Although I did not attend Tuesday’s lecture and missed what Sam had to say about the war, the topic was discussed though the entirety of my discussion group. My overall opinion of the war did not really change; however, what was being said in the discussions made me think a lot of what my opinions on the war were. Previously, I have spent very little thinking about the war and whether the United States military should be there or not. Also, I never really put any though about why United States declared war on Iraqi and what we wanted to solve by going to war. I heard in class that Sam was pretty vocal about the war being solely about oil. I do know if I completely agree with this; I’m sure that oil was involved in some way, but I also think that there had to have been other factors. I remember at the start of the war, the media portrayed it as a war to stop an oppressive dictator, who possibly had weapons of mass destruction. I’m sure exactly when the opinions of people went from a war against Saddam Hussein, to a war to gain oil. I highly doubt that the United States declared war just to overthrow an oppressive dictator; however when there are a dozen other dictators in the world who are just as bad as Saddam Hussein was. I think the United States definitely had another agenda and used that as a cover. But I have some blind faith in my government and I would like to think that for whatever reasons we are at war for Iraq, it is to benefit the citizens of the United States and the world as I whole. I know that that is a pretty naïve statement, but I would like to trust my government to do the right thing, and no matter what I will always support our troops. I also heard that Sam made a comparison of “what if China came to the United States to steal our coal”. How would the United States citizens feel? I feel that this is an unfair example, because I do not feel like we are stealing their oil. Since the war, the oil prices have done nothing but go up and if we were stealing oil from the Middle East wouldn’t the prices of oil decrease? Obviously I would be outraged if China would invade the United States for coal; however I really do not think this applies to what is happening in the Middle East. I do have sympathy for the Iraqi citizens though. I feel like they are stuck in the middle of the war between the United States and the Taliban.

I think that the riots would still have happened without Facebook, Twitter, and other social media websites. There have been riots at Penn State in the past before social media websites existed, or were very popular. If these riots still broke out without social media influence, then the riot that happened last week definitely could have happened without social media websites. After news broke out about Joe Pa being fired, and how the Board of Trusses went about firing him, I saw many people running to Old Main and forming a crowd. Since it is a college campus and thousands of people live close together, many people could hear the commotion and went to see what was happening and got involved with the riot. A majority of the student body lives on campus or the downtown area, so most people involved in the riot could probably hear it from their apartments and dorms. I remember last year when Penn State students were rioting over Osama Bin Ladan getting killed, I could here the shouts from my dorm in Pollock and the students were all the way downtown on Beaver. A lot of people could hear the commotion and went downtown to see what was going on. I think that most students at Penn State could definitely tell a riot was going on without checking their Twitters and Facebooks.
Social media definitely could have helped with the amount of people at the riot, however. There’s students that go to Penn State that are a short drive away from campus and these students could have heard about it through social media., then decided to check it out. People I know who go to the Penn State Altoona branch campus even showed up for the riot. These students may have heard about the riot from social media as well. However, even the people that showed up to the riot that do not live very close probably heard about it through text messages and phone calls from their friends. A lot of my friends and I got texts from other people around the time of the riot telling us what was going on. I definitely think that text messages notified a lot more people of the riot than social media.
In conclusion, the riot most likely would have been just as large without the influence of social media. I think that social media played a very little role in the cause of the riot. I think the main cause of people getting involved and hearing about it came through being close enough to see and hear others rioting, and phone calls and text messages from friends. I think that a very small percentage of the rioters actually heard about the riot through a social media website.

