My opinion on illegal immigration has fluctuated throughout the past couple of years. I used to believe that illegal immigration was bad because it kept Americans from getting jobs and it made it so that any crazy person can live in our country without us knowing. As I grew older these opinions changed because I realized that in reality “illegal immigration is only an issue for poor groups of people. Being from Detroit I live on the border separating the united states from Canada or more specifically Detroit, mi from Windsor, Ontario. As a younger child I ran track. My track team would have practice in Canada many times a week. When we would go to practice we would of course have to cross the border and go through border patrol. Generally they would ask a few dumb questions then let us pass through. Every time this happened I thought to myself we could be hiding anything in this car and they would never know. The reason why they would never know is because they didn’t really take the time out to check and see. However, on borders such as the Mexican/American border, cars are searches more carefully. This is probably due to the fact that there is more of an illegal immigrant problem on this border. The reason for this issue is because many latin Americans seek the United States of America as a way to better lives for themselves and their families. We only care about immigration if the people coming into our country are poor. If these people have money we let them in with no issue. While I realize that not everybody can immigrate here it is not fair that the deciding factor on whether or not we let someone in our country is based on how much money they have. However, while this is not fair it makes sense because if we just let a bunch of poor people in our country our quality of life levels would be lower. Also, if these immigrants were not illegal we would have to compensate them at the same level we pay our own workers. This would eventually just increase the unemployment level because we would have to include them in the count. As I think about it being an illegal immigrant would be easy because living as a legalized resident I don’t have run ins with anybody that would require me to document myself as a citizen. So, even though it can sometimes not work out well I believe that keeping some immigrants as illegal can be beneficial to our country.

This video is a clear example of propaganda used by the united states government. We listen to what we are told by small videos such as this one and take it to be fact without investigating more. If a person really wanted to they could draw a connection between any number of issues and say somebody is trying to take over the world with religion which is essentially what we learned the Iraqis do as well. Because of videos like this when a person of Middle Eastern boards a plane we become uncomfortable, we decide that they are not American and deem them enemies of the state because of the presumed religion they have in a country with “freedom of religion”. The media enjoys reporting on what they believe will get the most buzz and catch people’s attention. “Jihad Taking over America” is a much bigger attention grabber than “Earth Day!” Just recently I was riding in a taxi cab and the radio teased a story on how Jihad is trying to take over our court system and is helping muslim people get around the laws. To someone merely listening in not truly critically thinking this sounds threatening. This all reminds me of the video we watched in class on how the head of state or the president uses propaganda to help sell war. The media also uses propaganda to sell wars ratings and other things just alike. The news cannot report that muslims are actually good people and not trying to over run democracy or whatever then they will lose ratings, viewers and probably eventually be thrown off the air. As a direct result from this propaganda, we fear these people are trying to kill us and we need to do everything possible to protect ourselves. So why are we afraid of muslims? The reason is because that is all we are told unless as individuals we decide to dig deeper on our own.

In The United States of America we typically perceive ourselves as the freest people in the world. However, articles like the one I just read are clear evidence against this major claim. In what free country can a person not decide that they want to lead a life different than the one they were given at birth? When a woman decides she wants larger boobs and decides to get breast implants, nobody tells this woman, no you must let every person know that your breasts were not always that size because not doing so is deceiving. Nobody tells these women do not show cleavage unless with that cleavage you have a sign saying “Not my boobs”. Whether or not this man was born as such, he visually and mentally a man. The claim could be made that maybe people would feel uncomfortable because he used to be a woman. Well, newsflash but every woman does not want you and this man has said he never identified with being a female. If his birth certificate and every other part of him says “male” why should he have to explain how he came to be such. When I check the female box on a job application, nowhere does it say, “How did you become a female?” We are supposed to have the freedom of privacy, yet, if we use this privacy to not disclose questions that should never be asked by an employer or that are inappropriate, we become punished. I can understand if this man was a cross dresser that lied, but he is not. The appropriate measures to be considered a male were taken, but to the employer this did not matter. Furthermore, why would the state of New Jersey grant this man a change of sex on his birth certificate if they had no plans of backing him when he was fired from his job. Cases like these make me question how free we really are and if these freedoms only apply to those who live by society’s conventional rules.

