1) Global Warming- http://www.globalissues.org/EnvIssues/GlobalWarming.asp This deals with our earths climate change. Our earth is rapidly increasing in temperature, this will effect our earth in many ways.
2)War on Terror- http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/WarOnTerror.asp This topic deals with the aftermath of sept. 11 2001, when the United states declared war on terror. This has effected the economy of the United Stated, and many other nations significantly. This was has also cause many other issues dealing with our military, and perception of the United States.
3) Conflicts in Africa- http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/Africa.asp over 9.5 Million refugees have been slaughtered in Africa due to many unnecessary conflicts and Civil wars.
Their are army's of children who raid villages armed with automatic weapons, killing everything and everyone they encounter.
4)World Hunger- http://www.globalissues.org/food/aid/ World hunger is a huge issue. Their are many organizations who are involved in the search for the cure to world Hunger. Alot of food is wasted in America and other large countries every year, but it costs alot of money to ship it to other countries.
5) Global Pharmaceutical Companies- http://www.globalissues.org/health/overview/#LargePharmaceuticalCompaniesProfitatallcosts
pharmaceutical companies overlook countries in need of medicine due to the fact that there is no market for them. Since they cant make a huge profit off these people, they get to live in a diseased, unhealthy environment.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
I recently read an article written by Douglas Rushoff titled Why We Listen to What "They Say". He starts out the article with a series of "They say" arguments that grab the readers attention right of the bat. Things like "They say human beings only use 10% of their brain". The entire first paragraph is filled with nothing but these "They say" lines which really have you wondering what the purpose of this paper is. Then he says something that should be asked allot more often in my opinion. "who, exactly are they, and why do they say so much? More amazing, why do we listen to them". Rushoff really knows how to grab a readers attention. When I got into the body of the paper it seamed that the paper was about peoples abilities to sway others into doing what they want. (such as purchasing their product). I found in extremely interesting that psychologists actually design malls in order to trick our brains into being in more of a purchasing mood. He makes some very strong points in his work which put me right on his side of the argument. The article goes on and on with very specific facts which back up his main point, which at first appears to be marketers abilities to sway us. Then all of the sudden he picks apart his own work depicting his ability to sway us to his side. This was amazing and I have never read anything like it. He used his own writing abilities to prove his own point within his paper, then he showed us how he did it. I believe Rushkoff to be a very talented writer with a special ability to sway others with his words. By using his own paper as an example he proved first hand that people can be swayed even when they have their highest walls of defense up.
I also recently read a review by Chalmers Johnson of the book Democracy Inc. by Sheldon S. Wolin. Johnson jumps right into it by stating the the U.S. is in trouble, and I have to agree with him. Yes the war on Iraq was and always has been a HUGE mistake, and now we are feeling the repercussions of it. He states that their are so many things going wrong with the U.S. at the same time that it makes it more difficult for the necessary changes to be made. I also agree with this statement, except for one thing. yes their are many things going wrong in the U.S. right now, but in my opinion it all filters down to one thing ... Bush. It is very clear that Johnson and Wolin would both agree with me on this matter. Johnson states that their are many books on our individual problems such as the war on Iraq and our bloated defense budgets, and their are a few attempts to put all of our problems into one big picture for us to understand these concepts and how we have gotten to where we are today (one of the books being his own). Then he states that " We now have a new, comprehensive diagnosis of our failings as a democratic polity by one of our most seasoned and respected political philosophers." This was a great introduction for the book Democracy Incorporated. He makes a compelling argument on why we should read this book by stating that it does not take any kind of "specialized" knowledge to understand it, ( so it makes it seam not overwhelmingly difficult to understand) then he suggest reading it in short burst so that we can take in all the information. (this gives the book back allot of its depth) Who doesn't like a book that makes them think? Johnson discus's the way Wolin compares the downhill progression the U.S. is making to similar mistakes made by Germany in the past. He even compares Hitlers excuse for beginning war, to that of the united states war on Iraq. He also talks about how we have never been a real Democracy, because it was set up by people who were either against democracy, or did not fully believe in its benefits in the first place. I have to say he makes Democracy Inc. seam very informative and interesting. Johnson does a wonderful job with this review by giving us a good overview of the general concepts discussed in this book. And at the same time he leaves enough information out, that I will not be able to resist having my on personal copy of this book.
I also recently read a review by Chalmers Johnson of the book Democracy Inc. by Sheldon S. Wolin. Johnson jumps right into it by stating the the U.S. is in trouble, and I have to agree with him. Yes the war on Iraq was and always has been a HUGE mistake, and now we are feeling the repercussions of it. He states that their are so many things going wrong with the U.S. at the same time that it makes it more difficult for the necessary changes to be made. I also agree with this statement, except for one thing. yes their are many things going wrong in the U.S. right now, but in my opinion it all filters down to one thing ... Bush. It is very clear that Johnson and Wolin would both agree with me on this matter. Johnson states that their are many books on our individual problems such as the war on Iraq and our bloated defense budgets, and their are a few attempts to put all of our problems into one big picture for us to understand these concepts and how we have gotten to where we are today (one of the books being his own). Then he states that " We now have a new, comprehensive diagnosis of our failings as a democratic polity by one of our most seasoned and respected political philosophers." This was a great introduction for the book Democracy Incorporated. He makes a compelling argument on why we should read this book by stating that it does not take any kind of "specialized" knowledge to understand it, ( so it makes it seam not overwhelmingly difficult to understand) then he suggest reading it in short burst so that we can take in all the information. (this gives the book back allot of its depth) Who doesn't like a book that makes them think? Johnson discus's the way Wolin compares the downhill progression the U.S. is making to similar mistakes made by Germany in the past. He even compares Hitlers excuse for beginning war, to that of the united states war on Iraq. He also talks about how we have never been a real Democracy, because it was set up by people who were either against democracy, or did not fully believe in its benefits in the first place. I have to say he makes Democracy Inc. seam very informative and interesting. Johnson does a wonderful job with this review by giving us a good overview of the general concepts discussed in this book. And at the same time he leaves enough information out, that I will not be able to resist having my on personal copy of this book.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Fear Mongering
Wes Ballard
English 101
25, May 2008
" The only thing we have to fear is fear its self ", the wise Franklin D. Roosevelt concluded in 1936. It is clear that the majority of our society has lost the meaning of this common quote. Have you ever stopped and given this quote any thought? What does it mean? Why should we fear fear? We live in a fear driven society. As a society we are confronted by fear in our everyday lives through many obstacles. We endeavor to prevail without surrendering to fear's temptations. However, fear is manipulative. It fights back in a sly way that tricks us into feeling as though we have overcome fear, when in reality we have succumbed to it.
Our society often gives in subconsciously to what is being sold to us. An excellent illustration of this surrender of our will is when we tune into the evening news, only because of a news commercial that frightens us into believing that we put ourselves at risk by not tuning in. Many times the news over exaggerates a story by leaving out significant facts in order to create a false sense of fear. The majority of the time when we actually do tune in, the story is nothing as the commercial made it appear, and typically poses no threat to us on a personal level. One of my favorite examples of this use of fear mongering was broadcast recently on WDKY and stated, "Why the next salad you eat might be your last." The story was a poorly researched expose of the bacteria sometimes found on salad bars, the same strains of bacteria that are in actuality on everything that we touch, including the keyboard that I am typing on. Knowing this about the news, why do we still tune in? We tune in because we are afraid. We are afraid that if we don't, we are putting ourselves at risk. Often when you think you have defeated fear, you have only made it stronger, much like our body's immune system. In his book Coercion, author Douglas Rushkoff demonstrates this strength-in-defeat evolution of fear in Saturn's new approach to coercing customers. Rushkoff explains that once consumers became resistant to the traditional "hard sell" procedure of car dealers, a well-educated influence consultant created a new brand with a fresh image. The new brand was Saturn, and its fresh image are dealers that use disguised, friendly "soft-sell" techniques that more subtly produce the same results as the original 'hard sell" procedures. Fear operates like an epidemic. We've seen how it can learn and evolve. Fear also tends to spread like a virus. Every citizen was shaken on September 11, 2001, and the media took advantage of our vulnerability with ridiculous reports such as the top ten places in the U.S. that terrorists were likely to strike next. Fear can make us do things that we would have never imagined. In the days and months following September 11, 2001 many Islamic U.S. citizens were harassed and brutalized out of fear, and the anger that is created by fear. Fear impairs our judgments, and strips us of our ability to make wise decisions.
