Mitchell V. Wisconsin Essays - Conservatism In The United States

Mitchell v. Wisconsin Why Mitchell v. Wisconsin Sucked On June 11, 1993, the United State Supreme Court upheld Wisconsin?s penalty enhancement law, which imposes harsher sentences on criminals who ?intentionally select the person against whom the crime...is committed..because of the race, religion, color, disability, sexual orientation, national origin or ancestry of that person.? Chief Justice Rehnquist deliverd the opinion of the unanimous Court. This paper argues against the decision, and will attempt to prove the unconstitutionality of such penalty enhancement laws. On the evening of October 7, 1989, Mitchell and a group of young black men attacked and severely beat a lone white boy. The group had just finished watching the film ?Mississippi Burning?, in which a young black boy was, while praying, beaten by a white man. After the film, the group moved outside and Mitchell asked if they felt ?hyped up to move on some white people?. When the white boy approached Mitchell said, ?You all want to fuck somebody up? There goes a white boy, Go get him.? The boy was left unconscious, and remained in a coma for four days. Mitchell was convicted of aggravated battery, which carries a two year maximum sentence. The Wisconsin jury, however, found that because Mitchell selected his victim based on race, the penalty enhancement law allowed Mitchell to be sentenced to up to seven years. The jury sentenced Mitchell to four years, twice the maximum for the crime he committed without the penalty enhancement law. The U.S. Supreme Court?s ruling was faulty, and defied a number of precedents. The Wisconsin law is unconstitutional, and is essentially unenforceable. This paper primarily focuses on the constitutional arguments against Chief Justice Rehnquist?s decision and the statute itself, but will also consider the practical implications of the Wisconsin law, as well as a similar law passed under the new federal crime bill (Cacas, 32). The Wisconsin law and the new federal law are based on a model created by the Anti- Defemation League in response to a rising tide of hate-related violent crimes (Cacas, 33). Figures released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation show that 7,684 hate crimes motivated by race, religion, ethnicity, and sexual orientation were reported in 1993, up from 6,623 the previous year. Of those crimes in 1993, 62 percent were racially motivated (Cacas, 32). Certainly, this is a problem the nation must address. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court of the United States and both the Wisconsin and federal governments have chosen to address this problem in a way that is grossly unconstitutional. ?Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise therof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.? The most obvious arguments against the Mitchell decision are those dealing with the First Amendment. In fact, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the state statute was unconstitutional in their decision, which the U.S. Supreme Court overruled. The Wisconsim Supreme Court argued that the Wisconsin penalty enhancement statute, ?violates the First Amendment directly by punishing what the legislature has deemed offensive thought.? The Wisconsin Court also rejected the state?s argument ?that the statute punishes only the ?conduct? of intentional selection of a victim?. The Court?s contention was that ?the statute punishes the ?because of? aspect of the defendant?s selection, the reason the defendant selected the victim, the motive behind the selection.? The law is in fact a direct violation of the First Amendment, according to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which said ?the Wisconsin legislature cannot criminalize bigoted thought with which it disagrees.? ?If there is a bedrock principal underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable?. The Supreme Court was heard to utter such noble phrases as recently as 1989, in Texas v. Johnson. Unfortunately these idealistic principles seem to have been abandoned during Wisconsin v. Mitchell. Clearly, Mitchell?s act of assaulting another human is a punishable crime, and no one could logiacally argue that the First Amendment protects this clearly criminal action. However, the state?s power

Locke and Hobbes Views on State of Nature

Locke and Hobbes Views on State of Nature Introduction The state of nature, in political philosophy, is a term used in social contract theories to refer to the hypothetical condition that preceded governments.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Locke and Hobbes’ Views on State of Nature specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In a broader sense, state of nature can be described as the condition before rule of positive law comes into being, thus it is a synonym for anarchy (Schochet, 1967). State of nature is fundamental in social contract theory since people seek to be governed by persons in higher authority in order to maintain their social stability. Hobbes and Locke were among the few philosophers who contributed immensely to the concept of state of nature. They were both natural law and social contract theorists who lived in the same era but had different views and arguments on the state of nature, justification of governments and the motives to move out of the state of nature. All other natural law theorists, except Hobbes, assumed that man was a social animal by nature. On contrary, Hobbes assumed very different conclusions and was infamous for several other unconventional results in mathematics and physics. Differences Thomas Hobbes wrote in his greatest work Leviathan, that nothing could be as worst as life without the state protection. As a materialist he borrowed a lot from the principle of conservation in motion from Galileo’s theory. He noted, that an object is eternally supposed to be in motion unless someone disturbs it. Using the principle of conservation of motion, he argued that, human beings are perpetually seeking for new things (Macpherson, 1990). In addition stated that, life itself is in a state of motion and can never be enjoyed without desire to move. He argued that, it is only through the search of well-being that human beings go to war with one another and that the fear of death is the only leading factor to the creation of a state. The state of nature is pictured by Hobbes as a state where all are at war with each other. The search for felicity results to men constantly trying to aggravate their power. According to Hobbes, human beings are made equal by nature since what they possess is equal in terms of strengths and skills. He argued that the weakest has strength enough to kill the most formidable, either by secret maneuvers or by coordinating with others. Hobbes cited that in a state of nature three reasons motivate human beings to attack each other, which included the desire for safety, glory, reputation or for selfish gains. According to Hobbes’ theory, in a state of nature there is no room for the unjust hence there is no space for immorality, something that he referred to as the National Right of Liberty.Advertising Looking for essay on political sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Individuals wit h collective rationality are contrasted by Hobbes. When explaining the peculiarity of â€Å"prisoner’s dilemma† Hobbes argued that it is difficult to achieve cooperation when individuals with collective rationality diverge. He believed that an individual’s rational behavior leads to attack of other people. According to him, it is our duty to obey the laws of nature just as other people around us are obedient to it. Incases where an individual feels endangered by other people’s standing, in just an occasion one is termed as acting jealously. According to Hobbes theory the level of collective suspicion and fear is very high such that we are excused for not obeying the law and that we only act in a morally upright way when others act the same way. Hobbes assumes that one concedes his rights to the government in return for life. To him, the role of the society is to direct creation of state and a reflection of the will of the ruler and that whatever the state does is just by definition. On the contrary, Locke’s views and arguments differ a lot when compared to Hobbes’. John Locke believed he could live in a state of nature and in a life without a state government. According to Locke, the state of nature is a state of perfect freedom and a state of equality that is only bound by the law of nature. In his theory, Locke adds a moral and technological aspect where he states that due to the fact that we are all creatures of God we should not harm others except for purposes of self defense. All people have a duty to protect and help others without doing harming themselves. On matters of liberty, we have the freedom to do what is morally upright. Here Locke’s view clearly contrasts Hobbes’ who cited that every one has a right over every thing in a state of nature, even the right over other people’s bodies. Locke advocated for equality among human beings and stated that everyone has the power to enforce the la w of nature within a state of nature. According to Locke, harming somebody is only allowed in self defense and those who break the laws of nature should face punishment as a natural right. He argued that each offense should be severely punished according to its magnitude so as to act as an ill bargain for the offenders and to make them repent, thus terrifying others who may be wanting to commit the same transgressions (Olivecrona, 1998).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Locke and Hobbes’ Views on State of Nature specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More According to Locke the most important right to be secured in a state nature is private property. He claims that God created us to own property and live in satisfaction but not to end up starving. Locke cited that there is a natural reason to own property in the sense that if man was to ask permission from another man to use the earth then it would amount to starvation. Locke’s picture of the state of nature is very optimistic. He argues that nature is not ruled by morality and individuals act for their best but not for the best of the community as whole. According to Locke, the reasons that led to creation of states were; increase in resource scarcity and the invention of cash that is a means of non perishable exchange. People could exchange land produce for money avoiding loss, creating wealth and imbalances that Hobbes termed as a state of war. According to him, the role of the society was to ensure justice was done. Similarities There are similarities between Hobbes’ and Locke’s views on state of nature. Both are political philosophers and their writings have influenced to a great extent development of modern political thought. Both refer to the state of nature in which man lives without a government and both point out risks in the state. Both, Hobbes and Locke talk about the dangers of the state of nature. Man is referred by both of them as being equal to the state (Macpherson, 1990). Locke describes nature as a state of perfect equality where superiority over one another is not exercised but despite the equality both warn of dangers of state of nature. For instance, Hobbes says that if two men cannot enjoy the same thing they turn out to be enemies, something that ends in a state of war. Locke points out risks in cases where the law of nature is lacking and everyone executes duties, this may result to what Hobbes refers to as a state of war. Both Locke and Hobbes somehow seem to agree on the law of nature. They seem to agree the concept of law to imply a law enforcer; otherwise the law would be an empty concept. Conclusion I tend to agree with Locke’s point of view in his argument, that in a state of nature there are moral codes which guide and inspire human beings (Macpherson, 1990). My reluctance to support Hobbes argument is supported by the fact that people may choose follow individual re asoning instead of a collective reason. However, Locke’s law of nature is somehow weak since it requires somebody to enforce it and his argument that everybody is empowered may not be true and may result to what Hobbes termed as state of war.Advertising Looking for essay on political sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More References Macpherson, C.B.(1990). The political theory of possessive individualism. Oxford: Clarendon Press Oxford Olivecrona, K.L.(1998). Appropriation in the State of Nature: Locke on the Origin of Property. Journal of the History of Ideas,78(67),90-123. Schochet, G.J.(1967). Thomas Hobbes on the Family and the State of Nature. Political  Science Quarterly,90,78-80

