A little story about a jail. My senior year of high school I took a criminal justice course and learned a lot about the criminal justice system. My teacher was a young guy who wanted his students to stay away from jail, so he decided to take us on a field trip. We went to the Suffolk County Riverhead Maximum Security Jail in New York. I had no idea what to expect nor did I think it could be so bad. When we arrived there, we were patted down, went through metal detectors and everything to violate a person’s being. I even had to take out my nose piercing. In this jail, the men and women were on separate floors. The women were far worse and more aggressive than the men. I have never felt so uncomfortable and scared in my whole life. This one day in my 21 years of living, will never leave my mind and without fail, taught me to do the right thing.

This letter almost brought me to tears. I understand this guy is a murderer, but that doesn’t necessarily make him a bad person all around. He seemed to have compassion for other people, and maybe he finally realized that this is his life and he needs to make the best of it. As much as he sounds sincere and regretful of his doing, I do not think letting him free would be safe for other people. Who is to say he will not murder again? You can never be too sure about prisoners. I wonder if he really is sincere or if he is just trying to stay alive and not get into any trouble. I think that if Sam is able to have a relationship with this man, he means well and truly is sorry.

I remember the class on the Thursday after the earthquake in Haiti when Sam asked us to all donate some money if we wanted to or if we could. I looked at my friend next to me and I know this sounds so horrible and naïve, but I asked her what it was for. She looked at me with such disbelief that I had no idea about what happened in Haiti. I do not read or watch the news nearly enough so I thought to myself, how would I know? But I realized that I need to start looking into world issues more often.

I feel that many people do what they can to help in situations like Haiti, but how can a person stop living their life because of it? I did donate money to foundations to help Haiti but I did not stop living my life because something bad happened somewhere else in the world. My intentions are not to ignore it and not disregard it, but I am, as most other Americans are, consumed in their lives and do not have enough time to recognize the severity of these issues.

I think the most blatant difference for example between Sam and I would be that he knew people in Haiti so it hit him harder than it hit me. I thought it was tragic and was very sad for all the people’s losses, but I did not have any personal relations or ties with anyone there.

The telethons and the fundraisers are all amazing ways to help Haiti begin to recover and to release awareness but these things will never fully fix all the damage that was done. Even though the earthquake happened months ago, I still think people recognize it and care about it and are willing to continue to help.

In my opinion, if the tragedy hit closer to home, I would be more inclined to think about it and help out with it every day. I know that all disasters are sad and unfortunate, but when it comes to one that I can’t personally help or feel, my mind wanders away from it more often than not.

As for the hurricane in New Orleans, I was able to understand that more than Haiti because it was closer to home and I knew people in that location at that very unfortunate time. People that lost loved ones in the hurricane and in the earthquake will forever be marked by those terrible times. I do not think that each of those two places will ever be able to be like what they used to be, as sad as that is to say. No matter the number of people that died, whether it was 10 or 300,000, I still feel the sadness that came along with the tragedy.

What makes me laugh is that I have not missed a class this semester and yesterday was the day I was going to skip but then decided not to, and to my own surprise, I am very happy to say that I attended this class on Christian Invaders. I think the way Sam went about portraying what is going on with these people was perfect. He has so much enthusiasm and gave us so much meaning about what is really happening in the war in Iraq. Whether or not I am for or against war doesn’t change the fact that it is happening and people are dying.

I think that Sam really knows about what is going on with these people and the war that his lecture was extremely believable. It really made me think about who we as Americans are as well as putting us in the shoes of the Muslim or Arab college students.

Religion is definitely a personal matter and some people respect religion more than others, but in this case of Christian Invaders, there is no way around talking about it.

In reference to the FAO Schwartz quote, it made me really think about how sick and twisted our world is. Comparing aspects of the war to kids in a toy store, how messed up is that? I am not going to sit here and lie and say I pay so much attention to the news and the world and everything that is going on with us, but I do know that in order to make the world a more peaceful place, all the hatred needs to die down.

I am not Christian so I do not know much about the religion, but I do not think that Sam intended to insult them or make them look like the bad guys. I just think he was saying it how it is which made it into a big deal.

