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The Power of Influence and the Influence of Power

My students are now reading an article of the week and writing a weekly reflection. I wrote the following as a modeled reflection on an article on CNN.com discussing President Trump’s recent public disagreement with Nike’s decision to feature Colin Kaepernick in an ad campaign. Kaepernick’s actions have divided people throughout the country, splitting good Americans over a falsely-concluded either/or fallacy. The choice some see is that you must either advocate for the civil rights of African Americans in the face of police brutality, or you must support America’s law enforcement community. Others see it further as a choice between disrespecting your nation or honoring your nation. In this piece, I seek to bring to light the power struggle between messages and the powerful people and organizations they represent.

The sole has surprisingly much more power than one might think. Remove it and a shoe’s not a shoe. As a teenager, I wouldn’t have bought a pair of Nikes without that visible pocket of air inside the sole; it was my visual reminder that my Nike Airs made me better on the court than anyone else (who didn’t wear the same shoe). Nike’s commercials starring Jordan and other stellar athletes compelled me to buy their shoes about as much as McDonald’s commercials featuring Jordan and Larry Bird playing horse made me buy Big Macs and fries.

Nike and its featured athletes are apparently so potent they grab the the ire of the most powerful office in the world. As soon as Nike recently unveiled a new campaign with Colin Kaepernick as its poster child, President Trump unabashedly told The Daily Caller he didn’t approve because of Kaepernick’s way of airing his concern about the issue of police brutality toward African Americans.

Two politically polar opposites Kaepernick and Trump, yet their stories together aren’t entirely different: one kneels while the other stands, but both utilize powerful media to influence the masses.

The situation between Nike and the President brings attention to the unbelievable persuasive power of truth, rhetorical appeal, branding, and controversy, but it also shows the tremendous influence of power itself — that of the most successful shoe brand, a President, and a vocal NFL quarterback. While one might hope the power of influence would win the battle for the public’s attention, the influence of power is so strong it will likely always cloud the issues more than bring them to light.

How do the homeless influence so many to offer shelter, donate clothing, and provide hot meals? How does a child’s pleading for parents to stop arguing get them to stop so quickly? Why does a single mom working three jobs to provide for her four kids seem so much more admirable than anyone else’s labor? It’s not their inherent power. It’s their influence — the influence of having nothing, but being relatable to those who do; the influence of being young and innocent, but seeing the emptiness of fighting; the influence of apparent abandonment, helplessness, or whatever the situation, but still choosing to make no excuses and work one’s tail off. This is the power Nike knows is in a pretty-much expired, struggling black NFL quarterback most recently sporting an afro and an attitude more than a respectable QB rating. He’s willing to solemnly kneel for an issue he believes is not being addressed enough and, in doing so, share his voice.

Like it or not, every president tries to sway public opinion about national political, economic, and social issues. They use what Theodore Roosevelt called the “bully pulpit” — a term where the word bully means “excellent” or “first-rate,” not browbeating or being a jerk. Yes, the president is arguably the greatest power on earth, but don’t discount Nike’s (or Apple’s, Amazon’s, Alphabet’s/i.e., Google’s, for that matter) lucid awareness of its own bully pulpit. In a caption over Kaepernick’s face, the Nike ad reads, “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.”

Does the message fit the image of Kaepernick?

One could argue he’s sacrificed some of his following, or maybe he’s sacrificed being “just an athlete” who’s not supposed to do anything but run and throw. Some might see his sacrifice as people no longer seeing him as a conformist or compliant follower. Or that he’s sacrificed an assumption about everyone in the US — that he’s a “good American.”

Then again, maybe the message about sacrifice doesn’t fit. The contract deal Kaepernick got in 2014 was over $100 million, but his stance in taking a knee ultimately cost him that amount coming to fruition. Yet Kaepernick yet maintains a $24 million net worth and is likely making bank on this Nike deal. Painful, taxing, or emptying sacrifice isn’t often associated with people who represent such extravagant living.

