Titan:The Uprising :: essays research papers

CHAPTER 1 From the Darkness The cool, dense air boasted over the horizon at dusk. I stand there†¦Face to the boundless horizon of the terrain before me. Blood, Bullets, Bodies lie cold†¦still on the ground, each containing a past. I stood there with my AR in hand, I stepped forward, knocking all pebbles around my feet, leading my few men towards what seemed to be certain death. We all were a bit edgy now. After a week of fighting and adrenaline, the body seemed due to failure. No one could predict what had happened in the past few days. Of course, command stuck me with Ten young and inexperienced recruit’s, mind you that’s all there was left. All veterans were wiped out. Our people have been fighting for freedom from the dreaded Collective for years. It seemed as if it was a lost cause. Maybe it still is. Who knows what’s ahead for my men and I. My men and I have grown weary, all our suites were battered, most of the armor missing, or gone entirely. Faces were cut and bruised, some of them considered serious. No time for that now. Ammunition was in short supply. We finished all the remaining rations we had. We were hungry, cold at night, and without Enhanced Sensors. We were blind to what was coming†¦ â€Å"Setup camp here for the night!† I said with a stern voice. The recruit’s looked for their spots for the night. I however would not. Someone has to guard these kids. I sure as hell wasn’t going to let them guard me. A couple hours passed, it was now dark. The air grew ever more cold. I knew by the cold temperatures someone wasn’t going to make it through the night. They all seemed to stare at me, with a scared look in their eyes. Wishing that they were home, before they were all destroyed. All remaining people are now nomads. Cast into the wind, Seeking shelter wherever possible. The few fighting for our world, I included, only go where the enemy lie. You could say we’re the last hope for this planet, this planet seemed so destined to be Collective property. It was pitch black, I had been crouching on my knees for awhile now. All I could hear is deep shivering breaths from my men. The silence soon left. Out of my eyesight I heard footsteps. As I reached for my AR nervously, The steps grew closer and so close it seem like they should have passed already.

Black lives matter the history and existence of racial inequality in the united states Essay

â€Å"Hands up. Don’t shoot.†[1] This is a refrain shouted by #BlackLivesMatter activists throughout the United States. #BlackLivesMatter is a movement that gained national momentum in 2014 after acts of police brutality resulting in the death of black Americans such as Mike Brown and Eric Garner. In both of these cases, the respective police officers involved were not indicted for the death of American citizens.[2] This prompted the reaction: â€Å"black lives matter†; the livelihood of black people should and must be as important as that of white people. Throughout history, people of African descent in the United States have not equally enjoyed the same life and opportunities as other Americans due to racism, defined by public health scholars Jennifer Jee-Lyn Garcia and Mienah Zulfacar Sharif as â€Å"system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on race, that unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities, and advantages others.†[ 3] In the early 1900s, multiple doctors brought attention to the disparity in the morbidity and mortality of diseases, many that result from poor living conditions, between black and white Americans. Lawrence Lee, a doctor writing in 1914, noted: â€Å"that tuberculosis and other respiratory diseases and still-births cause a death-rate of 917.9 per 100,000 against a rate of 354.7 for whites.†[4] In 1927, a movement in favor of eugenics took hold, beginning with the Buck v. Bell ruling.[5] This United States Supreme Court case gave doctors the authority to designate certain people more fit to breed than others and supported the procreation of the so-called â€Å"fit† and limited that of the â€Å"unfit† through means such as forced sterilization.[6] During this time, forty percent of the â€Å"unfit† people sterilized were non-white.[7] However, #BlackLivesMatter activists demonstrate that racist agendas that are viewed as history in truth have ongoing eff ects to this day that negatively impact the daily lives and public health of African Americans. Opponents use the social media hashtag #AllLivesMatter, expressing the view that all people deserve equal rights and access to basic necessities, regardless of race. #AllLivesMatter is distinct from the #BlackLivesMatter movement in that it does not acknowledge the past and present inequity in the quality of life between white Americans and those of African descent. #BlackLivesMatter has given voice to a historically oppressed class of people and opened a discussion on how the eugenics movement has compromised that of black Americans and how this can be corrected and how future racially-charged infractions can be prevented. The racialization of medicine has  ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­had a significant role in the development of the eugenics movement. Garcia and Sharif define racism as â€Å"system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on race, that unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities† and claims that â€Å"racism as a social condition is a fundamental cause of health and illness.