The Town on the Beaver Creek Essay Example for Free

The Town on the Beaver Creek Essay In her â€Å"The Town on the Beaver Creek† Michelle Slatalla presents humorous and lively writing in order to present intimate and enchanting history of a 20th-century frontier. The author evokes place and time to make people remember. â€Å"When he was seven, my uncle Jack saw a man dying of rabies on the county courthouse lawn. The man wore bib overalls, and as he convulsed and choked, his boot heels flung divots into the air. He begged for water. Someone brought a dipper cool from the pump, but he could not swallow. After an ambulance took the farmer away and Hesta reappeared on the concrete steps in a rush to catch the next Sparks Bros. bus, Jack tried to forget the strange scene†. In such a way the author starts her narration making people acquainted with a small Kentucky town. Actually, the author tells a story of small town Martin specifying the life stories of three generations of her family before the town was bulldozed. Michelle finds appealing approach and inquisitive mind to shed light on the life and glory of Martin, â€Å"built by the hardy†, which population amounts about 860 people. Aparent strength of the book is that Slatalla prefers novelistic style to make her narration more realistic and true to life. She manages to be remarkably thorough without seeming academic or sterile. The author excellently had done her job and her characters have appeared very expressive and vivid. For example, Doc Walk Sumbo, who rode down the church aisle on horseback and ran – successfully – for sheriff after a stint in prison for embezzling government money, whereas Stumbo’s opponent was running an ad in the town: â€Å"I will give the office personal attention, as I have nothing else to do†. Actually, the author tends to show that politics in the town is inexhaustible source of jokes and humor. She writes that in another unlikely election, an outhouse cleaner was named county coroner over an undertaker, solely by virtue of his fortuitous first name, Judge. Therefore, the book illustrates both political and social life of the town in a rather sarcastic and humorous way. As it is mentioned above the author tells a story of her family: of her mother who was so nostalgic for the town she had to leave as an adult, of her father who managed to build a scale model of small town in their family basement. Slatalla notes that â€Å"the results looked like a movie set created for a heartwarming Frank Capra film†. Nevertheless, the author writes that nothing would be the same as their native town. The model carted by her father, for example, failed to reproduce the stash of courageous, scary, heartrending and hilarious stories which filled the lives of inhabitants in Kentucky town in the beginning of the 20th century. Further, the author mentions that she aware that Martin tow was going to be demolished and a new locale would be built. And that fact caused her to act and to struggle for her native city. She writes that she was outrageous and really furious that old traditions and memories weren’t appreciated and only material wealth was emphasized. Michelle realized that some things would be lot forever, though they would be kept in memories and records and she made such an attempt. Therefore, she decided to grab â€Å"as many of the old stories as I could carry†. So, her recollections are transformed and presented in a really delightful book. Her expert hands managed to show her husband Fred, her Uncle Red, great-grandmother Hesta, grandmother Mary, her grandfather Elmer and the town physician, Doc Walk very alive and vibrant : â€Å"Sometimes a town is past saving, but its history shouldnt be†. The author seems so anxious at times not to leave anything out. Slatalla was very proud of her native city. Summing up the book is a fitting memorial for an unusual town and makes one wonder how many other towns stories have been lost. References Slatalla, Michelle. (2006).The Town on Beaver Creek: The Story of a Lost Kentucky Community. USA: Random House Publishing Group.

