All done?!

Tomorrow is the last day of classes! What?? Where did the year go? I've been thinking about when I was in elementary school and everyday I would come home and my mom would ask "so what did you learn today?"

So what did I learn during my freshman year of college?

1.How to spell "decision". Goofy, I know but that word always tricked me up (Dad-I know you're reading this and don't worry, I've learned things of much more significance than that). This was honestly the first thing that popped in my head when I started this post.

2.How to learn how to live with someone. I had a "good roommate experience" this year but at times it wasn't always easy to learn how to adjust to another person's living habits.

3.How to use weird things to look at other ideas. I'm thinking specifically of the articles we read on tea last semester

4.A little more on how to write. I still think my writing has a long way to go but I feel like every class I've taken (not just the ones that give us a writing GE) has taught me some new way to write or think about my writing.

5.That lutefisk is pretty gross and lefse is not traditionally eaten with a knife and fork.

6.Our world is so interconnected it's kind of annoying at times. When AmCon lessons are surfacing in math class you know you have a really good problem in your hands.

7.There is always enough time, you just have to find it. It's hard to believe it when you start looking at the mountain of work ahead of you but if you really buckle down you'll get through it.

8.My high school was really weird and life's a little weird but all you can do is accept it and embrace it.

9.A lot of really specific things about America, religion, french, math, psychology, helping people, vocation and courtly love in the Middle Ages that I can't really list because that would be ridiculous.

10.The more I learn the more I realize I don't know much at all. It sounds kind of anticlimactic but it's a really good thing.

Signs of changes

I was watching the news the other night and the final story of the evening was about a mom who was fighting overseas (I can't remember where exactly) and was able to come home 2 weeks earlier than originally planned. Instead of telling her 3 kids the good news, she arranged it so she could come home quietly and have her parents pick her up from the airport. Instead of going home she went to each of her kids' schools to surprise them.

The newscast showed footage of her surprising her youngest son in his 5th classroom and as they hugged each other for the first time in 13 months the news anchor narrated the moment by saying "for generations mothers hugged their sons home from war. Now it's the sons who await for their mothers to return".

I don't really know why this touched me so much. Maybe it was just the nature of the story (I always tear up when I see something like that). This isn't something that I've seen change in my lifetime. I think, perhaps, that it's just one of those things that stood so long throughout time it's startling (not in a bad way) to have the change pointed out.

Sense of Respect

There are two things I really liked about the article from the Economist.

1. This sentence: Indeed, after the daring raid that killed Osama bin Laden, America has discovered that its commander-in-chief is one cool cat.

I just find it amusing. So much so that I sent it along to my dad :)

2. The sense of respect you feel the author has. He always refers to the president and first lady as Mr. and Mrs. Obama. He even refers to Osama bin Laden as Mr. Bin Laden.

It's so much different from everything else we have been seeing from the news and media. The country is rejoicing at this mans death saying they feel a sense of revenge and justice and yet this author is taking the measure to show him a sense of respect. I think that by calling him Mr. Bin Laden shows that there are some people in this country (and the world I'm sure) who have an uneasy feeling at being so jubilant over death.

I think the title of Mr. tones down what seems to be an amusing article at first. The author describes our own president a "cool cat" with a "toothsome smile" who poked fun at the "president wannabe". The sense of humor the author approaches with Obama and the sense of respect given to Bin Laden is such a reversal from what we expect to hear and have heard over the past week.

another look at "Democratic Vistas"

Today I decided to get started on our final paper for the semester. I looked at what we would be graded on and started thinking back on the semester. As I began to decide what kinds of points I wanted to include in my paper I made a bit of a To do list. The first item on the list was to re-read "Democratic Vistas" by Walt Whitman. I pulled out the article, a pen and a highlighter to get started and kind of groaned. I remember reading this the first time at the beginning of the semester and really struggling to get through it and make any sense of it.

Thank goodness this article is makes much more sense and is much more rewarding to read after we've spent a whole semester discussing the ideas Whitman presents in his article. I could see the ideas of de Tocqueville screaming at us through the words of Whitman. Whitman talks an aweful lot about the importance of the past and how the past shapes the future of the present and the future. I was really excited to find this in "Democratic Vistas" because just before I started reading it I made a brief outline of what I want my paper to look like. I found some really great evidence in Whitman that I can and will definitely be using in the final product.

I'm really glad I reread this article because I can see not only de Tocqueville's ideas gushing out, but also the ideas of Bellah and Putnam as well. I have so many ideas and ways to structure my argument in my paper. I think this was a really great way for me to get this project started and I'm looking forward to getting to a few more of the other items on that To do list. I like the results I have so far and I'm eager for more.

Another idea I got really excited about in this second reading was the importance Whitman placed on the art and literature of the young America. He claimed it was vital for the young nation to create it's own school of thought, art and science. In the beginning of the semester I wouldn't have understood this, given it a second thought or remembered it at all. But after spending the last 17 weeks in my history class (Courtly Love in the Middle Ages) I totally get what he was saying. Literature and art is a wonderful way to examine what the ideas, practices, attitudes and beliefs of a certain period. I think what Whitman was saying was that if America wanted to be understood in the future, the nation needed to leave something behind for future generations to look back on and interpret. We did a lot of interpreting of art both this semester and last. At the time a lot of us said "why are we reading poetry?" or "why did we spend the day looking at art?" But now I get it. Art and literature is a lens for us to use to look into the past and to try to make sense of it.

and so it begins....

