Story About a New Museum

On the news there was a story about a new museum being opened up in the American South that depicts the belief in creationism instead of evolution. Basically, this museum depicts human beings being created by God alongside dinosaurs and does not recognize that the Earth is older than 10,000 years old. Many people are protesting the museum because they feel that it perpetuates a religious belief as science and that it cannot be considered truthful and shouldn’t be viewed as a museum.

I feel that this article is important because it shows how different religions and cultures can clash and different viewpoints can cause conflict amongst people. This news story, that I saw on CNN, has a central theme revolving around the fact that religion and science can cause conflict in a community. This was very interesting because of the fact this is the first museum to depict creationism as a science and because it is making such an impact in the community, with so many people protesting it because they feel it shouldn’t be marketed as science but as religion. This is important because both religious and non-religious people need to live side by side in our communities and it raises questions about how this can happen in terms of their beliefs about creation versus evolution, and how this aspect can help shape each of us depending on our upbringing and personal beliefs.

The article “Trial set to begin in Mississippi civil rights-era case” by Jerry Mitchell appeared the USA Today on May 24, 2007 and deals with the case of a man who is facing charges for killing two African-American teenagers in 1964. This is an interesting article because it shows how much different our culture is today from the culture of the civil rights-era United States.

Back then, white men were not punished for killing blacks, but today our culture and society have changed enough that we can look to make the past right to make a better foundation for the future. In the past few years there has been a push in Mississippi to bring to justice former klansmen and other racists who killed civil rights workers and African-Americans during a time and in a place where discrimination was so abundant that no one would convict them.

This case is one of these, and is an interesting look at how the justice system can be corrupt and yet, today, we can try to make things right. This is so important today because of the issue of racism that is still there below the surface in many instances.

The article “Gold Star wives help a new generation of war widows” that appeared on CNN.com on May 26, 2007 is an interesting look at the way that our own suffering can be a basis for helping others in similar situations. The article deals with the social issue of war and how it affects not only the people in the midst of the war but the wives, husbands, and children that are left behind by the men and women who die in the war in Iraq.

This article is about a woman named Marie Speer who lost her husband in WWII and how she founded this organization called Gold Star Wives, which was established to help war widows in many various ways, from friendship and compassion, to helping lobby for benefits for the wives and husbands of those lost in the war.

This story is applicable to the real world because of how our culture has been affected by the war in Iraq and how society looks at this conflict and the people affected by it. This is interesting because it shows how Americans are coming together and using their own experiences to help others and try to bring them through the pain of loss and grief. This is so important today because of the loss of connection many of us have in relation to each other. For example, many people cannot connect with people of other generations but in this article it shows how a WWII war widow has so much in common with a widow of a soldier in Iraq. It shows how we can all connect with each other on some level, and this is important in a country that lacks that.

On Glenn Beck there was a story about how Rev. Al Sharpton, who had just finished recently lobbying to get Don Imus fired for his racial remarks regarding the Rutgers basketball team, had said something discriminatory about Mitt Romney’s Mormon religion. This is an important issue because so many people can look at this and see that so many people have underlying racism or discrimination about other people’s race, ethnicity, or religion. This is an aspect of our culture that has shaped each of us, depending on where we grew up and who raised us, as well as what our own experiences have shown or taught us.

The central theme of this news story is that sometimes we can see discrimination within others more than we can within ourselves and that this needs to be an issue that is raised to each of us when it comes to light. This is very interesting in one aspect because those who thought that the media made too much out of the comments by Imus could say that Sharpton had no right to complain because he then becomes embroiled in his own scandal, but others can look at it from a different perspective and say that comments about race and religion are completely different and shouldn’t be equally compared.

This is so important in our politically correct society because it begs an answer to the question about what is discrimination and when does free speech cross the line, and how has society viewed free speech and political correctness.

The article “The First Steps” by Alex Tresniowski, et al, appears in the May 7, 2007 issue of People Magazine and is a look at the healing process that is happening at the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia following the massacre that killed 33 students in Norris Hall on April 16th. This article is unlike many of the others because instead of dealing with the dark, brooding gunman or all of the mistakes and issues that led up to the shooting, it deals with how the students affected will take steps to heal and help create a better environment for all students on campus.

This article was interesting to me because it was not just another doom and gloom article about the tragedy but point out what was being done right by the Virginia Tech students, faculty, and campus administrators to help the college heal. It was interesting to read the stories about these heroes and the terrible trauma that they went through during the massacre. It was also interesting to learn about how the community and society has come together to help create a safer environment at colleges and to help these students through the tragedy. Violence has become such a huge social problem in our society and this issue was made even more glaring by this particular school shooting.

The article’s look at the counseling being offered, the changes in the college, and most especially the way that the community, parents, and students are all reaching out to each other as a means of healing is incredible. It also shows how they are hoping to eliminate loners and outcasts like the shooter by reaching out to their fellow classmates in need. Instead of dwelling on the bad, they are looking for something positive to come out of the tragedy.