Horror in Kandahar

After reading this article from the New York Times's Editorial Board, I am ashamed to be an American. This past weekend, one American soldier stationed in Afghanistan shot at least 16 Afghanistan civilians execution style from three different villages. Oh ya, and of those 16, nine were children. First, the soldiers release a video of them urinating on corpses in January and last month different American soldiers burned Korans. The soldier who did this was a father. How can you shoot innocent children and have children of your own? Reading this article was terrible for the United States who is trying to make a peace agreement with the Taliban. I just don't understand how soldiers can shoot innocent civilians on purpose, especially execution style. This is going to make the United States question the mental capacity and mental illness of who they accept into the armed forces.

The rhetorical techniques of the Editorial Board appeal to logos and a strong opinion against what the soldier did. The logos is shown when the author quotes the background on the soldier including his age, family relations, and past tours in the armed forces. However, the name of the soldier has not been released. The author also cites the past recent issues of American soldiers disgracing the United States with rash and disappointing actions. The Editorial Board shows the number of soldiers in Afghanistan when they write, "There are roughly 90,000 American troops in Afghanistan now, with 22,000 scheduled to leave by this fall," (Editorial Board 1). The strong opinion of the Editorial Board in their view of a solution is shown when they write, "The punishment must be swift," (Editorial Board 1). Honestly, I couldn't agree with them more.

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Sack the NFL bounty hunters

Most of us will agree that football is a violent sport to begin with. Professionals in the NFL can end up with endless injuries from brain damage to torn ACLs to career-ending injuries. If you have read some of my past posts, from Thank You Teddy Roosevelt!, some 18 players even died playing football in 1905 back when the sport was first starting. However, now a new aspect has been introduced to the game to make it even more violent: cash rewards for giving an opposing player an injury. Coach Gregg Williams, defensive coach of the New Orleans Saints, has been offering his defensive players cash rewards for injuring opposing players. Sidelining: $1500 and being carried off the field: $1000. And both the head coach and the general manager knew of these dealings. As if that isn't bad enough, Coach Williams used this system on past teams of Washington Redskins and Buffalo Bills. Football players already have enough drive to protect their QB and injury anyone who threatens him, they don't need an added bonus.

The Editorial Board of the Washington Post expresses a strong opinion and does their research to establish credibility. The author believes that the NFL officials need to send Coach Williams and the receivers of his bounties a message with suspensions, fines, and other punishments. The Editorial Board shows this opinion when they write, "The NFL must send a resounding message that there is no place for such savagery even in a violent sport," (Editorial Board 1). Their effective research shows in how they questioned past players from not only the Saints, but also the Redskins and the Bills. They even questioned the head coach and general manager about the bounties. This technique shows the author's credibility of knowing who and what to ask. I have to agree with the Washington Post that these bounties are not necessary and should be punished profoundly.

Source: Editorial Board. "Punish football's bounty hunters." The Washington Post 8 Mar. 2012, sec. Opinion: n. pag. The Washington Post. Web. 11 Mar. 2012.

Changing the Chemistry of Earth's Oceans

                        

Last year in AP Chemistry, my class read the book Seasick by Alanna Mitchell. The book talked about all the ways that the carbon compounds, burning fossil fuels, and the other ways we are destroying the planet are affecting the ocean. Though at times dense, it was a very well researched and written detail of many different research institutions and scientists on the state of Earth's oceans. The book wrote about phytoplankton, coral reefs, pH, and dead zones. In this article by the Editorial Board of the New York Times, the author writes of the acidification of the world's seawater and how the ocean is becoming more acidic in the span of a couple of decades, what may the fastest in the past 300 million years. Obviously, this is another environmental issue, that as the author says "with no signs that we have the political will to slow, much less halt, the process," (Editorial Board 1). The saddest part of the change in the ocean's chemical composition for me is the destruction of the beautiful coral reefs which are beautiful ecosystems that house many organisms. The calcium carbonates on the coral reefs are slowly wearing away so much that even the Great Coral Reef will soon be destroyed of its beauty.

The Editorial Board uses some efficient techniques to convey a message in a short article. The author writes of the cause of the chemical change and explains what acidification is, obviously appealing to a very general audience that may not know much about chemistry. The logos appeal is found in the citation of research at Columbia University by paleoceanographers that the ocean's pH is the fastest acidification in the past 300 million years. An opinion is also revealed in the article when the author writes, "with no signs that we have the political will to slow, much less halt, the process," (Editorial Board 1), which shows that the author is obviously in favor of trying to prevent further acidification. However, they know that the political support will be to low to make enough of a difference. I really hope that the political support does arise in order to preserve the beauty underneath the surface of the oceans.

University of Texas Admissions Controversy

The University of Texas at Austin has a unique admission factor consideration system that promotes diversity. About seventy five percent of their student body comes from students who graduated in the top ten percent of their class because the university grants any student that falls under this category automatic admission to the school. In the remaining twenty five percent, the admissions at University of Texas at Austin evaluates prospective students not only based on GPAs and SAT scores, but also on their family living conditions and the number of languages spoken in their house. These factors help promote the school's diversity, but Abigail Fisher found fault with this. She did not get accepted into the school in 2008 and brought to the Court the belief that the system "offended the Constitution's promise of equal protection" (Editorial Board).

The article "Editorial: Race-based admissions" uses strong justice diction and formulates an opinion. Some of the justice diction includes "Supreme Court", "admonition", "appeals court", "precedent", "circuit split", and "ruling". The opinion formulated by the Editorial Board in this article is shown in the line "If the court finds fault with UT's unique approach, it should keep its ruling narrow to address only those instances in which the university may have overstepped existing law," (Editorial Board). They believe that University of Texas at Austin should correct their wrongdoings but keep their system to promote their diversity. If the system helps the school become diverse, then a few cases should not erase that system.

