BLMM

The research process for me began with a search for articles that painted the black lives matter movement in a negative light.  The only articles that interested me were ones that showed the black lives matter movement was doing more harm than good.  This was an extremely poor way to begin, because my bias lead me to be close-minded.  I was not open to the many different opinions regarding the movement, my research paper would be flawed as a result of this.  Nevertheless, the preliminary sources helped me to narrow my research even more.  The New York Times quoted Governor Nikki Haley saying: “Black lives do matter, and they have been disgracefully jeopardized by the movement that has laid waste to Ferguson and Baltimore.” It became very clear that I could hone in on the rioting and activism, and question them without bias.  I was asking questions such as, “what caused the event?  What did they hope to accomplish? Was the event, be it a riot or activism, successful? Etc.”

Breitbart.com is a reliable website that provided me with my first clue, a timeline of the black lives matter movement.  From here I was able to pinpoint two specific moments of activism and try to decipher whether or not they were helpful, and good.  One day when I was travelling to school, black lives matter activists blocked off the highway.  They handcuffed everyone together through tubs of concrete so the police couldn’t remove them.   I never ended up making it to school.  This whole experience made my feelings toward the movement negative, and created the bias that hindered my research early on.  This was the first moment of activism that I researched, and I put aside any prior beliefs about the incident.  An article written by John Sexton once again on breitbart.com, talks about how the protest in Boston was unpopular.  The goal of the protest was to get publicity, and attention for their cause.  They achieved their goal of getting the publics attention, however the article claims the movement lost more friends than it gained through this protest.

The second moment of activism took place in Minnesota.  This protest was in response to the shooting of Jamar Clark.  Police responded to a domestic violence call. They were accompanied by an ambulance to treat the victim, Jamar’s wife.  The police tried to arrest Jamar but he resisted.  When Jamar saw the EMT’s trying to help his girlfriend he tried to stop them.  The police officer shot him.  According to rtenglish.com Clark had prior arrests for violent crimes such as armed robbery.  I would consider this protest a failure for a couple of reasons.  The protest drew public attention towards the shooting of Jamar Clark.  Then it was discovered that however tragic the shooting was, given the circumstances it was necessary.  The public generally agreed the police officer should not be punished.  Another reason this protest was a failure is because it resulted in 51 black lives matter activists getting arrested.    51 people getting arrested only to find out that they’re protest was almost useless.

Sherriff David Clark brutally attacks the movement for the rioting.  The black lives matter riots destroyed the entire town of Ferguson.  Clark has a very angry quote talking about the riots that occurred on the one-year anniversary of the Michael brown shootings.

“[This is] nothing more than a return to the scene of the big lie–the hands up, don’t shoot–this whole Black Lives Matter movement. This false narrative that came out Ferguson.

They destroyed the town. Look, a bunch of thugs, a bunch of creeps, criminals, race-hustlers…converged in this area and ripped the town up.

I would like to think that this phony movement would have come back to Ferguson one year later to apologize…”

David Clark being in law enforcement feels personally threatened by the movement.  This causes him to aggressively speak out against the movements actions.  However, the Sherriff does make a few good points about how the riots had laid waste to the town of Ferguson.

These sources brought up questions about the movement that had never before dawned on me.  Questions like: “Is the black lives matter movement a scam by politicians to unite the black vote?”  This question seems extremely farfetched, but stranger things have happened in the world, and I am not going to rule that out as a possibility.  After doing my research I found myself questioning over and over again, what had started this movement?  It kept coming back to Michael Brown.  I would think the black lives matter movement would have a firmer foundation to base its claims on.  My research took me to many different places, gave me many different points of views, but in the end it was the negative opinions of the movement that won me over.  There should not be a movement called black lives matter, if anything it should have been called all lives matter.

