en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/2397548 Comments by HNH http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/21/if-prison-has-taken-anything-away-from-me/#IDComment145016759 The article is very interesting to me somehow. I think that prison is a new place where it totally different and hard for a person to adapt to it. First month in prison It seem that your family members, friends or maybe love one still pay quite a full attention to you. They would visit you couple time a week, your friends from far away would send you some letter or your parents would bring you goods and products. Surely, after a year you been in there, this hearted care will not be great as it was at the beginning. If you are a life, you probably want to start to treat prison as your own home. You would have to follow rules such as meal time, shower time or even you have to participate in activity like other inmates. You have 10 minutes to take shower, 2 hours to have some entertainment by watching television mostly and you have to wake up one time every morning. After about two years of your loyalty following your new house’s rules, you will fell boring and constrain. What in the world that would be better when are wake up and thinking about doing the same thing? I think life is meaningless to live like this for the rest of your life. Particularly for this inmate, he has done so many bad things though out his life. I think what him and all the lifers needed is the love of people who are outside of prison. They want to interact with students or groups of people so they can feel that they can still contribute to the society. There are many things that we, the people outside of prison, do not ever consider highly such as “contribute to the society”, freedom in doing what you wanted to do, talk to whoever you feel that you need to or take a nap whenever you want to. After stay in prison for so long, these inmates feel that their life is meaningless and boring. And usually this is the time where they will shift their behavior and attitude in to positive. They will be more humbling and learn how to care about others rather than hating. Fri, 22 Apr 2011 05:30:13 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/21/if-prison-has-taken-anything-away-from-me/#IDComment145016759 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143293731 I was surprised when reading this article. I never know that prisoners can take class together with students and particularly in this case, student from Temple University are taking class together with students in Graterford penitentiary. In this case even haft of the class are inmates and the other haft are student who are not labeled as “lifer” or “prisoners”. This student from Graterford penitentiary has a feeling that he being isolated from the society, with student who is not labeled as prisoners. He was surprised to find my palms a little sweaty, my mouth a little dry, and for just a moment I had the urge to bashfully hide behind my text book. Not only himself as a prisoners felt isolated, student who are not labeled as prisoner are feel a divider between them and their friends who happen to be suspended in Graterford penitentiary. For instance, a student was nervously playing with her jewelry and others were sitting in a defensive posture not to mention a multitude of tapping feet and shifting eyes. There seems to be an isolated mood between student from Temple University and student from Graterford penitentiary when they seat together in a room. From my own perspective, I think that most of people who living out of prison did not really care and wanted to know how are prisoners doing in there. Everyone seems to labeled inmates as lifer, evil or even terrorist and this is what inmates don’t like to hear from. But if we would have put ourselves into the shoes of these young inmates, we definitely are desperate of helps from people who we think they can help us. We want to communicate with students or organizations outside so we can feel more excited about life. Or even some of us would still want to go to college to satisfy our desire of getting a degree in college. In general, prisoners are the one who need help in terms of social and communication. On the other hand, it is sad if none of us really care about these inmates especially young inmate who still have a bright future. Sat, 16 Apr 2011 03:47:03 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143293731 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143286341 I was surprised when reading this article. I never know that prisoners can take class together with students and particularly in this case, student from Temple University are taking class together with students in Graterford penitentiary. In this case even haft of the class are inmates and the other haft are student who are not labeled as “lifer” or “prisoners”. This student from Graterford penitentiary has a feeling that he being isolated from the society, with student who is not labeled as prisoners. He was surprised to find my palms a little sweaty, my mouth a little dry, and for just a moment I had the urge to bashfully hide behind my text book. Not only himself as a prisoners felt isolated, student who are not labeled as prisoner are feel a divider between them and their friends who happen to be suspended in Graterford penitentiary. For instance, a student was nervously playing with her jewelry and others were sitting in a defensive posture not to mention a multitude of tapping feet and shifting eyes. There seems to be an isolated mood between student from Temple University and