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We encourage everyone to visit our Facebook Group to learn about the modifications being made to Chapter 17 of the University of Wisconsin System Policy.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=38307057377

Great Expectations

I have one semester left before graduation and then it is either “Hello career,” or “Hello second degree.” Having to choose between leaving academia and continuing my education has me asking a question I have been asking for 4.5 years: Why is it expected for a young adult to choose a major/career so early in life? It’s true that some people grow up knowing what they are going to do or they figure it out somewhere along the way, but for those who don’t have the luxury of knowing, why must the world pressure then to choose?

At this point, the pressure from family and the University, through financial aid, to choose what I want to do for the rest of my life is overwhelming. I personally have not had enough exposure and experiences to make that decision. When I feel pressured to make a decision, I always say, “I’m only 22, I have the rest of my life to figure it out.” Usually the response is, “You are 22, and old enough to make the decision. Take the responsibility and make it.”

I think the journey in life is more important than the endpoint. I don’t understand how if you follow your heart and make good decisions, you can end up in a place you will not be happy. I have chosen to go into nursing because I believe it is the best fit for me with the exposure and experiences I have had. I have yet to start my nursing education, but I will have my zoology degree finished when I do begin. Finishing my zoology degree has been a nice midpoint between my family and I. As long as I have a degree in something, they seem to be happy.

Through my time in college, I have come to terms with the fact that I may never find that one career that will fit me perfectly. I have even come to understand that what I really want to do with my life is not actually something I can study, more, something that happens. I have come to realize that my time in college has been a way of connecting the dots in order to achieve my real goal. I guess my life after college will further connect the dots until I achieve my goals.

The two-faced world

The mystery of exam season, number 1: You feel like doing things you wouldn't even imagine doing when you have much time. Even a boring documentary on the discovery channel seems so interesting, and all of a sudden you feel an urge to clean up your messy room you haven't really cared to clean up for the last few days (or even weeks.) Well, this is exactly what happened to me as well. Although I had - and still have - loads and loads of work and study to be done, I suddenly couldn't resist but to agree to watch "Batman III : The Dark Knight" with my friends when they invited me over last friday night.

I'm usually not a big fan of action movies, and I just simply hate movies with unrealistic heroes with superpowers. And, ok, I'll just be straightforward and come clean with this. I hope you won't judge me based on this information and think I'm some kind of weirdo, but I haven't had seen any of the Batman, Superman, Spiderman, whatever -man series before. The past summer, when Dark Knight first started showing in the movies, my boyfriend was literally dying to go to the movies with me to watch it. Don't get me wrong, I'm usually not that bad a girlfriend, but I made excuses every time not to go to the movies or to watch a different movie. Same when my brother wanted to go, when my parents wanted to go, and when so many of my friends wanted to go. So while eveyone else was watching Dark Knight, I probably watched almost all other showing movies in the theaters during that period of time.

Well, anyways, then I decided to watch Dark Knight last friday because first of all, I didn't really feel like studying on a friday night, even though I actually had to because I had extreme work load, and second, I actually thought the movie would be quite interesting. Maybe it was just the stress and the weather that affected me in a weird way, but YES, I did agree to join my friends for Dark Knight that night. The betrayal my boyfriend has felt last weekend, I would just simply say, was simply too much to put into words :P

Now, so much for the wordy intro and into the main point. In fact, despite the dreadfully long running time, and despite the fact that I'm not a big fan of that particular genre of movie, I actually got quite absorbed into the movie throughout the whole 2 and a half hour period. Should it be weird of me to say that a super hero action movie, yes, the very genre of movie I have avoided and hated so much during my not-so-short 20 years' course of life, has depth to it, but I did find the movie quite thought-invoking.

From this point now on, this post will be very much a spoiler-esque so if you haven't watched the movie yet I recommend you stop reading. I hate spoilers too, and I feel bad that I'm about to write one as well, but I'm pretty sure I was the last one on earth to watch this movie so I'll just continue writing without feeling guilty.

Remember Freakfest (wow, that was already a month and a half ago!) and how many Jokers there were all over State Street? I was actually quite impressed how so many people decided to dress up as one, and, I must say that was another very influential reason that made me want to watch the movie a little bit more. Plus, there was the death of Heath Ledger, the actor who played Joker. In a lot of ways, Joker was an impressive and an unforgettable character. And of course, I shouldn't forget Batman, after all, he's the hero, he's the one who has his name on the title of the series, how could I possibly leave him out?

But the most interesting character of all, at least to me, was Harvey Dent, a.k.a. two face. Because while Batman and Joker clearly represented absolute good versus evil, Harvey Dent was good went bad, which seemed more realistic to me, and in contrast to the two group of people on separate vessels who weren't able to push the button to save their own lives, which was touching but unrealistic and "so movie" at most, Harvey Dent's completely distorted self came to me as more true-life.

