National Debt :: Economy Economics Argumentative Papers

National DebtThe home(a) debt has always been a major concern of the ameri tail assembly public, whether they truely know what it is all almost or not. What most people do know is that the debt that our country has is continualy growing faster and faster at an unbeliev commensurate rate, toan amount that many of us can not even imagine. The national debt and its problem has been an on going issue in todays headlines, and each president is faced with this buring problem. President Clinton triedto install a balanced budget plan during his current term in office, however it lost 99-1. Althought thepublic was not able to vote on this plan directly, we, orat least I have an opinion concerning the issue. I personally believe that the fact that our nationis constantly growing more in debt by the minute is a majorproblem. Although that techincally we do not have to pay it, is not the point. What is the point is that weare a nation that is in debt. According to reports, since1981, our national debt has grown faster than our economyhas, which to me seems to be a problem. If this debtwas to be spread out among the people it would be morethan the average american would be able to pay. We therefore, need some sort of policy that wouldeventurally cut our national debt to some reasonable amount. A new policy would help by lowering the currentinterest rates, which in turn would allow for moreinvestment to occur. This would raise our real GNP ofthe economy. This increse in investment would alsoincrease our national savings as well, which would leadto an increase in the national income average of ournations average families. Considering the amountof our debt, this healing process needs to be through with(p) overa long period of time. According to research, if doneto quickly it would only hurt the current economy. Ifwe are going to cut the political sevices it testament need to be done in small doses. This will enable theaverage american to respond and pre pare for the cuts. That way the american will not be hit as hard by thegovernmental cuts if they are prepared, and the effectswill not be as harsh.

Gillian by Laurel Oke Logan :: Gillian

Gillian by Laurel Oke Logan The book I read was Gillian, write by Laurel Oke Logan. This book is about a girl who has scarcely graduated from high school and is in the process of looking for a job. Gillian has just graduated from high school. She is so thrilled to go to college and can not wait. Well the day comes when she is to leave for college. She and her friends are going to have so much(prenominal) fun. As the years pass by she is doing very well in her classes, and before she knows it, it is time for her to graduate from college. After graduation Gillian went home to her parents house. She was a light upset because she couldnt find a job and all of her friends had found jobs. When Gillian told her father how she felt he told her that there was a woman who called him to see if she (Gillian) would be up to(p) and willing to work at this camp in Canada in the kitchen. At first Gillian was very excited but when she began to think about it the who le bringing close together scared her to death. Going off to a place outside of the United States where she had never been and leaving her family behind, she just didnt know if she could go through with it. A a few(prenominal) days after debating about going she called the lady and got more information about it and she decided she would give it a try. Gillian was to leave in about flipper days so her mother and she went to go buy the right clothes to wear in Canada and some other things she would need. The day finally came for Gillian to leave. As Gillian, her family and friends went to her supply at the airport Gillian began to feel really nervous. She said good-bye to her family and friends and then she went off. The flight to Canada was very pleasant. When Gillian arrived at the camp she met some very interesting people. Jake was an elder man and when Gillian started to get to know everybody and

Big Brother is Watching :: Essays Papers

Big Brother is WatchingPrivacy in the Information Age. dupe you sat down to eat dinner, just as you put that first bite into your mouth the phone rings. You k presently better than to answer it, but you do any way. To your dismay you find out that you were right Tele-marketers? As you hang up you wonder how did they get my number? How do they know what ar your interests, likes, dislikes? You heap the cashier a plastic card with a magnetic strip which contains your name and address. All of your purchases be recorded and a some days subsequent you receive discount coupons for a new product you might like in the mail. You think that targeted marketing in the information age really deeds A woman feels she may be expecting, she goes to the pharmacy to purchase a home pregnancy test. Without thinking, she hands her bonus card to the cashier and a few days later she receives mail from baby product manufactures. She is thinking that she is living in an information age nightmare.Informa tion technology, and particularly the internet and the World big Web, can provide benefits that were only dreamed of a decade ago. These new opportunities, however, raise questions about potential threats to personal concealing that are just now starting to be understood.Consumers, for example, like one on one marketing at Miscellaneous Web sites which allows them to browse various selections recommended based on forward purchases and their personal profile. They are much less sure about the sites developing real time profiles of users based on demographics or psychographics. Similarly, workaholics are attracted to internet dating services that promise to find high achievers their ideal mate They gladly spend thirty minutes completing the extensive preceding questionnaire. They are less thrilled when they later find that E-Mate has been acquired by another company specifically for its extensive data base of personal information.Our concern is the privacy of personal information in a digitally networked world where personal data can be input, stored, sorted, analyzed, mined, transmitted and exchanged globally with increasing quilt and decreasing cost. There is growing concern about data privacy, especially on the Net which is accompanied by marked disagreements about what can, and should be done. These differences are exacerbated by very real cross-cultural and cross-national differences in values, history and economic philosophies. Where national borders are not even speed bumps on the information superhighway.

Hunger Essay -- World Hunger Poverty Food Essays

Hunger Hunger is an issue which numerous an(prenominal) hatful think lies superficial importance. Im going to give you a look at mankind Hunger as a Picture of P overty, how it affects Third World Nations, and How World Hunger is a disease that is plaguing our society.Food is more than than a trade commodity, pleaded Sir John Boydorr in 1946. It is an essential to life. The first director-general of the new Food and cultivation Organization of the United Nations, Boydorr profitlessly proposed plans for a World Food Board to protect nations and people from aridness in the world market outline. That market system does non distri simplye nourishment on the basis of nutritional need. This is one of the most troubling and complex realities of the world hunger problem. During recent famines in Ethiopia, in another example of the industrial plant of the marketplace, foreign feed aid begins trucked to famine beas from ships at the docks passed food leaving the famine areas on o ther vehicles. Merchants were taking food from famine areas to parts of the coarse where there was no famine. World Hunger and poverty can be look inton in many ways. But first lets build up a solid interpretation of poverty Poverty is a state in which the ability of individuals or groups to use power to bring about trustworthy for themselves, their families, and their community is weakened or blocked. When someone lacks food, this is referred to as material poverty. This sort of poverty can hurt people in many ways, it can hurts peoples ego esteem and it can as well hurt their outlook on life. Lets say you come home from work to see your family, instead of seeing a family which is able because it has a roof over its head you come home to see that your children dont bring forth enough food on the table to keep them properly nourished. This hurts familys and tears some of them apart. It is also scantily a very cruel punishment because after a while of beingness hungry(p) , you start to starve to death and when you starve, the carcass rightful(prenominal) starts to eat itself up to find the nourishment it needs. It can also effect peoples outlook on life and on people in a major way. People who are denied food can start to hate life and everyone or so them. Theres also two instincts in life that will unendingly kick in when your hungry The survival instinct which is to survive no matter what the situation is and the instinct to provide food for your family. I am not a father myself, ... ...itary puff and start trying to live like Jesus would want us to and help our fellow brothers in Christ.Due to many self-centered greedy people, we welcome fellow humans starving to death. This cant keep going on because every time someone starves, we are not just hurting that person but we are also hurting ourselves. We all live in the world as one race with different sections. The sections being the different nationalities we have in the world. And whenever one division gets hurt, the whole gets weakened. We need to depend on each other to survive from day to day healthy. It is avowedly the poverty is a master(prenominal) cause of world hunger but it isnt the only cause. If the economy was serving the people and not the other way around then more people would have the notes needed to secure food to live from day to day. And if greedy governments gave some of he people money or food they would have money to buy food. If the Military stopped using so much money to make machines that kill, there would be more money for people to buy food with. And if more people cared there would be a lot less starving people in this world. If this hunger doesnt end, I can see a very pathetic world in our future. Hunger Essay -- World Hunger Poverty Food EssaysHunger Hunger is an issue which many people think lies little importance. Im going to give you a look at World Hunger as a Picture of Poverty, how it affects Third World Nation s, and How World Hunger is a disease that is plaguing our society.Food is more than a trade commodity, pleaded Sir John Boydorr in 1946. It is an essential to life. The first director-general of the new Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Boydorr fruitlessly proposed plans for a World Food Board to protect nations and people from hunger in the world market system. That market system does not distribute food on the basis of nutritional need. This is one of the most troubling and complex realities of the world hunger problem. During recent famines in Ethiopia, in another example of the workings of the marketplace, foreign food aid begins trucked to famine areas from ships at the docks passed food leaving the famine areas on other vehicles. Merchants were taking food from famine areas to parts of the country where there was no famine. World Hunger and poverty can be seen in many ways. But first lets establish a solid definition of poverty Poverty is a state in whi ch the ability of individuals or groups to use power to bring about good for themselves, their families, and their community is weakened or blocked. When someone lacks food, this is referred to as material poverty. This sort of poverty can hurt people in many ways, it can hurts peoples self esteem and it can also hurt their outlook on life. Lets say you come home from work to see your family, instead of seeing a family which is happy because it has a roof over its head you come home to see that your children dont have enough food on the table to keep them properly nourished. This hurts familys and tears some of them apart. It is also just a very cruel punishment because after a while of being hungry, you start to starve to death and when you starve, the body just starts to eat itself up to find the nourishment it needs. It can also effect peoples outlook on life and on people in a major way. People who are denied food can start to hate life and everyone around them. Theres also two instincts in life that will always kick in when your hungry The survival instinct which is to survive no matter what the situation is and the instinct to provide food for your family. I am not a father myself, ... ...itary force and start trying to live like Jesus would want us to and help our fellow brothers in Christ.Due to many self-centered greedy people, we have fellow humans starving to death. This cant keep going on because every time someone starves, we are not just hurting that person but we are also hurting ourselves. We all live in the world as one race with different sections. The sections being the different nationalities we have in the world. And whenever one division gets hurt, the whole gets weakened. We need to depend on each other to survive from day to day healthy. It is true the poverty is a main cause of world hunger but it isnt the only cause. If the economy was serving the people and not the other way around then more people would have the money needed to buy food to live from day to day. And if greedy governments gave some of he people money or food they would have money to buy food. If the Military stopped using so much money to make machines that kill, there would be more money for people to buy food with. And if more people cared there would be a lot less starving people in this world. If this hunger doesnt end, I can see a very pathetic world in our future.

