Before viewing "The Meth Epidemic" on Front Line, you could imagine what the scares and the tragedies would be like from the stories to come. However you would be shocked to find the severity of such tragedies and their effect on society on a timeline of the mid 70's to the 2000's. Along the way you can also make note of how the dangers of methamphetamine affect the culture, demographic, geography, politics and economics in the United States. This story expose meth extensively in all of those major topics that come up in what is called the Making Of The Modern World.
The geographical area that affects the meth craze starts on the west coast specifically in Portland Oregon. Notably, the state of Oregon gets hit the hardest with the effect of this drug and research shows that 85% of property crimes in Oregon were due to the use of meth. Police officers in "booking" noticed a trend of users coming in and out. They also recognized throughout the months/years that the faces and physical appearance of users being arrested changed dramatically. Some adding more than 20 years of aging to their appearance, with sagging skin the face, rashes and scarring. This discovery brought about researchers and reporters like Steve Suo of the Oregonian newspaper making several interesting discoveries. This investigation and story was ongoing throughout the years and their discoveries helped break down the threats of the drug.
In a way meth users don't come from a specific or common culture, but as they fall victim of the drugs aftermath they share severe changes to their lifestyle. Their brains are being ruined by this drug and the ways their mind works or lack there of makes meth the most addicting drug of all. The culture that comes with being a user of methamphetamine or Crystal Meth points in the direction of crime, domestic violence, and families being split up. More common than you'd think, 50% of foster care children are there because at least one of their parents abuses the drug. In one specific case a young girl witnessed her parents having sexual encounters with each other and with other adults, her father would also abuse her mother and they would trip for days. She spoke of a time her father forced her to learn how to cook up the methamphetamine in their house exposing the young girl to deathly chemicals as well as forcing her to taste the finished product.
Along with the culture surrounding the use of meth is the demographic it targets. This is shockingly not something found in every major city around the country, while Portland is large it doesn't have the population of other major cities. Looking more closely at the ages and races of people doing the drug, the trend seems to be white males and females in there 20's and 40's. These users are multiple time offenders who literally fry their brains from extensive use. The drug sets of dopamine which is the rewarding part of the brain over little time, that part of the brain becomes the driving force for fulfillment, and more meth is needed to satisfy the brain.
There was an interesting discovery made by Steve Suo that the numbers of meth users checking into and out of rehab centers increased and decreased dramatically over the years. He then wondered why this was happening. His discoveries showed that the purity of meth throughout the years had changed dramatically, based on the availability of affedrine, the key ingredient in the drug. Battling laws and crackdowns the drug lords have had to find new lewpoles to get their hands on large quantities of this drug. Doing this takes time and that is why we see the up and down scale model, when the drugs on the streets are pure more people are addicted and need help, when they are bad people are less likely to get addicted and do not seek the help.
Affedrine is a drug that is legally used in the making of sudafedrine, a common sinus relief medicine that for years was unregulated. When U.S. legislature made the distribution of the affedrine to non-legitimate buyers the people who cook up the meth bought hundreds of these boxes and broke them down to make Crystal Meth. While this drug is now spreading easily from the west coast to the east coast, this trend is becoming noticeable and the politicians make it so a person can only purchase the drug 3 boxes at a time and was moved off the shelves and behind the counter. This worked for a while, moving the line on the chart again lower and lower until the meth labs would hire people to go into the every drug store in the area and buy the maximum amount of pills until they had enough to cook up. Now, with the biggest decrease in meth use in history in Oregon, the drug has been moved to a prescription drug only. This is a very obvious move for the rest of the country to follow in years to come and would have been done early if it weren't for the major pharmaceutical companies fighting it.
This fight to keep the sudafedrine drug on the shelves was all about the money that the pharmaceutical companies made from this. Economics has everything to do with major moves made like this in our country, even if it is at the cost of millions of lives. The Amezcore brothers had an illegal operation going in Mexico that imported 100's of tons of affedrine a year and made them 2 billion a year all without the DEA's knowledge. Now that the laws have been put in place to stop these practices, the scarcity of the drug and the purity of the meth has gone down dramatically.
