Kidnappings in Cleveland

I was just reading through the news about the kidnappings in Cleveland and came across an article that mainly focused on three key areas to keep kidnappings like this from happening in the future. In the article What Cleveland Kidnappings can Teach Parents Jack Levine points out the first key idea which is that once a child goes missing, parents should immediately get in touch with the police and treat the child as an abducted victim. This is especially important for missing teenage girls because most youngsters abducted for sexual purposes are dead or imprisoned within a couple of hours. Although this approach would be costly and we would make lots of mistakes, we would also save lives. Levine also points out that dangerous sex offenders who are released from prison have to register with law enforcement, and their photos and addresses are frequently made available to the public. The real problem here is that 150,000 sex offenders never register. The last point Levine makes in his article is that pressure from the public to solve the “crime of the week” minimize the attention paid to “cold cases.” Levine writes, “It becomes all too easy to assume that the kidnapping victim has been murdered because that is the statistical reality.”

Jack Levine starts off his article with a quote from Michelle Obama. When she spoke to Americans about the kidnapping she described it as “a parent’s worst nightmare.” I think Levine started off his article with this quote to get the reader thinking about how horrendous the Cleveland case really was. Levine uses different craft moves to make the reader agree that we should have faster responses when a teenage girl goes missing. For example, Levine begins the “Missing Children” section with a statistic: 800,000 children go missing every year. Of those 800,000 children, most of them are runaways or have been kidnapped by a parent during a child custody battle. Lastly, Levine ends his article on a positive note saying, “In either case, even a single kidnapping that results in freedom for its victims gives hope to the families of abducted children everywhere that their loved ones, too, could someday be coming home.” Ending the article in this way helps the reader look at what happened through a positive lens instead of focusing on just the suffering and pain of the victims of a kidnapping.

When I first heard about the kidnappings in Cleveland I was almost traumatized and I realized that I had forgotten about the horrors of this world and the cruel, selfish, sociopathic people living in it. Just the fact that anyone could ever do what Ariel Castro was accused of doing made me begin to lose faith in humanity. This article, however, put my lens into perspective as I started to gain back a sense of hope for the families of abducted children that they could someday be coming home.

 

Why I admire Mercutio

I am currently reading “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare and so far in the play Tybalt has just stabbed (and killed) Mercutio and as a result, Romeo killed Tybalt. Although Mercutio is now dead, I still think that he is the most complex and interesting character in the play so far. Mercutio is both Romeo’s friend and confident. He is a true friend to Romeo and tries his best to keep the peace. Although Mercutio is viewed as a secondary character, I believe he is the most important character so far because not only does he foreshadow devastating events in the play while moving the action forward, but I noticed that his death is also a major turning point in the play.

One reason why Mercutio is my favorite character is because although Romeo is rash, Mercutio stays his true friend. Ultimately, all Mercutio wants is for there to be peace between the Montagues and Capulets.  In Act 2 scene 1 when Mercutio is the first to see that Romeo is deeply in love, he calls for Romeo saying, “Romeo! Humors! Passion! Lover!” Then he says, “My invocation is fair and honest in his mistress’ name.” He doesn’t want him to marry his mistress (Juliet) because he knows that the Montagues and Capulets are each other’s enemies and it will only cause trouble between the two families. I love this part because Mercutio is obviously expressing his concern to Romeo which isn’t always an easy thing to do. Have you ever felt like what your friend was doing or thinking was wrong but you never said anything because you didn’t want to get into something you weren’t involved in? Well if you think about it, Mercutio isn’t a Montague or a Capulet so even though he knows that Romeo’s love for Juliet will only cause problems in the end, he still tries to pull Romeo out of the situation he’s in and tries to help him understand. From past experiences, I know that this isn’t always an easy thing to do because although it might not seem like it, it takes courage. This is one reason why I admire Mercutio.

