The Mesopotamian Dbq (Outline) Essay Example for Free

The Mesopotamian Dbq (Outline) Essay Group 1:Mesopotamia * Document 1: This document describes the story of an innocent god that shared water with animals at a watering hole. The document describes the importance of water by referencing to the herds of wild game and Enkidu. The people that have created this document have put much emphasis on water systems. * Document 2: This document covers the spectrum of the river systems and agricultural growth in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus regions using a map. * Document 3: In this document, a picture depicts reed huts in the marshes of Southern Iraq. It appears that in this area, a large, agricultural-based city does not thrive here. This document stresses that a successful river system is the base of cities. * Document 5: This document describes Marduk’s journey and his conversation that he held with the gods. Overall it is about the creation of Babylon. In the first paragraph, it mentions the location of where Babylon would be locates (near the Tigris and the Euphrates river). This displays the importance that the Babylonians placed on river systems. A: Marduk thought of the Earth as a mirror image of heaven, because he strengthened and prepared the grounds to create holy precinct that would be the home of the gods. Group 2: Egypt * Document 2: This document covers the spectrum of the river systems and agricultural growth in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus regions using a map. * Document 6: This document shows the Pyramids of Giza located nearby the Nile. The mud blocks used to create the Pyramids must have been created from a nearby river system. Group 3: Indus River Valley * Document 2: This document covers the spectrum of the river systems and agricultural growth in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus regions using a map. * Document 4: In this document the formation of mud brick fortification suggests that the Indus river valley Harappa, India indicate that they had an accessible river system nearby. * Document 7: In this document, the walls appear to be made from mud brick, which is a sign that they had utilized a nearby water system. Although the document above delivers evidence of the effect of rivers in these regions, it would be beneficial to have additional documents. A chart of population growth over time of all three regions would suffice. It would be able to display the comparisons and differences in the growth of population within each region. A excerpt of an Egyptian or Harappan script that described the role that their river systems played in their society.

Bullwhip Effect In Healthcare Sector

Bullwhip Effect In Healthcare Sector In Supply Chain management, Bullwhip effect has attracted some considerable importance in the FMCG sector in the last 20 years. The phenomenon Bullwhip Effect shows how small changes at the customers end have tremendous impact on the operations back there in the chain. The cause behind this effect is mainly attributed to the increasing demand variability in the supply chain. We consider the number of companies taking part in a single supply chain. Each of the company gets the order from its immediate downstream company to be fulfilled. In Bullwhip effect the orders to the suppliers tend to have a larger variance than sales to the buyer. This demand distortion then gets amplified while propagating upstream. The paper mainly focuses on how the Bullwhip effect the matching of the demand and supply and the main causes leading to this. It also focuses on the PG case study to understand the Bullwhip effect and the steps taken to dampen the bullwhip effect. Further it aims at quantifying the bullwhip effect and reducing its impact on the supply chain. Acknowledgement I am thankful to Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management and Engineering (MPSTME) for giving me this opportunity to understand the Bullwhip Effect and the major causes and the PG case. Furthermore helping us understand the various techniques and procedures for writing a research project. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to my college mentor Prof. Jinu Kurian for her continuous guidance and support and being available at all times whenever the need may arise. I would also like to thank Prof. Prasad Chakrabarty for his help and support in the project. Table of Contents Introduction The bullwhip effect occurs when the demand order variability in the supply chain is amplified as they moved upstream in a supply chain. Distorted information from single end of a supply chain to the other may lead to tremendous inefficiencies. Companies can effectively deal with the bullwhip effect by thoroughly understanding its underlying causes. Organizational leaders are implementing various innovative strategies that pose new challenges: integrating new information systems defining new organizational inter relationships implementing new incentive and measurement systems. At macroscopic level, Bullwhip Effect generates inefficiencies in production scheduling, sourcing, capacity utilization, distribution and the profit generation. While if we take a look at the operating level it induces additional inventory which is placed inappropriately to maintain the service levels. It also reduces the performance level by decreasing the incoming cash and the potential revenue. It can even dilute any companys competitive strategies. 2 factors have changed the landscape of supply chain management in the last few years significantly. Availability and use of the technology and software applications to allow capture and sharing of information across a supply chain mostly through extranets Increasing indulgence of members of the supply chain in order to move towards to put aside the traditional arms-length relationships amongst each other and in its place move towards closer, partnership-type arrangements. Again, the networks over which these collaborations take place must include the necessary levels of performance, scalability, security and reliability to realise these benefits to their maximum potential. Problem Statement To analyse the Bullwhip Effect in healthcare sector and to find out its causes, consequences and cures. Significance Global competition in the world market today contains many challenges to achieve a degree of predictability in the supply chain and remove the impact of Bullwhip Effect. Researchers have examined the bullwhip effect and some models to reduce it, however a very few research has been done on analysing the Bullwhip Effect in healthcare sector and to find out its causes, consequences and cures quantifying the effect of bullwhip and its Measurement still remains an exigent research path. Research Methods A case-study based approach was employed to conduct the research. Data were gathered primarily through interviews, observations and archival sources. At the hospitals, Interviews were conducted, in person, with doctors, nurses, administrators, and other hospital staff. At the diagnostic laboratory, personal interviews were conducted with the CEO, pathologists and other lab technicians. As far as data gathering is concerned, we decided to employ an informal, minimally structured, non-directive interview approach, enabling to minimize the influence of the assumptions. . Literature Review Fluctuations in demand have a varying graph when we compare from industry to industry. Driven by seasonal demand and business cycles, apparel industry faces major demand adjustments, while the diaper market is subjected to constant demand in the market arena. Due to misjudgement of demands, the big players in the retail market can be subjected to inventory shortages or surpluses. But given the consistency of demand in the diaper market the diaper supply chain should be more efficient and accurate. But it isnt the case. The diaper market even with the reliable demand patterns isnt able to match the demand-production matching. The major cause to this supply chain inefficiency can be subjected to Bullwhip Effect. The term was coined by Procter Gamble who noticed amplification in the information distortion as the information of the order travelled upstream in the supply chain. Bullwhip effect or Whiplash effect can be majorly seen in the forecast driven distribution channels. It indicates a lack of synchronization among the members across the supply chain. Even if there is a small fluctuation in the customer sales, it reflected upstream in an amplified form. Because of this supply patterns does not match the demand patterns resulting in inventory surplus at various stages of the supply chain.C:UsersIndiaDesktopblwhp.jpg As the customer demand would be rarely perfectly stable, businesses should forecast demand in order to match the demands with the production and managing their inventory levels. Some of the major reasons behind bullwhip effect are:- Forecast Errors Overreaction to backlogs Lead time variability No communication and no coordination along the supply chain members Delay in information and material flow Price fluctuations Product promotions Order batching raw material orders from ProcterGamble to its suppliers fluctuated over time. On further noticing it was found that farther down the chain, when sales at retail stores were studied, it was found that the fluctuation which was present, were small. It is reasonable to assume that the consumers of the diapers at the last stage of the supply chain used them at a steady rate. Although consumption at the end product was stable, orders for raw material were highly variable, increasing costs and making it difficult for supply to match demands. Lack of coordination between supply chain members also results if information distortion occurs within the supply chain. Considering the Bullwhip effect PG observed in the diaper supply chain. As a result of the bullwhip effect, orders PG receives from its distributors are much more variable than the demand for the diapers at retailers. The lack of the supply chain coordination between members has an adverse effect on manufacturing cost. It increases the manufacturing cost in the supply chain. PG and its suppliers must satisfy a stream of orders that is even more variable than customer demand. ProcterGamble responded to the increased change by either building excess capacity or by holding excess inventory, both of which increase the manufacturing cost per unit produced. It even increases the replenishment lead time in the supply chain. The increased variability due to bullwhip effect makes scheduling at PG and supplier plants much more difficult as compared to a situation with level demand. There are times when the capacity which is available and inventory cannot supply the orders coming in. This results in higher replenishment lead times in the supply chain from both PG and its suppliers. It even hurts the level of product availability and results in more stock outs in the supply chain. Very high fluctuations in orders make it difficult for PG to supply all distributor