...Conrad Jorge November 21, 2010 Identity after Traumatic Experiences Most of us have experienced or seen the effects of trauma, whether we experienced it first hand or though a shared experience that struck close to home. Trauma is unavoidable, the result of experiencing something that is too difficult to cope with. In “Selections from Losing Matt Shepard”, Beth Loffreda discusses the murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie Wyoming and it’s traumatic effect on the university and community as a whole. She focuses heavily on the idea of identity, both that of the individual and the shared identity of the community after the traumatic event of his death. Trauma is of particular interest to Martha Stout, author of “When I Woke up on Tuesday, It was Friday”. She questions idea of sanity and whether we can truly call ourselves sane. She uses examples of her patients to discuss the effects of trauma on a person’s memory, feelings, and ultimately their identity. In “Into the Wild”, Jon Krakauer implies some of these same concepts with the story of Chris Candles and his travels in the Alaskan wilderness. Through out the story Chris seems to be searching for his own identity and seemingly trying to cope with damage and after effects of childhood trauma. Trauma as personally experienced or shared through a community causes a disconnection between individual and shared identity, significantly damaging and profoundly affecting our self and shared perceptions, feelings, and opinions of ourselves...
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...THE LARAMIE PROJECT On Thursday February 24 the students of went to watch 'The Laramie Project', which was located in in the Jetpack. Laramie is about a small town, a gay college student; Matthew Sheppard, who was found tied to a fence after being brutally beaten and left there to die. The play talks about the death of Matthew, the parents, and the trial. The students of Victoria Park said " the play was very touching and the acting of the play was astonishing". The play was well done, the lighting, sound effects, acting, and costumes was spectacular. But, the play could've been even better by making the setting more clear. The students remarked " we couldn't understand the beginning very well. Until it got to the middle of the play it was clear to us." There was one scene in the play that caught everyone's attention. It was when Matthew Sheppard's killers Aaron James McKinney and Russel Arthur Henderson were explaining how they killed Matthew. Matthew Sheppard was in a bar and he got drunk. He asked Aaron and Russel for a ride, they gave him one. In the car Matthew was talking to Aaron and was going up his leg, that's when Aaron got mad at beat him brutally. They both tied Matthew against a fence and beat him even more, they left him there to die. The acting that was done for Aaron James McKinney was done very well. It was like the actress was actually Aaron because it sounded and looked so real. The vocal clarity was excellent, the actress was talking so clear and loud...
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...Betty Waltermire Crime and Criminology JUS-110 January 18, 2014 Sexuality and Hate Crimes A hate crime is an act of abusing an individual because they are convenient, vulnerable targets incapable of fighting back or will not fight back. People in this category may include homeless, gay men, lesbian women, transgender, transsexuals, and transvestites. These are specific crimes that drive a person by violence or a strong and selfish desire to severely injure or kill a person because of who they are or what they stand for. From coast to coast and throughout America’s heartland the murders of innocent people are occurring because they are different. They may or may not look any different than anyone else in your school, in college, at work or your neighbor. They are our sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, cousins, mothers, fathers that are gay, lesbian, transgender, transsexual that are being targeted, beaten severely, and killed. Anna Marie Lambert drove up the driveway to the rented farmhouse to visit her daughter and grandson. Inside the house she found the grisly, brutal, bloody scene and called the police. She took the grandson away from the bedroom and out to the kitchen away from the bodies. The male on the living room couch was identified as Phillip DeVine, 19. In the bedroom was the body of her daughter Lisa Lambert, 24, who was partly under the covers. The third...
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...Today’s world is full of different cultural beliefs and statements that are often cast off the wayside. That is people keep things to themselves in order to keep peace among a population. We tend to not speak our minds on a position unless we feel that it can make an impact on what others are thinking at the time. When a crime is committed such as in the Laramie Project it creates an opportune moment for people to discuss and bring to light their personal and cultural philosophies because it finally gives them a legitimate reason to do so. The beating and eventual death of Matthew Shepard could have gone unnoticed by the entire nation and just been a state wide issue had it not been for the fact that Matthew was gay. His being gay garnered national attention for the simple fact that he was gay. Laramie was known for it’s larger than average gay population, and that it didn’t bother most people. In the words of Marge Murray, “As far as the gay issue, I don’t give a damn one way or the other as long as they don’t bother me. And even if they did, I’d just say no thank you. And that’s the attitude of most of the Laramie population.” (Kaufman). So as you see most of the population in Laramie did not have too much concern with the gay population as long as they kept to themselves and weren’t coming onto people they shouldn’t. When people found out that the person who had been brutally beaten, was gay word spread fast and before the town knew it the whole nation was watching...
