I think that we can be very selfish in world affairs at times because they do not directly affect us, and I do not think that this is wrong or right. We might not really pay attention to it because we might not care or we just do not want to get emotionally attached to anything. Now if a family member or a friend were to be involved in a terrorist attack or major natural disaster, then we would get involved. We just have to keep living, point blank period. If a family member died, you mourn for a a couple weeks, but then you have to move on because if we all acted as if the world were over every time somebody passed away, a lot of things would not get done. All we can do as Americans is be supportive of those who it is directly affecting and send money.

We are ALL racists in our own way. I think everybody thinks that only White people can be racist, but that is a misconception. I have overheard many conversations that if they had came out of a White person's mouth, there would be a riot, but since a person of color said it, it is alright because they are "sticking it to the White man". I think it is true that Americans have a better chance in making a significant change because of all the opportunities and abundant resources we posses. This is not racist to me, we are only taking advantage of the opportunities bestowed upon us!

When I finished reading this letter from the man in prison for life, it really made me think about how we take life for granted. These men are never going to get out of jail, but they are making the best out of their situation. They are taking advantage of the little things in life that we tend to overlook. We all watch television and movies and expect prisoners to be terrible people who do not deserve to walk this Earth, but that is not the case at all. The way they portray prison in movies and on television is terrible exaggeration of how it really goes down. I know many people who have gone to prison and a lot of that stuff that we are fed simply isn’t true. Don’t get me wrong, some of it is, but not a lot. They are isolated for a long time by themselves, and it gives them a lot of time to think and ponder about their life. It can change a person and really make you evaluate and re-evaluate what you did in life in the past, what you are doing now, and your plans for the future.

While I was reading the letter, it seemed like this guy was really in touch with his emotional self. He is in touch with this and he is in prison, and there are millions of people on the outside who are not in touch with this side of their self, and it is sad. They are able to give up their dislike or hatred for another prison to console another, while we have beef with our next door neighbor over nothing at all. I have no idea what I would do if some bad news got back to me from home and I could not do anything about it, or a natural disaster happened and there was no way to get in touch with anybody but word of mouth or the news. I personally hate the feeling of being helpless, so I know I would be going through it.

I tried to place myself in this guy’s shoes, and it made me think about having to wake up every day for the rest of my life inside a prison cell. The simple things we take for granted like going to the bathroom, taking a shower, walking down the street, or going to the store is out of the equation. We complain about things that these guys would kill (no pun intended) to complain about. Of course these guys did some terrible things and that is why they are in there, but I think Pennsylvania should change the laws so that reformed prisoners can get parole, and they can enjoy life on the outside.

This really opened my eyes because I NEVER thought about or looked at it in this perspective. I would hear about 20 people being killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan one day on TV, or read about 12 people who were gunned down in the street in Iraq in the newspaper, and say to myself "Damn...those terrorists are CRAZY!". You damn right if another country came to the United States and started regulating I would join the resistance! Why wouldn't I? And when you take a step back and really think about it and put yourself in their shoes, you totally understand just like Sam said. And now I get it.

This is just sad and it makes me angry that we still are continuing with our violent ways all over the world. It is like we are throwing together adversaries, and then doing whatever to them just because they "might" or "could" pose a threat to the US. We will accuse them for all the things that have been going wrong, and that the only way to contain or stop these "evil terrorists" is with violence and senseless murders of innocent civilians. How somebody is supposed to react when one or maybe even a few of their loved ones are killed by the Military? And they were innocent on top of that? I would feel a need for revenge, just like the next person. I do not even mean revenge via suicide bombing, I mean revenge by protesting or some other way to get your voice heard. In no way, shape, or form is suicide bombing the way to go to get back at somebody, but that is the route they chose. It is just hard to decipher an actual terrorist and somebody who is out for justice, because we are not over there seeing all this. We just see what they feed us on the news. In America, we do not deal with terrorism on a daily basis, so a lot of what goes on, we simply would not understand. News media outlets could tell us ANYTHING, and we will believe it because we do not have any other way to look at it. We just keep on creating terrorists so that we can put 700 billion into our military. And for people to question our government, you are suddenly a "conspiracy theorist" or a "terrorist sympathizer" when that is not the case at all. There is A LOT of wrongdoing going on and people just want to know what is going on. While we think by shooting and killing and getting rid of anybody who looks or thinks differently than we do is going to help us and reduce our enemies, it is only INCREASING or enemies by the people who were directly or indirectly involved with that innocent bystander who was killed for no apparent reason. We need to just leave certain places alone and let them handle their business! What would happen if some country didn't like the way President Barack Obama was running the country and decided to come over and regulate? There would be an uproar! I do not know about you, but if my mother and sister were killed senselessly, no amount of money or sheep would subside my anger.....