student from Graterford penitentiary when they seat together in a room. From my own perspective, I think that most of people who living out of prison did not really care and wanted to know how are prisoners doing in there. Everyone seems to labeled inmates as lifer, evil or even terrorist and this is what inmates don’t like to hear from. But if we would have put ourselves into the shoes of these young inmates, we definitely are desperate of helps from people who we think they can help us. We want to communicate with students or organizations outside so we can feel more excited about life. Or even some of us would still want to go to college to satisfy our desire of getting a degree in college. In general, prisoners are the one who need help in terms of social and communication. On the other hand, it is sad if none of us really care about these inmates especially young inmate who still have a bright future. Sat, 16 Apr 2011 03:00:28 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143286341 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143286205 I was surprised when reading this article. I never know that prisoners can take class together with students and particularly in this case, student from Temple University are taking class together with students in Graterford penitentiary. In this case even haft of the class are inmates and the other haft are student who are not labeled as “lifer” or “prisoners”. This student from Graterford penitentiary has a feeling that he being isolated from the society, with student who is not labeled as prisoners. He was surprised to find my palms a little sweaty, my mouth a little dry, and for just a moment I had the urge to bashfully hide behind my text book. Not only himself as a prisoners felt isolated, student who are not labeled as prisoner are feel a divider between them and their friends who happen to be suspended in Graterford penitentiary. For instance, ne student was nervously playing with her jewelry and others were sitting in a defensive posture (with their arms and legs crossed), not to mention a multitude of tapping feet and shifting eyes. There seems to be an isolated mood between student from Temple University and student from Graterford penitentiary when they seat together in a room. From my own perspective, I think that most of people who living out of prison did not really care and wanted to know how are prisoners doing in there. Everyone seems to labeled inmates as lifer, evil or even terrorist and this is what inmates don’t like to hear from. But if we would have put ourselves into the shoes of these young inmates, we definitely are desperate of helps from people who we think they can help us. We want to communicate with students or organizations outside so we can feel more excited about life. Or even some of us would still want to go to college to satisfy our desire of getting a degree in college. In general, prisoners are the one who need help in terms of social and communication. On the other hand, it is sad if none of us really care about these inmates especially young inmate who still have a bright future. Sat, 16 Apr 2011 02:59:25 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143286205 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143282952 I was surprised when reading this article. I never know that prisoners can take class together with students and particularly in this case, student from Temple University are taking class together with students in Graterford penitentiary. In this case even haft of the class are inmates and the other haft are student who are not labeled as “lifer” or “prisoners”. This student from Graterford penitentiary has a feeling that he being isolated from the society, with student who is not labeled as prisoners. He was surprised to find my palms a little sweaty, my mouth a little dry, and for just a moment I had the urge to bashfully hide behind my text book. Not only himself as a prisoners felt isolated, student who are not labeled as prisoner are feel a divider between them and their friends who happen to be suspended in Graterford penitentiary. For instance, ne student was nervously playing with her jewelry and others were sitting in a defensive posture (with their arms and legs crossed), not to mention a multitude of tapping feet and shifting eyes. There seems to be an isolated mood between student from Temple University and student from Graterford penitentiary when they seat together in a room. From my own perspective, I think that most of people who living out of prison did not really care and wanted to know how are prisoners doing in there. Everyone seems to labeled inmates as lifer, evil or even terrorist and this is what inmates don’t like to hear from. But if we would have put ourselves into the shoes of these young inmates, we definitely are desperate of helps from people who we think they can help us. We want to communicate with students or organizations outside so we can feel more excited about life. Or even some of us would still want to go to college to satisfy our desire of getting a degree in college. In general, prisoners are the one who need help in terms of social and communication. On the other hand, it is sad if none of us really care about these inmates especially young inmate who still have a bright future. Sat, 16 Apr 2011 02:37:48 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143282952 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143282527 I was surprised when reading this article. I never know that prisoners can take class together with students and particularly in this case, student from Temple