This Is The End, My Only Friend, The End

Wow, this is really my final blog. I feel like I am leaving somewhere that I have never been physical. This is like the quote Dr. Nafisi’s stole from Humbert in Lolita; we have to imagine each other because we do not exist it we don’t. Through words in blogs and Peer Draft Reviews, I have imagined you guys. It was fun, but challenging. I think if this was my only class or I had a couple of easy classes along with this one I would appreciate it more. Despite having a tough schedule, this class got a lot of my attention for the last sixteen weeks. It’s going to be different not writing one of these blogs every Friday. I guess I could keep writing them, but I probably will not.

English 103 taught me a different style of reading. Sometime you read and you just take what the writer gives you. Not in this class, it was like a treasure hunt. We where trying to figure out what the writer was trying to imply. What was the writer trying to hide? Is he bias? Is the writer bullshitting me? I think that is what made this class fun and at the same time challenging. Most of the assignments had no right or wrong answer, but you had to answer them thoughtfully and explain how you came to your conclusion. Also, unlike a couple of the classes I have taken at AVC, every book and reading assignment was interest. When I saw that a book call On Bullshit was part of our required reading, I knew this class would be different. It definitely did not disappoint.

I have never been asked how I felt about something so often. This was one of the main questions that the EL book always asks. It’s weird because I would be flying through my work it’s about 10:45 Sunday night. Then I run across a question that asks how "do I feel about something." When I first started in English 103 theses questions would take me a while to answer because it was so foreign. I would say to myself, "is this question supposed to make me feel a certain way?” It funny how such a simple question can be somewhat challenging.

This class made me a better more confident writer, through practice. I actually register to take English 299 to build off this momentum. It is actually just to continue writing because I don’t need the class. I should actually be able to concentrate more on the assignments because the only other classes I have are Photoshop and a digital photography class. I just go a Canon T1i, it is my first DSLR, I’m pumped.

Ok guys I guess this is the end we are the few that made it I guess there is something to be said about that. Well I guess I will see… oh yeah I have never seen you guys to start of with, you are parts of my imagination.

If Only I Knew Someone with Adderall

This research paper has definitely been a learning experience. Really taking the time to break down minor detail and explain them has been fun at times, when I am in a good flow, and challenging. The main issue is usually not understanding, but finding the words to explain. I recently learned, in my psychology class, that the temporal lobe is a part of the brain that is used specifically for this function. There was a man they called patient H.M that had a rare form of amnesia that could remember the procedure for doing a task, this was evident by him demonstrating, but if you asked him to explain the task in words he could not. Sometimes I feel like patient H.M.

The prompt I chose to write on was about how the women of Reading Lolita in Tehran, like Gatsby, created an illusion for themselves and how the Islamic Republic of Iran also create an illusion for them. This makes me think, am I creating myself, or am I unknowingly letting someone create an illusion for me. In America, unlike Iran, we are not forced to do things, but there is still a certain amount of influence that people have over us through popularity. I remember hearing the saying “you can catch more flies with honey.” If they eliminated the influence of American culture, which they attempt to, but at the same time make Islam sensationalized, would it work? Could you imagine if it was cool to wear a chador?

Another thing the research paper taught me is God is wrong, at least the God that inspired the writing of the Koran. The verse I used in my paper has God telling men to scourge, which means to whip, their wives (look it up for yourself chapter 4 verse 34). I think the fundamental thing wrong with religion is that it is created by men, (in both the human being and gender sense). It is just to tempting for someone that is writing something down for God to throw their own little twist in there, in an attempt to make it better. Also, it is out of date, you can’t use a manual for the old Apple computers with a floppy disk, for an iMac, come on baby we evolving. That being said I am not an atheist, neither was Darwin, if you didn’t like the evolving comment. This reminds me of a line from Angel and Demons when the priest asks Tom Hanks, “Do you believe in God? I'm not asking do you believe in what men say about God. I’m asking do you believe there is a God.” (Hopefully I do not get points off for not citing that correctly).

