Commercialization of Christmas

This was the most interesting argument paper from the class. It talked about how Christmas has become so focused around material items that it has lost its true meaning. The reason it has become so centered on buying the best presents and getting the best deals is because of the retail stores. Every store has become so focused on making as much money during the Christmas season which is not their fault since they are in business to make money, but in result it has made consumers so overwhelmed with buying that they forgot about the caring portion of Christmas and giving (not just presents). The audience of this paper is all the adults that celebrate Christmas. Even though it is a Christian holiday many people celebrate it that is not religious.

Some of the solutions that will help consumers get back on track to the Christmas spirit are giving back to the community. You can do this by volunteering at a food bank or anywhere you desire. It is the thought of helping someone else that matters, not what presents you get Christmas morning. The giving we have become accustomed to be out of our wallets instead of out of love. It is not bad to buy people presents but when you do make sure you have put thought and care into it instead of where is the best deal and how can I make a statement to show how much my wallet can give. One of the other aspects to get away from this commercialization of Christmas is to look at the traditions. Putting up Christmas decorations, singing Christmas carols having family dinner but most importantly being thankful for the time you have with the people who care about you.

The major realization that you get from this paper is that when you think of Christmas there should be more on your mind than just presents. Even though the department stores are working hard to set up good deals to entice people to buy stuff for the Christmas season we should think twice as to why we are buying this item before we pay for it. We need to remember it is the thought that counts not how much you save or spent on an item. The item shouldn’t even matter it is the fact that you are giving that counts.

This was a powerful message that we as a society have drifted a little from what Christmas is and the message was effectively relayed through the paper. With the use of logos and pathos the authors were able to really make the reader think about their actions. When you are able to get someone thinking about what they do you have the best opportunity to inflict change on society. I think this has the potential to get people to change and make the Christmas season even more enjoyable for everyone. Overall this was a very good proposal about the commercialization of Christmas and how to change it.

Progress Report

This seems to be one of the hardest papers to write. There is a lot of research that is needed in order to start writing the paper. For my part I have done research about statics of victims. I have been looking and found gender evidence to show that both men and women are victims of violent crimes. Women are more often victims of sexual assault crimes than men, but men are victims of robberies and assault charges more than women are. This evidence will help me make my point that women are not the only ones at risk of becoming a victim of a criminal, thus showing that men need protection just like women do in order to have a truly safe campus. I still need to talk with administration to find out their point of view about why women are the only ones protected and acknowledged of being victims of crimes on campus in order for my research or preparation to be complete so I can write my paper. Once I have all this information I can prove a point as to why the school only targets women and why they are wrong for doing so. On top of showing what the issue is at the school I will give an idea for a solution to the problem. My tasks may change a little bit over the course of the paper, but this is the plan for right now.

Everyone else in the group is going to look at other aspects of the crime issue. Looking at the prevention tactics set in place and how they are only catering to women then showing why they need to open everything to men as well. When we address opening everything up to men as well we know there are going to be issues and arguments as to why they do not want to implement these ideas so our task will be finding a solution to that problem in order to make it happen. It’s obvious money is going to be one of the major issues as to why the school does not want to implement these new safety regulations.

As for our overall progress and concerns with the paper, I feel it’s going to be very difficult for us to organize our tasks. So far we have not met our entire group, we only have three people and we were told there are two others in our group but we have not seen them yet. What this means is if we plan for three people working on our paper and we divvy up the tasks then the other two come in, we may not have anything for them to do. Also, we still have a lot of research we need to do which takes up a lot of time and having two more people working on it would be very nice at the moment. The other major concern I have with the paper is the writing process. We need to figure out exactly who is doing what for the writing. Once we have finished our research it will be a lot easier to write the paper and assign parts to everyone.

Controversial Topics

One of the biggest issues I have listened to these past few years has been about going “green” in order to save the planet. The largest change/innovation that has come out is the hybrid vehicle. Although this was a great idea in order to improve the gas mileage of the vehicles it did not do its job in “saving” the planet. Most people do not realize the fact that our planet is heavily polluted during the process of making the batteries that go into the cars. This means there is more pollution in making a hybrid. Thus hybrids are not nearly as friendly to the environment as people think since the whole idea around a hybrid vehicle is running off of battery power instead of solely relying on gas. It is true that hybrids do not pollute nearly as much during the driving portion of its life, but by no means is it truly a green vehicle.

