Puritan ways in our society

One interesting fact about Nathaniel Hawthorne is that his great grad father was a judge in the Salem witch trials and cried witchery among many people. Also, his name was originally spelled hathorne and that he added the w to his name. Some people say that he did that to have the spelling of his name to match more closely to the pronunciation. Others say that he altered his last name to symbolize him breaking away from the history of past generations in his family. I found this interesting especially since one of the themes of The House of the Seven Gables is the affect of past generations on current generations.

(Nathaniel Hawthorne)

I think there are many ways that puritan times still affects our society today. In Puritan times the government was a theocracy. I think that a lot of laws they had were based upon religion. In today's society laws are not supposed to be based upon religion, but it is clear that there's a lot of things based on religion. Some of the biggest debates that happen in America are because of things that go against a religion. An example is abortion.

I personally think that in terms of religion playing a part in the government I don't know if America will ever fully get rid of that Puritan way and if it does happen it will not be happening for a long time. The reason why I say this is because our country was based off these ideas. This idea of theocracy has been embedded into the country.



The Moment I knew I was an American

I don't know if I have ever had one of those moments in which I truly felt like an American. I think the reason why that was is because it can be hard to define what being an American is supposed to feel like and I guess I never  gave it any thought. The other day the class discussed what defined an American. It was kind of tricky but some good points came up. Some things that were said was that an American is a person who has the freedom and opportunity to become whoever he or she desires no matter how they start off.

I thought about that and about how my life is right now. I realized that I do have lots of opportunities in life that a lot of people in other countries don't. I thought about how in other countries going from the bottom to the top is so hard to do and maybe even impossible at times. In my human geography class last year I learned about a caste system in certain countries that can't be broken. So, I feel grateful to be an American and to be able to achieve whatever dream I have and not really be hindered by anything.

Us vs. Them.. Us and Them

I think sometimes conflict happens when someone misunderstands, misjudge, and are unwilling to be open to something that's different. When people are stubborn about their own ideas and reject others without even considering them that could lead to people to misunderstand and misjudge other views.

One conflict that is going on in the US is the whole debate gay marriage. There are a lot of people who protest against it because it goes against their religious beliefs. I think its fine that people are passionate about their belief but sometimes people take their religious beliefs to extremes. There are people that build this hatred and will do bad things towards others that they don't even know. Just because you think someone else is doing something wrong it doesn't give you the right to do something wrong to them.

I'm not saying that people have to change their religious beliefs. If you don't believe in something don't do it. As long a person is not harming anybody you have to respect what they do.

WHY CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG!!!