"Reel Truth vs. Real Truth"

      As a sports fanatic, my favorite movie of all time is Remember the Titans. It includes football, Denzel Washington, and drama. What's not to like? The credits tell you that the movie is "based on a true story" about a mixed race football team in Alexandria, Virginia in 1971. 
      I've always taken the "based on a true story" phrase as meaning that the director and producers may have added characters, changed characters, and made things more dramatic than they actually were. But, at the same time, I always trusted that the events in the movie were very similar as those in real life. 
      Now, as an avid reader of Cracked.com, when I saw the article titled, "6 Movies Based on a True Story (That Are Also Full of S***), I clicked on it right away. I found what I didn't want to find: There is was: #5 Remember the Titans. I didn't want to find out that the movie of my childhood and one of the greatest sports dramas ever made was simply made up. No, it had to have been a TRUE story.
      
I kept reading and found this:    

 "By the time the championship season rolled around [racial tension] had mostly subsided. No one protested on the first day of school, and while there were heated exchanges in practice, according to the actual players and coaches it was based purely on position battles, and not race."

      What? Much of the movie illustrates the tension between the black and white players. It shows Gerry Bertier, white, and Julius Campbell, black, overcome their hatred, become close friends, and thus lead the Titans to victory. Practices are marred with fights that are started because of race. 

      Coach Herman Boone, played by Washington, even leads the team on a middle of the night run to Gettysburg, illustrated in the picture to the side.

       Guess what? That never happened in real life. The real Boone never brought his team to the Gettysburg cemetery for that iconic speech. That was purely for plot and drama. Their training was held at Gettysburg College, as depicted in the film.

Is that okay? Does the dramatization of this story take away from the power of the film? Should directors be able to claim it as "based on a true story?" Is this intellectual honesty? 

More information on the "Reel Truth" vs the "Real Truth"

A Real "Strong" Argument, Perry

         To the right is an ad from Republican Rick Perry's presidential nominee campaign. This ad campaign is called "Strong." On the YouTube page, this video has 6,971 likes and 312,339 dislikes. I don't mean to be leading, but I really do. 

        

         Okay, I'm not going to lie, at first I thought it was a joke. Then I realized that it wasn't, and that this is what he actually believes. This is what he is using to try and convince people to vote for him. This seems like a perfect example of what not to do to get people to like you. But, as we have talked about in class, it's all about audience. And I really don't think my parents or I am the audience. He's not going to convince us, like Frederick Douglass wasn't going to convince the slave masters in his book. (wait, did I just compare my family to a white slave master?) 

           

   Anyhow, the most alarming thing he says is, "There's something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can't openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school."

          Wait, what? I'm sorry, Rick, but I really don't see how you got from bashings homosexuals to saying children can't celebrate Christmas in school. Those two claims don't really come hand in hand to me. Actually, I think I get it. The fact that gays can serve in the military is somehow stopping the kids from celebrating Christmas in their schools? No, that wouldn't really make sense. 

          I believe what you are so eloquently trying to say, Rick, is that our country's "wrongness" is measured on the comparison of gays serving in the military to children learning Christianity in school. 

How does a guy trying to become President of the United States base his campaign off of making American "Christian again?" Does this ad, with a blatant stab at gay rights, hurt his campaign? Or does it strengthen his supporters' views, convince the in-betweeners, and anger everybody else? 

The Great State of Illinois, and My Biggest Worry

       As we all probably know, our esteemed ex-Governer Rod Blagojevich was sentenced to prison for 14 years today. He was convicted with 18 counts of corruption including trying to sell President Obama's vacated Senate seat for money or favors. He was originally arrested 3 years ago. As I was skimming the news to fact check, I read that 3 Illinois governors since 1970 have convicted of crimes and sentenced to prison. Go Illinois! (click here for more.)

       Anyway, upon hearing that Blago had finally been convicted all I could really think about was.... I wonder if he has to get his hair cut in prison. I know, I know, the guy is going to prison for at least 12 years, I shouldn't be making jokes. But this humorous (to me anyway) thought lead me to another question.    

How will the former governor hold up in prison?

