Week Three

Journal



John Glenn



American Visions and Values LA-400



September 17, 2007 Week #3



Another busy week for the class! I keep thinking that I am going to have one of those weeks where I understand all the readings, but it wasn't this week. I continue to struggle with some of the readings from the early centuries. It is good information, but it still makes it hard to put the whole picture together for some of them. Once again this week the writings of Plato was a tough read and the "Western Civilization: The Problem of Political Freedom" by Meyer was another tough read, but the podcast helped with understanding more of what Mr. Meyer was trying to get across. With the Plato readings, I had little knowledge of Plato and Socrates going into this program. It has been interesting learning about the two, after hearing so much in the past about their writings.

The reading I enjoyed the most this week was the one I did my discussion on, "The British Tradition in America in Retrospect" by Wright. I enjoy American History and this reading gave me a fair amount of new information on what was brought over to the American Colonies from Britian. The interesting part of this reading for me was how some of the religions that we know today came over and talking about how they developed. When it discussed about how the King James Version of the bible was brought over, (which is one of those things I never had thought of) made sense.

The other reading I did enjoy, even though for me it was a tough read was Crito by Plato. I had heard of this writing before, but had not read it. It is interesting how Socrates stood up for what he believed in. He had a choice on whether to die on the basis of what he believed in or escape from prision and hide out the rest of his days. There are not too many people that are willing to do that, but with this I believe he proved that he was truly dedicated to his teachings.

It was a interesting week for the discussion board, the responsives seem to cover the majority of the readings and had some good discussion on the topics. The posting from Brian Holmes was interesting, it is amazing how we get so accustomed to being able to question our government without the fear of being put to death for it. It makes you think about what it would be like living in some of those other countries that do not have this type of freedom.