Content Analysis

Evansville: The Hopeful Community

What would happen if a loved one, such as a friend, spouse, or family member, were involved in a horrific accident, sustaining them with many injuries or an accident causing him or her to pass away? Many people would say that they would hope and pray that the person injured would get better soon. Or in the other case, they would help the friends and family members by grieving with them and being there for support.

Many circumstances around the city of Evansville, Indiana have lead its residents to believe that this is the common way for them to feel better and to recover. For example on February 24, 2009, a Huntingburg police officer broke his ankle during pursuit. From the article, Huntingburg Police Department Chief Ron Drew said, “We just wish him well… The good thing about it is he’s a young man, and I’m sure he’ll bounce back quick. But even at that, it’s a horrendous injury.”(Lesnick).

In this case, I am referring to “hope” as it being defined as being positive and expecting the health of the person to get well. This issue is really common because a person’s health can only be affected by certain people. Obviously, the person that is in the accident has to manage his or her eating and sleeping habits in order to gain the proper nutrients and to be able to focus clearly. Victims that have been seriously injured in life threatening accidents will need extensive and prolonging surgeries in order to detach foreign bodies, skin graphs, or stitch up what is needed. Doctors and surgeons are allowed to give the victims certain medication or breathing apparatuses in order to keep them living and conscious, while the doctors or surgeons operate.

For hope in the health view, being positive and wishing someone to get well is the primary source, because the patients are in a condition in which they are not able to do it on their own. The patients will need help from doctors in order to ingest the proper medications, surgeons to be able to remove or fix what is needed, and friends and family are able to help injured with day to day actions, such as eating foods, using the restroom, and being able to walk. In general, all these doctors, surgeons, and friends and family members have to hope for the best in order for them to maintain a healthy life.

In the case of Jessica Brooks, who was badly burned in an attempt to kill head lice. She tried many over the counter prescriptions but none worked. Frustrating as it was, she tried another effort in which she doused her head with gasoline, but unexpectedly caught fire from a nearby water heater. Scott Middleton, Jessica’s soon to be brother-in-law, said that she shouldn’t have taking that approach to getting rid of her lice because gasoline is not designed for that. He also stated, “We just hope she comes home.” (Lesnick). This article was published on the Courier Press website and some viewers who read it wrote comments saying that they hoped and prayed that she will have a quick recovery.

With hope being defined as being positive, most people would agree that there is no refutation to these types of incidents. When it involves someone’s health, no one wishes the injured to become sick or die, unless a person is cruel and inhumane.

Overall, when a person’s health is on the line, there is not much others can do but to be positive and wish for a strong recovery. So, if someone is hurt one should help out by hoping for the injured and also be there to support them when needed.

On Saturday night March 7, 2009, the second annual Guns & Hoses charity boxing match was held at Roberts Stadium. There were 19 rounds, in which 11 were won by the firefighters, seven by the police officers, and one bout ended in a draw. Technically, the firefighters won most of the fights, but in the end, everyone was a winner. They were simply supporting a good cause and trying to raise money for their group house and local charities and that was their goal.

The Guns & Hoses charity boxing event is held every year, this year being its second. During this event, local police officers and firefighters battle against one another in a series of bouts. Tickets and concessions sales allow them to raise money for numerous charities, including their project of building a group home in the area for people who have Prader Willi syndrome, which causes sufferers to constantly feel hungry.

Hope makes this event possible because the firefighters and police officers have faith in the community that they will come out and not only watch, but donate money for such good causes. For this definition of hope, it requires having a lot of faith in the residents of the city and the firefighters and officers had confidence that the people of Evansville would come out and watch the event, hoping for some donations. This issue is that of which concerns the local people who work to save lives and prevent crimes that occur everyday. This group home for people who have Prader Willi syndrome is held close to the organizer of Guns & Hoses, Patrick Phernetton who also is an Evansville Police Department officer, because his daughter, Mickey, has this disease.

Faith plays a vital role in hope and religion, because without faith certain things would not be possible. Faith can mean having a belief in anything, as a code of ethics and or morals. Some people believe that faith requires the presence of religion and a god. Through faith, many believe that their god or gods will help to heal the wounded in order to help them regain their health and live a normal life. Since others can’t do it on there own, they hope and pray for these figures to miraculously heal them.

If faith is not an important part in religion, then there would be no reason to have a god or gods to follow the religion’s beliefs and values. The main part of having a religion is having faith that our god will get us through and hope to make things better or less difficult.