When our government, media, and religious leaders first discovered fear's special ability to control people, fear became part of our world’s, and thus our nation’s culture, where it is now ingrained. Fear is ingrained so deeply into the minds of Americans that we have learned to run every thought process through our own personal "fear filters". Our "fear filters"categorize the media into two groups: what to fear, and what does not matter. This focuses our concerns on topics that could only effect us on a personal level, which creates a more self-centered America. Our attention is aimed wherever the director of fear points his finger, causing us to unintentionally neglect all other issues. This abuse of fear has become known as fear mongering. Wikipedia defines fear mongering as "the use of fear to leverage the opinions and actions of others towards some end. The object of fear is exaggerated; those the fear is directed toward are kept aware of it on a constant basis." Fear mongering is a form of mind control in which the subjects are so submerged in fear that they become unaware of it, just like the gravity of earth.
Fear mongering is a technique used by many corporations in today's world. I have already briefly discussed one technique of fear mongering as used by news programs, but there is so much more to tell. Did you know that practically every piece of our media in the United States comes from one of only five major corporations? According to the media reform information center, in 1983 our media was owned by 50 corporations. The more successful companies have rapidly bought out all of the smaller companies, thus creating a media monopoly. That is why we have companies with names like AOL Time Warner. This large merge has created ample opportunity for these companies. Just think how much easier it is to control what is relayed to the public from only five sources, rather than fifty.
At the of the Cold War, the CIA began a secret commission called Operation Mockingbird. Operation Mockingbird is defined blatantly in an article on PrisonPlanet.com as "CIA media manipulation". PrisonPlanet.com is one of several contemporary websites that are dedicated to exposing distorted media. The CIA started Operation Mockingbird with the intent of buying the media's influence by actually putting reporters on the CIA payroll. The hired reporters relayed what they were paid to say by the CIA in order to shape the publics' thought process, molding it to fit the government's agendas. The CIA's media assets eventually included ABC, NBC, CBS, Time, Newsweek, United Press International (UPI), Reuters, Hearst Newspapers, Scripps-Howard, Copley News Service, etc. and an estimated 400 journalists that performed secret assignments, according to now public documented files located in the CIA headquarters. The nations media, businesses, and Universities were overran with tens of thousands of CIA operatives by the late 1950's, just imagine how overran they are today..
Further evidence of our government's interest in maintaining control of our media is illustrated in a document released on June 25, 2007, entitled The Family Jewels Report. This report references many of the CIA's secret operations that occurred during the 1970's. One of these documents includes a report on the surveillance of journalists:
At the direction of the CIA, surveillance was conducted of Jack Anderson and at various times his "legman," Britt Hume, Leslie Whitten, and Jospeh Spear, from 15 February to 12 April 1972. In addition to the physical surveillance, an observation post was maintained in the Stratlor Hilton hotel Directly opposite Anderson's office. The purpose of this surveillance was to attempt to determine Anderson's sources for highly classified agency information appearing in his syndicated columns.
There are countless other reports similar this one, on many other journalists such as Jack Anderson. Why should the CIA have the right to stalk journalists based on what they report?
From 1952 to 1974 the CIA worked on a series of hallucinogen testing experiments called The Edgewood Arsenal Experiments. During this project the CIA secretly worked on possessing the ability to control individual's minds. The CIA has used many inhumane procedures in their long search for this skill, and in 1958 the government took a special interest in researching mind control through the use of LSD. In Edgewood Arsenal, 95 "volunteers" were given LSD, though many of them were not even aware they had been drugged. Cruelly unaware that they had been drugged with a hallucinogen, many believed that they were going insane. The CIA would actually slip people hits of LSD, and then follow them around recording their actions. Other subjects would be hooked up to lie detector's while on LSD to see if the drug had made it easier for them to lie, or be manipulated. They also used drugs such as PCP, and STP (serenity, tranquility, and peace) which would send its subjects on a three day "trip". Many of these drugs had never even been tested on humans before. This was also the kick off of a new drug culture in America.
However, our government has been very successful in their ongoing search for human manipulation, only more so with the practice of fear mongering rather then LSD.
One of our government's most obvious exploitations of fear mongering occured during the "red scare" era of McCarthyism. McCarthyism is the term used in reference to a time period between the late 1940's to the late 1950's in which people were so frightened by the thought of someone being a communist that they could take the accused's freedom away with minimal questions asked. It usually took no more then for someone to point their finger at you, comparable to the infamous Salem Witch Trials. Thousands of innocent Americans were aggressively interrogated, justified by nothing more then suspicion. Evidence that proved innocence was often overlooked, and the accused's level of threat was commonly over- exaggerated. Many people accused of being communist lost their jobs, had their careers taken away from them, and were even imprisoned. The fear was that America was somehow influenced by the evils of a Russian communist government. This era was enabled throughout the nation by a government armed only with the ability to create chaos with fear, through propaganda.
It worked once, why not give it another go? Yesterday's McCarthyism is todays Patriot Act. The Patriot Act is a law that was passed on October 26, 2001, immediately after the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. This "Patriot" Act has allowed law enforcement agencies to search our telephones, E-mails, medical, financial, and other personal records. It has also permitted the Secretary of Treasury to regulate personal financial transactions, and it has allowed law-enforcement and immigration authorities the power to Deport, or imprison American citizens thought to have any connection to terrorism.
How could we allow this in America, when it goes against everything our constitution stands for? Could it be because people are so condemned by the fears that are constantly pounded into their minds that they simply don't care if their neighbor is imprisoned and tortured with no evidence, or trial? Or is it because the fear that overwhelms them also blinds them of their greed? Then I have to ask, what creates suspicion? Who gets to decide who the real "terrorists" are? Or was the plan to just detain as many foreigners as possible in hopes that we will scoop out some sort of lead, with our gleaming fish net of justice that we refer to as the Patriot Act? The Patriot Act is a superior example of people acting out of fear. Fear that was created for them at a time in need of love. The terrorists attack on our nation was the perfect opportunity for our government to begin paving a road toward the end to violence, but instead they decided to take advantage of our despair and promote fear through many "terror alerts", and false accusations thus creating more violence, hate, greed, and our government's most frightening manipulation, our fear's ultimate creation... the war on Iraq.
George W. Bush's ultimate argument for why we should attack Iraq, was very clear. Saddam was creating "Weapons of Mass Destruction", or were they? I am not sure if Bush himself ever even actually believed the following quotes, but one thing is for sure... he got his war on Iraq.
Jan. 28, 2003
Six years later and we are still siphoning our nations economy into another nations civil war of our creation. And still no sign of any "weapons of mass destruction".
Dr. Tim Ong, author of From Fear to Love sums it up best when he says "Fear can paralyze us into action. It can numb our emotion and thoughts, resulting in poor decisions and judgments. It impairs our insights. Any decision that is made out of fear tends to lead to more fear and separation. Instead of all-embracing, it is divisive and self-centered."
Their are speculators who would disagree with many of my points, who would claim that the leaders of our nation have America in its best interest at all times. Some would even still claim that we had no choice but to go to war with Iraq. It must be recognized that not every member of the government that supports actions like the war in Iraq or the Patriot Act have the worst intentions for their people. The rare leaders that still have America's best intentions in mind can be naive to the damage that they cause to our freedom, and can be led to believe they are doing what is right for their country. In Olmstead v. United States Justice Brandeis, in his dissenting opinion, warned that “Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding” (Solove, Rotenberg, & Schwartz, 2006, p. 218). I am sure that we all want to believe that our country is still lead by true Americans. Politicians like our founding fathers who fought for America's freedom and independence even though they stood to lose the most if we lost the revolution against the British. Its a very comforting thought. Its what we want to believe. We want to believe it so much that we have become blind to the thinly veiled ulterior motives of some leaders. It seems lately that the majority of our leaders have put the needs of special interest groups ahead of what is best for their country's people. In order to win an election, non-wealthy politicians must borrow money just so they can compete with the millionaires and billionaires that run. Who do they borrow these funds from? Currently candidate's contributers are hidden in a labyrinth of bureaucracy that prevents common citizens from discovering who their candidate owes their success to. Do we really want our nation to be ran by a bunch of fear mongers who have their campaign's contributors interest in mind ahead of its citizens? We need a change; we need to hold our government officials liable for their actions.
