TOW #3 - Is This The President We Want For Our Daughters?

In a video posted on Hillary Clinton’s Facebook page called “Is This The President We Want For Our Daughters?”, Clinton exploits Donald Trump with his offensive comments made in public.  Clinton’s video focuses on sexist and misogynistic remarks made towards women in order to show families why he should not be voted for president.  Clinton, a well know politician and former First Lady of the United States, is a credible source due to this video being “Approved By Hillary Clinton” at the end of the video and also by it being posted to her verified Facebook page.  Clinton aims her video towards families and parents who may support Trump already or are unsure of who to vote for.  This can be shown with the use of the word “our” in the title of the video.  This implies that the viewers of the video have daughters and want the best for them.  This video was posted due to the impending 2016 Presidential Election.  Clinton wants to have viewers vote for her instead of Trump.  Clinton is able to effectively persuade viewers that opponent Donald Trump is not a good choice for president by appealing to emotion and reason, and establishing a concerning tone.  Viewers’ emotions while watching the video play a large part in their decision with who to agree with.  Including rude comments made by Trump makes them feel worried for their daughter(s) because his words are hurtful.  This also impacts the viewers’ reasoning, because it would only make sense to vote for a president that is respectful and polite towards others.  When asked if he treats women with respect a response like “I can’t say that either” (0:25) does not put a good feeling in a parent’s mind.  In addition, Clinton’s video also establishes a concerning tone with the use of visuals of young girls and Trump’s comments playing over them.  Clinton’s video is able to convince viewers that Donald Trump is in fact not a trustworthy or good candidate for president.  The video is able to point fingers at Trump supporters and indirectly ask them why they would vote for him and his questionable actions and morals.

https://www.facebook.com/hillaryclinton/videos/1255694001153793/

TOW #2 - The Fight Working Moms Won

In “The Fight Working Moms Won,” Bryce Covert covers the battle between working moms and their struggle to establish ground in politics.  Emerging from the past where moms were encouraged to stay home and raise the children, the idea of paid leave for mothers was uncommon.  But since that time, the situation has evolved from women deciding whether or not to work, to how mothers can balance work and family life.  Covert’s credibility is not established directly in the article, but at the bottom it is mentioned he is an economic policy editor at ThinkProgress and also contributes to The Nation.  Covert’s article is directed towards working and non-working women who are trying to create a family at home.  His article immediately gets a mother’s attention when he states that some plans for paid leave would make employers “wary of hiring women of childbearing age for fear they will disappear if a baby arrives” (Covert 14).  The fact that women’s’ jobs are in danger due to their lifestyle makes women more inclined to listen to Covert’s piece.  This article comes from recent event where politicians like Marco Rubio, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump are debating over certain policies and plans they have when becoming president.  In fact, Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump agrees with the struggles many working mom’s face.  She says “as a mother myself of three young children, I know how hard it is to work while raising a family” (Covert 17). Many politician are trying o gain more votes by appealing to wider audiences, for example, working mothers.  Covert uses rhetorical devices that appeal to emotion and reason in order to convince his readers that women’s issues are becoming more talked about in politics, and that it’s a good thing.  Covert appeals to emotion by including accounts of how tough raising a family can be.  Most families don’t realize that “once they start their families, their energies are zapped by sleepless nights, running after toddlers, and all the other labor that goes into raising children” (Covert 8).  This makes mothers and other readers see that it’s difficult to raise a family and balance a job too.  In turn, this makes working mothers feel proud that they can handle such a struggle and still be able to work.  It also encourages women who don’t work to start working if they desire to.  In addition, it gives hope to women who worked hard to show how their pleas on paid leave should be discussed in politics.  Not only do emotions play a big part in coverts article, but reason does too.  Covert says how “poll after poll finds that overwhelming majorities of Americans support paid family leave” (Covert 11).  This shows to working mothers that is makes total sense why this topic should be discussed more.  The topic of paid family leave was rarely spoken of until Clinton started mentioning it in 2008.  The fact that it is popular in polls increase the need to discuss it in politics.  Covert’s use of emotion and reason effectively show readers how paid leave is an important topic and it being discusses more is important.  The more this topic is talked about, the better chance it has to be being resolved in the future.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/opinion/campaign-stops/the-fight-working-moms-won.html?ribbon-ad-idx=15&rref=opinion&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&pgtype=article

TOW #1 - How It Feels To Be Colored Me

Zora Neale Hurston writes a compelling essay about the way our environment effects our race.  Hurston kicks off How It Feels to be Colored Me by stating that “I lived in the little Negro town of Eatonville, Florida.  It is exclusively a colored town” (Hurston 114).  This establishes some credibility with the fact that she knows what it is like to grow up feeling included and common in her community.  But when she goes to a different school in Jacksonville.  Her environment changes and becomes foreign to her.  In addition to validating her opinions through tales of her childhood, she was also associated with the Harlem Renaissance, a period which shined light on black artists.  Hurston’s accounts on being black in an all-white community are mainly directed towards younger black women and men.  However, her message can be pertinent to others who struggle with their identity.  Hurston mainly focuses on the fact her feelings with race change wherever she is.  For example, when listening to jazz music, a white man simply states that the music was good, but to her it was an anthem.  The music empowered her and put her into a state full of rage and emotion.  When he simply commented on the music, she realized he did not feel what she did because “he is so pale with his whiteness then and I am so colored” (Hurston 116).  She and him do not feel the same emotions from a historically black genre.  At this time, she sees the divide between her race and his, and it is extremely relevant when they are together in a cultural environment. 

Hurston’s ability to connect her race and a simple brown bag effectively show readers how race shouldn’t be speculated heavily about.  She says that in a bag, “a bit of colored glass more or less would not matter” (Hurston 117).  Her statement screams not only equality, but also diversity.  The “priceless and worthless” (Hurston 117) pieces mentioned in the bag assert the fact that everyone is made differently with different traits, but her point about how colored glass shouldn’t matter proves that race is merely a color, not a social restriction.  In addition, she uses imagery to strengthen the hopes of young black people.  She mentions how the jazz music “rears on its hind legs and attacks the tonal veil with primitive fury, rending it, clawing it until it breaks through to the jungle beyond” (Hurston 116).  This empowers readers with the need to fight against racial boundaries and feel great about their color, Hurston even says that when she feels “discriminated against,” “it does not make me angry.  It merely astonishes me” (Hurston 117).  The use of her imagery and comparisons prove to reader race is not the center of the universe, confidence is.

IRB Intro Post #1 - Do No Harm by Henry Marsh

Do No Harm by Henry Marsh
This book is about a brain surgeon and his accomplishments and failures.  I wanted to read this book because I am interested in medicine and I think learning about how lives can be changed with one right move or one mistake is scary, yet cool.  I also feel that I can learn from this book about how hard surgery can be and how your job can affect your everyday life and your views on the world.