Vegetarian Manifesto

The question “why are you a vegetarian?” is a question that I answer at least 100 times a day. A lot of people think I am dumb or that I am “missing out” on such meat as bacon, chicken, and cheeseburgers. If they only knew that they wish they were missing out on those items as well. I do not have one set answer on why I choose to no longer eat meat of any kind, but I have several. For starters it was a huge health concern for me. Many Americans do not understand portion control. So a hamburger with two patties, cheese, mayonnaise, bacon and lettuce and tomato (how dare they.) on a dollar menu is considered a snack so why not order two or three?
Another thing that I feel strongly about is the animal cruelty. Imagine being in a crowded cage full of other animals just like you without a clue that you are soon about to be on a dinner plate somewhere or packaged and shipped to the nearest grocery store. Cows, chickens, and pigs are beaten and tortured then slaughtered. If one vegetarian can save 1,000 lives a years by choosing not to eat meat then imagine how many lives could be saved if one person a day just decided that they were no longer going to consume meat either.
I could name a long list of reasons on why eating me is not for me and why it should be for a lot of people and stand behind other people and their reasons. Hinduism and Buddhism hold vegetarianism as an ideal way to promote non-violence and spiritual fulfillment. I love the idea that even though it is because of their religion that it is kind of an obligation, but it is still apart of whom they are. It’s a lifestyle.
I won't lie, at times I crave that delicious chicken sandwich that I see on a billboard while I am riding the train or during a commercial when I am watching television. I don't need meat in my diet to survive. Many try to argue with me when they say that God put animals on this earth so that we as human beings can enjoy them. So why did he put fruits and vegetables here? for decoration? to give the world a splash of color? I don't think so. If a majority of the people knew what went into to their meat and poultry before it gets to them I bet any amount of money in the world that they would no longer want to eat meat. Some people are simply in denial or they state that they don't care because it's yummy or that it was just an animal that got killed and there were more where that came from. The truth about what I put into my body is what has changed my mind. Maybe it could change yours as well.

The reason why I chose the gay community is because nobody really knows when you're just on the outside looking in. Just like everything else in this world. To some, it looks like a same sex relationship but there is so much more to that. Sometimes you have to experience things first had or be close to somebody in your life in order to fully understand ones lifestyle. I know that there are a lot of people that do not really understand the problems and complications that come along with being bi-sexual or a lesbian from peers and family members.

Push/Precious Essay

After watching “Precious” and reading Push, I feel like no matter how either one ended, it still happened. There was a beginning, middle and end, but not necessarily in that order for the two. Precious endured a lot of physical and mental abuse. She learned a very valuable lesson in the end, and that was to love, be loved, and have an education. For me it seemed like the beginning of the book was only a small portion of the middle of her life. The beginning of the movie was more like the beginning of the end for Clareece “Precious” Jones. I feel like she went through her own personal hell to get to heaven. Precious needed to love herself before anybody else could love her. She was hurt most by the main people in her life, the people that should have been there for her, the people that are supposed to love her unconditionally, her parents. She needed to be surrounded by people that she could trust and those who would accept for who she is. She wanted to be loved, skinny, famous, in her own little world and most of all, happy.

In the book, Precious is not a defenseless character. With every turn of the page she becomes more of a survivor. Her drive to be something more than what people made her seem is how she becomes on top in the end. It was portrayed both in the film and in the novel perfectly. When Precious was forced to go through sexual and mental abuse from her parents she had no one to turn to.

She uses her imagination frequently to escape reality, to get away from all things negative and to be a happy individual. Her thoughts and imagination pushed her to do great things with her life. She was not going to let her mother bring her down with her cruel words and continuous abuse. Precious knew that a proper education would be her ticket away from all of the bad things in her life.

In the film, precious had several dreams of being a big movie star and walking down the red carpet, being blinded by the bright lights from the cameras of the paparazzi, and signing autographs. It seems as if this was one of the many outlets for her. Her kids made her happy, being in school made her happy, and when she learned how to read, she was ecstatic.

One person that helped her along the way of her long, agonizing journey was a lady named Miss Rain, her teacher when she went to the alternative school. "She dark. got nice face, big eyes, and long dread-locky hair." In the film this character was played by Paula Patton, a light-skinned African American woman with straightened hair and beautiful eyes. She even wore a strand of pearls. I think that the author wanted to keep the whole “Harlem” theme and it only made sense to have such a character description for her teacher in the book or maybe it would not be believable by readers. Even though Miss Rain had a totally different description in the book and in the movie, she was still the same person at heart. She still taught Precious how to read and write. She still was a support system for her. So whether you saw the movie first or read the book, you would be able see that she had someone in her life that cared about her and wanted her to do well and strive in life.