It is impossible to clear cut the world we are living in now into the good and bad. Rather, the world we are living in have become so complex that almost everything is in the grey area. From Harvey Dent, the icon of right and justice, to Two Face, vicious and frightful both inside and outside, it was one pretty damn big transformation. Did the betrayal of those whom he had believed in, and the distress from the death of his beloved transform the good in him to the bad? Or, was it only due to his ceaseless effort to restrain his inner evil and to achieve and realize "justice" that he could have been viewed as justice itself to the public? Or maybe he wasn't either good or evil, but might have been two face from the very beginning.

Perhaps everyone has both sides of Harvey Dent's faces - the handsome and the hideous, and the people we view as "nice" and "good-natured" are simply capable of showing their nicer part of the two faces more often than the other people, whereas the people we view as "evil" and "malicious" are more capable of showing the uglier part of their faces. Maybe after all, it all comes down to how well you cover up your uglier part from other people. When all my complicated thoughts led to this conclusion I was rather bitter - but then once again, I thought, life always is bitter.

It's awkward to bring in reality and economic theories into discussion, especially after all this rambling about good and evil, but how on earth could people not activate the triggering device in the Joker's social experiment scene? Game theory it is. (If you don't know what "game theory" is, google it up. If you don't want to, that's also fine. No need to understand this concept to follow my trail of thoughts in this particular post.) Chances are, if Joker really did stick to his original plan, they would have died anyways if they hadn't blown the other vessel off. They could have lived, if they did manage to sacrifice the other vessel for themselves. I'm pretty sure if this experiment had taken place in real life, (I'm glad not though,) both sides would definitely have pressed the button. Well, I guess this movie needed at least some hope and the faith in the good of people, otherwise the movie would have been too realistic and scary that it would almost have been uncomfortable for me to watch.

Anyways, unlike almost all other movies with the rather "cliche" repatory in which there are always a good and bad, and the good always wins in the end, Dark Knight was too realistic that it made my blood run cold. That night, I was tired after an especially long and heavy-loaded week, and an especially long and thought-invoking movie, but I couldn't get to sleep right away on my bed because I had too many thoughts all scrambled up in my head.

p.s. Rachel Dawes (the heroine of the movie) has these big, but drowsy and drooping eyes which I am not a big fan of most of the times, but I found her surprisingly attractive. Plus, she seemed very familiar, so I googled her up on the internet. BINGO! She was the girl who was on Mona Lisa Smile, one of my favorite movies. (So yes, this is my usual appetite when it comes to movies.) That's not all. Well, all of you guys might have known this already, but Google, (the greatest search engine of all times,) told me that her real name was Maggie Gyllenhaal, and yes, she's Jake Gyllenhaal's sister! No wonder I found her so attractive, haha :P

Run-On...I think not!

This is my attempt at creating a really long sentence. I am hoping that I do not have a run-on here. It is 260 words!

When the children crept up to their respective rooms and beds on Christmas Eve night, after the unyielding anticipation of a year long wait for the glorious day when they would celebrate the birth of their savior once again, although they may not really appreciate the true meaning and profoundness of the holiday, they undoubtedly believed they heard the faint jingling of bells and the stomping of hooves on roofs from a distance where Santa already began his trip across the world to deliver presents to all of God’s children with the help of his trustworthy reindeer; however, little did the little boy and girl know that their parents were about to pull out their presents from the hiding place in the basement in the locked closet where the children would never venture and most definitely never question why they could not gain access to this area, were about to devour the cookies that they had actually helped bake but allowed the children to decorate with all sorts of ornate frosting and sprinkles that also ended up all over the walls and floors of the kitchen in the process, were about to place all the wrapped presents with labels inscribed by “Santa” himself, and were about to fill the stockings hanging from the fireplace which would cause the children to question in the morning how Santa managed to slip down the fireplace with burning embers still at the bottom from their late night fire and escape without a single burn, scrape, or any other sort of mark what so ever.

Write to us!

Our presentation was about the modifications to chapter 17 of the Wisconsin System Policy. We are going to inform students about the pros and cons of the revisions. Let us know what you think!

Not Ready to Make Nice

The song, “Not Ready To Make Nice” by the Dixie Chicks is a black and white response to the wave of negative responses to the trio after their comments about George W. Bush and the Iraq war. Despite threats, concert boycotts and disapproval from media, the three band members stand together committed to thinking and speaking about the issues surrounding their country’s engagement with the wider world. This is despite the tension the three face as they struggle with the appropriate level of honest public comment linked with their performance. They spoke their minds and fought for what they believed in, which caused much controversy and multiple threats. By utilizing the first ammendment of freedom of speech, the Dixie Chicks used their voice in their music to speak out and defend themselves.

In one part of the song, they say "And how in the world Can the words that I said Send somebody so over the edge That they'd write me a letter Saying that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over." The final lines of the fourth verse are unequivocally about the death threats the band received during one of their Music tours. By being an American and speaking out to the world how they are feeling about their country in the hands of someone they do not trust, they were sent multiple death threats which they seak about in their song. The passion in each of their voices and their strength to not back down illustrates their independence as American citizens who will fight for their rights and voice their opinions. Through their songs, these women speak and sing with conviction and do so from their heart to speak to the rest of the world and let them now that they are here to speak out.

