Taking Chance: A Movie for the Patriotic Soul

This treasure of a movie is about the experiences of Marine Lt. Colonel Michael Strobl and the journey he makes escorting the body of a fallen marine, PFC Chance Phelps back to his hometown. Michael is asked by a high ranking Marine to escort a fallen Marine, Chance, due to the fact Chance is from Strobl's hometown in Dubois, Wyoming. Mike and his wife discuss the matter and Colonel Strobl departs the next day. Airport after airport, Michael and the fallen soldier Chance receive respect and moments of silence from workers. Michael is even given a crucifix on a plane from a flight attendant.

As the long journey ensues from plane and then by vehicle, Colonel Strobl finally reaches Dubois, where the family awaits him to receive the body of Chance Phelps and to gather his personal belongings that the family members cherish as they receive them. Colonel Strobl gives them the crucifix the flight attendant gave him on a flight, telling him it's for him. Strobl gives it to the Phelps family saying it was actually really for them. A touching moment comes to an end as Strobl departs with the family, telling them Chance was highly respected among his peers and will be dearly missed. Strobl attends the funeral that day with Chance getting decorated with military honors. In the end, Strobl says even though he never knew Chance at all, escorting him was an honor and said he misses him. What Strobl says seems to engrave my heart because it has a lot of truth to it.


The lessons that I learned from watching this movie was what is feels like to go across the country with a fallen soldier and all the emotions that fill the air as random strangers feel the impact the dead soldier made even if none of them even knew the person. Every time they would make a stop at every airport to transport the fallen soldier from plane to another, every worker would take a moment to pay their dues by standing in silence with their right hand over their heart. The family that was affected from the death were obviously struck with grief, but the way they came together in this hard time was aspiring. This movie showed the many colors of emotion and it was a moving and powerful movie. It really helped show viewers what the experiences and the feelings in the atmosphere are like in a very heart-rending situation.

Everyday an American soldier falls. In a way, when a soldier falls we all fall together. Even if we never knew the fallen soldier, we as people still feel for his or her family and pay our respect and gratitude. Just like what the movie Taking Chance showed us. We are all affected by the death of a decorated soldier, even if we never even knew the person. We celebrate days like Veteran's Day and Memorial Day to honor the brave men and women who put their lives on the line just so this beautiful country can still drink from the grail of freedom. People like Chance and millions of others that lost their lives fighting a courageous battle deserve as much appreciation as any human being in the world. Not all superheroes wear capes, as soldiers prove to us everyday. I would like to take a moment to thank and pay my tribute to every person who is still currently serving, has served or those who were unfortunate and lost their lives, like Chance Phelps. Ernest Hemingway once said, "The world is a fine place and worth fighting for." I agree with the second part. God bless our troops. God bless Chance Phelps.

Gun Control in America

Gun Control has become a major issue in America. It seems like every time we tune into the evening news, someone was killed by a firearm or someone was arrested due to having possession of a gun in a public place. Then you got your gun activists that rally to keep their guns and cry out that President Obama can't take away guns because that would be breaking an amendment. However, would the banning of guns really solve the problem?

First of all, our second amendment states "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." In simpler terms, it means you have a right to keep your gun and government shouldn't be trying to take them away. This amendment was established in 1791. This amendment might the most controversial thing that is over two-hundred years old! If the government decided that two-hundred and twenty three years ago that keeping guns is okay, why does it seem present day government is trying to get rid of it?

President Obama signed twenty-three gun orders back in February. These orders were issued in order to ban the use assault weapons and to implant a universal background check system.  He made these measures without the help of congress because he has the power to do so. That is maybe why not many people that rely on the news for information didn't realize this happened. Besides, why would the media show progress of banning gun control when they would rather tell how someone was shot.

Media makes America seem like one of the scariest places to live in. The news will cover a story on someone being shot and killed. Movies and television show frequent gun use, which could leave a negative impact onto whoever watches it. For example, if a kid watches a movie and his favorite actor is shown shooting people up, that kid might get the wrong idea and may want to shoot a person because "his role model" does. Most of all, the video games that we play now days mostly consist of some type of shooting and using a gun. A video game like that may be played by an insane person, which may lead to troublesome chaos.

Now, the insane person leads to my conclusion. Should guns be banned or should the people be banned? A gun doesn't kill a person. A gun doesn't pull its own trigger. It's a person that has a finger on a trigger and unleashes a bullet into another person. Instead of making laws to ban guns, we should be banning idiots who don't know how to properly use a gun. If people all of a sudden started killing people with pencils, would the government then put a ban on pencils? Sounds silly, but it's almost the same idea.

The reason government is trying to get rid of it is because more and more people are using the gun improperly. The reason our President passed those twenty-three orders was because it was a response to the Sandy Hook shooting back in December of 2012. You know who started the massacre? The answer: a mentally ill person. People are the reason of gun violence! You can't really pass gun laws that ban human beings, but you sure can ban the guns that have no control of who they're about to shoot. If we don't take control of the yahoos that buy firearms, America might be in jeopardy!