and retailer orders on time. This increases the likelihood that retailers will run out of stock, resulting in lost sales for the supply chain. It also leads to an increase in the inventory costs. To handle the increased variability in demand PG has to carry a higher level of inventory than would be required if the supply chain was coordinated. As a result, inventory costs in the supply chain increase. The high levels of inventory also increase the warehousing space required and thus the warehousing cost incurred. It impacts the transportation cost in the supply chain. The transportation requirements over time at PG and its suppliers fluctuate with the orders being filled. As a result of bullwhip effect, transportation requirements fluctuate significantly over time. This raises transportation cost because surplus transportation capacity needs to be maintained to cover high demand periods. It also leads to the increase in labour costs associated with shipping and receiving in the supply chain. Labour requirements for shipping at PG and its suppliers fluctuate with orders. A similar fluctuation occurs for the labour requirements for receiving at distributors and retailers. The various stages have the option of carrying excess labour capacity in response to the fluctuation in orders. Either option increases total labour cost. PG estimated that due to the manual interventions required in their process of ordering, billing and shipment systems, each deal to its customers cost between $35 to $75 to process. Sharing point-of-sale (POS) data across the supply chain can help reduce the bullwhip effect. A primary cause for information distortion is the fact that each level of the supply chain uses orders to forecast the future demand. Given that orders received by different levels vary, forecasts at different levels also vary. If retailers share POS data with other supply chain stages, all supply chain stages can forecast future demand based on customer demand. Sharing of POS data helps reduce information distortion because all stages now respond to the same change in the customer demand. Sharing aggregate Point Of Sale data is sufficient to reduceinformation distortion. PG has convinced many retailers to share demand data. PG in turn shares the data with its suppliers, improving coordination in the supply chain. In a continuous replenishment programs (CRS), the wholesaler or the manufacturer replenishes the inventorey regularly based on Point of sale data. In its simplest form, CRS seeks to allow more accurate production planning of inventories and also matching of supply and demand. Success with continuous replenishment programs is achieved when production planning has become demand-driven on an end-to-end basis throughout the supply chain. . Vendor-managed inventory (VMI) is a family of business models in which the buyer of a product provides certain information to a supplier of that product and the supplier takes full responsibility for maintaining an agreed inventory of the material, usually at the buyers consumption location (usually a store). A third-party logistics provider can also be involved to make sure that the buyer has the required level of inventory by adjusting the demand and supply gaps. PG now employs vendor-managed inventory (VMI) in its supply chain, starting with its supplier, 3M, and its customer, Wal-Mart In VMI, packaged-goods behemoth Procter Gamble (PG) initiated a value pricing scheme for sales to retailers. Value pricing was PG label for everyday low pricing (EDLP), a pricing strategy under which retailers are charged a consistent price rather than a high baseline price punctuated by sporadic, deep discounts. PG had many reasons for converting to EDLP. Its sales force had grown to rely on discounting to drive sales and the use of deep discounts had spiralled out of control, cutting into earnings. Background SMS Hospital, operating in Jaipur, is one of the largest government healthcare providers in Rajasthan. It consists of more than 500 beds and offers healthcare services ranging from a 24 hour accident and emergency service, to acute medical and surgical care, operating theatre suites, intensive care, ocus on cardiac and orthopedics areas and head injury and orthopaedic related trauma and community care. The hospital services more than 40,000 patient admissions and an average length of stay of 3.62 days for all patients. There are10 operating rooms (OR) with state of the art equipment, in-patients have hospital wards, acute cases beyond normal post-operative hospital care have rehabilitation unit for recovery and related ancillary services in the hospital facilities. These rooms are being used for major inpatient procedures. On an average of about 27,000 operations are performed in these rooms in a year. Specialty and staffed with suitably qualified nurses and technicians organizes 500+ beds in the hospital. The Operating Room Management Department (ORMD) is the central division, which faces daily challenges of managing and allocating the staff and equipment so that surgeries can be performed in an efficient, cost effective, and safe manner. The equipment that is owned by the hospital may either be dedicated to a theatre or be shared across theatres. The Operating Room staff is comprised of registered nurses, nursing assistants, scrub technicians and unit secretaries and an Operating Room nurse super vises all these. Equipment to be used for Operating Rooms may either be owned by the hospital or be procured from outside on a loan/hire basis. The Operating Room Management Department is responsible for assignment of theatre suitable for the scheduled surgery and ensuring the availability of staff and equipment when needed. Quality and cost of patient care implications are on overstaffed, undermanned, and unbalanced nursing teams. The hospital has adopted a hybrid strategy to meet its nurse requirements in both wards and Operating Rooms. The hospital has employed a group of permanent, full time nurse staff, which is also, complemented by a bank of casual, part time nurses which are available at short notice. Also, the hospital also has made some arrangements with several private agencies, which are known for providing qualified nurses for short periods to hospitals, on a temporary basis. Fifty % of the hospitals requirements) in the terms of nurse requirements are usually been met by permanent staff, thirty% by part time nurses and twenty% from agency staff. The hospital havent employ any specialist/surgeon, but only has a small group of physicians for overall supervision of the wards. Instead, it has arrangement with a large group of consultant surgeons who hold privileges to avail of the hospital facilities for treatment of their patients. The hospital derives its revenues from the fees charged for the use of its facilities ORs, hospital beds and other services from the patients. In most cases hospital charges are borne by patients medical insurance providers and the hospitals revenue is based on negotiated rates with these firms. Value Chain Figure 1 illustrates a schematic description of SMSs service value chain. As shown in the figure, the multi-stage process begins with the patients consultation with his or her primary care physician. Upon receiving a referral from the general practitioner to visit a medical specialist, the patient will then be assessed by a specialist. This stage does not involve the hospital and may consist of several visits to the doctors office and diagnostic laboratories, deals with the assessment of patients condition and treatment options. A determination of the need for surgery results in the addition of the patient to the doctors list of patients requiring surgery/hospitalization. Typically, specialist doctors have privileges at several hospitals in the area, and the choice of hospital for surgery is determined by a number of factors that include cost, patient preference, case complexity, wait involved, facilities and other services provided by the hospital. Following the choice of hospital, the patient is scheduled for surgery by assigning a slot in one of the doctors theatre sessions at the hospital. It is not uncommon for elective surgeries to be scheduled several weeks to a few months in advance. The schedule for each session along with patient and surgery details is expected to be communicated by the doctors office to the hospital well in advance to enable the hospital to make adequate arrangements. The surgeons operating list is not frozen and is dynamic with additions possible at a later stage (in some cases a few hours in advance) and the hospital is expected to be responsive and be able to provide the requisite support of staff, equipment and supplies. Surgery represents the third stage of the value chain and Saint Marys hospital is responsible for providing required support services. These include staffing the theatres with qualified nurses and technicians, and making available all equipment and supplies needed. The hospital is also responsible for pre-operative care of the patient and getting the patient ready for surgery and for post-operative care. Insufficient capacity and delays in these phases can result in blockage and starving of theatre resulting in underutilization of ORs with consequent adverse impact on hospital costs and efficiency. Post-operative care in hospital wards and in subsequent rehabilitation areas, if necessary represent the fourth and fifth stages before the patient is discharged and exits the hospital system. Constraints on bed capacity in wards can lead to fewer surgeries being scheduled resulting in lower theatre utilization. This is in contrast to the rehabilitation services, where capacity shortage may only lead to patients being off-loaded to other facilities owned by competitors, thereby resulting in loss of potential revenue. Planning and Scheduling at SMS Hospital Planning and scheduling at Saint Marys hospital is similar to other hospitals in Australia with annual theatre plans forming the basis for hospitals activities. The theatre plan involves assignment of theatre sessions to consultant surgeons and essentially defines the demand for hospitals services. A half-day slot is considered the basic unit for this purpose and thus each theatre has a capacity of 10 sessions per week, based on a five day week. As described earlier, surgeons expect hospitals to provide complete flexibility in organizing the activities within their sessions and hence assignment of a theatre session to a surgeon commits the hospital for providing the necessary staff and equipment for operation and post-operative care, and hence the hospital workload is a direct consequence of the theatre plan. In practice, theatre planning at Saint Marys begins three to four months in advance, in September/October for the following year. The plan is developed in consultation with the surgeons and varies little from year to year, except for changes to accommodate vacation periods of surgeons and other planned absences. The plan can be characterized as cyclic with effort to evenly