In Class: Freewrite

My three texts are all news related and very factual about the events panned out during the Olympic bombing. They all make this seem like a horrible and tragic act of terrorism with their descriptions of the scene and the bomb exploding and all of the injuries and deaths sustained as a result of this event. All of them use emotional appeal as the primary appeal and instill fear in the reader. The first source used the sight of ambulances and emergency personnel rushing to a scene where people were panic stricken and covered in blood. The others make it sound like terrorism is a rising trend and we should be on the look out because we never know when it could strike again. They mention past events involving terrorism such as the Oklahoma City bombings and an airplane crash that happened just weeks before and the events at the Munich Oympics in the 1970s.
They are different because of the different viewpoints of the authors. The first one which was a video was this news anchor's own recount of what happened as he had just left the park shortly before the blast occurred. He seemed more concerned with himself than the well-being of the people that we actually in the park. The second article was an editorial making the claim that terrorism cannot be eliminated and that our society would not want it to be eliminated. I thought that was particularly odd because nobody really wants terrorism to plague our country. The third article was from Sports Illustrated and really made this sound like a truly horrible event and that the bombers only objective was to kill. Even though the main objective is to inform all of them are different in their own way.
The general knowledge we must have is that terrorism is a horrible thing that happens around the world. We need to know that America is vulnerable and that we are not an exception to the violence. Terrorism is not a thing that just happens in Israel and Baghdad. We must also assume that the person who planted this bomb wanted to kill a lot of people, as he did place the pipe bomb in a crowded area. Terrorism is often associated with making an underlying statement, even though we do not know what that statement or purpose may be at the time. We must know what Centennial Olympic Park is and what goes on there to explain why it was so crowded during the time of the explosion at 1:25am.
I do think that we live in a culture of assertion. The news is there to not only inform us about events but also to put some fear in our heads. The news primarily covers tragic and sad events that occur in the world and not so much the happy ones. We as a society do not know the bomber's intentions at all when he planted that bomb in the park. He even went on to call the police and warn them there was a bomb in the park and that it would detonate in 30 minutes. Maybe he really did not want people die, he simply wanted people to notice him or make a statement. We turn these people who are in the news into bad guys who should be shunned forever.

Unit 2 Proposal

For this unit I was really struggling to come up with a topic. I really love sports and they have always been a huge part of my life. I was thinking and I remembered that the 1996 Olympics were the first summer games I that I really remember watching. Then I was trying to think of some scandals or controversial events that occurred and I immediately thought of the Olympic bombings. So for my rhetorical case study I will be writing about the Centennial Olympic Park bombing. To find sources I plan to look for articles, political cartoons or opinion pieces from old Atlanta newspapers and possibly national news/newspapers. Since the Olympics are such a huge event, I would assume that if bombings occurred, especially when the U.S. was hosting them that it would make national news. Like I said before, sports interest me the most and the Summer Games are the best collective display of athleticism out there.

In Class: Free Write

I don't know what I am going to pick for my topic for unit 2. I just feel like all of the so called controversial topics out there are just overdone and boring and I'm sick of them all. And then once I do pick a topic I have no idea where I am going to look for sources or what I am going to say about these things and how I am going to put the Toulmin method into my paper and have it sound all nice and pretty . So for the most part I am just lost.
I am pretty much just ready for spring break. I have checked out and am in dire need of a vacation. I am struggling to find a reason to get up and go to class because I think I can just get notes from a classmate or whatever. Which is not a good thing and mom will be upset if my grades suck this semester. I let my grades fall just a little bit last semester (nothing horrendous, just a few Bs that should have been As) because I was all sad and emo about my broken leg. So I am supposed to make this "come back" this semester and redeem myself by getting my GPA back up. I am tired and grumpy and just want to sit on my butt and do nothing. That is all.