Death Sentence to Furthermore Crimes

Death Sentence to Furthermore Crimes

Proposition for the Death Penalty

Submitted to: Mr. Garrioch

By: Lee Jun Suk (Seok)

Student ID: 111111

For: English Composition

On: Monday, June 11^th, 2012

We may feel the sense of horror and cruelty as the first impression towards the word ‘death penalty’. The action, killing a person, involved in this word gives us the sense that such proposition is barbaric and unethical. However, more rational approach beyond our emotional impression is required to see the real nature of this problem. Considering the effects that the death penalty towards the first-degree murderers will bring to our society, such as bringing upright order of the society, deterring the future crimes, and reducing the burden of the society for keeping a prisoner, proposition is reasonable and thus should be adapted to our society.

First of all, the death penalty benefits the society in the aspect that it brings upright order of the society. J. Budziszewki, Professor of Government and Philosophy at the Univerisity of Texas, speaks clearly about this point:

"Society is justly ordered when each person receives what is due to him. Crime disturbs this just order, for the criminal takes from people their lives, peace, liberties, and worldly goods in order to give himself undeserved benefits. Deserved punishment protects society morally by restoring this just order, making the wrongdoer pay a price equivalent to the harm he has done. This is retribution, not to be confused with revenge, which is guided by a different motive. In retribution the spur is the virtue of indignation, which answers injury with injury for public good.”(Budziszewki)

The purpose of punishment in some perspective is to give the suspected one the fair price for his action. If one does not get adequate penalty, it would harm the just order of the society. Some counter-argument for this statement will be provided in the manner that the death penalty will just play as a revenging tool, but the death penalty, which is retribution of the crime, is different from revenge in the aspect that retribution is acted until punishment is fair while revenge is acted until grievance is vanished. Also the aspect that the goal of retribution is to achieve just order of the society while goal of revenge is to achieve one’s pleasure makes the difference. Thus, the death penalty should be done in the manner of retribution of the crime in order to bring just order within the society.

Second, the death penalty fulfills a responsibility to protect the lives of innocent citizens, and enacting the death penalty may save lives by reducing the rate of violent crime. In recent years, there were some cases where the imprisoned first-degree murderers came back to the society and committed revenge to the family of victims for putting him in jail. The victims of the crime will live in fear of meeting again the criminal if the criminal has a chance of coming back to the society. The opposition, the advocates of the murderers’ rights, has to think about threatened human rights and endangered lives of victims before claiming human rights of murderers. In addition, the death penalty benefits the society by contributing in reducing the crime rate. For the case of Kansas, the murder rates per 100,000 inhabitants slowly reduced from 6.7 in 1994 to 3.5 in 2010 as they started the execution of the death penalty in 1994. The case of New York clearly shows the effect of death penalty as it is the state where it adopted death penalty in 1995 and ended the death penalty in 2007. The murder rate per 100,000 inhabitants in New York was increasing from 9.5 in 1985 to 13.3 in 1993. As it adopted the death penalty at 1995, it experienced gradual decrease from 8.5 in 1995 to 4.5 in 2010. The opposition for death penalty claims that it will have no impact in eliminating the further crimes, since one does not really think of death sentence he will get in the moment he commits a crime, but the result clearly shows the success of death penalty. The reason for this success can be found out in the social atmosphere it creates. Once the death penalty is announced within the society, the social atmosphere towards crimes will become very cold thus awakening collective intelligence for the murders. Not only statistics show the evidence of effectiveness of death penalty, but also the researches show the evidence. “I personally am opposed to the death penalty,” said H. Naci Mocan, an economist at Louisiana State University and an author of a study finding that each execution saves five lives. “But my research shows that there is a deterrent effect.”(Liptak)

Last but not least, the death penalty lessens the burdens of the society that occurs from keeping more prisoners. If death penalty is not on its place, more funding should be made for keeping murderers at prisons. "We particularly need the support and cooperation of the legislature with the immediate funding and implementation of AB 109," California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Matthew Cate said in a statement (Martinez). Also, the director of Shrewsbury prison, Juliet Lyon, said: "Simply building more prisons is an expensive dead end. The only way to reserve prison for serious and violent offenders is to cut out all unnecessary use of breach and remand and tackle sentence inflation and the growth of indeterminate punishments (The Guardian). As more people commit crimes and therefore the demand for rooms for prisoners at instant moment is increasing at a great slope, some policy should be done about this problem. Not only spaces are the problems, but also the financial support for prisoners’ food is a considerable problem. We have to give them sufficient amount of food each day, and the financial burden of the society occurs at this moment. This money is based on the taxes gathered from innocent citizens, so the increase in the burden of society means the increase in the burden of innocent citizens right away. Death policy can solve out this two problems right away.

Opposition of the death penalty always argues that death policy is harming the basic human rights of the people by getting away their lives without their free wills. Yes, the death policy may indeed be killing a person. However, we have to think about the preventative role it will play for the society. People including victims don’t have to live in fear for meeting previous murderers, enjoy better lives with less murder rates, can spend less money for making the living for murderers. Considering the death penalty in those senses, I think the death penalty should be adapted in our society for less crime, for better future.

References

Martinez, Michael. “California officials: We'll fix prison crowding, won't free 33,000.” CNN, 24 May 2011.

The Guardian. “Two-thirds of prisons overcrowded.” The Guardian, 25 Aug. 2009.

Budziszewski. “Capital Punishment: The Case for Justice," OrthodoxyToday.org, Aug. 2004.

Liptak, Adam. “Does Death Penalty Save Lives? A New Debate.” The New York Times, 18 Nov. 2007.

