Growth

Blog 3 - What did the exploration of the contemporary issues teach you about community? What did you learn about yourself as a community member? What did you learn about yourself as a thinker? What insights can you take from our time together to help you respond to ethical situations in a more thoughtful way? Be specific.  

Exploring the community has been something I never thought would be so... mind churning. Its like, we thought we had it all figured out, but when getting to the nitty gritty what-ifs of the world, it turns out life is far from black and white. As we talked about all these relevant contemporary issues, I noticed a lot of changes happening in the class room.

1. The students who felt the strongest about liberty vs. equality (those sitting at the very ends of the measurement line), seemed to switch and fluctuate their views when real life situations came into play. 

2. Some people are never for something fully. This may be due to our ability to understand the other side. But as we dove into a new topic each week, there were A LOT of wishy washy people, so I asked myself, why is that?

Now I fully understand the dangers and benefits of being a part of a community. Benefits come in many ways from support, to encouragement, to a guiding light through life. However, these same benefits can take away from your life in other ways. Yes, it is great to have support and encouragement, however, when questions of moral and values get a little gray, this support may become an obligation you have to fulfill that you may not agree with. For example, a Roman Catholic woman may be entirely against abortion, UNTIL she is faced with her teenage daughter being pregnant by her sexual assaulter. Then what? The church may pressure her into doing what they believe is right, and not what she believes is right. Because of this, I am starting to realize that people's decisions can not be judged by who they are relative to everyone else, but by who they really are and how they think. 

In terms of my own thinking, I have always been the type to go with my gut feelings regardless of any selfish thoughts or outside pressure. I am continuing this but I am becoming a little more continuous of habitual pressures that I may be putting on myself unknowingly. I can ask myself, "Well is this right in every circumstance", and hope to get a better understanding of the decisions I am making.

One of the class sessions this semester that really stood out to me was our discussion about liberty and equality. It seemed to me, that when you first put up the line, with each value on either end, that people took their seat where they truly felt comfortable. However, when you added the words "democratic" and "republican" to the mix, my eyes really opened up to what "society pressure" really means. Everyone stood up and went to whatever party they were affiliated with, completely disregarding the values behind them. Now, I can't help but think, is this how our society works?