Another reason why I admire Mercutio is because even after Romeo says in Act 2 scene 1, “A gentleman, that loves to hear himself talk and will speak more in a minute than he will stand in a month.” (Romeo just doesn’t get the warnings Mercutio has been trying to tell him because love has already overcome him and taken over his thoughts.), he stays a true friend to Romeo. Mercutio shows loyalty and courage when he fights Tybalt to defend Romeos name in Act 3 scene 1. As Tybalt stabs Mercutio, Mercutio says, “A plague o’ both your houses!” It’s not until Mercutio is dead that Romeo realizes the consequences of his love affairs, thus making Mercutio’s death a major turning point in the play.

All in all, Mercutio is the bravest, funniest, most interesting, and overall my favorite character in the play so far. What I admire most about Mercutio is the courageous loyalty he has for Romeo. He foreshadows many important events and his death marks an important turning point in the play as the tragedy develops and the fates of the protagonists darken.

Does Yong Love Exist??

“Is there such thing as young love?” I am currently reading the play “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare and since young love is one of the main themes in the play, I have recently been wondering whether teenagers can truly fall in love. I have unpacked some quotes that have helped me in my understanding of whether young love truly does exist.

This play is about two family’s; the Montague’s (Romeo’s family) and the Capulet’s (Juliet’s family). At the beginning of the play Romeo is “in love” with this girl named Rosaline except she doesn’t love him back. Lady Capulet tells Juliet that Count Paris wishes to marry her. Romeo and Juliet don’t actually meet until the party. When Romeo sees Juliet, all his thoughts about Rosaline disappeared. They are instantly attracted to each other and then realize that they are each other’s enemies.

Is young love more of just the idea of being in love more than anything else? For example, In 1.1.10,

BENVOLIO
[…] What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours?
ROMEO
Not having that, which, having, makes them short.
BENVOLIO
In love?
ROMEO
Out–
BENVOLIO
Of love?
ROMEO
Out of her favour, where I am in love.

At the beginning of the play Romeo is completely in love with Rosaline. He calls her the “love of his life” and when he’s not dreaming about Rosaline in his room, he mopes around in a grove of sycamore trees where those who are “sick amour” usually hang out (1.1.4). Even though Romeo knows Rosaline has absolutely no interest in him, he still goes after her. This makes me think that Romeo isn’t so much in love with Rosaline as he is obsessed with the idea of being in love.

Here is another quote when Romeo sees Juliet that makes me think that Romeo is more into the idea of being in love than anything else—(1.5.1)

ROMEO
O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear;
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand,
And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.
Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.

I found it interesting that at the VERY moment Romeo sees Juliet, he falls in love. What about Rosaline—the “love of his life”…the women he would rather die for than live without. This part makes me think that Romeo was never really in love with Rosaline in the first place if he’s going to forget about her so quickly. This makes me wonder, does this also mean that Romeo’s love for Juliet is nothing more than a worthless obsession?

By unpacking these quotes, I was able to make inferences on whether Romeo really is in love with Juliet. Before I started reading this play, I believed that young love did exist because love is a feeling. Replace love with the word happy for a second. How do you now if you’re truly happy? We’ve all had those moments—weather it’s when someone is taking a picture of you or you’re opening a birthday present that you don’t really like—where you smile because you feel like you should be happy even though in reality you’re not. There is always this one girl in school who always seems happy and cheerful…but how could you really know for sure if she’s really happy? People can give others the allusion that they’re happy but you can never know for sure. I guess what I’m getting to here is that it goes the same with love. Sometimes—okay, well most of the time—in young teenagers we feel like we should be in love or we’re just pulled into it because of the idea. Since love is a feeling like any other, only the person in love can determine for him/herself whether it’s true love or not.

