TOW #24- Unbroken pt. 2

“Pain is only temporary, but pride is forever” – John F. Kennedy

            This quote summarized the greatest struggle Louie faced throughout his life. Multiple times he was put in live or death situations but yet he embraced the pain and pushed though it for the better. There was the survival in the boat, the prison camp in the woods, the Japanese prison camp, and the Olympics. All of his success could only have arrived because of how he pushed through the pain and suffering in order to achieve success. This can be seen in the stories of others as well.

            One of Americas greatest presidents ever was also one of the most handicapped. FDR. Faced with a childhood struggle of polio, FDR was in a wheel chair the rest of his life. Although he was faced with this issue, he led America out of the great depression and was the reason Germany didn’t win the Second World War. With his disease, he knew he had to look strong in front of the American people. To do this he was never photographed or interviewed with him in his wheel chair. He stood strong, fought through his struggle, and ultimately became one of the greatest presidents in American history.

            One of my favorite comedians ever also faced a life of struggles. Jim Carey, the famous wacky comedian we all see on TV actually has a past that most people don’t know about. Faced with a low-income family, Jim lived in poverty most of his young life. He was forced to work at the age of 15 to help provide for his family. Instead of giving in to the poverty like many do, Jim worked to become successful and yearned for a good life for him and his future family. He tried many comedy gigs and was booed off stage, even tried out of SNL where he didn’t get the part. It wasn’t until an interview with Oprah where Jims name became big. With all the struggles he faced he didn’t give in.

            You want something you have to fight for it and that was the greatest lesson Louie could teach you in Unbroken.

TOW #22- A Week Of Misconceptions

     

       This week I read an interesting article called A Week of Misconceptions. Because April fools day just happened and is over, the author felt the need to debunk some of the misconceptions that are fooling the publics eyes. These are the types of things you here that are backed by said “studies.” The article included misconceptions like: exercise builds strong bones, most spree killers are mentally ill, the universe started in one singular place, climate change is not real, and baby teeth don’t matter. All of these “facts” have been going around the whole year. In the article you can read more about each misconceptions.

            The reason this article interested me so much was because it created the argument that people are very gullible. I don’t know if it is because of a lack of education, or it is just human nature, but people tend to fall for all these types of things all the time. Its practically the reason As Seen On TV is still bothering us with their stupid commercials all the time.

            Whenever there is a commercial or article or advertisement that include “bla bla” technology, expert testimonials, or some scientific backing, half the time everything is a lie. The satirical article we read in APELC made fun of these devices in a very comical and accurate way. The article included works like “pseudoscience” and fake scientific facts. All of which accurately portrayed the average advertisement we encounter everyday.

            I personally believe that this problem is only created because of the lack of education in this country. Im not saying I’m a genius who knows everything, but when I heard about how exercise build string bones, I thought to myself, “how could anyone fall for this.” Exercise only affects muscles, at least to my knowledge. Only reason someone would thing otherwise is because of a lack of knowledge when it comes to human anatomy.

            The same thing goes for how climate change isn’t real.  If the public was more educated on how weather and seasonal changes work, the misconception would have never gotten enough footing to become as big as it has.

            I feel like the only way this problem can be fixed, to make America less gullible, is either to increase the average education (which they are already working on) or to have stricter laws about what can be called facts and studies. Once one of these solutions or both are addressed, American can know the truth and not fall for any of these tricks again.