Korean Crisis

In the news, North Korea shelled an island where the South Koreans were performing a military exercise, killing two and wounding 16.  In the article that I read, which can be read HERE, I learned that South Korea and North Korea have had numerous skirmishes over the years, and I have to wonder about their internal states of affairs.  In American Studies, we are talking about civil liberties during wartimes, and I wonder how South Korea is doing in the civil liberties departments.

I learned, after reading the Wikipedia article on civil liberties in South Korea, that they are much more restrictive of free speech than other democratic nations, like the United States.  They do not tolerate sympathy for North Korea, web sites from North Korea, or anything North Korean.  Also, they don't allow songs or theater in Japanese.  It seems that in this time of tension between the two countries, both refuse to have anything to do with the other, and are trying to dehumanize them by denying the other of any form of expression in the other country.  Hopefully the prohibitions of speech and press will be lifted in North Korea and South Korea, but this seems unlikely.  We'll just have to make do with watching and commenting, or will we?

Critical Thinking 101

In American Studies, we often are challenged to think critically about a passage or a theme.  But what is thinking critically?  According to the Oxford English Dictionary, critically means, "With critical judgement or observation; nicely, accurately, precisely."  Basically, we look at the precise words the person said, based on their definitions and connotations, we interpret what the person maybe was trying to say.  But here we run into some grey area.   Some people look at the connotations of words and decide that the author was trying to say something that may or may not have been the intent.  Perhaps the author writes, "The sky turned black."  Someone may want to interpret that the color black has the connotation of evil and that they can foreshadow that something evil will happen soon.  However, maybe the author didn't mean that at all.  Maybe the author was reporting fact.  The truth is that we really don't know, so it frustrates me when people try to assign a meaning to a passage that can't be assigned for sure.

Aliens?

Last weekend, my family and I went on a trip to Indiana so that I could swim in a big meet there.  We left Friday night at about 5:00, so it was pretty dark by the time we crossed the border into Indiana.  We were driving along, my sister and I were doing homework, my dad was asleep, etc, when all of a sudden we looked out the window and realized that we were surrounded by blinking red lights.  All around us, the sky lit up red every second or two.  It looked like the alien invasion was occurring, in the middle of the country around a highway in Nowhere Indiana.  It turns it was Fowler Ridge Wind Farm, the sight of hundreds of wind turbines, all spinning as they generated power for use in the power grid.  Needless to say, it was an amazing sight.

It reminded me of an article that I read, which can be found HERE.  Basically, it says that this important guy is going to set aside government money to look into putting wind farms on the ocean, where there is lots of wind.  however, talk about renewable energy tends to spark debate.  The research is costly, and the choice of which energy choice will be implemented usually goes to politicians, not the science community, who would know better which ideas would work the best on the market.

Sadly, many other decisions are left to politicians that aren't in their realm of expertise.  Their job is to know the law and how to get around it.  At least that is what it seems like.  But when they need to know something about engineering, or business, or maybe how to run a country full of technology and businesses, they come up short in all of those departments.  Or they bring in an "expert" who is in their pocket anyway.  I think we need more civilians in government, not just politicians.  Sure, politicians know how to get elected better than anyone else, but in our nation's early history, all kinds of smart men were elected to congress and as president.  Farmers, lawyers, generals, and all other kinds of trades were elected because the people thought they would do a good job.  I'm not saying to draft people into congress, but I think we need a little more diversity of profession in our governing bodies.  How can they represent our motives if they don't represent the actual American public?

American Consumerism

Yesterday on our day off, we went to Costco.  Now this in itself was not a different experience, but I had never gone after having been in American studies, where we think critically about everything.  Looking through new eyes, I saw a giant warehouse piled high with more food, electronics, and clothing than I have ever seen.  The ceiling was about three or four stories high, and in some places, shelves of stuff on palates could be seen almost touching the roof.  Although it was early in the day, people were already there, and filled the massive storage facility with their purposeful gathering.  Everywhere there was so much of everything that I wondered if it would ever all get sold.

Everything has a very low price compared to other stores.  For example, a soft shell coat costs about $100.  At Costco, any size for kids cost $20.  This makes it extremely appealing to many different groups of people.  However, I had to wonder how this could be.  Why can Costco sell for so little?  From consumer class, I knew that if Costco sells more items for a lower price, they can make more money than if they sold for a higher price.  The catch is that the consumers have to buy lots of stuff.

Americans have a track record of extreme consumerism and I can't help but wonder what circumstances led to our desire for more items for ourselves.  Has our constitution that obviously promotes capitalism led to a society where we value products over prudence?  Or is there an innate quality about humans that makes us want more?

6 minutes to freedom

On Friday, when the substitue teacher did not show up on time, the class just talked for a while, but then the exclamations came forth.  We were all thinking the same thing, "What if the sub doesn't show up at all?"  A student reminded us that if the sub didn't come within 10 minutes of the bell, we were allowed to leave.  The thought of this freedom and early dismissal from class excited us all, and we proceeded to write on the board, talk excitedly, and ruminate on what we would do with all the free time.  Well, the sub showed up just as we were writing, "6 minutes to freedom" on the whiteboard.  We all gave a sad kind of sigh, as if saying that we knew that it would never happen, but were excited by the prospect.

The strangest part was that we proceeded to go down to the auditorium and listen to a punk rock legend with a cool accent tell us about his career.  It was the most relaxing day of American Studies that we have ever had!  It made me think that if the sub hadn't shown up, we probably would have gone down to hear him speak anyway, just to see what it was all about.  What else would we have done?  There really isn't much to do at school when classes are still running and your friends are in those classes.

So, from what does our desire for freedom come?  Why do we need it?  As teenagers we tend to want freedom from our parents, as Americans we wanted freedom from England, as a society we enjoy our freedoms as protected by the constitution.  The Puritans wanted freedom to start their own (hopefully perfect) church.  What fascinates us with freedom?