For the Good of Readers

"You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,/But I shall be good health to you nevertheless"
-Walt Whitman, From Song of Myself

What comes to your mind when you think this? Are you like the high percentile that doesn't believe in what someone says unless you know why he is saying it...rather it be good information or bad? Or do you think, "hey he's right, whatever." To me, we all have over-sized heads. To me, most of us will not be in the truth because there will always be a lie that could be made up of the truth. Try to understand what I am trying to convey here. We are all surrounded by evil, and evil that doesn't and will not ever leave. You know and I know that there are horrible things in this world that twist and turn the truth and leave people starving for sick and demented treasures. When this man says, "You will hardly know who I am or what I mean," I think he is trying to tell us that we may not know what he is telling us because of our non relating situations-him being in the truth and us being in a lie, or an altered state. I think he means this because he chose to say we wouldn't understand him, rather then we wouldn't believe him. Obviously if he said we wouldn't understand him then we are in a situation in which we cannot relate to him. Or, we do not have the tools to understand him at the moment. I just happened to think it is because of us being caught in something that isn't real, or fake. I believe that I think this due to my religious belief. I think that this relates to the word and stories that God has chosen us to read from. I think this because mostly all of us cannot fully comprehend what God wanted us to learn from the stories and words in the Bible. Some stories seem utterly out of this world, but we are told that it is for our own good. Believing and striving through works that don't necessarily seem real is having faith to me. Not a lot of people have this because they cannot readily believe that something is scientifically or logically proven to be true. I think that when Whitman writes this in his poem he understands this. He tells us that we won't know who he is or what he means, but he also gives us reassurance by telling us that it will be for the good of us. I think he is trying to reach faithless people. Not necessarily faithless people in God, just faithless people in general. He might be trying to tell an insecure person who doesn't believe someone easily to trust him, and learn that he has good for them. This poem is intended to be good for people in the sense that he is reassuring people that he has good health for us. He doesn't tell us that we won't get good health, or we have to work for it-just that we won't know who he is or what he means. Then he gives us hope regardless. He states that we will be given good health from him nevertheless.

They Choose to Destroy Their Freedom

I believe that if any of the Middle Eastern countries legitimately elected authoritarianism through the democratic process then they have all right in doing so, and the US should leave themselves out of it. I believe that if that the authority in this dictatorship government is just and keeps people's human rights protected, and if the people want it, then it should be allowed. If the authority is displaying unjust ways of doing things, then of course the US should step in and fight against it. I don't particularly know how the US might do so in the situation of the people electing a dictator who is evil in his ways. Should the US step in to a country that wants to be beaten? This kind of thing probably won't ever happen on our planet, considering I don't think anyone likes losing their human rights...but what if? How would you stop a large group of people who WANT to be run by an evil dictator? Should the US step in? Well, I believe that the US should definitely step in if that newly elected dictator was trying to cause harm to those who don't deserve it. An opportunity the US might have today is in Iran. Specifically with dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. If the US did not stand and fight for democracy, then their might not be another country who would. If we let such a thing happen around the world, it might grow and eventually effect America. If the dictator wasn't causing anyone harm to who didn't elect him then would that really be wrong? Is that really a dictatorship? This actually seems very unlikely, but if the case ever presented itself, I might just say let it be. This way the people and/or neighboring countries learn a lesson on basic human principles and rights. This is a case of the greater good. Also, dictatorships never work out, so this government will not last anyways. We could just monitor them until it collapses, and then once it has go in and explain why it collapsed. This might be the only part that the US has to play in this story. It all depends on how that dictator runs his government. Obviously if democracy is the reason for something to happen then it was done with a just cause in that the people chose it. However, if democracy chooses to destroy itself...then so be it.

