Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Should This Behavior be outlawed on campus?

If we are talking about Stare Decisis, then no.  Whether public or private this speech at Universities was meant to target a specific group and dehumanize them (as stated in the article). However looking at the decisons made by the courts in Dambrot v. Central Michigan Universtity, R.A.V. v. City of Saint Paul or UWM Post v. Board of Regents of University of Wisconsin the final courts said they could not hold that the speech was prohibited. In each case it was held that the First Ammendment superceded the power of the speech codes. All the justices on the Supreme court unanimiously. reversed the Minnesota ruling, each citing that it prohibited a viewpoint which people (as hateful as it may be) are allowed to express as they choose. What is right under the law is not always popular, but they have the right to do as they wish. Perhaps after K-12 college is the "real world" that we talk about. There may still be places where you cannot say anyting you wish but there will be a lot of people saying things that you don't agree with.

Monday, September 12, 2011

9/11 a day of remberance, a day of sorrow

The documentary that we watched in class this past week was especially touching. The personal and national loss suffered by Ladder 1 seemed to capture the shock and other emotions going on during the first rough week of the aftermath. To me even though some of the firefighters, New Yorkers,  or other people in America didn't personally know anyone that died , we all did in a sense. During I time of high anxiety last year I learned all of the stages, and feelings that come along with this emotional response. The highest level of anxiety should comes from the death of yourself or a loved one. It is the final destination if you will in life. you see anxiety is rated on a scale of 1-10. 1 being your average " oh my god I'm in the stall without toliet paper" moment and 10 being " I think I am going to die, or I know me or someone else is going to die". For many people 9/11 was a "10" day. Especially for the firefighers they had to attempt to hide the terror on their face to calm others down.
You know how they say that in some small way we are all related. That fact was solidified in my mind by 9/11. As cold hearted and rude as we can be to eachother many of us just wanted to make sure we were okay. But I'm not quite sure who this we encompases. At least it encompases all north Americans. Or are we an exclusive bunch. Did we start assuming who was it in our global game of tag? Profiling? Maybe, but just for that one day things seemed to change. It was a day of forced evolution that happened much faster than Darwin would argue . Symptoms: fear, depression, sadness, anxiety, horror. Diagnois: Post trumatic disorder. Treatment: ???, start from the bottom up, trying to overcome one symptom at a time. Doctors asside: this may not be entirley plaussible but I insist it is necessary for moral support. Is this what our health status would have looked like? Yes.
For people like Peter Negron the emotional response to was one of utter rejection at first. His father was gone, a dad that could not be replaced. Ever. I can't say that I know what he felt, but I can say it probably would have been way more than an 11. At 13 he tried to speak to the nation about what happened to his Dad, and again this year he did the same. He could only deliver his response pausing to regain his breath, while talking about the Dad that he can only rember, he almost began to cry again.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Rights of Students

As I student myself I believe there is a right time and place to express one's opinions, and this occasionally includes school. If students intend to speak up about an issue that is important to them they should be able to speak about it . However, if they intend to promote something illegal or highly offensivethe school has a right to restrict their freedom of speech or expression. As noted in our high school handbook student attire determined to be obscene, indecent, offensive ot any race, religion, ethinincity, gender, sexual orientation or depicting illeal items or activity wil not be permitted.
I witnessed an incident of an individual going against these rules last spring. The student wore a sweatshirt to school that had a patch advertising Malboro cigarettes sewn onto the sleeve. The teachers immediatley made him cover up his patch with tape. The student was upset because he liked the sweatshirt and didn't see anything wrong with it but according to policy it was not allowed.