The recent events that have happened has affected me as a Penn State student in many ways. The most noticeable way it has affected me is that it is the topic of almost every conversation I have. All my family and friends from home want to know what is going on a Penn State and try to talk to me about it. This is very frustrating because I can only talk about it so much. I am so sick of talking to people about the scandal and the riots. I find myself having the same conversation with different people everyday. I am also especially annoyed at seeing all the Facebook statuses that have to do with Penn State by students who do not go here. Everyone is so quick to criticize Penn State even the people that do not know all the details of what is going on. People try to associate Penn State students with child molesters and I think this is so disrespectful. I do not think the actions of one man should reflect on the actions of an entire university. I am very offended seeing people's statues and tweets calling Penn State “Ped State university”. Another noticeable impact it has had on me is the riots. Everyone who lives around downtown state college has been impacted by the riot in some way. During the riot I went down to witness what was going on and actually got pepper sprayed for just standing around watching. This experience was definitely not pleasant. As a whole the riots definitely did not make the Penn State students look good because some went as far as to flip a van and tare down light posts. I am very disappointed that Penn State has this image because some students decided to take things too far. I am also outraged that some people think that the students were rioting in support of child abuse. I think it should be clear to everyone that the riots were because we lost our beloved coach. I'm sure no students at Penn State condone child abuse. The whole vibe at State College right now is very unpleasant because the recent events are on everyones mind. As a huge Penn State football fan I am very upset with the decision to fire Joe Pa. He has done so much for the school I can not believe that they would fire him over the phone. I think it is so disrespectful. The least they could do would be let him finish off the season. I am very excited to attend tomorrow's game and see everyone's support for Penn State football. I know I'm going to be cheering extra load because of the recent events that have happened.

I don’t necessarily believe that immigrants should be forced to learn English is they wish to become part of this country; however, in order to function and earn a living in the United States, all immigrants will need to be able to speak at least some English. If I were to want to move China, I would first make sure I learned enough of the language to be able to get by; such as how to order food, ask for directions, and how to buy things at a store. I would not be able to just pick up and move to another country without learning to communicate to those of that country. I think that it would not be very intelligent for someone to move to the United States and not plan on picking up the language. You would not be able to survive in another culture without being able to communicate to the people in that culture.
There are some parts of the United States; however, where a person could probably get by without learning any English. Places like San Diego and Miami have a high Hispanic population, so someone could probably be able to function in society without knowing much English. A Chinese person could probably immigrate to a China town and be able to function. However, it would still clearly be for their benefit to learn some English in case they want to travel or find them selves in a predominantly English part of town. Besides these few exceptions, I do not think it would be possible for someone to be able to survive in the United States without learning English.
If an immigrant wants to find work in America; however, I would think it would be incredibly difficult to find a job without knowing English. Almost all jobs consist of communicating to others and it would be incredibly difficult to work most jobs in America without being able to speak English. The only scenario I can really think of where a person would be okay without knowing any English would be if a family immigrated to America and the husband worked (and learned English) and the wife was a stay at home mom and did not need to work. The wife would be able to function without knowing any English; however, the husband would probably need to take of the shopping and things of that nature.
In conclusion, I do not think anyone should be forced to learn English if they are immigrating. However, in order to adapt to the United States lifestyle, it would be almost impossible for an immigrant to function without learning English. Therefore, I think it would be a good suggestion for all immigrants to learn English, although if they insist on moving to the country without trying to learn its language, I don’t think they should be stopped.

This article really got me thinking and I honestly have no idea where I stand on the point. Part of me thinks its fine if a club wants to exclude certain people and part of me thinks it is not okay. It really depends on the reason why the person wants to join the club. One thing mentioned in the article was to exclude people based on their political views. If you have a club on campus that is for Republicans, should they allow Democrats to join? This is a hard question because what if a die- hard Democrat wants to join the club just to put down the views of the Republicans and cause trouble? This would not be productive for the club and I think they have the right to not allow this person to join the club and waste their time. However, what if a Democrat wanted to join the club just to get to know the views of Republicans better and try to get a better sense of what of what they believe in. I think that this person has every right to join the club and should not be excluded just because they have different viewpoints, as long as they are respectful of other’s opinions. The same thing can be said for religious clubs. If a Catholic wants to join a Muslim club just to mock their beliefs, they clearly should not be allowed to join. However, if they just want to experience the Muslim culture and get to know people of different backgrounds than I think its fine if they join the club.
Another thing the article mentioned would be Catholic clubs denying access to homosexuals. I think this is wrong and do not think a club should ever deny someone excess based on their sexual orientation. I think that the law should have a clause in it that says that sexual orientation cannot be one of the factors that allow someone to be denied. If there is a group of die hard Catholics that believe being gay is a sin than I doubt any homosexual would even want to belong to that group. I also think that clubs should not be allowed to discriminate based on race.
In conclusion, I think I am leaning towards, university funded clubs should not be allowed to deny access to others. I think that if someone from a different background joins the club and is causing trouble, the club should be allowed to kick them out, if what they are doing is going against the goals of the club. If think that if university funded clubs are allowed to deny members it should only be based off of political and religious viewpoints, and definitely not sexual orientation or race.

