Saturday, September 7, 2019
HU300 unit 8 topic 1 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words
HU300 unit 8 topic 1 - Research Paper Example The director explains how long it takes for a plastic bag to disintegrate and the impact it has before it actually disintegrates. The main mythic elements focused on in the film are water and earth. The effects of these elements in the film are to portray the journey of the plastic bag to the point of its disposal. Additionally, the elements are used also used to emphasize on the durability of the plastic bag. Wind is used in the film to show the motion and the journey of the plastic bag despite its will. Music in the film is used to describe the grimness that the bags undergo. However, this does not stop them from continuing with their journey. This bag in particular is lonely and seeks happiness despite the fact that it understands that such happiness is difficult to find. Eventually, the plastic bag accepts its fate and seeks to outlive everything in order to seek its
Friday, September 6, 2019
The major ocean surface current patterns Essay Example for Free
The major ocean surface current patterns Essay An ocean surface current is a constantly directed and continuous movement or flow of ocean water. Major ocean surface current patterns are powered by the wind. However, these patterns are also largely influenced by other factors such as the Corolis effect, which is the deflection of the water to the direction of the wind, the differences in heating across the globe, and the structure of the landmasses. These three factors result in more permanent and large scale water movements that become the major ocean surface current patterns around the world. Generally, each of ocean hemispheres has its own gyre, which is the term for the circular movement of water. In the northern hemisphere, gyres move clockwise while in the southern hemisphere move counterclockwise. Examples of major ocean surface patterns around the world include Equatorial Counter Current, Kuroshio Current, North and South Equatorial Current, the Gulf Stream, and the North Atlantic Drift, among many others. 2. Compare and contrast: swells, breaking surf, and tides. Include water depth, wavelength, speed, and causes of each. A swell in the ocean basically refers to the development of ocean surface waves that are of long wavelength on the sea. They have more stable directions compared to other oceanic waves because they are mainly caused by steady wind systems and tropical storms. On the other hand, certain waves go through a phenomenon termed as ââ¬Å"breaking. â⬠These waves, also called ââ¬Å"break surfs,â⬠have bases that can longer support their upper part or top, which causes it to collapse. These usually happen when the wave runs through shallow water or when two waves run against each other. Its speed and depth depends on the size of the entire wave and its wavelength depends on how the wave was formed. Finally, a tsunami is a chain of waves that are created when a large body of water, like an ocean, is swiftly displaced. In a deep ocean, a tsunami usually has a wavelength of 120 miles or 200 kilometers. When a tsunami starts to form it is usually deep and travels fast, but as it approaches the coast or the land, it becomes shallow and it speed slows down to 50 mph or 80 kilometers per hour. The causes of a tsunami may include an earthquake, volcanic eruptions, massive underwater movements, and large asteroids hitting the sea or ocean, among others. 3. Discuss how tides in a bay depend on its location in the ocean. Since tides are largely dependent on the gravitational pull of the sun and the moon, its movement, occurrence, and size are influenced by its location in the ocean. Usually, when the moon and the sun are aligned with each other facing the Earth, the tides are either significantly high or low. On the other hand, when the two are not aligned, the tides are not as significantly high or low. In terms of location, when a coastline or a bay is located approximately between the moon and the sun, its tides could either be very high or very low. However, since the pull of gravity is stronger in the bodies of water that are far from land, there are more tides in bays that are located farther from the coastline. In short, when a bay is farther out in the ocean, the more tides there will be and vice versa. 4. Compare and contrast depositional and erosional coasts in terms of surface features, plate tectonic settings, and active processes. Two types of coasts that significantly differ from each other are depositional coasts and erosional coasts. Depositional coasts mainly have a lot of barrier islands, segments, and deltas. Their beaches are also well-developed as compared to the erosional coasts. One of its most prominent active processes is the longshore drift, which is a zigzag wave movement that causes the movement of sands and picks up sediments. One example of this type of coast is the Gulf Coast. On the other hand, erosional coasts have irregular and steep bays and headlands that create sea arches, sea tracks, and sea caves but lack well-developed beaches except for certain protected areas. Itââ¬â¢s most active process is erosion as its particles such as rocks, soils, and sediments are displaced by wind and water movement. Possibly the best examples of this type of coast are the United States west coast and the Australian Coastline. 