Moreso than fearful for myself after seeing this video and having been exposed to many like it before, for me personally I think of how sad it is to see that this is what these people choose to do with their lives, the only one they’ll ever live. It must be even harder for those Muslims living in these environments of hatred who want nothing to do with it, and all of the moderate, actual God/life respecting, Muslims who have been targeted by retaliation out of Americans fear of groups with missions like these that enact these brutal measures of Jihad. My take is that they claim it is for religion, that Allah is the true good and they are ordered by the Karan to kill anyone who is an “infidel”. This in a sense is them saying if you are not muslim, you don’t have the right to live. But in as much as religion relies on faith in a God, then why wouldn’t God do this himself? They are using a book thousands of years old that comes from a time of war to justify the killing of others while claiming religious justification in doing so. If that is what being a Muslim is about, so far as these radicals represent it, then what good is it? Who would want to be this type of Muslim? Only to live in hatred and to kill or give your own life to kill others who don’t share the same faith. Basically this says to me that what they are all about says that Allah put everyone here just so they can kill the non muslims. This is a huge contradiction that serves no purpose. It is really a front for a world power struggle stemming from animosity of differences that really drives this Jihad. They want to kill us because of our ways of life. Israel and Palestine are at war over the land each other lives on like were back in the years B.C., each giving ancient claims by their God to the other, and hate the other race personally because of it.Those of the true Muslim faith suffer because this is what the image of their religion comes to and it has become liable to heinous acts of genocide. It is like in Hedge's book with the Serbs, Croats, and Muslims in Bosnia hating each other, which in effect all it accomplishes it to establish they are different and continue more hate, which to me is a morbid life. They should just give up and let go, what keeps this type of terror alive in people is beyond me, why would they want to perpetuate this any further? If it is “God’s will” he would have it that way, but I chose to believe in a God the creator that commanded people to not kill, but I guess that makes me the target of these people and obviously I would also end up one to die for my beliefs in the face of them. Hatred is a sad waste of life and goes against the purpose of religion, which is to find meaning in life, because it has been corrupted to justify means like this. It is difficult and complicated, but amounts to a huge loss that continues to wage on.

Watching this video and hearing what it reveals has met me with shock. I can not believe the clear contradiction in what Obama is planning to do and what he has said to gain the favor of his crowds, as with what he proposed from the beginning of him being elected which effects every citizen. He has platformed cutting military, pulling out of Iraq I believe as of 2011. Now we see and hear here that he is increasing both the army and the marines by almost a quarter million troops and that figure of $663 billion dollars of our national budget feeding military action and its ever going increase is appalling. We are in no way under attack in a way that requires such a militant force that is our country, and looking back the terror attacks on us happened on us regardless. Its all about invading for scarce resources, but what gives us the right to these resources on other lands at the costs of lives, of our own soldiers and foreign civilians. We use up all of our own at such an excessive rate, resources that are only ours because they come with the land we are on just like everywhere else in the world pertaining to other countries, so why should we be entitled to taking whatever we want from everyone else in the world and killing while were at it, spending upwards of a trillion dollars to fund this is non terrible, but arguably necessary, unless you are on the other end. This country is in effect committing crime against the rest of the world, as while it is believe to be that we are bringing order through military involvement over seas and being there to keep our country protected, we are ultimately just stomping on the ants who are trying to fight back against us for the conditions we place on the rest of the world by the consumption we embark. Making up only 4% of the world’s population and having more than half of the world’s military power is more or less saying we are the only people entitled to what is left in the world, just 4% of humanity, in the long run and everyone else can just die trying because in the end our country wins no matter what. As I sit here just happening to be born where I am in the United States, I benefit from this, my comfortable life here depends on this power that our country has. It is just too complex of an issue that I probably cant begin to understand but seeing it this way makes me so resentful towards the type of military we have created, the actions our nation takes as a world power but it seems that its just how things will always be. That is what our nation values the most because in the end were all just fighting for survival so I guess it cant be any other way, but of course it is not that simple. There needs to be change, extreme military cuts and reform, better approaches to our own resource reserves instead of head on capitalistic harvesting. As much as we need resources, this military taking over is just going to get deeper and deeper and I can't see it ending good for anybody who is afflicted worldwide in this path.

