Tow #30 - Letter to a future APELC student

Dear Future AP English Student,

           

Take a deep breath. This class is not as scary as people make it seem.  People often over emphasize the bad moments they had in the class to grieve over a bad grade they received or feedback they got back from the teacher that did not say what the student wanted it to say. The purpose of this letter is to tell you that AP English Language and Composition is not “hard”, or “impossible”, but rather challenging and will eventually force you to live up to the expectations of an AP student.

The reality is that the expectations of an AP student are not to get straight A’s on the report card to bring home to mom and dad, or to immediately understand the concept of an idea the day the teacher introduces a topic to you. The expectations of an AP student are to strive and be determined to be the best student you can be. An AP student does not give up when a class becomes challenging. An AP student does not cease to work hard when he or she does not understand something. An AP student takes the frustration of the effort and puts it toward positive reinforcement in his or herself. An AP student does not cry about a C or a D on an essay, but rather he or she will use that as motivation to work harder and achieve something great.

Mr. Yost will tell you in the beginning of the year that the course is a marathon, not a sprint. With respect, I disagree with that statement. I would describe the class more as a relay race. The key to the class is the understanding of connections between topics that are taught in the class. This course is not like a math course in which you cannot understand one topic but move on to the other. This course requires you to use information in past units to fully learn how to write like an AP English student. The relay race comes into play when in the first quarter of the year one cannot see the finish line, but one has to push hard and eventually pass the baton to the next unit or “racer.” Then, relying what the prior unit, or “racer” the next unit/racer takes off and eventually you will get to the last unit/racer and you will see the finish line.

It takes hard work and dedication to achieve great things in this class. Be proud of your work and it will come easier to you. Being able to enjoy what you write will make writing better, easier, fluid, and overall more intriguing.

I only wish someone were to tell me this in the beginning of my junior year.

                                    -Ryan Dalsemer

Tow #29 - Jesus Camp pt. 2

In the documentary "Jesus Camp," the Evangelical Religion is exposed to its purest, rawest form as the documentary exposes truly how horrifyingly the leaders of the religion brainwasher their followers. These simple-minded mid-western folks are turned into racists, nativists, and ethnocentrists, hating all who are not white, or Evangelical.
The center of this brainwashing is in fact, the Jesus Camp which was established to create a retreat for Evangelicals every year, and help them fortify the morals and beliefs of their religion into the minds of their children. The scariest factor of the Jesus Camp is the change the audience sees within the children over time during the documentary. Innocence is lost within these kids as they learn to become as ignorant as their parents. One child actually develops the dream of becoming a preacher to help spread the idea of the Evangelical Church and with all the immoral teachings that go along with it. The Jesus Camp is seen as a factory that produces narrow-minded human beings.
Dogmatic ideas are installed in the children and fortified in the adults. People from all over the country come to this camp. Thousands upon thousands have been coming for years, then as time progresses, the next generation sends their children. This has been a never ending cycle of immoral teachings to the masses. The Evangelical Church should be ashamed of how destructive their teachings are to the Evangelicals, which make a majority in the United States.

Tow #28 - "Jesus Camp"

"Jesus Camp" is a documentary which lets the audience of the video see how people of the Evangelical Faith, a branch of the Christian Church, live their lives. It depicts children, women, and men all pledging their lives to spread the word of the Evangelical faith, and crush all who appose it. The documentary starts with a pastor, who seems nice and wise at first, telling the children of the church to love thy neighbor... as long as thy neighbor accepts the "correct" faith. The main focus of the film, however, is the annual camp the Evangelical Church runs to drive even more Evangelical ideas into the minds of the youth. Throughout the film the audience sees children transform from shy, naive children into wannabe pastors with monstrous ideas about other cultures and religions. The movie is truly a horror film that really characterizes the ever growing majority faith in our mid-west portion of the country.
The documentary includes one-to-one interviews and stunning clips of the Evangelicals in their church to truly paint the evil picture that is the Evangelical Church.
The interviews provide a personal connection with the leaders of the church. The audience really gets a feel of how horrible these people are. Some truly believe deep in their hearts that they are right in what they think, others, as the audience can see, do it for the power and influence. The interviews help the audience break away from the hysteria that is shown within the film's depictions of the Evangelical Worship Services.
On the other hand, the viewer can see clips of the Evangelical Worship Services and can see the mass group as a whole to truly sink in to how crazy this movement is. The clips show pastors crying talking about killing homosexuals, children imagining threatening non-believers and their mothers supporting it.
These two visual devices do the documentary justice. They help enlighten the audience about how terrifying people are when they blindly follow a leader, and how evil man can be if man is manipulated into thinking murder can be justified.

