This video is pretty intense. Not just the message it’s sending, but the way in which it’s done with explosions and the background music certainly makes it scary. At the same time, I can’t help but see it as a little ridiculous. We have to keep things in perspective. We don’t have to be living in fear. Just like every belief group (whether it be religious, political, etc.) there are extremists, but not all people fit that stereotype. This video makes it seem as though the religion of Islam is the problem and that all Muslims are our enemies, which is certainly not the case. A friend of mine is Muslim and her family moved while she was in high school. She went from a diverse suburb of Philly to a very small town in the middle of the state, where she was the only Muslim girl at her school. People were so ignorant and disrespectful to her because they automatically linked Islam with terrorist groups. People would say things like “Don’t touch her backpack- it might blow up.” Someone legitimately asked if she celebrated 9/11. The thing she said, though, was that they weren’t saying those things to make fun of her or to be mean; they really did not understand how wrong they were. That just baffled me to hear. While I know this is asking Muslims to step in the shoes of Americans, I don’t really get that from the video. Muslims- people who practice Islam- are not going around with “Kill those who insult Allah” signs, just the extreme (crazy?) Muslims! And I honestly don’t see any of them stopping to put themselves in someone else’s shoes. I think it is ridiculous how often religion is used to justify war because a lot of religions share similar beliefs (ei, murder is wrong). I’ve never read the Kuran, but I’m pretty sure it does not promote killing people with different beliefs. Much like people contesting that God instructed them to murder, when it’s very clear that doesn’t follow the Bible. Videos like this just perpetuate negative stereotypes and send the wrong message. Yes, there are bad people out there doing terrible things, but we don’t need to live in fear and we shouldn’t blame it on the entire religion.

I want to start off by saying that I completely accept people who are transgender or transsexual. Someone very close to me has had to struggle with her identity and I entirely support her decision to live as a woman, though she was born biologically male. However, I think Mr. Devoureau’s case is a little ridiculous. In this scenario, the job he was in required that the employee be male. I am not saying that he isn’t male, but he can’t claim to have lived his entire life biologically as a male. This is a very specific position that has such a requirement. His job is to make sure people are not cheating during urine tests. Even though Mr. Devoureau had a sex change surgery, he hasn’t been urinating as a male his whole life and it is very possible that his “setup” is a little different than someone born male. The description of the job could very easily be reinterpreted to require employees to have lived their entire life biologically as a male. This isn’t the case of him being fired because he is transgender and his boss discriminated against him because of her own prejudices. This is the case of a job requiring the employee to be male and be able to prove it- he was only fired after he refused to answer about surgery. While I definitely feel for Mr. Devoureau, I think he should choose his battles. This is one job that he can’t have. I’m pretty confident in saying pee inspector was not his life-long dream so is it really worth the fight? There are a lot of things that each of us just cannot do because of forces beyond our control. I can never play in the NFL; that was never an option for me. I’m too short to be a model, but too tall to be a jockey. I understand that this is not just about the job, but about his identity, dignity, and struggle to be accepted. Mr. Devoureau, I am sure, will be met with a lot worse discrimination than this and it’s too bad this is having so much of an effect on him. People are always going to be judging him and this is the one time that there is some justification for it.

I have to admit the video we watched in class today really got to me. I know that’s not really related to this video, but I want to talk about it a little anyways. I personally don’t have any close family or friends currently in the military so I can’t even begin to understand what it is like for people who do, let alone what it’s like for the soldiers. My roommate and best friend is currently in ROTC for air force and I really do not know how I would react if she had to go overseas and be put in that kind of danger, as unlikely of a situation as that is. She is studying psychology in hopes to help those people who return home and have to deal with PTSD and after watching the movie, I have even more respect for her than I already did. Sure, I knew soldiers have a tough time adjusting and that war has a big effect on their sanity, but it is so different to hear their personal stories. It’s hard for me to even handle the thought of killing another person, but these men have to and they have to train themselves to not let it get to them. There is no way that people can be expected to recover from this kind of psychological trauma. One of the soldiers said that he was instructed to consider himself dead, or something along those lines. They were no longer to be themselves, humans with emotions. This is very similar to what the woman in the video refers to as “losing the I in me” or “dying from inside out”. This is no way to live! This really isn’t living at all. Not to sound like a hippie, but this just shows how pointless war can be. Civilians are constantly terrified and the consequences it has on our brave men and women are really not worth any political gains, at least in my mind. In the video, one woman described her son not being angry at the terrorists, but at the marines. Going back to the TED video, the woman speaks about how “casually we look at casualties”. That couldn’t be more true. We always hear the numbers of how many people are killed or hurt, but we cannot comprehend what that even means so it just turns into another statistic. I have no answers to any of these problems, especially since I know so little about the situations, but I really think it needs to be made clearer to people like me. Just a couple people’s stories had such an effect on me emotionally and I didn’t even know there was anything to be so affected by. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

