Part 3
My dad is a very hard worker, working since he was 12, and so many times I have gone to a job site or to the nursery and seen his American workers standing there as he lifted or dug out a tree alone. Bob would never allow this to happen always jumping in pushing my dad out of the way so he could do the work for him. My dad and Bob grew a tight bond, and my dad even paid out of pocket to fly Bob back to Mexico to see his family multiple times. Although Bob no longer works for us, it is proof of how hard working they are. They just want to make a living and some money for their family back home. Businesses are controlling immigration and the feelings Americans have towards them, and they need to be stopped.

Part 2
It reminds me of a reading we did for the first exam title Economics. Rather than illegal immigrants along with American workers coming together and fighting against the companies, a situation where progress could be made, they fight against one another allowing the business owners to win.
My dad is the owner of a combined nursery and landscaping business. Often times he has had Mexican immigrants coming to his business asking for a job. It is just recently (about 5 years ago) that he hired a Mexican because he could not find good work ethic in any one else. He would put adds in the paper and received few to no calls to fill positions. He was always worried about hiring a Mexican because it was never certain if they were legal or illegal, and he did not want to get into any trouble. He first hired “Bob” who had paper work (whether it was legal or forged illegally). I know my dad paid him what he would pay any other white, black, or brown American. Bob was the best help my dad had ever had.

Part 1
Before class I did not hold a strong opinion about immigration. Often I hear about illegal immigrants taking American’s jobs and so on. As an American, that obviously upsets me because I do not want people in my own country to suffer. The thing is though; many people in American do not want the jobs that the illegal immigrants are doing. They say they can’t work because others are taking their jobs, when in reality they would never consider doing those jobs in the first place. WE must also remember that it is not the immigrants “stealing” jobs; it is the businesses who are forcing competition between immigrants and American workers. Since immigrants are willing to work for lower wages, business owners will quickly higher them over American workers who require benefits and higher wages. It seems like a smart business move for business owners but it is obviously causing harsh feelings towards immigrants.

Part 3
He also told us children as young as 3 years of age are already addicted to alcohol and cigarettes. Children become emerged in gangs becoming violent and sometimes dangerous. And just like Sam said, suicide rates are very high. Not many people get offered the experience I was. Not many people see the pain and agony in the Native American’s lives. Not many people know about the “modern” Native Americans. I agree with everything Sam presented, having been there and seen it myself, the information he presents is 100% true. I think this is a necessary presentation for all people to see, but especially here, with people who are able to make a difference. Native Americans are a race that cannot be forgotten.

Part 2
Homes were crawling with cockroaches, lacking necessary bedding and heating, and contained huge holes in the ceilings. (Another work crew went into the homes and fixed them). Mutliple families lived in one home, where you would find 7 people sleeping on the floor in just one room. Often homes were abusive and alcoholism is a huge problem, just as Sam said. One child I worked with told multiple different contradictory stories about how his wrist had been broken. This same child also wore the same shirt 3 days in a row, asking why we wore different clothes everyday. Talk about a slap in the face. This child taught me so much about myself and the world. The man who ran the community center told us so much about the people and the children. One child who was 2 years old, suffered from alcohol syndrome. He was also found walking down the road by himself because his mother was passed out drunk on the couch. The man also told us he once found a 5 year old passed on the jungle gym with beers surrounding him; he was obviously drunk.

Part 1
Sam’s lecture today holds true to what I have seen in South Dakota. Four years ago, I traveled to South Dakota where we stayed on an Indian Reservation for two weeks. In those two weeks, I learned the information that wasn’t talked about in high school. In history class, you learn about Indians and Pilgrims and the Thanksgiving feast they share in harmony. You learn about the Trail of Tears, and how they removed the Native Americans from their homes to different places to live. Although you learn there were a large amount of deaths due to the move, you assume that the ones who survived live on and continue to prosper in their tepees and Native American dress. This is definitely not the case but a common misconception because no one learns about the modern day Native Americans. When I was in South Dakota I worked with the Lakotas on the Rosebud Reservation. There I worked at a so-called community center. It was one room with a kitchen and bathroom where kids in that neighborhood could go to get out of their homes.