"Where Were You"

The song that has made the greatest impact on me is “Where Were You” by Alan Jackson. For those who are unfortunate enough not to recall or even worse have never heard this song, “Where Were You” is a compilation of all the things that people did in response to the attacks of September 11. Jackson introduces each response as a question, inquiring to each individual in his audience to see if they reacted in specific ways. However, the overall purpose of his song is to call upon people to act: to love. Specifically, he says, “But I know Jesus and I talk to God / And I remember this from when I was young / Faith hope and love are some good things he gave us / And the greatest is love.”

Jackson is a world-renown American country music singer whose songs often hit a chord with country music fans throughout the nation. Immediately, his target audience, Americans throughout the nation, is reached as his words were broadcast all over the radio and television. Furthermore, the song connects with all people. Rather than narrowing his scope to the perspective of just one, he integrates the actions and feelings of millions of Americans and calls upon them to recognize that they are not alone.

The general purpose of the song is to inform people of the effect that September 11, 2001, had and still has in the world. This song will continue to be played for years to come. This genre of rhetoric reaches everyone including those who are illiterate. It effectively communicates a purpose in many cases without the listener even knowing that they are being persuaded. Also, in the time soon after the attacks, people did not want to be lectured and directly reminded of the dramatic results of such a horrific event. The genre of song is an effective, less-direct way of persuading others. This song is a perfect example.

CHANGE is already happening.

I wasn't exactly in my best condition on the night of the election day - tuesdays were always the busiest day of the week for me, and I hadn't had much sleep the night before. After I came back to my apartment in the evening, after three power lectures, one lecture and a group meeting, I fell asleep on my bed without even having dinner. After having slept for an hour or two, I woke up to the loud noise outside my apartment. Living on state street, the loud noise on the street is nothing uncommon even on a weekday night, so I didn't think it was a big deal. Apparently, I wasn't exactly thinking clearly then because I didn't wake up from my sleep quite yet. Then I decided I should go out to grab something to eat - and put my coat on and stepped outside. Then I saw these group of African American boys screaming and running on state street with the flag of America in their hands. They were yelling, "Obama!," "YESSSSSSS!," as they passed by me. Then I snapped back to reality and realized, wow, Barack Obama did finally become the next president of the United States.

Unlike the very many avid supporters of Obama, I was not his biggest fan although I should admit that I was deeply impressed by his speeches. (It might have been a whole different story if I had been an U.S. citizen, but being a Korean, I was unsure if Obama would be the better choice for the sake of the economy and policics of Korea and for the relationship between the U.S. and Korea.) Nevertheless, a lot of my friends and I were thrilled by his landslide victory because his becoming the president was more than just Obama himself being president. This election brought hope to all American children who hope to become an amazing president one day no matter what their races are. This election brought true equality to the U.S. and its politics.

I may not have voted for change, but I will always remember the most ardent presidential campaigns ever, the day of the election, and the change that will come.

A Remedy to a Hurt Country

I was one of the few people on campus who had class during the election coverage on Nov. 4, 2008. While sitting in my lab I was constantly distracted by the vibrating phone in my pocket. Friends calling and texting asking me to join them in their celebrations of the end of another long election process and GOTV work. After months of working nonpartisan on registering voters and getting people to the polls, I thought I would have been glad to see it end. I thought I would have been one of the people jumping for joy as McCain and Obama spoke. But mostly, I just thought of the long road ahead of this African American man in his new office and this historical turn of events.

In retrospect, I find myself thinking of the state of our country, and if electing change to our country was for the best. I haven’t thought this all through yet, but the short answer is yes. Obama possesses the charisma and poise needed in a leader. He was able to gain the support of enough Americans to win the presidency. He convinced voters that their voice is important and that one voice can make a difference. And for this reason he has gained all my respect. He is the speaker I wish to be and he sends the message I want to send.

There is no reason why he will not be able to use those same skills in foreign affairs to gain the support of countries around the world. This is exactly what he needs to do. After the many years spent overseas in the Middle East, it is still debatable to people if America has done any good. America has gained the reputation of sticking its nose where it doesn’t belong. I can’t remember the last time I heard America getting praise from another country for working so diligently in the Middle East.
Obama will bring this country out of the dark haze that has been engulfing it for so many years. He will restore our country to its original glory, economically, and in the eyes other countries. It is going to be a long road but I truly believe he is what this country needs.