But whether the implied sacrifice is Kaepernick’s or primarily just that which he aims to represent — those African Americans who’ve been severely affected by police brutality — is somewhat beside the point. While the message of standing up against unfair judgment resonates with a large portion of society, the number influenced by the message hardly compares to the masses attracted by the sheer power of the swoosh or the italicized Futura Bold Condensed Oblique-fonted four letters no one ever mispronounces. Before kids can read, they know it’s “Nikey,” not “Nike.”

Which leads me to this: Who’s right?

Two powerful entities — a brand and a commander-in-chief. It’s virtually impossible to determine how much people are persuaded by either Kaepernick’s or Trump’s words for the words themselves. Something everyone knows, however, is that people find themselves taking sides on issues merely for what power they represent, which can be a country, professional sports league, best-selling brand, or a self-identified race.

Power clouds issues. If exercising it, intentionally pose influential rhetoric as empathetic, sincere, and honest to allow more than just your rallying base to give your words a listen. If listening to the message of power, know how to engage it, analyze it, and dissect it because often power cares much less for messages it projects than the publicity it creates.

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When Conflict Hits Houses and Homes

Your house burned down years ago. All you’re left with are burn scars that remind you of two things: your looks are marred, and when you narrowly escaped your own death you realized your sister was perfectly content standing by the sweet gum tree in the front yard instead of rushing to your rescue. That’s okay, though. That’s typical of any family, you think. Every family buckles under the pressures of conflict.

Not quite.

While this is the story of Maggie — Mama’s daughter, Dee’s sister — in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use,” it’s not everyone’s story. Or at least it doesn’t have to be.

Let’s step aside for a moment and consider real life. This week in Jacksonville, Alabama, a small college town that’s just about a home away from home to me, couples huddled in hallways, families rushed to storm shelters, kids cried in fear, and the prayerful called on divine protection. An EF3 tornado tore its way through the evening darkness damaging and destroying dormitories and apartment complexes, classroom buildings, church properties, family homes, sports facilities, a university library, and businesses. Some people were injured, but no one was killed. That’s about glass quarter-full, but some optimism is better than none.

Spann, James (@spann). “From Chuck Parker.” 20 March 2018, 4:26 AM. Tweet.

I saw a picture of a hallway (right) where a family had retreated for safety. An 8-inch steel pipe had been thrust through the walls of the house and rested inches from the place where the family sat to ride out the storm. I saw another picture of a three-story college apartment complex that was missing several-rooms-worth of its third floor. I read about a college softball player rushing to the locker room to avoid certain death as she witnessed the storm coming.

The common theme here is conflict. It happens. But it’s less about handling conflict when it happens; it’s about handling it after it happens.

In “Everyday Use,” Mama’s and Maggie’s contention with Dee mostly comes to light when Dee returns home, which doesn’t typically seem to be with an intent to learn about the progress, condition, and needs of her family.

As long as Dee’s not home, the conflict remains latent. When she shows up, the storm brews.

Dee, who Mama basically deems as smarter, more attractive, more confident, and more likely to do things with her life than Maggie, doesn’t seem to get as much direct praise from Mama as you might think. Dee visits home from college (an experience only afforded due to Mama’s petitions to her church) with her boyfriend Asalamalakim and says she’s changed her name to Wangero. Instead of scolding her, Mama reluctantly swallows Dee’s newfound, African-sounding identity and talks through a conversation in which Dee — at least to Mama — openly says her family’s views are uneducated and ignorant. So naturally the conversation turns to a request made by Dee — she wants her grandmother’s quilt, which Mama is deciding to pass on to one of her daughters. Mama leads the reader to believe Dee just wants the quilt to be like a trophy or museum artifact to represent her African heritage instead of an emblem to treasure one of her greatest family members.

On the surface, Maggie and Mama exhibit signs of interpersonal conflict: anger, jealousy, disappointment, disbelief, shock, complacency, dejection. Beneath the surface, deeper feelings of embarrassment, rejection, incompetence, and uselessness resonate from Mama’s narration.

