Aleishia Bradac
English 102
Research Analysis Essay
I was eighteen when I shot my first gun. I was over at my friend, Katie’s house and her dad had a target set up in the backyard and was shooting at it. I was watching him shoot the gun and Katie asked me if I had ever shot a gun before. I told her no I haven’t, so she asked if I wanted to. I thought, why not, I like to think of myself as the kind of person who will try (almost) anything once. Her dad showed me how to hold the gun, and let me fire away. Surprisingly I had a pretty good aim. That was the first and last time I shot a gun. I have never been pro-gun or really dead set against them either. They were just sort of there. My family is very involved in the navy and the marines. My grandfather was in WWII, two of my uncles were in Vietnam, another two uncles and my father were in the Gulf War. My mom’s boyfriend is pretty big into hunting. So all my life I have been surrounded by guns. There have always been guns in my home, though I have not always been aware of it. I never really realized how pro-gun my family was until this past year, the thought just never occurred to me. As I mentioned in my Research Paper, my mom voted for McCain over Obama because of one issue: gun control. That phone conversation really opened up my eyes. I had never paid attention to my family’s obsession with guns; I wasn’t interested so I just kind of ignored it all. Honestly, the fact that my mother chose McCain over Obama for one reason kind of annoyed me. I found myself being disappointed in her and not really understanding why this one issue of gun control could be so important. Since when were guns THAT important? I didn’t feel this way, but it seemed like most of my family did. After that conversation, I never really brought up the subject again. I was still disappointed but did not want to have a meaningless fight over it. This was until I read Technology Matters by David Nye. In my blog I wrote:
Just a thought: On page 167 of Technology Matters, David Nye poses the question, "Do weapons make people safer?" He goes on to talk about owning guns, he says that in countries where you cannot own a gun homicide and accident rates are much lower than in the United States. He really brings it home with, "In states with more guns, more children are dying." This got me thinking, why are we allowed to own guns? Why is it in the Constitution that the second amendment is the right to bear arms? What were our Founding Fathers thinking? Did they foresee this becoming such a problem? Now I understand that there are people who hunt and all that jazz but still this is a huge problem. Too many people die because of guns, or is it just the people that use them, not the guns? If so do you think that if we outlawed guns, we would see more people killing with knives or some other sort of weapon or do you think that we would see homicides and accident rates decrease?
After I read that passage in Technology Matters, I began thinking about the conversation with my mother again and how it really bothered me. I just didn’t understand how people could be so pro-gun when the statistics are not at all positive. So instead of arguing with my mother over her beliefs, I decided that it would be the focus of my Research Paper. In a way, it’s a sort of argument and lets me put my views out there, without causing any unnecessary family drama over guns.
It started as a research about how technology makes us safer or how we believe that it makes us safer. But the main question was, does technology really make us safer? So with the gun, people own them to use as protection for their families. They believe that owning a gun makes them safer. So then I thought why is this? Why do we believe that owning a gun makes us safer even when all of the facts say otherwise? Yet you still have people who are pro-gun and really do believe that it is essential to own a gun. What makes them think this way?
The first draft of this Research Paper ended up being horrible. I’m not going to lie, it was dreadful. I believe my teacher said it was “like a safety commercial.” I was focusing on how guns are unsafe and really it was just me throwing a bunch of facts in there. I was a bit too anti-gun. I knew that my paper was in need of some major help but I was lost. We then had our first conferences, which was like a breath of fresh air. My teacher didn’t understand why I didn’t use papers. This was because I thought my discussion was too broad and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to narrow it down enough. She and my peers then asked me questions and gave suggestions. They were interested in the gun aspect of my paper and suggested I look at it from a different angle. I then thought about what I had written in my blog previously. “Why is it in the Constitution that the second amendment is the right to bear arms? What were our Founding Fathers thinking?....Too many people die because of guns, or is it just the people that use them, not the guns?” These questions lead to other questions like: What was the view of our Founding Fathers? How do others who are pro-gun view the world? Do they feel in control when they own a gun? How does owning a gun control their perspective?
After asking all of these questions I felt much more confident about my research. This idea of the gun controlling a person’s perspective fit perfectly in with my previous essay about the different ways technology has control over us. The paper turned from a question of safety to a question of why we believe the gun makes us safer. Why this technology has control over our perspectives.