This article was very interesting. It was discussing the troubles that come with trying to assemble people and accomplish a goal with all of the chaos of a disaster going on. This was honestly nothing I’ve ever taken the time to think about. It seems so obvious, but I never would have thought about the problems around orchestrating an evacuation. I thought it was really interesting how the author connected each situation with the next as far as what was learned from the previous. From the unfortunate results of Hurricane Katrina came new information to help aid during Hurricane Rita. The problem was that we had to lose so many lives in the process of perfecting evacuation plans. It’s unfortunate that it took so long for officials to realize just how vital evacuation plans are! In school we were always having drills for every emergency that could possibly occur! Today in class we watched the video about the people in France whose job it is to remove explosives from the ground from the war that still may be active and could go off at any time. The people who are doing this job are in serious danger, but so are the people who live anywhere within the vicinity of the area. This is just like the Marcellus Shale situation. There is all this danger that we are not being told about and people have to unfortunately suffer the consequences. It really shocked me that the article said even after Obama’s request to the nuclear commission to safely review all of the nation’s nuclear power plants, there still was no certainty that the review will include an evacuation plan! This whole article has made it pretty clear that evacuation plans are important stuff and I can’t imagine why that hasn’t taught us to have them mandatory. Towards the end, they make mention to the ways in which “lying” to people is the best way to put their minds at ease and that it will, in the end, benefit society. The article, however, I felt did not relate to what I thought the blog post was saying. Here, I pictured a mosh pit situation and the craziness that a body of people acting as one is bound to encapsulate.

I think this is a very interesting report and it seems to make a lot of sense. We used to be a very religious-driven society and as time passed, that’s becoming less of the case. Just because the data shows more and more people are classifying themselves as having “no religion” that does not mean that religion is becoming extinct. Honestly, a big part of this change could be due to how people answer that question of religion. In a society where it is expected that everyone attend church (or synagogue, mosque, etc.), people are certainly going to be more likely to associate themselves with religion. However, just because someone goes to church and puts up a Christmas tree, this doesn’t mean they really are a Christian. The same is true for people who have Bat Mitzvahs and light menorahs not necessarily practicing Judaism, and so on. So in a society where everyone in the neighborhood wakes up early on Sunday, puts on their church clothes, and sleeps through another sermon, it is simply a routine they are forced into by society and they very well could not believe a word of it. A lot of people are raised to believe what their parents believe and very rarely do people go against that. So basically what I’m saying is that the data may show a rise in people with no religion because those people are just being more honest with their answers as it is becoming more socially acceptable to be religion-free. I think the man in the video had a good point about how people’s friends influence their religion, but not to the extent that he described. Yes, if someone spends most of their time with only people who do not go to church, they are more likely to stop going eventually. But people tend to group themselves with others who have similar beliefs, therefore the chances of people who truly want to follow their religion (not just because it was forced upon them as children) are very unlikely to have no one else in the same boat as them. Also, I think it’s a little ridiculous to say our Facebook friends can predict our religion and political viewpoints, but everyone loves to include Facebook in every argument these days. I think the real difference is that in the past there were a lot of invisible strings pulling people towards religion and today those are just less strong, not that there was an addition of strings away from religion. People aren’t being forced to not have religion, but rather are feeling less of push into religion and that is the explanation of the trend. While it may continue, I highly doubt religion will become extinct.

