I think this is a great question. I agree that we need to teach young kids all about the truth of Native Americans. Whether or not this will leave America with no soul as Sam Richards says, it doesn't matter, the truth needs to be taught.
I remember learning about Native Americans ind fifth grade, and I think that was the first time I really learned about them. My parents may have given me a brief explanation, but that was the extent of my knowledge. In my class I remember we learned about five different tribes of Native Americans. We learned about different the various types of houses, the different staple foods, the geography of the land, but they seemed to leave out the fact that the Europeans genocided and displaced basically the entire race of them. It seems that the curriculum brushed over the brutal murder of men women and children. The argument could possibly be made that little children shouldn't be learning about genocides in elementary schools. 1. They mostly likely see and commit countless murders on television and video games respectively. 2. As Sam Richards essentially stated in class, by ommitting information, we are thus lying about it. I think he said it like "by our inaction, we are allowing the violence to continue." I agree, and by singing songs like "This land is our land." and the "Land of the brave" we are indoctrinating the children to forget about Native Americans. I was definitely socially conditioned in this way. I really didn't learn about the extensive genocide and atrocities committed towards Native Americans until my senior year of high school. Did I learn this in my U.S. History class? Nope. I read a book called The Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen. It explains how our history classes gloss over Native Americans, and often outright distort information. In order to trick kids into believing that the U.S. has a soul, our education system glorifies everything we do, save slavery, because we got over it, but the Native Americans go unnoticed. We should teach our children the truth from a young age. Peace

This is quite a sad story. I hope that the UAFA law is passed, but I doubt that it will, considering the views of many people who decide the laws. From my view, it isn't really the citizens who decide the laws in America, they have a small amount of input in the process. It is the people with money, in our corporatocracy who decide what goes and what doesn't.
As far as the arguments against allowing same-sex marriages to be recognized, they are all illogical, as Sam Richards explained in class. Firstly, the children in the families do not have a larger chance of being gay (not that thats a bad thing), nor do they have a larger risk for any big problems. I know two girls who were brought up by lesbian parents, and they have no problems socializing or doing other things that kids do. Also, when people argue that gay marriage ruins the sanctity between a man and woman, there are flaws as well. If regular marriage is so sacred, then why do we allow there to be game shows, celebrity marriages, and also why is there around a fifty per cent divorce rate in America.
I think what we really need are honest, compassionate relationships with all beings, male or female, human and nonhuman. I think the problem today is that our ways of relating to each other and the world are dominated by our egoic minds. Our egoic minds see oneself as a discrete separate being interacting with others. From this egoic perspective, we should each maximize our power and pleasure by manipulating others, who are almost always a threat to us in one way or another. I think that being mainly ruled by this mindset is what breeds all the craziness and dogmatism today. We fear change and the unknown, and our egoic minds fear to realize that we are so much more than they have it to be. I think that genuinely addressing this part of our minds, and coming to understand it is key in opening up to issues like gay rights and gay acceptance. I think the Jimi Hendrix quote is applicable here: "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."
Also related to gay marriage and our population issues, we need loving adults who are not going to have excessive children. And as Sam Richards said in class, if gays are to have kids, it is always very deliberate and not accidental. Peace

