Welcome!

Welcome to the weblog for our American Literature class. Here's the place we will be continuing conversations from class and starting new ones. We'll be discussing and debating current events, historical controversies, and literary conundrums. We might even see a little poetry.

So, what's a blog? And how will we be using it class? For information on blogging and how to join and post to our blog, see "All About Blogging."

We're looking forward to a great year.

Make sure you check your e-mail for your invitation to join the blog. Also – and this is very important – the first step you should take after you accept the invitation is to edit your user profile so that you control how your identity and your communication preferences.  Click on the pull-down menu next to your name in the upper right corner of the browser and click on “Blogger Profile.” Then click on “Edit Profile.”

You can fill out as much of it as you want, but the only requirement is -- under “Identity” -- make sure your “Display name” is your first name and last initial only -- so we provide some anonymity while still allowing your classmates and teacher to be able to identity who you are. For example, change “Bernie Heidkamp” to “Bernie H.”

Contradicting Advertisement

This advertisement sponsored by Peta, seems like an encouraging advertisement at first encouraging people to save the whales and go vegetarian. But the underlying message is fat shaming females and their physical appearance by comparing the overweight lady to the whale that they're trying to get people to save. This is what makes it controversial because although they're promoting good things, they're also throwing some negative things into the mix for comedy. People's weight should never be made fun of for people's entertainment purposes.

It's Weird Even If It Works

Beer companies are notorious for using logical fallacy in their commercials, and Bud Light tried to exploit the superstition and passion of footballs fans with a commercial entitled "Very Superstitious". The commercial focuses on football fans doing outlandish rituals that supposedly help their teams win.

This commercial takes advantage of the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy, which falsely attributes a result to an action after the fact. Many superstitions are created by this fallacy, as it is easy to forget the times that a superstition did not work. Just because something occurred before a team won the game, does not mean that the action in any way influenced the outcome of the game.

Bud Light ends their commercial with the line, "It's only weird if it doesn't work". This sentence is a strong example of the post hoc fallacy: just because you did something crazy does not indicate a correlation with the outcome of an unrelated sports event. Bud Light tries to convince viewers that Bud Light will help their team win because their team won after they drank Bud Light. Many of the scenes in the commercial show people using beer cans as part of their superstitions, and drinking beer both before and after their favorite teams score or win, appealing to positive feelings.

Bud Light tries to associate the feeling of victory with Bud Light, and applies the ad populum fallacy to convey the message that everyone is supporting their team by drinking Bud Light. By showing so many people as successful when they use superstitions, Bud Light makes the claim that superstitions must help a team win.

Even though the commercial employs fallacy to convince viewers that they should drink Bud Light beer, the commercial still succeeds because it is persuasive. It uses energetic recognizable music and displays sports logos, which create emotion and passion in viewers. I think that this ad, like many advertisements, takes advantage of the viewer's emotion and exploits the fact that the viewer is not paying close attention to the logic behind the ad. Whether this is a good practice or not remains to be seen.

Misleading the Herd

A New York Times Article published today announces the new rules that the Food and Drug Administration are making mandatory in the United States. The new rules require chain restaurants, movie theaters and pizza parlors to post the calories in each item on their menus. Health "experts" say this new rule will help combat America's increasing obesity epidemic by making people more aware of the amount of calories they are consuming.

I believe this article and these so-called experts use post hoc, a logical fallacy in which the cause for something is false. The cause of the obesity epidemic in our country is not the amount of calories people are consuming per say, but the literal "food" that the majority of our country consumes. People eat so many calories at these fast food restaurants because the food is unwholesome and doesn't fill them up unless they eat a ton of it, and wholesome food is rather expensive. 

Instead of avoiding the real issue, "experts" should not be trying to control the obesity rates in America by making people aware of the amount of calories they are eating, but more so what people are eating, the actual "nutrition" in it, and what it is doing to their bodies. 

A Habit Bigger Than a Big Mac

We are all educated to associate obesity with the consumption of fast food from restaurants such as McDonald’s or Burger King, however, obesity is much more than that. Obesity related illnesses such as heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, are all leading causes of death in the United States. An estimated 300,000 die every year as a result of obesity. Many of these deaths occur in the United States which has the highest obesity percentage of its population in the world. This is not something we should be proud of and is something that needs to be immediately addressed.

We all know someone in our life who is obese, and we cannot help but to blame them for this, perceiving obesity as a matter of choice and self-control, however, obesity is truly a disease. We must eliminate the notion that mere education will prevent obesity from occurring because it can be considered a choice, but more often is not. By 2050, it is estimated that all of the United States will be obese. We, as a nation, cannot just watch as this slowly becomes a reality. We need to take other means of preventing this from occurring.

