The American economy thrives off the money left over after taxes and buying only “necessities.” Peter Singer, while wanting to provide food and medicine to third world countries of the world, will destroy our country by taking the excess money America thrives on: businesses, small and large, will collapse, and the cost of food will rise followed by a food shortage.

Taking the extra money from people in America and giving it to third world counties would be a good thing for the poverty level in other countries. In the movie Slumdog Millionaire you are able to see the poverty level in countries like India. People live in shack among shack in the ghettos where they live among garbage. Taking the excess money from America will help feed, clothe, and give shelter to all those people who can’t afford it themselves. People all give generously to organizations that help the pore, but people should not be forced to do it.

The excess money people have to spend is what keeps this country running. Our economy relies on the money people have in their pockets to buy products and keep our money flowing. All businesses rely on people spending money. If we were to just give all that money away businesses would fail and whole towns would be destroyed. My dad owns a resort on the ocean. It relies on tourism to keep the business opened. If people were forced to give all their money away, my dad and he business would become bankrupt. The whole city of Morehead and Emerald Isle would be deserted as well. If tourists spend or are forced to spend all their money on poor people in other countries, our own country will lie in ruins through the absence of the flow of money.

The United States has billions of people to feed within its boundaries. If our country decides to make all of its citizens give their excess money to other counties, our citizens would become hungry. At first our food prices in America would jump up because the world would not be used to feeding all these extra people. Feeding them would stretch the food produced today. After our food prices went up because the worlds food supply is spread so thin, people around the world, normally fed, will start going hungry. In the end, the best choice of the USA would not be to give away all our extra money, but to idolize generosity.

Peter Singer wants to do good by feeding the hungry of the world, but he really is destroying America: being forced to give away excess money will result in fewer consumers and then the destruction of small and large businesses also in a horrible food shortage. If American citizens are forced to spend their excess money on poor, third world countries, our own country will become poor and destroyed itself.

 

 

In this essay I did not concede to the prompt. I did a great deal of talking about the cons but ignored the pros a little too much. My qualification ended up being about how it was a bad idea, still, instead of a good idea. My fourth paragraph seemed a little foggy describing the relationship between the government, the food shortage, and the rest of the world. After going back I clarified my points and next time I will make sure I listen and ad by to the prompt.

 

Mark Twain’s purpose in writing the “Corn-Pone Opinions” was to confront conformity in all its shapes and forms. Twain thought that conformity is a way of life that everyone partakes in.  Conformity maybe something you can avoid if you are able to construct your own opinion through collected information and forming your own opinion. The only way to form a suitable opinion is to have enough facts to support your own point of view. Twain thought that conformity goes in cycles and the cycles eventually catch up to you. Everyone, in Twains view, was a conformist sometime throughout their lives. He felt that Jerry understood his conformity theory but didn’t know how to take it a step further. Twain felt that to be a conformist to racism is stupid because he enjoyed the company of Jerry.    

As you know, this class was one I wasn’t one hundred percent keen on taking. I am a decent writer, but grammar and spelling hold me back from achieving my full potential. When I talked to you about this coarse I was told that if I crack down and work I can achieve in the class and that spelling would not kill me on the AP exam. When I started researching this AP class, I soon found out we cover only non-fiction this year and it became my biggest motive for taking the class, mostly because I am interested in the field of journalism and also politics. I know both of my career choices are set around a dog eat dog mentality, but with this rhetoric you spoke of today, I am sure I can eat all other dogs that are in my field. When I reread my writing and compare it to my classmates I find my writing can be somewhat immature. My writing is not always as bad as I make it out to be. My research paper is my favorite work I have written to date because I feel it has the most emotion and I think it is very persuasive. Even though I think it is my best work, when I compare it to the writings of some of our other students, it still appears a bit childish. I would love to grow upon my formal diction while remaining straight to the point. Using exactly the right words that fit my emotions would be ideal. I would love to learn how to take the thought that is in my head and portray it on paper with the same clarity and importance as I think it deserves.

