Chidren of Men

This is the second time I have seen the movie Children of Men and I have enjoyed watching it both times. In my opinion it is one of the more interesting "end of humanity" movies, all females becoming infertile is a unique idea. Though I wonder if that could ever happen so completely in real life. It is possible to create "test tube babies", so I would think that when women everywhere began miscarrying the government could take action and harvest as many "potential" children as possible. With that and the future advances in cloning I think that the human species could survive, though our gene pool would be seriously depleted. (Anyways...)
I found the society portrayed in the movie to be very interesting. The fact that the United States was in a complete stage of chaos was shocking. Because Britain was the only safe place left, according to them, they basically quarantined their people. Immigrants were rounded up and placed in refugee camps. In my opinion these camps were quite similar to those America placed the Japanese in during World War 2. Both had very harsh living conditions and were set against an innocent people. Finally, I would like to address my favorite scene in the movie in which the group is on their way to the refugee camp (on purpose) and they stop at an elementary school. This visual image of the abandoned school, with all of the childrens' art decorating the walls really made the complete loss of adolescence in the world hit home for me. When the movie is taking place in a city it's easier to overlook the lack of children present. But when you are in a place that is meant to be happy and filled with young life and it's not, you truly grasp how important children are to our society.

Lowering the drinking age to 18: Pathos,logos,and ethos.

(Pathos) Every year thousands of parents receive that dreaded phone call involving their underage child and alcohol use. These calls range from police informing parents that their 17 year old has just been arrested for DUI, to hospital calls informing a worried mother that her only child has just died on the way to the prom because they were drunk and driving. By lowering the drinking age to 18 both of these situations could be drastically reduced. Having myself lost a friend to a car crash while they were driving under the influence, I now realize the importance of understanding alcohol and its effects. Being able to drink at 18 would give parents time to teach their children how alcohol works and the safe ways to use it. When a person reaches 21 they are no longer in the safe environment of their home and their parents hold much less influence in their life.

(Ethos) Would you rather expose your 16 year old to a glass of wine with dinner at night or find them at the police station with DUI charges when they are 21? Many people today don’t realize that by forbidding alcohol use by your child until they are 21, you are only influencing them to break the law in order to obtain this “mysterious” substance. By making it completely off limits for so long kids have to resort to desperate, and often illegal measures to obtain it. This increases the amount of crime among children and young adults. If the drinking age was lowered to 18, then teens wouldn’t be as interested in drinking and would be less inclined to commit crimes to acquire it.

(Logos) Lowering the drinking age to 18 would be extremely beneficial to young America. By cutting off teens from experiencing alcohol, we are increasing their curiosity about it, how much they want to consume it, and we are increasing the time it takes for them to find out how it effects them. America is one of the few countries that has a drinking age of 21. In places like Mexico, Italy, Germany, and the UK teens are allowed to consume alcohol far before 21. This means that by the time they are 21 they no longer have such a strong urge to go out and consistently drink and they know the effects of alcohol and how to stay safe. This drastically reduces the amount of alcohol related deaths and arrests in these countries.

Topic For Rhetorical Analysis Paper

For my Rhetorical Analysis paper I chose a very controversial public awareness commercial that is shown in Britain but not in the US. Its purpose is to prevent teens from texting while driving, and it is composed of very graphic images that are meant to really influence people on an emotional level. The scene begins with a girl in the car with her friends, she is texting while driving on a highway. Soon after she gets in a terrible multiple car pile up that occurs in slow motion. The video was created by the British police department to really get the message across to teens, but many people, including me, feel that it is simply too graphic to show. I found the video effective yes, but only for a certain age group. If a young child (14 and below) saw this commercial they would not grasp the meaning and only perceive the violence. For many young children it could even prove to be emotionally scarring. If the violence was toned down, for example; removing the images of the dead infant, the small child telling his dead parents to wake up, and the brain matter all over the windshield, the commercial would gain influence and it could even be shown globally. I found it somewhat unjust that only teen FEMALE drivers were shown as being responsible for the wreck. If they added a male it would demonstrate more equality and make it seem more realistic for teens.