Elisa Chavz-Revenge

I think Elisa Chavez’s poem Revenge is really a protest against President Trump and all the policies he is planning on putting in effect. Her poem was published in January of this year (2017), so the timeline makes sense. She makes mentions of things such as: gun control, the ban and deportation of certain immigrants and minority movements. She clearly has very strong opinions on the topic(s). She uses words like “swastikas”, “haunt”, and “trample” to describe people who oppose the political correctness and minority/social justice movements (that’s her poem in a nutshell, obviously her meaning goes deeper than that). A few questions came to my mind after reading her poem. What connection(s) does she have to the topics at hand? Why does she have such strong feelings about the subject? And what solutions, if any, is she willing to provide? You can’t really understand someone’s views if you don’t understand them as a person, I must take a deeper look into her life to find out those questions.  

Shame/Guilt-Ted Talk

I really enjoyed this Ted Talk. The first thing I picked up on was that shame relates directly to our classroom. I thought we had a good discussion last week about seeing all points of view and how we are seeing more and more gender expectations. While we had good discussion, I think that shame is what was holding many people back from expressing their own opinion. Some may have been afraid that they would be ridiculed for their belief on the topic; some may even have thought they weren’t good enough to contribute to the conversation. Both these beliefs are dangerous or “seductive” as she states in the Ted Talk. Everyone in our class has the right to their express their opinion openly without having anything holding them back.

The next parallel I saw was that men and woman truly are different. When I say different I don’t mean unequal, I simply mean we behave differently and have different societal expectations. In the in-class discussion I said I didn’t have a problem with the gender specific magazines. I hold true to this, I believe in freedom and that people have the right to publish and/or print what they want (with-in the rule of law of the United States). While that is true, I do acknowledge that society expects to much of each gender, women in particular. I agree completely with this Ted Talk when it showed us that most men are afraid of being viewed as weak and most women fear being viewed as not being good enough (in a nutshell). It is very sad and even repulsive we live in a society that exposes those insecurities and feeds on what they do to us as people. Shame plays a big part in the creation of those very insecurities. Obviously, I am not a women and I really will never have any idea what their experiences with shame are like. Thus I concluded I needed to be more open-minded and let empathy and understanding take their place before I set my opinions in stone. To a certain degree, I think my conclusion applies to everyone. We must come to understand where someone is coming from before we completely shut their argument down. Empathy is the antidote to the sickness that is shame (as stated in the Ted Talk).

Topical blog post #2

This is a link to a study conducted that shows just how much President Trump and former Secretary Hillary Clinton use social media (Twitter specifically). This study puts in into perspective just how big of a factor social media is becoming in today's political realm.

http://graphics.wsj.com/clinton-trump-twitter/

Three A's of Awesome

The thing I liked most about this Ted Talk, was when he stated that we need to see the world with our “three-year-old eyes”. We must see everything like we saw it for the first time. I know that as I have gone throughout my high school and now even my college years, things have become very routine. My life has simply become the same thing over and over. Work, school, gym repeat, work, school, gym repeat. I need to learn to see things in a fresh way again, go out and break my routine every now and then. Life is too short to do the same thing over and over again. Go out and experience new things or even do the same thing but look at it in a way you haven’t before. In the famous words of Ferris Bueller “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Death Sentences

George Orwell once said "...if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought." I find this very idea demonstrated in today’s world when people use the word “love”. This may not be what people usually think of when they think of “irresponsible language”. Irresponsible language is usually defined as a word or phrase that in one way or another ultimately offends someone. I am not in any way offended by the word love, but in today’s society I have found that when people use the term they have no idea what they are actually saying. I find it irresponsible that people throw a word like love out like a beach ball at a “1975” concert. The word is used so often that people have become desensitized to just how much weight falls behind it. Just to be clear I’m not saying I hate it when people say something to the effect of “I love pizza” (let’s be honest who doesn’t??); however, I can’t stand it when people in a young relationship, such as one in high school, say they love each other after they have been dating for 2 weeks. Come on you guys are like 16 years old you don’t even know what that words mean yet! Love takes on a whole new meaning when it applies to a human being. I have seen cases like this this far too often in my own life and the lives of those close to me. That is just one example in a sea of misuses of the word. Sadly, people say things like this so often that the true meaning of the word love has, in a sense, been lost. Love is such a strong word, call me old fashioned but in my opinion when it is used correctly no word carries more power or brings people closer together than this word. So, next time you are thinking about using the word love, ask yourself: Do I love it? Or do I love the idea of it?  

Topical blog post #1

The issue I have chosen to research is how social media is affecting American politics. I have decided to write about this topic because of America's most recent presidential election in 2016. Social media was used very frequently by all candidates and both the Democratic and Republican parties. I saw each candidate interact with one another and I also witnessed first hand the political discussions going on all across the web. Viewing all these posts have made me question if social media is even an effective tool for communicating political information. Should social media even be interrelated with politics at all?

Betsy Devos Hearing

“Limit the role of government in America's schools and trust that the free market — and parent choice — will lead to innovation and improvement.” In my opinion, this is the way schooling should be. America was founded on a free-market economy in which the Federal Government played a very small role. For a market economy to work the Federal Gov. must only set the minimal standard and then let the states experiment with things in their own way to find out what does and does not work (I’m paraphrasing Ben Franklin there). I also agree that in Federally funded programs, the Federal government has the power to step into the playing field of education and enforce their rules. I think Devos has some good ideas for education; however, I do agree that her new policies may have a scary impact on federally or state funded public schools. 

I Am.

I am...
A fighter
A Dreamer
A Realist
A Skeptic
I am..
passionate
caring
objective
hard-working
intelligent
proud
strong
I am...
me.