THIS HOUSE SUPPORTS THE DEATH PENALTY

     Actually, this was the first debate topic that I've got when I was on the debate team in my middle school. I chose this topic not just because this issue is familiar to me, but because this is what I really advocate on. Living in Korea for more than 17 years now, I heard too much about hideous crimes and too weak punishments. Also I heard numerous cases where weak punishments about the first-degree murderer led to more grudge crimes. Murderers who had fulfilled sentences often went to kill witnesses, prosecutors, or other people involved in the court case.
     The most common opposite argument for this issue would be about the basic human rights of that criminal. They might say, even though what they have done is against our ethics and is wrong, we still don't have right to take away their rights. Furthermore, they will also argue about the sadness and tragedy that will occur to the family and close friends of the one. However, I will rebut this argument by giving two arguments which will support death penalty policy.
      The first supporting argument will be about preventative role it will play for the society. If weak punishments occurs steadily, gradually people will have less awareness about committing crimes. This will then lead to the increase in the number of crimes. The death penalty will play preventative role for further crimes and will therefore stabilize the society.
      The second argument that the proposition side can bring is that the death penalty prevents the accused from committing further crimes. As mentioned above, accused will have hatred towards the prosecutors and eventually, as other cases show us, will lead to other crimes. The death penalty for first degree murderers will thus prevent possible crime that can happen in the future.
       With those two main arguments, I strongly support for the adoption of death penalty in Korea.



Soon, I will equip myself with bunch of evidences and statistics and come back! :)

Movie scenario in free format - Garrioch's IR class

I found this idea when I was working on the Eng. class with Mrs. Choi. I was left with a piece of story, so I just put myself to work on finishing it and revising it. I will turn this piece into movie scenario by final draft soon! :)

After writing this, I feel that this is very similar to <Jigsaw>............

Decision

With shivering, you open your eyes. You are lying on the bed which is very strange. You take a look at the ceiling which is white. Turning your head, you look all four side of the room that you are in. It is all white. No spots but pure white is glancing at you. Neither chair nor any furniture is in this room. By looking at these white walls, you find yourself feel dizzy and ill. Trying to escape from those, you close your eyes. You feel better.

After about ten minutes (you are not sure because, again, there was nothing including the clock), you feel your stomach longing for a food to eat. You open your eyes once again to search for a food. By taking a close look, you find a square line in the wall that you didn’t realize before. It is like a window. You can’t open it because there is no knob. But when you were just about to crush it, the window suddenly opens. There, you find a piece of bread with a cup of milk in a square hole. you search for if there is any crack to break and escape, but it is perfect.

Soon after you finish your meal, there is a sound whelming the whole empty room.

“How was your meal? I hope you liked it because it can be the only thing to eat when you choose to stay here…... Oh, I see you wrinkling your eyebrows. From that reaction, I guess you really don’t want to stay here. Okay. I will let you take a chance to leave this room. Remember, it is only a chance. I will not let you run away easily. But don’t be frustrated. I’m only going to let you make some choices. Not that hard, not that many. Only Five choices are for you to make. But be careful, once you make those decisions, it would be irreversible. If you want to join this game, please push the door in your left. If you don’t want to, you can stay here for your rest of your life. I will provide you enough food to survive. Now, here is your first choice to make. Show me.”

     What the heck! You try to realize what led you to this Damn situation, but you couldn’t remember a thing! You even forgot your name! It is like there was an eraser in your head.

     After few thoughts, you make up your mind to take a chance to escape from here. You are sure that if you stay here anymore days, you would get insane. So, you turn left and make few approaches to the door that you didn’t realize before. Like the window, there is a big square line. The voice accepts your sign and let you pass the door. Through the hallway, you find another room with a door like the one before. It automatically opens. There you see a room that is very similar to the one which you were in, Except that there is no bed. Instead, there is a sleeping bag in the left of the room and there seems to be a person in there. On the right side, there is a TV. A reporter and interviewees are having a conversation and there are few people walking in the street. The Voice comes just right after when you wanted to have a explanation,.

           Seems to be frustrated, right? I’ll tell you how to make a decision. It’s simple. You have to choose between the man in the sleeping bag, the people in TV, and yourself. There is a button for each object on the door to next room. You push a button for the one you would kill. Then the way will reveal itself. But remember, it’s irreversible.

     Shocked at the very first moment, you soon grasp your concentration. What shall you choose? The one in a sleeping bag? people in TV? You?

Wait a second! Is there a guarantee that he will be able to kill people in TV? The voice might have a way to kill the one in the sleeping bag but there is no way it could kill all those people in TV. You soon approach to the button of the people in TV. When thoughts were spread to this, the voice speaks as if your mind is being read.

      You shouldn’t dare to choose the TV because you think I couldn’t kill them. As an example, I will kill one of people in TV. Hope you enjoy~.

Only after a second the voice gives a laughter, the one behind the reporter fall down all at sudden in a crosswalk and the car gets to tear him apart as if to make you sure that he surely died and it is not a coincidence. Screams of the people fulfills whole screen and the camera gets to be shaken for a while. You change the channel just to see if it’s fake, but other TV channels soon also reports this accident. Turn to the weather channel to see if it’s today, and you get shocked to see that it is today: The situation on the TV was real.

You stop your finger that was having its way to press the button for the TV, and panic for a while. You did nothing but just questioning the ability of the voice. However, some pressure gets to be felt in your heart. You feel guilty for it.

Now it’s obvious that this is not some kind of joke. You get to know the seriousness of situation and have a little more thought about it. Who will you choose?

Yes. You chose the one in the sleeping bag. Of course, you don’t dare to kill yourself. For the people in the TV, you think sacrificing all of them just to save one isn’t right. So you made a decision to kill the one in the sleeping bag. For the sake of more people, you think this sacrifice is justifiable.

Back to the room, there is no sound: screaming and yelling from the pain of death by the one in the sleeping bag. Only a dreadful twist in the bag makes you to realize that there was a human in the bag.

