Teen Suicide Paper

Teen Suicide Teen suicide has been a continually growing problem over the years. Each year thousands of teens are attempting or completing suicide. Suicide is the third-leading cause of death for 15-24 year-olds, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It is also the sixth leading cause of death for ages 5-14. The risk of suicides increase tremendously when there’s access to firearms at home. Nearly 60% of all suicides in the U. S. are committed with a gun. That is one of the reasons why they say you should keep them unloaded, locked and kept in a safe place away from children.Another increase in suicides is overdosing on over-the-counter drugs and prescriptions, and non-prescription drugs because it’s very easy for teens to have access to these. Suicide rates differ between boys and girls. Girls think about it twice as often as boys and tend to attempt suicide by overdosing or cutting themselves. Yet boys die by suicide about four times more than girls only because they use guns, hang themselves or jump from heights. When you’re a teen there are many possibilities but also a lot of stress and worry.There is pressure to fit in, perform academically and to just be a responsible teen. Which cause many teens to break and want to give up and end their life. Teens with mental disorders such as anxiety, bipolar disorder or insomnia are at a higher risk of suicidal thoughts. As well as teens with major life changes such as parents divorcing, moving, financial changes, or just conflict with a parent and those who are victims of bullying are at a even greater risk of suicidal thoughts. Bullying can cause someone to have suicidal thoughts, attempt or commit suicide.That’s why you should think about what is going on in someone elses life before you pick on them because that one comment from you could cause them to end their life. Some warning signs to know if a teen is thinking about suicide might be them giving hints that they might not want to be around anymore, pulling away from family and friends, losing interest in school or sports, grades dropping, and changes in eating and sleeping habits. These are all possible signs that they may be struggling and thinking about suicide.One thing you should NOT do is think that they’re just saying they want to kill themselves â€Å"for attention†. That will make them not want to confide to you or anyone, and could lead them to actually attempt suicide. If you’re a parent and feel you can’t handle it contact your doctor and have them refer you to psychiatrist. If you’re a friend be there for that person and show them that you care and want them here and then ask them to call their doctor and get help or call (888) SUICIDE. I hope that this speech taught you about teen suicide, the risks and warning signs and how to help someone having these thoughts.

Laptops in classroom? No problem Essay

Elena Choy is a paraprofessional at NYC Board of Education. In her argument â€Å"Laptops in the Classroom? No Problem† published in the book â€Å"Forming a Critical Perspective†, she believes the arguments that people use in favor of banning laptops in the classroom are not valid arguments to be using to make an assumption. Choy states her side of the argument against banning laptops and proceeds to give four main reasons on why people want to ban laptops: upraised lids of laptops distract the teacher, laptops distract other students, students take overly excessive notes on laptops, users are so busy on the laptop, they don’t participate in group discussion. Choy goes into detail talking about why each of these arguments will not work. Choy uses many different tactics to give evidence for her side of the argument. First of all, Choy uses a stern and matter of fact tone to try and convince the reader that the argument is not valid. This stern tone makes Choy sound confident, which makes it easier for the reader to accept her side of the argument. Choy also uses the point that students pay for tuition. Once a student pays his or her tuition, it is completely up to them as far as making decision on how to spend their time studying and doing homework. This means that if students want to mess around in class and play different games while the teacher is discussing the material from the class, it is not the job of the teacher to be their baby sitter and make sure they are paying attention. She also gives the reason that every student has their own way of taking notes and understanding information to shoot down the argument that people using laptops take too extensive notes. Choy uses these multiple strategies to help shoot down each argument that is for banning laptops. Through the use of many different techniques, Choy analyses the question as to should laptops be banned in classrooms and gives many examples as to why she believes banning laptops would not be helpful. Her confidence is what really makes her argument valid and believable to its readers. Choy achieves this confidence by going from one reason to the other as though she has a list. This â€Å"list† way of writing, makes her sound more credible because she  has so many different reasons. For example, she uses phrases such as, â€Å"Let’s look at each of these arguments (Choy)† and â€Å"Which gets to the second argument (Choy).† She does not show any doubt in her writing. This type of diction makes her seem extremely confident in her statements, and the more confident she seems, the more believable her argument becomes. Another reason Choy effectively analyzes the argument in this essay is the fact that she fully acknowledges the other side of the argument and spends a good bit of time discussing it. Throughout most of the essay, she spends time on giving reasons argument for banning laptops are wrong. If Choy would have only given the reasons as to why laptops should be allowed in the classrooms, then the audience would not listen to what she has to say because everything would be extremely biased. In her analysis, Choy admits the main points to the argument for laptops being banned in the class. However, she gives specific examples each argument against laptops and knocks out each one by giving a specific example as to why it wouldn’t work. For example, she says, â€Å"we go too far when we prohibit students from taking notes in the way they find most useful (Choy).†The strategy of admitting a few points and then shooting all of these points down really enhances the argument to make it more believable. Choy used multiple strategies to help make her argument credible. Her argument is well organized and believable for readers, however, I feel that Choy spends too much time talking about the arguments for banning laptops in the rooms. This is one area where Choy could improve to make her argument stronger. She spends most of the time on proving the reasons for banning laptops and never gets deep into talking about why laptops should be allowed. If Choy were to add reasons and examples as to why laptops should be allowed, it would add the finishing touches to an already successful argument. Overall, Choy does a fantastic job of getting her point across and trying to convince her readers as to why banning laptops in the classroom would not make much of a difference and could possibly be harmful to students ability to learn in class.

How Women are portrayed in society and how sexism plays a role Essay

Sexism may be defined as a negative response to a threat that is either real or imagined. In society today sexism plays a major role in terms of image, reputations, and perceptions of how women are portrayed in the media and life in general. The media relatively plays an influential role in sexism against women since the media has predetermined standards of what women should be like. Women base their expectations of society and more importantly, expectations of themselves, by what they see around them. All of us consume the media in one form or another the media sends us images that we consciously or subconsciously absorb, and create a picture in our minds of â€Å"reality†, the way we believe things should be. This also affects men also since there are certain expectations that they have to live up to. The media, entertainment icons, and school cooperatively exhibit and promote gender assimilation, although there are certain standards that men and women must live up to. The media and entertainment icons especially, hold a strong influence on women’s perspective on themselves, especially teenage girls who are going through the awkward stages of their life. Britney Spears is one of the several popular icons in the entertainment industry that plays an influential role in young women lives across the globe. While she’s making millions of dollars from touring and selling albums, she’s influencing the vulnerable minds of women and their perception of themselves. She’s also setting standards in the from her teenage fan base perspective since they idolize her. Adolescent girls start to obsess over the fact that they have to try to look like Britney Spears by buying similar clothing she wears and constantly worry about their weight since Britney Spears pictures in the magazine looks makes it look like she’s skinny. What they can’t seem to comprehend is that most of the time people who have their pictures in the magazines are airbrushed 95% of the time to perfect the flaws that person has. Therefore, girls are going to start to get the impression that they must look like that individual that the magazine promotes. The masterminds behind the propaganda of Britney Spears’ reputation are the executives at the record company. They figure that since young women are very vulnerable to the fact that their self-esteem is capable of being influenced by someone’s image or actions. Executives know in order to make  money off of Britney Spears; they try molding her into a typical young woman so teenagers can relate to her as a person and image. To accomplish this, they know that Britney can be innovated by promoting certain clothing and doing certain things. In the long run not only the record company is making a profit from this but the clothing stores/companies are benefiting from it too. When it comes down to wanting to look like Britney Spears, adolescents think they have to look like her because of the way she looks and how small her clothes are. Fashion trends and clothing styles, in particular, significantly aid the social construction of gender, especially women. The mere presence of a standard for the judgment of beauty automatically designates some group to be in control of the other. This causes individuals to constantly judge one another to make sure that they fit into the correct gender classification. Trendy, hip clothing are made for a very specific, minority group of women- narrow-hipped, small-breasted, tall, and skinny. The pressure to fit into these styles of clothes is unrelenting and produces insecurities and a poor self-perception. These adolescent anxieties are not uncommon and can produce eating disorders, depression, and suicide. Self-esteem is very important for both men and women because it helps them define who they are as a person mentally and physically. High standards that are being portrayed in the media make us self-consciously aware of how we’re supposed to look like in real life. The new diet trends such as south beach, the zone, and Atkins diet are forcing us to think that we need to lose weight in order to be a suitable size. Also new technologies that are being created to prolong youthful appearances also put an impression on the society that it’s not appropriate to age. Diets and aging to aside, celebrities that are thin and youthful that meet the alleged â€Å"beauty standards† of modern society conveys a message to adolescents and women that it is â€Å"wrong† to be a certain size or have a particular image. In the long run this speeds up the process of adolescents, men and women in general to develop some sort of eating disorder or depression due to low self-esteem . The media forces this upon us to see this and absorb this into our minds, and form somewhat a distorted mentality of ourselves. Eating disorders are one of the most common problems among adolescents in our society. Individuals who lack a good self-esteem are prone to influences of  perfection, when in reality there is no such thing as being perfect. Images of women and men in the media that are almost always young, thin, muscular and highly attractive and which is not the norm. This is what they strive to become, many become miserable in the process. Normal body features bodily changes – such as putting on weight, getting older, having underarm and leg hair, having pimples or having small breasts – are shown to be highly undesirable, and even abnormal. These body enhancements procedures can sometimes be fatal and lead to death. An individual shouldn’t have to go through the matters of life and death risks just to change a minor imperfection about them. Women and men are constantly made to feel that they are ‘not good enough’, and that they should take corrective measures to improve themselves and their bodies to be closer to the norm which could lead to psychological and emotional harm, as well as eating disorders in some women who are obsessed with changing their bodies in order to look desirable and to â€Å"be accepted† in society. The general public begins to accept these standards and assimilate this into their morals. The individual in the society start to believe what the media says about what they think is right. This is when sexism and racism come into play. They start to use impractical standards against other people and start to judge them based on what they look like. Men and women in the society are greatly affected by this since they have to deal with their social peers. In order to fit in they try to perfect themselves and change the way they look by following the latest trends and values. Unfortunately, in our society today people continue to pass judgment on others and not give that person a chance to make their first impression. In conclusion, I feel that people shouldn’t pay attention to irrational standards that are going to make their lives miserable. Despite the media’s and the public standards of perfection, a person should be happy with who they are regardless of how they look. Instead of striving to fix their smallest flaws by going through extreme measures such as starving themselves to stay thin or going through cosmetic surgery to maintain a youthful and attractive appearance, they should accept their imperfections and be happy with who they are. The society has these standards to define themselves as a  person. Sometimes these standards are created to put stereotypes on genders in order to characterize who they are. I feel that these standards shouldn’t exist and that each individual should go by their own standards.