"An old man said to his grandsonm 'Boy, I have two tigers caged within me. One is love and compassion. The other is fear and anger.'
The younge boy asked, 'Which one will win, grandfather?'
The old man replied, 'The one I feed.' "-Dr. Tim Ong's book "Living in Fear"
English 101
25, May 2008
" The only thing we have to fear is fear its self ", the wise Franklin D. Roosevelt concluded in 1936. It is clear that the majority of our society has lost the meaning of this common quote. Have you ever stopped and given this quote any thought? What does it mean? Why should we fear fear? We live in a fear driven society. As a society we are confronted by fear in our everyday lives through many obstacles. We endeavor to prevail without surrendering to fear's temptations. However, fear is manipulative. It fights back in a sly way that tricks us into feeling as though we have overcome fear, when in reality we have succumbed to it.
Our society often gives in subconsciously to what is being sold to us. An excellent illustration of this surrender of our will is when we tune into the evening news, only because of a news commercial that frightens us into believing that we put ourselves at risk by not tuning in. Many times the news over exaggerates a story by leaving out significant facts in order to create a false sense of fear. The majority of the time when we actually do tune in, the story is nothing as the commercial made it appear, and typically poses no threat to us on a personal level. One of my favorite examples of this use of fear mongering was broadcast recently on WDKY and stated, "Why the next salad you eat might be your last." The story was a poorly researched expose of the bacteria sometimes found on salad bars, the same strains of bacteria that are in actuality on everything that we touch, including the keyboard that I am typing on. Knowing this about the news, why do we still tune in? We tune in because we are afraid. We are afraid that if we don't, we are putting ourselves at risk. Often when you think you have defeated fear, you have only made it stronger, much like our body's immune system. In his book Coercion, author Douglas Rushkoff demonstrates this strength-in-defeat evolution of fear in Saturn's new approach to coercing customers. Rushkoff explains that once consumers became resistant to the traditional "hard sell" procedure of car dealers, a well-educated influence consultant created a new brand with a fresh image. The new brand was Saturn, and its fresh image are dealers that use disguised, friendly "soft-sell" techniques that more subtly produce the same results as the original 'hard sell" procedures. Fear operates like an epidemic. We've seen how it can learn and evolve. Fear also tends to spread like a virus. Every citizen was shaken on September 11, 2001, and the media took advantage of our vulnerability with ridiculous reports such as the top ten places in the U.S. that terrorists were likely to strike next. Fear can make us do things that we would have never imagined. In the days and months following September 11, 2001 many Islamic U.S. citizens were harassed and brutalized out of fear, and the anger that is created by fear. Fear impairs our judgments, and strips us of our ability to make wise decisions.
When our government, media, and religious leaders first discovered fear's special ability to control people, fear became part of our world’s, and thus our nation’s culture, where it is now ingrained. Fear is ingrained so deeply into the minds of Americans that we have learned to run every thought process through our own personal "fear filters". Our "fear filters"categorize the media into two groups: what to fear, and what does not matter. This focuses our concerns on topics that could only effect us on a personal level, which creates a more self-centered America. Our attention is aimed wherever the director of fear points his finger, causing us to unintentionally neglect all other issues. This abuse of fear has become known as fear mongering. Wikipedia defines fear mongering as "the use of fear to leverage the opinions and actions of others towards some end. The object of fear is exaggerated; those the fear is directed toward are kept aware of it on a constant basis." Fear mongering is a form of mind control in which the subjects are so submerged in fear that they become unaware of it, just like the gravity of earth.
Fear mongering is a technique used by many corporations in today's world. I have already briefly discussed one technique of fear mongering as used by news programs, but there is so much more to tell. Did you know that practically every piece of our media in the United States comes from one of only five major corporations? According to the media reform information center, in 1983 our media was owned by 50 corporations. The more successful companies have rapidly bought out all of the smaller companies, thus creating a media monopoly. That is why we have companies with names like AOL Time Warner. This large merge has created ample opportunity for these companies. Just think how much easier it is to control what is relayed to the public from only five sources, rather than fifty.
At the of the Cold War, the CIA began a secret commission called Operation Mockingbird. Operation Mockingbird is defined blatantly in an article on PrisonPlanet.com as "CIA media manipulation". PrisonPlanet.com is one of several contemporary websites that are dedicated to exposing distorted media. The CIA started Operation Mockingbird with the intent of buying the media's influence by actually putting reporters on the CIA payroll. The hired reporters relayed what they were paid to say by the CIA in order to shape the publics' thought process, molding it to fit the government's agendas. The CIA's media assets eventually included ABC, NBC, CBS, Time, Newsweek, United Press International (UPI), Reuters, Hearst Newspapers, Scripps-Howard, Copley News Service, etc. and an estimated 400 journalists that performed secret assignments, according to now public documented files located in the CIA headquarters. The nations media, businesses, and Universities were overran with tens of thousands of CIA operatives by the late 1950's, just imagine how overran they are today..
Further evidence of our government's interest in maintaining control of our media is illustrated in a document released on June 25, 2007, entitled The Family Jewels Report. This report references many of the CIA's secret operations that occurred during the 1970's. One of these documents includes a report on the surveillance of journalists:
At the direction of the CIA, surveillance was conducted of Jack Anderson and at various times his "legman," Britt Hume, Leslie Whitten, and Jospeh Spear, from 15 February to 12 April 1972. In addition to the physical surveillance, an observation post was maintained in the Stratlor Hilton hotel Directly opposite Anderson's office. The purpose of this surveillance was to attempt to determine Anderson's sources for highly classified agency information appearing in his syndicated columns.
There are countless other reports similar this one, on many other journalists such as Jack Anderson. Why should the CIA have the right to stalk journalists based on what they report?
From 1952 to 1974 the CIA worked on a series of hallucinogen testing experiments called The Edgewood Arsenal Experiments. During this project the CIA secretly worked on possessing the ability to control individual's minds. The CIA has used many inhumane procedures in their long search for this skill, and in 1958 the government took a special interest in researching mind control through the use of LSD. In Edgewood Arsenal, 95 "volunteers" were given LSD, though many of them were not even aware they had been drugged. Cruelly unaware that they had been drugged with a hallucinogen, many believed that they were going insane. The CIA would actually slip people hits of LSD, and then follow them around recording their actions. Other subjects would be hooked up to lie detector's while on LSD to see if the drug had made it easier for them to lie, or be manipulated. They also used drugs such as PCP, and STP (serenity, tranquility, and peace) which would send its subjects on a three day "trip". Many of these drugs had never even been tested on humans before. This was also the kick off of a new drug culture in America.
However, our government has been very successful in their ongoing search for human manipulation, only more so with the practice of fear mongering rather then LSD.
One of our government's most obvious exploitations of fear mongering occured during the "red scare" era of McCarthyism. McCarthyism is the term used in reference to a time period between the late 1940's to the late 1950's in which people were so frightened by the thought of someone being a communist that they could take the accused's freedom away with minimal questions asked. It usually took no more then for someone to point their finger at you, comparable to the infamous Salem Witch Trials. Thousands of innocent Americans were aggressively interrogated, justified by nothing more then suspicion. Evidence that proved innocence was often overlooked, and the accused's level of threat was commonly over- exaggerated. Many people accused of being communist lost their jobs, had their careers taken away from them, and were even imprisoned. The fear was that America was somehow influenced by the evils of a Russian communist government. This era was enabled throughout the nation by a government armed only with the ability to create chaos with fear, through propaganda.
