While Sam did make a couple good points about the war in the Middle East and did manage to personify some of the people who live in the region, I don’t know if he necessarily changed my opinion about the Iraqi War or the overall Middle East issue. Making the point that the main reason that we are and have been in the Middle East for the last 10+ years is because of oil wasn’t exactly a ground breaking statement. Of course we want their oil. The main reason our government is attempting to set up a democracy in the middle of the desert is so that in the future we won’t need to go to war in the future to get some oil. We’re not just setting up a government over there because we feel like being nice and helping out people. Why else would we care about some hell hole in the middle of the desert?
While the videos of the soldiers with the tank did make me feel bad about for the people who they were performing the actions against, that is what they are trained to do. They are trained to take out anything that is viewed as a threat to the unit or the tank and when someone is looting Military materials they are a threat, so they reacted in the way which they were trained. It is a shame that is destroyed the cab driver’s livelihood, but I don’t know the guy so I’m not exactly going to lose sleep over it.
As for Sam’s last point about how we would feel if the Chinese were to come over to here and start taking our coal and killing people in the hallway outside if Thomas 100 we would be pissed, that’s just common sense. Of course we would be pissed and of course we would fight back. However, I believe that we would not fight the way that the Iraqi radicals are with IEDs, suicide bombers, and children holding guns on the street. When we waged war against the British we were a relatively underdeveloped nation, which I consider Iraq to be, and we fought in an orderly manner against them without doing having “90%” of all deaths being civilian deaths. I say that because I refuse to believe that statistic. That is a staggering amount that you can say are being killed due to our presence there. Before the first exam one of our readings stated that 25% of young adult Muslims felt that suicide bombings were justified. Their religion is what forces them to believe that killing yourself is what God wants you to do. I personally believe that if we were to get rid of religion completely and just accepted that we are here not due to some divine being but because life has evolved on that planet we would not have these huge wars and maniacs blowing themselves up.

I think it would be a fair statement to say that at the current time the Penn State University student body is following the five stages of grief following the firing of Joe Paterno from the Head Coaching Position of the Penn State Football Team. The five stages of course being denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. After you have someone be associated with the University for 61 years and the face of the institution for the last 40 plus years and they are suddenly dismissed in the wake of the biggest scandal to ever erupt in collegiate athletics of course people are going to go through the grieving process. When we came here to Penn State we were largely set up on family values. To take pride in our university, after all “WE ARE!” This is instilled in us from the moment we set foot here in Happy Valley so it is natural that we view JoePa are somewhat of a grandfather to us and as Penn State Football as our livelihood. When it was announced late Wednesday night that JoePa was fired me and my friends were watching South Park that JoePa had been fired. Instantly we were put into a state of denial. After all, how could they fire Joe Pa? He IS Penn State. Denial quickly moved to anger as we watched the Board of Trustees address the media. I would argue that anger for me lasted for a few days. Probably up until Saturday when I entered Beaver Stadium and saw my fellow Penn State Family Members leaning on each other, making it known that WE ARE Penn State. People were crying in the stands and you can’t blame them, for it had been a very long and very emotionally draining week. I had at several points throughout the week become over come with depression, wanting to do nothing and was just sad. For once, Happy Valley wasn’t happy, it was somber, gloomy, and ashamed. Before this happened I attempted to bargain that if they wanted to clean house that would be more understandable then simply firing one man. Then I went back to anger as I simply couldn’t believe that they fired Joe Paterno over the phone when there is zero doubt in my mind that the board of trustees knew about this for longer than Paterno knew about it and knew more about it then Paterno knew about it. Fuck, I still want the board of trustees cleared out. I would say I am currently in the 4th stage. Whenever I think about what happened a feeling of depression and shame comes over me. Tonight I watched Bob Kostas’ interview with Sandusky and it just brought those feelings back. Rough times are ahead and this process is going to be much longer.