This issue is a major problem for America; our auto industry has been “working” to make vehicles more fuel-efficient and “green” but they failed miserably by making hybrids. For once we just need to follow in the footsteps of Europe and Asia by making small engine vehicles. We need to start making cars that own their own produce more miles per gallon than they do right now. It is pretty obvious the technology is out there since Europe has been doing it for ages. The audience in this argument is going to be the American auto industry, Americans wanting to follow the green movement, and the government. The best way to get the message across is going to be through hard facts. Looking at what Europe has done with their vehicles and regulations about minimum MPG allowed from vehicles is going to get the message that we are seriously lacking. It would also be good to find out what the public opinion is on the subject of hybrid vehicles and what the hybrid movement is doing for our environment in the public’s eyes. Getting their opinion then showing the reality will manage to affect the audience more efficiently.

The other topic I have found very frustrating is somewhat controversial between sexes. At TCU we have a wonderful program called Froggie50. These are students driving around golf carts taking women wherever they need to go after dark. The whole idea is to make sure nobody is walking alone at night to limit the chance of a women being assaulted, robbed, or anything of that sort. I feel this is a great system but it is not complete in my opinion. The major thing lacking is the protection for men. I know plenty of men who have been robbed, attacked, or threatened. Women are not the only ones who can experience problems that Froggie50 is trying to prevent. But for some reason TCU does not recognize or care about protecting the man who are walking across campus alone in the middle of the night who is obviously a potential victim to get robbed. This is an issue that needs to be brought to the administrations attention. The best approach is to get students opinions on the subject and do that by interviews and surveys. By finding out how the students feel about the subject we can build a stronger argument to present to the administration in order to see some change.

South Park and Me

One of the most interesting interviews I have read or heard was of Trey Parker and Matt Stone. These two men are the creators of South Park, the very controversial TV show on Comedy Central. The best way to describe South Park is they say the truth and don’t hold back. If there is a political issue, a gamer issue anything that can be seen as ridiculous you can almost guarantee that South Park has made an episode of it. One of my favorite episodes was about the game World of War craft (WOW), in this episode it showed how ridiculous people were getting about this game. All these gamers were becoming addicted to this game and their entire lives began to be surrounded by WOW.

I feel like I am very much like this TV show. For I have no fear of telling people the truth about them or any issue for that matter. I do sensor myself when it is appropriate but for the most part I tell people how they are acting, or merely what is on my mind whether that be a good or bad thing. Because acting like this may lead to scaring people off or pissing people off, so I try to limit my openness until I know the person somewhat well.

When I look at the fact that I wait till I know I can say anything and not lose a friend I realize how much I am like Trey and Matt. South Park has become so popular that they can get away with making fun of any topic, whether it is religious, political, gamers or anything they can think of and people will always love it. The reason they can get away with it is because the show is so popular and it brings in so much money for the station that the station cannot afford to say “no” to an idea for a show and even if they say no South Park will still run the show.

I do not know the full reason behind why South Park makes such controversial episodes but I do know why I am so straight forward when I talk to people. For me there is no point in hiding the truth. I do not have a fear of what people are going to think of me if I bring up a topic or say something that most people would not normally say. I may be very critical about people and actually tell them what I think about them and I will do this because I am just being honest. I feel if I cannot tell the truth about a topic or what I think then there is no point in talking because it does nobody any good if you beat around the bush or try and hide what is really going on.

My biggest pet peeve is people who will hide what is really going on because they don’t want to tell someone the truth about themselves. For me all that does is hurt the person who is being lied to. If someone has a bad habit or looks bad in what they are wearing they should be told about this so they can change their habits for the better. On the side of if they do not care if they have bad habits then they will merely ignore your advice but at least you let them know in case they were unaware. This is why I am so straight forward because I want everyone to at least have the opportunity or know what kind of message they are sending to everyone else in case who they are and what they are wanting to be are different.

