Projects
Poetry Project
"The American Folly"
I remember sitting in the living room
Playing with my favorite toys
Grampa sitting in his chair
Idly watching the TV
(So old it still had a knob)
“I can’t believe this!!
Why are we fighting anyways?
What’s the point?”
I would hear these words
Every time Gramps saw the news.
I never really understood what he meant
They’re the bad guys, aren’t they?
We need to kill the Jihadis right?
I still don't have the answer....
All I know is that
It has been years since a true attack on American sod
I can't even remember that day anymore
I just watched them rebuild
Now Grampa tells me
That our legitimate reasons for occupation fell
As soon as One World Trade rose.
Its over...
I don’t understand that
If it’s over
Then why are we stuck there
Like soldiers of World War One
Stuck in a rut fighting phantoms
For control of a zoo
When we could take the popularity slide
Back to safety
Instead we stick our nose where it has no business
Commit rape on a national level
Permanently scarring both involved
Yet continuing with the act.
Why? What is the gain?
I don’t understand the logic
That logic cost the world Jimmy.
On his way back from patrol
On his last day before
He shipped off for home
They came.
They killed everyone in his patrol
Except him.
They took crowbars and bats to him
Drilled holes in his hand
One for every cry of pain he made.
This went on for days.
They periodically made videos
And put them on YouTube
Documenting his slow, agonizing death
While They screamed “Death to America”
But America wasn't the one who died.
No, Jimmy was the one who died.
And I was the only one who cared
The only one left to care.
Illness claimed Gramps long ago
So I sat at a solitary funeral
21 shots rang out
To an audience of one
I don’t understand why it had to be this way
My hero is dead
My family is gone
And whose fault is it?
America’s.
America thinks that it's the big police force
Of the whole damn planet
Sniffing countries like a hound sniffs for cocaine
and attacking any holders of un-American ideals
Because they have “intent to distribute”
And that threatens us somehow.
The only ideals a country can have
Must mirror ours somehow.
We must have an ideal monopoly
Or the Earth will crumble!
That’s what we’ve been told, at any rate...
We’ve been told that We’re the best
We’ve been told that we’re always rich and right.
What a joke.
Pride comes before the fall
And man, we are set up for a drop from orbit.
Maybe...
Maybe that's what we need...
Maybe that would make them realize
That Jimmy didn’t need to die
If we weren’t so fucking nosy,
I would still have a family.
Now my only issue is the performance. I am going to do a spoken word performance of my poem for the exhibition. I’m going to base it off of Christian Gray’s performance of “The Information Man.” He speaks with a lot of variation in his volume and large gestures. He speaks with a huge emphasis on the emotion, and that is exactly how i want my poem to be
Veterans History Project
Veterans have many interesting experiences and stories to tell, and they have been taking those stories to the grave for a long time. I think this is incredibly sad and I wanted to do someting about it. So when I heard that my humanities class was interviewing veterans for the Library of Congress' Veterans history project, you can imagne my reaction. Not only would I be helping pass on the knowledge of a veteran, I would be making interview questions, going through the process of familiarizing myself with the war he was in, and actually conducting and recording the interview! It took weeks of planning, but it finally came together in the interview, and turned out really well.
Gulf of Tonkin Timed Essay
Truth of War
Poetry Project
"The American Folly"
I remember sitting in the living room
Playing with my favorite toys
Grampa sitting in his chair
Idly watching the TV
(So old it still had a knob)
“I can’t believe this!!
Why are we fighting anyways?
What’s the point?”
I would hear these words
Every time Gramps saw the news.
I never really understood what he meant
They’re the bad guys, aren’t they?
We need to kill the Jihadis right?
I still don't have the answer....
All I know is that
It has been years since a true attack on American sod
I can't even remember that day anymore
I just watched them rebuild
Now Grampa tells me
That our legitimate reasons for occupation fell
As soon as One World Trade rose.
Its over...