The school year is wrapping up quickly and it still feels like it's so far away. There is so much to get through in the next 12 days it makes me head spin.

Even though it's just over half way through the day there are several things I'm thankful for as this crazy, crazy week begins.

1. The thunderstorm this morning. Yes, it woke me up earlier than I really wanted to be and all I wanted to do was throw the blankets back over my head and sleep the rest of the day. At the same time it makes it a wonderful day to sit and write essays and do homework all day. There is not warm, enticing sunshine to distract me from this final sprint.

2. Entertaining presentations in Amcon today. It was good to laugh on this gloomy, busy day. Both had wonderful presentations today and I really enjoyed listening to them.

3. Our "hot chocolate break" in class today. It's just what today needed.

4. This blog! This has been a good break away from the French language :)

I know I'm not the only one who is starting the sprint to the finish. So to all my friends, classmates and professors: We're almost there. Go get some hot chocolate and get to it! We can do it!

Group

Good group work always brings me a sense of satisfaction. Knowing that your ability to cooperate to work well with others helped to piece together an interesting project is really rewarding. I've had my share of bad groups and I've been fortunate enough to be part of a lot of really great groups and I'm happy to say that Liza, Jessica, Zoey and Sarah are one of those really great groups. All four of them are hard working, committed, insightful and open to suggestions. Our work was smooth sailing and well organized.

Thinking back, all groups I've been in here at St. Olaf have been wonderful. I think it really speaks to the kind of character that makes an Ole. It's such a change from what I had in high school. I used to really hate group project (and they're still not my favorite) but now I think I might be changing my mind. I'm really excited to see how the dynamics of group work change we continue our education and start focusing in on our majors. Once we start getting more focused and away from the GEs we're going to be part of more and more projects that we are really passionate about with other people who are also really passionate about the subject matter as well.

I think our presentation will go well. I'm slightly terrified to sing in front of everyone and will probably make a fool of myself for doing so, but other than that I'm ready for it :)

What's next?

News of Bin Laden's death has rocked this country. The news cast I was watching, as I'm sure many other have, focused on the reactions of people all over the country. The newscast focused a lot on the families who lost loved ones during the 9/11 attacks and how they felt about the death. Specifically, they focused on the children born after the attacks who lost their fathers in 2001.

Like many other Americans, the past few days I've been thinking about that fateful day in 2001. I was 10 years old and in 4th grade at Neubert Elementary School. I remember knowing SOMETHING had happened but students were kept in the dark as to the actual events of the day. The school left that (like they rightfully should) up to parents to talk to their kids about. Sure enough, I went home and my mom sat me down and in brief words explained to me that someone had crashed planes into the World Trade Center in New York City and that thousands of people had died.

We all know that September 11th, 2001 changed the world forever. You hear about it all the time: "before 9/11...". What I've come to realize is that I don't remember this world "before 9/11". Of course I can remember things about my own life but I don't remember the world. I was too young to understand what the world was like before and I was still too young in the immediate aftermath to understand how it had changed. What I wonder now is how will the world change again as we digest Bin Laden's death and prepare for what consequences it will bring. Some people speculate this will have serious consequences and terrorist groups will react strongly to the death of a symbolic leader while others believe his death will have a positive impact in taking down the power of terrorist groups.

We're in a funny transition period right now and it's hard to say what will happen next. I'm interested in seeing how the world changes this time around now that I'm old enough to be able to understand what is happening in the world around us.

PANIC!!!

I don't do this often, actually, I don't think I've done it at all, but I'm using my blog as a way to vent.

This week is going to be tough and stressful! AmCon doesn't usually stress me out, but this week I think it's going to be my biggest worry. I really enjoyed the presentations today. Which is a problem. It creates standards. Both groups did a very nice job and presented their information in an impressive way and now I'm panicking that ours won't be up to par. Luckily we're meeting in about an hour and we can talk about what we need to do to finalize the presentation and maybe even go through it once. The essay that's do as part of this is a shabby 3 paragraphs that I'm not very happy with. My goal there: finish a rough draft by Friday and spend the weekend polishing it and making it good.

I have a math test that's due tomorrow (take home tests are wonderful but I end up doing each problem 3 times and still worrying). A history paper I need to start thinking about for next week, the final essay for AmCon should probably be given some thought this week and shifts in the caf have to be worked.

An application for a job in admissions is due on Friday and 2 job interviews are next week. I shouldn't even start thinking about next week....

The end of the year is coming so quickly it's making my head spin. Where did the year go???

Dan Rather: Bridging the Gap

Sitting down to listen to Dan Rather's lecture I had one regret: I didn't bring anything to write with. What a fantastic opportunity I was going to have to get some great blog ideas and I was about to miss out! I knew there was no way I was going to be able to remember everything he said and be able to take it to make a good blog post about it. I decided to take notes on my phone in the form of a text message, which isn't the greatest medium for note taking to I apologize if my Dan Rather information seems a little holey. Texting notes just isn't very efficient.

