Bandwagon's Broken Wheel

After a 4 hour car ride home from Greencastle, Indiana (Population: do cows count?) I came home and glanced over my favorite part of Sunday: The Chicago Tribune Sports Section. I usually read the first couple articles, and then, le piece de resistance, the back page. This is the page where the writers analyze a player, a controversy, and in this case, a game. This week was all about the Eagles vs. Bears. The title was: Bandwagon runs off road by Mike Downey.

Downey starts with a quote from a Chicago Bear after their first win: "No more room on the bandwagon"..."Don't you try to get on it now!". He then talks about how the Bears lost their next two in embarrassing fashions. He ends with: "They had better get off the bandwagon rushing. And passing". This obvious form of humor draws the reader in, almost inviting them in the jeering of the home team (a pretty good feat for a writer in a sea of die-hard Bears fanatics). He does this by 1. establishing Logos, and 2. by gently letting the reader know his status as a sports columnist and a comedian (Ethos). He gets the first done in the fourth paragraph, by stating the fact that the Eagles have allowed 50 points in the last 3 games (41 of those have been scored by one team). By adding this fact, he is saying: "if better teams can't score on them, what makes you think the 1-2 Bears can?".

Finally, he gets the reader on his side by being a likable guy, and at the same time, being a professional. I stated before, he uses humor to draw the reader in, and then "convert" them to his point of view. On the other hand, he shows us his professionalism by adding the other Chicago Tribune Sports Writers predictions of the game. All of them said the Eagles would win. This somewhat small piece of the article subconsciously lets the readers know that he is right and the legions of Bears fans are wrong. He does a fantastic job in swaying the reader and gently telling us who's boss. Job well done, Mr. Downey. I've jumped off.

(Links to Logler vary)

Past Perils Forgot

When the day came that I had to turn the calendar to September, what came to my mind? School, of course! However, something didn't feel right. The school days passed, and it came apparent. 9/11 had slipped my mind. Unfortunately, for the rest of the school (at very least) it was the same. Granted, seven years is a while, and one's memory can only last for so long. I begin to wonder, is this what happened after Pearl Harbor? After D-Day? Why can't Americans hold on to these tragedies and remember them?
I have two points to make during this blog post. The first, I just stated (forgetting tragedies). The second is appalling. The ignorance and mocking of such. I was in advisory, on September 11th (2008). The moment of silence had been issued all over the school. Then I heard it. "Well, this is BOR-ING!" This may have been an attempt to make a student's social status rise to 'class clown', it may have been a slip of the tongue, it may have even been the lyrics of the last song he heard while getting out of his car that morning, what he said was inexcusable. How far have we fallen? As I said before, seven years is a while, but this is a national tragedy. As I said in my previous post, freedom of speech IS part of what is means to be an American, but when is the line crossed? 9/11/08.

The Brown Noise and the Static

People were distracted. There was commotion towards the front of the stage. A drunk protester now took the attention away from a Presidential Candidate.
“Please ignore the brown noise and the static.” (static referring to radio static-when flying a plane)
The crowd went nuts. But more importantly, he re-asserted his "No Nonsense" attitude to the public. This got me thinking: "are Republicans and Democrats meant to hate each other? Last time I checked we were on the same side. When did disagreeing justify publicly embarrassing one another? Granted, their disagreement is on how to run the country, but is there no decency left in the world? Is this a part of what it means to be an American? To get what we want by any means possible? I don't think so, but I'm not sure I can ignore the brown noise and the static. It is everywhere! On commericals, on Fox, CNN. The First Amendment, in my opinion, is apart of what it means to be an American, and that is why nothing can be done about this. I guess we will have to rely on the decency of good people to do what is right.

first post

this is the first post!!