spread out sessions assigned to individual surgeons. Further, to the extent feasible, weekly schedules are adopted. For example, a surgeon with 50 sessions would be assigned one session per week, usually in the same time slot every week (say, Monday morning). One feature of session plan at Saint Marys Hospital that merits special mention relates to the practice of concentration of sessions assigned to particular specialty. As a result, we find, sessions corresponding to different specialties peaking on different days of the week. Such practices are not unique to Saint Marys and are quite common at other hospitals i n Australia. The annual session plan forms the basis for nurse and technician staffing in the hospital. The labor cost of nurses and technicians is perhaps the most significant controllable operating cost at Saint Marys and directly impacts the hospitals financial viability. Staffing plan for nurses in the OR theatres is prepared for each calendar month on a monthly basis, two weeks in advance to conform to regulatory requirements. The initial plan is developed on the basis of the session plan. The nurse schedule is revised and frozen only a day in advance, at which time the requirements are assessed based on surgery lists available in the hospital. Besides adjustments for providing the required number of qualified nurses, the final schedule takes into account deviations from the initial plan (for example, absence due to sickness, or inability to schedule the nurse due to excess overtime on the previous day etc.) At this stage there is only very limited flexibility in respect of permanent, full t ime staff and the nurse scheduler relies on part time staff, supplemented by supply from external agency to meet the requirements. As mentioned earlier, current practices at Saint Marys hospital result in 20-25% of nursing needs being met with agency sources. In monetary terms, the proportion is higher due to higher rates paid for the temporary staff. Nurse staffing in wards is similar and schedules are frozen only a day in advance. Observations Our interviews with doctors/surgeons indicated that in a majority of specialties there is no discernable pattern in the demand for elective surgeries. This is in contrast to illnesses such as flu, hay fever that exhibit pronounced seasonality. Thus, daily demand for elective surgery end customer demand can be reasonably be described as fairly uniform with no seasonality (day of the week, month etc.) and low to moderate variability. Figure 2 describes the pattern of admissions (which corresponds to demand) for orthopaedic surgeries at Saint Marys hospital by day of the week. The figure is based on data for one year and excludes the holiday period (mid-December to mid-January) in Australia during which most doctors avoid scheduling elective surgeries. The data in Figure 2 shows mild seasonality by month (admissions range from a low of 332 to a peak of 512 with mean of 470) and high variability by day of the week. Excluding the weekends, the average daily admissions range from a low of 58 on Fridays to a peak of 123 on Wednesdays. The pattern is similar for other specialties, except for the location of the peak. While in Figure 2 the peak occurs on Wednesdays and Thursdays, for other specialties it might occur on other days of the week. Taken in conjunction with our premise that end customer demand is fairly constant, Figure 2 suggests strongly presence of phenomena similar to the bullwhip effect. In the remainder of this section we discuss briefly the impact of this pattern on hospital performance operational and financial. First, increased variability in the number of surgeries performed directly impacts the demand for post-operative services in the wards. Consequently, on peak days, shortage of beds makes the wards the bottleneck, thereby restricting the number of surgeries and reducing the theatre utilization and hospital throughput, which in turn leads to lower revenues and lower operating profits. While the hospital is a not-for-profit organization, operating profits represent one of the key funding sources for financing investments in equipment and facilities, and lower levels or absence of operating profit can severely restrict the hospitals ability to provide state-of-the-art high quality service. Second, the demand for nursing services both in theatres and wards is directly affected by higher variability and results in higher labor costs. With Saint Marys strategy of meeting the nursing demand with a mix of full time, part time and agency staff, higher variability of demand translates to the need for higher levels of flexibility and larger proportion of casual and agency staff. Higher wage rates for these categories increases operating costs and leads to lower profits. Third, SMSs reliance on flexible (part time and agency) staff affects the hospitals operating performance in more subtle, but significant manner. Higher levels of temporary staff leads to frequent changes in the composition of support staff assigned to each theatre, thereby inhibiting development of cohesive support teams. Consultant surgeons in our interviews mentioned this factor repeatedly as the primary cause of inefficiencies in theatre, requiring more operating time and reduction in efficient use of theatre capacity. The role of cohesive support teams in improving OR efficiencies is well known and has been noted in many other hospital environments. In the absence of such a support team, the surgery list scheduled for each session tends to be shorter (thus reducing hospital revenues). Alternately, with normal list the theatre time will be higher than planned, resulting in overtime and increasing operating costs. In either case, this practice adversely affects hospitals profits. Furthermore, this factor influences the doctors choice of hospital, prompting use of Saint Marys for more complex cases requiring its facilities. For simpler cases, the doctors tend to choose other hospitals with more efficiently organized OR theatres, perhaps with more limited range of services. As the more complex cases typically involve higher costs, this behavior has an adverse impact on Saint Marys finances. Under the Australian system the fees payable (to the hospital and doctor) are based on predetermined rates for each class and do not depend on the case complexity within each class. To summarize, increased variability in the demand for elective surgeries at Saint Marys hospital results in lower efficiencies, higher operating costs and lower revenues leading to lower profits. Thus, the presence of bullwhip effect leads to degradation of performance as in the case of manufactured goods reported in the literature. While this is intuitive and not surprising, it is interesting to note the dynamics are different from those observed in manufacturing higher levels of inventories and shortages. Macintosh HD:Users:vasvigakkhar:Desktop:Screen Shot 2012-12-29 at 2.09.56 AM.png Macintosh HD:Users:vasvigakkhar:Desktop:Screen Shot 2012-12-29 at 2.13.36 AM.png Methods for coping with the Bullwhip Effect The preceding section highlighted the different causes of the bullwhip effect in the healthcare sector and identified strategies to mitigate the detrimental impact of the effect. We briefly summarize the strategies (see Table for a summary): (i) Reducing uncertainty In order to minimize or eliminate bullwhip effect, it is important to reduce uncertainty throughout the service value chain. If information about customer can be centrally managed and if each stage of the service value chain can be provided with latest information in a timely manner, it will help eliminate duplication of effort at different stages and also ensure data consistency across all groups that require that data. It is also critical that dynamic updating of information is performed which will greatly help reduce uncertainty. (ii) Reducing variability There is inherent variability in the customer demand process and any effort that can be taken to minimize this variability will help reduce the overall bullwhip effect. Also, localized practices that lead to increased variability in demand at any of the stages should be eliminated with better coordination. Use of good forecasting methods will also assist the reduction of variability. (iii) Developing strategic partnerships The bullwhip effect can be minimized by developing key strategic partnerships with different links in the service value chain. For example, in case of hospitals, the hospital administration has to forge strategic alliances with medical specialists. These partnerships will change the way in which the information is shared and will help foster better coordination between the two parties. Although this may not fully eliminate bullwhip effect, it will go a long way in reducing the effect. (iv) Realignment of incentives One prime reason for the lack of coordination and meaningful information sharing is that the different entities are evaluated on the basis of different criteria and receive rewards for different activities. The evaluation and reward system should be modified to stress cooperation across stages and so that the planning is performed on system-level objectives and not on division/local level objectives. (v) Improving coordination across stages of service value chain To reduce the bullwhip effect, it is also important to ensure coordination across stages that are facilitated and improved. Summary and Future Research In this paper we have identified and described a phenomenon in healthcare industry that is similar to the bullwhip effect observed in the manufacturing sector which results in amplification of demand variability upstream in the service chain. Not surprisingly, this distortion likewise leads to performance degradation. However, the similarity with the manufacturing sector does not extend much further since the causes and the impact are somewhat different. For example, while bullwhip effect in manufactured goods results in higher levels of inventory and shortages, in hospitals it leads to lower levels of throughput, higher operating costs and longer patient waits. Hence, initiatives and strategies for minimizing the bullwhip effect and its impact require a different approach that addresses directly the root causes. Our study also indicates that the potential for performance improvements is quite significant. While our study focused on hospitals and other allied institutions in the health sector, we conjecture that a similar phenomenon may be present in other service industries. For example, billing practices in consumer utilities (electricity, gas etc) and credit card services with monthly cycles leads to variable unbalanced loads in certain segments. Similarly, scheduling practices in auto repair industry result in some variability amplification. Together this suggests that a more detailed study of the bullwhip phenomenon in services is warranted and may lead to order-of-magnitude performance improvements similar to those realized during the past two decades in the manufactured goods industries.