Well we are coming to and end. I hope your research paper stimulated as many distracting thoughts as mines did. I guess the main thing I learned from doing this paper is I may have ADHD.

I attempted to make this paper entertaining. I know this semester has been a long one for everyone including me. I hope you enjoyed my blog.

Reading Lolita in Vegas

When I go over my notes from "Reading Lolita in Tehran", and think about writing a research paper about it, I get a feeling of anxiety, partly because of the sensitive subject. This book is a look into a facet of the human struggle I am not familiar with. I knew that this was going on in Tehran, but this book gives a much more personal account. As a psychology major, I am intrigued by how they used books to cope. I hope to be able to capture this in my research paper. 

I am doing my research paper on the illusion created by Gatsby and the women in Reading Lolita in Tehran. Gatsby was actually a great book. It had drinking, smoking, partying, and sex, all the things that make for a great reality show. For some reason The Great Gatsby reminds me of the Jersey Shore. Fitzgerald never really shows them doing anything other than hanging out. It was pretty easy reading, it took me about 2 days.

I recently came up with an idea that would kill two birds with one stone. I have a 10-page paper due at the end of the semester for my Psychology 201 class. I decided to do it on depression and how people cope with it, so some of my source can be incorporated into my Reading Lolita in Tehran paper. I first thought, well they never actually say they are depressed, but there is an overall feeling of depression though it is unspoken.

Does anyone else have to give themselves peep talks throughout the day? I just keep telling myself in two more weeks it will be all over, and bribing myself with a Vegas trip after the semester. This has by far been the most challenging semester of my college experience. I chose the worse possible combination of classes. I have Statistics, and it is not the class where the professor writes the formulas on the board during the test. I also have Psychology 201 class, which is more like biology without the lab, my favorite part. And I have a black and white photo class, which I thought was going to be easy, ha.

I fear doing this paper wrong. On my first essay, I did not do it correctly at all. I wrote about the subject and did not focus on critique and analyzing the article.  Then on my synthesis paper, I did not include enough sources, on me second draft and my header font was not the same as the rest of my essay. I think I did better on my timed essay than I did on these that took me days to write. This paper has to be perfect, not great, but done perfectly.

I am going to let all the slackers, like myself, know that the five sources does not include Reading Lolita in Tehran or the other book you choose(if you are doing option 1). I already emailed Jennifer to clear that up.

In conclusion, we all have been here before. We can see the finish line, let’s make these two last weeks productive and mistake free. Then we’re going to Vegas.

What's REALLY on your mind?

Social networking captures the qualities of a persons spoken language style. Are you a chatterbox that can spend hours just shooting the breeze? Well, chances are you are one of the people that have a paragraph on your Face book status. Personally, i am not into small talk, and that is reflected in my online communicating style. If I find something interesting or funny, I post a status update about it. Leaving a status update like, “Just left the gym, I’m feeling extra hungry, about to hit up Subway”, is just not me. Status updates like this make people seem desperate for conversation.

 When I comment on someone’s status or receive a message in my inbox, my conversation is in much more detail. I know that I have the reader’s complete attention and my entire response will be read because we have a mutual interest.  Also, my responses tend to be wordier, because I do not want to be misunderstood, which seems to happen often when communicating through social networks.

My apprehension to write a long Face book status reflects a lack of faith in humanity

(I may be reading too much into it, but for the sake of conversation and the five hundred words limit let say they are related). We live in the microwave generation; everything has to achieve its purpose while taking up as little time, space, and effort as possible. This is evident in everything from the preparation of food to cell phones. I really doubt the attention span of most people can endure a couple paragraph of you ranting about something that is unimportant to them. In the rare case that they actually take the time to read your MLA formatted, double-spaced, three page Face book status update, will you really be satisfied with a comment like, “:-( Wow that’s bad.” In certain cases, a person writes a status just to get something off their chest, but most of the time you want a response that is thoughtful.