†[8] The eugenics movement is one that is founded on the racist ideology that was detrimental to the African American community. Negative eugenics was carried out through marriage restriction, forced sterilization, and confining the â€Å"feeble-minded† to colonies. The restriction of marriage through issuing marriage licenses was critical in the racist agenda of eugenics. It was illegal to have children outside of wedlock.[9] Virginia in particular banned inter-racial marriage. By doing so, Virginia politicians and eugenicists were intentionally preventing people from having mixed ra ce children, something they saw as undesirable.[10] #AllLivesMatter activists would argue that the eugenics movement was not focused on African Americans, as many of the victims of eugenics were white. In Buck v. Bell, a case heard by the United States Supreme Court that secured eugenic doctors’ ability to forcibly sterilize the feeble-minded, the defendant was Carrie Buck, a white woman.[11]   Proponents of #AllLivesMatter would note that eugenic doctors instead targeted individuals of lower socio-economic status. Some of the diagnostic criteria for detecting feeble-mindedness included â€Å"cold and clammy hands and excessive pallor or blushing.†[12] While many of the victims of the application of negative eugenics were of lower socioeconomic status, it cannot be ignored that the eugenics movement grew from calls to improve black public health in the early 1900’s. Advancements in germ theory allowed for doctors to understand that diseases are transmissible r egardless of race; as a result, doctors emphasized the need for sanitary living conditions for black Americans.[13] Historian Andrea Patterson claims that â€Å"public health measures were hijacked by eugenicists†[14] – rather than these public health measures benefitting blacks, they, in part, created an environment in which eugenicists had reason to believe that people of particular racial background were predisposed to certain illnesses. Although Buck v. Bell enabled the eugenics movement to impact people of all races, the racist political regimes that preceded it supported the development of eugenics.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Paternalism was a major contributing factor to eugenic’s establishment. In 1915, Doctor L. C. Allen posited that â€Å"the negro health problem is one of the â€Å"white man’s burdens,† and it is by no means the least of those burdens.†[15] It was his belief that the disproportionately high morbidity and mortality rates of diseases such as tuberculosis and syphilis among black Americans were the responsibility of the white population to resolve. Allen credited the strict supervision of slave owners over black slaves for the lack of illnesses related to an unclean living environment and sexually transmitted diseases while slavery was legal.[16] According to Allen, â€Å"freedom has not benefited his health, nor improved his morals,† where â€Å"he† refers to African Americans.[17] Without white slave owners to ensure that African Americans bathe, clean their living spaces, and do not engage in promi scuous sex, Allen claims that African Americans did not properly take care of themselves. His answer to this perceived problem is for white Americans to champion a public health reform by way of changing the educational curriculum for blacks. Allen’s proposed â€Å"industrial education† would consist of teaching African American children proper hygiene and cater to their future career prospects, which mainly consist of service or manual labor roles.[18] By singling out a minority group to be segregated for the purpose of a different education based on race, Allen’s â€Å"industrial education† plan would have been an institutionalized instance of structural racism. Black Americans would have been denied access to an equal education, and by virtue of that, they would be further limited to the jobs available to them. Although this plan did not come to fruition, the ideas behind it lingered. Eugenic doctors felt that it was for the betterment of all humankind to promote the procreation of those with what these doctors deemed desirable traits while simultaneously diminishing or altogether ceasing the procreation of the â€Å"unfit.