Interest Groups Essay Example for Free

Interest Groups Essay They vary considerably in size and ideological perspectives. The strategies and tools employed by interest groups are not static, and they differ depending on the geographical scope of their operations and the resources they have. While many interest groups tend to address a wide range of issues, others deal with distinct issues. The life span of interest groups is also not static. In this case, some groups have long term objectives; hence, they remain active for long duration. For instance, the interest groups that aim at challenging policy issues and politics operate on a long term basis. On the other hand, some groups are usually initiated with an aim of achieving a particular end after which they are dissolved. For example, during elections, many groups usually emerge with an aim of ensuring that the process is handled according to the stipulated guidelines of the electoral process. A representative government is always formulated in manner that facilitates participation of contending interests, and at the same time it tries to mitigate the variance that inexorably accompanies faction competition. In the traditional creation of pluralism, contending interests work together by mobilizing resources and opinions in order to enhance effective formulation and implementation of essential public policies. â€Å"Institutions are formed to accommodate the inevitability of diverse and competing interest from becoming powerful enough to undermine the rights of others† (Wilson, 2009). This process is governed by constitutional provisions, which stipulate the nature of interest groups’ activities. Therefore, many interest groups that work together tend to stabilize political environment, and this enables them to forward their interests to the government. â€Å"This implies that the pluralist vision of politics is an ideal vision of interest group politics and political institutions† (Barber, 1990). The activities conducted by various interest groups can be used to differentiate them. For instance, some of them endeavor to address several public issues, while others have a narrow scope of private interests. There are two distinct types of interest groups, and they can be described as follows. First, we have public interest groups, and they aim at working on issues that benefit the general public. For instance, they support policies that provide equal opportunities that can be enjoyed by everyone in the society. However, the success of public interest groups may not be very substantial at an individual level since they aim at reaching out to many people. â€Å"Some of the major public interest groups in his category are National Taxpayer’s Union and Concerned Women for America† (Orman, 1988). The second category is referred to as private interest groups. These are groups which endeavor to challenge public policies in order to specifically benefit their members or individuals that support their interests. Nonetheless, the objectives and activities of private interests groups should not interfere with the welfare of other individuals. Political self interest is perceived to b e healthy for a political system. In the USA, there is a popular belief that contending interests make the society more successful. This is because bad policies are always eliminated when various groups compete against each other â€Å"Other examples of interest groups include business organizations labor unions, Professional associations, and Non Governmental Organizations† (Grossman, 2002). The Relationship between Interest Groups and Political Parties There is no great disparity between political parties and various interest groups, because they are both composed of individuals having common objectives and opinions. Apart from this, â€Å"they are similar in the sense that they both seek to challenge government institutions, elections, and they all make public policy choices† (Brunell, 2005). Nonetheless, there are significant variations between these two bodies. Generally, interest groups never directly support their own members to contest for public office, especially in a case where economic parameter is concerned. In most cases, interest groups never adopt overt party labels, which electors use to identify and express their political affiliations (Dulilio Wilson, 2011). However, some electors may link particular interest groups with specific parties in a general manner. For example, the Tea Party is often linked with the Republicans and the white conservatives. In the recent past, public interest groups that are ideologically driven have increased considerably (King, 2011). For instance, a there are some groups which have pushed the tax agenda in political circles. Another distinguishing factor is that interest groups have a limited focus, and they only handle specific issues of concern in the public policy. For example, â€Å"interest groups form around specific concerns like environment, free speech, tax reform, and labor standards† (Petracca, 1992). In contrast to this, political parties tend to focus on several issues. Moreover, political parties try to merge some of these facades under one â€Å"big umbrella†. In some circumstances, interest groups seriously struggle against political parties. For instance, some internal rivalries have been witnessed in key political parties that operate in Texas. When elections were conducted in 2000, several environmentalists who were members of the Texas Democratic Party massively supported Ralph Nader, the Green Party candidate, since they felt that Al Gore was less committed toward environmental issues. They labeled him â€Å"not green enough†. On the other hand, some Republicans have tried to make the party conservative by working against some of their Republican colleagues. This indicates that the interest groups tend to favor parties and politicians that support their interests, and they ignore those who are less committed in helping them. Interest groups always aim at maximizing policies, while political parties are usually trying to obtain many Congress seats. These competing interests influence the manner political parties relate with the interest groups. According Thomas Brunell, â€Å"interest groups have a preference as which party controls a majority of seats in Congress, which leads them to direct â€Å"sincere† and electorally useful money to this party† (Hay, 2001) When interest groups offer funds to the â€Å"other† party, they always fund it in a manner that is less effective. Interest groups usually execute this goal by offering strategic funds to this party as follows: provide little financial support particularly to the popular candidates who do not necessarily have to be funded in order to succeed in the elections. They can also choose to fund incumbent candidates who already have political clout. Therefore, even if these groups offer funds to these parties, they always do it in a biased manner, and they favor only the parties