I believe that communicating through social networks and text messages has a negative impact on students writing style. We are forced to squeeze our thoughts and feelings into 140 characters, and God forbid, a person has to hit the “read more” button on Face book. In social networking, people are conditioned to compress, if they want to be heard. Now compare this to the most important dynamic of an essay, which is expanding on ideas. The essay writer is attempting to answer every possible question about a subject before it is presented. Since most students spend more time sending text messages and social networking than writing essays, they subconsciously condense, leaving out details.

Social networks are a fun way to keep in contact with friends, but are not a good vehicle for meaningful conversation. We need to take time out of our busy schedule and talk to the people we care about. At least 50 percent of communication is nonverbal, so half your conversation is lost when social networking.

Blog on Blogs

I start my blog today by saying I have in no way reached my potential as a writer. I believe that we all can relate to this statement, but English 103 with Jennifer has definitely put me on the right path. I believe that I have written in this class more than I have in all of the courses I have taken combined. What I learned is the only why to be a good writer is through repetition.

Writing can sometimes be a difficult process. The blog takes away some of the pressure of writing. The blogs that we write allow us to create without the boundaries of thesis statements or MLA formatting. This form of free writing allows you to be creative. It has enhanced my writing because it captures the flow of thoughts similar to the way they come to you. I must say that is one of the parts of the class I actually enjoy.

The ability to receive comments from your peer on your blog is awesome. I like to know that my writing is effective and captivating. When you receive a comment it lets you know that you blog sparked an interest in someone, that is much more gratifying than the professor which is paid to read your writing commenting. The feature of comment excels your righting because it makes you strive to create writing that excites the reader.

I was having a talk with one of my friends about the blogs we write, he was amazed that sometime we have to create blogs as a response to only a couple of sentence. I believe this is the most challenge, yet valuable part of the blog. It teaches you how to expand upon ideas that you would usually express in a paragraph. Expanding on these ideas makes you a better writer because you create a better understanding between you and your audience.

Thinking critically is a vital part of writing. The subjects addressed in our blogs are always force you to take a second and third look, not only at the subjects but also at your attitude towards them. One of the essays we read talked about writing not to express, but to understand how you feel about a subject. This is the essence of what blogs and this entire class allows us to do.

Blogs capture the emotion of writing. If you wanted to compare blogs to a form of speaking, it has a lot of the aspects of standing on the front porch having a conversation with friends. Blogs are where you bounce ideas, and create your attitudes about a subject. You do not have to establish your argument and stand on it throughout the entire writing. It allows an openness to waver from you feeling on a subject and explore.

Blogging is a helpful tool in becoming a better writer. I hope that some of my future classes will include a blog and allow me to express my though and feeling through this way.

Fear and Vulgarity

Today when I turned on the news there was speculation of bomb like devices found on a cargo plane. It was suspected that it was shipped from Yemen, which is a hot bed for terrorist. Next, the news warned of bed bug in hotels and dorm rooms.  To top it all off, the news cautioned that people may give your children marijuana laced treats on Halloween. Papaganda that was most like perpetuated by those against prop. 19. Everyday we are inundated with subjects that evoke fear. These subjects represent a truth of society, there is evil amongst us. Why then is vulgarity taboo? These two components of life may seem unrelated, but let's take a deeper look.
Fear is an undeniable part of life as is vulgarity. If there was a scale that measure immorality I am sure fear would rank much higher than vulgarity. An example of this is the court of law. If you threaten to hurt someone you can be charged with a terrorist threat. In comparison a person can call someone ever bad name he can think of and be charged, at the most, with disturbing the peace.
Fear lingers on a persons mind longer than feelings of offense from obscenities. Think of the last time you were offended by obscene language. The feeling usually passes within minutes. Now compare that with the false fear of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq which left the nation paralyzed with terror for years. Fear is not censored, why then is vulgarity?

Vulgarity is part of the speech of everyday people. A storyteller can not create realistic stories that involve everyday people, and leave out the way they communicate. For instance, if a story about a teenage that has family issues describes how one day the character was so upset with his parents that he told them to “go f**k themselves”, how would you alter that without loosing the emotion and anger? It would be virtually impossible.

