The lecture on Native Americans really made me think. I found everything that Sam talked about to be very interesting. The first video he showed was about a Native American tribe and how they live in poverty. The video did a great job in depicting the economic and social obstacles that this tribe now had to overcome. The purpose of the video was to show people how this once prestigious and respected Indian tribe has now been reduced to nothing more than bums. We have taken everything they once had and forced them to live on poor land in poor conditions. My favorite part of the lecture, however, was when Sam played the Dave Matthews song. Dave Matthews has been one of my favorite artists for a long time and I know all of his songs. “Don’t Drink the Water” is a great song by him and I have known it for a while. But even though I have known the song for years, I had no idea what it was really about. That’s why I was so intrigued when Sam started playing the song and showing the lyrics. I know that Dave always has hidden meanings in his songs and I think that is what makes him so great. That is why I wasn’t surprised when I saw the correlation between the song and the Native American struggle. When you know what you are looking for it is obvious that the lyrics in the song are referring to what we did to the natives of this country. The words are very powerful. The part that I thought had the greatest affect was the “and I will bury you” part. It just emphasizes the barbaric and ruthless behavior we exhibited when we came over to America and took over the land. The song was a very vital part of the lecture. Throughout the whole lecture a common concern kept running through my mind. In elementary school we were all taught to celebrate the day that we came over to the Americas. We were taught that we came over with gifts and learned to work with the natives and live on the same land as them. This idea of a peaceful integration into the Americas is now proven to be completely false. All through elementary school and middle school we have been taught lies. And not only were the teachers telling us these lies but they were also printed into our textbooks. This makes me wonder: if they can lie to us about that what else are they to us about? It could be anything. This shows that you really can’t believe anything you hear unless you know it is 100% true.

Sam was right when he said that this lecture would be one of the best ones. It got me to think about a lot of stuff that I would not normally think about. As an American citizen I do have very strong feelings about our whole situation with the Middle East. I am also a very level headed person and know that not everyone with Middle Eastern heritage is our enemy. I hate when people group them all together and discriminate on every single one of them. Even though I do sympathize with the majority of the Middle Easterners, I have never put myself in their shoes and really thought about what this is all like for them. I think Sam’s hypothetical situation with the Chinese coming into America for coal was a perfect way to start the lecture off. It really got me to think about what if I was living in the Middle East and Americans started coming over in search for our oil. Judging by the way I reacted to the Chinese coming into America, I could understand why so many Middle Eastern are opposed to us being on their land. It also got me to think about the common stereotypes that we have for the average Middle Easterner. These stereotypes include them training their children to be killers and them hating America. It got me to realize that these stereotypes come from only he small percentage of videos or news articles that we see from the Middle East. The average American will see these videos and immediately attribute them to everyone that lives in the area. They will fail to realize that it only portrays a minority. This however works both ways. When people from the Middle East see videos from America, they only see the bad ones. Sam went over this topic using many examples. A really good example was the website for the military church camp. This camp trained young kids to become soldiers and killers under the name of God. We as Americans know that the camp only consists of a small number of whacked out people but when Middle Easterners see the website they think we are training all our kids to become killers. The only problem I had with the lecture is that I felt it was kind of defending or justifying people’s hatred in the Middle East for America. It seemed like all these excuses for why people hate America were given and then everyone came to peace with the fact that the Middle East hates America, and “it’s okay because we give them all these crazy reasons to.” But then when we talked about Americans hating the Middle East it was all about how we shouldn’t be discriminating and grouping everyone together. Why is it okay for Middle Easterners to do that but not for us to? They give us plenty of reasons to hate them, but why are we expected to know that it is only a minority of them when they aren’t expected to know that about us?