The Way

I have heard a wide variety of people speak on  wide variety of subjects. Most of these speakers have left an impression on me in the way I think about my actions. The most influential people have to be the religious speakers I have heard. These speeches range from very thought provoking on what it means to be religious and others touch you on how you conduct your everyday life. I absolutely love listening to people who have the ability to make you question how you have acted and conducted your everyday life. As I have learned nobody is perfect and it helps to think strongly about your actions. Whether or not you change the way you act it’s most important to be able to justify why you do everything you do and understand what affect you have on people.

The best rhetorician I have heard is not from just one person, instead it is a church service aimed at high school and college students. The program is called The Way. It is held every Friday night at a church in Tigard, Oregon. All through my high school career I did not know this church service existed, but after my first year in college I learned most of my high school friends were attending these services which led me to attend them this last summer. This experience was unlike any other church experience for me. Most services I have been to have a certain theme and strictly talk about the message and what your role is in life. Although you may receive great messages and it may be powerful for you those kind of sermons did very little for me. The Way on the other hand focused more heavily on what it meant to be a Christian, what it meant to meditate, pray, they cover all aspects that most people may be aware about but don’t truly understand. The major difference for the Way is the fact that they built their sermons around a youthful audience.

This was the first church I had seen that catered to young adults and made serious sermons that fit where we were in life. Unlike young life or other youth groups this was a full blown church build special for the youth. The most effective part about this church is the fact that they catered to a narrow audience. My most distinguished memory had to be a sermon that was in a sense a class. The subject was about meditating and they talked about everything you need to know. It’s hard to explain everything they touched on but it was like a tutorial where we learned about meditating. The way I see it this church is a gateway to your adulthood Christianity. You do not come into the world knowing everything about your religion, instead it must be learned and The Way is able to teach the youth in a way we can understand.

Although my views about my beliefs have not changed I have grown a lot as a Christian this last summer as a result of going to The Way. I can say my understanding of what it means to be Christian has grown from this different style of sermons. I can’t say going to The Way is enough to constitute as all the necessary church for a week, instead I saw it as a learning sermon that would help me understand and get the most out of the regular church service on Sunday. The major difference and best quality of The Way is the fact that it helps the youth understand the importance of church and everything that people say comes with being Christian.

Paper 3 Ideas

Man

The bible does have a specific role for the man. He is the leader of the house, the protector and the provider.

http://www.squidoo.com/biblical-man

Skateboarder

The skateboarder is a man or woman who knows no limits.

http://thickmoonroughgoat.blogspot.com/2008/11/what-it-means-to-be-skateboarder.html

Underage drinking and being Christian

Drinking is not sinful, getting drunk is

http://www.reapteam.org/underage-drinking

Jamison Green

Whenever I thought about what your sex or gender is it always seemed very straight forward. To me defining someone’s sex is easy; it has to do with biological aspects or a person and gender is the same as your sex. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth the World Health Organization explains their definition wonderfully. They say gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women. This means from the time you are born there are certain ways you are supposed to act as a result of the sex you are. This is where Jamison Green has a problem, according to him your gender should not be tied with your sex. Your gender should reflect the way you see yourself. If you are a female in the body of a man then you should embrace the fact that you are feminine even though your sex may say male. Green explains this concept when talking about visibility. The key point is about external gender identity, if your gender identity is confirmed by the people around you whom you value, you will feel “seen” and validated by others. This is a very powerful statement, Green is telling all of us you need to be true to yourself and act as you feel like acting. We cannot go through life doing things because that is what has been labeled as what men or women do. Those are the two sides to what gender is and Jamison Green does a great job showing us why the traditional definition of gender is flawed in his story Becoming a visible man.

This has to be one of the most interesting stories I have read when it comes to talking about sex, gender, and being accepted in society. This story talks about transsexuals and their struggles in society but also why people are transsexuals. It is nice to learn a little background of the hardships people face when they are exposed as being transsexual. But the real message I believe comes through the section of why people become transsexual. A story we hear about is a women who all through her life she held a somewhat masculine appearance. This showed through her enjoyment for climbing as a little kid, being strong on her upper body, wanting to work as a cable splitter which is a male dominated field and beating out a lot of guys in the training to receive the position. One of the major points that are made happens at her job where everyone sees her not as a woman but as one of the guys. This is because she is not a typical woman in the sense of how our society views women. Being seen as a man solidified the idea that she should go through the change to have her physical appearance reflect her inner personality. I felt there was a powerful message here telling everyone that it is most important to be true to yourself than it is to conform to what people say you should be like. Your sex or biological aspect of yourself should not hold you back from being the person you want or feel you are.

