It is going to be really hard to say everything I have taken away from this class because there is literally so much. I will start by saying that was my favorite class out of all of the classes I have taken at penn state, and will probably stay my favorite class. How a teacher can grab the attention of every person in 100 Thomas is beyond me, especially me who has the shortest attention span in all of America, props to sam Richards. The funny comments and the fact that I literally never knew what he was going to say is what kept me awake the whole time, besides the fact that the material was pretty interesting too. This class is full of material that kids our age would actually want to know about and learn. The stuff we learn is not something that were being forced to learn about for our major or blah blah (unless you are a sociology major I guess...) but it is stuff that is actually going to help us in the real world. Recitation was probably my ultimate favorite thing about the course because that is where I think I learned the most. 100 Thomas is so big and although anyone at anytime can get their chance to grab the mic and say whatever they want, a lot of people are too shy to do that. Recitation makes it so everyone will have a voice and gives them a chance to share their opinion. The stuff we talk about in recitation is also stuff that normally does not get brought up in casual conversation so its awesome we get to talk about that kind of stuff about race and double standards and basically anything under the sun. Material wise, I think what I will take away the most is the things I have learned about the Native Americans, and also jus the Middle East in general. I literally knew nothing before hand. I think I learned the most in one recitation class, it was right after Israel had attacked the Palestinians, we had two people in our class that were SUPER knowlegable on the subject, one because he is from Israel and still has family over in that country, and the other because he takes a class at penn state where he skypes people from gaza. Even though I sat and barely talked the whole time I learned so much because I just sat and listened. I don't really watch the news so this was pretty cool to just sit and listen to them explain to us what was going on. Over all i really loved this class. I would recommend it to anyone I know and im really glad that someone recommended it to me.

I definitely think i could kill another human being.. I am not some crazy person who is evil and wants to kill people but i definitely think that in certain situations i could most likely kill someone, but only if absolutely needed. I mean, there are many situations that would cause me to kill someone. The most obvious is if they killed one of my family members or close friends. ESPECIALLY if i watched it happen. But i am sort of evil and if someone killed a family member or friend i would probably want them to suffer so i probably would not kill them just injure them badly and watch them suffer and then send them to jail. Probably in any situation i would decide to just injure them really badly so they could rot in jail. If it was some mass murderer i dont think i would hesitate to kill them. I dont see why i would ever be in these situations but ill name a few that i would have no problem killing them.
For some reason, i'm in the same room as Osama Bin Laden (before he was already dead), sure, i would kill him.
Any other crazy serial killer is in the same room as me and i have a gun, sure i'd probably kill them or injure them badly.
Someone is attacking me and threatening my life, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
Someone is attacking someone else (who is innocent) i would step in a kill them so the person who is innocent wont have to suffer.
A crazy convict from the mental ward just escaped the grounds and is coming right towards me and it happens that i have a gun, i might have to shoot him.
But in all seriousness, i think that it would take a WHOLE lot of a threatening situation for me to actually kill a human being. I would only do it if it was last choice. It would probably be a rash decision adn i would just go for it because in reality if youre in a life or death situation there is probably not much time to think things through. I know i was saying id kill someone but im not some crazy psycho it would be tramatizing and i would probably have to go to counceling for the rest of my life. I also think that it would be easier to kill someone that you do not know entirely, becuase if you have the slightest connection to them guilt will set in. But like i said, ya gotta do what you gotta do. I'd rather not kill anyone in my life time, so lets hope i never have to.

