When I first signed up for the class I had no idea how this class was going to pan out. When I was in fourth grade 9/11 occurred and that day would forever be a day never to forget for the rest of my life. It was caused Muslim terrorists who wanted to destroy America. I never thought I could forgive any Muslim person for what they have done to our country. The media portrayed all these people as terrorists who we cannot trust. But you become older and see that most people do not represent these terrorists. As a Jewish male from Long island I don’t have many Muslim people who live around me. In fact I don’t recall having any Muslim friends before high school. My one Muslim friend came during high school and my other in Soc 119. The first day we met Maziar I was a little weary of what he would say. But he was a kind heated Iranian. I never talked to anyone from Iran and I wouldn’t call my self a racist at all but I never have spoken to an Iranian. Not because I judge them I just don’t have the opportunity to based on where I live. You can say I’m closed minded but Penn state did open my eyes to the world. When we met Maziar and he told us that no one he knows supports terrorists and that he is scared of them was a warming moment and an eye opener. Because of this class I understand race relations a lot better than before I took this class. When Maziar wanted to speak to our class when it was 1 AM in Iran to talk about the Boston tragedy and let it be known that he supports U.S. in finding the criminals who did this was a great moment to be there for. I remember the feeling that I got when 9/11 occurred and that feeling came back during the Boston tragedy. I felt hopeless and mad. After the tragedy people were quick to assume it was a Muslim extremists and perhaps I may have thought it was another attack on the U.S. But it wasn’t and I wouldn’t say I was happy it wasn’t a Muslim man but relieved that people were wrong in saying that they were Muslim. When Maziar reached out to us it was a moment where I sat back and thought that my barrier should be taken down. I realize that the Iranian people are good people it’s the very few extremists that we see in the media that portray Iran as this hateful country. And they are not. Maziar has changed my view and I thank him for that.

The needy penis lecture was very interesting and I’m glad I went to that lecture. It made a lot of things be brought to light for me. I realized how “needy” the penis is. We live in a world that is centered around the male. Obviously there are some matriarchal societies but I would say most are male centered. And so if a society is centered on a male it’s about him getting pleasured first and the woman second. The stats we uncovered in the lecture really blew my mind. Most women don’t get pleasured until orgasm ever. I don’t know why we don’t make our intimate sessions last longer but they should so women feel as good as we do. They are no less of a person than we are and they should benefit just as much as males. The world we live in just doesn’t let that happen. We think that sex is done when the male ejaculates and I would agree. I had a girlfriend for a year and 90 percent of the time I would assume that our sexual relations would end after my ejaculations. I don’t recall but to my knowledge I never pleasured the girl after I was done. I would try and have her obtain an orgasm before I finished. But if she didn’t achieve it I didn’t pleasure her more. It never crossed my mind that I should pleasure the girl after I finished. I’ve definitely asked if she had an orgasm after that fact but if she said no I don’t remember going back and trying again. But I would try harder next time so she would achieve her orgasm. I guess I was oblivious to the fact that we do live in a world where the penis comes first in terms of neediness. I feel like we ask women to pleasure us more than they ask us. But I also think this is just science. How do women get pregnant? Sperm impregnates the female when ejaculation occurs. And so biologically speaking sex is done when the male ejaculates into the female. Nothing else really matters because as long as the sperm gets into the female. That’s all that needs to occur for children to be made which is the only reason that we are here right now. Reproduction is the primary purpose that we are on this planet right now. And for humans to pass on genes the male needs to ejaculate. I think we should change history and change they way to look at sex. Sex needs to be where both partners experience an orgasm because this is what they are going into the experience trying to achieve. We need to be the ones trying to value the woman and have sam’s class in the future be the “needy vagina” lecture.