After viewing "The Meth Epidemic" on Front Line, I have an in depth look at meth use and how it affects not only the physical appearance of someone but the mental state as well. This drug as it stands has the ability to be extinct because it strictly comes from chemicals, it can not be grown. If the government keeps advancing on the crack down of meth production and use they will succeed in eliminating the most dangerous drug on the market.
The Meth Epidemic- Front Line documentary.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
The Freedom Riders of '61
Often times I catch myself looking back at our nations participation in racism, discrimination and segregation as ancient history. Then I am quickly reminded that our nations dark past was eerily not that long ago. In my resent discovery, I have found the PBS documentary on the "Freedom Riders" of 1961 to be very educational as well as heartbreaking. This documentary best captures the ways of the south and the cruelty that was done to the innocent passengers.
CORE, the Congress Of Racial Equality was a group of black and white activists from the northern states. In 1961, the group made plans to ride on integrated buses from Washington D.C. to New Orleans, deliberately breaking the "laws of the south". This was a simple but daring plan to challenge people and establishments in the south participating in racial segregation. Their hope for their two week trip was to raise awareness of how blacks were treated in the south and start a National Movement. The CORE went through what they describe as training for what might happen on their trip to the south. When interviewed before the trip, they spoke confidently that they were prepared for what was to come, they were not.
On May 14th 1961, two buses, one Greyhound and the other trailways, set off to make it to Alabama, one did not make it. When this bus made it to Birmingham, there was a mob waiting for them full of white southerners. They blocked the bus to a dead stop in the street, and proceeded to light it on fire with the riders still inside. Soon smoke filled the bus and they fled to the street gasping for air where the majority were greeted with physical abuse. One man was hit in the head by a baseball bat. Miraculously and not to be viewed as foreshadowing of upcoming events, a young white girl found this action to be cruel and provided water to the people coughing up smoke and ash. Suddenly as if the bell had rang for playtime to be over, an officer fired into the air and broke up the massacre, and said "Okay you've had your fun, lets back up" and the riders were stranded.
The second of the two buses, arrived in Birmingham later and was met by the KKK, who's leaders had an arrangement with local police to have 15 minutes of freedom with the riders. The southerners saw this as war on their customs and beliefs to paraphrase a southern woman. The FBI headed by J Edgar Hoover, who is known to be a powerful man of the time simply looked the other way towards this event. Again the riders were met with violent force and led a few leaders of the group to the hospital. Despite the CORE wanting to continue the following day, they couldn't find anyone to driver their bus. After waiting in limbo for several hours, representatives from the JFK administration flew down to Alabama to fly the riders to New Orleans. This was the first sign of support from the government and JFK administration who was much more concerned with the cold war and missile crisis than civil rights. For the CORE the rides were over, however they had made an impact and raised awareness like they had hoped.
For some people like Diane Nash, that impact just wasn't enough. Nash, a student at the time of Fisk University was quoted saying "If we stop the freedom rides, the message will have been sent that you could stop integration with violence" therefore she believed the rides needed to continue. She became the coordinator of the second group of freedom riders that set out on May 16th. The second wave of riders was made up of black and white students who dropped out in the midst of finals and graduation to participate in this movement. An Attorney General called Diane the night before they left and told her to stop, and warned her that someone will die if this continues. Nash a very soft spoken young woman told him that they were prepared to do what it takes, and that they signed their last wills. Moved by her persistence, he called a meeting with Bobby Kennedy, Governor Patterson of Alabama and Patterson's head of defense. In this meeting he told the men that the state of Alabama needed to provide full support to the riders and Governor Patterson complied that he would do so. The buses of student riders arrived in Birmingham and to their surprise they were unharmed and the police escorted them the next station in Montgomery.
Here, they came upon what seemed to be a dead town and thought they were in the clear yet again. However, crowds multiplied into thousands as they exited the buses and they were given one of the worst beatings yet. The 21 integrated students faced death that day in Montgomery. Later in the evening the students took refuge in a church with Dr. Martin Luther King, where he lectured a full house to support the riders. The church was soon surrounded by angry white activists and the KKK threatening to torch the church. Meanwhile the JFK administration is under the impression that Governor Patterson is doing his job and providing these students with protection. Within hours the United States Marshals were there and forced Patterson to sign Marshal law stating that he could no longer control this situation and it was not in the hands of the government. Over the next few days Montgomery was home to over a 1000 military men and US Marshals. With news of this sweeping the nation the freedom riders wanted to keep moving down towards their goal of New Orleans.