I now wonder if the only point of our war is for the control of oil. Do the Muslim or Arab people think that if they terrorize our country we will stop taking their oil? Maybe I am naïve and do not know enough about the war and I only see the terrorism in America. Since I am not on the other side and do not live in Iraq or other countries that America is bombing, I do not understand the point of terrorism.

I do not have any bad words to say about Christians because I do not think religion usually makes a person who they are but this topic made me think twice about the mentality of some Christians. Why make war when realistically it can be avoided? I never think that wars will come to an end and one day the world is just going to disappear.

What makes me laugh is that I have not missed a class this semester and yesterday was the day I was going to skip but then decided not to, and to my own surprise, I am very happy to say that I attended this class on Christian Invaders. I think the way Sam went about portraying what is going on with these people was perfect. He has so much enthusiasm and gave us so much meaning about what is really happening in the war in Iraq. Whether or not I am for or against war doesn’t change the fact that it is happening and people are dying.

I think that Sam really knows about what is going on with these people and the war that his lecture was extremely believable. It really made me think about who we as Americans are as well as putting us in the shoes of the Muslim or Arab college students.

Religion is definitely a personal matter and some people respect religion more than others, but in this case of Christian Invaders, there is no way around talking about it.

In reference to the FAO Schwartz quote, it made me really think about how sick and twisted our world is. Comparing aspects of the war to kids in a toy store, how messed up is that? I am not going to sit here and lie and say I pay so much attention to the news and the world and everything that is going on with us, but I do know that in order to make the world a more peaceful place, all the hatred needs to die down.

I am not Christian so I do not know much about the religion, but I do not think that Sam intended to insult them or make them look like the bad guys. I just think he was saying it how it is which made it into a big deal.

I now wonder if the only point of our war is for the control of oil. Do the Muslim or Arab people think that if they terrorize our country we will stop taking their oil? Maybe I am naïve and do not know enough about the war and I only see the terrorism in America. Since I am not on the other side and do not live in Iraq or other countries that America is bombing, I do not understand the point of terrorism.

I do not have any bad words to say about Christians because I do not think religion usually makes a person who they are but this topic made me think twice about the mentality of some Christians. Why make war when realistically it can be avoided? I never think that wars will come to an end and one day the world is just going to disappear.

Honestly, what is the point of a suicide bombing? How do people get it into their heads that suicide bombing is a good and smart idea? This woman claimed to be avenging her husband’s death but her killing herself does not bring him back. Maybe she wanted to die to be with him. As much as I love my family and would love to get back at whatever or whoever hurt them, I do not think I would want to kill myself. I really can not say for sure though because fortunately I have never been in that type of situation. In my opinion, suicide and bombing are two of the most disgusting things in the world.

I agree with Meghan. How do people in their right minds think to make games like this one? Do they think it is comical or entertaining? Here in America, people have the freedom of speech and are allowed to say what they please, but a game like this one should be something banned from that freedom. Maybe because I am a woman that I see this game as intolerable, but the fact that people buy this game because they think it is ‘fun’ just boggles my mind. How could something like this be constituted as ‘fun’? Do women’s rights mean nothing anymore? Enough is enough.

On changing my opinion based on what Sam says, I can tell you that I definitely do not. I respect what Sam has to say and I believe he is knowledgeable on the subject matter, but the way he portrays himself makes me not want to listen to many of the things he says. Sam gives us a substantial amount of statistics, but I feel as if anyone can do that. The subject matter of this class has the potential to be very interesting but I wish he chose one topic and went into detail about it rather than go on tangents and make the class about him.

What does it actually mean to win? Why are we even in competition with one another? I think race is always going to be an issue in this world but maybe it will lighten up over the next few years. I agree that if people are willing to openly talk about race that some of the ongoing issues can be resolved. I don’t even think that there can be an end result because no one will ever see eye to eye, especially different races. The only way to make the world a less racial place is to recognize the issues at hand and work on taking them away.

How can the government just get rid of welfare? Some people can not live with out it. I don’t really see how it affects people not on welfare, so maybe I am missing an important point. I think there would be riots and chaos in the world if welfare was eliminated. There are probably a similar number of poor people as rich people in the world so if welfare is eliminated does that mean half of the world will disappear? People with no job or no education would struggle to get by in the world if they didn’t have welfare to help support them. I do not think welfare is anything but a benefit.