Levels of Measurement Worksheet With Solutions

Levels of Measurement Worksheet With Solutions Data can be classified into one of four levels of measurement.   These levels are nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio. Each of these levels of measurement indicates a different feature that the data is showing. Read the full description of these levels, then practice sorting through the following. You can also look at a version without answers, then come back here to check your work. Worksheet Problems Indicate which level of measurement is being used in the given scenario: SOLUTION: This is the nominal level of measurement. Eye color is not a number, and so the lowest level of measurement is used. SOLUTION: This is the ordinal level of measurement. The letter grades can be ordered with A as high and F as low, however, differences between these grades are meaningless. An A and a B grade could be separated by a few or several points, and there is no way of telling if we are simply given a list of letter grades. SOLUTION: This is the ratio level of measurement. The numbers have a range from 0% to 100% and it makes sense to say that one score is a multiple of another. SOLUTION: This is the interval level of measurement. The temperatures can be ordered and we can look at differences in the temperatures. However, a statement such as A 10-degree day is half as hot as a 20-degree day is not correct. Thus this is not at the ratio level. SOLUTION: This is also the interval level of measurement, for the same reasons as the last problem. SOLUTION: Careful! Even though this is another situation involving temperatures as data, this is the ratio level of measurement. The reason why is that the Kelvin scale does have an absolute zero point from which we can reference all other temperatures. The zero for the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales is not the same, as we can have negative temperatures with these scales. SOLUTION: This is the ordinal level of measurement. The rankings are ordered from 1 to 50, but there is no way to compare the differences in rankings. Movie #1 could beat #2 by only a little, or it could be vastly superior (in the critics eye). There is no way to know from rankings alone. SOLUTION: Prices can be compared at the ratio level of measurement. SOLUTION: Even though there are numbers associated with this data set, the numbers serve as alternate forms of names for the players and the data is at the nominal level of measurement. Ordering the jersey numbers makes no sense, and there is no reason to do any arithmetic with these numbers. SOLUTION: This is the nominal level due to the fact that dog breeds are not numeric. SOLUTION: This is the ratio level of measurement. Zero pounds is the starting point for all weights and it makes sense to say The 5-pound dog is one quarter the weight of the 20-pound dog. The teacher of a class of third graders records the height of each student.The teacher of a class of third graders records the eye color of each student.The teacher of a class of third graders records the letter grade for mathematics for each student.The teacher of a class of third graders records the percentage that each student got correct on the last science test.A meteorologist compiles a list of temperatures in degrees Celsius for the month of MayA meteorologist compiles a list of temperatures in degrees Fahrenheit for the month of MayA meteorologist compiles a list of temperatures in degrees Kelvin for the month of MayA film critic lists the top 50 greatest movies of all time.A car magazine lists the most expensive cars for 2012.The roster of a basketball team lists the jersey numbers for each of the players.A local animal shelter keeps track of the breeds of dogs that come in.A local animal shelter keeps track of the weights of dogs that come in.

