What has happened and what continues to happen surrounding the Jerry Sandusky allegations has affected many more people than was probably ever expected. Of course the victims and their families are the ones who were affected most, but the current students of Penn State have been affected in ways I never imagined. News vans are constantly in sight on our walks to class. Every single day the Collegian has articles detailing the current situation. Every time we turn on the news, our school is somewhere in the headlines. When I choose to attend this university, I never imagined that half way through my time here a sandal like this would shake up my world. Rumors about employers changing their views on Penn State graduates strictly on the actions of a few men, really has brought many new feelings and fears in my life. So with the thought of making us give up more sacrifices for something we were never ever involved in to me is ridiculous. I understand it was a poor choice to have riots, but these were not the first riots to occur at Penn State. With the win over Ohio State a few years ago and with the death of Osama bin Laden last year resulted in riots. These riots included many more students. So in my opinion the only thing we need to apologize for are those riots. Why should I apologize for the actions of the leaders of this school? I did not vote for them, they are not my teachers and I have never met any of them. So I do not feel like I need to take away a holiday at Penn State. State Patty’s Day is something that I am proud of. We come together in celebration and drinking. This is something that only occurs at Penn State and many students come from schools all around to participate in the event. I love State Patty’s Day and I hope it continues for as long as Penn State is here. It is a day where we can come together and just have fun. We are college students and we want to have fun. Our outstanding abilities with recruiters and our great academics should speak for themselves. I work hard during the week, so I should be able to let loose on a weekend. And also it is just one day a year. It is like a normal holiday like Halloween, but just celebrated all day long. I would never want to give it up for the actions of Jerry Sandusky. The world already has opinions of Penn State. They know us as the number two party school. So State Patty’s Day will not be a shock. Plus it is still a few months away. I hope all the rumors stop by then.

The past few weeks have brought a lot of attention to State College and the Penn State University community. All of the attention started out very negative and most of it still remains to be negative. But Penn State students have already showed improvement and have learned lessons. There was a candlelight vigil in honor of the victims and there was a blue-out for the football game in order to raise awareness for victims of abuse. Although these acts may remain small in the eyes of some, we are learning. Students are learning how to respond to the questions of outsiders. The faculty is learning how to get along with a new President. The athletes are learning how to be coached by new coaches on the football team and athletic department. Everyone is learning in their own ways to deal with this terrible situation. Personally I am learning the lesson pretty harshly about how the media can portray events in any matter they choose. It is making me think about other scandals around the nation and the world that I have judged, yet I have not known all of the evidence. This Penn State scandal has been the closest scandal to ever rock my world, so I have been sure to do as much reading as possible. I read articles in our Daily Collegian, Onward State, and of course the infamous Grand Jury Report and I still feel that I am in no way qualified to make a hard hearted opinion on either side. I feel that no one should be able to make strong opinions. The only thing I know for sure is that I think Jerry Sandusky is a terrible and sick person. I believe that solely from his telephone interview last week. I heard from a primary source, his mouth, and made a judgment call. This is the only part of the story that I can attack. I cannot make opinions on JoePa, Spanier or any other athletic advisor. I do not know what they saw or what they did for certain. The Grand Jury Report can only detail out so much. The thoughts and feelings and the moral and ethical battles that all involved can never be fully written out in paper. They only exist in the peoples’ minds and memories. Once a final decision is made on all of this and those damn cameras finally leave state college, then maybe we can go back to peace and quiet. We can go back to being known for our outstanding academics and job placement. I have heard enough crap about who will not hire us when we graduate because I have news for you, we would not have wanted to work for you anyway. The Penn State legacies have existed for a long time, and they will still continue on. Onward State!

