Homeland Security Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Homeland Security - Essay Example This department is a single, unified, and integrated cabinet-level agency tasked with no other job than just to protect American citizens from air, land, sea, and even cyberspace attacks. The vulnerabilities of the American national security system have hopefully been addressed but no one can say for sure it will be able to prevent future attempts from determined terrorists who obviously will always try to find ways to carry out their attacks successfully at chosen targets. In this paper will be discussed the laws creating the DHS and their operationalization to strategy. The law that served as basis for Department of Homeland Security is the USA Patriot Act (2001), a bill passed by the Congress of the United States of America and was signed into law on October 26, 2001 by former President George W. Bush that took effect on February 01, 2002. This act is actually an acronym, which stands for Uniting and Strengthening America (USA) while Patriot stands for Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. This law has many pertinent provisions designed to fight terrorism of all kinds. The USA Patriot Act provides among other things, the provisions of surveillance and in detection techniques already in use against organized criminal organizations and drug trafficking to be employed in an expanded list of crimes primarily that of domestic or international terrorism such as allowing federal agents to discreetly follow and monitor expert terrorists trained in an art of evasion against detection, conduct silent investigations without tipping off these terrorists, and authority to ask for sensitive financial records and documents through proper court order such as purchase orders in hardware store, fertilizer or chemical outlets, and banks for money laundering. The Patriot Act likewise improved information sharing among various agencies so these can better able â€Å"to connect the dots† in intelligence gathering efforts, it updated