       In a HuffPost Chicago article, I learned that he will work an eight-hour day, will have to share a cell with another cellmate, and visits from his family will be limited. I was actually surprised when I heard this. Somehow, I had pictured that he would get special treatment. I had pictured that he would get catered  meals and a nice, spacious cell.

       

       But that isn't the case. In prison, a person doesn't get treated based on who he is (for the most part), but rather what he did. It's one system in American where just because he's Rod Blagojevich, it doesn't mean he gets special treatment. All I can say is, I hope they let him bring in his special brush. But he probably won't need it after all. 

The Dry Cleaning Business in Wilmette; an ensemble

      Drive around Wilmette. Find anything surprising in business districts? I know, I know, there are four, yes four, Starbucks in Wilmette alone, but that could be a whole other post. I'm talking about something more discreet, something that teenagers don't exactly find themselves wandering in and out of. You guessed it, it's the alarming amount of dry cleaners.

There are seventeen (seventeen!) dry cleaners in Wilmette.

This GoogleMap shows the clusters of cleaners in Wilmette.

According to GoogleMaps, there are three different dry cleaners in the small business district of Fourth and Linden. And it Downtown Wilmette, there are three more dry cleaners. This potpourri of garment cleaning services is impossible to miss once you notice it. It feels like around every corner, there's another dry cleaner. But really, how much ironing, pressing, and buttoning do our clothes need? Does every town like have this many dry cleaners? 

I decided to do some investigating. I found that in Park Ridge, a suburb with 10,000 more people than Wilmette and 2 more square miles in area, there are only twelve dry cleaners, according to Yellow Pages. But why? Why does Wilmette, a town with an average income of $40,000 more than Park Ridge, have that many more dry cleaners? Perhaps, it is because of the type of workers in the wealthy suburb of Wilmette? Do we simply wear more clothes that need to be dry-cleaned?

Guess who slept through US history?

"They say I can't tell people to kill themselves 

didn't know freedom of speech had limitations"

This is what Washington Redskins receiver, Jabar Gaffney said, after he tweeted what is pictured below to a taunting Cowboys fan after a Redskins loss:

First off, I don't really understand why a grown man would say that in such a permanent fashion. Does he not know by now that in this day and age, whatever you say on Twitter is going to read and copied and pasted? You can't get it back, ever. Once it's out there, it's out there. 

But this post is about the bolded statement above. He claims that because of the reporting onslaught that occurred after his tweet, his freedom of speech was limited. But it wasn't. Freedom of speech only applies to government restraints on speech. No government entity told him he couldn't say that. He said it, and now he has to pay the consequences. There are plenty of rules like that in professional sports; in the NBA a player cannot bash on the officiating after the game without facing a fine, during the lockout players, coaches, and owners are not allowed to talk about the negotiations without facing fines, the list goes on. 

But the government isn't limiting professional athletes' speech. It's the bargain they make for the millions of dollars they earn. They can say whatever they want, but they will have to deal with the consequences. Clearly, Gaffney didn't write a great perilous times paper.

Just One Day Isn't Enough

       Friday was Veteran's day. You probably already knew that, but just in case you didn't, CBS and FOX reminded you over and over and over again with honorary commercials, PSAs, advertisements, and simple thank-yous throughout this NFL Sunday. 

       Watching these gushy commercials where the serviceman hugs his wife upon arrival or hearing that Applebees is giving a discount to veterans for the weekend, I couldn't help but think cynically. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for raising money for foundations like the Wounded Warrior Project and United Service Organization. With my own brother in the military, some of these commercials really hit home. 

     

       But my issue is with the fact that these soldiers are fighting every day and we only take this one day, Veteran's Day (okay, maybe the whole weekend), to acknowledge our appreciation for them and those who served in the past. In an earlier post of mine I wrote about the draft and linked this article. Here's another excerpt from it:  

"Americans are big on bumper stickers, and they like to go to sports events and demonstrate their patriotism by chanting, “U-S-A! U-S-A!” But 
actually putting on a uniform and going into harm’s way? No thanks."

