How is this situation different? We come to a land and take it away from those that have it already because we can, because we want to be 'king of the mountain' and we have more power. That doesn't make it right at all, though. I agree with you on one thing, life is definitely not fair. This has been proven evident by the countless amounts of Native Americans now living in trailers because they have been constantly beaten down by this nation of 'patriots'. When during his inaugural address, the president who said that we took this desolate land and transformed into something great, he was simply stating the condition of this land that most people (at least this was how I viewed it) initially hear about the situation with Native Americans. Perhaps if this land really was desolate and nobody occupied it, I could see how the two situations are different. The fact that Native Americans had tribes, had lives, had homes, and we essentially just bulldozed over all of this and forced those that survived the attack to live in shoddy, low income neighborhoods is very much the same situation you described. If the Mexican army did attack us, they would most likely not defeat us in a war (simply because the United States spends the most money out of any other country on their military...) but if they were stronger, or if the rest of the world combined attempted to take our land, would you still say that life is unfair and that's the way it goes? If hundreds of thousands of your friends and families are killed through genocide, I have a hunch you would feel that the two situations seem to parallel each other...

People who were not born in this country are no different than people who were born in this country. My mother and sister were not born in this country, but they have both spent the majority of their lives living here and are, especially my sister, very Patriotic. Denying them health coverage simply based on their background seems ridiculous to me. We all share the same basic functions and the same species name. Taking care of and looking after one another is one of the most fundamental survival tactics of any species. The fact that we all don't share the same level of care (in terms of health, income, access to food/water) seems really wrong to me. In an ideal world, we would all be accepted as members of humanity and we would all receive the same level of health care. Sadly this is not the case, and even people who are citizens of a country, myself included, still are not covered in terms of health care. The technology that countless members of our society use to try and find cures to new health ailments, and even those that study to become nurses and doctors that simply help save lives day after day in a hospital should share their gifts of assisting human life with all of humanity. When a natural disaster occurs (such as Haiti) many American doctors flocked to the nation in trouble to assist as much as they can. In places in Africa or Central America where poverty stricken nations are losing their populations due to malnutrition, inadequate sources of water and shelter, it makes me wonder why more people don't leave and help?

When I found out that people had taken offense to this episode, my initial reaction wasn’t very considerate of the people of the Muslim religion. I thought it was ridiculous that people could see the episode of South Park, and react in rage and threaten to kill the creators. South Park is a cartoon and it is not real life. When I was in elementary school my best friend and I had this joke about our invisible friend Muhammad. I had no idea that there was so much controversy over allowing this character to have a physical form. If I did, I probably would have poked more fun at it because I wouldn’t have (and still really don’t) understood the drama that comes along with a visual of a god. It’s not like it’s an accurate depiction of the god, nobody actually has an accurate depiction of his or her god.
Once I stepped out of my own shoes and tried to see this in the eyes of a Muslim who took offense, I began to see where this anger could come from. Many people have religious beliefs, much different than my lack of any, and these people hold true to these beliefs and live by these laws that their god has set forth for them. Holding onto something as strongly as many religious people do leads me to realize how this poking fun at their god could be offensive. It’s hard for me to put it into a perspective I can understand, though. I am not religious and I don’t have a god, let alone one that cannot be visualized. However, the anger these people must be feeling doesn’t justify threats to kill those who are simply making it into a joke. And it is also not as if this was the only religion they poked fun at, South Park is sure to leave nobody out of their jokes. What could make somebody who is religious and following the rules of their god, which include unconditional love and forgiveness, want to kill another person? People who feel that they are killing ‘for’ their god seem insane to me. How could a god that loves and accepts you be so willing to force you into murder? To me, this doesn’t seem to make any sense, especially if we are all welcome to become followers of this same god.
Sometimes I feel that religion accidentally leads to acts of violence and hate more than it should. People should practice what they preach. If people who strongly believe in a god or religion that teaches forgiveness and unconditional love, they should be able to forgive those and love those who believe in different things than they do. They should also not hate and want to kill those that offend them.

