Bless Me, Ultima (Ch. 15-22)

So, I finished Bless Me, Ultima tonight. Personally, I thought the middle part of the book was best. There were several parts of the last eight chapters that stood out to me while I was reading. Florence's death, and the events leading up to it interested me. At this point I still wasn't sure what Tony's believes were. He had already gotten his first communion, but hadn't recieved the overpowering understanding he had hoped for. He was excited to show Florence the golden carp because he wanted his friend to have something to believe in. And obviously, the power of Ultima was still a looming presence in his life. It isn't until later when he says, "Would they smile when they learned I doubted the God of my forefathers, the God of the Lunas, and knew I praised the beauty of the golden carp?" that the reader realizes the extent of his love for the carp, and his suspicion for God.

Also notable from that event is the fact that Florence's was the third death Tony's had to witness thusfar. A possible explaination for why the book revolves around the number three so much could be because of the Holy Trinity in the Catholic church. Just a thought.

Another interesting happening is the conversation where Tony asks his father's opinion on evil. He's looking for an answer besides the one found at church, shown when he tells his father "But I would like to know your answer." This is when he begins thinking about how generations change over time, and maybe he isn't getting the answers he's looking for through religion because it's become too old to answer him.

In Santa Monica, a Matter of Mangers

Santa Monica had a Christmas Chrisis on their hands not so long ago. The park that anually holds the Nativity scene around Christmas time has now been auctioned off to various religious (and non-religious) groups as a way to keep the peace. Atheists decided that this year, they couldn't stand the scene in the park, intruding on their peaceful wintertime walks through the snow, so they decided to do something about it. They argued that because Catholics got a religious display in the public park they should, and any other religious groups that want to throw their name in, for that matter. Out of the 21 spots auctioned off, atheist groups ended up with 18 of them, a Jewish group got one, and Catholics were squeezed into just two of the spots they normally got. One of the atheist groups isn't even planning on doing anything, they just didn't want Catholics to get the spot for their scene.

The author used mostly pathos throughout this article. He portrays the atheists as the bad guys, and I have to agree with him on this one. The Nativity scene is a classic one, and I hardly think seeing it in a park is going to ruin your day. Despite being an atheist, the scene definately puts me in the holiday spirit and brings back childhood memories. I think it's ridiculous that people could get so  worked up about it, especially to the point where you would be rude enough to buy a spot of land for decoration, not to decorate but to prevent others for decorating it. Behavior like that is childish, and I don't see how people expect the world to be a more tolerant place if people can't even let something as insignificant as this go.

"Santa Monica gets wrapped up in Christmas flap"
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-ed-nativity-20111216,0,1493408.story

Doubts on the Death Penalty

This article caught my attention because I enjoy reading people's opinions on controversial subjects. The death penalty is obviously a big one, and I was curious as to what the author had to say about it. As it turns out, both people sentenced to it, and the number of people who support it, are in a decline. The article mentions Rick Perry and his involvement with the death sentence, and how he has overseen the most executions of any govener in modern times. It also mentions a case of possible innocence, which the Texas governer still signed off on.

This author relied mostly on logos. He gave many facts and statistics about both the decline of executions and people favoring them. He also gave facts about the case in Texas involving Rick Perry and the possible innocent man he executed. Despite all this, he didn't really seem to argue the point he was making. Yes, anyone with a sense of numbers can see that they are getting smaller. Everyone can understand that less and less people agree with the death sentence. It doesn't take a genius to see the statistics and understand what they're saying; there isn't anything to argue there, numbers are facts. His real arguement was that the death penalty is wrong, and I suppose he supported that somewhat with his explanation of the possibly innocent man, but he failed to link that to the death penalty in particular; he just made Rick Perry seem like an idiot. If he had tried to show more than one case where this had happened, and show that the death penalty is endangering lots of innocent lives that would otherwise be doing good in the world, maybe his arguement would be more persuasive. All he managed to do was show a singular case where the man in question might have been innocent. In the end, he didn't really persuade me at all, although he did make me start to really question politicians. . .

"Doubts on the death penalty"
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-death-20111216,0,5961286.story

Bless Me, Ultima (Ch. 8-14)

While reading chapters 8 through 14, I decided I actually like this book quite a bit. The story has come to evolve around several main themes through which Antonio tells the story of himself growing up and his beginning of understanding life.

One theme that has come up repeatedly in different forms is religion. There are several different gods and saints mentioned in the story. One aspect of the book revolves around Antonio trying to figure out his views on religion. Being raised Catholic, he obviously believes in one all-powerul God. However, at several points throughout the story he mentions how he isn't sure he likes this unforgiving God because of his eagerness to punish sinners, and how he likes the forgiving Virgin much better. He also encounters the Golden Carp, the pagen God of a boy named Cico. This is the first encounter that makes Antonio question his God's power. Ultima's power against the evil curse of the Trementina sisters is another such case. After fighting his uncle's sickness for three days with her, Antonio wonders were his God was during this time and the times before when the priest had tried to help.

Another theme I noticed, which is backed up by Antonio himself, is the book's interest in exploring the hidden lives and magic of the people Antonio knows. When he feels he knows someone, like Ultima or Narciso, other aspects of their lives come out and show him surprising things about them. While visiting Narciso's garden, he thinks "It seemed that the more I know about the people the more I know about the strange magic hidden in their hearts." This seems to extend also to his town and the myths surrounding it as well. The Hidden Lakes become much more ominous and mysterious when he learns about the supposed mermaid living there, and the death of the shepard who claimed to have seen her.