It worked once, why not give it another go? Yesterday's McCarthyism is todays Patriot Act. The Patriot Act is a law that was passed on October 26, 2001, immediately after the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. This "Patriot" Act has allowed law enforcement agencies to search our telephones, E-mails, medical, financial, and other personal records. It has also permitted the Secretary of Treasury to regulate personal financial transactions, and it has allowed law-enforcement and immigration authorities the power to Deport, or imprison American citizens thought to have any connection to terrorism.
How could we allow this in America, when it goes against everything our constitution stands for? Could it be because people are so condemned by the fears that are constantly pounded into their minds that they simply don't care if their neighbor is imprisoned and tortured with no evidence, or trial? Or is it because the fear that overwhelms them also blinds them of their greed? Then I have to ask, what creates suspicion? Who gets to decide who the real "terrorists" are? Or was the plan to just detain as many foreigners as possible in hopes that we will scoop out some sort of lead, with our gleaming fish net of justice that we refer to as the Patriot Act? The Patriot Act is a superior example of people acting out of fear. Fear that was created for them at a time in need of love. The terrorists attack on our nation was the perfect opportunity for our government to begin paving a road toward the end to violence, but instead they decided to take advantage of our despair and promote fear through many "terror alerts", and false accusations thus creating more violence, hate, greed, and our government's most frightening manipulation, our fear's ultimate creation... the war on Iraq.
George W. Bush's ultimate argument for why we should attack Iraq, was very clear. Saddam was creating "Weapons of Mass Destruction", or were they? I am not sure if Bush himself ever even actually believed the following quotes, but one thing is for sure... he got his war on Iraq.
Sep. 12, 2002
George W. Bush, Speech to UN General Assembly
"Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons."Oct. 5, 2002
George W. Bush, Radio Address
"Iraq has stockpiled biological and chemical weapons, and is rebuilding the facilities used to make more of those weapons."Oct. 7, 2002
George W. Bush
The Iraqi regime . . . possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons. We know that the regime has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, VX nerve gas."Jan. 28, 2003
George W. Bush
"Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent" and "upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents..Six years later and we are still siphoning our nations economy into another nations civil war of our creation. And still no sign of any "weapons of mass destruction".
Dr. Tim Ong, author of From Fear to Love sums it up best when he says "Fear can paralyze us into action. It can numb our emotion and thoughts, resulting in poor decisions and judgments. It impairs our insights. Any decision that is made out of fear tends to lead to more fear and separation. Instead of all-embracing, it is divisive and self-centered."
Their are speculators who would disagree with many of my points, who would claim that the leaders of our nation have America in its best interest at all times. Some would even still claim that we had no choice but to go to war with Iraq. It must be recognized that not every member of the government that supports actions like the war in Iraq or the Patriot Act have the worst intentions for their people. The rare leaders that still have America's best intentions in mind can be naive to the damage that they cause to our freedom, and can be led to believe they are doing what is right for their country. In Olmstead v. United States Justice Brandeis, in his dissenting opinion, warned that “Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding” (Solove, Rotenberg, & Schwartz, 2006, p. 218). I am sure that we all want to believe that our country is still lead by true Americans. Politicians like our founding fathers who fought for America's freedom and independence even though they stood to lose the most if we lost the revolution against the British. Its a very comforting thought. Its what we want to believe. We want to believe it so much that we have become blind to the thinly veiled ulterior motives of some leaders. It seems lately that the majority of our leaders have put the needs of special interest groups ahead of what is best for their country's people. In order to win an election, non-wealthy politicians must borrow money just so they can compete with the millionaires and billionaires that run. Who do they borrow these funds from? Currently candidate's contributers are hidden in a labyrinth of bureaucracy that prevents common citizens from discovering who their candidate owes their success to. Do we really want our nation to be ran by a bunch of fear mongers who have their campaign's contributors interest in mind ahead of its citizens? We need a change; we need to hold our government officials liable for their actions.
"An old man said to his grandsonm 'Boy, I have two tigers caged within me. One is love and compassion. The other is fear and anger.'
The younge boy asked, 'Which one will win, grandfather?'
The old man replied, 'The one I feed.' "-Dr. Tim Ong's book "Living in Fear"
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Fear Mongering (General Outline)
The abstract concept I have chosen for my paper is fear mongering. I wanted to write about something that interest me, and something that could actually help people with their lives. When the thought of fear mongering crossed my mind, I knew right away that was going to be my subject. Fear mongering is the use of fear to sway ones actions or opinions. The object of fear is always over exaggerated, and constantly drilled into the minds of the ones being swayed. I cannot turn on my television for five minutes without witnessing someone trying to change my mind about something through the usage of fear mongering. A prime example of this would be the nightly news. They use scare tactics just to get you to tune into their program. They always tell you the first half of a story, always leaving out descriptive details to leave you afraid, and curious. Then when you tune into the program you usually find that the story was nothing like they made it appear. On the other hand many people feel that news programs would never try to deceive us in any way, and that their every intention is only to inform the public, because we have a right to know.
Another example of the usage of fear mongering is by prescription drug companies. According to an Article in the Lexington Hearld Leader by Linda A. Johnson, for the first time in our nation’s history over half of our citizens who have health plans are on some sort of prescription medication. I will use specific examples of prescription advertisements to prove there usage of fear mongering. They typically start off with a “ Do you ever feel like you have” then they will go on to read a Long list of symptoms which half of them could be claimed by the common cold, and the other half of them sound completely just made up. Our nation is practically owned by drug companies, they are leading our nation in profit. I am sure that drug companies would never admit to their advertisements as being fear based. They want us to think that using their drugs are in our best interest. They sell uss overpriced, insufficiently tested drugs for their huge financial gain.
My 3rd point will be about Christianity. I personally (along with many others) believe that allot of Christianity uses fear to control the majority of America. Many of the stories in the bible are nothing but scare tactics used to teach us morals, and keep us tame. I personally do not feel that this is the right way to go about teaching people right from wrong. I am sure that just about every Christian will strongly disagree with what I am saying, but that is ok. I will have strong supporting evidence. I will try my best not to offend anyone, but I can make no promises due to the fact that religion is a very touchy subject. I feel that the basis for Christianity alone is a form of fear mongering. If you do wrong (sin) you get to burn in hell for all of eternity. I will discuss this in depth, and possibly another story from the bible as well.
The Last part of my body will discuss the usage of fear mongering by the U.S. government. This is the most transparent usage of the term fear mongering out of my 4 main points. Our government constantly uses fear mongering to maintain control of our citizens. They do this so often and so bluntly that it makes it hard for me to believe that their are still skeptics that claim they do not. I will discuss their usage of fear mongering after 9/11, to promote the war on Iraq. And I will discuss their usage of ear mongering on a day to day basis with a few strong examples. I am sure that any Bush supporter will strongly believe that what I have to say insane, due to the fact that we want to believe our government has us in their best interests rather then who they owe money to for their support. In many other countries the government fears the people because people are not afraid to speak out and rally for what they think is wrong. In America, our people fear the government.
Format for my Paper
- INTRODUCTION- what is fear mongering?
- Definition-
- the good and the bad
- 1st Main point- Fear mongering in the news/media
- the many ways fear is used to promote the news
- the many ways fear is used by the news to control our mindset
- why would they not want us to be informed of their fear based program?
- who will disagree with me and why?
- 2nd Main point- Fear Mongering as used by drug corporations
- Statistics on prescription drug usage in the U.S.
- How do they use fear mongering?
- Why?
- what should be done about it? what can I do?
- How is it covered up?>
- Why would they never admit to this accusation?>
- 3rd Main point-Fear mongering and our government
- McCarthyism
- 9/11
- Patriot act
- General mind control
- Conclusion- Summery of Main points
- End with impact
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Life After Death?
This is a Non-Fiction short story from my childhood. Every word of it is true. This is my evidence, their is more to life then death.
When I was fourteen years old my mother, her husband (Jon), and I would often go fishing in Nicholasville. One day on our way to our usual spot we noticed a house the appeared abandoned. The windows were all broken out, with drapes flowing out of them just like in a scary movie. It was a large, white, old, farm house with a barn around back. The paint was chipping off the wood and the house was covered in corrosion. The grass was over grown up to my waist. Our curiosity led us to the back door which appeared kicked in.
