response to Rifkin, "A Change of Heart about Animals"

Rifkin’s “A Second Thought About Animals”, although having many great points to it, has three main claims. The three claims that I picked up from the reading all pertain to animals being almost identical to us internally whether it’s through their emotions, communication, or even intelligence. Rifkin insists, “our fellow creatures are more like us than we had ever imagined” (par. 2).

It has been a common misconception that animals cannot feel emotions like humans do. However, Rifkin makes it evident that they can, by siting a study done at Purdue where pigs showed signs of depression when they were in isolation from other pigs. Helping his main claim, Rifkin also proves that animals can communicate just as well as humans can. This is evident in geese teaching their offspring their migration patterns. Gorillas and their intelligence is another viable example of how similar humans and animals are to each other. Koko, a gorilla in Northern America mastered 1,000 different sign language signs as well as understanding thousands of English words. By creating a sense of equality, Rifkin executes pathos in his article. If animals are so much like humans, why should we be treating them as inferior when orchestrating tests in laboratories for human vanity?

The way of writing that Rifkin uses, in my opinion, is very effective. Rifkin states that “[w]e’re so skewed towards efficiency that we’ve lost our sense of humanity” (intro). This excerpt is a solid foundation that will encourage most people to re-think their principles when it comes to using animals in their daily lives.

My response to Kristof

In response to Kristof’s article regarding gun control in America, I do believe his main claims are not to purely eradicate guns in the United States; but to simply create more regulations upon possessing a firearm. Kristof claims that there are more regulations on items like ladders than firearms, which is shameful. He furthermore believes the idea of guns should not be “shrugged” at, but instead should be taken more seriously than things that create fewer deaths per year.  He additionally helps his cause by bringing to the reader’s attention that in a six-month period, more US citizens have perished in gun related occurrences than have died in terrorist attacks and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars collectively.

As I read through the text, I noticed a substantial amount of evidence for all of the claims delivered. Kristof provides statistics such as those from David Hemenway like “children ages 5 to 14 n America are 13 times as likely to be murdered with guns as children in other industrialized countries “ (paragraph 3). This in itself is an eye opener to the reader that helps them side with Kistof’s claims in just the first few paragraphs. Furthermore, Kristof uses the success of decreasing casualties per year in other places like Australia and Canada that gives the reader confidence that if we as Americans were to implement these principles into our society, there is no reason why we shouldn’t be able to decrease gun deaths per year like these other places.

Kristof very effectively selects his evidence to strengthen his argument for gun control by establishing credibility and trust. Being that Kristof puts himself on the same level as president Barrack Obama, Canadian, and Australian policies shows his security in the idea, which he presents. He reassures the reader that because other places were successful in decreasing deaths per year from gun violence, there is no reason why America cant come to the same kind of result. This faith motivates Kristof’s audience to side with his ideas and do everything in their power to make them true.

a little about me (bio sketch)

1.              I am currently an undeclared major but I am interested deeply in psychology. My plan is to just get some general education out of the way and then major in what I find most interesting after having more college experience with different classes.

2.              I have never been in a class where we were encouraged to use the words “claims” and “evidence” before.

3.              Outside of class I like to Facebook and communicate through various social medias. I don’t normally journal, but if I am having an exceptionally bad day I do sometimes like to write to help me vent.

4.              When I write I usually write about something I find funny that happened to me earlier that day or something I am proud of. It makes me feel good that I have friend who support me. I would say on average, I do this type of writing about twice a week.

5.              I am not very confident in my writing at this point in my life. I feel I really struggle with bringing thoughts together and achieving a flow in writing. I am, however, very willing to put in the work it would take to become a better writer.