A Night to Remember

As I sat in front of my television screen starting at 6 p.m., my friends and I discussed how we felt about each candidates policies and what they could offer this country. While three of us stressed Obama's ability to create change for America, my other roomate tried to make her point that McCain was clearly the better candidate. While at times, she made a few solid points, there was no way she was winning this debate with three hardcore democrats in the room. We watched the sreen as the votes for Obama increasingly went up for each state, and Jen the republican began to look less confident as she slumped in her chair. Every couple of hours I would check CNN just to put a smile on my face that Obama will soon be announced as our next President. Once Obama reached his winning count, I quickly heard people within my building screaming and jumping for joy, but more so from my two roomates whose voices were ringing in my ears. Every person in my phone sent me messages saying OBAMA!!! or WE WON!! Although I always thought that Obama would win this election, I was mostly relieved to know that this man would be leading this country and hed do so with confidence and poise. As our new President apporached the podium to speak, the faces in the crowd were filled with tears and joy and I couldnt help but smile and become a bit misty. All I could think of was that this moment will go down forever in history. That this shot of him standing in front of so many will be in textbooks for our children and our childrens children to learn and study about. The first African American President has really happened and I think it could be the best thing for our country.

The Symbolic White House

Surprisingly, the results of the presidential election were a complete blowout. I never would have guessed that the battle for this presidency would come to such a clear-cut victory. After reading several articles analyzing the voter turnout for this specific election, I was thrilled to hear that the vote of young adults like me (18-29) really had a drastic impact on the outcome. Specifically, two of the swing states, North Carolina and Indiana, were won by slim margins, and in both cases, the young vote was strong and significantly supported the Obama campaign

However, the impact of the youth involvement in the election really hit me on Tuesday night. Having repeatedly checked the electoral results while at the library, I returned home to find that there was great celebration on State Street. Although the Halloween festivities of the previous weekend brought noise and commotion to the area around my house, the impact of Barack’s victory far surpassed the charades of the previous nights. Soon, my roommate and I ventured out to join in the celebration. Apparently, I missed some of the most rowdy and impressive proclamations of merriment, but it was still quite the scene to see when I joined.

Immediately, I ran into one of my best friends, and we found ourselves running to catch up to the mob and to put ourselves in the center of all of the commotion. It did not matter, McCain or Obama supporter; the impact of the peaceful festivity was profound. The group moved from State Street to the top of Bascom Hill where students and other community members alike joined in on chants. “Yes, we can.” “Show me what democracy looks like…this is what democracy looks like.” “Si, se puede.” “Oooooooooo.” “Varsity…” Once again, the crowd began to move, and it was as if everyone was united on the next step to take. There was a march to the capital with celebrating patrons coming out of the State Street bars to cheer on the parade of people.

Then, we were on the steps of the capitol. Flashes were going off all around as people stood united with the lit capitol building behind us. For me, the night ended by saying good night to all of my friends who I ran into throughout the celebration. As I left, others continued to celebrate. The scene was completely surreal: a completely diverse group of students arm-in-arm rejoicing for a new era of this country in front of the symbolic white house.

Letting Go of My "Baby"

So far our group has been doing a stellar job. We are blending all our individual work well together and all seem to be pulling our own weight thus far. We have met three times as a group, the first to discuss topic choice, the second to discuss resources and preliminary research, and the third to blend our individual pieces for our proposal. It has not been difficult to find a meeting time outside the scheduled class time. I found the scheduled class time was a very productive time for our group because we all had to have that time frame free for class anyway. I would love to see more sessions like that.

One thing about the project that I will admit is that I was a bit surprised when I wasn’t the one to propose our topic. I agreed to the topic without flinching but I still have my reservations. I worry that I may not be able to take a step back from the work my group members are doing. I am already invested in our project through my involvement with United Council, the state student government. This is a big undertaking for our group and something this big would usually be taken on by people experienced with policies, student government, etc. I worry that my group members might very quickly feel like they are in over their heads and not know how to swim to the surface.

In talking with our instructor about my concerns I feel more confident in our project and how I will handle letting go of my “baby”, so to speak. I also have been thinking that since my group as a whole does not intend to use our project in order to action as a group, I want to pass on the project to the right people who can use it in there efforts to make sure the revisions are lawful and fair. Therefore, I am planning on talking with the other invested individuals that will have the finished project in the future and seeing what they need from us and what they would like our group to take on. Take from their plate and make it part of our project. I have yet to clear this with my group but I don’t see any potential problems. Besides that, everything in the group is going well so far.

Fight to Be the Strongest Link

 To be honest, I would always much prefer to work on assignments individually. First, I am a huge procrastinator, and it seems that some of my best work is created when I am under the pressure of a deadline. Unfortunately, with a group, I am required to keep up with milestone deadlines otherwise the group would simply not function. I guess that this could also be a good thing because then I will become far less stressed when it comes down to the wire. Furthermore, it is difficult for me to compromise on things because if I see something going or turning out a certain way I have a very difficult time accepting that it is not going to end up that way. I am most definitely a stubborn person. Knowing this, I try to go into group projects with a positive attitude and understanding that I will have to meet certain expectations that I generally would not fulfill if I worked on my own.

