Last Class

Today was our last class. We all worked individually on our research papers, blog posts, and reflective essays. This was a good idea as it allowed all of us to catch up on the work. I used today to write my reflective essay, which I felt came out pretty well. This has been a great English class to be apart of and the fact that this is the end is bittersweet. I wish my classmates and teacher all the best in their endeavors heading forward!

How my writing has changed

My writing style has changed because of this class. Before, I wrote only in a conversational sense. I really learned the value and technique in being more critical of my writing. I think I grew a lot not only as a writer, but as a critic to writing. I also learned how to appropriately use sources. More specifically, I learned how to connect my sources to the main argument of my paper.

Ian Media Presentation

Ian did his presentation on drone strikes. He talks about how we target enemies from an unmanned military vehicle. These vehicles are especially destructive due to the wide range they can cover. Ian told about how civilians are killed all the time by these drones. Also, he mentioned that a very small percentage of militants are actually killed by these drones. I think that drones are useful, but very careless when it comes to war tactics.

Alex Media Presentation

Alex did his media presentation on the cons of deployment. He called for shorter deployment times. He claimed this would offer soldiers more relief and decrease the likelihood of a soldier developing PTSD. I don't necessarily agree with this because with shorter deployment times, this means that more soldiers have to rotate into these positions. This not only seems more costly to me, but I think a soldier eventually gets into that "war mindset", and taking them away to early(putting a fresh mind into the combat zone) seems detrimental to me.

Malik Media Presentation

Malik did his presentation on the aftermath of 9/11. He showed clips from a movie in which the were extreme acts of racism. This was so severe to the point where a young Muslim boy ended up dying. The rest of the movie was about his fathers road to redemption and getting his wife back. This presentation hit me the hardest emotionally. This is because I will never know the hurt of racism. I will never be subject to the mental torture that some people face, based on skin tone and religion.

Neha Media Presentation

Neha did her media presentation on airport security. She specifically dissected how she feels there are prejudices in airports. While airport security has been increased throughout the United States, there are still random background checks. Neha brought about some interesting statistics as to how frequently people of Muslim descent are subject to these background checks. There is still racism in our airports, which needs to be changed.

Ian Media Presentation

Ian compared the Vietnam War to the Afghanistan War in his presentation. An interesting aspect I found in this presentation was how both wars are viewed similarly in the media. For both of these wars there was much controversy. Throughout these wars, the US citizens and media often question whether or not being in these conflicts was the right move. While it could be argued that these wars were unjust, I feel that these wars set the tone for how the United States handles foreign affairs of this matter.

Alexandra Media Presentation

Alexandra also did her media presentation on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. She was doing particular research on how family life is effected. She talked about the strain that can be put on marriages where one of the parties is experiencing PTSD. Also, she talked about how victims of PTSD need the support of family in order to start healing. I found this to be true in conducting my research as well.

Ciara Media Presentation

Ciara did her media presentation on Zero Dark Thirty. She included a clip from the movie in this presentation. The clip was that of a man in a car. The soldiers immediately assumed he was up to no good. In this instance the soldiers were correct. However, Ciara drew a correlation between this scene and generic stereotypes towards Muslims. The man in the car could have simply been a man driving a car. She calls in reform of racial discrimination.

Leanne Media Presentation

Leanne did her media presentation on PTSD. I related her work to my own, seeing as my project was on PTSD as well. She emphasized genetic makeup and howit is related to PTSD. Also, she called for genetic testing in patients suffering from PTSD. I think this could be useful in finding a genetic trend to patients suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Zero Dark Thirty

We watched a little bit of this film in class on this day. I think the big takeaway from watching this was how torture is often used to pry information from others. One of the characters tells how the victim needs to feel helpless in order to talk. Upon asking if the prisoner will ever be free, the torturer answered "never". I relate this idea to believing that torture happens in this country, but is never revealed to the public eye.

George Orwell

During this class we read a piece by George Orwell on why he writes. He raises some interesting questions in this piece. One aspect that stood out to me was the question of if a piece of writing could not include artistic elements to it. I believe that all writing has an artistic quality to it. This is because whenever a piece of writing is created, it has an element of time to it. Writing, like most aspects of life, changes with time. Authors from the past do not necessarily write how modern writers do. This gives every piece of writing some type of artistic quality to it.

James

Sergeant James was the character who the movie really focused on. Early on he seems like a careless member to the team, who puts himself and others in danger. He has multiple conflicts with Eldridge and Sanborn over this matter. The aspect of JAmes that is most interesting to me was his inability to return to civilian life in the United States. This exposes us to the idea that some people are meant to do one thing on this planet. No matter how hard you try, one cannot escape their true calling. James also had symptoms of PTSD which was interesting in relating to my research paper.

Eldridge

Specialist Eldridge was the most interesting character in my opinion. I also think a case could be made that he is the real protagonist of the movie. Eldridge is exposed to the most mental trauma. He had the chance to shoot one of the terrorists, but failed to do so. This directly leads to the death of his comrade.(Thompson) Eldridge carries this grief wit himself the rest of the movie. Also, it doesn't help his mental psyche when the soldier psychiatrist is blown up. (Eldridge convinced the psychiatrist to come to the field with them) This mental battle that Eldridge wages with himself adds another interesting psychological component to the movie.