This question was brought up in my discussion group this week and I actually put a lot of thought into this subject matter. We discussed the difference between the happiness and success and I feel that is very pertinent to this question. Does money supply happiness? This question has been brought up throughout history and people typically have different views toward the subject matter. Some feel that having a great deal of money only brings out the greed and dark side in people, while some believe that having the money is most certainly going to raise their happiness.
Now to bring up the matter of success. To me, I feel that success is viewed as a measure of someone’s accomplishments, their financial standing, and their professional status. When you add up these three variables, which I feel that most of us are able to do subconsciously and without an effort, we can have a measure of someone’s “success.” For success, financial standing makes up a good portion of how we view somebody. If someone is poor, hasn’t done much for their life, and is unemployed or working a minimum wage job, of course we are going to make the quick assumption that this individual is not successful. However, if an individual is wealthy, has climbed the corporate ladder, and has a high professional status we are going to view that individual as a success story.
Happiness, I believe, is mostly composed of social status, self-actualization, and success. I would argue that the social aspect (Are we loved? Do we love?) of happiness makes up roughly 50% of total happiness. Think about it. You can have all the money in the world, but if you come back to an empty house, with no one to talk to or call just to chat, you’re going to be completely miserable. Next, self-actualization, which can be partially defined as someone knowing what purpose they bare in life and what they are supposed to do with their life. A person with self-actualization is going to be a more confident individual, not constantly “soul searching” to find out what purpose they serve on this earth. Once you find out your purpose you’re going to happier and more understanding of your life purpose. I would argue that this accounts for about 30% of total happiness. Next, success, which I stated is composed of financial status, accomplishment, and status. This probably makes up about 20% of total happiness, maybe more. Think about it, if you are loved and have a good social standing, you know your purpose in life, but you are flat broke, you aren’t going to be completely happy. On the other hand though you can have all the money in the world, but if you come home to no one and you barely know your life purpose you’re going to average about 30% on my total happiness chart and be completely miserable. So, in conclusion, money can adversely affect happiness, but it mostly affect success, which is a minority component of happiness.

If people are talking a different language around me, does that make me feel uncomfortable? The answer is yes, most of the time it does, but it is frequently to different degrees of uncomfort due to the scenario I am in and depending on who I am with. If I am with a group of friends and there are people talking in a different language around me I feel less uncomfortable. I think that is due to the fact that when people are talking a different language around you, you feel estranged and not at home, but when you have a group of people you know you can associate with it helps provide somewhat of a comfort blanket and a homey feeling. If I am alone and surrounded by a group of people speaking a different language around me, of course assuming these are people I have never met or seen before, I am going to feel a little more uncomfortable. This is due to several reasons. If they start laughing or talking in a harsh tone that makes it even worse. Then the thoughts start swirling around your head. What could these people be talking about? I wonder if they are talking about me. I’m not sure, but what they just said kind of felt like ‘stupid fat lazy American.’ All of these thoughts start circling around and most of the time I feel like it has absolutely nothing to do with race or what language the people are speaking. Even if you are around of a group of people speaking English, and you have no idea what they are talking about, you start to feel a little bit uncomfortable and anxiously attempt to find out what they are talking about. If people are around you and the entire time they are speaking in one language that isn’t nearly as bad as when they talk to you in English and then they talk amongst themselves in their native language. That is some shit that can mess with your head. I remember one time I was waiting a table for an Eastern European family and when I asked them what they would like to order they would give me their answer in English, but they would talk amongst each other in their native language and that pissed me off. I just remember thinking, great what could they be talking about. Are they talking about how they got stuck with this waiter or are they innocently discussing what they would like to order. It made me feel a little uncomfortable, but that uncomfort soon passed and turned to me becoming pissed off because they left an awful tip. Assholes. So, to sum it up, it does make me uncomfortable because I just hate being out of the loop.

I don’t think that there is much arguing that the world that we currently live in is dominated by a white man centered view point. For the most, it has been this way since the Europeans started exploring other parts of the world around half a millennium ago. But now the question is asked, what would the world be like if our world were dominated by black supremacy? The first thing that came to mind for me when I heard this was “very fucking different.” Off the bat, two things that would be glaringly different are history and pop culture. When you read a history textbook about the history of the United States, just about every important figure in that book up until the 1960’s is white. In a black world that would be 100% different. We would not have any clue who Ben Franklin, George Washington, or James Madison were because they would not have been the founding fathers of the United States of America. Hell, I doubt there would even be a United States of America. Also pop culture would be dominated by black culture and the majority of what we see and hear on television would be different. In today’s society, most of the programming is white centered, but in a black centered society most of the programming would probably reflect what we see today on BET. Also since most of the standard stations would be broadcasting black centertainment we would probably see a WET channel (which is essentially CBS, NBC, Fox, ABC). On a personal level, having the roles be reversed and having myself now be considered the minority in a community would be ground shaking. In just about every situation I’ve been in in my life when I am with a public group I have been a member of the racial majority. In fact I don’t think I’ve ever been put into a large group with people and been a minority as I come from a fairly white area and went to fairly white schools. I would also imagine that the graph Sam repeatedly shows in class of the average household income would change, with Blacks earning the most and I’m not sure what would happen to the other groups. To people who say they don’t believe society would be that much different if it were dominated by black supremacy I just don’t see it being like that. Most of our societal norms which have developed over time in the white community would be different and everyone would be thrust into different roles in society now based on their skin color. The world we live in was shaped by white people over the last 500 years, if it had been black people shaping it over the last 500 years things would be drastically different.