I believe that my experience with this sort of thing is different than others. I lived in New York City for a good portion of my life and I continually go back to visit all of my family that lives there. New York City is a very diverse place. You can find people of all backgrounds interacting with each other and living amongst each other. That is why it is very common to be walking down the street and to hear dozens of people talking in other languages. Because I am so used to this and I have been around it my whole life it doesn’t bother me. I often bring my friends to the city with me and they are not quite as used to it as me. When they hear someone talking in a different language, almost instinctually, they turn and stare or laugh. Personally, I don’t see anything funny in two foreign people trying to communicate but I guess that is just the way some people deal with something new and different. The diversity of people is something that makes the city so great. When you go there it is like entering a new world. You are introduced to so many different cultures and people. For some people it isn’t a big deal because they don’t care enough to recognize the great things in cultures other than their own. But for people like me, it is a very intriguing and exciting place. I love experiencing new things, especially new food. Seeing how people act around their own people really tells you a lot about their culture. Writing this response is really making me think about the topic of foreign languages. I have never really done much thinking about it before because I have always been accustomed to hearing people talk in those languages. Although I believe it is great that people know more than one language, there is something that is bothering me. From what I have seen and heard in person and on TV most other countries do not only know their national language but they also know ours. Now of course this can be seen as a good thing because it makes it easier for us to communicate throughout the world, but this can also be seen as a bad thing. A country’s language is like their secret code. It allows certain people to communicate to each other without people of different origin to understand what they are saying. This helps a lot, especially during war time. There has been many instances when our soldiers, who are overseas right now in the Middle East, have been taken hostage by a small militant group. When faced with this situation it would be very beneficial to our soldiers if the enemy was fluent in our language. I feel that the fact that everyone knows our language takes away some of the secrecy and prestige of our country.

Sometimes people feel very uncomfortable calling out someone of their own race. They want to have trust among people of their own race and they don’t want to be viewed as outcasts. I think people would feel like they are betraying their own race if they call out of correct someone from the same race for racial discrimination. I, however, am not like most people. The first time I really thought about the impact of racial slurs was during freshman year of high school. During one day of school we had an assembly in the auditorium about the history of the N word. We were shown a video called “Abolish the N word.” This video was all about the history of the N word and what it really means when you use it to refer to someone. They showed the history of slavery and the history of abuse that took place much after slavery was ended. The video told us about the countless number of unjustified lynches and beatings of black people in America. The film was full of actual pictures and horrific descriptions of what happened to some black people during that time period. One of the stories was so appalling that I will never forget it. It was a story about a black man that was hanged somewhere in the south for no reason at all. While he was being tied up and hanged the crowd of white people around him was chanting the N word. The real grotesque part was that while he was hanging people in the crowd cut off his testicle and put them in his mouth. This story is so barbaric and inhumane and so closely associated with the N word that it put a bad feeling deep down in me every time I heard the N word after. From then on I have called out my friends every time they have used the word. Even if it was someone I didn’t know, I would call them out and tell them not to use that word around. It got to a point where even my black friends knew not to use the word when I was around. I remained this way all through high school. When I got to college, however, I realized that it wasn’t as easy to control everyone. I have become much more relaxed with the topic because people say it all the time. I knew most of them don’t mean it in a real racist way but they do not realize the history behind the word. I still refuse to use it and my close friends here at school respect that and don’t say it around me. But for everyone else all I can do is ignore it.

This article immediately caught my attention because I have heard about this issue in the past. When I was in high school we had people come in and speak to us about the use of the R word and how it affects people a lot more than we realize. People use the R word as a regular part of their speech. It is very common to hear in everyday situations and people use it with no regard to its true meaning. To be honest, I use the R word sometimes because it is so common now a days. When I use it, however, it has nothing to do with mentally challenged people. You will never hear me use the word to actually describe someone with disabilities. In today’s language the word is used more to describe something that someone thinks is dumb or a waste of time. From my own experience, when people use the R word it is rarely associated with a mentally challenged person. I have also talked to my parents about this issue to see what their opinion was as a perspective from a different generation. My parents said that when they were growing up the R word was regularly used to talk about people with mental disabilities. To them it wasn’t a derogatory term, it was simply a word used to talk about a certain type of person. As time passed, however, the word began to gain a negative connotation. This is a common trend that can be observed in almost every word used to describe a whole group of people. Although this kind of softens the blow of the R word, it doesn’t justify its use. In modern times it is viewed as a derogatory term and we should all respect that.
I believe that getting rid to the R word is going to be very difficult. As I said before, people use it now in their everyday language. It has integrated into the language in America as a word that has many meanings, one of them being very offensive. In order for the abolishment of this word, it is going to have to be brought to everyone’s attention what the original use of the word was. I think we are going to have to look at why this word became such an offensive term in the first place. Although, if the N word is still around, I don’t see the R word disappearing anytime soon. The N word has a much stronger negative association and it hardly used in everyday language (except by some black people who use it as an affectionate term). If the abolishment of the N word has been unsuccessful then the future isn’t look too bright for the abolishment of the R word.

