St. Olaf as a Place...and What a Place

The reading for today's class mostly focused on places as dense facts, which is really a divergence from how I had been thinking about dense facts. Once the concept was discussed in class though, it started to make a lot of sense. In fact, the way that places like colleges or towns are planned can say a lot about both the planners and the inhabitants of the community. This is true about St. Olaf as well. Just by looking at the building complex that includes Rølvaag Memorial Library, Buntrock Commons, and Boe Chapel, a lot can be discerned about the type of community that uses these facilities. To begin, there is a chapel, so it's safe to assume a large portion of the community has some sort of religious beliefs. By looking at the large cross on the top, it is also safe to assume that the affiliation of the community is of some sort of Christian denomination. Judging by the fact that the three aforementioned buildings are connected by tunnels, one could assume that there is some sort of reason why for part of the year it is less than ideal to be walking around outside. In this case, the culprit is the Minnesota winter. After walking through the tunnel, one will see hundreds and hundreds of post office boxes, and none of them have locks. In fact, on Fridays some even have pretty little flowers poking out. This is an indication of both the trust and safety provided by this community as well as of its friendly nature. In Buntrock, one large, wonderful cafeteria can be found, which serves all of St. Olaf. Although students may not realize it, this too is a testament to the togetherness of our community. Just try and keep that in mind next time you try and get dinner at 6 PM on a weeknight. I could go on with this for pages and pages....but frankly neither of us want that to happen. I think I have made my point abundantly clear; a place both changes and is changed by the people that inhabit it. Although it may will get cold on the Hill in coming months, there will also definitely be a certain warmth as well. To quote Mark Twain, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."

Paul Johnson's View of John Winthrop

In A History of the American People, Paul Johnson very boldly calls John Winthrop the "first great American Son of a Suffolk squire." (pg. 31)  This is not a negative title that Johnson is bestowing on Winthrop, but an exultation of him. How he justifies this title as the chapter continues is what confounds me. Later in the same paragraph though, Johnson mentions Winthrop's "uncompromising Puritan views." (pg. 31) Maybe Paul Johnson and I have different opinions of what it means to be a great American. Later on in the chapter, Johnson says of Winthrop, "He rejoiced at providential news that the Indians within a range of 300 miles, 'are swept away by small-pox...so God hath hearby cleared our title to the place." Hold up...calling the destruction of a group of people for 300 miles a sign from God and rejoicing at it isn't exactly what I would call great American-like behavior. I understand that times were different then, but that doesn't justify exalting this man's actions. The part I have the most problem with is this one though:

"Under John Winthrop, whose first spell as governor lasted 1630-4, it got the kind of firm, even harsh, government a new colony needs. In effect it was a theocracy." (pg.38)

Saying someone was a good and powerful leader is something completely different than calling a man the first great American Son of a Suffolk squire, because the latter implies that the person being described is an embodiment of what it means to be American. Although John Winthrop lived before America existed, by giving him this title posthumously Johnson is saying just this. I don't think someone who instates and and forcefully upholds a theocracy while being "quite ruthless in dealing with any kind of dissent"(pg. 39) and "imposing orthodoxy on the colony by punishment, exclusion, and banishment." (pg. 43)  embodies what it means to truly be American. Then again, maybe Paul Johnson and I have different ideas about what it means to be American.

This evening I received a time slot for my radio show on the campus radio station. Although this seems like a common occurrence here in America, as the guidelines of what can and can't be said on the air were rattled off I started thinking exactly how incredible the freedom of speech we have is. I have the opportunity to express my opinions no matter how radical they may be on the radio as long as I don't do so in a vulgar way. And now that I think of it I could spout whatever nonsense I want on this blog too. As modern day Americans I think we sometimes fail to realize how great our freedom of speech is. On your radio you can find viewpoints from Rush Limbaugh's to Alex Jones's and anywhere in between. We take for granted this free press when other areas of the world are literally fighting and dying for this kind of freedom. Is the American media perfect? Of course not, but that's a topic for another blog post. The face of the press is changing daily though too. In today's world almost anyone in America could start a blog and many have. This personal expression is form a sort of new media where an outsider can look in and see just how many different citizens about an event because they're willing to tell the world through the internet, and they are certainly able. This new media could prove to be an enormously valuable resource. To quote an entry on The Library of Congress Blog on the Library's decision to archive every public tweet ever made on Twitter (found here):

 "I’m no Ph.D., but it boggles my mind to think what we might be able to learn about ourselves and the world around us from this wealth of data.  And I’m certain we’ll learn things that none of us now can even possibly conceive."


I think it's important for Americans to reflect on just how powerful all our voices can be, especially in a nation where they aren't being supressed by the government. It really is something many people take for granted. 

Freedom in an Object

I've decided to post my paragraph on what freedom means to me through the use of a dense fact so as to allow students in the other section of AmCon to view my work. Here it is:

The freedom of personal expression is a freedom that Franklin Delano Roosevelt fails to mention in his four freedoms speech. This freedom is as just as, if not more, important in the 21st century as it has been in the history America.  To represent this freedom of personal expression I chose a ball of yarn. Recently, I have picked up the hobby of knitting. This of course is not a typical hobby among eighteen year old American males. By choosing knitting as an expression of freedom I very purposely decided to touch on the ability of Americans to break free of gender stereotypes in ways unheard of, and even outlawed, in other areas of the world. Another aspect of knitting that I believe embodies our freedom as Americans is the self determination of the activity. Much like living in America, one is given resources (in this case a ball of yarn) and maybe even a pattern to follow, but what one does with what they have been given is completely up to them. In America, much like in knitting, an individual is free to express them self how ever they choose regardless of gender stereotype or whether or not others like what they’re doing with their yarn. How one uses their yarn is completely up to them, and what they do with it is an expression of their identity.  

To Complain is American

In Amy Tan's article, "To Complain is American" she opens by stating that she "finds it disconcerting to gripe in public. It goes against the tenets of how I was raised." Although it would be blissfully ironic to me if Tan went on to aimlessly complain in her published article; she does not. She instead expounds on her ability as an American writer to exercise her freedom of speech, and how her ability to do so can vary depending on where in the world she is. This emphasis on the freedoms the First Amendment grants Americans reminded me of a quote by one of my favorite historians, Howard Zinn. In an interview Zinn said, "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." It is through the use of the freedoms granted to us in the Constitution that we are able to best honor this important document and all that it embodies. This is why I had such a problem with the dissenting opinions that were voiced to Terry Tempest Williams commencement address at the University of Utah. Essentially what she was saying to the graduates was "Question. Stand. Speak. Act." Regardless of political ideology, I think it is important that an individual questions what they are being told to blindly accept and arrive at their own conclusion. Whether someone decides that they fit with the Democrats, the Republicans, the anarchists, the communists, or somewhere else on the broad political spectrum should be a choice they discern after much personal contemplation and meditation. That process will require asking a lot of questioning, but it is important that those questions are asked. Although Amy Tan says that to complain is American, T.T. Williams asks her audience to go a step further. Act.

Test Post

This is my first attempt at posting on a blog. I never really saw myself as a blogging kind of guy, but here we are. I have decided, in the spirit of the First Amendment, to start off by not moderating comments. We'll see how that goes. On this blog I will expound on both things from my American Conversations class, as well as information and scenarios I encounter outside of the hallowed halls of academia that I think relate to the class. Now I will try to add a picture. If you can see it, it worked.