Comparing Pride in A Good Man is Hard to Find, Good Country People and

Pride in A Good Man is Hard to Find, Good Country People and Revelation    Pride is a very relevant issue in almost everyone's lives. Only when a person is forced to face his pride can he begin to overcome it. Through the similar themes of her short stories, Flannery O'Connor attempts to make her characters realize their pride and overcome it. In "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the grandmother is a typical Southern lady. This constant effort to present herself a Southern lady is where her pride is grounded. She criticizes the mother's traveling outfit, but she herself is wearing a prim and proper-and probably uncomfortable-outfit so that "anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady" (O'Connor, "A Good Man" 382). She recalls exactly how to find a certain plantation she used to visit, and the children convince their father to turn the car around. However, the grandmother realizes that the plantation is in another state but is too prideful to admit so. This pride follows her to the point of grace when The Misfit forces her to see reality. According to Ellen Douglas, the "evil in human hearts, and the possibility of grace, the gift of love, are made terrifyingly and magnificently real" when the grandmother, at gunpoint, admits that The Misfit really is, in her standards, a good man at heart (381). He is better able to express his beliefs about religion, but she has no firm foundation. When he says, "She would [have] been a good woman, if there had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life," he is revealing the fact that her pride, instead of her faith, has carried her through life (O'Connor, "A Good Man" 392). She has merely acted out the life of a typical Southern lady of he... ...e. Grace allows this change to happen, but one must be willing to face hardships and difficulties because the road to redemption is narrow and rocky. Works Cited Douglas, Ellen. "O'Connor's 'A Good Man is Hard to Find.'" Contemporary Literature Criticism. Eds. Carolyn Riley and Phyllis Carmel Mendelson. Detroit, MI: Gale, 1976. Vol. 6. 381. Edwards, Jr., Bruce L. "O'Connor's 'Good Country People.'" Masterplots II-Short Story Series.   Ed. Frank N. Magill. Pasedena, CA: Salem P, 1986. Vol. 2. 901-902. O'Connor, Flannery. "Good Country People." Meyer 392-406. --------. "A Good Man is Hard to Find." Meyer 381-392. --------. "Revelation" Meyer 407-420. Meyer, Michael, ed. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999. --------. "O'Connor on Theme and Symbol" Meyer 423-424. Comparing Pride in A Good Man is Hard to Find, Good Country People and Pride in A Good Man is Hard to Find, Good Country People and Revelation    Pride is a very relevant issue in almost everyone's lives. Only when a person is forced to face his pride can he begin to overcome it. Through the similar themes of her short stories, Flannery O'Connor attempts to make her characters realize their pride and overcome it. In "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the grandmother is a typical Southern lady. This constant effort to present herself a Southern lady is where her pride is grounded. She criticizes the mother's traveling outfit, but she herself is wearing a prim and proper-and probably uncomfortable-outfit so that "anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady" (O'Connor, "A Good Man" 382). She recalls exactly how to find a certain plantation she used to visit, and the children convince their father to turn the car around. However, the grandmother realizes that the plantation is in another state but is too prideful to admit so. This pride follows her to the point of grace when The Misfit forces her to see reality. According to Ellen Douglas, the "evil in human hearts, and the possibility of grace, the gift of love, are made terrifyingly and magnificently real" when the grandmother, at gunpoint, admits that The Misfit really is, in her standards, a good man at heart (381). He is better able to express his beliefs about religion, but she has no firm foundation. When he says, "She would [have] been a good woman, if there had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life," he is revealing the fact that her pride, instead of her faith, has carried her through life (O'Connor, "A Good Man" 392). She has merely acted out the life of a typical Southern lady of he... ...e. Grace allows this change to happen, but one must be willing to face hardships and difficulties because the road to redemption is narrow and rocky. Works Cited Douglas, Ellen. "O'Connor's 'A Good Man is Hard to Find.'" Contemporary Literature Criticism. Eds. Carolyn Riley and Phyllis Carmel Mendelson. Detroit, MI: Gale, 1976. Vol. 6. 381. Edwards, Jr., Bruce L. "O'Connor's 'Good Country People.'" Masterplots II-Short Story Series.   Ed. Frank N. Magill. Pasedena, CA: Salem P, 1986. Vol. 2. 901-902. O'Connor, Flannery. "Good Country People." Meyer 392-406. --------. "A Good Man is Hard to Find." Meyer 381-392. --------. "Revelation" Meyer 407-420. Meyer, Michael, ed. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999. --------. "O'Connor on Theme and Symbol" Meyer 423-424.