5. Discuss the differences in capabilities necessary for survival of marine organisms (larger than plankton) in the pelagic zone versus the benthic zone. There are several differences in the necessary survival capabilities of marine organisms between the pelagic zone and the benthic zone. The pelagic zone is any level or any part of the sea not near the bottom. On the other hand, the benthic zone is lowest region or area of an ocean, sear, or lake. Basic the main difference between the capabilities of the organism that live in the two zones include their tolerance of pressure and temperature and oxygen and nutrient requirement, among others. Since the pelagic zone covers areas that are not near the bottom, there are a lot of organisms that can survive in it. There marine organisms are usually ones that cannot tolerate too much pressure and need adequate oxygen and nutrients, which are abundant in this region as compared to the benthic zone. Examples of these organisms include the billfish, tunas, and dorado, among others. On the other hand, those that can survive in the benthic zone are organisms that have a high tolerance for pressure and do not require abundant oxygen and nutrient supply, which are significantly lower in the region. Certain examples of these marine organisms in the benthic zone, which are also called ââ¬Å"benthosâ⬠include starfish, clams, sea anemones, and oysters, among others.
Thursday, September 5, 2019
Ethics and Corporate Responsibility: Accounting Fraud
Ethics and Corporate Responsibility: Accounting Fraud The key issued described in the suit against Xerox Corporation is that Xerox had overstated its revenues during the past four years by almost $2 billion. The fraudulent scheme had misled investors about Xeroxs earnings to polish its reputation on Wall Street and to boost the companys stock price. These accounting fraud cases show us that ethics is a real issue, a very current issue and it is one that needs to be addressed. Unethical behaviour is common and reasons exist for such behaviour. Recent accounting scandals involving high-profile companies such as Xerox Corp have called into question accounting practices and undermined public confidence in the profession. These ethical scandals in the real world suggested a market economy being out of control and raised demands for more stringent and effective government regulation. Such deception by management hampers the ability of the users of financial statements from gaining accurate business information for decision-making and leaves their interests unprotected. 2.CASE DISCUSSION a)What are the ethical issues confronted in these cases? The term ethics refer to a system or code of conduct based on moral duties and obligation that indicate how we should behave; it deals with the ability to distinguish right from wrong and the commitment to do what is right. Unethical behaviour in the corporate world is political and business scandals, which arise with the disclosure of misdeeds by trusted executives of large public corporations. Such misdeeds typically involve complex methods for misusing or misdirecting funds, overstating revenues, understating expenses, overstating the value of corporate assets or underreporting the existence of liabilities, sometimes with the cooperation of officials in other corporations or affiliates. For Xerox Corp. it has been defrauding investors since 1997 till 2000. In a scheme directed and approved by its senior management, Xerox falsely portrayed itself as a business meeting its competitive challenges and increasing its earnings every quarter. Xerox knowingly or recklessly increased revenues and earnings by accelerating the recognition of revenues through mostly non-GAAP accounting actions, overstated its earnings by using so called cookie jar reserves and interest income from tax refunds, disguised loans as asset sales and manipulated its accounting in violation of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). All of them should have been disclosed to investors in a timely manner because, singly and collectively, they constituted a significant departure from Xeroxs past accounting practices and misled investors about the quality of the earnings being reported. Besides that, senior Xerox management reaped over $5 billion in performance-based compensation and over $30 million in profits from the sale of stock. The practices summarized above constitute an unlawful scheme by Xerox to defraud investors through undisclosed accounting practices and other material transactions, some of which the company knew or should