My father was the police chief in my hometown of Altamont, New York. Contrary to what one might think about a state so far north as New York, we had a high level of illegal immigrants. The meat packing plant in our town attracted a high level of illegal aliens and about half of my school was Mexican, and probably about half of them were illegal. My father generally had a positive outlook his life and his job, but one of the things that made him the most upset was the topic of illegal immigration. He constantly spoke at conferences and was invited to many events to speak on the topic as he has an extensive background in law enforcement. Although the topic may have disgruntled him, when he spoke he always did so in an objective manner. I attended some of these speeches, and I myself became well rehearsed in the topic of illegal immigration.
Many of the problems and frustrations that my father encountered on the job could have easily been avoided if the perpetrators with whom he dealt were legal citizens. The majority of the problems arose from identity theft, which made charging the criminals extremely difficult. Also, the language barrier played a huge part. If one of my father’s officers were to pull over an illegal alien driving without a license and without the ability to communicate in English, one can imagine the amount of frustration involved when dealing with such an extensive and unfortunate situation.
These problems eventually lead my father to seek another job—he became so fed up with being a police chief in a town (the town in which he was raised) that he believed had been degenerated. He didn’t believe this because he was against the race of the people that immigrated into our state; he was simply against the blatant lack of respect they seemed to have for it. During my junior year of high school my dad found another job. He took it. This lead to my separation from everything I had grown up with—my friends, my home, my favorite golf course, and my home state of Iowa.
Although moving turned out to be a positive experience for me, when the topic of illegal immigration comes up, I can’t help but think of everything my father went through and how it lead to him seeking a job outside of the town that he grew up in—the town that he grew up to protect as chief of police. Thus, when asked the question that I originally set out to answer: “Would you help someone illegally immigrate into the country?” I can answer without hesitation. It would defy everything that my father worked for while I was growing up. It would cause countless others the problems that it caused my father, and that it eventually caused me.

The class about native Americans was very interesting and disturbing. The video shown in class was also extremely interesting. After hearing the statistics and watching the video, I was very disturbed and embarrassed about my countries history. I always knew that native Americans were treated poorly, but I was unaware of the living conditions that they deal with currently. The most alarming statistic was the one about suicides and life expectancy. The fact that people living in America are only expected to live for 50 years. That’s 20 years younger than everyone else in this country. And that’s even worse than the poorest country in the western hemisphere, Haiti. The other thing that was really surprising to see was the statistics about Native Americans. The life expectancy of Native American men and women is lower than that of men and women living in Haiti? This was alarming to see that such poverish conditions exist here in the US, a country that is seen as rich and prosperous. Native Americans are more likely to die of alcohol related causes, are less educated, and are more likely to be victims of violence than any other ethnic group. The last one really gets me, because it goes along with what I mentioned earlier. We kill them, take their land, call them derogatory names, and then treat them with violence? What did they ever do?When I was in high school I had an opportunity to go to a Native American reservation in North Carolina I believe. My church takes a mission trip yearly and that year they had decided to go to a reservation and help fix up homes and such. The pictures and stories they brought back were very surprising and shocking. Especially after seeing and hearing the stories yesterday in class I wish I would have taken the trip and had a chance to help out the people who many of our ancestors had committed mass genocide on. I also think it is interesting how American history is changed to sound much better than it was. It is just a lesson in the importance of the connotation of a word. For example “colonization” or “settling” sounds much better than “genocide,” which was really what happened. I have always been a huge fan of the Dave Matthews Band and have listened to “Don’t Drink the Water” multiple times. But, I never thought twice about the lyrics. The song is truly moving and I love the way the PowerPoint was matched to the lyrics. The pictures added even more emphasis to the already uplifting words. I love when you finally realize where a band is coming from and what their songs mean. Dave Matthews does a great job of highlighting the horrible acts that were created to the Native Americans. Overall, I was very intrigued by Tuesdays lecture.

