Listen to my newest podcast interview. In this podcast I interview Miss Megan Boyanton of Johnson City, Tennessee, about her experience about the recent Presidential Visit.
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/americandreamoverlandx/episodes/2018-10-05T15_13_19-07_00
Article originally published in the East Tennessean Monday, February 19, 2018, edition.
I feel like Bill Murray in the movie “Ground Hog’s Day.” Murray is a journalist reporting on small-town America and keeps waking up stuck in the same day. Except instead of a rodent looking for his shadow on a superstitious holiday in February, there is another mass shooting in America at a school for adolescence. There are reported dead, injured and a young shooter with mental health issues.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, now joins Sandy Hook, Columbine, Virginia Tech and many others on a growing list of infamous schools.
Republicans are sending up thoughts and prayers; Democrats are calling for stricter gun control; and once again, social media feeds reflect the ignorant divide of the nation’s political parties.
This shooting occurred weeks after a gunman terrorized a Kentucky school. Two students were killed in Kentucky and 14 injured. In Florida the tragedy is worse, 17 students and faculty have been slain and another 14 wounded.
Many across the nation are trying to figure out why. Why is this a continuing problem in the U.S.? Others are reeling in shock and debating on even attending school. Parents are confused about sending their young to receive an education or protect them by means of isolation.
A large social movement is gaining strength. Advocates want stricter access to firearms in order to prevent the next Parkland, Florida, which seems inevitable in the constant stream of news footage showcasing one school shooting after another. We as a culture are accepting this as a normalcy rather than setting differences aside to solve the real issues behind these events. It is clear through tone and statements from both sides that even media coverage seems to forget the victims and their families to raise a flag in support of or opposition to gun control.
Florida law permits someone of 18-years or older to purchase AR-15s, a rifle styled after military type assault weapons. They are used for hunting, sport and collecting by gun enthusiasts. Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old shooter, used one to murder his peers.
Is gun control the solution? Would stricter gun laws curb shootings like this?
In my opinion, the short answer is no. Stricter gun laws would do nothing to stop a person like this from harming others. The problem is multifaceted, and therefore the solution must be too. However, an update for sensible gun law reform needs to happen; either pass federal law or regulate state law.
The shooter in Florida bragged about planning this online, shown multiple warning signs of mental health issues and police were called to his home over a dozen times. How was he able to legally purchase this rifle at 18-years-old with these extenuating circumstances?
I cannot justify any reason this kid was able to purchase this firearm legally without training or screening. More strenuous background checks could have prevented this. Raising the age limit to purchase a firearm could have. Mandating mental health checks and supervised training before approving the purchase of the rifle could.
Many things could have prevented this, not just more gun control. Better education could have prevented this. Interpersonal communication could have prevented this. Recognizing the signs of mental illness and the reaching out of a deranged adolescence for attention could have prevented this. We as a nation need to recognize the multiple causes for mass shootings and treat the problems as a whole. A Band-Aid on a hemorrhaging artery will not stop the bleeding. In my opinion, that is what more gun control would be like.
We need to have more interpersonal communication, as in face-to-face speaking with one another. We need to teach our young that every life is precious and stop focusing on emphasizing oneself over all others. We need a boatload of better education.
When every person hunted for food, we as a culture had a deeper understanding and respect for firearms. We knew they could take life. We knew what the consequence for taking life was. We knew that all life was precious and there was an urge to protect thy neighbor as thy brother. We did not glorify cultures of violence and were taught there were other ways to solve problems. Children did not sit for hours playing video games that give rewards for killing the most people. Our movies were not inundated with celebrations of “heroes” that indiscriminately kill mass amounts of people in third-world countries.
There are many things that need to be done in the U.S. to curb our mass shooting pandemic. Children across the nation are scared to go to school. A place that should be a vestige of security has turned into the adolescent terrorist playground.
We must stop pointing the finger at guns and each other. We need to take a deep introspective look at our culture and recognize the causes as a whole. Until we do, we will continue to wake up to the same tragedy playing again and again.
This morning’s thoughts turn to respect. People are raised differently throughout the U.S. This is something that is clear from one individual to the next. One can argue that individuals influence those around them and in turn are influenced by others. Researchers have done many studies on this subject.
The way one speaks, and speaks to those around them, is one way that we influence others. Today I ask, what happened to speaking with respect to and about one another?
When I was young my father made sure that I spoke to him with respect. It wasn’t hard for the lessons to set in. Most, if not all, youth at the time were taught to “respect their elders.” This wasn’t long ago. I am a Millennial, albeit, just barely. I make the cut by 5 years. It did not matter who the adult was: a teacher, preacher or otherwise. I was taught to respect my elders and speak to any human being with respect, if only for the reason of them being human.
