Hey everybody :) On this beautiful spring day, I decided to waste my time on this silly computer and crank out another edition to my riveting blog because I devote all my time and energy into writing this Ethics journal.. Can't you just see the sarcasm dripping off that sentence? Sorry Mr. Couillard :3 But it would be unethical for me to lie :). Also, terribly sorry for the foul language on the picture, but it just fit so perfectly with what I was saying! Well, it has been another great week in the life of this stressed junior, but I'm not going to delve into it because quite frankly it's not that interesting. Anyway, in this edition of my journal, I will be discussing another generation, and an aspect with a massive impact of that generation: The Freedom Rides. Wait! I nearly forgot to answer last time's question. Last journal's question was:
Is it right for the government to willingly risk the lives of its military personnel?
This is the type of question that makes people squirm, it's an uncomfortable question yes, but it must be answered. Also, this question is a tricky one to answer because it's got multiple meanings behind it. One could argue that the government isn't willingly putting the lives of its troops in peril because, unless we're in like World War I, these troops chose to sign up for the military. Therefore, putting them near the site of a nuclear test, supposedly, comes in their job description. However, one could also argue that there is a fine line between putting them into a COMBAT zone and letting them be exposed to radioactive material during a time of peace. For me, I am sort of in between. Yes, I do believe it's wrong to subject soldiers to nuclear testing without telling them; however, they did sign up for this job. This particular question is a hard one to answer because either answer could be right or wrong, it's truly a question of opinion, and I think that my opinion is somewhere in No Man's Land. 
I'm ridin' on freedom's bus line..
Now that I got that out of the way, let's get back to the juicy stuff. It's the 1960's, and America is a battleground of racial tension. Yeah you guessed it, it's the Civil Rights Movement. African Americans are demanding the rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution; however, white people aren't too happy about the possibility of losing control of their beloved nation. It doesn't help that by African Americans are stomping all over white, particularly Southern, tradition, and y'all know the South doesn't like to be messed with.. or is that Texas? Anyway, America is tangled up in a lot of the pot calling the kettle black, and nobody can seem to let it be, let it be, let it be! During this tumultuous time of racial instability, one brave group of people rose to the occasion, and took to the front lines to fight , or rather ride, for the rights: they were called the Freedom Riders, groups of both African Americans and white people riding on buses into the deep South to challenge hundreds of years of white Southern tradition.
Ole Guts n Glory
Right off the bat, I just gotta say that these Freedom Riders had major guts. They WILLINGLY rode into areas of the deep South that would rather die than integrate. They were challenging everything Southern society stood for, they were entering the parts of the South that were notoriously anti-black; however, this did not deter them from their goal, their goal that one day, America would be together and equal.
Soldiers of Equality
I feel that the Freedom Riders Movement means so much to all Americans, despite the societal upheaval it caused. People had to be shown what was wrong with society, and these people were willing to risk life and limb to unmask the injustice, the discrimination, the faults in American society. Their movement brought the race issue front and center to not only the American public, but also the international public. Countries all over the world were looking at America with disbelief. This grandiose country that was founded on the laurel wreaths of democracy, fought so valiantly in two World Wars to defend that right to democracy, is denying the basic rights guaranteed by democracy for millions of its own citizens. To me, this movement meant standing up for what is rightfully yours, as well standing up against hundreds of years of injustice. In my eyes, this movement means standing up for yourself, and fighting for your rights. It means showing the world that "hey, you can push me down, you can hit me, you can spray me with hoses, you can call me nasty names, but I'm just gonna bounce right back up." It's such an inspiration because they did something that everybody else was too afraid to do, they stood up for themselves, and worked to make the wrongs right.
