There once was a time when dogs ruled over cats, and all the cats and dogs of the small village of Fortville, a quiet little village on the outskirts of London.  All the cats lived their lives thinking that this was their eternal fortune and that everything would remain the same. But there were two wise old cats who who shared the same idea of a promised land, but had very different ideas of how to get there.  Their names were George and Maximus.

They were both well respected in the village.  George, was a tortoiseshell with a white nose and white paws.  He was an easygoing cat with a passionate sense of pride and dignity. He wanted all dogs and cats to be equal, without seeing blood in a fight.  A peaceful way to achieve his goal.

Maximus was a maine coon rogue cat.  Sometimes his desire overpowers his well rounded thinking, but never the less, Maximus had black paws and a brownish nose.  He too wanted all dogs and cats to be equal, but he was impatient and wanted to achieve equality by force.  His followers were also rogue cats.  And they sided with him for the belief that brute force, which they had experienced by their past owners, could be delivered swift and quick.

George’s followers wanted to simply march and use the power of peaceful protest to achieve equality.  Since the two cats could not decide on one idea to go forward with, they held a cats only village meeting, under the cellar of the old abandoned barn on the outskirts of the village.  George jumped up onto the big haystack in the middle of the room and paced to and fro, patiently waiting for all the others to take their seats.

“Brothers, Maximus and I have called you here tonight for a hearing of a common belief, but different methods of achieving this belief.  He and I strongly believe that all cats and dogs should be equal.  We have been shown no mercy whatsoever under the rule of the dogs.  The way they treat us will go on no longer.  I am not trying to influence a war council, for I do not want to fight and spill blood.  I believe in the manor of peaceful protest.  Not a weapon on you when you demand equality.  I believe this can be achieved through demonstrations of peace, and over a short time, we will have won our way in this world.  And slowly but surely, we will influence the rebellion over the whole world, one cat at a time.”

And with that George took a triumphant leap down from the haystack, seeing that he has moved the crowd with his passion.  Maximus then crept up onto the haystack.  “Brothers, we have suffered too long.  Under this tyranny of the cruel dogs we have been shown no mercy.  We deserve better, we deserve to live our life, not live their lie.  I say we act now.  Every cat in this room should know better about life than what the dogs squeeze and force down our throats.  I am calling for action, violent or not I want equality now.  I want certainty, not probability, the mere fact that our peaceful efforts could go to waste would be devastating.”

This went on for some time, the two sharing their thoughts passionately in the barn, and at the end the cats didn’t know what side they were on.  All they knew was they wanted equality for all cats.  There was one female cat who was particularly moved in the form of peaceful protest.  Her name was Millie.  A hardworking critical thinker.  After the meeting she went about her business like she had before.  She took the wagon to work every day. She and the rest of the cats had to sit in the back, and the dogs always got the front row seats just because they were dogs.  She was always annoyed by this.

Then one morning she got on the wagon, sat in the back of the wagon and faced a laborious day at work, by far the hardest day she had ever pushed herself through.  Her boss, thankfully another cat named Ramona, who knew Millie and the way she applied herself in difficult times and how she could always count on Millie to get the job done, said she could take the rest of the day off.

“But I have so much more work to do,” said Millie.

“I’ll take care of it,” said Ramona.

Millie was exhausted from all the tedious time consuming work she had to do that day. She got back on the wagon, and noticed it was more crowded than ever.  There were only a couple of seats left on the wagon, and they were all in the back.  After the next couple of stops, the wagon was full and even though she was sitting more in the front of the cats only section, she was asked rudely to give up her seat to a dog.  She found it ridiculous that she had to give up her seat to a dog when she was following all the ridiculous rules that came with the wagon, and now she had to give up her seat?

This outraged Millie, but she didn’t show it.  All she did was look up into the big fat dogs face and said calmly, “No.”  The whole wagon gasped.  Some other dogs got up from their seats.  The bus driver asked again, only to get the same reply.  Then he started to get agitated.  The bus driver yelled at Millie, and she responded in the same fashion once again.  The police were called to take her away and off the bus.  When Maximus and George heard about this, they were outraged, and therefore started to organize something that would jeopardize the wagon industry.  It was called the Wagon Boycott.

I chose to read the devil’s advocates point of view for this project.  In my opinion, George Wallace and his speech, The Civil Rights Movement, Fraud Sham Hoax, was a repetitive, self rising speech to try to influence people, white mostly, that African Americans are inferior human beings and they deserve no rights whatsoever.  He states numerous times that the African American community will invade and destroy the white communities just by going to their schools, churches and parks.

Wallace uses the persuasive techniques logos and pathos.  The way he uses pathos in his speech is by scaring the audience into thinking that if they let desegregation happen, their whole life will be ruined in an instant.  He uses logos by twisting and inflating his opinion into HIS logic.  Overall I don’t think it wasn’t a very convincing speech, even after I put myself in his position and try to understand why he wanted segregation so much.  I would recommend reading this speech after you have studied the civil rights movement for at least nine weeks depending on how fast you can consume and understand a subject matter.

I always thought songs nowadays were just about relationship problems and social life, but John Legend proved me wrong when I went to see the movie Selma in the theaters. This was the only song I had ever heard that actually meant something to history and the people, where as most songs are sung about the artists’ problems (sorry Sam Smith). My parents know many people that were affected by this era and song. The voice that the song was written in made the song more relatable. The significance pierced my heart with empathy, and my response was tears.

The voice from the page to the performance in this song is phenomenal. The first time I hear this song was moving. I sat there in the theater finishing my popcorn, and when the first verse struck the speakers, as a musician, I knew this one was different. And as I listened to the rap, (which I’m not a big fan of but in this case, yes) I heard major historical events wrapped up in it. But the voice itself is in the perspective of the people that had to live through the painful era of the civil rights movement. The voice itself was inspired by the people. That’s what makes this song so respectable.

The mere presence of a song like this is tantalizing. It does a phenomenal job of capturing the biggest events of the civil rights movement, as well as create an unavoidable state of empathy. In the line, “King pointed to the mountain top and we ran up”, the mountain top was one of the metaphors that Dr. King used in his speeches, meaning that there is a future at the top of the mountain, but we must climb to reach it. So many people were affected by that line. That line summed up some peoples life goals in two seconds. Freedom and Glory was what they were looking for. They had fought so hard and so long to be a part of society and be respected as a human being. In the lines, “The movement is a rhythm to us, freedom is like religion to us, justice is juxtaposition in us, justice for all just ain’t specific enough” those lines are based off what the people want believe and desire. The significance of this song is groundbreaking, and inspiring. It really captures so many peoples hearts and empathy. The reactions to this song is a whole different and emotional story.

My initial reaction was tears. I did not know anyone who had to live through this horrible time, I did not know what it was like at all. But this song made me feel so empathetic for these people who had to go through this time, without even knowing them, without even relating to them in any way, I still drew tears from my heart. I couldn’t even imagine the emotions stirred up in the people that actually had to go through this time. They must have been angry, sad, unheard, abused, and thankful. I added thankful to the mix because they are thankful that one of the biggest names in pop/R&B soul artists decided to write about something that every person on this planet should know about. This was the best song of the year. It won a well deserved Oscar. It one many other recognitions, but most important of all, it won the heart of the people. And that was the purpose for which it was wrote.

I always thought songs nowadays were just about relationship problems and social life, but John Legend proved me wrong when I went to see the movie Selma in the theaters. I felt endless empathy for the people, and teary eyed recognition for these artists.  They put something that many people couldn’t to words in a song that speaks volumes.