Introduction:

 

My name is Shaina Deskins and I am a freshman here at EKU.   I am also a proud member of Alpha Delta Pi.  When I first started looking at what we were going to be reading this semester, I almost had heart failure.  History is not my favorite subject and I always find it hard to remember.  After the first few readings I discovered it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.  Most of the readings really interested me.  They also showed me just how different everyone thinks.  The rest of my blog will be about what I have learned about myself and society.

Government:

 

Government was one of the main things we learned about.  I do not think me nor does anyone else in America realize just how good we have it.  Government controls how each of us live our everyday lives.  People fight every day for freedom and the things that they believe in.  That alone should show you just how important government is.

I was completely mortified when I saw how Soraya was treated.  The women in Iran are treated terribly and men have complete power over them.  The poor girl was only doing her job as the cook/housekeeper for a man when her husband lied and said that she was committing adultery.  She was stoned to death because of this.  When her sons had to throw stones at her was the point when I realized just how lucky I am to live in America. (Soraya).

Government to me has always been something that my parents had to worry about.  I always just push it to the side and try not to pay attention to what the people on the news are saying about the politics.  This class has made me realize just exactly what government is to all of us.  The American government has given us as citizens the right to vote for who we want to lead us.  We live in a society that allows us to do more than almost any other country.  I, as a woman, feel so blessed to be able to have rights and not be ruled by men.  So, I guess you could say that my ideal of a perfect government is the one we live by today.

Wealth and Poverty:

 

The best way to close the gap between rich and poor would be to bring everyone together and for each and every person in society to be nicer to everyone they meet.  Unfortunately I feel like this is impossible.  Carnegie states in his writing The Gospel of Wealth, “Peace on Earth, among men Good-will.” (Carnegie 391).  This is incredibly true.  If everyone was at peace with each other just think how much easier it would be to give a homeless person on the side of the road a five dollar bill.

I think the main problem with society today is that everyone takes advantage of what they have.  Most of the wealthy people in this world are so caught up on making more and more money and just buying stuff for themselves that they literally step over the homeless people in the streets and don’t think twice about them.  When you get over yourself and realize there are other people in this world with needs, you will give more to them and become a nicer person.

Honestly, I think everyone strives for a job that is going to make them a lot of money.  I am going to school so I can be successful and be able to supply for a family in the future.  Sure I would love to have 20 one hundred dollar bills in my wallet at any given time, but that is not all I want.  I think to be truly “wealthy” that you must first be happy.  If I have enough money to live on and even enough to buy my family Christmas present then I would consider happy.  When I am happy is when I will be able to call myself “wealthy.”

Justice:

 

When I think of Justice, I automatically think of a super hero in a comic book or on a TV show.  They’re always fighting for the rights of either themselves or others.  I think justice is your right to live freely and fairly in your country.  Martin Luther King Jr. had the best thoughts about justice.  He believed that every individual should be treated fairly and that we should all have the same rights.  He says, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” (King 214).  This is so true.  If you treat one person or a group of people bad and/or differently then it will eventually cause problems for all people. 

Breaking laws is obviously not a good thing and you can get in a lot of trouble for it, but when it comes to certain things/people I think it is up to you if you should break the law for your beliefs.  If I believed so strongly on a subject or thing that it was completely wrong and was unjust then I would definitely break the law to try to get justice for myself and others.  Martin Luther King Jr. was a very brave man for doing what he did, but I think he made such a great decision.  He is like a super hero in my mind.  Although what he did may have gotten him put in jail quite a few times, he knew what was right and he didn’t care the consequences if he fought for his beliefs. 

Ethics/Morality: 

 

Murdoch believed that if you were not brought up in church and you tried to become religious as an adult then you were viewed as not serious (Morality 733).  I completely disagree with this because I think that you should be able to come to God at any time in your life and it be exactly the same as someone who has been religious for their whole life. 

As a child you are taught the difference between right and wrong.  There is a point when you know what you should and shouldn’t do.  I think that you should always do right.  Of course there are times that you are going to mess up and make mistakes but you should always try to do the right thing, not only for yourself but for others around you that could be affected by your wrong doings. “Every separate aspect of the universe goes on to demand something higher than itself.”  (Morality 733).  You should always think of the consequences of what you do because they affect everyone and everything.

Individual:

 

In order to be an individual you must not follow what everyone else is doing.  You should be able to do what you want and wear what you want.  Emerson said, “To be great is to be misunderstood.” (Emerson 265). Most people who are now looked upon as great were looked at as weird and different before.  I say who cares what other people think.  I would rather be myself at all times and accomplish amazing things in life then conform to society and just try to be like everyone else.

It is hard to be completely individual.  Of course you are going to see someone wearing an outfit that you think is so cute and you just have to have but as long as it is you that wants it and you don’t want it because of who is wearing it then I think that makes you individual.  In our culture everyone seems to be trying to do what the famous people are doing.  Who cares what anyone else is doing? You should just worry about yourself and no one else.  Society does have a big influence on your personality and individualism but it is up to you if you want to conform to everything everyone else is doing or if you want to do things because you want to.

Conclusion:

During this class I learned that I am not always going to like the reading that we will be doing, but I can still learn from them.  My favorite section was about wealth and poverty because all of the readings taught me something and I actually liked to read them.  My least favorite section was Ethics/Morality just because I found it very confusing to understand and the readings were so incredibly different from each other. 

I really enjoyed this class.  I liked the assignments that you gave us because they actually made me want to learn more about the topic and we got to learn things about the author from your notes.  I enjoyed this class so much that I signed up for you ENG 102 class and even recommended you to some of my friends who will be taking you in the spring semester.  I cannot wait to see how much more I will learn from you and your class.

Works Cited:


Emerson, Ralph. "Self-Reliance." Bedford/St. Martins, Bostin. 255-269. (2010). Print.



The Stoning of Soraya M. Cyrus Nowrasteh. Santa Monica, Calif: LionsGate, 2008.



Carnegie, Andrew. "The Gospel of Wealth." Bedford/St. Martins, Bostin. 387. (2010). Print.



King, Martin Luther. "Letter from Birmingham Jail." Bedford/St. Martins,           Bostin.    211. (2010). Print.



Murdoch, Iris. “Morality and Religion.” Bedford/St. Martins, Bostin. 733. (2010). Print.



Larson, Lance. You the Individual.  http://serenityacres.wordpress.com/2011/08/30/you-the-individual/ (2011). Web.



The Worrywart. http://serenityacres.wordpress.com/2011/08/30/you-the-individual/ (2010). Web.



Ecology of Education. http://ecologyofeducation.net/wsite/?p=2862 (2010). Web.



Wealth is the Problem. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2980758  (2007). Web.



Is Bad Economy Fault of Big Government? http://blogs.e-rockford.com/applesauce/2010/12/19/is-bad-economy-fault-of-big-government/ (2010). Web.