ONE PAGE PER QUESTION Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

ONE PAGE PER QUESTION - Essay Example This war spread like wildfire throughout the world even reached the neutral states, newly independent countries in Africa, Asia etc. When the President Truman passed an anti-communist policy, the war between the Soviet Union and USA began. The name â€Å"cold war† is used because it did not feature any direct military action because both sides possessed nuclear weapons and the use of these arms from either side was a guaranteed destruction for both. The cold war ended in 1945 after the Berlin wall was broken down, the Soviet Union was defeated by collapsing into several independent states. One side had a vast army and the other had the most powerful weapon, the A-bomb and soviets had no idea about the total number of those bombs. We could believe for some time that the world is safer now that the cold war is over, but now that we have a multi-polar society. The current prevailing issues are more hazardous than the one in which we were aware of the enemies and there were a constant negotiation to solve the issues but now it only takes a bomb attack and lots of false accusations to set the world on fire which would end nobody knows where. 2) World War II began in 1939 when the Great Britain and France declared a war on Germany and invaded Poland. The invasion in Poland did trigger the war on Germany, but the overall causes of the war are very complex. Following are the events that lead toward the Second World War: Treaty of Versailles: in 1919 Lloyd George from England, Orlando from Italy, Clemenceau from France and Woodrow from US had a meeting to discuss the damages that occurred after World War I. in this meeting it was also planned that how Germany should be made to pay for starting the war. Woodrow Wilson formed a treaty based on 14 points, George Clemenceau and Lloyd George strongly agreed to them. Germany had been expecting something like it but they were unhappy with

Whether or not we should use animals in medical research Essay

Whether or not we should use animals in medical research - Essay Example Every side of the argument has posed questions concerning man’s place with respect to these animals and the natural world. Most people arguing against the use of animals for medical research have based their arguments on the relationship between humans and nature philosophies as put forward by Peter Singer that humans do not exist totally above nature, with the focus basically on animals. Singer refers to most attitudes that humans possess towards animals as speciesism that is a concept, which has existed throughout history (Owen 33). Before him, Aristotle was of the view that nature consists of a hierarchy where animals with less ability to reason existed for those who had less ability to reason. Therefore, plants are in existence for the sake of animals, with animals existing for the sake of humans. He used this concept to further his belief in slavery with humans with less reasoning ability existing to serve those with higher ability (Owen 34). While this view has been reje cted by society, it is applied towards animals and other non-humans. Speciesism has been practiced by Christians and Jews based on the superiority they extract from the book of Genesis and God’s word (Owen 36). ... The lobby for animal liberation does not contend that every animal has equal worth, however. It contends that where the animal and man possess similar interests, these interests need to be equated to each other, for instance, the avoidance of physical pain (Owen 37). There should be no automatic discount because one is human and the other evidently is not. Singer’s rejection of speciesism is clearly illustrated by his clarification; he does not mean to imply that all living beings have equal worth via his consideration of how man makes choices within his own species. If man had to make a choice between saving a normal human being’s life and that of an intellectually deficient human, he would most probably plump for the normal one. However, were the choice between the prevention of suffering in a normal human and in the intellectually deprived, making the assumption that both had painful injuries and that there were only pain-killers for one, then the choice becomes murk ier. The choice probably would be on the basis of the one who had more suffering (Owen 38). Because most experiments concerning animals are painful to the animal, the movement for animal rights commits itself to the complete abolition of animal use in medical research. Those that support the utilization of animals for medical research argue that while animals do suffer in a morally significant way, this is not sufficient ground, by itself, to afford them equal status morally with humans (Owen 50). Therefore, if the animals do not have the same moral status in comparison to humans, humans are not morally obligated to restrain themselves from using them for medical research.

Ethics-----Assisted Suicide Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Ethics-----Assisted Suicide - Essay Example Thus, the concept of assisted suicide when done with the purpose of hastening the inevitable where disease has already prepared the body for death should become a part of a the standard for care that is given to individuals who wish to avoid the pain of disease, the loss of mental facilities when dying, or to avoid the expense of an unnecessarily prolonged extension of a life that is already lost. The word suicide is defined as â€Å"the act of killing yourself† (Jeffers & Smith, 2007, p. 81). While this is a simple definition, it lacks the appropriate level of nuance in order to fully define the full reference to everything that it implies. Suicide is the act of taking one’s own life, but it is also an act that brings with it a series of cultural images that imply sin, socially adverse action, and culturally shameful action. In Western cultures, taking one’s own life is generally considered a sin and in the United States, it is an illegal act that has criminal consequences. This can be seen in the way that Cleave (2001) reflects her definition of suicide when she states that it is â€Å"the act of killing yourself, often while mentally unstable† (p, 146). This also becomes a part of the discussion in that it is assumed that in taking one’s life it is done under the influence of mental instability. Other terminology that can be used to describe the event of taking one’s life when placed in the position of having a disease that is going to take one’s life is to call the event voluntary euthanasia. This becomes a less volatile terminology that can be discussed on terms that do not suggest sin, mental instability, and can call into question policies of illegality. A definition of voluntary euthanasia is that it â€Å"takes place when a patient who is dying or who is in intolerable pain asks someone to help him or her to die to avoid any further suffering† (Cleave,

Advertising (Answer Question From Book , The New Account Manager.) Assignment

Advertising (Answer Question From Book , The New Account Manager.) - Assignment Example Previously, the advertising agency had the sole responsibility of managing al advertising activities for the company. 3. IMC stands for integrated marketing communications and it refers to the combined use of promotional methods such as PR, advertising, personal selling and sales promotion. The role of IMC for advertising agencies is to coordinate different promotional tools in order to reach a wide range of targeted consumers. IMC is helpful to consumers since they are able to select the information they want about different products and services from a wide range of sources. IMC plays a significant role for account managers since they are able to reach a wide range of different clients including the advertising agents. 4. An â€Å"org† shows the structure of the company or the organization. On the other hand, an operational chart outlines the map of people responsible for executing each task. These two are related in that an operational chart is derived from the org chart where tasks in each department are split to show each person responsible for doing them. 5. The basic logistical systems include different aspects that affect the operations of the company. In encompasses things like product processing, management of inventory and transportation or method of delivering the product or service to the customers. These factors are interrelated. 6. Above the line (ATL) advertising is specifically targeted at a large number of consumers and it utilises mass media to reach them. On the other hand, below the line (BTL) advertising specifically targets individual customers and it uses methods like coupons and personal selling to reach the targeted consumers. 7. â€Å"Orchestration† refers to the process of arranging different components or parts of something to make it complete. In a business, different sections are orchestrated in order to achieve the desired goals. On the

Financial deficit Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Financial deficit - Essay Example In the year 1886, British North America debt charges were amount to 28.9 percent of total government expenditures. Economic growth trends have the potential to influence financial deficits of government budget. Since taxes are one of the major sources of income of the government, increase in tax collection increases government revenues that further help to reduce the fiscal deficit for a financial year. Conversely, at times of economic downturns the government expenditures are found to increase considerably. Financial deficit is a condition when the total expenditures of an entity exceed the revenue generated by it, but excluding any external borrowings. The financial deficit of a government of any country is generally called ‘fiscal deficit’. A government has to prepare a budget which proposes expected revenues and spending for a financial year. If the budget estimates that the overall revenues to exceed overall expenditure for the given financial year, then such budget will have surplus or positive balance which is then termed as budget surplus. On the other hand, when the overall government spending exceed total revenues for given financial year the budget has negative balance and it is called fiscal deficit. The budget surplus is generally invested elsewhere like the government bonds and treasury bills of another country, etc. whereas a budget deficit has to be financed using external borrowings in order to balance the budget. In the past, government debt had incurred almost exclusively for some of great public works such as harbours, canals, ship channels, railways, roads for transport, and so on. In the year 1886, British North America debt charges were amount to 28.9 percent of total government expenditures. During the Rothschild dynasty in the late 18th century, the deficit could only be financed by taking loans

Accounting and Society Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Accounting and Society - Research Paper Example Each business has its own industry and it has its own operational style. And, in each industry, various and numerous products and their diversified versions are available for the purpose of sale or for the purpose of subsequent processing. With the passage of time, and due to the boom and increase of diversity in the business world, it becomes more relevant and practical to introduce and implement new accounting theories and accounting standards for the purpose of harmonizing the business structure in the most appropriate and relevant structure. Thanks to this sort of thinking and approach, today, we have different specializations in the field of accounting than ever before. On the one hand, financial accounting serves the purposes and objectives of the external shareholders and stakeholders; on the other hand, management accounting helps internally; providing the best possible combination of accounting information that can be used for the purpose of making most appropriate and relev ant budget, cost, and management-related decisions. Financial accounting users prefer to see the aggregate performance of a company; for instance, they prefer to see whether the company has performed well in comparison with the financial statements of the previous year. And to what extent, the company has been successful in ensuring the achievement of its financial corporate goals and objectives. On the basis of comparative analysis, the shareholders decide and take their financial decisions. The users of financial information can be creditors, suppliers, shareholders, regulatory and government bodies and so on. It is the role of regulatory bodies like, International Accounting Standards Board, and other government bodies to ensure that whether a particular company has applied and complied with all the basic and fundamental regulations and standards. This compliance is necessary for companies and society as well. The compliance of standards ensures that the company understands the n eeds of all the relevant stakeholders and shareholders. Compliance of relevant accounting standards and legal requirements ensures shareholders that their financial investment is not at stake; rather, it is being used according to the relevant and applicable standards. In order to ensure that a company has fully or partially applied standards while preparing its annual or bi-annual financial statements, the public limited companies are required to publish their annual financial and non-financial information for the purpose of informing the general public. This explains the concept of free market, where the accounting and relevant

The Effects of Madol on the Physical Activity Research Paper

The Effects of Madol on the Physical Activity - Research Paper Example For the purpose of this study 3-month-old adult Hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) will be reared in one climate-controlled room in standard plastic cages. Standard food pellets and water will be provided ad libitum. The light/dark conditions will be 12:12 with the light intensity varying between 200 to 300 Lx (Unit of luminance) during the day and 5 Lx (Unit of luminance) during the dark period. The temperature will be regulated to 25 + 2 Â º Celsius and the relative humidity will be maintained between 60 to 65 %. The protocols for using the hamsters for the experiments will be reviewed and approved by an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) and all National Institute of Health (NIH) guidelines and procedures for care and use of laboratory animals will be followed. Hamsters (n = 80) will be divided into four groups. Group I (n = 8) will receive an intraperitoneal injection of an equivalent volume of ethanol used in other groups for drug delivery. Group II (n = 24, 8 per each dose) will be injected subcutaneously with testosterone (1,2 or 5 mg/Kg body weight). Group III (n = 24, 8 per each dose) will be injected intraperitoneally with dihydrotestosterone (DHT, 1,2, or 5mg/Kg body weight). Group IV (n = 24, 8 per each dose) will be treated with major (DMT, 1,2, or 5 mg/Kg body weight) intraperitoneally. Testosterone, DHT (derived from testosterone by enzyme 5-alpha reductase) and DMT will be dissolved in ethanol. Testosterone and DHT are natural anabolic androgenic steroids present in the human body. Dose levels are derived from the extensive literature review for testosterone and DHT. All these drugs will be procured from a chemical company.

Organizational Theory Design and Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Organizational Theory Design and Change - Essay Example Supervisors and managers define the goals and hold meeting with the employees regarding the amount of effort and budget needed to accomplish those goals. The managers take care of every employee individually and listen to their problems. Dealing with customers with efficiency and skilfully is an important part of my workplace culture. All the employees share a set standard of rules and respect each other’s privacy. Their good behavior is not only a source of competitive advantage but also increases organizational effectiveness by enhancing its reputation in the market. The deadlines are met efficiently because the projects’ tasks are distributed among the team members properly. The best thing with my workplace culture is that the employees use technology based tools to communicate with each other and the supervisors, and also with the consumers and the stakeholders. This increases trust between all the parties. Hence, the overall culture at my organization is very frien dly, healthy and motivating which keeps the employees working hard enough to achieve the organizational goals and objectives, and increase productivity.

