I actually need to say something first before I put my point of view about the war and what’s going on. Generally speaking we know that Sam tries to put ideas into our heads. Maybe not exactly in the sense that he wants us to view something in a certain way but rather that we consider things that we haven’t consider and stir those emotions or ideas in order for us to think in a different way or see a different point of view. However, it wasn’t until this lecture where it was almost so easy to see how Sam stood on one side of the argument. Many of my peers actually agree with the way that he tried to put these ideas or take us out of our shoes in order to understand others. I understand where he is coming from but to be honest it is completely ridiculous to say that the “war is entirely about oil.” Our T.A. also brought something very important about these wars which was that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are technically not connected. The Afghanistan war was the direct response to 911 but the Iraq was about weapons of mass destruction and sure oil. It was an opportunistic move by the U.S. but to blame it all on Oil is just ridiculous. Unless Sam has a strong stance in the political world, it is very doubted that he knows all the facts about the wars. In fact, we only know what we are told. Yes, I perhaps don’t agree with how the things have been handled and how little into account the majority of the population’s opinions have been taken for granted. However, I support the troops. I support those man and woman who risk their lives for a cause that to them might not even be clear. It doesn’t matter if they agree or don’t agree with the war, they’d still be there fighting because that’s what good soldiers do. I know Sam is very intelligent and did he stir emotions and ideas into our heads? The answer is definitely. I don’t think my perspective on the war changed much but it did brought up many good points about it that perhaps I didn’t pay too much attention to before. I can clearly say that it is not all about oil. Of course that we are looking for the best interest of our country but in the process we are harming ourselves by doing so. I find it very difficult to be persuaded to one way or another simply because the only thing that I am one hundred percent sure that I know, is that I DON’T KNOW. There is a lot the government doesn’t tell us. We probably will end up knowing things that would change our point of views dramatically only when we are out of there and have nothing to do with the region which is not any time soon.

I honestly have many different feelings about how common each of us are to someone who was abused when they were young. I think that the most shocking part about this is how little we truly know about those who surround us. Even so, it is practically impossible to really know these types of things since it truly takes a lot for victims to speak out. It is hard to understand why many of these victims don’t really say much since some of them have said that they either blocked it out completely and really don’t remember unless they dig deep and recollect about that experience and other simply feel ashamed even though they are actually the victims of this. In a way I feel impotent that I can’t do anything about it. At least that I can’t do any immediate thing about what other’s are suffering and yet we can’t even see it. I don’t really know how to react when I heard for the first time that someone I knew was sexually abused when she was a kid. I just don’t know what to say. Should I say I’m sorry? Should I say I understand? But truly I don’t understand. In one of the entries that Sam’s wife posted on this website she says mentions how one of her students in one of her classes said that we don’t understand what someone is going through until you are put in that perspective. I completely agree with that. Just the thought of someone doing something like that to a kid is really infuriating. But I am very shocked at what I have seen and the commonness of this. It really brings me to think about how we can possibly change this and help prevent this from happening? But in reality it is nearly impossible to do this since most of the perpetrators are actually close family members or someone you know. I think this itself makes it so much harder for victims to talk. I can’t imagine how it is to feel that someone did something to you and you have to face that person again. How can a child really understand the severity of what an adult is doing to them? By some of the statements of victims, it is noticeable that the kid at that time wasn’t comfortable with what the adult was doing but they didn’t necessarily understand or thought it was malicious. Perhaps parents or even schools should start educating young children about these events. I personally never actually had a warning or something that would tell me if someone were to do that was wrong. It wasn’t until late middle school that I started to learn about these things and that an idea that these acts were wrong. Perhaps we need to start educating people at a sooner age.

