Abraham Lincoln Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Abraham Lincoln - Essay Example Had Abraham Lincoln died in the spring of 1860, he would today be a forgotten man; it was his handling of the greatest crisis ever faced by America that sparked the continuing interest in his life."Whatever made Lincoln's life memorable occurred in the brief but eventful time between the summer of 1860 and the spring of 1865." "With the possible exception of the depth of Confederate resolve, nothing shaped the Civil War more than the United States Constitution." (Neely, Mark E, Jr.; "The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America"; Harvard University Press; pp.91) "The four-year presidential term assured that Lincoln would be in office throughout the war's duration. The Constitution 'put the army and the navy in the hands of a determined Republican commander-in-chief." (Neely, Mark E, Jr.; "The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America"; Harvard University Press; pp.91-92).Little wonder, therefore, that "Lincoln was the only United S tates President whose entire time in office was bounded by war". (McPherson, James M.; "Abraham Lincoln: A presidential Life"; Oxford University Press; pp.5). His administration synchronized with "the crisis created by South Carolina's blockade of Fort Sumter, and ended with his assassination five days after Lee's surrender at Appomattox; at his death, Confederate armies were still in the field". (McPherson, James M; "Abraham Lincoln: A presidential Life"; Oxford University Press; pp.5). ... dependence all they needed was to defend their territory; the Union forces had to dislodge them while fighting through hostile countryside." (McPherson, James M; "Abraham Lincoln: A presidential Life"; Oxford University Press; pp. 15-16).The personnel disadvantage was that "at the outbreak of hostilities, the military was overwhelmingly Southern, and three quarters of the officer corps were Democrats. And then, there was the question of competence: when Lincoln assumed office, the general-in-chief was Winfield Scott, 75 years old, weighing over 300 pounds, suffering from edema and vertigo, and with a disconcerting propensity to fall asleep during meetings." (McPherson, James M; "Abraham Lincoln: A presidential Life"; Oxford University Press; pp.17-18). In the political realm, Lincoln was forced to deal with "political appointee generals of limited military skills, chosen because their local following enabled them to raise troops in the days before the Union instituted a draft". (McPh erson, James M; "Abraham Lincoln: A presidential Life"; Oxford University Press; pp.18-19) Both political leaders and political press, especially the influential Horace Greeley of The New York Tribune, anticipated "Lincoln's every move, particularly on emancipation; further, as Union losses surged, and Lincoln had to navigate a rising anti-war movement among Democrats sympathetic both to the South and to slavery, a movement that raised doubt about his prospects for re-election." (McPherson, James M; "Abraham Lincoln: A presidential Life"; Oxford University Press; pp.20-21) As chief executive, Lincoln "defined the nation's war aims: to preserve the Federal Union and the country as a republic based on majority rule; he coined the term 'war powers' to justify extra-constitutional executive

