Blog Reflection

My blogging experience I believe is an atypical experience. I began the semester with strong blogs as seen in “A Place of My Own”, “Close Reading- Mary Cassatt”, “ ‘Young Mother Sewing’ 1900”, “Girl, Interrupted: A Patchwork of a Life”, “Closure for The Complete Persepolis”, and “The Beloved Uncle Anoosh” and ended the semester with little to nothing to say.

My first blog, A Place of My Own, began the semester in a tone with exploring the theme of place and how it can transform a person. I executed this through explaining how the scenery of an otherwise normal summer camp had come to transform me. Later in the course I was able to move from analyzing my life experiences to analyzing other subject matter such as Girl, Interrupted in my blog Girl, Interrupted: A Patchwork of a Life.  I was able to use details of a scene and connect the parallels between the movie plot and the props in the movie. In this example it was the connections between the lives of the women at Claymoore and the book one of the patients was reading, The Patchwork Girl of Oz.

As the semester continued, I continued this style with my blog Closure for The Complete Persepolis. I continued to analyze individual parts of the book with the techniques explained by Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson’s “Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives”. I was able to grasp the end of the The Complete Persepolis through a close reading and analysis of both text included in the blog.

In the beginning of the semester I would not have changed how I blogged. I think as the semester progressed, I found it more difficult to write about topics and I should have changed my process. For example In the Thing Around Your Neck, I had difficulty finding substance to use. I should have reverted back to the techniques taught in Close Reading-Mary Cassatt, “Young Mother Sewing” 1900. Those techniques of reading for comprehension, observing, explaining observations, and finally formulating conclusions would have helped created more substance to my blog. Also including direct quotes from the book would help create a closer and more accurate connection to the blog.

My favorite blog post, Black Lives Matter vs. All Lives Matter, although it is only extra credit, I really enjoyed attending the event and blogging about the program. The entire piece made me step out of my comfort zone, analyze the discussion between Black Lives and All Lives Matter, and finally finding how it all applies to me. I showed this through explaining the foundation of the movement, both sides of the movement, and finally how it applied to my Catholic life. I believe that as a Humanistic Studies major or even from just completing this entry level course being able to perform those functions is what a HUST course is teaching.

Overall, using the blogs on a weekly basis was helpful for this class. It made the students keep up with the readings and focus on certain aspects. It honed our close reading skills that are very important for college as first year students and beyond. 

Black Lives Matter vs. All Lives Matter

I decided to attend the Black Lives Matter speech given by Professor George Trey, because of recent events in the political and social world of the US. This topic of Black Lives Matter is a very isolated world for me. I am not affected by it, nor are any of my close family and friends affected by the movement. I hoped to understand the current Black Lives Matter movement, the rhetoric behind it, and what past events brought it about.

Trey explained that Immanuel Kant was the intellectual father of the human rights movement. That the human rights movements derives their thought process from the idea that ever human is valued because they are innately human. Trey then continued to explain the rhetoric behind Black Lives Matter vs. All Lives Matter. it was explained that the issue was not with All Lives but rather the Black Lives that are being persecuted by others in particular the police. The Black Lives Matter movement was not just concerned with the police brutality that they experienced, but also the judicial system's inability to prosecute those who commit these transgressions.

With all of this explained to me, I wondered how does this fit in and affect my Catholic, conservative, southern, white, middle class life?

As a Catholic the philosophy behind the Civil Rights movement and the Black Lives Matter movement as explained to me today, are very Catholic movements. The philosophy of Catholic Social Thought and human dignity are founded deep within those movements.

As a conservative, do I put aside my political beliefs? Can I actually separate my beliefs on social, political, foreign, and economical politics? When I do separate them, no political party actually a lines with my beliefs. How do I respond to that?

Bringing it back to the facts, Black Lives Matter, police brutality does happen, and they are not held accountable for their actions. What is my response to all of this? In the words of my favorite childhood book Oh The Places You'll Go by Dr, Seus, "Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in"?

Map of 1718 French Territory

Carte de la Louisiane et du cours de Mississipi dressee sur un grand nombre de memoires entrautres sur ceux de Mr. le Maire, par Guillme. de Lisle- Map- c.1718 map of French Colonial Louisan by cartographer G.

This is a map of the French Colonial Louisiana property from 1718. It also maps part of the US that was under British or Spanish rule. The map focusses on water ways and ports. There is a lot of detail put into the rivers like the Mississippi and its tributaries. Also, the other rivers that enter the Gulf of Mexico are very well detailed. The ports along the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean are very detailed and may ports are included. 

This map acknowledges that the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains are present but beside that very little detail is given. The map does show some hilly or mountainous region in central US. 

This map values rivers and ports. It is logical for a 1718 map to value these, because rivers and ports allowed for people to access that land.