Pledge of Allegiance: A Perfect Symbol of Hypocrisy Essay -- American

Every morning over 75 million students around the nation recite the Pledge of Allegiance verbatim (Digest of Education Statistics). If one walks up to one of these students and asks them about the meaning and the origin of this pledge, what would they say? Nothing. However, even though more than a million students recite these words every day, not more than half probably know the true meaning behind these words. One cannot deny the fact that most of these children just want to get this pledge â€Å"over with† to continue talking to their peers. The Pledge of Allegiance has gone through several changes since Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister, wrote it in 1892. The pledge acts as a source of patriotism, national pride and controversy. The statement, â€Å"under God† has caused much controversy and has created a distinct line between the supporters and non supporters of the pledge. America, which famously provides one with true equality, ironically has a pledge that goes against its doctrine and foundations. The changes that occur throughout the years to the pledge that results in its undeniable controversy and losing value. The adjustments lead to the pledge’s undeniable ambiguity and the nation should revert to its previous 1924 pledge. Every day, while facing the flag, American students exhibit their loyalty to the country by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Written in 1892, during the 400th celebration of Columbus Day, the pledge used in â€Å"ceremonies that would culminate in raising of the flag† (Pledge of Allegiance). The creation of the pledge resulted from one sole event, the Civil War. Before the American Civil War of 1861, the American flag used to be a rare sight for many people. The Civil War resulted in the rise of patriotism an... ...ual. Baer, John. The Pledge of Allegiance, A Centennial History, 1892 - 1992, Annapolis, Md. Free State Press, Inc., 1992. "The Pledge of Allegiance." The Pledge of Allegiance. Aug. 17 2006: n.p. SIRS Government Reporter. Web. 02 Apr 2012. Demar, Gary. "The Pledge of Allegiance Goes to Trial." American Vision. N.p., 04/10/2005. Web. 27 March 2012. Nunberg, Geoffrey. "I Pledge Allegiance To Linguistic Obfuscation." npr.org. npr, 30/03/2010. Web. 1 Apr 2012. United States. U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. Pledge of Allegiance. VA: , Web. Kline, Austin, â€Å"Defending ‘under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance,† posted on the â€Å"About† website, March 30th, 2004, Drey, Riley. "Misguided Patriotism and the Pledge of Allegiance." LDS Liberty. Riley Drey, 24/11/2010. Web. 24 March 2012. Nunberg, Geoffrey. E-mail Interview. 3/4/2012.