The AKA language was protected from outside influence Essay Example for Free

The AKA language was protected from outside influence Essay The writer started his article by describing a group of people called Tuvans, who lives in a remote area in the Republic of Tuva, in Russian Federation. The importance of this group came from the fact that they are speaking Tuvan, a language consider by linguists to be among a group of languages that are considered to be on the edge of extinction because of the low numbers of people that speak it. The earth population speak approximately 7000 languages. Tuvan is among the 3500 small languages that are spoken only by 8. 25 million people in the entire world, which is a very low fraction of the seven billion people who inhabit the earth. On the other hand, seventy eight percent of the earth population are speaking only 85 languages, Mandarin, Spanish, and English are among the top spoken languages on the globe. Linguist predicted that in the next century almost half of the spoken languages may vanish, and at this point more than 1000 languages are considered on the extinction. The writer mentioned the reasons that lead to this languages dilemma. He mentioned the effect of the dominant languages, that controls communications and commerce, on the small one that do not have any defense mechanism, like television or currency, to protect its existence. Because of that the people of Tuva must speak Russian or Chinese if they want to stay in contact with the outside world. The writer then mentioned another endangered languages known as AKA, the native language of AKA people in Plaizi a small village in India. The writer describe its people as a very self-dependent people that produce everything they need in their daily life. The AKA language was protected from outside influence because of the location of the village that makes it very difficult for outsiders to reach it. The authors then described two trends in the field of linguistics. The first one is based on the theory of Noam Chomsky who mentioned that all languages came from one single origin which is fixed in the human genes. The second trend is the increase interest in small endangered languages around the world, and how the field linguists are interested in idiosyncrasies that distinguish each language from the others and the cultural effects on it. There are 85 percent of the needs to be documented in order to understand it, and the main reason for this documentation comes from the fact that each language contains unique human experiences that reveals many aspects of life . The writer declared very important point regarding the loss of any language. His main idea was based on the fact that every language contains a valuable information about the culture and the knowledge that accumulated from generation to generation in this culture. The author gave us another example of vanishing languages which is the Cmiique Itiom, a language used by the Seri in Mexico and how their language contains the knowledge that is important for all humans. Cmiique Itiom managed to preserved its original form without any outside interference . The Seri managed to keep their language untouched mainly because their hostility to the outsiders. Even the modern commodities likes cars the Seri managed to bring it to their culture but they used for it a unique names that merged from their own language so they never used there Spanish names. The writer mentioned a way to preserved the vanishing languages which is to: â€Å"†¦ enshrine it in writing and compile a dictionary. †. He gave an examples for linguists that worked in those kind of projects like David Harrison and Greg Anderson who compiled the first Tuvan- English dictionary. Also, Steve and Cathay Marlett who worked to finish Cmiique Itiom dictionary, but the writer mentioned very important point which is stated in page 86 : â€Å"But saving a language is not something linguists can accomplish, because salvation must come from within. †. The salvation must come from the people who are using this language by teaching it to the next generation, and also by using dictionaries and books to preserve it and keeping it active as long there is something to speak about it. Writer Choices The writer starts his article by using a story as a hook for the readers, to grab their attention for the rest of the article, and he kept telling the readers different stories about the people he met during his travel. The writer also used creative language ,like figurative language which includes metaphor in many places in the article, and he also used compare and contrast in many other places . Numbers was used by the writers to support his main idea, he mentioned a specific numbers related to the languages in the first page. Visuals aid had been used by the writer to illustrate the subject of his article in a very professional way, yet it was very simple and effective, we can see that from the beautiful pictures for all the people that he met during his trip. Reflection on the Reading Process I found the article hard to read at the beginning, but after using SQ4R and reading the article in class for many times it became much easier for me to understand, and this make the whole process of reading very interesting. The language used not always clear, with difficult word as shown below: Nomadic: roaming about from place to place aimlessly, frequently, or without a fixed pattern of movement. Proselytize: to try to persuade people to join a religion, cause, or group. Dwindle: to gradually become smaller. Thatch: to make (a roof) with dried plant material (called thatch). Supplant: to supersede (another) especially by force or treachery. Atelier: a room where an artist works. Propitious: likely to have or produce good results. Reading process included: Skimming and Skamming ,summarize the article and annotate the key points in it, and SQ4R. Reaction Languages is the soul of human civilizations. The connection between the two of them is very similar to the relationship between human soul and body because without the sole the body will surely collapse because humans need their soul to drive the physical body and to keep him from perishing. In contrast, language plays the same role in people collective awareness about their on existence in the society and culture. Language is the invisible glue that hold the culture pieces together, and without this glue everything will collapse. It’s the strong foundation that up hold the society structures and grant it the strength to resist any outside threats. Why the language is so important? Because it’s the memory of the society. This memory is the experiences and knowledge that transferred from generation to generation until it reached this point in time, and no it will very hard to live without our memories. Losing any language would be similar to someone who lost his own memory. The only thing he can do is to embrace a new experiences and knowledge, and to start accumulating new memories about his new life. Unfortunately, it is the same thing for languages, when the people abandon their own language in favor for new ones they will lose their cultural experiences and knowledge. They will eventually lose their own identity that distinguished them from the rest of humans. Finally, losing any language on earth would be a lost for humanity in general because we will lose our diversity that make life on earth interesting . I think life with one color would be very tedious, and for life to be interesting it should contain whole spectrum of color. Spinoff Topics One of the spinoff topics would be a to study the individuals that abandon their own language and how they adopt with their new languages and cultures.

