Learning Reflection

I was not aware that prior to the thanksgiving dinners held by European colonists, Native Americans had been holding harvest festivals for centuries. I was also surprised to find that the bird of choice for dinner during the early period was in fact wild fowl and not turkey? After reading the two descriptions of the holiday (especially the quote from Edward Winslow) I was impressed to see the large emphasis on generosity and coming together of different people to give thanks to different Gods and how this still relates to contemporary situations today.

One thing that I am glad has changed over the years is the regulation concerning social status. In my home you get to eat whatever you please and it astounds me that things were any different in our history.

Second week virtues

Family: my family is continue to my life I have to take care of it

Growing up I lived under the same roof and ate at the same table as my parents and siblings until I was old enough to marry and start a family of my own. Because of my positive upbringing I have strong emotions towards the notion of family life and how things in a household should be. Spending time together is a very important staple in my life and it is something I press upon with my wife and children continually. My understanding of family has developed over the years and many experiences have helped shaped the beliefs I hold today.

The traditional notion of family has come a long way and as with all things, it has changed over time. Sometimes I wonder if it is just me, or does it seem harder to raise a family nowadays?

Regardless I make it my duty to provide and take care of my family and so far I believe I am doing ok. I try very hard to set a healthy example of how a safe family should coexist for my own children. By doing this I hope to instil in them positive notions on relationships so that when they are ready to start a family of their own, they too can set an example to their children. It’s sometimes hard to learn to collaboration with people in your family who have opposing ideas to you; but this is defiantly something I am working on. I also expect equal and valuable contributions in effort and time from every family member.
One thing I would like to improve on however is bridging the gap between members whom I feel distant to and involving them in my life more actively. Family to me is absolutely the biggest priority of my life and it is where the majority of my effort and time goes into, well worth the effort I believe.

Patrick Henry

St. Johns Church:
Walking up the hill towards St. Johns Church, where the world has been set, then repeated by thousands of politicians in the world, “Give me liberty or give me death.” When I walked up the steps to the church, I felt that the people were still there. You feel like Patrick Henry is saying his speech to them over and over again. Walking inside the church, I saw a guy dressed from the 1800s that was explaining to the groups of people and tourists about this moment in history, but I didn’t give any attention to him. I felt the spirit in the church and I kept hearing Patrick Henry giving his speech.

Extra Credit

Edgar Allen Poe Museum:
5 dollars with a AAA card is all you have to pay to learn more and see the interesting pictures and life stories of Edgar Allen Poe. Walking inside, you feel the spirit of sadness in the atmosphere. There is no life inside the rooms. It is quiet and dark. Whatever we say or talk about Edgar Allen Poe, is not enough words to show how he expresses his feelings and writes his poems. He provides to the world genuine writing that we will never be able to forget. His poems and stories will be taught throughout the future.

This is what I thought after I read the Raven.

"The Raven: is a symbol of imagination for a man that imagines a raven is a message from God, intended to relieve him from the pain because of how much he has suffered with a great loss. Also, the raven reflected Poe’s life experiences, including living a life of poverty and being orphaned at a young age and the losses of his beloved wife, and death after a long illness. As he lived a life full of negativity, he had a depressive state of mind over his loss. He lives in deep darkness.
The dark night remind him how weak, lonely and sorrowful he felt. It also reminded him of his lost love, Lenore. He gets a feeling and accepts what has happened in his life and he will accept the end. His wife soul and his past are constantly tapping at the door and then the window in order to make him remember.
"The Raven" is a sign of death. Also, the word, “Nevermore” shows that the narrator had enough pain in his life.
If we look to the raven as a massage from his wife, we will find the beauty and love of how he wanted to remember her or how her soul came back to visit her beloved husband.
If we look to the raven as sad and dark tale, we will see the death that came to take him away or to remind him the painful past?

