Who Let the Blogs Out?

Blogs dominate the Internet landscape today, and there is an ever present and growing importance to the blogging community. The reason for this, in my mind, is the fact that blogs are so personal. They offer people to place more importance on their opinions and views. Blogs serve as a personal narrative that is not filtered or edited to fit a corporations wishes. That sense of personal spin and control is what has made the blogging revolution take place, not to mention another persons ability to immediately post there own thoughts/comments on the bloggers page.
Blogs helped in this class in that it made for doing the work a lot more accessible, in the sense that Mr. Miller’s blog was constantly available to view. If you got home and forgot the assignment it would be easy to see what the assignment was. This almost “futuristic” way of using the Internet and doing homework mad e the work load a great deal more manageable. The one negative of this tool is that it requires the Internet, which serves as much more of a distraction than it does a tool. It is nearly impossible to log onto the web and not wonder off onto other sites.
While posting here on my blog I most enjoyed being able to write the blog about, well, blogs. I felt through this I was able to assess the importance of the tool, or as I state, weapon, that we as a people have been granted access to. I think I managed to draw contrasts of both the positives and the negatives of the blogging world, and left it for readers to decide what they felt. I am most proud however of the line used in it conclusion by one of my heroes Bill Clinton as he discusses the simple magnificence of the internet. It was a quote that was in so many ways the embodiment of a blog. It was plugging a book, while showing a biasness towards a public offiacl and at the same point was being used to make my case. Genius.
Blogs were an extremely smart tool to use for this class. I would have liked however to have had e-mails sent out by Mr. Miller or the blogspot people informing us when new information was posted on his blog, or when someone else posted on their blog or our own.
On a slightly off topic but in my mind interesting note I wanted to inform you that this will not by any means be my last blog. I have been hired by the organization 18 in ’08 to have my own blog about the ’08 presidential election. This should be fun. Thank god for this class though, otherwise I would be completely new to this whole process.

Intro Question

My question in regard to the intro below is can you tell the direction in whch the essay is headed, in terms of what the question is that it is proposing. What does the introduction suggest?

Intro

The school doors are flung open, students file out with tears streaming down their cheeks, trembling, struggling to stand. They are met with a swarm of guns pointed in their direction, an all too real and horrifying sight that makes the tears flow faster. A voice echos for them to put their hands in the air. Helicopters circle overhead, as students struggle to find the strength to look up. A swarm of men dressed in black armor surround the building yielding guns. They stand still and wait as the kids, each one a suspect files out. In side, a gun shot rips through the library.The United States of America is the only nation in the world where so many people of the same nation kill one another. It is also home to the record of youngest murderers. On April 20, 1999 a massacre would occur in Littleton, Colorado when two teenage boys would enter their high school with guns, and begin to open fire on their peers.Why is there this surge of violence among the youth in our nation? Where does it stop being a system of blame and a system of action? These are questions where answers, and blame, can be found on hundreds of different variables. However one thing is for certain, everybody has an answer. However the most honest answer may only be found in one place, the killers own words, from there own private and disturbed world. Today the halls of Columbine lay quiet as students pass through them, passing by the libray and cafeteria, walking on gravestones. Life goes on in America, and so does the violence.

Graphing Youth Violence

The Youth Violence Project is dedicated to showing trends in school violence through the use of graphs. THe graph above depicts the violent crime rate in U.S Schools. This graph, along with others on the site, make for an easy accessible way to understand both the fact of what happened, and what the media would have made you believe happened. For instance in 1995, the year of Columbine School shooting were actually at an all time low, while media attention was evidently at its highest on the situation. These graphs only go up until 2005, leaving out information regrading Virginia Tech and its aftermath. To view more of these graphs from the Youth Violence Project click here.

A New Shape to an Old Argument

Today I came upon a great website that dives into the phyce of Dylan and Eric, the Columbine murderers. It holds a fascinating account of what they had originally planed, and what there plan was originally intended to be. The article dives into the two men's personal writings and analyzes their own words to try and conclude why it is they did what they did. Surprisingly, it concludes something no other media source seems to conclude. Not that the two felt demonized or felt inferior, but rather that the two were two men filled with an uncontrollable amount of hate who wanted to make a point to the point where ti is argued that by looking at their private and personal life that there is substantial evidence to prove the young men were in fact clinical phsyco paths.
This site will prove vital as I try and dive deeper into what inspires kids to brig guns into school as its insight is unique and unquestionably substantial. It is similar to that of strong supporting evidence for a trial. Vital information that re-shapes and redefines the case at hand.

THe Bowling Source

In seventh grade my father brought me to the Madison Art House Cinema to see a new documentary by a film maker who had sparked my interest when I saw him on Oprah. The film make was Michael Moore, and the movie was Bowling for Columbine, a movie that would launch my interest into politics. A move that would have more of an effect on the direction of my life perhaps more so than any other media source. With out this man's courage and undeniable film making technique on addressing violence in America I may never have found my own courage to find answers.
Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine would become the second highest grossing documentary of all time, only to be second to his later film Fahrenheit 9/11. It would receive multiple awards, including an Oscar and be featured on over 100 top ten movie lists. However most importantly it would spark a conversation in America about gun violence. Most importantly, people would begin to feel comfortable about talking about Columbine. To think about that day.
His official website has become a one way ticket to slew of information encouraging people to question what is going on. For those who claim him to be a man who manipulates facts to fit his own opinion he opened a page on the site for each of his films, presenting the irrefutable evidence.
For my paper I will use his BFC Fact Check page, which uses sources from all over the media and government, both pre-BFC and post. This will inevitably prove to be a valuable source for this topic at hand.

Searching for Answers

Its a vivid memory now, I was only in third grade when it all happened, but yet it would all prove to be a trigger in my life. A question that would push me forward into a life of trying to find answers.

The school doors are flung open, students file out with tears streaming down their cheeks, trembling, struggling to stand. They are met with a swarm of guns pointed in their direction, an all too real and horrifying sight that makes the tears flow faster. A voice echos for them to put their hands in the air. Helicopters circle overhead, as students struggle to find the strength to look up. A swarm of men dressed in black armor surround the building yielding guns. They stand still and wait as the kids, each one a suspect files out. In side, a gun shot rips through the library.

The United States of America is the only nation in the world where so many people of the same nation kill one another. It is also home to the record of youngest murderers. On April 20, 1999 a massacre would occur in Littleton, Colorado when two teenage boys would enter their high school with guns, and begin to open fire on their peers.

Why is there this surge of violence among the youth in our nation? Where does it stop being a system of blame and a system of action? These are questions where answers, and blame, can be found on hundreds of different variables. However one thing is for certain, everybody has an answer.