Sailing to a New Future

Stock© Maximilian Weisbecker, Some Rights Reserved, Unsplash

Resting along the western shoreline of Europe, sit Spain and Portugal, juxtaposing against the enormous blue of the Atlantic Ocean. Prior to 1521, the massive body of water was a mystery, a hope, and an opportunity to explore and expand. At first, the countries were unsure of what they would discover once venturing into the unknown. Wishing for trade, riches, and new lands, they funded explorers to set sail and follow the ocean currents. Fortunately, Spain and Portugal were among the first countries to benefit from overseas exploration.

Beginning exploration in 1418, Portuguese began the sailing trend. After Christopher Columbus made his first voyage in 1492, Portugal was pleased to find an entire continent hiding across the waves. Soon, other countries were interested in sharing in the wealth of the “New World.”

Upon discovering North America, Columbus began to create new trades with the Natives. “Their Highnesses may see that I shall give them all the gold they enquire, if they will give me a little assistance; spices also, and cotton,…and mastic…I think also I have found rhubarb and cinnamon, and I shall find a thousand other valuable things,” Columbus wrote, recalling the trades he had transacted and the valuable resources he had brought back to Europe. Soon the Columbian Exchange was created and goods were constantly sailing the Atlantic Ocean between Europe and the Americas.

Unfortunately, the Columbian Exchange did not only spread valuable resources and goods, but also unpleasant nuisances. Upon viewing Aztec drawings, one can view the diseases, plagues, and illnesses that struck the Indians, coming from the foreign countries across the sea. Aztecs were covered with spots from diseases such as small pox, as they were sick to their stomachs. Many became ill, and some did not survive the epidemic.

With new equipment such as astrolabes that determined the latitude of ships, and rudders that were used to steer through the ocean, explorers were able to journey all over the world. In 1497, Vasco da Gama made his first voyage to India, opening the portal between the Western World and the Eastern World. New knowledge was shared, along with trade, resources, and inventions. In 1519, Magellan Elcano sailed around the entire world, proving the Earth’s roundness and revealing unexplored waterways. After Spain and Portugal began overseas expeditions, the world began to grow more connected.

Mankind is constantly changing and striving to progress and with the vast unknown sprawled before Spain and Portugal, overseas expeditions were born. Upon finding new land, Europe began to expand and benefit from new trades, resources, and goods. Even the Natives of the Americas were affected, if not always in a fortunate manner. Prior to 1521, Portuguese and Spanish sailors left a lasting impact on England, the Americas, Asia, and the entire world.

/4 Comments/by

Unveiling Poverty

“Slumdog Millionaire”

All throughout history and all over the world, poverty plagues the world. People continually seek solution to this, including Jonathan Swift in his writing, A Modest Proposal: For Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to their Parents or Country, and for making them Beneficial to the Public. While Swift writes about poverty in Ireland, it is not the only country suffering. India is another country dealing with a poor economy and the movie Slumdog Millionaire shows this through the flashbacks of a homeless child named Jamal. Relating Jamal’s life events to the ideas brought up by Jonathan Swift help unveil the dark truths of poverty and stir emotions to find a solution.

Desperate to end his impoverished lifestyle, Jamal Malik became a contestant on Who Wants to be a Millionaire?. After each question, life experiences return to him and help him find the right answer. The movie opens on a ghetto part of India filled with crowded streets and beggars around every corner. “It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rages,” writes Swift, seemingly describing Jamal’s flashback. After observing the poor environment, Jamal grew up in, the first question is introduced.

When the famous Indian movie star, Amitalo came to town, the streets flushed to his location as if he was a magnet attracting metal. It was through this craze that Jamal remembered having to jump into human feces because of the city’s poor sanitation to meet his idol. From this memory, Jamal was able to answer the question.

Because Jamal had not received a proper education, he was forced to use a lifeline when asked to recall a famous Indian saying. Not relevant to his life, the knowledge was not necessary for him to live.