Learning reflections for week 12

Virtues would be important to the well being of our society for many reasons except for the fact that we can hardly ever use it. If people used virtues all the time society would be in a very different place. I realize that no matter how skilled I am, I can always improve my abilities to prepare better to solve problems, make decisions, or decide in a reasonable and reflective way and make better choices.

Short List of My virtues

1) Family; your family is your life, therefore you have to take care of it

2) Temper; negative temper puts you down, positive temper cheers you up


3) Society; treat every person the way you want to be treated

4) Honesty; Be honest with yourself before you can be honest with others

5) Self content; internal determination means you should never give up


6) Destiny; if you want to liver, you destiny answer your call

7) Successes; Look behind and learn and Look to front to achieve


8) Personality; by knowing yourself you will able to know the others

9) Religion; belief in your heart and between you and God, talk about Abraham “Father of the Profits”


10) Communication; count till 10 before you say the world

11) Peace; starts in the humans mind not in humans acts


Hard work, self- discipline and a yearning for success have been some of the virtues I have maintained my entire life. I longed to be like those great people from the past who have achieved something and left their mark in our history.

As I am a determined person, I was determined to make these virtues a part of my daily routine. By organizing my thoughts into positive feelings I could maintain control (to some degree) of the days’ outcome. Sometimes I would try to place each one of the virtues I would like to work on in a particular day on a separate page in a small book (I learnt tis from the great Benjamin Franklin) and it is something that I must work harder on doing because that precise mental exercise really does work. It gets me thinking about how to achieve the particular virtue I have chosen for the day and I remain focused on achieving that goal and carrying it out. I also try to evaluate my performance with regard to each of the virtues on a daily basis however I aim to only have one main virtue to focus on for each week so that my goal is realistic and achievable. Furthermore by realizing that no one is perfect it actually inspires me to persevere when I have been feeling out of touch with my virtuous side and therefore I have the strength to keep going. I have promised myself to work on them for the rest of my life and make them a guide and support of my character. It is my own personal battle to improve on them every day in my life and it is a war that I am winning.

Honesty; be honest with yourself before you can be honest with others (this is what I am trying to improve)

Being honest with each other is getting harder these days; almost as hard as being honest with yourself. It’s not rare to find ourselves lying to our own minds let alone the dishonesty we express towards other people.

Unfortunately it is so much harder to tell the truth when you know what you are about to say may cause hurt to someone. I know lying is wrong and that regardless of the situation I should always tell the truth, however in some circumstances it just seems out of the question. One example is in my work place (as I am a hair dresser) I have to lie to keep my customers happy. For example if a customer picks a hair colour that I know will look ridiculous on him/her, I can only give my honest opinion to a certain degree or I will risk losing their business.
By stating ‘be honest with yourself before others’ I mean to say that once we have conquered our own demons inside we are strong enough to face the truth on the outside. If I am honest with myself then I can trust myself; and if I trust myself then I know myself better and have a stronger understanding of what is right and true. Therefore I can more easily portray this notion of truth through my communications with others and be honest with them completely. It is my goal to maintain this practice of refining my stance on telling the truth without hesitation, I would like it to become a second nature and something that flows easily as it should be.

Committee Response week 12

Harrison: I agree with you about the Global Warming, also, about Society, it is true has changed. Also, we should work to make to the earth more Green.
Deb: I always like your writing; you’re always passionate, motivational, and encouraging.
Margie: I like your solution for slavery, if everyone thinks like you we will be in better place.
Seth: I agree with you on spending in campaigns, it is outrageous, but my friend if you see the corruption in other country you will find out we are living in heaven.

Andy: I like the way you are comparing slavery, and I agree with you.

Reading this week was great, I liked the group’s thoughts and opinions.

Learning reflections for week 11

last a twelve weeks I learn to practice critical thinking is self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way. By practicing critical thinking steps, it effects my future decisions in a positive way, by using the intellectual tools that critical thinking offer – concepts and principles that able to analyze, assess, and improve my thinking. Also, it would prevent a lot of conflict because I would stop myself from saying ignorant and offensive things.