Sanborn

Sanborn was essentially the leader of the bomb squad. He offered a sense of leadership and played the "big brother" role very well. I think Sanborn was the soldier in the movie that was most likely to be able to return to the states and function appropriately in society. He seemed to be very family oriented. I think the contrast between him and the other two soldiers made for an interesting perception of how different soldiers mentalities can be.

The Hurt Locker

In one of our classes we watched a piece of the film The Hurt Locker. This film is about three men that make up a bomb squad. Each men have their own unique qualities and artistic reasons for being in the movie. (I plan to write on all three characters in individual posts) Overall the movie is about how different people cope and react to war. I noticed in one scene that the soldiers almost have a prejudice towards the civilians. While I think any type of racism is wrong and unjust, I can't help but feel if I were in a dangerous situation such as a "bomb zone" that I would feel just as paranoid about the civilians as them.

Torture and its perception

Building off of my last post I wonder if it is possible to have a military that doesn't practice torture. In my opinion, while torture is a horrible happening in our world, it is also a reality that is essential. When United States citizens are in danger I believe the military must use any means necessary to get information that could lead to saving lives. That being said, I think that some torture methods completely cross the line and shouldn't be conducted by any human. One of these examples would be water-boarding.

Torture at Abu Ghraib

This source told about torture being conducted in America. This is a touchy subject as America is supposed to be viewed as the country above torture. It is described that the happenings here were that similar to that of Guantanamo Bay. Abu Ghraib is portrayed as a military prison that isn't above torture. For obvious reasons a place like this raises much controversy amongst Americans.

Pictures in Color vs. Black and White

During this class we viewed a number of pictures in different color contrasts. We then dissected how color changes the perception of a picture. The picture that stood out most to me was the one with a soldier who had a doll on his back. The black and white one seemed bleak, as if the soldier was in danger. However, the color picture seemed hopeful and almost comical.

Picture Analysis

We looked at a picture in this class with what appeared to be a female wearing a black hood. This image appeared to almost be the opposite of a Ku Klux Klan member. She had her arms outreached, which I viewed as a symbol of Christianity. This is in relation to our discussion of torture and how little we know about the behind the scenes happenings of our government.

Sontag

I think we can connect with Sontag's view because our opinion on this matter is distorted by the media and how we perceive things. I feel that pictures of war victims often ignite the same feeling within ourselves. I like what the author said about there being a consensus. I think he is hinting that because of our social order and upbringing that it is only possible to feel a certain kind of way when regarding these pictures.

The Ecstasy of Influence

Zach Hubert-Allen

I think he is saying that if there are sources from the past that would normally never come tonight, then use can be described as encoding. The Muddy Waters story is interesting. How he comes up with so many different explanations to the songs origin is a bit scattering. It makes it difficult to depict who should get credit. Also, at the time Blues and Jazz artists often reworked already established pieces. Copyright infringements weren’t really a thing at the time, causing basically anybody to rip someone else’s work and make it their own.

                As far is a failed attempt at combining subtle ideas from a source with yours is concerned, I think the thought and basis of the source is always there, making it relevant. However this being said, if the source has nothing to do with the context then one is violating another person’s work being trying to make this false comparison. This ties into the gift economy. When I think of this gift economy I think of knowledgably giving and receiving credit for an idea. This is a very important facet to sharing intellectual ideas. 

The Hurt Locker

                The Hurt Locker is a great movie to compare to the general theme of this class in war. One of the most eye catching things is how the soldiers treat the Iraqi people. It is assumed that everyone is a threat and while watching this movie you believe this to be true. I'm fairly certain this was the directors intention. Every time James is walking towards a bomb there is an eerie vibe in the air. You can just sense the build up.
             
               However, I think the real question here is if this stereotype is justified. Clearly not everyone from Iraq is evil and out to kill US citizens. Even so, everyone in this film was viewed as an enemy in my opinion. This stigma is set from the get go when Eldridge fails to save Matt's life by not pulling the trigger. I almost feel that viewers get a "better to be safe than sorry" type of sense from this scene. This leads viewers to resent the natives for the rest of the movie, even if innocent.
           

Talked about the portrayal of "Zero Dark Thirty". Argument was about torturing and how it was being portrayed to the american citizens. Interesting point in movies taking a journalistic approach. I believe the director should have some artistic freedom. It is not like the film was of the documentary format, like restrepo was. Also, the audience should expect things to be exaggerated for entertainment purposes. There will never be a nonfiction movie about killing people from other countries along with inside access to top secret CIA interrogation rooms. Due to the safety these rooms provide the american people, while "morally wrong" events take place, these establishments are necessary. People should not have overreacted to the exaggeration of the events.

Wenderoth Writing

I thought this was a good piece of writing. I think the main point he was trying to make was the fact that American's are a little too domestically centered. I think the author wants us to take a more humanistic approach to dissecting these matters, rather than a national one. The point I found to be most interesting was his statement that most wars are due to religion and nationalism rather than an "evil" source. I find this to be true looking into past wars. For instance, both of the World Wars were completely centered around nationalism and wars between countries like Israel and Palestine have a primarily religious catalyst.