The Lululemon marketing plan for 2010 Essay Example for Free

The Lululemon marketing plan for 2010 Essay Introduction The Lululemon marketing plan for 2010 includes recommendations and goals for the Lululemon brand, as well as goals for the newly proposed male brand Outer Muscle. Main objectives include: âž ¢Introduce Male Brand Outer Muscle oTarget â€Å"Educated Physically Active Male† oPrice male brand similarly to Lululemon brand, using more-for-more pricing. oPositioned as high-price Yoga/Exercise Apparel oIncreased advertising at beginning of Life cycle, reducing advertising with age. âž ¢Continue with Current Lululemon Strategy oRetain exclusivity of brand oContinue use of Prestige Pricing oLittle to no promotion oVery little advertising oPersist with current marketing strategy for tween brand Ivivva âž ¢Increase Brand Awareness o2% increase in advertising budget oSponsorship of events, increased Philanthropy work, and outreach within community Target Market Lululemon’s current primary target market is the â€Å"Active Young-thinking Woman†. Women who are appearance-conscious, physically fit/active, well educated, aged 16-45, in the upper to middle class and residing in North America. Lululemon is using a niche marketing strategy, going after a very narrowly defined market segment, in which they have had great success. This niche market will remain the primary target market in 2010 however; Lululemon will also begin to target the â€Å"Pre-teen girl† market with the Ivivva brand, and the male market with the Outer Muscle brand. Lululemon already has a male clothing line, and has been trying to gain a part of the male-workout market for a while now. In 2010 Lululemon will use product development, introducing â€Å"Outer Muscle† as a new male clothing brand, made with the same commitment to quality as Lululemon. This new brand will cater to a male target market similar to Lululemon’s female â€Å"Active Young-thinking Woman†. This target market will be the â€Å"Educated Physically Active Male† will target educated males, who are appearance-conscious, physically fit/active, aged 16-45, residing in North America. This multi-brands branding strategy will allow Lululemon to market to pre-teen girls who may not be able to identify with the more-mature Lululemon brand, as well as to male consumers who would not be prone to shop at Lululemon, due to it’s over-positioned reputation as a female clothing company. Pricing strategy will continue to be a more-for-more value proposition within all brands of the company. Each constituent of the marketing strategy serves to ensure that Lululemon’s position in the mind of the consumer is not changed, while they venture into new target markets. Positioning Lululemon is currently positioned as a high quality, exclusive, yoga and sporting apparel company. In many ways Lululemon is over-positioned as a strictly female company, which is why in 2010 they will use multi-branding to address the male market. In using the proposed promotion strategy and advertisements, Lululemon will not change their current position significantly, but instead further differentiate themselves from competition in already established values. It would be a mistake for Lululemon to try to adopt lower prices having traditionally differentiated their products using more-for-more differentiation. By continuing to position them self as high-quality, high-price clothing, Lululemon can gain more customer loyalty, and ensure that they do not lose their image of superior quality. Lululemon will continue to uphold the highest quality standards for it’s products and position the male brand as high-priced, high quality clothing. Both brands will differentiate themselves from their main competition by catering to the yoga/exercise market, as compared to competitors addressing the daily-life fashion market, and the sporting apparel market. Pricing Strategy Value Added Pricing – Lululemon uses this pricing strategy when creating their apparel. Rather than cutting costs and making a lower quality product, they add extra features such as adjustable straps and women’s pockets to differentiate themselves from their competitors as well as help their target market justify spending more money on their products. Prestige Pricing – Even though Lululemon clothing is not comparable to a Rolex or Louis Vuitton purse, it is prestigious and exclusive in its product category. This is what Lulu’s target market loves about their brand. Its high quality not found in every city and mall, fashion forward and represents a healthy, well off lifestyle. These approaches to pricing are visibly successful in today’s economy. Even throughout the recent recession Lulu managed to maintain a profitable company, expanding their store count while creating expensive, high-end workout apparel. Changing their target market to accommodate the middle class to lower income demographic could be detrimental to Lulu’s  success. Creating a cheaper line of clothing or marking down products to sales items would lessen the exclusivity of Lululemon, which could then effect the current target markets perception of the brand. Recommendations for the pricing of the men’s brand we suggested earlier, is to keep prices relatively high but yet great quality and options for different features and different size options. This will follow the common theme Lulu has instilled in their customers and will help differentiate themselves from other competitors such as Nike and Adidas who thrive in the men’s athletic wear market. Distribution Strategy Lululemon stores are not situated on every street corner in every metropolitan area or large city. They base their distribution strategy more along the lines of exclusive opposed to intensive distribution, therefore stores can be found in cities across Canada and the United States where the desired target market is represented by similar and correlating demographics. Lululemon stores have a very welcoming atmosphere full of friendly faces and have an earthy feel too them. Saskatoon’s store is located downtown where all the great shopping lies which makes it a one stop shopping trip for Lulu customers, who can do it all once entering Saskatoon’s downtown area. Its location provides great convenience for their target market, which includes working, high-class women and young university students who live active lifestyles. Specialty store – Lululemon carries yoga inspired apparel for healthy lifestyles, which could be categorized as a narrow product line. However, within this line is a deep assortment of active wear that can be used for many sports and activities, for all shapes and sizes. Franchise – In Saskatoon the Lululemon is privately owned. This creates the opportunity for the franchisee to do the hiring and management of his or her employees to the best of their ability. For instance, the franchisee for Saskatoon’s Lululemon puts on an annual sale that is not administered by the franchisor. It allows Lulu customers from all over to merge in Regina for a three day sale of extremely marked down product from previous seasons. Recommendations for the men’s brand would be to open new stores beside the existing Lululemons. This would offer a separate entrance and atmosphere for men to enter in hope that it will eliminate the stereotype men have with Lululemon stores. Product Strategy Many of the components of Lululemon’s product and branding strategy are well suited for the target market of the company and will be maintained. Others will be altered in 2010 to increase product differentiation and brand awareness. Lululemon has a wide product line. This product line is available in a wide range of colors, designs, and patterns that stand out and are updated often. This allows Lululemon to remain attractive to their target market of fashionable women. These women want to stand out as trendy and unique, and because of this, the company will continue to regularly create many different styles to cater to them. The company will focus more attention on men’s clothing, but under a new brand. This strategy will be explained further under branding strategies. The current product mix will be modified. Currently it is very broad with few focal points. In 2010, Lululemon will not be offering bags, such as luggage, and backpacks, or work-out accessories. This strategy will give them the ability to focus more on the men’s brand. The tween brand, Ivivva, was implemented in fall 2009. This brand will offer products for those from the ages 6-12. Lululemon will continue to promote and develop this brand but in addition, new products will be developed including attire for activities such as dancing and ballet, figure skating, and swimming. Lululemon will maintain their current packaging tactics involving the use of shopping bags and price tags. The bags are reusable, stylish, and inspirational. The tags that are found on each item are very informative, containing the directions and uses of the product. Both methods are useful and are appropriate for their well-educated target market. Since this packaging approach fits the need of the current target market so well, Lululemon should continue with this strategy. Currently, the services of Lululemon include free alterations. Lululemon will continue to offer this courtesy. The company will also be offering various classes such as yoga and pilates. Branding Strategy Lululemon is currently branded as a high quality and prestigious brand. The company should still be positioned as such, but will become much more distinct. Currently, Hoopla is a competitor; especially since the clothing styles and branding are so similar. To differentiate itself, Lululemon will alter the logo that they place on their clothing. The waistband or the hem of the clothing will feature a small inspirational message plus the Lululemon logo. Some of these messages include â€Å"dance, sing, floss, and travel† and â€Å"breathe deeply†. This characteristic will make Lululemon stand out, as well as add a unique component to each item. This uniqueness will appeal to the target market. In addition, a new brand will be implemented under Lululemon in 2010 for men’s wear. The name of this brand is Outer Muscle. The logo is derived from the lower case Greek symbol theta, which will coincide nicely with the Greek Lululemon logo omega. Theta represents a mathematical tool associate with angle, so Outer Muscle’s slogan will be â€Å"Get the perfect angle on your work-out†. This brand will be targeting educated and active men in the same age category as Lululemon’s target market. Outer Muscle will also be positioned as high priced, high quality, and trendy. The branding strategy used is multi-branding because a new brand is being developed with existing products. Now, the men’s wear and women’s wear will be separated. Advertising and Promotion Strategy (IMC) Lululemon’s advertising and promotion strategy will mostly be maintained, with a few modifications. Currently, Lululemon advertises through their reusable bags, through word of mouth, and through a few events. Also, their  logo is found on each product and they are advertised in a one page spread in the University of Saskatchewan handbook. Their strategy of involving very little integrated and marketing communications (IMC) makes Lululemon an exclusive and prestigious brand. Having few sales or promotions adds to the exclusivity and value of the brand. Since this strategy is appropriate for the target market that wants to appear distinct, and privileged, it will be maintained. One alteration is the addition of more public relations by being involved in more events. By sponsoring athletic events and events at the University, the company will not only be noticed by their target market, but be seen as an ethical and respectable company. The company will also be sponsoring events such as the Breast Cancer Walk and Relay For Life, which will also help the company’s image. Due to the upcoming Olympics, Lululemon will be sponsoring the athletes with swag bags that include water bottles, headbands, workout gear, and lounge gear. An incentive will be added for shoppers in 2010. An events card will be distributed to customers. This card is a punch card. After purchasing $500 of merchandise, the consumer will be able to attend a free athletic class that is offered by Lululemon. By offering events instead of discounts or bonuses as rewards, the company will still be seen as highly prestigious. To promote the new brand, Outer Muscle, the IMC budget will be increased from approximately 1% of total profits to 3%. Strategies such as sponsoring athletic teams, online advertising, and advertising in athletic magazines will be executed. Once Outer Muscle occupies 25% of the market share for men’s athletic yoga/exercise apparel and has been established as a competitor to brands such as Under Armour, the IMC budget will be reduced back to 1%. It will be reduced to become an exclusive and prestigious brand like Lululemon. Conclusion In conclusion to achieve our main goals: âž ¢Addressing the male market âž ¢Preserving â€Å"exclusivity† of Lululemon âž ¢Increasing Brand Awareness Lululemon will make use of multi-branding introducing the new brand Outer Muscle targeted towards the male market. They will continue the use of more-for-more prestige pricing to retain their exclusive image. Finally they will increase their budget for advertising/promotions, with a heavy emphasis on philanthropy and community outreach, to further increase brand awareness and distinguish Lululemon from competitors.

