I am not the most knowledgeable about health care and the new health care bill that came out. But, I do not necessarily think that non-citizens should be reaping the benefits that tax paying citizens also receive. I think that if you are living in the United State illegally, you should work hard to be able to become a citizen and get health care. However, I hate to say that, because I do not like to think about people in our country living without health care. We are indeed the “land of opportunity” aren’t we? This is a pretty tough question, but in the end, I think that it only fair for the tax paying citizens to receive health care.

I think that we have already established in this class that a good work ethic is very important in life to be successful in anything. However, it is very difficult to consider the answer to this question in regard to immigration. I am not sure that if you cannot afford to immigrate to the United States, if there is another answer. Unfortunately, a lot of the world is based on how much money you have. But, I love to think that with hard work and determination that you will prosper in life and that you will be successful. But, there is the whole “king of the mountain” lecture that we had.. which re-opens that whole can of worms...

I thought that this letter was absolutely powerful. I am sure that it was very warming to almost everyone who read it. I immediately thought that there is a lot to be said about the courage that some of these men must have to have this outlook about compassion towards the world. I can only imagine how easy it would be to be locked up in jail for life, and just give up on the world. But, the story about the men in the yard really shows how similar people are in any situation. Whenever you see someone in a lot of pain, people will break down barriers and build bridges to help ease that pain.

This situation reminds me a lot about some of the time that I have spent at Centre Peace in Bellefonte. For those of you who do not know, Centre Peace is an organization right next to Rockview that sells used furniture and household items. Volunteers and inmates run the store. Inmates are there all the time cleaning, building, or moving furniture. I had a meeting with the Director of Centre Peace one day, and he told me how hard it is for prison inmates once they are released. These men are given no sort of direction, and then just sent out into the world the little belongings that they have. The Director is currently trying to work with the state to develop some sort of a transitional home near the prison, but the township is hesitant because of the fact that they don’t want ex-convicts living there. I think that this is so terrible, and I would love to know about more that I can do to help alleviate this situation.

Why I really thought of this is that the letter clearly showed us that inmates demonstrate acts of compassion to one another on a daily basis. However, there is just a terrible stigma that is put on convicts that is so painful to even talk about. Some people have said in their blogs that they were raised to think of convicts as “monsters” and while I can understand how that happens, at some point we all need to realize that people are generally just the same.

Many people in my family are Prison Guards, and I when I talk to them, they seem to have similar things to say that Sam does. Many of the inmates have amazing outlooks on life, and they can learn things from one another. Now I am not saying that everyone is prison is compassionate, and I definitely not saying that people who are not in prison are not compassionate; but this letter does help us understand what life is really like inside those walls.

Well… it was an eye opener that’s for sure. No matter what, it is also good to look at things from the other side. If we don’t, ethnocentrism will just escalate even more, and that is exactly what we don’t want. I also agree with what a few others have said, that whenever faith become s an issue that is more than just your personal belief; i.e. how your government controls your country, and furthermore, how your country controls others, we have a big problem. I have the utmost respect for our military, but I think it was nice to further educate us about what’s really going on. That movie was scary, no two ways around it.

That was a really nice comment about what she said, and I think it really ties in with a lot of what we are learning in this class. No matter what background you come from, we really are all women. But, I think a lot of people are right in that we are always trying to conform to whatever culture we live in. We are always trying to fit in, and that may not be the right way to live, but I feel quite sure that to some degree, everybody does it. However, I think that women have a really tough time trying to make themselves acceptable in the eyes of other people. Hollywood and mass media in general really does play a huge role on the way that we should want to look. But I really like it in class when girls stood up and said that most often; we are trying to look like our close friends or others around us. But, how do we alleviate this situation? How do we make ourselves feel like we are “ok” just the way we are.
Laurie asked, “if body image was taken away, what would make us women,” besides the basic anatomy answer, I really feel like what makes us women is the way we live our lives, and the common goals that most of us have. However, it is really hard to define what makes women differ so much from men. Is it our natural instincts to want to take care of people? Not really, because a lot of men have the quality. I really do not know.
However, one thing that I did just think about, is that whenever you think about a “man” you think about how he proves his masculinity to other men. Whether he has a lot of girls who are in love with him, he is very athletic, or he can beat people up; ultimately, they are trying to prove themselves to each other. However, with women, I often think that they are also looking for the approval of men. They are either looking for love, friendship, or approval that they can be accepted just the way they are. I am rambling now, but I think there is this hidden secret that a lot of girls do not look for approval from other girls because they are hard to trust. If you ask them if you look fat in a dress, and you clearly do, they will say you don’t. Because, they do not want to hurt your feelings and they do not want you to look good… so you get the approval from the other guys. Bottom line, I really have no idea about what makes “women,” apart from the fact that we have female body parts.

