Obama Out of Context

A blog post for my mother:
I watched this show at her suggestion. (Aka we were scrolling through Netflix until I finally decided on something she had already watched).

The 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama, is necessarily almost always framed as an eminent and sophisticated public figure. Because of this, it is striking to find him behaving as a normal American man. In the first installment of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, David Letterman has a fairly casual and honest conversation with Mr. Obama. They discuss the history of civil rights, the polarization of American politics, and the difficult task of leaving a child at college.

One notable aspect of this interview was the humility our former president revealed. Letterman asks a few personal questions throughout the interview. They discuss family life after the oval office (i.e. does the coffee maker work) and gradually build to the emotions of taking a child to college for the first time. Obama describes what emotions ran through his head as his family brought their eldest daughter, Malia, to university. He said “[he] was pathetic.” This got a laugh from me along with a little feeling of surprise. I had heard the man who led this country for the majority of my childhood jokingly call himself useless and pathetic. To me, this was one of the first times I felt like I could see a real person in him. I know people say Obama is essentially the president everyone remembers as the most “relatable” one. He was the president who seemed the most like a normal person. However, I never have followed any kind of news regarding any political figures until very recently, so I was relatively unaware. Regardless of whether or not I knew how the public saw Barack Obama’s personality, it is truly refreshing to see a former president be so humble and personable.

Though much of the interview had personal stories and humor, Letterman and Obama also discussed current politics. What stood out to me the most is when the former president explained how Google's algorithms tailor search results differently depending on what you like and agree with, such as your political views. A conservative’s vs liberal’s google search of the same exact term will have very different results. If it weren’t for such biased news sources, such as Fox News, this would be helpful. However, this type of algorithm does not help the ever-present divide between the American political parties. As Obama says in this episode, listening to a biased news station is like being “on another planet.” If these algorithms make this bias all you see, there is no way to see and consider the other side’s argument. It is training yourself to see the opposing viewpoint and immediately demonize it. If there is a way to lessen the heat and civilize political arguments, it is to make search results more generalized by loosening certain search algorithms and reduce biased media’s influence on us.

Works Cited

“Barack Obama”, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, directed by Michael Bonfiglio, Netflix, Jan 12, 2018.

What age is too old for a babysitter?

In the Netflix Original movie The Babysitter, the main character is a very innocent twelve year old Cole. His parents still leave him with a babysitter who, is one of the few people who actually treat Cole like his is more than just a kid. When his parents leave him for weekend trips, he begins to wonder, alongside his crush, what goes on after he goes to bed. On this instance, he doesn’t drink the pre bedtime shot of alcohol she gives him. This is our first indication that something seems to be wrong with this babysitter. She then puts him to bed and goes downstairs. Cole decides to wait for a while, then leaves his room to see what the babysitter's doing. It starts off with the babysitter playing truth or dare with some friends. This raises some suspicion but the thing that really caught my attention was that they had one person that didn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the group. The babysitter is dared to kiss everyone in the circle, when she gets to the person that doesn’t fit in, part way through the kiss, she pulls out two daggers and stabs them into his head. We start to see that the other ones that actually were part of this group actually fit in are part of a cult ritual. Then they say they need to get Cole’s blood, so he runs back into his room. One thing that was a struggle was the fact that Cole is afraid of needles, yet he manages to stay still while they take his blood. After the shock fades a little, Cole calls the police then tries to escape only to be stopped by the babysitter. The cops arrive as Cole is tied to a chair. The kids kill the cops, but in the process Cole gets away from the kids. They all come at him one at a time with the intent to kill Cole.
Through this situation, Cole is using his intelligence and level head to take out characters and using their flaws against them. The first one that dies is John, who chased Cole up the stairs before he escapes, and is then pushed over the railing and impaled by a trophy. The second to die was Sonya who was too overconfident and Cole used some supplies he picked up to shoot her with a firework and blow her up in the crawlspace. Then comes the weird one, Max, who notices that a bully is egging Cole’s house and tells him to go stand up to the bully. Right after he gets knocked to the ground, Max helps Cole up then gets back to trying to kill Cole. Cole get up in his treehouse and get rid of the ladder. Max, being a super athletic football star, climbs a rope. The floor breaks under Max and Cole and they both fall, but Max’s neck got caught in the rope and is hung from the rope. Cole goes back into the house and sees Allison who was shot in the encounter with the police. She is killed by the babysitter, Bee, who found a shotgun and wants to kill Cole. Cole escapes and goes to the house of his crush who calls the cops again, while Cole lays the works of a trap to get Bee. Cole takes the book involved in the ritual and threatens to burn it. He sets it on fire as Bee tries to put it out. Cole gets in his crush’s father’s car and drives it into his house to run over Bee. Throughout all of this killing and surviving, Cole gains a lot of confidence and changes from the scared boy who needed a babysitter to a boy who believed he could, from that point on, be on his own.

Girls Incarcerated

For this weeks blog post I watched the new Netflix original series Girls Incarcerated: Young and Locked up. This show follows the daily lives of young teenage girls in the Madison Juvenile Correctional Facility in Indiana. Most of these girls are not even 18 yet and have charges for drugs, assault battery, and theft. The program helps them to graduate from high school, provides much needed therapy, and has a substance abuse program. These girls are all in their teenage years still, so they are still very much working through the struggles of most young people. They are going through transitional periods in their life while being locked up, which makes it all the more interesting. The girls shown are navigating friendships, studying, dating, and being away from home. The girls that have shown a lot of improvement and growth get to wear burgundy shirts. The girls really strive to get those shirts and look up to the girls that have them.

