How is this situation different? We come to a land and take it away from those that have it already because we can, because we want to be 'king of the mountain' and we have more power. That doesn't make it right at all, though. I agree with you on one thing, life is definitely not fair. This has been proven evident by the countless amounts of Native Americans now living in trailers because they have been constantly beaten down by this nation of 'patriots'. When during his inaugural address, the president who said that we took this desolate land and transformed into something great, he was simply stating the condition of this land that most people (at least this was how I viewed it) initially hear about the situation with Native Americans. Perhaps if this land really was desolate and nobody occupied it, I could see how the two situations are different. The fact that Native Americans had tribes, had lives, had homes, and we essentially just bulldozed over all of this and forced those that survived the attack to live in shoddy, low income neighborhoods is very much the same situation you described. If the Mexican army did attack us, they would most likely not defeat us in a war (simply because the United States spends the most money out of any other country on their military...) but if they were stronger, or if the rest of the world combined attempted to take our land, would you still say that life is unfair and that's the way it goes? If hundreds of thousands of your friends and families are killed through genocide, I have a hunch you would feel that the two situations seem to parallel each other...

People who were not born in this country are no different than people who were born in this country. My mother and sister were not born in this country, but they have both spent the majority of their lives living here and are, especially my sister, very Patriotic. Denying them health coverage simply based on their background seems ridiculous to me. We all share the same basic functions and the same species name. Taking care of and looking after one another is one of the most fundamental survival tactics of any species. The fact that we all don't share the same level of care (in terms of health, income, access to food/water) seems really wrong to me. In an ideal world, we would all be accepted as members of humanity and we would all receive the same level of health care. Sadly this is not the case, and even people who are citizens of a country, myself included, still are not covered in terms of health care. The technology that countless members of our society use to try and find cures to new health ailments, and even those that study to become nurses and doctors that simply help save lives day after day in a hospital should share their gifts of assisting human life with all of humanity. When a natural disaster occurs (such as Haiti) many American doctors flocked to the nation in trouble to assist as much as they can. In places in Africa or Central America where poverty stricken nations are losing their populations due to malnutrition, inadequate sources of water and shelter, it makes me wonder why more people don't leave and help?

When I found out that people had taken offense to this episode, my initial reaction wasn’t very considerate of the people of the Muslim religion. I thought it was ridiculous that people could see the episode of South Park, and react in rage and threaten to kill the creators. South Park is a cartoon and it is not real life. When I was in elementary school my best friend and I had this joke about our invisible friend Muhammad. I had no idea that there was so much controversy over allowing this character to have a physical form. If I did, I probably would have poked more fun at it because I wouldn’t have (and still really don’t) understood the drama that comes along with a visual of a god. It’s not like it’s an accurate depiction of the god, nobody actually has an accurate depiction of his or her god.
Once I stepped out of my own shoes and tried to see this in the eyes of a Muslim who took offense, I began to see where this anger could come from. Many people have religious beliefs, much different than my lack of any, and these people hold true to these beliefs and live by these laws that their god has set forth for them. Holding onto something as strongly as many religious people do leads me to realize how this poking fun at their god could be offensive. It’s hard for me to put it into a perspective I can understand, though. I am not religious and I don’t have a god, let alone one that cannot be visualized. However, the anger these people must be feeling doesn’t justify threats to kill those who are simply making it into a joke. And it is also not as if this was the only religion they poked fun at, South Park is sure to leave nobody out of their jokes. What could make somebody who is religious and following the rules of their god, which include unconditional love and forgiveness, want to kill another person? People who feel that they are killing ‘for’ their god seem insane to me. How could a god that loves and accepts you be so willing to force you into murder? To me, this doesn’t seem to make any sense, especially if we are all welcome to become followers of this same god.
Sometimes I feel that religion accidentally leads to acts of violence and hate more than it should. People should practice what they preach. If people who strongly believe in a god or religion that teaches forgiveness and unconditional love, they should be able to forgive those and love those who believe in different things than they do. They should also not hate and want to kill those that offend them.

