I Wonder...

I Wonder... With the interest of keeping full disclosure in mind, this is just my thought process, and at a very early stage. I have an open mind and am willing to change it. Also, I did no research before writing this post, it is all stream of conscience and I am certain I have left important things out.

With all that is happening with marriage equality in the Supreme Court over the next few days, it is very interesting to be on a college campus taking in the different points of view. I don't pretend to be extremely knowledgable about the issue, nor do I pretend to know exactly how I feel, but what I do know is that all of America seems to be begging for a final and definite decision to be made about homosexual marriages.

Colleges tend to be an extremely liberal place, and the student population keeps that trend going. In a nation that is for and by the people, the youth are forever coming up with ways to challenge the system, and mold it to better fit the era's society and beliefs. This was the case with the Womens' Rights Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, and many more. The country has seen incredible public speakers mesmerize audiences and persuade them to see a new perspective. The ambition and motivation that people here have is unlike anything else. Which leads me to the Marriage Equality Movement.

I personally hold the opinion that people should be able to marry people. Whether the relationship is heterosexual or homosexual, to be cliche, "love is love." Who am I to say that two people cannot get married just because they are the same gender? For that matter, who is anyone to say that? The only two responses that seem to come out of that second question are the Constitution and the Bible.

In response to the answer of the Constitution, I say that it is a document that can be interpreted in many different ways. It is a document that has been changed in the past with the addition of amendments, and it is a document that should continue to change in the present and future. It represents everything America stands for: the government for and by the people. And at this point in time, the people are speaking. The Marriage Equality Movement is speaking, and it is gathering support. If trends continue as they have with previous Rights movements, the movement is on track to accomplish its goals. The Constitution is an ever-changing document. The ideals are the same, but as people become more open to new things, it only makes sense that the Constitution should accept them (assuming they are not harmful or dangerous, and homosexual marriage is neither).

The Bible is a much more complicated answer. It is not a book that is meant to change with time, it is the set-in-stone beliefs that have been in places for many centuries. Jesus clearly defined marriage as between a man and a woman, and there is only one way to interpret that. People argue that gay marriage is a sin based on what the Bible says. I am no devout Christian, but I could tell you that, yeah, it probably is, based on what the Bible says. It says to "love thy neighbor" and to tolerate people, but if you tolerate people that are supposedly going against what Jesus said by being involved in a homosexual marriage, then you are sinning by accepting their sin. And supposedly it is better to suffer the anger and comments about ignorance from homosexuals than it is to suffer the wrath of God for tolerating sins and sinners.

To me, that is all a bit convoluted. I have always been taught to try to see God in my own way through my own experiences. That is how I interpreted sermons that were given at my church and what I believed my parents were trying to teach me (side note, I have no idea how my reverend or parents feel about gay marriage). But if everybody sees God in their own way, then why shouldn't I be allowed to be considered a Christian and support marriage equality? I feel as though loving thy neighbor is more important than following the belief that marriage should strictly be between a male and a female. To me, God is the idea of spreading love, and if love is between two males or two females, it should not matter; because it is still love.

Beyond that, not everybody in the United States is even religious. So many people would consider the whole religious side of the argument to be void.

Acceptance is something that both Americans and Christians say that they believe in, so the documentation should back that. I'm not saying to change either document, rather to interpret it so that acceptance is at the core.

"Time Flew" - Final Meta Post

I'm sure that people are going to reminisce on how quickly the year has gone by in this post, how it seems like it was just yesterday that we were introduced to Mr. Bolos and Mr. O'Connor, how quickly the time has flown since writing our first blog post, how amazing it is that Junior year is almost over. In fact, I'm pretty sure I would say that, too. But the other day on the Seniors' last day of school, I overheard some of them talking and saying how quickly their high school careers had gone by. As I walked past them I thought, really? Because as a Junior right now, time is going anything but quickly (except of course when I need it to go slowly so that I can study, then it goes quickly).

I'm not going to pretend that the year has not gone quickly, because in some ways it does seem like I was walking into AIS for the first time just yesterday. But then I think about all of the hours of time I have put into this class. The hours spent reading and writing my parallels, contrasts, and questions. The time I spent agonizing over papers, trying to find things to fix, trying to be more empathetic for the reader. The weeks I spent researching Junior Theme, and then later re-reading everything when picking quotes that I would actually use. 90 minutes of class every day. Not to mention the thirty-something blog posts I have done.  And all that time spent on just this class.

Now I'm not trying to be all negative, because I have thoroughly enjoyed American Studies. I think it has allowed me to improve on my writing skills, my "joining in the conversation" skills, and I think it has  made me more confident to voice my opinions, or blog about them. Blogging is a whole different world. One where I can get anonymous people posting comments on a post, one where friends can laugh at me because I blog for homework, one where classmates can share honest opinions that can be very helpful. Blogging allows me to say things that there aren't time for in class, as well as to take what I learn in class and apply it outside. For that reason, I'm going to ask that my teachers read the post Are You Maya Moore's Mom? I think it shows me taking elements from a class discussion and applying them to my surroundings outside of class.

I just want to say thank you to Mr. Bolos and Mr. O'Connor. Being a part of your class this year has been really fun, I truly appreciate the effort and time you both put into making our class valuable as well as a blast.

