"Letter from Birmingham Jail"

One aspect of this letter by Martin Luther King, Jr. that I really find interesting is how he addresses the white church. He is disappointed with the church as an institution for not taking a stronger stand on the issue of slavery. They just sit there and pretend that nothing is wrong. He says that he cannot stand that they are lukewarm. He tells them that he would even have respect for them if they opposed his stand for freedom, if they would just take a stand on something. I think that this still applies to today's world. Even though this letter was written more than 40 years ago it still has relevance today. I feel that the church today is the same as it was back then. There are still lots of issues that the church could easily help out with but they just seem to sit at the sidelines and wait for someone else to do something first. For example, human trafficking is getting more and more prevalent and the church could do a number of things to help out but they do not. I am not blaming any particular church, but more the whole church as an institution. If they all banded together, they could make a difference. This is just like what King was implying with the issue of slavery back in the 1960s. If people worked together, they could accomplish so much.
I just think that Martin Luther King, Jr. is one of the most influential people in the history of our country. The fact that he saw an issue that was bothering him and actually did something about it just amazes me. He wrote a letter and argued his point in such an unoffensive way over such a controversial topic. He never bashes anyone out but just points out flaws that he sees. I just think he is such a brilliant man to have written a letter that still applies to our life today even though it was written more than 40 years ago. He still lives with us today. King never gave up, despite being arrested and sent to jail. He pursued and for that I truly admire this man. He was not just going to sit there. I feel like we all have a lot to learn from King. He is an amazing Christian role model.

"All's Not Well in Land of 'The Lion King'"

I just absolutely could not believe that this woman could find so much wrong with a classic like "The Lion King." She just bashes everything about this movie which, in my opinion, is one of the best Disney films - a classic as most would put it.
The first thing that I cannot believe that she says is that the hyenas are the blacks when clearly black is just an evil color used for villains. If you think back on all the villains in all of the Disney movies, they all have mostly black coloring in their character. Is she saying that Disney is making, say, Ursula black because she is mostly black? This is absurd. Just because the hyenas are black in color does not mean that they are representing blacks. Instead of thinking that Disney is racist, I am in turn thinking that she is racist for thinking that and making that connection which I doubt if anyone else would make. Also, saying that Scar is gay? She is just discriminating based on a voice and a lifestyle. I think that she is just judging and looking way too far into this children's movie. I think her thoughts about this movie are too far in because like I said before, this is a children's movie. I just cannot believe that she would make these assumptions.
I do kind of agree about the woman's standards in the Disney movies though. At least in the earlier Disney movies, the women characters are all damsels in distress and cannot seem to do anything until their macho male hero saves them. But I think that, even though I think that it is wrong, it shows the thoughts of the times. Like today there are much more woman characters that are strong and have a strong mind and can do things without men, like Mulan. So, that is the only half-way decent point that Lazarus makes in this evaluation of "The Lion King."
I think that there are too many critics out there just searching and waiting for something to be wrong in everything. They have to point out every flaw and fault. I think that people should just chill and watch a movie to watch a movie. It just seems like no one can enjoy anything anymore without judging every aspect of a film.

Review from class

Lauren brought in a painting for us to review so I am going to do that. At first glance, I saw a strong pretty woman in this painting. The colors were earthy tones. The green from the shirt was reflected in the face of the woman. I also liked the peachy color of the background and the way it contrasted with the colors of the woman. I also noticed that the eyes were the most defined and clear feature of the face. You could tell that these were a favorite feature in that they were the most precise and took the most time. The woman was strong in the way she held her neck and the way she was looking off. I could see age and wisdom in the eyes but they looked a little tired. Upon further observation I noticed the texture of this portrait. The movement in the piece was just calling to be touched and felt as if the emotion needed to be felt rather than seen. I really liked that aspect of this painting. I noticed that the woman in the painting looked a little like the artist herself and then she informed us that it was indeed a self-portrait. I really liked how she had so much self-confidence in creating a piece of work that is intended to be her. I really admire that about the artist and it almost makes the painting that much more special and unique. This painting was an excellent self-portrait that I liked a lot.

