Lost, The OC, Family Guy, Greys Anatomy, Nip/Tuck... ETC

Some people may not realize it but the shows on today's tv are not only for your entertainment value but also to promote secret messages. Through advertising for a company's product, by teaching people's decision making skills, or basically showing the audience how to live the life, the media has the power to turn switches on in your brain. "Giving the audience what they want to see", isn't a good excuse for having certain content in tv shows. The writers didn't have knowledge of knowing that the viewers would like what they wrote until after they saw the show. In just about every tv show or movie in today's society, Tv Tokenism is a large factor. White people have more screen time than any person of any other race. If the show is taken seriously or is screened as a "drama", the supporting characters are usually the "token" minority and aren't shown like the main characters are. What the media needs is a turning point, to prove that society is changing for the better and becoming more accepting of different races everywhere. Could this one ground-breaking show change the media from now until a new change? Or will it only take a news anchor?

Chris McCandless

Chris McCandless is adventurous and brave; Chris is a young individual who wants to prove happiness without “things”. Chris has a very self-motivated personality with a strong attitude with great determination. He believes that everyone has a purpose in life and it’s up to you to prove it. Chris’s adventure proves that he is finally free. He has needed to escape his challenges and obstacles at home by creating new goals for himself without another person breathing down his back and telling him what he needs to do with his life. In Chris’s letter to Wayne he says, “Things that escape most people. As for me, I’ve decided that I’m going to live this life for some time to come. The freedom and simple beauty of it is just too good to pass up.” (33). This quote illustrates the simplicity that Chris desires for his own life and it shows what he’s looking for. I see Chris as a pilgrim like Krakauer claims, because he is person starting over in a new world. By definition, a pilgrim is someone who journeys, a long distance, to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion. Some may say with that definition, one must be religious, and Chris does relate by that sort because when Chris writes to Ron, he says, “I fear you will follow this same inclination in the future and thus fail to discover all the wonderful things that God has placed around us to discover.” (57). With this implication of God, Chris is stating that God has placed us here with a motive, and to discover what He has created, which is exactly what Chris is trying to pursue in life.

INTO THE WILD

The farther I read into the book Into the Wild, the more I realized how much respect I had for Chris McCandless. His purpose for traveling into the wilderness was to escape the materialistic real world. His destination was Alaska, and burned all his evidence that he ever exhisted. Why would he do that? Leo Tolstoy states, "I wanted movement and not a calm course of exhistance. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love. I felt in myself a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life." (15). Chris could only find happiness away from the haustle and bustle of the world. He wanted to escape all of his problems and I think it takes a lot of courage to leave everything you know to find your true destiny.

Silence!

Telling a person to be quiet for just a moment and saying they need to reflect on previous experiences or just anything in general could in the the future lead to something more. Can a public school enforce religion into this? Taking a moment of silence is also taking control over the youth. What if someone refuses to be silent? They are now breaking the law. It's against the law to not follow your school's instructions to be quiet and think. Could this moment of silence force people to also reflect on horrifying past experiences? If so, this moment of silence needs to stop.

Are You Blessed?

In class a few weeks ago a small discussion came about when someone used the word "blessed". Similar sayings such as, "God Bless You" or "We are blessed", have secret messages that some people who use these phrases, aren't aware of. I thought that there's nothing wrong with saying either but then Mr. O'Connor raised a good point saying, that the people who aren't "blessed" are in fact "shunned", I then changed my mind to the other side. The other side of me agreed that you have to be careful how you phrase some words. These connotations can be considered offensive to the people that aren't considered blessed or as fortunate.

The Aliens

While learning information about the Quasi War of the 1700's, I repeatedly heard the name "aliens" given to the people. It actually bothered me to hear people being called that because when I think of an alien i think of an unidentified human-like "thing". It doesn't matter where they are from, but all people should be equally called humans. These aliens were give no rights and were very limited as to what they were freely able/allowed to do. Since these times, the world has changed rapidly and almost all people of any country have been given many more rights throughout the years. The only part of this that concerns me is that the authors who published their textbooks, still refered to the people of forgein countries as "aliens". Meaning, the people that were called aliens at the time are still being refered to that, even in today's society because "it's just something from the past."

A Problem Being Ignored

A big problem with today's society is obesity. Technically, overweight is the excess amount of body weight that includes muscle, bone, fat and water. Obesity is the excess abundance of body fat tissue. Research has shown that approximately 62% of adults and 34% of children are over a normal body weight or obese, which is a percentage that has been virtually the same since 2001. If grocery stores and fast- food restaurants took action to this problem, the US would be a much healthier country. The number of fast-food restaurants is growing along with the percentage of people over-weight. This raises the question, why is the grocery store Whole Foods so expensive? The price for a healthier choice is pretty costly. People whom are homeless or have a lower-income than others, are more effected by this issue. I believe that everyone should be able to have the opportunity to eat healthy. By lowering the prices of healthy food in grocery stores and restaurants, the number of healthier people should raise above the obesity level.

