What Patriotism Means to Me Essay Example for Free

What Patriotism Means to Me Essay Patriotism, the word itself makes me think of people full of loyalty and pride. It makes me think of those who are loyal to their country, their country’s ideas, and those who fought and sacrificed their lives for the freedom of their country. You might be asking yourself, â€Å"What does patriotism mean?† To me it means a major love of a country and the willingness to die for that country. I love my country and honor those who sacrificed everything for our country’s freedom. I am inspired by those patriots who have spoken out and fought for our freedom. I am also inspired by the men and woman today who are still fighting and sacrificing their lives for our glorious country. Our forefathers were dreaming of a country with liberty and justice for all. They sacrificed everything to make this dream a reality and that is true patriotism. They fought against the most powerful army at that time. There are many examples of patriotism in the patriots of the revolutionary war. â€Å"I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.†-Nathan Hale those were his last words right before he was hung by the British on September 22, 1775. Those words truly define that he was a patriot. He spoke those words so confidently. There are many more such as, George Washington, who boldly lead our country into battle, Samuel Adams who founded the sons of liberty, Patrick Henry who boldly spoke, â€Å"Give me liberty or give me death.†, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Paul Revere, and Thomas Paine. In my opinion they were all good patriots with the same dream; to create a nation full of liberty, which they did successfully by risking their lives to create this nation, our nation, full of liberty and justice for all! We will fight to keep it this way!

Free Essays On Shakespeares Sonnet 118 :: Sonnet essays

Analysis of Sonnet 118 Like as, to make our appetites more keen, With eager compounds we our palate urge; As to prevent our maladies unseen We sicken to shun sickness when we purge: Even so, being full of your ne'er cloying sweetness, To bitter sauces did I frame my feeding; And, sick of welfare, found a kind of meetness To be diseas'd ere that there was true needing.j Thus policy in love, to anticipate The ills that were not, grew to faults assur'd, And brought to medicine a healthful state Which, rank of goodness, would by ill be cur'd: But thence I learn, and find the lesson true, Drugs poison him that so fell sick of you. This is another sonnet that Hieatt found to share certain similarities with Spencer's _Ruines of Rome: "In Sonnets 118 the conceit of health 'rank in goodness' anticipating and thus precipitatin sickness mirrors, first, Ruines 10--the 'rank seed' who destroy themselves--and, second, Ruines23--the Roman people 'impatient of pleasure's faint desires,' becoming the matter of their own fimes, 'as in a vicious body gross disease / Soon grows through humor's superfluity'." Having a possible source for this sonnet, we will now move to a paraphrasing of the sonnet. 1-2: 'In order to make our appetites more aware (of taste), we convince our palate by ingesting stimulating dishes'; 3-4: 'In order to prevent unforeseen sickness, we purge ourselves [Ingram/jRedpath note, "The old-fashioned purges were very powerful, and could indeed make people feel extremely ill"], to make that sickness feign, yet become sick by doing so'; 5-6: 'As this is, I apportioned my diet to unsavory dishes [base company] from being (so) full of your substantial sweetness'; 7-8: 'And, overindulged in happiness, I found a [requisite] jusxtaposition of becoming diseased (from the purging) because I was in need of, 1) the sickness, or 2) your love [or both]'; 9-10: 'Thus, it is a sly [almost overly-sly] strategy in love, to anticipate the malefactors that are not always thought of, which grow into affirmed faults'; 11-12: 'And make a "healthful state" of me available to medicine which, gross [almost with a sense of glutton] with goodness, would be cured by the malefactors:' 13-14: 'But from this I learn, and find the lesson [moral] true, that the drugs that poisoned him [identity unknown; possibly in general] are the same ones that made me fall (love) sick for you'.

