Presley 1 A Little About Me Kaitlyn E. Presley Lisa Russell English 1101 9 September, 2012 One thing about me that potential employers should know is my past in leadership positions. I participated in band for many years and worked my way to the highest student role that can be achieved: Head Drum Major. This is a huge responsibility for a student to take. The Head Drum Major must act as the director of the band and make decisions about the band procedures. While in the position, yes, I made mistakes; however, my band director once told me that he knew at one point where my leadership was the only thread keeping the band from falling apart.
Presley 2 What I Expected Kaitlyn E. Presley Lisa Russell English 1101 5 September, 2012 Before my first college English class, I thought it would be more like a more advanced version of my advanced placement English classes in high school. I'm very thankful that it is more about picking your own topics and less about the technicality of the papers. I'm pleased with the fact that it focuses more on creating your paper rather than a teacher telling you the red truth of how terribly you write. I like the fact that I have a teacher that I can ask questions if I couldn't understand something and that gives me help with things that I need help with.
Presley 3 My First Thesis Kaitlyn E. Presley Lisa Russell English 1101 14 October, 2012 Although most people think private investigating is about "sneaking around" and taking photographic evidence, over the past 50 years, private investigating has grown to be a field of criminal justice with one of the most vast amounts of technologies available.
Presley 4 Stephen King's Theory Kaitlyn E. Presley Lisa Russell English 1101 15 October, 2012 1. Stephen King's introduction and conclusion in his essay “Why We Crave Horror Movies” is mostly due to his successful use of hook sentences. The essay's first statement reads, “I think that we are all mentally ill.” Most types of personalities would be urged to continue reading after that statement. Either one is very curious as to his reasoning, or one wishes to examine the insult King dealt. Regardless of your reasoning, you kept reading. Successful hooks are the key to an interesting essay. After all, if it's uninteresting, would you read it? 2. In his essay, King describes all the causes for multiple behaviors to be the subconscious need for guilty pleasures linked with insanity. For example, he states that all people are insane, and he gives his reasoning as being the fact that people give in to subconscious mutterings and pathological fears. The examples he describes are stressed persons talking to themselves and the irrational fears that people have.
Presley 5 Investigating the Investigator Kaitlyn E. Presley Lisa Russell English 1101 15 October, 2012 A private investigator could be watching you read this sentence. Private investigating combines the crime-fighting attitude of a policeman and the secretive mentality of a spy. A private investigator can be hired to study many different types of cases and situations. The cases can be situations as personal as a cheating spouse or as expansive as a large corporation investing fraud. Most private investigators are hired to follow a person who someone believes is being unfaithful in a relationship or being untruthful about his/her whereabouts, but they have the ability to solve even the most mysterious of crimes.
Presley 6 Comparing and Contrasting Kaitlyn E. Presley Lisa Russell English 1101 15 October, 2012 1. Britt is supporting her thesis of neat people being heartless and sloppy people being more sentimental. She speaks of sloppy people with endearment talking of how they like to keep things to be remembered and kept close for the memories; whereas the neat people would soon throw away the last written letter of a dying relative. 2. They are always keeping things for memories and to keep close to their hearts. They always go through every little detail of an object and find reasons to keep it. 3. When Britt speaks of the sloppy people, her tone is very endearing and very respectful. It is clear that she is a sloppy person. However, when she speaks of neat people, her tone changes to be more criticizing and more condescending. Therefore, her tone make the neat people seem more like the “bad guys� in this essay. 4. In my opinion, she's right. Sloppy people have the satisfaction of having things later that when presented to them may not have kept the same value. The example that grabbed my heart the most was the letter from a dying relative. That is a personal thing for me, seeing as I can't find the last card my grandpa sent me before he passed unexpectedly, and I may never be able to find it. It might have gotten thrown away in all my rushed years as a teenager because I wasn't expecting it to be the last one from him.
Presley 7 Books, Books, Books Galore! Kaitlyn E. Presley Lisa Russell English 1101 9 October, 2012 Caressing the textured pages, you shiver. You turn the thin pages gingerly, so as to not damage the work of art. This is why you continue to come back. This is why you love the library. With all the information available on the internet, the library is still a relevant resource. Although it may be easier to type your subject into the search bar of a common search engine, most of the time it would be tougher to find a valid and valuable source on the web rather than in the library. Have you ever been researching a topic on the web but cannot find the actual information because of its being hidden by annoying, pop-up advertisements? Some of these despicable ads even have a hidden close bar so that you are forced to search for a longer length of time than preferred. It is very ridiculous to have to look for a way away from the advertisement. Now imagine, you have found the valid information and gotten passed the advertisement. You are scrolling through the words when you hear something. It is loud and very distracting. It's a video commercial embedded into the web page that you missed pausing on your scroll down the page. Now you must scroll back through the information to find the one commercial out of the thousands that is playing so loudly and distractingly. It not only breaks your concentration, but it also takes the attention of the other researchers that are around you. How embarrassing is it to be the person distracting everyone else? You go through all of this trouble just to read about
Presley 8 two paragraphs worth of useful knowledge and then it's back to the search engine to find another site. Books do not have that annoyance. Books are quiet and reverent. Books will never distract you with sounds. Books only care about getting the real information to the reader and the researcher: you. You cannot get that peace of mind from the web. It resides only in those paper treasures located in the library.
Presley 9 The First Rough Draft Kaitlyn E. Presley Lisa Russell English 1101 9 October, 2012 There's a giant arena with thousands of screaming fans. One can feel the pounding of the bass that collides with the pounding of one's heart and eventually infuses them together into one fierce beat. The piercing snap of the snare that breaks your attention and keeps you listening all at the same time. Rock music is about the excitement and the exhilaration of breaking away from the drone of every day life and creating a sense of carefree living. But it has not always been this way. During the early stages of rock and roll music, the meaning of rock was behind the lyrics and the message of the song. Although, people have not completely lost sight of that meaning, the purpose of the music has significantly changed over the years. Since the creation of music, people have used it as a means of saying something that words alone can not express. One example of this is the use of rock and roll as a voice for the purpose of creating change. The origins of rock music come from a mixture of blues music from African Americans and country music from Southern Caucasians. The pounding beats and quicker tempos have captured the attention of people since its creation in the early 1950s, making it an obvious choice of music style to use as a tool for protest. One of the more common subject of protest for rock music is the prevention of wars, and one of the most protested wars in rock history is the Vietnam war. One of the most influential artists of the anti-Vietnam movement was Bob Dylan. His entire album, The Times They Are A-
Presley 10 Changin', was dedicated to making a change in society. His most famous title, “The Times They Are A-Changin'”, the lyrics make a statement to the government about the situation in Vietnam and how they are ignoring the issue. People were drawn to the lyrics which made them feel like they were making a difference by repeating them. Dylan once said that the reason he wrote music the way he did was because people responded to it very well. Unfortunately, the Vietnam war was not the last war; however, that also means there were more songs written in protest of the way people treat each other on this planet. “Where is the Love?”, while it is not the classic rock style that swept the nation during the 1960s, was created as a combination of hip-hop and pop (a variation of rock that focuses on the vocals more than the background music) that focused on all of music coming together to raise awareness of the harsh treatment of people after the September 11th attacks in America. Its lyrics talk about the loss of humanity in humans, and how Americans had lost sight in what was around them because they were too concerned with what was going on overseas. It forced people to step back and see that they were just as guilty of the acts for which they were scolding the rest of the world. During the 1980s , however, the beginnings of giant concerts as protesting began with the creation of Live Aid. Live Aid was a concert that was so big, it was held on two arenas. One was in Philadelphia; the other was in London. The concert was a benefit concert and an act for awareness of the starvation of the African people. Not only was it in two locations, but it was also televised. It is estimated that it had more than one billion veiws. Since Live Aid, many artists have organized benefit concerts or awareness concerts for the purpose of generating funds for an issue or raising awareness for something that is an issue in society. Examples of this include the creation concerts such as Farm Aid, Live Earth, and many others covering topics that
Presley 11 range from environmental issues to agricultural issues and even health and medical issues. There has been a radical change in rock music since its creation in the early 1950s. It has gone from a tool for change to an escape from reality into a world of carelessness and complete ennui. While some of the beginning reasons for creating rock music still remain in the music today, artists have partially lost sight of the original meaning for the music: change.
