January 8th Blog Assignment -- Othello

"Racial and age differences in a marriage are easily overcome." 

 

I disagree with this statement, though I fully believe that if two people are in love, they should be allowed to marry and do whatever they so please with each other. The issue is when society enters the equation. Here in America, in the 21st century, no one keeps to their own business, especially, it seems, those who disagree with others' personal lives. In this modern age there is still so much hatred and ignorant bigotry that being anything other than a white male with a white wife and two perfect white kids in a big house with an office job is somehow a criminal offense. I believe that the two people who are in an interracial or interagecial (let's pretend that 'interagecial' is a word) relationship can easily move past their differences when on their own, and hopefully one day all of the world's population will be able to grasp and familiarize themselves with things that they do not immediately understand.

 

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1) Venice is a city on land's edge in northeastern Italy. In the 16th century, between 1575 and 1577 to be exact, the Black Death devastated Italy for its second time. In only three years it killed 50,000 people. This was the beginning of Venice's political decline, though not its artistic brilliance.Throughout the 16th century the people of Venice and Spain were in a continuous war with the Turks, this battle was the only thing keeping Venice's political will, so after it ended, Venice became a place of only art and tourism.

2) Cyprus is an island just south of Turkey and west of Syria. In the 16th century, 1571, the Ottoman empire had taken control of Cyprus, and from there sent a fleet to take Venice. The Venetians fought back and destroyed the Ottoman's entire fleet.

3) The Moors were Berber (from the Roman province of Mauritania, Northwest Africa) Muslims who inhabited Europe for hundreds of years. In the 16th century the Moors were either leaving Europe altogether or at least leaving Spain, where they were being persecuted for their race and religious views.

4) The Elizabethan people were very proud of their country and did not like foreigners nor did they trust them. Non-Christians were rare in the Catholic regions of England and therefore would be treated as extreme foreigners.

5) Epilepsy is a brain disorder in which a person has seizures due to disturbed brain activity. The symptoms vary, but can include: staring spells, violent shaking, and loss of alertness. In the renaissance epilepsy was regarded as an awful disease, but people with epilepsy were viewed as brilliant. Epileptic people were also thought to be prophets, as they could see the past, present, and future while unconscious in a seizure. People then attempted to treat epilepsy with chemical substances such as; copper, zinc oxide, silver nitrate, mercury, bismuth and tin. In today's society, we see epilepsy through an entirely scientific eye, as a tragic mental disorder. Drug therapy and epilepsy surgery are currently the most common and successful ways of treating epilepsy.