If this letter itself is eye opening, I cannot imagine how incredibly more eye opening it would be to actually hang out with the lifers in prison for a while and get to know them for real. From the way this lifer speaks, I feel as though everybody in society should get a taste of being a lifer. The compassion he talks about in his letter is not seen around in the real world to this extent. It is more difficult for people who have not suffered to have compassion to the extent that those who have suffered. Unless we know what it is like to be in the shoes of somebody else, we cannot truly understand and feel true compassion for them. This is true for even some of the biggest disasters that strike the world. I wish these lifers could be let out. What is stopping our society to let them free except for the fact that society has them judged so incorrectly? We are all so quick to judge people, and it is completely natural and acceptable to an extent. Stereotyping helps our brains simplify the world to keep it organized and keep it from over thinking. However, I also feel that people who have genuinely changed and show remorse should be set free. Those of us outside the prison could learn so much about humanity and the ability to change from them. I have never visited a prison, but I think it would be such a surreal experience. There would be so many stereotypes and judgments broken and corrected. However, I do understand that not all of the lifers have changed and should be set free. Some people deserve to be locked up for life to keep the world safe. Moving on, I just told my roommates about this letter and told them how it is amazing to see that what we always assumed is actually not true. However, they would not believe me and simply refused to listen to the letter or read it. They said theres no such thing and that they are in prison for a reason. I asked them to open their minds, but they refused to do it in this case. It blows my mind when I hear this type of close-mindedness. I guess we all know and say that we cannot judge a book by its cover, but we all do it anyway. I feel as though visiting the prisoners would be a very cool experience. Maybe we should start having field trips from schools and try to spread the word. Then, maybe these prisoners would be set free if they deserve to be.

This issue really sucks, and it is a part of life. Some people can afford to work, and others cannot. Some people need to come here for a better life or go elsewhere, but they just do not have the resources to do so. I feel as though a lot of people’s lives are determined simply by luck and resources. It sort of goes with the idea of “survival of the fittest”. It is not fair, but not everybody can be on top or be successful and live comfortable lives. Otherwise there would be no variation and positions of power in the world.

I feel as though it is in human nature to react more to something personally touching to us rather than for others. My mom always tells me that I could have the best of friends, but nobody but my parents would be there for me until the very end no matter what. She tells me that others will care about you to an extent, but in the end, it comes down to my parents who will truly be there for me. I can see that applying for all of us. We feel for others deeply, but we cannot embrace their problems as our own very easily.

I am not sure if coexistence is the big issue. I think that we need to put religion aside in order to “coexist” I guess or just not judge people unless we really know them. However, I do know that we stereotype and generalize groups of people because it helps us simplify the world. Otherwise, our minds would be overwhelmed. This makes me think of religion and how it is good and bad at the same time. It is good because it helps keep a sort of social order in the world. It is bad, though, because it brings about stereotypes and hatred and competition between groups of people as seen with these crusaders.

I think it is really cool that Sam made us see through the eyes of the Muslims living in Iraq. I got to see a different side of this war in Iraq. I understand that a part of the reason for the war has to do with oil, but I do not really know if it is all about the Christian invaders. I see that it has something to do with why the Muslims do not like the people coming into bomb Iraq because of the evidence presented in class such as the protests. It really is difficult to really understand what is going on unless we put ourselves fully into the shoes of others.

I liked the skit in class, especially because it showed a different side to boob jobs. Most of the time we see girls trying to get breast augmentation. This time, I saw something that I can actually relate to- breast reduction. However, something really bothered me. I have always had a problem having bigger breasts, and the dialogue of the girl who was trying to get reductions made my insecurities increase. She said some things that even I had never thought of, and now I am even more concerned. For example, she said that big boobs made her look like a mom and that guys looked at her and thought of their moms’ breasts. That was disturbing because I never thought of it that way. I always thought most men preferred larger breasts. Anyway, I believe that the media has a way of portraying women in ways that they “should” look. However, I think media and real people work together to produce this desirable image that other girls have to struggle with for not having. The media takes what it sees around, and it magnifies it to an extreme. Other times, certain trends start in the inner workings of the fashion industry and pop up in every store and magazine that girls come into contact with. Therefore, we are forced to conform to certain things. This controls body image. Something I have noticed is that sizes are getting smaller and smaller. What used to be a small is now a medium or large. I personally realized that I have to sometimes get a size larger than I normally would and it would upset me because I would think that I am no longer considered “thin”. I have some clothes from years ago, and compared to the clothes I buy now, the smaller sizes back then are actually bigger than the larger sized clothing I buy now. When it comes to body shape, it used to be considered desirable to have a curvy body with big breasts and curvy butts. Now, it seems that every model and most clothing call for stick-like shapes. Girls no longer want to have large boobs hanging off their bodies and large butts that just attract way too much attention. Something that I also noticed in class when girls talked about wanting smaller boobs was that none of the guys around me disagreed. Normally, people comment around me when they agree with things. During the class on “bleeding”, an uproar came about amongst the guys. However, the guys around me did not seem to disagree that smaller boobs were preferred. I also agree that girls dress for each other because guys do not always notice outfits the way we do.