Show how Hardy responds to the death of his wife Essay Example for Free

Show how Hardy responds to the death of his wife Essay In the years after the death of his wife, Emma, in 1912, the main subject of Hardys poems was his wife and how he missed her and grieved her death. In his poems during this period he uses a lot of euphemism, so that he never actually tells the reader his wife has died. However, the strong sense of sadness and regret he feels comes through in every poem. The first poem Hardy wrote after the death of Emma was The Going in December 1912. This poem has a highly regular rhythm and rhyme, with the important words often rhyming at the end of the lines to draw attention to them. The title of the poem is a euphemism for death, and he continues with these throughout the poem, using phrases such as vanishing, close your term here and where I could not follow. This poem is written as if Hardy is addressing Emma. In the first stanza, Hardy addresses and questions his dead wife, and gives a sense of what seems like anger and irritation towards her, that she gave him no hint that she was going to die. He suggest she was indifferent and didnt care about leaving him, and this shows how he is grieving and maybe not thinking straight. He emphases her swift, quick death as she left with wing of swallow but this imagery also suggests her beauty in his eyes and how much he will miss her. Now he regrets he cannot follow her and he knows he will not gain one glimpse of her ever anon. The start of the second stanza reiterates how he did not know that Emma was going to die and again he shows his regret that he could never bid good-bye. His use of soft sounds indicates his wish that he could give the softest call to say goodbye to her properly, and this is reinforced by his use of alliteration in the soft, wishful sounds of utter a wish for a word, while. These soft sounds are then quickly replaced by the harsh reality of the situation, as Hardy sees morning harden upon the wall. The rest of the stanza is concentrated on how much her death has affected him and more precisely how he did not know that it would affect him so much. The assonance in the gloomy sounds of unmoved, unknowing reflects his mood at this point, and again the rhyme draws attention to the important words in the poem unknowing..great going that he did not know how much her death would grieve him. The third stanza, like the first, starts with a question aimed towards Emma. He asks her why she makes him leave the house and why he sees visions of her. Again, there is a sense of irritation as if it is her fault for causing him this suffering. Hardy says that he imagines seeing her again and maybe that he is seeing hallucinations of her as he tells Emma., I think for a breath it is you I see. He tells us that then he realises it is not her, and becomes bitter and upset once again. The rhyming of darkening darkness.yawning blankness emphasises to the reader the huge emptiness he feels now that his wife is dead, and how her memory is already gradually fading away from him, in the same way as the visions he experiences do as he gets closer. The exclamation mark at the end of the stanza makes it seem as if he is shouting in frustration, at how much the experience sickens me!. In the fourth stanza, Hardy changes into the past tense, and the poem becomes more cheerful as he remembers the time the two of them spent together. There is a large amount of imagery used in this stanza, which Hardy uses to show the beauty of his wife, and the strength of their relationship. The red-veined rocks symbolise the passion and love he felt for Emma. He says she was the swan-necked one, a statement of her beauty and he describes her riding along the beetling Beeny Crest with him, maybe a sign they were happy and free to do what they wanted to, and how this contrasts to his feelings now. In the last line of this stanza, Hardy changes his language from me and you to us, which shows how their relationship grew stronger and they grew to love each other and be together more in the good times when life unrolled us its very best. Again, the fifth stanza starts with a question, but this time the impression is given that Hardy is talking to himself, and not addressing Emma. This stanza tells us how later on in their relationship Hardy and Emma did not speak. Hardy shows a huge amount of regret and sadness in this stanza, that he did not talk to her properly and that their relationship got weaker before she died. He then moves back to happier memories of the distant past, and describes them together in bright spring weather: a pathetic fallacy whereby the weather shows the mood at that time. In the final stanza of this poem Hardy appears to give up all hope and becomes resigned to the situation. He adopts a very conversational tone and uses caesura to show that he is talking, using colloquialisms such as well, well!. In the last lines of the poem Hardy feels as if he will sink down soon into despair. These lines are directed at Emma, as he again tells her, but this time in stronger terms, that he did not know how her swift fleeingwould undo me so. He uses pause between the caesuras to increase the impact of each short statement. In The Haunter, Hardy writes the poem as if it was his dead wife talking to him. He imagines Emma can see him and feel his emotions as a means of consoling himself. However, the main emotions which come out of this poem are Hardys guilt and regret and, although he adopts his wifes voice, it is his emotions which come through strongly in the poem. He appears to be haunted by memories, which may be the reason for the title of the poem. Alternatively, it could be that he sees his wife as a ghost haunting him. Each stanza has the same words rhyming at the end of every second line; know.go.do.thereto. These are important as they show Hardys mains hopes about his wife; that she knows everything hes doing and thinking, but the go shows he knows she has gone for ever and there is nothing he can do to go there and be with her. The poem opens with irony as Emma says he does not think I haunt here nightly, when he is writing the poem. This shows Hardy hopes she is there with him, but that he just cant see her; but in reality he probably knows she is not really there and it is just wishful thinking. This line also starts the theme which continues throughout the stanza: that Emma is always there with him. The repetition of hover and hover reinforces this point. Hardy is creating ideas which he hopes his wife would have about him, as a way of comforting himself. Hardys feelings of guilt and regret come through strongly in the second stanza. He did not do many of the things he should when he had the chance and this is shown by the repetition of when I could in the first two lines of this stanza. Emma says how she would like to join his journeys, which shows Hardy feels guilty that he didnt let her go with him when he went away, and now blames himself that they didnt spend enough time together. The voice of his wife tells us that he misses me more than he used to do which means he didnt realise how much he needed her when she was alive but now he knows that he did and he misses her even more. Emma is described as a faithful phantom, which suggests that she was loyal to him, and maybe that he was not as faithful to her. The alliteration is soft to suggest the kindness and beauty of Emma. In stanza three, there is a large amount of imagery, as Emma tells us how she likes to accompany him to places. There is a strong sense of night time in the opening of this stanza, as dreamers, shy hares and night rooks are mentioned. Emma tells us she follows Hardy into old aisles, which show Hardy is still thinking about the past, which is all to him, because he is reminiscing the happy times when Emma was alive and with him, and he now thinks he will not get that happiness back. However, although she is his shade suggesting she is like his shadow and always with him she is always lacking the power to call to him. We get the sense that, although Hardy is trying to believe his wife is near him, he is upset and frustrated that he can and will never talk to her. In the final stanza of this poem, Hardy is trying to cheer himself up, as this is what he thinks his wife would want. The reader is told that if Hardy but sigh, Emma goes straight to his side. This shows that when Hardy is upset, he thinks of Emma to try to console himself. Hardy tries to make himself feel better by thinking that Emma would want him to be in gloom no longer. This show he wants to be happier but he cannot so now he has to think Emma wants him to be happier as well. The Voice, also written in December 1912, is a much more eerie and less rhythmical poem than the first two. However, although there is less rhythm and structure to the poem, it still has a strong and continual rhyme. The title of the poem indicates that now Hardy can now hear Emmas voice and the poem is written in the first person, as Hardy reveals his feelings and memories. As The Voice opens, Hardy shows us his grief and sadness as he describes his wife as woman much missed. The sounds alliterate to draw attention to their importance right at the start of the poem, as this will be a continual theme throughout. The words call to me, call to me are repeated at the end of the first line and this give the impression that although she is calling to him, like an echo to show how her voice is fading away from Hardy, along with his memories of her. This repetition also gives the impression that Emma is insistent to reach Hardy and will not give up. Hardy informs us that Emma tells him she is not the same as she was when she changed from the one that was all to Hardy. Hardy believes Emma is saying to him that she is not now as she was when Hardy changed and maybe stopped loving her, but she is the same as she was when they were in love. This shows that this is how Hardy remembers Emma, when their day was fair and their life was better than when they started to split apart. In the last line, Hardy changes from using you and me to our to show that now he is thinking of them together and happy. Hardy then looks back to the past and his memories of his wife, and imagines a perfect image of her in his head. He sees the memory very clearly and includes a lot of detail to show this. He can remember her even to the original air-blue gown, which is a pleasant and cheerful colour, showing the mood in the memory. It is one specific memory he is thinking about and, as he sees it more clearly, Hardy becomes exited and shows this through the caesura of yes and the exclamation mark at the end of the line, as if he is becoming louder and more energised. The transition between stanzas is a change between Hardys happiness in the past and his grief now. The sounds change from joyous to heavy, as does the mood of the poem. The whole stanza is a question, asking if it is really Emma talking or just the wind that Hardy can hear, although the reader will know that Hardy knows the answer to his own question. The listlessness of the breeze is a pathetic fallacy of Hardys mood, and the words such as listlessness and wet mead are onomatopoeic as they are heavy and sound tired, as if now he knows that his wife is fading away from him. Hardy tells Emma she is being dissolved and dying away from him. This suggests he has realised her voice is not real and just in his mind and she will be heard no more again. The lines in the last stanza of the poem are shorter than those in other stanzas. This gives the impression that the poem is fading away on the page, as Emma is ebbing away from Hardys memories. This stanza shows Hardy is now resigned to the fact that he is never going to hear her voice again and does not really make sense, maybe showing Hardys tiredness. The pathetic fallacy of leaves around me falling gives an impression of things dying and coming to an end and the unpleasant assonance used in the wind oozing thin through the thorn gives and unpleasant feel to the end of the poem. This stanza shows that Hardy feels he cannot move on because of his memories and the woman calling. This last line completes the eerie sense given in the poem and relates back to the start of the poem, giving the sense that what has happened in this poem keeps on happening to Hardy, and there is nothing he can do to stop it. Beeny Cliff has a strong rhythm and strong rhyme, using the same sounds at the end of each line of each stanza. Beeny Cliff was a special place for Hardy and Emma that they visited together. O at the start of the poem indicates Hardys happiness and excitement as he reminisces about him and Emma. The first line is full of description and imagery, and the opal and the sapphire suggest preciousness and beauty a description of the sea in the poem, but a description of his wife in Hardys mind. Hardys description of Emma is almost angelic as she is described as the woman riding high above with bright hair flapping free. The alliteration is an onomatopoeia of the wind and the high wind suggests high spirits between Hardy and Emma. Hardy also states that he loved Emma and she loyally loved him, suggesting that, although they both loved each other, she was more faithful than he was. Hardy knows this and is therefore now regretting that he did not make the most of his time with her when she was alive. In the next stanza Hardy concentrates on how when they were together, nothing or no one could touch them. Hardy tells us that birds were plained below them and seemed far away, to show they were only concentrating on each other and nothing else could distract them. The waves are shown to be what could be a big distraction by the onomatopoeic sibilance of engrossed in saying their ceaseless babbling say, but Hardy and Emma were engrossed in each other thereby showing how close they were at this point in time. They laughed light-heartedly aloft which reinforces their high spirits and again suggests their height above everything else happening. Pathetic fallacy is also used to show the mood on that clear-sunned March day. This pathetic fallacy continues throughout the third stanza, as Hardy uses it to show that the mood is changing. A little cloud cloaked them and there was an irised rain, which shows that this trip to Beeny Cliff is like their relationship. These small changes in weather show there are some bad times in the relationship between them, but it is never enough to force them apart and these blips are just a dull disfeatured stain, the same as the cloud is on the landscape. However, although the sun burst out again, the cloud was an indication to them that foreshadowed worse things to come, as now purples prinked the main. The at the start of the fourth stanza indicates to the reader that Hardy is going from the past into the present. Hardy tells us that old Beeny is still in all its chasmal beauty. The use of old shows familiarity and Hardy is showing that he is in a familiar place to contrast his unfamiliar emotions. In addition, this line shows that, although a lot has happened to him, the things and landscape around him are still the same as they used to be; huge and gaping but still beautiful. Hardy asks himself with a sense of wistfulness if she and I [Hardy] could not go there again and repeat the sweet things said in that March. He does not use we, which shows he feels they will never be together again and, although he asks the question, he knows he cannot see her again. The caesura of Nay. at the start of the concluding stanza shows Hardy coming back to reality, and answering his own question. He repeats that Beeny has the same chasmal beauty but this time it is a wild weird western shore. This tells us that things around him have stayed the same, but Hardy sees them differently now in a worse light, as this is the effect his wifes death has had on him. Hardy says the woman is nowelsewhere; the pauses are showing he doesnt want to say Emma is dead, and he is thinking of a euphemism. She nor knows nor cares for Beeny and has moved on, but Hardy has not and is still stuck in the past. The end of the poem is very final, as if Hardy has eventually made up his mind; that she will see it nevermore. In At Castle Boterel, written in March 1913, Hardy again remembers him and his wife together in happier times. Again, a strong sense of rhyme and rhythm appears throughout the poem. Most of the poem is a euphemism for Hardys thoughts, memories, feelings and emotions as he is writing. The poem opens in the present as Hardy gives a description of himself driving through the drizzle in a wagonette to the junction. This suggests he will have to make a decision as to which path he should take, as he does in life to decide whether to move on from thinking about Emma. He looks behind at the fading byway; a euphemism for him looking back into the past. His memories show him with a girlish form Emma in a chaise in dry March weather. Although he is looking into the past, he writes in the present tense, to show how involved he is in his own memory and how he wants it to be real and actually happening. The contrast between the wagonette, a heavy, large vehicle, in which he is driving in the present and the chaise, a small, light vehicle, which he was driving in in the past, is a reference to the happiness he felt then, and the gloom that hangs over him now that Emma is dead. The contrasting pathetic fallacies drizzle and dry March weather further reinforce this point. Hardy describes himself and Emma as we throughout the stanza, which indicates their togetherness. Hardy goes on to tell us that it matters not much what he and Emma talked about on that journey, and he also states it doesnt matter to what it led. This is strange as it surely led to Hardy and Emma falling in love and getting married and he is now saying that this didnt matter. He continues the point by saying what it led to is something life cannot be balked of, so love is an inevitable part of life. He tells us that it cannot be stopped until something happens so that hope is dead, and feeling fled. This is maybe a sign that Hardy is starting to recover from the death of his wife, and has maybe realised he could have done nothing to stop it. Hardy reveals how much he treasured the moments he had with his wife, by telling us that there was never a time of such quality, since or before, in that hills story. He asks this as a question as if he is challenging anyone to disagree with his view, as he is right. The fact that Hardy thinks that this moment is the most important ever to happen on the hill, though it has been climbedby thousands more tells the reader that he is now extremely focused on himself and his wife, and cannot think of anything or anyone else but her, showing that the impression he gave in the previous stanza was false. In the next stanza, Hardy states that their passing has been recorded in the colour and cast of the primeval rocks and will now be for always. He feels that although their passing, and therefore their relationship, is only transitory in Earths long order, so only happened for a short time, they have helped to change things happening on the Earth. He thinks these changes will be left behind after he is gone she has gone already. This is a happy moment for Hardy as he thinks about the impact Emma and he had and this is shown through his pause in the middle of the last line, as he reflects on what he is saying. In the penultimate stanza, Hardy comes back into the present and reflects that Times unflinching rigour has taken his wife, and it cannot be stopped, so there is no way of going back once an event has passed. All that is left for him to see is one phantom figure, there is nothing real remaining, only his memories. He feels as if he has left Emma behind and is being forced further and further away from her; she is disappearing into the distance. Hardy reverts to the use of I in the final stanza. He looks back and sees the figure shrinking, shrinking. This repetition is like an echo fading away; to show that, although he is still having the memories, they are fading away and he will never get them back. He finishes with a great sense of finality; that he is now seeing her for the very last time. He says his sand is sinking, this reference to an hourglass meaning his time is nearly up, and he believes that he will soon die as well. The ending is very powerful and final, as Hardy states that he shall traverse old loves domain Never again. His use of old suggests a familiarity; that he has revisited his memories too often, and now wants to move on. The caesura gives the statement a sense of finality so that it stands out as the main fact to come from this poem, that he now has accepted he cannot go back to Emma, and will not let his memories and grief overcome him. The Phantom Horsewoman is written in the voice of a person observing the behaviour of Hardy, in the first person. There is a very regular and repetitive rhyming pattern throughout every stanza, which suggests that Hardys life has become repetitive, as all he does is think about his wife. Now Hardy himself knows he needs to move on but he shows this through an observer. The whole of the first stanza is a euphemism for Hardys thoughts and feelings and how he, Hardy, describes himself as queer which shows he knows the behaviour he is experiencing is not normal to him. He is described as a man I know to show that it is not Hardy talking, but someone describing his ways. Hardy is portrayed as being in a careworn craze, which tells us that the emotions he is feeling have worn him down and are maybe even driving him mad. The next few lines suggest Hardy is looking back but what he sees is unclear. This is shown as he looks at the sands, suggesting time as this is a reference to an hourglass, but there is a seaward haze so his memories are indistinct and vague. The use of moveless hands in reference to a clock show time stands still when he looks into the past. When he turns to go Hardy pauses showing his regret to leave and regret to move back into the present. The use of rhyme in this stanza draws attention to the connected and important ideas: stands, sands and hands show the idea of time in reference to an hourglass and a clock and the impression that it stands still when Hardy looks back to the past; craze, haze and gaze are also connected, as they show how Hardy is looking back but is unsure what to make of what he remembers. The stanza ends with the question of what he sees when he gazes so? The second stanza answers the question posed at the end of the first. There is a strong and clear contrast between the haze and indistinctness in the present as shown in stanza I and the clarity and deep description used in stanza II, looking back into Hardys memories of the past. This point is reinforced as we are told what he sees is more clear than today. The description used has a happy and joyous tone because his memories are warm, real and keen. Hardy sets a pleasant scene using a rhythmical tone, as if suggesting the rhythm of the sea. This shows that Hardys memories of the past are happier and he would much rather be living in the past than in his life now. The sibilance of the sweet soft scene implies the softness of his past life and points to the sound and rhythm of the sea, as does the description of that briny green. The end of the stanza tells us that he sees in his memories a phantom of his own figuring; he is remembering the past but he knows it is not real now, no matter how much he wants it to be. Hardy then tells us that of this vision they might say more because there is more to him than a man looking at the sea. He sees his wife not only there but he sees her everywhere and all the time as shown by day, night. His memories are vivid and bright as if they were drawn rose-bright on the air and they are all consuming to him as if he is almost haunted by them. At the end of the stanza, Hardy pauses, as if to think, before reiterating the same point again that he has to carry this vision, to make this point clear to the reader. At the start of the final stanza, Hardy describes what this vision is. He tells us he sees a girl-ghost-rider, using a compound word to describe exactly what he sees in his visions. The sounds in the alliteration are happy and soft when Hardy describes Emma, and contrast the harsh sounds Hardy uses to describe himself; toil-tried. Hardy also tells us that although he withers daily, and is always getting older, time touches her not and she is always the same in his thoughts and memories of her. She still rides gaily in his rapt thought, which shows that his memories of her are when she was happy and free, and that he cannot think of anything else but her. The harsh sounds in the alliteration of shagged and shaly drag him back to reality and back to the sea, which is the idea the whole poem revolves around. The last line of the poem shows that Hardys lasting memory of Emma will be a happy one; Emma is singing to the swing of the tide, and that the sea will always be in his memories of her, as it was a special place for them. In conclusion, we can see clearly how Hardy attitude and response to the death of Emma changed over time through his poems. At first he is grieving and mourning her, and wishes he could bring her back; he thinks it is his fault that she has died and regrets that their relationship was not as happy as it had been and he wishes he had had a chance to say goodbye to her. However, he stops being so overcome by guilt and regret and focuses more on his memories of himself and Emma in happier times such as on Beeny Cliff. The main devices Hardy repeatedly uses are writing the poems sometimes not using himself as the first person and euphemism in place of saying what has actually happened, especially when referring to Emmas death.