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...citizens of Laramie about what’s happening in Laramie and their responses to the murder of Matthew. In addition to the various themes suggested by the play, the author wanted to present the varying perspectives toward homosexuality in the Laramie community at the time of Matthew’s death. The author also wanted to explore how these perspectives may have changed as the result of Matthew’s death. Even though the citizens of Laramie persisted that hate is not a value they practice, they still showed contrasting and puzzled views towards homosexuality. Some of the citizens of Laramie, together with Reverend Fred Phelps and his people, displayed extreme hatred towards homosexuals. Reverend Phelps and his people gave an emphasis that Matthew Shepard deserved to die, for he was a sinner and a disgrace to God. They displayed placards with the picture of Matthew burning in the eternal flames of hell. Reverend Phelps says, “If God doesn’t hate fags, why does he put’ em in hell?” (79). Reverend Phelps wanted to tell every member and supporter of the LGBT community that God hates them. The undeniable proof of God’s hate to them was how he didn’t welcome Matthew into heaven and sent him to hell instead. Doug Laws, together with other citizens, showed dislike toward homosexuality. Doug says, “A family is defined as one woman and one man and one child. That’s a family” (25). Doug emphasized that God labeled the families and that there’s no such place for homosexuals in it. A family is consists...
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...Daniel L. Ratner William C. Overton, PhD, EN 102 Effectiveness in Writing 8 July 2007 Exactly What is the Right Stuff? When people ask what is needed to accomplish an impossible task, or achieve a goal that seems outside the grasp of human power, it is often said that the person who achieves that feat has “The Right Stuff.” This is not some item you can pick up in a store, or that is taught at an Ivy League college. “The Right Stuff” is the intestinal fortitude required to drive on and persevere far after it is said it is no possible. Since the dawn of time it has been wondered if it takes a person of almost god-like proportions to achieve impossible feats, or someone just crazy enough to try. I most cases this is really nothing more that a person with such drive and desire to prove their point they are willing to risk everything including their lives to make something happen. To properly categorize this concept of “The Right Stuff”, we must look at what has been done in its name. Weather it be BG Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier in the Bell X-1, or the pioneers of the space program in the Mercury and Apollo space programs; one thing holds true they indeed has something that others did not, guts. When the word guts are used it is usually compared to a skateboarder or freestyle motocross rider doing something crazy and dangerous. This while brave and daring is nothing in comparison to the risk involved in the early space programs. People who in fact have this...
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...Bethany L. Coderre Theater-3 Ms. Kewley Hate Crimes After reading “The Laramie Project” your left with so many questions, ideas and emotions. The play is a series of interviews (reenacted exactly as they happened) to give the audience facts and true statements so that they can form there own opinion. The play takes place in Laramie Wyoming, after the “hate crime” that left 21 year old Matthew Shepard fighting for his life that ended soon after all because the fact that he was gay. Hate is a feeling and hate crime is acting on that hatred, but what exactly is a “hate crime”? What makes it so different from any other crime? Isn't all crime hate crime? “People would like to think that what happened to Matthew was an exception to the rule, but it was an extreme version of what happens in our schools on a daily basis.” (Laramie Project,47) This quote shows how people are going through hate on a daily basis and it sucks that the only way to get peoples attention was for something as tragic as Matthew Shepard story. The term ghate crimeh was given the name in the 1980's by journalists that were trying to describe a number of incidents directed towards Jews, Asians and African Americans. The federal Beureo of investigations defines hate crime as ga criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national...