Usually when reading responses to blogs I try to understand the ignorance of some of the people writing them, however, this is the most foolish response I have read thus far in soc 119. To even insinuate that all white people have the same life experiences or that all black/mixed people have the same life experiences is close-minded and ignorant. This poster of this blog has decided that all white people are the masters of story telling because not only are the black and mixed people unable to create imagery their skin color also makes it so that they have a lesser vocabulary. The color of one’s skin does NOT in any sort of way determine what a person can do with their vocabulary or the imagery they can convey. President Barack Obama is a mixed man and he is a very eloquent speaker, however, according to this person due to his mixed race he obviously should not be a successful public speaker. All people are emotional, and the color of one’s skin does not determine this either. To say minorities are emotional and white people are emotionless is the broadest generalization a person can make. Just because you have met one minority that was very emotional and one white person that did not necessarily display their emotions means nothing. Other claims brought up in this blog were, white people have more of a chance to speak in front of large groups because they’re white and they also have more freedom of speech in their households because they are white. This blog was obviously written by a person that has not learned or gotten much out of soc 119. The claims in this blog reflect a clear ignorance on the lifestyle of black and mixed people. Just because you have seen something in a movie does not mean it is true. I believe that the author of this post skewed the original purpose of this blog horribly. The reason why the different people told the story different has nothing to do with their level of intelligence nor does it have to do with their ability to speak publicly, or the freedom of speech they had as a child. The activity required mere recitation not use of a broad vocabulary to see which race knows the words with the most syllables. The story was told differently because people have a tendency to try not to make them or people like them look bad. If I am a white person I may leave out the N word from the story I’m telling because A, I don’t want to say the actual word, and B I don’t want to make it seem like my people are doing any wrong. While on the other hand, the black people will not leave that part out because leaving it in the story does them no harm.

This woman and everything about her story is phenomenal. I think that as Americans it is impossible to fully grasp the feeling or climate for lack of a better term of living in a warzone or in wartimes like how the rest of the world does. When we go to battle with another country, there are soldiers who are going off to “defend our country” and we know that some of them will die, but it is never the case where our civilians may be physically harmed by the war. In other parts of the world the soldiers are defending their country, but also the civilians of the countries are fighting to stay alive mentally and physically with all of the fear death and desctruction surrounding them. Like this woman said, most of the civilians killed in war are women and children. If in the military a woman soldier’s life is more valuable that a man’s, hence why they stopped letting them drive trucks for fear of them dying from road bombs, then why is it that we have no problem with the fact that most of the bystanders or people dying period are women and children. After a war countries make negotiations, depending on what the various leaders deem the best, but with the very corrupt governments of some nations, there is not even almost the notion that the decisions being made will benefit those who are most hurt or helped by these decisions. Like the speaker, I do not believe that it is just the women who need their voices to be heard, but all innocent civilians fighting to stay alive, when there is no definite way to protect themselves. The people who have to live with the mess after countries decide to be friends should be the ones sitting down at tables negotiating because when something effects you, you are more likely to fight for what you believe in than when the subject won’t really change anything for you. If you were told farm or a family across the country might go hungry tonight, there is less motivation than if you are told, farm or your family will go hungry tonight.

After this class I technically “blame” terrorists for doing what they do because they still are killing others and responsible for their answers. However, I do not in the other sense blame them because I cannot for sure say I would not do the same thing they are doing. If someone came in my house and stole my kitchen because they decided they needed it to open a bakery and me and my family were not benefitting from this invasion I would be more than furious. To make matters worse, let’s say they brought in all of their bodyguards to “protect” my kitchen from others, however, anytime someone I knew or in my family stepped near the area they were shot dead. I know in my heart that eventually I would make a force of my own and fight these people until they removed themselves from my kitchen. These terrorists are in a sense no different than we. These terrorists take it upon themselves to go in a country bombing and killing people to make a statement. We go into their country with troops, guns and bombs and kill as many people as necessary to defeat the ominous bad guy. To make matters worse, we search for years and years for a so called terrorist leader who even they don’t support and come up empty handed. If I were a middle eastern, that would spell corruption to me. The only difference I see is that we are lead officially by our government to kill these people. When we watch the news we see all this nonsense about a war on terror, however, everybody knows that this is a war to control oil. The same oil that rightfully belongs to these people. I do not understand how the united states goes into foreign countries and kills thousands of people for money and a resource and this is seen as acceptable, however, if these people kill other people to get them out of their country they are somehow morally corrupt. I do not condone the killing of other people but a kill is a kill is a kill. I do believe that both medias and civilians slant the media in a way that fits their purpose and makes them seem right. But I also believe that these people are living in a war zone so no matter what the terrorist threat level is at an airport in the united states, it is much higher and much more real in the middle east. For this reason they have a right to be defensive angry and even scared.

After reading M’s story I thought back to the needy penis lecture. M truly believes that he is deserves the punishment he is receiving because he aided in the murder of a man, however, I think he only believes this because it’s what he was told to believe. Society says that we should not kill other people because it is wrong but when we are at war with another country this wrong is all of a sudden right. Murderers are bad so we decide that capital punishment is a solution. Either way a life was lost and it is not up to a human to decide whether or not someone deserves to live. Soldiers at battle kill somebody and receive a medal of honor, a gang member kills someone and receives a life sentence. A murderer is told to feel bad because they have killed an innocent person, but a soldier is told to feel proud because they killed an enemy of the state. I am by no means proposing that there should not be crimes for those who kill others, but I am saying that before we as society condemn these people to life in a box, maybe we should treat them for whatever is wrong with them. As in M’s case he is obviously not a cold blooded killer, and he feels remorse for what he did, so why can’t he be introduced back into society. Why is prison an inescapable place for so many people that could become productive members of society? Why should these people be told to feel any worse than a soldier? Why is killing for a flag, power and money for your country better that killing for your street, power for you and your friends, and money for your friends? After all, what’s in a rose that by any other name would smell as sweet? Or in this case, what’s in a murderer that by any other circumstances is considered a hero?

