Matt Raimondo, Blog #9

What defines public and private material remains a contentions subject today.  We have constitutional amendments to protect and define individual rights, and to determine what is private and public within a court of law.  Instead of looking at this from a legal perspective, I would rather examine this topic from the perspective of an individual person.  One would imagine that people have set parameters for what he/she defines as private or public knowledge; some people keep things more private while revealing very little about themselves.  Personally, I like to keep things close to the chest: I reveal very little about myself to anyone, let alone a community of people.  I suppose that private individuals like myself create what is publicly known about them through their actions and interactions with those living in the same community.  In essence, actions define what is public knowledge, or that's at least how I see it.

In regards to where my nation fits into my personal life, it doesn't really affect me on a day-to-day basis.  I am as patriotic as the next guy, but being a United States citizen doesn't really affect what I do everyday.  Sure, election cycles, international incidents and important court cases peak my interest, but I associate myself as an individual more than a member of a nation.  It doesn't mean that I feel as if I don't belong; I just would rather keep myself differentiated.

In Clybourne Park, we see a struggle between public and private information.  What should the community know?  They characters argue about the role that a black family would play when moving into a neighborhood, alternating between hushed dialogue between a couple of characters and open conversations with black members of the play.  Also, the private vs public debate continues with the family who lost their son to suicide.  Sometimes, public knowledge dictates how people interact towards a person, and deciding whether or not to keep things private causes members of a community many subsequent headaches.