its hard to understand this. People need to realize that anyone can be born anywhere. If an American was born in a third world country like Haiti or Ethiopia, they would have a much smaller chance of making something out of their lives. It just happens that a majority of all third world countries are inhabited by people that don't look white. They are all black, asian, or latino and therefore white Americans think that their worth more as a person because they can accomplish more. Even though it is pretty obvious that if anybody is born into the scenario that the average Haitian is, they most likely wont be too succesful in life, because they are given so little. The average American is given so much more than the average third world country resident, so of course they are going to have a better chance. It isn't that the average American is born smarter or better, he just has a better education system and has much more priveleges.

you cant judge someone before you know them. It just doesn't make sense to do so. You have to give everyone a fair chance. I feel as though it isn't a big difference between someone who committed murder and someone who is just a casual citizen. The murderer was probably just in the wrong place at the wrong time and he made a horrible decision. Some convicted murders are convicted of murder when they are 16. That means for the rest of their lives they will be in prison, because of a mistake they made at such a young age. So, of course these guys are gonna have normal human emotions. Why wouldn't they?they're not creatures or beasts. They go through the regular things that other people do, just they live it through a prison cell with other inmates that have been convicted of crimes. Its not surprising to me that their emotions are similar to that of a normal human being.

Of course people want to help, what sensible person wouldn't? it's just not that simple. If people could stop world hunger and poverty, they would. But you have to realize that it is much more complicated than that. You can donate money, which is good, but it won't make much of a difference. Actually it hurt them when we donated money. The money was spent to buy food that was given to the Haitians for free, so nobody could sell food anymore. This hurt the already devastated economy, and was hurting Haiti's chances of recovering. So if donating money isn't an option, what else can we do? Really nothing, only the government has the power to make a difference. It also isn't our responsibilty to care of the entire world. Another earthquake hit Chile and that was also another massive disaster. Should America take care of that problem as well? It would cost billions of dollars to help Haiti, and it is a long process. Chile is another situation that would cost us billions and billions, if not trillions of dollars to help with.
America may be the most powerful country in the world, but it isn't invincible. We have to worry about our country as well, even though that sounds cruel. We are in an economic crisis, and our President just signed a health care bill giving free health care to everyone. On top of that illegal immigration is costing us a lot of money, along with the unnecessary war on Iraq. Although these all seem like excuses and not reasons, they are valid. America could put a serious effort into helping Haiti, and devote billions of dollars annually for the next couple of decades to improve all those peoples lives. But at what cost? would Americans be fine with the government helping Haiti and having it's citizens become poorer and poorer.
They should be fine with that, but i imagine that most would definatley dislike that plan, because it doesn't benefit us. Thats the real problem. If something isn't effecting us, we are far more likely to not care about it as much as we should. I think that when we hear about 300,000 people dieing and compare that to the 3,000 that died on September 11, we really need to consider the extent of this crisis. If a crisis like what happened in Haiti, happened in New York City, how different would it be. The entire state, and everyone who has relatives that live in New York would be working to help, because it effects them. People from other states would help because it is fellow Americans, but not to the extent that people who are personally by the tragedy would.

The war on Iraq isn't a "Christian Invasion", i think that's pretty obvious. It has far more to do with oil than with religion and also the ignorance of George W. Bush. I think what Sam was trying to explain was how it must look to people who live in Iraq. Obviously, they will see it as the "evil Christian Americans" attacking their country and murdering their people for oil. There is no other way to look at it from their point of view, and i find it hard to believe that people still supported the war after seeing that powerful presentation.
Just imagine that you lived in Baghdad. Your a peaceful person and so is the rest of your family, actually, everyone you and know or have ever met is peaceful and nowhere near the status of a radical. For every radical that is killed 29 of those peaceful people that you know will be murdered by Christian Americans. That's horrible, no wonder so many people have such strong negative feelings about Americans.
At the end of the presentation when he asked everyone to raise their hands if they would fight against America, if they were Arab Muslims, a huge majority rose their hands. I know realize why Arab Muslims in the middle east are so against Christian Americans. I certainly would be if i was an Arab Muslim.
Although Arab Muslims have to realize that it isn't how it seems. American's had their World Trade Centers blown up and other countries around the world have been attacked by Arab Muslims. When a country as powerful as America gets attacked like that, they have to retaliate, and war was the only option that George W. Bush saw. Although we entered the war looking for weapons of mass destruction, i don't think that Arab Muslims realize that. Although it is questionable if we really did go to the middle east in search of weapons of mass destruction, or if it was just for oil. Thats a big deal, because one of the reasons (weapons of mass destruction) was a very necessary reason, and the other reason is very selfish. It's selfish because Americans are willing to trade Arab Muslim lives for oil.
Arabs do have good reason to dislike Christian Americans. Especially when we have people like Sarah Palin saying it is a war that is being led by God, or when the General of the army is saying that the Christian god is real and the Muslim god is fake. These things make it seem like Americans are evil, but again they have to realize that is a small group of radicals that are doing all the damage. Most Christians are against the war and have nothing against the Arab Muslims in the middle east.

