I feel that it would be definitely be more difficult to come out to your parents if they were straight rather than gay. The most obvious reason for this is the fact that gay parent have a much greater understanding of their situation. It’s clear that growing up as a gay child they face a lot of challenges that are different than those faced by straight children. Every day they have to face uncertainty and shame just because of who they are attracted too. Then even when they have the courage to come out they must face the assaults of people that hate them for something that should be none of their business. The things that some people do to these people who are just being true to their actual feelings are absolutely appalling. Because of these issues it is obvious that it would be better to have a parent that has faced these same adversities to be able to talk to and help them through these difficult times. The advice that they would be able to give to them could help relieve them of a lot of the stress they face and help them truly understand their feelings. Even in the event that a straight parent is supportive and open minded about homosexuality they still would not completely understand how they feel because they have not gone through it themselves.
Another reason that having a gay parent would make it easier to come out to a gay parent is the fact you would know that they would be supportive of your choice unconditionally. If the person was facing the dilemma of exposing this part of their lives to someone who is that important in their lives it will obviously be scary if that is something different than the way they are. Even if their parents were open minded they still must be afraid by the possibility that their decision might disappoint their parents. Most children growing up imitate and learn from their parents and live a lot of their view of the world from them. This causes them to base their perceptions of what they want their lives to be like. So it is obvious that this causes a conflict for them making it more difficult for them to tell their parents about their true identities. However, if their parents were gay they would have no doubt of the support that they would receive from them and possibly even bond them closer over the cultural identity that they would then share. There is no doubt that the greater support and experience that they receive from parents who are gay would make it much easier for a gay person to come out to.

I grew up in a very committed Roman Catholic family, so I have been going to church every Sunday for pretty much as far back as I remember. Even in between these weekly meetings my mom was my religious education teacher and taught me and a few of my friends about the religion before we made our confirmation. Obviously in all this time I have faced my religions ideas on other religions and what needs to be done to be a “good” Christian so that you can go to Heaven. I have heard people say how if you don’t follow their ideas or rules in the right way your soul will be cursed for eternity, but this was never the idea that my mom tried to instill in us. She believed, as do I, that it is our actions that create our fate not the ideas we choose to believe in. It shouldn’t matter if you are Christian, Jewish, Islamic, or even a Mormon or scientologists the important part is how you choose to act.
That being said she taught me a similar message involving your faith and how to practice it. My mother stressed the importance of going to church in order to hear the scripture and strengthen my relationship with God, but in no way did she believe that faith stops and starts when you walk through that door. I have always been told that God is with us everywhere and that there are countless ways to way to build your relationship with God that extend far beyond the limits of just church. Whether it is through something as formal as a prepared prayer or something as just thinking about your religion on a walk to class, there are plenty of ways to talk with God. This idea extends beyond just Christianity to all other religions, the most important part of religion isn’t ceremony it is faith. Faith involves so much more than just listening to the stories in a book while someone explains it to you. It is discovering for yourself what you believe is important and believing in that. By just having true faith in anything strengthens your relationship with God.
As I have continued to grow I’ve realized that everything isn’t as simple as the right and wrong that is played out in the bible and the rules passed down from the church. Personally I feel that the Catholic Church has a lot of outdated and offensive stances on certain issues, such as gay marriage. Despite the fact that I may not agree with some of the decisions the church makes that has no effect on my faith or my relationship with God. As far as the model Christian goes I have drifted far away from the standard; however I still cherish my relationship with God as one of the most important parts of my life.

