Bear with me, this is just some GRE prep- I may not be the best or most academic writer, but I like this. The topic was something like "Doing a morally wrong thing is good if the outcome is morally better." Not the exact words, but close enough. I had to form an opinion and make an argument. I had 30 minutes to prepare and write.




Was Robin Hood a moral person? Is it okay to bomb a village full of innocent people to win a war and prevent the deaths of many more? Is it right to ignore the education of some children so that more children can have a better education? These are morally difficult questions. Most anyone today will tell you Robin Hood was a hero and he did great things for the poor in England. Robin Hood stole from the rich to give to the poor. While Robin Hood had great intentions and many people love him, was what he did morally correct? When countries choose to bomb a village or town, like the USA did to Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II, is that a morally sound decision? If there are a few children in a classroom who are difficult to teach and twenty other children eager to learn, is it okay for a teacher to ignore the few children so that the rest can have a great education? These are some of the most difficult questions you can ask a person. There is no easy answer. Like my examples, many people are quick to say Robin Hood was right, America was wrong, and the teacher is just doing what she can to reach the most children. However, are not all these circumstances similar at their basic level. For each example it is a choice to do something morally wrong, because the end result is better. Does this make the morally incorrect action morally correct? No, it does not. Yet at the same time, to not help the poor, end a war, or provide the best possible education to children is also morally wrong. This leaves the individual, country, or community at odds with itself. It is wrong to do A, and it is wrong to not do B, however in order to do B, A must be done. Perhaps I am a bit quixotic to believe there is a way to do B without doing A. There must be a way to help the poor without stealing. The rich can give to the poor themselves. The community can find jobs and create soup kitchens. The government can tax the rich to provide aid to the poor. The must be a way to end a war without bombs. Nations can have peace talks, enforce embargos, and create alliances. A teacher can provide an education to all of her students. A school should provide extra enrichment to reach each child at their level. The government should ensure there are enough teachers to teach so every child can be offered the very best education. It is wrong to steal, bomb, or ignore children. It is wrong to allow people to live in poverty, to allow a war to continue, or to not provide children with an excellent education. There must be a way around these dilemmas and the whole of humanity should work toward solving dilemmas such as the ones presented in this essay.

Florida vs. Pohang, South KoreaRain Thoughts April 20th, 2009 Pohang, South KoreaThe rain just isn't the same here. It drizzles and drizzles all day. No lightning. No downpours. Just grey lonely skies seeping an endless amount of tears.
Back home the rain is an angry, powerful, marvelous rain. It pours and lightnings and thunders. It's quick and explosive like a temper tantrum - a couple minutes or hours and that's it, it's over. Afterward, the air smells so sweet and fresh, it's like everything has been made new.
But here in Pohang, South Korea, it doesn't pour. Nothing smells fresh and clean and new. You never hear the thunder booming or see the lightning transform the sky.
Florida's skies are almost always beautiful. The sun shines bright, the stars shine bright, and when the storm clouds blow through the lightning creates a spectacular light show! Florida is a place of light.
Florida can fulfill or crush all of your dreams. The key is to not get caught up and carried away. Florida is a place of beauty and of danger. Sunsets, beaches, rivers, lakes, springs, plants, and animals. Lightning, rip currents, gators, wild fires, hurricanes, and sharks. I miss my Florida.
I always dreamed of getting out, escaping the place of flat lands and my tortured youth. Now, I dream of going back. Back to the beaches, the lightning storms, and everything that is familiar and known.

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Anyone who speaks English, learned English as a second language, and especially those who teach English as a second language will find this entertaining :)

 

from http://sharelife.wordpress.com/2007/09/25/asylum-for-the-verbally-insane/

Asylum for the Verbally Insane By Kwee Lain

We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?

If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.

We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let’s face it – English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
Neither apple nor pine in pineapple.

English muffins weren’t invented in England.
We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
We find that quicksand can work slowly,

Boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing,
Grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham?

Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all
But one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught?
Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English
Should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.

And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
While a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
In which your house can burn up as it burns down,
In which you fill in a form by filling it out,
And in which an alarm goes off by going on.
And, in closing, if Father is Pop,
How come Mother’s not Mop?

Do not pursue the past.
Do not lose yourself in the future.
The past no longer is.
The future has not yet come.
Looking deeply at life as it is.
In the very here and now, the practitioner dwells in stability and freedom.
We must be diligent today.
To wait until tomorrow is too late.
Death comes unexpectedly.
How can we bargain with it?
The sage calls a person who knows how to dwell in mindfulness night and day,
'one who knows the better way to live alone.'
Bhaddekaratta Sutta