First, I think it should be made clear that not the entire United States’ society dislikes immigrants. The question is a bit misleading. In fact, I cannot imagine that even the majority “dislikes” legal immigrants. I believe that the members of society that do speak up and discuss issues about immigration tend to be the ones opposed to illegal immigration – not so much legal immigration.
I will start by discussing the possible reasons why society members may dislike legal immigrants in the United States. First and foremost, legal immigrants are threats to Americans. As discussed in class, many legal immigrants that come to the United States are educated, wealthy, and can serve as powerful attributes to businesses. In addition to this, businesses try to promote diversity to better themselves. With people from different nations bringing their inputs and perspectives to the table, a diverse set of ideas can be created. Problem solving skills are shared. Businesses seek immigrants with the aforementioned characteristics to improve their practices. Just to show some figures, according to the slides from Sam, only 23.1% of the United States population has college degrees; however, 42.5% of Asian immigrants, 28.9% of European, Russian, and Canadian immigrants, and 51.1% of African immigrants have college degrees. Seeing these numbers may illustrate why Americans are threatened by the better educated immigrants: perhaps the legal immigrants are more sought after because of their knowledge and capabilities and to increase diversity.
Now, the illegal immigrants are threats, too, and in a somewhat similar fashion as legal immigrants: JOBS. Illegal immigrants are simply looking to improve their daily lives. Typically, they are looking to escape poor living conditions and hardship from their parent countries. They come to the United States to do so. Businesses are well aware of this, and businesses may seek illegal immigrants because they may be willing to work for less pay and longer hours than a typical American worker. I actually have some experience with this type of situation. I am from an agricultural area, specifically produce. It is well-known that in this industry, many illegal immigrants work. Many immigrants knock on the doors of farmers and ask for work – no questions asked. Not all farmers from my area do this, but some very well do. The threat to this is that these illegal immigrants, although they may be putting forth a greater effort to work than Americans, are taking jobs that could benefit an actual United States citizen.
Again, Americans may feel threatened by bother legal and illegal immigrants, especially currently with the poor economy and relatively high unemployment. Immigrants are portrayed badly because they are seen not be worthy of domestic jobs when times are bad.

I thought how Sam gave Tuesday’s lecture was really eye opening. Listening to the lecture in the shoes of the Middle Easterners instead of the patriotic Americans made me take the time to learn more about both sides of the war. Even domestically, there are disputes on what we are fighting for. The “War on Terror” is one label for it since the attacks on September 11, 2001; however, this label has been controversial. Many Americans and people around the world wonder if the Iraqi War is indeed a direct retaliation of what happened over ten years ago. Many also wonder if the attack gave leeway to invade the resource-rich Middle East, so the United States could attempt to make changes there. The changes that are publicized mostly include government, religious, and ownership of resources. Even as an American, I am unsure of the absolute reasoning for the USA to be engaged in war because of the conflicting media attention. After Tuesday’s lecture, I understand how the Iraqis may be confused about the United State’s intentions considering even some Americans are confused, too.
Sam asked us questions like “How do we feel?” during his lecture. When he asked us questions like that, we were also still imagining that we were Middle Easterners. Tuesday was the first time that I really acknowledged the pain, frustration, and confusion that those people likely feel on a daily basis while their homes are surrounded by war. The lecture made me more aware of what “the other team” felt. The Iraqi people have been given false illusions of what Americans are, and through this confusion, Iraqi people have allowed hate to be built against American people, culture, government, etc. Especially since September 11, American people have created this same hate towards Middle Easterners. The key to all of this though is that I believe this war has begun due to one idea: confusion. We do not have good understandings of one another, and our confusion lead to ignorance, which lead to frustration, which ultimately, lead to violence. Now, this violence has not ceased, and in fact, it has likely added to the confusion because people are less willing to take the time to understand one another.
On another note, many Iraqi families have different situations than we do back here in the United States. The war is in their homes. These people cannot walk out of their front doors and take a walk with their families in a safe, welcoming neighborhood. They are surrounded by soldiers, camps, and tanks. Americans did undergo multiple terrorist attacks and lost many citizens during those attacks and abroad, and by no means am I taking away from these devastating losses. However, one has to be empathetic towards people who cannot turn their heads from war scenes.