The White Mans Burden, Rudyard Kipling | Analysis

The White Mans Burden, Rudyard Kipling | Analysis I aim to evaluate the use of irony and symbol in the poems The White Mans Burden and the Real White Mans Burden to see how effective both writers were in using these elements to convey meanings. In the case of Kipling, I will consider two points of views. The first point of view is that Kipling was an imperialist who supports the take over of other governments to show superiority. The second point of view is that Kipling was an imperialist who supports the take over of other governments as an act of humanity to bring civilization to the uncivilized and, that he warns of the perils of showing superiority as oppose to bringing true liberation. In the case of Crosby, since he presents a single view point, I will evaluate his effectiveness of using irony and symbolism in parodying the work of Kipling. Effectively used, irony and symbol could convey a message with more than one meaning as demonstrated in Rudyard Kiplings poem The White Mans Burden or, they could convey a single message de monstrated in Ernest H. Crosbys poem The Real White Mans Burden. In the final analysis, I submit that the effective use of the elements of poetry, in this case, irony and symbol, are vital to the correct interpretation and understanding of the meaning of both poems. In order to establish a well-rounded understanding of the basis for the two interpretations of Kiplings work and the single interpretation of the work of Crosby, I submit definitions for the terms imperialism, irony, and symbol. These definitions will also serve to show whether or not there was effectiveness in the use of the elements of poetry, in both poems. As defined by Dictionary.Com: Imperialism is the policy of extending the rule or authority of an empire or nation over foreign countries, or of acquiring and holding colonies and dependencies. Irony is the discrepancy between what is said, done, expected or intended, and what is meant, what happens, and what others understand. Satirical irony is the exposure of the vices or follies of an individual, a group, an institution, an idea, a society, usually with a view to correct the folly. Symbol is anything that stands for something else. (Dictionary.Com) Having establishing the definitions, I will now analyze the use of irony and symbols in Ruyard Kiplings poem. While Kipling uses both irony and symbols, his use of irony is greater. Kiplings expertly uses irony to bring about the intended end result of two opposing perspectives as to whether imperialism is for human good or elitist gain. In the first view point, Kipling uses the poem The White Mans Burden to encourage America to take over the Phillipines imperialistically or, for elitist gain. Kipling writes: Take up the White mans burden / Send forth the best ye breed / Go bind your sons in exile / To serve your captives need; (1-4) The first observation of the poem is Kiplings decision to call the poem The White Mans Burden. Undoubtedly, the use of the phrase White Man is the lightening rod that sparks the view that Kiplings position was that of an imperialist having at its core the tenets of Social Darwinism. According to Kretchner, the concept of Social Darwinism purports that natural order obligates powerful, civilized nations to appropriate the limited resources of the weak. (Kretchmar) Hence, Kiplings urging of America to assist the Phillipines to reach civilization may be interpreted as him supporting the imperialistic movement. Even further, Kiplings encouragement that the empire should send forth the best ye breed has very strong racial connotations. During that time in history, blacks were not considered as equals to whites in America. The unequal treatment of blacks was so prevalent in Americas economic, political, and social systems that James Weldon Johnson, writes Lift Every Voice and Sing also known as the Black National Anthem, to encourage black people to sing and march until victory is won. This cry for equality continues in 1968, with Martin Luther King still only having a dream of equality. Though, in 2008, Barrack Obama becomes the first black President, there still remains the cry for true equality. In addition to the charges to Take up White Mans burden / Send forth the best ye breed(1-2), Kiplings use of phrases such as To veil the threat of terror / And check the show of pride. (11-12) asserts that the Empire must do what is necessary to eliminate resistance and to subdue insurrections against Imperialism. Not only should the Empire silence the voices of the captives, but she must also limit or remove any signs of pride that they might muster. Further, Kiplings characterizations of the people as On fluttered folk and wild / New caught- sullen peoples, / Half-devil and half-child. (6-8) may be easily construed as connatively condescending. Kipling seems to imply that the empire must be prepared to reinforce her stance By open speech and simple / A hundred times make plain (13-14). Kiplings distinction of the empire seem to be lofty in its tone. By marrying the symbols of the captives as being inferior people to the santimonious responsibility of the Empire to bring civility to the uncivilized, one can conclude that Kipling supports that the Empire is superior and hence has the responsibility to bring civility to the uncivilized. Ironically, the same body of work that interpretively champions the Empire as being superior to the captives, implores the empire to be fair and complete in its liberation of the captives. The second point of view to the work of Kipling in the The White Mans Burden is 4that he advocates for the fair treatment of the captives. Kiplings urging of the empire to liberate the captives and to take care of their needs can be found throughout his poem. According to Bonamy Dobree, while speaking to Canadians in 1907, Kipling said: I have, I confess it now, done my best for about twenty years to make all men of the sister nations within the Empire interested in each other. Because I know that at heart all our men are pretty much alike, in that they have the same aspirations,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦and when all is said and done we have only each other to depend upon. (Dobree 80) Kipling demonstrates a view consistent to those who believe that true liberation is not oppressive. For example, he writes: Take up the White Mans burden / The savage wars of peace- / Fill full the mouth of Famine / And bid the sickness cease; (17-20) Further, Kipling warns the Empire that all of its actions or inactions, all that it say or not say will help to determine how the captives view the Empire and its God. Here is what Kipling says: By all ye cry or whisper, / By all ye leave or do, / The silent, sullen peoples / Shall weigh your gods and you. (45-48) In addition to how the captives view the Empire and its God, Kipling writes that other countries and future generations will also look at the treatment of the captives and judge the Empire. Kipling goes on to tell the empire not to celebrate its victory or relish in the praise, since these acts are childish, but that the Empire should be more concern with how the work would be judged by the Empires peers for years to come.To encapsulate the view that Kipling wanted the Empire to bring civilization without showing superiority, his closing verse from the poem is submitted. Kipling writes: Take up the White Mans burden / Have done with childish days / The lightly preferred laurel, / The easy, ungrudged praise. / Comes now, to search your manhood / Through all the thankless years / Cold. Edged with dear-bought wisdom, / The judgment of your peers! (49-56) These words clearly indicate that Kipling encourage the Empire to be honorable in its dealings with the Natives. Contrary to the school of thought that Kipling advocates civilization with true liberation, is Crosbys position that the Empire uses blessings as a doorway to go in and take away the true riches of the people and in exchange gives them an oppressive life style. Unlike Kiplings rendering of his poem, The White Mans Burden where he shows his trust for the Empire, Crosby in his parody The Real White Mans Burden, blatantly shows his mistrust of the Empire. Most importantly, though he employs heavy use of irony and symbols to demonstrate his opposing view of the Empire, Crosby does not dillute the single message of his poem. First, Crosbys title of the poem is a clear indicator of his dissent from Kiplings views. He uses the term White Man to solidify the object of his remarks, but, he goes further by using the word Real which ironically implies that there is a masking of the truth. Crosbys title speaks strongly of his judgment against the Empire. Historically, his point of view is drawn from his experiences as a social activist and as a black man living in America at the time of the Spanish American War. According to an essay by Andrew Hebard, Crosbys position on Imperialism mirrors that of Amy Kaplan who says imperialism is as a network of power relations that changes over space and time and is riddled with instability, ambiguity, and disorder, rather than as a monolithic system of domination that the very word empire implies. (Hebard) Next, are observations of the blending of symbol and irony used by Crosby to demonstrate his view of the Empire. Crosby believes that the motive of the Empire is ill-willed. He also believes that their chaiotic sytems bring failure, and the Empire dangle proverbial carrots in exchange for far more valuable gains. Crosbys position is that the eventual outcome of imperialism will be social, economical, and political oppression. At this time, a detailed look at Crosbys use of irony and symbols to depict the social climate that prevailed in America, the climate which he opposed to being introduced to the Natives, is warranted. Crosby asserts: Take up the White Mans burden; / Send forth your sturdy sons, / And load them down with whisky / And Testaments and guns. (1-4) Ironically, these lines subliminally say that the drinking of whiskey mask the truth, since it is widely known that people who consume too much alcohol are not as cognitively aware as they should be and, therefore, not able to think correctly are apt to believe anything told to them. Further, being loaded down with whiskey causes a usually sturdy person to stagger, and even fall. More overtly though, is the fact that Testament represents truth and wholesomeness, and guns represent power and destruction. But, because the minds are altered with alcohol, the masking of the real motive is easily perpetrated. There is a strong possibility that the soldiers will introduce the social ill of alcoholism to the natives, and will also help to spread propoganda about the good of imperialisim thereby causing the natives to become drunk and misinformed. The abililty of the natives to think reasonably correct about their condition will be diminished. To further support his view of social failure and to show that the Empire thinks that the Natives have limited information and can be easily captured if not military, certainly they can be captured through the spread of socially communicable diseases. Crosby writes: Throw in a few diseases / to spread in tropic climes, / For there the healthy niggers / Are quite behind the times. (5-8) Crosby bolsters his position of social oppression by saying: Give them electrocution chairs, / And prisons too, galore, / And if they seem inclined to kick, / Then spill their heathen gore. (21-24) The symbols of