A Moment in Time

The average American lives to be about 80 years old. That's 2488320000 seconds. A picture is a split second in time.  Assuming a picture captures a whole second in time (which it doesn't), that comes out to be 0.00000004% of a person's life. So why are pictures so important to people? The reason pictures hold such an important place to a person does not lie in its amount, but the essence which it captures. A snapshot allows a person to cherish a memory forever. While the moment is fleeting, the memory is permanent. A picture dispels the ephemeral nature of the moment into the permanence of memory. A photograph gives a person the opportunity to reflect on his/her past and essentially relive the moment. This is the magic of photography. While in reality it captures a millisecond of a person's life, it captures the eternity of memory and nostalgia. The photograph achieves what humans cannot: it paints a memory in a split second. This is why pictures are beautiful. This is why humans constantly find themselves desiring to snap every moment in their life. Pictures make humans live forever. It extends the absolute beauty of life beyond the bounds of one moment. Pictures are beautiful. 

A Modest Pro-prose-al

It is a melancholy object to those who write through the great English classroom and travel the school, when they see the hallways, the connectors, and rooms crowded with students of the English study, followed by three, four, or six essays, all in sub-par grades and importuning every student for an alms. These students, instead of being able to stimulate their mind and express their individualism, are forced to employ all their time in writing and perfecting their helplessly terrible prose writing, who, as they improve, either bear no fruitful use or simply fade from relevance from the students life in all.
"I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection." (Swift).
I propose that the teaching of writing an accepted method of prose in school be discontinued. Prose writing, while indeed provides students a method of writing, should not be the sole purpose of learning in the English classroom. That students are able to communicate their ideas on paper clearly and concisely is a given, and therefore should not be further adulterated with by the teachings of an English classroom. Rather, English classroom's should teach students how to communicate their thoughts creatively and give students their own voice, rather then the cookie-cutter "accepted" way of writing prose. Through the teaching of creative communications, students will be able to find their own voice, rather than the voice of their high school English teacher. Only then will the students be able to succeed in college and the real world, where they are valued for their own ideas and voice, rather than the voice the managed to learn to perfect in the high school classroom. I do hope that my thoughts will be duly considered, as I see a bleak future for this generation of young people if a change in not made in the English classroom surely and swiftly.

Has Science Gone Too Far?

We are all familiar of the famous posts on social media of ridiculous pictures of hybrids and scientific extremities with the caption "Has Science Gone Too Far?"; they have become a thread in the fabric of the internet. The humor which lays within these pictures is the fact that these images are so ridiculous that society blames "science" for such abnormalities. However, these pictures do hold a certain amount of truth: albeit hyperbolic in its portrayal, they illustrate the fact that science can indeed go "too far" and that scientific breakthroughs can very well be dangerous. This is the essence of Chet Raymo's "A Measure of Restraint". However, instead of warning society of the dangers of seagulls with very well defined biceps, Raymo instead warns of the potential dangers of the advances in genetic engineering. While the pictures of a seagull is quite terrifying, it does not equate to the "spooky Frankensteinian quality" (Raymo) of the uncontrollable consequences of genetic engineering. And although the absurd pictures of science going too far may seem impossible and absolutely hilarious right now, Raymo ventures to say that these pictures may eventually become a norm in society in which society comes to accept these advances as normal. Thus, there is no ceiling as to how far science can go, as society will eventually adapt to the changes which science brings, resulting in a never-ending cycle of advance and change.

Kelley of Nazareth

In her speech about child labor in front of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Florence Kelley achieves a dual-pronged purpose; she makes a call to action for the injustices of child labor and elicits the woman constituency to support her cause. Once upon a time, children were not forced to work arduous hours of labor, and Kelley acts as a Gatsby in trying to restore this past that seems so distant and unobtainable. And while the scope of her audience is wide-ranging, not everyone is included; she targets specifically the women in order to accentuate the point that the action of women is needed, not the repressive nature of man which ultimately is the root of all of the injustices that Kelley is illustrating. Her speech is enhanced by her masterful use of rhetoric, as shown by her effective persuasive form of speech, such as the cataloging of the states which violate the rights of children, ranging from "Alabama....Georgia... [to] Pennsylvania" (Kelley) and her use of irony in highlighting the "pitiful privilege" and "little beasts of burden" (Kelley). Her speech, through the portrayal of the harsh reality of children "working all night long" (Kelley), creates a delirium of stark reality; this delirium which she creates causes her listeners to see metaphorical pink elephants, in which this alcoholic delirium of suffering children is actually a reality. Kelley represents the master of persuasion: she is able to use any form of rhetoric to create stark images and convince listeners of her purpose. Kelley is a parallel to Jesus the Messiah, in which she brings the word of truth and God to her listeners in order to allow to see them the true light which the world should be seen; additionally, she is a martyr, in while Jesus was crucified, Kelley is killed in the eyes of the legislators, so while she makes her points open to the public, she loses support from the lawmakers.