Zach Wahls makes a strong case and it surprised me how much he actually said in just three minutes. By this I mean how big of a message he was able to convey and how truthful he was being able to convince me. I completely agree that he is very accomplished, whether or not this has anything to do with having same sex parents but it is apparent that it can be attributed to his upbringing and therefore in this case it is. As he point out, you cannot distinguish this about him without him having to say so. This goes to show though that in his case it is possible for two women to raise a successful young man and their commitment to this really speaks true in his character. It is great to see that now that he is of age he even supports his parents to the fullest and is present in court to justify the type of relationship his parents have for all others who share the same and seek marriage. I can see in this light that two parents of the same sex are perfectly capable of being great, supportive parents. In fact I might add in my own personal opinion, they might even be better to a certain extent, such as Zach’s parents.

This man talks about the type of commitment his mothers have to each other and the family, one that they apparently still have to this day as he stands before the judge to represent them. Well, having two parents still together by your side in adulthood is better than not having both parents of a heterosexual relationship committed to each other to make the family still as strong at this point of your life. It is obvious today how many marriages go wrong, and how devastating the effects of divorce can be on the development of children into adulthood, especially at a young age. If anyone deserves marriage, it is people like this man’s mothers who would strongly uphold what it means to be married and are indeed representing that to the fullest even without the legal title as it is. It is beneficial to society as a whole for the people that as this video presents, can be raised by same sex parents to be strong, successful adults of great character and devotion such as this individual.

For me this is the most prolific topic we have looked into throughout the entire class. It is something that I have pondered and brooded over for a long time because I understand this is the reason for the unbalance in America and to me I see that the richest rich are the reason why other countries hate us. Not surprising, me being born and raised through the struggle of poverty I am open to this issue as I see how negatively it effects me and how absurd it is that the top 1% of the country hold 1/3 of our net worth, 2/3 to the top 10% all together. To me this is atrocious and is nothing me than greed. At what point do these people benefit from the next million dollars they make? In my opinion people are starving, dying, struggling, because they hoard all of this money, live materialistic lives yet they continue to get richer while everyone at the bottom is locked in with no way to prosper as much. Its as if they are knowingly and willingly setting up a process of elimination, to let everyone die so all that all that's left is the rich. Where’s the humanity? We live in a world now where the quality of your life, the quality of yourself as a person, is determined by wealth. When I think of money, I think of all the things that I can do with it, to me it is only worth what you do with it, to experience all I can in life if I had it and everyone I could help with it. These people don’t think this way. They may just think they earned everything and deserve to be in that position, as of course is very well the case for most, but the issue is when that money accumulates more in more just for their own ends, and the unfair corruption that comes along with some of these people in government decisions, etc. Sure maybe they give some charity and all that good stuff, but its nothing compared to their never ending supply of money.

The majority in my opinion are selfish, materialistic money mongers whose future generations will always have a made life to get all the money they want (and won't need) just because of who they are and the rest of the population is either left to work hard and live a fair, prosperous life that they may be fortunate enough to reach or the majority to never make it and die trying. All of that wealth at the top, if redistributed can put people on an equal playing field, raise the standard of living for everyone or at least initiate a start for some people to a better future (and could still leave those at the top far ahead as the richest with the most power) if the rich would not stop until they put it in all the right places as much as they can, but they are in the end more interested in themselves. The problem is the people in the middle who are unaware because they are successful and comfortable and live secure lives, they don’t have to worry about it. I on the other hand, see this issue because I have been poor all my life and its a wonder how I even made it this far to college. Yet, I’m still 100 steps behind everyone around me because I see these people, who come from a comfortable life and are following the progress set up already by their parents and parents parents, like a pyramid. The majority of people around me have all the help they need from them, school being paid for, cars to drive and the comfort to succeed and get what they need. I am here trying to make it on my own, with all the worry and unsureness of the future, either I make it or break it, there’s nothing to back me up, simply because of the class I was born into. I am going through school on loans, no money to pay for anything on my own. I am indebted to this system, which as much as it gets me forward still hampers my level of economic advancement for years regardless how great a job I get, because I have to pay back loans as well as pay for them in interest.

