I Hate Needles
Dr. Ross’ comments: As part of our study of American Literature, my class and I explore the continuing theme of “connection to community” as revealed by the writers. I also offer my students bonus points for performing a community service and writing about their own “connection to community” as discovered through their act of service. This student chose to donate blood and writes a surprisingly delightful description of her experience. She humorously finds her own good connections.
I hate needles. That doesn’t come as a shock to most people who know me. I’m a wuss. I have a fairly long list of phobias, but needles rank right up there at the top. I once read somewhere that public speaking is the number one fear of most Americans. Coming in a not-so-close second place was death. So the way I interpret that statistic, that must mean that at a funeral, most people would rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy. That’s pretty shocking. So what does this have to do with my fear of needles, you may ask? Not much. I just figured that since this paper is for extra credit, I can pretty much write whatever I want and not have to worry about getting a bad grade for being creative, so I just thought I’d throw that in there for giggles and make it a little more entertaining. But it actually does tie in. Can you guess what the third-ranking fear of most Americans is? Needles. (Okay, not really. I made all that up, but I hear that 90% of all statistics are made up anyway, so I guess it is possible that I could’ve read that somewhere.)
So I’m terrified of needles, but they say that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and I am certainly banking on that to be true every time I go to the Blood Center to donate blood, which is about every two months. I don’t like it, but it’s just such a good thing to do. I used to give whenever they would come around in those buses, but I stopped doing that after my first visit to the Blood Center. I discovered that you get much more individual attention when you go to the Blood Center at about seven o’clock on a Thursday night.
...its objectivity. It provides a clear picture of the Empress’ life in her cultural context and the impact it had on China. I recommend this book to anyone exploring the life of the Empress Dowager—whether it be her personal life, her social life, or her political life. The book truly does provide an extensive amount of information about the Empress—its age stands testament to this (it has been around for 70 years), and I would highly recommend it.
The Chinese possessed strong beliefs about astrology, so when it was prophesised that a women ruler would soon ascend the throne word quickly spread throughout the common people. It was predicted that within 30 years this woman known as ‘The Prince of Wu’ would rule over China. Whether or not Empress Wu’s rise to power was due to ‘heaven ordained fate’, she fulfilled the prophecy and became China’s first woman ruler in the 7th century. Historians, scholars and common people alike have long debated Wu’s reign. She is commonly referred to as an evil usurper due to the way she took power. However whether she fully deserves this reputation is to be examined. As the only female Chinese ruler, Wu challenged traditional gender roles and legitimized herself as a leader at a time when women were not meant for such positions. Empress Wu came to power through self-determination and a remarkable gift for politics. Once on the throne, she kept her power by all means necessary, often those means being murder and betrayal. Some of her actions were undoubtedly cruel. However once she was established as an empress conducted a mostly peaceful and prosperous reign. Empress Wu was by definition a usurper of the Chinese throne however not necessarily an evil one. She was manipulative and ruthless yet brilliant and exceptionally gifted. Her rise to power through sheer determination is to be commended despite the harsh tactics she used along the way.
State secularism (Laïcit鬬 in France) is rooted in principles put forward by Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke and Voltaire—state neutrality in order to ensure the right to freely express oneself and the right to religious freedom. Contemporary movements to ban the Islamic veil on the grounds of its symbolic value represent a perversion of the original intent of state secularism and infringe upon these basic rights. Our western perception of the veil as a universal symbol of oppression is based in a long history of orientalism (stereotyping),
Empress Dowager Cixi was the last Dowager Empress of China to hold power. She entered history on November 29, 1835 as a rather ordinary Chinese girl named Yehenara. However, there was a certain prestige in being born to a family from the ruling Manchu minority. At age sixteen, she was brought to the Forbidden City to join Emperor Xianfeng's harem—which may sound like punishment to modern ears, but was considered a swank role for Chinese women of her time. Cixi had extremely sharp political sense and implemetned decisively. However, under her rule, the Qing Dynasty grew more corrupt and its power began to diminish.