As we entered the house through the kicked in door, I was shocked when I saw that there was a mattress laying in the middle of the kitchen, then I noticed a pack of Marlboro red’s on the kitchen table. This pack of Marlboro’s was dated back more than ten years. That's when it hit me, this house was fully furnished, it even still had rotting food in the cabinets. I was overcome with a eerie cold feeling. It reeked of cow manure and decomposing food. When I got to the hallway I noticed that you would be able to see directly into the basement of the house through the rotting old wood floor if not for its darkness. My instincts told me that something horrible had happened here, this house had an unforgettable atmosphere. As we made our way down the hallway carefully avoiding the holes in the floor, I noticed family photos arranged on the walls in a homely fashion. The family appeared to be young,and happy. There were photos of a man, a woman, and their son. There were several little league photos of the young boy posing with his baseball bat. By the look of the young boy's uniform I would have guessed these photos to have been taken sometime in the 80's. At the end of the hallway was a large, heavy looking wooden door which was slightly cracked open. I was first, then Jon, then my mother, As I pushed the door open I saw what used to be the master bedroom where the couple had once slept. Before I even had the door all the way open my mother said "wow, look at that dresser, it is beautiful." As I looked at the dr
esser I was hit with a bit of confusion, It appeared to be a very old, beaten up dresser which I personally found no beauty. It was obviously used by the lady as a place to sit and do her make-up. It had an oval mirror attached to it at one time, but now it was only a frame. The mirror had been broken out. "This is an antique" my mother exclaimed. with all of our focus on my mothers infatuation with this piece of crap dresser, I realized that I hadn't even glanced at the rest of the room. Soon as I turned my head I saw something that to this day still fills my heart with so many questions. There sit what used to be the couples bed. At one time this was a water bed, but all of the water had leaked out of it, this might of had something to do with the rotting wooden floors in the hallway. On top of the bed was a pile of fuzz, or was it fuzz? I took a second look, There seamed to be tiny little bones within the fuzz, I stepped back to view the object at question, thats when it hit me, It was the remains of a cat. This was defiantly the most disgusting thing I had ever seen. From the rest of the house I had already concluded that this family probably had to leave town in a huge hurry. The house was completely furnished, They even still had clothes in their closet's, But their cat? I think that in that very same moment when I realized what the cat was, I also came to a realization that something far worse had probably happened to this family other then having to leave town in a hurry. The cat appeared to have curled up on the drained, rotten water bed and died peacefully, possibly of starvation. Maybe the water bed even still had water in it at the time, who knows. As I re-entered the hallway, my mind raced with an odd mix of adrenaline and curiosity. What had happened here? Was this family murdered? If so then why would their loved ones not take care of their things? Nothing seamed to make any sense as we all looked at each other with complete confusion.
As my mother and Jon snooped around the bedroom, I decided to take a peak upstairs. As I walked up the stairs I remember feeling like I was not alone, even though I had left the company of my mother and Jon, I somehow felt a disturbing presence. This possibly could have been my imagination running away with the fact that I already felt like something horrible had happened in this house, but it felt very real in that moment. The stairs were in as poor of condition of the rest of the house, as I walked up them they bowed and creaked as if they might give in at any moment. When I reached the top of the stairs I couldn't help but notice a large pile of cow manure sitting right in the middle of the floor. This explained why the house reeked of shit, but only to propose an even more disturbing question, How the hell could a cow have ever managed to get up these stairs? I only weighed about 100 pounds at the time and I was not even sure if those stairs would support me, much less a cow! The second floor of the house was composed of two bedrooms, and a bathroom, The bathroom looked like something you would find at your grandparents house, with old flower designed wall paper, and the ugliest shades of green and yellow imaginable. The first bedroom I found myself in appeared as if it might of been an office of some sort. I remember a large desk in the corner of the room, and on the opposite end of the room was an old record player with a few filing cabinets on each side of it. I wish that I had been a tad more nosy at the time, so that I would have opened those failing cabinets, and perhaps figured out who this family was. I was to anxious, I had to see what was in the other room. The door was shut, wedged shut. I turned the knob and gave it a good solid kick, this must have been the little boys room. There was a few little league trophy's on a dresser beside the closet, a filthy twin size bed wedged in the far corner of the room, and more photos of the boy hanging on the wall. I opened the closet to find a few small t-shirts still hanging on hangers, and some toys on the floor as if they were crammed in there as a typical child would have done when cleaning his room. Suddenly I felt very anxious, where is my mother? where is Jon? How long have I been up here? I ran out of the bedroom only slowing down to avoid crashing through the stairs. They were back in the kitchen. I opened the fridge in some bazaar hope of finding a cold beverage. what was I thinking? There was food in the fridge, rotten food, and the fridge wasn't even on. In fact there was no power in the whole house. "you guys still want to go fishing?" I asked. That was my way of saying I think it is time to leave.
The next few days were kind of strange. I could not get that family out of my head. What had happened to them? Who were they? I couldn't think about anything else. Ever since we had left the house we oddly enough hadn't talked about it with each other. I think we were all kind of freaked out and just didn't really know what to say about it. I had to bring this up again. I went to my mom, " so what do you think happened in the house mom?" I asked her. "I don't know but I really am considering going to get that dresser." she replied. Come to find out she had been obsessing over the old broken dresser from the master bedroom. "I cant believe I didn't take it while we were there." I was very confused, after all I saw no beauty in the dresser, and I was pretty sure that would be considered stealing. It just seamed wrong. While I was worried about what had happened to the family, my mother was more concerned about what would come of their dresser? To benefit from someone else's misfortune? At first the idea felt flat out wrong. A few more days went by and my mother seamed to get more and more obsessive over this piece of furniture. She seamed incomplete without it, she just wasn't the same person. There are numerous things I do not understand about my mothers emotions but one thing I understood at the time was that if my mother wasn't happy, no one was. I think Jon had finally had enough, and gave in. "why don't we just go get it today?" he suggested. I thought about it, trying to weigh my morals against my family's happiness. "Well, I mean its not like they are going to be using it right?" I finally uttered. "Ok then its settled, lets go." My mom replied.
I have to admit, going back in that house a second time did not seam at all like a good idea, but I was after all, only fourteen years old. If this was the wrong thing to do, then it is my parents job to decide, right? At least thats what I told myself as Jon and I re-entered the back door of the house to make myself feel better about the situation. My mother waited in the car this time, she wouldn't be any help carrying the dresser anyways. We poked our heads in the kitchen, already on a very high alert. We were in stealth mode, trying to be as quite as possible. The second we were both completely in the kitchen I heard a noise. I looked at Jon, He was looking back at me as if to say he heard the noise to. Then again, It was whispering, and it sounded like it was coming from upstairs. Very loud, but not clear, whispering, It did not sound human, by that I mean It sounded like it surrounded us, Like the sound came from all angles. We both looked down the hallway that led to the stairs, then back at each other. Jon's eyes were huge, he defiantly herd the same thing I did. When our eyes met, we heard another noise from upstairs. It sounded like someone ran in full sprint from one side of the house to the other, but abnormally fast. It was almost a shuffling sound but very distinct. We decided to make a break for the dresser so that we could get the hell out of this house as fast as possible. And thats exactly what we did. We came out of the house, both carrying one end of the dresser. She took one look at our faces and asked what was wrong. Neither of us wanted to even try to explain what happened in there, I think its because we weren't even sure for ourselves.
We arrived home at last, I was very relived that our mission was a success and we had gotten the dresser out safely. Maybe now my mom could go back to being her old self. We hauled the dresser inside and placed it neatly inside my mothers bedroom. We rented a few video's that night and curled up as a family, to just relax. AAACHUE! we all looked at each other. Then again AAACHUE! It was coming from down the hallway, where my mothers room was. My whole family was in the living room with me, yet someone was sneezing from the other side of the house. We came to no conclusion, and continued to watch our movie, only slightly alarmed. WAAAHAAAA! A child crying? WAAAHAAA! Yes defiantly a child crying, we all looked at each other. I was laying in the living room floor, closest to my mothers bedroom. "It came from your room mom." I was way to scared to go take a look myself. Our hallway was pitch black, we kept all our bedroom doors closed. Jon decided to go take a look, nothing. There was nobody there. Just the dresser.
