Blog Prompt: Why Are We At War
In the Book, “Why Are We At War” Norman Mailer points out several points. The one point that jumps out at me and commands my attention is where he points out in the book that America, as a whole , was blinded by the need to avenge September 11, that we let our president, George W. Bush lead us into a war with Iraq. He then pointed out that although Saddam was a evil man he did not cause the attacks on our twin towers. I agree with this statement whole heartedly, because Saddam was so worried about dominating his country that I do not think he was brave enough cause such a disaster. It was done by someone that truly hates America with all of his might and wishes nothing more but to tear it down . Osma Bin Ladin loathes America I think that our President George bush knew that . This is why I feel that we are in this war with Iraq to try gain total control of the world.
Just because we run our lives here in the US a certain way, does not give us the right to force anyone else to live like we do. America seems like a Big Bully. Its like we are going into someone else’s backyard and telling them how to live, this is why they are not taking it so well. I have been over there and from what I have seen people in Iraq live awful. The funny thing is that they didn’t know that they were living in a bad condition until we forced our ideas. Then I think that if America was so humane then why should America just stop at Iraq why isn’t the U.S. trying to save Africa from itself . To me, the reason is because Africa does not have anything the that U.S. can to gain from as far as Natural Resources. I want to help Iraq, but I can’t help but feel like we got plenty problems here in America that needs just as much attention as Iraq. I want to help just not at the expense of America’s blood being shed. Especially when it all boils down to just plain old greed masked by a concept of rehabilitation.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Monday, July 2, 2007
Mr. and Mrs. Evil
Blog Prompt: The Alligator River Story
This short story is much like what many people in society deal with everyday. One of the important points to this story is to decide what is important and how you handle your problems or situations that arise in life. Do you profit or reap the benefits at the expense of someone else or do you try to do what is right and accept whatever consequences may arise. I will give my rating for each of the characters and try to explain why each received their particular score.
Abigail would be given a score of 3. She had the right intentions but used the wrong methods to obtain her goal. Like any woman, Abigail had a desire to see her man. After going to Sinbad, she decided to seek help elsewhere. Sometimes our friends will give us advice that we can ponder over and in some cases, it will help us to make our decisions. That was to no avail. The friend she sought help from had no advice whatsoever, therefore, Abigail, in her mind had nothing to weigh out. She decided that a little extra pleasure was worth what she considered to be the greater pleasure, which would be Gregory. Also how could she love Gregory so passionately at one moment and laugh so uncaringly when he is brutally beaten. Does love only last for a moment?
Gregory would be given a score of 4. First of all, he was the “man”. He should have been trying to get to Abigail and not the other way around. I can imagine him feeling betrayed, knowing that another man has sampled what he considers to be only for him. Even though he was upset, he could have handled things differently by telling Abigail to give him some time to deal with what she had done. Instead, he treats her as if she is trash and discards her.
Ivan would be given a 2.5. If you are truly a friend there are sometimes when you must speak your opinion even if it causes a strain on the friendship. I believe if Ivan had just told Abigail to think about what she was considering doing and to consider what was more important. Keeping herself true to Gregory or using whatever means necessary to see Gregory. Ivan could have told her to consider how Gregory would feel and his possible reactions.
Sinbad would be given a score of 4.5. He is the lowest, nastiest scum off the bottom of my shoe. He obviously had been eying Abigail and wanted a piece of action to start with and used this situation to his advantage. He is like some men of today, and when we look at him, he is the only one who benefited from this situation. To bad he did not fall out of the boat.
Slug would be given a score of 5. How do you just take what someone tells you and walk into a situation where you could have been the one to get beaten down. I believe Slug did this for Abigail, because he wanted her just like Sinbad. The only difference between Sinbad and Slug was that Sinbad did not mind just coming out and asking for some sex, but Slug it seemed, wanted to be identified as her protector or hero and hopefully she would reward him with a piece of the pie
This short story is much like what many people in society deal with everyday. One of the important points to this story is to decide what is important and how you handle your problems or situations that arise in life. Do you profit or reap the benefits at the expense of someone else or do you try to do what is right and accept whatever consequences may arise. I will give my rating for each of the characters and try to explain why each received their particular score.
