I was devastated when the news broke about Joe Patern and everything that had happened. But I think that is was interesting that the Penn Stater alumni magazine published this. I thought that it was smart that the alumni magazine was able to really tap into what students are feeling. In order for Penn State to move forward, it first must accept what happened. Joe Paterno and Graham Spanier were Penn State, to say otherwise would be lying. Together they raised billions of dollars for the school and we were all made to believe in them.

I have had a very hard time accepting that this could happen here. But once I did, I became really upset that I bought into what everybody was selling me about Penn State. I feel like I had a blind faith toward the university and Penn State. I grew up in Pennsylvania and Penn State has had such an important impact on my life. But it’s hard to understand that some of our university’s top leaders could behave so immorally. It’s rough. I don’t really understand it.

I hope that in the future things will improve. I think that our community needs to talk about it, though. That’s why I was thankful and grateful that we spent a few classes discussing this. I think that sociology is important for this reason. If we can talk about things openly, push it to the forefront, and have open and frank discussions, hopefully we can all prevent stuff like this from happening again.

I’m upset that people blame the media. I think that’s a cop-out. For so long, the media has built up Penn State. They praised and bought into the idea of Joe Paterno. But Penn State’s actions weren’t in line with its image. That, to me, is why we failed. I think Paterno and Spanier thought they were untouchable.

I don’t mean to just blame them, I understand Jerry Sandusky is the one who started all of this. But he will have his day in court. I’m more upset that two people (Spanier and Paterno) that I respected and believed in turned a blind eye to abuse of the worst kind.

To the girl wearing high heels and a short skirt: for whom are you doing that? For my pleasure? I actually think it’s more attractive if you’re smart and have a great personality.
In class we talked about the how women are expected to wear high heels and dress extremely nicely while guys can wear whatever they want, dress extremely casually. I think that this falls in line with our society’s unfairness of how men and women are treated. In our society, as we discussed in class, people look through a male lens. This means that our society, media and cultural perceptions are often viewed through a straight male’s perspective. This means that the portrayal of women in the media is of how men think women should be viewed; and that perception often means that women are here for the pleasure of men. Therefore, women dress the way men want them to: i.e. short skirts and high heels. All it takes is one walk down Fraternity Row in downtown State College for one to realize this reality.
In our class this week, we did not discuss extensively about what life would be like if women were the ones dictating the lens. I wondered what women would want me to dress like as a white male. Before I go out on the weekends, I do try to dress my best to appeal to girls. However, I do not dress for their pleasure. I dress simply to look my best. I wonder how I much differently I would dress if society looked through a woman’s perspective. These discussions are rarely if even had.
The fact that society is viewed through a male’s perspective and not a woman’s perspective led me to also think about racial lenses. What would society be like if it were viewed predominantly through an African American lens? How would white people alter their behavior?
In my opinion, these lenses hurt society. I think that in the short term, it will be difficult to totally erase these lenses and that is why discussions about the existence of these lenses is important. In order to totally get rid of them, we must discuss them. We must have conversations.
These lenses, in my opinion, often lead to misperceptions about people and that is unfortunate. It promotes having a dominate race or gender and that is not fair. In all honesty, I think that these lenses promote the separation of ideas and do not promote equality or fairness amongst all people. Even if a college-aged female might night realize this when she’s wearing a short skirt of high heels, in the grand scheme of things, it’s promoting a separation in our society.

The first videos that I watched were from the Christian Partners Church. I found it inspiring that despite all of the destruction, the people were still able to hold masses and sing. Growing up in Catholic school, we always were taught by our religion instructors that a church is not a building; instead, a church is a group of people, united by their beliefs in Christ, who come together and hold mass. I think that this mass must have been one of the most moving religious services to have attended. Their music, their voices united in suffering collectively sang a message of hope that overshadowed the destruction around them. Initially, I did not think, “Wow, look at how torn their church is.” Instead, I thought about how strong their actual church is – united in Christ, and united with each other.

