en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/2397180 Comments by AndrewYacina http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/how-has-your-opinion-changed-on-illegal-immigration-119-blog/#IDComment145258040 Before class I did not think too highly of illegal immigration. For one, like the video we watched in class it is illegal. They aren’t here for a reason; they have their own place to live. I understand that everyone is out to make their lives the best they can be but there are certain ways to do that. Illegally immigration is not one of those practical and viable solutions. Although it works for people in my mind it is not good and should be regulated. I do feel sympathy for the people, especially the Mexicans who literally have to run and swim for their lives. But this comes back to free will and determinism. Illegal immigrants are where they are based on free will and determinism. When Sam was talking about Hazleton, I am familiar with that area. I probably live 30 minutes from there and it is a horrible place to be. My grandmother used to live there and now she refuses to go back because of what has happened to that place. The Mexicans or Dominicans came in, I don’t know if they have anything to do with the downfall, but the place went down the drain. That was the only experience I have with illegal immigration so that’s why I feel negatively about it. Also the things I read about make me feel negatively but I also I understand that only negative press makes the news so that is a biased thing for me to read. I have no problem with a multicultural society, just as long as the people are integrated legally. Liked we talked about in class regarding the business aspect of illegal immigration. It is a shame that we have let things get like this where we hire them for less pay and what not and people living here are screwed out of jobs and the immigrants are just cycled through. I have never been personally affected by this type of business but I would not be happy if it happened to me and I would be outraged. The people living in America deserve the jobs in America, not outsiders who shouldn’t even be here. The bottom of everything always ends up being about money. That is a whole different topic of conversation. I would say that maybe I feel more sympathy for illegal immigrants because everyone wants to be the best they can be but at the same time people in America are trying to do the same thing so they should just stay where they are and figure out what they need to do. And if they in fact have to leave their country, do it legally and the right way that way no problems arise. Sat, 23 Apr 2011 00:58:16 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/how-has-your-opinion-changed-on-illegal-immigration-119-blog/#IDComment145258040 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/12/what-are-your-thoughts-on-everything-we-saw-and-heard-in-lecture-about-native-americans-119-blog/#IDComment142701480 I am very glad that Sam decided to touch on this issue. Like he was saying it is an issue that is not thought about by a lot of people but in fact it may be the biggest issue here in the United States. It really made me think about what we really did to these people. And for what reasons? Our native peoples were here long before us and were living fine without the “white” man interference. Then just because the white man had more power they came in and took everything the native people had and left them nothing but some reservations to live on, which are worse off than even the worse poverty situations in the United States and even worse off than Haiti when comparing life expectancy. It really doesn’t make any sense when you think about. This was their land, their water, their resources and now they barely have anything. We killed them off and took everything that was rightfully theirs. What went wrong in our society that led to this madness? I wish I had an answer for how things turned out this way but over time it just happened and now we are left with a terrible situation. The sad things is when Sam asked the question concerning who knew about what was going on on Indian reservations, the majority had no idea what was going on. It is a sad thing that Native Americans have become forgotten history. I know I barely know anything about them. I was never taught in schools or educated about their history or their culture. They are the reason we are able to be here today, yet they get pushed aside and forgotten. I also feel like that any type or reconciliation or revitalization is beyond reach at this point. In the video the one man was talking about how President Bush was spending millions of dollars on the war yet he barely had any money to live off of and no job and basically nothing but a rundown town with a suicide rate that was through the roof. It is a shame. The Native American people so much more yet they don’t receive anything at all. We live in this world where equality is stressed yet we have our Native people living in the worse conditions. Why do we act like we don’t owe them anything? They are no different from everyone else that receives money from the government or other charity organizations. There needs to be something done to help them out. History is done and over with but what we can do is try to show our respect, if there is any, for the Native American People. We can help rebuild their heritage and quit neglecting them as if they are of no importance to the United States of America. Thu, 14 Apr 2011 04:26:37 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/12/what-are-your-thoughts-on-everything-we-saw-and-heard-in-lecture-about-native-americans-119-blog/#IDComment142701480 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/07/do-you-agree-with-foreign-aids-use-of-pictures-of-children-119-blog/#IDComment141142376 When Ernso mentioned that he didn’t approve of the use of children in the photos it surprised me a little bit. I never really thought about it to be honest and now that it was brought to my attention I have formed an opinion. I guess the reasoning behind showing children is to make people feel bad so people give