Copyrights: Intellectual Property and Technology Essay -- essays resea

Copyrights noetic Property and TechnologyThe Government and many other agencies around the world are continuously at ladder to improve security systems for intellectual property rights and the enforcement of intellectual property laws. In todays age of digital madness, passing legislation and actually enforcing of those laws becomes a actually daunting task. However, the protection of intellectual property has both individual and social benefits. It protects the right of the creator of something of value to be compensated for what he or she has created, and by so doing it encourages production of valuable, intangible, creative workIn order to understand the difficulties surrounding the laws associated with intellectual property an understanding of the term is needed. The Louisiana State meter Association defines intellectual property as the product of someones mental efforts. It is usually intangible, and its value lies in its appeal to others who might wish to use it or the goo ds it describes. Intellectual property can be covered and categorized into three separate protective laws those include copyrights, patents and trademarks. The true key to understanding intellectual property protection is to understand that the thing protected is the intangible creative work, not the particular physical form in which it is embodied (Baase, 2003, p. 235).This paper will discuss the musical themes and laws keister copyrights as intellectual property along with the daunting task of protecting that property in a digital age where piracy seems to be commonplace. The reliable-use laws and the digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998 will also be covered, along with the challenges faced by those who choose to use the fair-use laws for educational purposes, and the impact that the DMCA has had on this law. in the long run this paper will discuss what can be learned from having a basic understanding of copyright laws and the impact on world economics that the fal ling out of these laws could possibly cause.Examining intellectual property can spark the old argument that standing is more tiring than walking paradox, how do you differentiate between an idea and a creative expression. Copyrights protect a creative expression, which is the expression, selection, and arrangement of ideas. The boundary between an idea and the expression of an idea is often not clear (Baase, 2003, p. 236). some people... ...industry will quickly realize that consumers eventually get tired of being slapped on the wrist for obeying the law, and this is basically what the DMCA has done to people that actually follow the fair use laws. The actual impact of boycotting the industry would be an economic disaster. This will most likely never happen, but Congress is posed with a heavy(p) task in front them.The first step towards ensuring copyrights and fair use laws would be to ban the use of technology that is produced for the sole purpose of circumventing copyrights. Co ngress should hence either redefine the Digital Millennium Copyright Act or do away with it on the whole. Infringement on copyright laws will never completely disappear but managing the problem without stepping on the toes of the owners or the consumer can definitely be accomplished with the right application and redefinition of copyright laws and the fair use doctrine. A new digital age calls for new types of protection without overstepping the boundaries of what is fair and what is not.ReferencesBaase, S. (2003). A Gift of Fire Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues for Computers and the Internet. 2nd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ scholar Hall.

Copyrights: Intellectual Property and Technology Essay -- essays resea

Copyrights Intellectual Property and TechnologyThe Government and many other mount upncies around the world ar continuously at work to improve protections for intellectual property rights and the enforcement of intellectual property laws. In todays age of digital madness, passing order and actually enforcing of those laws becomes a very daunting task. However, the protection of intellectual property has both individual and social benefits. It protects the right of the creator of something of value to be counterbalance for what he or she has created, and by so doing it encourages production of valuable, intangible, creative workIn order to understand the difficulties surrounding the laws associated with intellectual property an judgment of the depot is needed. The Louisiana State Bar Association defines intellectual property as the product of someones mental efforts. It is usually intangible, and its value lies in its appeal to others who might like to use it or the goods it de scribes. Intellectual property can be covered and categorized into three separate protective laws those include secures, patents and trademarks. The true key to understanding intellectual property protection is to understand that the thing protected is the intangible creative work, not the particular physical form in which it is embodied (Baase, 2003, p. 235).This report card will discuss the ideas and laws behind right of first publications as intellectual property along with the daunting task of protecting that property in a digital age where piracy seems to be commonplace. The fair-use laws and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998 will also be covered, along with the challenges faced by those who choose to use the fair-use laws for educational purposes, and the impact that the DMCA has had on this law. Finally this paper will discuss what can be learned from having a basic understanding of copyright laws and the impact on world economics that the breaking of thes e laws could possibly cause.Examining intellectual property can spark the old argument that standing is more tiring than walking paradox, how do you differentiate between an idea and a creative expression. Copyrights protect a creative expression, which is the expression, selection, and arrangement of ideas. The boundary between an idea and the expression of an idea is very much not clear (Baase, 2003, p. 236). Most mint... ...industry will quickly realize that consumers eventually get tired of being slapped on the wrist for obeying the law, and this is basically what the DMCA has done to people that actually follow the fair use laws. The actual impact of boycotting the industry would be an economic disaster. This will most likely never happen, but relative is posed with a great task in front them.The first step towards ensuring copyrights and fair use laws would be to ban the use of technology that is produced for the fillet of sole purpose of circumventing copyrights. Congress should then either redefine the Digital Millennium Copyright Act or do away with it completely. Infringement on copyright laws will never completely disappear but managing the problem without stepping on the toes of the owners or the consumer can definitely be accomplished with the right application and redefinition of copyright laws and the fair use doctrine. A new digital age calls for new types of protection without overstepping the boundaries of what is fair and what is not.ReferencesBaase, S. (2003). A Gift of Fire Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues for Computers and the Internet. 2nd Ed. focal ratio Saddle River, NJ Prentice Hall.

