Friday, January 24, 2020

Cyber Bullying Essay -- Technology, Real Perpetrators, Cyberbullying

Going to a new school in Massachusetts, all the way from Ireland, Phoebe Prince is ready to start a new life and make new friends. Not everything always workes out in her favor, though. As soon as Prince starts dating the star football player, the threats start flowing in. The constant torments at school leave her lonely and depressed, and when she got home, it never stopped. She was getting never ending text messages and the torments didn’t stop there. Phoebe was constantly getting harassed through social networking sites, such as Facebook. High school is supposed to be the time of her life, but she is only able to live one year of it because she takes her own life relentlessly. Cyber bullying is a problem that affects almost half of American teens (NCPC 1). Adult authorities should enact strict rules to protect vulnerable children from suffering the effects of the modern threat of cyber bullying. Although technology makes it difficult to identify the real perpetrator, the expansion of technology throughout the years has recently made cyber bullying a more prominent factor. From Myspace to Facebook to Formspring to Twitter, cyber bullying makes its way over the entire internet, and will not stop for anything. The rise of networking sites, personal Web pages and blogs brimming with the minutiae of teens antics and angst has helped to create a rich climate for cyber mayhem: Locker-room photos snapped with cell phones and broadcast on the Internet, fake profiles created on social-networking sites, salacious rumors spread in chat rooms, threats zapped across town in instant messages (Billitteri 4). They warn that young people on these sites are more likely to be the victims of cyber bullying and that they are also vulnerable to pr... ...y, has a very strict Internet usage policy with certain sites, like Myspace, blocked so students cannot access them (Cyber Bullying 3). Cyber bullying causes destruction to not only the victim’s life, but the loved ones of the victim as well. With the modern day technology that increases every day, cyber bullying will keep growing without the strict anti-bullying laws that need to be enforced not only in select states, but in all. Schools need to be more open-eyed to what children are doing during school hours and being strict that their acts don’t follow them home. Parents need to teach their children better habits and respectful manners so that when they are confronted with others, it is less likely they will be a bully to them. With all these minor improvements that can be made, cyber bullying can be diminished very easily if everyone helps out every day.