Another question was answered when asked what a Hindu God was holding. Jamal recalled watching his mother as she was murdered. Running through the streets, Jamal saw a child dressed like the God holding a bow and an arrow. From then on, Jamal was forced to live on his own without his mother, making his life even more difficult. “Mothers…are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants: who as they grow up [and] turn thieves for want of work,” but without his mother, the burden was passed to Jamal and his brother Salim.

Jamal continues to answer questions using accounts from his own life that illustrate situations Jonathan Swift writes about. Both sought to end poverty and seek better lives for those who had nothing. Through Slumdog Millionaire, one can view the poor environments that A Modest Proposal: For Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to their Parents or Country, and for making them Beneficial to the Public tries to address. Poverty eliminates jobs, strengthens religion, and ends conflict, and the problem is too obvious and rampant to be ignored.

/0 Comments/by

Proud Solution

With the gentle rocking motion of the school bus persuading me from side to side, I began to visualize my schedule in my mind. Staring into the cloudless blue sky lit by the late afternoon sun, I planned to complete my homework the moment I got home, finish my remaining chores, and continue to work on my college applications. The slight clanking of the two flute cases clutched in my arms reminded me to leave some time to practice my instrument. After thanking the bus driver for the ride as I always did, I stepped out and began to walk home thinking that I had a busy night ahead of me and I needed to manage my time well. Continuing along the sidewalk and around the corner, I began to receive the beauty of the day. There was a clear sky above allowing the trees to gently sway in full color and inviting the birds to share their vocal talents. Gentle, warm whiffs of air brushed past my face and played with my long hair a bit as I continued my trek.

Read more

/0 Comments/by

Controlled Insanity

Throughout recorded time, and probably since the end of the Neolithic Age, there have been three kinds of people in the world, the High, the Middle, and the Low,” writes George Orwell in his book, 1984. From within the pages of his book, Orwell clearly demonstrates this trend by creating three distinct social classes following the upper, middle, and lower class system, the Inner Party, the Outer Party, and the proletarians, respectively. By granting each class different benefits and privileges, Oceania fosters inequality among its citizens to keep the society frozen in a moment in time, a moment they see as beneficial and progressive in their eyes. With the Inner Party cautiously defending its position, the Outer Party will forever work under its control, and the proles will always retreat to the bottom of the social pyramid.

Limited to 6 million members, the Inner Party consists of less than two percent of the population of Oceania. With spacious living quarters, personal servants, pleasant food and drink, and more privacy, the Inner Party members enjoy a better quality of life than that of the Outer Party members or of the proles. While the members of the Inner Party regulate Ingsoc and run the Thought Police, the members of the Outer Party work the jobs assigned to them and live under constant monitoring. This thirteen percent of the population is considered to be the worst off of the three, although it represents the middle class, because of its restriction of personal freedoms and lack of comforts, such as those the Inner Party enjoys. Even though the proles are considered the lower class of Oceania and live in poverty while working physically tough jobs and receiving little to no education, they enjoy greater freedoms than those of Outer Party members. Free to pleasure themselves how they desire, the proles experience the comforts of family life and keep their humanity more than any of the other classes. “Proles are animals and free,” the Party states, while Winston, a rebellious member of the Outer Party declared, “Proles remained human.” 85 percent of the population is considered harmless and incapable of complex thought, regulation, or rebellion, and is therefore left to work and breed in their own ignorance. The proles are not required to show support for the Party, wear uniforms, or speak Newspeak. Generally objects of contempt, they are not bothered and are limitedly monitored to keep them in their place. By encasing the social pyramid in ice, human equality can be forever averted and nothing will change in Oceania.