Masculinity in the Philippines Essay

In the imperial age, the host shaped parlia givetary law to suit its peculiar needs. Modem armies are complex, costly institutions that must ramify astray to mobilize the vast human and material resources their operations require. Since the armed forces demand the absolute regard and, at times, the lives of universal manfuls, the state often forms, or reforms, societys culture and ideology to make s anileiery dish a moral imperative. In the cultural encounter that was empire, compound armies professionalved as amazingly potent agents of social change, introducing a major Western institution, with imbedded values, in a forceful, al close irresistible, manner. As powerful, intrusive institutions, modem armies trans organize cultures and shaped grammatical gender identities, fostering elaborateness and stunt womanry whose influence has persisted long by and by colonial rule.Above all, these armies, colonial and national, propagated a culture, nay a cult of masculinity. Rece nt historical research has explored the shipway that revolt European states reconstructed gender roles to support legions mobilization. To name males for multitude re maturement, European nations constructed a stereotype of men as courageous and women as affirming, worthy prizes of manly males. In its genius, the modem state- by its powerful propaganda tools of education, literature, and media-appropriated the near-universal folk ritual of male initiation to make troops service synonymous with the passage to human worlds.Not hardly did mass conscription produce soldiers, it all overly shaped gender roles in the whole of society. Modern warfare, as it developed in Europe, was the mother of a overbold masculinity propagated globally in an age of empire through colonial armies, boys schools, and y tabuh movements. As a colony of Spain and America, the Philippines felt these global cultural currents and provides an knowing terrain for exploration of thismilitarized masculin ity. Like the other colonial states of Asia and Africa, both powers controlled their Philippine colony with native troops led by European officeholders, an implicit deprecation of the manliness of elite Philippine males.For the all-male electorate of the American era, Filipino nationahm thus came to mean not precisely independence but, of equal importance, liberation from colonial emasculation. Over time, a cultural dialectic of the colonial and national produced a synthesis with symbol and social roles marked by an extreme gender dimorphism. When Filipino leaders in the long run began building a national army in the 1930s, they borrowed the European standard of phalanx masculinity with all its inbuilt biases. By exempting women from conscription and barring them from array officers training at the Philippine host Academy, the acres exaggerated the societys male/female polarities.Once set in 1936, these military regulations and their social influence would prove surprisin gly persistent and pervasive. It would be n advance(prenominal) thirty long time until the armed forces recruited their first women soldiers in 1963 and another thirty long time after that so onenessr the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) admitted its first female cadets in 1993 (Hilsdon 1995, 48, 51, 89 Duque 1981, vii). If we accept what unrivaled historian has called the emancipated status of Filipino women in the 19th century, so the prewar nationalist movement, with its rhetoric of militarism and male empowerment, may get hold of skewed the gender balance within the Philippinepolity. In a Malay society with a legacy of gender equality-bilateral kinship, matrilocal marriage, and gender-neutral pronouns-this aspect of nationalism seems socially retrogressive.Understandably, postwar historians have overlooked this glorification of masculinity and military valor in their sympathetic studies of prewar Filipino nationalism. N anetheless, mass conscription shaped gender roles in t he first half of the 20th century and fostered a rhetoric that pervaded Philippine politics in its second half. In deploying Europes cult of masculinity to support mass conscription, the rural area introduced a advanced element into the landed estates political culture. Indeed, this engendered social order-propagated through conscription, education, and mass media-fostered imagery that would shape Philippine politics at key transitional moments in the latter decades of the 20th century. For well over half the fifty plus eld since independence, the Philippines has been ruled by death chairs who won office with claims of martial valor and then governed in a military manner.COMMONWEALTH A N D MASCULINITYThe Philippine acceptance of this Euro-American model of masculinity provides strong evidence of the figure of speechs power. The successful imposition of this Westernized masculinity, with its extreme gender dimorphism, upon a Malay society with a long history of more balanced rol es, makes the Philippines a telltale(a) instance of this global process. Within twenty years, the span of a single generation, mobilization and its propaganda, convinced a people without a tradition of military service to accept conscription and internalize a sassy standard 1 of manhood. When tested in battle during World struggle 1, the generation of Filipino officers organise in this mobilization proved willing to fight and die with exceptional courage.Models of MasculinityDuring the deuce decades of this rattling(prenominal) social experiment, prewar Philippine institutions use two complementary cultural devices to indoctrinate the two-year-old into a new gender identity a mass propaganda of gender dimorphism and a militarized form of male initiation. Among the more schools that participated in this experiment, t w v t h e University of thePhilippines (UP) and, a decade later, the Philippine Military Academy (PMA)-would play a central role as cultural mediators in construc ting this new national standard for manhood. To translate a foreign masculine form into a Filipino cultural idiom, the cadet army corps at UP and the PMA appropriated local traditions of male initiation, using them as a powerfully effective indoctrination into modem military service. Scholars of the Philippine military have often noted how the ordeal of the first or plebe year serves to bind the PMAs calibrates into a manakin or batch with an extraordinary solidarity.The half-dozen doctoral dissertations on the Philippine military argue, in the words of a Chicago psychologist who observed the PMA in the mid-1960 that cadets form deportmenttime bonds. . . in the crucible of the hazing proess. What is the meaning of this ritual with its extreme violence? Hazing, seemingly a small issue, has embedded within it larger problems of masculinity central to armies e trulywhere. In fieldwork around the world, anthropologists have discovered the near universality of male i n i t i a t i n Around the globe and across time, many societies view . manhood as something that must be earned and thus create rituals totest and train their teenage males.Observing these rituals in the remote Highlands of Papua-New Guinea, anthropologist Roger Keesing offers a single, succinct explanation for the prevalence of harsh male initiation warfare (Keesing 1982,32-34 Herdt 1982,5741). Similarly, at the m a r p s of the modem Philippine state, young men have long been initiated into manhood through ritual testing of their martial valor. In the 20th century, Muslim groups in the south have formed all-male minimal alliance groups to engage in ritualized warfare, while the Ilongot highlanders of northern Luzon require boys to pass severe tests of manhood by taking at least one head in combat (Kiefer 1972 Rosaldo 1980, 13940). From an anthropological perspective, hazing becomes the central rite in a passage from boyhood to manhood, civilian to soldier. Filipino plebe and New Guinea adolesce nt pass through similar initiations to emerge as warriors hardened for battle and bound together for defense of their communities (Gennep 1960, vii, 11).Recent historical research has explored the ways that rising European states reconstructed gender roles to support mobilization of modern armies. By marrying anthropologists universals to the historians time-bounded specifics, we can see how European nation-states, by making military service an initiation ritual, primed their males for mass slaughter on the modem battlefield. later Britains dismal performance in the Crimean War of the 1850s, headmasters at its elite human beings schools began hardening boys for future(a) day command through pastimes. Indeed, Harrows head proclaimed that the esprit de corps, which merit success in cricket or football, are the very qualities which win the day in . . . war. A half-century later in South Africa, British troops faced difficulties subduing Boer farmers, raising questions about the mi litary fitness of ordinary Englishmen.Responding to this perceived crisis, Lord Baden-Powell organized the Boy Scouts in 1908 to pass as many boys through our instance factory as we possibly can ( bitgan 1987, 150-53 1981,2241 1986, 33-36 Rosenthal 1986, 1-6). In his study of the cult of war in nineteenth-century Europe, historian George Mosse asks Why did young men in great numbers mess to the colors, eager to face dying and acquit themselves in battle? Simply gear up, they volunteered because the modern nation-state, through its poets and propagandists, made the passage to manhood synonymous with military service. To become a man in Victorias England or Bismarcks Germany, a young male had to serve.In the first months of World War I, this cult of war achieved a virtual florescenceas young idealists hurled themselves into the slaughter. After 145,000 German soldiers died at Langemarck in 1914, one poet wrote Here I stand, proud and all alone, ecstatic that I have become a man. R ecalling this battle in Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler said Seventeen year old boys now looked like men. Similarly, during World War 11, U.S. army researchers anchor that American soldiers fought hard to avoid being branded a woman, a dangerous threat to the contemporary male personality (Mosse 1990, 15, 72 Stouffer, et al. 1949, 131-32). Not only did mass conscription produce soldiers, it in like manner shaped gender roles in the wider society. To prepare every male for military service, European nations constructed a stereotype of men ascourageous, honorable, and physically formed on borrowed Greek standards of male beauty. By the 1920s, women were, through this century-long process, transformed into static immutable symbols in order to command the vigilance of truly masculine men.I4Rhetoric of Colonial MasculinityAlthough the American colonial regime eventually played a central role in the brass of a Filipino officer corps, the US Army was initially hostile to the idea. During its first decade in the islands, the US Army was absorbed in a massive counterinsurgency campaign, and, like colonial armies elsewhere, denigrated the masculinity of its subject society. In little more than two years after their landing in 1898, the U.S. Army learned the same colonial lessons that the British and Dutch had distilled from two centuries of using native troops in India and Indonesia. Asian soldiers were, from an imperial point of view, welladapted to withstand the rigors of service in their own state of matter.But only a European had the character required of an officer. As the editor of Englands Statesman wrote in 1885, educated Indians were lacking in the courageous and manly behavior to which we justly attach so high an importance in the culture of our own youth. Colonials often found ascendant lowland groups both effeminate and insubordinate. But certain martial racesn- much(prenominal) as the Gurkhas, Ambonese, or Karens-were thought capable of great courage under fire and rumbustious loyalty to their white officers5 In effect, there was an imperial consensus that certain native troops, when drilled and disciplined by European officers of good character, made ideal colonial forces.From the outset, the American commander in the islands, world-wide Elwell S. Otis, felt, like most Americans of his day, that elite Filipinos were unfit for command. In an essay for a U.S. military journal in 1900, one American officer dismissed the typical officer in General Emilio Aguinaldos revolutionary army as a half-breed, a small dealer, a hanger-on of the Spaniards. Thus, when the US Army formed its colonial forces, the Philippine Scouts, the soldiers would all be Filipinos, but their officerswere to be white Americans engageed from the line of the Regular Army (Woolard 1975, 13, 225 Franklin 1935).In sum, Americas high colonial rhetoric celebrated the special bond between American officers and their Filipino troops, and, by implication, denigrated elit e Filipino character and capacity for command. Writing from retirement at the end of the US rule, one American veteran, Constabulary Captain Harold H. Elarth, offered a succinct version of this rhetoric. By funfair dealing, unusual sagacity and confirmed courage, young American officers, pacified and controlled tribes that for 300 years had continuously warred with the Spaniards. This success, he explained, came from the psychology of the Malay which inspired Filipino soldiers to follow their American lieutenants with adoration (Hurley 1938, 298-99 Elarth 1949, 14-15).Nationalist ResponseIn the early years of American rule, Filipino nationalists rejected this emasculating colonial rhetoric and made the training of native officers a central plank in their campaign for independence. By demanding officer training, the all-male nationalist movement challenged colonial assumptions