What the prisoner wrote about in his blog entry is something very powerful and moving. The thought of being stuck in prison for life is something that many of us cannot even fathom. To sit in a confined space for almost your whole life and waste away is alarming. I understand what the prisoner feels like when he says that he’s wasting away and just growing older every day. He is literally just decomposing in a cell with bars over the course of his life. Since he has been confined, the small pleasures of life have been turned into moments of sheer joy. The everyday activity we go through is not appreciated normally since it is a simple routine. I believe if we can alter our perception to believe that every moment is something to cherish, the world would definitely be a better place. The words written by the prisoner about how he longs for love are very touching. More than anything else from the outside, he wants true love from a woman. Love is something beautiful and I believe it to be very sacred. If one should acquire love from another, it should be cherished and allowed to grow. The sad thing for me is I’m free to do whatever I please but I only experience love from my mother and my best friends (who happen to be men.) I don’t like to pursue love; I would like to have it happen naturally. It is hard for me to believe in unconditional love with the way my generation conducts itself. I feel as if generation Y is a “in your face” generation that prides itself on being better and of higher social status than others around them. Love and goodwill to all others seems to get lost in the void. I believe many relationships are built on the concept of lust and status, where they should be built on love. If I were to lose my looks to some unfortunate event, I’m almost positive that no one would be attracted to me. Even if I had the best personality, my not so pleasing face would discount my charm. It seems to me that there has to be some initial physical attraction before this deeper emotion of love can be achieved. I believe that love a mother has for a son is one that is truly unconditional almost all the time. A mother created a son, and she will do anything to promote and protect him as much as she can. A woman loving a man, and vice-versa, is something that has pure conditions. These conditions might be the way a person looks, their status/reputation, and personality. If one of these conditions is compromised a relationship might turn for the worse. Yes, I believe love exists between two people, but only on certain conditions. Most often love is only sustained by children and a family as well. Ultimately, a prisoner has almost no chance at unconditional love from another, but the people on the outside don’t have much better of a chance either.

“Don’t drink the water” is a song that really touches the soul if you listen to the meaning that it displays. The Dave Matthews Band creates deep music that can relate to spectrums such as diversity and politics. Listen to the lyrics “Now as I rest my feet by this fire Those hands once warmed here I have retired them I can breathe my own air I can sleep more soundly Upon these poor souls I'll build heaven and call it home.” The lyrics are a true story about how Native-Americans were dominated by present day Americans. Building a heaven is something we see today and I really relate to. This culture that we have seen in present day America is one of gluttony and hedonistic culture. We see our shopping malls, huge universities, and cities as the heaven that we have created.

I thought about Sam’s Christian invaders lecture from Tuesday and it made me think in a way different than before. As I went back to my dorm room, I tried to recollect the day of September 11, 2001. I was a ripe young 11 year old boy in 6th grade. That day was something I didn’t really understand, but in a town outside New Jersey right across the river, the impact was everywhere. I remember walking through the halls of my middle school and I overheard a girl in a staircase crying on the phone. What I didn’t understand is that she was having the last conversation she would ever have with her father. Soon afterwards my mother came to Woodbridge Middle School to pick me up and take me home. We didn’t know when or where the next plane would hit. Kids were all chattering about whose parents were in the towers and if they were about to die or survive. When we got back home, I was asking my mom to go outside and hang out with the kids on the block. My mom was enraged that I didn’t understand the immensity of what was going on. As I recollect the story, I only understood the magnitude as I got older. For some reason I asked my mother whether or not Santa was real at that moment, and I got an enraged response telling me no. I tell that story to a lot of people. I remember when the plane hit the pentagon, things started to get really insane. My parents started putting food and emergency supplies in our basement in case we were attacked for some reason. There was no idea what was going to happen. Going back to Sam’s lecture I feel bad for the people in the Middle East. However years of tyranny from centuries ago does not give any excuse for attacking those towers full of innocent people. America’s involvement in the Middle East is simply for oil and to rid of terrorist regimes. I believe that if you were around the New York City area it is almost impossible to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. Lives were lost that day that won’t ever be taken back. Lives of loved ones died that stand to be the ultimate sacrifice. I was lucky to go unscathed by the attack in terms of having a relative in the towers. I just believe that anyone that could have experienced 9/11 up close cannot think differently of what happened. I do not have anything against Muslims as a whole, just the radical extremists that crashed those planes. To this day, I still cannot believe that we were attacked on our own soil in the greatest city in the world.

