Genius Dr. King Wednesday, Jul 11 2007

Henri Frederic Amiel stated that, “To do easily what is difficult for others is the mark of talent. To do what is impossible for talent is the mark of genius.”(Answer.com)  Indeed, geniuses are influential among people and groups who lack understanding. They have an extraordinary intellectual and creative power, which sets them apart from the average person. The key to what makes geniuses what they are is their prevailing spirit of perseverance; without that, a genius would just give up at the first sign of failure. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is the shining definition of a genius. Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. possessed an intrepid spirit, whose fierce intellect and compassionate nature characterized his genius and making him an essential leader of the Civil Rights Movement in America.Dr. King first showed signs of being of a higher intellect early on during his primary school years. The difference between being a good student with perfect grades and being bumped up a year early in school is the difference among achievers and geniuses. Dr. King had a year head start when entering into school at age five, when the legal age of admission was six, and spent only two years in high school before he graduated.(The King Center) Dr. King’s entrance into Morehouse at the age of fifteen made him a prodigy. He then left Morehouse to study at the University of Pennsylvania. While there, he was president of a predominantly white senior class and was chosen to give the valedictory address at graduation.(The King Center) During a time when blacks were deprived of a good education, his skin color was overlooked and his genius observed, because of this, Dr. King was able to get a personal glimpse of a world without racial prejudice.

The great Dr. King organized marches, speeches, and bus boycotts that sparked the use of phrases like “long overdue” and “much needed” to describe the need for change in a segregated nation. At the time of the civil rights movements, King was not the only person pushing for equal rights for African-Americans; there were other groups like the Black Panthers organization and the Black Muslims. Unlike Dr. King, whose belief was of a nonviolent nature, these two organizations believed in the Old Testament teaching of “An eye for an eye.” Dr. King knew that if blacks physically fought back, they would never get anywhere in the pursuit of equal rights. He had a more peaceful solution that resulted in positive change and prompted growth in America. With his nonviolent ways, he influenced many others to try to live life by his example. Elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, King successfully led the Montgomery bus boycott, which lasted for three hundred and eighty- one days.(The King Center) As a result of this, on December 21, 1956, the Supreme Court ended segregation laws on buses. King had done what most thought of as the impossible, but in his mind he knew that it was possible. Dr. King was masterful in grabbing the attention of the world when he held a massive protest for a coalition of conscience in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. King kept on fighting, not caring how many times he was arrested, because he felt that no matter the consequences, he must keep on going. King gave speeches about peace, prosperity, justice, and the unique vision that he had. One of the speeches that he wrote was marked as a great work of genius; as if he spoke of a lifetime of change when he gave the speech “March on Washington.” In this speech, he spoke of what would come to past; meanwhile, knowing that things would not stay the same forever. In King’s speech he said, “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” The “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” sermon also influenced people to keep on pursuing their civil rights.

The Nobel Peace Prize, received by Dr. King at age thirty-five, is awarded to those who have made a strong contribution for holding and his progress in promoting peace. He was one of the youngest men, the second American, and the third black man to receive this most prestigious award.(The King Center) This award was given to him because of his hard work of carrying out peaceful demonstrations in spite of verbal abuse, physical abuse, and imprisonment. He was on an intellectually higher level of thinking and believed in nonviolent demonstrations, even following the abuse he was subject too. Dr. King gave a speech that reflected his unique and brilliant view of the world, “I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of a thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final world in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger that evil triumphant.”: This quote came from his speech while accepting his Nobel Peace Prize award.(The King Center) Even without the Nobel Peace Prize Dr. King, would have still been a genius.

Seeing things differently, lead, influence, and have the ability to make a huge impact in the way people think beyond one’s lifetime is pure genius. When someone of great intellect and influence dies, he/she is still honored and looked upon for guidance. It is as if they have not died at all, but instead have ascended to the level of being a deity. This makes them immortal in these geniuses’ speeches and teachings, which live on long after their death. The man known as Martin Luther King Jr., who spoke of nonviolence and practiced nonviolence, was without a doubt, a genius.

Works Cited

Biographical Outline of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.The King Center, © 2004 Atlanta, GA25 Oct. 2006. http://www.thekingcenter.org/mlk/bio.html

Chaplin, Joyce E. The First Scientific American: Benjamin Franklin and the Pursuit of Genius.

New York: Basic Books, c2006.

“Genius.” The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition.

01 Nov. 2006. <http://www.answers.com/topic/genius>

Michalko, Michael. “Thinking Like A Genius: Eight Strategies Used By The…” Futurist 32.4 (1998): 21. Professional Development Collection. 1 November 2006. <http://search.ebscohost.com>

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We Need Art Wednesday, Jul 11 2007

From “The American Heritage” dictionary art defined as “Creative or imaginative activity, esp. the expressive arrangement of elements within a medium. Works, such as paintings or poetry, resulting…” Art does not just give birth to paintings and poetry; it also, develops focusing skills, problem-solving skills, originality, and character: a teaching tool needed in schools. It develops in schools educational values, a remedy for behavioral problems, and how can funding for art classed be maintain?

