Sarah Foss: Bumper Stickers & Summary

Bumper Stickers:

     Bumper stickers are important in our society today, because they allow people to freely express who they without having to necessarily "push" their onto others. In America, bumper stickers can represent our country's diversity, morals and ideals. I saw many of these diverse bumper stickers in Fort Collins and Loveland. The content of these ranged from comedic, religious, and political. I found it interesting that there were so many stickers that directly contrasted others.
     While driving around CSU's campus and Downtown Fort Collins, most of the bumper stickers I saw were either political or religious. It occurred to me that the reason these bumper stickers had messages of this nature is because Fort Collins has such a high population of young people who are eager to share their opinions and interests with others. Most of the religious bumper stickers I saw had the "Coexist" logo. It is such an amazing feeling that people can freely express their opinions and beliefs in public, even though people will always have opposing views. I saw many bumper stickers representing the 2016 presidential candidates. Though not everyone agrees on who should be president, most are willing to except the fact that different people have conflicting views. These opposing views are part of what makes the United States so diverse.
   Moreover, Loveland has a much smaller population than Fort Collins does, so naturally, there was not as much of a diverse pool of bumper stickers to observe; however, I did see a large amount of "honor student" stickers on the back of cars. This told me that I was in an area near a middle/high school, but it also told me that there were many families building their lives in Loveland. It's quite incredible that so many conclusions can be drawn just from a visual representation like a bumper sticker.

Summary: Open Letter to Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi

Nathan Brown, a UC Davis faculty member, wrote this open letter to Chancellor Katehi for three reasons. Brown does this to express outrage due to police brutality, hold Chancellor Katehi accountable for this brutality, and to demand her resignation as chancellor. Throughout the letter, Brown communicates that Katehi's poor decisions and injustice ultimately caused her to be responsible for the brutality. He expresses that the violence that took place after the protesting was unjustified. He frequently goes back to his opinion that Katehi is responsible for all of this and should therefore resign. He claims that Chancellor Katehi's "actions express no concern whatsoever for the safety of our students" (127). After explaining this, he calls for her resignation because she is "unfit to do her job" (127).