The students urged Dr. King to join them on the buses and help head the movement but he declined. Receiving much criticism Dr. King felt that his duty was to stay, and the students lost some hope in his commitment. An arrangement was made by JFK and Mississippi Senator that once the riders arrived in Mississippi that they would be arrested for disturbing the peace. The idea behind this was to teach the students a lesson, however the students saw right through this and it didn't work. Word quickly spread and there was a movement to fill the state prisons with these freedom riders. Bus loads came down knowing that they would be arrested and thrown in jail, eventually hundreds were jailed from all over the country. The idea was to raise awareness to the nation that the south refused to integrate and it had worked. Eventually the riders were released from prison and shortly after the ICC took down signs segregating the south. This was a huge step in the civil rights movement.
Many things can be taken from the story of the freedom riders and their characteristics as activist. At this time the country was faced with very different cultures in the North and South. Let it be known that it was illegal to have a segregated south, however the government overlooked their cruelty towards blacks for basic political reasons. The North and South was in a way separated by new age and old age ideas.
This idea goes back to the civil war in the United States, and the southern refusal for defeat and conformity. In the 60's when this took place and unfortunately in some parts of the south today, you were a non equal if you were anything other than a white Christian. As a white citizen of the true south, to have buses show up in your neighbor hood with black and white people on them, might as well have been blasphemy. What made these rides unique was that it elaborated on the southern hatred for black people and it showed that a white person interacting with blacks as equals would be shown the same disrespect. A very traditional and proud society like the south, was and still is very hard to break and get through to. These riders knew they had to provide a message to not only the south and the United States, but to the world. Doing so, with zero to none political power and influence was their handicap.
With that said, these riders were essentially everyday people and eventually young college students who in the eyes of the nation were just looking for trouble. However, the members of CORE and the second wave of the movement were smart and knew that to impact the evils of segregation, they needed to go to the heart of the south. In a sense they sort of rolled the dice and said, let it ride, no pun intended. The element that this wasn't activists that we know today like Dr. King or Melcolm X makes this that much more real. Everyday people wanted to make a difference went out to raise this awareness.
Some of the things I found to be most profound in this story is the little recognition and respect it got from government officials at first. JFK, who is in the thick of it with the Soviet Union, couldn't care less about this movement. Sure he campaigned that civil rights were important and he would fight against these evils of the south he didn't support or acknowledge the freedom riders until almost the end. I know how dare I criticize JFK, but I think it is important to be critical of history. I am also beside myself to learn that Governor Patterson of Alabama gives total disregard to a direct order from the United States government to protect the students. This is a direct result of how elected officials are not always elected because they are the best at their jobs, it has to do with political influence. This message should be viewed by today's voters especially the young, to know who you are electing and why.
The Freedom Riders documentary tells a piece of history that is unfortunately not as common a story as one would hope. It shows the resilience and persistence of the riders and their ability to achieve positive results on one common goal. It can be argued that this was one of the first major eye openers in the Civil Rights movement and it is properly documented that way. Whether it's the Freedom Riders of '61 or today's members of Occupy Wall Street, awareness, and progress can always be made.
Freedom Riders documentary, PBS.
CORE, the Congress Of Racial Equality was a group of black and white activists from the northern states. In 1961, the group made plans to ride on integrated buses from Washington D.C. to New Orleans, deliberately breaking the "laws of the south". This was a simple but daring plan to challenge people and establishments in the south participating in racial segregation. Their hope for their two week trip was to raise awareness of how blacks were treated in the south and start a National Movement. The CORE went through what they describe as training for what might happen on their trip to the south. When interviewed before the trip, they spoke confidently that they were prepared for what was to come, they were not.