†[19] The widespread belief that eugenics existed in order to improve the global gene pool is paternalistic. The socio-economic elite utilized their position of power to further their self-interested ideology at the expense of those below them, particularly African Americans. Mass incarceration of African Americans is a modern practice that in many ways is a continuation of eugenics. Victims of eugenic sterilization told their stories in a 2011 testimony in North Carolina arranged by The Governor’s Task Force to Determine the Method of Compensation for Victims of North Carolina’s Eugenics Board. One such victim was Elaine Riddick, a black woman. Her son, Tony Riddick commented on the ongoing systemic racism in the United States, saying, â€Å"A young man nineteen years old, first time convicted, nonviolent offense, you give him fifteen to twenty years in prison. Now look at what happens, now he can no longer be a father, his mother loses a child.†[20] Though the testimony took place a few years before the #BlackLivesMatter movement gained momentum, these sentiments are the same as those felt by activists today. #BlackLivesMatter advocate and doctor Mary Basset argues in â€Å"#BlackLivesMatter — A Challenge to the Medical and Public Health Communities† that â€Å"there is the great injustice in the daily violence experienced by young black men. But the tragedy of lives cut short is not accounted for entirely, or even mostly, by violence.†[21] Indeed, as Tony Riddick pointed out, systemic racism has cost many black Americans the ability to lead a productive life in society and often the ability to reproduce. In the mid-twentieth century, this took the form of the eugenics movement. People designated â€Å"feebleminded,† a categorization for the so-called unfit of society, were often sent to colonies to live out their lives and forcibly sterilized.[22] Though eugenics has been abolished, similar practices occur today. When a person is sentenced to a prison sentence that spans their prime reproductive years, they are segregated from the rest of society and are much less likely to raise a family.[23] Tony Riddick drew a comparison between eugenics and mass incarceration, likening each to genocide.[24] Flaws in today’s criminal justice system have allowed a form of racial genocide to perpetuate in the United States. A quick internet search of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter will bring up a sizable list of names that activists for the movement mourn as preventable deaths. Though many people know of Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, and Mike Brown, lesser-known but equally important people are added to the list of casualties regularly. One such person is Joyce Cornell, a fifty-year-old black woman who died in jail on July 22, 2015. Cornell was arrested for failing to pay court fines, a minor offense. Cornell experienced severe nausea and vomiting and was not granted medical treatment or water. She passed away one day later from dehydration.[25] These people, every black person who has lost their life early from preventable causes, represent a public health epidemic. Structural racism has decreased the life expectancy of black people living in the United States.[26] As Garcia and Sharif argue, it is necessary to â€Å"reshape our discourse† and consider racism a public health issue in order to begin to combat its effects.[27] It is vital that positive change happens for the betterment of our fellow Americans. This process begins with recognizing that racism exists and that #BlackLivesMatter.             Bibliography Allen, L. C., M.D. â€Å"THE NEGRO HEALTH PROBLEM.† The American Journal of Public Health, 1914. Accessed February 8, 2016.    Bassett, Mary T., M.D., M.P.H. â€Å"#BlackLivesMatter — A Challenge to the Medical and Public Health Communities.† The New England Journal of Medicine 372, no. 12 (March 19, 2015): 1085-087. Accessed March 11, 2016.    Buck v. Bell.  274th  ed. Vol. 200. U.S. Supreme Court, 1927.    Dorr, Gregory Michael. â€Å"STERILIZE THE MISFITS PROMPTLY†: Virginia Controls the Feebleminded.† In Segregation’s Science: Eugenics and Society in Virginia, 107-36. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008.    Garcà ­a, Jennifer Jee-Lyn, Ph.D., and Mienah Zulfacar Sharif, MPH. â€Å"Black Lives Matter: A Commentary on Racism and Public Health.† Am J Public Health American Journal of Public Health 105, no. 8 (August 2015): E27-30. doi:10.2105/ajph.2015.302706.    Governor’s Task Force to Determine the Method of Compensation for Victims of North Carolina’s Eugenics Board.   Final Report to the Governor of the State of North Caroline (Pursuant to Executive Order 83).   Raleigh, NC, 2011.    Hutchinson, Woods. â€Å"The Importance of Negative Eugenics Or the Prevention of Ill-Bornness.,.† The American Journal of Public Health 3 (1913): 238-42.    Knapp, Andrew, and Dave Munday. â€Å"Lawyers Say Woman, 50, Died after Being ‘deprived of Water’ at Charleston County Jail.† Post and Courier. February 24, 2016. Accessed April 21, 2016. http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20160224/PC16/160229636.    Lee, Lawrence, M.D. â€Å"THE NEGRO AS A PROBLEM IN PUBLIC HEALTH CHARITY.† The American Journal of Public Health 5 (1915): 207-10.    Patterson, Andrea. â€Å"Germs and Jim Crow: The Impact of Microbiology on Public Health Policies in Progressive Era American South.