I agree with this comment. The example of the pilgrims coming over and taking land from the Indians was a good example, but it was a different time. Taking lands was normal then. Today is a totally different story. The population keeps growing and growing, the circumstances today are definitely different than they were back then. I do not think that what happened to the Native Americans was fair. However comparing to today’s immigration problem did not totally convince me of anything. Don’t get me wrong, they are similar situations but the time period was totally different. So I think that you can’t really base today’s issue off of what went on back then.

I think this is a hard question. Because it would be very unnerving to turn away a person who needs medical help, just because they are an immigrant. But then again I do not think it is fair to give illegal immigrants health care when they are not paying those taxes. I do not feel that the people here illegal should get to benefit from our tax dollars when they are not paying them. However, what kind of country would this be if the hospitals turned away people in need of care? I cannot imagine doing that. So I guess this kind of just puts people in a tough situation.

I think that any person that watches South Park, or at least is somewhat familiar with it they know and understand that the writers of the show really love to push viewers’ buttons. I’ve seen the show and they pretty much poke fun at every religion, culture, and whatever currently is going on in the world. I’m not saying that it is always right, but they do find a way to push buttons to really make people think about the issues. If the show is offensive to you then do not watch it. The girl said that Muslim people were upset because they writers of South Park poked fun at Mohammed. But honestly, they have poked fun at just about everything. I’ve seen numerous episodes where they have poked fun of Jews and even had Jesus in the show. Literally the how has poked fun at everything, celebrities, presidents. I remember they made an episode about Tom Cruise being gay. They just take current stories and show, in a funny, but kind of crude way, the way this story is impacting society. I actually think it is annoying that this is continuing to be a controversy. South Park had been making fun of religions for years. Now all of a sudden it is a big deal. I think people should just relax. Like I said if it bothers you, just do not watch it and if you kind find the humor in it, then by all means go ahead and enjoy it. It is silly to get all worked up over one issue in the show. I’m sure billions of people have been offended by the show. It targets just about everyone and everything, so there is no need to take it personally. It was their own choice to turn on the show. And I’m willing to bet that if you are purposely turning the show on you are bound to know what the show normally consists of. It is almost like...okay fine go ahead and make fun of other religions, but when it is mine you better watch out. Now how is that fair? It’s not. I think these people need to lighten up and just enjoy the crude humor on the how. I think the exaggerated way the writers express current events is hysterical. Society is being a little too sensitive in my opinion. People are always so serious. I think it is important to be able to laugh at yourself and other things going on in life. If you take everything too seriously, how are you supposed to have fun and enjoy yourself? South Park was just poking fun at another religion like it ALWAYS has, so just enjoy the episodes or don’t watch them.

I really enjoyed the lecture on Haiti. It really informed me more on what was going on there. I thought it was really surprising when everyone knows the exact date of September 11th, and no one knew very much about this devastating earthquake that happened in Haiti. It’s like they said, you hear about it on the news and then the next week you hear about something else. But everything in Haiti is still in shambles, even though the news has moved on. I think these tent cities are fascinating. It’s great that they are building their own little business and helping other Haitians out in these hard times. It is sad that they have to live like this, but it is good to see they are trying to make something out of it.

I thought that what this man shared about life is prison was very interesting, even shocking. Because he is right, I never knew that behind bars these convicted criminals still showed each other compassion. I think that is great. This will definitely make people see criminals a little differently. I’m not saying to feel sorry for them, because I don’t, just to understand that they are still human. Most are not beasts or animals, they are still normal people. I think it is pretty amazing that someone convicted of such an awful crime can be aware of their mistake, and aware that they are spending life in prison, and yet still take out time to show compassion to a person.

