It is rare to find a person who will go such great lengths to help others in such a big way. Even with his act of kindness just being a few meals, he is stopping these people from starving and allowing them to survive so that they can continue their search for a better life. After the lecture my views and opinions on these immigrants has changed greatly since I am now aware of how ambitious they actually are and how they are willing to risk life and limb for a better life. Maybe, if we were all half as ambitious as these illegal immigrants living among us, our country and businesses would be even more successful than they currently are.
I guess I had never really thought about the plans that would have to be put into place in order to achieve that nor had I ever thought about how the mass amount of illegal’s that are currently living here. I have found a new respect for these immigrants especially after watching many of the videos and hearing stories such as that of Eric’s. It was a warming feeling how Sam mentioned how those that attempt to start a life here in the United States are extremely ambitious and that the ones who are lazy do not attempt to seek a new life here. I found this warming because like Sam also mentioned it is not a good thing to have a lot of lazy and or poor people living in your society. The video about the man who was serving illegals in New York was very touching. The fact that he had been through the process that those he was helping are going through and then turn around and gives back to others at his personal expense speaks volumes.
After todays lecture my views and opinions on illegal immigration has absolutely changed. I have never really been aware of all the benefits and costs that go along with this issue. Now that I am aware of these costs and benefits it is evident to me that illegal immigration is not necessarily a negative thing. There are many positive tradeoffs to having illegal immigrants in our society such as lower prices on products such as fruits and vegetables and many other businesses that require intense manual labor. If it were not for these immigrants taking jobs of this kind than businesses would have to pay much higher wages and in turn charge inflated prices to consumers in our country. This was interesting to me because in a way it is illegal immigrants that are saving all of us that live here legally a good amount of money on our everyday purchases. I also found it interesting that Sam mentioned how it is practically impossible to not have any illegal immigrants in the country.
The video footage that was taken from the reservation of the family pushing their car with a television in the back seat was also really sad and provided a good understanding of their struggles. I can’t believe our nation can stand by and do nothing knowing that there is a group of people struggling this hard just to survive. Especially, whenever it is the indigenous people of our nation, the soil we live on, and we, our ancestors are the cause to their struggle. I am glad we were able to see this issue and I hope we get to touch on this issue again in class.
. On the other hand it is extremely wrong to keep letting the remaining Native American people suffer in the ways of which they are today. I think there needs to be some sort of action taken by our government or our people in an attempt to help these people. I understand that at this point it is not possible to right the wrongs of our countries dark past but I feel that the struggles these Native Americans are going through need to be brought to an end or at least lessened. Another part of the class I enjoyed was the “Don’t Drink the Water” video. As a Dave Matthews Band fan I have heard this song many times but have never really put thought into what these lyrics were in reference to. Having the lyrics on the screen made the meaning of this song easy to understand. Also, the images of the Native people were very intense and touching and they allowed us to see just how severe the struggles these people face on a daily basis are.
The lecture on Native Americans was extremely interesting and saddening. I was amazed at how much I personally was unaware of in regards to this piece of history, however, I guess it is kind of understandable since Sam mentioned it is a piece of history that we don’t talk about. That is the main reason I actually found the lecture to be very interesting, the fact that we don’t talk about this aspect of our nation’s history. I can kind of understand why we wouldn’t talk about it since it is basically the largest slaughter of an indigenous population in the history of our world. It is such a tragic and dark portion of our history that maybe we just don’t want to be reminded of what it was we did to have our home be here in North America. Also, I feel as if it would in a way be viewed as a bad move to talk about this since we currently have such a high view of our nation and patriotism that it might put a big dent in our since of unity as a nation.
. I do understand, as the government of the United States of America, their need to protect the people and the resources they consume, however, it is not a resource which is ours. The other way I tried to approach this was through the realization that the Middle East is not exactly a stable region of the world, so the fact that they are responsible for basically the most valuable natural resource amongst us today is not a good situation. Regardless, as the U.S. government you have to be careful and keep the thoughts and needs of the people of the Middle East in mind in your actions as you pursue your goal.
. I feel that this tactic was very unique in the ways that it opened minds. The aspect of, well yeah it might not be happening but it’s not happening to me; changed to okay its happening to me and now the situation is more real and how do I react or what do I do. I feel that it did greatly change my opinion on the war in Iraq. From the situation that Sam laid out for us I would feel, as a person living in the Middle East, greatly offended as to why the U.S. soldiers were in my country and trying to take my resources that are on my soil. It is one of those situations that you don’t really think about because it’s not happening to you, but when the scenario is flipped it becomes an extremely serious matter. Since that class I have thought about the issues that are facing the Middle East and now that I have a different view I feel rather uneasy about the United States government and their reasoning as to why we are there.
The strategy that Sam used for this class was perfect as well as extremely intense. I liked how he opened up with the theoretical invasion on the U.S. by I believe it was China and asking if we would join in the resistance to fight them out of the country. It added a realistic and home feel to the situation that Iraqis are currently going through, however I did not buy the clicker responses that were given by the class because I feel that more than 50% of the class in that case would fight back. Regardless to my personal feelings as far as the responses it was still a really useful teaching concept and opened my eyes to situations that people in other countries are going through. Then when Sam asked us to place ourselves in the shoes of a Middle Easterner is when I felt things became really interesting. Also, I like how he kept making the point that we (as Middle Eastern people) were the ones being threatened. He did a great job at refreshing our minds into thinking as a Middle Eastern person.
Although some people may not support the idea of interracial relationships, for whatever reasons they may have, it is great to see that there is a great number of people who are okay with following their hearts and attractions regardless of what people may think of you. And that is what I think the whole point of a true relationship is anyways. Doing what you want to do because it makes you happy.
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