#5-"Young, Attractive, White Women"

                If a woman chooses to dress provocatively does that mean it’s her fault if she gets sexually assaulted?  According to Toronto police officer, Constable Michael Sanguinetti during his Crime Prevention Forum, it is.  Sanguinetti’s quote “I’ve been told I'm not supposed to say this – however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized,” outraged many women, including 3000 women who chose to protest, this started the SlutWalk. 

                When I first read this article and his quote I was appalled.  How could someone who is obviously in the eyes of his department, qualified to get give talks about Crime Prevention, so unintelligent.  At the beginning of the quote he states “I’ve been told I’m not supposed to say this…”, Yes Constable, you were told not to say this because you just made yourself look like an idiot, apparently someone was trying to save you some embarrassment.   According to Wikipedia in 2010 there were 84767 recorded rapes.  Of course this chart doesn’t indicate whether or not the females were dressed in provocative clothing or not, but common sense would tell you they were not.   Rosemary Connors, the elderly woman living alone, the child walking home from school and Trisha Meili, jogger at the park are all examples of people that have been sexually assaulted and were dressed in “appropriate” clothing.

                When the media, The Toronto Star, first revealed it was depicted by a photo of “young, attractive white women” which is addressed by Joanna Chiu’s article SlutWalk:  Does The Media Make the Message?   Joanna Chiu believes this photo was a “the typical underrepresentation of people of color and the overrepresentation of young, attractive white women in the mainstream media.”  I agree with her.  I feel the media, like Sanguinetti, wanted to put all the protesters in a general group of young, attractive white women so it appealed to more viewers.  Ads in magazines, TV commercials and billboards usually have a certain look when trying to have sex appeal, for example look at Playboy magazine.

                So to answer my above question, No the clothing a woman wears does not give a criminal permission to assault her.  It is unintelligent comments like that made by individuals in the public eye, such as police officers, that give the public a bad opinion of them.  The good cops live in the shadow of a man who clearly has no respect for women and their rights.  A bank gives out money freely to the customers coming in, the tellers are handing it to customers, and we can see the money on the counter and in the drawers.  Does that mean because I see the money and want it, I can take it?  NO.  Would the police who investigated the crime say “I’ve been told I'm not supposed to say this – however, banks should avoid advertising and showing their money in order not to be victimized.”? 

#4-"A Left What?!"

                I’m a Left Libertarian?  A left what?  As you can tell my political knowledge is very limited.  After taking the political compass test it was determined I was classified as Left Libertarian.  I knew at that moment Google was about to become my best friend.  I wasn’t raised in an environment where politics were talked about and honestly have never had much of an interest. 

                So after reading article after article I’ve come to the conclusion that maybe I am classified as Left Libertarian. Their beliefs seem to be similar to mine but because of my lack of strong politic views, I’m unable to say this with confidence.  Does this lack of knowledge make me feel uneducated and out of touch?  At times it does, especially with the elections going on.

                According to www.lp.org, the Libertarian party believes that “all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose.”  They believe in minimum government and maximum freedom.  Does this sound like what I believe in? ABSOLUTELY. 

            What exactly do I believe in? I believe that if two people love each they should be able to marry even if they are the same sex.  I believe that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, for example, the politician that is against same sex marriage is the one who cheats on their spouse.  I believe marijuana should be legal especially for those in pain.  I believe marijuana is less addictive than alcohol and tobacco which kills millions every year.  I believe politicians spend more time telling us what’s wrong with the other opponents instead of telling us what they can do for us as president.  I believe politicians should work on being more moral instead of living with the motto “Whatever is good for me, my family and my friends is good for everyone.”  I believe politicians get paid too much and more should go to the working class such as teachers, the military, police, firefighters and medical professionals.  I believe that abortion is a tough decision and should be dealt with on a personal level, not a political one.

            I believe Gandhi’s quote “The Main purpose of life is to live rightly, think rightly and act rightly,” is a wonderful quote to sum up my beliefs and a quote more politicians should live by. 

#3; "Education Assembly Line"

“It’s not possible. Street Kids are incapable of learning to read and write, so why are we spending time on this?” This is a line from the video “Changing Education Paradigms” by RA animates that I find intriguing.  Why?  It’s the line that helps me understand why education is what it is today and the beginning of the lack of empathy in our school systems.  This lack of Empathy is addressed in the RA animates videos, “Changing Education Paradigms” and “21^st Century Enlightenment” and the Wikipedia article “Age of Enlightenment.”

The Age of Enlightenment was the turning point for education.  It was the point in time when instead of looking at religion as our sole means of education we began to look at science.  It's also the point in time when education wasn’t reserved for the children of the wealthy, taxes would be set forth for education.   Was it supported by everyone?  Of course not, some of the wealthy felt as it was a waste of time for us to help the “street” kids learn.  Empathy was lacking at the beginning of education and is still lacking in our school systems today.

Webster’s dictionary defines Empathy as “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner.”  Basically it’s being able to share one’s experiences and emotions without being in their shoes.  Do the teachers have empathy for the child who is good in math but struggling in reading? Do they take the time to evaluate why the child is struggling or do they continue on with their daily routine?  Unfortunately, like the video “Changing Education Paradigms” points out, our schools systems still run like they did during the industrial age, putting children in groups by age and herding them to subject after subject.  There isn’t a separation and it’s Darwin-Survival of the fittest at its best, the weak will fall off the radar and the strong will become “teacher’s favorites.” 

