en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/2436005 Comments by tjmarche http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/07/war-vets-and-ptsd/#IDComment141141428 I thought this video was very powerful and I'm glad i stayed to watch the entire thing. I didn't realize how bad of a problem we had in Iraq and how much it affected the soldiers when they came home. These men shouldn't be ridiculed the way they are by the media and the army for how much they are sacrificing for our country. I personally can't even imagine myself witnessing and doing some of the things these soldiers did. It also baffles me how they just accept that they are already dead and tell themselves they are probably not going home and still have the courage to go into battle. It's like our guest speaker from Haiti said, you can't really explain what it's like until you experience it yourself. There should definitely be more awareness on this issue and be more pro-active in helping these soldiers out. Sat, 9 Apr 2011 02:02:11 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/04/07/war-vets-and-ptsd/#IDComment141141428 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/27/family/#IDComment139266998 I still can't believe the people that write these letters are in prison for life. We can really learn a lot from these people that everyone neglect. I think the biggest point C. is trying to make here that is family is whoever you around and who is there for you all the time. These guys in prison eventually rely on each other because their own family's neglect them and don't stay in touch with them. This really shows that a family isn't just a group of people that are related by blood. They are the people that are there for you, day in and day out. I couldn't even imagine only getting a thinking of you card from my family every once in a while. I would feel so unwanted and neglected, I don't even know if I would be able to consider them family anymore. The worst part in my opinion is that these men are changed people and are different from when they first started their sentence and could probably use a family more than anyone. If you don't have people there for you, what good is life anyway? Sat, 2 Apr 2011 02:22:00 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/27/family/#IDComment139266998 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/18/m-s-story/#IDComment135969688 Most of the weeks on here I write how I understand and agree with the inmates. I think I was just saying that until today's class when I finally had that moment where you realize, holy shit this can happen to anyone at anytime and you will be treated the same way as everyone else who committed a murder, whether it was premeditated or an accident. Today was probably the coolest class so far, even though Sam says that every class. I genuinely agreed with everything that was being said in class except for that one kid who believed that people should rot in prison for the rest of their life and use up our tax money. M's story is one of sorrow and a lot of guilt even though it is pretty short and lacks detail. It is shocking that he just sat there and didn't do anything. But can you blame him? He was a 14-year old and reality hit just a little to late. Everyone who read this and said they would have gone to get help cannot whole heartedly tell me that they would have done something. Many people say they are going to do something specific everyday but 99 times out of 100 it never happens as they had pictured it. I'm not trying to defend any of the inmates because they all did something wrong and should pay in some way. I think this is one of those situations that you truly can't understand how it feels unless you have actually experienced it. The people that are making the laws definitely did not get sentenced to life in prison and then go and get the job they have now. It is absurd how much tax money we spend on prisoners and we get appropriations at Penn State that would have been normal in 1965. We are literally taking a step backwards and taking away money is only a catalyst for putting more people in prison. Maybe they won't be the same circumstances as M's but like Sam said in class, anyone could accidentally run a red light and spend the rest of their life in prison. Sat, 19 Mar 2011 03:29:46 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/18/m-s-story/#IDComment135969688 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/09/what-would-make-this-guy-less-white/#IDComment134346611 Everything about this video portrayed this man as the ultimate white guy. First off, his clothes and appearance give him away before he even says one word. He is wearing a plain white polo tucked into his "dad jeans" as some people call them with a leather belt. Also, he has a very plain haircut. It is very short and doesn't show much effort of trying to stand out or anything like that. The last thing about his appearance is his watch. He is wearing a digital wrist watch. This makes him seem kind of nerdy and cheap. I know personally i haven't wore a watch like that since 3rd grade. The second thing that gave him away as the ultimate white guy is his speech. Before even finding out what the product you can tell his speech is very proper and he annunciates his words. He also doesn't curse at all, which isn't much of a surprise but he used "heck" instead of "hell" and he didn't use