Some people will argue that faith has nothing to do with having a particular religion. Those people are likely to not have a set religious view or worship a certain god.

As noted earlier, faith does play a major part in hope because one must believe that there is someone else out there that will help others in their time of need. If someone is really passionate about a specific topic, subject, sport, or activity, search for other people and groups that share the same desire and maybe they will help give more insight and information.

“I think it’s certainly a unique experience when you have someone across the world who is willing to reach out and help a homeless veteran,” said Lydia Johnson (Grundhoefer). Lydia, community relations director for Habitat for Humanity of Evansville, was contacted by Maj. Jason Burley several months ago when he first heard about the rate of homeless veterans in America. Burley was interested in helping sponsor a Habitat house for a homeless veteran. At that time, he was on his was to Iraq, but was still able to contact his peers from Evansville to get a hold of the Habitat for Humanity of Evansville.

Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit, housing organization that builds simple, decent, affordable houses for people in need. The requirements for Habitat include that if the person is in need of a house, he or she can commit to 300 hours of work to the project and if he or she is able to make a $275 monthly mortgage payment.

Throughout the world, many people are still recovering from recent storms, hurricanes, and floods that have been destroying houses and property. This is an issue that not only affects us in Evansville, but also taps into the world population. It has caused many families to have lost their homes, jobs, and has taken lives. Habitat is a program that tries to help those families in need by building them new houses and giving them the chance to start a new life.

Habitat provides hope to the families in need, because although their homes have been destroyed, efforts have been put forth in order to help them recollect and start over. After the homes of those families are destroyed, they feel that there is nothing left to do and become saddened and full of frustration. When those new houses are built for them, they feel that there is a sense of belonging from the community. Many of these occurrences happen and tap into the entire population and are a world wide matter.

To date, more than 50,000 families have been served under various Habitat disaster response initiatives worldwide (Habitat for Humanity). Not only does it allow the families to start over, but it also gives them the opportunity to associate and connect with others within that community and find schools and jobs that are needed to help educate and earn money.

This is a serious issue in which it is rare to find a person who would refute that the Habitat organization does not provide help and hope. Though this is a good cause and many numerous hours are needed to be put into these houses, one could refute that he or she might have better things to do than to fix a house for another human being or he or she might simply just be lazy.

All things considered, Habitat for Humanity is a hopeful and great organization that seems to amaze most of us because of its generous efforts and time put into it. I encourage all of those out there to get involved with Habitat and help out in their community. Put oneself in the shoes of those that need these homes and one will see why Habitat for Humanity is a hopeful and powerful organization.

Imagine that a friend mentions he has lost his job because his work is going out of business. He says he has been in search for a new job, but other businesses are also continuing to shut down and the only job offers that are available are the ones the most people don’t want to have. In Ohio, since many businesses have been shutting down, a junior high school has an offer for one open janitorial job to those who want to work. Not jobs as teachers, secretaries, or principals, but rather janitors. The school has had nearly 700 applications for one open spot as a janitor.

With the economy declining the way that it has been, many businesses have been shutting down because they don’t enough money to remain in business. While reading many articles and watching many television channels, there is no doubt that the unemployment rate has reached above 50% and it doesn’t seem like its improving. The mention of a surplus package has been put into action and has helped us increase our economy slightly, but we’re still in tremendous amounts of debt.

This is an important issue because it affects almost everyone in the world. Jobs are needed to make money and provide support for families and without jobs we wouldn’t be able to do so. Now, since many are already out of business, there are a significant number of citizens who are looking for any type of job, just to provide food to their families.

Even though the economy was declining, most citizens could only hope for the best, because the power is not strong in our hands. There are small tips that we could take into consideration to improve our budget spending, such as buying the necessities, staying home, and making small sacrifices. There isn’t much that we, as citizens of the U.S., can do to help our economy. It is changing whether we like it or not and there isn’t much we can do.

“I just have every confidence that as we get through this crisis, that our economy will begin to grow again, and it will remain the most powerful and dynamic economy in the world,” said Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke (CNNMoney.com). He also went on to mention that what is necessary for a full recovery is the stabilization of the banking system. Recovery is likely to begin next year and Ben Bernanke seems very pessimistic.

After summarizing all that has been said among this case, there wasn’t much anyone can do specifically. As already mentioned before, the banking system is what really threw the economy into this downfall and no urges were made to the general public on how to help improve it. Refuting this argument would be doubtful because we, as citizens of the U.S. don’t have the power to help improve the economy. Guaranteed, we could do little things to increase our budget, like only buying necessities, staying home, and remaining hopeful about the crisis.