I don’t understand that
If it’s over
Then why are we stuck there
Like soldiers of World War One
Stuck in a rut fighting phantoms
For control of a zoo
When we could take the popularity slide
Back to safety
Instead we stick our nose where it has no business
Commit rape on a national level
Permanently scarring both involved
Yet continuing with the act.
Why? What is the gain?
I don’t understand the logic
That logic cost the world Jimmy.
On his way back from patrol
On his last day before
He shipped off for home
They came.
They killed everyone in his patrol
Except him.
They took crowbars and bats to him
Drilled holes in his hand
One for every cry of pain he made.
This went on for days.
They periodically made videos
And put them on YouTube
Documenting his slow, agonizing death
While They screamed “Death to America”
But America wasn't the one who died.
No, Jimmy was the one who died.
And I was the only one who cared
The only one left to care.
Illness claimed Gramps long ago
So I sat at a solitary funeral
21 shots rang out
To an audience of one
I don’t understand why it had to be this way
My hero is dead
My family is gone
And whose fault is it?
America’s.
America thinks that it's the big police force
Of the whole damn planet
Sniffing countries like a hound sniffs for cocaine
and attacking any holders of un-American ideals
Because they have “intent to distribute”
And that threatens us somehow.
The only ideals a country can have
Must mirror ours somehow.
We must have an ideal monopoly
Or the Earth will crumble!
That’s what we’ve been told, at any rate...
We’ve been told that We’re the best
We’ve been told that we’re always rich and right.
What a joke.
Pride comes before the fall
And man, we are set up for a drop from orbit.
Maybe...
Maybe that's what we need...
Maybe that would make them realize
That Jimmy didn’t need to die
If we weren’t so fucking nosy,
I would still have a family.
Artist Statement
My poem, “The American Folly”, is one of my most favorite works as a poet, and I am really proud of it. It is a poem based on my experiences from my veteran interview earlier this year. I wrote it primarily around the idea expressed by my veteran that Vietnam and our current overseas engagements are not the right thing to do. He made the point that we are told that whatever the great nation of America decides to do is the right thing, and any military man is a hero. But these things aren’t really true and the Vietnam vet that we interviewed was the first person that really provoked me into thinking about why we are fighting in the middle-east. I can’t find a single reason now that Bin Laden and several of his highest lieutenants are dead. I have no proof that this war is for nothing, but I don’t need that for a poem, do I? I just need a deep poem that people can connect with, and I think I have created a success.
The hardest part of writing this poem was finding a way to create a deep emotional connection between the reader and the message in my poem. I had no idea where to start, until I listened to the song “Dance with the Devil” by Immortal Technique. “Dance with the Devil” is a narrative song telling the story of a kid in the ghetto trying to become a big kingpin and on the way accidentally rapes his mom, then kills himself. I already felt a connection to the misery and horror in the story, and then the singer reveals that he was involved in the whole story and was part of the group that raped the main character’s mom. And I was hooked. The more direct involvement in the story really drew me into the story and drilled that song into my mind. So I’m doing a similar thing with my poem. I made the narrator a kid who lost his big brother in Iraq, and blames America for it. He speaks of America and how we are pompous and arrogant, and questions our wars and our power. He is exactly what I needed in my poem, and I like what he turned it into.Now my only issue is the performance. I am going to do a spoken word performance of my poem for the exhibition. I’m going to base it off of Christian Gray’s performance of “The Information Man.” He speaks with a lot of variation in his volume and large gestures. He speaks with a huge emphasis on the emotion, and that is exactly how i want my poem to be
Veterans History Project
Veterans have many interesting experiences and stories to tell, and they have been taking those stories to the grave for a long time. I think this is incredibly sad and I wanted to do someting about it. So when I heard that my humanities class was interviewing veterans for the Library of Congress' Veterans history project, you can imagne my reaction. Not only would I be helping pass on the knowledge of a veteran, I would be making interview questions, going through the process of familiarizing myself with the war he was in, and actually conducting and recording the interview! It took weeks of planning, but it finally came together in the interview, and turned out really well.
