Wow this letter is truly amazing. I always figured that men in prison had some compassion, but not nearly to this extent. As I never said I would, I really have let movies and TV take over my thinking about prison. There are hundreds of hit movies that depict prison as a cold, vicious place where if you step out of line in any way, you are libel to get beaten by other inmates. Now I understand that movies are merely a blur of what reality is, but I have a reason still to think the way I do. I have spent quite a few hours watching shows on National Geographic channel about American prisons, the most notable one being “Lockdown.” This show is a documentary that travels to various prisons around the country, showing us the everyday life of an inmate. Filled with personal interviews with offenders, the show is often grim and rather intimidating to those on the outside. I have seen episodes in which they will follow a man's first month in prison right from booking. Some of the ways that other men react are very fearful, and instills a great deal of fear into the viewer. Now this may be some sort of subliminal messaging to try to scare people legal and want to stay away from jails, but I always knew in the back of my mind that this was not the case in all prisons. Back to the letter, human compassion is quite an amazing emotion, and has the ability to do so many things. I do not know about anyone else, but I have had a few times where I am just minding my own businesses walking down the street and I see someone crying on a bench. Even if I am in a hurry, I make an effort to stop and try to see what is wrong. I try to help, see if there is anything that I can do. Sometimes, just stopping to ask is all that person needed, a reminder that people are out there for them. Other times, its taking a little bit of time to sit and listen to them. Listening may be a little thing, but it can mean the world to people when they really just need to tell anyone something. And you know what, every time that I have stopped to do this, the people were grateful that I had done so. Human compassion is something that everyone, from teenagers to senior citizens, from lawyers to inmates, has inside them. And no matter how deep inside them it is, or how long it has been since it was last seen, it comes up when needed, and literally everything else, rivalries included, is thrown aside.

Being from one of the most wealthy countries in the world, it is hard not to think in the back of our minds that we are more likely to change the world than others. We have far more resources to draw from than people in developing countries. But thinking that you are more capable to change the world is different from thinking you are better overall than ther person. I think that I am better off than most everyone in developing countries at having the ability to change the world, but since I recognize that location and society have alot to do with it, I do not find myself to be better than them. I dunno, just my thought on that one.

Americans in general are very self-centered, and alot did not care after the Haiti earthquake. I was actually talking about something sort of similar to this in one of my classes earlier today. We were talking about how much press the Iceland volcano is getting, yet it has not taken any lives as of now. Compare this to the recent earthquake in China, in which there were enormous casualties, but never made front page news for more than a day. I think that alot of how we think has to do with our degree of exposure from the media. The news tends to follow stories about richer countries, or things that affect us personally. Some of the worst disasters go relatively by the way-side.

I definitely agree that this war is about oil. Or at least it started out that way. Some of the videos that Sam showed us really portrayed us in a bad light, but he did it for a great reason. We needed to understand just how Muslims our age are reacting to what they see. I’m sure it’s true that many of us believe all Iraqis are out to kill us; I will admit that thought may have crossed my mind right after 9-11. But we need to look at the facts, that many Iraqis do not have the resources that we do to see and understand each other, so they really do get a one sided view of the subject.

The answer to this, well my answer to this, is absolutely not. If we were to conform to society, every guy would try to look skinny but built right? Well speaking for myself, I am a “plump” guy, and really could care less what I look like. Yeah maybe some people judge me differently, but I couldn’t give two shits about what they think. I do think that it is unfair how society thinks differently about men and women, and how I am often more accepted than a woman of my same stature. But yeah to answer your question, I don’t really wake up in the morning and think, “I need to get real skinny or real ripped or wear this or that to feel accepted.”

This is a very intriguing article. I really had no clue that Chinese was becoming so popular in schools, especially as early as middle school. My high school only offered the 4 basics: French, Latin, German, and Spanish. And even then, we were only required to take 2 years of a language to graduate, and they didn’t even have to be in the same language, so people would take the easy way out by taking Spanish 1 then French 1, as they were just so easy. Basically, I’m trying to say that very few people took foreign language classes seriously at my school. However, it appears that having Chinese offered in a high school setting is getting students to think more about their future, as it seems that many of the people taking the classes are doing so because of the impending expansion of the Chinese language into the international business market. I am really surprised that so many schools are pushing this so early in their students lives. Middle school seems like such a young age to start learning a language, and even some students starting to learn a language in elementary school? I guess when I really look at it, it is not all that soon to start, and in fact, it’s probably better that we get our kids to be bilingual as early as possible. Coming from a school district where foreign language was not only first taught in high school but not stressed at all, I guess I am just not used to the idea of children learning a foreign language while they are still trying to learn some of the basics of the English language. But hey, if I am a school board member and China is willing to pay for part of a teacher’s salary for them to send a Chinese speaking teacher over, I would go for it immediately. Chinese officials are really pushing the issue in America, and I do not blame them. In my high school, Spanish was BY FAR the most popular foreign language to take, although I took German for three years. If Chinese were available for me to take during high school, I probably would not have taken it. When I was in high school, I saw myself majoring in engineering when I got to college. And back then, there was quite a large demand for engineers who could read and speak German, so I probably would just stick with that. However, if I had anticipated a career in international politics or economics at all, I would certainly have considered taking Chinese. But overall, I am glad to see that our schools are being so open minded about teaching new languages, especially as different languages are gaining importance worldwide.

