Brian Walborn Blog #8

The poem "First Writing Since" recited by Suheir Hammad was extremely powerful. She most definitely used ethos, pathos, and logos to get her voice to be heard, processed, and perhaps most importantly, understood by the audience.
Throughout her poem, there are many instances where Suheir Hammad utilizes ethics, emotion, and logic. The ethics, or ethos, that she uses come out clearly when she says: "God, please, don't let it be anyone who looks like my brothers" (Hammad). With this statement, she is first saying that she believes in God, and second that she knows there are stereotypes out there when it comes to people of middle eastern origin and terrorism. Pathos was clearly applied the entire time she was on stage reciting the poem. She gives a clear sense that she is very emotional about the subject based on the language she uses. She sometimes cusses, which blatantly shows she feels very strongly about the topic and views she is trying to convey. She uses logos to contradict  the idea that a good amount of people believe that because of the way someone looks, they have certain goals, like terrorism for instance. She goes on to say: "...assume they know me, or that I represent a people, or that a people represent an evil..." (Hammad). This statement is Hammad saying that just because there are some Palestinian or middle eastern people who are terrorists, doesn't mean that they all are. She also points out that a lot of people are ignorant of the fact that just because it was middle eastern people who did it, doesn't mean there weren't middle eastern people that were working in the World Trade Center, for instance, when the attack happened. She points out the innocent people of middle eastern background who were killed. This argument is the sole reason I find this poem to be so persuasive. It really does make you think twice about stereotypes you may have towards a certain group.