Forgive/ Forget?

Never Forget

            Is forgiveness forgetting? How can anyone not forget and yet forgive? Surely, these questions have pondered through the minds of anyone that has wrongly suffered at the hands of others, yet at some point choose to love instead of hate. Recently viewing the film entitled Forgiving Dr. Mengele, I learned about the Holocaust. People of Jewish descent suffered horrific mistreatment at the hands of German Nazis. The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines Hate Crimes as crimes committed against an individual or group due to prejudice of the targets religion, disability, sexual orientation, race, creed, or nationality. Often times after people have experienced and survived distressing situations they feel that the rest of their life is out of their control. Yes, there are conditions and disorders that may result after a major negative exposure in some but not all cases. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is one example that I will further discuss. However, emotional healing has a major impact. Choosing to forgive can help a person have a more positive outcome and it takes personal effort and support

            The documentary Forgiving Dr. Mengele tells the experience of Eva Kor, a holocaust survivor. Eva was around ten years old when she and her family, forced into a concentration camp at Auschwitz, Poland. Once there Nazi soldiers immediately separated Eva and her twin sister Miriam from her parents and older siblings. Eva never saw her parents or older siblings again. Jewish twin children were used a guinea pigs in the ruthless unregulated experiments of German Scientist Dr. Mengele. One of Eva’s first memories that expressed the cruelty of the situation was that of after separation from her family then taken to a room where corpses of children lay on the floor. The narrator described the bodies to have emaciated appearance, flies all around, and eyes open. At one point Eva received some type of drug and a prognosis of two weeks to live. “I concentrated on how to survive one more day and refused to die! (Kor)”  I don’t know many if any one that could experience similar conditions these days and not be committed to an insane asylum. Yet this documentary started with Eva Korr, now an older woman, wife, mother, activist, business owner, advocate announcing during a speech that she give personal Amnesty to all Nazi Germans for their treatment of  Jews during the Holocaust. Once during a peace forum in Israel that included Israelis and Palestinians, Eva stated, “Sometimes people don’t know what to do besides get angry.” “People cannot heal while fighting.” Although Eva was unable to make any progress at the peace forum, these statements in relation to what is and has been going on in the Middle East are monumental.

            The Jewish culture has many strict laws and customs. The way that some people interpret and carry out laws can be a roadblock against healing, progress, and resolution. Fighting and wars continue to reign in the Middle East between Arabs, Palestinians, and Israelis since about 1000 BC or earlier (mideastweb.org).  A negative environment for a substantial period can have lasting effects on the human body. Post-Traumatic stress disorder is a new, twenty years or less, medical condition that is a result of exposure to stress related experience with life threatening or at least threat of severe injury (Liness, Rogers). PTSD can be acute (sudden, short term) or chronic (on going, long-term). Psychological effects of PTSD include behavioral, psychological, emotional, and cognitive. The Jewish Federation of Greater Orange County notes that many Holocaust survivors unknowingly suffer from PTSD and do not seek proper medical treatment.

In the film Forgiving Dr. Mengele, Eva Kor’s best friend tells how Eva displays habits like “never leaving food on her plate,” takes an unofficial doggy bag (food packed to go) from restaurants, excessively chain locks doors, and sleeps on her purse. Although Eva earns a success income as a Relator, she worries about going hungry (Forgiving Dr. Mengele).  

            Anyone that has wrongly suffered at the hands of others, and made the choice to forgive, moved on to a successful life and positively helped others has learned what it mean when people say forgive but never forget. When confronted of her choice to forgive amnesty to Nazi Germans for how they treated Jews during the Holocaust, Eva Kor, a holocaust and Mengele twin survivor stated, “ Victims heal themselves, victimizers take responsibility,” “Forgiving has only to do with victims empowering themselves and taking their life back” (Forgiving Dr. Mengele). People always have a choice. Instead of trying so hard to forget, people can turn the negative around as a tool for education, peace efforts and helping others cope.

           

Works Cited

            Forgiving Dr. Mengele Bob Hercules, Cheri Pugh, Eva Mozes Kor, Sami Adwan, Dan Bar-On | 2006 Documentary.

