Author Archives: Lia

The Journalistic Responsibility of Readers

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The talk about ethical journalism with GRF Sam was very interesting, especially considering that we had information literally at the tips of our fingertips. A large part of journalism is the efficacy of the readers. They need to acknowledge that complete impartiality is impossible, and that to responsibly consume news is to take it with a grain of salt. Bias falls on the author and the news provider. It is well know that Fox News and CNN and BBC all carry different political weight.

As someone who is very interested in publishing and was involved with multiple publications in high school as well as here at Cornell, ethical writing is a source of contention. What is ethical writing? And how does it fluctuate depending on the type of publishing one is doing? I left current events journalism in high school for a more personal writing process in college, and the two are very different. I hope that readers know that publishing and journalism are two very different areas.

The Parallels Between The US and Nazi Germany

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Watching the Pianist was very emotional. I had never seen the film before, and although I knew it was about the Holocaust, I was not expecting to be so sad at the end. And this is despite the ‘happy’ ending in which the protagonist survives. The experiences he had to face, especially being separated from his family, made the ending very bittersweet. He had his life, but nothing else.

The talk with GRF Magdala afterwards was also very intimate. We discussed how Nazi Germany was able to reach the state it was at during the Holocaust, and how people who helped Jewish citizens were going against the law. Much life the Rose Cafe with Angela Cornell, we discussed how morality and legality seldom match. Although Magdala did not explicitly draw parallels between Hitler and Trump, it was hard not to infer from the talk. The bigotry that Trump incited is similar to how Hitler enabled nazis (white nationalists) in their hatred. I left the talk teary-eyed and even more distraught for the future. But it was a great movie nonetheless, and I do not regret my attendance.

The Foundation of a Movement

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Watching Hidden Figures for the Friday FIlm was super cool because I had never seen the movie before. I am currently taking an astronomy class about space exploration, and the first part of the semester we talked about the lunar expeditions and how the United states got there. It was great to be able to connect the Rose Scholars Program with another academic class I am taking. Also, seeing the black women of NASA get the recognition they deserved, even though long overdue, was great. It made me very emotional because there are so many fields that experience the same issues. Underrepresented people come into different fields and introduce new ways of thinking that deviate from the majority, enabling people to make these great breakthroughs. However, they work under people who do not look like them, and the recognition goes unawarded.

It was also a very heartening story; it had a feel-good ending that made me happy I attended. Ad the actual photos at the end that depicted the women who helped take America to space really grounded the film and reminded me that this is reality.

Bridging the festivities of Halloween and Christmas

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As someone who gets very busy during the semester, the Friday fIlms offer me and my friends a space to relax for a couple of hours. My friend Sarah and I are both Rose Scholars for the second year, and last year we were roommates. We often times had movie night together, watching films that went with the seasons. However, this year we both live in singles in Rose main. We do not nearly have as much time to watch movies and hang out as we used to. So the Nightmare Before Christmas showing was perfect for us to sit and watch a movie we loved together.

I also really like the Friday FIlms because it lets us participate in an event while also being able to do something else at the same time. I had an essay due at midnight that night, and it was really nice to be able to sit and watch the movie inbetween edits. The Nightmare Before Christmas got me into the Halloween spirit with my friend, but it also let me make sure I got all my work done on time.

Rome and Its Downfall

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Professor Michael Fontaine explained how Rome grew to be the dominant force of Europe, and its fall that was just a great. As a Classical Professor at Cornell, I would imagine Professor Fontain has to often explain the history of Greece and Rome. I recalled a majority of the information he gave us from world history in high school, but Fontaine went much more in depth with the history of Roman politics, not just as a republic, but as an empire.

However, Professor Fontaine did not connect his lesson to contemporary politics I would have loved to hear the rest of his presentation. He flipped through multiple slides with pictures of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on them, ann while it was interesting to relearn the history of roman politics, I wished to know more about how it affects our society today.  How does having a republic versus a democracy affect the scope of United States politics? How can we relate Julius Caesar’s reign to Trump? And they tangential in any way? I would be very interested in a follow up Rose Cafe that explores this avenue of thought.

