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Advanced Essay #4

Posted by Aldo Caushaj in English 3 - Block - D on


The picture shows that of a police officer that is standing over a group of protesters and is spraying them with what seems to be tear gas. The students seem to be outraged by this site and they are recording this while they also seem to be screaming at the police officer. The picture to me represents to me the officer the person that is in charge and has the power entering a place where the students who don't have a voice are being put down by the authority because this is a school and the officer is present they must just obey and do as  he asks because the rules of the school do not apply to the outside world.






An officer stands over a group of  students as he sprays them with what to seems to be with some kind of solvent. The officer radiates a look of detachment as if he does not want to be there; as if he does not care. He seems to try to hold back a smirk in the picture in a way of looking down on these students. We see students surrounding the group of kids recording what is happening as officers push back the crowd.


It seems like they are on  a campus of a university where they were protesting then were shut down.  This seem to have been done by an authority higher than theirs. Pushed back against a wall nothing can be done but sit there and take the assault. They knew this would happen and now they have to accept the results .


What are you willing to do to keep your home safe? Would you be willing to take a life or two with just the push of a button? Well in the article “Keeping  America Safe Embrace Drone Warfare”, that dream is a reality. In the article, fighting with drones was something that soldiers did not think was possible. They never dreamt that a soldier could sit in an army camp and pilot the drone  to reach the target. The only problem was what I read in  this was after the pilot had supposedly killed the target.



" The decision maker asks if there are civilians nearby.

“The family is in the main building. The guys we want are in the big guesthouse here.”

“They’re not very far apart.”

“Far enough.”

“Anyone in that little building now?”

“Don’t know. Probably not. We haven’t seen anyone since the Pred got the capture of the target. But A.Q. uses it when they pass through here, and they pass through here a lot.”

He asks the probability of killing the targets if they use a GBU-12, a powerful 500-pound, laser-guided bomb.

“These guys are surely dead,” comes the reply. “We think the family’s O.K.”

“You think they’re O.K.?” "


This is the problem the soldier had taken the life of the target but in this attack, he also might have taken innocent life as well this is because he was not in the field so how could he be sure. To the soldier, he only sees a screen a target you become so emotionally detached that the target is a target it does not matter about the surrounding life only as long as you get the target. That's what soldiers are though they are just civilians in uniform that can not be distinguished from one another just following orders without thought. This is due because the people that are in command don't need them to have thoughts even the slightest idea of compassion or remorse is what changes the tide of battle. We need machines that is all so sitting a soldier in front of a screen telling them to click a button anyone can do that.


What are soldiers really I am not going say they are proud and brave who fight for peace and protection, If I were to say that I would only be feeding you the same lines of B.S. that you hear from recruiters or people that can’t open there eyes to the truth. We are nothing but puppets that can be used for people who have the ability to control us I say we because any of us would press the button to kill a life any of us would put that uniform on and would lose the ability to think for ourselves. This is the simple truth put in the right situation we all have the ability to become nothing but tools for some else gain we all would turn to evil if that's the label you want to use but if that's what we label each other as then we have already taken steps to evil.

Advanced Essay #4 A Lot of People Died Yesterday...

Posted by Ishmael Brown in English 3 - Block - D on


My goal in writing this Advanced Essay was to ultimately "wake" the reader up to a lense of America typically avoided and that there is little to no progress made on. The event that I keep referencing(where 6 people died) was really like an eye opener for me, personally, specifically when it happened, as soon as Spring was beginning to open, and made me sad to hear about. I do think it is a shame that this is the point that our culture has come to, but I am also not surprised, which I also hoped to express in essay as well. The writing process was admittedly awkward, to say the least, due to a combination of me approaching an analytically themed writing style that I don't often reach for, along with the nature of the subject, being one that I only ever mostly discussed in a broad sense, not considering how people died and whatnot and fitting it all into an essay that was reasonably sized. Nonetheless, I still think it's a good read, and still should serve its purpose fairly.


A lot of people died the other day. Six of them actually. There had already been over 40 in the city by the 3rd month this year, and I have become confused as about to which point the violence was supposed to become unacceptable. On the night of March 8th, 2016, Philadelphia had become a sort of war zone. Separate occasions across the city put Philadelphia back on the map and helped, once again, further define what it truly means to be American, that is, what it truly means to be violent. Even under our evident war torn history, our violently inclined present, and the inevitably destructive future that lies ahead of us, we still seem to be crazed with war. Even in the past year’s violence in American lifestyle becoming a norm,, intensity of gun violence debates and police brutality, still, a lot of people died yesterday and the question that remains is how.


This was premeditated. “In retrospect Sandy Hook marked the end of the U.S. gun control debate. Once America decided killing children was bearable, it was over,” said Dan Hodges in response to the recent gun controversy surrounding the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, North Carolina. On June 17th, 2015 a man by the name Dylann Roof killed nine people in their church after a session of bible study. The church invited him with open arms into their service, and to his own personal ill, I guess it was ok niggas died. This is not even to mention the other near 13,000 who died to gun violence just last year alone. 36 People die everyday, on average, but still I take offense that six of them died last Tuesday.


Of course this in turn means that some lucky child had the opportunity to witness at least one murder a day on his local news channel that year, and perhaps one could see the irony that those same news channel would turn up studies of how violence in video games may be the cause of a violent youth. We use our weapons to protect ourselves, and 756 children were killed in 2015, they are understandably very dangerous, and it is ok. We like turn to terrorism for the blame. Between 2005 and 2015, 71 Americans were killed in terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, and their deaths were not in vain; in the same time period, over 301,000 Americans died, to each other.


