Fear Reaction

I believe all issues that are broadcasted and receive a lot of attention generates reactions from the people that feel impacted by those issues.  There are several incidents that have occurred in our recent history that are good examples of strong human reactions.  For example, the hijacking and crashing of planes into the World Trade Center, HIV/AIDS, Bath Salts, and Iran and North Korea Nuclear threats.  All of these issues and tragedies have resulted in strong public reactions and in some cases has lead to racism, stereotyping, harassment, fear, and even death.  I decided to focus on the 9/11 attack and the reactions by both US Citizens and Middle-Eastern Citizens.

There is a very small population of religious fanatics from the middle-east that do not like Americans.  I don’t exactly know the size of the group or how they get money for their weapons but based on the news, they are small group and do not represent the beliefs of the general populations in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.  Even though they represent a small portion of the population, they were able to mastermind the largest terrorist attack on the United States in history.  The conflict between the United States and the terrorist organization called Al Qaeda has been long standing.  Even though most US Citizens were aware of the conflict, it wasn’t until the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center that the people began to get paranoid and have a strong reaction.  After the attack, the US went to war.  The result of the war was that US Citizens became paranoid that everyone from the Middle-East was a terrorist.  There were problems at airports because security began to suspect everyone that looked like they were from the Middle-East were terrorists, which angered people that came to this country when they were honest citizens but felt like they were being stereotyped and harassed.   I think that people were so afraid of another attack that in many ways they behaved irrationally like they did in the Salem witch hunt.  It seems like fear makes people react in ways that later look crazy and surprising.  I am sure everyone has looked at someone in the airport, mall, store etc. that seemed sketchy and automatically became nervous or frightened because we put them into a category in which they may or may not be in.  This example is just to point out how fear causes people to react in a way that is harmful, disrespectful, irrational, and in extreme cases can result in death.

Avatar Reaction Paper

Overall, I thought this was a very interesting article to read, with opposing views  of the movie Avatar.  But, in my opinion, this is a simple story of the U.S Marines (humans) trying to exert power and steal land and resources from the Na’Vi (cat) people.  Jake Sully, the main character, transforms into the Na’Vi people in order to infiltrate their group.  Jake does not see color or cat faces when he falls in love with one of them and is enlightened about the errors of his human comrades. He then makes a conscious decision to abandon his allegiance to the thoughtless humans and fight for the moral opposition.

            I strongly disagree with Newitz who stated that “this is the essence of the white guilt fantasy, laid bare… It's a wish to lead people of color from the inside rather than from the (oppressive, white) outside.” I believe that this story has nothing to do with black vs. white, man vs. cat, it is about a guy named Jake who switches sides because he realizes that the Marines were being shortsighted and they were trying to unfairly exert their power on the peaceful Na’Vi’s.  This is why I agree with Eric Ribellarsi, “This is not a story about a white man who goes to lead native peoples as their condescending savior…. It's a story about a backward white man who is transformed and takes up armed struggle against imperialism alongside them."  When a person dreams of flying or takes flight, it resembles freedom, Jake becomes one of the Na’Vi by flying with his new mountain banshee.  When he flies it resembles freedom, he is transformed and becomes one with nature, and realizes that the Na’Vi are preserving the land while the Marines are trying to destroy it.  This is when Jake switches sides and tries to take down the humans.                                                                                           

I disagree with the Moving Image bloggers statement, "By the end of the film, you're left wondering why the film needed the Jake Sully character at all.  The film could have done just as well by focusing on an actual Na'vi native who comes into contact with crazy humans who have no respect for the environment."  I challenge this “crazy humans” storyline, because the underlying theme was enlightenment.  Jake became an enlightened individual when he became a Na’Vi and realized the error of the humans, and tried to fix what his human counterparts were doing by trying to take down the humans and destroy their plans.  Without Jake, this story could not be told as the enlightened, love story that it is. 

In my opinion, the movie should be seen for entertainment purposes only. This movie was a sci-fi, romance and drama, it was not racially motivated, just a story about a man who switches to the opposing side and fights for what’s right, with his love by his side.