Jared McCleary

Final Draft: unit 2

How to Not Be Happy

One day a kid goes out with his friends.  His sister was supposed to pick them up, however, she fell asleep.  The friends were stranded, and had to walk home.  They get back and the doors are locked.  They are forced to sleep outside.  That night they learned that being homeless, carless, phoneless, not having a family, and not having money are great ways to be unhappy.

In Ahmed’s essay, “Why Happiness, Why Now,” she discusses different aspects of the “good life.”  She makes a claim that when people are unhappy, they return to social ideals because they expect to find happiness there (7).  In this essay I will argue that people are actually learning what makes them happy, through their unhappiness.  This is important because it means that most of us will find happiness just by living our lives.  In Bobby McFerrin’s song, “Don’t Worry Be Happy,” McFerrin sings about how all these things are going wrong in his life.  These are things that would make the average person unhappy, but he chooses to go with the flow and not worry.  These two texts discuss this idea of the “good life.”  I will use them to show that in times of crisis people do return to social ideals, but not for the reason Ahmed thinks they do.

People are taking global happiness stories, and reporting the results especially if they are not what we would expect.  “Would you believe it Bangladesh is the happiest nation in the world” (Ahmed, 3).  A country like Bangladesh has so many things to be unhappy about, its hard to believe that they would be rated so much higher than the U.S.A.  According to the world fact book, Bangladesh is a high risk nation for infectious diseases, 39.5% of the nation can not read, 35.1% of the children are underweight, and 13% of the children are forced into child labor. This place sounds like somewhere we should all want to visit… Obviously this developing nation is one of the last places we would expect to find happiness. Like I said before unhappiness teaches us about what makes us happy.  What makes a Bangladeshi person happy is not getting rabies.  Not getting kidnapped and forced to make shoes for no pay.  There are literally hundreds of things that can make a person unhappy in Bangladesh, and when they are avoided the end result is happiness.  In the U.S. we worry about very few things.  Which in a way may result in our being 46^th in the world happiness survey (3).

Do I have friends, family, a house, and money are the big things Americans worry about.  Thinking back to the anecdote at the beginning, they had experiences that taught them to pursue the “good life.”  They learned that not having those things can make a person unhappy.  So all they had to do to be happy was have those things.  People get evicted, lose their jobs, get their cars stolen, lose friends and family everyday; when those things do not happen the end result is happiness.  McFerrin’s song perfectly supports this idea.  In his song he sings about things that are relatable and widely accepted as unhappy. “Ain’t got no cash, ain’t got no style// Ain’t got no gal to make you smile.”  “The land lord say your rent is late// He may have to litigate.”  These lines talk about not having a girl, money, or a place to live.  People pursue Ahmed’s idea of the “good life” because we all learn pretty quickly how poorly it feels to not have the good life.  People are not returning to social ideals as a last ditch effort to be happy.  They have discovered that not returning to the social ideals makes them sad.

Bobby McFerrin’s favorite thing to say is “Don’t Worry.”  In the song he says it about a hundred times, and for good reason.  Most people can make themselves happy by saying it.  Say you just got evicted from your apartment and have to live with your parents.  Do not worry, at least you are not homeless.  Eventually you will have a house of your own and it is going to make you so much happier now that you know what it is like to not have one.  Every little experience in our lives teaches us a little something about what make us happy. Ahmed thinks that unhappy people see a show like the Brady bunch, and decide that getting married and having a big family lead to happiness.  It is my contention that unhappy people know from their own personal experiences that they want to be married and have a family because being alone in this world is sad. I hope somewhere along the course of this essay I have persuaded you to think similarly.

More Than a Sport

Watching T.V. from the couch, I don’t have a worry in the world.  My mom is making me pancakes, I’m wrapped in a nice warm blanket, with a cup of hot chocolate in my hand.  Nothing could be better than this feeling right now.  I see the email about the tests I missed in school today, but I don’t care.  The only thing I have to do today, is fake a few more coughs, and hold the thermometer up to the light.  Life is good. I’m free from the insanity of the everyday grind.  The feeling of being exactly where I am supposed to be is unparalleled. This is exactly how I feel when I am on the soccer field.