On May 14th 1961, two buses, one Greyhound and the other trailways, set off to make it to Alabama, one did not make it. When this bus made it to Birmingham, there was a mob waiting for them full of white southerners. They blocked the bus to a dead stop in the street, and proceeded to light it on fire with the riders still inside. Soon smoke filled the bus and they fled to the street gasping for air where the majority were greeted with physical abuse. One man was hit in the head by a baseball bat. Miraculously and not to be viewed as foreshadowing of upcoming events, a young white girl found this action to be cruel and provided water to the people coughing up smoke and ash. Suddenly as if the bell had rang for playtime to be over, an officer fired into the air and broke up the massacre, and said "Okay you've had your fun, lets back up" and the riders were stranded.
The second of the two buses, arrived in Birmingham later and was met by the KKK, who's leaders had an arrangement with local police to have 15 minutes of freedom with the riders. The southerners saw this as war on their customs and beliefs to paraphrase a southern woman. The FBI headed by J Edgar Hoover, who is known to be a powerful man of the time simply looked the other way towards this event. Again the riders were met with violent force and led a few leaders of the group to the hospital. Despite the CORE wanting to continue the following day, they couldn't find anyone to driver their bus. After waiting in limbo for several hours, representatives from the JFK administration flew down to Alabama to fly the riders to New Orleans. This was the first sign of support from the government and JFK administration who was much more concerned with the cold war and missile crisis than civil rights. For the CORE the rides were over, however they had made an impact and raised awareness like they had hoped.
For some people like Diane Nash, that impact just wasn't enough. Nash, a student at the time of Fisk University was quoted saying "If we stop the freedom rides, the message will have been sent that you could stop integration with violence" therefore she believed the rides needed to continue. She became the coordinator of the second group of freedom riders that set out on May 16th. The second wave of riders was made up of black and white students who dropped out in the midst of finals and graduation to participate in this movement. An Attorney General called Diane the night before they left and told her to stop, and warned her that someone will die if this continues. Nash a very soft spoken young woman told him that they were prepared to do what it takes, and that they signed their last wills. Moved by her persistence, he called a meeting with Bobby Kennedy, Governor Patterson of Alabama and Patterson's head of defense. In this meeting he told the men that the state of Alabama needed to provide full support to the riders and Governor Patterson complied that he would do so. The buses of student riders arrived in Birmingham and to their surprise they were unharmed and the police escorted them the next station in Montgomery.
Here, they came upon what seemed to be a dead town and thought they were in the clear yet again. However, crowds multiplied into thousands as they exited the buses and they were given one of the worst beatings yet. The 21 integrated students faced death that day in Montgomery. Later in the evening the students took refuge in a church with Dr. Martin Luther King, where he lectured a full house to support the riders. The church was soon surrounded by angry white activists and the KKK threatening to torch the church. Meanwhile the JFK administration is under the impression that Governor Patterson is doing his job and providing these students with protection. Within hours the United States Marshals were there and forced Patterson to sign Marshal law stating that he could no longer control this situation and it was not in the hands of the government. Over the next few days Montgomery was home to over a 1000 military men and US Marshals. With news of this sweeping the nation the freedom riders wanted to keep moving down towards their goal of New Orleans.
The students urged Dr. King to join them on the buses and help head the movement but he declined. Receiving much criticism Dr. King felt that his duty was to stay, and the students lost some hope in his commitment. An arrangement was made by JFK and Mississippi Senator that once the riders arrived in Mississippi that they would be arrested for disturbing the peace. The idea behind this was to teach the students a lesson, however the students saw right through this and it didn't work. Word quickly spread and there was a movement to fill the state prisons with these freedom riders. Bus loads came down knowing that they would be arrested and thrown in jail, eventually hundreds were jailed from all over the country. The idea was to raise awareness to the nation that the south refused to integrate and it had worked. Eventually the riders were released from prison and shortly after the ICC took down signs segregating the south. This was a huge step in the civil rights movement.
Many things can be taken from the story of the freedom riders and their characteristics as activist. At this time the country was faced with very different cultures in the North and South. Let it be known that it was illegal to have a segregated south, however the government overlooked their cruelty towards blacks for basic political reasons. The North and South was in a way separated by new age and old age ideas.
