First Published: 2019 February 09
Late nights tend to mean that I don’t write my musing after them. I should really plan those ahead
First Published: 2019 February 05
Counterpoint comes from the fact that the notation was points, which would move counter to each other. To make a two part improvisation based on a chant, it’s fairly easy. One voice sings the chant. The other sings a third above or below the chant, ending cadences in unison.
First Published: 2019 February 5
Prereading note: this also appears in the S&B
I am a white, heterosexual man from a high socio-economic status background who grew up in rural Iowa. More specifically, I grew up in Grinnell, Iowa. While attending Grinnell College, one important task I’m frequently asked to accomplish is acknowledging my privilege. This is due in large part, I believe, to the fact that Grinnell College prides itself on social justice. Social justice requires understanding not only problems, but also the underlying inequities that cause the problems. An underlying issue can come up in multiple, otherwise unrelated events. One such underlying issue is elitism at Grinnell College. Two examples of this are visible in student complaints towards the administration’s stances on unionization efforts and the Redmond-Brownell family donating money.
A quick fact before I get going. Fewer than 30% of adults in Iowa have a bachelor’s degree or higher.1 That is, because most2 students at Grinnell College will receive bachelor’s degree, we are in the top third of the state in at least one important measure of social status. So, when thinking about how we interact with the community, the privilege we have as college students cannot be neglected.
Now then, growing up in Grinnell, one of my clearest recurring memories of the educational system is how socio-economic class affects both how students are treated and how they act. For those readers who may be unaware, there are a number of wealthy families in Grinnell, many of whom have direct connections to the faculty of Grinnell College. There are also a large number of students, more than 35%, who qualify for free and reduced lunches.3
I vividly remember hearing students in the second category speak about how they could never belong at Grinnell College. The statements tended to focus on how they felt difficulty connecting with peers from higher socio-economic families. Since students from Grinnell, Iowa who tend to attend Grinnell College also tend to come from higher socio-economic classes, Grinnell College seems to many in the Grinnell educational system enrolled mainly by students from high socio-economic status families. If they had difficulty relating to students who attended the same schools, lived in the same general area, and did many of the same activities, how could they relate to people who shared none of these. Of course, we all know that there are a large number of students at Grinnell College who are not from high socio-economic class backgrounds. But, there exists a problem in making young, potential first-generation college students in the area see this.
Here enters the Redmond-Brownell family. For those new to the area, the Redmond-Brownell family is a local family that owns their own business. The business is profitable, and they use the money they make to improve quality of life in the city of Grinnell and the surrounding area. However, their business is based in selling parts and accessories to firearms, which many students and alumni find problematic.
Ignoring where the money goes for a moment, there are two key points to note. First, Brownells4 employs many local workers. Second, some members of the Grinnell community are sustenance hunters, people who rely on hunting to feed their families. I hope that it isn’t hard to see how protesting Brownells as a company, and gun companies as a concept could and almost should be taken as saying that the way that these people feed their families is wrong. I also hope it isn’t difficult to see how that could be alienating to a potential student.
If we don’t ignore where the money goes, however, we see that the money donated does not benefit their family or business interests. Instead, it was used to create the Ignite Program, which offered college students the chance to teach a one day class to local young students, which, to me, is one of the best examples of social justice at Grinnell College. The Ignite Program is a free, one day workshop which includes food for the students. It takes students in Grinnell and surrounding communities, many of whom could never see themselves at Grinnell College, and shows them that Grinnell College is a place they could belong. Many of the students I knew who felt that they could never belong at Grinnell had never been in an academic building, because they already knew that they didn’t belong, so saw no point in confirming that fact.
By protesting the Redmond-Brownells’ funding of the Ignite Program, the College community was implicitly agreeing with these students. Removing that program would do nothing except make it harder for students in the local community to feel that they could belong at Grinnell College.
Moving on to the union, I’ll start with my own personal biases. To me, a union should protect exploited or easily exploitable groups. Unions that do not should not exist, as they weaken the idea of unions, and make it harder to immediately sympathize with them. As I mentioned above, by definition, being at Grinnell College is a sign of privilege, especially in Grinnell, Iowa. Regardless of the other identities Grinnell College students have, in their identity as a student at Grinnell College, they come from a place of privilege. By striving for a union, College students are weakening the system of a union.
