Robert Ebert

          So the last few weeks were very interesting and very insightful. It was really nice to learn about Roger Ebert's life and how he lived his life before and after his his cancers. He is a very inspirational person and he helps put in perspective what our lives are really about and what we should really live for and appreciate. Why, when faced with a personal tragedy, do some people swim while others sink?  I think this that this really depends on how you were raise and what happened to you when you were young. For example, when I was younger my grand father died and it was the most upsetting thing that has ever happened to me. I cried so much and like two years after the fact I would cried every time someone would mention him.

           That experience has effected me in a way that now when a family member passes, its not very difficult for me to move on with my life. Its not like I don't care any more about them its more like that I know that they would not want people to stop their lives for them. My parents are not able to move on very quickly when a family member passes away it usually take time for them to recover. Also whether you sink or swim would also depend on the knowledge you have on the world. For example if you are in tune with the world around us today and you see all the death and terrible things that happen, you will take a family member passing away a little better. That is because you are desensitized by the news and bad things don't affect you as much. To conclude I learned a ton from learning about Robert Ebert, and have a new-ish out look on that is half optimistic and half realistic.

The Perfect-Victim Pitfall

     We have learned a lot in this class over pass few weeks. The main thing I have learned is that empathy is no longer a thing that is common in our culture now a days.In the many cases that we have looked at in the past couple months unfortunately shows that. Now don't get me wrong I am not saying that there is no empathy at all by no means, I am just saying that there isn't enough of it. In Eric Gardeners case he was put into a choke hold, which is illegal in NYC, and stated that he could not breath on multiple occasions. Though the police officers, people that are put in charge of protecting us, did nothing to help him. Also, in the case about Tamir Rice, a child who was playing with a toy gun was shot without hesitation when the officers got to the scene. They did not try to get the gun away from him, or try to stop him in anyway.

     All of the cases that we have covered all share one major thing in common. All the victims/ "offenders", were people of color.And all the cases show the bases of institutional racism. It shows that even though people say that racism is no longer a problem, but it is a great problem, North Korea has called us out on it. If we are being told by North Korea that we have human rights problems, you know that we have hit the lowest we could possibly be. We have more innocent colored people being arrested and harassed by police than we have whites that actually commuted a crime. Also, the police how are supposed to Protect all and treat everyone equal, might need to go back to the academy and learn what those words mean. Again i don't mean all cops, not every cop is racist and ignorant.