electrocution chairs, prisons, and gore ironically speaks of death both physically and mentally. Physically speaking, there is the death of the person whether by electrocution, or the spilling of the blood. Then, there is death of having freedom of space, since prisons limit movement. While subtle, based on Crosbys account, the intention to kill the dreams of the natives, screams from the pages of history. Crosby knows from his experience, that if any form of resistance, whether through word or action, is shown, if any attempt to pursue any dreams, ideologies, or customs that threatens the goals of the Empire is made, that the Empire would by any means necessary, ensure that the pursuit of those dreams was deferred and dry up like A Raisins in the Sun. (Diyanni 1870 ) In addition to social oppression, Crosby purports that the Natives will be opressed economically through hard labor as well as through the Empires system of taxation and debt. The view point of oppresive labor is aptly projected through the use of irony. Crosby claims: And dont forget the factories. / on those benighted shores / They have no cheerful iron mills / Nor eke departmemnt stores / They never work twelve hours a day, / And live in strange content. (9-14) Through his masterful use of irony, Crosby argues that the natives, who did not work as long hours as did the Americans, were very content with what little they thought they had. However, the bigger issue for Crosby appears to be that Empire knew that the natives were actually very successful and wealthy and sought to make them believe that their way of life was inadequate, and to turn them from being owners of the land to laborers in the land so that the Empire may be expanded. (A perfect combination of imperialism and colonialism!) Even more indicative of his stance against economic oppression, Crosby decried the imposing of taxation and debt. He writes: Take up the White Mans burden, / And teach the Phillipines / What interest and taxes are / and what a mortgage means. (17-20) Again, in Crosbys minds eye, there is the irony of a people who are successful in their simple but, independent way of life who being militarily inferior are consequently forced to become failures by their dependence on a monstrous financial system. In a final attempt to show the fallacy of the Empire, Crosby highlights the political climate that the Empire embraces. He pens: They need our labor question, too, / And politics and fraud. / Weve made a pretty mess at home; / Lets make a mess abroad. (25 -28) The irony in these lines humorously evaluate the endeavor of the Empire to fix anothers problem, when it cannot solve its own problems. In a nutshell, Crosby believes that Imperialism is a preposterous veiled attempt to cloak greed in kind deeds by using methods that are disfunctional. In summarizing his single message of the failure and hypocrisy of the Empire, Crosby does three things. First he mocks what the Empire regards as a valiant mission, Next, he shows the unparrarel trade that the Empire wants, and then, he addresses the faà §ade of the scripting of the mission that the Empire prefer to be written in the annals of history. The use of satirical irony and symbols are well armoured vehicles to deliver these points. Crosby declares: Take up the White Mans burden; / to you who thus succeed / In civilizing savage hordes / They owe a debt, indeed; (33 -36) Crosby questions the validity of the mission. He goes on to weigh the exchange between the Empire and the Natives. He adds: Concessions, pensions, salaries, / And priviledge and right, / with outstretched hands you raised to bless / Grab everything in sight. (37 -40). In terms of irony, not only is there a contrast between how much is given verses how much is taken, but, also of what is given verses what is taken. The natives receive a few limited handouts like agreements, benefits, and paychecks and, in exchange the Empire takes ownership of the natives land and naturual resources. Interpretively, Crosby demostrates this transaction as a falling leap by going from owning to owing; which is very much an uneven trade. Finally, he attacks the hypocrisy of using the art of writing to distort the issue and hide the true motive of the Empire. It is necessary to present the catalog of words Crosby uses to expose what he views as being socially, economically, and politically incorrect . Crosby concludes: Take up the White Mans burden, / And if your write in verse, / Flatter your Nations vices, / And strive to make them worse. / Then learn that if with pious words / you ornament each phrase, / In a world of canting hypocrites / This kind of business pays. (41 48) Fittingly, Crosby uses satirical irony to reveal the true motive of the insincere enthusiam that Crosby believes Kipling is showing for the Empires high ideals of pious goodness. Crosby is successful in presenting the single viewpoint of the Empires greed disguised as bringing civility to the uncivilized. In conclusion, the expert use of irony and symbol by both Kipling and Crosby prove to be excellent conveyors of the poets messages. Kiplings use of irony and symbol brillantly delivered two very contradictory positions. He lauds Imperialism by advocating that it is the responsibility of civilized nations to help to bring civilization to underdeveloped nations. He also decries the pride of thinking to be superior and being unfair to people perceived to be less finanically fortunate, not as socially advanced, and not as politically savvy. Like Kipling, Crosby employs irony and symbols to deliver his solo message. Crosbys message is that the Empire is hypocrital in its motive and that the gist of what they really wanted to do was camoflagued by missions to humanity, and described as helping to bring civilization to the uncivilized. Clearly, the poets use of irony and symbol shaped the understanding and interpretation of the poems intended meanings. The use of Irony and Symbol was so wel l executed, there remains no argument as to the value of these elements in both poems.

Larkins Poems Essay -- essays research papers

1. Choose three poems and analyze the effectiveness in them of Larkin’s imagery. Larkin’s poems are great artifacts of language; often colloquial and which bring many images to a person’s mind when reading them. We think of these images due to his use of words, standard rhyme schemes and his interesting perception of life transmitted through his poems. This essay will study these three poems; ‘The Whitsun Weddings’, ‘High Windows’ and ‘Sunny Prestatyn’ in order to show the effectiveness in them of Larkin’s imagery. ‘The Whitsun Weddings,’ represents the change in life, which everyone goes through. This poem is about a man, possibly Larkin, going on a train heading to the countryside. Towards the middle of the poem, he sees that on every station the train stops at, there is a newlywed couple getting on for their honeymoon. At the end of the poem, he explains how marriage changes you. He uses many nouns to describe what he sees while on the train. The first two stanzas describe in detail what he is viewing from inside the train. For example: â€Å"Behind the backs of houses, crossed a street Of blinding windscreens, smelt the fish-dock.† In this line, he is thoroughly describing each object he passes by, even the smell of the fish-dock. He tends to do this very successfully because he uses clever metaphors in his writing. An example of this could be one from the line above, â€Å"of blinding windscreens.† He is referring to the sun when he says, â€Å"blinding.† This gives an effect to th... Larkins Poems Essay -- essays research papers 1. Choose three poems and analyze the effectiveness in them of Larkin’s imagery. Larkin’s poems are great artifacts of language; often colloquial and which bring many images to a person’s mind when reading them. We think of these images due to his use of words, standard rhyme schemes and his interesting perception of life transmitted through his poems. This essay will study these three poems; ‘The Whitsun Weddings’, ‘High Windows’ and ‘Sunny Prestatyn’ in order to show the effectiveness in them of Larkin’s imagery. ‘The Whitsun Weddings,’ represents the change in life, which everyone goes through. This poem is about a man, possibly Larkin, going on a train heading to the countryside. Towards the middle of the poem, he sees that on every station the train stops at, there is a newlywed couple getting on for their honeymoon. At the end of the poem, he explains how marriage changes you. He uses many nouns to describe what he sees while on the train. The first two stanzas describe in detail what he is viewing from inside the train. For example: â€Å"Behind the backs of houses, crossed a street Of blinding windscreens, smelt the fish-dock.† In this line, he is thoroughly describing each object he passes by, even the smell of the fish-dock. He tends to do this very successfully because he uses clever metaphors in his writing. An example of this could be one from the line above, â€Å"of blinding windscreens.† He is referring to the sun when he says, â€Å"blinding.† This gives an effect to th...

Its Time for States to Secede from the Union :: Politics Political Essays

It's Time for States to Secede from the Union There is clear evidence that Congress, the White House, as well as the Courts, have vastly exceeded powers delegated to them by our Constitution. To have an appreciation for the magnitude of the usurpation, one need only read Federalist Paper 45, where James Madison the acknowledged father of our Constitution explained, "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the Federal Government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State Governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will for the most part be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects, which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties and properties of the people; and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State." Short of some kind of cataclysmic event liberties lost are seldom regained but there is an outside chance to regain them if enough liberty-minded Americans were to pursue Free State Project's proposal to set up New Hampshire as a free state. Free State Project (www.freestateproject.org) intends to get 20,000 or so Americans to become residents of New Hampshire. Through a peaceful political process they hope to assume leadership in the state's legislature and executive offices and reduce burdensome taxation and regulation, reform state and local law, end federal mandates that violate the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and restore constitutional federalism as envisioned by the nation's Founders. Since there is only a remote possibility of successful negotiation with Congress, the Courts and White House to obey the U.S. Constitution, it is my guess that liberty could only realized by a unilateral declaration of independence - namely, part company - in a word secede. While our Constitution is silent about secession, there is clear evidence that our Founders saw it as an option. On March 2, 1861, after seven states had seceded and two days before Abraham Lincoln's inauguration, Senator James R. Doolittle (WI) proposed a constitutional amendment that said, "No State or any part thereof, heretofore admitted or hereafter admitted into the Union, shall have the power to withdraw from the jurisdiction of the United States." Several months earlier Representatives Daniel E. Sickles (NY), Thomas B. Florence (PA) and Otis S.

