Midterm

I thought that the midterms today went very well.I liked the idea of how we picked our order and the coin toss was a nice twist.It seemed like everyone was a bit nervous but once they got up there everyone did a great job.The political group was one of my favorites with Arnold Schwarzenegger's accent.The blog groups organized their information in different ways to present which was also well done.Everyone made valid points on their topic and had done research and was able to inform the class thoroughly.

Liberty to Speak Out About Food

“In times of great change the power shifts from all things big and goes back to the small. The power waivers in that which has become conglomerated, that which was built upon the old. Power reverts back to the individual. All truth can then only be found with the individual. Such it is in this time of greatest change in all history.” -Pila of Hawaii

One’s liberty to exercise freedom of speech is only as powerful as those who put it into use. Many food industries will not exercise this use of freedom of speech because they want to leave the American Population in the dark. That is why we, as a country, must speak out against putting these chemicals and food-like substances in our mouths.

Barbara Kowalcyk has devoted herself to passing “Kevin’s Law”, a law giving the USDA the ability and power to shut down plants that repeatedly produce meat containing E-coli and other deadly pathogens. After her 2-year-old son died from eating a hamburger that was tainted with E-coli, this became her life long mission. Kevin’s Law has yet to pass because the beef industry has such tight control of Congress. Only through people like Barbara who speak out against large industries, are we using our liberty of freedom of speech and changing the world the way we want it to be changed.

As a nation, we are naïve and are taking advantage of our Freedom of Speech rights. It seems that we do not care about the health and diet of our country. We as a nation must exercise our freedom of speech in order to see change. We need to know what is going into our foods, and only then will we stop putting the chemically produced, pesticide filled garbage in our mouths.

Here is a link to an article about Kevin's Law.

If only looking away could make things better...

Freedom of speech... Use it, or lose it.

The freedoms afforded us have been achieved through the blood, sweat and tears of those persons with restless and eager spirit, those impatient and those unwilling to settle for less, those disrespectful and arrogant souls who believe they are worth more than what they are currently getting, those who don’t care what you think… as long as what you think is that they are only here to serve you; to suffer all of their days so that you may prosper while they struggle. Those people have my respect because they know what they are fighting for. They are awake and involved and they are aware that waiting patiently and quietly for equality will get them nowhere. Shock and awe… Sometimes it takes a bit of shaking things up in order to bring about change. Just because we’re real good at telling our children to be fair and share, doesn’t make up for the real example we’re setting through both our actions and our inaction.
I see the trouble our country is in, hell… the trouble our world is in. We didn’t get here overnight and we won’t recover anytime soon.
I have not been sheltered from the troubles that have afflicted our world and even so, I have never been more concerned than I am now. My biggest concern is that our response time, in regards to the emergency outreach to those who need our help the most, is pathetic. We go about our lives, happy in the thought that we have been unscathed; as we watch our neighbors lose their jobs to outsourcing and their homes to greedy bankers and their lives to healthcare that is solely in it for an unseemly-profit. Our country is in trouble and we may just be saved long enough to be sacrificed last. I can hear the cries now… why doesn’t anyone care? How can they watch me suffer and do nothing to help?
I have always found it a curious thing, how adults are so good at telling children about the importance of treating others well. Even when I was a child, I saw the hypocrisy in what adults say versus what they do/and do not do. It is hard for me to believe that any child is oblivious to that double standard, and that is even more disheartening because without a decent example to lead them, there is little reason to expect that they will be any different.
I say this in the spirit of embracing my right to freedom of speech, and in the hope that if it doesn’t lend itself to change, that it just pisses you off.

"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."
-- William O. Douglas, Former United States Supreme Court Associate Justice

Below is a copy of a blog that I found extremely interesting that seemed to really address the controversies that surround Freedom of Speech. A link to the actual blog and orginal article is at the bottom of this blog.

September 28, 2009
Another Controversy at Tufts: Racism or Free Speech?
Earlier this year I wrote about an incident at Tufts University in which a drunk White student used racial slurs in harassing a group of Korean American students. As Inside Higher Education reports, Tufts is now dealing with a new controversy regarding its Asian American students, but this time it involves two groups of Asian Americans on opposite sides:



Two weeks ago, In-Goo Kwak, a freshman studying international relations and an immigrant from South Korea, put up a series of posters around his dormitory parodying the campaign poster of Alice Pang, another freshman of Asian descent who was running for the Tufts Community Union Senate. Kwak was not actually running for a student government position, but posted the parody next to Pang’s at the encouragement of his dorm mates. who thought he was right to poke fun at the air of political correctness he perceived on the campus.