that are likely to push forward their interests. These funds enable their preferred candidates to run their campaigns smoothly without experiencing financial hitches. Apart from offering finances, interest groups also provide key information that enables their favorite candidates to be more competitive than other contenders. They also sensitize their preferred candidates on issues that always influence election outcomes. All these services are organized by interest groups with an aim of fulfilling their common objective of influencing election results and policies. The fact that these institutions have a relationship is therefore undeniable. These groups often forge close ties and pursue similar objectives in order to enhance their political clout. Nonetheless, they remain independent, and their nature of operation and design also remain different. â€Å"The space for action, speech and flexibility that is maintained in politics makes them much more political than interest groups† (Grossman, 2002). How Interest Groups Try to Influence the President and the Congress? Although interest groups do not directly have elected members in political offices, they do aim at fixing their members into appointed positions. They normally do this to enable them perform their state functions through mechanisms that support the desired policies of the interests groups that facilitated their appointments. The fact that â€Å"groups† operate as political players has always been recognized and examined, even if not properly understood. The manipulation of legislative processes by groups is a question that has not yet been answered, and it is still being begged. Between the period of the 1970 and 1980s, some â€Å"explosions† were witnessed in Washington, and researchers have wanted to clearly understand them. As many groups emerged in Washington, many people joined them, and the groups increasingly funded parties. The citizens at the same time criticized the roles of interest groups and joined them in large numbers probably to suppress the powerful corporate groups. The role of groups in policy issues seemed to have taken a new dimension, and everyone was keen to see how it happened. Therefore, it can be argued that group manipulation of the Congress can be identified by simply examining the development of legislation that a group is favoring. For instance, a group’s ineffectiveness in legislative process can be measured through its failure to intercept unpopular bills. In general, â€Å"interest group activities predict, at least in part, how far bills will progress through the legislative process† (Brunell, 2005). The term influence as applied in this context is quite narrow from the perspective of interest groups, and it is broad from a congressional perspective. Interest groups perceive influence as a process that should produce good policies or prevent undesirable policies from being adopted. However, a group does not have to obtain policies from the Congress that directly indicate their actual desires; rather a group’s influence is seen when the Congress makes or discards a policy, which is in line with the interests of a group. From a congressional perspective, influence emerging from interest groups can come in several ways. Interest groups are often said to have manipulated the Congress when its members are compelled or encouraged to change the course or provisions of a given bill in order to meet the demands of the interest groups. This influence might come in the form of a change of wording, a passage from a subcommittee, and not passing from a standing committee† (Orman, 1988). In this process, interest groups may lead to the change of legislation, and the president may not have the capacity to reverse the whole process of legislation, even if he does not like the content of the bill. On the other hand, the president can also manipulate the Congress by working closely with the interest groups. As discussed above, the law making process can be indirectly manipulated through elections. For instance, an incumbent President may pass some bills in favor of some groups so that he may get some support from them during the next elections. Besides this, interest groups may support pliable candidates whom they can easily manipulate during the law making processes. This symbiotic relationship between the interest groups and the politicians to some extent affect the capacity of both the president and the Congress to formulate effective laws. Politics in America has become complicated to many politicians. This is because interest groups have managed to seriously entrench themselves in politics and much of their attention has been geared towards influencing the White House. â€Å"Since the American President has come to play an increasingly important role in the public policy process, interest groups and their lobbyists now descend on the presidency with the same vigor as they descend on the congress† (Orman, 1988). In this context, the president is faced with the challenge of fulfilling the needs of the ordinary citizens and the interest groups. Interest groups have faced much criticism especially when it comes to policy issues. Its critics contend that most of the policy issues dealt with by interests groups have no connection to the desires of the public. The leaders of these groups have also been blamed for being dishonest because they always fail to fulfill the demands of their members. The weaknesses of the interests groups have been seen as one of the factors interfering with democracy in the USA. It has also been noted with a lot of concern that some political candidates have been seriously intimidated by some interest groups, and this further affects the reputation of the interest groups. Conclusion  The above discussion indicates that the American government is guided various institutions, which work together with an aim of building a more democratic society. The interest groups have been instrumental in addressing the plight of the public by ensuring that policy issues are handled properly. The effectiveness of the government has also been enhanced by the numerous contending interests. The American government has been able to adopt better policies due to the serious competition that exists among various institutions. These groups have played a fundamental role of widening the democratic space in America. The American government has been influenced by several groups over the years to an extent that some individuals refer to it as â€Å"a world of interest groups†. The interest groups should, therefore remain committed towards enhancing democracy and good governance. And I think those groups have same mission, its to make the government do something right like that should be. for example, national education thinks that the system of lesson in ur country have to be changed because it is not effective, so the collect the data to support their argument, and send it to government, and hope it will influence the policy.