Our culture seems to have grown to romanticize the features of death. We must like the way it looks. It is on our T.V. screens, it is in our books, and the flavors of it, you can even taste in our heroes. As a community, our lust for blood has even grown so wicked, that you can practically smell it in the hearts of our youth, it wreaks from them, so badly so that it would probably take you by surprise if our future generations could manage to resolve a conflict without violence.    


Dr. Bruce D Perry, in his analysis “Why Does Violence Happen?” identifies that one of the biggest sources of violence is due to our detachment from others or one another. He states that “When we become more detached from each other and from common unifying beliefs, violence increases,”  he continues “ ..when we hateful ideologies to make groups or classes of people to be viewed as different, bad or even less than human, violence increases.” This would speak to a part of the reason why it is believed that, today, black men are disproportionately affected by gun violence in America; last year, 50% of the gun deaths were deaths of African American men, who make up only 6% of the American population. The ideologies that Dr.Perry presents are scary simply by their nature. It is an outlook that is especially hard for America to uphold and try to make more synonymous with its lifestyle, being that America’s entire history was built around the concept of otherness. In the 1700s we fled from Great Britain in refuge from a difference of vision with King George III, we enslaved dependant on melanin, we sought to take control of any country who did not share our values, we had been America since day one, and we made it explicitly known.


The last Winter had been a long one, but things were finally starting to look for the kids of the ghetto. The essence of Spring was so beautiful, I remember, you could practically smell it’s eloquent breezes as you stepped outside. I remember the crew had been anticipating the arrival for days now, below 20 degree conditions and being snowed in can not compare with 70 degree days outside and flowers we were promised. But last Tuesday, once again America had made sure its vision was explicitly seen. Why am I surprised to wake to hearing the words “a lot of people died yesterday in Philadelphia,” from the local news this morning. Six of them actually.




Chang, David. "6 Die During Violent Day in the City." NBC 10 Philadelphia. NBC 10, 8 Mar. 2016. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Philadelphia-Double-Shooting-Fatal-Injury-Gunman--371463021.html>.


Perry, Perry D. "Why Does Violence Happen?" Why Does Violence Happen? Scholastic, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/bruceperry/why_violence.htm>.


Mascia, Jennifer. "15 Statistics That Tell the Story of Gun Violence This Year." The Trace 15 Statistics That Tell the Story of Gun Violence This Year Comments. The Trace, 23 Dec. 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <http://www.thetrace.org/2015/12/gun-violence-stats-2015/>.


Smead, Howard. "Why Americans Are so Violent?" Howardsmead. Howard Smead, n.d. Web. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.howardsmead.com%2Fwhy_we_americans_are_so_violent.htm>.


Mathis, Joel. "So Far, Philly's Murder Rate Is Down in 2016." Philadelphia Magazine. Philly Mag, 04 Mar. 2016. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <http://www.phillymag.com/news/2016/03/04/philly-murder-rate-drop/>.

Advanced Essay #4

Posted by Matthew Willson in English 3 - Block - D on

My goal for this essay was to show how American people will eventually stop enlisting in the military because they will realize that their sacrifices are not truly appreciated by the American public and Government/Military. While researching and writing this essay I realized that the American Military does not focus on returning soldiers and veterans enough. Veteran soldiers are not given the support they deserve post war.


Matthew Willson

Advanced Essay #4

3/28/16


Historically, the armed forces have been revered in America. With the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, soldiers’ perceptions of military service and the public’s views on war have changed. While these changes may have begun during the Vietnam War, the effects of recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been had different.  Soldiers have begun to seriously doubt whether their sacrifices are truly appreciated by the American public. If this continues, views of being in the American military will change significantly, and it will become much more difficult for the military to successfully recruit and retain soldiers.

Since the Vietnam War, America has been involved in approximately 18 wars.  According to Stephen Kinzer of the Boston Globe, soldiers are today’s American heroes:  “Who is a hero? In today’s America, it is someone who chooses a military career, puts on a uniform, and prepares for war. Placing soldiers and veterans on this kind of pedestal is a relatively new phenomenon. Past generations of Americans saw soldiers as ordinary human beings. They were like the rest of us: big and small, smart and dumb, capable of good and bad choices. Now we pretend they are demi-gods.” The following picture captures this point of view perfectly.

There is a soldier on top of a mountain or hill. His face is hidden in darkness. The scenery and the soldier are depicted in dark colors while the American flag that he is holding shines bright in contrast to the darkness surrounding it. The biblical quote below the photo could be positive in a different context but instead it connects God and the bible to the actions of the US army. In this way, the soldier’s work is reframed not as violence and war, but rather “peacemaking.” To call soldiers the “children of God” not only legitimates violence as a crusade-like religious act for good, it also implies that the soldiers as blindly following the orders of their superiors and God--they are only children.

Historians have written extensively about the ravages of war and their toll on soldiers throughout time. While nobody doubts the impact of violence and war on soldier’s lives, the effects of recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have differed from past wars in several ways. Soldiers were fighting wars on two fronts; many saw the duration of their deployments extended because of poor post-invasion planning, and many have also subjected to stop-loss measures that prevented them from leaving the military until their units returned from war, even if their tour should have been finished.  It is clear that US soldier’s own perspective of their role has begun to change because of the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

One reason is the way they are treated after they have finished their tour of duty. According to Gabriela Acosta of USC, “Almost a quarter million Iraq or Afghanistan vets have been diagnosed with mental health injuries from combat service. Many more are not diagnosed, yet go on with their lives while experiencing short-term memory loss, headaches, insomnia, anger or numbness -- conditions that can range from merely annoying to highly disruptive on the job and within the family.”   Unfortunately, many soldiers that suffer from PTSD or other mental and physical injuries they received while serving time in combat are not provided with equitable resources to survive and live a healthy life after they serve their country and put their lives on the line. It is disappointing to see the American society have so much faith in their military when so many people's lives are traumatically changed by it. According to Stopsoldiersuicide.org, “22 veterans take their lives every day.” This statistic is horrific and America should recognize this and try to fix it. We are clearly not supporting the needs of soldiers when they come back from war.

