Author Archives: Brvndon

Drab

Leave a reply

Drab (adjective): a dull, lifeless, or faded appearance or quality

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/drab

“The city also puts a lot of effort into making your hometown look really drab and tiny…”

I encountered the word “drab” while reading an article that we are discussing in class, “City Limits” by Colson Whitehead. Although it is my first time hearing of this word I already gained an idea of what it meant first time reading the line. Drab reminds me of the word drag which int this context mean a tedious experience or a bore. I figured they have a certain similarity since the sentence after I found the word “drab” had the word drag in it.” …just in case you were wondering why it’s such a drag to go back sometimes.” Drab is an adjective word so you can use it to describe or modify other words with a similar meaning. For example, “The drab and boring party suddenly came to life when the drugs appeared”.

Image result for dying flower

Impediment

Leave a reply

Impediment (noun): a hindrance or obstruction in doing something.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/impediment

“It saw you steeling yourself for the job interview, slowly walking home after the late date, tripping over nonexistent impediments on the sidewalk”

I encountered the word “impediment” while reading an article that we are currently reading in class, “City Limits” by Colson Whitehead. The word is a noun so its used to identify a person, place, or thing. While trying to gain an understanding from context clues I thought to myself ” tripping over nonexistent impediments…” , it must be something that blocks a person from doing something. It was obvious the author was using figurative language to exaggerate his thoughts. You can use the word “impediment” to describe something that is making it more difficult for you to do something. For example, “My broken wrist is the impediment preventing me from finishing my new novel.”

Image result for impediment

 

“City Limits” Synopsis

Leave a reply

The article “City Limits” by Colson Whitehead is just him going on a jaunt through New York’ best and worst parts and his experiences and his perspective on the changes that occurred. He addresses the many things that makes New York the city that he loves. In the passage he explains to the reader that New York goes through so many changes at a very rapid pace. “Damage has been done to your city. You say, it happened overnight.” His dramatic insight towards New York going through changes will have any reader believe that nothing lasts forever in the gargantuan concrete jungle. “Or old buildings still stand because we saw them, moved in and out of their long shadows, were lucky enough to know them for a time.” This means that he believes that no matter what new buildings replace the old ones, we were still there to see the old ones , so therefore we are lucky to see such change happen to a city we live and die in. Colson’s main point in this passage is that everyday the city of New York changes, whether it’s a small change or a big one everyone and everything affects one another. Some changes people won’t care about until it’s impacts someone or something but us as New Yorkers fail to realize how a minor change can affect a very large population of the city. Colson has a very strong pride in being a New Yorker, he’s proud to say that he’s seen the city he group up in change. But he knows that no matter how many changes the city goes through he will always love it.

Prime criterion for evaluating monuments

Leave a reply

Brandon Casimir

English 1101

 

Monuments are a symbol of a remarkable point in history and should be glorified due to the positive impacts they withheld. Monuments should remain an explicit way of commemorating a specific person or event. There are many monuments all over the world that reveals a great significance, however some remain a symbolism of hate and can target a specific ethnic group, race, and or sexual preferences. Monuments with such characteristics should be removed.

 

One way a monument is used is by honoring fallen soldiers that have fought in passed wars. While venturing the Cadman Plaza area of Downtown Brooklyn I came across a park named Korean War Veterans Plaza. An alluring granite monument to fallen Brooklyn soldiers who fought in the war. The Korean war was North Korea’s desperate attempt to take over South Korea and have just one Korea. In efforts to stop this The United States sent troops from all over to help and fight. The monument was created to pay tribute to the soldiers that lost their lives. Tourists who view this monument can pay homage to the soldiers and never forget the people who once served the country so that the people of the future can live better lives. “In 1987, the Korean War Veterans Memorial Committee was formed to raise money to build a monument to commemorate the soldiers of the “forgotten war.” Honoring the people that fought for us in the past should be a prime example of what criterion should be used for evaluating monuments.

 

Monuments were also used to honor specific people that led a great change to the world. One of these monuments would consist of Robert F. Kennedy. After finding the Korean War Veterans Plaza, I did more surveying of the area and came across a statue of Robert F. Kennedy. Brother of the 35th president, Kennedy served as U.S Attorney General. Soon after his brother’s assassination he launched a successful campaign for the United States Senate in 1964. Kennedy also spoke out against the war in Vietnam. “America in the mid-1960’s was in the thick of the Vietnam War abroad, and grappling with civil rights at home.  Robert Kennedy as U.S. Attorney General in the early 1960’s, had become directly engaged in the civil rights struggle…” This is just one of Kennedy heroic deeds to bettering the U.S. It also includes, “Following the assassination of his brother in 1963, and by 1965 as a U.S. Senator, RFK continued his political metamorphosis, gradually becoming a more vocal and aggressive champion for minority rights for African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and immigrant groups.”  If a monument is created for a commemoration for an event or a person who positively impacted the world t should stay relevant.