For instance, one of the claims of the Union was that students at Grinnell are underpaid. Right now, the wage in the Dining Hall is $9.78 for the workers, and $10.24 for student leaders.5 For reference, minimum wage in Iowa is $7.25. If you’re a student whose parents work minimum wage jobs, think of how alienating hearing complaints that $10 an hour isn’t enough to support a single student can be. More importantly, Iowa is an “at-will” state, where employees can be terminated “at will” by an employer. While expressing intent to join or create a union should be one of the protected groups, suing for wrongful termination costs more than families can afford. For that reason, being able to push for a union, knowing that a job is secure while doing so, is in and of itself a sign of incredible privilege in Grinnell, Iowa.
So in conclusion, just as I, should be aware the privilege different identities I have bring, so too should the whole student body all reflect on how being a member of the Grinnell College student community grants us privilege, especially in conjunction with the city of Grinnell, Iowa.
https://www.iowadatacenter.org/quickfacts↩
https://www.univstats.com/colleges/grinnell-college/graduation-rate↩
http://db.desmoinesregister.com/iowa-free-reduced-meals/?searchterms%5Bcol1%5D=grinnell&searchterms%5Bcol2%5D=↩
their company↩
https://www.grinnell.edu/admission/financial-aid/affording-grinnell/student-employment↩
First Published: 2019 February 03
Jeremiah 1:4: “The word of the LORD came to me:”
Today’s three readings exhort us to three different calls. In the first, the Lord speaks to Jeremiah, urging him to strength by saying “They will fight against you but not prevail over you, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.”1 We too are called to trust the Lord to protect us from harm and lead us to salvation. The second exhorts us that “And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing”2 In the Gospel, Jesus drives his countrymen to anger by speaking truths to them.3
In all of these we see God’s command. God is Love, so of course we need love to be anything, for what are we without God? And, though we should not test Him, we are called to stand for what is right and true, as God urges Jeremiah to do. Finally, we are to take the love and trust we have and do as Jesus does, speaking the uncomfortable truth even at risk to our own safety.
First Published: 2019 February 02
Today, all three of the men attempted to end the meet with the same dive, 405C. One of us1 has thrown the dive at numerous other meets, so it went well, as was to be expected. One of us2 had never attempted this dive before, so it went better than expected. One of us3 had tried it a few times before, so the dive went as mediocrely as to be expected.
In addition, I attempted 205 again. This time I tried it twice, the first was ok, the second one went way over! I almost threw a triple. That’s exciting.
Otherwise, the meet went pretty well. I had some dives I’ve never done quite as well, and a lot of dives I’ve done as well before.
First Published: 2019 February 01
As I mentioned yesterday, this month I’m trying to write a limerick a day. Now, this means that I actually need to know how to write them. The rules of a limerick are apparently really flexible, which is sad. Maybe I’ll choose a different type of poem.
I think I’ll instead do the ballad form. That is ABCB, where the A and C lines have 8 syllables, and the B’s have 6 syllables. Since it’s a folk tradition, the rules are pretty vague from there. So, since for the daily sonnet I wrote 14 lines, I should probably try three stanzas of 4 lines, so that I have a smaller number of lines to write.
Maybe next month I’ll try a nonet.1
Other options include this,this,the time that this may be, or this↩︎
First Published: 2019 January 31
My role model for this writing1 reflect each month on the month, especially in relation to writing. This month for writing was interesting.
I failed to write the most days I’ve ever done. Conversely, I still have an average of one post a day.
I also set a goal of writing a sonnet every day. While I did not quite reach the goal, I did write2 24 sonnets, which is good enough for me. I learned that I can write about the everyday events in my life, which is nice.
Next month, I will try to write the posts more consistently for their day. I will also try to write a limerick a day, as that should hopefully be less time consuming.3
First Published: 2019 January 30
One of the important things I learned abroad is that I procrastinate. One of the important things I learned today is that academics don’t feel real if I’m not in academic settings.1 But, that’s ok. I can always make up what work I didn’t get ahead on in the next few days.
maybe that’s why I procrastinated so much abroad↩
First Published: 2019 January 30
This year, the Grinnell Singers is performing Thomas Tallis’1 work Spem in Alium.2 This piece has 40 parts. Grinnell Singers has3 40 people. So, I’m on my own part.
We tried singing it. It went ok. Thankfully, the piece is old enough that it’s mostly three note chords throughout, so I could sound not completely wrong. C’est la vie.
First Published: 2019 January 28
I know how snow days work. More or less, it’s when the snow has fallen in such a way that the roads are unsafe to travel. Now, however, Grinnell has a cold day. That is, it’s too cold for the College to feel safe having class. I’m confused.