Jan.21 Denver Post Opinion Section: Guest Commentary

The Guest Commentary in Monday's paper was titled Keep King's vision through education, the great equalizer.It caught my eye for a couple reasons: It was MLK day and I felt like reading this article about his beliefs would be a good way to acknowledge him, and I'm interested in the impact of education on societies, and this article was a lot more comprehendable to me than the others in the opinion section of the newspaper because the majority of which are about politics!

The author of the commentary is Stephen Jordan, who is the president of Metropolitan State College of Denver. He argues that the U.S. has indeed "made great strides in providing opportunity through education access, but we still have a long way to go." He agrees with Rev. Dr. King's belief that education is a great equalizer and that "the lack of education meant the potential of millions of children could never be realized." He makes his argument by giving many statistics on the current percentages of students that graduate from high school and college, based on their ethnicity and income as well. He talks about the disadvantages of high school dropouts on the state economy and the advantages of non-discriminatory access to education. At the end of the article, Jordan's commentary turns into more of a persuasive piece of writing when he says, "I encourage you to get involved and turn your concerns into actions . We must confront these disparities in education and make sure these gaps are not so significant that they predetermine the future of our children." He doesn't really bring emotion into it but still, this bit seemed more like a persuasion than an argument.

I agree with the opinion he presented and I found his arguement/ persuasion effective and inspiring. I don't think it contained in fallacies of argument that we've read about so far in Everything's an Argument.

"She was an actress in the theatre of true life"

pg(26,27)

"Theatre was what mama knew and I learned. Theatre is standing up terrified and convincing people you know what you're doing... it's wearing denim when everyone else around you is wearing silk, or silk when they're all wearing leather. Theatre is talking about sex with enormous enthusiasm when nobody's ever let you in their pants. Theatre is pretending you know what you're doing when you don't know for certain and what you do know seems to be changing all the time."

This passage of the book has significance in my own life because I have been recently realizing how much confidence relates to acting and how important they are. The essence of confidence, I believe, is mostly acting. I really believe in the lifestyle of acting confidently your way through life (acting, not lying). You break out of your usual self when you are acting. I haven't done any actual acting on stage but I imagine that taking on another character gives you new perspective and character! Sometimes it even helps me convince myself that I'm confidant.  I probably don't seem the overly-confidant type to my peers but I am working towards becoming that actor. When in doubt, act confidently.