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‘Clan Of The Cave Bear’ By Jean Auel Jean Auel wrote the book by the name of the â€Å"Clan of the cave bear† and it has been hailed as one of the bets pieces of all times. It was so good that even a movie has been made on the story line and much of the success of the movie can be accredited to the success of the book itself. The story is basically about this woman and her struggles in life and it is very broad because the story develops over the years and it encompasses a number of other characters and happenings in her life. It is about how things shape out in her life and many a reader may get the impression that it is herself that she is talking about and that she went through the similar period of turmoil and trouble in her own times. Life can be a funny thing and as the title of the play suggests that it is about a family which in this case is the family of the bear or his clan and the story deals with their lives and developments over the years. The story begins like any common novel but the way in which the language and expression can be felt is very deep rooted and the impact is very deep. It is able to interact with the people and the human values and human touch has been emphasized by the writer. She feels that the best way to interact with the reader is by giving them something that is new to them. Humane touch and the human element is something that has been missing in the books of recent times and that is what makes the American writers peculiar because their level of interaction and their inclusion of the human values in their works are very pronounced. The main character in the book is a female who is left stranded after a disaster and she is at a loss of words because she is still in her tender age. She is so young t... ...the prime focus of study in the book and the writer has not spared any thought about their description and she has done a remarkably wonderful job of making that link so effective between the two completely different worlds. The adoptive and the parental instincts as well as the human touch are apparently clear. The two worlds might seem equally ugly to one another from a naked eye. Ayla learns about new things and is able to understand the things that are not known to the outside world. There are social and moral taboos and she breaks them and she is allowed to do so and she ventures in the unfamiliar territory where no one else has been before. There is mystery and there may be evolution but moreover it is all about the way the things may interact and bring out the best from the ends where things might have been there but have always gone so unnoticed by us all.

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal Chapter 15

Chapter 15 Joshua and Balthasar rode into Kabul at a time of night when only cutthroats and whores were about (the whores offering the â€Å"cutthroat discount† after midnight to promote business). The old wizard had fallen asleep to the rhythm of his camel's loping gait, an act that nearly baffled Joshua as much as the whole demon business, as he spent most of his time on camelback trying not to upchuck – seasickness of the desert, they call it. Joshua flicked the old man's leg with the loose end of his camel's bridle, and the magus came awake snorting. â€Å"What is it? Are we there?† â€Å"Can you control the demon, old man? Are we close enough for you to regain control?† Balthasar closed his eyes and Joshua thought that he might be going to sleep again, except his hands began to tremble with some unseen effort. After a few seconds he opened his eyes again. â€Å"I can't tell.† â€Å"Well, you could tell that he was out.† â€Å"That was like a wave of pain in my soul. I'm not in intimate contact with the demon at all times. We are probably too far away still.† â€Å"Horses,† Joshua said. â€Å"They'll be faster. Let's go wake up the stable master.† Joshua led them through the streets to the stable where we had boarded our camels when we came to town to heal the blinded bandit. There were no lamps burning inside, but a half-naked whore posed seductively in the doorway. â€Å"Special for cutthroats,† she said in Latin. â€Å"Two for one, but no refunds if the old man can't do the business.† It had been so long since he'd heard the language that it took Joshua a second to respond. â€Å"Thank you, but we're not cutthroats,† Joshua said. He stepped past her and pounded on the door. She ran a fingernail down his back as he waited. â€Å"What are you? Maybe there's another special.† Joshua didn't even look back. â€Å"He's a two-hundred-and-sixty-year-old wizard and I'm either the Messiah or a hopeless faker.† â€Å"Uh, yeah, I think there is a special rate for fakers, but the wizard has to pay full price.