You bring up a good point. But, don't judge too quickly. I had my first child at the age of 18 and a second at 19. So, at the time of my employment I was a newly married mother of two infants. Just because someone is middle aged, doesn't mean their need is greater. I needed the job to help support my kids also.

Unfortunately I agree. If the effort is made to hire more handicapped people for example, how can you tell if the person you hire is from a poor or wealthy family? I guess this is what Obama was speaking about. You have to look at both parts. Are they both underrepresented and economically repressed? I guess if both conditions are met, then maybe life can be made better for less fortunate people. But then again, we run into the problem of too much government. Where is the balance between helping someone make a life for themselves and giving someone a free ride. Quite a tough problem to solve.

My brothers were in the school one day and decided it would be a great idea to burn their textbooks under the staircase. They were both expelled. With a last name of Kowaleviocz the teachers would know I was related to the trouble makers. So you can see the problem. My mother wanted to make sure there would be no ill will towards me and my education based on the reputations of my brothers.

I grew up trying to distance myself from my brothers. They did NOTHING to make my life easier at any point. I can honestly say, I got every job that I had based on my merit. (my looks helped too, lol). So, I have benefited from both affirmative action and sexism. I don’t know how we can ever have a society where people are hired based strictly on their skills. Maybe part of this is because people can lie about what their skills are.

It has been very difficult for me to get a job. Now, as you can see, I am in college. I am 42-years old. I have to get a degree so I can be marketable and get a job. Experience with no degree doesn’t account for much. After being employed for 12-years at the U.S. Post office I have to start all over again. I don’t mind though. I am hoping to get a job that is less stressful.

When I was a teenager, I got my first job at Wendy’s. None of my friends or family had every applied or worked there. That is a blessing. Let me explain. I have two older brothers. These boys caused so much trouble in our town that I couldn’t even attend the local middle school after they had gone there. I was sent to private school.

I found this weeks lesson very interesting. I had never realized that affirmative action benefited white women the most. I knew they did benefit from it but not to that degree. I believe that I have benefited from affirmative action in two ways. When I was hired by a bank at the age of 19, they told me that any employees that under the age of 21 are a plus for the company to hire because they get a tax break. So, I was hired because I was a woman and because I was under 21.

On the other hand we have nepotism. I can honestly never say I was hired due to nepotism. On the contrary, since moving to Pennsylvania in 2007 it has been almost impossible for me to get a job due to the nepotism practiced in this state. I am serious. I have over 15-years of customer service experience (including retail sales) and I could not get hired by Wal-Mart or even any of the convenience stores in the area.

I am a non-traditional student at Penn State. For my major I had to complete the third level of Espanol! Let me tell you it was very hard. I made it through but I don't have any delusions that I am fluent in Spanish. I believe I would be able to carry on a conversation in Spanish but I bet the native speakers would laugh their butts of listening to me. I understand why it is that it takes a few generations for immigrants to learn English. After all, the English language has more exceptions to rules and words that are spelled different but pronounced the same and still have different meanings. Examples-- the rule that i comes before e except after c. Or, be and bee. And finally two, to and too. Not the easiest to learn as an adult I'm sure. So, I agree that as open-minded people, we should all try to be more tolerant with people who live with us.

When my family came here, they for some reason split with members of their own family. I don’t know why this occurred. The way we spell the last name of my father’s family is Kowaleviocz. The correct spelling according to other relatives is Kowalevicz. Both of these family names are still present in the United States today. Why the name was changed on arrival into the USA, I will never know.

What I do know is that my relatives came here with almost nothing. The boys all went to work as longshoremen at the Dundalk Marine Terminal in Maryland. Members of my family still work their to this very day. The work there is not easy, as a matter of fact, it cost my father his life at the age of 29. My mother was a widow with five kids. She worked two jobs most of her life to make a good life for me and my siblings.

I guess my point is, if my people could make it here, others can too. What I don’t understand is the immigrants from Mexico who make their living selling drugs into the US. I know it is only a small percentage of them, but what benefit are those immigrants to our society? You can argue that if there was no demand for the drugs they couldn’t sell them here. But just as immigration will always be an issue, so will the battle with drugs. I don’t mind immigrants who come here to make a better life for them and their families, but I can’t abide those who come here to make a living illegally and kill to do so.

This weeks lesson on immigration had some valid points. Sam keeps doing the “coming through the door to the USA” demonstration and the point is valid. As long as immigrants keep coming into America, there will always be people here who live in tight ethnic societies and who don’t speak English. It would be the same for any of us who had to move to another country. Sure, in an ideal world we would learn the language and customs of the new country before we moved there. However, that would take time that a lot of immigrants just don’t have when they leave their countries of origin.

My family came here during WWII. I don’t know if my ancestors came here legally or illegally, but it is probably the latter. They came here from the Ukraine. My great-grandfather put his wife and four teenage sons on a ship and sent them to America. The Ukraine was being invaded and many villages were wiped out by the Nazi’s. My great-grandfather was a professor and feared for the safety of his family and sent them away. He was never heard from again.

I agree with you, multiculturalism means that we accept all kinds of different cultures. In order for this type of society to flourish, we do need to come together and form a new society with rights for all people who call this country their home.

I think that the LGBT lecture did shed some light on commonly misheld beliefs. While there are some truly flamboyant gay men, the vast majority are just like everyone else. Those who "flaunt" their gayness do it just to get a reaction. It's no wonder that this type of behavior gets so much attention in the social media. This just makes people who don't interact with gay or lesbian people feel like all people with different sexual viewpoints are over the top with their behavior. Education, once again, is the only way to open the eyes of people who have such limited views of the world.

Our women can go where they want anytime of the day or night. We can drive cars. We can hold jobs. These freedoms we have often get taken for granted. I do believe that immigrants who come here have the right to hold onto their heritage. But shouldn’t we have that same right? Respect is a two way street. The same rights that apply to immigrants should apply to the native people too. True equality means the same freedom and right are for ALL of the people who live in this country.

So, when Sam asks if it matters what flag I “wrap myself” in, my answer is absolutely. I was born an American and I will die an American. Good, bad or indifferent, the USA is my country. Love it or leave it.