Week 11 Assignment

Rights, freedom, liberty, and happiness are the abstractions the birth of the Declaration of Independence gave us. They have also become the foundations of this country and helped to shape the cultural Identity of the America. Another abstraction that plays a major part in the Declaration of Independence is power.
The power sets the tone and shapes the citizen’s ideas of government and society. Throughout history, power is meant to strengthen the ability to do something in the strangest way. The power of government or social institutions rests in their ability to command people to do something they otherwise would not do and explains how to make the people pay taxes. The world power is the Declaration of Independence (it was the first sentence of the Declaration criticized the King's violation of powers given by god to all men).
The work that created the constitution was from group of men, who are the corner stone in our country and part of the turning point for generations to come. They were men who greatly helped shape America’s independence. Every one of the founding fathers has a unique way of thinking and a brilliant mind. If we wanted to talk about them, it would hard on us to describe them because there are not enough words to describe what they did , and the great impact they had an this country.
In my reading about Thomas Jefferson what he believe to be interesting. He believed the best way to have a government was to have worked for the people and be supported by the people. The government can be a mirror of the people; the better educated the people, the better the quality of government. In the late eighteenth century a brilliant and politically motivated man from Virginia is known most notably as the author of the Declaration of Independence. He played a significant part in developing the political parties we see today. He was our third president Thomas Jefferson. Also, he was behind Bill of Rights and the religious freedom which they were intended to protect individual and natural rights of people.

Benjamin Franklin was a scientist, inventor, and politician also he had many slaves himself, but he changed his belief after visiting an African American school where he saw that the children were equally and smart as white children. He was the first American who went beyond being a simple icon of America’s conquest for freedom, but he is truly an American hero.

Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Franklin believed our government would be the first in modern history to be based on rational ideas rather than traditions. The hero’s working together set the country free; as a result this spread to democracy and freedom abroad.

Slave Poem

Pain Pain they hold me by a chain
I work hard to buy my freedom, the price is the pain
I try to run away, they catch me again
They beat me and the blood gushed from my veins
How has the right to justify and abuse of my soul, cruelty still able to continue again?
From owner to owner, they played with me a game
The trees felt my pain and the rocks said not again
Pain Pain Pain
The whip said it isn't enough pain
The tear dripped on the rocks, and drew the word pain
Does anyone know where I remain?

Extra Credit

Hi, today I was reading about Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry after I finish I went to see the sit were the statue was adopted between 14th and Cary Street. In my way there, I felt and expect to see the two man shaking hand Ha-ha. I did ask sever people there were the statue shame not many knows anything finally I sow written word on the wall in parking lot. This is the pictures.

Learning week 10

After reading the essays and the classmates’ comments, I learned how much we are lucky that we live in such a place where we can express our feelings by writing or talking about them. I learned a lot about the history of slaves and how much it was expensive to gain freedom. I learned about the great people that made a difference in this world and how they were disobedient by fighting for their rights. Segregation is only one of the examples that I can name. When we read about these people including Thoreau, Dr. King, and Thomas Jefferson, people see how they made a difference in the world that we are living in today. They inspired reforms and overturning the injustice into justice. They put the steps from words that were written on a piece of paper to the actual events that occurred. They were the solid foundations that affected the freedom that we have today.

Comment week 9

Margie: After I saw the web site, it is terrible how in some places the savage behavior still exists and no one does anything about it. If we ask a thousand questions, why, why, I don’t think we will find the answer. Because the world busy with something else. Thanks for sharing this information.

Deb: I like the way you think you are a great person with a big heart. I like what you wrote “Yes, we live our little, basically wonderful lives and bitch and complain, but we are so very blessed! Many times, I have shed tears for what others suffer and what so many others could/should be doing for them.”