Killing another human being. That is one of the ‘skills’ a soldier is taught at boot camp before departing to a foreign nation. If this doesn’t tell you why soldiers are fucked up in the head after going to battle then I don’t know what will. Watching your best friend die. There are very few of us not in the military that we can say the person most near and dear to our heart we watched die. They say that history repeats itself but war is always constant, and it’s true. The United States has worked for 300 hundred years to become the worlds largest super power and believe me we are not going to stop now.
A soldier’s life isn’t worth much to the government, just a casualty of war. It’s quite sad when you think about it, how low we value our soldiers. It’s one of those things where the soldiers get into the government military and then realize how corrupt it is.
PTSD is a result of all of these factors coming together in a dramatic realization. There is nothing more brutal than war. There is nothing more detrimental to a person’s mental health than killing someone. The life that a soldier lives over seas is drastically different that of what they live here. The numbers don’t lie, of course suicide rates are going up because the military is a bureaucracy and they have one agenda, to get soldiers in perform a mission and shuttle new soldiers in as fast as they can. They do not want to have to be accountable for the soldiers who come home.
There are a few factors that case this jump in suicide rates that differ from other wars such as Vietnam or World War II. Anomie is sweeping over our nation like a disease. People do not just come home from war and meet up with a girl and have lots of babies. Its not like that anymore, most of the population openly disagrees with the war but have little say, or don’t care to say their opinion. Secondly, people just really don’t care one way or the other; if I don’t do it someone will mentality. Lastly, soldiers are sent back to the US kicked back out into the society and expected to be regular functioning member of society. No. There not. There changed now. The military has to implement more patient based help. Not help that will just ‘satisfy’ a requirement for release. Serious help that will help the soldier recover. Then the next step is to teach them about sociology.

Who is considered a man? Is it the biological sex one is born with, or the gender that one chooses? Obviously when one views the biological aspect, no infant has control over there sex. Although there are only 2 sexes that are recognized worldwide, there are another 3 sexes that are altered to conform to society’s standards; thus, the previous male and female sexes are not enough. The true hermaphrodite aka “herms” are individuals who have one testis and one ovary. Next are the male pseudo-hermaphrodites, aka “merms”, who are individuals that have testis and some aspects of female genitalia but no ovaries. Lastly are the female pseudo-hemaphrodites, aka “ferms”. These are individuals who have ovaries and some aspects of male genitalia but lack testis.

Is it fair to say that those “intersex” children are never allowed to be true males or females because they weren’t biologically born one definitive sex at birth? That is what is occurring throughout the featured transgendered article. He is being questioned regarding his sex because he had sexual reproductive surgery to alter his sex permanently from female to male. Although his job requires him to be a male, due to watching the collection of urine samples from male drug-recovering individuals, he shouldn’t be questioned especially since his transition has been completed.

When the manager at the urine collection center terminated him because he was biologically born a girl, they sent a message that no gay individuals would be allowed to work there as well. They are more girlie than someone who changed their sexes, so they are discriminating based on an individual’s practicing sexual orientation, not necessarily their sex. Gender is a socially constructed belief of how one is to behavior with their given sex label. Gay and lesbians cannot be discriminated against based on their sexual orientation openly, so why should it be any different that transgendered individuals are treated like this? The answer I believe is it is not fair, and that it shouldn’t be treated any differently, so he should have never gotten fired and this wouldn’t even be an issue. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect society so instances like this occur more often than one knows. Life isn’t fair, but we have to learn to live with what is thrown at us.

Zack speaks passionately and proudly about this topic. It should make anyone who is scared of homosexual parents raising children rethink their stance. He is a very masculine college student showing his opinion on the topic. He’s right; if he did not bring the fact to the table about his mothers then I would have probably assumed he was a football player going to school somewhere expensive dating girl’s way out of my league. Maybe he is but it’s not right to assume.
Similarly to voting rights, women’s rights, and civil rights alike, it is all going to take time to create awareness and educate people about who these people are. However, if more people with personal stories stand up and speak about them it will take significantly less time. This form of parenting is becoming a lot more popular in recent years and will continue to increase in future years. My stance on it? I think that humans who are fit to be parents are fit to be parents, it does not matter your age, race, or sexual orientation. It should be a personal choice made by the person, not made by the state. These are the rules and laws made up by leaders nearly three hundred years ago. Yes, there have been amendments to these laws but something’s not working. And who says that the politicians of our states, namely straight, white, older men get to write these rules? Well I guess the people do but there will soon come a time where these issues will come to light, and people will elect officials that will address them.
Nobody is born a racist, just like no one is born a homophobe. It is something that is taught to you by friends, family, and anyone close to you. That is to be, or not to be hateful towards a certain group of people. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a family who respected all people equal and taught me to make my own assumptions of people. Since they thought all people were good, so did I. The root of the problem is parenting these children when they are younger, and informing them correct opinions about every different type of people.

