TOW #10

Pitch Simply: An interview with Major League Baseball player Daniel Norris

Adam Fetcher

The Cleanest Line (Blog by Patagonia)

            Before reading this article I had already read a little about Daniel Norris. For those who have not heard of him he is a Major League pitcher for the Detroit Tigers. Upon receiving his 2 million dollar signing bonus he purchased a 1978 Volkswagen van and has been living out of it traveling to various surf spots during the off season. He is a baseball player, surfer, photographer, adventurer, and cancer survivor.  Fetcher wants go beyond these surface attributes so his questions focus on the philosophies that led him to make this abrupt lifestyle change. He also wants to learn how Norris balances the different aspects of his life, so he asks him “You described a philosophy around simplicity through the experience of living in the van. I’m just wondering, how do you incorporate that philosophy into your training and bring it on the field?”(Fetcher 16). Fetcher is trying to emphasize the complexities that make Daniel Norris such a unique individual. The interesting element of an interview is that the reader gets to hear directly from the individual about what they have to say to question asked. So that means there are no authors to manipulate what the individual has to say. But the interviewer still has the job of facilitating the delivery of the information in the fullest sense. A big part of Daniel’s life is photography so Fetcher incorporates many of Daniel’s pictures so that again the reader is able to see an unobstructed view into who this person is.

Daniel Norris’s life is obviously intriguing to read about, but Adam Fetcher is also someone who has unique experiences of his own. Before he became the Director of Global PR & Communications for Patagonia he “was deputy national press secretary for President Obama’s re-election campaign and served in the Obama administration.”  And just to connect himself back to the article and seem more human he throws in that he is a Minnesota Twins fan.

TOW #9

Damnation 

Patagonia Films 

            Starting during the Great Depression our government began a crusade against the free flowing rivers of America. The Department of Reclamation began blocking up almost every water way throughout the 20^th century. These dams bring death to the fish that call these rivers home. Damnation's goal was to shed light on the dark side of America’s hydro power addiction. The documentary interviewed numerous scholars who are respected on the topic, they spoke on how damns prevent the flow of fish back up stream to their spawning beds. This decimates populations of Salmon, Steel head (rainbow trout that journey to the ocean), and trout. The effects are especially destructive in the northwest were salmon represent a keystone species in the ecosystem. They put on “95% of their body mass in the marine environment”, so when they return to mountain streams to spawn they “act as a nitrogen pump for the ecosystem.” This allows trees, insects, bears, and birds to thrive in a healthy environment. The film employs cold hard facts such as these ones in conjunction with anecdotes from those who are emotionally affected by the damns taking of natural beauty. Once these damns go up “the river is no longer a river it is a stagnant lake.” This new environment is no longer friendly to the native fish but helps the spread of invasive species that prey on their native counterparts. In many cases the rising waters of reservoirs also devour beautiful land that was cherished by people and inhabited by wildlife. Now people are finally waking up to the evils brought about by these relics of a society with no respect for the planet they live on. Damns with no economic contributions are being removed bringing the rivers they sat in back to life. History has shown us just how resilient these fish populations are, given half a chance. Help support our Nation’s watersheds and sign the petition to tear down the 4 dams killing the Snake River. Your voice can help reopen one of the largest and widest Salmon fisheries in the world, just go to https://www.change.org/p/barack-obama-crack-down-on-deadbeat-dams. Together we can save America’s watersheds, starting with the Snake River. 