What I took away the most from Mr. Rather's lecture was the important role media has as a bridge between what the government is doing and what the citizens want their government to do. The newspapers, he said, are a form of checks and balances and it is our responsibility as citizens to find a reliable newspaper, out of the thousands that are made available to us, that was can use as a gauge for our satisfaction in the government. De Tocqueville also spoke about this important and powerful role newspapers have in our government.

Speaking more like de Tocqueville, Rather emphasized that the future depends on our individual and collective rolls and how we act on these roles. Rather's points on the importance each citizen has in our country filled me with inspiration and motivation to do my part. It brought back a feeling I had in AmCon a few weeks ago. It was a feeling I enjoyed and one we kind of got away from as our focus moved away from citizenship to our projects and final essays for the year. Rather's lecture was a good reminder of what we learned in class and was refreshing to hear from an "outside source"

Degrees of Seperation

People always say "It's a small world". I've come to see that a little more as this school year as progressed. As I've talked with my St. Olaf peers about where I come from, my high school and my hometown, I keep running into this shrinking world. My Minnesota friends will know someone who went to a college in Illinois who now has a chemistry lab with someone who went to my high school. It's seems so unreal when ever something like that happens. You would think with the frequency of these incidents we would get used to it. Long connections like this end up being very useful; networking is a perfect example. It was through networking (kind of) that my friends and I got to go to Perkins one night. For a few hours we had my friend's sister's roommate's car so we decided to get off campus for a bit. That was kind of random, but I think it's a good example of long connections.


It was networking that led Neihardt to Black Elk; Black Elk had the distant connection to Crazy Horse and was able to shrink the world for Neihardt just a little bit.

Perhaps my favorite example of a shrinking world (that just so happens has to do with Crazy Horse) happened when my family and I were on vacation in South Dakota. When I was 13 my family and I loaded up the car and commenced the 15 hour car ride from Illinois to Mount Rushmore. While we were there, my family and I also decided to spend an evening at the Crazy Horse Memorial. It's kind of like Mount Rushmore (being carved into stone)but it's a work in progress (and has been for a very, very long time now). We read in one of those tourist brochures that after it got dark there was a free laser light show. Thinking it would cool to see, we planned on going to dinner then heading over to the show. After dinner, we got in the car and started heading down the highway when all the sudden I realized I left mt retainers on the table in the restaurant. We raced back, explained our situation, had a bus boy go digging in the garbage (we felt really bad about that but the restaurant wouldn't let us do it because of liability) and eventually found them. With found, and thoroughly cleaned retainers, we got back on the highway to go to the show. Just as we pulled in the parking lot my mom looks out her window and says "JIM! (my dad)WHO IS THAT?" All 4 of us turn attention to the guy walking across the parking lot and realize it's our friend Kirk. Kirk and his family live all the way in Illinois and we know them through mutual friends. Running into them all the way in South Dakota just blew our mind. We didn't even know they were planning a trip there that summer. It turned out to be really nice. They ended up staying in the park for the laser show with us that night and we got to make plans to see the dead lands with them the next morning.

Dirt Matters!

Just like Chris said in class when we first started reading de Tocqueville...

Last Wednesday Hoyme had an egg scavenger hunt. It was lots of fun and had teams of 5 running all over campus (through the mud-just to keep the dirt theme going) looking for clues and racing back to the Hoyme lobby. After the scavenger hunt was all said and done, Hall Council had DIRT PUDDING waiting for us. Yummy!!
As I sat down with my cup of dirt and worms, I was flooded with memories of my Grandma's house. She used to make dirt pudding for my brother and I every holiday we spent at her house. For 7 year old Clara and 3 year old Brian (my brother), dirt pudding (along with brown cows, cheese chex mix and British board games) was a highlight of Grandma's house.

As I ate the dirt pudding and thought about my childhood, I couldn’t help to wonder how those memories had an influence on who I am today. We all know that the past is an important factor in shaping the future, but it’s odd things like this that make me wonder what little things turn out to be huge in the larger sense of things. It might just mean that I was more excited than I would normally be about free dessert because along with deliciousness I got to relive those memories from when I was little. Can we really measure how important the past is in our present and how important it’s going to be in our future?

Lunch with Lions

Today, Jessica and I went down to the Northfield Golf Club to sit in on the local Lions Club weekly lunch meeting. Going into it I didn't really know what to expect. For some reason I had a vision in my head of people all sitting in one room just in rows of chair arranged in a block as the president stood at a podium and went over what was going on currently in the club, what was coming up in the future and reflection on recently completed projects and events.

What Jessica and I went to was kind of like that, but not really.

First off, they fed us. It was a lunch meeting catered by the golf club. Chris was right, people open up over food. Secondly, Jessica and I stood out like sore thumbs. Not were we lacking the infamous yellow vests but we pretty much the only ones under the age of 50. After the group (about 20 of 35 members were there) had time to eat and mingle they started the meeting with the pledge of allegiance, a prayer (which surprised me just because of this day and age where religion in public spaces can be quiet controversial) and songs. Yup. We sang. They had a little jingle about being members of the lions club but then they broke out these booklets of song lyrics (over 100 songs). They had everything from church hymns, to do-ray-mi and "Some where over the rainbow". After a few songs they had a couple of quick announcements (including having Jessica and I stand up and explain who we were and what we were doing) and then it was on to a presentation. The lady that presented at today's meeting just came back from serving in Romania for the Peace Corps and was sharing her experiences over there.