The next night my best friend Brian stayed the night with me while my mother and Jon went out for the night. We were playing video games and listening to the radio when all of the sudden, WESLEEEY! Someone called my name. I turned down the music, "mom?" I looked in the driveway, she was not home. "strange, I heard it to." said Brian. I turned the music back up and we went back to our regular video game playing. Again WEEEESLEY! " What the fuck!" Brian screamed. "Are u messing with me man?" he asked. By the look on my face I think he could tell that I was not messing with him. Thats when I told him the whole story about the house, the family, and the dresser. We went into the kitchen to get a drink, bling! what? We both turned and looked right at Jon's acoustic guitar. He kept it in the corner of the living room for easy access. " I swear to God I am not messing with u man, did u hear that guitar, It just strummed itself" he believed me. It wasn't as if someone had just hit it, it was a slow strum which let each note ring to its potential. This made it more frightening. Someone or something was defiantly messing with us, there was no doubt in either of our minds. We decided to arm ourselves, I grabbed a baseball bat from my brothers room. We took a seat on the couch, scared. It was silent. From the couch we had a Direct view down the hallway which contained no light. At the end of the hallway my mother kept a chest which held many of our family photo's. Brian hit me in the arm, to get my attention, and pointed to the chest. There was a perfect circle of glowing light focused on my picture, lighting it up as if to put my face in the spotlight. Realizing that every door in that hallway was shut, and there was no possible way for any light to get in that particular spot, we ran out of the house as fast as we could. Needless to say we spent the rest of the night at Brian's.
Over the next few day's many strange things happened to everyone in my house, things would be out of there places, and we continued to hear children noises coming from my mothers room. My entire family became fully convinced that this dresser had some sort of negative energy following it. We did not understand what it was, but one thing we did know was that we wanted nothing to do with it. We threw the dresser in our shed around back, in hopes that we could later just sell it to an antique shop. That lasted only until the night I came home late and had to put my bike away, in the shed. I had a pretty big backyard, and the shed sat all the way in the back, so it was pretty dark. I opened up the shed door, and there was the dresser. That is when I saw as plane as day, the perfect silhouette of a little boy's shadow. From the shadow I would have guessed him to be about the same age as the boy from the pictures in the house. So I ran inside, leaving my bike in the yard. I told my mother what happened, and she believed me. We were done, we could not wait to take it to an antique shop, we simply rolled it across the street for the garbage man to dispose of.
The next mourning I was walking by the window and I could not help but notice an old couple loading the dresser in their van. They each had huge smiles on their face's, they looked as if they had just found gold, or won the lottery. They were to far away for me to warn them in time, it was simply out of my control. The dresser's beauty had possessed them.
When I was fourteen years old my mother, her husband (Jon), and I would often go fishing in Nicholasville. One day on our way to our usual spot we noticed a house the appeared abandoned. The windows were all broken out, with drapes flowing out of them just like in a scary movie. It was a large, white, old, farm house with a barn around back. The paint was chipping off the wood and the house was covered in corrosion. The grass was over grown up to my waist. Our curiosity led us to the back door which appeared kicked in.
As we entered the house through the kicked in door, I was shocked when I saw that there was a mattress laying in the middle of the kitchen, then I noticed a pack of Marlboro red’s on the kitchen table. This pack of Marlboro’s was dated back more than ten years. That's when it hit me, this house was fully furnished, it even still had rotting food in the cabinets. I was overcome with a eerie cold feeling. It reeked of cow manure and decomposing food. When I got to the hallway I noticed that you would be able to see directly into the basement of the house through the rotting old wood floor if not for its darkness. My instincts told me that something horrible had happened here, this house had an unforgettable atmosphere. As we made our way down the hallway carefully avoiding the holes in the floor, I noticed family photos arranged on the walls in a homely fashion. The family appeared to be young,and happy. There were photos of a man, a woman, and their son. There were several little league photos of the young boy posing with his baseball bat. By the look of the young boy's uniform I would have guessed these photos to have been taken sometime in the 80's. At the end of the hallway was a large, heavy looking wooden door which was slightly cracked open. I was first, then Jon, then my mother, As I pushed the door open I saw what used to be the master bedroom where the couple had once slept. Before I even had the door all the way open my mother said "wow, look at that dresser, it is beautiful." As I looked at the dr
esser I was hit with a bit of confusion, It appeared to be a very old, beaten up dresser which I personally found no beauty. It was obviously used by the lady as a place to sit and do her make-up. It had an oval mirror attached to it at one time, but now it was only a frame. The mirror had been broken out. "This is an antique" my mother exclaimed. with all of our focus on my mothers infatuation with this piece of crap dresser, I realized that I hadn't even glanced at the rest of the room. Soon as I turned my head I saw something that to this day still fills my heart with so many questions. There sit what used to be the couples bed. At one time this was a water bed, but all of the water had leaked out of it, this might of had something to do with the rotting wooden floors in the hallway. On top of the bed was a pile of fuzz, or was it fuzz? I took a second look, There seamed to be tiny little bones within the fuzz, I stepped back to view the object at question, thats when it hit me, It was the remains of a cat. This was defiantly the most disgusting thing I had ever seen. From the rest of the house I had already concluded that this family probably had to leave town in a huge hurry. The house was completely furnished, They even still had clothes in their closet's, But their cat? I think that in that very same moment when I realized what the cat was, I also came to a realization that something far worse had probably happened to this family other then having to leave town in a hurry. The cat appeared to have curled up on the drained, rotten water bed and died peacefully, possibly of starvation. Maybe the water bed even still had water in it at the time, who knows. As I re-entered the hallway, my mind raced with an odd mix of adrenaline and curiosity. What had happened here? Was this family murdered? If so then why would their loved ones not take care of their things? Nothing seamed to make any sense as we all looked at each other with complete confusion.As my mother and Jon snooped around the bedroom, I decided to take a peak upstairs. As I walked up the stairs I remember feeling like I was not alone, even though I had left the company of my mother and Jon, I somehow felt a disturbing presence. This possibly could have been my imagination running away with the fact that I already felt like something horrible had happened in this house, but it felt very real in that moment. The stairs were in as poor of condition of the rest of the house, as I walked up them they bowed and creaked as if they might give in at any moment. When I reached the top of the stairs I couldn't help but notice a large pile of cow manure sitting right in the middle of the floor. This explained why the house reeked of shit, but only to propose an even more disturbing question, How the hell could a cow have ever managed to get up these stairs? I only weighed about 100 pounds at the time and I was not even sure if those stairs would support me, much less a cow! The second floor of the house was composed of two bedrooms, and a bathroom, The bathroom looked like something you would find at your grandparents house, with old flower designed wall paper, and the ugliest shades of green and yellow imaginable. The first bedroom I found myself in appeared as if it might of been an office of some sort. I remember a large desk in the corner of the room, and on the opposite end of the room was an old record player with a few filing cabinets on each side of it. I wish that I had been a tad more nosy at the time, so that I would have opened those failing cabinets, and perhaps figured out who this family was. I was to anxious, I had to see what was in the other room. The door was shut, wedged shut. I turned the knob and gave it a good solid kick, this must have been the little boys room. There was a few little league trophy's on a dresser beside the closet, a filthy twin size bed wedged in the far corner of the room, and more photos of the boy hanging on the wall. I opened the closet to find a few small t-shirts still hanging on hangers, and some toys on the floor as if they were crammed in there as a typical child would have done when cleaning his room. Suddenly I felt very anxious, where is my mother? where is Jon? How long have I been up here? I ran out of the bedroom only slowing down to avoid crashing through the stairs. They were back in the kitchen. I opened the fridge in some bazaar hope of finding a cold beverage. what was I thinking? There was food in the fridge, rotten food, and the fridge wasn't even on. In fact there was no power in the whole house. "you guys still want to go fishing?" I asked. That was my way of saying I think it is time to leave.