I saw Avatar twice in theaters. I really was moved by this film and I could relate to it on many different levels. By the way I am a white male, but I feel that I have a decent understanding of what it is like to be of various different races, seeing as I have experienced other cultures, have friends from other cultures, and have read about other cultures.
I did not notice any white supremacy when I saw the film twice. It was only when I read some articles about people saying it was all about white male supremacy, that I could see how they would think that. I understood the film to have deep anti-imperialist, anti-civilization, anti-disconnection messages, all of which I was excited to see. I was very pleased to see these messages put into a movie which will reach millions of viewers. I think that our civilization is entering a phase of large collapse and we need to learn from indigenous people about how to live sustainably and have a deep connection to our surroundings. I loved how the Nav'i people lived, spoke, and acted. They had a deep reverence for all the life forms around them, something that civilized life has squeezed out of us. Kids are born with a wonder for nature, but by age 6, most kids are always inside and would rather play video games, than climb a tree. This is one of the most awful tragedies imaginable. It is sad when someone literally dies, but a kid like I just mentioned has died, in that she has lost the vital connection to nature, that we all have deep down, but are conditioned not to feel. But as we see in the movie, we can revitalize this connection! Jake Sully was brutally conditioned as a Marine, but after living with people with such an amazing love for life, he regained his ability to feel the connection.
Other messages I got from Avatar besides white supremacy, were that I noticed the parallels between the skypeople bulldozing the beautiful jungle, with every large scale industrial process on earth. We are destroying our only planet! We blow up mountains for coal and metal, we trawl the oceans for sea creatures, we clearcut Amazonian forests to grow soybeans for KFC, we spew toxins everywhere which give us cancer, we spew pollution into the air which warms our planet, we dump plastics into oceans causing dead zones, and plastic gyres half the size of Africa! We have clearly lost the connection to this planet. We are killing it. Avatar, for me was shining a mirror in front of us, so we can realize that we are destroying the equally beauty of our planet(to pandora) so that we can live a lifestyle that doesn't even make us happy. In Avatar, the loss of connection is demonstrated when the CEO says, "There just fucking trees!"
Anyways, I think that it wasn't that the white guy really saved the day, but that the Nav'i people saved him, and then he was able to help them out. It demonstrates the importance of reciprocity, which nature flourishes by. Symbiotic relationships allow life to diversify. Meanwhile, on earth we are homogenizing everything with western civilization, and killing hundreds of species every week!
I think that seeing Avatar and only noticing white supremacy is like seeing The Super Bowl, and only noticing the uniform designs. Its missing the big messages, like "Hey we are killing our only fucking planet! Lets do something about it!" and "Our planet is just as amazing and wondrous as Pandora, if only we take the time to acknowledge it, and reconnect with it."

I believe there is one mountain and many paths. If some hikers want to take the path which requires a burqua than so be it. BUT ...They could be terrorists! They could be hiding behind there masks and ready to blow us up! or they could be calm and peaceful people looking to have a connection to the divine.
To be honest I do not know a lot about the religion of Islam, but I am much more tolerant of people minding their own business, practicing their religion, than people who destroy the planet in order to maintain a certain lifestyle. Fundamental Islams, evangelicals, and devil worshipers combined bother me less than a whole culture of people who believe we can do whatever we want to the planet, and expect to keep living here.
I believe that the reason France wants to ban them is because of a fear of terrorism. They probably think that women wearing burqas represents fundamentalism islam, which is taught in countries like Saudi Arabia, which also supposedly produces "terrorists." Also, the French government probably fears that anyone can just dress up in a burqua and do anything from snatch a purse, to rob a bank, or blow up a mini-mall.
As far as the gender issues, I do know that many middle-eastern and russian countries are highly patriarchal. My friend from Georgia talks of women as if they are a lower species. I do not know if the women really want to wear burqas or if it is due to conditioning from the area in which they grew up. It may well be that men influence the women to wear such head covers. In America, women will say they choose to wear shirts that show a good 3 inches of cleavage, but the real reason is probably that it is influenced by men. Also, it shows that they are on the prowl for a man. It is like a modern mating ritual. Also, as Sam says in the article, we westerners think we are so progressive when both male and female attire are influenced by the opposite sex. I believe that western society is still highly patriarchal, we've just disguised it more than the blatant disguised women of the middle east. Patriarchal values run deep in our cultural heritage and we will have to bring this to consciousness in order to rid ourselves of it. Just flip on the tv, and the misogyny is ubiquitous.
Also, I consider myself a spiritual person, and in my opinion it is crazy to cover up the body you have been blessed with by whomever or whatever force brought us into this reality. It seems like a slap in the face to a monotheistic god, random evolution, or what have you, to have an amazing body made up of some 50 trillion cells working in harmony, and then purposely hide it from anyone and everything outside one's household. Well, I hope this is about 400 words. Peace.

cosmos

I think that Harry Reid's comments show that he grew up in a time when the word "negro" was often used. I also think that his reasoning is coming from usual conservative perspective. It seems that Reid thinks that if Obama were to speak with an accent similar to 50 Cent or had the skin color of Akon then he would not have been elected. Obama is definitely a very articulate man, which is one of his best attributes. He's also a great bullshitter, But anyways, I don't think he would have won either if he had even a speck of "ghettoness" in his demeanor. It seems that most people would only vote for a black man if he wasn't similar to the stereotypical ghetto black man. Harry Reid probably shouldn't have used that word choice, but I think his perspective is fairly accurate. Also, I doubt Harry Reid has ever experienced much black culture and has a strong bias, with no experience to back it up. Hes most likely constantly surrounded by white people, and never steps out of his cultural comfort zone. I think he should, and it is important that we all do this, so we learn not to offend our brothers and sisters of other colors. Racism to me, is like individual fingers of the same hand arguing over eachothers slight differences, when they are essentially the same. Peace folks.