† Joshua could hear stirring inside of the stable master's house and a voice calling for him to hold his horses, which is what stable masters always say when they make you wait. Joshua turned to the whore and touched her gently on the forehead. â€Å"Go, and sin no more,† he said in Latin. â€Å"Right, and what do I do for a living then, shovel shit?† Just then the stable master threw open the door. He was short and bowlegged and wore a long mustache that made him look like a dried-up catfish. â€Å"What is so important that my wife couldn't handle it?† â€Å"Your wife?† The whore ran her nail across the back of Joshua's neck as she passed him and stepped into the house. â€Å"Missed your chance,† she said. â€Å"Woman, what are you doing out here anyway?† asked the stable master. Joy scurried out onto the landing and pulled a short, broad-bladed black dagger from the folds of her robe. The ends of the rope ladder were swaying in front of her as the monster descended. â€Å"No, Joy,† I said, reaching out to pull her back into the cave. â€Å"You can't hurt it.† â€Å"Don't be so sure.† She turned and grinned at me, then ran the dagger twice over the thick ropes on one side leaving it attached by only a few fibers, then she reached up a few rungs and sliced most of the way through the other side of the ladder. I couldn't believe how easily she'd cut through the rope. She stepped back into the passageway and held the blade up so it caught the starlight. â€Å"Glass,† she said, â€Å"from a volcano. It's a thousand times sharper than any edge on an iron blade.† She put the dagger away and pulled me back into the passageway, just far enough so we could see the entrance and the landing. I could hear the monster coming closer, then a huge clawed foot appeared in silhouette in the entrance, then the other foot. We held our breath as the monster reached the cut section of the ladder. Nearly a whole massive thigh was visible now, and one of his talonlike hands was reaching down for a new hold when the ladder snapped. Suddenly the monster hung sideways, swinging from his hold on a single rope in front of the entrance. He looked right at us, the fury in his yellow eyes replaced for a moment by confusion. His leathery bat ears rose in curiosity, and he said, â€Å"Hey?† Then the second rope snapped and he plunged out of our view. We ran out to the landing and looked over the edge. It was at least a thousand feet to the floor of the valley. We could only see several hundred feet down in the dark, but it was several hundred feet of cliff face that was conspicuously monsterless. â€Å"Nice,† I said to Joy. â€Å"We need to go. Now.† â€Å"You don't think that did it?† â€Å"Did you hear anything hit bottom?† â€Å"No,† I said. â€Å"Neither did I,† she said. â€Å"We had better get going.† We'd left the water skins at the top of the plateau and Joy wanted to grab some from the kitchen but I dragged her toward the front entrance by the collar. â€Å"We need to get as far away from here as we can. Dying of thirst is the least of my worries.† Once we were in the main area of the fortress there was enough light to negotiate the hallways without a lamp, which was good, because I wouldn't let Joy stop to light one. As we rounded the stairway to the third level Joy jerked me back, almost off my feet, and I turned around as mad as a cat. â€Å"What? Let's get out of here!† I screamed at her. â€Å"No, this is the last level with windows. I'm not going through the front door not knowing if that thing is outside it.† â€Å"Don't be ridiculous, it would take a man on a fast horse a half hour to make it around from the other side.† â€Å"But what if it didn't fall all the way? What if it climbed back up?† â€Å"That would take hours. Come on, Joy. We could be miles away from here by the time he gets here from the other side.† â€Å"No!† She swept my feet out from under me and I landed flat on my back on the stone floor. By the time I was on my feet again she had run through the front chamber and was hanging out the window. As I approached her she held her finger to her lips. â€Å"It's down there, waiting.† I pulled her aside and looked down. Sure enough, the beast was looming in front of the iron door, waiting to grab the edge in its claws and rip it open as soon as we threw the bolts. â€Å"Maybe it can't get in,† I whispered. â€Å"It couldn't get through the other iron door.† â€Å"You didn't understand the symbols all over that room, did you?† I shook my head. â€Å"They were containment symbols – to contain a djinn, or a demon. The front door doesn't have any on it. It won't hold him back.† â€Å"So why isn't he coming in?† â€Å"Why chase us when we will come right to him?† Just then the monster looked up and I threw myself back from the window. â€Å"I don't think he saw me,† I whispered, spraying Joy with spit. Then the monster began to whistle. It was a happy tune, lighthearted, something like you might whistle while you were polishing the bleached skull of your latest victim. â€Å"I'm not stalking anyone or anything,† the monster said, much louder than would have been required had he been talking to himself. â€Å"Nope, not me. Just standing here for a second. Oh well, no one is here, I guess I'll be on my way.