money? They use the kids to guilt trip people into providing funds for people who are in need of relief. I don’t really agree with this tactic because it just doesn’t seem right to me. I mean it makes sense for them to use the kids because people will pay more money but they don’t want to be shown like that. They may not know exactly what is going on but it isn’t right. They are innocent kids and it just hurts the morale. When I see kids on these commercials it makes me feel bad for them but is that a good or bad thing? Why are they the subject? I feel like they should not be the subject because there are other things that can be used to show what situation is happening. Show grown adults or other people but leave the kids out of it. There is no need to guilt trip the audience of commercials into believing they should donate money because they show a hopeless child. Like Ernso said they are not asking for that. What the Haitian people want is mentoring so showing pictures of hopeless children is not what they want so we should ask the Haitian people what they want before we start taking pictures and displaying false beliefs. The Haitian people don’t want us to feel sorry for them at all. They want us to educate them and use our knowledge to make their lives better. So we are sending the wrong message to people by showing people the image of hopeless children. There are better ways to get our point across to people. We can show the destruction or other things instead of them. Using the pictures of these sad children is not going to solve the long term issue. What the Haitian people need is education like I said before. Okay, maybe the money will help in the short run but the long run issue is not solved. It just is not the right thing to do when we put these children with cement and dust all over the faces on photographs and pictures. I wish there was a way we could get the American people and other people to care other than with pictures of less fortunate. It shouldn’t take that to get people to care about such big issues like what is going on in Haiti. Sat, 9 Apr 2011 02:07:53 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/07/do-you-agree-with-foreign-aids-use-of-pictures-of-children-119-blog/#IDComment141142376 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/29/do-you-ever-feel-uncomfortable-around-two-or-more-people-speaking-another-language-119-blog/#IDComment138961179 I must say that this question really would depend on the situation that I am in. When I am walking around campus and I hear people speaking different languages it really doesn’t bother me at all to hear that. The situation would get interesting if the conversations or the things being said around me were being directed towards me. I personally am from a town with 97 percent white people and I rarely ever hear and other languages being spoken besides English. I had language programs in my school but I don’t really remember much from them and the curriculum wasn’t all that great. It wasn’t of much importance to the school to teach us a second language just because of the area I lives in, there really wasn’t a need to know another language. As sad as that sounds that was case. Actually my senior year we started making cuts to the school and the first thing to go was the French department. So that gives a little bit of my background and explains why I may feel uncomfortable around people speaking different languages from the one I know. For obvious reasons I would feel uncomfortable because I would have no idea what they are saying. I would feel helpless and not know how to communicate back to them. Everyone tries to avoid awkward situations and not being able to hold a conversation with someone is one of those awkward moments. I don’t think I feel angry about it but it is frustrating. If the people speaking to me really can’t speak any English then I would somewhat feel bad for them. Why would you live in America and not speak English? If that’s the case then the only people you can communicate with are your own. But then I guess the argument comes back on me. Why don’t I know another language? We do live in the most diverse country in the world so it should be stressed more in our childhood education. I would definitely like to know another language but I feel I never had the right chance to actually learn. Of course in high school I had courses but other countries drill their kids when they are very young and stress the importance of knowing different languages. I guess what comes into play is we, Americans are stubborn. We think everything should be how it always is and that change may not really be the best thing. Also we think that we superior to others, or else that is a common thought, so it really doesn’t matter what other people do because we are Americans and if people don’t like the way we act then screw them. One day sooner or later, like we learned in class, whites will be the minority and when that day comes, things will be very interesting. I personally don’t know how I will feel, but I’m sure since it’s a gradual change it won’t really feel like anything different. Thu, 31 Mar 2011 23:32:42 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/29/do-you-ever-feel-uncomfortable-around-two-or-more-people-speaking-another-language-119-blog/#IDComment138961179 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/24/would-you-date-someone-like-me-119-blog/#IDComment137606283 For me personally this is not a very hard question to answer. I am a white male. From my experiences with Black and Brown people in my life, it is just not something I would do. I grew up in a community with 97% white people and only knew one or two black and brown women in my life. When I came to Penn State I interacted more with black and brown people and I wouldn’t say I am uncomfortable around them or wouldn’t want to talk with them but there is just a sociological difference between black, brown, and white people. The cultures are different. We don’t talk the same, dress the same, or do the same activities. It is something I can’t explain but that is just how it is. I wish I could understand why there are these