have known violated GAAP. Xerox failed to tell investors that these actions were the reason Xerox met or exceeded consensus earnings estimates quarter after quarter. b) The possible reasons or factors that may cause the unethical actions in the cases. The ethical issues faced by Xerox corp can be explained from a personal, organizational and systematic level and it possible reasons why they commit unethical actions. Personal Level Possible reasons: Individual moral failures and greed Personal level calls for the character evaluation of the main individuals that participated in the various fraud as for Xerox Corp Former Chairman and CEO, Paul Allaire, Former Chief Financial Officer, Barry Romeril and KPMG partner, Michael Conway, in a statement reported that they are the main person whom in charged by the SEC way back years of 1999. The values and ethical behaviours of these individuals have continuously been called into question. Many of the charges directed towards these individuals are a clear indication of acquiring personal interest. It is not that the senior executives did not receive any ethics training earlier on but it is their own individual moral failures and greed that led to the distortion of financial statements. They did not consider the social implications of their unscrupulous decision on their company and also all parties with interests in the company. What concern these executives are their own individualized interests especially in wealth maximization. Organizational Level Possible reasons: The need to follow orders from bosses and pressure from top management on their accountants to make the numbers add up. An unethical practices by the Top management to ensure that the accountant of the Corporation to make up the financial statement reporting to reflect the corporation financial position was on a good position no matter what it cost as long as they can manipulate the treatment of accounting practices. This might be the reasons for the accountant in that organizational tied up( unable to perform as an independent parties) with the mislead accounting practices in order to follow the command of the superior management. As in Nicor Energys overstated unbilled revenue by approximately $4.5 million for 2001 was a collusion between Johnson (senior-most financial officer) and Stoffer (NEs President CEO) in inflating the unbilled revenue number. Stoffer also directed a reversal of a portion of the incurred expense of 2001 into 2002 to meet year-end earnings targets. Besides that, Johnson who was responsible for setting the level of the bad debt reserve was under pressured by Stoffer to purposely understate the bad debts reserve. Systematic Level Possible Reasons: Cosy relationship the firms have with their corporate clients and Enormous pressure from Wall Street investors to keep up short term earnings. As been spell out, many external factors have contributed to the confront of this unethical issues. Such possible factors from the external forces are Corporations often hire accountants and other personnel from their auditor and accountants and much of the pressure brought to bear on accountants; stems from the cosy relationships the firms have with corporate clients. As for Xeroxs auditors, KPMG kept silent when it found out about the accounting discrepancies in Xerox so that they can maintain their relationship and businesses with Xerox. There was no watchdog ( legal and structure) at Xerox. KPMGs bark sounded no warning to investors; its bite was toothless. Beside the possible causes that might led them to commit in these unethical actions possibly might be due to the investment climate of 1990s added insults to injuries. Cited back, year of 1990s, Companies that failed to meet Wall Streets earnings estimates by even a penny often were punished by significant declines in stock price. In addition, compensation of Xerox senior management team depended significantly on their ability to meet increasing revenue and earning target. c).Who were the stakeholders (individual or groups) that are affected by the unethical actions? How are they affected by the fraud or unethical actions? Stakeholders are those groups who can affect or [are] affected by the achievement of the firms objectives. Stakeholders in a company may include shareholders, directors, management, suppliers, government, employees and also the community. The unethical actions in Xerox Corp have affected the stakeholders in a way or so. Shareholders Shareholders are invariably the first victims of top management fraud. When news of fraud by a firm becomes public knowledge, it immediately reduces the stock market value of the companies involved. Bondholders and other creditors of the firm can also end up bearing the negative effects of management fraud. After news of the financial fraud at Xerox Corp. is released, Xeroxs stock has been declining sharply and is now trading at about $7. Shareholders can no longer assume that management is acting within the law or with