University are taking class together with students in Graterford penitentiary. In this case even haft of the class are inmates and the other haft are student who are not labeled as “lifer” or “prisoners”. This student from Graterford penitentiary has a feeling that he being isolated from the society, with student who is not labeled as prisoners. He was surprised to find my palms a little sweaty, my mouth a little dry, and for just a moment I had the urge to bashfully hide behind my text book. Not only himself as a prisoners felt isolated, student who are not labeled as prisoner are feel a divider between them and their friends who happen to be suspended in Graterford penitentiary. For instance, ne student was nervously playing with her jewelry and others were sitting in a defensive posture (with their arms and legs crossed), not to mention a multitude of tapping feet and shifting eyes. There seems to be an isolated mood between student from Temple University and student from Graterford penitentiary when they seat together in a room. From my own perspective, I think that most of people who living out of prison did not really care and wanted to know how are prisoners doing in there. Everyone seems to labeled inmates as lifer, evil or even terrorist and this is what inmates don’t like to hear from. But if we would have put ourselves into the shoes of these young inmates, we definitely are desperate of helps from people who we think they can help us. We want to communicate with students or organizations outside so we can feel more excited about life. Or even some of us would still want to go to college to satisfy our desire of getting a degree in college. In general, prisoners are the one who need help in terms of social and communication. On the other hand, it is sad if none of us really care about these inmates especially young inmate who still have a bright future. Sat, 16 Apr 2011 02:36:03 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143282527 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143281934 I was surprised when reading this article. I never know that prisoners can take class together with students and particularly in this case, student from Temple University are taking class together with students in Graterford penitentiary. In this case even haft of the class are inmates and the other haft are student who are not labeled as “lifer” or “prisoners”. This student from Graterford penitentiary has a feeling that he being isolated from the society, with student who is not labeled as prisoners. He was surprised to find my palms a little sweaty, my mouth a little dry, and for just a moment I had the urge to bashfully hide behind my text book. Not only himself as a prisoners felt isolated, student who are not labeled as prisoner are feel a divider between them and their friends who happen to be suspended in Graterford penitentiary. For instance, ne student was nervously playing with her jewelry and others were sitting in a defensive posture (with their arms and legs crossed), not to mention a multitude of tapping feet and shifting eyes. There seems to be an isolated mood between student from Temple University and student from Graterford penitentiary when they seat together in a room. From my own perspective, I think that most of people who living out of prison did not really care and wanted to know how are prisoners doing in there. Everyone seems to labeled inmates as lifer, evil or even terrorist and this is what inmates don’t like to hear from. But if we would have put ourselves into the shoes of these young inmates, we definitely are desperate of helps from people who we think they can help us. We want to communicate with students or organizations outside so we can feel more excited about life. Or even some of us would still want to go to college to satisfy our desire of getting a degree in college. In general, prisoners are the one who need help in terms of social and communication. On the other hand, it is sad if none of us really care about these inmates especially young inmate who still have a bright future. Sat, 16 Apr 2011 02:32:11 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143281934 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143281622 I was surprised when reading this article. I never know that prisoners can take class together with students and particularly in this case, student from Temple University are taking class together with students in Graterford penitentiary. In this case even haft of the class are inmates and the other haft are student who are not labeled as “lifer” or “prisoners”. This student from Graterford penitentiary has a feeling that he being isolated from the society, with student who is not labeled as prisoners. He was surprised to find my palms a little sweaty, my mouth a little dry, and for just a moment I had the urge to bashfully hide behind my text book. Not only himself as a prisoners felt isolated, student who are not labeled as prisoner are feel a divider between them and their friends who happen to be suspended in Graterford penitentiary. For instance, ne student was nervously playing with her jewelry and others were sitting in a defensive posture (with their arms and legs crossed), not to mention a multitude of tapping feet and shifting eyes. There seems to be an isolated mood between student from Temple University and student from Graterford penitentiary when they seat together in a room. From my own perspective, I think that most of people who living out of prison did not really care and wanted to know how are prisoners doing in there. Everyone seems to labeled inmates as