Digital Voices

Sam’s “This I Believe” podcast

Introduction

The next speech is by Sam. With his love of cooking and BBQ, Sam expresses his belief in the All-American food. He will now give his “This I Believe” on The All-American Food.

This I Believe

All American Food

I believe in the all American Food, barbeque. Barbeque is the only true American food. America has been perfecting this delicacy for hundreds of years. Native Americans had been smoking their meats for years before we landed on this continent. Real Q is a great dish of the south. Texas BBQ, St. Louis BBQ, Kansas City BBQ, Memphis BBQ, Carolina BBQ.

When slavery was still around the slave’s masters would give them the “bad” cuts of meat. These “bad” cuts of meat where cuts like the ribs and the really fatty parts of the animal. The slaves found a way of cooking their cuts so that they would be tender and tasty. They would smoke the meat much like the Indians. But the Indians would smoke their meat for preservation and not just for a meal. The Indians made jerkies. Where as when the slaves cooked their meat it wasn’t dry like a jerky but tender and juicy.

I believe in smoking a mean brisket. Brisket should only be barbequed, never grilled. Barbequing is putting meat on indirect heat and that heat cooking the meat (smoking). Grilling is direct contact with the heat, a gas grill for instance or a charcoal grill. Charcoal can give you flavor and gas can give a quicker cooking time. But nothing can beat the slow savory flavor of smoked barbeque.

I believe that there are plenty of restaurants in the U.S. that serve grilled food, even barbeque. But nothing can beat the smells and flavor of the one of a kind, mom and pop restaurants of the south. These are the heart and soul of America. These people can BBQ some of the best BBQ in the world. Only, they’re only recognized by the locals and some passing travelers. It’s a shame, don’t you think? But these people aren’t worried about winning a contest for having good BBQ. They just love BBQing it.

I believe America is made up of many different foods. These foods are loved by many people. In America you can have Chinese food, Italian food, Mexican food, French food, etc. I love some of these foods. But they aren’t American. Can you make a list of foods that originated in America? You can make a small list. It won’t be very long. Barbeque originated in America, not many foods can say that.

This is why I believe barbeque is the only American food. Because all around America at some point someone is BBQing. At parties, family events, picnics, it’s the American thing. It’s what we do. Barbeque is the All American Food. I believe in my taste buds. I believe in barbeque.

Conclusion

That was Sam expressing his belief about BBQ.

Thank you for being our audience in this project!  This site will continue to be online (and a few more podcasts will be posted) so we hope you’ll visit it again and listen to more speeches.  Today is Friday, March 30 and it’s our official last day of speech class.  While we won’t be meeting as a class, many of our contributors plan to read and respond to comments after the class.  Some may not have as many opportunities to respond, so we appreciate your patience with replies.

Many people have also asked for a place to leave general responses to our project.  Please feel free to comment to this post to do so.  We’re thrilled by the support of our readers and we’d like to hear more of what you think about our beliefs, podcasting in speech and our whole project.

With appreciation,

Mrs. Dawn Reed

Alex’s “This I Believe” podcast

I believe there is no love…only hate. Today, we live in a world of violence and hate. Terrorists are everywhere, killing themselves to kill others. Why? I ask myself that very same question a lot. I suppose there is no good reason as to why. Sure, we may have differences in views and the way we live our lives, but is this any reason to develop so much hatred towards another group of people? I certainly do not believe so. Recently I have been asking myself, where is the love? This brings me back to a song released a few years ago by the group, “The Black Eyed Peas,” in which they asked that very question, where is the love? I believe there is no love, only hate.

Not only do we see this hatred in the world of terrorism, we also see it here at home, on a lesser scale, but still we see it none the less. Whatever happened to the days of chivalry? For all the young ladies out there, when was the last time you had a man open a door for you? This is something so small that we don’t even think about it. Growing up I was always told stories about how the “olden days” where so much better. Descriptions of a world in which “please” and “thank you” where not so uncommon, a world in which one referred to their elders as “ma’am” and “sir”, have made me jealous and ashamed to live in this rude world. Where is the love? I believe there is no love, only hate.