Children who take art classes in elementary school develop good educational values. From an internet article title “A Successful Program” by “Marvin Bartel, Ed.D.” it states strong reasons for why art is such an important thing in school. Children learn from art how to observer and focus on how to draw a particular object before them. From the article “A Successful Program,” it mentions “[children] learn to be careful observers by regularly drawing from observation….They learn to concentrate and to focus.” Art teaches good life skills, which kids need to learn at a young age: planning, preparing, and good decision-making. Math, history, and vocabulary are learning byproducts of art. Children learn about different kinds of art from the past/present. They learn about math when they learn how to analyze different art forms and learning cause and effects when you combine elements together. In art children vocabulary is build up because of the new art terms they learn and along with that, children develop independent studying skills from them working on there on art projects alone.

Art is a remedy for behavioral problem children in schools. It gives these kids a new way to express themselves; instead, of them expressing there issues out on other students physically. It can help them to relax, focus on something other than there problems and it becomes a way to project there feelings on paper. A friend of mines was a problem kid, we went to Warren Easton high school, we were in the tenth grade, and his name was Josh. Before he got into an art class, he was not focus on his schoolwork because he had many problems at his home. Therefore, he decided to take an art class, thinking that it would help him get his mind off his family issues. After a couple of months in the class, I started to see a change in him. He seem more focus on his schoolwork and he was not as depress as he was before he took art.

What could, be done to maintain the funding for art classes in schools? More grants just for art programs only, need to be made out for schools. They can increase the tax on cigarettes and alcohol and use that extra revenue to go to the art programs in schools. Rich entertainers should donate money to schools’ art programs. Especially music entertainers, actors, and comedians, they can donate a dollar every time somebody buys there CDs, movies, books, and clothes. If anybody should know how important art is to schools, they should know because that is how they came to be what there are today.

Art is a need in the education system; especially, if this country want the next generation to be better than the present one. Ending with a quote form “Raphael Soyer” he says, “From all that I have seen I am more than ever convinced that art must communicate, it must represent, it must deserve and express people, their lives and times.”

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Trees Wednesday, Jul 11 2007

Tall, with green leaves in the summer and brown leaves in the fall, they clean our air and give us shelter. Just imagine if there were no more trees. The world would go into a panic. We could not build any more houses, have paper to write on, or breathe clean air. America is considered the biggest group of people who waste the most natural resources; we are guiding our future to a treeless world. American consumers use too many trees for personal wants over personal needs. Americans consume too many trees for paper, then in return damage our environment but there are ways to prevent these damages.The first point that must be talked about is how Americans consume trees faster than they can be replaced. Trees are the primary natural resource used in making paper today. From the website “www.ecology.com,” it states that, “each person in the United States uses 749 pounds of paper every year.” The United States consumes more paper than any other country in the world. For a country that makes up about five percent of the world’s population, we consume thirty percent of all paper products in the world. They say, “Big things come in small packages,” but do you think we need to cut back a bit! Another example of how much paper an American uses, comes from the website “www.ecomall.com,” they said that the amount of paper we used was “equivalent of nine trees as big as telephone poles and four stories high!” From my own habits of using paper, I found that I use too much paper, and I am wasteful of it. Sometimes I just use one side of the paper instead of both sides of the paper and then I merrily throw it away. As mention earlier, Americans consume too many trees.

The next thing that needs to be talked about is the damage to our environment that we are causing. America does not take into account that for every action, there is a reaction. For every forest we cut down for paper purposes, we destroy hundreds of species habitats. We cause so many species to end up on the endangered species list from our over-consumption. The paper industry gets the title of being a not so clean¾ industry, for good reasons. Mills, such as pulp and paper mills, are some of the worst polluters of our environment (air, water, and land). Every year millions of pounds of toxic chemicals are released into the air and water. The website “www.ecology.com” lists the type of chemicals released each year into our environment, which are, “toluene, methanol, chlorine dioxide, hydrochloric acid, and formaldehyde.” Plants use a process to make white and colored papers, called bleaching; which in return makes the toxic substance, dioxin (a highly fat-soluble fat). Americans need to look at their paper-consuming actions, which are damaging our environment.