Art imitates life. We do not attempt to take away the right for people to say vulgar words or to do vulgar things. Why then do we want to censor vulgarity out of media?

I believe that censorship comes from a combination of religion and democracy. Religion created groundwork for what is thought of as moral. Any thing that does not meet these religious standards is censored because the amount of leverage religion has. Gay people’s right to marry is an example of this. Marriage is thought of as the union between a woman and a man in almost every religion. Gay marriage went against this religious standard, and since the majority of Californians are religious it was struck down. They did not take into account that there are gay people that have been together for years, which value their relationship as much as the next couple, and want to make it official.

Censorship of vulgarity is a denial of the truth. When we create a false sense of reality for our comfort we create an ultra-sensitive society.

When Keeping it Gangsta Goes Wrong

Rap music is a genre formed in the urban slums of New York and Los Angeles. It gives people that would not usually venture into these neighborhoods a sensationalized glimpse of what is occurring in these places.

The stories told in rap music became a controversial issue when the group NWA, which means niggas with attitudes, came on the scene. They started the trend, which is still prominent today, of using curse word in there music. NWA gave you a gritty account of there surrounding and the people within them.

The issue of prejudice came about when the general public began taking these over exaggerations of urban life as factual everyday occurrences. It is important that we take a step back and get a concrete definition of prejudice. Prejudice is defined simple as an opinion formed without knowledge. A large percentage of the listeners of rap had no knowledge of what was going on in Compton California. The public took NWA as musical journalist and not a group of young man seeking notoriety through shock value.

Even the people within these cities begin to glorify language that perpetuates prejudice. This language changed young black man into niggas that could not be trusted. They would rob, steal, kill, and sell drugs in their pursuit of money, hoes, and clothes, cause that is, as proclaimed by Biggie, all a nigga knows. Women became bitches that would have sex with anyone and create problems for niggas out of spite. These bitches, as Three Six Mafia warned, could be a niggas worst downfall. But Big Boi, of Outkast does admit reluctantly that niggas love these bitches or at least like them a whole lot.

Art is made to imitate life, but also to capture the attention of the observer. A movie about a character waking up, going to his classes, and eating dinner would not draw any attention from the masses. But if we exchange our character for a wizard in training and the classes for magical training sessions, we can sell millions of movie tickets. Essentially, this is what rap music does, but there embellishment shaped the perspectives of the listeners much more believably.

Most rap artists are African-American. In a culture that already has to fight a ridiculous amount of prejudice, rap music adds even more fuel to the flame. It gives the impression that if these people do not respect themselves then why should anyone else respect them.

My conclusion for this blog is more of a disclaimer. I do not believe that NWA or any other rap group has the power to create an issue that was not present before the creation of the genre. Rap may have perpetuated and glamorized the use of foul language, but they sure did not invent it. As humans we are born with the greatest ability among all the animals, critical thinking. If we allow media to shape our perspective to the point of prejudice we are just wool-less, upright walking sheep, with a lot more variations to our baahs.

Free Doom

We as Americans, live in a country that is rooted in freedom. As we progress through time we lose appreciation for the qualities that make our nation great. We begin to believe the freedom’s we have in America are mandatory and universal, but to many around the world the United States is the promise land. My blog this week will attempt to display the conscience effort put forth by our forefathers and the lawmakers that came after them, to make America “the land of the free.”

A person can not truly be free unless allowed to take part in the political process. The United States government is put in place to act on the behalf of the citizen. If a large percentage of the citizens are not allowed to vote, the political representative is not getting a valid opinion of the citizens. The left out percentage of the population still falls under the jurisdiction of the law, but has no say in the passing of the law. This is a form of slavery that does not need whips and chains; it is control by exclusion, and legislated oppression.

America took notice of this injustice and amended the laws of the constitution. Freedom to vote for African Americans came in 1965. Many of our parents were born in a time when African American people were not allowed to vote. Our current president was born in a time when people of his ethnicity could not vote. Ironically, African Americans still have low voter turnout. You would think, with all the time and effort people put into gaining civil rights, a person would at least take advantage of it.

