What is the meaning of this excerpt from "everyday use" by alice walker? in real life i am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands. in the winter i wear flannel nightgowns to bed and overalls during the day. i can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man. my fat keeps me hot in zero weather. i can work outside all day, breaking ice to get water for washing; i can eat pork liver cooked over the open fire minutes after it comes steaming from the hog. one winter i knocked a bull calf straight in the brain between the eyes with a sledge hammer and had the meat hung up to chill before nightfall. but of course all this does not show on television. i am the way my daughter would want me to be: a hundred pounds lighter, my skin like an uncooked barley pancake. my hair glistens in the hot bright lights. johnny carson has much to do to keep up with my quick and witty tongue.

B) Dee is ashamed of how her mother looks and acts.

At the beginning of this excerpt we read a description of a woman who exhibits many characteristics/qualities of a man, of an outdoorsy type, and overweight woman as can be determined by how she describes herself as a woman with “man-working hands,” one who “can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man,” and whose fat “keeps [her] hot in zero weather.”  These are all attributes of which her daughter is ashamed because she says that on television she is not like this; she is the way her “daughter would want [her] to be” with less weight, lighter skin, and smooth/fair skin and hair.

overnment is strong when they have the ability to persuade those they govern to believe government has enough power to force them or should be forcing them to do government’s will.

when enough of the citizenry do not believe government can force them or should force them to do its bidding, government has lost or will lose its strength and power to coerce.

when enough of the citizenry do believe government can force or should force them to do its bidding, they become passive at the least or actively pro-government and repeat government’s own rhetoric to pass on what they have been persuaded by government’s propaganda.

a true majority isn’t always needed to govern or to stop government. many times all that is needed is a strong minority. if a determined 30% of the population rises up against government in a concerted effort to bring it down, this size minority usually will succeed as long as those actively opposing the minority are less in force than the minority. so if 41% of the population sits at home watching tv rooting for one side or the other, they don’t matter. it’s the active parties who make a difference.

the underline word is basically like a prepositional phrase.