Whenever I watch a video like this, I can never take it seriously. Sure, it is quite scary for American's, but it is made to do just that. The purpose of this video was simply to scare the average westerner into donating to that organization. The explosions, music, and selective events and quotes just sets this over the top. There is more to a lot of those events than just, "JIHAD!" for many of those events. I haven't even talked about how cheap that video was. I think I saw a third grader poop out a better produced video than that one. That video is a complete joke and the only thing that it truly evokes from me is laughter and disbelief that someone was serious when making this. I truly hope they're not and it just so happens to be a video that was made while under the influence. I truly wonder how much American's actually have a fear that is this irrational. How often does a typical American truly think about something like this as it is? I will say that I do not go about my normal day wondering if there will be an attack by a Muslim. I'm more concerned about a winter storm or a spring tornado ripping through my town than a terrorist attack. For what it is worth, I'm not very worried about that either. My concern for those events is no where near my concern about my grades, money, family, health, and my social life. If there are truly Muslims out there who want to succeed in this Jihad and want to terrorize me, then I suggest they step up their game, because it is currently no where near the top of my list. Yes, that is a challenge, because I don't think they can.

While Zach Wahl's speech about his raising and family was very well presented, I can't help but have my skepticism. I am not skeptic because I am hard headed and think that he is incorrect. Instead, I am skeptic because I do not feel that from testimony alone, one can decide what to do about the Iowa state law.
The main reason being that because he has lived in that family situation his whole life, he might not know how other families differ. It is like the saying of how the fish notices the water last, because to them, it is just the environment they live in. They don't realize how things could be different because they haven't seen the different side of things. Clearly Wahl has bias on his viewpoint of this issue. Just like how many don't know that their parents are domestically abusive until they leave that family.
I can't say one way or another that having homosexual parents matters in any particular way. I do think there are some differences that will alter a child's life. However, one's life can be altered simply by if they're an only child or the youngest of 5 children.
As far as the functions of the family being fulfilled, it does seem that those functions have been fulfilled in Wahl's life. He was raised learning how to live as a human being with common morals. His ability to speak in public alone shows that. Not only was he provided shelter and basic living necessities, he was raised to know how to provide for himself later on in life as he has his own self business. For his sake, I'm going to assume that the business is doing well.
Finally though, I bring up the topic that there is truly no "normal family". He kept on mentioning that during his speech, which caused me to be very hesitant. I didn't even touch on the fact about how much I despise the whole state of Iowa, making nothing from there normal, typical, or even good. With that, I dismiss anything from that entire state. Why? Because Iowa ruins everything, especially Penn State athletics.

While group thinking surely is a string pulling on each one of us, it is self confidence that is to blame. That goes hand in hand with the thought that people always think that everyone else is correct and that they're wrong, and we are raised that way.
Constantly while one is growing up, we're taught to do what everyone else is doing. This was very obvious to me when I played water polo as constantly our coach would be yelling at someone and if it is one person sticking out of the group he would say, "Why would you do that? Just look around the group and you'll see that you're the only one doing that!" Throughout our life, we learn what to do by watching those around us. We learn from our parents, by watching them. We learn from our teachers, by watching what they do. We learn how to interact by watching our peers. Heck, that is what sociology is really; learning by watching others.
If we are constantly learning from those around us, then that must mean that those around us are smarter than us. That leads to a deficiency in one's self confidence. If you watch the video, there are different levels of confidence. The final guy has the least amount of self confidence in the videos as he is quick to follow those around him. He has no faith in himself whatsoever.
How can I say that it is self confidence issue? Wouldn't there be a person that has a high level of self confidence that would over come this trend? While no one has enough self confidence to fully overcome the group, there are several situations where one has enough self confidence that they are not influenced. However, if they are not influenced by the group, then they are the leader that influences the rest of the group.
There are still people who don't follow the group and yet are not leaders. Those people also have a large amount of self confidence, however not enough to overcome the current leader, but enough to be their own person.
That is why I always remind myself to try and be who I truly am, especially the childhood version of myself. I try to stay true to my childhood dreams. Reality is not the truth, but the lies that prevent dreams.

I have had the opportunity to experience this stern enforcement of rules from a close distance. My best friend, Andrew, was in sixth grade. We both swam together on the team at the local YMCA, both did middle school band, and both loved playing the original Call of Duty on the computer.
My English class had just finished reading Fahrenheit 451 and were doing a project on it. At the end of the book, there is an atomic bomb explosion. That is a small tidbit that goes to the side for the story.
Just like most days, Andrew and I went directly from school to the YMCA for swim practice. We both had our trumpets because we needed to take them home to practice. Naturally, we had them in a locker along with our clothes and such. However, it would be in it's own locker because it did not fit in a locker with our other belongings.
It's natural as for someone to forget something. My friend Andrew did. He left his trumpet in the locker. There was also a picture of a nuclear bomb explosion that was meant to go on my poster for my Fahrenheit 451 project.
The next morning, one of the janitors opened up the locker while cleaning the building, got scared, and called the Wright Patterson AFB bomb squad. Andrew was pulled out of school and spent the next two days being interrogated by the law enforcement officials. It wasn't simply to figure out what exactly happen. They had him in tears. This was a guy that I had never seen cry, but they were ruthless. Andrew was even had charges pressed against him for inducing panic (however they dropped it due to a lack of evidence. Still though, the director of the YMCA, a lady that we had known personally since we were in second grade, suspended him from the building for two weeks. It would have been longer had other board member not criticized her.
The question becomes is why do the law enforcement officials act like this. Sure, they're strict to their rules, but why is it so hard for them to include judgment in their job?