My VoiceThread Final

https://voicethread.com/share/12653909

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Annotation Reflection (I don’t know why the picture is that large sorry)

Even if you removed the archaic vocabulary and time splices, this book would still be a very difficult read. The family dynamic that the Dead’s have is very confusing, and never really gives the reader a completely accurate story. Many times I’ve been left to try and discern the truth from lies, like with the Doctors funeral story. While Macon II authoritatively states his side of the story with hard conviction, Ruth’s story is told through the lense of love, which makes us sympathize with her. Specifically on page 63, a lot of information about Macon II gets thrown at us, without a lot of answers. To add onto this, Macon II’s views about his son and wife are not corrected by the narrator, so I can’t quite be sure of anything. Furthermore, dates of events are few and far between, and adding the splices in time just makes me feel like this book is intentionally trying to get me to put it in the dumpster. And although I really love the convoluted and emotional family dynamic the Dead’s have, it took me a while to get over the amount of incest happening.

I’ve tried addressing these challenges by asking questions while annotating, and reading out loud. It’s easy to glaze over important information while reading, so this strategy ensures that I catch most everything. I find myself asking a lot of questions, which has actually been a good strategy because I can ask these questions in class and get more opinions and ideas than I can think of on my own. Lastly, I think it’s important to look up definitions of words you don’t know while reading. Even if I think I can assume the meaning of something, it’s better to know exactly what the author is getting at because past events are often referenced more than once.

What I Know Of My Family’s History

Although I was almost named Virgil (after my dads maternal great grandpa), I fourunately received my dads legal name William, which I shortened to Will for obvious reasons. Before my dad, came my paternal grandpa, Terry Birck, which gave my dad and I the last name Birck. My grandpa got the last name Birck from when my great grandmother married Stanley Birck. Not much is known about how we originally immigrated to the US, but my dad did that ancestry.com test and appearantly our family is mainly Scottish, English, and Irish. My family originally settled in Pennsylvania, with some of our family moving to Appalachia and Kentucky. My paternal great grandpa Tom Reed moved to Chicago to find work there. We don’t have a lot of meaningful family legends or anything, but great grandpa Virgil Slone allegedly bootlegged moonshine during the 20s which I think is pretty cool. You could say a family tradition we have is Reed Construction, originally Reed Plastering. The company was founded during the Worlds Fair in 1893, and is owned by my dad, making the company a ‘generation 5’ company. One thing I found to be pretty notable, was that only 3% of family businesses make it to ‘generation 4’ or beyond, making Reed Construction pretty special in my opinion. Terry, my paternal grandfather, faced a lot of adversity throughout his life. In 1940, he was born in Danville, IL, and later moved to Miami, FL. He moved schools a lot as a kid, as a result of unstable family life, and tried to join the army, but he was too young. When he finally reached 18, he enlisted as a flight engineer in Vietnam, and got to travel the world. He moved back to Chicago, met my grandma, and went on to be the 4th generation of Reed Construction. My dad has done almost endless research about our beginnings in America with little progress. In talking to him, I often found that my anscestors often went through a lot to achieve what they did. For example, Reed Plastering was allegedly sold for 1 dollar by Tom Reed. Knowing that makes me proud and of my family and is pretty humbling. Out of all the complexities of my family, one commonality I can find, is that we have historically strived to be hard working and determined, no matter what the circumstances are.

Is Hate Speech Constitutional?

In a recent poll, the Gallup Knight Foundation is finding that, “fewer students believe first amendment rights are more secure today than they were a year ago.” This comes during a time where free speech and its limitations are heavily debated. It’s a somewhat grey area where it’s hard to define when certain speech and expression is lawful and wether is it not.

When reading about these recent occurrences of hate speech on the internet I came across this quote. It reads, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” This is attributed to, but not written by, Voltaire. It’s implications to social media today are not as direct, and don’t apply as cleanly as they do to physical speech. However, it’s important to dissent, and to have the right to do it openly and honestly. Furthermore, it’s even more important to define what constitutes unlawful speech, and the parameters that govern language today. 

What constitutes hate speech? Can you constitutionally limit what people say? Is it possible to limit and police speech in the era of social media and technology?

The Real Problem

A new study done by a charity in the UK is finding that the percent of teens experiencing depression has reached 33%. The study which surveyed 15-18 year olds finds the number of people experiencing this problem is alarmingly high. Many researchers are worried that if those experiencing this problem don’t seek out help that it will lead to more issues as this generations reaches adulthood.

The problem with depression it’s such a taboo topic, and not often discussed enough in the media or in schools. Although this study was only done in the UK, the issue affects every corner of the globe. Depression far more common than most people think. The article, which promotes seeking help, talks about the Blues Programme, an organization devoted to helping the younger generation better understand depression and how to move past it. The article takes an important step towards redefining depression itself. However, I believe the problem may not be those who are experiencing depression, but how we interact, and help those people.

Do you think this issue should be discussed more? Why is depression a taboo topic if it’s so common? How do we as a society raise awareness for this issue?

Article - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/teenagers-mental-health-problems-emotional-well-being-action-children-a8589261.html

Are Overdoses Over With?

Recently, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have banded together almost unanimously so combat out opioid crisis. The bill to help prevent the trafficking, over-prescribing, and addictiveness of opioids.

This legislature shows great promise of making an impact, but some lawmakers are scared that the opioid epidemic in America wont disappear too quickly. On of the skepticisms comes from Patty Murray who says, “This is an important bill and it is an impactful step forward... The opioid crisis is ongoing and out efforts to address it must be as well.” Lastly, I encourage you all to read the whole article on the specifics of the bill here: (https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/03/politics/senate-opioids-legislation/index.html)

Do you think that this bill is cracking down hard enough on trafficking? What do you make of the bipartisan support for the bill? Can negative events and experiences be both a bridge and a border?

testing testing 123

whats up boooooys