Orwell explains that all throughout history, the upper class has strived to maintain its position, while the middle class tries to overthrow the upper class, and the lower class struggles to even survive and wishes to abolish all social barriers. Ingsoc, practiced in Oceania, is meant to perpetuate unfreedom and inequality so that history will be frozen and positions will be safeguarded. Social classes have been trapped in an unbreakable cycle over the course of history, and Oceania has put an end to these repetitions so that the High may forever hold its status and rebellions will no longer ruin the fragile structure. Aware of the threat of outbreaks, the Inner Party began monitoring the lower classes and infesting their minds with the allusion that all are treated equally. “The masses never revolt of their own accord, and they never revolt merely because they are oppressed. Indeed, so long as they are not permitted to have standards of comparison, they never even become aware that they are oppressed,” Orwell explained. Because discontent is not an expressed feeling, political changes do not strike the society. In this frozen state, progression is not made as resources are swallowed by the war, and those proving to be possibly dangerous are vaporized by the Thought Police. Without an opposition, the Inner Party members will forever reign.

By maintaining a functional level of inequality, Oceania fosters a stable balance among its three social classes. “If human equality is to be for ever averted – if the High, as we have called them, are to keep their places permanently – then the prevailing mental condition must be controlled insanity.” Society will forever run in this manner, and the social classes of George Orwell’s fictional world will continuously live as present, progress halted, inequality fresh, and control, a scar of the Inner Party.

/0 Comments/by

Feminist Reading of “Barbie Doll”

Stock© XINYI SONG, Some Rights Reserved, Unsplash

“Barbie Doll,” a poem written by Marge Piercy in 1936, clearly delivers strong feminist views about the pressures and standards women are forced to live with. With a depressing tone, the poem describes a young girl’s life beginning with her birth and ending with her ironic death. The poem progresses and tells how the pressures of being a woman affect the girl’s life and influence her actions.

Opening with the girl’s uneventful and normal birth, the poem begins delivering feminist views. As a young child, the girl was “presented dolls that did pee-pee / and miniature GE stoves and irons / and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy,” culture encroaching on her life and molding her to become a socially well-accepted woman. These toys were meant to prepare her for the expectations she would later meet in life, expectations that a woman should raise children, take care of babies, feed her family, do the laundry, complete household chores, and look beautiful at the same time. This first stanza ends with the girl’s puberty years and the realization of her society’s standards of beauty as she is told of the presence of her “great big nose and fat legs.”

Growing up with tools to help prepare her for what’s to come, the girl is overcome with this new standard. Although she was healthy, intelligent, and even strong, “she went to and fro apologizing” for everyone else looked past her true talents and could only see “a fat nose on thick legs.” Her beauty and appearance became the main focus, masking her inner personality and confusing her motives and actions.
As her society presses on her, the girl is given confusing instructions. “She was advised to play coy, / exhorted to come hearty, / exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.” Advised to watch what she eats and to exercise to reduce her size and sculpt her body to become more visually appealing, “her good nature wore out” as her focus was diverted. The child began to learn that her culture was more occupied with her appearance than what she accomplished or how she acted and that to become accepted she must conform to people’s expectations.

The author begins to end the poem with an extreme solution to the girl’s predicament and describes her suicide with euphemism. Fed up with her inability to please others because of her unattractive qualities, “she cut off her nose and her legs / and offered them up.” Overwhelmed with goals, advice, and tasks to better herself for her society, the girl became obsessed with her appearance and no longer took time to truly better her actions, her nature, and herself. Even in death she cannot please until she is changed. Before being displayed in her casket, the mortician paints her face, changes her nose, and dresses her in a nightie, fit to please the public. It is only after these changes that people ask, “Doesn’t she look pretty?” taking in the standards that she has finally met, standards that they constantly pressed her with, standards that she could not meet in life. Finally, the girl is accepted, although it is not quite a happy ending. If not for the common pressure on females to present themselves to the public with attractive features, the girl may have remained herself, healthy and intelligent, and had not let the search for acceptance drive her to her unfortunate end.

