“With No Experience In Such Matters”

This poem by Stephen Dunn makes you think a little bit. It is filled with wordplays in my opinion because it talks about two situations that both result in death. It starts out with talking about holding a damaged sparrow under water until you let it die, because the cat injured it to begin with.

While reading this, I have come to the conclusion that I cannot remember ever having something die in my hands like Dunn describes. I wouldn’t know how to react or what to do really if I was holding an animal in my arms while it was dying, do i go get help or do i just let it die there in peace, is it in pain? All of these questions would come running through my head, and i just wouldn’t know what to do. Then Dunn describes pulling the plug on your Dad while he is dying in the hospital. I could never imagine doing that unless, it was to take him out of pain and to leave him in peace, because that would still one of the hardest decisions you would ever have to make.

“Religulous” – Bill Maher

Bill Maher, one who is seen as politically incorrect, in my opinion was politically correct this time. In his documentary “Religulous”, he travels around the world asking people the questions we all ponder about when we think about religion and the concept of God.

Bill Maher probably wasn’t trying to be funny in this documentary, because he wanted people to take him seriously and truly understand what he was researching and the answers that he was trying to seek. Maher did come off really funny though. The types of people he interviewed and the religions he questioned went all the way from Christianity to Mormons.

Although Maher kept saying that he hasn’t been an active member of the Catholic church since he was little, he knew so much about all of the subjects that he was interviewing people about. I come from a Catholic background and some of the things he asks people are questions that I’ve always had.

I believe he did this documentary in a fair manner. Although he doesn’t see eye-to-eye with me on beliefs that I have, he conducts his research in a civilized way. He doesn’t offend really anyone, except the trucker freaks out at the chapel. Bill did nothing to offend them, I believe they just wanted to make a scene because they were going to be on television.

All in all, I really enjoyed this documentary. It’s one of the only documentaries that I have ever seen, but it was thoroughly enjoyable.

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130!

Oh Bill Shakespeare. I really like this sonnet a lot. In a way, it’s something that everyone can compare to on different levels. Shakespeare writes about a woman that he was infatuated about and compares her to objects.

Everyone at least once in their life will find someone that will absolutely ‘take their breath away.’ It could be seeing someone absolutely beautiful just in passing on the street, or you could date someone for the longest time and it not work out. Everyone is going to have their first love and I believe that is what William Shakespeare is describing. Even if this isn’t a real person that he knows, Shakespeare still conveys us that this person is near and dear to his heart. He uses such figurative language to describe the one that he cares for.

Like I said earlier, we are all hopefully going to experience a love or connection with a significant other like Shakespeare describes. It will take some of us time to find the right person and some of us have already found that person they are absolutely crazy for. When the person is right, you will know. From this sonnet it seems like Shakespeare has known this person for a while and has had these feelings for them for a while too. When you find this type of perosn you will always want to be with them. They will pretty much become your other half and that seems really rare that you pretty much give up your heart to one person for life. That’s why I believe you should make sure it’s the absolute right person and “test the waters” a little bit. You need to find out what you like and don’t like about the opposite gender or whomever you are attempting to date/fall in love with/marry/or what have you.

Athletes – “Too much; for too little”

Is there really ever too much you can do for your team? In my opinion, I would say no. Kobe Bryant on Monday night scored 61 points playing against the New York Knicks, which broke the Madison Square Garden record. This isn’t even the highest points total in Kobe’s career. The most Kobe has ever scored in a game was 81 dating back to January 22, 2006 against the Toronto Raptors. 81 points is still not an NBA record, the most points ever scored in a game was 100 by Wilt Chamberlain in 1962. Sure these are all phenomenal feats, but are these athletes always playing up to their full potential day in and day out?

Professional athletes in my opinion get paid way too much money for not always putting in the effort that they should. Some athletes sit out because they have fevers or they have migraines. Those type of symptoms won’t stop us from going to work or school everyday and we don’t even get paid a 1/3 of what they make! Athletes always think that they deserve preferential treatment, when they really don’t. They are humans just like we are and they just do their normal routine everyday like us. I believe athletes also shouldn’t talk about publicly if they are unhappy in the city or the team that they play for. What if a kid looks up to you? What if you make him feel bad for saying how much you hate playing in Dayton? Most kids look up to athletes because all little kids think they want to be just like them when they are little.

Athletes just need to grow up and realize who they are in the public eye. They get paid lots of money to perform on the court and field, they don’t get paid millions to make fools of themsleves in night clubs or during their social lives.

“I Have A Dream..”

On August 28th, 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave one of the greatest speeches in all of American history. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech will go down in history as a speech that gave hope for the future during a time of serious turmoil. King was one of the last people that people could trust in the public eye because of his words of compassion and because of his lofty goals that he wanted to reach with the American people. John Kennedy was going to be a huge help to the Civil Rights movement, but he was assassinated just a few months later in November 1963. A lot of people in history say that John’s younger brother, Bobby, was also one of the white guys that colored people everywhere could trust and that could do anything about the Civil Rights movement but Sirhan Sirhan assassinated him in 1968.

King’s speech will go down in history as one of the greatest for a number of reasons. Just like Obama’s Inauguration, King was the only African American that I can recall that drew the large number of crowds of all races of people to Washington, D.C. If you just look at the pictures, the National Mall in D.C. is full of people everywhere!