What has happened to this philosophy in the U.S.?
I have seen, on Social Media, a university professor whose comments were humorously and condescendingly contextualized toward a student, attending the school he works at, over a claim of oppression. He condemned her story and said that she was “ignorant” for her claim.
She is a Caucasian Conservative Republican claiming that she had recently began to be attacked for her political beliefs and the color of her skin. The professor is a Caucasian, assumingly, of a different political party. I am not condemning this professor’s actions or his claim that the student’s story is erroneous. I will, however, argue that his point could have been made with more respect for the woman.
Why is the norm becoming to reply with shouts when one disagrees with another?
Our leadership is one place that change could be initiated. President Trump is one individual that we see on the new-media shouting rhetoric contextualized with anger. Why not change the tone? I am reminded of an environmental slogan, “Think global, Act local.” The same applies to behavior; societal behavior change begins with the individual’s behavior.
The solution I propose is a simple one. I propose a call to action to all my readers and followers. I challenge you to wake up with a congenial disposition daily. One must challenge internally their will to not let the world change that disposition.
It is easy to blame others for your decisions and the consequences of those decisions. The world encourages in doing so. It is also challenging to accept failure and blame for most people.
One must face adversity with a smile and welcome the challenge. One must realize that the day-to-day makes you stronger, every day, even when the world tries to tear you down.
We as a society, as a nation, must stop shouting and challenging one another. We must sit down and realize that we are all human. We are all different and that those differences make us stronger. That to move forward, together, we must discuss hard issues with empathy toward one another and acceptance of each other’s faults, but with respect.
Featured Image Sourced from YouTube: Actor Jeff Daniels during opening scenes of HBO’s series, Newsroom.
The angry rhetoric spouted by President Donald J. Trump and shown by the news media, repeatedly, is dividing the U.S. As a citizen of this country, I am getting tired of the proliferation of unfiltered tweets and comments that continue to spew from the thumbs and mouth of our President. Rather than trying to convey messages that unify the nation the President continues to polarize situations.
The news media then repeatedly shows these to audiences to drive up ratings. It works and the advertisers are happy. But the nation itself continues to be divided. Emotional rhetoric and repeating a message are both known strategies within the media and communication fields of study to drive home a message. It is also a way to make money.
Audiences then reply with rhetoric similar to that with which they were addressed. After all, why wouldn’t they? Most, in this Christian dominated nation, may have been told or at least heard at some point to, “Treat others the way you want to be treated.” I am also reminded though, of my time as a child when my parents would tell me, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
If one shouts at you to communicate their point, cannot one as a civilized person understand the fallaciousness of the comment and reply in a calm and intelligent manner? A person can reply in a way that uses knowledge and logic, rather than emotion, to convey the same message. Even in moments of emotional debate, appeals to logic and reason, supported by evidence, analyzed objectively can, and should, convince one in an intelligent society of the justification for position.
The citizens of the U.S. look too often for meaning behind the statements. I hear all the time in the news media analysis that, “President Trump said X, Y and Z, but his body language conveyed a different message.” What if the President is having a hemorrhoid flare-up and don’t want people to know?
There is a quest for connotation before looking a denotation in the media. The people sometimes seem to want there to be more to the story. Why is this? Cannot we, as a people, just listen to the words being stated and first suspect, that the person saying them may mean explicitly what they are saying?
I hope that going forward we as a nation can gain a deeper understanding on how to view media as a whole. Prominent and educated people make statements of, “hating the media.” What I suspect they mean is that they “hate” news media. When one says they, “hate the media,” the statement implies ALL media since, denotatively, media is the plural form of medium; in this case medium means, the technology between one saying a message and one receiving the message. The medium doesn’t matter, print, television or the internet, all part of the media.
A solution to this problem, and the topic of my next article, is to teach Media Literacy at the Elementary and High School levels to American children. This should not be a question since Americans are the most media proliferated people on the planet. Many studies are done on this topic. Finally, University Statistics show that more and more college students are declaring majors in the media industry. This will only exacerbate the problem as more people compete for the same audience. We, as a nation and people, must combat the problem by making the audience more knowledgeable and critically thinking about what they are viewing. We must also emphasize the importance of responding with appeals to reason supported by evidence, rather than fallacious appeals.
The American Civil War is one of the most horrific times in U.S. history. Many people seem to not grasp what the war was over or why it started.
Many feel that upholding slavery was the primary reason why southern people of the U.S. wanted to succeed from the Union. They ignore the fact that the Southern States were not equally represented in government. They also ignore the fact that at the time of succession abolition of slavery was not on the government agenda.
Many Southern State Governments wanted to succeed because they felt they could better represent the people and the agricultural economy coming out of the region. Slavery was an issue that came about later within the presidential administration of Abraham Lincoln.