It cost me more to get ahead in life coming from nothing then it does for people who are already in positions to achieve by what their parents have made possible for them in in the best case scenario can more than afford to do so. Of course I did a lot of right things to make it here, but I had to work so much harder through it all with all the struggle surrounding my life while the majority were free to prosper because their parents have made that possible for them. I know I’m not the only one, and I don’t mean to whine either, had I been the best through high school or born with athletic ability I could be here on more scholarship then loans, yet my $20,000 a year that I don’t have is so necessary for this university with all their billions (but that’s a different topic). My point is this imbalance of money, wealth, status, power, creates a cycle of imbalance in every facet of life, especially when it comes to the obstacles of how hard it is to get ahead when you are at the bottom, that which I am doing just now trying to make it for myself to that first step off the ground in the pyramid, and I am only one example of the endless realities that comes with the nature of the unequally distributed opportunities that are the result of disproportionate wealth.

The use, or should I say misuse, of the “R-word” is something I have recognized for a long time now and have seriously sought to correct in myself. I am glad that it is being recognized as an issue and that these politically incorrect, or offensive rather, politicians are being held accountable for intentionally using the word in a derogatory manner or letting it slip for lack of a better word out of habit. Either way, it is heard and understood to be a slur by the people the term it truly represents, for it is calling someone for stupidity a word that actually represents the mentally handicapped. This is inconsiderate of them because when they hear it they are being used, they are expendable, they become what represents the scoffed upon actions or behaviors of others that are being judged, that are labeled a term that represents who these people actually are, something completely different. If using the word retarded to describe what is being disdained, then it is doing so at the expense of people who have a condition against their will along with it, it lumps them in with what is of disrepute and therefore is putting them down as something less than a person. This also offends people who hear it and are aware of this problem, as well anyone who sympathizes with the mentally handicapped, friends, family, people close to them in their everyday lives as well as just people who are socially and ethically alert making them obliged.

I am very analytical of myself and my words and actions, probably a little too much for my own good. I am constantly reanalyzing many conversations and interactions I had afterwards to make sure I didn’t say anything wrong or that could have been taken the wrong way and try to understand how the people I have spoken with will think on my words. It is a habit I have and try not to be overcome by, but other times I think a lot of good comes from it in helping to shape my understanding and better myself by not saying things I realize are inappropriate. In this case, I learned at a very young age to think twice before using the R-word because I really thought about and understand its literal sense, therefore it should be made a priority for anyone with social and political stature. It is actually something that has been on my mind lately, thinking of what it means and trying not to say it, as I am with many things time to time. Im not saying that I haven’t used the word since, we all know we do but it is important to be aware of the audience and circumstances because we all unintentionally do it just because it has become so common. If we see something that we don’t like or agree with we say it’s retarded. Or if we recognize how ridiculous something or the actions of someone is, something we don’t agree with, we call it retarded, without thinking about what that implies. We just have become accustomed to that being the acceptable word of choice just because it is said so much. There is the same problem today with how people use the word “Gay”, especially young people. It needs to be reconsidered and reflected upon as a social issue towards a better understanding, and gradually corrected from a social standpoint because it is offensive and inconsiderate on an everyday scale, not just politically incorrect in the media spectrum.

