Robin Williams and the American Flag

Robin Williams and the American Flag!

I saw this speech on Facebook today wanted to post about it for my 3rd persuasion application Ya the colored font is a bit corny but  it fits.  Robin Williams was one of my favorite actors of all time. I especially liked him in Good will Hunting and Dead Poets Society, and who can forget Patch Adams.  He could impersonate anyone and anything that he wanted.  I am ashamed to say that this was the first time that I had heard this speech or bit of comedy by Robin Williams but it was incredible.  He was funny, captivating, and was able to give us a history lesson in the midst of his 5:07 speech.  The first cultural parable that came to my mind as I watched this was the Triumphant Individual Parable.  I copied and pasted Eric's definition form his communication 4010 class to give you all the very best definition of what the Triumphant Individual Parable is all about. It reads below as:  

Triumphant Individual Parable:

It's the little guy who works hard, takes risks, believes in himself, and eventually earns wealth, fame, and honor. It's the parable of the self-made man (or, more recently, woman) who bucks the odds, spurns the naysayers, and shows what can be done with enough drive and guts. He's a loner and a maverick, true to himself, plain speaking, self-reliant, uncompromising in his ideals. He gets the job done, not unlike Sergey Bin.

My Analysis:

The American flag is that definition to a very letter.  The flag is an emblem of all of those that have gone before us and their sacrifices in getting us to where we are today.  The flag is the little guy that got bigger as we added states to our union.  Robin Williams described this in his speech.  In his speech he describes the flag as “having a little skin problem that broke out into 34 stars”.  It now as everyone knows has 50 stars representing each of the 50 great states that together make the greatest country in the world.   The risks that were taken by men that believed in themselves were astronomical.  Men died alongside the flag in the numerous wars that earned America’s independence.   In every one of those wars the flag was there as a representation of hope and liberty.  The flag is the epitome of the word honor.   Our country has done a lot and been through a lot and the flag has been there the entire time.  I loved what Robin Williams said in his speech “But come the dawns early light…..I’m still there.”  I love the flag and all that it represents.  This speech or comedy bit was great.  Our flag really is grand and as the song says.  It really is an emblem of the land that we all love and it sure as hell is the home of the free and the brave. 

Conclusion:

If you haven’t watched or listened to this speech I strongly urge you all to do so.  It was funny, stirring and thought provoking.   May the flag forever fly in this free land and May all who are ignorant enough to deface and disgrace her go find another country to live in and see how that works out for them. 

Stephen Curry:  One of the NBA's brightest, talented and humble stars.

The NBA playoffs are in full force and tonight the Golden State Warriors have a chance to advance to the NBA finals since the mid 70's. With that being said, tonight's game had me thinking back to the NBA's MVP for this year. A lot of you know by now who the NBA MVP for the 2015 season is but for those of you that don't I hope that you will take the time to listen to this speech. Stephan Curry is one of the most incredible young men that I have ever seen play the game of basketball. He truly is a man. I have never seen a more humble and likable guy. His work ethic is unbelievable. He starts his speech out thanking the Lord which a lot of people do and for me it tends to go in one ear and out the other. But when this kid says it, I believe it. When he make a great shot or makes a good pass he pounds his chest with his fist and points to the sky. He explains that this means that he has a heart for God and by doing this gesture he always remembers god and the fact that without him he would be nowhere. He is truly a professional athlete that kids today can look up to and want to be like. He then thanks his teammates, wife, grandma, and his parents. He also went on to thank the head of security and the equipment manager. Not very many individuals go into such detail in thanking the seemingly insignificant. That to me is significant. He is an exceptional young man/man. I think that Stephen



Curry fits obliterates a lot of the cultural myths that Larsen talks about.  He has taken the gifts that the good Lord gave him and worked his tail off to become one of the game’s best point guards today.  In the next 6 paragraphs I will attempt to explain why.

 

-Wisdom of the Rustic:

Stephen Curry's dad played Basketball in the NBA for over 15 years. His circumstances growing up were not rags to riches type story but I think that he took his father’s heritage as an NBA basketball player and has done a pretty good job. He didn't come from nothing but as an undersized scrawny kid he had to work for every ounce of his basketball ability. He has one of the best work ethics in the entire NBA and has become one of the game’s premier shooters and point guards.



-Possibility of Success:

He was not heavily recruited out of High School and went to a smaller University to play basketball. I did not know who Davidson was before he started playing for them. His possibility for success was ok being that he had a father that played in the NBA but nothing was handed to Stephen. He had to earn his basketball stripes and get better through countless hours of practice and hard work. He had a small possibility of success and has blown up to be one of the best players in the league. He made the possibility a reality.