Gulf of Tonkin Timed Essay
Even though we have been told that the Gulf of Tonkin Incident was an unprecedented attack, I believe that there was no actual attack on the USS Maddox, anad the information we were fed was just an excuse to go to war.
While there could have been an attack on the USS Maddox, it doesn’t seem likely from the cable communication sent from the ship. At 6:00 pm on August 4th the Maddox sent a message saying, “the first boat to close the Maddox probably launched a torpedo at the Maddox which was heard but not seen. All subsequent Maddox torpedo reports are doubtful in that it is suspected that sonarman was hearing ship’s own propeller beat” (document 7). If a torpedo that was “probably launched” and is “heard but not seen” misses its target, methinks that the torpedo didn’t exist at all. It was most likely a figment of the imagination of an overeager sonar man. The US had been scared about Vietnam for quite some time and I’m sure there were some people on the Maddox that could’ve created in their minds what they feared hearing over the sonar. Plus, why was the Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin in the first place? There are no US allies or bases near the alleged attack. The Maddox has no apparent reason to be where it was, when it was besides to provoke an attack, or, fake one.
On top of the suspicious information given by the USS Maddox, document 2 states that “the American media generally reported what administration officials told them to report” Now, how un-American is that? Reporting what you’re told to by the government. The document implies that this is consensual and not an act of government tyranny, but it is apparent that the government is trying to hide something about Vietnam. In document 3, Lyndon B Johnson admits to covert activities in Vietnam prior to the Gulf of Tonkin incident. We were blowing up bridges and people have the gall to say that the Gulf of Tonkin was unprecedented? In document two, the secretary of state claims that “[He can’t] come to a fully satisfactory explanation” for the Gulf incident. He obviously knew about the espionage! He flat out lied to the American public. Why? He was afraid that this war started by fear of the color red would cause an uproar. Not a wise choice.
Veterans History Project Reflection
Recently my Humanities class conducted a number of interviews with Vietnam veterans for the Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project. My group interviewed a Vietnam veteran named Steve Harris. My interview with Steve Harris reaffirmed my position about the truth of war. The truth of war is confused in today’s society by the media and video games. Randomly during the interview, Mr. Harris would pause, tell us to cut the interview, and impart a piece of wisdom along the lines of “as a young man, you’re taught to be patriotic and valiant. You’re taught that what you’re fighting for is ultimately right. Well what if it isn’t?” It really spoke to my opinion that our media is just raising us to believe that America is right, war is a simple game, and “if the president does it, it’s not illegal!” Mr. Harris has seen the truly dark side of life, and knows the true horrors of war. Nothing we can imagine can even come close to what he has seen. It was an incredibly interesting experience.
Probably the most interesting part of the interview was when he talked about coming home from the war, and feeling alienated by his family and the general public. To the public he wasn’t a hero. He wasn’t valiant. He was a damaged man with no recognition for what he had done for our country. And he was one of the more fortunate ones. Mr. Harris spoke of stories of veterans coming home to nothing. Any family left doesn’t want anything to do with someone who fought in ‘Nam. The ones who would help have died. Not much to his name, and unable to find work that doesn’t freak him out due to combat training. Some of the veterans really had a tough time coming back. Now we need to give them the recognition they should have gotten initially. That is a large reason behind this project.
Another strong driving force behind this project is the transfer of firsthand knowledge to future generations. Veterans all have a different opinion and experience to share about their war, and can tell the history of the war they were in far better than any textbook. Historians will be able to use our interview and all the other interviews in the VHP as a place to start building a more accurate history of what actually happened in the battlefield. As a single interview, it is full of bias and not terribly trustworthy. But as a part of a large compilation of veteran interviews, it provides one small part of the bigger picture. Generations to come will use this as one of the many stepping stones on the road to a conclusion about the war in Vietnam.