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When you think of the price of freedom it never occurs to that ordinary civilians would be taken so we can keep on having it. That is what happened on September 11^th. Normal ordinary people were murdered so we could keep on living the way we do. These people were heading out for the day to go to work.  They had no care in the world. Our men and women are bravely defending our freedom in Iraq and many other places in the world. Is this war just? The world thought Churchhill was crazy. Our foreign policy is not popularity contest; it’s to protect our country. It’s a fact that certain cultures and religions were brought into this world for prosperity rather than peace. Every terrorist and highjack since the early sixties has been Muslim. The song “Red, White and Blue” by Toby Keith expresses how I feel. Go ahead and protest and hate President Bush. That is your right but where is your honor?

Where in the course of student events, it becomes necessary for one person to dissolve the hellish bonds which have concealed them with in a building, and to assume among the powers of free will and separate from their laws of tyranny through which laws of stupidity and boringness create them no respect to the opinions of my kind requires that they declare causes which impel them to separation..

 

We hold these truths to be self evident: that all kids hate school: that teachers or tyrants  try to bend our minds in ways we don’t want them to bend and among these ways are Science, Math, English, Social Studies and to secure our students from brainwashing the rights of the schools should be in the hands of the kids, Whenever the school system comes to corrupt ends, we should raise above and prevail and to they “shall” seem most unlikely our effectiveness, safety and happiness will be. School Systems believe that establishment should not be charged for “light” and “transient” causes, and accordingly all experience hath shown that all kids are disposed to suffer, while school systems are sufferable, then to right themselves by abolishing schools to which they are accustomed. When a long train of abuses and usurpations begun at the principle and pushing invariably down to the teachers in the state of ignorance, it’s their right, it’s their duty to throw off such schools and provide new ways to learn for their future security. The history at the present principle is a history of unremitting ALC’s , detentions among which give him no reason to love the chunky band kids more than the rest of us sorry losers, to prove this let facts be submitted to a candid world for the truth of which we pledge a faith yet unshelled by falsehood.

 

I was defending a poor boy by the name of James Macinroy. He had been convicted of trying to sell two kids pure Colombian cocaine, but I knew he didn’t do it. We went before the judge to argue our position on our given court date. When the judge took her seat the trial started. Throughout the trial the judge started to lose her mind. The judge would say things like “itz okay brudder youz my homie from Columbia”, or “ yo sun, I ant got time for yo trial and mess. Im gunna mess you up good if you keep wastin all  my time sun.” At the end of the trail he said “ yall go home over yonder, ya hear?” I was astonished our judge acted this way and filed a complaint strait away. We received a retrial with a less sporadic judge. The outcome of the case was the dependent was not guilty.

I picked this because i thought it was a funny story showing my creativity and how weird it would be for someone in such a position to be informal.

Love is the feeling I get when you come around.

It kinda makes me feel nervous; it makes my heart pound.

The nervousness goes away when I see your smile.

I feel my best when I’m with you a while.

Everything we do is so much fun,

Weather were watching movies inside or enjoying the sun.

I hate your friends, but you like mine.

You seem so perfect on the outside, but you can be hard to please sometimes.  

I know I’ve done my fair share of crime, but we always end up just fine.

I’ve threatened to break up; you’ve told me to shut up, even though I always know you’ll be mine.

Best of times are the worst of times

To an ill-experienced person.

Worst of times are the best

To less then a minority.

When you are high you will come down.

When you are low you will make it back to the middle ground.

Life is a mind rollercoaster witch you can’t stop.

Who decides whether something is elegant, wonderful or plain? It is up to the individual; certain experiences enlighten our perception. You need to view each individual thing with opened eyes. Hikes are the most eerily peaceful activity to do. Walking along a continuous path with gravel and branches crunching under your feet makes you zealous. It’s like Lewis and Clark walking along unchartered territory feeling anxious around every turn.

Saturday afternoon I thought Laura Jane and I could escape from the heavy burden of our everyday lives and go for a hike. The weather was cool and refreshing. While we walked down the long and lonesome trail we gazed at the sky. Big grey clouds were lingering above our heads as far as our eyes could see. There was a rejuvenating breeze as only the ocean can bring. It blew across the path like a wind tunnel. I heard the rustling of dead leaves among small dead branches.

While walking along the path we stumbled upon a swamp with its fragrant stench. The water was a chalky greenish color. It looked like a bad mixture of Easter egg dye. That stuff that’s leftover after you mix the colors together. This swamp water formed round green bubbles. When they popped, the smell oozed into the air. It smelled like a fire that engulfed a wig factory. All along the swamp, yellow sand fell over the side of the landscape. It seemed to have the color of an old mans hair that had changed through the years. In his youth his hair was golden blond. As he aged his hair became grey.

