In The Valley of Elah

The movie “In the Valley of Elah” is a movie about the old warrior Hank Deerfield who gets a call from the military that his son Mike, has gone missing from the base after returning from duty in Iraq. Hank drives to the military base in New Mexico to find out what has happened to his son. After a couple of days, the stabbed and dismembered body of his son is found not far from town. Hank gets good contact with the detective that works on his case and together, they try to find out what really happened with his son. Hank and the detective investigate and discover shocking things not only about Hank’s son, but also about the other men serving in Iraq and how they treated people who were suffering. In the end, it turns out that Mike’s three good friends from the base had gotten in to a fight with him and then killed him, without caring a lot about it. This is a movie that gives us an example of how mentally damaged you can get when you experience war, and how it gets you to that point where you no longer care about other people or their lives.  '

I really liked this movie. It was a lot of action and tension, but there were also some sad moments that made me connect with the movie. I thought it was really scary to see how war can affect soldiers and kind of dehumanize people. This is a movie I definitely would see again.

In Barack Obama’s acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway, he said “Still, we are at war, and I am responsible for the deployment of thousands of young Americans to battle in a distant land. Some will kill. Some will be killed”. In some ways, this quote is connected with this movie. We saw how the soldiers performed on duty in a distant land when nobody was there to see it. How they killed and hurt innocent people without even caring about the damage they had done. I would connect the quote mostly to Mike in the movie. He tortured and killed innocent people, and then he got killed. You could say that he got a taste of his own medicine. Barack Obama also said “The soldier’s courage and sacrifice is full of glory, expressing devotion to country, to cause and to comrades in arms”. I do agree with the President on this. It is a huge sacrifice to risk your life for your country when you know that you can die any minute. So I hope there are not many soldiers that are so affected by the war that they act like the guys in this movie. There are too many innocent people that die in war, and there is no need to do more harm in this world.

This movie has given me a picture of how dangerous it is to serve in the war in Iraq. I understand that when you come from a safe and protecting environment at home, war changes your life and your perspective of things. I don’t think that a lot of the young adults that choose to serve and fight for their country at war know what they are going to face. It is honorable to fight for your country, but there are very few men and women that come back from war as the same person they were before they left. Some get mentally damaged, some get physically damaged and some get so damaged that they don’t come back at all.

Nobel Peace Price Speech

In our previous session we studied President Barack Obama’s acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. We saw a clip, read the speech and underlined different important things that the President mentioned. As our last homework before Christmas, we got these tasks about the speech to answer:

1.     What was the Marshall Plan?

The Marshall Plan was a plan that the United States had for rebuilding and creating a stronger economic foundation for the countries of Western Europe, and removing the threat of internal communism after World War II. The Plan was named after the Secretary of State; George Marshall, who also has received the Nobel Peace Prize.  

2.     Why is Obama humbled by this award?

Barack Obama is humbled by this award because he feels that he hasn’t accomplished anything worthy of this prize, but he views it as inspiration to accomplish his goals as President of the United States.

“I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel committee. I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.” – Barack Obama

3.     Who was Woodrow Wilson and why was he awarded the Nobel peace prize?

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28^th President of the United States. He was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1919 for his attempt to make peace after the First World War, with his fourteen points for peace.

4.     Who are some of the previous winners that he mentions?

In his speech he mentions former Nobel Prize winners like Albert Schweitzer and Nelson Mandela. Albert Schweitzer was a German-French theologian, musician, philosopher and physician. He received the prize in 1953 for his philosophy of “Reverence of Life”, and for founding the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné in west central Africa. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is a former President of South Africa. He received the Prize in 1993 together with Frederik Willem De Klerk for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa.

5.     According to Obama, what is a just reason for war?

According to Obama, reasons for a “just war” is if it is waged as a last resort or in self-defense, if the forced used is proportional and if civilians are spared from violence.

6.     What are Obama’s 3 ways to avoid war and keep the peace?

Obama’s three ways to peace is to deal with those nations that break rules and laws, find out the nature of the peace that we seek and not only include civil and political right, but include economic security and opportunity. “For true peace is not just freedom from fear, but freedom from want.” – Barack Obama

7.     What “old architecture” is buckling?

When Obama says that the old architecture is buckling, he means that other countries are no longer afraid of the United States as a nuclear superpower. I think he means that USA has “let their guard down” without noticing it, and it has made them weaker to threats like terrorists and suicide bombers and this increases the risk of catastrophes.

8.     What does Obama mean by a “gradual evolution of human institutions”? Where is this quote from?

By “a gradual evolution of human institution” Obama means that war is at some level an expression of human feelings. This is a quote from one of President Kennedy’s former speeches.

9.      Why can’t Obama be guided by the example of King and Gandhi alone?

Obama can not be guided by the example of King and Gandhi alone because, and I quote; he faces the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people.

Here is the first part of Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize Speech in Norway.

Preamble to the United States Constitution

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

We had a lady named Lee Ann Potter visiting the class today and we learned about the preamble to the United States Constitution. It was really exiting and educational, because I didn't know a lot about it, but now I feel that I know a litle bit more. The preamble is a document that explains the constitutions purpose and underlying philosophy. The Preamble serves solely as an introduction and does not assign powers to the federal government, nor does it provide specific limitations on government action.
She also showed us this video from when she was young, and it is really catchy!
 Video for children about the Preamble

"Milk"

Last week we saw the movie "Milk" from 2008. This is an biographical film about the life of the politican Harvey Milk.He was the first gay man to be elected to public office in California. The Movie starts on Harvey Milk's 40th birthday. At this time he was living in New York City, and had not yet settled in San Francisco. It is a story about his way into city politics, and all of the battles he experiences in the Castro neighborhood and throughout the city. He leads political campaigns to limit the rights of gay people, and we also get an insight in his romantic and political relationships.

In class, we didn't get the time to see how the movie ends, but the part we did have time to see was very fascinating. It seemed like a good movie, even though I didn't see how it ended.