Definition and Examples of Reporting Verbs in English

Definition and Examples of Reporting Verbs in English In English grammar, a reporting verb is a  verb (such as say, tell, believe, reply, respond, or ask) used to indicate that discourse is being quoted or paraphrased. Its also called a  communication verb. [T]he number of  reporting verbs  that can be employed to mark  paraphrases  is around a dozen, author Eli Hinkel reported, and  they can be learned with relative ease while working on a writing assignment (e.g.,  the author says, states, indicates, comments, notes, observes, believes, points out, emphasizes, advocates, reports, concludes, underscores, mentions, finds), not to mention phrases with similar textual functions such as  according to the author, as the author states/indicates, in the authors view/opinion/understanding,  or  as noted/stated/mentioned. Tenses and Their Uses Most often, reporting verbs, such as seen in fiction to show dialogue, are in the past tense, because as soon as a speaker says something, it is literally in the past.   George Carlin illustrates this in this example of reported speech: I went to a bookstore and  asked  the saleswoman, Wheres the self-help section? She  said  if she  told  me, it would defeat the purpose. To contrast with  words spoken once, putting a reporting verb in the present tense is used to show an adage, something that someone has said in the past and continues to say or presently believes. For example: She always says how hes not good enough for you. Next, a reporting verb may be in the historical present tense (to refer to an event that took place in the past). The historical present is often used for dramatic effect or immediacy, to place the reader right in the scene. The technique should be used sparingly, so you dont create confusion, but its use can make for a dramatic lead to a story, for example. The year is 1938, the place, Paris. The soldiers smash shop windows and run through the street  and yell...   You also use reporting verbs in  the literary present tense (to refer to any aspect of a work of literature). This is because no matter what year you watch a particular movie or read a book, the events always unfold in the same way. The characters always say the same thing in the same order. For example, if youre writing on Hamlet, you might write, Hamlet shows his anguish when he speaks his To be soliloquy. Or if youre reviewing fantastic movie lines, you might write, Who can forget when Humphrey Bogart says  to Ingrid Bergman, Heres looking at you, kid  in Casablanca?   Dont Overuse Reporting Verbs When youre writing dialogue, if the identity of a speaker is clear from the context, such as in a back-and-forth conversation between two people, the reporting phrase is often omitted; it doesnt have to be used with  each line of dialogue, just enough times to make sure the reader doesnt get lost as far as whos speaking, such as if the conversation is long or if a third party interjects. And if the lines of conversation are short, using a bunch of he said she said gets distracting for the reader. Its more effective to leave them out in this instance. Overusing creative substitutions for, said can also get distracting for the reader. A reader goes by said quickly and doesnt lose the flow of the dialogue. Be judicious in using substitutions for said.   The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in, wrote Elmore Leonard in  The New York Times.  But  said  is far less intrusive than  grumbled, gasped, cautioned, lied. I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with she asseverated, and had to stop reading to get the dictionary. Sources Teaching Academic ESL Writing. Routledge, 2004Elmore Leonard, Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle.  July 16, 2001

Statistical Analysis 10 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Statistical Analysis 10 - Essay Example Of the 330 students completing the self administered questionnaire 159 (48%) were male and 171 (52%) were female. Statistical methods used to analyze data A number of statistical methods were used to analyze the data collected. They include calculation of the mean (M) and standard deviation (SD). These measures were calculated for all thirteen (13) variables (both independent and dependent) used in the research. The mean (M) in Table 1 is a measure of central tendency which tells the average of the scores assigned to a particular variable by the respondents while the standard deviation is a measure of the variation of the scores from the mean. Calculating the mean and standard deviation of â€Å"Gender† does not appear to make much sense as the absolute figures on their own serves the purpose of explaining how representative the sample is of the specific college population and college population in general. Tests for correlation of all the variables were also carried out and t he results are shown in Table 2. Correlation is a measure of the relationship between variables. Measures of correlation range from -1 to +1.

ARTICLE REVIEW Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

REVIEW - Article Example The article was effective and can assist many people in the manner through which they go about their day to day activities. The reason for this is the manner through which the article defines the two types of people. One group is stated as being motivationally focused while the other is promotion focused. This assists the reader in understanding which type of person they are. With this perception they can develop personally and in their respective professional fields. One limitation of this section of the article is the fact that the writer has not given a specific outline on how a person can identify their powers and deficiencies with regard to the two groups in which they have been placed. It is however important to take a self assessment after reading the basic points on the groups and understanding the way forward where an individual can get to analyze their particular traits (Stevens, 2008). Creating motivational fix is another topic greatly discussed in the paper. In the contemporary reading society, very few people read entire articles and many of these people get bored when they find that they cannot relate to the various topics given. The article however ensures that the reader has a general understanding of the topic where even before going through a topic critically, the reader has the ability to understand whether they can relate evenly. This is done by the author stating the importance of the particular topic. The article discusses motivational fix and states that it is vital because it assists in keeping the goals that an individual has set, in focus. With this motivational fix, the reader gets to understand the key ingredients to success acknowledging the fact that if they do not have this, they may fail in life (Higgins & Halvorson, 2009). The expose is also significant in that it helps the reader understand the various steps that they ought to take after getting the motivational fix. The article

Meaning of Life and Happiness Essay Example for Free

Meaning of Life and Happiness Essay I do not think that there is a single person in the world who can say that knows what happiness actually is and, more importantly, that knows how to achieve it. We sometimes get the glimpse of pure happiness but those moments are so rare and so intense that we only recognise them too late. Each of us understands this feeling in a different way†¦I, for instance, see it as the one that can make you feel that there is no worry in life and nothing and nobody can hurt you anymore. For me, it is when you feel like you can do anything and forget about the past, the future, just enjoying the mere present. In my case, it is one of two feelings that can make you cry with all your heart†¦because it is too much for you to express in plain words or pointless gestures. â€Å"Tears are words that the heart can’t express† a wise man once said and could have never said it better, as happiness is that joy which is so strong that sometimes even hurts. However, I never remember the recipe for happiness and even if I did I do not think it would work again because one of its components is also hazard. Still, this does nt make me stop searching for it and devote it everything I do, I am and I achieve. Likewise, each person I’ve ever met, consciously or not, did the same†¦we want to get something, to become someone. Why? Not because that would make us feel miserable, but fulfilled and maybe a little bit more: happy. Hence, I strongly believe that happiness is the main purpose of our lives, the whole aim of our ephemeral existence. We are born happy and we want to die the same; this is the true ideal that we all crave for reaching. Money, wealth, knowledge mean nothing, without someone who cares about what you have achieved. Human beings, whether they like admitting it or not, need other human beings to share their secrets with, to share their joy or sorrow; as genuine joy can only become happiness if there is another person by your side. In other words, happiness is, in my opinion, the actual meaning of life; and life seems so complicated especially because we seldom get to its core, we almost never get to know what happiness feels like†¦and afterwards all that remains is an unclear memory of the moment and a wish of feeling it again.

