en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/2403743 Comments by byebuddy http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/what-americans-fear/#IDComment145252272 That could have been them or someone in their family. A close friend perhaps. Second, by not showing any victims of countries we may not specifically be fans of, such as Asian or Middle Eastern people, we only feel that we are the targeted victims. Economically we do not get along with China so we tend to view them as the “bad guy.” If we were to see Asians as victims, not that we would not feel sorry for their deaths, but we would feel that the attacks were more wide spread and on the world. Because they omitted such images, we feel that we are at the center of all the attacks. Lastly, they do not show any victims that could resemble a Middle Eastern or Muslim. Really? They were able to blow up buildings and trains and what not but avoid hurting any Muslim and Middle Easterners? I don’t think that was the case. They clearly wanted to omit such images in order to make it seem that the attacks came from all Muslims and not just a terrorist group. Sat, 23 Apr 2011 00:24:08 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/what-americans-fear/#IDComment145252272 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/what-americans-fear/#IDComment145252244 with or share any of the beliefs of Jahid and any other terrorist groups. This group chose to show very graphic images from bombings and wars. I do believe that the public deserves to know the true aftermath of such events, but pictures can be taken in ways that purposefully shift the viewer’s opinion of what occurred. The destruction was clearly real and very detrimental in most of the events, but by adding pictures of victims and showing that most of the victims were white and a few black tells me two things. First, the maker of the video is specifically trying to sway black and white American’s opinions of Muslims and Arabs. When the viewer sees someone of their own race they are more likely to be able to personally connect with the victim. Sat, 23 Apr 2011 00:23:58 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/what-americans-fear/#IDComment145252244 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/what-americans-fear/#IDComment145252225 I think that this video is absolutely and without a doubt a form of propaganda and provides an extremely racist take on Muslims. The makers of the video clearly had no empathy for Muslims and painted them all as terrorists. They used special effects in order to intimidate the viewers and sway their opinions and viewpoints of the Muslim population. While it may be true all of the attacks made by Jahid, I do not actually know if all of the facts line up but I will assume the maker of the video did his research, the connections that the video makes between Muslims and Jahid are unfair. Sat, 23 Apr 2011 00:23:49 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/19/what-americans-fear/#IDComment145252225 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143007392 If time were taken to truly get to know people before passing judgment on them, no labels would exist. No two people are exactly the same, so general labels can’t be applied correctly to large groups of people. I’m happy to see J.V.G. found another girl in his class that agreed with his views and that he was able to speak with. I agree with both of them and think that things should speak for themselves. Fri, 15 Apr 2011 04:02:43 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143007392 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143007366 The labeling that Professor Pumpa speaks about is seen everywhere. Labels are put on people all the time. It’s possible to label someone simply based on gender or color. These uncontrollable aspects of our appearance can define us so strongly and commonly that we sometimes fail to see their effects. We may even miss our own actions because of our comfort with such labels and react to things subconsciously. It only seems reasonable for someone to flinch or cringe when they hear that they will be surrounded with criminals and have to interact with them. The horrors that immediately rush to mind, wondering what these terrible people must have done. But these labels are rarely correct or deserved. If people took the time to actually get to know those that they are labeling, incorrect labeling would occur much less often. Not on that, but also labeling in general. Fri, 15 Apr 2011 04:02:32 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143007366 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143007329 J.V.G. talks about how he was in a program that involved students from Temple University. Half of the students were from Temple and half were from the Graterford Penitentiary. It is easy for use, average college students to imagine this experience from the Temple student’s perspectives; scared yet curious of what these felons look like and act like. It was very interesting to me however, to see the story from the other side of the spectrum. How the inmate of the penitentiary felt about the situation. J.V.G. says that he was nervous and at some point felt the need to hold a text book in front of his face. If I were him I feel that I would have felt exactly the same way. The judgment that he must have imagined and in some cases truly felt coming from the students, would be unbearable. He never says what he did to place him in the penitentiary, but he seems like a fairly well educated and understanding guy. Fri, 15 Apr 2011 04:02:22 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/11/lifer/#IDComment143007329 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/27/family/#IDComment141064114 