Letter to President Obama

Dear Mr. President,                                                                                                    October 1, 2012

            This country and the world are experiencing the aftermath of the recession in 2008. People’s homes are being foreclosed while they lose their jobs. The United States of America has an increasing gap between the upper class and the middle class because of tax cuts and unfair compensations. The system failed due to the corruption on Wall Street.

            Charles Ferguson’s documentary, Inside Job, shows the events leading up to the financial crisis of 2008. The spark for this inferno began with deregulation during the Reagan Administration through bills and acts such as the Garn-St. Germain Act. During regulated periods, there was most likely corruption still occurring; however, it was not allowed to become a huge commotion that would impact the economy of the world. With deregulation, finance companies and banks could become more dishonest with no one to stop them.

The Clinton Administration continued deregulation with the Gramm-Leach-Bailey Act and the Commodity Future Modernization Act. The Gramm-Leach-Bailey Act repealed the Glass-Steagall while the Commodity Future Modernization Act banned regulation on financial derivatives. Before deregulation, lenders were cautious about allowing loans to someone. Lenders became less concerned about being paid back since they could sell the mortgages to investment banks. Investment banks would combine mortgages with other loans to create collateralized debt obligation (CDO). Investors would then buy the CDO. If the CDO failed then the lenders and investment banks would not be responsible.

Corruption on Wall Street was exposed with Charles Keating in 1989 yet, instead of increasing regulation, the government begins to deregulate finance. Government officials appointed to finance offices have Wall Street backgrounds and work to make Wall Street richer. In 2008, the enormous corruption of banks and other financial establishments are exposed to the world as companies fail. Stock markets plummeted and the recession began.

Four years have passed and it does not seem like much has changed. People are expecting huge changes. Mr. President, I am not writing to depend instant change. That is not possible after the huge failure of companies. I am writing to thank you for being able to lead our nation in a time of crisis. The recession was not any one person’s fault. The fire was slowly fueled until the explosion in 2008. I encourage you to continue to search and enact a solution that will benefit this nation in the best way possible. Thank you for your time and your efforts.

Sincerely,

Natalie E. Gladden

Trust No One

I hate politics and corruption. Inside Job is filled with politics and corruption about the recession of 2008. Politics and corruption seem to go hand in hand since the media mostly reports on the bad side of things. I know the world is not filled with puppies and rainbows but the world is not made of gray clouds and wolves. It would be nice to hear good things in the media about politicians and life in general.

Inside Job makes one wonder if you can trust anyone in the world. Money seems more important than protecting other people. Esteemed researchers, professors, and other people the public relies on lie and twist the facts for green paper. The people in power should be trustworthy people but everyone falls into temptation at some point. Trust seems pointless in this world. Well, trusting powerful people seems pointless. People are being swayed to write reports praising a failing system or to rate something higher than it really is. How can we find the truth in a web of lies and bribery?

Life isn’t easy. It’s anything but easy. Trusting someone makes you vulnerable. We have very little choice on trusting people in power. We do have a choice in whether we trust blindly or not. Charles Ferguson offers some hope in reform at the end of the film. But will reforming the system help us trust the people more? The system is flawed and will always be flawed in some way. There is no perfect system. All we can do is be cautious about what we trust. The question is no longer who can we trust. The question is what can we trust? 

Pictures:

http://rt.com/files/politics/corruption-strategy-plan-medvedev/bribe.n.jpg

http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/is-your-complete-wealth-and-your-the-sovereignty-of-your-nation-worth-your-supposed-safety/question-156980/?link=ibaf&q=web+of+lies&imgurl=http://images.sodahead.com/polls/000156980/polls_spider_web_1a_4129_778242_answer_4_xlarge.jpeg

http://www.jonathanferraragallery.com/dynamic/images/detail/Dan_Tague_Trust_No_One_5411_395.jpg

Music and Images

Music is a powerful tool. It sets the scene in a movie or TV show. Imagine a killing scene in a horror movie with happy music playing or no music at all. You would probably not be scared. It can make you want to get up and dance or sit down and meditate.

Psycho Shower Scene With and Without Music

The music of Koyaanisqatsi reflects the scenes of everyday life as being repetitive and fast paced. The nature scenes usually have soft music with long notes instead of fast repetitive runs. The film opens with shots of nature and ominous music before abruptly changing to a fast tempo and repetitive runs. The faster music builds as piercing notes enter as Godfrey Reggio, the director, focuses on people’s faces. The music falls back to the slower tempo with men chanting “koyaanisqatsi” as a building falls in the middle of a city. The people are no longer being zooming by but are being slowed down by special effects.

