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Benjamin Franklin– The Autobiography

• “The latter I gave the people on the boat… it” – it’s the right thing to do 

• “...clean-dressed people…” – presenting themselves in proper manner– constructs (standard norms)/labels

• “...I fell fast asleep…” – falls asleep, no substance 

  • Satiric point: quakers meeting did nothing for society, sleep was most productive thing to do, therefore, do something meaningful 

• Religion is inclusive but exclusive to others not part of it 

• Virtues: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, humility

  • Somewhat connection to 7 deadly sins: wrath, envy, lust, greed, gluttony, sloth, pride 

  • 3. Order– can’t plan for the unknown, others influence ability to be orderly, out of control and power, perfection is impossible 

• “speckled ax” – rust: superficial blemishes that bother eyes not performance, blade: part that really matters

Patrick Henry– “Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death!”

• Speech to Virginia Convention– speech: concise, clear 

• 7 Rules of Engagement:

  • 1. The enemy seeks to enslave us, make us their subjects 

  • 2. Self defense 

  • 3. Strong 

  • 4. Diplomacy has failed 

  • 5. War is inevitable (already happening): “The war is inevitable and let it come!” 

  • 6. Illusion of hope– false truth → sacrifice: “...indulge in the illusions of hope.” 

  • 7. God is on our side: “There is a just God who presides over the destinies…” 

• Exigency high  

• “siren” – allusion, strategic (grabs attention)

  • Mythology– enchanting song that lures sailors, eventually gets eaten 

• “Trust it not, sir,... betrayed with a kiss.” – Judas, biblical reference 

• Rhetoric questions– “But when shall we be stronger?…” 

• “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!” 

Thomas Paine (1776–1783) – The American Crisis (Common Sense) 

• Written from– more time to get to point, imagery

• “THESE are the times that try men’s souls…and women” – summer soldier, sunshine patriot

  • Not easy being soldier in winter

• “What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly…” 

• Panic is good– “Yet panics, in some cases, have…” 

• Father and son– “…the blood of his children will curse his cowardice…”, “…let it be in my day, that my child may have peace…” 

• “…cannot be unlocked by trifles…” – virtue #11: tranquility 

• “Every Tory is a coward; for servile, slavish…” – chain, one snip → domino effect 

• “…cunning of the fox… violence of the wolf…”  – relationship of wolf vs. fox 

• “Mutual fear is the principal link in the chain of mutual love…”

Henry David Thoreau – Civil Disobedience (1849)

• Henry David Thoreau, anti-gov

• Problem: government is hollow 

• “It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves” – wooden gun allusion of having power, sets up view of gov 

• “It does not keep the country free… It does not educate” – calling government an “It”, stands in way of others 

• “...undue respect for law…” – consequences: loose freedom, individuality, can’t think for themselves 

• Expediency, hypocrisy, desensitization, veracity–perceived truth 

• Majority vs. minority– does not equal justice, hard to have individuality to fight direction, can’t blindly follow majority 

• “patriot” – don’t want to lose anything, afraid, disliked by other people 

• Moral (right vs. wrong) → immoral (chooses wrong over right) → amoral (lacks morality– doesn't know what they’re doing is wrong)

• “rebels” – rebellion essential to progress 

• Situated perspective– each individual perceives differently, selectively pick out ones we want to follow 

• Government vs. culture

Mohandas Gandhi – On Nonviolent Resistance (1916)

• Government vs. individual 

• “One way is to smash the head of the man…process.” 

• Arbitrary laws, constructs

• “No clapping is possible without two hands to do it… to make it.” – antithetical unity 

• Prison = paradise – “Send us to prison and we will live there as in a paradise.” 

• “...mount the scaffold and we will do so laughing.” – winner, more power 

Martin Luther King, Jr. – Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963)

• MLK believed in nonviolence– creates necessary tension 

• Audience– direct, style – allusions, diction 

• “Apostle Paul” – biblical evidence, allusion, eliminate their reason to discredit him 

• Injustice– repeats for purpose 

  • “...am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have organizational ties here.”

• “Four basic steps” – negotiate yourself, can’t be punished if you already acknowledged the punishment 

  • Self-purification – can I handle it, do I have what it takes?

• Economic community, direct action 

• Just vs. unjust laws 

  • “One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, … accept the penalty.” 

  • Rebellion essential to progress 

• White moderate 

• “Can any law enacted under such circumstances be considered democratically structured?” 

• “There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.” – paradox 

• Thermostat vs. thermometer 

• Thermostat– change to desired, action o be made 

• Thermometer– analyzing, can’t do anything about it 

• “My feet is tired, but my soul is at rest.” 

Baldwin – The White Man’s Guilt

• Absolving, guilt 

• “…Do not blame me, I was not there. I was did not do it… cotton fields of Mississippi” –domino effect, someone benefited from this situation 

• Iron Curtain – allusion

  • “No curtain under heaven is heavier than… The American curtain is color.” 

• White American vs. Black American

Michael Griffith:

• Howard Beach 

• 23-year-old, male, African American 

• Murdered– group of white males harassed him and his friends: Sandiford, Grimes

  • Grimes got away unharmed, Sandiford knocked unconscious, Grimes severely beaten, Michael killed by automobile 

• Bominick Blum (court officer) found innocent– ties to the police 

Eleanor Bumpers:

• High Bridge 

• African American, late 60s, 300-pounds– arthritis and diabetes, assumed to be mentally ill 

• Failed to pay rent (for 5 months) 

• Got shot in the chest by a shotgun – different articles to how and why 

• 6 officers vs. 1 woman – unreasonable amount of people and equipment 

Michael Stewart:

• 25-year-old, black man

• Arrested for graffiti count and possession of marijuana cigarette stub 

• Arrested → hospital – 32 minutes 

  • Arrived at hospital with coma, handcuffed, legs taped together → death after 2 weeks 

• Cardiac arrest → spinal damage – police brutality 

• Civil trial result: “lack of evidence” 

• Witness afraid to testify 

Tawana Brawley:

• Black, 15 year old, highschooler 

• Abducted and raped by law enforcements– evidence covered

  • Found wrapped in plastic garbage bag 

• Told the truth and stuck with it despite what others had said

Public Enemy – Fight the Power (1989)

• “Got to give us what we want Gotta give us what we need”

• “Out freedom of speech is freedom or death” 

• “People, people we are the same No we are not the same Cause we don’t know the game” 

• “Mental self defensive fitness”

• Make everybody see, in order to fight the powers that be”

• Elvis, John Wayne 

• “Cause Im black and Im proud”

• “Most of my heros dont appear on no stamps”

Arthur Miller – On the Shooting of Robert Kennedy

• Criticizes America 

• “...violence in our streets is the violence in our hearts…” 

• “...we have daily honored violence.” 

• “We are afraid…”

• “Between the promise and its denial-there stands the man with the gun. Between the promise … America.” 

• American Dream– nightmare? 

Elie Wiesel – The America I Love

• Praises America– compassion for refugee 

• Perception– seeing good and bad, more work to do, coexisting (counter) truths → paradox 

• Buchenwald concentration camp 

• “...is great not because its economy is flourishing or its army invincible but because…”

• “For an individual, as for a nation, to be free is an admirable duty—...” 

• “Hope for the key…” 

• Cain and Abel– biblical reference, Cain kills Abel, Adam and Eve 

“...America is the strength to overcome cynicism and despair.”