This video just goes to show that even in the devastation and poverty that these people are facing, they can come together. It's crazy to think that people in Haiti are just living in those tents, and will probably be living in them for years and years to come. Building Haiti back up is going to be a very long process, but even in the horrific conditions, at least in the video they seem to be in pretty good spirits (given their circumstance of course.) After the lecture on Tuesday, I was trying to think about how Americans would be acting if something like this (300,000 people dying) happened in our country. It's so scary to think about. The lecture on Tuesday and this video has really opened my eyes. I also just want to add that I thought it was nice to hear that we, as students, CAN help in some way. I know after the earthquake, the word was that only doctors etc could help. But the lecture gave some really good insight on what would help their economy and the country and what would not.

I really enjoyed reading this "lifers" letter. In his case in particular it's just showing that sometimes good people can do bad things. I'm not sure if this guy is putting on a show, or if he actually has changed, but regardless of his situation, it does make you think. At the same time though, I can't help but think about the family of the person that he murdered. Even if they have reconciled, that doesn't bring back the loved one that he murdered.

This really hits home with me because a family friend of mine was murdered this past summer. Two men that actually lived in his apartment complex and were acquaintances with him went into his apartment, stole from him and then shot him and his roommate. It took weeks to find the two men that killed the boys, but finally they were arrested and put in jail for life. My older brother's girlfriend of eight years, who is a sister to me, was especially devastated by this because one of the men murdered was her older brother. Because both of our families are so close, I got to see first hand the impact this had on them, and of course I had such strong feelings myself. You go through so many stages of anger and sadness with something as horrific as this. So as I think about this man's letter, I feel for him, and I'm happy that he seems to have changed, but at the same time, I still feel sick thinking about the person he murdered and their suffering loved ones. I don't know how I would feel if the murders of my friend wrote a letter like this years down the road. I probably would call "bullshit" on every word out of their mouth.

There are so many different angles to look at a situation like this. Another instance that hits home with me is with criminals and drugs. As I was reading in a previous post, you get burned so many times by someone before it's like your trust is gone for humanity. For the sake of the family member I'm talking about, I won't go into too much detail but long story short, he was deceiving my family for years between being addicted to heroin, and prescription pills. After we found him at his worst and struggling for life, he went to rehab. This was his absolute rock bottom. And from that point on, he moved forward and hasn't looked back. I think sometimes it takes people to hit their rock bottom in order to move forward. Just when I thought I wouldn't be able to trust him anymore, he's surprised me, and even though his trust still isn't completely back with my family, we just take it one day at a time.

So I'm really split on the thought of being in prison for life. I think it is just a case by case basis. But there is no doubt in my mind that waking up behind bars for the rest of your life would be a horrible and gut-wrenching life to live each day. I wish there was some way to determine if a person would ever commit a crime again, and depending on what the results of that test are, they could be let out of jail or not....hmm wouldn't that be nice? Unfortunately it's not that easy, but I guess nothing is.

I’ve really contemplated how I should respond to this blog, because I’m split on how I’m feeling about what Sam said. I think that Sam made some really good points, as always, but I’m always left with some sort of feeling about what he’s saying, this lecture in particular. I liked the idea of putting ourselves in the shoes of the Iraqi people, and how they perceive us. I think that with this situation and pretty much every other situation in life, putting yourself in someone else’s shoes is an eye-opener. But at the same time, what does it really solve? I mean, you can do that with pretty much anything. For example, if Iraqi students were “put in our shoes” maybe they would realize “Oh, now I can see why someone wearing a hijab in an airport would raise some speculation.” I’m sorry if that was a bad example, but hopefully you get my point. It’s one of those things where our country has made some mistakes, but so has theirs.

I understand that they are facing horrific casualties and conditions in Iraq (thanks to that Jihad video that basically scared the shit out of me,) but I just don’t understand what people think WAR is. Obviously people are going to die. I personally wouldn’t want anyone to fighting in any war. I have friends who are in the Middle East as we speak, so even just thinking about that really hits home. And I’m really curious to know the reactions to the three-ish people that raised their hands when Sam asked if anyone was in the Army.

I don’t know much about our Army, but I do know that the vast majority are great people, like Sam said. It just sucks that all it takes is one power hungry dick to ruin it for everyone. It’s just like that one little asshole in elementary school that acted up in class so the WHOLE class was punished and we couldn’t have our Rice Kripsie treats that day. That’s how I felt the idea behind the videos of the Army guy running that Iraqi off the road and the other one running his tank over the car was. Like of course those are the videos that the Iraqi civilians are going to see, and of course we are going to see the little Iraqi kids armed with guns twice their size. That’s what the media does. And I wouldn’t be surprised if our government has a huge part in that.