The past week can be summed up to one word, devastating. The actions of one man have brought an entire university of 40,000 students, thousands of employees, hundreds of thousands of alumni, and millions of people around the country to chaos. This is the biggest scandal to rock the Penn State community and I believe people have the right to voice their opinions. People from all over the country are watching the news and thinking how Penn State’s reputation has plummeted and so on. That is absolutely ridiculous. As students we cannot let this affect us and our time here at this awesome university. To me Penn State is about the people I meet, the education I receive and just being able to find what it means to be me in a sea of 40,000. I never choose Penn State because of its football or for its President. I did not even know who Jerry Sandusky was until last week. And now because of his sick mind and terrible choices, my Penn State is in distress. He is a selfish man and an ugly person. What actually happened back in 2002, no one will know. I don’t even know if the Grand Jury Report is right, but it is the only thing I have to base my opinion off. That report was very sickening, but the one thing I learned from it was that Joe Paterno was innocent. He never saw it happen and if he told the police it would have been hearsay and he could have been falsely accusing. What happened to JoePa is the worst thing to me as a Penn State student. Someone I looked up to, someone I loved, and someone who everyone loved was just treated like dirt. He put 60 amazing years into this school and for him to go out like that brings tears to my eyes. The Board of Trustees is supposed to be people I put my trust and faith in. They have lost my trust and faith in them. Another thing that upsets in this whole mess is the alumni. Reading the opinion columns in the Collegian almost brought tears to my eyes. Alumni were bashing Penn State and saying that they were ashamed of their degrees. They were ashamed to call themselves Penn Staters and that they did not want their children coming here anymore. That is absolutely ridiculous. They are turning their backs on us students. We are still here and more than ever we need support from people who were once like us. They don’t see the news cameras on every street while walking to class. They don’t see the posters on houses promoting JoePa. They don’t see how upset we are. And for them to say their ashamed, brings sadness to my hearts. But whatever the case, I know I am Penn State proud and I will always be.

People have been migrating to America for centuries. They come for more opportunities and a better life for themselves and their families. When they arrive in America they will take any type of work that they can get. It does not matter if it is hard labor or not, as long as they can make money for their families’ immigrants will do it. Once immigrants have enough money to support their families’ or bring them to America, their lives are started in a new place. Now the rest of their families look for jobs. When the next generation comes along they are usually more affluent in English and more assimilated to the American culture. Due to this fact they can get better jobs. Then the next generation has even better jobs and so on and so on. Finally after a few generations, they are so used to having this better job that immigrant descendants could not even think about doing hard labor. They have these great jobs that make money so they can send their kids to great schools so they don’t have to work in the fields like their ancestors once did. It is not that Americans have become lazy, they have just become used to “better” jobs that are not in agriculture or are not hard labor. So when more foreigners come to America the cycle just repeats itself. It is not that they take advantage of American’s laziness, but Americans have just progressed. Going from an office job to working in the fields would be a huge decline for most Americans so instead they would just file for unemployment. They would not be able to sustain the lives they are currently living off the wages of manual labor. Today more and more Mexicans are coming to America. The first generations will most likely have to work in the fields, but in a few generations they will be getting closer and closer to having better paying jobs. This is not just the case in Mexican immigrants either. Even immigrants from Europe at the start of our country had to do less than favorable jobs. Although many immigrants will do hard labor, there are also many immigrants who come to America who have years of education. They come here to develop their ideas, and then they go back to their home countries. I personally do not see a problem with this. Collaboration with others is the best way to learn. So to be influenced by other people from different backgrounds of learning can be beneficial for all. Immigration will continue to happen to America until one day America falls. Christians prophesize that America will not be here in the end times because it is not mentioned in the Bible. If this is true, then for once there will be huge migrations out from America.

Centuries ago when Christopher Columbus sailed for America he claimed the land from the native people. They had been living here, they raised their families here and now they were forced to leave by people of a race they had never even seen before. Then more and more white people started to settle in America and now today it is our land. I personally believe that the colonization was bound to happen whether white people settled here or even if Asians or Blacks had. Humans are made with complex brain structures that allow them to make societies and live civilized lives. White civilization was completely different from Native American civilization. Both types of people were considered civilized in their own minds, but to the other it was a completely different way of life. Throughout nature you constantly see natural selection taking place and survival of the fittest. Since humans are so much smarter than other species it makes sense that they would come up with smarter way to overcome other humans. If you look at this from a purely naturalistic point of view, whoever is stronger and smarter than they should have the land. But since there are so many other factors to think about like equality for all and families then you cannot think about it from a purely naturalistic way because it is just terrible to strip people from what is theirs. Today we have laws protecting what is ours. So to answer the question, this land is our land because long ago we were the dominant and smarter ones over the Native Americans. Now we see other immigrants coming to our country. To take the same opinion, if the immigrants can outsmart us, then they should be more than welcome to stay in our country. But unfortunately now with technology and other forms of weaponry the immigrants have such an unfair advantage. It is so hard to get into our country that some of them just give up trying. People would give their lives to be in this country and it is so sad. I wish instead of trying to get into our country, some immigrants would try and improve their own countries. That way every country could be on a more equal level and there would be no superior countries. We could travel freely and interact freely too. I do not think this will ever happen however because of personal gain. Humans are too concerned about themselves rather than the welfare of the world or anyone else. Laws and other policies made to protect humans are a result of our smart brains, but in the end they seem to take away from our freedom as humans. I wish one day we could all just live together.