Having recently acquired a job at a local fast food restaurant, I have seen the worst of hate filled people. Is there any patience in this world today? Is there any love what so ever? I tend to think not. Working a job that can already be stressful to begin with, it often times seems like costumers want to make it even more hectic. One thing goes wrong with their order and they are cussing up a storm. The storm will soon develop into a hate filled hurricane once you begin to try and explain what happened. They don’t want to hear an explanation or an apology; they just want to hate you. Hate you for something as small as forgetting to put a double cheeseburger on their tray. We all make mistakes, is this really worth going on a rampage over? I ask myself again, where is the love? I believe there is no love, only hate.

I can’t help but wonder what is happening with this world. We are falling apart. If we don’t find the love once again, we are only setting ourselves up for self destruction. Where is the love? I believe there is no love…there could be…but for now, there is only hate. Let’s all do apart to find the love again, I will, will you?

*The song I have referenced in this essay entitled “Where is the Love?” was apart of the album “Elephunk” released by the Black Eyed Peas in 2004.

About Alex:

Alex is currently a senior in high school and is undecided as to where he will be attending school next year; however, he plans on attending a four year university, major in political science, and then attend law school.

Tyler’s “This I Believe” podcast
The Importance of Family

by Tyler

I believe in family, I believe that you family is always there for you when you need them most. A lot of kids I see these days are very disrespectful to their parents and other family members and what they don’t realize is that if it wasn’t for your parents you wouldn’t have a roof over your head. Even some of my friends are disrespectful to their parents and I always yell at them when they yell at their parents. Family, I believe, is about being there for each other no matter what and dealing with the things that get at you. Sure sometimes your parents or Aunt or Uncle or your Mom’s boyfriend, will yell at you about things that you might think are not the big of a deal, for example, falling grades, not taking out the trash, not cleaning your room, or not shutting off your fan in you room, but if they didn’t care about you why would they say anything at all? Wouldn’t they just tell you to do whatever you want if they didn’t care? I myself though that my parents were just out to keep me locked up in my house, when the real reason for them keeping me in the house was that I disobeyed them and talked back. I now believe I have grown much closer to my family over the past year and have opened my eyes to what they are always yelling at me about, it all finally got through my head and now I can rightfully say my grades have improved, my relationship with my family is much better, there’s less fighting, and they trust me more to do things that I would normally never be able to do. My description for family may be a little rough but it’s what I believe in. I believe that Family is just being with the ones you love. I believe that love is being with your family. I believe that family is love. This I Believe.

Tony’s “This I Believe” podcast

by Tony

I believe that the most important aspect in life is happiness. It’s the one motivation that should come before everything because I believe you can never have enough fun. Sure there are times when you need to take things seriously like jobs and education but there is also some fun that can be squeezed in between the two, and there is no rule saying you can’t have fun while doing both because I can easily catch myself having fun on the job or at school. There should never be a limit on fun because it creates happiness which is important for yourself, others and creates a positive atmosphere for your lifestyle, people these days are so wrapped up in their own lives and problems to have fun once in a great while. I believe that at least once a year a person should set aside a week to go on vacation to either go camping, visiting family, and or just soak up the sun in some tropical place down south.