So i would like to start off by saying (for future reference and classes in the coming semesters0 that i wish today's lecture was not just a previously recorded lecture on the big screen. I found it very hard to pay attention and i was struggling a little bit but i did the best i could. Especially because he said that a huge chunk of this specific class was going to be on the quiz, i think that it should have been done in person. I THINK that the question of the class was whether or not you yourself would join the insurgence if you were to be put in the situation or shoes of the Muslim people. I think that, before the class, i would have definitely have said no. And even before taking Soc 119 this semester in general i would have said no. But after listening to everything and opening your eyes to it, i think i would have to say yes i would join. I think that, before this class, i found it very hard to even remotely relate to Muslims. The thought of them in my head was always that they wanted to kill all Americans and stuff like that. Just generally bad stuff about their people. The media puts all of these ideas in the heads of Americans so that is what people believe, especially after 9/11. I think any good reputation or decent reputation that the Muslims had in the united states before 2001 was tarnished after September eleventh. And some Muslims may want to do all of that bad stuff, but not all. The tough part about putting yourself in someone else's shoes is that you have to completely forget everything you know and have learned and try to see through their eyes which is a complete 180 and a totally different standpoint. And before you actually try and see from other peoples perspective, you have to take the time and actually learn and understand what is going through their heads and their beliefs or else you will be doing it no justice. I think that that is why it would be so hard for an american to put themselves in a muslims shoes because they dont have the time or wouldnt bother putting the time into it because they just dont care enough. People have their opinions and they want them to stay their opinions and do not want anyone to try and change them. Like i have said in almost every single soc blog, i am so uneducated in anything overseas and what their religions are and policy's and regulation and whatever else. I would have to do some major research to even try and relate.

Being gay is absolutely not a choice. Sam is right by saying that people come up with ideas saying that it is a choice to somehow justify some thought they do not want to come to terms with. I think people say that for a couple reasons. For one, i think that people are so caught up in their own beliefs that they can not possibly think of why anyone would be any different. They are straight, and im assuming they were brought up in a straight household, because i dont think anyone who is closely related to anyone who is gay (or at least anyone who accepts the gay people that are surrounding them) would ever say taht being gay is a choice. But anyway, so they are brought up straight so obviously they think that being straight is the social norm and everything else is a choice to be different. I also think that for some people, who are really anti-gay, a lot of it is that they do not want to think that it could happen to their kids. Another reason is that some of those people could actually be gay themselves, and do not want to come to terms with it. So they CHOOSE to be straight, when they're actually gay. I think the only way you choose to be something is when you're being the opposite of what you truly are. For example, someone who is gay but pretends to be straight so they can be "normal", they are choosing to be something they are not. In class we read about that politician who based their entire campaign on fixing people that are gay or whatever it was. And Sam said that he is obviously gay. He is choosing to act straight by wanted to fix everyone who is gay just because he might not want to come to terms with the fact that he himself is gay. Currently in the FX show American Horror Story, it is based in the mid 1900's and it's based in an insane asylum. One of the main characters is in the insane asylum strictly because she is a lesbian. They try to zap her brain and do therapy to her to try and turn her straight but she says that it is not a choice and it can not be fixed because she had been that way her entire life. If thats what they were thinking in the mid nineteen hundreds, you would think that people would come to terms with the fact that it is not a choice and people are born that way by now. Hopefully very soon people will learn that it is not something people choose to be.

Abortion is for some reason a very touchy subject to me. I have never even been exposed to anybody close to me having an abortion and for some reason i have a very strong opinion about it. I am VERY pro choice. To me, it should be the girls decision whatever she wants to do. I think the thing that is touchy to me about it is how all these men in politics thinking they have the power to decide whether or not abortion is okay or not. They say getting an abortion isn't morally okay. But you have to look at it from all angles. If a girl is unprepared and unfit to be a mom, whether she is too young, doesn't have the financial support to do so, or any other reason that would make her unfit, she should not be having a child. Then people bring up the topic of adoption, which can be suitable for some people. Others, it is not suitable. Say a girl who is in the midst of her college career gets pregnant. I agree that if she doesn't want a child she should not put herself in that position and use better protection, but that is besides the fact. If she gets pregnant, and can not have an abortion, you might as well kiss her college career goodbye. And in this day and age, you need a college degree. If a girl is not fit to have a child, then she should not have a child. And she can make a decision to terminate the pregnancy. That is my stand against abortion in GENERAL when the sex is of mutual consent. When you add RAPE to the equation, my stance goes to the extreme. How could ANYONE in their right mind say that after a girl gets raped and gets pregnant, that she HAS to keep that baby. That every second she is pregnant and every second of that childs life is just a reminder of the bad thing that happened to her. I think that the idea of thinking of it as if it was someone close to you like your mother, or your sister, or any girl close to you, getting raped and pregnant is the only way to think about it. People, men especially, have all of these opinions about the issue when really it is kind of irrelevant to their life. Me personally, i think the ONLY boy that should ever have a say in anything is the boy who did it, MAYBE. And even then after he puts his input in, i do not think i would take it into that much consideration. It is all about the girl.

