An Emotionally Captivating Argument

I read the article "I have a great life" just recently. It was written by Colleen Mastony ( a tribune reporter) and I found it in the Chicago Tribune. It was focused on the life of a young girl with Down Syndrome and through learning about the girl's life and happiness, Mastony discussed a very controversial topic: parents and their choices to keep or terminate a fetus with Down Syndrome. In her writing, Mastony argues that doctors need to portray Down Syndrome to parents in a better way. She argues that parents who chose to kill their unborn Down Syndrome baby, are killing all of the potential that the child has. She believes that children and families that are effected by the disease will still be able to live a full and happy life. I believe that this argument did open my eyes to something that is very unknown to me, personally. This argument was very heavily pathos and that, in a way, gives it much more strength then just any other argument. Mastony used pictures and quotes from the girl with Down Syndrome that she focused on with gave allowed myself, as the reader, the ability to feel like I could connect to the argument. I felt like I knew the girl with Down Syndrome which made it difficult for me to read the article and then not agree completely with Mastony. Her argument is valid and logical and it is a relevant issue. The way the writer expresses her argument is persuasive in the way that it makes me want to take action. She was able to give the counter-argument and still keep her argument dominant. I think that in giving a pathos argument and supporting it with real life information, it is almost impossible for the argument to be unsuccessful.

Our Better Lives

I think that it is very interresting that, in our society, a "good" parent is defined by their desire to give their child a "better" life. We discussed in class, the other day, the Puritans' motives to move to America as being driven, mainly, by the goal of giving their children a "better life". This made me think of all the times that I have heard of this idea, and the times when I was dissatisfied with my life and I swore to myself that i would give my own future children a better life than what I am living. I am forced to see the inequal comparison between the obviously difficult lifestyle that the Puritans had and the opposite lifestyle that I am living. My life may be seen as "difficult" to myself at times, but one may argue that it is seen by a lot of the world as the stereotypical, "better" life. I can not help but feel ashamed to even admit this. I realized that i have never heard it ever said or seen it written that a person is content with their own life to the extent that they would want to "give their child a life like theirs". It just seems that people are never content with their lives and they need to fix it through the lives of someone else and what other way to do that then by creating another person and controlling their lifestyle. By evaluating the Puritan idea to move to America so that their children can grow up in a life that they see as being "better" just proves to us that maybe it is impossible to achieve the "American Dream" for the sole reason that our version of the "American Dream" is based off of the dreams of our parents and guardians. Some want to go to college but never get the chance to, so they work hard throughout their lives to give their children the chance to go to college, when in the end, their children will want a "better life" for their children because they had to live someone else's dream. Maybe those children do not want to go to college. They will never really know, though, becuase they were never taught to create their own dreams. Our version of the "American Dream" is only a vision that is formed by another person. We are incapable of achieving our true dreams because we do not even know what our true dreams are. We still have to follow these false dreams in order to fit into society. Those children have to go to college so that they will get a good job, earn money, and survive in our society with their life of dissatissfaction. They will not even be aware that they failed to achieve their "American Dream" until it becomes the desire to have children. Then will not send their children to college but perhaps those kids will want to go to college. It is an endless circle. With this, i question what a "Dream" really is.

An Unknown Truth

I had absolutely no idea that there were such things as "Indian Reform Boarding Schools" prior to our recent lesson about them in American Studies class. I decided to do a little research on my own and found some interesting information.

http://http//www.kporterfield.com/aicttw/articles/boardingschool.html#section2

In the schools, not only were the Indian children taught a new religion, new values, traditions, ideas, etc., but they were taught that the religion, values and traditions that they had before coming to the reform schools, were inferior to the "white culture". The students were expected to watch each other for any sort of rebellion and then they were to relay any "sightings" to the teachers. The Indians who aggreed to the reform were refferred to as "good indians" and the ones who refused to change their ways were referred to as "bad indians". The boarding schools had "brainwashing techniques" that included filling the students' school days with so much activity and work that they had little or no time to do any personal thinking.

I must say, i found myself a little bit disturbed after learning about "Indain Reform Schools". I cannot believe how people think they have the right to take someone from their homes and families. And then to think that these students are being forced to learn about ideas that completely contradict everything that they have been raised to believe. No one has this right! The whole idea of an "Indian Reform School" just seems so rediculous!