I very much enjoyed Tuesdays lecture about war, and how Sam used his comparisons in giving us an idea to relate with. I definitely agree with Sam about how the war in the Middle East is over oil. Lets be honest, we America need oil because it is a very valuable resource, and we have a lack of it in America. So what is our solution to this problem? We simply go over to Iraq and Afghanistan and get their oil, so that we can be stable as a country with our supply of oil. One thing I will disagree with is that Sam made it seem that we our going over to the Middle East and basically robbing these people from their resource that is oil. Sam made it seem that we are crooks and robbers, when in fact we do indeed pay for the oil we are taking, it is not as though we are going up to people with guns and saying give us your oil or we will kill you and destroy your country. Another thing I disagreed with in his lecture was the fact that he made it seem that our army is carrying out some sort of catholic thing by attacking the Middle East. He tried to bring up an example of a company who made scope with bible scriptures on them and said that this was a sign that our soldiers are killing Muslims to carry out some sort of thing for God. Supposedly the company who made these scopes was shut down because that is not allowed in the U.S. Army, so in fact these scopes were stopped being produced and manufactured. He compared the Bible to the Koran, which I again did not really agree with, because in terroristic attacks it has been proven that some certain Muslims, I am not saying all or even the majority, but some believe they are carrying out a certain terroristic act for Allah, who is the Muslim God, and they quote the Koran in doing so. American troops with Bibles in their possessions and in their hands are just praying to God to help them get through a hard time and hoping to survive on the battlefield, rather than saying they are carrying out this duty because they believe that is what God wants them to do and kill people. Again though I have never been to the Middle East so my opinion is biased, and is basically what Sam was talking about in his lecture. I am ignorant to the fact about Muslims in general and I do not know the day to day routines that go on in the Middle East, so in reality my opinion is not strongly supported.

There is a lot to learn after news and details of this whole scandal came out about two weeks ago. Because of this whole scandal many Penn State students were feeling hurt, disgusted, and embarrassed. Students frequently have to defend themselves and the school in which they attend and love because of the actions of a few individuals. The important thing to do for us students is stick together. It is unfair to us for having to defend ourselves because the majority of us did not even know the individuals involved in the scandal and did not attend the university during the time when the allegations occurred, but the important thing is for us to stick together as a strong student body and take pride in our school, although times are tough. The beginning of the Nebraska game was pretty symbolic as both teams came together before the game and had a moment of silence and a prayer for the victims. Both teams were going out to try to win, but they came together to show love and supports, which is what we need to do as a university. Many of us have been ridiculed by friends and others because of this whole scandal but it is important for all of us to keep our heads up. An important thing I learned because of this whole scandal is that sexual abuse occurs and usually the victims are scared to come forward and remain silent. Although none of us can even imagine the horrors that these victims and other sexual abuse victims feel it is important to raise awareness and try to have victims of sexual abuse come forward so they can prevent the attacker from hurting more people and for themselves to be able to talk about it with someone. Another very important thing I learned through this whole scandal is that you have to do the right thing. Although Joe Paterno alerted his superiors, he did not in fact see it through that they went to the police and did not do enough in preventing Jerry Sandusky from the university and campus. Joe Pa is now facing the consequences because he was fired from the head coaching job of our prestigious universities football team after forty something years of being the head coach. Although it was very sad that he was let go, at the end of the days it comes down to the victims in this whole case. The whole cover up of this horrific scandal was embarrassing by Penn State and the board of trustees did what they had to do in cleaning house of the people who had information on this whole matter, including Joe Pa. At the end of the day we need to pray for the victims and keep them in mind. As a university we can grow from this and become stronger as a whole because were down right now, but were certainly not out. WE ARE PENN STATE!

