Exploration 4 by Corey Peck

Part One:
What stood out to me most, or what I will take away from the film Ain't Scared of Your Jails is the very ending involving Frederick Leonard. This interview involved him telling the story about how he and other prisoners sang freedom songs and the guards threatened to take away there mattresses. After refusing to give up his mattress, the guards called in other inmates to forcefully take them away. A man nick-named "Pee Wee" was beating another man over the head to give up the mattress but Pee Wee started to cry. Leonard uses the example and quotes explaining, "This is going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you." This is how Pee Wee felt. Due to this short story told by Leonard, it got me thinking why didn't the white guards forcefully try and take the mattress? Was it to try and break the "peaceful protest" and to turn the African Americans on each other? This short story is what stood out to me most and what will keep me wondering about the guards intentions.
         The topic I chose was the KKK. The KKK stands for the Ku Klux Klan. In June of 1964, the begging of "freedom summer" (southern blacks to vote) the KKK was more aggressive than ever. Attempts to murder active boycotters for the right to vote were in danger. The KKK was aiming for a man named Michael Schwerner. The KKK initially missed him but ended up killing other affiliates of him and eventually beat the affiliates and burned down their church where they had meetings. This is where the name "Mississippi Burning" came from. A few days after this event, Schwerner and two other men were murdered only to be found buried in a farm house. A little over a year later a few members of the KKK attempted to run MLK, Leroy Morton and Viola Luizzo off a road. While this happened the members shot at their car and ended up killing Mrs. Luizzo. The members of the KKK were quickly found and convicted 10 years in prison due to civil rights violations.

This is a poor quality picture of the three men including Michael Schwerner found dead and buried in a farm house.

Part Two:
In the short chapter Enemies the theme of irony stood out the most. You have two soldiers, fighting on the same side of the war who are in an argument over a knife. Jensen thinking Strunk stole his Knife. These soldiers along with the rest are in the chaotic Vietnam War. In the other shorter chapter Friends, the theme of irony is present as well. Strunk and Jensen made the pact that if one person gets hurt, the other will put them out of their misery. This was the deal until Strunk's leg got blown off. Jensen didn't follow through primarily due to Strunk begging. However, when Jensen found out Strunk had died, he was relieved. In the longer chapter How to tell a true war story, the writing stood out to me most during the story telling of Curt Lemons death. Especially when they had to remove parts of his body from the tree then calling it a "lemon tree." How can the soldiers be so comical while they're literally picking their friend piece by piece out of a tree? Is this there way of coping? They made this part of text calm and unspecified with details yet when they mentioned the buffalo, everything appeared to be much darker. That is what I find perplexing in this chapter.