Technology and Art :: essays research papers

Does size matter? In the world of technology, it all depends on the consumer. The first generations of televisions were designed in a very simple form. Most were square, made of wood, and had a round dial to change channels. Nowadays, we have many different shapes and functions for televisions. Culture and technology have had a large impact on the development of the design and features of the modern television. The design of the television has drastically changed over time. For example, the 1948 Fada model was large in volume and it had a convex and oval shaped screen. It had four knobs used to tune and change channels. The structure was made of wood and it included a fairly large speaker underneath the twelve inch screen. The television only had access to thirteen channels. The dial simply shows that the culture did not have access to many channels. Past televisions were simple because the lifestyle was simple. People did not need hundreds of channels and massive screens to be satisfied. Modern televisions now come in various sizes and have features to accommodate the consumers. For example, the Philips-Magnavox 50FD9955 is thin and has a fifty inch (diagonal) rectangular flat screen. This television can be placed almost anywhere imaginable. It can be hung on a wall or even on the ceiling. The large size of this television represents modern society’s need for bigger and better things. It has an on/off button, two channel buttons, two volume buttons, and other various buttons for adjusting the color. The channel buttons on the modern television represent the unlimited number of channels. The structure is made of metal and plastic and it includes a speaker on each side. The plastic body is easier to mold, cheaper to produce, and easier customize the color. The television comes with standard audio/video jacks, cable jacks, and an S-Video jack to accommodate VCRs, DVD players, camcorders, and other accessories. These additional features did not just appear overnig ht, they developed with society to satisfy their needs. Television is designed around its culture. In the past, watching television was a way for families to be together. Everyone gathered around the television and watched the same show. Families did not have the luxuries of owning more than one television and having hundreds of channels. Today, almost every room in the house has a television. People in different rooms are now able to watch their own shows.

