Heartfelt Confessions

"Nothing is quite so false in writing, as the heartfelt confession." Could this be true? I feel like writing is the one way for me to express what is really inside me without the pressure of saying it in a timely manner. I can write and articulate and pinpoint exactly what I feel so that it is clear to others. Many of my heartfelt confessions to my loved ones come in the form of letters. Writing, by nature, allows for the writer to precisely adjust his or her words to get an exact communication of what he or she is thinking.

But maybe it is false. Maybe writing gives us the ability to construct such a fiction of who we are. Our "heartfelt confessions" that we put down in writing are us trying to make sense of our emotions, according to how we want to present ourselves to the world, and to ourselves. Maybe truth lies in the way we act and not what we construct.

Is Charles D'ambrosio suggesting that we live in an alternate reality, never being able to express what we really feel? I was thinking earlier today about this. If we could read each others' minds, many of society's problems would be solved. The knowledge of the smartest person in the world would be my starting point. We would all understand each others' motives and there would be no need for heartfelt confessions, because they would just be known. There would be only honesty, and little need for formal communication, as writing is.

But is writing a heartfelt confession inherently false? Or do we not even understand ourselves enough to communicate our heartfelt confessions accurately? I think honesty must be shown in many ways: through our everyday actions, as well as being formally articulated, strung together in a beautiful way, that more accurately explains our deepest emotions.

-McKenzie Tingey

Rupture

“There is nothing so false in writing as the heartfelt confession.” 

The falsehood glints plainly from the screen of my laptop. A lie with a vinyl crust and a liquid center. If I crack it, speak a word of the truth, it will rupture. It will run everywhere, filling in the fault lines of my keyboard. Clogging up DELETE like the south end of the Mississippi.

These words are smooth, I could run my milky hands over them and not feel a thing. These words are cold. When my breath falls over them it mushrooms with frost. If I warm the words they will cry, I think. Maybe even scream.

Instead I let them freeze. I let them stay smooth, not jagged. I keep those mountains and stones buried deep in my stomach. I keep that night locked away. At least I did, until there was you. Until you called it from me and let the craggy rocks explode from my mouth and the crystals from my eyes and suddenly I was alright.

Suddenly I was unbroken.  

-Sophia Hanson 

White is Beautiful. Black is Beautiful. White Power. Black Power.

Power defined as beautiful. I'm going to say no. Power and beauty correlate for a second but it's fleeting. Power is the reason there is a difference between black and white. Someone in power said we're different. We is not them. Power is hideous. But powerlessness is horrible too. It's a paradox. Power means you have control. That you have authority but over what? When power is said no one means power over the self. That's freedom. Power by itself means control over others. If someone is powerful that automatically translates to someone is being forced to be weaker. Is that beauty? White and black shouldn't be used that way. White and black have been used in multiple kinds of context. Color, race, but my favorite is light. White light is created by the mixture of all the color spectrums, think Pink Floyd. Black is the absence of light. In those terms it's simple and logical, but when applied to people it's fatal. If there is black, white cannot exist. If there is white, it's imposed on the black. So what do we do? It's time that we focus less on the extremes and concentrate on the in between. The color.
-Yandely Almonte

11/30/15 Journal Entry on Mark Zuckerberg talking in Chinese - Jasneel Chaddha

By: Jasneel Chaddha
Journal Entry from 11/30/15

China. The world's most prosperous economy right now. Its no surprise that Mark Zuckerberg, a businessman, wants to expand his brand and product in a nation like China. Any smart businessman would do the same thing. The only problem is the severe language barrier. Unlike most countries, China does not require its students to study English. Rather, it is offered as an optional course at schools and universities across the country. Zuckerberg knew that in order to be taken seriously among the other business giants in China, he would need to impress them with more than just his product. He needed to impress them with his knowledge, however limited, of the Chinese language. I think its ironic that Zuckerberg has tried so hard to expand to China when his product, Facebook, is blocked across the entire country. Trust me, I know; I went to China for 3 weeks a few summers ago and was Facebook deprived for the entire duration of the trip. Perhaps he sees a future where it won't be blocked. If that happens, however, it will complicate matters for Facebook; China already has numerous social media sites that have millions of users. It will be tough to convince Chinese cities to switch over to Facebook. But I also respect Mark a lot for taking the initiative to learn Chinese, despite his insanely busy schedule. I know how hard it is to learn Chinese; I took it as my foreign language all through high school, and plan to continue studying it here at NYU. It takes a lot of time to master, and he's already pretty good. It is also validation for me that I understood what he said without the subtitles. I guess I did learn something after four and a half years of taking the language. Remains to be seen if Facebook will ever be unblocked in China, but Zuckerberg sure does have quite a few talents. I guess being married to a Chinese woman left him no choice, right?!