their best interests in mind. Shareholders now require greater openness on the part of their senior managers. Society Fraud also depresses the overall moral climate in a society. It can lead to a general lack of faith in the integrity of senior managers, erosion in the confidence in the free market system, including its political institutions, processes, and leaders, and a general growth of cynicism in a society. The failure of accounting firms to detect managerial fraud has also led to less faith in audited financial statements. Worse still, many believe that the accounting firms have compromised their own integrity because of the lure of lucrative consulting contracts from firms they were auditing. In Xeroxs case, their auditor, KPMG complied with management at Xerox to allow the accounting irregularities to continue. Employees Employees of companies whose top managers engage in fraud often are hit the hardest, even when they are unaware of their executives illegal activities. Fraud can cause employees to lose their jobs, their retirement savings (which often are tied up in company stock) and their reputations. Frequently, the very fact that employees have worked for a fraudulent company taints their resumes to the point that some find it difficult to find jobs elsewhere. The negative impact of Xeroxs fraud was that Xerox has laid off thousand of workers in the past two years and may make further retrenchments in the future. d) Discussion on the governance and control issues arising from the companies experienced. The highly visible accounting scandal in Xerox Corp showed us one significant matter; the corporate governance and internal controls is failed in the corporations. The worst incidences of fraud are usually committed by insiders, among whom those executives figure prominently who are assigned to manage and control their organizations. Corporations are now looking at how they can make their respective boards of directors more effective. Xerox Corp, has made a good progress on corporate governance and control issues arising from the companys experience. They have adopted strict new guidelines on what constitutes director independence. Applying this definition, 75% of their directors are independent. Proactively integrated Sarbanes-Oxley Act and proposed NYSE rules into their governance processes. Revised and strengthened the charters for their Board of Directors committees. Hold regular executive sessions of outside directors without Xerox management present. Launched a massive effort to strengthen internal controls, train their people and promulgate a clear and strong Code of Conduct. Established an Ethics Help line for their employees and have taken other measures all aimed at making Xerox a role model in ethical behaviour. Bear in mind that, no laws or policies will ever be sufficient to end all corporate misbehaviour. We are confident, however, that truly independent and inquisitive boards of directors will provide the best safeguard against corporate wrongdoings. such Audit Committees must be autonomous and vigorous, Financial Information is inherently judgmental ,give Sarbanes-Oxley a chance to work, excessive executive compensation can be tamed by the Compensation Committee and directors must be selected and appraised by Independent Nominating Committee. 3.Conclusion Fraud had damages the reputations of the individuals and firms involved. Revelations of top management fraud have caused the public to question the ability of boards of directors to monitor senior executives and protect shareholders wealth. As for Xerox Corp, in order too minimize the harm caused by the unethical actions by the executives, firstly Law and regulations are, and will remain, the most influential external drivers of corporate ethics, but legislation is no substitute for the presence of leaders who support and model ethical behaviour. The single most important ethical leadership behaviour is keeping promise, followed by encouraging open communication, keeping employees informed and supporting employees who uphold ethical standards. Corporate leaders need to communicate ethical values throughout the organization, but they must do more than talk the talk in order to establish and sustain an ethical culture. As for specific programs and practices, a corporate code of conduct is viewed as being most important to prevent or minimize accounting frauds. Such a code must reflect and reinforce the values and principles of an organization. Besides that, ethics training for all members of the organization, corporate social responsibility programs, ombudsman services and help lines can be done to combat unethical behaviour. In summary, employees need to have a code to set the ethics foundation, training to help people truly understand it, and programs that permit them to inquire about and report ethical violations. A comprehensive Whistleblowers Act to provide wide-ranging protection for whistleblowers in all sectors too can help encourage whistle