The video that had the mot impact on me last class was one of the last videos shown. It was the one on the Christian missionaries who travel to Iraq to try and implement Christianity and churches across the country. The reason that it had such a profound effect on me was because I had no clue that people did that type of work. As a devout catholic Christian, I had very mixed feelings about the video. I give a lot of credit to them, because they are clearly very spiritual. I have a lot of respect for people who are very religious, because it shows that they are passionate about what they love. The problem that I had with the video, however, is that they believe that Islam is completely wrong. Like I said, I am Christian, but I do not bash against other religions. I think people have the right to believe in whatever they want, its their prerogative.
Another video that was very impactful was the video showing the American soldiers running over the taxi cab. After watching it, I was embarrassed to be American, and embarrassed that those soldiers were representing my country. My cousin is currently in the military, as was a West Point grad. As a high ranking officer, he would never do anything like that, and would certainly reprimand them for doing such a horrible act. The fact that those types of people are the ones representing and fighting for this country is awful.
The third video that caught my eye was the one of the evangelical Christian Bible school. This “boot camp” for children was simply amazing to me—and not in a good way, either. These children were throwing their hands in the air, crying, speaking in tongues, and “praising” God. The entire Bible school had a military-themed curriculum. Children were Army-crawling on the floor, wearing camouflage face paint, and singing songs that applied to the theme.
Lastly, the video that was shown at the beginning of class about jihad was ridiculous. Not ridiculous in a bad way, it was just very powerful and left me in awe afterwards. Seeing the picture of the world trade center was a very disturbing image. The pictures of the people jumping from the windows were also quite disturbing. The point of the video clearly worked, because I was legitimately angry with the terrorists afterwards. However, the video was way too biased an extreme in my opinion. Sam made excellent points about how we should understand the terrorists, and I thoroughly think that he is completely right.

When I try and think back about specific times when I have been around two people speaking a different language, I have a difficult time remembering exactly how I felt. However, I think that I would definitely feel uncomfortable if I was put in that type of situation. Its only natural for people to feel awkward or uncomfortable when they are unsure of what is being said nearby them. Although chances are they are talking about something completely irrelevant to me, I think that I would be paranoid that their conversation pertains to me. When I was in Canada for spring break this year, I had a lot of interactions with people that spoke French, because it was in the French speaking part (Quebec). Thankfully, I speak a small amount of French, so I was able to pick up on certain words and was able to put sentences together. This was never uncomfortable or awkward for me, but if I had not been able to understand them, it would have certainly been worse. I am slightly embarrassed to say that I have felt uncomfortable in these situations, because it does not reflect my feelings towards people of different cultures and languages. I grew up in a very diverse school district, with a lot of Asian students. They would stick to themselves, and would always speak their native language amongst each other. Not to say to it bothered me, but I always wondered why they did that. Not until I tried to put myself in their position did I understand. If I were studying abroad with other American students, I would obviously speak English with them. One of my biggest regrets thus far in college has been my decision to not go abroad. I think that if I did go to a place that spoke another language, I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable around people who speak a different language. The best way to feel completely comfortable with anything is to experience it a lot. And if I were abroad, that would be something that I would run into constantly. After a while, I’m sure that it would no longer get uncomfortable. Throughout this class, I have been trying to keep an open mind, and find a cultural explanation for the differences I see. In most cases, I've been learning, asking questions and trying to really listen to the answers. But language seems to be one of my final barriers; I do still feel uncomfortable and upset at work when someone around me is speaking a language different than English.

There are a number of factors that make it difficult to date outside of your race, which is quite unfortunate. The ability to love is one of the most sacred freedoms that we are given, and the fact that there are obvious barriers that prevent people from loving is quite sad. The first factor that plays a significant role in making it difficult to date outside of your race is one’s family. I feel like our current generation does not have any issues with multi-racial dating as a whole, but the generation older than us definitely does. In particular, the generation of our grandparents has the biggest problem with it. My grandparents are certainly not racist, and have always been friendly and welcoming to any of my friends of color. However, I am convinced that if I were to become engaged to a black woman, they would be a little uneasy. They wouldn’t resent me, and they would still attend the wedding, but I’m sure that they would be a little uneasy that I would be the first interracial marriage in our family. I think that for with the exception of the small number of racist grandparents that still exist, most grandparents are similar to mine. I honestly do not blame them for feeling this way. When they grew up during the civil rights movements, there were barely any interracial marriages. Therefore, they became accustomed to only relationships between one race. It is only natural for them to feel uneasy and anxious about their grandchildren marrying outside of their own race. This barrier between family members prevents a lot of people from pursuing relationships outside of their own race. I have personally dated a Puerto Rican girl while I was in high school, and I felt no awkwardness between my parents. They understood that I liked the girl, and as long as she was nice and polite, they had no problem with her. That’s the way that people should only judge people, on their actions. Obviously this isn’t a perfect world, but it would be very nice if that were how it was. Another factor that makes it difficult to date outside of your race is pressure from friends. I’m sure that if I were to begin dating a black girl, I would receive a lot of friendly but obnoxious jokes about dating her. After a while, I’m sure that it would get on my nerves, and would affect my relationships with my friends and my black girlfriend. I’m sure that my friends would eventually get used to it, and stop with the jokes, but the first weeks or months of dating would definitely be a struggle.