In all honesty I have no idea what stage I would consider myself in. I would like to think that I am around stage five because I feel as though I am accepting of people of other races; however, I am more comfortable around people of the same race as me. I have friends from other races and would never not talk to or befriend anyone based on their race or color. I would like to think of myself as a very accepting person. However, most of my friends of different races have similar interests as me and mostly hang out with white people. I do not think I’ve really associated with many people who really embrace their race and hang out with predominantly other members of their race. I grew up in a white community with very little diversity, so before coming to Penn State, I had very little experience of being around people of different race. I have to admit that I would most likely feel a little uncomfortable and awkward if I was in a situation in which I was around only people with other races than my own. I also know that in social settings when I am around people of different races I am more inclined to interact with other white then. An example of this would be at my summer job, I had an almost equal number of white and African American coworkers. I found that I socialized with my white coworkers more often then I did with the African American ones and by the end of the summer, my better friends at work were other white people. So because of this, I guess the stage I am in would be somewhere between two and five.
I think that I am most likely in a similar stage as my close friends and family. Both my parents are from white neighborhoods, live in a white neighborhood, and work jobs in which a majority of the workers are white. Therefore, my family as a whole, has not experienced many people of other races, although my dad has traveled to a few foreign countries, so therefore he is a little more racially diverse then the rest of my family. However, none of my family is blatantly racist and overall pretty accepting of people of other races and cultures in the rare occasions when we interact with them. My friends are pretty much the same as me; they grew up in the same place I grew up so they mainly interact with white people. So, like me, it is hard to put my friends and family in a certain stage. They, like me, would fall somewhere between stages two and five.

I found the article on happiness to be quite interesting. Although I agree with most of the article, there are some points that I disagree with. The article definitely made me think however. I thought reason number five was very interesting in that the definition of happiness has been changed throughout time. I was unaware of this, although I’m sure that people living in ancient times felt the emotion that we now describe as “happiness” at some points during their lives. Reason number four really made me think and I completely agree with it. If someone has a lot of wealth and other things that make people feel happy, then they grow accustomed to it and they need other things to make them feel happy and little things can make them feel upset if they are used to being happy. The same is true for people that do not have much, or are put under circumstances that make people unhappy. They grow accustomed to their conditions and it would take a lot less to make them feel happy then some who is better off. I also really agree with example number three. Looking back on when I was a kid, I would always look forward to going on vacations with my family so much. Although I enjoyed the vacations and had a good time, I was probably happier when I was anticipating them. It was like nothing could get me in a bad mood because I knew soon I would be on vacation and having a good time. I also think that in general money can’t buy happiness because the more you own the more you want. It is a never ending cycle. Example number two is probably the one I agree with the most. I feel having so many choices in so many matters is the main cause of stress in my life. Right now I’m am stressed with the decision of what field of engineering to pursue and I need to make the decision soon so I can pick my classes for next semester. There are also so many different classes to choice from and that is stressing because I’m afraid I’ll pick one that will be difficult and lower my grade point average. Being plagued with all these choices is definitely lowering my happiness at this point in my life. Example number I both disagree and agree with. I don’t think it’s bad for people to have happiness as their goal. However, I think that it is bad if they are only concentrating on having a happy mood. I think that their goal should be doing things that will make them happy and then happiness will come. I don’t think some should concentrate on actually being happy or not, they should just be out trying to improve their life and then they will become happy.