There was a touch of elegance next to the water. I gradually encircled the swamp looking for something to write about. It was this little something, something that gave light to another wise grayish day. They were flowers but not your normal flowers, flowers disguised as weeds. Lovely light green stalks attempting to arise from the ugly ooze. They had flowers springing from their side. I knelt down to take a closer look when Laura Jane said “they’re just weeds silly, let’s keep moving.” The colors on the premature buds captivated me. Milky greens and dirty stained reads engulfed the adolescent buds. The weeds lulled me into believing there was a false sense of beauty about this swampy pond. Then I thought no they’re just weeds.

On a fall afternoon, the leaves on the trees were turning mustard yellow, rustic brown, and the brick red. This time of year, my family loves to take walks around the neighborhood. On these walks there is a hush over the neighborhood. All you can hear are the birds chirping, communicating from one tree to the other. As we move along the side of the road we notice the short green grass growing and the weeds coming out of the ground. The younger children wanted to pick the weeds, which reminded them of a bright sunny dandelion, and present them to mom. I tried to convince them that mom wasn’t interested in weeds, but we brought them home anyway. The little kids always get their way. Little kids have perceived these flowers as beautiful. They have their eyes and minds opened to everything. As adults we decide these flowers, which are like any other, are disgusting because of what they’re labeled.

These weeds grew along the bank where the water meets the ledge. They stuck out of the dull yellow sand like a tree in an otherwise empty field. The plant seems hideous at first, but when you really take time to observe it, it reveals its true beauty. The stem and leaves are like any other, emerald green, with little hairs coming off the leaves and stems. Once you work your way to the flower, your over all perception changes. The flowers are either wedding veil white or lemon yellow. They make you think of an untouchable field full of sunflowers and lilies. The half bloomed flowers are just peeping out of their shells. You can just partially see them through their protective shell. Their colors are nothing like the final product, full of reds and greens, like a Christmas tree when you wake up Christmas morning. This plant may seem mundane, but with a little attention to detail, it is a work of Gods art. You have to think of it as a Picasso painting.

The weed takes a little open mindedness to see its full beauty. You need to approach every situation without a bias background. In a way we need to look at every situation through a child’s eyes, no bias, no slant, just the way things really are. Only then we can see the true beauty in our life and in our surroundings.

Voting is a privilege for everyone who lives in the United States, but why go out of your way to vote? Lyndon B. Johnson said “The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men” (Voting Quotes). If one doesn’t vote he or she is refraining from the power to get rid of the injustices in ones country. Voting is a privilege that the whole world doesn’t get to have so one should “vote early and vote often” (Voting Quotes). In China, their form of government is communism. Under a communist rule the citizen is, in a way, a slave to the country; no matter what the country calls for, the people have to respond. Citizens living under communism have very little say in the outcome of their lives. At a young age the government tries to take a child out of the home and put them in a working environment based on their attributes; if a child is smart the government will school them, if physically strong they will place them in a working environment and so on (Communism ). Kim Jong Il is the dictator of North Korea. Under a dictatorship every man, women, and child has to abide by the supreme rule of the dictator. In both of these examples the people get to vote, but their vote differs from ours. Our vote comes as a privilege when the only requirement is being a U.S. citizen, which is why it is our job to be informed and well educated when making our vote.

 In the United States of America we have extended the right to vote to every citizen in United States territory, but is this the best interest for our country? When you think of America’s greatest president, whom comes to mind? George Bush or Bill Clinton, I think not; George Washington, Andrew Jackson, and all the other great statesmen should jump out at you and a flood of history should proceed. Before voting was extended to all races, women, and citizens over the age of 18, white landowning men achieved in electing gods of men who were able to put this country on the fast track to become the greatest democracy know to man. Obviously we shouldn’t take away the right to vote from the people who have worked so hard for it, but rather we should make voting a privilege given to the citizens who know how to put our country in the right direction. Now it is a constitutional right given to every citizen over 18. Both men and women from all races should vote, if they are of the right intellect and will be able to vote in the best interest of our country.