Bag of Bones CHAPTER NINE

At nine o'clock the following morning I filled a squeeze-bottle with grapefruit juice and set out for a good long walk south along The Street. The day was bright and already hot. It was also silent the kind of silence you experience only after a Saturday holiday, I think, one composed of equal parts holiness and hangover. I could see two or three fishermen parked far out on the lake, but not a single power boat burred, not a single gaggle of kids shouted and splashed. I passed half a dozen cottages on the slope above me, and although all of them were likely inhabited at this time of year, the only signs of life I saw were bathing suits hung over the deck rail at the Passendales' and a half-deflated fluorescent-green seahorse on the Batchelders' stub of a dock. But did the Passendales' little gray cottage still belong to the Passendales? Did the Batchelders' amusing circular summer-camp with its Cinerama picture-window pointing at the lake and the mountains beyond still belong to the Batchelders? No way of telling, of course. Four years can bring a lot of changes. I walked and made no effort to think an old trick from my writing days. Work your body, rest your mind, let the boys in the basement do their jobs. I made my way past camps where Jo and I had once had drinks and barbecues and attended the occasional card-party, I soaked up the silence like a sponge, I drank my juice, I armed sweat off my forehead, and I waited to see what thoughts might come. The first was an odd realization: that the crying child in the night seemed somehow more real than the call from Max Devore. Had I actually been phoned by a rich and obviously bad-tempered techno-mogul on my first full evening back on the TR? Had said mogul actually called me a liar at one point? (I was, considering the tale I had told, but that was beside the point.) I knew it had happened, but it was actually easier to believe in The Ghost of Dark Score Lake, known around some campfires as The Mysterious Crying Kiddie. My next thought this was just before I finished my juice was that I should call Mattie Devore and tell her what had happened. I decided it was a natural impulse but probably a bad idea. I was too old to believe in such simplicities as The Damsel in Distress Versus The Wicked Stepfather . . . or, in this case, Father-in-Law. I had my own fish to fry this summer, and I didn't want to complicate my job by getting into a potentially ugly dispute between Mr. Computer and Ms. Doublewide. Devore had rubbed my fur the wrong way and vigorously but that probably wasn't personal, only something he did as a matter of course. Hey, some guys snap bra-straps. Did I want to get in his face on this? No. I did not. I had saved Little Miss Red Sox, I had gotten myself an inadvertent feel of Mom's small but pleasantly firm breast, I had learned that Kyra was Greek for ladylike. Any more than that would be gluttony, by God. I stopped at that point, feet as well as brain, realizing I'd walked all the way to Warrington's, a vast barnboard structure which locals sometimes called the country club. It was, sort of there was a six-hole golf course, a stable and riding trails, a restaurant, a bar, and lodging for perhaps three dozen in the main building and the eight or nine satellite cabins. There was even a two-lane bowling alley, although you and your competition had to take turns setting up the pins. Warrington's had been built around the beginning of World War I. That made it younger than Sara Laughs, but not by much. A long dock led out to a smaller building called The Sunset Bar. It was there that Warrington's summer guests would gather for drinks at the end of the day (and some for Bloody Marys at the beginning). And when I glanced out that way, I realized I was no longer alone. There was a woman standing on the porch to the left of the floating bar's door, watching me. She gave me a pretty good jump. My nerves weren't in their best condition right then, and that probably had something to do with it . . . but I think she would have given me a jump in any case. Part of it was her stillness. Part was her extraordinary thinness. Most of it was her face. Have you ever seen that Edvard Munch drawing, The Cry? Well, if you imagine that screaming face at rest, mouth closed and eyes watchful, you'll have a pretty good image of the woman standing at the end of the dock with one long-fingered hand resting on the rail. Although I must tell you that my first thought was not Edvard Munch but Mrs. Danvers. She looked about seventy and was wearing black shorts over a black tank bathing suit. The combination looked strangely formal, a variation on the ever-popular little black cocktail dress. Her skin was cream-white, except above her nearly flat bosom and along her bony shoulders. There it swam with large brown age-spots. Her face was a wedge featuring prominent skull-like cheekbones and an unlined lamp of brow. Beneath that bulge, her eyes were lost in sockets of shadow. White hair hung scant and lank around her ears and down to the prominent shelf of her jaw. God, she's thin, I thought. She's nothing but a bag of A shudder twisted through me at that. It was a strong one, as if someone were spinning a wire in my flesh. I didn't want her to notice it what a way to start a summer day, by revolting a guy so badly that he stood there shaking and grimacing in front of you so I raised my hand and waved. I tried to smile, as well. Hello there, lady standing out by the floating bar. Hello there, you old bag of bones, you scared the living shit out of me but it doesn't take much these days and I forgive you. How the fuck ya doin? I wondered if my smile looked as much like a grimace to her as it felt to me. She didn't wave back. Feeling quite a bit like a fool THERE'S NO VILLAGE IDIOT HERE, WE ALL TAKE TURNS I ended my wave in a kind of half-assed salute and headed back the way I'd come. Five steps and I had to look over my shoulder; the sensation of her watching me was so strong it was like a hand pressing between my shoulderblades. The dock where she'd been was completely deserted. I squinted my eyes, at first sure she must have just retreated deeper into the shadow thrown by the little boozehaus, but she was gone. As if she had been a ghost herself. She stepped into the bar, hon, Jo said. You know that, don't you? I mean . . . you do know it, right? ‘Right, right,' I murmured, setting off north along The Street toward home. ‘Of course I do. Where else?' Except it didn't seem to me that there had been time; it didn't seem to me that she could have stepped in, even in her bare feet, without me hearing her. Not on such a quiet morning. Jo again: Perhaps she's stealthy. ‘Yes,' I murmured. I did a lot of talking out loud before that summer was over. ‘Yes, perhaps she is. Perhaps she's stealthy.' Sure. Like Mrs. Danvers. I stopped again and looked back, but the right-of-way path had followed the lake around a little bit of curve, and I could no longer see either Warrington's or The Sunset Bar. And really, I thought, that was just as well. On my way back, I tried to list the oddities which had preceded and then surrounded my return to Sara Laughs: the repeating dreams; the sunflowers; the radio-station sticker; the weeping in the night. I supposed that my encounter with Mattie and Kyra, plus the follow-up phone-call from Mr. Pixel Easel, also qualified as passing strange . . . but not in the same way as a child you heard sobbing in the night. And what about the fact that we had been in Derry instead of on Dark Score when Johanna died? Did that qualify for the list? I didn't know. I couldn't even remember why that was. In the fall and winter of 1993 I'd been fiddling with a screenplay for The Red-Shirt Man. In February of '94 I got going on All the Way from the Top, and that absorbed most of my attention. Besides, deciding to go west to the TR, west to Sara . . . ‘That was Jo's job,' I told the day, and as soon as I heard the words I understood how true they were. We'd both loved the old girl, but saying ‘Hey Irish, let's get our asses over to the TR for a few days' had been Jo's job. She might say it any time . . . except in the year before her death she hadn't said it once. And I had never thought to say it for her. Had somehow forgotten all about Sara Laughs, it seemed, even when summer came around. Was it possible to be that absorbed in a writing project? It didn't seem likely . . . but what other explanation was there? Something was very wrong with this picture, but I didn't know what it was. Not from nothin. That made me think of Sara Tidwell, and the lyrics to one of her songs. She had never been recorded, but I owned the Blind Lemon Jefferson version of this particular tune. One verse went: It ain't nuthin but a barn-dance sugar It ain't nuthin but a round-and-round Let me kiss you on your sweet lips sugar You the good thing that I found. I loved that song, and had always wondered how it would have sounded coming out of a woman's mouth instead of from that whiskey-voiced old troubadour. Out of Sara Tidwell's mouth. I bet she sang sweet. And boy, I bet she could swing it. I had gotten back to my own place again. I looked around, saw no one in the immediate vicinity (although I could now hear the day's first ski-boat burring away downwater), stripped to my underpants, and swam out to the float. I didn't climb it, only lay beside it holding onto the ladder with one hand and lazily kicking my feet. It was nice enough, but what was I going to do with the rest of the day? I decided to spend it cleaning my work area on the second floor. When that was done, maybe I'd go out and look around in Jo's studio. If I didn't lose my courage, that was. I swam back, kicking easily along, raising my head in and out of water which flowed along my body like cool silk. I felt like an otter. I was most of the way to the shore when I raised my dripping face and saw a woman standing on The Street, watching me. She was as thin as the one I'd seen down at Warrington's . . . but this one was green. Green and pointing north along the path like a dryad in some old legend. I gasped, swallowed water, coughed it back out. I stood up in chest-deep water and wiped my streaming eyes. Then I laughed (albeit a little doubtfully). The woman was green because she was a birch growing a little to the north of where my set of railroad-tie steps ended at The Street. And even with my eyes clear of water, there was something creepy about how the leaves around the ivory-streaked-with-black trunk almost made a peering face. The air was perfectly still and so the face was perfectly still (as still as the face of the woman in the black shorts and bathing suit had been), but on a breezy day it would seem to smile or frown . . . or perhaps to laugh. Behind it there grew a sickly pine. One bare branch jutted off to the north. It was this I had mistaken for a skinny arm and a bony, pointing hand. It wasn't the first time I'd spooked myself like that. I see things, that's all. Write enough stories and every shadow on the floor looks like a footprint, every line in the dirt like a secret message. Which did not, of course, ease the task of deciding what was really peculiar at Sara Laughs and what was peculiar only because my mind was peculiar. I glanced around, saw I still had this part of the lake to myself (although not for much longer; the bee-buzz of the first power boat had been joined by a second and third), and stripped off my soggy underpants. I wrung them out, put them on top of my shorts and tee-shirt, and walked naked up the railroad-tie steps with my clothes held against my chest. I pretended I was Bunter, bringing breakfast and the morning paper to Lord Peter Wimsey. By the time I got back inside the house I was grinning like a fool. The second floor was stifling in spite of the open windows, and I saw why as soon as I got to the top of the stairs. Jo and I had shared space up here, she on the left (only a little room, really just a cubby, which was all she needed with the studio north of the house), me on the right. At the far end of the hall was the grilled snout of the monster air-conditioning unit we'd bought the year after we bought the lodge. Looking at it, I realized I had missed its characteristic hum without even being aware of it. There was a sign taped to it which said, Mr. Noonan: Broken. Blows hot air when you turn it on & sounds full of broken glass. Dean says the part it needs is promised from Western Auto in Castle Rock. I'll believe it when I see it. B. Meserve. I grinned at that last -it was Mrs. M. right down to the ground and then I tried the switch. Machinery often responds favorably when it senses a penis-equipped human in the vicinity, Jo used to claim, but not this time. I listened to the air conditioner grind for five seconds or so, then snapped it off. ‘Damn thing shit the bed,' as TR folks like to say. And until it was fixed, I wouldn't even be doing crossword puzzles up here. I looked in my office just the same, as curious about what I might feel as about what I might find. The answer was next to nothing. There was the desk where I had finished The Red-Shirt Man, thus proving to myself that the first time wasn't a fluke; there was the photo of Richard Nixon, arms raised, flashing the double V-for-Victory sign, with the caption WOULD YOU BUY A USED CAR FROM THIS MAN? running beneath; there was the rag rug Jo had hooked for me a winter or two before she had discovered the wonderful world of afghans and pretty much gave up hooking. It wasn't quite the office of a stranger, but every item (most of all, the weirdly empty surface of the desk) said that it was the work-space of an earlier-generation Mike Noonan. Men's lives, I had read once, are usually defined by two primary forces: work and marriage. In my life the marriage was over and the career on what appeared to be permanent hiatus. Given that, it didn't seem strange to me that now the space where I'd spent so many days, usually in a state of real happiness as I made up various imaginary lives, seemed to mean nothing. It was like looking at the office of an employee who had been fired . . . or who had died suddenly. I started to leave, then had an idea. The filing cabinet in the corner was crammed with papers bank statements (most eight or ten years out of date), correspondence (mostly never answered), a few story fragments-but I didn't find what I was looking for. I moved on to the closet, where the temperature had to be at least a hundred and ten degrees, and in a cardboard box which Mrs. M. had marked GADGETS, I unearthed it a Sanyo Memo-Scriber Debra Weinstock gave me at the conclusion of our work on the first of the Putnam books. It could be set to turn itself on when you started to talk; it dropped into its PAUSE mode when you stopped to think. I never asked Debra if the thing just caught her eye and she thought, ‘Why, I'll bet any self-respecting popular novelist would enjoy owning one of these babies,' or if it was something a little more specific . . . some sort of hint, perhaps? Verbalize those little faxes from your subconscious while they're still fresh, Noonan? I hadn't known then and didn't now. But I had it, a genuine pro-quality dictating-machine, and there were at least a dozen cassette tapes in my car, home dubs I'd made to listen to while driving. I would insert one in the Memo-Scriber tonight, slide the volume control as high as it would go, and put the machine in its DICTATE mode. Then, if the noise I'd heard at least twice now repeated itself, I would have it on tape. I could play it for Bill Dean and ask him what he thought it was. What if I hear the sobbing child tonight and the machine never kicks on? ‘Well then, I'll know something else,' I told the empty, sunlit office. I was standing there in the doorway with the Memo-Scriber under