Exploration of Civil Disobedience in Sophocles Antigone, Kings Letter

Exploration of Civil Disobedience in Sophocles' Antigone, King's Letter from Birmingham Jail, and Plato's From Crito Civil disobedience spawns a major and widely debated issue by many who established by well-known intelligent scholars and many examples of civil disobedience become displayed. The acts of civil disobedience can be noted in major works such as Sophocles?s Antigone, King?s ?Letter from Birmingham Jail?, or even from Plato?s ?from Crito?. A specific claim exemplified throughout these works make that civil disobedience races in gaining popularity and should remain allowed, and continued to be seen as a solution to reform poorly established laws. A claim represented is, civil disobedience is right. Rhetorically, appeals such as credibility, logic and emotion can provide support for these claims. Creditability sources that support this appeal and claim about the commonness how civil disobedience is good come from Antigone, ?from Crito?, and ?Letter from Birmingham Jail?. The creditability shown in Antigone is represented through the author Sophocles. Sophocles is a c...

Gender & Jim Crow: Book Review Essay -- essays research papers fc

In Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore’s book Gender & Jim Crow, Gilmore illustrates the relations between African Americans and white in North Caroline from 1896 to 1920, as well as relations between the men and women of the time. She looks at the influences each group had on the Progressive Era, both politically and socially. Gilmore’s arguments concern African American male political participation, middle-class New South men, and African American female political influences. The book follows a narrative progression of African American progress and relapse. Gilmore argues that African American male political participation between 1890 and 1898 represented a movement toward greater inclusion. She claims that African American males in politics strove for the balance of power between political parties in North Carolina, and that the Populist-Republican victory in 1896 kept African American votes in contention and maintained some African American men in political office for a short period of time. There was an agreement between African Americans and whites that the â€Å"Best Men,† middle class African Americans, were to be the only African Americans to hold office. This was because by being dubbed the â€Å"Best Men,† they had met certain standards and were suitable for office according to the white politicians. The â€Å"Best Men† clashed with the South’s â€Å"New White Man,† who sought to re-monopolize voting rights and political power, as well as to completely dominate African Americans. Gilmore attri butes the â€Å"New White Man’s† goals to these men’s bitterness towards their fathers who were blamed for the defeat in the Civil War, southern underdevelopment, and black progress. Nonetheless, African American men rapidly increased power in politics when many positions became publicly elected. Gilmore reasons that the progress of African American men in politics caused upwardly mobile and middle-class New South men, Southern Progressives, to formulate disenfranchisement and Jim Crow laws, and to later blame the deficient â€Å"cracker† for acting on their verbal violence. She also says that white supremacists reacted to white women’s movement into public space, urbanization, industrialization, and African-American advancement, and â€Å"responded to black power even as [they] capitalized on black weakness† (p 118). The â€Å"Best Men† were blamed for the supposed rapists and malingerers in the Afr... ...th Carolina. I agree with her arguments, and found a great deal of the information in this book surprising, and also disturbing. I did not know a lot of the history of race relation in North Carolina, which was different from the rest of the south since whites barely outnumbered African Americans at that time in North Carolina. Because of this legal segregation came late and was more intense since the African Americans were able to put up more of a fight. All of Gilmore’s evidence supports her arguments, and makes a lot of sense. She did enough research and knows enough about the South that there is no reason any of the standpoints that she makes should be false. Glenda Gilmore’s book Gender & Jim Crow shows a different point of view from a majority of history of the south and proves many convictions that are not often stated. Her stance from the African American point of view shows how harsh relations were at this time, as well as how hard they tried for equity in society. Gilmore’s portrayal of the Progressive Era is very straightforward and precise, by placing educated African American women at the center of Southern political history, instead of merely in the background.