Community questions

As a race, we learned certain things growing up. When we were children in a household run by our parents and older guardians. One only knows what is right and what is wrong by what on is taught. I believe that you cannot be born racist. Racism is not a trait nor is it a characteristic. You are not born with it it your blood. Hate is taught. If it is taught early on in life in a young person, it becomes them. Different races and nationalities have different lifestyles as well. People all over the world have different thoughts and beliefs especially when it comes down to how others think and feel about other races. We all live under the same one sun. As the human race we tend to come together in our most tragic hours and we become one. People always become a different group during the most tragic times.

Communities are in different places and are known for different things. Some are often looked down upon and shut out from the rest of the world for being unique and not a whore to society. The gay community has endured just as much discrimination, if not more, as certain races have dealing with racism. As humans we should all be entitled to the same exact rights, but we are not. As a whole race, we have been fighting our entire lives. For differences, equality, peace, segregation, and separate lives. Just because of skin color and the way that a person looks. You cannot help the way you were born and you cannot change the fact that you may be “different” in the eyes of someone else. At the end of the day we are all human beings. People in the gay community have to fight so hard and so often for the little things that non-gay people get so easily. It is good to know that they are not alone. The gay community gets a great deal of support from everybody all around the world. That is the way it should have been and the way that it should always be. The world is a struggling community.

Responding to Reading

#2 I think she means that when you write about yourself it is not only a physical process, but a mental one as well. The brain has to unlock the past and recent events of ones life and analyze certain situations that just may be difficult to write about. One might also go through things in their lifetime or have experienced things that they did not fully understand. A re-connection could possibly happen during the writing process. People often tend to reminisce before they begin the process of writing. It would be compared to doing research if you were to be writing about somebody else and their life.

Becoming a better writer.

I feel like I have had the same problems all throughout my years of school. I am not applying my full potential. I try to do as well as I can and give 110% with everything that I do in life, but when I get stuck, I slack off and eventually put it off until I can think of something creative to write. With this last paper that was due I felt like I had so much material having read the book and watching the movie several times. I noticed a lot of similarities and differences. I just think that I have so many ideas and I do not really create a layout and brainstorm what I am about to write about and that would definitely help m e out a lot to do so.

A double-sided love story.