The most surprising aspect of freedom is that people take it for granted. Not only do they not take advantage of it, they complain about how the country is ran after the fact. I feel that people that do not vote make the decision, through indifference, to accept what ever they are given. It is much easier to point fingers at the problem, than to get your hands dirty searching for a solution.

Imagine living in a country like Saudi Arabia where women can not vote, drive, or even walk the streets alone. When compared to the United States, Saudi Arabia is not another world, it is another universe. At the same time a woman walks into Starbucks, wearing tight jeans, to order an over priced latte, a woman, in Saudi Arabia, is baking in the dessert sun, in a thick black robe with nothing exposed but her eyes and hands. 

We, as American’s, need to develop a sense of pride in our country. The United States may not be perfect, but it is still the world leader in freedom. We need to be conscience of what is going on in the world around us. Everywhere is being Americanized. This is a show of admiration. When we compare America’s problems with the problems of a country like Saudi Arabia our complaints seem petty and ignorant. It’s funny that everyone sees how great a nation we live in except us.

Read Me

The projection of nonverbal cues is a multifaceted topic. It varies with the observer's background, culture, gender, and age. The image a person portrays can often be far from who that person truly is. My nonverbal cues are just morsels of me, but are still worth examination.

 I usually sit in the very front and center of a classroom. This is not an attempt to get in good with the professor or to make myself seem more driven than other students. Gaining knowledge amuses me. My seating selection is a nonverbal cue of interest in what is been taught. When a person goes to a boxing match they would always prefer to sit ringside, this is the same principal I apply to school. Also it allows me to block everyone out except the professor. 

The way a person walks sends nonverbal cues that can be interrupted many ways. I walk with my head up looking around taking in my environment. The nonverbal cues in the way I walk are awareness yet comfort in my surroundings. My way of walking does not change weather I'm walking down Crenshaw Boulevard in, Baldwin Hills or Rodeo Drive, in Beverly Hills. I express confidence when I walk.

The most interesting nonverbal cues are facial expression. A person is often unaware of their facial expression, so it gives you a more honest cue. I usually have a squinted-eye look of inspection. I want to have ample knowledge of everything I come in contact with. My facial expression signals my curiosity and a need for understanding.

In addition I am consumed with introspection. I think about how I am affecting everything I come in contact with. How does a person perceive me? What am I doing to help people? Am I setting a good example for my family and young black men without father figures? These and many other questions cross my mind, as I sit wide-eyed staring off into space.

Style of dress is the most fickle nonverbal cue. It is the cliché of judging a book by its cover. My style of dress hints at many things from day to day. Thursday's I usually wear sweats or basketball shorts. It is my last day of class for the week. I just throw on some clothes I do not have to iron and go. On a Saturday if I'm going to hang out with friends I may wear creased jeans and a button down shirt. This style is still comfortable, but also dressed to look nice.

Nonverbal cue are useful, but can be very subjective. If you are interested in whom a person is you should go up to them and start a conversation. When we allow nonverbal cues to dominate our perception of a person we create a mental description that may not be true. How a person walks, talks, and looks should not be speculated on to the extent of dislike or fear. Heavy dependence on nonverbal cues is the seed of prejudice.

Politically Correctness

Barack Obama president of the United States of America approaches the podium of a news conference. The reporter from the Los Angeles Times asks, “Mr. President, why are the tax cuts for middle class Americans taking so long to be passed through congress?" The president answers, "Well the rich bastards, that call themselves the republican party, agreed to the tax cuts, but they also want to add tax cuts for millionaires, that do not need them." the president's actual  response was far more tactful, but  can you imagine the controversy if he would have addressed the republicans as" rich bastards"? Political correctness is a vital part of communicating with known adversaries.