The needy penis lecture was very interesting and I’m glad I went to that lecture. It made a lot of things be brought to light for me. I realized how “needy” the penis is. We live in a world that is centered around the male. Obviously there are some matriarchal societies but I would say most are male centered. And so if a society is centered on a male it’s about him getting pleasured first and the woman second. The stats we uncovered in the lecture really blew my mind. Most women don’t get pleasured until orgasm ever. I don’t know why we don’t make our intimate sessions last longer but they should so women feel as good as we do. They are no less of a person than we are and they should benefit just as much as males. The world we live in just doesn’t let that happen. We think that sex is done when the male ejaculates and I would agree. I had a girlfriend for a year and 90 percent of the time I would assume that our sexual relations would end after my ejaculations. I don’t recall but to my knowledge I never pleasured the girl after I was done. I would try and have her obtain an orgasm before I finished. But if she didn’t achieve it I didn’t pleasure her more. It never crossed my mind that I should pleasure the girl after I finished. I’ve definitely asked if she had an orgasm after that fact but if she said no I don’t remember going back and trying again. But I would try harder next time so she would achieve her orgasm. I guess I was oblivious to the fact that we do live in a world where the penis comes first in terms of neediness. I feel like we ask women to pleasure us more than they ask us. But I also think this is just science. How do women get pregnant? Sperm impregnates the female when ejaculation occurs. And so biologically speaking sex is done when the male ejaculates into the female. Nothing else really matters because as long as the sperm gets into the female. That’s all that needs to occur for children to be made which is the only reason that we are here right now. Reproduction is the primary purpose that we are on this planet right now. And for humans to pass on genes the male needs to ejaculate. I think we should change history and change they way to look at sex. Sex needs to be where both partners experience an orgasm because this is what they are going into the experience trying to achieve. We need to be the ones trying to value the woman and have sam’s class in the future be the “needy vagina” lecture.

One of my favorite networks to watch is the Travel Channel. This network inspires me to go abroad and study as well as work oversees for years at a time. I’m not the kind of person who wants to be in the same place and live the same life day to day. Going to different countries would ensure that this is not how I live my life. My most passionate hobby in life is to explore different cuisines. Food can be incredibly complex as well as simple. I want to try as many cultures’ food as possible. I watch this show called Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. In this show Andrew travels to many different places on earth to learns about the foods these places consume. He gets to know the people and learns their cooking techniques. He uses the utensils that the culture uses so he has the full experience just like the natives do. That is my dream job. Going abroad to remote places and trying food that most people would never think about touching or even eating. I’m so curious to know how different cultures get their food and cook it. I am planning on living outside of the U.S. for most of my adult life. I might even look to start a family abroad. It’s shocking to me that most people do not own passports. I love traveling out of the country with my family because learning and experiencing how other people live is intriguing to me. I also want to learn about my roots in Poland. My grandparents are from Poland and although they went through pretty harsh times I want to see and eat the food that they did. Some people think that they never need to leave America but this is so false. If you want to be ethnocentric you don’t have to leave but if you want to be an individual going abroad and seeing how other people live will really change you. Discovering and adventuring to new places is what I am about. So working abroad is definitely on the list for me. I am studying biology wanting to become a chiropractor and I have heard and done some research that people want to heal naturally because nowadays it’s easy to become addicted to painkillers and other prescription medications. Chiropractic studies are all about aligning the body so it has the full potential to heal correctly without the use of drugs. Countries like china are very into natural healing and chiropractors are scarce in china. This would be a new market and a good way to show people all about my passion of chiropractics. Traveling around the globe will always be a dream of mine and I hope to travel to as many countries as possible.

In our government’s budget there is a section for foreign aid. This section holds millions and millions of dollars to help countries when disasters strike and in times of need. The U.S is one of the wealthiest countries in the world and the only powerhouse of a country to dish out so much money to another country. I think we should give out foreign aid but not give out as much as we do. Like we talked about in class the Native Americans are being neglected in this country. In our history we have kicked Native Americans off the land they inhabited and set up areas designated for Native Americans. They now have areas where infant mortality is 8 times higher than the national average. I think a larger part of our aid should be designated to helping Americans. Everyone who’s ever had a job in the U.S. pays taxes to the federal government and these taxes are high. Our taxes pay for Medicare and anything the government spends money on. And I expect what we put into the government should be given back to the people. This is a country for the people and we should do things in the United States’ best interest. I understand lowering foreign aid would maybe even cripple other countries but people in our own hometowns are struggling to stay alive and keep healthy because we haven’t given them the respect they need. We wouldn’t be here if the Native Americans didn’t have the history they do, so I think we need to give them space and money where it needs to be. We can think of new innovations that can feed more people in other countries and develop ways for people to be healthier in those countries but more of the budget needs to be allocated to the American people. Our government has repressed Native Americans and made this culture move thousands of miles across the U.S because our government is greedy. Now that we have a black president I feel he should help the minority culture in the U.S. The wealthiest 10% of the population holds 40% of the countries wealth and I feel that since this is so the country needs to help the poor. This will be a topic of discussion for the rest of the United States’ history because this budget affects everyone in the world and we need to be smart about how we spend our trillion-dollar budget. We spend so much money on health care and if we spend some of our foreign aid money in the United States in categories such as disease prevention people would be healthier and be less of a burden on the health care system. We need to be a better country and if we can solve our own problems before others’ we will be a better country.