This part of lecture was very entertaining because Sam and Laurie really hit home with it. When Sam remarked on how women will wear dresses or skirts in literally freezing temperatures, I had to laugh because I am not one of those women. In fact, when my friends and I are out in State College, we have time and time again remarked on how ridiculous it is that some women decide to do that to themselves. Most of our male friends that see this happen laugh about it, too; however, they also remark that they like it…
A number of my girl friends and I have talked about this years ago when we were freshmen. When we first got to Penn State, being girls and all, we did not know what to wear when out on the town. It was such an issue if you could not find something “sexy,” “hot,” or “cute” to wear for the night. Meanwhile, our guy friends would throw on fresh socks and tees other than the ones they wore earlier that day and were set. Additionally, if we ladies did not have at least an hour to get ready (shower, makeup, hair), our worlds stopped. The time and effort many women take to get ready for a night on the town in college is definitely greater than it is for many men. Also, I believe the standard of sex appeal is higher for women than it is for men. Women may wear things that enhance their “goods” well say. Tight clothing or revealing clothing is popular among women; however, when was the last time you saw a bunch of guys wearing spandex or something similar to show what they have? We may laugh at the idea, but in reality, it is just as odd for women to do it.
I do not believe my thoughts have changed after the lecture considering I shared the same ideas and beliefs as Sam and Laurie discussed Thursday. Women dress up for sex appeal, and men dress down because they can. Some women may hold men to a higher standard with appearance, but often times, this is not the case. Humans want attention and have a basic need for love to maintain psychological and emotional stability. Often times, women dress in certain ways to seek different types of attention. For example, Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman dressed seductively to seek customers’ attention. Now, that is clearly an extreme type of dressing up, but still, many women feel the need to dress seductively or sexy in order to gain the attention of others around them and to ultimately, find love. Go downtown on a Friday or Saturday night or to a fraternity party and see all of this in action.

I decided to respond to this question because I had to answer it in my own personal life during the fall semester. To give some background information, I am a single, white female from a small town that is roughly 79% white, 20% Hispanic, and 1% black. In my high school, which had about 600 students total, there were at most 5 black students in it (depending on the school year). Few Hispanic students dated white students, and few white students dated black students etc. and so forth (however, remember how few black students there were). In fact, my high school dealt with “race wars.” There were multiple instances where a group of white students and a group of Hispanic students would meet after school and physically fight. White students would at times wear the American flag or the Confederate flag, and Hispanic students would wear the Mexican flag of Puerto Rican flag. There was not a whole lot of “mixing,” but it did sometimes happen.
Growing up in an atmosphere like that has impacted my thoughts on interracial dating. First of all, I come from a dominantly white area, so I really have not had a lot of interaction with black males – that is until I came to Penn State (even though State College and this university are obviously mostly white, too). Secondly, most of my experiences with and observations of interracial dating, and marriage even, has illuminated struggle and a constant battle. It seems as though one party is never accepted by the other party’s family, friends, etc. Seeing this constant struggle and battle to prove to the outside world that the relationship is a good one is not very enticing to “try” interracial dating, or for the purpose of this question, for a white female to date a black male.
This brings me to what happened in my life during the fall. When I was a freshman, I met this guy (we will call him Troy) through a mutual friend. Troy and I sporadically talked over the years. Our conversations were always friendly. I was very attracted to Troy, and he was attracted to me; we were just different, though. We had different friends, different interests, and different lifestyles, but we still remained friends. When Troy told me how he felt, I did not know what to do because I had never dated a guy who was not white. I did not know if I was ready to engage in “the battle.” Ultimately, I did not date him. I am not a big relationship person to begin with, but I also knew I did not have the confidence yet to take on that battle. Additionally, I think the odds of me dating a black man or someone of a different ethnicity is likely to happen. When men are attractive to me, they just are, and in time, I think I will be more confident in knowing who I want to date, despite of race.

