I think this is a not well thought out statement that justifies our right to be on this land because of Darwinism. Our ancestors were obviously irrational and anybody with the mindset that we can take this land because we are capable of doing it is selfish. If Mexicans started coming into California or Texas and killing off people, claiming their houses, I'm sure Texans wouldn't be saying "survival of the fittest." It is not how people should be operating. Also, we do not just raid countries because we are capable of taking their land and increasing our power. These people resemble our ancestors who immigrated here very closely, and the treatment they receive from the people in our country is violent and disgusting. Apparently, there is benefits along with negatives of having immigrants and we cannot necessarily allow our population to double, but they are people too. Most immigrants are honest, hardworking, and compassionate. It saddens me to see people rant about them and rallies which would like to resort to violent resolutions to deal with this issue. There will never be an end to a flow of immigrants and it is not a black and white issue. I don't think there will ever be a solution to the problem but we cannot categorize immigrants all as bad and be close minded to the benefits they bring.

I enjoyed both of these videos very much. The first video takes a look at a man who has compassion for other people that he does not necessarily know. This is almost impossible to find today as we have so many prejudices and stereotypes against others. Most people operate in a selfish way, worried about their prerogative. It is nice to see that some people still think and consider others without even knowing them very well. Just imagined if this was not a rare story and that people decided to act this way all of the time. It is sad to think of how we continually teach our children to be wary of those around us and never so much to be compassionate and help others. This man truly is an inspiration and one day I hope that this won't just be a special report but a common occurrence in our country. Even her initial reaction shows the mindset of our country as she says "what is he crazy? I barely know him." In the end, she realizes he is just a saint.
The second video is also very heartwarming and shows us that there is a lot to learn from children and that sometimes we should think in a simpler manner. Especially in Asia, but very prevalent here in the US, there is prejudice against inter racial couples. If we just take a look at children we would realize this is immoral and unethical. Human beings are all one in the same and to judge another because of their race, culture, or religion should not be accepted. This is a very powerful message, and the deliverance by children makes it even more touching. Kids are free of stigmas of society and they think simply and passionately. It is very heartwarming to see these two kids, free from bias and racial based thinking. Sometimes adults should learn to operate in more of the same manner and stop worrying so much about insignificant things that can ruin relations between family and loved ones.

It is only he that truly knows if he feels this deep compassion. We can only look at it and form our own opinion from our perspective. Still, who are we to say if its genuine or not. We judge so greatly because of the circumstances that he is under when we don't truly know his thoughts or feelings. Outside of prison we are often less compassionate than this man is, and maybe that's why we have a hard time believing if its genuine or not.

I really appreciate this letter and find everything this man says to be true. I think that lifer's are very capable of being enlightened people. He is obviously a very eloquent person and he received all of his knowledge through reflection. Being alone with other lifers every single day must have a powerful effect on the mind.
From the outside, we group all prisoners into one mesh of people and can immediately picture 100 images of violence, in most cases. I have never been to a prison so my only knowledge of them comes from television, especially shows like gangland or taboo. These are all negative depictions of prison, where we actually have no idea how they truly live and think. This is ethnocentrism right in our own country. We judge people immediately when we here of what they have done in the past, even if this occurred years and years before. It is hard to fathom committing a murder, but no one knows the circumstances of why he did it. I don't think it is right that he is condemned to live the rest of his life in this place when he is one of the most compassionate and peaceful sounding people I know.
Before coming into this class i didn't know anything about the death penalty. I just agreed with it because of the negative portrayal of inmates and lifers that I have seen on so many occasions. I couldn't imagine committing heinous crimes and therefore thought those that did should be punished. In reality the death penalty is very severe and reminds me of ancient law like an eye for an eye. Maybe in some cases the death penalty is correctly implemented, but most of the time it could be placed on a man who has repented. For this reason I think prisoners should be evaluated and never sentenced to life without parole. This man writing to us would definitely be eligible for freedom, in my opinion, if they created a new system.
I think this man should be released because of his repentance and understanding of the world around him. He feels compassion for other human beings when we feel suffering and this is something rare to find outside of prison walls. He understands that humans are suffering, we all have issues and problems and are comforted when we have another person there to help. In a way, I think he has found a peace in which he can live happily while everyone else is confronted by everyday stresses and struggles. The things that we worry about day to day become irrelevant, especially to a man who has to accept he will be living behind prison walls for the rest of his life. I have been trying to live a more peaceful life, like him, where i am indifferent to every day stress and see the bigger picture. I think this is something Sam has done as he often says how he is never offended, and most things don't matter as one day we're all going to die. Maybe this man in prison has come to the same realization, especially since he will die inside of those prison walls.
Reading this has really made me think. I don't quite fully know yet but I feel some kind of way about this.

