As distraught Florence Wallace held the broken body of her 3 year old granddaughter, the girl summoned the strength to utter a waning, “I love you. I really love you.” Despite the grandmother’s repeated pleas to investigate abuse by the girl’s foster mother, Doris Bennett, the foster mother beat the child into a 5 day coma, and eventually, her June 11 death. Wallace had spent 2 years fighting for custody of her grandchildren, taken by L.A. county social workers after a pipe broke in their rental home.[Riccardi, 1999][National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, 2008]
Every day, approximately 2,450 children are abused. Throughout the United States, abuse plagues children of all ages, burdening our social infrastructure while draining social, medical, and judicial resources and costing taxpayers an estimated 94 billion annually. Equally unfortunate is our marginal success at combating the problem. Between 2001 and 2005 incidences of maltreatment decreased by a mere .4% per child per capita despite a 14.2% increase in spending[Devoot, Allen & Geen]. The problem is not in the will; Americans distaste for abuse is abundant. The problem is the way. In the U.S., resources pour in to help children after abuses occur, even at times to the detriment of the victim. Child abuse and severity of incidents can be reduced by focusing on child and parent based prevention programs. In reducing maltreatment, truly, an ounce of prevention is worth ten pounds of cure.
Intervention programs, including police intervention, mental and behavioral health treatment, and medical attention, changes in custody and out of home care can be costly, ineffective, reduce the familial quality of life and actually create more problems than they solve. Intervention’s failures suggest the need for expansion of preventative measures, which can be more cost effective, more successful in averting maltreatment; enhance quality of life in both family and community, and show the greatest impact in preventing future abuses.
There are 3 main approaches to child abuse. Primary prevention seeks to prevent child abuse before it starts, targeting society at large. Secondary prevention targets at risk populations to prevent abuse before it occurs, and tertiary programs attempt to reduce the re-occurrence of abuse.
Child abuse is severe mistreatment of a child by an adult through physical violence, neglect, sexual abuse, or emotional cruelty. Every day approximately an average of 2,450 children are abused. Of those cases, 60% are victims of neglect, 20% experienced physical abuse and 10% are sexually abused. While children can be victimized at any age, 75% are younger than 3. Every day 5 children die of abuse and neglect. [Childhelp.org] Child abuse and neglect affect victims throughout their lifetime. Abuse is linked to poor academic performance, low levels of education attained, and future income potential. Homeless populations have high correlations with homelessness, in part due to failures on the part of the child welfare system, but this number increases in abused populations that have not been removed from abusive homes, and those placed with relatives. As mental health goes, depression, anxiety, mood disorders, dissociative identity disorder, substance abuse and addictions are all associated with childhood abuse. Nearly 66% of people in treatment for drug abuse report being abused as children and 80% of abused children have received diagnosis for a psychiatric disorder by the age of 21. Abused children have higher likelihoods of entering abusive relationships, both as victim and perpetrator, and have a greater likelihood of abusing their own children. Child abuse is associated with criminality; abused children are 28% more likely to get arrested as adults and 30% more likely to commit violent crimes. Childhood abuse can be linked to high risk behavior such as promiscuity, teen parenthood, and STD's, teen drug and alcohol abuse, and gang involvement. It may even shorten life expectancy by heightening the risk of chronic and infectious disease, overdose, obesity and increased suicides, compounded by poverty effects that reduce the population's access to quality medical care. [childhelp.org]
Risk Factors
While child abuse can occur within every economic, ethnic, cultural or religious group, and at all levels of education, some groups experience challenges that may increase the likelihood of abuse. Some indicators are:
•Families who are isolated. Groups that have fewer community supports, fewer friends, close relatives, lack of religious affiliations, and other social connections can be more prone to abusive relationships.
•Parents who were abused as children can lack problem solving, communication, and nonviolent approaches to child rearing. Without counseling or learning other parenting methods, often abused parents emulate their parents abusive parenting and communication styles and abuse continues generationally.
•Families who are often in crisis experience higher incidences of abuse. This may indicate personality or skill deficiencies that lead to frequent crises also lead to maltreatment, or that the frequent crises cause higher levels of stress, leading to increases in child abuse incidence and severity.
•Caretakers who abuse drugs or alcohol indicate greater likelihood of abuse. Again, it is undetermined weather the underlying cause of the substance abuse are linked to the child abuse, or weather the substance abuse causes violence. Certainly data indicates the latter. Intoxication can lead to lapses in judgment, heightened violence, lowered ability to communicate and poor problem solving skills. [Child Welfare Information Gateway]Child Abuse Prevention Gateway. “Substance Abuse and Child Maltreatment” web published 2009. http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/parentalsubabuse.cfm web viewed 12/12/09
• Heavy criticism of children can be symptomatic of maltreatment, of poor communication, or of a misunderstanding of child development.
• Rigid discipline techniques and inflexibility can be indicative of maltreatment.
• Adults who show too much or little concern for the child, lack of empathy, and lack of connection with their children have higher ratios of abuse and neglect.
• Parents who feel they have a difficult child or children with disabilities have higher prevalence of abuse. Stress of parenting can be compounded by lack of understanding on the part of caretakers, by the child's limitations and by community and family influences.
• Similar to families in crises, families under heavy stress have higher indicators for abuse. As with crisis, stresses can decrease a families ability to function and communicate well, and tension can build up, leading to abuses. [Ianelli, 2005]
Prevention and Protection
When possible, prevention methods can do the most good in terms of child welfare, community well being and long term cost. Protection and intervention methods often occur after the abuse, which may have already endangered a child’s physical and emotional well being. Additionally, protection and intervention programs are costlier, considering medical expenses, foster care, legal and court expenses and future criminality.
Child based preventative education teaches children to identify abuse and understand situations that can lead to their own endangerment, understand that abuse is never acceptable, avoid potential dangers and abusive situations, communicate in ways that deter maltreatment, and how to get help. Some examples of common child based preventative programs are Red Flag, Green Flag, Good Touch, Bad Touch,and Boss of my Body. These programs approach prevention of sexual abuse through education. They explain what kinds of behavior are safe and what to do in instances of unsafe behaviors. Another program is the SAFE kids program which teaches courses to children learning to manage healthy relationships, bullying, communication, anger management and online safety.[[The Rape and Abuse Crisis Center 1980][Child Abuse Prevention Association]
Costs vary depending by program, but implementing a comprehensive sexual abuse awareness program in school can cost as little as $200 per class [amazon.com] Issues like bullying, respect, body limits, safety planning, and identifying dangerous situations can be addressed in classrooms for the cost of printing, time and a dedicated teacher or social worker.
Parent based prevention methods include education programs, home visitation programs, substance abuse and mental health treatment, basic resource assistance, child care assistance, new parent classes, and social support groups. Nursing home visitation programs send health practitioners into the child's home to monitor growth and development of the child. This can offer parents advice on parenting, nurturing, and caretaking as well as demonstrate procedures that can help alleviate medical symptoms. New parent classes can teach parents how to care for their newborn, deal with crying, how to nurture, and what to expect. These types of programs work to eliminate early childhood abuse by teaching parents to become effective caregivers. Further, these type of classes reduce feelings of isolation and lack of support that can lead to abusive conditions.
Substance abuse represents an estimated one-two thirds of maltreatment cases, and occupies more than 20% of $24 billion states spend on child welfare. Mental health and substance abuse treatment programs assist in reducing and preventing abuse by addressing both the direct issue of substance abuse and mental illness, but also by approaching underlying conditions that may contribute to both the illness (or substance use) and abusive caretaking. Often, rehabilitative services will offer support to family members affected by the use or illness, giving them tools to compensate for deficiencies in their caretaker. Further, indicators of abuse can be earlier recognized and interventions more quickly take place in families in treatment than in those without. In South Dakota, studies report $8.43 savings in child welfare for every $1 spent. [Leonardson, 1995]
At times, families that otherwise would provide necessities for their children become unable to do so, due to hardships, lack of income or physical limitations. Their children's needs may be neglected as a result. In fact, the most prevalent factor in cases of child maltreatment is poverty, often occurring in single parent headed households. Basic needs assistance programs such as the Federal Housing Program, food stamps, TANF, medicaid, career training, disability , and child support assistance have a direct effect on poverty based neglect. Acceptance of assistance often involve some rules and overview such as: children's enrollment in school, home visitation, or counseling, leading to early detection of potential warning signs. Further, addressing familial needs can reduce stress and crisis, reducing the incidence of stress related child abuse. Community child care centers and after school care, offering low or no cost child care provides care giving alternatives to parents that may otherwise leave children unsupervised or at the mercy of older siblings.
Poverty and neglect represent a large fiscal cost to state and federal government. State and Federal costs for foster care total an average of $21,092 per child annually vs. $2,499 for children receiving welfare benefits. By addressing poverty related neglect, spending could be decreased almost tenfold.
Intervention has it's place too. Unfortunately, programs like foster and residential facility care are overused to the detriment of child and familial well being. The National Coalition for Child Protection Reform reports that foster children are twice as likely to die of abuse in foster care as in the general population, that sexual abuse was four times and physical abuse was three times more prevalent in foster children. Even this grim figure is overshadowed by group home statistics. NCCPR states 28 times more sexual abuse and ten times more physical abuse in group homes than general populations. A Michigan study showed that maltreated children left in their own homes with little or no help or outside intervention fared better on average that similarly maltreated children who were placed in foster care. A child's risk of abuse in foster and institutionalized care increases as well. Foster children become homeless at a higher rate than other adults under 25 years old. Teens who have “aged out” of the foster care system have difficulty making new living arrangements, finding themselves homeless at 18. Due to overwhelming case loads, foster families often lack support, training, and supervision that could produce better outcomes. [NCCPR, 2009] By assisting families who could be preserved through some of the above discussed measures, the weight of children who shouldn't be in foster care can be lifted from the system, allowing foster parents and child welfare agencies to provide better oversight, counseling, advocacy and support for children truly in jeopardy.
“The case for prevention is persuasive. Not only is it the humane approach, it is the financially responsible approach. Programs designed to prevent child maltreatment serve society in several ways; they build stronger, healthier children; they reduce the burdens on state services such as education, law enforcement, corrections, and mental health; and they free money to be spent on more life-enhancing projects. An ounce of prevention truly is worth a pound of cure.” [Caldwell, 1992]
In a March 3, 2004 USA Today editorial, sociologist David Finklehor reported a 42% decline between 1992 to 2001 in child sexual abuse cases. In another report, author Ann Burgess attributes this decline to preventative factors. “Finkelhor identified a number of possible causes for the apparent decline, such as the fact that many children have received preventive safety classes in school, making them potentially less-amenable targets, and that parents and youth organizations have been educated and become more aware, thus making it difficult for child molesters to operate with impunity (Finklehor, 2004).” [Burgess, 2005] “The fact that prevention programs seem to be making a difference offers encouragement, especially in the area of child sexual abuse prevention. Research on child maltreatment programs has focused on three main areas: home visitation programs, parent education programs, and school-based programs. Nurses participate in all three types of programs.” Other possibilities include the national sex offender registry, created in 1994. This program requires people over the age of 18 who have been convicted of sexual offenses to register their addresses and place of employment. Laws limit the distance from schools and childcare facilities such offenders can work or reside. Additionally laws prevent them from working directly with youth in such roles as teachers or care providers. Citizens can access this registry to learn who in their neighborhood has been convicted of sexual crimes, and take greater precautions.
Conclusion
There is nothing more tragic than abuse that could've been prevented, but wasn't; families that could have remained together, but were instead torn apart. Child Abuse occurs every day and affects millions of lives. While it is unrealistic to expect to completely eradicate child maltreatment, preventative measures can and should be increased. By emphasizing prevention, child abuse can be drastically reduced and costs associated with child welfare can be decreased greatly. By preventing maltreatment through efforts to build child and family strengths, we cannot repair broken lives, but we can reassure grandmothers like Wallace, “This will never happen again.”
Administration for Children And Families. “Strengthening Families and Communities” http://www.preventchildabuse.org/publications/downloads/2009_resource_guide.pdf. Published 2009 web viewed 11/17/09
The 87 page document covered a lot of information. It added specific plans of action, questions to ask parents, information pamphlets, with talking points aimed at parents, kids and community members. It outlined ideas for broaching prevention ideas to children, conflict resolution data, information on appreciating children, age development expectations for children, community engagement, and public service announcements.
It encompassed a broad range of prevention techniques, covering children, parents, caregivers and the community. Further, the fact sheets were helpful in analyzing how one might go about identifying a family at risk without using stereotypical information (poverty, family stress, substance abuse) that can both expend resources where unnecessary and leave gaps where stereotypes do not exist, but abuse may become present. Another thing I thought was admirable was the ability of the approach technique to involve families in their own prevention (as in "parent partnerships" on page 12). Also I appreciated the position encouraging child welfare agencies to change their posture to support and mediate families in crisis, among case workers, foster parents, children and parents.
Blakester, Adam. “Practical Abuse and Neglect Prevention” Pub: Australian Institute of Family Studies National Child Protection Clearinghouse NCPC NEWSLETTER VOL . 14 NO. 2 , WINTER 2006 http://www.aifs.gov.au/nch/pubs/newsletters/nl2006/winterab.pdf web viewed 11/08/09
The author begins with Australian Statistics involving the prevalence and challenges of child abuse cases as well as potential cultural miscommunications between indigenous groups and child advocacy groups. While the introduction includes the broad statistics of Australia as a whole, the focus of the paper centers on indigenous aborigine groups.