my arm, looking at the empty desk and sweating like a pig. ‘Or at least suspect it.' Jo's nook across the hall made my office seem crowded and homey by comparison. Never overfull, it was now nothing but a square room-shaped space. The rug was gone, her photos were gone, even the desk was gone. This looked like a do-it-yourself project which had been abandoned after ninety percent of the work had been done. Jo had been scrubbed out of it scraped out of it and I felt a moment's unreasonable anger at Brenda Meserve. I thought of what my mother usually said when I'd done something on my own initiative of which she disapproved: ‘You took a little too much on y'self, didn't you?' That was my feeling about Jo's little bit of office: that in emptying it to the walls this way, Mrs. Meserve had taken a little too much on herself. Maybe it wasn't Mrs. M. who cleaned it out, the UFO voice said. Maybe Jo did it herself. Ever think of that, sport? ‘That's stupid,' I said. ‘Why would she? I hardly think she had a premonition of her own death. Considering she'd just bought ‘ But I didn't want to say it. Not out loud. It seemed like a bad idea somehow. I turned to leave the room, and a sudden sigh of cool air, amazing in that heat, rushed past the sides of my face. Not my body; just my face. It was the most extraordinary sensation, like hands patting briefly but gently at my cheeks and forehead. At the same time there was a sighing in my ears . . . except that's not quite right. It was a susurrus that went past my ears, like a whispered message spoken in a hurry. I turned, expecting to see the curtains over the room's window in motion . . . but they hung perfectly straight. ‘Jo?' I said, and hearing her name made me shiver so violently that I almost dropped the Memo-Scriber. ‘Jo, was that you?' Nothing. No phantom hands patting my skin, no motion from the curtains . . . which there certainly would have been if there had been an actual draft. All was quiet. There was only a tall man with a sweaty face and a tape-recorder under his arm standing in the doorway of a bare room . . . but that was when I first began to really believe that I wasn't alone in Sara Laughs. So what? I asked myself. Even if it should be true, so what? Ghosts can't hurt anyone. That's what I thought then. When I visited Jo's studio (her air-conditioned studio) after lunch, I felt quite a lot better about Brenda Meserve she hadn't taken too much on herself after all. The few items I especially remembered from Jo's little office the framed square of her first afghan, the green rag rug, her framed poster depicting the wildflowers of Maine had been put out here, along with almost everything else I remembered. It was as if Mrs. M. had sent a message I can't ease your pain or shorten your sadness, and I can't prevent the wounds that coming back here may re-open, but I can put all the stuff that may hurt you in one place, so you won't be stumbling over it unexpected or unprepared. I can do that much. Out here were no bare walls; out here the walls jostled with my wife's spirit and creativity. There were knitted things (some serious, many whimsical), batik squares, rag dolls popping out of what she called ‘my baby collages,' an abstract desert painting made from strips of yellow, black, and orange silk, her flower photographs, even, on top of her bookshelf, what appeared to be a construction-in-progress, a head of Sara Laughs herself. It was made out of toothpicks and lollipop sticks. In one corner was her little loom and a wooden cabinet with a sign reading JO'S KNITTING STUFF! NO TRESPASSING! hung over the pull-knob. In another was the banjo she had tried to learn and then given up on, saying it hurt her fingers too much. In a third was a kayak paddle and a pair of Rollerblades with scuffed toes and little purple pompoms on the tips of the laces. The thing which caught and held my eye was sitting on the old roll-top desk in the center of the room. During the many good summers, falls, and winter weekends we had spent here, that desktop would have been littered with spools of thread, skeins of yarn, pincushions, sketches, maybe a book about the Spanish Civil War or famous American dogs. Johanna could be aggravating, at least to me, because she imposed no real system or order on what she did. She could also be daunting, even overwhelming at times. She was a brilliant scatterbrain, and her desk had always reflected that. But not now. It was possible to think that Mrs. M. had cleared the litter from the top of it and plunked down what was now there, but impossible to believe. Why would she? It made no sense. The object was covered with a gray plastic hood. I reached out to touch it, and my hand faltered an inch or two short as a memory of an old dream (give me that it's my dust-catcher) slipped across my mind much as that queer draft ad slipped across my face. Then it was gone, and I pulled the plastic, over off. Underneath it was my old green IBM Selectric, which I hadn't seen or thought of in years. I leaned closer, knowing that the typewriter ball would be Courier my old favorite even before I saw it. What in God's name was my old typewriter doing out here? Johanna painted (although not very well), she took photographs (very good ones indeed) and sometimes sold them, she knitted, she crocheted, she wove and dyed cloth, she could play eight or ten basic chords on the guitar. She could write, of course; most English majors can, which is why they become English majors. Did she demonstrate any blazing degree of literary creativity? No. After a few experiments with poetry as an undergrad, she gave up that particular branch of the arts as a bad job. You write for both of us, Mike, she had said once. That's all yours; I'll just take a little taste of everything else. Given the quality of her poems as opposed to the quality of her silks, photographs, and knitted art, I thought that was probably wise. But here was my old IBM. Why? ‘Letters,' I said. ‘She found it down cellar or something, and rescued it to write letters on.' Except that wasn't Jo. She showed me most of her letters, often urging me to write little postscripts of my own, guilt-tripping me with that old saying about how the shoemaker's kids always go barefoot (‘and the writer's friends would never hear from him if it weren't for Alexander Graham Bell,' she was apt to add). I hadn't seen a typed personal letter from my wife in all the time we'd been married if nothing else, she would have considered it shitty etiquette. She could type, producing mistake-free business letters slowly yet methodically, but she always used my desktop computer or her own Powerbook for those chores. ‘What were you up to, hon?' I asked, then began to investigate her desk drawers. Brenda Meserve had made an effort with these, but Jo's fundamental nature had defeated her. Surface order (spools of thread segregated by color, for instance) quickly gave way to Jo's old dear jumble. I found enough of her in those drawers to hurt my heart with a hundred unexpected memories, but I found no paperwork which had been typed on my old IBM, with or without the Courier ball. Not so much as a single page. When I was finished with my hunt, I leaned back in my chair (her chair) and looked at the little framed photo on her desk, one I couldn't remember ever having seen before. Jo had most likely printed it herself (the original might have come out of some local's attic) and then hand-tinted the result. The final product looked like a wanted poster colorized by Ted Turner. I picked it up and ran the ball of my thumb over the glass facing, bemused. Sara Tidwell, the turn-of-the-century blues shouter whose last known port of call had been right here in TR-90. When she and her folks some of them friends, most of them relatives had left the TR, they had gone on to Castle Rock for a little while . . . then had simply disappeared, like a cloud over the horizon or mist on a summer morning. She was smiling just a little in the picture, but the smile was hard to read. Her eyes were half-closed. The string of her guitar not a strap but a string was visible over one shoulder. In the background I could see a black man wearing a derby at a killer angle (one thing about musicians: they really know how to wear hats) and standing beside what appeared to be a washtub bass. Jo had tinted Sara's skin to a caf? ¦-au-lait shade, maybe based on other pictures she'd seen (there are quite a few knocking around, most showing Sara with her head thrown back and her hair hanging almost to her waist as she bellows out her famous carefree yell of a laugh), although none would have been in color. Not at the turn of the century. Sara Tidwell hadn't just left her mark in old photographs, either. I recalled Dickie Brooks, owner of the All-Purpose Garage, once telling me that his father claimed to have won a teddybear at the Castle County Fair's shooting-pitch, and to have given it to Sara Tidwell. She had rewarded him, Dickie said, with a kiss. According to Dickie the old man never forgot it, said it was the best kiss of his life . . . although I doubt if he said it in his wife's hearing. In this photo she was only smiling. Sara Tidwell, known as Sara Laughs. Never recorded, but her songs had lived just the same. One of them, ‘Walk Me Baby,' bears a remarkable resemblance to ‘Walk This Way,' by Aerosmith. Today the lady would be known as an African-American. In 1984, when Johanna and I bought the lodge and consequently got interested in her, she would have been known as a Black. In her own time she would have been called a Negress or a darkie or possibly an octoroon. And a nigger, of course. There would have been plenty of folks free with that one. And did I believe that she had kissed Dickie Brooks's father a white man in front of half of Castle County? No, I did not. Still, who could say for sure? No one. That was the entrancing thing about the past. ‘It ain't nuthin but a barn-dance sugar,' I sang, putting the picture back on the desk. ‘It ain't nuthin but a round-and-round.' I picked up the typewriter cover, then decided to leave it off. As I stood, my eyes went back to Sara, standing there with her eyes closed and the string which served her as a guitar strap visible over one shoulder. Something in her face and smile had always struck me as familiar, and suddenly it came to me. She looked oddly like Robert Johnson, whose primitive licks hid behind the chords of almost every Led Zeppelin and Yardbirds song ever recorded. Who, according to the legend, had gone down to the crossroads and sold his soul to Satan for seven years of fast living, high-tension liquor, and streetlife babies. And for a jukejoint brand of immortality, of course. Which he had gotten. Robert Johnson, supposedly poisoned over a woman. In the late afternoon I went down to the store and saw a good-looking piece of flounder in the cold-case. It looked like supper to me. I bought a bottle of white wine to go with it, and while I was waiting my turn at the cash register, a trembling old man's voice spoke up behind me. ‘See you made a new friend yes'ty.' The Yankee accent was so thick that it sounded almost like a joke . . . except the accent itself is only part of it; mostly, I've come to believe, it's that singsong tone real Mainers all sound like auctioneers. I turned and saw the geezer who had been standing out on the garage tarmac the day before, watching along with Dickie Brooks as I got to know Kyra, Mattie, and Scoutie. He still had the gold-headed cane, and I now recognized it. Sometime in the 1950s, the Boston Post had donated one of those canes to every county in the New England states. They were given to the oldest residents and passed along from old fart to old fart. And the joke of it was that the Post had gone toes-up years ago. ‘Actually two new friends,' I replied, trying to dredge up his name. I couldn't, but I remembered him from when Jo had been alive, holding down one of the overstuffed chairs in Dickie's waiting room, discussing weather and politics, politics and weather, as the hammers whanged and the air-compressor chugged. A regular. And if something happened out there on Highway 68, eye-God, he was there to see it. ‘I hear Mattie Devore can be quite a dear,' he said heah, Devoah, deeah and one of his crusty eyelids drooped. I have seen a fair number of salacious winks in my time, but none that was a patch on the one tipped me by that old man with the gold-headed cane. I felt a strong urge to knock his waxy beak of a nose off. The sound of it parting company from his face would be like the crack of a dead branch broken over a bent knee. ‘Do you hear a lot, old-timer?' I asked. ‘Oh, ayuh!' he said. His lips dark as strips of liver parted in a grin. His gums swarmed with white patches. He had a couple of yellow teeth still planted in the top one, and a couple more on the bottom. ‘And she gut that little one cunnin, she is! Ayuh!' ‘Cunnin as a cat a-runnin,' I agreed. He blinked at me, a little surprised to hear such an old one out of my presumably newfangled mouth, and then that reprehensible grin widened. ‘Her don't mind her, though,' he said. ‘Baby gut the run of the place, don'tcha know.' I became aware better belated than never that half a dozen people were watching and listening to us. ‘That wasn't my impression,' I said, raising my voice a bit. ‘No, that wasn't my impression at all.' He only grinned . . . that old man's grin that says Oh, ayuh, deah; I know one worth two of that. I left the store feeling worried for Mattie Devore. Too many people were minding her business, it seemed to me. When I got home, I took my bottle of wine into the kitchen it could chill while I got the barbecue going out on the deck. I reached for the fridge door, then paused. Perhaps as many as four dozen little magnets had been scattered randomly across the front vegetables, fruits, plastic letters and numbers, even a good selection of the California Raisins but they weren't random anymore. Now they formed a circle on the front of the refrigerator. Someone had been in here. Someone had come in and . . . Rearranged the magnets on the fridge? If so, that was a burglar who needed to do some heavy remedial work. I touched one of them gingerly, with just the tip of my finger. Then, suddenly angry with myself, I reached out and spread them again, doing it with enough force to knock a couple to the floor. I didn't pick them up. That night, before going to bed, I placed the Memo-Scriber on the table beneath Bunter the Great Stuffed Moose, turning it on and putting it in the DICTATE mode. Then I slipped in one of my old home-dubbed cassettes, zeroed the counter, and went to bed, where I slept without dreams or other interruption for eight hours. The next morning, Monday, was the sort of day the tourists come to Maine for the air so sunny-clean that the hills across the lake seemed to be under subtle magnification. Mount Washington, New England's highest, floated in the farthest distance. I put on the coffee, then went into the living room, whistling. All my imaginings of the last few days seemed silly this morning. Then the whistle died away. The Memo-Scriber's counter, set to 000 when I went to bed, was now at 012. I rewound it, hesitated with my finger over the PLAY button, told myself (in Jo's voice) not to be a fool, and pushed it. ‘Oh Mike,' a voice whispered mourned, almost-on the tape, and I found myself having to press the heel of one hand to my mouth to hold back a scream. It was what I had heard in Jo's office when the draft rushed past the sides of my face . . . only now the words were slowed down just enough for me to understand them. ‘Oh Mike,' it said again. There was a faint click. The machine had shut down for some length of time. And then, once more, spoken in the living room as I had slept in the north wing: ‘Oh Mike.' Then it was gone.