If our world was centered around black supremacy it would be very different. First we have to figure out what would have happened differently to make this happen. Europe was the dominating continent when our current world started to come about. Blacks became inferior to whites when they were taken from Africa to become slaves for wealthy whites. So in order to switch this, Africa would have had to have been the dominating country. Culture and politics as we know it today would be very different in a black centered world. Tribes were very prominent in Africa, so maybe today tribes would still be in existence. Instead of fighting other countries, maybe we would just be fighting other tribes. Maybe there would not even be any countries. We are all humans and have similar complex brain structures, so I imagine that technology would be pretty similar to what we have today. I personally believe that blacks have a lot more pride in their heritage than white people, so maybe all people of the world would have a lot more pride in their backgrounds and ancestors. America would not exist, since it was founded by white Europeans. The Indians who were living here would be the rulers of this land. So maybe there would still be racism between the blacks, whites and Indians. In society not a lot of action occurs between Asians and Blacks. So that would be very interesting in a black centered world. But what I think we need to consider is that America is mostly a white centered place. Other countries are centered around what race is most popular within their own population. I think the race that the world is centered around will change with whatever race has the most money as a whole. Who knows, maybe pretty soon the world will be centered around Asians rather than whites or blacks. America has gotten itself into some pretty big problems, so maybe this white centered world will change in relation to the economy. But back to the question, I still think racism would exist in a black centered world. Blacks would still be superior to whites and other races. If there was an equal amount of people in each race rather than the world would have no center. That is what I hope we will reach one day. But at the same time I think race is what makes the world so complex and interesting. Race can help to define cultures. If the world was all once culture then it would be boring. Who would want to live in such a boring place? Racism should go away, but races will always be here to stay. It is what makes the world so lovely.

In a woman centered world I definitely think there would be less nonconsensual sex. The whole idea behind the male centered world is that men control most of sex. Sex is over when the man finishes rather than the woman. This means that in most sexual experiences the man receives more pleasure than the female. Sex without consent can be a result of a male not being able to stop himself. He cannot resist the girl saying no, so he forces himself upon her which is rape. If women controlled sex, they would be able to stop themselves and they would not force themselves upon a man. Also, most of the time women enjoy so many other parts of sex rather than just the intercourse. We love everything leading up to sex and especially the cuddling afterwards. Personally, I cannot just go around having sex with random people. I love the attention I get from my boyfriend and the love that I feel from him. Intimate relationship sex is so much better than a one night stand. When you have a one night stand it can be so awkward. You do not really know the person and most of the time you are a little bit drunk. I have been with my boyfriend for over a year now, so those awkward moments in between sex are way past us. When I am around my boyfriend I am completely confident with myself and with my body. I know if I was to be with someone random I would not feel that confidence one bit. I know what he likes and he knows what I like. This is another reason why nonconsensual sex would decrease because most women are not just looking for a one night stand. They would rather be able to express themselves to the man rather than him just pleasuring you. What is the point of getting pleasure from a man if you cannot get it whenever you want? I would much rather have sex with someone who also wants to have sex back. Women would also not force sex upon men as much because men are built to be stronger. A woman trying to attack a male could actually result in something much worse than just nonconsensual sex. Another benefit to being in a good relationship is that you can make it centered around both of you equally. I respect my boyfriend and he respects me. If one of us is tired or just not ready for it, then we don’t have sex. But then again if one of us really wants to, then we usually convince the other. Granted not everyone can be in such healthy relationships, but I am a firm believer that everyone has someone for them out there in the world somewhere.

Watching the video on the bike thieves and the reactions of the people did not surprise me. It was interesting that they picked a park that seemed very suburban and most of the park goers were white elderly people. If they picked a park that was more urban or in the city, I think the reactions would have been very different. Also police are more likely to drive by a city park rather than a park in the suburbs. My first reaction to someone using a saw or similar device to get a bike free would be to ask if they were okay or needed help. If they said it was not their bike, I would first tell them to stop and if they didn’t I would not hesitate to call the police. I personally do not think I would make a distinction to whether it was a black male, white male or female. But I definitely would be a little scared. I would call the police maybe away from the male robbers because there could be a chance they could physically harm me. But with the female, I would flat out just call the police. I also think it would make a difference if you were in a group or alone. If I was in a group then they could be back up for me if I needed it, but they could also convince me not to call the police and just leave the person alone, or to yes call the police. There are a lot of factors that go into people’s reactions and then what they decide to do with those reactions. I would hope that many people would do the right thing no matter what, but a lot of things depend on it. With the case of the female, it was very funny to see all the males rush to her aid. That did not surprise me at all. I even find myself being asked if I need help in stores way more often than my dad or brothers. It was good that the show used this example to at least get people thinking about race and even doing the wrong or right thing. I definitely think the results would have been very different if it was a city park though. It would be interesting to change the ages though. If they had used older people rather than teenagers I wonder what the results would have been. Older people probably would not call the police on other older people because they believe they have wisdom and are probably doing the right thing. And kids or teenagers would definitely not call the police on an adult unless they knew it was for sure a crime.