So you're justifying our right to be there because we won't be strong without the oil we get there? How do you know it is benefiting us directly and not just the oil companies-and those who are invested in them? Also in this country we have freedom of religion and freedom of speech. True religion has its benefits but look at the problems it is involved with at the same time. You don't have to be the same religion as your parents either. It is not fair to be forced into certain practices if that is not what YOU believe. I was brought up Christian. Personally, I don't believe in any religion, and if I would believe in one I would probably pick Buddhism as it does not have a god and is geared towards peace, happiness and having strong morals. Maybe you need to open up your mind a little. I'm sure Sam does not intend to offend anyone, yet you are offended and coincidentally disagree with all the points he makes. If you have ever pictured a terrorist when you think Muslim or Arab, then it is possible that maybe they would categorize American terrorists as Christians.

At first watching this I was slightly mad as he insulted the system in which I just completed coming into college. Who is he to say that I am conforming by being here and I am not capable of creative thinking? But after some thought I kind of agreed with him- in some aspects. I agree with him that school trains us from a young age. We come to class, listen to every instruction, which are often tedious and time wasting, and we do our work if we wish to receive the grade and then head home. At home we complete our assignments if we want to conform or if our parents force us to and then its a continuous cycle. I can see from his point of view. I have to disagree though, that this system shuns free thinking.

Although when you are younger, it is basically just following steps and instructions, I think school teaches abilities to learn first and then progressively enhances the material. At a certain point, somewhere in middle school or so, teachers start to say "I want you to be creative with this; Think for yourself; formulate your opinions; or what do you think of this topic?" Students begin to realize their interests and although many assignments- or most assignments- can seem dull and uninteresting, there are certain things that spark interest and get the gears turning. I know that when I began to think more freely, I started to become interested by certain subjects- like history and sociology. I encountered things that made me want to research further. Religion was challenged in my sociology class, for the first time ever in a school setting, and I was interested as I was brought to church every Sunday for the first 17 years of my life. Still, throughout high school I was uninterested with the majority of the topics and tasks I was presented with. In English I dreaded the readings and procrastinated writing papers, and worked only to achieve a satisfactory grade.

Now I am here at penn state in engineering, because it is heavy in math and physics, and that is what I'm good at. Now i still feel slightly conformist as the grading system relies heavily on examinations. I study slightly until a week up to my exam and cram for an A. I also have classes like race relations, though, where I really open my mind during lecture. I sit there without a pencil or piece of paper and just absorb the information. Information that, in most cases, has never crossed my mind. I find that many of the things I thought I might have an idea about were mostly misconceptions. There are billions of point of views in the world and I only see one of them.

So on one hand, I can see where school leads to conformity and the lack of free thinking. On the other hand, since I've become older I have seen a different side to education, where I really get interested in thinking outside of the box. I think what it comes down to is the individual and their interests. Are we intrigued by what we learn? or are we just conforming to this society and monetary desires- the "American Dream", where we lack an ability to question our authorities. I think we all need a certain amount of education where we can think freely and for ourselves. It is only my first year in college and I am excited now to continue my education and hopefully encounter more challenges as I have this year. Because of this reason, I cannot say that I completely agree with Noam Chomsky and that there is benefit to receiving an education and coming to college, where real learning can happen.

You misinterpreted Sam. We, in America, know it is not a war fueled by religion. However, our media depicts the Muslims to be fueled by religion, even though they are the same as us. They have a predominant religion of Muslim, but only the radicals act out in violence. On the other hand, their media is the same as ours, and depicting our actions there as terrorism with a connection to the Christian religion as we are trying to "convert" them. It's a never ending battle.

