The META-Post: Back to the Beginning

Meta-, it comes from the Greek preposition or prefix "μετά" (meta-) meaning "in the midst of, in common with, by means of, in pursuit or quest of". Today it is defined as"occurring later than or in succession to" or "later or more highly organized or specialized form of". Therefore this post is a post that is a later thought about posting, more specifically the evolution in my blogging. It is a post about the way I have changed as a blogger, which is another definition of meta-, like in metamorphosis. 


My blogging life began with a post about a connection I noticed about an amusement park being named Six Flags Great America and patriotism. Although it had little to do with significant happenings in America and I may have read a little too into it, it was very relate-able and understandable. This theme continues in many of my other blogs. While many of my blogs relate to my own life or the lives of fellow students pretty well they seem to have little connection to significant events in American history. One of the best examples of this would be a post entitled "Enjoy it While it Lasts", it begins with a poem I wrote about myself and then it goes on to talk about "a mantra that parents have often drilled into the children of America". The post is very relate-able but it lacks significant connection to a greater event.


Then, little by little my posts begin to include some sort of statistic or video. Unfortunately though, while these statistics and videos are related to some sort of happening or trend in America they are not related to anything specifically significant. However the real problem is that sometimes these videos or statistics are not different enough from the point I try to make that it doesn't make any sort of legitimate connection. 


Since the posts that were related to something other than my own life were sparing the change in my blogging nature is very evident. Beginning with the post titled "An American Snowball", my blogging began to address more specific happenings in America and relate those stories to my own life. The change was due to a conference with my teacher, Mr. Bolos, in which he told me about needing to relate my personal life to larger happenings in American history.For example in "An American Snowball", I related Herman Cain's errors to the fundamental attribution error that most Americans have and the difficulty of accepting responsibility for one's actions.  These blogs are stronger because of the connection they make between the life of an average American to a event or news story.

Ever since I made a change in my style of blogging, the blogs have been stronger but some of them still went back to the old ways, like a blog I wrote titled, "Sheep". But, "Sheep" was another milestone in my blogging because of my decision to add questions to the end of my blog in attempts to encourage discussion, another suggestion made by Mr. Bolos. Unfortunately I never really mastered the concept of an open ended question at the end of my blog until my very last post, but with the help of my teacher Mr. O'Connor. However, for the most part the blogs have been getting better and I honestly feel like they will continue to get better. I think this because of the last blog I wrote titled "Freedom vs. Liberty", which is the strongest of the blogs that I have done this semester. It is the strongest blog because of its analysis of the words freedom and liberty, the connection it makes to class room terminology, the connection it makes to the immigration in America, and the open ended question which allows for further discussion.

In the beginning my blogs struggled to be interesting and connected to American history or happenings however with guidance from my teachers and a different understanding of what blogging really was my posts have gotten better. They aren't superb but now the meet expectations. For a superb blog I think I really must  be interested in the topic, as I was while writing "Freedom vs. Liberty", and I must remember that blogging is taking something that interests me and relate it to an American theme and my own life in a unique and interesting way. For the future I think I need to work on finding a way to uniquely connect things and to find topics that I am actually interested in.

Freedom Vs. Liberty

Today in class we were looking at a poem by Robert Hayden called "Fredrick Douglass". The first line of this poem is:

"When it is finally ours, this freedom, this liberty, this beautiful "

After reading this line our class got into a discussion about the difference between freedom and liberty. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines freedom and liberty as "the quality or state of being free". However in class I realized that even though they are synonyms they are really different. In my opinion it is very similar to the "big 'T' Truth" and "little 't' truth" that we often talk about in American Studies. We defined Truth as the objective, verifiable, scientific truth and truth as the emotional, or spiritual truth.

To me freedom is the objective, verifiable, and scientific aspect of being free. For example to be physically released from jail is freedom, or a piece of legislation that frees enslaved people is freedom not liberty. Freedom comes from the word free and the suffix -dom, free meaning what it does and "-dom" meaning "state or fact of being", means that freedom is being free in a physical way or being free by a fact. 

