Blogosphere Response

Even though I did not take immediate notice, the blog helped me flesh out many of my paper topics and ideas. I think in that sense, it served a really good purpose. The responses were also good feedback and helped me focus in on what to write about. It showed me a lot about what people find generally interesting. Even when it was not a surprise, people's responses elicited further affirmation in what the general public would also find intriguing about my opinions/ideas/topics. I'm not sure if it served as a personal outlet, and I think I would rather keep it that way. This is much more constructive than a personal blog would be. The blogs forced me to think more about my writing and how to tailor it not for content, but for a voice and cohesiveness. This may be the first time a class has successfully forced students into doing so.

Also, the evaluations about the blogs helped me gauge what level I was responding in. I enjoyed writing purposefully and the direction really led me to start to develop a style. For once, it seemed a class was focused on content more than quantity and effort. I think that telling us that everything had purpose and a goal had a real affect on the expectations of the class. It also might have been a rare moment when there was a rational meeting of the minds, since the goals were set out so clearly. All in all, I enjoyed this class. Scary, I know.

Human Rights and freedoms in China

I think I'll be writing about Chen Guangcheng, a political prisoner in China. He is a blind, self-taught lawyer that reported the local government of a town he lived nearby for infringing on women's rights. Because of the One-Child Policy, many of the women that had recently had children were not allowed to have children. The local government in Linyi held a town ultrasound, where women are subjected to an ultrasound to check for pregnancy. They enforced the One-Child Policy harshly and illegally, and subjected thousands of women to be sterilized or forced to abort the child. Some women who were there were well into their pregnancy. After women from Linyi went to Chen Guangcheng, he attempted to help them and reported this incident to a higher level in the government. Afterwards, he was kidnapped and beatten by Linyi's government personnel. Because of the lack of response, many citizens from Linyi and Chen Guangcheng marched in protest. Since then, Chen Guangcheng has been subjected to beatings, and is now in jail for intentional property damage, and for organizing people to block traffic. There are other lawyers that have tried to join the cause, and are also in the Linyi provence jail. He has been recognized by many organizations, including Time magazine as one of the top 100 people that will shape our world, and have been given awards. I believe that the US government and the UN could pay more attention to this area, because I feel this is a battle they can win. The Chinese government is currently under more scruitny than ever, and this could create very good PR for them, and I think they would take the effort to do so if nudged into that direction.

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Hardcore Article

Throughout this "War on Terror", and unofficial war with Iraq, the US has used mercenaries. It, essentially, is a battle the US has paid for under the table, since mercenaries do not count as US troops. It is very interesting, because much of the money that goes towards Iraq is counted as "International Charity and Aid" in official reports, so this just shows how much is hidden and misrepresented to US citizens. As our military shrinks, since people no longer want to sign up and end up in Iraq, these expensive contractors are called on more and more often. It is interesting that this article puts a spotlight on this issue, since there is very little known about them. Much of what they do or how they are paid are all classified information, but this article attempts to expose them. However, after reading the article, I'm not sure if the author is proposing a solution. He expresses that we should stop this, but I'm not sure if the article even addresses those that can do something about this situation. In the last class, we discussed how it may be a very critical part of a paper to address an audience that actually has powers to change and fix the problem. Since I can't discern that this is done in the paper, I'm not sure how convinced I am to make change, besides that I agree there is a problem.

Brainstorm

I'm having a lot of trouble thinking of a subject to argue for or against that won't be too cliche. Especially if it's something most people have already formed a opinion about. To think of something that is not already on the presidential debate is also very difficult.

I am very tempted to write about the American elementary/high school system, of course the public ones. Though I could bring in privates schools for comparison. A part of the education system I'd like to focus on is the No Child Left Behind Policy. What better to talk about for a school assignment than school?

American School Setup: Age 5/6: Kindergarten
Age 6/7-10/11: Elementary Grades 1-5
Age 11/12-13/14: Middle School Grades 6-8
Age 14/15-17/18: High School Grades 9-12

No Child Left Behind

I'm Convinced, Men are Pigs!