The author covers 3 types of preventative strategies; primary, secondary, and tertiary, which involve 1. Community practices and attitudes that lend themselves to familial wellness, 2. Strategies that target high risk groups, and 3. Strategies that react and protect after abuse occurs.
The paper uses several case studies; one using an ecological approach to community focused emphasis on improved child and maternal nutrition; one very successful case restructured a South Wales community with additional tools that assisted parents and community members; one in Sydney used children's art to portray a vision of a desirable society. The children returned to 4 basic premises, respect, multiculturism, access to services, and "friendly places" (parks, healthy environments, etc.); and a Queensland group that assembled an action plan for Child Protection Week.
Much of the focus of the article involved using holistic, eco-psychological approaches to improve children's and family wellness. In most of the cases, change was not forced, but collaborated with members of the community, possibly contributing to the outcome. I will probably not refer to the statistics, but the case studies were highly interesting weather I do or don't use them. Further, the article cited other articles I may be able to use. Notably, the approaches seemed to be both highly fiscally and socially effective, a point with which I intend to conclude on my own paper. The diagrams within the article were particularly interesting, because while the case studies or the aborigines cannot easily cross cultural boundaries, the diagrams can be multiculturally effective.
Burgess, Ann. Essay:“Child Abuse Prevention: The Role of Nurse Examiners”. From book: “Preventing Child Sexual Abuse: A National Resource Directory and Handbook National Sexual Violence Resource Center, A Project of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape” p. 17-18. published National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 2005
This 270 page book is compilation of essays from working professionals in the field of child sexual abuse. Burgess is a nurse practitioner, who discusses medical roles in prevention. She also describes factors which may have lead to an overall decline in child sexual abuse.
Caldwell, R.A." The Costs of Child Abuse vs. Child Abuse Prevention: Michigan’s Experience." Michigan State University June 12, 1992. www.msu.edu/user/bocost.html. Web viewed 11/08/09
The document was created to analyze the cost of Michigan's child abuse programs against it effectiveness. He describes the costs of preventative programs, and of interventive programs. He analyzes both direct and indirect cost of child abuse programs. The author was extremely thorough in his research, and while I could not use Michigan's numbers, many of the programs he described were useful in generating momentum for my own thoughts.
C. J. Newton MA, Learning Specialist "Child Abuse: An Overview", and published TherapistFinder.net) Mental Health Journal April, 2001 web view 12/8/09 http://www.findcounseling.com/journal/child-abuse/abuse-neglect.html
Child Abuse Prevention Association "Programs and Services" http://www.childabuseprevention.org/Programs web viewed 11/08/09
This fact sheet contains a small description about some programs offered at their center.
Child Welfare Information Gateway. “Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect”. Web Published 2008. childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/preventingcan.cfm Accessed November 2009
This fact sheet provided information about preventative programs offered to assist in combating child abuse and a guideline for which factors most greatly impact success in preventative programs. It offered descriptions of some of the programs and discussed 3 types of prevention. The information was helpful for generating my own ideas and opinions about the subject.
Childhelp. "National Child Abuse Statistics". www.childhelp.org/resources/learning-center/statistics. Web viewed 12/08/09
This fact sheet offered a bulleted list of statistics on the effects of child abuse.
Green, Rob; DeVooght, Kerry; Allen, Tiffany. “Federal, State, and Local Spending to Address Child Abuse and Neglect in SFY 2006”. pub:December 2008 page 7 figure 1 www.childtrends.org web view 12/08/09
Ianelli, Vincent M.D. “Child Abuse Statistics.” About.com. Web Published July 15, 2007 pediatrics.about.com/od/childabuse/a/05_abuse_stats.htm. accessed December 12, 2009
This web publication offered basic information about child abuse. The author addressed the prevalence of abuse, who is abused, what constitutes abuse, and who reports abuse. Although the information was very broad, some of the details were helpful. I also was able to use his references to find more detailed information on the topic.
Leonardson, Gary R. Ph.D. “Substance Abuse Treatment Produces Savings in South Dakota”. Published 1995 by South Dakota Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse
The five page report discusses both South Dakota and national substance abuse statistics, issues, cost to society and cost benefit ratio of prevention and treatment. I found the section on maltreatment particularly helpful and used several of his statistics.
National Coalition for Child Protection Reform. “Child Abuse and Poverty”. updated Jan. 1, 2008 viewed 12/8/09
This web paper focuses on the confusion of poverty with abuse as evidence of the need for the website's goal: child welfare reform. The paper outlined mislabeling poverty as abuse as a serious problem that causes great long term problems for children. It offers as evidence a list of families and the circumstances that led to out of home care. While the information evoked a strong emotional impact, and offered excellent resources for specific cases, it lacks credibility adding statistics. The authors did, however, create a strong introduction into the topic if they were willing in the future to elaborate on the following: How prevalent is the problem; and comparatively, which children have greater success indicators later in life?
National Coalition for Child Protection Reform “FOSTER CARE VS. FAMILY PRESERVATION: THE TRACK RECORD ON SAFETY AND WELL-BEING“. www.nccpr.org updated Jan. 1 2008 viewed 12/8/09
The main goal of the website is to support the case for child welfare reform and to encourage family preservation in place of removal of children from natural families. That in mind, this paper is one of a series of fact sheets, this one discussing and offering statistics on which children are safer from abuse, neglect and harm; children that remain in questionable homes or children who are removed. The information is substantiated, however the piece lacks credibility due to inability to present a comparative bigger picture.
Newton, C. J. MA, Learning Specialist "Child Abuse: An Overview", and published TherapistFinder.net) Mental Health Journal April, 2001 web view 12/8/09 http://www.findcounseling.com/journal/child-abuse/abuse-neglect.html
Prevent Child Abuse America “Fact Sheet: An Approach to Preventing Child Abuse”. www.preventchildabuse.org viewed 11/17/09
The fact sheet was a compilation of data about how their program advocated the "prevention of child abuse before it occurs". The document lists many different techniques including: home visits to new parents, prenatal and post natal preparation for emotional stresses during medical visits, high risk group education programs, early treatment and counseling for post-abuse children (to prevent perpetration by the former victim), good quality child care,life skills training for children and young adults, and crisis support.
I was certain programs like these existed, but have had difficulty finding information (except home visiting). I'm hoping the website has more similar resources, especially in areas of young adult life skills programs, which I would argue should be more required in school than Algebra. I have not and likely never will use any form of Algebra. Young adults need social education, anger management, and communication skills more. Back on point, am also looking for more information about high risk targeting and education.
Riccardi, Nicholas. “Grandmother Blames County in Latest Death of Foster Child” Los Angeles Times B1 June 15, 1999
The article described the heart wrenching story of a grandmother, who's grandchild was beaten to death in foster care. Two years prior, the children had been removed from the grandmother's home after the family experienced plumbing problems. The article discussed another grandchild who resided in a mental hospital after experiencing sexual abuse in a separate foster home. I referred to this article as a way to establish problems with the current solution, and suggest that at times the cure is worse than the disease.
Rape and Abuse Crisis Center. “Red, Flag, Green Flag”. Published 1980, revised 1987
This booklet is geared toward an elementary school aged child audience and discusses safe and unsafe touching, grownups to trust and how to handle a “red flag touch”. I think this type of booklet (activity book) combined with discussions addressed throughout elementary and middle school can be and has proven to be an excellent resource in reducing child sexual abuse.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Research
National Coalition for Child Protection Reform FOSTER CARE VS. FAMILY PRESERVATION: THE TRACK RECORD ON SAFETY AND WELL-BEING read on the web 11-25-09 www.nccpr.org
There is alot of information throughout this site that contrasts child protection agency intervention- removal from families- with family preservation. I was familiar with most of this data before finding it on the website. The site offers case studies of children abused within the foster care system, case studies of children who shouldn't have been removed from their birth parents, racism, cultural supremacy and poverty removals, suggestions for improvement.
This paper in particular, is a short opinion piece evaluating the records of various states, and comparing it to data on how many children are abused in the system. One problem with this type of information is that it is difficult to get accurate numbers, with child welfare agencies who often investigate claims of foster care/ group home abuse directly interested in the groups and homes. It is there fore difficult to get unbiased results.
From my own experiences, I can say that I have witnessed firsthand abuse and neglect in 5 of 8 of the foster homes I grew up in, even to the severity of hospitalization. When it was repoorted, no follow up occured. Years later, one of the more violent homes, who had been reported a number of times for physical abuse recieved Utah's Foster Family of the Year award.
There is alot of information throughout this site that contrasts child protection agency intervention- removal from families- with family preservation. I was familiar with most of this data before finding it on the website. The site offers case studies of children abused within the foster care system, case studies of children who shouldn't have been removed from their birth parents, racism, cultural supremacy and poverty removals, suggestions for improvement.
This paper in particular, is a short opinion piece evaluating the records of various states, and comparing it to data on how many children are abused in the system. One problem with this type of information is that it is difficult to get accurate numbers, with child welfare agencies who often investigate claims of foster care/ group home abuse directly interested in the groups and homes. It is there fore difficult to get unbiased results.
From my own experiences, I can say that I have witnessed firsthand abuse and neglect in 5 of 8 of the foster homes I grew up in, even to the severity of hospitalization. When it was repoorted, no follow up occured. Years later, one of the more violent homes, who had been reported a number of times for physical abuse recieved Utah's Foster Family of the Year award.
Outline
Outline
Thesis: Prevention should be emphasized and preferred over intervention to end child abuse. (it’s weak, I know)
1. Prevention costs less than intervention
a. Total cost of intervention.
• foster/residential care
• incarceration of victims
• cost of institutionalizing/ rehabilitating perps
• legal costs
b. Proposed and current cost of preventative
c. Long Term cyclic increasing cost of intervention
d. Long term potential savings – prevention
2. Interventive Programs are relatively ineffective in preventing effects of child abuse
a. Future criminality & high risk behavior after abuse
• % abused adolescents and teens incarcerated or legally disciplined
• % of incarcerated adults abuse survivors
• high risk sex, drugs, careers, pregnancy, perps
b. Quality of life
• emancipated into homelessness/ extreme poverty
• homeowners/ income ownership
• % below poverty line
• depression & related illness
• health
c. Abuse continues within the social welfare system
• state fiscal motivation not to improve family condition
• deaths in state care
• educational/ social stigma and neglect
• association with high risk groups/ drugs/ behaviors
3. Preventative programs are effective.
a. Austrailia studies
b. Sexual abuse successful decline in the US
c. High risk groups can be targeted for additional assistance
d. Education linked to better parenting/ caretaking
4. Not quite sure yet
5. Conclusion- proposal
a. Increase focus from intervention in all but severe child abuse cases to familial preservation through increased support, education, and rehabilitation, and anger/ stress management
b. Increase preventative education through social skills/ anger & relationship management programs in all school levels
c. Increase funding for effective programs that educate parents and caretakers, offered at free or low cost for adults at local neighborhood locations.
d. Offer educative child development and parenting classes as part of prenatal care, including home visitation assistance for risk groups.
e. Increase community funded safe after school & child care programs, and emergency respite care
f. Apply pressure on leaders to promote family wellness requirements such as required paid maternity/ paternity leave, better crisis housing, substance abuse treatment, and low cost counseling for parents/ children/ families and community members
Thesis: Prevention should be emphasized and preferred over intervention to end child abuse. (it’s weak, I know)
1. Prevention costs less than intervention
a. Total cost of intervention.
• foster/residential care
• incarceration of victims
• cost of institutionalizing/ rehabilitating perps
• legal costs
b. Proposed and current cost of preventative
c. Long Term cyclic increasing cost of intervention
d. Long term potential savings – prevention
2. Interventive Programs are relatively ineffective in preventing effects of child abuse
a. Future criminality & high risk behavior after abuse
• % abused adolescents and teens incarcerated or legally disciplined
• % of incarcerated adults abuse survivors
• high risk sex, drugs, careers, pregnancy, perps
b. Quality of life
• emancipated into homelessness/ extreme poverty
• homeowners/ income ownership
• % below poverty line
• depression & related illness
• health
c. Abuse continues within the social welfare system
• state fiscal motivation not to improve family condition
• deaths in state care
• educational/ social stigma and neglect
• association with high risk groups/ drugs/ behaviors
3. Preventative programs are effective.
a. Austrailia studies
b. Sexual abuse successful decline in the US
c. High risk groups can be targeted for additional assistance
d. Education linked to better parenting/ caretaking
4. Not quite sure yet
5. Conclusion- proposal
a. Increase focus from intervention in all but severe child abuse cases to familial preservation through increased support, education, and rehabilitation, and anger/ stress management
b. Increase preventative education through social skills/ anger & relationship management programs in all school levels
c. Increase funding for effective programs that educate parents and caretakers, offered at free or low cost for adults at local neighborhood locations.
d. Offer educative child development and parenting classes as part of prenatal care, including home visitation assistance for risk groups.
e. Increase community funded safe after school & child care programs, and emergency respite care
f. Apply pressure on leaders to promote family wellness requirements such as required paid maternity/ paternity leave, better crisis housing, substance abuse treatment, and low cost counseling for parents/ children/ families and community members
Monday, November 30, 2009
If I wanted to fight with HTML, it would look the way it should
An adage chides, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” In instances of child abuse, this expression hits the mark exactly. Child abuse is a problem across cultural lines, economic classes, religions, and education levels. Programs that intervene rather than prevent child abuse occur after the child was affected by maltreatment. These types of programs, including police intervention, mental and behavioral health treatment, medical attention, change in custody, and out of home care can be costly ineffective and create new problems. These problems indicate the need for expansion of preventative measures such as education, community support, mental health and rehabilitation services for parents, and elevation of living conditions. Going forward, prevention should be the first choice in approaching child abuse.