 

Although monuments are created to honor the good that has been done from a certain event or specific person, there are monuments that hold negative incentives and should be removed. An instance in where a monument should be removed is if that monument glorifies hate or prejudice towards another race or ethnicity. An example of this type of monument would be the statue of Benjamin Tillman located in South Carolina. Although the plaque on the statue state” life of service and achievement” his beliefs on race were not apparent. ” Tillman moved on to the U.S. Senate in 1895, apologetically defending until his death in 1918 his post-Reconstruction tactics to restore white rule in the then-majority-black state by killing any black who tried to vote.” This prove that Tillman was a white supremacist that did not want to see African American citizens prospers. This statue is a symbol of racism and hate towards African-Americans and should not stand any longer. That was only one example as where Tillman committed many other heinous acts to instill fear into African Americans. Another example is shown in the line. “The purpose of our visit was to strike terror,” he said in the Senate in 1900 about the so-called Hamburg Massacre of 1876, where his militia killed black Republicans. “And the next morning when the Negroes who had fled to the swamp returned to the town the ghastly sight which met their gaze of seven dead Negroes lying stark and stiff certainly had its effect.” A person that committed such acts should not have a monument build in his favor therefore it should be removed.

 

In conclusion, there are some criteria that should be considered before a monument should be  upheld. Although we live in a time where monuments mainly get attention from tourists and newcomers they should still be recognized as a symbol of honor and commemoration to a specific event or person in time. Monuments should stay relevant for the reasons of hopefully soon all the monuments that promotes the negative aspects of the dark past of the United States will be removed and forgotten.

 

Works Cited:

Larimer, Sarah. “Why a Vitriolic Jim Crow Advocate Is Still Memorialized on S.C. Statehouse Grounds.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 9 July 2015, www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/07/09/should-this-controversial-s-c-governors-statue-be-included-in-the-debate-over-confederate-symbols-on-statehouse-grounds/?utm_term=.92cf9c52c406%2C%2Bit%2Bstates%2C.

 

Dicks, J.D. J. “John F. Kennedy Statue.” The Pop History Dig, Pop History, Aug. 2016, www.pophistorydig.com/topics/tag/robert-f-kennedy-history/.

 

Antiquities, Art N. “The Battery.” The Battery Monuments – New York Korean War Veterans Memorial : NYC Parks, NYC Parks, 2015, www.nycgovparks.org/parks/battery-park/monuments/1930

Project 2 Part IV

Leave a reply

Monuments are a symbol of a remarkable point in history and should be glorified due to the positive impacts they withheld. Monuments should remain an explicit way of commemorating a specific person or event. There are many monuments all over the world that reveals a great significance, however some remain a symbolism of hate and can target a specific ethnic group, race, and or sexual preferences. Monuments with such characteristics should be removed.

One way a monument is used is by honoring fallen soldiers that have fought in passed wars. While venturing  the Cadman Plaza area of Downtown Brooklyn I came across a park named Korean War Veterans Plaza. An alluring granite monument to fallen Brooklyn soldiers who fought in the war. The Korean war was North Korea’s desperate attempt to take over South Korea and have just one Korea. In efforts to stop this The United States sent troops from all over to help and fight. The monument was created to pay tribute to the soldiers that lost their lives. Tourists who view this monument can pay homage to the soldiers and never forget the people who once served the country so that the people of the future can live better lives. Accoriding to the site, https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/battery-park/monuments/1930 “In 1987, the Korean War Veterans Memorial Committee was formed to raise money to build a monument to commemorate the soldiers of the “forgotten war.”

Monuments were also used to honor specific people that led a great change to the world. One of these monuments would consist of Robert F. Kennedy. After finding the Korean War Veterans Plaza, I did more surveying of the area and came across a statue of Robert F. Kennedy. Brother of the 35th president, Kennedy served as U.S Attorney General. Soon after his brother’s assassination he launched a successful campaign for the United States Senate in 1964. Kennedy also spoke out against the war in Vietnam. According to the cite, http://www.pophistorydig.com/topics/tag/robert-f-kennedy-monument/, it states ” America in the mid-1960s was in the thick of the Vietnam War abroad, and grappling with civil rights at home.  Robert Kennedy as U.S. Attorney General in the early 1960s, had become directly engaged in the civil rights struggle…” This is just one of Kennedy heroic deeds to bettering the U.S. It also inludes, “Following the assassination of his brother in 1963, and by 1965 as a U.S. Senator, RFK continued his political metamorphosis, gradually becoming a more vocal and aggressive champion for minority rights for African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and immigrant groups.”  As long as a monument is created for a commemoration for an event or a person who positively impacted the world t should stay relevant.

