Todays ASTU Class proved to be extremely interesting creating a conversation that I felt everyone contributed to. We focused our discussion in on different aspects of Judith Butlers “Frames of War”. Throughout the discussion the idea of mourning some lives while ignoring or acting with coldness toward others came onto the table – the points raised by my classmates were the ideas that got me thinking. Butler addresses ideas of grievable oppose to ungrievable situations suggesting,

“We might think of war as dividing populations into those who are grievable and those who are not”(Pg. 38). Where do we fit into this divide? Who are we in these times of war? Butler believes that individuals need to ask themselves “whose lives are considered valuable, whose lives are mourned, and whose lives are considered ungrievable”(Pg.38).

While these questions were discussed in class a fellow student suggested that we “mourn what we are framed to mourn” addressing the idea that what we mourn is constructed and based for example on the life we live, or where we come from. I immediately made a connection to the way society mourns for victims of horrific situations – for example the Robert Pickton case and the fact that he brutally murdered a large number of women. When reading about the case, you will find that a majority of his victims were prostitutes or women who were living on the downtown east side. When taking into consideration what he was doing and at the rate he was doing it, you might question the police on their urgency to find him. I strongly believe that due to the demographic of the women, the case was not considered a priority.

This whole case is a prime example of the way society dictates the lives that are considered “valuable” or “invaluable” and frankly – in this case – it is extremely disappointing, with horrific consequences. How do we select that we do and do not mourn, are we framed to mourn particular situations while acting in coldness towards others? These are all questions that this weeks material has led me to asking – questions that will