I must say that I fall into the trap of believing that everyone who is an inmate in a US prison is some sort of evil monster and that all prisons are filled the worst men and women in the entire world. To think that must mean that I don't believe that people are capable of changing, when thats not really the case at all. I do think everyone is capable of changing and when your put away for life in a prison, it provides plenty of time for reflection and thought about one's life and one's choices. I know that most of the time I have free time I spend some it in thought, so all the free time that inmates have must allow them and maybe force them to think, if only to pass the time. When I think about it, I do believe that many inmates are compassionate and maybe even better people than some people on the outside. They may have not been that way when they were put away, but all that time allows them to find out more about themselves and about life than people on the outside could ever hope to know. We just are so busy with our daily lives that many just don't stop and take the time to think about these things. I feel like that many convicted criminals are probably as this man described, compassionate and caring human beings, but at some point they made an unfortunate mistake or a couple bad choices and now are forced to face the consequences. Part of me feels bad for these people who just made a bad choice and understand and regret intensely what they did, because I feel like they are inherently good people who just made a mistake. Not to say all are like that. I have zero sympathy for those cold blooded killers and criminals who just genuinely want to watch the world burn. It seems to me that being sentenced to life in prison is worse than being sentenced to the death penalty. You have to spend the rest of your life with the guilt of what you did and with the knowledge that your never getting out. It seems like having to confront that crime every day for the rest of your life. Probably the worst would be being remorseful and a changed person, but not being able to go out into the world and try to make the world better, making up for the wrong you did. So I have to say that I really do appreciate this man sharing a little bit of his experience as a convicted criminal who's serving life in prison. It really makes you think about the kind of people in prisons across the US, and maybe make you reevaluate a belief that all the people in prison are evil men and women.

Sam was hyping up this lecture for the past week and I figured it was just going to be like any other lecture, like all the other ones he hypes up. However, I must say I really enjoyed this lecture. It was very eye opening to me to see how others view the United States. I've always believed that the US is the greatest country in the world and is out there doing so much good in the world, and I could never understand how people from other countries could hate us or not appreciate what we do. Sam's lecture kind of answered this thought for me by forcing me to look at our country in the way other people from another country do. To me the whole Christian Invader theme is ridiculous because I know that 99% of American Christians are not trying to convert the whole world or take over the world for Christianity. However, to Arab Muslims are not as aware of this and I can understand how they could maybe view us as that. It is kind of like how most westerners view Arab Muslims as radical religious nut jobs who will blow themselves up in the name of Allah. They know that this assumption by us is completely ridiculous, as I am sure most Arab Muslims would never consider it, but I guess this is just a case of the Americans and Arab Muslims, enemies, not understanding one another. I feel like if there was a better understanding of each others cultures then the Western and Arab Muslim worlds would be more peaceful towards each other. In terms of the whole raiding of Iraq for their oil for the benefit of us in the United States, I can get why the people who live there could be so pissed off about it and willing to fight the Americans over it. It would be really shitty to have another country come in, take your resources, and prosper while comparatively your own nation is mired in poverty. Personally, if I really were an Arab Muslim, there's no way that I would be fighting as an insurgent against the United States. This is not because I would not be angry or hurt by what they are doing or bringing to my land, but instead is because I just would not want to get involved in a war, especially when the nation I would be fighting is much more advance and better equipped and also much larger. I would be dead in a heartbeat going up against those odds. As I said, however, this lecture was pretty cool in the fact that it allowed me to look outside of how I view things and kind of step into the shoes of the enemy and see how they would view America, and I kind of understand their view a bit.

multi ethnic people, so obviously to accomdate all those very different backgrounds would be rather difficult for the Census. Sure, we have to lump ourselves into one of the general race catagories, but it doesn't matter. The Census justs wants the general picture. They don't need to know the exact amount of Italian-African-half Native Americans people in the United States. It's just a general idea. So people need to stop whining and worrying about getting their feelings hurt and just suck it up, because it is really annoying having to listen to this dumbass complaints day in and day out on news channels and reading about it in the papers.

counted. Like was said in the article, the Census spent millions of dollars to research this so they know what they are talking about. The only people outraged by the term are younger black people who never lived during the time that negro was a common word, but they always associate it with the oppression the happened when the word was commonplace. But they have no idea of the mentality of the blacks who experienced that time. It just seems like it is a case of trying to please everyone, but of course there will always be people who take offense. It's like that with anything. As for the being multiracial thing, of course the census knows this fact. But to accomodate all these mixed races would make the census much more complicated and would just be unfeasible. All they are trying to do is get a general snapshot of the people in our country. They don't need to get extremely specific. The United States is a melting pot, filled with an immense amount of diverse and