After coming to lecture and reading this article I am absolutely infuriated by the "War of terror." This is a never ending battle in which the government has successfully blinded the majority of the population with help from the media. Why do we never hear the end of the happenings in Iraq? Because the government wants to constantly remind us of how much "terrorism" is going on there and we are doing the right thing. In reality, we are sticking are noses where they do not belong. We have no entitlement to be there, and although I support our troops I can no longer justify in my mind our activities over there. This is a war for oil. It has been said by important government officials and covered up by the same ones. In my new perspective on this, its just a giant lie fueling the greed of our government officials. No one can really do anything and the media successfully portrays the muslims as our enemies. What happened to the land of the free? Even muslims in our country are experiencing prejudice as people see them as a threat. This is ludicrous. They are people just like we are, with radicals on their side just as we have radicals here. Why do we think we are better than them? We have the same type of religious radicals doing the same acts that are depicted through the media.
Now lets look at it from their perspective. We invade their country with the reason to remove their countries leader from a position of power, which we already did. We said we were looking for weapons of mass destruction, which was a lie, none were found. We want to fight "terrorism", which is obviously a relative term. They are normal people, just like the people in our country. They all do not want to exterminate christians and americans. They have radical groups, and so do we, there is no difference. The more I think about it the more I am infuriated. If we had Iraqi soldiers invading our home towns for our RESOURCES, killing innocent people and government officials that they decide are evil, we would all be infuriated. There would be acts of defense that would be deemed as patriotic, not terroristic. This is absolutely ridiculous and there must be alternative motives by our government as they know exactly what they are doing. Our troops are being misused and we are wasting so much money on military forces, all for oil. Maybe it is profitable to our country, or maybe just to our leaders. Either way, the war can not be justified any longer and the damage is already done. If I lived in the middle east, I would hate Americans. If my family and friends were being harrased and murdered by the christian soldiers, I would see christians as evil too. Both our media and Iraqi media is taking everything our of perception, looking at the motives of one another as irrational, evil, and fueled by religion. Hopefully one day the truth can come out, and we can focus on real terrorism, which is acted by extremists and not the majority.

Sam's lecture was a very provocative one that obviously got a lot of wheels turning. Many people that disagree with his points don't want to open their minds to the reality of the world. They would rather live in a little bubble generated by our media and government. A lot of people are getting offended because they feel like sam is trying to make us feel like shit on a daily basis, and this could be an effect to some, but he is opening up our eyes to the reality of the world. Before this class I would say that I support the war and muslims want to destroy us so they aren't a group of people that can be trusted. Its funny how our media and government brainwashes us and lies to our people blatantly just for the promotion of their own greed. Ethnocentrism is so obvious when we see how our media portrays iraq to us and how their media portrays our country. Both parties focus on the negatives of the other so that they can justify the cause. Every time I hear "Middle East" I picture a shit hole with war, poverty, and soldiers trying to "help" the iraqi people. This is what our country wants us to see. In Iraq, on the other hand, they see extremist christians with guns and our leaders talking about oil. How do you think that makes them feel? They aren't helpless people like they are portrayed. They have normal people like us and our families, who look down on extremists just as we do. This class really is eye opening and changed a few perspectives for me. Although I think we may have helped in certain aspects, like removing a tyrant from power, it is blatant we are there for oil. Where do we get our entitlement from? If people were invading us for our resources you better believe there would be insurgencies and some major shit to pay. Its all so hypocritical and it is generated by ethnocentrism. They see christians as we see muslims, its obvious. For the most part we have a negative viewpoint and immediately picture terrorism when we think of muslims. Its easy to see why the people in iraq would see the soldiers as christian invaders. If you can't understand this simple proposition, then you may be unable to see the truth or you just buy in to the bullshit spewed by the media and government. This argument is not saying that our country is christian and we are trying to exterminate others, it is looking at it from a neutral position, from the other side. That is the whole point. Looking outside of the box, outside of what we are always showed and taught by others and formulating our own opinions.

I think foreign language education needs to be taken much more seriously. It is sad our country is so one sided while other countries stress english or being capable of speaking multiple languages. I have met many hispanic people who at least understand english and received a good education of the language, yet I know little spanish or french where I can understand further than an introduction. My ex girlfriend moved from columbia and she was well versed in english when I met her, one year after she moved to the states. She could also understand very well and picked up speaking quickly. To me, this was very surprising. I would have assumed that education from her school would be different, or at a lesser degree than schools in the states. Yet in my high school I had taken 5 years of french under poor teachers and can't speak passed bonjour. This is very frustrating to look back and know I wasted those years when under good instruction I may have learned a lot in that timespan. My high school's foreign language department is simply a joke and new regulations should be implemented where kids can actually learn. I don't understand why the math department was up to par and I learned calculus, yet after 5 years of study I don't remember 10 french words. I feel as though many foreign students know or have a background in english to the point where they can understand me. When it comes to teaching mandarin or other Asian languages I think this would be a very difficult task to implement an effective program for such languages. These are much more difficult than the previously offered courses, which I feel already have bad reputations for being poorly taught in our country. College always offers rigorous programs intended to make us learn, or provide a better environment and course schedule for the learning of languages. I do think it is a good start to offer these courses in high school for those that can offer a good program and spark interests to further pursue studies at a university. I think foreign language should be stressed more in high school as it is becoming very important in our diverse culture. When it comes to attaining a good job in the future it is also impertinent. I wish I was offered a wider variety of languages and better programs for learning these languages.