TOW #4

Napoleon I on his Imperial Throne

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

In 1806 when the painting was commissioned Napoleon was at the height of his power. Two years earlier he was crowned emperor of France in the company of the pope. At the same time his empire was at its greatest extent covering most of mainland Europe.  This painting was not commissioned by Napoleon, but was purchased by the French Legislature. There are many symbols spread not so subtly throughout the painting which connect Napoleon to Cesar. He is wearing a golden wreath on his head and the eagle on the carpet. Both of which were famous pieces carried by Cesar. In Napoleon’s Right hand he hold staff of office, in his left hand he holds the hand of justice.  On the carpet there is also a balance representing his justice. The regal nature of this painting is almost overwhelming, the painting makes a statement about Napoleon’s absolute power and authority. However this was exactly the opposite message that the French government was trying to make at the time. France had just come out of a revolution that ended in the previous leader of the country losing their head. So they wanted to portray him as the leader of the new French Republic, clearly this caused a propaganda nightmare for the government because he was supposed to be portrayed as a man of the people not an emperor. This painting showed everything that went wrong with Napoleon’s empire. It grew too big, too grand and too far from the ideals of the French revolution.  

            

TOW #3

Save Money, Save Salmon, Save Mike: Free the Snake

Steve Hawley

The Cleanest Line (Blog by Patagonia)

            The Snake River is dying, and Hawley is charging four with the crime. The killers are four dams choking the life out of this vital artery to ecosystems across the northwest. Hawley is an environmental journalist who himself lives along the Columbia River in Oregon. He is helping to raise awareness about the removal of these dams: Ice Harbor, Little Goose, Lower Monumental and Lower Granite Dams. The idea of removing a dam is relatively new to the American public so to convince his reader that these are very real killers he intros with a narrative about an Orca named Mike. The reader learns that the number of little Orcas that Mike babysits has been declining due to a lack of Chinook salmon, their main food source. The salmon spawn in small tributaries to the Snake thousands of miles inland. Once they are big enough they travel to the ocean, and every year they make the journey back upstream to spawn the next generation. The only problem, the four dams blocking their journey. These dams are also responsible for turning a once swift flowing river into “a deadly heat sink.” The water temperature rises beyond what the salmon can survive, and beyond what the law allows. Hawley then places in pictures of several salmon that fell victim to this deadly combination. Finally he rams his point home with a powerful statistic, “80% of the Salmon run are dead or dying.” To conclude his argument Hawley paints a picture of what the region could look like with the snake free flowing. He writes, “Doing so would grant unfettered access to 5,500 miles of heat resistant high-elevation salmon-bearing streams, the arteries and veins of 4.4 million acres of wilderness habitat in Oregon, Washington and Idaho.” This issue is one that is ongoing but anyone who reads this article will be convinced to sign the petition to remove the dams, there is a link to this conveniently placed at the bottom of the article.

TOW #2

The Science Behind ‘They All Look Alike to Me’

Rachel L. Swarns

The New York Times

            It seems like every week there is a new story about the police doing something they shouldn’t. This article focuses on the incident where an undercover New York Police officer tackled, handcuffed, and detained retired tennis star James Blake. Blake was mistaken for a suspect they had a picture of. Now this was not just a recount of the event as the author assumes the audience is already familiar with the incident. She wants to look beyond the obvious overuse of force and look into why Blake was misidentified in the first place. She states that most people see it as an example of “Racism, pure and simple” however there is phycology behind this misidentification and countless others. Phycologists call it the “other-race effect” where the lack of early and meaningful exposure to other racial groups makes more difficult for us to distinguish people of other races. The article starts off with a recent racial incident and Swarns then argues how it can be partially explained by a theory backed by prominent phycologists. To further her point she then employs two examples of famous people of the same race who often find themselves mixed up. But the reader doesn’t just have to take Swarns’s word for it, she shows the celebrities side by side. I can’t speak for everyone but I could definitely see myself confusing them and they don’t even look alike. Her argument and credibility are strengthened when she talks about how when she was a Washington correspondent she was often told how similar she looked to Condoleezza Rice (she then states that she doesn’t even look like her). Swarn wants to show how we shouldn’t be offended when we are confused with another person of our race because it is an issue of ability not “bias or bigotry.” However it is one that can be fixed, you just need to spend a lot of time with people of another race and your ability to “decode faces across color lines” will improve.” This was an extremely eye opening article that puts science where many have just seen racism. 