           

             Barel, E., Van IJzendoorn, M. H., Sagi-Schwartz, A., & Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. (2010). Surviving the Holocaust: A meta-analysis of the long-term sequelae of a genocide. Psychological Bulletin, 136(5), 677-698.

           

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/ucr-publications#Hate.

           

http://mideastweb.org/timeline.htm

Ozick, Cynthia. "Life Isn't Beautiful." Newsweek 15 Mar. 2010: 54. Academic OneFile. Web. 29 Apr. 2013

           

Tampa Tribune http://www.tampatrib.com.

http://www.jewishorangeny.org/page.aspx?id=199249 April 30, 2013

Journal 8

Class Review

 I was very Apprehensive when this class started. I took ENC 1101 around 1997 or 1998 and had no recollection of most, if any of the details from the course. Professor Warrens’ course was set up in a manner that was fluent and allowed students to stay interested. Every other week I looked forward to watching a new documentary. The chosen documentaries challenged students to consider their personal morals and humanitarian efforts. The real life issues made each subject easy to write about and research. Blogger usage was a new and enjoyable experience for me. I learned how to setup, post, and read others blogs. The classroom environment was pleasant and appeared conducive for students. Other positive aspects of the class include the OWL and Perdue tools, Inspirational speaker Mo, and the Art Gallery opening experience. Keeping up with the blog comments proved to be a difficult task for student and the instructor. It would possibly benefit the students and instructor to have a system in place to keep up with blog comments before the comments are due. I truly enjoyed this class.

            

Choices for our Children

Choices for our Children

Jeffery Canada, Waiting for Superman, perfected the ideology of a child when he shared that as a boy he was deeply saddened to learn that Superman was fictional. Jeffery stated that his sadness was in realizing that “no one was coming to save him” from his poverty stricken life. Nowadays with the help of popular media culture, poor or lack of positive role models, economic strains on households, divorce rates, teen pregnancy, commonality of violence, and just plain hopelessness children are not sitting around daydreaming about a savior. Poorly educated children today will negatively affect the livelihood of society’s future. People should not continue to go on and ignore or complain about the growing issues that impede educating children. Adults must invest resources into children and education in order for change to take place. There is an old wise saying, “We are only as strong as our weakest link.” Children are the future adults of society. How does one go about to solve a problem that is so profound? Is there a solution? Where, when and how do we start?  Caring, passionate and responsible individuals do the best that they can, however they can.

Most children think that the essence of life is only what they see and believe to experience (Canada).  Joel Osteen once said that a famous rapper was asked why his lyrics were so negative and violent. The rapper answered “I’m just keeping it real, that’s what’s going on in the world we live in.” Joel later stated that “if that young man would have traveled only three to four blocks outside of his neighborhood, he would have seen the many nice family friendly filled subdivisions of people who were living a totally different lifestyle.”  Most successes begin with a simple thought or a kind word of encouragement.  Now, the first African American President of the United States of America, Barak Obama wrote a book entitled, “The Audacity of Hope.”  Obama noted how his success beat the odds. Statistically, the biracial son of a single white mother and Kenya African native father should have never become anything of world impacting importance.  Many American children are raised in ill-fated, undesirable, and underprivileged conditions, yet they grow up to live successful lives. Barak Obamas mother like many other mothers took time to read to her children and impart the importance of education into her son and daughter. Some children don’t have parents that encourage them. People are born as innocent babies into various situations. Sometimes it is not until a child comes across a teacher, mentor, or friend of a different background that may knowingly or unknowingly say a word of encouragement that changes the course of the person’s life.   

