Week 1: The Things They Carried and Thoughts on War

The Things They Carried reaffirmed my thoughts on war in general. I had a pretty limited knowledge base on the Vietnam War before this unit. However, from what I did know, I couldn't really understand why we were there in the first place. Yes, to stop the spread of communism, but it seems to me that there was a lot of unnecessary stuff going on. My personal belief is this: If we are going to fight a war, we need a strong purpose. For example, the Revolutionary War was to gain independence, and the Civil War resulted in reuniting the country. From reading this book, and from what I have learned about Vietnam in the past, I don't think the strong purpose was really there. Especially if you take into account the killing of innocent civilians, which happens in any war.

This is not to take away from the soldiers. It is very honorable that they serve our country. But for their lives to be endangered because of wars with vague purposes is not a good thing. From other war texts I have encountered, many have been from the soldiers' point of view, showing the hardships they have to go through when they are fighting a war, such as Fallen Angels, which The Things They Carried did as well. It helps to gain an understanding of what they are actually going through. However, many times the actual events of the war are glossed over in real life, and texts like The Things They Carried let us know what really goes on. I think that is the most important thing. We should be more engaged with the wars that are happening. Hopefully by doing so we can realize its true purpose, or lack there of, in order to take action to stop any unneccessary fighting.

Op-Ed: Fostering a New Activism

This piece I found on the LA Times site is about the changing views of homosexuality. A large part of it is based on an interview with Alan Weeks, a 78 year old gay man from Los Angeles. He talked about his experiences being gay before there was such a gigantic taboo. This is an effective persuasive piece because it shows how, years ago, even though people weren't open about it, being gay wasn't considered this huge deal. I think this article shows that there can be a life without these unnecessary prejudices. I don't think anyone should have to hide who they are, such as Weeks did. But, the article does show that as a society we can all treat each other as equals, and no harm can come from that, as we should all know.
Fostering A New Activism

Indian Boarding Schools and Cochlear Implants

It's clear that the motivations for the Indian Boarding Schools were based on prejudice. The people that ran and supported the schools wanted to eliminate any sign of Native American culture. Heather's parents in Sound and Fury were afraid that the cochlear implant was an endeavor to eliminate deaf culture, like the boarding schools strived to eliminate Native American culture. I can see many similarities here. Many boarding school attendees weren't allowed to go home, or to participate in their culture at all. This was seen in the cochlear implant schools that focused solely on speech, as well as the children with implants of hearing parents, who choose not to make them aware of their deafness and deaf culture. By sometimes not even being aware that they are--or were--deaf, they lose a part of themselves just as the Native American children did when they were forced into these boarding schools.



I think that the major difference between the Indian Boarding Schools and the cochlear implant controversy is that most of the people behind the boarding schools were doing what they were doing out of prejudice. While Heather's parents thought that the hearing people supporting the cochlear implants were out to eliminate deafness and deaf culture out of prejudice, most of them just wanted to help deaf children have an easier life. Therefore, most didn't have discriminatory motives.



I do think that assimilation is important to some extent, but not in the sense that we should strive to eliminate all cultures except one. The goal should be to bring all of the cultures together; never to make one forget where they came from. Everyone should have pride in their culture.

Ichthyophobia--Fear of Fish

Yes, you read that right. I am afraid of fish. They are slimy, scaly, and squirm-inducing. I suppose this may be an irrational fear, as so many fears such as these are. But I fear them nonetheless, and I am afraid it may be more rational than it seems.

When I was little, I always had a goldfish. They'd die and I'd get a new one, no problem. It wasn't until my last fish died that my fear of fish surfaced. My fish was five years old, about the max lifespan of a goldfish, and he was losing color, losing scales, and just looking ancient. One day, I came home and he was floating at the top of the bowl on his side. Now, this wasn't that traumatic for me, I'd seen dead fish before. However, when my mom took him out of the tank, he started flapping around. He had only fainted. This went on for the next few weeks. He'd faint, we'd deprive him of oxygen, and he'd come back to life. By the time he finally died, I was so freaked out by this fish "dying" and miracuously recovering, that I didn't want to go near the tank anymore. I didn't want to see him passed out/dead again. Thus, when the time came to discuss getting a new fish, I cringed at the idea. No more goldfish for me! To this day just seeing goldfish gives me chills up and down my spine. Now, I fully acknowledge that my fear of fish was just a tiny bit irrational. But when I went up north this past summer, my fear became totally rational. In the lake where we swam, there were a lot of little fish. It's normal to feel a little nibble on your toe. This year the blue gills were especially viscious though. They only went after me! They would lie in wait for me to stop moving, and then go in for the attack. The freckles on my calves were chewed off, they drew blood! My whole family would be in the lake, but the second my tender flesh hit the water, those demon bluegills would go in for the kill. I'd try kicking at them, hitting the top of the water with a pole, nothing worked. They just stayed there, watching me and waiting for an opportunity. One day I was dangling my feet off the end of the dock, and about 10 of them came swimming over the minute they smelled me. It was terrifying. Bluegills are shallow water fish, but when I went out swimming in the middle of the lake, which was deeper than they should ever have gone, they followed me and bit me while I was swimming. That entire week I could not go swimming without fearing the fish that gathered around me. It was pathetic, me and my Neosporin covered limbs. I love swimming, but for the first time in a long time, I was afraid to put even a toe in the water.

