City of Brotherly Love?

The visual argument I found that was similar to my semester topic was in the Philadelphia Daily news close to a year ago. The visual argument was the best I found for my topic and was very captivating. The visual really grabbed my attention and made me think about Philadelphia and how many people were killed. The color of the visual was effective because, newspapers normally don’t have any color ads. The ad was blood red with black and white text, which made the text stand out a lot more. The ad asked the question City of Brother love? It is a question I asked within my paper as well because that is the slogan of the city, but it hasn’t really been that brotherly lately. There is no love for one another anymore just complete disregard for the life of another human being. In the middle of the ad there is a picture of a .45 caliber handgun. Handguns are the main problem to why so many people have lost their lives on the streets of Philadelphia. The bottom of the ad states passionately “Stop the Violence!” and shows a small chart next to the text of the fatalities to gun violence in Philadelphia. The most effective part of the ad is the background. As I have already stated the body of the text is blood red with black and white text. The text within the body of writing is effective because, it shows the names of every person who was killed in Philadelphia during the past year. It was very thought provoking, because readers put names to the people who have been killed by the guns like the one seen in the ad.

For the video I searched YouTube and I found a couple videos that were similar to my topic. The video I chose was the documentary “Stop this killing and put the guns down.” The video is very interesting, informational, and gritty. At the beginning there are scenes of children, women, and men united. There is the strong voice of man telling people to “Fight this war put the guns down there is a war going outside and we must stand up and take a stance.” This is very effective statement because it makes people want to be apart of the fight to combat the violence in Philadelphia. The most effective part of the documentary is the different perspectives the directors get from people from Philadelphia. The most intriguing were the perspectives of the Black people who lived in the areas infested by crime. They seemed to condone it and to be enthused to be called the “murder capital”. Although, there were some who were sympathetic, they also felt as though there was no other way to survive in the Philadelphia. It was interesting to me because I knew a large number of the people featured in the documentary and it was eye opening to see their opinion on the topic. The documentary’s gritty style and willingness to show the true side of Philadelphia was key. Finally, the documentary ends with a trip through a cemetery and the voice women speaking at an event where she states “of all the people killed 85% were black males.” This was an effective way to end the documentary, because black males like me need to be at the forefront to stop the violence. It is up to us to protect the future of the youth of Philadelphia and if we don’t act now the problem will not discontinue.