Compare and Contrast Rupert Brookes The Solider with Wilfred Owens Du

Compare and Contrast Rupert Brooke's The Solider with Wilfred Owen's Dulce et Decorum Est. Although 'The Soldier' by Rupert Brooke and 'Dulce et Decorum Est' by Wilfred Owen are concerned with the common theme of war, the two poems contrast two very different views of war. 'The Soldier' gives a very positive view of war, whereas Owen's portrayal is negative to the extreme. Rupert Brooke's 'The Soldier' is very patriotic as Brooke loves his country and is ready to die for it. This perhaps is not surprising as it was written in the first few months of war when the whole country was swept by a tide of patriotic fervour. Rather ironically for a war poem 'The Soldier' is a peaceful poem, as it doesn't describe the blood and death of war like 'Dulce et Decorum Est.'. Brooke's love for his country, however, is somewhat jingoistic and his view of England is rather sentimental. There are many examples of his love for his country, one of which is 'A body of England's, breathing English air.' Brooke also thinks that his country is superior to any other land: 'a richer dust concealed '. To an outsider this is a rather conceited view; thinking that an Englishman's rotting corpse would act as some superior fertilizer. But to his patriotic readers, this only intensified his main arguing point; his conviction that England is worth dying for. Brooke's purpose for writing such a one-sided poem was to give a morale booster to his audience and to demonstrate his deep love for his country. The poem is very powerful and no doubt had a very positive effect on these reluctant to join the army. The poem effectively demonstrates that this is a cause and country undoubtedly worth fighting for. Brooke's belief that God is... ...some of the best anti-war poetry ever written. Looking back over time, we can easily be critical of Brooke's rather naÃÆ'Â ¯ve view of war. But to be fair, he could not know what the next three years of war would bring and was only reflecting the patriotic mood of the early months of war. His view is much influenced by the Victorian poets, such as Tennyson, whose 'Charge of the Light Brigade' saw war as romantic and glorious with valiant cavalrymen charging the enemy on horses. But the First World War was to change all that. This was a twentieth century war with aeroplanes, machine-guns, tanks and gas, which Owen witnessed at first-hand and through his pen, changed not only war poetry, but how future generations have thought about war and the horrors it brings: And watch the white eyes writhing in his face. His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin.

Cell Phone Addiction Essay

Wireless communication has emerged as one of the fastest diffusing mediums on the planet, fueling an emergent â€Å"mobile youth culture that speaks as much with thumbs as it does with tongues. At one of our focus groups a teen boy gushed, â€Å"I have unlimited texts . . . which is like the greatest invention of mankind. † His enthusiasm was hardly unique. Cell phone use and, in particular, the rise of texting has become a central part of teens’ lives. They are using their phones to stay in touch with friends and parents. They are using them to share stories and photos. They are using them to entertain themselves when they are bored. They are using them to micro-coordinate their schedules and face-to-face gatherings. And some are using their phones to go online to browse, to participate in social networks, and check their emails. This is the sunny side of the story. Teens are also using mobile phones to cheat on tests and to skirt rules at school and with their parents. Some are using their phones to send sexts, others are sleeping with buzzing phones under their pillows, and some are using their phones to place calls and text while driving. While a small number of children get a cell phone in elementary school, the real tipping point for ownership is in middle school. About six in ten (66%) of all children in our sample had a cell phone before they turned 14. Slightly less than 75% of all high school students had a cell phone. This report particularly highlights the rapid rise of text messaging in recent months. Some 72% of all US teens are now text message users, up from 51% in 2006. Among them, the typical texter sends and receives 50 texts a day, or 1500 per month. By way of comparison a Korean, Danish or a Norwegian teen might send 15 – 20 a day and receives as many. Changes in subscription packages have encouraged widespread texting among US teens and has made them into world class texters. As a result, teens in America have integrated texting into their everyday routines. It is a way to keep in touch with peers even while they are engaged in other social activities. Often this is done discreetly and with little fuss. In other cases, it interrupts in-person encounters or can cause dangerous situations. To understand the role that cell phones play in teens’ lives, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and Michigan’s