Vietnam Essay

Vietnam Essay Free Online Research Papers From the beginning of John Kennedys Administration into this fifth year of Lyndon Johnsons presidency, substantially the same small groups of men have presided over the destiny of the United States. In that time they have carried the country from a limited involvement in Vietnam into a war that is brutal, probably unsinkable, and, to an increasing body of opinion, calamitous and immoral. How could it happen? Many in government or close to it will read the following article with the shock of recognition. Those less familiar with the processes of power can read it with the assurance that the author had a firsthand opportunity to watch the slide down the slippery slope during five years (1961-1966) of service in the White House and Department of State. Mr. Thomson is an East Asia specialist and an assistant professor of history at Harvard. As a case study in the making of foreign policy, the Vietnam War will fascinate historians and social scientists for many decades to come. One question that will certainly be asked: How did men of superior ability, sound training, and high ideals American policy-makers of the 1960s create such costly and divisive policy? As one who watched the decision-making process in Washington from 1961 to 1966 under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, I can suggest a preliminary answer. I can do so by briefly listing some of the factors that seemed to me to shape our Vietnam policy during my years as an East Asia specialist at the State Department and the White House. I shall deal largely with Washington as I saw or sensed it, and not with Saigon, where I have spent but a scant three days, in the entourage of the Vice President, or with other decision centers, the capitals of interested parties. Nor will I deal with other important parts of the record: Vietnams history prior to 1961, for instance, or the overall course of Americas relations with Vietnam. Yet a first and central ingredient in these years of Vietnam decisions does involve history. The ingredient was the legacy of the 1950s by which I mean the so-called loss of China, the Korean War, and the Far East policy of Secretary of State Dulles. This legacy had an institutional by-product for the Kennedy Administration: in 1961 the U.S. governments East Asian establishment was undoubtedly the most rigid and doctrinaire of Washingtons regional divisions in foreign affairs. This was especially true at the Department of State, where the incoming Administration found the Bureau of Far Eastern Affairs the hardest nut to crack. It was a bureau that had been purged of its best China expertise, and of farsighted, dispassionate men, as a result of McCarthyism. Its members were generally committed to one policy line: the close containment and isolation of mainland China, the harassment of neutralist nations which sought to avoid alignment with either Washington or Peking and the maintenance of a network of alliances with anti-Communist client states on Chinas periphery. Another aspect of the legacy was the special vulnerability and sensitivity of the new Democratic Administration on Far East policy issues. The memory of the McCarthy era was still very sharp, and Kennedys margin of victory was too thin. The 1960 Offshore Islands TV debate between Kennedy and Nixon had shown the President-elect the perils of fresh thinking. The Administration was inherently leery of moving too fast on Asia. As a result, the Far East Bureau (now the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs) was the last one to be overhauled. Not until Averell Harriman was brought in as Assistant Secretary in December 1961, were significant personnel changes attempted, and it took Harriman several months to make a deep imprint on the bureau because of his necessary preoccupation with the Laos settlement. Once he did so, there was virtually no effort to bring back the purged or exiled East Asia experts. There were other important by-products of this legacy of the fifties: The new Administration inherited and somewhat shared a general perception of China-on-the-march a sense of Chinas vastness, its numbers, its belligerence ; a revived sense, perhaps, of the Golden Horde. This was a perception fed by Chinese intervention in the Korean War (an intervention actually based on appallingly bad communications and mutual miscalculation on the part of Washington and Peking; but the careful unraveling of that tragedy, which scholars have accomplished, had not yet become part of the conventional wisdom). The new Administration inherited and briefly accepted a monolithic conception of the Communist bloc. Despite much earlier predictions and reports by outside analysts, policy-makers did not begin to accept the reality and possible finality of the Sino-Soviet split until the first weeks of 1962. The inevitably corrosive impact of competing nationalisms on Communism was largely ignored. The new Administration inherited and to some extent shared the domino theory about Asia. This theory resulted from profound ignorance of Asian history and hence ignorance of the radical differences among Asian nations and societies. It resulted from a blindness to the power and resilience of Asian nationalisms. (It may also have resulted from a subconscious sense that, since all Asians look alike, all Asian nations will act alike.) As a theory, the domino fallacy was not merely inaccurate but also insulting to Asian nations; yet it has continued to this day to beguile men who should know better. Finally, the legacy of the fifties was apparently compounded by an uneasy sense of a worldwide Communist challenge to the new Administration after the Bay of Pigs fiasco. A first manifestation was the Presidents traumatic Vienna meeting with Khrushchev in June 1961; then came the Berlin crisis of the summer. All this created an atmosphere in which President Kennedy undoubtedly felt under special pressure to show his nations mettle in Vietnam if the Vietnamese, unlike the people of Laos, were willing to fight. In general, the legacy of the fifties shaped such early moves of the new Administration as the decisions to maintain a high-visibility SEATO (by sending the Secretary of State himself instead of some underlying to its first meeting in 1961), to back away from diplomatic recognition of Mongolia in the summer of 1961, and most important, to expand U.S. military assistance to South Vietnam that winter on the basis of the much more tentative Eisenhower commitment. It should be added that the increased commitment to Vietnam was also fueled by a new breed of military strategists and academic social scientists (some of whom had entered the new Administration) who had developed theories of counter-guerrilla warfare and were eager to see them put to the test. To some, counterinsurgency seemed a new panacea for coping with the worlds instability. SO MUCH for the legacy and the history. Any new Administration inherits both complicated problems and simplistic views of the world. But surely among the policy-makers of the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations, there were men who would warn of the dangers of an open-ended commitment to the Vietnam quagmire? This raises a central question, at the heart of the policy process: Where were the experts, the doubters, and the dissenters? Were they there at all, and if so, what happened to them? The answer is complex but instructive. In the first place, the American government was sorely lacking in real Vietnam or Indochina expertise. Originally treated as an adjunct of Embassy Paris, our Saigon embassy and the Vietnam Desk at State were largely staffed from 1954 onward by French-speaking Foreign Service personnel of narrowly European experience. Such diplomats were even more closely restricted than the normal embassy officer by the cast of mind as well as the language to contacts with Vietnams French-speaking urban elites. For instance, Foreign Service linguists in Portugal are able to speak with the peasantry if they get out of Lisbon and choose to do so; not so the French speakers of Embassy Saigon. In addition, the shadow of the loss of China distorted Vietnam reporting. Career officers in the Department, and especially those in the field, had not forgotten the fate of their World War II colleagues who wrote in frankness from China and were later pilloried by Senate co mmittees for critical comments on the Chinese Nationalists. Candid reporting on the strengths of the Viet Cong and the weaknesses of the Diem government was inhibited by the memory. It was also inhibited by some higher officials, notably Ambassador Nolting in Saigon, who refused to sign off on such cables. In due course, to be sure, some Vietnam talent was discovered or developed. But a recurrent and increasingly important factor in the decision-making process was the banishment of real expertise. Here the underlying cause was the closed politics of policy-making as issues become hot: the more sensitive the issue, and the higher it rises in the bureaucracy, the more completely the experts are excluded while the harassed senior generalists take over (that is, the Secretaries, Undersecretaries, and Presidential Assistants). The frantic skimming of briefing papers in the back seats of limousines is no substitute for the presence of specialists; furthermore, in times of crisis, such papers are deemed too sensitive even for review by the specialists. Another underlying cause of this banishment, as Vietnam became more critical, was the replacement of the experts, who were generally and increasingly pessimistic, by men described as can-do guys, loyal and energetic fixers unsoured by expertise. In early 1965, when I confided my growing policy doubts to an older colleague on the NSC staff, he assured me that the smartest thing both of us could do was to steer clear of the whole Vietnam mess; the gentleman in question had the misfortune to be a can-do guy, however, and is now highly placed in Vietnam, under orders to solve the mess. Despite the banishment of the experts, internal doubters and dissenters did indeed appear and persist. Yet as I watched the process, such men were effectively neutralized by a subtle dynamic: the domestication of dissenters. Such domestication arose out of a two-fold cubbish need: on the one hand, the dissenters desire to stay aboard; and on the other hand, the no dissenter’s conscience. Simply stated, dissent, when recognized, was made to feel at home. On the lowest possible scale of importance, I must confess my own considerable sense of dignity and acceptance (both vital) when my senior White House employer would refer to me as his favorite dove. Far more significant was the case of the former Undersecretary of State, George Ball. Once Mr. Ball began to express doubts, he was warmly institutionalized: he was encouraged to become the in-house devils advocate on Vietnam. The upshot was inevitable: the process of escalation allowed for periodic requests to Mr. Ball to speak his piece; Ball felt good, I assume (he had fought for righteousness); the others felt good (they had given a full hearing to the dovish option), and there was minimal unpleasantness. The club remained intact, and it is, of course, possible that matters would have gotten worse faster if Mr. Ball had kept silent, or left before his final departure in the fall of 1966. There was also, of course, the case of the last institutionalized doubter, Bill Moyers. The President is said to have greeted his arrival at meetings with an affectionate, Well, here comes Mr. Stop-the-Bombing. Here again, the dynamics of domesticated dissent sustained the relationship for a while. A related point and crucial, I suppose, to the government at all times was the effectiveness trap, the trap that keeps men from speaking out, as clearly or often as they might, within the government. And it is the trap that keeps men from resigning in protest and airing their dissent outside the government. The most important asset that a man brings to bureaucratic life is his effectiveness, a mysterious combination of training, style, and connections. The most ominous complaint that can be whispered of a bureaucrat is: Im afraid Charlies beginning to lose his effectiveness. To preserve your effectiveness, you must decide where and when to fight the mainstream of policy; the opportunities range from pillow talk with your wife to private drinks with your friends to meetings with the Secretary of State or the President. The inclination to remain silent or to acquiesce in the presence of the great men to live to fight another day, to give on this issue so that you can be effective on later issues is overwhelming. Nor is it the tendency of youth alone; some of our most senior officials, men of wealth and fame, whose place in history is secure, have remained silent lest their connection with power is terminated. As for the disinclination to resign in protest: while not necessarily a Washington or even American specialty, it seems truer of a government in which ministers have no parliamentary backbench to which to retreat. In the absence of such a refuge, it is easy to rationalize the decision to stay aboard. By doing so, one may be able to prevent a few bad things from happening and perhaps even make a few good things happen. To exit is to lose even those marginal chances for effectiveness. Another factor must be noted: as the Vietnam controversy escalated at home, there developed a preoccupation with Vietnam public relations as opposed to Vietnam policy-making. And here, ironically, internal doubters and dissenters were heavily employed. For such men, by virtue of their own doubts, were often deemed best able to massage the doubting intelligentsia. My senior East Asia colleague at the White House, a brilliant and humane doubter who had dealt with Indochina since 1954, spent three quarters o f his working days on Vietnam public relations: drafting presidential responses to letters from important critics, writing conciliatory language for presidential speeches, and meeting quite interminably with delegations of outraged Quakers, clergymen, academics, and housewives. His regular callers were the late A. J. Muste and Norman Thomas; mine were members of the Womens Strike for Peace. Our orders from above: keep them off the backs of busy policy-makers (who usually happened to be no doubters). Incidentally, my most discouraging assignment in the realm of public relations was the preparation of a White House pamphlet entitled Why Vietnam, in September 1965; in a gesture toward my conscience, I fought and lost a battle to have the title followed by a question mark. THROUGH a variety of procedures, both institutional and personal, doubt, dissent, and expertise were effectively neutralized in the making of policy. But what can be said of the men in charge? It is patently absurd to suggest that they produced such tragedy by intention and calculation. But it is neither absurd nor difficult to discern certain forces at work that caused decent and honorable men to do great harm. Here I would stress the paramount role of executive fatigue. No factor seems to be more crucial and underrated in the making of foreign policy. The physical and emotional toll of executive responsibility in State, the Pentagon, the White House, and other executive agencies is enormous; that toll is of course compounded by extended service. Many of todays Vietnam policy-makers have been on the job for from four to seven years. Complaints may be few, and physical health may remain unimpaired, though emotional health is far harder to gauge. But what is most seriously eroded in the deadening process of fatigue is the freshness of thought, imagination, a sense of possibility, a sense of priorities and perspective those rare assets of a new Administration in its first year or two of office. The tired policy-maker becomes a prisoner of his own narrowed view of the world and his own clichà ©d rhetoric. He becomes irritable and defensive short on sleep, short on family ties, short on patience. Such men make bad policy and then compound it. They have neither the time nor the temperament for new ideas or preventive diplomacy. Below the level of the fatigued executives in the making of Vietnam policy was a widespread phenomenon: the curator mentality in the Department of State. By this, I mean the collective inertia produced by the bureaucrats view of his job. At State, the average desk officer inherits from his predecessor our policy toward Country X; he regards it as his function to keep that policy intact under glass, untampered with, and dusted so that he may pass it on in two to four years to his successor. And such curatorial service generally merits promotion within the system. (Maintain the status quo, and you will stay out of trouble.) In some circumstances, the