blowing. Study Of Knowledge | Empiricists Vs Rationalists Study Of Knowledge | Empiricists Vs Rationalists The dispute between empiricism and rationalism begins within epistemology, the study of knowledge. Epistemology attempts to answer the questions: what is knowledge?, what can we know?, and what is the difference between opinion an knowledge? The study of knowledge began in Greece with the Pre-Socratic thinkers, as far back as the sixth and fifth centuries B.C.E. Zeno, a Pre-Socratic, is the first thinker to bring about the two schools of philosophy, rationalism and empiricism, which would grow to become a popular focus among other philosophers. Rationalism is defined as the epistemological view that true knowledge is derived from reason and from within the mind. This school of thought is based off of the a priori: truths that can be known independently of observations, and innate ideas: ideas believed to be present from birth. Empiricism, on the other hand, is the view that true knowledge is derived from sense experience. Empiricists believed that a priori and innate ideas were none existent, and rather all significant knowledge came from the a posteriori, the belief that truth is established only through observation. Zeno chose to focus on information derived from mathematics or rationalism, because he believed this information to be certain. He thought that information derived from the senses, or empiricism, could be deceiving. From there, the way by which we obtain knowledge continued to be argued over. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, philosophers began to take sides as to what they believed was the source of knowledge. They formed two groups: the Continental rationalists and the British empiricists. In the Continental rationalist group were philosophers Rene Descartes and Baruch Spinoza. The philosophies of Descartes and Spinoza are similar because they are systematic, logical, and rational. Both Descartes and Spinoza sought a system of thought that possessed the certainty of mathematics and was free of Scholastic tradition, because they believed scholasticism could not be trusted. They thought that judgments must be made from a mathematical basis and believed in a mechanistic worldview, the real world is not the world as known by the senses but rather by mathematical physics. They were also both pantheists, which meant that they equated God with nature. Spinoza worked off of Descartes ideas from his Cartesian Method, that nothing is true unless it is clear and distinct. This idea of only believing what is certain was an idea brought up years ago by the Pre-Socratic thinker, Zeno and developed further by the Continental rationalists. The biggest difference, however in Spinozas p hilosophy was his opinion on substances. Descartes defined substance as that which can exist by itself, without the aid of any other substance. He divided the world into two kinds of substances, thinking substance (the mind) and extended substance (the body). He then divided thinking substance into the infinite thinking substance (God) and finite thinking substances. Although Descartes believed that there was only one infinite substance (God), he believed that there were many finite thinking substances, so he was a pluralist. Spinoza rejected Descartess divisions of substances and his plurality of finite substances. He did not agree with Descartess division of infinite and finite thinking substance. For Spinoza, there was only infinite substance, and no thinking substance and extended substance. Spinoza claimed that there was only one substance, infinite substance, which he equated with God. Spinoza also argued that the definition of substance makes it impossible for the mind and th e body to be distinct substances. He said that mind and body are modes of that single substance. So, Spinoza took Descartes idea of substances and built upon it, but Spinoza was a monist rather than a dualist like Descartes. The other major philosophical group during the seventeenth and eighteenth century was the classical British empiricists. The empiricists believed that all knowledge is derived from observation. Hume and other British empiricists rejected the intuition/deduction thesis and the idea of innate knowledge proposed by Descartes. Hume believed that true knowledge came from a posteriori, sense experience, rather than from a priori. A major difference between Hume and Descartes is their take on the issue of Gods existence. When the two applied their very different theories to the topic of Gods existence, they arrived at different conclusions. In Descartes efforts to doubt everything, he realized that only one thing was certain, I think, therefore I exist. Descartes concluded that God exists when he realized that if he himself is subject to doubt, he is imperfect, and cannot be the cause of his existence. Because he had an idea of perfectness, this idea must come from a perfect being, or God. However, Hume was not able to prove Gods existence. Hume