Department of Communication Studies conducted a survey and focus groups in the latter part of 2009. The phone survey was conducted on landline and cell phones and included 800 youth ages 12-17 and one of their parents. It was administered from June 26-September 24, 2009. The overall survey has a margin of error of 4 percentage points; the portion dealing with teen cell owners involved 625 teens in the sample and has a margin of error of 4 percentage points; the portion dealing with teen texters involved 552 teens in the sample and has a margin of error of 5 percentage points. The idea for cellular telephony originated in the US. The first cellular call and the first call from a hand held cellular device also were placed in the US. The cell phone merges the landline telephony system with wireless communication. The landline telephone was first patented in 1876. Mobile radio systems have been used since the early 1900’s in the form of ship to shore radio, and were installed in some police cars in Detroit starting in 1921. The blending of landline telephone and radio communication came after the Second World War. The first commercially available â€Å"mobile radiophone service† that allowed calls from fixed to mobile telephones was offered in St. Louis in 1946. By 1964 there were 1. 5 million mobile phone users in the US. This was a non-cellular system that made relatively inefficient use of the radio bandwidth. In addition, the telephones were large, energy intensive car-mounted devices. According to communications scholar Thomas Farley, the headlights of a car would noticeably dim when the user was transmitting a call. In the drive to produce a more efficient mobile telephone system, researchers W.  Rae Young and Douglas Ring of Bell Labs developed the idea of cellular telephony, in which geographical areas are divided into a mesh of cells, each with its own cell tower. This allowed a far more efficient use of the radio spectrum and the â€Å"cell† phones needed less power to send and receive a signal. The first installation was in 1969 on the Amtrak Metroliner that traveled between New York City and Washington. Four years later Martin Cooper of Motorola made the first cellular call from a prototype handheld cell phone. After the inauguration of mobile phone service in the US, a regulatory environment that allowed multiple mobile-calling standards stifled mobile communication development and expansion in the US for several years. Indeed, the growth of the GSM standard in Europe and the rise of DoCoMo in Japan meant that the dramatic developments in the cell phone industry were taking place abroad. In the US, small license areas for mobile phone companies meant that users were constantly roaming outside their core area. A user in Denver would have to pay roaming charges if he or she made or received a call in Ft.  Collins, Colorado Springs or Vail. To the degree that texting was available, users could only text to users in their home network. In the late 1980’s industry consolidation eliminated the small local areas and by the turn of the millennium, interoperability between operators became standard, and the cost of calling plans and the price of handsets fell. Rather than being a yuppie accessory, the cell phone became widely-used by everyone from the captains of industry and finance to the people who shined their shoes and walked their dogs. As cell phones have become more available, they are increasingly owned and used by children and teens. Further, as handsets become more loaded with capabilities ranging from video recording and sharing, to music playing and internet access, teens and young adults have an ever-increasing repertoire of use. Indeed, we are moving into an era when mobile devices are not just for talking and texting, but can also access the internet and all it has to offer. This connectivity with others and with content has directed the regulator’s lens onto mobile safety practices. It has also prompted the beginning of a cultural conversation about how to ensure that parents have the tools to regulate their child’s mobile use, should they choose to. Understanding how youth use mobile phones is vital to creating effective policy based on the reality of how the technology is used. It is also important to understand how telecommunications company policies and pricing affect how teens and parents use their phones. This report tries to expand a tradition of cell phone research that extends into the early 1990s, and work on landline telephony as far back as the 1970s. The first studies to examine the social consequences of the mobile phone came in the early 1990s when researchers examined its impact on residential markets. One of the earliest papers on cell phones examined it through the lens of gender; in 1993, Lana Rakow and Vija Navarro wrote about the cell phone and what they called â€Å"remote mothering. † Starting in the mid 1990s in Europe there was the beginning of more extended scholarship on cellular communication, and by 2000 work was being done in the US that evolved from