Zach Wahls highlighted a few different topics in his statement to the Iowa state government on gay marriage that I would like to comment on. First, I am not in the same position as Mr. Wahls in regards to the sex and sexual orientation of my parents. I was raised by a straight, married couple, and I have one older sister and one older brother. Like Mr. Wahls said, my family was very much like his and like every other family. We had our great times, our okay times, and our bad times. We laughed together, and we cried together. We spent our evening meals around the dinner table. We went to church on Sunday, and we spent many Friday nights in the fall at football games. One thing “different” about my family is that my brother did not live with the rest of us. He is technically my half brother, and he lived with his mom an hour away. I have never introduced him as my half brother nor have I ever felt a sense of distance from him in the family sense. I believe Zach Wahls description of family, that is the sense of togetherness -- not a husband, a wife, and children, instead the feelings-- was so compelling in his argument addressed to the Iowa state government on gay marriage.
Mr. Whals’ argument on this topic brings up an even bigger question. How do we define family? What constitutes a family in the United States, and who is to determine what the qualifications are to carry this label? Clearly, defining family becomes quite complicated. To have order in a societal sense, laws and legislation have been passed that determine who is and who is not family. However, it is evident through publicity and social media that perhaps these laws and legislation ought to be reexamined and reconstructed. In the eyes of the law, it would be nearly impossible to permit people to label their family members simply on how they feel about someone (for example, if I said my favorite elementary school teacher is family because she had such a strong impact on my life). It does seem wrongful and possibly illegal though, based on our founding fathers’ words, to not consider gay couples with children as families.
One of my life mentors is a lesbian woman who lives with her partner of over 20 years. They own a home together, and they have two dogs. Both are very successful in their careers, and they are extremely active in their communities. Both women come from good families that support their relationship. There is no doubt in my mind that these two women, with the personalities and lifestyles they have created, could together raise a child or children like Zach Wahls of the state of Iowa.

When I first read the essay by the “Lifer,” I thought answering his or her question would be quite simple. What is freedom? Well, freedom is the ability to be free. It can also be the act of being free… but then I started to wonder. What is free? What does the definition of free mean? Does it refer to not being constrained by some external force? What about internal forces? Or even when there is no price for something? As I continued to attempt to define these two terms, I realized that freedom and free are terms that are not so simple after all.
I feel like I cannot define freedom in a way that is applicable to all individuals that roam the Earth. That being said, I do agree with the Lifer that freedom is something one must define, find, or create. My freedom may not be like that of my sister, my brother, my parents, my grandparents, or any other person I do or do not meet. Also, I agree with the Lifer and admire these words that were part of the essay, “True freedom is not just of the body to move, but of the heart to feel, the mind to think, and the soul to shine.” For me, the most important tier listed is “the mind to think.”
If I could not think on my own, and let us say someone had to hit a button to tell me when to think, and then another button to tell me what to think, and then a final button to tell me to stop thinking, I would have no freedom. To me, how people think is what makes them who they are. People could all wear the same clothes, have the same haircuts, and eat the same foods, and do this all together. However, not one person could truly know the person next to them (wearing the same clothes, with the same haircut, eating the same food) is thinking. Athletes on sports teams can depict this.
Let use a basketball team. Five men walk onto a basketball court wearing their matching uniforms. All five men warm up. All five men shake the opponents’ hands and the officials’ hands. All five men stop when the whistle is blown of the horn sounds. However, what makes the five men different (besides their numbers and physicalities) is their decision-making skills as players. Each man has a playing-style on the basketball court that differs from all the others playing.
Just as the basketball players have different playing-styles because their minds all work differently, human beings on earth have different thinking-styles or ways of life that they themselves determine because of the thing called freedom.

