Well said GreekForHire. I agree with everything that you said. Do you ever notice that the people who dislike this class the most are the ones who do not understand what Sam is trying to convey? Overall for this class, I don’t think that Sam has showed a strong opinion towards one side of a debate. His point is not to get students to think in a certain way but to get them to think, period. In a class like this you get out of it what you put in. Sure any knucklehead could go to class a read the paper or listen to their iPod and say “oh I hate this class”. Those people are not learning anything though. Since this class is not based on specific facts, you really have to think and pay attention to get the point from what Sam is trying to say. You need to be open-minded and willing to think outside the box, or put yourself in someone else’s shoes.
I really liked the slide show Sam put up at the end of class. It showed how are religions are very similar. He showed pictures of families and friends just hanging out. Sure they definitely looked different, dressed different and probably talk different. That is always going to be the case in this world due to our differences in culture. But what I think this showed is how similar we all are in this world. We all want to be happy, live a successful life and help others out along the way. When you think about it, deep down we aren’t that different at all…
I think the solution to many problems in this world is communication. This is a perfect example of how poor communication leads to misunderstanding and eventually a lot of deaths of war. I think that American and Arab Muslims just need to be educated on the truth of each other’s culture and religion and most of our problems would go away. Now Sam is doing a great job of pointing this out to the students of our class but it needs to spread out. Just like the race issue discussions, this needs to be talked about among a lot more people. The same needs to be done among the Arab Muslims. Sometime I feel as though this class shouldn’t be a class at all, but a required course for all Americans to take.
From my perspective, Osama Bin Laden was always just another Muslim guy. He was probably pretty similar to all the other people in his country. Now I realize just how different he is. I loved how Sam told us to pretend we were Arab Muslims. Then he showed us some example of what Muslim people see of Christians. All the examples he showed us made me think of Christians in a very negative way. It appeared as though the “Christian Invaders” were actually real. He showed us a few example videos like one of Sarah Palin and one of kids at a summer bible camp. The way in which these videos would appear to Arab Muslims is extremely misrepresentative of Christians. If I were an Arab Muslim I could definitely see myself joining the insurgents. It appears as though Americans are trying to take over my land and force their religion upon me. How could I not dislike this? Unfortunately, there are probably a lot of people that join the insurgents because they think this, even though it’s completely false. I’m not saying that I agree with those people, but I understand. I understand how they feel and can put myself in their shoes. I think that is the first step in solving this war.
I think that this was definitely one of the best classes of the semester. I was the typical American guy who didn’t understand the Muslim religion. I didn’t think that all Muslims wanted to kill and terrorize us but I thought that they were pretty similar. After this class though, I really understand the difference.
This is an interesting topic you bring up. You said that you think that you probably have a better chance of affecting the world in a much greater way than people in a developing nation and I would agree with you 100%. It has nothing to do with the comparison of you to one of them. It’s the fact that you are most likely in a much more powerful and influential position than they are. You have much more money and a higher level of education than they do. Now if those two things were equal amongst you, I have no idea who would have the better chance of affecting the world. What you have is a greater opportunity than a person is a developing country.
I’m glad you shared this with us. I think that many people, including myself thought that most people of the Muslim faith were all the same. Through this last class however, I realize how different these people really are. It opened up a whole new box for me. I feel as though now I really understand that there is a huge difference. The thing that pushed me over the edge was when Sam told us to pretend that we were Muslims. He showed us videos of Christian Americans that were extremely misrepresentative of that group of people. That is exactly what I am like towards Muslims. I’ve only ever gotten bits and pieces of information. I never really knew how different Muslims could be from each other. Now I see how much we don’t understand each other because of a few people extremely misrepresenting Christianity or Islam.
This is a good question. In class I think that Sam shares a lot of fun stories and shares some very interesting facts with us. None of this has changed my opinion. More importantly, it has helped me develop a stronger opinion on different issues. In class, I don't think Sam is trying to change our opinion, he has said that before. This class has also opened my eyes to racial issues. I've never talked or even thought about race this much. I feel like this class is great and all Penn State students should take it. Yea we are not necessarily learning many facts but we are learning about people and developing opinions which I think is very important.
I completely agree with what you are saying. Affirmative action can put unqualified people in places they should not be. I think that when dealing with affirmative action, you have to be very careful to not allow this to happen. If it does happen, it’s reverse discrimination and is just as bad as what affirmative action tries to eliminate. I only see a problem with nepotism to a certain degree. I definitely don’t think that very unqualified people should be given something just because of family ties. However, a common theme for people is that they want to work hard to provide their children with a better life. I think that if someone works really hard throughout their life, they should be able to let their kids benefit. Obviously, only to a certain extent.
People need to have the ability to step out of their own shoes and see the world as a whole. I think Sam Richards does a really good job of this. When talking about issues, he doesn’t describe situations from his perspective but thinks about them in more of a general sense. This is the best way to make any decision, especially when talking about what is good for a group as a whole. However, in certain situations I think that it doesn’t take people’s emotions into consideration. Some girls feel shy and maybe embarrassed to talk about “bleeding” and that is why most women don’t like to talk about the issue.
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