Nick Sansone Exploration 4 part 1 and 2: Making Sence of the 60's

Part 1:

Personally, I didn’t learn much from Ain't Scared of Your Jails because I was previously educated on the topic. Although, it did enhance the seriousness of the events that strung out during the 60's. the thing that struck me the most from the film was that the government knew what was going on and they knew what was going to happen, and yet they did absolutely nothing about it. Burke Marshall says in the film "The FBI had information, it turns out, that was quite specific about what was going to happen in Birmingham. They might have had some more information about what was going to happen in Anniston, but I'm not sure of that. But they clearly had advance information from Klan sources that the Freedom Riders were going to be attacked in the bus station at Birmingham, and that the Birmingham police were going to absent themselves and not do anything to protect the rioters. The Bureau knew that. The Bureau didn't pass that information along to anybody in any other part of the department." Freedom riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate busses all through the south to protest segregation laws. Freedom riders weren't just African American's, there was also a large population of whites in the groups helping the cause. Freedom riders would take interstate busses through some of the most extremely segregated towns in the south sometimes sitting whites nest to blacks or while whites sat in the back of the bus, and blacks sat in the front of the bus. Once they reached their destination, they would exit the bus, and into the waiting areas where they would continue the protest. Whites would sit in the black's waiting room and vise versa. This caused major uproar in the south and most of the time the freedom riders were met with fierce and angry mobs that would do everything from verbally abuse to physically beat the freedom riders while no one did a thing to stop it.

 

Part 2:

The Dentist

In this chapter, Curt Lemon, who is know as a crazy man that can pull off some wild stuff in combat is deathly afraid of the dentist when the tall skinny captain with bad breath is flown in for a check up on the soldiers. So afraid that he actually faints as soon as he steps into the tent where the dentist is waiting for him. Curt was so embarrassed by this, later in the evening he goes down to see the man and tells him he has  horrible tooth ach. A killer one. After the dentist finding nothing to be wrong, Curt Lemon forces the man to pull out his perfectly good tooth. The reason I chose to talk abut this chapter was because a warrior who puffs himself up a lot and has done some things to get the label of crazy, is deathly afraid of the dentist. Not death or even injury, but the dentist, who is only there for a check up on the guys.

Sweetheart of The Song Tra Bong

In this chapter, it takes us to a medical outpost far up in the mountains where there "really isn't a war". The men up there start to talk about how easy it would be to bring a girl up there. Mark Fossie actually does something about it. After a letter and waiting for 6 weeks, his girlfriend shows up on a helicopter and some supplies. All goes well until she starts to become curious about the special ops soldiers or greenies and the surrounding wilderness. She starts to go out into the rain forest with them, and eve goes on ambushes with them without a weapon. Mark decided to talk her down and they decide to get married. After talking everything over and going over all of their plans for it, she still decides to go out into the rain forest. One night, the men waited outside of her hut to go in and talk to her. Hearing tribal music, the men became confused. They entered the room only to see objects for Vietnamese culture, candles, and even the head of a leopard. Surrounded by all of this is his girlfriend Mary Anne, who has a necklace made of human tongues. She insists what has happened isn't bad, and that he wouldn’t understand Vietnam in the sheltered camp. The two major themes I picked up out of this chapter is that war can and will completely change someone. Mary Anne came from Cleveland Heights and had no idea what it was like outside of it. Once she got to Vietnam and experienced the rain forest and the intensity of war, she completely changed. The author is also trying to convey the worlds difference in life back in the states and Vietnam. The author tells us this story to make us realize how hard it truly was in a time of war. Especially in a place like Vietnam where everything you have known or are used to is completely different. To me, the writing was at its best when Mark discovered his girlfriend had turned into a complete whack job and has decorated the room with candles and a leopards head. I was completely paying attention to the book and what he was saying because I wanted to know the state Mary Anne was in.