A Letter From A Birmingham Jail

Martin Luther King Juniors “A Letter From A Birmingham Jail” is a letter that is about the injustices and unequal treatment that Negros have faced in America for more than 340 years, and how it’s time now for them to receive the equal and fair treatment that they deserve. The leader of “The Civil Rights Movement” says in this excerpt from his letter that “freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed.” He also talks about how for years now he’s heard the word “Wait”, and how every Negro knows the word wait, really just means “Never”. He knows that if they continue to wait for their God and constitutionally given rights that they will never receive them. He says that the only reason that white people are able to tell them to wait, is because they don’t know what the stinging dart of segregation feels like when you’re told you can’t sit at a certain lunch counter just to get a cup of coffee. He knows that it’s now time for them to rise up, and to quit waiting for their rights, it’s time for them to go out and work for them, to let people know that just because their skin color is different they still have the same rights as everyone else. Although I have no personal experiences with racism or segregation, I’ve always found it astonishing that segregation happened here in America, that we took away the rights of human beings and citizens of America just because their skin color wasn’t white, even though our own Declaration of Independence states “That all men are created equal” and “That they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights”. It boggles me how morally wrong it was, but also that it was lawfully wrong as well, but yet the amount of people standing up to do something about it was so small. Another thing that the letter was about was that Dr. King wanted to bring an end to segregation, he says that it is segregations fault that his six year old daughter was already developing an unconscious bitterness towards white people. Again, although I have never had any personal experiences with these problems, I can’t help but to agree with this statement. There is no reason that a young, innocent little girl should feel bitterness towards someone, but I can only imagine that being told you can’t go somewhere or do something because of the color of your skin would make you dislike the people who can; whether you realize it or not. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an amazing and inspirational man who helped to lead one of the largest and most important social reforms in American History, without him and the legacy that he left behind, we can only imagine what the civil rights scene in America would look like.

To Cultivate A Healthy Poverty And Simplicity

“To cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity”, this is a quote from an excerpt from Annie Dillards Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. I find it to be very odd, and it really took me a while to try and decipher what I thought it meant when you read between the lines. I believe that what she’s saying is that you should strive to live/create a life that is not to wealthy monetarily that you lose sight of what is really important in life, but yet not to poor of a life either. That you should try and live a life that’s full enough that you don’t feel need, but yet aren’t living in either monetary, or yet, more importantly spiritual poverty. Annie talks about “seeing” in the excerpt and it seems to be something that to her is very important. I think that she’s talking about going beyond just seeing what is right in front of you, but rather seeing what something means to you. To see life for the beautiful thing that it is, and to not take life and the things in it for granted. As Dillard says, “There are lots of things to see, unwrapped gifts and free surprises.” I feel that she’s saying that the world is what you make it, and to quote her again, “What you see is what you get.” My Great-Grandma will be 97 this year, and I cannot think of anyone in my life that embodies this ideal more than her. She lives a simple full life, and doesn’t need much more than her basic necessities and the love of her family around her. Small things that I’d never notice give her an enjoyment that I don’t think I could ever understand. And I believe it’s because she knows how to see past the face value of what’s right in front of her, and to really see what something is worth. She knows that everything, depending on the light in which you chose to look at it, can be a gift. Even before reading this small excerpt, I’ve never felt an absolute need to have anything more then what’s absolutely necessary, and to appreciate the things that I have. Now that’s not to say that I don’t have wants and desires, but because of my Great-Grandma I know that things are more than just material objects, but that they hold meaning and are important for more than just their monetary worth.

