Debate Suggestions

I think that the debate on Tuesday had a lot to offer the class, but there are too many big personalities in the class. Other people who aren't so charasmatic or opinionated should be given a chance to speak. Maybe we should consider instituting a cap on the amount of times a person can speak per debate to ensure that everything runs smoothly.

Dream

I think that the earliest dream I can remember was this bizarre one that involved the museum back in my hometown. Maybe it's because I went there earlier in the week, but whatever the reason was this really freaked me out. I was placed underneath the giant skeleton of a triceratops that is displayed right in the entrance of the place. Then, out of nowhere a man comes by and asks if I want to get on top of it. He places me on top of this giant triceratops skeleton, which then collapses underneath me. I can't ever go into that place without thinking about that.

Reflection

Over the course of my research on felony disenfranchisement, I learned a multitude of things, the main one being that people don't really like the idea of those with opposing ideas having a say in their lives and the system that they support.  This fear is very real, and I think is an interesting flaw in the democratic system that I hadn't seen before. The fact that opposition to enfranchisement of criminals is so vigorous and strong in some circles was really jarring to me. I think the entire concept of "prisoner's rights" is a really controversial one, especially here in the states, and it shouldn't be. There needs to be a multitude of good work done by prisoner's advocate groups and former prisoners themselves to change the general mood of the populace into one which supports a more humane treatment of criminals.
In making the video, I found that the most difficult aspect of everything was getting the sound to work correctly and the glare from my computer screen to not show up (which I failed to fix). It was also really difficult to find a lot of sources on my topic because it's a topic that isn't discussed much, at least here in the states. A lot of sources that I found were sources form Australia and the UK. It was also really difficult to cut my speech down to an appropriate time frame. When you're writing a speech, especially an opinion one, you just sort of start pouring out words onto paper and you don't even realize how much you've written until you're done. There were a lot more points that I wanted to make that I simply didn't have the time to.