Fall Feast to National Holiday

Thanksgiving. The word alone fills me with joy. I am not really sure why, though. Food? Sure, but to be honest, the type of food that is normally served for Thanksgiving meals is not even close to being my favorite, so although it is good, I don't crave it at any other time. Football? Pass. I can watch for about 10 minutes before I am so confused, my brain starts to itch. Family? Hard to say; it's been so long since I had one. Maybe it's the just the idea of what it represents. Maybe it's the fact that the best shopping in the world happens the day after. Maybe it's the notion of Christmas being 4 weeks away. Like I said, I am not really sure what it is, but I love this holiday more than any other. So, in the spirit of this fine celebratory day, let's do a little self-reflecting.
What are you thankful for? Don't be hasty in answering, really consider the idea of thankfulness. And while we're on the subject, tell me about the best Thanksgiving you ever had. What made it so special and memorable? How about the worst one? Do the two have anything in common? Do you have any family traditions? Will you carry them on when you have families of your own? Do you celebrate Thanksgiving at all or do you do something else? (While not traditionally a religious holiday, some people are philosophically opposed to the idea of it, for obvious reasons)
And finally, what is your favorite part of the day? If it's the food, tell me what your meal consists of, if it is family, talk about why. If it's football (J.W.), well, explain something that will make me understand the game so I can watch it for longer than 10 minutes. (400-450 words/50pts)

Just Say No? But...to what?

John P. Walters, Director of the White House Office Of National Drug Control Policy said the following in a recent statement:
"By giving students an incentive to stay away from drugs, random drug testing helps them lead healthy, successful lives. For that reason, it's one of many tools we believe schools should use to fight drug use among teens."
He is, basically, preaching the pros associated with random drug testing in high schools. Now, there are many people from many different groups that tout the benefits of this policy, and of course there are just as many waving their fists and screaming "civil rights violation!"
What are the benefits to this policy? What are the drawbacks? Does allowing random drug testing in public schools pave the way for other types of "safety precautions?" What about random search and seizures? Is there a racial bias to those types of ideas? What about a sexual bias? Are boys more likely to get pulled for random testing? Black kids? Tell me what you think and for this blog it is VERY important to respond to someone else's post. (450-500 words/55pts)

Devil's Advocate

Ahh...controversy. Intellectual conversations are rife with it, families are torn asunder by it, school boards thrive on trying to eliminate it. You should probably know that I am not someone who shies away from controversy or controversial topics. Quite the opposite, in fact. I believe that controversy and the topics that define it have much to teach us, and I am confident that the subject of this blog will only serve to reinforce that belief. Remember the golden rule of 204--to disagree is not to disrespect.
In 1999, a Gallup poll indicated that only approximately 60% of Americans believe that there is a hell. Out of that 60% only 4% were convinced that was their destination. So, first question--do YOU believe that hell exists? If so, do you know what it looks like? Smells like? Feels like? Where did your belief come from? Your parents? Your church? Your friends? What do you have to do in order to get there?
The word that is used most frequently in the New Testament for hell is Gehenna. Gehenna is a reference to the Valley of Hinnom located on the south side of Jerusalem, which served as the city's "garbage dump" during Jesus' time. The fires that burned here never went out. The Old Testament makes a reference to sheol as being a place where spirits reside (Deut. 32:22) and some of them will be resurrected to "everlasting life," while others are bound for "everlasting contempt" (Dan. 12:2) One is a worldly destination, the other spiritual. Which one sounds more realistic to you?
Dante Alighieri was a prolific writer who wrote the epic narrative poem titled Inferno in which the main character, Alighieri himself, travels through nine circles of hell. The main theme of this particular work is that there is a perfection to God's justice. Sinners on earth are relegated to various circles (or levels) of hell depending on the severity of sin. This would seem to indicate, at least in Alighieri's eyes, that there are varying degrees of sin and that each one is punishable in its own way. Do you believe this? If so, what is the worst sin that you can imagine and how should it be dealt with in hell?
Lastly, is it easily reconcilable to think of God as being the embodiment of love and grace yet imagine that it is through his word that people descend into hell, which is, ostensibly, a place of eternal suffering? (50 pts/400 words)