Political correctness is a style of language, created by American culture, which we use when presenting ideas to an audience of diverse social, economical, and ethnic backgrounds. On the surface it may seem like it is used to spare the feeling of particular groups. In actuality it is much more about the speaker developing his ethos with the audience. In the response by the president in the earlier paragraph, Barack calling the republicans "rich bastards" was counter productive to getting his goal of tax cuts accomplished. The republicans that were on the fence about tax cut have been swayed negatively by the president’s response. Now it will be even more difficult to get the tax cuts passed. It would have been more helpful to his cause to refuse to answer the reporter.

Political correctness is used in much more intimate situations than the political world. A person very rarely shows you there true self upon the first few encounters. We all wear a mask of civility to shape the perception of the people we are communicating with.  There is a certain amount of “feeling out" you go through before you get a clear picture of who a person is. We use political correct language to give people a presentable appearance of who we are, and to not offend them. Eventually we develop a comfort level with a person and open up to them about are view that may not be part of popular opinion.

Political correctness is a tool of persuasion. When a speaker is not sure of the audience’s background, he uses a certain amount of tact to keep them receptive to his cause. Political correctness also creates a respect with the audience despite agreement or disagreement with the speaker’s ideas.

 A person that feels disrespected is less receptive to persuasion. The speaker may have an idea that can change your life for the better, but their approach can destroy there discussion at the introduction.

Political correctness is a necessary part of communication. It would be nice if you could talk to everyone frankly and they would get exactly what is being communicated to them, but it is not possible. There is a strong belief that what a person implies, is more important than what they communicate. Political correctness is a safe guard to get you ideas transmitted as clearly as possible.

The Globalization of English

The English language is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. The globalization of English was started with the colonialization of many countries by English speakers. It was vital for the natives of these places to learn English to communicate with the foreigners. We now see English as a language of wealth, knowledge and supremacy. The power of England and the United States for the last couple of centuries has perpetuates these ideas.
The economy is one of the many factors driving the push towards English as a universal language. America is a nation of consumers. Companies that may be based in other countries have to cater to the language of their customer base. Important factor such as advertising and marketing must be created to appeal to the English-speaking customer. The pursuit of profit has made English the language of business.
Education plays a big part in the globalization of English. A large percentage of the world’s knowledge is written in English. The most prestigious Schools in the world are English speaking. If a person wants to take advantage of the knowledge available to them in higher education, they will most likely have to learn English.
The political realm is controlled by English speaking powers, such as England and The United States. These countries play such an important role in world affairs that it is important for other countries to learn English. Intricate details may be lost in translation. It is better for people to decide for themselves what is going on. Also with the learning of any language, a person also learns about the culture of the native speakers.
20 years from now English will still be evolving towards a global language. Technology, such as smart phones and ipads, which access the internet, will make English more visible in everyday life. The youth of other countries, will all speak and be taught English in school. I do not believe it will be universal yet, because the elderly people will still hold tight to there native tongues. In addition, accents will be less noticeable.
By the year 2060, English will be universal, except for very isolated places. The advances toward a global economy will have sped up the globalization of English. Most of the people that spoke other languages will adopt English as a tool for economic purposes. Many languages will die as innocent bystander to prosperity, and the elders not being around to perpetuate the other languages. A lot of the cultural elements of other language will also be lost during the globalization of English.
100 years from now, English will be a lot different from the way it is spoken presently. Many words from other languages will be incorporated into English. It will be a collage of languages, pieced together allowing people to articulate themselves in amazingly beautiful ways. We will all communicate with each other without language barriers. The amount of intelligent people will also increase drastically. Knowledge will be more readily available even in isolated areas.
　

Anne Lamott's "Getting Started" provided me with the most useful information on improving my writing. I always have a problem with starting written assignments. The essay shows me that people who write professionally also have this issue. The essay also shows the reader that there is no magic formula to jump-start the creative process. The writer just has to clear their mind and wait for the words to come.