The NFL recognizes Veteran's Day and honors
the military with this campaign. 

       It all comes back to this disconnect with the military. Americans are patriotic at our NFL games, opinionated on the back of our Chevys, yet most of us wouldn't dare enlist, and even worse, most of us don't even think about the military and our servicemen as they finish fighting one war and continue to fight another. 

       We use Veteran's Day to make up for this. The commercials, the discounts, the products, it’s all making up for what we haven’t done the other 364 days of the year. We are supposed to be showing support for those who have fought and those who are still fighting, but really are we just making ourselves feel better? Are we just showing ourselves that we do, in fact, care?  

Riots amidst PSU scandal, fighting wrong battle

       Jerry Sandusky is an evil man. Most people know this, and there is little controversy surrounding that opinion. For those who have not been following the Penn State scandal, in short, former assistant football coach, Jerry Sandusky was arrested on November 5th and charged with 40 counts of sexual abuse of young boys over a fifteen-year period from 1994 to 2009. Sandusky retired in 2000, but continued to frequent PSU's athletic facilities and games. 

Sandusky's victims were part of The Second Mile, a charity program for young boys who come from troubled families. Sandusky founded the program. He allegedly showered these boys with gifts, took them to college and professional football games, worked out with them, and hosted sleepovers at his house. The sexual abuse--anything from touching to rape-- took place in PSU athletic facilities' showers, Sandusky's basement, and even motel rooms. 

On Wednesday night, Joe Paterno, PSU's longstanding head football coach since 1966, was fired for not taking responsibility and seeing that Sandusky was disciplined. In 2002, a graduate assistant had reported walking in on Sandusky raping a 10 year old boy in the PSU showers. He told Paterno, who then told the athletic director. The athletic director then revoked Sandusky's privilege of using PSU's showers. The police were never contacted. He continued to sexually abuse as many as 20 boys. 

PSU students bringing down a lamp post amidst the riots. 

In the football world, Paterno is revered as one of the greatest coaches of all time. His termination lead to riots among Penn State students in front an administrative building. They brought down light posts, flipped over a TV van, and lit off firecrackers. They chanted "Hell no, JoePa won’t go!” and “We are Penn State!” 

In a New York Times article, one student said about the riots, “I’m here because I just need to be with the rest of my school right now. This is devastating for us.”

Okay, I get that students didn't want Paterno fired and how much he means to the school. But his firing is "devastating" to you? Imagine what those victims are going through right now. Imagine, for a second, that you are one of Sandusky's victims. 

In the wake of coming forward, letting the world know the pain that Sandusky put and still puts each one of his victims through, PSU students riot Paterno's firing. They riot the administration for firing their leader. How about they riot the administration for not stopping Jerry Sandusky from sexually abusing young boys? How about they riot for the cause of bringing sexual abuse out of the dark? How about they riot for the victims? Those causes are better reasons to riot than Paterno's firing. It isn't just about sports anymore. To give them some credit, they did hold a vigil for the victims the following night, but it might be a little too late. Clearly, most of the focus of the scandal is on Paterno and PSU, not on the victims. 

"Personhood" and its Flaws

Recently, I was skimming the headlines of The New York Times, and I came across this article: The ‘Personhood’ Initiative. I hadn't ever heard the term "personhood" before so I read the first paragraph. It completely blew me away.

"A ballot measure going before voters in Mississippi on Nov. 8 would define the term “person” in the State Constitution to include fertilized human eggs and grant to fertilized eggs the legal rights and protections that apply to people."

I know that many people, including myself, have strong feelings, for or against abortion. I want to make something clear, in this post, I am not trying to argue about abortion.  


This is a much more specific argument. It's the argument of what qualifies as a person and how that definition could hurt women everywhere.


This definition of a person was staggering to me. Did people really think that a fertilized human egg was a person? It's .22 mm wide! And how could this fertilized human egg have the same rights and protections as a person? 

In another New York Times article, Dr. Randall S. Hines, a fertility specialist in Jackson, Mississippi working against this vote, said, “Once you recognize that the majority of fertilized eggs don’t become people, then you recognize how absurd this amendment is.”

