#ler114

[laurenr114-blog]

Plenary #3 - Pam Fessler

The plenary with Pam Fessler was honestly one of my favorites. I liked the fact that she emphasized the idea of NPR reporting on important social issues and on reporting them in the most accurate ways possible. Now it seems that so many news sources are difficult to trust what with them skewing the news and making up information just to make the stories ‘news worthy’. I had never really thought about listening to NPR before, but now I am inspired to become a listener. I also really liked how she included certain news stories into her presentation because it allowed us to see what NPR was really about and kept us captivated. 

What really resonated with me was when Pam Fessler started discussing about how she was shy but used it to her advantage. She took something that she initially thought was a fault and made it advantageous. I thought that it was a really interesting way to view one’s characteristics. I am also shy, and for the longest time had thought that it was the worst thing ever and only detracted from my character. Now, however, I m beginning to view it in a different manner and think about the ways in which I can use it to my benefit. I think that this is a very important thing to do and wish to encourage others to view their ‘faults’ in a different and more positive light. 

[laurenr114-blog]

Wendy Cai-Lee

The speech that Wendy Cai-Lee gave me a lot to think about. It both inspired me and left me wanting for more. I really admired her tenacity and her ability to rise up from her difficult circumstances as a young child, being an immigrant in America and having to learn everything over again as well as having to take on large responsibilities at a young age. I think it is amazing that she has come this far from where she began, and it definitely inspires me. She is the personification of the idea that you can do anything that you set your mind to, despite your circumstances. I too hope to one day be able to just take control and keep working towards my future goals without allowing anything else to hold me back. But on another hand, I wish she had given us more of an idea of how to accomplish this. Yes, she did explain to us all of the amazing things that she accomplished through her hard work, but she never got into how she was able to become exposed to these opportunities in the first place. I appreciate her thought in wanting to motivate us, but at times that only goes so far. I feel like to truly be successful, a little guidance is needed as well. 

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Racial Caucus Group

I actually really enjoyed the racial caucus group exercise. Before we did it, I really felt isolated and alone because I thought that I was the only biracial person in the class. I honestly did not even think that a biracial group was going to be created, and even when it was created, I figured that there was only going to be a couple of members in it, but I was definitely pleasantly surprised. In our group, I found that a lot of the struggles that I faced growing up as a biracial child were not only specific to me. A lot of the other members of the group faced those struggles as well and it was refreshing to know what I truly was not alone in my experiences. Just being able to talk about my struggles and have others relate to them as well as being able to relate to others made me feel so much better and took a large burden off of my shoulders. I feel like the exercise not only taught me about the different struggles of different racial groups, but it taught me a lot about myself. I tend to isolate myself and keep my struggles inside, thinking that there is no possible way that others are experiencing these same things. However, through this exercise, I learned that even when it seems like I am the only one going through these things, I am not, and I hope to be able to open up to others more and share my feelings. 

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Lauren Rankin

Lauren Rankin’s speech today on the subject of abortion and reproductive health rights had a great impact on me. I had always been an advocate for abortion, feeling that women most definitely reserve the right to their bodies and should be able to do whatever they want to it. But, despite my stance, I did not actually know very much on the subject of abortions aside from what I saw in the media about it. So I still had questions. Was it really baby killing as so many people claimed? Was it a horrible and painful procedure, as it was made to seem? In her speech today, Lauren Rankin cleared up all of my questions about abortion, and even strengthened my stance on it. One of my favorite things that she said was that abortion was portrayed to be such a horrible thing and stigmatized just because of the fact that it was the act of women taking control of their bodies. I had never thought about it in that way, but that simple description of it transformed every thought I had about it, in a sense clarifying it to an entirely new level and allowing me to relate it to every other act that women were degraded for; for example, a women who goes out with many guys is stigmatized as being immoral or called names even though again this is an act of her taking control of her body and doing what she wants with it, without letting anyone control her or influence her on her actions.

Another aspect that affected me greatly was hearing Lauren’s description of her times working as an escort for a planned parenthood clinic, and how angry mobs of people would crowd around these women and curse at them, calling them horrible names, without any knowledge of what the women have gone through nor the circumstances behind this decision. It baffled me, and makes me so disappointed to live in a world where people can openly be so cruel and hurtful and think that their actions are perfectly fine and justified. I wish that people would stop caring so much about what someone completely unrelated to them does to their body. People have so many opinions about things that have absolutely nothing to do with them and it infuriates me. Its not like these people are going to help or support any of these women with their children if they do not have an abortion. I just wish people could learn to be more accepting and less judgmental.