Burns, Thomas J. "Islam." Religion and Society. OU Campus' Dale Hall, Norman. 14 Apr. 2014. Lecture.
Chung, Sue Fawn. “The Much Maligned Empress Dowager : A Revisionist Study of the Empress Dowager Tz’u-his.” Modern Asian Studies. 13 vol. Cambrige UP, 1979. JSTOR. 1 May 2005 < http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0026-749X%281979%2913%3A2%3C177%3ATMMEDA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-U>.
Carlton, Kelly. "The Karmic Retribution of Pei Huaigu:." The Reign of China's Only Female Emperor from the View of An Unofficial History. Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History, n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. http://www.armstrong.edu/Initiatives/history_journal/history_journal_the_reign_of_chinas_only_female_emperor_from_the_view_.
“Never again allow any women to hold supreme power in the state. It is against the house-law of our Dynasty, and should be strictly forbidden. Be careful not to permit eunuchs to meddle in Government matters. The Ming Dynasty was brought to ruin by eunuchs, and its fate should be a warning to my people”(Haldane 259). These were the final words of the last great empress of China, Tzu Hsi. In a sense this statement was ironic. For almost 50 years this one woman ruled China with a graceful but iron fist.
Nozick’s arguments in this claim are fair more convincing, as it allows individuals the freedom to utilize their natural endowments to their own benefit without complicating them with a necessity to aid the worse off in society. Beyond Rawl’s principle of redistribution towards the least well off, there is no principle beyond addressing the situation of burdened individuals.
Allende, Isabel. The House of the Spirits. New York, NY: Random House, Inc., 1985. Print.
(Transition: I'm hoping most of you by now are considering giving blood, and I'm sure most of you are wandering what it entails)
Although there may not be an extremely extensive amount of knowledge about the Empress Dowager Cixi, she is often considered one of the most powerful women in history. She ruled for almost fifty years, maintaining and expanding her own power. During her ‘behind the curtain’ reign, she made all decisions and always had the final say. Though she was very sharp and understood and executed politics well, she was (what some might consider today) corrupt. She was insistent on keeping her power in the Qing dynasty, to the point of (being suspected of) killing others. Though this seems despotic, recent reports say that she was just like any other ruler, and was blamed for events that would also have occurred under any other’s rule. Perhaps the saying she was in the wrong place at the wrong time could be applicable. Why does she get so much blame when many of the other emperors from other dynasties had similar faults (and even larger ones – their whole dynasties fell, Cixi helped perpetuate the Qing dynasty until her death – as tumultuous as it may have been)? One could argue that it was because she did not have the Mandate of Heaven since she was not traditionally supposed to have any power; or, because she was a woman.
I have given blood before and I am aware of the questionnaire and procedures used during the blood donation process.
Volunteering enables an individual to make a positive impact on his or her community, while empowering the individual to better his or her life. This summer, I had the opportunity to volunteer at many diverse locations. From the hospital to the local library, I truly value my experience and treasure everything it has thought me. Volunteering lets us experience and learn things that we otherwise would not have learned; volunteering opens doors for us that we may not have been able to open before. Volunteering provides us with guidance and tolerance which we may use in the future to aid us in our decisions. At first glance, volunteering may seem to only benefit those who are helped, but on a deeper level, one can realize that volunteering benefits the volunteer as much as, if not more than, those who are helped. Not only does volunteering make a difference in one’s community, but it also helps the volunteer become a smarter, happier, friendlier and more caring individual.
Often women in these countries are forced to wear a burqa or hijab. These traditional coverings are supposed to keep these women safe. Just like the lady of Shalott’s tower kept the lady safe yet secluded; so secluded that no one “hath seen her wave her hand [,] or at the casement see her stand” (Tennyson, 23-25). In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Rasheed often told both his wives to always keep themselves covered in burqas because he did not want other men to leer at what was his property. In that society, women are told to cover themselves from head to toe. This is due to the fact that their beauty is a distraction to men and might make them take the wrong “action.” This is not right, society should not make women think that they are a distraction or force them to wear something they do not want to wear. Society should consider if these women dress respectively then that should be