This is actually one of the questions we recently just discussed during our time in our discussion groups. It has been a topic that for many of our peers takes very deep down and hits harder than some others. I personally feel that all these negative media just adds to our baggage of what we carry as students and part of the penn state community. It is very rarely when Sam actually says something that really impacts me very largely and one of the things that he said during the lecture of Thursday was that it hits us harder simply because we are basically finding who we are. It was this statement that made me think much more in depth of why I felt the way I felt. Why was it that we took so much pride in what was done in regards of the whole scandal and the people who were fired or pretty much forced to resign. But more important, it made me understand why 98 percent of the world probably think that we are crazy for supporting someone who was somewhat involved with these tragic event. I feel very angry towards the media. I have always been very upset by them because they always look out towards what title sells more or what brings the most views to their stories. As a result the face of paterno and Sex scandal has been plastered all over the media. Something for which I have been very upset since they pretend to aknowledge the victims yet they are the last ones to be mentioned. It wasn’t until basically yesterday and today when they started to shift that focus back into the victims, that guy who committed the crimes (doesn’t even deserve to be named) and a little bit away from student reactions and Paterno. But all in all, my mother always told me that things happen for a reason and I feel that we could always live in that perfect bubble that is penn state with our pride, football, thon and on. However, it is through times like these that we truly need to unite and I am more than confident, unlike the governor of PA, that we will stand up united and very strong. It is through these times that we will truly bring out the meaning of WE ARE just like it did back when it was said. Yes, it is very difficult times and I’m sure we as individuals will have to deal with all the people, media, corporations out there but we must show the entire world that WE ARE PENN STATE. WE ARE 96,000 students twenty four campuses strong. So I’ll wear these colors with pride no matter where I go because I am penn state, WE ARE ALL PENN STATE.

I strongly believe that it is probably one of the most important things that immigrants need to do. Yes, it is true that we are one of the few countries that don’t really have a national language or something of that sort but it is pretty much implied that this is what we speak. I am actually an immigrant myself. I moved to the United States when I was roughly twelve years old. Since then, it became my goal to learn English. The reason why I say that immigrants should learn English is because they will open so many doors when it comes to speaking the language. Not only for understanding, but there are many jobs that wouldn’t be able to be done without the person speaking English. I feel that it is all about opportunities. If I fell into the stereotype of speaking really bad broken English or not even speaking it at all, I honestly believe that I wouldn’t be able to achieve all the goals that I have achieved academically and personally. But lets go back to the issue. Many of the immigrants, in my case latino or Hispanic, don’t speak the language at all. The case for example is my two aunts who one went back to my country but the other has lived here for over fifteen years, yet she doesn’t speak English whatsoever. Things that we simply take for granted like helping your kids with homework or even getting a job which she sometimes find it difficult since there’s a language barrier. Most of these times, what ends up happening is that these people sort of stick together. By doing so, there are many towns in the united states that most of the population speak other languages than English. One of example of this is florida where there is a lot of Cubans, and in general Hispanics. Now, I don’t mean to say that they should be speaking English at all times and force them to not speak Spanish. I personally speak Spanish too and do with my mother and brother. However, I do also try to progress in English. I feel that it is always important to keep in touch with one’s roots but not really so you don’t mold yourself into what that culture in this case America is bringing. It is in the long run much more beneficial for them and for America. We all know that there are some immigrants that don’t even try to learn English and others avoid it by making excuses. I am not saying that they should learn it and be flawless at it and not have any accents which is very unlikely. But just the fact that they want to take that initiative of learning and being able to communicate with others.

For me personally it is very clear on what stage I am on. I am definitely in stage five. The reason for this has to do a lot with the fact that I was born in Switzerland. When I was a kid I had dirty blonde hair so that wasn’t uncommon in Switzerland. But right about when I was five years old, I moved to costa rica. Now, most of the people there have black or brown hair. Generally speaking, they have darker hair and some have darker skin color, sort of like a tan being that it is a tropical country. Up until then I was very much thrown into stage two. I didn’t speak Spanish when I got there and it wasn’t until about a year or two later that I started to speak Spanish. Essentially, I became fluid in Spanish and pretty much adopted much of the culture that I now I identify myself with. Then I moved to the United States where more stages where sort of pushed or I moved because the way I wanted to “explore my roots” here and associate myself with those of my culture. My family I would probably say are a little less on the stages simply because even though some of them did experience the same changes of cultures they are more or less “stuck” on stage three and four for the most part. My immediate family might are on a pretty much stage four for sure. I feel that education in a sense has to do with this. It is a little bit hard for them to see what I have seen given that I probably moved to stage five because there was some education involved. By education, I mean that I was “forced” to interact with many people of different cultures where as my brother for example chooses not to and my mother just doesn’t really have to interact so much with other cultures although, my mother could be a stage five but she’s at least stage four. It is interesting because I feel that it is true what Sam said about being black or brown and being thrown into stage two at a very early age. It’s something we just can’t avoid. But I feel that it is this that makes me at least to be more open about other cultures and I am truly able to appreciate and learn more about them. None the less, I feel that it is becoming a little bit easier for this generation of white people to move from stages. I feel that many of the stages are shaped a lot by what parents do. More or so for the first two stages. But as soon as people from stage two, it is easier to progress to stage three although some people may become “stuck” in between stages three and four since it takes quite a lot to move from them.