any slang words. For example, he specifically said "dollars" instead of saying "bucks", "bills", or some other word of that nature. Once I actually learned what the product was and how it was made it also made him seem more white than he already is. As soon as I heard the straps are Velcro, that sealed the deal for me. The last time I wore something that had Velcro holding something together, I was probably in pre-school. Also the way he described where the holster was supposed to go, he pretty much described where all teenagers wear their jeans. Almost everything about him made him seem extremely white but I have no idea why we think all of these traits are considered "white." I think we stereotype different traits to different races to often. Sat, 12 Mar 2011 02:54:40 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/03/09/what-would-make-this-guy-less-white/#IDComment134346611 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/21/stranger-kidnapping/#IDComment130734893 The media is the main reason why i think everyone tells their kids not to talk to strangers. They blow these situations totally out of proportion and get everyone paranoid about their kid getting kidnapped. If the public was presented with the facts of how often this actually happens i think people might not be as protective as they are now. There are some areas that are understandable like Manhattan but if a kid is able to walk to school in the suburbs or a rural area, they should be able to without a parent worrying. It is like what we talked about in class. 99% of the time these sorts of things just don't happen. I think it is easy to say if you don't have a kid, but i feel like i would be extra protective if i had a kid. If I had a kid though, i would probably teach them to talk to the first stranger they see instead of not talking to any strangers at all. But then again you would teach them to not get into cars with strangers and other situations of that nature. I guess it's hard to teach kids to do different things in different situations rather than just telling them not to talk to strangers at all. It's hard to ignore the facts though, these things don't happen as often as everyone thinks and most people are afraid it will happen to their kid. Sat, 26 Feb 2011 01:01:46 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/21/stranger-kidnapping/#IDComment130734893 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/17/how-much-government-do-we-need/#IDComment128945038 In my personal opinion, I think the government plays important roles in some things but just makes inevitable issues worse, like our nation eating healthier. With the Big Mac example as an example, the government might succeed in making some people think more about the way they eat but there is always going to be an opposite reaction to whatever they do. Instead of some people stop eating Big Macs they are going to solely blame them for being overweight and then filing a lawsuit against them, like we have seen in the past five years or so. The government plays a role in almost everything we do as Americans but that really should not be the case. We're supposed to be more free as a nation and if the government focused on the most important issues like solving our health care crisis or fixing our economy, they are throwing money at marketing against things like eating fast food which people will continue to eat if it's there and they want to eat it. And again with the whole breast feeding debate, why are politicians arguing about whether people should breast feed their children? That should be a personal decision and the facts they are throwing at the public seem a little fuzzy. The longer a child is breast fed the less likely they will be an overweight child. Childhood obesity is a fairly new problem for our country and they aren't even saying where they got there information from. It's things like this that make our people in government positions look incompetent and why people are not happy with our government in the past decade. Fri, 18 Feb 2011 23:19:20 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/17/how-much-government-do-we-need/#IDComment128945038 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/09/4092/#IDComment127459229 After i read Remember, i feel like I'm on this guy's side. As professor Richards said in class, lock yourself in your room forever and you have two options. Your options are to go crazy or turn to God. 26 years locked in a cell can change a person no matter how big their mistake was. I'm not trying to say that if someone takes another human life there shouldn't be any consequences but they should still be treated like human beings. I couldn't even imagine my friends and family not wanting to see me just because of making one mistake that changed my entire life. Imagine if your best friend, brother, father, or other family member made a mistake like this. Would you still be thinking the same way? This was a very inspiring piece to read. I couldn't imagine only being able to think about everything that went wrong in my life and not the good Sat, 12 Feb 2011 02:41:02 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/02/09/4092/#IDComment127459229 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/30/conformity-rules-the-day/#IDComment126009083 When i saw this video, at first I laughed, but then i realized how accurate the video is. Many of us