Job Description: Operations Manager in Echocardiography Lab

Job Description: Operations Manager in Echocardiography Lab Based on the week 1 final project paper, the position for this assignment is the Operations Manager for the Echocardiography Lab. Job descriptions identify the key tasks, duties, and responsibilities of a position. They detail what, why, where, and how responsibilities are done (Flynn, Mathis, Jackson, Langan, 2006, p. 102). The general summary within a job description is a brief statement of general responsibilities and components that make the position unique from others. The essential functions section of a description is a set of precise statements specifying major tasks, duties, and responsibilities performed. The job specifications portion of the job description details specific qualifications needed to perform the job acceptably. This would include details such as required skills, education, experience, and physical requirements of the role (Flynn, Mathis, Jackson, Langan, 2006, p. 102). Standard and complete job descriptions can drive performance standards and competencies. They provide a platform to demonstrate what the position accomplishes and how performance is measured in relation to key areas of the job description. In fact, JCAHO standards require healthcare organizations to combine the job description with performance and competency assessment (Flynn, Mathis, Jackson, Langan, 2006, p. 103). If employees are familiar with the expectations, performance measurement, and required competencies, there is a far greater opportunity for satisfactory performance. The job description should be tailored to the specific need a position satisfies. The tasks to be performed and the outcome expected are pivotal. Critical competencies should include those that are integral for the job. They should reflect the ability to produce specific or minimum outcomes in a safe, timely manner (Patton, 2013, p 143). This ensures that every employee in the same role has a standard description and identical expectations. Each employee can then be gauged against those requirements. Position Overview: This role is responsible for coordinating the operations of allied health staff in the outpatient, inpatient setting for the echocardiography lab within the Division of Cardiology. The employee will manage the department in alignment institutional and division missions, visions, and objectives. This person will serves as a key member of the leadership team with a primary focus on planning and implementation of policies and systems. In addition, the position will require facilitates project management while leading a multidisciplinary team including financial analysis, problem solving, and team collaboration. This team member will regulate staffing in accordance with fluctuating workload. The position requires project management in support of institutional and divisional projects, staff recruitment, policy implementation, and serves as a primary resource for issues and communications. This person will performs duties independently and initiate sound judgment in handling a variety of management issues. Organizational Relationships: The hierarchy of this position is pretty straight forward. The operations manager reports to the Cardiology Medical Director and an Operations Administrator. Thus, there is physician and administrative oversight. Ultimately, the position would be directly responsible for several supervisors, including the managers of the outreach practice, education and quality, the program chair of the echocardiography school, the lab, and the administration office for the department. The position falls within the Cardiology Department, which is part of the Department of Medicine of the organization. Ultimately, Jeffrey Bolton, the Chief Administrative Officer and Dr. John Noseworthy, the President and CEO of Mayo Clinic are at the top of the organizational structure (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 2013). Candidates will be required to work cooperatively with department/division leadership and multidisciplinary teams, supervisors, administrators, physicians, and personnel both w ithin and outside the organization. There is a number of staff that would directly report to this manager, including sonographers, nurses, administrative personnel, and various supervisors. Educational Requirements: The preferred educational background for this position is a Masters degree in Business or Healthcare field and two years healthcare management experience. Required Skills: Candidates should have strong leadership, team building, and problem-solving skills as well as demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with multiple disciplines. The candidate must have excellent communication, organizational and human relation skills. This position requires excellent decision-making and judgment capabilities. Candidates must have broad based knowledge of office support and computer systems along with software knowledge and installation. In addition, the candidate must have business acumen with experience with accounting practices for budgetary responsibilities. This job is unique based on the limited number of comparable echocardiography labs in the area and even the nation. There are certainly other management positions both within and outside the organization, but very few would provide the ability to manage such a world-class department. In addition, this position would provide a solid networking opportunity. The manager would have the opportunity to work alongside physicians and administrators, gain professional experience, and showcase skills. This position may be a on-the-job interview for future positions in the leadership hierarchy. The course text indicates that effective compensation programs should focus on four primary objectives, including legal compliance, cost effectiveness for the organization, equity for staff, and performance enhancement for the organization (Flynn et al., 2006). There are two components of any compensation package, direct and indirect. Direct compensation is essentially the pay for work achieved. Indirect compensation entails compensating employees with a tangible value without receiving monetary gain. Examples of indirect compensation are benefits such as health insurance, vacation pay, or retirement pension, which are provided to employees regardless of performance (Flynn et al., 2006). There must be a balance between compensation and cost that ensures competitiveness and rewards employees for experience, knowledge, skills, and performance. The organization should provide a comprehensive compensation package in order to recruit, retain, and reward performance. According to Hariharan (2014), a well-planned approach to recruitment will improve a healthcare organization’s leverage in recruiting the most talented individuals. Treating those employees with respect for the duration of their tenure will ensure retention. By recognizing what is important to a potential employee and offering competitive compensation and personal development opportunities, the organization can attract the best candidates and use the newfound intellectual capital to enhance organizational performance. Based on benchmarking similar positions within the organization and comparable academic institutions, the compensation package should be at the 50th percentile of the market. The salary range would be dependent on education, experience, and internal tenure. Preference for the position should be provided internally before the position is posted outside the organization. References: Flynn, W., Mathis, R. L, Jackson, J. H., Langan, P. L. (2006). HealthcareHuman Resource Management [VitalSouce bookshelf version] Retrieved fromhttp://digitalbookshelf.southuniversity.edu/books/9781133614395/id/ch03 Hariharan, Selena,M.D., M.H.S.A. (2014). Physician recruitment and retention: A physicians perspective.Physician Executive,40(2), 44-6, 48. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1518114883?accountid=87314 Patton, M. T. (2013). Avoiding Common Job Description Mistakes.AMT Events,30(3), 142-144.

The role of the mother in Islam

The role of the mother in Islam ROLE OF THE MOTHER IN ISLAM TABLE OF CONTENT Acknowledgement Preface Introduction Role of the mothers in Islam Respect in the world Holy Quran about mothers Qualities of the mothers Love for her children Sacrifice and dedication Protection and security Role of the mothers during Life A window of the child to the world Model for the child Strength of the mother Awareness of responsibility Setting Goals Encourage children according to their potential Conclusion References PREFACE I learnt a lot during the research on the ‘Role of the Mothers in Islam’. There were many new things which I had grasped during my thesis. Most importantly, I tried to understand what does Islam think and say about the mothers. I hope my research proves to be the productive and helpful for those who want to be taught about the ‘Role of the mother in Islam’. INTRODUCTION As we know that, Islam has empowered woman more than any other religion and they have more rights than any man. A woman has a very key and important role when she becomes a mother. Since the mothers have a very valued and dignified role in Islam. Their contribution is acknowledged and applauded. Once a man asked Prophet (PBUH) about the status of mother, Muhammad (SAW) replied, â€Å"Paradise lies beneath the feet of mothers.† In other words, gates of heaven are open for those who cherish and respect their mothers. ROLE OF THE MOTHERS IN ISLAM Respect in the world: A mother has a great respect in her entire family. She is to be obeyed. There are many verses of the Holy Quran which talks about the rights of the mother. However, the Holy Prophet (PBUH) has enjoined goodness to the mother. A man came for the advice to Prophet (SAW) as to who should be treated well. The Prophet (PBUH) advised him to be good with mother. Three times the man asked, and three times Prophet (PBUH) told him to do good to his mother. At the fourth time, the Prophet (PBUH) told him to do good to his father. This illustrates the position of the mother in Islam. Allah’s messenger (SAW) says, â€Å"It is one of the greatest sins that a man should curse his parents.† Holy Quran about mothers: Allah has only discussed about the two mothers in the Holy Quran by name; Bibi Maryam, mother of Hazrat Isa (A.S) and mother of Prophet Musa (A.S). Holy Quran mentions the incident of Hazrat Maryam after the birth of Isa (A.S) when people started labeling her with the bad words. At a point, she wished to be dead. But Allah consoled her and told her not to grieve. Then she was given the dates and water. However, she was also ordered to take fast of not speaking for the three consecutive days. After three days, baby started speaking and it proved that Hazrat Isa (A.S) was a miraculous baby.(19:23-26) The other incident is related to Hazrat Musa’s mother who was forced to put her child in the river but was simultaneously assured that the baby will be returned. Allah knew the love of mother for the child. The baby was picked up by Firwan’s wife from river, but baby refused to suck the milk of foster mother. So Hazrat Musa’s sister suggested to try her mother, this united the child and mother back. (Surah Taha 37-40 and Surah Qasas 7-13) Following are the verses of the Holy Quran about the parents (mother). Treat your parents with great kindness;if either or both of them attain old age, do not even say ‘uff’ to them;nor rebuke them;but speak to them kind words.Treat them with humility and tenderness and pray, â€Å"O our Lord,be merciful to them, just as they brought me up with kindness and affection in my childhood.† (Surah Bani Israel 23-24) QUALITIES OF THE MOTHERS Love for her children: The love of the mother towards the child is unmatchable. Whether the child is obedient or troublemaker, old or young, healthy or ill, the love remains the same for her child. A mother shows her love in different forms, sometimes she also scolds her child just because she cares and doesn’t want the child to be involved in any chaotic activity. However, that is why the children feel good at home because of their mother. Holy Quran says, â€Å"Worship God and join not any partners with Him; and be kind to your parents.† In other words, we must not treat our parents harshly even if they beat or scold us. Many of the children put their pleasure above mother’s happiness. This is what she gets after bearing so much pain and sacrifice Sacrifice and dedication: Sacrifices of the mother for the child are unmatchable in the world; she gives up her sleep as well just to make her child all right. A good mother places the needs of the child, both physical and emotional needs. There is no other relation other than mother who gives away all her peace just to make her child in peace. This is the reason why Islam has ordered woman to stay home, to look after their children but nowadays usually women are busy in making their own career instead of looking after their child which should be her first priority. The Quran says, And We have enjoined on man [to be good] to his parents: in travail upon travail did his mother bear him and his weaning was over two years. Be thankful to Me and to your parents, unto Me is the final destination. [Noble Quran 31:14] However Shaykh Abdur Rahman As-Sa’ad views on the verse is following: Be kind to your parents, shower love, affection and piety, both in words and deeds, treat them softly and never harm them verbally or physically. Then, Allah explains why we should treat our parents nicely. He says, the mother bore constant suffering, pain and hardship from the first moments she felt the child moving in her womb to the worst pangs during the time of delivery. And the weaning of two years, that is, during these two years the mother breast-feeds her child and looks after him/her. So after all the years of suffering, hardship, love and care, could we not, at least, compensate our mothers for what they have done for us and pay them back their rights. Protection and Security: A mother always tries to safeguard her child in every difficulty. However, few mothers are over-protective for their child which is not good. Because of it, children face too many problems in their practical life when they have to deal it alone. Pampered children are unaware of many realities of the world. Many children get fed up of their parent over-protection, yet they must not misbehave since Allah’s messenger (SAW) says, Shall I inform you of the biggest of the Great Sins? They said, Yes, O Allahs Messenger (saws)! He (saws) said, To join partners in worship with Allah,and to be undutiful to ones parents. (Sahih Al-Bukhari) THE ROLE OF THE MOTHERS DURING LIFE The window of the child to the world: When a baby is born, he is not unaware of the outside world. The mother plays a key role in introducing him to the world. The child life totally depends on the mother. His views, his behavior – religion or other – and his goals and mission. Later the views changes after he becomes mature, but what he has learnt in the beginning will always have a lasting impression on his mind. A man came to the Prophet and said, ‘O Messenger of God! Who among the people is the most worthy of my good companionship? The Prophet (PBUH) said: Your mother. The man said, ‘Then who?’ The Prophet said: Then your mother. The man further asked, ‘Then who?’ The Prophet said: Then your mother. The man asked again, ‘Then who?’ The Prophet said: Then your father. (Bukhari, Muslim) In this hadith Prophet (SAW) has clearly mentioned the importance of mother more than the father by repeating ‘your mother’ thrice. Model for the Child: Since a mother play key role in upbringing of the child, so she is greatly esteemed. Her habits, behavior, lifestyle and whatever a child observes from her will have an impact. There’s a famous quote, ‘A mother is better than hundreds of teacher’. This means, mothers have a strong control on their child. Therefore, mothers have an important responsibility on their shoulders to set an example for their child. Sometimes it becomes difficult for the mothers. However, it is not perfection which Islam demands but a willingness to accept the responsibility for gesturing good behavior. Most importantly, a man will be picked up from his/her mother name on the Resurrection Day. A Grand Mufti of Pakistan, Shaykh Muhammad Shafy wrote, â€Å"Mothers have more rights than father.† STRENGTH OF THE MOTHER Awareness of Responsibility: Motherhood is the most difficult job. A mother has to look into different techniques and strategy for parenting. There are nowadays many Islamic magazines in which articles are published related to the upbringing of the children. Mothers must read it to increase the awareness. This surely helps in dealing a child from different tactics. Command your children to make salah (prayer)when they become seven years old, and spank them for it (salah) when they become ten years old, and arrange their beds (to sleep) separately.(Abu Dawud) However it is the responsibility of the mother to make the child punctual towards prayer and make him habitual to it. Setting Goals: A mother should know what she expects from her child and then explain that to them. The children must know what is expected from them. For example, if a mother ask a child to lay the table. And the child does not do because of laziness, it means the mother has not asked him in a proper way because the children do the way they feel better. At end, child is blamed for either doing it wrong or not doing it. Similarly goes in the academic, mother must explain what she wants her child to be. Encourage children according to their potential: Every child is skilled in different professions. Allah has given children the ability to show the achievements. Holy Prophet (PBUH) says, â€Å"Human beings are like mines of gold and silver.† Many of the mothers compare their child with another one, which is simply wrong. As I mentioned above every children has the ability to hold great achievement. This act of mother takes many children towards depression, and they get tensed. Instead of it, mothers must rectify their weaknesses and develop the skills in which the child is good. CONCULSION In my research, I tried to explain about how much Islam respects the relation of a mother and what are role of the mothers in upbringing of the child. The mothers have the capability to either give a better future to the child or to damage it. So if we sum up the whole topic we understand, the mothers are the guardian of the whole family at home. However, it is utmost duty of every child to respect their mothers. Since it is the hadith of Allah’s messenger (SAW), â€Å"Be kind with your mother.† Therefore, a person will not enter a paradise if he/she scorns the parents (mother). REFERENCES http://islam.ru/en/content/story/what-does-islam-say-about-mothers http://www.islamhelpline.net/qa/parents-quran-and-sunnah http://www.al-islam.org/raising-children-tahera-kassamali/lesson-2-role-mother#role-mother http://insideislam.wisc.edu/2012/05/the-importance-of-the-mother-in-islam/ http://www.onislam.net/english/ask-the-scholar/family/children-a-parenthood/175504-muslim-womans-role-as-a-mother.html?Parenthood= 1 | Page

