I want to cry after reading this letter. When Sam talks in class about the lifers I can’t help but think about what it is that got them there. How could somebody commit a murder? Take someone else’s life? But then I think about if somebody would hurt a member of my family, and the idea doesn’t seem so abstract. When I read this letter my heart goes out to this man. Love is one of the most amazing parts of life and I cannot imagine a life without it. The empty space this man is feeling because he is not compassionate about someone makes me very sad. Everybody wants to love and be loved. Unfortunately this man will never experience love ever again because he will not be given the opportunity. The rest of his life will remain loveless and with that comes an extreme emotional burden. The passion I hear in this man’s voice when reading how he describes love makes my heart melt. I think that it is extremely important for this man to try and fill this space but I don’t think he will be able to. I do not take advantage of the opportunities this world has to offer. It’s very sad, but I like that I can read these letters and get a piece of what these lifers have to live with every single day. I think it’s also interesting to think about the fact that maybe this man is in prison for life because he killed someone for somebody that he loved. Possibly for protection or out of a good place. It could be ironic if this were the case, because look where it left him today. Without love. The author writes, “If prison has taken anything away from me it is the chance to love and to be loved. To look across the crowded room and find the person who is my world looking at me the person who is their’s.” When I think about looking across the room and seeing the person I love it places such a warm feeling in my body that I couldn’t imagine being without it. I appreciate everything more, especially love.

I think that the way we are brought up has much more of an impact on us than we would like to accept. For a very long time we have been told how boys and girls are different, and how they are supposed to act, dress, and work differently. I think that this particular case can be related to across a lot of transgender people in this country but it is a topic that is not commonly discussed. For this individual, even though his driver’s license says he is a man, what actually does justify this? Do we need to get physical and is it truly that important if he does have a penis? For his entire life he has felt like a male and why should that stop him from acting or working a certain way. This also is illegal! You cannot discriminate based on sex, just like you can’t discriminate based on disabilities such as being deaf. That alone does not constitute somebody’s capability to do a certain job. I believe that this article has a lot to do with the fact that people should not truly care what happens and what sex you are! Why does it matter whether this individual is classified as a male or a female? He is comfortable being considered a male, and has gone out of his way to get surgeries to change this. Hormones have also been taken so this alone should tell us that it is a serious matter. Aside from possessing a male body part or not, sex can also be determined based on different tastes in hobbies, sports, and even foods. It shouldn’t matter what he is being classified as, as long as he is happy what should the difference be? Today in class we were speaking about getting placed in somebody else’s shoes, and I think that this is a huge problem in our country. Empathy. Everybody lacks it because it is much easier to be naïve than to truly take the time to try and understand somebody else’s point of view. We must become more open minded and our country would be a much better place.

This article makes me want to cry. In class Sam tries to make it a point that these lifers truly find themselves and meaning once they are placed in prison for the rest of their lives, but I honestly didn’t feel this until I read this article. I know that the media has an extremely insane impact on our citizens, myself obviously included, but to truly hear the words “A man still believes in chivalry.” As the opening statement of this article makes my heart melt. I know that there are good men out there, but I think that they are truly afraid to act upon the instincts because the media and entertainment have shaped them otherwise. These invisible strings that we speak about in class are extremely apparent in our lives and it is a hard reality to face, especially in prision that these strings can affect us in crazy ways. I also find it so sad that this man will no longer have the chance to have a relationship. Everyone should feel what it is like to feel loved. I know what it’s like and for some strange reason, I broke up with the boy. I thought that coming to college was going to be the experience I was looking for in finding someone that I could spend the rest of my life with, and I literally speak to my exboyfriend every single day. He wants to treat me the exact why that is described in this article, and I’m not just being naïve. He is my best friend in the entire world and I could not imagine my life without him, but for some strange reason (maybe not so strange afterall) society has shaped me into believing that there could be somebody else out there. That love at first sight doesn’t really exist, that you are being silly to marry your high school sweetheart, and you are being naïve if you believe long distance relationships work. I know that it’s easier to have a relationship with somebody that you can physically be with but after reading this article I really only want to cry and think about my 2 year long relationship. The fact that this man cannot have the opportunity to treat a woman in which the way he wants, and he only has the ability to share this information with whoever will listen makes me sad.