Personally I did not find this video incredible offensive. I understand why some people would find this video offensive because asking only Asian and international students about football, something that they probably have less experience, but I do not think it is funny due to the racial differences. In general it is a funny concept to show people being posed question about things that they have little understanding of. This is also done with average Americans political issues such as immigration and other issues they do not have much experience with. That is the general reason I believe this video is funny not because of the accents they had or that they were nerdy for not knowing football, but rather just from watching the cultural differences. I think this video would be even funnier if it were a white person being questioned about Asian culture especially if a language that was not native to him. Most people would agree that watching a white person nervously stumble through the Chinese language would be hilarious. And then at this point hopefully people would be able to see beyond the lines of race to see the comedy in the awkwardness of the situation. Don’t get me wrong I am not saying that the racial jokes are always funny; there is definitely a line that should not be crossed, but that does not mean that we should boil every issue down to race. I have friends who are Asian, African American, India, and even Middle Eastern and they understand how you can take a lot of the power away from racial issues by making jokes about the issues and not taking offense to every comment and difference in people. That being said there are people who say and do terrible things to people just because of the color of their skin. It is absolutely not alright to make some of the offensive jokes that pass on tv. A perfect example of this is the Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial that we watched in class yesterday. In this video a white man was at a sports game surround by people with dark skin and in order to get out of the awkward situation he gives them a bucket of chicken. I feel that this video is extremely offensive because it is a video obviously made by white males to sell fried chicken to white men by making fun of the stereotype that African American’s like fried chicken. It is because of this negative intention that I feel this video is so offensive, it is obvious from the ranting way that the dark skinned people around them are behaving that this video is not giving an accurate or positive portrayal of African Americans.

All of my life I grew up in a predominately white suburban neighborhood Westfield, New Jersey. While growing up there I felt that I didn’t have much exposure or knowledge about other races. Thankfully I had parents who taught me to treat all people with respect regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion, or any other superficial reason. I feel that they stressed this open mindedness because they both grew up in a neighborhood that was very different and more diverse than the one that they provided for their children. Both my mother and father grew up in Queens, New York one of the most diverse areas in the entire country. My mother grew up in a two bedroom apartment with three older brothers and my father a small house with two brothers. Due to this exposure my parents had a strong understanding of racial differences and have always encouraged their children to do the same. I had always listened to these lessons but I feel that I never truly understood them until I had my first real exposure to people of different races and socioeconomic status. This took place for me when I began to volunteer at Sister Pat’s Kids Camp. Sister Pat’s is a camp for children from a hospital in Brooklyn who suffer from cancer and rare blood disorders. The majority of kids who attend this camp are black or Hispanic and when I decided to go there my sophomore year I was unsure of how I would relate to these kids due to how different we were not only in race, but also due to their health conditions. During my first day at this camp I realized that there was going to be no effect of race in this situation. Taking care of these kids I began to realize how unimportant race really is in the grand scheme of things. Despite the fact that they have been put in one of the hardest situations I can possibly imagine as a child, they still treated everyone the same not even paying that much mind to race. These are children who are facing their own mortality before they are even in middle school, but even they understand there is no reason to treat someone different because of their race. Since that first year I have had the privilege to go back and volunteer at this camp several times and even work with the same age group of kids several years in a row. In this time I have bonded with several of the kids that I was responsible for some were black, some Dominican, and some white, but that didn’t matter to them. They saw past those external differences that we choose to focus on and looked at the things that really mattered. It was after this that I understood that even though race can be a big part of personal identity it should not cause us to think differently of any person.

This question does bring up a very good point most people get most of their information about the war and everyday life from these news problems, but are they actually reporting the things people should be hearing. I have found that the older I get the more I am disappointed in our current media system. The first reason for this is the fact that the news is run as a business. In our current society everyone is so focused on making money and ratings that they just let that effect what they choose to report. This infuriates me the way that the news stations manipulate stories and choose to report on events that cause the largest emotional response, whether it is fear or anger, so that more people want to watch their program. As a Penn State student I saw this first hand through the way the media handled the Sandusky scandal. During the first few weeks of the scandal you could not turn on a tv without hearing the constant updates on the scandal. This coverage peaked when Joe Paterno was fired, and the student body choose to riot. This start as a gathering with no intention of violence, but the anger of the student body, driven largely by the medias coverage as well as the decision to fire coach Paterno. This anger peaked with the flipping of the news van on College Ave. After this there was no way to escape the coverage of the Sandusky scandal and the insensitive student body. For the next week every news program played the clip of the van clipping on repeat. I remember two days after the initial riot my mom called me to ask me if I was safe having to avoid riots on campus, which she heard about on the news. I laughed and explain to her that campus had been peaceful since the first night, but I was still enraged by the light that these media outlets were portraying us in. This is a common example of how the media tries to manipulate a story in order to make it more interesting to the public. The disturbing part of this is how unsuccessful this repeated coverage is to tell the true story that is being covered. Despite the fact that this story was on TV all the time when I got home my friends and family were still confused and misinformed about what really happened. The other problem that plagues the quality of the news that we hear is that our media outlets are all owned by large conglomerates. For example the whole NBC network is owned by General Electric, this is true for almost all of our television networks. The fact that these big corporation own our media outlets has to raise the question if they have some effect on what they choose to report.