Well this actually one of the questions I truly feel that it has to do with cultural stuff. I personally don’t like when girls tend to dress in a manner that isn’t perhaps the best way to dress. Yes, it is very easy to say that a skin tight leg showing type of dress is more sexually appealing but I honestly don’t feel that a girl has to do that just to show that she’s attractive. I guess much of this issue has to do with each one’s party scene culture. It is true that many students go out each night, get completely drunk maybe have sex. However, it is the other side of the coin that I am more interested in. I personally don’t like that much that whole scene where you “go out to get drunk.” Maybe within the circle of each one’s friends that might be the cool thing to do, I personally find more enjoyment, satisfaction and pleasure in doing other things. I do sometimes drink and even get drunk. But the reason or the way that I arrived to that position was completely different. Most of the times, it is on a close setup, small group of friends and I spend time and are almost like brothers. But let’s go back to the question. No one in this world is forcing anyone to wear what they do. There are I guess social stigmas but I repeat, no one is forcing anyone to wear what they wear. Personally when I see someone wearing that type of attire when it barely hits thirty degrees outside just leaves me to bad conclusions. Yes, you might that they are not bad people or whatever it is that you want to say. But the truth of the fact is that it really isn’t appealing the way they think it is. There’s just so many things that something like that implies and it is those implications that kind of demean the whole person. It really depends on what your motives on going out are. Funny that many girls ask why guys can be more “relaxed” when it comes to their attire and girls can’t when what they should really be asking themselves in front of a mirror is “what are the motives that I have to wear something like this on a thirty degree weather?” One may say that there are “double standards” when it comes to stuff like that. But that is just stupidity. There aren’t any double standards when you are the person who puts the clothes on. So people need to start thinking before they put clothes on, during a Friday night because a lot of times there’s just something hidden beneath all that clothes that you haven’t realized yet.

I see that many people including myself have some predetermined “knowledge” or so that a certain type of criminal has to be associated with a race. However, this knowledge is basically a stereotype. It is very hard to not think of something like this topic in the eyes of “what you believe” simply because there are so many factors that shape the way one thinks. Personally I feel that many of these preconceptions are done through factors like media, culture, and other factors as well. Let’s start with media. In America we are fortunate enough that the media doesn’t have to reflect completely what the government wants. In other words, they can say whatever they want…sort of. Of course we see television and programs that are supposed to be unbiased towards many subjects but they clearly take a stand leaning to a certain political party. So instead of saying “fortunately we have a free media” I should perhaps say “unfortunately” because we don’t have to watch stuff that we don’t like. This is basically selective media. In the media nowadays, we are vastly shaped by what we watched. It may be towards one side or another. We may be close to a middle but in reality we tend to think a certain way because of the many things we see on tv. Movies are a big part of this. Many of the movie plots, themes, etc include crime the way of stereotypes. Why? Because in a sense that’s what we want to see. The reason why we see what we want to see is to “reassure” your point of view not see someone contradicting what you thought was true. For example, when we see on the news “person killed, suspect is believed to be a(n) ________ American” you either think that every person in that race is bad and odds are that every time you see someone of that race late at night they are up to no good. But when you see someone of a different race not necessarily thought to be in a certain type of behavior you probably think he’s just “a bad seed” or the “exception.” This is one of the many reasons why media plays a pretty big role. Sam in class said once that we are being shaped by the reach people. They are manipulating us to believe what they want. In other words we are being the puppets. This is a big part of how they do it. Culture has another role that plays on this. It wasn’t too long ago when blacks and white did not have the same rights. In this case we can see that many of the elder points of view are skewed by this. Mexcians and immigration in general is another topic on its own. But this is a few of the factors that play a big role into our thinking.

