I think the idea of sacrificing State Patty’s Day for the victims is certainly a generous idea but I don’t really think that it is a good idea. Not because I don’t think we should be giving anything up, but does it really seem logical that giving up a virtual “drinking holiday” would make our school look any better. First of all, I know that State Patty’s Day is big here, but when you look at it from the publics view they see things in a certain way. They see that well, first, we shouldn’t even be drinking because we aren’t 21. Also, the main goal of coming to school is not to drink, so the simple fact that we EVEN HAVE a drinking holiday wouldn’t come off as a very impressive thing to show how prestigious and quality of a school Penn State is in the midst of a crisis. So would giving up a drinking holiday make the national public that doesn’t even know we have this holiday think better about us? No. I’m sure the victims would appreciate it but let’s be real now. Even if we all pledged to give up State Patty’s Day, we all know there will be those groups of people who still go out and who still drink that day. There is no way we could regulate not drinking for a day, and frankly enough, peoples morals aren’t that high up to par. I guarantee someone would mess up, and THAT would make national news. All the media is trying to do at this point is make us look as bad as possible, so there is literally zero margin for error. Actually there is negative margin for error. I think that if we were going to show the victims we really care, and put the media in its place, we would have to do something really big and something really drastic that everyone might not agree on. I think that we should give up playing in a bowl game. Yes, I think the football Mecca of the east coast should give up one bowl game, THIS YEAR to show that we don’t take sexual abuse lightly, and that we care about the victims. Showing that we care means that we would have to give up something so close to us, something that we cherish so much that is almost un-give-up-able. And that would have to be a Penn State Football Game. It is so drastic that I think it would actually work. Desperate times call for desperate measures. The whole nation would obviously notice that we gave up a bowl game, and literally millions in revenue. Its almost like silencing our favorite thing for the right purposes. We have to be the change that we want to see, and it has to start with giving up something valuable to Penn State…something greater than a measly drinking holiday.

First, let me start by saying that in no way is this scandal to be taken lightly. Instead of focusing on how everything effects the football coaches, players, and administration, we should have and should still focus on the victims. These kids’ lives are forever marred with the horrific acts of one man and now they are in even tougher situations than they were before. All we can do as a community and as a university is try to ease the pain and make sure we focus on obtaining justice and promoting awareness of sexual abuse so less and less people can fall victim to such acts.
I have learned several lessons from this scandal, and obviously I wasn’t in the middle of it, but as a student at Penn State I really felt like I was. The one biggest lesson I learned from the scandal is that no one is immortal. I think we all know how much Joe Paterno means to our school. He is (or was at least) on the highest pedestal a coach in any sport for any university has ever been on in the history of the United States. He was the “God” of State College. His success as a coach on the field, (holds the record for most wins in a D-1 program), and as a role model off the field (donating four million to Penn State and millions to other programs), gave the public very justified reasons why he should be the deemed leader and face of an entire university. It is safe to say that after the countless decades Joe Paterno has served our school that he was looked at as “untoucheable” or as I say, immortal. He had his own statue in the stadium, his own flavors of ice cream, phone numbers ending in Joe Paterno (canyon pizza), and the list goes on and on. It is safe to say that after this whole scandal and the Grand Jury report was released, that some major changes were going to take place. Even though the media took it not just “a little to far” but probably the farthest ever, Joe Paterno did make a mistake. What he was trying to do, was help his friend and save his reputation and try to let him go off without any harm. Of course, Paterno scolded him and released him from the university but he did what any best friend would do, he tried to save his friend even when he knew he was horribly wrong. Paterno made the wrong decision, and yes he should have gone straight to the police. Should he have been fired? I don’t know the answer to that, but at the end of the day he made a mistake. And that mistake was unforgivable. Unforgiveable mistakes can even turn immortals into regular men. And sadly enough, that is exactly what happened in November of 2011 to Joe Paterno at Penn State. A king was dethroned, a legacy was tarnished, and his supporters and lovers stunned.