 

Although monuments are created to honor the good that has been done from a certain event or specific person, there are monuments that hold negative incentives and should be removed. An instance in where a monument should be removed is if that monument glorifies hate or prejudice towards another race or ethnicity. An example of this type of monument would be the statue of Benjamin Tillman located in South Carolina. Although the plaque on the statue state ” life of service and achievement” his beliefs on race were not apparent. According to the site ,  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/07/09/should-this-controversial-s-c-governors-statue-be-included-in-the-debate-over-confederate-symbols-on-statehouse-grounds/?utm_term=.92cf9c52c406, it states, ” Tillman moved on to the U.S. Senate in 1895, unapologetically defending until his death in 1918 his post-Reconstruction tactics to restore white rule in the then-majority-black state by killing any black who tried to vote.” This prove that Tillman was a white supremacist that did not want to see African american citizens prospers. This statue is a symbol of racism and hate towards African-Americans and should not stand any longer. That was only one example as where Tillman committed many other heinous acts to instill fear into African Americans. Another example is shown in the line. ““The purpose of our visit was to strike terror,” he said in the Senate in 1900 about the so-called Hamburg Massacre of 1876, where his militia killed black Republicans. “And the next morning when the Negroes who had fled to the swamp returned to the town the ghastly sight which met their gaze of seven dead Negroes lying stark and stiff certainly had its effect.” A person that committed such acts should not have a monument build in his favor therefore it should be removed.

In conclusion, there are some criteria that should be taken into account before a monument should be upheld. Although we live in a time where monuments mainly get attention from tourists and newcomers they should still be recognized as a symbol of honor and commemoration to a specific event or person in time. Hopefully in the near future all the monuments that promotes the negative aspects of the dark past of the United States will be removed and forgotten.

 

Ethics

Leave a reply

Ethics (noun): moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/ethics

“These monuments must not represent hate in any form, so we must consider removing any that no longer represent beliefs, values, and ethics of the majority of our community members.”

I stumbled across this word while reading “Drafting a thesis statement”. I heard of the word “ethical” before but I never truly understood the denotation. In the context of the reading It had words such as “beliefs”, “values”, and “community”. I knew it had to do with peoples morals and general behavior and how it effects one another in a community. There’s a difference between “Ethics” and ” Ethic”, not only due to the fact that ethics is the plural version but “ethic”  means a set of moral principles, especially ones relating to or affirming a specified group, field or form of conduct. The word ethic originates from Greece.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘

Project 2 Part III

Leave a reply

Reason as to why a monument should stay relevant

  • Led a great change to US or even the world
  • Symbolism of peace and prosperity
  • Mourning of fallen soldiers who fought for our freedom
  • Shows a great deal of American Pride

Reason as to why a monument should be removed

  • Symbolism of hate
  • Negatively affects a certain ethnicity

Why Collaborate?

Leave a reply

In the article “Why Collaborate” written by Ellen Lupton gives her perspective on collaborating with other people. She begins the article by stating “I’d love to collaborate, as long as I can work alone”, she feels this way because doesn’t want her sense of control and authorship to be altered and she would like to work on her own personal work schedule. In this sense I would have to agree with Lupton for the fact that it is difficult to work with other people that have different incentives when it comes to collaborating on a group project. She does appreciate when all group members play their role as it is shown in the line, ” It’s a joy to work on a team whose members have clearly defined roles and distinctive skill sets”. If the group members dont possess the mindset of get the work done as fast as possible instead of waiting last minute, I would want to work alone. As Lupton stated in the line, ” It can be frustrating, however, when a few people are doing the heavy lifting and the others are there to only to “insure consensus” or “weigh in” on concepts. I believe that if every group member plays the role they see fit or most interested in the productivity between everyone will be high. The goal of collaborating is to work together to reach a specific goal, and that can only happen if every group member doesn’t contribute. Lupton then describes her experiences collaborating in school. She states. ” In my own experiences as a student, I have enjoyed voluntary, informal collaborations with my friends, but I have resented being forced into arbitrary, mismatched teams, in the name of social correctness”. She was astounded by the fact that collaborating at school with people you actually know works. This whole article is basically the good and the bad of collaborating.

Antiquities

Leave a reply

Antiquities: (plural noun) an object, building, or work of art from the past.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/antiquity

“In Obama’s last few months of presidency he used the antiquities act to protect as much land as possible.”

I encountered this word while reading one of my colleagues post; ” Obama’s Recklessness and De Blasio’s attempt at a clean up.” At first I broke the word down into two, “antique” and “ities”. I knew based of my core knowledge that an antique is an object from the past that can be worth a lot of money. Antiquities is just the plural version of antiquity. There is  another definition for the word antiquity which  is,  the ancient past, especially the time before the middle ages. In this context the correct definition would be the plural version. I know now the difference  between antiquity and antiquities, both are similar but have different meanings.

 

 

Abhorrent

Leave a reply

Abhorrent: (adjective) causing repugnance; detestable; loathsome:

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/abhorrent

“Some of my interests are playing video games, mainly RPGs (role playing games) as it takes you away from some of the abhorrent things I’ve seen that humans are capable of doing to each other.”

I encountered this word while reading one of my colleagues projects about themselves. I analyzed context clues and I came to a conclusion that it meant something bad. The definition gave me another word that I didn’t quite understand which was “repugnance”. And repugnance means intense disgust. To gain a better understanding of the word abhorrence I looked up synonyms and familiar words such as “hateful, disgust, and revolting” came up. Abhorrent can also mean utterly opposed or on the contrary, but I feel like disgust or revolting fits this context the best.