Respect

Are you respectful, to society, your family and your parents? Respect is a fickle thing not easily measured or dispensed, requiring a lot to gain and little to lose. The writer Budge Wilson displays a total lack of empathy and respect for a son with her story “Be-ers and Doers,” while Neil Millar shows a more respectful attitude for his children with the works “The Most Powerful Question a Parent Can Ask.” Millar’s story shows an understanding how work ethics in the earlier stages of youth effect a child's future, but Budge displays a almost totalitarian grip on her children in an attempt to force them on her path instead of guiding them.

Wilson's “Be-ers and Doers,” is a story about a family mostly of the conflict between the mother and the son Albert, told from the daughters point of view. The conflict stems from the mothers Fascist dictation that "Bein ain't good enough, You got to do to." In the story the mother believes there are only two types of people "Be-ers and doers." Be-ers are "rock-bottom lazy," instead of doers who are "forever on the move." The daughter notices how the mom is extremely hard on her son and complains that his marks "arnt good enough." Later on in the story Albert saves the house from a fire, and the mother exclaims that "is what I've been looking for all your life," and that she was "so terribly proud" of him. Albert's response is one of obvious built up dislike and hurt from him mothers attitude. Albert whispers back “Yer jest proud o’ what you want me t’be." "And I got some news for you." "Things I shoulda tole you years gone by. I ain’t gonna be what you want.” “I’m gonna be me.” It is obvious that Albert's mother's tyrannical iron curtain of control contributed very negatively on their relationship and very un-respectful.

Millar's "The Most Powerful Question a Parent Can Ask…" expresses how good parenting and work ethics impact on a child or children. Millar's opinion is that a "parent [is a child's] guide and leader, not their nanny." Millar believes that with out proper work ethics will lead to "well-rounded, confident, considerate children," and poor or to much work might make "you might moan to your friends when you witness them disrespecting both other human beings and the environment." To support his position Millar tells how a "Maasai tribe leader appointed a seven year old girl as the person in charge of two-thirds of his village’s wealth." Millar also has a chart showing statistics that prove that kids with short hours of work had a drastic improvement to there schooling. Millar shows a very respectful position on his children in a push in the right direction so to speak.

The story "The Most Powerful Question a Parent Can Ask…" by Neil Millar is vastly more respectful to children than the fascist story “Be-ers and Doers” by Budge Wilson. While Wilson exudes lack of foresight and compassion to Albert, Millar's story displays surprising insight and intelligent position on the up bringing of children. Wilson is uncompassionate and spends the duration of Albert’s upbringing attempting to force the lad into something he isnt much as a smith would smash a bar a steel into a sword. Millar decisively and delicately leads his children in a respectful way allowing them to choose their life but teaching them the merits of good work ethics.

Dave cooks the Road kill

Ludicrous scenes of hilarity followed by gratuitous laughter, is this ticking a bell? You will find your self laughing when you read or hear the story “Dave Cooks the Turkey,” by Stewart McLean. In the story McLean demonstrates multiple strategies to make the story hilarious, but one in particular, the relate-ability of it all. In the story the character Dave is told by his wife Morley that for Christmas all he had to do was cook the turkey, and that’s where everything goes wrong for him. Morely tells Dave "You are the guy in the bar, Dave, pushing the button to ask for another drink," meaning that the woman in a relationship or family does all the work for Christmas and that the men reap the benefits, people can relate to this and will find it funny. On Christmas Eve Morely tell Dave to get the turkey out of the freezer Dave realizes he knows nothing of turkeys! He goes through some ridiculous scenarios as he didn’t realize that “looking after the turkey...meant buying it as well as putting it in the oven.” Dave buys a turkey that is low grade and looks like it was road kill. The fact that the turkey looks terrible makes the scenario humorous because all the readers already figured out that Dave has no idea what to do and he is likely to screw up. Dave then attempts to cook the turkey only to learn that he can’t even use the oven! Dave has a few drinks of scotch and off he goes to try to cook his road kill, I mean turkey. Dave comes to a hotel where he convinces them to cook his turkey for him saying that he has a medical condition. Where Dave is confronted about his home raised turkey with accusations that the turkey had been mistreated, this just built on how amusing the condition of the bird is and how Morely will respond upon seeing it. Stewart McLean uses comical entertainment by way of relating the hardships of Dave to the average reader.

Dear Mr. Kleats

January 20, 2010
123 Main Street
Sportstown, British Columbia
Canada V2A 1W3

Cheap Kleats
Crab Coach
321 Crab street
Sportstown, British Columbia
Canada V2A 1W3


Dear Mr. Kleats:

My name is Danny Tant-iliser and my son J-Train is a member of the Tex-Mex Crab Racing team. You have been making excellent progress with the team and I am highly impressed. The way you are spreading your crabs it just leaves me itching for the win, but I have concerns with the team.


You have a life of your own and I totally understand we all have busy lives, but I have noticed you are occasionally a few minutes late and that the kids work much harder when you arrive early to begin your practices. J-Train recently told me that he absolutely loves when you gave him your crabs and that it is the best part of the practice, so perhaps we could work out a solution such as leavening my son with crabs.


I also noticed you do very well with positioning the kids to release those crabs, but the kids would appreciate that they where rotated more often to round the experience and to let the crabs have a rest. They all want a turn, to experience a thrill and see who can get the crabs to win.


I am also certain that you and the parents, me included, could try harder to refrain from yelling on the field. The children perform and act better when they are presented a calm example of what they should be like.