The first thing I think about when someone says mobilizing people is assembling people for war time. Although is may be a common form, the military is rarely dealing with a mass amount of solders in a small area. Evacuation is different in that sense. Getting people involved is hard enough. Making them agree on a common goal, near impossible. But when it comes to life and death it becomes a little more complex. Seeing as Three Mile Island is less than an hour away from my house, a melt down has always been in the back of my parents mind. If we had to pick up and move away at a whim I don’t think we would have a place to go.
People must have a motivation to mobilize, a hurricane or storm would be one reason for this. Everyone has a common goal that they want to accomplish. Getting the hell away from the area of the storm. Telling the general public via T.V. publication or radio broadcast can cause chaos because panic sets in. The urgency of the message must be addressed at the beginning of the message. In order to get everyone on the same page you have to create a plan in which gives citizens enough time to safely get out, not just some but everyone.
What I would do is use the color grade to alert the urgency of the issue, blue being the least and red being the most. If it’s a red tragedy then starting with the people most at risk I would order them in small waves of 1000 or so people every hour to start moving away from the problem area. This way it would not clog the roads and it gives everyone a fair warning to get out.
In the case of a hurricane, they can be detected weeks before the fact, so why everyone did not leave New Orleans is beyond me because I would be out before they would have to ask me. That tragedy can be purely blamed on the higher authorities including George Bush. Why did they wait to send help? Why were the people not told about the urgency of the storm way ahead of time? Many tragedies such as these must be looked at more carefully then implement a plan similar to mine.

Valentine’s Day. In years past, it was a holiday that symbolized that everybody else in the world was in a relationship but me. My roommates were baking heart-shaped cookies for their boyfriends, and making romantic plans to celebrate this affair while I was back at home, watching a classic chick-flick, cuddling up by myself on the couch for the night. I loved being single, don’t get me wrong. It was fun going out each night, and meeting tons of guys at socials and whatnot. I feel that because I was single for such a large part of my life, I was able to date around and found characteristics in each of the people I meet of what I was looking to find in a long-term relationship.

Some of those characteristics I uncovered were not all positive. There were some boys that I meet who I automatically made a mental note to avoid these “types of guys” in the future at all costs. For example, every girl has had a bad boy at some point and time in there life. Why? It’s because we like the adventure that comes along with this type. They are not necessarily the best for long-term commitments, but their fun for the time being. Every girl wants a guy who respects her, and treats her right.

Although being single has its peaks now and again, no responsibilities or answering to someone else, it can get lonely. My roommate is going through this phase right now. She is the only one in our apartment that doesn’t have boyfriend, and at times it’s hard not having that comfort one might experience in a relationship. She also has mentioned to me that she doesn’t know what its like to truly love somebody, besides family of course. She has never been “sober” and had those strong of feelings of love and commitment to another person, which is sad to think about. We used to be in the same boat until this year, I have been in a relationship now for 6 months and have had the opportunity to experience this strong connection of love and affection. I looked forward to Valentine’s Day this year because I was going to share it with somebody that I truly love. For my roommate who is still single, I tell her there are plenty of guys out there to choose from, she just has to wait patiently and find the one that is the right person for her.

Thinking negatively of the public education system in American has been a common past time from me in the past. I hated most of middle school and high school because I felt like I was somehow getting left behind and looked over. I have never been a good test taker. It didn’t matter the subject, regurgitating information back onto a piece of paper is not fun for me. Until recently I was thinking I was alone.
While many administrators argued that my school district was the best education around, I still argued when I am going to use this, math especially. Why the hell do I need to know how x is related to y?
The video brought up many good points, in ways I haven’t thought of before. Our current public education system is based on the turn of the century way of thinking. With the advent of the industrial revolution education in math and the sciences was taught because the gap between the upper class and the lower class was not much at all. A lot of the methods used to teach at this time period were used as an alternative to high education, i.e. college or graduate school.
At this point in education, one who does not go to college or at least a trade school will not be able to supply for themselves let alone a family. As I made the transition from high school to college I began to see that I am not alone. With the invention of the internet, cell phones, on demand t.v, portable DVD players, video games, and eventually smart phones students cannot balance time with all, not to mention school as well!
America brags about our school systems, but you don’t have to travel far to find really horrible school districts with no funding, where students can barely read by high school. Inner city schools are drowning within their own cities because it seems no children have the drive to learn anymore. And I do not blame them. I once fell in the same boat.
To solve this problem, I believe we should do as the video stated, and give students problem solving skills they could actually use in the real world. Introduce them to technology at an early age and use it to further education. Finally, get rid of standardized testing in schools in order to take away the individualism among student.