Be Careful What You Wish for

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR Drama practice. Revision. Homework. Writing essays– which is what I am doing now! So many things to do, so little time to actually do it. I am sprawled on my bed, along with my dictionary fiddling with my pen, deep in thought. Throughout that thousands of seconds I spent writing this essay, I often scrambled through the dictionary or Googled for words that would come in handy, composing this essay by scribbling word after word that was unreadable to everyone except myself.As my eyes darted to the untouched Chemistry homework due in two days, I rummaged through the strands of information that meandered at the back of my mind, in the hope of finding the answers to the questions regarding the practicality of what I was doing; why am I even writing this essay when I had other plans for today, like revising Chapter 2 of History. Sighing, I dropped my Carrera pen and clutched my iPod Nano–which I believed would be the antidote to my chagrin. Then, I stuffed my earphones into my ears willing my fingers to trace the song that I desperately needed at that moment–Time by Hans Zimmer.I was immediately taken in by the mellifluous song, the tender flow dictating my muscles to relax, the abstract beauty of it sinking my mind into a trance. Completely oblivious to the sounds of the outside world, I stared blankly at the four alphabets displayed on the screen- T I M E. Time. That was when realisation dawned on me. It’s strange how time, woven into our daily lives, casts a huge significance in every molecule of our being. It shows us no benignancy as it numbers our days, thus forcing us to endure the dull prospects of limitations, practicality and also the inability to maximise diversity and perfection at the same time.If only I could FEEL like I was divorced from time, savouring one moment to another, without having regrets or ‘I could have’ moments. For instance, if only I felt time held no sway over me, co uld I have kick-started my day with those Manchester United matches in the wee hours of certain mornings without wailing about the lack of sleep? Or I could have aroused my book-worm taste buds by dwelling on that stack of untouched storybooks which I purchased during the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale last year. Brushing the zig-zag thoughts off my mind, I flipped my iPod and gazed at the words engraved at the back of it-Live in Limbo!My mind propelled me to the thought of what that line meant to me. Limbo, as depicted in the movie Inception, is an unconstructed dream space of raw infinite subconscious which is more real than reality itself. Every second in Limbo would feel like an eternity, when in contrary, every second actually passes by with blinding speed. And when I meant Live in limbo, I was referring to it as a reminder to enjoy life and FEEL like I am in Limbo†¦ To FEEL that time really does crawl so that I can revel in the assumption that time would always be by my side like my Best Friend Forever, even when it is not.Right now, if I really was in Limbo, I wouldn’t be fretting or whining about time constraints. How I deeply wish that Limbo would be my reality. In that instant, I was transported into a seemingly endless and vast expanse of blankness, similar to that of being in an isolation tank. I knew where I was; Limbo. It was now my world, my reality. I had the power to create, filling my world with elements ranging from trees to buildings; imagination was the only tool I needed. I was even capable of creating a personal aeroplane but what I wanted at that very moment was to FEEL like I had control over time.In a split second, I had become someone who was born with an ‘imaginary silver clock’†¦The words ‘silver clock’ symbolising time that passes by unhurriedly, the word ‘imaginary’ referring to the fact that I only FEEL the seconds crawling pass and so it is only part of my imagination that time is not running out. I wasted no time in engineering my world–copying and pasting flashes of my memories into my surreal world. My subconscious mind, on the other hand, automatically filled up my world with projections of people I knew and never knew.My life went on as usual- going to school, attending drama practices, going for tuition, Face booking†¦But the difference was the pinch of conjury in it; that of the fact that I didn’t FEEL distressed, that I somehow held the key for doing anything I wanted as I felt time siding with me. I saw myself achieving goal after goal, consigned from oblivion that none of it was real; that I was in Limbo, and it was all part of my imagination. The youth in me got sucked out as every second passed- Until I got older and older and at the age of 28, I actually ran out of goals.I had a career, a house, a car that anyone would have dreamed of; all of it due to the grace of time being on my side. What else did I want after feeling like I had what I wanted and it seemed like an eternity had just whipped by? I wanted nothing any more. That was when my mind reeled into aimlessness, boredom, disheartenment. I had nothing else to do. However, even if I did, I would always feel time creeping by me, past me and somehow I would always achieve my goals, even if it was a mile apart from me. It was my world after all.I was bewitched by a spell on my mind indicating that time, for me would be like a space probe plummeting into the depths of the universe. As my mind free-fell into thought, questioning my well-being†¦I remembered. The memory came in thick and fast, like someone flipping through the pages of a diary as one image popped out after another vividly in my mind; That essay, that sixteen year old girl who had so many things to do. Where did all of that go? Stark reality hit me like a 10. 0 magnitude earthquake; I carried memories of twelve unreal years, I had grown older in my own imagination.After that, I would have to battle a poison called aimlessness for the rest of my life. That was only because I wanted to FEEL that time passed by slowly. Now I bemoaned wishing Limbo was my reality. The fear that gripped me; visceral, primal. The violent tremor on my shoulders jolted my eyes open. It was my mum. I was sixteen and young. Only ten minutes had passed by since I was in Limbo. I would never wish that Limbo was my reality–the promise to FEEL that time was on my side was an impossible cross to bear. Next time, I will be careful what I wish for because it might be a poison that I would not be able to deal with. (1199 WORDS)