TOW #1

"Dying in Space: An American Dream"

Megan Garber

The Atlantic 

The article first hits the reader as extremely morbid. But as I delved into the text I realized that the idea of one way space trips is the only way to practically explore Mars during our generation. The focus of this article is the nonprofit organization “Mars One”. They are a nonprofit organization that promises that it will be sending a one way mission to colonize space by 2023. Online applications are open now and thousands have already submitted their applications. Garber is clearly in favor of this plan and seems to be persuading the reader that the idea that they won’t be coming back is “a feature, not a bug.” Garber insists that we must get away from the Apollo way of thinking where there is always a return trip. Former NASA Engineer says, “To maintain project inertia, the concept must have a goal that accomplishes the manned landing within as short a time as possible." The best way to achieve all that? A "one-man, one-way" trip.” Garber has been writing for the Atlantic for three years and is an accomplished writer but she is not a scientist or an engineer so she herself is not an expert on the topic either. So to build credibility Barber uses quotes from experts like the one above, and points out that this is not the first time that we have thought of one way journeys into space. During the early stages of the Apollo program NASA played with the idea of sending a man alone to stay on the moon for about a year until they designed a return vehicle. This was the result of a race to beat the Russians now we are using this method to start a new era in space exploration. This will transform our travels from visits to colonization. The latter being the future of our planet and our species.

IRB TOW #1

“American Caesar”

William Manchester

Jay Mudambi

This book was recommended to me by my brother who insisted it was the best biography he had ever read, so far it’s turning out to be just that. This biography details the extraordinary life of an American legend, Douglas MacArthur. The introduction called him “larger than life” and “a great thundering paradox of a man”. Yet for someone who is such a controversial figure in American history, people know surprisingly little about him. George C. Kenney stated, “Very few people really know Douglas MacArthur,” William Manchester set out to change that. But the story does not start with him, the book starts with his father Arthur MacArthur, and tells the story of how he gained glory and rank at the battle of Missionary Ridge overlooking Chattanooga, Tennessee. You could say that Douglas MacArthur was destined for greatness. He grew up the son of a Civil War hero and spent his childhood moving between forts across the American West. He learned to ride a horse and shoot a gun before he was seven. Yet his mother also kept his hair long and dressed him in skirts up until he was ten. Manchester’s descriptions of the paradoxes that made this man who he was is a common theme through the books far. He doesn’t want people who read this book to walk away with one perception of MacArthur, he wants them to see the complexities that made up this American icon. Manchester was no stranger to the Second World War either, he served in the pacific theater on Okinawa and was severely wounded in action. I am 214 pages into this chronologically organized book and the Second World War is still a long ways off. This shows the amount of detail that Manchester has gathered on MacArthur’s life. There are also quotes from people in all stages of MacArthur’s life talking about him. These people range from Members of Congress when he had to testify before them while at West Point, to Dwight D. Eisenhower when he was MacArthur’s aid in the Philippines. MacArthur was a Victorian trapped in the 20^th century, yet he still managed to define the first half of that century.

MacArthur at West Point

 

Analysis of "Pamplona in July" (SUMMER READING)

Title: Pamplona in July

Author: Ernest Hemingway

            I had read The Old Man and the Sea a few years back, and thought it was one of the best books I had ever read. There is something about Ernest Hemingway's understated style that allows his narratives to draw the reader in even more deeply. This narrative was no different, Hemingway lays out the scene and it just comes to life inside the reader’s head. This was written for the “Toronto Star Weekly” in 1923 as an exotic travel article, at a time when most people never left the town they were born in. Hemingway's essay describes he and his wife's experience of the ten day Bull fighting festival held in Pamplona. Every time he referred to his wife he would call her Herself. Hemingway writes, “Maera is Herself’s favorite bull fighter.” This was an interesting element of the piece whose purpose I still do not understand. Hemingway starts this piece out as an exciting narrative of a far off destination. However by the end it had turned into a persuasive argument that bullfighters are the most amazing athletes, and that bull fighting is the most amazing sporting spectacle. Hemingway even gives up on competing these men for his own wife, “The only way most husbands are able keep any drag with their wives at all is that, first there are only a limited number of bull fighters, second there are only a limited number of wives who have ever seen bull fights.” This essay gave ordinary people a window into the culture surrounding the primary sporting event of another nation. Hemingway’s utmost respect for the Bull fighting and those who have the courage to take part in it is the most apparent takeaway from this essay. After reading this essay almost 100 years after it was written I know now that I too will someday make it to Pamplona for the first two weeks of July. 