Koyaanisqatsi means life out of balance. The music paired with the right scenes shows the viewer how different life can be. But is life really out of balance? What counts as being out of balance? The music, to me, suggests that we have increased the gap between civilization and nature. Nature seems to progress at its own pace while we must move at the pace of society. The music was more interesting to me than the actual film. The pictures seemed very random to me and did not mean much. I liked some scenes but the images were boring to me.

Over the Line

Werner Boote, the director of Plastic Planet, embarks on a quest to inform the public about plastic toxins.. Werner Boote exhibits moments of disrespect and pushiness in the film. During this quest, he interacts with people who work for plastic corporations or are advocating the dangers of plastic He crosses a line between interviewer and interviewee.

Vicky Zhang is an employee in a Chinese plastic factory that manufactures plastic globes. Werner Boote interviews Zhang until she states that her boss will not let her answer any more questions. Boote continues to root for information from her by asking why her boss will not allow her to say more. The continuation of the interview could compromise her job yet Boote insists on asking more questions.

In another scene, Boote is talking to a woman about her breast implants. He asks her how they feel and if she can tell they are there. This is a documentary about plastic and how it is toxic to the human body. He oversteps a line by asking very personal questions that some would find offensive. This scene was meant to show the viewer how comfortable we are with plastic since we have surgeries to place plastic inside our bodies. However, this scene comes across as creepy and invasive to the woman’s privacy.

Boote attended a plastic convention with a suitcase filled with studies about how plastic is dangerous to the human body. I understand that he wanted to show the viewers how secretive the heads of plastic corporations are. It makes the viewers suspicious of the companies. However, he should have turned the cameras off after the first or second time he was told to turn them off. Boote’s team continued to film which was disrespectful to the wishes of the convention leaders and rude.

There has to be a boundary that film makers and documentarians cannot cross. If this boundary is crossed too many times or ceases to exist, then what will be kept private? An understood boundary allows the interviewer and interviewee to have respect for each other. This boundary will also maintain a better relationship between the two parties. 

Beautiful Things Dance

In the Jesus Camp documentary, the children smash mugs with hammers to show their wish to purify the government. It reminded me of Montreat. The actors in the skit broke clay bowls to show that they had sin and could not stone the adulterous woman (John 8: 1-11).  The screen behind the dancer shows a potter's hands. The potter is using the broken clay to make a new bowl to show that if you are broken then you can still be beautiful.

The Presbyterian Way

As the daughter of two Presbyterian ministers, I became enraged and aggravated at the attitudes of the children and leaders in Jesus Camp. It was not the style of worship and practice that irritated me. I was angry at the message the children received and their attitudes toward other styles of worship and non-Evangelists.

I have participated in Christian conferences and “Jesus camps.” One of those camps was the Montreat Youth Conference (Montreat) that occurred every summer in Black Mountain, NC. This conference is for high school students. There were two different worship services everyday. The morning worship, or keynote, was contemporary with movie clips, videos, skits, and fun dancers. The evening worship was more traditional with singing, praying, and a sermon. I enjoy this diversity of worship styles. It is nice to attend contemporary services after weeks of traditional services. (The church I attended has traditional worship services.)

Keynote Ending from 2012 Montreat Conference

In Jesus Camp, Rachel Grady, one of the children the film follows, says that God “does not visit” churches that sing “three hymns and then have a sermon.” According to her, my church, where my dad preaches, is a “dead” church. I am not okay with this accusation. God loves all of His children. He is not going to picky over how we worship Him. I know that God is present during all types of worship because, during a traditional service at Montreat, I heard and felt His presence.

Rachel Grady

During the final hymn of a worship service at Montreat, I heard a voice in my head, that I had never heard before, say “You are loved, my precious child.” I cannot tell you whether that voice was old or young or male or female. This was during a very conflicted time of my life. I was actually thinking about leaving the Presbyterian Church. After I heard this voice, I started to hear voices of friends, family, and people I knew. Everything I heard had had some impact on my life. I was in tears because of this powerful experience. God is present everywhere even with nonbelievers.

I strongly disagree with the views the people in Jesus Camp held about different styles of worship and non-Evangelists. This blog post became a testimonial because of the strong emotions I felt after watching the documentary. People are losing interest in Christianity because of the close mindedness some Christians possess. Being open and accepting like Jesus Christ was will gain more admiration than shunning different lifestyles and beliefs. People just need to be open minded and accepting of others. 

Pictures:

http://www.thedocumentaryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/JesusCamp%20still4.jpg
http://randomthoughtsonlifeblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/acceptance.jpg

Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTzOUJsA3ic