TOW 13

Ted Mandell, a faculty member at Notre Dame’s Department of Film, argues that athletes should make a bigger deal about gun control and school shootings in his article Sports Offer the Arena to Raise Awareness of Gun Violence.  In his article Mandell claims that if athletes were to use their spotlight to help shine a light on these issues then maybe something would be done.  One thing that Mandell uses well in his article is the emotional tie to the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting.  Mandell talks about how many athletic groups made a big deal of the issue for a short period of time directly after the event but that in the past year little has been done.  He sights many of the small different things that some athletes or athletic groups did to help the victims in the short term, but then how they started to lag in their support as time went by.  This could also be a comment on American culture that the American people like to make a massive deal about things that happen and move on quickly forget, with little change left in the past.  Mandell chooses to shift the blame of these things on to athletes because they are easy to judge due to the fact that they are so blessed and in the limelight.  This allows readers to not feel as if he is criticizing them and not become defensive.  Mandell also does well as to draw a connection to the fact that it was the anniversary of the shooting to enhance the emotional feel of readers.  A couple more subtle claims that he makes are that gun control laws should be stricter and that America should care more.  This article is targeted towards judgmental people.  It is a way to make people judge the athletes for not doing more and as a way of shifting the blame and making themselves feel better. 

TOW 12

Student interest for jobs with a science and math base has dropped in recent years although these are the markets in which jobs have increased the most.  In the piece Who Says Math has to be Boring the Editorial Board for the New York Times make an argument of policy that the educational system in America needs to be altered in order to help fix this issue.  This Editorial Board is made up of 19 journalist of the New York Times who all has differing backgrounds in an effort to write well rounded articles.  This article includes four separate ideas in how to better equip students for the world and how to make their abilities and view of math and science better.  These four ways are a more flexible curriculum, earlier start with numbers, better-prepared teachers, and experience in the real world.  All of these ideas are separate and could work at fixing the issue on their own but would work even better together.  This article is also likely targeted to a more educated audience likely interested in politics or with a strong opinion about how the current education system is being run in an effort to spur them to think that there are flaws but there are simple ways to fix these issues.  One way the authors try to get this across is by clearly making a distinction between each idea.  Each idea is even made into separate categories and individually talked about to an extent.  This allows the readers to make clear divisions about each idea and think about them with a new mind as each new solution arises.  This also makes sure that the reader knows which idea is which and does not blur the lines between suggested solutions thinking that one thing may be under another.

TOW 11

Dale Carnegie created a new style of literature after his writing of How to Win Friends & Influence People and it is plain to see why.  His writing style conveys simple ways to live your life and improve your personality in a way that it draws them out for understanding.  Ideas that he could easily state in a handful of words he instead extends, adding in anecdotes and other analyses all in an effort to engrain the ideas in his reader.  For example, in one of the early sections of his book Carnegie writes about the importance of making the person who you are talking to feel important, and to talk about something they care about.  He then gives an example that one of his students, of a course with the same name as the book, had a case in which he implemented this idea.  He said that this student was doing landscaping for a judge and that he knew the judge was an avid dog breeder and had won awards.  When the judge was talking with the student the student inquired about this passion.  The judge went on to talk for hours with the man about it even giving him a present of a puppy he had bred, a puppy worth hundreds of dollars, and even drew up all of the paper work and wrote out instructions on feeding it, all because he inquired about the judges passion and made him feel important.  These anecdotes really help Carnegie’s point along.  By helping the reader understand the effects of these tactics the reader is much more likely to believe in them and put them into practice than if they were just some abstract idea.  One thing that is important to remember when reading this book however is that it was written over fifty years ago.  For this reason many of the ideas are dated and much of the side topics he references are hard to understand or know fully.  For example, he talks of politicians at that time who are not known as well now.

