Do We Understand?

This week in American Studies, I was challenged by a fellow classmate to explain my views on racial profiling.  In some circumstances, like at the airport, certain people groups, recently people who look Arabic, are put through more severe security than other citizens.  I believe that this is justified in some cases, especially when it may help catch a terrorist.  However, my classmate disagreed.  They claimed that I would never understand racial profiling because I am not a minority, and have never experienced the hardship of having a different skin color or being discriminated or profiled.  I replied that if I had to be searched a little more at the airport for the sake of national security, I would.  This classmate did not think so.

The truth is that I did not know the whole story.  According to my parents, my ancestors experienced a lot of racial profiling, for at least 20 years.  When my grandmother emigrated to the United States in 1958, she and her fellow German immigrants  were profiled as Nazis for years.  Anyone with a German accent, style of dress or habit was profiled and discriminated against.  The sad thing is that it only took one crazy leader to cause generations of hardship for many races.

Another more recent example is Reverend Terry Jones with his Koran burning scheme.  He caused a bad light to be shone on Christians.  I am a Christian, and this frustratingly was shone on me while he was in the news.  Our school is fairly tolerant in my eyes, and I did not experience any extreme hardship or abuse because of claiming the same religion as this radical, but I definitely got "the look" when the subject of Reverend Jones came up, as people watched to see if I would back him up.

Now, another leader has incited his followers to kill.  We aren't sure who is working for him.  He's a few fries short of a Happy Meal, and we've been tightening security because of the threat.  Do all of the Arabs who travel through an airport deserve to be searched more than others?  Probably not.  But when just 19 radicals killed about 3000 people in one day, I believe that a little extra searching is called for when dealing with those who are from the same area as the perpetrators.  Do I understand what this is like for those who are searched?  No.  Will I?  Maybe not.  But I certainly have had a taste.  Each generation will have their group who is discriminated against.  That's the way things are with humanity.  But I will contend that those who have the most likelihood of being terrorists should be searched a little more, and hopefully that will save the United States a few thousand more lives.

The Vietnam Protests

In American Studies, the Vietnam War group presented most recently.  According to their presentation, large numbers of college students protested the war on their college campus, and many of the protesters were harassed for doing so.  In addition, some of the protests became a little rowdy, and the protesters started throwing rocks, goading troops to action and becoming violent.  The police beat many protesters in the video that we saw on Friday, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.  Another form of protest was the burning of draft cards, which is illegal according to the Selective Service Act.  People who burned their draft cards were sentenced to a term in jail and a fine.  I sensed from the presenters and from the atmosphere in the room that the protesters should not have been beaten or sent to jail.  I think there is a problem with that thinking.

While I certainly don't condone the use of violence to quell protests, I also do not believe that a protest should be allowed to occur where the protesters become riotous.  It is a terrible tragedy that young people lost their lives while protesting, I think everyone can agree, but the government does not allow violent protests.  The first amendment says that Congress shall make no law prohibiting, "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."  Please note the word peaceably.  The protests, wherever they became violent, destructive, or hateful were illegal.  It is sad that the protesters were injured or killed, but they were breaking the law.

The draft card burners also broke the law.  In my opinion, it is ridiculous to break the law and not expect to go to jail.  For example, every time the speedometer says that I am going over the speed limit, I expect a cop to show up any minute and pull me over for breaking the established traffic laws.  Possibly a better example is that of Martin Luther King Jr.  He led peaceful marches and protests all over the southern United States, and was put in jail many times.  He expected it.  When he broke laws and went to jail, he knew that he was making a statement by going to jail peacefully.  His actions spoke louder than any appeal could have.  While the draft protesters wanted to make a statement by burning their cards, they still broke the law, and that deserves jail, according to the same law.

While I do not advocate our government to place undue restrictions on our civil liberties and not allow the citizens to protest, I also do not believe that justice's hand should be stayed from law breakers.  The tragedies that occurred are sad, and I do not think that any of the violence on the part of the national guard or police was warranted.  However, when one breaks the law, one should expect to have a punishment.

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?