Creative Writing A Short Story - 1694 Words

his idea in the first place, they were now looking for a scapegoat to save their own hides, bastards thought Jovic. Just as the crowd was almost turning into a mob Signac yelled for everyone to be silent and chastised them for their childish ways. This was quite a surprise to Jovic who had begun retreating slowly to the back of the crowd to make a discreet exit. â€Å"How can you all just turn on your now honorary councilman, who in fact has had more contribution to this venture, more than any of you; without him we might not have even known of these visitors† Signac said nodding his head towards Jovic. Jovic had lost his voice in the surprisingly supportive stance that Signac had taken and just nodded in return. Signac said â€Å"We shall†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"It has hit me in the last couple days during construction that this pointless bickering between the council members and this muted uneasy silence that has existed between us must stop.† Signac continued, looking back to the valley â€Å"We are not alone in this galaxy and we should try to better ourselves and mend relationships and in so doing grow stronger as a people. So I will make the first move towards our new future and apologize and ask for your forgiveness.† Signac had now turned back towards him. Jovic taken aback a little was stunned for only a moment then wholeheartedly spoke saying â€Å"It would be my honor to accept your apology and I will do all I can to assist you in this noble goal. I myself also ask for your apology in harboring sour feelings towards you.† Signac solemnly nodded and said â€Å"You have it. You may go now; I have some thinking to do. I will summon you later† then turned back to the valley. Jovic departed a little numb, yet had a twinge of excitement hoping this was the beginning of something great. Wandering along the path back to his home he glanced up to the sky and pondered where their new visitors were headed to. Letting his mind wander he imagined and hoped that they were headed to another planet within their system where there were yet other inhabited worlds with many different species of intelligent life forms. He did hope they would come back toShow MoreRelatedCreative Writing : A Short Story1020 Words   |  5 PagesThe girls sat seperated in two stark, cold rooms. Each of the girls was sat at a table with a clear plastic cup of water sitting at arm’s length from them, both cups untouched. How could they drink when their best friend was no where to be seen? They had been having an innocent night of fun at Mercedes’ house three weeks ago, the first of many planned for the spring break, watching movies on Netflix and eating a pizza they ordered. The night was full of rambling about how classes were, drama floatingRead MoreShort Story : Creative Writing1550 Words   |  7 PagesIn the woods when the sun was just starting to set, there was a van driving on a long-abandoned road, behind the wheel of said van was a tired looking girl who seemed to be about 19. She took a sip of the long cold coffee, and turned to the turquoise haired girl sitting next to her. Hey uhhhh Cas, Cassie? Where are we? Noting the headphones, she stopped the car and turned around to inquire of the two boys in the back, Kenny, Timmy, do either of you have an idea where we are? It seems like weveRead MoreCreative Writing : A Short Story1281 Words   |  6 PagesSMACK! I was on my back, peering up at Josh as he laid on top me. â€Å"Gotc....† He begins to say but stopped. The look of victory slowly vanished from his face at the realization of how little space was between us. I could feel his heart hammering in his chest or maybe it was mine. Because, Josh was now searching my eyes as if he was looking for an answer to a question. His lips were only inches from mine and I could feel the heat coming off of them. Everything inside of me screamed to move awayRead MoreShort Story : Creative Writing865 Words   |  4 Pages Brrring! Brrring! Brrring! Brrring! â€Å"What is someone doing calling at 2am† whispers Dave groggily as he wipes his eyes and p icks up the phone. Yawning, somehow he manages to make something comprehendible come out of his mouth, â€Å"Hello? This is Dave speaking.† â€Å"Dave! This is Joe†¦ your old roommate from college. How are you doing?† â€Å"I am doing fine.† says Dave thinking and thinking about who Joe is when suddenly he remembers. At that moment he groans but manages to put out a polite response,Read MoreCreative Writing : A Short Story1037 Words   |  5 PagesThere she goes again. Mother can’t ever mind her own business, Seriously will it kill her to just leave her thoughts to herself. Little Mike came up tugging at her sleeve, his soft little fingers grasping at the cloth, a pull then another. â€Å"Yes sweetheart.† Mike looked at her, his finger pointed forwards, just at the edge of my vision. â€Å"It’s our turn now mommy.† She looked up; Mike quickly ran forward. â€Å"Woah slow down buddy, you can’t walk away by yourself.† Mike came to a sudden stop;he turned toRead MoreCreative Writing : A Short Story1102 Words   |  5 PagesWhen their parents entered their room, Charlie watched as Maggie walked to the window and kept her back to them. They could al l tell she was upset about something. Looking at Elliot, she pushed herself up further in the bed, as Callum grabbed Ian and took a seat on the chair next to her. Ben clasped his hands in front of him as he took a deep breath. â€Å"Ive been asked to stay here in order to help Rachel on her work supplying the Republic with power. I plan on asking Miles to let all of you andRead MoreCreative Writing : A Short Story1148 Words   |  5 Pagesbench nearby. And that’s what she was doing now. She sighed and stood up to go home. The next day she went to school and her best friend Sarina asked, â€Å"What’s wrong?