When I arrived in Thomas 100 for the Needy Penis lecture I was extremely curious what it actually entailed. Being a male specimen myself, I am energized sexually like any other male but I can control it. I haven’t had sex in almost 3 years but I have had several opportunities to since then. Nonetheless, it didn’t feel right for me at the moment and I treat sex as something more sacred than having an orgasm. I may be a little heartless on the outside most of the time but I’m really sensitive and I wear my heart on my sleeve. I pretty much knew of the inability for women to reach an orgasm before the lecture even began. I’m not sure if my last partner had an orgasm or not. She probably was faking it all, but I got mine at least. However, I already knew the real importance of foreplay. The one thing that enlightened me the most about the needy penis lecture was the statistics of college students having sex. I always believed that I was just the only one on campus not “getting any.” Sometimes I believed my own pickiness and sacred attitude towards sex was holding me back. It seems that a lot of other college students are not participating in sex like I thought. This made me feel a little better about myself and the attitudes I have towards sex. I really would like a fulfilling relationship rather than the culture of promiscuous sex and hooking up that college seems to have. However, I do believe all good things will happen in time. I know this because this has happened before. Another thing I learned was how a woman’s body changes more over time than a man’s does. Men are extremely persistent when it comes to sex and this is especially true when were “activated.” Soon you pass the point of no return and when that happens there needs to be a climax or a painful experience called “blue balls” occurs. I am inexperienced when it comes to relationships and everything that comes with them, but I believe that the needy penis lecture will benefit me greatly in the future. I think we as men think women are way too complicated and society should help men to further understand women. Women should also learn about themselves and teach men about what makes them fulfilled. I know many lesbians, so I am going to take up Sam’s recommendation of asking them how to fulfill a woman. Any advice I can get to make my life more fulfilling in the long run is something that I will take seriously. I’m just glad that we are treated maturely to the point where we can openly discuss something like the needy penis. In high school everything was so sheltered and censored.

I have made out with a black girl before at some random party this past fall. I proceeded to tell my friends (all white) about it. The friends from slightly urban New Jersey responded “that’s cool man! I need to hook up with a black girl!” My friends from Penn State who reside in Maryland and Pennsylvania responded “EW man, that’s gross!” Now I am single white man, but I wouldn’t date a black girl because I don’t want to date anyone period. As weird as it sounds I just work better on my own. I bask in my own loneliness sometimes, and I’m just used to this lifestyle. I find many black women attractive though, as I do white women. What I like about black women is that they will come up to me and say things like “have you ever had sex with a brown girl before?” I replied “no.” Afterwards she replied “would you like to try.” That was an awkward situation, since I had never come across such blunt aggressive actions from a woman. I have only dated two girls in my life, and they were both white. Nonetheless, I am inexperienced with women in general. I am more attracted the Beyoncé looking type black girls and find them extremely sexy. In my life I have found white girls to be very cunning and manipulative to get what they want out of a guy, and it really frustrates me sometimes. I wish everyone would be blunt about their feelings in general and throw out their inhibitions like black girls do. However, I am a hypocrite when I make statements like this. I feel safer in an environment where a girl can talk to me, and where I know she’s interested. I feel like if I approach a girl I’m coming off as needy and obviously wanting to have sex with you. I don’t know if girls like that, but I’m just not that kind of dude. I kind of wait for girls to show interest in me naturally and I act upon it. I’m pretty confident in my image, but not my game with girls. I wish I could approach girls and make moves, but I’m too timid when it comes to this kind of stuff. Call me a pussy, but it’s just not my game. When I warm up to any girl..white,black,Asian I will become attracted to them..if they’re good looking and cool. I have to say however that I am extremely attracted to Asian girls and I don’t know why. Filipino girls especially tickle my fancy. I’m ranting, I know. I’m open to anything when it comes to flings; I just don’t date many people in general so I probably wouldn’t go out with any color person right now.

The racial diversity at Penn State to me is almost virtually non-existent. I am a Polish and Irish American and all I see are tons of blonde people all day. I happen to be blonde myself but I like people who are different than me to get a wider scope on how other people operate. I am a very curious individual who likes to observe different races and creeds. I started my Penn State career at the Berks campus in Reading, PA. Berks was a whole world away from University Park in terms of distance and culture. When I arrived at Berks as a freshman and I was lost to say the least, as I was recovering from high school withdrawal. Berks was very boring on the weekends and wasn’t anywhere close to the experience that I would have had if I started at University Park. However when I got to berks I realized that the campus was very diverse. It was one of the closest campuses to Philadelphia, and because of this I saw many peoples of different colors inhabit the campus. Sometimes at berks it felt as if there were more black people than white people at berks. I enjoyed this diversity for the first two years, as it was a good change of pace. Eventually my sophomore year came to an end and it was time for me to transfer to University Park. When I got here I was lost again, but it was for a different reason. All I saw was white people everywhere and black people segregated to nittany apartments and eastview terrace. I wasn’t used to seeing so many white people in one place before since I came from a diverse campus. The fact that I came from a diverse hometown in New Jersey didn’t help either. In New Jersey I had to see almost every race in my neighborhood every day, so it was hard to adjust to a place with just white people. Penn State University Park has made me kind of have disdain towards my own race because they are the majority. I like being different or the underdog in many scenarios. Some white people on this campus have a sense of superiority to everyone else of color and that bothers me as well. White people will express their racism to me sometimes thinking I feel the same way, and I don’t. I hope that prospective students will understand that the black person on The Pennsylvania State University pamphlet is rare to see on campus. If I had to do it over I think I would have gone to school in Philadelphia or New York City. At least then I could be in an environment that is socially diverse in terms of color, orientation, and beliefs.