Within a Dolls House Essay example -- Literary Analysis, Henrik Ibsen

â€Å"A women’s place is in the kitchen† is believed by a majority of male Creekview students and most of the world’s male population. Within A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, Nora, the main character, saves her husband’s life by securing a loan to get the money to take a trip to Italy without his consent. In this time period, the1800s or later, it was unheard of to do something without the husband’s consent. This is similar to the views of the relationship between men and women in Antigone by Sophocles. Antigone is about the house Laius and its curse, with Antigone, the protagonist, burying her brother, Polynices, when it was forbidden by Creon; this crime is punishable by death. She defies man law; going against everything she ever learned, being a rare person to stand up against the man dominated society. Both of these authors, Sophocles and Ibsen, show glimpses into a world that still exists into today’s society but a world that is much different with women’s capabilities, relationship towards men, and individual rights. In both plays the main characters have different capabilities that are unique to each of them. For instance both show strong will that many women are afraid to show. In Antigone the characters show many different capabilities, Antigone included, with these certain characteristics giving her the ability to bury her brother. As she simply says â€Å"Antigone: Guilty. I did it, I deny it not† (Sophocles, pg 189-190). This shows how Antigone is proud of what she is doing, standing up to Creon and his ways with unmoving motivation. As well as showing her true commitment to burying Polynices and being proud of doing so. Plus, Antigone displays this strength of commitment more than anyone else in this play. As Ismene and Ant... ... over time, though in these two plays the hope for change shown bright, but generally women were considered weak and therefore had no such powerful rights. To sum it up both of these plays share the same broad message conveyed throughout the entire play. Which includes, women have the capabilities to do more than they show and are allowed to do. As well as the relationship men and women share is not constant, or the same, there are many different views on the relationship they share and many different variations that change as time progresses. Furthermore the rights of women also change with much time, and hard work by many women who have worked hard for their rights and future rights of all women. Some of this can lead to these two plays, giving new, bold ideas that were frightening for many during their times but helped for the push for a better tomorrow.

Gays in the Military

Steven Danielson Gays in the Military A hot topic in the news these days is whether gays should be allowed to serve openly in the military. Many issues have arisen from allowing or not allowing gays to serve openly. Those opposed are concerned that gays would cause a break down in unit cohesion, a rise in assaults or violence, a drop in recruitment or retention, and feel that since America is currently fighting two wars that right now is not a good time to implement a new policy when it is felt that the current one is working just fine. Numerous studies have been conducted on this issue.Through poll, surveys, observing other countries that allow gays to serve openly and even by checking history it is felt that this would not be the case. Given all the evidence that points to allowing gays to serve openly outweigh any negatives that would possibly come about. Gays make up a portion of key personnel that is sorely needed in this time of war especially with a all volunteer force. The fa ct that military personal are being lost due to this law not only is harmful to military it also wrong on that these gays are having their basic human rights violated by the very country they are trying to protect.This has been an issue within the military since the very beginnings of its establishment of this nation since â€Å"The discharge of military personnel for homosexual behavior dates from at least the continental army of the revolutionary period† (Rayside 258). The military had a strict no gays allowed to serve for many years and it wasn’t until former president Clinton raised the issue in his campaign for presidency in 1991 did it come onto the radar of the news and on the minds of the American people.He promised to fight to have it so gays could serve in the armed forces of the United States. When he was elected president he set out to change things. Then President made a effort to change the policy but â€Å"Clinton was persuaded by the military, mobilize d by Chief of Staff Colin Powell, not to fulfill his campaign promise to allow gays and leasbians to serve openly† (Pencak 178). He was unable to change the policy drastically and had to settle for a compromise with the military and congress. This is where we got the still standing don’t ask don’t tell policy.This new law allowed gays to serve but they were required to keep their sexual orientation private and by going public with it would end in discharge from the service. The new policy also covered any homosexual actions stating that â€Å"A service member who engages in, attempts to engage in, or solicits a homosexual act is to be discharged, unless he can prove that such an act was an aberration and is unlikely to recur† (Hillman 264). If they were to state that they were gays or attempt to marry someone of the same sex this would too lead to termination.The phrase â€Å"don’t ask don’t tell† comes from the fact that no one will e ver ask if you are gays; as the military used to screen potential future military members by asking them before they joined. The don’t ask tell part comes from the fact that a gay service member must not tell anyone that they are homosexual. Later â€Å"don’t pursue† would added to it, meaning that the military would not pursue a suspected gay member as long as they didn’t tell. This was established out of fear that people would conduct â€Å"witch hunts† for gay members.Since the 1980s over 32,000 active duty members have been discharged for being gay. This is a large percent of people who were willing to serve but through no fault of their own we told they could not and were sent on their way. That is 32,000 already fully trained personnel that had to be replaced costing the country millions of dollars. There had been cases were people with key jobs being discharged as in a few Arabic translators be discharge when as of now they are in great dema nd. Discharging these personal is non sense. Not only is it violating their rights, â€Å"U.S. law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, race, or gender with regard to the rights of citizenship, the military maintains policies that are opposed to this most-basic American ideal† but it is putting this country and other service members at risk cause translators are a key competent of fighting the war on terror (Issit 4). How can a military succeed in winning the hearts and minds of people they cannot even talk with? The number of service members discharged each year in the United States is approximately 1,000-1,200.All of which are needed to be replaced with new people who require training. Losing the experience of those who were serving longer period of times is detrimental to the military because they possess the knowledge and skills required to accomplish the mission and have the ability to pass they knowledge on to new personnel. The amount of money r equired to replace them is enough that any tax paying American would be upset about. There are many reasons for someone to be discharged, from drug use to medical reasons.By changing this law the country would be losing a third less personnel each year. The American public is split on the issue. With about 60% saying that gays should be allowed to serve and 40% feeling they should be able to serve openly. A service wide survey was conducted asking the opinions of those who would be serving side by side with gays. The views of current service member varied much like that of American civilians. But they had reason for their concern when it came to those who opposed it. They were concerns about privacy issues.They were not comfortable with living with a known homosexual. The military does not allow males and females to share a room and there is concern having a same sex and gays living together. This might lead to a change in housing policy and bathroom faculties in having to separate men and women and gay men and lesbian women. This would lead to having to make new restrooms and building of new living quarters for gays. With another concern being the effect on Unit cohesion which can be broken down in two parts; task cohesion and social cohesion.Task cohesion referring to the ability to work together effectively in order to accomplish a mission and social cohesion referring to the emotional bonds and trust among unit members (US Government, DoD 102). The military is worried that gays would become a distraction for straights and this would disrupt the comradely between troops, all of which is very important in a wartime setting â€Å"because soldiers must withstand the tremendous emotional strain of seeing many of their friends brutally killed by the enemy† (Wilson 2). There are also religious and moral issues that have been brought up.The fact is that most religions say the homosexuality is wrong and by making personnel who are religious serve with gays i nfringes on the religious beliefs and the right to religious freedom in the military. Some feel that being gay is just wrong and do no want to be force to work alongside or live with someone of is known to be gay. Some also believe that don’t ask don’t tell law is working just fine and that it should just stay that way feeling that gays can serve but they just have to keep their sexuality to themselves.The same people feel that right now is not the best time to change the policy. Service member have a lot on their plates right now fighting two wars it that a change in the don’t ask don’t tell policy right now is just not the time to do so. There are some who are concerned that if gays were to serve openly then that would result in unwanted sexual advances and assaults. There is objection to gays showing public displays of affection. And that a gays flamboyant behavior would be a distraction. The possibility of a rise in HIV is of concern too.There is a be lief that AIDS is a running epidemic in the gay community and by allowing those to serve would lead to a increase in the HIV cases in the services. Marriage is another issue in that where would the money come from to pay for all the new cases of same sex marriages because married members receive benefits for the spouses and are paid more too. Some members feel that gays would become a protected class and in return would be forced to acknowledge gay pride week and be forced to mingle with them outside of work. With the fear that if they chose no too there would be displiniary actions placed against them.Other feel that the military is the last moral institution in America and feel that allowing gays to serve would destroy that. There are many service members that feel that gays should be allowed to serve openly and the have reasons for their support of the repeal of don’t ask don’t tell policy. Many know that there already are gays serving and by allowing them to acknow ledge their sexual orientation is not going to change anything. There is a feeling that as long as the gay service member can do their job then there is no reason they cannot serve.A person in America has the right to be who they are and by discharging a gay person who only wants to fight and protect the country that provides them that right is wrong. Any American regardless of sexual