Lauren+Reflection+3

Americans Are Afraid

I believe that Americans are afraid of what they do not understand. In this first section I included an article about a boy who has autism. He has been asked to leave the church because he disrupts the services. Through my Community Connections group, PACTT, I have learned that autism is a mental illness that many people know very little about. In some cases it is nearly impossible to communicate with someone who has autism. I feel that this article shows that when people do not know how to react to something they do not understand (in this case the boy with autism) they try to distance themselves from it so they do not feel uncomfortable. In Robert Frost's poem Provide, Provide it talks about how you should try and maintain your beauty long enough because once it is gone you have nothing. I think this shows another degree of fear. Americans are afraid of losing their looks which could make them undesirable and not interesting. The media has installed belief that only the beautiful people are interesting and as people's looks change they grow extremely afraid that no one will want to give them the time of day. They desperately try to stop the aging process or stop anything that could ruin their appearance. I included a picture of someone receiving botox to show the strange things people will do to maintain their beauty. The following quote is from The Scarlet Letter and it shows a different kind of fear. This is the fear of exposure. When one has created an image of themselves by forming a cocoon of lies they are constantly afraid that someone will figure out their deceit. They are so scared of discovery that they continue to run from the truth and live in a scared shell of lies. The picture to the left shows a little girl holding a rock that says "pray". I chose this because I think that Americans use prayer to eliminate fear. Instead of being forced to be afraid that their sins will come back to haunt them, they can repent or pray to God and say sorry for their wrong doings and then feel better. They can pray and then not be afraid of the consequences. The next two videos show a kind of fear similar to the child with autism. It is a fear of the unknown. The recorded radio interview tells of a man who "hates gay people". I think that many Americans are uncomfortable with the topic of Gay rights because those who are not gay do not understand that it is natural for them to be attracted to the same sex. They do not understand it and are afraid of it and try to distance themselves from people who are gay. In the next video it shows that the children are more comfortable with people who look similar to them. They automatically assume that the black man is a criminal and the arab man is mean. They have absorbed feelings from outer sources without letting themselves come up with conclusions on their own. They sense the fear in those around them that comes from negative stereotypes and add it to the situation in this video.