part 3...

Sadly enough, it seems that no law could change people’s desire to racially profile other human beings by their color. Human nature has certain aspects about it that can never be reversed unless there is an amazing amount of awareness in society. There can only be progress in creating awareness for all individuals in American society to give every race equal opportunity to succeed. I look forward to learning more about affirmative action and what it actually entails.

part 2..

My personal experiences with individuals of minorities who have benefited from affirmative action are mixed. Some individuals have taken advantage of a full ride to Penn State, whereas others have squandered any opportunity and even dropped out. I don’t know the exact statistics about the success rate with affirmative action, but it should be addressed in class. If I was a minority, I would take pride in being able to overcome the obstacles that I faced to become successful. When I become as successful as the white man with more obstacles than he had, I would feel that much more accomplished. Nonetheless, I am not highly educated on the matter of affirmative action. My opinion should not be taken completely seriously until I actually have a broad understanding of what affirmative action really is. All of the citizens in this great country of America should be the same equal opportunity to succeed. No one should be given an unfair advantage over one another.

I believe that affirmative action can take things too far on occasion. I do believe that minorities should be given equal opportunity like the one given to white majority in America. However, minorities should not be given an added advantage than any other race. Middle class families pay for a full price college education, whereas some minorities are not paying anything for an education and are sometimes squandering such an advantage. A middle class white family will come out with debt where an affirmative action individual will be on par to go anywhere but down. While I do agree that determinism and the king of the hill example do take a huge effect on keeping those of color down, I do not believe they should be given a “full ride.” There is nothing wrong with minorities getting a slight helping hand once in a while, but not everything should be handed to them. I am a white man and I do believe that this does give me an unfair advantage, but I still put in the work I need to be successful. Affirmative action should only be used in the way that it can even the playing field. There shouldn’t be handouts at all, because I don’t believe that this will motivate anyone to work for themselves.

There is a strong divide between the racism against black people and Muslims is this country we call America. The racism against black people dates back to an earlier time of slavery and extreme discrimination through skin color. Slavery was rampant throughout America until the point where the Civil War led us to some sort of equal rights for African Americans. While Black people have struggled for hundreds of years for equality in this country, their struggle has brought them closer to equality. Their struggle was based off of discrimination because of their skin color, not their religion or beliefs. This is where I believe that the racism against black people and Muslims are different. In America racism against Muslims is more of a religious based hatred or discrimination. It is simply more of Christianity versus Islam type of discrimination that goes both ways. This discrimination might actually derive from the earliest form of the Crusades hundreds of years ago. Now religion plays a big part in this discrimination, but it has been heightened in the 21st century because of the events on September 11, 2001. When two planes entered the World Trade Center America was changed forever completely. People started looking at Muslims in airports like they were lethal threats to the country. They would walk on planes and get dirty stares from everyone on the plane. Now these kamikaze radical Muslim extremists were motivated to pursue these acts because of the divide between Christianity and Islam. The racism between the two religions existed in America, but when 9/11 happened the racism turned more into Muslims as a threat to America rather than a threat to Christianity. This changed the face of our country and the way we treated Muslims for the foreseeable future. The racism against black people is more of a culture difference and color of their skin. Don’t get me wrong, there is still rampant racism against blacks in America. What I tend to believe is that racism against Muslims will increase within the next decade some more. I also believe that the conflict in Israel is affecting Muslims attitude against America. Since we are siding with Israel with their occupation of Palestine, there is an extreme hatred against us from Palestinians too. Our country being a symbol of wealth and prosperity makes all of the rest of the world continues to admire and hate us as well. Black people are far more integrated in our culture than Muslims are as well. I myself feel more comfortable hanging out with a black person than I would be hanging out with Muslims. There is a sense that Muslims throughout this country have a strong hate for what we stand for as a nation. I’m curious to see what happens in the future with our culture assuming the role of a more open nation to new cultures. So yes I do believe that we are more racist towards Muslims in America.