I think she makes a really interesting point because if something as devastating as the earthquake in Haiti happened in the United States we would most certainly stop and think and have some time to mourn. I am not quite sure if anything like this occurred after 9/11 or not but she really makes a good point that when it is people we know we stop and mourn their passing but when it is somewhere that we feel removed from, especially because we don’t necessarily know them first hand, we kind of brush it off. This kind of goes along with the whole white guilt idea, we feel bad about it but don’t think there is anything we can do. When we act like this we are dehumanizing people and making it seem like they are not worth our time.

This letter was really powerful for me because I will admit that I was one of those people that think that if you do something wrong or kill someone you should seriously be punished for it because you are a bad person. This inmate is a prime example of someone who has actually been changed by his experience in prison and is truly sorry and I think that is something that should be taken into consideration. It seems that there are some people in his situation that want to make the world a better place so maybe we should let them.

I think that if the immigrants in question are illegal that they definitely should not be entitled to health care in our country. There are so many issues with health care in our country already and there are astronomical costs associated with the type of care that our country provides. I think that there are also issues with this because if our country had a different type of health care such as a national health care program, my thinking might be different. I do believe that everyone in this country should be entitled to access to our healthcare system and although there are steps being implemented currently to make sure that more people in our country have access to the medical care they need. I am a health policy major so we talk about this issue all the time. The costs alone are enough to say that we should not allow illegal immigrants to use our healthcare system but at the same time we have a law that if someone comes into the emergency room we need to treat them regardless of whether the person has insurance or not. I guess it doesnt matter who is coming in or not because there are so many people in this country that are American citizens and do not have health insurance yet they get treated when they come to the hospital so essentially it could be viewed as the same thing.This is an argument that prompts many people to discuss the positives associated with a public health system in the United States. The people that pay taxes in this country are the ones that have to take care of these costs and because of all of the people in our country that do not have insurance their taxes are raising. This issue also falls into the category of education. Children of illegal immigrants have access to the public school system because it is technically not their fault that they are here illegally and it is our duty to educate them. This is such a grey issue and I dont know if it will ever be black and white. As someone who believes that everyone should have access to healthcare in America, it is hard for me to say that I dont think we should give illegal immigrants health care. I think that there should be some sort of provision put in place to take care of people who are illegal immigrants so that costs do not go up for the people in this country that do pay will not have to pay more.

Even though I am a woman, I think that there is just as much pressure on men to act certain ways and look certain ways just like there is with women. I think that men may not care as much as women do about what other people think about the way they look because they seem to be more content with themselves. Obviously I do not really know how men feel but this opinion just comes from observations I have made from male friends in my life. I am sure that there are some men that feel just as much pressure to fit the mold society casts for them to be macho or sensitive and other stereotypes.

I am not surprised that Mandarin classes are increasing while language classes for French and German are dwindling. It is extremely important, as Sam said, to be successful in a business career and not be familiar with Mandarin or some Chinese dialect. I think that schools have realized how important this is and along with the help from the Chinese government to subsidize the teacher’s salaries, it is too good of an offer. With the decline in jobs available and the growing labor force, in order to even get a job you have to be extremely qualified, maybe even over qualified and have an excellent academic background. It only makes sense that there would be more programs offering this language.

