Outer Journey
It was nice to
have a day off from school, and what an eventful day that it has been. I was
able to sleep in this morning. My bed was warm and cozy, and even though I did
not want to get up I did not want to waste my free day by just sleeping. My
morning started by meeting up with classmates and then we all went are separate
ways. My favorite part of the day was looking at the local artists such as
painters and street performers. While walking through the warmer weather with
sunglasses on and not having to wear my heavy winter coat I walked up to a
street performer preparing to start a show. The audience wasn’t full at first,
but as the show continue on the crowd appeared to get larger and larger. The
performer that I enjoyed watching juggled large shiny metal blades. It is definitely
a talent. The gentleman stated that what takes his five minutes to perform it
took him twenty-five years to master. The man was wearing black converse shoes,
black pants, black vest, and red shirt. His big act was performed atop of two
saw horses. He stood atop of a flat board that rested on top of a wooden cylinder
shape. He was able to keep his balance why he was throwing his blades up in the
air. He talked to the enthused audience while performing his street act. This
gentleman had a girl from the audience come and act like she was going to throw
him the blades. This kept the audience on their tows as to whether she was
going to be able to throw him the blades for him to juggle. This was all a part
of his act to keep the audience drawn in to what he was going to do. In the end
the girl from the audience did not end up throwing him the blade. He did
perform his act with the audience’s approval shown by applause and donations given
to him.
Other things that I did today was getting to speak
with a local artist. I will discuss this further in my local artist blog post.
I was able to speak with a lot of the locals today, and was given advice on the
local happenings that are the things to go and see. I was advised to go and see
local dancing that will happen at the college tomorrow. It starts at 12 and it
was stated that the dancing wears you out and once you start to get tired it
will be the time to go home. The dancing all ends before dark. Another excitement
for the day is that today was the first day of Mardi Gras. I was not aware that
it started this soon. I look forward to continue watching the festivities while
we are here.
Inner Journal
Inner Journal
The city spoke to me today while talking to a local
who was a bartender. Racism. He spoke of traveling up to and living in Chicago
for two years and the racism that was shown towards him. He said that “racism
and the N word does not fly down here”. My thoughts are why is this still going
on in the United States? Why is this accepted? We should all be treated the
same. Job positions should be given out to who is most qualified. This town is
so progressive the whole United States I feel by this era should be moving
towards also being progressive. What bothers me the most is when I hear of
young people saying racial slurs against others because of their race or
religion. I am bothered by this because it is being taught in their home. They
are being made to feel superior to others because of their skin tones. How can
this be stopped? We should want to be around others because of the character
they are not because of where their house is located or their social circle. I
am happy that I was able to take this travel humanities course. It has shown me
that there is a melting pot of acceptance. New Orleans is an example to
everyone of what is acceptable and that you can rise to your top level because
of your qualifications. I will start to myself make a conscious effort to say
something to younger children when I hear them to make comments regarding
someone’s race or religion and to explain why that type of behavior is
unacceptable. I will also not allow this from adults if I were to hear it. I do
not have to be nasty about it, but I do need to think of something that I can
say that will actually have a meaning for an older person to understand and
take to heart. I want to come up with something that will make someone older to
stop and think about and figure out why what they are saying is unacceptable
and just plainly wrong. I think that more efforts should be made in schools to
stop this behavior also. I remember hearing about a teacher in a younger grade
having her students write something nice about a student in their class every
week. This is something that all school could start doing to promote acceptance
of all fellow classmates. With everything that is going on in the world right
now acceptance of everyone is what is needed for harmony.
