Transcendentalism is the belief that every individual is capable of doing the right thing if they rely on themselves and distrust organizations that attempt to control them. I would identify as a transcendentalist. I believe that governments' purposes are honorable in their intention, but they have become too much of a comfort object for humans. They are corruptible and many times only seek to maintain power, and this poisons the communal spirit of society instead of fostering it. Religion, again is honorable in its purpose, but it assimilates people into reestablished groups, and eliminates from them their freedom of mind. I believe that government in particular sets limits on people, preventing them from reaching their potential and fulfilling their sense of identity. People spend their lives making money and working jobs in order to pay taxes that support their government. The government regulates money, which is what the people are forced to obtain in order to survive. They cannot truly rely on themselves when they must constantly feed this system. It is like applying their own life support. They rely on the government, rather than solely themselves. Religion does not conflict with transcendentalism as directly as government does, but its assimilation of people into established thought groups destroys their freedom of mind, and as a result, their individualism. It is possible to be a religious transcendentalist, but only if the religion is what the individual truly wants to follow. Even in this case, limits are set upon individualism. The mind's future growth is inhibited even if the present state is fulfilled. They answer to another power rather than themselves, and this treads upon their sense of individualism. I identify as a transcendentalist because I do not want limits set upon my mind.

Bowling for Columbine

I believe that Michael Moore made a very strong argument in Bowling for Columbine. America has the most gun related deaths in the world, and Moore has gathered substantial evidence as to why this is so. An inherent fear in the American culture has driven many Americans to use guns for protection. Celebrities who support the use of firearms set an example for the rest of the country to follow. For these reasons, the number of gun-related deaths in America dwarfs that of any other country. Moore believed that the American public had always harbored a certain degree of fear. America, regarded as a melting pot around the world, also proved to be a breeding ground for tension and fear between the races. This tension has boiled over many times. The discovery of Native Americans already living in the New World, the mistreatment of slaves during the 1800’s, and the actions of the Ku Klux Klan during the Civil Rights Movement were examples of the inherent fear resulting in violent actions. The fear demonstrated by these events is still present in America today. It was exposed when Moore visited the house of James Nichols in Michigan. Nichols’ brother, Terry, was a conspirator in the 1995 bombing of Oklahoma City. James slept with a gun under his pillow at night. He claimed that he did it so that he would be able to defend himself in case an intruder broke in. James claimed that there were some “wackos” in the world and that one could never be too prepared. This type of paranoia and mistrust has often resulted in an Americans being more than willing to use guns. Moore also explored some of the reasons the gun culture in America has become so big. One such reason was the popularity of gun-toting celebrities, including Charlton Heston. Heston, a Hollywood movie star, was one of the NRA’s most valuable voices. He had given pro-gun speeches in Littleton, Colorado, and in Mount Morris Township, Michigan. These speeches came mere days after shootings occurred at the Columbine and Buell schools in each respective town. The speeches helped quell the surge of anti-gun sentiment that had been unleashed by the shootings. Heston’s fame attracted many followers, and many gun enthusiasts were encouraged by his speeches. A big reason for the rise of gun usage in America is the example set by our gun-toting celebrities. Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine presented a very convincing argument for stricter gun control laws. The inherent fear and tension between the different ethnicities in America created a society where the use of a deadly weapon was the first reaction for many people. The weapons themselves were promoted by celebrities such as Charlton Heston, who acted as a spokesperson for the NRA, attracting many new supporters for the association. The number of gun deaths in America continues to grow, and Bowling for Columbine highlighted excellent reasons for why this was so, and why change was needed.

Irrational Fear

Pain

Being a cross country runner, swimmer, and track runner, I am very used to pain. I deal with it every day in these sports. This kind of pain doesn’t bother me, but a different kind of pain, the kind that I don’t intend to feel, is one of my worst fears. Pain comes in varying degrees, both emotional and physical. Pain is a growling phobia of mine. It now affects me at a much deeper level than it did throughout my childhood.

Involuntary pain in my bones and muscles that I may have ignored growing up now demands my full attention. When a painful stimulus sends a jolt through my body, and, I panic. I have always been able to overcome this panic quickly, but this has also made me realize my worst fear: someday I may feel a pain so bad that I cannot quell the panic, go insane.

When I was young, the thought of pain rarely crossed my mind. I did a flip off a five-meter platform into a pool at age eleven. I jumped to the ground from over ten feet up on play structures at the park when I was seven. I rode my Razor scooter around at skate parks, braving every ramp no matter how tall or steep it was. I thought doing dangerous things made me look tougher in the eyes of my friends, and, especially, in the eyes of girls. As I have grown older I realize that I probably inspired more worry than awe out of both parties.

Physically, I have subjected myself to most of the pain I have felt. Grueling workouts have left my body practically numb to the pain that comes with them. The pain they bring is tolerable because I know it is temporary. It also brings a small token of relief. I feel myself getting in shape as I work out, so more pain means more gain.

