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In, “Your Mother and I” by Dave Eggers, the story leads out with a dad telling a story to their kids. The story seems far-fetched because the father claims to solve many global issues in such a simple manner. He tells about his solutions to global issues while making food with his family and seems to be having fun while doing so. To me it seems that solving these issues would not be so easy, because there are so many people standing in the way of doing so. People who are conservative would not want to change what they do in such a short period of time. Change that radical can’t happen in someone’s lifetime like in the story, in my opinion, it takes way longer than that. I can agree with some issues discussed though. For example, the when he talked about the mass killings in Rwanda and the UN only sent 12 Belgian soldiers. There should have been more involvement from other countries and armies. I also agree with using renewable resources and having more funding in order to make them more accessible to everyone. When he talks about curing AIDS by making the inhibiting drugs free to everyone, that seemed a little too far-fetched because it would be very expensive and maybe a more concrete solution can be thought of. Overall the story has lots of doing as compared to the other story we had to read from him. He is doing many things and accomplishes many of his goals in the story. This helps me motivate to get moving and do more to help out and get some goals accomplished.
Eggers, Dave. “Your Mother and I.” How We Are Hungry. McSweeney’s. 2002: 115-123. “Splatter: The Messy Art of Writing”. Web. 16, Feb 2012
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Leoncio Salgado
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Leoncio Salgado
In “Village Voice” by Peter Hessler, there is a young man about 23 years old in the peace corps trying to make a difference in a community he was assigned to. He was assigned to a small village in Nepal by the Himalayas. There was a problem where water was not being distributed to the people to an easily accessible storage tank. So this man Rajeev Goyal decided to help the village in need. He was a teacher in the village and when one of his best students didn’t show up for class one day he asked him why. The student told him it was because he was getting water. Rajeev got the village together and asked them to help out in order to solve the problem. Many of the villagers agreed to help and eventually they brought water to the village people. Rajeev was born in the U.S and is very thankful for his country and decided to help return the favor and help other countries. This reading made me think about the peace corps, and how they were so important in the sixties, but now today there is few people who actually know it’s still around. I also thought about the impact one can have on helping out. Rajeev did a great thing to the people of the village. He gave them water and they were immensely proud and thankful for his help. Rajeev strives to get more funding to help even more people and to some extent he has reached his goal. The funding for the peace corps is still pretty good and largely in part to Rajeev. This is something of a role model for other people to follow because it is a great accomplishment and many others should follow his example.
Peter, Hessler “A Reporter at Large. Village Voice: The Peace Corps Brightest Hope.” New York: The New Yorker. 2010. 1-10. splatter.writing101.net: The Messy Art of Writing. Web 9, February 2012 -
Leoncio Salgado
On the “Who Should Survive” activity a lot of assumptions were made towards every character. The disabled character was the one that got the most scrutiny and would be chosen to be sacrificed most of the time. Showing that we assume that the person is not as worthy as the rest of the people in the group. The prostitute, cocktail waitress would only be saved because of her good health and her 3 month old baby. She would need to be saved in order to save the baby because no one wants the baby to die. We can see that people care for the young kids more and would often save them over any other person. The doctor with 2 heart attacks would be sacrificed because he would be seen as more vulnerable to death. The activity in itself was very challenging because we try to overcome our assumptions and try to sound as fair as possible. That can be hard because we can’t assume who will benefit the group the most without putting our own assessment of the people. This assignment did make me think more about how we all look at people and how some assumptions can be harmful to make.
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Leoncio Salgado
In Dave Eggers, “What It Means When A Crowd In A Faraway Nation Takes A Soldier Representing Your Own Nation, Shoots Him, Drags Him From His Vehicle and Then Mutilates Him In The Dust” we see a man looking very unstable almost foreshadowing what he would feel later on. This man cannot focus and is moving about as if he had something to do, but really doesn’t have anything to do. He reads gets up does things, goes for a jog and then goes back in to read. He sees the picture of a fallen soldier. He tries to look for the blood to see if he is shot and doesn’t find any. He can’t focus and tries to move on but can’t and must see the picture again. The man then stands up and watches the smoke of a factory go up in the sky. I think the man feels so violated and robbed because he feels guilty deep inside him. He sees the smoke of the factory and feels this pain of being robbed. I believe that he might be aware that the war was fought in part to get petroleum because we all need it. This was just one of the costs of acquiring said substance. This man is agitated because we are the cause of the soldier’s death. In my opinion it is a common occurrence; the death of American and non-American soldiers. I don’t like this idea but it’s the truth. War is almost become a normal matter for this country and mostly due to the growing demand for energy. If the country needs to go to war in order get this energy, then by any means they will go into war and get it. I don’t like the idea. I think we should be interdependent and promote green technology. Renewable resources are abundant. There is no need to be fighting a war for energy that we can otherwise make ourselves. Seeing a soldier die is undoubtedly painful, and these men and women who protect our country are to be respected.