-The Coming of the Messiah:

I'm sure to the Golden State fans step is a figurative messiah. They love him and he has in many ways brought the Golden State Warriors out of obscurity and out of the darkness. He gives all the credit to other people when it comes to his success as a player and a role model and to me that is very admirable. -Presence of Conspiracy: I'm not sure that this one is relevant when it comes to Stephen Curry the 2015 NBA MVP.



-Value of Challenge:

Stephen Curry works harder than most if not all to the players in the NBA. He knows the value of being challenged on a day to day basis. He challenges his teammates and everyone around him to get better. He loves to work and challenge himself to always strive to get better and become a better person. There is much value in breaking through our challenges and I feel that Stephen is a huge example of that.



-Eternal Return:

Stephen Curry is a great example of eternal return.  In his speech he thanked his general manager Robert Myers for taking a huge chance and drafting him.  I'd bet that Robert Myers feels that his financial "eternal return" is very high.  Stephen has taken the Warriors from one of the worst teams in the NBA to one of the Western Conferences elite teams.  He has made the Warriors who they are today and made them a lot of money.  to this point in his career his return seems eternal.  He has not been plagued with injury and has been healthy and strong to do what he love best which is brake ankles and splash 3 point shots.  He is one of the games most remarkable young players and I feel that if he remains healthy will go down as one of the game’s best point guards of all time.

Jeb Bush Interview on Education

Jeb Bush and His views on Education:

I chose to watch an interview with Jeb Bush at the Governors Annual Summit that dealt with his view on education in America. Eric got my interest going when he started talking about the presidential race in 2016 and mentioned that we may get another Bush in the Whitehouse.

I don't know anything about Jeb Bush or his political view so I started looking into a few of his speeches. The one that I watched first and the one that I am writing about was a potion of a longer interview on his view on education namely his brothers No Child Left Behind initiative that he endorsed when George W. Bush was president. It would be ignorant of me to say that George W came up with it so I will say endorsed instead. I will attempt to critique this interview from BJ Fogg's Behavioral Change Model. His model includes Motivation, Abilities, and Triggers.

Motivation:

Jeb Bush's motivation is to become the President of the United States of America, and become the 3rd Bush to do so. In attempting this great feat, he has to run the gauntlet of questions about the rights and wrongs of his brother’s presidency. The interview starts out with a question about the no child left behind act. He is asked about his view of the acts effectiveness and if it is working today in America. He defends the reason that it was put into place saying that it forced states that were sitting on the fence on education issues to get involved and improve their education programs in those states. He stated that the act was successful in doing that. It was interesting that he pointed out that 20% of students today don't graduate high school at all and made the comment that "that is failure". I don't think that he was trying to put his brother and the No Child Left behind Act on blast but he did mention that it wasn't as effective as it was meant to be. I think that Jeb Bush is motivated to point this out to make himself look as if he is unafraid to say that his brothers programs in some ways could be better. I like his honesty in that regard. I feel that he should be motivated to be as honest as possible about some of the hard questions dealing with "W's" presidency which will set him up to succeed in a presidential race in the long run. I think that he would do well to separate himself as much as possible from his dad and brother and find his own political identity.

Abilities:

As far as basic abilities, I think that he is much more charismatic than his brother and speaks very well publicly. He doesn't stutter, he speaks clear and seems to carry himself in a very calm and professional manner. I liked George W because what you saw was what you got but Jeb appears to be much smarter and articulates much more effectively. I like his point of view that we need to have higher education standard on a State and National level rather then dumbing down curriculum today. He didn't explain in detail what that meant being that it was such a short interview but I would hope that he means that when he says that. He stated that we need to set higher bench marks for education to compete with the entire world. He stated that we are far behind the world in education yet we spend more per child than any other country in the world. He has a great ability to get his point across and sound clear and concise in doing so. He is a supporter of Common Core which I thought was interesting. I don't know much about common core at all. But I thought that he for some reason would not be in support of it.

Triggers:

 I think that some of the triggers that he stated or covered were simply speaking to some of the issues that everyone in interested in. Like I mentioned above I was surprised to hear that he was in support of Common Core. I think that speaking about it is a trigger which got me to listen closer to what he was saying. His honesty that the No Child Left behind Act could be more effective stood out to me as a trigger as well. He was not a supporter of more testing as well. He thinks that we need to test less which I found was different as well. I think that he is relatable and easy to listen to. The way that he spoke and answered the interviewer’s questions calmly and quickly put me at ease. In a weird way he is much more refreshing to listen to than His brother who stuttered and laughed at his own jokes, and president Obama that says the word Um 40 - 50 times a speech. His calm laid back demeanor has a calming effect on me. Over all I think that I would be much more inclined to listen to other speeches, debates, and interviews by Jeb Bush having only listened to a short 4:07 interview on some of his view on education.

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