Religion is a Good Source of Knowledge

After looking at the polls completed during the 2010 core questions survey, it made me realize how little people know about the issues having to do with freedom of speech and religion. Only 23% of the people asked in the survey knew that freedom of religion is a specific right guaranteed by the First Amendment. I was surprised by many of the answers to the questions in the survey. The question that surprised me the most was the one about the president proclaiming a day of prayer. 58% of the people strongly agreed that this day should happen. If the president performed a Christian prayer for the nation, then that would make it seem like America was a Christian nation. I think that people around America who are not Christian would feel uncomfortable that the leader of their nation was praying for a religion their practice. America is supposed to be a country with no one religion, and having a Christian day of prayer would contradict that policy.
A really important aspect over the debate of freedom of religion is how much religion should be taught in public schools. One article that I read talked about the importance of religion in public schooling. Religion has been a big part of different art, literature, movies, and more. It has always played a big role in history over the years, and without it being taught students will lose a whole aspect of history and culture. There have been controversies in the past whether to determine if a teacher is teaching about a religion, or preaching about a religion. In my classes in the past there has always been a definite line between teaching and preaching. I am glad that I have gotten to learn about different religions besides my own because it gave me a good grasp of different cultures and how religion has influenced history.

A Whole New Perspective of 9/11

After the Twin Towers fell in 2001, the most that I can remember as a kid was the coverage of the incredibly brave fireman and police officers. Which was definitely compelling, and their courage and hard work touched all of America, however I never really remembered learning anything about what the citizens of New York City were going through at the time of the attack. The movie Seven Days in September brings a whole different story of 9/11 than what I had been used to hearing. The movie was filmed purely by unknown by New Yorkers who were carrying cameras at the time and after the attack. The image of all the smoke from the towers is still stuck in my head, and will most likely stay there for the rest of my life. Not only were all the people trying to get inside covered by the smoke, but the sky was also completely covered by smoke. The smoke even blocked out the sun. One film maker filmed people getting out of the subway, and it looked like the world had just ended. All of New York was covered with smoke and debris, and it looked like someone had just bombed New York and destroyed the entire city. There was so much mass confusion between everyone after because everyone was taken by such surprise. People where coming up with different theories of who attacked America, how many places were attacked, etc. No one knew what to think of the previous events. However, the most amazing parts of the film were watching all of New York come together.

The only thing that New Yorkers could think to do after the attacks was to help each other recover. People were donating things from cookies and catered meals, to flashlights and batteries. Others were helping to make stretchers for the injured people lost in the ruble of what once was the Twin Towers. The amount of patriotism and unity that went on in New York was incredible. The only positive outcome of the 9/11 attacks was the amount of unity in New York that helped get almost all of the New Yorkers to be able to cope with the attack of the Twin Towers. What is funny about destruction is that usually the outcome is peace and patriotism. After World War II, even though America won the war and hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers were killed, the late forties and fifties became a time of great patriotism and America became very prosperous. People were working together to make America a better place. They had just been through the worlds greatest war, and now they just wanted to become a better country. After the 9/11 attacks the people had just gotten over one of the worst attacks on American soil, so to be able to get through all of the turmoil they had to have a lot of patriotism and work together to succeed.

Speech Codes: Good Idea, But Does Not Work

Speech codes are necessary rules that help maintain order and peace at universities, however when put to the test, these rules do not work. Every time the speech codes have been challenged it has been overturned by the Supreme Court. Speech codes are like the rules that are in my assignment note book at school about harassing kids. Rules that forbid kids from starting rumors, or giving dirty looks. These rules cannot be enforced, kids cannot get in trouble for committing these actions. They are just there as a scare, so that kids do not do it. The speech codes that are used in college are great rules that imply good morals on the students, and definitely should be followed. However, there are students out that there that do not believe in those rules and morals. Which is why speech codes can never work. When a fraternatiy decides to hold fake slave auctions, such as the case UWM Post v. Board of Regents of University of Wisconsin, and these students were punished because they violeated the University of Wisconsin's speech codes. When this case was taken to the Supreme Court, it was reversed and the students were not punished. The Supreme Court claimed that the University of Wisconsin was limiting the students' freedom of speech by not allowing them to hold fake slave auctions and express racist opinoins. This is the reason why speech codes do not work because they are too broad in their rules and they limit students freedom of speech. The universities are not allowed to punish students for expressing unpopular opinoins.