Final

Struggle is an inevitable part of the life and it is necessary for growth. While may make the person feel weak it is only making them stronger. Veterans often experience Post Traumatic Stress (PTS(D)) after returning from war. This condition haunts veterans and affects their mental well being after seeing such gruesome acts at war. Time Magazine released an article called Weakness or Wound by Ron Capps that covers military mental health. PTS(D) is not a disorder, that word implies that there is something wrong with the patient and is not accurate. Capps says, "The trauma that brings on PTSD changes the way the brain functions and the physical size of parts of the brain. It is a wound"(Time Magazine). Some medical practitioners are treating it otherwise though, the way they have been explaining this wound has lead more veterans to thinking it is weakness. This mentality has hushed the veterans; they refuse to seek help because they believe they would be seen as weak if they were to. The terminology also hushes veterans, "Some medical practitioners believe that the use of the word disorder in PTSD discourages service members from asking for help because they feel that a disorder is a weakness" (Time Magazine). Disorder, mess, disarray, these synonyms show how 'disorder' is perceived. This terminology points to the idea that there is something wrong with the veteran. The way this is handled in war also leads veterans to feel ashamed, "...a blood-and-bone wound, or a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), warrants award of the Purple Heart medal; no Purple Heart medal is authorized for PTSD" (Time Magazine). The struggle that PTS(D) sufferers fight is not dishonorable and the terminology and treatment need to change to stop this mentality.


Often, the struggle of larger groups of people goes unnoticed and the only way to end struggle is to confront the source. Political events help to raise awareness. On March 5, 1973 Marlon Brando declined his Oscar for Best Actor. He announced that he would not attend and sent Sacheen Littlefeather to speak for him. "I'm representing Marlon Brando this evening and he has asked me to tell you ... that he very regretfully cannot accept this very generous award. And the reasons for this being are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry —" (Sacheen Littlefeather). This very public decline helped to inform millions of people of the struggle for American Indians which helped bring change. "Brando lent the Native American community a once in a lifetime opportunity to raise awareness of their fight in front of 85 million viewers, leveraging an entertainment platform for political justice in unprecedented fashion" (Business Insider). Before this incident many people were oblivious to the mistreatment of American Indians and this event helped to bring it to attention. Reel Injun, a documentary on Indians in film and the racism they have faced also helped to raise awareness. Charlie Hill ends the film with, "We're creative natives. And we're... and we're like the Energizer Bunny. The mightiest nation in the world tried to exterminate us, anglicise us, Christianize us, Americanize us, but we just keep going and going. And I think that Energizer Bunny must be Indian. He's got that little water drum he plays. And I always say, "Next time you have a powwow, have the... the Energizer Bunny lead the grand entry, and after a few rounds then we can get together and EAT him", because we never waste anything" (Reel Injun). Through the struggle many have kept smiles on their faces, they can see the improvements and little victories being made.


Empathy, or the ability to understand the feelings of others, causes people to want to help others end their struggle. Being able to step into someone else's shoes connects the two people. Jeremy Rifkin delivers a movie speech to stress the importance of empathy in our society. "So if you think about the times that we've empathized with each other or fellow creatures, it's always because we felt their struggle" (Rifkin). Feeling another person's pain helps urge others to want to stop it while if their is no empathy the urge disappears. "When that earthquake hit Haiti and then Chile, but especially Haiti, within an hour the Tweeters came out, and within two hours some cell phone videos, YouTube, and within three hours the entire human race was in an empathic embrace, coming to the aid of Haiti" (Rifkin). Without seeing the results of this earthquake the aide would have taken more time and would have been less effective. "To bring out our empathic sociability, so that we can rethink the institutions and society and prepare the groundwork for an empathic civilization" (Rifkin). To embrace the empathy ingrained in society would help solve millions of cultural issues; it would be taken down easily as it impacts everyone.


Extended exposure to anything can lead to desensitization. The treatment towards American Indians became so second nature that children shows were riddled with blatant racism. As shown in the Bugs Bunny clip, shows were able to put terrible racist content in their show. "One little, two little, three little injuns" (Bugs Bunny). The constant stream of mistreatment led to Indians being shown as savage and anything other than human. "Four little, five little, six little injuns. Oh no that was a half-breed" (Bugs Bunny). This reference to multi-race slur that Tayo endured. Tayo was constantly teased for his heritage. The extended exposure to this racism is shown in Ceremony.