As great of a speech that King delivered that day, many historians and people believe that Dr. King plagiarized a lot of his college works and even his “I Have A Dream” speech. Many people believe that King plagiarized his speech from a preacher named Archibald Carey, Jr. who gave a speech at the Republican National Convention in 1952. Although the speeches are not identical word-for-word, you can still pick out very close similarities between the two of them. Both men get a lot of powerful ideas from the song “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.” The following passage was incorporated into both of their speeches: “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.” They also both talk about the countryside, mountains, etc. that both will resonate their ideas new people everyday.

I’m not bashing Dr. King at all by any means; he is still one of the most influential Americans of all time. He has done so much to help form this country into who are today. Without Dr. King’s vigorous work during the late 50’s and 60’s, I don’t think Barack Obama would be our President today. King has paved the way for a lot of new changes today that I think Barack will carry out.

“At The Smithville Methodist Church” – by Stephen Dunn

This poem written by Stephen Dunn has shed some light on the struggles of accepting that their is a God and to try and see why someone so young as the girl has such a strong faith. In this poem, the parents do not believe in God, but there daughter has a strong undying faith and love for God that her parents do not quite understand.

Believe it or not, Wright State is the first public school I’ve ever attended. For thirteen years prior to WSU, I attended Catholic schools. I believe this has influenced me and some of the decisions I make in my life today. I am a person of faith and believe there is a God. I do believe that the Bible was written by many scholars before our time, and I honestly think that the accounts of Jesus are true. Sure some of the stories can be a little out there, i.e. Jesus rising men/women from the dead, curing leprosy.. I just think some of these things are fascinating because you just have to truly “believe.” For instance, in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when Indiana (Harrison Ford) is searching for the cup of Christ (Holy Grail) he gets to a point where there is not a bridge in sight, and it looks like a very lengthy jump. In my opinion, he was taking a “leap of faith.” When Indiana got a running start, he jumped and a bridge just appeared and took him the the room where the cup of Christ was located. After he got the cup, he went back to his father (Sean Connery) and poured it on his gunshot wounds and they healed instantly! Sure this is just “movie magic”, but I really do think that it has religious significance.

One of the big things we always learned about every year in high school was “The Right to Life.” I truly believe in this because every person has a shot to a great life, it just depends on the mother and father if they want to give it to them. One of the most important things that I will never stand for is abortion. I know that everyone wants to give women the choice of what to do, but I truly think that this is one think that should be abolished. Even if you do go through with the abortion, I believe that the baby goes to a better place and that it will rest in heaven.

I do believe that there is a heaven or a better place we all go to in the after life. I think that Jesus wants us to be one with him when we perish from the earth. I think he wants all of us to be brothers/sisters together in God’s eyes.

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”– Matthew 19:26

“The Tell-Tale Heart”

In the short story, “The Tell-Tale Heart” the narrator is a man who is suffering from severe psychological problems. The funny thing is, he never admits that he is crazy or that he has a problem. He lives with an older man that has one dull blue that drives the narrator absolutely crazy, crazy enough to kill! One night while the old man is sleeping, the narrator slowly creeps into the mans room without making a noise. The narrator finally jumps on the old man and kills him. He buries the old man in the floor or his house under three floor-boards. Just a few moments later, police officers arrive and the guilt ridden narrator keeps hearing the old man’s heartbeat get louder and louder. Finally the guilt ridden man exclaims, “dissemble no more! I admit the deed! —tear up the planks! here, here! —It is the beating of his hideous heart!” I think this is a really great short story and I am a fan of Edgar Allan Poe’s works.

I think this is a story about conscience. This goes along really well with some of the people who commit crimes in today’s society. A lot of people who are criminals these days, are truly good people they just have a few problems and they have to take out those problems on others. After people commit crimes, especially murder they will probably feel guilt ridden for the remainder of their lives. If they don’t this way than they are seriously messed up in the head and don’t care about others lives or feelings.

I believe murder is one of the worst things you could ever do to someone else. Why would people honestly want to murder and take another persons life? If your life is that sad that you have to take it out on others, you should look into getting psychological help. If you would take someone elses life, they would be truly missed by their family, friends, and others who were close to that person.

Why am I at Wright State?

When posed the question, “why am I at Wright State?” it got me thinking for a little bit. I believe I am at Wright State for many reasons. As a high school senior, I applied to many different schools and got into them, I just decided that Wright State was the “right fit.” I’m originally from Dayton and my high school is about 10 minutes from campus, so it’s pretty close to home. When I began here at Wright State, I originally was in the school of music as a percussionist, but after a while I just got ”burnt out” from an activity that I’ve been pursuing since 7th grade. In high school the subjects I believe I excelled in were Music, English, and Social Studies. I’ve always been a fan of all three of these subjects. That’s why now I’m studying Social Science Education. With that degree, I hope to teach either junior high or high school social studies. I have always liked English and I always thought I was pretty good at it. There are many different aspects that make up an English class. There were also certain things that I wasn’t ever good at in English too. I really dislike diagramming sentences because I always found that hard to do. I’m also not really a big fan of reading, but in high school when we had required readings, those books that they assigned turned out to be some of my favorite books. I think that I’m a pretty good writer once I finally sit down and want to put time into it. It also helps that if I get a topic that interests me and is usually really easy to research and elaborate on, so It can form it into a good paper. I’m excited to start taking English here at Wright State. I hope that all of my skills that I already possess will help me in this class while I gain new ones. I actually enjoy going to school most of the time because it keeps me busy and as the kids say these days, “it keeps me out of trouble.” It’s not too big, and it’s not too small here at WSU and I really enjoy that. I hope that I don’t get too sick of school that much though, because I plan on teaching when I get out of here. All in all, I have greatly enjoyed my time here at Wright State thus far.

Andy Sheets

Major: Social Science Education

Hometown: Dayton