Dee’s visits home almost need some sort of emergency alert announcement. With little notice, she brings a tornado-like impact on the emotions of her mom and sister.

The advice I’d give either the victims of the Jacksonville tornado or Mama’s family is this: Recognize some suffering as unavoidable. What you do in the moments of conflict and calamity can make a difference in limiting the enduring pain which succeeds it. Don’t try to fight it. Don’t ignore it, either. Don’t provoke it. Do your best to diminish it. And after the brunt of the conflict is over, try to resolve it rather than sweep it under the rug. Find ways to make the time of conflict a learning experience that builds character, strengthens bonds, and develops empathy for others involved.

Houses can easily be rebuilt; homes not so much.

 

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Death in the Peace Corps

Note: This is an exemplar post for an assignment following a study of Nicholas Gage’s “The Teacher Who Changed My Life.” 

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The US Peace Corps began in 1961. It serves as a means for US citizens to volunteer service to their country. Some of the latest ways Peace Corps volunteers serve others includes fighting HIV/AIDS in 26 countries, fighting hunger, encouraging environmental protection, and promoting technological access throughout the world. You can expect hearing of Peace Corps volunteers helping erect windmills. It isn’t surprising to hear of them teaching local farmers proven new methods. What you don’t expect are Peace Corps volunteers dying.

In Nicholas Gage’s “The Teacher Who Changed My Life,” Gage mentions one of his most recognized collegiate work samples, an article he wrote about a close friend who was the first to die — according to Gage — while serving in the Peace Corps. Gage’s friend died in the Philippines. But, I’m curious. How many others have died as a Peace Corps volunteer? Surely the number isn’t that great.

At the Fallen Peace Corps Volunteers Memorial Project (FPVMP), the number is given, and it’s higher than you might think. Out of more than 200,000 who’ve served, 302 people have died while serving in the Peace Corps. The project’s website gives information about many of these fallen civilians.

One person who died in Peace Corps service was Paul Bond. Bond had successfully completed a mission building infrastructure in Ecuador. He died in a crash in 1966 when his flight from Lima to Cuzco crashed into a mountain in bad weather.

Rose Anne Crimmins is another volunteer who died abroad. She served in the Peace Corps in India from 1965-1967. She died of carbon monoxide poisoning while in a hotel room in Iran.

According to FPVMP, the most recent Peace Corps death is that of Dianne Veiller. Veiller, who, according to Peace Corps volunteer Alexa, died of complications from a surgery. Veiller had worked for years in Uganda helping farmers with economic opportunities and food security.

Nicholas Gage’s text gives readers an impression of his genuine appreciation of all those who influenced him as he acclimated to American culture, language, education, and opportunity. He especially notes the lasting influence of his sacrificial mother, welcoming father, encouraging teacher Ms. Hurd, and good, altruistic Peace Corps friend.

Have you ever lost someone who was an inspiration to you? How does that person’s influence continue to transform you into a better person? Feel free to comment below.

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“The Train” and “Sick Room”

Framing the Assignment: My students have just recently finished reading two very different stories, Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” and Jack London’s “To Build a Fire.” In class we’ve discussed how the two stories relate by demonstrating that the environment (i.e., setting) of a story can have a significant impact on its conflict. In “Everyday Use,” the story’s conflict escalates when a mother’s college daughter returns to her mother’s house where she and her family can’t ever seem to get along — where disagreements and prejudices persist. In “To Build a Fire,” a subzero Yukon Territory serves as the environment in which an ignorant gold-seeking traveler painfully slowly digresses to eventual hypothermia and subsequent death. For the related assigned post, students are to create a narrative, in poem or short story form, that illustrates the potential for environment (i.e., setting) greatly intensifying conflict. This poem represents the conflict I face occasionally at the railroad tracks on Coleman Road. It never fails: When my kids and I are running behind to drop them off at their schools and for me to make it to work (at another school) on time, the train emerges from seemingly nowhere to slow us down. The sound devices and rhythm of the poem intentionally mimics the sound of a coming train.