Part 3
The middle easterners see the few American soldiers who do wrong to them for no reason (as we saw in the film with the tanker running over the taxi driver’s car) and the fact that they are there for reasons unknown to them other than taking their oil. Of course Americans receive a bad name in the Middle East.
Is it so wrong to believe that the feeling our people experienced after the attack on the World Trade Centers is the feeling Middle Easterners feel every single day since the War on Iraq has begun; Why has this happened to our innocent people, why would they want to harm us? How unfair to put such devastating feelings and effects on others when we know the pain and agony it can cause. Thank you Sam once again for another amazing insight.

Part 2
You better be damn sure if someone was coming onto my land, killing my family and friends, and taking my oil I would be up to fight. I would hate these people with all I had for coming and ruining the peace that once existed. Every day they see troops walking around on their land, threatening them and their livelihood. To me, an American, I see pictures of my troops, holding little children, giving them candy, fighting for our country. Now to me, an informed American, who put myself in the Middle Easterners shoes, I see my troops, holding children who should not be involved in this war at all, giving kids candy as a sign of what, peace? Because they represent just the opposite in that country. How could I have been so blind after so many years? Of course they are going to hate us and judge our country. So few people were involved in the attacks yet the whole entire race gets a bad name.

Part 1
I remember September 11th all too well. I remember the hurt and agony on my mother’s face, the tears my friends cried because their parents worked in New York City, and the fact that I really didn’t know what was going on; why had this happened to our innocent people. All I knew was it had to be bad, and I hated terrorists for what they did to our country. From that stemmed war in Iraq, so if we were fighting those people, then surely it was because of things they did wrong, because of the hurt they caused America. I was so brainwashed by others, and never really stopped to look at it in any other light. I never really questioned the oil aspect, but then again I never really questioned any aspect of the war. I just thought if our, strong, smart country was fighting, it must be right, and I support it. Did we ever think to look in the mirror?

Sam and Laurie’s lecture yesterday was one that really made a lot of people including myself open our eyes to the world we are being conditioned to live in. The first time I saw this question posted above, my immediate answer was that I learned more about males (the opposite sex). But as I began to write, I realized that was not true at all. Of course I got some much needed insight into the male perspective. Men are ready to go in 5 seconds, something I have mostly figured out, and they are very unaware of women’s needs, something else I mostly have seen. Something striking though was the use of the word “needy” and how differently it was taken when used towards women versus men.
Looking deeper though, I realized I may just have learned even more about the female world. Laurie’s statement about being rigid and uninterested because she wasn’t as into sex as she used to be is something I’ve heard and seen so often in the real world and on TV. It was even something I thought was wrong, not normal, and meant bad things about the woman as a person. I was So wrong. Not only are males and society brainwashing us but even the programs we watch every day. As soon as a woman doesn’t want to have sex anymore, she is either cheating or useless. What an unfair understatement. For the first time, Laurie and Sam enabled me to see the light. No we are not haggard, old, rigid, bitches; we are just normal women who have different desires than men. Just because our desires are different does NOT mean they are wrong. We have just been conditioned to believe so. Wow. Crazy.
Something else from lecture that struck me was the “dress code.” Before I got to Penn State, I never saw girls wearing the kind of outfits girls here wear. I did not even own any of those clothes; and when I went and bought them, I thought I wanted to. I wanted to look like I had the confidence those girls had along with the sex appeal. Cold? No, I’m not cold, it keeps me from getting too hot on the walk there. HAH. WHAT HAVE WE BEEN TELLING OURSELVES? I do not want that kind of attention. What made me think I did? Everyone else who was receiving it who seemed happy? I realize now the joke is on us as girls. Why should guys be able to wear whatever they want, and we have to be cold, in heels, showing too much skin; for the attention because guys give attention to girls in high heels, short skirts, and low cut shirts? Well no thank you. From now on I will wear a skirt when I want to, where heels when I feel like dancing in them, and I will do my life for me. So in the end, I’d have to say the insight on my on sex, was the most influential on me. Thank you Sam and Laurie.