I've been gone for quite awhile. I know I said I wouldn't blog again until Monday, but a friend brought me out of hibernation a little early.
I've been busy trying to fill my days with both track workouts and musical practice. In fact, I'm leaving my house in about five minutes for our last rehearsal. Opening night for Bye Bye Birdie is tomorrow. I'm excited for musical weekend and my first track meet next week.
The time is flying by. I have made my final college decision: Chapman. I wasn't accepted into USC. I can't say I was surprised. In fact, I think I might have been leaning toward Chapman all along. I don't know what it is - I just know it's the school for me.
Enough about me. What brings me here today is my friend Sara. Like myself, she is still working on scholarships. She wrote an essay about the importance of free speech and individuality. Both Sara and I have found these essential during our senior year as we prepare for college. Our generation needs to fight for our beliefs. After all, no one wants to live in a world where Big Brother limits your every move. Individuality is a beautiful thing.
To Sara, good luck. And to everyone else, have a nice weekend.
Check this out:
"Thousands of people stand around me, angrily shouting and thrusting their signs into the air. As the mass marches toward the Capital, I realize that these people are all standing in the frigid January temperatures in order for their voices to be heard and to exercise their rights under the first amendment. In response to the video, “Lukianoff on Free Speech,” censorship on college campuses is wrong; higher education should be promoting the education and dissemination of serious topics to further prepare students for life after school. Both national and international issues need to be discussed because younger generations will not learn to have a voice about serious issues facing our world in the coming years.
In my senior year of high school, I am taking a morality class in which we often get into debates about heavy moral issues such as abortion, capital punishment, and marriage. Before the year had begun, I had somewhat understood my views on these subjects, but was unable to fully defend my beliefs. As the year has progressed, my eyes were opened to the views of others who actually understand their views entirely and have defended them up until the end of each class. Through free speech, others have helped me to further formulate my personal views on global issues of importance, and I have found that I have become a well-rounded person. Instead of only speaking to those of my own generation about the hottest fashions and the newest songs, I can now speak to anyone; I am better able to understand and discuss my views. It is vital that we instill the values of open discussion and debate in our young adults before they enter the working world without ever having expressed themselves. Debating in classrooms and helping young adults to understand the various views of the world needs to be a higher priority for colleges. Colleges should be encouraging debates that allow students to express themselves and explore their own opinions. Without the right to free speech, students will come to believe that having a voice is inconsequential, along with the idea that one cannot be an individual. Everyone should have an opinion, along with the liberty to express that opinion, especially in a college setting where one is taught to question, examine, and discern.
In conclusion, censorship on campuses is a problem; one should be able to freely express his or her views and practice the use of his or her voice like the people I witnessed marching toward the Capitol. If students can engage in an open debate with the guidance of a professor, it may help some of the students to refine their own opinions. Colleges should stop ignoring and making light of the first amendment and start educating the future of the world, because without it the nation’s voice will become obsolete. Society needs to break the silence and make some noise to prevent a lackluster future for the land of the free."
