Blog 2

It’s been very exciting and but also nerve wrecking for me to express my opinion in the discussion board. I know I am very opinionated person therefore I should not express my opinion too much in public. That was how I taught when I grew up in Japan and it is hard to lose the shell that I’ve been covered for many years. There were many great discussions we had in last couple of weeks. It is very exciting to see how my classmates are engaging heated discussion about the topic. Slowly but surely, I am start to enjoy expressing my opinion in the discussion board.

A topic that I enjoyed the most was freedom of speech on Internet. I am very impressed that many of you are very concerned and wonderful parent. It is true that many things on Internet are not for children’s eyes. I believe as user, we should be free to use Internet with little restriction possible for ourselves. But for children, I believe some contents on Internet should be restricted by parental discretion. On the other hand, there are many children who had no supervision by parent or guardian at all. I strongly believe that if children were taught ethical and healthy behaviors by parent in early age, they will likely to keep it throughout their lives. So it is very important for parent to make good ethical decision not only for themselves, but also for their children.

Other aspect of freedom of speech is first amendment of the U.S. Constitution. As a legal permanent resident of the U.S. (I am not U.S. citizen), I am too, granted the freedom of speech. But I don’t consider my freedom is free from restriction. My ability of freedom of speech should not use for harm others. I respect other people’s opinion and religion, but I expect others to respect my opinion and belief as well. For example, Michael Stalk used a teacher from New Jersey as a bad example of freedom of speech. I think a teacher who put anti-gay comment on Facebook should not be teaching children. Indeed she expressed her opinion under freedom of speech, but her comment is very hateful, and her students should be free from her opinion. Her opinion about gays and religion should be kept to herself, and she should have respected people of different sexual orientation and religion.

Last topic that I want to mention is the Arab Spring. I did not know the term until this discussion. I knew something is going on in the Middle East and I was not paying attention because usually such protest against the government ends up in disappointment. It is hard to measure how much Internet and social media affected the movement. Information on Internet and social media could have used for both positively and negatively in the Arab Spring. Either way, the movement spread around the Middle East and the Northern Africa. I think it is good thing that people are taking control of their countries from oppressive regimes. There are lots of works to be done in those countries and I wish them very best wishes for their future. It is impossible for me to live under oppressive government. I had visited such countries few times. That experience keep reminded me that how lucky I am to live the country that I have choices in my life.