I think that the prisoners need someone to help them to get through their time in prison. That person must be someone that understands their situation and can help them change their lives. C. says that he tries to help the younger guys get ready for life in prison. He in a way mentors them. Even though C. is only at the age of 28, he understands how they feel and is one of the few that could help them through the system. His years of experience have showed him the separate roads that prisoners can take. They can either become assholes or look within themselves and try to change and think about why they are there and if they are some of the lucky ones that get to go out into society again, I hope that they make those changes and can turn their lives around. Fri, 8 Apr 2011 19:02:04 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/27/family/#IDComment141064114 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/27/family/#IDComment141064081 The crazy part about this is that there are a lot of prisoners that get letters weekly and a lot of visitors. It would be hard to believe that they are bad horrible people. C. did say that there are assholes in prison and that he would not expect any one of them to receive letters or visitors. They have offended and abused their families. They should not expect sympathy or forgiveness from their families. They would need to change drastically in order for that to happen. Fri, 8 Apr 2011 19:01:54 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/27/family/#IDComment141064081 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/27/family/#IDComment141064045 Family and friends are something that is very important to have. Without them, a person is truly alone in the world. There is a lot of effort that must go into the formation and upkeep of a friendship however. You’d have to do something pretty bad in order to lose family. Now it may be easy to think that lifers in prison have done such evil things as to offend even their closest friends and family. As C. says however, he has good ties with his family, has never seriously offended them physically or emotionally. Naturally, letters may begin to come less and over longer periods of time. On the inside, in prison, things don’t change too much. On the outside however, people have a lot going on. They don’t always have the time to write long letters and make visits to people in prison. Fri, 8 Apr 2011 19:01:43 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/27/family/#IDComment141064045 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/24/b-s-response/#IDComment139200584 There are sure to be cases that the prisoner twists the story in order to make himself seem less guilty and look like more of a victim than a criminal. I think that pretty much anyone could guess that that may occur. What people may not expect is for a sense of guilt and self-condemnation to exist in the prisoner’s writing. I believe that many of these prisoners, especially the ones that literally just come out and say it, believe that they got what they deserved and feel extremely guilty for what they’ve done. What I’m trying to say I guess, is that it is not possible to draw definite conclusions about any of these prisoners solely through their writing. It is an interesting perspective and can tell us a lot about them, but as the sole source of information, it won’t give us the whole picture. I’m glad that B. is standing up to defend his fellow prisoners. Someone needed to take the time to explain that some people’s assumptions could be wrong. I hope that in the future, people are more open minded and cautious about what judgments that they make on other people. Fri, 1 Apr 2011 21:22:26 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/24/b-s-response/#IDComment139200584 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/24/b-s-response/#IDComment139200558 B’s response to the comments that we, Sam’s students, have written was very interesting to me. I don’t often read comments that condemn the “killers” or “murders” that are serving life but now I’ll be interested to go back and look for them. Most of the posts that I read are accepting and understanding of the situations that the lifers are in. I’m not saying that any of them were too “nice” and wanted freedom for all or that they thought that the prisoners that were writing deserved to be freed. I just mean to say that they seemed to be on the same page as what I believe B. and myself are on. I think that it is wrong for anyone to condemn another person based off of a story that they read. They don’t have the full picture so therefore should not be making any form of judgment. I also believe that it is very difficult to make an impartial judgment or opinion based on the writing of the prisoner. Fri, 1 Apr 2011 21:22:17 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/24/b-s-response/#IDComment139200558 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/20/frost-bitten/#IDComment137547217 . I don’t understand his reasoning for thinking that every single other inmate is a terrible person and assuming that he is not evil, why he is the only exception to the evilness that fills all of the others. From this poem, I get the idea that this prisoner is very closed minded and thinks extremely highly of himself. He puts himself on a pedestal and looks down on all other prisoners. I don’t know whether or not he deserved to be in the prison or not, but instead of looking for some other way to help the situation than blaming all others, C. was negative and cut himself off from all other men. I feel like if I were to ever meet this man, I would find him more empty and negative than any of the other