I’ll be honest, I have never really thought about the whole Asian vs. Asian American thing until this class. It is not because I thought everybody was classified into one group, but it was just something that I never ever had in my head. I guess if I had to look at someone, or talk to them, I would not be able to tell right away. (unless the person spoke English with an accent) but I would really not be able to tell. I am not sure though it he is asking about that, or if where we put Asian and Asian Americans in the whole black/brown category. When Sam mentions that, I always think that Sam put Asian and Asian Americans in the brown category. Is that wrong?

This whole bleeding monologue was ironically hilarious for me. I was one of those girls in class who was a little uncomfortable talking about this whole period thing. However, when I watched this video, it made me start to think. When did getting periods become normal for women? Why is it just a part out worlds like thinking and breathing. I get that it is something we cannot control, but if you think about it, the whole process is kind of astounding! If anything, you would think that girls would go around using it as an excuse for things. Which reminds me that my grandmother told me that she was not able to go to school when she had her period! … wish we still did that… ha.

This video really really surprised me. Not only did I find it very difficult to watch because I would have never expected it, I wish I could figure out a way for it to change. I have always noticed that there are more white dolls than black dolls, especially when we were growing up. However, I could not handle seeing these kids saying that the “bad doll” was the black doll, and the “good doll” is the white doll. I do not think that I would have ever thought that as a child, but maybe that is because I am white. Somebody mentioned in a blog that Sam hit the nail on the head one day in class when he was talking about how white people just do not know what racism is. As a child, I probably would have played with the white doll because that was what I was exposed to the most. However, I was asked to differentiate between the “good” doll and the “bad” doll I really think that I would have been confused. How does this get placed into the children’s’ minds at such a young age? Why did 15 people not choose the doll that looked most like them?

It made me wonder what would happen if this experiment has been conducted on white children. If it has I would really like to see the outcome and how they responded the “good” doll/ “bad” doll situation.

The big question for me is how to make this situation better. How can we get rid of that stigma, and are we ever going to? I was really surprised by this because up until right now, I used to think that race was never an issue, or really ever in existence when you are a kid. People always say that racism is something that you learn as you get older, and while that is true, it seems astounding to me that these kids are picking up on the differences so quickly. I doubt their parents have told them to play with a white doll, and I feel quite sure they did not tell their children that black people are bad and white people are good, so where did they learn this? It has to be from the public, and the way we just live out our daily lives. I do not really know how make this situation any better, but I guess we just have to keep fostering diversity in all aspects of life. If children are exposed to all things, maybe there will be some sort of hope for the future, and we can try breaking down the barriers and building bridges. In the meantime, I think awareness like this is the best option.

I have actually thought about this in the middle of lecture as well. I often just assumed that this multiracial people either just do not answer the question or answer the question where they perceive themselves the most. But I understand the question, because why do they need to perceive themselves as anything? Black, white, brown whatever it is really just all a color, and why do they need to associate themselves as anything just to answer a question? Hopefully Sam will address this issue in class at some point, and we will see where he stands on the multiracial issue.

I was also a little bit confused about the question. I really do not think that we can just pretend that it did not happen in our history books, but maybe that is not what she was getting at. However, I do really appreciate what Sam said in this post. I had the honor to work with the Lakota people this Spring Break in South Dakota, and one thing I learned was that their sense of pride is a little different than ours. To them, the past, present, and future are all the same, so what we have done as white people to their great great grandparents is considered to have happened to them as well. Just thought I would add that part as well!