Friday, January 24, 2020

Life Struggle on Minimum Wage Essay -- essays research papers

Life Struggle on Minimum Wage   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Sometimes life isn’t always as easy as getting a job, making money and paying you bills. In her fascinating book on extended essays Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich poses as an unskilled worker to show the struggles encountered everyday by Americans attempting to live on minimum wage, â€Å"matching income to expenses as the truly poor attempting to do everyday.† (6)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ehrenreich gave herself three rules she had to live by and they were: 1. She could not use her education or professional skills to land a job, 2. She had to take the highest paying job offered and do her best to hold it and 3. She had to take the cheapest accommodations available with an acceptable level of safety and privacy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ehrenreich decides to try living in three cities across the US: Key West, Florida, Portland, Maine and Minneapolis, Minnesota.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In Florida she works as a waitress, taking two jobs, one of them she describes the conditions as:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"The regulation poster in the single unisex restroom admonishes us to   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  wash our hands thoroughly, and even offers instructions for doing so, but there is   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  always some vital substance missing – soap, paper towels, toilet paper – and I   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  never found all three at once. You learn t...

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Core Beliefs of the Puritans Essay

Core Beliefs of the Puritans Have you ever rebelled against the house rules dictated by your parents? In the 1600’s, a group of religious citizens discontent with the Anglican Church of England, did exactly that- rebelled. The Puritans contended that King James had created a religion of political struggles and doctrines. Puritans, such as John Calvin and John Winthrop, wrote about the concept of escaping persecution from the Anglican Church and reforming religion, morals, and society. The Puritans fled to start anew and created colonies in North America, including Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. The driving forces of reform were numerous pieces of literature. The Puritan beliefs consisted mainly of five principles: Total Depravity, the Devil and sins, Predestination, God’s true law, and moral development, resulting in a government and religious-based way of life that has impacted present day America. Inevitably, religion being intertwined with society raises fears. Pertaining to the Puritans, fear led to the ultimate dissipation of the colonies. On of the main fears that the Puritan’s believed in was that the devil was behind every evil deed in the world. The puritans also believed that the devil and Satan surrounded Native Americans and nature. Steering away from the acts of the devil led to extreme measures. Scriptures, read as sermons by Puritan ministers, warned citizens about the dangers of life. The sermons were repeatedly given and fear was strategically woven in. The constant warnings were due to the belief that every person is born sinful, also known as Total Depravity. The notion of Total Depravity led to the belief of creating yourself benevolent. Spurred by the desire to rectify Total Deprivation, the Puritans created their core beliefs of religion. The Puritans believed in the study of God’s True Law, the Bible. According to the Puritans, the Bible and God paved a plan for living. In this God-centered system, church was the place where all problems and issues were raised and resolved. While citizens with property could speak at the meetings, restriction for only church authorities to vote was allowed. Total Depravity produced the ideology of Predestination. Predestination was the notion that God saves those that he wants. Puritans believed that God had control over who would be in heaven or hell and the Puritans had no control of knowing. Thus, Puritans thought that holy behavior led to salvation. The English Literatures of America reiterated, â€Å"Sanctification is evidence of salvation, but does not cause it† (434), meaning that belief in Jesus does not secure you from Gods predestination for you. The Puritans began making rules to follow to go to heaven. In order to ensure salvation, the Puritans believed that every citizen needed to follow strict rules that were religiously motivated. Moral development was a Puritan belief that started in childhood. To repel the devil, children were to be taught of the dangers of the world, and education was vital to purify society. Drama, erotic poetry, and religious music were banned in Puritan culture. Drama and erotic poetry generated mortality and music distracted Puritans from listening to the words of God. Other moral regulations included the requirement of going to church, reading the bible, and adhering to the covenant of unity and order that create a spiritual community. The strict following of God in society and government eventually led to the ultimate downfall of the Puritans. Although there were approximately 100,000 Puritans in 1700, Puritan efforts to create an exclusive religion caused the growth of other colonies created by challengers that banned from Puritanism. These new groups teamed the Puritans beliefs of Total Depravity, the devil and sins, God’s True Laws, and moral development â€Å"crazy† and it changed America’s though about the relationship between religion and government. The First Amendment states, â€Å"Federal government cannot establish an official religion or interfere with a persons right to practice a religion†. Otherwise known as separation of religion and government. However, Puritans did affect the present day beneficially by maintaining a stable economy, education, and moral characteristics, The desire to be considered â€Å"good†, believed by the Puritans, shaped the value of many citizens in the U.S. today.

