Thursday, April 17, 2008

That's no way to treat responsible residents

In this column the author uses contrast to create pathos. He contrasts the Quaide's house with the surroning neighborhood, and how their house is a oasis in a run down part of town. He says, "Let's start with the fact that their house and block are an oasis in an area that is just a disaster.
Just south of the Quades on West Parkway near McNichols, squatters roam from one empty house to another, destroying their innards and setting fires. I counted no fewer than 10 burned-out heaps between Fenkell and McNichols, many with garbage piled high on their porches and behind their wide-open doorways." He does a good job contrating the Quaid's with the rest of the neighborhood and the contrasting strenghtns his point by showing how Detroit has more things to worry about than an elderly couple's trash cans. By contrasting this, he creates pathos tfor the Quaides. The pathos comes when he says, ""That's as much as my utilities for the month," said Waldemar Quade, a retired tool and die maker for Ford Motor Co., who lives on a fixed income. He owns his house outright, and pays his bills on time. He hates owing anybody.
"I never have been so humiliated in my life as I have been with this stupid thing with the garbage container," " This passage comes after he contrasts their house with the rest of the neighborhood and then he comes with pathos to make the reader feel for the Quades. The readers feel an emotional response because he shows how this ticket impacts the Quade's life. That pathos only comes from the contrasting that he uses to show how the Quaide's should be the least of Detroit's worries, and then pathos come to make the reader feel like the Quades were unfairly treated and invoke an emotional response to this story.

Monday, April 7, 2008

Kwame a River

Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy finally brought the hammer down on the mayor. She gave very strong speech and made the point that this is not an issue about lying about sex, but about deceptively using city money. She came out and said what many citizens have been saying throughout the entire scandal, Kwame was wrong.



She uses pathos when talking about the three fired police officers. "Gary Brown’s, Harold Nelthorpe’s and Walter Harris’s lives and careers were forever changed. They were ruined financially and their reputations were completely destroyed because they chose to be dutiful police officers. The public trust was violated. This investigation is about whether public dollars were used unlawfully -and more." She points out that more people than just Kwame and his family were hurt in this situation. These three police officers who tried to do the right thing had their lives forever changed because of the corrupt mayor of Detroit. She does a good job using pathos to have the reader have a emotional response because they feel for those police officers who were the only people in this case trying to be moral, but instead their lives and careers were devastated.



She also uses logos when she talks about how oaths are always important, no matter what the situation. "Oaths mean something. They are critically important. They matter. They matter
when jurors take their oaths; they matter when lawyers, judges, and elected
officials take their oaths; they matter when new citizens take the oath of
citizenship; they matter when doctors take the Hippocratic Oath; they matter
when anyone swears before a notary public. They must matter and that is why
witnesses take them – every witness in every case. And it is so important; it is
perjury if there is lying and perjury is a crime." This is a very logical argument, and she is saying that no one is exempt under oath, even the mayor of Detroit. Kwame took a oath, and he lied under oath, which is the definition of perjury. It does not matter to Worthy if it is a juror, doctor, citizens, witnesses, or the mayor of the city. Worthy has shown in this case that the law applies to everyone, and no one is above the law. She appeals to the audiences logic by showing how oaths are important in all situations.



Worthy's speech was a very powerful one because she appealed to the emotions and logic of the audience to give her reasoning of why Kwame Kilpatrick should be charge.