Willowbrook

I am going to begin this essay discussing some of the ways the human Services field has changed with the developmental disibilities. I am going to discuss ways it has changed from training classes that I have went to and learned from. Back many many years ago, people with disabilities were looked at in a totally different way then they are today. Today individuals with developmental disabilities are taken very good care of and are watched very closely. Back in the 1930s there was a place called Willowbrook that was built and was a state run facility for individuals with developmental diabilities. Willowbrook was in the Willowbrook neighborhood in Staten Island, NY. It was opened in the 1930s and closed in 1987. Willowbrook was orginally degisned for 4,000 individuals but eventually ib 1965 it had more than 6,000 individuals. In 1965 it was the biggest state run facility for individuals with developmental disibilites. It was a very bad place for these individuals due to questionable medical practices and experiments. Sen. Robert Kennedy even called it a â€Å"snake pit†. In the first decade that it was open individuals were getting hepatitis, it became very common. Most of the individuals developed some type of hepatitis within the first 6 months. In 1965 when the population was over 6,000 individuals Senator Robert Kennedy toured the facility. It was very overcrowed at this time with 2,000 more individuals than the building was designed for. Senator Robert Kennedy gave some recommendations for improving the conditions after he seen they were â€Å"living in filth and dirt, their clothing in rags, in rooms less comfortable and beerful than the cages in which we put animals in a zoo†. Many of the individuals who lived there were abondoned by their families, foster care, and or other system agencies. In 1972 Geraldo Rivera who was an investigative reporter in New York did some investigation. During his investigations he found â€Å"deplorable conditions†. The deplorable conditions were â€Å"overcrowding, inadequate sanitary facilities, and physical and sexual abuse†. Rivera then went onto the Dick Cavett Show and showed some film of indiviuals that lived at the school. On March 17, 1972 a class action law-suit against New York State was filed in federal court. A settlement was not reached until May 5, 1975. It took several years before all of the violation were corrected. Due to the publicity of the case their is now a federal law called the Civil Right of Institutionalized Persons Act of 1980. In 1983 there were plans to close Willowbrook made by the the state of New York. In 1974 it was renamed Staten Island Develpmental Center. By March 1986 the population was at 250. On September 17, 1987 the last individual left the facility. While I was in a training class for my current job, we had to watch a video by Geraldo Rivera about Willowbrook. The conditions named above were so true but reading about it sounds good compared to actually seeing how these individuals actually had to live. Not only were these individuals already abandoned by their loved ones now they had to live in terrible conditions.

Safety of Women and Workplace Health Issues

Safety of Women and Workplace Health Issues For the last fifty years, workforce in the U.S has experienced numerous changes. Although the number of men in the workforce is still higher than that of women, there has been a remarkable increase in the number of working women. For instance, the percentage was thirty four in the 1950s and this has increased to sixty percent today.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Safety of Women and Workplace Health Issues specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More These are clearly impressive statistics that prove that women have taken their rightful positions in the workplace. This probably can be attributed to various reasons. For instance, women nowadays do not get married as early as they used to in the past, they also take a longer period of time in advancing their education and bear fewer children. A great number of them nowadays continue with their working life as well as attending to the roles that are traditionally associated with p arents (Womens Safety and Health Issues at Work 1). At the workplace, women are faced by many challenges that are not faced by their male counterparts. This is partially due to the fact that men and women do not specialize in the same jobs. They usually have different types of jobs. Generally, there are work related cases that are associated with women. Some of them include respiratory diseases, carpal tunnel syndrome, stress disorders, infectious diseases caused by parasites and anxiety. In addition, women are exposed to risks of illness and injuries at the workplace as a result of social, cultural and economic factors. Some of the social factors may include marital problems and pressing family needs while economic ones include lack of enough finances to meet basic needs or bad debts. For example, a higher number of women than men take up part-time or contractual jobs. Contingent work is also in most cases associated with women. When compared with individuals who work in traditiona l job settings, contingent workers are lowly paid and enjoy limited benefits. Most women do not have the confidence to raise safety issues since they believe that such actions could cost them their jobs or be exposed to unbearable working conditions. This is a characteristic of all employees who work in jobs that are insecure.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More It is also common that they fear reporting injuries sustained at the workplace. In the American workforce, women from foreign countries popularly referred to as immigrants are vulnerable to workplace risks. They experience problems due to the immigrant status they carry and also issues as they try to balance family life and work. They work in places that expose them to a higher rate of injuries as compared to their native counterparts. Sexual harassment may be the root cause of depression, anxiety, low self-est eem and headaches among other complications (Womens Safety and Health Issues at Work 3). In my opinion, most women carry heavy burdens as they try to balance family responsibilities and work. This stresses them since they have to take care of children and the elderly. Women who find themselves in such situations may be at the risk of developing many physical and mental complications. It is important for the relevant government departments to ensure that workplace discrimination does not exist. There should also be adequate safety mechanisms in all workplaces especially in industries where women have higher chances of getting injured. In the event of any injury at the workplace, organizations should take full responsibility in ensuring that the victims get medical attention and eventual compensation. Womens Safety and Health Issues at Work 2012. Web. https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2013/05/13/womens-health-at-work/.

The best blogs every HR professional needs to ready

The best blogs every HR professional needs to ready Things are changing all the time in the HR world, so if you’re looking for ways to keep current, you can’t go wrong with blogs. But which one? We have you covered, no matter what avenue you want to explore. Here are some of the best, industry-leading blogs that can help keep you in the loop.The HR CapitalistWritten by Kris Dunn, a longtime HR executive with a passion for efficiency, The HR Capitalist focuses on ways to make your work more streamlined and informed. Highlights include everyday tips, interviews with essential pros, book reviews, and thoughtful essays on current trends. Bonus blog: Dunn also runs Fistful of Talent, which features diverse voices writing about trends and news from recruiting and talent management.PandologicBy putting the gamut of HR topics in one place (like recruiting, recruitment marketing, strategy, data and analytics, advertising, and tech trends), Pandologic gives you a checkpoint for all that’s new and developing in your professi onal world. With its focus on fast-moving trends and future development, this blog is geared toward the professional looking to make- or maintain- forward progress in their organization.Ask a ManagerWho doesn’t love a good advice column? Ask a Manager brings Dear Abby into the HR realm, giving insightful advice on real-life issues faced by professionals in the field. The advice here comes from Alison Green, a longtime management and human resources professional. Green’s philosophy is based on practicality and productivity, using communication to solve problems before they become insurmountable or, worse, career-blockers.The Buzz on HRIn The Buzz on HR, human resources manager Sarah Morgan (who has more than 20 years of experience in the trenches) brings her unique insights to leadership and organizational management. If you’re looking for a daily hit of short trend pieces and breaking news, this may not be the place; but if you want thoughtful, perceptive essays on the experiences and challenges facing the busy HR professional, this one is a great blog to add to your rotation.hbspt.cta.load(2785852, '9e52c197-5b5b-45e6-af34-d56403f973c5', {});HR BartenderWhen happy hour feels too far away (when it’s, say, at 10 a.m. on a Tuesday), you can still get the experience of chatting with a friendly voice who understands that HR is a lifestyle (not just a day job) at HR Bartender. HR professional-turned-consultant Sharlyn Lauby gets that the HR world isn’t just recruitment and data- it’s an integral part of a living, breathing workplace, with human interests and concerns. HR Bartender uses a light, practical approach to the issues facing HR pros.HR ExaminerIf you’re looking for insight into the technology that’s shaping the HR world more and more every day, then HR Examiner can help you geek out to your heart’s content. It’s all about the intersection of technology, analytics, and hands-on HR work. T he blog includes in-depth analysis of trends and products, as well as weekly interviews, newsletters, and podcasts to keep you up-to-the-minute on all the latest tech trends.The Undercover RecruiterUndercover Recruiter is a bit different from the rest of the pack because it brings HR-themed content for several different audiences: the employer, the recruiter, and the job seeker. The blog features a diverse array of writers and topics, covering industry trends, tips for strategy and best practices, and news on the latest trends that affect hiring from all angles.WorkologyWorkology is great because it tackles topics meant for HR pros at every level: newbie, midlevel, management, executive, etc. With more than 100 writers providing news and insight into trends and the HR experience, the blog supports the human resources lifer at every stage of their career. The platform also has extensive social media and podcast content, as well as a weekly newsletter to keep you up on all the news yo u need to know.The best HR blogs are ones that not only inform, but also show how vibrant and diverse the HR community is. Each of these is a great resource that can help you grow and thrive in your organization and find your tribe while you learn everything you need to know.

