Welcome...and initial guidelines...

This blog will be used in the spring of 2008 by 80+ students at Drexel University to investigate the effects of Iraq on culture and the reverse. Our goal will be to better understand why the US is in Iraq, and to question whether literature can help us on this journey.

Weekly plans and other materials will always be posted in Vista, not this blog. So go to Bb Vista to get the discussion prompts and other instructions.

I intend this blog to manage our discussions and track our collective investigation.

You should have received an email from me inviting you to become a contributor to this blog. The email was sent Monday afternoon to your official Drexel email address.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

week one dilemma

After looking back at week one blogs i realized a lot of people had personal horror stories relating to the war. Whether it be death of a family member, or death of someone in their town, it seemed as if mostly everyone was affected by the war. Not many people had much positive to say. Which makes me wonder, if mostly everyone has negative things to say, why aren't we doing anything about it. For over five years now we've been in a war, and it seems everyone's unhappy about yet no one is doing anything. People protest war like they protest Harry Potter, yet Harry Potter doesn't have the power to drastically change entire familys' lives in an instant. Why isn't more being done to stop the chaos? And now, as we creep closer to thee 2008 presidential election, it's too late to have Bush implement plans to remove troops. Or is it? Why wasn't there a bigger movement if so many were upset or affected by it? Is it because the American public didn't realize the number deaths incurred? Or is it because the American public is comfortable in their safe homes, far from chaos and war, and thus not directly affected by it? Either way, reading the blogs made me realize maybe we do need to voice our concerns. We live in a democratic society, and as Americans, we should exercise our freedom of speech and speak openly about what we feel strongly about.

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