Advertainment

I just recently read the article “That’s Advertainment” by Veronica Majerol, about how advertisers are “blurring the line between entertainment and commercials.” In Lady Gaga’s music video “Telephone” she checks for calls on her Virgin Mobile phone and puts Miracle Whip salad dressing on sandwitches. In Sims 3 players of the video game can download Renaults Twizy electric concept car into their game. Not only do I love these examples Veronica uses because they bring her message across clearly, but they also helped me form an opinion on something I have been thinking about recently—are these advertisements put in entertainments done on purpose? Why would advertisers pay to put their product in a famous music video instead of just a commercial on TV?

Veronica Majerol wants the reader to be aware that there is more to advertising than just the ones on TV and that advertisers are getting more and more creative to make their products known. “Typically, when people view a commercial that they know is a commercial, they employ a veil of skepticism,” says Corie Wright at Free Press, a nonprofit organization that works to educate consumers about media. But “product placement tends to shape viewers’ preferences even [when] the viewer isn’t aware they’ve seen a commercial.” Majerol uses some interesting craft moves to convey this message. The first thing I noticed was that she uses many examples to support her message that would interest the reader such as one of Lady Gaga’s hit music videos. She also included quotes that supported her message. My favorite quote she added was, “We want to blur the lines between the commercial breaks and the entertainment content,” says Dario Spina, who handles “integrated marketing” for Comedy Central, Spike, and MTV’s other entertainment channels. The reason why I love this quote so much is because it basically just summed up what the entire article was about. It’s also something you can have an opinion on but you can’t really disagree with it…

As I mentioned earlier, “advertainment” is something I have been wondering about and this article has definitely shaped my opinion. What I took away from this article is that advertisers are sneaky tricksters and often advertise their product without you even realizing something is being advertised! I think Majerol is right about this and I also think that the reason why people don’t realize a product is being advertised while playing a video game, for example, is because people get so caught up in the video game that they don’t really notice what's being advertised--well they see the product obviously, but don't realize that advertisers paid to put it there on purpose. I think this is a really interesting article and definitely worth reading! Here’s the link: http://upfront.scholastic.com/resource/uploads_upfront/Issues/021813/UPF-021813-ProductPlacement011011.pdf

 

So, what are your thoughts and opinions?

Do NOt Go Gentle into that Good Night

In the poem “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” by Dylan Thomas, he uses rhyme scheme, repetition, similes, and metaphors to convey his message. After unpacking this poem, I think Dylan is trying to say that people should accept death and even when they’re getting close to it, never let it take away the energy needed to continue living life to its fullest.

The first thing I noticed Dylan used was repetition. I think he used this technique to not only bring a strong point the reader, but to make the reader think “why?” For example, Dylan repeats the line, “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” in stanzas 1, 2, 4, and 6. He repeats “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” in stanzas 1, 3, 5, ad 6. This helped me realize that throughout the poem he repeats “light” and “night.” When I think of night, I think of darkness, death, or some sort of ending. Maybe death is meant to symbolize these things? I also feel like light is meant to symbolize happiness, goodness, a new beginning, and this idea of an “inner light.” Now after unpacking this, I think that what Thomas Dylan is really trying to say is do not die without fighting for the light. I also think this relates to the other line “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” since death could substitute in for the dying light. Throughout this process of unpacking, I noticed that Dylan uses symbolism throughout the repetition to give the poem a somewhat deeper meaning.

The second thing I noticed while reading this poem was that Dylan Thomas uses similes, metaphors, and personification to help convey his message. After unpacking this poem I realized that that what Dylan was really talking is death and that you should fight against it—but I also feel like death is a symbol itself that represents something or an idea that you know is wrong. So when Thomas says “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” (death), does he mean something more than just fight against death? When looking at this line in context to the poem, it sounded like he was trying to say that you should stand up for what you believe in and using death as an example seemed like an easy way to get his message to the reader. Death is a symbol that gives this poem a deeper message.