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Poem Exemplar: “The Train”

Chirps in

Trees and

Three children’s

Cheeks on

Chilly days trying my patience.

Shifting,

Shouting,

Watching,

Charting

Traffic trailing some tractor.

Sleeping,

Slurping

Cheerios,

Staring at

Signals smirking at our slowness.

Optimism,

Expectation,

Denying all

Procrastination

Something sounding surging from the West.

The tracks.

The train.

The time.

Oh man.

School starts in 10 minutes.

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Short Story Exemplar: “Sick Room”

Early February. There’s no better time to go to the doctor’s office illness-free to get a physical for work. You definitely get the most for your money.

That $30 copay gets you more than an hour of waiting room Judge Judy reruns. It gives an opportunity to appreciate quality interior design. The evenly spaced mint-green, stiffly-padded wood chairs offer room-wide cohesion for comfort. The scuffed-up chair rail on every wall with chairs ironically no less than six inches from it gives the space character. Screen paintings of much prettier scenes than what’s offered in this room, and kindly framed messages informing patients of appointment cancellation fees. Only grandma’s house comes closer to the effective placement of ferns, People magazines, and Kleenex tissue.

But wait, there’s more. Your money also buys you a chance to people-watch. A five-year-old plays with his Batman action figure, picks his nose, wipes his finger on the chair next to his mother, then coughs a loud whooping cough and picks up a Motor Trend to look at the cars. A flushed woman with sweat dripping onto her glasses has her eyes closed, head back on the wall, and lets out an occasional groan as she resituates herself in her seat and briefly holds on to her stomach in pain. An elderly man, hard-of-hearing, walks in and says to the receptionist, loud enough for everyone in the plaza to hear, “My temp’s 101.7. My wife and two grandsons have the flu. I knew it was coming.” He pulls out a handkerchief, wipes the flow of dripping snot from his nose, puts it halfway back into his back pocket, grabs the countertop pen, signs in, and slides into the seat next to you as the handkerchief smears whatever from the place it first touches all the way to the back.

During this time, your reminded of other people who might’ve sat where you’re seating. A middle-aged man who appears to be a carpenter comes out from being seen by the doctor with what appears to be just-dried blood around a gaping rip in the knee of his jeans. Through the hole all you can see is gauze. A little girl comes out with a mask over her mouth. A distressed mother with a screaming baby.

Thoughts race through your mind. “What’s wrong with that baby?” “How’d that happen?” “Is that contagious?” “Where’d she sit?” “Did that person touch the door handle?” “Did I touch the door handle?” “Why’d I come here today?” “Is this worth it?” “Do I have any sick days left?” “How’d I get this stupid?”

You finish your visit. You turn in your physical at work.

Three days later. Back to the doctor’s office.

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Analyzing What I Read: My First Time Using CommonLit

As a reminder, this Student Exemplar blog is used as a way for Mr. S’mores to provide examples of blog assignments to students. For this assignment, students are to read a specific text, using CommonLit.org for the first time, and reflect on the learning experience. In this post, though, I’m reflecting on a different text at CommonLit in order to show model the style of such a response, but avoiding doing the specific analysis work my students are responsible for conducting.

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I enjoy reading, but sometimes it takes me several times reading through a text to begin to understand what it is saying. This can be frustrating, but there are some things that help me improve.

Today I used the CommonLit website for the first time. My teacher assigned my class to read “How Jackie Robinson Played Baseball,” by Jessica McBirney. He told us he selected questions based on specific standards for us to answer. He said that the standards on identifying and analyzing key ideas and details are the same standards we will be tested on when we take our next CFA (i.e., Common Formative Assessment).

I like the text we read. I love sports, and Jackie Robinson’s one of the greatest baseball players of all time. I learned several things I didn’t know and some I’d forgotten:

  • He was arrested and jailed for disputing a black friend’s arrest.
  • He joined the military, but never was called to action in battle.
  • He was removed from a bus by military police when he refused to sit in the back of a segregated bus.
  • He started in the Negro baseball leagues, but eventually grabbed the attention of the Brooklyn Dodgers and was drafted.
  • He helped the Dodgers win a National League pennant, and in 1956, he led them to being World Series champions.

