Looking Back

My favorite part of the past semester was reading 3 Cups of Tea. I wasn't into it at first, but after reading a bit of it I started to really enjoy it. It taught me a lot about the Middle East because I have never really been interested in it. However this book put everything in words that I can understand. I also learned a lot about the U.N. I'm not into politics so it was an interesting look into something I have never learned about before.

HoD Blog: Section II

I now see a deep connection between Heart of Darkness and Lord of the Flies. One part of the book i can see a connection in is the part when Piggy dies. The boys kill him and one of them feels upset about it. In a sense, this happens in Heart of Darkness. When the helmsman dies, Marlow is upset, but the others on the boat want to eat him because they are cannibals. Another part that struck me as connecting was the eeriness of the boat and it's surroundings. They are in a beautiful jungle in both books, but in both books an eerie scene foreshadows a terrible thing happening. In Lord of the Flies, it's at the signal fire in the pitch dark and a huge object comes out of the sky. In Heart of Darkness it is not knowing which way to go, the heavy fog, and the dense, unclear jungle.

U.N. Blog

I strongly agree with Andrea Seastrand that the United States should withdraw from the United Nations. Almost everyone agrees that there is a huge problem with the U.N.'s policy. The Muslims were held back by the U.S. when the Bosnian Serbs attacked in which they could not even launch an offensive to try and fight. There are many problems with the equality in voting in the U.N. General Assembly. The United States, with 262 million citizens have the same vote as Palau, with 15,000 citizens. This is a terrible way to give a vote to each country because most of the countries are small and poor. They vote on many subjects including approving policies related to war, economic expenditures, wealth distribution, and regulatory restrictions. I think it is ridiculous that the American taxpayers are subsidizing the privileged U.N. workers' taxes.

N-Word Blog #2

I feel like there are so many sides to using the n-word. In the episode of Boston Public I can see the controversy because of the very diverse student body. It doesn't affect us in the same way here in Superior, but I think that if a white person stepped into a person of a different race and vice versa, the people using the n-word would change their mind. Although this is not possible, I wish it was because then everybody could see how it is living in somebody else's shoes and see that the n-word is different to different people.
I think how the word is used is what it is all about. Using it in a positive way is okay to me, but a negative way is horrible. I think in the next generation the n-word will completely change to being a slang word meaning friends or buddies. What parents tell their kids is, "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." This is one of the toughest sayings to be able to believe in because words are the strongest thing you can use against a person. Using your words is one of the most powerful thing you can use against somebody.
I think that saying the word in a positive connotation could be a good way of getting rid of the negative, but I don't think this generation is ready for that yet because kids are still taught that it is a very bad word to say even though it can be used in a good way. The controversy over words will never go away, but the government can't take away our freedom of speech.

Afghanistan

I agree with the yes side of the argument of whether the president should announce an Afghanistan exit strategy or not. The United States has always wanted to just go into a war hoping to resolve it by using overwhelming force, but hope to get it over with as soon as possible; get in, and get out. I think that the United States should establish an exit strategy but not announce it to the world. If we were to do this, it gives our enemy the plan and gives them an up on us.

N-Word Blog

After reading the first chapter. One passage in the first chapter really jumped out at me.

"Before the 1970's, however, nigger seldom figured in the routines of professional comedians. It was especially rare in the acts of those who performed for racially mixed audiences. Asserting that unmentionable slurs derived much of their seductive power from their taboo status, the iconoclastic white comedian Lenny Bruce recommended a strategy of subversion through overuse. In a 1963 routine, Bruce suggested with characteristic verve that "if President Kennedy got on television and said, 'Tonight I'd like to introduce the niggers in my cabinet,' and he yelled 'Niggerniggerniggerniggerniggerniggernigger' at every nigger he saw...til nigger didn't mean anything anymore, till nigger lost its meaning...you'd never hear any four-year-old nigger cry when he came home from school."" (pg. 31)

This isn't exactly Kennedy's point, but I agree with what the comedian said in a way. If people wouldn't use the n-word in a bad connotation, but used it in a good way, everything would be so much better. As the comedian said, if people were used to hearing it said in a good way, kids would grow up thinking of it in a good way and eventually everybody would too.

Socratic Method/Michael Moore

One similarity I found between Socrates and Michael Moore was their style of proving their point. Throughout the whole documentary Michael Moore questions people and the government. He asks about gun control, why people think Canada has less shootings than America, and many others. Socrates is similar in the way that he asks questions to Crito about justice and escaping from the jail. Both of the men are asking questions to get a point across.