What was really wonderful about her presentation was the connections it had to our class. Part of the time she talked about how Romania became a democracy in 1989 and how they people there have been having a hard time making it work and how their history is working against them. She discussed how people will do things like litter because they can now, no one is telling them not to. Not only are people telling them they can't litter, but they also aren't being told to "volunteer" to clean it up like the communists did before they gained their independence. To the Romanians, volunteerism has a history that causes it to be an undesirable activity because it was forced upon them during the reign of the communists. She said democracy has had a really rough start in Romania because they don't know how to be a democratic society.

Once she was done speaking, the meeting was pretty much over. The president of the club and one other member came over to Jessica and I and sat down so we could talk. It was amazing how the two of them just kind of started talking and started discussing things Jessica and I were going to ask them about. I don't know how they did it, but they seemed to just know what kinds of things we were looking for for this project.

What struck me the most about our conversation with them was the claims they made on volunteerism in our society today. First off, they both believe that today's youth are more civically engaged than ever before. They think that "young people" are volunteering today because it has always been something that have been exposed to and involved in. They also think that the nature of volunteerism is changing into something our society has never seen before.

There is so much more I could talk about in this blog post but to do so would take wayyyy to long and would leave my group nothing left to include in our presentation.

All in all, lunch with the lions was really wonderful today and we gained a lot of insight on how the Lions Club of Northfield adds to social capitol and the strenght of our country' democratic government.

Courtly Love of.....farms?

In my history class, courtly love in the middle ages, we read the book The Art of Courtly Love by Andreas Capellanus. In his book Capellanus basically gave a how to guide on adultery (this book was written in the middle ages if you're thinking this is kind of odd). One of his big points was that the lovers were not to actually "enjoy love's final solace". According to Capellanus, lovers in adulterous affairs were not to engage in sex because doing so would satisfy their desires and therefore make the relationship less thrilling.

Our professor illustrated the point by telling us about her son's obsession with Legos. She said there is always a new Lego set or new pieces that he wants and he drools over the idea of maybe owning them. She lets him look at the pictures of the sets on the Lego website, go through the catalog, look at them on the shelves at the store, but she actually gets them for him only every so often. Every time he gets a new Lego set he's excited and plays with it for a few days but quickly becomes bored. So to avoid the boredom and a household take-over of Lego sets, she only lets him look so he can be entertained the of the IDEA of them, and not by actually having them.

I was reminded of this day in my history class when I read about Thoreau looking at all the farms and taking the deal as far as he could without actually owning the land.

I thought it was curious how he did that, but I couldn't figure out why. Was he trying to keep an interest in the land? Was it a reminder of why he was going to go live at Walden Pond? Did he use the farm deals as kind of a motivator to go through with his idea?

I think I was most excited about this point because I was able to connect it to something else in my other class. I get really excited when I can make connections between seemingly unlike or random subjects/events/ideas.

Vastness

Warning: What I'm about to write is a total contradiction of my last post

On Sunday I read the first few pages of Emerson's Nature but had to put it down so I could walk into town to get my hair cut. As I was walking into town I was suddenly struck by the fact that I'm in Minnesota and really quite far from home. I thought about how far my walk had taken me (not very, I was just coming up to the tracks on St. Olaf Ave) and how long it took me to get to that point (about 20 minutes). I thought about the 370 miles that separate me from my home, my family and everything that had been my life up until 7 months ago. I kind of panicked when I thought about the immense amount of space between Northfield, Minnesota and Algonquin, Illinois. Its a lot more than I realize. I never had that feeling before. I guess living up here on the Hill in our campus community makes that gap feel a lot smaller and it took getting off campus by myself for me to really comprehend where I was.

After the moment of panic, the thought of that immense amount of space reminded me of Emerson's opening thoughts on the skies and the power the stars have to bring humans into solitude. For me, looking out to the empty highway gave me the sense of solitude I'm sure Emerson was trying to convey (without the moment of panic of course).

Shrinking world

Have you ever looked at the statistics for your blog? They're pretty cool. You can see how many times your blog has been viewed and from where. I was shocked and amazed when I looked at it and saw that my blog has been looked at by people in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Germany and Brazil.

My first thought was "whoa! look at that!", my second "how on Earth did they come across my blog and why", and lastly, "this is strange, I actually have people reading my blog. I guess I better do a good job."

It makes our world feel so much more connected and so much smaller. It also made me really self-conscious about what I put in my blogs. It kind of motivates me to take them a step further and put a little more effort into them.

Previous Experience with Thomas Cole

I'm not an art person in the sense of being able to create art or even knowing much about it, but I do love going to the Art Institute of Chicago. I think I've been about a dozen times in the last three years. I love wandering through the seemingly endless hallways and stumbling into galleries I haven't been in before.

