Did Sam change my view on the war, then how?
In a word, no.
Sam did nothing remotely similar to changing my view on the war. The war in Iraq was not about oil. Sam fails to recognize the facts when it comes to the United States and Iraq’s oil. The United States would not and did not go to war to secure what amounts to less than three percent of our imported oil. That less than 3% number is from 2008. At no point in the history of the United States have we ever imported more than four and a half percent of our oil from Iraq. If we were going to invade anyone for oil it would be Canada or Mexico or Venezuela. Canada alone accounts for fifteen percent of our oil. I don’t believe that the war in Iraq was a good idea; I would have stayed in Afghanistan and worked to eliminate the Taliban. However Sadam Hussein out of the picture in Iraq is certainly a good thing. He led one of the most oppressive regimes in history, gassed his own countrymen (including men women and children), and invaded Kuwait because he wanted their oil and wealth. The notion of the Chinese coming for our coal which Sam threw out there is preposterous when looked at rationally. It is even more preposterous when you consider that china is self-sufficient for coal. It would be parallel to us going into Iraq for less than 3% of the total oil that we use.
Sam failed to realize anything but his own opinion. It turned into something worse than clickergate a few weeks ago when he told us to change our votes. This time he blatantly ignored a clicker question because he felt the ideas he was spewing to the class were so infallible that everyone would agree with his conclusion and it was impossible to disagree with him.
In this class Sam has taught me a lot about the issues of the world. At times the classes and lectures have been downright enlightening. But there have also been times where I have thought to myself that his views can be extremely one sided and even arrogant at times.
I honestly have no idea where I am trying to go with this blog response, or why I got so off topic.
Back to the question. It is impossible to know or understand what exactly the decision makers knew before they made the calls for a war in Iraq. So I cannot condemn them for their decision (mistake?) to send us into Iraq. If they really thought that they had hidden illegal weaponry then they weren’t unjustified in their choice.

The world definitely has taken notice of this quaint little mountain town in central Pennsylvania. The things that Jerry Sandusky did to those children are sickening. Nearly as repulsive are the actions taken in light of the allegations and eyewitness testimony by the Penn State administration. Finally the witch-hunt conducted by the media has been appalling. The national coverage of the scandal has led many people to believe that was in fact Joe Paterno himself who sexually assaulted the children. I repeat it has been appalling. During the riots I was watching ESPN from the comfort of my couch and a question asked several times by Stuart Scott and Steve Levy to the reporters on the scene was do the students understand why he has been fired. And when they showed an interview with a student who made a lucid, well thought out argument about why Joe should not have been fired the two SportsCenter co-anchors said he was very eloquent had some of his facts wrong but is certainly entitled to his opinion (heavily paraphrased). To follow that up the only thing we see from the riot is the video of some idiots overturning a news van. The point I am trying to make by laying all of that out there, besides eating up as much of the four hundred and fifty required words in this weekly blog response as possible, is that while the outside world may hold the university and all of us students in dangerously low esteem we will ultimately recover our image as a university with our strong sense of pride in our community (severely bruised) but restored.
My brother, who lives in Los Angeles, and I have been talking all week about our perspectives on the scandal and it seems as if the only thing we have been able to agree on is that Jerry Sandusky is the most evil human being this side of North Korea. When it came down to discussing the riot, I tried explaining that the student body here has a propensity to riot. Ohio State, the Phillies, Obama, small central PA arts & crafts festivals it just happens here. In the short term, and for as long as this court case drags on along with the impending civil suits, the image and prestige associated with our degrees will carry some extra baggage. The image of this university, its administration and its students has been conveyed through the non-stop media spin cycle as unethical, hypocritical, and moronic. In light of everything that has happened this week, the children, the cover-up, the firings, and the riot incited by the worst timed firing in the history of mankind, one could make the argument that those descriptors hold water.
One singular person is not Penn state, Joe Paterno included. Each individual is an integral part of what constitutes the Penn State community. The saying is not I am…Penn State, but is instead WE ARE… PENN STATE.

The backbone of the tea party movement is a belief that government has grown too large and it must be stopped and scaled back to exactly what is specified in the constitution. That is their main rallying cry, however it is extremely hypocritical seeing as most of its members would keep a standing army which if my memory is correct is not a part of said constitution. The occupy (insert name of big institution or city here) is not in favor of a smaller government. They want government to do everything for them; quite the opposite of the tea baggers, I mean tea party members. Wait, never mind I meant the first description. I say that because in the underbelly of the tea party movement is a serious and obvious form of racism. Some of the signs at their rallies are abominable. They call Obama a Nazi compare him to Hitler and call him a monkey or baboon and other various racial slurs. The occupy movement is much more politically correct but is just as off base as the tea party when it comes to their political goals. The idea that they should receive a twenty dollar an hour living wage, whether they work or not, is absurd. When asked why they thought they deserved this one some members said “because we’re entitled to it.” The tea party and occupy movements also stand at different ends of the generational spectrum. The occupy movement has a backbone of my generation, whereas the tea party is formed by our parents and their parents. Because the older generation let things get to the point to where they are today the occupy movements have sprung up throughout the nation. Never in my life have I seen so many hippie drum circles (I’m not old enough to remember Woodstock). The two groups want completely different things. In class Sam argued that they did in fact want the same thing but because of political alliances they haven’t realized it yet. This is a load of crap. I do agree that they both want change, but that is where the similarities end. The two groups represent two different irreconcilable positions. Occupy (insert place where hippies are pissing every one off by taking my seat in front of the TV in the hub) want a socialist country where they don’t have to work and just kick back and chill (I do realize that occupy psu has a different goal of lowering tuition and exposing where all the money goes and I do commend them for that second realistic goal) and the tea party movement wants a purely conservative republican style government. (I am in fact a moderate democrat)