"If we do not learn from History Channel, we shall be doomed to repeat History Channel"
There's so much you can learn from the Freedom Riders, it would be nearly impossible to NOT learn something from them. They preached civil disobedience, and nonviolent protest. That only is something that we need to learn about. If these people could stand in the face of people brandishing guns and other weapons, and not fight back, that is the truest test of dedication to a cause that I can think of. I mean, if I had a guy running at me taking swings at my head, you can bet that I'd hit him back, but these people didn't fight back. They maintained the beliefs instilled into them, and took the high road, even when it would've been so easy to stop down to their agitators level. You could also look at their persistence and learn a couple things there. These people got the living crap beat out of them almost everywhere they went, yet they wouldn't let that deter them from their goal of achieving racial equality. Despite all the odds being stacked against them, they pressed on. It's such a moving concept to here about people willingly getting bludgeoned to near death, and then getting back up and continuing on their journey. It's something that we as humans need to learn about, and take from that and implement it into our own lives. 
Is it Racist?
In modern-day America, you don't see racism as predominantly as people would've seen during the 1960's. There's nobody out in the streets marching and holding banners calling for their civil rights, but that doesn't mean that racism has been completely wiped clean from the public eye of America. Now it's just more discretely implied. People aren't going out and burning crosses in people's yards or screaming obscenities at each other ( that last one is a bit more of a stretch), but it's talked about among friends as a joke. Of course, there are those crazy people who still protest against people who " look" different from them, or people who stereotype all people of the same race as all being the same. America hasn't only grown out of the race dilemma in that there aren't as many protesters anymore marching in the streets, they've just taken to social media and the Internet to get their views out. And these other races aren't exactly fighting for their rights; they're combating against stereotypes spawned from hundreds of years of flat-out white racism. So, we as Americans just really need to get the hell over ourselves, and learn to accept each other as human beings, no matter what we look like on the outside. Remember, " It's whats on the inside that counts :)"... Oh brother how corny can I get? -_-
I just wanna dance!
Now that that's all done, we're going to discuss something different: Ted! And no, it's not that awesome talking bear in that movie ( although he's pretty cool), I'm talking about Ted Talks, independently organized talks produced for public use.. yeah it's something like that. Basically, this Ted organization gets together a bunch of different people each year, from all walks of life, and they all talk about stuff. Some people also do musical acts, or they do dance pieces, they can really do just about anything they want to do. Anyway, as we normally do in Ethics class, we watched some more videos :3. We watched some Ted videos from this event going on in Long Beach, CA, and it was just sort of the same-old same-old inspirational touchy feel good videos preaching stuff about doing things, I've heard it all before. Then something interesting came on the screen. Four dancers emerge on the screen, and I started to look up from my copy of Huck Finn ( I know I should have read it for homework but I got tired OK) and I started watching these dancers do things that I couldn't even begin to describe. One of the male dancers would touch the female dancers arm and it would move to the beat of the music, but in a way that I can't put into words. 
The performance was extremely interesting. The dance troop consisted of different outfits and story lines that, to me, made it feel like you were watching multiple dance performances, but all at the same time. Then at the end, all the dancers introduced themselves, and they came from all over the world. People came from Denmark to Japan, and they all had their own personalities. Following this, the two producers of this Ted Talk, Rich and Tone Talauega, started talking about the significance of dance. Now this is where I really started listening to these guys.
Rich and Tone started talking about how dance can connect everybody together ( they said something like that right? Because... yeahh....). Dance transcends language, political affiliation, religious ties, it transcends all barriers that might stop us from otherwise communicating. People have always used the arts to talk to one another when words failed them. These two guys have provided a prime example that proves this point. There's no way you could sit there and explain every move that you saw, you could only watch and appreciate the beautiful art form that is dance. It's truly mystifying to watch someone do something that you know you can not describe in any other way. Dance and art epitomizes the human experience, it's so instinctual and it's sewn into each and every one of us, you just have to grab a hold of it and let it go. 
Well, this was certainly a great journal. Touched base on a lot of different stuff all while wasting away the gorgeous weather :( meh. But hey, grades are important too so... hey value conflict! Alright I should get some extra credit for that. Anyway, to touch off the end of a great journal, I must ask my next question. Today, I leave you with this question:
1) If you had to, what cause would you die for?
Now, I really must go, I have to work on another Ethics assignment... Yay -.-. Oh but I'm sure I'll be fine, after all I only have to try and interview my 12 year old sister.. easiest thing ever? We'll see :). So, for now, I must go. Goodbye y'all, see ya next time on Krazy Thoughts By Kit!
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