Last February my boyfriend and I made a trip there specifically to see a Thomas Cole painting. He was taking an art appreciation class, had a paper to write, was required to make a trip to the museum during the course of the class and the month of February had free admission. Plus I got out of a day out of school to go :)

I had never heard of Thomas Cole or seen any of his paintings but there I was standing in front of Distant View of Niagara Falls. I remember being struck by the colors in his paintings. I loved the way he used them and how the seemed to move seamlessly into one another was breath taking. I also loved the way the falls seemed so big and the people so small. Getting as close as I could without the security guy yelling at me again (a problem I often run into when ever I go to the Art Institute), I was in awe at the simplicity and the accuracy of the tiny Native Americans on the cliff, looking over at the falls.

Distant View of Niagara Falls

Close up of the Native Americans

Scene from the Last of the Mohicans, another painting by Thomas Cole

Our America

It didn't surprise me in the least when politics made their way into our conversations on the long drive home for spring break. My grandparents (who are awesome and came all the way out here to pick me up for spring break) fit what we talked about in class; they have more interest in politics because they have more at stake in our government.

I can't remember what we were talking about or why (but I do remember how surprising I found it that my grandpa was so up on Minnesota politics) but I do remember a comment my grandma made.

"This isn't our America anymore, it's your father's, and your mother's, but even more so it's yours. You are the one's who are taking charge of the nation now."

Immediately her comment sent me back through years of elementary and middle school. I kept thinking about all the comments that were made about investing in the future (by providing kids with the best education) and making future leaders out of us. It made me realize that future is coming a lot faster than I realized. Before we know it it's going to be up to us to take charge of our nation, world and society.

It still seems so far away, like we're still 8 years old or something. My grandma's comment really gave me some food for thought.

After a few moments I did have to giggle to myself. My grandma isn't a legal citizen. Hearing her talk about politics makes me both giggle and admire her. It makes me giggle because she gets so intense about it. I admire her because she is so intense about politics and has very strong opinions even though she can't vote and participate in our government in the way someone as passionate as she is would like to.

Democracy in training

Today, I am very proud of my little brother. He's a freshman in a school district that is facing some very, very painful budget cuts for the 2011-2012 school year. Hundreds of teachers set to lose their jobs (after hundreds lost their jobs last year)and he full understands what the repercussions mean for him; no music, art, soccer, or electives, limited opportunities for foreign language and even larger class sizes than what he has to deal with already. He also is one of the few students to understand that the district is not to blame for the budget woes. All this would be avoided if the state of Illinois would pay the schools the millions and millions of dollars they owe.

As a sign of support for the hundreds of teachers losing their jobs and as a statement that they care about the future of the quality of their education, the 3 high school in district 300 staged a walk-out during their advisory period (it's a 25 minute block similar to homeroom). He, along with 2500 other students at his school (plus thousands of other at the other 2 high schools) left their advisory rooms and gathered in front of the school to make a statement. What made me really proud was the conversation I had with him later in the day.

He was telling me how he understood the walk out wouldn't change anything, the cuts have to happen no matter what, but he was glad to see so many students come together for a cause.

"This is something Jacobs really needs", he told me. "We need a reason to come together and show some school spirit." He was absolutely right. Jacobs High School has absolutely no school spirit what so ever. Most students don't care about much of anything. They needed a reason to come together and relate to one another and to voice their opinion about something they truly care about.

Whats happening in our district is really effecting him. He knows what it means for his future and it's unfortunate to see him have to worry about this so much. He's too young to make a difference by voting but I'm proud of him for making his voice heard in a different way. You really know how important this was to him because this conversation took place at 10:00 in the morning as I was picking him up from school, sick. He went to school just so he could show how much he cares about the future of the district and the future of his education.

I was really proud of my little brother today. I hope this experience stays with him as he gets older and gives him a little taste of actively participating in democracy that will stay with him as he becomes of voting age.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-03-24/news/ct-met-jacobs-school-walkout-20110324_1_teachers-union-school-board-kolleen-hanetho

Citizen lessons

Today, as we talked about what characteristics make up a citizen I had flash backs to elementary school. In my elementary school we had monthly citizenship assemblies. Everyone hated it. Each month the entire school would be herded into the gym with music blaring and our principle dancing to be packed in and smooshed together (we had an overcrowding problem in my district) for an hour long assembly. There were the "8 Keys of Excellence" and each month we would focus on one "key" to being a good citizen. At the assembly they would talk about what the featured key meant, how to live out that key and then we had the awards. Two kids from each class would be chosen every month as "Citizen of the Month" and be given a certificate and a sucker for being exemplary cases of what ever key had been the focus of the month. After the awards were handed out we had to dance. Yes, dance. Not just any dance, THE dance. The Keys of Excellence came with a dance and we had to do it. Over, and over and over again. I was really happy when I left Neubert elementary because I knew I would be leaving those assemblies behind too. And what do you know, here it is again, 7 years later.

Talking about being a citizen in class today made me wonder how my dancing principle and the assemblies fit in with what we talked about. According to my elementary school, the keys to being a good citizen were:

Integrity
Speak with Good Purpose
Commitment
Flexibility
Failure Leads to Success
This is it
Ownership
Balance

What we talked about in class does match up with the "Citizen of the Month" qualities. We talked about commitment and fulfilling your duty as a citizen. In a way, this fits in with ownership. Taking charge of your duties by fulfilling your responsibilities. Things, such as speak with good purpose and flexibility would make our citizens and our society more ideal but I guess we shouldn't expect too much at once.