Presley 12 Peer Review Stuff Kaitlyn E. Presley Lisa Russell English 1101 19 October, 2012 Society Sways with the Beat
by Kaitlyn Presley
Lisa Russell English 1101 19 October 2012
Presley 13 There's a giant arena with thousands of screaming fans. One can feel the pounding of the bass that collides with the pounding of one's heart and eventually infuses them together into one fierce beat. The piercing snap of the snare that breaks your attention and keeps you listening all at the same time. Rock music is about the excitement and the exhilaration of breaking away from the drone of every day life and creating a sense of carefree living. But it has not always been this way. During the early stages of rock and roll music, the meaning of rock was behind the lyrics and the message of the song. Although, people have not completely lost sight of that meaning, the purpose of the music has significantly changed over the years. Since the creation of music, people have used it as a means of saying something that words alone can not express. One example of this is the use of rock and roll as a voice for the purpose of creating change. The origins of rock music come from a mixture of blues music from African Americans and country music from Southern Caucasians. The pounding beats and quicker tempos have captured the attention of people since its creation in the early 1950s, making it an obvious choice of music style to use as a tool for protest. One of the more common subject of protest for rock music is the prevention of wars, and one of the most protested wars in rock history is the Vietnam war. One of the most influential artists of the anti-Vietnam movement was Bob Dylan. His entire album, The Times They Are AChangin', was dedicated to making a change in society. His most famous title, “The Times They Are A-Changin'�, the lyrics make a statement to the government about the situation in Vietnam and how they are ignoring the issue. People were drawn to the lyrics which made them feel like they were making a difference by repeating them. When asked by his friend why he wrote such lyrics, Dylan responded, "Well, you know, it seems to be what the people like to hear." (Heylin
Presley 14 126) “Imagine all the people sharing all the world.” (Lennon) This quote from the song “Imagine” by John Lennon is another example of protesting war. The lyrics suggest not that war should end, but that the entire world should give peace a chance and try to share the world. This song, now famous for being the second best single of all time, is still used to this day to help illustrate the ideology that the world should try to work together to live on this planet peacefully. Unfortunately, the Vietnam war was not the last war; however, that also means there were more songs written in protest of the way people treat each other on this planet. “Where is the Love?”, while it is not the classic rock style that swept the nation during the 1960s, was created as a combination of hip-hop and pop (a variation of rock that focuses on the vocals more than the background music) that focused on all of music coming together to raise awareness of the harsh treatment of people after the September 11th attacks in America. Its lyrics talk about the loss of humanity in humans, and how Americans had lost sight in what was around them because they were too concerned with what was going on overseas. It forced people to step back and see that they were just as guilty of the acts for which they were scolding the rest of the world. Political and social issues became a really popular topic for debate around the 1960s as well. Bob Dylan, again, played a major role in the movement for change in politics with his music. His song The Times, They Are A-Changin' speaks this truth indefinitely. The lyrics tell writers to take advantage of the power they have to persuade with their pen and help make a change in society. The lyrics of rock music in the 1960s and 1970s were filled with these calls to the public for change. During the 1980s , however, the beginnings of giant concerts as protesting began with the
Presley 15 creation of Live Aid. Live Aid was a concert that was so big, it was held on two arenas. One was in Philadelphia; the other was in London. The concert was a benefit concert and an act for awareness of the starvation of the African people. Not only was it in two locations, but it was also televised. It had more that one billion viewers. Since Live Aid, many artists have organized benefit concerts or awareness concerts for the purpose of generating funds for an issue or raising awareness for something that is an issue in society. Examples of this include the creation concerts such as Farm Aid, Live Earth, and many others covering topics that range from environmental issues to agricultural issues and even health and medical issues. There has been a radical change in rock music since its creation in the early 1950s. It has gone from a tool for change to an escape from reality into a world of carelessness and complete ennui. While some of the beginning reasons for creating rock music still remain in the music today, artists have partially lost sight of the original meaning for the music: change. “Imagine all the people living life in peace.� (Lennon)
Presley 16 Works Cited Brown, Elizabeth F., and William R. Hendee. "Adolescents and Their Music." JAMA: Journal of the
American Medical Association 262.12 (1989): 1659-663. Print.
Duncan, Danny D. "Rebellion as a Marketing Strategy." Sojourners Magazine Nov.-Dec. 2003: 48.
Web.
Heylin, Clinton. Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited. New York, NY: William Morrow, 2001. Print. Keightley, Keir. "Long Play: Adult-oriented Popular Music and the Temporal Logics of the Postwar
Sound Recording Industry in the USA." Media, Culture & Society 26.3 (2004): 375-91.
Web. Lennon, John W. "Imagine." Rec. 1971. Imagine/It's So Hard. John Lennon. John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Phil Spector, 1971. Vinyl recording. Pareles, Jon. "Dancing to Sound Bites Both Soothing and Jolting." New York Times 05 Dec. 1997: 12.
Print.
Presley 17 Tommy Blankenship was my peer review-er. He told me that I had a good start and I just needed to expand on what I had. Since I had really carefully thought out what I had already, it mainly lead me to do more research and get a better understanding of my topic. It also lead to me thinking about some song lyrics to give my essay a little more heart. You can't go wrong with a little John Lennon. He had good advise. I like peer review. It helps me get some feedback for what I'm doing by someone who is doing the same thing. It's good to have someone who is in the “same boat� helping you out on things. As for my peer review, I highlighted some phrases that needed attention in his essay and suggested parallelism to be a main looking point for revisions. He had a good paper, but the words weren't quite giving the idea the pop it deserved. Re-wording was my main suggestion.
Presley 18 Maya Angelou Kaitlyn E. Presley Lisa Russell English 1101 28 October, 2012 1. Angelou is trying to make the point of the sporting event representing more than a black boy and a white boy fighting. It represented the fight of the black community to prove that they were more than the inferior race that the white community viewed them as. 2. She had extreme thoughts like such because it was pretty much true. If that boy had lost that night then the white community would never see the black community as anything more than inferior. 3. She and her whole community were on a country road. 4. The legalization of same-sex marriage in a few states is symbolic for the gay community. The fact that more legislatures are passing the bills to legalize same-sex marriage is just building the fire under the LGBT community to achieve marriage equality.