orientation should be allowed to sever their country. In given that this is a time of war the military needs every service member it can get. Since it is an all volunteer force they should allow anyone who wants to volunteer serve. The military is behind the times when is comes to its policy of homosexuals. It is the only institution that is discriminating openly against gays.It is illegal to fire a person from their jobs for being gays any where else they could be working and the military should be no different. Upon looking at the results of other militaries allowing gays to serve it is scene that it really has no effect on anything what so ever. So there is no reason not to believe that the some non-event would happen in the United States military too. If one is too look on when the military started to allow blacks and white to sever together as well as men and women it is seen that this was not harmful, but actually beneficial to the military as a whole.It is a brden to gays in the military to have to hide their homosexuality and that if there was a repeal to this law then that would liberate them from the fear of discharge. It is not that gays want to be able to tell everyone that they are gay but more that they won’t be afraid of losing their job if it were found out. â€Å"Sexual harassment regulations and sensitivity training would need to be updated, and guidance from leadership would be necessary† if this transition to a openly gay military is to be done (Prakash 92).History is said to repeat itself and if that is the case then there should be no problems associated with the repeal of the â€Å"don’t ask, don’t tell† law. Prior to 1953 blacks were not allowed to serve in the same unit as whites. There are similarities to be found when comparing concerns for when the racial integration of African-Americans was underway and the integration of homosexuals today in that â€Å"military leaders predicted disastrous consequences for unit cohesion, discipline, troop morale, and the achievement of military goals† (Knapp 239).Racial integration was a much bigger deal to the country than that of the integration of gays today. We can see that once racial integration was implemented that it turned out just fine. But it must be acknowledged that blacks are not gays so it won’t be exactly the same type of movement. The integration of women into the military also came out in positive terms. Though gender integration was slower than that of blacks, it is fully integrated today. Today women and blacks make up a sizab le portion of the military and without their service the military would not as strong as it is today.Women and African-Americans have succeeded in the U. S. military so there is no reason to believe that gays and lesbians cannot do the same. Many other nations’ military allow gays to openly serve and they experienced few if any problems because of it. It is such a non existent problem that it is considered a non-issue to most. The major militaries to open to gays are the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, and Israel. When these countries lifted their bans on gays in their militaries they noticed that nothing changed.In a official report released by the Canadian government it was stated that â€Å"Despite all the anxiety that existed through the late 80’s into the early 90’s about the change in policy, here’s what the indicators show—no effect† (Belkin 108). It was thought that maybe a mass coming out would happen but it didn’ t. Most still chose to keep their sexual orientation a private matter and only disclosed it to certain people, much like gays in the corporate world or anywhere else for that matter.The repeal is more for gays not to be discharged or fear being discharged for being gay and less for them to be able to go around and tell everyone that they are gay. There were no noticeable changes to recruiting numbers of the number of people choosing to remain in the military as a result of the lift ban on gays. The United Kingdom show no increase in same sex harassment and most countries commented that harassment die to gender integration was far more pronounced then harassment die to sexual orientation (US Government, DoD 92).This shows one that there is no reason that the integration of gays into the U. S. military will be difficult for its service members to adapt to. It will surely be a non-issue here itself. When looking at the issue of integrating gays into other organizations it is seen that many on the same things occurred that happened in the militaries that did the same. In 1998 an Executive Order was established in the prohibition of discrimination based on the sexual orientation for civilian employees in all Federal agencies. Many states have done the same with state organizations.It is to be noted that employees of these institutions reported that having day and lesbian personnel among their ranks has had no effect on their organization’s performance (US Government, DoD 94). It was found that in some cases allowing gays to be open about their sexual orientation actually improved their performance because now they were not worried about someone finding out they were gay and we able to put more focus on their work. When looking at the issue of privacy that was of a concern to some service members it was seen that in these organizations there was no need for additional accommodations for gays and lesbians.They also say the same thing when it came to gays publi cally announcing their homosexuality. It was found that none really chose to come out to everybody but instead only to certain people. And as far as service member worrying about the â€Å"flamboyant behavior† one might witness in the military by a gay is just not the case in the corporate world. Gays are very well aware of the professionalism associated with a Federal or State job and surely would be the case for any gay military member and would not act in such a way. There are many sides to this debate and given the concerns of each side it should be looked at carefully.When one does observe each side they can see that the concerns of those opposed to the repeal of don’t ask don’t tell are trivial and based on stereotypes and should not be enough to stop and any American from serving their country. The loss of personnel is unacceptable when their service is needed the most in these times of war. When seeing how other militaries favored with their lifting of b ans on gays it can be seen that it was so little a problem and should be the case here. Today’s troops do have a lot going on with fighting two wars and don’t need another thing on their plate, but they do need every helping hand they can get.It most likely would be the case that if repealed many troops would not disclose their sexual orientation so much would not change since a lot of troops know that they are already serving along side gays and lesbians. When weighing the pros and cons of this issue one shouldn’t be able to infringe on a American’s desire to serve their country based on their sexual orientation. It be great if these brave gay and lesbian women didn’t have to worry about their military careers coming to an end of they were or someone were to disclose their sexual orientation that way they would be able to fully concentrate on their mission. Gays in the Military Steven Danielson Gays in the Military A hot topic in the news these days is whether gays should be allowed to serve openly in the military. Many issues have arisen from allowing or not allowing gays to serve openly. Those opposed are concerned that gays would cause a break down in unit cohesion, a rise in assaults or violence, a drop in recruitment or retention, and feel that since America is currently fighting two wars that right now is not a good time to implement a new policy when it is felt that the current one is working just fine. Numerous studies have been conducted on this issue.Through poll, surveys, observing other countries that allow gays to serve openly and even by checking history it is felt that this would not be the case. Given all the evidence that points to allowing gays to serve openly outweigh any negatives that would possibly come about. Gays make up a portion of key personnel that is sorely needed in this time of war especially with a all volunteer force. The fa ct that military personal are being lost due to this law not only is harmful to military it also wrong on that these gays are having their basic human rights violated by the very country they are trying to protect.This has been an issue within the military since the very beginnings of its establishment of this nation since â€Å"The discharge of military personnel for homosexual behavior dates from at least the continental army of the revolutionary period† (Rayside 258). The military had a strict no gays allowed to serve for many years and it wasn’t until former president Clinton raised the issue in his campaign for presidency in 1991 did it come onto the radar of the news and on the minds of the American people.He promised to fight to have it so gays could serve in the armed forces of the United States. When he was elected president he set out to change things. Then President made a effort to change the policy but â€Å"Clinton was persuaded by the military, mobilize d by Chief of Staff Colin Powell, not to fulfill his campaign promise to allow gays and leasbians to serve openly† (Pencak 178). He was unable to change the policy drastically and had to settle for a compromise with the military and congress. This is where we got the still standing don’t ask don’t tell policy.This new law allowed gays to serve but they were required to keep their sexual orientation private and by going public with it would end in discharge from the service. The new policy also covered any homosexual actions stating that â€Å"A service member who engages in, attempts to engage in, or solicits a homosexual act is to be discharged, unless he can prove that such an act was an aberration and is unlikely to recur† (Hillman 264). If they were to state that they were gays or attempt to marry someone of the same sex this would too lead to termination.The phrase â€Å"don’t ask don’t tell† comes from the fact that no one will e ver ask if you are gays; as the military used to screen potential future military members by asking them before they joined. The don’t ask tell part comes from the fact that a gay service member must not tell anyone that they are homosexual. Later â€Å"don’t pursue† would added to it, meaning that the military would not pursue a suspected gay member as long as they didn’t tell. This was established out of fear that people would conduct â€Å"witch hunts† for gay members.Since the 1980s over 32,000 active duty members have been discharged for being gay. This is a large percent of people who were willing to serve but through no fault of their own we told they could not and were sent on their way. That is 32,000 already fully trained personnel that had to be replaced costing the country millions of dollars. There had been cases were people with key jobs being discharged as in a few Arabic translators be discharge when as of now they are in great dema nd. Discharging these personal is non sense. Not only is it violating their rights, â€Å"U.S. law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, race, or gender with regard to the rights of citizenship, the military maintains policies that are opposed to this most-basic American ideal† but it is putting this country and other service members at risk cause translators are a key competent of fighting the war on terror (Issit 4). How can a military succeed in winning the hearts and minds of people they cannot even talk with? The number of service members discharged each year in the United States is approximately 1,000-1,200.All of which are needed to be replaced with new people who require