inertia bred by such an outlook can act as a brake against rash innovation. But on many issues, this inertia sustains the momentum of bad policy and unwise commitments momentum that might otherwise have been resisted within the ranks. Clearly, Vietnam is such an issue. To fatigue and inertia must be added the factor of internal confusio n. Even among the architects of our Vietnam commitment, there has been persistent confusion as to what type of war we were fighting and, as a direct consequence, confusion as to how to end that war. (The credibility gap is, in part, a reflection of such internal confusion.) Was it, for instance, a civil war, in which case counterinsurgency might suffice? Or was it a war of international aggression? (This might invoke SEATO or UN commitment. ) Who were the aggressor and the real enemy? The Viet Cong? Hanoi? Peking? Moscow? International Communism? Or maybe Asian Communism? Differing enemies dictated differing strategies and tactics. And confused throughout, in like fashion, was the question of American objectives; your objectives depended on whom you were fighting and why. I shall not forget my assignment from an Assistant Secretary of State in March 1964: to draft a speech for Secretary McNamara which would, inter alia, once and for all dispose of the canard that the Vietnam conflict was a civil war. But in some ways, of course, I mused, it is a civil war. Dont play word games with me! snapped the Assistant Secretary. Similar confusion beset the concept of negotiations anathema to much of official Washington from 1961 to 1965. Not until April 1965, did unconditional discussions become respectable, via a presidential speech; even then the Secretary of State stressed privately to newsmen that nothing had changed, since discussions were by no means the same as negotiations. Months later that issue was resolved. But it took even longer to obtain a fragile internal agreement that negotiations might include the Viet Cong as something other than an appendage to Hanois delegation. Given such confusion as to the who’s and whys of our Vietnam commitment , it is not surprising, as Theodore Draper has written, that policy-makers find it so difficult to agree on how to end the war. Of course, one force a constant in the vortex of commitment was that of wishful thinking. I partook of it myself at many times. I did so especially during Washingtons struggle with Diem in the autumn of 1963 when some of us at State believed that for once, in dealing with a difficult client state, the U.S. government could use the leverage of our economic and military assistance to make good things happen, instead of being led around by the nose by men like Chiang Kai-shek and Syngman Rhee (and, in that particular instance, by Diem). If we could prove that point, I thought, and move into a new day, with or without Diem, and then Vietnam was well worth the effort. Later came the wishful thinking of the air- strike planners in the late autumn of 1964; there were those who actually thought that after six weeks of air strikes, the North Vietnamese would come crawling to us to ask for peace talks. And what, someone asked in one of the meetings of the time, if they dont? The answer was that we would bomb for another four weeks, and that would do the trick. And a few weeks later came one instance of wishful thinking that was symptomatic of good men misled: in January 1965, I encountered one of the very highest figures in the Administration at a dinner, drew him aside, and told him of my worries about the air-strike option. He told me that I really shouldnt worry; it was his conviction that before any such plans could be put into effect, a neutralist government would come to power in Saigon that would politely invite us out. And finally, there was the recurrent wishful thinking that sustained many of us through the trying months of 1965-1966 after the air strikes had begun: that surely, somehow, one way or another, we would be in a conference in six months, and the escalatory spiral would be suspended. The basis of our hope: It simply cant go on. AS A further influence on policy-makers I would cite the factor of bureaucratic detachment. By this I mean what at best might be termed the professional callousness of the surgeon (and indeed, medical lingo the surgical strike for instance seemed to crop up in the euphemisms of the times). In Washington, the semantics of the military muted the reality of war for the civilian policy-makers. In quiet, air-conditioned, thick-carpeted rooms, such terms as systema tic pressure, armed reconnaissance, targets of opportunity, and even body count seemed to breed a sort of games-theory detachment. Most memorable to me was a moment in the late 1964 target planning when the question under discussion was how heavy our bombing should be, and how extensive our strafing, at some midpoint in the projected pattern of systematic pressure. An Assistant Secretary of State resolved the point in the following words: It seems to me that our orchestration should be mainly violins, but with periodic touches of brass. Perhaps the biggest shock of my return to Cambridge, Massachusetts, was the realization that the young men, the flesh and blood I taught and saw on these university streets, were potentially some of the numbers on the charts of those faraway planners. In a curious sense, Cambridge is closer to this war than Washington. There is an unprovable factor that relates to bureaucratic detachment: the ingredient of crypto-racism. I do not mean to imply any conscious contempt for Asian loss of life on the part of Washington officials. But I do mean to imply that bureaucratic detachment may well be compounded by a traditional Western sense that there are so many Asians, after all; that Asians have a fatalism about life and a disregard for its loss; that they are cruel and barbaric to their own people; and that they are very different from us (and all look alike?). And I do mean to imply that the upshot of such subliminal views is a subliminal question whether Asians, and particularly Asian peasants, and most particularly Asian Communists, are real people like you and me. To put the matter another way: would we have pursued quite such policies and quite such military tactics if the Vietnamese were white? It is impossible to write of Vietnam decision-making without writing about language. Throughout the conflict, words have been of paramount importance. I refer here to the impact of rhetorical escalation and to the problem of overselling. In an important sense, Vietnam has become of crucial significance to us because we have said that it is of crucial significance. (The issue obviously relates to the public relations preoccupation described earlier.) The key here is domestic politics: the need to sell the American people, press, and Congress on support for an unpopular and costly war in which the objectives themselves have been in flux. To se ll means to persuade, and to persuade means rhetoric. As the difficulties and costs have mounted, so has the definition of the stakes. This is not to say that rhetorical escalation is an orderly process; executive prose is the product of many writers, and some concepts North Vietnamese infiltration, Americas national honor, Red China as the chief enemy have entered the rhetoric only gradually and even sporadically. But there is an upward spiral nonetheless. And once you have said that the American Experiment itself stands or falls on the Vietnam outcome, you have thereby created a national stake far beyond any earlier stakes. Crucial throughout the process of Vietnam decision-making was a conviction among many policy-makers: that Vietnam posed a fundamental test of Americas national will. Time and again I was told by men reared in the tradition of Henry L. Stimson that all we needed was the will, and we would then prevail. Implicit in such a view, it seemed to me, was a curious assumption that Asians lacked will, or at least that in a contest between Asian and Anglo-Saxon wills, the non-Asians must prevail. A corollary to the persistent belief in a will was a fascination with power and awe in the face of the power America possessed as no nation or civilization ever before. Those who doubted our role in Vietnam were said to shrink from the burdens of power, the obligations of power, the uses of power, the responsibility of power. By implication, such men were soft-headed and effete. Finally, no discussion of the factors and forces at work on Vietnam policymakers can ignore the central fact of human ego investment. Men who have participated in a decision to develop a stake in that decision. As they participate in further, related decisions, their stake increases. It might have been possible to dissuade a man of strong self-confidence at an early stage of the ladder of a decision, but it is infinitely harder at later stages since a change of mind there usually involves an implicit or explicit repudiation of a chain of previous decisions. To put it bluntly: at the heart of the Vietnam calamity is a group of able, dedicated men who have been regularly and repeatedly wrong and whose standing with their contemporaries, and more important, with history, depends, as they see it, on being proven right. These are not men who can be asked to extricate themselves from error. THE various ingredients I have cited in the making of Vietnam policy have created a variety of results, most of them fairly obvious. Here are some that seem to me most central: Throughout the conflict, there has been persistent and repeated miscalculation by virtually all the actors, in high echelons and low, whether dove, hawk, or something else. To cite one simple example among many: in late 1964 and early 1965, some peace-seeking planners at State who strongly opposed the projected bombing of the North urged that, instead, American ground forces be sent to South Vietnam; this would, they said, increase our bargaining leverage against the North our chips and would give us something to negotiate about (the withdrawal of our forces) at an early peace conference. Simultaneously, the air-strike option was urged by many in the military who were dead set against American participation in another land war in Asia; they were joined by other civilian peace-seekers who wanted to bomb Hanoi into early negotiations. By late 1965, we had ended up with the worst of all worlds: ineffective and costly air strikes against the North, spiraling ground forces in the South, and no negotiations in sight. Throughout the conflict as well, there has been a steady give-in to pressures for a military solution and only minimal and sporadic efforts at a diplomatic and political solution. In part, this resulted from the confusion (earlier cited) among the civilians confusion regarding objectives and strategy. And in part, this resulted from the self-enlarging nature of the military investment. Once air strikes and particularly ground forces were introduced, our investment itself had transformed the original stakes. More air power was needed to protect the ground forces, and then more ground forces to protect the ground forces. And needless to say, the military mind develops its own momentum in the absence of clear guidelines from the civilians. Once asked to save South Vietnam, rather than to advise it, the American military could not but press for escalation. In addition, sad to report, assorted military constituencies, once involved in Vietnam, have had a series of cases to prove: for instance, the utility not only of air power (the Air Force) but of supercarrier-based air power (the Navy). Also, Vietnam policy has suffered from one ironic byproduct of Secretary Mc Namaras establishment of civilian control at the Pentagon: in the face of such control, an interservice rivalry has given way to a united front among the military reflected in the new but recurrent phenomenon of JCS unanimity. In conjunction with traditional congressional allies (mostly Southern senators and representatives) such a united front would pose a formidable problem for any President. Throughout the conflict, there have been missed opportunities, large and small, to disengage ourselves from Vietnam on increasingly unpleasant but still acceptable terms. Of the many moments from 1961 onward, I shall cite only one, the last and most important opportunity that was lost: in the summer of 1964 the President instructed his chief advisers to prepare for him as wide a range of Vietnam options as possible for postelection consideration and decision. He explicitly asked that all options be laid out. What happened next was, in effect, Lyndon Johnsons slow-motion Bay of Pigs. For the advisers so effectively converged on one single option juxtaposed against two other, phony options (in effect, blowing up the world, or scuttle-and-run) that the President was confronted with unanimity for bombing the North from all his trusted counselors. Had he been more confident in foreign affairs, had he been deeply informed on Vietnam and Southeast Asia, and had he raised some hard questions that unanimity had submerged, this President could have used the largest electoral mandate in history to de-escalate in Vietnam, in the clear expectation that at the worst a neutralist government would come to power in Saigon and politely invite us out. Today, many lives and dollars later, such an alternative has become an elusive and infinitely more expensive possibility. In the course of these years, another result of Vietnam decision-making has been the abuse and distortion of history. Vietnamese, Southeast Asian, and Far Eastern history has been rewritten by our policy-makers, and their spokesmen, to conform to the alleged necessity of our presence in Vietnam. Highly dubious analogies from our experience elsewhere the Munich sellout and containment from Europe, the Malayan insurgency and the Korean War from Asia have been imported in order to justify our actions. And more recent events have been fitted to the Procrustean bed of Vietnam. Most notably, the change of power in Indonesia in 1965-1966 has been ascribed to our Vietnam presence; and virtually all progress in the Pacific region the rise of regionalism, new forms of cooperation, and mounting growth rates has been similarly explained. The Indonesian allegation is undoubtedly false (I tried to prove it, during six months of careful investigation at the White House, and had to confess failu re); the regional allegation is patently unprovable in either direction (except, of course, for the clear fact that the economies of both Japan and Korea have profited enormously from our Vietnam-related procurement in these countries; but that is a costly and highly dubious form of foreign aid). There is a final result of Vietnam policy I would cite that holds potential danger for the future of American foreign policy: the rise of a new breed of American ideologues who see Vietnam as the ultimate test of their doctrine. I have in mind those men in Washington who have given a new life to the missionary impulse in American foreign relations: who believe that this nation, in this era, has received a threefold endowment that can transform the world. As they see it, that endowment is composed of, first, our unsurpassed military might; second, our clear technological supremacy; and third, our allegedly invincible benevolence (our altruism, our affluence, our lack of territorial aspirations). Together, it is argued, this threefold endowment provides us with the opportunity and the obligation to ease the nations of the earth toward modernization and stability: toward a full-fledged Pax Americana Technocratic. In reaching toward this goal, Vietnam is viewed as the last and crucial test. Once we have succeeded there, the road ahead is clear. In a sense, these men are our counterpart to the visionaries of Communisms radical left: they are technocracys own Maoists. They do not govern Washington today. But their doctrine rides high. Long before I went into government, I was told a story about Henry L. Stimson that seemed to me pertinent during the years that I watched the Vietnam tragedy unfold and participated in that tragedy. It seems to me more pertinent than ever as we move toward the election of 1968. In his waning years Stimson was asked by an anxious questioner, Mr. Secretary, how on earth can we ever bring peace to the world? Stimson is said to have answered: You begin by bringing to Washington a small handful of able men who believe that the achievement of peace is possible. Research Papers on Vietnam EssayMr. Obama and IranInflation TargetingGlobal Distributive Justice is UtopianCombating Human TraffickingBooker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-BarnettAmerican Central Banking and OilHas the British Welfare System beenDefinition of Export QuotasInternational PaperThe Equal Rights Amendment