I agree with this post. Allah and God are the same. I have recently started saying ‘OMA’ instead of ‘OMG’ to emphasize my feelings on this subject to my friends. We all feel that the way we think is right. This is a natural borne thing to every person in the world. We are all egocentric and it is hard to realize it in most cases. We all think we have the best personality, the best family, our group of friends is the funniest, but everybody else in the world has these same feelings of superiority. I feel that this closely parallels how we all feel about religion. We all see religion as a black and white type of phenomena that has specific rules and regulations one must obey to be a true Christian/Buddhist/Muslim, but what if all of our gods are the same person? What if the extra rules and regulations are all man-made? It is hard to consider ourselves as in the wrong, but with recent views on this war, I feel that we should all consider ourselves in the wrong. My opinion on religion is that if one is going to believe in something, whether it is different than or the same as what you yourself believe in, they should be respected. We are all under this mindset of being right and never wrong, but if we look around at the world, we are all wrong.
To go along with what this girl said about her husband being very against the beliefs Osama Bin Laden has, many people don’t realize that he is not voicing the opinions of the masses. He has his own beliefs and a small group of followers. There are so many other people that believe in the Muslim religion who do not follow the words of Osama Bin Laden.

If my family were killed by a group of people that were already invading my country and altering my life, I would be very inclined to become a suicide bomber. I never really thought that these people could be avenging the deaths of loved ones, I always assumed they had either been brainwashed into religious reasons, or are doing it for financial stability for loved ones they will leave behind. Seeing it in this light is really powerful. I can fully understand why people who feel that they have nothing left to live for in life because they lost those they love, could feel the need to destroy the lives of people on the side of the enemy. Looking at war from the perspective of the ‘enemy’ is really enlightening.
Hearing that soldiers we have trained and sent into a foreign country have the audacity and willingness to kill innocent civilians, especially the youth and women who are pregnant, is very unnerving. I never really thought that this nation could breed people with the ability to kill like this. These people have families of their own back in America; it’s not hard to see the similarities between our two countries, especially in a simple view of family. The fact that these civilians know that they are going to be killed and quickly get married before we invade is so sad! And the fact that the media is extremely selective about what is allowed to be broadcasted back home just leads our people even further into the dark. There are so many things wrong with this war, and this is just another thing I can add to the list.

During class on Thursday, I was given the chance to try looking at the world and our country from a different perspective. It really frightened me to experience the world in this way. If the tables were turned on this country and China was trying to take our coal, we would react in much the same way the people in the Middle East are reacting. Growing up, I never really took the time to question why we were in these wars. I would see images from the Gulf war of oil mines on fire and American soldiers walking the streets of Iraq and this all seemed very normal to me. It seemed right. Now I think to how our country works, the way we take everything we can from anyone who isn’t as powerful as us, just because we want it. It seems very juvenile to act the way our country has acted over the past couple of decades. We realize that we need something, and we make up an excuse to get it, at any costs. The fact that the people in these countries know already, before we even penetrate their streets, that civilians, largely, are going to be the ones to die is not only very sad but also really unfair. America runs a lot of its foreign business in ways that are very unfair. We take from the poor and give to the rich, ourselves. We are already on top, and we keep playing king of the mountain until we can soak up the last bits of any resource this world has to offer, because, deep down, I guess America feels that they are entitled to it.
I am not sure about how I feel about this subject, but my friends and I have had discussions on whether or not the “War on Terrorism” is even a legitimate war. Were we even attacked by terrorists of another country? Or were these people working for our government? This idea seems very far-fetched to me, but I cannot help but wonder about it. I know that if someone reads this who is very pro-war and patriotic they will immediately reply in anger, but I would just like to ask them to contemplate it for a few moments. We are now in the war simply because of oil (and because we feel we owe the people of these countries some “assistance” due to the destruction we caused over the past decade). What if that’s the whole reason we were there in the beginning of this war? I’m not saying it’s definite, I’m just saying it’s possible. What if the government, out of desperation for oil to fuel our booming economy, set up an “attack” on our soil so it would reach to the hearts of the masses? It is really unnerving to consider this and still continue to live in a country where its own government stages attacks on innocent civilians. This is probably a main reason why most people automatically block it out once they first hear it. I am just asking those who think it is impossible, to hypothetically consider it, and see if things start to begin to make sense. I, myself, have not come to a conclusion on this subject, but I constantly find myself wondering about it.