I am tired of hearing about all these people who are getting all worked up about a stupid census form. It is just a case of people making a big deal over things out of nothing. I definitely understand while so many people would take such offense to the term negro, because it is a very old school term that now carries a very negative conotation with it. It was used in a time when the black race was far more oppressed than now a days. However, people don't get that there are many old African Americans who would only refer to themselves by the term negro. They grew up in a time when that was commonplace to be a negro and it is so engrained in their mind that when they think of themselves as a race they they think of themselves as a negro. The Census Bureau knows this and is trying to make sure that those elderly African Americans are

I think it is really important to ask questions about aspects of life that are deeply rooted in society, and how society influences the outlook of people on these issues. I think about this kind of stuff often but I must say that this whole 'bleeding' thing is something that I've never really considered. At first when Sam went off on the rant about his wife bleeding and what not, I was pretty grossed out. I initially thought that what he was saying was really raunchy. I feel like most of the people in the room were also feeling the same way cause lots of people were like up and arms or storming out of the room. His way of trying to relate hair growing, or being hungry, which are both bodily functions, to girls menstruating was a very bad analogy in my opinion. Obviously bleeding is a way more intimate body function as opposed to hunger. However, I definitely could see some of the points that he was trying to make. We do live in a man's world and I think that this definitely is at least one reason why everyone seems to shy away from talking about it, or at least guys do. I feel like it's more acceptable to talk about it if a bunch of women are in the room, instead of if it's a mix of men and women, because guys definitely just have no desire to talk or even hear about it. This general feeling could definitely be seen by the way in which people reacted to Sam's tyrade over such a sensitive subject. And since the world is mainly dominated by men, menstruation is something that is kept quiet. Granted in the big picture of other problems facing society, I feel like this is a very minor one, but it is an example of people not wanting to talk about it. And this fact that no one wants to talk about these issues, from as minor as bleeding to as major as racism, is one of the of the main problems facing society because nothing will ever get solved when everyone is silent. So I think it was a good move by Sam to address this whole issue, because I understand the point he was trying to make. I just think he maybe went a little too far with it. In the end, I think this whole thing ties in well with the whole race issues because of the whole outlook of most people that they just do not want to deal with it, or the feeling that one person can not make a difference. However, when you have an entire nation of people sharing that exact same feeling nothing will ever be solved.

I applaud Calvin Coolidge High School for stepping up and hiring a woman coach. As far as I'm concerned a head coaching position should be given to whomever is most qualified for the job. After listening to her speak about football and also learning that she has played football competitively before, I feel as though she has the potential to be a successful coach there. You can hear by the way she speaks that she loves the game and also knows what shes talking about. I'm sure there are many male coaches out there in high school head football coaching positions who are less qualified than her. There is clearly a big deal being made about the fact that she was hired as the coach of a sport that seen as manly, and I think that it is a statement upon how our society is that there is even a big deal being made of it. It shouldn't get all this attention, but it does because it is rare that you see a woman coaching such a sport. Now there isn't many women out there who are actually qualified for coaching football, not because they are inferior or whatever, but because they just don't take the opportunity to participate in sports traditionally played by men. I'm assuming this is partly because society doesn't see women as capable of participating in heavy contact sports. This of course isn't true, but it makes women weary of trying to play. If there were more females who participated in football you would see more female coaches, but sexism and discrimination would still be prevalent. This I find sad. And so I am impressed by the fact that this DC high school put the whole sexism thing aside and hired her.

The only thing that I feel may happen now is that she is going to face unfair expectations as opposed to if a man were coaching. Where a male head football coach may get a couple years to build a program and be given some leniency towards losing in those first years, I feel like she will be held to the expectation of winning right away. And if she should fail to do that, which is completely understandable, it would give the school or whoever an excuse to bring in a new coach who is a man. It could be possible that this whole hiring of her by the school is a publicity stunt. I sincerely hope it isn't and that Calvin Coolidge High School actually intends to give her the tools and the chance to succeed at her coaching position, because I feel like she is definitely capable of putting together a winning program there.