Lifestyle of a Stripper Essay

Strippers, prostitutes and porn stars are the forgotten women of American society. Men adore them for their sexual prowess. Women despise them for their blatant sexuality. Prejudiced against as a result of their career choices, these women are truly outcasts. Exotic dancing in the United States is often considered an immoral activity. Women in the exotic dancing world are the subjects of scorn and ridicule all across the country. However, some women are able to take this situation and turn it to their advantage. By creating an illusion or fantasy in the three main areas of the club (the stage, the floor, and back room) many dancers feel that they are able to elevate themselves to a position of power over the patron. This perceived power not only allows the dancer to have control over the situation, but also allows the dancer to make money and possibly other material gains. In this paper, I will attempt to extract strippers lifestyle and there occupation as they live the life of a str ipper. Some strippers love to strip (exotic dancing in nude) because they enjoy the environment and the lust that follows it. A dancer in San Francisco feels different about exotic dancing. She thinks of it as an art, and she feels that she can create her own performance when she’s on stage as she can choreograph her moves and her likes. â€Å"I love the dancing; I love the art of it. I love to be on stage performing, and I love to create new stuff to perform. There are some basic things you have to do,† she explains, â€Å"like be totally naked by the end of the dance, do something with the pole at some point, and make sure that you’ve touched yourself, but other than that, anything goes.† She explains how she can easily act or perform on stage. College students actually chose stripping as a side job. Employed at a strip joint can give them some extra cash. Like many students at universities across the country money can be a problem. School, rent, phone and water bills add up and this does not even include spending money. Because of the pressure from mounting bills and money needs, students decide to look for a job as a stripper. As a full time student any job that can fit his or hers schedule would be perfect. Strippers have very flexible hours. A job where he or she could work three or four times a week, for about twenty hours total, would be great. Pay is another factor in the decision process. Like  this article where a student explains her first night as a stripper. â€Å"The hardest part for me at first was not the dancing itself onstage, but actually talking to the patrons in the club. At the end of my shift† The student explains, â€Å"I left the club with a little over five hundred dollars, I only worked for five hours.† After that I was hooked on dancing. There were also more benefits than just the money,† comments the student. â€Å"The hours were flexible and I could work just three or four nights a week.† This fit in well since the student needed the extra time to get class work accomplished. In the city of Las Vegas, were the professional strippers get paid two hundred thousand dollars a year. Due to the negative connotations associated with exotic dancing in the United States, one may begin to ask how these ideas affect the minds and therefore daily lives of the women involved in the world of exotic dancing. Some negative draw backs of becoming a stripper are the introduction to drugs an so forth. Because exotic dancing has a negative reputation in the United States, one wonders what affect the business has on the personal lives of the dancers. Being an exotic dancer can ruin ones relationship. A college student had been in what she termed a fairly serious relationship before she started dancing. When she began to dance she made no effort to hide this from her significant other. In fact she told her boyfriend about the job before she started working. At first things went on as usual. Eventually, however, things began to deteriorate. She worked most weekend nights because they paid the best money. Her boyfriend who worked a day job was at work during the time she had off. Lack of time spent together eventually began to strain the relationship. She and her boyfriend had a hard time getting things back together. She says that after some talking that they were able to mend things. She says that after the initial problems things were okay. Ultimately, though the relationship ended while she was dancing. By no means that this says that the dancing alone caused the end of the relationship, it only attempts to show that for she, had some sort of affect. This may also be true of other dancers around the country. She said that outside of the club they never act the way they do inside. She says that she obviously  meets more men in the club, but that is because she wants to make money. If she does not initiate the conversation (fantasy) she makes no money. The reaction of her family was another matter altogether. After a month or so she informed her mother about her dancing, and they only told her after she had quit. Her mother was understandably upset. According to her, her mother cried. Her mother apparently had trouble getting her head around why her daughter would want to be a stripper. She then explained that she did it because the money was good and that she had paid of school loans and credit card dept. She explained that she only did it for a while and that that part of their life is over with. Even though the family doesn’t accept the behavior of there daughter, she understands why her daughter dances. The fast paced lifestyle is easy to get lost in. Money, sex, and attention all play into the pull that catches many women. Many strippers felt that this lifestyle attracted many young women especially those just out of high school. Easy money, sex and attention are too much for many young women. Young women get drawn in and become addicted. Breast implants and other surgery was often the end result of this addiction. Many of these women end up staying in this line of work as long as they are able to make money. The student I read about, danced for one reason, MONEY. They needed it for school and bills, as soon as they were able to pay these they moved on. Society often times portrays the business of exotic dancing as an occupation that is undesirable and immoral. Some women however, are able to find a place in this business that not only provides material gain and stability, but also empowers them. By creating a fantasy onstage and then altering it for each patron on the floor and in the back room, the dancer in affect draws the customer into a fantasy she has tailored just for their enjoyment. This situation specific fantasy is where the power lies for the dancer.