Discouraged from attention

"Everywhere I went people told me that they were deeply worried about the future of democracy. The felt alianted from both the electoral process, and the culture wars and that were grouping about for plain language in which to express their discontent"

Is this why we don't "pay attention"? Have we become so disconnected that we no longer understand what is going on around us? Is it possible to understand the modern world of politics. I think this is why a lot of people don't participate or care about the government as much any more; it's simply because they don't understand. I have to say, I feel their pain. It's like when I sometimes pick up an abandon paper at breakfast and start reading the front page articles. They would make so much more sense if I had a better grasp on what was going on. It's really hard to do something like pick up a newspaper or vote in an election and really understand what is going on and what is being said when you have been neglectful for so long.

In the case of politics I think a lot of people would like to blame all the red tape, the bureaucracy, and the politics of the status quo instead of themselves. However, I don't think it's fair to blame it on the system. Politics have always been complicated and controversial and people still managed to get a grasp on what was going on and participate in government and community affairs.

Maybe we're just not as ambitious. Or maybe we've just gotten lazy.

The Winky Smiley Face vs Japan

After reading Bellah's article I can't help to wonder how distracted we truly are. I couldn't help to wonder about that this weekend.


There is distraction in the sense I had a really hard time getting anything done this weekend. Everything else just seemed to much more interesting than my French homework. That might just be procrastination.

Then there's distraction in the sense of just not really paying attention. Like millions of others around the world, I've been keeping my eyes on the headlines on Japan. I'm watching but I'm not doing anything. Not even talking about it with my friends. Instead we spent a long lunch on Sunday talking about the implications and the usage of the winky smiley face on Facebook chat. Don't get me wrong, it was a fun conversation but can it be used to exemplify how distracted we really are?

Families

I loved the points Bellah makes about families, about the importance of them and the ambiguity as well.

Being the daughter of a social worker who works in family social services (as well has being a social work major myself), I've been raised on the importance of relying on your family, being there for your family, and, just like Bellah talks about, eating with them. I think he was spot on when he said attentive families breed attentive children. It goes right back to de Tocqueville and the development of habits. If we form good habits of attention in our families we can not only improve our private lives (such as in marriages) but also our public lives (i.e. volunteering and joining organizations).

This class may be called "democratic vistas" but I think the underlying theme of the class may truly be "get involved and stay involved". De Tocqueville presented this in a very formal manner based in our government and Bellah and Putman have kind of joined forces to advocate for personalized involvement. By personalized involvement I mean finding an association you can be passionate about and that inserts you if governmental affairs isn't your cup of tea.

Circling back to the idea Bellah presents on families (I know, this is very disorganized and I feel like most of my blog posts are. I should work on that but I'm just so focused on getting my thoughts down before they vanish), I was able to connect his claim that creating "normal standard" for families is a historical mistake to one of my other classes.

Currently, I'm enrolled in Courtly Love in the Middle Ages and last week one of our readings had to do with day to day life in medieval times. One section the book talked about focused specifically on the ambiguity of "families" at the time. Medieval France didn't even have a real name for what we think of as family (which, in the case of my history textbook was blood relatives who live with you). They didn't have name because the word they used, familia, refereed to everybody who lived in that household; blood relations and hired help alike. To make things even more complicated, children, especially boys, rarely lived with their real parents. They often went to live with the maternal uncles or religious institutions (usually by the time they were 8) to receive their education. I think this goes to show us that it's awfully hard to have a standard now when at any point of time in history there wasn't one to be had.

Response to Putnam

Mark Chaves from the sociology department at the University of Arizona spends most of his article "Are We 'Bowling Alone'--and Does it Matter" agreeing with Putman but he does so in a rather roundabout way.

He acknowledges the fact that the numbers do show a decline in civic engagement over the years. However, he says it's more of a shift than a decline. He says to look at examples like churches. They're official membership is in decline but the number of people who par take in activities such as small groups have increased.

He primarily blames the shift in civic engagement primarily on a shift in generations. Today's youth simply aren't involved enough. Without this development of habit at an early age (yay de Tocquevielle!, they are less likely to become engaged in civic activities as adults.

Chaves other reasons civic engagement has declined or shifted: television watching, suburbanization and pressures of time and money. He never fully explains TV as the culprit but we can only guess: TV stops people from getting out and doing stuff. Suburbanization creates commuting time which prevents people from being involved in activities they may be interested in. Pressures of time and money doesn't really need to be explained. We simply are overcome by the need to work and earn a living that things such as volunteering (and sleeping and eating if you're talking to a college student)are the first "extras" to go.

All together, between Putman and Chaves, these articles made me want to get up and do something. I was really active and involved in several volunteer organizations in high school but since coming to college I haven't find my "niche" and these articles made me want to get out and find it quick. I miss being involved.

One more interesting comment Putman made that Chaves points out, is that evidence alone is not enough. Just like we discussed in class on Monday, alone, individuals are weak but associations together are strong. One piece of evidence is find and dandy and a fun trivia fact, but in order to prove a point you need a whole array of interconnected pieces of evidence.

Paper idea

I've been trying to work through some ideas for the paper and this is what I have so far.
De Tocqueville- An outsider looking in. Was looking for the reasons for success so he could pass his findings onto the French.