In conclusion, all that the citizens of the U.S. can do to help the economy is to hope and be confident that the economy will recover as soon as possible. The citizens have power over their own budgets, but hardly any power when trying to help the economy on its road to recovery.






Works Cited



CNNMoney.com staff. “Bernanke: Recovery to begin next year.” CNNMoney 15 March 2009. 15 March 2009 .

Habitat for Humanity. 2 March 2009 .

Lesnick, Gavin. “Huntingburg police officer breaks ankle during pursuit.” Courier Press 24 Feb. 2009. 26 Feb. 2009 .

Lesnick, Gavin. “Teenager burned trying to kill lice.” Courier Press 25 Feb. 2009. 26 Feb. 2009 <http://www.courierpress.com/news/2009/feb/25/teenagerburnedtryingto-kill-lice/>.

MLK, Jr. Rhetorical Analysis

I believe that Martin Luther King Junior's words, descriptions, and examples in his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" support the fact that this is a successful rhetorical act. In his letter, he states that he is "compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town" which interprets into him trying to reveal to his readers that the injustice in Birmingham must be told to everyone in the world, not just those amongst Birmingham. King expresses his opinion when he mentions that "Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States" because he feels that Negroes have not been treated fairly when it involves the courts system. King provides past details and experiences of events that happened when he lived in Birmingham: "There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham that in any other city in the nation." Because of these horrible and sad experiences, King feels that all of his hopes, dreams, and wishes have been demolished and disappointment has overcame him and his fellow Negroes. King also refers to the bible when he states that nothing about civil obedience is new. He followed up that argument by providing evidence that Christians would not obey the unjust of the Roman Empire and faced "hungry lions and excruciating pain."

King was not afraid to let his voice be heard as a minority in his time. He admitted to being disappointed with the white citizens because he thought that they would understand law and order and the purpose for establishing justice and if they did fail, then there would be no social progress. The justice system was clearly unfair, but the people of the court system didn't care because they thought that the blacks didn't need or deserve these God given rights, because they were different from the white majority. Based on the personal viewed from the white society, they thought that they were much better and at a higher social ranking than those from the black society. Equality among the people was never a common ground to be settled upon.

Pathos: King uses a sentimental appeal when he states, "Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brother at whim..." He continues on in this manner and keeps describing with vivid detail examples or maybe even past experiences that he went through during his lifetime. This is clearly all pathos, because it touches the hearts of his readers and it makes them feel sad or hurt to know that the blacks went through this type of torture during their life and maybe even on a daily basis.

Ethos: King uses the "name calling strategy" to help support the ethos theory. In the paragraph where King extensively describes his and his family's day to day interaction and encounters with others, he recalls that he was "humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored." Those official signs stating clearly just because they are black, they can't come into a white restaurant or place because of their racial background. Another name calling appears when he states "when your first name becomes "Nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."

Logos: King includes his own opinion, or hasty generalization when talking to the clergy about how his life has changed. "When you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments." He vividly describes with more detail that the blacks feel a sense of "nobodiness" and they find it difficult to wait for change. King says that black men and women have come to the point where they are not willing to become desperate and cry out in despair. King uses his own point of view, not really describing how others may feel or with any factual evidence. Some may have felt too afraid to speak up and say something, because they fear what the white citizens would do.

My Public Sphere Activity Proposal

Relay For Life is the signature activity of the American Cancer Society, that I am a proud to say I am a member of and love to help out within the activities that it creates. Relay For Life allows everyone in a community to participate in the fight against all types of cancer. Whether it is lung, colon, pancreatic, etc. Relay For Life is an event that strives to battle and kill these diseases. People are encouraged to create teams and camp out at local high schools, parks, or fairgrounds and take turns walking or running around a track or path. A representative from each team is asked to be on the track or course at all times during this event. Relays are an overnight event, held up to 24 hours in length. Teams involved in different sorts of cancer battles can walk and have fun while trying to raise much-needed funds in order to fight cancer and raise the awareness of prevention and treatment.

I have known from experience what it feels like to have a loved one pass away from cancer. This event has given me the chance to make friends with others that are also celebrating the lives of their friends or family, whether they have passed away or are currently fighting back their lives. In order to be able to gain knowledge from others pains and strengths, I have decided to dedicate my time and support into helping these people and it has allowed me to help myself as well.