Reflection Assignment for the Intro to Orienteering Class Essay

Reflection Assignment for the Intro to Orienteering Class - Essay Example Consequently, we split into several groups and allowed to walk through the park, carrying out our studies on the environment. Most of the tracks were muddy and led deep down the forests. As a result, most of us could not trace their way back to the camp at the end of the day. However, the game rangers and tour guides came to our rescue. The reason for getting lost in the forests was the lack of adequate orientation on the geography of the park. We did not have a map to guide us on the tracks and routes to use while in the forests. In addition, neither the school nor the game wardens assisted us with compasses that could help us back to the camp. Orientation is critical before one engages in any outdoor activity as it helps them to conduct a reconnaissance. Notably, this helps the person to familiarize him or herself with the routes to use, the culture of the people, the nature of the environment, and the potential risks. Consequently, one can prepare adequately for the activity. There are instances when people get lost due to lack of orientation and lack of map reading or both. Our experience exemplifies the adverse effects of the lack of direction. In other cases, one may fail to interpret a map correctly especially when they have to locate a place using longitudes and latitudes. The trip changed my mentality towards approaching new places. I learnt that it was important to gather information about new places prior to the visit. It also scrapped off my all-knowing mentality. The highlight of the trip was the instance when we got lost in the forest. It was awkward how we could not retrace the routes we had used. None of us wanted to imagine a night in the cold with a prospect of wild animal attacks. One of the things I learnt on the trip is that it is always critical to consult when one is clueless. None of us had taken the initiative of asking for a map or a compass from the teacher or game rangers.