† She then told her the whole story as she didn’t know what happened yesterday because she was absent. Hearing the story she said, â€Å" It’s a good thing that I upgraded my remote few days ago. You should go to the remote shop today after school.† Then they both went to class. When Maya entered her first class she saw Tasha andRead MoreCreative Writing : A Short Story1583 Words   |  7 Pagesforbid, if you don’t find it within two seconds, then youre most definitely an incompetent driver. Almost needless to say, Jason didn’t follow in the outlier’s footsteps, and he aced the questionnaire. Though he did take note that his examiner was creative with her questions. She was probably was deeply saddened that there wasn’t a convoluted touch screen to inquire about, Jason thought to himself. Finally all the formalities were complete, consequently, he took a second to get himself mentally, andRead MoreCreative Writing : A Short Story1440 Words   |  6 PagesPayday arrived for both me and Patsy, giving us the opportunity to attend the luxurious cinema and a wider variety of movies. As we stand before the array of movie posters, deciding between an action or comedy, somehow, how conversation shifts over to John. â€Å"He was so excited about the other night,† says Patsy. I abandon the posters and give her a questioning look. â€Å"About what?† â€Å"Well, first of all spending the evening with you, and then because you hugged him the way you did.† She taps her fingerRead MoreCreative Writing : A Short Story1615 Words   |  7 Pagestown to barter, we’ll ask around.† Shocked that her husband knows about Miles tattoo on her arm, Rachel clings to him in the silence, her mind racing at the possible implications. XXX Rachel sits stunned at the table, listening to Ben relay the story that he’s heard over and over in the village nearest to the house they’ve decided to ride out the winter in. â€Å"Soul Marks? How is that possible? These are just replicas of tattoos,† she replies with a disbelieving shake of her head. Ben shrugged

Specisism Free Essays

In this essay I will try to clarify Singers essential argument and defend it against some common objections. According to Singer, Speciesism is a position similar to racism and sexism. Just as race discriminates against other race, and sexism against the opposite sex, speciesism discriminates against non-human species. We will write a custom essay sample on Specisism or any similar topic only for you Order Now Specisists hold that only humans have intrinsic moral worth, and anything that is non-human has no rights and so for Singer, speciesism is not an acceptable position. He argues that because animals are capable of experiencing pain, and therefore have an interest in preserving themselves, they deserve to be respected and given rights. Singer is a utilitarian which means for him the capacity to feel pleasure and pain is the most important factor for moral consideration. If a being has the capacity to feel pain and pleasure, then Singer thinks we have a responsibility towards them.He rejects moral rights as inherent to every species and proposes that sentience is a requirement for status since he maintains most animals do not care about whether we kill them and use them for our own purposes: they care only about how we treat them when we do use and kill them. Just like humans, animals have interests of their own, a capacity for enjoying things and also for suffering.And â€Å"if a being suffers, there can be no moral justification for refusing to take that suffering into consideration† (Singer 1975:79) Given the principle of equal consideratio n of interests, it follows that equal moral concern should be given to the suffering of animals as that of humans. â€Å"If only x and y would be affected by a possible action, and if x stands to lose more than y gains, it is better not to do the act† (PE, p21). If this is the case, then suffering caused to animals as a result of their treatment when we regard treating humans in the same way most count as ‘specisist` behaviour : the only difference between humans and animals is their species, and that has the same moral significance as race i. e. , none. Singer argues for this by pointing to variation among human.Of the characteristics that we say only humans share we always find that there are humans who lack those characteristics: â€Å"†¦ Humans come in different shapes and sizes; they come with differing moral capabilities, differing intellectual abilities, differing amounts of benevolent feeling and sensitivity to the needs of others, differing capacities to experience pleasure and pain.In short, if the demand for equality were based on actual equality of all human being, we would have to stop demanding equality. † The only one characteristic all human beings share that animals do not is membership in the human species. It is important to note that Singer does not mention animals when he speaks of the principle of equality or equal consideration of interests, but reminds us the principle is interpreted as giving equal consideration to the interests of all people.Firstly reminds us of the challenges we have overcome throughout history with racism and sexism