Why do we watch horror movies?

  As Halloween approaches, horror themes are inevitably seen more and more in everyday life. Houses will be decorated with spooky designs, and there will be horror movie marathons going on television. When I saw on TV the Friday the 13th marathon starting this weekend,  I began to wonder why is it that so many people likes watching horror movies. Horror movies range from blood splattering slasher films to silent chilling supernatural films. As a movie fan myself, I have watched many kinds of horror movies and I do enjoy watching them. In this article, it is said that some people watch it simply for the physiological ride and others watch to understand the archetypal fears, what the population fears as a whole.
I think the second reason given in the article, the archetypal fear, represents America in a way. As the article states, horror movies after 9/11, which affected the country as a whole, were mostly centered on the them of torture which could have meant for the audience to comprehend the incident. Another example, the article says, zombie movies might have gotten popular because of the spread of influenza. I think this theory makes sense because naturally we all want to be in a large group, so that we can feel safe, and fear is one medium that will have us connected because fear is shared as a common feeling by many people.
Why do you think people watch horror movies?

Is it the kids to blame?

During yesterday's lockdown drill, no one in my advisory(including me), took the process seriously. We didn't take it seriously because we all knew that an incident that would require and actual lockdown would most likely not happen in New Trier. During the drill I heard my friend talking about schools where a teacher dresses up, holds a fake gun and walks around the school to make the process more realistic during the lockdown drill. Everyone who heard the story looked honestly surprised. This story made me think that New Trier has created such a safe environment, so safe that it has also made the school an isolated enviroment.

This article tells a story about an 11 year old student who brought 400 rounds of ammunition, a handgun, and multiple knives to school. The boy was intending to kill another classmate who called the boy’s friend gay. The school was locked down for about two hours until the student was taken down by school officers. Recently, the rise in the number of school-related incidents are becoming noticeable. The same week when the incident in the article took place, there had been two other cases where students were accused of killing their teachers. Although it is ultimately the students' fault for committing such crimes but I think in some cases, the parents should take some of the blame. I feel that if the parents interacted and spent enough time with their children, they might have noticed something different in their children and may have been able stop them. I think some of the past crimes committed by teenagers, were caused by the lack of communication between their parents. 
If a teenager committed a crime, do you think they should always take full blame or do you think there are cases where the parents should also take some of the blame?

Cars and our lives

The day undocumented immigrants have waited for 10 years, had finally come last week. California governor Jerry Brown signed a law on Thursday, that will allow undocumented immigrants to get their driver's licenses in the state. Governor Brown hopes other states will follow this and stated that this is only the first step. The new measure which is known as Assembly Bill 60, will go into effect no later than January 1, 2015. Read more here.

I am happy to hear about this because driving cars is absolutely essential in our lives in America. We drive our cars to go to work, to shopping and to school. Without cars, our lives will certainly be limited. Before I got my drivers license, I had to get a ride from my parents to go to most places which made it hard for me to do things. This article made me think of how much American people relies on cars for a living. In Japan where I used to live, there is a significantly larger number of people that rides the train or just ride their bikes to go to school, work, or to shopping. It was normal for people to not drive their cars to do everyday things. There are many other countries where cars aren't essential for living. I personally think that the necessity of cars in America could sometimes make it a place that is a little hard to live in.

Veterans

When we were talking about the project yesterday, we touched on the topic of how some people do not want to talk about their experiences, like war veterans. As I was searching for some interesting articles, one of them caught my eyes because of it’s extraordinary shocking title, "22 veteran suicides a day". The article was about how there has been 22 veteran suicides everyday day since 1999. This means there is almost one veteran suicide every hour. Experts have no doubt though, that there is a huge number of people being missed in the national counting of veteran suicides. Military sexual assaults and combat stress has been the two big reasons of veteran suicides.

An Iraq war veteran who started Stop Soldier Suicide, Brian Kinsella states that "There's probably a tidal wave of suicides coming,"President Obama said there is a need to "end this epidemic of suicide among our veterans and troops." August 2012, he signed an executive order calling for stronger suicide prevention efforts. A year later, he announced to fund $107 million for better mental health treatment for veterans who have experienced post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury, which are signature injuries of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It is extremely shocking and sad to hear that the people who have protected and shaped our country are suffering and taking their own lives away because of decisions they or their colleagues have made. It is good to hear that the government is funding for the health treatment but I wish it had taken measures much earlier.
Read the article here

2020 Olympics

As some good number of people may already know, Tokyo was voted to be the 2020 Summer Olympics hosting city over the weekend. Tokyo was up against two other cities, Madrid, Spain and Istanbul, Turkey. Although all three cities had compelling and persuasive speeches, Tokyo ended up winning the majority of the votes. For the reason of winning, Olympic presidential candidate Thomas Bach stated that "This time the IOC members have decided in favor of tradition and stability." You can find more information here.

To be truthful, as much as I was happy to hear Tokyo getting picked, I was also a little surprised mainly because of two reasons. The first reason was that there already has been a Summer Olympic at Tokyo in 1964. Although there has been two or three cities that held the Summer Olympics more than once, I thought the International Olympic Committee(IOC) would prioritize picking a city where a Summer Olympic has not yet been conducted. The second reason was regarding the ongoing problem of the Fukushima power plant disaster. Some time has passed since the nuclear power plant accident but its still not completely safe. In the next 7 years, I hope Japan will take good steps to deal with the nuclear plant situation, and all other problems so that we can have a wonderful 2020 Summer Olympics.

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