Emotional pain is much harder to manage. I have lost some good friends, and I remember how powerful and terrible the pain was. I felt lost, angry, confused, and sad for a long time. Only time can heal emotional wounds. There is no straightforward healing process. This makes it very hard to deal with, and I dread the possibility of it happening.

Sometimes, though, the mental and physical callouses that I have built up are breached. Any time somebody close to me dies, the emotional pain is too great for me to handle at once. The grief hits me in waves, spreading the pain over time to minimize its toll as much as possible.

I have yet to encounter any pain that I have not been able to overcome, but I have imagined what it might be like. The following scenario is the scariest  

“The injury does not immediately register. The pain, a tidal wave of it, is held at bay by the shock, which will soon fade away. All I know is that I will never be able to use my leg again. This realization makes me sick with emotional agony as well. Having led an active lifestyle, this injury will turn my life upside down. My leg hangs limp like a sock without a foot in it, completely shattered.

I sit in the middle of nowhere, my car had had a flat tire, and I had made a stupid mistake and tried to turn. This made it worse. I would now have to live the rest of my life knowing that this could have been avoided and it was squarely my fault.

The car had barrel rolled, and my leg had been smashed against the underside of the dashboard. I had crawled out of the car, which was now lying on its roof. My cell phone had no service.

The shock started to wear off. The pain starts increasing, slowly at first, then, after I shift my position slightly, becomes unbearable. I scream desperately, yelling for help, my panic only growing because I know that nobody will hear me. The pain continues to increase and I start yelling crazy things, desperately shouting prayers that will never be answered. I involuntarily convulse, bringing the pain up yet another notch.

I become irrational. All coherent thoughts disappear from my mind, and I lose touch with reality. I blindly inch along the road away from my car, knowing that I will tear the skin off of my arms and torso in the process. I have no idea where I am going, but am too driven mad by pain to care.

This situation itself is irrational. If I ever do have a flat tire, I will slow down and pull over as I have been instructed to. The danger in the equation will immediately be snuffed out. Despite reassurance that this scenario is of the utmost unlikeliness, I still have qualms about dangerous activities that could result in pain. The possibility of pain is present in any situation, and to this day I am very critical of what I do, analyzing the activity to avoid bringing any pain upon myself. Twelve year-old Sam will always hold my personal record for the highest ramp ever conquered on a scooter. Eighteen year-old Sam wants no part of that.

Philomena

Philomena Lee’s story is a very powerful one. The book hollows the life of Michael A. Hess an adopted child born in Ireland and raised in America. Anthony Lee was born an illegitimate child to Philomena Lee in Ireland. Philomena and Anthony were placed in the Sean Ross Abbey, Ireland’s dumping ground for illegitimate children and mothers. There, Philomena toiled in the hot, badly ventilated laundry department for three years while simultaneously raising her child. She was coerced into giving up her child for adoption when he was three years old. Stripped from his mother and renamed for his adoptive father, Mike gradually adjusts to American life while Philomena attempts to find out what happened to him back in Ireland. Mike leads a very interesting life, and he proves that the bond between a mother and child can never truly be broken.

Mike faces hardships from the moment he sets foot in America. His adoptive brothers and father were not very accepting, and he suppressed every qualm he had with them for years in an attempt to fit in. Finally, he could not take it anymore. He began to argue with his father, paid his way through law school after his father refused to back him. Mike was a devoted Catholic, but he was very conflicted, and eventually shied away from church activities after finally admitting that he was a homosexual. He grew up masking his true self, eventually rising very high in the ranks of the Republican Party. This caused him even more conflict. His friends who knew of his sexual orientation questioned his reasons for working for the very party that sought to strip him of his rights. Mike defended himself, but the conflict only drove him crazier. Mike faced unknown attachment disorder after being separated from his mother. This showed when he cheated on several of his lovers and eventually contracted HIV because of it. Mike survived for two years with the virus while trying to find his mother. He was unsuccessful and died with the only comfort being that he would eventually see her in the afterlife.

I personally think the story is a very powerful one. Martin Sixsmith, the author, did a fantastic job uncovering the details of this story; he incorporated them flawlessly into the book. The details were not pretty, often grotesque, but they allowed me to form a clear image of the horrors that Philomena and Mike were subjected to. I often found myself yelling at the book when Mike or some other character did something stupid or cruel. I t has been a long time since a book has grabbed me like this one did. It was an eye opening experience. Now I have learned just what being stripped of an ordinary childhood can do to people. Looking deeper into people, I have become a more tolerant person. That never would have happened without this book.

If Men Could Menstruate, The Great Lawsuit: Man versus Men. Woman versus Women

  Attention has been called to a problem that has taken a back seat to many movements throughout history and it is high time that this was rectified. Women have been oppressed throughout history, and although the oppression is not as bad today as in centuries past, it is still a problem. Women are still at a disadvantage at home, in the workplace, and in politics. The disadvantage comes not from any lack of qualification; it comes simply through prejudice.

