It is not surprising that the poor people living in Iraq are viewing us as violent after watching the video clips in class. It was absolutely horrible to see American soldiers terrorizing other people like that. I was in complete and utter shock when I saw them run over and crush a delivery truck with an army tank. That was completely uncalled for and cruel as well as them running a random truck off the road for no reason whatsoever. Another large part of all of the world’s judgments is the fact that the media only shows videos of parts of the truth and distorts people’s opinions of reality. When we are only being shown bits and pieces of videos or bias articles getting the facts wrong is so easy. Soc 119 has made me realize that not everything is what it seems, especially this last class. I wish that the rest of Americans and the world would look passed the media’s bias, whoevers side it may be on, and look into the reality and different perceptions of serious situations we face.
I never realized how terrifying it would be to watch a war being fought in my home town or having my neighbors, friends, or family being harmed. I cannot even imagine having my brother being killed from a bomb like the example Sam gave about his friend in class. I would probably kill the person who did it. Also, I don’t think that it is right for us to go into their country and fight a bunch of people who are just like us for oil that does not even belong to us. I think putting myself in the shoes of the Iraqis was an extreme eye opener. Because we have so many preconceptions about these people being “terrorists” and what not America has made it seem as though they are the bad guys when from their perspective it is the other way around. I think that is the problem with the world, people live each day stuck in their own world and prejudices rather than taking the time to step back and look at the point of view of others.
After watching the lecture and videos shown about Iraq in class this Tuesday, I was appalled and my opinion on our soldiers and the war was changed dramatically. I realized that it is so easy for us as Americans to have a bias point of view about the war because we are not the ones living with the fight in our country. The war is being fought so far away from us that it has been detached from many of our realities and overlooked even though it is extremely heart wrenching.
My heart truly goes out to all victims of sexual abuse and I wish it was easier to prevent these kinds of things from happening. As for learning to do the right thing in a difficult situation, I think it obvious that this kind of tragedy should not be silenced under any circumstance. There is no good reason that Sandusky after being seen should not have been prevented from committing such disgusting acts in the future. I am sure by the outcome and devastation of this tragedy that those involved have been deeply affected and aware of how important it is to report incidents of abuse. I hope that this will allow others who experience or witness sexual abuse in the future to speak out and do the right thing as well.
From this, I also have realized that reacting to such a situation is a lot more difficult then it may seem. It is so easy for people to place judgments on others, and yet in reality none of us know the full story so it is ignorant to do so. Ironically, and devastatingly my roommate was very recently a victim of sexual abuse. One of my other best friends walked in on this rape and is still completely scarred from it. It has been even more difficult and heartbreaking while dealing with this personal situation at the same time as the scandal because it makes everything so much realer and vivid for me. I’ve seen how much my roommate, one of my best friends, has been terribly affected by the situation and I feel almost helpless in making it better. I want to help but it is extremely hard to do so considering actions cannot be undone. I have learned that being a good listener and friend is the best way to get through situations such as this one.
It is clear that the scandal has had an enormous impact on the entire Penn State community. Although there are numerous amount of negative outcomes from this tragedy, there are also many things to be learned. For one, I think this is a great opportunity to help other victims overcome their fear of speaking out about their story. It is a great way for our society to become educated on the devastation of abuse and how to prevent it as well. Before our soc class the other day, I was completely unaware of how many victims of sexual abuse there essentially are and how much it is covered up. It is terrible that so many people have had to experienced such a horrible thing and have to deal with the silence of it.
This is sad because there is so much more meaningful things to life. True happiness comes not from external materials, but from inner peace and truth. When people are faced with nothing but themselves to distract them, they are forced into seeing that good things are internal. At the end of life, it is doubtful that one will be reflecting on the clothes they have bought or the television in their living room. But focus will lie on how far they have come as an individual and how many of their life goals they have met. They will think of their relationships with the people that mean the most to them, and how they have affected them.
For instance, all the famous people who are suffering from depression or addicted to drugs. Clearly there is sadness related to problems in their life that we as outsiders will never be able to fully grasp. Like I said before though, I am not saying that money can’t enrich a lot of things in people’s lives for the better. When people are rich, they can buy their way around a lot of situations that otherwise would be troublesome. Also, they do not need to stress about financial issues which may be truly devastating to some individuals. Poor people have to worry about crucial problems in life such as paying bills and putting food on their table. Although this may be extremely difficult and heartbreaking, it allows them to appreciate the smaller more important things in life. Especially in today’s society so much focus is put on materialistic things.
In this argument, I would have to take the side that money can’t buy happiness. This is not to conclude that money does not make life easier in many ways, but I think that is a different concept. Look at all the celebrities out here whose lives are run by constant interference by the media. Although they have an extremely large bank account you must consider the stress that is added while living under the cameras. These people are being suffocated in a sense; they barely have any private time in which nosy people are not in their business. When is fact, why should we care about what they do and how they live their lives? If everyone would worry about their own life and personal situations I think this world in its entirety would be a whole lot happier. But back to my main point, money can’t completely affect all personal situations people deal with and suffer from. It is hard to look passed the image of people with mass amounts of money and realize that they have their own problems that sometimes money cannot fix.
No one wants to be getting secretly bashed or be missing out on important information. But, on the other hand, people need to understand that learning a new language is difficult and takes time! I have been taking Spanish classes since I was in elementary school and I still do not have it down perfectly, speaking wise and understanding it. It takes a lot of dedication and hard work. If people are not willing to work towards understanding other languages then they should not be offended when they can not understand what people are saying. Obviously a person is going to speak the language they feel most comfortable with that’s second nature. So before you get mad, take a step back and walk in someone else’s shoes.
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Contraption