Food, And It's Role In Life

After reading the excerpt from McKenzie’s essay, I would have to say that I find myself standing where she does on the subject of food and feeling that my personal experiences do indeed parallel hers. I would have to agree with her that food and eating are something that are done for more than just gaining the nutritional benefits that are garnished from food.  I do mostly believe that food matters because of the benefits that your body is able to receive from consumption, but I also feel as though it matters because it can be related to personal relationships, as McKenzie says, “Food brings people together in ways that other activities cannot.” I absolutely think that she is right in saying this, whether it’s a home cooked meal around the family dinner table, or a meal at a table in a restaurant, by the end of the meal there’s always been good conversation and a connection that I honestly don’t think you feel anywhere else. To quote her essay again, “The people around the table make the food worth eating.”  A good example of this from my own personal life and how it parallel’s hers, would be Thanksgiving Dinner, and lunch on Memorial Day. On each of these days my family goes to my Great Grandma’s house and all gathers around tables spread throughout her home. To be completely honest, the food is just regular food, some turkey and stuffing, some mashed potatoes and sweet yams, but I know that it’s been made with love. I know that it didn’t have to be made, but that my family members have chosen to make something to bring to enjoy around the table with others. To sum it all up, food is just food, but people, the people around the table can make it into so much more than just a meal.

Within The Trenches

Within The Trenches

911 Dispatcher Tribute

Nine one one, What's your emergency? Keeps replaying in her head.
When she lays down at night and she can't sleep instead.
Her mind keeps going backwards to when her heart began it's fall.
Memories of the other end the night she got the call.

She could hear a woman screaming, was it a husband and a wife?.
Then she heard the gunshot the night a woman lost her life.
There were many times before when on a call she'd wait.
But she prayed she'd never see the call that came too late.

Nine one one, What's your emergency? He said into the phone.
“I can't find my mommy and I think I'm here alone”.
He tried to reassure her and to keep her on the line.
One more family murdered there wasn't enough time.

So he lives his life these days beneath a blanket of the shame.
As he now bears the burden of his own misplaced blame. 
The rise and fall of all mankind right from the very start.
Buried deep within the trenches inside a dispatchers heart.

Praying still with all their heart someday the world will see.
All that's taking place today is not how it has to be.
Like a ship safe in the harbor still subject to the fall.
Each day a brand new heartache as they're witness to it all. 

Depravity in someones mind who's passions have run wild.
Buried in a shallow grave, now remnants of a child.
Haunted by what's taken place they never will be free.
As they wait for the answer to, what's your emergency?

Edwin C Hofert





Within The Trenches is a poem that was written to be a tribute to 911 dispatchers. I think that some people would find this to be an odd poem to want to write about, but, my personal connection with this poem goes very deep because my mom is a 911 dispatcher. 

The poem itself is explaining the mindset, trials and tribulations that dispatchers face every day. Although you never see them at a crime scene, you have to remember that if it weren't for them, the responding officers and emergency personnel would never know about the emergency that they need to respond too. They most definitely are the unsung heroes of emergency response. The main purpose of the poem is definitely to try and give the reader an insider’s view of what goes on in the very unnormal everyday life of a dispatch worker. It talks about the different types of calls that a dispatcher might receive throughout the day, and sadly, the different ways that those calls could end up going. The poem reads examples of possible calls varying from a domestic dispute between a husband and a wife that ends in in the woman losing her life, to a little girl who’s lost her mother and is worried that she's somewhere alone. The poem also lets you know very blatantly that these calls don't always end well, and that these unsung heroes in the trenches feel a connection to these people that they haven't been able to help. They feel that these terrible things that have happened are by proxy, their fault. They begin to feel as though they didn't do their job well enough, that they didn't react quickly enough, or maybe didn't react in the correct manner towards the situation. I believe that part of the underlying message of the poem is that these people don't get to just brush these things off their shoulders when it's time to go home. These feelings are burdens that they'll carry with them for varying amounts of time, and possibly even for the rest of their life. They can make a person feel depressed and worthless, they can make it so that the individual can't sleep at night, instead they lay awake wondering if they could have done something different, blaming themselves for the death or injury of another person, someone that they don't even know. The ending of the poem really hits home for me and I also find this to be another underlying message within the poem; it states that the dispatcher will never be the same person again because of their job, but that they'll always be there waiting for the answer to, "911, What's Your Emergency?" I can relate to the ending of the poem and feel a personal connection to it as well because I've seen first-hand what this job can do to someone, the way that it can affect someone from something as simple as being able to sleep at night, to something as deep as how they feel about and value themselves. I have a thorough appreciation for this poem and really like it because of what it's about, and how it lets people know about the hardships that dispatchers, the unsung heroes of emergency response, face each and every day, be it that they're facing them at work or that they've carried their work burdens into their personal lives.