I think this is a really interesting point. Yes, as Americans we are over there fighting the “war on terror,” but if we are killing so many innocent bystanders, then maybe we can be considered terrorists to some extent as well. Everyone has different views about what is wrong or right, but I think everyone can agree that killing innocent civilians is not the answer to any of this. Unfortunately, this war will probably continue for a very long time, and more and more people will have to die as a result of it. Hopefully, we will be able to find a solution in the near future to prevent this war from continuing.

I had the same reactions as you when I read this article. Being in America, I never really considered what was going on in the Middle East. Although I am aware of the situation, it obviously does not affect my everyday life. It is also interesting how the media only displays what we want to see. Like you said, we are bombarded with articles about the crazy, suicide bombers, but we never get the story about why they felt the need to do that in the first place. I cannot imagine being in a situation where an innocent loved one was killed and I was given $2000 to “replace” them. This is a crazy situation and I think our troops really need to do something to fix this.

I thought this was a really interesting perspective on suicide bombers. I will admit that I am one of those people that looked at suicide bombers as crazy people following a religion that made them do some of these things. I never looked at it from the point of view that they were trying to avenge a death of a loved one. Personally I do not think that I would avenge the death of a loved one by killing myself and risking the lives of others. I think there are other, more proper ways to grieve. Although on the other hand, I will most likely never have to go through the same type of grievance as those who have a loved one killed from foreign troops. At least I would hope not. I think it is really terrible that there are American troops who are killing innocent civilians and then blaming it on the Taliban. The Taliban is already bad enough, they should not be blaming them for stuff that they did not even do. Because of that, it seems like it is just more acceptable for the Taliban to do that because it is expected of them. Another thing I thought of while I was reading this article was the horrible events of 9-11. There were many innocent Americans who were killed that day, yet there were not any reports of suicide bombers from families that had a loved one killed in the World Trade Centers. So then I guess my question comes back to the fact that maybe it does relate to their religion. These Americans had to suffer the same grief that Afghans are suffering when one of their loved ones is killed. I think there are proper ways to grieve, and instead of creating more war as we are currently doing, maybe we should be reaching out and helping the innocent people of Afghanistan and maybe showing them our perspectives. The article brought up an interesting point that I agree with, which is that if we continue to cause war in their country then they will continue to go about avenging the death of a loved one by these “crazy” instances of suicide bombings. I think as long as we know our country is going to be safe, then we need to begin to stop the war on terror. Maybe we should begin to face this issue using peace. Personally, I believe that this war is going on long enough so let’s stop it before more innocent lives are lost, either there or here in America. The article made another good point that this war has no real end, and that these instances of terrorism will keep getting worse until the war is finally over.

I definitely agree with you that it is a great idea to offer Chinese in schools. Similar to you, my high school offered French, German, and Spanish. I took five years of German and barely remember a thing. I remember the basics and a few common phrases but that is about it. You made a really good point about how beneficial it is to have an actual foreign teacher come into the districts to teach. Although I had a great teacher in high school, it would have been really interesting to learn from someone who knows so much about the language. The only problem then becomes, what is going to happen to the foreign language teachers that we currently have in schools? They should not lose their jobs just because we are offering more choices for languages.

The foreign language program in my high school was very similar to yours. We began in 7th grade with a preview of Spanish, French, and German. Then in 8th grade, we were able to choose one of those and required to complete two years. You made an interesting point about offering Latin because my high school offered Latin as an option as well. Also Latin was kind of a new addition of our language choices, so it is interesting that they chose to add that instead of a language such as Chinese. I was also surprised by how many elementary schools are offering Spanish, I think this is a great idea and hopefully the rest of the United States will begin to do this.