The Grapes of Wrath - The True American Spirit Essay -- The Grapes of W

The True American Spirit of The Grapes of Wrath    John Steinbeck's novel, The Grapes of Wrath is an excellent portrayal of the common and true Americans. While it is of course a book of deep thought and incredible symbolism, most of all The Grapes of Wrath gives these common American workers a voice and a distinct identity, and doesn't just turn them into a stereotype or cliche.       Steinbeck's book could be regarded as one of the best books from America and perhaps the best on the subject of the Great Depression. It doesn't focus on the stock market crashing or from the upper class perspective at all; instead it shows the effects of it on the common man. And, like all great fictional stories set in historical events, it uses the situation just as the basic story structure and it's not until a certain point that the true theme is revealed. In this case the setting is during the Great Depression but (and I don't want to sound too hokey) the theme is of course about the struggle of life, the ever endearing human spirit, and the hope of better opportunities.       One of my reasons for my choosing The Grapes of Wrath (besides the obviousness of the characters being the heart of America) for my American Patriotic write-off is because even though the characters already live in America they begin to dream of a new land of opportunity and it takes them onto a journey to rediscover the country. Like the recent tragic American situation, the Great Depression is a milestone event in our history and was a period of time that tested our country's strength. We triumphed over that obstacle and it only made us stronger, which we are undoubtedly doing with our current situation.       Most of us know the ... ...works for the banks, comes with a bulldozer to tear down his old family friends home, right in front of their eyes. I know, it sounds depressing but hey there are some comedic moments and let's remember the story is about the Great Depression.       And so... The Grapes of Wrath is probably the best book written on the subject of the Great Depression of America. It was a depressing time full of fear for the future as it is now with the attacks. We will hopefully be able to look back on these days as another part of history that only kept us stronger, like we do with the Great Depression. But even in these harsh times there's no need to be scared all of the time, because you can look at the Joads and even while wallowing in the poorest and most depressing situations they were still able to have a good time dancing at the hoe-down. True American spirit.   

Abolishing Poverty in The United States :: Poverty Essays

Abolishing Poverty in The United States   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  If I had the power to abolish poverty in the United States I would do it in a second. Abolishing poverty would be almost impossible because there are just to many poor people for one person to help. To abolish poverty we must all work to help those who are poor get out of this condition.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are two types of poor, there are people who are relatively poor and there are people who are absolutely poor. People who are relatively poor are poor compared to the people around them. These people usually only have the bare necessities to survive like food, clothing or shelter. They might even have a steady job but they just don't have any real wealth. In fact people who are relatively poor are usually in the lower 5% of the population in terms of wealth. People who live the state of absolute poverty can not sustain a certain level of living . These people have a hard time getting money for food , clothing, or shelter. People who are absolutely poor have a rough time getting money to put food on the table one day and the next day they might not have any money to put food on the table. Not all people who are relatively poor are absolutely poor, but, all people who are absolutely poor are relatively poor. These types of poor are found all throughout the world especially in underdeveloped countries. In the United States a advanced well-developed country both absolute and relative poverty are present throughout the country.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I think that absolute poverty has no beneficial purposes to society. However, relative poverty does have beneficial functions. I think that relative poverty can make people competitive. It would do this because people always try to do better then the people around them. This competitiveness might force people to work overtime or even two jobs in order to make more than the people around them. There are some major costs that both poverty's have on society. These costs include: In areas of high poverty there are usually the same areas of high violence. A second cost to society might be that some people in poverty might become welfare dependent, this means that they rely solely on welfare to pay for everything and they don't even try to find a job of there own. These negative costs definitely outweigh the benefits.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  If I had control of the poverty situation in the United States I would only try to eliminate absolute poverty. I first would raise the taxes of the