lifer, evil or even terrorist and this is what inmates don’t like to hear from. But if we would have put ourselves into the shoes of these young inmates, we definitely are desperate of helps from people who we think they can help us. We want to communicate with students or organizations outside so we can feel more excited about life. Or even some of us would still want to go to college to satisfy our desire of getting a degree in college. In general, prisoners are the one who need help in terms of social and communication. On the other hand, it is sad if none of us really care about these inmates especially young inmate who still have a bright future. Sat, 16 Apr 2011 02:30:02 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143281622 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143280931 I was surprised when reading this article. I never know that prisoners can take class together with students and particularly in this case, student from Temple University are taking class together with students in Graterford penitentiary. In this case even haft of the class are inmates and the other haft are student who are not labeled as “lifer” or “prisoners”. This student from Graterford penitentiary has a feeling that he being isolated from the society, with student who is not labeled as prisoners. He was surprised to find my palms a little sweaty, my mouth a little dry, and for just a moment I had the urge to bashfully hide behind my text book. Not only himself as a prisoners felt isolated, student who are not labeled as prisoner are feel a divider between them and their friends who happen to be suspended in Graterford penitentiary. For instance, ne student was nervously playing with her jewelry and others were sitting in a defensive posture (with their arms and legs crossed), not to mention a multitude of tapping feet and shifting eyes. There seems to be an isolated mood between student from Temple University and student from Graterford penitentiary when they seat together in a room. From my own perspective, I think that most of people who living out of prison did not really care and wanted to know how are prisoners doing in there. Everyone seems to labeled inmates as lifer, evil or even terrorist and this is what inmates don’t like to hear from. But if we would have put ourselves into the shoes of these young inmates, we definitely are desperate of helps from people who we think they can help us. We want to communicate with students or organizations outside so we can feel more excited about life. Or even some of us would still want to go to college to satisfy our desire of getting a degree in college. In general, prisoners are the one who need help in terms of social and communication. On the other hand, it is sad if none of us really care about these inmates especially young inmate who still have a bright future. Sat, 16 Apr 2011 02:25:21 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143280931 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143280842 I was surprised when reading this article. I never know that prisoners can take class together with students and particularly in this case, student from Temple University are taking class together with students in Graterford penitentiary. In this case even haft of the class are inmates and the other haft are student who are not labeled as “lifer” or “prisoners”. This student from Graterford penitentiary has a feeling that he being isolated from the society, with student who is not labeled as prisoners. He was surprised to find my palms a little sweaty, my mouth a little dry, and for just a moment I had the urge to bashfully hide behind my text book. Not only himself as a prisoners felt isolated, student who are not labeled as prisoner are feel a divider between them and their friends who happen to be suspended in Graterford penitentiary. For instance, ne student was nervously playing with her jewelry and others were sitting in a defensive posture (with their arms and legs crossed), not to mention a multitude of tapping feet and shifting eyes. There seems to be an isolated mood between student from Temple University and student from Graterford penitentiary when they seat together in a room. From my own perspective, I think that most of people who living out of prison did not really care and wanted to know how are prisoners doing in there. Everyone seems to labeled inmates as lifer, evil or even terrorist and this is what inmates don’t like to hear from. But if we would have put ourselves into the shoes of these young inmates, we definitely are desperate of helps from people who we think they can help us. We want to communicate with students or organizations outside so we can feel more excited about life. Or even some of us would still want to go to college to satisfy our desire of getting a degree in college. In general, prisoners are the one who need help in terms of social and communication. On the other hand, it is sad if none of us really care about these inmates especially young inmate who still have a bright future. Sat, 16 Apr 2011 02:24:49 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143280842 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/03/what-a-man-is/#IDComment140929565 . I think, the article “a man has respect for woman” is somehow related to the story that Sam has mentioned about in class. There is a guy that used to live in state college and was jailed for killing another guy by stabbed him. This happened couple years ago when this inmate’s girl friends was raped by a guy and this inmate found and kill the guy who rapes his girl friendafter he found