Coming together for the first time, our group was quick to decide that we would go with Krista’s idea about the revisions to Chapters 17 and 18 that we discussed in class. We decided that we would make the initial meeting brief because we had determined our topic and could do very little without research to fill in the gaps of our understanding of the topic. Therefore, we decided to reconvene during the next class period with research in hand to have a clearer idea of what our emphasis for the project would be. It is always very frustrating when all the group members do not necessarily fulfill their assigned obligations. I think it is important to remember when working with a group that failure to complete something is a huge detriment to the whole team and does not only affect the individual. A team can only be as strong as its weakest link. I hope that throughout the semester all of the members in my group fight to be the strongest link rather than just avoid being the weakest link.

All in all, the division of work makes the project much more feasible and enjoyable. Although it is not my ideal situation, I will do my best to fight to be the strongest link and really collaborate to complete a great project. Hopefully, there will be few hiccups in the future. However, with each one, we will just need to remember to compromise and come to fair solutions in order to be successful and create one incredible final project. I hope that I continue to remember along with my other cohort mates that compromise is going to be key and that being stubborn will not allow the cohort to be successful. I know I don't want to be "one fry short of a happy meal" as it was put on The Weakest Link on NBC.

Heads up on our group project

Our group session went quite successfully, regarding that we didn't have to go through a lot of fuss on deciding the topic for the project. The all four of us were quite satisfied with the topic on UWS policy chapters 17&18 - it was directly influential on our lives as UW students, and nevertheless not many of the students on campus are well aware of the ongoing debates of the change of policies, how it would affect our lives and whatnot. So I guess I could say that our group started off easily and smoothly.
For our second group meeting on thursday, we met prepared with the background knowledge of the topic. Then we discussed how we could divide the work load among us four, and how we could work on our drafts for the research proposal. After lots of discussion we were able to narrow down arguments for each sides of the debate, and decided to split up into two groups--Jessie and Krista for con and Ally and me for pro-- to work on the drafts.
Our third group meeting was held on sunday evening, in a group study room in College library. We gathered with each of our drafts, and worked together to organize them together into a whole coherent body. And for wednesday, we're meeting with our intros and conclusions and will be finishing up our proposal.
After discussing about the process in class today, I feel like that our group has done a pretty nice job in both working individually and collaboratively. I truly hope that our group could continue to do well and get done an awesome project at the end of the semester. :)

Working with the Group

While meeting with my cohort, we came to the conclusion rather quickly that we would work together to inform/ persuade on the topic of chapters 17 & 18. We all feel strongly against these chapters and its revisions, for we feel it is unfair to penalize a student for misconduct off camus grounds that has no association with ones academic career. After meeting and discussing these chaters in depth, we decided to split up viewpoint into pros and cons. While me and Krista focused on the cons, Nam and Ally focused on the pros. We each did our own reasearch and read up on the topic, writing our viewpoints down after becoming informaed. We then reconvened to go over our parts and combine them into a final proposal. Overall, each one of us worked collaboritvely well together and were able to listen to one anothers ideas which furthered discussion and ideas for the projects future. With this open forum, we were all able to utilize our creativity and explore options that we may not have explored on our own. Together, we successfully have focused our attention on a topic we are all passionate about.

Selling your candidate

Political campaigns today have become more stimulating and vigorous than ever. Advertisements often openly criticize - and to a certain degree disparage - rival candidates, and you could simply find political propaganda everywhere especially as the time nears the election. You turn on your television to watch your favorite TV show, say, Grey's Anatomy and you'll be watching Obama's ad in the first interval and McCain's in the second. Things are not so much different in Korea as well - last year, when we had our presidential election, whenever I logged onto Naver, which is like the Korean google (the largest search engine in Korea), I was always faced with one of the candidates' flash ads with annoying popular songs as back ground musics.

Engaging in conversations here in Madison, not only in class but also out of class, I get an impression that the majority of the people are very interested in politics - especially the upcoming election. But frankly, for a foreigner like me, especially since I have only been here for a year now, U.S. politics and the presidential election are not the most interesting stuff for me to "dig" into. Not that I am a very apathetic person to politics - I am actually quite interested in politics I even interned for a congresswoman during my senior year in highschool, but perhaps because I'm unaware of much of the political and economic history and circumstances, the U.S. politics doesn't come to me as the most interesting topic. If I were to choose between the presidential debate and Grey's Anatomy, (well, I'd choose the presidential debate now because through engaging in this class I have gained knowledge and interest in the field) I would have chosen Grey's Anatomy for sure - and although I believe a lot of people here in Madison would prefer to watch the debate, I wouldn't count on the vast majority of the people to do the same.

The candidates should of course campaign for the votes of the people who are actually interested in politics and who actually care about their policies and political stance, but as much as this is important, it is also important to campaign for the people who are less engaged and less interested - since their votes count equally as well and I assure you, their numbers aren't so small. I am uncertain of how the numbers are here in the U.S., but in Korea the voter turnout is lower than ever, yet it is still getting lower and lower every time. This clearly shows how little people are engaged in politics and how apathetic they are. Then how do the candidates appeal to the less interested? This is where the pop culture comes in, ta-da. The candidates, or should I say their campaign managers, were smart enough to merge the two in order to appeal to their target.

