...abolish slavery, and a great speech giver. In his speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Douglass centrals his argument around Christianity to bring to light the sham under which his audience resides, and makes numerous references to the Bible to support his claim. It has been, and still is to this day, said that the United States of America was built upon a foundation of Judeo-Christian values. In what feels to be increasingly heated words, Douglass speaks on behalf of the American slave, presenting to his audience the travesty they have made of the Christian faith. He explains that “American Christianity” is “to [the American slave], mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy – a this veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages” (Douglass 485). Through the use of harsh words, Douglass is hoping they will penetrate the souls of those listening, resulting in sorrow and guilt for allowing such a travesty to arise from a religion based on love and respect. Further into his speech, Douglass emphasizes on how the lives of his audience are a sham, and he feels he is helping them to do right by making them first feel guilt, and then understand why that is. Using references from the Bible, a book supposedly understood by those listening, Douglass puts into perspective their true identities. According to the Bible, his audiences are “scribes, Pharasees, hypocrites, who pay tithe of mint, anise, and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters...
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...to be able to punish somebody to death besides God. We also are running the risk of putting wrongly convicted innocents to death for crimes they did not commit. We must discontinue the capital punishment penalty and work to come up with alternatives to this horrific travesty. The government should not be allowed to kill those convicted of capital crimes. Who are we to determine who lives or who dies? Nobody. For us to kill killers does not make us any better than killers ourselves. Another reason to rethink capital punishment is because of the chance of executing wrongly convicted innocents. You can sentence somebody wrongly to life in prison and release them, but you can not give someone their life back after you take it from them. We, the people, should work to find adequate solutions to the death penalty. To kill somebody actually costs substantially more than to imprison them for a life term. “The costs include $717,000 on attorneys who defend suspects, $353,000 was for defense attorneys’ private investigators, $591,000 was for expert witnesses, and $61,000 was for mental health exams (Foster, 1999). It is said that it costs more to enforce capital punishment than it is to put someone in prison for life. Another argument is if the people on death row are innocent, it would be wrong to put them to death.”...
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...was a religious woman—a lady who participated greatly in church affairs, enabling young Ernest Hemingway to play the cello and sing in the choir. His life explores the notion that psychologically, “parent-child interactions have an enormous impact on a child’s attitudes, values, and personalities” (Sindelar 2). As the years move onwards, Hemingway eventually enlists in the army, determined to serve his country as a Red Cross ambulance driver, causing him to be injured severely by a trench mortar. This gradually commences his life of despair, for years to come. When discussing Hemingway’s oeuvre, individuals cannot avoid the roles of genders and how well they are utilized to symbolize the travesties that Hemingway faced—especially with women....
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...RESEARCH & IDEAS Applying Business Theories to Your Life Published: June 4, 2012 Author: Carmen Nobel Scholarly economic theory applies to more than just business. The same causal mechanisms that drive big corporations to success can be just as effective in driving our personal lives, says Professor Clayton M. Christensen. Key concepts include: • In evaluating major life decisions, it's helpful to employ a tool called discovery-driven planning, which essentially boils down to a single question: What assumptions must prove true for this plan to work? • Incentives are not the same things as motivators. • Marginal thinking can be dangerous. It's safer to decide early on that you'll stay true to your commitments 100 percent the time, rather than assess the risk of every "just this once" possibility that comes along. Intel Corp. and the Pentagon, for example. In 2011, Thinkers50 named him the world's most influential business thinker. At the same time, he has held major leadership positions in his church, and he's never taken a business meeting on a Sunday because his faith encourages its members to keep the Sabbath Day holy. He sees no dichotomy. "You know, it's a travesty that somehow our society has gotten to a point where people have the view that science and academia are inconsistent with a spiritual life, and the belief that there we've been put here for a purpose," he says. "The reality is that the only reason you're interested in either of these things is that you're interested...