Bag of Bones CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Ki lay fast asleep just as I had left her, on her side with the filthy little stuffed dog clutched under her jaw. It had put a smudge on her neck but I hadn't the heart to take it away from her. Beyond her and to the left, through the open bathroom door, I could hear the steady plink-plonk-plink of water falling from the faucet and into the tub. Cool air blew around me in a silky twist, caressing my cheeks, sending a not unpleasurable shiver up my back. In the living room Bunter's bell gave a dim little shake. Water's still warm, sugar, Sara whispered. Be her friend, be her daddy. Go on, now. Do what I want. Do what we both want. And I did want to, which had to be why Jo at first tried to keep me away from the TR and from Sara Laughs. Why she'd made a secret of her possible pregnancy, as well. It was as if I had discovered a vampire inside me, a creature with no interest in what it thought of as talk-show conscience and op-ed page morality. A part that wanted only to take Ki into the bathroom and dunk her into that tub of warm water and hold her under, watching the red-edged white ribbons shimmer the way Carla Dean's white dress and red stockings had shimmered while the woods burned all around her and her father. A part of me would be more than glad to pay the last installment on that old bill. ‘Dear God,' I muttered, and wiped my face with a shaking hand. ‘She knows so many tricks. And she's so fucking strong.' The bathroom door tried to swing shut against me before I could go through, but I pushed it open against hardly any resistance. The medicine-cabinet door banged back, and the glass shattered against the wall. The stuff inside flew out at me, but it wasn't a very dangerous attack; this time most of the missiles consisted of toothpaste tubes, toothbrushes, plastic bottles, and a few old Vick's inhalers. Faint, very faint, I could hear her shouting in frustration as I yanked the plug at the bottom of the tub and let the water start gurgling out. There had been enough drowning on the TR for one century, by God. And yet, for a moment I felt an incredibly strong urge to put the plug back in while the water was still deep enough to do the job. Instead I tore it off its chain and threw it down the hall. The medicine-cabinet door clapped shut again and the rest of the glass fell out. ‘How many have you had?' I asked her. ‘How many besides Carla Dean and Kerry Auster and our Kia? Two? Three? Five? How many do you need before you can rest?' All of them! the answer shot back. It wasn't just Sara's voice, either; it was my own, as well. She'd gotten into me, had snuck in by way of the basement like a burglar . . . and already I was thinking that even if the tub was empty and the water-pump temporarily dead, there was always the lake. All of them! the voice cried again. All of them, sugar! Of course only all of them would do. Until then there would be no rest for Sara Laughs. ‘I'll help you to rest,' I said. ‘That I promise.' The last of the water swirled away . . . but there was always the lake, always the lake if I changed my mind. I left the bathroom and looked in on Ki again. She hadn't moved, the sensation that Sara was in here with me had gone, Bunter's bell was quiet . . . and yet I felt uneasy, unwilling to leave her alone. I had to, though, if I was to finish my work, and I would do well not to linger. County and State cops would be along eventually, storm or no storm, downed trees or no downed trees. Yes, but . . . I stepped into the hall and looked uneasily around. Thunder boomed, but it was losing some of its urgency. So was the wind. What wasn't fading was the sense of something watching me, something that was not-Sara. I stood where I was a moment or two longer, trying to tell myself it was just the sizzle of my overcooked nerves, then walked down the hall to the entry. I opened the door to the stoop . . . then looked around again sharply, as if expecting to see someone or something lurking behind the far end of the bookcase. A Shape, perhaps. Something that still wanted its dust-catcher. But I was the only Shape left, at least in this part of the world, and the only movement I saw was ripple-shadows thrown by the rain rolling down the windows. It was still coming down hard enough to redrench me as I crossed my stoop to the driveway, but I paid no attention. I had just been with a little girl when she drowned, had damned near drowned myself not so long ago, and the rain wasn't going to stop me from doing what I had to do. I picked up the fallen branch which had dented the roof of my car, tossed it aside, and opened the Chevy's rear door. The things I'd bought at Slips ‘n Greens were still sitting on the back seat, still tucked into the cloth carry-handle bag Lila Proulx had given me. The trowel and the pruning knife were visible, but the third item was in a plastic sack. Want this one in a special bag? Lila had asked me. Always sa]b, never sorry. And later, as I was leaving, she had spoken of Kenny's dog Blueberry chasing seagulls and had given out with a big, hearty laugh. Her eyes hadn't laughed, though. Maybe that's how you tell the Martians from the Earthlings the Martians can never laugh with their eyes. I saw Rommie and George's present lying on the front seat: the Stenomask I'd at first mistaken for Devore's oxygen mask. The boys in the basement spoke up then murmured, at least and I leaned over the seat to grab the mask by its elastic strap without the slightest idea of why I was doing so. I dropped it into the carry-bag, slammed the car door, then started down the railroad-tie steps to the lake. On the way I paused to duck under the deck, where we had always kept a few tools. There was no pick, but I grabbed a spade that looked up to a piece of gravedigging. Then, for what I thought would be the last time, I followed the course of my dream down to The Street. I didn't need Jo to show me the spot; the Green Lady had been pointing to it all along. Even had she not been, and even if Sara Tidwell did not still stink to the heavens, I think I would have known. I think I would have been led there by my own haunted heart. There was a man standing between me and the place where the gray forehead of rock guarded the path, and as I paused on the last railroad tie, he hailed me in a rasping voice that I knew all too well. ‘Say there, whoremaster, where's your whore?' He stood on The Street in the pouring rain, but his cutters' outfit green flannel pants, checked wool shirt and his faded blue Union Army cap were dry, because the rain was falling through him rather than on him. He looked solid but he was no more real than Sara herself. I reminded myself of this as I stepped down onto the path to face him, but my heart continued to speed up, thudding in my chest like a padded hammer. He was dressed in Jared Devore's clothes, but this wasn't Jared Devore. This was Jared's great-grandson Max, who had begun his career with an act of sled-theft and ended it in suicide . . . but not before arranging for the murder of his daughter-in-law, who'd had the temerity to refuse him what he had so dearly wanted. I started toward him and he moved to the center of the path to block me. I could feel the cold baking off him. I am saying exactly what I mean, expressing what I remember as clearly as I can: I could feel the cold baking off him. And yes, it was Max Devore all right, but got up like a logger at a costume party and looking the way he must have around the time his son Lance was born. Old but hale. The sort of man younger men might well look up to. And now, as if the thought had called them, I could see the rest shimmer into faint being behind him, standing in a line across the path. These were the ones who had been with Jared at the Fryeburg Fair, and now I knew who some of them were. Fred Dean, of course, only nineteen years old in '01, the drowning of his daughter still over thirty years away. And the one who had reminded me of myself was Harry Auster, the firstborn of my great-grandfather's sister. He would have been sixteen, barely old enough to raise a fuzz but old enough to work in the woods with Jared. Old enough to shit in the same pit as Jared. To mistake Jared's poison for wisdom. One of the others twisted his head and squinted at the same time I'd seen that tic before. Where? Then it came to me: in the Lake-view General. This young man was the late Royce Merrill's father. The others I didn't know. Nor did I care to. ‘You ain't a-passing by us,' Devore said. He held up both hands. ‘Don't even think about trying. Am I right, boys?' They murmured growling agreement the sort you could hear coming from any present-day gang of headbangers or taggers, I imagine but their voices were distant; actually more sad than menacing. There was some substance to the man in Jared Devore's clothes, perhaps because in life he had been a man of enormous vitality, perhaps because he was so recently dead, but the others were little more than projected images. I started forward, moving into that baking cold, moving into the smell of him the same invalid odors which had surrounded him when I'd met him here before. ‘Where do you think you're going?' he cried. ‘For a constitutional,' I said. ‘And no law against it. The Street's the place where good pups and vile dogs can walk side-by-side. You said so yourself.' ‘You don't understand,' Max-Jared said. ‘You never will. You're not of that world. That was our world.' I stopped, looking at him curiously. Time was short, I wanted to be done with this . . . but I had to know, and I thought Devore was ready to tell me. ‘Make me understand,' I said. ‘Convince me that any world was your world.' I looked at him, then at the flickering, translucent figures behind him, gauze flesh heaped on shining bones. ‘Tell me what you did.' ‘It was all different then,' Devore said. ‘When you come down here, Noonan, you might walk all three miles north to Halo Bay and see only a dozen people on The Street. After Labor Day you might not see any one at all. This side of the lake you have to walk through the bushes that are growing up wild and around the fallen trees there'll be even more of em after this storm and even a deadfall or two because nowadays the townfolk don't club together to keep it neat the way they used to. But in our time ! The woods were bigger then, Noonan, distances were farther to go, and neighboring meant something. Life itself, often enough. Back then this really was a street. Can you see?' I could. If I looked through the phantom shapes of Fred Dean and Harry Auster and the others, I could. They weren't just ghosts; they were shimmerglass windows on another age. I saw a summer afternoon in the year of . . . 1898? Perhaps 1902? 1907? Doesn't matter. This is a period when all time seems the same, as if time had stopped. This is a time the old-timers remember as a kind of golden age. It is the Land of Ago, the Kingdom of When-I-Was-a-Boy. The sun washes everything with the fine gold light of endless late July; the lake is as blue as a dream, netted with a billion sparks of reflected light. And The Street! It is as smoothly grassed as a lawn and as broad as a boulevard. It is a boulevard, I see, a place where the community fully realizes itself. It is the main conduit of communication, the chief cable in a township criss-crossed with them. I'd felt the existence of these cables all along even when Jo was alive I felt them under the surface, and here is their point of origin. Folks promenade on The Street, all up and down the east side of Dark Score Lake they promenade in little groups, laughing and conversing under a cloud-stacked summer sky, and t his is where the cables all begin. I look and realize how wrong I have been to think of them as Martians, as cruel and calculating aliens. East of their sunny promenade looms the darkness of the woods, glades and hollows where any miserable thing may await, from a hot lopped off in a logging accident to a birth gone wrong and a young mother dead before the doctor can arrive from Castle Rock in his buggy. These are people with no electricity, no phones, no County Rescue Unit, no one to rely upon but each other and a God some of them have already begun to mistrust. They live in the woods and the shadows of the woods, but on fine summer afternoons they come to the edge of the lake. They come to The Street and look in each other's faces and laugh together and then they are truly on the TR in what I have come to think of as the zone. They are not Martians,' they are little lives dwelling on the edge of the dark, that's all. I see summer people from Warrington's, the men dressed in white flannels, two women in long tennis dresses still carrying their rackets. A fellow riding a tricycle with an enormous front wheel weaves shakily among them. The party of summer fo1k has stopped to talk with a group of young men from town; the fellows from away want to know if they can play in the townies' baseball game at Warrington's on Tuesday night. Ben Merrill, Royce's father-to-be, says Ayuh, but we won't go easy on ya just cause you're from N'Yawk. The young men laugh; so do the tennis girls. A little farther on, two boys are playing catch with the sort of raw homemade baseball that is known as a horsey. Beyond them is a convention of young mothers, talking earnestly of their babies, all safely prammed and gathered in their own group. Men in overalls discuss weather and crops, politics and crops, taxes and crops. A teacher from the Consolidated High sits on the gray stone forehead I know so well, patiently tutoring a sullen boy who wants to be somewhere else and doing anything else. I think the boy will grow up to be Buddy Jellison's father. Horn broken watch for finger, I think. All along The Street folks are fishing, and they are catching plenty; the lake fairly teems with bass and trout and pickerel. An artist another summer fellow, judging from his smock and nancy beret has set up his easel and is painting the mountains while two ladies watch respectfully. A giggle of girls passes, whispering about boys and clothes and school. There is beauty here, and peace. Devore' s right to say this is a world I never knew. It's ‘Beautiful,' I said, pulling myself back with an effort. ‘Yes, I see that. But what's your point?' ‘My point?' Devore looked almost comically surprised. ‘She thought she could walk there like everyone else, that's the fucking point! She thought she could walk there like a white gal! Her and her big teeth and her big tits and her snotty looks. She thought she was something special, but we taught her different. She tried to walk me down and when she couldn't do that she put her filthy hands on me and tumped me over. But that was all right; we taught her her manners. Didn't we, boys?' They growled agreement, but I thought some of them young Harry Auster, for one looked sick. ‘We taught her her place,' Devore said. ‘We taught her she wasn't nothing but a nigger. This is the word he uses over and over again when they are in the woods that summer, the summer of1901, the summer that Sara and the Red-bps become the musical act to see in this part of the world. She and her brother and their whole nigger family have been invited to Warrington's to play for the summer people,' they have been rid on champagne and ersters . . . or so says Jared Devore to his little school of devoted followers as they eat their own plain lunches of bread and meat and salted cucumbers out of lard-buckets given to them by their mothers (none of the young men are married, although Oren Peebles is engaged). Yet it isn't her growing renown that upsets Jared Devore. It isn't the fact that she has been to Warrington's; it don't cross his eyes none that she and that brother of hers have actually sat down and eaten with white folks, taken bread join the same bowl as them with their blacknigger fingers. The folks at Warrington's are flatlanders, after all, and Devore tells the silent, attentive young men that he's heard that in places like New York and Chicago white women sometimes even fuck blackniggers. Naw! Harry Auster says, looking around nervously, as if he expected a few white women to come tripping through the woods way out here on Bowie Ridge. No white woman'd fuck a nigger! Shoot a pickle! Devore only gives him a look, the kind that says When you're my age. Besides, he doesn't care what goes on in New York and Chicago; he saw all the flatland he wanted to during the Civil War . . . and, he will tell you, he never fought that war to free the damned slaves. They can keep slaves down there in the land of cotton until the end of the eternity, as far as Jared Lancelot Devore is concerned. No, he fought in the war to teach those cracker sons of bitches south of Mason and Dixon that you don't pull out of the game just because you don't like some of the rules. He went down to scratch the scab off the end of old Johnny Reb's nose. Tried to leave the United States of America, they had! The Lord! No, he doesn't care about slaves and he doesn't care about the land of cotton and he doesn't care about blackniggers who sing dirty songs and then get treated to champagne and ersters (Jared always says oysters in just that sarcastic way) in payment for their smut. He doesn't care about anything so long as they keep in their place and let him keep in his. But she won't do it. The uppity bitch will not do it. She has been warned to stay off The Street, but she will not listen. She goes anyway, walking along in her white dress just as if there was a white person inside it, sometimes with her son, who has a blacknigger African name and no daddy