†Journal of the History of Biology  42, no. 3 (Fall 2009): 529-59. doi:10.1007/s10739-008-9164-x. [1] Jennifer Jee-Lyn Garcà ­a, Ph.D. and Mienah Zulfacar Sharif, MPH, â€Å"Black Lives Matter: A Commentary on Racism and Public Health,†Ã‚  Am J Public Health American Journal of Public Health105, no. 8 (August 2015): e27, doi:10.2105/ajph.2015.302706. [2] Garcia and Sharif, e27 [3] Garcia and Sharif, e27 [4] Lawrence Lee, M.D., â€Å"THE NEGRO AS A PROBLEM IN PUBLIC HEALTH CHARITY.,†Ã‚  The American Journal of Public Health  5 (1915): 207. [5] Buck v. Bell.  274th  ed. Vol. 200. U.S. Supreme Court, 1927. [6] Woods Hutchinson, â€Å"The Importance of Negative Eugenics Or the Prevention of Ill-Bornness.,†Ã‚  AJPH  3 (1913): 238. [7] Gregory Michael Dorr, † STERILIZE THE MISFITS PROMPTLY†: Virginia Controls the Feebleminded.,† in Segregation’s Science: Eugenics and Society in Virginia(University of Virginia Press, 2008). [8] Garcia and Sharif, e27 [9] Dorr, 112 [10] Dorr, 111 [11] Dorr, 129 [12] Dorr, 113 [13] Andrea Patterson, â€Å"Germs and Jim Crow: The Impact of Microbiology on Public Health Policies in Progressive Era American South,†Ã‚  Journal of the History of Biology  42, no. 3 (Fall 2009): 541, doi:10.1007/s10739-008-9164-x. [14] Patterson, 529 [15] L. C. Allen, M.D., â€Å"THE NEGRO HEALTH PROBLEM.,†Ã‚  The American Journal of Public Health  5 (1915): 194. [16] Allen, 195 [17] Allen, 194 [18] Allen, 200 [19] Hutchinson, 240 [20] Governor’s Task Force to Determine the Method of Compensation for Victims of North Carolina’s Eugenics Board.   Final Report to the Governor of the State of North Caroline (Pursuant to Executive Order 83).   Raleigh, NC, 2011, D-10 [21] Mary T. Bassett, M.D., M.P.H., â€Å"#BlackLivesMatter — A Challenge to the Medical and Public Health Communities,†Ã‚  The New England Journal of Medicine  372, no. 12 (March 19, 2015): 1085, accessed March 11, 2016. [22] Dorr, 120 [23] Garcia and Sharif, e28 [24] Governor’s Task Force to Determine the Method of Compensation for Victims of North Carolina’s Eugenics Board, D-10. [25] Andrew Knapp and Dave Munday, â€Å"Lawyers Say Woman, 50, Died after Being ‘deprived of Water’ at Charleston County Jail,† Post and Courier, February 24, 2016, accessed April 21, 2016, http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20160224/PC16/160229636. [26] Garcia and Sharif, e28 [27] Garcia and Sharif, e27

Montresor And The Most Dangerous Game Analysis - 961 Words

It’s dark and desolate. It’s slightly dank and eerie. The deafening silence is only interrupted by the clanking of metal chains. The unforgiving cold wraps around you as tightly as a blanket in winter. There’s no way out. No food. No water. You’ve been left to rot by someone who you thought was your friend. It’s devastating. This was the crime committed by a man (or rather monster) named Montresor in the famous Edgar Allan Poe story â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado†. Though Montresor’s crime was sinister beyond what any normal person would ever consider, it is nothing compared to General Zaroff’s crimes against humanity in Richard Connell’s â€Å"The Most Dangerous Game†. Now imagine that story’s scenario. You were ready for a fun time alone, but you†¦show more content†¦Because of these advantages, they both are able to commit the crimes much easier. This, of course, doesn’t make their actions any less condemnable. Though the not-so-dynamic duo may be similar in some ways, they have a more than fair share of differences. For example, Montresor has only killed once, whereas Zaroff kills daily. When Montresor killed Fortunato, he hadn’t killed anyone before, and he didn’t plan to afterward. However, Zaroff constantly lures in more victims, feeling that it’s just never enough. Montresor also had a reason for what he was doing, noting that Fortunato had dishonored him and brought disgrace to his name, so he took care of him. Zaroff, on the other hand, simply wanted to kill for the thrill of it. Animals no longer quenched his thirst for game, he wanted to kill man just for the hunt. Although, Zaroff didn’ t get away with it. His arrogance got in the way, and he what was coming to him. Zaroff may have failed, but in â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado†, we are hearing the events play out as told by Montresor 50 years in the future. We know that Montresor got away with it, which was something that even Zaroff wasn’t able to do. I’ve already brought up evidence to why Montresor is the lesser of these two evils, but I haven’t quite put the nail in the coffin. Montresor, of course, takes pleasure in his killing, but it is more of a feeling of revenge. He is happy becauseShow MoreRelatedInfluence Of A Life By Richard Connell And Edgar Allan Poe1600 Words   |  7 PagesThe Influence of a Life Richard Connell and Edgar Allan Poe, two of the most famous authors at the time, are recognize by the different types of literature they wrote. Several of these pieces are still popular today. In many cases the life of the author can impact the different themes, or the techniques they use in their stories. Richard Connell’s and Edgar Allan Poe’s backgrounds reflects in the writing techniques they used to captivate their audience. Biography of Richard Connell The famous writer