When the door opens you head right away to the next room as if you want to get rid of the decision you made. Right behind you, the button for your life, which is floating in the air, chases you tenaciously like your desire to survive.

Ah, there is a room that is very similar to the ones you met before. This time, only difference is that you have a miniature of an airplane on your right instead of TV. You know the rules.

Only this time, it took less minutes to decide. You know what you chose. This time, the one in the sleeping bag makes more harsh reaction. The one twist its own body as if it gets to be poked everywhere. By its bounce, the whole room gets to be quaked for a while. After few minutes, its reaction gets to be gradually abated, then after few more seconds, it remains still.

Unlike the one you met first, this time you don’t actually try to hide or get away from it. You watch the whole reaction like a baby try to learn something. You shake your head to wake yourself up, and go straight away to the next room. The button for your life chases you tenaciously again. Two more decisions left to make.

Again, you see similar room. You have nothing to be amazed about this room because you are quite adapted to see this room, but you get to be horrified by the object that is on your right. It is a globe.

But this amazement doesn’t change your decision. In fact, it accelerates your decision. Now, your finger presses the button automatically without any trouble.

The reaction has been exacerbated. This time, the one doesn’t only twists its whole body as if got electric shock, but also shouts and expresses its death agony. Its voice seems to be familiar to you, but you don’t have time to think about this. Your only concern is to get out of this maze and there is one more decision to go.

But your door doesn’t open unlike it had been. After few minutes of waiting, you scream and shout eagerly for the door. You try to crash the door and try to kick the door to make open, but it doesn’t work. The voice has come.

    Don’t be overwhelmed by your bad temper for I’m going to let you go. Go to where? To the real world. To where you longed for. Excited, right? Then please make your own way to the door. I will open it for you, and make sure to bring your button with you. It was so great to have time with you and I will delightfully wait to watch your last decision in the real world. Bye.

There, the door opened and the light that is very warm oozed. You grasp your button in your right hand tightly and slowly walks to that door like a soldier camouflaged in the forest. You get to speed up slowly and finally you put the first step on the other side of that door.

Because of bright light that were shining on you, you couldn’t open your eyes, instead, you grope for the right way to go. One, two, four, ten, fifteen, thirty, hundred steps it became and you finally reached the end.

Yes! It is something different than white! Instead, the mood seems to be gloomy and black is the major color and concept of this situation! It is a real world! I could see a lot of people standing in the black suit. But, wait. Where are you standing?

By the mood and clothing of people I can guess that this is a funeral. Funeral for whom? You break in the troop of people and go to the front of the troop. There, you saw some pictures that are in a frame with two black lines on the upper side. They are pictures of your dear friend, your dad, and your mom.

Still for a while, you make a final irreversible decision. Like the rat in the last.

Where do you see when you walk? (Photo Essay)

Where do you see when you walk? (Photo Essay)

Junsuk Lee

<Polaris>

Sometimes I feel like everything is so vague. I feel like I'm walking on a cloud. Try not to fall, I always lowered my head and looked at the path just in front of my toes. In that way, I was able to be ensured that I'm actually 'walking', and I'm not falling to the ground.

These sentences may seem abstract, but these describe my behavior towards life at my very best. People say in life there are three kinds of goals which you can look up to and aim for. First is long-term goal, second is mid-term goal, and the last is short-term goal. Above these three kinds of goals, I only aimed at the last one: short-term goal. Maybe it was because long-term goal and mid-term goal seemed so vague. Maybe it's because I felt insecure just to look at long-term goals. I only had one pair of eyes, so to choose from those, I only aimed at short-term goals, until there was a change in my life at middle school.

So basically what I did in my middle school was just focusing on what was given by teachers. I tried to participate in class, do well on given projects, get good scores on given exams. What they just asked me was quite simple, and after finishing what was given, I went  out and hung around with my friends, usually heading to karaoke or PC room. Yes. I was passive. I didn't really had concerns about what I'm going to be at future. All that mattered to me was the present.

But fortunately, there was a strong impulse from the heaven. A series of coincidence that led me to KMLA were given in my path and captured my very narrow perspective. I unintentionally was able to be a member in Korean debate team of my school, and that year, surprisingly being fortunate, middle school debate competition managed by the mayor of the Namyangju city was first held. Because it was the first competition held ever, it was quite easy to acquire the high place. And also thanks to the other two excellent members in my team, I was lucky to get the first place in the first held Namyangju city middle school debate competition.

Then, based on the first place we've acquired on city-level competition, I was able to participate in provincial debate competition. Already expected, it was much harder than city-level competition. After having a rigorous debate with Chung-Shim International Middle-school, we decisively lost and had to be satisfied getting the 4th place.

Those coincidence was already too much for me. However, it didn't stop as the phone bell rang to my adviser teacher from Chung-Shim middle school after a year passed from those fortunes. They asked me and my teammates to join their debate team going out for KMLA Middle School Debate Contest, since it required four members. They said they got good impression of us at the competition, and called us when the members were needed. One of three members in each team now had graduated, so without fight we four had united and went again to the ruthless battlefield; this time, as allies.

I'd say this time it was very unlucky because we only got 4th place. Every team in the debate said that we deserve the first place, but somehow we couldn't satisfy the evaluators and only had to cease our march at the semi-final.

But the matter of getting the first place or fourth place is not important here. What is important is that somehow the impulse of coincidence led me to look at KMLA. A bunch of series of coincidence led me to actually see KMLA and dream of myself going to KMLA. I even had insomnia because I couldn't stop thinking about the life of KMLA and preparing for the entrance interview. Other than playing guitar, it was the first goal I actively dreamed of. It was my first mid-term goal.