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Literary Response

In May, the author tells of his/her chance encounter with a copperhead on the road one night as it lay â€Å"golden under the street lamp,† silent and tense and fearless. Having long wanted to see one, he/she kneels down transfixed, fascinated by its lethal grace, its being unlike the common black and green and garter snakes that evince only shyness; here is a real death striker within arm’s reach. The author remembers not its distinct markings or size or other physical characterstic other than the fact that its head is â€Å"wedge-shaped and fell back to the unexpected slimness of a neck,† its body â€Å"thick, tense and electric.† He/she moves a little, catching the creature’s attention; it jerks as if to attack, and he/she jumps back.   The snake flows â€Å"on across the road and down into the dark,† leaving him/her alone to contemplate the woods and the stars.Only a reptile, but what feelings it does evoke! Meeting the copperhead is an exciting experience that leaves one more capable of appreciating life. â€Å"I hope to see everything in this world before I die,† says the author, speaking of a hope that is uniquely human. The poem captures an impression, a feeling, and by so doing prints an image of the poet as well: curious, contemplative, daring, desirous to embark on a quest to discover everything that life has to offer.Almost everyone shares the author’s wish to â€Å"see everything in this world† before he/she dies, like the boy in Van Dyke’s The Blue Flower who, seeing his own burial lot already allotted to him, becomes terribly restless, â€Å"longing to see the world and to taste happiness† before his time comes to sleep beneath the elm tree where his future graveyard lies. Such, to my mind, is the author’s yearning: she is drawn to the copperhead as a moth is drawn to a flame, or a soldier lured to the battlefield, not by dreams of glory and honor, but by some v ague notion that a face-to-face confrontation with death would make him better appreciate the joy of living.But why does one have to look for excitement in things as wild, as unpredictable, as deadly as a copperhead? Perhaps, humans are drawn to the snake by the realization that they have a thing in common: a vulnerability without the fang. Remove man’s weapons, and he is but a feeble animal.   Of course, one can learn everything about snakes through books or the Internet or the science lab.   The author, if he/she wants to, can view the copperhead in its glass cage as it sleeps, coiled and undisturbed.   But a snake in the open, especially in one’s yard, always strikes terror.Like the serpent in the garden of Eden, it suggests cunning, mystery, power. Gliding and winding and recoiling, it has a beauty that seduces and mesmerizes. One must see a real snake up close and personal to have a glimpse of the real world. In this regard, â€Å"to see everything† d oes not simply amount to viewing things through a microscope, or watching a lion in its kingdom in the veldt from the safety of a car. It is akin to courting danger for the love of being scared, to feel one’s blood pulsing upon coming face to face with real-life demons. It is not seeing the world the way a tourist normally does, nor as a nature lover admires butterflies.   Nor is it a foolhardy man’s courtship of danger. The author does not go out of his/her way to meet the snake; it happens by chance. His/her wish â€Å"to see everything in this world† does not necessarily refer to making a solo voyage across the ocean, or free-falling from a cliff, or climbing the Himalayas â€Å"because it’s there.† It is not seeking danger for its sake, but finding comfort in deliverance when real danger comes along.The author’s desire â€Å"to see everything in this world† before dying echoes Thoreau’s self-admonition on his quest, livin g by himself in the woods, â€Å"to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life . . . to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms† (Walden). May’s author may not have gone to the extent of exploring the earth’s frontiers, at least not that we know of, to see everything in this planet: his/hers is only a hope, perhaps a childish one, for nobody can ever hope to see everything in a multiple of lifetimes. It is a powerful voice, nonetheless, emanating from within, that is always heard above the din of humanity.In a sense,   May is Rubaiyat-like in its simplicity: â€Å"make the most of what we may yet spend,/ Before we too into the Dust Descend.†   Of course, May never tells us to indulge before we die, nor does it preach or call our attention to the plight of endangered species. But it gives an impression of urgency: life is too short to be squandered on trivial pursuits.The author sees the copperhead not in some desert but in an in habited town, perhaps a city fringed by woods, illumined not by the sun or moon but by a street lamp. Perhaps it is a reminder of our affinity with the wild.   Maybe it is one way of telling us that material comforts and soft living have deprived us of the age-old need to go out and face our monsters. After the copperhead has flown â€Å"across the road and down into the dark,† the author â€Å"stood a while, listening to the small sounds of the woods and looking at the stars.† He/she notes that â€Å"after excitement we are so restful† and that â€Å"when the thumb of fear lifts, we are so alive.† Restfulness and vivacity are the aftermath of excitement and fear. But is it possible to become restful and alive at the same time? Meditative, or thoughtful, would be more apt. One can be brimming with life and excitement even when confined to a sickbed.The encounter with the copperhead heightens the author’s appreciation of nature’s other gift s, such as the small sounds of the woods and a view of the stars. At night, one can hear faint stirrings in the forest as predator and prey make their nocturnal rounds: a squirrel being caught in a coyote’s jaws, a rat being snatched by an owl on the wing. Yet humans do not really know, cannot really comprehend the life-and-death struggles that occur in their midst unless they too assume the role of predator or prey, killer or victim. The former is excited by the fact that it has power over the weak; the latter by the fact that it can outrun, even outwit, its pursuer. Has this not been the lot of all creatures since time began? In meeting the copperhead, the author unexpectedly catches a glimpse of what life really consisted of before civilization. By listening to the woods, one can hear the coming and going of life. By looking at the stars, one can wish life would go on forever.Every human at some point early in life feels an itch to set out and conquer the world, like the f rog in the parable of the well, or like the pioneers in the old West who could not settle down despite the abundance of game and the rich land of the frontier; they always wanted to move on, to find out what lay over the horizon all the way to the Pacific. That is man’s nature, and nothing has stopped him – not if it took all the copperheads in the world – to go and see what there is to find, even if it would only lead to frustration and despair. Every person yearns to find his/her El Dorado.May suggests endless possibilities, once-in-a-lifetime chances, secrets waiting to be discovered, if only we are willing to face them. Day after day we meet common people that do not impress us by their shyness, ordinary people, boring people. The daily routine becomes a blur and before we know it we are old, confined to a wheelchair, unsure of whether or not we had ever lived at all.   But once in a rare while we come across a deadly copperhead.May is all about someoneâ⠂¬â„¢s feelings after a brush with a poisonous snake. Maybe it is not about crossing the Sahara or climbing Mount Everest after all, but simply a matter of having to confront our own copperheads as we chance upon them in our everyday lives.WORKS CITEDDyke/The_Blue_Flower/>Khayyam, Omar. The Rubaiyat. 31 May 2007.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Essay Religion and Racism - 1568 Words

