I really had no idea what to expect of this first class. After the orientation on Sunday, I got a little more comfortable with the idea of sitting in a room with 28 other students discussing topics such as national security or freedom of speech. Getting to know the other PLAers helped a bit as did some advice from the older class telling us to have an open mind and to not be afraid to stand up for our opinions even if they are about to get shut down. I am one of those students who has ideas but is afraid that those ideas may be wrong and I tend to not share them. Yet, inevitably someone else shares the exact same point of which I was thinking. It has taken me some time to work on getting over this fear of being wrong, or having my opinion challenged and I really think that this class will help with both. I am definitely going to have my opinion challenged--it is now my responsibility to defend my opinion while still having an open mind to the opinions of others.
The end of class started an interesting conversation on what we think about the Islamic religious center being built down the street from where the World Trade Center once stood. The question that got me thinking was "would you ask the people who want to build this center to move to a different location or would you defend their right to let them stay where they are?" In class today I answered that I would ask them to move--a block from Ground Zero seems like a very odd place to have an Islamic religious center, especially when so many people are against the idea. But after thinking about it and listening to the views of other PLAers, asking the religious center to move seems like taking the easy way out. Asking them to move would not be the right thing to do because it would deny the founders of this center their Constitutional right to freedom of religion: the right to build religious buildings where they want. While many people are against it, I wonder why so many people are worrying about this issue. What do I care if an Islamic religious center is being built in New York? There is construction going on all around us--yet this is the building the media is focusing on because of 9/11. Why are we still letting that tragic event dictate our lives? Yes it was horrible and many innocent lives were lost that day. But it has been nine years since the attack. Nine years. In Israel, after a terrorist attack has occurred the Israelis work as quickly as possible to get their lives back together--they do not let the terrorism rule their lives. The attack may happen, and it is an event in their lives, but it does not define their lives. By continuing to question whether or not this religious center should be built, we are letting the events of September 11th and the terrorist who caused those attacks to define our lives. We can remember the event and memorialize it, but we do not need to let 9/11 affect the way we live the rest of our lives. If this building were to be built before 9/11, it would not matter, so why should it matter now?
The end of class started an interesting conversation on what we think about the Islamic religious center being built down the street from where the World Trade Center once stood. The question that got me thinking was "would you ask the people who want to build this center to move to a different location or would you defend their right to let them stay where they are?" In class today I answered that I would ask them to move--a block from Ground Zero seems like a very odd place to have an Islamic religious center, especially when so many people are against the idea. But after thinking about it and listening to the views of other PLAers, asking the religious center to move seems like taking the easy way out. Asking them to move would not be the right thing to do because it would deny the founders of this center their Constitutional right to freedom of religion: the right to build religious buildings where they want. While many people are against it, I wonder why so many people are worrying about this issue. What do I care if an Islamic religious center is being built in New York? There is construction going on all around us--yet this is the building the media is focusing on because of 9/11. Why are we still letting that tragic event dictate our lives? Yes it was horrible and many innocent lives were lost that day. But it has been nine years since the attack. Nine years. In Israel, after a terrorist attack has occurred the Israelis work as quickly as possible to get their lives back together--they do not let the terrorism rule their lives. The attack may happen, and it is an event in their lives, but it does not define their lives. By continuing to question whether or not this religious center should be built, we are letting the events of September 11th and the terrorist who caused those attacks to define our lives. We can remember the event and memorialize it, but we do not need to let 9/11 affect the way we live the rest of our lives. If this building were to be built before 9/11, it would not matter, so why should it matter now?
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