Presley 19 I Did Not Commit That Crime Kaitlyn E. Presley Lisa Russell English 1101 28 October, 2012 I was not in the same area as the criminal this crime was committed. My last Tuesday was a very full day that consisted of working, going to the eye doctor, and spending some time with my dear grandmother. I spent the first 8 hours of my day listening to the hateful Miss Teresa Tucker tell me that I was worth nothing and that I would never amount to anything. Yes, I was at work. After I was at work, I went to my eye doctor's appointment at 3:30 pm. My grandmother was the person who took me to Adairsville Eye Associates for my appointment and will testify in my defense.
Presley 20 Descriptive Rough Draft Kaitlyn E. Presley Lisa Russell English 1101 29 October, 2012 The gentle thump of the strings reverberate not just in my physical body but also in my soul. The feeling of the jolt of my hand on the string wood makes my heart flutter with pride that I can do it. The emotions I feel make the time and practice all worth it. If I could share that feeling with the world, I would. It's the greatest feeling in the world. It's the feeling of being something more than yourself. It's the feeling of playing music and playing music well. Learning how to play the music was the greatest and most challenging thing that I could ever set my mind to do. When I was very little, probably about eight years old or so, my step-brother Matt was in his teenaged years. We were as close as two siblings who did not live together all the time could be. He was one of my closest friends, yet we did not bond over many things. The fact is that we bonded over one very powerful idea: the idea of music. I would sit in his room for hours listening to Matt play his guitar. He played bits and pieces of many songs which later would become the heart of my choice of music. He played the first riff of Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne and many other metal riffs and solos. The way his fingers stroked the strings and created many different notes and chords baffled me. How could someone as average as my brother make such a phenomenon as music? The compilation of the notes and rhythms that created music always dazzled my mind. How was this all possible? What
Presley 21 did it all mean? How did it all work? These were questions I always asked myself when he played. I could not form the words to ask my brother all these questions, but I did ask him to let me play on his guitar when he was done. Thank the universe for his kindness and morals of sharing what made him happy. His answer of yes was the beginning of a very long love-hate relationship between music and me. I fell in love with the instrument from the beginning. It felt so right in my hands. The way the wood curved around the neck of the guitar and how the strings ran so gracefully down to the metal hardware of the guitar. The wonderful sound of the strings as I plucked them was music to my ears. I can still remember the first time I struck the strings: E-A-D-G-B-E. It was perfection in an instrument. A few months came and went. Matt taught me a few chords and let me play on the weekends that I was staying with my dad for the weekend. I learned a little bit from his teachings, but the majority of my learning came from me sitting on the bottom bunk in my brothers' room and picking away at the strings until I found some chord progression I recognized. The first chord progression I found was one that stuck with me through the years. It was the first riff of Crazy Train just like my brother had played so many times for me. That was only the beginning. Probably not even a year after my first time holding a guitar, I got a taste of what it was like to own the magical instrument. My mother came to pick me up from my Nan-Nan's (grandmother's) house with a couple of gifts. She said she had them at home and that if I would hurry and get ready to go, I could get them. Of course, as a young girl of about eight or nine, I
Presley 22 rushed to get the toys back in the closet and the rooms all clean. We hurried home where my mom gave me a small acoustic guitar, perfect for my size. She told me that it and the two Learn to Play Guitar books she had were gifts from my cousins Rob and Noah Paris. I was so excited. The guitar was a maroon red with many glossy silver designs that Noah had etched in his youth. It had a tribal-style sun and many tattoo-looking tribal swirls running from the base of the guitar all the way up the neck and into the head on the tuning keys. It was old and worn, but to me, it was the most beautiful present that anyone could give me. From that point, it was not long until I was playing many songs of my own creation. As a nine-year-old, I was playing Linkin Park songs for my fourth grade talent show in my music class. After fourth grade, music was shut away from me for my advanced classes. I knew even as a ten-year-old that something was missing. So when Mr. Cheyne came to my middle school for a demonstration of musical instruments in order to recruit children into the middle school band program. It worked. He recruited all of my friends and many more into the sixth grade band. There were nearly 100 of us just in the sixth grade band. It took two full classes for my middle school teacher to teach all of us how to play our instruments. For the few next years, the guitar was in the back of my mind for I was learning all the notes and rhythms as they were written on paper for more than one instrument. It was my dream. I was learning about the deepness of music and how pushing these keys would make this sound on my flute. I continued band in high school where I became a master of my flute and soon got bored with the same type of instrument all the time. I began to experiment with different instruments. My band director, Mr. Cheyne, taught me about the many different pitches to which instruments
Presley 23 were tuned and how to read music for an instrument that was not my “home instrument�. My dreams were to learn them all and teach other young minds the great depths of music. I was going to master every instrument and every musical element there was to master. I learned how to play the trombone, alto saxophone, flute, piccolo, marching percussion, concert percussion, trumpet, tuba, and baritone with Mr. Cheyne's support and guidance. He even taught me things on the guitar that I did not know. He had me bring my guitar to school and taught me and the drum major at the time about the blues. He taught me how to feel the music and how to make people around me feel the emotions that I felt when I played. He gave me a strong foundation for the rest of my musical career. He left our band after naming me a drum major for the next marching year. I was devastated. The new band director was not Mr. Cheyne. He was someone completely different. He went to college in not only under a different band director, but also a different school in a different state. He was close to a complete opposite of the band director from whom I had become so fond of learning. It was not all as bad as I had made it seem at the time, or even now. The new band director crushed my dreams of being a teacher, but he lead me to venture outside of music and realize that there is more to life than just the music I made. He lead me to step away from music so that I could come back to the thing that I loved most with more respect and more love than I had for it previously. During my senior year, I was blessed with many solos for concert season at my high school. With that blessing came responsibility. I had to make them more than just simple solos. They were the last mark on the Sonoraville High School band that I would ever make. I had poured my
Presley 24 heart and soul into helping the band become what it was on my senior spring concert. It was a band full of talented musicians and inspiring young men and women. I had to give it my all. I believe in my last concert, I really gave my everything to the band and left everything I had with them. It was my greatest performance, and since my band career is over, it will always be my greatest performance. It all started with my brother and a guitar, but my career with music is not done. Being out of high school and back to the reality of everything not being about music has made me yearn for more soul in this world. I need the feeling of greatness when you hit the notes just right and bring a tear in a grown man's eye, the feeling of making a veteran feel like what he or she did was worth the sacrifice he or she made, and the most important feeling of realizing that there is more to the world than just you, but you are part of the giant body of spirituality that connects all people. These are the feelings that keep music alive. These are the reasons there are people who continue to play music. Music is more than what you hear; it's what you feel.
Presley 25 Summary of the Narrative Peer Review Kaitlyn E. Presley Lisa Russell English 1101 12 November, 2012 Since I was absent for peer review, I had my mother-in-law revise my essay. She told me a couple of places to revise the wording and punctuation and a couple of paragraphs to rethink completely. It definitely benefited me to ask for her help. She gives really good advise on essays. I'm sorry I was absent for this assignment, but I hope this is enough for the assignment to count.
