Andraya, Sam, Maggie 

ENGL 137H 

November 18, 2021 

Work Plan: History of a Public Controversy, Park51 

TED Talk Work Day Activity Summary 

Duties of Each Member: 

    Andraya- Research arguments of both sides, scribe, find images, work on script 

    Sam- Research topic related to religious tolerance, goal keeper, narrator, editing, work on script 

    Maggie- Research overall facts, find images, work on script, park ranger 

Timeline: 

• Nov 21 through Nov 28- Over Thanksgiving Break, Sam will finish “religious tolerance” part of script and Andraya and Maggie will revise script and find images/videos 
• Nov 29- Put together first half of video and review 
• Dec 1- Put together second half of video and review 

• Dec 3- Edit and review entire video 
• Dec 5- Finish and turn in rough draft 
• Dec 8 and 10- Clean everything up and double check all the work 
• Dec 10- Turn in final video 

Day 1: 

Our group discussed a range of topics including: 

• Controversial memes (format created by a Nazi) 
• Private business decisions (making a wedding cake for a queer couple) 
• Legal drinking age 

• Religious freedom 
• Hate speech 
• Sex education 
• Park 51 (near world trade center, people view it as disrespectful) 
• North Ireland still being a part of Great Britain 

Day 2: 

After discussing, we decided to pursue the Park51 controversy. The premise of our video will be taking this controversy and tie it to the idea of religious tolerance as a whole. We began researching by becoming knowledgeable and understanding of the topic and timeline of the controversy as a whole. Examples of articles we read are included below.  

Articles: 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/nov/07/ground-zero-park51-new-york 

https://www.factcheck.org/2010/08/questions-about-the-ground-zero-mosque/  

http://www.religioustolerance.org/mosque911a.htm 

https://tanenbaum.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Park51-Community-Center-Fact-Sheet-and-Timeline-Aug-2014.pdf 

Day 3: 

We used the information in the articles to explore the stasis questions. 

Conjecture— Is building an Islamic worship space close to the towers disrespectful to the victims? Is not allowing them to build Islamophobic?  

The victims of 9/11 and their families have every right to be upset and some are. Many of the arguments for Park51 have been on the grounds denying them the right to build is Islamophobic.  

Definition— What is the difference between a cultural center and a worship space? What is religious tolerance?  

Due to backlash, it was changed from a worship center to a cultural space that has a worship center inside. It still serves the same function so has anything really changed? How does religious tolerance play a role in this controversy?  

Quality— Could denying Park51 the right to build set a precedent that denying space for religious/ cultural groups is okay?  

Due to the backlash Park51 received there were attempted to stop similar centers around the country. 

Policy— there really aren’t any questions for that fit our topic that goes with this. There are already policies that this building has flowed through and most of the dissenting arguments acknowledge that, legally speaking, this group has every right to build there. It’s a matter of is this disrespectful to the victims, which legally you can disrespect the victims but that isn’t going to make you the most popular person.  

Framing Questions: 

1.  Is it considered Islamophobia to not allow the building of Park51? 

1.  Is it disrespectful for 9/11 victims and their families to build Park51 so close to Ground Zero? 

1.  Will a precedent be created if Park51 is denied the right to be built? 

1.  Does the building of Park51 celebrate terrorists? 

1.  Are morals/ethics or the actual law more important when deciding whether Park51 has the right to be built? 

Media Choices: We will start the video with a primary source video of the first plane crashing into one of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers on 9/11. This will hook the viewer and also provide historical context to the Park51 controversy. Most of our other images and videos will be directly related to the script and content the narrator is covering. We will also provide either the actual words of the quote or a video of the person saying the quote for any important quotations we use.  

Intro:

Closing:

In all our history classes we are taught that we need to look through propaganda. That’s it’s an awful vile thing we need to spot and look past. So why are letting this propaganda, whether it be from the Cold War or WWI effect us today? Thank you for your time.

The most helpful feedback I received was about linking two paragraphs with more information an link the cold war paragraph with the today paragraph. The most interesting discovery I made while working on my paper was the anti socialism started with German propaganda from WWI. I feel like the most important thing to take away from my paper is that the view point of socialism over time has changed a lot and gone from positive, to negative, to mixed. This project has helped me as a writer because it has helped me figure out how to lay out timelines better.

Intro

While today the America right is notoriously anti socialist and communist there was once a time they pushed for reforms such as national healthcare.

Thesis: While today Americans are seen as Anti socialism and communism almost 100 years ago they were attempting to make sweeping socialist reforms. However due to Russia being our enemy in the cold war, Perceived clashing of classic American values, and politicians using as a buzz word to strum up votes socialism and communism has been demonized to the American public.

A. FDR and Teddy pushing for nationalized health care

1. Define nationalized health care
2. Bring up Teddy Roosevelt’s want to create nationalized health care and FDR’s creation of social security.

B. Cold War

1. The treat of Russia and communism
2. Propaganda against communist Russia and demonizing communism as against the found ideals of America

C. Communism and Socialism today

1. Resistance against Nationalized healthcare
2. Europe and the other parts of the world
3. Donald Trump and American Right

Conclusion

Restate all main points

Some Epic conclusion that I haven’t come up with yet.