This commentary comes as a breath of fresh air and really speaks on conceptions that have been growing in my thoughts about the subject of education for awhile now and I really agree. It is fascinating to me though just how many people are conformed with our system of education and they don’t realize it when I have been feeling it for a long time now. I am always telling people going through school this far to where I am now has made me dumber. When I was in elementary, I was brilliant. I was creative beyond my years. I was “diagnosed “mentally gifted” at a young age, engaged in extra curriculum to stimulate my abilities and always went above and beyond expectations naturally. Maybe you can say that the schooling was simple and easy, but I managed straight A’s without ever having to study. I just knew everything because I encouraged my own thought. So, what happened you might ask?

High school happened. All these years of going through school, I believe in a freely constructed education system I should have been placed above many grade levels before I even hit puberty, but there is the point here how there is such an emphasis on keeping young people amongst their ages. The problem here for me was the process has been so drawn out, just building slightly every year, not at the pace that my mind and capabilities could have proceeded. Year by year all the grades and nothing ever touching in higher thinking, just a slight more knowledgeable approach to the same old material. It is frustrating and leaves no room to excel. What is pushed is grades, always make the grades when that is something I got by simply doing nothing. By the time high school came I was so tired of this that I simply fell off track by being at odds with the system; out of resent for being dragged through a structure that is unsupportive for individual learning and higher thought, but just follows a laid out curriculum and makes you do work, work, work- no learning involved.

Where was calculus and physics when my mind was so actively engaging everything when I was 12 years old. Why was I not told these are essential thing into becoming an engineer and many other things in life. That’s just it, nothing you ever learned was ever put into perspective and applied towards anything. Now these things are difficult for me because I lost my spark, my zest for wanting to know and desire by which everything came natural and just kept wanting to know what’s next, faster than it is given from 1st to 8th grade. Now there are so many other things to deal with in life at this age when I had all the time in the world as a child to engage the growth of thought and intellect. Now it is just so hard to keep up and meet the demands of feeding back answers in reports and exams that are already stored in a book and known, without you being told what you are supposed to know- just that your own answer is wrong.

I became frustrated and sort-of gave up in high school and just coasted through doing the minimum still getting by on my smarts. Clearly that says a lot for all that I achieved making it into Penn State from a high school where If I worked harder I’d be going to an Ivy league school as the top of my class students do (As if I wanted to, Penn state all the way!). Now, it’s just the same structured system to follow only in a more complex way. Now I resent myself for not doing my best, for not seeking out the engagement of my learning on my own and treating my own learning desires separate as well as along with my academic career, instead of finding a better alternative in the “relief” of being a socialite taking the right of passage of drinking parties that is “surely what being a teenager is all about”.

I was fed up, but now I just can’t help but wonder how much I could know now and have achieved by now had I been given the right support to learn and not be hampered by the dullness of “education”. In the end I still find myself picking up the pieces for my own choices and having to re-adjust and work along with this system in college, to try to avoid the distractions and get back on my course to do what I can now, to achieve in this system that I believe is to blame for having stifled my intelligence. At the same time, all these things I argued about not having before for me to pursue knowledge are here now, if only I could have started this “level” of education when I was 12.

You can definitely see that in the context of this society, polygamy makes sense in that it is called forth by the sociological conditions. One woman with more than one husband is a relationship structure that emerges out of necessity in this particular region, in which more men to a woman is more practical and essential to how they live. It is different from the social structure we have where we are so privileged in necessities that for many people the type of lives we live are not determined by the need of a family size, therefore there is no need for more than one wife in main society nor is it seen as ethically acceptable.

In the situation presented here, they are small village communities where men out number woman and with little resources and means to make a living. Brothers sharing one wife means a stronger family able to work together and survive to support each other whereas in their economic system, one husband to a wife would not suffice. This aspect of survival and need to make their own living predominates the “free will” of companionship that we know in our modern American society. The arrangement of polyandry in the importance of needing to live better off overrides the traditions we know of courtship and seeking a suitable mate through love and affection and a natural connection felt to be of the soul, that has to do with building relationships and bonds and a growing feeling towards each other.