a small number of articles to edited books and eventually to both popular and more scholarly books on mobile communication. Several themes have been central in these analyses. One is the use of cell phones in the â€Å"micro-coordination† of daily interaction. As the name implies, this line of research examines how the cell phone allows for a more nuanced form of coordination. Instead of having to agree on a time and place beforehand, individuals can negotiate the location and the timing of meetings as a situation clarifies itself. Micro-coordination can be used to organize get-togethers and it can be used to sort out the logistics of daily life (e. . sending reminders to one another or exchanging information on the fly). Extending this concept further, the cell phone can be used to coordinate so called â€Å"flash mobs† as well as different kinds of protests. While micro-coordination describes an instrumental type of interaction, another line of research has examined how the cell phone can be used for expressive interaction. Since the device provides us direct access to one another, it allo ws us to maintain ongoing interaction with family and friends. This, in turn provides the basis for the enhancement of social cohesion. In this vein, some researchers have examined how the cell phone affects our sense of safety and security. The cell phone can be used to summon help when accidents have happened and they can be seen as a type of insurance in case something bad occurs. Others have examined how teens, as well as others, see the mobile phone as a form of self-expression. Having a cell phone is a status symbol and having a particularly sought after model can enhance our standing among peers. Finally, focusing directly on teens, there has been considerable research on the role of the cell phone as part of the emancipation process. Up to this point, however, there has been little quantitative analysis of teens in the US on this topic. Indeed this is one of the main questions considered in this report. Before the cell phone, there were often discussions in the home as to whether a teen could have a landline extension in her room. Teens’ push to have their own landline phone underscored their drive to control contact with their peers. The rise of the cell phone has changed the dimensions of this discussion. The cell phone has provided teens with their own communication channel. This access can be used to plan and to organize daily life and it can be used to exchange jokes and endearments. It can also be used to plan mischief of varying caliber, and it can be used to exchange photos that are – literally – the picture of innocence or of depravity.

Modern US history

As an intellectual enterprise, contemporary social sciences are replete with claims of social collapse. Over the last 20 years, scholars have proclaimed â€Å"the end of history,† â€Å"the end of politics,† â€Å"the end of work,† â€Å"the end of the family,† â€Å"the end of liberalism,† â€Å"the end of medicine,† â€Å"the end of ideology,† â€Å"the end of individualism.† There is little doubt that we are experiencing massive social change. As we are approaching the year’s end, something new is emerging, helter-skelter, in our midst that bears little resemblance to any existing political, theological, or sociological model of how the world is supposed to work. The social shifts are sufficiently different in character to have produced a new social form, one suitably widespread and anchored to become visible. This claim of a new social form lies at the heart of the postmodern contention that we have entered an era of ambiguity, and we argue that postmodernists advance this claim in a way that sociologist cannot ignore. While they are right on target in capturing the spirit of rapid social change that characterizes the present era, their embrace of the resulting â€Å"chaos† as a new social form is misguided: they mistake an era of societal transition for a new enduring social structure or even a hybrid of modern society. In historical perspective, what we are now experiencing bears a striking similarity to the place on the cultural and historical map that created sociology at the end of the last century. Rising suicide rates, the growing prominence of Protestant countries and the subsequent demise of Catholicism’s hold on the Western world, and the movement from agricultural to industrial production all have their parallels in the current social era. Rather than embracing the change and ambiguity they surveyed, and mistaking it for what â€Å"modern† society would be. One of the major tasks of sociology at the turn of this year is to struggle to understand the new institutional and personal structures that characterize contemporary social forms and not abdicate to other disciplines the task of making sense of emergent societal transitions and structures. A widespread belief seems to be emerging that the U.S. economy is in the throes of a fundamental transformation. The true enthusiasts treat the new economy as a fundamental industrial revolution as