Eggers, Dave. “What It Means When A Crowd In A Faraway Nation Takes A Soldier Representing Your Own Nation, Shoots Him, Drags Him From His Vehicle and Then Mutilates Him In The Dust.” How We Are Hungry. Canada: Vintage, 2010. Splatter: The Messy Art of Writing. Web. 2 Feb. 2012. -
Leoncio Salgado
Live, Kill, or Die?
What is the reason of you existence? What is the meaning of life? Who or what are you willing to give your life to? Would you kill for this person or thing? Answering these questions is one way of finding out what somebody truly is. For me, there are not many things I would kill or die for, but there are many things I live for. I live for the never-ending pursuit of happiness. The things I would kill for are of most importance to me and I care much about, that being my family and my survival. The things I would die for are pretty much the same, my family and my legacy. Living is a journey in itself and figuring what’s important to one’s self is important in guiding yourself in that journey.
The never-ending pursuit of happiness is what I live for. To me that is the point of life, to live happily and search for even more happiness. Why else would we be put in this earth for, other than to be happy? There is no point in living a life without happiness or the chance of finding happiness. It just doesn’t make sense to be miserable all throughout life. As long as one is alive there is always the chance of finding joy in any one thing.
Happiness comes in many forms. Happiness for one person might not be the same for another person. One might enjoy the comfort of a loving family and be happy or another might find happiness in being independent. I live for the comfort of being able to rely on my family to support me and advise me on what to do. Without them I wouldn’t be the way I am and wouldn’t be happy.
I enjoy many things in life that make me happy. I enjoy playing with my pets. I have a cat and I enjoy playing with him. I enjoy feeding him and petting him and watching him. I enjoy playing soccer, basketball, football, or any other sport that I enjoy. I also enjoy watching movies and helping people out in time of need. I enjoy playing with my nephews and my little brother. There are countless other things that cause my happiness. These things are the things I live for.
This leads to what I would kill for, my family. My family is what makes me happy and if that were threatened to be taken away then it is my god given right to stop that. Taking away my happiness is like taking away the reason I live for, so it must be stopped at all costs. To kill someone that tries to kill me or my family is justified as self-defense and shouldn’t be much of a crime, or a crime at all. I would kill for my well-being as well because it also leads to my happiness. If someone tries to harm me and threatens my ability to be happy then I must stop it by any means.
Taking away some of the things I love aren’t just enough to kill for. I care much for my cat or any other pet I’ve had and it would upset me very much if something does happen to them. If someone were to kill my cat, that wouldn’t justify killing that person. Killing is a very traumatic thing for people and can’t be done just willy nilly. There has to be just cause to do such a thing, and deciding to kill is something that should never be thought about. Thinking about killing in itself is something of a crime. On the other hand being prepared about is different. Thinking about what situation is suited for one to take action is a good thing and not looked bad upon. In other words one might think, “If I’m threatened at gun point, then I would definitely kill the guy threatening my life.” This kind of thinking can come in handy for future situations where one’s life might be at stake.
Another thing I would kill for is the well-being of a larger group of people. For example many soldiers would say, “I’m killing people for my country and our freedom.” Some people would kill for their country and their nation’s freedom, but I wouldn’t fight for any country. Not that I don’t love my country or anything. I love my country; this country gives many rights and freedoms to its citizens. I just don’t see that fighting another country for its resources is a just cause to kill one person, and much less for killing thousands of people.
The things I would die for almost go hand in hand with the things I would kill for. I would die for my family and my well-being. If I can somehow make my family happy then I would do it, if that means dying then by all means I would do it. I would sacrifice myself to make them happy. Dying for my well-being is kind of ironic in itself. But if I can’t be in any condition to be happy then I don’t see the point of living. If I were miserable and being dead made me happy then I would die for that.
I don’t have many things that I care deeply about and that is one reason that I don’t see why I should die for. This could be a good thing or a bad thing as I don’t have that many worries. Say I did care deeply for many things; I would be worrying way too much if something bad happened to any one thing I cared for. This would obstruct my happiness and would just make life deplorable. On the other hand if I did care for many things and would be willing to give my life for them, that would give my life more meaning or more sense of accomplishment. Either way I’m not that type of person that care’s for many things and wouldn’t die for many things.
There are people that care much about money and when they lose it they get madly depressed and often end up killing themselves. This is not me; I don’t care much for money. I enjoy having it and spending it with my family or friends. But if I had an abundant amount and lost it, I know I would not care much for it. Money comes and goes and well I don’t see that it should be the reason that so many people live and die for. It’s one of the things that anger me the most. A person killing for money is just one of the worst things one can do. Living for money is another mistake many people make. People have become very materialistic and have made money a very important thing for them. One should live for the better things in life that make life worth living.