I found this video really beautiful. I think so often when discussing the issue of same-sex couples having children, people just throw out their fears and assumptions of how it will negatively affect the children. This is the first time I’ve heard directly from one of those children proving that he has still been incredibly successful with two mothers. The focus is too much on the parents and their “selfishness” so we forget that this is really all about children being raised well. I liked how he said his great-grandparents were unpleased with his mother’s pregnancy, but had a change of heart when they saw his cuteness. In the video we watched in class, one woman said that gay couples are an untapped resource for adoption. There are so many children in need of a good home and it is completely ludicrous to deny them a better life simply to reinforce the idea that there is something wrong with being gay and those people should not have the same rights as heterosexuals. Zach Wahls brought up the fact that he scored in the 99th percentile in the ACTs, which is incredible. He is in college, is a great public speaker, and from most people’s perspectives would be seen as doing very well in life. He is the perfect example of how your parents’ sexual orientation is not going to keep you from being successful. I liked how he ended his speech by saying that no one had ever guessed that he had come from a household with gay parents. He is no different than children raised by a mother and father. He’s certainly in a better place than someone who is raised by a single parent or in a family of some sort of abuse, but homophobes rarely acknowledge that. There is only one downside I can see to gay couples raising children and that is in the opposition the children will have to face. Zach didn’t say anything about it, but I’m sure he was teased when he was younger because his family was different. People can be very stubborn and I wouldn’t be surprised if they took out their disapproval of his mothers’ lifestyle on him. Even with that, though, I’m confident that he would never want it any other way.

I cannot even imagine what it’s like for people to live in this darkness! I can tell the difference in people’s attitudes between winter and warmer months. It’s a lot harder to convince yourself to get out of bed and start being productive and a lot easier to be lazy and overeat. And this is noticeable in Pennsylvania, where the change in daylight is much less severe. I don’t think the problem is entirely based on light, but more specifically sunlight. The sun provides us with vitamin D and people who live north of Atlanta can’t get any during the winter because at no point is the sun high enough in the sky. Vitamin D is really important in heart health as well as activeness and plenty of other things. Most people get the “blahs” in winter without even having SAD. The sun not only gives us light and vitamin D, but it also provides us with warmth. A more comfortable and regulated body temperature surely has a positive effect on us. Also, our hormones are affected by the change in seasons and hormones are ridiculously powerful. Since the people in Helsinki are more susceptible to the symptoms of SAD, I think it’s important for them to become educated on it. They can’t change the cause of it, just like no one can change their race, gender, or genes that may put them at a higher risk of other diseases. While I think it’s great that people are trying to “battle” the darkness, simply having a light show won’t do much for Finland. People should really try to “battle” the side effects that the darkness has on them personally. This could include getting vitamin D in other ways, making sure to spend as much time outside during the few hours of daylight, and doing some sort of therapy. SAD is a form of depression and can lead to other, more serious types. Some people can use light therapy, in which they sit in front of a bright fluorescent light for about 30 minutes a day in the morning to simulate the sunrise. If people want to stay living in Helsinki, they’re going to have to learn to cope with the darkness as long as they’re there. If you can’t change your environment, change yourself to work with your environment or just find a new place to live!

This video kind of doesn’t go along with the questions below it, I feel. In the case of the video, the kid was just pulled away from his nanny out of nowhere. There is no right or wrong way to teach your child to deal with something like that, because it is so very rare (and stupid on the part of the kidnapper). If the nanny hadn’t done anything, I’m sure the kid would’ve tried to get away and not hesitated to talk to another stranger. I definitely agree that in the case of a child getting separated from his guardian, it makes sense for him to go up to someone and ask for help rather than standing around looking like a kidnapper’s dream. But that’s also very rare. Most kidnappings are premeditated. Chances are, if a kid looks lost, the person who goes to ask them where their mommy is will be one of the 99.99% of people who just want to help. While I see the argument to tell your kids to talk to strangers when they’re in trouble, I also see the danger in it. Children have a much harder time determining what is a dangerous situation and what isn’t so sometimes it’s easier to just make a broad generalization that will protect them from that one case. Kidnappers have been known to tell children something along the lines of: “I’m a friend of your mom’s. She called and asked me to pick you up.” To a child, this doesn’t seem like a dangerous situation. Hell, some adults could probably be fooled by that. But if we make the big rule to not talk to someone you don’t know, kids have a much easier time following it and they don’t have to make any judgments. Honestly, when it comes down to it, this is all just from parents’ fears. If I’m not around to see what my child is doing and with who, there are a million possible outcomes that run through my head of awful things that could happen to him, when in reality none of them will happen. Rules like not talking to strangers gives parents peace of mind, even if it really doesn’t make their children any safer.