TOW 10

Michael Ramirez

The political cartoon below is a commentary on Obamacare.  It is meant to be a criticism of how Obama went back on his comment that if you like your healthcare you can keep it.  He later changed this when it was found that millions of people were loosing healthcare they liked.  The comment was then that you couldn’t always keep your healthcare but you could get something “better”.  This cartoon was created by Michael Ramirez, an acclaimed political cartoonist who has won two Pulitzer prizes in so far for his work.  Many of his works contain conservative viewpoints.  In the case of this cartoon, as with most others, humor is a major device.  Ramirez offers a few jokes in his drawling.  The most obvious joke is the women’s retort “What about our president?”  There are also more subtle jokes for example the t-shirt by the character meant to depict Obama is one that says “with stupid” and an arrow at Obama’s character.  These jokes are meant to appeal emotionally and do a good job of this helping to convey Ramirez’s criticism of Obama.  Another aspect, which is subtler, is the dog growling at Obama’s character.  This also appeals to emotion as dogs are often a good judge of character, so with the dog in anger people looking associate themselves with the dog in dislike of Obama.  This cartoon was likely created for conservative minded citizens who also likely pay attention to politics.  This is because he likely targets like-minded people and these conservative minded citizens are fans of his commentary.  Because of this targeting Ramirez knows that he is not trying to change anyone’s political ideals, but instead trying appeal to what they already believe.  It is like an inside joke, he does not to put in much of the context or any logic just emotional appeals and the joke.

IRB 2: How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

For my second IRB I am choosing to read Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People.  I stumbled upon this title when searching simply good non-fiction books.  The title stood out to me, being an odd title, and so I chose to look into it.  This book was one of the first ever self-help books.  It was started in the 1930s as an edited transcript of what Dale Carnegie said at one of his talks.  From there it grew to be one of the most famous books of its genre.  Dale Carnegie was a successful businessman turned lecturer.  When he became a lecturer he was even more successful even spurring Dale Carnegie training, which is still around to this day.  Carnegie put many people through his training including Warren Buffet who was so influenced by it that he still hangs the diploma on his wall.  This book has been revised most recently in 1981 with new anecdotes but still the majority of the ideas have not changed and only a couple was omitted.  This pair of sections included a section on how to write good business letters, which was the shortest in the entire book, and also a section on how to have a better marital life.  I do not know why these sections were omitted but they work out to be more positive for me as I am not yet married and letters in business are essentially obsolete.   This book was written with the intent of helping people to better themselves.  Its ideas can be stretched to any number of topics from business to everyday life because although the situation may change the general idea of it will not.  This book is a way of understanding how to succeed in the world by understanding how it works.  

TOW 9: Complexity and the Ten-Thousand-Hour Rule by Malcolm Gladwell

In his article from the New Yorker Malcolm Gladwell defends his point from his book Outliers.  This point, about the ten thousand hour rule, came under fire.  One criticism came from Time magazine and said that talent had nothing to do with how good you innately are.  The author’s comments being that Gladwell meant that no matter how good you were at the beginning, if you spent 10,000 hours you would be top tier were misunderstood as what Gladwell truly meant was that to be proficient you must add 10,000 hours on top of initial skill.  He also contradicted another mans critique that this rule did not apply to some categories for example sprinter because he’d, “Never seen a boy who was slow become fast.”  To this Gladwell responds that it is “complex” tasks that this rule is essential.  This article is likely targeted at people who have already read his book and are also simply a fan of his writing, as there is little other reason as to why you would stumble upon it.  One method that Gladwell uses to get his point across is direct response.  He directly cuts apart what the critiques commented about his work and instead of simply criticizing the entire works he specifically picks out the points that they make to criticize.  He over simplifies their writings as a way of showing how they oversimplified the 10,000 hours theory in the wrong way.  Although this theory is not something that cannot be simplified and sill understood well he realizes that this is the issue with the writing of the other authors and uses their mistakes as a way of highlighting their failures.  The oversimplification at the same time also makes it easier for Gladwell to point out the flaws in their reasoning and counteract their arguments.

TOW 7: Outliers part 2

Since my last post about Gladwell’s book Outliers some of the ideas differ.  The ideas switch from those of pure work, like his 10,000 hours idea, to that of prior circumstances.  He lists one of the main attributes to success as being your heritage.  An example he gives of this is why Asians are so good at math.  The first reason he gives is linguistic.  Where as English words for numbers are complex and long Chinese terms are short and simple.  A word like seven is qi.  This difference allows a longer numerical memory.  Secondly, the simplicity in the names makes it easier.  Instead of numbers like fifteen they are literally one-ten-and-five.  This makes concepts much simpler to grasp.  The next thing he cites is the culture.  Asian cultures grew growing rice, a much more labor-intensive job than wheat.  This culture of more work holds firm and is not just a stereotype but also a cultural trait.  All of this information is drawn from great sources and compiled by Gladwell into another award winning book.  It is also a way of sharing insight into his view on how success forms itself.  One way, besides his anecdotes, that Gladwell does this is through his appeals to authority.  One thing about Gladwell’s writing is that it gives little new information, it is more the compilation of other scientist theories and experiments into one mass theory.  One thing that Gladwell constantly does to get his point across is to say that these aren’t simply his ideas but he gives credit where it is due.  He utilizes the resources of many scientists in a way that he can put their ideas together to make a whole.  In using all of these strong sources he is also strengthening himself, because it is not simply one man’s theory, but the compilation of many scientists results.