men that he describes. Of the men that we have experienced, I think that C. is the least reformed and understanding of them all. Fri, 25 Mar 2011 18:55:23 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/20/frost-bitten/#IDComment137547217 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/20/frost-bitten/#IDComment137547193 In the poem, “Frost Bitten,” an author by the simple name of C., the lifer writes describing the cold and empty feeling that has overcome him during his time in prison. C. describes his fellow inmates as cold and “empty souls.” This entry is very different than the other articles that I have read. Most of the stories are about personal experiences and how the inmate has personally changed during him time in prison or about his past life and reasons for his incarceration in Rockview. This poem was darker and more negative than any of the other pieces. Rather than looking to himself for happiness and warmth, he blames others for the emptiness and cold that he feels. He describes his experiences as those similar to what he pictures as hell. He sets himself apart from the other inmates who are “evil beings” with no hope, joy or warmth and possible no heart. I think that it is interesting that this particular prison sets him apart from the other prisoners. He gives no reason for why he is not heartless and evil like the others supposedly are. Fri, 25 Mar 2011 18:55:14 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/20/frost-bitten/#IDComment137547193 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/15/lgbt-families-theres-a-lot-of-fear-out-there/#IDComment135917240 The speaker in this video talks about his experience with a lesbian couple as his parents. He argues to a body of law makers that the fact that he had two mothers had no effect on him in his socialization, education and general welfare. He recalls his test scores and achievements saying that he thinks that anyone would be proud to be his parent. He also says that it is unconstitutional to prevent two people that love each other from marrying. He says that his family served the same purpose that any straight parents could provide. I think that it was very brave of him to stand up for his mothers in front of such a large group of important people. He clearly loves his mothers and was raised to be a respectful and good citizen. He learned responsibility and not only studies engineering at college but has his own company as well. As he said, no one was able to tell that he was a child of a lesbian gay couple. Being raised by an unconventional set of parents did not cause him to act any differently in public. His family taught him morals and how to act in public normally. He asks the council to think and allow for more rights for gays. He calls them out on the injustice of not allowing gays and lesbians the same rights that heterosexual couples have. I think that he has an extremely valid point and I think that it’s great that he stands up for those that he loves. Clearly his family has prepared him to go out in the world and do things with his life. Fri, 18 Mar 2011 21:49:19 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/15/lgbt-families-theres-a-lot-of-fear-out-there/#IDComment135917240 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/07/who-am-i/#IDComment133895130 In the blog entry that is entitled, “Who am I?” an inmate by the name of J.V.G. tells a story about the interactions that he has had with different types of people. This was the first ‘Getting Life’ blog that I have read that had nothing to do with how or why he is trapped in a cell in prison. He chose rather, to write about how people have come to accept him and see past his skin color and surname. At a coffee shop, an Indian man mistakes him for another Indian. He never says that he is Indian, but knowing a couple of Indian phrases due to his education, he pleases the man by responding to the man’s question with the word “Sukha.” This word means happiness. I genuinely believe that this man was happy in his teens. This story and the one’s that follow are only about good things. He sets a relaxed and accepting tone throughout the blog. In the second entry, J.V.G. talks about how he went to a CD store and encountered a Jamaican woman that ran the store. He mentioned how his complexion, hairstyle and general style choices were similar to that of Jamaica. Rather than tell the woman explicitly his nationality, he relates to her culture, mentioning the famous Bob Marley and leaves. By leaving on that note, he knew that she had accepted him as one of her own people. The last story struck me as the most significant. His girlfriend brought him home to meet her parents and from the start, her father was not happy that he was a “spic.” After a dinner full of good conversation and a strong display of manners, the parents begin to accept him as one of their own. He is even invited back. From this exchange, he feels as though he has become part of the family to a degree. I think that from his background J.V.G. has had to learn about diversity and acceptance. He is Puerto Rican and Dominican, able to relate to different backgrounds. Also, from the melting pot of America, New York City, he has grown and experienced interactions with many different types of people. From these interactions, he has shaped himself into an accepting and relatable person. Thu, 10 Mar 2011 17:52:08 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/07/who-am-i/#IDComment133895130 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/24/fear/#IDComment130702699 Fear is something that is part of our everyday life. It enters our lives in many different ways and affects us in different ways. There are many different magnitudes