Buddha Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Buddha - Research Paper Example Early Life Siddhartha Gautama was the birth name of Buddha. He lived in Nepal in the region commonly known as the Indo-Nepalese area. He was an Indian prince and his father Suddhodana was a king of the Indian clan known as Shakyas. Queen Maya, the mother of Siddhartha died shortly after giving birth to him. When Siddhartha was a child, a spiritual man prophesied unusual things about the Prince. Predicting about the Prince’s future he also said that he would either become a great king or a great religious teacher. His father preferred his son to be the king after him and therefore he trained Siddhartha accordingly (Thomas, 2000). Prince Siddhartha was raised by his father in a luxurious environment after the death of his mother. His father gave him the education about religion and suffering humanity. King Suddhodana wanted to keep his son away from the suffering of the world and therefore he raised him inside a palace made especially for Siddhartha. He was married at the young age of 16 but his life of isolation and spirituality began after 13 years (Asvaghosha, 2006). Beyond the Walls of the Palace When Siddhartha was 20 years old, he still did not have sufficient knowledge about the external world. One day Siddhartha asked one of the charioteers to give him a tour outside the walls of the palace. As soon as Siddhartha entered the world outside the palace he got confronted to the harsh realities of humanity. While exploring the external world, the sight of an aged man shocked him. The charioteer made him aware of the reality that people grow old. This sight of the old man sickened the Prince. Fear of sickness and death starting nurturing in his mind. On his way he also saw an ascetic. The charioteer explained him that ascetics are people who are not scared of death or sickness because they have relinquished the world. Renunciation The sight of the ascetic conquered the mind of Siddhartha. Although he returned to the palace the other day but he no longer found pleasure in his regular tasks. The news of his son birth did not spark any sort of happiness in the Siddhartha. While wandering in the palace alone at night, Siddhartha thought about all the luxuries he possessed, which now seemed grotesque. The musicians and dancers present in the palace were all sleeping. Prince Siddhartha reflected on the consequences that the old age brings along with it obstacles such as weakness and sickness. He was surprised that how this phenomenon changes everything and turns man into dust. Search for Enlightenment Siddhartha appointed teachers, who gave him knowledge of different religious philosophies. They also taught him the method of meditation. After gaining all the knowledge for his teacher, the doubts of the Prince were still unclear. The very next day Siddhartha and five of his companions left the palace to become ascetics, abandoning their wives and children. According to them asceticism was the only way through which they can be relieved fr om the harsh realities of humanity (Buddha Biography, 2013). Siddhartha’s Ascetic Life and Enlightenment Siddhartha led the life of an ascetic for 6 years, practicing and meditating their ways to exploration the subtle state of mind. For all these years he meditated and studied the work of different religious philosophers. He practiced new ways of meditating with his companions. When his companions saw his passion and quest for his faith, they became his disciples. When Siddhartha realized that he is still not

University of Phoenix and I Essay Example for Free

University of Phoenix and I Essay It is clear to me how University of Phoenix’ convenient and efficient educational program designed for working professionals, has helped me grow. I see tremendous change and development in myself. I have not only matured personally and professionally, but have also grown to believe in orderly goals and motives with respect to my existence. My life has been organized and I see greater potential for my progress. The outlook of the entire university, dedicated to the success of its students, may be viewed now in who I am as compared to who I was before joining the BS of Information Technology program. When I started the program at University of Phoenix, my professional attitude was unseasoned. I was an unsure person, someone who had not matured. My humble and uninformed self did not allow me to think much of my career. I had briefly dreamt of becoming a graphic designer. However, I had wrongly imagined that I would not go too far. My mind was set at thinking that I might have to do with unsuitable jobs. What else are high school graduates supposed to do? I did not aspire to be great or hold lofty goals for my career. My goals were in fact, not many. I only desired to keep myself employed. My knowledge base was limited. I was raw. To that end, I am absolutely honest to claim that I knew little or nothing about the things I have learned at the University of Phoenix. Knowledge has been added on to my life at a rapid pace with this great program. Before this, life could seem sluggish to me as an unaware person. At work, I did not consider myself a professional. I did not even present myself as such. I was simply working; holding a job because one has to do that in this uncertain world. I would describe my writing skills before the program as ranging from bad to good. This is one of the areas where I have experienced drastic change. Besides, I now have extremely different views about myself and my career. My verbal communication skills before the program may also be described as varying from bad to good. With less confidence, the way I presented myself was obviously poor. I did not grasp at the time that professionally, one must appear assertive and proficient to get the work done. At present, I like to view myself as a thorough professional. My critical thinking skills before the program were good. All the same, my â€Å"Critical Thinking† (PHL/251) general education course worked wonders to polish my skills. It was for this reason that I had chosen the course. I believe that my decision was absolutely correct. After all, critical thinking is crucial in both personal and professional life. My interpersonal skills were always excellent, according to my opinion. This is because I believe in people, trust them, and wish to know more about them in order to be of assistance to them. I chose the general education course called â€Å"U. S. History to 1865† (HIS/110) because I was deeply interested in understanding the mechanics of human relationships, as well as the causes and effects of human decisions. Learning about U. S. history was essential, seeing that the people I share my space with do also share the same history. Hence, I believed unconsciously that I would be able to improve myself in my relations with others if I studied human history. Once again, my decision to opt for this general education course was correct, seeing that I now deal even more effectively in my personal and professional relationships. The most important core courses with respect to my employment were â€Å"Critical Thinking: Strategies in Decision Making† (MGT/350) and â€Å"Project Planning and Implementation† (CMGT/410). I opted for these courses because I believe that professionals who know the functions of management are always more successful than the rest. Furthermore, these courses helped me to assimilate my ideas about team projects as well as leadership. I further believe that all professionals must be armed with knowledge of management, even if this knowledge is specialized in terms of Information Technology. What is more, decision makers, project planners and implementers must always bear in mind the people connected with the decisions and projects. Indeed, this idea connected with my love for people and interest in human relations. Moreover, I now connect better with the people at my workplace, and truly understand more about the mechanics of decision making and project planning as well as implementation. One of the terminal objectives of my program was, of course, for me to mature into a successful individual in my professional life. Even at my current organization – General Mills, where I presently work as a Network Engineer – development and innovation are priorities as well as major targets. Hence, both the University of Phoenix and General Mills have contributed to my current upsurge or growth. But the job without the education at University of Phoenix would definitely not be as good as it is at present. At this time, however, my job is a huge part of who I am and who I want to be. The program at University of Phoenix has really been a great source of inspiration for me. Employment may have helped me go on living. But the education here has helped me to live life fully, to enjoy my work and to be proper in all respects. It has shown me the way to live life in a way that is better, not just to live as I may have heard others living. Life does not just drag on anymore. It is full of enthusiasm and anticipation for a bright present and future. I am applying the tools that I have learned through the University of Phoenix, and there is hope to use them in better ways to achieve higher goals. I am eager to learn even more of that which would help me along. Learning should be a life-long process so that one’s intellectual powers do not rust. Before the program, it was as though I, as a resource, was underutilized. Now I feel fully functional. Just as General Mills thrives on research and development, I see myself flourishing with an increase in my knowledge base and the utilization of my mental resources to their fullest capacity. The Information Technology skills learned by me through the program at University of Phoenix are incomparable to anything I have ever been taught. I feel more grown-up now because of what this program has done for me. I have been shown much of my potential. It seems that I have learned a lot and there is excitement in me now to know more. Life does not seem like dreary employment anymore. I enjoy my personal and professional life much more now that I have been a part of the University of Phoenix. As far as my ethical outlook is concerned, I see no change between the past and the present, and I do not see it changing either. My values have not changed. My self-esteem has increased because the way I see myself has changed. Whereas I may have been covered by darkness in my mind, I now see myself in the light, capable of doing much, maintaining goals, and wanting to do all that is good. I certainly have become advanced in my professional attitude. With regards to my personal attitude, I even walk more confidently now and that has a serious affect upon my professionalism too. At work, I have to be responsible, knowing and showing that I can make it right and to the top. It is as though I have been cultivated and I know what I am doing now. My career views have changed so much that whereas I had seen myself doing basic jobs and not going too far in my professional life before I joined University of Phoenix, now I feel confident and able to be the leader at work. I feel that the axiom ‘the sky is the limit’ is working in my life now. Earlier I may have thought that it is impossible to have such an attitude unless one’s performance was really marvelous. But this program has been about trying to do one’s best and fulfilling one’s potential. It has made me open my eyes and view the world out there full of possibilities for a bright human being wanting to do more and wanting to do what is excellent. I feel capable of reaching the top of my company now. Furthermore, now that I have had a glimpse of my highest potential, I also feel self-assured and competent enough to be at the top of another organization, if not my present company. A part of this newly found confidence in me is a result of observation. Even so, the knowledge that has been imparted to me with the wonderful Information Technology program takes most of the credit for my motivation today. Resonant with my new goals is the fact that my knowledge base has grown impressively. I now know not only that which is taught at undergraduate level in my field, but I am also seen by others as a better professional. My professional sense is increasing, signaling that I must continue trying to do better. I do not see the way down now. What is more, I am now able to hold professional presentations and meetings with high level professionals at General Mills. I am also more interested in my work at present. Over the next five years, my professional and personal attitudes may become more refined. I hope to become more mature and confident. I now understand how learning more can make one grow. I do not only want to continue learning, but I also want to continue growing until I can become a self-actualized individual. I wish to develop my ability to move to higher levels in my career through greater productivity. My goal is to be my best and also to be the very best in others’ opinion. I would like to attend a graduate program. I have so greatly and positively been influenced by the undergraduate program at University of Phoenix that I hunger for more of education. I understand to an extent how much it can do for me. Before the program, I did not think much of education besides the fact that it is necessary to a certain level. But because I have been working and noticing the changes that education brings into my professional life, I long to gather more knowledge. Education is directly related to success. I love the changes higher education has brought to my life and I welcome this fantastic transformation on an ongoing basis. Thinking is the basis of our actions, and if the undergraduate program at University of Phoenix could do so much for my life and attitudes, I cannot yet imagine where a graduate program might put me with regards to my professional position. I need more guidance for the future though, to be specific about what I would really do. I see the possibilities laid open before me, but which way do I really go? Many ways seem important. Perhaps I would settle for an MBA. In any case, I would have liked the University of Phoenix to better assist me in getting to the right place at the right time in future. To get a clearer sense of my educational goal at present, I may have to go for education counseling. I would like to recommend at this point that the University of Phoenix should incorporate an extensive education counseling program for its students. Over the next five years, I wish to grow to have more business sense. This may happen through higher education and additional years of experience at work. In point of fact, I would like to improve in all spheres of my life, and in the areas of my being that are good now, I would like to keep a balance whereby I do not drift to the low side of things. With my new outlook, I feel ready to take responsibility to add value to the world, even if it is solely by way of doing my job well and showing others that honesty, hard work and learning can go a long way. I feel worthwhile now and am prepared to continue struggling through life with zeal. When life gets slothful, I know what I must do to change that and to be promoted learn. I must continue learning.