built upon Leibnizs analytic synthetic distinction in creating his Humean Method. He separated ideas into three categories: analytic propositions, synthetic propositions, and nonsense. He created a set of questions that one could ask to come to the conclusion as to what category an idea fell under. In contrast to Descartes conclusions about Gods existence, the Humean method suggests that God should be placed under the nonsense category because it is not possible to trace God back to sense data. Descartes, the rationalist and Hume, the empiricist had differing opinions. However, the two philosophers are similar because they both raise very skeptical issues. Descartes idea of the possibility of an evil demon putting thoughts in our heads and Humes conclusion that the idea of God is nonsense caused people to begin questioning traditional teachings and what they had always thought to be true. New ideas like the ones presented by D escartes and Hume later caused problems because as people became more aware of these ideas, more rebellion from authority and religion began to occur. Part Two: Immanuel Kant In the Preface to the second edition of the Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant compares his philosophy to the Copernican Revolution. It is said that as Copernicus believed that all heavenly bodies moved round the sun, Kant believed he was the center, and that everything moved around his philosophy. The philosophy of Immanuel Kant was so revolutionary because he brought together rationalism and empiricism. Because of Kant, the debate between rationalists and empiricists ended, and epistemology could move forward. Kant was inspired to build his philosophy after he encountered a copy of Humes Inquiry. He realized that he disagreed with many of the issues Hume brought up, and decided to refute them. In his book, The Critique of Pure Reason, he combined the ideas of Hume and the ideas of rationalists. Kant agreed with the empiricist claim that sense experience is the source of all beliefs, but disagreed with the conclusion that those beliefs may not necessarily be true. He also disagreed with the rationalist idea that truths about what does or does not exist could be decided through reason alone. He eliminated the debate by claiming that thinking and experiencing cannot let us know how things really are. Instead, Kant asked if it was possible that we have metaphysical knowledge. He claimed that the mind analyzes the data it perceives in terms of space and time. So, space and time are not features of external reality, as the empiricists and rationalists before him believed. Kant said that in order for human beings to interpret the world the human mind imposed certain structures on the incoming sense data. Kant defined these structures in terms of twelve categories: substance, cause/effect, reciprocity, necessity, possibility, existence, totality, unity, plurality, limitation, reality and negation. These categories were characteristics of the appearance of any object in general. However, these categories are related only to human language. When making a statement about an object, that person is making a judgment. A general object, that is, every object, has attributes that are contained in Kants list of Categories. In a judgment, or verbal statement, the Categories are the predicates that can be asserted of every object and all objects.
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Justice in the Legal System Essay -- Justice System Laws Crimes Essays
Justice in the Legal System Justice, as defined by Websterââ¬â¢s Dictionary is the quality of being fair or just. This implies that justice would have something to do with being fair. I thought that if one of the things the law and legal system are about is maintaining and promoting justice and a sense of fairness, they might not be doing such a great job. An eye for an eye is fair? No, that would be too easy, too black and white. I could cite several examples where I thought a judgeââ¬â¢s or juryââ¬â¢s ruling was unfair, however I will not simply due to the fact that this is to be about what justice is to me and not what justice was to the particular courtroom situation. I actually do believe in our legal system and I believe in justice. I believe justice is the ideal that we as a society strive to achieve. The legal system, when looked at closely, is not just but judgment. You can be punished when found guilty in a number of way, but who knows if they are ââ¬Å"fairâ⬠punishments, an example might be is it fair to the mother of a man who is sentenced to death for his crime or crimes when she herself did nothing wrong and was in fact, quite possibly, a model parent? Is it fair that a convicted murderer may serve 30 years in prison and walk out at the end of his sentence to live out the rest of his life while the victim will never take another breath or see their children or grandchildren live? It is all a matter of opinion, both personal and public. Why is justice import...