Even more, the article writes, “The aim is to redefine abortion and some of the most widely used forms of contraception as murder, obliterating a woman’s right to make childbearing decisions under the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade.”

If a women gets raped and then pregnant, then she wouldn't be able to get an abortion. The same applies for incest. Types of birth control would be illegal, but more importantly, women's rights would be limited. But wait, isn't it 2011? 

• If you have further interests on this topic here is the website for the "Personhood" amendment.

Saferides, not Youmustbedrunkrides

      This year, I am a co-head for Saferides, a program that provides a ride home for any sophomore, junior, or senior at New Trier on most Friday and Saturday nights throughout the school year. It's completely confidential, meaning that students who have been drinking cannot get in trouble with the police or New Trier.

2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey done by the CDC 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey done by the CDC

      When the program was started in 1994, the  New Trier's Parent Alliance for Drug and Alcohol Awareness was completely opposed to it. Over its 18 years of existence, the program has received praise from local police and fire departments. On the other hand, people in the community have said that it condones teen-drinking. A 2009 Chicago Tribune article wrote, "Some contend it undercuts the fact that underage drinking is a crime."  

       In a New York Times article, the then-leader of Saferides, Jeffrey Brooks, said, "Kids make mistakes. They need someone to get them home safely. You don’t realize how trapped these kids are.”

      The fact is, some teenagers are going to drink. Criticizing a program, or even terminating a program, for providing safe rides home for these teens doesn't stop the drinking. It puts these kids in a worse position and a potentially life-threatening situation. 

The Draft Wars

Last year, I did a research paper on the effects that deployments have on soldiers' children. In class last week, we discussed danger in times of war. The practice of drafting men for the military came up as well. This topic reminded me of an article I found in The New York Times during my research last year.


The author, Bob Herbert, writes that the disconnect between American citizens and our military situation is at an all time high. People don't care enough about our wars because they aren't directly affected therefore less and less people join the military. He says that this causes more and more deployments for those in the military. He declares, "I would bring back the draft in a heartbeat. Then you wouldn’t have these wars that last a lifetime."


I don't know if the draft should be brought back, but I do know that too many people just don't care enough about the wars we are fighting because they don't hit close to home. We care more about sports and entertainment than we do about our own people dying. Herbert says: 

"We can get fired up about Lady Gaga and the Tea Party crackpots. We’re into fantasy football, the baseball playoffs and our obsessively narcissistic tweets. But American soldiers fighting and dying in a foreign land? That is such a yawn."

I know that I am guilty of this as well. But now that my brother is nearing his own deployment, I find myself reading the newspaper on a daily basis and reading military books. I have tried to educate and connect myself more to the wars that are raging on in the Middle East. I know that my case is somewhat unique to the North Shore, but people need to be more connected to our military situation whether or not you are against or for war. 

"A" is for average, right?

"When did earning an "89" become not good enough?" 


This was the sub-headline of an article written by Kelly Villano of the Hillsborough Patch.  After our discussion in class about the need to be first in American culture, I did some research. I found this article. 

This graph shows GPA trends from 1920-2006.
 (Courtesy of gradeinflation.com)

In it, Villano argues argues that the pressure in our society to be #1 has stemmed from "a culture of 'Keeping up with the Jones’ taken to the extreme." All parents want their children to be the best,  sometimes putting huge amounts of pressure on them in school and other activities. While my parents don't put tremendous pressure on me, I find I put this pressure on myself.


Villano then says, "now a 'B' has become the new “C”. I find this to be completely true. I wouldn't be happy with a "C" in a class.  A "C" isn't good enough to me. I find it very frustrating when teachers say things like, " a 'C' is average, you should be happy with it." Not only do I think a "C' isn't average anymore, but frankly I don't want to be average. I strive to be the best because the culture I grew up in says that's what I should do. This culture has become a part of me.


I know that this is the case with my students around New Trier and in this community.


Do you think this pressure will be beneficial for us in the future? Do you think this pressure will continue to build as it has over the last century?

What is this, flag football?

