ctian

My main goal on how I could help the critically endangered pangolins was to raise awareness of it’s dilemma throughout campus. The biggest problem for the pangolin is how unknown it is and the fact that it may disappear from many people’s lives before they even get a chance to know it existed in the first place. My group decided to raise awareness with two linked projects, a small picture with infographics and a brief snap story.

For the small pictures, we printed out many little figures of the Pokemon Sandshrews. We hoped that we could connect to people through its similarity in appearance to the Sandshrew and the fact that it is much more widely known than the pangolin. The Pokemon series is a very widely known game series and has been part of many trends such as one its own games, Pokemon GO. The Sandshrew has been one of the Pokemon in these games and we were hoping to connect to the inner gamer of all people through this Pokemon. Many may not even recognize that the exact Pokemon it is but rather just that it is a Pokemon. We then spread them out through classrooms and our residential living spaces. Our goal was to have people recognize the Sandshrew, wonder what it was, and pick it up through curiosity. On the back of each Sandshrew, we have information about the pangolin and a QR code linking to a blog with our essays and blog posts.

The second part to our efforts was the brief Snapchat story based on geolocation based on our residential living area. We created a series of Snapchats in order to catch the attention of people who saw the story and inform them of the endangered pangolin. We hoped to reach out to people through Snapchat as it is a very popular social media platform that many use. The reason why we chose to use a story is because it is a very easy way to reach out to all our friends and even have them input their own feedback or support. With Snapchat stories, we have the added benefit of being able to interact with people that become interested in our efforts rather than just a website or YouTube video people will watch. Snapchat also has a focus on being quick and straight to the point so it will be very easy for many people to access and simply just view it as it is just a click away on their phones rather than having to go onto a Facebook page to read up on it. The low effort part means that more people will be see our story which helps us as our focus is on raising awareness. As part of the snapchat series, we also included information on our on campus effort by showing the little Sandshrews around campus. A sample of the Snapchat story is shown below.

For our Snapchat story, we decided to continue on with the Pokemon theme and use the classic “Who’s that Pokemon” story in order to “reveal” the pangolin. We wanted to catch the attention of our viewers with this classic trope they are used to seeing and instead of revealing one of their beloved Pokemon, we reveal the pangolin.

It was interesting on seeing the feedback we received from our project. Our ultimate goal was to raise awareness and have more people learn about this critically endangered animal. We were certainly got the attention of many of our own friends as I had many of my own friends come up to me wondering what I was doing and why. Some of the most interesting connections I made though were through the responses on our Snapchat stories. Somebody drew a Sandshrew and posted it onto our story and we received many Snapchats of support. The drawing really stood out to me as it showed someone who was moved enough by our work to even draw their own rendition of the Sandshrew to show support.

Ever since I started placing the Sandshrews around, I noticed its effects especially in my own friend group. Whenever we would pass by one of them, it would become the focus of the conversation as they were curious to what they were and who even placed them. I would only reveal to them after they had started talking about it for a while because it was interesting to me to see how people throughout my residence hall would react to these little pictures. One thing that was a problem was that while it did spark interest, there was never a reason for residents to pick them up and read the backside of for more information. That is certainly something that could be improved on. My group should have thought more about getting the people who became curious engaged with the issue, not just interested.

Something that stands out to me now that I look back and really question my perspective on each character using a hero lens is how I view Katniss and Peeta differently now. Before, I never questioned who was a true hero in the story and always had assumed Katniss because of the amount of work she had done in the arena for both Peeta and herself, and her willingness to go into the games for her little sister. However as we go back and discuss these two characters, it becomes clear to me who the true hero really is. For me it is Peeta and it is because of Peeta’s morals and intent behind his actions.

Katniss throughout the whole games is focused entirely on survival, especially because of the situation she came from. She grew up in an impoverished region where survival was the day to day life and there simply was no time to think about anything else. She carried this mindset with her into the arena and one could argue in a way that it makes her selfish. She only cares for Rue because of how she can relate to Rue and her struggles. However, Peeta went into the games with more than survival on his mind. In his mind, he was aware of his situation and he knew that his chances of getting out of those games were very slim. What made him such a hero is how he wanted to stay true to himself and show the people of Panem his identity. To Peeta, this meant saving and doing whatever he could for Katniss because Katniss was his love. While Katniss may have been surviving for her family, it was not out of noble intentions like Peeta but simply because she wanted to live and she wanted to live for her family. Peeta took a moment to stop and think about the legacy he wanted to leave behind and that is what makes him a hero. He wanted to be more than just a piece and he showed himself in the Hunger Games despite the limitations of his situation.

In Suzanne Collins’ book, she paints an extremely grim dystopian society, where the people of the Capitol are raised up on the exploitations of their people. While their people labor day and night in districts surrounding the capitol, the citizens of the Capitol lavish in extravagance and comfort such as delicious meals at the touch of a button or weird fashion standards that can change any day. When I first read the Hunger Games in elementary school, it was just a really interesting book filled with gore, action, drama, and an new, interesting dystopian setting. However, now looking back at it, I feel like there are lots of similarities and parallels to our own society despite the dystopian setting of the Hunger Games.

One thing that stands out to me the most is the systemic disadvantages that exist at each level designed to separate and divide the people of the districts. With the concept of the tessera’s, it is easy to see how there exist such a systemic disadvantage towards the poor. This reminds me greatly of how privilege exists in our own society and how people like white, cis, middle-class citizens have inherently an easier life than others. These people of the districts cannot change the fact that they are poor and it only decreases the disadvantages against them. Even for someone as hardworking as Katniss, sometimes the hard work can not make up for everything but only help them get by. The Hunger Games especially highlights system discrimination in our own society. Sure, everybody can get a shot and become famous and rich, but not everyone can be like that. The risks also associated with being elevated to that status are almost life and death. I think while Suzanne Collins’ book is a very interesting read for many, it also highlights many issues in our own society and just like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, it could possibly be a political statement of our own society.

