If Hollywood attempted to depict the Freedom Riders in movie form, could it be done authentically with a close rendering of real events to the point where it was more effective for audiences that the documentary, or will the documentary always trump anything Hollywood could do, given that it's the "true" story? I dont think this answer has a yes or no answer. I think its all about how you define 'effective' and what you are looking for. A movie has certain strengths that a documentary wouldn't have, but a documentary also has some strengths that a movie wouldn't have. For example a movie would be more captivating than a documentary but a documentary would be more informative and real than the movie. I think it would be interesting if Hollywood took its take on the Freedom Riders. It would be interesting to see how Hollywood would portray the event and it would provide a different viewpoint than a documentary would. Since the movie would be from the individuals during the event it would give a different perspective than a documentary, which looks back on the events, would give. If I had to pick one to be more 'effective' I would say the movie. The reasoning is that I look at the Freedom Riders movement as something that people should know about. People should know how bad race relations were and how courageous the people involved were. While a documentary would provide more information about it, the movie would reach out to more people. Since a movie is more captivating and would be well advertised to a larger population, more people will end up watching it. Also if the movie is well done it should be historically accurate. That being said I still think the documentary would be more informative. The documentary itself was also really well done. I search it online and found out that it got 6 awards which I felt were well deserved. I also found out that the documentary was based partly from the book Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. I was thinking that I might read that book for my independent reading or maybe that it should offered as an extra credit opportunity. 

"How should parents raise their children?" A question that every single generation has had to face. A parent has a huge impact on its child and thus has a great responsibility. As I have been reading To Kill a Mockingbird more and more of Atticus and his personality has been relieved to me. At least to me, Atticus is the epitome of a good parent. When it was mentioned that Atticus was ranked the top hero of American film history I completely understood why. One (of many) Atticus's 'superpowers' is his great parenting. As a parent he allows his children to see reality for what it really is. While it inst pretty allowing his children to see reality will make them better people. Allowing children to see reality allowed them to be respectful and prevented them from becoming ignorant and racist like so many children of Maycomb. I personally believe that it is important for children to experience the reality, to an extent, in order to make them better prepared for the real world that they will have to one day experience. Since we live in 2012 there are some developments that parents of previous generations didn't need to worry about, such as the internet. Today we live in a digital world and while the internet has limitless potential and opportunities  it also posses some danger to children. There are some things on the internet that children should not be exposed to and it is up to the parent to make the right decision for their child. While one the topic of how a parent should treat their child, we should cover what the goal of a parent is. While I would think that most parents want their children to do well but the question is 'how would we define that?' For some parents their goal would be solely be that their child makes a lot of money by having a successful if not very prestigious job like a doctor, lawyer ect. Personally what I would want most about a child would be that he is very well rounded, interested, intelligent and an overall good person. There is no definitive way to make a person like this but there are a few things I would do as a parent. I would try to make my child interested in stuff so that he pursuits something himself enjoys. I also would tell my children what I expect but I would avoid punishing them to much for if you punish your children the effectiveness of the punishment is lessened. But when it comes down to being a parent there is never a yes or no. As parents there will be situations that will be unpredictable and it's especially under these moments that parents will have a make a decision for thier child that may affect them forever. Whether it is for better or worse hopefully the child will learn and in turn be able to make better decision when he is a parent.

In order to understand today we must understand the past. This especially true when one examines slavery. Throughout America's history race relations between white and black has, for the better, changed as time progressed. Where American society is today regarding race relations is light years ahead of where it once was, but while we have progressed quite far, we still have further to go. From what I have experienced in my life I see good race relations, but I am fully aware that the race relations that I experience to in my life are not the representation of race relations in the U.S. I understand that racism is still an issue in this country even though I may not see it. A perfect example of this would be the case of George Zimmerman and Travon Martin. Allegedly an individual made certain racist decisions based on the color of a young kids skin. This shows how racism still prevails in the country we live in today. What I think the most important issue about race-relations inst necessarily race but rather hatred. As we covered all this information about how people are like in 1930s and 1960s what really stands out to me is the immense hatred. I see all this hatred that I cant even fathom why it is so ingrained in so many people. Yes this hatred is directed to a particular skin color but I don't think that's what matters. What matters is that such hatred exists and as long as such hatred exists I cannot say we as humanity have achieved our full potential. I look at current day groups like the Westboro Baptist Church and all I see is a hate group using religion as a guise to support hate. It matters not where this hatred is directed at, whether it be at black, Latinos  Asians  whites or any other group of human beings. What matters is that as long as such hatred exists then we as a people have not reached our true potential. I understand that the question was regarding my opinions on race-relations but race is simply a difference between people and in turn can be applied to any difference between anyone. What I am saying is that I don't view race-relations as simply black and white, race relations is about how we treat people who are different. In conclusion while we as a people have progressed in race-relations over the years, we are not as accomplished as we may think we are and that we as a people still have much farther to go in making negative race relations a thing of the past.