“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people”. In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Martin Luther King, Jr. brings to our attention the sin of indifference. King is implying that the silence/complacency of good people is just as bad as the actions of bad people driven by hatred. Noble Peace Prize winner Elie Weisel takes this idea one step further in his 1999 speech. While King is addressing a specific example of indifference in regard to the civil rights movement, Weisel addresses the general indifference of Americans in his speech. Weisel states that anger is more commendable than indifference because anger can be creative in moving a person to action in one form or another while indifference is to have no response. When reading this I have a mental picture of the indifferent person as a couch potato with a blank face void of emotion, watching the world fall apart on the news as he drinks his Pepsi; as though it were simply a movie. The indifferent person will watch the misfortune or suppression of others with mild interest and go on with his/her life unaffected. How can this be? Weisel says, “Indifference can be tempting -- more than that, seductive. It is so much easier to look away from victims. It is so much easier to avoid such rude interruptions to our work, our dreams, our hopes. It is, after all, awkward, troublesome, to be involved in another person's pain and despair”. This is true. It is easier to ignore the problems of others than it is to help them. Helping another person who is a victim of war, a natural disaster, injustice, or any other misfortune will take our time, emotion, and possible our money.
Weisel makes a profound statement when he says, “In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman”. I know what it is like to be indifferent, I went through a season where I just did not care about anything; I was void of all emotion. That season of life was so strange, it was as though I were dead. I am thankful that it was a short season and it taught me how dangerous complacency is.
When King is addressing the silent Americans, he presents their argument that civil rights will be received in time. This is another mindset that is dangerous and King replies by saying, “We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right” (paragraph 26). If everyone were to put off action (whether it is for progress, stopping injustice, helping someone in need) for a more convenient time, nothing would ever get done. The time for action is now because we do not know what the future holds and if we will have another opportunity to act. All of our esteemed heroes of history are remembered for being men of action, not men of silence and indifference. What will you be remembered as? Do you want your life to be indifferent and silent, for an indifferent life is silent. I want to be a person of action and if my actions influence the life of just one person for the better, then it is a life well lived.
-E
Friday, February 25, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
A wold of silence: Blog 2
When I was in third grade, a missionary who worked with mute, deaf, and blind children in Mexico visited my Sunday school class. I clearly remember the missionary teaching us a few signs and I was captured by the realization that people could fully communicate with their hands alone. I also remember going to a concert where there were two ASL interpreters, the entire concert I watched the graceful and expressive movements of the signers and have been fascinated by sign language since.
There is not a wealth of information on the origins of American Sign Language (ASL), but I was able to gather some basic information of the beginnings of ASL from different web sites. ASL started to develop as a language in the early 1800s when a public school for the deaf was founded. Up to that point deaf Americans had some basic signs that they used to communicate with the people around them. The basic signs differed from region to region. The school that was founded for the deaf in the 1800s based its sign language on the sign language used in France. As students came to this school from different areas of the United States the language began to adopt the signs from the different regions and developed into its own unique language. American sign language is a relatively new language and like any other language it is still developing as new words are added and older words are lost as they are no longer used.
ASL most definitely qualifies as a language. ASL is a form of communication for many people in America. Before I took an ASL class a few years ago I thought that ASL was simply English where the words were replaced with signs, but I was wrong. ASL has its own grammar and sentence structure that is very different from English which qualifies it to be considered a language. Some people might think that ASL is an inefficient way of communication because tone, speed, and volume cannot be discerned in signs. While this is true ASL makes up for these in other ways. Like spoken languages, sign languages communicates not only by the signs themselves, but by body language, facial expressions, and the way in which the signs are made. I have noticed that deaf people have extremely expressive facial expressions which communicate the ‘tone’ that they are signing in. Signs can also be communicated in a slow graceful way or in a quick and rough way to express feelings behind the signs. ASL is a very dynamic and expressive language that is beautiful to observe.
ASL has radically changed the lives of nonhearing people. It was once believed that nonhearing people were unintelligent but they just lacked a form of communication. ASL opened the door for deaf people to communicate with each other and also put their thoughts into words. In Helen Keller’s autobiography she tells her readers how she lived in a world of darkness due to the fact that she had no language to process her thoughts. Have you ever tried to think without words? It doesn’t work well. It is hard to imagine growing up without any way to process feelings, emotions, and life situations. Helen describes when the “mystery of language” was revealed to her. She says, “That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, home, joy, set it free!” I believe this is what sign language has done for deaf people throughout the world. ASL has opened the doors for nonhearing people to put their thoughts and feelings into a language. Without a language one cannot be educated and in America one cannot succeed without any education. Because of American Sign Language, deaf Americans have the opportunity to have a good education and find a good job. The American Dream has become an attainable goal for the deaf and hard of hearing. ASL has made it possible for a world of silence to find a voice.
There is not a wealth of information on the origins of American Sign Language (ASL), but I was able to gather some basic information of the beginnings of ASL from different web sites. ASL started to develop as a language in the early 1800s when a public school for the deaf was founded. Up to that point deaf Americans had some basic signs that they used to communicate with the people around them. The basic signs differed from region to region. The school that was founded for the deaf in the 1800s based its sign language on the sign language used in France. As students came to this school from different areas of the United States the language began to adopt the signs from the different regions and developed into its own unique language. American sign language is a relatively new language and like any other language it is still developing as new words are added and older words are lost as they are no longer used.