The VA (United States Department of Veteran Affairs), the agency charged with taking care of returning soldiers,  has also received a large amount of negative press in the past few  years regarding their poor support  and terrible veteran healthcare system. According to CNN, “the managers at the VA concocted an elaborate scheme to cover up long wait times there. The sources said more than 1,400 vets were placed on the purported secret list and that documents were shredded to hide the evidence. According to sources, at least 40 U.S veterans died waiting for care at the facility, many of whom were on the list.” This is just one example of many terrible things the VA has been guilty of over the years.  

At the same time, it is important to remember that most people don’t serve in the military, and the wars are being fought far far away from US soil.  The military’s promotion of their actions in the press has also created expectations in the general public. Loudly describing the Iraq invasion as an example of ‘Shock and awe’ created an unrealistic public perception of the war. According to Captain Scott Hubbard (a returned Iraq vet (US News)) “We expected to come in and throw another 3-pointer and everyone stand up and cheer. There was a lot of emotion, a lot of rhetoric, all the country music songs getting everybody fired up.  I think a lot of folks screaming for war just don't understand what it takes.”  With the impact of the press and misperceptions of the public fed by the military itself, returning soldiers wonder whether the public is behind them and whether they have the capacity to truly understand what they have experienced.     

Overall, the poor treatment of returning vets and the public’s reactions to news surrounding the war has created serious doubts in the minds of the soldiers regarding whether or not America truly values their military service.  According to Anna Mulrine (US News), “the sacrifices are great and sometime soldiers wonder why they keep making them.”



Bibliography:


https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/12/07/joining-military-doesn-make-you-hero/AtnLFFGkkVvxX2gKXKJE7L/story.html

Kinzer, Stephen. "Joining the Military Doesn’t Make You a Hero - The Boston Globe." BostonGlobe.com. Boston Globe. Web. 28 Mar. 2016. <https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/12/07/joining-military-doesn-make-you-hero/AtnLFFGkkVvxX2gKXKJE7L/story.html>.


https://msw.usc.edu/mswusc-blog/veteran-mental-health/

Acosta, Gabriella. "The Impact of War: Mental Health of Veterans and Their Families." USC.EDU. USC, 2013. Web. 28 Mar. 2016. <https://msw.usc.edu/mswusc-blog/veteran-mental-health/>.


http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/30/health/veterans-dying-health-care-delays/index.html

Bronstein, Scott, Drew Griffin, and Nelli Black. "Phoenix VA Officials Deny There's a Secret Wait List; Doctor Says They're Lying." CNN. Cable News Network. Web. 28 Mar. 2016. <http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/30/health/veterans-dying-health-care-delays/index.html>.

http://www.usnews.com/news/iraq/articles/2008/02/13/how-the-war-in-iraq-is-changing-the-american-soldier

Mulrine, Anna. "How the War In Iraq Is Changing the American Soldier." US News. U.S.News & World Report. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.

<http://www.usnews.com/news/iraq/articles/2008/02/13/how-the-war-in-iraq-is-changing-the-american-soldier>



Advanced essay #4 leon finney

Posted by Leon Finney in English 3 - Block - D on



Black Lives Matters is a movement in recent history brought about by the growing popularity of social media. That is the reason this paper was necessary, because every time I turn on Facebook or Instagram there are images of yet another death of black people by poorly trained police officers.  It was necessary to show that statistics prove that black people are being targeted and that other nations are starting to pay attention.  It is equally as important to let people know that you do have to be black to support the cause. There are many people of many races who support BLM. Although we all agree that all live matter many people still see the fact that minorities are being targeted and  want to join the cause

In a Black Lives Matter Photo a crowd of people of all races were marching for the movement trying to bring  awareness that black people are getting brutally murdered on a regular basis by the very people who took an oath to protect and serve.  It was a great sight to see that all these races can come together for a very important cause. The crowd covered as least a block and a half and in the very front were two black and three white people holding a black lives matter poster. Many people believe that the BLM movement is exclusionary because “All Lives Matter” however this stance makes inconsequential and very important movement in our history. Of course All Lives Matter, however “All Lives” are not disproportionately targeted for death by the police and the judicial system - black lives are.

Black People being brutalized by Law enforcement is a stain on the American culture and it is not getting better. In fact, with the advent of social media many instances of abuse have been brought to light nationally - it becoming harder and harder to hide deaths by the police. With video sharing sites such as youtube and snapchat we are now seeing the many instances of unwarranted abuse and deaths by law enforcement that the New Media doesn’t like to share. In 2015, it's not the American justice system that's bringing attention to the disproportionate number of African-Americans being murdered by police, but smartphones and social media platforms, (cnn.com, 2016). This helped bring about the success  of the BLM movement. Black Lives Matter is an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise, (Black Lives Matter, 2016).

                    The Guardian said 32% of African-Americans killed were unarmed while 15% of whites and 25% of Latinos did not have weapons (cnn.com, 2016) even with these states their is still that argument that Black Lives Matter is a movement that instead should be called all lives matter know I agree with that to an extent but the facts show that for some odd reason  black people are having basically hate crimes committed against them and we as a country should do something to try and stop these tragedies , because when incidents like what happened to young Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner etc..and nothing happens to the police who did these crimes and we as a black people are just left to sit back watch and just protest there is something going on that is very wrong and I feel we need to make a change, how we approach it I don't have all of the little details yet but I do know that this needs change quick before mass destruction is upon us and there's a war between the force and civilians because I know there are many out there like me who are tired of watching this go on.