It never occurred to me until I took this course that the poor white society practically is the only group of people that is ridiculed and made fun of without consequence. In my life experiences, people from any social class, of any race, or of any political affiliation tend to look down at this specific group of people. I am from the middle to upper class. I am white or Caucasian. I am not affiliated with one political group or another, yet, but I can say that I have looked down on the poor white society, despite being white. In fact, I constantly tell friends and family that I do not like being home sometimes because of the “white trash” that lives in our surrounding area.
I believe I carry this attitude about poor white people because of how I was treated by some of them when I was growing up during my adolescent years. I have had bad experiences with people in the poor white society, specifically with people who were in my high school graduating class. My parents are well educated, and my family is financially stable. Some of my peers that were in the poor white society would always refer to me as preppy or rich. Sometimes, it was just to be funny. We would laugh about it, but quite honestly, it got so annoying. I felt as though I was always associated with money or status compared to people just thinking I was me. On the other hand, sometimes it was not funny. At times, people did lash out at me about being wealthy, but what they did not realize is “my” wealth was my parents’ wealth; I did absolutely nothing to help them attain it. In fact, I am a hell of an expense.
Perhaps I am a little bitter about helping the poor white society. Referring back to my peers, some of them decided to spend their money on tattoos, breast implants, and cocaine. How can I ever be sympathetic for poor people who do not allocate their money properly? That is not my problem. I think that I am most willing to help families that are like mine or families that were dealt bad, bad cards. For example, when I was a freshman at Penn State, I went on a mission trip to New Orleans to help build homes for Hurricane Katrina victims. Also, I cannot walk past Salvation Army bell-ringers without donating something. For those who are true, hard workers that maybe grew up in poor neighborhoods and had few opportunities to change their situations, I am much more willing to help them, despite their race or ethnicity. I am most likely to help others with good character and like morals of my own than others.

Both free will and determinism have greatly impacted my life as a whole. First, I will explain how free will has affected me, and then, I will discuss how determinism has affected me. When I was younger, my parents told me I was always the kid that initiated things, even if it was trouble. I definitely sang to my own tunes and danced my own dance. As I got older and less naïve of my surroundings, I was faced with a few life tests. During my adolescent years (middle school through high school), my family was faced with a number of unfortunate, uncontrollable, unpredictable events. One of which had a direct impact on my daily life. I grew up with an alcoholic in my immediate family. I am proud to say that this person has since recovered, but it took true dedication. Now, I could have said “Woe is me,” and started down the wrong path at such a vulnerable age, but I didn’t. I wouldn’t let myself. I relied on the saying, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” By the time I graduated high school, I was salutatorian, class president, and captain of the field hockey and basketball teams for both junior and senior years. Looking back, part of me thinks I did all these things to remain busy and have activities to manage that would take my mind off of things. I chose to do them though. No one told me I had to do any of these things; I was driven to better my situation, which I believe then channeled me into getting accepted into Penn State.
Despite some of the events and struggles my family faced over the years, I was able to grow nurturing relationships with my parents and siblings, who are all very successful. I am part of a white, middle to upper-class family, and I know that because of my last name, my parents’ titles, and other social influences, I have had certain successes and experiences. My sister and I both got our first jobs through family friends. Our mom was personal friends with a local business owner, and through their relationship, my sister and I were offered employment summer after summer when we were teenagers. Also, since my parents chose the church we attended, I gained a church network. This led me to my second job that I maintained for four years right before and during college. I did not chose to go to the church I am now a member of; my family started going to it before I ever had any true concept of faith. Determinism has just as equally impacted my life as free will has, even though that is not always something I would like to admit.