It sucks to say this, but women are objectified in today's world. It's no wonder that they feel as though they have to look a certain way and are pressured go to extremes to achieve a certain look. Men are much more likely to not care about how they look. They are more likely to care about their grades in school, sports, and other things that interest them. Men run the world, and since women are their greatest interest women are put in a spot with a lot of pressure. You always see men who aren't attractive accepted socially, but you rarely see unattractive women accepted socially because their appearance is so important to men. It isn't even a matter of what the girl is wearing, or how her hair is done, or how her make was done. Men don't necessarily notice those things, they are far more interested on how the female looks physically and doing little things don't really matter to them. If a man wears a nice outfit and gets his hair done, women notice and an unattractive man can look attractive to a woman. Its a double standard and it effects women negatively.

Do men feel pressure to look good? obviously we do, just like women. Its a little different for men however. Men do run the world, and one of their main interests is women. Woman on the other hand, feel as though they must look a certain way so that men will be interested in them. Its just one of many double standards that women face and that men will never be able to understand.
I think it is pretty well known that men are very interested in looks when searching for a female partner. I think most men (or almost all) would say that looks are the most important thing when they search for a female. Of course men care about the girls personality but i think that is a secondary thing, at least until you are seriously considering marriage. Women on the other hand are a little different. Of course, women care about a man's physical appearance, but not nearly as much as men do. Women are enamored with a man's sense of humor, kindness, selflessness, honesty, intelligence, manners, sensitivity, sincerity, affection, consideration, thoughtfulness, etc... the list goes on and on. Looks are much more important for a man than for a woman.

Its just a game, its degrading to women and I'm sure its rated for people over the age of 18. We have shooting games in today's society that are very graphic. Should that be illegal? of course not. Porn is legal and its way more degrading to women than any video game could possibly be. For some reason, when a women's rights leader speaks up, men feel as though they have to agree with her. Because it would be a "sexist thing" to do if you disagreed with her. Women's rights leaders are very uptight about little things like this, its a disgusting game, but to make it illegal is a completely different issue. Games incorporating war and murder should be legal, but games with rape should be illegal? thats ridiculous. You would have to make war games illegal before even considering "rape games". I also believe that it is wrong to make a video game illegal because of the of chance that some boy might believe everything he see's on the game and act upon those beliefs.

I for one, feel as though if your mind hasn't changed the entire time that you've been in class, you either ignorant or naive, or you were well informed about race relations before you took this course. I for one, have learned a lot from this class. When i learned things, it wasn't that i changed my opinion on all the topics discussed. It was a case of me having a stronger opinion than i previously had. I could back up my opinion with facts that i actually understood. For example, i have always been against slavery, but i didn't know the extent to which slavery is being done throughout the world. I didn't know that there are more slaves now than ever before, and that the clothes i am wearing was produced by slaves. Now i understand the topic and have a more valid explanation for why i hate slavery.

This guys has good intentions but i dont think he knows what hes talking about. He isn't a bigot, hes definitely a patriot. So i don't hate him because he is just saying what he thinks and how he thinks things should be handled. He is a knucklehead though. He doesn't understand that if his proposed solution was possible it probably would have happened a long time ago. He makes the solution seem so simple but obviously its more complicated than he makes it out to be. There could be multiple variables that aren't being considered, that would have to be evaluated before his plan could possibly be acted upon.
The US does have more foreign bases than any other country but there must be a reason behind that. Those bases are serving a purpose, they aren't just out in the middle of nowhere wasting away money. You need to have foreign bases so the military can access different parts of the world easily and more efficiently. Also, if we were to move those bases back to the US, would we really use them to prevent illegal immigration? illegal immigration isn't the biggest issue that we are facing and we could probably use those bases more efficiently. I understand that illegal drug trafficking and immigration is a problem. But isn't one that i believe should get that much merit. With the economic problem right now and the health care bill that just got passed, we have much bigger problems to worry about. As Americans, we have to realize that we came to this country "illegally". We killed a exterminated an entire race of people, performing the largest genocide of all time. Now when a group of people want to come to America, peacefully, we are so quick to stop them. Its just the American way of that, and it should change. So many people hate illegal immigration or have some strong feeling towards it, even though they don't look at the big picture and realize that we shouldn't even be in this country.
To address the comment about Barack Obama, i hate the way Balsamico made his statement. He just claims that Obama won't salute the flag, and makes the president of the United States seem unpatriotic. Obama had reasoning for not saluting the flag. He didnt want people from foreign countries thinking he was supporting the war. Which Obama has made clear that he is against the war, and believes that it is happening for all the wrong reasons. Obama felt as though people from foreign countries look at the American flag as a sign of oppression or violence. Obama just didn't want to be affiliated with that image and decided not to salute the flag. He salutes the flag now, and Balsamico just makes it out to be a ridiculous sign of rebellion. Claiming "I cant believe anyone would vote for a candidate who wont even salute the flag of the United States of America"

This question is really interesting. It is a good thing that someone thought bout that, affirmative action can cause a lot of damages. However, it does not happen often. I really support affirmative action, if my parents have done something better to make everything easier for me, I should be able to enjoy it. Like the alumni’s kids that got into penn state very easily, like so what, who told your parents not to be alumni? I should be able to enjoy my parents’ hard work. For example, I have worked as an electrical engineering intern when I was a senior in high school, my parents know some VPs from the firm and thanks to that I got an internship. If I do my things right in school, this is like a guarantee job for me. Anyways, like when I graduated from penn state, if I do a good job and get a good network, I want my kids to be able to enjoy that.