TOW Post 6: Old Spice Comercials

Old Spice has one of the most successful advertisement campaigns.  Its most recent editions feature wide receiver Wes Welker.  This serves two purposes.  It gives Old Spice a famous sponsor in Welker.  It also connects Old Spice to the sport of football, which is a manly sport.  Old Spice always tries to portray this manly theme.  They sell men’s grooming products.  Since it is a brand purely to be used by men they take this theme and run with it associating itself with manliness.  These current commercials come with the beginning of the season, taking advantage of a current situation.  One of the commercial feature Wes playing well, taking a long shower at half time and missing the second half.  This shows their connection with humor also.  This is an attention grabber.  Since there is not much logically that can set apart types of body washes Old Spice uses these right brain techniques to get and keep watchers attention.  These Old Spice commercials work well because they have such a specific audience and direct these advertisements at this audience with commercials that would likely not appeal on a wider scale.  What this means is that the commercials directly try to be manly and funny.  Since Old Spice knows its possible clientele are men they do not have to try to appeal to women.  For this reason they can directly advertize for men, making their ads manly and funny, because these are the ideas that work the best with men.  Men want to be manly and funny and football players are manly and the commercials are funny so people think that if they use Old Spice they would be manly also and funny.  This works well because they have been doing well since the original campaign of this type came out.

TOW 5: Are Chicks Brighter Than Babies? by Nicholas D. Kristof

Many articles talk about how unjust veal is, and law enforcement delivers punishment for the mishandling of cats and dogs, but it is not easy to find arguments against the maltreatment of poultry.  In the case of Are Chicks Brighter Than Babies?  Kristof does.  Nicholas Kristof has experience with the farming of poultry.  Before graduating from Harvard and becoming an award winning journalist he grew up on a sheep and cherry farm.  He uses an anecdote from this time as a method of getting his point across.  He talks about the relationships between geese and how when he would take one to the chopping block its mate would follow.  This short story really helps his article along because it shows his experience along with getting the readers’ emotions going.  Kristof also uses the assistance of the time, right after a salmonella outbreak, as another assistor.  He uses it as a lead saying that it is not the only reason not to eat chicken as well as using its attention to springboard his idea and have it start as a more important piece.  The last technique that Kristof uses is to talk about the animals in reference to how smart they are.  He talks about how they can count and how they are even about as smart as toddlers.  This is in an effort to appeal again to people’s emotions due to the fact that they feel as if the animals are more important if they are smarter.  All of these methods work in convincing his more middle aged audience of his purpose.  The fact that although it is not bad to eat poultry from time to time it is important to realize where they are coming from and that they are not the idiots that we take them to be.

TOW 4: What's Wrong With Matt by Sage Rosenfels

In light of Matt Schaubs recent failures as quarterback of the Huston Texans, Sage Rosenfels shares perspective from his experience at the position.  Sage Rosenfel played in the NFL for eleven years, two of them in Huston with Schaub.  In his times he had similar problems to Schaub although over the course of his career he was mainly a backup.  From this experience he talks about what is wrong with Schaub and what is to blame for his week start.  He chalks another one up to mental pressure saying that once a player starts to mess up the problems snowball until it is almost impossible to recover.  He addresses all of these facts in an effort to show many, likely male, big time football fans, or atleast Huston fans, a new view of what is happening.  With the quick drop in Schaub’s skill level from one year to the next, throwing three quarters of the picks of last year in less then one fifth of the games, many questions are quickly raised, one of the biggest being should Huston start on the quarterback search.  Although not trying to take a position on the issue, Rosenfels offers many opinions on the issue including the fact that he does not think there really is an issue with Schaub.  Rosenfels appeals to his own experience I an effort to help him prove his point.  Rosenfels speaks on how, during his second season with the Texans, he fell into a rut.  During his first start of four that season he lost the game in the final few minutes based partly on an aggressive dive followed by two pics.  After that he was unable to regain his confidence, making his year hell.  This technique really helps him get across his point because it shows he knows what he is doing because he has been there before.  This shows that he is one of a small number of people with the experience to talk giving him the right to speak.