Nepotism and affirmative action are topics that have been debated for years and will be topics of interest in the future to come. Affirmative action has done great things for the U.S like getting people into college. But if you look at what affirmative action is, it is giving minorities the leg up over the majority. I am a white male so affirmative action doesn’t really apply to me but I do have thoughts about its existence. Due to the history of the United States white people have been “on top” so to speak because of our history of slavery. We have not given minorities the chance to get on equal ground as the white people because as they gain more wealth so do the whites. So obviously white people don’t prefer this program because it doesn’t help white people get into more colleges but rather get denied because minorities have to take some of those spots. But I think that this program is fair. I understand that this program allows not as qualified people to get the acceptance letter but I believe that this is America and everybody has to have an equal opportunity for success. If minorities don’t have the opportunity to succeed then America cannot be successful. We have to give opportunity to people who normally couldn’t shine get the ability to and show who they could really be. But then again with nepotism we don’t let the minority get the leg up. With nepotism the more qualified people who need that job do not obtain the position. In this world it is all about connections and the people you know and nepotism plays a big role in this cycle. With nepotism the family friend is getting the job who usually is qualified but if this job was to be published in the newspaper and then people came in to interview for that position almost always those people will be more qualified for that position. You need experience to get the job and how can the minority get those jobs if they don’t even have the opportunity to? I remember Sam talking about people who went to prison and who would get a job after they got out of jail. White people were more likely to get the job than a black man even if they were convicted of a crime. It’s a vicious world and I think things needs to change. But it’s up the employer and that’s how it works. I have been in a position where nepotism works for me and I am grateful for it, but I know that there is someone out there that needs that job more than I do and is more qualified than I but the position wasn’t publicized; it was created so I could work there. I can’t complain about this but if people could allow the minority to have an equal opportunity as white people we would be a better country.

Giving out foreign aid to countries has been a topic that has sparked debate for many years now. We give billions and billions of dollars out to countries to try and boost their “economy” or even help people get access to clean water. But honestly I don’t think that our money is making a difference. I know we hope it is but I think the reality of our foreign aid isn’t helping the country be sustainable. I know that our country relies on money from other countries too but the money we give out to other countries exceeds what we take in. I’ve seen documentaries where some countries we give aid to still look as if they suffered their environmental disaster yesterday. All of the houses and structures are still demolished and people are still living in tents with no real beds or even have a foundation. All of this money taken out of our taxes could be put toward the U.S. system. Soon we will be facing a horrible crisis due to social security and the aging population of the U.S. and I think some of this money could be used to divert the crisis. I know it sounds bad to say that we shouldn’t give aid to other countries but I stand strongly on the fact that we need to be on good standing with our country rather than see no progress in other countries and billions of dollars wasted. I think we could solve the crisis of childhood hunger with the money getting shipped out of our country. Farms can be set up on this money and raise livestock and crops. It would also create jobs, which means more money would be put into the economy, which is always a good idea. I don’t know if these countries can survive without all the money pouring into their country but I’m sure not all of it actually goes to the people. Governments are corrupt and hold a lot more power than our government. So I’m sure they can withhold some of the money and use it as they want to. All of these governmental problems arise from when the stronger countries colonized these weaker countries because they didn’t have a government and so they put one in. But it wasn’t the people ruling the country it was the country that ruled over them and so the people have no skills of running the country when they demand independency. If the people were left to govern themselves I think these countries would be better off because they would know what’s best for their economy and their resources wouldn’t be exploited to their ruling country. I don’t think we will ever stop giving out foreign aid but if we do I think we will see a more unified United States of America.

Censoring language happens everyday because people think that certain language is offensive. No one is perfect and we make mistakes. We may try to censor our language around a new friend or to your boy/girl friend’s parent. We try not to insult people and we proceed with courtesy in new social situations. I know I censor my mouth everyday in college. Since enrolling in this class I have some new friends who wouldn’t normally be my friends and I sometimes have to take caution when talking to them. I try not to offend peoples races and when talking I take every image of the stereotype about their heritage and put it in the back of my head. We also censor our language out of fear. I remember a couple years ago I was watching the news when a news anchor was reporting her news and out comes, “What the fuck are you doing”? It went straight to commercial as I sit there in shock of what I just heard. I’ve never heard that word not bleeped out on the news before. It was weird why it shocked me. I say the word everyday and it’s used in our vocabulary but when it’s on the news it seems like if someone says a curse we make a big deal out of it. That’s the job of the media to expose crazy things done in the world but for cursing I don’t know why we make such a big deal. The News came back after commercial break and the anchor looked the camera in the lens and apologized for what she had said right before the commercial break. I think the company was in fear that if she had not apologized for her language that they would lose ratings, which would look very bad on the program. I think we fear saying something wrong because we don’t want people to judge us and anyway and that censors our language. In distinctive situations we perceive our language differently. If you were in a place or worship you do not curve because it is out of respect of the G-D’s we pray to. If we are at a party with loud music we don’t really censor our language very much at all. And it’s very easy to upset someone with our language in these situations. I don’t know why some curses offend some people because we gave these words a meaning and as long as we are not offending someone race, ethnicity, or heritage with these words I don’t see why they offend people. I am guilty of censoring my language because I think its fear. It’s that driving force in your head that says watch what your saying and be careful of how you say it.