Child abuse is severe mistreatment of a child by an adult through physical violence, neglect, sexual abuse, or emotional cruelty. Every day approximately an average of 2,450 children are abused. Of those cases, 60% are victims of neglect, 20% experienced physical abuse and 10% are sexually. While children can be victimized at any age, 75% are younger than 3. Every day 2 children die of abuse and neglect.
Risk Factors
Child abuse can occur within every economic, ethnic, cultural or religious group, and at all levels of education. Some groups, however, have challenges that may increase the likelihood of abuse. Some indicators are:
•Families who are isolated, with fewer friends, relatives, religious or other support systems.
•Parents who were abused as children.
•Families often in crisis (have money problems, move often).
•Caretakers who abuse drugs or alcohol.
•Adults who are critical of their child.
•Parents who are rigid in disciplining their child.
•Adults who show too much or little concern for the child.
•Parents who feel they have a difficult child.
•Families under heavy stress.
Prevention and Protection
When possible, prevention methods can do the most good in terms of child welfare, community well being and long term cost. Protection and intervention methods often occur after the abuse, which may have already endangered a child’s physical and emotional well being. Additionally, protection and intervention programs are costlier, considering medical expenses, foster care, legal and court expenses and future criminality.
Child based education teaches children to identify abuse, understand that abuse is never acceptable recognize/ avoid potential dangers, communicate boundaries, and how to report abuse. One example is Boss of my Body, which helps children understand sexual abuse. Another program is the SAFE kids program focusing on managing healthy relationships, bullying, anger management and online safety.
Parental education programs approach prevention by training parents to recognize appropriate discipline patterns, anger and stress management, set boundaries appropriately, and build relationships with their children.
Community education programs create awareness using PSA’s, posters and brochures. Additionally, they work closely with members of the community to recognize at risk families and youth, mediate and provide guidelines for reporting abuse.
Parental supports can alleviate some conditions that can lead to abusive and neglectful situations through efforts to ease poverty, improve living conditions and work related skills, rehabilitate addictions, provide safe after school care, respite programs, and mental health assistance. Some examples are Boys and Girls Clubs, who provide inexpensive child care, food banks, the Federal Food Stamp Program, housing assistance, and recreation centers.
At times, a situation can become so dangerous that intervention becomes necessary. Some interventions include perpetrator removal from the home, family counseling, visits to the home, and removing children from home. The outlook for children in foster care is bleak, with high abuse rates, criminality, and feelings of guilt, isolation or abandonment. Problems in the foster care system have gained national attention, and community leaders struggle for solutions.
Counseling and victim advocacy can alleviate some negative effects of child abuse by helping victims cope with emotions, improve self esteem, create boundaries and develop healthy future relationships. Counseling can also provide the opportunity to detect problems early and maximize treatment possibilities.
Long Term Problems for Abused Children
Child abuse and neglect affect victims while they are young and throughout their lifetime. Abuse can trigger poor academic performance, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, risky sexual behavior, physical and mental health problems. It may even shorten life expectancy by heightening the risk of chronic and infectious disease. Likeliness of being arrested, committing suicide, killing or harming the abuser, or becoming a perpetrator is higher in those abused as children. Child abuse is also highly correlated to homelessness, divorce rate, and future income.
Outcomes
Reports of maltreatment are rising each year, except in sexual abuse cases. In a March 3, 2004 USA Today editorial, sociologist David Finklehor reported a 42% decline between 1992 to 2001 in child sexual abuse cases. Finkelhor identified possible causes for the decline: that many children have received preventive safety classes in school, making them potentially less-amenable targets, and that parents and organizations have become more educated and aware, making it difficult for child molesters to operate with impunity. Another possibility includes the national sex offender registry, created in 1994.
Child abuse is severe mistreatment of a child by an adult through physical violence, neglect, sexual abuse, or emotional cruelty. Every day approximately an average of 2,450 children are abused. Of those cases, 60% are victims of neglect, 20% experienced physical abuse and 10% are sexually. While children can be victimized at any age, 75% are younger than 3. Every day 2 children die of abuse and neglect.
Risk Factors
Child abuse can occur within every economic, ethnic, cultural or religious group, and at all levels of education. Some groups, however, have challenges that may increase the likelihood of abuse. Some indicators are:
•Families who are isolated, with fewer friends, relatives, religious or other support systems.
•Parents who were abused as children.
•Families often in crisis (have money problems, move often).
•Caretakers who abuse drugs or alcohol.
•Adults who are critical of their child.
•Parents who are rigid in disciplining their child.
•Adults who show too much or little concern for the child.
•Parents who feel they have a difficult child.
•Families under heavy stress.
Prevention and Protection
When possible, prevention methods can do the most good in terms of child welfare, community well being and long term cost. Protection and intervention methods often occur after the abuse, which may have already endangered a child’s physical and emotional well being. Additionally, protection and intervention programs are costlier, considering medical expenses, foster care, legal and court expenses and future criminality.
Child based education teaches children to identify abuse, understand that abuse is never acceptable recognize/ avoid potential dangers, communicate boundaries, and how to report abuse. One example is Boss of my Body, which helps children understand sexual abuse. Another program is the SAFE kids program focusing on managing healthy relationships, bullying, anger management and online safety.
Parental education programs approach prevention by training parents to recognize appropriate discipline patterns, anger and stress management, set boundaries appropriately, and build relationships with their children.
Community education programs create awareness using PSA’s, posters and brochures. Additionally, they work closely with members of the community to recognize at risk families and youth, mediate and provide guidelines for reporting abuse.
Parental supports can alleviate some conditions that can lead to abusive and neglectful situations through efforts to ease poverty, improve living conditions and work related skills, rehabilitate addictions, provide safe after school care, respite programs, and mental health assistance. Some examples are Boys and Girls Clubs, who provide inexpensive child care, food banks, the Federal Food Stamp Program, housing assistance, and recreation centers.
At times, a situation can become so dangerous that intervention becomes necessary. Some interventions include perpetrator removal from the home, family counseling, visits to the home, and removing children from home. The outlook for children in foster care is bleak, with high abuse rates, criminality, and feelings of guilt, isolation or abandonment. Problems in the foster care system have gained national attention, and community leaders struggle for solutions.
Counseling and victim advocacy can alleviate some negative effects of child abuse by helping victims cope with emotions, improve self esteem, create boundaries and develop healthy future relationships. Counseling can also provide the opportunity to detect problems early and maximize treatment possibilities.
Long Term Problems for Abused Children
Child abuse and neglect affect victims while they are young and throughout their lifetime. Abuse can trigger poor academic performance, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, risky sexual behavior, physical and mental health problems. It may even shorten life expectancy by heightening the risk of chronic and infectious disease. Likeliness of being arrested, committing suicide, killing or harming the abuser, or becoming a perpetrator is higher in those abused as children. Child abuse is also highly correlated to homelessness, divorce rate, and future income.
Outcomes
Reports of maltreatment are rising each year, except in sexual abuse cases. In a March 3, 2004 USA Today editorial, sociologist David Finklehor reported a 42% decline between 1992 to 2001 in child sexual abuse cases. Finkelhor identified possible causes for the decline: that many children have received preventive safety classes in school, making them potentially less-amenable targets, and that parents and organizations have become more educated and aware, making it difficult for child molesters to operate with impunity. Another possibility includes the national sex offender registry, created in 1994.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Annotated Bibliography
Prevent Child Abuse America Fact Sheet: An Approach to Preventing Child Abuse www.preventchildabuse.org viewed 11/17/09
The fact sheet was a compilation of data about how their program advocated the "prevention of child abuse before it occurs". The document lists many different techniques including: home visits to new parents, prenatal and post natal preparation for emotional stresses during medical visits, high risk group education programs, early treatment and counseling for post-abuse children (to prevent perpetration by the former victim), good quality child care,life skills training for children and young adults, and crisis support.
My reflection: this is exactly the type of information I was looking for, all rolled into one fully accessible paper! I was certain programs like these existed, but have had difficulty finding information (except home visiting). I'll probably use alot of the info from this page in my paper. I'm hoping the website has more similar resources, especially in areas of young adult life skills programs, which I would argue should be more required in school than Algebra. I have not and likely never will use any form of Algebra. Young adults need social education, anger management, and communication skills more. Back on point, am also looking for more information about high risk targeting and education.
#2.
AdministrAtion for Children And Families Stregnthening Families and Communities http://www.preventchildabuse.org/publications/downloads/2009_resource_guide.pdf published 2009
The 87 page document covered alot of information. It added specific plans of action, questions to ask parents, information pamphlets, with talking points aimed at parents, kids and community members. It outlined ideas for broaching prevention ideas to children, conflict resolution data, information on appreciating children, age development expectations for children, community engagement, and public service announcements.
My reflection was that the information will be rather helpful in writing the paper. It encompassed a broad range of prevention techniques, covering children, parents, caregivers and the community. Further, the fact sheets were helpful in analyzing how one might go about identifying a family at risk without using stereotypical information (poverty, family stress, substance abuse) that can both expend resources where unnecessary and leave gaps where stereotypes do not exist, but abuse may become present. Another thing I thought was admirable was the ability of the appoach technique to involve families in their own prevention (as in "parent partnerships" on page 12). Also I appreciated the position encouraging child welfare agencies to change their posture to support and mediate families in crisis, among case workers, foster parents, children and parents. When I was young, it seemed to be the child welfare system against the parents, and then against the child. It's progress that may actually solve something.
The fact sheet was a compilation of data about how their program advocated the "prevention of child abuse before it occurs". The document lists many different techniques including: home visits to new parents, prenatal and post natal preparation for emotional stresses during medical visits, high risk group education programs, early treatment and counseling for post-abuse children (to prevent perpetration by the former victim), good quality child care,life skills training for children and young adults, and crisis support.
My reflection: this is exactly the type of information I was looking for, all rolled into one fully accessible paper! I was certain programs like these existed, but have had difficulty finding information (except home visiting). I'll probably use alot of the info from this page in my paper. I'm hoping the website has more similar resources, especially in areas of young adult life skills programs, which I would argue should be more required in school than Algebra. I have not and likely never will use any form of Algebra. Young adults need social education, anger management, and communication skills more. Back on point, am also looking for more information about high risk targeting and education.
#2.
AdministrAtion for Children And Families Stregnthening Families and Communities http://www.preventchildabuse.org/publications/downloads/2009_resource_guide.pdf published 2009
The 87 page document covered alot of information. It added specific plans of action, questions to ask parents, information pamphlets, with talking points aimed at parents, kids and community members. It outlined ideas for broaching prevention ideas to children, conflict resolution data, information on appreciating children, age development expectations for children, community engagement, and public service announcements.
My reflection was that the information will be rather helpful in writing the paper. It encompassed a broad range of prevention techniques, covering children, parents, caregivers and the community. Further, the fact sheets were helpful in analyzing how one might go about identifying a family at risk without using stereotypical information (poverty, family stress, substance abuse) that can both expend resources where unnecessary and leave gaps where stereotypes do not exist, but abuse may become present. Another thing I thought was admirable was the ability of the appoach technique to involve families in their own prevention (as in "parent partnerships" on page 12). Also I appreciated the position encouraging child welfare agencies to change their posture to support and mediate families in crisis, among case workers, foster parents, children and parents. When I was young, it seemed to be the child welfare system against the parents, and then against the child. It's progress that may actually solve something.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Academic Source (2)
http://www.aifs.gov.au/nch/pubs/newsletters/nl2006/winterab.pdf
Practical Abuse and Neglect Prevention Adam Blakester Pub: Austrailian Institute of Family Studies National Child Protection Clearinghouse NCPC NEWSLETTER VOL . 14 NO. 2 , WINTER 2006
Summary: The author begins with Austrailian Statistics involving the prevalence and challenges of child abuse cases as well as potential cultural miscommunications between indiginous groups and child advocay groups. While the introduction includes the broad statistics of Austrailia as a whole, the focus of the paper centers on indiginous aboriginee groups.
The author covers 3 types of preventative strategies; primary, secondary, and teriatery, which involve 1. Community practices and attitudes that lend themselves to familial wellness, 2. Strategies that target high risk groups, and 3. Strategies that react and protect after abuse occurs.
The paper uses several case studies; one using an ecological approach to community focused emphasis on improved child and maternal nutrition; one very successful case restructured a South Wales community with additional tools that assisted parents and community members; one in Sydney used children's art to portray a vision of a desirable society. The children returned to 4 basic premises, respect, multiculturism, access to services, and "friendly places" (parks, healthy environments, etc.); and a Queensland group that assembled an action plan for Child Protection Week.
Much of the focus of the article involved using holistic, ecopsychological approaches to improve children's and family wellness. In most of the cases, change was not forced, but collaberated with members of the community, possibly contributing to the outcome. I will probably not refer to the statistics, but the case studies were highly interesting weather I do or don't use them. Further, the article cited other articles I may be able to use. Notably, the approaches seemed to be both highly fiscally and socially effective, a point with which I intend to conclude on my own paper. The diagrams within the article were particularly interesting, because while the case studies or the aboriginees cannot easily cross cultural boundaries, the diagrams can be multiculturally effective.