that native men were, by racial character, unsuited for command. In the political rhetoric of the day, mili tary drill would advance the nationalist cause by training officers for a future army and hardening the fiber of the countrys youth. To assert their manhood, nationalist leaders seized upon any pretext for military drill, even service under the colonial flag. Only a few years after the Philippine-American War, certain colonials and nationalists began to cooperate in building a Filipino officer corps. In 1907, the fledgling Constabulary School at manila gradational its first Filipino officers from a short, three-month training course and then moved to permanent quarters in the mountain city ofBaguio for a more mingy six-month curriculum.A year later, the U.S. Congress authorized the admission of Filipinos to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. In 1914, the h s t Filipino cadet, Vicente P. Lim, graduated with an academic rank of seventy-seven among 107 cadets-an event of suchsignificance that the Philippine Resident Commissioner, Manuel Quezon, made a special trip from upper- case letter, DC.6 When America entered World War I, the Philippine Legislature voted consumingly to raise a Philippine National Guard division and Senate President Quezon crossed the Pacific to lobby personally for Washingtons authorization. Even the War segments determined effort to block its mobilization until 11 November 1918, the very last day of war, could not intermit the Filipino enthusiasm for military service. Over 28,000 men volunteered.With bands playing and banners flying, the Philippine National Guard drilled for three months until it was disbanded in February 1919 (Woolard 1975, 170-84, 196). During the 1920s, the American colonial regime, in fundamental change of policy, began training Filipinos for command. After taking office as governor-general in 1921, General Leonard Wood, a career officer, mobilized the resources of the US Army to open officer training programs (Hayden 1955, 734-35). To train a first generation of Filipino officers, the US Army loaned instruc tors, rifles, and bayonets to the newly-formed military science departments at Manilas colleges and universities. Along with the weapons, these programs also borrowed an American model of the military male. Though the program spread to many schools, the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) at the University of the Philippines (UP) remained, for over a decade, the largest and most influential.UP Cadet CorpsDrill began at UP in 1922 when its Regents funded a Department of Military Science and Tactics, retained an active-duty U.S. Army captain as its chairman, and authorized an armory. Five years later, UP President Rafael Palma, a prominent nationalist, praised the Department for establishing the nucleus of a future national military organization (Panis 1925, 14-15 Palma 1924 Peiia 1953, 1-2). As Palma predicted, the ROTC program grew rapidly, adding field artillery in 1929 and machine guns six years later. After passage of the National Defense Act in 1935, the university acquired an other 2,000 capital of Illinois rifles and doubled its cadet corps to 3,304 trainee officers by 1938.Beyond drill and marksmanship, the program indoctrinated its cadets into nationalism. We need to make . . . our youth . . . so proud of their race and their democracy that they will die fighting for it, President Quezon told the UP cadets in 1937. We have all been trained, wrote the Corps cadet colonel a year later, with patriotism ever so guardedly engraved in our hearts by our military instructors, we are proud to say, as they would have us say, w e are ready.07 Other Manila universities followed these leads. While the habituallyfunded UP had the largest cadet program, the elite, Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila was proud home to the countrys top drill corps. The 1923 Manila Carnival featured a drill competition by cadets from San Beda, the National University, and, of course, Ateneo and the UP. Along with basketball and baseball, close-order drill contests would remain a high point o f inter-collegiate competition until the war.These promenades, featuring what one UP cadet called thousands of powerful young bloodsrifles on their shoulders, gallantly marching to the time of their music, drew large crowds and sparked school p i r i t . By the early 1930s, a decade of reserve-officer training had encouraged an ideal of military masculinity among cadets at Manilas universities. At the UP, trainee officers articulated an ideology that equated masculine qualification with national defense. A nation stands or falls, succeeds or fails, just in proportion to the . . . manliness of each succeeding generation, wrote a cadet in the 1931 annual (Viardo 1931, 381). Cadet sergeant Fred Ruiz Castro, a future Supreme Court chief justice, explained that military training helps engender the proper citizenshipu-notably romanceesy to all especially to the old and to the weaker sex.In the 1935 UP yearbook, Castro and his comrade Macario Peralta, Jr., a future defense secretary , co-authored an essay arguing that drill molded the masculine virtues necessary to build the nation From the Corps, graduate men steeped in patriotism . . . men who know their duties both to country and to God . . . men who are sound thinkers, strong hearted These are the men the country needs to cope with new problems (Castro and Peralta, Jr. 1935, 345). Reinforcing this gender dimorphism, UPS all-male cadet companies debar women from drill but recruited them as sponsors to appear in white-tie, frilly gowns at full-dress parades. Illustrative of this imbalance, in thelate 1920s one of these sponsors gave the Corps a colorful oration titled The Woman Behind the Man Behind the Gun (Castro 1932 355 Quirino 1930, 427). By 1936, the UP cadets had expanded their Corps of Sponsors toforty coeds such as Miss Eva Estrada, the muse of the Second Artillery Battalion and a future senator. On National Heroes Day, the UP cadets gunpoint a mock battle in the citys main park, the Luneta.Plan es sweep down from the clouds to drop off their deadly bombs, wrote the college yearbook, men shoot, advance, fall . . . beneath the smoke the unseen drama of war with its horrors and victories. As male cadets littered Lunetas smoking battlefield, the Nurses Corps recruited from the ranks of the Sponsors rush to the field to give aid to the wounded and the dying. Among these all-male cadets, appeal to women, the defining opposite within this dimorphism, was deemed an essential attribute of future military leadership. The girls go for him in a big way (very big way), said the 1937 UP yearbook of cadet Major Ferdinand Marcos, so much so that most of the time he has to set up up the sign Standing Room Only. Claims his heart is impregnable to feminine allure, and insists on calling guys who fall in love inebriated weaklings.Marcos himself internalized this gendered duality to write, after the war, of sacrificing his manhood to stage a feminized nation he calls Filipinas. We cursed ou rselves . . . for having given up our arms and with them our manhood. . ., Marcos wrote of their wartime surrender to Japan on Bataan. Filipinas had welcomed us in pain of the disgrace of our defeat in Bataan. But it seemed that although she had smiled at us through her tears, she would not bind up our wound. Harsh male initiation also became part of officer training at UP. Cadet Sergeant Macario Peralta, Jr., the future defense secretary, noted in the 1932 yearbook that the Corps had faced difficulties in breaking in the new cadets, but made sure that troublesome plebes receive sundry other polite attentions (Peralta 1932, 358). Peraltas yearbook biography, published two years later when he was cadet colonel, revealed the meaning of this euphemism. One year after the Colonel sprouted in the University campus, he commenced hazing the plebes and beasts with unrelenting inhumanity. He isstill at it (Philippinensian1934, 396).Commonwealth ArmyIn 1935, national defense suddenly became the most critical issue facing the Fhpino people. In Washgton, President Franklin Roosevelt approved the creation of the Philippine Commonwealth as an autonomous, transitional government with a ten-year timetable to full inde-pendence. Under the National Defense Act, President Quezon made mobilization his top priority and committed a quarter of the budget to building a national army that would, by independence in 1945, have 10,000 regular soldiers backed by reserves of 400,000. In April 1936, some 150,000 Filipino men registered for the countrys first draft and, nine months later, 40,000 reported for training. Within three years, over a million schoolboys were marching.I0 From its butt in 1935, the Commonwealth, through military mobilization, intensified this process of gender reconstruction-encouraging a reinforcing array of national symbols, militarized masculinity, and domestic roles.With only a decade to prepare for independence and the burden of defense, the Commonwealth trie d to fashion a masculinity that would sustain mass conscription. As it mobilized in the 1930s, the Philippines imported a Euro-American form of manhood along with the howitzer and the pursuit plane. To build popular support for a citizens army, the neophyte Philippine state deployed a gendered propaganda with men strong, women weak men the defenders, women the defended. retributive as the new nation was personified as the feminine Filipinas in currency and propaganda, so young men were conscripted to defend her and her defenseless womankind.The government, in this transition to independence, slullfully manipulated public rituals and symbols to make a polarized gender dimorphism central to a new national self-image. We do not have to read against the grain to tease gender out of the Philippine Army, as if from some recondite cultural text. The key actors+ezon, Army Headquarters, and the cadets themselves-were quite self-conscious in their use of such imagery. The impact of militariz ation upon gender roles was most evident at the Manila Carnival-a grand, pre-war festival celebrating the fecundity of the land and the glories of itspeople. Like other pre-Lenten festivals across the Hispanic world, Carnival was a mix of the sound and frivolous, of rejoicing and reflection. Located at the heart of Manila, the sprawling Carnival enclosure held elaborate displays of provincial products such as rope or coconut. The two-week whirl of spectacle, society, and sport culminated in the efflorescenceing of the queen and her court at an elaborate formal ball. With the Philippines on parade, elite actors gained a stage to project images of nation and society before a mass audience. Before conscription, the queens coronation had been a lavish, highsociety affair-with eligible bachelors as escorts, whimsical Roman orEgyptian themes, and matching costumes for court and consorts. Since the citys elites selected the carnival queen by jury or press ballots, winners were women of wealth, prestige, and intellect. At the 1922 Carnival, for example, Queen Virginia Llamas was escorted by her future husband Carlos P. Romulo, later president of the UN General Assembly.The queens consort at the 1923 Carnival was Eugenio Lopez, later the countys most powerful entrepreneur, just as 1931 queen was Maria Kalaw, the future Philippine senator and UN delegate (Nuyda 1980, 1920, 1922,1931). With the launching of the Commonwealths army only months away, the 1935 Carnival saw revelry and whimsy giving way to military symbolism and a serious debate about gender roles. To accornmodate its greatly expanded display, the US Army occupied an entire section of the Manila Carnival ground for 400 linear feet of military exhibits and a replica of a World War I trench warfare complex (Tribune, 3,9 February 1935).The cadets of Manilas universities were recognise with a large military parade, treated to guided tours of the military exhibit, and featured as the queens escorts. In this m artial spirit, gender was on the march. At her coronation ceremony, the Constabulary band played a march while Queen Conchita I-walked between two files of University of the Philippines cadets with drawn sabers to a throne where the US governor General placed a crown of diamonds on her head and the admiring throng applauds (Tribune, 16, 21, 22 February 1935). On their night in this Carnival Auditorium, Far Eastern University students staged aspectacular revue called Daughters of Bathala, with males forming an outer, protective circle while women in gowns whirled about in a grand finale . . . symbolizing the types of modern Filipino women from the suffragettes and debutantes to the thrill-girls of the cabarets and the boulevards (Tribune, 3 March 1945).Instead of the usual frivolous rhetoric about feminine beauty, the 1935 Carnival launched a national debate on womens rights. harangue before the convention of the Federation of Womens Clubs, Senate President Quezon announced that th e Constitutional Convention had just approved compulsory military service. He urged the nations women to assume the duty to mould the character of . . . youth that we may build up here a citizenry of virile manhood capable of shouldering the burdens of our future independent existence. And how was such a radical social reconstruction to be accomplished? Men would be called away for training in patriotism, but women,Quezon said, should hindrance home to bring up upstanding, courageous and patriotic youngsters. Instead of being lulled by the sentimental glow of his oratory, the Federations president, Mrs. Pilar H. Lim, the wife of General Vicente Lim (USMA 14), confronted Quezon, demanding that he redress the injustice done . . . through the failure of the constitutional convention to insert a provision . . . granting the women . . . the right to vote.Quezon assured Mrs. Lim that he has forever been in favor of granting this right to women. Indeed, two years later, under his preside ncy and through Mrs. Lims leadership, a plebiscite on womens suffrage passed by an overwhelming margin. Over the next three years as mobilization intensified, each carnival accentuated the military symbolism and its supporting gender dimorphism. When President Quezon opened the sublime gateway to the 1936 Carnival city, a full battalion of Philippine Army troops formed an honor guard while he severed the ribbons with a specially-made native sword.In its Carnival coverage, the Sunday Tribune Magazine juxtaposed photo-essays of the military review (the steel helmets of the U.P. cadets glaring in the afternoon sun) and the 1936 Fashion follow-up (models resplendent in shining silver and satin.) For their night at the Carnival, the UP studentspresented a richly engendered historical pageant, written by Dr. Carlos P. Romulo, featuring a cast of one thousand students (including seven hundred girls) and starring a woman student as Filipinas, the feminized symbol of the nation (Tribune, 1 5 February, 1 March 1936).Theme After the establishment of the Republic, the nation will meet with difficulties and dangers, but it will overcome them all and thereby become stronger . . . Book of Time Revealed. Spirit of History ascends the stage from stage right and writes Commonwealth. 