After reading this article, it made me take some time to consider whether or not it would bother me if for some reason I needed a transgender person to watch me in these types of situations. I concluded that the individual does not have alternative motives; he or she is simply doing their job. Thinking about this situation allows me to think about what the titles of gender actually mean. Why is it necessary, in today’s world, to only consider male and female as an option when many people do not feel they can perfect mold to either of these groups? A person can be labeled male or female but ultimately, there is a need to change the labels of society because many individuals feel they cannot identify themselves with either of these particular groups. In today’s world, the traditional male and female genders are somewhat disappearing, or in any case, dividing into many more sub groups and ultimately altering the view of sexuality for many people. In this article, the “female-born” male is just what he identifies himself as. Male. The man was trying to work and act as a functional member of society; he had a job and was living the way he felt. It is a shame for outsiders to claim they know more about how he should live his life and try to determine his life for him. His boss did not have the right to invade his privacy when legally he was a male. This was the truth for him. This pressure from society to conform to a specific set of guidelines and live by them only because you are born a specific way does not correspond with the way the individual in this article truly feels. Also, it is not exactly fair that up until the point that this individual could legally change to a “male” that he was forced to designate his false gender on things such as a driver’s license or in society when to him, this was not his true self. In the end, this is the result that our two-gender world is forming. People who do not feel like they belong in their biologically born gender are essentially claiming a false identity and possibly in their eyes they consider it fraud.

The awful aftermath for many brave soldiers returning from war and suffering from PTSD seems highly unfair and an issue that should be changed. The men and women that put their lives on hold to fight for our country, our safety, and our freedom should not be burdened by returning to their normal lives unhappy. I feel it is our responsibility, as a country and as individuals, to improve the attention and psychological care given to the soldiers while they are away. There is no doubt that being placed in a situation where death is the normalcy and all moral restraints are questionable that this will change a person’s personality. This change should not result in these heroes taking their own lives as a result of the citizen’s ignorance for their need for help. After being trained to kill, returning home to a family and the norms of society has to be a difficult transition. At war, the men and women focus on dehumanizing their opponents in order to kill easier. Allowing oneself to disregard moral consciousness in order to perform the necessary task will follow the soldier for the rest of their lives. Their placement back to mundane activities such as going to the grocery store or taking their children to school can turn into a vicious flashback to the days of war and living in fear by a single noise reinitiating their memories. Living with the daily wariness that something may cause them to react how they would in the days at war creates an anxiety about being around civilians and loved ones. Although it is extremely unfortunate that many soldiers having courageously died in battle, it is traumatizing to acknowledge the number of men and women that have taken their own lives while away or after he or she has returned. There is no reason after the terrible events that have already occurred for the returning soldiers that there should not be a more effective system to managing the possibilities of emerging cases of PTSD while at away at war. It is our responsibility as a nation to take care of our soldiers because they are risking everything to serve and protect us.

Growing up in a time of war leaves an impact on a person for their entire lives. Experiencing death, tragedy, and loss of loves ones as a common occurence leaves a person left lost in their own homes. The women of war, although they may not be physically fighting, are just as much soldiers of war as men. The women have to deal with the constant fear of something bad happening to their children and husbands. In addition, with women held to a lower standard in many places of war, the women have a constant fear of being capture or taken as a slave in war. For example, the women of the Congo are just one group of women who have to live in constant fear of being raped. The women there are just as much property to claim in war as land itself. There have been many reports of women being raped in front of their own children and to recover from these events, sometimes daily, and return to providing for their loved ones shows an immense amount of strength that is many times over looked from society.
Women in addition to dealing with preventing fear experienced by their children and families, also claim it as a responsibility of women to maintain as much normalcy in society that is possible in order to keep the society functioning. They are healing the sick, maintaining the homes, caring for their love ones all while constantly fearing that today may be the day that their life will end. They continue their lives each day by being the true producers of war in order to replenish their troops, not only through supplies but also through birthing new baby soldiers.
Regardless of these heroic actions that are all ready overlooked by their families, women of war generally have no say in the end result of war. After the fighting ends and men return home, the fact that the women have been providing and sustaining the homes for their husbands is forgotten and the decisions return to being a man’s responsibility. This being many examples of the unfair ways women are treated during times of war provides insight to the struggles of women and how they truly can be considered soldiers of war.

