Rant, Rave, and Holler! The collection

1. Rant, Rave, and Holler!The collection “One of the Penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” -Plato

2. “The student, the public and social media” • My first blog post focused on an occurrence that took place this past summer while I was working at my local library.

3. Blog #1: Outline & lessons • Being that my first blog post was not exactly on topic with the rest of my blog, I take this to be the weakest of my writing this semester. The good thing about that is I could only get better as I learned more about digital writing and how to cater to a different audience • This first blog takes a look at social media in the public sphere and how privacy in public has become something of an issue among people that use social media often.

4. The crisis in Syria • President Obama began a debate with congress about the U.S sending troops into the war zone. • I included the following video about European commentary regarding relations between Syria and Russia. • http://youtu.be/J8c1df_Dlu4

5. The U.S and Syria • I felt that I should write about the crisis in Syria to give my readers an insight into foreign policy. Here are some major points to consider about this blog post. • Syria has a connection with Russia, whom at the moment is an ally of the United States, but some felt that caution should be taken since Russia and Syria are also close nuclear allies • U.S intervention would not necessarily mean that we would be putting troops on the ground. • As one of five members of the U.N security council, the United States needed approval from the other four nations to carry out any military action.

6. “Closing Time” • On October 1 of 2013, the United States Government shutdown and our entire country had to begin to face a many changes implemented by this executive administration. Here is what needs to be considered…. • Did this shutdown occur because the Republican controlled house would not pass the new “affordable care act?” • Congress’ disagreement over the implementation of new healthcare laws brought many government workers to a halt, leaving those employees without pay. It hurt more than it actually helped in the long run. • The President used many “scare tactics” to inform the American people of the consequences we faced if the current political climate did not change. • See what others on many news and social media sites had to say about the shutdown with my Storify collection entitled: “America’s downtime” • <div class="storify"><iframesrc="//storify.com/pantherpitt28/america-s-downtime/embed" width="100%" height=750 frameborder=no allowtransparency=true></iframe><script src="//storify.com/pantherpitt28/america-s-downtime.js"></script><noscript>[<a href="//storify.com/pantherpitt28/america-s-downtime" target="_blank">View the story "America's downtime." on Storify</a>]</noscript></div>

7. Producing “America’s downtime” • The government shutdown was obviously a major political event for this presidential administration. I loved being able to use Storify to search twitter, Facebook, and numerous news sites for different opinions on the matter. • Here are the hashtags I used in order to search for different thoughts from various sources • #shutdown • #republicanshutdown • #GOP • Being able to compile thoughts about other people’s opinion was a challenge because I had to put aside any bias I had or any personal emotion.

8. Post Shutdown reflections: “Speechless” • By this point in the semester, I became very weary of writing the same thing every week. • The news was focused on the same thing, and I didn’t want to keep posting things that were redundant. • Like any writer, I did want you do when you don’t know what to write; I just ranted, hence why I entitled my blog post “speechless”

9. “Today’s healthcare crisis” • In the days following the implementation of the affordable care act, aka “Obama care”, the nation reacted with mixed emotions as to the outcome of the now healthcare law. • I choose to take a different approach to this blog, I wasn’t going to be afraid to give my opinions, but also to be able to back the up with factual information. I searched www.healthcare.gov to critically examine the website and see if its purpose was going to be fulfilled. • Regardless of whether or not my readers agree with my statements, I hope I was able to communicate them in this blog in a cohesive, clear manner. • http://studentcgf10.wordpress.com/2013/11/15/rant-rave-and-holler-todays-healthcare-crisis/

10. “Religious Liberty is for individuals, not corporations.” • My final blog post came from an article I encountered while on Facebook, it came from the opinion section of CNN. The title gives away much of the context of the author’s argument. Again, I wanted to challenge myself to accomplish two things; • 1. To put together a cohesive argument to not try to prove the author wrong, but to convince my readers to see the view that I had. • 2. To use the points made by the author ( who happened to be an expert in corporate law) and shape my argument based on the facts that the author presented. • I saw this as an opportunity to encourage my readers to look at two different takes on a constitutional issue. The good thing about opinions is that you can never really call them right or wrong.

11. “Rant, Rave and Holler!: The collection • Every blog post has its own unique spin on whatever was going on in the world at that moment in time. I wanted to capture the important parts of articles, YouTube clips and news stories so that my readers could see where I was coming from, but also be able to get them thinking about those topics as well. • Each week, I was faced with a new challenge to come up with something different to write about and each week I was able to incorporate some relevant topic to engage my audience. If only for a few minutes…. • So now, I want my readers to continue to think about different news stories that have to do with anything they come across, engage your higher thinking skills and form your own opinions on issues that you believe are important. The first amendment gives us the right to say and think and believe what we want, that was my main goal with this blog. Did it make me a stronger writer, maybe? The real outcome is found when someone who reads it is able to walk away with more information than before, and then go “Rant, Rave, and Holler!”