have expanded our moral horizons which eventually includes the whole human race, and secondly, that following this to its logical conclusion, morality itse lf demands this extension since the basic principle of equality is a principle of morality. Once we go beyond a self-interested stand point to a moral one, we are bound to adopt the principle of equality and the logic of universality inherent in it. Singer is a utilitarian thinker. A basic objection to this is that the whole structure of Singers view is utilitarian, that on the one hand, it demeans our existence by saying happiness is the only thing of value in it, and on the other hand, it aims to maximise the total happiness, which allows the sacrifice of the happiness of a minority for the sake of the majority. So there are really two objections here, one to Singers account of value (that reduces all value to happiness), and the other, his account of morality (that makes the ends justify the means).Both of which are mistaken, the maximising theory of morality in Singers view does not depend on a maximizing account of morality at all, it depends on ‘the principle of equality` where he does not talk about value but only says that all sentient beings interests should be considered equally, and that the interests of a being in this case is in the reduction of its suffering, and that its total suffering is to be weighed against the benefits of all beings in volved. He does not actually claim that animal lives are equally valuable.Singer holds that animals suffer and like us they have interests, he views the specisist as holding a similar position as a racist or sexist. He considers them equal in the sense that they all think that they have a higher moral status simply in virtue of their sex and race. Each of the instances he describes when drawing parallels between sexism, racism, and spieciesism, the dominant group exploits or excludes outsiders indiscriminately in favour of its own members. It develops an ideology that justifies treating outsiders in ways that are to its benefit.Form this point of view, the analogy between sexism racism, and speciesism directs our thoughts to the human being as the dominating group that uses other beings for its own ends and not only beings that matter. The analogy is useful because it leads us to humans, not as the only beings who matter, but a dominating group that uses other beings for its own ends, furthermore, it raises questions about mere differences as the justification for differences in how much consideration to give others.Bernard Williams, however, defends speciesism in â€Å"The Human Prejudice† objects to Singers analogy, that speciesism is not like racism or sexism, and gives some reasons why this is so. The differences between normal humans and other non-human animals, let’s say, of equal size or shape, are much greater than the differences between people of different races, or between men and women.But Si nger has mentioned this, in his first edition of animal liberation he wrote: â€Å"There are many areas in which the superior mental powers of normal adult humans make a difference: anticipation, more detailed memory, and greater knowledge of what is happening, and so on. † So therefore the claim that speciesism is morally objectionable still remains unchanged by such arguments, because Singer defines speciesism as discrimination on the basis or species, not as discrimination on the basis of superior mental powers, even if those powers are processed by members of our species and not members of other species. According to Singer, Williams’ argument denies the analogy and resorts to â€Å"which side are you on? ’’ – Which is a question that echoes racial, religious or ideological conflicts which have arisen in times of war? This kind of question divides the world in to â€Å"us’’ and â€Å"them’’, the fact of this division demands us to us to transcend ethical issues about what the right thing to do is.Singer mentions another argument that has been made in connection to this in defence of speciesism: the claim that just as parents prefer their own children over others as a special obligation, so we have a special obligation to other members of our species in preference to members of other species. Again, the obvious case lying between the ‘family` and our ‘own`, points to race, ethnicity, etc. Singer gives a good example by referring to Lewis Petrinovich who says that our biology turns certain boundaries into moral impe ratives- and lists â€Å"children, kin, neighbours, and species. If the argument works at the smaller sphere of family and the larger sphere of species, then why not for the middle case: race. If race is not a morally relevant boundary, why should species be? It is tautological that the principle of equality should apply to sentient beings. There is much debate over what qualifies as sentient. What I mean sentient to be, can only be worked out in practise as with any other moral boundary. Man here has to be thought of as a moral agent as well as a moral object.I don’t believe we should justify our having a bias or prejudice in favour of human beings over other animals, I would consider it specisist to consider the interests of my own over other species, only in the strictest sense, but if this is the case, I would also favour my own race, religion, class, etc†¦ Our values are necessarily human values but we are not necessarily the only beings worthy of consideration. Nature sustains both animals and humans and for me, complimenting nature, at the very least, preserving it, is more worthy of consideration.Bibliography Practical Ethincs, Peter Singer The Human Prejudice, Bernard Williams How to cite Specisism, Papers