There are definitely a few more steps that we can take besides just understanding. As Sam mentioned a little bit, the emergence of fair-trade chocolate has opened up a door for chocolate lovers, in particular those in the United States, to enjoy their sweets knowing that slave labor was not involved. Fair trade chocolate comes with the guarantee that all people involved in chocolate producing, especially farmers, are paid fairly for their product. However, this is still a questionable option. Although the farmers are paid fairly with their product, how are we guaranteed to know that they are using the extra profit to share with their laborers? There really is no way to regulate this, as we have learned from the past that slave owners prep their farms/factories when they are to be audited, so as to create the false impression that everyone is happily paid. In a different class, I watched a movie called China Blue. A documentary team went into a Chinese factory that used slave and child labor to make jeans and shoes for some very popular American clothing companies. They followed this one girl around for a few days, seeing her live in a room the size of a Penn State dorm room with 14 other girls, many of whom were 12 or younger. They watched her work 16 hour days for over a week straight. They watched her eat 2 meals a day, both consisting of just a small bowl of rice and noodles. Most of the workers were women, and all were coaxed into working there by the often false promises of payment. Some girls were paid, but only when the factory owner decided he had the money to do so. And after interviewing over a dozen girls, the team found that only 1 had been paid in the past year, and it was only for 1 month’s work. Anyway, I guess the point I am trying to make here is that slave labor is not just the only issue that exists in the world of the global economy right now, but child labor is also a huge issue. Back to what was talked about in class; there was also a suggestion from a classmate who said that we need to work on getting the university to buy only non sweat shop made clothing. I have seen some of the rallies in front of Old Main, and it is good to see how passionate some of our students are about the subject. So, it looks like there are a few options that we can employ as step 2, so really the choice is up to us. But as I said in a past post, I believe that nothing will change, because slavery is just a part of the capitalist economy that we Americans love.

There are definitely a few more steps that we can take besides just understanding. As Sam mentioned a little bit, the emergence of fair-trade chocolate has opened up a door for chocolate lovers, in particular those in the United States, to enjoy their sweets knowing that slave labor was not involved. Fair trade chocolate comes with the guarantee that all people involved in chocolate producing, especially farmers, are paid fairly for their product. However, this is still a questionable option. Although the farmers are paid fairly with their product, how are we guaranteed to know that they are using the extra profit to share with their laborers? There really is no way to regulate this, as we have learned from the past that slave owners prep their farms/factories when they are to be audited, so as to create the false impression that everyone is happily paid. In a different class, I watched a movie called China Blue. A documentary team went into a Chinese factory that used slave and child labor to make jeans and shoes for some very popular American clothing companies. They followed this one girl around for a few days, seeing her live in a room the size of a Penn State dorm room with 14 other girls, many of whom were 12 or younger. They watched her work 16 hour days for over a week straight. They watched her eat 2 meals a day, both consisting of just a small bowl of rice and noodles. Most of the workers were women, and all were coaxed into working there by the often false promises of payment. Some girls were paid, but only when the factory owner decided he had the money to do so. And after interviewing over a dozen girls, the team found that only 1 had been paid in the past year, and it was only for 1 month’s work. Anyway, I guess the point I am trying to make here is that slave labor is not just the only issue that exists in the world of the global economy right now, but child labor is also a huge issue. Back to what was talked about in class; there was also a suggestion from a classmate who said that we need to work on getting the university to buy only non sweat shop made clothing. I have seen some of the rallies in front of Old Main, and it is good to see how passionate some of our students are about the subject. So, it looks like there are a few options that we can employ as step 2, so really the choice is up to us. But as I said in a past post, I believe that nothing will change, because slavery is just a part of the capitalist economy that we Americans love.

There are definitely a few more steps that we can take besides just understanding. As Sam mentioned a little bit, the emergence of fair-trade chocolate has opened up a door for chocolate lovers, in particular those in the United States, to enjoy their sweets knowing that slave labor was not involved. Fair trade chocolate comes with the guarantee that all people involved in chocolate producing, especially farmers, are paid fairly for their product. However, this is still a questionable option. Although the farmers are paid fairly with their product, how are we guaranteed to know that they are using the extra profit to share with their laborers? There really is no way to regulate this, as we have learned from the past that slave owners prep their farms/factories when they are to be audited, so as to create the false impression that everyone is happily paid. In a different class, I watched a movie called China Blue. A documentary team went into a Chinese factory that used slave and child labor to make jeans and shoes for some very popular American clothing companies. They followed this one girl around for a few days, seeing her live in a room the size of a Penn State dorm room with 14 other girls, many of whom were 12 or younger. They watched her work 16 hour days for over a week straight. They watched her eat 2 meals a day, both consisting of just a small bowl of rice and noodles. Most of the workers were women, and all were coaxed into working there by the often false promises of payment. Some girls were paid, but only when the factory owner decided he had the money to do so. And after interviewing over a dozen girls, the team found that only 1 had been paid in the past year, and it was only for 1 months work. Anyway, I guess the point I am trying to make here is that slave labor is not just the only issue that exists in the world of the global economy right now, but child labor is also a huge issue. Back to what was talked about in class

I’m right there with you. I pay attention to everything Sam says, and may formulate my own opinions about them, but honestly, I don’t really ever change my mind about how I think. I think this class is really quite biased, but every class is to a certain degree, and especially one about race. I guess the idea is to go to every class with an open mind. You never know, one day Sam may say something that really does have an affect on you and change your mind about everything. Despite the fact that the class is not changing my opinions, I am still glad I am taking it, because I never really saw the other side of race relations until now.