Images and Imagery in Shakespeares Macbeth :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

Imagery consists of the use of symbols to convey an idea or to create a specific atmosphere. Shakespeare uses imagery in Macbeth often; pathetic fallacy, blood, tailoring and sleep are examples of this. His use of these tools in the play is to demonstrate the sadness of Scotland at what has been done, the guilt of the characters and to symbolises premonition of events. Pathetic fallacy is a tool of imagery that is used in Macbeth to convey nature's response to the unnatural events that occur. Most of the scenes in which some kind of ill-doing is taking place is set at night or in darkness of some kind. Macbeth's murder of Duncan happens at night, and it triggers a response of outrage and grief in the land. Nature's troubled actions show us this; as Lennox tells Macbeth just before Duncan is found dead, "The night has been unruly; where we lay, or chimneys were blown down ... lamentings head i' the air ... some say the ear was feverous and did shake." (II (iii) L59) Another good example of imagery used is blood. It is used to convey guilt, murder, betrayal, treachery and evil. Macbeth, directly after his murder of Duncan, is concerned about the blood on his hands , and states that no amount of water will wash the blood away, signifying the guilt in his heart. Lady Macbeth, however, states "A little water cleans us of this deed" (II (ii) L97). It is ironic that later on in the play Lady Macbeth sleepwalks and dry-washes her hands, ands says "What! Will these hands ne'er be clean?" (V (i) L38) -- guilt at what she has done surfaces in her sleep where none was felt before, and the reverse is true for Macbeth. The use of tailoring to convey the idea that something is not suited or not belonging to someone that has been acquired by them is used often in Macbeth. Macbeth himself uses the tailoring image in saying "The Thane of Cawdor lives: why do you dress me in borrow'd robes?" (I (ii) L109) when told by Ross that Duncan has given him the title Thane of Cawdor. This gives the impression that his newly acquired title does not fit him -- much like a garment belonging to another person. Angus states, "Now does he feel his title Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe

The Philosophy of Man

The Philosophy of Man â€Å"What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? † (NASB1995) This verse is taken from Psalm 8:4, I cited this verse on the account of my wonder and curiosity on what really is man? I guess this question has already been brought up years ago by scribes, teachers, politicians, scientist and even philosophers. Even David, the man after God’s own heart has also asked on what is on this man that even the God of universe is so fond of him. With all reasons, judgments, questions has been clashed, I have no better answer than other great philosophers.But let me try to expound my idea on this notion truthfully. There are many definitions of man. Some says that man is a rational animal. Others would say that man is a being and has a special place in the universe on the account of their abilities and level of reasoning. While others argued that one thing to observe that humans are but a tiny aspect of the universe and even of life on our own planet. Whatever their justifications may be, I hold unto this one truth that I believe in, Man is created in the image and likeness of God.I’m not saying this because I am a Christian but because I have learned not to depend solely on the knowledge of this world but on the wisdom from God. By simply understanding that man is created in the image and likeness of God, then surely man has a great value. Therefore, every human being is bestowed with dignity and his sense of being. I believe that we are all equal here; sinners or saints, rich or poor are all given by dignity. Thus, one cannot say that I am better off with the others. Man is a spiritual being because of the spiritual acts that he does.This includes intellection and reasoning. Indeed, man is a rational animal. Man is formed as the highest creation since being rational, he can think more, he is free to choose and decide, he can explore, and he can do all things according to his goal that wil l lead him to happiness as well  as to see the good. Moreover, by its uniqueness, soul is  the source of the  things of man  can do what other cannot do. Each one is  unique and thus each one can be distinguished by each soul that describe who you are. Taking up Philosophy of Man subject has been subject to my queries before.Why do we have to take up this when our field is on medical and nursing. It was later then that I realized that this course subject is vital because it gives us a thorough understanding on our patients especially the dignity of humans. Astounding as it was, I found this subject to be a challenging one because it harnessed the way we think and reason out. It taught us to examine ourselves, to look beyond one perspective and to dug deeper. Another essential attribute of man is his freewill. Freewill is the capacity to choose.If by the word â€Å"free† one means that people have the ability to make certain choices on their own free from compulsion, force, or coercion then the answer is â€Å"yes. † For example, people have the ability to choose to go to the store or stay home, to buy a newspaper or not, to eat beef or to eat fish, etc. such choices are within the natural capacity of human beings. People are free to act according to their nature. We humans are moved not by instinct but ideas. I think that this is one of the greatest attribute in man.We are not robots controlled by any manual operations or animals driven by instinct. Yes, we are creations but our creator never imposed on us but give us freewill. I have also pondered out that man is a seeker of happiness. We are all different but we also have something in common and that is our pursuit of happiness. We study hard, get a decent job, find a partner, start our own family, these are all means to gain happiness. Happiness, we all know, comes with the possession of some good; but where, or, in the possession of what good is perfect happiness to be found.However , there’s one thing that I’ve realized, no matter how happy we could be in this world, we would not be content because we are made for something eternal. To be loved is to be known and to be known is to be loved. Man is called to love and communion. I guess this is the basis of our morality everything which is governed by love. Man is not made to be alone. That is why Eve was created for Adam. I truly believed that there is no greater joy to love and be loved in return. Love enables a person to be good and self-giving which creates the good of persons and of communities.