I thought this was really interesting because I never really considered Chinese to be an important language to learn in America. Obviously, Spanish is a highly valued second language to learn in today’s society, but I guess I do not really hear a lot of people speaking Chinese on a daily basis. After considering this, I realized how China is becoming a very important country in today’s economic market and learning the Chinese language could be very beneficial for many businesses in the United States. I also find it surprising that many school districts are getting rid of learning a foreign language all together. I disagree with this because I think students need to be exposed to languages outside of their own so they can really see what else is out there in the world. For example, I took German for five years. My school district started the foreign language program in 8th grade and I continued taking German until I graduated from high school. I have to admit that I am not at all fluent in the language, but I do still remember common phrases. When signing up for German, I was also very aware that it is not a language that is widely spoken in the United States and I considered switching into Spanish. The reason I decided to stay with German though was because my family has a large German background and I really wanted to learn about the culture, in addition to learning some of the basics of the language. I think this is really important for students to have a way to study their backgrounds through a foreign language program. I think it is a shame that some schools are getting rid of German and French because they are not as valued as Spanish or Chinese. This may be true in the business market, but it should also be a personal choice for each student. I do not think that schools should be taking language choices away, but instead adding more languages to the district, such as Chinese. If many schools will be adding the Chinese language to their curriculum, I think it is really important to begin a foreign language program in elementary school. Many districts, such as my own, do not begin teaching languages until high school. As studies show us, we are not as capable of becoming fluent in another language as we get older. They may be able to get away with this with languages such as German because English is largely based on the Germanic influences, but Chinese uses a completely different system. To me it would be extremely difficult to attempt to pick up on this language in high school, but I definitely think it would be a beneficial language to learn if schools can get the resources to start teaching in elementary school.

I agree that this is extremely disturbing. It is definitely the case that people will think violence and rape are acceptable if they play these kind of games as children. You brought up a really good question about how many people actually enjoy playing this game. I would like to know the answer to that question as well. As you said, people should cringe when they hear about these type of crimes, not trying to reenact them in a video game and then potentially in real life. This is a very real problem for many women who have been victims of violent sexual acts, and the Japan government should definitely be making a statement to get these games off the market.

I completely agree with you about how unacceptable this is. It is bad enough that there are so many video games promoting violence in today’s society, but this takes violence to a whole new level. Like you said, it is scary to think about how video games are basically teaching people how to rape, especially because we need to already be so careful about things like walking alone at night. If young generations are growing up playing these games, sex crimes are going to become an even larger issue. I also agree that the government needs to step up and say something about these games because they are no longer contained in their country. Due to the Internet, anyone can see them at any time, and that makes this a very scary situation.

I was completely shocked after watching the CNN video describing the video game. It is bad enough how many video games are out there today promoting violence, but to make a game promoting rape is absolutely unbelievable. I cannot imagine any parents who would actually allow their child to play this game. I was raised in a family where I was taught that I should be respected as a woman. This game is just downright disrespectful to the female population. These are very real crimes that many women need to be aware of on a daily basis. Even as a student at Penn State, I am more aware that I should not walk home by myself at night, while most men do not think twice about walking by themselves. Although this may seem unfair that men do not need to think as much about their own safety, it is a very real problem in today’s society. Considering that most people who play video games tend to be males, this is a huge problem. If children grow up playing video games in which they have to rape to win the game, they are going to grow up thinking that it is acceptable. This is going to put more and more women in danger. We should not have to go around worrying about our safety in the first place, but it becomes even worse when there are video games promoting sexual crimes against women. I was also completely surprised that the woman from England said she was not offended at all when she watched the video game. I can understand what the couple is saying about how not every child is going to become a rapist just by playing the game. Just like not everyone who plays violent video games grows up to kill another human being, but studies have shown that these type of games do increase violent behavior as children grow older. If there are studies out there supporting that type of information, how do companies still produce video games that promote violent crimes. I was also very surprised that the government in Japan does not want to make any statement about the games. Only one government official made the statement that they are aware these games are a problem, but even that person did not want to reveal their name. I do not understand why they would not be trying to make more of a statement, especially because this is getting out to the rest of the world. Media is really no longer contained in one country due to internet access, and now everyone can have access to the game. They need to make some kind of statement that they do not condone crimes against women, or else the rest of the world is going to see Japan as promoting sex crimes.

It is definitely interesting to think about how different things were back before the Civil Rights movement. I do not really understand why people in that era did not feel the need to question each other because you are right, if we do not question others then we will never learn anything else about the world around us. I think too many people are too comfortable staying in their own little worlds and not really thinking about other races and cultures across the world from them. I agree that race relations has come as far as it has so far simply because we began to question one another. I think we still have a long way to go but it will definitely keep improving if we are still willing to learn.