† He began to whistle again and we could hear footsteps getting quieter along with the whistling. They weren't moving away, they were just getting quieter. Joy and I looked out the window to see the huge beast doing an exaggerated pantomime of walking, just as his whistle fizzled. â€Å"What?† I shouted down, angry now. â€Å"Did you think we wouldn't look?† The monster shrugged. â€Å"It was worth a try. I figured I wasn't dealing with a genius when you opened the door in the first place.† â€Å"What'd he say? What'd he say?† Joy chanted behind me. â€Å"He said he doesn't think you're very smart.† â€Å"Tell him that I'm not the one who has spent all these years locked in the dark playing with myself.† I pulled back from the window and looked at Joy. â€Å"Do you think he could fit though this window?† She eyed the window. â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"Then I'm not going to tell him. It might make him angry.† Joy pushed me aside, stepped up on the windowsill, turned around and faced me, then pulled up her robe and peed backward out the window. Her balance was amazing. From the growling below, I gathered that her accuracy wasn't bad either. She finished and jumped down. I looked out the window at the monster, who was shaking urine from its ears like a wet dog. â€Å"Sorry,† I said, â€Å"language problem. I didn't know how to translate.† The monster growled and the muscles in its shoulders tensed beneath the scales, then it let loose with a punch that sent its fist completely through the iron skin of the door. â€Å"Run,† Joy said. â€Å"Where?† â€Å"The passage to the cliff.† â€Å"You cut the ladder.† â€Å"Just run.† She pulled me along behind her, guiding us through the dark as she had before. â€Å"Duck,† she shouted, just a second after I realized that we'd entered the smaller passageway by using the sensitive stone-ceiling-sensing nerves in my forehead. We made it halfway down the passageway to the cliff when I heard the monster hit and curse. There was a pause, then a horrible grinding noise so intense that we had to shield our ears from the assault. Then came the smell of burning flesh. Dawn broke just as Joshua and Balthasar rode into the canyon entrance to the fortress. â€Å"How about now?† Joshua asked. â€Å"Do you feel the demon now?† Balthasar shook his head balefully. â€Å"We're too late.† He pointed to where the great round door had once stood. Now it was a pile of bent and broken pieces hanging on what was left of the huge hinges. â€Å"What in the name of Satan have you done?† Joshua said. He jumped off his horse and ran into the fortress, leaving the old man to follow as best he could. The noise in the narrow passageway was so intense that I cut pieces of cloth from my sleeves with Joy's dagger and stuffed them in our ears. Then I lit one of the fire sticks to see what the monster was doing. Joy and I stood there, gaped-jawed, watching as the beast worried away at the stone of the passage, his claws moving in a blur of speed, throwing smoke and dust and stone shards into the air as he went, his scales burning from the friction and growing back as fast as they burned away. He hadn't come far, perhaps five feet toward us, but eventually he would widen the passage enough and pull us out like a badger digging termites out of the nest. I could see now how the fortress had been built without tool marks. The creature moved so quickly – literally wearing away the walls with his claws and scales – that the stone was polished as it was cut. We had already made two ascents up what was left of the ladder to the top of the plateau, only to have the monster come around and chase us back down it before we could get to the road. The second time he pulled the ladder up, then returned to the interior of the fortress to resume his hellish digging. â€Å"I'll jump before I'll let that thing get me,† I said to Joy. She looked over the edge of the cliff into the endless darkness below. â€Å"You do that,† she said. â€Å"Let me know how it goes.† â€Å"I will, but first I'll pray.