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

The Mayan Empire Essay - 492 Words

The Mayan Empire The Mayan Empire was one of the most innovative and interesting civilizations. It was an ancient civilization that was one of the most advanced and innovative ones. They inhabited the Yucatan peninsula and the empire lasted for about 3500 years ending around the year 1500 AD. It is considered the greatest civilization among the original cultures of the western hemisphere. The empire was located in what is now known as Central America. They lived in the area that is now Belize, Honduras, Mexico, and Guatemala. The whole are lies south of the tropic of cancer, and north of the equator. It contained over 120,000 sq miles, which is the about the size of Great Britain, or a little bit smaller than California. It is†¦show more content†¦The climate is very hot from May to August and rainy through the rest of the year, so the farmers have a lot of free time to serve the king. This serving time helped make the amazing developments from the Maya. By far, the major innovations and skills were in astronomy. Mayan priests would consistently take measurements using tools such as a forked stick. Using their amazing astronomical knowledge, they were able to predict future eclipses. They were also able to chart the complex motions of the sun and other astronomical bodies. Using this knowledge, they designed a calendar that was the most complex and accurate of all ancient calendars. In fact, it was only 19 minutes per year off from the actual calendar. It even contained month and week divisions. One of these months was only five days long, called the Wayeb, and was considered unlucky. In mathematics, the Mayans were quite intelligent. They developed a number system using a combination of dots and bars. These dots and bars were stacked together in piles of twenty, with the dot meaning one and the bar meaning five. They also made the original discovery of the number zero. This is a very important development. They also developed an advanced system of writing similar to Egyptian Hieroglyphics. They contained over 800 signs, and each one usually represented an entire word. It was a very visual language and the meaning of the sign reflected what it looked like. Their writing was highly sophisticated; onlyShow MoreRelatedThe Fall of the Mayan Empire Essay1517 Words   |  7 Pages The fall of the Mayan Empire The collapse of the Mayan Empire is one of history’s greatest mysteries. It was one of the most advanced and developed civilizations of its time period, reining during the Pre-Classic period and into the Classic and Post-Classic Periods (2000 B.C. – 900 A.D.). The territory stretched from the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, down to modern day El Salvador in Central America. Its achievements were monumental for the era, being the first empire communicating with the useRead MoreThe Mayan Civilization And The Maya Empire1677 Words   |  7 Pages The Mayan civilization or the Maya Empire, centered in the tropical lowlands of what is now Guatemala, reached the peak of its power and influence around the sixth century A.D. The Maya excelled at agriculture, pottery, hieroglyph writing, calendar-making and mathematics, and left behind an astonishing amount of impressive architecture and symbolic artwork. Most of the great stone cities of the Maya were abandoned by A.D. 900. The Maya civilization was one of the most dominant indigenous societiesRead MoreThe Decline Of The Mayan, Aztec, And Inca Empires837 Words   |  4 PagesThe Decline of the Mayan, Aztec, and Inca Empires From 250 A.D. to the late 1500’s A.D., three civilizations, the Mayans, the Aztecs, and the Incas controlled Central and South America. Their decline happened for many different reasons. 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Mayans built their cities with all of the important buildings in the middle such asRead MoreThe Decline Of The Mayan Civilization1196 Words   |  5 Pagesthe world made its shift from the Paleolithic Era to the Neolithic Era and onward. The Mayan civilization arose as a part of Mesoamerica during the sixteenth century. Occupying the regions of Central America and Mexico, the Mayans had a strong impact on the world with militaristic and influence from the invention of advancements. The earliest record of the Mayan existence dates back to circa 400 B.C. The Mayan Civilization extended over a time period dating back to 400 B.C to approximately 1517 ARead MoreEnd of Mayan Civilization1143 Words   |  5 PagesEnd of Mayan Civilization Samuel Nathaniel H. Stansbury HUM 111 11/3/2012 The mystery concerning the fundamental explanation for the collapse of the Mayan Civilization has been a major focus for researchers in the fields of anthropology and archeology for a considerable period of time. At the very core of this mystery of the Mayan collapse was the question of how could such a strong, stable civilization that had flourished for approximately twenty-seven hundred years disappear without a clearRead MoreThe Ancient Civilization1622 Words   |  7 PagesThe intrigue of The Mayans has always existed through the telling of their ritualistic practices or their calendar, but the fall of such an advanced civilization is perhaps the most intriguing story of all.To understand what causes great civilizations, it is vital to note the process of collapse in other civilizations, such as the great Roman Empire. Differences in time period, geographical landscapes, and other circumstances mean no direct correlations are possible, but the outstanding point of