Bottled Water Essay

Water a very important part of our daily lives. We use it for many things but most importantly we drink it. So want it flavor, some want it cold others want it from the bottle some don’t care is long is they get six cups a day. What it comes down to is where we get it from. Do you buy it at a store or do you just use the tap at home. Some reasons why you should buy it are convenience and safety. Tap has it’s positives as well like it is healthier and better for the environment. Here are the arguments for both sides and there counter arguments. Bottled water convenience helps out a lot of people around the world. When we need to get water to a shelter or to a third world country the easiest and best way is bottled water. It is always there and has a good shelf life. It was there to help people from Hurricanes to Blood drives. It is easily transportable and accessible. The convenience of bottled water also helps people more likely to drink water in the amount they need and as a substitute for other drinks like soda. Bottled water is also safer to drink because it is easier to recall if there is something wrong with it. They are always testing and sampling the water and if something is wrong they know what batch is bad and where it went. It is easy to get the water back and ship out safe water to where ever the recall was. In some places bottled water is the only thing safe to drink. When disasters strike or a tap water system is not in place bottled water is the safest thing you can drink. Tap water is a lot healthier for you than bottled water. It is tested more and has more regulations than bottled water. With more regulations the water has less harmful chemicals and therefore more healthier for you. Tap water like bottled water is regulated by the FDA. While they are both regulated by the FDA tap water has more regulations and more testing than bottled water. Being that tap water is distributed to everyone practically free it has to be better regulated for everyone’s well being. Tap water is also better for the environment. This makes it better for you. With less plastic being used there is less toxins and water being produced. People who drink tap water usually just use a metal bottle and re-use it all the time. Tap water does not come in a container of plastic it comes from your faucet. Using a re usable container like glasses pitchers and re-usable water bottles does far less damage to the environment than plastic water bottles. Even though we can re-cycle plastic it doesn’t mean that it is really helps the environment. Most water bottles don’t even get recycled they get tossed in with all the other trash that does not get recycled. One is safer one is healthier. One helps out people in crisis while the other causes less damage to the environment as a whole. Bottled and tap water both have their benefits. Both have there purposes and are beneficial to society. Bottled water is convenient and safe while Tap is better for the environment and healthier. So open the cap or turn on the faucet and drink up. Cause we all need it.

Telephone’s Influence on Society

Over the centuries, people have been striving towards a fast, reliable means of communication. At first, those gaps were bridged with language, usable in face-to-face encounters and then written language, which could be transported over vast distances, though the timeliness of the message left something to be desired. Some civilizations used methods other than written languages to communicate messages accurately across long distances. Perhaps the most famous example would be the Incans of South America. When one village had to deliver a message to another village, several colored pieces of string would be knotted in a specific pattern then run to the neighboring village to deliver the message. Other peoples simply used oral messengers to carry the communication to others. Again, the problems with these systems were two-fold. If one simply sent a messenger, the communication could get lost in the traveling process, and if one sent some sort of written messages, those devices could easily be misplaced. Also, these methods relied on the speed of the messenger, which could vary, and the distance the message had to travel. For instance, in the War of 1812, the English and Americans signed the Treaty of Ghent in late 1814, effectively ending the conflict. However, it took six weeks for word to reach the capital of the United States and even longer for it to reach the outlying cities. Because of this, the bloody Battle of New Orleans occurred after the treaty had been signed, costing the British armed forces over 2,000 lives. Obviously, the need for instantaneous and accurate communication was reaching a paramount level with civilizations being spread across such vast distances. The telephone, invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876, solved this problem by transforming human speech into a series of electrical signals that could be sent very much like a telegraph, though on different wires. This invention took quite a while to catch on as the now popular telegraph system had a stable infrastructure already in place. However, the benefits of instantaneous, clear communication eventually outweighed the convenience of the existing infrastructure, and the telephone became the preferred means of communication across distances. Before the telephone, people generally communicated through written prose, usually some type of letter or other document. Although the telegraph did much to speed up the communication process, it was still too cumbersome for everyday use and was not something that normal people used to communicate with their friends and family. Long letter were the norm, with face to face contact being preferred with neighbors unless there was some sort of dispute to work out. Men and women also spent much more time in face to face communication when catching up with the neighborhood gossip. Local clubs and gathering were often hot spots for these exchanges. The telephone made these interactions at once more personal and yet more distant. People were able to communicate instantly (at least they were by the 1960’s when telephones were in more than four out of five American homes) and cost-effectively. For exchanges that took place over great distances, this was quite an advantage, as the news reaching these people was no longer outdated. But it also brought a gradual reduction in the time spent in face to face contact with neighbors or other local peoples. The telephone gradually morphed into many forms involving both wired and wireless technology. From the phonograph to the dial phone to the Iphone these innovations have become almost central to everyday life of modern Americans. And without these products, daily life would be much different, especially with the value people now place upon instantaneous information. This sort of communication is now central to most civilizations, and it would be impossible without the services of the telephone.