Margaret Fuller addresses the problem of men taking advantage of the work of women in The Great Lawsuit: Man versus Men. Woman versus Women. “We will not speak of the innumerable instances in which profligate or idle men live upon the earnings of industrious wives.” This statement sums up the story Sweat told by Zora Neale Hurston. Women, such as Delia, will toil and support the family while the men, like Sykes, sit around and take advantage of their earnings.

In the workplace, women have historically been at a disadvantage. Politifact.com states that women make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. Men earn almost 25% more money for doing the same job as women. That is not right. In politics, women are again prejudiced against. When Nancy Pelosi became the Speaker of the House, history was made. She was the first woman ever to be elected to a position that was over 200 years old. The Executive Branch has the office of First Lady. The title of this office automatically assumes that a man will be president and that his wife or appointee will assume the spot. No woman has ever been elected president, and there has never been a First Man. This has been a statistic that only aids the prejudice.

Gloria Steinem’s If Men Could Menstruate calls attention to the fact that men have rigged society to benefit themselves more so than their woman counterparts. Women bear the brunt of having a child. They carry the fetus for nine months. They give birth. They menstruate every month. Yet despite all this, society is still not equal. This piece of literature also points out that it is a perfectly correctible situation. It just requires slightly different thinking from members of society. “The truth is that, if men could menstruate, the power justifications would go on and on. If we let them.” People in society are perfectly capable of making the necessary changes to promote equality. All that remains is to make it happen.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

“Google it.” This phrase is one of the most repeated in the entire English language. I hear it on a daily basis. Computers, phones, and technology everywhere are becoming very powerful, and the developments are only increasing in speed. It is a very good societal question that Nicholas Carr addresses in “Is Google Making us Stupid?” Is technology good or bad for the advancement of human society? For me, the pros of the advanced technology far outweigh the cons.

Technology is quickly becoming the glue that holds our world together. People call each other on cell phones. They use electronic calendars. Even digital books are gradually library books. These all allow the transfer of knowledge to happen more quickly. Instead of going into a building or using the nearest phone booth, a person can pull out their cell phone and dial a number as quickly as they want to. Smartphones often come with calendar apps, so replacing a paper calendar every year and remembering to turn the pages becomes a thing of the past. The production of digital books saves trees as no paper is required. No longer do we have to wait for our local libraries to obtain a book. We can just buy it online.

Carr brings up his fear that machines will soon be doing more thinking than humans will. I disagree with this statement. He mentions that when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, it caused some people to denounce it as demeaning to the intelligence of men. This technology rendered the writing of books by hand obsolete. It was a new invention, but society became more advanced along with it. I believe that the same thing is happening today. The printing press was rendered obsolete, and now new computers constantly render old ones obsolete. I believe that the human mind is evolving along with these new machines. New research is constantly used to produce greater and greater technology. The mind of a human invents every new development in the technology world. The development of the human mind is linked with the development of technology and they will continue to develop at the same pace.  

The Ethics of Living Jim Crow

Richard Wright’s The Ethics of Living Jim Crow is a piece of literature that provides an inside look at the true horrors that African Americans had to endure during the years when the Jim Crow system went unchecked. The story provides shocking details and drives home how much courage civil rights leaders and workers showed in the years both during and surrounding the movement. I often wondered as I read this what role I would have taken were I in Wright’s shoes during his childhood and young adulthood. As the story developed, I realized what that path would have been.

Richard Wright recalls some very vivid details from his past. The story opens up on him getting hit by a broken milk bottle during a cinder fight. Rather than showing sympathy, his mother scolds him and beats him. She wants him to take the submissive route and succumb to the Jim Crow laws.
This made Richard angry, but later he realized that his mother only wanted him to be safe once he left the house. Years later, his mother’s advice proved itself to be wise. He was l stopped by police and white citizens alike and harassed. They tried to make him submit and keep Jim Crow alive. Sometimes they even held him at gunpoint. “They climbed out of the car, guns drawn, faces set, and advanced slowly.” Wright’s details capture the essence and the terror felt by all African Americans during the Jim Crow years.

Reading this story really made me think about what I would have done if I had been an African American growing up during this time period. Immediately I though that I would have kept my head down, been submissive, and avoided danger and conflict as much as possible. However, as I read more, I realized that this would only add fuel to the Jim Crow fire.

The whole goal of the oppressive southern society was to make the African Americans feel like they were inferior to the white people. The white people bullied them and harassed them. The African Americans were discriminated against in the workplace and often couldn’t find jobs. At night, the KKK terrorized them, harassing them and even lynching them sometimes.

I think that if I were alive during this time, I would have joined the Civil Rights Movement. I would have placed articles in newspapers and tried to speak up for my own rights. I realize that this would be the most dangerous path, but it is also the one that made the most difference and eventually caused the Jim Crow society to collapse. I admire the bravery of leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. They helped promote non-violent resistance and helped eventually make the difference they wanted to. I would want to be like them.