This is a question that brings up many issues, not just limited resources. The student that asks the question refers to the millions of people in our world that are starving, but food is not the real thing that we are running out of, nor will we ever run out of. We will always be able to produce a sufficient amount of food to feed the world. The real issue with food is getting food to areas of the world that do not have access to it. Transportation and logistics of food supply is what we should be more concerned about. In terms of limited and scarce resources, energy supply is the most important issue that our world is faced with. After taking an environmental energy class last semester, I learned that we will run out of oil within our lifetime, and will run out of coal shortly there after. These are our two largest energy resources, so it is imperative that we either focus on preserving these resources, or turning to other means of producing energy. I personally think we should focus on the latter. The emergence of electric and hydroelectric cars is a huge step in the right direction. If car companies can start investing in projects that can further advance the technology to produce these energy efficient cars, we will be much better off as a society and world. The student also brings up a very interesting and controversial topic when he mentions limiting the number of children that should be allowed in order to have population control. In my opinion this is something that would tear our country apart. This country was built on free rights, and preventing someone from producing offspring is completely against freedom. I hear about Chinese rules about limiting the number of children per family, and I immediately have negative thoughts towards it. And I’m sure that many people feel the same way as me. The student in this clip brings up another interesting idea when he mentions having an age requirement to have children. I think that this is actually a great idea. I think that the appropriate age is 18, or even 21. Not only will this keep our population down, but it will also help out other issues like teenage pregnancy and poverty. There are very few people in this country that are under the age of 18 and are fully capable of raising a child on their own. This also brings up a very controversial topic of abortion. In order for a rule like this to actually be put in effect, there must be a nationwide law allowing abortions for anyone under the age of 18 who is pregnant. This would be extremely controversial, and could create a major uproar. Another alternative would be birth control medication for everyone under the age of 18. This would still be very controversial, but not as bad as abortion.

I agree with many of the previous blog responses that think that “selfish” is not the word that I would use to describe someone like Tammy’s parents. Instead, I would use the word irresponsible. It really bothers me when I see families on TV and in the newspaper that have 5+ children while living in poverty. Children that are raised in that type of environment are almost helpless, and do absolutely nothing to get in that situation. I have a soft spot for kids that are raised in poverty, simply because I feel so grateful to be born into a family with a sufficient income. I don’t know if “luck” is the right word, but I feel so lucky. Another reason why I don’t think that “selfish” is the right word is because people who are selfish usually are selfish because they want to better themselves. Someone who has twenty children while living in poverty is only making their own lives worse. In the defense of some parents living in poverty, I understand that many pregnancies are unplanned. But when I see families with that many children, I can’t condone that many “mistakes”. The right word for parents who have that many children is irresponsible. As a parent and adult, it is your unspoken duty to be a good role model for children. Someone like Tammy’s father, however, cannot be considered a good role model for putting his children in such a terrible situation. He may be a caring and loving father, but the fact that he put his children in dire straights should not be tolerated in our society. Growing up, I would hear story after story about families that were similar to Tammy’s. My aunt was a grade school teacher in an inner city school, so many of the children that she taught were from horrible backgrounds. Many of her students required welfare, and had many brothers and sisters. I remember how upset she would get when she talked about those families, and how badly she felt for the kids. Many of them were great kids who worked hard in school and had great spirits, but were held down by financial matters. This brings up another interesting topic; welfare. I currently am appalled at the process of getting welfare. I think that it is ridiculous that the government does not require drug tests of all welfare applicants. I think that a test should be required prior to getting it, and also every couple months while the person is on it.

I think that the only way to make more people aware about the slavery that still exists in this world is through the media. When shows like dateline NBC have specials on slavery, millions of people are immediately exposed to the atrocities that occur across the world. I feel like the most difficult part about this situation is getting actual footage and interviews with the people that are enslaved. The clip that we watched in class was an exception, but was difficult to get nonetheless. The clip of the kids working was only possible because their “master” was away at the time. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be for television networks to get access inside of sweatshops and other places of work where people are enslaved. However, once clips like the one we saw in class catch the public eye, it’s only a short matter of time until an operation with slaves gets shut down. To be honest, I had no clue that actual “slaves” still existed in this world until I saw the video in class. I knew that there were sweatshops and workers in terrible conditions, but I never imagined it to be as bad as it was in the Ivory Coast. After seeing this video, I am much more inclined to donate, support, and fight against slavery. I’m sure that if that exact same video was shown on a primetime network, there would be an incredible amount of support to end slavery. The most difficult and disturbing part of slavery is that everything material in our lives comes from slavery. Everything from electronics to clothing traces back to slavery. What Sam said in class about continuing to buy chocolate was very surprising. So even though many people think that the best way to stop slavery is to stop purchasing that product altogether, it can be detrimental instead. All in all, the best way to stop the slavery that exists is to try to shut down the operations. With advanced technology, and armed forces, I’m sure that our government has the ability to shut down any illegal operation on this planet. Going back to the best way to make more people aware of slavery, television is the best way. Our country and society is affected so much by the media, so that is the best way to attack this problem. Look at what dateline NBC has done with sexual predators with it’s show “To Catch a Predator”. I feel that the more and more we talk and discuss this problem, the less likely it will happen in the future.