Business Should Always Be Ethically and Socially Responsible

Corporate scandals in business world have been more and more common, which damages the interest and profits of stakeholders, employers, community or society. The corporate scandals pull the public to focus on the ethic of managers and the firm itself. Comparing to the past, customers are focusing more and more on the reputation of the firms and they prefer to select the brands that are environmentally friendly and socially responsible when they buy products or service.This change pushes firms to maintain their reputations with more efforts. Corporate social responsibility has been a hot topic in business world today, which is an important part of building brand image while brand image is a value for firms. This essay holds the statement that business should always be ethically and socially responsible. Firstly, it gives the several definitions of business ethic and corporate social responsibility briefly. Subsequently, it outlines the pros and coins for addressing corporate social re sponsibility.Following this, it discusses the negative effects caused by corporate scandals with several real cases likeToyota, Bernard Madoff and Enron. Finally it discusses the benefits when business is ethically and socially responsible with the examples of Procter & Gamble and Li Ka-shing. Definitions of business ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility Ethics is the code of values and principles to govern people’s behaviours to verdict what is right or wrong. Business ethic is the application of personal moral in commercial enterprise.Comparing to the vague definition of business ethics, the definition of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is clearer. As stated by The World Business Council for Sustainable Development(2014), corporate social responsibility is the commitment of business to contribute to the economic development and the welfare of employees and the family, the community and the whole society. European Commission (2014) defines this concept as follow: the firms integrate concerns of social and environment with stakeholders in the economic decisions and actions voluntarily.The definitions of business ethics and corporate social responsibility state that business firms are acting ethically and socially responsible means in the economic operations they should consider the interests of stakeholders, environment and society and they should concern the welfare of employees and the family instead of concerning only the profits of firms and personal interest. The proponents of CSR include the moral obligation, license to operate, sustainability and reputation (Porter, 2004).According to Lahovnik (2008), there are three levels of corporate social responsibility. The first level is the obligation to meet the material for shareholders, employees, customers, creditorsand suppliers. The second level is the responsibility to benefit the human resource of community and avoid the damage to environment. The last one is the responsibility to the s ociety. Even though there is not clear definition how far firms should address the social responsibility, there is indeed a fact that firms should take the social responsibility in their economic operations.Against and For Corporate Social Responsibility There is a hot debating on whether firms should address their corporate social responsibility or not. For the objectors, business is just business that maximize profits is the economic responsibility of management instead of being the social role in society. The social problems should not be resolved by firms and firms are not designed to handle these issues. Corporate social responsibility could be an important tool wielded by firms.Stated by The Wall Street Journal, the addressing of CSR may be anillusion and a dangerous one because when there is a conflict between private profit and social interest; firms tend to select the former one (Karnani,2010). Even though the firms say they are doing the projects with charity purposes, the investment or cost of these projects may be owned by other ways, which may harm the interest of environment or society. Different from the objectors, there are a variety of reasons to support the idea that firms should address the corporate social responsibility and be ethical.The first reason is that the human and social problems are largely led by industrialization and business firms own the social resource that business has the obligation to reduce and solve these issues. Firms have been important parts of the society and they own a huge resource, which means they also carry the obligation to solve the problems in the society especially these problems led by their economic operations. The second reason is that business firms can get benefits from addressing corporate social responsibility.CSR directly benefits the financial bottom line and improve the competitiveness of firms. CSR can enhance reputation and brand image of firms. The survey of PWC 2002 showed that 90% of responde nts said that corporate social responsibility can enhance the corporate reputation. The 2002 Cone Corporate Citizenship Study also showed that 84 percent of American would change brands to those with good reputation in the similar price and quality (Kotler and Lee 2005).When companies address corporate social responsibility, it will bring positive impacts on retention, recruitment and motivations of employees for the firms. For example, Timberland is always encouraging its employees to offer community service called Path of Service, which has been ranked by Fortune and Timberland is named as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For (Provictus, 2012). The third reason is the social benefits brought by business firms when they address corporate social responsibility and act ethically.When business firms act ethically, the firms can reduce the negative impacts on stakeholders, employees, customers and the society, which will be discussed below with real cases. When business firms perf ormance well in CSR, they can bring huge benefits to the investors, stakeholders, customers, community and society, which will be discussed below with examples as well. Negative Effects of Corporate Scandals When business firms or managers of firms act unethically and ignore their corporate social responsibility, the negative effects can outburst internally and externally.The negative effects of corporate scandals can influence the reputation of firms, the interests of stakeholders, employees, customers, environment and society. In 2009, Toyota recalled over 9 million cars over the world in two separate recalls because of the quality issue, which led to billions of dollars in operating losses andcharges. The reputation of top quality in car industry faced a heavy hit globally. Even though Toyota would not collapse completely, the reputation was threatened, which has been built through decades (Connor, 2010).The share price dropped down and customers distrusted Toyota in quality. The unethical action of Toyota to produce unsafe cars pulled Toyota in a dangerous place that it brought side effects on the reputation globally, which definitely reduced its market share and sales globally. In June 2009, the unethical behavior of Bernard Madoff damaged the interest of investors by using the Ponzi scheme. The similar case with Bernard Madoff exist more in business world, which brings huge side effects to investors. As a top audit firm, Enron met the corporate scandal.Enron lied about the profits and the success of Enron was brought by creative accounting. In 2013, the building collapse of Rana Plaza killed more than 1,100 people and this event involved many famous clothes brands into corporate scandals. Wal-Mart is one of them because it received clothes from Banned Bangladesh Factories, which has been defined as unethical operation (Grabell, 2013). The unethical behaviours of Wal-Mart damaged the interest of workers in Banned Bangladesh Factories. Meanwhile, Wal-Martà ¢â‚¬â„¢s brand image has been affected because Wal-Mart is treated as a firm with social responsibility.In 2010, BAE Systems plc (BAES) pleaded guilty for overseas corruption (The United States Department of Justice, 2010). The real cases that business firms or managers act unethically without corporate social responsibility are more than these mentioned above over the world. The side effects of these corporate scandals are widely spread. The corporate scandals can hurt the reputation of firms, the interests of investors and stakeholders, welfare of employees, the life damage or property losses of customers and the damage of environment.The side effects are so great that the society urges that the business should always be ethically and socially responsible. Positive Effects of Acting Ethically and Socially Responsible The positive effects of acting ethically and socially responsible support the statement that business should always be ethically and socially responsible. Just like t his essay stated above, there are various benefits firms and the whole society can get when firms address the corporate social responsibility and act ethically.Procter & Gamble is an excellent case of multinational firms that address corporate social responsibility well. There are few corporate scandals of Procter & Gamble in business world. Instead, there are many pieces of news on how Procter & Gamble is an excellent citizen in business world that addresses corporate social responsibility well. For example, Procter & Gamble provides PUR technology to purify dirty water for people in Africa and helps kids to live and get education (Procter &Gamble, 2013).Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program (CSDW) has reached over 70 countries to save tens of thousands of lives (Procter & Gamble, 2014a). Apart from this;Procter & Gamble (2013) donated money and encouraged employees to help the poor kids to get education in China. To protect environment, Procter & Gamble(2014b) is committed to design recycled products with innovation. Procter & Gamble (2014c) is also trying to make zero waste a reality from manufacturing and designing. There is no report on how Procter & Gamble benefit from addressing its corporate social responsibility.However, Procter & Gamble build its great reputation in business world globally. The reputation enhances the brand image of Procter & Gamble and meanwhile it increases the sales of Procter & Gamble the cohesion of employees in the firm. The investors may tend to join in Procter & Gamble because Procter & Gamblehas great corporate citizenship. In addition to Procter & Gamble, Coca Cola, Pepsi and other multinational firms are doing greatly in addressing the corporate social responsibility and get benefits from it even though it takes some cost.The money used in corporate social responsibility is another form of investment, which will come out profits with intangible asset. In China, there is a famous rich person called Li Ka-shing, who is always acting ethically and socially responsible. Because of his ethical business behavior and good morality, Li Ka-shing built his reputation and the reputation of his firm in business world, which has contributed a lot to his success. Meanwhile, the ethical behavior of Li Ka-shing avoided the side effects on the stakeholders, employees, customers and society.From the real case of Procter & Gamble and Li Ka-shing, it shows that when business firms or businessmen act ethically and socially responsible, they get payback with good reputation and brand image, which will be switched to products sales and intangible asset. This supports the idea that why business should always be ethically and socially responsible. Conclusion In conclusion, business should always be ethically and socially responsible because the negative efforts of corporate scandals can hurt the interest of society while the impact of acting ethically and socially responsible can be positive to the society.The essay provides the definition of business ethics and corporate social responsibility to outline how firms and managers are acting ethically and socially responsible. Subsequently, it offers two sides for the argument whether firms should address corporate social responsibility to support the thesis of this essay. The real cases of corporate scandals show the results and side effects when firms behave unethically in economic operations to urge the need to be ethically and socially responsible.Meanwhile, the real cases of Procter & Gamble and Li Ka-shing show that when firms or businessmen behave ethically and socially responsible, they can get payback in economy as well and the address corporate society will benefit the investors, employees, community, customers and environment. The negative impacts of acting unethically and the positive impacts of firms’ acting ethically and socially responsible to the firms, community and environment finally support the idea that business should a lways be ethically and socially responsible.