I first came across this piece during a scorching hot afternoon, which may have driven me to be more flustered than usual about this subject. This is an essay written by Judy Brady (a.k.a. Judy Syfers) titled "Why I Want a Wife". I will try to summarize it, but it's a short 5 paragraph-ish satirical, feminist paper.

link: http://www.cwluherstory.org/why-i-want-a-wife.html

To put this article into context, it was first published in Ms. (magazine), a feminist magazine started by Gloria Steinem, a popular movie star/playboy bunny in the 70's. The magazine is known for not containing any advertisement and for landmark issues, like presenting a published list of women who admitted to having abortions before they were legal in the Roe vs. Wade case which included many movie stars.

The essay Brady rights is a sarcastic description of the All-American Mom (a.k.a. Soccer Mom). This is to the very pinnacle of what a mother is expected to be in our culture. A mom is a : chauffeur, a nurse, a valet, a sexual partner, etc. Brady explains that wife is expected to guide and help their husbands regardless of their own needs, and she knows this because she is one. She mockingly describes all the jobs that a wife is expected to do and how it is a clear-cut double standard life she is expected to lead. A life, where all she does is sacrifices and gives, and realizes that she would like a wife too.

Brady's article, although has a sardonic tone, is a very convincing one. Sarcasm is not the typical strategy to convince someone, unless it is frighteningly true. Her rhetorical approach is to narrate as though she is proposing a scenario, like a vacation advertisement, of what it is like to have a wife. She appeals to mothers/wives with pathos when she brings up an endless list of tasks they are expected complete. To everyone else, Brady writes in respect to logos. She questions why one wouldn't want a wife, or essentially, an indentured servant.

The problem is that what she describes is the epitome of the perfect American wife/mother. Very rarely does one mom fit into all of these descriptions. Though, with a resounding agreement, my roommates and my own mother play most of these roles. One of my roommates, who identifies the closest to a Nuclear Family, said Brady's description was eerily familiar to her own description of her mother. Also, there's nowhere in the essay that mentions the rewards of being a mother. The fallacy in her logic is that she assumes mothers and wives do all of this without any benefits, but women would not do it if they did not find it rewarding to be a "good" mother/wife.

Chapter 14

Its seems to be the common trend, but the times a writing text helps me is far and wide, which is how much this text is able to explicitly show good writing rules. I have never figured out a way to: describe the Point of View of writer and reader, consider open and closed formats according to goal, account for audience, occasion, and subject. This chapter showed writing in a different light. Persuasion is definitely a different tone from truth-seeking. It's also interesting, because even with this highlighted, I'm not sure if it would make a huge difference with which one I choose. This will help me define what I am trying to accomplish more clearly, but I still would have based how far I leaned between these two depending on my audience.
Often, with a more liberal and educated mind, I feel the "truth-seeking" method is more efficient. These are people that are generally more open-minded and would not be pleased to find the author omitted certain things to sway them one way. With the general public, which is especially prevalent in propaganda, they seem to try much harder through persuasion. I just found that a thought provoking connection.

First Essay Ideas

In general, there are generalizations in this article that many students and professors can agree with (i.e. groggy students in classes), so I will keep that in mind. Although there are lots of points I agree with, I can't seem to help feeling like this piece offers no solid solution and may even be a dramatized grievance from a bad week at the office. There are many particulars that either we all wish were true or are over-generalizations we never question (i.e. TV medium is inhospitable to inspiration... Where's the studies? I was inspired by Bill Nye the Science Guy as a child to be mechanically creative and made lots of contraptions.)
This view is going to be very hard for me to present, since almost everyone in the course seemed to agree with Edmundson. I feel there are very few passionate students, but that passion for academics may not always be everything. There is more to life than academics and work, especially for each individual. Being happy may not include academics at all (i.e. farming), and in the end, it may be worthwhile to weigh out the options for ourselves.