Finally, there are ways to prevent these damages of over consuming and damaging of our environment. You know the saying, “There is more than one way to skin a cat.” The same applies to this subject I am talking about; there are other ways to make paper. First, it starts with us, the consumer. We must go to these groceries stores, supermarkets, and paper making mills and demand more environmentally-friendly ways to make paper. For one, recycling is the most common way to save trees and it takes sixty percent less energy to produce paper from recycled stock. Agri-pulp (agricultural waste) can become a stand¾ in for wood. On the website “www.ecology.com,” it explains in more detail that agri-pulp “is wheat, oat, barley, and other crop stalks left over after harvesting.” You would find that putting together agri-pulp and recycled paper makes for some fine, fresh, and new paper. Along with these two other alternatives to trees being used to make paper: hemp and kenaf can be use to make paper too. Instead of us making this environmental problem worse, let us solve it for good.

It is certain that we do need paper in our growing economy for thousands of things, but take in the fact that we are hurting other species and ourselves in the end. Americans are still going to over-consume trees, damage our environment, and this problem will still need solving. We need to stop now with the old and wasteful ways of making our paper. Instead, we should adopt newer, better, and cleaner ways to make our paper. We must act now and not when the damage is done or we will have a whole lot to regret in the future.

Works Cited

“Paper Chase” by “Sam Martin” Ecology.com

09/26/2006< http://www.ecology.com/feature-stories/paper-chase/index.html>“Paper Facts”09/26/2006<http://www.ecomall.com/biz/paper.htm

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My Time In Peace Wednesday, Jul 11 2007

Hurricane Katrina cursed me with a few weeks of peace, in a place that felt wonderful to be at. This place was right for me, but it still had a dark cloud that followed me from New Orleans, Louisiana. While I was there I had fun, I spent time with my family, and I had a little problem that happen.First, this place is in Sunrise Beach, TX, it is between Austin, TX and San Antonio, TX. The house, on the lake, that we stayed in belongs to a woman who was a lawyer. I thank God for that woman letting us stay in her house. While I was there, I rode jet skies that were real fast; the fastest I went was 60 miles an hour. When riding that fast on the water, it is like flying over the water. It was fun and scary too. I went swimming at the lake that was only a few steps from the house we were staying in. The lake was cool and had catfish in it. It was relaxing for me to go swimming everyday; I know I should have had enough water from Katrina in my life. I went fishing every other day, I did not catch a single thing, and there was a lot of fish in that lake. Our neighbor had a guest house with a pool table, which we played on when we wanted to get out of the house. It was fun, my brother and I played a lot of games with each other, but I won most of them. Our neighbor and the lady, who owned the house we stayed in, took us boat riding around the lake. It was a huge lake; there were a lot of nice and big houses along the lake. They took us to Horse Shoe Bay; this is a part of the lake where the rich people stayed at. Rich people like VPs of AOL, owners of huge cattle ranches, and stock holders of Dell. I went running in the neighbor hood which had reddish hills that were beautiful. I would go running for two to three miles and I lost a lot of weight too.

The next thing I enjoyed was spending time with my family. My mother and I worked out together, we went walking, and we talked about personal things, and we had gotten even closer to each other since then. My brother and I hung out a lot while we were in Sunrise Beach, TX. We played basketball at the court, for the near by community church, we had separate jet skies and went riding around the lake with each other. We went swimming and fishing and like I mentioned earlier we played pool with each other. My brother and I also talked to each other about personal stuff too. Like my mother, my brother and I became closer. Before the storm, I was not as close to my grandmother like some of my other cousins are to her, but thanks to the hurricane I became closer to her. My grandmother can’t move much, so we spent most of our time just sitting and talking. I learned a lot about my grandfather, he died when my mother was thirteen years old, my grandmother told me that I reminded her of him when he was young. She told me about her life stories and goals she had in her life. Some she did and some she didn’t do. One goal she was proud of was paying off her house completely. She told me about how she couldn’t stand my grandfather, at one point in her life. He became a mean man and she came to hate him, but that is another story.

The final thing I wanted to talk about, that almost destroyed my own personal heaven was the little problem I had. The thing that was surfacing while in the house was jealousy. Early in my essay I told you about how I had a lot of fun and spent time with my mother, brother and grandmother. My cousins were also there in the house with my family and me. Instead of them trying to relax and forget about what happen in New Orleans, they chose to let it depress them and they started to have nasty attitudes towards there mother, my mother, grandmother, and me. We got into a huge argument over some simple stuff, like me being the only person in the house who drinks soy milk. They were also accusing me of thinking that I was above them. The only reason I can see them thinking this way about me was , I didn’t sleep late, I woke up early in the morning and went running, I stayed active, read books, wrote a lot more and I kept a positive attitude while we were staying at the house. So, they were kind of mad at my ability see good out of anything and I didn’t let things get me down. I prayed and kept my faith in God.

Concluding this essay is not what I want to do because it is like leaving Sunrise Beach all over again. For those few weeks I had fun, spending time with my family and a problem with some of my cousins I don’t miss. Besides all that I had peace, I felt good, it was quiet, cool, hot and I had tranquility. All of this made me fall in love with the farm and country scene again.

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