I had to end with a fish joke...

Gender Inequality

As I was watching one of my favorite shows, "Chelsea Lately," tonight, she brought up a recent controversial story. Nobel Prize winner V.S. Naipaul made some very sexist remarks in a recent interview about how women could never write as well as he can, and that they have a "narrow view of the world." It's important to note that he is around 80 years old, so he was brought up in a different time, but is what he says socially acceptable by today's standards? His remarks reminded me a lot of our final essay prompt, so in case anybody is doing the final through the lens of gender, this might be a good "gravy" source. 

Here's a link to an article right HERE

Is Richer Nicer?

This post is long overdue, I meant to write it at least three weeks ago, but I find myself just now taking the time to create it.
In class, we spoke about neighborhoods, specifically train stations within a town. We watched people state observations about the Kenilworth Train Station to determine what could be considered a mark of it being a train station in a high class neighborhood.  Things like a nice waiting room, potted plants, and a roof over the bike racks demonstrated that Kenilworth is wealthy. We then proceeded to watch a video Mr. Bolos had filmed of the Union Pacific/West Line. We took notes on many things trying to find similarities and differences to the town of Kenilworth and its train station.
Some of the observations included lack of nature, home size (bigger or smaller), how industrialized the area was (if there was a factory), and even little things like the decorativeness of street lights. It's incredible what those little details bring. And when we had our class discussion after watching the film, the word "nicer" was used a lot.
Mr. O'Connor kept correcting people by saying, "you mean 'higher income,' right?" Everybody would backtrack and say yes, I meant higher income. But my question is, is it so wrong to make the two adjectives interchangeable?
When I think of a "nice" neighborhood, it can always be described as "rich" or "wealthy" as well. "Nice" neighborhoods, in my opinion, have good schools, up-to-date and taken care of buildings, security, green space, good-looking homes, etc. All of those things require money as well, so then, aren't "nice" and "wealthy" almost synonymous in that case?

Just Kidding! - Back to "Class"

And just as I thought I was going to be able to escape Junior Theme until we got our revised papers back... We are now starting the book The Great Gatsby. Starting today, we talked a lot about social class and how it is determined. Our worksheets read upper class, middle class, and lower class. It sounded too familiar.

It is my opinion that social class is determined most easily by income. I can't make the claim that wealth is how it is determined because I associate wealth with appearance, and as my Junior Theme taught me, appearance isn't everything! Most people live beyond their means and in a pile of debt because they decide to buy an expensive car or live in an area that they can't afford or wear designer clothes etc. Appearance just can't be the determining factor anymore. And what about something like education? Maybe that can be a form of determining class, but who is to say where to draw the lines? High school graduates versus college graduates versus graduate school attendees, etc. That's not really measurable because different schools provide different things. It's much harder to measure quality than quantity

Quantity is where the numbers of incomes play a role. It is easy to say that a person making x amount of money per year is in this class. That's what I did for Junior Theme, saying that a member of the middle class makes between $40,000 and $200,000 but that's a big range. And it also depends on the number of people that a person is supporting with that money. There's no simple answer. It is definitely thought-provoking.

It's a good thing I liked my Junior Theme topic, because it looks like it's not going away...

Take a Breath

As I edited my Junior Theme one last time in the library today, I couldn't believe it was over. My exhale of breath after clicking print on my Word document drew me some weird glances, but I don't care. I am relieved.
Relieved that now I can get a full night's sleep without my brain whirring trying to come up with new ideas.
Relieved that I will be able to have an intelligent conversation with people about something other than the decreasing size of the middle class.
Relieved that I can empty my notebook of all of the superfluous articles I never used.
Relieved that I will be able to eat a meal without a copy of a draft in front of me.
Relieved that I made it through Junior Theme alive.
Relieved that I can kind of have my life back.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed doing my junior theme. I had a good time finding articles as well as writing my paper. For me the boring and time-sucking part was the reading of the articles. Some of them drew me in and I wanted to keep reading, others disgusted me that people voice such strong opinions in a public place like the media, and still others bored me to the point that I fell asleep while reading them. Writing the paper itself was a burden, but I did it with the help of friends. We skyped as we wrote, asking each others opinions as we went. The editing process was less fun when I was reading my own paper, but I thoroughly enjoyed getting to read other people's papers that ranged from the development of the electric car, to school shootings, to the almost omnipresence of corn in food today. Research papers are fun, because they teach you about something that you wouldn't be able to learn from one teacher. You draw facts from many different resources
and you get to teach yourself in a way. And once it's over, it's the greatest feeling of accomplishment. And relief.

What Do You Consider Middle Class?

 My Junior Theme is about the decreasing size of the middle class in the United States.  As I continue to write my paper, it's amazing how much the readings that I have done have helped me become an "expert." I say "expert" because while I've researched constantly for the past few weeks, there are real experts who have spent years studying the topic.
    In class the other day when we were going over what to make sure you do in your paper, we talked about working definitions.  I realized that after doing all of my research I have only a basic idea of what I consider to be "middle class." I want to make sure that I base my working definition not only off of my readings, but also off of general people's ideas so that whoever reads my paper will understand.
    What do you consider to be "middle class"? It could be anything from type of car a person drives, to income, to race, etc. Let me know!