TOW #26: "The Neglected Suicide Epidemic"

 About six years ago, a man named Jonny Benjamin took a walk to the Waterloo Bridge in London, and prepared to terminate his life. The man was diagnosed by a psychiatrist with schizophrenia, and Benjamin had the premature assumption that his life was never going to recover. However, his life perception changed when a stranger walked up to him and told him that everything was going to be okay. Benjamin did not jump, stating: "When he came along it burst the bubble of that world I was in. I felt faith, like I could talk to him." Such instances occur many times a day, but unfortunately most of the time there is no Neil Laybourn involved, and those who are in trouble stay trapped in their own "bubble." Emily Greenhouse's article "The Neglected Suicide Epidemic" was written in order to raise public awareness of growing mental health issues and remind everyone that they can make a difference in one person's life.

Greenhouse supports her argument that everyone should take action in the so-called "suicide epidemic" by employing anecdotes. Along with Benjamin's story, Greenhouse wrote about Jerome Motto, a California doctor who tried several times to have suicide barriers erected on the Golden Gate Bridge, the world's leading suicide location. Motto mentioned that in the 1970s, he had visited the apartment of a suicide victim and found a note that read, "I'm going to walk to the bridge. If one person smiles at me on the way, I won't jump." This inclusion reminds Greenhouse's audience that they–ordinary people–can make a huge difference in one person's life: they can have the same effect on one person that Neil Laybourn had on Jonny Benjamin.

Greenhouse also supports her argument by including empirical information and quantitative statistics in her article. She notes that in America, the suicide rates in middle-aged men and women have increased by 30% in the last decade, and that suicide has replaced car accidents in the number one injury-related cause of death. She states that this is not just an issue in the United States: 90% of those who attempt suicide in developing countries battle psychological ailments that do have cures. These facts and figures emphasize the horrifying truth that suicide is a rising health concern, but they also do the job of reminding the public that these maladies do have remedies, and that they can even help in finding these cures.

Tow #25 - "The Confessions of a Silk Road Kingpin"

The age of information is undoubtedly one of the most valuable things our generation has, but it comes with a price. In a world where anonymity runs rampant and tracking is nearly impossible without sophisticated technology, the negative impacts of the Internet remain just as obvious as the good ones. In "The Confessions of a Silk Road Kingpin" Patrick Howell O'Neill from the Daily Dot explores the underground drug ring of the internet- the infamous Silk Road.

The story is told as a narrative from the perspective of Steven Lloyd Sadler, a once prescription pill dealer turned heroin kingpin. Initially an IT guy working for system maintenance and administration, an opportunity which granted Sadler access to hundreds of thousands of "social security numbers, drivers' license numbers, mothers' maiden names, and other information that, when combined, could be used to set up prepaid credit cards in the names of other people". Nothing about what Sadler did was inherently evil, he didn't steal, hurt or destroy anything, but his actions have a heavy price of life in prison according to the criminal justice system.

O'Neill alludes to Breaking Bad, a popular TV show glamorizing the life of a New Mexican meth drug lord, Sadler was in a very similar situation. All Sadler's actions were done from the comfort of his own home operating on his computer on a secret online website called the Silk Road. The Silk Road could not be accessed by normal means or standard URLs. The Silk Road was located in a protected part of the Internet called the Deep Web. The name doesn't really do the place justice since the only requirement to access the site was downloading a special browser called “Tor.”