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
ME :: essays research papers
Me Hey you, yes you. Is there anyone else that I could be talking to? Read this. Just the beginning part and if you donââ¬â¢t like it then donââ¬â¢t read it. I wont force you. And if you decided to read this, you might be wondering what the title means. Well itââ¬â¢s a mindless waste of paper and ink as it is about (NO, you dimwit, it isnââ¬â¢t about the Windows Millennium Edition!!!) me, the writer, who is simply telling you (the reader) about his boring and melodramatic life. Now that you know the meaning of the title lets, us begin this waste of time. I was born in Karachi, on the 12th of September in the early nineteen eightyââ¬â¢s, along with two other babies, but not from the same mother. I was a healthy baby boy of nine pounds and a loud voice. I was the second born, of my mother, but the biggest by my mother. I was told that I was a troublesome baby, but hey, how do I know what happened or what I did seventeen and a half years ago. Anyway, thatââ¬â¢s enough about my birth. (If you want to know more, feel free to contact my lawyer, who is currently in a coma due to a head injury sustained while guest starring in the Jerry Springer Show) I was christened after twenty- one days of my birth and was named Hassan, after one of the Imamââ¬â¢s in my religion, Islam. And through these seven-teen and half years, I have proven my name wrong in itââ¬â¢s meaning except in a few certain aspects. I started to speak at the tender age of two and a half years, and my first word, as my elders tell me, is ââ¬Å"Chickenâ⬠. I still wonder, to this day how I said it, but for some strange reason or the other, all of my favorite foods and dishes are or contain some form of chicken in them. I grew up to be large and tall, and due to this I was kicked out of kindergarten and promoted to grade I. This was the first and last time I was double promoted, not because of my intelligence of because of my size. Like they say ââ¬ËSIZE DOES MATTER!!!!ââ¬â¢ Anyway, enough of that. I must have shifted more cities than anyone else in my age, except the babies of nomads. I first lived
Monday, September 2, 2019
Learn the Law. Question the Law :: essays research papers
à à à à à Throughout the course of human history, people have advanced technology and educated minds in ways that once would not have seemed impossible. From caves drawings to televisions and from the bow and arrow to the machine gun, humans have continually improved their standard of living over the years. Although we now have all sorts of things people could only dream of a thousand years ago, we still live like cavemen in many ways. One of these ways is our contempt refusal to tolerate severe injustice at many levels of society. Just like most problems, injustice starts at the top, and often starts with the people that are supposed to be preventing it. à à à à à Corrupt police officers and law agencies have been sifting through the sieve of true justice for years, and continue to do so today. From Hitlerââ¬â¢s horrifying Gestapo police of the 1940ââ¬â¢s to the more recent beating of Rodney King, police officers have abused their powers like a broken record. Police have engaged in unjustified shootings, severe beatings, fatal chokings, and unnecessarily rough treatment of citizens in rural and urban areas from New York to Los Angeles. Just as the founders of our great nation stood to face the British in the 18th century, and just as our forefathers fought to free us from the shackles of slavery, we must now fight to ensure that our democracy is not tainted by the practice of unjust or discriminatory law. à à à à à ââ¬Å"Drunk Ohio Cop Found Passed Out (Drunk) In Burger King Drive-Thru.â⬠This was a headline on CNN.com on February 21, 2005. This kind of story serves as an example that not all of our police officers are as moral as they claim to be. The most disturbing part of this story wasnââ¬â¢t that this police veteran was found intoxicated in his dispatch car, itââ¬â¢s that this man had the power of our law behind him for years before this happened. Many of the thousands of laws that help police officers do things like pull you over for no legitimate reason, or come into your house without probable cause, were constructed for just these purposes. This fact goes hand in hand with a quote from Tacitus, a famous Roman historian and philosopher, ââ¬Å"the more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.â⬠à à à à à Police officers sometimes lack a crucial prerequisite for their job, common sense. Instead of getting drug dealers and other dangerous criminals off the streets, they are often seen in packs of three to five ââ¬Å"investigatingâ⬠events like fireworks in the dorms, or streakers.
