I think you've raised some great questions here. Questions that made me think for awhile about the disaster in Haiti and what we heard in class on Tuesday. Do we have a responsibility to help? I think we do. It's easy to sit here and do nothing though and continue going on with our lives. But it's not difficult to do something that makes a difference. Like Ian said, it's easier to make a bigger difference in a country that so desperately needs help and aid. At the very least, Haiti's unfortunate and dire situation should remind us to be thankful for what we have, for the luxuries in our life (like running water, grocery stores around the corner, and a place to sleep at night) and maybe to share some of our relative wealth. I think part of the reason why people read about these catastrophic events in the news or online and say, "oh my god, that's horrible," but then continue on with their lives is because they've never known or seen such a disaster or have seen how it directly affects them. It can be hard sometimes to see a direct relation as to how something like this affects us. But I think Tuesdays class helped put it into perspective for me, at least. When I found out that the aid money that the U.S. is sending is really just benefiting our own economy I was a little shocked. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world, and the U.S. one of the wealthiest, if not the most wealthy. And like Sam said, the people in the lowest 10% of socioeconomic status here in the U.S. are still better off than the people in Haiti.

I think one of the problems is that so many Americans have the view from their microcosm and can only think about what is happening in the present day. I think people also have trouble putting themselves in another person's shoes. Yes, it can be hard to think about what it would be like if suddenly 300,000 Americans were killed here in the U.S. because of an Earthquake and that we didn't have any food or fresh water to drink. But think about how we felt on 9/11 or after Hurricane Katrina. Do you think people felt more empathy for those injured and killed in the attacks and the natural disaster here than they do for the victims in Haiti? I think that people become desensitized to "giving" towards a problem that probably will take decades to solve, ie. hunger in Africa or rebuilding Haiti. People are much more willing write a check now and say, "Ok, this solves an imminent problem and I did my part." The only people who can truly say how horrible these events are, are those who have had family or close friends directly involved. But in any event, we should all try our best to imagine ourselves in that situation and think about the Golden Rule that Same talked about.

I thought your response to this letter had many good points. I agree with your thought that many of us probably don't think about how fortunate we are and we probably take a few things for granted. It's hard to even imagine what it would be like to be living in prison, knowing that you'll be spending the rest of your life their. But some of the lifers, including this man who wrote the letter, change their outlook on life and appreciate the little things in life that we may overlook. I think you're right about how prisoners are portrayed in TV and movies. Much of it is unrealistic. Yes, I do agree that people should suffer the consequences for their actions, but I do believe that people can change and should be given a second chance. We should also consider people who are sentenced as young adults. In fact, the United States stands alone in the world in convicting young adolescents as adults and sentencing them to live out their lives in prison. To me, there's something wrong with that.

I agree with you that this is an incredible piece of writing by a "lifer." I think it's true that many people in the world think that everyone in jail is a terrible person who should never be given a second chance. And I think in many cases, it's true; but not all people in prison for life do. It's pretty clear that this man has changed a lot and has progressed his thinking to levels that many of us may never reach. The U.S. has the most people in prisons and they are starting to overfill. I've never had the opportunity to visit or talk with someone who is in prison for life, or even someone who has spent time in prison. I agree with you though when you say that everyone makes mistakes - some make bigger mistakes than others. But to say that these people aren't human, I don't think is right. I also think it's interesting to see how much some people can change after they've spent time in prison, or know that they'll spend the rest of their life in prison.

I think you've raised some great questions here. Questions that made me think for awhile about the disaster in Haiti and what we heard in class on Tuesday. Do we have a responsibility to help? I think we do. It's easy to sit here and do nothing though and continue going on with our lives. But it's not difficult to do something that makes a difference. Like Ian said, it's easier to make a bigger difference in a country that so desperately needs help and aid. At the very least, Haiti's unfortunate and dire situation should remind us to be thankful for what we have, for the luxuries in our life (like running water, grocery stores around the corner, and a place to sleep at night) and maybe to share some of our relative wealth. I think part of the reason why people read about these catastrophic events in the news or online and say, "oh my god, that's horrible," but then continue on with their lives is because they've never known or seen such a disaster or have seen how it directly affects them. It can be hard sometimes to see a direct relation as to how something like this affects us. But I think Tuesdays class helped put it into perspective for me, at least. When I found out that the aid money that the U.S. is sending is really just benefiting our own economy I was a little shocked. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world, and the U.S. one of the wealthiest, if not the most wealthy. And like Sam said, the people in the lowest 10% of socioeconomic status here in the U.S. are still better off than the people in Haiti.