Drug Education and Public Awareness

Throughout history, America has been fighting against drug and alcohol abuse in teens and adults. Many ways companies and anti-drug groups try to prevent drug and alcohol abuse is through education in school systems and out of school systems. They teach young students about drugs and alcohol before they risk being around them, and they teach older students about drugs while they are around in their daily lives. Are these education programs really necessary? That†s the question many people ask, and also the question I†m going to attempt to answer. The government is usually the group that attempts to educate people about the causes and effects of drugs and alcohol through programs such as D.A.R.E (drug abuse resistance education) or S.M.A.R.T. (Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Time-Specified objectives). D.A.R.E. tries to educate kids about drugs and alcohol while S.M.A.R.T. conducts studies to see how effective these programs really are. There have been several studies done that failed to find any value in the DARE program. About 26 million American school children are taught to resist the lure of drugs and alcohol by the DARE program, a studied showed that most of the students who took the 17 week DARE program ended up using drugs and alcohol at the same rate as children who learned about them in a normal health class. Many people think that DARE is the magic bullet to solve the drug and alcohol problems in the nation. Another study conducted in Illinois on about 1800 students, showed that DARE students used th! e same amount of drugs who did not take the program, and another study concluded that DARE students were more likely to use drugs than students without the education. Many tax payers demand to see what impact their money is having on substance abuse. The SMART program conducts many tests to show how effective or ineffective the use of drug and alcohol prevention or education programs really are. SMART has come to a conclusion that there is a â€Å"Null Hypothesis†, which means that X education programs has no significant effect in bringing substance abusers into long term abstinence. In 1995 SMART studied nearly 1000 people, from these they were able to find 99 who were discharged with the notation of â€Å"treatment complete.† Of these 99 they selected 50 people at random and were able to find only 18 of those 50 people, and of those 18 people, only 11 people said they had remained clean and sober since leaving the treatment and being educated about drugs. These studies are proof that the null hypothesis is true and most education programs do not have any effect on the people who are being educated about drugs and alcohol. Although the government is trying to help with the problem, they aren†t doing a very good job. It is a common observation that there is a hug lag time in the government†s response to a social problem such as drugs and alcohol. A problem will affect a society for quite some time and cause damage before the government will support any funds or a means to stop the problem. After they fund education programs to teach children about drugs and alcohol, they keep funding unnecessarily increasing taxes, which send money nowhere. The government needs to spend more money on realizing what they are doing wrong in educating students who only go off to use drugs anyway.There is a general theme of a Cultural Revolution of Drug Treatment programs seen in America. The revolution beings with the heroic phase where the problem begins and spreads rapidly and the use of drugs and alcohol increases. Next is the classical phase where the social problem reaches its peak and the use of drugs is the highest. During the Classical phase, education programs are being used to try to stop and prevent drug and alcohol use. Then there is an Imperial stage where the problem begins to decline and comes to an end after people have learned about drugs and alcohol. The final stage is the Decadent phase when the previous users who quit, being to use drugs and alcohol again the process continues. This shows that drug and alcohol education programs don†t really do much in the way of preventing drugs, except a short term of no drug use. There are also many education programs in older groups of people such as college students. Alcohol abuse prevention programming on college campuses presents special challenges. Although many people think of college students as young, they legally are adults. Since 1972, when the legal age of majority was lowered to 18, college students have all of the same rights and privileges as older adults, except they cannot drink legally until they reach the age of 21. Despite all the education that occurred when they were younger, they are now drinking under-age and buying alcohol underage. Many college students are killed due to alcohol poisoning. What did all that education about alcohol do? Absolutely nothing if they ended up drinking themselves to death. College administrators can no longer treat college undergraduates as children and have no authority to act the place of parents, since the parents of an 18 year old themselves have no legal authority over the student. The extent of a college's control over its students is a matter of contract. Colleges can enforce conduct codes only through contract rights. At Indiana University-Bloomington, alcohol is prohibited in all on-campus undergraduate residences supervised by the University, and in all other areas open to the public. While that is the rule, enforcement is difficult. Using a strong enforcement hand is very difficult, and not well accepted by students and many parents. These students were educated about the rules of alcohol at their college and also about the causes and effects of alcohol to the body and brain, but they still do not listen and studies show that they still drink regardless of what prevention program they underwent when they were teens. As you can see, and as the results from all the studies done show drug and alcohol education programs have little and sometimes absolutely no effect on the use of drugs and alcohol among students any age. Teens in high school, or adults in college, they all abuse drugs and alcohol no matter what drug education program they went through. Many people are even killed through the use of drugs and alcohol. The government needs to realize that educating people about drugs only makes them aware that the drugs are out there and available to them.