On the other hand, in the world seen in this video that is not how it works and the system they live by is the norm, maybe not so much as a free choice but as a choice made out of reasoning and their understanding that it is what it takes in their environment to be able to live. They must become a family first and then build complex relationships that involves brothers sharing the same wife if they choose to partake and love is just a possibility thereafter, not essential for starting the arrangement.

The concept of a family and procreation is brought down to a natural, almost “primitive” state in which it is not a process of selection and preference but one of acceptance and submittal, to a means of survival for each other as a support system. It is not one where you are continuously trying to find the right match to make a family you believe to be suitable, but forming one by the factors that be and living and accepting it as is, with a guidance of human nature in which a parent’s love for their children still exists naturally, and the marriage is a partnership for economic stability.

I am gonna take a personal account on this question and provide the simple and only reason why I have never traveled, something that is beyond the control of many people by sociological factors as well, and that is because I am poor. I was born poor, I was raised poor, and until I get a job out of college I will be poor. It costs a lot of money to travel. It costs money to buy a passport, to pay for the flights or cruise and so forth, for hotel stays, for all the hospitality costs and for whatever you are going to do on your travels. though travels can be made on humble arrangements, this is something for people with money to do. People who are either born into money and traveling is a part of their sophistication, or people who are well into their professions with savings and it is either a vacation, a personal pursuit, or and actual part of their livelihood, are able to do so.

My parents have had difficult childhoods in negative environments that caused mental hardship and emotional problems for them and because of this and genetic dispositions, they are legally disabled on account of mental health. Neither have finished high school nor can they hold a job. I was raised on welfare. What one person may spend on a week long getaway to Jamaica is more money than my parents were granted in a year to raise me and my sister on. Growing up in this situation is oppressive, its a struggle by financial constraint as well as living in a world of supportive parents and working adults when your parents do not. To a certain extent, this separates you from a sense of knowing amongst the rest of society and it is hard not having an example to follow for how to make it in the world. There is no opportunity for a “luxury” such as travel in this situation. As I got older this is especially hard to accept when their are many peers of mine who’s families are typical workers and are financially secure enough to go on vacation in the summer.

Many people go to Florida, but that is the basic within the country travel destination, something even still unattainable for me at this point. Then there’s the cruises to Jamaica and Mexico of my best friend from high school , or the family trip to Italy, by my roommate sitting right next to me, when he was 17. Here I am now, 19, a sophomore in college, and I am that person who always says the stereotypical “I’ve never even been on a plane” when talk comes up about travel. As far as vacation goes, the Jersey Shore is the vacation place for me throughout my life, the furthest west I’ve ever been being here in State College, and to Virginia in the south. Going to the Italian market or walking through Chinatown back home in Philly is the closest I get to international travel, and having Puerto Rican neighbors with chicken coops and playing bongos is the closest I get to the experience of going there.

When people talk about travel, like I said, I am always the one to say “I’ve never even been on a plane.” Surprisingly enough, to people who have traveled it is so common to them, such a right of passage, something that has been a simple opportunity for them that the usual response I get is in disbelief. Usually the first thought for people is not that its because I never had the chance to, that I can’t travel even though I want to, but that I am crazy for choosing not to or that I am afraid to fly. When i say I can't travel, it is not understood. Im not saying that it is wrong for them to have been so fortunate and I am not speaking resentful or jealously, but for me travel is something I won’t be able to do until I’ve earned the means to do it myself. It is something I wish to do in life, to fulfill for myself, through my career path by going to college and hopefully having the future finances to do so. For some people, travel is provided by the success of their parents. I think the biggest reason why most people don’t travel overall is because it is not a free choice, something you can do just because you want to, but it is a privilege to those who can afford it.