Yesterday in class Sam was talking about the different sports that seem to be dominated by a certain ethnic group. If you watch any professional sport even now you can see the obvious racial lines that divide our sports. One obvious example of this is basketball a sport which especially at the professional level is dominated by African American athletes, despite the miraculous appearance of Jeremy Lin. One contributing factor to this is due to the higher population of black people in inner-city neighborhoods. Due to the fact that basketball is such a simple sport it is the perfect sport for this type of environment; you can start a game simply with a ball and a hoop at a local park. In addition due to the layout of these areas it is often easier to have a basketball court then maintain other larger fields for other sports. This easy access makes this sport extremely popular for inner-city youths as well as the role models in the professional game and the hope that it can help lead to a better life. There is no doubt of the amazing African American role models to come out of professional basketball. The amazing players such as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant continue to inspire millions of young athletes to work hard to try to better their lives through this sport.
This type of racial segmentation due to socio-economic standing is not exclusive to United States. Soccer is the world’s most popular sport, it is no coincidence that this is also the cheapest simplest game. Literally the only thing you need to play soccer is a ball, even people with absolutely no money can create some type of substitute for this. This is why it is the most common sport played in countries such as Mexico and even some third world countries. This doesn’t describe a racial segmentation as much because most European countries also play soccer. This just shows that a simple game can appeal to people of all races and creeds.
This concept then flips with sports that require a higher demand for space and equipment. Hockey for example is an extremely difficult sport to become involved in. Other than the high cost of pads, skates and sticks, you must also find an ice rink nearby and learn how to skate before even considering playing the sport. This makes it very difficult for a lot of inner-city children or people in warmer climates to begin to play this game, due to the lack of an arena and convenient way to learn to play the game. And even if they were to find a nearby rink they would then have to spend a significantly larger amount of money to buy this equipment then most other sports. Because of this the sport tends to have more white players at the professional level because they were the ones who had the economic means to play and train.

Sam brings up a great point when discussing the reasons for the features that we have received through our ancestors. It is truly amazing the various differences people have developed to adapt and survive through various points of history. It is this precise reason that I don’t agree with the thought people are acting against God when they wish for different features that fit the current standard for beauty. It is within human nature to want something that you can’t have and it is not exclusive to solely different races even whites fall victim to the constant judgment of insecurities. However this does not mean that you are a bad Christian just for being human. A burden of free will is the fact that we do feel jealousy and uncertainty in ourselves sometimes, but this is no reason to lose your faith. To just stop and blame God and feel sorry for yourself is taking the easy way out, instead you should look beyond skin deep at the gifts that you do have. There are so many other things that make up a person rather than what their skin color shows. It is obviously more difficult to make it in white society as a person of color, but that is no reason to thrown in the towel and accept defeat because you think God screwed you. That should be a motivating force to let your actions define you rather than just what you look like on the outside. This is true regardless of what you choose to believe but is also a major idea of the Catholic religion. The basic principle of Catholicism is the idea that we are all born in sin and are given the choice of whether or not we will live in sin. Because of this free will it is obvious that people will commit a sin at some point throughout their life, but this choice also allows us to choose how we will define ourselves. So therefore we can choose to work hard and do our best to treat everyone regardless of race, religion, or appearance as another human being. The most important teaching that anyone can take from the bible is that everyone should “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:23). This is by far the most important message discussed in the bible yet people who claim to be Christians choose to disregard solely because people are different from them. If people took more time to follow the teachings of the bible rather than attacking these people in order to “defend” it the world would be a much better place. Regardless of what you choose to believe this is obviously an idea that we can all learn from.