Part 3
I always had something in my head that told me when I was in a bad situation and I would always be able to get out of it before there were any consequences.
These decisions that I have made throughout my life are the reasons why I am at Penn State right now. Most of my friends stayed back and went to the community college in my town. That is a direct result of the decisions they made through high school. I am very happy with my decisions so far and I hope I continue to make the right ones.

Part 2
Many of my friends floated through school doing the bare minimum work. I believe that the reason they didn’t feel the need to try hard was because they were content with staying in Middletown forever and had no desire to do something else with themselves. I always made sure my work was done and often endured ridicule from my friends who said I should be out having fun instead of slaving over my work. But it was my decision to stay focused.
Another decision I made was to stay out of trouble because I knew that it could hinder my chances of succeeding later in life. I’ll admit that I did drink every weekend with my friends and even started smoking weed for a little bit, but I was never an idiot about it and I never let it control my life. By sophomore year of high school a lot of my friends started getting arrested. Whether it was for underage alcohol consumption, possession of marijuana, or for shoplifting, it seemed like a lot of people were becoming much more carefree with their reckless behavior.

Part 1
At a young age I moved from Brooklyn, New York to Middletown, New Jersey. Middletown is a very nice area. There is not much crime and people are moderately wealthy. The big problem with Middletown is that there is not much to do. The city is only a short train ride away but the tickets cost twenty dollars alone so it is hard to make that trip a regular habit. Almost every kid in the town resorts to drinking and smoking weed on the weekends. These habits usually start at around seventh grade. In the summer, almost every day is spent at the beach but that only gives the kids a new location to fucked up at. There is also a strong sense of town-pride. Many families have been a part of Middletown for generations and this makes people feel that it is their duty to raise their family in town and not move to anywhere else or try to get out.
The first major decision I made was to always stay focused on school work. My parent’s encouragement was a big help but ultimately it came down to my own willingness to succeed.

Part 3
The problem is that we can’t just start living like all other animals because of our curse. If we decided to live in the wilderness and ditch all of our material possessions, we would still be plagued by our consciousness. Also, this would lead to a total setback to everything we have accomplished on this planet. Centuries of records and research would be irrelevant. We had a choice to either be happy or be advanced. Obviously we chose to be advanced. We formed civilizations, made rules, formed languages, and began researching. This was all in exchange for happiness. Maybe being happy isn’t the most important thing in the world. We disregard happiness in an effort to better ourselves and better our community. Although at times, it seems like we are only hurting ourselves. I think to say that we should live like monkeys is little too drastic. We have to take in consideration everything that we have accomplished in our happiness deprived lives.

Part 2
Every other animal is fine with what they are. They don’t know anything other than that they are alive. They don’t try to change themselves or to become something that they are not. That is true happiness at its core. As the narrator says, our consciousness is a curse. We are so self-aware that we are constantly worried about how we are being viewed by other people. This constant fear of not being accepted is the cause of many of our depressions or angers. If we were lucky enough not to have developed this strange consciousness then there is a great chance that we could all be happy right now. Considering all of our technological advances and our increased understanding of the world around us, one would think that we should be a very happy species. The truth of it is, the happiest animals on our planet or the ones roaming the forests and sleeping on dirt. They don’t have anyone telling them what they should or shouldn’t be. They just are.