Buck Up

The prompt this week is a very thought provocative one. Society seems to believe we have to shield children from failure with the idea that "everyone is a winner." I disagree with this standard as it is hardly relevant in real life. As early as junior high school I was startled with the truth that people keep score and not everyone wins the game.People have tried to shield their children from failure and losing only to not prepare them for the rest of their lives in which not everyone wins at the end of the day and not everyone is equal. The sooner people get used to this truth that life is not fair and accept it the easier it will be for them to deal with it and actually be more successful by not expecting victory to be handed to them on a sliver platter. We cannot raise a generation of wimps and they need to learn how to buck up because life can be harsh. Trial by fire is the way I see it and if our kids never get burnt, they will never make it through the challenge.

I could stay or I could leave...

I could stay or just leave. Walk away from it all. A choice that I often make without thinking of the potential impact in taking that crossroad. A choice we have discussed in our class as part of the short story, "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas". A place in which few, brave souls choose to walk away from their past and into their future.

In my life I have encountered that fork in the road many times in which I had to decide whether to maintain a steady course, or take my life in a new direction. When I graduated from middle school I left many friends, teachers, and parts of my life behind. I chose to walk away from that past and into a future I was not sure of at the time. I did not linger on what I no longer had or the close friends I would not see everyday. I had been so close to that place because after all I had chosen to stay many years before. In third grade my parents switched my sister and I into a private school in Huntington Beach called Pegasus. Being so young I was not happy with this sudden change and wished to go back. However, as the year came to an end and my parents asked, I was in love with my new surroundings, and wished to continue my education there next year. I did not walk away and I stayed with my new school where I thought in a way was where I was first taught how "to learn."

Many crossroads in life can be challenging to overcome and to decide. Sometimes the choice right for one can be difficult to accept and you cannot continue. But even though its hard I personally have learned. All that is left is to choose. Choose to stay, or leave.

Culture of Fear

Watch enough brutality on TV and you come to believe you are living in a cruel and gloomy world in which you feel vulnerable and insecure. In his research over three decades Gerbner found that people who watch a lot of TV are more likely than others to believe their neighborhoods are unsafe, to assume that crime rates are rising, and to overestimate their own odds of becoming a victim. They also buy more locks, alarms, and- you guessed it- guns, in hopes of protecting themselves. 'They may accept and even welcome,' Gerbner reports, 'repressive measures such as more jails, capital punishment, harsher sentences- measures that have never reduced crime but never fail to get votes- if that promises to relieve their anxieties. That is the deeper dilemma of violence-laden television.'"

Barry Glassner has a very interesting theory of the media and its impact on society. However, I would have to say I agree with his studies. Television, newspapers, and magazines broadcast violence and chaos to the public. With the power of exaggeration and telling only a single story they are able to convince an entire population we live in a very dangerous world. It takes away our happiness and instills fear resulting in the bulking of security and people building up walls both physically and socially. The results of these "warnings" from the media ends up being quite ironic as the security meant to protect is often the very assist of a burglar breaking in.

It is an insane reminder of the power of entertainment and print and how heavily it can influence the day to day lives of  many people.

Smoking kills. The words my generation has grown up hearing our entire lives. Sometimes it feels like I cannot go a single day without seeing an advertisement on television or in a magazine forbidding me to light up. Sometimes it even makes me wonder what could be so bad, what could deserve so much negative attention that it receives negative connotation the moment it is mentioned. But I live in a different world than just a few decades ago when it was just a normal part of life. I never had to see the people struggling with emphysema or the lives torn apart by tabacco addicitpn. With a family full of heavy smokers I am no strangers to the ash trays, lighters, and smokey rooms. Pictures like the one above truly amaze me. A simple image is able to convey such a deep and important meaning not truly capable with words. Visuals are so effective and advertisements like this one were the reason smoking is a trend that as died out and no longer take the lives of the people it affected.