No, the riots wouldn’t have been that big without social media, and frankly I actually think they would have never happened. In our present generation: facebook, twitter, tumblr, etc. basically rule the social world. The biggest influence out of those three though is definitely facebook. Everyone has one and even though it is meant for students and teenagers, even adults have one now. Literally everyone: athletes, public figures, politicians, and us. When there is a planned event or even a spur of the moment event, someone creates an online event and can invite everyone of his or her friends or even the whole network. So in this case, the way I found out, was someone posted an event on facebook that there was going to be a riot because of the firing of the face of Penn State, Joe Paterno. On the event page, it said “When: (whatever time it was then)” and it said “Where: Beaver Avenue” and it also had a brief description of what it was all about. The person who made the event basically just wrote a bunch of curse words saying how could the board of trustees pull some stuff like this in a mad tone. Then, I looked at people attending and although the number wasn’t as high, that’s probably because people weren’t all on facebook at that point. All it takes is one of someones friends to be invited to that event and that event is spread actually easier by “word of mouth”. For example, I saw the event, and then got four of my friends to go see what the riots were really like. I didn’t plan on rioting at all but I knew that it was such a big deal that there was no way I was going to miss it.
Twitter also played a part in helping spread word of the riots. I follow a lot of kids on twitter who go to Penn State, so one of them tweeted “heard theres a riot downtown, bout to go see watsup”. I read that thinking “ok well if a couple others tweet that then it must be big.” A couple sorority girls I know also tweeted that they were going to the riot so at that point I was thinking that if they were going then I should go to. (If girls are going to a riot, then as a guy I should be going). Either way, I used facebook and twitter to see what was going on with my school. I didn’t even get texts until I was getting ready to go, so ultimately these social networks even beat out using my phone.
All in all, the new generation of social media is starting to control what can happen. If we didn’t have these social networks, no type of riot would have really even be organized because people wouldn’t know that that many people were downtown. Even if there was a riot downtown without facebook, it definitely wouldn’t have been as big as the one there was with social media.

People don’t see the benefits of immigration because they are too busy looking at the distractions of immigration. I feel as if the people that are upset with immigration are the rich white Americans living in America. Usually, most of the international communities are for immigration because its how their most recent generations even got to America so going against it would be hypocritical. Everyone’s excuse for immigration is that the immigrants are willing to work for the lowest wages and are thus, taking away jobs from the American Economy. The reason I don’t agree with this is because: anyone can work for those jobs, so if any citizen wanted to work that low then he or she could. The fact that Americans don’t want to work for those low wages is why they are being undercut, because other people are willing to sacrifice their well beings to come over to America and work from scratch (literally). My parents were both immigrants and they didn’t come over and take the lowest paying jobs at all. They simply had better work ethic so they beat out the Americans who are actually as a whole a hell of a whole lot lazier than immigrants. The stereotype is (and we know most stereotypes are true) that Americans have everything handed to them and they never have to REALLY work up from anything like people from third world countries. The benefits are vast: harder workers makes our country better overall, people willing to do the dirty work will boost business, and staying diversified make us a nation. EVERYONE was an immigrant at some point except for the Native Americans who ironically are the ones now being mistreated by every single group in America. Republicans and snotty rich people will always be bullying the lower socioeconomic group, that is how they make their money. They are bullies and only want what is right for them, and unfortunately that corrupts government and everything below that. The pessimists will always see the disadvantages weighing over the advantages. And using the argument that this is not their home country is purely hypocritical because once again every single person’s ancesetors had to come here at one point: Europeans, Asians, Africans, Middle Easterns, everyone. And there are people that do see the benefits, its just that the people in control are the ones brainwashing us telling the public what they want us to believe. Government is corrupt whether you want to believe it or not. These people should ask themselves if they were living in a third world country and wanted to make a better life for their familys if they would just sit back and watch the American dream piss away. The answer would be no. We aren’t born equal, and the people at the top are subtly trying to say that.

First of all, I do not really know what “we” refers too. It could refer to the white race of America, or all of the races of America itself. But in those races, lies the Native American race so “we” wouldn’t really make sense. I will just assume it means everyone other than the Native Americans living in the United States.
Since the beginning of time, the world always revolved and ran around the principle of “survival of the fittest”. Nothing was “anyone’s” land. No land has someone’s certain name on it. Since the beginning of history, if a group of people wanted something, they took it. Rome was over taken, Egypt was over taken, Israel was over taken, and basically every piece of land was overtaken at some point. In order for the settlers to actually start a “new world” and their own country, they first had to kick out the indigenous. It might not have been the right thing to do, and they definitely probably could have shared it, but they wanted the land so they took it. Whether genocide was uncalled for, ungodly, or whatever, “survival of the fittest” came into play. The whites were stronger and more powerful than the Native Americans and they used their guns, traps, and numbers to wipe them out. If you want to “give back” what was taken, then you are basically forfeiting your whole life up. Although it isn’t our fault directly, it is our ancestors fault. Whether the burden falls upon us or not, is not in my knowledge, but ask yourself if you would want to give up the way you live, the things you do, and the people you see. Then you will find out that there is know way we should give anything back. We were born (or we are in it now) into this great situation (living in the US) and many people across the world would kill to have it.
Instead of thinking about whether we should give it back or not, we should be THANKFUL for what we do have. I am lucky for one. My parents immigrated to the United States when they were young and built up from nothing. Now I live in a nice house, I lived in a pretty good neighborhood, and I received a really good education. I’ve gotten things in life that my parents never got to experience and it would have never happened if we didn’t live in America. My parents both had a chance at the American Dream and they both reached it. Without having America I wouldn’t be here in this great situation I am today. So no, we should not give back what was taken.