I feel like free will and determinism have equally shaped my life through the years. Looking back on my life, I am astonished at how far I’ve come, and how many different choices that I have made. It is amazing that I am now a 20-year-old student at Penn State, and that decisions that I made years ago have contributed to my current standing.
I think that the early parts of my life were shaped by determinism much more than free will. I feel this because I was born into my family, and I did not choose who my parents are or where I live. Thankfully, I was grateful enough to have parents that made a decent living and I grew up in a save environment. I was by no means rich, but my parents made sure that I lived comfortably. Because I grew up in a suburban area, I attended a school that had a high budget and had talented teachers. Not to say that I was given a clear-cut advantage over many kids in rough neighborhoods, but I definitely was on track to getting a future education after high school. Another way that determinism strongly affected my life was in terms of religion. Growing up in an Irish family, I was immersed into the Catholic Christian church and was “forced” to attend Sunday school. Not that I ever resisted attending church or Sunday school, but I never really knew otherwise.
It wasn’t until middle school when I started making serious choices and started really using my free will to shape my life. At this time, I started choosing my closest friends. I believe that the first true friends that you make are the ones that really help you find interests. In my case, my friends and I had a common interest of sports. My free will to start playing sports is in my opinion one of the main reasons why I am here at Penn State. Sports taught me how to be a part of a team, which in turn helped out my grades, ultimately leading to my acceptance to this school. Also, my love for sports was a reason why I chose to attend PSU. The attractiveness of big time college sports, which Penn State clearly has, was a huge part in my college decision-making. Another way in which free will has shaped my life is the decisions that I have made while at Penn State. One of the biggest parts of my life is my involvement in my Fraternity. I had chosen myself to join the fraternity, and it has completely shaped me into a better person in my opinion.
Free will and determinism may be polar opposites, but they are essential to each other. Everyone in life is shaped by these two factors, and together, they have shaped our country into what it is today.

It is extremely difficult to gauge whether or not our world would be a better place if we lived for the sake of living. Obviously, the first humans to walk this planet lived in that fashion. Before there were countries, politics, technology, etc. humans had to rely on their animal instincts to survive. Living this way, in my opinion, is much worse than living the way we do now. In that video, the narrator stated that humans live to be happy. Every single day, the first thing that comes to my mind, and stays in my mind until I go to bed is ‘how I can make myself happy’. No other animals or species on the planet act in that way, and that is why the human race is superior.
Another reason that I think that the world is a better place when we live for ourselves is because of all of the advancements and accomplishments that the human race has put forth. Without the inner drive to make a better life, people would never have dreamed to invent the light bulb or medicine. If humans lived like monkeys, we wouldn’t even be discussing this matter. Life would simply be empty. If we were given the gift to think, then why wouldn’t we use it?! We were put on this earth to evolve and grow as a race, and the best way to do that is by thinking for ourselves and living for happiness.
I think the reason why we no longer live like monkeys is because evolution has made it that way. The human race has evolved over thousands of years, and we have developed the cognitive ability to live a better life. If we never developed the ability to think for ourselves and fight for a better life, then we would be living in the woods eating bugs and plants, just as monkeys do. People may “say” that the world would be a better place if we lived like that, but to be honest, the world without humans isn’t a very good one at all. The world would become disease ridden, and extinction would be certain for many animals and species, just as it was in pre-historic times. I would love to give the people who claim to rather live in an animalistic way the actual chance to live like an animal. And I guarantee that if they were truly given the opportunity to live in the wild and forget about electricity, running water, and everything else in this world, they would reject the offer. The world that we live in is a beautiful place, and people need to stop focusing in on the negative aspects of the human race. Yes, the human race has a disturbing and gruesome past, but our ability to live and love is what makes our world such a beautiful planet.