Truth of War
The Truth of Modern Warfare 2
Ryan Ehrig
Possibly the most constantly controversial topic in politics since the beginning of time, war is a massive thing to wrap your mind around. It is needed for law and order. It is full of anarchy and destruction. It is shown as a place for true boss hogs to reach their full potential. It is actually a horror filled mosh pit of despair for everyone involved. War is the single greatest horror humans are capable of. It is full of pain, suffering, and death, like nothing we can imagine. And the way things are going, no one will even think to imagine war as horrible. Thanks to video games, and “family-friendly” images in the media, Americans are seeing war as a heroic place for macho men to destroy the enemy and walk back unscathed. These images give no idea how disgusting warfare really is and why it is a necessity only to be used when one has to. Many people view warfare as a game that can be played over and over. Without some action, pointless warfare will ravage our country and eventually the world.
Even now, pointless violence is running rampant in the third world, thanks in part to video games. Just recently there were riots in London due to unemployment. Teenagers are arrested for emulating Grand Theft Auto games. And the Columbine shooting was inspired by DOOM. Violent video games make kids think that violence is the answer. Can’t find a job? Rob people. Getting bullied at school? Beat the bully to hospitalization. All your problems go away with enough force. According to recent studies, “Teens who play violent video games for extended periods of time: 1) Tend to be more aggressive, 2) Are more prone to confrontation with their teachers, 3) May engage in fights with their peers.” (Norcia, 2011). There are conflicting studies and opinions on this topic, many arguing that crime is going down, so games can’t cause increased aggression. But that isn’t necessarily the case.
While it is true that the national crime rate has been dropping in the past years, this doesn’t mean that crime as a whole is going down. According to PBS, “Fewer than half of [all] crimes by juveniles are reported to law enforcement. This number has not changed significantly in 20 years.” (WGBH, 2011). There are some crimes that never even become known to others at all. For example, when I was nine we were watching our neighbor’s dog while they were in Denver for the weekend. I took her for a walk, and she took off for my neighbor’s house. When she got to her owner’s house, she went and hid under their back deck. To try and coax her out, I went into my neighbor’s house thru the doggie door and grabbed some dog biscuits. By doing this, I was breaking and entering and I committed petty theft. Was this serious? No. Was it reported? No. Was it against the law? Yes. There is no telling how many crimes like this are committed annually, or if they are becoming more frequent. During my aforementioned crime, my family had some dog biscuits at home. It was less than three minutes to my house by foot, and it took me about that long to coax myself halfway through the doggie door. So why did I do it? I’m not totally sure, but I imagine video games were a factor. At the time I played bloody games such as HALO, “Madness Interactive”, and “Whack Your Boss” fairly often. I have no proof, but I think those games affected me. I know games about war made me idolize a soldier’s life. For ages, I wanted to be in the military during a war when I grew up. I was going to be a brave manly man. I was going to play the real war game.
I firmly believe that is how people are seeing warfare in the third world, as a mere game. I can’t exactly blame them. Many actual battles and operations are made into games that you play. Operations during the world wars are common, as are Vietnam operations. One of the most recent war games based totally on real events was Battle of Fallujah. These games give the player the sterilized version of events in these battles. After all, if the game showed real to life gore and realistic wounds, no one would play. Video games are no fun if one hit completely kills you. Thanks to these games, people are getting a false idea of warfare and can’t imagine that warfare would be that much worse in real life. I was actually in that mindset as I researched pictures of actual war wounds. I was horrified, and I was expecting really bad gore. What happens to the soldier who charges into battle with even less of an idea of the horror and gore? Nothing good can come from that situation, and that is the exact situation the US army is setting up.
War games are currently being used by the U.S. Army to recruit soldiers at a younger age. It is designed to be very realistic in all areas, minus blood and guts. The game is a massive multiplayer online game, and has relatively little graphics ability. The online battle accurately captures all aspects of the battle except, wounds and “[what] it feels like to kill someone. Or what it feels like to see a buddy's leg shredded into a thousand pieces. It doesn't give kids a sense of the mind-numbing boredom and stomach- churning fear. In the real Army, you cannot press the escape button on your keyboard and come back to life.” (Joan Ryan, San Francisco Chronicle “Army’s War Game Recruits Kids” September 23, 2004,). I greatly fear that our next generation of soldiers won’t understand that latter concept and will think themselves far more able to handle wounds than they really are. Video games show soldiers taking bullets and not skipping a beat. Conscious or not, soldiers will go into their first battle with that delusion in mind, and act on the delusion to a degree. The soldiers may wind up charging headfirst into a battle zone with a pistol and expect to win. I doubt it, but I’m sure something along those lines will happen in every soldier’s first battle. Honestly, if computer games don’t become much more realistic and make players sick to their stomachs, I don’t think out military has much of a future. Everyone inspired to join the military through games will probably have a convoluted view of warfare, and will make a fatal mistake very quickly killed.