De Tocqueville was interested in analyzing the ways and reasons for democracy's success in America. His umbrella reasons boil down to laws, mores and habits. Americans have the habit and the belief of working for their own good. Therefore democracy relies on self-interest in the government.

Relating self-interest to the volunteer associations
People join associations because of something that they are motivated by or feel strongly about. Associations work to spread awareness. The most serious associations work to spread awareness in order to make a change. The changes they propose are presented to the government. By lobbying they take an active role in influencing their government to make changes for their personal interest. Ex: The American Colonization Society worked to "relocate" freed slaves to what is now Liberia. The association secured government funding to run the program. Members of the society were mostly citizens who were worried about the repercussions of having free slaves living in America.

I also really want to talk about America's ability to make "retrievable mistakes" but I need to think a little more about integrating that with self interest. Perhaps "mistakes" want to be fixed when the interests of the people change.

America's awkward place

Tonight I went to the PAC's panel discussion on the revolts in the Arab world. For a while there it was more like I was sitting in AmCon again. One of the professors (I wish I knew what her name was) talked a lot about how democracy is playing a role in the protests and how its going to pan out in the next several years as the revolted countries try to implement a democratic system. One of her last points, and the one I think stands out the most, was her comment on how America has put it's self in a very awkward place. On one hand they want to encourage democracy in other countries, but at the same time they need to stay out in order to let the country develop democracy by it's own standards. De Tocqueville would describe it as allowing the people of the country to develop self interest in their government. America can't come in and set up the government because they would never be able to cater to the needs of the country as they see it. On the other hand, if America doesn't step in and help move the Arab world towards democracy, its almost like we're turning our back on democracy.

I wonder how de Tocqueville would comment on America's position. One of the goals for writing his book was to demonstrate to the French people why and how democracy worked in America but he also pleads the case for self interest in the government. Perhaps he intended his book to be more of a personal commentary than a guide.

Another post on de Tocqueville and I can't come up with a title

"it is our inexperience of liberty in action which leads us to regard freedom of association as no more than a right to make war on the government"

This is an idea we kind of talked about in class. It's one of the reasons democracy was able to take root in America; we were already use to the idea of freedom of association. It's something that is now (and was then) so natural to us (even de Tocqueville described it as a "natural right")that we don't even think about using it as a tool of destruction. We get together and talk about our politics and laws and we needs to be changed and what doesn't and through our democratic system make those changes that we feel need to be made. Because in America it's such an everyday happening, you don't realize that other people in the world use it to take down their government, not aid it along in it's natural process. These past few weeks in the Middle East and northern Africa could be no better example of this and I'm very intereseted to see what happens later down the road in these countries.

I wonder what de Tocqueville would have to say about all of it.

A new perspective?

In class today we unanimously decided that de Tocqueville was writing down his ideas primarily for the French audience. While I still agree with that statement I would like to add something we didn't talk about in class.

I think Democracy in America, in today's world, is better received by American audiences. In a way he takes us back to our roots, our point of departure if you will, and gives us a reminder about what this country was founded on. Not only does he give us this reminder of where we came from, but his foreign perspective allows us to understand ourselves in a new light. His analysis on America makes us say things like "oh yea, of course" or "yes, that's why democracy works here" that we normally wouldn't say. It's kind of like when someone asks you to tell them what your best attribute is. It's really hard to answer because you can't analyze yourself from the outside perspective. It's refreshing to hear both the pros and the cons an foreign observer gives on the idea of American democracy.

Why America worked according to de Tocqueville

First off, I would like to say that although de Tocqueville can be a bit heavy to read, I am really enjoying it. What I love most about his writing is the way he uses his French background to make his examples clear. Last semester the focus of my French 231 class was on comparing French and American society so reading de Tocqueville is very meaningful to me and my knowledge from last semester is making his ideas make a lot more sense.

What I was most struck by in this reading were the reasons he gave for democracy's success in the colonies. I think what he was trying to say was that freedom is what lead to the freedom of America. Officially, the King of England was in charge of the colonies. As de Tocqueville pointed out, the king had no idea what was going on here. Just for a brief example, states were formed backwards from the way they were supposed to. The freedom the settlers had to reject aristocracy in America gave them the foundation to shake off the artistrocracy that controlled them from thousands of miles away.

I remember writing about a similiar idea in an earlier blog post. When we were studying the Declaration to Independence one of our readings made a point of saying the colonies upset about the small (compared to the ones in England) amount of taxes they had to pay so they decided to break away from England (of course it was much more complex than that but that's the idea in a nutshell). They weren't used to be being governed anymore and that's the way they liked it.

Up, up and away!

It's so different reading Cullen now after we've read all the articles and had all those discussions on the 2nd Great Awakening. Even in places he never explicitly talks about the movement we can see sings of it and gain better understanding of other historical events now that we understand more about it. I know for me it was easier to understand how the home-town hero, rough and rugged Andrew Jackson was elected into office in 1824. He was in the public eye and in office right around the time the 2nd Great Awakening was getting under way with "common people" all over the country rising up to to things "common people" had never done before. To think about it in this sense is really quiet amazing. Today we think of America as a place where "anyone can make it" but before the 2nd Great Awakening this wasn't always true. It was the educated and the wealthy who were able to take charge of America and make a difference.