Free Song of Solomon Essays: Father and Son Relationship :: Song Solomon essays

The Father and Son Relationship in Song of Solomon    The book called Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison, deals with many real life issues, most of which are illustrated by the relationships between different family members.    One archetypal relationship that Morrison includes in her book is the father:son relationship. Although it is obvious that Morrison does talk about this topic, it is not so obvious what she is trying to say about it. So, one might ask, how does the author establish the father:son relationships throughout Song of Solomon and do they fit some sort of archetype? To answer a question such as this, it would be beneficial to examine the actual father:son relationships throughout the book.    One established father:son relationships that is significant to this issue is the one between Milkman and Macon. From the start, Macon objected to Milkman even being born; he forced Ruth to do things to her body that could possibly kill the fetus. With a little help from Pilate, however, Milkman was allowed into the world.    Macon, perhaps instigated by never having a mother and seeing his own father killed, has always appeared to be a cold and unforgiving parent even to his other children besides Milkman, but since Macon heard that his son ¹s nickname was  ³Milkman ² he has seen him as a symbol of his disgust for his wife and lost a lot of respect for his son and became even colder towards him. The only time Macon did spend time with Milkman, he spent it boasting about his own great upbringing, warning him to stay away from Pilate and telling him about the embarrassing actions of Ruth. This is the manner in which Morrison establishes the relationship between Macon and Milkman in the first part of the book.    As Milkman grows up, he recognizes the emotional distance between his father and himself. He goes his own way with a few skirmishes here and there and later he even manages to hit his own father. As Macon and Milkman grow apart and go their separate ways, Milkman doesn ¹t even think twice about it and just continues on with his life as if nothing was different.    Near the end of the book Milkman seems to change his view of his father, with some help from the positive memories of the old men in the passage.

Past Movements in Education and Analysis of Curricuar Reforms Essay

For an individual, it must be treated as a continuous process that should not end when graduation rites in each particular level of schooling are being held. True education is life, it must always be a part of our daily living, whether through formal or informal means. Educational systems in general, and educational curriculum in particular, also need not to be static. The curriculum should respond to the demands of a fast-changing society. To some extent, it should also be global or internationally-aligned. These are the reasons why foreign and local educational educators in the past and until now have been introducing educational reforms and innovations. They have been searching means to address the problems being met in the implementation of a certain curriculums and to ensure the total development of every learner. I. The Past Movements for Social Change in the School System Social change affects education. Centuries ago, pioneers of education have sought to introduce renewal in education. Their ideas were far ahead than the actual renewal that took place later on. Among them were Commenius, Condorcet, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Froebel, Dewey, Drecoly, Montessori and Freinet. 1. Johann Amos Commenius -â€Å"Father of Modern Education† Most permanent educational influences: a. practical educational work Comenius was first a teacher and an organizer of schools, not only among his own people, but later in Sweden, and to a slight extent in Holland. In his Didactica Magna (Great Didactic), he outlined a system of schools that is the exact counterpart of the existing American system of kindergarten, elementary school, secondary school, college, and university. Didactica Magna is an educational treatise which aimed to seek and find a method of instruction by which teachers may teach less but learners may learn more, by which the school may be the scene of less noise, aversion, and useless labor, but of more leisure, enjoyment and solid progress; and through which the Christian community may have less darkness, perplexity (confusion) and dissension (disagreement), but on the other hand, more light, orderliness, peace and rest. b. formulating the general theory of education In this respect he is the forerunner of Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Froebel, etc. and is the first to formulate that idea of â€Å"education according to nature† so influential during the latter part of the eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth century. c. the subject matter and method of education -exerted through a series of textbooks of an entirely new nature His published works: Janua Linguarum Reserata (The Gateway of Language Unlocked) – contained his c onviction (certainty) that one of the prerequisites for effective educational reform was a fundamental change in language of instruction. Orbis Pictus (The World of Sensible Things Pictured) – contributed to the development of the principles of audio-visual interaction. It was the first successful applications of illustrations to the work of teaching, but not the first illustrated book for children. Schola Ludus (School as Play) – a detailed exposition of the doctrine that all learning should be made interesting, dramatic and stimulating. These texts were all based on the same fundamental ideas: (1) learning foreign languages through the vernacular; (2) obtaining ideas through objects rather than words; (3) starting with objects most familiar to the child to introduce him to both the new language and the more remote world of objects: (4) giving the child a comprehensive knowledge of his environment, physical and social, as well as instruction in religious, moral, and classical subjects; (5) making this acquisition of a compendium of knowledge a pleasure rather than a task; and (6) making instruction universal. He also developed the pansophic scheme, the view that education should take the whole of human knowledge as its universe. For him, truth was indivisible and was to be seen as a whole. Thus by relating each subject to every other subject and to general principles, pansophia was to make the learner capable of wisdom. 2. Marquis De Condorcet Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat took his title Marquis de Condorcet from the town of Condorcet in Dauphine. He advocated that the aims of education were: o cultivate in each generation the physical, intellectual and moral facilities and, thereby contribute to the general and gradual improvement of the human race. He envisioned a national system of public education designed to develop the natural talents of all, making real equality possible. His proposals of the five levels of public instructions areas follows: 1. Elementary- for the teaching of the ‘elements’ of all knowledge (reading, writing, arithmetic, morals, economics and n atural science)and would be compulsory for all four years 2. Secondary school- of three years’ duration, teaching grammar, history and geography, one foreign language, the mechanical arts, law and mathematics. The teaching at this and the first level would be non-specialized. 3. Institutes- responsible for ‘substituting reasoning for eloquence and books for speech, and for bringing philosophy and the physical science methodology into the moral sciences’. The teaching at this level would be more specialized. Pupils would choose their own course of study (at least two courses a year) from among four classes: mathematics and physics, moral and political sciences, science as applied to the arts, and literature and fine arts. 4. Lycee – the equivalent of universities, with the same classes as the institutes and ‘where all the sciences are taught in full. It is there that scholars-teachers receive their further training’. Education at this and the first three levels was to be entirely free of charge. 5. National Society of Science and the Arts – a research institute responsible for supervising the formal education system as a whole and for appointing teachers. Its role would be one of scientific and pedagogical research. 3. Jean Jacques Rousseau According to the history of education, he was the first great writer to insist that education should be based upon the nature of the child. Rousseau’s Emile is a kind of half treatise, half novel that tells the life story of a fictional man named Emile. In the history of education, the significant contributions of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi are: 1) his educational philosophy and instructional method that encouraged harmonious intellectual, moral, and physical development Pestalozzi’s most systematic work, How Gertrude Teaches Her Children (1801) was a critique of conventional schooling and a prescription for educational reform. Rejecting corporal punishment, rote memorization, and bookishness, Pestalozzi envisioned schools that were homelike institutions where teachers actively engaged students in learning by sensory experiences. Such schools were to educate individuals who were well rounded intellectually, morally, and physically. Through engagement in activities, students were to learn useful vocations that complemented their other studies. 2) his methodology of empirical sensory learning, especially through object lessons Pestalozzi designed object lessons in which children, guided by teachers, examined the form (shape), number (quantity and weight) of objects, and named them after direct experience with them. 3) his use of activities, excursions, and nature studies that anticipated Progressive education. He also emphasized the importance of the nature of the child and propounded (advocated) that in the educational process, the child must be thought in relation to the subject matter. He sought to understand the nature of the child and to build his teaching around the natural, progressive and harmonious development of all the powers and capacities. He is an advocate of each man’s right to education and of society’s duty to implement that right and pave the way to universal national education. His motto â€Å"Learning by head, hand and heart† is still a key principle in successful 21st-century schools. 5. Friedrich Froebel The German educator, Friedrich Froebel, was one of these pioneers of early childhood educational reform. Froebel’s educational principles: a) free self-activity As an educator, Froebel believed that stimulating voluntary self-activity in the young child was the necessary form of pre-school education (Watson, 1997a). Self-activity is defined as the development of qualities and skills that make it possible to take an invisible idea and make it a reality; self-activity involves formulating a purpose, planning out that purpose, and then acting on that plan until the purpose is realized (Corbett, 1998a). Corbett suggests that one of Froebel’s significant contributions to early childhood education was his theory of introducing play as a means of engaging children in self-activity for the purpose of externalizing their inner natures. ) creativity Froebel designed a series of instructional materials that he called â€Å"gifts and occupations†, which demonstrated certain relationships and led children in comparison, testing, and creative exploration activities (Watson, 1997b). A gift was an object provided for a child to play with–such as a sphere, cube, or cylinder–which helped the child to understand and internalize the concepts of shape, dimension, size, and their relationships (Staff, 1998). The occupations were items such as aints and clay which the children could use to make what they wished; through the occupations, children externalized the concepts existing within their creative minds (Staff, 1998). Therefore, through the child’s own self-activity and creative imaginative play, the child would begin to understand both the inner and outer properties of things as he moves through the developmental stages of the educational process. c) social participation A third component of Froebel’s educational plan involved working closely with the family unit. Froebel believed that parents provided the first as well as the most consistent educational influence in a child’s life. Since a child’s first educational experiences occur within the family unit, he is already familiar with the home d) motor expression Motor expression, which refers to learning by doing as opposed to following rote instructions, is a very important aspect of Froebel’s educational principles. Froebel did not believe that the child should be placed into society’s mold, but should be allowed to shape his own mold and grow at his own pace through the developmental stages of the educational process. 6. John Dewey He contributed the educational philosophy which maintains that education is life, education is growth and education is a continuous reconstruction of human experiences from the beginning to the end of life. He was the spokes person of progressive education which states that aims have significance only for persons, not for processes such as education, and arise only in response to problematic situations in ongoing activities. Aims are to be viewed as anticipated outcomes of transactions, as intrinsic aspects of the process of problem-solving, and as a motivating force behind the individual’s approach to problem-solving situations. The Progressive Education Association, inspired by Dewey’s ideas, later codified his doctrines as follows: a. The conduct of the pupils shall be governed by themselves, according to the social needs of the community. b. Interest shall be the motive for all work. c. Teachers will inspire a desire for knowledge, and will serve as guides in the investigations undertaken, rather than as task-masters. d. Scientific study of each pupil’s development, physical, mental, social and spiritual, is absolutely essential to the intelligent direction of his development. . Greater attention is paid to the child’s physical needs, with greater use of the out-of-doors. f. Cooperation between school and home will fill all needs of the child’s development such as music, dancing, play and other extra-curricular activities. g. All progressive schools will look upon their work as of the laboratory type, giving freely to the sum of educational knowledge the results of their experi ments in child culture. He believed that education has two sides: the psychological and the social on the same plane. Education must start from the psychological nature of the child as the basis for directing his energies into totally useful channels. Schools must be set up to include bond the individual and social goals. The needs of a new society are to be taken into consideration in modifying methods and curriculum. 7. Ovide Decroly He influenced instruction in the kindergarten, the aim of which was to guide the child’s desire for activity and to give him a sense of discipline and norms for his social behavior (same with Dewey) 8. Maria Montessori Maria Montessori left a long lasting mark on education around the world.