This idea goes back to the civil war in the United States, and the southern refusal for defeat and conformity. In the 60's when this took place and unfortunately in some parts of the south today, you were a non equal if you were anything other than a white Christian. As a white citizen of the true south, to have buses show up in your neighbor hood with black and white people on them, might as well have been blasphemy. What made these rides unique was that it elaborated on the southern hatred for black people and it showed that a white person interacting with blacks as equals would be shown the same disrespect. A very traditional and proud society like the south, was and still is very hard to break and get through to. These riders knew they had to provide a message to not only the south and the United States, but to the world. Doing so, with zero to none political power and influence was their handicap.
With that said, these riders were essentially everyday people and eventually young college students who in the eyes of the nation were just looking for trouble. However, the members of CORE and the second wave of the movement were smart and knew that to impact the evils of segregation, they needed to go to the heart of the south. In a sense they sort of rolled the dice and said, let it ride, no pun intended. The element that this wasn't activists that we know today like Dr. King or Melcolm X makes this that much more real. Everyday people wanted to make a difference went out to raise this awareness.
Some of the things I found to be most profound in this story is the little recognition and respect it got from government officials at first. JFK, who is in the thick of it with the Soviet Union, couldn't care less about this movement. Sure he campaigned that civil rights were important and he would fight against these evils of the south he didn't support or acknowledge the freedom riders until almost the end. I know how dare I criticize JFK, but I think it is important to be critical of history. I am also beside myself to learn that Governor Patterson of Alabama gives total disregard to a direct order from the United States government to protect the students. This is a direct result of how elected officials are not always elected because they are the best at their jobs, it has to do with political influence. This message should be viewed by today's voters especially the young, to know who you are electing and why.
The Freedom Riders documentary tells a piece of history that is unfortunately not as common a story as one would hope. It shows the resilience and persistence of the riders and their ability to achieve positive results on one common goal. It can be argued that this was one of the first major eye openers in the Civil Rights movement and it is properly documented that way. Whether it's the Freedom Riders of '61 or today's members of Occupy Wall Street, awareness, and progress can always be made.
Freedom Riders documentary, PBS.
Friday, February 3, 2012
IMAGINE
For this assignment, I watched a documentary done by the BBC in their Imagine series. Entitled "Tales of Music and the Brain", the documentary narrated by Alan Yentob, shows the work of Dr. Oliver Sacks. In this documentary 4 individuals and their stories are featured, Through research Dr. Sacks found a link between people with disabilities and music, Alan Yentob shows us a few of those extreme examples.
The first person the documentary features is Matt Giardano, a twenty-five year old from upstate New York. Matt was born with turrets syndrome and at the early age of 2 was inspired to play the drums once he heard the Moody Blues tune "Singer in a Rock n' Roll Band". There was little known about Turrets in the 1980's and the doctors had little they could do for him. During Matt's early years, he would frequently lash out in anger towards others and eventually towards himself. To protect Matt from causing harm to himself he went to a hospital in an attempt to help him with his condition. After 4 years Matt returned from the hospital and went back to school. There he continued his passion for playing the drums. He describes a time playing the drums when he was younger, "feeling the puzzle pieces in the two hemispheres of his brain clicking and shooting an amazing feeling throughout his body." With two full drum sets in the house, Matt uses drumming as a way to get through the day, not just as a hobby. However, Matt Giardano is not the only person positively effected by the performance of music.
Derek Paravicini, a 28 year old man displays one of the most unique music talents ever. Derek, not only born 3 months prematurely and weighing 1 pound 5 ounces, he was also born blind. At the age of 4, he was sent to a school for the blind, where he started playing the piano on his own. Unknown to him or anyone for that matter Derek was not only teaching himself how to play he was doing it well. Quickly, his unusual skill was noticed and he then took piano lessons to learn the proper fingerings of the piano. However, his greatest skill was yet to be discovered. After years of practice, Derek now can hear a recording of a song on piano played only once, and without any practice, can play the exact music back to you. As if that weren't enough, he can even improvise and play around with this core melody and make it his own. Doctors have noticed that since he was blind his other sense had been more developed more advanced. A man who can't see and who can barely count to 10, plays some of the most advanced classical pieces after just one listen. Another interesting case comes from a large family with an extended history in music.
