Personally, I don’t really understand the whole idea of “avenging” someone else’s death. I understand that obviously when someone close to you has died, you are upset and want to mourn. However, there are so many other ways to mourn a loved one’s death than to kill yourself and others with you. Getting revenge and killing other people doesn’t seem like something that your loved one who passed away would be proud of anyway. I really don’t think there is any way I would ever avenge someone’s death by doing something so drastic as killing other people and myself by way of a suicide bomb.

I think this lecture last Thursday was one of the best this semester. I usually don’t get too much out of Sam’s lectures to be honest; however, this one did open my eyes up to the whole war in Iraq. This lecture really did make me think. I never really thought to put myself in the Iraqi’s shoes and see it from their perspective. The only time I ever really thought about the Iraqis was when I realized a couple years ago that we were pretty much just going into their country and taking it over. But I never really gave that idea much thought, because then I just brushed it aside and thought we were doing it for the good of their country, instead of to benefit ourselves. Whenever I watch the news, I always feel like it is so one-sided. The press tells you what they want you to know and tells you how to think. Over the past couple years with all the news coverage on Iraq, I believe that the news has made many people, including myself, believe that we were truly going into their country to help them out. We were killing their people and invading their land and homes in order to find the bad guys, such as Osama bin Ladan and Suddam Hussein. We were destroying their government and “helping” them form a new one in order to better their country and get rid of terrorism. The news basically lied to us and rarely or never explained the other side of it.

Once I actually thought about our true motives during that lecture, I realized we were going in for our own selfish reasons to benefit ourselves. The war in Iraq always had the nickname the “War for Oil” but George Bush always claimed otherwise. Once Sam actually told us to put ourselves in their shoes and see things from their perspective, it showed me a whole new side of everything. No wonder a good amount of the country considers Americans evil. If a country invaded America for similar reasons that we invaded Iraq, I would probably strongly dislike and think badly about that country just like many Iraqis do with us. Our invasion with the country started because of terrorism, but not all of the people in Iraq are terrorists or have terroristic beliefs. Many innocent people have been killed and their homes taken away because of something that their fellow citizens and leaders planned. Not every citizen in Iraq was behind the attacks on September 11th. However, pretty much every citizen has been affected by our invasion in their own country. This lecture definitely opened my eyes up, and I thought it was good how Sam made us see it from somebody else’s perspective.

I really enjoyed the lecture today about Haiti. The first thing that really made me think was how every American knows the date of the terrorist attack that occurred on September 11th, 2001. However, many people in the class, including myself, didn’t know the exact date of when the earthquake in Haiti happened. I always knew that I was more aware of the United States’ history and own problems, but this really opened my eyes up more. This video on the tent cities is pretty cool, even though it is a shame that the Haitians now have to live this way. The new tent cities make for a complicated economy; however, it shows how hard-working and determined the Haitians are at still continuing on in life and not giving up.

I think this lecture last Thursday was one of the best this semester. I usually don’t get too much out of Sam’s lectures to be honest; however, this one did open my eyes up to the whole war in Iraq. This lecture really did make me think. I never really thought to put myself in the Iraqi’s shoes and see it from their perspective. The only time I ever really thought about the Iraqis was when I realized a couple years ago that we were pretty much just going into their country and taking it over. But I never really gave that idea much thought, because then I just brushed it aside and thought we were doing it for the good of their country, instead of to benefit ourselves. Whenever I watch the news, I always feel like it is so one-sided. The press tells you what they want you to know and tells you how to think. Over the past couple years with all the news coverage on Iraq, I believe that the news has made many people, including myself, believe that we were truly going into their country to help them out. We were killing their people and invading their land and homes in order to find the bad guys, such as Osama bin Ladan and Suddam Hussein. We were destroying their government and “helping” them form a new one in order to better their country and get rid of terrorism. The news basically lied to us and rarely or never explained the other side of it.
Once I actually thought about our true motives during that lecture, I realized we were going in for our own selfish reasons to benefit ourselves. The war in Iraq always had the nickname the “War for Oil” but George Bush always claimed otherwise. Once Sam actually told us to put ourselves in their shoes and see things from their perspective, it showed me a whole new side of everything. No wonder a good amount of the country considers Americans evil. If a country invaded America for similar reasons that we invaded Iraq, I would probably strongly dislike and think badly about that country just like many Iraqis do with us. Our invasion with the country started because of terrorism, but not all of the people in Iraq are terrorists or have terroristic beliefs. Many innocent people have been killed and their homes taken away because of something that their fellow citizens and leaders planned. Not every citizen in Iraq was behind the attacks on September 11th. However, pretty much every citizen has been affected by our invasion in their own country. This lecture definitely opened my eyes up, and I thought it was good how Sam made us see it from somebody else’s perspective.

I believe that the end goal for this whole race relations idea is to know that we live in a world where race clearly exists, but where it isn’t a problem. There’s no more inequality just because of your skin color, and everyone is treated exactly the same no matter if they’re black, white, brown, or any other color. People would be able to see past skin color and just recognize that every person is a human being and deserves to be treated like one. Even though this end goal is ideal and pretty much perfect, I don’t think the people of this earth will ever get there.