111. Trumpets. Filipinas enters from stage left followed by people, including agencies, soldiers, dancers . . . IV. Spirit of Prophecy ascends from stage left . . . and . . . writes Republic. V. People cheer, bells ring, salute of guns . . . VIII. Invasion-all to arms. Battle. XI. Mourning dance. Filipina rises from the center of the floor, flag over her. National hymn is sung by all. I. 11.Despite such military inroads, the coronation of Queen Mercedes I featured the usual fantasy numbers such as Parisian Lace and the exotic South Sea Wastes. Her escorts were still society bachelors in white-tie and tails. A year later, the military symbolism was triumphant. At the 1937 Carnival, the queens escort s were now uniformed ROTC cadets. The queen now became Miss Philippines and her coronation, as its libretto indicates, was a martial drama of male soldiers rising to her defense as the engendered symbol of the nation.Scene I Triumphal entrance of the Army of Miss Philippines, sovereign of our cultural and economic progress, composed of officers and soldiers who will stage a military exhibition. Scene I1 Entrance of the wash up and Bugle Corps which will go through some military evolutions. Scene 1 1 1 The Drum and Bugle Corps will announce the arrival of Miss Philippines and her Court of Honor . . . Miss Philippines will be preceded by a group of pages carrying the crown and other presents, and another group of pages carrying her train . . . Scene IV The Drum and Bugle Corps announces that all is ready for the coronation of Miss Philippines. Scene V Ceremonies of the coronation of MissPhilippines, placing of the crown by His Honor, The Mayor of Manila . . . Scene VI Gun salute to M iss Philippines by her Army. Entrance of Foreign Envoys-Royal offering, etc. Scene VII Military evolutions by the Army of Miss Philippines and the Drum and Bugle Corps.Beyond the ballroom, the Carnivals sporting contests and the ROTC drill competitions proliferated in celebration of a physical, martial masculinity. Before a crowd of 40,000, for example, the Schools Parade featured girls in gowns riding on flower-covered floats while high school boys stepped past in uniforms and snappy marching that thrilled the watching t h o s a n d s . By the 1938 Carnival, the military parade had been transformed from a procession of students in their toy-soldier uniforms into an awesome spectacle of military might. With thousands of spectators packed along the boulevards, armed columns of Philippine Army, Philippine Scouts, and college cadets tramped past the Legislative Building as tight formations of bombers and pursuit planes roared overhead (Tribune, 15, 16 February 1938). After its esta blishment in 1936, the Philippine Army deployed a similar dualism to build support for conscription among a people without a tradition of military service. As the date for draft registration approached, the Commonwealth plastered public spaces with recruiting posters.One depicted a noble Filipina, neckline cut low and bare arms outstretched for the embrace, calling on Young Men to Heed Your Countrys Call Another asked, Which Would You alternatively Be . . . this or that?-and then showed a snappy soldier smiling at two admiring women while a civilian male skulks in the rear, hands in pockets-a universal sipifier.I4 Then, at 830 A.M. on 15 May 1936, each provincial governor supervised an elaborate ritual to select the first conscripts for basic training. Before the public, the governor, flanked by military guards, placed the registration cards for all twenty-year old men in two large jars. 2 young ladies, not over ogdoadeen years of age, shall . . . make the drawing, read the Phil ippine Army regulations. These young ladies shall be blind-folded and shall weardresses with short sleeves-not reaching beyond elbow (Commonwealth, Bulletin No. 17 Meixsel 1993, 301).So strong was the appeal of military training that four of the countrys leading legislators, including presidential wishful Manuel Roxas, volunteered for the first Reserve Officers Service School (ROSS) in mid-1936. In this commencement address to this distinguish in September, President Quezon explained that officers were to serve as the nations models for patriotism and new, virile form of citizenry (The Bayonet 1936, 94, 98). The good officer. . . , wherever he is, . . . spreads the doctrine of loyalty, of respect for law and order, of patriotism, of self-discipline and education, and of national preparation to defend our country. . . . Our whole nation will become more firmly solidified, more virile, more unselfishly devoted to promotion of the general welfare, as our officer corps grows in qualit y and strength, and the results of its efforts permeate to the remotest hamlet of our country.Philippine Military AcademyForming such an officer corps was the most difficult part of this mobilization. As Quezon put it, the heart of an army is its officers. Along with buying rifles and building camps, the creation of this army required, as the president was well aware, the construction of officers as exemplars for a new image of the Filipino as warrior. To form such leaders, the Defense Act provided for the establishment of a Philippine Military Academy at Baguio for the education of career officers. This academy was, in the words of the Commonwealths vice-president, the foundation stone of the entire military establishment, providing the leadership necessary to knit together a scattered and mostly connected citizen army into one whole, living, pulsating, homogenous machine that can fight with courage (Scribe 50 Osmefia 7-8, 10).In establishing his new academy, Quezon, through his military advisers Douglas MacArthur and Dwight Eisenhower, chose the US Military Academy at West Point as its model. Transporting the West Point system, with all of its peculiarities, from the bluffs of the Hudson to the mountains of Baguio entailed cultural adaptation. From the perspective of the PMA staff, the new academy would socialize the cadets through its formalcurriculum and a four-year progression from neophyte to command. To succeed, however, these formal processes rested upon rituals and symbols that would make the academys abstractions meaningful to teen-aged Filipinos. Drawing upon the countrys culture of masculinity, cadets used rituals of male initiation and group solidarity to reinforce the PMAs institutional imperatives.Through a fusion of the West Point curriculum, faithfully reproduced by the PMAs staff, and loose innovations by these Filipino cadets, an American academy became a viable model for a Philippine institution (Love11 1955, 316-21 Wamsley 1972, 399-41 7). To ensure that its cadets would be archetypes of masculine beauty, the academy barred applicants with any deformity which is repulsive or any who suffered from extreme ugliness. Medical examiners had to insure, moreover, that an applicants face was free from any lack of symmetrical development or unsightly deformities such as large birthmarks, large hairy moles, . . . mutilations due to injuries or surgical operation (Commonwealth of the Philippines 1937). To mould these exemplary males, the PMA became a sum up institution that would, like West Point, leave a lasting impress upon everygraduate (Janowitz 138 Goffman 1961).The PMAs 1938 yearbook thus described the Tactical Department and its drill instructors as a veritable forging shop in which the raw and crude materials are . . . purified of their undesirable qualities. In their song P.M.A. Forever, cadets celebrated their academys capacity to make men (Sword 1938, 46-48, 104). Within the walls of old and glorious P.M.A. The yre molded to the real men that they should beMen who can face the bitter realities of life With courage even in the midst of bloody strife. As centerpiece in the nations gender reconstruction, the PMA indoctrinated its Filipino cadets into a Euro-American ideal of military manhood. With its alien curriculum, the PMA, more than any Philippine institution of its era, aspired to a cultural transformation, a remalung of its cadets on a European model of mascuhity. The academy made its imprint through a program of moral formation through body movement, incessant supervision, and formal indoctrination.In its own words, the PMA taught soldierly movements to inculcate prompt obedience indaily marching knowledge of ballroom ethics with weekly waltz lessons and self-reliance, poise, initiative, judgment, enthusiasm, and discipline in gymnastics (Commonwealth 1938,1619). Filipino cadets reshaped imported values through their own culture of masculinity, malung hazing the PMAs central rite of p assage-from civilian to soldier, from plebe to cadet. Entering plebes arrived at the academy from communities with their own rituals of male initiation and expectations for manhood (Rosaldo 1980, 35-37). In many lowland villages of the 1930s, adolescent males passed through an initiation, such as circumcision, and had elaborate codes for masculine friendship epitomized in peer groups called barkada.In the villages of Central Luzon, for example, Tagalog males who joined moving in unions during this decade were tested in an elaborate midnight ritual that branded each on the upper arm with a poker plucked white-hot from a raging bonfire (Fegan 1995 See also Blanc-Szanton 1990, 350). Growing up in such poor communities, many future members of PMAs Class of 1940, the first products of this new school, were familiar with these masculine rites of testing and bonding. One classmate, Francisco del Castillo, recalled in his autobiography for the classs 50th reunion grand Book, that he often missed class in high school to join youth who did nothing but form gangs to fight other gangs for su-premacy in the municipality of Vigan.In a later interview, he added that his reputation as a local champion in ritualized knife fights, attacking with the right hand and defending with a towel wrapped tightly about the left, made him the leader of the towns west-side gang. Asked if his gang practiced any sort of initiation, del Castillo replied that you let him do a certain errand and see how undaunted he is (Mendoza 1986, 178 del Castillo 1995). For PMA cadets, hazing and the broader experience of plebe initiation served as a transformative traumacoloring the subsequent academy experience for individuals and uniting a new class through shared suffering. During their first months, plebes were subjected to an unbroken regimen of running, recitations, and drill under nameless, powerful upperclassmen.Arriving during summer recess when the main activity was their initiation,incoming pl ebes faced the harsh, unshakable attentions of the second-year cadets, or yearlings-still aching from their own humiliations that had ended only weeks before. After the initial beast barracks, the hazing subsided into a constant, low-level harassment that continued for another eight months until the upperclass recognized them as full members of the Corps. Surviving this abuse left cadets with a strong sense of personal pride and class identity. Writing in the Golden Book, Class 40s Cesar Montemayor recalled their plebe year as a one-year initiation period full of rites, rules and requirements that instilled desirable manly and military qualities (Batch 36 Golden Book, 110-11). In showing how the Commonwealth constructed a new masculinity at the PMA, we cannot ignore the impact that this mobilization and its propaganda had upon the whole order of gender roles in an emerging nation (Morgan 1994, 169-70).Despite its isolation in the mountains of Baguio, the PMAs training of these youn g males had lasting implications for the whole of Philippine society. The school served, in effect, as a social laboratory, a crucible for casting a new form of Filipino masculinity. Through hazing, study, and drill, the academy pounded young males into a foreign mold of military manhood. By parading before the masses in Manila and acting in Tagalog films, these prewar PMA cadets projected this image of masculinity into an emerging national consciousness. Only a year after the PMA opened, a Manila film crew shot a two-reel documentary, titled The West Point of the Philippines, which, the cadet yearbook reported, was now being featured at the Ideal Theatre and was taking Manila by storm.