For about the past week now Penn State’s name has been in newspapers, on Facebook and other social media outlets, and the television. Within the last 2 days you cannot get even get by 3 minutes watching Sports center without hearing negative talk about either the horrible acts Sandusky committed while being a part of Penn State, the firing of Joe Paterno, or how bad the riots were that occurred at Penn State on Old Main. Penn State has always had the name recognition as a very prestigious school, which strived on pride and integrity, and a school that always did the right thing, before this Penn State was only 1 of 3 schools without a violation. All of this publicity has been terrible for Penn State and not just the school but terrible for Penn State students as well. For one, myself personally has already been ridiculed and have been the butt of jokes from my friends at home because I attend Penn State. Another thing that is negative for us Penn State students is the fact that we rioted last night. I think it is a shame that some students were throwing rocks at cops and flipping over vans and breaking their windows. While the majority of people were just downtown chanting and just showing up to show support, the violent actions of a few individuals sadly reflects us all. The violent actions at the riot just make us look dumb, and in a way make us look like we are in support of what happened. Today I also heard from a senior that some major corporations have dropped sponsoring THON because of the recent allegations, and some other businesses will not be attending career fairs and other events at Penn State in fear of bad publicity. The loss of a sponsor in THON is a major negative effect on Penn State, because they contribute a lot of money to THON. But is this fair? I do not know the name of this corporation, but to withdrawal your sponsorship and the money you donate to a philanthropy that raises money for kids with cancer is astonishing. The actions of Jerry Sandusky, and all other parties involved have nothing to do with THON. This negative spotlight Penn State is in, is making all of us look like the bad guys. By businesses withdrawing from career fairs because of these recent allegations is distraught, because that means there will be less opportunities to obtain a job offer or an internship. Why should I, a current Penn State student be punished because of something that happened by individuals I do not even know and by something that happened before my time at this school. My heart goes out to the victims and their families.

Without a doubt if I were an agricultural owner or business owner I would definitely hire illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants do work for cheap and do work that most other people would not want to do. Like Sam talked about in class during one of his presentations, without illegal immigrants, farmers lose a lot of money because their farm is not harvested and cultivated in time. I am pretty sure Sam’s example was in Alabama where farm owners were losing money and were not talking a couple dollars here and there, but hundreds of thousands of dollars. Illegal immigrants were being deported and getting immigration offices called on them, because in the south there are very strict rules about immigration and housing and supplying illegal immigrants with jobs. Because of the strictness of immigration in Alabama, farmers were losing money because they were not allowed to hire illegal immigrants. Why wouldn’t they just hire non-illegal immigrants? They did, but the people who they hired could not last out in the fields working on the farm. These Alabama farm owners even paid them more than what they were paying the illegal immigrants, but in the end these people could not handle the workload and the sun. As a result of this their farms were not harvested in the time they needed to be to sell their crops and as a result they lost all of their profits they would have made if they sold their product, which resulted in a loss of over one hundred thousand dollars. So if I were a farm owner, without a question I would hire illegal immigrants to work on my farm. Not only do you get to pay them less than non-illegal immigrants, but they also can maintain a farm and do a good job in getting what needs to be done on time. Is this right? No, I actually think hiring illegal immigrants is morally wrong, and I would even go on to say that I see the hiring of illegal immigrants similar to slavery. Illegal immigrants do work that no one else wants to do, and although they get paid, they get paid basically nothing for the amount of work and time they spend doing a more than satisfactory job at the problem at hand. The question is would I hire illegal immigrants and without even a second thought I would. To be a business or farm owner you have to do what is best for your company, and making the most money is definitely a top priority as an owner. So I would disregard the injustice that I am doing and the unmoral thing I am doing and go ahead and hire illegal immigrants.

The facts that whites are going to be the minority in the future definitely shakes some things up. Lets be honest our society, the American society revolves around white people and is white centered. Whites hold the majority of higher positions in office and whites are the CEO’s of the majority of big businesses, like Sam stated in one of his lectures. Also it was not until Barrack Obama became president that whites have always held the position of President in the United States of America. So that means from 1776 up until 2008, a white male has always held the position of President of the United States. By doing the math that means that for over 200 years in our history a white person has been president. With whites being the minority in the future, I think that more colored people and people of different races will get a better opportunity and more of a fair shot to become President of the United States. With whites being the minority it could open more opportunities up for people of color to be given a fair chance at a high end position in their company and even a fairer chance of getting hired over a white person. Like Sam said in one of his lectures, white people with and without a criminal background get more call backs from interviews than people that are black. Is that fair? No it is not fair and I think if whites are the minorities in the future it will definitely help out other races cause in the future. Let me start off by saying that I am white, but I do not think whites being the minority in the future will be a bad thing nor is it something that I am concerned about or scared of. By having the whites as the minority I think the United States of America will start treating everyone more fairly and equally. I know we have made tremendous strides as a country since the 1950s and so on, but America is still a white centered society. By having whites be the minority I think we will see more colored people get into office as president, rather it being another white person every year. Now some white people and probably the majority of the older generation will not like this very much and will not like being the minorities because they have lived their whole life in a way that has been centered around whites, but I think it will be a good opportunity for our society to become closer together and to root out the discrimination and racism that still exists today even though people do not want to believe it.