"The E-Learning Curve"

This investigating essay is much better than the other one we had to read for last class. First of all, the introduction was pretty good. I actually understood what it was saying unlike the other introduction. It stated that topic well and was interesting enough that I wanted to read on. The author was much more professional in this essay as well. He reported the information he had collected well and presented it in a clear and concise way. He also used quotes well and he interviewed enough people to support his topic. All in all, I thought that this was a very well put together investigating essay.
I thought that this topic was very interesting. With on-line learning on the rise and becoming so easy to set up, I think it's important to sit back and look at the pros and cons of both options - residence learning and on-line learning. While I think that for some people it is necessary to get their degree on-line, like people who already have a family, a job, or not enough money to afford living or taking classes at a college, I think you get the full experience and actually learn and retain more if you are actually in the class at the college. What I really enjoy about classes in college is getting to know a professor by watching them teach and getting to know other students in the class. You don't get the full extent of these things when you are taking a class on-line. You don't get the face-to-face interaction. But I think that it is important for on-line courses to keep increasing in resources so that people who still want to learn but cannot go to college still are able to get the best education that they can. While I do not want to ever take classes on-line, I think that the fact that the option is out there is comforting, in case I ever have to take them. It is also the job of the professors to really keep up with their coursework for on-line classes and really keep in contact with their students so that maybe relationships can form. The people taking on-line courses should be graded the same and should get the same education as those who take part in residence learning.

"Lost in Cyberspace"

I never seem to find anything on the Internet that's worth putting into a research paper, besides Wikipedia, and that source is kind of sketchy. I think that the Internet is a wonderful thing and there is so much information that you can look into, but you have to really know where to find it. Most of the things I try to research only lead me to short paragraphs that do not go into detail. The Internet seems to be a shallow breadth of information rather than certain subjects that delve deeply into the information.
The majority of my time spent on the Internet is only for e-mail and Facebook. But when I try to find pertinent information on the Internet, I only find "pretty pebbles" and "small sticks." I never find information that really dives into the subject.
I think that the Internet is good but dangerous. Not serisouly dangerous, like I'm not terrified of on-line stalkers. I just think it's dangerous because it easily could control my life. I got Facebook when I graduated from high school so that I could keep in touch with all of my friends as we went off to college. I was against it prior to having it because I just didn't want to be one of those people who had to have a MySpace or Facebook in order to survive through the day. But the thing with Facebook is that it is addicting. I seriouslty spent all of my free time talking to people and searching their pages. I found it greatly entertaining. And then I got to college and I got AIM. I had never had AIM before so this was totally new and I found myself spending a lot of time on my computer. The reason I think that the Internet is dangerous is because people can really get "lost in cyberspace." I think it is too easy for someone who is lonely to lock themselves away into a virutal world. I try, though, not to become one of those people. I try to keep a healthy balance of staying off and on the Internet.

"Why We Crave Horror Movies"

Horror movies are not my favorite thing in the world. But there is nothing like a sleepover where you purposely pick out the scariest movie so that you can get scared together with your friends. See, I like horror movies when I can watch them with my closest friends. There's something about being in the company of your closest friends that doesn't make the horror movies so scary. Other than sleepovers, though, I generally do not watch horror movies. Occasionally, I will watch one if it's on T.V. But it has to be in the middle of the day, with the sun shining and birds chirping. I have never seen a horror movie, except for Disturbia which really wasn't that scary of a movie, in the movie theaters. I just do not like the idea of the horrifying images being displayed on a massive screen and make the monsters larger than life when they are scary enough as it is on the tiny T.V. screen in my living room. I also don't like the idea that I cannot turn the lights on if I get too scared. No thank you, I will not be put through that torture.
But Stephen King has a point in this essay. Even though I do not really like horror movies, I still enjoy watching them and being scared. I think that he is totally correct in saying that we are all mentally insane. We are. What else explains the huge turnouts and profits from horror movies. These movies are sick and twisted and just generally messed up. Yet people flock to see the newest horror movie. And they are just getting worse and worse. I watched Nightmare on Elm Street one time and I didn't get scared even though I was only twelve at the time. That movie was made in the 80s and was scary then but things have changed since then. Horror is becoming more and more gruesome as years go on. I just want to know if the people who come up with these movies are seriously insane. How can they have these ideas about people torturing other people and of these frightening monsters and be normal? Not that i can define normal at all. But still, they are kind of messed up.
I see where King is going in this essay. Our human nature craves sick things, whether it be books, movies or jokes. We crave it because it is so far from the norm of a regular day. It is a way for us to step out of reality and relieve that desire for something mentally wrong.