The history of American voting has been a treacherous but completed road.Our voting rights started in Jamestown and ended with the 26^th amendment. The House of Burgesses in Jamestown, Virginia was the first form of democracy in the United States. In Jamestown, men voted for seven representatives who would declare laws for the New World’s first colony. Among these men they elected a president (House of Burgesses). When we declared independence from England, and formed a “more perfect union,” the Constitution gave the right to vote to every land owning man in the country (The American Pageant).During the late 1700’s the right to vote was extended to every white male. The United States did this because more people were migrating to the cities and renting instead of owning property. By the 1800’s northerners were fighting for the end of slavery. As the abolitionist movement was going on, so was the first women’s rights movement. Women like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton created a women’s rights convention while other women wrote books and created an all women magazine (The American Pageant). When the civil war came and passed, slaves were freed and, under the 15^th amendment, they could vote. The 15^th amendment passed in 1870 ensured that no one could take away the right to vote biased on race, color, or prior history as a slave (The American Pageant).The only thing that was left out was gender. The south tried their best to keep the prior slaves from voting and achieved at this until the 1960’s. By the 1900’s women still hadn’t gotten their right to vote. In 1920 this changed with the ratification of the 19^th amendment. It stated that the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on the account of sex (The American Pageant). The main reason women got the right to vote is because of their overwhelming support at home during World War I. In the mitts of the Vietnam war young people wanted to lower the voting age to 18. They got their wish when the government passed the 26^th amendment (The American Pageant). Past Americans have worked vigorously and courageously to get their right to vote and we should never take that away. An 18 year old white male shouldn’t vote for Sara Palin because she knows how to skin a dear and that he finds her attractive anymore than a black woman should vote for Barak Obama because they both have the same colored skin. This is the type of uninformed voting I opt to get rid of.

When voters turn on the television today, they are sucked into a world of information that can sway their decision on whom to vote for with news that is completely irrelevant to the election. News channels may be biased, stories farfetched, and some of them may even be gossip. The question here is do these circumstances actually affect a voter’s decision on which candidate to choose, or can voters see right through this farce in the media?  Since 1964 the news has showed a strong baking for the democratic candidate. In the 2004 election, journalists backed John Kerry by a two to one margin (Media Bias Basics), but journalists aren’t supposed to have a bias in the way they present the news, right? In a 2004 poll done by the Pew Research Center for The People and The Press found five times more journalists describing themselves as liberals then conservatives (Media Bias Basics). Bias reporting leads to ignorant voting. Some voters can see through this. Gallup polls have consistently found that the number of people who think the media is too left out numbers the people who think there is nothing wrong. Most of the United States can clearly see a media bias, over 70% (Media Bias Basics).  Issues are what people should pay attention to. The issues tell you what the candidate stands for and how they will govern the country. It is the ideologies of a candidate that you vote for and not the party. For example, during the Great Depression, America had to choose the party that would do more for the economy. Franklin D Roosevelt was the right man at the right time and a conservative ideology might not have worked. This is the type of voting that is in the best interest of our country idea I am talking about.

Our democratic system of voting seems to have been working longer than any other. In a diversely ethnic country we do bring about voting to a moral standard, at least, more then other forms of government, with unfair voting or disproportional representation. Every year in African countries the leaders rig the election, buy it, or even kill over it from fear it might cause their country to become more democratic. Voters in other countries fracture to the leader they think they will be heard through. These leaders and forms of government can just be avoided if the country is given a democratic vote. The most important example of humanity since Christ is the absolute fairness that democracy and voting brings. Since our nation has been founded on morals, we have influenced countries like England, France, the Middle East, and countries in Africa. People are calling for their vote in countries around the world more and more everyday. By our example maybe the whole world could one day be made up of nothing but democracy. Voting has taken place in many forms of government since the Greeks and it is always associated with democracy.

When people don’t educate themselves about whom to vote for, they are being disrespectful to United States history that has fought to get the right to vote. Voting in the United States is the leading example of voting in the world, and your voice is always heard. Citizens of the United States take voting for granted. The belief vote early and vote often is instilled in our citizens but to get informed about candidates is neglected. Voting is a way in which you can stand up for what you believe in and your voice will be heard. John Quincy Adams said “Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost” (Voting Quotes). Our standard in presidential electors has dropped over the course of history, and now its time to elect a great statesman again. Put away your self interests, take out the greed, get informed about candidates and issues and elect the person who will serve in the best interest of our country.