The Historic Cartoon

I shall start off by saying politics is not a subject of interest for me. My lack of interest in the topic steams from a mixture of things. My knowledge of politic is one of my primary reasoning for having no interest in the subject. I’m just unaware of things in which are discussed with I politics. Its not that I don’t care about the topic, its more of a sense of not understanding what is actually going on and what politics deal with. I have tried speaking with others about the matter in efforts of being informed and trying to create an understanding of it, yet I have failed and I am still at level one in terms of politics. I have even played devil advocate in political conversations amongst friends, still no results. For this assignment I was hoping to find out a little more about politics by observing politics in pop culture.

The assignment was for us to view something that incorporated both, politics and pop culture. I decided that if anything in the world can help me understand an issue it would be no other than the beauty of cartoons. While searching for the cartoon that featured some form of politics, I stumbled across a few newspaper cartoon stories. The one that caught my dealt with the presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The purpose of the cartoon was actually in the title, “The Historic Next President.” Throughout the cartoon clippings Briscoe, the author of the cartoon, pokes fun at the thought of having either an African American man as the next president or a women running our country. The clips state that the democrats are trying to set history while the republicans are keeping it the same with another old white guy running. Maybe this is an inside joke because I didn’t get it. The cartoon even goes as far as questioning whether we shall be racist and not have Obama elected as president or sexist and not have Clinton elected as president. I understand its purpose is supposed to be humorous but with my lack of understanding politics I considered the jokes to be offensive to both the candidates if anything. The thought of being racist or sexist kind of takes away from a simple election in which people vote based on their acceptance of what is said by both candidates.

The book talks about how pop-culture does not promote radical quick change but rather progressive, slow change, this cartoon is a clarification of it. After reading through the clips I have not made any radical change in terms of politics, I am still unaware of the seriousness in politic. Only thing this clipping illustrated was that history is going to be made with the Democratic Party being represented by either a black male or a female. This cartoon would defiantly be categorized under micro political. It is the work of an individual trying to make sense out a political issue by putting his own touch on it. The author is simply voicing his opinions of a political issue.

Peeping Tom

The three places in which I chose to play peeping Tom was the library, grocery store and the recreation center. Just sitting back and evaluating individuals and how they carry themselves was kind of creepy. There are times in which I look or recognize something special or unique about someone but it always came as a surprised to my eyes.

My first place of observation was the Valley Library. I thought this would be an interesting location to observe people based on what the library is typically used for. When I think about library I think studying, reading meeting up with a group for a particular project. I figured since people were going to the library for the reason stated previous it really didn’t matter what people wore. In fact I had no idea it would be a fashion show. As I sat in the reading area pretending to read, I noticed that the library was indeed a resting or meeting place amongst friends before class. In other words it was a pit stop. There was plenty of diversity in what was being worn by individuals. Manly, shorts and summer clothing because the sun was out and it was nice out. Even the summer clothing differed, some guys wore cargo shorts, some wore basketball shorts and others wore jean shorts. The females were either in shorts or mini skirts with flip flops of some sort. It seemed as if everyone was happy and in a joyful mood during this period of the day.

Things were quite different later on at night in the library. Although it was the same place, it seemed as if the focus had shifted. Individuals came into the library in clothing’s that were comfortable, not really caring how they looked. The dress was sweatpants, shorts and sweatshirt for both male and female. The interaction amongst individuals also changed. It wasn’t a joyful mood; it was more of a dreading mood. It seems as if they were now forced to be in the library.

My next location of observation was the grocery store. This was an easy evaluation given that everyone individual I saw was a college student and dressed up in some sort of beaver athletic attire. I don’t recall anyone outside the workers wearing jeans in the store. It seem as if everyone was in there own zone in terms of reacting to one another. People were there for their own personal purpose which led to little interaction if any. As I walked ale to ale I observed individuals looking at their list and getting their necessary products and avoiding others at the same time.

I have no clue why I chose Dixon but I thought it would be interesting to see how people react differently to the way others dress. My first observation started on the lower level basketball courts. This was the perfect setting for this assignment. Individuals typically chose teams based on the type of gear someone is wearing. It happens all the time and it is hilarious that people are judged based on they present themselves instead of their actual skill. There was an older gentlemen waiting on the sidelines in cut jean shorts and some old Nikes tennis shoes. The man was waiting to play for several games, yet he continued to get passed up on by the younger students because of his attire. When the older man got his chance to play he amazed everyone. Long story short, the man could flat out play ball and he couldn’t even get a look or conversation with others because of the way he was dressed.

I think how an individual is dress truly dictates how much interaction he/she receives. People react differently to different people based on the way individuals are dressed. The example of my experience in Dixon was a prime example. As far as the grocery store, it was more about actually accomplishing something rather than presenting themselves. So I couldn’t really draw any conclusions on the level of reactions an individual received. The library was a different story; it was a fashion show by day and cram session by night. People were dressed to impress earlier in the day but as the day wore on the wardrobe of individuals became restless and semi- pajamas. I think different environments require different dress.

Mom and Dad

The growth of technology has made it easy for people to communicate with others. There are several ways in which individuals can communicate using technology. Cellular phones, email, instant message, pagers and last but not least there’s the good old land phone.

For this assignment, which happens to be my favorite, I was required to write a letter of appreciation to two different individuals. One letter had to be handwritten and the other had to be sent via email. My initial thought was the letter sent via email would have a quicker response than the handwritten letter. I figured email is easily to access and respond to compared to handwritten letters.

The two lucky recipients of these letters were my lovely parents. My pops is getting old and has trouble using the internet and checking his emails. My mother is getting younger and younger and is up to game with the latest technology. I thought it would be a fun challenge to both of them if I sent the handwritten letter to my mother and emailed the other letter to my father. My strategy was to have both individuals step outside their comfort zone and see which parent responded sooner.

As I sat down and wrote the letter to my mother, I began to get a weird feeling. I love my mom and all that good stuff, but it was weird writing her a letter. When I think of hand written letters I typically think of my high school sweet heart and I exchanging these three page letters to one another expressing are love for each other not thanking my mom for being the best mom in the world. I put my weird feelings aside and put the pen to the pad. I wrote my letter out to her and expressed how much appreciated her for all the things that she have done throughout my life.

My next victim was pops. I sent the old man an email similar to the one I sent my mother. While writing this email I became a little bit nervous. Nervous because my dad is too manly at times and I didn’t want to come off as this little softy. The letter required me to think a little bit. I had to think about what words to use so that I wouldn’t appear to be too sentimental. It was a very challenging task.

The first response was in and it was my mother. Either my father doesn’t love me or he is truly computer illiterate because I have yet to receive a response from him at all. The no response from my father steams from his culture not being to dependant on technology.

I think technology has given us an easier way of communicating. I think people look for easy ways of doing things and emailing an individual oppose to writing an individual is easier. It’s less time consuming to write an email because you aren’t in titled to run the letter down to the post office and wait for it to get shipped out. This is what our culture is built around, quick pace and easy.