Texas Forever.
Christina Daffre
8075673
ENG1100Z
K. Gildea
University of Ottawa
Last Sunday most of North America sat on their couches with a cold beer and cheered on their beloved football team in the NFL Super Bowl XLIX. For many people football is not their preferred source of entertainment. So a television drama about the travails of a high school football team in a small town in Texas might not sound like the most appetizing fare. However, Friday Night Lights (FNL) will more than likely make you appreciate the sport a bit more. The drama is not just about the challenges of winning a football game but, about family, community and a deep sense of values. Friday Night Lights is one of the best dramas on television because it exemplifies the true nature of the American dream that connects to us all.
The story of coach Taylor, his pragmatic wife Tami and the various losers, dreamers, jocks and dropouts who make up the high school football team, the Dillon Panthers, offers something quite different from many other acclaimed shows: optimism. Friday Night Lights isn’t gritty or hard-hitting, and yet the show had no problem dealing with difficult issues most shows stay away from. The show tackles many controversial topics such as race, class and faith, which could easily be turned into melodramatic stereotypical clichés but, instead manages to display a level of honest, raw humanity that few TV dramas have ever achieved. FNL realistically addresses the issue of racism in the south of Texas. The shows character, Smash Williams expresses the complexities of racism with delicacy and nuance rarely seen on television. The drama successfully depicts rational, balanced views of issues without judgments or influencing the viewer own beliefs. Friday Night Lights ability to realistically display its character’s everyday problems, while wearing their heart on their sleeves, makes the show incomparable.
One of the more prominent reasons the show is so great is the shows ability to make you feel like you part of the town and team. The show does not pretend to be to be perfect. Nor does it pretend that the characters are. They are human, and they screw up, but despite their shortcomings, most of the characters strive to be better people and do the right thing. The show hits you hard and teaches you real life lessons. The show teaches you to learn from your mistakes, that being a good person may not always be fulfilling and sometimes your going to fail. Friday Night Lights knows that life is not perfect or wonderful, that terrible things happen but, it tells us that life is also worth living, that friends are worth celebrating and that even the smallest of dreams can be worth chasing. It is a drama not afraid to
United States started having a big interest in Texas. This was when Mexico’s leaders had sent General Don Manuel de Mier y Teran to explore Texas. Mexico had not wanted Texas to become a state. Then that was Mexico’s wish, Texas had wanted their civilians to rule, but Mexico want to control Texas. The main goal that Mexico had was to make Texas more Mexican. When Teran was in Texas he came to discover that the more north he traveled in Texas the less and less it looked Mexican. Teran…
commander of the Texans fighting at the Alamo, wrote to the people of texas and all the Americans in the world. The mexican troops had began a siege of the Alamo, and he knew that unless he received help, his troops were doomed. The Republic of Texas was a rebellious province of Mexico. The americans that were settled in Texas wanted independence from Mexico, so they rebelled and eventually joined the United States. To begin, the Alamo is an 18thcentury mission church in San Antonio, Texas. It was built to be the church for the Mission San Antonio de Valero…
Barbara Jordan Barbara Jordan was born in Houston, Texas on February 21, 1936. Barbara became a teacher and then an attorney. Following that she was elected the first African American congresswoman from 1972-1978. She was the first elected congresswoman from the South as well as elected for the Texas Senate in 1966. She was invited to the White House by Lyndon Johnson. The invitation was extended for her to preview the 1967 civil rights message. Barbara Jordan early life was a groundbreaking…
Ashley Guzman Fear and Love in Texas When I was twenty one I moved to the great state of Texas. Marriage was the farthest thing from my mind, as I had a world to conquer-- far away from the slow goings of sweet home Alabama, and I wasn’t going to let anything stand in the way of that-- not even love. But soon I met Ray, who had other ideas -- and because I knew that he was the only man I wanted to conquer this world with, we were married six months later. It was blissful and sweet. They were…
Hasintha Amaranayaka Chris Chadwick Brendon Harris Kendrick Okafor Olivia Themudo Minh Tran Jeff Wang Roy Wang Horn POLS 2312 November 26, 2013 HB 81 Analysis: Capital Punishment Against Minors There has been an interesting debate on how the state of Texas views on the appropriate punishment for minors who have committed capital felonies. They want to prosecute in a suitable gesture, but also be morally and ethically fair for the young defendant. In most cases, should state legislature issue the…
“More prisons, more enforcement, effective death penalty” 1 Will criminals stop torture, rape, kidnapping, treason when they see the death penalty? The people of Texas still to this day use death penalty but others states may not because they do not believe in death penalty for criminals. There are several big cases in the state of Texas and those cases involve James David Autry, Ruben Cantu, also Lisa Coleman. Clayton Lockett was discovered to be in a gurney strapped down because he made a brutal…
POLS210 American Government I Fall 13 Week 8 Final Exam I Brown v. Board of Education (1954) Brown versus the board of education was landmark cases that changed the integration of schools forever. This particular case overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896. There were many factors that were brought to this case. The issue of the definition of the Fourteenth amendment and its intended effect on public education; the issue of a state providing public education and that it should…
States is six times that of Britain and five times that of Australia, neither country has the death penalty (Reasons to Be Against). Texas and Oklahoma have the top two murder rates and have the most number of death row inmates. In 2003, their numbers have increased both higher than nationals average. An updated version of the death row inmates would still be Texas but now it’s Virginia coming in second (Newport). Since 1990, thirty countries have abolished the death penalty. The United States has…
Umm ok this is awkward because I really have no clue where to begin! Ha! The irony…ok um let’s see The day I met my sister I’d just turned 16 and was living with grandma. Dad said he was sending for me… Beaumont. I’ll start there. Beaumont is in Texas. The birthplace of my father and all of my siblings. I’m oldest of 10. (5 at the time) I was raised by grandma and mom. Moved around a lot. I remember having to ride the bus from my grandmothers’ house in Arkansas to get to Beaumont. Short but, scary…
with major environmental offenses almost annually. * The company was convicted of an environmental felony for failing to report that its subcontractor was dumping hazardous waste in Alaska. * 2005 – BP allegedly ignored knowledge that its Texas City refinery was unsafe in a cost-cutting effort that led to an explosion – 15 deaths and dozens more injuries. * 2007 – BP lobbied Indiana regulators for an exemption allowing it to increase its daily release of ammonia and sludge into Lake Michigan…