I think one of the problems is that so many Americans have the view from their microcosm and can only think about what is happening in the present day. I think people also have trouble putting themselves in another person's shoes. Yes, it can be hard to think about what it would be like if suddenly 300,000 Americans were killed here in the U.S. because of an Earthquake and that we didn't have any food or fresh water to drink. But think about how we felt on 9/11 or after Hurricane Katrina. Do you think people felt more empathy for those injured and killed in the attacks and the natural disaster here than they do for the victims in Haiti? I think that people become desensitized to "giving" towards a problem that probably will take decades to solve, ie. hunger in Africa or rebuilding Haiti. People are much more willing write a check now and say, "Ok, this solves an imminent problem and I did my part." The only people who can truly say how horrible these events are, are those who have had family or close friends directly involved. But in any event, we should all try our best to imagine ourselves in that situation and think about the Golden Rule that Same talked about. How would we want others to react if this happened to the U.S. and directly affected us

I strongly agree with the views you have expressed in your posting. I also think that it's really important that American kids start becoming bilingual or trilingual because the world is becoming increasingly more diverse. As Sam talked about before, there won't be a "majority" of races or ethnicities, and therefore languages spoken, in a few decades. I actually don't think that English will be replaced as the dominant language in the U.S., at least any time soon or in my lifetime for sure. I also really agree with your point about foreign language classes in schools -- many kids take four or more years of a language and still can't hold a semi-fluent conversation in the language. It definitely has to do with the way schools are approaching teaching languages. Many students end up deciding to study abroad sometime in college and it would greatly benefit them to know a language other than English. I most definitely agree with you about schools teaching kids different languages in kindergarten or first grade. Kids pick up on new material, especially a different language much more quickly at a younger age. If schools hire effective teachers, kids will be fluent in more than just English by the time they are in middle or high school. I've also been quite frustrated with the way the government has handled funding with schools and the NCLB regulations. I'm an Elementary Ed major so this really affects me and I too hope that this change happens within my lifetime.

I also agree that English has been the primary language for most business transactions and not trying to be ethnocentric or biased, but why change something that's been working for years? However, I do think that it would benefit people to learn Mandarin and Arabic because more native speakers of these languages are immigrating to the U.S. And the number of Chinese will only continue to increase in future years. I know that at State College High School they actually did a "test" year of teaching Arabic in schools and it seemed to be a pretty big success and there were many kids enrolled in the class. So I don't think it should be required to be taught in schools, but I do think that it's a good idea to include Mandarin in schools as a choice for a foreign language, instead of just Spanish or French. Additionally if schools do decide to implement the teaching of Mandarin into the schools in the U.S. they should seriously consider teaching kids a foreign language in elementary school. Every other country seems to have figured that out.

I agree with the previous posts on this question that men, just like women, do try to conform to the "norms" of society. I don't think it's quite to the extent that women do, but I think everyone tries to fit into society at some point in their lives, even if it's only temporary or for a short period of time. I definitely know that I've been in a few situations where everyone else seemed to be talking about something that I didn't know about or were dressed a little bit differently than me, and that made me uncomfortable. I think this is especially relevant for adolescents where looks and styles are very important to many of them. Naturally self-esteem increases when people feel like they belong and fit in with a group. Although we're all human and we do have some need to belong to a group or community. I'm not sure if that's necessarily conformity, or finding people who are similar to us or have similar interests. Either way, I think that conformity has actually gotten a little out of control. There are countless reality shows who cast guys with six packs and huge muscles. Magazines also have people who are in great shape and air brushed to have the "ideal" body, but what many people don't realize is that those looks are unattainable. It's unrealistic.

Although I am guilty to conformity earlier in my life, I try to avoid it as much as possible now for a few different reasons. So why we should not conform to society? Society tries to place many boundaries on us as individuals as to what is acceptable and what is not. In reality, we must decide for ourselves whether to conform to such a social restraint. We must decide for ourselves whether to conform to such a social restraint. So many of us are taught as soon as we are old enough to grasp the idea that it is bad to be unique and to avoid being different. At some point, however, we must decide within ourselves whether to spend every day trying to be like everyone else because society says we should or living each day true to ourselves. The benefits of being true to ourselves greatly overshadow any negative aspects of choosing that path. I think most people start to realize this later on in life.