Equilibrium Equality Demand Supply

Equilibrium Equality Demand Supply Equilibrium means a state of equality between demand and supply. Without a shift in demand and/or supply there will be no change in market price. In the diagram below, the quantity demanded and supplied at price P1 are equal. (Baryla, 1995, 13) At any price above P1, supply exceeds demand and at a price below P1, demand exceeds supply. In other words, prices where demand and supply are out of balance are termed points of disequilibrium. Changes in the conditions of demand or supply will shift the demand or supply curves. This will cause changes in the equilibrium price and quantity in the market. Consider the following example. The weekly demand and supply schedules for T-shirts (in thousands) in a city are shown in the table below: Price ( £) 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Demand 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Supply 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 Demand 2 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 Supply 2 26 24 22 20 18 16 14 12 The equilibrium price in the market is  £5 where demand and supply are equal at 12,000 units. If the current market price was  £3 there would be excess demand for 8,000 units. If the current market price was  £8 there would be excess supply of 12,000 units. A change in fashion causes the demand for T-shirts to rise by 4,000 at each price. The next row of the table shows the higher level of demand. Assuming that the supply schedule remains unchanged, the new equilibrium price is  £6 per tee shirt with an equilibrium quantity of 14,000 units. The entry of new producers of T-shirts into the market causes a rise in supply of 8,000 T-shirts at each price. The new equilibrium price becomes  £4 with 18,000 units bought and sold. Assuming there is pure competition in the market place, and no government intervention, we are able to focus on how the price mechanism determines the equilibrium price in the market. Markets can be effective at resolving the basic issues of what and how much to produce at a certain price level although left to operate on its own, the market can still create unsatisfactory outcomes. When markets do not produce the desired outcome, it is known as market failure and when this occurs, governments may intervene in the market. (Baryla, 1995, 13) How the price mechanism brings about the equilibrium price in the market can be determined assuming we have pure competition in the market place and no government intervention. Simply put, the concept of pure competition mean that no participant in the market has the power to influence market outcomes directly, such as by setting prices. The price mechanism is the interplay of the forces of supply and demand in determining the market prices at which goods and services are sold and the quantity of which is produced. The quantities of goods and services demanded and supplied is regulated by the prices of those goods and services. If the price of a commodity for sale is too high according to consumer demand, the quantity supplied will exceed the quantity demanded. If the price of a commodity is too low according to consumer demand, the quantity that is demanded will exceed the quantity supplied. There is one price, and only one price, at which the quantity demanded, is equal to the quantity supplied. This is known as the equilibrium price. (Belkin, 1976, 57) The market forces of supply and demand interacting to determine the equilibrium price which at this price the market clears and eliminates any excess supply or demand is the price mechanism in action. (Brown, 2000, 66) There is no tendency for change at the equilibrium point. In this way it is said that the market mechanism, besides being the natural consequences of the forces of supply and demand, provides the most efficient economic outcomes possible without any explicit coordination. Although markets can be effective at resolving the basic issues of what and how much to produce, left to operate by it, the market can still create unsatisfactory outcomes. For goods and services in product markets, the market price may be considered to be too high or too low. From the free interplay of demand and supply, the equilibrium quantity that results may also be considered too high or too low. Some goods and services may not even be produced at all. Market failure occurs because the price mechanism takes account of the private costs and benefits of production, to producers and consumers, but does not take into account the impact of an economic activity on outsiders. For example, the market may ignore the costs imposed on outsiders by a firm polluting the environment. Governments may intervene in the market when market failure occurs. The market determined price for some commodities may be thought by the government to be too high or too low. The government may therefore intervene in the marketplace in order to apply either price ceilings, where the government imposes a limit on how high a price can be charged for a product, or price floors, the minimum price that can be charged for a particular commodity. (Geltner, 1995, 119) Affecting the distribution of income, the manner in which income is divided among the members of the economy, is the main reason for influencing prices in this way. Price ceilings will redistribute money from sellers to buyers, whereas price floors will redistribute money from buyers to sellers. In conclusion, the market forces of supply and demand interact with each other to bring about market equilibrium, clearing the market of excess demand or supply. In this way, it is said that the market mechanism achieves consistency between plans and outcomes for consumers and producers without explicit coordination. Government intervention is very important in providing the desired outcomes of the society. Overall, market equilibrium is determined by the price mechanism, supply and demand curves, surplus and shortage, increases and decreases in supply and demand curves, market behaviours and government intervention. (Hendershott, 1997, 13) References Baryla, E.A., Zumpano, L.V. (1995), Buyer search duration in the residential real estate market: the role of the real estate agent, The Journal of Real Estate Research, Vol. 10 No.1, pp.1-13. Belkin, J., Hempel, D., McLeavey, D. (1976), An empirical study of time on the market using multidimensional segmentation of housing markets, Journal of American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, Vol. 4 No.2, pp.57-75. Brown, G., Matysiak, G.A. (2000a), Real Estate Investment: A Capital Market Approach, Financial Times Prentice-Hall, Harlow, . Brown, G.R., Matysiak, G.A. (2000b), Sticky valuations, aggregation effects and property indices, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Vol. 20 No.1, pp.49-66. Geltner, D., Mei, J.P. (1995), The present value model with time-varying discount rates: implications for commercial property valuation and investment decisions, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Vol. 11 No.2, pp.119-35. Hendershott, P.H. (1997), Uses of equilibrium models in real estate research, Journal of Property Research, Vol. 14 No.1, pp.1-13. Janssen, C.T.L., Jobson, J.D. (1980), On the choice of realtor, Decision Sciences, Vol. 11 No.April, pp.299-311.