For the beginning of my Research Paper I have a general discussion of the control and technology debate. I did this because I thought it would be beneficial to the reader to understand what is being said about this debate. I referenced the three texts that we focused on in class: The Human Factor by Kim Vicente, Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut and Technology Matters by David Nye. As a class we started with The Human Factor. As I began reading Vicente I started to have my own ideas of what he was saying. I wrote in the margins, “Technology can overpower us. We can lose the control. We may not fully understand what it’s capable of. Sometimes it can turn on you without you realizing. What happens when we lose all control? What can we do to gain back control?”These were the first questions I began asking in class and it showed up in all of my assignments. So when I went to write my blogs, I looked back on my notes from reading it the first time. In the essay, the Human Factor was what stood out to me the most and I began to think about it in every way possible. I thought that it had many different ways of showing itself, which I began to explore in my Research Paper. Then we read Cat’s Cradle and I could just see all these different ways the Human Factor came in to play with the characters. I especially was interested in Dr. Hoenikker and his “science smarts” and his “social stupidity.” Then I thought about how Vicente talked about control and I was thinking that some of the characters in Cat’s Cradle had completely lost control of their lives; which made it all connect for me.
NOTE: I feel like there should be more, but I’m not sure what to elaborate on. Should I be quoting my Research Paper and then be explaining things?
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
A False Sense of Security in the American Home (Assign 7)
False Sense of Security in the American Home
It’s 5am and your alarm clock is going off. You get up shower, blow-dry your hair, get dressed and you are off to work. You work hard all day at your job. Come the end of the work day, you are ready to go home, have dinner and spend time with your family, so you get in your car and are on your way. You get home, walk in the house and you have a sense of security and comfortableness. You flip on the lights all around the house to brighten the place up and make it look homier. The kids are home and doing their homework. Meanwhile, you are in the kitchen cooking dinner, finally it’s time to eat, afterwards everyone watches a movie and then it’s off to bed. The nightlights are plugged in and the handgun is in your nightstand ready to be used if someone gets through the alarm system; you drift peacefully to sleep, feeling comfortable, safe and secure in your bed. Various electrical devices and handguns have been used to keep the American family safe for years. But what happens when these technologies that we all have become so accustomed to, fail us? What happens when they no longer keep us safe, but put us in danger? These questions have led me to the bigger picture: Is there a false sense of security in the American home due to advances in technology?
The light bulb is one of the most common technologies of all time. It was invented in the 1800’s by Thomas Edison, since then it has grown in popularity and now everyone has them in their homes. I just walked through my 3 bedroom upper of a house that I rent and counted 47 light bulbs. American’s rely on light bulbs to give us light when it is dark, we do not perceive them as a dangerous technology, but they are, “According to the National Fire Protection Association, lamps, light fixtures, and light bulbs (28%) and fixed wiring (22%) accounted for the largest share of fires among major types of electrical distribution equipment” (www.nfpa.org). They are the leading cause in fires in homes, yet we still perceive them as keeping us safe. For example, when you were a child you were most likely afraid of the dark and had to sleep with a night light. You were afraid of the monsters that came out in the dark and believed that the light kept them at bay. The American culture sees light as safety, when in reality it can be very dangerous. Instead of a scary, hairy monster, you may experience a fire monster! But really this is nothing to joke about. According to the NFPA “each year fires that start in electrical systems or lighting equipment damage more than 24,000 homes, kill 320 people and injure 830 plus.” Americans see light and the light bulb as something that keeps us safe in our homes and lights the way for us in the dark. Most of us could not imagine life without the light bulb. Does the light bulb give us a false sense of security in our homes? We have so many in our homes that we use every day and we use them without thought. We have become so accustomed to light bulbs that it is just second nature to us. We never stop to think about the dangers that they can cause. Every time you flip the lights on, you are not afraid of a fire to start. Should we be? Should be afraid and more cautious? I honestly do not think that everyone should stop and think about this every time that they turn on a light, but I do think that Americans should be aware of the dangers. Light bulb and light fixture companies should take charge and promote this light bulb safety awareness, instead of just letting the National Fire Protection Association and others like it deal with it. They should make people aware of the dangers and how to prevent them. The county of Santa Clara has a whole section of their website devoted to this cause. They advise homeowners to make sure they do not overload electrical sockets, replace cracked or damages light fixtures and electrical cords. Light bulbs are not the only thing that we need to keep our eyes on. We have so many different electrical appliances that could cause harm to our home or worse our family. According to the Energy