Serving in Silence Movie Discussion

  Hello, dear reader. As a part of our Advanced English course we watched a movie called "Serving in Silence" and had to answer as a group a few questions about it. These will be answered below:

1. Describe these reactions: A. Military

When Margarethe Cammermeyer told the military about her sexuality, their reaction was to immediately discharge her, but as an “Honorable Discharge”.

B. Father

When she told her father, he somehow understood, but feared for her position in the army. Also, he believed that she should not tell everyone about it because it was an inside-of-the-house matter.
C. Children (in order from oldest to youngest):

Matt: He said he already knew and he understood completely.

David: He was understanding and decided to go to live with his mom after he had problems with his dad.

Andy: He asked her if she decided to become a lesbian, but accepted her anyways.

Tom: At first, he was avoiding her. But as the movie goes on we see that he accepts her mom in the end.

2. Margarethe's decision to tell: 
   A.  The military: Margarethe had never been asked before whether she was a homosexual or not, so she was never put in that position before. In the moment she was asked, she did not lie about her feelings and told the truth even though she was sure that would affect her in a bad way. The Army felt that it would have been better if she had kept that information to herself.
   B. Her children: As Margarethe told the military and was facing the problem, she decided to fight back and sue the Army. Of course, this will to fight would bring a lot of public attention to her and that would affect, not only her, but also the members of her family, including her children, and that was why she decided to tell them the truth.
   C. Her father: Margarethe was particularly afraid of telling her father, being the oldest and most conservative of her immediate family. When her father told her that he was coming to live with her, she decided to tell him before he found out by himself when he arrived.
3. What is your reaction to this true story? Do you believe that she should have kept her secret or told it to everyone? Explain your response why.
1. Angel Carrillo:
1. I am a little indifferent about the story, still, I guess this was bound to happen anyway.  I know that she just said it because she was asked, but it all escalated because she did not know about the new rule about sexual orientation.
2. Crystal O’Neill:
1. My reaction to this story is nothing out of this world. In my opinion this is a saturated topic in the society we live nowadays, although it is still sad that these things happen. Anyways, I do feel sympathy for Margarethe, since I know how hard it can be to be judged by everyone, even though you are not any less of a person than them and are not doing anything wrong. About the question of whether she should have told the truth about her sexuality or not, I believe she did the correct thing because she did what a loyal, true soldier would have done, and she followed her beliefs to the end, which is admirable.
3. Jeanette Marquez:
1. I think she did a good thing telling people and not lying, since she wasn't doing anything wrong.  I know that at this decade was a taboo, so she did make a statement by suing the military, because they had no reason to fire or discharge her.
4. Paula Delgado:
1. Being a daughter of a veteran attendant I know first hand what affects the discrimination against the LGBTT community in the military can cause.  I think that Margarethe was very bracy for being one of the first people to stand up for her rights as a homosexual in the military.  I liked that she told the truth about her sexual orientation to the world.  Not many people had the courage to do that and with that bravery, she opened the door to many other military personnel.
5. Hector Rodriguez:
1. It’s a sad story about inequality.  I believe that since it not a “life-death” situation, she should have kept it secret for the sake of her job.
6. Nicolas Torres:
1. I believe Margarethe did the right thing. By saying the truth, she created a wave of events that concluded in changing the code of the army concerning homosexuality.  I think that Margarethe’s pride led her to make the decision; because she honors the military code so well, she spoke the truth and wasn’t afraid of the consequences do to the fact that nothing had changed in her life when she said she was a homosexual.
4. How would Dr. Kinsey explain the Margarethe Cammermeyer’s sexuality?  She is a mother of 4 boys so how can she be lesbian? Is it her choice?
1. Dr. Kinsey might have said that Margarethe’s sexuality changed over time.  First she was married to a man and had four children.  According to Kinsey, it would be normal to love a man, and over time, love a woman.  Margarethe made her choice to marry and have children.  One might argue that she had been distracted from her homosexual identity for a time. Then she meets Diane.  For whatever reason, Margarethe had been able to discover, or re-discover, her identity as a woman who is attracted to other women.  In turn, it was her decision to act and live with Diane.  
5. What does Margareth believe about her sexaulity as it relates to her identity?