Abigail would be given a score of 3. She had the right intentions but used the wrong methods to obtain her goal. Like any woman, Abigail had a desire to see her man. After going to Sinbad, she decided to seek help elsewhere. Sometimes our friends will give us advice that we can ponder over and in some cases, it will help us to make our decisions. That was to no avail. The friend she sought help from had no advice whatsoever, therefore, Abigail, in her mind had nothing to weigh out. She decided that a little extra pleasure was worth what she considered to be the greater pleasure, which would be Gregory. Also how could she love Gregory so passionately at one moment and laugh so uncaringly when he is brutally beaten. Does love only last for a moment?
Gregory would be given a score of 4. First of all, he was the “man”. He should have been trying to get to Abigail and not the other way around. I can imagine him feeling betrayed, knowing that another man has sampled what he considers to be only for him. Even though he was upset, he could have handled things differently by telling Abigail to give him some time to deal with what she had done. Instead, he treats her as if she is trash and discards her.
Ivan would be given a 2.5. If you are truly a friend there are sometimes when you must speak your opinion even if it causes a strain on the friendship. I believe if Ivan had just told Abigail to think about what she was considering doing and to consider what was more important. Keeping herself true to Gregory or using whatever means necessary to see Gregory. Ivan could have told her to consider how Gregory would feel and his possible reactions.
Sinbad would be given a score of 4.5. He is the lowest, nastiest scum off the bottom of my shoe. He obviously had been eying Abigail and wanted a piece of action to start with and used this situation to his advantage. He is like some men of today, and when we look at him, he is the only one who benefited from this situation. To bad he did not fall out of the boat.
Slug would be given a score of 5. How do you just take what someone tells you and walk into a situation where you could have been the one to get beaten down. I believe Slug did this for Abigail, because he wanted her just like Sinbad. The only difference between Sinbad and Slug was that Sinbad did not mind just coming out and asking for some sex, but Slug it seemed, wanted to be identified as her protector or hero and hopefully she would reward him with a piece of the pie
Monday, June 11, 2007
Moral or Immoral
Prompt: Human Rights V. Majority Rule
The Declaration of Independence says “ We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. Human rights refer to “the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled, which often are held to include the right to life, liberty, freedom of thought and expression and equality before the law.” These unalienable rights are considered to be gifts from the creator to the individual and cannot under any circumstances be surrendered or taken and all individual’s are considered to have unalienable rights. If we say the rights are inalienable, it does not mean they are absolute or can never be overridden. To say they are inalienable means that the holder cannot lose it temporarily or permanently by bad conduct or by voluntarily giving these rights up. Some may even say human rights are not inalienable, but they are hard to lose. Human rights were designed to protect all people everywhere from severe political, legal and social abuses.
Many times in our society when we discover that a person is a homosexual we find ourselves wanting to strip them of all rights. People have the right to do whatever makes them happy according to the rights we have been given, as long as these rights do not infringe upon the rights of any one else. I do believe that we have a moral obligation to raise future generations with clear cut, moral beliefs. According to the 19th chapter of Genesis, God destroyed the cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah, because of their depravity (men lusting after men). Homosexuality is contrary to the natural laws of God. While in the Garden of Eden God said that it was not good for man to be alone, so he created Eve to be his help meet. As one of the elderly ladies at my church will tell you, God created Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve nor Eve and Eva.
If we then allow people to have the right to live as they desire, (as long as it is within the legal perimeter of our land), to continue to have freedom and to pursue happiness is their right. I believe that we should not discriminate against homosexuals or anyone but I believe certain positions should be even more closely monitored, especially if it is an occupation that involves young impressionable children. Instead of making homosexuals feel they have some type of disease or should be ostracized, we need to treat them with kindness and pray that they will come to the realization that homosexuality is wrong.
The Declaration of Independence says “ We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. Human rights refer to “the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled, which often are held to include the right to life, liberty, freedom of thought and expression and equality before the law.” These unalienable rights are considered to be gifts from the creator to the individual and cannot under any circumstances be surrendered or taken and all individual’s are considered to have unalienable rights. If we say the rights are inalienable, it does not mean they are absolute or can never be overridden. To say they are inalienable means that the holder cannot lose it temporarily or permanently by bad conduct or by voluntarily giving these rights up. Some may even say human rights are not inalienable, but they are hard to lose. Human rights were designed to protect all people everywhere from severe political, legal and social abuses.