So my sight had been upraised. I was now trying to see a little bit more than what was given at my toes. I now aimed for mid-term goal: going to KMLA. For the first few months, it was so hard to manage to look at both goals. I had to focus on the study for KMLA math and Korean language contest while getting high enough scores on my current school. But after finally getting the entrance letter from KMLA, I now got used to it, and now searched for the profound goal: the long-term goal.

As it always did, the coincidence again happened upon me. On my usual way to home from school, I saw a poor street-food selling old man. He was selling sugar cookie (뽑기/Bbob-Ki). Seeing this old man had so much importance on my life and on my vision, because I saw a little printed title in his bike: "National Honorees".

As far as I know, the title "National Honorees" was only given to people who almost sacrificed their lives. And the man in front of me earned that title. But looking at his status quo, I just couldn't understand this country. How could they treat him like this when he devoted his life for this country? I was very shocked at that moment that I even still remember the menu and the price of sugar cookies; 1 for 300 won and 3 for 800 won. I didn't know anything for sure, but I knew something was wrong. This surely inspired me and led me to have interest in politics. This was the seed for my profound thoughts about what I am going to be when I go up. And because of big influence this had on my mind, I sort of became muckrakers and dreamed of myself at future changing my nation. From this moment, I settled up my mind and found my own long-term goal: becoming the President of South Korea.

And that picture is related to my ambitious long-term goal. On the winter of 2011, I fortunately had a chance to go to Yeoido Youth Forum for students who are interested in politics, and was lucky to go to National Assembly of Korea. That picture above is the picture that I've taken in National Assembly. The background image is a imitation of the office of the President. It was just a imitation. Yet, I felt something overwhelming my entire body, and came to have confidence at my marathon to achieve my long-term goal.

Still, nothing changed. Still my long-term goal, becoming the President of South Korea,  is ambiguous because of its significance and its characteristic. There are no such things as guidelines or degrees to become the President. You have to make up your own way. However, I am now able to manage to look at short-term goals, mid-term goals, long-term goals at the same time. Sequentially looking at all three goals one by one was what I found as a solution to manage three goals at the same time. Whenever I become lazy or obsessed with current problems, I try to look at my long-term goal and shave myself again to achieve my bright future. I sometimes use this photo as a mean to keep me conscious and restrain myself from being lazy. Walking with your eyes only focused right in front of your toes may prevent you from falling, but it wouldn't lead you to anywhere. You at least need Polaris to find your current location and final destination. And this photo is a compass and Polaris for my ambitious goal.

Photo Essay!

I recently had a trip to myself, thanks to the photo essay that Mr. Garrioch has given us. I needed to find some photos that I've taken, and through the process I realized that I didn't took much of photos. There were things I really wanted to say about myself, but I couldn't find appropriate photos that will supplement my essay. Considering the amount of photos that I'm available with, this assignment, photo essay, seemed really IMPOSSIBLE.

However, thanks to my peers, I was able to find some good photos of me which I can interpret and explain about myself. So here are some lists of them which I want to use in  my photo essay:

Lay Down On The Lie - three sides story

Lay Down On The Lie - Three sides story

Paul Junsuk Lee

Doctor Graham - 1^st perspective

I’m sick of watching their faces as I tell them a ‘death sentence’. They treat us similarly to the judges of the court. Yet the judge actually contributes in making the decision, but we, doctors, do nothing in making the news. We are in fact just delivering the news. Despite this bitter fact, everyone who comes to my office and hears about their sickness and how much time they are left with begs me all the time. I hate their begging. I hate their cacophonic noise. I hate their deafened cries. I hate their tears. I hate myself who can do nothing in this kind of situation.

Above all, what puts me into the most vicious dilemma is whether to tell the patient about their serious disease or not. After telling them their diseases, I just can seat and watch. In that situation I feel no guiltiness (but maybe some annoyance) since it has nothing to do with me, but this situation, when I have to choose whether to tell the patient the truth or not, really knocks me off.

“Doctor?” said a woman sitting in front of me who curiously and anxiously watch my lips for the answer.

Oh, yes. I was having a meeting with Lucy Anderson, the wife of the patient named Paul Anderson. She came to my office to hear about the result of examination of her husband. As you expect, the result was pitiful; he could only live up to a week at the maximum.

“Oh, yes, madam. I was kind of out of my mind. You see, this job really drives the one insane.” But these light words and light smile didn’t really lessen the concern of the one in my front.

“So what’s the result, Dr. Graham?”

“Well…… Before I tell you the result, I ask for your understanding that I really tried my best to,” Before I even finish my sentence, she burst into tears.

I then waited few minutes for her to calm down. She finally accepted her situation.

“So what’s the result?” She murmured. Now I need a straight fastball for this woman to fully accept the reality.

“A cancer: Gastric cancer in the very last stage. You may have to prepare for the parting. He may not see the sunrise next Monday.”

One thing is very clear. You may hesitate to tell the truth to the patient, but you should never hesitate to tell the truth to the family of the patient. The reality is so harsh. They HAVE to prepare for the funeral.

“Mrs. Anderson, I didn’t tell Mr. Anderson about this yet. I’ll leave this job to you. You may choose whether to tell him or not.”

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Lucy Anderson – 3^rd perspective

‘How rude and ruthless man this doctor is? He could have addressed those words nicely to me, but he showed me no concern of how would I feel.’ She complained in her mind. Her hands were shaking endlessly, so she hid them under the desk and placed on her thighs.

“So is there no way that he can survive?” Nevertheless she couldn’t hide the shaking in her voice.

“There are always possibilities. It’s just that they are sometimes too low. Well, Mrs. Anderson, I recommend you to not rely on those possibilities this time.”

All of his words were slamming her heart. She couldn’t endure more, so she got up and left the room. He slashed her heart, so does she did with the door.

