Dr. Sekou's Talk10/14/2018 Dr. Sekou has a really interesting background in terms of his family background and his community. Though born poor, he got a lot of support from his family and the people around him that led him to be knowledgeable and receive good education. He has done lots of service work through his school year and before becoming a teacher. I think it connects to the work I have done by the idea of “giving back.” He himself had explained to us the reason why he does what he wants to do is because that he growing up poor makes him want to fix the social issues. In A Path Appears, we see different organizations help the people in need. In the Kiva activity, students uses their own understanding in helping others. An important lesson I learn from that is we should do what we can do in shaping the world. Dr. Sekou listed some stages in achieving this goal. He mentions that we need to understand the world first and really plan to take action. Then, we need to reflect back on how this issue affect us and changes the world. Yes, results are important. This is crucial because we need to make sure we are not wasting our time but really doing something important. He mentioned at last by telling us that this world is worth fighting, I think that’s why people never lose hope- because they know that there will be people willing to help them out of the issues.
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Freshly Squeezed10/14/2018 There were a lot of things that I agreed on, especially what the psychologist said. She suggested that when people have differences, especially during political debates, you can’t control what people say so the only thing you can do is to understand them. Sometimes, it is necessary to think and discuss in a different perspective. She called it “Trading Place” that allows two parties to reach concuses, and that’s what the politics need right now. Sometimes, people are lack of empathy, that they are not able to stand in another person’s position. When this situation happens, one should respect the other sides’ position but still argue against it. Then the three people discussed the status quo: they stated that nowadays, no one listens on social media, that people just blindly argue without clear thoughts. And it is crucial for both parties to realize their own sides’ problems and bring the balance back without being passive. The politics now is getting more and more polarized, that people are kind of forced to take a side (either red or blue). There four people there wanted us to realize that people can actually agree on other side’s view and that’s ok.
They talked about a thing which I think is pretty new and interesting, which is, to create the everyday democracy. They suggested to create and practise political debates which are real, and useful debates instead of the status quo- which is, instead of trying to convince the other side, they just wanted victory. They also mentioned the use of language, that in politics it would be better to put your own values aside in order to achieve consensus, which I don’t necessarily agree on, since sometimes, depending on the situation, people’s own values still matter and it could be inevitable. At last, this event is pretty relatable to the Simon Hart class. The game he asked us to play was basically about thinking in a different perspective. I think, if people would achieve this goal in politics, there would be less useless arguments and more informal ideas. |