When I am truly asked for my opinion on this issue I cant help but think about the experiences that I have personally had. I will not front. I come from an extremely wealthy area in this country and I know that a lot of the parents of my friends have cheated their way to the top. I can proudly say that my parents are well-educated, high-qualified individuals who have truly earned their positions. A lot of people that I know have money because it has been passed down to them, and they have joined the family business. My friend is basically just in school to say he will have a degree in something and will then taken over his father’s company. He is not motivated, and I don’t truly know if this constitutes as “cheating” per say. Our world has truly forced us into believing that “nice” things are important, and these luxuries are something that almost everybody in our world would like to possess. It is these strings that are truly harmful in shaping how it is we think. Cheating and lying in this world unfortunately can get you to extreme places. Our government is a huge example of this, because behind closed doors, when they are not exposed to the eye of society, these people make decisions and probably fail to make some decisions because they have only their best interest at heart. This is extremely corrupt but I don’t believe it will end anytime in the near future. I do believe that there needs to be a distribution of wealth, and I also believe that there are plenty of individuals who have honestly and whole-heartedly earned the current status that they hold. Our world is not fair, and this is just the way life is. It is usually hard to face, but once you do realize this fact, it is much easier to live your life in the sense that you want to. Yes there are invisible strings but these stings do not need to truly have an overwhelming amount of control over you. As “psu2012” states, “This world is full of diversity. That said, some wealthy individuals are wealthy because they have “unfairly” used the system to become wealthier. If any of us assumed a position of power would we not use the power to advance ourselves? If you say, “no, I would never do that. That isn’t fair” then I believe that you are a liar.” I could not agree with a statement more. I think that individuals find it a lot easier to say things than to actually follow through and do exactly what it is that they say. I know that a person are selfish enough to want to just advance themselves in this world, and is it unfair? Of course! That’s just the way it is.

I agree that it is not far off to say that religion will somewhat be vanished in the future. I think that our society is becoming more and more up to date with accepting different types of thoughts. I know that a lot of Americans attend church on Sundays, and Synagogue on Saturdays, and I think that this is going to be a huge part of life for a long time, but there will be a time in future where we no longer attend these holy places. I believe that the idea of “God” won’t vanish though. I know that the concept of a God is very grounding for individuals and it helps them give meaning to a lot of things. We see it every day that it’s a lot easier to follow the crowd than to step up and be a leader, and until someone truly believes in this and makes a move to make it apparent that these religious ideas should be no longer, then we will be stuck in this place for quite some time. Today, there isn’t a large percentage of our country that base their days around the religious views they were brought up with, and I think that if this all continues, and people start to ween off the fact that they need to live by these so called “rules”, this process would go much faster. I was raised in a Jewish household, and I had a bat mitzvah at the age of 13. It was the thing to do. All of my friends had them, boys and girls, and it literally was the hype of all of 7th grade. I think that in a lot of towns, especially if you aren’t in a predominately Jewish town, that you wouldn’t feel the social pressures to have one of these important events. I obviously do not regret having this monumentos occasion but it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say that if by the time I have my own children and they are not brought up in a town that is predominately big on bat mitzvahs that I wouldn’t have one for my own child.

The society that we currently live in faces ongoing conversations about same-sex marriage. In class it was spoken about quite in depth what it means to be a family. How you should provide for children, raise them, and provide for them. Zach Wahls is just one of many children raised by a gay couple and it is extremely clear how successful he is. He brings forth an extremely compelling argument, and it is very obvious that he is quite the individual and his family isn’t very different than many. However, I feel as though we need to take a broader look at this topic. We need to be much more concerned with the bigger picture involved. There are a lot of children raised by gay parents, and yes, there are extreme similarities between the households but at the same time there has not been enough research done on this. I thought that the video was powerful, except I wasn’t quite moved by one thing he said. He stated that nobody would know by just looking at him that two women raised him, but you also wouldn’t know that his mother has multiple sclerosis. If somebody looked at me they wouldn’t be able to tell I was the oldest of three siblings, or that I’m from New York. Same-sex marriage is a touchy subject for many people because it brings forth extremely concrete issues. There are a lot of religious people and like we talk about in class a lot of the time, this is a huge barrier. It’s unfair to say that someone can’t marry the person that they love just because they are of the same sex as them. But at the same time the bill passed is not going to change what a family is. It is extremely important to remember this when arguing about this topic. As long as there is love and care and compassion involved, and you can honestly say that you are comforted and loved that it truly shouldn’t matter how you were raised. Wahls is obviously very successful by scoring in the 99th percentile of the ACT scores, and feels very strongly about how it was he was raised. I was moved.

I am currently taking this sociology class and a psychology class. I find it so interesting how there are links between the two classes, and this video is a perfect example. Seasonal effective disorder is something we have discussed in my pysch class recently, and we are also talking about sleep as well. The amount of sleep we get, and the amounts of sunlight we get are similar in the sense that it affects exactly how we operate. In class we speak about how invisible strings affect how it is we go about our daily lives without noticing how we are being shaped each day. I do not think it would be a stretch to state that the people of Finland don’t realize what affect the lack of sunlight they are getting has on their lives. Just like I as an American, don’t realize how much sunlight I get affects my life. Climate and weather are two things in life that we truly cannot control, and are a perfect example of invisible strings. It broke my heart in the video when I saw the first person being interviewed, and he said how depressing it was, and how when there’s no snow on the ground and it’s completely pitch black that it’s hard to find something to do to “keep you alive”. That’s an extremely overwhelming statement. However, the lights that are provided by the city are a smart idea, and they probably help a lot. The residents that were asked about them clearly stated this as well. I know most people can relate to this, because even in the United States we know how the long gloomy winter days can be. Early sundown leaves us with less hours of sunlight during the day, and in the summer time everyone seems to be much more cheerful and energetic. But what if we were socialized in a different way? And to react the opposite to the sunlight and darkness? Would this actually have an effect on our lives? I’m not sure but it’s something quite fascinating to think about. These invisible strings have much more significance than I think we give them credit, and maybe because it’s that we’re being naïve, but I also think that we just don’t take the time to appreciate the beauty of sociology.

