I was explaining the "perilous Paper" to my dad and I mentioned that I wanted to include Japanese internment and how racism was heightened throughout the country due to the message that newspapers projected. He told me that his foster mom was a direct victim of this racism, as she was put in an internment camp. Ironically, her brother was overseas serving in the US Military at the time. Everything was taken from her family. They had a productive farm in Fullerton, California, which they lost. They lost their house, all their money, and almost all of their possessions...none of which they ever saw again, forfeited to the government and white landowners. She was compensated with $20,000...which she used to take a trip to Japan.

Bottom line, Japanese-Americans were psychologically tortured with the help of newspapers because when you think about it, trusting readers are lemmings to their favorite journalist or to whatever stories spark the most controversy because humans are hungry for something to stir them up and give them something to talk about. If there is something interesting to talk about, the world is more connected by altercations in society, in this case, the "formidable" Japanese.

It seems to me like people come together in a stronger way when something bad happens, rather than when something good happens. For example, 9/11 brought America together in the strongest way I've seen it in my lifetime. when is the last time you saw people unite over something bigger than a football game?

Sounds of Silence

I was listening to WNYC's Radio Lab podcast about a week ago that focused on the power of sound. Anne Fernald was interviewed about how mothers speak to their babies. The thesis was, "sound is kind of touch at a distance." When someone makes a sound, the soundwaves go on a journey, traveling through space as pulsating air and end up in the ear, touching and vibrating a few small bones.

A slap or a gentile gesture convey a physical outlet of emotion, whereas a sound touching a person is always about something, just as speech is always about something. Now that the world is more connected through the internet, text messaging, blogging, etc., the world is more dis-connected on a personal, even physical level.

Let's say a friend or family member moved away or went to college. Sure, you could text and e-mail that person all you want, but it's not the same as being with them. Talking on the phone with them and hearing his or her voice is a much greater connection than an email could ever represent, because feeling their sound is like a slap in the face or a pat on the back.

Even the sounds in songs that have been passed on for centuries touch the present with the past. Sound connects and influences the world more than people realize.

"Fast food naiton"

In class last week we discussed the issue of the power fast food chains have over our society. These fast food restaurants don't make it easier to eat right. They cloak their "effort" to improve the nation's health with product design and inviting advertisements that make the public really think they're making the healthy choice. Like I said in class, when someone orders something "healthy" at McD's they package the food in a nice green and crisp plastic bag rather than the crunchy red and white classic bag, making the consumer think that they made a healthy change in his or her diet. The change in packaging, in this case, would be symbolic of a change in his or her life. The consumers keep feeding into the palms of these big corporations that are doing nothing but damaging the health of the nation. The big corporations feed powerful men and women who do nothing but create more schemes to make another buck.