I can understand how Iraqi civilians would associate Christians as the enemy, because that is all they hear, and see. I mean, why would their government show they pictures of our Army giving them lollipops and being kind to them? Their government wants their own country to be on their side. And we play that same game. Each government has their own motives, whatever they may be.

And with the same example, of that one bad kid ruining it for everyone, we have Sarah Palin and George Bush talking about God and crusaders like idiots. As far as I’m concerned, God has nothing to do with war. I mean you can pray to God for guidance, strength etc, but to say,” the war is a mission from God” or whatever she said, that is insane to me. We just throw religion around in the government like it’s nothing. I’m not particularly religious at all, and I don’t vote because I think everyone in the government is corrupt, but one thing I can say is that I believe that it’s time for this damn war to end.

I actually have talked about this a lot. I literally feel like there are some days where I leave this class just thinking.."what the heck." In the beginning of this semester I loved going to class, and listening to what Sam would TEACH. Toward the middle of the semester, I feel like Sam just got a little crazy and I really didn't learn much. I started coming to class solely to get a laugh out of what people would put on the screen with the texting questions. Sam is definitely an interesting professor and it has to be really difficult to keep 700+ students engaged, but I think he got off topic a lot. I think he needed to talk about the stuff that he puts on the test more, because I'm not gonna lie, when it came/comes time for studying for a test, I say to myself "uhhh, wait what have we learned..."

I just want to know what the hell goes through peoples' minds sometimes. "Hmm, I think that shooting people and stealing cars is getting a little bit old, why don't we start raping women and children. Sound good? Okay greattttt." Like seriously, what is this world coming to? What ever happened to the good ole' days of Mario Kart and Donkey Kong? To be honest, I think all of that anime and virtual world crap is really weird. I know some people are into all of the internet gaming things, but with all of that virtual gaming, there are some really sick pervs out there. I know Sam tried to kind of even the playing fields on this one by saying it could create an "outlet" for rapists out there, but no, there is no excuse for this. If there is anyone out there that enjoys playing this game, they are messed up, and deserves to be in jail. I know that this sort of stuff is protected under Ashcroft vs Free Speech Coalition (I just had a test on this in a Comm class), which it basically says that even though these games are depicting minors, technically no one is being harmed, so this sort of shit is protected in our Constitution. I think that is so horrible though. How can a game this demeaning be okay to make and distribute, or even PLAY?! One of my brothers is really into playing video games, and when I lived at home I used to love watching him play. But he played sports games or Grand Theft Auto. I don't know what I would do if I walked in on him and he was playing a game where he was raping some girl. I just can't even fit my head around this. I know that Japan is culturally different then the United States, but rape is rape, and I'm pretty sure it is unacceptable in any country you go to. I understand that it may happen more frequently in some places, but that isn't a reason to make a stupid video game about it. I think that people are trying so hard to make these video games realistic in a way that they are crossing the line in a BIGGGG way. I'm not saying that raping women and children like depicted in the game is realistic, but rape is a very real and scary thing. And to add onto that, so is killing, and stealing cars, etc. But just because those things are very real, doesn't mean we need a video game out of it. I think that video games and all of the internet gaming are getting way too developed for their own good. This video game is degrading, and offensive and if I see one of these games I literally will snap it in half and burn it.

I agree with the fact that using the word "Negro" can seem offensive to some people. And I'm almost positive that everyone's reaction to the word will be enough for the Census to exclude the word next year. Maybe it was one of those trial things that they were testing out, and at the least they learned something for next time. The fact of the matter is that using that word was a little uncalled for. I mean even if an African American (I'd assume an elder African American) classified themselves as "Negro," and that wasn't an option on the Census, but "African American" or "Black" was, I doubt they would be too confused. It's words and sayings like that that are just outdated, and I'm surprised that the people that created the Census agreed to put that on there. And while it might offend Black and African Americans, I think it confuses White people. I'm not gonna lie, when I saw the ballot, I was like "Umm wait, soooo is it okay to call someone negro now? Because I'm pretty sure that wasn't alright. Great, now I'm even more confused."

But on the other side of this argument, I kind of see this as just another way that Americans are complaining. It's like come on people, can we really not do anything anymore without people getting offended? That's what it seems like. I understand that many people have different ethnicities, but a Census should be pretty self explanatory. It's obvious that there isn't going to be a 1/2 Chinese, 1/4 African American, 1/4 Hispanic option or something like that but it's one of those things where it is at the discretion of the person filling out the sheet. And if it's difficult for the person to pick one bubble, it should also be an option to mark more than one, or fill out an "other" space. That way, this can be another way to judge for the next Census survey.