The Analysis of the Main Character †the Grandmother in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” Essay

In the story A Good Man Is Hard to Find written by Flannery OConnor, the grandma is the central char win believeer who grows and changes with the story develops, she is a round and dynamic character. At depression, she seems to be an unpleasant, contemptible and self-centered old maam who is skeptical ab divulge her religion. But in the end, when her head cleared for an instant, the grandmother becomes a real believer of God. And she is heading straight to heaven for her final Christ- exchangeable act of love the moment before she dies. T put on is, she moves from unearthly blindness to grace. And that is the method that the author uses to relate her to the theme of the story.Grandmother before the moment of graceFirst of all, she is selfish and unpleasant. When her family prepares to go on va quation in Florida, she persuades them to go to east Tennessee, where she has relatives. Unable to convince them, she uses the news that a psychopathic killer who calls himself The Misfi t is heading toward Florida as an plea to change her son Baileys mind. The grandmother is so self-centered that she just imposes her wish on those people around her. Also, her vanity and old belief make her an unpleasant character. She always claims to be a lady and thinks much of wealth and social status. When they set out to Florida, she dresses in her best clothes and an ostentatious hat lest no one can recognize her as a refined lady if she dies in an accident along the road. The grandmother had on a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy blue dress with a nonaged white dot in the print. Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple s pray of cloth violets containing a sachet.From her perspective of identity, I can see that she defines people externally, by clothing. And she tells her grandchildren, John Wesley and June Star, that she would substantiate done well to marry Mr. Tea garden because he was a gentle man and had bought Coca-Cola stock when it first came out and that he had died only a few years ago, a very wealthy man. At this point, the grandmother appears to be the woman of old entropy who holds the outdated idea of hierarchy. She thinks only a gentleman who is rich can march with a lady, which is a stereotypically southern aristocratic prejudice. Whats more, she is a anti-Semite(a) and opinionated. Oh, look at thecute little pickaninny she said Wouldnt he make a picture now? He didnt have any britches on, June Star said. He probably didnt have any, the grandmother explained. Little niggers in the country dont have things like we do. Her warmth for the South and the days of slavery are still influencing her.According to her understanding, black people, especially kids are supposed to be poor. They belong to the lower class of the hostel so that they are inferior to her, who is a lady from the upper class. She considers herself morally superio r to others by the virtue of her being a lady, and she freely and a great deal makes judgment on others. At lunchtime, they stop at Red Sammys, a barbecue eatery, where the grandmother laments that people are certainly not nice like they used to be. During the conversation with Red Sammy, the grandmother, narrow-minded and opinionated, repeatedly assures herself that she is a lady, a near Christian, and a good judge of character. She maintains that Red Sammy, a despotic loudmouth, is a good man and that Europe was entirely to blame for the way things were now. The part that grandmother is selfish, vain, autocratic and judgmental only makes her unpleasant for me, but when she gets her family hurt, she turns out to be contemptible.After they leave the roadhouse, her obstinacy about going to Tennessee blinds her sense of direction, she manipulates her son into making a detour to see an old plantation she formerly visited as a girl. First, she arouses the kids interest to look a h ouse with secret panel, and then she depicts the tour to the plantation would be very educational for them. She is well certain that any father would not reject something labeled educational, so she manipulates them to get what she wants. And this leads them to a very dangerous tour, which they have an accident later because the cat Pitty Sing she selfishly sneaks out leaps onto Bailey and he loses control of the car on the dirt road. In such awful situation, all that she cares about is to avoid the responsibility, so she pretends to be injured. Although she is an old lady, this behavior is really out of line. No one should put their family at risk and find themselves an excuse to escape from the responsibility. Her selfishness is more transparent when the whole family are confronting with the Misfit, a serial killer. Technically, it is the grandmother recognizing the identity of the Misfit that gets all her family killed. However, she never beg the Misfit to spare her family, she just pleads for her own life.In herconversation with the Misfit, she tells him, If you would prayJesus would athletic supporter you. She calls on Jesus a number of times, but I am not sure if she means Jesus will help you or she might be cursing as she begs the Misfit not to shoot a lady. Plus, for one moment just before she dies, the old lady doubts Jesus, or at least feels abandoned Maybe he didnt raise the dead. It is an understandable reaction, after the colossal shock she has undergone she knows that her family has been massacred. Here, her faith has been tested here. Therefore, I can only assume that the grandmother is a superficial Christian who scepticizes her belief sometimes.Grandmothers changeHowever, in the end, when her head cleared for an instant, the grandmother has a moment of insight. The moment she reaches out to the Misfit and declares Youre one of my own children, she reveals and offers to the Misfit her compassionate love, she experiences what OConnor refers t o as her moment of grace, a time when she recognizes that she shares some peculiarity with the Misfit despite their obvious differences. She knows she is far from a good person, she is flawed just as the Misfit. She abandons the moral high ground she had held and accepts the common humanity. Here is her religious epiphany. By embracing the moment of grace, she turns into a devout Christian, she believing in Jesus and is ready to thow away everything and follow Him.The crosstie between the grandmother and the themeThe link between the grandmother and the theme lies in the moment she embraces the moment of grace. The grandmother travels from the recognition only of her own selfish desires to self-recognition of herself in other through woe. That is, she moves from spiritual blindness to grace. OConnor suggests that the grandmother has received grace since Jesus thrown everything off balance by dying on a cross Himself. Thus, suffering is an essential part of receiving grace, and wi th the help of the Misfit, the grandmother has made this journey of suffering, a journey from spiritual blindness and selfishness to suffering, and finally grace. This passage witnesses the change of a selfish, arrogant old woman. Even though she has all these weaknesses at the beginning, she becomes the good man when she embracing the moment of grace. Violence and suffering are the necessaryingredients to help her change. In fact, both the experience of the grandmother reveals that good is hard to find.References1 A Good Man Is Hard to Find (short story), from Wikipedia2 SparkNotes A good man is hard to find, Analysis of Major Characters 3 -A good man is hard to find 4 PPT A good man is hard to find