The second video that I watched was about ENERSA, a group that makes solar powered streetlights that have cell phone chargers. However, they are mainly being funded through NGOs and their work have increasingly become politicized. I think that this is disheartening because the main focus for Haiti should be to rebuild infrastructure and provide basic human needs like food and water. Instead, they are producing street lights with cell phone chargers. While I think that it is good in certain respects, I feel that the investors are only investing in their company with the hopes of expanding their cell phone market, another monthly tax on people.

The third video that I watched was about Madame Lamour, the flour bouquet makers. I was inspired to learn that even in Haiti, there are still jobs like this. It was interesting to me, I think, because so much of the media representation of the country has been about destruction. And yet still, even in this time of horrible destruction, Madame Lamour is able to make enough bouquets for several stores so that brides can purchase them for their weddings. They said that one of their main concerns was buying materials in bulk, which for them are expensive. I couldn’t help but think of how many American corporations would feel that the materials used to make these bouquets and wedding veils are relatively inexpensive. But for Madame Lamour, these materials are extremely expensive. It’s wrong and it’s not fair.

The fourth video that I watched was about Suze Fleuriza. She makes candy peanuts. What I found most moving what her business vision. She wants to sell these products in other stores and schools. It’s amazing to me that creating something so simple is a means of livelihood for her. But it’s also rough to know that she will not be able to reach the type of market share that she could in America. How she packaged the candy peanuts was really sad. She just uses tin foil and plastic cups and puts them in a plastic bin, but she was so proud of this. That really got to me. It just seemed wrong to me that people in our country will purchase something like a coffee simply because of the way the cup looks. But Suze Fleuriza spent so much time on her things. And every three days she has to travel two hours to get her supplies.

In conclusion, I learned that there are many acts of resiliency in Haiti. People are rebuilding their economy, one peanut candy at a time. But their work is limited by the world’s economic condition.

I think that the main issues in the upcoming presidential election are the economy, the national deficit and national security. I think that other civil rights issues have been forced to the wayside because of these other important issues. When President Barack Obama took office, I believe that he won because he campaigned on those three important issues. Nearly the entire country believed that Pres. George W. Bush had failed on this issues. And yet now, the country is nearly reversed and feels that Pres. Obama has failed to deliver on stimulating the economy.
The economy is issue number one. In class, we discussed how education can be effected by your race and ethnicity and financial background. However, we did not discuss how such factors can impact employment. Since taking office, unemployment within the African American community has doubled to nearly 20 percent in some communities, according to the Census Bureau. This has depleted some communities, killing them. The unemployment rate does not include people who have simply given up looking for work, either. This is a major concern to Americans because even if they are working, their market is limited when others are not working. The public, in my opinion, was confused why Pres. Obama would not immediately address the jobs issue and instead pass major legislation such as Healthcare and the economic stimulus, which just increased the national deficit.
Government spending is issue number two, in my opinion. The American people do not understand why the government is continuing to spend with what appears to be a blank check while businesses and people struggle to make ends meet. The third issue of most importance is National Security. In my opinion, this is Pres. Obama’s strongest selling point, especially since his administration killed Osama Bin Laden. This was a major morale blow to the terrorists and boosted American hope nearly an entire decade after Sept. 11. But Americans are far from safe as the crisis in the Middle East has expanded into Northern Africa and the Arab Spring threatens to explode at any given moment.
Because of the economy, the national deficit and national security, I feel that civil rights issues such as gay marriage will not be pushed to the forefront. Secondly, I think that neither liberals nor conservatives want to discuss gay marriage. In order to win a general election, candidates must appeal to the other side, which means that liberals must appeal to certain conservatives and conservatives must appeal to liberals. So, it’s mutually beneficial not to discuss civil rights issues that will upset everyone. As a result, gay marriage and other civil rights issues will not get discussed. The American people, today, care more about unemployment than other issues.