As society and technology continue to advance there is no question that learning a second language is a necessity. Whether it is chinese, spanish, or any other dialect, you will undoubtedly have to deal with people who use do not speak english often. Even now we can see how other cultures have come to effect our day to day lives. This trend will only continue to grow as immigration and globalization continue to occur.
Because of this i feel it is extremely important for our school systems to stress the importance of foreign languages. There are countless studies showing that people have a much greater ability to learn a new language younger in life. Taking this in to account I believe that all students should have to begin taking Spanish during elementary school and a curriculum should be created to ensure that students are actually learning to use the language. Personally I began taking Spanish in the second grade. This head start allowed me too gain a stong understanding of the language at a young age. I remember when I was 11 years old taking a trip to Cancun with my parents and speaking Spanish trying to haggle over the price of a few t-shirts. Not only did this system allow me to learn Spanish but it also allowed me to take Italian during high school. Both of my grandparents immigrated to this country from Italy when they were children and spoke the language in addition to English. I still remember the look of pride in my grandfather’s face as I spoke with him in his native tongue for the first time. This helped me understand that another language is more than just words to someone it is a part of their identity and culture. This is why it is so unfair of Americans to demand that these people give up on the language they have spoken there entire lives as soon as they come in to our country. There is no reason that we should strip these people of a part of their cultures but rather learn from them to find a different perspective on life. There are too many ignorant people in this country who believe that learning from these people is a negative thing. This thought is ridiculous there is no reason why people should think that knowing a second language could hurt a person. The idea shared in class that a presidential candidate would prefer not to discuss that he is bilingual is absurd. If anything this should be a prerequisite to being the leader and representative for our country. By learning another language our commander and chief can not only communicate with the citizens who speak that language but also shows that our country values the importance of other cultures. This nation cannot survive in isolation in order to continue to be a super power we must work with the countries that are currently on the rise. This is a truth that we must accept if we plan to succeed in a modern world.

It is no secret that illegal immigrants have become a major part of our everyday lifestyle. Whether it is picking fruit, moving lawns, or even jobs that dont fit stereotypes, we have all benefited from having them available. They are willing to perform jobs that are extremely difficult for wages much lower than any American citizen. This story just shows that without the help of this section of the workforce the country would not be able to fully function. The citizens of Alabama are not willing to take these jobs despite the fact that have become available. This is just causing them to lose money instead of allowing willing workers to fill these positions. This system is destined to fail if there is no one willing to take these for the wages that employers are able to provide. However, there are thousands of people in other countries who would risk everything just for the opportunity to take the jobs that Americans are too good for. By cracking down on immigration laws we remove this entire group of people from the labor force, showing the obvious gaps in it. In order to prevent this from happening we have to end the witch hunt for illegal aliens. We are currently wasting millions of dollars hunting down the people who keep this country running. The only crime these people have committed is the attempt to make better lives for themselves, but we continuously persecute them at all times. I dont understand how people can justify this abuse as patriotism when this country was founded on the principles of freedom for all men regardless of their country of origin. In the Declaration of Independence we demand that all men be given the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This document was the defining act that created this great nation, but we have failed to live up to its message. Just because someone isnt born in American means they arent entitled to the same rights of every human being. This type of narrow minded thinking has the potential to destroy the nation that they are trying to protect. This country was founded by immigrants, after we stole it for the Indians, but some people have lost sight of our history and our potential. America cannot survive on its own we need the help of these people and everyone who believes in the true ideas this country was founded on. Instead of persecuting someone because theyre different we should try to learn from them and work with them to make something better. It is this philosophy that built this country in to the super power it is now, and it is our best chance to continue this success.