Fish Out of Water: Queer and Asian Panel

Word count: 439

Attending the "Queer and Asian Panel: Religion and Spirituality" on campus gave me a much deeper look into the views and lifestyles of others who are much different from myself.

The event itself was very small scale and was held in the Mod A building on Tuesday from 6-7:30 p.m.

The panel consisted of four individuals from various religious and cultural backgrounds.

The thing that tied them all together was their Asian background, which played a role in not only their religion, but also their gender choices and how it has affected their families as well as themselves.

The religious backgrounds consisted of Buddhism, Catholicism, Christianity and agnostic.

Ethnic backgrounds consisted of Vietnamese, Korean and Mexican.

After hearing each panelist speak about his or her life I began to understand the intense diversity our world has to offer.

It was difficult to wrap my head around certain ideas at times because of my heavily Christian upbringing.

The ideas and beliefs I heard were very foreign to me at times, which prompted me to think about my own views and beliefs as a person.

It was quite evident that the ties between gender and religion go hand in hand in many cases.

Because many religions do not condone homosexuality, the panelists explained the changes and alterations each of them made in order to continue practicing their religion.

In one case, one of the panelists dropped her religion completely and became agnostic.

Because of religious rules and family concerns, it makes sexual variation a very difficult process to incorporate within one's life.

At times, the answers each panelist had to the questions concerning their religion and family lives made me very sad because each of their answers had undertones of hopelessness.

That doesn't necessarily mean they are all sad, but it was very apparent that each of them is fighting a continuous battle both in their outside lives and within themselves.

This outside battle for many of them is in large part due to their parents and the traditional Asian lifestyles they have been raised in.

The lack of understanding on the parents behalf is a direct result, in most cases, of the religion they partake in.

From this I came to realize that we all have something inside of ourselves that we are battling.

Every person has struggles and dilemmas in their lives because we are all human beings.

If we step back from the labels and titles we all wear on a consistent basis we may finally begin to see one another for who we are as people and not our sexual orientations or religious affiliations.

Japanese Internment Summary

Word count: 310

In the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor, more than 110,000 Japanese Americans were placed in what the United States called, "War Relocation Camps," but in all reality they were concentration camps.

Despite the reasoning behind these unethical camps, treatment was subjective to location for Japanese Americans.

All Japanese Americans on the West Coast were interned, but only a small percentage of Japanese Americans in Hawaii were given similar treatment.

This is odd because at the time there were more than 150,000 Japanese Americans who made up more than a third of Hawaii's population.

Executive order 9066 was put into effect on February 19, 1942.

Authorized by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, it allowed for military personnel to create "exclusion zones," which were used to exclude all Japanese persons from the Pacific Coast.

These areas included California and parts of Oregon, Washington and Arizona.

Despite the questionable actions taken by the United States Government, the Supreme Court ruled that the exclusion orders were indeed constitutional.

To make matters worse, the United States Census Bureau was directly involved in disclosing addresses and personal information of Japanese Americans, leading directly to the interment of many Japanese Americans.

It was not until 2007 that the United States Census Bureau's involvement was proven.

Until that point, it was denied that it had any involvement at all.

To appease tensions and uneasy feelings amongst many Japanese American citizens, Ronald Reagan signed legislation that apologized for the atrocities committed against the Japanese Americans in 1942.

Lack of political leadership, war paranoia and racial prejudice were all included as reasons for the United States actions in the legislation signed by Reagan.

Shortly thereafter, about $1.6 billion in reparations were distributed amongst Japanese American citizens who were directly interned or to the heirs of others who had been interned.

Unfortunately, no amount of money will make up for the choices made by the United States in 1942.

Descriptive Feature: The Statues of Tommie Smith and John Carlos

Word count: 251

Standing at 20 feet tall, the statues of Tommie Smith and John Carlos represent peaceful protest in an age of oppression and violence.

The structure is supported by a cement podium made to resemble the actual podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games in which Smith took first place and Carlos took third.

Both statues were built by a San Francisco artist named Rigo, who used a combination of fiberglass stretched over steel to construct the life-like representations of Smith and Carlos.

Blue hexagon-shaped mosaic tiles cover the surface of the statues to create the track suits worn by both athletes at the time of their protest.

Along the sides of their pants are red and white mosaic tiles that create a white and red stripe.

Green, red and yellow tiles create necklaces around the necks of both men and a white badge with the caption, "Olympic Project for Human Rights" rests on their jackets.

The black gloves worn by both men represent civil rights, which was the sole focus of their protest, not black pride.

By each of their feet lays a black Puma athletic shoe to represent poverty and oppression.

By taking their shoes off they were able to show their black socks, which also represented civil rights at the time.

Both shoes are hollow and are made of steel.

Smith's number, 307, is placed on his back in navy tiles with a white background and Carlos' number, 259, has also been placed on his back.

Word of the week #10

1. Tragicomic

2. I found this word in a reading from my philosophy class.

3. Sentence where word was found: But the conception our time holds of technology - let the reader reflect a moment on his own - places us in a really tragicomic situation.

4. Definition: A play or novel containing elements of both comedy and tragedy; Part of speech: noun.

5. My sentence: Many plays written by Shakespeare may be describe as being tragicomics because of their use of tragedy and comedy.

Word of the week #9

1. Profundities

2. I found this word in a reading for my philosophy class.

3. Sentence where word was found: If we seriously intend to find an answer, we must be ready to plunge into certain unavoidable profundities.

4. Definition: Great insight; Great depth of knowledge or thought; Part of speech: noun.

5. My sentence: The library is a vast sea of profundities and answers to questions that would otherwise seem abstract.

Word of the Week #8

1. Corroborating

2. I found this word while reading a book for my linguistics class.

3. Sentence where word was found: Evidence corroborating the claim that the mind contains blueprints for grammatical rules comes, once again, out of the mouths of babes and sucklings.

4. Definition: confirm of give support to (a statement, theory, or finding); Part of speech: verb.

5. My sentence: His corroborating words encouraged her to chase her dreams.

Word of the Week #7

1. Venerable

2. I found this word while reading quotes from my favorite novel, Siddhartha.

3. Sentence where word was found: He had started to suspect that his venerable father and his other teachers, that the wise Brahmans had already revealed to him the most and best of their wisdom, that they had already filled his expecting vessel with their richness, and the vessel was not full, the spirit was not content, the soul was not calm, the heart was not satisfied.

4. Definition: Accorded a great deal of respect, esp. because of age, wisdom, or character; Part of speech: adjective.

5. My sentence: He paid his resects to his venerable grandfather after he passed away on Friday.