en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/4243848 Comments by SherriD25 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/20/voices-from-the-classroom-156/#IDComment347702553 Personally my parents would not mind I i were gay or in an interracial relationship. As long as my significant other treats me the way I deserved to be treated (like a Queen) then it doesn't matter. I went through a few phases in high school which made my parents guess I was a lesbian. They proved that they loved me anyway. The crushes I had in high school were of all races and they still loved me anyway. My grandmother and uncle on the other hand, had told me constantly that it is unacceptable for me to marry any other man outside of my race. My grandmother would tell me that "in the black community, you can have any shade you want from very dark to light brite and damn near white. So you can choose what you want in between". My uncle would tell me the same thing. If I were gay, I kind of feel like my grandmother wouldn't accept me. I think she would be the ones who would send me to straight camp and tell me that its all in my head. I kind of doubt she would love me as much as she does now. I really think she would just dismiss what I would be. That is if I just came up with it out of the blue. If the whole family knew when I was younger, who knows what the future would hold? I guess my point here is that I honestly would not know how she would react. I know that my grandmother loves me unconditionally and she always will but I cant ignore the fact that she tends to dismiss things very quickly and that she uses words to sting. I have a feeling she would still love me but I honestly don't know how she would show it. And I will always love her as well. Like I said before, my parents have already shown that they would love me no matter what I am. Although if I were gay, I would guess they would be hurt by the fact that I wouldn't be having children that looked like them. They never said this to me before and in fact they never said this period. I think its just me being paranoid. I do know that my parents had told me many times that they want grandchildren. I really think they would want their grandchildren to look like them and by them, I mean me. I think there may also be a religious aspect in this as well. If I were a lesbian trying to have children, I would have to get a seed from a man I'm not married to. Honestly I dont know how I would go about that. Honestly I know that my parents would be with me all the way. They raised me to think for myself and have made if clear that they would always be there for me. Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:56:57 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/20/voices-from-the-classroom-156/#IDComment347702553 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/10/racist-profiling-appears-to-be-alive-in-nyc/#IDComment340299958 My first thought when reading this was "What the hell?" Why is this continuing? An even better question is why does he still have a job? Unfortunately I am not surprised for I have been in a similar situation. A friend and I were in driving in DC. We are both black but he is noticeably darker than I am. In fact we are the extremes when it comes to race. I am the lightest black person I have ever seen and he is the darkest black person I have ever seen. Anyway, one night he is driving me home from a school event. He's about 17 and I am about 15. He is obeying the traffic laws and driving safely when suddenly we get stopped by a policeman. He asks my friend for his papers and is being very rude except my friend cannot pick up on his sarcasm. He shines the flashlight in the car at me and asks if I'm alright. I dont wanna mouth off so I say yes yes Im fine. For no reason at all, the police officer gives my friend a ticket and we drive off. There was another instance where I am driving on the same road but with a white friend. It is about the same time at night and he is driving me home. He is going about 15 mph over the speed limit. We get stopped by the same officer. I had a new hairstyle and was wearing different glasses so he did not recognize me then. What I did not know before I had gotten in the car with my friend, was the smell of drugs. Weed to be exact. I just thought it was a different brand of cigarettes and a different brand of incense. So I did not give the smell a second thought. When we got stopped, I noticed he was noticeably more worried about getting stopped then my friend before. I did not know then we were driving with drugs in the car. SO the police gets to the car and asks my friend for his papers. Get this, he got off with a warning! The policeman was not sarcastic and rude like he was with my other friend. I didn't know until he dropped me off at home and I grilled him with questions about why that happened. Why do people abuse their power? I know there is something for everyone but people just have to face facts. Not everyone can be what they wanna be. If you have anger issues, why would you wanna be a cop? How is that helping anyone? How is that helping yourself? A good question is why havent the people who have given these unfitting people their jobs been punished? Whoever is over them has to reevaluate who they let in their company Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:11:47 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/10/racist-profiling-appears-to-be-alive-in-nyc/#IDComment340299958 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/01/the-saggy-pants-problem/#IDComment335002661 When it comes to the whole saggy pants deal, I don't like