9 Tips to Advance Your Career

9 Tips to Advance Your Career While the recession’s aftermath is still affecting many workplaces, and it’s easy to get discouraged and shut down, Canadian professional consultant Bruce Harpham has been making an effort to focus on the potential opportunities that inevitable emerge from a time of stress. Even if you’re bracing for another round of layoffs or trying to boost your career during a stagnant time in your field, check out this tips to help harness your energies in meaningful ways and keep making a difference at work. 1. Work On Goals That MatterWhether you’re in your dream job or biding time until you can land something better, find a way to care about your daily assignments. If the goals your boss hands you aren’t exciting enough, find something in your personal life (ideally, something that benefits your career too like a new skill set) that you can only tackle once you’ve completed your work to-dos. Make your daily work meaningful however you can–emplo yers will notice your enthusiasm.2. Use a Reliable Personal Organization SystemAccording to Harpham, among other things, â€Å"successful professionals know how to run a meeting†. Make sure your personal work life is well-organized and effective–develop good habits, use consistent systems, and if organization doesn’t come naturally to you, explore resources to help you acquire new skills. Personal organization is a toolkit you can take with you wherever you go.3. Learn to Earn MoreEffective employees are always acquiring new responsibilities, new skills, and new goals. Don’t stay comfortable at the plateau you reach when you learn your way around a new job–use resources online or in your community to pursue new knowledge, so when the next big opportunity comes up you’re not only qualified, you’re the ideal candidate.4. Navigate Power Like a PrinceEven if your career ambitions aren’t as lofty as a Senior VP, you’ll only b enefit from staying sharp and observing how powerful people move through the workplace. Work to understand the priorities and decision-making methods of the people in power; it’ll help you relate to them and prepare for the demands of your future career as well.5. Maintain Focus on Results Rather Than TimeMany an hourly worker develops a â€Å"time worked equals value created† mentality - lose the attitude, but keep the work ethic, and make sure you’ve produced worthwhile progress each and every day.6. Exploit All Of Your BenefitsThe essential benefits from working a full-time job, like health and retirement, are easy to appreciate–but make sure you’re making the best possible use of the lesser known perks as well. Some companies offer transportation subsidies–lower price public transit passes or parking reimbursement; I once worked at a company that had a partnership with an entertainment organization. I enjoyed half price theater and base ball tickets all summer, but many of my colleagues had no idea these rebates existed.7. Give Time, Attention, and More To Your NetworkDon’t be the person who only gets in touch with an old contact when you want something. Remembering birthdays, introducing people who can help each other, even forwarding an article about an old friend’s favorite hobby with a â€Å"saw this and thought of you!† note can show that you’re not just a parasitic acquaintance. Be generous with your time and network, and it will be there for you when you need it.8. Protect the Asset By Keeping Up Your HealthIt may sound odd to think of your physical health as an asset–but wait until you lose it, and you’re out of sick time. Regular exercise, attention to nutrition, and most important of all, a good night’s sleep on a regular basis are crucial elements to making sure your career lasts, instead of burning out fast.9. Develop Conflict Management SkillsEspecially for an ambitious person, conflict is fairly inevitable. The good news is, conflict resolution techniques can be learned, if they’re not innate or acquired earlier in life. Check out local resources or consult an HR representative to find out what workshops may be available for you, if conflict makes your stomach churn. You too can learn to field even the toughest clients and colleagues with poise.The only thing Harpham left out was the importance of showing up, whenever you’re well enough to do so. Value your job, value your time, and value yourself–be the best team player you can be.9 Ways To Speed Up Your Career AdvancementRead More at Lifehack

Organic memory transistor Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Organic memory transistor - Essay Example They (Fakher & Mabrooka, 2012) reported that the output characteristics for both the devices show perfect and good saturation area at low and high voltage; VDS respectively. They also found out that, in the control device, the mobility (Â µ), the threshold and the on/off rotation were 0.27cm2 V-1S-1, 16V and 4.1 X 104 respectively. However, in the organic memory floating gate; the mobility was found to be 0.04 cm2 V-1S-1, the threshold was between -23 and -47 volts while the on/off ratio was 2.3 X 103. For high mobility and increasing on/off ratio, the smooth surface, uniform and loose pin holes where the reverse proportionality of PMMA concentration which was above 15wt%, and can be a significant influence on the average grain region and average roughness of pentacene layer. They also stated that a clear trend was there to show that there was no hysteresis in the control transistor due to non charge storage element. In addition, they said that the gold floating gate of the organic memory transistor causes low mobility due to the gold nanoparticle affected to follow and carry charges from the first layer of PMMA through gold floating gate to the second layer of the PMMA in the insulator. ... That was when different pulses of OTMFTs were applied to the gate electrodes. This was evident in non-volatile state attitude for the organic thin film memory transistor device. Graphene oxide and floating gate: Other authors, including Tae-Wook Kim, Yan Gao, Orb Action, Hin-Lap, Hong Ma and others, also reported about the electrical characteristics of organic non-volatile memory transistors (ONVMTs) using chemically synthesized grapheme oxide (GO) as a charge trapping layer based on pentacene/PMMA/Grapheme oxide nanosheets/SiO2.GO (Kim, et al., 2010). the nanosheets were produced by modified Hammer’s process then deposited on top of SiO2 substrate using spin coating and hot plate (3000 rpm for 40s and 120C0 for 10 minutes), respectively. The drain/source contact was of gold and had a thickness of 50nm thick and a semiconductor layer of 50nm was deposited using thermal evaporation of pentacene. The GO nonosheets were located between PMMA and SiO2 layers of about 10nm of thickn ess. A clear trend, morphological properties of grapheme oxide such as rougher and coverage region were dependent on the concentration of its solution. The output and transfer characteristics of both the devices, namely; control (OFETs) device without grapheme nanosheets and (ONVMTs) device within GO nanosheets, have similar values of mobility ), threshold and on/off ration which were 0.16 cm2V-1S-1, 6.5V and 106 respectively. On the other hand, travelling electrons or hole from pentacene to GO nanosheets through PMMA layer resulted to hysteresis which was featured in the transfer characteristics of (ONVMT) device. However, there was no hysteresis in the control (OFET) due to the absence of the trap charge

American Politics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

American Politics - Essay Example Madison successfully helped in winning the Constitution ratification after the constitution (Kernell, Jacobson & Kousser, 2012). Madison, with his knowledge on various forms of government, blended the principles of governance that had a profound effect on American Constitution. He noticed that small scale republics were coupled with problems due to their sizes. Also, he noticed from studies that confederated form of governance was not the best. He embarked on an alternative Constitutional design that avoided these shortcomings. This alternative Constitutional framework was introduced by Virginia delegates and named the Virginia Plan at the Convention. In his writing, he made it clear that governance administered over men by men was to be constituted in such a way that it could control itself and those whom it governs (Kernell & Smith, 2013). The Virginia Plan can be said to compose of the following notable features as listed in what follows; these features paved way to the most demon strative constitutional reforms in the history of America. 1) Two chamber legislature; a representation in each chamber based on state population. 2) Lower chamber of the legislature elected by the citizens of each state; upper chamber, executive, and courts elected by the lower house. 3) Legislature can make any law regarding any national problem. 4) Legislature can veto state legislation that it believes conflicts with national laws or the constitution. 5) Council of Revision (composed of executive and the court) can veto legislation passed by the national legislature, but legislature can override by majority vote (Kernell, Jacobson & Kousser, 2012). According to the Virginia Plan, the apportioning of both houses was to be done according to the contributions of states or the numbers of inhabitants. It was obviously the just way of ensuring that equality and standard representation by all. The larger populations were obviously supported in this reasoning though much thought also co uld be regarded in smaller states’ inclusion. This would have ensured equity and equality as larger states would have parted with some portions of power. Though this inclusion was seen by others as giving too much power to the people than expected, the people of America were more inclusive and united in decision making (Kernell, Jacobson & Kousser, 2012). The Plan supported the formation of a national executive. This national executive was to dispense a much more authoritative power than the then unicameral, feeble regime that was in existence then. The national government would wield much power effectively without states being coerced into action. Since it was a national issue, many people would be served inclusively and effectively. This national executive was to serve the whole country. As a national figure, the national executive gave the overall view of a democratic representation (Kernell & Smith, 2013). It is common knowledge that if the states are given the power to s elect the senate, the system would just be flawed and democratically misguided. The senate was thus selected by members of the lower house. In doing this, both houses would have been made as independent as possible. In fact, this might have enabled the defense of the minorities much easier. Also, the enforcement of this law would

Freedom of Speech Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

Freedom of Speech - Essay Example The victims of fighting words are usually silenced by their relative powerless position in society. A common presumption that is usually made by the fighting words doctrine is that an encounter between two individuals that relatively have equal degrees of power will generally result in violence. Boss (2009), points out that freedom of speech is often described as being a liberal right; in this regard we all have an innate right to express all of our opinions without having to face any interference or inhibition from other people or the government (Paikin, 2014). However, Boss (2009) cautions that not all forms of verbal expression can be considered to be speech and similarly to most of the other liberty rights,freedom of speech is considered as not being an absolute right. All societies place limits on speech with the objective of preventing the occurrence of civil disorder and violence which in turn helps society in protecting its citizens against harassment, threats and fraud. The government can largely be considered as acting in an heteronomous manner when it moves to curtail the people’s freedom of speech. This is because there are now wide ranging concerns over how the government exercises censorship. The notion of censorship has traditionally been based on the assumption that the government and people in positions of authority have access to the truth and as such are well placed to make final decisions as to what exactly should be considered to be good and right. However, this authority has in recent years come under heavy criticism as a result of the fact that as a result of some perceived heteronomy on the part of the government. An example of this is the formulation and implementation of the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act makes it legal for law enforcement officials to now be able to search people’s bookstore and library records in

Hypothesis Tests for Means and Proportions Research Paper

Hypothesis Tests for Means and Proportions - Research Paper Example Type I error is defined as the error of rejecting a null hypothesis when it is true. In this case type error would be the error of inferring that the bags are less than 12.0 ounces (less than claimed value) but in reality its weight is either 12.0 ounces or even greater. Level of significance refers to the probability of type I error, that means a fixed probability, in statistical hypothesis testing, of wrongly rejecting a null hypothesis Ho, when it is true. It is represented by . As evident from the given problem, the investigator had a doubt that the claimed weight of the potato bags is greater than the actual weight. To verify the authenticity of this claim, he collected some 30 bags and found the mean of those bags, which came out to be 11.9 ounces. Although the mean weight came out to be lesser than the claimed one. But the real question or logic behind hypothesis testing is that we want to ascertain that whether it would be appropriate to consider the difference of 0.1 ounces from observing 30 bags with the standard deviation of 0.4 a 'significant' one and infer this difference as on the entire population.