One of eight children born to an Irish family, Anne Barker is the Music version of color blind. In other words, some of the most beautiful classical music such as Beethoven and Mozart sound like awful noise to her. This not just being an opinion, but a matter of fact, to her ears that is. Tests were done to prove that she was in fact "sound blind". The tests proved that she was, they also showed that she could not tell any difference in pitch or key between two different versions of the same music. This puzzled her because she had such a musical family, however this condition was not genetic. She spoke about how growing up as a kid and even today as an adult she could not dance or have much of a social life. In good spirits she joked about how no boys ever wanted to dance with her at the local pubs. Finally, perhaps maybe the most unique story of them all is the story about how Tony Cicora became to be a composer of his own piano music.
A wildly successful orthopedic surgeon had his life changed in one flash of lightening, literally. Tony Cicora, after his tragic accident was said to of died, had an out of body experience and then come back to life a changed man. After hearing doctors tell him that he may never walk again, Tony not only proved them wrong but he far exceeded expectations. A product of the 60's and a product of the 60's in his early years, he had no desire let alone training on the piano. However, after rehab Tony had something inside him craving to be able to play. He taught himself to play through countless hours of intense practice; waking up at 4 am to practice before work and staying up later to practice when he got home. This new obsession for music caused him and his wife to divorce as he pursued this new chapter in his life. Once he mastered his skill at the piano he wrote music to be performed in a sell out crowd of 500. The music was written to display the emotions he felt from his accident and they told his story in a sense. His show was a huge success and he says one day he may give up medicine to take on music full time.
In all 4 cases there are similarities as well as differences. Matt, Derek and Anne all have had their conditions since birth while Tony obtained his late in life. The one thing these people have in common as a group is that they have had an extreme experience with music. They are part of the population of people who have disabilities that found comfort, or in Anne's case, discomfort in the art of music. Music caused each one of these people to feel something, whether it was passion, belonging, calmness or grief. This ties in the fact that they can be view by society as people who have been touched in a specific way by music. Music alone, simply alters their lives.
This study of how music effects the nervous system done by Dr. Oliver Sacks has a remarkable effect on the perception of people with disabilities. Not only does music effect these individuals in their daily lives, for the most part it helps them. Matt Giardano is an inspiration to people who have turrets syndrome. He is able to use music to help him focus and rid himself of ticks, as well as use it for his job and for personal performance. The class he teaches, is full of inspired people who suffer with the same condition as him, and they come to his drumming class in hopes that is will have the same effect on them. This is a win win for both parties involved.
Dr. Sacks also shows us how music effects their lives in ways such as mentally and socially. The way these people have discovered music to be a vital point in there lives shows how people with disabilities can adapt. There is hope for people with disabilities, their culture can be formed around not only music but other forms of art. Another way culture falls into place here is with Tony Cicora who was not a musician of any kind before his accident. He no is able to interact with a whole new set of people on an entirely different level.
Through watching this documentary done by the BBC, you can learn a great deal about not only people with special disabilities and unique stories but how music effects their lives. All 4 of the people featured have a unique story and the effect music has on them makes them even more unique. This leaves you to wonder, could music therapy be a major medicine in helping people cope with their disability?
Bio- BBC, Imagine, "Tales of Music and the Brain" the work of Dr. Oliver Sacks (documentary).
The first person the documentary features is Matt Giardano, a twenty-five year old from upstate New York. Matt was born with turrets syndrome and at the early age of 2 was inspired to play the drums once he heard the Moody Blues tune "Singer in a Rock n' Roll Band". There was little known about Turrets in the 1980's and the doctors had little they could do for him. During Matt's early years, he would frequently lash out in anger towards others and eventually towards himself. To protect Matt from causing harm to himself he went to a hospital in an attempt to help him with his condition. After 4 years Matt returned from the hospital and went back to school. There he continued his passion for playing the drums. He describes a time playing the drums when he was younger, "feeling the puzzle pieces in the two hemispheres of his brain clicking and shooting an amazing feeling throughout his body." With two full drum sets in the house, Matt uses drumming as a way to get through the day, not just as a hobby. However, Matt Giardano is not the only person positively effected by the performance of music.
