Political Background to American Culture: Discussion Response

I enjoyed the class discussion today (though I noted privately that though the male:female ratio was 2:9, the comments were about 1:1 male:female...... for months I've been collecting data like that. Just interesting, I think, that men are much more likely to comment and make their voices heard. Could be personality, could be taught, probably a combination of both. I probably made about half of the comments from women. oopsie.)

Nevertheless, there were some good comments made and I look forward to further discussions. The overall turn of the discussion seemed to move towards the relevancy of the Constitution and other Founding documents today... with the consensus being, we will always disagree. We even talked about how disagreement is often how we define ourselves, our boundaries, our beliefs. Opposition shapes us. We also touched on how people on either side of an issue can use the same evidences to support their position, and how many people have rarely (if ever) read documents like the Constitution or Declaration of Independence. Much of our information today is hearsay, passed along through the internet and social media.

And, of course, we touched on the irony of America being founded on radical rebellion against established government, yet now being quick to stamp down similar rebellions. We've clearly moved away from at least a few of our founding values, but is this a good thing or a bad thing? The answer depends on the individual. The dangers of labels like "liberal" or "conservative" were discussed, since so often this depends on context and individual.

One point that I especially liked was to consider how those in marginalized groups might have felt listening to the Gettysburg Address, hearing words like "conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" while still feeling the reality that life is America is not always this way for all people. It took decades for minority groups to be fully recognized as people, and many marginalized groups are still struggling with full acceptance and equality. It was just a good reminder to consider the feelings of others, how they might have felt at the time. :)