How my Keyterms Created my Gavel

What you see is a WordCloud of KeyTerms I used throughout my time in the Citizens! course. The colors, as you can most likely tell, are a connection to the American Flag and the colors we associate with the United States. I wanted to use a gray background for this image because I believe words can be defined by each person a little differently, and each word means something different depending on the person hearing or saying it. The gray represents the gray area created by how words have different effects on people, but I also want it to represent the gray area that’s been created when you try to answer “What does an American look like?” Americans don’t have a specific “look” to us, but we have our freedoms and equalities, but also struggles and painful pasts. Those experiences are what make us American, but since each person has different experiences, the area is still gray.

You’re probably wondering why I chose to use the gavel as my shape. Well, I really wanted to incorporate justice and the idea of justice in America. Also, I had used both negative and positive words during Units one through four. I wanted to use the gavel as a symbol of the keyterms that are more positive and deal with ways to improve citizenship are incarcerating the negative terms that breed hatred and reflect on the horrid pasts. I chose the gavel to also symbolize that it is time for the community, as fellow citizens, to incarcerate these negative terms and condemn the past. While the past has been acknowledged as being horrendous for minorities, there are still occurrences of those awful words related to their pasts. As citizens, we need to guide society to use the gavel and leave the demeaning past actions behind,  never to be performed again.