Even though I don’t completely agree that Mandarin is the best language to learn if students want to get ahead and stay ahead in the business world, I do think that it is very important for all students to learn another foreign language. In a perfect world, every person would be fluent in another language that is not their native one. This would make communication among different people and different countries much easier. However, most people only know their native language, and maybe bits and pieces of another language. Being a business major, I realize that most businesses these days are going global. Companies are constantly looking for and hiring potential employees who are fluent in another language. With China becoming a dominant country in our world’s economy, learning Mandarin is certainly not a bad idea. Especially since many people predict that China’s economy will probably one day soon surpass ours.

In high school, I took Latin, which was probably one of the bigger mistakes in my academic career. I thought that taking Latin would give me a good background for somewhat understanding other languages since so many languages come from Latin. However, Latin is obviously a dead language and is not spoken at all today. After going to countries like Mexico and Italy, and seeing my friends that can communicate with the locals since they either knew Spanish or Italian, I sincerely wished that I had taken a language that is still spoken in the world today. I also wish I had kept up with it and possibly minored or double-majored in either Spanish or Italian so that I would be fluent in another language. I think being fluent in another language is so important in today’s world where foreign countries are constantly working together whether it is for business reasons or foreign policy reasons. Anyone who says that learning a foreign language is not important in today’s day and age is ignorant. So much of our everyday lives revolve around other countries now.

I also think it is a good idea to start teaching children when they are young another language other than the one they grow up with speaking in their homes. Even though some may say it is too early to start teaching preschool kids or kindergarten students Spanish, I think it is a great idea. The more reinforcement someone has with learning something, the more likely they are to remember it and want to pursue that in the future. Shows like Dora the Explorer are also great since they teach kids the very basics of Spanish. Even though the young viewers might not understand the importance of learning a foreign language at such a young age, it sets a good foundation for the rest of their lives.

Even though I am not a male, I do think that men feel the need to conform to society, just not as much as women do. I think that there is a certain stereotype for men that they have to be manly or “macho” and also not be very feeling or emotional. Men are supposed to like sports, especially football, and like when women wear basically nothing and are practically naked. Even though I do not think that all men feel the need to like football and naked women, I do believe that some men exaggerate their liking of these things in order to fit in with other males.

I definitely don’t think it is a good idea to cut off welfare completely. There are people in our country who do need legitimate monetary help in order to stay alive and exist. However, I do think that there should be more of a screening process or selection process on who receives welfare. I don’t think that 100% of the people who receive welfare fully need it or deserve everything that they receive. I also think that we should establish a better monitoring system for the people who do receive welfare. There should be more of a focus of getting these people back on their feet and providing for themselves instead of just simply giving them money to keep them existing.

Many of the things Sam says in class, I feel like I already knew in a sense or are common sense. Sometimes in class, I think that the things Sam says are totally off the wall or bizarre, and I really don’t agree. But there have been a couple times during the semester when I thought Sam did make a good point. The class that probably opened my eyes up the most was the LGBT issues class. Before the class, I always thought that I was open to everyone despite their sexual preference. After the class, I realized that even though I am “open” to them, I still wasn’t fully comfortable, or didn’t understand the whole LGBT thing. After that class, I definitely changed my opinion and had a better understanding about how their way of life is really no different than a straight person’s.

Throughout my college career, I have had to sit through countless hours while watching my guy friends play video games. I really don’t enjoy watching them play any video games. Fifa bores me, and Grand Theft Auto made me dizzy while watching it. Grand Theft Auto was probably the only one I didn’t mind too much, and I actually thought it seemed pretty cool since it’s very realistic. However, I didn’t enjoy the violence or sexual content in the video game. On the other hand, I could never stand any of the shooting and war games. I just never really understand why all the violence is necessary, and I also didn’t get what joy they found in blowing people up. I know most guys like video games that contain violence, sexual references, and depict war-like activity, but I never really understood the big deal about them. The fact of the matter is that these games are proven to increase violence, especially among today’s youth. When a young kid plays or watches his or her older sibling play a video game where they are shooting at people and blowing them up, they sometimes think it is okay to do the same thing in real life. Where do they draw the line between a fictional scenario in a video game and a real-life situation?

This video about the video games in Japan that allow the players to rape the fictional characters in the game is incredibly disturbing. The whole time while watching the video I kept wondering what kind of people actually enjoy and find pleasure in raping these imaginary video game characters. Rape and violence should be something that people cringe at and wouldn’t want to “pretend” to engage in while playing these video games. Just like how some people can’t draw the line between acting out violence in video games as opposed to real life, how will some people do the same with rape. Just because it is “okay” or acceptable to rape these fictional women in the video games doesn’t mean it is okay to do so in real life.

This video didn’t make me want to write any anti-Japanese comment; however, it did make me question Japan’s government’s role in the video game industry. The fact that government officials wouldn’t even return calls or acknowledge these video games is pretty crazy. I also don’t understand the woman in the video who said that these video games didn’t offend her. To me, these video games are very disturbing and make me wonder how many people enjoy raping these fictional women and how many then think it is okay to have the same attitude towards women in real life. Basically, I think that the Japanese government should play more of a role in restricting the content in their country’s video games.