Emmerson's Self-reliance essay

In Emmerson's Essay, he portrays the idea of individualism and how people compare to their society.  In his writing, he is addressing that a society should be filled with diversity than instead of people all trying to be the same. "It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion;  it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude" (23).  Emmerson is adressing in this phrase that it is very easy and compelling to a person to be a follower.  He is also saying that this is a confliction to our society and that this is a problem.  People want to be like everybody else and to blend in with the general society to feel like they belong and feel like they are a part of something.  This quote shows that Emmerson wants people to be unique and stand out in society so that there can be more of a variety of ideas and opinions formed by people within a society.  If everyone wants to be like someone or wants to believe like someone else, they will not be expressing what they really feel.  Because of this, there will be a big gap missing within a society that will prevent a society from flourishing.  

quann-Burning on again, off again

Right now there are alot turbulance and confusion right now based on a man named Terry Jones.  Right now thousands of Afghanistans are very upset and are protesting because of Terry Jones behavior and statment.  I think the problem right now is that people need to slow down and think and reflect about things before they say or act upon something.  If more people can really understand the true essence of time and what it can really do to help heal or justify a problem, then maybe right now Terry Jones might understand his statement about Burning the Koran.  If Tery Jones makes the decision to Burn down the Koran, he won't understand how it will not only effect him, but how it will effect so many other people around the world.  He will danger the lives of our troops in afghanistan and all around the world.  Just becasue of the one comment one man said.  This confliction dies in with the freedom of speech.  I think people should have their freedom of speech to a certain extent.  If someone says something against someone else is one thing, but threatening someone or something important to someone or some group of people is another thing.  I think we need to rethink and justify some of our rights and privelidges or else other people could be put in danger and will feel demorilized.

the American Crisis

This reading is about how people go through hard times and struggle.  You have deal with many things that you don't like to overcome and impower them.  Thomas Paine also said that tyranny is not easy to overcome and the harder the things get, the more gradifying your triumph is.  I agree with this because i can connect his words to my daily life.  When I really work hard for something and finally reach the pinacle of sucess, I feel a sense of pride and a huge accomplishment than rather taking shortcuts to reach my goal.  Paine also talked about how quickly a country can have a sense of fear and panic.  He's main message to this is that to have faith and to never quit and give up.  A quote that paine said that stuck to me was the following: "I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection." (53) This quote is very powerfull because it means that in life, you can't progress and better yourself if you don't ever don't try new things or do anything out of your comfort zone.  If you can't do this, then you won't be able to grow knowledge and strength and will and won't have anything to reflect upon.