great or greater in importance than the concurrence of inventions, particularly electricity and the internal combustion engine, which transformed the world at the turn of the year. There is no dispute that the U.S. economy is awash in computer investment that productivity has revived. Economists have long been ambivalent about what social interactions constitute the proper domain of the discipline. The narrower view has been that economics is primarily the study of markets, a circumscribed class of institutions in which persons interact through an anonymous process of price formation. Throughout much of the twentieth century, mainstream economics traded breadth for rigor. In the first half of the century, institutional economics, which thought broadly but loosely about social interactions, gradually gave way to the neoclassical theory of general competitive markets. A pivotal development was the transformation of labor economics from a field narrowly concerned with work for pay into one broadly concerned with the production and distributional decisions of families and households. The important development was the emergence in macroeconomics of endogenous growth theory. Whereas classical growth theory assumed that the production technology available to an economy is exogenous, endogenous growth theory supposes that today’s technology may depend have been influenced by the past output of the economy. The broadening of economic theory has coincided with new empirical research by economists on social interactions. Unfortunately, the empirical literature has not shown much progress. Economics has sufficed with a remarkably small set of basic concepts: preferences, expectations, constraints and equilibrium. Widespread literacy is alleged to be indispensable to popular government. Dramatic changes in communication technologies which are said to affect exposure to traditional print media-we need to look afresh at reading’s political impact. Learning to read is a political act. Inability to read limits an individual’s participation in community life. It was probably for this reason that slaves in the antebellum South were kept illiterate. Even today, a connection between literacy and citizenship exists in evidence showing that persons who read are more likely than those who do not identify with larger political communities. American people are haunted by Old World hegemonies and hence are committed to individualism and modernism for philosophical and practical reasons. American people are a restless and contentious lot producing a kaleidoscope of attitudes about most social issues. The American people can be found in the election turnout figures and in gross economic indicators, to e sure, but they are more than that; they are also the meanings of their behaviors. Raised on a diet of political supremacy and technocratic invincibility, the American people were shaken to the core by 9/11. Shortly thereafter, a number of bromides caught the national ear: â€Å"America has lost its innocence forever,† â€Å"this is the first war of the twenty-first century,† â€Å"the U.S. just joined the world of nations.† At some point, history may prove these claims true. But 9/111 has already shown something more heartening: the functionality of a longstanding communal discourse. Admittedly, that discourse is shot through with contradictions and impossible overstatements. That contradictions and overstatements can prove sustaining to a people is a curious fact-an American fact. Reference: Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of the United States. Available on-line: http://www.historyisaweapon.com/zinnapeopleshistory.html.

Night World : The Chosen Chapter 2

Bating him or doing something with his teeth. Tearing and sucking. Making noises like Pal did when he ate his dog food. For a moment Rashel was frozen. The whole world had changed and everything seemed like a dream. Then she heard somebody screaming and her throat hurt and she knew it was her. And then the tall man looked at her. He lifted his head and looked. And she knew that his face alone was going to give her nightmares forever. Not that he was ugly. But he had hair as red as blood and eyes that shone gold, like an animal's. There was a light in them that was like nothing she had ever seen. She ran then. It was wrong to leave Timmy, but she was too scared to stay. She wasn't brave; she was a baby, but she couldn't help it. She was still screaming as she turned around and darted through the flap in the tent. Almost darted through. Her head and shoulders got outside and she saw the red plastic tubes rising above her-and then a hand clamped on the back of her Gymboree shirt. A big strong hand that stopped her in midflight. Rashel was as helpless as a baby kitten against it. But just as she was dragged back into the tent, she saw something. Her mother. Her mother was coming around the corner of the climbing structure. She'd heard Rashel screaming. Her mother's eyes were big and her mouth was open, and she was moving fast. She was coming to save Rashel. â€Å"Mommeeeeeeeee!