Another point of Cullen's I was able to better understand from our previous discussions was upward mobility. We know from earlier that the 2nd Great Awakening really got underway because people were tired of the rigid and melancholic religious doctrines. I can't say I blame them. Not only is it difficult to listen to someone, such as the Puritans,say that no matter what you do your fate is set and you have no choice in religion. Not is it difficult to accept, its even more so when you realize it doesn't fit in with the young America's ideas of freedom, democracy and upward mobility. It's impossible to live in the paradox the two present and is perfectly clear why the 2nd Great Awakening took off when it did and how the faces of these movements changed from what America was used to in the past.

Round and round and round we go

Reading "The Democracy of Christianity and the Character of American Politics" I was able to make a LOT of connections to so many other things we've studied in AmCon and other subjects I've had the opportunity to study. Thinking about this article in relation to other subjects I've studied, I was struck my the cyclic nature of so many different areas. We're told we study history so we "don't repeat the past" but when you look at it, we repeat the past all the time.

In Hatch's article we see this cycle of dissidents wanting to break away from the restrictive complexities of religion to simplify their spirituality and from those who break away we have more groups who break away from that. It seems almost never ending. Amy Johnson Fryholm spoke a bit about this during her lecture on apocalypticism and the differences in interpretations amongst those stories.

What was new to me in this whole ideal of cycles was how democracy and religious reforms where so interconnected. Its almost too difficult to see which came first. It makes perfect sense to me. If you have a whole nation of people with this intoxicating and invigorating energy its inevitable its going to spill over into other areas of life. Its kind of like when we talked about the abolitionists paving the way for women's rights. The nation rallied together and once they settled the issue (or started to) of slavery they had all this bundled up energy and motivation to do something else; so on it was to women's rights. It would be very interesting to see how else "energy" flows through American society. Can we link the energy and the movement all the way from the days of the American Revolution to today?

Amy Fryholm

To me, the most important idea in eading "Rapture Culture" was the idea of find a religion that "feels right" to you. As Amy pointed out countless number of times in her article, people get so caught up in their own views that they fail to see how similar the variations in religions ideas truly are. The example that struck me the most was when she was talking about the woman, Sarah. I think Sarah's narrative about her views vs the views of her parents and grandparents illustrates the "comfort" religion should bring. Religion is not about whose "right" or whose "wrong" its about what brings peace into your life.

I've never read the series Left Behind but from what I can infer from Amy's article is they push this "comfort" factor. We can see what religion they are coming from and what the creators and the authors believe, but they just want to find a way to integrate salvation and living a godly life into America culture. Amy points out that on their website they never specify a particular church for readers to attend, but one that places its foundation within the Bible.

Clearly, the creators of left behind have been successful. Like I mentioned earlier, I have never read the series, but I was familiar with it and their ideas before reading Amy's article.

Although our readings were pretty clear and easy to interpret, I feel as though they left me with more questions than answers.
Clearly women played a huge (but quiet) role in revivalism. What's not so clear to me is why. As we learned last semester, women, particularly in the church, didn't have much power. Especially in a widespread movement such as this one. Not only did women not have much power in society, they were seen as (in a way) secondary members to churches to their husbands. It was the men who ran the services, studies and the ones who were allowed to explore religion in a collective way. Women were expected to sit and listen. If they were denied participation, why were they so interested in religion and eager to become members of churches. It doesn't makes much sense to me. It's like giving a kid a basked of Halloween candy and saying they're not allowed to eat it. Why would any kid enjoy a Halloween like this?


My initial reaction to Mary Ryan's article was "who cares about this town?" and my second reaction was "wow, she had some amazing data to work with". What I found curious was the very specific years she gives as "revival periods". Johnson said in his history book that the 2nd Great Awakening has not clear start and end. So how did Ryan nail down such specific dates? What was it about these particular years (especially because they were so close together in time yet separate periods in her article) that made them revival-ing?

Brooks on Whitman

I did what DeAne suggested and read Whitman's essay "as fast as I could". She was absolutely right. I didn't take in a word of it (but I got through it). I went back and read Brooks’ commentary on the essay and although I still have to go back over Whiteman's original essay, I am starting to see some themes develop which are easy to relate to class.

My first AmCon "ah ha!" moment came at the end of Brooks’ commentary. He says "the nation could not readily communicate its mission, either to the world or to itself." This demonstrates what we spent the whole semester discussing and discovering. We can't easily define who we are or what we stand for as Americans. As we well know, concepts such as freedom, the American Dream, and democracy change with time, place and people. It’s amazing to think a powerful, enthusiastic country such as the United States of America can’t even really describe itself.

Looking back over Brooks’ commentary an earlier statement stood out after I thought about our inability to describe ourselves as a nation. He says “it is misleading to think one can arrive at a single, consistent judgment about the United States (or perhaps about any society).” Perhaps this is the reason we cannot describe ourselves easily. Too often we look for a single answer but in reality, there isn’t. Like we’ve discussed and discovered earlier, things change depending on the time, place and the people. The best thing we can do is adapt, keep an open mind and understand the changing nature of this country and its visions.