"Los Pobres" by Richard Rodriguez

I do not really relate at all to Richard Rodriguez in his essay, "Los Pobres" so I have decided to answer some of the questions at the end of the selection. Rodriguez hopes to learn what it really feels like to do manuel labor like his ancestors from his summer of hard labor. He wants to sweat and hurt and feel like they did and really experience a hard life, even if it for just one summer. He wants some connection to his people, his heritage. I understand why he would want to do this. He goes to Stanford which is mostly populated by wealthy class white Americans and he probably got sucked into that lifestyle and lost most of his traditions and beliefs in doing so. He wanted to do as his people does. What he does in fact learn is that he is far from feeling how his people have felt. He does learn that he likes the labor, maybe just becasue he only has to do it for a summer and actually can see the end in sight. He also learns that he is working with a bunch of men who are middle-class average men and not the poor, or pobre, that he was expecting to work with. And he found that he related with them and when a Mexican group of workers come, he finds that he is uncomfortable with them and does not relate to them at all.At the end of paragraph 17, Rodriguez senses the distance he felt from los pobres : "I would not become like them. They were different from me." He can't become like them because he just never grew up like them or had to deal with the issues they had to deal with. He grew up and American and they grew up Mexican. And it has nothing to do with a geographical distance for they could have grown up in houses right next to each other on the same street and still not become like them. It is the hardship and suffering that they endured and he didn't that separates Rodriguez from los pobres. They are different because they grew up fully in Mexican culture and took part in Mexican traditions, whereas Rodriguez grew up in a mixed, Mexican and American culture. They will never understand each other completely but I think that Rodriguez can still appreciate what his ancestors had gone through and in some slight way have a sense of the hard labor and work they had to endure through his summer at the construction site. He just has to face the fact that he has a great history but that just isn't how he or his family lives now and that things have changed.

Class work blog - childhood memory

When I was five years old I caused my brother to get stitches. Me and my friend Devin were outside with my brother. It was winter and the snow was the crusty kind with a nice icy top layer. Devin and I wanted to go sledding down this hill in my front yard but we were scared that the snow was too icy and that we were going to sled right into the road. So we talked about it and came to the consensus that we needed to test the situation. So we talked my little brother into sledding down the hill first. Devin told him that if he was going too fast, he'd catch my brother. So we plop my brother into a flimsy, blown-up tube and push him down the hill. He flies down, straight through Devin's legs and right into the ditch before the road, smashing his head into the culvert pipe. I was horrified and shocked so I go screaming up the hill and into the house yelling, "Mom! Mom! Ethan's head is bleeding!" So my mom rushed my brother to the hospital and he had to have his first stitches put into his head.

"Toys" and "Barbies"

When I read "Barbies" I couldn't help but laugh. This is such a funny essay. And it all makes sense really now that I think about it. I never really thought about who really invented Barbie, whether it was a male or female. And now that I know that it was a man, Jack Ryan who invented Barbie, it all makes sense. No wonder Barbie is all out of proportion. I mean, seriously, no woman is really built like that and like Emily Prager states, no woman would ever build a doll that looks like this. I'll admit that I am slightly offended that a man would make a doll that looks like this for little girls to play with. It is so true that the message we are sending to little girls around the world is a twisted one. When you look down the Barbie aisle at a toy store, all the dolls are stick thin and blonde. I did play with Barbies as a little girl and was actually obsessed with them. I loved playing with my Barbies but I'll admit that all of them looked the same. I don't see how they entertained me for so long. But I do think that it's true that we should try and get better images for girls. I never dealt with an eating disorder but I did have self-image issues through my teenage years. And who can blame me? Look at all the role models young girls have - all the early Disney princesses are skinny girls who are lost without their fresh young and of course, good-looking princes. They never really have a mind for themselves. I can say, though, that Disney (just to use for an example) is getting better. Mulan, for example, is a strong woman who fought for herself and didn't let men control her. Girls out there need more role models like her than Barbie or Bratz dolls which are just as bad.
The essay "Toys" was not as funny and a little harder to follow but I still agree with what Roland Barthes says. It is true that most of the toys that children use today are just smaller versions of the everyday life that adults go through. But I think that those were always the fun toys to play with. I know that I enjoyed playing mother to my baby dolls and pretending to go grocery shopping in the toy grocery store. I think that children enjoy doing these things so much because they look up to their parents and want to be just like them. So toys are constructed around that and children enjoy playing like they are grown-ups. Sure, I think I would be concerned if all a child did was pretend to be a grown-up all day without any fantasy play that enables their imaginations but a little play like that is fine in my opinion.

