"Letter from the Birmingham Jail"

After reading "Letter from the Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King, Jr, I was in awe of his persuasiveness and passion. The man was great, there is no doubt in that. His extremism and pride seemed too much for some people, but I think it was amazing. The man stood up for what he believed in. He was ridiculed every day of his life, but he sits and writes a monster of a letter begging people to be more compassionate. Where is his anger? He seems to have none. I would be so angry if I was him.

While looking at the persuasiveness of this piece, I searched for a contemporary excerpt related to the construction industry. In the "Why Flour?" page on the Fluor Corporation website there are a few paragraphs explaining the benefits of working at the Flour Corporation. I found that they stated several statistics. They are ranked at the top of several lists among construction companies nationwide. They seem to offer great employee incentives and benefits. They promise to give their employees the best work experience possible. It seems that they want to do anything to get the best employees out there.

When looking at Martin Luther King Jr.'s piece, I couldn't help but notice the overwhelming persuasive pressure that he put on his readers. When reading it, my heart began to pour out to those people in need of help. I wanted to get up and do something about the heartache and troubles that the African American people were facing. He did an awesome job with this letter. It seems that he just sat down and began to write down his thoughts of why people act they way they do, and why nobody does anything about it. He calls on Christians to take a step to eliminate racism in Birmingham and across the country. It is compelling. I was inspired by this letter.

I think that when looking at the two works together they are pretty tough to compare. The Fluor Corporation website uses facts and figures to persuade people to work for them, while MLK simply states the obvious. He says what's going on, and what needs to be done about it.