I Dream a World

I dream a world where man

No other man will scorn,

Where love will bless the earth

And peace its paths adorn.

I dream a world where all

Will know sweet freedom's way,

Where greed no longer saps the soul

Nor avarice blights our day.

A world I dream where black or white,

Whatever race you be,

Will share the bounties of the earth

And every man is free,

Where wretchedness will hang its head

And joy, like a pearl,

Attends the needs of all mankind--

Of such I dream, my world!

From The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, edited by Arnold Rampersad (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994), p. 311.

The powerful poet Langston Hughes has written many wonderful and inspiring poems. Though some might ask who is Langston Hughes? He was an American poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best-known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance. He famously wrote about the Harlem Renaissance, saying that "Harlem was in vogue". He often wrote about the struggles that were happening in that time and how he felt about them.

As I read this poem by him above, I instantly could tell exactly where his point of view was. He also worded this poem in a way that was so spine chilling I couldn’t ignore what the poem is about. In this poem he speaks of a world where everyone is equal and “man No other man will scorn”. He states he dreams of a world where there is peace; people no longer have greed, “And joy, like a pearl, Attends the needs of all mankind”.

It is amazing how even now, forty-three years later, people are still dreaming of that same world. As I go day by day I notice more hatred people have towards each other than I would have ever imagined. Instead of being proud of a peers success people would rather talk in envy, killing people slowly with words and actions one would only think the devil could do.

I dream a world of kindness, forgiveness, and the ability to be swollen with pride of not only ones own success but the success of others as well. I dream a world where difference is embraced rather than shunned, and helping towards others is as involuntary as the beating of ones heart. A dream of which the smoggy clouds of despair will clear and people will then experience the beauty of the sky. As these entire things sound wonderful, and even though Langston Hughes and many other previous inspirational people couldn’t change the path of the world today, I believe maybe, just maybe a common dream such as this can come true in the years to come.

Race

September 11, 2001 the Twin Towers and World Trade Center were violently destroyed when a plane flew into each of them. Now, September 11, 2010, nine years later a huge controversy on whether or not there should be a building of the Islamic mosque in New York City just a few blocks from ground zero. Some don’t mind the building of a mosque in a diverse country while others revolt at the thought of one so close to ground zero.

Some people of the United States abide by the foundations of which our country was built, and don’t see any problem with the building of the Islamic mosque. On the other hand we have people that cannot stand the thought of the building of something representing “the people” that caused this devastating event to happen. When in reality it wasn’t the group of people that decided to destroy three of our important buildings, but were just some Islamic extremists. To go and blame the whole Islamic society is like accusing the entire population of the United States for a killing that a single man committed. Not only is this irrational but is also an assumption that only shows signs of stupidity and a lack of understanding. This controversy has widely divided the country in two, those who approve of it and those who deny it. This has resulted in many unbelievable actions.

The lack of knowledge of some of the US people results in immature behaviors such as the treat of the burning of the Koran, at a church in Florida. This is attracting global attention as it organizes a "Burn the Koran" day to commemorate the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Pastor Terry Jones, leader of Dove World Outreach Center and author of a book called Islam is the Devil, says Islam is a "violent and oppressive" faith, and that the only way to stop Muslim terrorists is to expose their religion "for what it is."

Actions like this only result from the ignorance and hatred of those that are against change and anything that is not what they are used to, putting our troops in more danger as they fight in Afghanistan. They gather the support of the uneducated by saying things that they know people are afraid of. They didn’t state that the Islamic community is “the devil” based off of fact, but stated it knowing that they can easily convince those who are scared or have no knowledge of the truth to join them in bashing another religion.

I believe that in the United States we have so much diversity that in the end we are all somehow related. This is because we all came to this country to escape the hatred and lack of freedom. So as I notice people bashing each other we might as well be showing that same hatred toward our families.

The term race or racial group usually refers to the categorization of humans into populations or ancestral groups on the basis of various sets of heritable characteristics. What I also believe is that race can also group people with the things they have in common. We all came to this country for change and what I see now is not any different from the cruelty so many of our ancestors escaped before. As quoted on the statue of liberty “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” I have noticed over the years that our nation has slowly taken action of just the opposite. Building a two thousand mile long fence to keep our southern neighbors out, having so much paperwork to fill out to become a citizen that it takes years to even get close, and making laws that only allow people to show racism towards each other. This isn’t what our ancestors fought for; they didn’t go through all that trouble just to see us undo everything they have done. If we keep acting like this, we will eventually cause people to flee our nation as they did before when they came here for a new beginning.

