Sound of Fury; Deaf Culture vs. A Better Future

Does the world have a "deaf culture"? Should all deaf kids get cochlear implants so they can be able to hear be "normal" or should they stay deaf? Should you give your kid a cochlear impant so they can have a "normal" life or keep them the way they are and have them decide for themselves later on but by then it might be too late? From watching the film, Sound of Fury, I personally feel like Heather's parents should have given her the cochlear implant because it would benefit her significantly not just her childhood but throughout her whole entire life. She would be able to hear a car coming, people talking to her, fire alarms/police sirens, talk to people through the phone and babies crying. She would be able to communicate like other hearing kids in her neighborhood. I feel like her parents want to keep their daughter in the hearing world, but they have to understand that if they do give her the cochlear implant, she will still be around the deaf culture because her family is deaf. She will help them speak with other hearing people, and she will sign to her family.

In the beginning of the film, Heather's dad said, "I don't understand why parents would want to put a device in their kid's brain. It's so invasive." Heather's mom also said, "Hearing people communicate only by moving their lips. Deaf people communicate more visual."I feel like Heather's family is very comfortable with being deaf so that's why they don't want Heather to get the cochlear implant and that's why they moved to a town where deafness was more allowed and known about. Signing is more visual but they have to understand that deaf kids don't advance as well in school as hearing kids. At fourth grade, that is when deaf kids first learn how to read; for hearing kids it's usually after kindergarden/1st grade. When Heather plays with hearing kids at her school, she gets real frustrated because they don't understand what she wants to do. She also said, "I want to hear buses, smoke alarms, alarms and cars." She clearly wants the cochlear impant but I feel like her parents manipulated her to not wanting it because their mother couldn't get it.

When Heather's family went to go visit that one family that had their kid get a cochlear implant when she was young, they were shocked at the fact that the their daughter didn't even know how to sign, her parents didn't teach her and that their family didn't know anything about the deaf culture. Their family didn't know anything about it because their whole family isn't deaf. Every family is different, there are different circumstances to everything and Heather's world will change when she gets the cochlear implant but she will forever be surround by the deaf culture. Her parents are deaf, her brothers and sister's are also deaf so she will never be taken away from that culture.

The filmmaker focuses on emotions and how the deaf people would soon feel like robots because all the deaf kids will be implanted with devices so they can hear and the deaf culture will just die after that. The kids that get cochlear implants will not be like robots; they just need a device to help them hear  and it does not control them in any way at all. Heathe'r grandmother got real emotional when she was telling her son how hurtful it was on him when he was growing up and how confused he was about how different he was from other kids. She didn't want her grandchildren to go through the hardships her son went through that's why she wanted Heather to get the cochlear implant so much. In the other family that had twins, the grandma felt like their grandkids would make fun of them and they'd be forgotten. Your grandkids will realize that you are deaf but they can learn to sign and "speak" to you. As long as you're a great grandparent and do the best that you can, your grandkids will love you no matter what. Love does not discriminate on race, gender, disablities, and etc.

Sound of Fury is an exuberant film that focuses on the discources in society, the difference between deaf culture and hearing culture and elaborates on how deaf people feel on cochlear implants and how it'll make kids forget the importance of the deaf world but they need to realize deaf culture will always be around. Therefore, I think that Heather's parents should give Heather the best future and best capabilites to advance in society and be successful.

My Fear of the Unknown

There are plentiful of movies that talk about their own theory of what they believe happens  after someone dies. Many cultures have their own theories but nobody really knows what happens after you do die. I'm afraid that there is only one realm where all the dead souls stay and attempt to capture a body to be able to live again because ghosts and souls want to live and again. They are lonely and miss the feeling of pain, pleasure and love. For example, in the movie "Insidious" it talks about how there is a realm where the dead roam until they get out of there and taken to heaven. Josh and his son, Dalton, have a special gift of being able to go to sleep and return to that realm. After being in that realm for a while, souls see you and while you're dreaming, they'll try to possess your body. This movie itself scared me as well as the way they described the other realm of dead souls and it made me question what does happen after people die. In the book/movie "Lovely Bones", Salmon describes the heaven she went to as a heaven that adjusts to her and what she wanted in a heaven. Everybody's heaven is a little different but yet it has school that all the little kids attend to counsel them about dying. Will our heaven that we go into be a euphoria like Salmon's or will we be stuck in a wretched, horrible, terrifying, realm of our worst nightmares like in "Insidious"? Where will we all go? Will we have an afterlife? Or will we be re-born into different animals or people according to the Buddhist religion?

Julian Assange, Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning, and Edward Snowden; Are they Martyrs or Traitors?

I personally think that Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, and Edward Snowden are not martyrs nor are they traitors. I do not believe that they are "sacraficing themselves to the noble cause of freedom of speech and transparency". I believe that exposing the truth is a hobby for Assange and that they all feel like the people of United States should know what the government is doing behind their backs; because it is we the people who grant those men the power to choose and speak on our behalf. If the National Defense is going to brutally attack innocent Iraq citizens and that leads to an uproar in the Iraq government. The Iraq government will rage war upon us and not only will the soldiers be impacted; we the people will be at risk of being killed. It is a good thing to have people who don't trust the government and leak out information to the public so they can be informed about U.S.'s behind-the-scenes drama.

An important event that is impacting us is the tension between the U.S. and Syrian. I recently saw a video of a Syrian man showing us what he would do to the U.S.'s soldiers if we weren't careful with our next move. In the video, the Syrian man cuts out the soldiers organs and holds it out to the camera and then eats a part of the heart (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEZUraRor1o). I saw this on Facebook and thought it was a hoax but it was on CNN.com so I realized that it was a real and a warning to the U.S.to watch their next move. This video was showed through CNN to make sure the public is aware of the Syrian rebel's potential so I don't see why Assange is being accused. Newspaper, websites and other informative media publish information that may not be approved by the government but they don't get punished or put in prison do they? Just because in this situation, there is actually a person at the stand doesn't give them the right to convict him of publishing secrets as a crime. Other media are harder to convict because there isn't a person to bring up to the stand and I understand that but Assange did nothing wrong. He has his rights of freedom of speech and press. Plus, people anonymously post their findings on their website so the U.S. should target the ones that gave Assange's website the information. Therefore, the "crime" that he allegedly committed can not be charged against him because he has his freedoms of speech, press, and because other media services aren't charged/convicted of the crime of publishing secrets. So once the government finds a away to punish everybody equally; he can come and serve Assange's plate with the punishment that they think he deserves.