I feel that the situation in Haiti is very complex. There are many different organizations that try to help the Haitians with valuable everyday supplies like water, food, and shelter. However, what really needs to be done is to build a city that can sustain itself and its inhabitants. Essentially this could lead to a better country socioeconomic wise. The very big issue right now is that many of the Haitians do want to progress with their jobs, business or find jobs. But they end up having many constraints that disable them to “move forward.” Before the earthquake, Haiti was very much under the radar. Most of the people didn’t even really care of what the situation that the people have to live in. However, it was after the earthquake that many people even realized how poor Haiti was. This can easily be seen through the structures that they had all over the country. Not one single building wasn’t damaged and the reason was because they simply didn’t have the money to truly build up to safety standards. Another aspect was that many of the “constructors” were much more uneducated and truly weren’t even supposed to be in charge of projects like that. The one thing I see very much on those videos is that many of them have a very powerful will to work and to better themselves. But what happens is that there isn’t a way where they can truly progress when the materials cost a fortune and they just don’t have the man power and correct machinery to actually do something. This is a very important factor that I see we probably could do something. Here in America we see so many of the “dollar stores” and find many of the materials that they could use. We also have huge stores like Costco. If only we could find a place like that that sell materials. What did these stores do to be able to get the same supplies as the other stores but they are able to sell at half the price? Why can’t the people in Haiti get some sort of deal directly with a warehouse no matter where it is around the world? This would be so much cheaper than getting China to ship it to Europe, Europe reselling it to Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico selling to Dominican Republic and then the Haitians buying the product for 7 to 8 dollars when it may only cost 50 cents to actually make that product? It is little things like these that could change the outcome of a society that has been oppressed by socioeconomic factors for many decades. It is easy to just propose something in the luxury of an a/c room pressing buttons on a high tech computer. Almost too easy.

I personally think that this is probably one of the toughest things to decide on. Sam brought up in a class one of the most important things to remember which is that we don't know “everything” about a situation. We are just aware of what is “known” or given to us. It is from where we can make decisions about that. As a result a lot of our judgment may be reflected from a more “sterotype” type of view or something that we already have in mind about a certain group of people. What i'm bringing up is basically the example that we were presented in class about the woman who sent the children to the “wrong” or the “other” school. A lot of people thought that this was a little racist just because she was black and that if it was someone white or just of different color that they would not have gotten this penalty the way this woman did. All in all, I lean towards more of free will however not to the point that you will be so into free will that you ignore determinism. Sam during class said that there was always a choice. I feel that this statement is very vague or perhaps more misunderstood. The reason being is that until you are on that position where you say “i have no other choice” is when you will truly understand what it means. I don't know Sam but I want to say that it really does become sometimes a point where you truly just don't have a choice and it isn't until you are in that situation you get. I'm sure that if Sam thinks more about it, he would realize that. I personally feel thtat free will is a very powerful thing, more over determanism. It sort of has to do with ones beliefs but I really like to think that the “sky is the limit.” I feel that I am responsible for my actions and I am able to shape those actions myself not some other factor. I was raised with many difficulties and “determanism” was supposed make me drop out of highschool. But i'm here. It is this very important statement that makes me want to believe in free will. My grandfather has always told me that no matter what happens you can work hard enough to succeed in anything. He was right. I just don't want to feel like no matter what I do it was determined by society, religion or any other outside factor what would happen to me. I feel that if I ever feel like some outside factor could essentially come in between, I can always pack my things and move. It's not like I couldn't try somewhere else which is why I believe more in free will.

I personally feel that this question is pretty complex one if one truly thinks about the many variables that are considered when one makes a judgment about ethnicity or race. Even on the professional level, it would be hard to truly categorize the races better because of the many differences in our genes and ancestry. If you think about it, it was because of technology that we were able to travel all over the world. This being not only around the world but in a more general case to travel greater distances than that which was possible before. This is a very important aspect to keep in mind. The reason why before it was fairly easier to categorize groups of people by their geographic and cultural status was because if we go back hundreds of years, we can see that people typically didn't travel much or far enough to really change the gene pool of the region. As a result, those cultural and geographical features were pretty much kept. However, with the industrial revolution and in general technology, people were able to travel not only further distances but to immigrate to other places as well. Coming back to today, with more specific DNA testings and other technologies that are opening up, it will be truly hard to pinpoint any categories as such simply because the majority of the population is of “mixed race.” Nowadays, even cultures that weren't so accepting of their children marrying people outside of their culture are being more and more flexible towards this idea. This is why I feel that technology will probably help us in the way that it may tell us where our ancestors were from, but it will never be able to categorize us by these factors. Another thing that personally feel is perhaps more important than genes is culture. Culture nowadays plays a vital role for our view and our feeling of belonging. It is very hard to not thing of ourselves as some race without having at least subconsciously thinking about culture. I personally was born in a Switzerland and genetically speaking I am half Swiss, German, and
European in general. However, when I am asked “what ethnicity or race are you?” I always say that I am Latino. Why? Simply for the fact that culture wise I consider myself more Costa Rican because I grew up there as a child and pretty much was my mother side of the family that raised me and implanted the customs of the area. Genetically speaking I feel that I am too mixed to really be able to be categorized as a certain race or ethnicity just by genes. However, I do embrace both cultures and this is why it makes me unique. To be honest, to me I don't care as to what people categorize me as long as everyone no matter gender, religion or any beliefs have the same and equal rights.