Exposure

Back in 2009, Obama made a promise to the American people, referring to what would soon be known as the Obamacare, making health insurance affordable to all. Obama stated,  "Here’s a guarantee that I've made.  If you have insurance that you like, then you will be able to keep that insurance. If you've got a doctor that you like, you will be able to keep your doctor." According to the article, "Clarence Page: Obama Told "One Of Those Political Lies" About Health Insurance," Clarence Page defends Obamacare and yet justifies that Barack Obama did lie although he states that it was "one of those political lies."  Although a supporter of Obamacare,  his positive opinion on Obama's broken commitment to the people of America seems to persist. And although, the reporter (Hugh Hewitt)  tries to insist that what Obama has done is something that the American public may disapprove  Page continues avoiding the subject because these lies through politics are "regular" "common" and people should be "used" to them. It's amusing.. well not really, its  bit annoying how lies easily slip in the politcal world and many other places.  I get it, you want to get better results for a better good, but once oyu make a commitment and it has been recorded you're done, you cannot change it or else you deceive he peopel and yourself on your promise. And someone accepts that this is...reasonable. I dislike the liar but I am frustrated and provoked at those who accept these broken promises. Although in the end Page clears up the details with the reporter by stating "Well, a lot of things bother me more than that, but not because of overselling his program. Every president oversells their programs. But just the fact that the whole process of putting Obamacare together disturbed me that he gave up too much early on, in my view." Though I know there would be others who would not follow such beliefs. 

Girls like English Boys like Math

AP, Advanced Placement classes, meant for the scholarly student that are assumed to gain broad knowledge about a subject. The Princeton Review, the company who writes the books for these AP students, are known for their success and deemed as "flawless." With The Princeton Review's version on AP tests anyone can get a higher score, right? Based on these covers, the AP English Literature and Composition, U.S. History, Calculus AB & BC and Physics C exams are focused for a certain audience. It has usually been presumed that males were good at Mathematics and Science while the females were good at English and History. This image depicts, even now in 2013, that the belief still surges through. What strikes me that even those with and "ivy league" title were careless/ignorant enough to portray their covers as such. Another thing to notice is the people's position. The women seem reserved, shy if you may, merely concealing their pride and the men in the other hand seem to be more open and prideful.. All are smiling at least. It is just quite intriguing how even if through our conscious or unconscious decisions we tend to classify roles to certain sexes. It's amazing how sexism runs society.

Infierno

I am in the darkness. It's not cold.They  had learned the cold was not a torturous temperature for we eventually become numb. Its not hot. They learned that the heat scorched our senses in the same way the cold numbed them.We're melting. Then they freeze us. Then they melt us again. We can never adjust to the environment and this is just part of the physical torture.

We were tricked. We were deceived. We thought we were led to heaven. We did not know that Satan was a beautiful creature. He allured us into the depths of hell. He was the fallen angel, Lucifer. Whenever we got the chance we made fun of him and called him Lucy but when we were caught we were stuck in the realm of hallucination. We were back into the living world and we were betrayed in the worst way possible. I guess he was stating that even Jesus, the one who was betrayed, was us and that we did not have the ability to escape after three days and resurrect. We were stuck in that realm for three eternities instead. I was there with my family. I loved them they did not love me. They sent me away and instead I was tortured. I was twisted until my bones flew out. I was given false hope that they would save me and love me again.

In hell you get used to the torture. It still hurts everyday but you forget what you once considered yourself, a human soul. That is when you enter the next level as a demon. They are all psychopaths. You don't want to become one of them, they are the devil's minions. They lose all sense of rationality and feeling. They only live by Satan's command and they cannot even sense a will anymore. My father has become a minion. I visit him daily, always hoping he will remember me. He does not. Instead he eats the devours the flesh of creatures. As he was morphing into a minion he was dying. It hurt him so much. It was painful. I hated hell. They say once you start talking in past tense that those are sign that you are becoming a minion. I guess it is not so far because all I have left of my soul are images of torture.

I am starting like it here.

Empathy

I have been often been called kind. I never thought myself of this; I thought I was just the average human being, but my ethics are different from others. I have often found myself unconsciously picking up an object someone has dropped and returning it to them and though I usually get a grunted thanks; I still feel good. Nowadays this is seen as empathetic/kind, but I wonder if I do it for others or myself. I don't know if my conscience wants me to give/ help others because I feel guilty or if I truly want to help the other person. I honestly don't know if I believe "our generation" has become less empathetic but if I had to state my side I would think we have. The pressure of rising and being the best has made us topple through some obstacles and made us colder, I suppose in order to not regret our decisions.

I feel as if empathy has become an artificial emotion. It's something you do because it's part of "human nature." We are born with it I suppose, but will we trigger the emotion? If people have begun to mistrust the empathy then that means that they themselves have experienced or gone through a certain situation to feel that the lack of empathy has affected them or others negatively. For example if we are given a list on when we should use sympathy, although it comes "naturally," that must indicate a growing lack of empathy. It's like a guide on how to be human.

But I feel that this only applies in certain places, especially in the USA where the "American dream" forces us to try our best and think in a capitalistic manner where we have to beat others in order to be ahead. like the comment in article of "What, Me care? Young Are Less Empathetic"  states: Population pressure reduces empathy. Now the question is where does that pressure come from, until where can we trace the pressure back to, how far back must we go until empathy was a factor of  a human trait rather than a trait that is recognized as a "rare" aspect that makes you a good human being. When did we become so disconnected?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2877627/

Response to Kozol and Ascher

Both essays evoke a sense of sympathy/empathy, whatever one wishes to call the emotion. Using certain examples that the reader can relate to for he/she has seen on a daily basis or has simply heard about such circumstances can really make the reader sway his/her opinion on the matter. I appreciate that Kozol's essay uses more fact-based data to exemplify the illiteracy rate in the US and how it causes a lot of problems for people who struggle daily to live based on images rather than letters. I also like the more personalized examples on Ascher's essay which bases her viewpoint based on personal experience. Both essays make strong points. They both show  a sense of empathy although one, like the title says, focuses on what is compassion and Kozol's essay focuses more on sympathy. The "On Compassion" essay "asks" the reader to differentiate between the emotions of pity, care and compassion because it seems that often these feelings overlap or we simply do not take into consideration as to the reason why we do such actions as in "giving money." "The Human Cost of a Illiterate Society" immediately, at least for me, made me sink in to a sense of sadness, pity and disappointment. It was more like of a "wow, really?" type of moment, rather than the Ascher essay which felt more of a "oh, I do wonder if..." I do admit Ascher's essay was more thought provoking with all the rhetorical questions. Both essays do make me wonder deeper on a matter that I always consider on my sense of empathy. Especially with the homeless, what if they don't want to be pitied, as one of my teachers had taught me before, what if it's a statement that they are trying to make, or is that too broad of a generalizations.. I think so, but there are always exceptions. As I sit and type this, the Kozol essay made me wonder about who can read this, for I guess I assumed that everyone who lived in the same country as I do, knew how to read, I guess I'm  ignorant and foolish for thinking that. I feel as if both essays are about having biased opinions and how eventually we just presume we know stuff that we might not.