 Whether or not the ethics behind Sadler's actions were safe and sound, what he did is still a crime in the eyes of the law and protection is never 100%.

IRB #3 - How To Live

How To Live by Sarah Bakewell is a great philosophical read that doesn't only answer the difficult questions of life, it asks them. The answers come from the 15th contrary author Montaigne, who reached fame for his coining of the idea of an "essay". The simple thesis of the book is, to ask how one should live is very different from asking how to live. Immediately being drawn to the book by it's inviting cover design, I find myself even more drawn to the words inside. This book, although I am not finished reading, seems to be one of the most riveting book I have ever read, and I cannot wait to read more.

Tow #24 - Cosmos Rhetorical Analysis

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey is a 2014 American science documentary television series. The show is a follow-up to the 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, which was presented by Carl Sagan on the Public Broadcasting Service and is considered a milestone for scientific documentaries. This series was developed to bring back the foundation of science to network television at the height of other scientific-based television series and films. The show is presented by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who was inspired by Sagan as a young college student to become a scientist. In his show Tyson uses spectacular special effects, and clear narration to attract his audience, whom mostly are probably uninterested in science.

            Watching the show Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey is a fascinating sight and helps the mainly uninterested audience become fascinated by the visuals of the scientific topics that Tyson teaches. During the show Tyson travels through space and time in his fictional spacecraft showing his audience what a supernova really looks like, or how earth looked like millions of years ago. The television program shows bright lights of the explosions of stars in space that are visually appealing. What ever Tyson is narrating, it comes to life with the excellent animation seen in his program.

            Tyson also narrates with a clear voice, and diction that everyone can understand, helping draw an audience that does not care very much for science. He never uses scientific jargon, unless it is a scientific name and in that case he explains clearly what exactly the thing with the scientific name is. Tyson will explain easily to common man what a Black Hole is, and can easily demonstrate how the cavemen read the stars to know when seasons came. His clear narration fortifies his television show immensely because it can draw an audience that is not very interested in science.

            Through his clear narration and appealing visual effects, Tyson can attract the audience that does not like science, in order to receive greater ratings. This is necessary in order to fund his television program to keep the show on the air, with the purpose of teaching the general public about science.

Tow #23 - Article

In “Big Score”, an essay written by Elizabeth Kolbert in The New Yorker, the audience learns that the acronym "SAT" speak for themselves and no longer have meaning. The reader learns this through the retelling of a mother’s journey to retake the SATs as an adult, and the process that she goes through while completing the task. Kolbert uses anecdotes and metaphors to show through a mother’s experience how the SATs are much more difficult today than they were in the past.

            Kolbert uses many anecdotes to retell the history of the SATs while she explains the task to prepare for them. Kolbert adds an anecdote about the founder of the SATs, “Brigham intended the test to be administered to students who had already been admitted to college, for the purposes of guidance and counseling. Later, he argued that it was foolish to believe, as he once had, that the test measured “native intelligence.” Rather, he wrote, scores were an index of a person’s “schooling, family background, familiarity with English, and everything else.” Kolbert shares this to show how the more that the SAT is evolving, the more stressful it is becoming for students. Since the SAT has a different intent than was originally thought to have by the founder, than it may not be the best test for determining whether or not a student is smart enough to get into college. This anecdote allows the reader to understand the stress that is put on people preparing for the SATs because it tests more than just one’s intelligence.

            Kolbert also uses metaphors to help the reader understand the mother’s experience. She starts off by telling how when she took the SATs in high school, she was not successful. Despite, her unsuccessfulness, she managed to become a successful publisher. She uses a metaphor to explain how times are not the same for her son now, as they were for her when she was in high school. “The land I would be sending my little tadpole into was a different place.” This metaphor shows the pain that parents feel for their children who are taking the SATs. The SATs are not only more difficult than they were in the past, but there is also a lot more competition out there. Students can no longer rely on getting a good job out of college. This is why it is important for students to do well on the SATs so they get into the best college, and have the best opportunity to get a good job following college. Today’s competiveness only adds to the stress of students, and makes the current SATs more difficult than they have ever been.