I have been to Haiti two times. It was on a cruise ship though, so in no way have I seen the real Haiti. But I was still able to see the people and go to some markets and saw how they were run. Both times in Haiti I went to a beach called Labadee that is owned by Royal Caribbean Cruise ships. Guests can lounge on the beach all day then they can head over to the flea market area. It is so sad to see the Haitians trying to sell their products to the tourists. Their lives are dependent on selling souvenirs to greedy vacationers who just want an item to add to their massive collection of souvenirs they already have. I am one of those tourists unfortunately. Even here at college I have many items from Haiti. My earrings are housed in a lovely little painted wooden bowl, I have a beautiful butterfly, pink flamingo, and sun metal wall hangings and I also have canvas paintings. Another sad thing is I haggled with these people to get cheaper products. I wanted to knock a few dollars off of each item. To me a few dollars is nothing, but to the Haitian people it can be so much. Walking around the market and looking at the different people was so sad. They didn’t have teeth, their clothes were torn, and they just looked helpless. I felt terrible. I bought a purse from a woman just because she did not have teeth. Why do we haggle with these people that give us no huge benefit? After reading and watching the stories of the workers in Haiti it really hit my heart. It seems to be that tourism in Haiti is a great source of income. The Haitian clothing makers would greatly benefit if they were able to produce more and more authentic Haitian clothing, then sell it to where it could reach a wide range of people. If they could mass make authentic Haitian products to reach people like me, I would totally buy it. The jewelry is beautiful and so are the little knick-knacks that I get. I do not know how we can help the Haitian people, but as a group I am sure we can think of something. Group thinking is a great way to expand our ideas and come up with something great. Haiti is the poorest country in the world, so we definitely need to help. As Americans, and even as Americans who attend a wonderful university, we are so privileged and we should definitely offer our services to help the needy. Even just bringing up the topic and spreading the message to help Haiti is already doing more.

Most families with incomes over $70,000 a year include parents who went to college. In turn they probably expect their children to attend schooling after high school also. So in my opinion it is based off of motivation and where you come from. The only reason someone is going to take the SATs is because they plan on applying to college. Before you take the real test, most schools administer practice SATs so students can have an idea of how well they will do. Also before you take your test you probably have an idea of what school or at least what level of college you would like to be accepted to. For example I did some research to find the average SAT scores of students at Penn State so I had a goal of what I was looking to score. When I took the test, I did not find it particularly hard to obtain the score I needed. I took the SATs once and never went to any type of review sessions. But I still find plenty of students here at Penn State who are way smarter than me. I went to a pretty good high school in a suburb of Philadelphia. I took a bunch of Advanced Placement classes and had even taken two calculus classes in high school. So I obviously had an advantage over other students who did not have those same types of classes given in their high schools. Both of my parents went to Ivy League Universities so academics have always been a huge part of my life and my brothers and sister lives. It was given that I was to attend college, but if it was up to my parents they wanted me to go Ivy League. Since I was little they had always hoped one out of their five children would attend the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania. My older sister definitely was out of the picture for attending UPenn, but Penn State was a great place for her and she currently has an awesome job that she loves. My parents had high hopes for my older brother because he has always showed “the brains” of the family. So when he decided not even to apply to UPenn and only Penn State, you could say my parents were disappointed. Then it was my turn. I am the first child to even go into the business field like both of my parents, so they highly hoped I would choose UPenn. But I did not because my SAT scores were not high enough, and I would rather not live in the city. So yes SAT scores definitely have a lot to do with your parents’ income and how much motivation they provide you with. But the choice of what to do with those SAT scores is solely up to the student. If I really wanted the life of a boring CPA, I could have studied my ass off for a 2300 or above on the SATS, but that’s not what I wanted. Penn State is perfect for me.