Kimmy

Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past three months, just about anyone in the metro-Detroit area believes that Mayor Kwami Kilpatrick is a criminal, even if he himself wouldn't agree.

Kym L. Worthy also seems to believe that the Mayor is a criminal. She uses extensive legal jargon that comes across as logos, mixed with pathos that the citizens of Detroit are feeling themselves.

The first example of pathos, and perhaps even a bit of ethos, as if pries on the lack of integrity that the Mayor holds. Kym states that, "The public trust was violated." This is an example of pathos because the public are the ones that the mayor is supposed to represent. They voted him into office expecting him to uphold the law and represent the people. Sure, having an affair could represent some people of the city, however, the Mayor should be an example of how to live an acceptable life.

Kym also makes a logos allusion to the fact that this is a hard case because people expect the legal process to happen so quickly because of television programs like Law and Order, where the crime and punishment are taken care of in forty-four minutes. She clearly states that this is not the case and it will take time, months, a year even for all the evidence to be reviewed, that this is real life, not tv.

"The city, through it's lawyers, would continue to try to drag their feet and drag our investigation out forever," Using a metaphor, Kym states that the city is going to hold back the investigation because of their personal bias and obligation to the scandalous mayor.

"Honesty and integrity in the justice system is everything." This is obviously an example of ethos, as she states that there would be no such thing as just justice if people were lying on the stand, just as Kwami did. This perceives the public to ask the question, if the Mayor is a part of the justice system and not honest, then isn't he a hypocrite?

Kym also uses the "everything I need to know, I learned in kindergarten" strategy of logos. She claims that the legal process is based on basic principals that even a child could understand, to tell the truth, take responsibility of your actions and admit when your wrong, etc. This is logos because, obviously, when you are told to "tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth," you don't do this by lying on the stand as a mayor, above all. This not only makes the mayor out to be a liar, but look stupid as well. Apparently he didn't pass kindergarten.

Using pathos, she quotes president Roosevelt saying that no man is above the law. This is especially true for Kwami. Just because he gets to make laws, doesn't mean he can not uphold them or choose when they apply and not. He is supposed to be an example, leading Detroit out of the slums, changing it for the better, so that his children can live in a safe place. However, he put himself outside of the law, and Kym won't stand for this. She knows she can charge him with Perjury, which she makes clear, that she isn't going to sit down and let this injustice go, she won't look the other way.

Kwame's Strategical Spin

The first rhetorical strategy Kwame uses is diction. While most people wouldn't consider the "N" word very diction-like, as if it is a word that would be considered a good choice of words...however, looked at under a different light, it is. While Kwame's speech was supposed to address the state of the city, every citizen knew where it was headed. By using "N" word, he throws himself a pity party and makes the listeners consider more deeply weather or not they could be part of the reason the poor, pitiful man is hurting so bad.



Another rhetorical strategy Kwame uses but fails very badly with would be Pathos. He attempts to draw on the listeners emotions, make them feel bad and that they should sympathise and be on his side, but obviously, as can be seen by the reactions, he failed and the listeners felt even more angry than he did to begin with.

"I've heard these words before but I've never heard people say them about my wife and children. I have to say this because it's very personal to me. I don't believe that a Nielsen rating is worth the life of my children or your children."

By bringing children into the situation, he turns the tables. Everyone loves kids and no one wants to see them hurt, and through his clever pathos of using children, he thinks he's won them over. (Unfortunately, he failed.)

Liberals

I agree with Larry on the fact that many extreme liberals are crazy and would come up with any theory just to make president Bush look like a bad guy and give people a reason to hate him. I do, however feel that Larry was streaching it by simply using the term "liberals" rather then extreme liberals...

Larry uses "they say" arguments to turn what "they say" against the liberals, rather than having the "they say" make himself sound foolish. He uses his barbers example of a 9/11 conspiracy that the barber said Bush was behind the 9/11 attacks to kill black people. Larry turned it against him by saying that the majority of the people murdered in the attack were white. The barber claimed that it was a sacrifice that Bush was willing to make. A second "They say" argument that Larry uses is a second conspiricy theory that the leeve that broke during hurricane Katrina was planned to destroy the city. These acusations, when put into their simpliest form as Larry puts them (without two-page long winded essays) soudnd absolutly ludicris. Yes, of course someone planned the hurricane so that the leevees would break...It makes the liberals sound absolutly stupid.

Penguin Comic

The underlying message of this comic strip is that when two people fall in love, they should stay together for the rest of their lives. The author is very subtly trying to point out the on-again-off-again ideas of romance in society, how people get married because they think they are in love but really don't know what love is. The author wants people who are in love to stay in love forever, like the penguins do.

The artist revels this by using logos, playing on logic. The first character recites knowledge that they have attained in order to drop a hint on the second character. The second character ponders this then uses the same knowledge to ask the first character out. The artist uses pathos here, because the reader has an automatic response of squealing because it is sweet enough to give them cavities. It's adorable and even the coldest heart would agree.

