Chaya's AP Lang Blog

Columnist Nicholas Kristof, in his opinion article "If Americans Love Moms, Why Do We Let Them Die?" (2017),  asserts that maternal medicine in the United States is failing, and it is completely unacceptable. He describes the current situation, then uses contrast to shed light on the difference between the U.S. and other advanced countries in this area, follows with pathos in the form of personal anecdotes of women who suffer because of this lacking, and builds a political argument on the basis that this issue is due to problems with Medicaid and Republicans lack of initiative in an issue that they are apparently passionate about. Kristof intends to shed light on the sad, harsh reality of the situation and those who it affects, and also admonish the American medical system as well as the government administration for not dealing with this problem. He serves as a critic towards the Republican administration and American maternal medicine, and as a advocate for the women who ar...

This satirical article, titled "As your doctor, I am protesting the removal of your tumor because I don't want to erase your medical history," uses irony and humor to make the point that it is completely ludicrous and illogical to leave the Confederate monuments in their places and not remove them. Using the form of a doctor's note, Bob Vulfov uses an extended simile comparing these offending monuments to a life threatening tumor. The satirical tone comes in by taking the stance of those who do not want to remove the Confederate monuments, and showing how ridiculous and silly their view point sounds when compared to a tumor. The "doctor" explains that he views the tumor as an "important symbol of your body's history and heritage" and this history should be celebrated and "prominently displayed inside your body." This is how those who wish to protect the monuments make their case. They claim that these monuments symbolize the history o...

In the past year, there have been many differences of opinions throughout the south regarding the topic of whether to remove Confederate monuments or not. While some cities, like Charlottesville, VA, chose to leave these statues standing, others, like New Orleans, LA, voted to remove them. The issue of conserving or obliterating these offending memorials has validity on both ends. Those in support of removing them want to erase the message that they stand for and what they represent in our history as well as our future, while those opposed to removing them believe that we cannot erase our history and these monuments should stand as a teachable moment for future generations.  I see solid validity on both sides of the argument, and at first I sided with Mayor Signer from Charlottesville, who voted to keep the statues standing. He spoke about how we must "neither forget the past nor accept its grasp on our present and future," and how we cannot erase the history of our country,...