Angle of Vision

"Angle of Vision" writing has been an integral part of American literature and culture--embodying the spirit of freedom of expression and individual thought. One of the best examples of this, especially in the last several years, is American politics. There are few other topics that generate such heated discourse. Every political or intellectual critique and analysis is opinionated and is written from an "Angle of Vision."

Take the Iraq War for example. A neoconservative op-ed in the Washington Post may support the controversial belief that Saddam Hussein had WMD and was in touch with senior al-Qaida leadership daily--justifying the war. The next day, a journalist may write an article explaining that there was never WMD and the intelligence was incorrect. And maybe even the next day, a human rights group writes about the innocent who have been killed, raped, and kidnapped. Different "Angles of Vision" on the same issue.

Believing/Doubting Game Exercise

Believing: Privatizing executions can be beneficial in a variety of ways. First, it would be one less decision the federal government has to make and dwell over. Government is indeed inefficient at times; And, privatizing executions would put the people in charge, thus more personal freedom. Private executions in public settings, like Shea Stadium, would evoke greater witnesses to the execution ceremonies--which would help discourage further murderers. People would then understand the potential embarrasment and humiliation one would encounter if committed a murder. Placing these criminals on the spotlight would, in short, abate the number of overall murderers in this country and help diminish America's leading role in the world of executing human beings.

Doubting: Privatizing executions would not solve the most indispensable problem today with capital punishment. The controversial and argumentative injustice of executing minorities disproportionaly and/or the imperfectness in our legal system leading to the executions of innocent individuals, most would agree, is the greater issue at hand. Arthur Miller's argument does nothing to address these problems. Also, public executions, in places like Shea Stadium, is quite inhumane. This is not the 17th century where we blatantly execute people publicly, leaving grotesque corpses lying for five year old children to see. And what about the issue of sanity? Most murderers today suffer from mental instability--they will pride themselves and feel satisfaction from incuring an execution in a public setting.

Avaricious Christmas

This article, titled Avaricious Christmas, I believe portrays a well-written editorial with a provocative and tense thesis. Her first sentence of the article states the obvious: "Christmas season is known as the most wonderful time of the year, at least to some." She then later poses the surprising portion of her thesis that is not as universally well-known: "And for those who work in retail, Christmas is the equivalent to a painful trip to the dentist." This surprising and tense sentence in the opening of her article will keep the readers hooked to the article because the reader will now possess the desire to fully understand what event or events transpired to cause retail workers to dislike Christmas. The event was the death of an employee after Christmas shoppers stampeded her to the ground in the final shopping days of Christmas 2008. Most readers of this article cannot relate to retail workers who detest Christmas, which will result in interested readers determined to find the particular details of why this is the authors opinion.

About me

I'm a freshman here at James Madison University. I am from Arlington, Virginia, which is just a few minutes from D.C. However, I have lived in several different states in my life because my dad was in the military. I am a history and Political Science major and I live in Eagle dormitory. I am a member of the international fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta, or Fiji, as we are sometimes referred as. I enjoy reading non-fiction, especially books on international relations and war. My hobbies consist of running, working out, and spending time with my family and friends.