en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/3550658 Comments by exeter52 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/29/voices-from-the-classroom-83/#IDComment230680424 . Just because a small group of rebels or terrorists from a country caused a bombing or committed another terroristic attack, that doesn’t mean the entire country is like that. Another thing I took from Sam’s lecture is how the media distorts all what we see and understand. It really got me thinking how we only see the positive side of the war and with our soldiers and never all of the negative aspects and the wrong doings by our US military. Thu, 1 Dec 2011 01:51:43 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/29/voices-from-the-classroom-83/#IDComment230680424 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/29/voices-from-the-classroom-83/#IDComment230680257 This thought is frightening to me. Another thing I thought about is if the war is all about oil, where are the records or pictures or videos of it being shipped back to the US. I find it hard to believe that if this is truly the motivation for the war and that this is what is happening, even if the US military and government is trying to hide that fact that not one image or record shows oil from the middle east taken under military force entering the US. Sam also really got me thinking about how I would feel if I were an Arab or Muslim living in the Middle East during the war. By putting myself in their shoes, I would feel some sort of way with this war and can in a smaller way see their side now. I would be mad as hell if the Chinese came to PA to take our coal and started killing my people for it. I think the US lost sight of the real reason to go to war and that is to fight against terrorism and provide a safer world, not to invade a country, kill civilians, and take their oil. I think one of the main problems that occur between civilians of different countries and militaries of different countries is the stereotyping. Thu, 1 Dec 2011 01:51:27 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/29/voices-from-the-classroom-83/#IDComment230680257 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/29/voices-from-the-classroom-83/#IDComment230680078 Sam did change my view of the war. I was in support of the war after 9/11 but I do feel that we have been in the Middle East far too long and that our missions and goals could have been executed quicker instead of over ten years. Sam’s discussion got me to think about a lot of things. One of those things is if the war is really about oil and that 9/11 was the perfect excuse to invade the Middle East and obtain oil. After Sam’s discussion, I am leaning more towards this accusation. At first it may have been about 9/11 but it seemed like the perfect opportunity for the government to use military forces to take oil. Another thought that came to my mind is one that frightens me and I wish to not believe. The thought is that the US government caused 9/11 as an excuse to have a reason to declare war and obtain oil. Thu, 1 Dec 2011 01:51:16 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/29/voices-from-the-classroom-83/#IDComment230680078 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/15/voices-from-the-classroom-78/#IDComment222601286 To apply this to my life, I would like to believe that I will always be able to make the right choice no matter how hard it may be. I would like to believe that good men will triumph evil and that there are still well respected honorable men in this world, especially at Penn state, who can be and are looked up to as an example. Some people love and thrive off of successful well respected people making a mistake or failing. And when in a position of great power it makes it that much harder not to slip up. However, it can and has been done and it WILL be restored to this university over time. Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:52:04 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/15/voices-from-the-classroom-78/#IDComment222601286 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/15/voices-from-the-classroom-78/#IDComment222601209 Spanier and especially Paterno looked up to by millions as immortals and the greatest citizens in society. Lesson learned is that no matter what they have done or for how long every human is capable of making a wrong decision or a wrong act, especially when in a high position of power when it is believed it can be easily covered up. However, I think this goes to show that no matter what the crime or no matter how much power you have the truth always and always will be revealed. And the reason for that, at least the reason I like to believe, is that for every man who commits an evil act, there is a good man willing to step in and stop it. This may not happen at first, but it eventually will happen. As a society we cannot live in fear and we must always trust that good men will step up to the plate to do what is right. Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:51:52 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/15/voices-from-the-classroom-78/#IDComment222601209 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/15/voices-from-the-classroom-78/#IDComment222601141 I think the most important lesson I have learned from this whole situation is to always do the right and morale thing. One of my favorite quotes, “evil prevails when good men do nothing” certainty applies to all the events that have happened. I truly believe this. Evil and wrongful acts will always occur. Good men who have the ability to stop wrongful acts have the responsibility and duty to do so. Another lesson I learned from this situation is to be careful of ones words compared to their actions. Especially in this situation, hypocrisy can be seen all over the place. Paterno, Spanier, and everyone else involved for decades preached of integrity, honor, and morals and yet their actions obviously contradict their words. I am not saying that every person of power is corrupt or a hypocrite, but I guess the lesson to be learned here is not to be fooled. Don’t let a person’s history, power status, social status, or public affection shed away from the fact that they too are human, and humans mess up. Millions of people, including myself, looked up to these people as an example. Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:51:40 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/15/voices-from-the-classroom-78/#IDComment222601141 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/09/voices-from-the-classroom-34/#IDComment219555298 . I wrote about how all of the principles were not doing their jobs and that the school board members are oblivious to what is really going on. I bashed every person from the School Board Director to the assistant principals and everyone in between for not taking any action and I stuck that letter in all of their mailboxes. I put my entire academic and athletic reputation on the line. Needless to say the next day at school I was called into the principal’s office the next day. My principals words were, “You have the school boards, athletic boards, and the principals attention now. “ That week, myself and our other captain of the team stood in front the principals, the school board, the athletic board, and every athletic coach in our high school as we were invited to an emergency conducted meeting. Needless to say, everything with parents and community members ended after that meeting. This year, only two years after that meeting, the team went 7-3. Wed, 9 Nov 2011 23:16:52 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/09/voices-from-the-classroom-34/#IDComment219555298 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/09/voices-from-the-classroom-34/#IDComment219555199 Parents would barge into the locker room and disrupt team meetings to give the coach their opinion or bitch about their sons playing time. Death threats were mailed to our coach because we weren’t winning games and parents were going to the principles complaining who then would crack down on our coach over something not worth cracking down on. This was always a problem at my high school. After my junior year and our second losing season, I had to question my morals. I knew what was happening to our coaching staff and out team was not fair. Our coach was eventually driven out of town. I had a decision to make. I could let things continue to go how they have always been, or I could act upon what I believe is wrong. One night I wrote a letter. I wrote a letter describing every parent or community member incident against our coach and football team. I wrote about how the principles gave our coach no support and always sided with the parents to keep them happy even when they were wrong. Wed, 9 Nov 2011 23:16:40 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/09/voices-from-the-classroom-34/#IDComment219555199 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/09/voices-from-the-classroom-34/#IDComment219555110 I believe people’s morals and beliefs are tested every day. This can be on a very small scale or on a large one. However, I believe to truly have morals and beliefs you must act upon them when a situation arises that goes against them or when they are questioned. In other words, your words must match your actions to truly be a moral or a belief. It is real easy to say you belief one thing or have a side on a subject, but if you do not act upon your words when put in question they are simply just words. I will respect the man whose words are put into action, even if I do not agree with his moral or belief, over the person who just spits words into the air. There have been a couple times in my life when my morals have come into question, not just by others but by myself as well, to a large extent. In my three year high school football career, my football team and coach lived under scrutiny and harassment from the community and parents. Wed, 9 Nov 2011 23:16:27 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/09/voices-from-the-classroom-34/#IDComment219555110 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/01/voices-from-the-classroom-60/#IDComment215909049 Just because you get laid off from a white or blue collar job, doesn’t mean you can’t work at burger king, work as a trash man, or work a labor intensive job instead of sitting on your butt collecting welfare. Put yourself in their shoes. If you were born with absolutely nothing and lived in a poverty stricken town or country what would you do? You would do what all of the illegal immigrants are doing. You would do whatever it took to have a better life for yourself and your family. What would you want for your kids? Would you want them to have the same life your living or would you do anything possible to try to give them a better life? Wed, 2 Nov 2011 18:30:01 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/01/voices-from-the-classroom-60/#IDComment215909049 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/01/voices-from-the-classroom-60/#IDComment215908314 I found that fact that we learned in class how US citizens barely lasted an hour out in the