of fear that an everyday person can experience. The fear of breaking a nail. The fear of disappointing a parent. The fear of failing a test. The fear of hurting someone. The fear of death. Each of these things have different levels of severity and the effects of each will cause us to do different things with our lives. Self preservation is obvious at the top of the list for almost everyone in society. The priorities from there on tend vary. Being in prison, the distortion of the fears after self preservation can change, and maybe even that fear. As a lifer in prison, how important is life on your list of valued things? Just because you will never have an opportunity to live on the outside again, does that mean that life has less of a value? It is all a personal preference. It depends on religious beliefs, personal relationships, and your overall feeling about life. It seems that this prisoner starts out with normal fears that people have, death, acceptance, and an overall feeling of dependence on others. These are fears that a large majority of people have. He then ventures into the fears of an inmate. He fears his past and the effect that it will have on his life in the future. He mentions the fear of not having keys to the front door. This fear shows that he fears the future. He know that he will never have a home other than his cell. That he will never get to live that “picture perfect” life that Americans have defined. He can only live through his thoughts. His actions can not benefit him at any point in the rest of his life. Only his thought can help him. Potentially, repentance is the only way that he can save himself from our society. He sees fear as a good thing, as something to concur. He sees it as a good day if he’s made positive steps to concur such fears. If more people tried to do such things, the world would be a better place Fri, 25 Feb 2011 22:46:18 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/24/fear/#IDComment130702699 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/15/social-structure-shapes-free-will/#IDComment128895046 In the video, “Multiple Husbands,” the family structure of a group of people living in the Himalayans is described. In the family that we are introduced to, there are three husbands and only one wife. This “polyandry” has been a part of their culture and they feel that it is the most compatible family structure to go with their unique lifestyle. In the mountains, there is little farmable land. The husbands work on the land as well as in the home. They help with household chores and childcare. The marriages are not based on love. They are based on a need to survive and are a family decision. The oldest brother discusses with his family what woman he is to marry. After he has married, his younger brothers usually follow in his footsteps, marrying the same woman. They do not need to but it is a very common practice. This way, the brothers stay close throughout life. This system is caused by and leads to birth control. Because of the one child law in western Asia, males outnumber females. Therefore, a woman with multiple husbands makes sense. It acts as a method of birth control because if each man were to marry a separate woman, more children would be born. There is not much land in the mountainous region that these people. Because a woman can only be pregnant at certain times, fewer children will be born if each man has to share a wife. Polygamy and polyandry are not common in the world that I’ve grown up in and are looked at as strange by many people that I know. If I were to grow up under such conditions however, I would find nothing strange with it. The people that live under this system do so because it is the best method that they can think of to live their lives. If it leads to the best quality of life and is not against their beliefs, I think it is great idea. They’re taking the conditions that they live in and adapting. With the incorporation of western culture through television and roads, will cause change within the culture of these people I think. They will see things like love and western ideals and begin to copy them. This could lead to problems within the region or it could change their lives for the better. It all depends on how they take the new information. Fri, 18 Feb 2011 19:59:13 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/15/social-structure-shapes-free-will/#IDComment128895046 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/09/4092/#IDComment127427133 While I was reading the blog, “Remember,” written by a lifer that was spent over half of his 48 years of life inside of a jail cell, I could only begin to think of isolation and repentance. The goal of prisons is to take dangerous people off of the streets in order to make the world a safer place. I think that a common side effect of prison is the time that prisoners have to look back over their life and the decisions that they’ve made. The relationships that they’ve had, the things they have accomplished or failed to accomplish, and the actions they have taken or failed to follow through with. To me, this prisoner seems truly repentant for what he has done. Only after years in prison has he begun to understand how many lives he has effected in a negative way just from one action. How those that he loved were hurt and how strangers were hurt. It seems only fitting then that those that he’s hurt have either grown apart or refused to accept what he has done. Many of his family members, friends, his wife, and cellmates that have passed through have forgotten him, moved on with their lives. He knows that he has no hope of ever venturing back out into society and so he is left to sit, and repent. He must play back that