Being stalked by fish is not the most fun thing in the world. Those viscious little bluegills made me feel more vulnerable than I had felt in a long time. Perhaps this is why my fear was magnified. Perhaps it touched on my deeper issues. Unfortunately, I still would run away rather than be anywhere near those scaly creatures. It may take years of therapy before I ever let my future children have a pet fish.

The Universality of Fear

Fear is something everyone can relate to. That is why so many different genres utilize fear. Fear comes in many different forms, and can be interpreted in vastly different ways. No one can truthfully say they aren't scared of anything. Fears can range from spiders and fish (Yes, fish. It's a long story), to psycho killers or even the fear of failing a class. Different genres play on fears of their audience in different ways.

This famous painting, The Scream by Edvard Munch, is one of my favorites. You can really sense the terror coming from the image. Its colors make it especially eerie. You wonder what the story is behind the art. Paintings, and all art forms for that matter, are a great way of expressing an emotion like fear.The artist can easily get their point across. However, art is always up for interpretation by the individual viewer. Because it can be so subjective, the artist's point might not always come across the way they want it to.

Scientific magazines that have articles on fear, such as this one, Emotions and the Brain: Fear, from Discover Magazine's website, are more informative then anything else. In the article, they explain what your brain does when you feel fear, purely the physical reactions you experience. This article may benefit some people; by making it technical, it helps you detach from the emotion a bit. Some may then be able to overcome their fears by knowing the science behind it. However, the limitations this genre has are great, considering that many fears come along with some deep seeded issues that an article about the brain will never be able to fix. Fear is an emotion, and emotions run deep, sometimes not even recognized consciously.

Music is a great way to express any emotion. Besides the horror movie kind of fear, there are other, more deep seeded fears, such as the fear of abandonment, failure, or being loved. One of my favorite songs, Fidelity by Regina Spektor, talks about the fear of being vulnerable and opening yourself up to someone completely.
The benefits of music as a way of showing fear are that the artist can choose to express it in any way he/she chooses. Music can also often be interpreted in many different ways and in that way be meaningful for many different reasons to all kinds of people. It also has its limitations, in that how the artist chooses to go about expressing the fear can affect how it's received. Fear is powerful and can be interpreted in so many ways. All genres can use fear, and since everyone in the world can relate to it, it is truly universal.

Break That Metaphoric Dam!

For me, writing is like a dam breaking, all the water breaking through what is meant to keep it in place. My thoughts are often a mumbo-jumbo of incomprehensible, sometimes redundant nonsense in my head. My mind is like the ocean, vast and overwhelming at times, sometimes calm, but almost always with new waves of ideas rushing in at breakneck speed. This especially happens when I try to write. I have so many ideas in my head, but when I try to put them on paper (or blog, etc.), there is a dam, so to speak, keeping me from putting my ocean of thoughts into physical form. Everyone knows what I'm talking about: writer's block! But, when I finally find the right things to say, relief comes and the flow turns from a few measly words into sentences, into paragraphs and pages. In this way writing is the dam breaking, opening up the passageway for all my thoughts to come out faster and faster. Once I finally start, it's hard to stop. As it happens when a dam breaks, the results can sometimes be disastrous at first, but with a little work, they can turn into something beautiful, like writing.

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

For quite awhile I had been hearing about Greg Mortenson and told to read his book, Three Cups of Tea. Now that I have, I see why. It is a very important book. It was interesting to read about his experiences, how he went from mountain climber to building schools for girls in Pakistan. In today's society we all know that education is important for everyone. It is very sad that some people are limited in such a way as in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where Mortenson is building his schools.

I found the story very touching. He met a lot of interesting people. I especially enjoyed reading about the reactions of the kids when the schools were built, after having conducted classes outside with just sticks to write with and dirt to write in. It was also inspiring to read about the first girl from Korphe, the village in Pakistan where Mortenson started his movement, who went to university.

I learned a lot about the culture of that area, and of the hard times that went on there from the 90's up until now. Mortenson always immersed himself, taking care to learn their traditions and participate, almost becoming a native. He was not afraid to be in the middle of riots and war zones. He actually liked to be where the action was. He wanted to help the people in these affected areas, especially the children, in any way he could. The best part of the book was that you really get to know the people he meets well. You start to care for them as if you know them personally. Mortenson has changed the minds of some of the most prejudiced people he meets, endeared them. It seems that most people who met him couldn't help but like him, which helped his cause tremendously.

