This is a tough question, because it's awful to want a hospital to turn someone away when this person is in need. However, I feel as if ILLEGAL immigrants should not have the advantages actual citizens have. It just wouldn't be fair. I mean, every citizen of the United States must pay taxes, and my biggest issue with illegal immigrants is that since they are, in fact, illegal, and not documented, they neglect to pay taxes. Our taxes pay towards healthcare, and towards other government functions, so I just feel as if they would be completely benifitting from health care services, without ever paying towards these services. Now, I am not going to claim I know anything about what illegal immigrants do for our economy, good or bad, because I don't. I am simply stating the unfairness regarding taxes which illegal immigrants do not pay, obviously, because they are not citizens of the United States on paper.
My thought on the South Park controversy, is that it is a television show aimed to make fun of people, all people, and that the Muslim group needs to lighten up. Honestly, people can CHOOSE to take offense to things, just as easily as people can CHOOSE to ignore things, and shrug it off. South Park pokes fun at almost anyone and anything. In my opinion, If a group of people choose to watch the show and listen to other people talk about the show, and later take offense to it, this group of people needs to realize that it was their own choice to turn the program on or listen to people discuss it in the first place. The main point is, South Park is a television show that makes fun of everything, everyone, and any group, in every episode. I can't say it ever singles out a group or religion enough to actually consider it offensive.
Though I would never switch places with him, ever, I am still jealous—and I think most people should be jealous. I doubt many people will find the meaning of living life like this man did, and I don’t think other people will excel as he did. And I know that sounds weird because, well, he is in jail—but he also has the opportunity to think and live without the influence of society and parents and expectations and whatever else it may be that we, living outside of those stone walls and barbed wire, may never get.
These men have come to the realization that they are in a prison for life, no matter what, and instead of living miserably, they chose to find compassion—to discover an understanding of others that they would have never before discovered. Honestly, I feel like this man knew he was going to be locked up in a cell, and that he would only see the outdoors from within barbed wire and stone walls, and yet, he put that all behind him. He just seriously put that behind him, and realized life can be life from within walls, and outside of walls—but compassion and comfort and friendships, will never have boundaries. Where there was once hate, he found love, because he probably discovered that there is no point in hate in life. I doubt any normal person living in our society would ever come upon that same realization.
I think even the fact that he agreed to write something for the class, and over all things he could have written, he chose to write about these moments of compassion he both witnessed and experienced, just absolutely speaks. I feel like the people in that jail, from his story, have truly found themselves, the “themselves” that they wouldn’t be if they were never in jail. I mean, they are trapped in the same place for the rest of their lives, and see mostly the same people, for the rest of their lives, yet these inmates can still witness and experience compassion? It is truly remarkable.
I just think it is so amazing that a man who committed such an awful crime as murder, is capable of speaking about compassion in the way that he did and even giving compassion for that matter. It seems like he sees the world through a much deeper lense than most of us, and I'm assuming the reason for that must have some correlation with the fact that he does not have as many restrictions as we do. That might sound weird, considering he’s locked up—but just think about it. He already made the biggest mistake he could, and has been taken, in a sense, out of a society which may have previously hindered his way of thinking. He’s free of all of that now, even though he is locked up.
So yeah, this lecture was very informative, very challenging, very--entertaining. However, it was probably my least favorite lecture, simply because I just really did not enjoy realizes that most of what I thought, was wrong.
Anyways, this lecture rocked, but it was just kind of hard to hear, you know? It was like hearing about the terrible conditions in which the Native Americans live in today, because our ancestors stole the Native's lands. It is just something everyone suspects as the truth I guess, but does not want to actual hear. I would like to think that the United States is one of the best countries to live in--the land of the free right? And I would like to think that we treat other countries and other people with the same respect as we treat our own citizens. I would also like to think that our government had an actual, legitimate, understandable reason for declaring war on Iraq; A reason without other true hidden agendas.
Now I really don't understand this oil thing--and I wish someone who did would really fill me in. I understand that we acquired oil from Iraq, but don't we pay for it? I didn't think we just stole Iraq's oil, and "invaded" the country for its natural resources. But, like I said, maybe I'm wrong. Regardless, it is the Iraq's oil, and the people of Iraq should have a say in the distribution of the natural resources beneath their own feet. So, even if we were buying oil, I guess if Iraq decided it didn't want to sell to us anymore, that we would have to accept that, because it isn't our oil to control.
I thought this lecture was very informative, but I actually hated it. I hated it because I realized most of what I thought about this war was wrong. And it sucked to actually have to confront that. Sam forced us to put ourselves in the shoes of Middle Easterners, and see things from their prospective--and I hated doing that, because I realized that everything they have done that I thought was so wrong, they did for a reason. And moreover, this reason, I actually UNDERSTAND now. I mean, I don't know a lot about the War in Iraq, and I will never claim to be a knowledgeable individual when it comes to discussing the war, and why it happened. I guess I just assumed we declared war on Iraq because they flew planes into our twin towers, and killed thousands of our people. This pissed me off--and I totally supported declaring war on terrorists. But the thing is, we didn't just declare war on terrorists, we declared war on a country full of innocent, non-radical individuals--because of A COUPLE terrorists, and for oil apparently.
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Brainchild