“The sensation of sitting underneath a full moon on a star-filled night in the middle of the nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park.”
Amy Poehler has many memorable roles, from being a recurring member on Saturday Night Live, to her award-nominated portrayal of Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation. Poehler is an American-comedian classic. When she was chosen as the 2011 Harvard Class Day Commencement Speaker, she took on a serious and honorable role. Poehler gave the graduating class of 2011, a hilarious, engaging, and inspirational speech. Poehler was chosen to give a speech that was out of her ordinary comfort zone, to inspire a hardworking class of graduates as they headed off into the working world. Her speech is an excellent example of effective rhetoric through its use of artistic proofs, humor, and establishing common ground. Through the content of Poehler’s speech, her detailed care to the rhetorical situation, and her impressive use of rhetoric, Poehler gave one of the most memorable and moving commencement addresses in Harvard’s history.
Sitting in a comfortable leather chair on a cloudy January day, I sat in a house and interviewed Susan Gustavson, a life long Jew that is in her mid-fifties. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and Columbia University, where she got an MBA in marketing. She told me about her opinions on the Judaism.
Acts of violence are detrimental when regarding its effects on human emotion. When exposed to too much violence, a person’s perception on society and even themselves begins to be altered. Nevertheless, just as violence can be disadvantageous to people, it can also be seen as an advantage as it causes citizens to realize that change needs to occur. In “Great to Watch,” the author, Maggie Nelson, discusses how society, especially Americans, have become desensitized to violence. Nelson also goes into depth to explain how society has become accustomed to violence due to the fact that people are exposed to it on a daily basis. In addition, Beth Loffreda discusses and explains the effects that a violent hate crime had on the town of Laramie, Wyoming
Amy Cuddy’s Ted Talk on body language was incredibly inspiring and empowering. While watching the video, I realized that I not only do I observe these power and powerless non-verbal cues every day, I display them too. The outline of her experiment which demonstrated that non-verbal cues change how people feel about themselves, not just how other people think and feel about us, followed by her premise of faking it until you make it was especially compelling. However, taking this one step further and ending the presentation on such a positive note of encouraging others to ‘fake it until you become it,' is what resonated with me the most. I am looking forward to experimenting with the techniques that she covered in her speech.
“I sometimes wonder if anyone will ever understand what I mean, if anyone will ever overlook my ingratitude and not worry about whether or not I’m Jewish and merely see me as a teenager badly in need of some good, plain fun.”
“Abortion is impermissible, because it deprives a being of a future like ours. Accordingly, it is morally similar to killing a healthy adult.”
“It was wrong of the Reverend to involve you. It’s dangerous and sooner or later, it will go wrong. We’re running out of places to hide children and most people here agree with the Nazis about the Jews. They just don’t like the invasion.”
On Tuesday, April 5, 2016 I interview Karla Bly who lives in Sioux Center. Mrs. Bly is married and has four children between the ages 25 and 12. She is 48 years old and has lived in Iowa for her entire life. The stage of life that Karla is in is middle adult hood, it is defined as, “The developmental period beginning at approximately 40 years of age and extending to about 60 to 65 years of age. For many people. Middle adult-hood is a time of declining physical skills and expanding responsibility.” (Santrock, 336) When Karla was in her 20’s and 30’s she thought that she knew everything, but it turned out that she did not know everything yet. When she was in her 20’s she had three little children running around at home, things were busy and chaotic.
Lauren Stickler is escorted by her mother, Ann Stickler, father, Tom Stickler, and sister, Meredith Stickler. Lauren will be attending the University of Texas at Austin to study Mechanical Engineering this fall. Lauren is a three year letterman and will be graduating as Ridge Point’s class of 2017 Salutatorian.
It might come easy for others to stand up for what they believe in, but for some it’s not exactly a walk in the park.Although it takes a lot of courage, it’s really important to stand up for your beliefs because you never know how big of an impact or difference you can make in this world.
In the film ‘Her’, directed by Spike Jonze, the main protagonist,Theodore Twombly conveys the idea of alienation via technology and its possible effects, due to his depression via his divorce and his easy going relationship with an artificial intelligence operating system named Samantha. The idea of alienation and technology and its possible effects on human relationships is conveyed via the quote, “Sometimes I think I have felt everything I'm ever gonna feel. And from here on out, I'm not gonna feel anything new. Just lesser versions of what I've already felt.” Theodore recently experienced is his divorce depression, and therefore becomes vulnerable, anti-social from society and isolated himself, by spending time with the artificial intelligence
Abortion is the deliberate killing of the weakest and most defenseless among us. Unfortunately, for the last few decades, the practice has been recognized as a fundamental human right by the highest court of the land. American culture has become increasingly accepting of traditional values and principles being compromised. Political correctness now replaces ethics, self-reliance is replaced by dependency, and crudeness now takes the place of knowledgeability. Today’s culture is corrupt and morally depraved, and there is no other topic that demonstrates this better than abortion.
Emma Watson, best known as a leading actress in the Harry Potter series, gave a speech titled “Gender equality is your issue too” during a HeForShe campaign at the United Nations headquarters in New York City during on September 20, 2014, in attempt to raise awareness about gender inequality. Throughout the speech, Watson attempted to persuade the audience in joining the HeForShe campaign by providing examples of those who have been subject to the burdens of gender inequality – however, this speech could be considered problematic due to Watson’s lack of credibility and failure to include all types of people in our society.