War Choices

During a time of war, the choices you can make politically are very limited. OR are you ever really given a choice? Many of people's peers are strongly encouraging and pressuring young people to believe certain views about a particular war. War in general can be in your favor or go against your country but either way, in my opinion, war is the worst/last option to turn to. In many instances, such as the cold war, the war can be considered a waste or a huge mistake. The President plays the largest role by enforcing and creating the laws of going against political acts towards the war. The president also has the final say in the war which either way doesn't depend on the country's people. The country's say is in reality a small percentage of the big picture.

The Courageous Anne Hutchinson

Anne Hutchinson is a woman I can really respect. She put herserlf out in the open and tested the water. I feel she secretly wanted to see the reaction from the church but she was mainly doing what she thought was right. She was a woman with power over men, which at the time was never seen before. She followed God and listened to His word and gained followers along the way. She battled many different higher powered men, who wanted nothing but to bring her down. She has self-respect, which let her follow what her innervoice told her to do. I look up to Anne for her confidence and courage to follow what her heart told her was right. The world today is in need of more political figures that can prove that there is a better tomorrow. Anne changed their society for the better in many ways. Without her outstanding heroic behavior, the church could have had power over all the people for decades after she was banished, who knows?

Changing the Church

If the Puritans didn't have a problem with the church being the way it was, then why would they want to change the church to become something bigger and better than before? After successfully traveling across the ocean to America to re-construct the pure version of the Protestant Church, the Protestants were finally satisfied with their corrections and came to the conclusion that they had finally created the ideal church. However many years later, the Protestants traveled a long rough distance to make it back to their homeland. They built the perfect, pure church back at their homeland where they could finally practice their religion the "right way" now that the catholic influences had left. Or was this the right way? What the Puritans never realized was that the church never changed itself, but the people that belonged to the church were the ones changing the atmosphere and religion practiced inside. The question I raise is, was it really necessary to travel such a long distance for many years to create something they could have just fixed in the original Church of England? Is the Catholic influence better for them or were they possibly overreacting?

Vietnam Verterans

One of the most memorable experiences I had from my freshman year of high school was when my dance teacher tragicly lost her brother. She told our class to never take advantage of what we were given. She told us that if we had a sibling or any close family member, to go home and give them a big hug because she couldn't do that anymore and wished she could. I have lost many family members in these recent past years and understand the grief that she feels after losing someone so dear to her heart. While watching the movie, "Be Good, Smile Pretty", I could relate to Traci Droz's story in many ways. I was fortunate enough to get to meet my father but Traci will never know personally what her father was like. Every time a tear was shed on the screen, my heart went out to that person because as a human being, I can understand what it feels like to have pain and to love. When our country is at war, the citizens of the US are always just given the numbers of the soldiers that were killed. Personally, I hate that they would just report back on how many soldiers died and wouldn't acknowledge them as something other than a number.

No control over your own life

How are individuals judged on an everyday basis in our country? Do the clothes you wear everyday or the car you drive define your status? Why do some people make the assumption that if you come from an Indian backround, you aren't well off? Why did Indians have to trade something they've owned for years for nothing? Alcatraz had nothing to offer except for isolation and peace & quiet. The Indians could be alone there. They were being forced to move into the cities in the 20th century, when they had no desire to do so. It was completely unfair. The people of the Unites States, who kicked them off their own land, had everything they needed compared to the Indians that just wanted time to themselves on the reservations. Was it because of the Indians' skin color? The list goes on. What makes Indians so much different from white or black people? Their lifestyle shouldn't have been so unfair for decades. Our country never learns from our mistakes. While trying to help stop genocides and racism ,we wont progress forward to a better country if we keep pushing our own citizens back.

Why Us?

Why does it take some kind of tragety to bring our country together? Does our country only turn to others when we need someone to fall onto for ourselves, or is it the opposite? Why was our country so united and bonded together during the horrific times of 9/11 and during the decision of the war in Iraq but then fell apart after? The recent flood/"hurricane" that hit our area in the state of Illinois, was a huge eye opener for me. It showed me the different ways people can help eachother when they know everyone's in need. Without electricity for a few days and certain roads blocked off, I personally felt very restricted. I was easily frustrated all the time and irritated. This proved to me that people in other parts of the world might have looked at this like some kind of a joke. There are people suffering for numerous reasons everywhere and the US is trying to hold out a helping hand. I feel the more people are aware of this "issue", the more people will hold out their hands to help others up.

Secret Messages

Ever since yesterday's AIS class, I've been observing people and thinking a lot about what we're all secretly taking advantage of. On an average day, I was in a sit down restaurant when I noticed a woman flash her enormous diamond rings all around the room, practically beggging everyone for attention and all eyes on her.The first things that came to mind about this woman were...
1) "To all the women in this room, mine are bigger than yours!"
2) "They're from Tiffany's, and you got yours where?"
3)"I don't care that people are being killed in Africa for these rocks, it's worth it."

Development

When a town is undergoing changes, does that mean it's developing to something bigger and better, or does it mean it's changing for the worse. Either way, the people that live there are affected. There are different ways to look at a small Indian Reservation. It can be seen from different points of view saying it's small and worthless, or it's comfortable and significant for it's individualism. Perhaps there's a reason the town never changs to be just like every other town in America. Some say development is also known as progress, growth, creation, or maturing. The small town surrounded by poverty in Reservation Blues stands out for being strong and peaceful. The people that live there are living life with a purpose, which means development could be for the worse for these people, or turn their lives upside down.