Source: Editorial Board. "Editorial: Race-based admissions ." Washington Post 3 Mar. 2012, sec. Opinion: n. pag. Washington Post. Web. 4 Mar. 2012.

Valedictorian Fights Deportation

In Miami, Florida, Daniela Pelaez is fighting the judge's ruling of having her and her sister Dayana Pelaez deported back to their home country of Colombia. Daniela and her sister have been in the United States for fourteen years and their brother was even permitted to become a citizen, who is now serving in the United States Military. Daniela is a senior at North Miami Senior High School, valedictorian of her class of 823, and has a 6.7 GPA. She has applied to many prestigious schools and was looking forward to choosing in April which college she will attend. Honestly, if the justice system allowed their brother to become a United States citizen, why wouldn't they allow his two sisters? The article implied that the two girls were both good kids with no records of trouble. It would be a terrible disappointment if they were shipped back to Colombia with all that they have achieved in their journey of the American dream.

John Couwels uses a heavy pathos appeal and quotes a credible source in his CNN article "Miami valedictorian fighting deportation". Couwels believes that Daniela and her sister should be allowed to stay in the United States and that it would be a disappointment for such a smart, hard-working person to be forced to leave. This is shown by how Couwels lists off her class rank, GPA, and the amazing colleges she applies to. Another technique that Couwels uses is that he quotes Michael Wildes who is a professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law about the case and how he is in disbelief with the United States justice system. Wildes is a credible source and the audience would be able to trust a professor's opinion from a law school. I agree with Couwels and Wildes with their hope that Daniela and her sister don't get deported.

Click here to read the article

Source: Couwels, John. "Miami valedictorian fighting deportation – In America - CNN.com Blogs." In America- You Define America What Defines You - CNN.com Blogs. CNN, 2 Mar. 2012. Web. 4 Mar. 2012. <http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/02/miami-valedictorian-fighting-deportation/?hpt=hp_bn1>.

Girl Scouts of the USA's 100th Anniversary

                                       

Many girls can remember being Daisies, many moving on to Brownies, and some moving on to Girl Scouts. I know I was a Brownie for a couple of years and can remember some of the field trips and the selling of the infamous Girl Scout cookies. This month, Girl Scouts celebrates a century of its history. Beginning back in 1912 in Savannah, Georgia with Juliette Gordon Low gathering the first troop. The interesting thing I found after reading about the history of Girl Scouts was there was a mixture of religions from the start including Jews, Catholics, and Protestants, along with integrated groups of African Americans, Caucasians, Asians and other ethnicities. There were, however, about 1500 all-black Girl Scout troops found mainly in the South back in 1952. Today, the organization continues to be accepting of all races, ethnicities, and recently of gays and a transgender.

Russ Bynum's "Girl Scouts mark 100 years of narrowing the gender gap" writes of a logos appeal and the history of the Girl Scouts. The logos appeal is found with his quotations of credible and relative sources including a current Girl Scout Kathryn Hoersting to talk about what she does in her troop today, Mary Rothschild who is a historian who studies the Girl Scouts from Arizona State, Anastatia Sims who is a history professor at Georgia Southern who studies the life of Juliette Gordon Low, and Milly England who is one of the earliest Girl Scouts still alive at age 111 from her troop in 1914 in New Bedford. Another logos appeal that Bynum uses is statistics including registration numbers over the years, number of integrated versus all black troops, and number of Girl Scout cookie boxes sold and the income for Girl Scouts. Bynum also appeals to the audience by writing of a few famous celebrities who were Girl Scouts in their youth including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Venus Williams, and Mariah Carey. Bynum writes an interesting history in the celebration of the Girl Scouts's 100th anniversary.

Source:  Bynum, Russ. "Girl Scouts mark 100 years of narrowing the gender gap." The Boston Globe 4 Mar. 2012, Sunday ed., sec. Metro: B4. Print.

Flight Seatmate Profiling

Anyone who has had to travel by airplanes to go somewhere for work or vacation knows how much they fear the screaming kid or the needy passenger that needs to stand up and stretch every fifteen minutes and is sitting at the window seat. Who doesn't get a headache from their fellow passengers? Well, a Dutch airline has decided to introduce a system where passengers can choose who they sit next to based on Facebook and other social network profiling. Considering the last flight I took home from February vacation included a special package of three screaming children and another one who was kicking my seat from behind me, this new system doesn't sound too bad. But, let's be realistic. A profile for flying character? This could include qualities of "cracking my knuckles" or "humming constantly" (Weiner). I think the system could work, except there could be a lack of honesty from those high maintenance passengers that need to ask, talk, and do everything in the squished passenger area of an airplane.

Juli Weiner's "That Seat Is So Taken" is a comic profiling article with an unique structure and ability to make the audience laugh. Weiner starts out with the facts and informs her audience of the what, who and how the Dutch airline KLM is going to introduce this seatmate profiling system. Then, with a sense of humor, makes the ideal profile of who not to sit next to and somewhat mocking the system. With categories of name, birthday, occupation, relationship status, interests, favorite quotes, and views on religion and politics, Weiner puts the most antagonistic qualities on the profile. From a favorite quote of "Sorry, do you mind moving your hand just a bit? I think you're technically touching my side of the armrest," to an interest of "stretching" and an occupation of "Perfume, cologne, and bathroom-spray human test subject," (Weiner), the audience can laugh and relate to past obnoxious and needy seatmates that they have had in the past. Weiner sure did know how to get a chuckle out of her audience when she wrote this one.

Click here to read the article

Source: Weiner, Juli. "That Seat Is So Taken." The New York Times 4 Mar. 2012, Sunday ed., sec. Opinion: n. pag. The New York Times. Web. 4 Mar. 2012.