Once Upon a Time...

The TedTalk that I chose was called "A tale of two Americas. And the mini-mart where they collided." This speech was presented by Anand Giridharadas. In his speech, he tells the story of two men, Raisuddin Bhuiyan of Bangladesh and  Mark Stroman of the United States. The story begins ten days after the events of September 11th. Stroman, seeking revenge for the attacks, was going around to mini-marts and killing people of Middle Eastern decent. Bhuiyan was the only of the victims of Stroman's attacks to survive. Bhuiyan after being in the hospital for a day had a lot of debt he had to pay so he couldn't take I.T. classes as originally planned. Even though he lost his wife to be Bhuiyan made the most of what he had. He got a job working at Olive Garden and had to go against his beliefs and sell alcohol and he did I.T. jobs part-time too. He eventually found a six-figure job with a company in Texas. As Bhuiyan's life changed for the better so did Stroman's though he was on death row. Stroman was introduced to pastors, pen-pals, and journalists that were there to help him as he questioned himself and the things he had done.

Eight years after the shooting and a pilgrimage to Mecca, Bhuiyan decided to not only publicly forgive Stroman for what he had done but he also was fighting to keep him from receiving the death penalty. A few hours before Stroman was executed he talked to Bhuiyan on the phone. Bhuiyan said he never hated Stroman and Stroman thanked him for everything and said that he loved him.Even after the execution Bhuiyan reached out to Stroman's eldest daughter who was dealing with addiction and said to her , "you may have lost a father, but you've gained an uncle."

Mark Stroman

Raisuddin Bhuiyan

Giridharadas uses the story to point out the two worlds that exists within America and show that the colliding of these two worlds may not be such a bad thing. He also wants to show that people can change and that everyone deserves a second chance. The speaker gets his point across primarily through the use of pathos. He uses images of Bhuiyan right after leaving the hospital to show that he was released before he should have been. This picture is intended to tug at the hearstrings and make the audience feel connected to the story. The picture allows the audience to put a face with the name that is being presented in the story. It gives the story more meaning by seeing and hearing as opposed to just hearing what Bhuiyan was faced with. Towards the end a picture is shown of Stroman and he is smiling into the camera. The choice of portraying him in a positive light in the picture as opposed to having him appear angry and seeking to kill is to show that people can change. No matter what a person may have done Giridharadas belivees that they deserve a scond chance to right their wrongs. Pathos is also used in the amount of detail given in the story. Giridharadas says,"dozens of scalding, birdshot pellets puncture his head," and " He cups a hand over his forehead to keep in the brains on which he'd gambled everything." The details from these tow quotes in particular are to make the audience feel sorry for hat Bhuiyan was faced with and to envoke feelings of sympathy in the audience. 

Giridharadas gets his point across by directly addressing the audience and explaining what he took away from the story of the two men. He wants to show that as humans we should give second chances and learn to forgivve people for the mistakes they make. He direcly addresses thae audience chahallenging them to embrace the philosophy that he has and be willing to give others second chances. This relates to me because there are times when I have questioned whether I should give someone a second chance or not. This caused me to refelct on the situations I have been in when I didn't want to give someone a second chance. It showed me that if someone was almost killed and was willing to give his attacker a second chance then I should be able to forgive others and give them a second chance. It also made me think about some of the things that I have done that I and the second chances that I was given. I realize that I shouldn't take these second chances for granted and that I should take them very seriously. This made me realize it is miportant to think before I act.