† And I did. I prayed so hard that beads of sweat popped out on my forehead and ran over my tightly closed eyes. I prayed so hard that even the constant screeching of the monster's scales against the stone was drowned out. For a moment there, I was sure that it was just me and God. As was his habit with me, God remained quiet, and I suddenly realized how frustrated Joshua must have been, asking always for a path to follow, a course of action, and being answered by nothing but silence. When I opened my eyes again dawn had broken over the cliff and light was streaming into the passageway. By full daylight the demon was even scarier. There was blood and gore all over him from the massacre of the girls, and even as he relentlessly wore away at the stone, flies buzzed around him, but as each tried to light on him it died instantly and fell to the floor. The stench of rotting flesh and burning scales was almost overwhelming, and that alone nearly sent me over the side of the cliff. The beast was only three or four cubits out of reach from us, and every few minutes he would rear back, then throw his claw forward to try and grab at us. Joy and I huddled on the landing over the cliff face, looking for any purchase, any handhold that would get us away from the beast: up, down, or sideways across the cliff face. The fear of heights had suddenly become very minor. I was beginning to be able to feel the breeze from the monster's talons as he lunged into the narrow opening at us when I heard Balthasar's deep bass shout from behind the beast. The monster filled the whole opening so I couldn't see behind it, but he turned around and his spade-tipped tail whipped around us, nearly lacerating our skin as it passed. Joy drew the glass knife from her robe and slashed at the tail, nicking the scales but apparently not causing the monster enough trouble to turn around. â€Å"Balthasar will tame you, you son of a shit-eating lizard!† Joy screamed. Just then something came shooting through the opening and we ducked out of the way as it sailed into space and fell out of sight to the canyon floor, screeching like a falcon on the dive. â€Å"What was that?† Joy was trying to squint into infinity to see what the monster had thrown. â€Å"That was Balthasar,† I said. â€Å"Oops,† said Joy. Joshua yanked the great spade-tipped tail and the demon swung around with a ferocious snarl. Joshua held on to the tail even as the demon's claws whistled by his face. â€Å"What is your name, demon?† Joshua said. â€Å"You won't live long enough to say it,† said the demon. He raised his claw again to strike. Joshua yanked his tail and the demon froze. â€Å"No. That's not right. What is your name?† â€Å"My name is Catch,† said the demon, dropping his arm to his side in surrender. â€Å"I know you. You're the kid, aren't you? They used to talk about you in the old days.† â€Å"Time for you to go home,† Joshua said. â€Å"Can't I eat those two outside on the ledge first?† â€Å"No. Satan awaits you.† â€Å"They are really irritating. She peed on me.† â€Å"No.† â€Å"I'd be doing you a favor.† â€Å"You don't want to hurt them now, do you?† The demon laid his ears back and bowed his enormous head. â€Å"No. I don't want to hurt them.† â€Å"You're not angry anymore,† Joshua said. The monster shook his head, he was already bent nearly double in the narrow passage, but now he prostrated himself before Joshua and covered his eyes with his claws. â€Å"Well, I'm still angry!† Balthasar screamed. Joshua turned to see the old man covered with blood and dirt, his clothes torn from where his broken bones had ripped through them on impact. He was healed now, only minutes after the fall, but not much better for having made the trip. â€Å"You survived that fall?† â€Å"I told you, as long as the demon is on earth, I'm immortal. But that was a first, he's never been able to hurt me before.† â€Å"He won't again.† â€Å"You have control over him? Because I don't.† Joshua turned around and put his hand on the demon's head. â€Å"This evil creature once beheld the face of God. This monster once served in heaven, obtained beauty, lived in grace, walked in light. Now he is the instrument of suffering. He is hideous of aspect and twisted in nature.† â€Å"Hey, watch it,† said the demon. â€Å"What I was going to say is that you can't blame him for what he is. He has never had what you or any other human has had. He has never had free will.† â€Å"That is so sad,† said the demon. â€Å"One moment, Catch, I will let you taste that which you have never known. For one moment I will grant you free will.† The demon sobbed. Joshua took his hand from the demon's head, then dropped his tail and walked out of the narrow passageway into the fortress hall. Balthasar stood beside him, waiting for the demon to emerge from the passageway. â€Å"Are you really able to do that? Give him free will?† â€Å"We'll see, won't we?† Catch crawled out of the passageway and stood up, now just ducking his head. Great viscous tears rolled down his scaled cheeks, over his jaws, and dripped to the stone floor, where they sizzled like acid. â€Å"Thank you,† he growled. â€Å"Free will,† Balthasar said. â€Å"How does that make you feel?† The demon snatched up the old man like a rag doll and tucked him under his arm. â€Å"It makes me feel like throwing you off the fucking cliff again.† â€Å"No,† said Joshua. He leapt forward and touched the demon's chest. In that instant the air popped as the vacuum where the demon had stood was filled. Balthasar fell to the floor and groaned. â€Å"Well, that free will thing wasn't such a great idea,† said Balthasar. â€Å"Sorry. Compassion got the better of me.