Information Association, the official energy statistics from the U.S. Government, “In 2007, the average monthly residential electricity consumption was 936 kilowatthours (kWh)” and” Appliances account for 64.7% of electricity consumption in the average American household (2001). Refrigerators consumed the most electricity (14%), followed by lighting (9%)” (www.eia.doe.gov). The average American home uses a large amount of electricity and most of that is in appliances. Lighting only accounts for 9% of the 64.7%, which leaves 55.7% for the rest of the appliances we use. Like the county of Santa Clara says, make sure you do not plug in many appliances into one electrical socket. American’s use a lot of electricity and thus have become so dependent on it. We are accustomed to having our nightlights, our refrigerators, alarm systems, vacuums, microwaves, televisions and other various electrical appliances. I do not think that most people realize how much electricity they use or how many appliances they have plugged in at once. American’s like things done fast and don’t usually stop to think about the consequences. For example, my first roommate was always in a rush, she would get up late hurry to get ready and run out the door for class or work. She was always leaving her hair straightener plugged in and on. I learned to always check if it was on before I left for class, so she would not burn the place down. One weekend I went to go visit some friends in Madison, on Sunday when I got back I found out that there was a fire in our apartment! My roommate had left her hair straightner on and it had caught some nearby papers on fire. Luckily she was home at the time, so nothing was really damaged but it could have been really bad if she had left. Ever since then, she has always remember to turn off and even unplug her straightner after every use. She was never bothered with thinking about the consequences until she had to, and now she has learned from it. This is just one example of how you have to be careful with electrical appliances. They may make you feel safer or make your life seem easier, but they can put you and your belongings in danger if not used correctly. And sometimes even when they are used correctly things go wrong, but that’s just life.
Back in the day we didn’t have guns. We protected our loved ones through other ways. But since the invention of guns we have come to use them more for safety. In our Constitution the 2nd Amendment is the right to bear arms. From the beginning of our country’s history, guns have been inseparable from the American culture. According to Douglas J. Wiebe Ph. D. who is a Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics Senior Fellow, “One in three U.S. households contains at least one firearm” and “there were roughly 200 million firearms in private hands in the U.S. – almost one for every American adult” (LDI Issue Brief). Many Americans own handguns and keep them in their homes, they say they have them to protect their families and keep them safe, but are they doing the job? In Technology Matter, the author David Nye says that, “In 1998, 31,708 Americans died from gunshots. Of these 17,424 were suicides. More than 1,000 of the deaths were due to accidents. Americans also used guns to murder 12, 102 people, many of them in domestic disputes. Roughly two-thirds of all gun-related deaths were self-inflicted accidents, suicides, or murders within the circle of family and friends. Guns purchased as protection against criminals or intruders all too often killed the people they were expected to protect” (p. 167). I do not think they are doing their job of keeping people safe from criminals and intruders. Instead they are causing alarming death rates because of accidents or arguments that got out of hand. Suicide rates are higher in homes that have guns. According to Douglas J. Wiebe’s study “Guns were the most common method of suicide, accounting for the deaths of 68% of male victims and 42% of female victims. The most commonly used type of firearm was a handgun. Most victims were at home when they committed suicide, and most used a gun that matched a type of gun in their home.” Also from this study, Wiebe claims that people with a gun in their home are 3.4 more times likely to commit suicide than people without guns in their home. I am not saying that guns are the cause of suicide but if someone is thinking about it and on the edge, they may do something rash and a gun in their home could be the weapon of choice. Not only is gun-related suicide higher in homes with guns but accidental deaths and injuries are much higher in homes with guns too. I knew this kid in high school, Chris, he came on the bus one day with his face all bruised and gross, turns out his little brother accidentally shot him in the face above the eye with a BB gun. The little BB was still under his skin, he could have had his eye shot out, but he was lucky. His little brother was not even allowed to be using that gun, but he said he was just playing with it. Accidents like that happen all the time, and lucky for my friend Chris, it was just a BB gun. It could have been much worse. According to Wiebe, “Persons living in a home where a gun was present were 3.7 times more likely to die from an unintentional gunshot wound than persons with no gun in the home.” So people go to the store and buy these guns thinking that they will help to keep their family safe but in reality they are doing the opposite. These guns are putting your family in danger; the risks get higher when there is a gun in the home. I know that the facts are out there and this has been a debate that has been going on for years, but the deaths keep racking up. The gun was a technology that was slow to take up, but once it replaced other methods it became very popular. Now most American families have them to protect their families but in reality they are what you should be protecting your family against.
