Neumark

Probably my favorite part of this reading had to be the story about Deshawn.  It was pretty cool that he told Hiedi that God had given him an announcement to make and it ended up being him saying sorry to his friend Trevor.  This seems simple but the way I think about it is that he is truly doing God's will.  It's these simple things such as forgiving and loving each other that God expects us to do at all times, no matter what situation.  This is also one of the things that I think the world has the most trouble with.  We can't get over things that aren't really that important and end up making them much more of a hassle than they need to be.  Another thing that I thought was a good point in this reading was the idea of rest.  We are only human and we can only do so much.  At this point, it seems like Heidi finally found that out and that sometimes she needs to rest up too.  I think that we should love as much as we can, but at the same time we should love with all our hearts and sometimes our hearts need some reenergizing.  Once again, I enjoyed how Neumark paralleled her own story with that of Joseph and Mary fleeing for Egypt in the bible.  It makes it easier to imagine how both she was feeling at this time and maybe even how Joseph and Mary we're doing back in the day.  With that said, I think that I'm going to get some rest and reenergize my heart so I can love people more.

Heschel on Justice

This chapter has been my favorite in The Prophets by far.  I feel like Heschel really went straight to the point in this chapter and I think he did a really great job in explaining justice in the sense of man and in eyes of God.  The first words that made me pretty psyched was to hear that God demands justice, he doesn't ask for it.  To me, it makes justice seem like it should be the norm, not something that puts others on higher ground.  Living just lives should be only way we live our lives, and God doesn't hesitate to say that.  Heschel goes on further to describe justice as something that does not only consist of deeds to be done, but should be practiced with all of your heart behind what you are doing.  This is real important to me, because I personally believe that we shouldn't do anything without putting everything we've got into it, and I guess justice is no exception.  The final point on justice that I thought to be interesting was the idea that it is an "interpersonal relationship".  I took this as meaning that we should expect justice for ourselves, but also expect ourselves to provide justice for others.  He makes a few remarks on how we sometimes have to disregard self-interest and self-respect, and it makes a lot of sense to me because we are always focused on our own problems when others are dealing with ones that are a lot worse.  Thinking this way can really put things into perspective.  This chapter will definitely be the most help for me in our final papers, cause I feel like it truly touched on the importance of justice in the eyes of God and man.

Final Project Prospectus

I've kind of totally changed my idea for my project.  I was thinking in class today and how so many people who are just like us rise above and become so well-known for their pursuit of justice because of the passion we can put into it.  This made me think that it would be cool to find some modern day people around America who aren't very well known but have committed their lives to justice, like Charlie Strobbel kind of people.  I plan on finding four different people to read up on and make a poster for each of them that contains their stories and what they do today.  The biggest challenge for me will probably be finding these people so if you have any advise that would help.  I really just thought of this idea so I don't have anything started yet.  My to-do list is really just find these people who exemplify the fight for justice and become intimate with their stories and lives and then present it to the class.  I just think that this would be a good way to show that anyone can be important to the world through passion for doing what is right.

Heschel

Some words of Heschel that really got to me in the interviews that we listened to this week was when he said that he is always surprised when he sees violence.  I started to think about this and I really think he's on to something.  We've talked about in class before how we have become so ignorant to violence and see it as something that is necessary or not bad.  It's obvious in video games, TV, at school, and at home and we don't look at it as something totally messed up.  We should definitely start looking at violence as something that is incredibly terrible, no matter at what level.  The next thing that they talked about was his openness to everyone's other religious views even though he was such a hardcore Jew.  This reminded me a whole lot of the convo we went to for Understanding the Bible, because the Rabbi that talked had a similar view that every religion should be accepted and unite as one under God.  I feel like it would be super hard to accept other religions if you're so passionate about your own, but he somehow does it.  After hearing some of these people talk about Heschel and reading The Prophets, I'm pretty sure that I believe that Abraham Heschel is a prophet of his own.  Some of the ways he describes prophets in his book makes me look at people like himself and MLK as modern day prophets for the way they despise violence and evil and simply are never content in their pursuit for justice.

King

Martin Luther King is a beast.  He can really put things into words that are easy to understand and that really make sense.  In his "Letter from Birmingham City Jail", King makes some really important points.  The first thing that I thought was really cool was the four steps to a nonviolent campaign.  Before he even thinks of taking "direct action", which consist of parades and marches to bring attention to problems, he plans on collecting information to prove that there are injustices, attempt to negotiate, and to self-purify.  It's pretty amazing that before being non-violent, he shows ways to even avoid being that "obnoxious" about it.  And he points out that even when it comes down to direct action, it is simply used to get back to the act of negotiating and bringing the problem to the forefront of a community.  Another point that I thought was pretty awesome was the different kinds of peace.  I'm pretty sure Professor LaLonde mentioned something about it in class, but he says how there can be negative and positive peace.  He describes negative peace as the absence of tension, while positive peace is the presence of justice.  This makes a lot of sense to me.  I think that we should always be questioning ourselves and others, just like in the dilemma of just war, so that we can come closer and closer to true justice.  If there is no tension, that we either have the perfect peace or we are to complacent in the face of injustice.  And it's obvious that we're not perfect so there must be injustice.  In this letter, King really makes me question my views on justice, and I'm sure he made the clergyman he wrote it to do the same.