training. Losing the experience of those who were serving longer period of times is detrimental to the military because they possess the knowledge and skills required to accomplish the mission and have the ability to pass they knowledge on to new personnel. The amount of money r equired to replace them is enough that any tax paying American would be upset about. There are many reasons for someone to be discharged, from drug use to medical reasons.By changing this law the country would be losing a third less personnel each year. The American public is split on the issue. With about 60% saying that gays should be allowed to serve and 40% feeling they should be able to serve openly. A service wide survey was conducted asking the opinions of those who would be serving side by side with gays. The views of current service member varied much like that of American civilians. But they had reason for their concern when it came to those who opposed it. They were concerns about privacy issues.They were not comfortable with living with a known homosexual. The military does not allow males and females to share a room and there is concern having a same sex and gays living together. This might lead to a change in housing policy and bathroom faculties in having to separate men and women and gay men and lesbian women. This would lead to having to make new restrooms and building of new living quarters for gays. With another concern being the effect on Unit cohesion which can be broken down in two parts; task cohesion and social cohesion.Task cohesion referring to the ability to work together effectively in order to accomplish a mission and social cohesion referring to the emotional bonds and trust among unit members (US Government, DoD 102). The military is worried that gays would become a distraction for straights and this would disrupt the comradely between troops, all of which is very important in a wartime setting â€Å"because soldiers must withstand the tremendous emotional strain of seeing many of their friends brutally killed by the enemy† (Wilson 2). There are also religious and moral issues that have been brought up.The fact is that most religions say the homosexuality is wrong and by making personnel who are religious serve with gays i nfringes on the religious beliefs and the right to religious freedom in the military. Some feel that being gay is just wrong and do no want to be force to work alongside or live with someone of is known to be gay. Some also believe that don’t ask don’t tell law is working just fine and that it should just stay that way feeling that gays can serve but they just have to keep their sexuality to themselves.The same people feel that right now is not the best time to change the policy. Service member have a lot on their plates right now fighting two wars it that a change in the don’t ask don’t tell policy right now is just not the time to do so. There are some who are concerned that if gays were to serve openly then that would result in unwanted sexual advances and assaults. There is objection to gays showing public displays of affection. And that a gays flamboyant behavior would be a distraction. The possibility of a rise in HIV is of concern too.There is a be lief that AIDS is a running epidemic in the gay community and by allowing those to serve would lead to a increase in the HIV cases in the services. Marriage is another issue in that where would the money come from to pay for all the new cases of same sex marriages because married members receive benefits for the spouses and are paid more too. Some members feel that gays would become a protected class and in return would be forced to acknowledge gay pride week and be forced to mingle with them outside of work. With the fear that if they chose no too there would be displiniary actions placed against them.Other feel that the military is the last moral institution in America and feel that allowing gays to serve would destroy that. There are many service members that feel that gays should be allowed to serve openly and the have reasons for their support of the repeal of don’t ask don’t tell policy. Many know that there already are gays serving and by allowing them to acknow ledge their sexual orientation is not going to change anything. There is a feeling that as long as the gay service member can do their job then there is no reason they cannot serve.A person in America has the right to be who they are and by discharging a gay person who only wants to fight and protect the country that provides them that right is wrong. Any American regardless of sexual orientation should be allowed to sever their country. In given that this is a time of war the military needs every service member it can get. Since it is an all volunteer force they should allow anyone who wants to volunteer serve. The military is behind the times when is comes to its policy of homosexuals. It is the only institution that is discriminating openly against gays.It is illegal to fire a person from their jobs for being gays any where else they could be working and the military should be no different. Upon looking at the results of other militaries allowing gays to serve it is scene that it really has no effect on anything what so ever. So there is no reason not to believe that the some non-event would happen in the United States military too. If one is too look on when the military started to allow blacks and white to sever together as well as men and women it is seen that this was not harmful, but actually beneficial to the military as a whole.It is a brden to gays in the military to have to hide their homosexuality and that if there was a repeal to this law then that would liberate them from the fear of discharge. It is not that gays want to be able to tell everyone that they are gay but more that they won’t be afraid of losing their job if it were found out. â€Å"Sexual harassment regulations and sensitivity training would need to be updated, and guidance from leadership would be necessary† if this transition to a openly gay military is to be done (Prakash 92).History is said to repeat itself and if that is the case then there should be no problems associated with the repeal of the â€Å"don’t ask, don’t tell† law. Prior to 1953 blacks were not allowed to serve in the same unit as whites. There are similarities to be found when comparing concerns for when the racial integration of African-Americans was underway and the integration of homosexuals today in that â€Å"military leaders predicted disastrous consequences for unit cohesion, discipline, troop morale, and the achievement of military goals† (Knapp 239).Racial integration was a much bigger deal to the country than that of the integration of gays today. We can see that once racial integration was implemented that it turned out just fine. But it must be acknowledged that blacks are not gays so it won’t be exactly the same type of movement. The integration of women into the military also came out in positive terms. Though gender integration was slower than that of blacks, it is fully integrated today. Today women and blacks make up a sizab le portion of the military and without their service the military would not as strong as it is today.Women and African-Americans have succeeded in the U. S. military so there is no reason to believe that gays and lesbians cannot do the same. Many other nations’ military allow gays to openly serve and they experienced few if any problems because of it. It is such a non existent problem that it is considered a non-issue to most. The major militaries to open to gays are the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, and Israel. When these countries lifted their bans on gays in their militaries they noticed that nothing changed.In a official report released by the Canadian government it was stated that â€Å"Despite all the anxiety that existed through the late 80’s into the early 90’s about the change in policy, here’s what the indicators show—no effect† (Belkin 108). It was thought that maybe a mass coming out would happen but it didn’ t. Most still chose to keep their sexual orientation a private matter and only disclosed it to certain people, much like gays in the corporate world or anywhere else for that matter.The repeal is more for gays not to be discharged or fear being discharged for being gay and less for them to be able to go around and tell everyone that they are gay. There were no noticeable changes to recruiting numbers of the number of people choosing to remain in the military as a result of the lift ban on gays. The United Kingdom show no increase in same sex harassment and most countries commented that harassment die to gender integration was far more pronounced then harassment die to sexual orientation (US Government, DoD 92).This shows one that there is no reason that the integration of gays into the U. S. military will be difficult for its service members to adapt to. It will surely be a non-issue here itself. When looking at the issue of integrating gays into other organizations it is seen that many on the same things occurred that happened in the militaries that did the same. In 1998 an Executive Order was established in the prohibition of discrimination based on the sexual orientation for civilian employees in all Federal agencies. Many states have done the same with state organizations.It is to be noted that employees of these institutions reported that having day and lesbian personnel among their ranks has had no effect on their organization’s performance (US Government, DoD 94). It was found that in some cases allowing gays to be open about their sexual orientation actually improved their performance because now they were not worried about someone finding out they were gay and we able to put more focus on their work. When looking at the issue of privacy that was of a concern to some service members it was seen that in these organizations there was no need for additional accommodations for gays and lesbians.They also say the same thing when it came to gays publi cally announcing their homosexuality. It was found that none really chose to come out to everybody but instead only to certain people. And as far as service member worrying about the â€Å"flamboyant behavior† one might witness in the military by a gay is just not the case in the corporate world. Gays are very well aware of the professionalism associated with a Federal or State job and surely would be the case for any gay military member and would not act in such a way. There are many sides to this debate and given the concerns of each side it should be looked at carefully.When one does observe each side they can see that the concerns of those opposed to the repeal of don’t ask don’t tell are trivial and based on stereotypes and should not be enough to stop and any American from serving their country. The loss of personnel is unacceptable when their service is needed the most in these times of war. When seeing how other militaries favored with their lifting of b ans on gays it can be seen that it was so little a problem and should be the case here. Today’s troops do have a lot going on with fighting two wars and don’t need another thing on their plate, but they do need every helping hand they can get.It most likely would be the case that if repealed many troops would not disclose their sexual orientation so much would not change since a lot of troops know that they are already serving along side gays and lesbians. When weighing the pros and cons of this issue one shouldn’t be able to infringe on a American’s desire to serve their country based on their sexual orientation. It be great if these brave gay and lesbian women didn’t have to worry about their military careers coming to an end of they were or someone were to disclose their sexual orientation that way they would be able to fully concentrate on their mission.