 The beginning of any type of communication is the most important. This is when you grab the attention of the audience. Everyone knows the impact of first impressions. Well, the first paragraph is where the reader gets their first impressions of the author. The author’s choice of words is how the reader gets to know his personality and knowledge of the subject. For example, author A says, “All of the statements I make are backed up by facts,” and author B says, “This is what I believe.” These statements send two different messages. Both writers may have the exact same references, but the reader with tend to believe author A just because his wording.   

I am always preoccupied with the reader misunderstanding me. I want my writing to make the reader look at an event though my perspective, but sometimes I do not know exactly how to word my own thoughts. Lamott compares this problem to, "a fine painter attempting to capture an inner vision". Internal conflict always makes writing more difficult. Lamott list, "anxiety, judgment, doom, and guilt", as some of her personal issues, that interrupt the creative process. Everybody has there own list that they could insert in those parenthesis. These distractions create "writers block." The worst time to have these issues come up is close to a dead line. A person has two choices in this situation. He can sit at his desk and force himself to finish or receive an undesirable grade. Lamott describes it is as writing with an "imaginary gun to your head."

A writer experiences a great feeling when those creative juices finally begin to flow. Every part of your brain is working together and all the distractions have gone to sleep for the night. You know they will be up in the morning though, so you have to work fast. When you finally get to the end and you read your essay all together, it makes no sense. Lamott says that sometimes, she prays that she does not die before she can rewrite and destroy her first draft.

“Getting started” helped me with my writing in a psychological way. It did not show me how to write in perfect MLA format, or re-teach me rules of grammar that I haven used since 10 the grade. However, it gives a look into the process that a seasoned writer uses to get started. Come to find out, there starting method does not differ from anyone else’s. A reader would believe, after reading a great novel, the writer is a story-telling savant. However, you never know how many rough drafts the book had to go through to get to this level.

Guilty Silence

Silence is a form of acceptance. A person did not feel the issues were important enough to stand up and say that the oppressor was wrong. Elie Wielsel says, that when a person is indifferent to another’s pain, he dehumanizes the person and “reduces them to and abstract.” In the southern part of America during the 1950’s and 1960’s, the “good” people stood on the sideline and watched people be treated cruelly, people be killed and women be raped, they are not “good” people at all they are accessories to the crimes. These people did not turn there head when they saw someone stealing a candy bar. People were being beaten to death in the street. In this case silence is not golden it is the color of blood on a killers hand.




Elie Weisel says, “Indifference always benefits the aggressor.” Not confronting an issue perpetuates and magnifies the problem. If racists are beating black people to death in the streets of Alabama and it goes unpunished, then racists all over the south feel they can get away with the same crime. That is why Dr. King believed “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” He felt it was his duty to fight prejudice and not allow it to be overlooked.



People have forgotten how to be responsible members of the human race. My Psychology professor once told me you have a better chance of being helped, with a stalled car, on the freeway late at night when there are hardly any cars on the road, than in rush hour traffic. His explanation for this is that when there are many people on the freeway everyone expects the next person to help, when it is only one person they feel a sense of necessity to help you. This is how people react to injustice on a smaller scale. Indifferent people expect the governor or the president to do something about injustice and neglecting there own power. They feel that if the people in charge are not doing anything about injustice what can they do. The people in power believe that if there were an important problem, then the people in the community would show some form of disapproval. The outcome is nothing is done; everybody is waiting for someone else to get the bandwagon started so they can hop aboard.



Humans are self-consumed creature; they usually will not intervene in an issue that does not involve them. Even the great humanitarian Dr. King’s only explanation for helping people was because we are “tied together in a single garment of destiny”, which simple means that you are helping yourself when you help another person. Do you believe the only reason that we help people is because in some way it benefits us emotionally or physically? Have you ever notice when a person does something nice they bring up there own virtues, “I did it out of the kindness of my heart” who are they trying to convince me or themselves?