out. Throughout the whole article, the inmate mentioned the entire positive and sweat things that a man would do to make his lover happy and feel safe. He mentions that a man could be able to compromise and be willing to try new things for the sake of his woman. He would capable of admitting that he is wrong, even when he is right, just to make his love feel good. . Finally, he would keep his woman safe from whatever harms may come her way; encourage her to do well and never allow her to give up; never let her settle for anything less than what she is capable of; be an optimist who sees the good in every situation, even the horrid ones. Out of all the possible things that the inmate said a man can do to his girl friend, I like the fact that when he says “He is able to let his guard down and take her opinions without regretting them.” I think this is a biggest mistake that he admitted he has done. This silly mistake which caused takes away a person’s life to just protect his girl friend. Finally, at the end of his letter, he concluded that he will not do these entire positive things to a girl that if he has another chance to date a girl. From my own perspective, most of the time we cannot control ourselves from stop doing anything or making any decision. I believed that there are invisible strings that constrain our action in a certain situation. One way that I would say about avoiding getting into any trouble like he had done is try your best to not letting yourself falling into these situation where you will not making decision yourself but the situation will decide for you. Fri, 8 Apr 2011 06:32:00 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/03/what-a-man-is/#IDComment140929565 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/27/family/#IDComment139003135 It is challenging for inmates who are separated from the society, love of friends and family to fulfill this gap. But everything is possible to do according to the author. This article carries positive thinking from inmates who have been spending ten years so far in Rockview. Almost everyone who are outside of prison have negative thinking about the prison and prisoners as well .They think that prisoners are losers and standing at the lowest in the society. Even more, prisoners in their mind are the ones that harm to other people and should be put in prison. Still, He believes the love and connections from friends and family are something that does exist on him among prisoners. He mentioned that when he first put in prison, he received many support and love from his family. Then, time went by, one year and two year, what he got usually were couple mails in a month. With his regretted tone, he also repeated that the one who have been connected with family and friends from outside of prison are not an evil human in the world. With the idea that love is emerges within a person themselves, this inmate is trying to spread his love and feeling to others in the Rockview. He mention about guys who younger than him about 5 years of age but he consider himself as an older brother to them. According to him, the word “love” seems to be impossible for an inmate has existed among Rockview’s man now. Every time if any one come to visit the prison, these guy are willing or even want to have a connection with them after they left. Finally, he believes that love is come from within him and as long as he intended to do it he will shortly get loves from his friends, family members and even his high school teachers. I think that most of prisoners who spent quiet along time in a place like prison will most likely refresh themselves in term of behavior and attitude. I also think that, we, people outside of prison should help these guys to create friendships or connections with students and out of prison people so they can be stronger to go through challenges that they have to face in prison. Fri, 1 Apr 2011 03:26:55 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/27/family/#IDComment139003135 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/24/religion-in-the-future/#IDComment137406041 I have never been aware that major religions such as Christian and Catholic are being extinct. The author seems not mention a lot about why religions are being extinct in western area. I think that the social life and social economic is what driven religion toward extinction. It could be that people in many countries like Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands are spending most of their time for works or enjoyments and do not pay any attentions to religion. Also according to the author many European countries like Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland and Switzerland will follow with trend as well. This consecutive decline can be understood from a sociology perspective which that people tend to follow majority than stay with the minority. Nobody wants to stand out alone but bonded together with others. Another sociology perspective on this is people who unaffiliated with a religion in this country will have more social, economic and political advantages. Another reason that causes religion like Catholic and Christian to decline is that people feel bore about their own religion. It has been existed for a long time and it is fading in people beliefs. The author do not included United State of America in this list, but I think we would enlist if the author had enough data for his research. From my own perspective and experience, nowadays many Americans are not practicing any religion. This idea is invading to everyone who is affiliated with religion. I believe that in one hundred