Practical Demonkeeping Chapter 26

26 TRAVIS'S STORY Augustus Brine sat in one of the big leather chairs in front of his fireplace, drinking red wine from a balloon goblet and puffing away on his meerschaum. He had promised himself that he would have only one glass of wine, just to take the edge off the adrenaline and caffeine jangle he had worked himself into during the kidnapping. Now he was on his third glass and the wine had infused him with a warm, oozy feeling; he let his mind drift in a dreamy vertigo before attacking the task at hand: interrogating the demonkeeper. The fellow looked harmless enough, propped up and tied to the other wing chair. But if Gian Hen Gian was to be believed, this dark young man was the most dangerous human on Earth. Brine considered washing up before waking the demonkeeper. He had caught a glimpse of himself in the bathroom mirror – his beard and clothing covered with flour and soot, his skin caked with sweat-streaked goo – and decided that he would make a more intimidating impression in his current condition. He had found the smelling salts in the medicine cabinet and sent Gian Hen Gian to the bathroom to bathe while he rested. Actually he wanted the Djinn out of the room while he questioned the demonkeeper. The Djinn's curses and ravings would only complicate an already difficult task. Brine set his wineglass and his pipe on the end table and picked up a cotton-wrapped smelling-salt capsule. He leaned over to the demonkeeper and snapped the capsule under his nose. For a moment nothing happened, and Brine feared that he had hit him too hard, then the demonkeeper started coughing, looked at Brine, and screamed. â€Å"Calm down – you're all right,† Brine said. â€Å"Catch, help me!† The demonkeeper struggled against his bonds. Brine picked up his pipe and lit it, affecting a bored nonchalance. After a moment the demonkeeper settled down. Brine blew a thin stream of smoke into the air between them. â€Å"Catch isn't here. You're on your own.† Travis seemed to forget that he had been beaten, kidnapped, and tied up. His concentration was focused on Brine's last statement. â€Å"What do you mean, Catch isn't here? You know about Catch?† Brine considered giving him the I'm-asking-the-questions-here line that he had heard so many times in detective movies, but upon reflection, it seemed silly. He wasn't a hardass; why play the role? â€Å"Yes, I know about the demon. I know that he eats people, and I know you are his master.† â€Å"How do you know all that?† â€Å"It doesn't matter,† Brine said. â€Å"I also know that you've lost control of Catch.† â€Å"I have?† Travis seemed genuinely shaken by this. â€Å"Look, I don't know who you are, but you can't keep me here. If Catch is out of control again, I'm the only one that can stop him. I'm really close to ending all this; you can't stop me now.† â€Å"Why should you care?† â€Å"What do you mean, why should I care? You might know about Catch, but you can't imagine what he's like when he's out of control.† â€Å"What I mean,† Brine said, â€Å"is why should you care about the damage he causes? You called him up, didn't you? You send him out to kill, don't you?† Travis shook his head violently. â€Å"You don't understand. I'm not what you think. I never wanted this, and now I have a chance to stop it. Let me go. I can end it.† â€Å"Why should I trust you? You're a murderer.† â€Å"No. Catch is.† â€Å"What's the difference? If I do let you go, it will be because you will have told me what I want to know, and how I can use that information. Now I'll listen and you'll talk.† â€Å"I can't tell you anything. And you don't want to know anyway, I promise you.† â€Å"I want to know where the Seal of Solomon is. And I want to know the incantation that sends Catch back. Until I know, you're not going anywhere.† â€Å"Seal of Solomon? I don't know what you're talking about.† â€Å"Look – what is your name, anyway?† â€Å"Travis.† â€Å"Look, Travis,† Brine said, â€Å"my associate wants to use torture. I don't like the idea, but if you jerk me around, torture might be the only way to go.† â€Å"Don't you have to have two guys to play good cop, bad cop?† â€Å"My associate is taking a bath. I wanted to see if I could reason with you before I let him near you. I really don't know what he's capable of†¦ I'm not even sure what he is. So if we could get on with this, it would be better for the both of us.† â€Å"Where's Jenny?† Travis asked. â€Å"She's fine. She's at work.† â€Å"You won't hurt her?† â€Å"I'm not some kind of terrorist, Travis. I didn't ask to be involved in this, but I am. I don't want to hurt you, and I would never hurt Jenny. She's a friend of mine.† â€Å"So if I tell you what I know, you'll let me go?† â€Å"That's the deal. But I'll have to make sure that what you tell me is true.† Brine relaxed. This young man didn't seem to have any of the qualities of a mass murderer. If anything, he seemed a little naive. â€Å"Okay, I'll tell you everything I know about Catch and the incantations, but I swear to you, I don't know anything about any Seal of Solomon. It's a pretty strange story.† â€Å"I guessed that,† Brine said. â€Å"Shoot.† He poured himself a glass of wine, relit his pipe, and sat back, propping his feet up on the hearth. â€Å"Like I said, it's a pretty strange story.† â€Å"Strange is my middle name,† Brine said. â€Å"That must have been difficult for you as a child,† Travis said. â€Å"Would you get on with it.† â€Å"You asked for it.† Travis took a deep breath. â€Å"I was born in Clarion, Pennsylvania, in the year nineteen hundred.† â€Å"Bullshit,† Brine interrupted. â€Å"You're not a day over twenty-five.† â€Å"This is going to take a lot more time if I have to keep stopping. Just listen – it'll all fall into place.† Brine grumbled and nodded for Travis to continue. â€Å"I was born on a farm. My parents were Irish immigrants, black Irish. I was the oldest of six children, two boys and four girls. My parents were staunch Catholics. My mother wanted me to be a priest. She pushed me to study so I could get into seminary. She was working on the local diocese to recommend me while I was still in the womb. When World War I broke out, she begged the bishop to get me into seminary early. Everybody knew it was just a matter of time before America entered the war. My mother wanted me in seminary before the Army could draft me. Boys from secular colleges were already in Europe, driving ambulances, and some of them had been killed. My mother wasn't going to lose her chance to have a son become a priest to something as insignificant as a world war. You see, my little brother was a bit slow – mentally, I mean. I was my mother's only chance.† â€Å"So you went to seminary,† Brine interjected. He was becoming impatient with the progress of the story. â€Å"I went in at sixteen, which made me at least four years younger than the other boys. My mother packed me some sandwiches, and I packed myself into a threadbare black suit that was three sizes too small for me and I was on the train to Illinois. â€Å"You have to understand, I didn't want any part of this stuff with the demon; I really wanted to be a priest. Of all the people I had known as a child, the priest seemed like the only one who had any control over things. The crops could fail, banks could close, people could get sick and die, but the priest and the church were always there, calm and steadfast. And all that mysticism was pretty nifty, too.† â€Å"What about women?† Brine asked. He had resolved himself to hearing an epic, and it seemed as if Travis needed to tell it. Brine found he liked the strange young man, in spite of himself. â€Å"You don't miss what you've never known. I mean I had these urges, but they were sinful, right? I just had to say, ‘Get thee behind me Satan', and get on with it.† â€Å"That's the most incredible thing you've told me so far,† Brine said. â€Å"When I was sixteen, sex seemed like the only reason to go on living.† â€Å"That's what they thought at seminary, too. Because I was younger than the others, the prefect of discipline, Father Jasper, took me on as his special project. To keep me from impure thoughts, he made me work constantly. In the evenings, when the others were given time for prayer and meditation, I was sent to the chapel to polish the silver. While the others ate, I worked in the kitchen, serving and washing dishes. For two years the only rest I had from dawn until midnight was during classes and mass. When I fell behind in my studies, Father Jasper rode me even harder. â€Å"The Vatican had given the seminary a set of silver candlesticks for the altar. Supposedly they had been commissioned by one of the early popes and were over six hundred years old. The candlesticks were the most prized possession of the seminary and it was my job to polish them. Father Jasper stood over me, evening after evening, chiding me and berating me for being impure in thought. I polished the silver until my hands were black from the compound, and still Father Jasper found fault with me. If I had impure thoughts it was because he kept reminding me to have them. â€Å"I had no friends in seminary. Father Jasper had put his mark on me, and the other students shunned me for fear of invoking the prefect of discipline's wrath. I wrote home when I had a chance, but for some reason my letters were never answered. I began to suspect that Father Jasper was keeping my letters from getting to me. â€Å"One evening, while I was polishing the silver on the altar, Father Jasper came to the chapel and started to lecture me on my evil nature. â€Å"‘You are impure in thought and deed, yet you do not confess,' he said. ‘You are evil, Travis, and it is my duty to drive that evil out!' â€Å"I couldn't take it any longer. ‘Where are my