differences. When I am out on campus I don’t look for attractive black girls, however I see them. It’s just not something that draws my attention. Also since I grew up around mostly white people I never imagined myself being with a black or brown woman. Even though nothing is wrong with being with a person of a different race, I still can’t picture myself being with a different kind of person. Also since where I come from is 97% white It would be interesting to see what people in my community would think. I know that it shouldn’t matter what other people think but the opinions would be coming from my friends and my family. These opinions would matter to me. The other thing that bothers me in today’s society is how other African Americans or Latin Americans view with black or brown women. I feel like if I walked down the street and had a black or brown women on my arm the black men or brown men that walked passed would jeer at me or make a comment. That fact alone in my mind is something that would stop me from pursuing a woman of color. I also feel that even know women of color can say they are open to date any men the percent of black women dating a white man or a Latina dating a white man is very low to them dating people of their own color. I feel like they feel the same way that I do they stay with people of their color. Even though the United States is a desegregated nation, you see the black and the Asians and the Latin Americans all walking around together because they feel comfortable with people of their own color. So, I would like to say I would like to say I would date other races; it is true for both sides because they stay with people of their color and we stay with people of our color. Roll Tide. Sat, 26 Mar 2011 01:00:43 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/24/would-you-date-someone-like-me-119-blog/#IDComment137606283 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/18/what-do-you-think-of-the-diversity-at-penn-state-119-blog/#IDComment135918519 The diversity at Penn State is something that I have never seen before in my life. I grew up in a town of probably 98 percent white people. I had 1 black friend, who was adopted and lived with white parents. I didn’t have Asian friends and probably only knew of one or two. I did not know any Latinos or Hispanics. There might have been one “Arab” or Middle Eastern person that I knew. All the people I hung out with were white, my teachers were white, my neighbors were white, and basically everyone I associated with was white. Coming to Penn State I knew about the diversity and different races and ethnicities but did not know how I would react when faced with them face to face in living conditions. I can’t say I was intimidated at all and I didn’t really think about it prior to arriving on campus. My parents never raised me to discriminate or think differently about anyone so I had an open mind. I am an accepting and understanding person so I was not worried. When I arrived here I was faced with about everything I didn’t face back home. I was put into a situation with black, brown and white people. We were all from different backgrounds, cultures, and places. But in the end we are all people. Of course I had the usual emotions about meeting new people but for me it really wasn’t any differences meeting different and new people. As a matter of fact it was more interesting to me to interact and talk with people who I knew nothing about. Instead of not even bothering I reached out and learned about people. I feel like I am a better person today because I do feel like I see things from a different angle. I’m not saying I know everything or have met all the different kind of people but I still feel good about reaching out and experiencing different people. I am definitely glad I left home and got away from the 98 percent white population. I didn’t know what I was missing out on but now I know that people from all walks of life are great people. Now I live with two white kids, a black, and a brown person. We all get along and it is no different from when I hang with my people back home. Diversity is a good thing that isn’t just about race like we discussed in class. I have been around mentally retarded and handicapped individuals and I love interacting with them as well and those experiences are very rewarding. Nothing will humble you more than that. Meeting new people puts different perspectives on life, which is what keeps things exciting and brand new. Fri, 18 Mar 2011 21:57:39 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/18/what-do-you-think-of-the-diversity-at-penn-state-119-blog/#IDComment135918519 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/02/how-can-we-save-our-scarce-resources-119-blog/#IDComment134364879 It is not okay that we live in a society where people can’t eat enough food to survive. I don’t understand how things got to be this way. We have people living in America who are throwing out food on a daily basis into the trash can like it doesn’t mean anything. Then while they are doing that some kid in a third world country is dying of starvation. How does make even the least bit of sense? We need to take action now as an entire world as this is a problem that has been going on for way too long. I know that there are organizations out there that cater to this need. So we as individuals can give food to these organizations that then somehow transport it to the people in need of it. On a global scale I am not sure how we can fix it. As we have such a large separation on how much money people make it makes it impossible for people to buy the same things as people who have money. The system we have just isn’t working. If the poor people can afford food, it sure as heck isn’t enough or it’s not even nutritionally sufficient. Poor people just end up being poor and they are left in the dust with nothing to turn to but a bad life in poverty. We have such a large amount of people living in our world who survive on less than one dollar per day. What are you supposed to buy with one single dollar? It upsets me to know that I have a fridge full of food and I can eat anytime I want and