"Lenses"

I really enjoyed reading this essay by Annie Dillard. She uses her adjectives so eloquently and I really feel like I am at the pond with her as she describes the swans and the pond in which they land. I'm not someone who is passionate about nature and loves to spend every waking moment outside, but this essay really makes me want to just go outside and observe nature. The way she describes how she sees things makes me want to see this way, as well. I just want to go and marvel at God's beautiful creation.
I think that this is a very good example of an observing essay. She doesn't just state what she sees and leave it at that. She relates it to her life and the fact that she loves to observe things. I like to observe, too. My bedroom at home looks out over a parking lot to a grocery store and I seriously sit there for hours sometimes just watching the people as they go in and out of the store. It amazes me at how people act, even in public, when they think no one is watching them. I'll admit, I feel slightly creepy for just sitting there and looking at these total strangers, but I love to do it so much. I never even thought about writing down what I observed. I wonder if I would realize something while writing down my observations, maybe even realize something about myself. I can't wait now for the next time I can just sit there and observe and write about the people I watch.
I really like the part where Dillon describes her little "ends of the worlds." I think it's funny because what tweleve year old doesn't like to feel like they're bigger and better than something and that they can destroy things. I like the fact that she kept doing the same thing over and over again and never go bored of it. It shows that she has such a passion for looking at things. And the fact that she can put this passion into writing and share it with the rest of the world leaves me in awe. I really admire her passion and her ability to share what she loves in her writing.

"Mother Tongue"

This wasn't my favorite essay of the essays we have read for class so far but I have full respect for Amy Tan after reading it. I really value that she did not let authority figures, her teachers, tell her what she is good at and what she would succeed at in life. Just because she got straight A's in math and science doesn't mean she has to major in them or a field related to them. I really like that she chose to major in English. Sure, she wasn't the best at it, but it was something she was passionate about and that she loved to do. I sort of had the same problem because all through my school years I got straight A's in everything. Sure, I'd get a stray B here and there, but they weren't solid B's in any particular subject. And I don't mean to sound arrogant at all, but I was just really good at school. But when it came to the later years in high school, all my peers were focusing on classes in which the subject interested them. But I did not have any particular subject that I was really passionate about. I'd like certain parts of my classes. I enjoyed reading novels in my English classes and some parts of my math classes interested me but nothing that I thoroughly enjoyed and could see myself doing for the rest of my life. So, what did I choose to major in? Elementary Education - a job in which I get to teach all of the subjects. And I think that this major suits me well.
Amy Tan is a strong woman for what she had to deal with in her life. I don't want to pity her, but I feel bad that she had such a hard life. She must have had to grow up fast in order to take care of herself. I don't think that her mother was incompotent, I just think it must have been hard to live in a world where you do not understand everything and have to have your daughter make phone calls just so that you would sound literate and so they would listen to you. I just think it's horrible that so many people take advantage of someone just because they don't speak "perfect" English. Just because someone doesn't speak the language perfectly doesn't mean they're stupid. People can be so ignorant sometimes.
I like the part when she talks about her mother's "broken" and "limited" English. She "winces" everytime she hears or says that. The fact that she cares so much about her mother and doesn't want to think of any aspect of her being "broken" or "limited" really says a lot about her relationship with her mother. Even though Tan had to do some "grown-up" things when she was young for her mother, she still looks up to her and cares so much for her. She doesn't want her mother to feel dumb because she knows that she isn't. I admire her strength and persistance, and most importantly, her love for her mother.