more years, there will be new religions that will replace a lot of the major religion today in western countries and Europeans countries as well. People may just participate in new religions to just because their friends and family members are doing it. According to the article the unaffiliated group is growing with a fastest rate which is 15% in the United State of America. The unaffiliated is not only increasing in America but in Europeans countries as well. In Netherlands, for example, will go from about 40% unaffiliated today to more than 70% by 2050. Even in Ireland, a deeply religion in Catholic is dying out. It is increasing from 0.04% unaffiliated in 1961 to 4.2% in 2006. Fri, 25 Mar 2011 04:51:15 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/24/religion-in-the-future/#IDComment137406041 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/14/kids-getting-life-how-is-this-serving-us-really/#IDComment135780973 I was surprised from the article that Pennsylvania is a state that has highest numbers of juvenile lifers in the states and also in the world which is 464 lifers. I think that it is kind of unfair for these juvenile lifers. As a teenager I will feel very sad if I mistakenly did something wrong to other people and have my life taken away. According to Dr. Ruben C. Gue, Professor of Psychology and director of the Brain Behavior Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, by the time adolescents were found guilty, they are not yet consider as an adult. These juvenile’s are sometime not wise enough in making decision. Dr. Ruben stated that human brain doesn’t reach optimal functioning capacity, until well into their twenties. In addition to the unfairness of children, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy says that in some cases juvenile are influenced or coerced by an adult, peers, or someone they trusted. Children are lack of life experiences and easy to fall into these crimes. Adolescent who did not finish high school do not understand how to defend themselves when they brought to trial. They do not understand about appealing the case. From my own opinion, the state of Pennsylvania should take it easier on adolescents like a lot of places in the world do. I know that in some Asia countries, even though teenager who found guilty at some murder degree, there are still laws that protect them from being charge for life sentence or death penalty. I think that it would be more positive outcome if the law system can give these juvenile lifers a chance to start their life again. We can have program to train these adolescents and release them back to the family and become a productive person for the society, when we think they have changed their behavior. I think doing this we can help protect the right of children as it documented. However, I still think that there are adolescents who are really dangerous to people around them and do not want to change his or her mistakes. The one that we really cannot rehabilitate, we should treat them as adult in trial and still the maximum charge for them is life sentence. Fri, 18 Mar 2011 08:14:46 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/14/kids-getting-life-how-is-this-serving-us-really/#IDComment135780973 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/07/freedom/#IDComment134267106 This article was very interesting to me. I liked how this inmate who spent twenty-four years serving in prison found a great definition of freedom for himself. The definition for freedom may be different for a normal person who is living outside of prisons and ones who are serving in prisons. From the point of view of a normal person, sometime freedom does not need to be heavily considered. He or she have freedom to choose what to eat for lunch, when to take a shower or what to buy. They basically have the right to participate in anything that everyone in the United State of America does. Unlike, people who living outside of prisons, inmates are living under a set of rules that restricted their life style. They only have fifteen minutes phone call per week, they can only do exercise at a certain time and only eat what they been given. If we ask one of a prisoners “what would they thing about freedom? The answer would be that be able to do what they can afforded and wanted or possess what they can afforded and wanted. After many years thinking about his friends’ point of views about the word “freedom”, finally this special inmate understood that freedom is not only about how much each individual can possesses but it is all about how to keep himself motivate and happy everyday when he wake up and hoping for a brighter start. He understood that freedom cannot start anywhere but in his heart and mind. It starts from his meaningful actions that keep himself happy and motivate every day. He helps do tutoring, spends time talk to students who interested to know prisoner lives. All these activity make him feel that he is part of society. In addition to his hope, he always reminds himself great times where he spend time with his family at home, car rides, birthdays, his first kiss, and school dances. I think having a point of view about freedom as a prisoner is a very positive point of view. It gives prisoners opportunities to calm themselves down, fix their mistakes and especially become a helpful person in the society when they are ready to start a new life. Fri, 11 Mar 2011 19:35:31 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/07/freedom/#IDComment134267106 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/21/stranger-kidnapping/#IDComment130515911 As majority of