Student Choice
I might throw the computer across the room at any moment now... because I can't access the articles I would like to use, have read too many articles that are irrelevant and the closest accessable articles I have read are from Australia. I have learned, however, that Australia has an extensive wealth of information and research on child abuse prevention, experimenting extensively with a variety of tequniques. The US, I have learned, has a wealth of intervention programs including foster care, how to report abuse, parental counseling for abuse related issues, and imprisonment. I have learned every single, full text journal method of calling 911, the abuse hotline, and anonomous computer reporting of child abuse; the pathway my report takes into the court system and what becomes of those children as adults. They roam the underworld commiting untold (ok somewhat told) treacheries, resorting to drugs, pregnancies, and crime, and all because nobody came up with a preventative solution. What I have been able to find is that some limited free full text sources refer to home visiting by nurses, as well as numerous sexual empowerment programs. We Americans may have an obsession with sex. We have sex abuse prevention education for the internet, the school, children's classrooms, adult education, parenting classes, counselors, teachers, sex educators, and of course police officers. Blog, board, journal, and periodicle all hail the merits of sex abuse prevention and prevention's sublime effectiveness. One might think then that some saavy pediatrition might carry his research into physical abuse and maltreatment in a free full text accessable article, or paper. . . but really that'd be too hopeful. It's not that I want to change the course of my topic... I just want to move to Australia.
Practical Abuse and Neglect Prevention Adam Blakester Pub: Austrailian Institute of Family Studies National Child Protection Clearinghouse NCPC NEWSLETTER VOL . 14 NO. 2 , WINTER 2006
Summary: The author begins with Austrailian Statistics involving the prevalence and challenges of child abuse cases as well as potential cultural miscommunications between indiginous groups and child advocay groups. While the introduction includes the broad statistics of Austrailia as a whole, the focus of the paper centers on indiginous aboriginee groups.
The author covers 3 types of preventative strategies; primary, secondary, and teriatery, which involve 1. Community practices and attitudes that lend themselves to familial wellness, 2. Strategies that target high risk groups, and 3. Strategies that react and protect after abuse occurs.
The paper uses several case studies; one using an ecological approach to community focused emphasis on improved child and maternal nutrition; one very successful case restructured a South Wales community with additional tools that assisted parents and community members; one in Sydney used children's art to portray a vision of a desirable society. The children returned to 4 basic premises, respect, multiculturism, access to services, and "friendly places" (parks, healthy environments, etc.); and a Queensland group that assembled an action plan for Child Protection Week.
Much of the focus of the article involved using holistic, ecopsychological approaches to improve children's and family wellness. In most of the cases, change was not forced, but collaberated with members of the community, possibly contributing to the outcome. I will probably not refer to the statistics, but the case studies were highly interesting weather I do or don't use them. Further, the article cited other articles I may be able to use. Notably, the approaches seemed to be both highly fiscally and socially effective, a point with which I intend to conclude on my own paper. The diagrams within the article were particularly interesting, because while the case studies or the aboriginees cannot easily cross cultural boundaries, the diagrams can be multiculturally effective.
Student Choice
I might throw the computer across the room at any moment now... because I can't access the articles I would like to use, have read too many articles that are irrelevant and the closest accessable articles I have read are from Australia. I have learned, however, that Australia has an extensive wealth of information and research on child abuse prevention, experimenting extensively with a variety of tequniques. The US, I have learned, has a wealth of intervention programs including foster care, how to report abuse, parental counseling for abuse related issues, and imprisonment. I have learned every single, full text journal method of calling 911, the abuse hotline, and anonomous computer reporting of child abuse; the pathway my report takes into the court system and what becomes of those children as adults. They roam the underworld commiting untold (ok somewhat told) treacheries, resorting to drugs, pregnancies, and crime, and all because nobody came up with a preventative solution. What I have been able to find is that some limited free full text sources refer to home visiting by nurses, as well as numerous sexual empowerment programs. We Americans may have an obsession with sex. We have sex abuse prevention education for the internet, the school, children's classrooms, adult education, parenting classes, counselors, teachers, sex educators, and of course police officers. Blog, board, journal, and periodicle all hail the merits of sex abuse prevention and prevention's sublime effectiveness. One might think then that some saavy pediatrition might carry his research into physical abuse and maltreatment in a free full text accessable article, or paper. . . but really that'd be too hopeful. It's not that I want to change the course of my topic... I just want to move to Australia.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
academic source & free choice
Schneider, Dona. American Childhood : Risks and Realities
New Brunswick, N.J. Rutgers University Press, 1995 pgs 187-198
The book might be an overview of the risks of childhood. The chapter I read largely dealt with a history of child abuse as it became a prominent issue and into the 1990's. It talks about cultural norms at different times, citing specific cases. One boy was soddomized by his stepfather and taken to the ER. When the Dr. reported the incident to the police, they referred to it as a "family issue" and not worth the paper work on charges that would only later be dropped. It gave some early statistics on who is abused. Some of the statistics are either outdated or inaccurate, more likely inaccurate. Thay may have been specific to sexual abuse as well, but hadn't said so. I think that the book might serve as a possible reference for the starting point of mass child abuse concern, but only if I can find another source to verify that.
Casey Family Programs and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2001). Key guide points for partnering with families. pub: Washington, DC http://ncadi.samhsa.gov/govpubs/phd897/
The article had a lists of ideas on how best to approach preventative parental education targeting groups that may be at higher risk for abuse. The intended audience may have been social workers or community workers, and the article may be difficult to use in this repost. The site itself, however, had a wealth of obscure articles and information specifically related to child abuse. I saw alot of material that might be useful as I research further.
New Brunswick, N.J. Rutgers University Press, 1995 pgs 187-198
The book might be an overview of the risks of childhood. The chapter I read largely dealt with a history of child abuse as it became a prominent issue and into the 1990's. It talks about cultural norms at different times, citing specific cases. One boy was soddomized by his stepfather and taken to the ER. When the Dr. reported the incident to the police, they referred to it as a "family issue" and not worth the paper work on charges that would only later be dropped. It gave some early statistics on who is abused. Some of the statistics are either outdated or inaccurate, more likely inaccurate. Thay may have been specific to sexual abuse as well, but hadn't said so. I think that the book might serve as a possible reference for the starting point of mass child abuse concern, but only if I can find another source to verify that.
Casey Family Programs and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2001). Key guide points for partnering with families. pub: Washington, DC http://ncadi.samhsa.gov/govpubs/phd897/
The article had a lists of ideas on how best to approach preventative parental education targeting groups that may be at higher risk for abuse. The intended audience may have been social workers or community workers, and the article may be difficult to use in this repost. The site itself, however, had a wealth of obscure articles and information specifically related to child abuse. I saw alot of material that might be useful as I research further.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
Some questions about my topic
1. What are long term effects of child abuse?
2. What are some of the most common intervention methods?
3. Does the abuse continue after interventions, and if so, how effective is it?
4. What are some of the most common preventative measures?
5. How effective are they in preventing abuse?
6. What are long term societal costs of child abuse?
7. Do measures of prevention or intervention exist that are uncommonly used but significantly more effective?
8. How prevalent is child abuse?
2. What are some of the most common intervention methods?
3. Does the abuse continue after interventions, and if so, how effective is it?
4. What are some of the most common preventative measures?
5. How effective are they in preventing abuse?
6. What are long term societal costs of child abuse?
7. Do measures of prevention or intervention exist that are uncommonly used but significantly more effective?
8. How prevalent is child abuse?
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Angel’s Character Analysis
Angel, vegetarian vampire detective, silently shrinks from humanity, while years of regret stain his newly possessed soul. He converses only when necessary, avoids eye contact and skulks alone with late night bottles of blood, like an old veteran contemplates his lost comrades over Scotch. Early into season 2, his resurfacing past evokes the question: What is Angel’s true character (as per his actions in Are You Now or Have You Ever Been)?
The filming offers plenty of hero\villain clues contradicting one another. During the first clip within Angel’s past, the bellhop admits feeling discomforted and apprehensive in Angel’s presence. When delivering his bill, the bellhop hesitates to exit the elevator. When he does build up the courage, the film draws the eye slowly and dreadfully down the dimly lit corridor before the bellboy reluctantly arrives at the door. He taps almost inaudibly at the door, his voice whispers into the room. After hearing Angel rustling, he sets the tray on the floor and rushes back to the safety of the elevator. The viewer expects the opening door will reveal some monstrous creature. The camera slowly ascends to reveal Angel’s face. They use the opposite portrayal near the second to last scene. The heroic vampire bursts into the room where the now elderly Judy has spent 50 years feeding her turmoil to a hungry demon. She ponders, “I don’t hear them anymore,” of the Thesulac demon he just only just vanquished. Good-naturedly, he lets he run her fingers across his face, inspecting for changes. He gently reassures her, helps her into the bed where she (presumably) dies comfortably and at peace.
The plot distinctively repeats the theme of the double life, of passing for one thing while denying an equal truth. Judy is black, passing for white. An actor passes for straight. Fangs aside, Angel is neither hero masking villain or vice versa. Angel is self-interested, passing for a lost soul in need of redemption.
He has some good guy credentials. Although his bloodlust is keen, Angel resists killing humans. His condition affords him predatorial advantages: super strength, heightened senses of smell, vision, and hearing. Vampirism lends itself to slaughter, but Angel stopped hunting victims when the gypsies cursed (or blessed) him with a soul. He protects Judy from incarceration, beating up a detective, and hiding her stolen money. In his single truly altruistic act, after searching for a way to defeat the demon that plagues the Hyperion, Angel takes Judy’s place in the noose when the hotel’s guests head hunt for the non-existent murderer of the salesman. Finally, Angel defeats the demon, ridding the hotel of its demonic presence.
He also commits villainous actions. Although he has reason to suspect she might be in danger, he tries to evict Judy from his room, until the last seconds when he notices his own lock being picked. He beats up a detective, even though he suspects that Judy is lying. When interacting, he keeps his back turned, as if dissuading and shortening conversations. He threatens to murder a bookstore owner and demands free equipment and assistance vanquishing a demon. When he does have the opportunity to slay the presence he believes caused his “friend” to turn against him, he abandons the cause, sacrificing countless lives In order to wallow in his own resentment. Finally, he endangers his friends without telling them they’re vanquishing a demon to attain bargain real estate.
Despite Angel’s hero/ villain conflict, the character displayed through his actions is calculating self interest. At the beginning of the episode, the Hyperion Hotel, his 1952 home, is on the market, but unsalable due to its demonic inhabitant. While he could have vanquished that presence years past, he instead abandoned the cause over hurt feelings. While Angel did not take the lives of the residents who died there after his abandonment (an evil act), he did nothing to save them, either. The viewer might guess that his return to the Hyperion might be in search of redemption, until the last scene. Once the hotel is free of the evil that has bound it for almost a century, Angel welcomes them to their new home. Angel may have attained redemption by accident, but the quest was a renovation of sorts, a real estate opportunity.
An honest hermit might choose to occupy some abandoned shack or business far from inquiring eyes. Angel instead occupies a busy hotel known for harboring inconspicuous types. He sets himself out for display but apart from others, as if to be observed but not approached. His mask, therefore, is solitary, but his actions indicate he wants to be seen while disguising the want. He wants people to think him a hermit, so he acts like an inapproachable renegade. Sometimes, he will unmask portion of his true self without regard to the reliability of the seer. Only after catching Judy lying several times, learning she has been hiding behind a wall of secrecy, that she has stolen a large sum of money from her former employer, does he befriend her. His friends are the low elements of the world, so he uses their betrayal to justify the wearing of his trust no one mask. Only once it serves his interests (as with the bookstore owner) does he communicate with more trustworthy crowds.
Finally his interactions with Judy, leave him hurt and betrayed. Although he understands that the residents of the hotel are being deceived by paranoid whispers, and that she did no actual physical harm to him because vampires cannot die, he leaves her riddled with remorse. Angel himself is assumed to be struggling with remorse, but turns a cold shoulder to the anguish he can see as Judy’s face blurs out of consciousness. Even after the demon guffaws out a southern laugh, confiding that he can now feed for years on Judy’s pain, Angel disappears, betraying in turn his so called friend. Even if he left the demon there, he could have eased Judy’s pain in any number of ways. He did not, because it did not serve his interest to do so.
Angel may go on to save the world from its own dark forces, even challenging hell for the benefit of mankind. He may champion women, children and the helpless in other episodes. Perhaps he leads mankind in the quest to reunite lost men with their souls, rescuing babies from burning buildings (or was that Spiderman?) and falling in love with sworn enemies. In this, episode, though, his true character is amoral, self interested, calculating, businesslike. His actions, benevolent or villainous, are quid pro quo. In Are You Now or Have You Ever Been, Angel is human.
Final Observation: HOSPICE
Hospice For Revision-Peer Review
The small room smelled sanitary and lonely, like peroxide rain in an isolated forest. The overall scent and sense of despair hung in the air. Flowers hung wistfully in photographs on the gray walls. The white floor, chestnut curtains and bedding, and pale blue comforter absorbed the soft pink, orange and jade hues of the framed wall prints, and depleted the scarlet in roses on the bedside table. Light from the window at the edge of the room seeped inside, dim and wary, as if considering returning another time.
She reached out a frail hand from a skeletal frame reaching for something on some unseen horizon. I took her clammy hand in mine. Her sapphire fleece sweater smelled like tobacco and Robitussin, when I leaned in. She gasped as if my presence surprised her, licked her thin cracked lips into a sincere smile and leaned her head forward to speak. Although her mouth formed the words, only a muffle came out. Trying again she hazily spoke, “You wanna go outside? I think this is the last one for awhile.”
Sometimes, in less than a span of a breath, time pauses, collapses, planets collide, and fear combusts into spiraling shards of broken truth tearing into your breaking soul. In less than the time to blink one eye, every fiber of the world leaps up into your throat at once, leaving a dry acidic taste and no room for a scream. The otherwise listless walls close in, growing sinister. The clock’s deafening second hand echoes the thunder of your heartbeat. You are seized back to that terrible dizzying breath. In the same split moment the instant escapes, leaving a wake of despair. I took one deep breath, trying to cleanse the shock and dejection from my face and soul.
