Reading Conference

https://www.smore.com/rckxm-the-way-we-fall

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Article "the war on children"

Connections: What connections can you draw between the text and your own life or your other learning? Read the article "Teaching Kids to Kill" and describe any similarities or differences in the concepts.

The articles based on the numerous mass murder due to no significant  reason other than race, religion or personal opinion being solely due to the influence of video games and other forms of media . There are many connections to this particular article but one current global issue stands out that is very similar to this article but does argue against it. In some third world countries it is common to hear about child soldiers, and these child soldiers aren’t just in a game but in fact actually forced to kill and obey all actions told by their upper authority. These children are simply forced to take hands on a weapon and learn to kill, not with the influence of video games but the influence of the gang leaders. In the article they explain how everyone who killed someone for the first time had a link back to video games or the influence of another violent media, but in this case these children have probably never seen a video game yet alone be influenced by it. 

Challenges: What ideas, positions, or assumptions do you want to challenge or argue with in the text?

Opinions cannot suggest that video games and other violent Medias are the causes or influences of children violent behaviour. It does not always necessarily mean that a kid who plays a violent game may  be the reasons kid display a violent behaviour but could very well be the mentality of the individual child. Most of these articles would talk about a race, religious or personal reason  a child has decided to display violent behaviour and this could possibly be the outcome from stereotypes, racism and having something against a particular religion. 

Concepts: What key concepts or ideas do you think are important and worth holding on to from the text?

The fact that numbers in crime are increasing over the years is alarming but it does not necessarily  mean its due to violent games. Since there have been more murders in developing countries then ever such as India, Mexico, Brazil etc, these could all be due to the increase in the drug industry worldwide.

Changes: What changes in attitudes, thinking or action are suggested by the text, either for you or others?

This texts forces the reader to believe that violent influences are the reasoning of increasing number of crime, murder etc. Actions suggested by this article states that video game companies should be banned from creating such violent games that influence kids at a young age, and any form of violent media should be retained in order to prevent the number of kids influenced by these negative forms of media.

"War on Terror"

Article: "war on Terror' has cost US a whopping $1.7tn until now  ( http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/war-terror-has-cost-us-whopping-1-7tn-until-now-1486993 )

        The US has spent a massive amount on its "War on Terror", amounting to more than the 2013 gross domestic product of Australia(from article). The United States has spent more then a  whopping 1.7 tn dollars($US) on war. This massive costs include the operations of Iraq and Afghanistan lasting a miraculous 10+ years. Breaking up the costs we see that more money was spent on Iraq( $815 Billion) and not far behind is the amount spent on Afghanistan($686 Billion).  And where does the government get such a funding for war?Tax payers. The tax payers are responsible for paying the 1.7 Trillion dollars. 

            Being an economic based article, it was easy to connect it to a real life economic crisis, the World War II recession. After WWII ended, economically the country was collapsing, creating a recession lasting a staggering 10 years. We can relate this article to that because in the article they talk about how much money has gone towards war but do not talk about the possible aftermath which is likely to be similar to the recession. Since tax payers are the one funding the war it only makes sense that it will be the recession all over again, lasting possibly a  long time. Since this is the most amount of money ever spent on one particular operation, combined the recession is only a matter of question of when it will begin to take serious effects.