My Vengeance Shall Be Swift....

Thus far in our AP Lang class, the majority of our work has been on rhetorical analysis. And of course with the referendum debate raging within libraries near you, and in the opinion section of our very own Dispatch, what better material to analyze than the arguments of locals (and not so locals) writing into the Brainerd Daily?
Just a quick update--- If this referendum doesn't pass, the District will make sweeping cuts (all junior high athletics, APs, several fine arts programs, etc...), and so far it's not looking too good. Whether it passes or fails, it'll be close.
But, whose work should we take a look at today? None other than Tay Stevenson. The following is a word-for-word copy of Tay's work:
Blame will yield no solution

The cup has been laid before us to fill. This is not a challenge of our choosing, but it is a challenge nonetheless. Tests like this - no matter the scale - have been leveled against generation after generation. Each time, the task has been put to them to understand their adversity and overcome it. What we have learned is that more understanding is required of us and an even greater effort is required of us. And that understanding is hard, because we do not grasp why the cup we seek to fill always seems empty.We see this empty cup and we are filled with rage, casting about for someone or something to blame. But blame will yield no solution to our test. We can blame the administration and we can blame the teachers. We can blame the passage of the bond and we can blame the failure of the state. But blame will not fund our school. Blame will only create more problems for us, and we have enough of those. What we need are answers, and only we can supply them.We kneel now in the olive garden of our time and ask that the cup be passed from our hands. We ask this because we do not know why we must shoulder this burden. We ask because we are on a fixed income and money is tight. We ask because we are old and retired. We ask because we are young and uninterested. We ask because we have no children and fail to see the relevance. But the true measure of a generation is not their ability to rise to a challenge when they have a proprietary stake in its outcome, but rather when they have no such stake and rise nevertheless.

Tay Stevenson

Baxter

Kinda melodramatic. And "the olive garden of our time"? Are we proposing marriage at a chain restaurant?
How do you view the 'cup'?




Half full of your urine?

or


Half empty with your urine?


I'm sorry, but this is all that came to mind when Tay started his cup metaphor.
Overall, not a bad bit of writing. Full of ethos and pathos, but not very effective.







On a side note, I have a game of battleship set up. +20 points for a hit.

love,
Bockmed

p.s. I think a worthy lifetime goal would be to become a jelly-bean connoisseur.
p.p.s. One app. down... let's say roughly 2 to go.