Midterm Analysis: An Episode 'West Wing'
Jiyea Um
In Excelsis Deo In this West Wing episode, Toby gets called by police to identify a homeless man who died in cold. As he finds out that the homeless man is Korean War veteran Toby, who is also a veteran, traces the man and arranges a military funeral for him using the president’s influence. It seems like Toby’s sympathy for the man as a veteran is the main reason why he prepared the homeless man’s funeral in this episode. However, I think part of Toby just wanted to ensure a man, who was willing in a war with strong loyalty to the country, the dignity he deserved as an American. CJ’s outrage over Minnesota can be related to Toby’s action in that she was trying to protect the rights and dignity of people. As I was studying about
different kinds and stages of prejudice in Thology11. I was surprised by the notion that even in such a multicultural country like America significant portion of people have hard problem accepting people who are different. This acerbic attitude of people is greatly illustrated in this episode. People simply don’t care for others enough to be nice to them. They just do not take a second to try to be conphrehensive of others. When they find out that someone is different from them in a way that makes them uncomfortable they turn bitter, hostile, and sometimes violant toward the person. The motivation of the students who decide to abuse a homosexual kid for his sexual orientation was nothing more than unreasonable prejudice. Also, the story with the veteran who died in cold shows the rather nonchalant attitude of public toward people they do not have connection to. Should congress pass laws for dignified burials for veterans and for punishing hate crimes? Opponents of governmental intervention in justice issues emphasize their rights to have their opinions. However, government should not put rights of some people to beliefs before the rights of others to survive and have a normal life. Governent should not only pass the laws that were suggested in the episode but also seek a way to stop injustice in the society that is ignored. It should be a common sense for people to at least to honor the veterans who risked their own lives to save the country they are living in when it was in crisis and respect certain dignity of human beings. Obviously, beating somebody up to death is not exactly what the country is striving for. Why cannot government do something to correct it? This episode starts with images of a man who died alone on park bench in cold and ends with those of dignified funeral for the same man and of a Christ choir. Just like most of other Christmas story, this episode shows people gathering and sharing love on Christmas day.
In Excelsis Deo In this West Wing episode, Toby gets called by police to identify a homeless man who died in cold. As he finds out that the homeless man is Korean War veteran Toby, who is also a veteran, traces the man and arranges a military funeral for him using the president’s influence. It seems like Toby’s sympathy for the man as a veteran is the main reason why he prepared the homeless man’s funeral in this episode. However, I think part of Toby just wanted to ensure a man, who was willing in a war with strong loyalty to the country, the dignity he deserved as an American. CJ’s outrage over Minnesota can be related to Toby’s action in that she was trying to protect the rights and dignity of people. As I was studying about
different kinds and stages of prejudice in Thology11. I was surprised by the notion that even in such a multicultural country like America significant portion of people have hard problem accepting people who are different. This acerbic attitude of people is greatly illustrated in this episode. People simply don’t care for others enough to be nice to them. They just do not take a second to try to be conphrehensive of others. When they find out that someone is different from them in a way that makes them uncomfortable they turn bitter, hostile, and sometimes violant toward the person. The motivation of the students who decide to abuse a homosexual kid for his sexual orientation was nothing more than unreasonable prejudice. Also, the story with the veteran who died in cold shows the rather nonchalant attitude of public toward people they do not have connection to. Should congress pass laws for dignified burials for veterans and for punishing hate crimes? Opponents of governmental intervention in justice issues emphasize their rights to have their opinions. However, government should not put rights of some people to beliefs before the rights of others to survive and have a normal life. Governent should not only pass the laws that were suggested in the episode but also seek a way to stop injustice in the society that is ignored. It should be a common sense for people to at least to honor the veterans who risked their own lives to save the country they are living in when it was in crisis and respect certain dignity of human beings. Obviously, beating somebody up to death is not exactly what the country is striving for. Why cannot government do something to correct it? This episode starts with images of a man who died alone on park bench in cold and ends with those of dignified funeral for the same man and of a Christ choir. Just like most of other Christmas story, this episode shows people gathering and sharing love on Christmas day.