JP Final

https://newtrier.ed.voicethread.com/myvoice/thread/12652421/75957085/70648136

Song of Solomon Annotation Reflection

One of the most challenging things so far while reading Song of Solomon has been dealing with Morrison’s sentence structure.  He words sentences and actions in a way that seems overly complicated and to coincide to this, he uses a strange choice of words in his writing.  When I first began reading and throughout the book, his choice of wording and vocabulary becomes ever present and really disrupts the flow of your reading.  For example Morrison writes, “So Hagar’s forays we’re Part and parcel of the mystery of having been ‘lifed’ by love, and while the manifestation it took was a source of great interest to them, the consequences were not”.  Passages like these give me pause while I read and really makes me think about what was just said and gives me a difficult time interpreting what was just said as it is worded unusually.

I have been dealing with passages like that by re-reading them which will usually work but if I still have trouble I will read the preceding sentence which helps me understand the context of that sentence.  In addition to re-reading I will also highlight or box the sentence or passage which I’m having difficulty with and will try and analyze and annotate more slowly and carefully to help me gain a better understanding of what happened and what message or undertones Morrison is trying to convey.  For example the sentence above I boxed in and re-read which helped a lot but also required the use of a dictionary to help define “forays” which evidently means a sudden attack or incursion into enemy territory, especially to obtain something; a raid. occurring to Webster’s dictionary. These practices have helped me understand and continue with my reading of the Song of Solomon.

My Family's Origins

My family originally comes from the northern part of what is now the Czech Republic while it was currently Austria Hungary.  My great grandfather met his wife (my great grandmother) and then moved to Vienna Austria to take a job as a professor for a university there.  My grandpa (Manfred) was born soon there after in 1931, seven years before Hitler would annex it.  As WWII broke out the Nazi party required people to join it or else lose their jobs however, my great grandfather refused and thus lost his job as a professor at the university.  With him not having a job he was soon forced into the Army enlisted as a private in the infantry much to my great grandmothers dismay.  When she found out about this she marched down to the generals office and demanded that he get a promotion as he was a professor and very intelligent man and thus did not belong in the infantry especially as a private.  My great grandfather was soon promoted to a major in the air force where his job was to determine whether or not the geography of certain locations could sustain use as airstrips for planes.  As the war was getting closer to home due to the impending defeat of the Nazis my grandpa and his mother moved to a family farm in what was called the Sudetenland, (an area in Czech that was occupied by Germany at the time) to escape the war.  While my grandfather was at school my great grandfather was driving down a road with some other soldiers when their car was strafed by a British plane which shot my great grandfather in the knee resulting in massive blood loss and as a result died.  A year later when Russia was closing in on Germany my great grandmother was walking down their village street when a truck full of Russian soldier drove by and subsequently dropped a tub of lard which my great grandma preceded to try and help pick up for them when they decided to just give it to her.  As my grandma was telling me this she stressed the significance of this event as lard was extremely useful and valuable in post-war Europe and ended up providing my family with enough money to get by.

After some years passed and my grandfather graduating university he met my grandma in Washington D.C. after moving to the states. (My grandma recently immigrated their from Scotland) and moved to North Carolina to work as doctors as they wanted a better opportunity in life for their kids rather than dealing with  the current condition of post war Europe.  After five years in North Carolina they decided to move to Rhode Island to work at a larger hospital where my grandfather was a cancer specialist and my grandmother was a head Doctor in the E.R..  My dad and my aunt were born a couple years later after and my dad after attending business school decided to go to graduate school at the University of Chicago where he would eventually meet my mom.  After my parents got married they lived in Chicago and had my sister while living in Edgewater.  After ten years or so they moved to Denver Colorado for a change of pace where my Dad lived there on the weekends as he was still working in Chicago.  Shortly after I was born at the Saint Josephs Hospital there and after five years we moved to Winnetka and the rest is history.  For myself at least.

When is Free Speech Dangerous?