The last this I noticed were the metaphors Thomas uses in this poem. One that really stood out to me was, “Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight/ blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay.” This metaphor is referring to men who lived their lives at the fullest but they still rage against the “dying light” because they see their lives could have been more. Even those men who were wild (mentioned in stanza 3 of the poem) realized too late the meaning of their lives but this is no reason for them to fade away. Dylan Thomas uses descriptive imagery within his metaphors to help convey this message.

In conclusion, Dylan Thomas uses repetition, similes, metaphors, and imagery to convey a very important message. After unpacking parts of the poem, it seems like there are two similar messages Dylan is trying to bring to the reader. One is that people should accept death and even when they’re getting close to it, never let it take away the energy needed to continue living life to its fullest. Another similar message I found was that people should fight for what they believe in and not let their fears get in the way of this because if they don’t there will eventually come a time when they’ll realize it’s too late.

Paradise; An Escape from Reality

Last night I was flipping through pages in my family’s picture album and came across the most adorable pictures of me when I was young. I noticed that in all the pictures I was smiling. I miss being so carefree and innocent and when the biggest decision you had to make was what flavor of ice cream to get. But weren’t we all like this at one point? Didn’t we all have big dreams and gummy smiles? “What happened?”

I have recently been listening to a song called “Paradise” by Coldplay. It’s about a girl like any other who had big dreams when she was young. “She expected the world but it flew away from her reach.” It’s like she expected the world to come to her…except when she grows up reality strikes her. “Life goes on, it gets so heavy, and the wheels break the butterfly, every tear a waterfall.” I really love the metaphors used in this stanza and “every tear a water fall” shows how big even the tiny problems and challenges she has to face seem. To escape her reality, this girl dreams of paradise. It seems like she really loved this perfect, imaginary world she created in her mind that she kept going back to it…it seems like she got addicted to it. When you become addicted to something, you tend to block out reality so I’m thinking that she started to block out her friends and family because she wanted to be in paradise more than anywhere else. “I know the sun must set to rise.” She is stuck in this world waiting for sunset to rise—I see this as a metaphor saying that she is waiting for the pain to end and to get over her addiction in her world before she can truly be happy in the real world. She wants to be able to cry but since she’s held it in for such a long time it’s like all she wants is to be in paradise like she was when she was younger.

I think the message here is that it’s okay to take a break from your life and escape reality for a while—just remember that there’s a difference between escaping reality and blocking the truth.

I feel like everyone can relate to this song because weather we realize it or not, we all have places we go to escape reality. For the girl in the song it’s paradise…an imaginary place she has created in her mind. For me, it’s through writing poetry. I express my feelings using metaphors similar to the ones in this song. When I’m at my country house in France in the summer I escape reality a different way—I walk alone in the forests and then stop at this one special spot I go to on the mountain when I’m feeling sad, alone, and worthless. Looking across the country as far as the eye can see is something that gives me hope. It’s a special place where I can clear my mind completely and let my tears pour down like a waterfall.

Where do you go when you need an escape from reality?

Disabled Athletes

link: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/16/sports/disabled-athletes-suit-up-raising-questions-of-logistics-and-fairness.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

In the article “Forging Path to Starting Line for Younger Disabled Athletes” by Mary Pilon, is mainly about weather disabled body athletes—such as an athlete without a leg, blind, or deaf—should be able to compete competitively with able body athletes. Federal laws have long provided guidance on what students with disabilities are legally entitled to during the school day. But what exactly is reasonable accommodation in sports? Also, if you're in a wheelchair does it really mean you have an "advantage"??

