Ungrateful Humans

When I saw the title of Nancy Mair's essay,, I was immediately drawn to it. "On Being A Cripple" is a truly empowering essay about Mair's struggle with multiple sclerosis. She deals with her "left leg now being weak" the "right side of my body is weakening", and she uses an "electric wheelchair". Reading this essay makes you realize that she is an amazing woman, with amazing strength and power. She loves herself and realizes that she is who she is, despite the "degenerative disease".

What I found most empowering throughout the entire essay was when she says, "What I hate is not me but a disease. I am not a disease." She realizes and wants her audience to also realize that, yes, she does have a disease that will eventually prove to be fatal. But she will not let it beat her, and the disease should not constitute who she is. She is Nancy Mair. Thats all she wants people to know. She does not want to be characterized by this disease.

When I finished reading this essay, it surprisingly made me very emotional. I sat at my desk and shed a couple of tears, because people do not realize the blessings and gifts that they have been so graciously been given. Human beings take advantage of the gifts they have been given every day. We complain when we do not get to eat a meal on time, when we don't get that car we wanted for our sixteenth birthday, or that iPod we so desperately wanted for Christmas. We complain about all of this, when Nancy Mair is sitting in her wheelchair, dying of multiple sclerosis, and simply happy to be alive. I personally think that we are an ungrateful people. Maybe we should put ourselves in Mair's shoes for a day. Maybe then we would understand and be grateful for what we have.

I'm Thankful

In Frederick Douglass's "Learning to Read and Write", he tells his story of how he came to be an educated person. It was a long and hard struggle for him. His mistress went from being "kind and tender-hearted" to her "tiger-like fierceness". She realized that slaves were not supposed to be treated like "regular human beings" so she decided to begin to treat him like a slave. He attempted to try to read and write on his own, and in the end, he came out victorious.

Going back to my childhood, I do not remember a time when I was not reading or writing. The school I grew up in thought it very important to teach that to us students at a very young age. I can't imagine not being able to be allowed to read or write, let alone not have a teacher to help me out. I consider it a proveledge in the United States to have all of the opportunities that we have out there for us.

I have been in classrooms when the children moan and groan when they hear their teacher tell them that they have a story to read for homework, or an essay to write in class. I truly believe that these children do not understand the hate and adversity people like Frederick Douglass had to go through to get us to the point we're at today. Were it not for him and so many other people, we may not even have the privelege to read and write freely today. Because of this, I truly am thankful.

Is It Complaining or Truth??!!

When I read "Why Don't We Complain" by William F. Buckley Jr., I was immediately brought back to a time when I was younger, approximately 12 years old. My mother and I were shopping in Columbia, one of our favorite things to do. My mother needed to get some school supplies for her classroom, so we went to this office supply store. She got the things she wanted and went to tht check out line. We waited for about five minutes and then a young woman came out behind the counter. She told us it would be a couple of minutes before we could be checked out because they were having a crisis in the back. We ended up waiting for 30 minutes to check out, and we also watched that same young woman walk in and out of the back on her cell phone with her boyfriend. Point of the story...my mother most definitly complained.

Should she have done this? Is complaining an effective way of getting what you want? I believe that if something isn't going right, we should most definitly complain. In all actuality, I don't even believe that it should even be called complaining. I believe that if something isn't going the right way, the truth should be told.

Of course, my mother got the manager and complained because this woman, had first and foremostly lied to us, and second of all, she wasn't even working on store duties, she was on the phone with her boyfriend. All my mother was doing was telling the truth. She wanted justice to be done. If she hadn't "complained" about this girl, maybe the girl would have continued doing this to more customers. I beieve that when there is something that we feel is not right or isn't going the right way, we shoud let someone know about it. Don't complain, just tell the truth!!

He Convinced Me!

In "Binge Drinking as a Substitute for a 'Community of Learning'" Kenneth A. Bruffee is trying to get sutdents to connect with each other on an academic level rather than connecting with each other through sororities and fraternities. Bruffee used many persuauion techniques to try and convince the reader that these students should be participating more in their schoolwork and academics rather than fraternizing and doing nothing but drinking. One of the persuasion techniques that he used in his essay was to give personal experiences that he had in college. He felt the need to fit in so he joined a fraternity just like many of the students that he discusses. Another method of persuasion is by using statistics about binge drinking and taking courses together. He allows the reader to see how widespread binge drinking is becoming and he also tells them that students who are in many of the same classes together become more interested in their studies and do better because of this. I believe Bruffee did an excellent job with persuasion in this essay. He convinced me that being involved with your academics not only helps you learn but it is also a way to become more involved socially so students do not have to feel like they have to fratermize and drink to make friends.