In a black centered world, everything would just be the opposite. If you think about it all that would happen is that the whites and blacks would switch places. Brown people would have the same place in society because they are still in the middle. The reason I am saying that it would be the same is because its not like the black centered community would know about what happened when the world was a white centered world. It’s hard to explain but I’m trying to say that you wouldn’t know the past if it never happened. So basically, the white people would have been slaves, the white people would have been conquered for years upon years and the places would be virtually identically switched. Whoever is the dominant race in power will never be wiling to give it up. Power like that is always abused and the only reason to ever have power is to have SPECIAL rights living with the greatest circumstances. Obviously, white people would still have many opportunities in the world, just like black people have today (agreeing that it is a white centered world) but it would definitely be looked at a lot differently. The White House would be called the Black House, most of the actors in Hollywood would be lack, there would be affirmative action for white people, white people would be the ones being lynched, and black people would be at the top of every economic scale. Most quarterbacks in the NFL would be black, and it would be easier for white kids to get into college. Racism would be towards mostly white people and so on and so on. But, this is all speculation, because really we have no idea. I just think that whatever race is in power is always going to abuse it and exploit the advantages. Who wouldn’t? I’m brown and I would probably still have the same place in the community and society overall because I am still the middle color and in the middle whichever way you look at it. Its like a palindrome, “wow”, I am still the “o” and will always be in the middle whether you flip the “w” s around or not. Black people would have the highest income in the United States and white people would probably be at the bottom at the list. Good financing, no credit, no money down, no problem. The funny thing is we have a black president…so I don’t really know how all of that would workout because we’ve had white presidents too (like 43 of them) so I guess there would be 43 black presidents and 1 kind of white president if you look at it that way. A black centered world? Only thing that would change is power and the color that has the power. And there would be no such thing as the n-word.

Even though I don’t think about most things in terms of race, my views of the world have been greatly affected (without me even really knowing) by race. As a minority in America, my world is reduced to America because that is where I live. I don’t actually mean that I don’t take account for the world, but I am saying I consider my inner bubble to be the country in which I live in. My parents came to America at a young age, my Mom came with my grandparents who virtually started with nothing, and my Dad came here by himself after his father died. Two Indian immigrant families worked their way up from nothing. Literally scratch, nothing. My Mom is now a CPA and CFO of her company and my Dad is a Senior Manager in his company both very prosperous and very successful. They’ve raised me to be the same way: hardworking, goal oriented, value based, and an overall balanced kid. They gave me things they could never have in life: sports, parties, money, anything. But they also taught me that money does not come easily. While you could say we are a wealthy family, they do not just “give me money”. Yeah, they pay for something here or there and will give me 5 or 10 bucks to go out and eat, but they’ve raised me to work for myself. I worked two jobs this summer in order to pay off my own bills when my parents could have easily handed me all the money. They are trying to teach me what they had to work through and work for. This ties into race because I believe that as a minority coming to this country, the hard work and the values they brought over are so different than the white culture instilled in white kids I see today (not all just some so don’t reply to me saying that I am racist and don’t know what I’m talking about). I feel as if minorities in this country have worked a lot harder than the dominant race to be where they are now. It is very general and broad but a lot of these rich white kids don’t appreciate anything because everything is handed to them. They never had to see their parents struggle or hear the stories of coming from another country. Race shapes the way I view the world in terms of hard work and values. I can always connect with someone of my race just in knowing that most likely we have the same upbringing. My parents brought me up to appreciate everything I have, to stay disciplined, and to keep my priorities in order.