seeing it as much as the next guy but I don't think there should be a law on it. To me, its a fad and it will go out of style as quickly as it came in. I'm against saggy pants because honestly I don't want to see your rear end in my face especially in places such as a crowded subway. There was one time I almost pulled this guy's pants all the way down because he was so far in my face. I ended up not doing it. Who knows I may have gotten away with it. He may not have been able to catch me because his pants were so saggy. I'll never know. At my house, everything must fit or else you will not be allowed to leave the house no matter what the fad is. Even at school, if your pants were too saggy, you had to go to the home economics teacher and she would either give you an extra belt or make one out of rope. There is one thing I am confused about. If baggy pants are most associated with prison, why would one want to imitate that? In my mind, pants hanging off your butt means easy access for someone else. You can probably easily get robbed because almost everything is hanging low to the ground. I can't really think of any pros to this situation. Now there is something else I'm wondering about, Of all the things this country needs help with, the economy, education, social issues, why is the government worrying about someones choice of fashion? Sure not everyone likes it and honestly I havent seen saggy pants not nearly as much as when I was younger and it was everywhere full force. Like I said, style is evolving. There are more important things to worry about then what someone is wearing. Let them do what they do. No point in us breathing behind their necks telling them what to wear and what not to wear. It makes it less of a free world to me. But thats just my opinion. I really cannot believe that there are plans to make a law about this. C'mon we (as a country) have better things to do. Last time I checked, saggy pants wasn't the cause of the rising oil prices. Is this some kind of a cover up to keep from tending to the things that really matter? Saggy pants may be like cicadas. They are everywhere for a short time and then they disappear into the ground only to come up in another 17 years. Ok I did not really understand my own analogy but my point is, baggy pants will fade away with the wind. It may take care of itself. Meanwhile, our education and economy will not so there is where we should steer out focus Mon, 9 Apr 2012 04:12:04 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/04/01/the-saggy-pants-problem/#IDComment335002661 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/03/26/the-hunger-games-and-race-relations-in-2012/#IDComment328814918 Okay I'd like to start out by saying this shouldn't EVEN be an issue. I have never read the Hunger Games and I haven't seen the movie but I have friends who went crazy over the books so I know a little about the background story. So what if the characters are black? By the looks of the excerpts in the book, people are seriously lacking context clues and an imagination. It's a post-apocalyptic world come on people. Just as I wrote that, I remember the lesson in which Sam said that in about 20-25 years, white people will be the minority. My big problem with this is that people are stooping as low as calling a little girl a "nigger" or "some black girl". When the guy tweeted that when he found out the character felt for in the book was black in the movie, her death wasn't as sad and the he hates himself, well he should. Why should someones skin color stand in the way of what happened to them. I heard about her death in the book and it was beyond messed up and gruesome. How could you not feel for someone who went through that? No matter the skin color. I am just too done with people and their racism. Now every single one of those comments were uncalled for and I as a member of the human race am not only shocked and disgusted by the direction people are taking, but I am also saddened as well. I just don't want to believe that people are upset because black people were cast in a movie. I read up on the movie some more and I came across these statements made by Bim Adewunmi and Fahima Haque in a wikipedia article."...it comes to this: if the casting of Rue, Thresh and Cinna has left you bewildered and upset, consider two things. One: you may be a racist - congrats! Two: you definitely lack basic reading comprehension. Mazel tov!" Haque observed: "the real insanely horrible, awful problem is just that is an example of pure racism. It's downright disgusting that at a time when other decent Americans are mourning the loss of Trayvon Martin, who was senselessly murdered last month, these readers have no qualms with publicly saying that black people ruined their movie experience". When I read the description for the main character's role, of all reasons to feel confused or angry, I would THINK this one would be the one. She did not fit what I saw in my head. But I guess we couldn't have a main character of color oh no that would be TOO shocking! Ugh I get to thinking about the Dr. Kenneth Clark experiment again and it relates perfectly to this movie. People still influenced by the fact that white is good and everything else is bad. I feel torn for the little girl who was cast in this movie who is going through this. She shouldn't have to see the spectacle we call "civilization" because its not. I only hope that she has or is developing tough skin and this wont deeply affect her and make her have a sense of animosity towards the poor souls who may never see beyond their own backyard for they should be pitied (and possibly chased by an