Page 269 - SpringBoard_ELA_Grade8_Flipbook

aCTIvITy 3.19
continued
raising awareness
plague: a highly fatal epidemic affliction
wanton: immoral and excessive
My Notes
23 Who ask in fear, ‘where will this deadly plague strike next?’
24 Do we feel their pain deeply enough?
25 I didn’t. And I was ashamed.
26 I studied this wanton abuse of nature. I read the literature, heard from the experts
about what pesticides do to our land and our food.
27 I talked with farm workers, listened to their families, and shared their anguish and their fears. I spoke out against the cycle of death.
28 But sometimes words come too cheaply. And their meaning is lost in the clutter that so often fills our lives.
29 That is why, in July and August of last year, I embarked on a 36-day unconditional, water-only fast.
30 The fast was first and foremost directed at myself. It was something I felt compelled to do to purify my own body, mind and soul.
31 The fast was an act of penance for our own members who, out of ignorance or need, cooperate with those who grow and sell food treated with toxins.
32 The fast was also for those who know what is right and just. It pains me that we continue to shop without protest at stores that offer grapes; that we eat in restaurants that display them; that we are too patient and understanding with those who serve them to us.
33 The fast, then, was for those who know that they could or should do more—for those who, by not acting, become bystanders in the poisoning of our food and the people who produce it.
34 The fast was, finally, a declaration of noncooperation with supermarkets that promote, sell, and profit from California table grapes. They are as culpable as those who manufacture the poisons and those who use them.
35 It is my hope that our friends everywhere will resist in many nonviolent ways the presence of grapes in the stores where they shop.
Second Read
• Reread the speech to answer these text-dependent questions.
• Write any additional questions you have about the text in your Reader/Writer Notebook.
1. Craft and Structure: What can you predict about this article given the opening question of the speech? Is the question intended to appeal to logos, pathos, or ethos? Explain.
242 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 8
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