Every technology has a good side and a bad side. With every advantage comes another disadvantage. This is just how things work. With the light bulb and other electrical devices you get light, an alarm system, or an easier way of doing things but the cost could be a fire, a ruined home, dead loved ones. Then you have the gun in your home that you say protects your family, and maybe sometimes it does but you also have a higher risk of suicide and accidental death and/or injury. How many disadvantages are we willing to overlook for an advantage? Do we use our electricity and have our hand guns in our nightstand and feel safe? Yes, most of us do. We do not think of the disadvantages, we don’t stop and think about the consequences of our actions or our possessions. Sometimes the American culture can be so one-sided, focusing on one aspect. We need to stop and think things through; we need to realize that with good comes bad. We need to be ready to face the bad.
It’s 5am and your alarm clock is going off. You get up shower, blow-dry your hair, get dressed and you are off to work. You work hard all day at your job. Come the end of the work day, you are ready to go home, have dinner and spend time with your family, so you get in your car and are on your way. You get home, walk in the house and you have a sense of security and comfortableness. You flip on the lights all around the house to brighten the place up and make it look homier. The kids are home and doing their homework. Meanwhile, you are in the kitchen cooking dinner, finally it’s time to eat, afterwards everyone watches a movie and then it’s off to bed. The nightlights are plugged in and the handgun is in your nightstand ready to be used if someone gets through the alarm system; you drift peacefully to sleep, feeling comfortable, safe and secure in your bed. Various electrical devices and handguns have been used to keep the American family safe for years. But what happens when these technologies that we all have become so accustomed to, fail us? What happens when they no longer keep us safe, but put us in danger? These questions have led me to the bigger picture: Is there a false sense of security in the American home due to advances in technology?
The light bulb is one of the most common technologies of all time. It was invented in the 1800’s by Thomas Edison, since then it has grown in popularity and now everyone has them in their homes. I just walked through my 3 bedroom upper of a house that I rent and counted 47 light bulbs. American’s rely on light bulbs to give us light when it is dark, we do not perceive them as a dangerous technology, but they are, “According to the National Fire Protection Association, lamps, light fixtures, and light bulbs (28%) and fixed wiring (22%) accounted for the largest share of fires among major types of electrical distribution equipment” (www.nfpa.org). They are the leading cause in fires in homes, yet we still perceive them as keeping us safe. For example, when you were a child you were most likely afraid of the dark and had to sleep with a night light. You were afraid of the monsters that came out in the dark and believed that the light kept them at bay. The American culture sees light as safety, when in reality it can be very dangerous. Instead of a scary, hairy monster, you may experience a fire monster! But really this is nothing to joke about. According to the NFPA “each year fires that start in electrical systems or lighting equipment damage more than 24,000 homes, kill 320 people and injure 830 plus.” Americans see light and the light bulb as something that keeps us safe in our homes and lights the way for us in the dark. Most of us could not imagine life without the light bulb. Does the light bulb give us a false sense of security in our homes? We have so many in our homes that we use every day and we use them without thought. We have become so accustomed to light bulbs that it is just second nature to us. We never stop to think about the dangers that they can cause. Every time you flip the lights on, you are not afraid of a fire to start. Should we be? Should be afraid and more cautious? I honestly do not think that everyone should stop and think about this every time that they turn on a light, but I do think that Americans should be aware of the dangers. Light bulb and light fixture companies should take charge and promote this light bulb safety awareness, instead of just letting the National Fire Protection Association and others like it deal with it. They should make people aware of the dangers and how to prevent them. The county of Santa Clara has a whole section of their website devoted to this cause. They advise homeowners to make sure they do not overload electrical sockets, replace cracked or damages light fixtures and electrical cords. Light bulbs are not the only thing that we need to keep our eyes on. We have so many different electrical appliances that could cause harm to our home or worse our family. According to the Energy Information Association, the official energy statistics from the U.S. Government, “In 2007, the average monthly residential electricity consumption was 936 kilowatthours (kWh)” and” Appliances account for 64.7% of electricity consumption in the average American household (2001). Refrigerators consumed the most electricity (14%), followed by lighting (9%)” (www.eia.doe.gov). The average American home uses a large amount of electricity and most of that is in appliances. Lighting only accounts for 9% of the 64.7%, which leaves 55.7% for the rest of the appliances we use. Like the county of Santa Clara says, make sure you do not plug in many appliances into one electrical socket. American’s use a lot of electricity and thus have become so dependent on it. We are accustomed to having our nightlights, our refrigerators, alarm systems, vacuums, microwaves, televisions and other various electrical appliances. I do not think that most people realize how much electricity they use or how many appliances they have plugged in at once. American’s like things done fast and don’t usually stop to think about the consequences. For example, my first roommate was always in a rush, she would get up late hurry to get ready and run out the door for class or work. She was always leaving her hair straightener plugged in and on. I learned to always check if it was on before I left for class, so she would not burn the place down. One weekend I went to go visit some friends in Madison, on Sunday when I got back I found out that there was a fire in our apartment! My roommate had left her hair straightner on and it had caught some nearby papers on fire. Luckily she was home at the time, so nothing was really damaged but it could have been really bad if she had left. Ever since then, she has always remember to turn off and even unplug her straightner after every use. She was never bothered with thinking about the consequences until she had to, and now she has learned from it. This is just one example of how you have to be careful with electrical appliances. They may make you feel safer or make your life seem easier, but they can put you and your belongings in danger if not used correctly. And sometimes even when they are used correctly things go wrong, but that’s just life.