The questions at CommonLit made me look closely at the text. One question asked me about the central idea of the text. I had to read four options and decide which one was the best response. I also had to select a detail from the text that best supported the central idea. There were also a couple questions that required me to give longer responses about why Robinson is an American hero and how American culture has changed over the last 60 years.

CommonLit allows me to type responses directly onto the page. This is different from Blackboard. It also makes it easy to listen to an audio version of the text.

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Choose Your Hiking Partner Wisely: A Lesson Learned from Jack London’s “To Build a Fire”

Note: This post serves as an example for students as to how a blog post can be written. Notice: Paragraph 1 begins with an introduction to the text recently read. Paragraph 1 ends with a grabbing reaction to something in the text (This is what many of my students identified as an area of research on a Free-exploration Friday.) Paragraph 2 briefly states why I chose to research my selected topic. Paragraph 3 introduces readers to what I researched (This can include questions I looked up or ideas I was curious about.). Paragraphs 4-6 goes a little deeper into the research and gives my own insight and experiences. Paragraph 4 can also reflect on my experiences in the research process (What part was fun/interesting? What part was difficult? Did I find what I needed? Did I find anything interesting that I didn’t expect to find?. Finally, the last paragraph offers the reader something to think about or asks a question. This is a great place to ask your readers to respond in a certain way. It’s fun to generate discussion. Notice that paragraph length usually varies in blog posts to maintain readability and interest. Oh, and if you need a picture for your blog post, see my list of creative commons licensed photo sites here. 

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This week my teacher introduced me to Jack London’s “To Build a Fire.” The protagonist of the story wouldn’t be the kind of person I’d want to travel with. Besides the fact that the man sets course to travel through the frigid -75 degree Yukon Territory with his dog and very few supplies, he seems so unrepentant of his poor choices and so bent on a dream of finding gold that he’d be unlikely to work with me to survive. He’d die and leave me alone, or he’d leave me to die.

Dying in a frozen wilderness is not on my to-do list, so I’ve decided to look up some information about carefully selecting the right kind of hiking partner.

Backpacker.com warns hikers to avoid these types of partners: the slacker, the foghorn, the moocher, the germ-y chef, the re-arranger, the thrasher, the worrywart, the perfectionist, the space hog, the in-house snacker, the nightlight, the tailgaters, the doorstop, the soloist, the slob, the pyro, and the party fouler.

You’d have to visit the article to get a full idea about what some of these are, but two partners that would drive me crazy are the slacker and the moocher. A slacker as a partner would never carry his load of our responsibilities. I’d be the one making sure the food is cooked, the bug spray is packed, the tent is set up, the trail is marked, the surroundings are safe, our decisions are good, etc. It isn’t that the slacker can’t or won’t do anything; it’s just that he’ll wait for me to do it first.

Not much different, a moocher for a partner would be worse than a slacker. This moocher probably would come entirely unprepared — not enough clothes, food, supplies. And guess who he’d bug to get his needs? Yeah, me.

The main character in “To Build a Fire” is a “chechaquo” — this is, a newcomer who is seeking gold in Canada’s Yukon Territory. He makes the unwise decision to travel alone with his dog. And he dies. He classifies as a slacker. He didn’t come prepared for the terrible cold and repeatedly made decisions that just made his situation worse.

So, what kind of hiking partner should you seek? Backpacker also gives some recommendations. You should find a person who enjoys the same things while hiking (caving, birding, photographing, etc.). You should also find a local hiking club to plan trips with experienced, skilled hikers who know the trails, know what to take, and know how to adapt and survive under special or extreme circumstances.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post as much as I have enjoyed researching a topic related to this story. Have you ever had a bad hiking experience as a result of someone you traveled with? Maybe you’re experiences have been good. Maybe you have a tip for my readers. Leave me a response below!