One very interesting point that I picked up on right away is that the girls are all referred to as students and not as inmates. I think that this is really important for them so that their stay doesn’t feel so permanent. It’s a reminder that they aren’t inmates yet, and if they can get their lives turned around they never will be. These girls really are just students that need a lot more help and attention. The girls tend to put on a very hard exterior. They are often times extremely disrespectful and curse at the correctional officers. I definitely believe that this is something that happened when the cameras aren’t around, but I found myself wondering if the cameras added to their disrespectful behavior. Possibly the girls were wanting to show off and act out in front of the cameras. In the show, when new students arrived the correctional officers said the girls would often act out in front of them. Could the same concept be applied to the camera crew? I think that there is definitely a correlation between the two. That being said, it kind gives off the feeling that these young girls are being exploited for entertainment. Possibly that their growth and development is hindered because there is a camera crew at the facility causing them to possibly act out. In the first episode, around 10 girls are shown, while the rest of the girls are not seen at all, their faces are even blurred out. Most of the girls are minors so their privacy is very important. Possibly they just don’t want to be filmed, or it’s against their parents wishes. Either way it’s hard to get a whole impression of the girls when only a handful are shown. The girls on the screen are the only girls that basically want to be on the screen, so we really aren’t getting the full picture.

Although Girls Incarcerated: Young and Locked Up left me feeling a little bit uneasy I still think that it was an overall great watch. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys watching shows about prison or rehab.

To Turn Yourself In or Not?

Hey Mom! You get to read another post for the class that I watch Netflix for and write posts about.

Seven Seconds is a suspense-filled show about a 15-year-old boy that is critically injured in a hit and run. Turns out, he ends up dying, but I haven’t made that far yet. The person who hit him is a cop, and this leads to a cover-up. The show is set in Jersey City. I’ve only watched the first episode and I’m hooked. I really think you would enjoy this show because it’s another show about cops and solving crimes, which in this case is a hit and run that turns into a murder too. It really reminds me of Chicago PD, which we both used to watch together every Wednesday (I think, maybe it was Thursday).

The characters and the police department remind me of Chicago PD. The police officers in the first episode remind me of the main characters in Chicago PD because you have the bad cops in both. The officer that committed the hit and run is new to the department and he called his boss when he realized what had happened and his boss told him to drive away and that he’d take care of the evidence. I don’t know the names of the characters yet, but the man who hit and ran didn’t want to leave and then wanted to turn himself in after the fact, but his boss told him that it wasn’t a good idea. The officer was white and the boy that was hit is black. Therefore, the boss told him that if he turned himself in, he would be hit with the crimes of Ferguson and the other crimes that have occurred with white officers and black victims.

Something else that reminds me of Chicago PD is that the building the officers are in in both shows looks dated. They both seem to be older buildings and haven’t been updated recently. They aren’t the new buildings you see in shows like Law & Order: SVU. The woman working in the front in both shows is also an older woman who looks kind of grouchy. I know in Chicago PD the woman who works in the front is sort of grouchy before the cops get to know her and once they get acquainted with her she is really a nice person who is there to help. I feel like the woman in Seven Seconds is probably like this too, but I’ve only seen her in one scene with the new officer who hit and ran. In that same scene, I noticed that the walls were a dull green color and the lighting was also pretty dark. This reminded me of how the building looked dated like I mentioned before.

What is interesting with this show and is different from the other shows we’ve watched is that you get to see the lives of not only the cops investigating, but also the attorney’s and others working the case, the victim’s family, and the family of the officer that committed the hit and run. At first, it was confusing because I thought the attorney for the suspect was the boy’s mom that is hurt. They both looked really similar and it wasn’t until about halfway through that I finally realized the two were separate people. As the show went on though, it became clear that the two were not the same person. They weren’t driving the same vehicles, one was at a bar while the other was at a worship practice at a church, and then they were finally in the same scene together.

Thanks for reading another post mom, I hope you enjoyed it!

Gays and Frankie

Hey Mom. I know when I asked if you could help with my class you recommended that I watch Grace and Frankie. As of 1 AM the night before this blog post was due, I have not yet watched it. I was intrigued by your comment, though. You stated that you wondered how many older men remained closeted until their seventies, or late life. I then read many posts and stories on exactly that. It has proven to be something I had not expected to find much on. Beyond that one man, in a story by the Huffington Post, states that he remained closeted for his adult life due to societal pressures. This man wrote about his coming out in a book called Finally Out, Letting Go of Living Straight. He was a successful psychiatrist with a large family: five grandchildren and a great grandchild. He came out at the age of 95. That’s a little older than the men in Grace and Frankie from my understanding.

Throughout the article Mr. Olsen discusses the social circumstances that faced men if they did come out. It is stated that in the time period Mr. Olsen and others were raised in that being gay was illegal. I recently wrote a paper about this and learned that in some areas it was illegal to be gay up until the late 80’s. You would have been a child around this time mom. Not too long ago. Do you have any memories or comments on how being gay in your adolescence was different on how it is now?

One of the statements made by multiple people about why they did not come out was on the role of church and community. They felt like the church and bible were explicit, stating that if you were gay you were a sinner that should be pushed to the groups exterior. This still holds true. I know that our church The United Methodist Church is currently struggling with this dilemma trying to decide if we, as a faith community, should include LGBTQ+ members and clergy. We have had many conversations on this, since the conference to hold these discussions meets in St. Louis this February. I believe we are both on the same page when looking at this issue as well. It is surprising to me, though, how this men refer to church and the communities rejection of them. They state that these institutions were overly important and not having their support greatly hurt their reasons to come out. I think that we both have the right idea in our church, for supporting these people and giving them a place to come, grow and be merry, should be fantastic for methodism.

So I think I fell into a bit of a rabbit hole. Looking at these stories and the men behind them was quite interesting. I guess I will have to look up the inspiration of your quote and this paper and watch Grace and Frankie to learn more about these phenomena.