I do not believe that merging pop culture and politics contribute to politics itself, it degrades the dignity of politics and undermines democracy because by propagating to those who are not interested with stimulating images and sounds and winning their votes would devalue the truly meaningful votes made by the politically aware. However, I must say that it does contribute in an aspect that it attracts people and motivates them to 'start' to get interested, and of course, in that it makes people vote more - after all, that's what counts, right?

Politics for Dummies

In a perfect world, politics wouldn’t need to be “dumbed” down so that a majority of Americans could understand. In a perfect world, people would be interested in politics and not be apathetic. Everyone would not have to be politically savvy, but know enough to understand what is happening with our government.

Recently, with the coming elections, we have been seeing politics distorted and made seemingly unimportant by the merging of politics with popular culture. In a John McCain presidential campaign commercial, Sen. Barack Obama is compared to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Putting the fact that there is no connection between the ladies and Obama aside, the commercial is forcefully merging pop culture and politics in a way that doesn’t even make sense.

The commercial is trying to appeal to the people who know who the ladies are but do not know who Obama is. The commercial says that Obama should be compared to the ladies because he is just like them, a celebrity. I would imagine that a person not knowing who Obama is but does know who the ladies are, and sees them in a positive light, would vote for him because he is associated with the ladies. If a person knows who the ladies are but also knows there history and the controversy surrounding them, I would imagine that the person is smart enough to know the McCain commercial is a bunch of BS. In either case, by “approving this message”, McCain is saying that he thinks America is too ignorant to understand politics without it being compared to pop culture.

I personally don’t think that America is ignorant; I think America doesn’t care as much as it should. The apathy is unavoidable and can be seen around every corner. By merging pop culture and politics, pride and a sense of dignity is lost. I wonder, “Has it really gotten that bad?” “Is America really that ignorant when it comes to politics?” “Is it really up to that small percentage of the population to keep America running?”

When politics are merged with pop culture, not only does it feel like the pride of democracy shrivels up and dies, but also democracy is undermined. This country was built to be a democracy and I have heard America and democracy being used interchangeably. The merging of politics and pop culture is crushing the democratic spirit. Political equality is being questioned when politicians are compared to celebrities…by other politicians. We as a country, current politicians included, forget that we the people put those politicians into place. We voted, we decided.

I feel severely disrespected by a politician, or anyone for that matter, that thinks I’m not smart enough to understand politics without it being put in “pop culture” language. If politicians feel it necessary to “dumb” down politics for the common person, then maybe they should take the initiative to educate the people. It would be so much easier for a speaker if they could use the technical terms and not have to find a way to get the point across using different language. The pride and spirit of the country would be much better off because the people would feel like they really have a voice and can speak the lingo. That would be a real democracy, where everyone has a voice.

Methods for Rhetorical Analysis

When doing a rhetorical analysis, there are man beneficial elements one can gain. Before doing a rhetorical analysis, one must first understand that rhetoric is the study of potential misunderstanding and the ability to persuade. When you are in the midst of a conflict, you can figure out what the conflict is really about, what the various arguments are, and how those arguments are put together. In addition, should you decide to jump into the conflict, rhetorical analysis can help you present your arguments more effectively, and even more ethically.
Rhetoric stresses the essence of disagreements. Disagreements result from lots of things, such as that we have different experiences, different perspectives, and different areas of expertise. None of us knows everything, so we can learn from one another. Thus, good disagreement leads to better public decisions. A rhetorical analysis can focus on the author of a text, its audience, textual strategies, immediate context, and larger context. The place and time that it occurs is called kairos. When focusing on the author or ethos (character), we can get a sense of who they are and what they are trying to convey. Many times when speakers give a speech, they employ certain tactics within their rhetoric that reflect their intentions and personality. After focusing on the author, it is important to look at the text itself (logos, logical appeal). This is the reason behind a rhetoricians arguement and appeals to its audience. Lastly, and probably more importantly, the audience needs to be focused on. When presenting an an appeal, you need to know who you are appealing to. By analyzing a speech or campaign in this manner, one can better understand the arguement posed and what and who the author is trying to persuade. Within my sorority, we have elections for positions and when running for a position, each candidate must give a speech. Two people ran for the position of social chair and each proposed different ideas for events that we do for this semester. When one proposed we have a bake sale in order to raise money for our philanthropy, she gave an argument for why this idea would be effective. By holding a bake sale, we can all do something together as sisters, we can raise money for a good cause, and we can enjoy the delicious treats. Her method of persuasion was quite precise in that she had the right target audience and focused on a cause that we all want to raise money for. Overall, dissecting the pieces of persuasion and rhetoric gives us a better insight on the main focus of a speech or campaign and we can utilize these tactics in the future when proposing our own arguments.