Mary Pion definitely wants the reader to look at this topic from her perspective so she includes many stories of disabled athletes. She wants to show the reader how unfair it is to discriminate against disabled athletes and that disabled athletes don’t always have thing to their “advantage.” For example, Kiara Chapple—a tennis played deaf since birth—relied on an interpreter on the sideline to show the score and communicate what Kiara couldn’t to her doubles partner and opponent. ‘Chapple said she was surprised when, at a doubles tournament in her sophomore year in 2009, her interpreter was removed after complaints from a coach for the opposing team.’ I find this shocking and incredibly unfair especially after reading what Chapple had said. ““I thought it was unfair,” Chapple said. “They were discriminating, and I have rights to an interpreter. I felt sad. We lost the match, and I couldn’t communicate with anyone.” Mary Pilon also tells the story of Mary Callahan who began swimming when she was 6 and wanted to join her high school team but she got a rare disease and could not use her legs. She was told that she could not compete in any statewide competitions. “I really wanted to have a true swim meet,” Callahan said. “I wanted to compete against the best. Swimming is part of my high school experience.” Lisa Madigan took on Callahan’s case as a co-counsel and helped win a settlement in September that allowed her to swim at the state meet, along with at least six other high school girls with disabilities. “We didn’t change much,” Renee Miller, Callahan’s swim coach, said of how the team accommodated Callahan in the pool. “We made sure we had a bus to accommodate a wheelchair so she could travel with us and made sure that schools we traveled to could accommodate her.” This made me really hopeful and confident that in the not too far future disabled athletes will be able to participate competitively and that they won’t have to fight to get there.

This is an issue that I have been thinking a lot about recently. I think about what would happen if I had an accident and lost a leg…how would I run track? I probably wouldn’t be able to play softball or tennis. Now that I’m thinking about it, sports are a major part of my life and I wouldn’t be able to live without them. I feel like what Callahan was able to do worked because she had a team that was probably very supportive of her. If I were to lose a leg, I feel like my team would go through the pain with me—we would all be in it together. But what about tennis? How could I run? If I got one of those metal running devices would people discriminate against me because they’d think I have an “advantage”? I like to run but running competitively and in a real race is not only a lot more fun, but it really pushes me to excel. I think there are ways disabled athletes can participate in competitive sports and it’s not always to their advantage…

Writing about What Haunts Us

Orner, Peter. "Writing about What Haunts Us." New York Times 12 Jan. 2013. Opinion. 15 Jan. 2013
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/12/writing-about-what-haunts-us/?ref=opinion.


I just recently read “Writing about What Haunts Us” by Peter Orner. One reason why I got hooked into this article was because it started with a sort of anecdote that I could relate to. Peter writes fiction and often feels like he is “dressing up” the truth. He tells a story about his father who got these new lambskin leather gloves and how a week later Peter stole the gloves from his father. “I learned for the first time how easy it is to just grab something.” Peter hid the gloves for a while and then took them with him everywhere he went—but he never once put them on. This is because Peter didn’t steal the gloves because he actually wanted them…he stole them because he was afraid of his father and since they had so little in common, the gloves seemed like a part of his father that Peter could hold on to. Although it seemed like Peter was trying to contort his theft in a made-up story, I also got the feeling that he was trying to convey an important message: That “well-made things eventually deteriorate.” Peter describes the gloves as “no longer baby soft” because “all the handless years had dried them up” and then compares it to his father—“pulling on the beautiful gloves with a rare stillness in his face and a kind of hopeful calm.” Peter now thinks to himself, “Was this what I wanted to steal?”

By comparing the gloves that eventually got dull and lost its softness to his father who was still hopeful and full of free spirit, Peter definitely wants the reader to remember the elements in our lives that don’t deteriorate. Peter also writes in his article, “Our imaginations sometimes fail us for a reason. Not because it is cathartic to tell the truth but because coming clean may also be a better, if smaller, story.” I found this line really deep and thought provoking. I think it’s telling us that writing fiction and disguising the truth isn’t always a bad thing to do, but sometimes you have to just face the pure truth to move on.

I think this is a really important message because often times we tend to ignore our fears or the ugly truths and push them farther away, pretending they don’t exist. Over the last year I have started to write a lot of poetry to express myself and my feelings. Sort of like how Peter contorts his fears through made-up stories, I find it much easier to disguise my fears beneath the symbolism and depth in my poems.