After reflecting on the subject and points brought up by Green I really feel he is trying to target everyone mainly in the United States. I say this because sex and gender are terms used by everyone. It is important that we all have a clear and complete understanding of how you define your sex and gender. No matter how old you are, or whether you are a female, male, lesbian, gay, transsexual or whatever; it’s more important that you know who you are rather than what society thinks you should be. From reading this story it seems like Green is just trying to let people know that transsexual people are just living their life in accordance with whom they are as an individual and that is what everyone should be doing. A lot of people in the US are getting this stereotype in their mind of how they are supposed to act if they are a guy or girl who basically lets us know what we are to do with our life. Green is trying to get us away from that and into the mindset that you need to make your own decisions. From reading this I have a greater respect for people who are bold enough to go against the norm and live as a transsexual or gay because that is who they feel they are instead of trying to act like someone they are not.

Riz MC

Post 9-11 blues by Riz MC

This catchy music video has some really good arguments embedded in it. The video is about the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attack. When I say aftermath I am referring to the way people act and listen to the news and other forms of media. The main audience for this video is Americans more specifically adults that live in America. This is a broad audience but every adult in the USA knows about the 9/11 attack and has been affected from it in one way or another. Most everyone has changed their view on the world and America as a result of our response to the attack and everything that followed. I believe this video is trying to open the eyes of the audience to show them how excessive our response was to the attack.

All throughout the video Riz MC would bring up these issues that has really overwhelmed our society, one of the first points he makes is about the news. On the news is reruns of suicide bombers and the news stations are hogging all the lines. With this he is saying that after the attack and the war started the news everyday was progress or problems in Iraq and that is all we watched. Most of the time it was just looping the same story, this is a problem because we get so caught up with these stories we do not get a chance to find out the truth. Media in general is very biased and you see or hear what they want you to know. This means as a country we were simply brainwashed in this period of time.

The other major issue we had after the attack was the way in which we viewed other Americans or foreigners. If you saw anyone from a middle eastern decent even if they lived in America their whole life you second guessed them and their motives. When you think about it, we really overreacted in the way that we treated people. At the time we did not care about other people because we were trying to look out for our well-being and in doing so we made life very difficult for every Middle Easterner in the world.  It got to the point where if you see someone who is suspicious on the bus or on a plane a lot of people would not get on in fear of another terrorist attack.

It really irritates me how self-centered we as a country have become. We assumed because some terrorists attacked us that anyone who looks like they did is automatically a terrorist and is going to harm as many people as possible. Just because some people are like that does not mean everyone is. We really lost sight of the good in people when something bad happened to us. I personally loved this video, not because it answers questions you may have about the situation we are in right now but instead because it lets you know how you can’t believe everything you hear. Stories on the news, in magazines, or anywhere else are not automatically trustworthy, a lot of places are biased which requires a critical eye when reading or hearing in order to avoid being misled.

I thought it was a great idea to use a video to get his point across. We as a society have become very music/technologically advanced and to get and keep our attention is very difficult and music happens to be one of the few ways to do it. The only problem is you need to listen to it a couple times in order to understand what his point is. The catchy tune and rhyme can overshadow the message and make it difficult to understand the point he is trying to make. Even though the message is good in my eyes it’s ineffective in reaching the audience since it can be difficult to understand especially on the first time listening to it. Plus you cannot just listen to it and understand what he is saying. Instead you need to read the captions or you will misunderstand most everything. The problem with having to read the captions are you miss everything in the scenery. The scenery is very important because it helps explain the point he is trying to make. All in all Riz MC did a great job with the message it’s just hard to get the message.

Southwest Airlines

Rapping Flight Attendant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHdvjG7gP0s

This video is of a flight attendant giving the opening safety speech before takeoff. Instead of doing the same old boring step by step speech he decides to change it up a little and make a rap out of it. As we all know from flying you don’t care to listen to the same boring speech and we ignore them most of the time because we simply don’t care since we already know all the information. But if you are on one of these flights you may listen because it’s cool and entertaining. The point of this rap is to have fun, and loosen up the passengers a little while getting the necessary information across. By getting your audience loosened up they become more relaxed and will not think negative thoughts or get stressed out about the dangers of taking off.