            It is hard for parents to understand the stress that students have when taking the SATs. The test is much different than it was in the past, and that is why Kolbert retells the story of a mother trying to retake the SATs as an adult to help other parents understand the difficulty of the current SATs. Kolbert uses anecdotes and metaphors to prove how today’s SATs are more difficult than they have ever been.

Tow #22 - "Uncle Sam's Sweatshops"

 In today’s economy, the "best" way to manufacture a product is to find cheapest way to do it.  Outsourcing manufacturing has sky rocketed for many large retailers, as the labor is much cheaper.  However, because the job is being outsourced to developing nations, the conditions that workers labor under are often pitiful and unfair.  While the US government has called on retailers to improve these conditions, it seems that the government itself has not been following their own orders.  In the New York Times editorial, “Uncle Sam’s Sweatshops,” the editorial board at the New York Times uses examples and possible solutions to address the poor conditions of those who work to manufacture governmental merchandise and calls on the government to make a change.

In the second paragraph, the author immediately draws the reader to occurrences that happened in several different instances.  The author states that, “A factory in Bangladesh that makes uniforms for the General Services Administration beats workers to keep them in line.”  The use of these horrible instances help to perfectly exemplify the injustices that are occurring, and how the government is going against their own ideas.  By using these examples, the author is tugging at the emotions of the audience as they feel sympathetic for the laborers, thus more inclined to agree with the author and agree that the government must make a change. 

In the closing paragraph, the author directly calls on the government to “do better.”  The author then lists an array of possible solutions that the government can use to correct their wrongdoings.  In addition to providing the audience with solutions, the author shows that there are definite solutions that the government could have created to make the working conditions better, but they did not act upon it.  This helps to display the government more as the villain that has the abilities to change, but decides not to.  Because there are a plethora of solutions the government can take, the audience is inclined to feel that the audience must make a change. 

 Through real world occurrences of unfair treatment of laborers and possible solutions, the editorial board of the New York Times is able to effectively call the government to make a change in their outsourcing jobs, because the conditions these workers must labor over are unjust and unfair.  

Tow #21 - "Join Or Die" - Political Cartoon

            One of America’s first political cartoons was the “Join or Die” cartoon, which depicts a snake cut into several pieces. This cartoon was put into newspapers all around the English Colonies in order to heighten a sense of unity amongst the culturally diverse colonies at the time. Using the hyperbole “Join or Die,” and the metaphor of the separated snake, author Benjamin Franklin stresses the importance of Colonial Unity during the French and Indian War in the cartoon.

            “Join or Die” is an extreme measure, but was necessary for Franklin to stress colonial unity in the colonies because unity would have meant a victory for England in the war, and essentially a victory for the colonies to remain where they were. Franklin uses this three-word phrase as a call to action for all of the colonies in the mid 1700’s. Franklin urged them to unite under one common goal to ensure the survival of the colonies. If unity was never achieved the course of history would have taken a whole other route, and like people say, if England never one the French and Indian War, we would be speaking French right now. In the cartoon Franklin wants the colonies to unite like parts of a snake to help win the war.

            The metaphor of the colonies uniting like the body parts of a snake helps get the message across that Franklin wants unity, in order to win the war happening in the North America at the time. The analogy is that like a snake, the colonies can be a deadly force if unified. However, also like a snake, if it is cut up into pieces, it can be divided and conquered. This message was essential to an English victory because England had to fight wars in other places and needed the colonies to rise up and fight for their land.

            This cartoon is one of the first examples of colonial unity seen in colonial America. Using hyperbole and metaphor, the figurative language helped send out a message for colonial unity, ultimately leading to a victory in the war.