After the war ended the 14th Amendment was ratified by congress to truly free all the slaves in the U.S. Many new beginnings and new problems arose in the nation.
Freedmen now had opportunities they had not enjoyed before but the former slave owners did not want this. They felt that the white race was superior and that the freedmen would be a detriment to the nation.
Out of this dilemma came many possible resolutions but most seem to fall short. The Freedmen’ s Bureau and other organizations fought for civil rights. Almost from the beginning of Reconstruction.
Freedmen now had the tasking of starting a life. There were many different attempts that were unsuccessful as well. Freedmen saw themselves as equal to their former owners. The former owners did not agree with this sentiment.
They key things to point out I am pointing out is that slavery was the first time that the government took upon the responsibility of a social issue. Many social issues were prevalent prior to the Civil War i.e. woman suffrage, slavery, immigration, and laborer rights to name a few.
Most of these issues got put aside when the war broke out so as not to divide the nation even more. Slavery however took center stage in 1863 when President Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. Then pushed for the 14th Amendment during reconstruction.
Although, this great atrocity was something that needed to be destroyed. No other time in American history had a President made a social issue the matter of the government. This led to repercussions that have reverberated throughout the history of the US.
From labor issues to woman suffrage the Federal Government has taken up arms on many issues and continue to do so today. State government laws are being stamped out by the U.S. Federal Government.
One cannot argue against the belief that slavery was an atrocity and needed to be ended. This issue needed to be shouldered. Where, however, is the line in the sand for people to take personal responsibility today? The State Governments need to stand up and start making sensible laws as well.
World War II could be argued as one of the most important time frames in the history of the planet we call home.
The U.S. before WWI and WWII carried many policies of isolationism. Some believe that Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted involve the U.S. in the war but popular opinion kept America out. This changed December 7, 1941, when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.
FDR asked for war against Japan and had unlimited support from the government and the people. Pushing to war changed almost every aspect of American life. The able men went off to war. The women were left to make war machines in the factories. The independence and show of support ultimately lead to women suffrage and other rights for women.
The American-Japanese endured some of the worst treatment American Citizens have received by the government up to this day. They were imprisoned in interment camps because all Japanese were seen as potential spies and “could not be trusted.” Their civil rights were revoked and many families were torn apart.
The loss of human life due to the war was devastating. However, many good things could be traced back to it. Developments in technology were one of the largest benefits of the war, especially in areas of communications and medicine.
Civil rights became a focus not just for blacks but also for Native Americans, Hispanics, and women during the war and there were measurable reasoning behind the arguments. More than one million African-Americans served during the war, which gave the leaders of the civil rights a large foundation to argue from.
The culmination of WWII being the Atomic Bombs dropped by U.S. Forces on Japan truly changed the world. The power of the bombs could be said to have been over-powering.
In my opinion WWII is the second most important event in human history following the Industrial Revolution. The dropping of the Atomic Bombs on Japan truly changed the world in ways we are still discovering.
Apart from the violence, many leaps were made in Civil Rights in America, some faster than others, and not just for one demographic. The inclusion of Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, African-Americans, Native-Americans, Female-Americans and just good old-fashioned Americans in the war and war effort display that Americans weren’t labeled by where they are from or what they looked like, all are AMERICANS.
These movements didn’t happen right away and were/are still fought arduously. There was/is justification that must not be denied by any.
Many labor reforms that came about during the war we still share today; along with government policies like the GI Bill and retirement benefits for military members.
America also pushed forward the standards of living with many families switching to duel income and consuming more product. WWII evolved America into a superpower, a status still enjoyed today, but changed the world into a community. Now one country is not solely standing alone, whether economically, militarily or another reason, we all became dependent on one another.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary says that an American is: 1) A person born, raised or living in the U.S. 2) A person born, raised or living in North or South America. 3) A citizen of the U.S.
Do you the people agree with this? I want to know.
J. Hector St. John De Crevecoeur a farmer, author, immigrant, diplomat and Canadian militiaman was also a colonial settler in the U.S. before there was a U.S. He married, had a home in what became New York and travelled throughout New England and Canada before returning to Europe.
He described an American in his essays published in the late 1700s Letters From an American Farmer. Crevecoeur said:
“They are a mixture of English, Scotch, Irish, French, Dutch, Germans and Swedes. From this promiscuous breed, that race now called Americans have risen…I could point out to a family whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose present four sons have now four wives of different nations. He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds…Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world.” – From Letter III. What Is an American
Do you the people agree with this? I want to know.
(Genetic testing has proven that many other races mixed too: Native American, African, Spanish, Etc. http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/12/genetic-study-reveals-surprising-ancestry-many-americans)
From this example one could argue that American is a race and not a nationality. American may be the first race without nationality since nations formed in history? What do you think?