Pang’s poster included the campaign slogan, “small person, big ideas,” with the exclamation “hurrah!” next to her portrait. Kwak’s parody poster looks strikingly similar in design to Pang’s and includes the slogan “squinty eyes, big vision.” Next to Kwak’s portrait is the word “kimchi!” — a traditional Korean dish. Additionally, where Pang’s poster read “vote on Thursday,” Kwak’s said, “Prease vote me! I work reary hard!” in deliberately broken English. . . .

Linell Yugawa [Director of Tufts' Asian American Center] sent an e-mail to the entire Tufts community denouncing Kwak’s parody. . . .

“Many Asian/Asian Americans and individuals of other racial backgrounds have been angered, hurt, and offended by these posters,” Yugawa wrote . . . “The posters not only mocked an authorized campaign poster, but used negative and racist stereotypes that correlate with the discrimination and dehumanization of Asians. These posters go beyond affecting one individual or group, but offend all who have an understanding of how racist stereotypes impact our lives.

“Some may argue that we need to ‘lighten up’ and/or ‘reclaim’ the stereotypes and words that have harmed us and our communities. While it is one thing to mutually engage in this type of conversation, it is another to post stereotypical and racist language that is open to interpretation and hurtful to many.”

There seems to be a few different issues here. According to Kwak (the student who put up the parody poster), the main issue here is freedom of speech and his right to criticize what he perceives to be political correctness gone overboard. My response is, yes he has the freedom to criticize what he perceives to be political correctness. But along with that, other students have the same freedom to denounce him as ignorant and I agree with those criticisms against Kwak.

It is a tricky situation in that yes, to a certain degree, one strategy for us as Asian Americans to fight back against the prejudice and discrimination that we’ve experienced through the years is to appropriate the stereotypes and reclaim the derogatory slurs that have been used against us and to turn them around for our own purposes. Other cultural minorities groups have been successful in doing this, such as Mexican Americans reclaiming the term “Chicano” and gay Americans reclaiming the term “queer.”

However, this does not mean that Asian Americans should start going around spouting stereotypes left and right. Such an effort to reclaim derogatory slurs needs to be focused, coordinated, and consensual. Unfortunately, Kwak’s effort in the form of his parody poster were none of those.

Instead, as Director Yugawa noted, his effort made fun of another Asian American student and used offensive stereotypes that rekindled very painful memories for many Asian Americans. Instead of uniting other Asian Americans as allies in the fight against anti-Asian racism, he alienated them.

The lesson here is that Asian Americans have a right to criticize what they believe to be political correctness and even to try to reclaim offensive historical caricatures. But in the process of doing so, if they use demeaning stereotypes against other Asian Americans, they should be prepared to accept the criticisms and denouncements that will inevitably follow. Ultimately, freedom of speech goes both ways


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The Pursuit of Happiness

The don't ask don't tell policy takes away our soilders rights to speak out and be honest.The Bill of rights gives us the freedom of speech yet our men and women in the army who are serving our country have gotton that right taken away from them.Personally I'm not sure how happiness can be reached if we are not able to be honest with those close to us.How can you pursue happiness when you are asked to to avoid the truth and hide yourself? When one of your most valuable right such as your freedom of speech is taken away, that can only further you from happiness.

Freedom to Speak About Food?

What does freedom of speech entitle? It gives people the right to speak about facts and their beliefs. Many say that knowledge is power. If one has the right to speak freely about what they know, should they? In the documentary, "Food Inc.", people go behind the curtain and find out more about what they are consuming whether they know it or not. Many people in the meat and dairy industries have not been able to speak out about the chemicals, pesticides, and harsh treatment of the animals they work with and slaughter. Freedom of speech must be put in use if it is to remain one of our liberties. If one has the liberty to better society and inform their fellow citizens of what is being put into their food that may be causing their body and health harm, I believe that it is their job to do so.

Here is information from PBS about secrets food companies may not be telling us.