Thank you for donating your time and energy for our children. Their crabs have flourished and grown, with the children themselves. I have noticed J-Train grow into a man under your instructions, he is much more confident and responsible son, thank you.


From: Danny Tant-iliser

To be or not to be mature that is the question

“Maturity is a quality defined by ones actions”; we as a society evaluate one another constantly on how we each act. Let me tell you a story that was passed from my grandfather to my father to me and now to you, this is the story of my Grandfather Ragnar Blackmane Rage decorated war hero from Vietnam. My Grandfather was drafted in Lincoln Nebraska along with 30 other 17 years old into the 101 regiment, where they earned the famous nickname, the Jungle Raiders. Early in the War the 101st were being flown over to position alpha omega when a stray anti-air Vietcong missile shot down their U2 para-tooping plane.

My Grandfather told about the absolute horror as seconds after the deafening concussion of sound, a sudden blinding fire ripped through the plane and consumed half the regiment in seconds. Amidst his friends and brother marines dying screams, Ragnar reacted like clockwork grabbing his long time friend Dick Douglas by the shoulder and threw him from the plane’s rear jump hatch. With a mammoth roar that would have chilled the spine of any commy bastard. He leapt. Ragnar streamlined to catch up to Dick as the hapless marine was without a parachute. After a few terrifying seconds Ragnar caught his buddy in a great bear hug and pulled his chute seconds before smashing into the forest canopy. With devastating consequences my grandfather couldn’t hold onto Dick in the last seconds of the fall, Dick plummeted and smashed his head. He was unconscious. Ragnar then saw just one more chute, it was Ben Dover Bezugley!

Terror washes over the two surviving friends as they watched burning ruminants of their U2 burning up in the sky, the fact that dozens of their friends and fellows had died as well as Dick was unconscious possibly in critical condition. Soon rustling and shouts reverberated across the Vietcong controlled territory as scouts had spotted the parachutes falling. Suddenly the trio was ambushed bullets buzzed like pissed off bees flying in all directions amidst the explosions and shrapnel of the grenades. A grenade happened to land at Ragnar’s feet and destroyed his leg with a massive gaping wound the length of your hand. Dick was awakened from his unconscious state by that very same grenade, and dragged Ragnar to a more secure area. Once Dick propped Ragnar up against a tree he raised his much loved M-16 to his shoulder and rang out thirteen times, for thirteen kills, he just rained down on the Vietcong like the hand of God. Even through his pain this decorated Jungle Raider followed through with his well know reputation for being the best shot in Vietnam, blasting the enemy into the godless bits and pieces.

The trio retreated down the Ho Chi Mihn trail where they were ambushed a second time! Ben Dover caught the first grenade and attempted to throw it away, but the day decided to be horrendously unfortunate for the trooper as the grenade hideously blew his arm right off. My Grandfather’s own words “Bezugley was made of sterner stuff than any man I have ever seen,” this rings absolutely true as even though he was miaaing an arm he sacrificed himself and charged into the forest as a distraction for the rest of his trio. My Grandfather spent the next month deep in the hostile jungle battling the occasional Gorilla units, animal life, extreme condition and Mother Nature’s fury in the attempt to reach base command. Dick was said to have had upwards 57 stealth knife kills while Ragnar killed over a 100 of the commy bastards.

Dick and Ragnar were two ordinary Nebraskans who returned to there families and although gone for mere months both looked years older, with creases at their eyes, wrinkles on their face and pain in there heart. A pair of happy young teenagers returned as different and aged men. They survived in absolute horrifying conditions and circumstances. Both survived being bombed in a plane, the loss of an entire unit, the sacrifice of a close friend, and a month in enemy territory. Who could look into their sad almost glazed over eyes and not say, that they had matured?


Maturity (the other one)


Maturity is the wisdom, the awareness of conduct and the capacity to anticipate the consequences of decisions. Maturity isn’t a quantitative property that can be evaluated with a bar graph or statistics, but a quality that requires it’s self to be analyzed, so saying that only the mature can truly evaluate it. Maturity can be applied to an individual, society and even humanity as a whole.


When an individual shows maturity it is usually the wisdom to distinguish what is right or wrong. A mature individual will recognize the wrong in hurting or killing another human being, they will respond to such violence with disgust and desire to right the wrong. The individual will consolidate the hurt and provide for the poor. An individual should understand that stealing is wrong, willfully taking another’s possessions is detrimental to another and ones self. Individuals make up societies with others and they reflect the society’s maturity.


Society experiences maturity as the sum of all its individuals and if they are capable of weighing what is righteous not only for one’s sake but also for the benefit of the rest. In a mature society the majority of members will pursue justice and prosperity. In society, members will have a responsibility to other members, such as protecting the young, teaching proper manners and of course teaching each other to be mature, as it is something that is learned. In a proper society nobody should be judged unfairly for their race, appearance, or any other physical differences, but they should be judged harshly if they commit any act against the society. Society has a responsibility to humanity by electing proper leaders and acting according to world laws.


Humanity reveals maturity as the sum of its societies and the wisdom of their leaders to distinguish right or wrong for the sake of their county and all other countries, by seeing beyond differences for the betterment of man. It is expected of humanities leaders to lead the way to peace and prosperity. Our leaders are to look past petty needs and represent the good in humanity in the face of wrongness. Our leaders represent our societies and as such our individuals, which them means that how every person acts effects the entirety of humanity. Maturity is needed for humanity’s sake as if the individual is immature the society will be immature and the society will elect immature leaders who could start wars, famine or genocide.