As everyone in this country knows, one of our most famed and credited rights is our right to freedom of speech.  This right allows people to exercise freedom of religion, freedom to petition the government, freedom of  the press, and so forth.  These rights are necessary for a democracy to thrive as they allow people to express their opinions, practice their religion freely, and most importantly they also allow for independent news that is not some propaganda-filled newsletter you might find in North Korea.  But when can this freedom be dangerous?  Sure there are exceptions like not being able to yell fire in crowded spaces, but what about yelling out hate speech?  Is this allowed and should it be allowed?  Everyday we battle this issue in our democracy.

Many people have heard about the events that took place in Charleston over the summer last year when a large group of white supremacists marched in Charleston carrying torches met up at a Confederate war statue.(Click Here for the story) These people had a permit and were legally allowed to be there as they were using their first amendment rights to protest the recent removal of Confederate statues.  However, at the rally white supremacists were yelling things such as "White Power," "Blood and soil" (both of which are Nazi and KKK sayings), and many other antisemitic and racist chants.  The chants that these people were saying are very provocative at the least and hateful to millions of people in the U.S. at most.  Now, although what was being said at the rally is obscene and disgusting to any decent person, it is a constitutional right and is legal as far as the law is concerned.

But should the first amendment protects acts like these?  What is considered hate speech and where should we draw the line for freedom of speech?

Opioid Epidemic

The Opioid epidemic in America has come to light over the past few years as usage and overdoses of the drug have skyrocketed and ravaged whole communities from the inside out.  Everyday more than 115 people overdose on Opiods such as prescription pain relievers, heroin, and Fentanyl.  This rampant drug use has never been seen before in the U.S. and is leaving authorities and Americans heart broken and at a loss for solutions.

This epidemic all started when pharmaceutical companies began issuing strong pain killers and assured that these drugs would not be addictive.  With the all clear insurance companies began giving the drugs to patients at higher rates than most other prescription pain killers.  This allowed for more people to gain access to the pain killers and in turn left millions of people in the U.S. with an addiction to the opiates.  This epidemic has cost tax payers more than $78.5 billion dollars in 2015 alone and killed 33,000 people that same year. (Drug Abuse Statistics)  These issues then transcend into even bigger ones with patients who need to get their fix and then turn to illicit street drugs.  The notorious drugs, Heroin, and Fentanyl are the most dangerous and easy to get access to.  Addicts turn to these drugs which in many cases are laced with other substances and are deadlier than the original substance which causes many deaths and feeds the black market.  This mess has left authorities and pharmaceutical manufactures with no idea and power to stop this epidemic which raises the question of why were the drugs not fully screened before being put into the market?

Judge Kavanaugh's Senate Hearing

At the moment our country is facing a pivotal moment in its history, congress is soon to
vote on President Trump's Supreme Court Nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
Kavanaugh who was just slammed with a sexual assault claim is now facing backlash from
Democrats who want to delay the vote until more information is found.

The Allegation come from Dr. Christine Blasey Ford who claims she was assaulted by
Kavanaugh at a party 36 years ago.(Click Here.) This allegation came on September 16th, close to the senate's vote on Kavanaugh, prompting some to wonder if this was a sham to delay the vote until midterms.  Other people believe Dr. Ford and want an FBI investigation into the alleged incident. With these two sides battling you may see many people say "I Believe Her" which to many is troubling because it goes against one of the founding principles of our Justice system in America, innocent until proven guilty.  This is not to say the alleged event did not happen but it is very important to remember with claims like these. False claims of rape are very damaging to the accused person as they can ruin their life and be labeled as a predator but this is in no way saying that all claims are false. In most cases the claims are true and with the #metoo movement being ever so powerful in our country you see more and more accusations everyday by woman who had been attacked and now are able to give themselves a voice.

So with these allegations dividing the nation, should we judge the character of
someone change because of something that may have happened over three
decades ago or do their actions stand the test of time as who they are?