Sunday, September 1, 2019
“A Soldier” by Robert Frost
Andrew Fariello Professor Didner ENC1102 MW 3:30-5:15 ââ¬Å"A Soldierâ⬠by Robert Frost ââ¬Å"A Soldierâ⬠by Robert Frost Robert Frost's ââ¬Å"A Soldierâ⬠attracted my interest to some degree. As a United States military veteran of a foreign war, I significantly related to the message that Robert Frost was sending. From my own personal experiences that I have endured while fighting in Operation Iraqi Freedom conflict in Iraq, Robert Frost's words exploded imagery into my mind breaking open another dimension that typed words on a paper could not provide alone.His poem really hit home, creating a bond between the poem and myself, making ââ¬Å"A Soldierâ⬠a wonderful poem for me to analyze. In the poem ââ¬Å"A Soldier,â⬠Robert Frost uses a hurled lance that will eventually rot away to symbolize a dead solider that too, will be forgotten soon. Frost is describing a soldier that has been killed by war, and has been forgotten due to the fact that the soldier is just that: a soldier, a killer that had been killed for an unimportant ugly cause. Robert Frost portrays an image that the soldier did live for a greater cause, and should be remembered for it.Robert Frost first describes a lance that has come to rest on the ground, and will soon rot away. He is that fallen lance that lies as hurled, That lies unlifted now, come dew, come rust, ââ¬Å"He is that fallen lance that lies,â⬠and ââ¬Å"That lies unlifted,â⬠tells the reader that the soldier is dead. The ââ¬Å"fallen lanceâ⬠is ââ¬Å"He,â⬠the soldier. ââ¬Å"Lies unliftedâ⬠tells the reader that the soldier is dead, not uplifted as the reader would expect to have read rather than the word ââ¬Å"unlifted. The lance, which is the soldier, will wither away just as a lance left in the ground would rust away. Then Frost tells his readers that society doesn't see the soldier's life important enough to have solved anything, and that the soldier's death didn't hav e any meaning. Before Frost tells his readers this, he first gives a hint that the soldier's death did have meaning. But still lies pointed as it ploughed the dust. If we who sight along round the world, See nothing worthy to have been its mark, It is because like men we look too near,Forgetting that as fitted to the spear, ââ¬Å"See nothing worthy to have been its markâ⬠symbolizes that the soldier wasn't ââ¬Å"worthyâ⬠, or important enough to have come to lie permanently in the ââ¬Å"dustâ⬠, or the earth. Although society couldn't see a larger picture, and no meaning behind the soldier's death, as Frost portrays as ââ¬Å"menâ⬠who ââ¬Å"look too nearâ⬠, the soldier did, in fact, have a greater meaning to it all. Frost portrays this theory by keeping the lance, or solider ââ¬Å"pointed as it ploughed the dustâ⬠, meaning the solider was pointed in the right direction in his life.Lastly, Frost describes the burden that is created from our weapons, but shows us that the soldier will be triumphant after his death. Our missiles always make too short an arc. They fall, they rip the grass, they intersect The curve of Earth, and striking, break their own; They make us cringe for metal-point on stone. But this we know, the obstacle that checked And tripped the body, shot the sprit on Further than target ever showed or shone. ââ¬Å"Too short an arcâ⬠, and ââ¬Å"they intersectâ⬠, symbolizes that our weapons are designed to come down to earth and destroy. Break their ownâ⬠and ââ¬Å"metal-point to stoneâ⬠symbolizes that once the weapons do come down, they will destroy their own race and their creations. The soldier though, ââ¬Å"trippedâ⬠and ââ¬Å"shot the sprit on,â⬠depicting that he is in a better place now. And the soldier is now at peace. Robert Frost used rhyme to keep the reader's interest, and implemented it very cleverly into his poem. The last word in the first line of his poem rhymes with the last word of the fourth line.And the last word of the very next line rhymes with the last word of the eighth line, which is the same interval of lines between the first and fourth lines. This pattern continues throughout the poem, and the lines that are in the middle of these intervals, also have their last words rhyming with each other. In conclusion, Robert Frost paints an image of a passed soldier that many may have been forgotten. Although only few will see the bigger picture behind the soldier's death, the soldier's sprit has moved on to a place where it can't be exposed anymore; ââ¬Å"Further than target ever showed or shown. ââ¬Å"
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