people were thinking, I would not allow my kids to walk down the street without an adult go with him or her. I am afraid that my kids might hit by a car or being kidnap from someone. Now the day, every one of us is afraid of suddenly events that rarely happen to us than common things that had been happened continuously in our life. We afraid of airplane accident, terrorism or kidnaps more than we do with common accidents such as car accidents, cancers or diabetes. These common things are something that has more potential risk of killing us than any other suddenly events. The example in the video shows that after this happen in town a parent said that she would be stricter with her kid when they walk down on the street. The statistic shows that in 2006 there is only 13% of children get to school by themselves compare to 87% of children were doing this in 1972. There is a very small percentage of being kidnap by someone out there in public. Even though, the risk of being abducted or assaulted for children has not changed so why are Americans afraid of uncommon thing that will happen to them? I think the reason is that we are being scared by television or online systems reports. I think many Entertainment company like CBS, or New York Time would take these opportunity to get our attention to their Television channels and newspapers. Sometime lack of knowledge about the world can lead us to make bad and wrong decisions. For example, we taught our kid to look for a policeman in case they get lost in a football game or at a parking lot. This belief is actually bad. Instead, parents should teach their kid to try to find person to get help in a quickest amount of time. Another example that our silly belief cost us in term of finance and affords is the end of the world day. Many Americans were panic about this happen to them, and with the survival reaction. We prepared food, toiletries, or water in the belief that we could survive through this serious disaster. Eventually, nothing had happened at all. Fri, 25 Feb 2011 07:21:54 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/21/stranger-kidnapping/#IDComment130515911 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/16/reflections/#IDComment128744789 The letter was very interesting to me. The inmate remorse and think about what have he done in his life that brought him this serious trouble in his life? which is a life sentence. First, he recalled to his father, who drafted into the Vietnam War, but soon in his recalls about him was a responsible father. He then tries to recall his earliest childhood memories and hope to find an answer for this question. What he found were beautiful memories with full of love. He recalled fishing trips and quality time spent with his father, and Sundays at church with Grandma, with family dinner afterwards. As he kept recalling, he even think about his childhood sweethearts, and all the fun memories of just how silly little boys and girls can be. It was a time of innocence, where he lived a carefree sheltered life; probably what most might say was the “American Dream” for an inner city youth. After think about his personal experience with his family, he could not think of even a negative factor that brought him this big trouble. The reason is that the trouble that he is having is not only impact himself but it is public matter as well. Later in the essay, the inmate finally found factors that brought him a life sentence. As he becomes a teenager, he started to lie to his father and hanging out at night clubs with girls that are sometime older than him. Some of these girls are landmines, and some were grenades. He would do everything to those ladies to satisfy his sexuality conquest mind. He would buy drugs and alcohol if they wanted. The issue that he has to deal right now is brought to him in term of public issue. It involves him in a society where every action he do is a crime. He could not transcend himself over this public issue; therefore he has to conform to it. I think usually the invisible strings are untied able. At that point this inmate just does what his “self” guided him to do. However, I believed that if this inmate has another chance to be a freedom person, he will be stronger to fight over his fate. Fri, 18 Feb 2011 05:41:24 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/16/reflections/#IDComment128744789 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/04/the-not-so-invisible-structure-that-shapes-us/#IDComment127271859 I believed that we are not one of the less traveler people in the world. Somehow, some Americans think that we should be the one who travel around the world the most. I think we can understand about the fact that” Most American do not travel around the world” as a public issue. It is something that a single American should not worry about. Most of us do not consider highly about traveling around the world. We cannot control ourselves as the idea of being the most active traveler around the world but our society is which control our decision. I also think that this public issue is something called “teaching the society”. The way that we committed to run our society however affected individual’s way of living. These factors are work cultural, skeptical mind and our geographical diversity. We working hard by the time we are sixteen or some even fourteen for at least forty years until our retirement. After high school, some of us will pursue a higher education which going to college and graduate with a degree. However there are a large percent of teenager who decided that a full time job is better for them at this point. Even