I agree with this post. Allah and God are the same. I have recently started saying ‘OMA’ instead of ‘OMG’ to emphasize my feelings on this subject to my friends. We all feel that the way we think is right. This is a natural borne thing to every person in the world. We are all egocentric and it is hard to realize it in most cases. We all think we have the best personality, the best family, our group of friends is the funniest, but everybody else in the world has these same feelings of superiority. I feel that this closely parallels how we all feel about religion. We all see religion as a black and white type of phenomena that has specific rules and regulations one must obey to be a true Christian/Buddhist/Muslim, but what if all of our gods are the same person? What if the extra rules and regulations are all man-made? It is hard to consider ourselves as in the wrong, but with recent views on this war, I feel that we should all consider ourselves in the wrong. My opinion on religion is that if one is going to believe in something, whether it is different than or the same as what you yourself believe in, they should be respected. We are all under this mindset of being right and never wrong, but if we look around at the world, we are all wrong.
To go along with what this girl said about her husband being very against the beliefs Osama Bin Laden has, many people don’t realize that he is not voicing the opinions of the masses. He has his own beliefs and a small group of followers. There are so many other people that believe in the Muslim religion who do not follow the words of Osama Bin Laden.

If my family were killed by a group of people that were already invading my country and altering my life, I would be very inclined to become a suicide bomber. I never really thought that these people could be avenging the deaths of loved ones, I always assumed they had either been brainwashed into religious reasons, or are doing it for financial stability for loved ones they will leave behind. Seeing it in this light is really powerful. I can fully understand why people who feel that they have nothing left to live for in life because they lost those they love, could feel the need to destroy the lives of people on the side of the enemy. Looking at war from the perspective of the ‘enemy’ is really enlightening.
Hearing that soldiers we have trained and sent into a foreign country have the audacity and willingness to kill innocent civilians, especially the youth and women who are pregnant, is very unnerving. I never really thought that this nation could breed people with the ability to kill like this. These people have families of their own back in America; it’s not hard to see the similarities between our two countries, especially in a simple view of family. The fact that these civilians know that they are going to be killed and quickly get married before we invade is so sad! And the fact that the media is extremely selective about what is allowed to be broadcasted back home just leads our people even further into the dark. There are so many things wrong with this war, and this is just another thing I can add to the list.

During class on Thursday, I was given the chance to try looking at the world and our country from a different perspective. It really frightened me to experience the world in this way. If the tables were turned on this country and China was trying to take our coal, we would react in much the same way the people in the Middle East are reacting. Growing up, I never really took the time to question why we were in these wars. I would see images from the Gulf war of oil mines on fire and American soldiers walking the streets of Iraq and this all seemed very normal to me. It seemed right. Now I think to how our country works, the way we take everything we can from anyone who isn’t as powerful as us, just because we want it. It seems very juvenile to act the way our country has acted over the past couple of decades. We realize that we need something, and we make up an excuse to get it, at any costs. The fact that the people in these countries know already, before we even penetrate their streets, that civilians, largely, are going to be the ones to die is not only very sad but also really unfair. America runs a lot of its foreign business in ways that are very unfair. We take from the poor and give to the rich, ourselves. We are already on top, and we keep playing king of the mountain until we can soak up the last bits of any resource this world has to offer, because, deep down, I guess America feels that they are entitled to it.
I am not sure about how I feel about this subject, but my friends and I have had discussions on whether or not the “War on Terrorism” is even a legitimate war. Were we even attacked by terrorists of another country? Or were these people working for our government? This idea seems very far-fetched to me, but I cannot help but wonder about it. I know that if someone reads this who is very pro-war and patriotic they will immediately reply in anger, but I would just like to ask them to contemplate it for a few moments. We are now in the war simply because of oil (and because we feel we owe the people of these countries some “assistance” due to the destruction we caused over the past decade). What if that’s the whole reason we were there in the beginning of this war? I’m not saying it’s definite, I’m just saying it’s possible. What if the government, out of desperation for oil to fuel our booming economy, set up an “attack” on our soil so it would reach to the hearts of the masses? It is really unnerving to consider this and still continue to live in a country where its own government stages attacks on innocent civilians. This is probably a main reason why most people automatically block it out once they first hear it. I am just asking those who think it is impossible, to hypothetically consider it, and see if things start to begin to make sense. I, myself, have not come to a conclusion on this subject, but I constantly find myself wondering about it.

