Reflection Exercise on an "Issue of the Week"

Angela Fields

4/8/2016

American Civilization

The issue of the week I am choosing is one of the first ones we discussed in this course: what was the native perspective? This was from the first chapter in our text referring to the Native Americans that lived here before European colonization and how they viewed their arrival as well as how it impacted them. The topic connects many of the classes I have taken at SLCC, a few of which were my Environmental Science, Yoga, Natural Disasters, English 1010 and courses. During all three courses we were shown another perspective that we may have not yet taken into heavy consideration.

In American Civilization we saw another side to history, our history, which normally gets dismissed when referring to the advancements that occurred once settlers reached the America’s shores. This course put the Natives views into a light that showed the overwhelming and often negative impacts the European arrivals had to their culture and the land. This correlates to the new understanding to the impact we have as humans on the Environment, which is discussed in great detail in both of my Environmental classes as well as in part in my Natural Disaster and English 1010 courses.

When forming an educated option about something or when discussing options, just as it is in these 2 large subjects, it is wise to take all aspects and options when making a decision. To the settlers not knowing that they were inadvertently bringing with them diseases and cultural habits that were harmful and often deadly to the natives, they consumed themselves with their own needs and saw the extinction of so many Indian people at times as a sign from God and that it was their destiny to proceed with settling. If at one point the settlers had taken a moment to consider the natives perspective and rather than attempting to convert, assimilate, manipulate and even eliminate them to suit their needs and beliefs but instead lived with them as much as possible and adapted to their ways of survival that had existed for centuries in those new lands then maybe our culture would be wholly different today and a lot of the problems we face would not exist. There may not have been such a total loss of culture and knowledge and on the flip side to the other classes the like simile of our lack of perspective on Mother Nature, our now loss of species, fertile soil and lush landscapes that dwindle beyond count in our ignorance.

The settlers were by far the more savage to take what they needed from the new lands just as humans are to take from this world, rarely looking ahead to the consequences of their actions.  We often make snapshot options about other cultures without fully understanding the depth that shapes them and their actions. As it is in nature, it’s hard to relate a dust storm in Africa to be the cause of hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico hundreds of miles away but they do have heavy impacts on those foreign events. These relationships despite the difficulty we have to notice them are all around us and the more we take the time to see and understand them the better the choices we can make. We can miss out on much needed medicines by clear cutting the rain forest instead of preserving them, just as we almost wholly missed out of centuries of knowledge by driving the Indians across their ancestral lands to suit our needs carelessly spreading alien diseases that often resulted in many deaths as well as the displacement of heritage and the knowledge associated to it.

I learned in this class as well as my English 1010 that to continue the path of ignorance when we do not fully understanding the vastness of Nature or a people as well as learn from mistakes we make in the past if repeated or overlooked can have lasting and possible negative effects. It has been said in the past and as I quoted in one of the  papers I did for my English class about Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail “For it is the doom of man that they forget” (Excalibur 1981).  However, when we learn from our mistakes and see matters from all side when making laws, taking actions and building principles based on them, the line and better path can be clearly seen as Martin Luther King implored,

     “A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God. An unjust law is a code

      that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a

      human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any

       law that degrades human personality is unjust.”(King 3)

This topic has enhanced my understanding of many other classes in this further reflection as well as created a deep rooted determination to consider the complexity in every decision I make in the future when involving others or Nature. The connections I have made here are of real world occurrences and various people opinions learned from the various courses I have taken at SLCC. The greatest lesson I received in my American Civilization class was that there is always another side to history and to make wise and educated decisions on how to interpret and precede is to become as versed as possible with all of histories points of views and aspects.

                                    Works Cited

King, Martin Luther Dr. “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” 16 Apr. 1963 web/print. 29 Aug 2015.

Excalibur. Boorman, John. Warner Bros. 1981. Film. 29 Aug. 2015.