Scouring the entire poem, the reader will not find a name for the girl. This motion suggests that the author feels this is a common situation that constantly presses on females, especially young girls. Social standards and expectations mold women to become Barbie dolls, fake perfection. They are raised, taught, and advised to submit to superficial values and become what others would like to see of them. Piercy shows through her poem “Barbie Doll” the destruction of women through the application of false standards and creates the ironic and dismal story of this girl to portray her feminist views.

/0 Comments/by

There Will Be Holy, Ironic Blood

There Will Be Blood

There Will Be Blood

From the pages of a book to the scenes of a film, stories can present deep, complicated situations and ideas to their audiences. Allusions are made, irony is created, and themes are introduced. While watching Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2007 film, There Will Be Blood, one must come prepared with a knowledge of the Holy Bible and keep an open mind to pick up on everything the film offers and understand the unexpected irony. This film challenges its viewers to comprehend the thick plots and ideas that originated from Upton Sinclair’s novel, Oil! Thrusting biblical allusions and literary irony upon them.

Names and titles can be important clues and allusions in any story just as they are in There Will Be Blood. While each major character’s name can be found in the Holy Bible, from Able, Mary, and Eli, to Daniel, some grant a deeper meaning to a character with hidden meaning in the name’s literal definition. Most can instantly relate Mary to the mother of Jesus Christ, the innocent virgin that delivered God’s son to the Earth, but others will not understand “Daniel’s” direct translation to “judgement by God” or “God is my judge.” Mary is automatically recognized as an innocent protagonist because of her name, but Daniel’s traits are more hidden. His name suggests that he is constantly being judged by God with each act the he commits. From this judgement, he is faced with hardships and punishments. Daniel is not only judged, himself, but also feels he has the power to evaluate others just as God would. “I am the Church of the Third Revolution!” he exclaims, sharing his views of his power and righteousness.

Characters aren’t the only ones to receive names from the Bible, however. The film’s changed name, There Will Be Blood, originates from quotes in the holy volume. From Exodus 7:19, God explains to Moses “that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt,” as he foreshadows the striking down of the country to bring the Pharaoh down from his pedestal of power, a privilege he has been misusing and neglecting. God lusts for destruction just as Daniel lusted for money and desired for something that should not be the final goal.

The title, There Will Be Blood, can also call Hebrew 9:22 its birthplace. “Without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission of sins.” The theme is constantly present within the film and gives Daniel a motive to end Henry and Eli’s lives and to end situations through violence. Daniel does not hesitate to use violence to get what he desires and knows that sooner or later, there will be blood.

By achieving what he strives for, Daniel ironically brings about his own demise. Living a life of loneliness, Daniel seeks love and family, wishing to find blood of resemblance. Not trusting and conflicting with those around him, he ends up ruining all the people who could have been family to him. His son is driven away, his half-brother is killed, and his brother-in-law is brought to an end, leaving Daniel with nothing left in his life although he has everything. This unusual situation is symbolically shown in the final scene of the movie when Daniel is found sleeping in his house. Succeeding enough to own his own bowling alley, Daniel is left to sleep “in the gutter” with his alcohol pressed tightly against him. All of his riches and achievements become useless and meaningless.

Of all the people that Daniel announced that he didn’t like, Eli must have been his most loathed enemy. Seeing him for the fake prophet that he was, Daniel could not bear Eli and was annoyed and offended by his presence. Constantly fighting with him, he tried to prove his power over Eli and his greater capabilities. Daniel never pauses from judging those around him and spends a great deal of attention and energy judging Eli. Daniel finds his mistakes and loathes the flaws that Eli possesses, yet Daniel possesses many of the same flaws, himself. Daniel and Eli are very similar, almost the same person, but dislike each other greatly. They are each other’s own images, yet don’t quite realize the odd occurrence.