Many times in our society when we discover that a person is a homosexual we find ourselves wanting to strip them of all rights. People have the right to do whatever makes them happy according to the rights we have been given, as long as these rights do not infringe upon the rights of any one else. I do believe that we have a moral obligation to raise future generations with clear cut, moral beliefs. According to the 19th chapter of Genesis, God destroyed the cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah, because of their depravity (men lusting after men). Homosexuality is contrary to the natural laws of God. While in the Garden of Eden God said that it was not good for man to be alone, so he created Eve to be his help meet. As one of the elderly ladies at my church will tell you, God created Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve nor Eve and Eva.
If we then allow people to have the right to live as they desire, (as long as it is within the legal perimeter of our land), to continue to have freedom and to pursue happiness is their right. I believe that we should not discriminate against homosexuals or anyone but I believe certain positions should be even more closely monitored, especially if it is an occupation that involves young impressionable children. Instead of making homosexuals feel they have some type of disease or should be ostracized, we need to treat them with kindness and pray that they will come to the realization that homosexuality is wrong.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Right or Wrong
Prompts: Right or Wrong
Godly Right or Inherently Wrong
As a child I was raised in a Christian home, around Christian relatives were my siblings and I were taught that according to 1 Peter 1:15 “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation(living)”. Holy means to live according to a strict or highly moral religious or spiritual system.
I try to live my life as much as possible according to the word of God, so I would like to think or believe that I am a moral absolutist. I believe in the 10 commandments and try to abide by them. I also believe in the Golden Rule that was instilled within me as a child which states that we should do unto others as we would have them do unto us.
I was raised to know the difference between right and wrong. Some people would say that it is right to allow a lie to be spoken if it is going to allow peace instead of war. Every one needs to adhere to some type of “code of conduct” for their life because if not, the world would be in more chaos than what it is in at the present moment. As a veteran of “Operation Iraqi Freedom”, I think about what the American people were told concerning weapons of mass destruction. This “lie” as some would consider it to be, has caused a lot of unnecessary deaths and sadness for many families both in America and overseas.
When I consider the other side of life, in many instances or situations I might have played the role of a moral relativist. Since being given this assignment, I have asked myself and delve deep within to really think about where I fit or belong. I want to be a moral absolutist but I can think back to times when I have been a moral relativist. Those times have been when I have allowed a lie to be told when I knew the truth would be devastating to that person. Many times I have allowed things to be said or done to keep peace within the family or between various loved ones. I ask myself “Am I morally wrong for wanting to keep the peace and not allow confusion ?” since I serve a God of peace and not of confusion. I realize that I cannot straddle the fence so to speak. I must say that at present I am a moral absolutist that finds herself at times for the sake of love, peace and harmony, turning to the role of a moral relativist for a minute or two.
Godly Right or Inherently Wrong
As a child I was raised in a Christian home, around Christian relatives were my siblings and I were taught that according to 1 Peter 1:15 “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation(living)”. Holy means to live according to a strict or highly moral religious or spiritual system.
I try to live my life as much as possible according to the word of God, so I would like to think or believe that I am a moral absolutist. I believe in the 10 commandments and try to abide by them. I also believe in the Golden Rule that was instilled within me as a child which states that we should do unto others as we would have them do unto us.
I was raised to know the difference between right and wrong. Some people would say that it is right to allow a lie to be spoken if it is going to allow peace instead of war. Every one needs to adhere to some type of “code of conduct” for their life because if not, the world would be in more chaos than what it is in at the present moment. As a veteran of “Operation Iraqi Freedom”, I think about what the American people were told concerning weapons of mass destruction. This “lie” as some would consider it to be, has caused a lot of unnecessary deaths and sadness for many families both in America and overseas.