I think that there are several differences in what it means to be black, African American and African. However, I think that these differences are claffified separately by the perspective of whoever is noticing the differences. So, to be honest, I am writing this journal entry as a white male and therefore my perspective is significantly influenced by my upbringing and surroundings. I do not know what it is like to have any other skin color than what society calls white, so my perceptions are in essence biased against non-whites.
In my opinion, I think being black is having a darker color of skin. But it is more than have dark skin, it also applies to behavior. Black people, as it is commonly thought, can act white. That means they mimic white culture’s appearance and speech. Likewise, a white person can act black and mimic hip-hop’s culture and speech. For example: in class, we discussed Pres. Barack Obama’s religion. In my opinion, I think that this an example of how certain people tried to frame Obama as not being white enough because white people are perceived to believe in Jesus. So by labeling President Obama a Muslim, it was raising the debate that he is not white. Even more so, we also briefly discussed the birther debate. Again, this is an example of questioning whether Pres. Obama is white enough for American society. It’s meant, in my opinion, to remind people that Pres. Obama is not white – that he’s different. And this is racist.

But being black is different than being African American. I think African American is a term that more positively reflects black Americans’ heritage and culture. I think that the term evokes the struggle of black American’s history. It evokes people like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks and the countless other black Americans who peacefully brought about change. It does not make me think of Lil Wayne or rappers. Finally, I think that being African means that you are directly from the continent of Africa.

In conclusion, being black is different from being African American and being African. But I think essentially all of these terms are constructed to remind whites that non-whites are different than us. And that’s racist. It should not matter what the color of our skin is. We should not care. But society constantly is reminding us these differences.

In class, we had several polls about what it means to be Jewish or Latino or Mexican or Dominican. Essentially, all of these labels are words for being different. But as cliché as it sounds, I believe that we are all the same. And we shouldn’t get so caught up in these labels.

I chose to be a Roman Catholic at first, to be honest, because I did not have a choice. I was baptized a Catholic when I was a baby. But I truly believe that my Faith in God, and in a force greater than me, is something I was born with. God for me has always been someone to turn to and pray to. God is ever present and growing up I’ve always cherished that. But growing up, it was my parents who taught me that. They were the ones who took me to church as a boy, enrolled me in Sunday school and transferred me to Catholic High School instead of public school.
But now as a college student, my faith is something that I choose. It’s up to me to go to church and surprisingly, I go. There are several notable differences I have with what the Catholic Church preaches, however, I believe in Jesus’ message of forgiveness, redemption and the 10 Commandments. But my faith is constantly being tested and evolving. At certain points in my life, I have relied heavily on God and others less so. But I have never doubted that God exists, even in the most upsetting of personal times. But that doesn’t mean I don’t question that Church. The distinction between Jesus and Church for me has become clearer as I define my political beliefs, which I feel align with Jesus’ teachings but might differ from Rome’s beliefs.
And I don’t judge others who do not feel the same as me.
I believe that religion is personal. But for as personal as religion is, it is definitely something influenced by an individual’s family and upbringing. Yet I do not think this is a bad thing. In class this week, we discussed how different cultures strive to be like others.
For example, some Asian women surgically enhance their eyes to look like white women. Unlike these cultural difference, religion is something that I feel has remained largely unchanged. Different religions don’t try to be like others.
And I think that religion has helped provide a moral conscience to so many people. I don’t mean this in a radical way, but in a simplistic, wholesome nature. In class we also watched a video that discussed how humans differ from animals because they have a conscience. Religion guides conscience. That is not to say that atheists do not have a conscience. In fact, most atheists are extremely educated about religious teachings, which also might influence their beliefs.
In conclusion, I believe that religion is something that is deeply influenced by an individual’s upbringing and family. However, I believe that once an individual reaches adulthood, they are free to choose what they believe.