Cultural Underpinnings of Literature

The United States today would not be what it is without taking bits and pieces from every culture ever imagined. That is one of the reasons why the United States started, so that people wouldn’t have to hide what they are or how they feel. As our country has evolved there are plenty of things that people may or may not agree upon, but as we can date back a lot of our “habits” today are from the many different religious beliefs of our ancestors. One of the most influential religious beliefs that helped mold our perception of things is the Judeo–Christian paradigm.

Though, before I can even get started explaining how this mixture of two cultures helped shape our thoughts, what does Judeo-Christian mean? Christianity emerged from Judaism in the first century of the Common Era. Christians brought , from Judaism, the belief in one god, including a priesthood, concepts of sacred space and sacred time, the idea that worship here on Earth is patterned after worship in Heaven, and the use of the Psalms in community prayer. The term was used in the United States of America in an attempt to create a civil religion, which by embracing Judaism avoids the appearance of anti-Semitism.

I believe that a big part of our countries founding and actions is from the paradigm of the Judeo-Christian tradition, even though we are free to practice any religion or no religion at all. However, the debate still rages between those who seek to eradicate all traces of Judeo-Christian philosophy from our government and those who seek to preserve those principles.

Everything we know is some form of Judeo-Christian tradition, and to separate the idea of civil rights from the Judeo-Christian principle of moral obligation and the idea of a higher power is to devalue our liberty as United Citizens. As Alexander Hamilton argued, to separate the two concepts is "the most manifest violation of justice." Espoused by Enlightenment philosophers such as John Locke and as stated in the Declaration of Independence, the rights to life and liberty are ordained from no less a power than God.

Judeo-Christian traditions are in everything that we do, from going to the mall to buy new clothes or to the doctors to get a checkup. Our activities of our daily lives are many modifications of how the monasteries ran things in the Common Era.

So even though there might be a lot of controversy of the Government forcing a religion onto its people, this is not all that true. As evidence by even the little things we do as a society relating to the Judeo-Christian tradition. A 2007 Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life study found that about 75 percent of Americans are either religious or take no offense to public mentions of God on currency or monuments. However, we still find our legal system in cases to remove "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance and to ban Bible study clubs from public high schools.

Yes, the classic separation-of-church-and-state argument has to come into play somewhere. Let's break down this argument. The exact term "separation of church and state" is found nowhere within America's founding documents. This does not mean, however, our government cannot adhere to the Judeo-Christian philosophy in its operation. The wording of the First Amendment supports such an idea, as well. The establishment and freedom of exercise clauses prevent specification on the part of the government.

Every action we participate in shows some background of Judeo-Christian paradigm. This is because education derived greatly from it, healthcare, anything, even wearing makeup. So to have someone sit there and tell me religion shouldn’t be taught anywhere else but at a church is like saying the teaching of our history should only be taught by the president. This is religion is a great part of our country it is what makes us who we are today.

Therefore even trying to expel Judeo-Christian tradition from being one of our most important “stepping stones” for our country, wouldn’t be correct because you would see it in our everyday actions and in the fuss of deciding whether it is justifiable to be in our government or not.

Book Report: A Child Called It

A Child Called It was so incredible that I couldn’t set it down. I believe Pelzer’s story of his great determination would inspire anyone that took the time to read it. Dave Pelzer’s story shows that as long as you believe in yourself to survive, and choose not to give up because of anything that everyone has the power of bettering themselves in any circumstance. This book is about one of the most severe child abuse cases in California. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother. Dave had a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games that left him nearly dead. He had to learn how to play his mother's games in order to survive because she didn’t consider him her son, but her slave, and no longer a boy, but an "It." Dave's bed was an old army cot in the basement, and his clothes were torn and dirty. When his mother let him eat, it was nothing more than spoiled scraps. Nobody knew anything of his living nightmare. He had nothing or no one to turn to. Pelzer’s dreams of someone taking care of him, loving him and calling him their son was the only thing that kept him pushing to survive his mother’s irrational games. After reading this book makes me think twice about complaining about the little problems that I face in my life. It makes me realize how much I take everything that I have for granted without even thinking twice of how lucky I am. This book inspires me to better myself in every way possible.