I didn't like the writing style of the book. It is written in third person, by someone other than Mortenson himself. This is fine, but it turns more into a biography of Mortenson's life. Sometimes I felt like this approach included too many personal details, and the point at times wandered from the projects in the Middle East for pages at a time. Aside from this however, Three Cups of Tea has a very powerful message, and I recommend it to everyone.

Mary Wollstonecraft and Female Empowerment

From reading this essay, I can tell that Mary Wollstonecraft was a smart lady. Anyone who stands up for their rights, such as she did with women’s rights in a time when women were considered inferior, is okay by me. But, as is with most writing of the time, the language made it a little difficult to get through. My dictionary was a very good friend while reading this, and with the language she used, she even seemed to be contradicting herself at times.

This essay was written as a wake up call to men and women both. Women are capable of doing anything men do. We aren’t meant to just be there to please and obey the men, responding to their every whim. Luckily in modern times most of us know this, but there is still sexism all around the world. It’s even in some traditional wedding vows. To paraphrase, the wife has to vow to obey and submit to her husband, while he doesn’t have to do the same. This is just one example of sexism in the U.S. Some people still don’t think women should have important jobs or hold positions of power. There are cultures where women are thought of as inferior and are even more limited than in Mary Wollstonecraft’s time.

Mary Wollstonecraft’s message is important, but she is far from concise in her language. My aunt went on a tour of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s house, and she told me that the tour guide said the authors of those times were paid by the word, resulting in confusing language. The more words there are, the more they get paid. I don’t know if this is accurate, but it is believable. At times, with Mary Wollstonecraft’s use of language, I was a little confused as to her point. At first she was saying that women were equal, intelligent beings, and then she was saying that women are not equal, intelligent, and perhaps are just as society views them. I had to reread parts of it a few times to realize that she wasn’t actually contradicting herself; she was reprimanding women for not rising above what society thinks of them and for filling the role society set for them just perfectly. The confusion was all in the language.

Mary Wollstonecraft’s spreading of female empowerment was important in 1792. It is still important today and some would do well to remember it. Aside from her language being difficult to read through, her message is still relevant today. She is a good role model for rising above and eliminating prejudice.

Google isn't Responsible for Our Stupidity

When I first read the title of this essay, I could automatically predict the subject matter. It is clear that Nicholas Carr believes that we as a society rely entirely too much on the internet for our information, and that it is detrimental to our intelligence to do so. His argument is well formed, and it made me think about effects the internet has on people that I never really thought of before.

Search engines like Google have made it easy to find information on any topic we want within a few typed words and a couple of clicks. Carr argues that as we use the search engines and quickly skim the websites and articles for a few valuable or interesting sentences, we are on our way to losing our ability to absorb and think in depth about the things we read, especially longer works. He quotes a blogger named Bruce Friedman: “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print…I can’t read War and Peace anymore.”

Well, I think the average person would have a difficult time absorbing War and Peace, not because they can’t or because Google is making them stupid, but because it isn’t interesting enough. I myself have never tried, but anyone who has seen Happy New Year, Charlie Brown! will remember the difficulties he had with it, not making it past the first five pages after trying for his entire winter break.

There’s another thing about skimming the things you read. It is a research technique that is often used to get through vast amounts of material in a short time. You highlight passages you think might be useful and ignore the rest. If you need to, you go back later and read more in depth to catch the things you miss. I don’t think that this practice makes you lose your thinking ability. I think it may be that some people become too lazy to read anything in depth.

That’s the key right there: laziness. The internet is our source for information, communication, news, and pretty much anything else you can think of in these times. Carr says that the internet is actually making us lose our ability to read and think in depth, as in we can’t even if we tried. I don’t entirely agree with this. I think that everyone still has the ability to do those things but become too lazy to do so. So, in my opinion Google isn’t making us stupid. It’s our lack of motivation.

Thoughts on Skunk Dreams

When I first read the title to this essay, I was intrigued, if not a little confused. Skunk Dreams? What could that mean? At least it seemed to carry the promise of being an entertaining read, which it was.

Dreams have always been a topic of interest for me. Why do we dream the things we do? For instance, the author says that "my best dreams come to me in cheap motels," and "cold often brings on the most spectacular of my dreams, as if my brain has been incited to fevered activity." I myself have dreams that can only be described as bizarre quite frequently. There is no dream dictionary complete enough to explain these dreams to me. However, I do like to think that our dreams are our subconscious telling us something, helping us to see something we didn't, and helping us to gain some perspective. I think that's where the phrase "sleep on it" comes from.