I think that this person is right in saying that Hollywood is now starting to portray women of multiple sizes and backgrounds much better than they were in the past. There seemed to me to be a period of time where all you saw were extremely thin women and most of them were white. Unfortunately I think that the way media portrays women negatively affects the way women perceive themselves. It was being shoved down our throats that to be beautiful you had to be tall, tan, and a size 2. It is good to see that people are fighting back about this issue. For example, many designers will not hire models anymore who have eating issues or are sickly thin because this is not the population that they are even trying to sell their products to. They also realize that they are not sending the right message out to the public. It is as if they are endorsing eating disorders and distorted body images by having people model their clothes that don’t have a real looking body. Also many people do not take into consideration that countless photographs in print ads are airbrushed. Many celebrities are now speaking out against this practice and want people to see their real bodies because that is what they feel is beautiful. I think that once women see that Hollywood now realizes how unrealistic it is to continue using only extremely thin women with small boobs in their print ads and campaigns, people will feel better about themselves. On the flip side, we should not let Hollywood and the people we see everyday on television and in the movies affect how we see ourselves. I think it is extremely important to share this message with the younger generation because they seem to be severely affected by the way the media is telling us in order to be considered beautiful. There are so many young girls that have issues with their weight and have eating disorders that many of them blame on the pressure to be thin. Girls need to be educated on how to live a healthy lifestyle and that everyone is shaped differently and is beautiful in their own way. It is up to you to make yourself feel beautiful. It is great to see that there are more women with curves in Hollywood today. Everyone is beautiful in their own way and although every woman is different, we all go through the same daily struggles on our journey of life and this is what connects us.

I am not quite sure that there is a second step. Although the video was extremely effective in raising awareness for us that this type of thing is going on, I think maybe the only other thing we could do is to write to major chocolate companies asking that if they use plantations such as the one shown in the documentary, that they make sure that these things aren’t happening there. It would be nearly impossible for a person to go through life and only purchase products that did not contain materials or ingredients that were not touched at some point by slaves. It would be a perfect world if we could do that, but I think the public needs to make the companies aware that we are aware of what is going on and are not okay with it.

Along with almost everyone else that has commented on this blog entry, I agree that the fact that the Japanese government has not stepped in and banned the sale of these atrocious video games already. It is definitely giving people the wrong impression that women are not viewed as valuable people if they are allowing this type of material to be purchased or viewed on the internet. The fact that technology today is so advanced, I find it hard to believe that it would be that difficult to find all of the websites where these rape games have gone viral and shut them down. It takes less than 24 hours for copyrighted material to be blocked from you tube and other such sites, so I don’t understand why it hasn’t been done yet if the government knows it is going on. Something else I do not understand is why people are so appalled that this type of degrading material is being purchased and viewed by the public when there are so many awful video games and other types of multimedia that is available for purchase in our country that is equally as bad. It may not be a fantasy game allowing people to rape and assault women, but games such as Grand Theft Auto allows you to purchase prostitutes and kill innocent people. Although the United States has implemented a rating system for video game content, games such as these are extremely profitable and popular with the general public. Simply because there is a rating on something does not stop people from purchasing these kinds of games for people that are too young to do so on their own. If a video game is created that allows the player to rape women, this evokes a lot of emotions from a lot of different groups of people, yet when games are released that contain extreme amounts of violence and degrading behavior, it does not make headlines on CNN. I think that if the people of this country find it so awful that games like these are available, you cannot pick and choose which ones to be so vocal about. I think that games that allow you to shoot police officers and purchase prostitutes are just as bad as a game that allows you to rape women. I am not saying that all people are okay with games like Grand Theft Auto, but I don’t understand why they are still sold in our country if they contain content like the rape games sold in Japan. I think that the Japanese government needs to step in and at the very least prevent these types of games from being downloaded on the internet as easily as they are.

I don’t necessarily agree with the statement that qualifications become an issue when it comes to affirmative action. I find it very hard to believe that a medical school or something like that would accept an unqualified student simply because they would help their affirmative action statistics. I think it is much easier to do this at the undergraduate level and I’m not sure how often this even happens but I just really do not think they are letting people go to med school to become doctors who are not competent enough to do so. Medical schools are mostly private any way and do not necessarily need the funding that comes from complying with affirmative action as well.

I think that if we were to get rid of welfare it would probably be more of a burden than people may think it already is. Although there is that saying that it is hard to break the cycle or the cycle repeats itself, if we got rid of welfare, there would probably be many more homeless adults and children and that is not something that the public can just ignore. Homelessness is already a huge issue and although it may seem like nothing is being done about it, the amount of people who would have no place to live without welfare would skyrocket and just end up costing more money to try and place people in shelters or even build enough of them to house everyone.