Standard 1

Ninth Grade Arguementative Essay: No Need for Revenge

Mark Mathabane, a native South African, was subject to Apartheid. After Apartheid was lifted, there was talk of violence against the whites. In The Cycle of Revenge Can Be Broken , Mathabane writes “Guns, bombs, and tanks cannot defeat hatred. It can be vanquished only by humanity”. I agree with his claim, but also think that not wanting to do the things done to oneself to other people also influences people to be able to overcome hatred and revenge.

Mathabane overcame revenge by seeing the humanity in white people. In The Cycle of Revenge Can Be Broken , Mathabane tells a story about a nun who cared about his family: “My mother had been repeatedly denied a birth certificate for me — a necessary document for school registration — because she did not have a permit proving that our family had a right to live in Alexandra. But we couldn’t get the permit without the birth certificate. My mother asked a white nun for help. When she realized the Catch-22 my mother was trapped in, the nun cried. I remember being stunned by her tears, for they were the first I’d ever seen streak a white face. I remember saying to myself: ”She feels my mother’s pain. She’s human after all, not a monster.”” In this story, he saw that this white nun had empathy-she cared about him and his problem. This was nothing like the white policeman, who were cold, hard, and devoid of empathy. He realized that exacting his revenge on all white folk would mean killing people like the nun, who cared about black people and were probably against Apartheid. Also, if he started killing white people in “white homes, kindergartens, shopping centers, schools, buses, and playgrounds”, then wouldn’t he be worse than the policeman also killing people?

By seeing the humanity in people, we can prevent ourselves from having to take revenge. In Night , the SS demonstrate human traits when the child is being hung. Elie Wiesel writes, “The SS seemed more preoccupied, more worried, then usual…This time, the Lagerkapo refused to act as executioner”. These SS were troubled over the killing of a child, so they felt guilty and sad. Also the Lagerkapo, who had hung many people, didn’t want to kill this child. He felt like this was wrong. Sure, they may have just been scared of protests and uprisings by the Jews, but nothing had really happened after months of persecution, so an uprising was unlikely. When it says they were more preoccupied and worried than usual, they may have been feeling guilty and bad for killing such an innocent person. They showed their humanity this way, and Wiesel and the other prisoners saw and felt this. They didn’t feel like they needed to take revenge after they were freed-“And even when we were no longer hungry [the hunger that had consumed their lives], there was still no one who thought of revenge”. In The Third Wave , those students were human; the things they were told and practiced were not “kill the Jews”. Yet, they were manipulated into doing whatever their teacher said. If a high school teacher was able to do this to 200 kids, it wouldn’t have been difficult for Hitler, with political power, and good speaking skills, to manipulate the German people into doing what he asked. They were still human, but they had been manipulated. For those of you who disagree I do see that there is a disconnect between these extreme experiences, like the Holocaust and Apartheid, and every day, normal things, like someone stealing your food.

Not wanting to inflict the pain inflicted onto oneself on other people is another way we can resist our desire and one for revenge. In the Oprah Special, “Auschwitz Death Camp”, Oprah and Wiesel went to Auschwitz, the concentration camp that Wiesel was put in. They had a talk, and at one point, Oprah asks if he would have taken revenge on the Nazis. He replied, “I don’t want others to suffer like I suffered”. He felt that taking revenge would make him as inhumane as the SS and Hitler. If him and other Jews took revenge, would they be any better than Nazis? The entire Holocaust happened because Hitler blamed Germany’s loss in World War I on the Jews, and wanted revenge. Some of you may be thinking, “The Jew should take revenge”. If the Holocaust never happened, and the Jews randomly killed innocent Germans, (like what the Africans in South Africa could have done after Apartheid was lifted), wouldn’t that have been considered evil, horrible, and inhumane? But as revenge, acts like this seem acceptable.

People can quench their thirst for revenge by not wanting to cause the pain on others caused to them. Also, revenge can be overcome by, as Mark Mathabane writes, “It [hatred] can be vanquished only by humanity”. Hatred will only cause more hatred, creating increasingly more and more pain and instability for everybody. The only way this cycle can be broken is through peace and forgiveness.

Eleventh Grade Arguementative Essay: SPACE EXPLORATION: INNOVATOR AND CATALYST FOR CHANGE, FORGOTTEN

There is nothing more alien to the human race than Space. Everywhere else, the human race has been, and has come to understand. In space exists a duality: it is vast and dangerous, but simultaneously near and beautiful. In the words of fictional Star Trek Captain James T. Kirk, space, indeed, is the final frontier. In our country, space exploration is sidelined – for every dollar of taxpayer money, only ½ a cent goes towards NASA, while 38 times that goes to the military (Source C). The innovations and inventions credited to the military, although numerous, pale in comparison to what NASA has been able to achieve on their paltry budget. NASA has played an integral role in our world, and our current way of life would simply not exist without them. Thus, not only should we continue the funding of NASA, we should add to it.

Perhaps the greatest achievement of space exploration is its instrumental role in the development of integrated circuits – the basis of all electronics today.Yet many, such as Russell Roberts, argue, “Don’t tell me about all the spin-off technologies . . . . Leave the money here on earth.” (Source H). However, if not for this invention, our modern digital life would not be possible today. Smartphones, flat screen TV’s, and modern computers would not exist today. Even household objects, like a simple thermostat, would not exist if not for such innovations. That is not the only spin-off technology that has benefited us today. Without space exploration there would be no satellites – meaning no television, Internet, or even GPS – and many of our modern-day comforts would simply not exist. Although current research conducted by NASA may seem meaningless for us on Earth, and it may feel as if the funding could better spent here on Earth, the innovations produced may again revolutionize the way we live.

Many also argue that we should take care of the issues back home before attempting to explore space. Margaret McLean, for example, writes, “we do not have a very good track record in protecting our planet home”, arguing, like many others, that the problems we have at home should be solved before we venture out in space, lest we leave future colonies in the same conditions we will probably leave Earth (Source E). However, space exploration has had a very strong political effect back home. On December 24, 1968, Earthrise was taken. It was a picture of the Earth from the Mun. In this image, the Earth looked small and fragile – and very, very vunerable. This one picture had an influential effect in kickstarting the green movement in the 1970s, leading to legislation such as the Clean Air Act in 1970, Clean Water Act in 1972, Endangered Species Act in 1973, Federal Land Policy and Management Act in 1976, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act in 1976, Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974, Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act in 1977, and the National Environmental Policy Act in 1970, to name the most important. This green movement, strongly influenced by Earthrise , also had a worldwide effect – many governments became interested in preserving their environment, eventually leading to international initiatives such as the Kyoto Protocol, Montreal Protocol, and the founding of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). If not for the Green movement, the world that we live in now could have been a much harsher, dangerous place, with pollution running amok in the absence of government regulation. Michael Collins wrote, “I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of, let’s say, 100,000 miles, their outlook would be fundamentally changed. That all-important border would be invisible, that noisy argument suddenly silenced.” (Source G). Perhaps not exactly a view from 100,000 miles, but Earthrise was equally influential in shifting people’s – and in turn, politicians’ – attitudes and views about our home planet.

Space Exploration has stagnated, with governments more likely to pay for boosters on warheads than boosters on the next mission to space. But we, as a people, must realize the importance and significance of Space Travel, not only for its clear benefits, such as a increased knowledge about the Universe. There are many other benefits that we gain, here on Earth, by searching the stars.