            The United Nation as well as many other political groups saw there was a need that the united states have failed to address and decided to offer their advice. The United States accepted most of the recommendations from United Nations member states on combatting racial discrimination, racial profiling and the use of excessive force by police officers... “One of them is to create a national commission to look at police practices nationwide and come out with recommendations specifically around the policing of communities of color and the excessive use of force.” (AlJazeera, 2016).  I believe that there needs to be an impartial party, someone not affiliated with the justice system, like a security firm to evaluate the police and determine if there was any wrongdoing. I believe that the police need to have people monitoring them as well. I think that the justice system needs to take the findings of that third party seriously and reprimand those who are found guilty.

        Lynching has been a part of the American culture since the Slavery times and it has not changed it just been kept quiet. However, social media is putting an end to that. We are now seeing that it’s not just average people committing these crimes but people that we are told that we can trust. In the end, if we are not proactive and take this thing seriously nothing will change and black people will continue to die. Also if we elect Donald Trump we can forget about the BLM movement – He has stated that he is openly against it.



http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/do-the-right-thing-19890630

"Do The Right Thing." Rolling Stone. Spike Lee, n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2016.

http://prospect.org/article/targeting-young-blacks-law-enforcement-ben-jealous-conversation-jamelle-bouie

Jealous, Ben. "The Targeting of Young Blacks By Law Enforcement: Ben Jealous in Conversation With Jamelle Bouie." The American Prospect. Columns, n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2016.


Advanced Essay #4 Kobe Nabried

Posted by Kobe Nabried in English 3 - Block - D on

I wrote this essay with the intention of debunking the theory of systematic evil. Systemic evil is often a source of blame that people use for their negative actions. I beg to differ. 


The morals of the human heart have been questioned time and time again. Travesties like violence and war are two of prominent contributors to the stress that can be exerted onto the human heart, mind and soul.

The Vietnam war was a conflict that was met with great protest from US citizens. Protesters came from multiple backgrounds. The early on protesters consisted of peace activist and leftist intellectual, but the protest picked reached a prominent level when the US began bombing Northern Vietnam in earnest. This sparked national protests marches and speeches against the war.

People in the US were openly opposing the war because it was an unjustifiable act of violence. The US had been drafting soldiers as young as eighteen to fight in a war that many wanted no role in. Hundreds of potential soldiers fled to Canada as a method of avoid conscription. The soldiers who hadn’t fled to another country weren’t too keen on engaging in conflicts with the Vietnamese people when they were stationed in the country. Vietnam War veteran John Grant had told spoke of how a platoon of soldiers had reached an agreement with local villagers that if neither side fired on each other that they would remain peace and never engage. Even the fighters on the ground in the war were against fighting in the war.

The soldiers in that platoon had a great level of awareness and sense of right from wrong. Though they were put into a position to act violently and were and were often given orders to do so, they took of the responsibility of decision making themselves. Time and time again soldiers who are put in the same exact position relinquish their decision making abilities to a higher power of a system.

Psychology professor Philip Zimbardo conducted the Stanford Prison Experiment. In this experiment the psychological affects of being a prisoner and prison guard were observed through a set of volunteers. Through this experiment it was shown that once the volunteers were placed into their roles as prisoners and prison guards, the prison guards began to carry out horrendous acts of violence. ZImbardo gave a TED Talk a few decades after this experiment to explain some of his findings. One of the most prominent beliefs that he shared in this talk was that either the person, or the situational forces at play in the scenario were responsible for the actions of the guards. The situational forces that are in the scenario, or the system, cannot possibly be to blame for the actions of those prison guards. This is simply for the fact that the volunteers were regular people before they went through the process that Zimbardo called, “Becoming an anonymous uniform.” He believed that when a person put on a mask or a uniform that they essentially took a new identity, or role in the world.

Free choice has occasionally been confused as civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is defined as the refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes and fines, as a peaceful form of political protest. One of the more noteworthy occurrences in the past few years was Edward Snowden. Edward Snowden is an American computer professional and former Central Intelligence Agency employee. He came under fire from the nation for leaking information about how the United States had been secretly keeping track of US phone records. Snowden, as opposed to leaking this information as a form of protest, did it because he felt it was to the benefit of public interest.

It is arguable that people who assume positions of authority spontaneously act aggressively, such as the volunteers in the Stanford Prison Experiment, because in the sudden shift of status. Going from an average civilian to a guard of a prison may lead someone to believe that they are open to more as someone with a more authoritative and aggressive title. However, Snowden, who had been an employee of the CIA since 2006 before leaking phone record information to the public, was not subject to that shift before acting. It came as a realization to the justifiability of what the NSA was doing at the time.

The differences between the volunteers of the Prison Experiment and Snowden vary, but one substantial one is that the former had no basis to act the way they did except for their job title, while Snowden made a choice based on what he had been observing for some amount of time. In the former, there's an automatic evil that exists with nothing but being entered into the system, but in the latter, Snowden found the evil in the system after years. Both actions are the result of systemic evil, but that kind of evil exists in different ways, resulting in different actions.


Advanced Essay #4: What is Good and Evil?

Posted by Darius Purnell in English 3 - Block - D on

I wrote this essay in hopes to understand if Evil really exist. What I end up coming to the conclusion is that both good and evil do not exist and that we just believe it does. Since we all have common opinions of what we think is bad and what we think is good we let that maifest into Good and Evil.

