The United States of America has always had the tendency of playing the “big brother” role around the world. It acts on its own accord in terms of its military policy and disregards the rights and beliefs that other countries hold. Some critics of this will use September 11th as an example of an event that justifies our military actions overseas. If you had asked me a week ago, I would have told you that September 11th justified all of our actions in the Middle East and hence would make the war on terror a positive action by the United States. But, after all of the images and videos that Sam showed us in lecture this past week, my opinion has been swayed. It is not often that we look at things from the perspective of the so called “enemy.” In this specific case, Sam showed us videos and pictures from the point of view of Middle Easterners. They depicted cases of brutality coming from US forces. One specific video was of United States soldiers who caught two men for stealing fire wood. The soldiers then took the man’s car and crushed it with a tank. It turns out that the man was a taxi driver and his car was his only source of what tiny income that he makes. We also saw another video of soldiers who ran an innocent civilian driving along a road off of the road causing it to crash. These are cases that make me ashamed to think that I supported actions like that. It makes it clear that we should pull the troops out of those areas because not only are cases like those hurting the Middle Easterners, but it gives us a bad image as well. We should not strive to be the brutes that can control the world simply through the size of our military. I also strongly believe that the money that goes towards our military can be better spent solving the problems that we have internally. The most forthright problem that we have is the awful condition of our economy, but our vast foreign debt is another problem that can be thrown in the minx as well. When the root off your country’s weakness is its lack of money, then it doesn’t make sense to waste it in areas where it is no longer having a benefit, or is even hurting our country. So in conclusion, no I do not believe that the United States should have the right to police the world. First off because it is not solely our responsibility and secondly because when there are soldiers that are using our resources to do things such as run civilians off the road and crush their livelihood, then we wasting them and creating a horrible image for our great country.

In our modern society, we often learn about how often events like these occur. We are exposed to these events on a daily basis even though we may not even know it. It happens on TV in shows such as Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and in our everyday lives such as a family member and/or a friend. After learning about how common it is to have somebody in your own family who was sexually abused, I feel that people’s worries regarding this issue need to be met. Personally, I have a cousin who was sexually abused and she has suffered greatly from it. It has caused extreme psychological distress and it is a tragic experience that no person should have to go through. For a woman who is sexually abused by a man it is traumatic. For a man who is sexually abused by a man, it is even worse. This is why I feel that the Sandusky case was horrific for the people involved. Not only were those males sexually abused, but they were children as well which makes it even worse.

During one of our lectures, Sam pointed out that chances are every single person in the lecture hall had somebody in their family who was or at some point in their life will be sexually abused. Although the act of sexual abuse is a huge issue in our country, I don’t believe we should worry about it spiraling out of control. I may not well educated on the facts of sexual abuse, but it is my belief that it is no more common now than it was at any point in our country’s history. The statistics that are given for the number of people who are sexually abused in this country may be a bit misleading. Although the number of reported sexual abuse cases has generally increased over time we must take into consideration two facts. The first is that we must take into consideration the growth of our population. Although we have a lot larger number of cases now compared to when our country was first discovered that is simply because we have a lot more people. When our country was founded sexual abuse wasn’t ever reported. A white landowner could rape his/her female slaves and nothing would ever be done about it. The second fact is that we need to realize that there are many cases that are not reported. With the amount of sexual abuse education our country receives and with the amount of help we are now able to offer the victims, it is a lot more likely that a case is reported now than it would have been when our country was founded. These facts are why I feel that sexual abuse is not nearly as big an issue now as people may think it is. In fact, with all of the laws and repercussions that have been put in place to prevent sexual abuse, we are on the right track to minimizing these cases. So, in short, I’m not scared that it will spiral out of control by any means.

Although I am not the type of person who keeps up to date with the world of politics, I can apply what we have learned in class to analyze this situation. In lecture on Tuesday, Sam showed us the graphs with the different wealth distributions for the different societies. We were told to choose the society that we would want to live in if we were re-born into a random social class. When our clicker answers were shown, I was shocked to see that a majority of the class had chosen to live in a socialist society instead of the United States. Even though it is obvious which of the graphs represents the United States, it is still difficult to say that I would want to be reborn into this country. Considering that a minority of Americans controls a majority of the money, it creates an uneven distribution that is unfair to many people who are less fortunate. In the socialist society, money is distributed a lot more equally between the different economic classes. This makes things a lot fairer for the people who are trapped in the lower economic classes.

One person in lecture commented at the end of class about how peoples’ decisions were more based on their desire to not get stuck at the bottom. I feel that this statement is exactly correct. Personally, I chose the socialist society not because it gave me the greatest chance of being wealthy, but because it gave me the smallest chance of being re-born in an economic class that lives in severe poverty.

