Heaven is a Playground is a book, published in 1974 by author Rick Telander, about Telander’s journey to New York City and the summer he spent there for a magazine piece, acclimating himself with the culture that existed on inner-city basketball courts in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. While he was there, he met a man by the name of Rodney Parker. Parker was kind of like a street agent because he worked tirelessly to get a lot of these inner-city kids into school. In the book, Telander talks about all of his experiences with the people in the neighborhood and the relationships he developed with the kids, whom he would eventually go on to coach.
I chose this particular book because I am a huge basketball fan and I have always been intrigued by street basketball. I was also very interested in this book because I have lived in the inner-city for brief periods of time so I could somewhat understand some of the things that went on throughout the book. This book also gives great insight into the relationship between sports and society and how the two are closely related.
Heaven is a Playground is obviously a primary source because it is a first-hand, eye-witness account. Rick Telander wrote the book about his own experiences and what he saw during his time spent in Brooklyn. Since this is a book written by Telander himself, this would be considered a written document. The book is a detailed journal of the events that occurred during this time period. While this is a primary source, there will obviously be some biases that exist as well because Telander is telling the story from his own point of view. The way he writes makes you want to believe what he is telling you is true, but there were other people involved and they are not put...
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...very good read. It’s easy to see why Sports Illustrated included it in its collection of the top 100 sports books of all time.
References
CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE. (n.d). Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, EBSCOhost.
Bailey, T. (2010). Analysing the Good Will: Kant's Argument in the First Section of the Groundwork. British Journal For The History Of Philosophy, 18(4), 635-662. doi:10.1080/09608788.2010.502349 Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=9f0eb1ba-edf5-4b35-a15a-37588479a493%40sessionmgr112&vid=10&hid=115
Kant, Immanuel. (1998). Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Retrieved from http://towson.docutek.com/eres/download.aspx?docID=8279&shortname=from_groundwork_kant.pdf
Rachels, James. (2010). The Ethics of Virtue. Retrieved from http://towson.docutek.com/eres/download.aspx?docID=8598&shortname=ethics_of_virtue.pdf
The poem opens with a description of Pearl Avenue, the street that runs in front of the high school. Flick Webb used to play basketball there. In the first stanza, Updike cleverly incorporates several basketball terms into the poem, as he paints a gloomy image of the street that leads to the gas station where Flick now works. The words stops, cut off, blocks, and corner all refer to the game of basketball but Updike uses the words in a different way. For example, the word block is used in reference to city blocks and corner is used to describe a street corner. Even Flick Webb’s name is a reference to the game of basketball. A flick is a quick toss of the basketball and webb is another word for the net.
In the book “There Are No Children Here” by Alex Kotlowitz, the author followed the lives of two young brothers (Lafayette and Pharoah) while they grew up in the harsh streets of Chicago in the late 1980’s. The author uses the story of the two boys’ lives to discuss the social divide in our very own society and to persuade readers that there is a major problem in “the projects” of the United States.
The purpose of the author for writing this book is to inform people about the live of Vince Carter and the live of an all-star who seems to be happy but really isn’t. This book shows that a lot of problems come with being an NBA player its not just get money but you have to be real wise. I know this because it say that Carter started playing basketball his senior year of high school before that he used to be a band geek. It also talks about how old NBA players got paid less than players now. Some the NBA players Don’t go play to a town because they are not good enough or they don’t pay more even though they are not as good as they think. Like one of the examples they said was Tractor Taylor he didn’t want to stay with the grizzlies because they didn’t pay him enough and now they pay him what he wants and his not delivering like he said. Another example is all the old players they mention that they are over rated.
Born Sinner Aren’t we all sinners? We all have committed acts of violence at some points in our lives, and our answer we are human, we are wired that way or it is our instinct. People have a habit of hurting one another and it comes naturally to them. After reading Flight by Sherman Alexie, violence is a prominent theme throughout the novel. This idea of aggression is represented in many different ways, shapes, and forms.
and "yesterday's" African Americans because it basically outlines all of the harsh struggles that the African American people had to go through to get to where they are today. I also think that this book could be used as a guiding tool, not to just blacks but whites too, to people who are lost and feel as if they serve no purpose in the world. As one can tell from reading this book, even the smallest or meaningless person can make a difference.
Immanuel Kant is a popular modern day philosopher. He was a modest and humble man of his time. He never left his hometown, never married and never strayed from his schedule. Kant may come off as boring, while he was an introvert but he had a great amount to offer. His thoughts and concepts from the 1700s are still observed today. His most recognized work is from the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Here Kant expresses his idea of ‘The Good Will’ and the ‘Categorical Imperative’.
Throughout many of Toni Morrison?s novels, the plot is built around some conflict for her characters to overcome. Paradise, in particular, uses the relationships between women as a means of reaching this desired end. Paradise, a novel centered around the destruction of a convent and the women in it, supports this idea by showing how this building serves as a haven for dejected women (Smith). The bulk of the novel takes place during and after WWII and focuses on an all black town in Oklahoma. It is through the course of the novel that we see Morrison weave the bonds of women into the text as a means of healing the scars inflicted upon her characters in their respective societies.