Derek Paravicini, a 28 year old man displays one of the most unique music talents ever. Derek, not only born 3 months prematurely and weighing 1 pound 5 ounces, he was also born blind. At the age of 4, he was sent to a school for the blind, where he started playing the piano on his own. Unknown to him or anyone for that matter Derek was not only teaching himself how to play he was doing it well. Quickly, his unusual skill was noticed and he then took piano lessons to learn the proper fingerings of the piano. However, his greatest skill was yet to be discovered. After years of practice, Derek now can hear a recording of a song on piano played only once, and without any practice, can play the exact music back to you. As if that weren't enough, he can even improvise and play around with this core melody and make it his own. Doctors have noticed that since he was blind his other sense had been more developed more advanced. A man who can't see and who can barely count to 10, plays some of the most advanced classical pieces after just one listen. Another interesting case comes from a large family with an extended history in music.
One of eight children born to an Irish family, Anne Barker is the Music version of color blind. In other words, some of the most beautiful classical music such as Beethoven and Mozart sound like awful noise to her. This not just being an opinion, but a matter of fact, to her ears that is. Tests were done to prove that she was in fact "sound blind". The tests proved that she was, they also showed that she could not tell any difference in pitch or key between two different versions of the same music. This puzzled her because she had such a musical family, however this condition was not genetic. She spoke about how growing up as a kid and even today as an adult she could not dance or have much of a social life. In good spirits she joked about how no boys ever wanted to dance with her at the local pubs. Finally, perhaps maybe the most unique story of them all is the story about how Tony Cicora became to be a composer of his own piano music.
A wildly successful orthopedic surgeon had his life changed in one flash of lightening, literally. Tony Cicora, after his tragic accident was said to of died, had an out of body experience and then come back to life a changed man. After hearing doctors tell him that he may never walk again, Tony not only proved them wrong but he far exceeded expectations. A product of the 60's and a product of the 60's in his early years, he had no desire let alone training on the piano. However, after rehab Tony had something inside him craving to be able to play. He taught himself to play through countless hours of intense practice; waking up at 4 am to practice before work and staying up later to practice when he got home. This new obsession for music caused him and his wife to divorce as he pursued this new chapter in his life. Once he mastered his skill at the piano he wrote music to be performed in a sell out crowd of 500. The music was written to display the emotions he felt from his accident and they told his story in a sense. His show was a huge success and he says one day he may give up medicine to take on music full time.
In all 4 cases there are similarities as well as differences. Matt, Derek and Anne all have had their conditions since birth while Tony obtained his late in life. The one thing these people have in common as a group is that they have had an extreme experience with music. They are part of the population of people who have disabilities that found comfort, or in Anne's case, discomfort in the art of music. Music caused each one of these people to feel something, whether it was passion, belonging, calmness or grief. This ties in the fact that they can be view by society as people who have been touched in a specific way by music. Music alone, simply alters their lives.
This study of how music effects the nervous system done by Dr. Oliver Sacks has a remarkable effect on the perception of people with disabilities. Not only does music effect these individuals in their daily lives, for the most part it helps them. Matt Giardano is an inspiration to people who have turrets syndrome. He is able to use music to help him focus and rid himself of ticks, as well as use it for his job and for personal performance. The class he teaches, is full of inspired people who suffer with the same condition as him, and they come to his drumming class in hopes that is will have the same effect on them. This is a win win for both parties involved.
Dr. Sacks also shows us how music effects their lives in ways such as mentally and socially. The way these people have discovered music to be a vital point in there lives shows how people with disabilities can adapt. There is hope for people with disabilities, their culture can be formed around not only music but other forms of art. Another way culture falls into place here is with Tony Cicora who was not a musician of any kind before his accident. He no is able to interact with a whole new set of people on an entirely different level.
Through watching this documentary done by the BBC, you can learn a great deal about not only people with special disabilities and unique stories but how music effects their lives. All 4 of the people featured have a unique story and the effect music has on them makes them even more unique. This leaves you to wonder, could music therapy be a major medicine in helping people cope with their disability?
Bio- BBC, Imagine, "Tales of Music and the Brain" the work of Dr. Oliver Sacks (documentary).
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