angry mob) If this type of thinking and behavior continues, then oh boy are we in trouble. God Help Us All Sat, 31 Mar 2012 22:53:49 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/03/26/the-hunger-games-and-race-relations-in-2012/#IDComment328814918 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/03/22/voices-from-the-classroom-132/#IDComment323240685 Looking at the Dr. Kenneth Clark video experiment and the one years later just made me incredibly sad. I don't remember ever feeling like one race was superior when I was younger. When I was a little kid, my mother and father bought me dolls of all ethnicity. I had a Latina doll and her name was Teresa. I had a Black doll and her name was Christie. Then there was the Barbie doll. In fact the only white woman I ever thought was beautiful when I was a kid was Princess Diana. When I got to be around 8 or 9, that's when the teasing started. I now saw that there was an "us" and a "them" and this was just in the black community with the light skinned and the dark skinned. When I was very little, I lived around black and brown people. Unfortunately I didn't play with anyone because I was the youngest and everyone else was around 15 years old. I didn't think anything about diversity until I was around 11 years old. That's when I started going to school with people other than black people. It was this time I paid attention to being a minority and majority since I went all black schools and had black friends and neighbors. When asked my ethnicity when I was younger, I stated that I was Black with angry responses. "NO! There's no way you are black! You're too light to be black! You don't talk like a black person! Stop lying!" I guess its true when you see lighter skinned black people and the ones you see are very Afro-centric. This may be because they have gone through something similar and now they feel the need to prove their "blackness" to others. As I got older, I noticed jokes toward other stereotypes and honestly I didn't know how to feel about them. I didn't truly go to a diverse school until the eighth grade and then was I able to experience different cultures. Later on in high school, I became very Black Power wanting to learn more about my people and shooting down anyone that questioned or put it down, I would be very aggressive towards them. Going through life, I have grown out of that stage but in a way I have stayed because I want to learn more and more about my people, I just accept everybody as they are now. I'm only aggressive if I really have to be. I don't want to admit it, but in learning more about my history, and with the teasing, I really disliked white people. It was so bad that after I watched all of Roots for the first time, I completely ignored white people for about a week. I'm not like this anymore. Now I have a better understanding of accepting others. There were days where I would sit and think and feel remorseful about the way I felt about white people at my school because I had to remember, they weren't the ones who enslaved us for 400 years and turned other races against each other. Not these particular people. It was then I learned how to deal with each person individually and not let just one person screw it up for the rest of the people. As of this moment, I feel like I'm in stage 5 leaning towards stage 6 but Im not quite there yet. Its alright because there is always room for improvement. Sat, 24 Mar 2012 08:03:48 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/03/22/voices-from-the-classroom-132/#IDComment323240685 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/03/15/voices-from-the-classroom-121/#IDComment319239453 Honestly, I wasn't that shocked by the videos shown in class. To me you shouldn't let just one person ruin a whole people's reputation for everybody. As individuals, what they did was entirely messed up. As soldiers, they were following orders. Now I don't know about you but I think its a little too intense to crush someones car and way of life for stealing a little bit of wood. I agree with the previous people that if we were in Iraq's situation, everything would be flipped around. As anyone in a position of power, abusing your power is just not right whoever you are. Torturing people just to get a few cheap yucks is never acceptable whoever you are. The video with the people driving the car off the road, what was that for? Are you kidding me? They weren't going fast enough so you drive them off the road? What sense does that make? Would they be prosecuted in America? I sure hope so. Now I know that we are in a war and there are no rules or guidelines, bet seriously though, two wrongs do not make a right. The things we may do to them, they can easily turn around and do back to us. Its messed up yes but like I said earlier, if we were in Iraq's position, the same stuff would be done to us. Possibly worse. Now I'm not going to be all naive and say that I wish there was no war because I do not think that is ever going to happen. I just wish we were more considerate of our brothers and sisters while following orders. If someone comes and steals a little bit of wood, do we really have to put them in a circle with guns pointing to them and take a giant tank and crush the people's car? Really? Now I know that not everyone is doing these things and that there are people being helpful and not abusing their positions of power but come on, as with every one else, we will pay for the people we wronged so we should practice compassion or at least common sense. I enjoyed the fact that the 3 war veterans came to our class and spoke to us. Now I know for sure that there are