Analysis of "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (SUMMER READING)

Title: Letter from Birmingham Jail

Author: Martin Luther King Jr.

            This essay was a very lengthy letter written by Martin Luther King Jr to eight white Alabama clergymen. He even jokes that “Never before have I written a letter this long (or should I say a book?).” It takes place during the height of racial tensions in Birmingham, Alabama. Thousands of people joined Martin Luther King Jr in lunch counter sit-ins, marches on city hall, and boycotts of downtown merchants. Hundreds of protesters were arrested during civil rights demonstrations, including King himself. While in prison he writes this letter as a response to a newspaper letter published by these clergymen calling for him to stop his campaign of nonviolent protests. King is himself also a minister and feels that as fellow men of god he must respond to them because they “are men of genuine good will.” This letter is very organized, it goes through a laid out series of points that it uses to argue against the statements put forth in the newspaper letter. King’s argument is always completely sound and he is able to discredit every criticism to his tactics in a polite and eloquent manner. He employs multiple references to the bible and Judeo-Christian morals. For example the first criticism he counters is the idea of “outsiders coming in.” King points to how “the Apostle Paul left his little village Tarus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to practically every hamlet and city in the Graeco-Roman world.” While King is trying to persuade these 8 men that his cause is just, he embraces many of the criticisms that the clergymen direct towards him. In response to being called an “extremist” King does not deny this title. Instead he embraces it naming many other great men who in their own time may to have been “extremists.” This letter has been called Martin Luther King Jr’s best persuasive piece. It is not hard to see why his combination of personal anecdotes of violence against African Americans and big picture ideals makes his message impossible refute.

Analysis of "Okinawa: Bloodiest Battle of All" (SUMMER READING)

Title: Okinawa: The Bloodiest Battle of All

Author: William Manchester

This essay starts off in the present where on the Island of Okinawa veterans from the US and Japan will dedicate a monument in remembrance of all those who died there. Manchester then illustrates the sheer scale of the dead that this conflict claimed. He says, “More than 200,000 perished in the 82-day struggle- twice the number of Japanese lost at Hiroshima and more American blood than had been shed at Gettysburg.” The essay becomes much more personal when Manchester reveals to the reader that he not only took part in the battle but was twice wounded and cited for “gallantry in action and extraordinary achievement.” We learn about his experiences during the battle, specifically the horrific struggle for Sugar Loaf Hill. The narratives that he uses to describe living in a combat zone are powerful and moving.  They express the absolute horror, gore, and filth that characterize warfare. Manchester wrote this piece in 1987, most people in America did not live through the Second World War, and even fewer saw the “kill zones” the way Manchester did. He sees America as a nation that is losing its patriotism. It worries him that the American public forgets many of those who fought and died in the war that defined this life and his generation. He makes it clear how important the Battle of Okinawa is for him, he says it “was the central experience of my youth.” Manchester employs multiple writing styles to connect his message to the future, the past and the present. His message about the futility of war is carried by quotes from previous warriors, “war which was cruel and magnificent, has become cruel and squalid.” –Winston Churchill. Finally the essay ends with Manchester saying how even after all these years he still couldn’t bring himself to go to the ceremony on Okinawa because of the Japanese veterans, his explanation: “some wounds never heal.”