If this letter itself is eye opening, I cannot imagine how incredibly more eye opening it would be to actually hang out with the lifers in prison for a while and get to know them for real. From the way this lifer speaks, I feel as though everybody in society should get a taste of being a lifer. The compassion he talks about in his letter is not seen around in the real world to this extent. It is more difficult for people who have not suffered to have compassion to the extent that those who have suffered. Unless we know what it is like to be in the shoes of somebody else, we cannot truly understand and feel true compassion for them. This is true for even some of the biggest disasters that strike the world. I wish these lifers could be let out. What is stopping our society to let them free except for the fact that society has them judged so incorrectly? We are all so quick to judge people, and it is completely natural and acceptable to an extent. Stereotyping helps our brains simplify the world to keep it organized and keep it from over thinking. However, I also feel that people who have genuinely changed and show remorse should be set free. Those of us outside the prison could learn so much about humanity and the ability to change from them. I have never visited a prison, but I think it would be such a surreal experience. There would be so many stereotypes and judgments broken and corrected. However, I do understand that not all of the lifers have changed and should be set free. Some people deserve to be locked up for life to keep the world safe. Moving on, I just told my roommates about this letter and told them how it is amazing to see that what we always assumed is actually not true. However, they would not believe me and simply refused to listen to the letter or read it. They said theres no such thing and that they are in prison for a reason. I asked them to open their minds, but they refused to do it in this case. It blows my mind when I hear this type of close-mindedness. I guess we all know and say that we cannot judge a book by its cover, but we all do it anyway. I feel as though visiting the prisoners would be a very cool experience. Maybe we should start having field trips from schools and try to spread the word. Then, maybe these prisoners would be set free if they deserve to be.

This issue really sucks, and it is a part of life. Some people can afford to work, and others cannot. Some people need to come here for a better life or go elsewhere, but they just do not have the resources to do so. I feel as though a lot of people’s lives are determined simply by luck and resources. It sort of goes with the idea of “survival of the fittest”. It is not fair, but not everybody can be on top or be successful and live comfortable lives. Otherwise there would be no variation and positions of power in the world.

I feel as though it is in human nature to react more to something personally touching to us rather than for others. My mom always tells me that I could have the best of friends, but nobody but my parents would be there for me until the very end no matter what. She tells me that others will care about you to an extent, but in the end, it comes down to my parents who will truly be there for me. I can see that applying for all of us. We feel for others deeply, but we cannot embrace their problems as our own very easily.

I think it is really cool that Sam made us see through the eyes of the Muslims living in Iraq. I got to see a different side of this war in Iraq. I understand that a part of the reason for the war has to do with oil, but I do not really know if it is all about the Christian invaders. I see that it has something to do with why the Muslims do not like the people coming into bomb Iraq because of the evidence presented in class such as the protests. It really is difficult to really understand what is going on unless we put ourselves fully into the shoes of others.

I liked the skit in class, especially because it showed a different side to boob jobs. Most of the time we see girls trying to get breast augmentation. This time, I saw something that I can actually relate to- breast reduction. However, something really bothered me. I have always had a problem having bigger breasts, and the dialogue of the girl who was trying to get reductions made my insecurities increase. She said some things that even I had never thought of, and now I am even more concerned. For example, she said that big boobs made her look like a mom and that guys looked at her and thought of their moms’ breasts. That was disturbing because I never thought of it that way. I always thought most men preferred larger breasts. Anyway, I believe that the media has a way of portraying women in ways that they “should” look. However, I think media and real people work together to produce this desirable image that other girls have to struggle with for not having. The media takes what it sees around, and it magnifies it to an extreme. Other times, certain trends start in the inner workings of the fashion industry and pop up in every store and magazine that girls come into contact with. Therefore, we are forced to conform to certain things. This controls body image. Something I have noticed is that sizes are getting smaller and smaller. What used to be a small is now a medium or large. I personally realized that I have to sometimes get a size larger than I normally would and it would upset me because I would think that I am no longer considered “thin”. I have some clothes from years ago, and compared to the clothes I buy now, the smaller sizes back then are actually bigger than the larger sized clothing I buy now. When it comes to body shape, it used to be considered desirable to have a curvy body with big breasts and curvy butts. Now, it seems that every model and most clothing call for stick-like shapes. Girls no longer want to have large boobs hanging off their bodies and large butts that just attract way too much attention. Something that I also noticed in class when girls talked about wanting smaller boobs was that none of the guys around me disagreed. Normally, people comment around me when they agree with things. During the class on “bleeding”, an uproar came about amongst the guys. However, the guys around me did not seem to disagree that smaller boobs were preferred. I also agree that girls dress for each other because guys do not always notice outfits the way we do.