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...with the fact that sex trade industry has blossomed into a cool $32 billion a year business. While it is inane to believe that a human life can be devalued at a mere $90, it is unequally as asinine to consider the truth that our own country, the “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave,” ranks as one of the foremost perpetrators for sex trafficking in the entire world. At any given moment in our beloved country, it is estimated that there are least 10,000 people being forced to work whether in sweatshops, prostitution rings, or other businesses. This number is incredibly low due to the secretive nature, too, meaning, it is quite realistic to assume that there are so many more people being forced into scandals like prostitution (Tanneeru). Delving just a bit further into the facts, one can easily discover that our beloved California houses three of the top cities in the world for sex trafficking: San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego (U.S. Department of State). Right now, the unfortunate reality is, while most people have heard of sex trafficking and are aware of the negative connotation it carries, there are many that aren’t aware that is happens in our own country with staggering frequency! Based on personal experience, I’ve realized that the mainstream media only reports sex trafficking rings being broken up a few times a year. The travesty is, while it’s incredible that this scandal is being prosecuted, there are...
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...However, throughout the years Rome became a play-thing for these powerful individuals and lower class alike. Ammianus Macellinus states, “Yet when gold is pressed in their palm they will go with all activity as far as Spoletum!” By this he was telling how the city was afflicted by extreme greed. However, it wasn’t only the high class citizens who had their faults. Some would drink and gamble their life away without a care about what’s going on around them, such as the constant growth of Rome’s enemies. Because of the citizens the city focused more on entertainment rather than liberal...
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...Teo 1 Charles Teo 29 March 2012 Budget Cuts In Education of United States On February 14, 2011, Jackie Calmes reports that President Obama proposed to reduce spending with added revenue to recover $1.1 trillion or 10% of the deficits within 10 years timeframe (1). The new budget cut has certainly impacted the entire nation in all kinds of ways. “Out of the 47 States with newly enacted budgets, 38 or more states are making deep, identifiable cuts in K-12 education, higher education, health care or other key areas in the budget for fiscal year 2012” (Williams, Leachman, and Johnson 1). Over the years, more and more children are enrolled in public schools, and more students have furthered their education in universities. Even so, Williams, Leachman, and Johnson identify that many universities in most states have no choice but to cut down their budget and spend less on their services in 2012 than before (1). In Louisiana, what the budget cut has done is that, due to severe budget cuts, Louisiana’s governor Bobby Jindal plans to slash approximately 10 percent from budget of higher education, not forgetting that the proposed cut comes atop the $350 million that was already slashed from the higher education budget over the last two years (Hall 1). Such a decision will not only affect the universities but also increase the burden of the students and their families. As all should know, education is important to everyone now because it gives not only essential knowledge but also a promised...
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...One may believe that as an adult, he or she, is past the stage of storytelling. Children spend their days in a world of make-believe, dreaming of tall tales, love, despair, loss and more plot filled travesties. A woman may not even realize that she spent the last 5 minutes dazing off into oblivion after reading about a love story – wondering herself what it would be like to be that character. Whether it is spoken word for all to hear or the movie reels silent within the mind, people are still creating stories every day; just like children, but perhaps with a little less need to share their plot with everyone in sight. A lot of these day-dreams or night-dreams are mainly centered on fiction, because our minds feed off fiction the most. What is it about a catchy story-line, suspense-ridden plot, or visioning a land far, far away that captivates the masses – as an adult?...
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...or possible views of our youth? Anytime a constitutional right is denied, the loss may cause many number of issues For example, if we denying a student the freedom to read any book, they wish reduces their freedom. This limitation may provide the child to develop a narrower outlook as their viewpoints maybe less insightful. Once we find that this constitutional right has been compromised, we wonder what right we will lose next. Using censorship is not right as it goes against everything this country was built on, the freedom to write or express ourselves in anyway. “While the attempt to keep children pure for as long as possible is admirable, it takes the form of leaving gaping holes in their education, if not academically, then about life” (LifeScripts, p.1, 2007). There are many educational entities believe that providing a process of restricting literature and other works are necessary to...
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...sourcing drugs, however, the process takes several months of intensive labor and requires investment capital to achieve success. Comparatively, the poacher's market entry costs to potentially earn tens of thousands of dollars is really nothing more than the cost of an AK-47, plus target site INFIL and EXFIL. In short, there is an absolute critical need to address African poaching and wildlife trafficking; consequently, for the last half-century poaching and wildlife trafficking has directly financed insurgencies throughout the continent. African wildlife, a global treasure, is on a direct collision course for widespread extinction, which would be a travesty to all mankind, not just to Africans. The research presented within this master’s thesis, aims to stress the importance of acting now, as the trade affects nearly every walk of life on the continent, from funding insurgency to instigating the overthrow of an entire government in a Coup d’tat. The illicit funds generated are instantaneous, meaning that poaching funds carry more risk than that of any other illicit trade because of the low cost entry points, and these rapid profit generated carry an immense return. In the end making the poaching and wildlife trafficking trade one of the most dangerous, and volatile on the continent responsible for the destruction of Africa’s wilderness, along with the destruction the trade generates in society. ...
