Milena Ateya in Lunsford et al. 2009: SPEAK up?

I believe that Milena Ateya (in Lunsford et. al 2007) is arguing in her piece, “A Curse And A Blessing.” She mainly argues about Derek Bok’s article about the freedom of speech. In the article, Ateya refers to the situation that took place at Harvard University between two students who hung confederate flags, which offended many students who went to Harvard because of what it symbolizes. Ateya showed her audience where she stood in terms with the passage by displaying short pieces of Bok's work. Although Ateya showed some of Bok's flaws, I feel that she wrote her piece in a way that she was able to make the readers aware of what was taking place. Ateya also showed that there is room for improvement in Bok's piece. In her piece, she shared her personal experiences as an escapee from a Communist Regime in Bulgaria and related it to Bok's passage. It demonstrated how strongly Milena feels about this particular topic.

                                                           Map of Bulgaria where Ateya escaped from.

    Ateya wrote this piece for one reason and one reason only: to recieve credibility from her readers. She analyzed Bok's story, in his views of a  former Harvard president and as a lawyer.  Although the readers were more engrossed about Bok's piece, and how the way Ateya criticized his work, would that give her a huge break as an author? Ateya targeted her piece to people who are learning how to be more persuasive in their speeches, by creating a message through the way Bok wrote his piece using the Supreme Court rulings. Bok was a respected member of Harvard University so therefore he had every intention of supporting his position, even as a lawyer who wanted to mention his opinion lightly. By doing so, Bok was able to show how he felt about this particular subject and Ateya is no different from Bok because they both share the same value and beliefs through their experience in their cultural background. Both authors used Pathos's proposition to encourage students to speak up and raise their voices, let it be heard.

                              Harvard University Students holding Confederate Flags which sparked the rivarly between cultures.

 
In the way that the piece is written, you can tell that Ateya put a lot of her time into criticizing Bok's passage. She came up with good key points about how Bok could improve his piece, having actual evidence to support his piece, or sharing his opinion about the issue at hand. In result of that, she was able to lure the audience with supporting evidence. I believe that although Bok could have done a better job on explaining descriptively about the topic at hand, Ateya points out that Bok didn't support his ideas well enough to persuade his audience-- he didn't seem too comfortable with the fact that one of the two sides of the situation that took place at Harvard.

As I read that statement, it brought me back to a time last September when I was to write a speech addressed to two hundred teachers educating them about "deafness." Throughout the presentation, I used my freedom of speech rights to explain what it is like in the deaf culture. Also to explain to them that the quote" deaf and dumb," needs to go! After my presentation, I knew that the teachers finally had a clear insight on their future perspetive students and how they are capable of succeeding like every other child out there. From that moment on, I am sure those teachers no longer discriminated against deaf children. Although I can't put myself in Ateya's shoes espescially after she went through, I understand the message that is being sent across using Bok's feedback. The situation that took place at Harvard was a mere twist of fate, if students didn't take the flag so offensively then Bok and Ateya would have to be writing about something else. In conclusion, I believe that the majority of us can relate to this story on a personal level, because too often we do forget to use our voices. We forget to speak up when we aren't being treated fairly, and we let people take advantage f us because we have a good heart. Deaf, Blind, Jewish, African-American, we are still one. So keep on mind Bloggers, that if you don't feel like your being treated fairly then speak up- use your freedom of speech rights. Think about it, why wouldn't you raise your voice, wouldn't you raise it for people out there in the world who aren't able to speak up?

Wouldn't you speak up for them? 

  Don't you think they deserve it more than any of us?