Rhetorical précis for op ed

In Julia Baird's op-ed, "Being Dishonest About Ugliness", she claims that it is best to tell children that it is ok to look different and not to lie to them by calling everyone beautiful. The author first tells the reader that children already know that looks so in fact matter by referring to Robert Hoge, an Australian author who was born with a tumor in his face: she then argues that although looks are something, they aren't everything by alluding to Hoge and how although he wasn't physically attractive, his other qualities landed him a job as a senior politician in his state: and to conclude she says how we should also focus on people on earth who accomplished many things without being attractive by using Abraham Lincoln as an example. Her purpose is to show that although looks are something, they aren't everything in order to show that it is best to be straight forward with kids and tell them they can still have other good attributes about them. She seems to have parents as her audience in mind because she is giving examples of how she shows her daughter that looks aren't everything and by persuading parents that they shouldn't lie to thier kids and say that everyone is beautiful and everyone looks normal.

Baird, Julia. "The New York Times." Being Dishonest About Ugliness. 9 Nov. 2015. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.

Mark Edmundson talks about how to live a decent life by not being overly cautious on what a person says. He says that since everyone is afraid of saying something that might be racist or prejudice we are too focused on sating a joke that might be offensive instead of more serious things. He disagrees with Hilary Clinton when she says that we cant change hearts but we can change laws. He believes that laws change because peoples hearts change. He believes that just because a person may laugh at a racist joke it doesn't mean its the end of the world or that person is filled with hate.

Edmundson, Mark. "A Guide to Living a Decent Life Today, Courtesy of Walt Whitman." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 25 Oct. 2015. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.