Wonder fills her eyes as she watches the windows of creativity float above her, reflecting her smiles, laughs, and excitement that sits in the bubbles that float over the nothingness that is the skies. As she sits in the grass, her mind unfolds her world as she enters her own land of imagination. Her youthful glow and her expanding mind adds color to her world. She is Good, however she is also Evil.
One conversation that has no end with different variables that continues to be added along with definitions that continue to change is the battle of “Good versus Evil”. The idea of Good and Evil holds many controversial issues and resonates from our religion and what we are taught at home. However, many people don’t know what Evil actually is and find it unclear. Many religions believe that Good people have Good things happen to them and because of Evil, bad things happen to the Good people. They are fed the idea that Good and Evil is always balanced, but people argue that Evil rises over Good in their lives. The one thing that is known but many will not believe is Evil does not exist and neither does Good. Evil is an empty word and Good people can be perpetrators of Evil.
In the TED Talk, “The Psychology of Evil”, Philip Zimbardo says “The line between Good and Evil to the privileged, is fixed but movable.” An excellent example of this is murder. If a human murders another human, it is considered Evil. Somehow the small difference in scenarios can  erases Evil. The line between Good and Evil can was be moved in the minds of those who are observing only one of the acts as Evil. If a man murders another man, the murderer is considered Evil. When a man is put on trial and gets the death sentence, the officer that pulls the switch to the electric chair is a murderer, but because it's his job and the man getting the death sentence is considered Evil, the act by the officer is somehow Good. An officer of the law that acts as the executioner for a death sentence is the same job of a hitman. A hitman’s job is to kill anyone that a consumer wishes to to perish. Many would say that what a hitman does makes him Evil. What makes it Evil? If a hitman kills a rapist or another murder, is is still considered just as Evil as the hitman killing someone that a consumer just do not like? The judge that sentenced the convicted man to a death sentence simply had an alternate choice to to send the murder to jail, however because he wishes for the man to perish he sends him to his death. The officer that does the deed is hired to do so, the officer is a hitman. The two men in the scenario are doing the same Evil deed but only one is considered Evil. Evil is just the opinion that resonates from your morales implanted by the way you were raised. Good is what you prefer and Evil is what you don’t prefer.
In the essay, “The problem of Evil”, Jeff Speaks says “God is omnipotent; God is wholly Good; and yet Evil exists. There seems to be some contradiction between these three propositions, so that if any two of them were true the third would be false. But at the same time all three are essential parts of most theological positions: the theologian, it seems, at once must and cannot consistently adhere to all three… A related idea is that Evil is necessary as a means to bringing about Goodness. The basic idea here is that God uses Evil to bring about Goodness, in much the way that we find that we often have to do something painful, like going to the dentist, to bring about some desirable end, like fixing a cavity.” Evil is what shows Good and Good shows what is Evil , without both, society can crumble and go out of control. Without Good there is chaos. Without Evil there is chaos. Balance is key. Ying can not live without Yang, and Yang cannot live without Ying. The subconscious idea layered in your brain, Evil, is completely and utterly relative. Evil only exist because we exist and and we let the idea manifest. The world and reality itself is neutral. The meaning of Good and Evil does not exist anywhere but our minds. Philosophers try to explore what Good and Evil is and it always relates back to religion, mainly back to the scripture of the bible, “Ezekiel”. They say that God is the all Go and that he created Evil and Hell. He was the one who put one and two together by putting the Evil in his own domain of Hell. God could have locked the domain to ensure that all of his neutral creations do not get influenced by Lucifer. God left it open and instead of it being a place to keep all Evil in as a prison, Hell became a security and shelter for Evil. God supposedly allows for Lucifer to walk the earth and along with his followers to influence the Good and turn them Evil. God supposedly created everyone and everything. People of the Christian faith were told that he created Lucifer and Lucifer was his favorite angel. I believe he was his favorite angel because at the time, there was no Evil, and God wanted to use Lucifer to change that. Good and Evil at the time was supposedly turned and favored on the Good side because there was no opponent. Therefore, there was no Good because there was no Evil to complete the definition. Lucifer “turned” on God. God is all Good and all knowing, so of course he knew of this was going to happen when he first created him. I believe God created Lucifer because he needed Evil. He gave Lucifer free will but just like everyone else, it was already programed in his brain of what Evil is. God created him with the intention of becoming Evil. By the power of free will, Lucifer was able to do what god wanted him to do.
In a Bible study scripture Lucifer's Rebellion, “Evil did not originate on planet earth. Before God created earth, he had already populated the universe with other rational beings. The Bible calls these beings "angels," and names several different orders. Angels have often been made to appear as fantasy by those seeking to discredit their existence… The angels, like mankind, were created with free will, and were subject to the same conditions regarding their eternal life. The most prominent of these chose to rebel against God. In order to understand the conditions in which we live today, we need to understand this angel and how he came to rebel against God.” Reality cannot be neutral without two sides for it to stand in the middle. So if Good and Evil does exist, which is completely possible since it's all a matter of opinion; Reality holds the scale that Good and Evil balance on. If one of the components are gone then the whole scale does not exist. God needed Evil for Good to exist and since Evil was created by Good, Evil cannot exist without Good. Reality is the free will of the life. The scale acts as a bridge to challenge free will. There is nothing stopping one that is Good from becoming Evil; and one that is Evil from becoming Good. So the question lies, will you become Good or will you become Evil?