How Teachers Alter Public Space

In Brent Staples "Black Men and Public Space", Staples illustrates how men of African American descent can create the phenomenon of "altering public space" (Staples). However, the abstract idea of altering public space transcends racial differences. In fact, teachers are fully capable of altering public space and the atmosphere around them. Take Ms. Valentino for example. In school, students are very respectful to her, striving to do well in her class and speaking most commonly in the language of educated, well analyzed speech. Ms. Valentino is able to create respectful, intelligent students while she is standing in the classroom. However, take her out of the classroom, and into a public place that is not a classroom, BuildOn CookOff Benefit Dinner for example, and it is a completely different atmosphere. Students speak in the language of colloquialism, informal speech, and the dry humor which characterizes everyday speech. Students do not feel the obligation to put on their best scholarly image and instead attempt to elicit a laugh out of Ms. Valentino and establish themselves as Ms. Valentino's "homie" or "bro". We simply view Ms. Valentino differently in this public event rather than the sanction of school. I myself mustered the courage to ask for a picture with my "good friend" Ms. Valentino, which quickly escalated into me taking a "selfie" with one of my teachers. 

 My point is, teachers, without even knowing it, can alter the atmosphere which the students feel around them. They create a completely different atmosphere within the classroom than they realize, and in turn, change how students around them think and act. 

Tiger Mother

In 2011, Amy Chua published a book titled Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. The book depicts the strict upbringing and endless regime the mother places on her children in order for them to succeed. From this book came the term "Tiger Mom", which students of Chinese descent often refer to their own mothers as. This piece played a stark contrast to the piece "Arm Wrestling with My Father" by Brad Manning, in which the father is the physical image that motivates his son to do well. This contrast is underscored by cultural differences. In Chinese culture, it is universal that the mother motivates the child to succeed in school to the extent that the child often contemplates running away or suicide (I wish that this was a joke. In 2011 out of 20 million students in China, 40 have committed suicide. Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/18/chinese-students-suicide-waiver_n_3948310.html). I too have felt the incessant roaring from my tiger mother to succeed in school. I find it extremely interesting how different cultures rely on different parents to raise and get the most out of their children. One possible origin of this cultural differences could be the fact that in Ancient China, women did play prominent roles within the family fabric, unlike the marginalization of woman's rights within American history. Whatever the reason for this cultural lag is, I personally appreciate my mother's compassion for my own success, even if it may get annoying at times and release an unhealthy amount of adrenocortiotropic hormone from my adrenal glands at times. But in the end, I do well in school, she's happy for my success, and I'm happy for my own success.

Some Nights

Dale Gallon's Desperate Valor, 1988 

The sun is setting 

A palette of crimson, orange, and purple 

Gloomy and ominous
Shots fired

The smell of gunpowder permeates through the air
The battlefield already marred with bodies of the fallen

A cloud of smoke

There are footsteps

The footsteps of a stampede

A gradual crescendo

The time is near, the time has come
For one, failure
One step closer to nothing
Turmoil

For the other, glory and redemption, 

One step closer to the cause

A lifestyle 

The troop emerges from the cloud of smoke

Like a stampede of horses

The bright red Confederate flag

Dances with the wind 

The commander spearheads his troop, saber in hand
His face speaks of valor
What does he stand for?

He has lived a life of pain
He has lost everything
His family
His home
His glory 

A life of struggle

All surmounting to this final charge

The chance to bring glory and redemption

To the cause he fights for
To his nation

His troop is ready
What do they stand for?

Each soldier has his own story 

Each a story of pain 

A story of suffering

Fighting for their life

Fighting for the lifestyle of their people 

One solider lost his father to a slave revolt
Another saw his village burn in a raid 

Another saw his closest companion shot by a Union soldier 

Each a different story

A different pain 

A sharp sword penetrating the heart of the soldiers

Behind the troop lies their dead companions 

Those who died fighting for their same cause 

The Union Soldier hides behind the log 

He knows his end is near 

Terrified

Looking around 

He sees the dead bodies of his companions 

What is he fighting for? 

What does he stand for? 

At this point 

He is not even sure

His enemies are fighting for their way of life

But what is he on the battlefield for?

To deny his enemies of this lifestyle? 

The lives of men he will never know or understand?
Turmoil 

His inner uncertainty stings his heart
Maybe this is all a dream
Surreal

What does he stand for?

But the end is near for this lone soldier

He thinks of his family

His mother

His father

His sister

Everything he has sacrificed for them
His mother's tears watching her little baby leave the homestead
His father's tears for his son's bravery and devotion to his nation
His sister's tears as she saw him fade away into the horizon

Their beautiful faces speak of innocence
Their tears speak of pain and suffering
Grief
Anguish
Suddenly
He knows what his cause is
What he stands for 

Suddenly

A sharp pain permeates the soldiers side

He has been shot

The physical pain
Ephemeral
The emotional pain
Eternal 

He hears the sound of the drum for retreat

He struggles to keep his eyes open

The image of his mother's tears flashes into his eyes one last time
He has failed her
The emotional pain
Unbearable
A tear trickles down his coarse chin
Her baby will not come home 

The sun has set