This is what should have posted...

In regards to the class we had last Thursday in which Sam discussed the different race relations levels (1-6) a classmate posted a video asking white people what level they think they are at. Being that I am white, I figured I’ll respond to this. I believe that I am firmly at level 2. The reasons I believe this is because I do recognize that there is an “us” and “them,” I think about white culture and what it means to be white, and when I am speaking to a group I am unfamiliar with I do become mired in political correctness and avoidance. I do recognize that race exists, so I wouldn’t consider myself level 1, but I do not demonstrate any of the qualities of stage three (joining the “political correctness police” and getting angry at white people). Sam discussed that at stage two there are typically two ways to go, either become a racist or become mired in political correctness. I wouldn’t consider myself a racist because I’m not going to discriminate against someone or treat them different based on their race. If you’re white you’re white and if you’re a person of color you’re a person of color. I recognize what you are and I’m cool with what you are. I believe that most white people are level 2’s and those people who said they are parts of other levels (whether it be one or four or five) are rare cases or just full of shit. Of course we recognize race and how often do you meet a white person who is genuinely pissed at other white people? I think that I am pretty much set at this stage, unless white people as a whole begin doing some fucked up stuff like bring back lynching or something like that. For me to advance to stage three, as Sam outlined, I am going to have to begin to explore racial inequality, white privilege, and racism. I’m also going to have to feel white guilt and join the “PC Police.” I just don’t see that happening because I don’t have the time to explore racial inequality and all that nor am I going to join the “PC Police” and go up to somebody and tell them how they should express themselves. Words are words, most of the time they mean absolutely nothing. However, if I do come across a huge racist event where white people are protesting on the corner calling a bunch of black people niggers and telling them to go back to Africa then I am going to step in because that’s just completely fucked up. Even when I do jump in that’s not because it’s a race thing where I’ve reached stage three and I’m feeling white guilt I am doing it because I believe that it is necessary to look out for all other people and provide people help when they need it and let people know that they are being dicks when they’re being dicks.

Three Billion Dollars. That’s a shit ton of money. More money than any of us could ever imagine having. If you were given three billion dollars and told to use that money to budget your own life, I don’t think any of us would have the slightest problem with that. However, give one of us three billion dollars and tell us to budget the country with that, and I don’t think anyone of us will have the slightest clue of what to do.
The fact that 53 cents of every dollar we pay on taxes goes to the military in some form or another doesn’t surprise me and it doesn’t disturb me at all. If you put me in control and ask me if we should put more money or less money into the military, I’m going to say the same thing every time…. MORE. Don’t take this as me saying “Yea! Let’s give all our funding to murder and war!” Instead, I simply feel that if we are spending more money on military, whether it be homeland security, CIA, NSA, or our involvement around the world it simply makes me feel safer. A nation that is spending more money on military is a nation that is spending more money on security, and when you consider all the countries and people out there that hate what we stand for, we’re going to need that extra funding to stay safe.
One of my classmates made a calculation that it our country spends about $95,000 per second on the military. This is improperly calculated though, and the actual figure is about $50,350 per second. That is ofcourse assuming his calculation is correct, since the military spending isn’t 3 trillion dollars, but instead 53% of that or 1.6 trillion dollars. Don’t get me wrong, that’s still a shit load of money. Think about all of the people who don’t earn that in an entire year and yet it is being spent in a second. It takes me about ten seconds to type this sentence, so in this time $503,500 has been spend on the military. It turns out that is money well spent, as a nuclear bomb didn’t erupt in my face during that time. Thank God.
While we may be underfunding other aspects of our economy, I don’t think cutting funding from the military is the answer. Keep the figure we have right now and instead slightly increase taxes to take care of the other areas that are being neglected. Or, you know, we could just say fuck it and keep those areas underfunded and hope that people don’t need all the benefits they currently rely on and the economy picks up some time soon.