On the other hand, liberty is the freedom of mind and being able to feel, think, and speak freely. It is not the ability to do so granted by legislation or a superior power. It is the ability to feel, think, and speak freely, because your mind or spirit is free. Liberty is to be mentally free and to be able to control yourself and whatever you do. Liberty comes from the Latin word "libertatem" meaning "condition of a freeman". Liberty is being free spiritually because a freeman is factually freed already (freedom) and once that freeman can emotionally feel free then he is liberated. 
Also I believe liberty is being spiritually free because the Statue of Liberty is a symbol of the spiritual freedom that America offers for immigrants from all over the world. Most of these immigrants were factually free and not enslaved by any sort of legislation in their homelands. However they came to America to experience liberty, the ability to be spiritually free. They wanted to feel free, not just to be factually free. 

Which of these is more important to you? 
Freedom or Liberty 

Sheep

In American Studies we looked at a Yale commencement speech by William Deresiewicz. In this speech he made a comment on the nature of the students he saw around him. "what I saw around me were great kids who had been trained to be world-class hoop jumpers. Any goal you set them, they could achieve. Any test you gave them, they could pass with flying colors. They were, as one of them put it herself, 'excellent sheep'".
So then my American studies teachers asked our class, "what types of people within our society are the sheeps?".

Sheep has two applicaple definitions of many when defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary. A sheep is either "a timid defenseless creature or a timid docile person; especially one easily influenced or led". Niether definition is a particularly positive one.
Using Deresiewicz's description of these "sheep" and pairing it with the Merriam-Webster definition I came to the conclusion that the sheep are the people that are typically in the higher level classes in our school.
I say this because if a sheep is someone that is "easily influenced or led", then those who are in higher level classes or strive to succeed within the system are the sheep. These types of people do whatever they can in order to succeed. They do not rebel, or question authority because they hope to succeed. These are the people that end up dictating the course of America, those in higher level classes end up getting further in our society.
       If those people are the sheep and are "easily influenced or led", then what does that mean for America? Why is our system set up to reward those who follow instruction and do not act for themselves?

Everything but love

In class we’ve been talking about slavery in the United States and I am learning how much I don’t know about slavery. I have learned about slavery many times in the past years and still I have been surprised by different facts and figures. But nevertheless I still thought that racism and segregation is behind us. Until I read an article I found on my homepage, Kentucky church bans interracial marriage. This article was talking about how a church in Kentucky banned mixed-race marriages and how people in America still have racist feelings and do not believe in equality.

            A more broadcasted issue is the debate about same sex marriages. The similarity between these two subjects is the prejudices people hold towards these couplings and people’s need to intervene with the love between two people. Americans like to control everything including other people’s lives. They feel that others should be just like them. But most importantly, same sex couplings and mixed-race marriages interfered with what was the typical idea of the perfect American family. The idea of radical change towards an unknown frightens people and they feel the need to fix it. Mixed-race couples and homosexual marriages was not the accepted norm and went against the idea of a perfect family. Americans feel the need to uphold this image and let this image destroy the happiness of others.

            In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s mixed-race marriages slowly became legal, one state at a time. Until the Loving v. Virginia case which ruled that miscegenation laws were unconstitutional. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, states are slowly legalizing same sex marriages and even allowing citizens of other states to be legally married in those states and granting state-level spousal rights to these homosexual couples. Just like the mixed-race couples America is gradually becoming more accepting of homosexual couples and little by little the “ideal American family” is being altered to fit the large range of diversity within America.

            Although Americans are controlling and they feel the need to control the lives of others in order for them to fit the norm, they eventually accept differences. The acceptance of these differences is really what makes America, America. Yes there have been mistakes made but slowly they are being corrected so that all may be welcome and can enjoy the freedom that each human being is entitled to. Wrongs are corrected and differences are accepted and the diversity and eventual acceptance of it is what makes Americans unique.