Why is it that choosing that socialist society is viewed as being a bad thing? The answer is that a few bad seeds ruined it for the rest of the apples. When the average person thinks socialist they think about dictators, mass killings, and other negative things, but in reality that isn’t what defines a socialist society. The main thing stressed in a socialist society is equality which is something that we have strived towards in the United States since the time of its discovery. The only problem is that it isn’t practical to have complete equality in a society made of humans who are only concerned with their own self-interest.

Therefore, choosing this socialist society as a more suitable place for being re-born should not be viewed negatively. It should actually be viewed as an act of sustainability. It is natural that people are concerned with their own self-interest because we are all smart human beings. We would rather take the option with more money over the option with less money which is not wrong in any way. In fact, I feel that not choosing the socialist society in this example should be looked at as an issue because you would clearly not be concerned with your own sustainability.

Since the time of the American colonies, inhabitants of North America have been speaking primarily the English language. This doesn’t mean other languages weren’t known or even practiced. During the times of the colonies it could have been native Indian languages or even some other European languages, but over time the minority languages spoken have shifted with the influxes of immigrants from certain areas of the world. Now, especially back home on Long Island, one can notice Mexican immigrants and the language barrier that they create. Most of them don’t speak much English and only know their native Spanish language. I feel that they should be forced to learn English. Our country was built on the English language. If you think about it this is an extremely true statement. Our Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and all modern and historical government documentation are written in English. Also, when we go to other countries we are pressured to speak their language, so why should we not hold visitors to our country to that same standard. When I went to France and Italy during my senior year of high school, I was forced to speak English to survive and you can clearly see that the citizens of those countries do not appreciate and may even see it as disrespectful to not speak their country’s language. I believe that the government should make it a requirement that to become a citizen of the United States, one should need to know how to speak and read English.

We discussed this issue in my group discussion this past week and came to the conclusion that although some illegal immigrants may want to preserve their culture by not learning English, they are hurting themselves in the long run. It is impossible to be successful in America and not speak English. If you look at all of the wealthiest people in the United States with the exception of professional athletes, they almost all know how to speak English. There are only a handful of athletes, primarily baseball players that come here from South America, that don’t speak English. Therefore, we agreed that it would be in the best interest of those immigrants to learn English because it will help them to get and maintain steady work to provide necessities for themselves and their families, regardless of whether or not their families are in the United States or still back home (where ever home is). It could potentially help decrease our country’s poverty and unemployment rates. Those that would be opposed to this would be the illegal immigrants that want to preserve their native culture while still living in America. I feel that those people have no reason to be here if they plan to speak only their language because that means they are trying to exploit our country for economic reasons which is unacceptable. I have no problem with illegal immigrants being here, they should just show us respect and not inconvenience American citizens by creating a language barrier.

I feel like a world that is centered on a black supremacy would be collectively similar, but extremely different for individual people. Our modern world has made vast strides toward a more equal treatment of all races. Our election of a bi-racial (half white and half black) president is our first large stride. The election of Barrack Obama proves that the social inequality between whites and blacks is drastically decreasing. This trend is why I believe that our world as a whole would be not much different when looked at as a big picture.

However, being a white male, I also believe that my life would individually be drastically changed if the world was centered on a black supremacy. It would help best to understand the differences by looking at the social inequalities that are in our world today and giving white people the “short end of the stick.” One thing that we learned during lecture is that a black man in the state of California is more likely to go to a state prison than a state college. Sam also showed us statistics on drug related arrests. The numbers of arrests were broken up by race and showed that people of color (i.e. Blacks/Hispanics) were much more likely to be arrested for drug related crimes even though a majority of drug users are in fact white. If the world was centered on a black supremacy, then it would seem likely that those statistics would change to show white people with a higher percentage of drug related arrests due to the tension that has existed between whites and blacks throughout history even dating as far back as the discovery of America. The trans-Atlantic slave trading was one of the most notable causes of this tension. On the other hand, it would be hard to say how this change would affect other races (i.e. Hispanics, Asians, etc.) since we cannot truly pinpoint any extensive racial tensions. The only thing we can assume is that in situations such as this, blacks would become the dominant group that would be gifted with the upper-hand.

I personally would not trade the world we have now for one that is centered on a black supremacy. It is not because I am racist, but rather because the world that I have grown up in has shaped the person that I am and it has shaped how I react each of the situations that I encounter in everyday life. We also must consider the fact that as I mentioned earlier, we have begun the process of gaining equality for all races, so returning to a one sided supremacy would be a step backwards for the civil rights that have been fought for throughout history for all races, genders and cultures.