I decided to respond to this blog question because it was the highlight of our group discussion this week. Do you describe yourself differently in other countries (than you do when you are in the United States)? Well, my discussion group quickly discovered that the answer to this question was typically yes. Many of my classmates who have traveled abroad said when asked where they are from, they responded “I am from America” (or the United States). It was pretty much agreed upon that when traveling outside of the US, you categorize yourself as an American. However, when in the United States and the same question is asked, people tend to categorize themselves with another foreign ethnicity. Some of my classmates explained they are Jewish, Italian, Irish, Korean, etc. even though they are from and live in the US. Many Americans carry more than one identity; however, through class discussion, we learned that this is strange to people of other nations.
One classmate said he traveled to Spain during his Christmas vacation time. He said he was talking with some Spaniards, and they began to discuss the topics of ancestry and identification. My classmate explained to the Spaniards that in the United States, many people acknowledge who their ancestors are; in fact, Americans identify themselves with another ethnicity or culture based off of their ancestry. To illustrate this, my classmate told the Spaniards that he is half Irish and half Italian, and he identifies himself with these cultures within the United States. The Spaniards laughed, and they thought the idea of this was completely ridiculous. My classmate explained to us that the Spaniards said we are way too “Americanized” to associate ourselves with those ethnicities with any seriousness. Being Irish in America is not the same as being Irish in Ireland. The Spaniards essentially said Americans are Americans (period), and they cannot righteously associate themselves with another culture or ethnic group strictly based off of their ancestry.
I personally have never traveled outside of the United States, so I have never been in the position to answer this question in a foreign country. I can imagine, though, that I would acknowledge myself as an American; there is no reason for me not to identify myself as one. However, within the US, my family does not associate itself with another ethnic group or culture like other families do. I do not tell people I’m Irish or German, etc. In fact, I honestly do not know who my ancestors are; I have never looked into it. My family does not have certain traditions or customs that we follow based on our ancestry. We celebrate American holidays how they have been created in the United States.

When I see the confederate flag, I typically associate it with two different things. First, I associate the confederate flag with the Civil War. The flag makes me think about the South because in history, most are aware this flag represented the South during the war. I am from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which is famous for being the turning point in the war. Gettysburg is a huge tourist town. It is filled with retailers and re-enactors, so I see this flag regularly. I see it in shops and displayed around the national park and associated buildings. I know of different businessmen, businesswomen, professors at Gettysburg College, etc. who have framed pictures of southern leaders displayed in their offices. Simply, the confederate flag is something that is very visible where I am from, and it is used generally for retail and business purposes.
Although I said that I associate the confederate flag with the Civil War, I also associate it with its negative connotation of being a symbol of racism. Being only a few miles north of the Mason-Dixon Line, many individuals in Adams County Pennsylvania use this flag to display their beliefs and opinions. The demographics of Adams County is mostly white, middle to low class (blue collar) families. There is a prevalent number of “red necks” in the area. Some of the people in Adams County display their beliefs by using the confederate flag. I have seen confederate flag tattoos, car decals, and random other objects with this printed on it. I personally know people who use the confederate flag to show those around them that they do not accept all people and that they do want to adopt the old southern lifestyle (as said in class, “The South will rise again”). Clearly, the flag has two completely different uses (based on my own personal experience and upbringing).
The question is, “What does the confederate flag mean to me?” Well, I would like to believe that the confederate flag takes on the duty to represent the South, just like the Nittany lion takes on the duty to represent the Pennsylvania State University. I do not believe it does this though. I say this because I constantly question people’s motives who display the flag. I understand that some individuals, families, towns, etc. take pride in being from the South. It is a very patriotic move to wave the flag one is proud of; however, there has been so much controversy over the confederate flag’s true meaning. Does it represent the free South or the enslaved South? Until this question can be answered, I cannot determine the absolute meaning of the confederate flag. I suppose I think of it as representing the South… which is still in an unannounced battle.