Taylor Gordy

Sam Oni was the first student from Africa to go to Mercer. He faced a lot of hardships during his time at Mercer for being black. The irony of this is that a white Mercer graduate, Harris Mobley, is the one who went to Africa to help him through his admissions. However, as soon as he got to Mercer racism was everywhere. It’s almost like Mercer wanted to seem like they were helping black people have equal rights but when it came down to actually giving them those rights, they didn’t want to. We are still facing racism to this day, when there is no reason for it. 

What truly matters in life is how you treat the people and environment around you. It does not matter if the people around you aren’t nice, or honest. What matters is that you are doing what you know is right. People are going to take advantage of you, lie to you, be mean, and so much more. But always be the bigger person. Always forgive and be kind, because one day it will pay off.

In the movie “The Way”, there were four main characters who found each other during their walk on the Camino. Each character was there for a different reason and a different purpose. They opened up to each other about their pasts which allowed them to form connections with each other. They helped each other discover their purposes.

We all need each other in life. We need others to help push us and to show us that there are more possibilities out there than you may think. If we were all selfish and only cared about our own lives, then nobody would be successful. In order to be successful, a person needs help from those around them and needs to help those around them. We all need to work together as a team, selflessly, and we will be able to see each other prosper and grow.

I believe that Chris Sheridan's perspective is very open. While he grew up in a very religious family, his wife seemed may not have. He is open to her more agnostic views and in a way incorporates some of her ideals into his view of God, creation, and religion.

It’s important that you step out of comfort zone and do the things that terrify you. If not, you won’t grow as a person and find who you truly are. Dreaming does not get you many places. You have to go out and do what you want and make those dreams come true. Dreaming about doing things and being someone else doesn’t get you anywhere. You have to go out and do so that you can become yourself and find yourself. You can’t succeed everything. You can’t get everything done. You may be succeeding in one area, but you will be failing in another area, and it’s okay. Life is too short to be focused on getting EVERYTHING done. But go out, do something fun, do anything. But don’t sit around and say you want this, or you wish you had this, go out and get it done. 

So much can be spoken in a picture. We are all the same, no matter the color of the skin, or the ethnicity or religion of the person. Inside we are all humans. We should want the best for each other and want to help each other. It’s sad to see people going through rough times, but to them it may be better than before. Photographs can speak love, fear, sadness, and so much more. Seeing photos like these can speak volumes to people and be an eye opener for us to try and feel or understand what other people are going through.

Everybody faces challenges in life, but it is how a person faces and conquers these challenges that matter. A person should think for themselves, but with an open mind as to what is going on around them and attempting to think about the positives, not the negatives. We never know what challenges other people are going through, we only know our own challenges.

We all need each other in life. We need others to help push us and to show us that there are more possibilities out there than you may think. If we were all selfish and only cared about our own lives, then nobody would be successful. In order to be successful, a person needs help from those around them and needs to help those around them. We all need to work together as a team, selflessly, and we will be able to see each other prosper and grow.

Immaculee is a Tutsi from Rwanda, Africa. When the Hutu president was assassinated, a genocide against the Tutsi’s began. She hid for over 90 days in a tiny bathroom of a pastor’s house. This is where her prayers began, and her faith began to grow. When she finally came out of hiding, she found most of her family and friends had been murdered. When the genocide was over, Immaculee came face-to-face with the man who killed her mother and brother. Even after all the pain and suffer he had put her through, her faith was so strong that she was able to tell him “I forgive you” to his face and he left her alone. You never know what may be causing a person to act the way they are and so your one little act of kindness could have a huge impact on someone else.

I believe the perspective of the author (Socrates) is that he is coming from a place that wants to be involved very heavily in the people's lives. Socrates is wanting to put something that we already have knowledge and an opinion about in a new perspective. I very much agree with the statement "the State in which the rulers are most reluctant to govern is always the best and most quietly governed, and the State in which they are most eager, the worst." I believe that if a leader puts his own agenda and thoughts before his people's, that he will fail his people miserably. There needs to be a balance between State and people because when the State is too involved it causes issues that can be catastrophic.

