Monday, January 31, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
24 Hour Nazi Party People
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-24-2011/24-hour-nazi-party-people
This Daily Show segment was shocking enough just in its content matter. Comparing people to the Nazi's is an extreme claim to make for obvious reason. But to me the most shocking part of this segment is the fact that the people on Fox News were able to make the claim that they were outraged by the words of Congressmen Steve Cohen and then went further and claimed that they NEVER used the comparison. Jon Stewart may have presented the clips countering the claims of the Fox News people in a comedic way, as per usual, but that doesn’t make the clips any less real.
What is even worse about the situation is the fact that the people would say things to the effect of “I didn’t call him a Nazi, I called him *something completely synonymous with Nazi actions*”. This is an absurd tactic to make listeners compare politicians from the other side with some of the worst figures in history.
Using rhetoric to make false connotations is not doing your civic duty. By using rhetoric in this way you are deceiving people in order to get them to side with you as opposed to actually having a grounded argument. Strong rhetoric is necessary in some cases, but manipulative rhetoric never is.
This Daily Show segment was shocking enough just in its content matter. Comparing people to the Nazi's is an extreme claim to make for obvious reason. But to me the most shocking part of this segment is the fact that the people on Fox News were able to make the claim that they were outraged by the words of Congressmen Steve Cohen and then went further and claimed that they NEVER used the comparison. Jon Stewart may have presented the clips countering the claims of the Fox News people in a comedic way, as per usual, but that doesn’t make the clips any less real.
What is even worse about the situation is the fact that the people would say things to the effect of “I didn’t call him a Nazi, I called him *something completely synonymous with Nazi actions*”. This is an absurd tactic to make listeners compare politicians from the other side with some of the worst figures in history.
Using rhetoric to make false connotations is not doing your civic duty. By using rhetoric in this way you are deceiving people in order to get them to side with you as opposed to actually having a grounded argument. Strong rhetoric is necessary in some cases, but manipulative rhetoric never is.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Girl Power
The purpose of my PHREE (Peers Helping Reaffirm, Educate, and Empower) meeting tonight was for girls to workshop the monologues that they had written about survival, loss, love or pain. I sat down and waited for the workshop to begin and to hear the suggestions the leader had for the writing the girls had done. I wasn’t expecting anything extraordinary. I wasn’t expecting eloquently given speeches. I was wrong. The first girl talked about the boys in her life that started out as her friends and then turned into abusers or users. The next girl explicitly retold the story of how she had been sexually abused and how therapy was helping her recover from the trauma. The third girl read a beautiful poem she had written that was about how she had been molested as a child. As each girl read I was awed by their courage, "How can they vocalize such personal things?" I though. As the tears in my eyes began to go away, I looked at each of the girls and saw something in them that I hadn't seen before: incredible strength.
Chapter three of the textbook gives tips on how to get over nerves when speaking in public. When I read it, I thought about the sweaty-palms and shaky knees I get when I step up in front of a class to speak about impersonal things like books. Now, I think about those three girls and how they were able to speak about such personal issues without any sign of nerves and realize that maybe speaking isn't so scary. It just takes a little bit of courage.
Chapter three of the textbook gives tips on how to get over nerves when speaking in public. When I read it, I thought about the sweaty-palms and shaky knees I get when I step up in front of a class to speak about impersonal things like books. Now, I think about those three girls and how they were able to speak about such personal issues without any sign of nerves and realize that maybe speaking isn't so scary. It just takes a little bit of courage.
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