TOW Post 3: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

In the book Outliers Malcolm Gladwell aims to shift his readers view on what truly makes people successful.  He offers many different views on different “outliers” from simple junior hockey players to the greats of the Beetles.  He points out little know facts about these people which help to craft them into the characters they become, and share how those small details on the side are the true contributors to the lives they ended up living.  Gladwell is an incarnation of his own idea of 10,000 hours.  He has been working as a journalist at the New Yorker for almost two decades and is now coming out with his fifth book this year and it looks to be as big a hit as his first four.  His first two books have sales in the millions and has had his writings named some of the best non-fiction works.  He does have an odd writing style however.  All of his ideas come in the form of anecdotes.  Gladwell likes to tell short stories of the ideas that exemplify his points so that it is not simply an abstract idea but one that is demonstrated by real people, some of them even being household names.  This style of writing really helps him in getting his ideas across to his reader.  By giving examples for his points he can ground his ideas not in abstract language but something that a reader could go out and look up.  Gladwell also does a good job of diversifying his stories, talking about anything from athleticism, in hockey, to computer programmers, in Bill Joy, to the biggest billionaires the world has ever seen, like Rockefeller.  The issue with this style though is that it has gained a lot of criticism.  It has been critiqued because it only shows small ideas to prove a bigger point.  Many people further criticize Gladwell simply because he is a journalist and not a scientist.  No matter what the criticism however Gladwell continues to write interesting pieces with different ideas, and Outliers is no outlier.

TOW 2: America's Billionaire by Maureen Dowd

Maureen Dowd, a long time writer of almost 40 years for publishings such as Time Magazine and The New York Times, comes out swinging at Republican lawmakers.  In her piece she comments on two news events.  These two are Warren Buffet speaking at Georgetown and the reforms of Food Stamp funding.  She starts out immediately insulting the "House Republican gargoyles," making it quite obvious that this article is for a far left reader.  This article starts out by talking of how there the House is trying to cut spending on things that are as important in her eyes such as Obamacare and Food Stamps.  She goes on further to say that they "don't understand math or history."  After this harsh criticism she moves to try and gain support for Buffets speaking of his contributions with help of Bill Gates and many other extremely wealthy people.  My consensus with this is that she shoots herself int the foot in her effort to appeal to ethos.  Her idea is that she can piggy back on the great authority that a figure like Warren Buffet carries by simply connecting two somewhat similar pieces, but she does a terrible job of this.  In my opinion, Dowd stretches things way to far trying to connect two things that have almost nothing in common.  Her effort to appeal to ethos thus leaves her looking like less of an intelligent source than when she started.  This appeal may have a slightly different feel on me than her normal audience however.  Her normal audience, likely being a farther left group that is also have strong opinions about the topic, are probably more easily stirred than I.  They most likely already agree with her from the moment she insulted Republicans, and the rest is likely icing on the cake.  This is the reasoning for her appeal to pathos.  To compliment her appeal to ethos Dowd uses pathos to charge up her already opinionated audience.  These two methods work together flawlessly and in the presence of the audience she is targeting, would likely work to perfections.

New IRB: The Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell

For my current IRB I chose to read Malcolm Gladwell's The Outliers.  I chose this book due to a few reasons.  One of the first is the fact that is was recommended by one of my past teachers with whom I share some common interests.  In class he often spoke of the book and even had us read a section at one point to assist in our comprehension of another topic.  The same teacher also recommended me another book by Gladwell, Blink, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  Although I do agree with Mr. Yost for the fact that his writing does start to get repetitive and even boring after a full book, I enjoy his style of writing and also his content, and this IRB gives me a chance to finally get to this book which I have been looking at for a long time, but have never gotten to.  The Outliers is an insight in the patterns off the successful and of the uncommon.  It explains subtle similarities that share part of the credit for many people's success.  Whether it was their birth month, birth year, or simply their race or religion, many hidden variables play major roles in a person's success.  This point of view on success is an outlier in many people's minds because it essentially can be stretched so far as to say that the reasons that people are successful are completely out of their control.  This makes people feel insecure because is says that there is a finite position to which they can succeed.  Gladwell is not specifically trying to make that point, but he simply takes his own interest into account when writing on how there are truly many patterns in the things that seem random, and that if you look close you can find them.

