A Thundering Start

Day two of Freedom and Justice and I must say Professor Kramnick was better than I could have asked for. He is the first teacher/professor I have had who can lecture for an hour and a half without losing my interest or attention.

Today we talk about the ‘Old’ and ‘New’ testament. I put old and new in quotes because Professor Kramnick explained that there is a movement to change new to something that would not imply that one was better than the other. I personally could care less what the books are called, but do strongly feel that B.C and A.D should be changed to B.C.E and C.E because I am not religious and think that was a non secular nation we should separate ourselves from religion. I am going to use this as my intro into the lecture. Today Professor Kramnick’s lecture touched on how the ‘New’ testament is a canonical text. He referred to the many thoughts and quotes even that can be seen in the ‘New’ testament in our political system today. Along with talking about quotes and thoughts, he talked about the difference between the two books, about how in the ‘Old’ testament the continuous story was about God being the law making and judge, but how in the ‘New’ testament was more about love. As a nonreligious person, reading the text was very interesting to me. I had never seen the theories that drive modern day Christianity.

After lunch we had our first guest speaker. Professor Kramnick referred to her as Judge Judy to try and get some laughs and his joke was well received. The Judge talked to us about a recent case she was just working on and explained the process from start to finish of trial. As a “want-to-be” lawyer her lecture was incredibly insightful. I learned so many new things that my crime shows were lacking. I was aware that both sides had some say in who the member of the jury were to be but I was unaware that for the prosecutors to request bail the case had to be seen by the grand jury. This was news to be because from what I had “learned” from the all-too-many crime shows I watch I would have assumed that bail was set and decided on by the judge.

After all of this excitement my day took a turn towards athletics. For those who do not know I am a very committed soccer player who dreams of playing in college, so it was wonderful to have to opportunity to talked to the Assistant Coach for the Cornell Women’s Varsity team today. From my conversation with the coach I learned about the Cornell program, the Ivy League training rules, and most importantly what it would take for me to make a spot. I have to thank the ILC because if I were not in this program at Cornell I would never had this opportunity. The coach told me that my being here for the summer program showed my interest in the school and my taking the lead on communicating with her showed my dedication.

To top off that soccer experience I had my first Intramural soccer game today. I cannot tell you how great it felt to be back on the field running around. But it is time for bed because I have class tomorrow.

Until Tomorrow, Over and Out blog readers.