There Will Be Blood delivers a unique blend of motifs and themes that relies on its biblical allusions and odd irony to completely reach the viewer. Carefully constructed by Paul Thomas Anderson, this film combines holy words with unusual situations and grants a mentally stimulating moment of entertainment that continues to question the viewers event after the final, shocking scene of irony is conveyed. From Upton Sinclair’s novel, Oil!, Anderson has created an award-winning theatrical movie that many argue is his best work filled with many intelligent references and interesting dilemmas.

/0 Comments/by

Brave New, Ironic World

"Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley

“Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley

While describing a changing world and satirizing human kind in his dystopian novel, Brave New World, Aldous Huxley uses irony. Creating ironic situations and references, his novel can be viewed as comical because of the funny and odd situations his characters experience. They speak with irony, act with irony, and think with irony.

Helmholtz is an unusual character in Huxley’s novel who is much like Bernard, pertaining to his views on the society of the new world, but has his own trademark personality. An Alpha Plus individual, Helmholtz has been blessed with intelligence and opportunity, but ironically, is unsatisfied with his life and wishes for change. Bernard, Helmholtz’s familiar friend, wished for change because his appearance isolated him from his peers, but “that which had made Helmholtz so uncomfortably aware of being himself and all alone was too much ability.” Through his character, Huxley shows how happiness cannot be manufactured, created, or programmed into a person, even when that individual seems to have everything he could want. He demonstrates that a perfect world cannot truly be created and that not everyone can be content at once.

Throughout Brave New World, Huxley pokes fun at how desensitized his fictional population has become and how unhuman they appear. He satirizes the fact that with improved science and technology, their humanity has been lost, their individuality destroyed, and everything around them has become manufactured and standardized. The people of his society have become so automated that they are not always referred to as humans. “Infants were unloaded” from their cribs and imperfect people were dismissed as mistakes. Huxley uses this irony to demonstrate the madness involved with the loss of humanity and how inhumane people can become when technology becomes dominant.

Because the society has lost its humanity, morals and values are different from what we are familiar with. In Huxley’s created world, children are expected to participate in erotic play and show no abstinence. Hearing a nurse announce that a “little boy seems rather reluctant to join in the ordinary erotic play” is ironic to the reader because our society does not hold the same expectations. Huxley uses this shocking and disturbing scene to stir up a sense in the reader’s gut that something about his fictional world is not right and that mankind should resist becoming like this. He relates sex with children, putting two ideas that the reader would generally not associate together, in order to bring up an awareness of the loss of morals, the loss of ethics, and the main theme of the story: the loss of humanity.

While the awareness of global warming, endangered species, and deforestation is constantly crying out to be heard in our world, Huxley’s society is different when concerning nature. In a society in which production and stability are the only world issues, distractions must be limited and work must be increased. With this mindset, the population of the new world felt it was necessary to make changes in the way people thought and felt about the expansion of the natural world around them. “It was decided to abolish the love of nature.” This ironic statement is meant to strike the reader and point out the backwards views of the fictional society. These views are unreasonable, inhumane, and insensitive. From this statement, the reader should realize the loss of human spirit from the overwhelming thoughts of industrialization.

Irony can be found all throughout Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World, as he successfully portrays the negative effects of the loss of humanity. Through comical situations, humor shows the reader how unreasonable people can become and by shocking his audience with disturbing thoughts, Huxley can show his worry for the future. Through irony, the themes of the novel are expressed.

/0 Comments/by

John, the Hope Within the Brave New World

"Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley

“Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley

To create an interesting novel there must exist a well-thought plot, developed characters, and some form of conflict. This conflict usually includes good versus evil, each side usually represented. Even in dystopian novels that tell of negative utopian worlds, hope is embodied in at least one character struggling against the dominant society and representing the last flicker of humanity as he tries not to be overwhelmed by the darkness. In Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel, Brave New World, a young man named John represents hope. Raised with morals and views that we are familiar with, John struggles to survive in a different society, desperately fighting as he brings his own light to the dim novel.