I croaked, “C’mon. You’ll be ok.” With my forced cheerful voice, I wasn’t sure who I trying to deceive, myself or her. Maybe it was one last grasp at hope. I lowered myself, hung her legs limply to the side of the bed, and placed one of her arms around my shoulder while I gingerly lifted her weak frame into the chair. She called it dancing. Not long ago, I’d needed help to lift her. Now she was lighter than my nine year old. Her pale skin pressed against her bones, her right eye sagged, but she was as cheerful and witty as she’d ever been, when she was awake. She pressed her parched tongue against the roof of her mouth. “Do you want to try another sip of water?” “Maybe when we get back,” she assuaged.
I wheeled her slowly, down the fluorescent hallway. Bumps hurt now, more than they used to. She never said so, she was much too tough, but she tensed and gasped at approaching cracks and entryways. Warm sunlight bathed us, breathing color into her cheeks momentarily. Two drags into her cigarette, she started nodding forward slightly, lids drooped. I lead her back into the clean gray room. Not her room. Her room was lively, stacked with rows of mystery novels, collections of ocean scented body sprays, photographs of every child and grandchild and glued together remnants of decades-old kindergarten ceramics. This room remained the sanitized charlatan of her genuine room. I wheeled her soft and begrudgingly toward the miscreant room nonetheless.
I would’ve lifted her back into bed, but she startled awake. “Let me sit awhile. I talked to Carol, and she’s having the guys move me this weekend.” Death lurked in the background behind the chestnut curtains. The second hand thundered again. She shifted a challenging glance toward the curtains, and continued. “I think I’ll be home by Monday, then. I’ll be glad to be out of here, especially at night.” The graveyard staff seldom answered calls between commercials. At night, she’d wake alone, disoriented and in pain, without help for hours. Relatives decided to take turns sleeping in the small chair beside her bed, in case she needed anything) “Monday, then,” I hoped.
I surveyed the room, looking for any sharp thing. I would have ripped the scythe from his icy hands, slicing his arid throat, with a haughty victorious shriek but that I could deprive him of it. The less than breath, less than blink, years-in-a-moment moment shackles you, paralyzing, silencing any defiant scream you would otherwise utter. In that single space of eternal second, you cannot fraction a bargaining breath, or raise a fortifying arm.
The sunlight suddenly flitted in, challenged the fiendish creature, chasing the lurking minute aside. It rekindled her countenance, fluttering of her inlaid cheekbones, dancing momentarily against the vase on the nightstand, spreading a small rainbow of protection at my mother’s feet. The air freshened, and the grey walls seemed to blush. My mother laughed, as if sharing a secret to which I wasn’t privy, again from the belly as if to divulge that secret, smiled and sighed. She braced her arms on each side of the chair. Petitioning her body, she strained out of the chair onto unsteady legs, stepping cautiously forward and into bed one last time.
The small room smelled sanitary and lonely, like peroxide rain in an isolated forest. The overall scent and sense of despair hung in the air. Flowers hung wistfully in photographs on the gray walls. The white floor, chestnut curtains and bedding, and pale blue comforter absorbed the soft pink, orange and jade hues of the framed wall prints, and depleted the scarlet in roses on the bedside table. Light from the window at the edge of the room seeped inside, dim and wary, as if considering returning another time.
She reached out a frail hand from a skeletal frame reaching for something on some unseen horizon. I took her clammy hand in mine. Her sapphire fleece sweater smelled like tobacco and Robitussin, when I leaned in. She gasped as if my presence surprised her, licked her thin cracked lips into a sincere smile and leaned her head forward to speak. Although her mouth formed the words, only a muffle came out. Trying again she hazily spoke, “You wanna go outside? I think this is the last one for awhile.”
Sometimes, in less than a span of a breath, time pauses, collapses, planets collide, and fear combusts into spiraling shards of broken truth tearing into your breaking soul. In less than the time to blink one eye, every fiber of the world leaps up into your throat at once, leaving a dry acidic taste and no room for a scream. The otherwise listless walls close in, growing sinister. The clock’s deafening second hand echoes the thunder of your heartbeat. You are seized back to that terrible dizzying breath. In the same split moment the instant escapes, leaving a wake of despair. I took one deep breath, trying to cleanse the shock and dejection from my face and soul.
I croaked, “C’mon. You’ll be ok.” With my forced cheerful voice, I wasn’t sure who I trying to deceive, myself or her. Maybe it was one last grasp at hope. I lowered myself, hung her legs limply to the side of the bed, and placed one of her arms around my shoulder while I gingerly lifted her weak frame into the chair. She called it dancing. Not long ago, I’d needed help to lift her. Now she was lighter than my nine year old. Her pale skin pressed against her bones, her right eye sagged, but she was as cheerful and witty as she’d ever been, when she was awake. She pressed her parched tongue against the roof of her mouth. “Do you want to try another sip of water?” “Maybe when we get back,” she assuaged.
I wheeled her slowly, down the fluorescent hallway. Bumps hurt now, more than they used to. She never said so, she was much too tough, but she tensed and gasped at approaching cracks and entryways. Warm sunlight bathed us, breathing color into her cheeks momentarily. Two drags into her cigarette, she started nodding forward slightly, lids drooped. I lead her back into the clean gray room. Not her room. Her room was lively, stacked with rows of mystery novels, collections of ocean scented body sprays, photographs of every child and grandchild and glued together remnants of decades-old kindergarten ceramics. This room remained the sanitized charlatan of her genuine room. I wheeled her soft and begrudgingly toward the miscreant room nonetheless.
I would’ve lifted her back into bed, but she startled awake. “Let me sit awhile. I talked to Carol, and she’s having the guys move me this weekend.” Death lurked in the background behind the chestnut curtains. The second hand thundered again. She shifted a challenging glance toward the curtains, and continued. “I think I’ll be home by Monday, then. I’ll be glad to be out of here, especially at night.” The graveyard staff seldom answered calls between commercials. At night, she’d wake alone, disoriented and in pain, without help for hours. Relatives decided to take turns sleeping in the small chair beside her bed, in case she needed anything) “Monday, then,” I hoped.
I surveyed the room, looking for any sharp thing. I would have ripped the scythe from his icy hands, slicing his arid throat, with a haughty victorious shriek but that I could deprive him of it. The less than breath, less than blink, years-in-a-moment moment shackles you, paralyzing, silencing any defiant scream you would otherwise utter. In that single space of eternal second, you cannot fraction a bargaining breath, or raise a fortifying arm.
The sunlight suddenly flitted in, challenged the fiendish creature, chasing the lurking minute aside. It rekindled her countenance, fluttering of her inlaid cheekbones, dancing momentarily against the vase on the nightstand, spreading a small rainbow of protection at my mother’s feet. The air freshened, and the grey walls seemed to blush. My mother laughed, as if sharing a secret to which I wasn’t privy, again from the belly as if to divulge that secret, smiled and sighed. She braced her arms on each side of the chair. Petitioning her body, she strained out of the chair onto unsteady legs, stepping cautiously forward and into bed one last time.
Final Reflection Paper- Untitled
Driving through the rain on a crisp March evening, the red and green lights dance on the black highway pavement. The road inhales, sighs and shift its weight. NPR is hosting another fund drive in the background between classical pieces. Despite the drizzle, I roll down the window and change the station, counting on the wind and sound to wake me. Soft piano floats into my drifting consciousness, and I recognize the melody- her song. Instantly, the void passenger seat invades my sensibility. My throat constricts around choking breaths, enunciating lonely melancholy eroding my heart. The empty seat mirrors my empty life, lifeless soul. Absence occupies the passenger seat in place of her, a hollow proxy.
I inhale deeply; exhale slowly, light a cigarette between bursts of wind. A red neon sign approaches. “Prohibited,” the sign warns as I zip past. The small tires hum one long hypnotizing note to the discordant rhythm of the crunching rain, the tempo quickening. The angry wind spit rain into my face from the open window. The unsettling feeling of the missing passenger lingered guiltily, and the approaching neon sign pointed an accusing arrow toward my ring finger. A sudden burst of wind sweeps the car right. A purple bolt flashes downward, lingers, vanishes. I slow, stammering, toward the menacing sign. “Prohibited,” another sign insists, without elaborating.
Apprehensive, I pull to the shoulder. Postponing “prohibited”, I compose, resting my forehead on the steering wheel. Inhale, sigh. Inhale; long exhale. The car smells like stale tobacco, coffee and wet socks. The highway snakes within the mile, but I could always take the belt route. I entered the road too late, off-course before the engine started.
Accelerating again, I edge toward “Prohibited”. The rain relaxes somewhat, contemplating. A siren sounds in the distance, and I notice blue and red lights pulsing some distance in the rearview mirror, closing the distance. I wonder what travesty he races toward, what disaster remains ahead. The comfort of the approaching officer encourages me, the first headlights since entering the highway. I brave the sign.
The radio sounds deliberate, long, minor notes. Beneath the melody, I half hear half feel her call, beckoning me home. With all my forlorn heart, I wish I could follow. Police sirens fade as the officer presses forward, the light fading into the heavy air.
I didn’t embark with a destination, just a need for departure. The author of the phrase “Misery loves company,” failed. Misery wants solitude, to better hear the silence. Misery loves to brood collapsing into the span of a moment and chew it like gum that lost its flavor. My apartment, always so tense with accusation, testifies of dry resentments. The wisp of dream entreating a void love stole months away from home. Every seething moment beside my husband, I unwittingly sacrificed precious moments beside her. He detests the silence, my void lifeless eyes that glaze past and through him, resents the countless hours spent alone while I cry, toil, drink away my disgrace. I loathe the taste of his space in mine, coating the back of my throat. He’d begun to speak, in his strained “let me monologue at you” voice. Even before he finished his chiding, I’d slammed the door, storming into the night.
The rain slows, and I realize I can make up some lost time. I wasn’t overdue; wasn’t expected. I’ve been uncharacteristically punctual since March, another March when time could’ve changed my mother’s outcome. Doctors say she died of cancer, breast cancer. Someone could argue she died of corrupt medical insurance and flawed government policy. In truth, she died of failure, my failure, my delayed arrival. She died of my marriage, my distance, my inability to be close enough to decide. I have been frantically punctual since the other March, only too late.
I light another cigarette. How many has this been? The ashtray holds five butts and I’ve been on the highway an hour and a half. Metallica plays something fast I’ve heard before, but its name escapes me. The air hung tentatively. I maneuver the last few sets of curves, noticing city lights about some few minutes ahead, shining blurrily though some fog lingering in the air. The smell of the still rain hangs in the air, crisp and dank like the earth wept alongside me. My heavy eyes droop as I pull off the road and onto some gravel and snap quickly open. I pull aside and out of sight. I might return to my apartment; I don’t want to think about it now. Purple lightening still flashes in the distance. My mind lingers on the highway as I recline the seat and my eyes roll back, into dreamspace, into any other wistful March when the missing passenger lived.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Portfolio Angel
Angel’s Character Analysis
Angel, vegetarian vampire detective, wears many masks. He silently shrinks from humanity, while years of regret stain his newly possessed soul. He converses only when necessary, avoids eye contact and skulks alone with late night bottles of blood, like an old veteran contemplates his lost comrades over Scotch. Early into season 2, his resurfacing past evokes the question: Underneath the masks, who is Angel really (as per his actions in Are You Now or Have You Ever Been)?
The filming offers plenty of hero\villain clues contradicting one another. During the first clip within Angel’s past, the bellhop admits feeling discomforted and apprehensive in Angel’s presence. When delivering his bill, the bellhop hesitates to exit the elevator. When he does build up the courage, the film draws the eye slowly and dreadfully down the dimly lit corridor before the bellboy reluctantly arrives at the door. He taps almost inaudibly at the door, his voice whispers into the room. Realizing the occupant is inside, he sets the tray on the floor and rushes back to the safety of the elevator. The viewer expects the opening door will reveal some monstrous creature. The camera slowly ascends to reveal Angel’s face. They use the opposite portrayal near the second to last scene. The heroic vampire bursts into the room where the now elderly Judy has spent 50 years feeding her turmoil to a hungry demon. She ponders, “I don’t hear them anymore,” of the Thesulac demon he just only just vanquished. Good-naturedly, he lets he run her fingers across his face, inspecting for changes. He gently reassures her, helps her into the bed where she (presumably) dies comfortably and at peace.
The plot distinctively repeats the theme of the double life, and of passing for one thing while being something else. Judy is black, passing for white. An actor passes for straight. Fangs aside, Angel is neither hero masking villain or vice versa. Angel is self-interested, passing for a lost soul in need of redemption.
He has some good guy credentials. Although his bloodlust is keen, Angel will not kill humans. His condition affords him predatorial advantages: super strength, heightened senses of smell, vision, and hearing. Vampirism lends itself to slaughter, but Angel stopped hunting victims when the gypsies cursed (or blessed) him with a soul. He protects Judy from incarceration, beating up a detective, and hiding her stolen money. In his single truly altruistic act, after searching for a way to defeat the demon that plagues the Hyperion, Angel takes Judy’s place in the noose when the hotel’s guests head hunt for the non-existent murderer of the salesman. Finally, Angel defeats the demon, ridding the hotel of its demonic presence.