For the Paradigm shift project I want to do the shift around American ideas and socialism/communism. If I need to something more specific I can go into social security and national health care. I expect to cover from 1901-2021 maybe further back as I might need to talk about the Communist Manifesto. I want to talk about how American presidents like Teddy Roosevelt tried to implement nationalized health care before WWII but after WWII and during the Cold War this idea and may other ideas became taboo in the American public’s mind.

I feel like this specific is really important to talk about and why the American right really hates Socialist and Communist ideas while the rest of the world embraces them. This shift needs to be explored and talked about to better understand the arguments on both sides of the isle.

I feel like for my speech I did a very good job of citing examples and studies. Even in the case of using pathos I still citing other people saying how they felt as well as trying to get the audience feel a certain way. I feel like I could improve on the long pauses. I’m very bad at public speaking and was trying not to stutter which I did very well at but it was at the cost of long pauses. I wasn’t aware of how much I was gesturing, the long pauses, and how much more alive I sound compared to my memory of the event.

I. Opening

• Ask how many people have dogs.
• Talk about my experience with my dog

II. Body

A.  History about dogs

• Dogs have different meanings across cultures
• Uses of dogs
• Symbolizes in dogs breeds
• When people think about dogs today they tend to symbolize loyalty and friendship.

B. The Sense of Responsibility we feel towards dogs

• We don’t let them starve.
• We take them into homes and expect them to do nothing and basically be a parasite but they are cute and lovable so it’s okay.
• We create whole parks for them.

C. Dogs are civic

• service dogs
  • Uses for Service dogs
• Creating communities around dogs
  • Dog parks
  • Personal experience
  • Obedience classes

III. Conclusion

• Dogs today represent friendship and unbreakable bonds.
• Summary of statements
• “I love my dog”

Note I intend to have a picture or pictures of my dog present.

Dogs have been man’s best friend for hundreds of years. They were one of the first animals domesticated by humans and have remained life long companions since then. It is unknown who domesticated them them first but now every human benefits from dogs even if they don’t directly own one as dogs have helped humanity in the past. We have no idea who exactly domesticated dogs but it is thought that the people in Northern Siberia first domesticated them. They were never really domesticated for a purpose but over time became useful for many things such as hunting, hauling, and companionship. Over time dogs have developed more expressive facial features to communicate better with humans. Most modern dogs have more eyebrows compared to modern wolves and wolves ancestors.

The need for dogs has changed over time. Originally they were mostly used for hunting and hauling however today they are mostly used for companionship and are in high demand especially during lonely times of isolation. For example when Covid started shelters experienced shortages of animals as people need a companion during these isolating times. Dogs have different meanings in different cultures. In Europe dogs like the Poodle were used for hunting while in other places such as in Mexico the Aztecs used Chihuahuas as livestock animals similar to how we use cows.

Dogs are everywhere and are imbedded in our culture. Everyone knows the saying “Dog are man’s best friend”. Dogs can also stereotype their owners. For example Poodles today are seen as a dog that wealthier people would own while a Pitbull owner may be seen as rough and mean.

Dogs are a civic artifact because they give humans a sense of responsibility to that animal. Many dog owners will say that they love their dog and most likely do love their dogs. They also want to take their dogs places and as seen by the growing number of places in large cities that allow dogs. Having a dog opens up other communal activities too, such as obedience classes, dog competitions, and just being more involved with family. I was very closed off to my family until we got a dog and then we all had reasons to go on walks together and go to the park. Dogs have represented and helped many people throughout the years and continue to be one of our closest companions.

The America Life podcast has an episode about life in the number 1 party college: Penn State. As someone who has lived here most of my life this isn’t surprising to me at all. I’ve almost gotten hit by college students driving around. I distinctly remember walking home from park at 1pm on a Saturday when a white sports blasting music comes rushing around the corner going over very fast as I froze in the road unsure what to do. In the car were two college aged boys yelling and having the time of their lives as they breeze past me. They were moving so fast the wake of the car made me tumble forward. All I could think was did they really think almost hitting a 15 year old is okay? What were they thinking?

In State College many college students subscribe to the party life style. Once I moved into the dorms I noticed it all around. It’s almost like it’s own religion and Ideology. Monday and Tuesday is recoup from the weekend, Wednesday you get your party schedule sorted out, Thursday is a light partying, Friday afternoon you rush to get your homework done before doing makeup, dressing up, taking a shot, and heading out. Oh and don’t mind your roommate studying in the corner you have to have a small pre party before going to the frats. That just might be my experience with my roommates though.

Some common phrase/ commonplaces I hear is “I’m not as drunk as you think”, “It’s not that much”, and “It’s not that late yet”. In drinking and partying environments it is a very common thing to hear. From texting your friends late at night or your roommate stumbling in a 3am. However, a good rule of thumb is if someone has to day “I’m not as drunk as you think I am” they are very, very drunk.

That Podcast talks about all of theses. They talk about the constant party environment that State College festers. One thing that they mention was people not talking about all the people who died due to being drunk. One thing that has kept me from partying is Timothy Piazza. In 2019 he fell down a flight for stairs at frat party. He died once no one call for help out of fear of getting in trouble for underaged drinking. After that I realized that people would have me die so they wouldn’t get in trouble. Between that and talking with people who have been raped at parties I would say that the way the podcast portrayed partying is light and fun and doesn’t truly portray the horrors of what happens and Penn State Parties.