Kaepernick and the Legality of his Protests

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The talk with Angela Cornell was very intriguing. It sparked a discussion regarding the legality of protest when one acts as an agent of their employer. The core of the discussion was legality versus morality, which is seems to be a recurring theme in a number of my classes. Is it right for someone to remain complacent in the face of adversity because that is what legally is right? Or is it better to compromise their social and financial position to ethically go against what a government entity has deemed deviant? It was great to get the perspective of a law professor.

The best part of the talk was the engagement Professor Cornell encouraged from the students in attendance. We all got an equal opportunity to express our ideas and opinions, and through discussion, PRofessor COrnell brought us to the current state of the law. We logically forged a path that led to what we thought should be the law, and then she made us cognizant of the downfall of such restrictions. It was very eye-opening. I would definitely attend a talk by her again if available.

Healthcare and its Real-life Effects

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I really enjoyed the talk with Sean Nicholson. As someone who has never been too well-versed in healthcare nor has had to worry about my own status as a healthcare recipient, hearing various perspectives from those in attendance enlightened me to the struggles of both people who necessitate healthcare and those who provide it. I really respected the people who were comfortable talking about their own experiences with the troubles of finding reliable healthcare and how their struggles have affected their lives. One man described how he and his partner struggled with various life-long illnesses, and they have had to fight for access to care.

By the end of the talk, I felt even stronger that healthcare should be provided for by the federal government. This talk also reminded me of a talk with Elisabeth Rosenthal I attended last year. She described how other countries ran their healthcare system and the downfalls of American healthcare. The debate between public versus privatized sectors again persists; and while I have no solution for such a daunting question, I do err on the side of the left.

How Ithaca Came to Be

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The Rose Cafe with Todd Bittner was very interesting. He explained how Ithaca had formed into what we see today, and how Cornell had helped shape the environment. As someone who has no experience in geology or geography, I felt very detached from the talk. However, Bittner made a huge effort to include everyone. He was very open to answering questions, and he passed around photo for us to see different time periods of the same area. This helped the audience visualize the space we occupy.

I was just a bit confused on the relevancy of the talk. I would have liked to see Todd Bittner connect the ever-changing environment to a larger global community, maybe something like climate change or human effects of wildlife. He did skim over things like deer population, but I wanted to take away more from the talk. Overall,, he was a very nice dude who made sure to make his field available to novices such as I, but the talk seemed shallow.

Political Efficacy and the Future

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This is the third talk I’ve attended with Judge Scott Miller, and it again did not disappoint. He took the time to get everyone’s name, and then dived directly into his experiences with the law and his judgeship. At the conclusion of the event, he asked us if any of us had read the opinion editorial of the New York Times that day. An anonymous agent in the Trump Administration wrote an op-ed that explained how multiple people of the Executive Branch were working to correct the damage Trump had done, both to the country and to the promises of the Republican party.

I had read the editorial that morning. My initial thoughts were that it is far too late to release a statement as powerful as that. President Trump’s power to effect federal change is limited. The most dangerous thing he has done is use rhetoric to skew the social climate of the United states. No impeachment or damage control can reverse the resulting hatred and bigotry that was conjured when Trump made it socially acceptable to hate rapist immigrants and shun Muslim people from the country. His lack of grace while in office has wreaked havoc that has resulted in actual lives. People have died. People have lost their children. People have lost their parents. The damage is irreversible. And while I respect the valiance of the person writing the op-ed, their sympathy is past due and their activism is self-interested.

Following the talk with Judge Miller, I did feel a bit more optimistic. The way Judge Miller speaks instills peace and hope into his audience. He reminded us that there are people fighting for our country, even if it does not feel like it. As a judge himself, his words carry much more weight than the voice inside my head, and although I wanted to cry at the end, I feel like it was a well-timed talk.