fields picking crops very interesting and not surprising. Illegal immigrants have a stronger drive and will to do the work and sustain a better life than the Americans who are lazy. If Americans are too lazy or not willing to do the labored work that illegal immigrants are, more power to the aliens for getting off their ass and actually having a job and trying to better themselves and their lives. If all of the large crop producers relied on legal US citizens to work for them, the crops would not get picked and the producers would lose money and the entire economy would be worse off than it already is. In this era of a bad economy and high unemployment rate, I believe it’s not fully because that jobs are not available but that Americans are not willing to work the “harder or crappier” jobs that are available. Wed, 2 Nov 2011 18:28:12 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/01/voices-from-the-classroom-60/#IDComment215908314 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/01/voices-from-the-classroom-60/#IDComment215908205 If I was a business owner, I would absolutely hire illegal immigrants. If two applicants were both equally qualified for the same job except one was a US citizen and one was an illegal immigrant willing to work for less, I would choose the illegal immigrant for many reasons. The first reason is because of humanity. Illegal immigrants are still PEOPLE and are the same as anyone else except they are trying to have a better life that was deprived of them due to free will and uncontrollable forces such as being born in a bad country. If they are equally qualified, they shouldn’t be dismissed. They have to make money and sustain their own life as well as probably the lives of his or her family. The rest of the reasons come from a business stand point. If I could hire an illegal immigrant to do a job at a cheaper wage than a US citizen, equally qualified mind you, that means more profit for my business, myself, and my family. Not only are they willing to work for less money, but they will most likely work much harder and do a hell of a better job than anyone else. Wed, 2 Nov 2011 18:27:55 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/11/01/voices-from-the-classroom-60/#IDComment215908205 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/26/arizona-senators-vote-to-allow-college-clubs-to-refuse-members/#IDComment212753196 . I believe people tend to overlook the fact that a scholarship for just black people is a sort of discrimination. If someone created a scholarship just for white people, every person of color or different race would be the first to call it out as racist. Why is it this way? Also, if we are all equal and race does not matter, then why do schools have a “quota” for all the different types of race? In high school, I had numerous friends who had pretty decent grades and did okay on their SATs. One of the friends in our group was a Spanish girl who did well in school and was smart but had now where near the GPA or SAT scores as my other white friends. All of them applied to Penn State University Park last fall and guess who was the one who got excepted? You cannot say that race did not play a factor. Wed, 26 Oct 2011 23:18:20 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/26/arizona-senators-vote-to-allow-college-clubs-to-refuse-members/#IDComment212753196 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/26/arizona-senators-vote-to-allow-college-clubs-to-refuse-members/#IDComment212753142 The first is that maybe only that type of person wants to join that group. The second, people who are not like them are unable to become members. Here at Penn State I can’t make a true statement in saying which is why but it is easily evident that these groups are present. Either way, it is just as discrimination as if a black person was not allowed into a “white group.” Discrimination is discrimination, it does not matter what type of group it’s against. I feel that some people think that discrimination against white people does not exist. I could not agree more. When I was filling out college applications I was also filling out scholarship applications. I could not tell you how many scholarships there are out there for just a certain race, a certain sex, a certain whatever. However, one thing I never saw was a scholarship just for white people. Wed, 26 Oct 2011 23:18:10 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/26/arizona-senators-vote-to-allow-college-clubs-to-refuse-members/#IDComment212753142 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/26/arizona-senators-vote-to-allow-college-clubs-to-refuse-members/#IDComment212753072 I was very surprised when I saw this article. It is astonishing that a state would actually vote in that favor considering all of the things this country is doing in this era to prevent against discrimination. I do not believe this decision should be up to the state. There should be a federal law that applies to all the states that would not allow for such an act. However, I would be naive if I did not believe that this happens with or without a law for it or against it. I am unaware of the Pennsylvania laws on this matter but at a student at Penn State, it is obvious that certain groups only have certain types of members. I have seen numerous fraternities or sororities that are “all black, Hispanic, Asian, or any other type of group.” I put that in quotes because I cannot make that a factual statement for not have meeting every member in that group. But there are clubs and groups that are mostly one type of people whether by religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. There could be two reasons for this. Wed, 26 Oct 2011 23:17:57 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/26/arizona-senators-vote-to-allow-college-clubs-to-refuse-members/#IDComment212753072 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/13/voices-from-the-classroom-46/#IDComment209724052 . However, I disagree with the fact that in expressing their heritage and race, they make a point against white people. I encountered some people of color who have created generalized stereotypes or hatred against all people based on their encounter of one or two white people. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard a person of color say “you white people.” It is hard for me to determine that I am in one stage. I am sure Sam could put me in one of the stages but I feel like there is a little piece of me in more than one of the stages Wed, 19 Oct 2011 18:25:02 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/13/voices-from-the-classroom-46/#IDComment209724052 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/13/voices-from-the-classroom-46/#IDComment209723987 . Part of me however feels like I am in stage three as well. There are two things about people of color that I have yet to understand. The first is why is it ok to have scholarships, clubs, fraternities, or anything.g of the sort for people of a certain race or color? If it were the opposite, have secluded white groups, people would label that racism is a second. This brings me to my second question. Why are some, not all, people of color so easily say that confrontations between white people occur because they are racist? I have been in multiple situations where I have confronted people of color about a situation that had absolutely nothing to do with race but was called racist. I am anything but. I am not angry about this fact but it doesn’t make life any easier for white people. I couldn’t agree more or support if people of color want to express or build morale about their color or race. Wed, 19 Oct 2011 18:24:50 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/13/voices-from-the-classroom-46/#IDComment209723987 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/13/voices-from-the-classroom-46/#IDComment209723899 I believe I am in an in between stage between 2 and 3. Being in stage 2, I do recognize that there is an “us and a them”. However, I like to think that I never let that fact affect how I interact with people and live my life. Also, when it comes to how I would describe people, I never want to offend them or say something wrong that would offend them. This is always very difficult because there are things that I can say with my friends of color that I probably could never say and would be unacceptable to other people of color. I couldn’t agree more that some people of color do not make this any easier for white people. In high school, there was a black kid who always hung out with my group of friends. He went on trips to myrtle and senior week and there was never an awkward moment because he was black. It actually made it a little easier being able to joke about “racial” things which brought us closer. Wed, 19 Oct 2011 18:24:34 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/13/voices-from-the-classroom-46/#IDComment209723899 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/06/voices-from-the-classroom-40/#IDComment206713398 In saying that, I feel girls are more self-conscious and are going to dress similar to how their friends are dressing. You never see a single girl dressed in jeans or a sweat shirt when all of their other friends are in heels and a skirt even if they want to. They may choose to wear skirts because that’s what all of their friends are wearing. Girls are defiantly guiltier of doing this than guys are. But, if you want to get the attention of people, especially the opposite sexes, then you’re going to wear whatever you feel is most likely to do so. In my opinion, if your good looking your good looking. I am just as likely to talk to a girl, of the same attractiveness, who has a short skirt on compared to one who has sweatpants. Most guys however, follow their needy penis and are attracted to girls who have the least amount of clothing on and girls are 100% aware of this fact. As far as guys go, I don’t feel like they just wear whatever they want. Thu, 13 Oct 2011 00:19:29 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/06/voices-from-the-classroom-40/#IDComment206713398 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/06/voices-from-the-classroom-40/#IDComment206712762 . If the occasion calls for it, they are just as likely to dress nicely whether it be a polo or button down. It’s all about fitting in and matching for the occasion and based on what other people are wearing. If girls are wearing short skirts and heels, a guy isn’t going to be wearing a t shirt and gym shorts. He is going to make himself just as presentable in a guy way. Unfortunately, for girls at least, the world is scene through a guy’s view in which less is more. Whether you like it or not, what you wear says a lot about you and how you are feeling at that time. There are girls, however, that dress up like sluts with little on but when approached by a guy, even in a casual way, then shun them away or are complete bitches. This is wrong and unfair. Girls, if you don’t want the attention, don’t dress like you do. Thu, 13 Oct 2011 00:17:38 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/10/06/voices-from-the-classroom-40/#IDComment206712762