Rhetorically Educated

According to Aristotle, rhetoric is “having the ability, in each case, to see the available means of persuasion.” In order to have this skill, one must learn the different techniques that effectively persuade, study and evaluate the implementation of these techniques, and then, in the end, practice the utilization of these techniques in successful rhetorical pieces. There is a flexible methodology used to rhetorically analyze a piece. First, one must evaluate who is the target audience. In order to manipulate the kairos of the situation, which includes the place and time where one is trying to convince a specific audience, it is essential to study the different types of evidence and appeals that are successful in the different situations. Furthermore, one must analyze failed attempts at persuasion in order to understand what is ineffective and in some cases what becomes a logical fallacy and therefore does not successfully persuade the target audience. Rhetoric is used every day in commercials, in campaign ads, in discussions between peers, and in many other situations. By analyzing the different rhetorical arguments, one realizes the effectiveness that each author achieves. Scrutinizing the successes and failures of others emphasizes ideas and methodology that one can use when making her own rhetorical claim. For example, one method of persuasion that most often has a crash-and-burn effect when the target audience is one’s parents is the usage of the bandwagon fallacy. Undoubtedly, every child at one point or another says, “Everyone is going,” “Everyone is doing it,” or “Everyone has one.” More often than not, the target audience, the parents, are not even close to being persuaded. Having rhetorically analyzed a situation where the bandwagon fallacy is not effective in a certain kairos, one learns what rhetorical methodology to avoid when trying to persuade her parents to buy her a new car, for instance. Steering clear of the bandwagon fallacy, she can successfully utilize other ethos, pathos, and logos appeals in order to come home to a new car in the driveway. Moreover, by studying the reactions to previous candidates’ acceptance speeches at the Democratic National Conventions, Barack Obama and his speechwriters more than likely focused his acceptance speech on a pathetic appeal because he was facing an audience who shared the same assumptions with him. Thus, rather than focusing his speech on numbers, he could emphasize the necessity for everyone to act by drawing on their emotions. By studying the attempts at rhetoric, a successful rhetorician can enhance her own piece and more successfully persuade her target audience. By rhetorical analysis, one may be able to break a rhetorical claim into smaller, more easily understandable pieces in order to determine the validity of the claim. Thus, one may not be persuaded in a situation they otherwise would have been because they have experience with rhetoric and can understand the persuasive techniques that the author is trying to utilize on the target audience. Rhetorical analysis not only teaches one how to successfully persuade others but also teaches one through experience how to be an educated audience.

Opinion Articles: Not Best For Decision Making

I recently read an opinion article, that was in the Daily Cardinal, a student newspaper on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, about Gov. Sarah Palin. I found the article to be very intriguing. My gut reaction to the article was “Right on!”. I thought the writer established very good kairos with his choices in the purpose of the article, timing, and having it published in the place he did. The UW campus seems to be somewhat apathetic to the current political debates and candidates. Those who are not apathetic have most likely chosen who they are going to vote for in November. The timing of the article was very well thought out because of recent speeches and accusations coming from both parties.

I think that after reading this article, any person who has not made a decision about who they are going to vote for will make a decision. I don’t think this is the way to go for these people. To me it seems like this article is geared more toward the people who have already made their decision. I don’t think someone should base their vote off this article where it only addresses freedom of speech and the 6th and 14th Amendments. Although these topics are pressing and important, a voter needs to look at more of what the candidate has to offer and make a well-informed decision. The article seems to have a bit of dogmatism to it.

An example of this, was the attempted banning of “Harry Potter” books, which comes out to be a freedom of speech issue. Palin should not be making the decision to ban the books, but the article does not detail any reasons for Palin’s actions. Her actions are also not detailed for the 20 percent funding cut to The Covenant House. Maybe the program wasn’t using all the money it had access to, and there were other places that needed the money that wasn’t being used. These issues could have been very complex, but they are presented in the article at face value with no supporting evidence.

These are valid statements for the author to make, and his justification to question Palin’s ability to be our VP is sound. But again, I want to reiterate that any person still trying to make a decision about who to vote for in the coming elections should research more facts before making their final choice.

The Minimum Legal Drinking Age

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/opinion/17wed3.html

This editorial discusses the current movement among college presidents to lower the legal drinking age, which has been an issue of great interest for a very long time. The writer argues that a 21-year-old floor for drinking is not what leads to binge drinking on campus, and instead blames the problematic drinking culture in college for being wholly responsible for excessive drinking among college students. The writer uses very little pathos in delivering his/her claim, but focuses on logos. However, this claim, although true to some extent, is not completely valid. And throughout this post I will explain to you why.

