Behind the Blue and Gray BY:Aayush Agrawal In the book,Behind the Blue and Gray, Delia Ray claims that life during the war was gruesomely difficult. Fighting and surviving was a lethal occupation. It didn’t matter what side you were on. Ray describes that some struggles during the war were camp life, rations of food, medical treatment, nature, worries about family, punishments, and life after the war. The book provides evidence to a soldiers hardships.
“What pain?” a South Carolina cop asked rhetorically one afternoon as we toured the fine neighborhoods south of Charlotte where he arrested kids for pills and heroin. Crime was at historic lows, drug overdose deaths at record highs. A happy façade covered a disturbing reality. I grew consumed by this
Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell is a complex movie that delves into the world of small town methamphetamine use and gives the viewer a view from inside the situation. Through the story of Ree Dolly, Woodrell paints a picture of the situation through the eyes of someone who is fighting to survive in that world, and who is deeply affected by methamphetamine, but who is not a user. This tale of survival may be a fictional one, but the themes included in the movie relate deeply to Woodrell's experience, and to the very real epidemic of small town meth use. Methamphetamine affects everyone in a community where it is prevalent, and not just those who are users. In the article, “Encyclopedia of Social Deviance” Mitchell B. Mackinem and Christopher B. Mackinem states, “the users will spend much of their day finding money for the drug, seeking the drug, experiencing the drug, and recovering from the use.
When looking at a scholarly journal or other form of report pertaining to controlled substances, the theme is usually pretty clear; “drugs are bad, people that do drugs are bad, and it’s only getting worse.” Moore challenges this theme by breaking the mold in his article, “The Other Opioid Crisis” by implementing several rhetorical devices to add a more human aspect to the not so black-and-white issue. “The Other Opioid Crisis” is an article that goes into the ethics and the arguments regarding those who are in need of opioids and their stories, alongside other ethical issues they may face. By providing stories of patients, Moore states his opinion which is backed strongly by the pains, both mentally and physically, that opioid prescribed patients face. In these stories he not only provides a detailed account of their struggles, he uses strong language to appeal to the pathos of the reader on a subject that may not be easy for many to sympathize with.
Within this music video, a negotiated position is taken by the audience. While some people can relate to the images shown in the video, not everyone identifies with or understands the dangers. Some may claim that this video is an inaccurate representation of drug users and its effects, whereas outsiders may completely accept the overall argument. Drug users should view this video with complete acceptance and agreement, but like Macklemore said in his lyrics, the majority of users do not believe they have a problem. This video however was intended to reveal that drugs are destructive and there is nothing beneficial about them.
By taking pride in America’s communities and youth, the program takes action against youth drug use through education and inspiration. From a young age, the Elks Drug Awareness Program asks kids to discern what it means to be drug free. Kids express their feelings of resisting peer pressure through the many local and national poster and essay contests. The program reaches nearly every school and community across the nation with its many drug prevention activities, public service
Ayelet Waldman’s Daughter’s Keeper brings to light the injustice of the American legal system in regards to drug related crimes. When Olivia Goodman is thrown into an unforgiving world of trials, courtrooms, and mandatory minimums, readers are faced with the unfairness of the American justice system. It isn’t fair that that Olivia receive a four-year sentence, while Jorge, a man more culpable, more at fault receive only three years. It isn’t fair that Gabriel Contreras, a known criminal, gets to cut a deal with the DEA and end up with $3,560,633 and no jail time, while Treyvon’s unnamed cousin gets twenty years for merely introducing people. It isn’t fair that someone marginally involved in a crime be punished more severely than the others.
With “Puppy” two ladies have different perspectives on how to raise their children. Saunders delivers one informative scene from each woman’s life before permitting the women to engage. As with, “Sonny’s Blues” the narrator and Sonny go through hardships after the death of their mother. “Puppy” by George Saunders and “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin switches between two perspectives of the characters. Marie and the narrator in both of the stories essentially feel that it is not worth the trouble to help out the other two characters.
The video was a great video and very much an eye opener. This video shows just how powerful water is. It showed how water is essential in keeping the world alive. In class we talked about how once we run out of a resource, it is gone forever, and in the video they talked about when we run out of water, it is gone forever. Tony Clarke, co-author of “Blue Gold,” mentioned that once we use up all of the water on the Earth, we cannot just leave and go to a different planet and use of all of its resources.
Ellen Hopkins’ Crank is an epic poem geared toward warning young people of the various consequences of using dangerous drugs. However important its message, it provides a single story, a stereotypical tale influenced by pop culture about addiction and the people it affects. In the poem, the heroine, Kristina Snow, gets addicted to methamphetamines, otherwise known as “crank”. Her life takes a downward turn that includes pregnancy and dropping out of school. The poem depicts just one experience with drug abuse and links it to what is perceived to be the most likely thing to happen if you get addicted to drugs, providing a false single story for the young people it targets.
The main focus of this documentary is police brutality and how it is affecting the younger generation of today. The main message of this story is to behave and be respectful no matter in what situation you are in when dealing with police. There is police officers killing innocent children and are getting away with it. Police brutality does not only affect children but also their family that have to deal with
Sonny’s Blue written by author James Baldwin is a story about a man and his younger heroin addict brother. James Baldwin is best known for his works in African American literature, urban literature, and gay literature. This was an amazing feat due to the period that he was creating his novels in. He was also a prominent figure in both the civil right movement and the gay right movements here in the United States. In his novels you will see a heavy influence of the things he believes in and struggles with like family members struggling with addiction, being African American, and being queer.
Steven Soderbergh’s famous movie, Traffic (2000) provides viewers with heavy insight at the “war on drugs” in the United States. It discusses this international drug issue through three twisted stories. The first story is mainly set in Mexico City and other parts of the country, in which a new “drug czar” of Ohio state Supreme Court, Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas), is appointed. As Wakefield tries to cope with his new position under difficult circumstances, and because he is away from his family for long periods of time, his sixteen-year-old daughter, Caroline become addicted to crack cocaine, but what’s unusual about Caroline is that she’s an honor student and National Merit Finalist.
I was able to understand five Major claims Teresa made throughout her article. The first one is that the popular, the disturbing, and the hauntings of history infiltrate American literature. For example, America does not have enough history to actually represent the gothic concept. The Gothic genre has the ability to seep into other genres and can appear in categories like romanticism. Gothic moments can thus occur in all areas of American literature, from fables to narratives.
• What are your responses to the information provided? What are some key ideas? In the film “The Drugging of Our Children” parents, experts, and people affected told their stories about the impact drugs had in their lives.
