Class One

Class One





The first class was like any other first day of class, we went over the course syllabus and the professor's expectations and goals for our class. This is always interesting because it allows me a sneak peak at the work load for the semester along with the readings (most of which I complete in advance to allow longer amounts of time for reflection and interpretation). Upon enrolling in this class the only two reasons it appealed to me was
1. It fufilled my Urban Studies Requirement without my having to take any pre-requisites AND
2. The title seemed pretty cool
It made me think about a particular incident that took place about a week ago. I was walking my dogs by an area where I knew a robbery had taken place over some money and a cell phone. As I walked by this particular spot I saw blood-splatter on the ground. I quickly dismissed it. As the day wore on I didn't necessarily think about the actions that lead up to that blood splattered concrete, I just thought of the spatter itself. What shape it most resembled, the vivid color and so on. Finally towards the end of the night I realized that my quick dismissal of the incident was my desensitization of violence, cultivated through years and years of seeing it so closely that eventually I just became accustomed to such occurances. And other revelations dawned on me as well. A person should never just brush off an act of violance. Like love, violence is an act full of depth and in some case emotions. In the case of the blood-spatter, in my opinion the emotions were greed and envy. Some of the ideas we discussed in class revolved around violence as a result of greed, power, and money (an example would of course be slavery). In this class I look forward to analizing why violence is so saturated in our culture, history and art. Why do we continue to murder each other in the name of religion, money, or freedom?? Since the pages of our world's history seem to be based on positive ideals, but written in human blood and sweat I imagine we'll have ALOT to cover.

~Loriana