the end has no end

My adv. linear algebra course started today. I can already say that POL 106 was much more exciting than learning about bases and linear independence. Given that a hamster has a longer attention span that I do, I have to say that it is quite the feat to keep me listening and engaged for almost three hours. Thanks for not being boring.

I really thought the course was organized very well, and it was easy to take notes and follow along in the text. While the textbook was really bland and not fun to read (sorry for any offense), "Keeping the Republic" more than made up for that. Coming from an economics background and knowing a lot of the economics of social security, medicare, etc... it was very nice to see the topics delineated in a comprehensible fashion. So the last week of class, to me, was the best part of the entire course. My least favorite part was going over the mechanical structure of each branch of government... that tends to be not all that "sexy."

It's funny that I had absolutely no desire to take this class. I already took a similar college class in high school, but they refused to give me credit for the state constitution test (since it was taken through a Missouri university). And learning virtually nothing about Illinois in the class makes me question the effectiveness of these established guidelines. Oh well, I am not complaining because I honestly had more fun and learned more in this course than in any of my other polisci courses! If I would be an undergraduate here for another year, I would definitely make political science another major of mine.

I love my generation. Going to college has exposed me to so many other viewpoints, and this class served as kind of the melting pot for those ideas. It was able to summarize and explain the views of the Millennial Generation, with which I find that I fall right in line. My friends are typically moderately liberal, and even though we may agree on most issues, we still manage to find those wedge issues and argue over them. I believe that enlightenment occurs through discourse, and thus I become evermore knowledgeable about the world as time goes on.

Rankin really hits the ball home when stressing the importance of political participation and making my commitment to this country stronger. Honestly, I always thought local politics were stupid, and how they had no bearing on my daily life. But now I realize how ignorant that train of thought really is. Local politics affect your daily life the most, while the President actually has very little to do with your daily life. In the same vein, it is of utmost importance that people educate themselves about the world around them (it takes, what, 10 minutes a day?), discuss it with their peers, and actually get involved and vote. That is what this country thrives on.

I am very sad to see this class come to a close (and no, I'm not crying... I just have allergies). Although the class was quite short (unlike this blog post) because it was only four weeks long, it felt like it was more like four days. But those "four days" were jam-packed with sweet discussions, awesome knowledge, and Noam Chomski... all party material right there!

Thanks for everything!

"the end has no end"
-The Strokes

Museum... Woot!

Getting out of the classroom and going to the museum was an awesome experience. Admittedly, even after living here a few years, I did not visit the McLean County Museum. I have driven/walked past it a multitude of times, however, and thought "hey, what a cool building." Going to the museum, I think, helped to open the blinds on a lot of the history and political on-goings in Bloomington. And the inside of the building is absolutely asthetically amazing (it would be interesting to see what the buildings looked like the first, second, and third times built).

The Blo-no area really does have a deeply rich history. I thoroughly enjoyed going through each exhibit and seeing the different components of Bloomington's history, which helped me to see how and why the political infrastructure is the way it is. Personally, I found the politics gallery to be the most fascinating. It is interesting to think that the surrounding area is responsible for a lot of the government regulations which are placed on corporations via the case of The People v. Chicago & Alton Railroad. Also, with the help of Bloomington, Illinois became the first state to the east of the Mississippi to grant suffrage to women. It was also very interesting seeing all the different types of people who migrated here from all over the nation and the world, and how they interwove to become the modern Bloomington as we know it.

It is evident, now, how modern politics of Bloomington arose. Being a major transportation hub in the past, as well as majorly a rural community, the deep conservatism that exists here should come as no surprise. It was also fun to look at the role of Illinois State and Illinois Wesleyan, and their large population of "hippies," in the development of the region. I developed a strange sense of pride when looking at those pictures and stories. It's amazing the impact universities can truly have on the surrounding areas, and collectively around the nation.

Overall, the museum visit was very insightful. I'm really glad I did this before I left.

McLean County

This is my third year living in McLean County, yet I still know virtually nothing about the history or the politics of it. However, let me preface that by saying that I only knew of six of the 102 counties in Illinois: Monroe, Macoupin, St. Clair, Randolf, Madison, and, of course, Cook County. And that is just knowing of their existence, let alone their political and historical attributes. I know a *slight* amount about the history of Monroe County (my home county), but I know virtually nothing about the political endeavors.

I do know, however, that Bloomington is the county seat of McLean County, and that there is lots of farming (as a drive through indicates). The main source of my political apathy regarding McLean county may be attributed to my priority list and the respective costs and benefits of deleting/adding items. At point "t" in time, I may choose between, "A," informing myself about McLean County or, "B," doing homework, working, socializing, or a host of infinitely many other activities. What would your typical American do?

Rankin consistently brings up a very good point, however. The politics surrounding McLean County are the politics that impact those who reside here directly. What the President does rarely affects our daily everyday lives, but it's our representives and locally elected officials who do impact our daily lives. And I think therein lies the reason for having a solid knowledge of both the political history and the modern political undertakings of this county. If I still have another two years here, the least I can do educate myself about the McLean County, and I really think that the old courthouse museum will enable me to do that.

P.S.: It did.

Green

Well, I took the the Political Compass test, and, to say the least, I am very satisfied with my results. This is the political ideology that I viewed myself as for the last couple of years. With regards to my economic philosophy, I always thought I was more on the conservative side. However, maybe I need to rethink that!

Funny story though, if you would have asked me in high school with which party I identified myself, I would have indubitably said Republican. Soon after attending college however, I became aware of my robot-icism. Because my dad identified himself as a Republican, I, too, assumed I was Republican... like it was genetic trait. But after entering the real world and becoming a real person, I forge my opinions on things.

I believe the little red dot situates me within the democratic party, which is now the party I lean to the most. Apparently I also have similar values as The Dahli Lama, and I'm just a bit more right-ist and libertarian than Ghandi. I dig it. It is interesting to the note the lack of people in the green space. Everybody (Bush, Sarkosy, Merkel, Brown, Thatcher, Hitler) seems to be fairly Republican on the map. And it's funny to see nobody other than Friedman (whom I very much admire) in the purple.

Going to the Democratic Party's website, the first thing that I noticed was the giant heads of Sotomayor and Obama... makes sense. I really like the layout and user-friendliness of the website. It does an outstanding job of delineating the agenda of the party by providing a link aptly named "agenda." This navigates you to any number of issues ranging from "healthcare for all" to "economic stewardship" to "immigration reform." Another tactical thing I noticed was the giant button for "Espanol." This is evident of the war that is raging between the Dems and Repubs for the hispanic population vote. However, when I went to the Republican website, I could not find a single link to translate the page en Espanol... uh oh! I feel like the Democrat website has SO much information about the party that it would take me months to comb through it all. Not necessarily a bad thing though.

It looks like the Democratic party is really playing the game well this time around.