† Rashel screamed, and then she was back inside the tent. The man threw her to one side the way a kid at preschool would throw a piece of crumpled paper. Rashel landed hard and felt a pain in her leg that normally would have made her cry. Now she hardly noticed it. She was staring at Timmy, who was lying on the ground near her. Timmy looked strange. His body was like a rag doll's-arms and legs flopped out. His skin was white. His eyes were staring straight up at the top of the tent. There were two big holes in his throat, with blood all around them. Rashel whimpered. She was too frightened to scream anymore. But just then she saw white daylight, and a figure in front of it. Mommy. Mommy was pulling the tent flap open. Mommy was inside, looking around for Rashel. That was when the worst thing happened. The worst and the strangest, the thing the police never believed when Rashel told them later. Rashel saw her mother's mouth open, saw her mother looking at her, about to say something. And then she heard a voice-but it wasn't Mommy's voice. And it wasn't an out-loud voice. It was inside her head. Wait! There's nothing wrong here. But you need to stand very, very still. Rashel looked at the tall man. His mouth wasn't moving, but the voice was his. Her mother was looking at him, too, and her expression was changing, becoming relaxed and . . . stupid. Mommy was standing very, very still. Then the tall man hit Mommy once on the side of the neck and she fell over and her head flopped the wrong way like a broken doll. Her dark hair was lying in the dirt. Rashel saw that and then everything was even more like a dream. Her mother was dead. Timmy was dead. And the man was looking at her. You're not upset, came the voice in her head. You ‘re not frightened. You want to come right here. Rashel could feel the pull of the voice. It was drawing her closer and closer. It was making her still and not afraid, making her forget her mother. But then she saw the tall man's golden eyes and they were hungry. And all of a sudden she remembered what he wanted to do to her. Not me! She jerked away from the voice and dove for the tent flap again. This time she got all the way outside. And she threw herself straight at the gap in the climbing structure. She was thinking in a different way than she had ever thought before. The Rashel that had watched Mommy fall was locked away in a little room inside her, crying. It was a new Rashel who wiggled desperately through the gap in the padded room, a smart Rashel who knew that there was no point in crying because there was nobody who cared anymore. Mommy couldn't save her, so she had to save herself. She felt a hand grab her ankle, hard enough almost to crush her bones. It yanked, trying to drag her back through the gap. Rashel kicked backward with all her strength and then twisted, and her sock came off and she pulled her leg into the padded room. Come back! You need to come back right now! The voice was like a teacher's voice. It was hard not to listen. But Rashel was already scrambling into the plastic tube in front of her. She went faster than she ever had before, hurting her knees, propelling herself with her bare foot. When she got to the first fish-bowl window, I though, she saw a face looking in at her. It was the tall man. He was staring at her. He I banged on the plastic as she went by. Fear cracked in Rashel like a belt. She scrambled I faster, and the knocks on the tube followed her. He was underneath her now. Keeping up with I her. Rashel passed another window and looked down. She could see his hair shining in the sunlight. She could see his pale face looking up at her. And his eyes. Come down, came the voice and it wasn't stem anymore. It was sweet. Come down and we'll go get some ice cream. What kind of ice cream do you like best? Rashel knew then that this was how he'd gotten Timmy into the tent. She didn't even pause in her scrambling. But she couldn't get away from him. He was traveling with her, just under her, waiting for her to come out or get to a place where he could reach in and grab her. Higher. I need to get higher, she thought. She moved instinctively, as if some sixth sense was telling her which way to turn each time she had a choice. She went through angled tubes, straight tubes, tubes that weren't solid at all, but made of woven canvas strips. And finally she got to a place where she couldn't go any higher. It was a square room with a padded floor and netting sides. She was at the front of the climbing structure; she could see mothers and fathers standing and sitting in little groups. She could feel the wind. Below her, looking up, was the tall man. Chocolate brownie? Mint chip? Bubble gum? The voice was putting pictures in her mind. Tastes. Rashel looked around frantically. There was so much noise-every kid in the climbing structure was yelling. Who would even notice her if she shouted? They'd think she was joking around. All you have to do is come down. You know you have to come down sometime. Rashel looked into the pale face