Through the Lens Essay

Does a Picture Really Tell A Thousand Words? According to John Berger, photographs from August 6th, 1945, are â€Å"images of hell. † (316) That was the day the US dropped an atomic bomb on Japan, killing countless innocent civilians and severely burning others. In his essay, â€Å"Hiroshima,† Berger faces the idea that our culture has â€Å"abandoned† the â€Å"concept of evil. † (320) Countless pictures seem to be the only thing left of that day, and from Berger’s perspective, the true meaning of that event has been hidden, even though the facts are still in textbooks.The concept of horrific pictures being taken plays an important role in Berger’s thoughts about Hiroshima, because those pictures are what initially sparked his interest. However, the idea of sharing of graphing pictures is called into question by Susan Sontag in her essay, â€Å"Regarding the Pain of Others,† who points out that war photography should have some form of censorship because of the effect it may have on victims or families who have lost their loved ones. While Berger doesn’t seem to promote graphic photography, it seems that from is point of view, pictures such as these make a reality of what otherwise might just become another page in our history books. â€Å"These paintings [by survivors] were shown on Japanese television. Is it conceivable that the BBC would show these pictures on Channel One at a peak hour? † (319) He makes a strong point that American television would never show those pictures without â€Å" reference to ‘political’ and ‘military’ realities† (319) because it was our country that caused such destruction. Sontag almost reinforces this idea by saying that â€Å"the camera brings the viewer close, too close,† (259) but at the ame time contradicts it by implying that war pictures sometimes provide inaccurate information because of new age technology. Cameras and c omputers today have the ability to enhance the main focus, what the photographer wants you to look at, and blur out other details which may change a picture completely. â€Å"The real thing may not be fearsome enough, and therefore needs to be enhanced; or reenacted more convincingly. † (259) This brings out a good point, although cameras used in 1945 wouldn’t have that kind of technology, but they can still be edited today.That being said, a picture can be inaccurate in more ways than one. While the Hiroshima pictures are heartbreaking to look at, Berger fails to address the fact that not all war pictures tell the full story, along with what may have happened before and after the picture was taken, and some may be taken completely out of context. Sontag brings in this idea by talking about a famous picture of a South Vietnamese General shooting a Vietcong suspect, which turned out to be staged. This idea calls Berger’s argument into question, because it is unkn own which pictures are â€Å"real† and which are mainly for ublicity purposes. We don’t know what happened before, after, or even what’s going on outside the frame on a picture just by looking at it. Only the photographer and the people present at that moment know the whole truth. Although Sontag brings in some point that were missed by Berger, Sontag reinforces Berger’s speculation that US television and newspapers only show what the government wants the public to see, and nothing more. She adds that the military promoted â€Å"images that illustrated America’s absolute military superiority over its enemy. † (260) in the Gulf War in 1991.This idea really brings the true motives of our nation out, which is really what Berger’s entire argument is based off of. He tries to make the US look like bullies, killing innocent people to scare their government so that we look like a strong country that defeats the bad guys and protects its citi zens. â€Å"It was not a miscalculation, an error, or the result of a situation deteriorating so rapidly that it gets out of hand. † (319) This quote proves that, from Berger’s perspective, the US purposely caused such an event, which was preplanned , not a defense mechanism.While Sontag doesn’t specify an opinion about why the US only shows pictures that make ourgovernment look good, she does mention that â€Å"the use of cameras at the front for nonmilitary purposes have become much stricter as war has become an activity prosecuted with increasingly exact optical devices for tracking the enemy. † (260) This would explain why we don’t see many pictures of the war going on right now, even though it’s been going on for many years already. Berger aims his focus on Hiroshima alone, while Sontag looks at the big picture of war photography in itself.Sontag would assumingly agree with Berger about the issue of Hiroshima, how horrifying it was and how those pictures play such a big role. At the same time, I think this would further promote her idea that war photography is sometimes too harsh, even though without seeing those pictures, one might not be able to imagine such horror. However, Sontag might not agree with Berger when he says â€Å"the memory of these events should be continually before our eyes. † (320) A lot of pictures should be continually before our eyes, and unfortunately Hiroshima is only an example of events hat would be forgotten without visual aids to remind us. He himself is an example, not interested in the book on his desk until he opened it and was reminded of such an event. But like Sontag says, â€Å"to display the dead, after all, is what the enemy does. † (259) In many third world countries, people see death and sickness all the time. Civilians in places like Iraq and Afghanistan probably see death more than anyone, and we, the enemy, are the ones showing it to them. For us, war pictu res hit too close to home, especially for amilies that have loved ones overseas fighting for our country, but what about people that have to witness it firsthand? They don’t always have a choice. Berger, who is British, calls his friend from America, the one he talks about in the beginning, â€Å"innocent,† saying that she looks at a â€Å"nuclear holocaust without considering its reality. † (321) But in a way, many Americans do that. We could â€Å"google† many kinds of pictures, graphic or not, whenever we feel like it, but do we really think about what it would be like to be there?This is the problem with Sontag’s idea about war photos not being shown; without them, many Americans would probably be even more naive than they already are. If I told you a bomb was dropped on Japan and many people were killed and burned, you would probably feel sympathy, but you would probably go on with your day, as would a lot of people. But seeing pictures, child ren burned, dead bodies, that would make it more real, and that’s why Berger says we should constantly see things like that. Unfortunately, that can’t be publicly shown, especially on television, where verything has to be â€Å"family oriented. † There’s a downside to both arguments: we can’t constantly be reminded of such horrible things like Hiroshima, but we also can’t be completely out of the loop. War photography is a controversial topic, but it’s one that will most likely always be part of life. As long as there’s wars, there will be people trying to expose the events and realities of it. Works Cited Berger, John â€Å"Hiroshima† Fields of Reading, 2010, Bedford/ St. Martin’s Sontag, Susan â€Å"Regarding the Pain of Others† Fields of Reading, 2010, Bedford/ St. Martin’s