Presley 26 Annotated Bibliography Kaitlyn E. Presley Lisa Russell English 1101 24 November, 2012 Brown, Elizabeth F., and William R. Hendee. "Adolescents and Their Music." JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association 262.12 (1989): 1659-663. Print. Duncan, Danny D. "Rebellion as a Marketing Strategy." Sojourners Magazine Nov.-Dec. 2003: 48. Web. Hiroshi Kinoshita, et al. "Emotion-Related Changes In Heart Rate And Its Variability During Performance And Perception Of Music." Annals Of The New York Academy Of Sciences 1169 (2009): 359-362. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Nov. 2012. Heylin, Clinton. Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited. New York, NY: William Morrow, 2001. Print. "The Joy of Music." Web log post. Guitar Noise. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Nov. 2012. Keightley, Keir. "Long Play: Adult-oriented Popular Music and the Temporal Logics of the Postwar Sound Recording Industry in the USA." Media, Culture & Society 26.3 (2004): 37591. Web. Lennon, John W. "Imagine." Rec. 1971. Imagine/It's So Hard. John Lennon. John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Phil Spector, 1971. Vinyl recording. “The Musical Instrument As A Natural Extension Of The Musician.� (2009) OAIster Web. 5 Nov. 2012.
Presley 27 Pareles, Jon. "Dancing to Sound Bites Both Soothing and Jolting." New York Times 05 Dec. 1997: 12. Print. "Http://www.guitarnoise.com/lesson/playing-with-emotion/." Adult Guitar Lessons. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2012. <http://www.adultguitarlessons.com/>. <"Http://www.guitarnoise.com/lesson/playing-with-emotion/." Adult Guitar Lessons. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2012. .>.
To sum all of this up into one simple sentence, I will not be using any of these sources in my argumentative essay because I feel that the essay would be best suited with a different topic.
Presley 28 When to Use, and Not to Use, Commas Kaitlyn Presley Lisa Russell English Composition 15 November, 2012 In the early stages of written language, one of the issues faced by the creators of written language was how to correctly represent on paper the natural pauses that occur while speaking. To eliminate this problem, the English language received the comma. The comma, while seemingly a simple solution to this problem, became a very tricky element of the English language to master. When to use and not use commas has troubled the amateur writers of English for a very long time. The comma itself is not hard to master. It is a simple slanted mark at the bottom right-hand corner of a word, but students seem to have more trouble with correctly placing the comma than they do with creating the words for the sentence. Most students can design the sentence, “My father the fireman comes home late from work most nights.” However, most students have a very hard time remembering that the sentence would be correctly punctuated if written, “My father, the fireman, comes home late from work most nights.” They don't truly understand where the commas should be placed or even why they should use commas at all. There eleven simple rules that help to guide you with when to use and when not to use commas: 1. Use a comma to separate elements in a series. 2. Use a comma to connect multiple independent clauses. 3. Use a comma to set off introductory elements. 4. Use a comma to set off parenthetical phrases. 5. Use a comma to separate coordinate conjunctions. 6. Use a comma to
Presley 29 set off quotations. 7. Use a comma to express contrast in phrases. 8. Use a comma to avoid confusion. 9. Use a comma for typographical reasons. 10. Never use a comma only once between the subject and its verb. 11. Do not panic over commas. They are not as hard to use as the seem. When presented with these eleven rules, students of Mrs. Russell's class were told in detail what these all meant; however, when tested on the subject of commas, the students did not pass the assessment given. This only further proves the statement that commas are one of the more difficult concepts of the English written language to grasp. It is not that the students just are not paying attention; it is the fact that there are so many different ways of wording the sentences that students could not fully understand where to put a comma in every situation unless they were to study commas and the rest of the English punctuation system for many years. My conclusion about when to use commas is that it is a very difficult task that should be given more time is students are to correctly learn all the rules and exceptions.
Presley 30
"Rules for Comma Usage." Rules for Comma Usage. Capital Community College Foundation, n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2012. <http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/commas.htm>.
Presley 31
Society Sways with the Beat
by Kaitlyn Presley
Lisa Russell English 1101 19 October 2012
Presley 32 Society Sways with the Beat There's a giant arena with thousands of screaming fans. One can feel the pounding of the bass that collides with the pounding of one's heart and eventually infuses them together into one fierce beat. The piercing snap of the snare that breaks your attention and keeps you listening all at the same time. Rock music is about the excitement and the exhilaration of breaking away from the drone of every day life and creating a sense of carefree living. But it has not always been this way. During the early stages of rock and roll music, the meaning of rock was behind the lyrics and the message of the song. Although, people have not completely lost sight of that meaning, the purpose of the music has significantly changed over the years. Since the creation of music, people have used it as a means of saying something that words alone cannot express. One example of this is the use of rock and roll as a voice for the purpose of creating change. The origins of rock music are a mixture of blues music from African Americans and country music from Southern Caucasians. Pounding beats and quicker tempos have captured the attention of people since its creation in the early 1950s, making it an obvious choice of music style to use as a tool for protest. One of the more common subject of protest for rock music is the prevention of wars, and one of the most protested wars in rock history is the Vietnam war. One of the most influential artists of the anti-Vietnam movement was Bob Dylan. His entire album, The Times They Are AChangin', was dedicated to making a change in society. His most famous title, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Times They Are A-Changin'â&#x20AC;?, the lyrics make a statement to the government about the situation in Vietnam and how they are ignoring the issue. Lyrics drew people in because they made people feel like they were making a difference by repeating them. When asked by his friend why he wrote such
Presley 33 lyrics, Dylan responded, "Well, you know, it seems to be what the people like to hear" (Heylin 126). “Imagine all the people sharing all the world” (Lennon). This quote from the song “Imagine” by John Lennon is another example of protesting war. The lyrics suggest not that war should end, but that the entire world should give peace a chance and try to share the world. This song, now famous for being the second best single of all time, is still used to this day to help illustrate the ideology that the world should try to work together to live on this planet peacefully. Unfortunately, the Vietnam war was not the last war; however, that also means there were more songs written in protest of the way people treat each other on this planet. “Where is the Love?”, while it is not the classic rock style that swept the nation during the 1960s, was created as a combination of hip-hop and pop (a variation of rock that focuses on the vocals more than the background music) that focused on all of music coming together to raise awareness of the harsh treatment of people after the September 11th attacks in America. Its lyrics talk about the loss of humanity in humans, and how Americans had lost sight in what was around them because they were too concerned with what was going on overseas. It forced people to step back and see that they were just as guilty of the acts for which they were scolding the rest of the world. Political and social issues became a really popular topic for debate around the 1960s as well. Bob Dylan, again, played a major role in the movement for change in politics with his music. His song The Times, They Are A-Changin' speaks this truth indefinitely. The lyrics tell writers to take advantage of the power they have to persuade with their pen and help make a change in society. The lyrics of rock music in the 1960s and 1970s were filled with these calls to the public for change.