As she walked through the aisle of the hospital and went to the elevator, her only thoughts were restrained to the ‘job’ and the ‘choice’ she now has to make. On her way to the parking lot where her husband was waiting in the car, she went to the restroom. A silent cry then fulfilled the room. After few minutes, the door was open, and after few more minutes, she came out with her tears hidden by the make-up. But still she couldn’t hide her blurred cheeks.

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Paul Anderson – 2^nd perspective

You are waiting in the car. You actually saw everything. When your wife drove into the parking lot and asked you to wait in the car while she gets the result of the examination, you sneaked up on her and followed her just before she went into Dr. Graham’s office. You slowly took a step forward to the door, and through the chink of the slightly opened door, you hear EVERYTHING. Feeling dizzy and hard to breathe, you ran to the parking lot. You try to escape from the reality, but you fail and stops right before the parking lot. Feeling dizzy and hard to breathe, you go to the restroom. You pour water to your face several times, but you couldn’t wake up from this hurtful reality. You then lay powerlessly.

‘So f**ked up’, you think.

‘I’ve done nothing wrong. I didn’t smoke, I didn’t drink, and I didn’t do anything wrong to others to get this awful situation. I don’t deserve this.’

Just as soon as you were about to throw your phone, you hear a small cry that is more like a murmuring. You feel familiar with that voice, and soon you realize that the voice is the voice of your wife. The pity for yourself now alters to the pity for your wife, thinking how she would have been surprised to hear it directly and how hard it will be to live after you die. As your thoughts flow like this, small noise stops. You, then run to your car and sat there as if nothing happened. After few more minutes, your wife approaches to you and sit in the driver seat.

“Um… so what’s the result?” Already knowing the truth, you still ask this question to act normally.

“Well, the doctor says it’s quite infectious, but nothing serious.” She clearly speaks after gathering her voice for few seconds.

“Quite infectious, you say? Ah, don’t worry. I’m not gonna infect this to you.” You wittily say.

She bitterly smiles, and the air inside the car becomes silent. About 10 minutes later, you arrive at your home.

“Before going in, would you like to have some Ddeokbokki(떡볶이), honey?” She asks.

“No thanks, not this time, I’m quite full.” You reply.

“What about some chips?”

“Uhm…. Nope.”

“Some fishcakes(어묵)? It’s your favorite food.”

You don’t really want it, but it seems like she is so eager to buy something for you, so you accept.

After buying some fishcakes(어묵), you and your wife walk into the apartment. The air is so cold. In the elevator going up to 11^th floor, you and your wife avoids eye-contact. Eyes are only moving meaninglessly, and then dropped, meaninglessly gazing at the ground.

You step forward on the elevator reaches 11^th floor and you stand right in front of the door lock. You slowly put in the passwords.

She suddenly hugs you from the back.

“Let’s just be like this for a minute…….” She says with somber voice.

“Come on, honey. You’ll be infected.” You brightly say to chill out her.

“I…. wish I could get infected……” Her voice slowly starts to crumble.

You slowly grab the hands hugging your waist. She then lays her head to you.

The Movie Pitch of "Regret"

The Movie Pitch of “Regret”

Christian Joseph, who is now a divorcee, walks into his apartment. Through the window, he sees the colorless world; a city of grey. He, standing in the middle of the living room and watching the grayish sunset, takes out his 9mm pistol from the right pocket of his trench coat. He then brings the mouth of his pistol to his head. His pistol, shaking eagerly to eat his head, approaches slowly and steadily to his head, inch-by-inch. Now only 4 inches left, his pistol stops but still shaking. His forefinger now fumbles to search for the trigger, and when it finally touches, it firmly twines the trigger. After few seconds, his forefinger pulls the trigger. The bullet moves forward to Joseph’s head, but gradually time slows down and so does the bullet. When the bullet finally touches Joseph’s head, it stops. All becomes dark at sudden.

He, frustrated by the unexpected situation, tries to move, but his effort is vain. Somehow his consciousness thinks of situation as a lock in a door. And when he thinks of the image of ‘key’, all becomes white at sudden.

When his eyes finally adapts to the light, he is floating in the ceiling of a room in the hospital. There he sees the doctors and the nurses all standing around a women, who tries to give birth to her little baby. Along the doctors, he sees a familiar face; his dad. He now realizes that this is the moment of his birth. He is then sucked into the flesh of baby, and all becomes dark again.

When he blinks his eye, he is now 17 years old, standing in the aisle of his high school. There he sees his first-love, but she is in blurred image. All, even the color of tile, is lucid but her face is dim. He then acts as he did in the past: being so shy to confront her. He always tries to see her face but when the chance comes and she looks at him, he turns his head.

When he blinks again, he now is in the cafeteria with a girl who later becomes his wife. He then enjoys wonderful time dating with her. Everything seems so bright when he is with her.

A sheet of paper slapping his face, he blinks his eyes again. At first he doesn’t realize what is going on, but not long after, he realizes that it’s the time of his divorce. He and his wife now have married and have a daughter and a son. They had a wonderful time until his business went wrong and they are on the huge debt. Sick of paying debts penny-by-penny and hiding from creditors, his wife finally declare a divorce. He is astonished and frustrated. With his eyes out of focus, he signs the sheet and leaves the house.

Finally it comes to the present where he enters his apartment. He grabs the knob of the door. Before he turns the knob, he once again thinks of his life. He now regrets his attempt to suicide. But this regret was the ‘key’ to his door. He tries to change his destiny, but he still turns the knob and goes into his apartment. Being irresistible, his face is now distorted by the fear and the regret. But still he can’t change anything. He takes out his gun and aim at his head. He yells but it’s no use. It only echoes in his mind. His forefinger now grabs and pulls the trigger. This time, time doesn’t slow down. The bullet finally penetrates his head.

By the reaction of the gun, he falls to the left. Then he looks at the window again. Everything becomes colorful, and there he sees the red sunset burning the sky with zeal.