Visual Identy of African Americans in Question Throughout...

I looked up the word Visual Identity, but I couldn’t find a clear definition of what it really meant. So, I began to ask myself what it means. Visual identity is what we perceive others or ourselves to be. It is almost the same as our judgment or our opinion. Perfect example, I went to the store the other day, and I saw a white man, he was dirty, his hair was not combed, and his clothes were dirty. Looking at him I thought he was homeless, but to my surprise he wasn’t he had just gotten off of work. It’s situations like this that make me wonder is it visual identity that we use as African Americans to access a person’s identity or is it the lack thereof? In the period following the Reconstruction era, the issue of African American†¦show more content†¦Whites believed that Blacks had no right to have be able to read, write, attend school or work. To White Americans giving African Americans a chance anything seemed diabolical to them, and they would do anything to try and stop African Americans from being Equal. White Americans in the Reconstruction era viewed African Americans by their skin color and they judged them on how they looked. They also disapproved of African Americans trying to achieve literacy. The opportunities that White Americans had were different than those of African Americans. White Americans viewed African Americans as inferior to them. In result, African Americans were not permitted to Civil rights, education, and work. Being viewed by what they looked like held African Americans in bondage. By the 20th Century African Americans began to break the chains of racial stereotypes. With African Americans starting to work they began to establish a new identity. This new identity that they had established was that they were capable of working just as well as White Americans. However, White Americans still disagreed with African Americans being able to work. These rights that were now available to African Americans brought about a more different and physical racial tension between White Americans and African Americans. As African Americans were permitted Civil