Guilty For Not Seeing The Unknown

This topic hits right to the heart, or at least it should for most of of us. How is it that you could be guilty for not seeing someone or something that is unknown to you. Well, I'll tell you. Are you ever watching T.V. and you see one of those world visions people pop up on a commercial and ask you to donate some of your money to a homeless person in Africa? Well my friends this is exactly I am talking about. You see, those kids are unknowns to you until you saw that commercial. They are unknown because you simply didn't know them, try to get to know them, or was exposed to them by some outside source other than yourself (before the commercial of course). This could happen with other things too, not just the starving kids in Africa. I would have to say that 80-90% of us live in places that have some sort of hurting going on in the streets around us, rather it be drugs or neglect-and we are oblivious to it. This is very true for most of us, especially those who are reading this simply because we have or are working on a computer meaning that we have some resources that those people don't. Could you imagine feeling guilty for this? SHOULD we feel guilty- is the real question. My thoughts are simply this, I do not believe we should be feeling guilty until our duties are fulfilled and everything we NEED to do is done. Then, and this is only a maybe, should we feel guilty. I can tell you my opinion on the matter, but that might not meet with your opinion. Obviously it'd be a nice thing, and I might be hitting a sore subject so bare with me and please don't judge me, but what about people in your family you might not know about? Is it fair to the people in your family to not receive some extra money when they are in times of need over DYING kids in Africa? Think about it. You have to decide whether or not making a savings account for your child to go to college one day over saving someone's life across sea's that you don't even know. I understand that this is a very hard decision. Of course, this can even get down to...do you really need that extra ice cream after your meal, or do you send that money that would be used for ice cream to save someone's life? Something I cannot decipher. Something, to be honest, I would only pray about. Yes, I would feel guilty if I had a million dollars and I bought lavish cars and a mansion for my family of four. I just don't know how to react to such a thing, especially when I'm fighting for a better life and taking advantage of my God given opportunities. This might be up to your faith, as it probably would be for me. I just don't think some people would take this very lightly. I'm guessing that some of you are reading this and I'm making you feel guilty. You might be thinking, "oh my goodness, I am so horrible, I shouldn't have bought that 60$ purse, I could have saved someone from dying!" Others of you might think differently. Maybe some do take this lightly because they realize that this has been happening for such a long time, heck their whole life! Why should they care now? I am guilty of not seeing them for the most part, but I don't know how I feel about feeling guilty when I find them. There are always times when you walk into a McDonald's or grocery store and you are placed in front of a little container with a slit in the top of it to put in coins and dollar bills. They accept anything from a penny to a hundred dollar bill. Should you donate to those canisters that support a just cause of cancer or AIDS worldwide? Well, if you are given change of a quarter, five pennies and a nickle-what do you do? I'll tell you what I suggest you do. You take the nickle and pennies which you are probably going to throw in your car change holder and it won't be seen until a little brother or niece asks for it, and place it in the container. Your niece or nephew, brother or sister can wait for their nickle and penny on the ground, the starving kids aren't fortunate enough for a piece of bread, let alone a penny on the ground. Then you take the quarter, and get yourself some candy from the candy dispenser found on your way out, and you eat the candy and feel good that you might have just saved someone's life.

Comparing Views on Death (Nothing Interesting)

When comparing, "From the Diary of.." and, "Hanging Fire," I can see that the points of views on dying are very similar, but have different meanings to them. When reading Hanging Fire, I see a fourteen year old girl who is talking about how much she wants to do with her life. She is afraid of dying not just because she's in a situation of life and death, but because she might not get to do the things that most girls at her age get to do. She says, "suppose I die before graduation... and "will I live long enough..." symbolizing that she is afraid that she might not get a chance to do something. She doesn't say will I live long enough for no reason. She wants to live long enough for something, otherwise she wouldn't be asking the question, will I live long enough.
As for the other young person in the poem From the Diary of an Almost-Four-Year-Old, the speaker is talking more in a appreciative tone. Instead of asking questions that lead us, the reader to see that this person is afraid of dying, you can see from what this person is saying that they are happy to be alive. In the poem the person talks of loosing her eye. Instead of complaining or saying what if I had a good eye, they kind of joke of what it would be like having a glass eye. The person says, "I'll have a brand new glass eye, maube things will look round and fat in the middle..." To me this person would not use the word, "fat," unless they were trying to be optimistic about their situation. Along with optimism comes happiness, and I can clearly tell from her lack of pessimism that she is happy. Instead of being depressed about her situation she looks towards having the glass eye, and ponders on what it will be like. The only kind of sadness that comes from this is when she says that she doesn't want her younger sibling to go through what she has gone through.
When comparing the two poems you can see that they are similar in the fact that they are talking about death, or loosing something, but don't have the same points of views about it. One poem's whole persona is to fret on the idea of possibly not making it in time for the party, or not being able to do the things they wanna do before they die. The other is happy to be alive and sees more of what they have rather then what they might not have.