New Audience

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080110/COL03/801100354/1084

This article is about a white woman who has dedicated her life to teaching kids (and adults) about racism by using it on her own all-white classes of students, buy favoring blue eyes over brown. This technique opened many kid's eyes. The author claims that the teacher is living Martin Luther's dream.

I agree with the author's point that the teacher is teaching/preaching Martin Luther's life, but I do not agree with the way she is going about it. The teacher has no right to favor anyone, even if it is to teach them a lesson. If I were being discriminated against for having brown eyes, I would be furious. Yes, it gets the point across, but at the wrong expense.

If the audience for this were my co-workers at the Salvation Army, the author would have to put the article in the simplest form possible, for many of them are illiterate, but that is not the point. Many workers at the Salvation Army are recovering Alcoholics, many were former drug-users, and many were just getting out of jail, and they were given a new start by the managers at the Salvation Army.

The author would have had to spend more time explaining that the project done by the teacher was to benefit the students, because many at the SA wouldn't see it that way. After being persecuted and living in areas where racism was a factor, I don't think that many would see the teacher as a hero. They would probably see the teacher as the Anti-Luther. The author of this article also would have had to make it a stronger statement that it isn't just white people who are racist. The SA workers would have immediately have jumped the gun and assumed that they were once again being accused of things that they didn't necessarily do. The author should have explained this anyway.

His Heart was three sizes to small

The point that the illustrator of the cartoon was trying to make is how commercialized Christmas is. The illustrator is pointing out the holiday movies, how they've corrupted our view of Christmas. The sales everywhere show the idea of "buy, buy buy," which isn't what Christmas is supposed to be about.

A second point of this drawing is showing how a few people find joy on Christmas, such as folks like the Grinch, and the man with a severe overbite notices this, and apparently, admirers the Grinch's Christmas joy.

I agree with the point of this article - for once - because I wish that St. Nicholas (Santa) would stay where he is - six feet under - and stop taking away the true meaning of Christmas, which is Jesus. (My full story for this will be published in the North Star next week, so be sure to check it out. Or you could check out my Sheezyart, where I have another brief story of how I feel about Christmas.)

The author's point is well represented in the picture, where the clerk at the counter shows no expression of joy or excitement for the Grinch's joy. The man appears to want to leave all of the Holiday Madness, he's probably thinking, "would this oaf just give me the cash and leave?" This man's heart is three sizes to small. Perhaps, because he lives in the world of Santa, he does not even know the real meaning of Christmas, and has found no joy in the holiday. His look of disgust probably also comes from the fact that the movie has been playing all day and the buck toothed oaf is just getting excited over a movie that is thirty years old. The man's look may also come from what the narrator in The Grinch is saying, "doesn't come from a store," but if the meaning of Christmas doesn't come from a store, then this man will probably be out of a job.

Another visual element found in this cartoon is the buck toothed oaf himself. The man comes off as such, a buck toothed oaf, but it seems that the man is starting to get it. It? The meaning of Christmas. He obviously likes the idea of Christmas not coming from a store, because that means that he wouldn't have to purchase the gifts in his hand. He could just show off the T-shirt he wants to his kids.

Either way, the man is giving in to the pressures of the world, simply by wanting the shirt. He already appears to be a pretty well off when it comes to having the Christmas spirit, decked in a festive sweater. If the man wanted to make a statement about the meaning of Christmas, there are plenty other ways to go about it rather than giving the market his money for the shirt (that nobody will read because people are tired of sarcastic, witty shirts,), rather he could invite his friends and family to Church on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Wouldn't that be a better way of showing the real meaning of Christmas?

Response to the Black KKK article

The author of this article chooses to blame the fact that black men are shooting each other on the streets on Hip-Hop and the culture surrounding it.

I disagree with this author on many topics. I don't know anything about this author, but by the way he is writing, I'm assuming that he doesn't live in the ghetto and fear being shot every time he walks out the door like the people he describes do. The movies "Freedom Writers" and "Take the Lead" (which are both true stories) contradict everything that this author has said. The black kids in super poor "ghetto" communities don't want an education because no one wants to give it to him. The movie "Freedom Writers" clearly shows the administrators feel that the kids attending these type of schools are lost causes and treat them as such. I don't blame the kids for not wanting to go to school.

If my teachers didn't want to teach me and didn't respect me, I would respect them or want to "learn" from them either.

One example of parallelism, "His immature, undisciplined behavior with his employer, his run ins with law enforcement, which included allegedly threatening a man with a loaded gun, and the fact a vehicle he owned was once sprayed with bullets are all pertinent details when you've been murdered."

The author supports his point with this statement. By comparing Taylor's previous crimes, the author makes it nearly unquestionable why Taylor was shot. The examples, threatening someone with a gun, being a jerk to his boss almost make it seem like Taylor deserved to die. This may not be how the author feels, but it comes off this way. The author believes that the Black KKK was involved in the murder, but that Taylor wasn't innocent. The above parallel shows both these by implying that the activities Taylor was engaged in are likely Black KKK activities. Neither party is Innocent, and the author makes that clear.