Blog 35: Thanksgiving and the Syrian Refugee Crisis Political Cartoon

"Sorry but we're not accepting refugees."
http://imgur.com/gallery/SSh4gAC

Only three more days until Thanksgiving! To start the week off, we have this interesting political cartoon to analyze. Time to roll up my sleeves and analyze.

The political cartoon just recently circulated into social media, during the Syrian refugee crisis. Due to the crisis' proximity to Thanksgiving, alluding to the pilgrims and the Native Americans seems appropriate.

The audience would be the Americans who are oppose Syrian refugees entering the United States. The Thanksgiving theme reinforces the idea that the image is aimed at an American audience.

The message is simply "Sorry but we're not accepting refugees." The author conveys this message using a satirical tone. 

The purpose is to make those opposed to letting in Syrian refugees rethink their view. After looking at the image, the author hopes that the audience will realize that if the Native Americans treated the pilgrims with kindness. We would not be here today if the Native Americans had not accepted the pilgrims (although that point is debatable).

In order to understand the cartoon, readers need a general understanding of the Thanksgiving story, the reason why the pilgrims came to the New World, and knowledge of the Syrian refugee crisis. The pilgrim's voyage on the Mayflower was harsh. Even when the pilgrims reached land, many more died of starvation because they were unfamiliar with the land and came ill prepared for the harsh winter.

If the pilgrims stayed in England, they would be prosecuted due to their religion. That is why they took this arduous journey, for religious freedom.

The author of the cartoon contrasts this with how some Americans are reacting to Syrian refugees. The refugees also fled their homes like the pilgrims, but due to violence. 

After the terrorist attack in France, Americans are justified to think that we should be careful when accepting Syrian refugees, but we also need to extend a helping hand to those who are innocent victims.

Blog 34: Project 3 Rhetorical Analysis Thesis Statement

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-year_composition#
/media/File:Schreiben_mit_Kugelschreiber.jpg

After spending time to craft my public argument, I now need to analyze it. Here is the thesis for my developing analysis:

The most effective means for persuading middle of the road, educated, American adults that physician assisted suicide should be an end of life option is best achieved through an online news article using anecdotes, brief paragraphs, simple word choice, and contrasts between pros and cons.

Public Argument Venn Diagram

To better identify my target audience for Project 3, I constructed a Venn diagram using readwritethink.org. On a side note, PAS stands for physician assisted suicide, but supporters may refer to it as physician assisted death (PAD) which sounds less violent than the former.

Blog 33: Physician Assisted Suicide Background Research

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dignity_in_Dying_logo.png

Here is my background research into what different groups have to say about physician assisted suicide - link.

I commented on Benjamin Weiss' outline and Dee Schwartz's outline.

Blog ___: 5 Types of Public Arguments

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Japanese_Urban_Expwy_Sign_Number_5.svg

After identifying the potential audiences for my public argument, I must now choose how to frame the argument. I will provide a few sentences for each argument type, explaining how I will craft my argument if I choose that type:

Position (pro/con) Argument

Many scientific or even medical magazine articles seem to go with this method, stating the benefits of a certain drug/treatment, but then also acknowledging the drawbacks. I may discuss the pros of physician assisted suicide which appears to revolve around the idea of less suffering and more control over one's life and the cons which are the ethical issues and possible change in how humans see death. At the end of the argument (which may most likely be a brief article in an online magazine/newspaper) I will choose a side.

Causal Argument

For a causal argument, I may argue that people are more inclined to kill themselves because they have lost control of their lives and that legally providing them with the means to do it helps alleviate this fear. Any form of commercial or slideshow is appropriate for this because they serve to sway a larger audience who is not familiar with the topic or does not possess strong views.

Evaluative Argument

Here, I may explore the success of laws that allow physician assisted suicide in other countries or in Oregon where this law was passed. I may need to include statistical data and surveys to evaluate the success of permitting physician assisted suicide. This type of argument works with the scholarly arguments meant to persuade the people who have the power to legalize physician assisted suicide.

Proposal Argument

The proposal argument will take a bit more effort to craft because to support its claims, one must combine different elements. In a way, the proposal is a mix of the other types of arguments. I may include statistics from countries that permit physician assisted suicide, anecdotes from relatives, and may even need to say how the United States healthcare system is not living up to its standards. Using these, I may have to devise a plan to persuade my audience who will most likely be in politics or medicine using that evidence.

Refutation Argument

If I choose this route, I will have to delve into the morals and/or beliefs against physician assisted suicide and disprove them. Pathos may seem to be the best device here in the form of anecdotes where I can choose stories where people suffer because they were denied their request for a suicide. I can also mention the Hippocratic oath and redefine what it means to fit the argument. A refutation seems to be aimed toward a broader audience (same one as causal argument).

After going through all these arguments, I decided to maybe go with the position argument or the refutation argument. Now I shall delve deeper into one of them.

Deeper Look at Refutation Argument

With the refutation argument, I find it more convenient to get my message across through public means such as an online article, YouTube slideshow, website, blog, etc. The audience will be those who do not feel strongly about physician assisted suicides. Most likely this will include people who are age 40+ and most likely middle classed who had a loved one suffer in the hospital. Sound logical reasoning and tapping into the tender emotions of the audience will be the primary ways of conveying the message, but I can also add that I know how it feels to have a loved one suffer which helps me connect with the audience. For the logic, I may try to debunk any misconceptions that arise from this such as the idea that this promotes suicide. That is why controls must be put in place to prevent people who are emotionally unstable from ending their lives. The emotion I'm would be trying to elicit is pity.