Chelan

The Native American myth, The Creation of The First Indians Chelan, was about animals that needed to work Together and create humans. The Great Chief above was the creator of everything, god or the Dues Faber Myth.  He told the Animals what to do with the beaver in order to create humans. Coyote was in charge of handling the beaver but when the Great Chief above comes back, he puts coyote on an island and he gives coyote the power to never age. He gives the power to create humans to the four wolf brothers. The youngest brother goes on a hunt after beaver and after three days he comes back with the dead beaver. They split it up into twelve pieces including the beavers blood and spread the pieces all over that turn into humans.  The blood was secretion that created man. The wolf brothers were given characteristic traits of humans like strong, good, clever, and worthless. There was also 4 wolf brothers. The Great Chief above, resembled God and when the names were not listed they mentioned "and all others" which leads me to believe that people today could put themselves in the story. After the Great chief left, the animals scattered to all parts of the world, north, east, south and west. The number twelve is also important because the Great chief above leaves for 12 moons and he wants the beaver split into twelve parts.

Sedna

There was a girl named Sedna that lived on the shore of a lonely land and was single. Every guy that asked her father for hand in marriage she declined. One day a sea bird came to Sedna and sang to her to come live with him and marry him, she was excited and left with him in the kayak, when she got to his village it wasn't anything he said it was going to be and she lived in misery. Until, one day her father came to her rescue after winter, he killed the seabird and left to return home with her daughter. The friends of the sea bird made waves around the kayak because they were anger their friend was dead. Sedans father pushed her overboard and cut her fingertips, and fingers off to save his own life. The skin, bone and fingernail turned into sea creatures including bearded ground seals, walruses, whales, whalebone, ringed seals. When her fingers created life this would be under the category of a creation myth. After the birds left thinking Sedna died, her father pulled her inboard and returned home, Sedna got revenge by having dogs eat his hands and feet off, her father put a curse on them, and their home fell into the underworld where Sedna ruled the underworld.

Raven and The Sources of Light

    In the Raven and The Sources of Light, accretion or conjunction myth was used in the story. It was used by Raven going under cover as a seed that the daughter of the great chief consumed, which then formed into a baby. The baby or Raven, was trying to find light and ended up returning the stars, the moon and the sun out of the bags that the great chief has stored away. “Finally the grandfather gave him the bag that was filled with stars. The child rolled the bag around on the floor of the lodge, then suddenly let go of it. The bag immediately rose to the ceiling, drifted through the smoke hole, and flew up into the heavens.”(519) This myth is also Dues Faber because the Raven is the one main creator or maker. He supplies the world with light (sun/moon) and islands (pebbles). “It immediately formed an island where Raven could alight on solid land and rest for awhile.” Also when Raven has successfully shed light to the world, “And from that day until this, the sun, moon, and stars have remained in the sky.”

Giant Frank

Frank Frokinawa was a young man who lived in a village on a mountain called Apalsousay. He was thirteen years young and was 7 feet tall, 290 pounds. He lived with his brother, a much shorter and skinnier version of Frank, and for fun they used to go a mile outside the village and play hide and seek daily. On one day frank found his brother in a huge hole that he fell in; his brother laid there in pain, so Frank jumped down to help him. As Frank jumped down, the earth began to shake violently for a few minutes. When the Earth stopped shaking, Frank helped his brother up only to find a huge opening underground with a room filled with flowers. Frank took two flowers and so did his brother but when his brother took the second, he tripped and fell into another hole, so Frank jumped down to help him. As Frank jumped down, the earth began to shake violently for a few minutes. When the Earth stopped shaking, Frank helped his brother up only to find a huge opening underground with a room filled with flowers. This time, Frank and his brother got greedy and took four each. They repeated this multiple times until they reached the ending at the bottom of the mountain. They had eighty flowers each ranging from blue, purple, white and red, so they decided that this was way too much for one person to carry. So, they walked through all different villages on the way home and dropped a handful of flowers down, but when they hit the ground, they turned into seeds. Families came by and took the seeds that were needed in these villages. This made all the villages very happy and thankful that Frank and his brother came by. In the deep forest on the way back to Apalsousay, a huge thunder cloud reached below the tree line and with a big, deep roar a voice silenced Frank and his brother. It said, "There was an earthquake earlier today, and much of your village had been destroyed, I created this land and it's time for you to take over, take the four flowers you have left and put it towards your village, something good will come." The boys trusted him and returned to the village, they dropped the flowers, took the seeds from them and planted the seeds.  Instantly, plants and trees came out of the ground with an assortment of food! They repeated this every day, jumped down, got flowers, gave back, and returned to their village. And to this day, Frank still jumps down to get flowers and help other villages in need but does not realize, when he jumps down, his size causes an earthquake somewhere in the world.