Should you and I be able to express our opinion loudly and freely without the fear of discrimination. Can I agree to disagree with you loudly and proudly? Lately I find this to be very difficult. Between the news and social media how do i know that if I express my opinion that I won’t be judge for doing so. In 2015, I was asked to make a speech on how social media effects of freedom of speech. At first I found this question to be very straight forward but as a started to formulate the speech I came to the realization that this was a deeper question than I though. Starting in 2008 when Obama was elected in to the presidency. I found that freedom of speech became questionable right. Throughout Obama’s entire presidency there were many death threats and hate speech being spewed into media. Though I am may not understand or agree with the comments being said should they not be said at all?

I believe that it has come time that we must revisit this conversation. We are once again approaching the same issue. However, this time the discriminating speech is now figuratively supported by the president elect. I don’t want to focus on the president elect but I would like to focus on a connection issue that needs to have light shed on it.

It is too many times that two opposing sides come to no conclusion because they fail to try to understand bet yet fully comprehend the opposing side. I believe that in order to get “make America great again” or shall I say simply “make America great” as American we need to learn how to actually hear the other side and not just listen to the underside. It is vital that we allow people to express themselves whether or not we agree with them. However, we have come to a point in society where we are becoming stuck in our individual ideologies.

Here at Penn State there is a class called Soc 119 that focuses on just this. It provokes us to have these conversations that we need to have while having us actually listen and try to understand the opposing side. For example, during one of our lectures we had a conversation about the presidential election and those who were a minority expressed that they felt as though they could not attend the president elect’s rally this was because they felt they would be harmed or discriminated against. Unfortunately, those who were president elect supporter could not understand nor sympathize with what the opposing side was saying. In fact their response was “If you follow ‘the rules’ and act ‘right’ then you should be fine.” I believe this was their response because they failed to take a step out of their shoes and see the point of view of the other side and this is where I believe us as Americans need to have a change.

I believe that in order to “make America great” we need to learn how to hear and try to understand the point of view of the other side. This is the only way that we can move forward and not have America resend back to the dark place of discrimination and lack of understanding of one another. Thus, let’s “make America great” and try to understand our fellow Americans.

Passion Blog

My previous passion blog shed light on the unknown struggles, life, and stereotypes of African American Women. My thought for this semester’s blog is to shed light on what I call “The Other Life.” This topic sparked my interest when I started my collage journey. Not until I started interacting and learning about others did I realize that many people have very little in sight on the lifestyle opposite of theirs. This blog would shed light on the other lifestyles that people may not have been exposed to.

Civic Blog

Idea 1: A civic issue that I find very important is that disadvantages that urban areas have due to location, demographics, and economy. In my blog I would dive deeper into these problems on an emotional, political, economic, and personal level.

Idea 2: Another civic issue that I find important is the mass incarceration rates. Within this blog I would analyze the documentary 13th amendment. In addition, I would speak on the economic advantages of mass incarceration along with the disadvantages it has on the average family.

This I Believe

Idea 1: The topic of my This I Believe podcast would go side by side with my passion blog. In particular, it will go hand and hand with the blog focusing on the education systems in urban areas verses elsewhere. I believe that when people come to college they are indeed at different learning levels and they should not have to not feel like they are not as smart as others simply because they were taught in different education systems.

Idea 2: I believe that everyone should be able to express their opinion loudly and freely without the fear of discrimination. I believe that if everyone had the mindset that supported the idea that you do not have to agree with someone in order to understand and respect their opinion. If people learned to not only express their opinion but to also listen to other then people would be a lot more sympathetic.