerous artifacts is a direct breach of our sacred personal privacy. What makes the breach even more troubling is that even though the TSA workers know it’s a breach in privacy and makes people feel uncomfortable, they routinely do it to everyone as if there’s nothing wrong with it. This causes confusion for everyone: should this breach in norm be allowed? At what point does a person’s privacy have to be given up for safety? It seems strange that officials advocating for these extensive searches act as though nothing is wrong when everyone knows this is a breach in personal privacy.
Sacala
ReplyDeleteWhat do women really want? Oxytocin
Jon Hamilton
NPR
November 15th, 2010
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/11/15/131336097/what-do-women-really-want-oxytocin?ft=1&f=1024
According to Berger & Luckman, scientific knowledge is not a "direct representation" of the natural world, but is based on systems of thought that are culturally and historically bonded. For centuries, men have been trying to figure out what makes women happy, and what they really want. By discovering the hormone Oxytocin in women, and understanding how it has a direct correlation on how the feelings and trust within a women, can directly be related to how we as a society use and processes meanings that determine how people feel and act. By women having the ability to release more Oxytocin, then we as humans, males in particular, will have a better understanding on how to derive meaning more socially toards situations that arise when it comes to social interaction with women. These new socially constructed meanings, and how they can be derived, can only help to expalin the one thing that men want to know; What do women really want?
1. Curtrell
ReplyDelete2. Punishment phase for Rangel set for Thursday
3. Associated Press
4. The Wall Street Journal
5. November 17, 2010
6. http://online.wsj.com/article/AP353e4fb03e8342fb9747de233ab2814b.html
Social Theorist Herold Garfinkel: Charles Rangel has been in Congress for 40 years and failed to breach the rules of interaction when it came to his own finances. He thought that he was above the law even thought he was in charge of making the law as the chairman of the tax writing Ways and Means Committee. Rangel did not see or admit that his trips to the Caribbean were not appropriate. He did not see that asking for money for a New York College Center that would be designed as a monument to him was also a misleading use of money. He did not see that using his subsidized New York apartment as a campaign office was not honest.
He could not redefine his reality because he had been in charge of things for so long. Other people wondered “What is he doing?” “What is wrong with him?” “Can’t he see what the problem is?” Even his lawyers quit on him. He still denies that he did anything wrong.
Rangel breached what everyone knew was the correct way to interact. You should pay your taxes if you are in charge of the tax committee!