Presley 34 During the 1980s , however, the beginnings of giant concerts as protesting began with the creation of Live Aid. Live Aid was a concert that was so big, it was held on two arenas. One was in Philadelphia; the other was in London. The concert was a benefit concert and an act of awareness of starvation of African people. Not only was it in two locations, but it was also televised. It had more that one billion viewers. Since Live Aid, many artists have organized benefit concerts or awareness concerts for the purpose of generating funds for an issue or raising awareness for something that is an issue in society. Examples of this include the creation concerts such as Farm Aid, Live Earth, and many others covering topics that range from environmental issues to agricultural issues and even health and medical issues. There has been a radical change in rock music since its creation in the early 1950s. It has gone from a tool for change to an escape from reality into a world of carelessness and complete ennui. While some of the beginning reasons for creating rock music still remain in music today, artists have partially lost sight of the original meaning for the music: change. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Imagine all the people living life in peaceâ&#x20AC;? (Lennon).
Presley 35 Works Cited Brown, Elizabeth F., and William R. Hendee. "Adolescents and Their Music." JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association 262.12 (1989): 1659-663. Print. Duncan, Danny D. "Rebellion as a Marketing Strategy." Sojourners Magazine Nov.-Dec. 2003: 48. Web. Heylin, Clinton. Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited. New York, NY: William Morrow, 2001. Print. Keightley, Keir. "Long Play: Adult-oriented Popular Music and the Temporal Logics of the Postwar Sound Recording Industry in the USA." Media, Culture & Society 26.3 (2004): 37591. Web. Lennon, John W. "Imagine." Rec. 1971. Imagine/It's So Hard. John Lennon. John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Phil Spector, 1971. Vinyl recording. Pareles, Jon. "Dancing to Sound Bites Both Soothing and Jolting." New York Times 05 Dec. 1997: 12. Print.
Presley 36 Descriptive: The Passion Behind the Notes Kaitlyn E. Presley Lisa Russell English 1101 5 November, 2012
The gentle thump of the strings reverberate not just in my physical body but also in my soul. The feeling of the jolt of my hand on the string wood makes my heart flutter with pride. The emotions I feel make the time and practice worth it. It is the greatest feeling in the world, and if I could share that feeling, I would. It is the feeling of being something more than yourself. It is the feeling of playing music and playing it well. Learning how to play the guitar was the greatest and most challenging thing that I could ever set my mind to do. When I was very little, probably about eight years old or so, my step-brother Matt was in his teenaged years. Two separate households and two separate lives did not keep us as close as normal siblings. We bonded over one very powerful idea: music. I would sit in his room for hours listening to Matt play his guitar. He played bits and pieces of many songs which later would become the heart of my choice of music. He played the first riff of Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne and many other metal riffs and solos. The way his fingers stroked the strings and created many different notes and chords baffled me. How could someone as average as my brother make a magnificent mystery? The compilation of the notes and rhythms that created music always dazzled my mind. How was this all possible? What did it all mean? How did it all work? These were questions I always asked myself when he played.
Presley 37 As a young child, I could not form the words to ask my brother all these questions, but I could ask if he would let me play his guitar after he was done. Thank the universe for his kindness and morals of sharing things that made him happy. His answer of yes was the beginning of a very long love-hate relationship between guitars and me. I fell in love with the instrument from the beginning. It felt so right in my hands. The way the wood curved around the neck of the guitar and how the strings ran so gracefully down to the metal hardware of the guitar. The wonderful sound of the strings as I plucked them was music to my ears. I can still remember the first time I struck the strings: E-A-D-G-B-E. It was perfection in an instrument. A few months came and went. Matt taught me a few chords and let me play on the weekends that I was staying with my dad for the weekend. I learned a little bit from his teachings, but the majority of my learning came from me sitting on the bottom bunk in my brothers' room and picking away at the strings until I found some chord progression I recognized. The first chord progression I found was one that stuck with me through the years. It was the first riff of Crazy Train just like my brother had played so many times for me. That was only the beginning. Probably not even a year after my first time holding a guitar, I got a taste of what it was like to own the magical instrument. My mother came to pick me up from my Nan-Nan's (grandmother's) house with a couple of gifts. She said she had them at home and that if I would hurry and get ready to go, I could get them. Of course, as a young girl of about eight or nine, I rushed to get the toys back in the closets and to get the rooms cleaned. We hurried home where my mom gave me a small acoustic guitar, perfect for my size. She told me that it and the two
Presley 38 Learn to Play Guitar books she had were gifts from my cousins Rob and Noah Paris. To say that I was excited would be the understatement of the century. The guitar was a maroon red with many glossy silver designs that Noah had etched on the guitar in his youth. It had a tribal-style sun and many tattoo-looking tribal swirls running from the base of the guitar all the way up the neck and into the head on the tuning keys. It was old and worn, but to me, it was the most beautiful present that anyone could give me. From the first moment that I held that gorgeous instrument, I knew that the guitar and I would capture that sacred binding relationship that musicians have to their instruments. The relationship between a musician and his or her instrument is much like that of a rodeo trick rider and his or her horse or that of a race car driver and the car that he or she drives. It is a bond of trust that runs through more than just the outward sensations of feeling the smooth wood and metal strings beneath your fingers or the sound that enters your ears when you strike each note. The vibration of the string that causes the sounds your ears receive resonates through your body and into your heart and soul. The thump of your fingers against the strings becomes more than a just a thump. It collides with your heart beat and fuses them into one strong steady beat. Most musicians would call that beat the beat of life. It gives strength when it seems that everything is pushing downward. It gives hope when everything seems to be going wrong. It gives expression in a world of oppression. Music is the breath of life that the universe gave mankind. I came to realize this at a young age. Music is more than just a beat and some words. It has the potential to be the one thing in someone's life that encourages them to move forward. It is the one thing that is constant and will never fail. Learning to play the guitar was a challenging
Presley 39 experience, and most days, it seems like there is nothing to do except give in to the challenges. However, overcoming those doubts is what proves it to be the greatest reward that one can receive.
Presley 40
"Http://www.guitarnoise.com/lesson/playing-with-emotion/." Adult Guitar Lessons. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2012. <http://www.adultguitarlessons.com/>. "The Joy of Music." Web log post. Guitar Noise. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Nov. 2012. <"Http://www.guitarnoise.com/lesson/playing-with-emotion/." Adult Guitar Lessons. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2012. .>. Hiroshi Kinoshita, et al. "Emotion-Related Changes In Heart Rate And Its Variability During Performance And Perception Of Music." Annals Of The New York Academy Of Sciences 1169 (2009): 359-362. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Nov. 2012. “The Musical Instrument As A Natural Extension Of The Musician.” (2009) OAIster Web. 5 Nov. 2012.
