To want to speak up is understandable. That’s what wedo as writers, as poets.
The want to speak up, but not having anyone to talk to because of fear of getting ignored or being straight up ignored is common. My topic with college students overcoming their mental struggles is a good connection to my previous statement, because students can feel this way.
As I reposted Stacy’s column on Facebook I almostintroduced it with: Owen and I often drive by the exit forAndrew Jackson’s Hermitage as we go between Tulsa andKnoxville. I am afraid to stop because I don’t know what Iwill do when confronted directly with the grave of this man. Irewrote because I worried how an interrogator could usethese words against me, to kill or torment me.
This is an example of being included with her community. By reposting she is sharing more with her community and others.
I go to historical sites, family sites,talk with people who know things, and read.
I think by doing this could be helpful to try and understand what thoughts were like back then. It reminds me of something in the 1900's saying that in the next century, we will have flying cars, even though we currently don't. It was there point of view and personal belief that humanity would evolve to that point.
How does one determine whether a law is just orunjust?
This is a good question. Really makes you think, what is just and unjust? And that leads to questions like is this law fair or not? Is that rule just or unjust?
“Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?”
Not a lot of people realize what this means. Can you supress your anger and hatred for someone when they strike you? Can you not defend yourself when you are attacked? Will you allow your foes to damage and possibly devastate your body? Questions like this are easy to respond to, but do you have the strength and control not to hit anyone?
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment ofdestiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
This is a very powerful line. This line resonates with me, because he's pretty much saying that one person could make a poor decision and everyone becomes affected by it.
compelled to carry the gospel of freedombeyond my own home town.
He says he was "compelled." Compelled as in the way he couldn't stand with how they were being treated. I like that Martin Luther King Jr. acted this way, he is the kind of man that I want to be.
But when you have seenvicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim;when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters;when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cageof poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and yourspeech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to thepublic amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in hereyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds ofinferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personalityby developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answerfor a five-year-old son who is asking: “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?”;
Reading this just hurts my soul. I feel terrible that this is what was happening at the time.
evaluating an author’s writerly choices and deciding how similar choicesmight or might not work in your own writing.
When it comes to trying to get better at ..... well, whatever. I believe that mimicking a writer's writing style or and artist's art style, is a good way to find your strengths and weaknesses for your own way. Kind of like a ninja trying to copy their sensi in their crafts and realizing that they suck with throwing weapons, unlike their sensi, and would much prefer weapons with close combat potential. That would be an example of trying to annotate and understand the reading for yourself and trying to better yourself as a writer.