Tow Post 1

The conflict in Syria is one of the biggest issues in current events.  Not only are such aspects as the death toll and the use of chemical weapons frightening, but also, Obama’s waffling on the topic adds to the discussion.  This inability to have certainty and to get anything done on this issue inspires this cartoon.  This cartoon is drawn by Henry Payne, a conservative Princeton alumni and cartoonist for the Detroit News.  In this cartoon he uses humor to comment on America’s role as the global police and Obama’s weakness in the matter.  He uses many aspects such as the fact that Obama, the driver, is signaling two different ways, right with the turn signal, but left with his hand.  This is a way of communicating how indecisive Obama is on the issue by stating that he is unsure of which way to go, and further, which political ideals to follow, the right with the route to war, or the left and peace.  Payne also adds the “Caution Student Driver” sticker as a way of showing that Obama is a relative neophyte in this issue having never dealt with anything like it in his five-year tenure.  Payne uses these aspects of humor as a way of communicating with his mainly conservative audience.  Since he knows that his audience has many of the same views as he does, Payne can go out on a limb and make Obama a topic of humorous intent.  This knowledge of his audience allows him to get his point across because he can cut straight to the point and joke about Obama’s asininity without having to beat around the bush.  He can directly insult Obama and can comment on his failures without having to soften it, resulting in a much more raw and specific cartoon.  All of these facts combine assist Payne in his delivery of the idea that Obama was failing his job by being indecisive, giving off a poor representation of the United States as a whole.

By Henry Payne

How Doctors Die by Ken Murray (2012)

In How Doctors Die Ken Murray, a retired physician and an avid writer for Zocalo Public Square, explains how the average death of a doctor is different than that of most patients.  People never really think of how doctors die because they seem like a golden image of perfect health, but it is not true, they are simply like everyone else.  One difference is that they seem not to cling to life as often as the average patient.  This is the idea that Murray tries to delve into in this essay.  What Murray explains is that doctors understand modern medicine.  This does not mean that they know the best treatments and medicines to use, but instead they know its limitations.  Doctors often see the hell that patients go through clinging for life.  All of this experience leads most of them to decide not to go through the same process when their time comes.  This is what Dr. Murray is trying to offer up to people, mainly the average person, who is mature enough to consider the idea of death.  His whole reasoning is to share the idea that he knows well, that living through a machine is not really living.  In the essay, Murray uses the irony of the whole situation as a way of highlighting his point.  The fact that the most specialized medical personnel often seek less treatment than that of the average person is surprising.  That gets the reader thinking that if this is true then there must be a driving reason, something that they know that the average person doesn’t.  That basic idea is enough to show that he is not the only one that has this idea but that it is much more common, and that the people who should be the biggest experts, are doing the opposite of the common man.

Quality or Quantity?
http://www.famousbloggers.net/choose-quality-quantity-blogging.html

A Personal Essay by a Personal Essay by Christy Vannoy (2011)

Although Christy Vannoy is one of the least accomplished authors to be featured in The Best American Essays, essentially having only a column to her name at the time of publishing these compilations, she still crafts a beautiful essay.  Her essay, A Personal Essay by a Personal Essay, is a satire on the personal essays that appear quite commonly in women’s magazines.  This essay is meant to exemplify how the majority of the personal essays in these magazines are getting over adversity, and how they are essentially all the same.  These stories, although terrible, happen to many people and they are not very rare.  Her point though is not that there are many hardships in the world, but something entirely different.  She is not trying to say that there are a lot of hardships in the modern age, because that is obvious, but she instead is trying to say how all of these authors try and one up each other.  She positions the essay behind a cocky personal essay who has been through the wringer before.  The essay has submitted many other essays and is a veteran who is just sitting back and watching the rookies.  The essay listens to everyone else’s hardships and simply tries to one up them acting as if all of their hardships are a dime a dozen, and saying that their writing skills are subpar.  All together Vannoy writes this essay for a laugh from an older audience that is able to understand the fact that she is joking and that shares the same views about the essays in women’s magazines.  Without her satirical position on this issue, though, she would give off a completely different air.  Instead of one of comedy and of ridicule it would be one of hardship, and that is why her tone is so important.  Without it her point would not get across, but with it the point is easy to understand and the essay comes across beautifully.