Taking a look into the past, religion was the main determinant for a person’s way of life. It was not a question of whether or not to be a good or bad person. An individual was expected to follow every detail of the Bible or be considered a sinner. As society evolved and today’s every day “sins” became more commonly accepted, religion also has evolved to fit the actions of its followers. The media and the general outlook on life from the public have altered the level of importance that religion plays in a person’s lifestyle. Considering most people inherit their religious beliefs from their parents or guardians, it is not likely that the number of religious people will decline because the invisible forces molding society to believe that believing in something is necessary for a full life. The number of people who strictly follow their religion because it is what they believe is the correct way of life may decline. Also, the strictness has become more lenient over the years because the things that may be considered sins in some religions are often ignored by people because of the convenience and desire to do so. Another contributing factor to the decline in the need for religion is the other effects that strictly following religion creates. Many countries are suffering from over population because feeling like their creator is influencing them to have many children. For example, the use of condoms and birth control, even within marriages is many times forbidden. Those who even are followers of a religion but those who feel the necessity to choose between modern advancements can use these modern medical advancements and religion may choose to be safe because they feel that it is the most beneficial decision for their lives right now. Being cautious about the number of children a family has due to economic or social issues conflicts with the traditional person’s beliefs. This concept, along with a general desire to not feel constrained by religion, helps to decline the number of individuals who consider themselves completely religious. Many countries have already experienced a decline in “religious” people and only time will tell if this decline turns into complete extinction.

To claim that I have never been guilty of using the “R-word” would be a lie. I am guilty and should feel that guilt for a reason. This word is offensive and is degrading to a particular group of people who do not deserve my disrespect. Over the past couple of years, I have stopped using this word after having a personal encounter with how this word truly hurts. One of my friends from high school is the godparent to a little boy with Down Syndrome. Growing up throughout high school, all of my friends would frequently use this word to insult or make fun of someone without even thinking about what it really meant. It was not until my friend admitted that he took personal offense to this word that I realized the unnecessary and untrue meaning of the way we were using it. Instead of trying to insult people with the “R-word”, we should have recognized that is a term used to describe an individual with a handicap. These individual never did anything stupid or crazy like the way people use it today. The people with this handicap are just living their lives to the best of their ability like each one of us. I have had many individuals with handicaps impact my life and the experience of getting to know them changed my view of the way people use their lifestyle as an insult. For example, my cousins and aunt volunteered at a home for mentally challenged adults and became close with one of the residents. His family was never around on holidays so instead of making him spend special days alone, he would join our family for the day. After a while, he did not just join our family for a day, he became a part of our family for life. His lightheartedness and happiness on every holiday always brightened every day and I cannot imagine how my life would be if I were not to meet him. If anyone were to take a minute to think about what they were actually saying they would realize that they were not being clever by using this word, they are being jerks and should really expand their vocabulary.

Everyone is aware of the old saying that “money brings happiness.” Even though this saying may apply for brief periods of time because it alleviates the fear of debt that people may struggle with, it also brings a lot more into a person’s life than joy. People who have worked to transition from one social class to a higher position in society do not always feel like they are in the right place once they position themselves with the others from that class. People generally do not change their actions and out looks on life so, the transition from one social class to another may be shocking in many ways. Also, with the uneasiness of not really belonging in a particular social class also adds the issue of envy from your former friends and colleagues. People may criticize your new wealth by claiming you do not deserve the money or, in some cases, claim that you should share your wealth because in the case of a lottery, you did not put forth any true effort in order to obtain the money. Also, people who once were truly generous and helpful in your life may come back to retaliate against you because they helped you when you truly needed them. There are people in life that you would probably want to help but others may not truly deserve it. In the end, the money you obtain is a gift. The money will cause people to be guilty and greedy but in the end of the day, there are more important things than money. For example in the article, a person spoke of the loss of family members. This event in a person’s life is more monumental than winning the lottery and clearly more prevalent to their life. Even with money, tragedy still strikes and it is incomparable to any amount of wealth. So the fact that money brings happiness can be true but mostly, money brings convenience. True happiness is found in other aspects of life and the gaining of massive amounts of money can bring many more problems with a person’s family, friends, coworkers, and place in society. The transition from one place to another in society is never easy, and when the transition involves money, it is more complicated than finding immediate new happin

The common misconception of parents and guardians to believe that their children are in constant danger of being stolen is caused by its high publicity. The general public over looks the small, more common dangers for children because the media chooses to magnify the rare events, such as an attempted kidnapping. The news feeds off of the concerned parents expecting the worst from the whole because the occasional story is repeated until each person who may be concerned with the problem is convinced that it is now their own personal issue. The way in which the information is conveyed to the public also heightens the publics fear for it. In the video, the newscaster explains the man’s act as something that will likely reoccur spreading panic throughout the entire neighborhood. In addition, interviewing the many concerned citizens makes other people in the community believe that they should be just as concerned if they want to protect their children. The rarity of this event is over shadowed by its massive attention and ultimately endangers more citizens by not allowing them to recognize the more common happenings in their community. This fear of something bigger is also seen by people concerning the way people drive on the high way. It is a well-known fact that drivers get in more accidents within a mile from their house rather than the highway because their comfort overpowers their cautiousness. The things that occur every day in our lives could ultimately be more disruptive but the attention placed on the littlest mishaps in life create a sense of havoc for the community. In addition to the pressure placed on the particular incident causing problems for the people, the people acting irrational also spreads the irrational thinking of the community for a particular issue. The desire to conform to the actions of others strengthens the ridiculous fears that many people have. Since everyone else is preventing or worrying about a particular thing, many more individuals accept the fear. Knowing that there is other people worry about a rare event, such as kidnapping, causes more individuals to worry about the same event. Even though these individuals may never have been impacted by a particular catastrophe, the media and general public’s concern causes unnecessary worrying about things that should be overlooked.