People who are already obese should be convinced to lead a healthier lifestyle, however, it is not practical to “hold their hand” and help every single obese inhabitant of the United States. What we need to do is start with children who are becoming obese or are slightly obese. We must expect already obese children to take it upon themselves to fight against obesity while we work to prevent the future from following into the same footprints.

First, we must target American children who are becoming obese or who are susceptible to obesity. By doing this, we can ensure that the future of the United States will not become the reality that is estimated of the country in 2050. When we target these children, in order to be effective, we cannot just teach them how to live a healthy lifestyle and expect them to do it. Obesity is a disease, therefore, doctors must be called to help these children and prevent them from becoming obese.

Next, for both the children referenced earlier and American children in general, we must train them to live healthy lifestyles. It takes just 9 weeks for the human brain to recognize a habit. By having parents of children implement a healthy lifestyle of regularly scheduled exercise and eating habits for just 9 weeks, the predicted reality of the United States in 2050 will have no chance of being true. This is because as children grow up with this habit, they will unconsciously teach it to their children, and maybe by 2050 we could expect a country with unbelievably low percentages of obesity.

In order for this plan to be successful, we only need doctors and 9 weeks of developing healthy lifestyles. In retrospect, these needs are nothing compared to the toll the United States pays due to obesity. However, we also need to trust that parents will implement a healthy lifestyle for their children in order for a habit to develop. We can expect that not every single child will develop this habit, therefore, we must rely on programs such as “Let’s Move” to implement healthy lifestyle habits. “Let’s Move” is a public-private partnership that sets national goals to end childhood obesity in a generation. In my school, this organization has enforced healthy eating in the cafeteria. It has prohibited sodas, candy bars, and other unhealthy foods from being sold during lunch hours, developing healthy eating habits at lunch among children.

What is important is not merely educating the American youth about healthy eating, hoping that they will take it upon themselves to be healthy; it is targeting the youth and implementing healthy lifestyles of exercise and eating and making this a habit. This can be carried out by parent teachings or organizations such as “Let’s Move.” Once this becomes a habit among the American youth, it will spread and hopefully end the epidemic of childhood obesity once and for all. This, in turn, will drastically reduce deaths in the United States, creating a healthier and better future America.

Food Deserts

When I carry bags for people at the Oak Park Food Pantry, I often ask the clients how they are doing that day, which starts a conversation. Although the people who come to this food pantry seek help for fiscal reasons, food pantries in other parts of the country are often the only source of fresh produce that is available in the neighborhood. Although the expansion of fast food and the almost unlimited shelf life of processed foods brings reliable sources of calories, the food is rarely nutritious.

As people suffering through poverty try to find their footing and keep their family afloat, their food quality suffers. They are forced to eat fast food several times each week, replacing fresh produce with frozen meals. This starts a vicious cycle, where the only grocers that supply expensive fresh fruits and vegetables go out of business. This reduces the amount of fresh produce available while at the same time increasing the attractiveness and simplicity of eating fast food.

Although it is easy to write off hunger in America as a small issue because the gut reaction to the obesity epidemic is to reduce food consumption, malnutrition is problem that affects a great amount of people. Both obesity and hunger affect around 20 percent of children in the U.S., but hunger has disappeared from the national spotlight as obesity becomes the more “pressing” issue.

The truth is that these people struggling to get healthy food for their families are often overweight or obese, as their calories come from fast food and sugary drinks, instead of a balanced diet with fruits and vegetables. Although it is great that the Michelle Obama is supporting the fight against obesity with fresh food and exercise, switching to healthy foods is not always an option for people living in food deserts.

A few weeks ago, when I was waiting to help someone at the food pantry, I heard a man walking by comment, “Those people can’t be hungry, they’re all overweight.” Misconceptions about hunger and malnutrition in the U.S. contribute to the growing problem, as funds for food pantries and food banks are disappearing due to greater focus on preventing obesity and other diseases.

There are many proposed solutions to food deserts, one of which is tax breaks to stores that vend healthy produce year round, but that only helps a little bit. Greater impact will come from an acceptance and recognition of the extreme desperation that many American find themselves after undergoing financial instability. Community support and action is vital to fighting the disappearance of healthy food sources in urban environments.

 Hunger is an issue that can and should be fought with citizen’s actions rather than with government programs. Small actions can be very effective, just a few hours volunteering at a food pantry, or taking a trip to drive produce to areas without fresh vegetables can make a difference, and inspire others to help.