short real of his life that he spent on the outside, that time in which one altercation changed his life forever. He seems to understand and accept that he has been written off as a bad person and an undesirable part of society. Authorities see him as just another prisoner, something that they must look after and keep from doing anything wrong. He understands that in society’s eyes, he is deserving of the fate that he now has, to grow old and spend his final days in a cell. To society he is worthless. Maybe if he were on the outside, he would view himself in the same way that others view him and not understand how they could do something so awful. But after much repentance and solitude, he has found God. He believes that through his form of communication with God, he has been forgiven for his actions. So in his mind, he may not be accepted in this world, but will be in the life to come. Fri, 11 Feb 2011 23:12:35 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/09/4092/#IDComment127427133 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/30/conformity-rules-the-day/#IDComment125930121 This video is meant as entertainment but actually reveals a truth about society. People will do just about anything to fit in with a group. The first man in the video questions the other people’s actions at first. He smirks, thinking that maybe they are trying to mess with him. After making the assumption that they are in fact serious about their position on the elevator, he decides that he’d rather do something unconventional and strange, stand backwards on an elevator, than be alone and outside of the “norm” for that elevator. He tried to hide his turn by looking at his watch because he did not want the others to know that he was switching because of them. He wanted the move to seem of his own choice. The second man however, did not question the positioning of the other people on the elevator. He immediately turned in order to be part of the group. As they continued to change, he stayed onboard, following every group movement. He turned when they turned and removed his hat and replaced it momentarily after the other men. After the third turn, I assume that the man knew that something was going on inside of the elevator that the others knew about and not him. The interesting part however, is that even though he probably knew that they were all coordinating for some weird reason, he continued to follow them. His sociological need to fit into the group outweighed his confusion and assumption that the other people were being ridiculous. Watching this video, most people probably say that they would not fall for such a trick. They would know that something was up or even if the other people were completely serious, they would stay standing forward, facing the door even when the others were backwards. The truth is however, if an individual feels that they are separating themselves from the norm in some way, they will do just about anything to fit back in. The need to be part of a group, commonly known as group think, drives these men to ignore their rationalization and simply do as the group does, just like you and I most likely would. Fri, 4 Feb 2011 15:31:07 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/30/conformity-rules-the-day/#IDComment125930121 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/24/life-without-parole-001-blog/#IDComment124220918 I would expect isolation from a society to lead to different ideological and moral development. As an adolescent, M. was put into prison. His crime was never revealed but it seems to me that he felt that life was an excessive term to receive for whatever it was. For twenty two years he has sat in a cell, having to finish off his teens and the rest of his life to come. The little interaction with society that he has had for the last twenty years has taught him little. He says himself that he developed his morals on his own. Kids in our society learn morals from parents, religion, and school. Because of this, it does not surprise me that he has similar morals to many people that are not in prison. Or that his are actually considered stricter than most. The majority of his development and growing was in fact spent in society. Although he may not have realized it at the time, I’m sure that he experienced many instances where morals were questioned and taught in some form or another. As a rebellious teenager, (probably extremely rebellious due to his criminal record), he probably ignored these lessons extra. When locked away however, he was overpowered by the US legal system. Locked away, all he had was time to think about his short time on the outside and the situations that he encountered. I do not believe for a second that he developed him morals on his own, fourteen years on the outside is plenty of time to have society shape you as a person. The “invisible strings” are simple to see in this situation. Growing up, his parents or caretaker must have had some sort of moral code that they instilled in him whether it is directly or indirectly. And the most dominant shaping factor in my opinion would be the legal system in general. He was forced to respect it once his punishment began and will be forced to suffer under its rules and regulations. He may not notice that he has taken from the same bank of morals as society but the law is a great force of shaping us. We see illegal and immoral as interchangeable. So because he suffers from the same legal system that the average person must respect, it is no surprise to me that he has developed a moral compass similar to that of yours or mine. Fri, 28 Jan 2011 00:51:24 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/24/life-without-parole-001-blog/#IDComment124220918