Advanced Essay #4 Post Trauma Griffin Gallagher

Posted by Griffin Gallagher in English 3 - Block - D on

​In this essay I wanted to work on expanding my vocabulary by trying to reword myself using words I would not usually use in an essay. I also looked up synonyms of some words in order to use a broader vocabulary. I also worked on my editing skills, by watching kia as she edited my paper. She gave me a few good tips and tricks that will help me in the future.

War has been used for as long as history remembers as a tool of groups to get other groups to do what they want, this means giving up resources or land, or changing social policies or even just to destroy rivals. Everyone looks at the larger group, but almost no one looks at how each individual soldier handles  war.

Many soldiers are affected by a severe mental disease, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. PTSD is caused by a person experiencing a traumatic event like a natural disaster, a terrorist attack,  sexual assault or rape, and military combat. Only 4 out of 100 (4%) civilian men and 10 out of 100 (10%) of civilian women will develop PTSD., but this number jumps to roughly 15 out of 100 (15%) regarding veterans. These statistics come from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

PTSD has no known cure, but there are ways to suppress the symptoms, such as therapy and psychiatry. I seen an image of a man from Vietnam running away from a fiery napalm blast. He could most definitely hear the last screams and cries of the enemy soldiers. He heard their last breaths. The soldier is being torn apart inside by many mixed emotions. On one hand, he must be happy because there is no longer an immediate threat to his life, but on the other hand, he feels remorse for taking away the lives of so many people. Traumatic events such as the one described in this picture can cause PTSD. Soldiers living with this mental disease are not lost though, as I have said before there are lots of treatments.

However, these treatments are not always given to the people who really need it. One case of this is a man known as Eddie Ruth. Eddie served in the marines on three tours in Iraq and suffered from extremely severe ptsd. He depended on his mom to take care of him. Each day she drove him to work in the morning, but after work Eddie had a short period of time by himself in the afternoon before his mother got home. Eddie’s mother feared and prayed to herself every day on the way home, she feared he would kill himself due to all the stress. Eddie got no treatment for his PTSD, the veterans hospital said he had no signs of the disease and therefore would not pay for the expensive and long term therapy. One day Eddie was taken out to a shooting range by a man named Chris Kyle, also known as “The American Sniper,” the most efficient sniper the U.S. Navy Seals has ever had on record with over 150 confirmed kills. Kyle and a friend were taking Routh to a shooting range to help him cope with his PTSD, but it took an unfortunate twist when they got there. Kyle and his friend Littlefield were both shot and killed in cold blood by Eddie Routh. The two men didn't even have a chance to fight back, their guns were both holstered, the safeties still engaged. This is a perfect example of how not getting the proper treatment for PTSD can be dangerous, and in some circumstances even fatal. At his trial they argued that he was insane and had severe PTSD. His mother gave this statement, “This was a 6-foot-2 Marine, A tough man calling for his mama." This was in context to the fact that some nights Routh would get so scared he would have to sleep in bed with his mother. All this could have been avoided if the Veterans hospital would've given him the proper treatment. Since the military is a very large part of this country, we need to pay as much attention to the soldiers who are home as we do to the soldiers who are on the front lines. PTSD is a large part of the military, and since the military is a large part of America, PTSD should also be a large part of the things we address on a daily basis. Eddie Routh is just one example; how many other tragedies could be prevented if we just spent a little bit more time and money on our soldiers when they come home from war? We need to stop forgetting about our Veterans.


Zaeem Wallace-Parker Advanced Essay #4

Posted by Zaeem Wallace-Parker in English 3 - Block - D on

My main goal on writing this paper was to really just expose some of you on what goes on in my everyday life. Living in South Philadelphia is basically word for word on what I explained in this paper. I've been raised in it for 16 years so my information is mainly correct due to my knowledge and what I was taught from family. I mean 16 years, what other sources should I be looking for besides family? 

What is war? What do you see when you think of war? Philadelphia is a city that has been under the influence of war for decades now.  It’s not an ordinary war such as  blacks against whites, nor criminals against the government, it’s the citizens of Philadelphia versus the citizens of Philadelphia. Violence, neglect, and pain is the outcome of it all as the city battles itself. The city has been prayed for by many of people, the government has been act to be more strict, miracles has been wished upon, all to stop the war. No one really understands the war of the city of Brotherly Love.

The annual average  of homicides for the past decade in Philadelphia is 283. This means at least over two hundred people have been killed per year since 2006. These numbers consist of people of all races being murdered by people of all races. Many and most of these murders were committed by Philadelphians on Philadelphians. Moreover, this war has carried on for more than 10 years however, families, friends, and loved ones have all been victims to the war within the city. It’s not just violence that carries this war on either. The School District keeps taking money away from the budget because they believe students don’t want to learn. However, this belief is contradicting because it counts out for those who really do want to learn. It takes away many opportunities for all of students in total. Athletics, Lunch/Breakfast, and of course Education are the 3 major factors when it comes to school. If the School District of Philadelphia keep taking away money that they’re supposed to spend on these 3 things for the school and putting it else where, how will the schools be successful? Science Leadership Academy is one of the most successful public schools in Philadelphia and it’s location allows the students to be exposed to many different things. However, the school doesn’t have or own any location for any of its sports teams. Now, why would one of the best high schools in Philadelphia not have at least 1 facility for at least 1 of its sports team you may ask. It’s because the School District of Philadelphia is failing and the more it fails, the more students began to take the wrong path. With that happening, the more the war increases.

