AOD Blog

This is my first arts of democracy blog and I'm not sure exactly how to start it, so I guess I will do it in the only way I know how to do anything: just start talking. I've always been a pretty passionate person about government and politics and that sort of stuff, but I suppose my first real educational experience with democracy would be in ninth grade. We were all required to take our highschool graduation requirement of a social studies class, the reasoning behind it being that we would get it out of the way so we wouldn't have to take it later. That was probably my favorite class that I've ever had. I've always been a language arts junkie, but the language arts classes I've attended could never compare to my civics class. My success in a class is almost directly related to how much I enjoy what we're learning and in that class I ended up with the highest grade of anyone. When I say that, I don't mean to say, wow, look how amazingly cool I am, although I'll admit, I rarely am the top student,so I was pretty darn proud.

We went through the constitution in that class, the backbone of America's democratic system that's infused with our notions of a republic. It was an odd mixture of history, politics, current events, debate and basic human rights. Basically, it was a mixture of everything that drives me wild. I am fascinated with the idea of government and political science. I have strong principles and ethics and ideas and I have gained these based upon my own convictions of what is right and wrong. I have a firm respect for democracy; I believe that it is the driving force of human freedom in this world. Without democracy, there is no voice.

I guess I've always been attracted to the democratic forum of ideas though. I'm pretty close with my dad and one of the unique parts about our relationship is that everything we converse about is driving towards some logical conclusion about humankind. Our discussions range from politics to religion to philosophy. I'm close with my mom too, but we don't have the same philosophical relationship that my dad and I have. I really admire my father for raising me the way he did, in an open forum of ideas. I'm not saying my dad isn't narrow-minded, he is, but he's a firm proponent of democracy. I think it was him that taught me to love it too.