I think that one of the most important things one can do to gain more knowledge is challenge their own opinions. We sometimes like to think that we are the only ones that are right. I have a friend who I cannot have a conversation with about religion or America and some of the naughty things we do because she will completely shut down and ignore every point I’m making because she has already predetermined that she is the one thinking correctly. People like this make me sad. Expanding our minds through discussion is one of the greatest ways to create deeper thoughts and stronger opinions on subjects that our controversial. If everybody thought the same way, we would know that that way was most likely right. Since we all think differently, I think it is vital to bounce ideas off of one another and create discussions that stimulate the mind in ways that it may have never been stimulated before. Shutting down once an opinion you disagree with comes along is very typical, but the point of this class, I think, is to work past this time and let the different ideas flow into your mind. They don’t have to be accepted or seen as the right way, but they are supposed to make us think about the opinions we have already formed. How can we believe that our ideas are right if they have never been challenged? I have this problem when I talk to members of my family about religion, because they shut down into a ‘God is right and that’s that’ type of mentality. If it is never permitted to be challenged… how can one be so sure?

I also wondered about this. I couldn't bring myself to eat the second piece of chocolate, but it is not as if I am never going to eat chocolate again. I had chocolate milk for breakfast this morning! Watching the video really brought this whole slavery situation into perspective for me. I had never thought too deeply about what these modern day slaves go through. The beatings and lack of payment are completely wrong. Enjoying chocolate at such a low price should not cost people their livelihoods. In a society where we get everything that we want at our fingertips, we should at least give the rest of the world a chance to join us. I feel that the first-world is so selfish in our actions towards the rest of the world. It is no wonder that Americans are among the most hated nationality in the world. It is so unfair that these people have to live their lives in such despair and are forced to deal with so many hardships that people in this country could probably never imagine. Knowing that chocolate comes from the "flesh" of these people really makes me think twice about eating my next piece. I know that I am not going to stop eating chocolate or buying products produced by slaves, because I feel that it is near impossible. We live in a society in which we are surrounded by slave made products. The only way to escape this is to leave or protest.

I would like to start this with a point about illegal/legal immigration. I don’t really see much of a difference. The people who are legally allowed to live here still want to live here just as bad as the people who abandoned their native homes and families to live in America. My mom is not a citizen and has a green card. She had intentions of becoming a citizen, as did my sister, but neither of them have done so. Just because they are not American does not mean they should not be allowed to live here. Who is to say who is and isn’t allowed to live in this country? This country is a melting pot of so many different ethnic backgrounds and cultures – I feel that this is the basis of our nation. Taking away the ability to come in from a different country, whether it be legally or illegally, would take away the essence of this nation. If all men are created equal, shouldn’t all men be allowed to live here?
I really enjoyed that this man started his rant out with a fact about his past. That his family is a product of immigration to the United States. The only people who are not products of immigration are the Native Americans, because they were here before we were. How this man can be so against immigration is beyond me. He himself has family that came from Italy. Whether the immigration is legal or illegal, these people are in the same boat as he and his family. We all come from different backgrounds and stating that we need to stop more people from coming into this country is pretty ridiculous coming from somebody who came from a different country a few generations ago. Where do we draw the line between when it is/was okay for immigrants to enter this country? It’s as if his family sailed across the ocean a century ago, and after that happened, it is no longer okay to allow foreign people in. The door must be closed to all other people trying to better their lives in America. The pride that he feels for his grandfather should register in his mind that there are so many other people out there who are trying to lead the same type of life that his grandfather wanted for himself and for his future generations.
It is only natural for people of less developed countries to want to live in this country. When my sister was five she still lived in Honduras. My sister believed that the roads in America were literally made out of gold. People talk about this country as if it is the richest place in the world (which it arguably is). Wanting a better life for your future, as my mother wanted, is only natural and should not be stopped simply because it doesn’t have a legal title.

I also come from a Hispanic mother and a white father, but I personally identify with the "white team" more than I do on the Hispanic team. The reason for this is because in class we were asked what kind of a background we had growing up and the types of people we interacted with growing up, our friends, our school, which family we saw more often, etc. I come from a mildly racist white town and I have never really considered myself anything other than white. I say that I'm Hispanic when asked on scholarships or applications, but when I am just hanging out with my friends (who are mostly white) I never really feel different. Growing up, I felt like I was different because I knew certain Spanish phrases my mom said which I had assumed everybody knew, not knowing they were Spanish. I felt so different and it was hard to relate to the white culture that surrounded me. Now I don't ever feel this difference from my childhood because I have been completely absorbed into the white culture. I don't really relate to either "team" though when we're asked in class to participate on a team. I feel like I am more CULTURALLY white, but biologically I am still 50/50 Hispanic and white, so I find it hard to chose a side.