The Fight Against Boxing Essays - Boxing, Combat Sports,

The Fight Against Boxing The Unworthy Fight Against Fighting The entertaining sport of boxing, an athletic event consisting of numerous health conflictions, has been receiving some heat from legal and medical advocates, yet ?Some of the qualities that have open boxing to attack have, at the same time, been its salvation?(Sammons 235). Boxing, which has been in existence and evolved from other forms of fighting longer than this country has been established, is a skill, talent, an ambition, and for most professional fighters, a love. Professional boxing, like virtually any physical recreation, is performed so that there are health risks, yet it is the athletes right to decide their personal levels of danger. Indeed, boxing discloses America's disposition towards tradition. During the United States' brief history, Americans have consistently managed to acquire cultural, social, political, and intellectual institutions from England, leaving no surprise to why the modern controversial sport of boxing, or prizefighting, traveled over sea to America. This high-demanding sporting event definitely must be one of the ultimate exceptions of our time. The 1820s and 1830s were marked by increased urbanization and industrialization, which stimulated a need for new and accessible diversions. The mood of society at large was captured in Beyond the Ring with this classic line, ?Men, women, and children who cannot live on gravity alone, need something to satisfy their lighter moods and hours?(4). Leisure's and, more importantly, boxing's opponents lost further ground as the giant cities attracted more and more immigrants who were unfamiliar to limitations upon amusements and games. As Jeffrey Sammons so concisely explains, ?It is because of, rather than despite, its contradictions that boxing has survived?(236). While a number of health and medical advocates have attempted to reform and/or abolish the sport since the early nineteen eighties because of brutality and death, these adversaries have also served as proof of manhood. The problem has slowly evolved from a national to an international conflict. An increased death and brain damage rate triggered this worthless action towards the removal of professional boxing. This was just temporary. Slight changes within league rules, such as weight class regulations and softening of boxing gloves, soon decreased the already low health-damaging rates back to legal standards. Anybody who believes that there should be a complete elimination of the sport really needs to put things in perspective. In terms of numbers, I am almost one-hundred percent certain that the number of deaths caused in other sports is much higher. Consider the high-intensity and extremely tragic catastrophes seen in motor sports alone. Not to mention air sports, mountain and rock climbing, and the handful of ball games. The intervention of our own personal risk and danger is our own liberty. On the other hand, I certainly agree we have to prevent people from taking risks that they are ignorant about. There are numerous other areas where consenting adults take risks and harm each other, such as smoking or drinking alcohol. Where are the people arguing for their criminalization? In much similarity to other illegal industries such as hardcore pornography and the never ending war on drug dealing and drug use, a ban on boxing would force it to go underground, making it more dangerous, much like the new hit blockbuster movie, Fight Club, a classic display of our true human instincts. ?Boxing is not so much a sport, not merely a game as it is, like drama itself, a way of life?(Oates & Halpern, 259). Besides, the demand for professional boxing in the Unites States is up there with the other sport elites. The boxing industry is one of the highest revenue making sports that exists today. What would a ban do to the tourist industry for urban cities like Las Vegas or Atlantic City? Some of the greatest athletes this planet has seen in the twentieth century have come from the sport of boxing. Let's just think of Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Joe Frazier and Sugar Ray Robinson. There can be little doubt that the desire for monetary gain, fame, and enhanced social status have motivated many a young man to enter the prizefightnig ring. It has been a sterotype that all prizefighters have low socioeconomic backround and little education, or unuseful work skills. I believe that if I had the stereotypical low social status and the talent, skill, and ambition of a prizefighter, of course I would walk through the door that is shedding a dim yet only light of possible success. Despite the feasibility of fame and wealth, middle and upper class men ?don't mind professional baseball and football, but

The Shifts in Power Within Brian Friels Translations

The Shifts in Power Within Brian Friels Translations Question: Discuss the various shifts of power within Friel's Translations and evaluate their significance.Enjoy :)The shifts in power and the conflict which this causes are crucial aspects of Brian Friel's Translations, and this conflict can be seen, and is caused by, the cultural, linguistic and ideological differences between characters, particular the English and Irish. Probably the primary reason for this conflict is the continued disempowerment of the Irish, which grows more evident as the play progresses, and can be linked to the simple act of mapping the Irish countryside, which not only acts as a means of measuring Ireland, but also changing the culture of its inhabitants. I believe that Friel deliberately used this device in Translations to enhance the drama, and meaning, of his work, and this has been effectively done in Translations.The history of the Irish people, like that of many around the world, is a story of continual conquest and disempowerment by foreign forces.Eng lish: Various Irish whiskies. Picture by Cafeir...From the Romans invasions to that of the English, this imperialism has impacted on the culture and life of the Irish, but none has been able to fully assimilate their way of life. Even the colonisation of the English, which has been in place for over 400 years, has not been able to fully achieve control over the Irish culture, due to the fierce resistance of the conquered people. This cultural difference between the English and the Irish is the primary source of conflict in Brian Friel's Translations, and this can be viewed in many ways. Firstly, we see the Irish as the past; a stagnant, fossilised society who are unwilling to change to the new ways, while the English are the future, in that they are viewed as new and always evolving. A striking example which upholds...