Sam was right the class last Thursday really did make my head spin. He put the whole war with the Middle East situation into a whole new way of thinking. When the United States experienced the 9/11 attacks and then soon after entered into war, I was pretty young. Therefore I did not understand most of the reasoning behind the war all I knew was I supported my troops and America in our efforts overseas. I always had the vision of our soldiers as patriotic defenders as Sam said in the beginning of class. I knew that innocent people were dying but I understood that most Americans felt bad about that but we felt this was all lending to the bigger cause. I guess I never fully understood that bigger cause though. During this class Sam made us 700 students leave our mind set and begin to think as if we were Arab Muslims for the rest of the lecture to see how we would think differently, like stepping into someone else’s shoes. Sam provided a quote that stated “while nothing is easier than to denounce the evil doer nothing is harder than to understand them”. If you think about it most of us never really try to understand someone that we deem an evil person. I thought it was really interesting to see the different pictures from when before the war started compared to know with some of the after math. I know I would be upset seeing all that destruction if it were happening on our own land. I also found it interesting how many articles you read about the radicals and their reasoning for war and how they say they are fighting for their God yet the killing and suicide bombing goes against their religion, yet the examples Sam was showing, our American president and government keep bringing up Christian religion saying were on a mission from god and this is a crusade. I am a Christian and a patriot but I know my God would not send his people on a mission to kill other innocent people. Of course I still believe in the troops and I know they are doing many good things over in the Middle East helping rebuild, capturing terrorist and trying to promote democracy in their country. But after Thursdays class I completely understand why Arab Muslims could consider our soldiers the “Christian Invaders “. I got my knowledge and previous opinions on the war from American news, the Articles we publish over here and the images we send out such as the beheadings and the 9/11 footage, and those inspire how I feel. On the other hand the Arab Muslims are doing the same getting their opinions from what they see and with those horrible videos out there of a few dumb soldiers trying to act powerful they get their opinion of us a invaders!

Sam was right the class last Thursday really did make my head spin. He put the whole war with the Middle East situation into a whole new way of thinking. When the United States experienced the 9/11 attacks and then soon after entered into war, I was pretty young. Therefore I did not understand most of the reasoning behind the war all I knew was I supported my troops and America in our efforts overseas. I always had the vision of our soldiers as patriotic defenders as Sam said in the beginning of class. I knew that innocent people were dying but I understood that most Americans felt bad about that but we felt this was all lending to the bigger cause. I guess I never fully understood that bigger cause though. During this class Sam made us 700 students leave our mind set and begin to think as if we were Arab Muslims for the rest of the lecture to see how we would think differently, like stepping into someone else’s shoes. Sam provided a quote that stated “while nothing is easier than to denounce the evil doer nothing is harder than to understand them”. If you think about it most of us never really try to understand someone that we deem an evil person. I thought it was really interesting to see the different pictures from when before the war started compared to know with some of the after math. I know I would be upset seeing all that destruction if it were happening on our own land. I also found it interesting how many articles you read about the radicals and their reasoning for war and how they say they are fighting for their God yet the killing and suicide bombing goes against their religion, yet the examples Sam was showing, our American president and government keep bringing up Christian religion saying were on a mission from god and this is a crusade. I am a Christian and a patriot but I know my God would not send his people on a mission to kill other innocent people. Of course I still believe in the troops and I know they are doing many good things over in the Middle East helping rebuild, capturing terrorist and trying to promote democracy in their country. But after Thursdays class I completely understand why Arab Muslims could consider our soldiers the “Christian Invaders “. I got my knowledge and previous opinions on the war from American news, the Articles we publish over here and the images we send out such as the beheadings and the 9/11 footage, and those inspire how I feel. On the other hand the Arab Muslims are doing the same getting their opinions from what they see and with those horrible videos out there of a few dumb soldiers trying to act powerful they get their opinion of us a invaders!