Presley 41
Narrative: Journey With Music Kaitlyn Presley Lisa Russell English 1101 14 November, 2012 The gentle thump of the strings reverberate not just in my physical body, but also in my soul. The feeling of the jolt of my hand on the string wood makes my heart flutter with pride that I can do it. The emotions I feel make the time and practice all worth it. If I could share that feeling with the world, I would. It's the greatest feeling in the world. It's the feeling of being something more than yourself. It's the feeling of playing music and playing music well. Even though my journey through music was a tough one, it was well worth the effort I put into it. When I was very little, probably about eight years old or so, my step-brother Matt was in his teenaged years. We were as close as two separated siblings could be. He was one of my closest friends, yet we did not bond over many things. The fact is that we bonded over one very powerful idea: music. I would sit in his room for hours listening to Matt play his guitar. He played bits and pieces of many songs which later would become the heart of my choice of music. He played the first riff of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Crazy Trainâ&#x20AC;? by Ozzy Osbourne and many other metal riffs and solos. The way his fingers stroked the strings and created many different notes and chords baffled me. How could someone as average as my brother make such a phenomenon as music? The compilation of the notes and rhythms that created music always dazzled my mind. How was this all possible? What
Presley 42 did it all mean? How did it all work? These were questions I always asked myself when he played. I could not form the words to ask my brother all these questions, but I did ask him to let me play on his guitar when he was done. Thank the universe for his kindness and morals of sharing what made him happy. His answer of yes was the beginning of a very long love-hate relationship between music and me. I fell in love with the instrument from the beginning. It felt so right in my hands. The way the wood curved around the neck of the guitar and how the strings ran so gracefully down to the metal hardware of the guitar. The wonderful sound of the strings as I plucked them was music to my ears. I can still remember the first time I struck the strings: E-A-D-G-B-E. It was perfection in an instrument. A few months came and went. Matt taught me a few chords and let me play on the weekends that I stayed with my dad's side of the family. I learned a little bit from his teachings, but the majority of my learning came from me sitting on the bottom bunk in my brothers' room and picking away at the strings until I found some chord progression I recognized. The first chord progression I found was one that stuck with me through the years. It was the first riff of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Crazy Trainâ&#x20AC;? just like my brother had played so many times for me. That was only the beginning. Probably not even a year after my first time holding a guitar, I got a taste of what it was like to own the magical instrument. My mother came to pick me up from my grandmother's house with a couple of gifts. She said she had them at home, and that if I would hurry and get ready to go, I could get them. Of course, as a young girl of about eight or nine, I rushed to get the toys
Presley 43 back in the closet and the rooms cleaned. We hurried home where my mom gave me a small acoustic guitar, perfect for my size and two books. She told me that they were gifts from my cousins Rob and Noah Paris. I was so excited. The guitar was a maroon red with many glossy silver designs that Noah had etched in his youth. It had a tribal-style sun and many tattoo-looking tribal swirls running from the base of the guitar all the way up the neck and into the head on the tuning keys. It was old and worn, but to me, it was the most beautiful present that anyone could give me. From that point, it was not long until I was playing many songs of my own creation. As a nine-year-old, I was playing Linkin Park songs for my fourth grade talent show in my music class. After fourth grade, music was shut away from me for my advanced classes. I knew even as a ten-year-old that something was missing. So when Mr. Cheyne came to my middle school for a demonstration of musical instruments in order to recruit children into the middle school band program. It worked. He recruited all of my friends and many more into the sixth grade band. There were nearly 100 of us just in the sixth grade band. It took two full classes for my middle school teacher to teach all of us how to play our instruments. For the few next years, the guitar was in the back of my mind for I was learning all the notes and rhythms as they were written on paper for more a different instrument. It was my dream. I was learning about the deepness of music and how pushing these keys would make this sound on my flute. I continued band in high school where I became a master of my flute and soon got bored with the same type of instrument all the time. I began to experiment with different instruments. My band director, Mr. Cheyne, taught me about the many different pitches to which instruments
Presley 44 were tuned and how to read music for an instrument that was not my â&#x20AC;&#x153;home instrumentâ&#x20AC;?. My dreams were to learn them all and teach other young minds the great depths of music. I was going to master every instrument and every musical element there was to master. I learned how to play the trombone, alto saxophone, flute, piccolo, marching percussion, concert percussion, trumpet, tuba, and baritone with Mr. Cheyne's support and guidance. He even taught me things on the guitar that I did not know. He had me bring my guitar to school and taught me and the drum major at the time about the blues. He taught me how to feel the music and how to make people around me feel the emotions that I felt when I played. He gave me a strong foundation for the rest of my musical career. Sadly, he left our band after asking me to be a drum major for the next marching year. I was devastated, but, reluctantly, I stayed in band because I was in love with music. The new band director was not like Mr. Cheyne at all. He was someone completely different. He went to college not only under a different band director, but also to a different school in a different state. He was close to a complete opposite of the band director from whom I had become so fond of learning. The new band director was not as good at letting the students explore music. It was not all his fault though. The grades behind me did not have a strong musical foundation like I did. It took a full year for Mr. Loyd realized that. He finally gave me room to venture out into the musical world again, but I believe it was too late for me. The music that was inside me and once flowed fluently out of my instrument was no longer music to my ears. It was devastation and destruction, repetition and shame. I was on a higher level from most of the band, but I was given no room to explore my talents. My love for music was shattered by a man who probably does not
Presley 45 realize to this day what he has done to me. It was not all as bad as I had made it seem at the time, or even now. The new band director crushed my dreams of being a teacher, but he lead me to venture outside of music and realize that there is more to life than just the music I made. I ventured out and found a love for writing music, film, and other performing arts. Entertainment became my greatest love. I learned how to clip a video so that it made just the right emotion come from an audience, how to shake my tail feather as a mascot to get a reaction from a crowd, and how to create magical sets for a stage of actors so that they could woo the crowd. Mr. Loyd lead me to step away from music so that I could come back to it with more respect and more love than I thought I could have. During my senior year, I was blessed with many solos for concert season at my high school. With that blessing came responsibility. I had to make them more than just simple solos. They were the last mark on the Sonoraville High School band that I would ever make. I had poured my heart and soul into helping the band become what it was on my senior spring concert. It was a band full of talented musicians and inspiring young men and women. I had to give it my all. I believe in my last concert, I really gave my everything to the band and left everything I had with them. It was my greatest performance, and since my band career is over, it will always be my greatest performance. It all started with my brother and a guitar, but my career with music is not done. Being out of high school and back to the reality of everything not being about music has made me yearn for more soul in this world. I need the feeling of greatness when you hit the notes just right and bring a tear in a grown man's eye, the feeling of making a veteran feel like what he or she did was worth the sacrifice he or she made, and the most important feeling of realizing that there is
Presley 46 more to the world than just you, but you are part of the giant body of spirituality that connects all people. These are the feelings that keep music alive. These are the reasons there are people who continue to play music. Music is more than what you hear; it's what you feel. "Http://www.guitarnoise.com/lesson/playing-with-emotion/." Adult Guitar Lessons. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2012. <http://www.adultguitarlessons.com/>. "The Joy of Music." Web log post. Guitar Noise. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Nov. 2012. <"Http://www.guitarnoise.com/lesson/playing-with-emotion/." Adult Guitar Lessons. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2012. .>. Hiroshi Kinoshita, et al. "Emotion-Related Changes In Heart Rate And Its Variability During Performance And Perception Of Music." Annals Of The New York Academy Of Sciences 1169 (2009): 359-362. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Nov. 2012. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Musical Instrument As A Natural Extension Of The Musician.â&#x20AC;? (2009) OAIster Web. 5 Nov. 2012.