Courtesy of ESPN

       On Sunday, I was watching the Bears game with my dad. At  the start of the second half, when the Bears were receiving the kickoff, the ball was kicked way over Devin Hester's head. My dad then complained how Hester didn't get a chance to return the ball. At this point I realized that my dad was unaware of the new Kickoff Rule that moves the kickoff from the 30 yard line to the 35 yard line. As a result of this new rule, the number of touchbacks has greatly increased. The rule change is in an effort to lessen injuries created by high speed collisions on kickoffs.
       Once I had explained this to my dad, all he said was, "But wait, that's part of the game. They can't just get rid of it." This made me question whether the NFL should make drastic changes to the game to make it safer. This rule change is particularly frustrating for teams that have invested huge sums of money for high profile returners and years of development for talented rookie returners. Since 2006, when Hester joined the Bears, special teams has been an exciting phase for fans and a huge threat to the other team. It's definitely not something that fans or teams want to lose.

Two talented and famous kickoff
 returners, Josh Cribbs and Devin Hester.
Courtesy of Barstool Sports. 

      I understand the stresses on eliminating helmet-to-helmet hits and defenders leading with their helmets. That's different. Players can tackle without hitting helmets and causing concussions. But when the NFL threatens to almost eliminate a whole phase of the game, that seems to go too far. Football has been unsafe for years and everybody knows that. Monday's news is overrun by injury reports, some minor and some season ending. ACL's are still tearing, arms are still breaking, and heads are still concussing with or without the kickoff change. The league shouldn't compromise such a vital and exciting part of the game because of safety concerns, when the rest of the game is just as unsafe and injury laden. Soon enough, they will be pulling flags instead of tackling.

Into the Wild, as Told by Sean Penn

     Ever since I finished Into The Wild, I have wanted to watch the film written and directed by Sean Penn. I had heard many good things about the movie, and since I liked the book, I thought it would be a good idea.
     Now that I've finished, I'm dissatisfied. Sure, the acting and the format of the film were great, but I don't think the movie reflected Chris McCandless and his journey in the same way that Jon Krakauer did in his book. It all seemed too simple. Sean Penn answered too many questions, that as Krakauer explained, simply couldn't be answered.

Chris and Tracy in the movie

     What was particularly frustrating, was his creation of the romance between Chris and Tracy. In the book, that was a minor detail: a girl had a crush on him, he did not reciprocate it. But in the movie, it played out into this dramatic montage where Chris spent lots of time with her. Now, this may have happened for all we know, but Krakauer did not include this in his book. If he had found that Chris' relationship with the girl had been significant, he would have included it. I know this because Krakauer studied the relationships that Chris made so that he could understand him. This relationship that Penn creates makes Chris seem too normal. One of Krakauer's biggest points in his book was that Chris didn't need female companionship or companionship at all. He didn't to be involved with women or surround himself with loving people to feel complete. I know that Penn wanted to have romance in the movie and used his creative license to do that. But with a story so complex and serious as Chris', I don't think he should have had the right to that creative license. The story isn't about love. It's about Chris' journey and what was going on in his mind.
      Penn failed to show these things. As a film, disconnected from the book and story, it was enjoyable. Ron Franz's character was stunning and extremely moving. The voiceovers from Carine were well done and strong narrative. But the movie shouldn't have to be disconnected from the book to be good. They are a package deal. The movie should compliment the book, not fictionalize it.

The Real Reality TV Show

       Around the world, people watch shows like Jersey Shore, Teen Mom, and Keeping Up With the Kardashians (do they even deserve to be in italics?). These shows are advertised as reality shows with all events being real and not scripted. Most people, though, know that this simply isn't true. Whether it's scenes being reshot numerous times, or cast members being told to argue about a certain topic, reality TV is no longer "real."

       This brings me to my topic: can a fiction TV drama actually be more realistic that the aforementioned reality shows? The show is Friday Night Lights, an NBC drama that recently ended its fifth and final season. Now, I know this show is scripted. I know that there is no way Lyla Garrity and Tyra Collete, two female leads, could ever actually be in high school. I know that the plot lines on the show haven't really happened to one specific place. 