The next few days were kind of strange. I could not get that family out of my head. What had happened to them? Who were they? I couldn't think about anything else. Ever since we had left the house we oddly enough hadn't talked about it with each other. I think we were all kind of freaked out and just didn't really know what to say about it. I had to bring this up again. I went to my mom, " so what do you think happened in the house mom?" I asked her. "I don't know but I really am considering going to get that dresser." she replied. Come to find out she had been obsessing over the old broken dresser from the master bedroom. "I cant believe I didn't take it while we were there." I was very confused, after all I saw no beauty in the dresser, and I was pretty sure that would be considered stealing. It just seamed wrong. While I was worried about what had happened to the family, my mother was more concerned about what would come of their dresser? To benefit from someone else's misfortune? At first the idea felt flat out wrong. A few more days went by and my mother seamed to get more and more obsessive over this piece of furniture. She seamed incomplete without it, she just wasn't the same person. There are numerous things I do not understand about my mothers emotions but one thing I understood at the time was that if my mother wasn't happy, no one was. I think Jon had finally had enough, and gave in. "why don't we just go get it today?" he suggested. I thought about it, trying to weigh my morals against my family's happiness. "Well, I mean its not like they are going to be using it right?" I finally uttered. "Ok then its settled, lets go." My mom replied.
I have to admit, going back in that house a second time did not seam at all like a good idea, but I was after all, only fourteen years old. If this was the wrong thing to do, then it is my parents job to decide, right? At least thats what I told myself as Jon and I re-entered the back door of the house to make myself feel better about the situation. My mother waited in the car this time, she wouldn't be any help carrying the dresser anyways. We poked our heads in the kitchen, already on a very high alert. We were in stealth mode, trying to be as quite as possible. The second we were both completely in the kitchen I heard a noise. I looked at Jon, He was looking back at me as if to say he heard the noise to. Then again, It was whispering, and it sounded like it was coming from upstairs. Very loud, but not clear, whispering, It did not sound human, by that I mean It sounded like it surrounded us, Like the sound came from all angles. We both looked down the hallway that led to the stairs, then back at each other. Jon's eyes were huge, he defiantly herd the same thing I did. When our eyes met, we heard another noise from upstairs. It sounded like someone ran in full sprint from one side of the house to the other, but abnormally fast. It was almost a shuffling sound but very distinct. We decided to make a break for the dresser so that we could get the hell out of this house as fast as possible. And thats exactly what we did. We came out of the house, both carrying one end of the dresser. She took one look at our faces and asked what was wrong. Neither of us wanted to even try to explain what happened in there, I think its because we weren't even sure for ourselves.
We arrived home at last, I was very relived that our mission was a success and we had gotten the dresser out safely. Maybe now my mom could go back to being her old self. We hauled the dresser inside and placed it neatly inside my mothers bedroom. We rented a few video's that night and curled up as a family, to just relax. AAACHUE! we all looked at each other. Then again AAACHUE! It was coming from down the hallway, where my mothers room was. My whole family was in the living room with me, yet someone was sneezing from the other side of the house. We came to no conclusion, and continued to watch our movie, only slightly alarmed. WAAAHAAAA! A child crying? WAAAHAAA! Yes defiantly a child crying, we all looked at each other. I was laying in the living room floor, closest to my mothers bedroom. "It came from your room mom." I was way to scared to go take a look myself. Our hallway was pitch black, we kept all our bedroom doors closed. Jon decided to go take a look, nothing. There was nobody there. Just the dresser.
The next night my best friend Brian stayed the night with me while my mother and Jon went out for the night. We were playing video games and listening to the radio when all of the sudden, WESLEEEY! Someone called my name. I turned down the music, "mom?" I looked in the driveway, she was not home. "strange, I heard it to." said Brian. I turned the music back up and we went back to our regular video game playing. Again WEEEESLEY! " What the fuck!" Brian screamed. "Are u messing with me man?" he asked. By the look on my face I think he could tell that I was not messing with him. Thats when I told him the whole story about the house, the family, and the dresser. We went into the kitchen to get a drink, bling! what? We both turned and looked right at Jon's acoustic guitar. He kept it in the corner of the living room for easy access. " I swear to God I am not messing with u man, did u hear that guitar, It just strummed itself" he believed me. It wasn't as if someone had just hit it, it was a slow strum which let each note ring to its potential. This made it more frightening. Someone or something was defiantly messing with us, there was no doubt in either of our minds. We decided to arm ourselves, I grabbed a baseball bat from my brothers room. We took a seat on the couch, scared. It was silent. From the couch we had a Direct view down the hallway which contained no light. At the end of the hallway my mother kept a chest which held many of our family photo's. Brian hit me in the arm, to get my attention, and pointed to the chest. There was a perfect circle of glowing light focused on my picture, lighting it up as if to put my face in the spotlight. Realizing that every door in that hallway was shut, and there was no possible way for any light to get in that particular spot, we ran out of the house as fast as we could. Needless to say we spent the rest of the night at Brian's.
Over the next few day's many strange things happened to everyone in my house, things would be out of there places, and we continued to hear children noises coming from my mothers room. My entire family became fully convinced that this dresser had some sort of negative energy following it. We did not understand what it was, but one thing we did know was that we wanted nothing to do with it. We threw the dresser in our shed around back, in hopes that we could later just sell it to an antique shop. That lasted only until the night I came home late and had to put my bike away, in the shed. I had a pretty big backyard, and the shed sat all the way in the back, so it was pretty dark. I opened up the shed door, and there was the dresser. That is when I saw as plane as day, the perfect silhouette of a little boy's shadow. From the shadow I would have guessed him to be about the same age as the boy from the pictures in the house. So I ran inside, leaving my bike in the yard. I told my mother what happened, and she believed me. We were done, we could not wait to take it to an antique shop, we simply rolled it across the street for the garbage man to dispose of.
The next mourning I was walking by the window and I could not help but notice an old couple loading the dresser in their van. They each had huge smiles on their face's, they looked as if they had just found gold, or won the lottery. They were to far away for me to warn them in time, it was simply out of my control. The dresser's beauty had possessed them.
Memories of a Wes!
- The first memory I have is from when I was an infant, I remember that I used to hide my pass afire in strange places so that my mom could not find it. I particularly remember hiding it in the VCR, and the microwave.
- When I was about 3 years old how my father lived about a block away from me. He used to walk over and get me and carry me back to his house on his shoulders.
- When I was about five I had a crazy babysitter named May, she used to steal my toys and give them to her dog. I actually caught her dumping out my toy box one day. The next time I went over to her house, all my toys were all over her floor for her dog.
-From the age of 4-7 my mother was married to my little brothers dad. This was the most of a father I have ever known, He was a good man but had a drinking problem.
-In 1st grade I crushed my arm, it almost had to be amputated. I missed 2 months of school and had to repeat the 1st grade. I am pretty sure my mother blames my father since I was at his house when it happened.
-When I was around the age of six my aunt's used to hold me upside down by my ankles and hair spray my hair so that it would stand straight up.
- I have many examples of mnemonic socialization since I attended eleven different elementary schools before the 4th grade.
- When we moved into what I could actually call home in 4th grade, I attended southern elementary, walked to school, was a safety patrol, and was in chorus. We lived in that house for ten years.
-I played football for parks and rec for the Shillito Wildcats, we won one game all season, the score was 6-7.
-One day in 4th grade school was canceled in the middle of the day due to a snow storm. I had to walk home, the snow felt like needles on my face, and the snow was up to my knees.
-I met my best friend who I played with just about everyday all the way through high school.
-I played soccer for the blue devils, I didn't play much, I wasn't that good at soccer.
- I was a class clown in middle school, I was sent to the principles office on the regular, and I got in a few fights.
- In 7th grade I joined the football team, we went undefeated and claimed the championship, I also played in 8th grade, we only lost 1 game, which was the championship.
- I got my first electric guitar in 7th grade, influenced my my mothers husband at the time.
- I used to go to my granny's house every weekend, she was my favorite person.
-orientation at Tates Creek high school where i attended for 4 years and graduated.
-I got a job at Subway in Fayette mall, where I worked for 3 years.
-when I was 16 years old I went on vacation with my granny and my grandpa to N. Carolina, I remember waking up in the middle of the night to an awful gasping noise. It was my granny laying on the floor having a heart attack. she did not survive the night.