I am a white male and I do not believe that if you enjoy hanging out with a majority of different races or if the majority of your friends are from a different race that you are not a poser. How many times are we told that race does not matter it is the person. We are also told to not judge a book by its cover. So why should a black or white male be ridiculed and called a poser or a sell out just because they enjoy spending time with different races. In a way isn’t that a bit racist? If a white male has a majority of black friends and hangs out with them all the time, then who are we to tell him that he is wrong and should be hanging out with more white people? This white male probably just enjoys his friends company and they probably have similar characteristics and hobbies as him. Why is it such a big deal that we must ridicule this person and call him a sell out, when really he is just hanging out with people who he can identify with and enjoys there company. I myself am in a fraternity at Penn State, which is majority white. Out of all of our brothers we only have 4 brothers that are black. Do I consider them sellouts? Absolutely not, I enjoy their company and it does not matter that they are black because they have good personalities and good qualities. Now I cannot take the other look about what their black friends might say about them being in a fraternity that the majority is white, but why should they care? If their friends are having a good time and getting along with all the people in the fraternity, then what does it matter that they are white and not black. Another example is in high school I played hockey for 4 years and of the 18 kids on our team only one was black. He got made fun of from his black friends because, one he was the only black kid on our team, and two he was playing a typically white sport. He was called a sellout for not playing basketball and hanging out with us after games and at parties. Now the question is why? How are you going to make fun of a person because he enjoys playing a sport in which most of its members are white? He cannot really control what sports he likes or is good at, and it turned out he was a good hockey player, so who can fault him for playing a sport that he loved and was good at? I believe no one has the judgment to tell someone they should not do something because of their race and call them a sellout.

I think the article “5 reasons your idea of happiness is wrong” is a very interesting article, but also a very interesting thought. Before getting into the article I feel like happiness is an unknown term and people do not even really know what it means, they just work and try to be “happy.” I find the beginning of the article very interesting, when it describes how early civilizations defined happiness. The way the medieval Christians defined happiness I think is very intriguing. They defined happiness as something unattainable in the mortal world, and that a person could only attain happiness in if they were to go to heaven in the afterlife. This is very intriguing to me because people had no idea what the afterworld consisted of or what happiness they would receive in the afterworld, but they were satisfied with what they were told and lived there life on Earth, ultimately to get to the afterlife. So does this mean people were not happy until they died? I do not know the answer to that because I was not around that time, but I think it is funny that people lived their live quote on quote unhappy to die and be happy. One of the other topics I find very intriguing is number three, which compares people with money with happiness. We know the expression money can buy happiness, but can it really? Lets set aside all the things you do with your money for a moment, but actually go into depth about how most people will obtain money. Most people who have a lot of money work a lot. Now the majority of people who work actually hate their job, so these people working all the time actually hate what they are doing to make the money. Now these people also probably have a wife and kids. So if these people are working all the time, that would mean there is less time for them to be at their home, which also is going to mean it is less time for them to spend with their wife and kids. Now although this person thinks he is doing a good thing by making a lot of money and buying a brand new house, and a brand new car for his family, and maybe even buying his kids new toys or the new I pad, he is really being an absentee father and husband, which is going to result in problems for the family. So while, little Johnny is hitting his first homerun in his little league game, your too busy stuck at work trying to bring in the big bucks, and that goes against my idea of happiness, which is unity and being able to rely on someone and your family.

Why do women wear tight clothes and high heels that are uncomfortable and men wear whatever they want? I feel like in our generation that is just what is expected out of women now days. If women go out they are expected to wear some outfit that is revealing, do not ask me why, but that is just the way society is now a days. When guys go out they cant wear anything from khakis, jeans, to even sweatpants. Why can they do this? To be honest I am not quite sure, but I can say that I feel like guys expect more out of girls and girls expect less out of guys. Girls usually look for good personalities and other good characteristics in guys, while guys look for appearance and a good body in girls. Another reason girls dress the way they do is the fact they are looking for attention. If a girl is wearing some revealing dress that either shows her boobs or ass, then it is going to be no shock that every guy has his head turned around looking at her. Girls compete with other girls for the most attention at a party, and usually the girl wearing the most revealing outfit gets the most attention from the guys. Is it fair that a guy can get away with wearing whatever he wants, but if a girl wore sweatpants to a party she would be shunned and I would not be surprised if she was asked to leave the party. Now in days that are just the way society is, we expect girls to wear tight outfits and revealing dresses and for guys it does not really matter what you wear. Women have come along way though from not being able to vote and not being able to get good jobs. Women have equal opportunities in society and can compete with males in getting job offers and holding high job positions, which was unheard of about 40 years ago. Although they have come all this way, we still put women on this pedestal that they have to wear these uncomfortable outfits and clothes. Probably the most uncomfortable thing ever is a high heel. I can only imagine how much that hurts and for them to wear high heels for the majority of the day is actually quite impressive, but their just is not a shoe or boot that is made for men to wear that is uncomfortable, so the blame cannot be on men for wearing comfortable shoes, because the fact of the matter is there is just not a design that can compare the high heel to a mans shoe or boot, because they just do not exist.

