I think that health care should be extended to all citizens and immigrants as long as they are paying equal taxes in our country. I think that as long as they are paying what we are paying for the services, then why would we take away their right to have a health care plan that they can rely on. Everybody wants to stay healthy and they want their family to be safe, so how could we deny them the rights of health care if they are paying taxes just like the rest of us? However, if they are illegal immigrants and are not paying taxes, I think that they shouldn’t receive health care because we are paying for their care when they are not paying any taxes.

I recently learned of the South Park episode where they poked fun at the Muslim religion by bringing Mohammad into the show. I think that people need to relax because they take things way too far. I know that the writers of the show are inappropriate, but there is no need for Muslims to react in such a way. Why would you threaten to take somebody’s life because they made fun of your religion? As a Jewish teenager, I always get the brunt of the jokes because people love to make fun of Jews. However, I laugh about it or brush it off because people are just messing around. They don’t truly mean what they say and they are just trying to get some laughs from their viewers.

Everybody has heard of the disaster that occurred in Haiti earlier this year. However, I never realized how many people were actually affected by the earthquake that hit the small country. When I heard that there were about 300,000 people who were killed in the earthquake and even more displaced from the damages, I was very alarmed. It is crazy that in the United States, we suffered a loss of about 3,000 people from the September 11, 2001 terroristic attacks. I remember that when this attack happened, everybody in the country was affected. People could not believe what had happened and were shocked that something like that could even occur in our supposedly safe country. People stopped everything they were doing to throw their support behind our country and to help clean up and fix the mess that was created in New York City. It is somewhat confusing as to why an event that was one hundred times more destructive than the United States crisis received much less aid and support from people around the world. There are nearly two and a half million people who have been displaced because of the earthquake, and people can barely survive. I’m somewhat confused as to why more people haven’t lent a hand to help those victims. Things are only getting worse as the Haitian people aren’t receiving enough aid to survive. In their present condition, they have close to nothing to help them live. I couldn’t imagine living on top of rocks, which used to be my house several months prior to the event. I think that many people in the Soc119 class realized the severity of the disaster after the class designated to Haiti. After sitting through that lecture, I don’t think that anybody left the class with the same mindset. People saw the true disaster with real pictures taken by our guest speaker. I couldn’t imagine the September 11th attacks happening and the United States not doing anything to help clean up or fix the mess. However, in Haiti, the disaster is so large that people don’t even know where to begin and it will cost enormous amounts of money to even put a dent in the cleaning process. There is so much ruble that has accumulated from the earthquake and people haven’t even begin to clear out the mess so that they could get on the right path to fixing their struggling nation. I was also alarmed when I saw pictures of their parliamentary building, similar to our white house. People must be devastated to know that their government is even in shambles. I’m not sure what it would be like if our central location for government actions to take place was destroyed.

I think that the Palestinian and Israeli conflict is so deep that it is difficult to begin figuring out what to do. The Israelis claim that the land is theirs, while the Palestinians claim that it is not. Even if a court proves that one group of people owns the land, it would be impossible to remove an entire group of people from where the live and where they have become established. I don’t think that Israel will ever be removed and I think they will occupy the land for many years. I think that the Israelis have an advantage since they already occupy the land and because they have the most powerful army in the world.

Thursday’s class about the Christian invaders in the Middle East really got me thinking about what is truly happening in the war in Iraq and similar areas. I knew previously that the war we are in is mostly due to the fact that America wants more oil and more control of the resources. However, I didn’t realize that what we truly want is control of the resources on their land and then we plan on getting out of the country without offering any assistance to them at all. It’s really easy for Americans to form an opinion on the Middle Eastern people because of news reports and video clips and pictures that are constantly posted all over the news and the internet. However, Sam broke everything down the other day and explained that we don’t see the goo in anybody and that only the bad is portrayed to us when we see things pop up in the news. The Arab people are exactly like most American people in the fact that they want to be happy, have peace, and they want what is best for them and their families. For the most part, that is no different from the American people. Most Americans view the Arab people as radicals who only want to kill people and take lives from many innocent people. However, they are only “fighting back” because we are portrayed to be coming into their land to convert them from their religion, which is very important to them. When Arab people see Americans working together as Christians and being sent overseas into their country to fight “terror,” they portray it as religious crusades because most people in the United States are Christian and read the bible as a religious practice. When they see this, they think that they are martyrs coming to convert them from whichever religion they practice to Christianity. Of course, anybody who is adamant about their religion will fight back against people in hopes of saving what is valuable to them. I can completely understand now why the fighting and rebellion occurs on a regular basis. The Middle Eastern people are scared for their lives and they are unsure of what is going to happen to them and their families. It must be very painful to learn that more and more troops are being sent into their country and they aren’t even sure of the exact reason. It’s very interesting that we as Americans are affected in similar ways because we think that these people are always causing havoc in their country, but really they are standing up for what they believe in. These people are normal and generally friendly people, but the few extremists in every group stand out, making the situation appear different than it really is.