1. pain, brutal, harsh 2. inhumane, unloving, rude 3. pain, unloving, stupid 4. unloving, unwelcoming, rude 5. worry, pain, harsh 6. disgrace, inhuman, unloving 7. together, hope, sad 8. hope, love, caring 9. sad, inhumane, hurt 10. caring, love, hope 11. love, hope, heartwarming

Phenomenon is a movie about George who is the main character. George was a mechanic in a small town, not very intelligent, and not very serious, but the towns people loved him. On the night of his birthday, he was hit by a light coming from the sky. He realized it made him not able to sleep and he was extremely more intelligent than ever before. His friends were concerned about him but the others around him thought he was lying. Once they realized he wasn’t, they turned against him because they thought he was crazy. In the end reveals himself to be selfless, care and serve for others, and clearly understand and respect the connections between all things.

If you want to make a change, whether it is a change within yourself or anything else in your life, then you need to decide that for yourself and make that change.   If you do not push yourself to make the changes you want, then they aren’t going to happen. The mind has the ability to control you and prevent you from pushing yourself and doing what you are afraid of or may be uncomfortable. If you push yourself to get past the barrier your mind has put up, you will be very successful.

This painting is a representation of the US invasion in Guatemala known as the Banana Republic. It was painted by Diego Rivera who was an active member of the communist party in Mexico to depict the different reactions of the people in the country after the overthrow of President Jacobo Arbenz. In the painting you can see John Foster Dulles shaking hands with Castillo Armas while holding a bomb with President Eisenhower’s face on it. John Peurifoy is standing with Guatemalan military officers handing them money. In the background of the painting there are many people protesting and men carrying bananas for the United Fruit Company. The Catholic Archbishop of Guatemala is blessing the officials and everyone around him as he has received warnings on the evils of communism. There are also many dead bodies lying on the ground in front of everyone as all this commotion is happening.

The Well Outreach is a ministry for people of all ages to come in and get food and necessities. Anyone can volunteer to help and serve the community. There are many ways in life to give. Giving has much more power than we could ever imagine. You never know what is going on in a person’s life and sometimes giving them the smallest thing, such as a smile, could make their entire day.

In this painting, you can see both people and animals. Some are dead and some look as though they are crying for help. This painting was Picasso’s way of expressing his outrage against the war with Guernica. This is Picasso’s memorial to the brutal massacred that occurred.

What or Who made the World? And the swans and the bears? What about the grasshopper? The one that flung herself out the grass and is eating out my hand. The one that instead of moving her jaws up and down, is moving them back and forth. She’s gazing around with her big eyes. She lifts her forearms and carefully washes her face. She opens her wings and flies away. I may not know what a prayer is exactly, but I know how to pay attention and fall to my knees into the grass. I know how to be blessed and have a purpose, how to walk through the fields, which happens to be what I have done all day. But please tell me, what else am I to do? Doesn’t everything die and dies too soon? So now tell me, what do you plan to do with your one precious and wild life you have been given?

Boring people write things down. You can only remember so many items at time. Writing things down such as events, tests, or anything else that is important will allow a person to remember more. Another thing boring people do is reduce to the essentials. There are so many choices in life but there is only so much mental energy that can be put into decision making before a person is exhausted. Once exhausted, a person is unable to make good decision on more important things. Eliminate the things you hate and don’t have to do. Automate the things you hate but have to do. Once this is done, you’ll be able to focus on the things you love. The third thing boring people do is stop and question. You have to continue to question things to make sure they still have value to you and aren’t useless.