Every year when I was younger I always went on vacations to either visit some of my family in Connecticut, Texas, or Florida or go other places. My freshman year in high school I went down to Cancun a month before spring break. I went to Cancun with my mom but I was basically on my own without any friends and in a place where only a half the people spoke English but I didn’t let that get in the way of me having fun. Mostly while I was there I swam in the ocean and roamed around the city looking for fun. I met this kid there from Argentina named Marcos he was 17 we hung out the whole week so he was basically the only friend I had down there and I learned a lot from him he was definitely a fun kid to hang out with. In my teenage years I’d have to say that was one of the best vacations ever and I plan to go back to have more fun hopefully with friends when I’m a freshman or sophomore in College.
Before I was a teenager my family went camping a lot usually to Traverse City Bay or Petoskey which was fun because we rented those water bikes and a water trampoline so we had a lot of fun out on the water. I can say for a fact that I had fun on and off the water whether it was riding bikes, exploring trails or just playing in the sand their was no limit to the fun I had there and I shared that fun with most my family which made it special. Also when I was 12 my family and I went down to Florida to visit my Uncle Richie and we also went to Disney World, Sea world and Universal Studio’s all in one week which was pretty exciting at the time before I became a teenager that was the most exciting and fun week of my life.

So I believe having fun especially throughout my childhood was very important and I think that having fun even in years to come will be important as well and no matter what’s going on in my life with family, friends, work I’m never going to stop having fun because you only live once and I’m not going to waste my time taking life seriously and neither should anybody else.

Carole’s “This I Believe” podcast

Get Out, or Get Legal!

I believe that all illegal immigrants should be deported back to their original countries. Call me heartless, but the way I see it, if you are coming to our country illegally, you are disgracing our ancestors who came here legally. Though there are those who may have come here illegally, but they at least took the time to respect the American citizens and became one themselves. I believe that if it’s so important for these illegal immigrants to stay in our country, that they should become legal citizens. Instead, we are now supplying them with homes, contributing to their social security benefits, giving them free medical care, and other things that they benefit from. And where does that money come from for all of this? From the hard working citizens of the United States. We even have a bank, The Bank of America, setting up credit cards that you can sign up for without a social security number - which legal citizens have, directed towards those illegal immigrants. Along with the luxury of being able to have a credit card they are being employed and taking the jobs from American citizens who are trying to find a job. I believe that in order to have a paying job, no matter the income, you should be a legal citizen to the country that you are residing in.

I believe that it is not fair for those illegal immigrants who have decided to become legal to now have to pay for the others who will not follow suite. If they can do it, why can’t the others? It’s estimated that nearly 12 million illegal immigrants are residing with in the United States. Several of the illegal immigrants are coming here from a country where they are making less than two dollars a day. I believe that we, the legal American citizens should not have to hold responsibility for another countries poor form of government. Sorry that the United States has a way of feeding our poor and supplying them with as much as we can to help them get by. It’s not America’s fault that several illegal immigrants are leaving their home land and coming to the United States because their country is incapable of caring for them.

Back in 2005, there was an illegal immigrant parade in the United States showing that they, the illegal immigrants, were benefiting the United States by working in the factories, restaurants, and construction businesses. Well, they most certainly were not working at that time and benefiting the United States with the time that they wasted to try and persuade the American’s that they are beneficial. Instead they could have done something productive with that time, such as registering to become a legal citizen.

There are those who are escaping their homeland from war, but they more than likely have no intention on going back. But why do they have to escape to America? Aren’t there other countries out there that are a lot closer to them that they could flee to?

Instead of having the mentality that the United States and its legal American citizens are out to get them, how ‘bout they try really making themselves useful to all of us and becoming legal American citizens. I believe that the only people in this country that have the right to complain are those of legal American citizenship. If the illegal immigrants are not happy with the fact that we don’t want them here, taking up space, taking our jobs that we work hard to find, taking our tax dollars that we, the real American citizens work hard for - then they can get out, or get legal.

Lisa’s “This I Believe” podcast

Laughter

Everyone has laughed at one point or another. Laughter is something that comes naturally and is hard to fake. Laughter can make the worst moment seem significantly less severe. It can make you give up all anger and resentment for a moment and release all happy emotion. Everyone has a different laugh but the feeling is always the same. Glee I would say. It is simply an immense feeling of happiness. Laughter is a beautiful thing and without laughter my world would be a dark place.