-I remember returning home from my vacation.
-when I was 16 I was jumped by eight guys for no reason.
-Several fights in the hallways of Tates Creek.
-I remember a crazy camping trip I went on with my mother her husband and my best friend. We camped in a park that did not exist.
- when my stepfather died
- being the one to have to tell my brother about our father, it was the hardest thing I have ever done.
- meeting a man named Scott , who became my best friend, he was 30 years old and let me move into his house with him so that I didn't have to be around my crazy mother.
- when Scott's dog dragged her butt across my carpet, it was the funniest thing I have ever seen, I am glad my friend Luke was their to witness it with me.
-When I was 19 I got a job at Panera bread where I am still working to this day, I cannot wait to
get my degree and be out of that place!
-When I was 20 I got an apartment with my friend Pete.
-From dealing with being my mothers marriage counselor through 10 marriages, I have become really smart when it comes to relationships.
-I am glad that I got a job at Panera because thats where I met my future wife. I remember taking my break with her, and asking her out. we have been together for almost 3 years now and we share an apartment with 3 dogs and 2 cats, this is the happiest I have ever been.
-I currently attend BCTC and work full time, I do not receive any grants or loans at the moment so I have a huge respect for college. My major is architecture.
- When I was about 3 years old how my father lived about a block away from me. He used to walk over and get me and carry me back to his house on his shoulders.
- When I was about five I had a crazy babysitter named May, she used to steal my toys and give them to her dog. I actually caught her dumping out my toy box one day. The next time I went over to her house, all my toys were all over her floor for her dog.
-From the age of 4-7 my mother was married to my little brothers dad. This was the most of a father I have ever known, He was a good man but had a drinking problem.
-In 1st grade I crushed my arm, it almost had to be amputated. I missed 2 months of school and had to repeat the 1st grade. I am pretty sure my mother blames my father since I was at his house when it happened.
-When I was around the age of six my aunt's used to hold me upside down by my ankles and hair spray my hair so that it would stand straight up.
- I have many examples of mnemonic socialization since I attended eleven different elementary schools before the 4th grade.
- When we moved into what I could actually call home in 4th grade, I attended southern elementary, walked to school, was a safety patrol, and was in chorus. We lived in that house for ten years.
-I played football for parks and rec for the Shillito Wildcats, we won one game all season, the score was 6-7.
-One day in 4th grade school was canceled in the middle of the day due to a snow storm. I had to walk home, the snow felt like needles on my face, and the snow was up to my knees.
-I met my best friend who I played with just about everyday all the way through high school.
-I played soccer for the blue devils, I didn't play much, I wasn't that good at soccer.
- I was a class clown in middle school, I was sent to the principles office on the regular, and I got in a few fights.
- In 7th grade I joined the football team, we went undefeated and claimed the championship, I also played in 8th grade, we only lost 1 game, which was the championship.
- I got my first electric guitar in 7th grade, influenced my my mothers husband at the time.
- I used to go to my granny's house every weekend, she was my favorite person.
-orientation at Tates Creek high school where i attended for 4 years and graduated.
-I got a job at Subway in Fayette mall, where I worked for 3 years.
-when I was 16 years old I went on vacation with my granny and my grandpa to N. Carolina, I remember waking up in the middle of the night to an awful gasping noise. It was my granny laying on the floor having a heart attack. she did not survive the night.
-I remember returning home from my vacation.
-when I was 16 I was jumped by eight guys for no reason.
-Several fights in the hallways of Tates Creek.
-I remember a crazy camping trip I went on with my mother her husband and my best friend. We camped in a park that did not exist.
- when my stepfather died
- being the one to have to tell my brother about our father, it was the hardest thing I have ever done.
- meeting a man named Scott , who became my best friend, he was 30 years old and let me move into his house with him so that I didn't have to be around my crazy mother.
- when Scott's dog dragged her butt across my carpet, it was the funniest thing I have ever seen, I am glad my friend Luke was their to witness it with me.
-When I was 19 I got a job at Panera bread where I am still working to this day, I cannot wait to
get my degree and be out of that place!
-When I was 20 I got an apartment with my friend Pete.
-From dealing with being my mothers marriage counselor through 10 marriages, I have become really smart when it comes to relationships.
-I am glad that I got a job at Panera because thats where I met my future wife. I remember taking my break with her, and asking her out. we have been together for almost 3 years now and we share an apartment with 3 dogs and 2 cats, this is the happiest I have ever been.
-I currently attend BCTC and work full time, I do not receive any grants or loans at the moment so I have a huge respect for college. My major is architecture.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
What Is Culture?
What is Culture?
Culture is a powerful word with endless definitions. What culture is to me, is not the same as what it would mean to anyone else, anywhere. Our culture forms the mold for who we are, and how we view the world we live in. By that I mean is makes up everything about us, especially if you are unaware of culture's influence on you. It helps form what we believe in, what we eat,our religion, when we sleep, how we treat others, how we dress, what we do in our free time, who we interact with, and simply how we live our lives on a day to day basis. From the moment we are born we are influenced by the observation of others actions such as our friends, parents, teachers, preachers, and political leaders. You can even be influenced by people that you have minimal contact with. We all have beliefs. Have you ever stopped to think about why you believe what you believe? Most of the time it is because of a cultural influence that you might not even be aware of. Why do we drive on the right side of the road in America, yet in many other countries they drive on the left side of the road? We don't ask questions about it, we just take part in it because thats just the way it is. Lets say that someone did a scientific study and determined that driving on the left side of the road was safer, and would result in less accidents. How difficult would it be to make such a simple change in our culture? In my opinion very, because the majority of people in our culture genuinely like routine, and fear change. On the other hand what if nobody ever questioned our culture? Then there would be no room for improvement. Things would always remain the same, untouched, and unquestioned. A few things come to mind when talking about untouchable culture such as religion, and politics. Our nation has one of the oldest standing set of laws known as the constitution. Of course we are not the same nation we were in 1787 when our nation adopted our constitution, yet it remains as our set standards of living. Why is that? Why is it such a hectic process to get something changed in our constitution even though it was written for a different generation of people with a very different culture then you and I? Once again it is because the general population fears change. Lets take a look at Christianity. This could be viewed from many different angles. Christianity gives people the answer to the question we all need to know, what is our purpose? Christianity also can be viewed as a governmental control factor of our citizens. In this scenario you have to ask your self such questions as why would anyone just make up a religion? Well one reason is to give people a moral boundary of right and wrong. If you do good in life you will get to go to Heaven. Another aspect of religion is the use of fear to control people. If you "sin" you will burn in hell for eternity. This fear aspect is used in our culture in more then just religion. Remember after 9/11 all of the terror alerts? Ever notice those terror alerts always seam to pop up right about the same time our nations administration was being veiwed in some sort of negative way? Fear is constantly being used by our media to direct our attention. Next time you are watching television, pay attention to the commercials we use to promote the news. The stories they brief you on will just about always be fear based. IT might sound something like this, " tune in at six o'clock to see what doctors are saying could be the next black plague." But when you do tune in you will surely be disappointed to find out that it is just something mundane. But you are watching it, and therefore making that news commercial successful. We are influenced every day by our culture without even thinking twice about it. There are literally millions of people out there who's job's are to try and come up with ways to influence us into believing that they have what we need. Television is a powerful weapon in these peoples hands. Overall I believe that in order for us to change the ways our culture influences us, we first need to recognize how it sways us, second we need to determine who originally formed that particular part of our culture, and last we need to try and figure out why anyone would want us to be a part of it? If we all followed these steps before standing behind something, I think our world would be filled with independent thinkers which would be more likely to allow for a huge change in our culture. Less premeditated influence.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
My Writting Experience
To tell the truth I haven't done allot of writing since high school, and that was almost six years ago. Although I did take general public speaking last semester and I had to write all of my speeches. We did a total of four speeches for that class, 2-point, informative, demonstrative, and a persuasive. I am hoping to apply what I learned last semester to this class. I think the most beneficial thing I learned about last semester as far as helping me progress in this class is the different techniques used to persuade people. I defiantly need to expand my vocabulary and touch up on my spelling since it has been so long since I have written a English paper.