Aristotle believes happiness comes from human virtue & living the best possible life ·        Happiness is a human's highest goal which is achieved by virtue or excellent character ·        Virtues turn into habits and molds the human's actions ·        Kant's understanding of "the good life" ·        Humans strive to obtain virtue and happiness at the same time ·        Strength is going against bodily desires and doing what is right ·        Morality, reason, and freedom ·        Categorical imperative which is where all principles are tested to see if they are virtuous ·        Self-respect comes from the individual and their need to have good principles and act on those good principles

Prologue - In the prologue, the thing that caught my attention the most was the story of the woman. She had all of these bad habits along with her husband telling her he wanted a divorce. She reached a place where she wanted to better herself in which she did. She began taking time for herself in hopes of bettering herself. ·        Chapter 1 - At the very beginning of chapter 1, the author introduces E.P. who is suffering from an illness known as encephalitis. My first thought was that E.P. had either Alzheimer's or Dementia. His illness was very alarming because of the effects it can have on the brain, such as him not even remembering his own son. ·        Chapter 2 - Chapter 2 begins with the story of Hopkins and his friend that wants to him to advertise toothpaste. The thing that I found the most interesting was that around the time of World War I, brushing your teeth was not a part of people's daily routines. Today we ...

This quote said by Paul is used to describe the battle between good intentions and then a person’s actions. A person may know the law and know what is right and wrong, but that does not necessarily mean their actions portray this. Nobody is perfect and everyone makes mistakes and commits sins. It’s what you do afterwards that determines who you are as a person. If you learn from your mistakes, or sins, and improve yourself, then you are succeeding.

Everyone has habits. Whether they are intentional or nonintentional, they are there. What a person does with these habits can make or break them. You can control your habits and you can change them. It is possible to change the bad habits and not let them take over and ruin good things.

Everyone has the power to form their own beliefs and grow from them. A person’s beliefs ultimately make who they are as a person and their ultimate purpose.

I think this painting shows a lot about character and that we should strive to help others even if they don’t look like us, have the same beliefs as us, have the same background as us, and just simply different from us. We are all human beings and none of the surface level stuff matters.

It has taken a lot over the years to get somewhat close to equality for women. The women who fought for the rights we have today, did not help us obtain them by following the laws. They fought for what they knew was right, even if it meant defying the law and getting trouble because of it. This shows courage and that we are capable of doing anything as long as we put our mind to it.

A lot of times a kid’s beliefs are learned from their parents. A lot kids are simply just uneducated. Instead of kids learning for themselves they listen to their parents and the stereotypes around them. Kids don’t think about the bigger picture. White kids mock black kids without understanding the culture. Racism is around us and always has been. I don’t necessarily think it was the administration’s fault. I believe it was more of societies fault for even allowing there to be a stereotype so extreme. When we think of thug why do we need to picture a black mail in particular? I believe racism won’t end until stereotypes do as well. I think if the kids weren’t taught the stereotypes, they were then it would’ve been a completely different ballfield. I was raised to love everyone no matter their race because race doesn’t define character.

There was so much going in China. There was violence everywhere and people continuously dying, People were fighting for their rights but there was man who stood out above all, “tank man”. He stood in the middle of the road in front of multiple tanks that could easily just run him over and kill him, but he did not care. He stood there in front of the tanks, risking everything, just to stand up for his rights.

We are all equal and should love each other. We should stand up for each other and what is right otherwise we will fall for anything, including the bad.

  The story is an allegory used to portray happiness in the city. The city is not real and is left for the reader to create in their mind however they must remember that Omelas are happy and suffer at the same time. The narrator emphasizes the importance of how happiness is founded upon necessity and destructiveness. The society of the Omelas is supposed to be a vision of the ideal society. There are drugs in the society, but because the Omelas are usually always content, the drugs are used by few people. The narrator wants the reader to use their imagine and think about the pleasures in life without them being destructive. The whole point of this allegory is to make the reader use their imagination to create a happy and nondestructive society and if they are incapable of that, then it reflects their society they are currently in and their views of it.

  What would I do if I had only one year to live? I would want to try my best to travel and see as much of the world as I could, but I would also like to try to spend a lot of my time with friends and family. I would try to make the most of every situation and live life for myself. I would also focus on my relationship with God and my walk with Him. As cliche as it sounds, I would live every day as if it was my last.