people not abusing their positions of power instead of just blindly assuming it. I have quite a few members of my family who were in war not the Iraq war but Vietnam and WWII and they really like to talk about it so I respect the fact that they came to our class. To me it was powerful listening to people who actually went through something and not just see it in a movie with actors doing what they think happened. All in all, class was quite beneficial to the people who have some empathy to learn. It is very important to learn both sides of the story. Mon, 19 Mar 2012 00:22:43 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/03/15/voices-from-the-classroom-121/#IDComment319239453 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/23/voices-from-the-classroom-114/#IDComment301071819 Okay first of all I would like to say that this really sucks. It's such a shame that the world is still so focused on pretty people that we are not paying attention to what really matter. If I'm a business owner, my main focus is to make more money. Why the heck do I care what you look like? All I care about is can you make me a lot of money in a reasonable time? and are you a loyal employee who works hard and does what they need to do to make me and you money. I had an experience like this before. One summer, a neighbor and I decided to apply for a job together. For the sake of the business I will leave the name out of this blog post. We did a number of tasks at the same time such as working the register, making change, ringing up checks, gift cards, tax exemption, returns and discounts, restocking shelves, and organizing the clothes. We both did a pretty good job but my friend did a much better job. She got the hang of everything in the first try. I was still struggling with ringing up tax exemption and checks. Now all throughout our exams, the manager kept making comments at me going "My gosh you're beautiful!" or "My what a lovely face!" She did not make those kind or comments at my friend. When we were finished with our tests, she said that she would call us back tomorrow and to come to the store so that she could tell us who got the job and who would be put on the waiting list. Imagine both our surprises when she told us that I got the job. I was in shock actually. In my head, I just knew she had to pick my friend because she did a better job than I did. As my friend turned to leave, I asked the manager, why I had gotten the job. She told me "simply because of your beautiful face. We must have a lovely in the store so that people will want to come back." That statement just threw me off completely. Firstly, that's just bad business. What kind of manager hires a pretty face as opposed to a person who could do the job effectively? Who cares how I look or how the other person looks. As a business, you want to make money. To me that says something about your product. Apparently your products are so crappy that instead of letting the products speak for themselves, you need a pretty face to sell it for you. That just makes me so angry! And who are you to tell me that I'm not attractive or that I am not appealing? If you make the statement about the tattoos and how people dont want to hire people with tattoo's, that bull as well. More people have tattoos today then ten years ago! Why are you letting a persons physical appearance judge who you will hire? Aren't you being a hypocrite when you say on your website that we don't discriminate under any circumstances? That bull! And who are you to judge attractiveness? Who died and made YOU the decider of what is beautiful and what is not? Only one being is the judge of all things Long story short, people shouldn't have to put photos on their resumes. It SHOULD have to deal with whether you are a quality worker or not. Like I said before, If I were a business owner, why would I care about your looks? Can you make me money? Will you improve the company for the better? Because that's what I would care about, not someone's looks. If we as people don't get it together, everyone will be out of jobs and business will plunge deeper than they ever have because our value systems are f***ed up Sat, 25 Feb 2012 04:58:48 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/23/voices-from-the-classroom-114/#IDComment301071819 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/17/asian-stereotypes-and-the-world-of-sports/#IDComment295415580 Honestly I heard of Jeremy Lin a few days ago. I did not mind the crazy hype he was getting on social medias. I think he is still trending on twitter. Everybody needs their time to shine. Do I think the hype is because he is Asian? Yes. Yes I do. There is not a lot of diversity in the game of basketball. Now don't get me wrong, as a fellow black person, I have love for my black brothers and sisters in the NBA. I also love diversity and wish it were so in basketball. Now it seems that my wishes are steadily being answered. I also think he is making such a splash because he is obviously a contradiction on the Asian stereotype. He's tall, well coordinated, and he wins a lot. Some describe him as the Tim Tebow of basketball which I think could be true in the sense that he's hot right now and he wins a lot. As a basketball fan, what more can you ask for? I think he is making a similar stir as when Obama came with his Change campaign. Everybody is always looking for something different to push the boundaries of what we already stand up against. Its nice to see people such as President Obama and Jeremy Lin do things like this so that we know we can stop wishing and do. I don't know how long he is going to stay in this