† â€Å"I don't feel well,† the magus said. He sat down hard on the floor and let out a long dry rasp of breath. Joy and I came out of the passage to find Joshua bent over Balthasar, who was actively aging as we looked on. â€Å"He's two hundred and sixty years old,† Joshua said. â€Å"With Catch gone, his age is catching up.† The wizard's skin had gone ashen and the whites of his eyes were yellow. Joy sat on the floor and gently cradled the old man's head in her lap. â€Å"Where's the monster?† I asked. â€Å"Back in hell,† Joshua said. â€Å"Help me get Balthasar to his bed. I'll explain later.† We carried Balthasar to his bedchamber, where Joy tried to pour some broth into him, but he fell asleep with the bowl at his lips. â€Å"Can you help him?† I asked no one in particular. Joy shook her head. â€Å"He's not sick. He's just old.† â€Å"It is written, ‘To every thing there is a season,'† Joshua said. â€Å"I can't change the seasons. Balthasar's time has come round at last.† Then he looked at Joy and raised his eyebrows. â€Å"You peed on the demon?† â€Å"He had no right to complain. Before I came here I knew a man in Hunan who'd pay good money for that.† Balthasar lingered for ten more days, toward the end looking more like a skeleton wrapped in old leather than a man. In his last days he begged Joshua to forgive him his vanity and he called us to his bedside over and over to tell us the same things, as he would forget what he'd told us only a few hours before. â€Å"You will find Gaspar in the Temple of the Celestial Buddha, in the mountains to the east. There is a map in the library. Gaspar will teach you. He is truly a wise man, not a charlatan like me. He will help you become the man you need to be to do what you must do, Joshua. And Biff, well, you might not turn out terrible. It's cold where you are going. Buy furs along the way, and trade the camels for the woolly ones with two humps.† â€Å"He's delirious,† I said. Joy said, â€Å"No, there really are woolly camels with two humps.† â€Å"Oh, sorry.† â€Å"Joshua,† Balthasar called. â€Å"If nothing else, remember the three jewels.† Then the old man closed his eyes and stopped breathing. â€Å"He dead?† I asked. Joshua put his ear to the old man's heart. â€Å"He's dead.† â€Å"What was that about three jewels?† â€Å"The three jewels of the Tao: compassion, moderation, and humility. Balthasar said compassion leads to courage, moderation leads to generosity, and humility leads to leadership.† â€Å"Sounds wonky,† I said. â€Å"Compassion,† Joshua whispered, nodding toward Joy, who was silently crying over Balthasar. I put my arm around her shoulders and she turned and sobbed into my chest. â€Å"What will I do now? Balthasar is dead. All of my friends are dead. And you two are leaving.† â€Å"Come with us,† Joshua said. â€Å"Uh, sure, come with us.† But Joy did not come with us. We stayed in Balthasar's fortress for another six months, waiting for winter to pass before we went into the high mountains to the east. I cleaned the blood from the girls' quarters while Joy helped Joshua to translate some of Balthasar's ancient texts. The three of us shared our meals, and occasionally Joy and I would have a tumble for old times' sake, but it felt as if the life had gone out of the place. When it came time for us to leave, Joy told us of her decision. â€Å"I can't go with you to find Gaspar. Women are not allowed in the monastery, and I have no desire to live in the backwater village nearby. Balthasar has left me much gold, and everything in the library, but it does me no good out here in the mountains. I will not stay in this tomb with only the ghosts of my friends for company. Soon Ahmad will come, as he does every spring, and I will have him help me take the treasure and the scrolls to Kabul, where I will buy a large house and hire servants and I will have them bring me young boys to corrupt.† â€Å"I wish I had a plan,† I said. â€Å"Me too,† said Josh. The three of us celebrated Joshua's eighteenth birthday with the traditional Chinese food, then the next morning Joshua and I packed up the camels and prepared to head east. â€Å"Are you sure you'll be all right until Ahmad comes?† Joshua asked Joy. â€Å"Don't worry about me, you go learn to be a Messiah.† She kissed him hard on the lips. He squirmed to get loose from her and he was still blushing as he climbed onto his camel. â€Å"And you,† she said to me, â€Å"you will come to see me in Kabul on your way back to Israel or I will put such a curse on you as you'll never be free of it.† She took the little ying-yang vial full of poison and antidote from around her neck and put it around mine. It might have seemed a strange gift to anyone else, but I was the sorceress's apprentice and it seemed perfect to me. She tucked the black glass knife into my sash. â€Å"No matter how long it takes, come back and see me. I promise I won't paint you blue again.