Tow #13: Visual Text: Mandela Political Cartoon by Jack Ohman



When I was searching through political cartoons this week I found many that were in tribute to Nelson Mandela because of his death the week before. Of all the cartoons I saw, this one by Jack Ohman, the editorial cartoonist at The Sacramento Bee, stood out to me the most.  Ohman is a professional cartoonist whose work has been syndicated throughout the country to over three hundred newspapers including The Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and the New York Times. One of his most recent cartoons is the cartoon pictured above that sums up Nelson Mandela's life. Ohman uses powerful imagery and a quote from Mandela to show the American people that anything is possible and to pay tribute to Mandela. The picture in the cartoon that goes with the quote is a locked cuff and an unlocked one with a man, presumably Mandela, walking away from being freed. The image shows that Mandela was able to do the impossible and was freed from jail after being force to wrongfully serve twenty seven years in prison. By including this image, it shows that even if something seems impossible it still may be possible, because it seemed impossible that Mandela would be released from prison, but he ended up being released. Another reason why this political cartoon is powerful is because of the quote Ohman decided to use. It is short and simple, but pictured the largest because it is the most important part of the cartoon. The words came from Mandela himself, but it is the perfect quote for his tribute because it sums up his life. It seemed impossible that Mandela would be freed, but he was. It seemed impossible that South Africa would have a black president, but it happened. I think that Ohman successfully paid tribute to Mandela simply because this quote was such a smart one to use and the picture went perfectly with that quote.

Tow #12: Article: "Shameful Profiling of the Mentally Ill" by Andrew Solomon

Since the Progressive Era, the mentally ill have been discriminated against less and less due to reforms created by the government. However one problem still remains: border control of the mentally ill. Currently there is a law against allowing mentally ill people into America called the Immigration and Nationality Act, Section 212. It states that anyone with a mental or physical disorder that threatens the safety of Americans will be denied entry into the country. However, this law is too strict because people with a disorder as common and harmless as depression are getting denied entry into America. Andrew Solomon, author of Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity, used the story of a woman who was hospitalized after attempting suicide in June of 2012 to argue against Section 212. Ellen Richardson, a Canadian, was not allowed to go to America because of her hospitalization from the year before. Because of this her Christmas vacation was ruined. Solomon mainly uses irrefutable facts and comparisons to prove to the American people that mentally ill people are still being discriminated against today. Solomon appeals to logos when he states the fact that people with a mental illness do not have have a higher rate of violence than people without a mental illness. This fact proves that Ms. Richardson should not have been denied entry. Also, this fact and many others Solomon included cannot be argued with because they are easily verifiable, therefore Solomon was able to successfully show that Section 212 may not be completely just. Solomon also compares this incident to when the United States denied entry into the country to people who were HIV positive. During the twenty years HIV positive people weren't allowed into America, potentially HIV positive people were not getting tested, so the country actually became sicker. Solomon claims that the same thing will happen if the President does not speak out against the Immigration and Nationality Act now. By comparing the current issue to an older one, Solomon attempted to show Americans that they cannot allow the country to make the same mistake again, therefore he successfully achieved his purpose.

Tow #11 IRB: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach (Part 1)

Mary Roach is a naturally curious woman that has written six books about different areas of nature, whether it was about the living or the dead. Stiff is the first book Roach wrote and it is about human bodies and what is done with them once they are dead. Although the book mainly addresses donation of the body to science, Roach also explains cremation and embalming all in graphic detail.  Roach is able to inform people interested in the subject with humor and comparisons of body parts to familiar items, most commonly food. For example, when describing what a brain looks like after three weeks of death, she says it "becomes like soup in there...chicken soup. It's yellow." Although comparing the cadavers to food may ruin that food for her audience, at least they can picture exactly what Roach was seeing at the time. The comparisons help the reader know exactly what the dead looks like, smells like, and even what the meat-eating bugs on the dead bodies sound like (Rice Krispies). In the first half of the book along with using humor, Roach is also uses a more serious tone. She makes it clear that dying is not funny and it is hard to deal with, yet it does not have to be boring. She acknowledges that her book may be controversial and that it is okay to disagree with her point of views. However, Roach makes her claim very clear by stating that it is "a shame to waste these powers, to not use them for the betterment of humankind" to not donate your body to science. By having a clear point of view, she is able to successfully support it in an unconventional way, which is through the use of humor. Overall I think she was successful in convincing people that her point of view is valid. She does not approach the subject of cadavers in a boring way, therefore I think that her audience will stay interested throughout the entire book and realize that they can do the amazing things that cadavers do once they are dead.