The audience I am specifically targeting for my organization in order to get more members is college students our community. My fliers and brochure will be created in bright colors in order to capture the attention of the readers. The brochure will be written in a laid back tone that will invite the readers in and get them interested in being involved. The fliers and brochure are going to be written to point out that this organization is fun to be active in as well as something to work toward with great passion and commitment in order to fight back.

I plan on getting support from my audience by introducing all the benefits of being a part of this organization. Not only is this organization close to home, but members part of this organization are allowed to go out of town or to bigger cities to volunteer and meet new people for a great cause. It allows members to contribute to society and its fight and also a feeling of self worth, hope, and accomplishment.

Difficulties that arise within this organization are those that occur when members think it is too much work and stress. When people hear and think about volunteering, they aren't too excited. When a person volunteers, it's likely that they get nothing in return, which means they are less likely to do it. By being a proud supporter and advocate of this organization I am hoping to eliminate these voices and attitudese and convince people that volunteering is well worth it when it comes to saving lives. After all, if the situation was in reverse and it was your life at risk, wouldn't you want help?

Content Analysis #2

While reading newspaper articles and looking for more online information, I have concluded that USI and the Evansville's community is very directly effected by the national occurances. We are all encountering and dealing with the fact that the job loss rate is up to more than 50%, the highest it has ever been. Multiple people are being layed-off, not just business workers, but also the students of USI. Businesses are going out of business because the economy is just spiraling down. Mr. Obama says that he knows the economy will get better now that the stimulus package has been set into motion. Those occurances have also regretably made it possible for the stocks, automobile industry, and the housing markets to decline as well, all of which effect most the local community and the students of USI as well.

Content Analysis #1

As I was trying to understand and analyze just a broad aspect of USI, it's research and assessments on student's profiles, I came across some interesting information. For example, I had concluded that there are about 7,700 full-time students and roughly 2,300 are part-time. Of those full and part-time students, 60% are females, leaving 40% to be males. I would sought it out to be the other way around and that men were more popular rather than women.

However, I was not surprised to see that most of the population here at USI is under the age of 25, but to see that 23% are older than that? Wow... I never would have predicted those results.

What also included my interest was the fact that freshmen made up the majority, follwed by seniors, and sophomores and juniors tied for third. I would have assumed that freshmen would be the majority, as shown, but then it would have been followed by sophomores, then juniors, and finally seniors. My question is: Why does it skip around? I would have thought, as you got older, you would have been more susceptable to not continue, because it just keeps getting harder from then on. Those results startled me.

Political Compass

As I was taking the politcal compass test, most of the time I found myself as either agreeing or disagreeing. But, as for some of the questions, they really hit home and I found myself advocating my own views by either strongly agreeing or strongly disagreeing. Overall though, I found that I am Economic Left/Right: -3.00 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 2.10. What that means exactly is that I found myself in the authoritarian left quadrant which is that I think the government should closely regulate the economy and individual behavior. There should be better planning of the economy, strict careful overseeing of corporations and markets, and restriction on immoral behaviors. I think those are what make a strong, stable, and productive society.

Bike Rally Opposing Gas Prices

When writing this essay, my main thesis was to not only notice the visible aspects of this situation (the gas prices are to high so we are going to start a bike rally against them), but rather to look into with more detail and information about what all people in general are looking out of our society (to be wanted and heard about our views).

Prior to this bike rally event being held, there were many fliers posted in hallways, on lockers, and on many doorways to notify others and to raise the awareness of rising gas prices in our community. It was just another normal school day when my friends and I were walking up the stairwell to our classes when we saw one of these attention-getting fliers. We stopped and read the flier and were really interested in the event, because we also shared the same idea that the writer of this flier was trying to get across: ALMOST 4 DOLLARS FOR GAS?! THAT'S CRAZY! But while reading the flier, we also noticed that it was on a school day, that also happened to be one of our soccer game days that we had to dress up for. Originally the plan was to ride our bikes from our houses to school, which was perfectly fine with me, because I just lived about 2 minutes away from the school. But when we found out that the concept of this rally was to meet at our Wal-Mart at 7 and ride our bikes to our school (which is about 4 miles, i think), we knew we wouldn't be able to. That would intail that we would have to get up earlier than needed (coach said we would need a lot of rest), and also, we had to dress up for school that day to let everyone know that we had a soccer game so they could come out and support us.