Malcolm Gladwell picture - Susan Oh

Crazy curly hair, pasty white face, lanky stature.  Who the hell is this guy. He definitely looks like some type of 21st century genius who won a Novel prize for science or something. Since this is a writing class, I bet he's a famous writer or author of a grand masterpiece that I'm yet again unaware of. Sometimes the prompts professor Jackson gives us seriously make me feel like an uncultured lump on a log.  For a split second, I low-key thought it was a picture of an old grandma wearing hip clothes.  Maybe it was a picture of a hip grandma, you know, like Betty White. Speaking of Betty White, I read an article a couple days ago that said she had passed away. Baffled, I googled to see if it were true and it wasn't. How cruel is it to make up a false rumor about someone's death, that's kinda messed up.  Anyway, going back to the picture, now that I think of it, I think it's a picture of Malcolm Gladwell.  It makes sense because we read a piece by him for homework.  Unlike most of the other writers we had read about previously, I had actually heard of Malcolm Gladwell.  I gave my grade 12 English teacher a book called, "David and Goliath" by him.  It was about the underdogs of the world. It seemed like a good read, I hope he didn't already have it.  Professor Jackson just came into the room again with his daily dose of Argo tea.  "Looks like three minutes" he said.  Wow, I've literally filled an entire page on no topic at all but I mean... I'm not even sure if that is Malcolm Gladwell after all.  If it is, then yay, I like him and his works.  If it's not, oh well, at least you know Betty White isn't actually dead. 

Martin Luther King video clip - Susan

Martin Luther King Junior.  The name is famous amongst history students everywhere. Leader of the black civil rights movement, powerful speaker, compassionate human being.  He gave his infamous "I have a dream" speech which not only touched the hearts of the people who physically saw him standing in D.C, but also continues to touch the hearts of generations long after he's gone. The video showed an unseen clip of Martin Luther King's assassin James Earl Ray and to be frank, I'm not sure why it was such a big deal that they uncovered the clip. Martin Luther King still died, and the world was instantly affected. From what I could tell, there was nothing particularly significant that the world could deduce from the clip itself, but I could be wrong. Going back to MLK, I think one of the main reasons why he rose to such prominence in the black civil rights movement was because he had a way with his words.  There are certain people who are capable of easily captivating an audience with their speech and MLK possessed that special talent; that made him an important activist that many people looked up to. A similar person is Barack Obama.  Obama reminds me a lot of MLK not just in the way he looks, but because of the way they both led their people.  MLK was obviously a leader of a mass group of people and well, Obama led the country.  It is these types of people, the people that are able to enter into peoples' heads and flip on a switch, that end up changing the face of history forever; infinitely living in the minds of humanity. 

Declaration of Independence from Partisan Politics

Declaration of Independence from Partisan Politics

There are times in the course of history when it is necessary for a group of individuals to divorce themselves from an inherently unjust political system, and today is such a time. For too long have unique ideas been crushed under the oppressive boot of partisan politics. It is our human right to participate in a system that acknowledges the vast variety of opinions held by those in the country in which it exists.

We believe that it is an inalienable human right to live in a nation in which the government accurately depicts the national political dialog. This right is intended to be secured by governments, but it has become all too clear that the current political system that dominates the government of the United States has become too powerful. It is therefore the duty of the people to reject such a system that champions only a fraction of the political spectrum. The history of the political systems of the United States is littered with discarded political parties, and those that currently dominate the political scene ought to join them. The current political system in the United States has stifled the growth of its political dialog. We submit the following facts to a candid world.

They have refused to take a third party seriously, leading to stalemates in Congress.
They have denied American citizens their right to change the governmental structure of our country by preventing other political parties from forming.

They direct billions of dollars in funding towards Democrats and Republicans, putting other parties at an economic disadvantage and severely hindering their chances of victory or influence in the American government.

They have prevented prominent political figures such as Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump from associating with other parties not named “Democratic” or “Republican,” as chances of victory decrease if associated with other parties.
They have prevented compromise from occurring, reducing progress and leaving major issues unresolved.
They have hindered American citizens from having choice during political elections.

They have prevented American citizens from forming opinions that diverge from the ideals of the Democratic and Republican parties.
They have promoted corruption, deadlock, and division in the American governmental system, as the Democratic and Republican parties are not regulated and cannot be held accountable by other political parties.

Our advocacy for more choices other than a mere two party system has been met with either utter neglect or bitter disdain. The freedom and independence of this nation are no longer prevalent in this obstinate political scene. The voices of the minority, which we uphold, are squelched to nonexistence. We are forced to conform to a system which is insufficient in addressing the pressing concerns of all individuals. We have appealed to legal institutions and pleaded for the empowerment of a separate political force, but our demands were not addressed in formal manner nor were they taken in serious consideration.

We, henceforth, rejecters of partisanship, declare our independence from the corrupt conventional political establishment. We hold our rights to form independent political decisions and are no longer bound to the laws and enforcements from the two-party political scene. Members of our following reserve the right to vote and form allegiances with other political groups. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our right for political freedom.

Signed,

Jasneel Chaddha

Jack Clark

Writing I, Section Two (WRI-UF 101.023)