The Journey

Many of you already know the concept of the hero's journey; that is, the idea that all literature--and for that matter, all of life in general--follows that pattern of the journey. There is "the call," which is, ostensibly, the beginning of the journey; there is the threshold--literally, crossing over from the known into the unknown; the "challenges or trials," a.k.a. life's little problems or dragons to be slain, "the abyss"--when you think the whole world is against you and nothing will ever be right again. Once you get past all of that you move on to "the transformation," or in other words, the "What have you learned, Dorothy?" moment, "the atonement"--how have you made peace with what you've learned or become, and finally, "the return" (with a gift), where you come back to the only place you've ever known a changed person with a host of knowledge/skills or wealth to aid in all future endeavors.
Basically, all of literature revolves around some schematic of this journey, and if you think about it, all of your lives do too. Especially at this stage of your high school careers. Some of you have lived lives and seen things you never should have, never wanted to or never thought you would, for better or worse. All of you have been through problems and overcome obstacles and persevered. My question this week is--how? How did you do it? What type of mental, spiritual, physical, or intestinal fortitude did you need to have in order to emerge victorious from your journey? What was the journey? Did you embark upon it willingly or were you pushed? What did you learn? Did it change you? For the better? Or worse? Did you have help, or "guardians" as they say in Journey jargon? Tell me about it. (400-450 words/50pts)

All Creatures Great and Small...

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
Mohandas Ghandi said that, and I, animal-lover to the core, believe it whole-heartedly. Now, in some cases, this makes me a hypocrite because despite my aforementioned affinity for creatures of the four-legged variety, I am NOT a vegetarian. Barbecued chicken or steaks on the grill are way too good for me to pass up, and I NEVER met a burger I didn't like. However, I have been known to start fights with strangers at the dog park because of what I believed to be unnecessarily harsh treatment of their dogs, and I also think the punishments for animal cruelty should be higher than what they are currently. Don't even get me started on Michael Vick.
One of the main things that struck me about Alice Walker's essay was her steadfast belief in the idea that animals possess human emotions, i.e. love, despair, loneliness and happiness. There are so many things going on in "Am I Blue" and I am anxious to discuss them with you all during class, but for now, I want you to focus on the notion of anthropomorphism (very similar to personification.) First things first--do you have a pet? What kind? What is his/her name? How did you choose that name? Do you believe that you can communicate with your pet or with animals in general? Can they communicate with you? How do you know? What is your take on the activists that spend hours campaigning for the rights of animals? Are they wasting their time frivolously when they could be helping human beings out there in the world? Do animals even HAVE rights? Should they? Should there be a limit to what people do for them? If so, what is it? (400 words/45pts)

"A Rose By Any Other Name..."

I was thinking about names just the other day, probably because of the RRL for "My Name is Margaret," but also because it is something I tend to think about every so often. Shakespeare, through the voice of Juliet, asked us to consider: What's in a name? Well, what is? How many of you were named for other people, specifically, family members? Does being named after a beloved relative heap unfair pressure on you to be a certain way--act a certain way--love certain things--just because the person you're named after did? What about those of you who were named for favorite actors or actresses, literary characters or anything that your parents thought was cool at the time? Do you love your name? Does it suit you? Would you change it if you could? To what? Do you ever think you might be a different person if you were named something else? Do you know the origin of your name? How did you come to be a Felicia or a Devon or a Darrell or a Jonathan or a Mister? For example, my name is Cassandra, which comes from Greek Tragedy, Agamemmnon by Aeschylus, but my mother and father didn't know that. So, I have no idea really, where they got it from, but I often wonder if I would be a completely different person if my name was something simple like Lisa or Diane or something like that. When other people shorten your name does it make you angry? What about when people mispronounce it? There are a lot of questions here--make sure you hit all of them. (400 words/40 pts)

"I Am Whatever You Say I Am..."

It seems an age-old question, but it is one that may not have just one answer: to what extent do other people's perceptions of you have an impact on the decisions you make? One of the overwhelming-but certainly not the ONLY-theme of "Shooting and Elephant" asks us to evaluate just such a question. Peer pressure, parental pressure, self-imposed pressure, all these outside, or inside, forces have the potential to make you act, or react, in ways that you normally might not if never exposed to those influences. My question is: Why? Why do we care? Why is it important? Why do other people's perceptions or expectations of who we are have so much of an influence on us? Or do they? Tell me about it. (300 words/35 pts)