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.

Niether WIns

In the classes latest assignment to write a comparison essay we were given the opportunity to read two articles from The New York Times that compared two different issues, on of which involved two brothers involved in the Blackwater scandal and the other of which dealt with two motor vehices. While the two articles essays show clear separation in genre they display a similar ability of comparison.
The article in regard to the Krongard brothers controversy brushes on slight comparisons of the two men and how they differ from one another, even pointing out their lack of contact with each other. Where are the car article makes two clear distinctions on the Ford Sport Trac and the Chevy Avalanche. In the car article there is an abundant amount of information given to help the reader pick out the best car for them, in the other article there is no winner.
The ending result of both articles can be summed up with the ending statement from the car article, "Are either of them a good value? No, not really." Where it concludes that neither vehicle is the best buy, and in the Blackwater case the article ends with stressing a lack of value and rust in Buzz Krongards testimony. Both cases display a frustration with their represented, "Product."
The clear similarity between the two NYT pieces is their formal writing style and their conclusions, where in that they are conclusions that lead you down a dead end. One article has not yet been able to have an ending written, and the other simply states you're better off with neither.

Jam This

Cell phones, perhaps one of the most profitable and innovative inventions of the last century have turned into an epidemic as useful as a vacine and as deadly as the plague. A double edged sword. For as useful as they may be they are hardly ever used for their real purpose, the abiity to get a hold of somebody from any location when their is no ther form of communication. Infact they are msore used to just get a hold of people with no merrit, n purpose other than the fact that the ability is there and mans unwillingness to look alone. By talking on the phone it looks lke you are not alone. So the masses chat and text, text and chat. And the bystanderds, those who are near a person on one of these free wheeling calls, have to take it all in, have to hear every drawn out detail of that persons conversation. Well not any more. Thanks t the invention of a cell phone jammer a person has the ability to jam the frequency service waves and force the persos phone to lose service...thus forcing them to shutup. Haleluiah! rIGHT? Not really, cell phone jammers are illegal , and perhaps righfully so.
Who gives you the riht to jsut block off somebodies conversation? Who knows what that conversations level of importance is? grant it if I had one of these jammers I would jam every person on a phone. I frequent NYC and one of the worst parts about the city is on the train rde there almost always I'm near some pin head who is yapping on their phone. It's horrible. And god knows the other person is always inconciderate, but you never are. And God knows that 9 out of the 10 users have zero importance with in their calls, their purose is to void their boredom. An architect named Andrew described to the NY Times how on his train ride he used a jammer to stop a passengers conversation, and all you can help but think of is the peace of mind.
Few will argue that it would be bliss to silence rambling self-concious iddiots and their phones in innapropriate places. Because let's face it, unless you are a doctor on call odds are you proboably don't need to answer that call, because odss are its just he baby sitter asking where the ketchup is.