I think the point the author is trying to make is that we should try to see things from different perspectives, such as a skunk's, and doing this can help us to overcome our obstacles. We can live a more satisfying life this way. It's what we have to do to make our dreams reality.

The Talk of the Town

Adam Gopnik, when opening his essay on the Virginia Tech shooting, brings forth an image of the phones of the killed students ringing endlessly as the police clear away the bodies. As I'm sure it was meant to do, it really makes you think about the families and friends of victims of shootings, and of the 9/11 attacks, frantically trying to make contact and failing. Of course all of our hearts go out to those people, and we should do what we can to come together as a country; comfort them and help them to heal, to paraphrase Tim Kaine's comment. I think he may be missing part of the point though.

He doesn't want to focus on the politics of the situation; he says he's just thinking about the families. I can't really speak for them, but if I were those families, I would want someone to start making steps to prevent this from happening again. Now. We should all show support by trying to make some changes. I've always supported stricter gun control. Many shootings happen because mentally unstable people with violent tendencies are allowed to purchase a gun. Furthermore, I don't believe there is any real reason for an ordinary citizen to own a gun. Most would say it's for protection, but if we had more restrictive laws, people would feel less of a need to protect themselves with a gun. If we want to prevent these horrible events from repeating, we need to make some of these changes. As Gopnik says, "The point of lawmaking is not to act as precisely as possible, in order to punish the latest crime; it is to act as comprehensively as possible, in order to prevent the next one."

I felt that Susan Sontag's essay was a bit of a complaint piece with a very vauge solution. I agree with her that America isn't OK; everything is not just fine. Everyone can see that, even now. We have a lot of difficult problems to solve and huge messes to clean up as a country. Yes, we should unite and be strong. But, I think a lot of people didn't--and still don't--really know what's going on. Not all sources are reliable, and many people have been misinformed or are simply not paying attention. In any case, many don't really know the reality. Sontag says, "Let's by all means grieve together. But let's not be stupid together." I completely agree with this statement. The question that she has failed to give a complete answer to is: how? How do we get everybody to see the reality? And, how do we do this while still staying united, as we so desperately need to be? Reality is guaranteed to make some people angry or disbelieving. It's something to think about.

Dzien Dobry!

That means hello in Polish, pronounced Jen Dobre. I have Poland on the brain, having just gotten back, my first time in a foreign country, and hopefully the first of many international travels in my life. Here's a little bit about me:

The Berger family consists of me, Sarah, my mom, Ruthy, dad, Ron, two brothers, Corey and Chad, a sister-in-law, Kristi--whom I will refer to as my sister from here on out since I've known her for most of my life, and who, for all intents and purposes, is my sister. I also have a niece, Talya, and a nephew, Logan. My brothers are much older than I am and have moved out, so right now I am living alone with my parents, with the exception of my dog, Sam, and bird, Rainbow, who hates me. I say that semi-jokingly because he hates everybody.

I am part of an inter-faith family. My mom is Lutheran, and my dad is Jewish. We celebrate Christmas and Chanukah, Easter and Passover, and so on. We don't go to church or synagogue often, but being raised in a combined religion has taught me to be accepting of others, listen to other beliefs, and never to discriminate. We all live on this planet, and we should coexist in harmony.

I like to cook, read a lot, and love music. One of my favorite bands is The Beatles. I have at least 200 songs on my iPod featuring the works of John, Paul, George, and Ringo. But I like many different artists, and I listen to a lot of music people haven't heard of. I love to look for new artists to listen to. There are any number of great, undiscovered artists out there to find and to expand your music listening horizons. My friends and I are always making new discoveries, burning cds, and passing them around to each other. I also like to watch movies. People say I have strange taste. The weirder the plot, and the more eccentric the characters, the better. I just say what seems to be my weird taste in movies, books, and/or music is a reflection of my own eccentricities. We're all weird, so let's embrace it. Normal isn't always best.

I plan to go to college after high school. I'm not sure of the place yet, but I know that I want to at least minor in Spanish. I want to go into social work as well. Of course nothing's for sure; I might discover something completely different between now and the time I'll be declaring my major, but I think it's the right path for me. I want to help people, especially kids, get over some of the obstacles I've had little or no help with in my life. I've been pretty lucky to have parents who have fought for me to have equal opportunities, but there's still a long way to go. I want to help open up doors for all people, but people with disabilities especially. Hopefully I will be able to help someone get what I couldn't; everything is always changing and progressing, and I want to keep it that way.

This is just a little piece of who I am. It seems long though; I don't usually talk about myself. I'm changing all the time, but above are some of the things about me that are likely to stay as they are. On that note, I'm going to go get my jetlagged self some caffeine. It feels like 9:00 at night right now, and it's the middle of the day.

Do Widzenia! (Bye!)