Pat Buchanan Speaks Out :: essays research papers

Thursday night the Phillips Center for Performing Arts hosted a very special guest appearance by the Reforms Party presidential candidate Pat Buchanan. In the year of presidential elections the two popular candidates George Bush and Al Gore really don’t lash out on each other, which makes this years debates boring and long. Pat Buchanan is refreshing to the sense he doesn’t care what he says about the other candidates. Pat Buchanan’s history includes serving as an assistant to Richard Nixon, and also to Ronald Regan. An accomplished journalist in his younger career, Pat Buchanan wrote speeches for the Reykjavik summit with Mikhail Gorbachev, and Richard Nixon’s popular speech to the opening of China in 1972. A solid Republican through many years in the White House Pat Buchanan saw a growing problem and decided to do something about it. Buchanan says, † The other parties do not realize the problems in America, we are loosing our country and what we stand for†. Buchanan wasted no time on stage knocking both Gore and Bush, because they are failing to talk about real problems in the United States. â€Å"These guys stand up here and are scared to death to step on each other toes and tell the Gods honest truth†. Buchanan feels that he left the Republican Party because they will not fight for American rights. Buchanan really focused his ideas with building America back to the nation our founding fathers wanted. He pointed out the problem with America’s heritage taking Washington’s day and changing it to President’s day. Buchanan explained, â€Å"When did we stop celebrating our first President of United States, and start celebrating Presidents such as Bill Clinton†. He also argued the problem of changing Christmas break to Winter break, and Easter break into Spring break. What’s more surprising is his views on why America is changing and what he will do to change America back to the land of liberty. Buchanan blames the change in United to States to the problem with immigration. â€Å"With too much immigration we are loosing communication with each other, we should teach all new immigrants English and emphasize American history first and foremost’. Buchanan feels that, â€Å"English is what as Americans brings us together, so everyone who lives i n America should know English†. Buchanan also offered a strict policy on immigration on his new plan. Under Buchanan’s new plan he will cut foreign aid and also pull troops out of Europe and the Middle East.

Philosophy Skepticism Essay

Definitely the most fascinating thing when it comes to skepticism is not that severely philosophically doubtful people are present – it is the opinions that come from guiltless principles and get to amazing deductions. Rationalists like Locke argue that â€Å"all knowledge is based on reason (and the reasoned analysis of certain innate concepts and ideas that are possessed and understood by everyone). † Therefore, the inherent uncertainty of sensory experience (i. e. optical illusions and hallucinations) cannot provide a solid foundation for knowledge. Normally, a skeptic starts from several of explanations for a single situation but they will always end in wrong conclusions. Skepticism can take you to fertile results if you contemplate the following and consider the Sorites Paradox. First of all, admit these three properties. If you have two eyes – and can see clearly- that means you are not blind. And if you have mostly no eyes or cannot see either, then you are not blind. Likewise, if you take off one eye, this does not make you completely blind. So keep taking your two eyes off. Agreeing with this evidence, you should not get blind . However; you would get blind (www. philosophytalk. org). In addition, if we make reference to Descartes’ Meditations dispute. What Descartes argument means is that â€Å"the kind of evidence we have for our beliefs underdetermines what to believe (60). † Hence, we could use Bertrand Russell’s example. Imagine you had some kind of hallucinations consequence from some kind of drug or substance. In this case, how could someone differentiate their ‘dream’ life from their ‘real’ life? Since the skeptic never accepts that we are actually having a dream in the place of living. In fact, the skeptic states that our existing evidence does not regulate the chance that it could be a dream instead of real life. Idealism is definitely a good solution for skepticism. Moreover, skepticism creates the difference among our thoughts or observations and things that provide importance to these thoughts and perceptions such as dreams or any life experience. So, demanding that the universe is part of our ideas would separate the problematic of skepticism. For example, there is nothing concluded about the existence of a chair than just the impression that the table is there. During decades, many philosophers and skeptics have always had an extremist position as a way to give strength to their opinions. Though, idealism is actually more absurd than skepticism and our commonsense should allow us to reject it (Philosophical Reporter (4:50): Polly Stryker interviews Michael Shermer, the director of Skeptic Society). I believe that many skeptical opinions do not necessarily have to be based on a strong formation of knowledge. We can believe whatever we want– whether or not those beliefs are based on a complete form of knowledge? If knowledge is hypothetically that type of belief-with that kind of authority- whatever it is, that sustains skeptical opinions, then we probably do not count the privilege of having that â€Å"knowledge. † Nevertheless, we believe in several things and some of those beliefs are more or less acceptable by argument and/or evidence. Undoubtedly, many of the things we believe in are â€Å"strong enough† for this life with a list full of different and infinite purposes, even if the skeptic is right that none of them deserve the honorific label â€Å"knowledge† (Stroud, 96). Whenever we believe in something, we risk more than having some kind of knowledge . When I purely believe something and do not any doubt it and actually have evidences to support it, then that is when I cannot even have the thought or idea that my belief could be wrong for a certain reason. So Knowledge is in a way stronger than that. One cannot know that p, unless p is the case (Nozick, 109). There are serious doubts about the reliability of sensory experience on human beings in the development of ideas, and the possibility of ‘certain knowledge’ is definitely questionable. So, while experiences are the foundation for knowledge and certainty, we cannot fully trust our experiences, and cannot hope to accomplish certainty in our knowledge of the world. Reasoning a bit, we can realize that knowledge would always be dependable from the passing of time, and that knowledge could change anytime as well. Different kinds of advances, transformations and variations could lead knowledge to be moldable in anyway in any area depending on what we believe now and what we will believe later based on science or the resemblance of the past. All knowledge is a product of human experience, and is not possible that people are born with innate ideas . On the other hand, beliefs will always be based on the criteria of each people that comprise a whole different world, and our beliefs would hardly change the way we see and justify things that surround us in a period of five years or less. I do not think that knowledge is as important as it seems. I tend to believe that the rational part does everything. We want all of our beliefs to be constant under the stress that the rational pressure causes. When those balanced belief are being formed, our goal is to reach those beliefs that are receptive to all the stress of rational beliefs and that even after all that force of a rational belief, they can keep themselves firm. Perhaps a belief that is privileged of having such receptiveness to reasons and could appreciate the stability of not having any pressure by any rational beliefs, and then it would gain the honor to be named knowledge. * www. Philosophytalk. org * Nozick, Robert. An Analysis of Knowledge. Philosophical Inquiry. Indianapolis. Hacket Publishing Company Inc. 2007 * Stroud, Barry. Philosophical Scepticism and Everyday Life. Philosophical Inquiry. Indianapolis. Hacket Publishing Company Inc. 2007 * Descartes, Rene. Meditations on First Philosophy. Philosophical Inquiry. Indianapolis. Hacket Publishing Company Inc. 2007.