It’s funny to see this happen in a black and white video, and a lot of people like me are probably thinking it’s ridiculous and we would not act the same. One might think that clearly this is of outdated times when conformity was more of the over the top social notion then it is today, but even then this was made to be whimsical in seeing how it reflects people as we are. It is more than just what era people are living in, but it is human nature and you don’t notice the peculiar things about us until you look into these actions from an outside perspective. This is when you realize it is something more than choice but a defined characteristic we share, like an impulse. This all ties to the sociological idea of the “invisible strings” that are pulling on the outcome of particular choices we make, that we can’t see and harness in ourselves until you have that outside look and revamp the way you are thinking. Given a situation like this, almost certainly most of us would react in a way to conform even if you don’t think so now. The movement to conform would be driven by your feelings that you don’t understand what is going on. The concern and uneasiness of being out of place takeover, the fear of being ostracized as disruptive set in, and you feel as if you were moving against a current. Things go much more smoothly and people feel more fitting and comfortable when they are following the general consensus of their peers. The feeling of belonging to a group itself can often completely override your reasoning for anything you do, of which might not makes sense at all other than it does to be a part of the group. This feeling is a drive inside that almost makes the choices for you. It is a sociological conditioning we bear as human beings and in many cases it is hard to say that anyone would not follow it through with in their actions. It is bigger than the choices we make; it is something that is always there. Even when you realize conformity you can be compelled to break free from it in a given situation that you feel is right, but the strings are always there trying to pull you to follow along in the overall direction, that is the collective action made by everyone else to conform.

I don’t think anyone can be too sure of their own “moral compass”, so it is not just an ordeal this man faces having grown to be a man in prison. Albeit, it is a very difference context for him then us in the world because we are free to interact with the rest of existence, whereas the world he knows since his mind was being shaped as an adolescence is in the realm of criminals: That which he was labeled as and determined to be for the rest of his life at just the age of 14. I can understand his point, that the only thing he has to hold onto as a ‘lifer’ is what feeling of existence he wants to create for himself, that is to better himself through moral guidance and continue to grow on that to maintain his own sense of dignity. However, his dilemma is that he doesn’t know whether or not to trust his “moral compass” because society has told him he is below morals, that he is wrong and shall be punished the rest of his life for it; That everyone around him has the same fate and therefore how could he inherit the right set of morals if his everyday life is shaped by this environment?

I think we are all constantly re-deciding what constitutes our knowledge of right and wrong, of what sense of being is acceptable in the human condition as a means to act upon, shaping our self as we go along and it is never constant (although a few strong rules should be immutable, such as any time of physical harm to another, but that’s my moral compass talking). There is also the consideration of environment and circumstance and when you might go outside of the morals that guide you for whatever reason because of the situation, whether it was acting on fear, a life and death situation, or a matter of civil disobedience, etc. Not only that but no matter how one sees themselves through their own morals, everyone has their own sense of moral judgement. No matter how sure you are of your own “moral judgement”, you are still subject to the collective moral compass as a whole and right down to the individual himself.
You might think you got it all tailored and figured out, but people are still going to judge you on how they feel about your actions and whether or not they coincide with their own moralistic ideals. When it comes to society as a whole, it is almost impossible to have an aggregate moral compass, it varies in where you go, and to that extent is why we have the law.

The law is supposed to have the same foundation and regard to every constituent under its jurisdiction, yet I think those who enforce the law can let their own moral compass corrupt this treatment. Whether it be a police officer gone crooked or a judge imposing a huge sentence on someone to set an example. The only place in the legal system where individualistic moral compasses should come into play is in the jury. Ultimately, I think there is a need to unify our moral compass and hold strongly the most profound rules to live by as human so that we don’t have to question but know altogether what we hold still for, but the world we live in it not such a simple place, desperation causes corruption and a single act can determine the judgment of your entire being from the viewpoint of humanity. This may leave you to pick of the pieces for yourself the rest of your life in jail, not being able to trust your own moral guidance because society has told you it will forever be wrong.