All rights reserved to Paul Junsuk Lee

For more information, please contact Paul Junsuk Lee by paul2202@naver.com or 010-5191-7672

Brainstorming!

Recently, we, students who take English Composition class from Mr. Garrioch, got an assignment to write a story that is depicted in three different perspectives.

After getting this assignment, I really had to think deeply about the situation of the story that I'm going to write about which should be possible to be described in three different perspectives.

Love triangle was the first thing that I thought of, but that really seemed dull. Furthermore, I didn't have the confidence to write a masterpiece that could shake up the previous works  done about this topic. I was also so shy.

So, this is what I finally brought as the summary of my story. I'm going to write about a man who has a cancer and inevitably has to face his death. He can only live up to 5 days at maximum. The doctor of this guy knows this fact but hides this from the patient, because counting D-day to die would be disastrous to him. He but then tells this fact to the family of this patient, because they at least have to prepare for his death and his funeral.

I'll write the perspectives from this three characters, the patient, the doctor, and the family member (probably wife). However, if this was all, it would be banal, having no difference from other people. So, I'll use a twist; the patient knew that he was going to die after all!

So, the order of my story will go like this. First, it will be written in the perspective of the doctor as the third-person narrative form. Doctor will tell the family of the patient that 'bad news', will eventually see the grief in this family. He then will have to face a dilemma whether he have to tell his patient this news or not.

A family member of the patient (probably wife), will at first be shocked. She(/he) will then cluster one's mind and tries to act normally. Smiling in front of this patient and planning what they will going to do after the one recovers will burden this one a lot.

Twist will happen at here, when the story starts to be described in the perspective of the patient in first person narrative form. He accidentally had heard what the doctor said to his family member. First he will get upset, couldn't accept his destiny, but as soon as he sees his family members trying to ensure him by acting normal, he feels great gratitude and feel sorry to his family for leaving them so soon. He until the end hides the fact that he actually knows his death, because he thinks that this is what they want and is what it should be.

The Direction of the Anti Wal-Mart Movement: Right Arrow in the Wrong Direction (revised)

The Direction of the Anti Wal-Mart Movement:

Right Arrow in the Wrong Direction

There are packs of files of information that tell you about the harms of Wal-Mart. As can be seen in the documentary, “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price,” Wal-Mart does both illegal and legal policies in order to lower their prices. For instance, they hire their employees with low wage and insufficient health insurance, block the establishment of labor unions, and commit discrimination of labor fee to female workers over male workers. Because of those actions, the anti Wal-Mart movement is quite popular all over the world. In addition, considering the harmful effect Wal-Mart brings into local society by forcing small markets to shut down while increasing the rate of unemployment, it seems inevitable to aim at Wal-Mart with “an arrow of anger.” However, we have to be careful in pulling off the bowstring. We have to consider whom we are really aiming at, and how we are going to proceed before we shoot our arrow.

The anti Wal-Mart movement itself is a nice adage to the anti movement of monopoly and corrupted capitalism, but the way that this movement proceeds makes my head shake. From my personal view, the current Anti Wal-Mart movement focuses on the less important issues, and the way it moves forward seems to be just aimed at “killing Wal-Mart.” “Killing Wal-Mart” is not the absolute solution we have. Even if we kill Wal-Mart for now, other disastrous big companies can still emerge in the future which will eventually become another “Wal-Mart.” Thus, the anti Wal-Mart movement should not just stop at stopping Wal-Mart, but should reach further, so that we can prevent greed-driven companies similar to Wal-Mart from ever emerging again in the future. In order to do so, I want to focus on three main problems within the anti Wal-Mart movement to think and discuss.

 My first question is, who are the ones that are crucified by Wal-Mart the most, and thus have to be saved in the first place? No doubt that Wal-Mart’s employees are the urgent ones, but are they really the worst treated people related to Wal-Mart? Most people, at first glance, might think that the problem with employee treatment is only limited to those who are directly employed by Wal-Mart itself. And that is what is going now on the anti Wal-Mart movement; taking most of its focus at increasing welfare of direct employees of Wal-Mart. However, this employment and payment problem rests more deeply and involves more people. Given its network of suppliers and contractors, Wal-Mart's influence is far-reaching in driving down wages in its manufacturers and service suppliers across our nation and the world (Newman). In order to lower the price, Wal-Mart squeezes its subcontractors. If the one cannot satisfy the demand of Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart ceases its trade with that company and looks for a new one which can satisfy its greed. Gradually, trying not to lose their work, subcontractors supply until the price is so low that they earn zero-profit. Thus, employees of Wal-Mart subcontractors are the most vulnerable ones that are in the worst condition. But watching the mainstream media of the anti Wal-Mart movement, it seems that the problem with subcontractors is only raised within minority people. Considering the harsh conditions that subcontractors are in, the anti Wal-Mart movement should broaden its path to include more urgent issues like this one.

Secondly, there is a certain ideology that we have to challenge in order to prevent big companies like Wal-Mart from ever existing; consumerism. Consumerism, by its definition, means the social and economic order based on fostering a desire to purchase goods and services in ever greater amounts. In other words, consumerism is the ideology that puts consumers’ desire as the first thing to consider in the market. The reason why consumerism is important is because it is the way Wal-Mart behaves; Wal-Mart puts its best focus on satisfying consumers. As a way to do that, they chose lower prices. Basically, Wal-Mart could not have grown huge like this if it weren’t popular among consumers. Wal-Mart doesn’t hold a gun to your head (Reason TV). They have gotten bigger because of us. While we criticize Wal-Mart for its mistreatment of producers, we, as a consumer, welcome Wal-Mart. This is the problem. This is well touched on by Steve Dobbins, president of thread maker Carolina Mills, who said "We want clean air, clear water, good living conditions, the best health care in the world--yet we aren't willing to pay for anything manufactured under those restrictions" (Fishman, Charles). In order to solve Wal-Mart problems from the base, we have to change the way we consume. We should not consume goods only based on the price, but also based on the information of how that good was made. If change in the consuming behavior does not occur, we cannot prevent big companies from abusing monopoly power based on squeezing the producers. Furthermore, we will not have to right to criticize them since they are the creation of our consuming behavior.

