Week 7

10/1/2020

The debate this week was honestly a prime example of how not to be a leader. The so called Commander in Chief had no respect for his opponent and that is the honest truth. He acted like everyone on the stand was less than him and that he could interrupt and have no respect for the other. He demonstrated the first quality we decided made someone a bad leader, dehumanization. It genuinely surprises me that people find this qualities in someone they want to have leader of the free world. This honestly is just an accurate demonstration of how America has started to descend as almost half the country agree with a man who would not even state his stance on white supremacy. This applies to our class today because we discussed insiders and outsiders. I truly believe that President Trump is trying to forge a new image during election time by lying and making false promises to present himself as an outsider to the American people. We also discussed mental illness and if it is morally right to diagnose a public figure. Personally, I am torn because on one hand if you are in a position of power the citizens have the right to know if you are able to lead this country. On the other hand, everyone is entitled to their own privacy and they should not be investigated into because we all do not want certain things out there. Certain things you have to have back ground checks that establish if you are eligible for the job and in some cases they check to see if you are indeed mentally stable. In the case of the presidential race I believe the American people are the job interviewers in that case and that we deserve to know who we are hiring and if they are suitable for the job. I would also like to note I do believe that consent must be involved in some way shape or form because it is genuinely not right to display someone's personal info surprisingly.

10/4/20

The normal hearts premise is intriguing to me because it is a play based on the AIDs epidemic in the 1980’s. I was also interested when I found out that this story was based on Larry Kramer’s personal journey and that he admits he has similarities to the character he created. When I started reading one thing that stood out to me was that the leader here, Emma, uses anger to try and bring out the leadership in Ned. I do believe this may work because we see how the people around Ned are dying and that he will be enticed to act. Ned seems to get carried away with his anger and let it control him instead of using that as fuel to become a sufficient leader. Ned also feels as if he can not accept you as leader if you do not act in accordance to how he wants things to be ran. One similarity I have noticed is how Lysistrata uses sex to get the men on her side and it is successful and when Ned tries it because he is an incapable leader he can not convince the men to save their lives by stop having sex. I also believe that Emma’s way of handling it by fear mongering was not the way to go and that she was a failed mentee because of it. When you are unaware of how you come across to others you begin to neglect how they feel and this is exactly how Ned is. Ned is so gaslighted by Emma that he starts to not care about how anyone else feels even going as far to call them cowards. That is not how a person who desires to lead people should act. I will admit when I am riled up I even fail to see the other sides point and become narrow minded like Ned has in the story. If I am ever to become the leader I believe I have the potential to be I will have to learn to hold in my feelings and listen.

10/6/2020

Today in class we discussed how people identify causes and how awareness is brought to causes. People have a tendency to care about things that directly effect them. Certain causes will receive less traction because people never want to look at the negative realties of certain things. There does need to be sometimes an event that is so substantial you are forced to not look away.

“Do you know that when Hitler’s Final Solution to eliminate the Polish Jews was first mentioned in the Times it was on page twenty-eight. And on page six of the Washington Post. And the Times and the Post were owned by Jews. What causes silence like that? Why didn’t the American Jews help the German Jews get out? Their very own people! Scholars are finally writing honestly about this — I’ve been doing some research — and it’s damning to everyone who was here then: Jewish leadership for being totally ineffective; Jewish organizations for constantly fighting among themselves, unable to cooperate even in the face of death: Zionists versus non-Zionists, Rabbi Wise against Rabbi Silver”

In The Normal Heart when Ned has this conversation with Felix it made me think of how in the book they do the same thing to the gay community. The gay community ignores what is happening to their own community because they seem to be comfortable with what is going on. We even do this in the present because in some cases we ignore what is happening to some African Americans across the world even I am a flaw to this. For a while when I was younger I did not necessarily ignore black issues but they were put on the backburner do to fear. When Trayvon Martin was horrifically murdered by George Zimmerman I felt a spark but did not feel the outrage because of how young I was. Now that I am older, wiser, and not neglecting the issues of my people this year really opened my eyes because it was no longer being put on the back burner it was up front and personal. I believe this year having a cause to stand behind has made more people stand up for injustices and start to pay attention to the Black Lives Matter movement. I also think that this was the best time for people to understand because we are all in quarantine so you couldn’t ignore it because it was being covered everywhere.

We talked about who represents who better and who are people more likely to listen to. I believe I am more likely to listen to someone I trust or someone without a bias.

My stance on the dinner table discussion is this I am not a very confrontational person unless I am backed into a corner. I do not mind people standing up for me but I feel the respect would be to ask me before you show out because maybe I would rather just leave and not worry about it.

Emma is not a bad mentor because Ned fails. Emma could not control the way Ned leads she can only truly guide him on what she believes he should do. Her fault is that she was in a way influencing the idea of fear mongering by getting everyone riled up. Ned also had some identity issues within himself as he was struggling to be an outsider because he was sort of ashamed to be a gay man.

10/7/2020

There are times I have tried to speak up to injustices in my own community and I have met little no opposition. There are times where I have met opposition on my beliefs and truly been challenged on what I stand on. I will admit that I fight for my beliefs strongly and never really let people get away with injustices because it truly from the bottom of my heart angers me when people treat others as if they are less. It is also easy for me to read others beliefs. I also judge people the way I judge myself because I feel that everyone has to find their way and if you are not trying your best to be the best version of yourself you are wasting life. This is why I strive for a higher education and knowledge because I want to be able to not only help and lead but to educate as well.