Technology Impact Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Technology Impact Paper - Essay Example This technology gives one of the best opportunities to enlarge printing to commercial field. By sizing, newspaper linking can be removed and as a result the paper can be printed using the heat-set procedure. With the help of hypertext link one can update the many sources of information. This information can be as paper version into the online version. Hand crafting is done by electronic materials for instance many software support technical communicators in these tasks. Management comprises directing and controlling a group of one or more people or entities for the purpose of coordinating them towards completing a goal. Management function of controlling can be applied on the internet. It is directly applied and now it is going to be very famous for dynamic changes in electronic papers. The Internet has been in existence for almost two decades and began to extend into schools about 15 years ago, first into universities and then into schools. It helps the lecturers and students to enlarge learning. But these opportunities can be getting those who can access the internet and proper guidance of usage and getting knowledge from online pages. This process is not systematic in schools. There are many reason involve in this case; budgets; insufficient professional programs for lecturers; a lack of specific curriculum; and deficient training of teachers in technology. For Example Mr. Smith starts announcing to his students that this month they study the social studies chapter capitals of 50 states. He studied his classes for last 10 years. Then suddenly a student comes to Mr. Smith and turns on his laptop and connects the internet through wireless. Then that student says that look at this map of United States; if I clicks on this page then you can view the name of capital, its all images related to its states and capital building, history related to this city and states, all its resources related to nature and all it major industries. She says we should work online pages to get knowledge. We can also research on them. The entire student will help us to complete this work. In this way the students now get knowledge from internet more efficiently rather then impact paper. With the help of electronic mail and "surfing" for information with a browser, involve communicating with others and locating information, but the real power of the Web will come from people being better able to accomplish their "work," regardless of its focus. Chat sessions are a text-based version of synchronous collaboration, as are Multi-User Dungeons, Object-Oriented, or Multi-User Shared version, where a number of people participate simultaneously in a shared conversation or activity. Applications on the desktop for doing exciting

Marco Polo's Journey to China Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Marco Polo's Journey to China - Essay Example They were accompanied not only by one hundred wise men but by two Dominican friars, and the two good friars turned back at the first sign of adversity, another local war in the Levant. Aside from the pope’s messages, the only spiritual gift Europe was able to furnish the great Kublai Khan was oil from the lamp burning at Jesus Christ’s supposed tomb in Jerusalem. Yet, in a sense, young Marco, the only new person in the Polos’ party, was himself a fitting representative of the spirit of European civilization on the eve of the Renaissance, and the lack of one hundred learned Europeans guaranteed that he would catch the eye of the Cowan, who was curious about Latins. On the way to the Khan’s court, Marco had the opportunity to complete his education. The journey took three and a half years by horseback through some of the world’s most rugged terrain, including snowy mountain ranges, such as the Pamirs, and parching deserts, such as the Gobi. Marco and his party encountered such hazards as wild beasts and brigands; they also met with beautiful women, in whom young Marco took a special interest. The group traveled numerous countries and cultures, noting food, dress, and religion unique to each. In particular, under the khans’s protection the Polos were able to observe a large portion of the Islamic world at close range, as few if any European Christians had. By the time they reached the khan’s court in Khanbalik, Marco had become a hardened traveler. He had also received a unique education and had been initiated into manhood.

The Product Life Cycle of BMW Brands Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Product Life Cycle of BMW Brands - Essay Example In this case, new features that would characterize the development of existing products would be introduced in between the stages that would keep on revitalizing the product. As explained in detail below, this strategy is highly recommended as it has a lot of benefits and advantages over other competitors. models over time such that the whole model range is not changed but only changing another model range. Basically, it strives to keep its products in the introduction and growth stages by introducing new models in each of its product lines as well as continually improving its existing products. This strategy is advantageous in that the organization is able to realize its profits every time as a business would be growing every time by way of introducing a range of other models. It can be noted that the product lifecycle shown of other automobile manufactures contrasts drastically with that of BMW. These manufacturers would introduce a model then leave it unchanged over a long period of time until the sales begin to show a decline after reaching the maturity stage which is the peak occasion of sales of a product it can reach before they begin to decline. The product life cycles of other manufactures differ from BMW in that there are mainly characterized by four stages which are introduction, growth, maturity and decline. Indeed, BMW’s product lifecycle is constantly growing by virtue of introducing new models in its product lines. However, the main similarity between these product life cycles is that both of them have a similar introduction and growth stages. The introductory phases are concerned with brand establishment with the main aim of encouraging the use of the product by emphasizing its unique attributes. Both stages show an upward trend in sales of their products. Basically, a marketing strategy is defined as the means by which marketing objectives will be achieved. It encompasses the instruments used in marketing which involve planning, organizing, leading and controlling. The most important part of the marketing strategy is the implementation part. Â