though someone with a college degree or one without a college degree, we all still have to dedicate most of our times every week to work and earn money. The society is just running faster and busier and we, the human have to adapt ourselves in to it. We are working hard to earn money and pay our bills and live under a best society in interm of security, healthcare and education. Another fact that controls our decision about this is that we are skeptic about other country. Our minds shaped with the idea that it is unsafe to travel to another place that not America or the foods and the health care system are which hold us back. Majority of us think that Americans does not have learned other cultures or language. Therefore, we do not want to travel around the world to experience new things. Another factor that shapes our decision of not wanted to travel to another country is geographical diversity. We have all sorts of amusements inside the country like Florida beaches or Colorado skiing mountains. Fri, 11 Feb 2011 06:05:03 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/04/the-not-so-invisible-structure-that-shapes-us/#IDComment127271859 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/30/conformity-rules-the-day/#IDComment125939827 I think this video is a very interesting video. The video is a combination of three empirical of human’s behavior when they gathered together in an elevator. The guy who was in the elevator initially faced himself out the door but then when other three guys came in and faced themselves toward the wall forced him to slowly changed his posture just like other members in the elevator. Even though he tried not to act like other member’s actions but invisible strings came down and slowly shaped his action. Not only he changed his posture, eventually he adapted to the group’s activity quicker. He turns around as other do or put on his hat as other do. This experiment showed that our action is followed by group idea. We quickly adapted to new rules from people around us by assumed that other member in the group know more than we do. Of course none of us think that we can deal with criticizes from people surrounding us therefore we tend to follow the majority than go against them. For example, in this video a man first stood the way he wanted but slowly he followed the way how other people in the elevator are standing. Another example is that pretending we are all listening to a Sociologist’s lecture in Forum building, none of us would stand up and sing a song. Everyone wants to seat down and pretend that they are listening as long as they are not doing something that different than other three hundred people. This is just a socialization rule that we been taught under a different conditions. We learn about all of these invisible regulations as we experience interact with people we have met. In addition, human tend to gain cohesiveness. Our solidarity will increase within group as we face major clashes or conditions. We have a norm for every place that we gather together. Members of a group who do not disagree with the group’s norm often excluded from that group. A group member’s behavior would be very different than usually. He would do something to show that he belong to this group. Fri, 4 Feb 2011 16:18:18 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/30/conformity-rules-the-day/#IDComment125939827 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/27/i-too-am-free/#IDComment124360210 Freedoms is something that each individual automatically received after they born. It is something that unvalued and we are earned from tears, blood that was shed or even many lives of our ancestors. Depending on what country are we are living in or in what political systems we are living under, freedoms can be limited in certain ways. However, our country, the United State of America was always been considered the most freedom country in the world. For example, we get to choose to join the military if we want to or we are free in religions assembling. In many communism countries like North Korea or China, people do not have freedom for religions assembling or the freedom to choose whether they want to join military or not. These sets of freedom could be taken away if individual invaded laws that are enforced to make sure bad things not happen to others. For example, if someone go on the street and just started to shoot people, he or she may end up in the jail for the rest of his or her lives. After read the article, my most favorite line was “To try and achieve some of those freedoms that I miss most I live my life vicariously through other people”. At this point, the inmates felt regret of losing their freedom. When you become an inmate, you are actually considering less freedom than other who lives out of prisons. And of course there is a limited set of freedoms that set for inmates depending on the criminal degrees. Probably, they have been taken away all daily freedoms. They cannot take shower whenever they wanted, they cannot drive their car to McDonald and get their lunch, and they cannot eat when or what they want to eat or some of them would never have intimacy with the families. Finally my opinion about “Freedom” is that no matter in what country or political party you are living in if you do not appreciate it, we might lose it forever. We may end up living our life vicariously through other people”. In fact freedom of making decision also leads people to end their live due to societal pressures. Fri, 28 Jan 2011 16:26:21 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/27/i-too-am-free/#IDComment124360210