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...Dear Brothers of Alpha Phi Omega, These past 9 weeks have been some of the craziest, most stressful, sleep-deprived moments of my life, and I wouldn’t change a thing about them. Being able to pledge APO this semester has truly been one of the most rewarding experiences of my college career. I went into Rush not knowing what to expect—a little nervous and scared—and within the first few minutes behind Leavey, I was overwhelmed with smiles, excitement, and new friends. Looking back at who I was coming into this semester and who I am now, I can wholeheartedly say that APO has changed me for the better. A lot of people say they wish they had joined APO earlier, but for me, it wouldn’t have been the same if I had been in another pledge class. My pledge brothers and the Pledge Team mean the world to me, and I couldn’t have made it this far without them. They are some of the most considerate and caring people I’ve ever met. Everyone came to the first pledge meeting, determined to support and help each other as much as possible—a dynamic that I had not really expected. Who knew that I’d grow so close to people in such a short amount of time. Being an Alpha Eta means more than just being a pledge brother. It means being a part of a family that will never let you down. One of the biggest reasons why I want to become an active is that I want to be able to make an impact on other people’s lives, whether it be as a mentor, a Big, or a leader in the fraternity. The three cardinal...
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...aspects of a person in which he or she has no control over and cannot change, such as gender, sexuality, and race. Then there is natural identity, which is assembled by discourses and experiences throughout life. Natural identity is relational and constructed based on one’s own personal beliefs and values, as opposed to one’s fixed identity, which is based on characteristics and culture. Unfortunately, individuals let the unchangeable aspects of their identity limit them from creating their own unique identity. This can be due to societal views that expect an individual conform to the public image associated with his or her gender, race, and sexuality. “Losing Matt Shepard” by Beth Loffreda explores what she calls “The Limits of Identification”, and how these limits may have impacted the anti-gay murder of Matt Shepard. Similarly, “The Naked Citadel” by Susan Faludi could also be described as a text centrally concerned with the limits of identification, by exposing a connection between the image that men are expected to maintain by the general public and the behavior of the cadets in the Citadel. A community has the power to define an individual’s role based on gender, sexuality, or race, ultimately limiting his or her identity. The structure of every community is different, meaning that an individual’s role will differ and he or she learns this through experiences or traditions. However, these limits can lead to identity crises once individuals realize that societal views had been...
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...Compare and Contrast Argument Essay The journey one may take are infinite in possibility and reason. Adam Shepard, who wanted to gleam light upon the controversial American Dream by starting from the bottom up to reveal that it is truly alive and well, and Chris McCandless, who sought liberation from our corrupt world by casting off his past life for adventure and a self-reliant lifestyle as a new free individual in the outside world, are both men who chose to take on a self made journey to prove their desired perspectives. However, these two views clash and mingle at a bold point in that they both embark to demonstrate things that we already possess but don’t think we have, straying from one another through their mindsets and environments....
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...The story is more about the space race than space exploration in general. The Soviet Union's early space efforts are mentioned only as background, focusing entirely on an early portion of the U.S. space program. Only Project Mercury, the first operational manned space-flight program, is covered. The Mercury Seven were Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton. Emphasis is given to the personal stories of the astronauts and their wives rather than the technical aspects of space travel and the flights themselves. The storyline also involves the political reasons for putting people into space, asserting that the Mercury astronauts were actually a burden to the program and were only sent up for promotional reasons. Reasons for including living beings in spacecraft are barely touched upon, but the first option considered was to use a chimpanzee (and, indeed, chimpanzees were sent up first). Another option considered were athletes already accustomed to physical stress, such as circus trapeze artists. Wolfe states that President Dwight D. Eisenhower, however, insisted on pilots, even though the first crew members would not actually fly the spacecraft. When Gus Grissom lands at sea and exits his space capsule, saving the capsule seems more important to the recovery team than saving the pilot because of the value of the data. Wolfe contrasts the Seven with the Edwards test pilots, among whom was Chuck Yeager, who was shut...
