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 Just Thinking 
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I can't stop thinking about what Gayle said last night about the lynchings that took place. It was very difficult to sit and listen while she read from Sacuary. But then she made the comment that if we lived back when "those people" lived we probably would have particiapated in these monterous events. I have always thought of myself as fair and in these situations I hoped I would have stood up for what was right and just. However, knowing my family and our community I can't be sure that I would have known to oppose such acts.
I feel guilty for even thinking such things. But I do understand that those people could have been my family. My mom tells a story about a black man that supposedly raped a white woman in Morganton. She says they shut down the town and eveyman, armed with a gun, went looking for this man. Of course, there was no trial but he was dragged through the streets of downtown attached to a car. She says that my grandfather, a wonderful man I'm sure, was one of those men. I am very distrubed by the thought of all this. Please don't think less of us. I guess it was the time of great ignorance.

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Melia Waters


Tue Jun 20, 2006 10:26 am
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I think MORE of you for being willing to think about such difficult things. In some senses, we always live in a time of great ignorance. That is why I believe it is so important to realize what truly good people can do, and have done, without thinking.

That means that I, too, must always be alert to the possibility that I am blind to injustice, and to the suffering of others. When I am alert to the possibility of my own blindness, I hope I will go along less often with the cruelty of the crowd.

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Gayle Turner


Tue Jun 20, 2006 12:58 pm
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it seems like I remember in college watching a video about b.f. skinner's experiments in psychology. There was a room with people and a glass panel and they could push a button to make a person on the other side feel pain. They could see through the panel and yet didn't stop and did as they were told, not thinking about what they were doing.
sometimes, I have to sit back and think, yes I've gotten these students scores up in math through all of this drill and kill but really....for what? Have I ever used this information in my life? Not really. so, I have to wonder what I've gotten myself into with all the testing. Is this something I really stand for, should I back out and let someone else do this kill and drill stuff and do something more meaningful with my life? My principal says the public school is the happy medium between private and charter schools. At the public school, they get hands on activities and basic skills. But what I see is really not a whole lot of balance but a lot of testing-too much really.
But! the schools have all of those rallies to brainwash us about how great our scores are, which is easy to buy into. someimes I feel like the zappers behind the glass panel not stopping to think about what I'm really doing-teaching kids to regurgitate and play the game of testing. That's scary.

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Suzanne McMahon


Tue Jun 20, 2006 4:45 pm
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I was having some thought about the same topic. I keep trying to think, and remember, that their actions were normal to them. I wonder how many things we do today to people seem fine to us but in a couple of decades will seem inhumane? I think about all that is going on with the immigration of hispanics. We have been giving them so much crap about being here, but we are all decendents of immagrants. I hope that we don't have the same mindset that these people need to be lynched the way we thought blacks needed to be "taken care of". (I say "we", because all of us, in this class, are white). Is there anyway to get away from this mindset? Will we always be the bullies to someone? If so then we are no better, or different, then the people in the early 1900s. :roll:

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Marie :)


Wed Jun 21, 2006 9:16 am
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