This video is really interesting, especially with the illustrations. One thing that stood out to me was the idea that there’s no empathy in Heaven or Utopia. I had just never thought about that- with no suffering, there’s no need for empathy. He says that “empathy is the invisible hand” and that “to empathize is to civilize”. Does this mean he’s given us the answer to world peace? It seems too simple, but I can’t find anything I disagree with in what he’s saying. He talks about how nation states and the loyalty that Germans have to other Germans (or French or whatever) and how these are fictions that we created. I thought this was really interesting. So many historical problems have been related to one nation hating another, but in actuality, we brought it all upon ourselves! What I liked about this video was how it took the cheesy ideas of hippies and explained them rationally and scientifically. “Peace and love” are great ideas, but not if they’re not taken seriously. It was fascinating how we could all be traced back to the African man and woman. Generally science and religion don’t agree, but his comment that “the Bible got this one right” was really quite cool. The fact that science can back up our relation to one another biologically makes the world seem a lot smaller. I honestly don’t have much to comment on this video because everything he said makes sense to me and I agree. He convinced me! The only thing is, it’s not realistic. If empathy really is the key, we’d need everyone to put aside their petty differences and learn to empathize with other societies. This just isn’t going to happen. He says that if we can’t imagine this, we can’t make it! The big question posed to this video is a tough one for me to answer, though. How do I, as an individual, be more empathetic in the way I live? I’m not racist; I try to be nice to people, is that enough? He tells us to think of ourselves as an extended family and extend our own identities. He says that parenting, education, business, and government keep us from living as an empathetic civilization and cause narcissism, aggression, materialism, and violence, but I don’t really see the connection there. If we are naturally empathetic, how do these things repress our essence? And why did we create them if it’s in our nature to be empathetic. This is the only part that doesn’t quite add up for me. Other than that, I think his connections between all humans and other creatures are valid arguments that make it seem as though there’s no reason we can’t live harmoniously with empathy. But if it’s really this easy, why can’t we do it?!

My first thoughts are “Damn, 11% is a lot.” I read another article about this high school that indicated it was 18% of the female population. Coming from a fairly big public high school that had one or two pregnant girls a year, this seems ridiculous to me. I’m definitely not going to say that these teens shouldn’t be held responsible for their actions and the situation they’re now in, but factors out of their control made them much more likely to become pregnant. Firstly, the report stated that almost all the students are considered to come from low-income homes. People with less money are more prone to unexpected pregnancies, as contraceptives are a lower priority than paying the bills. The video didn’t give information on the sexual education program taught at the school, but it obviously isn’t working too well. The fact that some schools are still stuck on abstinence-only education is extremely stupid. I understand that parents and teachers have trouble coming to terms with the fact that teenagers are sexually active, but it doesn’t stop it from happening. I think a lot of people want these kids to be punished for doing something wrong, but this stubborn thinking just causes problems much bigger than sex out of wedlock. Another factor that adds an invisible string is the emphasis of sex in the media. Television and movies puts pressure on students to lose their “V-card” as soon as possible so as to not be made fun of. Additionally, shows like “Sixteen and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom” romanticize teen pregnancy. While the girls do go through their fair share of hard times, the show likes to end their stories on a positive note and showing the adorable babies doesn’t help the case. MTV does make an effort to talk about safe sex and prevention, but it is done in an easily ignorable, overly cheesy way. You can only hear Dr. Drew say that abstinence is the only way to prevent pregnancy 100% of the time before it becomes a joke. The most significant invisible string, in my eyes, is in going to this school. When surrounded by so many girls with bellies or babies, it doesn’t seem like such a big deal. Girls will see themselves as just another Frayser High School mom and maybe even feel that being pregnant helps them fit in, which was seen in the high school with a “pregnancy pact” a couple years ago. These kids definitely made the choice to have unprotected sex and should have to deal with the consequences, but at the same time, it isn’t their fault that their society made them prime candidates for teen pregnancy.