Why I liked the Movie In And Out :: essays papers

Why I liked the Movie "In And Out" The idea of a man coming to terms with his sexuality is always one that is relevant in our American culture. Its sad to know that in this day in age of advanced technology on society will always be hung up of the life style and preference of other individuals. "In And Out" as a movie did a good job at addressing this issue and making it light hearted enough for people to see, and possibly under stand. I’m sure that we all known some one in some way that we’ve thought to be homosexual: or at least we’ve considered them to be "Feminine" for a guy or to "Masculine" for a girl. With this we have our "doubts." With this movie taking place in a "Typical" suburban city it gives every one a chance to relate with the characters, from the high schools students all the way to the elderly grand parents. This allows the main character to touch the lives of every one. It also shows a little of why he cannot admit to himself his sexuality. He lives his entire life trying to live up to expectations of his community. However he doses know that within his true self needs to escape and some time dose, with his fascination for Barbara Strisand and other typical homosexual interest. However he miserably fails the "man" requirements but dose make the scene very funny. Howard, the movies main character is engaged to a beautiful woman, who becomes confused about her fiancà ©e when the first accusation of Howard’s homosexuality comes out. Howard is a school teacher but when the roomer starts his students don’t know how to react, they don’t know if its "True" or not However a few of them are mature enough to still accept and appreciate the help he has given them through the years. From helping them with schoolwork to helping them get to college, his good natured heart never lets them down. Howard’s mother is typical of most mothers in the way she’s so adamant about, how she wants to see a big wedding before she dies. This is also another reason Howard attempts to oppress his sexuality. He feels that he must give his parents what they want. This is some thing that I am sure most of us can all relate too.

Police Brutality in NYC

such incidents may exist. With increased attention being paid to incidents of police brutality, lawsuits being brought against both the officers and the government for which they work, and a focus on the psychological conditions that may affect those officers that violently abuse citizens, there is hope that police brutality can be better understood, reduced, and eventually eradicated. When Americans think of the history of police brutality, there are several historical events that form the backdrop for this social problem.Although thousands f undocumented and unrecorded incidents of police brutality undoubtedly have occurred, it was not until the advent of videotape that Americans who previously had no knowledge of police brutality began to truly understand this issue. The Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s was accompanied by many incidents of police brutality committed against African Americans and their supporters. The pictures and videos of these incidents, broadcast on national television, included nonviolent protestors being tear-gassed, beaten with billy clubs, and even sprayed with fire hoses.In February 2012 in New York City, an amateur video posted online shows four New York City police officers kicking and punching a nineteen year old man who was laying on the ground unarmed. His mother said that her son required staples in his head and arm. Jatiek Reed, the nineteen year old Bronx resident, who has suffered from constant headaches and nightmares since then, announced he was requesting a special prosecutor to investigate. Reed's attorney said the Bronx district attorneys office wasn't capable of investigating because its close relationship with police.The fficers involved have been placed on desk duty and their guns and shields have been removed while the New York Police Department investigated, according to US News Online in 02/09/2012 and AP Regional State Report-New York City, 02/0112012. Many police killings receive little mention in the media. T herefore, the topic usually goes unnoticed by general public until an incident hits home or a major tragedy occurs. According to recent statistics by October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, 21 people were killed by New York police throughout 2012, averaging two killings per onth.It increased the previous year's sum by seven fatalities. The same statistic shows that nearly 90 percent of those killed were Black or Hispanic. Last year's victims of police shooting varied in age: Antwoine White, 17 years old, was killed in Bushwick, Brooklyn, on January 29; Ramarley Graham, 18 years old, was slain in his own Bronx bathroom Just four days later. On August 24, Jeffrey Johnson, 58 years old, was shot dead by the New York Police Department outside the Empire State Building after killing a former co-worker he had a grudge against.Shereese Francis was killed in the basement of her house in Queens. The New York Police Officers used excessive force by pressing her face into a mattress w hile handcuffing her, causing her to suttocate. Then on June an e Davis was snot in a vehicle in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. There was no weapon involved and she didn't represent any threat to the police to warrant the use of deadly force. (New York Amsterdam News from January 31 to February 06, 2013). Still, though, the Justice Department has failed to prosecute the vast majority of police brutality cases.This problem stems from, among other things, difficulty in proving allegations, absent evidence such as unbiased eyewitness testimony, or videotape recordings of the abuse. Also, there exists a perception in society that police officers are to be believed and trusted. Because such a high percentage of police officers can be trusted and do not engage in police brutality, Juries and Judges often encounter difficulty in disbelieving an officer's testimony that he or she did not abuse a citizen. Most people who become police officers do so because they ave a strong desire to protect thei r communities and its citizens.They work hard and receive appropriate training on how to handle a wide variety of situations, both ordinary and dangerous. Unfortunately, despite the fact that most police officers work very hard to keep their communities safe and provide a good example to its citizens, there are some individuals who abuse the power and authority they receive as a result of their positions in law enforcement. Sadly, allegations of police brutality are not uncommon, with many accusations coming from people in poor eighborhoods, minority neighborhoods, and major cities.Because police forces are governmental entities, common citizens–either individually or through their elected officials–do have a say in how their local police force is operated. If police departments make attempts to increase sensitivity and participate in training designed to reduce violence, and if groups of citizens actively work to encourage their local police departments to reduce viol ence and adopt enforceable early warning systems, police brutality can be reduced.However, while the vast majority of olice officers are good and honest people, the problem of police brutality is significant enough that it cannot be ignored. Sources Citations: Ethnic News Watch 21 killed by the NYPD in 2012. (2013, ). New York Amsterdam News. Retrieved fromhttp://www.proquest.com/connect/https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T98899 https://learnaboutrussia.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/hermitage-museum/http://weblib. ucc. edu:2233/ic/ovic/NewsDetailsPage/NewsDetailsWindow? e=&scanld=&documentld=GALE