A knight and his court should stand for the good values of chivalry and virtue. However, that is not something I saw in the reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Arthur seemed childish when he was shown as impatient for waiting for his food and impatient for a fight. Then when he finally got his fight, he simply told Gawain to chop off the head to get it over quickly with, he just wanted to return back to his feast. Obviously, these events display King Arthur as childish and he is certainly not close to a hero. If the king of a court does not have good morals himself, then can his court and his people have good morals if they do not have a morally correct leader?

I think Sir Gawain certainly does show potential for being a true hero even if he is under King Arthur and followed his order to chop of the Green Knight’s head. Gawain stood up and offered to take King Arthur’s place in exchanging blows which shows a willingness to place himself in a potentially dangerous situation in order to protect those which he finds important. Him following orders only shows that he will do anything for his king and queen which is what he is supposed to do. However, one would question whether it would have been the more heroic thing to not follow the King Arthur’s order in order to maintain honor. Or in those times was it worse for your honor to not follow the order of your king?

To an outsider, a person kicking a vending machine is seen as an angry violent person. However, to the person kicking the vending machine, their late bus, their angry boss, missed deadlines, and lost wallet all make his actions justified.

As readers, we are the outsiders looking onto the Knight of the Cart as he goes on his journey. When he made his decision to take shelter on the condition to lay with a girl despite having his own girl, many would judge him for his actions because he is making the decision to be unfaithful to his girl. However, I believe that this may be one of the situations where his past experiences and knowledge makes his decision unavoidable to him as he literally does state “he saw he had no choice”(pg 219), however to an outsider, it simply looks crazy and bad. He has a quest and in order to fulfill it, he needs to be able to continue on traveling day after day. As a knight in the medieval ages, he may have knowledge that the girl’s offer would be one of the only offers he could get or that he would definitely need to take this girl’s offer because he would not be able to go on any further without shelter for the night. As a knight, he felt obligated to go throughout this journey and this shelter offered is the only way for him to complete his quest.

Many call the Knight of the Cart for his success in saving the girl but I would say that the Knight of the Cart is a hero for a different reason. I think the Knight of the Cart is a hero because he was willing to give up one the biggest aspects of his life, love, in order to be able to fulfill his duty as a knight and complete his quest that his queen assigned him.

Last Friday night, I watched the Kingsman: Golden Circle with my friends. The movie centralizes around the story of Eggsy, a spy who loses his organization to the attacks of a drug cartel called the Golden Circle. The Golden Circle takes them down in order to be able to push their agenda of forcing the president to legalize all drugs so they can become part of the legal market. Eggsy has to travel to the US in order to meet up with another spy organization and get their help to take down the Golden Circle.

The whole movie focuses heavily on the hero aspect as it literally is the story of how Eggsy saves the world and becomes a hero however while watching the movie, many characteristics of Eggsy made me think even deeper about who a hero is and what they have to do. After their bases are destroyed, Eggsy is approached by his mentor, Merlin, and reminded that they cannot let their dead comrades, friends and destroyed bases detract from their mission. They must remove emotion from their objectives in order to save the world. The movie shows what happens when one ends up letting their emotions interfere too much with what they are meant to do. (The next sentence is vague due to trying to not reveal too many spoilers.) One of the antagonists reveals they fight Eggsy because his wife and child were killed by one of the people they were trying to save. Ultimately if the antagonist succeeded, millions would have died showing how if one lets their emotions get the better of them, they ultimately lose sight of what being a true hero is. 

This scene introduced a new characteristic of who a hero is to me; a hero must be able to work towards their goal or the greater good without letting their personal judgments or demons affect their work. In a way, heroes should be apathetic because while emotions may help push one towards their goal, it can also detract from the morality of what they do or even change what they ultimately end up doing. It reminds me of how in the military, obedience and discipline are hammered into recruits early on because in the end, if they let their emotions get the best of them, they may end up failing their original objective.

Today’s political climate is hectic to say the least. With the NFL under criticism from the public masses, many athletes are using their positions as players on the field to make a political statement. They have been doing this by kneeling during the national anthem to protest inequality, especially towards African-Americans. Many would say that these men are being disrespectful towards the U.S. flag and even Donald J. Trump, the president, was able to get in a word on his views of these protesting players.

General John Kelly totally agrees w/ my stance on NFL players and the fact that they should not be disrespecting our FLAG or GREAT COUNTRY!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 25, 2017

Despite all this backlash, many players and even the director of the NFL himself have publicly supported the players kneeling during the national anthem. Many people would consider these players heroes for taking a stand despite the public backlash. But are these players really heroes?

In my view, these players are heroes, especially due to the intense political climate. While many would say these players are not heroes because taking a knee isn’t taking much action, I would say that taking a knee is enough. In 1968, African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos made their mark in history when they raised a single black gloved fist during the anthem when they stood on the victory podium of the 1968 Summer Olympics.

I find that the current NFL players are just like these two African-Americans because while they do not do much, the simple actions raise immense awareness because of their spotlight. The US is a place of many diverse views and too often are these views drowned out with so much news coming out every day but the NFL is one of the places where millions of Americans will consistently come back to as it is has almost become a part of the American cultures. It is courageous for these players to use the spotlight they are put under to raise awareness for an issue even when their own home stadium may boo at their actions.

The booing at the NFL football game last night, when the entire Dallas team dropped to its knees, was loudest I have ever heard. Great anger

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 26, 2017

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