Language is Freedom

If you were born on an uninhabited island, your only form of knowledge would come from your parents. Your parents tell you, “It you leave this island you will see beings that don’t look like you, don’t speak like you, and are out to hurt you.” That is your wealth of knowledge about the outside world. You are confined to the island by the fear that the outside world is a dangerous land of alien beings that want to do you bodily harm. Now imagine that you were captured and brought to America, even if you managed to escape your captors, you would still not be free. You are no longer physically on and island, but you are mentally secluded to your own knowledge with no way to access more knowledge. Without language to express knowledge we are trapped on an island of ignorance. If you feel this story is far-fetched take into account Malcolm X’s essay “Homemade Education” where he talks about how frustrating it was to not be able to use the English language to express his feelings. Slang was his language of choice, but it catered to a small audience of illiterate hustlers and drug dealers. He wanted to correspond with the mayor of Boston, the governor of Massachusetts, and Harry Truman, these people didn’t understand slang, nor were they going to put forth an effort to translate the broken English of a convict. His right to freedom of speech was suspended not by an outside force, but by his lack of understanding of the English language.


Language is how you free yourself from others insinuations about you. Before you know a person you may have preconceive idea about them because of there physical attributes or what you may have heard about there culture. When you allow them to express themselves, you get a much better view of what they are about, and also free yourself from prejudice. Susanne K. Langer says that we use language as symbols to free thoughts into physical forms such as spoken words, writing, and art. Imagine if Dr. Martin Luther King would have never materialized his thoughts of equality for all races, would we just be having the civil rights movement in 2010? Obviously his thought weren’t original; to the contrary they were confined in the minds of all minorities that felt the wrath of segregation. Martin Luther King was just a captivating mouth-piece that was articulate and courageous enough to express the idea. He used language as a weapon of mass destruction aimed directly at the legislation that segregated minorities. If Dr. King was an uneducated man he would have not had the impact that he has had on the world because of his language barrier. Like Malcolm X before he received his “homemade education”, the community around King may have known him as a great thinker, but he lacks the ability to communicate those thoughts in proper English.

Language is freedom because knowledge is freedom, and language is the primary way to transfer knowledge.

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is not just eating the food placed in front of you. It is taking the time to analyze not only the ingredients, but also the intentions of the chef, bypassing his notoriety and plate arrangement, to get to the nutritional facts of the dish. Critical thinking has to be a way of life, when a person with a love of knowledge discovers they have been misinformed the skepticism never stops.


My critical thinking process usually starts with questioning a person’s motives. Are they trying to get me to buy something? Are they trying to convince me of something for their personal gain? I check for cracks in there argument. Do they contradict themselves? Do they have valid source? Last, but not least, I do my research. Some people will out-right lie to persuade you. I think the liar is absolutely disrespectful. Basically they are inferring that you are too stupid or lazy to expose them. With all the bias statistics out there they didn’t even take the time to use them.

Critical thinking not only gives you in site on the subject, but the person delivering the message. If a person misuses facts to there benefit you know they are cunning and cant be trusted. Certain professions carry these telling clues too. For example after one encounter with a police office you have somewhat of an impression of him. It may be he is truly a public servant, or he thinks the badge puts him above the law. Even officers play on this characteristic of there field, using “the good cop bad cop routine” on suspects. Professions involving law in general carry certain overtones. Attorneys are thought of as liar because they have to represent people that they know are guilty. If the child molester they go off moved in next to there family you better believe they wouldn’t be very happy about it. There motivation is not justice, its money and status.

A lot of the information you receive from the political arena is not to inform you, it is to trigger a certain response. This is why politicians sometimes devote an entire commercial to slandering there opponent. Then at they end they say, “This message was paid for by supporters of…” Gullible people's votes are swayed by these types of campaigns. A thinker analyzes it as, Instead of the candidate making himself the best choice, he made himself the only resort. A politician with the people’s best interest in mind will tell you what makes him suitable for the job and not worry about the opponent. My political science professor called this quality the difference between a statesman and a politician. In this situation critical thinking is freedom from manipulation.

I expect this class to open my scope even wider. Critical thinking is a life long quest; when you stop thinking critically you are better off dead. This class is what we are all here, in college, for in its simples form. We want to obtain knowledge.