The third point that I’d like to bring up is that the “arrow of anger” should be aimed at government, not at specific corporations. In other words, the responsibility of current issue is on the government, not on those corporations. This can be effectively explained by this question: “Did corporations end slavery, or did the government end slavery?” (Reason TV). Because corporations are made to satisfy private interest, we cannot just expect them to behave according to ethics. In addition, that is the reason why government exists: to mediate conflict between the two companies working for its own private interests, since they cannot (and don’t have to) regulate their interests themselves. So, if a corporation like Wal-Mart has done legal activity and it had still harmed people, it is the government’s problem for not establishing the right regulations. Accordingly, if a corporation has committed illegal activity, it is still the government’s problem because the government failed to prevent and control illegal activity.

The anti Wal-Mart movement is not just a movement that is against a certain company called Wal-Mart. Rather, what it symbolizes (and should symbolize) is an anti movement towards monopoly and corrupted capitalism. To keep cutting the stems of weeds is a wasteful activity. To prevent weeds from ever growing, we have to pull them up from the root. This applies similarly to anti company movements. Anti company movements focused on killing a specific company are wasteful. Rather, we have to find a solution that can cut the root of the problems. To sum up, the direction of the anti Wal-Mart movement, I insist, should be reorganized and must contain these three points: more focus on subcontractors, demand in change of our consuming behavior, and demand for government regulation.



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Works Cited

Reason TV. "Peter Schiff at Occupy Wall Street: Wal-mart Doesn’t Hold a Gun to Your Head!” Reason TV, 27 Oct. 2011. Web. 04 Mar. 2012.

Newman, Nathan. "Taking on Wal-Mart and its Subcontractors." 01 June 2004. Web. 5 Mar. 2012.

Fishman, Charles. “The Wal-Mart You Don’t Know” 19 Dec. 2007. Web. 19 Feb. 2012 

Critical Analysis of "Catfish"

* This analysis may contain some spoilers about the movie "Truman Show" & "Catfish"!



The first movie I thought after clustering my mind was the "Truman Show."

It is the movie of the protagonist named "Truman" living an artificial life that was shaped and carved by other people. His life was taken by camera to every people. His life was involuntarily devoted to the audiences of the TV series of his life. The place where he lives is a gigantic dome made as a stage for his life. All of his near-by people were actors and actresses, even his wife and his family. All, even climate, surrounding him was controlled.

This movie, "Truman Show", FRUSTRATED me. I came to doubt everything that seemed real in the idea that all could be unreal, like the "Truman Show". However, I escaped this terrible idea very quickly since this movie was not based on the real incident, but on just HYPOTHETICAL thinking. The fact that this movie was not based on the reality soothed me a lot.

However, this movie "Catfish" is shaking me more than what the "Truman Show" did. Now the fact (although some say it's not fact) that this movie is true distorts my mind. The Maginot Line that kept me sane is collapsed now. It's total confusion for me now.

However, despite the matter whether this movie is true or not, I think this movie had done wonderful job in asking this question, "Can you be sure in anything that it's true?" Not the summary of the movie but the movie itself is raising this issue! In this part, they SURE got me!

Lie! Deceit! Malice!

"Truman Show" was telling me that ALL around you was fake, and that was the reason why I was not terrified a lot (because it was less convincing for me compared to "Catfish"). "Catfish" now tells me that some part of my life can be fake and this seems more possible and more believable to me. Less the scale of lie is, more believable it is. But continuing this idea, I found out that my horror is for no such thing. We are fooled by some lies (some small, some big) everyday. We all are sometimes fooled and get angry to liars, but why are we not shocked a lot by those small lies? Maybe it's because it destroys only small part of our life.

So, I came up with the conclusion that the shock we feel from lies are proportional to their scale. This seems pretty obvious but this conclusion gave me an idea which was obscure to me: We are so much dependent of our backgrounds. Some might call this view materialism, but no matter what they call and what they criticize this idea for, I strongly believe in this idea after taking a look at my natural horror when suddenly all my surroundings seemed to collapse. Maybe we are only the reflection of our surroundings. Maybe we are only the reaction of our surrounding actions. Maybe we are only the mirror.
I came to understand what Aristotle said: Man is by nature a social animal.

Having this understanding, I came to love everything that was surrounding me. My family, my friends, my school KMLA, teachers I know, things I have. They were so usual to me like the air, that I got used to them and forgot their values. They were desperately needed for me every time like the air. Some who lack those that l have may be zealous about me for having those. The bad part is, I don't get to feel their importance since they are right next to me. We always forget importance of our near-by things before we lose them. But this time, I, without losing anything, felt importance of things that I have. In this part, this movie sure became 'catfish'.

Summing up, the movie "Catfish" really became 'catfish' in my life in the aspect that it woke me up the importance of things and people that I have near by. Angela, as said by his husband Vince Pierce, was 'catfish' in the aspect for giving a shocking incident in Nev's boring life, whether in good way or bad way. So does this movie, "Catfish". It, whether it's true or not, or whether it has given me a good effect or bad effect, had been astonishing to me and gave me a chance to look back my life and feel the importance of my surroundings and myself.

TAKING ON WAL-MART AND ITS SUBCONTRACTORS by Nathan Newman

This is totally same to my view of Walmart. What this article says is that we have to more focus on the subcontractors of Wal-Mart. Those companies and workers are in worse condition compared to workers who are directly employed by Wal-Mart. Moreover, this article gives regulating Wal-Mart's authority to its subcontractors as a practical way to fight off Wal-Mart.