letters?' I blurted out. ‘You are keeping me from my family.' â€Å"Father Jasper was furious. ‘Yes, I keep your letters. You are spawned from a womb of evil. How else could you have come here so young. I waited for eight years to come to Saint Anthony's – waited in the cold of the world while others were taken into the warm bosom of Christ.' â€Å"At last I knew why I had been singled out for punishment. It had nothing to do with my spiritual impurity. It was jealousy. I said, ‘And you, Father Jasper, have you confessed your jealousy and your pride? Have you confessed your cruelty?' â€Å"‘Cruel, am I?' he said. He laughed at me, and for the first time I was really afraid of him. ‘There is no cruelty in the bosom of Christ, only tests of faith. Your faith is wanting, Travis. I will show you.' â€Å"He told me to lie with arms outstretched on the steps before the altar and pray for strength. He left the chapel for a moment, and when he returned I could hear something whistling through the air. I looked up and saw that he was carrying a thin whip cut from a willow branch. â€Å"‘Have you no humility, Travis? Bow your head before our Lord.' â€Å"I could hear him moving behind me, but I could not see him. Why I didn't leave right then I don't know. Perhaps I believed that Father Jasper was actually testing my faith, that he was the cross I had to bear. â€Å"He tore my robe up the back, exposing my bare back and legs. ‘You will not cry out, Travis. After each blow a Hail Mary. Now,' he said. Then I felt the whip across my back and I thought I would scream, but instead I said a Hail Mary. He threw a rosary in front of me and told me to take it. I held it behind my head, feeling the pain come with every bead. â€Å"‘You are a coward, Travis. You don't deserve to serve our Lord. You are here to avoid the war, aren't you, Travis?' â€Å"I didn't answer him and the whip fell again. â€Å"After a while I heard him laughing with each stroke of the whip. I did not look back for fear he might strike me across the eyes. Before I had finished the rosary, I heard him gasp and drop to the floor behind me. I thought – no, I hoped – he had had a heart attack. But when I looked back he was kneeling behind me, gasping for air, exhausted, but smiling. â€Å"‘Face down, sinner!' he screamed. He drew back the whip as if he were going to strike me in the face and I covered my head. â€Å"‘You will tell no one of this,' he said. His voice was low and calm. For some reason that scared me more than his anger. ‘You are to stay the night here, polish the silver, and pray for forgiveness. I will return in the morning with a new robe for you. If you speak of this to anyone, I will see that you are expelled from Saint Anthony's and, if I can manage it, excommunicated.' â€Å"I hadn't ever heard excommunication used as a threat. It was something we studied in class. The popes had used it as an instrument of political control, but the reality of being excluded from salvation by someone else had never really occurred to me. I didn't believe that Father Jasper could really excommunicate me, but I wasn't going to test it. â€Å"While Father Jasper watched, I began to polish the candlesticks, rubbing furiously to take my mind off the pain in my back and legs, and to try to forget that he was watching. Finally, he left the chapel. When I heard the door close, I threw the candlestick I was holding at the door. â€Å"Father Jasper had tested my faith, and I had failed. I cursed the Trinity, the Virgin, and all the saints I could remember. Eventually my anger subsided and I feared Father Jasper would return and see what I had done. â€Å"I retrieved the candlestick and inspected it to see if I had done any damage. Father Jasper would check them in the morning as he always did, and I would be lost. â€Å"There was a deep scratch across the axis of the candlestick. I rubbed at it, harder and harder, but it only seemed to get worse. Soon I realized that it wasn't a scratch at all but a seam that had been concealed by the silversmith. The priceless artifact from the Vatican was a sham. It was supposed to be solid silver, but here was evidence that it was hollow. I grabbed both ends of the candlestick and twisted. As I suspected, it unscrewed. There was a sort of triumph in it. I wanted to be holding the two pieces when Father Jasper returned. I wanted to wave them in his face. ‘Here', I would say, ‘these are as hollow and false as you are. I would expose him, ruin him, and if I was expelled and damned, I didn't care. But I never got the chance to confront him. â€Å"When I pulled the two pieces apart, a tightly rolled piece of parchment fell out.† â€Å"The invocation,† Brine interrupted. â€Å"Yes, but I didn't know what it was. I unrolled it and started to read. There was a passage at the top in Latin, which I didn't have much trouble translating. It said something about calling down help from God to deal with enemies of the Church. It was signed by His Holiness, Pope Leo the Third. â€Å"The second part was written in Greek. As I said, I had fallen behind in my studies, so the Greek was difficult. I started reading it aloud, working on each word as I went. By the time I was through the first passage, it had started to get cold in the chapel. I wasn't sure what I was reading. Some of the words were mysteries to me. I just read over them, trying to glean what I could from the context. Then something seemed to take over my mind. â€Å"I started reading the Greek as if it were my native language, pronouncing the words perfectly, without having the slightest idea of what they meant. â€Å"A wind whipped up inside the chapel, blowing out all the candles. Except for a little moonlight coming through the windows, it was completely dark, but the words on the parchment began to glow and I kept reading. I was locked into the parchment as if I had grabbed an electric wire and couldn't let go. â€Å"When I read the last line, I found I was screaming the words. Lightning flashed down from the roof and struck the candlestick, which was lying on the floor in front of me. The wind stopped and smoke filled the chapel. â€Å"Nothing prepares you for something like that. You can spend your life preparing to be the instrument of God. You can read accounts of possession and exorcism and try to imagine yourself in the situation, but when it actually happens, you just shut down. I did, anyway. I sat there trying to figure out what I had done, but my mind wouldn't work. â€Å"The smoke floated up into the rafters of the chapel and I could make out a huge figure standing at the altar. It was Catch, in his eating form.† â€Å"What's his eating form?† Brine asked. â€Å"I assume from the deal with the flour that you know Catch is visible to others only when he is in his eating form. Most of the time I see him as a three-foot imp covered with scales. When he feeds or goes out of control, he's a giant. I've seen him cut a man in half with one swipe of his claws. I don't know why it works that way. I just know that when I saw him for the first time, I had never been so frightened. â€Å"He looked around the chapel, then at me, then at the chapel. I was praying under my breath, begging God for protection. â€Å"‘Stop it!' he said. ‘I'll take care of everything.' Then he went down the aisle and through the chapel doors, knocking them off their hinges. He turned and looked back at me. He said: ‘You have to open these things, right? I forgot – it's been a while.' â€Å"As soon as he was gone I picked up the candlesticks and ran. I got as far as the front gates before I realized that I was still wearing the torn robe. â€Å"I wanted to get away, hide, forget what I had seen, but I had to go back and get my clothes. I ran back to my quarters. Since I was in my third year at seminary, I been given a small private room, so, thankfully, I didn't have to go through the dormitory ward rooms where the newer students slept. The only clothes I had were the suit I had worn when I came and a pair of overalls I wore when I worked in the seminary fields. I tried to put on the suit, but the pants were just too tight, so I put the overalls on and wore the suit jacket over them to cover my shoulders. I wrapped the candlesticks in a blanket and headed for the gate. â€Å"When I was just outside the gate, I heard a horrible scream from the rectory. There was no mistaking; it was Father Jasper. â€Å"I ran the six miles into town without stopping. The sun was coming up as I reached the train station and a train was pulling away from the platform. I didn't know where it was going, but I ran after it and managed to swing myself on board before I collapsed. â€Å"I'd like to tell you I had some kind of plan, but I didn't. My only thought was to get as far away from St. Anthony's as I could. I don't know why I took the candlesticks. I wasn't interested in their value. I guess I didn't want to leave any evidence of what I'd done. Or maybe it was the influence of the supernatural. â€Å"Anyway, I caught my breath and went into the passenger car to find a seat. The train was nearly full, soldiers and a few civilians here and there. I staggered down the aisle and fell into the first empty seat I could find. It was next to a young woman who was reading a book. â€Å"‘This seat is taken,' she said. â€Å"‘Please, just let me rest here for a minute,' I begged. ‘I'll get up when your companion returns.' â€Å"She looked up from her book and I found myself staring into the biggest, bluest eyes I'd ever seen. I will never forget them. She was young, about my age, and wore her dark hair pinned up under a hat, which was the style in those days. She looked genuinely frightened of me. I guess I was wearing my own fright on my face. â€Å"‘Are you all right? Shall I call the