Back in the day we didn’t have guns. We protected our loved ones through other ways. But since the invention of guns we have come to use them more for safety. In our Constitution the 2nd Amendment is the right to bear arms. From the beginning of our country’s history, guns have been inseparable from the American culture. According to Douglas J. Wiebe Ph. D. who is a Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics Senior Fellow, “One in three U.S. households contains at least one firearm” and “there were roughly 200 million firearms in private hands in the U.S. – almost one for every American adult” (LDI Issue Brief). Many Americans own handguns and keep them in their homes, they say they have them to protect their families and keep them safe, but are they doing the job? In Technology Matter, the author David Nye says that, “In 1998, 31,708 Americans died from gunshots. Of these 17,424 were suicides. More than 1,000 of the deaths were due to accidents. Americans also used guns to murder 12, 102 people, many of them in domestic disputes. Roughly two-thirds of all gun-related deaths were self-inflicted accidents, suicides, or murders within the circle of family and friends. Guns purchased as protection against criminals or intruders all too often killed the people they were expected to protect” (p. 167). I do not think they are doing their job of keeping people safe from criminals and intruders. Instead they are causing alarming death rates because of accidents or arguments that got out of hand. Suicide rates are higher in homes that have guns. According to Douglas J. Wiebe’s study “Guns were the most common method of suicide, accounting for the deaths of 68% of male victims and 42% of female victims. The most commonly used type of firearm was a handgun. Most victims were at home when they committed suicide, and most used a gun that matched a type of gun in their home.” Also from this study, Wiebe claims that people with a gun in their home are 3.4 more times likely to commit suicide than people without guns in their home. I am not saying that guns are the cause of suicide but if someone is thinking about it and on the edge, they may do something rash and a gun in their home could be the weapon of choice. Not only is gun-related suicide higher in homes with guns but accidental deaths and injuries are much higher in homes with guns too. I knew this kid in high school, Chris, he came on the bus one day with his face all bruised and gross, turns out his little brother accidentally shot him in the face above the eye with a BB gun. The little BB was still under his skin, he could have had his eye shot out, but he was lucky. His little brother was not even allowed to be using that gun, but he said he was just playing with it. Accidents like that happen all the time, and lucky for my friend Chris, it was just a BB gun. It could have been much worse. According to Wiebe, “Persons living in a home where a gun was present were 3.7 times more likely to die from an unintentional gunshot wound than persons with no gun in the home.” So people go to the store and buy these guns thinking that they will help to keep their family safe but in reality they are doing the opposite. These guns are putting your family in danger; the risks get higher when there is a gun in the home. I know that the facts are out there and this has been a debate that has been going on for years, but the deaths keep racking up. The gun was a technology that was slow to take up, but once it replaced other methods it became very popular. Now most American families have them to protect their families but in reality they are what you should be protecting your family against.
Every technology has a good side and a bad side. With every advantage comes another disadvantage. This is just how things work. With the light bulb and other electrical devices you get light, an alarm system, or an easier way of doing things but the cost could be a fire, a ruined home, dead loved ones. Then you have the gun in your home that you say protects your family, and maybe sometimes it does but you also have a higher risk of suicide and accidental death and/or injury. How many disadvantages are we willing to overlook for an advantage? Do we use our electricity and have our hand guns in our nightstand and feel safe? Yes, most of us do. We do not think of the disadvantages, we don’t stop and think about the consequences of our actions or our possessions. Sometimes the American culture can be so one-sided, focusing on one aspect. We need to stop and think things through; we need to realize that with good comes bad. We need to be ready to face the bad.
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