Once upon a time in a mysterious land far, far away lived a very handsome prince named Dimitri. He never knew a life outside of the castle in which he lived in since birth. His parents strongly advised him to keep it that way because there was a very cruel world outside of royalty. He wanted freedom, he wanted to know what it felt like to be social and just be on his own in the real world. Even if it was just for one single day. One beautiful day there was a street fair going on outside of the castle Dimitri begged his parents for their permission to let him go, they refused. They knew what dangers lurked outside of the royal walls. “It’s only one day! You guys are going to have to let me grow up and see the world for what it is!” he fought and complained. They ignored him, but he was determined. He had his mindset on going to the fair and that what exactly what he was going to do. Later on in the evening the king and queen had a royal dinner to attend at a friend of the family’s castle. All of a sudden Dimitri did not feel well and suddenly “came down with something” so his parents allowed him to stay home as long as he promised to stay within the palace walls. He did, but did not mean it. As son as he noticed that the coast was clear, he put on regular clothes as a disguise. Which consisted of sunglasses, baggie genie-like pants, a hat and headed to the street fair. Once he arrived, Dimitri had been so amazed. All of the great music and smells of the delicious food filled the air as well as all of the vibrant colors of the costumes being worn by the other fair goers. Out of the hundreds of people in the crowd, one person caught his eye. Never had he seen such a beautiful young lady in his 18 years on earth. She stood about 5 feet 5 inches, had gorgeous long hair that was like golden silk, had flawless skin and the most radiant smile. A smile so bright that it made the sun jealous. He wanted to say something, approach her, do something, anything! But he was stunned by her beauty, speechless. She noticed that he was staring at her and decided to stare back. She smiled as they gazed at each other. An elephant that was apart of the parade had been frightened and came very close to crushing the beauty with it’s foot. Dimitri noticed and had to react quickly. He jumped over numerous items including 4 hay stacks, 3 ladies dancing, 2 children finger painting and one huge life-sized dragon to save the girl from being smashed as flat as a pancake. He scooped her up in his arms. She was in shock, but still managed to smile at this very courageous stranger who had just saved her life. They had a moment to embrace and then snapped back to reality. She thanked him as she gathered her things from the ground that had spilled out of her bag due to the accident. And ran off into the busy colorful crowd. He chased after her and followed her scent. Pushing through the characters and animals that blocked the streets he was determined to catch up with her. He finally caught up with her and asked her if she was alright. “Yes I am fine” she replied “just a little shaken up”. “What is your name?” Dimitri asked the golden haired beauty. “Mishca” She replied with a slight evil grin. “Nice to meet you Mischa, my name is Dimitri”. Dimitri had asked Mischa if she would like to enjoy the rest of the day at the fair together. She accepted . They went on many rides, enjoyed several types of great foods, and enjoyed the performances. As the evening drew near, they decided it was time to return home. Dimitri offered to walk Mischa home because it getting late and he was concerned for her safety. As they reached her home, she thanked him for his kind acts and gave him a kiss on the cheek. As he turned to leave, he felt a sharp pain in the head and then everything went dark. When he came to, he was in a smelly, musty, wet, dark dungeon-like place. He was confused and scared and felt helpless. He yelled to the top of his lungs for help but the walls of the room that he was in were completely made out of stone. He knew that nobody would be able to hear him. He cried and he massaged his bloody head wound. Suddenly the door to this mysterious place where he lies on the cold cement ground swings open and a lovely lady-like shadowy figure appears in the doorway. “You royal snobs think that you are so much better than everybody else don’t you?” the anonymous person says to Dimitri. “Who are you?! And why are you doing this to me?” The unknown person steps into the dungeon and the little bit of light that is coming through the cracks of the stone ceiling exposes the face of this crazed person keeping the prince hostage. It was Mischa! So he thought. Dimitri was in shock. He thought that she was such a sweet girl and he was really starting to like her. He was devastated. He had found out that while he was chasing after the girl that he saved at the fair was really Mischa’s evil identical twin sister Misha. He must have lost her in the crowd. Days went by and Misha had noticed that she had not seen her sister nor Dimitri. She knew what her evil twin sister was capable of and knew that she needed to find the two of them, and fast! Misha searched far and wide and had no luck of finding either of them. She became very worried and fatigued and then she suddenly remembered one place that she forgot to check. Three days went by and it was nothing but pure hell for Dimitri. He had been tortured, starved and treated like a slave. He had no idea why Mischa chose him and decided to do such terrible things to him. Misha then explained that the reason why she had so much animosity towards him was due to the fact that she was jealous of her much older and prettier sister. She had plans to kill and frame Mischa, save Dimitri and make herself look like the hero so she can become over-night royalty. Her evil plans were ended early when the guards found the secret location and busted the door down and had the place surrounded. Misha could not believe her eyes. It was as if she was seeing double. In front of her stood the king, queen, Misha and a person who looked EXACTLY like Dimitri only it was not him, it was Demetrius. Dimitri’s older brother. He had convinced him into staying in the castle since he was older and his parents let the oldest do whatever he wanted. Nobody could ever tell them apart. Mischa was arrested, Demetrius was saved and Dimitri and Misha got married and lived happily ever after.

My turning point.

A turning point in my life would have to be when I lost a massive amount of weight. Pretty much my entire life I have always been a “big girl” and I got teased a lot all throughout school and even at home. I used to weigh 379 pounds. In a way I can kind of relate to Precious and how she felt. The world looks at your differently when you are different. But I only knew about one thing when I would get my feelings hurt, when I would lose or when I would just be feeling sad about something and that was food. It was my comfort zone, my security blanket. It has changed my life not only physically but mentally as well. I feel good about myself now, but when I look back on the harsh words that people would say to me and the pain that I felt deep down inside it saddens me. I used to make fun of myself before anybody else could and laugh along with the other kids that would call me names even though on the inside, I was crying. That led to me cutting myself. I started when I was thirteen years old. That is a day that I will never forget. I was at school. It was near the end of the day and I just could not take it anymore I was tired of the name calling, tired of the tears that I cried everyday from all of the cruel students that I went to school with and most of all tired of the body that I was in. I wanted to be like the cheerleaders and all of the other athletes. I wanted to be that skinny girl that had the cute boyfriend I wanted to be anybody but myself. After that day I went home, entered the bathroom, removed a protractor from my book bag, broke it in half and began to press a jagged side of it into my left wrist. I did this until I bled. At that moment in time, nothing else mattered. Even though it was painful it felt way better than the other pain that was being caused by people who I thought were my friends. When I look back on this I wish that there was someone to tell me something, anything that would have made a difference. Nobody told me not to eat too much of this or don’t get to a point where you will look like that. I had to find out how vicious and cold-blooded the world was on my own and I had to find out the hard way. Music, art and writing were a HUGE output for me and still are to this very day. Instead of bottling up all of my feelings or crying about something I grab my journal or sketch book instantly and begin to draw or write. To me it is very therapeutic and even if a person has no one to talk to or is feeling sad, alone or upset. You can always put every single thought on paper.