Basically it is impossible to please everyone in any aspect of any person's life, so the Census of course isn't any different. I think that using the word "Negro" was a slip up, but then again maybe if everyone's panties weren't in a bunch, it wouldn't have caused such an uproar.

As I was watching this video I got the chills. It was a great way to convey the message, and it was really shocking to me. Growing up, I had A LOT of Barbies and dolls. However, if I was at the store and I'd see a blonde white Barbie, an Asian Barbie, a Black Barbie, and a Brown haired white Barbie, I'd ALWAYS choose the brown haired Barbie because I have brown hair. That was the same with my American Girl doll too. I had the brown haired doll. I always thought that kids would just choose a doll or whatever that looked like themselves, because that's what I always did. This video obviously proves that wrong, and I'm not sure what to feel about it other than shocked.

I'm not gonna lie, I literally have no idea why we are STILL talking about this in class. Maybe I can understand if we just briefly touched on the topic, but talking about it in two class periods, like really? Although I do think it's ridiculous that we were talking about "bleeding" for so long in class, I think it's even more ridiculous that people started leaving. Maybe people really are that grossed out talking about periods. I mean I do think Sam crossed the line when he mentioned he would try to look in the toilet after his wife had her period. I guess I can't blame them, guys especially. I know whenever I'm around guys, and the slightest mention of periods or tampons comes up, they freak out. You'd think that by this time in life they would be mature enough to not get freaked out about it though.

When I'm around my girl friends I can literally talk about anything, and we pretty much don't censor much at all, so if one of us has our periods, we each know. It's not like we are talking about our periods to each other though because we love talking about it. The only time we talk about it is to complain about it, and the conversation usually goes something like, "I have my period, it sucks so much right now." So when Sam said "why don't women feel like they can talk about it?" I was thinking to myself, that I do feel like I can talk about it, I just wouldn't want to. Like why would I want to talk about something more than I have to. It makes me miserable and I feel like shit for a straight week. Why in the world would I want to have conversations about something like that?

I wouldn't want to bring it up to any guy because they personally don't know how it feels like and they wouldn't be able to relate. I'm sure guys talk about some gross stuff when they aren't around girls (some guys talk about that same gross stuff with girls around too now thinking about it.) But guys probably talk about their bodily functions with one another, and would sort of censor that if girls were around. That's how I think girls are with their periods. With that said, I think the situation is just fine the way it is. There are some things that should just stay between the girls, and talk that needs to stick with the guys.

My first reaction to this was that I thought it was really groundbreaking and pretty cool. I still think that it is interesting and all, but I have some concerns. First of all, I don't doubt that she can play football. But the amount of time that she's played and the intensity probably isn't the same as a male coach. And I'm interested to see how she is going to handle the locker room scenarios, as well as dealing with criticism from players. Being a football coach you have to be really tough and headstrong. I don't doubt that she will be able to do that, but I think that she's just going to have to work extra hard to prove herself. I do think it's a great break through though and I wish her the best.

I always knew that there were people out there making irrational and unethical decisions on a daily basis, but I had no idea how often it actually happens. It's amazing to me that something that one person might see as a common sense decision could be completely different from the next person. I actually had to read over this story twice just because I couldn't help but thinking "No frickin' way could they have done that!"

The fact that she would not be allowed to attend with her girlfriend and wearing a tuxedo is bad enough as it is. But going to the means of actually CANCELING the dance?! That is just ridiculous to me. It also is really interesting to think that these decisions were not made by just one person, but made by the entire School Board. So that means that a group of adults all came together and actually agreed that canceling the dance would be the best bet. Really? That is so scary to me. Those are the people that are supposed to be looking out for the students best interests and then they go and make these crazy decisions. They obviously didn't think about how Constance would be affected by this. She says "A bunch of kids at school are really going to hate me for this." I hope that her peers understand that she is doing the right thing and standing up for herself, and shouldn't be blamed for the dance being canceled at all.

This is just an all around unfair decision and I'm surprised it got as far as it did. You'd think that with all the improvements and how far we have come with accepting homosexuals that this wouldn't have happened. I guess this just proves that there are still some people that have a long way to go. With Constance's feelings put aside, which are definitely the most important, I have to wonder if the school even thought about the other students attending the school. I'm not sure how this Mississippi school's senior prom is, but I know my senior prom was something to look forward to all year long. Girls were buying their dresses months and months in advance, and a lot of time and energy went into the preparation of the dance. Instead of the school complying, the school board said that they were going to leave it up to "private citizens" to organize a dance. Wow, thanks school board. Because doing that makes everything better? That is just like the icing on the cake. I'm sure in addition to Constance and her family, the school is going to have to face very many angry students and parents. Not only is the School Board being unethical, but it seems to me that they are also dealing with some serious stupidity on their part.