Tami Taylor and Coach Eric Taylor,
two of the show's main characters

        But I also know that Dillon, Texas, the show's fictitious setting, is as real as any West Texas, football-crazed town. The show realistically portrays a happily married couple who fights, a very average quarterback who must step up to the spotlight, and a town that is football. 

        Even more, FNL cameramen only used three small and easily mobile cameras, instead of numerous large, stable cameras like many shows use. They also didn't rehearse lines or scenes before filming.

        They only used sets when they needed to, which was rare. For characters' houses, they used actual houses in Austin, Texas. In an interview for a Grantland piece, the Riggins' house was discussed. Producer Jeffrey Reiner said, "The Riggins' house was a shithole." Taylor Kitsch, who plays Tim Riggins said, "It reeked. There was mold. The pool was filled with sludge." The even found a real Texas state championship ring in a bedroom in the house. They wanted to create a real environment that looked, smelled, felt, and sounded like Dillon, Texas. And they did. 

       This in contrast to Jersey Shore, where MTV rented out the pizza place the cast "worked" at and controlled who was allowed in. Reality isn't a show where the eight cast members are supposed to represent "real Italian people," but in fact infuriate them and embarrass them.

       Don't get me wrong: I enjoy watching Jersey Shore just as much as the next guy. Its funny, entertaining, and mindless. But it isn't real, and I know that. When I watch FNL, I feel something. I laugh with the characters, I cheer with the characters, and I even cry with the characters. It's a mystery to me why FNL struggled throughout its five-year running to get good ratings. The show even ran on DirecTV for seasons three though five, and then episodes were rerun on NBC. Its hard for me to understand why Jersey Shore is the American reality show that trends on Twitter, and Friday Night Lights is that sports drama on NBC that never lived up to its potential.

  

Above is the speech that ended the pilot episode of FNL. It is known as one of the best episodes of the show, and most of the best pilot's in recent years.

Click here to read the full Grantland Interview on FNL

The Fourth Plane

      

The crater created by the crash where cleanup crews
 look for any part of the plane.

        For art class, we were given a very broad preliminary assignment: research something about 9/11 that interests you and think about how you could transfer that to a work of art. My first thought was flight 93, the plane that crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania after the passengers on the plane diverted the plane from the planned target, the Capitol building. This plane's story got very little attention compared to that day's other tragedies, as one would expect, with only 40 deaths.  I found a 20 page article written  by the Post-Gazette that covered the background information of almost all 40 passengers and crew members and also reported the phone calls made from the plane. The article says, "Flight 93 became an asterisk to a day of horror..." That said, I believe this story to be just as moving and horrifying.
       What got my attention most though, were the phone conversations that the passengers had with their loved ones. It seemed odd to me that they were the ones reassuring their family, even though they were minutes from death. One passenger, Elizabeth Wainio, said, "It hurts me that it's going to be so much harder for you all than it is for me."
        I cannot even begin to fathom how their family felt. One second everything is okay, and the next second your brother, sister, husband, wife, son, or daughter is saying "I love you," and that the plane they boarded so routinely this morning, has been hijacked by terrorists. The plane that you dropped them off for, not even bothering to get out of the car to kiss them goodbye, has been taken over. You were going to see them in a couple days anyway. No big deal. Just another flight. But then the phone rang and you spoke your last words to your loved one. At this point in the day, you had already that the Twin Towers had gone down. Yes, you were sad and concerned, but you weren't personally affected. Until the phone rang. Now you wish you could do everything differently. Now you wish you hadn't rescheduled that flight.
        Among the grief there was, and still is, another feeling felt by the loved ones of the victims: pride. Pride for these men and women who came together for a greater cause. They knew death was basically inevitable for them, but things weren't completely out of their control. They attempted to take the plane back over. While they failed to enter the cockpit, the terrorists chose to crash the plane because of the unrest in the cabin. With death, they protected the lives of others.
       This story makes me ask myself how I would feel if I was personally affected by the crash. Of course I would be overwhelmed with grief, but would I be proud, angry, or horrified? Maybe all three.

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