I’m going to start this post by saying I don’t have anything against gay people and I think they should all have the same rights as straight people. At the same time I can’t wait for the day I have my first son. I am going to start coaching him at an early age to become a basketball player like me, and even a football player. Basically, he is going to be everything I would want him to be: smart, balanced, athletic, outgoing, just like his Dad. In no plans do I plan for my son to be gay. That would change the whole game. I’m not sure how I would handle it but, I know for one if he was gay it wouldn’t just be like one day I just find out he was gay. Over time I would pickup hints that he doesn’t like doing certain things, or he talks a certain way, or has certain friends, and acts a certain way. Of course I will be surprised and disappointed if he officially comes out of the closet and admits that he is gay, but at no point in time will I stop loving my son. My son will be who he is, and I will love him for exactly that: who he is. I cannot say that any parent wants his child to be gay or even hopes that he is. No disrespect, but the truth is, this is a straight man’s world and I would never want my child to suffer emotionally in his own body or mentally in his own mind knowing that he doesn’t fit into society. I want to go to my son’s basketball games and see him lead his team to a win. I want to attend his Homecoming picture party and see him with a pretty girl. Every father wants to see his son succeed in a way that would make us proud and if my son was gay I can easily say that I wouldn’t be proud in those ways. I would be let down. But life is larger than that; there are other ways to be proud of your child, straight or gay. I think the end goal in life is to be happy. If my son is gay and he is happy with who he is, then, who am I to say he shouldn’t be? I will support him straight or gay and be his biggest supporter at that. While it may not be what I wanted him to be, I can realize that it wasn’t his choice nor my own. The world is not perfect and my son will always be my son and I will support him in life no matter what.

Race and drug usage have no correlation whatsoever. At least not in the terms of who uses it. Maybe it does in who uses it the MOST, but lets be honest…people from every race, culture, background, ethnicity, religion, or whatever use illicit drugs. An illicit drug is defined as “a drug that is not legally permitted; unlawful”. As Sam pointed out in class, we are excluding alcohol from this discussion as an illicit drug because one, it is legal for those 21 and older, and two those of us who aren’t 21 still use it anyways. I’m pretty sure the majority of Penn State has tried an illicit drug, for example, weed. If you haven’t then I would probably believe you because I haven’t done it that much in my life. But, what I can tell you is that I know at least one person from every race (and I know a lot of people) that has smoked the ganja. I think the environment that we grow up in determines the amount of drug usage or usage at all. Media has a lot to do with it and has influenced kids through: music, TV shows, and movies. Popular Hip Hop artist Wiz Khalifa has so many fans that listen to his music (weed based) that have also picked up smoking weed just because its all he talks about. I know this because a lot of kids from my hometown started smoking solely because of Wiz Khalifa. Weeds, a popular TV show, is a pilot that is about growing and selling weed and Pineapple Express, a funny movie about weed, is also another factor of influence from the media. My highschool was a very diverse place: Whites, Blacks, Asians, Indians, Arabs, everything…and a lot of the kids would smoke after school even before some of our basketball practices. One of my coaches used to call it weed central. I grew up in the suburbs of Baltimore and the availability of drugs is unreal. All it takes is one phone call and anything from Ecstasy to Cocaine could be in your hand at the next party. The point I am trying to make is that race has nothing to do with it and rather environment and experiences have everything to do with drug usage. If a person is willing to use drugs, and has the determination to go and get the drugs and use it, then that person will use it. The drug doesn’t care what color you are, it will just have its effect on you. Drug dealers don’t care who they are selling it too because they just want the money, so there is no bias in who gets to buy it or use it. Race doesn’t matter.

After watching a few of the Haiti Entreprenur Initiative videos my eyes were really opened to the types of things citizens in third world countries have to do to in order to get by or make a good living for them and their families. I watched the video about Sonia Joseph and her insulated lunch bags, suitcases, and would definitely like to get involved with that project. The bags are pretty magnificent considering the machine she was using was so small. If she had a big sewing machine, not that I know much about it, she would be able to be a lot more productive. I also found it interesting that she sells her lunch bags for four American dollars, which is ridiculously cheap. She will put in ten times as much work as a group of factory workers who basically will make it through machines and assembly lines while they are making more money off of each product sold. I don’t really understand how we would be helping them but those are some questions I will ask this week.
I am intrigued to become involved in this project because these people have a lot less than we do as kids living in America. I think this could be the most productive thing I could do in one of my classes because we would actually be helping someone, and in turn improving the world. Last lecture brought light to me that, even though it seems like we are sending a ton of money to other countries in need, the reality is that most of the money is coming right back into our country so virtually we aren’t really helping out that much. Just like that example in class, where the newspaper headline read US donates 3 billion and 2.5 billion was filtered in some sly way right back to the United States through farmers, distributors, etc. Also, there was another good example in class about the story Sam told when he visited South Africa. The lady said that all the money just went to the head guys in the government. Their cars got nicer, the houses got bigger, but no money was actually being given to the poor people who needed it.
I hope this Haiti Project will teach kids in our class to not only appreciate what we have and where we live, but hard work these people put in day in and day out in order to reach their dreams of financial success with their ideas. My family is from a third world country and I have visited there and can easily compare the two situations. To help the people out from Haiti would make me feel like a boss.