Reading Reflection #2
When looking at this week’s subject, “Hate and Bias Crimes in America,” I have consulted three different sources of information. The first area of hate crimes that I researched were actual active hate groups and what types of groups are out there today. The US Poverty Law Center breaks hate groups into 6 basic sections: Neo-Nazi, Racist Skinheads, White nationalist, neo-confederate, Black separatists, and the Christian Identity religious group. In Missouri and Kansas there is currently 38 active hate groups that fit into one of these sections. These groups may differ on their ideals and points of view, but they are all based on the same premise: hated. Hate and discrimination affects many different walks of life, people are discriminated on based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or disability. The FBI’s Uniformed Crime Report (UCR) reports the actual number and types of these hate crimes that were reported by police agency into statistics. I am basing my opinions and the numbers off of the 2007 UCR. I am also examining an article and some comments of readers from The US Southern Poverty Law Center on iTunes and hate music. It is somewhat eye opening when examining the FBI’s 2007 UCR on hate and bias crimes. Hated is very prevalent in today’s society with crimes based on racism still being the most reported issue by police. In fact, almost 51% of the hate crimes reported by the UCR were racially motivated. Hate crimes based on religion comes in second with 18.4%, followed by sexual orientation at 16.6%, then 13.2 % based on ethnicity/nation origin, and 1% of hate crimes were against people based on a disability. There were a total of 7,621 hate crimes based on single-bias incidents report in 2007. I think these numbers show that even though our society has been changing and molding into a more excepting place; we still have a long way to go to alleviate the discrimination. We all can play a part in continuing to shape our society by standing up for what we believe in. Every one of us has seen acts of discrimination and hatred yet unfortunately most of us just turned our head and looked the other way pretending nothing happened. Just think what would happen, how much faster we could shape society if instead of ignoring these acts we stop them in the beginning stages and stop the cycle of hate. I hope we all can show the rest of the world how great and excepting place the USA is one day. This won’t happen if we don’t educate our generations today and to come that hate is one thing that can bring down a society as swiftly as war does. When I read the article, “When It Comes to Peddling Hate Music, iTunes Appears to be Selective,” by Sonia Scherr, I was somewhat surprised to learn the fact the iTunes apparently has banned anti-gay music but still offers music that is fueled by racial hate. I would like to hear their logic on this issue, although as somewhat of a gay rights advocate it makes me feel good the they removed some anti-gay music, it still makes me wonder how they can justify removing hate music again one group but not another. Now I know that there could be some first amendment issues if our government tried to pass legislation attempting to ban hate music, after all, people do have freedom of speech whether I or the majority of people agree with what they are saying or not. I do think the CEO’s and executives of these music distributors should consider an all or nothing approach on what they decide to offer their clientele or customer base.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Nancy Mairs "On Being a Cripple"
Reading Reflection #1
In her respective narrative, “On Being a Cripple", Nancy Mairs tells of her battles with a degenerative neurological disorder and the struggles she deals with on a day to day basis. Mairs defines the positive attitudes she must maintain in her life but also the depressing aspects of dealing with having Multiple Sclerosis. In the beginning passages, she talks about the stigma that comes along with having a disease and negative connotations it has. Mairs then moves on to tell about her life growing up symptom free, to the onset of her illness in her graduate school years. Multiple Sclerosis has some very horrifying symptoms and she conveys in her essay the constant power struggle of positive and negative thoughts when she deals with the effects of the disease.
Reading this article by Nancy Mairs brought up some provoking and personal thoughts. First off, It made me think of two friends of mine that both have MS. It was rather hard for me to read this account of her struggles with the disease, because it makes it somewhat too “real” of a disease that I try to not think about. I think that I like to focus more on the fact that I have my friends with me now to enjoy time with that are more or less symptom free. This, I believe also helps them cope, not focusing so much on what is going to happen in the future but on living life today. We don’t talk all that often about the disease my friends have, but when we do, I consistently admire them for their positive attitudes and outlook on life.
This article also made me think about all the small abilities that we so often take for granted. Things like simply going for an evening jog (that I very often pass up to watch tv), having good hearing, being able to speak well, or being able to merely get out of bed. These are things that we so often overlook and believe that losing these gifts is something that “will never happen to me”. The truth is when we look at those who are close to us, our family, friends, collogues, and associates, we see struggles that many of us often overlook that is debilitating for them. I have some of my own issues that can be debilitating at times, and I have the support of my friends and family to help me when I get in a funk. In the same sense, it is very important to be there for them as well.
This support system that I have with my friends and family, and they have with me, I think needs to be extended out into the community more. We all know someone out there who has been burdened with some type of disease or flaw and maybe shuts themselves away without much social interaction out of fear of embarrassment, shame, rejection, or sadness. Let’s start being more aware of these situations that occur so often, yet are more often overlooked and focus on bringing hope and a positive attitude to an otherwise negative situation. We need to learn from my friends and Nancy Mairs so to not focus of what might happen and focus on today. Afterall, those rose colored spectacles aren't always so bad.
In her respective narrative, “On Being a Cripple", Nancy Mairs tells of her battles with a degenerative neurological disorder and the struggles she deals with on a day to day basis. Mairs defines the positive attitudes she must maintain in her life but also the depressing aspects of dealing with having Multiple Sclerosis. In the beginning passages, she talks about the stigma that comes along with having a disease and negative connotations it has. Mairs then moves on to tell about her life growing up symptom free, to the onset of her illness in her graduate school years. Multiple Sclerosis has some very horrifying symptoms and she conveys in her essay the constant power struggle of positive and negative thoughts when she deals with the effects of the disease.
Reading this article by Nancy Mairs brought up some provoking and personal thoughts. First off, It made me think of two friends of mine that both have MS. It was rather hard for me to read this account of her struggles with the disease, because it makes it somewhat too “real” of a disease that I try to not think about. I think that I like to focus more on the fact that I have my friends with me now to enjoy time with that are more or less symptom free. This, I believe also helps them cope, not focusing so much on what is going to happen in the future but on living life today. We don’t talk all that often about the disease my friends have, but when we do, I consistently admire them for their positive attitudes and outlook on life.
This article also made me think about all the small abilities that we so often take for granted. Things like simply going for an evening jog (that I very often pass up to watch tv), having good hearing, being able to speak well, or being able to merely get out of bed. These are things that we so often overlook and believe that losing these gifts is something that “will never happen to me”. The truth is when we look at those who are close to us, our family, friends, collogues, and associates, we see struggles that many of us often overlook that is debilitating for them. I have some of my own issues that can be debilitating at times, and I have the support of my friends and family to help me when I get in a funk. In the same sense, it is very important to be there for them as well.
This support system that I have with my friends and family, and they have with me, I think needs to be extended out into the community more. We all know someone out there who has been burdened with some type of disease or flaw and maybe shuts themselves away without much social interaction out of fear of embarrassment, shame, rejection, or sadness. Let’s start being more aware of these situations that occur so often, yet are more often overlooked and focus on bringing hope and a positive attitude to an otherwise negative situation. We need to learn from my friends and Nancy Mairs so to not focus of what might happen and focus on today. Afterall, those rose colored spectacles aren't always so bad.
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