Persuasive Prompt 1

        For all of human history, all the way to today, the masses have split themselves into tribes or nations. These groups have had leaders, which were greatly outnumbered by the rest of their societies. H. L. Mencken's statement that people simply want safety rather than freedom is proven true by the very existence of rulers and nations, because the majority of masses would overpower anyone who attempted a leadership position because of their true desire for complete freedom. They feel protected by leadership so they allow and even promote and elect it.
       This coming November, a large number of population above the age of 21 will go and vote for the man or woman that they would like to be president. He or she will perform tasks and make decisions to take care of this country. Now, if Mencken's statement were not true, the the entirety of the country would want nothing to do with a person upholding a set of boundaries that regulate what they do, which is the constitution and other laws. These regulations help make sure that the members of the nation are safe from each other and those from other nations. Although there exist people that want to get rid of the government and leaders, the overwhelming majority wish for leadership and protection, evidenced by the remaining existence of such leadership. This existence is what proves Mencken's statement. The wishes of the majority are what are carried out, and the masses have called for safety, not freedom.

Cartoons by the Master

        At first glance, anyone who has been around American pop culture most likely recognizes the style of this illustration as the work of Dr. Seuss. Therefore, without reading the caption, you would assume that the subject is one that is light-hearted and silly, given his previous work. You  quickly find out otherwise by only the forth word of the caption.
        The title of the book and the insignia on the spine key the reader in on the fact that the "Foreign Children" being discussed are the Jewish and other minority people being slaughtered in Europe. He even brings the viewers attention to these words by underlining and capitalizing them.The opinion of the woman is show by the words she says, the words on her t-shirt, and the snooty, I'm-the-only-one-that-matters look on her face. She thinks that since the problems in Europe during World War II don't directly affect her and her country, she doesn't need to worry. By the nonchalant tone of her words and the very disagreeable look on her face, we can see that the point that Dr. Seuss is trying to make is that it doesn't matter if those effected aren't our people; people are dying and something needs to be done about it.
        I think that there is also an underlying theme of this cartoon. You may have noticed the look of utter shock on the faces of the children on either side of the woman. The cat also looks shocked, but I'm going to focus on the children. Something in the life of the woman has brought her to choose her self-centered wardrobe and opinions. The children on the other hand have not been around for long enough to have been engraved by the chisel of life as deeply as the as the woman has. I believe that what Dr. Seuss is trying to say here is that, if we truly want to make this world a better place, we need to be like a child in our thinking, letting go of past prejudices and caring for all others. we need to turn life's chisel back on the world and turn it into something beautiful, leaving it better than we found it.

The Words, not the Birds

       

 Birds. Such a simple life form. They don't live long and the small amount of time that they are alive they spend doing little more than hopping, flying, and worm-finding. Nevertheless, they help display the way literature can be used to make so much out of so little. When John James Audubon and Annie Dillard were faced with the the same subject to write about, they came up with utterly different results.
         After first seen numerous large flocks of pigeons, Audubon factually describes the 163 flocks he saw in 21 minutes, while Dillard artfully describes the flocks she sees as appearing "like a loosened skein." They both see the same thing and yet, through the medium of their words, they are able to complete a completely different picture. If they used photography, they wouldn't have been able to show anything different from each other, because both have the same physical situation. An audio recording would have also yielded the same for each. But not words.
         These pieces go to show that you can write very effectively about anything. Don't let an excuse of "I don't have anything to write about" as a reason not to write because it simply isn't true. There is always something that you can write about. Afterall, it's the words, not the birds, that made Audubon's and Dillard's piece something special.

Puzzle Paragraph

      In "The Death of the Moth" by Virginia Woolf, she describes the mundane event of a moth dying. While others might say that this is all she was trying to accomplish, and she had no ulterior motive, I happen to know otherwise; she is displaying the lack of purpose in life. In her view, we as humans just fire coins into the slot machines in the casino of life, hoping we can accomplish something of importance. However, we all come up short because of our inevitable mortality. Another thing she tries to do is to display how all alone people are in the world. She depicts the moth roaming around alone, profiling the people she is writing about as Lone Ranger-type figures left to take on the world by themselves.

                                               

       I, however, disagree with this perspective of life. I believe that we are all here to endure the troubles of life and come out on the other end having made something beautiful of ourselves. As Jeannette Walls says in her personal childhood memoir "The Glass Castle," "I wanted to dig it up... Mom frowned at me. 'You'd be destroying what makes it special,' she said. 'It's the Joshua tree's struggle that gives it its beauty.'" If you want to live a happy life, don't live like a moth. You'll end up going from corner to corner, never getting anywhere, never accomplishing anything.

In the Hands of Time and Weather

        We all know the feeling of going outside after a long winter and being instantly uplifted when we realize that the temperatures are no longer utterly hypothermic. We take off our coats and long pants when it reaches the neighborhood of fifty degrees. Around the same temperature in the summer months, we begin to batten down the winter hatches, clothe ourself a in the thickest of wools, and accept out imminent necessary hibernation.

        The same happens year in and year out and each year, we act surprised at the SO unexpected temperature change. However, we continue to react like clockwork in the very way described by Joan Didion in "Los Angeles Notebooks" where the people seem to be disoriented every time the Santa Ana wind comes. With the weather each year come the same emotions and action.

        These reactions are the very things that make weather and seasons of any importance to humans. Although it may not affect us in any massive way, looking at weather from this viewpoint just adds another dimension to our lives. Without it, we'd all move through the seasons and years very monotonously on the same average level of emotion. Now wouldn't that be boring?

Not Just the Flamingo

       

          I agree one hundred percent with what Jennifer Price says in "The Pink Plastic Flamingo: A Natural History." The fact that Americans extinguished the flamingo, decided "Hey, I really wish those cool birds were still here," stuck fake ones in the ground, and pretended like everything was hunky dory does show a superficiality in Americans. However, I don't feel like this piece was too terribly insightful. Now, don't get me wrong. This lack of deep judgment is not the fault of Price herself. It is the fault of the very Americans she is writing about. The level of superficiality in America is so deep that an analysis like that of Price could be reached through an observance of any given item in the American economy. Not just the flamingo.
         Take the wood shutters.

 

         These ligneous planks can prove the point of superficiality just as easily as the plastic flamingo. Some producing company out there chopped down a tree, the producers of our life gas, just so they could make a couple of boards with stars cut in them to sell to some person or family could put them on their house because all the other houses have them. If they're anything like the shutters on my house, they down even come away from the house to shut over the windows, making them even more pointless and superficial. Not just the flamingo.

         My point here was not to rant about shutters. I just wanted to show the ease with which one can show the superficiality of America through many, many things. Not just the flamingo.

I Want some Students

       I am, and have been for almost twelve years, a student. I go to school and listen to the teachers so, by definition, I am a student.
       While preparing to write my weekly blog, which was assigned by my teacher to her students, I realized that I want some students of my own. Why do I want some students?
       I very seldom get to tell someone to do something and they do it.  I want some students so I can have an outlet to use unlimited power. I want some students so I can have someone who I can tell to do something and have their single, solitary job be to listen to me and follow my instructions. I want some a student so I can constantly be surrounded by people who either respect me or suffer the consequences for their lack of respect. I want some students so I can have someone laugh at my jokes, even if they don't think that they're funny. I want some students so I can have someone listen to whatever I want to talk about. I want some students for appreciation. I want some students for respect. I want some students for power. My goodness, who wouldn't want some students?