Self Reliance

On page 23 Emmerson wrote, "it is easy in the world to live after the worlds opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude." Emmerson is stating tha a true man is one who lives with other people but also remains true to himself at that point. People should be involved and interactive with as many different groups of people as possible but they must stay true to their vurtue and not change their overall self identity. They can change based off other people's opinions in small ways but those small ways should not effect their overall self identity: "All the sallies of his will are rounded in by the law of his being, as the inequalities of Andes and Himmaleh are insignificant in the curve of the sphere" (25). He thinks that first every man must trust himself before he must trust others and therefore develop in his life: "trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string" (20). Although society pushes for conformity, man must not conform because he has to stray strong to his original virtures. God gave us great lives originally because everyone in the world is different, and therefore we must not let what god gave us change but rather adapt to little things.

Quran-burning on again, off again

This article really pushes the issue of freedom of speech in teh first amendment. There is just no reason for this person to go so far against a different religion. We live in a world where we are around or see different religions and different types of people everyday. If this church  or this person cant tolerate building a mosk that is actually a couple blocks away from ground 0 adn not physically on ground 0, then he has some other major problems. The fact that he is a pastor and cant deal with people and their own respected opinions is ridiculous. The pastor is refusing to not burn the Quron and is taking responsibility for an issue that is way bigger than he is. He is being selfish by doing this and is not being realistic. By doing this, the pastor is looking at a minority and blaming a minority instead of looking at a majority. He is being the extremist by doing this and the person in charge of the mosk at ground 0 is being the normal person. The pastor is terrorizing a different religion. How would he feel if someone decided to burn the bible because a christian decided to put a church around a site like 9/11? He is basing the burning off of his original reaction and is obviouslly not thinking his decisions through.

Packet Pages 57-60 80-88

It is unbelievable how sometimes in life you feel like you know exactly what people are like and exactly what happened in different situations. I found out the ridicoulous sacrtifice that the 56 people who signed the declaration of independance made. The reason that theses rules adn freedom still lasts today is becauseo of the underrated effort that these people put in. "it is important to remember that despite the hardships, not a single ofne of the detrected or failed to honor his pledge. They paid their price and feedom was born." (57). These people adn their signature were more menaingful than anyone could have imagined. These people are amazing people! Their storiers and their relentless desire in what they believed in reminds me of the survivors and non-survivors of the holocaust. Both groups made sacrifices adn desired things for the good of everyone as a whole.

The American Crisis

The main idea of Pain's reading is that the war in Europe is unneccessary and stupid. He disagrees with  the fact that Britain likes to tax and complains about Britains taxing: "Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right(not only to TAX) but 'to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER' and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there no such a thing as slavery upon earth"(51). He feels that Britain restricts their citizens freedom way too much by taxing them. He referrs to the citizens as "slaves" because they recieve taxes for most of the things they buy. In Paines mind the only person that has the power to tax is God. He believes that people, because they have to depend on the government too much, because they are "slaves" have absolutely no freedom. This article when it was written probably served as a huge motivator to not be apart of Britain because Paine complains of the taxes in this piece. Throughout the piece he constantly motivates the audience that will read this to hate Britain and disagrere with anything that they do. If i was reading this wehn it was written i would have also been motivated to fight against Britain with all my possible power. When talking about the supposed status of the America after the British invaded he claims America looks like: "a ravaged country-a depopulated city-habitations without safety, and slavery without hope-our homes turned into barracks and bawdy-housesfor Hessians" (54). Paine doesnt like the presence of Britain and encouraged American citizens to jump on the bandwagon of hate towards Britain.