The Road Not Taken Essays (802 words) - The Road Not Taken

The Road Not Taken The Road Not Taken - An Analysis Do not follow where the path may lead... Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. -Robert Frost Everyone is a traveler, choosing the roads to follow on the map of their continuous journey, life. There is never a straight path that leaves one with but a sole direction in which to head. Regardless of the original message that Robert Frost had intended to convey, his poem, The Road Not Taken, has left its readers with many different interpretations. It is ones past, present and the attitude with which he looks upon his future that determines the shade of the light that he will see the poem in. In any case however, this poem clearly demonstrates Frosts belief that it is the road that one chooses that makes him the man who he is. And sorry I could not travel both... It is always difficult to make a decision because it is impossible not to wonder about the opportunity cost, what will be missed out on. There is a strong sense of regret before the choice is even made and it lies in the knowledge that in one lifetime, it is impossible to travel down every path. In an attempt to make a decision, the traveler looks down one as far as I could. The road that will be chosen leads to the unknown, as does any choice in life. As much he may strain his eyes to see as far the road stretches, eventually it surpasses his vision and he can never see where it is going to lead. It is the way that he chooses here that sets him off on his journey and decides where he is going. Then took the other, just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim. What made it have the better claim is that it was grassy and wanted wear. It was something that was obviously not for everyone because it seemed that the majority of people took the other path therefore he calls it the road less travelled by. The fact that the traveler took this path over the more popular, secure one indicates the type of personality he has, one that does not want to necessarily follow the crowd but do more of what has never been done, what is new and different. And both that morning equally lay in leaves no step had trodden black. The leaves had covered the ground and since the time they had fallen no one had yet to pass by on this road. Perhaps Frost does this because each time a person comes to the point where they have to make a choice, it is new to them, somewhere they have never been and they tend to feel as though no one else had ever been there either. I kept the first for another day! The desire to travel down both paths is expressed and is not unusual, but knowing how way leads on to way, the speaker of this poem realizes that the decision is not just a temporary one and he doubted if I should ever come back. This is his common sense speaking and acknowledging that what he chooses now will affect every other choice he makes afterward. Once you have performed an act or spoken a word that crystalizes who you are, there is no turning back, it cannot be undone. Once again at the end of the poem the regret hangs over the traveler like a heavy cloud about to burst. He realizes that at the end of his life, somewhere ages and ages hence, he will have regrets about having never gone back and traveling down the roads he did not take. Yet he remains proud of his decision and he recognizes that it was this path that he chose that made him turn out the way and he did and live his life the way in which he lived. I took the road less trvaeled by and that had made all the difference. To this man, what was most important, what really made the difference, is that he did what he wanted, even if it

Analysis And Assessment Of Baumgartner & Jones Ag Essays - AARP

Analysis And Assessment Of Baumgartner & Jones Ag Essays - AARP Analysis And Assessment Of Baumgartner & Jones Agendas And Instability In American Politics I find a certain amount of difficulty when I attempt to offer an assessment of Baumgartner and Jones work, Agendas and Instability in American Politics. The reason for this is because the book is written in such a manner that it is enormously difficult to offer a conflicting argument to the model they use to describe how issues become part of agenda, the power of interest groups, policy monopolies, how power shifts, and other issues related to the aforementioned. For this reason, I must say that I find their model to be on solid ground. The previous reading assignments in this course which where mostly based on the writings of C. Wright Mills and his protg Robert Dahl read like the thoughts of writers who were desperately trying to convince the reader that they are right. To the contrary, Baumgartner and Jones made no real attempts to sell their research and rather presented their findings and beliefs in a way that seems to say to the reader that this is the way things are. Examples of legislative activity that seem to conform to their model offered to the readers of Baumgartner and Jones are presented in a way that basically shows the reader how their model translates into real life as opposed to an offering of evidence to bolster the correctness of their assertions. The notion of policy monopolies I find to be a very believable concept when describing the formulation, definition and promotion of issues in the American political agenda. Making an issue a taboo or untouchable or dangerous to national security, thus ensuring its longevity, perhaps even immortality. This phenomenon is most visible in the issues of Medicare and Social Security. Both programs are in deep financial trouble, but anyone who advocates even the slightest bit of change in either program is immediately labeled an extremist who lacks compassion for our nations senior citizens or a radical who is trying to move our country towards socialism. I am especially fond of two principals in the Baugartner and Jones model; issue definition and changing venues. Like most of Baumgartner and Jones work, when I attempt to scrutinize it, I find a virtual impossibility in offering a competing theory. When examining issue definition, I discovered that defining or attempting to define issues (sometimes referred to as spinning) is something I have witnessed on countless occasions. In fact, when I was a novice campaign strategist and lobbyist, I engaged in this practice without knowing there was a legitimate noun for what I was doing. Baumgartner and Jones contend that interest groups, institutions, politicians, and the like attempt to define an issue in a way that serves their interests. An example of this that immediately springs to my mind was a speech delivered by President Bill Clinton in early 1993 to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) concerning the reforming of Medicare. President Clinton proposed a slowing of the rate of growth of the program to roughly twice the rate of inflation as a means of keeping the program solvent. Medicare was experiencing and continues to experience such an astronomical rate of growth that it cannot possibly remain solvent without a massive increase in taxation and/or a significant amount of borrowing from foreign nations adding to our already inconceivably monstrous national debt. Naturally, there was some skepticism about his plan as there is with every idea that would enact a change to an existing government program. Additionally, there was a heavy distrust of Clinton by the AARPs rank and file members after his tax increase on Social Security benefits. The growing concern amongst senior citizens was that the president was going to cut Medicare. In his speech to the AARP, Clinton jostled those who accused his plan of amounting to a cut by saying, Only in Washington can an increase of twice the rate of inflation be called a cut. In the end, a Democratic Congress kept the Presidents plan from ever seeing the light of day. Fast forward to early 1995, a newly seated Republican Congress began to debate a Medicare proposal that all but mirrored the Presidents 1993 proposal, with the exception that leftover surpluses would