Fredrick Douglas "America's brighter future"

This celebration also marks the beginning of another year of your national life; and reminds you that the Republic of America is now 76 years old. I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. I repeat, I am glad this is so. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. The eye of the reformer is met with angry flashes, portending disastrous times; but his heart may well beat lighter at the thought that America is young, and that she is still in the impressible stage of her existence.
-Fredrick Douglas

I really enjoyed this passage in Fredrick Douglas' speech. The way he uses the storm to portray his message was really interesting and effective. I also like how he explained that America was still young, and has much potential for its future. That is a great way to reach the audience, and it helps them to listen and want to change for the better.

Dialogue

Sarah and I wrote out a short script which we felt might happen the following historical persons and author meet up to discuss freedom. They have varying different views on freedom and I feel like we left off the discussion at a part in which it could have become pretty heated. They time in which they lived is very different and the "norm" point of view society had about freedom also was extremely different.    

Historical Persons/Author:

Anne Hutchinson

Thomas Jefferson

Ronald Takaki

Overall question:

Is it possible for Americans to exert their freedoms without suppressing the freedoms of minorities?

Dialogue:

Takaki: Throughout history, the white majority has oppressed minorities from personal freedoms in order to pursue their freedoms to the fullest extent they believed possible.

Anne Hutchinson: To further this point, it was not solely based on race. Many women were oppressed of these freedoms because men viewed women as inferior.

Thomas Jefferson: It was necessary at the time for the white majority to suppress the minorities and women because the country was not fully stabilized. It is not that I wanted to fully oppress the minorities and women, for example, I have stated that Native Americans and whites are both “Americans, born in the same land,” and hopefully we will achieve the ability to have good relations in the future.

Takaki: This was not your intent because in my research, I have discovered that you wanted to “encourage them to abandon hunting and turn to agriculture”, put them in financial ruin, and remove them from the borders of civilized society.

Anne Hutchinson: The white man’s stupidity in oppressing others from their freedoms can also be exemplified in my case because I was viewed as a threat to the religious hierarchy in Boston and as a threat, I was subsequently forced to leave Boston. So therefore, who has the right to determine who is eligible for the same freedoms?

Structure of Stolaf Buildings

After our discussion yesterday on the buildings of St. Olaf I thought about it more when walking around campus. The idea that the St. Olaf ideals of spirit, mind and body come together in the structure of the buildings on campus is true I think in some buildings but not in others. I was analyzing Skoglund/ Tostrud and when I thought about it, yes there are aspects of all three. Body: the athletics and varsity, club and intermural. Mind: Classes held for PE. Spirit: Opening ceremonies and other events like Christmas Concert. When I went down there yesterday though, I thought about the fact that these aspects together are possibly just for functional reasons rather than a seriously planned reason. The largest space is needed for the concert and opening ceremonies. That’s why the large gym is used. I think that these may have come together for function not as a result of major planning. It is nice and convenient I think and it does make a unique dynamic to the location but I feel like it may not have had a lot of intention. 

Declaration Inspiration

I found the Declaration of Independence to be a very useful dense fact. It seems like such a key focus for Americans today when reflecting back on our country’s foundations. It is hard to think about the Revolutionary War, without thinking about this important document to our nation’s history. The words were very carefully planned, which makes this document even more useful and memorable for The United States.

When all the reviewing happened the amount of time and effort put into these seemingly minor changes sticks out the most. When looking at original drafts and then comparing it to the final known Declaration, it was impressive to see how those changes affected the feel of the paper. A lot were unimportant to me today, like the lists of specific grievances, but the overall idea still has its effect.

The amount of reviewing put into this document inspired me to do so with my own paper. Instead of simply writing it and reviewing it for grammar and minor details, I wrote out a first draft, printed it for reference but then completely changed up most parts for the second writing of my paper. Although not nearly as impressive as the Declaration naturally, I still feel like the same reviewing techniques were very helpful. I hope that this inspiration from the Declaration in terms of writing and editing is not brief!

Who's Freedom?- Declaration of Independence

In class we discussed why or why not the concept of slavery was mentioned in the Declaration of Independence.  When we look at it from our point of view today, most I feel would agree that slavery is direct violation of people’s freedom. But it was an accepted norm during the writings of the Declaration. Although I feel most people in the back of their minds understood slavery to be “wrong”, there were major economic reasons in keeping slavery in the British New World.  The slavery problem was another idea to tackle at a later time.

 The bigger problem addressed by the Declaration was the lack of freedom by Britain. If the colonists wanted freedom from Britain they were going to get into a fight. In that fight they needed all the man power they had, which meant slave owners and non-slave owners had to work together in defeating the British. It was a tactical reason why the concept of slavery was not addressed in this letter to Britain. Although it seems extremely hypocritical today, the Declaration was used to gain freedom from Britain, while freedom for all people would have to be put aside until afterword.

Another Tea Party Dense Fact

I found this picture that is used on T-shirts, buttons, bumper stickers, etc. This picture represents the tea party movement, obviously, as the tea bag. The other parties are represented as the Kool-Aid. Aid has the double meaning of representing the social programs currently in action in the United States as well as the drink name. It seems to me that the major point that is trying to be emphasized is the difference between tea and Kool-Aid. Mostly, how the tea party especially differentiates itself from the GOP. The use of this term is becoming more popular in news accounts, etc.

It will be interesting to see how similar or different the motives and actions of the GOP and the Tea Party representatives really are.

Dense Facts.... My current understanding

I am still confused by the concept of a dense fact, and have pretty much figured out the message that I will always be trying to adjust what my take is on a dense fact. 

 Currently, my idea of a dense fact is that it can be any sort of tangible object, person, place or event, or an intangible idea, theme, feeling, emotion, etc. Basically it must be something which can be used to understand a topic on a different scale. It is like a stepping stone in order to gain more knowledge on a concept as a whole.

I think that this stepping stone can be used to analyze something else in more detail, (going deeper into a subject) or can be used to understand a much bigger concept. So basically the dense fact can be a small idea, object, concept, etc. used to understand a much broader topic, or a large dense fact used to get understanding of a very small and specific topic.

 In general the dense facts are used to analyze from various points of view. The dense facts are those points of view. At least, as of now, this is my understanding of the term "dense fact".