The Thief Who Stole My Heart free essay sample

For the longest time, I’ve always wanted a cat. My obsession started in second grade when we had to do a research project on a prehistoric animal; I chose the saber-tooth tiger. It was the ferocious snarling face that revealed those large vicious fangs, the powerful, rippling muscles of its lunging body, and the dangerous, wild lifestyle the saber-tooth tiger boasted that awed me speechless. So upon discovering that saber-tooth tigers were related to modern, domestic cats, my heart was loaded, cocked, and aimed directly for cats. Unfortunately, my parents didn’t share the same love. Every year I would ask for a cat, but I always got the same stern, â€Å"No,† and when I asked why they would tell me the same stories each time. â€Å"Ick,† My dad would always start, â€Å"cats are dirty and smell funny. In the village when I was a kid, people only kept cats to kill rats. We will write a custom essay sample on The Thief Who Stole My Heart or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page So until we have rats, we’re not getting a cat.† This always tempted me to bring home a couple of rats, but I just never figured out how to enter the sewers. Then it was my mom’s turn, â€Å"What will you do when the cat dies, huh? What will you do when your best friend dies, because that’s what a pet is! When I was young, I loved my dogs so much, but one day my mother decided the dogs were two unnecessary mouths to feed and wanted to put them down. Oh how the seven of us jumped on the dogs screaming and crying as we hung onto their coats for dear life. You should have seen my mother trying to drag all of us out the door. Unfortunately, we were forced to let go. Now, is that what you want? Hmm?† At first the story scared me, but as I grew older I would argue that our situations were different and that she was being a drama queen. She never listened. So I waited patiently, always hoping that they would finally relent on my next birthday, but that â€Å"next birthday† never came. Right when I was about to give up hope, my seventeenth birthday rolled around. It wasn’t a special birthday, just the awkward age between my sweet sixteen and my legal eighteen. My parents were still resilient as ever and were absolutely against the cat, but my friends were a different story. On the day of my birthday, they showed up at my front door with a wide-eyed, shaking kitten. At that moment I was overcome with a tidal wave of joy. My lifelong wish had finally come true! I knew my life was about to change, but I didn’t know just how much. After a surprisingly short and relatively smooth start with my parents, Bandit was able to successfully assimilate into the family as the most beloved member. I had prepared a long list of plans and adventures for Bandit and me and after waiting almost a decade, I was more than ready to take off. I wanted to paint pictures of us, dress up in fashionable outfits together, teach him how to swim, go on road trips, set out to explore the woods in my backyard, and other feral escapades. All cats are like fearless pirates, or so I thought. To my surprise, Bandit is the most timid and docile cat I have ever met. Every time I open the front door, he hisses and arches his back then sprints into my room to cower under the bed. Well there go the expeditions in the backyard. Whenever he has to go to the vet’s, he insists on using the car seats as his litter box. Bye-bye road trips. In the bath, water makes him howl pitifully, so showing him the freestyle stroke is definitely out of the question. It is required that he leaves a trail across my oil pastel paintings then smudges paw prints across my clean sheets of drawing paper. Just when you think he’s done enough, he goes to the bathroom†¦in my closet. I was only an amateur cat care taker in the beginning, so I didn’t understand how to cope with his antics. Puzzled and confused, I applied what I knew best and impatiently yelled lectures at him. They didn’t work. So then I tried, I hate to admit this, forceful tactics. Carrying him to the outside world as he struggled and frantically meowed didn’t work either. During all of this, he was developing and closer and more intimate bond with my mom. I was jealous and hurt. How could the one thing I loved most, love my mom more? I contemplated many theories including: maybe she has a brain control device, she can speak the cat language, or she was luring him with a secret stash of treats. I went with the cat treats one, and confronted her about it. â€Å"I don’t have a hidden stash of treats, silly. What I do have is patience.† My mom coolly replied. Ever since then, Bandit has been teaching me to be more and more patient. I’ve become a much calmer and less rash person, thinking before I leap. He has taught me to grow up and that I cannot shirk my responsibilities, such as cleaning his litter box because if I don’t he will make a wet statement in my closet. He’s also brought my family closer by leading me to my parents’ rooms. We eat dinner as a family at the dinner table more often now, usually with Bandit as the topic. I still wish he was a little more courageous at times so we can go adventuring, but I think with a little time and extra care I can get him to go outside with me. Bandit has been more than just a cat to me; he’s my little saber-tooth tiger.