Civil War 9 Essays -- essays research papers

Many developments in social life and the constitution amounted to a revolution between 1860 and 1877. Some of the major events that took place during this time period were the secession of the southern states, Civil War, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendment, and reconstruction. In 1860, South Carolina declared their causes of secession. South Carolina was the first state to secede, and their main reason was that their powers were restrained by the federal government. They felt they were not sovereign, and therefore needed to secede. In the 1860’s, the nation continued to struggle to become united. Congress introduced the new banking and currency systems. Senator John Sherman commended this because he was a strong believer in national unity. He believed that everything should be nationalized because putting state authority above national authority would be "the main instrument by which our government is sought to be overthrown." The blacks at this time were persistently struggling for their civil rights. They declared that they should have the privilege of voting because they fought in the war to preserve the union. In a petition, American citizens of African descent stated that " It (the government) can afford to trust him with a vote as safely as it trusted him with a bayonet." At this time they did not have full protection from the courts, nor did the courts receive a black person’s testimony. In 1865, the blacks did not receive homesteads...

Integration – Teamwork

Integration – Teamwork The first step toward peaceful common existence in a multicultural country is integration. It can easily happen that immigrants end up isolated, unable to take part in their new society. This is a problem for both the immigrants and the country they have come to. By not participating they are not doing anything for the country's benefit, and the people of said country may start asking themselves: if they are not taking part, why should they be taken care of?They may fall away from the system, not getting any of the advantages, and at the same time missing their opportunity to raise their voices and do anything about their situation. It all ends up as a downward spiral that makes integration, and thereby also improvement, more and more difficult. Integration is therefore something that has to start happening right away. The first step to integration is often said to be learning the language of the country, and I think this makes a lot of sense. A language barrier is a huge barrier, as communication is essential in almost every situation.But how can we make this happen? Would it be a solution that all immigrants attend language classes in their new country? If you compare a multicultural country to a group of people with completely different personalities, values and ideas stuck together in one tiny house for an extended period of time, it is hardly that difficult to imagine that problems are going to arise; eventually they will find something to argue about. Now this might sound negative, but it is, in fact, not. Arguing, if kept on a reasonable level, is how you become fully aware of your own meanings and views.You may learn to see things from a different perspective, and sometimes the argument brings out new ideas that can lead to solutions. This is part of the reason I believe that migration can only be a good thing, as it makes us learn new things through our differences. (Of course, the types of issues deriving from migration d o differ quite drastically from the types of issues that the members of the hundreds of reality shows we have nowadays have got to deal with, but that also means that the things we learn from them are different as well, and if I may say so, also infinitely more giving. It is not that long ago that we found the whole idea of sharing, mixing and just getting to know the rest of the world somewhat frightening. We were not very good at it, and wanted everything to stay the way it was. The modern world takes pride in being open and new-thinking however, and the word on everyone's lips is â€Å"diversity†. Yes, diversity and sharing our cultures are wonderful things that we should definitely learn to appreciate more, but through our fear of racism we are making it almost impossible to state the fact that there are actually going to be some changes for you if you move to a new country.Of course you do not have to give up on your own culture, of course you can still speak your mother tongue, of course we want diversity. But what we sometimes forget to mention is that you really can't speak only your mother tongue in your new country and that you will have to get in touch with the culture of this new country as well as keeping your own. If you really want your new country to actually be your new country and to accept you as a part of it, then you will have to accept the fact that if you want your country to be multicultural, you will have to be a bit multicultural yourself.Learning a new language does not erase your own language from your brain, getting to know a new culture does not mean you have to let go of your own values, just as making new