In class we were told (shown?) that there are six stages of racial identity for black and brown people with stage one being someone who doesn’t see race, stage two being someone who knows there is an us vs. them, stage three being really into black/brown culture, stage four is where you begin calling out people in your own race for their hypocrisy, stage five is where you get along with everyone but are still aware of racial issues, and finally stage six where you go through a “spiritual journey.” Personally I can eliminate stages one, three and six right off the bat. I’m definitely aware of race and have been since I was a young child. I don’t think that I am stage three because I am not so into my own culture that it comes at the expense of ignoring others. And I am not stage six because I haven’t gone through a “spiritual journey” or become a racial humanitarian. So this leaves me at stage two, four or five. I am going to have to put myself into stage four with the possibility to move into stage five. Too many time in my life I have told members of my family living in Los Angeles that it is their fault that they’re in the mess that they’re in and not the governments or the “white people.”
My Dad is definitely in stage five. He seems to get along with anyone and everyone regardless of race; however it is something that he is keenly aware of. On the other hand I would classify my mom as a stage two. Her case as a stage two is very strange, she is definitely aware of an us vs. them and tries to be politically correct as much as she can but her racial identity itself seems to have morphed into something completely different than what I assume it was as a child. She is a Hispanic (albeit with white skin) who seemingly identifies herself as white because of the area which they’ve lived in the past twenty-five years. So because of all of those factors it seems as if her stage two us vs. them is Hispanics and white people, then the other races.
So why does the stage that I identify myself in differ from those of my parents? Well I would say that they helped influence me to an extent but family can only do so much when it comes to one’s racial experience. Friends and real world experiences shape our perspectives just as much if not more than our families do. And thanks to my experiences in school, on various sports teams I was able to develop my racial identity to where it is today. It’s not quite where I want to be yet, but as I grow older I’m sure I’ll be able to reach and stay at stage five.

If I was to answer this question imagining I was a freshman again I honestly would have to say that I’d be looking for at the exchange board for a new roommate. Today my reaction would differ, but I’ll get to that in a second. My entire life before enrolling at Penn State was spent in catholic education, preschool through the very last day of my senior year of high school. And nearly every day of those 14 years there was some form of religious education, be it a formal religion class, a mass, prayer service, or confession. During those times we were taught that any sexual relations, unless they were between a married heterosexual couple, were a sin which could send you to hell. This message was re-enforced throughout the countless number of Sunday masses I had attended.
However, today if I was to for some reason be forced back into the dorms and was set up with a random roommate and right off the bat he told me he was gay I would be fine with that. I wouldn’t immediately hop on my computer looking for the first available open room like I would have fresh out of high school. He is just another person, albeit a person with a different sexual preference. I honestly believe that in this scenario if we were to not get along as roommates it would not be due to his sexuality but instead due to personalities not meshing or some other usual reason for not getting along with your roommate.
If I had a roommate who waited a while before he told me that he was gay and I had no suspicions whatsoever I basically would be shocked. I would say whoa, this guy is just another person and move on from there. Discovering that the person that you live with is gay is no big deal in the grand scheme of things. It’s not like he told you he killed someone or was a torturer in the Iraqi army in the gulf war or that he has been steeling batteries the remote from you for weeks (that’s some twisted shit right there).As a freshman though I think the impact would have been more profound. During my time here in college I have seen and met more and more people than I could have ever imagined growing up in that secluded catholic community. Because of that I’ve realized that discriminating against someone because of something as trivial as the gender of the person that they sleep with is the wrong way to go through life. Gay people are just that, people and who am I to judge someone, let alone disapprove of their lifestyle.