Being a white male shapes my life and my view of the world in many ways. The first and most prominent example of this is the “white guilt” that Sam went over in lecture. In our daily lives, most race conscious people find themselves in many awkward encounters with race and racial labels. As a white male the frequency of these situations increases to include encounters with all other races. Although as Sam pointed out in lecture, other races don’t necessarily feel the awkwardness in such situations. The example of this from lecture was when the white kid that claimed to be in stage 2 said he was nervous and uncomfortable when he had to pick out the black kid with the darkest skin color, yet when a black kid was asked to pick out the white kid with the lightest skin color he didn’t even hesitate to start scoping out the whitest people in the crowd. The frequency of awkward situations such as this where race is brought into play has greatly shaped my view of the world in that it requires me to be more aware of the things I say and how they may offend people. Over the course of my life I have obtained a general idea of when it is and when it is not appropriate to use racial labels.

Another example of how my race shapes the way I view the world is in the “white privilege” that all white people are born with. This theory is based around the inequalities between white people and any other race. This idea was also touched upon by Sam during lecture. One really good example of this is when Sam went over the inequality in employment opportunities. He taught us about a study that was done where a black man and a white man who were dressed the same and had identical qualifications applied for the same jobs. Not surprisingly there was a racial inequality discovered in the data favoring the white man. Then they had a white man and a black man apply for the same jobs with a criminal record noted on their application. A sad discovery was made that the white man with a criminal record received more call-backs than the black man without a criminal record. This definitely shows racist tendencies in the workplace favoring whites and is a perfect example of this “white privilege” that affects my life and view of the world. Another example of “white privilege” is in the prison system. As Sam stated, there is a huge inequality in the percentage of drug arrests there are for the white population compared to other non-white races, such as blacks. The simple fact that a black man in California is more likely to attend a state prison than a state college portrays the inequality and “white privilege” that is prominent in our society.

Our modern stereotypical society has the tendency of making false judgments about its races, cultures, etc. These false statements often create a negative image regarding certain aspects of that race, culture, etc. The most prominent groups that have been stereotyped in my life have been Jews, Hispanics, and Italians. Usually the comments aren’t made with any malicious intent, but they can still be hurtful to the people that they are aimed towards.

My best friend, Brian Miller, along with many other friends from back home in New York are Jewish. Being around him so often and the high population of Jewish families in my town makes me a lot more likely to encounter stereotyping of Jewish people than the normal person. The most common stereotype that I have heard about Jewish people is that they are cheap. The most common joke regarding this is when someone rolls change on the floor and tells the Jewish person to chase it. This is funny to the people around, but can often be hurtful to a Jewish person. This is an extremely false stereotype. I have many Jewish friends that come from wealthy backgrounds and I would not at all classify them as cheap.

My town, Smithtown, has a large population of Hispanics. The generalization that is made about this group is that they dominate the landscaping industry. Some comments that people make include when someone needs to mow the lawn they say they are going to hire some Mexicans to mow their lawn. This is obviously hurtful because it is basically joking around that Mexican people will ultimately end up mowing lawns for a living which I completely disagree with. These Hispanic students have the ability to enter which ever field of study that they would like to, especially in a school district that offers as many opportunities as mine did. The truth is that although a high percentage of the landscape industry is controlled by Hispanics, a majority of the landscaping industry is controlled by Italians.

This leads me into my next stereotype regarding Italians. A lot of people back home joke that Italians live by the acronym of “G.T.L.” also known as “Gym, Tan, Laundry,” with a huge emphasis on being tan. People believe that Italians will do whatever it takes to be tan, even if it takes fake tanning. This is completely false and I know this because I am Italian. Nobody in my family goes tanning. There are people who go fake tanning in my high school, but it is ignorant to assume that it is because they are Italian. Another stereotype that people have about Italians is that we speak with a lot of hand gestures. Although I do know a few Italians who do that, it is not a common thing.

This Haiti project includes many different entrepreneurs that the “Haitian Partners for Christian Development are helping. After reading over many of their biographies and watching videos of them, I can see why this is an important matter. The first entrepreneur that I learned about was Suze Fleuriza. Her business involves the roasting, caramelizing, packaging and selling of candied peanuts. It is a very popular product that usually sells very well and her company employs three other people. However there are many problems that stem from the fact that Haiti is not very well developed in comparison to the United States. The first problem is that Suze is forced to spend an entire day at the market in order to get her products for three days’ worth of operations. She also has to coordinate with separate suppliers for a few other supplies. This problem’s overall summary is that her production process is extremely inefficient. The second problem is that she has to send her children to school but she doesn’t have a lot of money to pay for food if she does that. Although her peanuts make a fantastic lunch food, she is still hasn’t been able to start selling them in supermarkets, schools and businesses. This leads to the third problem which is that there is no adequate method of public transportation and she does not own her own vehicle which means that she is not able to fill large orders. One thing I can imagine doing that would help Suze would be to raise enough money to help her buy a cheap car. This way she would be able to pick up her supplies faster and in higher quantity, which means that she would waste less days going to the market. She would also be able to make larger deliveries. These two effects will lead to her making more money, sending her children to school, and affording food all at the same time.