turned up to her. The eyes were like dark holes. Hungry. Patient. Certain. He knew he was going to get her. He was going to win. She had no way to fight him. And then something tore inside Rashel and she did the only thing a five-year-old could do against an adult. She shoved her hand between the rough cords that made the netting, scraping off skin. She pushed her whole small arm through and she pointed down at the tall man. And she screamed in a way she'd never screamed before. Piercing shrieks that cut through the happy noise of the other kids. She screamed the way Ms. Bruce at preschool had taught her to do if any stranger ever bothered her. â€Å"Help meeee! Help meeee! That man tried to touch me I† She kept screaming it, kept pointing. And she saw people look at her. But they didn't do anything. They just stared. Lots of faces, looking up at her. Nobody moving. In a way, it was even worse than anything that had happened before. They could hear her, but nobody was going to help her. And then she saw somebody moving. It was a big boy, not quite a grown-up man. He was wearing a uniform like the one Rashel's father used to wear before he died. That meant he was a Marine. He was going toward the tall man, and his face was dark and angry. And now, as if they had only needed this example, other people were moving, too. Several men who looked like fathers. A woman with a cellular phone. The tall man turned and ran. He ducked under the climbing structure, heading toward the back, toward the tent where Rashel's mother was. He moved very fast, much faster than any of the people in the crowd. But he sent words to Rashel's mind before he disappeared completely. See you later. When he was definitely gone, Rashel slumped against the netting, feeling the rough cord bite into her cheek. People down below were calling to her; kids just behind her were whispering. None of it really mattered. She could cry now; it would be okay, but she didn't seem to have any tears. The police were no good. There were two officers, a man and a woman. The woman believed Rashel a little. But every time her eyes would start to believe, she'd shake her head and say, â€Å"But what was the man really doing to Timmy? Baby-doll, sweetie, I know it's awful, but just try to remember.† The man didn't believe even a little. Rashel would have traded them both for the Marine back at the carnival. All they'd found in the tent was her mother with a broken neck. No Timmy. Rashel wasn't sure but she thought the man had probably taken him. She didn't want to think about why. Eventually the police drove her to her Aunt Corinne's, who was the only family she had left now. Aunt Corinne was old and her bony hands hurt Rashel's arms when she clutched her and cried. She put Rashel in a bedroom full of strange smells and tried to give her medicine to make her sleep. It was like cough syrup, but it made her tongue numb. Rashel waited until Aunt Corinne was gone, then she spat it into her hand and wiped her hand on the sheets, way down at the foot of the bed where the blankets tucked in. And then she put her arms around her hunched-up knees and sat staring into the darkness. She was too little, too helpless. That was the problem. She wasn't going to be able to do anything against him when he came back. Because of course he was coming back. She knew what the man was, even if the adults didn't believe her. He was a vampire, just like on TV. A monster that drank blood. And he knew she knew. That was why he'd promised to see her later. At last, when Aunt Corinne's house was quiet, Rashel tiptoed to the closet and slid it open. She climbed the shoe rack and squirmed and kicked until she was on the top shelf above the clothes. It was narrow, but wide enough for her. That was one good thing about being little. She had to use every advantage she had. With her toe, she slid the closet door back shut. Then she piled sweaters and other folded things from the shelf on top of herself, covering even her head. And finally she curled up on the hard bare wood and shut her eyes. Sometime in the night she smelled smoke. She got down from the shelf-falling more than climbing-and saw flames in her bedroom. She never knew exactly how she managed to run through them and get out of the house. The whole night was like one long blurred nightmare. Because Aunt Corinne didn't get out. When the fire trucks came with their sirens and their flashing lights, it was already too late. And even though Rashel knew that he had set the fire-the vampire-the police didn't believe her. They didn't understand why he had to kill her. In the morning they took her to a foster home, which would be the first of many. The people there were nice, but Rashel wouldn't let them hold her or comfort her. She already knew what she had to do. If she was going to survive, she had to make herself hard and strong. She couldn't care about anybody else, or trust anybody, or rely on anybody. Nobody could protect her. Not even Mommy had been able to do that. She had to protect herself. She had to learn to fight.