Whatever people decide they should live, die and kill for is a telling sign of how these people truly are. These questions are a serious matter in choosing who to interact with. I believe everyone should live for the things that make the person happy. But if money makes someone happy then I might not interact with them because they would put money over their life or my life. This person would not be a good friend at all. People should die for the things that they think are just. It angers me that innocent me people die because of money. The people that kill for money are the most deplorable people who deserve the least sympathy. Living for the moments that make you say, “It was all worth it” is what I live for dying and killing for those moments is worth the trouble. -
Leoncio Salgado
Being ecologically literate is something very important for the further sustainability of our environment. Studying the earth’s ecosystems and figuring out how the web of life works, gives us essential knowledge on how we humans should organize and run our communities. The goal is to be sustainable, and in order for the whole community to be sustainable everyone must be sustainable. Our policies should be structured in a cyclical fashion and not a linear way that only seeks out to make financial gains. Being eco-literate one must seek partnerships and cooperation. This gives more vitality to the community through cooperation and making the community more resilient against stress. Stress is a part of life and understanding stress can give us necessary information as to how to deal with the same stress and how to move ahead and be stronger because of it. I, for one, am sort of eco-literate, but not an expert on the subject. We all know about doing the right thing for the environment and the sort but no action is taken. I told my mom that we should recycle our empty water bottles and other plastics, but she responded saying that the city in which we live in doesn’t set out separate recycling bins for plastics and glass. That’s all that happened, I brought it up and there wasn’t much else I could do. Looking back I now see that there is way more I can do to help out. Making better decisions and sharing some insight on eco-literacy can go a long way, and maybe someday all our communities will have to recycle for the good of everyone else in the community.
Fritjof Capra.”From The Web of Life.” learning.splatter101.net. Web. 25 Jan. 2012
Anetta Borowski, 
Melissa Castillo, 
Katie Murphy and one other person are discussing.
Kristina Marynczak 11:05 pm on February 5, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I enjoy reading you paper. It has good support and flows well from paragraph to paragraph. Maybe one improvement could be changing your conclusion a little bit. For example, when you some up about killing you just talk about people killing for money. I think you should go a little more vague since thats not what people just kill for. This goes the same for your body paragraph. Try and discuss about other things people kill for and more about your own beliefs. With those little tweaks your paper can be even better.
Katie Murphy 2:19 pm on February 6, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
As I had read your paper I would have to say that I compeletely agree with your beginging statement on the reason for life. It truely is the persuit of happiness. I understand that I still have much more living to do beforemy life ends and I may not always be correct on things. Although, everyone is entitled to thier own opinoins and I most deffinitely agree that life is not about worrying it is about appriciating what you have while you still have it. In my essay I had stated that I would not kill or die for anyone, I still stand by my word, because I believe that Inor anyone on this planet is at justice to take another life. your points about saving your family and those protecting our country is understandable but just brings me back to the point of me trying to commit to the phrase of actual self deffense. preventing one from commiting harm towards onther that does not include killing another person. One thing that everyone should keep in mind is that would would you want life to be like when you pass away? would you want your family to die saving you. Then you would go on living your life in regret knowing they might possibly be alive if they did not sacrafice their life for you. You would want your family to know that you would live on through them if you were t die before them, so they would go on appriciating life know ing your looking down on them, waiting to be reunited again.
Melissa Castillo 9:13 pm on February 6, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I loved reading your paper. It was a hit in my book. I loved how you explained detail by detailed all your conclusions. I think maybe one time I was a little side tracked by the money, but I can see your point. I also related to the killing and dying part. I agree with the self-defense and legacy part. This paper really caught my interest and I gave myself enough time to thoroughly read it. Speaking about your journey and your legacy to me to a different time in mentality. The time where one honored themselves and their families, one who had pride in their families. I love it! It showed a lot of character in you as a man. I also agree with being miserable and not happy, having the choice to not dealing with it. I have had chronic back pain (Degenerated Disc Disease) for over seven years and I know the feeling of being miserable. I hope that you never feel that pain, for now I know what you will do. I pray that you can look beyond that and still find that special thing to live for. Good luck with your writing, because it is very inspiring to me and I’m sure many others. Thank You!
Anetta Borowski 3:00 am on February 7, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I completely agree on what you said about living life full of happiness and how you presented your thoughts on how you feel about it. That is exactly what I live for as well and chose to write about it as well in my paper. Life is beautiful; live it to the fullest with all the things that make you happy instead of wasting it being miserable. I’m really glad we connected on that level and definitely made me enjoy reading your paper even more. I agree with your thought on “Happiness for one person might not be the same for another person.” Everyone has a different way of creating happiness and shows a lot about yourself to have your friends, family and loved ones truly making you happy instead of nonsense things like money. You also gave great examples throughout your whole paper that kept the paper flowing and connected your own thoughts very well paragraph to paragraph. Talking on the end of your paper about your dislikes on how people care about money makes me feel like you really do care about your loved ones rather then nonsense things that cant truly create real happiness. Thank you for the interesting paper and hold on to your happiness as long as you can!