The Extraordinary Power of Music

The essay written by Joan Tower for the NPR's show "This I believe" is really great. The essay explains how music gives her a great joy in life that is unbeatable. In my life I have seen a much larger inscrease of the popularity of music with iTunes and the new iPods and other mp3 players.

In the life of Joan Tower she has found a love for music and states "that with music I can help to change the world around me -- if just a little bit." This quote definently connects to what we have been talking about in these first few weeks of English. Like Singer's Solution for World Poverty and The Water Buffalo it shows a way in which someone gives and helps the world around them.

This I Believe Response

As I watched the videos today of This I Believe on NPR I was struck by one especially. The one I enjoyed was "My Husband Will Call Me Tomorrow." This essay written by Becky Herz speaks of her belief in her husbands return from Iraq. The reason I liked it was because this morning I went surfing on Kaneohe Marine Base and I listened to a couple of marine's speaking with each other about the Iraq War. They compared each others experiences in Iraq and spoke about what they did and moments in which they were scared or worried. I personally feel that it must be very emotional and extremely scary at times to be a marine or the spouse of a marine.

Water Buffalo Response

The Water Buffalo video, is about an american giving a water buffalo to a poor family in China. I believe that this video has a lot of connections towards what we are doing in English. In the beginning of the video it shows that there is a fake organization in which to give money to and with this information and guy and his friend are inspired to make it into a reality. But the major connection to English is with the Singer's Solution to World Poverty. In Singer's Solution, the author discusses ways in which american people can help dying children around the world and why people do not give their money to help many helpless people. The connection between this essay and the video is that the video shows someone actually taking Singer's ideas into their own hands and helping some one in need. The person did not just donate to a society or charity but he decided to use his willing friends money to buy a water buffalo to help work and also feed a desperate family. I personally enjoyed watching the families reaction to the great gift. It seemed that they where extremely suprised and over joyed to know that someone cared about them and bought them something that they could only dream of.

A Singer Solution Response

I really like this essay written by Singer. It really makes you think about how you personally help children around the world. With the two example's he gives of the woman (Dora) and the child and Bob it gives the reader a clear understanding of Singer is trying to get at. Despite telling the reader what he should do, Singer also understands why people will not give to organizations and how sometimes people spend to much on things that they do not need.

The author is really in your face about doing what he thinks is right. He tells the reader "Now you, too have the information to save a child's life. How should you judge yourself if you don't do it." From this quote the reader is asked a question from the author of whether he or she cares about a child's life and for someone not to care is almost not human nature. So with this question the Author begins to construct his philosophy of stopping world poverty and helping people who are in serious need.

I believe that with the great research and creative writing of Singer it seems that his philosophy can help everyone in the world just by simply having people not spend so much on stuff they dont need but rather use that money and give it to people who are in need.