My Free Speech

News and Responsibility

2008-05-02T16:00:00.000-07:00

Some random thoughts about news and personal responsibility…

So we watched OutFoxed in class the other night and many students seemed pissed off about Fox’s bias news reporting. Yes FOX is very bias in what they say and show but they are not the only news source that is bias nor are they the only source of news. I think people have their own personal responsibility to look at an array of news outlets to get the news. News and information is out there and is available to people, you just have to take the time to find it and read it. It sort of seemed like people used FOX and other bias news sources as an excuse to not inform themselves about current global issues. During the discussion there was only one student who spoke up and said that she spent time each day to look up the news on numerous different sources to help ensure she was getting the news from all sides. I just think that people need to take some responsibility and go out and get the news for themselves rather that complain about the mainstream news sources…..

Some pictures I took in Africa

2008-04-02T19:05:00.000-07:00

My Trip

2008-04-02T18:35:00.000-07:00

My trip to Uganda was absolutely amazing and heartbreaking. I went there to work at a rehabilitation center for children who were former child soldiers. Every day we would go to the camp and spend all day with the kids talking to them, playing games and helping them work through all the hardships and tragedies that they have been through as a result of the war. I was working with a group of 6 boys; Geoffrey, Peter, Tony, Sadick, Patrick, and Francis ranging in age from 11 years old to 17years old. All 6 of them had been kidnapped during a LRA rebel attack on their village and all lost parents and siblings during the attack. These boys were fortunate enough to escape sometime after their abduction and to survive being a child soldier; but life after has not been kind to them. They are all homeless street kids now who have nowhere to go, no family to take care of them, no way of getting an education and literally have nothing except the clothes on their back. These kids spend their nights on the streets and come to this camp each day for a day camp like program set up by NGO’s to help with rehabilitation. The kids at the camp get one meal a day, which was always rice and beans.

While talking to the boys about their pasts they all had heartbreaking stories about seeing family members being brutally murdered, being beat themselves, and about the constant rejection they now face daily because they are still seen as rebel soldiers. It was heartbreaking getting to see how little these children had, it was also amazing how positive and loving these kids still were. It was really eye opening and sad to learn about how little it would take to get these kids in school or how little it would cost to get them a pair of shoes….It only costs $150 to put a child in school for a year, and it costs $3 to get a kid a pair of shoes.

I defiantly learned a lot in Gulu, and can’t wait to return.

Africa

2008-03-13T11:12:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow morning I am leaving for two weeks to go to Uganda and Kenya. I am going to be working in a refugee IDP camp with former child soldiers and orphans who lost their parents to AIDS.

For those who don’t know about the war going on in Uganda here is some background history:

During the British colonial period in Uganda, the country was separated into a predominantly well educated and elite south and a poor north. This socio-economic division between the north and the south has been the cause of recurrent ethnic violence in Uganda. In early 1986 Ugandan Presidents Milton Obote and Tito Lutwa Okello, ethnic Acholi, were overthrown by the National Resistance Army (NRA) and replaced by Yoweri Museveni. (In later years the NRA would change its name to Uganda People's Defense Force, UPDF). This sparked fear among the people of Uganda as they worried Museveni would seek revenge for events that took place during the Luwero war (also known as the ‘bush war’) by previous regimes. By early 1987 Joseph Kony, a self-proclaimed messiah who created his own religion that mirrors Christianity, Islam and traditional Acholi, had formed the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) also referred to as Kony’s Rebels or the Rebels. The LRA is “renowned, or rather infamous, for being made up almost exclusively of child soldiers”. Kony, a relative to an Acholi tribal shaman, claimed to be committed to overthrowing the Ugandan government and implementing a state system based on the Ten Commandments and felt it his duty to purify the Acholi people. This war between the NRA and the LRA has somehow morphed into a war in which civilian villages are targeted and destroyed leaving thousands dead, millions displaced and thousands of children have been and continue to be abducted by these groups and forced into becoming a soldier. The area in which this war is mainly taking place is the northern region of Uganda commonly called Acholiland that includes the Gulu, Pader and Kitgum districts.

For around 22 years now the LRA and/or the NRA have been slowly attacking villages in Acholiland one at a time. Schools and medical facilities have also found themselves the target of these ambushes. During these raids the children are usually sent in first with guns and are orders to kill anyone who comes into their path. They are also told to recruit more children to join their army. Houses are looted and then set on fire. Women in the villages are raped; many are mutilated and then left for dead. While attacking a village the armies often have a goal, sometimes they are looking to loot items for the bases, sometimes they are looking to recruit more soldiers and sometimes the soldiers believe that the particular village they are attacking has done something in their opposition.

In response to this war millions (according to The UN over 1.8 million) of Acholi people have fled to Internally Displaced Person camps (IDP Camps) in hopes to keep their children from being abducted. Many people have been forced into these camps because they no longer have homes because their entire village had been destroyed. These camps have been set up by Ugandan government in order to help protect the Acholi people. Illness and disease are rampant in these camps because of overcrowding, lack of medical care and unsafe water. People in these camps also suffer from inadequate nutrition as the Acholi are no longer able to use their farming land. Even though the IDP camps have been set up to protect the Acholi people the camps are still often raided by the LRA. Because of this many parents send their children to the nearest safe town each night, these children have become known as the night commuters.