Intercultural conflict Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Intercultural conflict - Essay Example He took it as if I was ridiculing a practice he deems acceptable and logical. He asked, â€Å"What did you gain from such comment?† I was caught off-guard, and failed to see the root cause immediately. He also said that I got annoyed because I realized that there are so many immigrants in my country already. I was shocked because that topic was over a week ago already. He also said I was just against their practices and beliefs. My friend received the meta-message of what was supposed to be a casual and innocent remark negatively. Here, it is obvious that the individual differences between the sender and the receiver of the message affect how the meta-message (underlying meaning of the message) is interpreted. The conflict had micro, meso, and macro dimensions of conflict (Sorrells 182). The micro dimension is the difference in the ways we were raised. He failed to see the lightness in my comment because he is not used to careless remarks. He was brought up in a serious manner, while I grew up in a very open and light-hearted family circle. There are even times when he takes jokes seriously, because he does not know that it was supposed to be a joke. The meso dimension is his linking himself to immigrants. It seems like he sees Americans as coming from a different group, and that immigrants will always be outsiders. Interestingly, that is how he thinks Americans think of them. The macro dimension is the differences in our religions. My friend sees the Islamic garb as something important and logical, and he took offense on how lightly and jokingly I referred to it. It is insensitivity on my part, though, not to have considered this. While there may be three dimensions present in this intercultural conflict, the solution, basically, is in the careful sending and interpretation of the meta-messages in every communication. Being careful means not letting assumptions hinder one from seeing what the sender of the message is

Business Memo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Business Memo - Essay Example ittee believes that, thought we have already passes the deadlines for certain construction works due to unexpected circumstances, we should move forward with engineering and customization of the equipment to be installed in the new facility, as well as with the development of sales and marketing strategies for the new drug. This will enable us to work in full and introduce the new drug to the market immediately after the facility is launched. Secondly, since we consider the delay in environmental assessment to be the major, and critical, problem as for now, and taking into account the fact that ET had 3 months for solving it, but has presented no conclusive reports, we strongly recommend taking immediate measures for eliminating this problem. In particular, since ET shows not to perform its immediate responsibilities in the scope and within deadlines critical for our company, we recommend replacing the firm with another environmental consulting company. In such a way we can speed up the environmental assessment process in order to move on to the next stages of construction or clean up, if