Contradictory Speech on Campuses

A few minutes ago, I viewed several photos of colleges students messing around and taking inappropriate and offensive photos toward African Americans. Although these photos were overwhelming and shocking, I did not find them to be unlawful or unconstitutional. I believe that this behavior is very inappropriate, and these kids should feel terrible for their actions, however, college students can make their own decisions. They should not be punished by the school or by the government, as these punishments will come down the road when job opportunities are shot down due to their prior decisions. Bad decisions will almost always come back to haunt you, and it is no ones place to punish college students, for only they can punish themselves.

I went to the University of Miami OH's website to check out their speech code policies. What I saw was almost exactly as I expected. Of course they listed all of their violations and the corresponding punishments for them. One of the things that shocked me was how liberal it was. I then looked at University of Texas at Austin, and noticed that their policies were almost identical. This brought me to the conclusion that almost all universities will be liberal and mainly hands off for students speech. Both schools I looked at would have responded to the offensive party in the following way: Neither would have gone out of their way to stop it, however if caught, the kids could have been charged with a variety of things, such as disturbing the peace.

Although schools have been frowned upon for some of their deicsions, because of the difficulty of the situation they have been doing a good job.

Students Right To Free Speech

This is one of those topics where it is much too hard to discuss. The result on an issue is completely based on the seriousness of an issue. For example, the result of an issue concerning drug and sex reference, will result in a much more serious punishment than someone wearing an anti-war bracelet to school. I believe that the punishment should be almost entirely up to the school. Based on the schools policies and beliefs, they should be able to come up with a solution.

It's very tough for me to make connections to the outside world because whether I like it or not, Deerfield is a bubble. I have more or less been "protected" from the outside world. Although Deerfield is a fairly liberal school, many policies are strict because of the reputation and expectation or the school. I believe that overall, schools are a little too strict. This is merely a guess based on the stories we have read in class. I'll be honest here and say that my conclusion was because the majority of our classes decisions resulted in the school being unconstitutional, not the student.

Remembering 9/11

During my Issues class this week, we watched a documentary focusing on the firefighters and their role on 9/11. Immediately following the film, my teacher asked us a variety of questions. The one that struck me the most was, "What did we lose that day?" I responded: We lost much more that day than lives and buildings. We lost a sense of security with in the country, as well as a sense of integrity. Later I acknowledged that we lost our innocence as well. I listened very intently as the rest of my classmates shared their thoughts on the film. After taking in all of the facts, stories, pictures, and faces in the film, I realized how much 9/11 really did shift the way we view things. As a first or second grader, not much can disturb you, therefore 9/11 had little to no meaning to me. This film gave me multiple answers to why America runs the way it does.

The next portion of our task in remembering 9/11, was to look at several articles about the 10th anniversary. The first one that caught my eye, was a title that stated, "We've Taken the Fight to Al Qaeda." This is because it was the only title that had a direct statement toward the terrorist group. It was also one of the few that was not about America and its perseverance. This particular article, based around one of President Obama's radio addresses, talked mainly about the fight and near defeat of the responsible terrorist group. As opposed to warm hearted news such as, "hope" and "trust" by the American people, this was mostly about our victory in fighting evil. After all, doesn't the news excel off of negative and violent news stories?

As I stated earlier, the event of 9/11 when it happened didn't phase me at all. This is not a result of disrespect or carelessness in any way, it is simply due to my age and failure to see things in a mature way. In fact, I didn't realize the effects of 9/11 in a total scale until watching the film. Some things need to be experienced in a near virtual way in order to understand the true effect 9/11 had on everyone, both watching it live in New York, or on the TV at home. But now, after watching such a touching documentary, my knowledge of 9/11 has changed drasticallylly. Now understanding the way our government runs things is easier to comprehend. Also, the way my family lives is much more understandable. I have also noticed that in the past few days I tend not to argue with my parents when they say no to something expensive. Americas being in a tough time in largely in part of 9/11, and the effects can be seen not only nationally, but globally.