September 11, 2001, is a day that will not be forgotten in U.S. That day the worst terrorist attack on America and one of the worst atrocities committed on American soil was committed.
The attack did not happen on the military or a government target. Rather on the country’s people. This attack symbolized the growing threat of Radical Islam in the world. This form of radicalism is where they attack innocent people of a nation rather than that nation’s army.
Before 9/11 happened, the U.S. was entering a transition period. The government was shifting from the Clinton Administration to the Bush Administration. The latter had promised to be a “compassionate conservative” during his campaign (slides). President Bush’s campaign promises were lost on many because of how soon after his election 9/11 happened. Most don’t even remember what is promises were because of this.
The nation was at war within the first 10 months of Bush’s election with an enemy we didn’t know. The administration called for the immediate surrender of Osama Bin Laden by the Afghanistan government who refused. Therefore the U.S’s commander in chief mad it known that we were coming to get him.
I will never forget the things that happened on that day. I was a sophomore in high school and in JROTC. We were conducting our annual inspection that day.
I was unaware of the happenings until after the second plane hit the towers. Being in command of a Drill and Ceremony Team kept me away from the news. I was on a field marching in uniform at 15 years old.
The repercussions of that day will forever be embedded in the minds of those that knew America before 9/11. The Patriot Act laid down laws that were not clearly defined. Opening the door to unconstitutional acts by government law enforcement officials.
These are issues that have continued to plague the American people since their inception. Some of these laws have been challenged and over turned. Others remain in place.
One thing for certain is that those old enough to remember do. In stark detail most can tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing. Some can even tell you how that day changed their lives and behavior forever.
Upon graduating from high school in the United States most students are of age to cast a vote in an election. This is something that carries great responsibility for the future of one’s self and others in their community.
Being a knowledgeable voter allows you to truly vote for whom you feel is the best candidate. Choosing one who will strive for legislation you support and some that will directly affect the voter personally. Casting a vote whether locally or nationally will determine how the voter and others live their lives.
A knowledge of how voting has shaped America through the history of politics can aid a person in these choices. Studying legislation from the past will allow one to see how it can shape the future.
Being able to see and reflect how the media portrays a candidate will give one an understanding of what may or may not be pertinent. A candidate should be elected for being whom one deems the best for the job at hand. Not what they wear or whom they have dinner with. The responsibilities of voting as an 18-year-old high school graduate one needs to have a basic understanding of politics.
The history of politics should be reviewed to see how legislation stands the test of time and how it can be altered. In the U.S. there is legislation that has been in place, approximately, since the founding of the country. The Bill of Rights demonstrates how legislation can be timeless.
Understanding how politics has evolved in America allows insight to how campaign promises can develop into legislation. If one understands this they may look more than once before casting their vote. Comprehension how laws can be changed may also change whom a person votes for. Looking to the past may very well alter the future.
A huge influence on how a person votes is the media. What one sees on television or reads in print can largely shape their opinion of a candidate. In the U.S. there is law-mandating freedom of the press. Knowing this one understands that a news organization could manipulate a story to support its own agenda. Deeper research is needed to make the best choice of candidates.
Being an informed voter in the digital age is an advantage all Americans have. Knowing alternative research methods one should not allow themselves to be duped by the media.
Basic understanding of how politicians use the media to shape their image will empower a voter to dig deeper into a candidate. The best thing for a country of democracy is knowledge. Knowing how the media sculpts the information allows an individual the power of critical thinking before casting their vote.
Some say that the President of the United States is only in office for eight years at the most. Whether he is good or bad a citizen only has to live with he or she for eight years. Legislation they pass, however, can last much longer. A knowledgeable person versed in the basics of Political Sciences should understand this.
Voters should know that the person they are voting for may not wear the same suit or hold the same office for 50 years. Although, they could pass a bill into law that last for over 100 years. Knowing what and whom you are voting for now will effect the future. Hopefully it would air a side of caution when in the ballot box casting one’s vote.
Graduating high school is a large celebration and accomplishment for most. College is ahead for some and others are straight to the workforce supporting a family. Having a basic understanding of Political Sciences in the United States should be a must.
Living in a democracy where every vote counts the voter shoulders a responsibility to support the best candidate. Knowledge of the offices held, who can become a candidate, and the political process needs to be taught before one cast their vote.
Empowering the people of a nation with voting rights is something that needs to be cherished in America again. Understanding what those in office can and cannot do should invigorate people of this country to maintain the checks and balances. High school is the time one needs this knowledge allowing vigilance for the charge of voting upon entering the adult life post high school.
American Dream: Overland Expedition 