conductor?' she asked. â€Å"I thanked her but told her that I just needed to rest a moment. She was looking at the strange way I was dressed, trying to be polite, but obviously perplexed. I looked up and noticed that everyone in the car was staring at me. Could they know about what I'd done? I wondered. Then I realized why they were staring. There was a war on and I was obviously the right age for the Army, yet I was dressed in civilian clothes. ‘I'm a seminary student,' I blurted out to them, causing a breeze of incredulous whispers. The girl blushed. â€Å"‘I'm sorry,' I said to her. ‘I'll move on.' I started to rise, but she put her hand on my shoulder to push me back into my seat and I winced when she touched my injured shoulder. â€Å"‘No,' she said, ‘I'm traveling alone. I've just been saving this seat to ward off the soldiers. You know how they can be sometimes, Father.' â€Å"‘I'm not a priest yet,' I said. â€Å"‘I don't know what to call you, then,' she said. â€Å"‘Call me Travis,' I said. â€Å"‘I'm Amanda,' she said. She smiled, and for a moment I completely forgot why I was running. She was an attractive girl, but when she smiled, she was absolutely stunning. It was my turn to blush. â€Å"‘I'm going to New York to stay with my fianc's family. He's in Europe,' she said. â€Å"‘So this train is going east?' I asked. â€Å"She was surprised. ‘You don't even know where the train is going?' she asked. â€Å"‘I've had a bad night,' I said. Then I started to laugh – I don't know why. It seemed so unreal. The idea of trying to explain it to her seemed silly. â€Å"She looked away and started digging in her purse. ‘I'm sorry,' I said, ‘I didn't mean to offend you.' ‘You didn't offend me. I need to have my ticket ready for the conductor.' â€Å"I'd completely forgotten about not having a ticket. I looked up and saw the conductor coming down the aisle. I jumped up and a wave of fatigue hit me. I almost fell into her lap. â€Å"‘Is something wrong?' she asked. â€Å"‘Amanda,' I said, ‘you have been very kind, but I should find another seat and let you travel in peace.' â€Å"‘You don't have a ticket, do you?' she said. â€Å"I shook my head. ‘I've been in seminary. I'd forgotten. We don't have any need for money there and†¦' â€Å"‘I have some traveling money,' she said. â€Å"‘I couldn't ask you to do that,' I said. Then I remembered the candlesticks. ‘Look, you can have these. They're worth a lot of money. Hold them and I'll send you the money for the ticket when I get home,' I said. â€Å"I unrolled the blanket and dropped the candlesticks in her lap. â€Å"‘That's not necessary,' she said. â€Å"I'll loan you the money.' â€Å"‘No, I insist you take them,' I said, trying to be gallant. I must have looked ridiculous standing there in my overalls and tattered suit jacket. â€Å"‘If you insist,' she said. ‘I understand. My fianc is a proud man, too.' â€Å"She gave me the money I needed and I bought a ticket all the way to Clarion, which was only about ten miles from my parent's farm. â€Å"The train broke down somewhere in Indiana and we were forced to wait in the station while they changed engines. It was midsummer and terribly hot. Without thinking, I took off my jacket and Amanda gasped when she saw my back. She insisted that I see a doctor, but I refused, knowing that I would only have to borrow more money from her to pay for it. We sat on a bench in the station while she cleaned my back with damp napkins from the dining car. â€Å"In those days the sight of a woman bathing a half-naked man in a train station would have been scandalous, but most of the passengers were soldiers and were much more concerned with being AWOL or with their ultimate destination, Europe, so we were ignored for the most part. â€Å"Amanda disappeared for a while and returned just before our train was ready to leave. ‘I've reserved a berth in the sleeping car for us,' she said. â€Å"I was shocked. I started to protest, but she stopped me. She said, ‘You are going to sleep and I am going to watch over you. You are a priest and I'm engaged, so there is nothing wrong with it. Besides, you are in no shape to spend the night sitting up in a train.' â€Å"I think it was then that I realized that I was in love with her. Not that it mattered. It was just that after living so long with Father Jasper's abuse I wasn't prepared for the kindness she was showing me. It never occurred to me that I might be putting her in danger. â€Å"As we pulled away from the station, I looked out on the platform, and for the first time I saw Catch in his smaller form. Why it happened then and not before I don't know. Maybe I didn't have any strength left, but when I saw him there on the platform, flashing a big razor-toothed grin, I fainted. â€Å"When I came to, I felt like my back was on fire. I was lying in the sleeping berth and Amanda was bathing my back with alcohol. â€Å"‘I told them you'd been wounded in France,' she said. â€Å"The porter helped me get you in here. I think it's about time you told me who did this to you.' â€Å"I told her what Father Jasper had done, leaving out the parts about the demon. I was in tears when I finished, and she was holding me, rocking me back and forth. â€Å"I'm not sure how it happened – the passion of the moment and all that, I guess – but the next thing I knew, we were kissing, and I was undressing her. Just as we were about to make love she stopped me. â€Å"‘I have to take this off,' she said. She was wearing a wooden bracelet with the initials E + A burnt into it. ‘We don't have to do this,' I said. â€Å"Have you, Mr. Brine, ever said something that you know you will always regret? I have. It was: ‘We don't have to do this.' â€Å"She said: ‘Oh, then let's not.' â€Å"She fell asleep holding me while I lay awake, thinking about sex and damnation, which really wasn't any different from what I'd thought about each night in the seminary – a little more immediate, I guess. â€Å"I was just dozing off when I heard a commotion coming from the opposite end of our sleeping car. I peeked through the curtains of the berth to see what was happening. Catch was coming down the aisle, looking into berths as he went. I didn't know at the time that Catch was invisible to other people, and I couldn't understand why they weren't screaming at the sight of him. People were shouting and looking out of their berths, but all they were seeing was empty air. â€Å"I grabbed my overalls and jumped into the aisle, leaving my jacket and the candlesticks in the berth with Amanda. I didn't even thank her. I ran down the aisle toward the back of the car, away from Catch. As I ran, I could hear him yelling, ‘Why are you running? Don't you know the rules?' â€Å"I went through the door between the cars and slid it shut behind me. By now people were screaming, not out of fear of Catch, but because a naked man was running through the sleeping car. â€Å"I looked into the next car and saw the conductor coming down the aisle toward me. Catch was almost to the door behind me. Without thinking, or even looking, I opened the door to the outside and leapt off the train, naked, my overalls still in hand. â€Å"The train was on a trestle at the time and it was a long drop to the ground, fifty or sixty feet. By all rights I should have been killed. When I hit, the wind was knocked out of me and I remember thinking that my back was broken, but in seconds I was up and running through a wooden valley. I didn't realize until later that I had been protected by my pact with the demon, even through he was not under my control at the time. I don't really know the extent of his protection, but I've been in a hundred accidents since then that should have killed me and come out without a scratch. â€Å"I ran through the woods until I came to a dirt road. I had no idea where I was. I just walked until I couldn't walk anymore and then sat down at the side of the road. Just after sunup a rickety wagon pulled up beside me and the farmer asked me if I was all right. In those days it wasn't uncommon to see a barefoot kid in overalls by the side of the road. â€Å"The farmer informed me that I was only about twenty miles from home. I told him that I was a student on holiday, trying to hitchhike home, and he offered to drive me. I fell asleep in the wagon. When the farmer woke me, we were stopped at the gate of my parents' farm. I thanked him and walked up the road toward the house. â€Å"I guess I should have known right away that something was wrong. At that time of the morning everyone should have been out working, but the barnyard was deserted except for a few chickens. I could hear the two dairy cows mooing in the barn when they should have already been milked and put out to pasture. â€Å"I had no idea what I would tell my parents. I hadn't thought about what I would do when I got home, only that I wanted to get there. â€Å"I ran in the back door expecting to find my mother in the kitchen, but she wasn't there. My family rarely left the farm, and they certainly wouldn't have gone anywhere without taking care of the animals first. My first thought was that there had been an accident. Perhaps my father had fallen from the tractor and they had taken him to the hospital in Clarion. I ran to the front of the house. My father's wagon was tied up out front. â€Å"I bolted through the house, shouting into every room, but there was no one home. I found myself standing on the front porch, wondering what to do next, when I heard his voice from behind me. â€Å"‘You can't run from me,' Catch said. â€Å"I turned. He was sitting on the porch swing, dangling his feet in the air. I was afraid, but I was also angry. â€Å"‘Where is my family?!' I screamed. â€Å"He patted his stomach. ‘Gone,' he said. â€Å"‘What have you done with them?' I