there are people who eat one meal a day. Like Sam was saying the people in Haiti each one meal a day, a bowl of white rice. There is no way to get all of your calories or vitamins from that one single serving of rice. A balanced diet is needed to sustain proper growth and development. Fruits, vegetables, fats and all those good things are needed to live a healthy life and people aren’t even given a choice because they can’t even afford to eat the right foods. There needs to be a global initiative to help stop world hunger because from what I see it is getting out of control and we have people dying each and every day from something that can be prevented. We all need to see what we can do to help out this issue before it gets too late and we really have a huge problem where the majority of us are starving. It will have to start with the people in power. Sat, 12 Mar 2011 04:59:13 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/02/how-can-we-save-our-scarce-resources-119-blog/#IDComment134364879 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/24/is-it-selfish-for-people-in-poverty-to-have-more-kids-because-of-their-lower-income-119-blog/#IDComment130474645 After today’s lecture and seeing this question posted on here I got to thinking about the concept of family size with low income families. I feel like it can be addressed from a few different angles. First of all, I don’t know what causes people with low incomes to have a lot of children. It really doesn’t make sense to why you would have several children if you don’t even have money to support yourself in the first place. Besides maybe having too much time on your hands that you decide to have more kids or whatever the case may be I really don’t understand the motives. But since I can’t explain that rationality I do think that it is selfish in a way to have several children when your income is low. The children then are brought up in a tough environment. The parents don’t have money to provide resources and materials to provide a proper upbringing. Diapers, formula, food, toys, medical care, daycare, and so many other things are needed to successfully bring up a child. I can’t exactly relate to this because I don’t have a personal experience to dig information from but I can just imagine that without money the upbringing would be different from the upbringing of a child that is with a family with money to spend on kids. Although growing up in a tough environment may hinder a child’s ability to be successful in whatever way that may be, a child’s difficult upbringing may end up bringing out the best in that person. This really all comes back to free will and determinism. Growing up in a certain environment can’t be controlled and what family you are born into can’t be controlled either but that’s where free will comes into play. There are always choices that can be made that can make or break a person. Although being in a difficult situation may make decisions harder to make or place more of an opportunity cost on that decision but nevertheless decisions are made by every human being. To say whether or not it is selfish to have several kids if you are poor really is a tough question to answer. It may make things extremely difficult for a child like we saw in the video from class but from hearing Sam talk in class I feel like there is a way to make it out. It may be easy for me to say these things because I haven’t been faced with situations like this but if someone has a strong enough will they can make a better life for themselves. Determinism and free will really are interesting concepts and can be applied to so many different situations and this is just another example. Fri, 25 Feb 2011 02:19:06 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/24/is-it-selfish-for-people-in-poverty-to-have-more-kids-because-of-their-lower-income-119-blog/#IDComment130474645 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/17/how-do-you-feel-about-the-way-people-live-in-america-compared-to-other-places-around-the-world-119-blog/#IDComment128731609 I must say that I have seen videos and have read stories similar to what we watched in class today. When I see and read about people who have to live in horrible conditions, work for no pay, aren’t able to drink clean water, or even learning about parents who don’t have enough money to feed themselves or their kids, to name just a few, it blows my mind every time. What kind of system do we have in place that allows people to die of starvation yet we have people who die of being too fat. We have people in the US who could use hundred dollar bills for toilet paper yet we have people who will never see one hundred dollars. It just doesn’t make sense to me. We all live on the same planet, are born the same way yet we all live in different worlds. In the United States the majority of us take things for granted. We really don’t know how good we have it. I personally have never been anywhere where there has been extreme poverty so I really don’t know what it is like. More than anything I would really like to go to really see firsthand, what it is like. To be honest, I have no idea how things got like this in our world nor do I even know how we could fix any of the problems we have. I feel like if the people we have in “power” can change the ideology of a nation or country then gradual change can take place. But until the people in “power” make these issues aware to us and come up with strategies or plans to help solve these issues nothing will be changed. And it won’t take just a country here or a country there, it would have to take some sort of agreement amongst nations to implement a strategy which involves teamwork. But in reality this won’t happen. Money drives everything and what comes along with money is power, its human nature to want power. Everybody wants to be king of the mountain like Sam says. We also can never get people (in large numbers like millions or billions) to view/think about issues in the same way. I have a tough time understanding the fact that I am able to live my life how I want it and there are people in this world who are unable to do that. I can eat what