The target audience of this song is people who fly. The flight attendant is rapping to the passengers so his immediate audience is the people on the flight, but indirectly he is targeting everyone that flies because he wants to get more people to fly Southwest Airlines over their competitors. So his audience would encompass anyone who flies. I would be considered a member of that audience because I have to fly in order to go back home after the school year is done, and I fly when I go on vacations. Even though I may not be paying for my own tickets yet, I am making my judgment on what airlines I like for when I am on my own and paying my own way I will know which airlines I would prefer to take. So this is the time they want to really impress me in my flight experience before I become loyal to an airline. Thus you can think of his song as a recruiting technique for future customers.

The argument that accompanies this rapping flight attendant is to fly Southwest Airlines for they are a distinct and fun airline to fly. At the end of the rap the flight attendant comments that you will not find anything like that on United Airlines. This is saying there is something that is exclusive to Southwest that will make your flight more enjoyable over other airlines.

The rhetorician is using logos in making his argument. He is using facts that Southwest is doing something that nobody else is, which is singing the announcements. Most of the passengers have flown before and can reiterate that fact because they have experienced it firsthand that Southwest flights are different. When it comes to convincing people to fly a certain airline it’s hard to appeal to their emotions. The best way instead is to show why Southwest is different and a better flying experience than their competitors. By posting these videos online, Southwest is able to build ethos because viewers will know that this really happens even if they have not flown Southwest before. Logos is the main argument strategy but the building of ethos is very beneficial for it allows customers to trust that Southwest actually does this and it’s not just a scheme to get people to buy Southwest tickets. Plus by future customers seeing what happens on the flights there is potential to make flying fun again even on top of these ridiculous fees your charged to check bags and everything.

Save the World

Denver Water – Use only what you need.

I found this ad at http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/70-creative-advertisements-that-makes-you-look-twice/

The simplest things can carry the biggest message. This advertisement is of a bench that has space for just one person to sit and the rest of the bench is unfinished. The bench is referring to our society today in which we have this mentality that bigger is better. We exercise this ideology in many ways; the most common is our water usage. When we wash our hands, brush our teeth, take a shower, or even wash the dishes we tend to use much more water than we need, most of the time we waste water by simply leaving the faucet running even when we are not using it. We waste so much water without thinking about it and this bench is telling us to use only what we need and is promoting that for Denver’s water.

When we think about Pathos and Logos we are talking about emotional responses and logical responses. This ad poses both a logical response and an emotional response. When we see this ad we realize that we do waste our resources much more than we should; we have no reason to leave the water running when we are not using it, but we do it any ways. But we have gotten in such a habit over the years that we do not think about it or even realize that we are wasting a lot of our valuable resources. Those are the cold hard facts about this world we live in today. The emotional response comes when you think about how this applies to you in your everyday lives. Everyone is aware that deep down no matter how environmentally friendly you try to be that you are a part of the example of people who waste our resources. When you realize you are a part of this statistic it hurts. Not only does it hit your emotions that you are a part of this problem but also when you think about the fact that we have a limited number of resources on this planet and we do not know when they may run out but we certainly do not want to feel responsible for the demise of people because they cannot survive because we wasted all the resources that they needed.

The nice thing about a topic like this is it targets everyone. The message may not reach everyone but for all who see it, this applies. Everyone everyday uses water, gas, or some resource that this planet offers. All who use those resources has used more than they needed at some point in time. So the hope is that everyone that sees this will realize that they need to change their habits. Even though it is inevitable that our resources will run out as some point in time, it is better to hold off as long as possible so we can find an alternate source in order to keep our lifestyles the same.

I am definitely a part of the target market for this advertisement, as I know I waste more resources than I should or have to. After seeing this I have been thinking twice about how I conduct my day-to-day activities in order to cut back on my unnecessary waste and hopefully you will as well. Even though this bench is aimed at water usage it also helps in the overall environmental issue. It makes everyone think about all the resources they use not just water.