Throughout Brave New World, Huxley describes a fictional future for our planet in which people are created and manufactured, then told how to live their lives. The ideas of family life, sexual abstinence, marriage, and solitude are abandoned and people are brainwashed with hypnopaedia to believe, think, desire, and decide how the Society wants them to. With morals and ethics that contradict our own, the people of this society seem doomed to live a life with little personal freedoms and glazed eyes. The future looks dim and change seems like an impossibility.

While creating a dystopian novel, Huxley does not devastate the reader with a deprivation of hope. By adding the character of John who was raised outside of the Society with similar morals as the reader would most likely have, hope is restored and “good” is introduced to the story, just as it must be in any novel. As the story progresses, the emphasis focuses more clearly on John and his trouble adjusting to the Society. This theme of isolation, discrimination, and differences is common throughout the entire novel and is portrayed through John’s small gleam of hope. His positive aura keeps the reader interested, the story continuing, and the conflicts brewing. While his view may be considered “correct” to the reader, they are considered immoral to the residents of the new world, causing him to be shunned, disliked, studied, and questioned. As he lives in the Society, John continues to spread his positive views, delivering the motifs of the novel and keeping the hope alive.

Because a novel cannot exist without conflict and problems, characters with different views are placed together, stressful situations are created, and emotions are stirred. To help deliver his message, Huxley creates a positive character named John, following the formula and bringing an opposing force to the dominant society. This individual faces discrimination because of his differences and is left to suffer in solitude. He demonstrates perseverance and determination and continues to fight against the controlling society. With the inclusion of this positive character, Huxley creates a conflict that delivers his themes and demonstrates his messages. John is the guiding light that reveals the darkness of the new world.

 

/0 Comments/by

Defacing Humanity

"1984" by George Orwell

“1984” by George Orwell

A society is easiest to regulate when people are almost programmable, unable to feel or think for themselves and are completely devoted to the state. Stripped of their humanity, the people are putty in the government’s hands and have limited personal freedoms. In George Orwell’s fictional dystopian novel, 1984, Oceania enforces regulations through language, personal relationships, work, and the media that limit the Party members’ freedoms and destroy their human spirits.

People think, speak, and communicate with words, and by controlling the words that they are able to use, Oceania controls and limits its member’s thoughts and conversations. By creating a new language, Newspeak, and enlisting it as the national language, Oceania began requiring its members to write and speak with the improved language. English was then considered Oldspeak, and was declared outdated and flawed. Deleting words and eliminating ideas, Oceania slowly began to compress Party members’ thoughts and control their minds with each new installment of Newspeak. “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?” declared Syme, an Outer Party member defending Oceania’s purpose for limiting language. The time in which Party members would only be able to think what the Party wants them to think since unwanted ideas cannot exist would begin an era in which Oceania would completely control its members’ minds and their overall humanity.

Read more

/0 Comments/by

We Can’t Afford to Care About the Environment

With temperatures rising and new environmental issues becoming revealed, we all feel the need to act out, become heroes, and save the planet, but is this thinking truly reasonable? Global warming has become a common topic of debate in the modern world, some arguing it is a persistent problem that needs to be resolved, with others not even believing it is happening. While global warming becomes a conflict in our world, we cannot blind ourselves to other issues. Global warming is just that: global. It is a substantially large issue that currently cannot be resolved without wasting large amounts of money that would hurt the country and prevent it from succeeding and growing. Although a problem in today’s world, global warming needs to be resolved step-by-step without major changes. There will be no future to protect if we only choose to resolve global warming.