Just like most peoples reaction to the biker video my first reaction was to laugh at the video. During my discussion group we brought up the biker video too, and everyone agreed that they all laughed. I was surprised at this at first because the majority of my discussion group is black, so I thought that some people might have taken offense to the video and did not appreciate it, but that was not the case and everyone agreed that it was funny. One of the parts that I found to be hilarious was the part of the video when the woman was stealing the bike. I thought it was funny because most people were going out of their way to try and help this woman stealing a bike because she was attractive. To be honest if I was in the same situation I probably would have done the same thing, so I am not going to say that that was wrong by the other men to help her out. I think it is so funny though, because I have been pulled over for speeding only once, but in that one time I was given a ticket for speeding. A lot of my friends that are girls at my high school brag about how they have been pulled over more than one time and have yet to receive a ticket. These girls are attractive and I find it humorous that they have been let off the hook by police officers because they are attractive young girls and get sympathy for their actions and let off. Back to the video after thinking about it, it is messed up that the white and black male received two different views from the public passing by. They were both dressed up in similar outfits and both about the same age. The black male was getting the policed called on him and getting heckled by people passing by, while the white male was never confronted about his actions in stealing the bike, and although people asked him what he was doing they just left him alone after he even told them he was trying to steal the bike. Those two different reactions are messed up because the observers were giving the black male a hard time and trying to get him in trouble and not doing anything to the white male. Why is that? Why would onlookers let the white male go, and try and get the police involved when it came to the black male? All I can say is I guess it is their perception, and that the people passing by assumed that the black male was trouble and doing something that was wrong. When one of the people passing by was interviewed they said that they thought the white male was a employee of the park, so they thought he was just trying to help get someone’s bike for them, which I find funny.

Before even watching any videos I went to the Haiti project page and read more about Haiti. I knew they had that earthquake a couple years ago which was terrible, but I had know idea that it killed a quarter of a million people and left another 1.5 million people homeless. I know not all of ideas we come up with are going to be great, but whatever little we can do to help Haiti is very important.
The first video I watched was Madame Lamour’s. The video shows her and her employers making flowers and wedding decorations for people in Haiti. The information their to read explains that her business does very well and sells a lot of products, but the problem they have is they could use more materials in order to produce more decorations and in the end sell more of their products. Before even thinking of a solution for the materials, I watched the video and immediately was saddened by what I saw. There were about 8 women all working on one table and another woman who had no table and had to put the decoration on her lap to work on it. I am pretty sure it would be easy enough to raise a couple tables for these people and I think they would benefit with more room to maneuver and operate. I liked the idea of the lady on the video asking if Mrs. Lamour would show her products over the Internet. I am no floral expert, but the decorations I saw in the video looked pretty good and I think not only Haitians, but also Americans, and maybe even Europeans would buy her product. To get her product seen globally and to raise money so she could get more materials to produce more decorations I think she could broadcast her product across the internet to other floral shops and bridal shops, so future brides could get a taste of what she is all about.
After watching Sonia’s video I think it is absolutely remarkable how she is able to make book bags, lunch bags, and luggage pieces with that old sewing machine she has. An idea I had was rather than trying to raise money again to get her a better sewing machine I thought why not see if anyone in the class had an old sewing machine laying around. Our class is what 800 to 900 people and I bet we could come up with a couple of sewing machines that are pretty modern, and definitely and upgrade from the one that Sonia is using. With a better sewing machine Sonia can probably produce more equipment for her shop in fewer time, so in the end she is saving time and making more money, which would be beneficial to her and her family.