The second entrepreneur I learned about was Figaro. She runs a business that bakes pastries, breads, meat pates, and fruit liquor and it also employs four other people. The first problem that Figaro has run into is her lack of large appliances that would aid in the production process. All Figaro has for her business is an oven, a refrigerator, and a large wooden box for storage. Sam recommended a great course of action for helping Figaro, which is raising money to purchase her an industrial mixer (which apparently costs around 250 dollars). This is a reasonable amount of money for a group as large as us to raise, yet it benefits Figaro greatly. The second issue that she ran into is her lack of adequate transportation. It takes her an entire day using public transportation to get a week’s worth of supplies. An option we could look into for helping Figaro out would be to raise enough money to buy her a cheap car (as we suggested for helping Suze Fleuriza).

I am more a believer of determinism over free will. My belief stems from where I grew up in Smithtown, New York. My home town is located on Long Island, which is a small island at the South-East corner of the state. Long Island is extremely diverse in terms of the wealth of each of the towns. There are many towns that have median family incomes way above national averages and many towns that have median family incomes way below national averages. Smithtown is in the upper tier in terms of wealth and quality of school district which are two important qualities that would qualify me as extremely fortunate per the beliefs of determinism. There were also towns that were very close to me, such as Patchogue and Brentwood that were not nearly as fortunate as I was. They suffered from low levels of median family income that fueled miserable school districts which failed to supply its students with adequate education. I was frequently in each of these towns for playing soccer games so the differences in economic levels were obvious to me. The students from my school district were offered so many different opportunities to succeed in such a wide variety of areas including top notch programs in Business, Science, Math, the Arts, History, Economics, English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German. Personally I studied in the field of Business, Math, Economics, French, Science, History, and English. I received an extensive education through various different courses in each area. My school also scored the highest averages out of schools on Long Island on the New York State Regents Exams. These exams are designed to give an accurate depiction of a students’ knowledge on many different topics within each area. Therefore, these exams are an accurate measuring tool for the quality of a school district. On the other hand though, students from the less fortunate schools did not study in nearly as many areas and did not score nearly as well on the New York State Regents Exams. The school districts had higher drop-out rates and sent few to no students to highly ranked schools.

Based on all of this information, it is clear that there is a correlation between the town in which you grew up in and your ability to succeed. It wasn’t necessarily because these students didn’t want to succeed as much and didn’t want to make as much money as the more fortunate students. It was more a matter of them being born into a lower median income lifestyle. On the other hand, my school’s high success rate wasn’t necessarily because my classmates and I wanted to succeed or make money more than the less fortunate students. It was because our teachers and the programs that were offered in my school district were of a higher quality. This is why I believe in determinism which preaches that people’s futures are more determined for them based on the environments in which they are born and grow up in.

When we took this survey in class, I was a bit taken back on how to answer it. I took a second to think about what exactly each of the classifications (religion, culture and race) means and which one would be a better fit for “being Jewish.” My personal feeling is that the word “Jewish” represents a religion and not a culture or race. I believe this because the word “Jewish” is derived from the less commonly known word “Judaism,” which refers to the religion of the Hebrew. It has its religious foundation in the precepts of the Old Testament. This differs from Christianity only because Christians believe in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Although, since Judaism is the religion of the Hebrew, then that means that the Hebrew would either have to be the culture or race associated with people who are Jewish. The Hebrew were the original people of Israel. They constantly fought with the Christians during the times that are disputed between the two religions and are currently at a religious strife with the Muslims.

But, since the Hebrew were the people of Israel then that makes the Israelites a race. The description of being an Israelite is more geographically oriented than being Hebrew. According to our notes, a race is a physical or biological feature that a person is born with and last time I checked the place at which you were born is a feature or characteristic that a person is born with. So this makes the description of being Hebrew more a culture than a race because it is depicted by its study of the Jewish religion.

This question of classifications is important to me because of my geographical origins. I am from Smithtown, New York. But more specifically, since New york is a large state I will tell you that Smithtown is a wealthy and typically white community on Long Island (about 45 minutes east of New York City). My hometown is very diverse however in terms of our religion because large percentages of the citizens are Christian and Jewish. We also have smaller minorities of Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim following citizens. The town of Smithtown has double digit numbers of synagogues which is unusually high for a single town to complement is also large number and wide variety (in terms of denomination) of Christian churches. I personally have many close friends who are Jewish and go to a weekly service at a temple or synagogue. In school we also learn a lot about all of these classifications. Our history curriculums are built to incorporate the teaching and learning of the history of all different religions, races, and cultures because of our diversity. This includes the study of the Jewish religion, the Israelites, and the Hebrew as well as the religions and cultures associated with the Christians, Muslims, Hindu, Buddhist, and other religions.