friends does not mean you can never speak to your old ones again. It is a matter of expanding rather than replacing. However, no relationships are ever one-sided. There has to be will and effort from both sides for it to work. This means that for integration to work smoothly, both the country and the immigrants have to d o their best to make it so.It is much easier for us to say that all immigrants must learn the language right away than it is for the immigrants to learn a whole new language in no time at all. If the attending of language classes are to be made compulsory, then the immigrants should be given the means to do so. It can hardly be expected that they should have the money for language classes at the ready right after they have arrived in a new country. Many of them are moving in order to start up a new life, and being forced to pay for language classes before they have started working is not going to help in any way.The fact that they will have a much easier time finding a job after the language classes does not help if they are already bankrupt before they have begun the search for a job. If the country would be willing to pay for the language classes however, that would be a huge benefit for the immigrants. It would also pay itself off for the country in many cases, once the new citiz ens start working. Though that does not mean that all immigrants will see and understand the necessity and the advantages of such classes, which would make the whole project a waste.This leads me to another important aspect of successful integration: communication between the country and the immigrants. Communication is always present in a healthy relationship, the relationship between country and immigrant being no exception. Now one might wonder how there can be communication about the necessity of learning the language before the immigrants learn the language, but there are ways to get this done. It is simply another matter of will and effort, once again from both sides rather than one.A relationship where only one part is trying to make things work is a doomed relationship. With this said, we can not blame only either immigrant or country if integration is not working, and we can not assign the responsibility of making integration possible to only either immigrant or country. Ye s, it is a definite benefit for the process of integration if the immigrant makes an effort to learn the language, but it can not really be as simply put as â€Å"all immigrants should learn the language of their new country†.No matter how much effort you put in, you will not be able to become a part of something if that â€Å"something† is not willing to accept you. It is like one of those â€Å"help me help you†-cases, if I may put it that simply, and I believe it is also know to be called teamwork. Once this first barrier, which is nothing but a barrier in the way of thinking, is overcome, all the other barriers standing in the way of integration will become a lot less insuperable.

Free Essays on Graffiti

or phrases on a wall, to a complex artistic form of personal expression. I think that this new form of graffiti first took form in the big cities. It started with people writing their na... Free Essays on Graffiti Free Essays on Graffiti For eternity, people have been writing on walls. The Romans wrote on the buildings of the towns they conquered, and even before words were used, the cave men painted on walls. This writing was first called graffiti in Roman times and holds the same name now. But as the times have changed, so have the forms that this writing on the walls has taken. In the â€Å"Tunnel Notes of a New Yorker† Leonard Kriegel talks about how graffiti’s have polluted the cities/urban places. In the same time he likes some of the graffiti that respond on his thoughts, and he doesn’t like the ones that talk about politics. He is probably (or –to me he seems like) one of these old people who don’t like the new movements of art. I think graffiti is an art, because to make one good graffiti you have to have some skills, not every person can do graffiti. Everyone can come up to a wall, and scribble their names, write something, or draw some abstract lines that have no m eaning. Leonard said, â€Å"†¦ the evidence of the streets insists that graffiti is an urban statement whose ultimate end is nothing less than the destruction of urban life.† I don’t agree with what he said, because if you take Detroit for an example, these abandoned houses look to me more distractive without graffiti on them than with the graffiti drawings on them. Today, there are quite a few different classifications that separate graffiti. There is the gang graffiti that street gangs use to mark their territory, graffiti that people write to express political views and a new form of graffiti that has just emerged in the 80’s till now. This new form is artistic graffiti. Artistic graffiti is a modern day offspring of traditional graffiti that has elevated itself from just scrawling words or phrases on a wall, to a complex artistic form of personal expression. I think that this new form of graffiti first took form in the big cities. It started with people writing their na...