I'm Aspen Johnson, a Classics enthusiast. I attend the Roxbury Latin School (RL). I began taking Latin in seventh grade at RL where my passion was promptly evoked.
- 3+ years of Latin experience in which I have learned every grammatical law and most words. I also keep a thorough Latin to English dictionary and a grammar construction book with me.
- Excel in robust RL Latin classes.
- Received various "cum laude" and top two placement awards for national Classics exams.
- Won several state and college Certamenes (a team latin competition).
- The Novice Massachusetts Certamen Team, which I served on as the Mythologist, won 1st place at the 2022 National Junior Classical League Convention and 2nd place at the 2023 National Junior Classical League Convention.
I am eager to teach Latin to novice or intermediate students that either want additional help in an existing Latin class at their school or want to continue their Classical pursuits outside of the classroom.
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Ronald Reagan’s A Time for Choosing speech entertains with Judo-Christian mythos, satire, and fantasticism that grips the audience as Herodian text. In contrast, Pericles’s candid messaging may be grim but still refreshes the audience with a logical but optimistic interpretation of war’s casualty. Reagan incorporates quips, stating that “the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so”(Reagan, 13:19). He utilizes sarcasm to animate his speech, poking fun at the supposed low intellect of his opposing political party. This humor and fantastical descriptions of Vietnam as an entity making “his long climb from the swamp to the stars”(Reagan, 2:44) exaggerates his enemies as half-wits and behemoths. Finally, Reagan rhetorically asks “should Christ have refused the cross”(Reagan, 26:10), arguing that fighting for a smaller government is similar to what god incarnate fought for. He associates his argument with Jesus; this, in turn, demonizes anyone that disagrees with him. Yet, Pericles rejects any sort of this manipulation throughout his speech as he denounces “Homer, or anyone else, to praise our power with words that bring delight for a moment”(Thucydides, 43). Instead, Pericles leaves out fantasticism or mythology from his speech. For example, he attributes the power of Athens to solely having been “purchased by valiant men”(Thucydides, 44) not God’s nor any fantastical relations. Thucydides provides bleak but factual recordings of history; Pericles’s oration follows this thucydidian manner but does so while displaying the beauty in a seemingly sad topic. Moreover, Pericles does not employ any salvation history, humor, or romanticism like Reagan to win over the listeners. Instead, he tells them the plain truth like Thucydides does in his works.
Bibliography
Thucydides. “Pericles Funeral Oration.” On Justice Power and Human Nature, edited by Paul Woodruff, Hacket Publishing Company, 1993, pp. 39-46.
Ronald, Reagan; “A Time for Choosing”; 1964 U.S. Presidential Election Campaign; 27/11/1964; Los Angeles County, California, U.S.
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