TAKING ON WAL-MART AND ITS SUBCONTRACTORS
Progressive Populist
by Nathan Newman
June 01, 2004

The evil effects of Wal-Mart's low wages and union busting is becoming well understood among progressive activists. What's less well understood is that the problem is far larger than the 1.1 million workers directly employed by Wal-Mart. In fact, given its network of suppliers and contractors, Wal-Mart's influence is far-reaching in driving down wages in its manufacturers and service suppliers across our nation and the world.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has launched a new initiative, Justice At Work, to educate the public about the exploitation happening at mega-corporations like Wal-Mart and among their innumerable subcontractors.

But they face a bit of a public relations hill in making people understand the connection between the problems created by subcontracting and the things they care about in their lives.

Obviously, SEIU cares about subcontracting. As a union that organizes janitors, who are overwhelmingly not employed directly by the companies whose buildings they clean, the union has to care.

But why should the rest of us even think about small fry like the subcontractors when the big targets like Wal-Mart are the real problem?

The answer is because those small fry don't really exist, not as real companies. It's all a big lie. If a subcontracting company lives and dies based on the commands of a giant corporation, they aren't an independent company; they're a division. General Motors used to call their divisions Pontiac, Chevrolet, Cadillac, etc., and they were each managed semi-autonomously day-to-day. But the General Motors board of directors made any ultimate decision-making.

Today, those divisions are labeled "subcontractors" and are incorporated separately, which has all sorts of legal, labor and tax advantages for the main corporation. (Think Enron and its "special-purpose vehicles.") But they are all the same company in reality as long as they take orders from Wal-Mart or any other mega-corporation head office.

Wal-Mart's Reach: Those 1.1 million workers on payroll at Wal-Mart are only a portion of the people whose employment is dependent on the decisions Wal-Mart management makes every day.

Along with janitors, exploited across the country in anonymous little companies slaving for Wal-Mart, there are delivery companies, advertising agencies and any other manner of service firms that live and die on Wal-Mart orders and business. An estimated 20,000 separate companies supply the behemoth's needs.

Assume just a few hundred people at each of those suppliers working on behalf of Wal-Mart and that's additional millions of people de facto on Wal-Mart's payroll.

The Lie That Small Business Creates Jobs: Which gets us to the main point, which is the often worshipful descriptions of "small business," when the reality is that a large portion of small companies are short-lived sweatshops living and dying at the whims of big corporations like Wal-Mart.

The biggest hoax in economics is that small business drives job creation in this country. While lots of jobs at small business appear each year -- usually at the demand of large corporations &endash; usually an equal number are destroyed as those same large corporations switch between an ever-changing musical chairs game of captive suppliers.

The toxic effect of the myth of small business job creation is that "pro-business" politicians then call for lighter regulation of "entrepreneurial firms," meaning that those underregulated firms become a safe haven for exploitation.

Which is incredibly convenient for big companies like Wal-Mart or Intel which can unload their dirtiest jobs on their small contractors, knowing they can get away with often illegal exploitation that the bigger firms could not pull off. When janitorial subcontractors were raided last year, the wage and overtime violations pervasive in those cleaning firms were just the tip of the iceberg of the subcontracted exploitation in the small business subcontractor sector.

The Global Sweatshop: The problem is only deeper at the global level of manufacturing, where companies dance to Wal-Mart's tune or they are out of the game. Wal-Mart searches the world for ever cheaper sources of supply, pitting vendor against vendor, country against country. Manufacturers therefore are desperate to do what Wal-Mart management tells them to do, or they are often out of business.

So how many employees does Wal-Mart really have?

Between domestic and overseas contractors, it's a pretty fair estimate that Wal-Mart essentially employs five to ten million people worldwide.

So what's the strategy? A campaign against Wal-Mart and other corporations needs to concentrate on subcontractors, both domestic and overseas.

First, those subcontractors are where the worst labor abuses happen. However pathetic the pay and the violations of the law for core Wal-Mart employees, workers in these underground contractor jobs and in slave labor jobs in China face even greater hardships.

But the very fact that Wal-Mart's profits depend on squeezing its suppliers means that this is a pressure point on the company. Exposing those abuses and supporting those workers means that Wal-Mart will get a big black eye in public relations and lose its easy way to outsource exploitation.

Taking on the subcontractors will need a combination of lawsuits on behalf of the workers, changing the law to strengthen their rights (which can often be done with local regulation), supporting union campaigns across the country and mounting major public education campaigns to highlight these abuses. This can then be combined with a serious campaign to bring labor issues into trade negotiations with China and other countries where Wal-Mart exploits workers.

And the advantage of targeting the Wal-Mart subcontractors globally is that concrete victories can be won for workers at the various subcontractor companies without having to defeat Wal-Mart first at its core stores. It won't solve the problem overall, but it will put continual pressure on Wal-Mart, as organizing proceeds forward on organizing the core of the company's workforce.

If we want to put it in military terms, it's a campaign of encirclement. Embarrass Wal-Mart with the most obvious abuses that it promotes, then use those abuses to educate the public about the broader social ills Wal-Mart's business practices breed in our economy. Organize subcontractor companies, then pressure Wal-Mart not to abandon them merely because their workers choose to unionize -- a tactic unions like SEIU have practiced repeatedly across the country.

It's not the only strategy we need to take on Wal-Mart and its ilk, but it's one that unions and community allies can take on as a concrete first step in reining in this corporate race to the bottom.

Nathan Newman is a longtime union and community activist. Email nathan@newman.org or see www.nathannewman.org.

Posted by Nathan at June 01, 2004 09:33 PM