I've begun to really enjoy reading this book. It's overflowing with the childhood magic that everyone can remember from when they were children on Christmas morning. I love that about it, and the characters have really begun to take shape and interest me. While there is somewhat of a plot slowly forming, that is, the Tenorio v. Ultima situation, the story is more based around the short anecdotes that sprout off of this conflict, and the revellations they cause for Antonio. One last thing I would like to point out is the story's center around the number three. I've noticed that most noteable events and people in this story are in threes. There are three Trementina brujas, Antonio has three brothers, it took three days to cure his uncle Lucas, and he was moved into the third grade! I'm sure there are more occurances that I'm not thinking of, but you get the idea. Might be nothing, but it seemed worth-while enough to point out.

An Injustice for Women in Uniform

This article is about how a recent amendement was shot down by Congress; an amendement that would give the nearly 200,000 women in the army coverage for abortion in the event of rape. The amendement, posed by Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, would've given women in uniform the same amount of coverage government employees get. Even victims of rape in federal prison get this amount of coverage, but not our troops. They protect us, why should they not have the same rights as the civilian employees?

This author used pathos to persuade the reader. Mentioning that federal prisoners get more coverage than soldiers in the army do would infuriate anyone. This article definitely persuaded me, I'm surprised and appalled the people serving our country don't get the coverage they clearly deserve. Hopefully this will all change in the near future.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/12/opinion/an-injustice-for-women-in-uniform.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

L.A. County brings some dignity to death

Everyone's seen an episode of Law and Order, or CSI, or NCIS where a homeless body is found and an investigation begins. Who's body is it? Where is this person's family? These are some of the questions first asked about the deceased. By the end of the episode some sobbing sister or father is sitting beside the lead detective talking about a big arguement that disconnected the person from their family.

While this all seems like great detective work on TV, police all over America face this very real scenario every day. In L.A., the city holds a yearly burial for the approximately 1,600 unclaimed remains that are cremated every year. None of these people are buried unidentified, however. Every person who dies are identified and if possible, their family members are notified. Despite this, many are still buried in the mass grave because the families can't afford to take possesion of the ashes.

This author didn't have a clear goal to the article. Within his writing he does several things:
-He tries to persuade the reader that there should be some way created to decrease the amount of dead buried in anonymous graves in L.A. For this he uses logos, giving the large number of 1,639 as the amount of people buried in a mass grave this year. He uses pathos, telling about how chaplains are usually the last people to hear the dead telling " stories of family members who hurt them or family they hurt." Both of these methods paint a sad picture for the reader as to the last days of these individuals.
-He tries to convince readers to mend any family problems they might have. He says, "...think about mending relationships with people we consider our family, whether by birth or by friendship."
-He tries to persuade readers to do more charity work. "...through volunteer work in a neighborhood, in a charity or other nonprofit, individuals can reach out to people in need."
All in all, I agree with him on his points but I think he could've stated them in a more organized way, or over more than one article so he could put more into every one of his statements.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-burial-20111210,0,5874207.story

Bless Me, Ultima (Ch. 1-7)

After we got this book in class I did something any reader would naturally do when they recieve a new book: I skimmed the first page. Now I gotta tell you, by the time I finished the second paragraph I already had a bad feeling about the book. Being a french student didn't help my comprehension of the spanish words and phrases tossed into the story. Once I began getting used to the characters and their dispostions, the story became a little more interesting and the character's actions and reactions became more predictable. The short arguements between Maria and Gabriel (Antonio's mother and father) could be predicted and the topic they normally fought about, Antonio's future as either a priest or a vaquero, came to be expected. Ultima became the strong, but elderly grandmother-like presence in the book. She quickly became my favorite character, there was just something about the respect she had in the village, and the calmness that she always had even the most chaotic situations that I liked about her. As I continued on further and further into the story, I found myself liking it more and more. Although no particularly big events have happened yet, the story still seems like it could get very interesting in the future based on the characters. After proving my first opinions of the book wrong, hopefully the characters will continue to grow and the story will become even more interesting.    

Ringling Bros., They're Elephants, not Clowns

This article caught my attention because I was interested in what the circus was doing to hurt elephants, and what people were doing to stop them. The article explained how Ringling Bros. recently reached a settlement with the U.S. Departement of Agriculture over more than a dozen inspections due to reports of "noncompliance with regulations." Some of these regulations include too tight cages, and loosing control of a zebra at one time. Feld Entertainment Inc. hasn't yet admitted to any wrongdoings, and states that it'll have all handlers of animals take "mandatory welfare training." While this is a step in the right direction, for the past decade animal rights activists have been complaining about the handling of the circus's exotic animals, particularly elephants.

The author of this article was against the circus keeping animals, saying "Feld should do more." and that if the company really cared about it's animals, they would stop using them in performances. The author uses some logos in this article, showing the outrageous amount elephants have cost Ringling Bros. in lawsuits, and making some readers wonder why they don't just retire the animals. The author uses pathos when describing the so-called conditions the elephants are forced to endure, backed up by the fact the description he uses is from animal rights groups, people who know what they're talking about. If the facts in this article are true, he definately persuaded me. Making such gentle creatures go through the pains of arthritis and walking long distances is a crime, and should the claims turn out to be true action should be taken immediately to help these animals.

"Ringling Bros. Should Retire Their Elephants."
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-ringling-20111202,0,1517748.story