his daddy probably just spent the one night with his mommy in a haystack somewhere down Alabama and now she walks around with the get of that just as bold as a brass monkey. She walks The Street as if she has a right to be there, even though not a soul will talk to her ‘But that's not true, is it?' I asked Devore. ‘That's what really stuck in old great-granddaddy's craw, wasn't it? They did talk to her. She had a way about her that laugh, maybe. Men talked to her about crops and the women showed off their babies. In fact they gave her their babies to hold and when she laughed down at them, they laughed back up at her. The girls asked her advice about boys. The boys . . . they just looked. But how they looked, huh? They filled up their eyes, and I expect most of them thought about her when they went out to the privy and filled up their palms.' Devore glowered. He was aging in front of me, the lines drawing themselves deeper and deeper into his face; he was becoming the man who had knocked me into the lake because he couldn't bear to be crossed. And as he grew older he began to fade. ‘That was what Jared hated most of all, wasn't it? That they didn't turn aside, didn't turn away. She walked on The Street and no one treated her like a nigger. They treated her like a neighbor.' I was in the zone, deeper in than I'd ever been, down where the town's unconscious seemed to run like a buried river. I could drink from that river while I was in the zone, could fill my mouth and throat and belly with its cold minerally taste. All that summer Devore had talked to them. They were more than his crew, they were his boys: Fred and Harry and Ben and Oren and George Armbruster and Draper Finney, who would break his neck and drown the next summer trying to dive into Eades Quarry while he was drunk. Only it was the sort of accident that's kind of on purpose. Draper Finney drank a lot between July of 1901 and August of 1902, because it was the only way he could sleep. The only way he could get the hand out of his mind, that hand sticking straight out of the water, clenching and unclenching until you wanted to scream Won't it stop, won't it ever stop doing that. All summer long Jared Devore filled their ears with nigger bitch and uppity bitch. All summer long he told them about their responsibility as men, their duty to keep the community pure, and how they must see what others didn't and do what others wouldn't. It was a Sunday afternoon in August, a time when traffic along The Street dropped steeply. Later on, by five or so, things would begin to pick up again, and from six to sunset the broad path along the lake would be thronged. But three in the afternoon was Low tide. The Methodists were back in session over in Harlow for their afternoon Song Service; at Warrington's the assembled company of vacationing flatlanders was sitting down to a heavy mid-afternoon Sabbath meal of roast chicken or ham; all over the township families were addressing their own Sunday dinners. Those who had already finished were snoozing through the heat of the day in a hammock, wherever possible. Sara liked this quiet time. Loved it, really. She had spent a great deal of her life on carny midways and in smoky gin-joints, shouting out her songs in order to be heard above the voices of redfaced, unruly drunks, and while part of her loved the excitement and unpredictability of that life, part of her loved the sereni ty of this one, too. The peace of these walks. She wasn't getting any younger, after all; she had a kid who had now left purt near all his babyhood behind him. On that particular Sunday she must have thought The Street almost too quiet. She walked a mile south from the meadow without seeing a soul even Kito was gone by then, having stopped off to pick berries. It was as if the whole township were deserted. She knows there's an Eastern Star supper in Kashwakamak, of course, has even contributed a mushroom pie to it because she has made friends of some of the Eastern Star ladies. They'll all be down there getting ready. What she doesn't know is that today is also Dedication Day for the new Grace Baptist Church, the first real church ever to be built on the TR. A slug of locals have gone, heathen as well as Baptist. Faintly, from the other side of the lake, she can hear the Methodists singing. The sound is sweet and faint and beautiful,' distance and echo has tuned every sour voice. She isn't aware of the men most of them very young men, the kind who under ordinary circumstances dare only look at her from the corners of their eyes until the oldest one among them speaks. ‘Wellnow, a black whore in a white dress and a red belt! Damn if that ain't just a little too much color for lakeside. What's wrong with you, whore? Can't you take a hint?' She turns toward him, afraid but not showing it. She has lived thirty-six years on this earth, has known what a man has and where he wants to put it since she was eleven, and she understands that when men are together like this and full of redeye (she can smell it), they give up thinking for themselves and turn into a pack of dogs. If you show fear they will fall on you like dogs and likely tear you apart like dogs. Also, they have been laying for her. There can be no other explanation for them turning up like this. ‘What hint is that, sugar?' she asks, standing her ground. Where is everyone? Where can they all be? God damn! Across the lake, the Methodists have moved on to ‘Trust and Obey,' a droner if there ever was one. ‘That you ain't got no business walking where the white folks walk,' Harry Auster says. His adolescent voice breaks into a kind of mouse-squeak on the last word and she laughs. She knows how unwise that is, but she can't help it she's never been able to help her laughter, any more than she's ever been able to help the way men like this look at her breasts and bottom. Blame it on God. ‘Why, I walk where I do,' she says. ‘I was told this was common ground, ain't nobody got a right to keep me out. Ain't nobody has. You seen em doin it?' ‘You see us now,' George Armbruster says, trying to sound tough. Sara looks at him with a species of kindly contempt that makes George shrivel up inside. His cheeks glow hot red. ‘Son,' she says, ‘you only come out now because the decent folks is all somewhere else. Why do you want to let this old fella tell you what to do? Act decent and let a lady walk.' I see it all. As Devore fades and fades, at last becoming nothing but eyes under a blue cap in the rainy afternoon (through him I can see the shattered remains of my swimming float washing against the embankment), I see it all. I see her as she starts forward, walking straight at Devore. If she stands here jawing with them, something bad is going to happen. She feels it, and she never questions her tidings. And if she walks at any of the others, ole massa'll bore in on her from the side, pulling the rest after. Ole massa in the little ole blue cap is the wheeldog, the one she must face down. She can do it, too. He's strong, strong enough to make these boys one creature, his creature, at least for the time being, but he doesn't have her force, her determination, her energy. In a way she welcomes this confrontation. Reg has warned her to be careful, not to move too fast or try to make real friends until the rednecks (only Reggie calls them ‘the bull gators') show themselves how many and how crazy but she goes her own course, trusts her own deep instincts. And here they are, only seven of em, and really just the one bull gator. I'm stronger than you, ole massa, she thinks, walking toward him. She fixes her eyes on his and will not let them drop,' his are the ones that drop, his the mouth that quivers uncertainly at one corner, his the tongue that comes out as quick as a lizard's tongue to wet the lips, and all that's good . . . but even better is when he falls back a step. When he does that the rest of them cluster in two groups of three, and there it is, her way through. Faint and sweet are the Methodists, faithy music carrying across the lake's still surface. A droner of a hymn, yes, but sweet across the miles. When we walk with the Lord in the light of His word, what a glory He sheds on our way . . . I'm stronger than you, sugar, she sends, I'm meaner than you, you may be the bull gator but I'm the queen bee and if you don't want me stingin on you, you best clear me the rest of my path. ‘You bitch,' he says, but his voice is weak; he is already thinking this isn't the day, there's something about her he didn't quite see until he saw her right up close, some blacknigger hougan he didn't feel until now, better wait for another day, better Then he trips over a root or a rock (perhaps it's the very rock behind which she will finally come to rest) and falls down. His cap falls off, showing the big old bald spot on top of his head. His pants split all the way up the seam. And Sara makes a crucial mistake. Perhaps she underestimates Jared Devore's own very considerable personal force, or perhaps she just cannot help herself the sound of his britches ripping is like a loud fart. In any case she laughs that raucous, smoke-broken laugh which is her trademark. And her laugh becomes her doom. Devore doesn't think. He simply gives her the leather from where he lies, big feet in pegged loggers' boots shooting out like pistons. He hits her where she is thinnest and most vulnerable, in the ankles. She hollers in shocked pain as the left one breaks,' she goes down in a tumble, losing her furled parasol out of one hand. She draws in breath to scream again and Jared says from where he is lying, ‘Don't let her! Dassn't let her holler!' Ben Merrill falls on top of her full-length, all one hundred and ninety pounds of him. The breath she has drawn to scream with whooshes out in a gusty, almost silent sigh instead. Ben, who has never even danced with a woman, let alone lain on top of one like this, is instantly excited by the el of her struggling beneath him. He wriggles against her, laughing, and when she rakes her nails down his cheek he barely feels it. The way it seems to him, he's all cock and a yard long. When she tries to roll over and get out from under that way, he rolls with her, lets her be on top, and he is totally surprised when she drives her forehead down on his. He sees stars, but he is eighteen years old, as strong as he will ever be, and he loses neither consciousness nor his erection. Oren Peebles tears away the back of her dress, laughing. ‘Pig-pile!' he cries in a breathy little whisper, and drops on top of her. Now he is dry-humping her topside and Ben is dry-humping just as enthusiastically from underneath, dry-humping like a billygoat even with the blood pouring down the sides of his head from the split in the center of his brow, and she knows that if she can't scream she is lost. If she can scream and if Kito hears, he'll run and get help, run and get Reg But before she can try again, ole massa is squatting beside her and showing her a long-bladed knife. ‘Make a sound and I'll cut your nose off,' he says, and that's when she gives up. They have brought her down after all, partly because she laughed at the wrong time, mostly out of pure buggardly bad luck. Now they will not be stopped, and best that Kito should stay away please God keep him back where he was, it was a good patch of berries, one that should keep him occupied an hour or more. He loves berry-picking, and it won't take these men an hour. Harry Auster yanks her hair back, tears her dress off one shoulder, and begins to sucker on her neck. Ole massa the only one not at her. Old massa standing back, looking both ways along The Street, his eyes slitted and wary; old massa look like a mangy timber-wolf done eaten a whole generation of chickenhouse chickens while managing to avoid every trap and snare. ‘Hey Irish, quit on her a minute,' he tells Harry, then widens his wise gaze to the others. ‘Get her in the puckies, you damn fools. Get her in there deep.' They don't. They can't. They are too eager to have her. They arm-yank her behind the forehead of gray rock and call it good. She doesn't pray easily but she prays now. She prays for them to let her live. She prays for Kito to stay clear, to keep filling his bucket slow by eating every third handful. She prays that if he does take a notion to catch up with her, he will see what's happening and run the other way as fast as he can, run silent and get Reg. ‘Stick this in your mouth,' George Armbruster pants. ‘And don't you bite me, you bitch.' They take her top and bottom, back and front, two and three at a time. They take her where anybody coming along can't help but see them, and ole massa stands off a little, looking first at the panting young men grouped around her, kneeling with their trousers down and their thighs scratched from the bushes they are kneeling in, then he peers up and down the path with his wild and wary eyes. Incredibly, one of them it is Fred Dean says ‘Sorry, ma'am' after he's shot his load feels like halfway up to east bejeezus. It's as if he accidentally kicked her in the shin while crossing his legs. And it doesn't end. There's come down her throat, come running down the crack of her ass, the young one has bitten the blood right out of her left breast, and it doesn't end. They are young, and by the time the last one has finished, the first one, oh God, the first one is ready again. Across the river the Methodists are now singing ‘Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine' and as ole massa approaches her she thinks, It's almost over, woman, he the last, hold on hold steady and it be over. He looks at the skinny redhead and the one who keeps squinching his eye up and tossing his head and tells them to watch the path, he's going to take his turn now that she's broke in. He unbuckles his belt, he unbuttons his flies, he pushes down his underwear dirty black at the knees and dirty yellow at the crotch-and as he drops a knee on either side of her she sees that ole massa' s little massa is just as floppy as a snake with its neck broke and before she can stop it, that raucous laugh bursts all unexpected from her again even lying here covered with the hot jelly spend of her rapists, she can't help but see the funny side. ‘Shut up!' Devore growls at her, and smashes the heel of one hard hand across her face, breaking her cheekbone and her nose. ‘Shut up that howling!' ‘Reckon it might get stiffer if it was one of your boys layin here with his rosy red ass stuck up in the air, sugar?' she asks, and then, For the last time, Sara laughs. Devore draws his hand back to hit her again, his naked loins lying against her naked loins, his penis a flaccid worm between them. But before he can bring the hand down a child's voice cries, ‘Ma! What they doin to you, Ma? Git off my mama, you bastards!' She sits up in spite of Devore's weight, her laughter dying, her wide eyes searching Kito out and finding him, a slim young boy of eight standing on The Street, dressed in overalls and a straw hat and brand-new canvas shoes, carrying a tin bucket in one hand. His lips are blue with juice. His eyes are wide with confusion and fright. ‘Run, Kito!' she screams. ‘Run away h ‘ Red fire explodes in her head,' she swoons back into the bushes, hearing ole massa from a great distance: ‘Get him. Dassn't let him ramble, now.' Then she's going down a long dark slope, she's lost in a Ghost House corridor that leads only deeper and deeper into its own convoluted bowels,' from that deep falling place she hears him, she hears, her darling one, he is screaming. I heard him screaming as I knelt by the gray rock with my carry-bag beside me and no idea how I'd gotten to where I was I certainly had no memory of walking here. I was crying in shock and horror and pity. Was she crazy? Well, no wonder. No fucking wonder. The rain was steady but no longer apocalyptic. I stared at my fishy-white hands on the gray rock for a few seconds, then looked around. Devore and the others were gone. The ripe and gassy stench of decay filled my nose it was like a physical assault. I fumbled in the carry-bag, found the Stenomask Rommie and George had given me as a joke, and slipped it over my mouth and nose with fingers that felt numb and distant. I breathed shallowly and tentatively. Better. Not a lot, but enough to keep from fleeing, which was undoubtedly what she wanted. ‘No!' she cried from somewhere behind me as I grabbed the spade and dug in. I tore a great mouth in the ground with the first swipe, and each subsequent one deepened and widened it. The earth was soft and yielding, woven through with mats of thin roots which parted easily under the blade. ‘No! Don't you dare!' I wouldn't look around, wouldn't give her a chance to push me away. She was stronger down here, perhaps because it had happened here. Was that possible? I didn't know and didn't care. All I cared about was getting this done. Where the roots were thicker, I hacked through them with the pruning knife. ‘Leave me be!' Now I did look around, risked one quick glance because of the unnatural crackling sounds which had accompanied her voice which now seemed to make her voice. The Green Lady was gone. The birch had somehow become Sara Tidwell: it was Sara's face growing out of the criss-crossing branches and shiny leaves. That rain-slicked face swayed, dissolved, came together, melted away, came together again. For a moment all the mystery I had sensed down here was revealed. Her damp shifting eyes were utterly human. They stared at me with hate and supplication. ‘I ain't done!' she cried in a cracked, breaking voice. ‘He was the worst, don't you understand? He was the worst