The more self esteem a person has, the more likely they are to have a greater resistance to conformity. However, the forces to conform are very strong. People like to fit in and be a part of the group and to be in harmony with the rest of the population. Only slight attractions are required between people to bring about some level of conformity, and communications are not even required. People will speculate as to what the norm may be, and will conform anyway so that they will fit in with the crowd. Peer pressure is a great example of this.

I definitely agree with your post that the Japanese government needs to intervene on the creation of these disgusting and terrible video games. It has gone way too far. There's always controversy around these shoot-'em-up and violent video games, especially the more criminal ones like Grand Theft Auto (which apparently also has the added element of teaching users that if you kill a hooker, you get your money back), which also does not belong in any form of "game" or "entertainment." I do believe in the first amendment, but I'm pretty sure this is not what was visualized when the first amendment was drafted and put into place. There are always exceptions to the rule, and this definitely does NOT fall into a freedom of expression category. A game of virtually raping women and children? It's indefensible. Sounds like the amendment needs amending to reflect changing technology, and the values of the majority of Americans, who I would hope would completely oppose this. Rape isn't funny and it's not a game. I really hope that this is banned and children don't start playing this game. Governments really need to start censoring the media a bit more, mostly for the sake of kids.

This is absolutely disgusting and horrifying to see that video game makers have really crossed the line on this "game." I have never been a fan of violent video games or movies, and as a elementary ed. major, I can see from first hand experience that kids you spend their time playing video games and watching violent movies do tend to release their frustrations and anger through violence. However, I don't think many kids actually know the reality of shooting someone in a video game because they only know it as something in their game -- they've never actually seen someone get shot or murdered. But, according to CNN.com, these hentai games are very common in Japan, and before the arrival of the Internet, many of these forms of pornography games were kept under wraps. Now with the advanced technology, as soon as a game is put on the market in Japan; it’s also made available to the world on the Internet. This is very concerning that the government in Japan has made no effort to regulate the video games that are being produced. Japan’s censorship laws do not allow the game developers to expose genitalia even in animated form, but the law does not restrict the themes and ideas of the games. Unbelievable.

I agree with many previous responses to this video that this question is one that really made me think…have I changed my mind about anything because of what Sam has said in class? I don’t think I have drastically changed my opinions or views on anything, but I do think that I’ve become more aware of many issues that need to be brought to attention in the world today. In order to support your opinions and views, you need to be able to see where the other side is coming from and I think Sam does a great job staying neutral for the most part in talking about issues from a neutral standpoint. I also think the reason why I haven’t changed my mind on many issues talked about in class is because I have already progressed through most of the racial identity stages. I’ve worked with people of many different races and cultures and consider many to be some of my close friends. So I think the important thing that people take away from this class is being able to see both sides of an issue. And I do think that people who have not progressed through the racial identity stages will change their minds more than others because they will the awakening and revisioning stages if they haven’t already. Suppose people think there is a problem with racism in the U.S., but you don’t see racism in your everyday life. Then I do believe that if you can’t change your mind about something, then you can’t change anything.

I read an article in a magazine awhile ago that said, “In order to get people in conflict to cooperate or collaborate sufficiently to settle or resolve their differences, and perhaps achieve reconciliation, it is necessary that they change their minds.” People will always disagree with one another. That’s never going to change. But there needs to be some sort of compromise to resolve difference and achieve a happy medium. This class has definitely forced me to think and re-think my values and opinions about all different topics. If the discussions in class haven’t changed my mind, I know that I’ve gained valuable knowledge about pertinent issues that are relevant today. I also think that Sam’s lectures help to spur discussion on topics that need to be discussed, but aren’t necessarily discussed my many. Many people have been brought out of their comfort zone, in my opinion, and I think in order for someone to achieve growth as a person and progress through the stages, they need to be a little bit uncomfortable, without being scared. Real world events can have the effect of changing parties’ perceptions completely. And I think Sam does a really good job of incorporating current and relevant events into his lectures that do effect many people in the class. I also think that the people who don’t feel connected to these issues at all, need to take a step and see that what affects others, do actually affect them. So even if people don’t change their minds, at least see the connection as to how many of these issues affect everyone.