The Idea of Nature and its Essence

The idea of nature is one of the most widely employed in philosophy and by the same token one of the most ill-defined. Authors such as Aristotle and Descartes relied on the concept of nature to explain the fundamental tenets of their views, without ever attempting to define the concept. Even in contemporary philosophy, the idea is oftentimes employed, in different forms. So, what is nature? Nature and the Essence of a Thing The philosophical tradition that traces back to Aristotle employs the idea of nature to explain that which defines the essence of a thing. One of the most fundamental metaphysical concepts, the essence indicates those properties that define what a thing is. The essence of water, for instance, will be its molecular structure, the essence of a species, its ancestral history; the essence of a human, its self-consciousness or its soul. Within the Aristotelian traditions, hence, to act in accordance with nature means to take into account the real definition of each thing when dealing with it. The Natural World At times the idea of nature is instead used to refer to anything that exists in the universe as part of the physical world. In this sense, the idea embraces anything that falls under the study of the natural sciences, from physics to biology to environmental studies. Natural vs. Artificial Natural is often used also to refer to a process which occurs spontaneously as opposed to one that occurs as the result of the deliberation of a being. Thus, a plant grows naturally when its growth was not planned by a rational agent; it grows otherwise artificially. An apple would hence be an artificial product, under this understanding of the idea of nature, although most would agree that an apple is a product of nature (that is, a part of the natural world, that which is studied by natural scientists). Nature vs. Nurture Related to the spontaneity vs. artificiality divide is the idea of nature as opposed to nurture. The idea of culture becomes here central to draw the line. That which is natural as opposed to that which is the outcome of a cultural process. Education is a central example of a non-natural process: under many accounts, education is seen as a process against nature. Clearly enough, from this perspective there are some items that cannot ever be purely natural: any human development is shaped by the activity, or lack thereof, of interaction with other human beings; there is no such thing as a natural development of human language, for instance. Nature as Wilderness The idea of nature is at times used to express the wilderness. Wilderness lives at the edge of civilization, of any cultural processes. In the strictest reading of the term, humans can encounter wilderness in very few selected places on earth nowadays, those were the influence of human societies is negligible; if you include the environmental impact produced by humans on the whole ecosystem, there may well be no wild place left on our planet. If the idea of wilderness is loosened a bit, then even through a walk in a forest or a trip on the ocean one may experience that which is wild, i.e. natural. Nature and God Finally, an entry on nature cannot omit that which perhaps has been the most widely employed understanding of the term in past millennia: nature as the expression of the divine. The idea of nature is central in most religions. It has taken numerous forms, from specific entities or processes (a mountain, the sun, the ocean, or fire) to embracing the whole realm of existents. Further Online Readings The entry on Laws of Nature at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.The entry on Aristotle’s Natural Philosophy at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.