160108161302-09-philadelphia-shooting-0108-large-169.jpg

Another major piece of the war is the tension between the government, mainly the law enforcers, and the citizens of Philadelphia. In the picture above, it is an image of a dark figure (preferable black) shooting and murdering a cop (preferable white) inside of Philadelphia police car. Why? What may have caused a man to commit such a crime? Now in the specific example it is a black male, however this not the scenario for this case. Whites, Hispanics, Asians, etc. have all been engaged in this fight with the police of Philadelphia. The police of Philadelphia have been historically known for their overly authorized activity. There are records on records of cases where police have violated the rights of citizens of Philadelphia. However, due to their position within the city, the cases are normally won by the police and the result of all of this is just more war.

Now, with all this war going, how do the citizens of Philadelphia continue to live within it? Citizens born and raised within the city of Philadelphia have so much pride for the city of Brotherly Love that they don’t see the war, as a war. It brings you back to the question of what is war? Statistically, war is believed as “love for ones nation/home”. The people of the place that is going at war will never really see the negativity of the war due to their love for their home. Kevin Cook is 25 year old photographer who one day woke in the middle of the night to gunshots outside of his home in North Philadelphia. The next morning the family of murdered victim were grieving at the corner of Kevin’s street and Kevin decided to take photos to promote the sympathy for the family. During his new interview Kevin talked about how the violence in Philadelphia needs to come to an end but he then followed up on with those statements on how much beauty he sees within Philadelphia, regardless of the whole reason he was given an interview. I’m not saying the pride of the citizens of Philadelphia is bad but, the pride holds majority, not all, of the citizens to make an effort to stop the war going on. Our government is democratic, so if we can’t get the people to be against the war, it’ll just get worst.

The people of Philadelphia has endured so much of this war. However, the effort of the people to prevent the war has been very weak due to many different reasons. The war causes a lot of the issues that goes on in the city today and it’s getting to the point where it is becoming unstoppable.


Advance Essay #4

Posted by Jason Greene in English 3 - Block - D on

After writing this essay it has changed my view on war but I also think the whole unit did that as well. I knew what war was but I didn't really know what war meant. I knew that war was two or more groups of people fighting because they had two different viewpoints on a problem. I thought it ended there. I didn't know what war meant to those who fought in the war. I didn't know what happened to them,. Physically, mentally or emotionally. Now I have a different viewpoint on war.


You are fighting a war in a foreign country.  You are thousands of miles away from your wife and two kids.  You think about them everyday.  You imagine the beauty of your wife and you see the kids in the backyard playing with the dog. You are fighting this war just to get back to them safely and you’re family prays for the same thing.  They miss you and all they want is for you to come back home in one piece. Then you hear shots fired and you awake from your dream. The enemy performed a surprise attack at your base, bullets are being shot in the air and fly inches from your head.   At the end of the battle you see your best friend dead.  He grew up with you in the same town.  He went to your high school.  You guys won the state championship together.  He was the one who kept you sane in a place of constant violence.  Now he lies lifeless on the ground and you lose it.  When he died to took something with him that you can’t really explain.  This changes you for the rest of your life.  You see the image of his body on the ground for the rest of your life and you will never be able to escape it.


War is not something that is new to the United States.  The United States has been fighting a war over 90% of the time that we have been a country.  As a country we seem to be in love in the idea of war.  War has been an essential part of our identity since our founding fathers signed the declaration of independence.  We took one of the most powerful country at the time for our independence and won.  Since then we have had the mentality that if we don’t agree with something that the first option is war and that we will eventually win.  That we have the responsibility to fight for those who can’t fight for themselves.  While this is a noble cause, what we don’t realize is that not only are we hurting and killing the people we are fighting but we are slowing hurting and killing those who we send overseas to fight for us.


Some veterans are affected by Post-traumatic stress disorder.  According to the Mayo Clinic, Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD is “a mental health condition that’s triggered by a terrifying event - either experiencing it or witnessing it.  Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares, mood disorders and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event.”  These events can include being in war or seeing death.  Many war veterans come back from deployment with this.  According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, up to 20% of veterans that served in Operations Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Enduring Freedom (OEF) has been diagnosed with PTSD at one point.  About 12% of veterans from the Gulf War has diagnosed with PTSD.  During Vietnam it is estimated that 30% of Vietnam Vets had PTSD in their lifetime.


So what happens in the brain when someone has PTSD?   Viatcheslav Wlassoff, PHD, who is a writter for BrainBlogger.com said “Understanding how PTSD alters brain chemistry is critical to empathize with the condition of the victims and devise treatment methods that will enable them to live fully and fulfill their true potential.”   After studies of the brains of PTSD patients researchers have a little more understanding on what plays a role in the brain.   There are three big parts of the brain that plays a major role in PTSD.  The parts are the amygdala, hippocampus, and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.  In the first region, the hippocampus, PTSD patients show a reduction in the volume in this area.  The hippocampus is the part of the brain that is responsible for memory functions.  It helps a certain person to create new memories and retrieve them for a later time when in a relevant environment.  This part of the brain also allows us to tell the difference between past and present memories.  With this reduced volume in the hippocampus, people with PTSD can not tell the difference past and present experiences.  The second region is the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.  This is the region of the brain that is responsible for regulating emotional responses triggered by the amygdala.  PTSD patients also show a decrease in the volume of this area which explains the why people who suffer from PTSD exhibit fear, anxiety and extreme stress.  The last region of the brain is the amygdala.  In this region, patients show hyperactivity in response to stimuli that are connected to the individual traumatic experience of the patient.


War veterans who are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder also could have a higher rate of suicide.  According to the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs, going through a traumatic experience can increase a person’s suicide risk. Veterans Affairs said “Studies show that suicide risk is higher in persons with PTSD. Some studies link suicide risk in those with PTSD to distressing trauma memories, anger, and poor control of impulses. Further, suicide risk is higher for those with PTSD who have certain styles of coping with stress, such as not expressing feelings.”  Since we know more about PTSD, there are better treatments available.  Treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy, which allows those affected by PTSD to understand and change how they think about their trauma.  Or exposure therapy.  The goal of exposure therapy is to help control your thoughts and feelings.  Therapy along with medication like antidepressants can help people affected by PTSD to live a more normal life.