This article is very interesting and I can really relate to this topic. For many years now I knew I wanted to go to a college with a great business school and wind up working in the business world for my career. When I became a senior in high school my father would constantly lecture me about the growing importance of China, internationally in the business world. This really made me start wondering if I was an important business woman working with the Chinese how was I going to communicate with them. At this same time my public high school decided to bring in a Chinese language department to begin to teach mandarin. To get this program started they designated that a certain number of entering freshmen would have no choice but to be enrolled in mandarin classes. There was an extreme uproar of complaints from students and parents who probably all just planned on taking Spanish or Italian for the next few years. On the other hand I was a little bit jealous. For my future, taking mandarin could have really given me a step in the right direction to be successful. Of course I had the option to take this language courses in college, but I had already invested many years in Spanish I did not want to put them to waste. The New York Times article definitely shows a preference for Spanish language programs here in America. This is because people with Hispanic heritages are becoming extremely prominent in the U.S. making Spanish the second most spoken language. It is definitely worthwhile for Americans to be able to speak and understand Spanish to get through day to day life with the people around them. Chinese is not a prominent language in America since most of the immigrants are taught English when they arrive or even before they leave Asia. I think this is why many people don’t see taking mandarin as a priority. Yet when looking at the future being fluent or at least being able to simply communicate in an Asian country would extremely benefit people in many professions. The article also points out the decline in other languages such as German, Russian and French. This is disappointing I feel all students should have the option to learn many different languages of this great country. When I travel overseas in Europe the citizens tell me about their education and I find it interesting that students in other countries not only must prefect their language, but also must learn English and normally one additional language. Here in America most high schools make you take a foreign language but the options are limited and rarely do you ever leave the courses fluent in that language. It’s weird how other countries value education and also the languages and cultures of others and America does not seem the same.

We discussed this trend of rape games coming from Japan in my discussion group today, so I immediately came home to see what everyone was talking about. As A women this report was extremely offensive to me. I do not play video games as I’m sure the majority of women do not but just knowing that such games exist in the world and are intensely spreading all over and even worse that many people will choose to play something this ethically wrong. As for the arguments about the “shoot em up games” I am one of those people who also find games such as grand theft auto and call of duty extremely out of line. Again I don’t play these games but I have heard about them and been around my brothers while they play these games and I guess I just don’t get the appeal. I would never kill someone in real life so why would I find it fun to pretend that. I don’t completely agree with the argument that these violent games will lead to the players becoming violent people and following out these actions in real life. Just like I don’t think the people playing the rape game will necessarily think it’s okay to go out and rape women just because of this game. Then again I don’t think these games help. Some people may take these actions and use them in real life and even not it’s just perpetuating an un moral society which will ultimately lead to more and more violence for everyone. Murder and crime rates are rising all the time and it is kind of sad how younger generations like my own are just starting to accept it as a part of life. This is ridiculous no one should be living around all this hatred and violence. As for rape, I do not feel that this has become accepted in society yet with games that have the purpose of raping women can most definitely start this. True television and movies portray rape scenes yet the have a purpose and show the after math and consequences of rape to a women and her attacker. On the other hand in this video games there are no consequences. In fact the more you rape and molest the closer you are to winning the game. Now how sick is that. I feel this could definitely have a negative impact on society and may cause some people to look at rape as not that big of a deal. If this begins to happen there is really no hope for an ethical society. I totally agree that Japan needs to tighten up on what there gamers are producing and also Americans. There are just certain topics that should not be thought of as a game or joke!

As a white woman, who is currently a member of the minority race I do feel some type of way to keep hearing that one day in the near future my family and I will be part of the minority groups in America. It’s a strange thing to think about how much things have progressed over time. When I first read through this article I felt worried. Like Sam said what will this lead to for me and other whites? Will we be forgotten about? Also with the minorities (that we have now) birth rates constantly increasing and over lapping minority deaths while the same for whites is shrinking, does this mean the white race might someday disappear all together? I know that’s a little extreme to conclude but it’s definitely a thought that came to my mind. I have heard about small tribes in other countries that become extinct yet I never even considered that possibility for white people until reading this article. A representative for the Population Reference Bureau said that “It looks like ‘majority’ births would drop below 50 percent around 2012,”. This stuck me because this is the year I graduate college. This prompted me to think about the lectures we had about the inequality in the job market. When the children born in 2012 graduate college will the white graduates are the ones discriminated against? The owners of companies will most likely be less discriminatory, since this happens with each generation, and if they are not their applicant pool will be largely filled with old minority groups and less white applicants. I also began to worry about my future children. Am I going to be bringing them into the world in a bad situation and ultimately keeping them down and limiting their futures? After I thought about these things I started to think about what minority groups have to deal with now and have dealt with up to this point in time and it would be really unpleasant to have to endure their struggles. Yet, I feel my generation tends to stress change and promote increasing equality among all people whether they are a majority or a minority. This is promising to me. Of course the things I mentioned earlier are a worry to me and maybe other white people facing our population decline, but in some ways I don’t feel our time as a minority population will be quite as hard as some of the current minorities. I feel with are growing tolerance for all others, that when it is African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, etc in control , that they will not discriminate against the white population. Hopefully, this second part is right and current minorities stay tolerant and don’t want revenge. Then maybe we can actually reach a place of equality.