I really enjoyed this lecture. I thought that Sam approached it in a very cool way. I think that it really helped to put it into perspective. It was very clever the way Sam made as all pretend to be Muslims. And then he showed us all of those videos, which is essentially what the Muslims are seeing about America. Even though we, Americans, know those videos are not representative of who we are, the Muslims are not aware of this and will base their opinions of off the few bad videos they see. I think that this is the way we see Muslims too. We only see the radical Muslims and the ones that are trying to terrorize us. We do not see the normal everyday people who are just like us. This makes us think that ALL Muslims are like the radical ones, which causes us to think they are the enemy. Unfortunately most people do not realize that we are only seeing the bad parts and will continue to think that all Muslim peoples are radicals. The Muslims do not realized that the videos they see about Americans are just a few bad apples, and we do not realize that the videos we see about Muslims are just a few bad apples. And maybe some people do not care to see otherwise. But I do think that Sam’s approach to getting us to see this was very helpful and effective. I thought that Sam’s made up example about the Chinese taking over our coal was a very good way to make me see what Americans are doing to the Muslims with their oil. I would not be happy about it either. Also I think it is very sad that the war primarily is just about getting their oil for us. I cannot help but wonder when this is all going to stop..when do we stop invading places to get what we want? I could understand what Sam was saying about being Christian Invaders. They do not know anything but what they see on the internet or hear, so they would not know any otherwise. They do not see good videos about the Americans. They only focus on the bad. It is easy to dislike something if you only look at its flaws. Which is what people do here, they look at the flaws and automatically the Muslims are the enemies. The lecture really opened my eyes to many things. It was really great to be able to see the war in Iraq from another perspective besides the American side. And now I am able to understand it more thoroughly. We know that the soldiers over there that fight are good people and the Muslims don’t, so we can’t really expect them to be happy about what is going on if they do not get to see the good things.

I think that ate the second piece of chocolate, because like Sam said it was the only reasonable thing to do. I would like that say that from now on I’m going to only buy Fair Trade chocolate and then I’m going to buy Fair Trade coffee, but the truth is, I’m not. You would have to change your entire lifestyle, no dessert at family parties, no chocolate ice cream at your favorite parlor. And maybe that is selfish to not want to change, but people do not really have that great of a choice. Almost everything contains something that is made by slaves. What do we do, stop using and consuming everything?

I think that people can go along without questioning their God is because of faith. I am Christian and I have believed in God my entire life. I know some people will say how can’t you question that there is a God when all of these horrible things are happening. But I think that those people will have something better waiting for them in the afterlife. I think that everything happens for a reason, and we may not always understand what that reason is but eventually it will make sense. It is called your faith for that reason, it can’t be backed by hardcore facts, but something inside of you just tells you that this is right, and this is what you believe in.

I think that men definitely feel the need to conform to society just like women do. Maybe not to the same degree as women, but I think that that need to belong is still inside of men’s heads somewhere. I can notice this just by looking around at all of the guys. For example, in my high school I would say that there was a “popular” guy that every other guy would try to be like, or be in his group. The other guys would dress like him, act like him, and talk just like it. It’s just them conforming to what they think is cool, or what they have to be like. I do not see what makes this one guy the role model for all of the other ones, but I can still see that these other guys are trying to conform and be just like him. And as someone said before, just look around you…a majority of the guys around this campus all dress the same exact way. So that is them conforming. Many guys go and lift weights and work out just do they can have those six pack abs that all of the celebrities do. Or they go to the gym and lift so they can get really buff arms. I think they do this, because in society that is what named as attractive. Just take a look at the celebrity guys, all of the ones that are considered the most attractive have totally tight and toned bodies. So I feel that in a way guys try to imitate this look. I would not that that it is to the same degree as women. I think that women maybe get criticized a little harder than men do. I would say that most men get teased about how they look by their male friends, and this teasing is to their face. But with girls everything is behind their backs. Girls talking about another girl and that girl finding out from another girl that some other girl said she was fat. It is ridiculous. I do not think that guys really have to deal with that. Also I think that guys can get away with not being completely proportionate and perfect, but in a girl, other girls will notice right away something that I wrong with her. And I do think that part of this has to do with society and the media, but the other part is self confidence. If a person really truly is comfortable with themselves then conformity won’t be such a big deal to them. That goes for both men and women. But I do not have a clue as to how to change society’s need to conform, I think that maybe that feeling to fit in with the crowd is always going to be there. Almost everyone wants to feel like they belong.

Like most people have said, I do not really know much about welfare. However I do remember Sam saying that most of it goes to children. So I do not really think that we could get rid of welfare. It really is not the children’s fault. But at the same time you have adults who like to stay on welfare their entire lives and just never have to do anything. No matter what is done there will be a problem. I think that getting rid of it will essentially cause more problems down the road for these children, but maybe something else could be thought of to stop adults from just riding on welfare checks their entire lives.