Industrial revoloution Essay

How bad were the living conditions for the poor in the newly industrialised towns and cities of the 1840s In the 1840s, there was a lot of pollution, and there was little regulation of what was put into the river or the air. The houses for 1840s workers were built very poorly. They were usually made by the factory owners at minimum cost. They were made either one brick, or half a brick thick, and only consisted of one room. There were no indoor lavatories, therefore the workers were left with only two ways to go to the toilet. The first way was to walk up the road and use the toilets at either end of the blocks. Once there they would deposit their body waste into the cess pool via a wooden bench. Flies lived on the walls of the cess pool. They were nourished by the molecules of excretion in the air. There toilets would be shared by as many as 160 people, sometimes more. The cess pool would empty itself into the river, but sometimes market gardeners who would go down into the cess pit to use the filth inside as fertiliser for their garden. Occasionally, young children would drop into the cess pit, never to be seen again. The second way of going to the toilet was to simply do it out of a window. The body waste which was left on the streets was called night mud. Sometimes when it rained, the night mud would slip underneath your door and end up in your house. Sometimes the night mud would be placed in your house on purpose by people being malicious. People did not have the type of water supply we have today. They did not have instant running water in their houses, instead they had to collect their water from standpipes in the street. These standpipes had clean water which could be pumped out, as it wasn’t safe to drink from the river, but water only came to a street, via these standpipes, every other day. Yet, there were also water seller who would sell bottles of supposedly, clean water, although no one ever found out where the water came from. People in the 1840’s were afraid to leave their houses for an extended period  of time. The reason for this is that as soon as you leave you house for over a day, it would be used as a toilet. This meant that people who got new jobs in factories would have to clean out there new houses of all of the muck left there by their fellow workers. In the 1840s, living conditions were much worse than nowadays, due to the lack of both appropriate sanitary provisions and constant running water, but people of 1840’s would have found those conditions normal. What we think of as clean would have probably been considered impossible in those days.

Free Essays on Audie Murphy

Audie Leon Murphy was born June 20, 1924, as one of twelve children of Emmett Berry Murphy and Josie Bell (Killian) Murphy. He was the seventh child born and third son born to Emmett and Josie Murphy.(Graham, 5). His mother and father both came from large families. Emmett came from a family of twelve children and Josie came from a family of thirteen. (Graham, 2-5) Audie was born in Hunt County, Texas to a tenant father's house in the middle of a cotton field (Graham, 2). The day he was born was a hot, June day. Dr. P.S. Pearson arrived around7:00 P.M. to deliver the baby (Graham, 5). Most people in country areas at that time were born at home and died at home. A few months before Audie was born his grandfather George Washington Murphy had died there. (Graham 2-5) Audie was named after a neighbor. Leon came from the oldest daughter, Corrine, because she liked it. Most of his early life he went by Leon. Outside of the south Leon was too hillbilly. Once Audie joined the Army he never went by Leon again. (Graham, 5) In May of 1941 Audie's mother had died and father had left before his mother's death. By the age of sixteen, Audie had lost his father gone and mother dead. Some of the other children had scattered and married while others were placed in an orphanage South of Greenville. (Graham, 19) Audie joined the Army in June of 1942 around his eighteenth birthday, after turned down by the Marines and Paratroopers (Graham, 23). Audie joined in Farmersville, Texas as Army Private. After basic infantry training at Camp Walters, Texas he attended advanced training at Fort Meade, Maryland. He was then assigned to North Africa as Private in Company B, Fifteenth Infantry Regiment, Third Infantry Division (www.tsha.utexas.edu). He quickly rose to enlisted Staff Sergeant. (www.audiemurphy.com) He was given a "battle field" commission as 2nd Lieutenant during World War II. He was wounded three times and fought nine majo... Free Essays on Audie Murphy Free Essays on Audie Murphy Audie Leon Murphy was born June 20, 1924, as one of twelve children of Emmett Berry Murphy and Josie Bell (Killian) Murphy. He was the seventh child born and third son born to Emmett and Josie Murphy.(Graham, 5). His mother and father both came from large families. Emmett came from a family of twelve children and Josie came from a family of thirteen. (Graham, 2-5) Audie was born in Hunt County, Texas to a tenant father's house in the middle of a cotton field (Graham, 2). The day he was born was a hot, June day. Dr. P.S. Pearson arrived around7:00 P.M. to deliver the baby (Graham, 5). Most people in country areas at that time were born at home and died at home. A few months before Audie was born his grandfather George Washington Murphy had died there. (Graham 2-5) Audie was named after a neighbor. Leon came from the oldest daughter, Corrine, because she liked it. Most of his early life he went by Leon. Outside of the south Leon was too hillbilly. Once Audie joined the Army he never went by Leon again. (Graham, 5) In May of 1941 Audie's mother had died and father had left before his mother's death. By the age of sixteen, Audie had lost his father gone and mother dead. Some of the other children had scattered and married while others were placed in an orphanage South of Greenville. (Graham, 19) Audie joined the Army in June of 1942 around his eighteenth birthday, after turned down by the Marines and Paratroopers (Graham, 23). Audie joined in Farmersville, Texas as Army Private. After basic infantry training at Camp Walters, Texas he attended advanced training at Fort Meade, Maryland. He was then assigned to North Africa as Private in Company B, Fifteenth Infantry Regiment, Third Infantry Division (www.tsha.utexas.edu). He quickly rose to enlisted Staff Sergeant. (www.audiemurphy.com) He was given a "battle field" commission as 2nd Lieutenant during World War II. He was wounded three times and fought nine majo...