Inadequacy in schools.

The public school system has failed us! Precious is a teenager who enjoyed school, received good grades, attended school everyday but was illiterate. Throughout her time in school it was as if she was there to learn but her teachers were not there to teach her. She comprehended and paid attention but because of her own personal struggles she never really learned anything from them. All she new was hurt, pain and rejection.

“I got A in English and never say nuffin’ never do nuffin.’” [Page 49].That alone coming from Precious is a tragedy in itself. English is a subject in school that everybody should just understand, even with a little bit of struggle. Precious is a 16-year-old in the ninth grade she had been held back in school for being pregnant and also suspended for the same reason . I feel like people gave up on her before they even gave her a chance, especially within the school. There are alternatives and options and all Precious needed was for somebody to reach out to her a little earlier in her life and let her know that she had a choice, she always has a choice. She was deprived of so much including a much needed education.

“Focus on the ones who can learn” [Page 37] was said by Precious’s principal to her math teacher. Everybody has the ability to learn. For a teacher to give, even take such advice is baffling. To pay more attention to the students who “can learn” means that you are automatically straying away from the students that are there to learn and that is not fair. I would describe Mr. Wichers and his teaching methods to be inequitable. Even though he tried to create a basic learning environment he went along with the attitudes of the students in his class. Precious is not illiterate because it is what she chooses to be, it is because she was not helped and given the proper attention in school.

Mr. Wichers teaching methods were not very strong at all. Precious may have scared him with her profane language and grotesque appearance but deep down inside she was yearning to learn and be well-educated. This novel proves that even back then some teachers may not have did all that they could to drag out a students full potential. In the end, proper education and kind attention ends up saving Precious from herself. It is understandable that a teacher would want to only be there for his or her students that want to be there as opposed of those who need to be there because they might not have hope for them. In my opinion it was very cowardly and ignorant of Mr. Wichers to not at least reach out to Precious and showed that he cared.

I believe that his statement is both an understandable and forgivable attitude towards students. You cannot help those who do no want to be helped. In this case she was crying out for help but just did not know how to express those feelings that she had. “I is ready. Ready for school. School something (this nuthin‘!) School gonna help me get out dis house” [Page 35] Precious knows and understands that an education is going to be that something that puts her in a stable place in life. She is a prisoner in her body and frees herself by learning how to read and write at the alternative school that she attends.

In conclusion the schools that Precious attended were not entirely to blame, the teachers were. At the same time, they really did not do all that they could to give her a proper education and much-needed tools for everyday life. Even though she was put in tough situations and suffered a very harsh upbringing Precious triumphed in the end. She expressed herself through reading and writing and most importantly had a great teacher and friend to show her the way.

A true road to success.

"Write a hypothetical letter applying for your dream job as if you have just imbibed truth serum. Tell your prospective employer why you want the job, why you are an ideal candidate, and what some of your weaknesses are which make you less than an ideal candidate."

To whom it may concern:

I have always been in love with fashion and art since I was a little girl. Nothing makes me happier than to see those two elements get put together and create something so unique and powerful that it stands out above the rest. My dream job is to be a Veterinarian, but I have always loved to create, design and draw. I believe that I am a great candidate for a position at your well-known corporation, Fashionista Inc., because I have a lot of new, fresh and great ideas to bring to the table even though I tend to be very lazy.

Being that going to college for eight plus years to get my degree in Veterinary Medicine is too much work, I figured that I should just settle for the fashion industry. It does not take up a huge amount of my time, does not require much brains and pratically does all of the work for me. For this job, all I need is my sketch book and pencil and I'm good to go.


I want this job because of the fantastic perks and all of the famous people that I will get to meet in this industry. This job also pays very well and I need the money to pay for school, rent and bills. (New York is not cheap!) Being that sometimes I can be very laid back and focused on a lot of other things in my life right now, I may have to put this job after last in my life. Talking on the phone, going out and surfing the Internet is more like a full-time job for me and it is something that I do very well. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Asha Wilkinson