Okay so, for the first guy i think that that pose and straight face he is doing does not do him justice. I have seen his mannerisms and how he acts during class and him standing there staring at the camera is kind of misleading but i will just go off of first glance of the video. To be honest since he is not smiling i probably would not just approach him unless i had to. Nothing against him he just does not look very approachable. The second guy looks like he does not really have a care in the world. Just chewing on whatever he is chewing on and like Sam forced him to be in this blog video. The first two look like they could sit and listen to music together in their beats and have similar interests by the way they dress and how they like to style their hair and etc. The third girl looks preppy and smiley. I feel there is nothing much to say about her since she is in kind of plain clothes just a button up and a cardigan. I cant say how approachable or not approachable she is because If there is one thing i know it is that you cant trust a girl just by the way she looks. Once again, nothing against her. The fourth guy also just looks like a plain old white boy. Nothing much to say about him except that he blinks a lot. The fifth guy is also just plain wearing a hat way too far down his face. For the record i hate when boys do that it is dumb. I do not know why all of these boys think it is necessary to act tough and try to look mean or something. The variety of boys is not a very wide one they all just look pissy. The sixth guy is kind of awkward he is not really making eye contact with the camera. He is also trying to look tough for no apparent reason. Also very plain and i can not really tell by the way these people look what i believe or dont believe. Sam's wife is the only one i can actually give a guess to what she believes because she is actually showing emotion. She seeems very approachable and nice. Another reason i can guess this is because obviously if she is married to Sam she must sort of be like him. And, if she is anything like him, she is very cool and seems to be easy to get along with and hold a conversation with. All of the boys gave off the same general vibe that they just werent really interested.

After watching the videos and hearing the speech made by the native american man I was very taken back by the amount of freedom has been taken from them. Like most of the topics that are brought up in class, i was very unaware of how neglected and mistreated the native americans are. I am very uneducated on the topic of Native Americans, there are so many different types and "tribes" (i dont even know if that is politically correct to say). Watching the videos for quiz one i had a little insight on how native americans were mistreated but i thought that was just a certain group of native americans not native americans as a whole. The idea of somebody or a group of people would take our land from us is crazy. I cant imagine the series of events that would lead up to that. I would say that that is never going to happen but in this world who knows. I do not think it is going to happen anytime in my life or my kids life but further down the road who knows what history holds. The thought of being put somewhere else that is not our home and forced into poverty is apalling. The most shocking statistic was the one that most of the sexual and physical abuse caused to native americans was not caused by other native americans it was by OTHER races. Which means it is caused by the people who not only took away their homes and land but are now causing physical harm to these people. I can garuntee that the ancestors of these Native Americans would be absolutely surprised by what has happened to these people that didnt do anything to deserve this. These people need help. We need to put ourselves into their shoes. Everything i said before, people have to think about that. I'd say the current population is greedy and will stop at nothing, but that is just human nature. it has been like that since humans have existed. Every war fought over land. There is a little thing called karma in this world. What goes around comes around. And if karma truly does exist, the people who stole the land from these people will get their land stolen from them or soemthing worse. That fact that before this class i had no idea what was going on with the Native Americans is a problem. They are looked over and ignored and ultimately just forgot about. It was hard to listen to our guest speakers story. It is not a surprise that something will seem more real when someone in the flesh comes and tells you their story with heart and soul. My heart goes out to the Native Americans.