Comparative Analysis of Portugal and Australia Culture Essay

Comparative Analysis of Portugal and Australia Culture - Essay Example Comparative Analysis of Portugal and Australia Culture For an individual, it is imperative to comprehend the multicultural values especially in the business environment to successfully perform the assigned activities. With this concern, in order to ascertain cultural distinctiveness of the host or target country i.e. Australia, a person working in the corporate sector in the nation was interviewed. Subsequently, a number of critical facets have been derived that would enable to meet the ensuing challenges in a diverse culture. The objective of the study is to determine the various cultural dimensions which differentiate the business and cultural environment of Australia from Portugal. The behavioral dimension, work purpose, time and human nature among factors are evaluated. The cultural environment of Australia differs from that of Portugal on the basis of certain grounds. From the conversation with the designated individual and from revealed researches, it has been ascertained that the culture of Australia gives much significance to ascertaining harmony of the country which influences the workplace. The harmony is valued to bring cohesiveness and promote diversity in Australia which supports the work culture to a great extent. Australia renders more significance to the individualistic culture, which makes the society loosely knit. This characteristic is displayed in the business environment where the employees are estimated to be self-reliant and exhibit initiative. The people of Australia are modest, val ue authenticity, sincerity and give more importance to the business. The hiring and the promotion of the people in Australia depend on the merit of the individuals. Conversely, in Portugal, the importance is given to the moral and relationship factor. The cohesiveness of the people in Australia makes it a better place for business than in Portugal. The Portugal culture gives more importance to personal relation than business. The commitment among the people is more in Portugal as they follow the collective approach, which gives more importance to the group member than an individual (ITIM, â€Å"What about Australia†; ITIM, â€Å"What about Portugal†). UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE The rules and procedures are flexible in Australia as it follows the pragmatic culture for avoiding uncertainty. With reference to Hofstede’s cultural dimension, it is observed that the score of Australia is 51 as compared to 104 of Portugal which signifies that the Australian culture gives em phasis on idea generation, innovation and has a risk taking approach to help the work environment to flourish amid the changing uncertainties. Whereas, the Portuguese culture states that they follow rigid rules and procedures which help them to avoid uncertainty better than Australia. The people do not focus on emotions much and emphasize planning to make the business grow. The culture emphasizes more emotions, beliefs and have a risk-averse behavior (ITIM, â€Å"What about Australia†; ITIM, â€Å"What about Portugal†). SOURCES OF TRUTH In the Australian organizational culture, the managers are easily accessible due to a flexible hierarchical system. The communication system is informal in Australia which gives scope for both the management and the employees to have a free interaction. Thus, employee for any query or in search of truth

Hypothesis Tests for Means and Proportions Research Paper

Hypothesis Tests for Means and Proportions - Research Paper Example Type I error is defined as the error of rejecting a null hypothesis when it is true. In this case type error would be the error of inferring that the bags are less than 12.0 ounces (less than claimed value) but in reality its weight is either 12.0 ounces or even greater. Level of significance refers to the probability of type I error, that means a fixed probability, in statistical hypothesis testing, of wrongly rejecting a null hypothesis Ho, when it is true. It is represented by . As evident from the given problem, the investigator had a doubt that the claimed weight of the potato bags is greater than the actual weight. To verify the authenticity of this claim, he collected some 30 bags and found the mean of those bags, which came out to be 11.9 ounces. Although the mean weight came out to be lesser than the claimed one. But the real question or logic behind hypothesis testing is that we want to ascertain that whether it would be appropriate to consider the difference of 0.1 ounces from observing 30 bags with the standard deviation of 0.4 a 'significant' one and infer this difference as on the entire population.

DQ Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

DQ - Essay Example The manager must then supervise them closely and let them know that they are under constant observation in order for them to be productive. The research undertaken shows this to be false. Managers spend much of their time not only directing their subordinates but interacting likewise with â€Å"peers, superiors, and people outside the organization.† It highlights the role of planner, which is often relegated by common notion to the background. Secondly, it is generally taken for granted that a manager’s work is easy and light considering they do not do the â€Å"hands-on† job their subordinates do. They stay in the office at their desks and just wait for results. However, as the study shows, a manager’s job is rarely an idle one. Managers are constantly bombarded with problems, requests, and contingencies to address, often and requiring quick decision-making. Sometimes the elevated position the manager has over a single unit tasked with a single function lends one to believe that he is an expert in his field and thus his tasks is specialized. The study proves the contrary, however, that the typical manage is a generalist, called to address issues and demands of varied and fragmented nature, requiring multifaceted skills – technical, financial, and human relations included. The manager is often seen as a â€Å"navigator† of sorts whose principal task is to plan the details of his unit. It is often thought that the more carefully the plans are prepared and forward-looking activities such as training are undertaken, the less time and effort he spends doing â€Å"repair† management. That just is not so, according to the research. Much of the manager’s activities are described by the study as â€Å"reactive rather than proactive in nature†, pertaining more to adjustments, adaptations, and damage control. This causes

My Family and the Conservative Theory Essay Example for Free

My Family and the Conservative Theory Essay I believe that my family is a great example of the conservative theory. I was raised by both of my parents who have been married for over thirty years. There was myself and my two sisters that also comprised our household. We lived in Saudi Arabia growing up and are followers of Islam. My father, Mahdi was a geography teacher on the college level, from which he has since retired. My mother taught middle school science. My older sister has been married for over five years and has one three year old child. I am currently attending college and studying finance and my younger sister is attending college and studying accounting. Being part of the Muslim community is part of the conservative nature of my family. We choose to try and live our lives according to the five pillars of Islam. These are the beliefs that the religion was founded upon. The first pillar of Islam is that Allah is complete and supreme oneness and that Muhammad was the great prophet. This one pillar is the foundation for the way that my family chooses to live our lives. We choose to participate in a culture where we are governed by Allah a will to do what is good and morally just. The second pillar of Islam is the establishment of daily prayers. Daily prayers are very important in our culture. They are the communication that we have with Allah and the way that we are guided in how we are going to make decisions. As a follower of Islam we pray five times per day. The third pillar of Islam is concern for the needing. This includes being willing to sacrifice to help others who are less fortunate than we are. It is important in my culture to give to those who are needy and to help them as much as we possibly can. Islam teaches not being selfish and wanting worldly possessions but rather being selfless and always giving of oneself to others. This means that it has never been important to me or my family as to whether or not we are wearing a certain brand of clothing or whether or not we have certain processions. It is not important for us to try to keep up with mainstream society in an attempt to fit in as we believe that our riches are destined for another time and another place. We value saving and are conservative in our spending and shopping habits. The fourth pillar of Islam is self purification through fasting. Fasting is a big part of our beliefs and we are conservative in this area as well. We fast during the month of Ramadan from sun up until sun down. This is to teach us discipline. There is no stronger conservative value than discipline as when we are disciplined we are able to make decisions without feeling the pressure of the outside world. The fifth pillar of Islam is to make a pilgrimage to Mekkah. The pilgrimage to Mekkah is important as we are traveling to the divine spot where Muhammad heard the words of Allah that he used to write the Koran. One of the biggest differences in the Islamic culture that we are a part of in comparison to most other cultures of today is the beliefs that we are taught about dating. Muslim teachings teach us that we are not to date until we are in the confines of marriage. It is against our teachings to go out on dates or to have premarital sex as these behaviors are considered worldly and a poisoning of ourselves and we are to be a temple to Allah. In our culture we start a dua when we want to start dating. This means that we ask Allah to send us a mate with whom we will make a good match with. We believe that Allah’s divine wisdom will allow us to meet our perfect match. I believe that a man and woman are created to be able to find the one perfect match for you who will give you spiritual unity and peace. When someone in my family is looking for a partner with whom to share their life with, the whole family becomes involved. It is still important to find someone who we are going to connect with and get along with and having a person chosen for us is not a way of controlling who we date but rather a way of keeping us from making the mistake of bad relationships and having to suffer through the pain of heartache. The overall idea is that by keeping ourselves pure and clean and not being in a physical relationship with anyone we are able to find a partner who truly is the best match for us emotionally. We also are able to find the one true partner that Allah has created for us by not letting physical attraction or other decisions get in our way. We remain pure for those who we are going to marry and yes this does mean that we do not believe in premarital sexual intercourse or sexual relationships in any way. My family is very conservative in the area of dating as both my sister and her husband and my mother and father are part of marriages that were arranged. My family also does not believe in divorce. We believe that if you truly are with the person that Allah has placed you with then there is no reason for divorce from that person. Growing up following the practices of Islam has made me a much more conservative person than most of my peers. I believe that those who commit crimes should be punished to the full extent. One heated subject for today’s culture has been the idea of corporal punishment and I am in favor of this practice when it is used for the correct reasons and within the realms of the law. I feel that this is the conservative approach on this topic, following the adage if you â€Å"can’t do the time then don’t do the crime. † I also am against abortion which is another topic of heated debate today. Abortion is something that is not allowed through the practices of Islam and something that would never be okay for me or anyone in my family. Homosexuality is also popular today and in the faith of Islam it is not allowed as it is considered a true sin. However it is also a sin to perform any type of sexual act outside of marriage as sexual acts are supposed to be for the purpose of creating a family. My family has not had children out of wedlock. My family has always worked hard to uphold themselves to the moral standards of Islam. Some of this has been difficult as I have always had to think of the moral debate to a subject and how I could justify my decision within my faith. I was raised to be respectful to my parents and could not have said some of those things that I have heard other students talk about saying to their parents. I have always been raised that without my parents I would not be anything and that I needed to uphold the utmost respect for them and their decisions in life. Even when I have disagreed with things that my parents have said, I will still give them the respect of listening to their decision without question. I have always known that my family was different from the other families that I have been witness to since moving to the US. Since we have always practiced Islam and since I grew up in Saudi Arabia I did not realize that we were so much more conservative than other families. Being a part of a conservative family has taught me many things, including that I have values and principals that I am not willing to let down for any reason. I want to follow the teachings of Allah and I want to preserve a culture that I feel reacts in a better way too many of the controversial issues of today. There are all kinds of issues that have to be dealt with on a regular basis when someone is growing up in today’s culture. In a way it is nice to not have to worry about some of these issues as they are behaviors that are not permitted by Islam therefore they are behaviors that I have never thought about being involved in. I do not date and I am a virgin and therefore I find that I am a part of a subgroup within the US culture that is unique in itself. Stating that I am simply conservative might be an understatement as I believe that Allah has better for me and that I should uphold myself to the highest moral standards in order to be able to please him and find my end reward later after this life has ended. I also believe that I have been taught unique values which have carried over into my conservative way of thinking. I was raised by both of my parents who are still married and I have watched my older sister attempt to have the same life that we did growing up. I am hopeful that one day Allah will speak and that I will find my mate and be able to fulfill my life as well.