I want, when I want, I can drink what I want, when I want and I have money to spend. But there is really nothing I can do to fix it because it was the system I was born into. Like Sam said, what we can do is do it one by one. Help a person here, help a person there. Realistically there is only so much we can do; we won’t be able to help everyone. It is unfortunate we have such a drastic difference of quality of life around the world but it’s just the way things are. People will be on top and people will be on the bottom. Does it really have to be like that or we just tell ourselves that to make ourselves happy with the situation? Fri, 18 Feb 2011 04:18:26 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/17/how-do-you-feel-about-the-way-people-live-in-america-compared-to-other-places-around-the-world-119-blog/#IDComment128731609 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/08/how-have-the-choices-youve-made-and-determinism-affected-your-life-119-blog/#IDComment127053185 I think this is a very good question for each one of us in SOC 119 to think about, analyze, and answer. Free will and determinism are not always the two things that cross my mind throughout the day yet they both affect every aspect of my life. As Sam has stated, there is an equal balance between the two and we can draw from both to analyze certain aspects of our lives. I agree with Sam that both free will and determinism equally have affected my life. Looking back on things, I can definitely make sense of a lot of things that have happened and see how those happenings have shaped who I am today. I definitely feel that I was born into an environment that was going to prepare me for a successful life. Even though neither of my parents attended college they were able to graduate from vocational school with a specific skill that they used to land a job right after graduation. They made good money, had a nice house and were able to support a family. When I was born, I already had an older brother to teach me the ropes. These things in my life are out of my control and would be drawn from the concept of determinism. The location of my town is another thing. I didn’t grow up in a center city home; I grew up in central Pennsylvania in a middle class neighborhood in a town of 12,000 people with 95 percent white people. This was all out of my control though and I’m thankful for the environment I was placed in. Now as I grew older I still had the family and the same environment around me to influence me without me even realizing it. Of course I went though good schooling and was never in trouble because we didn’t really have any crime in my town. I was able to have freedoms and live my life around positive people. But all during this time throughout elementary, middle, and high school I still faced numerous decisions on a daily basis that also shaped my life. I chose to do my homework, I chose to hang out with the good crowd, I chose to play sports, I chose to eat certain foods, and I chose to make certain relationships with people. There are so many free will decisions I made while in the environment surrounding me so there was always a balance between free will and determinism no matter what the situation. It is definitely weird to think about now and look back to see where determinism came into play and where free will was used in certain situations. I’m glad this question was posted because it gave me a chance to look into things from a sociological perspective. Thu, 10 Feb 2011 05:00:37 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/08/how-have-the-choices-youve-made-and-determinism-affected-your-life-119-blog/#IDComment127053185 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/03/why-dont-we-live-like-the-monkeys-119-blog/#IDComment125964977 The video Sam showed at the end of class was very interesting to me and it made me think about a lot of things in a different sense. To me it was a way for us people as humans to take a step back and view the way we do things and the way we act. What have we done? What are we currently doing? The video had an interesting perspective because it was as if an alien or someone from a different planet was watching us and talked about the things that they saw us doing. It said that we are all monkeys yet we try to separate ourselves from one another. That is very true because we have done that by “grouping” ourselves into racial categories which don’t make sense at all. The reason why we can’t group everyone into a category is because “WE ARE ALL MONKEYS”. It is the truth. So the idea of us thinking about ourselves or just live for the sake of living is a complex issue. Because no matter how you think about it you will always get pros and cons. If we didn’t think for ourselves and just lived for the sake of living then obviously things would be a lot less complex because the reason we react to and do things is because we care so much about our own well being as humans. If we put aside our selfishness and just lived for the sake of living then I feel like we wouldn’t have any expectations for anything, therefore a much simpler life. It is too complex to really even talk about. Even though obviously we have done so much good with the abilities we have or else we wouldn’t have been able to sustain ourselves for so long but maybe things would have been different if we all just did live for the sake of living. Like would the human race be in a better condition at this point in time if had always lived just for the sake of living? With the ability to think for ourselves we may shy away from the instincts that really matter, not saying that the majority of the time we don’t use those instincts in our current world and current mindset. The main thing for me is having complete equality amongst human beings. I don’t understand how we can have people living in such poor conditions when we have people living in unbelievably great conditions where they never have had to worry about the things some people do. I feel like if we were living just for the sake of living we would have such a drastic difference in equality. We as a human race have lost a grip on a lot of issues