In class on Tuesday when Sam brought up the topic of his wives period and her bleeding patterns the classes’ reaction was hilarious. There was a lot of laughing and conversation and definitely a lot of uncomfortable people. Of course most of the guys in the room became uncomfortable but I also felt really strange. Sam tried to defend himself and posed the question why is this a weird topic and why does it make people feel uneasy? This made me start thinking about why I reacted the way I did. Well yes I am a female and have a menstrual cycle, and sure me and my female friends can often discuss this fact and the details about it with one another and feel completely comfortable, yet talking about periods in a seven hundred person class was completely opposite. First of all I rarely discuss a female’s menstruation cycle with my male friends let alone male strangers (and my teacher). Most guys do not want to ever discuss this and I would never bring it up. I also think the fact that it was Sam talking about his wives personal business in front of so many people kind of caught everyone off guard. I am the kind of person who does not like sharing my personal things even though the menstruation cycle is completely normal. I just don’t feel the need to publicize this information such as all the girls who raised their hand to say they were currently “bleeding” as Sam put it. I’m sorry that’s too much information, I could have really done without knowing that. Sam compared this topic to talking about sweating, another natural occurrence within the body. I wouldn’t really want to sit in a class discussing peoples sweating patterns either I just don’t feel comfortable discussing these things with strangers. Obviously, everyone including guys knows that periods occur and are not completely ignorant of a women’s cycle and its purpose but I see no need to flaunt it. As for the girl in the video I feel you brought up many good points. The menstruation cycle is kind of one of nature’s beauties. It is an amazing feeling to know that you are able to bring new lives into this world and pregnancy can definitely be a beautiful and amazing thing. I agree with that part but the actual fact of having a period is nothing beautiful or special to me. How I look at it the menstruation cycle is just a big inconvenience which causes a lot of unnecessary pain to women. Nothing about cramps and PMS is exciting or beautiful to me. Obviously everyone has different opinions but I feel we should keep the personal talks out of Thomas 100.

Girls dance with each other and grind on each other all the time at clubs and dances even when they are straight couples and no one finds it uncomfortable to be around or has a problem with it; so why then is it wrong for same sex couples who actually care about each other to be able to share this special night with one another? This school is fighting a lossing battle I feel. In this century the majority of battles fought on behalf of inequality are always ending up with the party discriminated against winning the case. I feel that this high school will most definitly loose this case and I hope that I am right. This girl and any other gay couples at her school deserve the chance to enjoy prom with the person they choose.

. I know many people in my grade that were able to bring their same sex partner to the prom and also some girls who were not gay but just wanted to bring another female friend or sibling. Seeing these same sex couples around at my prom did not bother me one bit. I barely noticed, as Sam said gay couples arent flaunting it they are just being normal. Some of my close friends are gay and I know that having their special someone by their side on prom night definitly made them feel amazing and if our school would have tried to forbid their happiness there would have been a crazy uproar. On the other hand many of the catholic all girl High Schools near me had distinct rules against and student bringing a member of the same sex to their proms. I kind of find this rule expected from a religious high school as opposed to my public school, and I understand they are following the religion that their school is based off yet I still find it very unfair.

This article was especially striking to me because I like to think that we have come alot further in society than this. Like Sam pointed out this seems like something that would happen in the past and maybe then it wouldnt have even been a big deal due to the lack of acceptance back then. Through generation to generation I truely believe we are progressing and becoming way more accepting of gay/lesbian couples. Sure not every one wants to see same sex couples together but the majority of people are okay with it. When I started thinking about this I realized that at my highschool there was no certain rule against bringing someone of the same sex to our junior or senior proms.

I think that a main concern the production team could have is "if we display interracial dating will we loose are audience". I know many people in the world whether they be black white brown whatever who see interracial dating as appauling and wrong. Many people (espescially older people) tend to agree with the statement to "stick to your own kind". ABC might feel that if they are displaying and supporting interracial couples they could loose ratings and also recieve a lot of negative feed back and harrasment from certain groups of people. Although we would like to think this is not the reason for the lack of diversity on the series, this would be my best guess. We are living in a society that is seemingly becoming more accepting of certain things, but maybe interracial dating is not one of them yet.