Talking Heads

This week the President and First Lady traveled to Saudi Arabia to pay their respects to Saudi King Abdullah who passed away last week.  While there, Michelle Obama caused controversy by not wearing a headscarf.  Some Saudi officials stopped to shake her hand, while other avoided a handshake, but nodded to her as they passed.  More than 1,500 tweets using the hashtag #MichelleObamaUnveiled went out during the ceremony, many of which criticized the First Lady for showing her bare head.

In Saudi Arabia, women are expected to cover their heads and wear loose black robes in public, although exceptions are made for foreigners.  Many women cover their hair and face with a veil known as the niqab.  Saudi Arabia has many additional restrictions on women as part of their strict interpretation of Islamic Shariah law known as Wahhabism.  Women and men are strictly segregated in public places.  Women are banned from driving, and are required to get permission from male relatives to travel, get married, enroll in higher education, and undergo certain medical procedures.

Although Michelle Obama didn’t cover her head, she certainly wasn’t the first American First Lade to fail to do so.  There has been a long tradition of American women not covering up in Saudi Arabia.  In fact, many female foreign officials from around the world don’t cover their heads when visiting Saudi Arabia. 

There has been much conversation this week about this practice, and I’m interested to know what you think.  In a few months, I am hoping to travel on a mission trip to Uganda.  There is a good chance I will have a flight layover in Saudi Arabia.  On one hand, I respect other people’s culture.  I have no problem covering my head in certain places deemed “holy,” and adhering to a more modest dress code when I’m traveling to parts of our world that require it.  On the other hand, I strongly support feminism both here and around the world.  As a feminist, I believe all women should have the same economic, social and political rights as their male counterparts.  In short, I respect a women’s right to choose whether or not she wants to dress a certain way. 

So my question to you this week is, “Do you think American women should adhere to other countries strict dress codes when traveling there?  Is it disrespectful to other cultures to forgo their dress code, or is it a sign of female empowerment?  Do you think Michelle Obama was trying to make a political statement with her attire, or lack thereof?  You must answer all questions for full credit.  Answers are due no later than Wednesday, February 4^th, 2015.

Universal Community College

First of all, let me start by saying it was fun reading your blog responses from last week.  From equality for women, minorities or the LGBT community, to the erosion of our civil liberties – from domestic issues like gun control and abortion to our global terror threats – you were interested, and that’s all I ask.  We’re going to have a fun quarter!

With that being said, the State of the Union was on this week.  The State of the Union address is a time for the President to inform Congress and the American people about….well, the State of the Union.  As expected, President Obama touched on many different priorities including his new proposal to cut the cost of community college to zero.  That’s right – zero!  As in two years of community college, totally free. In case you missed it, you can watch the full address here:  http://www.whitehouse.gov/sotu

I’ve blogged before about the rising costs of college tuition and  how much I’m in debt because of my education.  You can read my thoughts and your fellow students’ comments here: http://historicalandpoliticalissues.blogspot.com/2012/04/i-owe-my-soul-to-university.html Obama’s plan would provide two years of community college to any student who earns a C+ average, attends at least ½ time and makes progress towards a degree.  The credits earned could subsequently transfer to a public four year university.  As Obama noted, 40% of America’s college students are attending community college, and this plan would make the dream of a college education much more affordable for the thousands of students who enter their professional lives loaded with debt.

Critics of the plan note that community college is already relatively affordable through a variety of tax breaks and government grants.  The plan also doesn’t address the staggering housing and transportation fees that can also come along with attending college.  Opponents of the plan also point out that many of America’s public K-12 schools are suffering budget cuts, and that education spending should be prioritized towards getting kids off to a better start. 

I suspect that many of you, like me, will finish your college career swamped with student loan debt.  So my question to you this week is, “What do you think of Obama’s plan?  Is it good for students or is the money better spent elsewhere?”  Answers are due no later than Wednesday, January 28^th, 2015.

P.S.  Although I loved reading your responses last week, there were some of you who answered by saying that you had no answer, or just weren’t interested. I gave you a break for the first week – if you’re not interested in anything that concerns you, fair enough.  Going forward, you’ll need to answer the questions or risk losing points.  I think you’ll find that you have an opinion after all!  J

 

Choose Your Own Adeventure!

I hope you all enjoyed a nice winter break.  It's always hard coming back to school after the three week  breaks. Don't get me wrong, I love teaching and being surrounded by all the crazy, creative energy that is all of you. That being said, it's still hard to get back into the grind. So for our first blog post, I'll go easy on you.

This week we started our study of the Constitution and the freedoms that make us uniquely American. You can order your own free copy of the United States Constitution from: http://www.constitutionfacts.com/index.cfm?section=bookstore&page=freeCopy.cfm

A good portion of this class will be spent discussing current events and political issues that affect our everyday lives. For this post, I would like you to tell me at least one issue that you are interested in studying. To help you out, you can look over the blog posts that we've had in the past several years to get an idea of the type of things we've covered. Many of the topics are pretty controversial and I do my best to not censor the information available to you.

So my question to you this week is, "What is one issue that you are interested in studying in this class?" Answers are due no later than Wednesday,
January 28th 2014. I'm looking forward to a great quarter!