I think that one of the most important things one can do to gain more knowledge is challenge their own opinions. We sometimes like to think that we are the only ones that are right. I have a friend who I cannot have a conversation with about religion or America and some of the naughty things we do because she will completely shut down and ignore every point I’m making because she has already predetermined that she is the one thinking correctly. People like this make me sad. Expanding our minds through discussion is one of the greatest ways to create deeper thoughts and stronger opinions on subjects that our controversial. If everybody thought the same way, we would know that that way was most likely right. Since we all think differently, I think it is vital to bounce ideas off of one another and create discussions that stimulate the mind in ways that it may have never been stimulated before. Shutting down once an opinion you disagree with comes along is very typical, but the point of this class, I think, is to work past this time and let the different ideas flow into your mind. They don’t have to be accepted or seen as the right way, but they are supposed to make us think about the opinions we have already formed. How can we believe that our ideas are right if they have never been challenged? I have this problem when I talk to members of my family about religion, because they shut down into a ‘God is right and that’s that’ type of mentality. If it is never permitted to be challenged… how can one be so sure?

I also come from a Hispanic mother and a white father, but I personally identify with the "white team" more than I do on the Hispanic team. The reason for this is because in class we were asked what kind of a background we had growing up and the types of people we interacted with growing up, our friends, our school, which family we saw more often, etc. I come from a mildly racist white town and I have never really considered myself anything other than white. I say that I'm Hispanic when asked on scholarships or applications, but when I am just hanging out with my friends (who are mostly white) I never really feel different. Growing up, I felt like I was different because I knew certain Spanish phrases my mom said which I had assumed everybody knew, not knowing they were Spanish. I felt so different and it was hard to relate to the white culture that surrounded me. Now I don't ever feel this difference from my childhood because I have been completely absorbed into the white culture. I don't really relate to either "team" though when we're asked in class to participate on a team. I feel like I am more CULTURALLY white, but biologically I am still 50/50 Hispanic and white, so I find it hard to chose a side.

The way that I view welfare is as a way to try to bring the poorest people in the country to a standard of living that gives them the ability to survive. Many people in welfare do get trapped and drain it for all that it's worth without even thinking about joining the working class. Other people try to utilize the time that they are given to acquire skills to get a job and the ability to keep a job. Many people on welfare are single parents, or young parents who are struggling to get by. These people may have made choices that have caused their monetary disposition, but they are still people and they should be treated humanely (being fed, being housed, schooling for their children, etc). The fact that welfare members are seen as free riders definitely puts welfare in a bad light, but people need to realize that these poor people, in many cases, did not live luxurious lifestyles in the beginning of their lives and then dream of being on welfare where they would have to do nothing and get paid. Many people dream of lifestyles where they work hard and make a lot of money, but instead, life paths are altered and people are thrown into lives of despair and they need monetary assistance to get out. I feel it is our duty as not only citizens, but also as fellow human beings to help these people.

Knowing that there are people out there who find this sort of video gaming fun is so disturbing, and also quite frightening. There doesn’t seem to be much of a difference between this kind of a game and a war/shooting type of game in terms of being humane, but I feel as though there are major differences in what message these games are sending across. This rape video game is teaching people how to rape women. Many people don’t need a video game to teach them how to rape, but how many more people will find the idea appealing after playing such a game? If music can negatively influence children into violence, and video games are portraying violence in a first-person perspective, many children are going to form new ideas on how they feel about rape and violence.
I know people who have been raped and I feel that such a video game could cause many people to take offense, even those who haven’t been raped. It’s very unnerving to see that this type of a game has been selling, let alone been created. I understand that different countries have different cultures, but there is nothing humane about raping innocent women. The idea behind the game seems to be to see how well one can rape a girl. If people take some scenarios and ideas from the game to be applied in their day to day lives, this game could cause a rise in rape. Depicting this game to make out innocent women as the victim is bad enough, but in some of the games, young teenage girls are also being raped.
The fact that these are made readily available in the US shortly after their release in Japan is another scary aspect of this whole business. Many people now have access to a video game that portrays rape as a goal and something that gets rewarded at the end. I feel as though this video game is degrading towards women and I do not feel that it should be allowed to be produced. If people begin to play this and develop interest in raping women on the streets, there will be a stronger, new formed fear of going out at night alone. I, personally do not want to be afraid to walk the streets at night. I know we all live in a safe place like State College, but with people playing this game, I feel as though we are thrown into greater danger.
I understand that there are many people out there who are taking their rape sexual frustration out on this game and not on other people. I also can’t help but think that for every person this relieves of their sexual frustration, there will be 10 more children brainwashed into becoming rapists by playing these games.