When the morning of the rally finally rolled around, I arrived at school, dressed up, looking nice, and ready for our game afterwards. I was really upset that didn't go to the rally, because I wanted to be one of those people who would get their voices heard about the high-rising gas prices in our community. But when I thought about it, I said to myself... "It would have been silly for me to drive my car (with my bike in the trunk) all the way to Wal-Mart, then ride my bike all the way to school, just to get the gas companies to notice that we don't need gas to travel." But if you think about it, how did they arrive at Wal-Mart? By driving their cars and using gas (just what the gas companies want). Also, how did they expect to get back to their cars? They were already worn out from riding from Wal-Mart to the school. All I am trying to say is that they should have put more thought into this plan.


I do not regret making those decisions and acting upon my thoughts, because all in all I was able to focus more in school and also to play well in the game. The other players who had gone to the rally, admitted to being tired because of the rally. Now that gas prices have gone down a lot and I am not on a sport team anymore, if this event to arise again, I would participate.

I understand now that all the people that participated, did it for a good reason. They just wanted to be heard about how they feel about the situation. I didn't understand then why some soccer players participated when they knew that we had a game that same day. The main point was to get the idea across that we could travel without using gas if we really commited to it. I felt the same way, but I just think that they should have put more thought into the rally so they wouldn't actually be using gas like they said they wouldn't.


I have changed in many ways, including age and maturity. I have let myself grow to try to be the best person I can be to myself and to those around me. I admit to not making smart decisions every once in a while, but I have learned from them and learning from them has made me realize that I can do better and am better for doing so. I am the type of person who DOES care what others think of me and in being so, that does effect how I live my life. I do see myself as a role model to others. I try to make the good grades and set good examples for others that surround me. There are hard times that come and go and I try to deal with them to the best of my ability without fault. Sometimes though, I do catch myself saying, doing, or acting, unlike the normal "me".

I have changed a lot coming out of high school and entering college. In highschool I remember telling myself that I would never drink alcohol. But when I entered college, near the end of the first semester, I started hanging around with my sister's friends that did drink and party. I felt the constant pressure to drink because not only was it the cool thing to do (I know, cliche, right?), but if I didn't drink, this guy named Terry would state that I am "weak" or that I would be so much more cooler if I was older. I didn't really know what he meant by that, but it stuck. But in hanging around with all of those friends of mine, I did meet a lot of other friends and a guy named Jake (we are not dating) who also doesn't like to drink. So whenever we all go over to the house and party, Jake and I just sit back and relax and just talk about whatever, whenever. Jake and I just like to sit back and talk whenever everybody else is getting drunk and joke with others the next morning saying "Oh you remember lastnight when so and so did this? Oh wait, you were drunk and throwing up in the bathroom. That's right, I forgot." We were just kidding and messing with all the drunks. I believe it might be more fun than being drunk in all actuality.

I have stayed the same in some ways. I have been the type of person to try to get the best grade he/she can. I am not okay with getting a 94%, although it is an A... I strive to get the best grade possible. I have stayed the same because I still enjoy playing sports (they're an all-time love) and being active in certain groups and clubs. I am still a huge family person and I believe that will never change. I just simply won't let that happen. I enjoy hanging out with all my friends, even the ones from back home. Even though I have changed in some ways, I still feel that I am the same me.

This even was important to me because I didn't want to have to keep on paying such an amazing amount of money just for gas. Gas is not a necessity. If we all needed, and I mean really needed, to get somewhere without a car or truck, we could do it. We would just need to put our minds to it and in the end it would actually help us with our health. If we were to just get rid of the whole "gas" concept, we wouldn't have cars, lawnmowers, and other stuff. Without gas we could ride bikes to places and reduce our risk of heart disease and such. Without actually "gas" we wouldn't worry about polluting the environment either. Anyway, to analyse this deep down, I think this event was just about letting our voices be heard. We want others to hear the way we feel about a particular matter. We just want to be heard.

This event is important to me now because it has opened my eyes to many more things. Again I say, it has helped me let my voice be heard. It has also helped me recognize all that I am passionate for. It has lead me to believe that if I put my mind to something, then I can do it. Just like the Thomas the Train (I know, cheezy). We just have to believe in ourselves and hope for the best. If not, then what else do we have to live for?



1) Are there any parts/paragraphs in this essay that seem misleading or confusing?

2) How do you feel when reading this essay? Does it lead to you have an agreement or disagreement about the topic? What parts indicate so?

3) Is there much detail or not enough? Is it repetitive or not?

4) Are there any parts of the essay that seem unnecessary? Does it seem like there is not enough information?