*Insert Clever Title Here*

Both of the essays we read yesterday (or today) both present a problem that we as a society have no solution to right now. Kozol asks in "Human Cost" if "we possess the character and the courage to address a problem which so many nations, poorer than our own, have found it natural to correct?" Can we solve our country's illiteracy problem? We have yet to find a solution. The excerpt is both moving and disturbing. The dream Kozol relates to the reader in the beginning of the excerpt about being stuck in Russia without a translator helps them understand better what it would be like to be illiterate, because it is difficult for most people to imagine not being able to read. The reader must pity the people who have grown to adulthood without learning to read because the examples he provides are terrible to comprehend. Humans without the ability to read are almost as inhibited in their everyday lives as those without smartphones.

In "On Compassion," Ascher brings up the problem of homelessness in our country. While discussing homelessness is not the main focus of her essay, the men she describes are homeless and in need of aid. Her two main examples in the essay are two different homeless men. The first is walking on the street when a woman tries to hand him a dollar out of compassion (or fear). At first he does not know how to react, but accepts the money. The second homeless man walks into a restaurant and is handed some coffee and some bread. It is habitual, rather than a one time incident. Ascher also mentions a good-intentioned effort to house the homeless in a hospital during winter that she did not think was workable. She thinks it is wrong to force them to go anywhere; it violates their rights. Good intentions are not always enough, and in this case she believes the governments' efforts were not helpful, as the efforts of the government to have an educated citizenry are shown to have failed in "Human Cost." Both essays bring up an issue that most people don't realize the extent of because it seems impossible to them, but through use of well-chosen examples lead the reader to have a better understanding of the topic.