Drawing Hands
M. C. Escher

The Good Short Life by Dudley Clendinen (2012)

Death is one of the most taboo topics that there is.  It is looked at as something to be depressed about and the low point of life, as it is the end.  However, Dudley Clendinen offers a somewhat different perspective on the issue.  With Lou Gehrig’s disease showing him that death is close he chooses to embrace that fact and just let his life finish gracefully.  The aging journalist had dealt with , and done much in his short life.  He had worked everywhere from newspapers to universities to even writing books on his own.  He had also dealt with some things most people don’t have to such as alcoholism and his homosexuality, but his inability to be ignorant to his coming death gave him experience like nothing else.  This chance to know what was coming allowed him to accept death and see things in it that not many others can.  The fact that he knew that he would die soon allowed him to think of many things that his readers, who still probably have decades on their lives, never would accept.  He tries to get across that death should not be something taboo but something that is just as interesting as any other subject.  One way that he tries to do this is by his general tone throughout the essay.  Even in something as depressing as his death he is able to be thankful and in general cheery about the whole situation.    This point is that death is not something that should be so depressing.  It should not be the topic that is never discussed because it will appear for everyone and there is no point in dragging it out.  When the time has come it has come, and in the eyes of the grim wisdom that can be see no other ways is gained.

Death at the Door
http://beingsakin.wordpress.com/page/40/

What Really Happened by Madge McKeithen (2011)

What Really Happened is an odd, unique twist on a story.  Instead of the common narrative format Madge McKeithen chooses to direct her speech at the reader, acting as if they are the ones committing all of the acts throughout her essay.  At first this method seems confusing, which shows that it is for an older, educated audience, but as the story continues it starts to make more sense.  This less published author shows that with a creative, well-executed idea, it does not matter the experience.  Her unique form of writing leaves many questions though throughout the essay; some of which are never answered.  Her reason for writing this essay is to show the fact that some things are impossible to get over, and that they can even be impossible to get closure for.  This is shown through the traumatic story of someone whose close friend from childhood was murdered, and the main characters quest for answers from the murderer.  The essay is a list of the things that need to be done to see the murderer, not only the necessities, but also the simple tasks that go along with them.  It is as if the reader has a lens in which to see the thoughts, and the inner workings, of the victim’s friend.  The author’s odd way of writing the story allows the reader to see something different than if it was just a narrative.  The fact that McKeithen directs all of the information as if it is the reader’s thoughts allows them to feel closer and to feel more of an emotional tie.  This helps tremendously in getting her point across because instead of the feeling that the reader is on the outside simply looking in, they instead feel as if they are directly connected to the main character and that makes the emotional feel twice as strong.

Jail Visitors' Cell Phones
http://prisoncellphones.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/jail-visitors-cell-phones.jpg

Unprepared by Jerald Walker (2011)

Although many stories have creative hooks Unprepared’s is very unique.  It starts off with the author, Dr. Jerald Walker head of Emerson’s Writing, Literature and Publishing Department, recounting a memory from his childhood in Chicago’s South Side in the early ‘80s.  This memory is of a ride he took from a man when he was young, where the man offered him money in exchange for a sexual favor.  From the beginning Walker shows that this story is not for a young audience.  With its explicit language and use of a mature topic it’s plain to see that it’s directed towards an audience that is mature enough to see it as simply a method to convey a larger message.  From there he jumps to a topic that seems almost entirely different, the topic of murders.  He uses the fact that he thought that he was safe just as another boy in Atlanta may have thought the same thing, but was mistaken.  He then explained how it was among other serial murders and that the biggest surprise about them were that a man of African American decent had committed them.  He explains how there was backlash because there was no way that the man killing many young African American boys could be black, and that the murderer must have been some crazy, white Klu Klux Klan member.  He also says that not only is there no way a black man is doing this to other blacks but that this is simply not a thing that black people do.  He then comes back full circle to the fact that he was in the car with the man but he refused the money and he refused to give the sexual favor, and this was confusing because it seemed as if it strayed from his driving point.  Before, it seemed as if he was trying to state that unexpected and quite possibly negative events might occur.  His full circle ending on the other hand contradicted his point but he still left the idea that you may be unprepared for things that are unexpected.

Unexpected Preparation
http://www.joe-ks.com/archives_jun2012/UnexpectedPreparation.jpg