Welfare seems to be a cycle in the lives of people who are on it. The parents are on it, so the children are on it, and then the children become adults on welfare and have children of their own on welfare. There just does not seem to be an end to this cycle. Cutting off welfare once and for all would put so many children at a disadvantage, but I feel as though once it is cut off, the cycle would end. I am in no way saying that this is right or wrong, but if welfare was to be cut off right now, anyone who needs it may just have to suffer and try to make their lives better on their own. The people who got welfare before and who will be born without welfare will be at an advantage because they will not be affected in a negative way. The new children that would be born would maybe even be able to live better lives and learn to make their lives easier by getting higher educations and things like that because they would be forced to do it. I do not know everything about welfare, so I cannot say that this would work or not, but it is just a thought. I do know that many people seem to look down at it and think of it as though the people on it are inferior and too incapable of doing good for themselves. However, there are many different reasons for why people get stuck in this welfare cycle, and a main aspect of it is being born into it. If welfare was to be shut down completely, people would be forced to get jobs and support themselves. Maybe it would not be so bad. However, it is the children that most of us worry about because they have no voice in their living conditions. Maybe the government could find a way to create more jobs (even though that is what it is trying to do right now because of the economy) so that the people on welfare would have to work and pay for their own things. Or it could give hand outs up to a certain extent to those families with children who are on welfare. Then, they could use these hand outs as starting points and move on from there to better their lives and put their kids through school and even college. There has to be some way to get people out of poverty, and the government should make it a priority to figure out a way to achieve this. Even if welfare is not cut off completely, it definitely needs to be scratched and redone.

This is actually a really good point that I, along with many people probably, have never thought about. If medical schools and even other higher level schools and professional training use affirmative action, many incapable people would get in over many capable people who could succeed and advance in the medical field or even some other professional field. Unfortunately, a lot of your success is based on luck and who you know. I have been to several doctors who seem like they do not have a clue as to what they are doing along with some really great ones. It is just how things are, and we really should be able to let people in based solely on capability.

I think it really sucks that this guy does not know how to identify himself when he is a mix of two completely different races and ethnicities. I feel as though this is a real issue for many multiracial people right now, but in the future, it will be so common that it will no longer be much of an issue to people. Maybe people will stop referring to themselves based on what they look like or where they come from. That would be pretty cool to see happen if it could. I guess he could just identify himself as whatever he wants. Maybe being multiracial gives him an option or set of choices as to what he wants to be.

I actually laughed out loud when I heard the girl in the video say she was bleeding at the moment. It takes some courage to admit that on camera for 700 or more students to see. I guess it is strange that I feel the need to have courage to admit something so natural. While I never have a problem telling my girl friends that I am on my period, I normally do not announce it to my guy friends. This is simply because guys get so grossed out by the thought of it, even though there is nothing unnatural about it. I have told my guy friends in the past if it was relevant to what we were talking about or doing, but I feel as though it is all too much of a sensitive subject for boys to handle.

I like that this girl asked if tampons would be free if men could menstruate. This really helps me think about the “male dominance” in our society and the world all around. I think that tampons would probably be either a whole lot cheaper or provided for free if guys did get periods. Also, I agree with some of the posts that have been from the guys saying that the reason that men are so uncomfortable and uneducated about menstruation is because girls are not willing or too ashamed to talk about it. I do not see anything wrong with educating the guys as long as guys keep an open mind about it.