Contact Zones

In the surrounding community I've noticed several different contact zones that I thought were particularly interesting. The one that interested me the most had to have been the bus station. The Burlington Gray Hound station, about a fifteen minute walk from campus, twenty if you depending on luggage. It's full of every kind of person you could imagine. Everyone rides the bus; rich people, poor people, old people young people. As soon as you walk in to get your bus ticket you see the people around you interacting and it could be a seven foot tall thug just chit chatting with a seventy year old woman, just laughing to pass the time. Emotions even manage to escalate in the Burlington Gray Hound station. I've seen people just sit out front screaming at each other, one of which is usually a stubborn employee who's being less than helpful. It's a great way to see all sorts of different people from different backgrounds interact at such an every-day kind of place like that.

Letter from Birminham Jail

Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" was a very interesting little piece of writing. I never knew that there was such a specific hot spot for racism and segregation. It really taught me a lot about Birmingham in specific, and a lot more about the mentality spreading through the South like wild fire. It's strange to think that all of this happened just one generation ago. It seems like the world has come so far since then, and a lot of it is attributed to Martin Luther King's actions. The letter really caught my attention with it's bizarre perspective, King writing from inside Birmingham jail. Even while he was imprisoned he was speaking out for equal rights and a stop to the injustices. The statement written by the Alabama Clergymen was trying to quell the activist movements, but this letter completely flipped it on its ear. By giving lesser thought of sides of the story King was able to spread his message to those who did not understand what he was trying to say. In my opinion, the perspective of being behind bars gave King's argument a raw and completely unquenchable passion that showed that he would not stop until equal rights were granted and racial injustice had ceased.

Entangling Roots

"Entangling Roots" was a pretty interesting little article. I liked this essay because it was about a hastily growing issue that hasn't gotten a lot of attention in the past. I thought it was good because it was very clearly written and the examples were pretty startling. I thought this a really informative essay. I had a brief knowledge on the subject. I have a lot of friends who have fallen to the addiction of online gaming, none as bad as the examples in the reading. It's almost ridiculous that this type of thing could become what it has; elevated to the point of being an epidemic in ours and other countries around the globe. The world's first virtual sickness or disease. The amount of money these people make a month is almost sickening. I thought it was definitely smart to bring up the topic of "money is the root of all evil". It obviously plays a major role in any addictive substance. Anywhere from crack to video games, everyone's just trying to make a quick buck.