If one the first day of school my roommate told me he was gay I do not know how I would react. I would like to think that I would be fine with it and still accept him; however, I doubt I would. I don’t think I would try to switch rooms or anything; however, I would probably treat him a little different. I doubt I would try to make an effort to be friends with him and get to know him like I would a straight roommate. I definitely wouldn’t be mean to him or ignore him or anything; I just wouldn’t go out of my way to hang out with him. I also think I would be more careful getting dressed around him because I would be afraid he would be looking or something. There would definitely be things I would be concerned about that I wouldn’t have to be with a straight roommate. I would also feel very awkward being in the room if he had any of his gay friends over. I would hate to walk in the room and see him kissing a guy or something like that. It would make me feel very uncomfortable. I feel like I would spend a lot less time in my dorm if my roommate was gay and probably be hanging out in other people’s dorms more often.
If my roommate told me halfway through the semester that he was gay, it is really hard to tell how I would react. It really depends on how my relationship with him was. If he was the type of roommate that I would only talk to occasionally and never really hang out with I probably wouldn’t care that much. I feel like with most people who turn out to be gay you can kind of tell even when they’re in the closet that they are gay even before they come out. So I expect that in most cases it wouldn’t come as a shock to me anyway. I would most likely act how I would if he told me he was gay on the first day. However, if me and him were pretty good friends and would hang out a lot, I’m not really sure how I would react. I would definitely be accepting and still try to be his friend; however, I might feel a little awkward around him. I’ve had a couple of friends from middle school come out in high school and after they came out me and them weren’t as good of friends afterwards. I’m still friendly with them I just hang out with them a lot less. I feel like it would be a similar situation if my roommate turned out to be gay even if we were friends.

At first I found the video of the bike thieves to be very funny. I thought it was hilarious that the general public thought that the white kid was just trying to cut the chain on his own bike and that the black was trying to steal it. I thought it was extremely funny that all the men would offer the girl help even when they knew she was trying to steal. It was also entertaining that the only person to call the police on her was an unattractive woman who was probably jealous of her good looks. Once I thought about it some more however; I thought it was slightly disturbing. I was not disturbed that men would help the attractive girl steal the bike but I thought it was very disturbing how differently the white and black kid were treated. I do not think a black kid would be anymore likely to steal a bike then a white kid. I know tons of white kids that steal, and I know not all black kids steal and that it is just a stereotype. The amount of stereotyping that is still done in this society is embarrassing. Many people would like to think we’ve outgrown this way of thinking but it is clear from the video that we haven’t. I also think the results of the video were a little biased though. Almost everyone walking in the park was white so it was clear it was done in a white community. There is probably very few black families that live around there so that may be a cause for the stereotype. I think if it had been done in a predominantly black neighborhood the results would have been different. I also think they would have been different if the neighborhood was predominantly Hispanic or one of mixed races. I also think the image of the boys could of had something to do with the reactions they received. The way the black was dressed made him look a little “gangster” which would have been the reason he got some of the reactions. If I had been one of the pedestrians in the video I do not think I would react to any of the bike thieves. I would just assume whoever it was that it was their bike and they were having a problem with the lock. At least I would like to believe that’s what I would think. However, even if I did suspect the black kid or even the white kid to be stealing the bike I would not react. I personally wouldn’t really care or think its any of business to try to stop them and let someone else do it.

After reading the description of the project, I am very excited to take part in it. I had no idea that Haiti was that poor. Also, I was unaware of the natural disaster that took place and killed so many people. I think it is horrible that a nation that already had so little got struck with an earthquake that wiped out so much of the country. When I first heard about this project I was a little confused about it but after reading more about it I think it sounds very interesting. I have never participated in a project remotely similar to this before, and I am looking forward to the experience. As an engineering major, I am used to only working on projects based on math and physics, so it’ll be nice to be able to do something new. I think it is a great idea to have the whole sociology class working at doing something that will make a difference to someone in Haiti. I’m hoping many people will benefit from the effort of the students. I also hope that through my own efforts, someone will be benefited in Haiti. I plan on working very hard at this project because I really want to make a difference. I thought it was pretty cool that throughout the description of the project the word “do” is in capital letters. Sam really emphasizes that he wants us to actually take action and not just talk about ways to help Haiti.

I watched the video on Sonia and I’m really surprised at how she is able to operate a business with just one sewing machine. You can see by the video how different Haitian business are from Americana businesses. You would never come across someone in America able to make a living operating in a tiny room with just a sewing machine. A thought that came to my mind watching this video was just how much Sonia relies on her sewing machine. If it were to break she would not be able to make bags anymore and not be able to provide for her family. I also watched the video of Suze Fleuriza. She has a business making and selling candied peanuts. I thought that was very cool and unique. I was very surprised when I heard that she needs to travel two hours every three days for her supplies. If she could find a more efficient way to get her material, her business would probably be more prosperous. The final video I watched was of Madame Lamour and her flower bouquets. Her business reminded me a lot of Sonia’s because it is in a little square white room. You can tell from the videos just how impoverished Haiti is.