said. â€Å"‘They're gone forever,' he said. ‘I ate them.' â€Å"I was enraged. I grabbed the porch swing and pushed it with everything I had. The swing banged against the porch rail and Catch went over the edge into the dirt. â€Å"My father kept a chopping block and an ax in front of the house for splitting kindling. I jumped off the porch and snatched up the ax. Catch was just picking himself up when I him in the forehead with it. Sparks flew and the ax blade bounced off his head as if it had hit cast iron. Before I knew it I was on my back and Catch was sitting on my chest grinning like the demon in that Fuselli painting, The Nightmare. He didn't seem at all angry. I flailed under him but could not get up. â€Å"‘Look,' he said, ‘this is silly. You called me up to do a job and I did it, so what's all the commotion about? By the way, you would have loved it. I clipped the priest's hamstrings and watched him crawl around begging for a while. I really like eating priests, they're always convinced that the Creator is testing them.' â€Å"‘You killed my family!' I said. I was still trying to free myself. â€Å"‘Well, that sort of thing happens when you run away. It's all your fault; if you didn't want the responsibility, you shouldn't have called me up. You knew what you were getting into when you renounced the Creator.' â€Å"‘But I didn't,' I protested. Then I remembered my curses in the chapel. I had renounced God. ‘I didn't know,' I said. â€Å"‘Well, if you're going to be a weenie about it, I'll fill you in on the rules,' he said. ‘First, you can't run away from me. You called me up and I am more or less your servant forever. When I say forever, I mean forever. You are not going to age, and you are not going to be sick. The second thing you need to know is that I am immortal. You whack me with axes all you want and all you'll get is a dull ax and a sore back, so just save your energy. Third, I am Catch. They call me the destroyer, and that's what I do. With my help you can rule the world and other really swell stuff. In the past my masters haven't used me to the best advantage, but you might be the exception, although I doubt it. Fourth, when I'm in this form, you are the only one who can see me. When I take on my destroyer form, I am visible to everyone. It's stupid, and why it's that way is a long story, but that's the way it is. In the past they decided to keep me a secret, but there's no rule about i t.' â€Å"He paused and climbed off my chest. I got to my feet and dusted myself off. My head was spinning with what Catch had told me. I had no way of knowing whether he was telling the truth, but I had nothing else to go on. When you encounter the supernatural, your mind searches for an explanation. I'd had the explanation laid in my lap, but I didn't want to believe it. â€Å"I said, ‘So you're from hell?' I know it was a stupid question, but even a seminary education doesn't prepare you for a conversation with a demon. â€Å"‘No,' he said, ‘I'm from Paradise.' â€Å"‘You're lying,' I said. It was the beginning of a string of lies and misdirections that have gone on for seventy years. â€Å"He said, ‘No, really, I'm from Paradise. It's a little town about thirty miles outside of Newark.' Then he started laughing and rolling around in the dirt holding his sides. â€Å"‘How can I get rid of you?' I asked. â€Å"‘Sorry,' he said, ‘I've told you everything that I have to.' â€Å"At the time I didn't know how dangerous Catch was. Somehow I realized that I was in no immediate danger, so I tried to come up with some sort of plan to get rid of him. I didn't want to stay there at the farm, and I didn't have anywhere I could go. â€Å"My first instinct was to turn to the Church. If I could get to a priest, perhaps I could have the demon exorcised. â€Å"I led Catch into town, where I asked the local priest to perform an exorcism. Before I could convince him of Catch's existence, the demon became visible and ate the priest, piece by piece, before my eyes. I realized then that Catch's power was beyond the comprehension of any normal priest, perhaps the entire Church. â€Å"Christians are supposed to believe in evil as an active force. If you deny evil, you deny good and therefore God. But belief in evil is as much an act of faith as belief in God, and here I was faced with evil as a reality, not an abstraction. My faith was gone. It was no longer required. There was indeed evil in the world and that evil was me. It was my responsibility, I reasoned, to not let that evil become manifest to other people and thereby steal their faith. I had to keep Catch's existence a secret. I might not be able to stop him from taking lives, but I could keep him from taking souls. â€Å"I decided to remove him to a safe place where there were no people for him to feed on. We hopped a freight and rode it to Colorado, where I led Catch high into the mountains. There I found a remote cabin where I thought he would be without victims. Weeks passed and I found that I had some control over the demon. I could make him fetch water and wood sometimes, but other times he defied me. I've never understood the inconsistency of his obedience. â€Å"Once I had accepted the fact that I couldn't run away from Catch, I questioned him constantly, looking for some clue that might send him back to hell. He was vague, to say the least, giving me little to go on except that he had been on Earth before and that someone had sent him back. â€Å"After we had been in the mountains for two months, a search party came to the cabin. It seemed that hunters in the area of the cabin, as well as people in villages as far as twenty miles away, had been disappearing. When I was asleep at night, Catch had been ranging for victims. It was obvious that isolation wasn't going to keep the demon from killing. I sent the search party away and set myself on coming up with some kind of plan. I knew we would have to move or people would discover that Catch existed. â€Å"I knew there had to be some sort of logic to his presence on Earth. Then, while we were hiking out of the mountains, it occurred to me that the key to sending Catch back must have been concealed in another candlestick. And I had left them on the train with the girl. Jumping off the train to escape Catch may have cost me the only chance I had to get rid of him. I searched my memory for anything that could lead me to the girl. I had never asked where she was going or what her last name was. In trying to recall details of my time with her I kept coming up with the image of those striking blue eyes. They seemed etched into my memory while everything else faded. Could I go around the eastern United States asking anyone if they had seen a young girl with beautiful blue eyes? â€Å"Something nagged at me. There was something that could lead me to the girl; I just had to remember it. Then it hit me – the wooden bracelet she wore. The initials carved inside the heart were E + A. How hard could it be to search service records for a soldier with the first initial E? His service records would have his next of kin, and she was staying with his family. I had a plan. â€Å"I took Catch back East and began checking local draft boards. I told them I had been in Europe and a man whose first name began with E had saved my life and I wanted to find him. They always asked about divisions and stations and where the battle had taken place. I told them I had taken a shell fragment in the head and could remember nothing but the man's first initial. No one believed me, of course, but they gave me what I asked for – out of pity, I think. â€Å"Meanwhile, Catch kept taking his victims. I tried to point him toward thieves and grifters when I could, reasoning that if he must kill, at least I could protect the innocent. â€Å"I haunted libraries, looking for the oldest books on magic and demonology I could find. Perhaps somewhere I could find an incantation to send the demon back. I performed hundreds of rituals – drawing pentagrams, collecting bizarre talismans, and putting myself through all sorts of physical rigors and diets that were supposed to purify the sorcerer so the magic would work. After repeated failures, I realized that the volumes of magic were nothing more than the work of medieval snake-oil salesmen. They always added the purity of the sorcerer as a condition so they would have an excuse for their customers when the magic did not work. â€Å"During this same time I was still looking for a priest who would perform an exorcism. In Baltimore I finally found one who believed my story. He agreed to perform an exorcism. For his protection, we arranged to have him stand on a balcony while Catch and I remained in the street below. Catch laughed himself silly through the entire ritual, and when it was over, he broke into the building and ate the priest. I knew then that finding the girl was my only hope. â€Å"Catch and I kept moving, never staying in one place longer than two or three days. Fortunately there were no computers in those days that might have tracked the disappearances of Catch's victims. In each town I collected a list of veterans, then ran leads to the ground by knocking on doors and questioning the families. I've been doing that for over seventy years. Yesterday I think I found the man I was looking for. As it turned out, E was his middle initial. His name is J. Effrom Elliot. I thought my luck had finally turned. I mean the fact that the man is still alive is pretty lucky in itself. I thought that I might have to trace the candlesticks through surviving relatives, hoping that someone remembered them, perhaps had kept them as an heirloom. â€Å"I thought it was all over, but now Catch is out of control and you are keeping me from stopping him forever.†