He also commits villainous actions. Although he has reason to suspect she might be in danger, he tries to evict Judy from his room, until the last seconds when he notices his own lock being picked. He beats up a detective, even though he suspects that Judy is lying. When interacting, he keeps his back turned, as if to dissuade and shorten conversation. He threatens to murder a bookstore owner and demands free equipment and assistance vanquishing a demon. When he does have the opportunity to slay the presence he believes caused his “friend” to turn against him, he abandons the cause, sacrificing countless lives In order to wallow in his own resentment. Finally, he endangers his friends without telling them they’re vanquishing a demon to attain bargain real estate.
Despite Angel’s hero/ villain conflict, the character displayed through his actions is calculating self interest. At the beginning of the episode, the Hyperion Hotel, his 1952 home, is on the market, but unsalable due to its demonic inhabitant. While he could have vanquished that presence years past, he instead abandoned the cause over hurt feelings. While Angel did not take the lives of the residents who died there after his abandonment (an evil act), he did nothing to save them, either. The viewer might guess that his return to the Hyperion might be in search of redemption, until the last scene. Once the hotel is free of the evil that has bound it for almost a century, Angel welcomes them to their new home. Angel may have attained redemption by accident, but the quest was a renovation of sorts, a real estate opportunity.
An honest hermit might choose to occupy some abandoned shack or business far from inquiring eyes. Angel instead occupies a busy hotel known for harboring inconspicuous types. He sets himself out for display but apart from others, as if to be observed but not approached. His mask, therefore, is solitary, but his actions indicate he wants to be seen while disguising the want. He wants people to think him a hermit, so he acts like an inapproachable renegade. If someone insists earnestly enough, he will up to that person and allow a portion of himself to be seen. Only after catching Judy lying several times, learning she has been hiding behind a wall of secrecy, that she has stolen a large sum of money from her former employer, does he befriend her. His only friends are the lower elements of the world, so he uses their betrayal to justify the wearing of his trust no one mask. Only once it serves his interests (as with the bookstore owner) does he communicate with more trustworthy crowds.
Finally his interactions with Judy, leave him hurt and betrayed. Although he understands that the residents of the hotel are being deceived by paranoid whispers, and that she did no actual physical harm to him because vampires cannot die, he leaves her riddled with remorse. Angel himself is assumed to be struggling with remorse, but turns a cold shoulder to the anguish he can see as Judy’s face blurs out of consciousness. Even after the demon guffaws out a southern laugh, confiding that he can now feed for years on Judy’s pain, Angel disappears, betraying in turn his so called friend. Even if he left the demon there, he could have eased Judy’s pain in any number of ways. He did not, because it did not serve his interest to do so.
Angel may go on to save the world from its own dark forces, even challenging hell for the benefit of mankind. He may champion women, children and the helpless in other episodes. Perhaps he leads mankind in the quest to reunite lost men with their souls, rescuing babies from burning buildings (or was that Spiderman?) and falling in love with sworn enemies. In this, episode, though, his true character is amoral, self interested, calculating, businesslike. His actions, benevolent or villainous, are quid pro quo. In Are You Now or Have You Ever Been, Angel is human.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Reflection Revision- Hospice
The small room smelled sanitary and lonely, like peroxide rain in an isolated forest. The overall scent and sense of desolation hung in the air. Flowers hung wistfully in photographs on the gray walls. The white floor, chestnut curtains and bedding, and pale blue comforter absorbed the soft pink, orange and jade hues of the framed wall prints, and contrasted the scarlet roses on the bedside table. The light from the window at the edge of the room seeped inside, dim and wary, as if unsure whether to return at a better time.
She reached out a frail hand from a skeletal frame reaching for something on some unseen horizon. I took her hand in mine. Her sapphire fleece sweater smelled like tobacco and Robitussin, when I leaned in. She gasped as if my presence surprised her, licked her thin cracked lips into a sincere smile and leaned her head forward to speak. Although her mouth formed the words, only a muffle came out. Trying again she hazily spoke, “You wanna go outside? I think this is the last one for awhile.”
Sometimes, in less than a span of a breath, time pauses, collapses, planets collide, and fear combusts into spiraling shards of broken truth tearing into your broken soul. In less than the time to blink one eye, every fiber of the world leaps up into your throat at once, leaving a dry acid taste and no room for a scream. The otherwise listless walls close in, growing sinister. The clock’s deafening second hand echoes the thunder of your heartbeat. You are seized back to that terrible dizzying breath. In the same split moment the instant escapes, leaving a wake of despair. I took one deep breath, trying to cleanse the shock and dejection from my face and soul.
I croaked, “C’mon. You’ll be ok.” With my forced cheerful voice, I wasn’t sure who I trying to deceive, myself or her. Maybe it was one last grasp at hope. I lowered myself, hung her legs limply to the side of the bed, and placed one of her arms around my shoulder while I gingerly lifted her weak frame into the chair. She called it dancing. Not long ago, I’d needed help to lift her. Now she was lighter than my nine year old. Her pale skin pressed against her bones, her right eye sagged, but she was as cheerful and witty as she’d ever been, when she was awake. She pressed her parched tongue against the roof of her mouth. “Do you want to try another sip of water?” “Maybe when we get back,” she fibbed.
I wheeled her slowly, down the fluorescent hallway. Bumps hurt now, more than they used to. She never said so, she was much too tough, but she tensed and gasped at approaching cracks and entryways. Warm sunlight bathed us, breathing color into her cheeks momentarily. Two drags into her cigarette, she started nodding forward slightly, lids drooped. I lead her back into the clean gray room. Not her room. Her room was lively, stacked with rows of mystery novels, collections of ocean scented body sprays, photographs of every child and grandchild and glued together remnants of decades-old kindergarten ceramics. This room was the sanitized charlatan of her legitimate room. I wheeled her soft and begrudgingly to this miscreant room nonetheless.
I would’ve lifted her back into bed, but she startled awake, nudged me back. “Let me sit awhile. I talked to Carol, and she’s having the guys move me this weekend.” Death lurked in the background behind the chestnut curtains. The second hand thundered again. She shifted a challenging glance toward the curtains, and continued. “I think I’ll be home by Monday, then. I’ll be glad to be out of here, especially at night.” (The graveyard staff seldom answered calls between commercials. Alone, disoriented and in pain, she’d wake. Relatives decided to take turns sleeping in the small chair beside her bed, in case she needed anything) “Monday, then,” I hoped, surveying the room, looking for any sharp thing. I would have ripped the scythe from his icy hands, slicing his bitter throat, with a haughty victorious battle cry but that I could deprive him of it. The less than breath, less than blink, years-in-a-moment moment shackles you to yourself, paralyzing, silencing any defiant scream you would otherwise utter. In that single space of eternal second, you cannot fraction a bargaining breath, or raise a fortifying arm.
The sunlight dared, though. Challenged the fiendish creature, warm rays chased away the lurking minute. It rekindled her countenance, fluttering against her inlaid cheekbones, dancing momentarily against the vase on the nightstand, spreading a small rainbow at my mother’s feet. My mother laughed, as if sharing a secret to which I wasn’t privy, again from the belly as if to divulge that secret now, smiled and sighed. The air freshened, and the grey walls seemed to blush. She braced her arms on each side of the chair. Petitioning her body, she strained out of the chair onto unsteady legs, stepping cautiously forward and into bed one last time.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Observation Revision
Observation for Revision
Driving through the rain on a crisp March evening, the red and green lights dance on the black highway pavement. The road inhales, sighs and shift its weight. NPR is hosting another fund drive in the background between classical pieces. Despite the drizzle, I roll down the window and change the station, counting on the wind and sound to wake me. Soft piano floats into my drifting consciousness, and I recognize the melody- her song. Suddenly my mouth dries, breath catches. I choke for air. The empty seat to the right mirrors my empty lifeless soul. My mother's absence occupies the passenger seat in place of her, a kind of morbid proxy.
I inhale deeply; exhale slowly, light a cigarette between bursts of wind. A red neon sign approaches. “Prohibited,” the sign warns as I zip past. The small tires hum one long hypnotizing note to the discordant rhythm of the crunching rain, the tempo quickening. Forcefully, the angry wind kicked the rain into my face from the open window. The unsettling feeling of the missing passenger lingered guiltily, and the approaching neon sign pointed an accusing arrow toward my ring finger. A sudden burst of wind sweeps the car right. A purple bolt flashes downward, lingers, vanishes. I slow, stammering, toward the menacing sign. “Prohibited,” another sign insists, without elaborating.
Apprehensive, I pull to the shoulder. Postponing the prohibited, I compose resting my forehead on the steering wheel. Inhale, sigh. Inhale; long exhale. The car smells like stale tobacco, coffee and wet socks. The highway snakes within the mile, but I could always take the belt route. I entered the road too late, off-course before the engine started.
Accelerating again, I edge toward “Prohibited”. The rain relaxes somewhat, contemplating. A siren sounds in the distance, and I notice blue and red lights pulsing some distance in the rearview mirror, closing the distance. I wonder what travesty he races toward, what disaster remains ahead. The comfort of the approaching officer encourages me, the first headlights since entering the highway. I brave the sign.
The radio sounds deliberate, long, minor notes. Beneath the melody, I half hear half feel her call, beckoning me home. With all my forlorn heart, I wish I could follow. There’s not a PT cruiser made anywhere that can drive that highway. I hear the police sirens fade as the officer hurries forward, the light fading into the heavy air.
The rain slows, and I realize I can make up some lost time. I didn’t actually start with a destination, just a need for departure. My apartment, always so tense with accusation, testifies to dry resentments. The wisp of dream entreating a void love stole months away from home. Every seething moment beside my husband, I unwittingly sacrificed precious moments beside her. He detests the silence, my void lifeless eyes that glaze past and through him, resents the countless hours spent alone while I cry, work, drink away my disgrace. Meanwhile, I resent his presence altogether, with so many perfect rooms, books, states elsewhere. I loathe the taste of his space in mine, coating the back of my throat. He’d begun to speak, in his strained “let me monologue at you” voice. Even before he finished his chiding, I’d slammed the door, storming into the rainy night.
The author of the phrase “Misery loves company,” failed. Misery wants solitude, to better hear the silence. Misery loves to brood collapsing into the span of a moment and chew it like gum that lost its flavor. I wasn’t overdue; wasn’t expected. I’ve been uncharacteristically punctual since March, another March in a time when punctuality could’ve changed my mother’s outcome. Doctors say she died of cancer, breast cancer. Someone could argue she died of corrupt medical insurance and a flawed government. Actually she died of failure, my failure to arrive in time to act. She died of my marriage, my distance, my inability to be close enough to observe and decide. I have been frantically punctual since the other March, only too late.
I light another cigarette. How many has this been? The ashtray holds five butts and I’ve been on the highway an hour and a half. Metallica plays something fast I’ve heard before, but its name escapes me. The air hung tentatively. I maneuver the last few sets of curves, noticing city lights about some few minutes ahead, shining blurrily though some fog lingering in the air. The smell of the still rain hangs in the air, crisp and fresh like the earth cried alongside me. My heavy eyes droop as I pull off the road and onto some gravel and snap quickly open. I pull aside and out of sight. I might return to my apartment; I don’t want to think about it now. Purple lightening still flashes in the distance. My mind lingers on the highway as I recline the seat and my eyes roll back, into dreamspace, into any other wishful March when the missing passenger lived.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Analysis of an Ad
1. The writer has a strong closing statement and final 2 paragraphs. The reference to copycat slogans offers nice development of the concept.
2. I think the author needs to add details about the ad itself, omit the information about the ad she (he) didn't use, and organize the structure to keep information closer grouped.
H-Let me know please if you needed more than this. If so, I can revise it. `Chelle
2. I think the author needs to add details about the ad itself, omit the information about the ad she (he) didn't use, and organize the structure to keep information closer grouped.
H-Let me know please if you needed more than this. If so, I can revise it. `Chelle
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Angel’s Character Analysis
Angel, vegetarian vampire detective, wears many masks. With years of bloodstains anguishing his newly possessed soul, he silently shuns himself from humanity. He converses only when necessary, avoids eye contact and skulks alone with late night bottles of blood, like an old veteran contemplates his lost comrades over Scotch. Early into season 2, his resurfacing past, evokes the question: Underneath the masks, who is Angel really (as per his actions in Are You Now or Have You Ever Been)?
The filming offers mixed hero/ villain clues. During the first clip within Angel’s past, the bellhop admits feeling discomforted and apprehensive in Angel’s presence. When delivering his bill, the bellhop hesitates to exit the elevator. When he does build up the courage, the film draws the eye slowly and dreadfully down the dimly lit corridor before the bellboy reluctantly arrives at the door. He taps almost inaudibly at the door, his voice just above a whisper into the room. When he realizes the occupant is inside, he sets the tray on the floor and rushes back to the safety of the elevator. The viewer expects the opening door will reveal some monstrous creature. But the camera slowly ascends to reveal Angel’s face. They use the opposite portrayal near the second to last scene. The heroic vampire rushes into the room where the now elderly Judy has spent 50 years feeding her turmoil to a hungry demon. She ponders, “I don’t hear them anymore,” of the Thesulac demon he just only just vanquished. Good-naturedly, he lets he run her fingers across his face, inspecting for changes. He assures her she didn’t kill him, gently helping her into bed. In their parting words, he accepts her tearful apology, reassuring her with forgiveness.
The plot distinctively repeats the theme of the double life, and of passing for one thing while being something else. Judy is black, passing for white. An actor passes for straight. Fangs aside, Angel is neither hero passing for villain or vice versa. Angel is self-interested, passing for a lost soul in need of redemption.