Although polygamy is accepted by many different cultures, the overall freedom of having multiple wives and husbands is questionable. In some cultures, the choice of who to marry is made by the woman’s family. The arranged marriage has been a reoccurring theme for many cultures but in most cases, these women are married to one man. To combine the aspects of polygamy and arranged marriage demonstrates the many invisible strings in society, which determine our lives instead of living with absolute freedom. These women never had the option to find true love. Not only were they unable to find true love, the women living in polygamy are forced to provide for many men and all of their children instead of one man’s. The woman claim to be happy living a lifestyle most would question but this is the only way they have ever known how to live. The social norm in their culture differs from the typical single husband lifestyle and they conform to mold to the society around them. Even though the lifestyle is different, it is hard to decide whether or not these women are truly happy. They have only known this abstract way of living and the forces around them that shape them to accept this as “normal.” Another invisible string acting on these people is the desire for a good lifestyle. Since providing for a child is an expense, limiting the number of children a person has serves as a way to prevent having children be born into poverty. The example of multiple husbands for each wife ultimately follows this theory. Since the number of children a woman can have at a single time is limited, no matter how many husbands she has, she still can only have a certain number of kids. In the end, the wife may be in agreement with her arrangement because of the desire to live a good life, without living in poverty, in order to maintain the same status in society that she wishes to live at. The concept of arranged marriage and being married to multiple may not seem appealing to you, but if you look outside your own social norm you may realize that this lifestyle is known and accepted by many other cultures because this is the way people wish to live their lives.

Valentine’s Day is one day of the year that provokes each person towards the necessity of dating someone. The idea that this particular day is encouraging everyone to be with the one person in the world who they care about leaves the people without significant others to feel empty. The space where their partner should be in their life leaves a hole and uneasiness for them about their entire day.

In most situations, people have been dating someone or cared about them for a much longer period of time than the designated “National Day for Love.” Although many people in relationships understand the little importance this particular day has on their relationship, the single individuals in the world are left to question why their lives are empty and how come they do not have someone to spend this particular day with. The pressure from society to feel especially loved by someone on this day initiates extra stress and anxiety because not every person is in a relationship. On a typical day, the people not in relationships may be happy with their choice to be single. They may like the freedom and options that can enjoy that people in relationships sometimes miss out on. These positive attributes of being single are completely over looked on a day like Valentine’s Day because people, instead of looking at their life as choosing to be single and enjoying life, are comparing their lack of companionship with a significant other to the rest of the people in the world who apparently are sharing the day with their true love.

These people are viewing being single as a personal problem. They believe there is something wrong with them because if there were not, they would be as happy as all the other couples on this particular day. The public issue in this situation is that there are many people single on Valentine’s Day but there are also many people single on every other single day of the year. The taboo about being single on Valentine’s Day could be connected to the major marketing schemes of companies such as Hallmark and Kay’s to encourage people to find that “special someone” so that you can buy them a card and meaningful jewelry representing everlasting love.

American pride, in a way, makes most of its citizens ignorant to any other culture. Basically, our way is the best and everyone who does not agree must be crazy. This thought has been drilled into our minds every since we were born. Standing up to recite the pledge of allegiance every morning was just one way of conforming us to believe in our country’s beliefs and to shut out any form of foreign thoughts. In my personal opinion, America is the best country in the world. This is because this is my home. American culture is what I grew up to understand and anything else is completely foreign. These thoughts sway us to question anything we do not understand from another culture. For example, in the Spanish culture, the tendency is for dinner to take place very late at night. Being different from what I am used to, visiting Spain a couple of summers ago in a way was a culture shock for me. This concept that other countries are different and live different lifestyles intimidates people. People like to stick to the routines that they are used to and grew up with so this restricts them from trying out a difficult culture of a new country. When traveling to a foreign country, you have no idea what to expect. From the moment you arrive, in some ways it will be different. The different culture, beliefs of the people, and even laws will shape the people to act separately from what our culture agrees with. Since the lifestyle of a new country does not necessarily agree with ours, it may shut us away from the country all together. We will label their differences as wrong, or weird, and maybe even scary. The misunderstandings America has about the less fortunate countries hinders their ability to enjoy some of its greatest qualities. Countries such as the Dominican Republic, whose people generally suffer from a poorer quality of living, have one of the most beautiful, natural landscapes in the world. The fact that the people of these countries are unable to pay for dental care and therefore have to have their teeth removed leaves some Americans to label the country as infectious or unsanitary when in the end, it only provides another example of American’s misunderstanding of a less fortunate country. Americans are giving and would be willing to donate and financially help these countries that are less fortunate but many people are still blocked by the idea that another country’s standard of living is not as adequate as what he or she is accustomed to and therefore will not go there themselves.