I think that if people were more willing to go out and meet these people in the prison who have no other option but to make all they can out of their lives in prison, they would reevaluate what they do for society.
Like the man who wrote the letter in the blog said, most of the men in the prison aren’t the cold hearted criminals that you think they are. I think something changes in them when they know that there is no way out of prison. They have time to think about the things that really matter in life. Unlike most of us that go through life not even giving a second thought about needy people, these guys are and tearing up when they hear things that happen in the outside world. Also, they are willing to put their opinions about each other and be there for one another in their time of need. How many of us are willing to do that? The inmates also want to give blood and donate money to people in need. These is really eye-opening to think about, men that are in prison for MURDERING someone are more willing to help people than we are. It’s a shame really.
This blog made me think of the story that Sam told us about the man that got charged for murder when he got into a bar fight and the other guy fell and died. The guy never meant for anything that bad to happen to the other man but an accident happened and now he has to unfortunately pay the price for it. When the man was in prison, he decided to embrace the situation and make the best of it. If I was the man that had to be in prison, I would be very mad and would probably through a fit because it wasn’t my fault. But his reaction of accepting his fate and then makings something of it speaks volumes.
I’m really glad that Sam posted this on the blog. When Sam and his wife talked about their trips to the prisons to meet with people that were in for life, I was always interested in their stories. I’ve never thought about what it must be like to be in prison and know that there is absolutely no way that you will leave unless you are dead. I can’t imagine what a person must go through after knowing this. There must be certain stages that they go through most likely being anger, denial, hope, and then acceptance. I think that we most often think about people in prison as only the people that committed these terrible and horrible crimes. We never think about inmates as a person that only did one thing wrong or made a bad decision and now has to pay for it.
I think that this lecture was a very powerful wakeup call. Perceived ideas about anyone are very dangerous. We need to put ourselves in the other person’s shoes before we attack with words or actions. This is not the easiest thing to do when we are only shown media or told about the worst things about someone or a country. But if we can take what we have learned from this lecture and are able to inform someone else about the truth and are able to correct those perceived ideas, our world would be in a better place.
I think that this lecture was a very powerful wakeup call. Perceived ideas about anyone are very dangerous. We need to put ourselves in the other person’s shoes before we attack with words or actions. This is not the easiest thing to do when we are only shown media or told about the worst things about someone or a country. But if we can take what we have learned from this lecture and are able to inform someone else about the truth and are able to correct those perceived ideas, our world would be in a better place.
When Sam showed us the videos about US soldiers harassing Iraqi people, I was furious. I can’t believe that men in our army would do something as low as that. There was no reason to run over the group’s car with the tank even if they were looting. It’s their car! The other video of a US tank bumping into a truck is infuriating also. I can see why Iraqi people think that the whole United States is like that. Sam is right that these men are what the Iraqi’s are shown over the news. They do not see the nice soldier offering candy and playing with young children. I was pretty shocked when this came the other way around with the US civilians. Not all people from the Middle East are terrorists. There are radicals in every nation. The sad thing is that these few groups of people give the other countries a bad reputation. The picture of the little Iraqi kids holding guns pretty much explains this. Yes, there are a few groups of people that recruit small children to join their cause but not all of the children in Iraq have guns. Like Sam said he knows people in Iraq that have never met people that are part of these groups in their WHOLE LIVES.
I have to admit that I was really surprised by yesterday lecture. I went into the class feeling like Sam was only going to bash Christians about our beliefs and ideas. After the first few slides of the presentation, I realized that I was totally wrong about the lecture. I was still a little irritated and taken back by the examples that he used to describe our views but the lecture did open up a totally new idea for me. When Sam told us to put on the mind set of an Iraqi college student, I was very shocked at my reaction to what I would feel. It all makes sense that the Iraqi people feel so strongly about this war. I wouldn’t want someone else to come into my country and try to claim something as theirs when it is mine. I can agree that the war is based on oil.
I don’t know, I guess this makes me pretty upset now that I have been going on with my life without really thinking about the people that made what I bought and what they had to go through in making it.
So, yes. I think that Sam doesn’t necessarily change our minds about topics but he really does make us think and form an opinion about the things he brings up in lecture.
I think it's true when he says "You never know what you don't know unless you hear it." This is a very true statement because I didn't know about some aspects of racial discrimination and slavery before he mentioned them in lecture. For instance, I never knew that Wal-Mart was helping slavery. Since I love going to Wal-Mart and saving on things, this makes me feel a different way about going to Wal-Mart. I saw a commercial on TV today which was about a Wal-Mart truck driver doing things so Wal-Mart customers could save even more. I said to myself, “yeah saving more money but to what other people’s expense?” This commercial also got me thinking about Wal-Mart’s motto; “save money, live better.” Yes it saves us money and we can live better but we are like the movie in class states, “eating slave’s flesh” or buying their flesh.
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Creation