"A Modest Proposal"

In a Modest Proposal Swift suggests that the impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food for rich gentlemen and ladies. This satirical hyperbole mocks heartless attitudes towards the poor, as well as Irish policy in general. I think what made me take this work for truth is the fact that is starts out in a very serious and official manner. The title “A Modest Proposal: For Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland, from Being a Burden on Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public” made me feel like this was a serious proposal.  I expected Swift to write something about making these children go to work, or school however because of Swift's style of writing he made this idea of eating children sound so serious! When you can make people 300 years down the road still think you were serious then I’d say it is a pretty well written argument.
Having said that, I would have loved to be around Ireland when this was just released to the public. I think that usually the only problem with satire today is that it may offend some people. But I think it would have been interested to see how the public handled this work when they believed Swift to be serious. I can see those poor Irish children asking their parents if they are going to eat them. It sounds funny to me now, but I feel like this was something that actually frightened a lot of people back then. Swift was incredibly brave writing this piece and I think that recreating a piece like this for the modern day would be much more difficult to do.

"A Measure of Restraint"

“A Measure of Restraint” is an engaging essay written by Chet Raymo. In it he weaves several events from history, current events and personal experience into a cautionary work about the dangers of science. In the last sentence of the last paragraph, he emphatically states his position: “The unexamined quest for knowledge is hemmed with peril.” At first I disagreed with this because I thought although the quest for knowledge may have risks at first it is almost necessary in the long run. Without all the advancement in technology we wouldn't be where we are right now. However recently I have felt that I may be wrong.
In the movie WALL-E, we see the effects of the progression of science. Fat people. Although this may be funny at first, it is far from that. People in the movie have lost all social abilities as they are living in their own world: a portable chair with a T.V. The movie asserts that although living in space is amazing it has corrupted people's lives into a machine. With technology people live in a very lazy way because it is easy. Food has to be made into liquid for crying out loud!!
I realize that this movie maybe a stretch my point but I see the beginnings of this. For example, I Phones. They do everything for you and people may not realize it but it is making us lazy as well. We want everything to be simple because we don't want to put the extra effort in!

Do you want to see people looking like this in a 100 years??

“Staying Put; Making A Home In A Restless World”

Novelist Scott Russell Sanders in his informative essay response to “Staying Put; Making A Home In A Restless World” debates whether migrating to a new place or staying in one place is the best decision. 
However at the end he refutes the theory that progress can only be made if one is constantly "on the move." 
I disagree with Sanders. Change can bring opportunity to a person. Taking advantage of these situations could create millions of dollars and can propel a person from no one to someone (at least in a financial sense).  People have spread valuable knowledge across the world and if they would have stayed in place, that knowledge would have been limited in its value. Without people moving there would be no evolution, no innovation, and no new ideas. I do agree with Sanders that it takes time and attention to really know a place, or a person for that matter. Being transient and never establishing ties to people or places is not something I would recommend. However, I do not believe that one needs to be rooted in one place their entire lifetime. What does matter is the attitude one brings to where you are. 





  MOVE FORWARD!      

Black Men and Public Space

Brent Staples gives his personal analysis of how Black men are perceived in American culture in his essay entitled, “Black Men and Public Space”. Although it is a well written piece, I completely disagree with Staples’ final thoughts on the issue; which are that he basically lives his life around the emotions of others, so that he can prevent fear from forming in people when he comes into contact with them. I feel that he is indirectly allowing racial profiling. I realize that people are victims of crimes everyday and sadly Black males are involved in some of those crimes but that does not mean that all Black men have the same criminal desires as those select few. This article relates heavily to the Trevon Martin case that sparked the much needed dialogue about perceptions of Black men in America. This case showed how racial stereotypes and negative perceptions are plaguing the world today and causing senseless deaths everyday. The author made clear connections to the purpose of the article but as I read I expected Staples to give some type of hope to the reader instead of assimilating and accepting the wrongs of the world.