My humor at times can come across as unsympathetic or unkind but it is all sincerely in jest. My childhood shadows many of the thoughts I have today and not always in a positive way. Years of being ridiculed and scolded has hardened my humor to a cold state of reasoning. I was raised on a dotted line of military bases that trail through Virginia, North Carolina and Michigan. In that atmosphere, humor was not always encouraged and in some cases it was punished. Despite my environment, humor was the seed of my entire personality which eventually developed into the free spirited, fun-loving person that I am every day. I have always had a good sense of humor despite the circumstances. Often times when I was younger I would laugh because it was the only thing to keep me from crying.

I love to tell jokes because it helps me meet people and feel more comfortable. Even if I don’t know someone personally, I know that everyone likes to laugh. I laugh every chance I get. I laugh because it helps me deal with life’s everyday problems. I laugh because of it reminds me of the good times. I laugh because of the good times soon to come. I laugh because there is nothing more powerful and contagious than laughter.

About Me.

My name is Lisa and i am a senior at Charlotte High School. I am attending EMU in the fall to study art. I traveled a lot as a child but for the last six years I have found myself comfortable in my first civilian house. This is the first podcast I have ever done and I think that it was pretty good for my first try.

~lisa

Lindsi’s “This I Believe” essay

Lindsi is a 16 year old junior at Charlotte High School. She is an incredible writer that has a lot she wants to share. Here’s Lindsi with her speech on Family.

I believe in the importance of family. I think that without family you are not whole. It is like a puzzle. Without that one piece, the puzzle doesn’t make complete sense. When you have family, you have a complete puzzle and suddenly everything makes more sense. My family and I don’t share only blood, we also share friendship. We are friends. We care about each other and not just because we are related and share the same blood. It is because we care about one another.

Family can also boost your self-esteem. When my self-esteem is low and I feel like I have no one else to turn to, I have your family. I know that my family will always love me for me and not the things that I do. I come home from having a bad day and I feel like everything is just going wrong. I feel like I do not know if things are going to get better. When I have days like these I go in and talk to my sister. She usually always gives me hope for what my purpose is and how much I mean to everyone. Other times I wait until my mom gets home from work and I will go and talk to her about my day. She always knows just what to say to make me smile. She is not trying to make me smile for her but for myself. She cares about me. She does not want me to get down on myself. She will usually tell me something good about myself. I end up thinking about it and suddenly I realize how easy I have it. And it’s like out of no where, I am feeling better about myself. It’s an amazing feeling to know that someone else cares about you. That you can always count on them being there for you. I believe in the importance of family.

My family and I have unconditional love for one another. That means that no matter what happens, we will always love each other. Even if we get angry at that person, we will still love them. It’s a love where I can make decisions without worrying too much on if I will be judged by my family or not. I know that at the end of the day, they will love me just the same and I vise versa. It’s a love that allows you to have complete trust in that person. Having unconditional love for somebody brings you two together in a way that you have never experienced before. It’s an unexplainable relationship between you and that person. I believe in the importance of family.

Family is there for me in all aspects. They are there when the world turns its back on me. When I feel that, I can not go on any longer. It’s something that I would not trade in a million years. I would not change anything about my family because they are unique. They are something I feel the need to have around me at all times possible. My family also gives me encouragement. When I can’t make a decision on what to wear or how old I should be to get married, they are there. They give me all of the information and opinions that I need. They tell me that it is up to me but they also tell me what they would do in a situation like the one that I am in. No matter what, my family is the most important thing in the world to me. I believe in the importance of family.

The reason why family is the most important thing to me is that they are “my everything”. They are in my thoughts every minute of everyday. They help me with decisions. They help me with my self esteem level and how to keep my head high because there is always something better coming along. They have taught me everything that I need to know. From how to tie my shoe to how to spend my money and even to what kind of lifestyle I want my own family, one day, to have. Family is the most amazing gift that anyone can ever give you. No one can take that away. I believe in the importance of family.