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...in school, and his classmates called the food he packed from home "dog vomit". According to the New Straits Times, the boy's mother (who suffers from thalassaemia and a heart problem) is supporting a family of six (after his death) on RM70 a month from the Welfare Department. After the son's suicide made headlines, the Welfare Department upped it to RM150. Perhaps we aren't as great a country as we'd like to think. We think we've made great strides forward, but yet there are people virtually dying of starvation. True, they might not die directly of hunger — but if they are committing suicide because of poverty, the consequences are exactly the same. RM150 a month works out to less than USD1.5 a month for a family of six. How can such a travesty take place in a country which can fritter away taxpayer money on sending "astronauts" to make teh tarik and play batu seremban in space? It occurs to me that part of the problem may also be psychological; why, for instance, the need to buy ice cream? But the New Straits Times' reporting is less than...
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...During the time of World War I, being a soldier was seen as a very noble thing due to the glorification of war. All Quiet on the Western Front shows life on the battlefield during WWI, as well the effects and influences off the battlefield. The protagonist of the film, Paul Bäumer is a young German soldier who joins the war shortly after finishing high school. Paul and other young soldiers are trained in harsh conditions and learn the basics of combat. Once they enter the war Paul and other soldiers see what life is truly like on the battlefield. When he goes onto the front for the first time he learns of the travesty that is war and it is not how his teacher’s have described it. Many of the soldiers’ die or are wounded and left in the harsh conditions of the hospitals. When Paul goes home for the first time he returns a changed man. His father wants him to wear his uniform because he should be proud that he is a soldier, but Paul refuses to, knowing that war is nothing to be proud of. World War I is known as the first industrial war. New inventions and weapons added to the impersonality of war. Instead of having to fight with the enemy face-to-face, soldiers were able to shoot their rifles or throw poison gas. Because of the impersonality of war, the scene where Paul kills a man while...
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...ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE Under a clear blue sky, Brian, a practical joker and incurable optimist starts to sing ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’, a toe tapping tune which convinces those crucified with him to join in as they face an agonising death. Is this mocking religion or is it provoking the audience to challenge their way of thinking? In today’s world, should movies, cartoons or books be allowed to satirize religion? As I live in a world which encourages freedom of speech and thought, I believe satire creates debate. Satire, a genre which uses humour to reveal the weaknesses of a person, idea, or belief, should be a welcome in any public debate, particularly if it is humorous more than vicious or spiteful. Satire...
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...The Declaration of Independence assured that all people were "created equal," and "endowed by their Creator" with the "unalienable Rights," of "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" (Miller Center of Public Affairs)2. If this was really true, then how could a man responsible for writing the sacred words "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" believe in his own words and yet still own slaves? (Finkelman) . Jefferson states both his opposition to the institution and his belief in the racial inferiority of blacks. Jefferson concluded that blacks were originally from a distinct race, and that they were inferior to all whites. This result led Americans to accept the egalitarian ideas of the Declaration of Independence and racially based slavery. “All men, it would seem, were "endowed by their Creator" with natural rights, but because blacks were physically and mentally unequal, they were legitimately enslaved by whites. In a sense, the American Revolution made the scientific and racist defense of slavery necessary (Miller Center of Public Affairs) .” At the time of the American Revolution,...
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...When the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded, it sent shock waves reverberating throughout all of the United States. Seven people, instantly killed, on live television in front of the entire nation. It ranks as one of the great tragedies in America’s history, producing some of the most horrifying imagery ever seen. President Ronald Reagan had to address his country. How can the people of America move forward after witnessing such a graphic travesty? President Reagan’s address to the public painted the lives of these men and women as brave and courageous; they captivated the mark of success that every citizen should strive to achieve in American culture. “Today is a day for mourning and remembering.” There are certain catastrophes that strike...
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