Ways to Serve Others This Christmas

Ways to Serve Others This Christmas Christmas is the season of giving; since our schedules offer so much flexibility, homeschooling families often have the availability to give back to their community during the holiday season. If you and your family have been considering service opportunities, try any of these 11 ways to serve others this Christmas. Serve Meals at a Soup Kitchen Call your local soup kitchen or homeless shelter to schedule a time to go serve meals. You might also inquire if they are low on any specific supply needs. This time of year many organizations host food drives, so their pantry may be full, but there may be other items that need to be restocked such as bandages, blankets, or personal hygiene items. Sing Carols at a Nursing Home Gather your family and a few friends to go sing Christmas carols at a nursing home. Ask if it’s okay to bring baked goods or wrapped candy to share with the residents. Spend some time before you go making homemade Christmas homemade cards to deliver or buy a box of assorted cards to share. Sometimes nursing homes are overwhelmed with groups that want to visit during the holiday season, so you may want to see if there are other ways that you can help or better times to visit. Adopt Someone Choose a child, grandparent, single mom, or family who is struggling this year and purchase gifts or groceries or deliver a meal. If you don’t know someone personally, you can ask local agencies and organizations that work with needy families. Pay Someone’s Utility Bill Inquire at the utility company to see if you can pay the electric, gas, or water bill for someone who is struggling. Due to privacy factors, you may not be able to pay a specific bill, but there is often a fund to which you can donate. You might also check with the Department of Family and Children’s Services. Bake a Meal or Treats for Someone Leave a little snack bag in the mailbox with a note for your mail carrier, or put a basket of snacks, soft drinks, and bottled water on the porch with a note inviting delivery people to help themselves. That’s sure to be a greatly appreciated gesture during the busy holiday season You can also call your local hospital and see if you could deliver a meal or snacks and drinks to the ICU waiting room or hospitality room for the families of patients. Leave a Generous Tip for Your Server at Restaurants We sometimes hear of people leaving a tip of $100 or even $1000 or more. That’s fantastic if you can afford to do that, but just tipping above the traditional 15-20% can be greatly appreciated during the holiday season.   Donate to the Bell Ringers The men and women ringing bells in front of stores are often recipients of the services offered by the organization for whom they’re collecting. The donations are typically used to operate homeless shelters and after-school and substance abuse programs and to provide meals and toys to needy families at Christmas. Help the Homeless Consider making bags to give out to homeless people. Fill a gallon-size storage bag with items such as gloves, a beanie, small juice boxes or water bottles, non-perishable ready-to-eat food items, lip balm, facial tissues, restaurant gifts cards, or prepaid phone cards. You might also consider giving blankets or a sleeping bag. Perhaps an even better way to help the homeless community is to  contact an organization that works directly with the homeless  and find out what they need. Often, these organizations can stretch monetary donations farther by purchasing in bulk or working with complementary organizations. Do Housework or Yard Work for Someone Rake leaves, shovel snow, clean house, or do laundry for someone who could use the extra help. You might consider a sick or elderly neighbor or a new or single parent. Obviously, you’ll have to make arrangements to do housework, but yard work can be done as a complete surprise. Take a Hot Beverage to People Working in the Cold Police officers directing traffic, mail carriers, bell ringers, or anyone else working out in the cold this Christmas season will appreciate a cup of hot cocoa, coffee, tea, or cider. Even if they don’t drink it, they’ll enjoy using it as a hand warmer for a little while.   Pay for Someone’s Meal at a Restaurant Paying for someone’s meal in a restaurant or the car behind you in the drive-thru is a fun random act of kindness any of time of year, but it’s often especially appreciated at Christmas when money is  tight for  many families.   Whether youre investing your time, your financial resources, or both to serve others this holiday season, youll likely find that its you and your family who are blessed by serving others.

Rhetorical Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 7

Rhetorical Analysis - Essay Example The author also dissuaded the participants to minimize checking their emails to reduce stress but found that habits are hard to break. The approach of this writing used several rhetorical devices to make the article persuasive, convincing and easy to understand without losing its scientific approach. First, the article attempted to get the reader’s attention by engaging them with an emotion which is the province of pathos that they truly concerned about which is stress and how email relates to it. The article then proceeded in using logos when it stated the scientific method of having a controlled experiment to answer the question of the article. Controlled experiment meant having a set of subjects or participants under a controlled condition to test a certain hypothesis which in this case is that frequently opening mail is inimical to our well-being or causes stress. Ethos or the background of the authors helped the article to become credible. According to article, the author designed an experiment that would measure how checking email behavior influence people’s pressure and this used the rhetorical device of logos. In the study, the experimenters hired 124 adults which included students, professors, and I.T workers. They divided the participants into two groups at random. The experiment took several weeks involving several process. One of the methods employed in the experiment is to illustrate how emails affect the stress levels of participants. Half of the group can check their emails anytime and half of the group were only to open their mails three times day. The situation was reversed with the participants and after collecting the data to determine result, it yielded the same result that â€Å"cutting back on email might reduce stress as much as picture yourself swimming in the warm waters of a tropical island several times a day †(Gray 1). It has to be

WHY RELIGION IS PROHIBE AT PUBLICS SCHOOLS ON THE 60 AND WHY WE STILL Essay

WHY RELIGION IS PROHIBE AT PUBLICS SCHOOLS ON THE 60 AND WHY WE STILL NOT TALKING TO RELIGION NOW - Essay Example It is then only a matter of policy that to avoid conflicts each and every religion must be respected not only by the government but with every person. The issue of religion is among the most sensitive of all topics that can be raised in any occasion. Many debates had been started and to no end when such is the subject. Arguments may extend for hours but there is no guarantee that anything will be resolved. Any person’s belief may be as intense or as placid but when it comes to conviction people do not easily bend to the will of others. Religion may also be a source of hatred because of ignorance and worse because of intolerance. After the 9/11 attack there had been reports that mosques of nonviolent Muslims were attacked carelessly with people throwing rocks or vandalizing their premises. For quite some time, the same people were heavily stereotyped as terrorists without any cause or evidence. This further shows that religion is a diverse and sensitive topic that explains why it is considered as somewhat an off topic. In 1960, during John F. Kennedy’s bid for president, religion was the question he dreaded the most to be asked though it was a pressing matter at the time. â€Å"Kennedy pledged unequivocal support for the uniquely American principle of church-state separation, opposed public aid for parochial schools, and opposed an ambassador to the Vatican† (Menendez, 2011). As expected, there was a division of reaction among the people with those who are criticizing his secular view. He insists that he does not want to be voted for solely because of his religion. He maintains that voters should choose him for his credentials and what he can do for the country and not because he is a catholic candidate. Evangelists had been wary of his election that their influence will be affected or even boasting that they could make or break his campaign. In the important case of Engel vs. Vitale, the Supreme Court held that prayer is absolutely prohibit ed before the start of classes though any student may opt to remain silent and not to participate in it. The same was also prohibited regardless of the fact that the mandated prayer is neutral. The prayer approved and recommended by the New York State Board of Regents was to be recited before class. The prayer reads, â€Å"Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country† (Engel vs. Vitale, 1962). This was implemented as a part of their holistic training. Thereafter, parents of ten children opposed the prescribed routine as against the Constitution and their rights. The prayer was deemed by the Court as a religious practice and ordered to refrain from the practice in the public schools. The decision even went so far as to discuss history and cite that it is the similar religious conflicts that compelled the first settlers to leave England for the New World. It is the interference of religion tha t has contributed to the lives of men which needed the monarchy’s approval. â€Å"When the power, prestige and financial support of government is placed behind a particular religious belief, the indirect coercive pressure upon religious minorities to conform to the prevailing officially approved religion is plain† (Engel vs. Vitale, 1962). There had been radical opposing views in this subject throughout the years especially from people belonging to religious groups. Gary Bergel, in a sectarian paper, said â€Å"Think then, what happens to a nation rife with perjury, broken marriage covenants, unforgiveness, cults with demonic covenants, extortion, bribery,