Revolution of Marriage - 969 Words

Marriage has taken a drastic turn throughout the past years; there have been new laws, regulations, and new marriages all together in these years. Race, gender, age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and class, all play a role in the cycle of marriage. With the new changes that have happened within marriages, those new developments have been looked at the most when a couple is going to gets married. One can possibly learn new facts and gain more knowledge about the new revolution marriage has taken after reading this essay. Earlier in the years, marriage occurred more commonly between people of the same race and ethnicity; it was unusual when marriage would occur between different races. Such marriages caused controversies, and were not†¦show more content†¦That was not as common in the past as it is now. It has always been there, but not as visible to the public as it is now. This type of marriage has had plenty of debates, conflicts, confrontations, allegations; some states have already legalized same sex marriage. I believe this has been one of the most shocking turn in marriage. In many countries, it is found disrespectful to become pregnant before marriage, but â€Å"in the eighteenth century some 10 percent of American brides arrived at the alter already pregnant with their first child, a level unequaled until the late twentieth century (Eras). In the past, it was not necessarily acceptable but it was something that was almost common within brides. Women were known more as property and because of this they were often getting pregnant. Big families were common in the past. Money would be the reason why some women married certain men, not anymore. Although women still earn less than men, they make enough money to support themselves. They are no longer looking for a man with money, they want more to be offered to them. â€Å"It was not considered proper for a young couple to marry until the man could support his wife in a decent home (Eras). That is not the case anymore, because many couples split all bills, therefore, they are least worried about money bei ng the reason to marry. Being young adults gives one the opportunity to move out with your significant other because you willShow MoreRelatedReligious Law And The Law Of The Family983 Words   |  4 Pagesfathers. Marriage regulations are defined by Shiite religious law, although non-Shiites are permitted to follow their own religious practices. Before the Revolution, the legal marriage age was eighteen for females and twenty- one for males, although in practice most couples, especially among lower- class urban and rural families, actually were younger than the law permitted when they married. The average marriage age for both sexes was 18. 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