Large steps have been made to prevent and reduce global warming, yet they have not yet proved successful. “In February, the Kyoto Protocol to reduce global warming took effect, requiring participating countries to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions to below 1990 levels over a five-year period beginning in 2008,” (Kyoto Protocol.) This act was created to help reduce the harmful greenhouse-gas emissions that continue to plague our planet and encourage global warming. It is expected to become the first major reaction that will help slow the onslaught of environmental issues and benefit conservation efforts. One overlooked flaw will keep the protocol from becoming successful, however. While it’s expected to become a major change in order to help the world, it does not change enough. “The Kyoto Protocol currently negotiated has cuts of emissions relative to 1990 levels of between three and eight percent for just over half of the developed world with no restrictions for the less-developed world, while scientists have suggested up to a sixty-percent global cut is required to prevent major climatic change,” (Maslin.) The Kyoto Protocol may help, but it will not help enough to show effective improvement. Not only will this plan not create enough change, but it will also detract from our society, taking money and resources that we currently cannot afford.

While people wish to become environmentally-friendly and “go green,” they do not wish to pay the price. Installing solar panels and purchasing vehicles with lower greenhouse-gas emissions are expensive and so are plans to prevent and reduce global warming. This money can be spent on more-appreciated causes, especially with the United States’ currently declining economy. “Only when we get sufficiently rich can we afford the relative luxury of caring about the environment,” (Lomborg.) An issue of morals and global economics, we are faced with the decision to spend money on global warming resolutions or other world affairs, such as the protection of future generations and the development of the Third World. “We have to find a level at which there is sufficiently little pollution, such that our money, effort, and time is better spent solving other problems,” (Lomborg.) With only so much money to spend, we must choose what is more important.

Because people feel the need to make things right and fix problems, it’s no wonder that they all feel the need to act on the urgent situation of global warming, but at the moment, it’s not reasonable or quite possible. With more urgent issues, such as the economic recession of the United States, the government needs to resolve greater problems at hand and not put as much effort or money into failing programs like the Kyoto Protocol. We need to focus on resolving current problems and fixing the simpler situations. We simply do not have the money or the resources to battle global warming. At this point in time, we cannot afford the luxury of supplying the world with its own thermostat.

/0 Comments/by

Classroom Terror or Electronic Godsend?

https://unsplash.com/photos/qTPOYTl93SY

A minute electrical device could save a life in the case of an emergency, create persistent distractions that causes a student’s grades to drop, interrupt classes with an array of annoying sounds, violate personal privacy, help keep track of time and events, and even act as a tool to cheat in school, and everyone has one in his pocket. A necessity in most people’s lives, the cellular phone contributes to modern society adding to the list of valuable tools available. Yet school boards disagree with each other on policies to regulate cell phone use in school; some argue that students should be trusted with the freedom to possess cellular devices, while others state that the devices should never reside on school grounds. With so many teens possessing a cell phone, schools should create a fair policy to deal with the popular technology.

Read more

/1 Comment/by

Individual Importance

My Saturdays have been occupied with Ready Writing UILs quite often now…I attended another UIL competition, this time at MacArthur High School on January 31, 2009. This was one of the bigger contests with a stricter competition, or so I was told by my teachers and instructors. I believe there were about 56 contestants at this Ready Writing competition, and I placed 6th. I admit this essay is the worst that I have written so far and I am really not pleased with it. I struggled with it more, and just know that it can be improved in so many ways. The topic I chose is listed followed by the essay I wrote.

“It is the art of mankind to polish the world, and everyone who works is scrubbing in some part.”
-Henry David Thoreau, The Writings of Henry David Thoreau (1906)

As time proceeds and the future becomes the past, the world is constantly changing. Mountains rise from the flat plains they once were. Oceans split apart lands, destroying continents, but creating new ones. Trees loom and fall while flowers blossom and die. The world grows and dies in a constant cycle that continues to repeat itself time and time again. Along with the world, mankind has endured time’s challenges and has changed and grown. Humanity, however, is not trapped within a cycle doomed to repeat itself. With unique individuals each working to improve his own life, culture is created and knowledge is shared to aid the development of mankind and the world. Mankind’s development has become an art, and everyone who works applies his own stroke of color.

Read more

/0 Comments/by