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...Abstract Mental rotation is a spatial task that involves the ability to mentally retain an object and rotate it in space. The purpose of this experiment was to replicate that of previously published studies like that of Shaperd and colleague to obtain the typical mental rotation effect. The independent variable in this experiment was the degree of rotation and the dependent variable was the response time. Participants were 14 male and 22 female undergraduate students who attended Douglas College, who were recruited from a 2nd year introductory cognitive psychology course. The task was to determine, as quickly as possible, whether two shapes, one of which was rotated to a certain degree relative to the orientation of the other shape, were the same or different. There was a minimum of 70 trials. For each pair of "same" and "different" stimuli, five trials were presented for each rotation angle. Only response times for which the participants were correct were used. The curve for the same shape stimuli is nearly a straight line except for the final degree of rotation. The curve for different shapes varied consistently with changes in rotation. The results of this study demonstrated the hypothesis that reaction time will increase as the angle of rotation increases. It demonstrates that people can mentally rotate images and it takes more time to react when the degrees of rotation increase. Mental Rotation Effect Mental rotation is a spatial task that involves the ability...
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...Cynthia Zamora TA 5 Amy Resnick September 18, 2014 Matthew Shepard Matthew Shepard was a young man who died at the age of twenty-one years of age. He was beaten and left to die tied up to a fence near Laramie, Wyoming on the night of October 6, 1998. These actions occurred for the reason that he was a homosexual. Six days after his attack Matthew Shepard died, October 12, 1998. Shepard was a student at the University of Wyoming. He had chosen to attend that school because that was the school his father had attended and wanted to make him happy since his dad was not okay with him being gay. Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson met with Matthew Shepard at the Fireside Lounge in Laramie, Wyoming on the night of October 6, 1998. Later on that night, McKinney and Henderson offered to give Shepard a ride home. However, instead of taking him home they took him to a rural area where he was robbed, but also beaten harshly. He was then left tied to a fence where he was left to die. Shepard was found shortly after by a cyclist but died six days after the incident. McKinney and Henderson were arrested shortly after the incident. They later testified saying that they had beaten Shepard simply just because he was gay. Today, Henderson is currently serving two consecutive life sentences and McKinney is serving the same but without the possibility of parole. Mathew Shepard's death has inspired several works such as films and plays. His death continues to be memorable and...
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...Mental Rotation: The Effect of Orientation towards the Reaction Time in Determining the Version of Letter UNIMKL- 012480 University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus Abstract This study is the replication of Cooper and Shepard’s (1973) study on mental rotation. This experiment is mainly designed to investigate a) the relationship between the angles of rotation of the alphabetical characters and the reaction time to determine whether the letter presented is normal or reversed position and b) whether the mean of the correlation coefficient is significantly greater than zero. A group of fifty- five first year undergraduate students who are studying Psychology course were recruited in the within- subjects experiment. In this experiment, the participants were showed the alphabetical characters (capital letter G and R) in both normal and reversed position in which oriented at different angles of rotation, the participants were required to determine whether the letter presented was in normal or reversed version as accurate and quickly as they can. The results obtains showed that the reaction time increases as the angle of rotation larger and the mean of the correlation coefficient was significantly greater than zero. Thus, this study suggesting that the orientation does affect the reaction time and correlate each other. Keywords: mental rotation, mental imagery, orientation, correlation coefficient, alphabetical characters, normal, reversed The Effect of Orientation towards the...
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...Saturday Evening Newscasts: ABC World News Tonight VS. Fox News Fox Report Saturday Jennifer Wallace Chamberlain College of Nursing PHIL 447 Professor Stephens Week 3 03/20/2016 The two news casts that I chose to watch and write about were aired on Saturday, March 19. The first program I watched was ABC World News Tonight. It came on at 7:00pm and it was hosted by Cecilia Vega, who I was unfamiliar with. When this show was over, I turned my television to Fox News and I watched The Fox Report, which started at 8:00pm. This show was hosted by Julie Banderas. I was unfamiliar with her, as well. Both of these hosts were attractive women, which seems to be the standard for women on the news, whether it’s local or national. I don’t normally watch either of these particular shows, so I was unsure what to expect as far as their actual reporting was concerned. On the ABC news cast, the first story that was covered was about Donald Trump, the rally that he held in Arizona, and the protests in Arizona and New York City. The host claimed that “despite the protests, Trump was louder and more forceful than ever”, which in my opinion, had a very negative slant to it. The report showed how the protestors in Arizona used their cars to try and block traffic and how the protestors in NYC were marching and picketing in front of Trump Tower. At the end of the story, the reporter talked about Donald Trumps’ “feud” with Megyn Kelly, whom he called “highly over rated and crazy”. An unnamed...
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