Stagnation of Manufacturing Productivity in the United States Research Paper

Stagnation of Manufacturing Productivity in the United States - Research Paper Example Unites states is considered to be one among the top ranking nations when it comes to Manufacturing Productivity. (Dept of Commerce, 2004). The citizens involved in the manufacturing production activities are considered to be the backbone of the American Economy to achieve a huge growth rate. An overall economic development can be achieved by good manufacturing productivity. Manufacturing productions are the major aspect of inventing and deploying the various technological trends, providing jobs to the numerous citizens of all ranges, and the developers usually end up investing a huge amount of resources in the economy depending on the market trends in the manufacturing sector thus forming the essential part of economic development aspects.International trade can be always the major factor for the progress of the global economy, and to overcome the extreme competitiveness the armaments utilized are manufactured goods. But the new technology trends involved with globalization have mani folds expanded the scope of competitiveness by demanding a high rate of production to be the end result of minimized resources. The following have been quoted by (Kevin L. Kearns and Alan Tonelson, 2003) as the reasons for stagnation in the manufacturing economy.The manufactured goods had not brought the expected profits to the nation as there was a lack of opening in the market. This did not consume the required goods in the apt amounts of productions thus bringing in huge losses to the manufacturing economy.... Kearns and Alan Tonelson, 2003) as the reasons for stagnation in the manufacturing economy. Inefficiency in introducing foreign consumption markets. The manufactured goods had not brought the expected profits to the nation as there was a lack of opening in the market. This did not consume the required goods in the apt amounts of productions thus bringing in huge losses to the manufacturing economy. Inability to meet the requirements of the home market. The required materials where not produced at the right time to the home market. As the manufacturers were short of the basic resources to produce goods with innovation it affected the home market drastically. Difficulty in managing the imbalances arising due to international debts. As the manufacturing economy was in running in losses due to lack of proper production of goods in demand; the amount of debts increased. These debts created huge imbalances at the international level. Downturn in the employment base. As the manufacturing units ran into losses; the inefficiency of providing proper wages and retaining the workers increased manifolds. This on a large scale affected the overall employment base of the entire nation. Manufacturing crisis leading to a dependable maintenance of world- leading military. The necessity to be the universal power had always demanded for high-tech military armaments. The secure military base was built by gathering the diverse technologies from the long-term allies. The dependency to gather technology from various other nations has also become a major factor. Threat to the industrial base due to an extreme loss in tax revenues. As the domestic taxes increased the economy had some manufactures losing their production activities in the market. This indeed has brought a

Health Care Reform Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Health Care Reform - Essay Example The subsidies are provided to families with an income level as explained above, because such families do not qualify for either Medicare or Medicaid. Furthermore, such families do not have coverage from their employers. Premium credits were also introduced to help with payment of coverage, which also touches immigrants who are in the country legally if their income is below 100 percent of the federal poverty level (Jackson & Nolen, 2010). Health Care Reform: U.S. Population Groups That Will Not Benefit The act states that immigrants who are in the country illegally do not qualify for either Medicaid or subsidies on insurance. Most of the illegal immigrants who do not qualify have not been in the country for more than five years as required by the law so that they receive either one of the new reform provision: Medicaid or subsidies on insurance. Population groups who do not register for Medicaid and are above 33 percent of the poverty line do not qualify because they have not joined other people who have registered for Medicaid. Others may decide not to pay for insurance because they think that it is expensive for them, and for that reason they would not qualify. In addition, the insurance cover might cost more than 8 percent of the household, which will be quite unaffordable (Turnbull, 2010). Involvement of DHHS Agencies in Health Care Reform The AHRQ’s functions are to prioritize patients’ safety so that the health conditions of the patient is improved, which is done with help of the DHHS. The current reforms passed in 2010 consider the patients’ safety in workplaces so that small injuries can be averted and better relationships can be achieved between physicians and patients. Additionally, liability premium reductions have been considered in the reforms. The above initiatives were started with the help of both the DHHS and ARHQ. The CMS is concerned with Medicaid, Medicare and children health care insurance. The new reforms aim to accomp lish three major goals: expanding insurance cover, providing better quality insurance, and managing cost. The CMS agency will help in controlling the cost of services provided in healthcare centers; for example, there are risks that occur in workplaces, such as injuries and hospital-acquired conditions that require medical cover. The CMS has been pushing for reduction of such incidents to cut down on costs as required by the new reforms. In addition, they have also been in talk with physicians and hospital workers to give a better quality and cheaper service to patients. This will bring down health care costs, and the physicians will benefit from Medicare savings (Groszkruger, 2011). Nursing Implications in Health Care Reform The healthcare reforms to take effect in 2014 will require more nurses because the field will expand and job openings in nursing will arise. For example, more medical healthcare homes and healthcare centers will be formed. The enactment of the law will need mor e schools and training of nurses. In addition, the individuals who are interested in the profession will require full-time education. This will prompt the government to invest more in training of more nurses to curb the shortage. The national government will aim to provide grants and loans to nurses and will have to increase the amount they use to sustain the training systems that nurses require. As mentioned above, nurses will require full