I love the line in the video “21^st Century Enlightenment that states “It has become cliché that Education is the most valuable resource in global knowledge economy.  I would argue that fostering empathetic capacity is just as important to achieving a world of citizens at peace with each other and themselves.”  I agree completely and feel that our children grow up in a world and go to school to learn everything but how to be empathetic.  I feel as though our school system focuses more how much knowledge they can cram into our heads and leaves out the important issues on how to actually care about another individuals.  Should children learn this at home? Yes but is that enough?  No!  To me Empathy should be emphasized just as much as getting a college degree because no matter what your degree you hold if you can’t put yourself in other’s shoes, you’re not going to get very far. 

I’m a nurse currently working on to further my career from LPN to RN.  I graduated from my nursing program with a 3.7 GPA, top in my class.  Why am I telling you this?  Well, because I was one of the kids that fell of the radar when I was younger.  I graduated high school with a 2.3 and didn’t care to go to college directly out of school.  I felt I wasn’t worthy of an education and why make my parents pay for something I wouldn’t be good at.  What changed in me?  A little girl needed her mom to be something more.  Can the weak become strong again?  Yes but why make our children struggle.  We shouldn’t and I feel that the Age of Enlightenment started something great by making education available. But I ask you this has education become nothing more than an assembly line where the children that able to fit into the mold called our school system are shipped off to college and the rest are shoved to the back questioning if they are meant to be anything more than expendable “mistakes”?

#2 "Coercion At Its Best

               Lightly holding on to an excerpt from the book “Coercion: Why We Listen to What ‘They’ say” by Douglas Rushkoff my eyes began to glaze over and many thoughts began to flow in my head. What stores do I come to first when I enter the mall?  What items do stores put in their windows to catch my attention?   Wal-Mart, I know you put the toys in the checkout lane so my little girl will try to get me to buy it.    Kroger, I know how you offer points to get money off of gas so I use your store.  So I concluded after these thoughts that no way could I be coerced.  I was above the advertising agencies and media.  I, Samara Clemons cannot be tricked to do anything!

                Douglas Rushkoff explains in this excerpt that no matter how hard we try to avoid these tactics, it’s impossible to avoid.  As he states, “In most cases, if the coercion works according to plan, we don't even realize it has been used.”  I love how he compared the Coercers to hunters, “They can don better camouflage, learn better ways to scent their prey, develop longer-range bullets and more accurate sights, but they still need to find their quarry and then figure out which way it's moving so they can "lead" with the gun barrel and hit it.”  I felt like this was a perfect way to describe how coercers are forever changing and adapting to ensure their goal of capturing us is achieved.     

                Am I above Coercion?  Apparently I’m not.  At the end of this article it was clear to me that I had been manipulated by Douglas Rushkoff.  His well-played out book uses a series of techniques to draw me into the story and persuade me to keep reading.  When reading the line, “you have been exposed to a battery of coercive techniques. In fact, everything you have read so far has been concocted to demonstrate the main techniques I'll be exposing in this book,” I began to smile.  Not only had he expanded my knowledge in this subject by a well written piece but he also used his techniques to better illustrate his points. 

                Was Douglas Rushkoff the only person to persuade me into reading this excerpt?  No, Mr.  Benton had already done this by explaining that credit would not be given if this paper was not completed.  According to Douglas Rushkoff, Mr. Benton is a “They” in my life, deciding my fate and creating my future.

#1- "The Government is similar to my Mom and Dad?"

After reading "An Introduction to Criticism" by Michael Ryan I immediately compared it to parenting and family.  Why?  Well I've been in "mommy" mode for the past seven years and it only seems fitting for me to compare everything to parenting but let's see if I can explain my reasoning.

First, I would like to start off by saying our government is like the "Mom and Dad" of our society.  Our parents "mold" us into the people we are by following their beliefs, "norms" and what they feel is best for us (even if it really isn't).  Does that sound like our government?  Of course it does!  We choose to follow the rules that are laid out by our government because that is what is expected of us and if we don't we'll get timeout, aka jail. 

Second, would be our family such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc., I compared those people to our schools, churches and other organizations that we are involved with.  You're probably asking yourself, where's the connection?  Well our family is who we look up to and that's the same about our churches, schools and organizations.  If churches and religion are preaching about how we should do what is right and that's bombing a building, and we respect our religion like we respect our family, where do we go from there?

Finally, there our friends who I compare to media outlets such as newspapers, TV broadcasts and magazines.  Our friends are the ones we go to for advice on everything from boyfriends to fashion because we trust their opinions.  We trust that they are going to give us the most accurate information, just like the media. But do the media and our friends always give us accurate information? No!  They omit words, such as "terrorism" when speaking of domestic terrorism, like Michael Ryan pointed out, because the work terrorism automatically makes us think of the Middle East.  The media, like our friends, word things to make us feel a certain way and to feel safe and secure.  Our friends, unless completely blunt, wouldn't want us to have fear in our own country that acts of terrorism are occuring in our own country by our own people, and neither does the media. 

Micheal Ryan does an excellent job of making us realize that as much as we want to believe that we think independently and are who we are because of our own ideas and belief, we're wrong.  We are molded into who we are by our society and family.  Just as my daughter will one day fight that she is independent and her upbringing had nothing to do with who she is, I know differently.  Just like I realize I am who I am because of my family, friends, government, churches and social organizations.