This is part of the reason why I do not believe there is a God. If we are all “God’s children” why is there so much injustice in the world? Why do good things happen to the most horrible people, and terrible things happen to some of the nicest? I have heard excuses like “it’s because God tests the good people more to see if they are worthy for heaven or not” but really…come on! I do not mean to put down anyone’s faith or beliefs, but I just wish there was not so much hypocrisy in what people say about God and the religions they follow.

This is a simple solution, but it is not very likely. Our society thrives off of appearance, and we place too much importance on it. I know that I love shopping and buying new clothes all the time. It is not just a girl thing, either, because lots of guys like to splurge on the latest trends. We should just end slavery by banning anything that does not involve fair trade. Of course, people would still buy and sell illegally, but it would be a huge step towards ending slavery. I give the guy props for wearing the same shirts for 2 years now. I know that I would not be able to do the same.

I would like to know if this girl would ever eat any type of chocolate again unless it was produced through fair trade. Please be realistic. While I did not eat any of the chocolate, I would have eaten the second piece because of what Sam said after he showed us the video. He said that we should only not eat the chocolate if we were never going to eat chocolate again. Let us be real. Maybe one or two people in the entire class may do that. However, the rest of us will go back to eating chocolate just like we always have. Also, it is impossible to completely get rid of the injustice done to the slaves because there will always be people who eat chocolate and support the treatment. If people do not eat chocolate anymore, there will still be slavery with other things like coffee and just about everything else we consume and use. Also, I would not eat the second piece in front of the slaves even though I would still eat it otherwise. This is mainly because of the guilt factor. The movie definitely made me feel bad, but it was just a reminder of what goes on in the world. I already knew this goes on. Most of us do know this goes on. And we still go about doing the things we do and using the things we use. Sam was simply trying to get us to think about what goes on because we cannot really change it. I think he accomplished exactly what he wanted by showing us the video. Another thing is that if we did not eat the chocolate, we would have thrown it out. That would have been even worse, in my opinion, in regards to respecting those slaves who picked the cocoa. Their flesh would have been put into the garbage and then a landfill. Furthermore, the video did make me more aware of what goes on behind the scenes of the chocolate I eat, but it did not make me overly upset for some reason. It is probably because I have never personally seen or experienced the slavery. Sure, reading about it and watching it is a huge step towards awareness, but not enough for me to practice abstinence from chocolate. I wish there was a way for everybody in the world to end slavery behind the chocolate we eat by not supporting it. Unfortunately, that is impossible. As long as society exists, there will be injustice to people everywhere. Class and socioeconomic status mean so much to us that we live our entire lives based on it. This includes our living conditions, friends, and associates.

Welfare seems to be a cycle in the lives of people who are on it. The parents are on it, so the children are on it, and then the children become adults on welfare and have children of their own on welfare. There just does not seem to be an end to this cycle. Cutting off welfare once and for all would put so many children at a disadvantage, but I feel as though once it is cut off, the cycle would end. I am in no way saying that this is right or wrong, but if welfare was to be cut off right now, anyone who needs it may just have to suffer and try to make their lives better on their own. The people who got welfare before and who will be born without welfare will be at an advantage because they will not be affected in a negative way. The new children that would be born would maybe even be able to live better lives and learn to make their lives easier by getting higher educations and things like that because they would be forced to do it. I do not know everything about welfare, so I cannot say that this would work or not, but it is just a thought. I do know that many people seem to look down at it and think of it as though the people on it are inferior and too incapable of doing good for themselves. However, there are many different reasons for why people get stuck in this welfare cycle, and a main aspect of it is being born into it. If welfare was to be shut down completely, people would be forced to get jobs and support themselves. Maybe it would not be so bad. However, it is the children that most of us worry about because they have no voice in their living conditions. Maybe the government could find a way to create more jobs (even though that is what it is trying to do right now because of the economy) so that the people on welfare would have to work and pay for their own things. Or it could give hand outs up to a certain extent to those families with children who are on welfare. Then, they could use these hand outs as starting points and move on from there to better their lives and put their kids through school and even college. There has to be some way to get people out of poverty, and the government should make it a priority to figure out a way to achieve this. Even if welfare is not cut off completely, it definitely needs to be scratched and redone.