So how can we prevent this?  How can we lower the amount of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder?  How can we lower the amount of veteran suicides because of PTSD?   I believe that we can end this by not seeing war as the only solution to a problem.  But can we stop doing this?  One day in my English class we had two Vietnam War.  The names of the veterans were Mike and John.  They were from the Veterans For Peace chapter in Philadelphia.  After a very interesting presentation,  I was able to ask one of the veterans a question.  I asked “Can you imagine a society rooted in nonviolence?”  The veteran looked at me for a minute as I waited for a response.  He said “ I think I can but if that were to happen if would have to start from the ground up.  We as citizens would need to take a stand.”  We need to see war for what it is and break up with it.  Not only is war hurting the brains of soldiers but it is also driving some to the point of wanting to take their own life.  Once we can take a stand together as one, that is we can finally start the healing process of the thousands and thousands of men and women who were willing to die to protect their friends, family and country.


Works Sited

"PTSD: National Center for PTSD." Mental Health Effects of Serving in Afghanistan and Iraq -. U.S Department of Veterans Affairs, n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2016. <http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/PTSD-overview/reintegration/overview-mental-health-effects.asp>


"PTSD: National Center for PTSD." Treatment of PTSD. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

<http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/treatment/therapy-med/treatment-ptsd.asp>


"PTSD: National Center for PTSD." Suicide and PTSD. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

<http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/problems/ptsd-suicide.asp>


"America Has Been At War 93% of the Time – 222 Out of 239 Years – Since 1776." Washingtons Blog. Washingtons Blog, n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

<http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/02/america-war-93-time-222-239-years-since-1776.html>


"Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)." Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

<http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/post-traumatic-stress-disorder/basics/definition/con-20022540>


"PTSD: National Center for PTSD." How Common Is PTSD? -. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

<http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/PTSD-overview/basics/how-common-is-ptsd.asp>


Wlassoff, Viatcheslav, PhD. "How Does Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Change the Brain?" Brain Blogger How Does PostTraumatic Stress Disorder Change the Brain Comments. Global Neuroscience Initiative Foundation (GNIF), n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2016. <http://brainblogger.com/2015/01/24/how-does-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-change-the-brain/>




Advanced Essay #4: Violence

Posted by Katarina Backo in English 3 - Block - D on

​In this essay I really wanted to think about violence in competence to different things. I talked that it is a part of who we are a humans and that there is and isn't any good excuses to use violence for anything. Thank you and I hope enjoy reading my essay.

You just slapped a person. It was because of something they said or did, but it was also violence. Nowadays we don’t realize just how violent we as human beings have become. Violence is incorporated into our daily lives so deeply that sometimes we don’t notice it at all; most of the time we don’t even feel like it’s a big deal. There is so much of violence in movies or in real life, things like slapping someone else is violence. We just justify these things, by excuses that have nothing to do with violence but instead affected our emotions and things like saying things like ‘They deserved it because they cheated on them.’

Google's definition of violence is “behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something” which is good representation of it’s meaning. It proves that accidentally bumping into someone rough enough to knock them down, is not the same thing as punching them. But we also have to think about how right it is, because punching your pillow is not the same thing as punching a person.

We need to think about what excuses we use to justify violence, and which of those are actually good and which of those aren’t. One example of excuses people make for violence is when it's used as self defence, and I am not saying that it is not a good excuse but we do have to turally examine it. We need to  think about what we consider self defence, like is it considered self defence only if you are fighting against someone that is hitting you at that moment, or those it spread to verbal abuse as well?

In my English Class, we watched a TED talk called, The Psychology of Evil, in which the speaker says that “Violence is a disease.” I find that what he said is very strong and could be a very good point. What I interpret from the words of Philip Zimbardo is that we can consider that the idea of good in violence can be cured, it is possible for it to be cured by just realizing that we have to control ourselves and our actions. Violence is curable, but only on an individual level, each person must begin to take control of themselves because if not, then the disease of violence can spread, and eventually becoming unstoppable.

Domestic_Violence.jpg

I recently saw a picture that I interpreted to be a representation of the essence of violence. In the image, a woman is holding up her hands to block the man from hitting her. There is a light right behind them. He looks mad and she looks scared. Even though they look like shadows you can almost see those emotions in their faces. The shadows thae are shaped as humans makes it seem like they lose their humanity even when they look totally human. This image is important to me because it is the typical and stereotypical situation, and yet we don’t take it seriously.

Instead of violence think of it as judging a person. They are not even come close to being the same thing in any way. Every single person judges everything that others do. But when it's about another person, we make a connection with that person while we judge. I find this similar to when we fight with another person. We don’t always share those judgments, but when we do, there is different ways they impact the person being judged, as well as, change the person judging. We think of judgments as bad things, but they can be good, too. That is when they burn into compliments. Unlike judgment we make, in this case there is no good way that violence can occur, since someone always gets hurt.  

No matter how bad violence morally is, there is no way to remove it from our lives, in a society and world we live in today. The only thing we can do is find a way to forgive and accept the effect it has on and in each and every one of us. Violence destroys everything we have, but it builds a new world; we are protective, and terrible, but we also use it as one of the ways of showing that we are alive. Since we are build from our flaws and bad judgments, we are made to live the terror and messes that we made. The unsolvable puzzle where you are holding violence as one of the pieces.


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