Although the legal age of drinking is set to 21, in reality the effect of the law is negligible on the accessibility of alcohol among adolescents. In fact, in an experiment 97% of underage attempts succeeded in buying packaged beer in Washington, D.C. (Preusser & Williams, as cited in Wagenaar & Wolfson, 1994). Moreover, underage drinkers could easily find alcohol in parties or they could even simply ask their older friends to purchase alcohol for them. A bigger problem lies in the fact that very little action is taken against these violations of law-- only 0.2% of underage drinkers and only 0.005% of liquor outlets that sell alcohol to underages are subject to regulative action (Wagenaar & Wolfson, 1994).

While the legal drinking age has so little impact on college students' access to alcohol, it subjects the students to drink in an environment that is either more dangerous or more likely to binge drink, or both. A large number of people are learning to drink from their peers in college, where binge drinking is prevalent, instead of learning moderate and appropriate manners from their parents or other elderly members of the society. And since the majority of underage drinking occur in secluded places such as dorm rooms or house parties, the underaged are prone to drinking excessively because there exists very little restraint in such circumstances.

I agree with the writer that the legal age of drinking is not what's causing the prevalence of binge drinking in college throughout the United States. I value the ethicality in the rhetoric also, and I believe that simply lowering the minimun drinking age would not result in a dramatic improvement in the drinking reality on college campuses. But it's not only the drinking culture on campuses that's to blame. Rather, reformations on various levels should be carried out to resolve this issue.

The Newly Improved, Incredulous National Audience

In the days and, in many cases, the months following September 11, 2001, the citizens of the United States united together under the common cause of patriotism. Their country reflected in the aftermath of one of the worst attacks the world had come to know. What astounded people the most was how random and unprecedented the action was. As far as the vast majority was concerned, they were not in a war and had not taken hostile actions in the recent past against another country to cause any sort of retaliation. Because this foreground of innocence engulfed the messages sent out by the media, people willingly agreed with all of the ideas of retaliation and breaches of common liberties in order to execute this retaliation. However, with time, this would change.

 

Several years have passed, and although the hearts of all continue to go out to the losses of fellow Americans, the mood and tone of how and why things happened the way they did has dramatically changed. Feeling mislead and taken advantage of, Americans now heed decisions to support the federal government without concrete evidence. Many believe that those in leadership roles, including the president, toyed with their minds. Although not a commonly held view, some even believe that the government allowed the attacks on American soil to occur in order to have precedence to attack certain geographic regions and political groups.

 

Granted there is evidence that information communicated to the public was at the very least misleading if not fallacy, everyone should consider all the information they have not received. Although inaccuracy may have been communicated in the past, there are innumerable documents, conversations, and other communication that the general public did not and will not ever have access to. The idea of blindly following one person or a small group of people is never suggested; however, the idea that an average uninformed citizen could make all the decisions necessary to keep this country secure is totally irrational.

 

Although the post-9/11 citizen receives much more information about world proceedings than a citizen of the early, mid, or even late twentieth century, the media has all the power to determine whether this new-found intelligence is better, more accurate, and more conclusive than that which the early-twentieth century citizen received. In this time when people choose to judge, question, and proclaim actions unnecessary and careless, everyone must realize that they are not receiving the full story. Until all of the intelligence agencies release all of the data they have ever collected or ever collect in the future, no citizen can accurately judge the actions taken by the government. Therefore, while the atrocity of September 11, 2001, has made people rethink about America’s proceedings in foreign policy and caused innumerable people to criticize the country’s authority figures, one should always remember that although caution should not be thrown to the wind, perhaps, one is not the most qualified person to make all of these decisions. Future leaders must consider that their audience has changed and become much more cynical and far less likely to blindly follow lead in order to successfully execute future policy in any area. People want the truth wrapped up concisely and accurately, and future leaders must beware of the newly improved, incredulous national audience.

The day America spoke

September 11th. A day that so many remember vividly as debris filled the air, people ran through New York City's streets in a state of shock and fear, and lives were taken in a destructive act of terrorism. The story of what happened aboard Flight 93 has not only grabbed the attention of filmmakers and journalists, but researchers as well. Seven years later, images from that terrifying day are still discussed and remembered. As a New Yorker, I did not know how to handle the news. A 14 year old girl sits in her math class, learning how to plot her y's and x's on a graph when an announcement comes on to say that the twin towers have been hit by two hijacked planes. The only thing I could remember was silence. Faces blank and eyes opened wide. What was I supposed to make of this? Every catastrophe produces its own linguistic fallout. Words and phrases are forged by the awful novelty of 9/11 into everyday speech. When that day is discussed amongst my peers, or on any public forum for that matter, there are words that are commonly used now that I never thought I would so often utter: terrorism, bombs, ground zero, and debris surge. These words have infiltrated the language of public discourse and private conversation universally. When we discuss that fateful day, many are emotional, whether it be anger or grief, and tend to use this discourse to portray what had occurred. 911 and 9/11 are used to signify not just the date, but everything that happened on it and afterward. It may be a phone number for an emergency, or people can just remember it for the day that we were attacked. But most importantly, we came together as a nation with common efforts to protect and serve.