While the fact is really sad, I do believe that most Americans will not respond if some big tragedy occurs somewhere else in the world. People do not bring it into perspective, and they do not respond to it in such a way like we all did on September 11, 2001. We forget what it is like to have that gut-wrenching feeling. I think people need to take a step back and start realizing how much this affects people in our world. Like the girl said, we are all one world and it all should affect us. Whether or not it is in our own state or across the world in Morocco, we should pay attention- because if it were us that lost someone close to us, we would want others to care.

South park is always out of line. They really hold nothing back, and there is no way you should take offense to what they say. They trash everyone, and I mean everyone. I am Jewish, and when they say something extremely offensive to Jews, I start to get upset, then I remember that they do it for an effect. They do it for people that have incredibly and disgustingly crude humor. Even shows like Family Guy and the Simpsons do not take it to a level that South park does. I try not ot watch the show, because I know it is written by a bunch of people that get high together and try to write things that people will find funny.

I wish this letter could have been longer, going further into what he thought, and maybe and even about his development of feelings towards his punishment. I think it would be interesting to read an entire diary of a man in prison that has a realization of what is happening. What if he was the kind of person who you would never expect to be a murderer? What if he had a wife and kids that care deeply about him, who he will never be able to have holidays with or celebrate birthdays? What if his anger, just at one moment in time got so bad that one action would cost him the rest of his life? There are so many what-if’s. I wish I could meet one in person. I feel like seeing in the ingenuity in their eyes like Sam said would have even a larger impact than their words in this mans letter.

I think it would be interesting to read an entire diary of a man in prison that has a realization of what is happening. What if he was the kind of person who you would never expect to be a murderer? What if he had a wife and kids that care deeply about him, who he will never be able to have holidays with or celebrate birthdays? What if his anger, just at one moment in time got so bad that one action would cost him the rest of his life? There are so many what-if’s. I wish I could meet one in person. I feel like seeing in the ingenuity in their eyes like Sam said would have even a larger impact than their words in this mans letter.

I would be surprised if I got a letter from a lifer that wrote me something that really encouraged me to do something. I would not normally think that this would be anything in the least bit sincere, but after reading this man’s letter totally changed the way I feel. I cannot believe the way he opened up in that letter. It did not have the effect on me that I first thought. It actually really upset me when I was reading it. To think I always assumed that they were cold-hearted monsters, which some might very well be. But there really are those people that are able to reflect on what they have done, and it is sad to know they will never ever go back to living a normal life. I wish this letter could have been longer, going further into what he thought, and maybe and even about his development of feelings towards his punishment.

This letter is very eye opening. I have not really spent much time thinking about people in prison for life. I never really thought about how they might feel. Of course at first they must have complete anger and utter denial and think that it is complete b-s that they are in there. I am sure after sometime, after realization that they will never get the chance to leave, will come to accept what they do. Of course, he deserves to be punished for a horrible crime. But this did change my perspective. They really are not all monsters in jail. He really is turning a horrible situation into a learning experience, which is incredible. I am surprised that it is nothing like the movies, the tough guys that only beat each other up. They all really do have feelings. While he can never be forgotten for what he did, I do think that people can change and be a different person than they were when they committed the crime. It really surprised me that he tries to make a difference in other people’s lives. He said that he tries to donate blood and send donations and letters to encourage and help other people.

There is of course a second step. But until we can complete step one, there can be no way to move on. Like he said in class, everyone has to really understand what is going on. We need to spread the knowledge of what we know from the class to others, so we can make everyone fully aware of what is going on in the world today. Most people, even me before I enrolled in this class, are blissfully unaware and completely ignorant of the horrible actions going on thousands of miles away. So until everyone knows about the situation, we will not be able to act on step two-- taking action.

While I did not eat that second piece of chocolate, just because I was so disturbed from watching the video. But I can understand why some people did. It is impossible to live your life sans products made without any type of slavery. Until we are able to do something about actually stopping it, it is impossible to find anything made without some type of slavery. You cannot pick and choose. You cannot choose to not eat chocolate, yet buy a shirt made by sweatshirt laborers. Until we can stop slavery all together, it is impossible to avoid products made by it all together. We cannot be hypocritical about the sitatuation, which seems to be the case with many people.

If you want to be that intense about it, you basically have to live in cave and make own food and clothing. While I am against slavery, I know that stopping to live my life is absurd. I might sound like a bitch about it but it drives me crazy when people are so hypocritical about picking and choosing what to boycott. What we need to do is stand up. We need to raise awareness because that, right now until we find a solution how to finally, finally aboslish slavery everywhere, is the best thing to do. To make people realize the way other people live, and how we so unknowingly benefit from it. People waste away their lives getting paid little to nothing, or actually nothing. It is disgusting how we live our lives knowing this. But unfortunately, at this time, there really is nothing we can do to save these people. We can only learn about what is happening in other countires, and possibly even our own country. So, to the kid in the video, instead of shortening your wardrobe to help prevent this slavery when the shirt you did not buy another kid did, help spread the word about what we saw in the videos and learned in class.

Just telling people about it will do something, so people do not unknowingly wear things that are made in sweatshops. The only problem is that it is not only just clothing that ensues cheap-free labor. Everything we have does. And until we do something, everyone is basically being hypocritical. There is no way to live your life, even with the most basic of necessities... everything encompasses some type of slavery. You cannot pick and choose to what you listen to. You cannot say you will not buy clothes to prevent sweatshop workers and eat mountains of chocolate that was made by slaves. You cannot avoid eating rice because it was picked by workers paid 3 cents an hour and use a cell phone with a sim card made by slaves. You cannot... cannot pick and choose.