Haiti, the country that some people believe has been cursed since its inception when a slave rebellion drove the French overlords from the country, has faced disaster after disaster after disaster. The nation of Haiti has never been able to gain traction in the global market and it has faced many of the same problems that other Caribbean and Latin American nations dealt with. They have no modern industry and are forced to import a substantial amount of goods from developed nations. They then pay for these imports by exporting the natural resources. Haiti has fallen into this trap even further since the earthquake of 2010. With all of the foreign aid that flooded into the tiny island nation the Haitian economy has yet to show any real progress towards a sustainable recovery. In a land where over 80% of the population lives in poverty (this was found in the CIA World Fact Book and the figure is from 2003. This number has surely increased since the earthquake of January 2010) there are few people who have the capital needed to place Haiti in position to compete on the global economic stage. However after seeing the videos I do believe that hope exists for the people of Haiti. The entrepreneurs seem like they have feasible plans that have a decent chance at some form of success. For example the lady who was making T-shirts and handbags may have one of the best opportunities of these Haitian business people. With a small loan she would be able to finance the machinery needed to make shirts and handbags that could be competitive in the global market. Her biggest challenge will be costs, ten dollars for a shirt is way too high to compete with the sweatshop stuff that dominates the market. As Sam pointed out that if she could buy her materials direct from the suppliers as opposed to from a middle man in the Dominican Republic, the cost of those shirts would be greatly lowered. Manouchka, the picture frame maker and designer, appears to have a great talent for designing high quality and beautiful picture frames as well as hair clips, etc. she too is having issues securing financing and securing the raw materials needed to produce her products Many of the entrepreneurs face similar problems; lack of capital, modern equipment, materials, and a market in which to sell their products. If their problems were limited to just one or maybe two of those problems, solutions could be found. It is when these issues are compounded together that the issue becomes immensely difficult to fix. In the group discussions I look forward to hearing how these people can address these challenges and ultimately overcome them.

As a “brown” person I can give a first-hand response to this question. My freshman year, when the humans versus zombies craze caught on I was living in Bigler hall in east. I was roommates with a random white kid who can be described as, for lack of a better term, different. One afternoon he busted into our room Nerf guns blazing and was wearing the orange armband (or was it the green headband? freshman year is kind of hazy to me) and said something to the tune of “dude, there’s like this totally awesome new game called humans versus zombies where you shoot zombies with Nerf guns.” I looked up from my video game, shook my head and dove right back into my madden game. Over the next few days (could have been weeks for all I cared) the kid was a mess sometimes he wouldn’t leave his room for fear of being turned into a zombie by this other kid on our floor. At some point he tried to convince me that this game was the most awesome thing evahhhhhhhhhhh. I was shown pictures of the activity including the gun fights and the fat nerdy kid getting hit first. At no point did I think “yes I want in on this great time!” which leads me to what was supposed to be the main point of this response, brown and black people do not play humans versus zombies because it is incredibly white and nerdy (thank you weird al for the line). I realize that I am stereotyping here and some people may even say that they aren’t nerdy or unathletic but they play humans versus zombies. Well good for them but on the whole many people fall into these stereotypes. The majority of the people who partake in humans versus zombies, from my experiences with my roommate and his friends (and I admit that this is a small sample of the group at large but it’s all I’ve got to go off of), like at least one of the following; comics, harry potter, lord of the rings, star wars, Japanese cartoons, weird abstract art, weird abstract music and many other things of this ilk. The majority of my brown and black friends do not obsess over these things. It is a cultural divide brown/black people and the primarily white people who play humans versus zombies that in a way keep people of color from partaking in the activity. For instance if I was to explain the parameters of the game to a cousin of mine he would say no I would never play that (insert series of expletives here). It is something, for the most part, just doesn’t mesh with the various cultures of people of color.

Why is my religion the best? Why choose one at all? Well since I’ve come to college here at Penn State and was freed from my catholic education I have come to the realization that no one’s faith is better than anyone else’s. Fighting over the topic is just a waste of precious time, because as Sam pointed out we are all dying. Those believers who are fanatically obsessed with their religions, who believe that they must convert the world to Christianity, or Islam, or (insert religious group here), should think about that last statement. We are all going to die at some point in the future, so why must some fanatics feel the need to wage holy wars on “non-believers”?
From the ages of three to eighteen I went to catholic school. What I was taught there, in regards to religion, varied widely. One year one teacher (a sister or nun if you prefer that term) made it a point of emphasis that people of other faiths can get into heaven. Not just other Christian denominations either. She told us that as long a person lives a good, wholesome, virtuous life than it is possible for that non-Christian to pass through the pearly gates. My sophomore year of high school I had a religion teacher named Ms. A%*$@3 (name redacted to protect the guilty) who would begin every class with some overly deep prayer that would often end with “and please save these children from the fiery pits of hell, for they know not what lie ahead. Amen.” Needless to say she was very over the top, and throughout the year students were often berated as she often said god save you because with an attitude like that you can end up in hell. The old bag did more to harm the religious faith of the student population that a convent full of nuns singing gospel inspired church hymns, (wait they actually made a movie out of that? Two? Ughh).
I have to give her credit though. Through her psychopathic ranting I became aware that there were other options out there. I began to ask, why are we all so damn sure that our religion is best? And I ultimately began to question the concept of Christianity. So you’re telling me that there is only one god and yet he was able to create a son with a virgin woman, and this son is also god and god sent god down to save us from our sins by letting us brutally kill him so he can resurrect into a ghost like physical being who stayed on earth for 50 days to help his disciple build his church. And then I learned about the way in which the bible was compiled, by the roman emperor who settled on the biblical books based on his choosing.
Well for all reasons above, and a few more which I didn’t type out because of the word count, I no longer subscribe to an organized religion.