He has some good guy credentials. Although his bloodlust is keen, Angel will not kill humans. His condition affords him predatorial advantages: super strength, heightened senses of smell, vision, and hearing. Vampirism lends itself to slaughter, but Angel stopped hunting victims when the gypsies cursed (or blessed) him with a soul. He protects Judy from incarceration, beating up a detective, and hiding her stolen money. In his single truly altruistic act, after searching for a way to defeat the demon that plagues the Hyperion, Angel takes Judy’s place in the noose when the hotel’s guests head hunt for the non-existent murderer of the salesman. Finally, Angel defeats the demon, ridding the hotel of its demonic presence.
He also acts the villain. Although he has reason to suspect she might be in danger, he tries to evict Judy from his room, until the last seconds when he notices his own lock being picked. He beats up a detective, even though he suspects that Judy is lying. When interacting, he keeps his back turned, as if to dissuade and shorten conversation. He threatens to murder a bookstore owner and demands free equipment and assistance vanquishing a demon. When he does have the opportunity to slay the presence, he abandons the cause, sacrificing countless lives In order to wallow in his own resentment. Finally, he endangers his friends without telling them they’re vanquishing a demon to attain bargain real estate.
Despite Angel’s hero/ villain conflict, the repeating theme displayed through his actions is nonchalant self interest. At the beginning of the episode, the Hyperion Hotel, his 1952 home, is on the market, but unsalable due to its demonic inhabitant. While he could have vanquished that presence years past, he instead abandoned the cause over hurt feelings. While Angel did not take the lives of the residents who died there after his abandonment (an evil act), his neglect resulted in their deaths nonetheless. The viewer might guess that his return to the Hyperion might be in search of redemption, until the last scene. Once the hotel is free of the evil that has bound it for almost a century, Angel welcomes them to their new home. Angel may have attained redemption by accident, but the quest was a renovation of sorts, a real estate opportunity.
An honest hermit might choose to occupy some abandoned shack or business far from inquiring eyes. Angel instead occupies a busy hotel known for harboring inconspicuous types. He sets himself out for display but apart from others, as if to be observed but not approached. His mask, therefore, is solitary, but his actions indicate he wants to be seen while disguising the want. He wants people to think him a hermit, so he acts like an inapproachable renegade. If someone insists earnestly though, so eagerly it comes off as odd, he will extend himself. Only after catching Judy lying several times, learning she has been hiding behind a wall of secrecy, that she has stolen a large sum of money from her former employer, does he befriend her. His only friends are the lower elements of the world, so he uses their betrayal to justify the wearing of his trust no one mask. Only once it serves his interests (as with the bookstore owner) does he communicate with more trustworthy crowds.
Finally his interactions with Judy, leave him hurt and betrayed. Although he understands that the residents of the hotel are being deceived by paranoid whispers, and that she did no actual physical harm to him because vampires cannot die, he leaves her riddled with remorse. Angel himself is assumed to be struggling with remorse, but turns a cold shoulder to the anguish he can see as Judy’s face blurs out of consciousness. Even after the demon guffaws out a southern laugh, confiding that he can now feed for years on Judy’s pain, Angel disappears, betraying in turn his so called friend. Even if he left the demon there, he could have eased Judy’s pain in any number of ways. He did not, because it did not serve his interest to do so.
Angel may go on to save the world from its own dark forces, even challenging hell for the benefit of mankind. He may champion women, children and the helpless in other episodes. Perhaps he leads mankind in the quest to reunite lost men with their souls, rescuing babies from burning buildings and falling in love with his enemies. In this episode, though, his true character is an amoral self interested, calculating businessman. In Are You Now or Have You Ever Been, Angel is an opportunist passing for a lost boy in search of redemption. He is a capitalist passing for misunderstood with a good heart. He is human. Angel is you, Angel is me, passing for human to mask his indifference.
The filming offers mixed hero/ villain clues. During the first clip within Angel’s past, the bellhop admits feeling discomforted and apprehensive in Angel’s presence. When delivering his bill, the bellhop hesitates to exit the elevator. When he does build up the courage, the film draws the eye slowly and dreadfully down the dimly lit corridor before the bellboy reluctantly arrives at the door. He taps almost inaudibly at the door, his voice just above a whisper into the room. When he realizes the occupant is inside, he sets the tray on the floor and rushes back to the safety of the elevator. The viewer expects the opening door will reveal some monstrous creature. But the camera slowly ascends to reveal Angel’s face. They use the opposite portrayal near the second to last scene. The heroic vampire rushes into the room where the now elderly Judy has spent 50 years feeding her turmoil to a hungry demon. She ponders, “I don’t hear them anymore,” of the Thesulac demon he just only just vanquished. Good-naturedly, he lets he run her fingers across his face, inspecting for changes. He assures her she didn’t kill him, gently helping her into bed. In their parting words, he accepts her tearful apology, reassuring her with forgiveness.
The plot distinctively repeats the theme of the double life, and of passing for one thing while being something else. Judy is black, passing for white. An actor passes for straight. Fangs aside, Angel is neither hero passing for villain or vice versa. Angel is self-interested, passing for a lost soul in need of redemption.
He has some good guy credentials. Although his bloodlust is keen, Angel will not kill humans. His condition affords him predatorial advantages: super strength, heightened senses of smell, vision, and hearing. Vampirism lends itself to slaughter, but Angel stopped hunting victims when the gypsies cursed (or blessed) him with a soul. He protects Judy from incarceration, beating up a detective, and hiding her stolen money. In his single truly altruistic act, after searching for a way to defeat the demon that plagues the Hyperion, Angel takes Judy’s place in the noose when the hotel’s guests head hunt for the non-existent murderer of the salesman. Finally, Angel defeats the demon, ridding the hotel of its demonic presence.
He also acts the villain. Although he has reason to suspect she might be in danger, he tries to evict Judy from his room, until the last seconds when he notices his own lock being picked. He beats up a detective, even though he suspects that Judy is lying. When interacting, he keeps his back turned, as if to dissuade and shorten conversation. He threatens to murder a bookstore owner and demands free equipment and assistance vanquishing a demon. When he does have the opportunity to slay the presence, he abandons the cause, sacrificing countless lives In order to wallow in his own resentment. Finally, he endangers his friends without telling them they’re vanquishing a demon to attain bargain real estate.
Despite Angel’s hero/ villain conflict, the repeating theme displayed through his actions is nonchalant self interest. At the beginning of the episode, the Hyperion Hotel, his 1952 home, is on the market, but unsalable due to its demonic inhabitant. While he could have vanquished that presence years past, he instead abandoned the cause over hurt feelings. While Angel did not take the lives of the residents who died there after his abandonment (an evil act), his neglect resulted in their deaths nonetheless. The viewer might guess that his return to the Hyperion might be in search of redemption, until the last scene. Once the hotel is free of the evil that has bound it for almost a century, Angel welcomes them to their new home. Angel may have attained redemption by accident, but the quest was a renovation of sorts, a real estate opportunity.
An honest hermit might choose to occupy some abandoned shack or business far from inquiring eyes. Angel instead occupies a busy hotel known for harboring inconspicuous types. He sets himself out for display but apart from others, as if to be observed but not approached. His mask, therefore, is solitary, but his actions indicate he wants to be seen while disguising the want. He wants people to think him a hermit, so he acts like an inapproachable renegade. If someone insists earnestly though, so eagerly it comes off as odd, he will extend himself. Only after catching Judy lying several times, learning she has been hiding behind a wall of secrecy, that she has stolen a large sum of money from her former employer, does he befriend her. His only friends are the lower elements of the world, so he uses their betrayal to justify the wearing of his trust no one mask. Only once it serves his interests (as with the bookstore owner) does he communicate with more trustworthy crowds.
Finally his interactions with Judy, leave him hurt and betrayed. Although he understands that the residents of the hotel are being deceived by paranoid whispers, and that she did no actual physical harm to him because vampires cannot die, he leaves her riddled with remorse. Angel himself is assumed to be struggling with remorse, but turns a cold shoulder to the anguish he can see as Judy’s face blurs out of consciousness. Even after the demon guffaws out a southern laugh, confiding that he can now feed for years on Judy’s pain, Angel disappears, betraying in turn his so called friend. Even if he left the demon there, he could have eased Judy’s pain in any number of ways. He did not, because it did not serve his interest to do so.
Angel may go on to save the world from its own dark forces, even challenging hell for the benefit of mankind. He may champion women, children and the helpless in other episodes. Perhaps he leads mankind in the quest to reunite lost men with their souls, rescuing babies from burning buildings and falling in love with his enemies. In this episode, though, his true character is an amoral self interested, calculating businessman. In Are You Now or Have You Ever Been, Angel is an opportunist passing for a lost boy in search of redemption. He is a capitalist passing for misunderstood with a good heart. He is human. Angel is you, Angel is me, passing for human to mask his indifference.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Hospice
The small room smelled sanitary and lonely, like peroxide rain in an isolated forest. Flowers hung in photographs on the gray walls, but the overall smell and sense of cleanly isolation hung in the air. The gray walls and floors, chestnut curtains and bedding, and pale blue comforter absorbed the soft pink, orange and jade hues of the framed wall prints, contrasting the scarlet roses on the bedside table. The light from the window at the edge of the room tiptoed cautiously in, dimly, as if unsure whether to return at a better time.
She reached out a frail hand from a skeletal frame reaching for something on the horizon of some unseen place. She wore a sapphire fleece sweater that smelled like tobacco and Robitussin, when you leaned in. When I took her hand in mine, she gasped as if surprised to see me, licked her thin cracked lips and leaned her head forward to speak. Although her mouth formed the words, only a muffle came out. A second time, “You wanna go outside? I think this is the last one for awhile.”
Sometimes, in less than a span of a breath, time pauses, collapses, planets collide, and fear combusts into spiraling shards of broken truth tearing into your broken soul. In less than the time to blink one eye, every fiber of the world leaps up into your throat at once, leaving a dry acid taste and no room for a scream. The otherwise listless walls close in, growing sinister. The deafening boom of the clock’s second hand can be heard just above your thunderous heartbeat as you are seized back to that terrible dizzying breath. Then that split instant immediately escapes as if ashamed or fearful. I breathed in, one deep reorienting gulp of oxygen.
I croaked, “C’mon. You’ll be ok.” I wasn’t sure who I trying to deceive, myself or her. Maybe it was one last grasp at hope. I lowered myself, hung her legs limply to the side of the bed, and placed one of her arms around my shoulder while I gingerly lifted her weak frame into the chair. She called it dancing. Not long ago, I’d needed help to lift her. Now she was lighter than a schoolchild. She pressed her parched tongue against the roof of her mouth. “Do you want to try another sip of water?” “Maybe when we get back,” she fibbed.
I wheeled her slowly, down the fluorescent hallway. Bumps hurt now, more than they used to. She never said so, she was much too tough, but she tensed and gasped approaching cracks and entryways. Warm sunlight bathed us, warming me, breathing color into her cheeks momentarily. Two drags into her cigarette, she started nodding forward, and I returned her to the sunless room. Not her room. Her room was livelier, stacked with rows of books, collections of ocean scented body sprays, smiling family photos and glued together remnants of decades-old kindergarten ceramics. This room was the sanitized charlatan of her otherwise room. I wheeled her softly to this miscreant room nonetheless.
I would’ve lifted her back into bed, but she waved me back. “Let me sit awhile. I talked to Carol, and she’s having the guys move me this weekend.” The reaper lurked in the background behind the chestnut curtains. The second hand thundered again. She glanced a moment toward the curtains, challenging, and continued. “I think I’ll be home by Monday, then. I’ll be glad to be out of here, especially at night.” “Monday, then,” I hoped, surveying the room, looking for any sharp thing. I would have ripped the scythe from his icy hands, slicing his bitter throat, with a haughty victorious battle cry but that I could deprive him of it. The less than breath, less than blink, years-in-a-moment moment shackles you to yourself, paralyzing, silencing any defiant scream you would otherwise utter. In that single space of eternal second, you cannot fraction a bargaining breath, or raise a fortifying arm. The sunlight dared, though, challenged the fiendish creature, chased away the lurking minute. The air freshened, and the grey walls offered a sip of warmer tan. She laughed, then, as if they’d shared a secret which I wasn’t privy, again from the belly as if sharing that secret now, pushed herself out of the chair onto her legs, stepping cautiously forward.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Driving through the rain on a crisp March evening, the lights dance red and green lights onto the black highway pavement. The road seems to inhale, sigh and shift its weight. NPR has been hosting another fund drive in the background between classical pieces. Despite the drizzle, I roll down the window and change the station, counting on the wind and sound to wake me. Soft piano floats into my drifting consciousness, and I recognize the melody- her song. Instantly, I am aware of the empty passenger seat, the void in the car, the absence of cars on the road, the missing breath from my choking throat and the numb unfeeling hole in my heart where the missing passenger should be.
I inhale deeply; exhale slowly, light a cigarette between bursts of wind. A red neon sign approaches. “Prohibited,” the sign warns sternly as I zip past. The small tires on the road hum one long hypnotizing note to the discordant rhythm of the crunching rain. The tempo had quickened. Forcefully, angrily, the wind kicked the rain into my face from outside the still open window. The unsettling feeling of the missing passenger lingered guiltily, and the new approaching neon sign pointed an accusing arrow toward my ring finger. A new burst of wind sweeps the car suddenly right. A purple bolt flashes downward, lingers, vanishes. I slow, stammering uncertainly now, toward the menacing sign. “Prohibited,” the sign insists, without elaboration.
