Reader Response #5

The essay “Chips: High Tech Aids or Tracking Tools?” written by Todd Lewan is about a company, CityWatcher.com, and the controversy behind RFID chips. It all began with a couple of workers being injected with the chips; however they were used as an extra security in addition to security codes and such. Lewan argues that theses RFIDs are a very “Big Brother” thing to do and may lead to worse things such as GPS tracking.

            Personally I would never get tagged with an RFID, however I do think that they do serve some good. For example, some people have their pets injected with the chip so that they can easily find them. As for humans, I think it would be a bad idea to do it and I agree with the author that it is a very Orwellian thing to do. He also uses the bible as an argument, “The Bible tells us that God’s wrath will come to those who take the Mark of the Beast.” While he does prove some good points and I do agree with him at times it seems as though he is trying too hard to prove his point. For example bringing in 9/11 into his argument may have been a bit much especially since that is a sensitive issue with many Americans, however it does amplify his argument because people are so paranoid about terrorism and being spied on. RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chips may have their uses, but they should not be used on humans and could lead to some “1984” type activities. 

Reader Response 4

­            Maryann Cusimano Love author of “Race in America: ‘We would Like to Believe we Are Over The Problem’” proves a point in her essay that even though decades have passed since the time of slavery and civil rights movement happened race is still very much a factor in today’s society. I liked that she brought up Virginia state legislator Delegate Frank D. Hargrove’s famous quote about  how, “blacks need to get over” slavery. Not only was what he said highly insensitive, but it also shows his ignorance. Slavery, much like the holocaust, is not something you can just forget about, pretend never existed, many people died for no reason, and it was just inhumane.

            Sure, in a perfect world, racism would have been abolished by now and there would be neither traces nor remains of it, unfortunately that is not the case since racism, although died down, is still going strong in our country. Going back to some of the statistics that Love showed in her essay we see a clear picture of not necessarily racism, but definitely a racial divide in life span, socioeconomic status, and infant mortality rate between white and black people. “To ‘get over’ racial problems in America today, we need to understand them and their roots.” One of the most interesting statistics that I felt she presented was that more than 19% of the 14,000 college students surveyed thought that Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech was about slavery. College kids, the ones whom we expect to be most educated, would be so wrong about such an important speech.

            In the end I really agreed with her arguments and believe that racism is still alive and well in this country. Even though we now have a black president, it does not change peoples minds.

Reader Response #3

Mark Buchanan author of “How People Turn Monstrous” is an article about a study conducted at Stanford in the 1970s to show how, under certain conditions, it is human nature to turn monstrous, give in to primal and devilish urges to torture, and dehumanize others. The point of the study was essentially to see what would occur if they were to successfully take away the students individuality. As Buchanan says, “What happened was truly disconcerting,” because within a day and a half the guards, which were really students, hired to play guards, abused of the prisoners and became more and more violent with them. What seems to be the case is that given the power, more often than not people will abuse of the power to the point where it eventually turns them into monsters.

I feel like Buchanan makes a good argument, although the study was done decades ago humans are still the same and the way we act has not changed very much. To prove his point and back up the study he uses evidence from a newer case, the one of the American soldiers and staff sergeant who were found guilty of assault, conspiracy, dereliction of duty, and maltreatment of detainees. This is a perfect example because the soldiers, although trained to kill, are not bad people, but the situation they are put in allows them to transform into something that they may not be.

            Overall, I felt like Buchanan proved valid points about humans becoming “moral monsters” given the right circumstances, and he did well at using that to defend Sgt. Fredrick and the other American soldiers. As Buchanan says, “none of us know that we’d have acted differently.”

Reader Response #2 (Out tired, Our Poor, Our Kids)

The article “Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Kids” by Anna Quindlen offers an insight to not only poverty in the United States, but poverty in the United States amongst kids as well. The way Quindlen wrote this article she very much has a compassionate tone to her, almost like a commercial to sponsor a child in some third world country. I definitely agree with what she is arguing for and think that she did a good job at it. She really plays at people’s emotions and tugs at their heartstrings when she brings up all the stories about the homeless families living in shelters and fitting six people in a master bedroom sized room.

Quidelin starts strong and goes straight into her stories about homeless mothers with children ranging from teens to toddlers, and their struggle to have a roof over their head every night. Most, not cold blooded, people tend to have a soft spot for the impoverished even if they do not always give to them when they are on the streets begging for money or food, but the soft spot is there nonetheless. The children are our future, a statement that has been said for generations and it never ceases to be true. That statement combined with all the little facts she provided, and organizations she talks about really form a great argument against childhood poverty. The final nail in the coffin of her argument comes when she mentions the quote that is at the base of the Statue of Liberty, “Give me your tired, your poor,” and relates that to the “small refugees” whose chances at the American dream have essentially been ruined.

Overall, I feel that Anna Quidlen made a great argument against childhood poverty and I completely agree with what she stated.

The Wrong Lesson: Teaching College Reporters to Be Meek

I felt like the article “The Wrong Lesson: Teaching College Reporters to Be Meek” was a very interesting piece, one that I thought maybe took aim more specifically at private religious universities than they did others. The author made some good points about the censorship of young up and coming college journalists and I am inclined to agree. Truthfully, it is up to each school to set its own policies and such, but it hardly seems honest or unbiased to have policies that outlaw freedom of speech or publications that expose your flaws. In today’s corrupted world, I find it refreshing to pick up a newspaper or a magazine and read something other than celebrity gossip. I would prefer that my news came from a reporter who isn’t afraid to snoop around and go places others wouldn’t for fear of the repercussions.

Overall, I liked David Wallis’ style of writing he seemed notably crude using phrases such as, “scared the living shit out of him”. He seemed really passionate about the subject, not nearly as passionate as the author of “Hip-Hop’s Betrayal of Black Women” but passionate nonetheless. The argument was actually more effective than I anticipated it to be. When I first started reading the article, I didn’t expect it to sway me or motivate me in anyway, but after reading it I felt outraged that universities would go to such extents to quiet their journalists. What really got me was Chris Carroll’s’ story about the freshman who essentially was strong-armed into giving up journalism. It is appalling that universities are even allowed to have such policies and indeed I do feel that parents should not allow their students to attend institutions that silence journalists and are apparently anti-freedom of speech.