I'm not really sure what to write about tonight. It feels like anything I can talk about I've already addressed or shared with the group today during class. I'm glad we had that midsemester discussion/check in, and I don't think I've ever experienced a teacher or professor doing what we did today. While we talked a lot about what aspects of the class could be changed or improved upon, I hope it didn't come across as unhappiness with the course. Personally, at least, I've really enjoyed this course so far, with the understanding that it isn't perfect and can still be improved, but it's been a very different learning experience than anything I've ever been in before and I'm appreciative of that. 

Renata accepts a plea. Venice accepts a plea.

Something rattles within me at those words. This is supposed to be good. Look at their smiling faces. Watch as she puts on clothes starkly different from her prison uniform. Take it in. Why aren’t you happy?

She accepted the plea. Her case was not dismissed. There was no justice for her.

That word plea picks at me. 

I recall the workshop this week.

Scene 4: The Prison - Being tried as an adult (Lawyer)

Pull my heart out, that beating pulsating mound of flesh, that bundle of functions that pounds and pours, that circulates the blood. This is blood which powers systems, which allows for movement, which allows for tyrants and leaders and rulers and kings. This is the blood which flows past nerves and through arteries and fights disease and death. This is the system which fails, which leads hearts to give out with weak breaths, to stutter and stammer and slow to a stop. 

This is a makeup post for my missed class on Wednesday. I was having  a hard time writing and was finally able to write by sitting down and putting into words my experience with language. I'm not sure it will make sense as I'm not sure it makes sense to me at all, but maybe something good will come of this. 

After the Ugly Laws: Call Me an Animal

Brian Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama,  clinical law professor at NYU, & author of the first text we read together (the first chapter of his book, Just Mercy, about his going inside for the first time), will be speaking tomorrow night on "American Injustice: Mercy, Humanity, and Making a Difference."

Wednesday, March 1 7–8:30 p.m.
Lang Performing Arts Center, Pearson-Hall Theatre
500 College Ave, Swarthmore, PA 19081

I am still left wondering how neurodiversity and queer identity are connected. Do they feed into each other? What are the intersections and what are the parallels? Are the two identities ever at odds with each other? Do they ever compound issues? 

I am interested in thinking more about interactions with people who have intellectual disabilities. I think back to the idea of Riva's portraits and how she didn't want to draw subjects who had intellectual disabilities because she wanted to be sure about having their consent. But this makes me wonder if by doing that, she is assuming that they are not able to give consent and if we decide that certain people don't have the ability to make autonomous decisions then are we not respecting them as people. I've been thinking about this while interacting with our CCW participants and thinking about if we can consider them giving consent to something like having portraits of them be made and displayed. 

When we arrived at the site Aubrey and I already had a project waiting for us. We worked together to reshape and add to the organizations website that had been unkept. Aubrey is very tech savy so I mostly just gave in my input and ideas while she made it happen. I would say that it was very frustrating because the website used to create this website was really weird and would move things that we hadn't clicked on or would freeze. It took us the entire visit to update and fix one tab on the website. That's how uncooperative the website was. But we got that done and there's so much more to go. Thinking about it makes me tired. I had also missed my nap that Friday so I was already very sleepy. But I'm happy we worked together and I wasn't there doing it alone. If that was the case...

I'd like to make a comment on scientic literacy and how my mind has changed on what that actually is. When asked "Are you scientifically literate?' I responded "no" because I though about my struggles with Biology, Chemistry, and Physics in highschool. But, I didn't take the time to think about the different sciences there are like social science which is the study of the interactions of people. So, I would say it depend on what kind of science you're really taking about when you ask the question-- unless it's just in general. I also thought about my school and why most of the students that were good at Bio, Chemistry, and Physics were men. I started to think about how the women in my school were better at subjects like English.