Why Brand Consistency Is Important On You Social Media Accounts

Why Brand Consistency Is Important On You Social Media Accounts A few weekends ago, I decided that my online presence was a mess. Visual brand consistency was non-existent. I have several different blogs and associated social media accounts, and they were all in a disarray. Accounts didnt look the same. They had different tag lines and graphics and information and the overall effect was that they were separate entities. That was a serious failure on my part. Why Visual Brand Consistency Is Good Whats the big deal about my social accounts looking a bit different? If you visited my Facebook Page, and then my YouTube page, and then Twitterthere was nothing about them that suggested they were related, active, or cared for. There were no visual cues that said were part of this larger family. They could have been owned by separate people and happened to have the same name, for all readers might have known. The look was unfamiliar, and unfamiliarity is a negative experience for your readers. When its clear the owner of social properties hasnt bothered to update, change, and unify the appearance–or even keep things in line with what new network updates require–it makes people a bit less likely to get involved. Those lacking visual cues on a social media property make it seem as if it has been forgotten. Simple Tweaks To Better Brand Consistency How do you keep your social media accounts in shape and make sure the visitors to them dont feel like youve neglected them? There are lots of detailed (and complicated) guides on achieving brand consistency freely available online, but really, the simplest and most obvious things are the most important. These are the things you need to do first. Use Uniform Colors Use the same color combinations everywhere, across all of your online accounts. Colors are identifiers. I have a set color scheme that I use on my blogs and across social media platforms. To make it easy to create and manage a color scheme, I use Adobe Kuler. It makes it easy to open up a tab, grab the hex color, and use that for my accounts. A few places where I use those colors are: Customizing my WordPress theme colors. Twitter background and link color. Custom graphics for Facebook views and apps on your page profile. Any standard graphic layouts I do for images posted to social networks. Use the same color combinations on social media profiles as you do your blog.Create Uniform Images The images you use in your icon and cover art on your social profiles are the first way your audience will learn to identify you. As usual, we see pictures first. While each network is different, I tend to think of it as follows: Icon remains the same. Clear, crisp, and simple. Must look good in either a square or round format (some social media networks use a square for the icon, others are round). Design accordingly. Cover image is the same, but in multiple sizes. Each social network uses a different ratio when it comes to the size of the cover image. Choose an image that will work well across all of them no matter how it is cropped, or design an image specifically for each network to fit their specifications. And also, consider that your image may adjust and change size for different screens. People view your social account on different sized screens. The cover image will change accordingly. This is Google+, at different sizes. I often change out the main image to fit the seasons or for other reasons. I usually use a photograph instead of a custom designed graphic because that same photograph gets used on my blog as a background. In other words, I try to connect the images I use on my website to those used on the different social networks. The image becomes the motif, while the profile icon becomes the identifier. You may have custom graphics that you use, instead of a simple photograph, and that is perfectly fine. The main thing is that the imagery matches across the board. And what does it look like when the images arent the same across all of the different networks? It looks pretty crazy. For example, check out my personal social media profile images below. Its all over the place. Am I a world traveler? Do I like nervous cats? Am I a big fan of Godzilla? Am I a cartoon character? Maybe I can get away with having fun on my personal social networks, but for a blog thats focused on creating a platform, definitely not. And, considering Google Authorshipmaybe its time I rethought my personal consistency, too.  At the very least, I dont have the default Google+ rainbow paper for a cover image, which suggests that someone either never visits Google+, has an account and doesnt care, or couldnt be bothered to take the time to upload a basic photo.

A Motivational Article for IBPS PO and IBPS Clerk Aspirants

A Motivational Article for IBPS PO and IBPS Clerk Aspirants These immortal words were penned down by the late Padma Shri awardee Shri. Sohanlal Dwivedi. The translation is simple it states that â€Å" if you keep on getting scared of the waves you will never be able to cross the sea to the other side which is full of beautiful scenes, and that the one who keeps on trying always will eventually succeed†. In order to crack IBPS PO and IBPS Clerk examinations, one needs a lot of patience and sometimes eventually has to face failure. But even in failure, one should not get demotivated but instead find the courage and keep on fighting on until you have finally cracked the exams. Some talented students are able to crack the exams in one attempt while others take a few more. The ones who have failed also are talented but it was just not their time. Hard work beats talent every time but when you start working a little hard with the little talent you have then nothing can stop you from achieving the bigger thing in life. IBPS exams are not cleared overnight, it is just like climbing a mountain. It may take months or perhaps even years to get there but eventually, when you do get there the view from above will be worth the wait. Learn to make the obstacles you face in your way your best friends as at the end of the day these obstacles will form a ladder for you that will take you places. Over 30 lakh aspirants gave exam in 2017 for Ibps PO alone and many more for Ibps clerical exam. The numbers may be demotivating at times with only a few seats to qualify these numbers do pose a bigger threat than the exam itself to some. But out of this whole basket of fruits only a few are sweet. Most of the candidates out of this 30 lakh are just following a trend to give exams because others are doing so and an estimated 10-20 % of people never even appear for exams at all. And only the last remaining few candidates are the few real competitors who are seriously willing to give it all for IBPS exams. Be passionate about what you do, Be acceptable to all the criticism you are receiving or have received in the past, Stay motivated always and last but not the least always stay focused on your goal that is to become PO officer or Clerk. Follow inspirational people from all the fields be it sports, stay updated about what’s going around and last but not the least dont try to be like other heroes but be a hero in your own rights. Surround yourself with all the positive people and more important thoughts. And when you are in trouble or some other thoughts just keep reminding yourself of the life you are going to have after clearing the exam and you will be relieved of your tensions. Brave all the difficulties in the battle of life, dont just make it the battle of talent or luck instead make it a battle fought with much patience and hard work.

Strategic Marketing of Qatar Airways Assignment

Strategic Marketing of Qatar Airways - Assignment Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that strategic marketing orientation is an integral part of the modern-day business. Modern day business is ever-changing. It is very important for each and every organization to change their structure according to the time. The modern business is full of cutthroat competitions; managing competition is the need of the hour for the management across the world. Customers are the focus and understating customers continuously is a complex but important task. The performance of the company has significant dependency on inter-functional co-ordination. Organizational culture with their values and visionary thoughts also play significant roles in the marketing orientation. Shareholders are the pillars of organizational successes, it is important for every company to take care of the long-term interests of shareholders. With the help of this study Managing director of Qatar, airways will be able to get some insights of marketing orientation on the bas is of the above-written factors. The organization has 131 fleet sizes and the company covers 144 destinations across the world. According to Donavan, Brown, Mowen, customer orientation is all about a group of actions taken by the companies to identify and meet the needs of the customers. The authors said that previously organizations were more products centric but as the business scenario has changed nowadays organizations are transforming themselves into more customer-centric. They also commented that performances of the organizations are highly dependent on the continuous understanding of changing needs of customers. In the modern world of business customer orientation is the core factor and fundamental aim of every organization is to remain focused towards customers. They argued that in modern-day business every company relies on pricing, innovation and brand image. They commented that apart from all these things organizations can gain high competitive advantages through offering quality services and by meeting the customer expectations.