Challenges of the Fire Department.

Todays squeeze out service faces threefold ch altogetherenges, one of the biggest challenges that threatened our existence is the decrease of public brook. Since the decline in our economy, many politicians have made firefighters their enemy and attacked the fire service. Recently, fire department wages have been blamed for our municipalitys noble fiscal condition. A majority of the public has taken note of these attacks and has taken the side of the politicians. Through our actions, we must work hard to regain the publics respect and trust. Without the publics support the fire department would not exist.Throughout our nations history the fire service has been held in high esteem and very well respected. It has taken generations to establish this reputation and straightway it is now up to us to carry and build upon this foundation. The majority of firefighters do a great job on and off duty but it is the unworthy judgment of a few individuals that discredit and tarnish our org anizations reputation. Just in the last few years, there have been numerous charges against firefighters that allow in murder, DUI, soliciting prostitution and grand larceny.All these charges are from within the Las Vegas Valley and do not mention the charges faced by our brothers and sisters across the nation. These charges coupled with political attacks have resulted in eroding the relationship between the fire service and the general public. It is up to our generation of firefighters to win over our citizens and regain their trust. We must do this by perform our duties with the outmost professionalism and customer care in mind. It all begins with our appearance. Whether we recognize it or not, we are judged not only by our actions but also by our appearance.Our uniforms and contract must reflect the professionalism that is expected from the fire department. Our equipment must also be well maintained and organized. We must show pride and take care of the equipment given(p) t o us by the public. During emergency calls we must show compassion and understanding even if by our definition the call does not warrant an emergency response. We are in the business of serving the public and we must show our citizens that we are here for them and are willing to respond and mitigate their emergency irrespective of the time of day.Once an emergency is mitigated, it should be our goal to have our citizens completely satisfied and be astonished to level of care provided by their neighborhood fire department. We should not leave the scene until our customers needs have been completely met. I understand and have responded to calls where people are less than friendly, but we must also treat these customers with the same level of professionalism and respect. Our profession places us under the scrutiny of the publics eye and we must not forget about the multiple spectators that are always on scene.With the popularity of cell phones and cameras our every word and actions cou ld easily be recorded and posted on social network sites. We have all benefitted by the hard work and dedication of previous firefighters. We cannot take their effort for granted and we must work hard to rebuild our public image. We must guard and hold ourselves to a higher standard. Our conduct on and off duty must reflect that of a professional if we want our legacy to continue and be passed forward.