CURRENT UPDATE OF SITUATION:

*There are currently no more night commuters in Gulu.

*The LRA has signed a cease fire agreement (they just signed it Feb. 24^th 2008) but a peace agreement has not been signed as there are LRA leaders are wanted for international war crimes. The LRA will not sign any peace agreements or release any more children (its estimated that they have more than 30,000) until the International Criminal Court drops all charges.

*The LRA also has ties to the Sudanese government and the Darfur conflict.

Free Speech and Acceptance

2008-03-07T00:00:00.001-08:00

Our last class discussion was pretty thought provoking; and it really got me thinking about teaching acceptance. A few students continually made the point that GLBT acceptance needed to be taught in class so that hate crimes (such as the murder of 15 year old Lawrence King) don’t continue to happen. Another student then brought up the idea that maybe schools should focus on acceptance of all not only the acceptance of GBLT. I really agreed with the second student, our society needs to focus on accepting everybody despite their differences. If we all learned to be a little more respectful, understanding and accepting of people we would have as many problems will hate crimes, limiting students education and teacher rights…

If people learned to be more accepting of religion maybe parents wouldn’t be so afraid of creationism being taught as one of many theories. If religious people would be more accepting of people with different beliefs then maybe silly theories like intelligent design wouldn’t have been made up. If children were taught that a person’s sexual orientation doesn’t make them un-human nor determine their worth then maybe hate crimes against GLBT wouldn’t happen. If people were taught to respect everyone and treat others how they themselves want to be treated maybe bullying in schools wouldn’t happen.

I think children from an early age should be taught that they are allowed to think and feel however they want but that acting on those feelings isn’t always right. Children should be taught at accept everyone no matter what their differences are and no matter how they personally feel about it. Children should be taught how to respect and treat other people; and take others into consideration before acting. People need to have some common courtesy.

I don’t think that teachers should be banned from teaching students these lessons. If a teacher wants to use a book with gay characters they should be able too; I mean it should serve a purpose just as any school book should. Teachers should have the freedom in the classroom to teach students lessons of acceptance. Maybe once people start to be more accepting there will be less fights about what to teach in the classroom and more learning going on in the classrooms. Maybe ones people start having some basic common courtesy and respect we will see an end to bullying and hate crimes.

Free Speech and Acceptance

2008-03-07T00:00:00.000-08:00

Teaching Evolution Rant

2008-03-01T23:44:00.000-08:00

Should public school be allowed to teach Creationism along with Evolution in a biology class?

I think they should be allowed to if they want too. I don’t see why a parent or teacher would want to limit a child’s education by only permitting teachers to teach one theory about how the world came to be as it is today. I went to a public high school and in my biology class we went over 3 different theories; evolution, creationism and the neutral theory of molecular evolution. I am personally glad that I got to learn about 3 different theories and got to look at things from different perspectives rather than just being taught one thing. I feel like I learned a lot by seeing different theories and learning about how scientist feel about the different theories.

I’m not in any way saying that religion should be taught in a science class, but rather that creationism can be mentioned without going too much into religion. It’s a really simple explanation: Literalist believe exactly what the scriptures say about a higher power creating the earth as it is. The land, day and night, animals and humans; they were all specifically created as they are today. End of explanation….I really don’t see why people get so upset about it’s not like a Sunday school lesson or a sermon.

I don’t think anyone’s ever going to agree on this issue and someone’s always going to be upset about what is or isn’t being taught and I think that’s kind of sad….people should be more open to learning about different perspectives. And this goes for both sides of the issue…

Protest in Berkley

2008-02-12T11:05:00.000-08:00

I saw this article the other day and thought it was interesting....its about a pretty big protest up in Berkley about military recruitment being or not being welcome in the area.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/12/berkeley.marines/index.html

I think that the military has the right to recruit wherever they please. If you don't want to be a part of the military walk right on by them and don't talk to them. I think its absolutely ridiculous to try and push someone or a group of people out of a city just because you don't approve of their actions or agree with their political views. I think it is kind of ironic that these people who are supposedly promoting peace and claim to be open minded are the same ones who are so closed minded when it comes to accepting groups of people different than they are.

Berkley is a very liberal area and I'm sure the military knows that they are not in a very welcome area....why someone would want to be in an area that they are not welcome is beyond me, but I do feel that people have the right to be there.

Free Speech in Colonial Virginia

2008-02-06T21:41:00.000-08:00

Some of the rules and regulations about free speech back in colonial Virginia were pretty harsh. They also seemed to mix a lot of religion in with the free speech as well. Although they are very strict I can’t help but wonder just how strict they really were back in those times. As time changes so do the rules; one example is the rule forbidding any negative talk about ones Government figure, today that isn’t a rule and a person can say or print just about anything they want about our President. I wonder if a rule like that back then was really as bad as a rule like that would be now. While we read these rules everyone talked about how strict these rules were and about how awful they were but I wonder if at the time they really weren’t that bad. Also what will our current free speech laws look like in 50 years from now? 100 years from now?

Time changes everything.

HCOM 310

2008-02-01T01:38:00.000-08:00

Blog 1 for HCOM 310.

This is my free speech place.