Last year, which was my freshman year, when I first found out who my roommate was and became Facebook friends with him I had a suspicion that he was gay. He spoke in a feminine way, only had friends that were girls, and to me didn’t come off as a straight 18 year old male. This of course was all through having small conversations with him and looking at his Facebook page. Instantly I began to think, “Oh shit, what should I do if, in fact, my roommate is gay.” I talked about it with my friends and they made a couple jokes about how if he is the bright side is there will always be girls in my room and that it will be clean. For the record, none of his friends were good-looking and he was a slob. At first I was slightly panicked and probably a little bit homophobic, but after thinking about it for some time I came to the realization that I should simply accept the person for who he is and whether or not he is gay should not affect me in the slightest bit. While he never did come out of the closet during the time I lived with him I still to this day believe that he is gay and simply covering it up.
Based on my experiences, if on the first day of school my roommate told me that he was gay I would probably be a little bit shocked and panicked, based on completely selfish reasons, but I would be fine with it. After all, how could you live in the real world if you aren’t able to accept people for who they are and let them live their lives accordingly without interfering with what they want to do?
On the other hand, if my roommate did not tell me on the first day that he was gay and waited for half the year to go by before he told me I think this would actually be better. This way you will be able to bond with the person and get to know them better before they broke the news to you. That way, when they do eventually tell you that they are gay you won’t instantly want to reject them or feel like you need to act differently around them (i.e. don’t walk around the room shirtless). (I’m completely aware that last statement is homophobic, but I’m just trying to set a vague point.) If you have more of a bond with a person and they then inform you that they are gay, and you did not expect it, I think that it would almost be a moment that you could simply just shrug off because you already know that you are friends with the person and you won’t stop being friends with the person strictly because they swing a different way.

When Sam first played the video of the news investigation regarding people’s reactions to bike thieves by race and sex I found it to be absolutely hysterical. When you get to view people in an environment where they do not know they are being watched and can react naturally and then they react like complete bigots and idiots it’s always a fun time. The park that this is set in is obviously in a white neighborhood. I don’t think you even see a minority in the background the entire time. Even better, the majority of the people in the park seem to be older (40+) so you know that there’s a good chance that some racist things are going to happen. The first “thief” we observe in this video is the white teenager. He is dressed like a typical teenage douchebag with baggy clothes and a sideways flat-brim hat. At first he is just using his hands to try to break the lock, which doesn’t turn many heads. Then he resorts to using his bag full of power tools to break the lock. This begins to start to turn heads, but not as many as you would expect for a park full of people who are watching a kid steal a bike. Some people begin to question him, but they quickly give up. This is obviously because he is white and no one is going to rat out one of their own for stealing a bike. After all, it’s just a bike. To me, I find this to be both hysterical and complete evidence that racism is ever-present in society today. If we as a race are going to simply look the other way because one of our own are stealing a bike we are a little fucked up. Next, we have the black kid attempt to steal the bike. He doesn’t so much as start to work on breaking the lock for 10 seconds and before you know it he is being cross-examined by people about what he is doing with the bike. Just goes to show, you get a shit ton of white people and one black guy and the white people are going to fucking swarm on him like there’s no tomorrow. This is obviously messed up that they ganged up on the black guy so quick, but this time society actually did do the white thing and stock the thief, even if it was out of pure racism. My reaction is that you are in a white affluent neighborhood, do you honestly expect them to not be racist? Finally, we have the chick. Like bees to a jar of honey the men swarm to this girl to see what she is doing with the bike and if she requires assistance. Even after she tells them she is stealing it the men don’t give a shit because men will do anything for pussy, even if their wife is standing right next to them. All I can say about this is that men are weak creatures and if we can get any excuse to talk to a girl, even if she is a bike stealing thief, we are more than likely going to take it. After all, that chick was hot.

Firstly, I believe that when most of us create a mental image of people in developing third world countries, we do not envision people who are attempting to be entrepreneurs. I know before I watched these videos I had different assumptions as to what the people are like. I was expecting run down slums full of hopeless cases. However, it turns out that there are many bright individuals in this are who could be successful in running their own business, if they have the proper financing and equipment.
In many third-world countries the people have the desire to work and succeed, but often times do not have the financing or supplies necessary to propel themselves to expand their desires into success. When attempting to start a company many of the people need the proper equipment, but can not afford it. In the case of Figaro she is in need of an industrial blender which costs a couple hundred dollars. If we were to hear an Ameircan adult say that they can’t afford something that cost only about two hundred or three hundred dollars we would be pretty surprised. If our entire class gave fifty cents a person we would have supplied more than enough money for Figaro to purchase the required equipment for her company.
While in some cases sending financing and materials to these countries will help make a difference for them there are other times where sending things hurts the people there. As is glaringly obvious, most Haitians are malnourished and underweight. So it would seem that sending them food would be a nice and generally appreciated thing to do. A good possible food to send the people would be peanut butter, which is rich in protein and fat and should help the people. Wrong. It turns out that when we do something as simple as sending food adversely effects people who produce food in their areas. An article explains that when we send peanut butter it hurts a woman and her family because they produce peanut butter for people in their area to support her family.
In conclusion it turns out that helping people in a third world country is an easy thing to do if you think directly about what you want to achieve and apply it. After watching some of the videos posted on the world in conversation page I think that by simply providing something as simple as financing or materials to people who need it to start a business and provide for their families is both the right thing to do and rather easy. All it takes is a little bit of time, a little bit of money, and a driven individual and you can accomplish it.