I must say that I do find the compton cookout party pretty disturbing and much worse than the noose incident. To me the noose thing is being blown way out of proportion. A minority student admitted to having done that and I highly doubt that person made the noose as an ill-willed statement towards african americans or any other minorities. It was just one of those dumb things that people occasionally do, although this dumb move easily could be considered racist. I just think from limited knowledge of the circumstances that it was harmless. Now as for the compton cookout party, I don't really have a problem with the theme, but I have a huge problem with how far they took it. Almost all theme parties in some way work on the stereotypes of a certain ethnic or racial group, and it is no way limited to just minority groups such as blacks in this case. You have Jersey Shore parties which I think stereotype Italian Americans and people from New Jersey. You have redneck parties which stereotype rural white people. Then there are the many others that stereotype all other racial and ethnic groups. There are no groups that are spared. And on top of that you have all different races and ethnicity's participating in these parties, even when it is stereotyping one's own group. Now the problem lies in the fact that this certain party was taking everything way too far. I read the description from the facebook group and it was extremely racist in my opinion. It was very particular in defining the stereotypes and even seemed sarcastic at points, such as when it wants all the women to take on the "respectable" qualities of ghetto chicks like "using limited vocabulary", "cursing persistantly", and constantly "smacking their lips". It also said that they wear cheap clothes, have gold teeth, and start fights and drama. I know that I am pretty offended by the fact that they would even say something like this and even go as far as publicly post it on facebook. It isn't even directed towards me but I still feel pretty disturbed by it. There is line between a party that is all in good fun and one which is offensive and possibly racist. The line is blurred and there is no set definition for what constitutes it, but this one definitely is far over it. Although I did find it interesting that apparently a black person was the one who initiated this party or whatever. It shows me that he apparently didn't feel that this was too offensive and also stereotyped his own race pretty harshly, and I guess was okay with it.

The first thing I felt after reading this article was surprised that these three tribes would even allow companies to come onto their land and drill wells to extract oil. I always thought that Native Americans felt that the land and environment and such was sacred, and obviously allowing oil wells on their land would severely contradict this belief. The second article also stated that the tribes were considering allowing construction of an oil refinery on their reservation which only compounds my surprise. The oil industry is one of the most polluting industries on earth, and yet these Native Americans are still allowing it or at least considering allowing it on their land. Construction of wells, and especially a refinery, will ensure widespread and massive pollution to the water, air, and land of their reservation, all the while also endangering the health of their peoples. This thing brings me to my second thought. It is sad that Native Americans' situation is so dire that they must resort to allowing such a danger to them happen. While there are many negative effects from oil drilling and refining, there are also many positives that the activity will bring to the reservation. This includes jobs, money, and hope that they can pull themselves up out of poverty with the new found wealth around them. It is this that the tribes think about when presented with this opportunity, as opposed to the negative health and environmental effects. In the article it talks about how there were never any jobs on the reservation and now that they are abundant, many of those who moved off are coming back with the promise of securing a good-paying job. The influx of money from the companies paying to extract oil from their land also can fund much needed improvements to the reservation, such as healthcare, education, and basic sanitation. In this way I definitely feel that the oil has been good for the tribes. Another interesting thing brought up in the article was when someone said that if the government had known there was billions of barrels of oil below their land, they would have never put these tribes there. It is ironic that after centuries of being mistreated and disrespected by the government, and being kicked off their lands and thrown onto ones that were useless or undesirable, that at least one tribe would be lucky enough to be put on a land with a resource that will allow them to prosper somewhat and have some control over their future. Pretty much no Native American tribe in the US has this chance. It's funny to know though that if the government had known of all this oil, they would have never given this land to the tribes. I bet even know they are probably like 'damnit, if only we had known'. However, despite the environmental issues possible, I'm happy to see that some Native Americans may finally have a chance to succeed and prosper as most Americans have been.

This man was an idiot for saying this in public. Politicians all know that one of the last things you call anyone is an animal, because such a statement always gets people all fired up, and rightfully so. I like to believe that most people on welfare are actually in need of it, and not out of their own fault. While I'm sure there are many who abuse the system and figure they will live off welfare than go find a job, I do feel like there are many more who were placed in such a position through an act beyond their choosing, such as being layed off or maybe having a parent pass away. So for Andre Bauer to go out and call these unfortunate people animals, when they are more often than not just like any other normal person, is ridiculous and reprehensible. It was just luck of the draw for these people, and they were unlucky enough to have things go poorly for them. Now I have always had a problem with the government taking some of the money that I go out and earn every week and giving it to the welfare system. I have felt that the money always goes to lazy bums who do nothing to advance themselves and who are completely undeserving of hard working peoples' money. This is not a statement on the kinds of people on welfare of course; I think it's more a statement of how corrupt and abused the system of welfare is. I would have no problem at all helping people out who just fell on to rough times, but I have a huge a problem throwing away money to people who have no one to blame for being in welfare but themselves. What this means to me is while the idea of a system is welfare is great, it is in great need of revision and reform so that the system actually helps those who are truly in need of it. I mean it is the government running welfare so it was always bound to get corrupted, but in order to stop wasting Americans' hard earned money the time has come to revamp the system. This may seem a little harsh but even get rid of welfare altogether, if it seems that the government will never be able to effectively implement welfare. Now back to Bauer, I feel like there are many other politicians who probably feel the same way as him, but would never be as idiotic as him to actually say it out loud. I think this partially relates to why welfare isn't as efficient as possible because there is this underlying prejudice amongst the government. There's no way that the welfare system can truly help those in need until the politicians can get past those prejudices and distribute welfare fairly among all those deserving of it.