conform to things without even thinking about it. I think conformity mostly happens in unfamiliar situations, like riding the elevator with strangers. Humans are programmed to be liked socially and many people do what it takes to be liked without thinking about it, like turning around in an elevator for example. I think there are very few people who don't care about making a first impression on people they don't know. Even the little things like clothes are easily conformed by people. If some people start wearing a certain style of clothing and people like it, many people will buy it because they feel like they won't fit in if they don't have it. A more random example that i notice myself a lot is ordering water when a group of people goes out to eat. If the majority of the people order water some of the people will order water because they think ordering anything else is unhealthy, or at least that's what goes through my mind when i witness things like that. I notice that I do this more often then I think. I like getting iced tea or soda when i go out to eat but sometimes I'll order water because the couple people that ordered before me did. I don't know how to explain it but it seems to be programmed into human nature. Fri, 4 Feb 2011 22:49:42 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/30/conformity-rules-the-day/#IDComment126009083 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/23/how-free-are-these-90-students/#IDComment124182154 When I first saw this video and it said 11% of the teens in that high school are pregnant, i was shocked. Then I thought about it after reading the statistics and it seemed a lot more believable. I come from a very large high school so 11% of my high school would probably have meant that three or four hundred people would be pregnant, but 90 people in this small high school isn't that astounding with the facts in front of you. The facts show that abstinence is taught more in the South than in the Northeast. And faculty in school are forced by law to teach a certain thing even though they might not believe it. These laws and the people that are enforcing and teaching them are the invisible strings. It is in the nature of a student in high school to go against what they're told and experiment and have a great time. Sex isn't the only thing that can be classified under this. You see it with almost everything, from the little things like staying out past curfew or to more serious things like experimenting with drugs and alcohol. Also many teenagers have that little voice in the back of their head saying "That's not going to happen to me.," when in fact they are one of the statistics. If there were more invisible strings, like actually teaching students all of the options they have instead of teaching them what some people in not even in our generation thought up, then these 90 students might not be in the situation they are in now. People are pointing fingers at them when in fact the blame cannot fully be put on them because no one is completely free and make choices that aren't effected by anyone else. Thu, 27 Jan 2011 21:05:00 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/23/how-free-are-these-90-students/#IDComment124182154 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/15/what-does-it-mean-to-be-free/#IDComment122899756 When i first heard Sam talking about how free these inmates really are, I was a little apprehensive to think they have more freedom than anyone. After hearing it from an actual prisoner I have changed my mind. I'm not sure if anyone is really free. This prisoner, B., knows what freedom is now but at what price has it cost him to have that epiphany, he has been in prison for 13 years now. B. raises a lot of good arguments about the concept of freedom. He says that freedom is just kind of there, dangling in front of people's faces and they aren't using it to their full advantage. This is definitely true. I didn't realize how many decisions i make in one day that some people don't have the privilege of making those decisions. I can choose when and what i want to eat at every meal, i can choose to go to class or to sleep in. I can buy things on the internet and complain about my day on facebook. People including myself just go through life not realizing what huge power they have to do whatever they want. He also brings up the point that he lives vicariously through other people. He's not the only one. Many people idolize celebrities of their favorite TV shows and movies and want to be these people when they have their own freedom to enjoy. Their freedom is being effected by what other people do. They might choose to wear something classy and special rather than a plain t-shirt because they saw someone famous wearing it. The thing i gained about reading this letter is that no person is truly free until they do everything for themselves and are not affected by other peoples decisions. Sat, 22 Jan 2011 02:21:02 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/15/what-does-it-mean-to-be-free/#IDComment122899756 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-%e2%80%9cm%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-intense-debate/#IDComment122132188 soc 001 Tue, 18 Jan 2011 19:34:15 +0000 http://www.worldinconversation.org/2011/01/10/last-name-%e2%80%9cm%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%93-intense-debate/#IDComment122132188