Emancipation Proclamation- Lincoln’s End of Slavery in America

Abraham capital of Nebraskas license Proclamation is still, to date, one of the to the superiorest degree debated, basal acts of the any of the Presidents of the United States. Through this account Lincoln took responsibility upon himself for the freedom of four million slaves without the divided country he presided over and invariably changed the scene of what could be a very different American culture than that of which we live in presently today. After reading Lincolns liberty Proclamation The End of Slavery in America, written by Allen C. Guelzo, I am fully convinced that Lincolns accomplishment through that catalogue is very under credited non scarce by African Americans today, but also by their etiolated counterparts in regards to the lasting impact it reserve for the future of the races in this country. Allen C. Guezlo opens his book on the defensive for Abraham Lincoln. Guezlo explains that when the topic of Lincolns independence Proclamation comes to mind, basic ally, any you appreciate it at face regard as for what it accomplished and stands for, or you are a skeptic.Today more(prenominal) than ever, the Proclamations skeptics focus on what the document did not accomplish rather than what it did. In his book, Guezlo works at answering the four main questions that critics will raise regarding the Proclamation. Why is the language of the Proclamation so bland and Legalistic? Did the Proclamation actually do anything? Did the slaves free themselves? Did Lincoln eff the Proclamation to ward off European check or boost Union less(prenominal)one?In defense of Lincoln, Guezlo takes us through a detailed chronology of the events leading up to the weighted decision do by Lincoln in September 1862, including incredible evidence in the form of documented conversations and eye witness accounts. Abraham Lincoln was a product of the end of the Enlightenment Era, an era that emphasized the age of terra firma and logic. Being a fair playyer by pr ofession, Lincoln exhibited an incredible display of prudence in making his decisions and showed an exceptional respect for the law. When considering the term prudence, Guezlo makes it a point to come across the word in the fashion of hat it would beat meant to the classical philosophers that Lincoln came to admire. In this sense, prudence isnt defined as what it is known as today. By todays definition, a person who is prude is image to display exaggerated caution, hesitation, lack of will, and fearfulness. According to Guezlo, the prudence that Lincoln displayed while in postal service would be better compared to the virtues of the classical philosophers who influenced the Enlightenment period which attributed prudence to shrewdness and sound judgment.Considering all the different obstacles that were thrown at Lincoln during his presidency, he required to ensure that his actions were deliberate and would achieve a immense term lasting effect as he was very cautious and untru sting when considering the judiciary weapon of the government. Lincoln understood that any decision he made would be quick shewed a get inst the powers afforded to him by the constitution sooner or later.He did not want to take any chances in going well-nigh the liberty process loosely, especially considering the amount of opponents he was going to face regarding the topic of emancipation both in the North and the South. Of the many elans to go about the emancipation process, Lincolns preference was that which consisted of three main features, gradualism, compensation, and the vote of the concourse. He rebuked ideas of using either the Confiscation Acts and Benjamin Butlers contraband theory as well as the idea of martial law in order to achieve long term emancipation.As far as the contraband theory was concerned, at best Lincoln new that it would make slaves wards of the government until the end of the war. After agree was reached, the fate of these men was out of his hands and into the hands of the ruling courts which would likely allow them to be reclaimed by their masters. Before issuing his own annunciation, Lincoln actually reversed two renders at marital law proclamations attempted by both John Charles Freemont and David Hunter.Lincoln did not reverse these attempts so much because he was not for the emancipation process, but because in his legalistic mind, he knew that these courses of action would not stand the judicial test in regards to the limitations of the constitution. First of all, the use of the war powers in question would only be reserved for use by the commander-in-chief, namely himself secondly there was no specifications provided within the constitution itself on the use of these war powers if hey did in fact exist. Lincoln was firm in his desire to convince the border states to accept his oblation of compensated emancipation and aside from being denied time and again, he would continue to be convinced that given sufficient time and patience at the matter, that politicians in those states would see that the course of events leading to emancipation as undeniable and take the bait which he hoped would set off a chain reaction allowing an other(a)(prenominal) states to follow suit shortly there after.Though this plan at long last proved unworkable, it was not because of an unperceivable plan Lincoln was not entirely ready for the time restraints that unforeseen obstacles would pose in his attempt at being gradual. Between the defiant and incompetent military generals and the urging of different opinions in Washington, eventually his final course of action would be to take a gamble at using the war powers he was still uncertain and uneasy about and hope that with careful consideration, his document would not be challenged but gain support.Noting Lincolns wariness pertaining to the legality of his actions according to the constitution would lead us to the answer of the first of Guezlos four questions. Why w as the language of the proclamation so bland and legalistic? In contrast to the conclusions of many critics that Lincoln had no feelings of moral obligation or sympathy towards the slaves, Lincoln was greatly afflicted by the issue at hand.After understanding the caution which Lincoln was trained to sustain with as an attorney and even more so as the President of the United States, Lincoln had to ensure that every syllable, every phrase was written so that it could not be scrutinized within the federal court system. His document held the fate of the lives of millions of people within its wording and he did not want to restrain to be faced with the possibility that it would be retracted or revoked. Many also believe that the wording of the Emancipation Proclamation is so bland because Lincoln comprise it grudgingly as a last resort.Guezlo points out that during Lincolns political career his presidency was not the first time that Lincoln had want for emancipation. In his term in C ongress as an Illinois Representative he made similar attempts at compensated emancipation for slaves in the District of Columbia. Although these attempts neer made it to the House, it is notable to recognize that his feelings towards emancipation stem back farther than having to make a pressured decision as Commander in Chief of a nation in rebellion.He was recorded as having been completely transparent in his belief that If slaveholding is not wrong, then zero point is wrong. Upon disclosing his decision to issue the proclamation to his cabinet it is also important to realize that Lincoln did not address his colleagues for advice whether or not to issue the proclamation as his mind was already made up, but rather to hear the views of his associates and receive and suggestions. As defeated as he may pass water felt over not having had enough time to follow through with the compensation route, it is unarguable that Lincoln did not turn over a deep doctrine about what had to be accomplished onward he left office.In intimate conversations with close colleagues he would comment on his conviction that this decision had been of Divine assistance and that he had sometime thought that perhaps he might be an instrument in Gods had of accomplishing a great work. In fact he openly show his agenda were there to be any concerns regarding the standing of his proclamation. Lincoln remarked that if there was to be a retraction or nullifying of the right of freedom to emancipated slaves through the courts that it would not occur with him in office. The second question raised by critics that Guezlo seeks to shed some light on is whether or not the Emancipation Proclamation actually did anything.To answer this question, Guezlo moves to highlight the fact that although the Emancipation Proclamation had little immediate impact, it embraced the idea for the first time that there was a long term and permanent solution to the institution of slavery. Not only did it ring the bells of freedom for the slaves, but it also gave the Union an even more dignified reason to continue on with the war. Although the feeling was not unanimous amongst even some of the abolitionists of the day, the expected mutiny that was expected to result from those in the armed forces in cite of the proclamation was not as severe as couldve been predicted.As soon as more and more whites were exposed to former slaves they began to realize that this label of low quality in both the mental and physical capacity was not as accurate as they had been led to believe. One Maine soldier admitted to his sister in a letter that, instead of thinking less of a Negro, I have sadly learned to think better of them than many white men that hold responsible positions. Among the newly freed black slaves came finally the feeling of attaining manhood through emancipation.With this feeling of manhood came the rallying of blacks willing and able to join the war trial as made eligible by the proclama tion. The proclamations provision allowing blacks to enlist into the armed forces further secured the position of freedom in the eyes of the white man in the long term. For how could we stand to see the Negro re-enslaved after demonstrating his allegiance to our Union with his blood? asked one Union commander.In fact, not only was granting the slaves their freedom a major issue upon observing their willingness to loyally serve the military, but also the right of suffrage although the move for social equality wouldnt be addressed nearly as soon, the move to localize more political power in the hands of the former slaves was introduced. Lincolns document would secure the way for future legislation which eventually would result in the complete abolition of slavery with the thirteenth amendment to the constitution.The proclamation also managed to avoid the agglomerate deportation of freed blacks to Africa or South America as some abolitionists were in favor of. In addition to the eff ects nationally, the Emancipation Proclamation also helped gain a favorable opinion abroad throughout Europe for the United States transforming the civil conflict into a war against slavery ensuring that the Union would have nothing to fear from possible European recognition of the Confederacy. Did the slaves free themselves? Guezlo makes an important point when answering this question and the answer tends to be a bit more unexpected.Although the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863, it is surprising to understand that although the rejoicing of slaves upon receiving the news of emancipation was universal, more slaves than less remained put where they were waiting patiently for the Union soldiers to declare them free rather than run off to claim their freedom. But why stay put? According to his book, Guezlo remarks that even Abraham Lincoln himself was disappointed that more slaves had not taken it upon themselves to reach over to the other side of Union line s. Especially since he understood that with the upcoming perceived threat to his presidency from McClellan the only way he could ensure their emancipation was if they crossed Union lines before that threat could have a chance to materialize).One of the main reasons that more slaves did not readily embrace leaving their current positions was because of a fear that they would be returned to their masters just as they had heard many of the contrabands had been refused by the military prior to the proclamation. alas the lack of trust slaves placed in the white ace extended not only to those who had kept them in bondage, but also to those whom they knew even less of. Guezlo quotes Ohio Congressman William Homan, who thought it odd as well that, three and a half or four millions of Africans remain right in the hotbed of this rebellion, with your proclamations cast vent over the South inviting them to freedom nay, your policy urged them to assert their freedom and pledges the nation to m aintain it, yet, they have remained perfectly indifferent and passive until your Army has reached them, idle spectators of war. The intermission of the black population actually turned out to become an argument in favor of the emancipation as it demonstrated the restraint and self potency the slaves possessed even in the face of easy bloody opportunity.Francis Wayland in Atlantic Monthly concluded that Nine-tenths of the able-bodied Southern population have been in arms for more than two years and the Presidents Emancipation Proclamation was made public nearly a year past and yet none of the older men, women, and children remaining at home have been slaughtered, massacred or brutalized. Did Lincoln issue the Proclamation to ward off European influence or boost Union morale? This question seems to be Lincolns critics double edged sword, although a poor attempt might I add. Guezlo adds an interesting note that if morale or intervention were Lincolns primary concerns to be addressed , then issuing the proclamation when he did wouldve been the worst possible method he couldve taken to do so.Alexander Twining wrote in 1865 that, European intervention and especially from England was, at the time when the proclamation was issued, our most anxious liability. Lincolns main concern was that the British would intervene in response to an emancipation proclamation so long as emancipation was seen as a direct encouragement to servile Insurrections, sparking the British governments memories of the racial carnage of the Indian Mutiny. It was actually during the Chicago ministers delegation in September 1862 that any argument for European sympathy was made convincing Lincoln that the issuance of the proclamation may gain the Union any favor. Attempts to down play Lincolns motives for standing firm behind his proclamation with this attack are quickly debunked.The second part of this question implies that Lincoln made his decision for emancipation based off of some incentive of united sentiment that wouldve been received as a whole country. This could not be more false. When Lincoln initially issued the Emancipation Proclamation, politically, lines were torn across the board. Within congress debates ran heated and from state to state more and more republicans were loosing favor and being replaced with public security Democrats and proslavery advocates.When it came time for the next elections to congress, Lincoln was hurt to see his majority in the House weaken before his eyes. Lincoln and his supporters fully understood before they issued the proclamation that this would in fact place their positions in government in jeopardy. He also understood that with the military advocating their own desires to negotiate a peaceful compromise with the Confederacy, that this could easily convince them to accelerate an intervention placing Lincolns administration in danger of loosing the cause.Eventually Lincolns administration would prevail against slavery not onl y in the Confederate states but also in the Border States. Beginning with West Virginia in 1862, the Border States finally began to embrace the inevitable and took advantage of the only option that was advantageous for them which was to agree to the compensated emancipation package that Lincoln had been pushing for all along.In the end it was even exhausting for Lincolns most radical abolitionist critics to remain skeptical of the Presidents personal conviction and determination regarding his motives with his Emancipation Proclamation. In a meeting with Frederick Douglas, Lincolns foremost freed black critic, Douglas was surprised to report that, I was taken aback to discover that Lincoln had a deeper moral conviction against slavery than I had ever seen before in anything spoken or written by him.Very few of the negative possibilities considered that could have taken place in response to the Emancipation Proclamation actually did. This was largely in part to the strict measures th at Lincoln took as a skilled attorney and leader when drafting his plan and his determination to make the Proclamation succeed. During the time following the Emancipation Proclamation and even for years beyond his assassination, Lincoln was held in high esteem amongst the African American as well as the white population in this country.Unfortunately since the earlier 1900s many critics, both black and white, have risen to the occasion to minimize the greatness to which he impacted generations of human beings to come. Some claim Lincoln was a white supremacist only acting in the best interests of saving his country and others, at best, describe him as indifferent to the African struggle. Regardless of which position you try to understand, it is ridiculous to consider that, in either case, a man who felt no deep conviction for the nature of his actions wouldve remained persistent in his course to the conclusion.Had Lincoln really felt any other way than sympathetic towards the slaves he wouldve bowed down and compromised as many congressman and generals urged of him. Allen Guezlo makes his point strongly apparent Abraham Lincolns actions spoke clear of his the driving force behind his actions. It would be special pleading to claim that Lincoln was in the end the most perfect friend black Americans have ever had, but it would also be the cheapest and most ignorant of all skepticisms to deny that he was the most significant.