I think that there is a lot of issues surrounding supporting our troops and making sure they are taken care of whether they are currently fighting a war overseas or have already spent there time overseas and are now home and ready to keep going on with life. I think that the united states needs to do way more “Supporting Our Troops”. If anyone deserves to be taken care of it’s the people who risk their lives everyday for everything we have and take for granted. I think that unless you are directly related to someone who is in the service people don’t ever think about the troops. They are neglected and it is not okay. The statistic about suicide is actually absurd. I did not even know that that was a thing, I mean I knew people got post dramatic stress disorders and get sick from it but I had no clue the statistic was that high. Also its one thing to hear a statistic and be wowed by it and it’s a completely other thing to see someone in your classroom stand up and say that three people in his group of twenty something had committed suicide. It makes it more real life. I personally am completely against war. I think the idea of sending over troops to go kill other people is completely stupid and not something humans should do. I think that If I had to go overseas and kill people and see all of the things that they see I would be messed up too. Really thinking about it now I am not very surprised by the statistic. The fact that it is not a known thing and talked about is messed up. For the people who are against war and don’t support them being over there and don’t support them when they get back, they are already there. There is nothing you can do about it. They risk their lives to do the things most people could not imagine doing so everyone should show them some respect. The government and people of power who could actually make a change and do something about it need to step up and fix this. The little people in the world can only do so much, so the American government needs to do more things to help prevent these statistics not get any higher and actually make the statistic lower. To actually support the troops we need to put ourselves in their position. We need to stop overlooking them and thinking oh they made it home they are fine. That seems to be only half of the battle. The troops need to be supported when they are fighting our nations battles and when they are at home.

The question of whether or not we should have some sort of responsibility over people that have been born in certain circumstances that are less fortunate than us is very debatable. I think it actually depends on who you are talking to. On one hand, there is the more selfish side of the argument. One could say that it is not our fault that we were born in better circumstances than others. That we should not have to care for them and make sure they are okay and that it is not our problem. It is also not black and white in how we all have gotten to where we are. Some people that have gone from rags to riches and have worked so hard their entire life to get to where they are now can argue that it does not matter the circumstance you are born in, and that you make your own happiness and path in life. On the other hand, I think people who have been there and done that who were poor would feel for them more and want to help. I think a lot of people who are well off do help people who are in need often and feel the need to do so. I think that some people feel like it is an obligation to help people less fortunate to us because that is what good people would do. In my opinion, if I had money to give and i was well off, I would feel the need to take responsibility and help them out. Some people have so much money and have nothing to do with it. It sits in their bank accounts while they are living comfortably and well and other people are going to bed hungry or worse dying because of being so poor and cant provide themselves with proper living. I think people that are not educated and exposed to the life of people in poverty do not feel the need to help them because they just dont know how it is. And vice versa, when people with a lot of money are exposed to that kind of thing they jump at the chance to help people. I for one, when watching the video Sam sent us about the penn state kids who went to Haiti was appalled at their living situations. It is one thing to hear about things being so bad over there and a whole other thing to actually see it happening live. I dont see how anyone could watch those type of videos and not feel awful for their living situations and want to try and "take responsibility" or help those people out. I definitely think that we should take responsibility because while it is not our fault they were born in that situation, it isnt their fault either.

Well first of all, I would want to say that I thought it was hilarious. I find it so funny that most of us are all so clueless. I did not think having someone with a 4.0 had anything to do with being able to guess where some one is from though. I thought that was kind of irrelevant. I think that he could have picked someone with a 2.0 and that person would have had the same result as the girl with the perfect grade point average. But I also think that the guessing game was really eye opening. It is very alarming that so many of us are completely clueless. There are literally so many different ethnicities somebody could be. I am so sheltered that I could not guess one from the other if I tried. It made me realize how people could probably be offended by being called a different ethnicity because other people just assume they are something when they are not. For example, more than once to multiple people they were guessed as Chinese when they are in fact Korean Japanese or something else. I never have to experience anything like that because people can just tell that I am a white girl, but it made me realize that everyone who is not white probably gets generalized into something they are not. I am guilty of this, because anybody that looks Asian to me I sometimes just assume that they are Chinese and call them Chinese and that is not right. I feel as if other cultures could tell white people’s ethnicities better than vice versa. I don’t know if it is just me that I can tell whether or not someone is Italian or Irish or something else. I think that everyone in the world needs to become more educated on other races and ethnicities. I personally, if you showed me a map of the world, would struggle hardcore. I could not even tell you what country is where let alone telling where someone is from by the look of them. When he put up the map of all the Asian countries I was completely clueless that some of them even existed. The people that were guessing were looking up at the countries as if that would give them some sort of clue. I guess it would but i am just so uneducated on the topic it is not even funny. I am really glad I was not called up there because I would have failed miserably. I am just really glad I took this class because it is opening my eyes to all kinds of different perspectives. I truly learn something new every class and especially in every recitation class.