This I Believe Podcast Draft

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.

One thought on “This I Believe Podcast Draft

  1. ajc6482

    I think you need to focus more of the podcast on the aspect of this issue that is relevant to you. Was there a time where you felt like you lacked that right? Was there a time when you personally saw the need for you to speak up and make sure your voice was heard? I think talking about Soc 119 could lend itself to being a great asset for you to do this, but just remember to make it about you and what you believe. Perhaps the professor said something that caught your attention? This is a great topic you can talk a lot about but I think that it should be more about you because you need to establish your ethos from personal experience and beliefs. Not sure how many words it is but it also might be a little long. I would recommend picking one specific part and focusing on it for the majority of the speech and then generalizing it at the end.

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