Judgment Day

Unlike the night before, it was quite cool and peaceful. There were no disrupting thunder storms or intense heat. I think I may have finally adjusted to the weather here at Cornell and its becoming pleasing. As I type this blog now, the weather is superb with a bright sun and cool, breezy winds that match that of San Francisco’s soothing conditions. This is definitely a great thing to feel while studying during the afternoon.

As usual, the routine was for me to wake up around 7:00 AM to wash up and meet up with the other ILC members and new friends to go to breakfast. Nothing extraordinary happened on our way there. We took our joyous time eating while the Hotel Operations and Management students had to leave early as usual to go to their class. Fortunately for us, Freedom and Justice starts later and ends earlier; leaving us lots of time to relax and enjoy other things at the campus as we have already looked over the readings that are covered in class.

During our second day of lecture from Professor Kramnick, I was finally relieved to feel that we are pushing forward with the curriculum in terms of answering the questions he gave us on the first day. We had read excerpts from the New Testament and he spared no time to jump into it. Instead of going over word for word, he does an efficient job in putting the entire reading in the terms of how justice is defined and is constantly subject to change from the Old Testament to the New Testament. For the two hour lecture or so, we explored the sayings of the testament and the transition in thought that ends up to modern Christianity. It was definitely enlightening especially on how modern religion still impacts society today in so many ways.

We moved on to our section study groups, which went better than yesterday with worksheets that had us sort of analyze excerpts from the reading and answering basic questions. Instead of having people arguing about irrelevant topics, at least there was some productivity in relation to our philosophy reading and interacting with the opinions of others. I am optimistic that I will be able to get through this course with determination and a clear goal in mind.

After lunch, we had an interesting lecture from our guest keynote speaker Judge Judy, who is the official from a City Court in Ithaca, New York. She was the first judge I ever heard explain the different things that go in court and the way she looks at certain issues that may infringe upon people’s rights for the safety of the community. Since I am a debater, it is always fun to have a calm discussion about topics that ask us to take a position and think of supporting ways to outweigh the others. People in there shared the same enthusiasm and this definitely inspires me to respect this program as one that gets everyone involved in using their intellect. I hope there will be more chances to meet other people on our march to greater knowledge.