ASL most definitely qualifies as a language. ASL is a form of communication for many people in America. Before I took an ASL class a few years ago I thought that ASL was simply English where the words were replaced with signs, but I was wrong. ASL has its own grammar and sentence structure that is very different from English which qualifies it to be considered a language. Some people might think that ASL is an inefficient way of communication because tone, speed, and volume cannot be discerned in signs. While this is true ASL makes up for these in other ways. Like spoken languages, sign languages communicates not only by the signs themselves, but by body language, facial expressions, and the way in which the signs are made. I have noticed that deaf people have extremely expressive facial expressions which communicate the ‘tone’ that they are signing in. Signs can also be communicated in a slow graceful way or in a quick and rough way to express feelings behind the signs. ASL is a very dynamic and expressive language that is beautiful to observe.
ASL has radically changed the lives of nonhearing people. It was once believed that nonhearing people were unintelligent but they just lacked a form of communication. ASL opened the door for deaf people to communicate with each other and also put their thoughts into words. In Helen Keller’s autobiography she tells her readers how she lived in a world of darkness due to the fact that she had no language to process her thoughts. Have you ever tried to think without words? It doesn’t work well. It is hard to imagine growing up without any way to process feelings, emotions, and life situations. Helen describes when the “mystery of language” was revealed to her. She says, “That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, home, joy, set it free!” I believe this is what sign language has done for deaf people throughout the world. ASL has opened the doors for nonhearing people to put their thoughts and feelings into a language. Without a language one cannot be educated and in America one cannot succeed without any education. Because of American Sign Language, deaf Americans have the opportunity to have a good education and find a good job. The American Dream has become an attainable goal for the deaf and hard of hearing. ASL has made it possible for a world of silence to find a voice.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Critical Thinking: A Workout for my Mind
Critical thinking is not just accepting what I read or hear but it is looking deeper than the surface and questioning myself as to what I think. Critical thinking involves careful analysis of a subject or an issue and requires looking at that issue from different angles. When it comes to reading and thinking critically, I am rather lazy. For me when I hear ‘critical thinking’ I think of a brain workout and I’m not always in the mood to exercise. When I read to learn I like to simply be told what the truth is and then accept it, however, I know that to do this is foolish because there are lots of opinions and biases even in sources that are supposed to be objective.
Whenever I come upon an issue that I question, I ponder it for a bit and then my mind wanders and I don’t return to analyze the issue in-depth. This habit of dismissing analytical thought is found in almost all areas of my life. When a critical thought enters my mind when reading a book I jot it down in the margins or on post-it-notes and continue reading, I almost never go back to explore those thoughts later unless I have an assignment related to the book. When watching the news I often wonder if there is more to the story than they are telling or I wonder what the other side is, but my thoughts stop at the wondering stage and never make it into the analysis stage. I do not like politics much therefore I do not spend too much time thinking about political issues and debates; however the dishonest reputation politics have has made me very critical of politics and I question the arguments, statistics, and sources that politicians use. When it comes to politics I would rather analyze the actions and results rather than the arguments and words.
In writing this, I have had to analyze what my critical thinking habits are and have made some self discoveries about how inadequate my critical thinking skills are. I now realize how lazy I am with deep thinking and know that I have a lot of room to improve. I expect this class to challenge me to go beyond casual wondering and really spend time discovering what I think about different topics and issues brought up in the books we will read and in the discussions we will have. I can’t say that I’m looking forward to this semester of critical thinking because I know that my inactive thinking muscles will get sore (who likes sore muscles?) but I am looking forward to the outcomes of the challenges that await me.
-E
Whenever I come upon an issue that I question, I ponder it for a bit and then my mind wanders and I don’t return to analyze the issue in-depth. This habit of dismissing analytical thought is found in almost all areas of my life. When a critical thought enters my mind when reading a book I jot it down in the margins or on post-it-notes and continue reading, I almost never go back to explore those thoughts later unless I have an assignment related to the book. When watching the news I often wonder if there is more to the story than they are telling or I wonder what the other side is, but my thoughts stop at the wondering stage and never make it into the analysis stage. I do not like politics much therefore I do not spend too much time thinking about political issues and debates; however the dishonest reputation politics have has made me very critical of politics and I question the arguments, statistics, and sources that politicians use. When it comes to politics I would rather analyze the actions and results rather than the arguments and words.
In writing this, I have had to analyze what my critical thinking habits are and have made some self discoveries about how inadequate my critical thinking skills are. I now realize how lazy I am with deep thinking and know that I have a lot of room to improve. I expect this class to challenge me to go beyond casual wondering and really spend time discovering what I think about different topics and issues brought up in the books we will read and in the discussions we will have. I can’t say that I’m looking forward to this semester of critical thinking because I know that my inactive thinking muscles will get sore (who likes sore muscles?) but I am looking forward to the outcomes of the challenges that await me.
-E
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