Religion and Racism Racism is prejudice against people of another race or ethnic group. Prejudice means pre-judging: making up your mind about someone or something when you have not considered the facts or the evidence. Racism has been around for a very long time, one of the first times that it happened on a major scale was when the Jews moved to Egypt, but were put into slavery because the Egyptians thought of them as inferior because their skin colour and religious beliefs. People are, or can be racist due to three main points, the first is that they were brought up by parents who were racist, and they automatically adopted the views of them because that was all they knew as right.†¦show more content†¦People automatically believed that just because the person had a different coloured skin that they were inferior. Racial discrimination is when people put their prejudice beliefs into action, they might give them poorer housing, for instance in England more black people live on council estates even though there are many more less of them in the whole country. The schooling that people of different races receive is usually a lot worse than that of native people. The law on racism states it is unlawful to discriminate against a person because of his/ her race, colour nationality or ethnic origins. ii) What Christian teachings might be used in a discussion about Racism? In the discussion, a Christian would use the Bible to refer to, and also church teachings. The Bible has a very strong view on racism, and the way you treat other people. The Bible says very clearly that it is wrong for one person to treat another as inferior in anyway. Christians believe that everybody should be treated as equal, regardless of their colour, beliefs or ethnic background. Christian teachings talk strongly about equality and how you should treat someone who is anShow MoreRelatedRacism, Religion, and Family1549 Words   |  6 PagesRacism, Religion, and Family People have surprising varying concepts of racism, religion and family. Upon asking five of my Facebook friends their definitions of the three concepts, it is clear that people do not share the exact same definition for both. Essentially, the idea of religion was the one which differed the most. Each individual had a different definition for the concept. One person believed religion was spirituality, while another saw it as an outdated dogmatic tradition that has hadRead MoreHow The Paths Of Religion And Racism982 Words   |  4 Pages(Hacking Christianity). With a very telling title â€Å"Racism and Religion: partners in crime,† describes how the paths of religion and racism crossed. Catholicism did little to fight racism in the United States in 1942. 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Within the essay I will discuss to the reader about three stories that to me had many similarities in comparisons; with controversy, racial segregationRead MoreRace And Racism : Race, Culture, Religion, And Sex Essay2023 Words   |  9 Pagesgradually grown and evolved over time where other factors such as skin, race, culture, religion, and sex all take part in social inequality. In the Americas there is a great deal social inequality among the entire country where we know a bit about. Racism is something that was created by humanity and started in Europe as a way to create a hierarchical view while keeping those in power in power. 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Or from a modern point of view, racism isn’t always up front to someone’s face it can also be from social media, becauseRead MoreReligious Tradition And Religious Traditions1523 Words   |  7 PagesScholars prefer to focus on religious traditions rather than just â€Å"religion† because religious traditions are â€Å"a tradition is an historical cont ext or network of linguistic, personal, and cultural relationships† (Portier 19). Traditions can be limiting like the legal tradition in America where we carry it around because it shapes our ideas of what is right and what is wrong. Traditions can also be freeing like the civil rights movement which ended slavery and ended a limiting tradition. TraditionsRead MoreThe Fire Next Time By James Baldwin906 Words   |  4 PagesWhat America Must Become Racism is no new concept, even in this day and age. For centuries, the topic of racism has been prevalent, within the confines of the United States especially. James Baldwin, author of The Fire Next Time, writes of his experiences and thoughts of racism throughout his life in the previously mentioned book. Though published in 1962, Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time greatly relates to the U.S even to this day. Baldwin shows a different side of racism that one might have never thought—whileRead MoreThe Existance of Racism Essay1072 Words   |  5 Pageswith the map of Muslim-majority countries, extending from Algeria to Indonesia† (Engler, Sarkar 97). According to the American Heritage College Dictionary, racism has two meanings. Firstly, racism is, â€Å"Discrimination or prejudice based on race.† Dr. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva says, â€Å"There is a strong empirical evidence of the persistence of racism in American Society American Society. While Whites are more li kely to express support for the idea of racial equality than they were in the 1950†²s and 1960†²sRead MoreEssay about Racism in Canada1246 Words   |  5 Pagesable to come to a halt? Many people in this world wonder If racism will ever stop. According to the â€Å"Historical Timeline of Racism in Canada,† (http://www.accesstomedia.org/change/resources/timeline.pdf) racism began in 1698 and has been going on ever since then. Many people presume that racism has existed since people have started to notice differences between themselves and others around them. One may not know the meaning of racism because it means something different to each and every individualRead MoreRacism Is Defined As Discrimination Against Someone Of A Different Race1302 Words   |  6 PagesRacism is defined as discrimination against someone of a different race based on the beliefs that one’s own race is superior (Oxford Dictionary). Racism has existed since the beginning of time, coming to light during slavery in the sixteenth century and the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s. However, racism is still prevalent in today’s society and is a topic that needs to be further addressed and discussed. According to the article, â€Å"Slavery in America† on the website History, slavery began