Over the course of the past few weeks of class, our class
metamorphosed our rhetorical perspectives on free speech, the first amendment,
and current politics through intermittent blog entries. We all compiled these
blogs together in order to exhibit this piece of our curriculum. These blogs
represent our thoughts on the topics we studied throughout the course of the
unit, and demonstrate our understanding of the concepts and topics we’ve
learned so far.
When I scroll down my page of passages, I can look at each
headline and associate it with a concept or idea we studied. An example of this
is the blogs we wrote on political speeches at the DNC and the democratic
issues were helping us build political opinions as far as what each party believes.
We used critical thinking and other acquired tools to rhetorically evaluate the
speeches and form a solidified description of the speech in reference to the
political platform or whatever topic it may be discussing. I was not nearly as
politically interested before this unit, and now that I can catch the gist of
how American politics work, I am more critical and motivated to involve myself
politically.
My favorite part of this blog unit was our free speech
forum, for it was incredibly interesting to me that most brought in a song or
piece of art. After viewing all of the examples of exercising free speech and
showing my own, I began to appreciate the right to say nearly anything that is
granted by the first amendment. It is beautiful to see the wide array of works
art that are a product of free expression, and music and art would be much less
complex and fully fledged than they are without restriction. Knowing what I am
truly capable of as an American joys me because of the vast freedoms, like
expression, that I have that allow me to create, learn, love, and hate anything
I so please to.
I brought to the forum a song called ‘Color My World Mine” by
the artists Eyedea and Abilities. This song explains a universal theory
relating to art, and that the creation of an art piece is the creation of
another universe which the artist is a god of. This theory is an expression of
free speech because it is a somewhat new idea, and it may refute religious
beliefs or scientific evidence. If we had no right to free speech of creative
metaphors like this artistic theory may not have reached our critical minds.
Writing over the course of time on relative subjects is an
incredibly effective way for me to earn a concept I am not interested in. One
cannot be fully interested in a subject one doesn’t truly understand. Learning
and grasping certain important aspects of my own government have allowed me to
become interested in politics and the way they shape our lifestyles in this
country, and to me that proves that most things are interesting, I just need to
learn more about them.