light. Hopefully this has opened the doors for more minorities to come into the game of basketball. Hopefully this can be another example of how people shouldn't be afraid to live behind their label. Hopefully people can live in the futeure as opposed focusing on the now and completly giving up. He's doing well for buisnesses to market him and he;s benifitting children who may look up to him and do what he did. Probably even better I look forward to learning more about Jeremy Lin and I hope he continues to win and influence others to win not only in basketball but in life. Oh one more thing, How did he ever get overlooked? Sat, 18 Feb 2012 05:06:19 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/17/asian-stereotypes-and-the-world-of-sports/#IDComment295415580 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/10/voices-from-the-classroom-104/#IDComment289381990 Personally I define myself as a black woman. Both of my parents are black and I know that there is a mix on both sides. There just happens to be more black blood in us I believe. I was raised around black people who were also raised by black people and so forth. I have never met or seen photos of any white relatives. I wonder if I had, would there have been a difference? I have light features such as the small lips, the light skin, my hazel-green eyes, the looser kinky curly hair, and the ability to burn quickly in the sun. My mother looks like me except a shade lighter with natural red hair. My father is darker than the both of us. Out of the three kids, I am the oldest and the lightest. My middle brother is a few shades darker and my youngest brother is the darkest. We get teased sometimes about how light we are but when you put both sides of my family together, you will get the the entire color scheme from darkest to lightest. Most of it is on my fathers side. Everyone on my mother's side is about the same complexion. I always get stares and questions concerning my ethnicity. Back then it would bother me whenever someone would question me, nowadays it does not bother me at all. Actually sometimes the questions and comments are entertaining. I have been questioned many times if I was Puerto Rican and quite recently, middle eastern. In school, every time my classmates saw another light skinned black person, they were automatically my brother or sister even if we looked nothing alike which was always the case. I love being black and since I came to college and met other multiracial black people, I love being black even more. Sat, 11 Feb 2012 04:56:10 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/10/voices-from-the-classroom-104/#IDComment289381990 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/02/voices-from-the-classroom-96/#IDComment283397987 I just want to start off by saying that I am a multiracial woman who identifies as black. I am a firm believer in interracial dating and interracial marriage and so are my parents. I come from a very diverse background and everyone in my family is a different shade. To me, interracial dating is beautiful. It shows that you are willing to accept and learn about a culture different from yours. My parents are very open minded about this and their only concern is whether the guy I choose treats me the way i should be treated. They could care less what his skin color is. My grandmother and uncle on the other hand, feel the same except the fact that they would not accept it if I were to bring home a white guy. I don't pay attention to that but I do know that they wont disown me. I know that they will talk about him and there is nothing much I can do about that, but they will still love me. When it comes to adoption, I have no problem in adopting a white baby for instance. The point is I have no problem in adopting outside of my race. When it comes to the sperm donor, if they found a perfect match but the sperm is of a different race than I am, it still wouldn't matter to me. Since I am multiracial and many features in my family skip generations such as red hair, freckles, dark skin, light skin, and hazel eyes, my baby would look very different anyway. Do you know what? It wouldn't matter at all. Like one student said, skin is an organ to protect you, who cares what color it is? Sat, 4 Feb 2012 04:47:34 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/02/02/voices-from-the-classroom-96/#IDComment283397987 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/01/26/voices-from-the-classroom-92/#IDComment276538100 This is my second semester at UP and I must say that since I've been here, I've learned that some people are very quick to jump on the bandwagon. As caisha61 said, I too have noticed a lot of hypocrisy. If this were to happen at another school, we WOULD have our eyes glued to the screen. The thing is, We would only be seeing one side. We as Penn Staters saw both sides. I don't think its right that we as people are more interested in info-tainment as opposed to getting the whole true story. When I went home for thanksgiving for instance, I was flooded with bold statements made by other people who did not even know the whole story. Just what the media told them. Sometimes I wonder what's the point in having news if its not told respectfully and its entirety? In november, the media totally slayed and Joe Pa only concentrating on the negative things because unfortunatley thats what people want to hear. It's "interesting". Once the one sided people believed what they want, they ridicule the individual until there is nothing left. A noticeable example, Michael Jackson. For decades this man was slayed by the media and people who always believe what