Margarethe tells her sons when she reveals her sexual orientation to them, that she has somehow always known that she was a homosexual. It is not something that she chose to be but something that defines her as a human being. She explained to her family, her superiors and the man that interviewed her for her security clearance, how her sexuality is characterized by her identifying and forming emotional bonds with women and that in turn is part of what makes her who she is.

So, how was it?

The blog concept was created so people could easily share their work, thoughts and creativity with others in an efficient, dynamic way. Having a blog means sharing it with the rest of the World Wide Web in the touch of a button and probably not be able to delete it completely if we ever intend to after it is published. Therefore, having a blog means taking responsibility with everything we write and being extremely careful about it. Yes, that seems a bit extreme and if everyone feared the things that might happen to them if they did not speak their minds the World would be a mediocre place. Anyways, for those few brave people, tools like the blog were created.

When our English professor asked us to create a blog for the class, my immediate reaction was: “Oh no, this is going to be hard. There goes my class grade…” To be honest, I fear a little technology. It is not that I think it can be harmful or anything, but the fact that I am not very good with it. Having to create a blog was next to my other nightmares such as having to touch a salamander (they terrify me) and having to drink cranberry juice (I just hate it).

Now that the blog is over, I can say a few things regarding how it went in general. After writing 15 posts, which most of them had an average word count between 300 and 500 words, and if we were going to ignore the fact that it took a lot of my time and energy, overall it was a good experience. Sitting in front of your computer being sure that you can say anything and be anyone on a piece of paper is a sort of liberating experience.

This blog was intended to be a learning experience for the students as writers and I must say that I learned some things with this blog. Not that it made a great, significant impact in my life, but it really made some small improvements. Since our classmates had to comment on the blogs and give productive feedback using the Peter Elbow’s rules (which I will go deeper in them soon), they gave me some ways to improve my posts and helped me be more careful with grammar and other parts with the posts I wrote later. Now, to go a little deeper into the Peter Elbow rules: Honestly I did not like having to comment on every single post my classmates wrote, although I admit it was nice to receive feedback from them (sounds selfish, I know). All of my group members commented in my posts and these techniques did help me somehow, as I said before, to improve the quality of my writing and to make my posts more interesting.

If I were to compare the blog assignment with the journal, there is something to be said: I prefer the journal a thousand times over the blog. The reason for this is because in the journal my vocabulary was more “normal”. With this I mean that I have been taught this rule that you should not write in the same way you speak, and in my journal, since it was a first thoughts writing, I was able to write in the same way that I talk, which I found to be amazing. On the other hand, this blog, being public and all makes me write in a more formal manner somehow and I am less free in that way.  Also, for the same reason that this blog is public, and as I said in the beginning of this reflection, one has to be very careful with what one posts on the internet, so first thoughts is not really the answer for it.

Also, knowing that other people know your thoughts without necessarily seeing your face is great. That last sentence applies better for introverts. I am much of an extrovert but I found it awesome sometimes that I could write anything without the fear of being judged (although most of my readers were my classmates, who know me).

In general, the blog experience was a good one, but for technological reasons (or inability with technology) I would avoid creating a blog just for the fun of it. Having said that, I encourage other people to create a blog and share their thoughts and experiences. See you next time!

My story with literature

          Look: I never liked books...

          Like many other kids, I was raised being obliged to read many boring school novels that never encouraged my love for books. As I kept growing up, so did my hate for books and I somehow swore to myself to never read, nor like any sort of books. This went on for a few years until I met my best friend. She considered herself a book worm and I could not really differ from her opinion: she REALLY was a bookworm. After about 5 months of friendship I was trying to get her to play soccer with me and she told me that she would if, and only if, I agreed to read a book. So, I said yes and a few days later she brought me the first book of a series, called “Dellirium”, written by Lauren Oliver. The book was about a dystopian society in which love was considered a disease. I read the book in about a week and even cried at the end (which almost never happens to me). Since then, I read the other two books of the trilogy and have read some series like Divergent, Hunger Games, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Heroes of Olympus, Harry Potter, and many other books that are not series, like The Fault in Our Stars, Paper Towns, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, etc. As you can see, dear reader, my love for books has grown exponentially since I decided to give them another chance.

          My theory is that people that say that they hate books say it because they have not yet found the one they like. For those people I just have this words: Keep trying. Once you find it you will always be happy that you gave yourself the opportunity.