So what now? The US military is already using unrealistic video games to recruit our next generation of soldiers. Games in general aren’t doing anything to change that false perspective of war, or propensity to violence. What can be done? The only possible solution I can think of is to make an über realistic game that is hyped up to be the next Halo and shows images of real people with real war wounds. A lot of people would play it, and many would be repulsed by it. The game would probably make a difference amongst the gamers that aspire to fight in the Army. Hopefully, something like this happens soon, because right now the video game industry makes a large profit by selling our youth a false image of warfare and an aspiration to act out that image. I don’t like that, because those that don’t go to the military may act out scenes from GTA on our streets.
Project Reflection
Ryan Ehrig
For our project in tenth grade humanities, we were asked to do a project in any media on the truth of war as we see it. I chose to do a Photoshop poster on the difference between war in the media and war in real life, and how that might affect warfare in the future. Having come in late in the year I missed much of the background in the subject that my peers had, so I chose a project based primarily in an area that I was familiar with, like video games. Even though I had a fair amount of background in the subject, I still had to do a lot of research for credible sources on violence, video games, and how they affect people. I was surprised at how long it took me to find sources that were backed by credible research and actually acknowledging that research. Many sources I tried saw that research pointed to video games encouraging violence and found some way to discredit that research and say that games do nothing to the mind. However, the sources that I finally found that supported my say that most evidence actually does point to video games having a negative effect on the mind. I was shocked at how close minded people can be when it comes to things having a harmful effect on people. I just don’t get why the people who wrote the articles can’t accept that what they enjoy can harm them. I do. Their ignorance befuddles me.
The ignorance of article authors wasn’t the only thing in the project that befuddled me. I had to use a lot of perseverance during this project, due to my lack of background in a lot of the material. Especially Adobe Photoshop. This was the first time I have ever used Photoshop, and I had to get plenty of help from friends to even get a picture onto my project. In the end, I mostly figured it out and made a killer poster despite my inexperience. I also had two other projects going on at the same time, so I really had a challenge juggling all three of them. This is my first experience with major homework that I actually try to do, so I’m in the deep end and trying to swim. So far, it’s going pretty well, thanks to persevering through the really tough, stressful times.
One such time was a few days before my essay was due and I got feedback from Lori saying that my essay had too many arguments. Essentially, I had to rewrite about half of my essay, with very little time before it was due. This refinement required I delete three full paragraphs and find two more references for my work. It was really difficult, and definitely not my best work, but I can say that this not great essay is much easier to follow than my original plan. I’m sure that readers of my essay are grateful for the improved logic. I’m sure no one would be happy if I stuck with my first draft like I used to do in my writing career. Quite literally, it read like this, “War is a terrible bird that should be blown up with a smart bomb and eaten with a side of garlic mashed potatoes, extra garlic and bacon. I love bacon.” Obviously, reading this would really hurt the reader’s head. Not a good thing to have during exhibition.
Oh if only exhibition had come a week later! My essay and project could’ve been quite a bit better. My biggest gripe about my essay is that I wasn’t able to really refine the final draft after I finished it. It was very rough for a piece that I write. In addition, I feel like the bottom segment of my poster could use a fair amount of polishing to make it look more proportional. Nothing big on my poster, but my essay could really have stood at the very least another weekend of work. Unfortunately, I was unable to do that. Oh well. As my principal pal, Michael Ackerman once said, “Projects are never finished, just dropped at ‘good enough’.”
How true.
