Blog 11: Practice 2 CATW

"The Woman Who Died in the Waiting Room"


The passage "The Woman Who Died in the Waiting Room" by Jeneen Interlandi from the Newsweek on July 12, 2008 a Woman died named Esmin Green in the waiting room of Brooklyn psychiatric hospital. Esmin Green found by a nurse on the floor after nearly an hour of her death. Since 1960s, hospital across the country began closing their doors for psychiatric care, poor and uninsured patience. With only 50,000 inpatient psychiatric beds for tens of millions of people across the country, most of the time mentally Ill patients receives the treatment lastly.

According to the passage "With just 50,000 inpatient psychiatric beds for tens of millions of people across the country, the mentally I'll typically wait twice as long for treatment as other patient do". There are only 50,000 of psychiatric patients across the country but they always get to the last when it comes to treatment. Which is I think that its not fair, even though they are mentally Ill they are also human. They always get treated last because doctors and nurses thinks that they couldn't complain. But they need more attention than anybody else. They deserve to be to treated fairly.

From my own experience, I' am working at a facility for dementia and ahlzeimer patients. I look at them and treat them like my grandparents. I make sure to do my rounds every 30 minutes. I make it to a point that I help them with their needs. I place the call bell where they can easily reach it before I leave the patient unattended.

Blog 10: Hero and Anti Hero in the movie "Hero"

In the movie "Hero", I believe that Bernie Laplante performed the task of being a hero. Although Bernie has all the negative and ugly attitude towards people, he didn' t just saved the passengers lives just to get a recognition. As a matter of fact, Bernie has no idea that by rescuing the passengers in the airplane could make him a hero, he is not even aware of his own actions and its outcome. At first, he refused to help the little boy, but when he said that his father were still inside the plane maybe he thought of his son thats why he went in to look for the little boys father. But on top of his mind is also to steal wallets from the passengers. It means that he has no any intention in letting the people know that he saved their lives, instead he headed to see his son that he supposed to take to the movie before the insident.

For me, John Bubber stands as the Anti-Hero. Though he is not as mean as Bernie but no real hero could pretend and lie about saving people' s lives just to get the compliments and benefits of being a hero.

Blog 9: CATW Practice 1

An Education in Citizenship


The passage "An education in Citizenship", is about the newly passed bill in Illinois House. The new law will acknowledge young foreign students in the United States to pay in-state tuition rates at Illinois Colleges and Universities. The out-state rate in college is very expensive compared to in-state rate. Young people cannot continue their studies because of this reason. They simply cannot afford it. For some citizens it is unfair, because paying a lower rate for their kids college tuition is a privilege of being a citizen and since they are paying US taxes.

As a citizen of United States, I would say that it is not fair for us to let illegal aliens to be entitled of our privileges. But i hope that citizens and law makers of US can consider that this new law is a big help to many young people to pursue their studies. Education is important specially for young people wether they are citizen or not. Not many parents could afford the out-state rate and some young people end up not going to college and becomes burden in our society. Some youth that are out of school deprives to do something bad, they get involved with drugs and some illegal activities.

Blog 8: Red Pill or Blue Pill: Is Ignorance Bliss?

The reading "Red Pill or Blue Pill: Is ignorance bliss?" emphasizes the noticeable resemblance of the main characters of The Matrix movie, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. The protagonists namely Neo from the Matrix movie and Alice in Alice in Wonderland shared similar experiences throughout their journey. One example of which is that they were shown with things that would start their journey into either a world of reality or fantasy. Neo was presented with the red pill and blue pill the same way Alice was given the magic drink and cake. The choice they made put them through self discovery and experiences of what they thought is real and what's not.
The Matrix movie relates to Plato's book The Republic in a sense that both deals with knowledge, reality and enlightenment of the truth. The film showed how Neo turned away from the truth when he was first approached by Morpheus. This is similar to the accounts of Socrates in "The Allegory of the Cave" where the cave dwellers refused to see the truth and continue to believe in their imaginary world - a world full of illusions.
The film clearly demonstrated how Neo and Cypher made choices that greatly affected their lives. Neo seeked out the truth to better understand the difference between appearance and reality. In the process he gained knowledge and wisdom that helped him to fully understand the meaning of freedom and what the world really is. On the other hand, Cypher's vision of freedom and reality is overshadowed by his poor perception of it's true meaning. He betrayed everyone in order to free himself of responsibilities and restraints.
This reading tells us that we have choices to make in life. These choices will pave the path towards our future. The knowledge we attain and the experiences that comes with our effort in seeking the truth leads us to accept the world around us and help us to understand that reality is part of our everyday existence.