Stalling now, I pull to the shoulder. The highway will be snaking soon, and I could always take the belt route. Inhale, sigh. Inhale; long exhale. The car smells like stale tobacco, coffee and wet socks. Deep inhale. I got on the road too late, off-course before the engine started, and on the wrong road for some time.
Accelerating again, I edge toward “Prohibited”. A siren sounds in the distance, and I see blue and red lights pulsing some distance behind me, closing the distance. The rain has calmed some, apparently done raging for now. At least for a moment I’ll share the road. The comfort of the approaching officer encourages me some, and I brave the sign.
The radio sounds deliberate, long, minor notes, and from the introduction. Beneath the melody, I hear her call to me, and with all my empty lonely heart, I wish I could follow. There’s not a PT cruiser made in any factory that can drive to that highway. The officer has minutes ago past me but I still hear sirens fading.
The rain is only dripping now, and I can make up some lost time. I didn’t actually begin with a destination, just a need for departure. The house is always so tense, so filled with accusation in the air. The dream he gave was only a wisp, and stole precious months I could’ve had with her. He detested the silence, the void lifeless eyes I that glazed as they looked past him as if he weren’t there, resented the countless hours spent alone while I seethed somewhere else. He’d begun to speak, in his strained “let me monologue at you” voice. Halfway through the first sentence, I’d already stepped into the blue Cruiser and started the motor.
I wasn’t overdue; wasn’t expected. I’ve been uncharacteristically punctual since March, another March in a time when timeliness could’ve changed my mother’s outcome. Doctors say she died of cancer, breast cancer. Someone could argue she died of corrupt medical insurance. The truth is she died of failure, my failure, my delay in coming. She died of my marriage, my distance, my inability to be close enough to observe, to decide. I have been frantically punctual since, too late.
I light another cigarette. How many has this been? The ashtray holds five butts and I’ve been on the highway an hour and a half. Metallica is playing now, something fast, I’ve heard before, but the name escapes me. The air dried up. I turn the last curve for awhile. I notice city lights about five minutes out, shining blurrily though some fog yet lingering in the air. The smell of the rain still hangs in the air, crisp. My eyes have become so heavy by the time I pull into a rest stop and recline the seat. I may go home; I don’t want to think about it now. My mind lingers on the highway as I fade quickly, into dreamspace, into another crisp March on another road from another time.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Fallacies of Emotion and Language
1. Bandwagon Appeals
ex: Everybody at school is involved with fighting and bullying. If I don't fight or fight back, I'll be beaten up by everybody.
This is a fallacy because "everybody" in this case is a small sample group of students known to the narrator, based on perspective and bias. "Everybody" is used to excuse or rationalize the actions of the narrator without basis or evidence.
2. Name Calling
ex: Those protesters are flag-burning, freedom hating, Taliban supporting, granola crunching, left wing nutcakes.
The name calling attempts to discredit an idea, concept, or person by attacking or dismissing character or integrity without addressing the issue presented. Because so and so or such and such is (in vague undefined terms) that negetive, dangerous, vile, unpopular or unworthy word, the concept presented is implied to be incorrect.
3. Polarization
ex: Either you are willing to do whatever's necessary to defend the United States, or you are a freedom hating terrorist sympothiser.
This presents an either-or situation that asks you to choose from one idea or another, while truly, there are a host of other options. The person in question might be inclined to go only so far, might be religiously non-violent, dubious of the supporting evidence, wating to decide, or have no opinion at all.
4. Straw Man
ex: The left just wants to ration health care in a way that will kill our grandparents and the elderly, and leave us dying in long lines in the E.R..
The concept or idea is changed, oversimplified, misstated, or restated in a way that makes it look absurd, and more easy to argue against.
Fallacies of Logic
1. Begging the Question
ex: a. All witches are things that can burn. b. All things that burn are made of wood. c. Therefore, all witches are made of wood. d. All things that are made of wood are things that can float. e. All things that can float weigh as much as a duck (who also can float). f. So all things that weigh as much as a duck must be made of wood. g. Since this thing weighs the same as a duck, this thing, therefore, must be a witch.
(Adapted from: Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail 1975)
This begs the question, because we must assume that a and b, d, e and f are true in order to come to the conclusions c and g. The statements are obviously false, but in the context of facts less familiar, might be accepted as true.
ex: All living beings are made of cells. Therefore, this cellular thing must be a living being. In fact, the being could also be recently deceased, or the first statement might be untrue.
2. Either-or
ex: Either we keep healthcare a private buisness transaction or we will have long waits to see doctors, medicine will be rationed, and government will interfere with our medical care.
This poses choices that are not necessarily the only two options. There are many factors involved in long medical lines, and government interferance is not the only way to regulate care. Medical rationing is related to factors including ease of access, availability of the drug, weather it is the only medicine of its kind, severity and rarity of the condition, side affects and marketing. This statement also presumes that health care in a private buisness format does not have such issues as long lines, rationing, or interferance.
3. False Analogies
ex: Universal health care was voted strongly against more than 20 years ago. It has already been decided that Americans do not support a public system of health care.
This example of false analogy does not take into account differences in issues, mindset, and medical availability between today and the time it had been previously decided. It is also a false analogy because it does not account for the new voting pool changed by deaths in population, new citizens or citizens who have come of age since the last vote and their differences in experience.
4. Hasty Generalization
ex: Black men are 26% more likely than caucasion men to become incarcerated. We must therefore take precautions to prevent criminality among black men.
This generalizes black men into criminals. It jumps over many other factors to come to this conclusion: differences in liklihood of being caught in a crime, differences in frequency of accusation, jury bias, differences in sentencing between blacks and whites. It also implies that black criminality requires more intervention that white criminality.
5. Non Sequitur
ex: People with higher incomes can better afford to shoulder the burdon of their own health care or insurance costs.
This statement links 2 ideas that might or might not be related. Income is not necessarily related to health care costs. A person with a $35,000 income and multiple sclerosis living in Manhattin would have a completely different situation than a $15,000 per year intern in Idaho with a sprained knee. The two do not corrolate rationally.
6. Oversimplification
ex: Child predation could be prevented simply by ripping the offending parts off the men who commit child sex crimes.
One cannot say whether this would be effective or not. It simplifies the issue and simplifies the solution. Many questions remain: Is the drive to commit the crime so strong that a man would take the chance? Would the solution create a problem greater than the original? Are offenders caugt often enough to make this a viable consequence?
7. Post hoc Fallacy
Months that contain 5 fridays tend to yield higher spending and stock prices. The following, month, as a result suffers slower yield and growth.
This is a hypothesis I made up years ago based on my own spending. At some time, I might look to see how well it corrolates with actual dollars and numbers, it follows at this point an irrational logic. Because one month is good, doesn't mean it will or won't be counterbalanced in another month. Maybe the entire year goes well. Maybe it follows that pattern, but only under certain conditions. There is no evidence to support the effect.
8. Rationalization
ex: I would not have punched you if you'd just stopped studying with that guy from biology. It comes across like I'm the bad guy, but you're practically sleeping with him!
This statement does a few things. It shifts the blame to the victim, and it provides a motivating excuse for the offender. By shifting the actions into a more socially acceptible reason for violence, the offender lets him or herself off the hook a little. By blaming the victim, he or she is asking the victim to accept at least some responsibility for the offenders' conduct.
9. Slippery Slope
ex: If professors keep loading me with so much homework, before long I'll be exhausted to the point that I might hurt myself at work, drive poorly and cause a crash, be unable to wake up, or fail classes. Before long, I'll have messed up so much at work or slept in, that I'll have lost my job, but due to my failing grades, I won't be able to find a new job. I'll lose my apartment and have to sleep in my car. My son will have to work in a sweatshop or beg for food, money and medicine, while I try everyday to fight the harsh winters while searching for work. And we'll look back in time with a wistful sigh and wonder how our lives might have turned out differently if I'd only had less homework in 2009.
I can't fairly argue that this is a complete fallacy, but for arguments' sake... I choose one possible worst case event, and imagine it is inevitable. I reepeat this process throughout the rest of the paragraph, choosing the worst case of every outcome.
ex: Everybody at school is involved with fighting and bullying. If I don't fight or fight back, I'll be beaten up by everybody.
This is a fallacy because "everybody" in this case is a small sample group of students known to the narrator, based on perspective and bias. "Everybody" is used to excuse or rationalize the actions of the narrator without basis or evidence.
2. Name Calling
ex: Those protesters are flag-burning, freedom hating, Taliban supporting, granola crunching, left wing nutcakes.
The name calling attempts to discredit an idea, concept, or person by attacking or dismissing character or integrity without addressing the issue presented. Because so and so or such and such is (in vague undefined terms) that negetive, dangerous, vile, unpopular or unworthy word, the concept presented is implied to be incorrect.
3. Polarization
ex: Either you are willing to do whatever's necessary to defend the United States, or you are a freedom hating terrorist sympothiser.
This presents an either-or situation that asks you to choose from one idea or another, while truly, there are a host of other options. The person in question might be inclined to go only so far, might be religiously non-violent, dubious of the supporting evidence, wating to decide, or have no opinion at all.
4. Straw Man
ex: The left just wants to ration health care in a way that will kill our grandparents and the elderly, and leave us dying in long lines in the E.R..
The concept or idea is changed, oversimplified, misstated, or restated in a way that makes it look absurd, and more easy to argue against.
Fallacies of Logic
1. Begging the Question
ex: a. All witches are things that can burn. b. All things that burn are made of wood. c. Therefore, all witches are made of wood. d. All things that are made of wood are things that can float. e. All things that can float weigh as much as a duck (who also can float). f. So all things that weigh as much as a duck must be made of wood. g. Since this thing weighs the same as a duck, this thing, therefore, must be a witch.
(Adapted from: Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail 1975)
This begs the question, because we must assume that a and b, d, e and f are true in order to come to the conclusions c and g. The statements are obviously false, but in the context of facts less familiar, might be accepted as true.
ex: All living beings are made of cells. Therefore, this cellular thing must be a living being. In fact, the being could also be recently deceased, or the first statement might be untrue.
2. Either-or
ex: Either we keep healthcare a private buisness transaction or we will have long waits to see doctors, medicine will be rationed, and government will interfere with our medical care.
This poses choices that are not necessarily the only two options. There are many factors involved in long medical lines, and government interferance is not the only way to regulate care. Medical rationing is related to factors including ease of access, availability of the drug, weather it is the only medicine of its kind, severity and rarity of the condition, side affects and marketing. This statement also presumes that health care in a private buisness format does not have such issues as long lines, rationing, or interferance.
3. False Analogies
ex: Universal health care was voted strongly against more than 20 years ago. It has already been decided that Americans do not support a public system of health care.
This example of false analogy does not take into account differences in issues, mindset, and medical availability between today and the time it had been previously decided. It is also a false analogy because it does not account for the new voting pool changed by deaths in population, new citizens or citizens who have come of age since the last vote and their differences in experience.
4. Hasty Generalization
ex: Black men are 26% more likely than caucasion men to become incarcerated. We must therefore take precautions to prevent criminality among black men.
This generalizes black men into criminals. It jumps over many other factors to come to this conclusion: differences in liklihood of being caught in a crime, differences in frequency of accusation, jury bias, differences in sentencing between blacks and whites. It also implies that black criminality requires more intervention that white criminality.
5. Non Sequitur
ex: People with higher incomes can better afford to shoulder the burdon of their own health care or insurance costs.
This statement links 2 ideas that might or might not be related. Income is not necessarily related to health care costs. A person with a $35,000 income and multiple sclerosis living in Manhattin would have a completely different situation than a $15,000 per year intern in Idaho with a sprained knee. The two do not corrolate rationally.
6. Oversimplification
ex: Child predation could be prevented simply by ripping the offending parts off the men who commit child sex crimes.
One cannot say whether this would be effective or not. It simplifies the issue and simplifies the solution. Many questions remain: Is the drive to commit the crime so strong that a man would take the chance? Would the solution create a problem greater than the original? Are offenders caugt often enough to make this a viable consequence?
7. Post hoc Fallacy
Months that contain 5 fridays tend to yield higher spending and stock prices. The following, month, as a result suffers slower yield and growth.
This is a hypothesis I made up years ago based on my own spending. At some time, I might look to see how well it corrolates with actual dollars and numbers, it follows at this point an irrational logic. Because one month is good, doesn't mean it will or won't be counterbalanced in another month. Maybe the entire year goes well. Maybe it follows that pattern, but only under certain conditions. There is no evidence to support the effect.
8. Rationalization
ex: I would not have punched you if you'd just stopped studying with that guy from biology. It comes across like I'm the bad guy, but you're practically sleeping with him!
This statement does a few things. It shifts the blame to the victim, and it provides a motivating excuse for the offender. By shifting the actions into a more socially acceptible reason for violence, the offender lets him or herself off the hook a little. By blaming the victim, he or she is asking the victim to accept at least some responsibility for the offenders' conduct.
9. Slippery Slope
ex: If professors keep loading me with so much homework, before long I'll be exhausted to the point that I might hurt myself at work, drive poorly and cause a crash, be unable to wake up, or fail classes. Before long, I'll have messed up so much at work or slept in, that I'll have lost my job, but due to my failing grades, I won't be able to find a new job. I'll lose my apartment and have to sleep in my car. My son will have to work in a sweatshop or beg for food, money and medicine, while I try everyday to fight the harsh winters while searching for work. And we'll look back in time with a wistful sigh and wonder how our lives might have turned out differently if I'd only had less homework in 2009.
I can't fairly argue that this is a complete fallacy, but for arguments' sake... I choose one possible worst case event, and imagine it is inevitable. I reepeat this process throughout the rest of the paragraph, choosing the worst case of every outcome.
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