Toni Morrison's novel Paradise addresses the idea of "paradise" and how it is achieved. Morrison uses the town of Ruby to demonstrate how isolation can not and will not create a "paradise," while also using the women of the Convent to reveal that "paradise" is an inner concept that can only be achieved through understanding and acceptance. The author takes four broken women, kills them, and has them reborn into a "paradise" of their own making.
Kant elucidate the meaning of human good by talking about three qualities: power, pleasure and dignity. By reading each of the philosopher’s text individually, the reader is able to recognize which quality is most imperative to each philosopher. Additionally, each philosopher illuminates the importance of that certain good and provides a feasible reason for their choosing by presenting general ideas that enables the reader to gain a meticulous understanding of their subjective meaning of each good and its importance.
When I turned 11, I opened a present in the shape of a video game box, and I was shocked to reveal a book titled“Last Shot” by John Feinstein. I was confused as why my mom would get me a book about basketball when I had absolutely no interest about the sport. Eventually, my mom kept bugging me to read this book, saying, ”you can’t judge a book by its cover!” Reluctantly one night I cracked open the book and began reading. I soon realized the book dealt with basketball, but in an interesting way--the main character who was 14 years old had won a writing contest to become a sports writer at the NCAA Basketball tournament. I was hooked. I enjoyed following the main character throughout his journey at such a large and well known sporting event
Smith , Earl. Race, Sport and the American Dream. Durham, North Carolina: Carolina Academic Press, 2007.
In Mitch Albom's “The Five People You Meet In Heaven” Eddie finds himself reunited with his captain from World War 2. The Captain, much like the other four people he meets in heaven, had to teach him a valuable lesson. Eddie is taught the importance of making sacrifices, and the good that can come out of it. This lesson is very important to Eddie’s history with the Captain. During the war, Eddie, his captain, and four other American soldiers were captured by four crazy men from the Philippines. After nearly six months of living life as prisoners, the men escaped. Naturally, they were angry that they had been in captivity for so long, so when firearms came into their possession, the first thought that popped into their minds were to blow up the camp where they were being held.
In Hayslip’s book When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, she talks about her life as a peasant’s daughter and her and her family’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War has not only affected Vietnam itself, but also the United States, where in the beginning they did not want to get involved. However, with the spread of communism, which had already affected China, the president at the time Lyndon Johnson, thought it was time to stop the spread of the Vietnam War. With America’s involvement in the war, it caused great problems for both sides. In Vietnam, it causes the local people from the south and north side to split up and either becomes a supporter of communism or of the US’s capitalist views. In addition, it caused displacement for those local people, thus losing their family. In America, the Vietnam War has brought about PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, and deaths of many soldiers, more than World War II. With the thought of containment for communism, the US had gave back Vietnam their war and “gave up” on the war, leaving Southeast Asia in the sphere of communist views. With the thought of the domino theory that a country will fall in similar events like the neighboring countries, like China as Vietnam’s neighbor the United States tried to remove communism from Vietnam. US’s involvement in the war caused problems for both sides of the war.
Bailey, T. (2010). Analysing the Good Will: Kant's Argument in the First Section of the Groundwork. British Journal For The History Of Philosophy, 18(4), 635-662. doi:10.1080/09608788.2010.502349 Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=9f0eb1ba-edf5-4b35-a15a-37588479a493%40sessionmgr112&vid=10&hid=115
Deontology is the ethical view that some actions are morally forbidden or permitted regardless of consequences. One of the most influential deontological philosophers in history is Immanuel Kant who developed the idea of the Categorical Imperative. Kant believed that the only thing of intrinsic moral worth is a good will. Kant says in his work Morality and Rationality “The good will is not good because of what it affects or accomplishes or because of it’s adequacy to achieve some proposed end; it is good only because of it’s willing, i.e., it is good of itself”. A maxim is the generalized rule that characterizes the motives for a person’s actions. For Kant, a will that is good is one that is acting by the maxim of doing the right thing because it is right thing to do. The moral worth of an action is determined by whether or not it was acted upon out of respect for the moral law, or the Categorical Imperative. Imperatives in general imply something we ought to do however there is a distinction between categorical imperatives and hypothetical imperatives. Hypothetical imperatives are obligatory so long as we desire X. If we desire X we ought to do Y. However, categorical imperatives are not subject to conditions. The Categorical Imperative is universally binding to all rational creatures because they are rational. Kant proposes three formulations the Categorical Imperative in his Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Moral, the Universal Law formulation, Humanity or End in Itself formulation, and Kingdom of Ends formulation. In this essay, the viablity of the Universal Law formulation is tested by discussing two objections to it, mainly the idea that the moral laws are too absolute and the existence of false positives and false negatives.