"Shitty First Drafts"

Anne Lamott is hilarious. I just have so much fun and enjoy reading her writing so much. Even though what she says is controversial and I bet that there are many people who frown on her, I think that she is intelligent and has a lot of good advice for writers.
I relate to a lot of what Lamott said in this essay. When she talked about sitting down and worrying about writing and thinking that she has nothing good to write, I was surprised that she feels the same way I do about writing. I always worry and get all anxious that I have nothing to write about and that I will never be able to write 3-5 pages on a certain topic. And I complain about it and put it off until the last minute and once I sit down at my computer and start typing, I find that I have more to say than I thought. I don't know why I feel this way seeing as it happens every time and I always tend to pull off a decent essay. It's those voices that Lamott talks about that are constantly in my head telling me that I am a horrible writer and that nothing I have to say is worth anybody's time reading. But deep down I know that this is not true yet I still listen to those stupid voices. It's weird how I can relate to someone who is so different from me. But I bet that lots of people do the same thing. I think it's part of human nature to justify yourself for every little thing you do.
I like how Lamott says to just put down anything that comes to mind at first and then go over it later. I think that my problem sometimes is that I get so caught up on the little things, like making one sentence sound perfect, that it trips me up and I can't move on. First drafts are only meant for the writer to see so you can write whatever you want. And more often than not, it's mostly good material written down that can be kept for the final draft. What I have to do is just turn off the negative voices in my head telling me that my writing is terrible and just write.

"My Father's Suitcase"

Orhan Pamuk is a good writer. I like him and his style of writing, and what he talks about, I feel like I can relate to. I understand when he says that writers lock themselves in a room all alone only to find that they are not alone. I used to write stories and I just felt like there was something inside of me that just wanted to let loose on paper. I would start out strong, but then fade out after a few chapters. Pamuk kept reinstating that writers needed to be patient and I think that that is something that I lack. When I would hit a dead end, I would just throw my notebook in my closet and forget about it and just wait for a new idea to form. As I look back now, I think that middle and high school crushed my inspiration for writing. Essays and pieces of writing would turn into a formula - it was really like math. As long as you had all the components, you would get an A. I hate math but I was good at just plugging in the information so I would do well according to their standards. But I was not open to any imgination - it was almost like I was not allowed to think creatively. And it is sad because I started to hate writing which was such an important part of my early life. This passion inside of me to create new worlds, as Pamuk puts it, seemed to be stifled, buried under this assumption that all writing needs to be formal. But here in college it is like they actually want to hear what you think - your opinion matters. I am so thrilled that I can put myself into the paper. The passion inside of me, I feel, is beginnig to become uncovered, layer by layer.
Pamuk's statement that the worlds that he writes become more real than the world he lives in reminds me of an interview I read in Time magazine with J.K. Rowling. She said that when she finished the last Harry Potter book she cried for days. It was like a world, a part of her life, had ended, or died. The way she immersed herself in her writing is so inspiring. Pamuk is right, though, in saying that writers are, in a sense, isolated from the outside world. I think that even when writers are surrounded by people they are alone in their thoughts. They have such a different outlook, which I would like to acheive someday.

Chapter 1 - Reading:Purposes and Processes & "The Library Card"

When I first started reading the textbook part of the book, I thought that it would be boring and that I would not get anything out of it. Surprisingly, though, I found a lot of the information helpful. I learned that I should try to become more of an active reader. I find that I write a lot when I read textbooks but not so much when I read entertaining pieces of literature. But maybe if I was a more active reader, I would understand the meanings better. I also learned that I can write about trivial things without sounding trivial.
I really like the essay, "The Library Card" by Richard Wright. While reading about this man and his troubles, I realized that I take advantage of the fact that I have free access to books and can read them anytime. What really hit me was when Wright stated that he "hungered for books." And he "hungered" for intellectual books yet struggled to get his hands on them and here I am, able to read any book I want and I more often than not, choose entertaining books without much substance. I should try to learn by reading and choose books that make me think.
I also found it depressing that this boy has to carry a "burden" for reading. He should be praised for his intellect, but instead he is chastised, just because of the color of his skin. It is sad that the reading "created a vast sense of distance between [him] and the world..." But I am glad he persevered and stuck with it even though it was difficult or he may have never written this and no one would be able to read this and be inspired by it.

Blurb from first class

Ellen is an eighteen year-old girl who's lived in the same small town, Ashland, New Hampshire her whole life. She realized at a young age that she wanted to teach for a living so she decided to study Elementary Education at Gordon College. She is a freshman now but when she was twelve she went to Iceland for a week and hopes to visit there again someday. She is taking Writing and Rhetoric this semester to help her become a better writer and to learn more about the writing process, especially at a college level.