† I promised her and we kissed and I climbed on my camel and Joshua and I rode off. I tried not to look back, once again, to another woman who had stolen my heart. We rode a half a furlong apart, each of us considering the past and future of our lives, who we had been and who we were going to be, and it was a couple of hours before I caught up with Joshua and broke the silence. I thought of how Joy had taught me to read and speak Chinese, to mix potions and poisons, to cheat at gambling, to perform slight of hand, and where and how to properly touch a woman. All of it without expecting anything in return. â€Å"Are all women stronger and better than me?† â€Å"Yes,† he said. It was another day before we spoke again. Part III Compassion Torah! Torah! Torah! WAR CRY OF THE KAMIKAZE RABBIS

Project Study Sample on the Racism in the USA

Throughout the American rich history, the issue of racism has always reared its ugly head, tainting the huge contributions the US has made. This issue, which has been debated since the abolition of slavery in 1886, has deeply polarized Americans due to contradicting information which makes it important to discuss and write accurately on racism for succeeding generations. Although racial slavery is an element of the past, the statistics from the Mexican American project study sample and other surveys show that the United States currently experiences another form of racism termed domestic racism. Domestic racism also known as social stratification is a system of legitimized social inequalities in which a group of people receive more of the society’s wealth, justice, opportunities and prestige at the expense of others. In the US, the advantaged group consists of rich white and in some cases black males while the disadvantaged are minorities consisting of African Americans, Native Americans, Mexican Americans, poor Caucasians and Muslims. The statistics from The Mexican American project study which was first conducted in 1965 showed that darker Mexicans reportedly experienced more cases of discrimination than their lighter counterpart and women. Also, the education level a Mexican American received was directly proportional to the discrimination he or she experienced. This meant that educated Mexican Americans were more likely to be stereotyped than uneducated individuals of same race. Approximately 40 years later, the same feasibility study was conducted on the Mexican American population and the results showed a slight reduction in the level of discrimination. Darker Mexican Americans still wen through discrimination while the educated were less likely to be hired than their Caucasian colleagues with similar qualifications. In 2013, the Sentencing Project submitted a chilling report on the racial disparities in the United States criminal and justice system. The statistics from this report showed that although 12% of the United States population was black, black Americans made up 30% of people arrested for property offence and 38% of those arrested for violent offenses. The young were not also left out. Black American teenagers accounted for 16% of the children in the United States but they made up 28% of the kids arrested for juvenile offences. The above demographic example coupled with statistical numbers from the Report of the Sentencing Project to the United Nations draws a clear picture of the institutional racism minorities experience in the United States. It is also important to emphasize the reduced cases of discrimination Mexican Americans have faced over a 50 year period as well as the role feasibility studies and continuous educational coverage has played in reducing racism. But more can still be done if we as one nation continue to accurately document cases of institutionalized or domestic racism with a view to denounce it, so that the entire human race may become more tolerant to one another. References Ortiz, D. Telles, E. (2008). Generations of Exclusion, Mexican Americans, Assimilation and Race, 49-50, 53, 65-67. Ortiz, D. Telles, E. (2011). The Mexican American Study Project II (MASP II), 1998-2000, 20-25. Michael, L. (2009) In Job Hunt, College Degree Can’t Close Racial Gap, available at http://mobile.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/us/01race.html?referer= Mustard, D. (2001). Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Disparities in Sentencing: Evidence from the Federal Courts, 285, 308-309. FBI Criminal Justice Information Services Division (2011). Crime in the United States, 43A, available at http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/table-43. The Sentencing Project (2013). Racial and the Criminal Justice System in the United States, 3, 5-6. Angela, Davis. (2008). Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the American Prosecutor, 5.