When I consider the other side of life, in many instances or situations I might have played the role of a moral relativist. Since being given this assignment, I have asked myself and delve deep within to really think about where I fit or belong. I want to be a moral absolutist but I can think back to times when I have been a moral relativist. Those times have been when I have allowed a lie to be told when I knew the truth would be devastating to that person. Many times I have allowed things to be said or done to keep peace within the family or between various loved ones. I ask myself “Am I morally wrong for wanting to keep the peace and not allow confusion ?” since I serve a God of peace and not of confusion. I realize that I cannot straddle the fence so to speak. I must say that at present I am a moral absolutist that finds herself at times for the sake of love, peace and harmony, turning to the role of a moral relativist for a minute or two.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Perception
prompt: Perception
Perception is defined as 'the process by which an individual receives, selects, organizes, and interprets information to create a meaningful picture of the world' (Belch and Belch 2007). As a child, I was raised to believe that anything worth having is worth working for, therefore, the welfare system was there for those who only wanted a "hand out" and not a "step up". During the course of my life I would perceive those who were receiving welfare to be lazy and not wanting to better themselves. My perception was that the system was rewarding failure by saying it is okay to become pregnant at an early age and drop out of school. It appeared that people in the "system" just wanted everything handed to them on a silver platter. I believed that it was not fair for those of us that were working hard to have to pay for those who did no work at all. I also perceived that children of the "system" would become adults of the "system".
Since I have reached the early adult hood stage, I see that many of the perceptions I have, were derived from my family. When you are growing up, you receive the information given to you by your family as though they were legal and binding laws. When I began to really look at the welfare system, I realized that all of my perceptions were not correct. Everyone that is on the welfare system is not necessarily looking for a handout, neither are they being lazy. Many people are there because of jobs being discontinued, major health problems and various other reasons. Do not misunderstand me, there are some that do abuse the system and are truly lazy and just looking for a hand out. I also realize after having an opportunity to speak with some children who were children of the system and are now adults, that the perception that children of the system become adults of the system is not necessarily true. My beliefs and perceptions were those given to me by my parents and other strong independent adults that played a major role in my life. My great-grandparents owned a restaurant and my grandfather even built his own brick house, therefore, my parents were taught that laziness was not an option and that nothing in life was free and it was passed down to my generation. As a result of this, we were always given small jobs to do which increased as we grew.
Since I am a little older, I realize that my values and morals were shaped by my parents and grandparents, whether they are considered to be right or wrong. I see know that many of my opinions on the welfare system were based on perceptions I received while growing up. We must realize that our perceptions need to be objective ones because everything is not always as we perceive them to be.
Perception is defined as 'the process by which an individual receives, selects, organizes, and interprets information to create a meaningful picture of the world' (Belch and Belch 2007). As a child, I was raised to believe that anything worth having is worth working for, therefore, the welfare system was there for those who only wanted a "hand out" and not a "step up". During the course of my life I would perceive those who were receiving welfare to be lazy and not wanting to better themselves. My perception was that the system was rewarding failure by saying it is okay to become pregnant at an early age and drop out of school. It appeared that people in the "system" just wanted everything handed to them on a silver platter. I believed that it was not fair for those of us that were working hard to have to pay for those who did no work at all. I also perceived that children of the "system" would become adults of the "system".
Since I have reached the early adult hood stage, I see that many of the perceptions I have, were derived from my family. When you are growing up, you receive the information given to you by your family as though they were legal and binding laws. When I began to really look at the welfare system, I realized that all of my perceptions were not correct. Everyone that is on the welfare system is not necessarily looking for a handout, neither are they being lazy. Many people are there because of jobs being discontinued, major health problems and various other reasons. Do not misunderstand me, there are some that do abuse the system and are truly lazy and just looking for a hand out. I also realize after having an opportunity to speak with some children who were children of the system and are now adults, that the perception that children of the system become adults of the system is not necessarily true. My beliefs and perceptions were those given to me by my parents and other strong independent adults that played a major role in my life. My great-grandparents owned a restaurant and my grandfather even built his own brick house, therefore, my parents were taught that laziness was not an option and that nothing in life was free and it was passed down to my generation. As a result of this, we were always given small jobs to do which increased as we grew.
Since I am a little older, I realize that my values and morals were shaped by my parents and grandparents, whether they are considered to be right or wrong. I see know that many of my opinions on the welfare system were based on perceptions I received while growing up. We must realize that our perceptions need to be objective ones because everything is not always as we perceive them to be.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
About Me
My name is Shaunta Johnson and I am 21 years of age. I am a nursing major. English is very interesting to me, so I look forward to learning more about it.
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