and it's his blood in her and I won't rest until I have it out!' There was a gruesome ripping sound. She had inhabited the birch, made it into a physical body of some sort and intended to tear it free of the earth. She would come and get me with it if she could; kill me with it if she could. Strangle me in limber branches. Stuff me with leaves until I looked like a Christmas decoration. ‘No matter how much of a monster he was, Kyra had nothing to do with what he did,' I said. ‘And you won't have her.' ‘Yes I will!' the Green Lady screamed. The ripping, rending sounds were louder now. They were joined by a hissing, shaky crackle. I didn't look around again. I didn't dare look around. I dug faster instead. ‘Yes I will have her!' she cried, and now the voice was closer. She was coming for me but I refused to see; when it comes to walking trees and bushes, I'll stick to Macbeth, thanks. ‘I will have her! He took mine and I mean to take his!' ‘Go away,' a new voice said. The spade loosened in my hands, almost fell. I turned and saw Jo standing below me and to my right. She was looking at Sara, who had materialized into a lunatic's hallucination a monstrous greenish-black thing that slipped with every step it tried to walk along The Street. She had left the birch behind yet assumed its vitality somehow the actual tree huddled behind her, black and shrivelled and dead. The creature born of it looked like the Bride of Frankenstein as sculpted by Picasso. In it, Sara's face came and went, came and went. The Shape, I thought coldly. It was always real . . . and if it was always me, it was always her, too. Jo was dressed in the white shirt and yellow slacks she'd had on the day she died. I couldn't see the lake through her as I had been able to see it through Devore and Devore's young friends; she had materialized herself completely. I felt a curious draining sensation at the back of my skull and thought I knew how. ‘Git out, bitch!' the Sara-thing snarled. It raised its arms toward Jo as it had raised them to me in my worst nightmares. ‘Not at all.' Jo's voice remained calm. She turned toward me. ‘Hurry, Mike. You have to be quick. It's not really her anymore. She's let one of the Outsiders in, and they're very dangerous.' ‘Jo, I love you.' ‘I love you t ‘ Sara shrieked and then began to spin. Leaves and branches blurred together and lost coherence; it was like watching something liquefy in a blender. The entity which had only looked a little like a woman to begin with now dropped its masquerade entirely. Something elemental and grotesquely inhuman began to form out of the maelstrom. It leaped at my wife. When it struck her, the color and solidity left Jo as if slapped away by a huge hand. She became a phantom struggling with the thing which raved and shrieked and clawed at her. ‘Hurry, Mike!' she screamed. ‘Hurry!' I bent to the job. The spade struck something that wasn't dirt, wasn't stone, wasn't wood. I scraped along it, revealing a filthy mold-crusted swatch of canvas. Now I dug like a madman, wanting to clear as much of the buried object as I could, wanting to fatten my chances of success as much as I could. Behind me, the Shape screamed in fury and my wife screamed in pain. Sara had given up part of her discorporate self in order to gain her revenge, had let in something Jo called an Outsider. I had no idea what that might be and never wanted to know. Sara was its conduit, I knew that much. And if I could take care of her in time I reached into the dripping hole, slapping wet earth from the ancient canvas. Faint stencilled letters appeared when I did: J.M. MCCURDIE SAWMILL. Mccurdie's had burned in the fires of '33, I knew. I'd seen a picture of it in flames somewhere. As I seized the canvas, the tips of my fingers punching through and letting out a fresh billow of green and gassy stench, I could hear grunting. I could hear Devore. He's lying on top of her and grunting like a pig. Sara is semiconscious, muttering unintelligibly through bruised lips which are shiny with blood. Devore is looking back over his shoulder at Draper Finney and Fred Dean. They have raced after the boy and brought him back, but he won't stop yelling, he's yelling to beat the band, yelling to wake the dead, and if they can hear the Methodists singing ‘How I Love to Tell the Story' over here, then they may be able to hear the yowling nigger over there. Devore says ‘Put him in the water, shut him up.' The minute he says it, as though the words are magic words, his cock begins to stiffen. ‘What do you mean?' Ben Merrill asks. ‘You know goddam well,' Jared says. He pants the words out, jerking his hips as he speaks. His narrow ass gleams in the afternoon light. ‘He seen us! You want to cut his throat, get his blood all over you? Fine by me. Here. Take my knife, be my guest!' ‘N-No, Jared!' Ben cries in horror, actually seeming to cringe at the sight of the knife. He is finally ready. It takes him a little longer, that's all, he ain't a kid like these other ones. But now ! Never mind her smart mouth, never mind her insolent way of laughing, never mind the whole township. Let them all show up and watch if they like. He slips it to her, what she's wanted all along, what all her kind want. He slips it in and sinks it deep. He continues giving orders even as he rapes her. Up and down his ass goes, tick-tock, just like a cat's tail. ‘Somebody take care of him! Or do you want to spend forty years rotting in Shawshank because of a nigger boy's tattle?' Ben seizes one of Kito Tidwell's arms, Oren Peebles the other, but by the time they have dragged him as far as the embankment they have lost their heart. Raping an uppity nigger woman with the gall to laugh at Jared when he fell down and split his britches is one thing. Drowning a scared kid like a kitten in a mud-puddle . . . that's another one altogether. They loosen their grip, staring into each other's haunted eyes, and Kito pulls free. ‘Run, honey!' Sara cries. ‘Run away and get ‘Jared clamps his hands around her throat and begins choking. The boy trips over his own berry bucket and thumps gracelessly to the ground. Harry and Draper recapture him easily. ‘What you going to do? ‘ Draper asks in a kind of desperate whine, and Harry replies ‘What I have to.' That's what he replied, and now I was going to do what I had to in spite of the stench, in spite of Sara, in spite of my dead wife's shrieks. I hauled the roll of canvas out of the ground. The ropes which had tied it shut at either end held, but the roll itself split down the middle with a hideous burping sound. ‘Hurry!' Jo cried. ‘I can't hold it much longer!' It snarled; it bayed like a dog. There was a loud wooden crunch, like a door being slammed hard enough to splinter, and Jo wailed. I grabbed for the carry-bag with Slips ‘n Greens printed on the front and tore it open as Harry the others call him Irish because of his carrot-colored hair grabs the struggling kid in a clumsy kind of bearhug and jumps into the lake with him. The kid struggles harder than ever,' his straw hat comes off and floats on the water. ‘Get that!' Harry pants. Fred Dean kneels and fishes out the dripping hat. Fred's eyes are dazed, he's got the look of a fighter about one round from hitting the canvas. Behind them Sara Tidwell has begun to rattle deep in her chest and throat like the sight of the boy's clenching hand, these sounds will haunt Draper Finney until his final dive into Eades Quarry. Jared sinks his fingers deeper, pumping and choking at the same time, the sweat pouring off him. No amount of washing will take the smell of that sweat out of these clothes, and when he begins to think of it as ‘murder-sweat,' he burns the clothes to get shed of it. Harry Auster wants to be shed of it all to be shed of it and never see these men again, most of all Jared Devore, who he now thinks must be Lord Satan himself. Harry cannot go home and face his father unless this nightmare is over, buried. And his mother! How can he ever face his beloved mother, Bridget Auster with her round sweet Irish face and graying hair and comforting shelf of bosom, Bridget who has always had a kind word or a soothing handler him, Bridget Auster who has been Saved, shed in the Blood of the Lamb, Bridget Auster who is even now serving pies at the picnic they're having at the new church, Bridget Auster who is mamma; how can he ever look at her again or she him if he has to stand in court on a charge of raping and beating a woman, even a black woman? So he yanks the clinging boy away Kito scratches him once, just a nick on the side of the neck, and that night Harry will tell his mamma it was a bush-pricker that caught him unawares and he will let her put a kiss on it and then he plunges the child into the lake. Kito looks up at him, his face shimmering, and Harry sees a little fish flick by. A perch, he thinks. For an instant he wonders what the boy must see, looking up through the silver shield of the surface at the face of the fellow who's holding him down, the fellow who's drowning him, and then Harry pushes that away. Just a nigger, he reminds himself desperately. That's all he is, just a nigger. No kin of yours. Kito's arm comes out of the water his dripping dark-brown arm. Harry pulls back, not wanting to be clawed, but the hand doesn't reach for him, only sticks straight up. The fingers curl into a fist. Open. Curl into a fist. Open. Curl into a fist. The boy's thrashing begins to ease, the kicking feet begin to slow down, the eyes looking up into Harry's eyes are taking on a curiously dreamy look, and still that brown arm sticks straight up, still the hand opens and closes, opens and closes. Draper Finney stands on the shore crying, sure that now someone will come along, now someone will see the terrible thing they have done the terrible thing they are in fact still doing. Be sure your sin will find you out, it says in the Good Book. Be sure. He opens his mouth to tell Harry to quit, maybe it's still not too late to take it back, let him up, let him live, but no sound comes out. Behind him Sara is choking her last. In front of him her drowning son's hand opens and closes, opens and clos es, the reflection of it shimmering on the water, and Draper thinks Won't it stop doing that, won't it ever stop doing that? And as if it were a prayer that something is now answering, the boy's locked elbow begins to bend and his arm begins to sag; the fingers begin to close again into a fist and then stop. For a moment the hand wavers and then I slammed the heel of my hand into the center of my forehead to clear these phantoms away. Behind me there was a frenzied snap and crackle of wet bushes as Jo and whatever she was holding back continued to struggle. I put my hands inside the split in the canvas like a doctor spreading a wound. I yanked. There was a low ripping sound as the roll tore the rest of the way up and down. Inside was what remained of them two yellowed skulls, forehead to forehead as if in intimate conversation, a woman's faded red leather belt, a molder of clothes . . . and a heap of bones. Two ribcages, one large and one small. Two sets of legs, one long and one short. The early remains of Sara and Kito Tidwell, buried here by the lake for almost a hundred years. The larger of the two skulls turned. It glared at me with its empty eyesockets. Its teeth chattered as if it would bite me, and the bones below it began a tenebrous, jittery stirring. Some broke apart immediately; all were soft and pitted. The red belt stirred restlessly and the rusty buckle rose like the head of a snake. ‘Mike!' Jo screamed. ‘Quick, quick!' I pulled the sack out of the carry-bag and grabbed the plastic bottle which had been inside. Lye stille, the Magnabet letters had said; another little word-trick. Another message passed behind the unsuspecting guard's back. Sara Tidwell was a fearsome creature, but she had underestimated Jo . . . and she had underestimated the telepathy of long association, as well. I had gone to Slips ‘n Greens, I had bought a bottle of lye, and now I opened it and poured it, smoking, over the bones of Sara and her son. There was a hissing sound like the one you hear when you open a beer or a bottled soft drink. The belt-buckle melted. The bones turned white and crumpled like things made out of sugar I had a nightmare image of Mexican children eating candy corpses off long sticks on the Day of the Dead. The eyesockets of Sara's skull widened as the lye filled the dark hollow where her mind, her prodigious talent, and her laughing soul had once resided. It was an expression that looked at first like surprise and then like sorrow. The jaw fell off; the nubs of the teeth sizzled away. The top of the skull caved in. Spread fingerbones jittered, then melted. ‘Ohhhhhh . . . ‘ It whispered through the soaking trees like a rising wind . . . only the wind had died as the wet air caught its breath before the next onslaught. It was a sound of unspeakable grief and longing and surrender. I sensed no hate in it; her hate was gone, burned away in the corrosive I had bought in Helen Auster's shop. The sound of Sara's going was replaced by the plaintive, almost human cry of a bird, and it awakened me from the place where I had been, brought me finally and completely out of the zone. I got shakily to my feet, turned around, and looked at The Street. Jo was still there, a dim form through which I could now see the lake and the dark clouds of the next thundersquall coming over the mountains. Something flickered beyond her that bird venturing out of its safe covert for a peek at the re-arranged environment, perhaps but I barely registered that. It was Jo I wanted to see, Jo who had come God knew how far and suffered God knew how much to help me. She looked exhausted, hurt, in some fundamental way diminished. But the other thing the Outsider was gone. Jo, standing in a ring of birch leaves so dead they looked charred, turned to me and smiled. ‘Jo! We did it!' Her mouth moved. I heard the sound, but the words were too distant to make out. She was standing right there, but she might have been calling across a wide canyon. Still, I understood her. I read the words off her lips if you prefer the rational, right out of her mind if you prefer the romantical. I prefer the latter. Marriage is a zone, too, you know. Marriage is a zone. So that's all right, isn't it? I glanced down into the gaping roll of canvas and saw nothing but stubs and splinters sticking out of a noxious, uneasy paste. I got a whiff, and even through the Stenomask it made me cough and back away. Not corruption; lye. When I looked back around at Jo, she was barely there. ‘Jo! Wait!' Can't help. Can't stay. Words from another star system, barely glimpsed on a fading mouth. Now she was little more than eyes floating in the dark afternoon, eyes which seemed made of the lake behind them. Hurry . . . She was gone. I slipped and stumbled to the place where she'd been, my feet crunching over dead birch leaves, and grabbed at nothing. What a fool I must have looked, soaked to the skin, wearing a Stenomask askew over the lower half of my face, trying to embrace the wet gray air. I got the faintest whiff of Red perfume . . . and then only damp earth, lakewater, and the vile stink of lye running under everything. At least the smell of putrefaction was gone; that had been no more real than . . . Than what? Than what? Either it was all real or none of it was real. If none of it was real, I was out of my mind and ready for the Blue Wing at Juniper Hill. I looked over toward the gray rock and saw the bag of bones I had pulled out of the wet ground like a festering tooth. Lazy tendrils of smoke were still rising from its ripped length. That much was real. So was the Green Lady, who was now a soot-colored Black Lady as dead as the dead branch behind her, the one that seemed to point like an arm. Can't help . . . can't stay . . . hurry. Couldn't help with what? What more help did I need? It was done, wasn't it? Sara was gone: spirit follows bone, good night sweet ladies, God grant she lye stille. And still a kind of stinking terror, not so different from the smell of putrescence which had come out of the ground, seemed to sweat out of the air; Kyra's name began to beat in my head, Ki-Ki, Ki-Ki, Ki-Ki, like the call of some exotic tropical bird. I started up the railroad-tie steps to the house, and although I was exhausted, by the time I was halfway up I had begun to run. I climbed the stairs to the deck and went in that way. The house looked the same save for the broken tree poking in through the kitchen window, Sara Laughs had stood up to the storm very well but something was wrong. There was something I could almost smell . . . and perhaps I did smell it, bitter and low. Lunacy may have its own wild-vetch aroma. It's not the kind of thing I would ever care to research. In the front hall I stopped, looking down at a heap of paperback books, Elmore Leonards and Ed Mcbains, lying on the floor. As if they had been raked off the shelf by a passing hand. A flailing hand, maybe. I could also see my tracks there, both coming and going. They had already begun to dry. They should have been the only ones; I had been carrying Ki when we came in. They should have been, but they weren't. The others were smaller, but not so small that I mistook them for a child's. I ran down the hall to the north bedroom crying her name, and I might as well have been crying Mattie or Jo or Sara. Coming out of my mouth, Kyra's name sounded like the name of a corpse. The duvet had been thrown back onto the floor. Except for the black stuffed dog, lying where it had in my dream, the bed was empty. And Ki was gone.