and we live in a corrupt world of greed, violence and inequality but there really is no explanation and no way of having a global change, unfortunately. Harsh reality we live in. Fri, 4 Feb 2011 18:38:55 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/03/why-dont-we-live-like-the-monkeys-119-blog/#IDComment125964977 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/26/why-do-we-associate-with-people-of-the-same-race-and-ethnicity-as-ourselves-119-blog/#IDComment124024315 I feel like people associate with people of their own race or ethnic background because it is what makes them comfortable and being comfortable is part of human nature. We are all guilty of this as human beings but it is okay. Most people are not familiar with other ethnic groups and may not know how to act around them or what to say. It just takes some time to feel out other ethnic groups and see how they may act, but in reality we all pretty much act the same way so there was really no reason to be skeptical from the start. We all just have these preconceived notions about different ethnic groups that may deter interaction. I know where I am from I never had a lot of experience with other ethnic groups because I grew up in a predominately white community and I had one black friend and he was one of two or three black kids in my high school. Other than a couple black kids there were only a few others ethnic groups or races represented. Maybe a couple Asians and a few Latinos made up the population at my high school. So like I said I always hung out with white kids when I was at home and that carried through when I came to college, but the good thing is about college is that it mixes you up freshman year and you end up with people of ethnic backgrounds that you have never encountered. That is what makes PSU so great, because you get to experience new people that you never would have met before. Freshman year I ended up being friends with “Asians”, “African Americans”, “Latinos”, “Middle Easterners” and others. The bottom line is that the kids I met and began to hang out with were not the usual types of kids I hang around with in the past. I enjoyed this because it opened up my eyes to different things and I was able to view the world from different perspectives. It is dumb to think that you only belong to a certain group just because of your skin color. Now that I think back on things and wonder why I may have been shy or hesitant to interact with different races or ethnic backgrounds, it just doesn’t make any sense because WE ARE ALL PEOPLE LIVING ON EARTH. We all share the same resources, put our clothes on the same way, eat mostly the same food, and do the same things but for some reason people tend to stay within their comfort zones. I encourage everyone out there to go beyond your comfort zone and reach out to people of different race or ethnic backgrounds. It is a rewarding experience to know that you can interact and feel comfortable about any person you see. We are all going to die anyway so why does it matter what color skin you have. Thu, 27 Jan 2011 02:47:59 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/26/why-do-we-associate-with-people-of-the-same-race-and-ethnicity-as-ourselves-119-blog/#IDComment124024315 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/14/why-dont-we-know/#IDComment122365188 This response video brings up a very good point and surfaces an enormous issue that we are facing very heavily today. It is sad to know that the clothes we wear and sneakers we walk in are causing so many issues around the world yet we don’t stop consuming these products. We live in a fantasy world here in America where we think about certain issues like sweatshops overseas making our clothing and goods but then we fill our minds with things that we think are more important like TV shows, sports, or any other activities that people do on a regular basis. The situation of poverty is so extreme that I feel we can’t even fathom what is actually going on unless we actually see it first hand in person. I feel that the majority of Americans aren’t educated on topics concerning where we get our products from. We are too worried about other irrelevant topics of discussion that literally have no sense being talked about because in the grand scheme of life nothing that is talked about matters. What matters is that everyone in this world should be treated equally and that it shouldn’t matter where people live or what people look like we are on this earth together and I feel like mostly everyone is oblivious to the big picture of life so we undermine these important issues because they may seem “too real to be true.” We really have dug ourselves into a whole on earth with the way we let money rule over everything. That is what usually everything comes down to. There wouldn’t be 10 year old kids working in sweatshops if it wasn’t for how cheap people had to pay them to make their product. It sad to think that we would put people through hell, working there lives away just so they could profit from their expenses in the long run by making money. Money and selfishness is what rules out world and somehow it got that way. People need to be educated early in their lives about what is happening if we plan on making any changes. The way the world is now we aren’t going to stop importing our goods from overseas and consuming. It will take a global educated movement to correct this and points of equality and what is right will have to be ingrained in people’s minds. The view of the big picture of life also needs to resurface. People don’t deserve to suffer at the expense of bettering other people’s lives, there shouldn’t be a place for that in our world but until the way we educate is changed then no one will know what is going on and how to fix it. Wed, 19 Jan 2011 21:17:54 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/14/why-dont-we-know/#IDComment122365188 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-begins-with-letter-y/#IDComment120788300 Hey, this is my post. SOC 119 Tue, 11 Jan 2011 23:25:45 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-begins-with-letter-y/#IDComment120788300