As I am getting older, I am learning more and more every day. I still speak to my mother every day, even though I am away at college, and she still to this day has such an immense impact on my life. I will be turning 19 years old in a few days, and I still find it hard to trust strangers. The media has and will continue to have such a strong impact on our society’s perceptions of strangers, and kidnappings in general. I remember my little sister’s first day of kindergarten. Both my mom and I saw her go off on that minibus and prayed that some creep wouldn’t find her and want to snatch her away. After I sit in my Sociology 001 class, I now know that this logic is extremely insane and dramatic. The numbers say it all. I think that if 99.99% of the time when children ask strangers for help, they are given help and not snatched away, that should say something. People have sex with condoms and the statistics are the same, so why don’t we trust individuals? I think that this thought process is instilled in us at such a young age that it is quite difficult to change once you are older. When I hear that it is some of the worst advice to give your child when you tell them NOT to talk to strangers, I am in utter disbelief. This video particularly will scare so many mothers, especially if it was on the morning news right after they took their child, or send their child off to school. It is within us, and we are socialized as Americans to believe that people are genuinely evil and don’t truly have good intentions. This makes it quite difficult to change our perceptions of strangers, and honestly find it within us to trust a complete stranger. However, despite all of the numbers, I still believe that when I have children of my own, I will not let them walk to school, and I will not tell them to talk to strangers. I do not like that .01 percent chance, that scares me and although rare, I do not want my child being that one in danger.

If anybody dared to lay a hand on a member of my family, the thought of taking that person’s life would be a natural reaction. It always has been to me, but I have never read an entry from a person who has been convicted of murder and needs to spend the rest of his life incarcerated. I don’t want to go as far as to say now that I have heard another perspective, that if somebody dared to (knock on wood) murder a member of my family that I wouldn’t kill them, but maybe not as fast. This was my first time reading one of the entries from a person spending life in prison because I didn’t want to face the emotion involved, however I’m happy I did. (Mostly because I didn’t want to read anything about Valentine’s Day) Every day I go about doing my own thing, waking up, getting dressed etc, and so do these men. Although I have no committed murder, they live their lives basically the same way I do. Possibly in even more of a holier way than I do. They need to face themselves and realize that they took another human being’s life, and I think that that is extreme punishment enough. But at the same time I find it really hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that a family member of the victim has come to legitimately forgive this individual for taking their loved one’s life. I do not think you could pay me enough money to honestly forgive someone for such a horrible thing. I do however, understand the fact that W. wants to go out of his way and share his story with the world. He wants more understanding and forgiveness from the world. He states, “Coming to terms with what I did was very painstaking, but essential to the redemption of my character. It’s one thing to know that what you did was wrong, but to realize the gravity and impact of your wrong act is such a dawning and awakening.” And I think that his is a huge turning point in his life. 15 years old is very young and I could not imagine the suffering one goes through when forced to face himself in the mirror after such actions, but that does not take away from the thought of how utterly disgusted I am. I don’t think there is a way to have any closure in your life after such actions, but I can genuinely understand why it is someone would want to share their story. Spreading information is important, and I can say from first hand experience that this has made me think of a different perspective.

I am floored. I have never seen myself as a person that would be able to actually embrace such a video, and I think that this information needs to be circulated. It’s a little bit extreme, because I think that if we all sat back and accepted the fact that we call came from two people, marriage and dating could be a little bit weird. However, while watching this video, and thinking about the question: “If you truly accepted what the man is saying, how might you change the way you live?” I don’t think I would necessarily change the way I lived, physically, but I think emotionally I would have a much better understanding, and appreciation of this world. I am not somebody who cares to recycle, I am not somebody who cares about the life of a spider, and I am not somebody that truly appreciates the nature of our world. I believe that if I were able to fully comprehend the message that this man is sending out, our world would be a completely different place. It’s interesting when posed with the idea that at first we were able to relate and confide in people that we shared blood with, then religion, and then with our country. Why stop there? I think that if we truly were faced with all coming together, a sense of identity would be lost. We relate to our blood relatives and treat them like family, then we accept others with the same religion, and then people of the same country, but if we end up relating to everyone around the world, what happens to the sense of identity? I think a lot of the questions posed in this video are slightly dramatic as well as part of a fantasy. Just like when we were children and everything was daisies and roses, if our world was totally related it would be weird. Empathy is an extremely wonderful phenomenon, and I believe that if that’s what the man truly thinks is the key to our world becoming a much better place, and increase the survival of this world, it would be interesting. There will most likely be a time in our world’s history (if we make it past 2012…) where we all come together, but I don’t think that will be any time soon. It will take a lot of time and understanding across these levels of consciousness, but I do believe that people’s lives would be different. And for the better.