Social Reconstruction

In Democracy class, we discussed the topic of social reconstruction. Professor Schuler went around the room and asked each person if they thought social reconstruction was possible. I was surprised that there was such a mix of yes' and no's. I believe that social reconstruction is possible. However, I guess if one goes under social reconstruction, they may always be hiding their true self. Either that or, someone could be changing and not even know it.

Someone could reconstruct themselves socially in many different ways. A suggestion in class was, that a person could start hanging out with different people. I think that is a major way to change someone because their friends could rub off on that person. Another way would be their class in society. If someone suddenly becomes wealthy or even poor, it can change their whole outlook on life and the way they act.

Money, Money, Money

Lately in class, we've been discussing the issue of money. In the world today, anything and everything is about money. There's no doubt about it; money matters and everything revolves around it. It's known fact that, without money, you can barely survive in this world. In class, we talked about how we as humans just give value to money. When in fact, money is just a piece of paper. When I think about that, I realize that it's right and it is just paper. However, money has become everything, and there's nothing that we can do about it.

The book "The Ascent of Money" by Niall Ferguson is a book about money. He confirms just how much money is essential to us humans in our world. Ferguson writes about the various countries in the world and their financial standing. The issues of wealth and poverty plays a big role the world economy. This book helps me understand how money works and how important it is. Money has become the foundation to life as a human being.

Portland Art Museum

We went to the Portland Art Museum for On Democracy class. It was a new experience for me because I've never been to an Art museum before. There were a bunch of really interesting paintings and sculptures that I stared at for a while. We got to see a glimpse of other cultures and what life was like many, many years ago. We were able to cover quite a lot of artwork while there.

My favorite part of the museum that we saw was probably the room with all of the Christian paintings. Since I'm writing my research paper about religion, specifically Christianity, these paintings really fascinated me. There were many paintings of women with babies in their arms. Also, there were many paintings of the Jesus' crucification on the cross. Those paintings really helped me imagine and relate to what I was writing in my paper. This also helped me with ideas for my visual aspect to go along with my research paper.

Abortion

For my ten minute presentation in mentor session, I decided to discuss the issue of abortion. It is and will continue to be a huge controversial issue in America. In my discussion, I posed the question, "Do you think women should have the right to an abortion? Or should be illegal because it's immoral?" This relates directly to democracy because women should have the freedom of making their own decisions.

My personal opinion on this issue is that women should have the right to an abortion. Although, sometimes it gets carried away with young teenage girls being dumb. There are times when abortion is okay, such as a rape. That is probably one of the only times I think an abortion is the best choice. When a mother might not be able to care for the child, there is also adoption.