Presley 47 Argumentative: Stop the Useless Arguing. Let Homosexuals Get Married. Kaitlyn E. Presley Lisa Russell English 1101 21 November, 2012 Thousands of people stand out on street corners and rally for it and against it. People make signs with every imaginable slogan and slander. The ones who want it, cannot have it. The ones who do not want it must deal with the continuously growing support of it. It is one of the most controversial topics in America today. To marry or not to marry, that is the question. Should homosexuals be allowed to marry? America is again split in two for they cannot set aside their differences try to coexist peacefully. What is the solution? Neither side can survive if the decision is made. Either a group of people cannot marry the person they wish to marry and raise families with the person they love, or the other group must be forced to exist with gay people in their communities, raising children in decent homes and spreading the idea of love for people who are different. America should set aside the differences in opinion about same-sex marriage and let the gay community have the same freedoms that others in this country disgrace. There are many theories as to the cause of the idea of “hate” towards homosexuals. There have been numerous studies conducted by college students, widely-respected doctorate degree holders, and simple citizens of the United States who just want answers, but the big questions still remain: Why do some people “hate” homosexuals? Why is it a problem for them to get married? How does it affect me? Is it really such a big deal? All of these questions, despite several studies, simply cannot be answered by facts. The only fact is that all this debate is based
Presley 48 on an opinion of one person's ability to control an aspect of another person's life. One of the first studies that I came upon while researching was based solely on the success of the passing of California's Proposition 8. Proposition 8, abbreviated Prop 8, was set to be voted on at the same time that the presidential election of 2008 was being held. The proposition, which defined marriage in California to be only between a man and a women and thereby formally banning the marriage of same-gendered couples. The authors of “Race, Religion, and Opposition to Same-Sex Marriage” conducted a study of the outcome of this election versus the statistics of this election. Their findings gave evidence of a great “coincidence” with race, religion, and the opposition to same-sex marriage. The presidential election of 2008 was an election between Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Representative Barak Obama. This election was the first election where a man who was not a white man would run for the presidential office. It was a historic election and gave more reason for African Americans to go to the polls than any previous election. This key factor in that election is the greatest example of why proposition 8 was passed in California. With more American citizens of African descent going to the polls to elect a non-white president, it is only probably that a proposition banning gay marriage would be passed in a liberal state such as California. This is proven by the exit poll that asked African Americans for their stance on proposition 8. It was an overwhelming 70 percent that voted in favor of the proposition defining marriage as being between a man and a woman. As proven by the statistics given in this report, people of African descent are more likely to be very deeply involved in religious practices such as Christianity, which takes an open standpoint of opposition to extending the right to marry to the gay community. The rate of the
Presley 49 African American participation in religious practices is higher than that of any other subgroup in the United States. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Further, prominent secular African Americas, particularly in entertainment and sports, have also been noted to express disapproval of homosexuality and hostility toward gays and lesbiansâ&#x20AC;? (Creek, et. Al, 81). In this chart, the population was randomly polled about their views on homosexuality. The following is a graph that shows the percentage of people that oppose homosexuality divided among ethnic groups.
In 1988 it seems that all the ethnics groups across the board had an almost uniform opposition for same-sex marriage; however, by 2004, the white and other categories had dropped a good amount while the black ethnic group stayed almost the same, dropping only 1.2 percent.
Presley 50 Likewise, in 2006 and 2008, the percentages continue to fall at a good speed for the white and other ethnic groups while the back ethnic group stays very steady at a lower 60s percentage. The black ethnic group seems to have a steady disapproval of homosexual relations and homosexual marriages. However, it is not only the African American ethnic group that uniformly has an opposition or a hatred to the homosexuals and the homosexual lifestyle. There is another minority group that is rising in America more than any other. This group is also a very religious group with the major denominations of Christianity, Catholicism and protestantism, being the main religion. This group is the Latino Americans. Although many of the Latinos in America vote in a more democratic direction, it is believed that they identify as whole more with the idea of being conservative. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Although precise estimates remain elusive, one prominent survey found that approximately 70 percent of U.S. Hispanics identify with Catholicism while 23 percent identify themselves as Protestant, with the vast majority of Latino Protestants endorsing conservative [views]â&#x20AC;? (Ellison 37). In an exit poll that was conducted at the 2008 election in California, it showed that a large margin of Latino voters showed a very strong liking for the proposition that defined marriage as being between a man and a woman, Proposition 8. Latinos make up more than 14 percent of the United States population and their numbers are growing more rapidly that the other minority groups, catching up to the African Americans. With this is mind, is it so that the Latinos of America take the most uniformity with the opposition of same-sex marriage? With this knowledge in mind, could it be that race and/or ethnicity is the biggest indicators
Presley 51 of the “hatred” for homosexuals and the opposition of gay marriage? Many other studies take a very different approach to the reason for the opposition of gay marriage and the “hate” of homosexuals. A study conducted by a man names Douglas NeJaime points to the continuing suspicion that the true indicator is the religiosity of a person. The first item he analyses in his article is the connection between the approval of same-sex marriage in Washington, D.C. In 2009 and the Catholic Charities announcing that they would no longer provide health benefits for spouses of their employees. Although D.C. already had an orientation anti discriminatory law and recognizable domestic partnerships, it was a direct reaction to the approval of same-sex marriage in D.C. It seemed for the Catholic Charity, the fact that they called it a “marriage” and not a “domestic partnership” was a direct threat on the foundation of Christianity on which the Catholic Charities stand. The opposition by the church are on the constitutional grounds of the first amendment. They say that it would take away their religious freedom by forcing the churches to allow same-sex marriages in their churches and have their priests and ministers conduct the marriages for samesex couples even though it is against the christian religion to be homosexual or engage in homosexual relations. “It is the public, relational enactment of sexual orientation identity – not the form of the enactment – that increasingly animates sexual orientation discrimination based on religious views” (DeJaime 1175). Likewise, in a study of the Latino American religious habits in specific relation to the opposition or approval of same-sex marriage, it has been true that the attendance record at the church can have a big part in swaying the Latino Americans' attitudes towards the homosexual lifestyles. The study showed that the Latinos that attend their church regularly have a higher
Presley 52 percentage rate for opposing homosexual marriage and relationships; whereas, the part of the Latino population that does not regularly attend church or attends it less “religiously” or less regularly tends to show more approval of homosexual relationships and even an approval for the legalizing of same-sex marriages. So is it the religiosity of the American people that is the main drive for the discrimination of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) community? Is it the fact a large portion of the American population identifies with the ideals of the Christian faith? Or is there a less explored reason for the need to deny a person a right to marry whom they please? What will become of children who are raised by same-sex couples? Will they have psychological defects? Will they be bullied by their classmates for being different or for having a family that is different? Will they be able to grow and properly develop with the teachings of two men or two women as their only parental role models? Will that in turn make them a homosexual? One of the main arguments against these fears by same-sex marriage opponents is history. In the 1960s, the whole country was divided by a great issue: civil rights for African Americans. Among many of the issues that prevalent before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the issue of interracial relations was a “hot topic” in the 1960s. The opponents of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the opponents of same-sex marriage have similar questions about the idea of two people who are not a white man and a white woman marrying and raising children. Before the historic supreme court case of 1967, Lovings vs Virginia, the questions asked of the children of interracial couples were very similar to the fears about children raised by same-sex couples: Will they be genetically disabled or defective? Will being raised by parents of different races lead to
Presley 53 psychological dysfunction and other mental instability? However, there is the fact of the matter that the court decision about the right to marry has already been made. All of this debate about who gets to marry whom is useless, for in the supreme court case of Loving vs Virginia, the court decided that everyone had a right to marry. “[T]he court defined the right to marry as a 'fundamental freedom' and a 'vital personal right'” and that it was “essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness” (Isaacson 128) Despite the fact that some courts still interpret the decision of Loving vs Virginia as only protecting that specific circumstance, a lot of court systems agree that the right to marry whom you please is necessary to be happy. People believed that the interracial couples were an abomination and that the whole issue was a violation of their religion, but the courts saw it for what it truly was: a fight over controlling the happiness of someone else. Many years after the court decision of making Lovings vs Virginia, which made interracial marriages a legally recognizable union, the “mixed” children are proving not to be defective or dysfunctional. They have proven just the opposite. In the Presidential election of 2008, the idea that children of 'mixed” races being inferior to children of one race was given substantial evidence to finally be put to rest. In the fall of 2008, a man of “mixed” racial ethnicity was elected to the position of President of the United States of America. Barrack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, has a white mother and an Kenyan father. He is what is considered a “mixed” child, and he was raised in such an environment that would lead him to not only aspire to become a president of the united states, but to achieve his dream as well.