When I read this article, I was not at all surprised by the figures it proposes. I myself have never been out of the country and have not seriously debated it in my lifetime. When they say America is the most ignorant and ill-informed country in the world, it’s because it’s true. We don’t see the importance or cultural relevance until we reach college or beyond. If a high school student is presented with the opportunity to study abroad it may be a truly unforgettable experience, but then again maybe not. My brother took a trip as a high school junior, and although it was a cool experience for him, a landmark such as going to college, I can say without a doubt was more character building and life changing.
When your young you have the opportunity to go places, meaning leaving the country to study abroad, take a class trip, or vacation with family. However some choose just simply not to. People say, they don’t have the money to do a trip like this, but like Tom Petty famously said, the work never ends. So why don’t more Americans leave the country for trips? The article brings up the unique point that we essentially have everything within the county. Enough different places and people exist for us to not have seen everything by the end of our lifetime.
Sam stresses in class the importance of going to other countries because they are way freer than us. Freedom is relative. European and Asian countries can more readily travel because of leisurely time and proximity. Just because 75% of the United Kingdom and 60% of Canada has their passports does not mean they are actively using it. This only means they are freer than Americans in the sense that they can actively exercise their right to travel at the drop of a hat, without having to get a passport. They’re probably coming to the United States to visit anyways. Okay, there’s not statistics to prove that but I digress. I think a major reason for the decline in travel, probably everywhere in the world in the last decade, is the advent of the Internet. A person can be instantly transported to anywhere on the planet circa Google Earth, studying and learning from a distance is the more cost effective and least effort.

This video is a flood of information but in a good way. It makes you consciously think about your life as well as your part in it. The most interesting part of this video besides the amazing white board animation was the middle section mostly about empathy. Sociologists argue that recently the level of empathy is slowly diminishing. People are too into their smart phones and personal devices and the normal day-to-day interactions cease to exist.
When I began studying sociology my junior year of college I was unsure if I would really enjoy it or not. Only to find that sociology is probably the most practical subject and most easy to apply to ones life. As learned about in Soc 1, sociology really is about those invisible strings that no one ever thinks about. So my question is why the heck isn’t sociology introduced earlier in the education system? Such as in high school, wouldn’t this make everyone be on the same page and be able to understand everything that goes on in their lives?
During this period when I began studying soc, it seemed so depressing, constantly studying why our economy is going down the drain and how the human race is doomed to end because of the raising anomie and violence.
The more I keep studying and reading into the lectures I was being given I wasn’t focusing on all the bad things the human race was doing, but rather all the things that were right with it. The great friendships in my life, the pure compassion I have for those who are close to me. And even for those who are not so close to me, I came to the realization that we as humans are generally good. We want to do the right thing and help other when we can. We are not yet at the point of no return. The bonds that existed with cavemen are similar to those we posses now. We still hold as much empathy for human beings.
For me in my life, I believe that education about sociology is where we start. Education is key to any person’s continuous gathering of knowledge. If we can understand why we act a certain way it is easier to prevent it and come together as humans.

The fact that this child was treated as a potential criminal at the school is wrong but a necessary action in today’s society. In a world where Columbine and the Virginia Tech shootings exist, people have to be cautious about how low their security is. But really, a five year old? It is absolutely a fact that if the child had come into the classroom and shot the gun or even worse shot another student, huge ramifications would have been taken. Maybe not against the five year old but against the father or other legal guardians, or maybe even the teacher.
The common denominator in all of this is the lack of education of the boy. Going back to the point that it is just not acceptable for someone to bring a gun to school, knowingly or not, is just a social norm. There are always exceptions to rules, but rather than expel a perfectly unknowledgeable boy, a mandatory gun control lesson should have been taught.

A child bringing a gun to school is totally unacceptable, but not illegal, technically. How this even ended up happening is one hundred percent on the parenting of this child. In every family structure there has to be checks and balances where the parents lay down ground rules explaining what’s right and wrong. Do push a peer, eat with your mouth closed, say excuse me when you burp, and it’s not okay to bring a loaded gun to school.
This problem could have rooted from the father carrying around a gun at home or participating in deviant acts. In this case the child wouldn’t know any different. Just like the game monkey see monkey do, he is imitating his father. This is one of the earliest methods of learning a child uses even down to beginning speaking.
Either way, the best method to prevent the child from doing this would have been from early education in the school highlighting the importance of the danger of guns. In addition, it would be beneficial to educate the students of the behavior norms of a regular kindergarten classroom.