Do I feel uncomfortable when two or more people are speaking a language around me? At first I thought to myself “Duh! Who wouldn’t?” but then as I thought deeper I realized discomfort is least of all my feeling in these situations. As a younger child I would spend most of time at my aunt and uncle’s house. My aunt is a Guatemalan woman and Spanish is her first language. Whenever I would be at her house I found myself confused when she would speak to other relatives in the house, I couldn’t tell if she was speaking too fast or I was listening too slow or what was going on. It was not until I got a bit older that I realized it was Spanish she was speaking. I often find myself in similar situations when people are speaking in another language. I’m usually confused because it takes a couple seconds for me to realize “Wow, that’s not English.” However, that is not the only feeling I get. When you are hanging out with a different group of people they tend to have a lot of inside jokes with each other that you don’t understand. This may make some people feel uncomfortable, but as for myself I just feel left out. I am a very social person and I love talking to all types of people. Therefore, when I hear people speaking in another language I am upset. I am upset because I cannot talk to them. I usually do not try to talk to them or learn any words in their language because I do not want to be perceived as nosy and like the typical American always making fun of other cultures because of their differences. However, I do not agree with people who act like being uncomfortable around people speaking other languages in absurd. It is not unusual to be uncomfortable around these people. As humans we have a tendency to fear the unknown. If someone is speaking in Chinese, Italian, French or whatever language it is that a person doesn’t not know, that is also the unknown. To be angered with that person because they fear the unknown is the same as being mad at someone for breathing regularly. I do also believe that people should try to overcome their fears at some point, but some fears are not easily broken. All in all, I do not feel myself uncomfortable around people speaking other languages, I just feel left out. In the future I will probably make more of an effort to communicate with these people so that I can learn something.

I remember a couple months ago a friend of mine showed me a video she saw in her psychology class. In the video people were asked how much money they would need to be paid in order to kill a puppy. After the video I tweeted that I would kill a puppy for $10. I was half joking and half serious, however, the response I got from my followers was disgust. I told them in other parts of the world killing puppies might be the norm and killing and eating chickens is disgusting. I told them the only reason why they have a negative opinion on killing puppies is because that is one of the values instilled upon them by their parents or whoever they were raised by as well as the society they grew up in. They told me that these countries are also third world countries with child labor and other “bad” things. The society in which you grow up shapes your mind in so many subconscious ways that we don’t even realize. The only reason why we have any of our opinions is because it’s what we were told. No matter what someone claims, they are unoriginal because we are raised to think and agree with what those around us think and agree with. Why is gay marriage bad? Well, because in some religion made by a human being claiming to be inspired by a higher being decided that two people with the same reproductive organs meeting together is wrong. Looking at the man in the video, a man who would be considered a role model for all children and young adults there is no logical reason why gay marriage is wrong. There are so many “evil” people in the world raised by straight parents, however, no one has decided that heterosexuals are unfit for marriage and should not raise children together. The man in the video could bring all the proof in the world of why gay marriages should be allowed and gay couples should raise children but depending on who’s listening the evidence will not matter. People will only hear what they would like to hear. People are extremely one sided and only listen to and agree with their side of the story. Our world/lives are relatively static and very rarely is change accepted throughout history. Our generation will grow up more willing to accept and grant gay rights, but just like how there are still old racists who hate no matter what they are told, the old antigay activists will not change their minds any time soon.

I originally watched this video in preparations for my soc 119 exam, and didn’t take much time to actually think about the material. After viewing this video a second time, I stopped to think and everything stated in this video makes perfect sense. Most adults say that they are constantly learning from their children, and that kids are so smart. At some point, everybody was a child, so logically adults should be astronomically smarter than their kids. However, the opposite appears in the world we live in. About a month ago I told my friends that I felt as if high school drained my brain of knowledge. The reason for this is because all throughout elementary school and middle school I found myself defying the limits set upon me by school. I did not behave as a traditional student would. However, once I hit high school I realized that behavior would no longer be acceptable if I were to move on to a respectable university. As I conformed to people’s standards, I became less of an individual. I stopped thinking of innovative ways to behave, and instead learned to tell a teacher what they wanted to hear, or give them what I knew they wanted to read. As time moved along, I was molded into the shape that society believed to be correct. Modern day schools do not encourage learning they encourage grades. As students we are encouraged to memorize a list of terms so we will pass the test, not so that we will actually know and internalize these things. I know people who have “perfect” 4.0 GPAs, so by society’s standards, they would be considered to be smart. However, if I were to further converse with these people I would realize that they are not truly smart; they just go through the motions put before them. As a country, we would like to get ahead in the world and become innovators for the next generations, however, if school systems don’t change and begin to actually educate their students, we will remain behind.