I think this is a great idea. BUT, I feel like the main language is English. Everybody should know English all over the world since The United States is the most powerful country in the world. Of course you should know other languages for different purposes, but English is the benchmark for effective language I believe. In my high school, I was enrolled in Spanish for a semester and that was it. I do not know if that was long enough for me to effectively learn the language, but it helped me a little. My high school did not offer Chinese as a course, but maybe it will in the future.

This is a great question that really made me think. I feel like Sam Richards has changed my opinion on a lot of things regarding race relations. A lot of stuff I already knew about, but he shed some light on a lot of other things I was not familiar with. He made me realize that you should have an open mind in terms of meeting new people from cultures different from yours because you could learn a lot from them about life. He also made me take into question some of the beliefs I had already had in my life. Overall, this class has just made me realize you can feel differently about different topics, there is nothing wrong with that!

As a huge fan of video games, I like to keep an open mind pertaining to all of them. There are many genres ranging from action, action-adventure, life simulation, strategy, and even sports. But this certain game is very perplexing to me. Why would you want to go around and rape females, real or simulated? I guess the idea to some sick person could turn them on, but for an actual video game to be made and distributed is insane. Japanese products are known to be over the top and to push stuff to the limit, but this is just way too much. How could you play this game and then say you love your mother or sister or aunt or grandmother? It is one thing to have a ”violent” video game, but it a completely different thing to make a whole entire video game devoted to seeking out females and savagely raping them.

I also have another set of feelings toward this game. I know when people hear about this they can get angry and will feel offended, but wasn't it there the same kind of uproar about the Grand Theft Auto video games series a few years ago? In that game you could kill innocent civilians, you could shoot down cops, and you could even have sex with prostitutes and then kill them to get your money back. Is this not on the same level as the Japanese video game? That depends on who is playing the game I would say. I honestly LOVED the GTA series because whenever I got mad or in a bad mood or just needed to let off some steam, I could play GTA: San Andreas and relieve my frustrations by getting into a car, driving onto the sidewalk, and run people over! Or putting in a cheat code and run around robbing stores and people! And then go on a high speed chase and kill dozens of cops and FBI agents! And it felt DAMN good! I knew I would never actually do this in real life because of the obvious consequences, but to simulate doing all this bad stuff was fun to me, and about everybody else who bought a copy. As of 2010, 120 Million copies have been sold worldwide, so I am guessing many people felt the same way I felt about it.
I am glad to hear that Rapelay has been taken off the market, not only because of its content, but because of its mediocre design. I feel like the media has played a HUGE part in this game because it was off the market for a long time until some news media outlets brought it up and started ranting about it. And of course people all over the world started to inquire and look for illegal replicas of the game. It is like when your parents told you not do something or banned you from doing something, making you ant do it even more LOL.

Times have dramatically changed since the word Negro was a popular term for Black people. They HAVE to change in order for our world and society to evolve. It's just the way of life. The census is a great way to gauge where we are at in terms of race and population, but i feel like we have let the Census control HOW we think about these things, and in a way it kind of holds us back in moving forward with positive progress. This is America, the GREATEST country on the planet, and it is a very diverse nation, as it should be. We have MANY ethnic groups and mixed races, how are they supposed to identify which race they are? They cannot tell which race is the majority! We have to start getting rid of these generalizations or else we will still be stuck in the year 2000.

The word Negro is still taboo in a way because it sound like the word Nigger. I think it is a word that will disappear in time like most old words like that. People will just stop saying it LOL. We come up with new words for people, places and things everyday, so it does not really bother me. There are so many different words to describe stuff, who knows what will happen next? But I like that changes are being made for the better so that we can advance as a planet!

Due Feb. 5th

I agree with you because this should not even go down at all! The fans should not be allowed to throw items on to the field in the first place anyway because a player could get struck with it and could get seriously injured or hurt. The fans should have been promptly tossed from the stadium. And then the coach saying that racial comment should have been fined WAY more than he was. It should have been a REALLY expensive fine so any other person or coach who even thought about saying something like that would have thought twice about it. This video is eye-opening because it shows how far along America has came in terms of dealing with racism and how far we still have to go.

Jan 27th this was due.