When we talked with Maziar I was very focused and interested in what Maziar would say to our questions. That was an interesting class because Sam likes for people to establish relationships who you normally wouldn’t associate with and this was an extreme example. We video chatted with a citizen from Iran and Sam would ask him questions about his life and racial questions. I’ve never talked to someone from Iran before and it was a good experience. Sam asked him many questions about race but he also asked if Maziar hated Americans. Maziar quickly said no we love America and their people. I wasn’t so quick to trust him just because our countries are in a war with each other but then I realized that our war isn’t with law-abiding citizens but rather their government. Maziar was a normal outgoing guy who liked to laugh and joke with us. Another question that was interesting was that a student asked if Maziar hated his government. Sam was quick to tell Maziar to not answer that and move on to the next questions. This took the class back a little bit because Sam stopped Maziar from answering the question completely. And then I thought about how strict their government was and that if the government knew how he felt about the government that they would probably do him harm and Sam did not want this answer getting back to him. I think that Americans have these preconceptions about Iran because of the fact that we are in a war with them right now. Its unfortunate but this is how our culture feels. At the airports Muslims are searched more and its racist but that is just our culture’s views. Americans “look down” on Muslims and we are racist towards them because of our current situation. We think that their government is out of control and their people are terrorists. But we obviously know most are not. We watched a montage in class about the nightlife in Iran. It was young Iranians having the time of their life. They were out partying, smoking hookah and drinking alcohol with their friends. Most of us wouldn’t want to visit Iran before that montage but after the video the whole class was willing to go and have fun in Iran. It was great meeting Maziar because he talked highly of our country and his favorite shows to watch on T.V. were all American shows and still says it’s the land of opportunity, which is great to hear. I think before this class if we got a full paid trip to Iran not even half the class would take it. I think so because the media only portrays the bad things about Iran and not the partying and happy side.

I think that if 35,000 people did not die a year it would be catastrophic. I understand how horrible that sounds but the cycles of life don’t say that everyone lives healthy till they are in their 80’s. More people are not what we need in this world. Overpopulation is becoming a huge issue because our natural resources are not infinite and we need our reserves to last as long as possible. So the less people we have in the world the more resources we can conserve and use wisely. I know this sounds like I’m very selfish but I think that’s just the way the future is going to be. Our doubling rate for the U.S. population is decreasing in years, which means that the entire population will be doubled in around 70 years. I do not think we can survive with a doubled population. Americans like space but if our population keeps increasing our big spaces will have to get smaller to make room for million and millions of more people. Overpopulation in the world would have a huge affect on the world. We pollute the atmosphere and have extreme garbage removal problems that if we cannot fix these issues there will be tremendous problems in the future. Our metropolitan cities are already crowded and cause gridlocks and imagine if there were millions of more people in the U.S, we would have that many more jobless people living and struggling to find a living. I think our economy would suffer and I don’t think our cities can handle this huge flux in people. The crazy thing is that all these issues are a reality and with more medicine and technology becoming available people are dying less and living longer which is obviously great but in terms of sustainability it is not good. We are using more resources than ever and I think our intake will just keep increasing to the point where we can’t supply enough for our usage. Who knows how much clean fresh drinking water we have left and gasoline to power our electronics and cars. I sure as hell have no idea but I do know its not endless and I think there will be more wars over resources and control of land for a surging population. I don’t know of a plan that we can follow and I’m sure were going day by day to deal with all our problems but I think that the next presidency and the people in power after that are going to have the issues of dealing with our natural resources and population control rather than all the bullshit politics that our politicians talk about. Both parties have to compromise and use their knowledge for the benefit of the U.S. and not fight because their pride gets in the way.