Having just moved to a new school life was hard.  I left all of my old friends behind.  Everyday I would worry about who I was going to sit with at lunch, how hard my classes would be.  The stress was hard to deal with, but I always had the soccer field.  I would go home and play around for a while.  When bed time rolled around my father would say, “if you want to be the best, this ball has to be your best friend.”  He would tuck the ball into bed next to me, and I would sleep with it every night.

Saturday morning practices were the best.  Dew lays still on the field.  I can tell right away that no one has washed their clothes since the season started, because everyone smells atrocious.  The freshly raked turf stings the nostrils.  The sun so bright it burns my awakening eyes. Planes keep flying overhead, landing in the nearby airport.  There is no pressure, just a bunch of guys having fun.  Until, things get real competitive when we start fighting for playing time.  Every small accomplishment, every little success fills me with the best feeling.  This feeling can best be described as a mixture between joy, and excitement. The kind of dangerous excitement that makes me think I can punch through walls, or climb a mountain.  Each success brings me one step closer to the joining the starting eleven.  Yet no matter how competitive it gets, we are all still talking about “hittin’ up dunkie’s” after practice, or maybe going to someone’s house to chill before we all go to the football game.  Saturday practices were always a good time.

Friday night games under the lights were a completely different experience.  Rain is pouring down.  My hands are pruned, numb, and shaking.  Then I quickly forget about my hands because my cleats are filled with so much water it feels like I am wearing ten pound weights on each foot.  My shirt is just as heavy.  Everyone is watching everyone else.  The parents are watching their kids, and watching the players that substitute them out.  Each one of them thinking that they know more than the coach.  The coaches are watching the players to determine who is ready to play today.  Carefully trying to piece together a starting squad that can win the game.  We players are watching our opponents, and our teammates.  We size each other up, trying to figure out how we can beat them out.  High stakes games with lots of pressure, warmups were tense and nerve racking.  The only think that I can hear is the loud warmup music, each song hyping me up, filling me with energy.  The wind whips, and the bright game time lights shine.  During the playing of the national anthem, it is impossible to stand still.  By the time I get to the line to start the game the butterflies are so bad that I might throw up.  All the while thinking about not letting down the coaches, the team, or my family.  The anticipation is painful.  The whistle sounds, I stop thinking and start playing.  The butterflies vanish.  The adrenaline is pumping.  I am in heaven.

I have been all over the world.  Travelled to many different places: Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Maine.  The only thing that remained constant when I travelled to those places was soccer.  When I travelled somewhere, I always needed to run my fingers through the grass.  I needed to know if it was wet or dry, if the grass was long or short, and I would check the ground underneath the grass to see if it was hard or soft.  Knowing these things would tell me a lot.  Wet grass means shoot from far away, and pass the ball a little slower because it is going to skip.  If the grass is long it means don’t dribble the ball will get stuck in your feet, pass a little harder, and shoot from far out because the ball is basically on a tee.  The dirt underneath tells me what kind of cleats I wear, and whether or not slide tackling is a good idea.  I know everything about that field after one little touch.  Somehow this experience centers me, brings me home. I think back to the fields at home that are similar to the one I am on now. This train of thought takes me back to the memories I made on those fields.  Makes me sad that I can not go back to the memories and re-live them, but I am glad that I have them.

The soccer field has made me who I am.  It has taught me to work hard and work smart.  It has taught me to be patient and strong. Soccer has taught me about loyalty, friendship, bravery.  I have learned that its not good to be selfish but sometimes its necessary.  The soccer field has provided me with the perfect getaway for whenever things aren’t going my way.  Without it I would not be the person that I am today.  Stepping onto a soccer field is like lifting your feet onto a footrest on a sick day. Because in that moment, nothing else matters.  I can leave the rest of the world behind.