they hear and never bother to find out for sure, harassed him to no end and when he died, that's when people came out and said how much they loved him as opposed to the people who have stuck with him through everything. I just wish people take the initiative to learn everything about someone before they go around making bold statements not caring what they do to others because despite what some people say, words do hurt and can ruin a person. On another note, I've learned and appreciate the sense of togetherness that is Penn State and I hope to all hopes that something like this will never happen to ANYONE else. Sat, 28 Jan 2012 04:39:28 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/01/26/voices-from-the-classroom-92/#IDComment276538100 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/01/26/voices-from-the-classroom-92/#IDComment276534292 This is my second semester at UP and I must say that since I've been here, I've learned that some people are very quick to jump on the bandwagon. As caisha61 said, I too have noticed a lot of hypocrisy. If this were to happen at another school, we WOULD have our eyes glued to the screen. The thing is, We would only be seeing one side. We as Penn Staters saw both sides. I don't think its right that we as people are more interested in info-tainment as opposed to getting the whole true story. When I went home for thanksgiving for instance, I was flooded with bold statements made by other people who did not even know the whole story. Just what the media told them. Sometimes I wonder what's the point in having news if its not told respectfully and its entirety? In november, the media totally slayed and Joe Pa only concentrating on the negative things because unfortunatley thats what people want to hear. It's "interesting". Once the one sided people believed what they want, they ridicule the individual until there is nothing left. A noticeable example, Michael Jackson. For decades this man was slayed by the media and people who always believe what they hear and never bother to find out for sure, harassed him to no end and when he died, that's when people came out and said how much they loved him as opposed to the people who have stuck with him through everything. I just wish people take the initiative to learn everything about someone before they go around making bold statements not caring what they do to others because despite what some people say, words do hurt and can ruin a person. On another note, I've learned and appreciate the sense of togetherness that is Penn State and I hope to all hopes that something like this will never happen to ANYONE else. Sat, 28 Jan 2012 04:33:47 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/01/26/voices-from-the-classroom-92/#IDComment276534292 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/01/20/questions-from-class/#IDComment271816626 To me, non U.S. citizens are really attracted to the thought of Independence which to me includes stability, the right to say what you feel is right and to have an equal opportunity. I feel that Americans take our privileges for granted. I think that the American dream has lost its value. Not many young people today truly understand the true value of a dollar. Today the world is full of shortcuts in order to get your way to the top. No one is thinking about the future, instead they are thinking about the now. I believe that some americans do take america for granted. Sometimes we take our freedom of speech to far, We are blinded by thinking out country is so great that we critezize other countries as opposed to looking in our own backyard. I dont think the American dream is only for Americans. You can apply this wherever you go. Besides, who is an American? Anyone can become an American citezin just like you can become a French citezin. To me, the only way you really know you are living the American dreamis if you are truly satisfied with your lif whether you are rich or sot so rich. Just being happy Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:53:19 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/01/20/questions-from-class/#IDComment271816626 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/01/20/questions-from-class/#IDComment271811392 To me, non U.S. citizens are really attracted to the thought of Independence which to me includes stability, the right to say what you feel is right and to have an equal opportunity. I feel that Americans take our privileges for granted. I think the American dream has lost its value to us. In this time, everyone is getting screwed over and half the time we are not even aware of it because of the secrets kept from us. There are some people today who do not really understand the true value of a dollar and how to work hard. So instead they take the easy way out. I think people are more concerned with the now as opposed the the future. I feel as though some Americans do take America for granted. There are some people in this country who think we can do absolutely no wrong and criticize other countries as opposed to observing whats in out own backyard. I don't think the American dream is only for Americans. You can translate the American dream however you want and apply it to wherever you are. Besides, anyone can become an American citezin just like anyone can become a French citizen. I feel that the only way you are living the American dream is if you are truly satisfied with however your life is going whether you are rich or not as rich. Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:43:30 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2012/01/20/questions-from-class/#IDComment271811392