Presley 54 Another example of there being no harm for the children being raised by same-sex couples are the children themselves. Massachusetts, the first state to allow gay marriages in the United States, was not historically tolerant of same-sex relations. The bill to ban same-sex marriages was rejected at an amazing vote of 157 to 39 in 2005. It is realized to be that much more amazing when recognized that the previous year, the bill to ban homosexual marriages did not have any trouble being passed. James Timitly, a Democratic state senator who supported the restrictive amendment in 2004 but voted against it in 2005, explained his change of heart this way: â&#x20AC;&#x153;When I looked in the eyes of the children living with these [same-sex] couples... I decided that I don't feel at this time that same-sex marriage has hurt the commonwealth in any way. In fact I would say that in my view it has had a good effect for the children in these familiesâ&#x20AC;? (McCreery 186). If the foolish fears of the opponents of interracial marriage could be put to rest with such magnitude, then what doubt is there that the same will not happen for same-sex marriages? The only way to settle yet another of America's senseless arguments is to agree on a compromise. To do this, both sides have to put aside all religious affiliations and consider this: would you deny your son or daughter the right to be happy? Is it in your best interests to keep someone else unhappy, to tell someone that they are not allowed to love whomsoever they please? Is it really that much of a problem that someone who is not yourself be happy with themselves and who they pick as a mate? On the religious side of this all, yes, it would infringe on your freedom of religion if ministers were required to marry gay or lesbian couples. There is the small fact of the matter that if a minister do not wish to marry a gay or lesbian couple or does not think that the LGBT community should have the same rights that the rest of this country has, it is almost certain that a
Presley 55 gay or lesbian couple would not wish for said minister to be the one presiding over their wedding day. Yes, that would mean that gay and lesbian couples would be allowed to have ceremonies in a church or house of the Lord. However, much like the minister, if the church has a strong hatred for the LGBT community, it is a very likely circumstance that the gay or lesbian couple would not want the happiest day of their lives to be spent in a church whose people do not believe that the marriage will be valid or even â&#x20AC;&#x153;morally correctâ&#x20AC;?. Advocating for the children is no excuse. The children of same-sex marriages are just as likely to be happy and grow to be a law abiding citizen as the children of heterosexual couples. There are only studies that prove that the children grow to be just as normal as any other children, and there are none that prove any different. This argument will grow to be as old as the country in which it is fought. Neither side will compromise, and neither side will resign. It will only be a matter of who takes the majority votes when the time to pass or reject the propositions arises. Should it be banned, thus destroying the lives of many Americans who just want the right to pursue happiness just as everyone else does? Or should it be approved so that this arguing can come to an end, and everyone can go about their days undeterred by a state constitution that states even if you find the one you truly love, you may not be wed to them? There are no valid reasons to continue this bigotry and hate.
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Cohen, Kaalie. "Opinion: Many Would-be Adoptive Parents Face Discrimination." Family Equality. N.p., 19 Nov. 2012. Web. 4 Dec. 2012. Craig, Tim. "D.C. Council Approves Same-sex Marriage Bill." Washington Post 16 Dec. 2009: n. pag. Print. Ellison, Christopher G.Acevedo, Gabriel A.Ramos-Wada, Aida I. "Religion And Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Marriage Among U.S. Latinos." Social Science Quarterly (Blackwell Publishing Limited) 92.1 (2011): 35-56. Professional Development Collection. Web. 3 Dec. 2012. Isaacson, Ruth Butterfield. "Teachable Moments": The Use Of Child-Centered Arguments In The Same-Sex Marriage Debate." California Law Review 98.1 (2010): 121-157. Legal Collection. Web. 2 Dec. 2012. J. Burkholder, , Gary, and Patricia Burbank. "Caring For Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Transsexual Parents And Their Children." International Journal Of Childbirth Education 27.4 (2012): 12-18. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. Web. 4 Dec. 2012 McCreery, Patrick. "Save Our Children/Let Us Marry: Gay Activists Appropriate The Rhetoric Of Child Protectionism." Radical History Review 100 (2008): 186-207. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 Dec. 2012. NeJaime, Douglas. "Marriage Inequality: Same-Sex Relationships, Religious Exemptions, And The Production Of Sexual Orientation Discrimination." California Law Review 100.5 (2012): 1169-1238. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 Dec. 2012. "Obama's True Colors: Black, White ... or Neither? Many People Insist That 'the First Black
Presley 57 President' Is Actually Not Black." NBC News. NBC News, 18 Dec. 2009. Web. 2 Dec. 2012. "Prop 8 Decision Analysis." N.p., 26 May 2009. Web. 1 Dec. 2012. Sherkat, Darren E., Kylan Mattias de Vries, and Stacia Creek. "Race, Religion, And Opposition To Same-Sex Marriage." Social Science Quarterly (Blackwell Publishing Limited) 91.1 (2010): 80-98. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 Dec. 2012.
Presley 58 Brief Reflection Kaitlyn E. Presley Lisa Russell English 1101 6 December, 2012 In this English class, I learned a lot of valuable lessons that I can use to better myself and my grades for future classes and on general in my field of study. In this class, I learned the importance of research. I learned how to efficiently use the internet sources to find scholarly sources to use in a paper. I learned how to use properly use citations. Also, I learned how to use commas correctly in a sentence. Honestly, I could not have asked for a better writing class. It went as smoothly as I could make it go, and it gave me all the tools I will need in future years to file reports, write research papers, and maybe even go on to get higher degrees in Criminal Justice. I will use what I have learned to make myself a more accomplished writer when it comes to both a professional level and even for my hobby of writing. In this English class, I went from a decent bull-crapping, fluff and stuffing writer to a person who actually knows what she's talking about and who actually looked for the statistics of my argument. I really enjoyed the class, and I will cherish the elements of writing that I learned to make me a better writer in all that I do.
This is not part of the essay, but thank you, Mrs. Russell, for helping me see that I can do the research needed to write a great essay. I could not have asked for a better writing teacher.