It’s difficult to say what the next step would be in fixing the problem with slavery in the modern world. Obviously there is a large problem with slavery and it still exists today in large numbers. Who is to say what the best option is to fix the problem with slavery? I think what needs to be done is a tough call. Maybe the government could provide some companies with money to counter the low costs of cheap labor and slave labor. To take place of the people who are working for nothing, the government could give these companies money so that they could pay a little bit more for the labor.

I agree with where you are coming from. I think that affirmative action could definitely lower the quality of health care in that situation. I think there are certain situations that need to be evaluated and the person best qualified for the job should receive the position. Something like this could put people’s lives at risk when it comes to surgeries and operations if the doctor is less qualified and less knowledgeable than somebody else who didn’t receive a job because of affirmative action. I do think that affirmative action lowers the quality of workers, but only if the person is really less qualified for a position. If a person has the qualifications and complete the tasks of the job, then that person should receive the job, of course.

I’m not really sure how the country and the government would even begin to go about eliminating the welfare program. So many people rely on the welfare system to live and without it, people would have nowhere to turn for help. However, if the welfare system were to be eliminated, I think that the status of people wouldn’t change too drastically. People would probably save money in taxes because they don’t need to put part of their paycheck towards funding another person’s habits. I really don’t believe that the class system would change too greatly because the people who weren’t on welfare prior to its removal will still live their lives the way they have been, and the people on welfare currently will have to find other means to support themselves and their families. The welfare system currently provides millions of people in the country with money each month to care for themselves and their family and children. It’s unfortunate that some people abuse the system and try to use money for purposes other than the reasons the program was created to help. I know that a large portion of people on welfare pay for things that are unnecessary in relation to living standards when they should be focusing their money that they receive on more important things. It’s sad that some people take the system for granted and feed their unhealthy habits, such as drug addictions and alcoholism when there are really people in the world who need the program in order to survive. I think it would be extremely difficult to eliminate the program altogether, but maybe the government could put higher regulations on the program and make the qualifications for being on welfare a bit more specific. I understand completely why some people use welfare as a means to live out their lives in a given period of time, but the people who truly abuse the system are the ones who give the program a bad reputation. I think that it would be impossible for the government to provide absolutely no aid to people who are in need. Therefore, the requirements to be on welfare should be greatly increased so that only those in need are receiving the benefits of the welfare program. A possible solution could be for people receiving aid to send in receipts from things they spend money on throughout the month. When the month is over, they can mail in a list of receipts so that the government can evaluate their spending and see exactly where they are spending their money and for whom. Of course, people could get around this rule by stealing receipts from other people or having other peoples submit their purchases for them, but this option could potentially decrease the amount of people on the system who really shouldn’t be receiving money from the government each month.

As a man, I really don’t think that the whole idea about women having their period and the menstrual cycle they go through is a big deal. It is a part of life and every woman goes through it, regardless of who they are. I completely agreed with Sam in class that people need to stop overreacting about the whole issue. I know that women are hesitant to talk about the topic in front of other men, and this is understandable. However, it really shouldn’t be a big deal and people should be able to speak freely about it because it is a huge part of a woman’s life. I am not sure why women should have to keep it a secret from other people because a woman’s period is not that big of a deal. People who overreact to the topic need to grow up and mature a little bit because every single woman has a menstrual cycle. I do agree however, that Sam was a little bit too aggressive when talking about the topic and said some things that were a bit touchy. I understood his point and where he was going, but the examples he used were way too descriptive and personal. I really don’t need to know about Sam’s wife’s menstrual cycle, but the menstrual cycle in general is important to understand. I know that growing up, I was surrounded by several people who were very open about having their period and would mention it multiple times or have it known that they had their period at a given time. Although that is a bit odd because most people don’t experience other people being so open about the topic, I think that being around that growing up made me realize that a woman having her period really isn’t a big deal at all. If women feel comfortable talking about what they are experiencing at a given time, then they should go for it and express how they are feeling. However, I completely understand if a woman does not want to talk about it to other people because it is a personal issue and some people are not as open as others. I think that men do need to loosen up and become more open to learning more about it because it does affect women a great deal. When us men get older and have serious girlfriends or wives, we will be hearing about their menstrual cycle very often, so I don’t think it hurts to learn a little bit more about it now before experiencing it in full blast. Thinking back to high school health classes, I never remember talking about women getting their period, but I do recall my teachers talking about masturbation. I’m not sure why we don’t learn more about a woman’s menstrual cycle in health classes because it would definitely ease people into the topic.

I think the obvious reason as to why men don’t talk about a woman’s period enough is because they don’t go through a menstrual cycle like women do. I think as a guy, I really don’t want to learn about the women’s menstrual cycle because it doesn’t affect me at this stage in my life. I know that I’m surrounded by females who talk about their period and what they are going through on a regular basis, but I don’t know enough about it to fully understand what women go through. At the same time, when I hear women talking about this topic, I tend to zone out because it doesn’t affect me. I think that most men are the same way and because it doesn’t effect them, they don’t educate themselves on the topic.