That was Lindsi with her speech on about/ on family.

This Charlotte High School edition of “This I Believe” was inspired by the original “This I Believe” series from NPR.

Britnie is a junior at Charlotte High school. She is a believer in being your self. Here is Britnie’s “This I Believe” essay.

This I Believe

I believe in being yourself, it is the most important belief a person can have. Being yourself is essential to being happy. To be yourself is to be unique. To be unique is to be an individual. To be an individual is to be you.

Would life be easier if everyone was the same? To me I believe it is just the opposite. If everyone was the same, then life would be a lot more complicated and boring. People need to be different; we need personality and personal style. I once read a book called The Giver by Lois Lowry, and it gave me an idea of what life would be like if it were all planned out and the same for everyone. In this book, these people all lived in a community where everyone was the same age, had the same birthday and were appointed a job when they were born. They all lived life the same day by day and were afraid of the outside world. I would never want to live a life like that.

The variety of personalities, race, and ethnicity make the world interesting. The different choices people make, good and bad are what make people interesting. Not everyone succeeds in life, not everyone makes mistakes that ruin their life, but that is what makes you, you. No matter if you have a black Mohawk, or long blonde hair, No matter if you snort when you laugh, or just chuckle softly, no matter what anyone says or does, I believe in being yourself.

I hope you enjoyed Britnie’s speech on believing in being yourself.

Lowry, Lois, The Giver, Published 1993, Houghton Mifflin Children’s Books

Chris’s “This I Believe” podcast

I believe in freedom of choice. Bikers should have the freedom and decision to wear a helmet or not. Every biker should be able to feel the wind blowing through their hair going 45 mph. down the back roads or going 70 mph. on the freeway. A lot of bikers think that it should be their choice to wear a helmet or not. But the government thinks otherwise.
Bikers think that if you don’t want to wear a helmet you shouldn’t have to. All bikers know that if you choose to ride a motorcycle there is a fifty-fifty chance you’re going to live or going to die. Also all bikers know that during the course of a biker’s life you will be in at least accident on a motorcycle. And if you’re old enough to smoke, drink, and die for your country in war, you should be able to have a little freedom. Besides, that is what riding a motorcycle is all about, the feeling of being free. A lot of bikers don’t want the restriction of wearing helmets, but some do. The way I see it is that if you want to wear a helmet, fine go ahead, but let others that don’t want to wear a helmet, not wear helmets. And I feel that the government is interfering with bikers freedoms.
The government thinks that they have the right to take away that freedom because they are protecting peoples lives. But the bikers say it is unconstitutional because we the people have the freedom of choice. And the government of the state gets more tax money if there is a helmet law. But do helmets save lives?
The statistics in the Motorcycle Rider Education and Safety poll showed when a state removes its helmet law fatalities increase. But in that same poll it listed the categories of the accidents in accordance of the speed that the motorcycle was moving, The categories were “0-35,36-50,51-70 and 70+ mph.” And in that poll the number of accidents in the “36-50 and 51-70 mph.” categories went up. Therefore increasing the chance of more fatalities. In another poll that was done on speed of motorcycle crashes and the percentage of fatalities. In the “0-35 mph.” category, the operator could live through it. But in the “36-50, 51-70, and 70+ mph.” categories, the operator could not live through the accident, even when the operator was wearing a helmet. After hearing this information take it into consideration if you still feel the same way about the helmet law, Even though this shows that helmets don’t save lives. I believe that bikers should have the freedom of choice to wear a helmet or not.

All polls came from the website http://www.michigan.gov/documents/FinalMotorcycleActionPlan
Michigan State Government. “Final Motorcycle Action Plan.” Michigan Motorcycle Helmet Law April 2006: 1-15. Michigan Government. 3-21-07 .

-Chris-