Jacksonville Florida is a city that steadily works towards improving the outcome of students that attend the local school system. Duval County consists of many successful political, business and leaders that have taken an effort to give back and help strengthen the community. Beverley Hartley-Wilhite, a Duval County Public School kindergarten teacher participated in the recent community improvement forum JAX2025, a program that focuses on the improvement of Jacksonville Florida by year 2025.  Beverly’s contributing ideas to the forum include “structuring a mentoring system for students, establishing ROTC at all schools, schools offer an hour and a half of time to an after school study hall, and encouraged that morals be taught at school (Fouraker).’ Hartley-Wilhite further discussed that her suggestions could improve student grades, encourage self-disciple, decrease juvenile crimes, and assist to inhibit teenage pregnancy (Fouraker). FCAT is a Florida standardized test that is used to measure the progress of Florida students. Not making satisfactory scores on the FCAT could prevent a student from passing on to the next grade level or graduating from high school. Studies reveal that Hispanic and African American students from low income, uninformed, and substandard households are less likely to meet FCAT requirements than their colleagues of White suburban students that live in more sophisticated socioeconomic status (Borg, Plumlee, Stranahan). Students benefit when caring teachers like Beverly concentrate their focus and energy on making positive changes in efforts to supplement disadvantaged kids. Mary Foster, Student Advocate Coordinator at Frank H. Peterson Academy, works with the HOPE program.  HOPE, communities in school program assigns an educator to counsel, mentor, and support students that have been affected by challenges such as: bullying, depression, violence, death of a parent and siblings, pregnancy and confusion (Woods).  Rosie Wright, HOPE advisor at Fort Caroline Middle school states, “Kids don’t drop out of school, they drift out.”  “They don’t connect their education to their future.”

For those that yet ponder, where is it that we start? We start where we are! The local school system, teachers and students are not without its issues. However, the Florida Times Union, Jacksonville.com reveals that Duval County schools offer many programs, learning environments, styles and options for educating students. To name a few of these options; ESE slow learning student programs, Choice schools, Magnet programs, Charter schools, support for Home Schooling, ROTC programs, Team Up after school tutoring and activities, STAR, Aviation Florida Air National Guard programs, FBLA, Communities in Schools, Teen Parents schools, HOPE and Upward Bound (Palka). Jeffery Canada, Superintendent of Schools in Harlem New York, as a child, visualized education as a way out of a birthright of poverty.  Many times people can’t change how they start in life but they can make conscious decisions and efforts about how they will continue in life, thus affecting their future.  People can also change the course of the lives of others by the words they say, showing patience even when it is not deserved, and by displaying compassion. Most Educators display these values when they go to work every day and make an impact on our future leaders of our communities…our children.

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Works Cited

Borg, Mary O'Malley, J. Patrick Plumlee, and Harriet A. Stranahan. "Plenty of Children Left Behind High-Stakes Testing and Graduation Rates in Duval County, Florida." Educational policy 21.5 (2007): 695-716.

Fouraker, Bruce. “Helping Envision Jacksonville’s Future.” Folio Weekly.com. Northeast Florida’s News and Opinion Magazine. April 10- 16, 2013 p54

Great Schools Staff.  “Choosing a school: An overview.”  

            http://www.greatschools.org/find-a-school/defining-your-ideal/33-choosing-a-school.gs?page=all, April 15, 2013

http://dcpsweb.duvalschools.org/parents/academic-programs/teen-parents-program/index.html

http://duvalchoice.com/options/choice-schools

Palka, Mary Kelli. “Limited options for Duval transfer students.”                       

 http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2011-07-11/story/limited-options-duval-transfer-students#ixzz2QaoliKrm, July 11, 2011 - 6:33pm  |  Updated: July 12, 2011 - 6:39am                    

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“Three schools, three perspectives: Fighting to succeed in Duval schools. Three students' experiences show how the system can help.” Posted: June 5, 2010 - 6:00pm

 Supovitz, Jonathan A., Henry May, and Brooke Snyder Taylor. "The impact of America's Choice on student performance in Duval County, Florida." (2002).                                                  

Waiting for Superman

Waiting for Superman

Every American citizen is entitled to justice, liberty and a basic free public education?  Yes, the United States of America does have a system of free public education for children, but how good that education is varies. Watching the film “Waiting for Superman” brought bulging tears to my eyes. The film left me wanting to push myself and children harder in our quest for education.  Jeffery Canada, Waiting for Superman, perfected the ideology of a child when he shared that as a boy he was deeply saddened to learn that Superman was fictional. Jeffery stated that his sadness was in realizing that “no one was coming to save him” from his poverty stricken life. Most children think that the essence of life is only what they see and believe to experience (Canada). Joel Osteen once said that a famous rapper was asked why his lyrics were so negative and violent. The rapper answered “I’m just keeping it real, that’s what’s going on in the world we live in”.  Joel later stated that “if that young man would have traveled only three to four blocks outside of his neighborhood, he would have seen the many nice family friendly filled subdivisions of people who were living a totally different lifestyle.” Like the young rapper, many American children are raised in ill-fated, undesirable, and underprivileged conditions. Jeffery Canada, Superintendent of Schools in Harlem New York, as a child, visualized education as a way out of a birthright of poverty.  Jeffery Canada, like many other educators in recent decades studied the failures of his local school system, the impact it made on others, and then created a program to better educate those who were most affected by the lack of education . Listening to the different however similar stories and situations of the people in the movie, Waiting for Superman, awakened me to the realization that many times people can’t change how they start in life but they can make conscious decisions and efforts about how they will continue in life, thus affecting their future.  I really appreciate my ENC 1102 teacher for choosing this film to share with the class. It, like many of the others we have watched, was very enlightening and inspiring.  

Women's Issues

Where do we draw the line?

            Media has a major impact on how society views itself and it also influences standards people use to judge each other. Society today spends at least 31 plus hours a week on media sites like: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Kik to name a few. People further spend about 17 plus hours listening to music and about 4 plus hours reading magazines weekly (Miss Representation). Often when reporters, journalist, and broadcasters have an opportunity to present news in a positive influential light, they choose to take the more entertaining role than quite often is negative.  Real life expectations can be especially hard on women due to the ever rising expectations for the perfect woman brought on by media displays. The message of mainstream media today seems to be that woman equals sex symbol. Women are multifaceted and gifted. They shouldn't be forced to drawn a line to be accepted by society.

Medias’ presentation of women hints and screams that to be intelligent and proficient is not enough.  Cory Booker Mayor of Newark, New Jersey stated, “Young women look at how Hilary Clinton and Sarah Palin were treated during the presidential races and may now be discouraged from running for major political offices.” During the 2008 Presidential races, people seemed to be more concerned about what the female candidates clothing, appearances, and mannerisms than the context of their message. Hilary Clinton faced attacks based on her gender (Lowen). The 2008 Presidential races were historical in various ways. One historical point of the 2008 event was that there was a female candidate for presidential and vice presidential offices.  A Boston Globe reporter noted that Hilary Clinton, a previous New York senator, “had a remarkable resume and an enormous network of political supporters and donors” (Miligan). Hilary once stated ``I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas,'' but instead pursued a career in law while my husband was in the governor's mansion” (Miligan). To the contrary Jezebel.com posted its headlines as, “Hilary Clinton's presidential poker face is completely Inscrutable.”

In the documentary Miss Representation, it displayed various ways that women are tainted in society and media these days.  Some alarming statistics according to the documentary Misrepresentation are that: “53% of 13 years olds are not happy with their bodies, 17% of female teens engage in self-mutilation behaviors, 20% or more teens have premarital sex, 1 in 18 men are in jail and 70% of women in the work force are mothers.”  While parents are working to provide for their families, latch key children are left at their own discretion to watch the negative images of drama, violence, and sexualized scenes on television for entertainment. According to the American Psychological Association, there is a direct link between watching TV violence and displaying real violence. It seems like every other day that there is a news headline with some type of violence that was instituted by or involved children. Who is responsible for this increase in juvenile related violence, bored kids, over worked parents, poorly filtered TV shows? 

Do media broadcasters have a responsibility in what it presents? Or is main stream media just giving people what they think they really want? Yes, in the United States of America we do have freedom of speech and freedom of press (Constitution). Freedom is having a right to choose. Gandhi said, “Be the change you wish to see in this world.” The United States is a country built on a foundation of values that include freedom, justice, equality, peace, capitalism, brotherhood, hope, hard work, and success to name a few.  There is an old wise saying that verses; “anything worth having is worth its cost.” However, popular society at some point must ask its self, at what cost is success worth.

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Works Cited

Carlin, Diana B., and Kelly L. Winfrey. "Have you come a long way, baby? Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and sexism in 2008 campaign coverage." Communication Studies 60.4 (2009): 326-343.

Lawrence, Regina G., and Melody Rose. Hillary Clinton's race for the White House: Gender politics and the media on the campaign trail. Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2010.

Lowen, Linda. About.com Women’s Issues May 5th 2008

Miligan, Susan Boston.com, Hillary Clinton enters 2008 presidential race

By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff  |  January 20, 2007

Newsome, Jennifer. http://www.missrepresentation.org/