Question: Difference in feeling from 911 and the Boston Marathon Attacks.

Back when 911 happened I was still in elementary school; so I was too young t really understand the significance of the event. I still remember that day though. I got off the bus from school and my mom told me that planes flew into buildings in New York. I got home and my TV was on and I just saw the towers with smoke coming out of it. They had not informed us in school that this had happened so this was the first time seeing and hearing about. I knew that it was bad, but never knew had bad until the days that followed and all that was on the news was the attacks. I did not really know what the world trade centers were and what they did so that made it hard to understand how significant it was. After the attacks we started getting the death toll and I realized that it was very bad situation. Still, I was young so it never really hit me that hard.
Now, that I am more mature and older I can understand the significance that these terrorist attacks have on our country. I am more educated and more informed of world events going on, and because of this I understand the impact of these attacks. The Boston Marathon attack happened just a week ago, and they just caught the suspects two days ago, so it is still fresh in everyone’s mind. The two suspects were Muslim, which seems to be a trend in these terrorist attacks. It is a shame, because these are only a small group of Muslims that do these attacks, yet after they happen a lot of people think all Muslims think the same and all Muslims are to blame. I know now that this is not true and that a majority of Muslims would never think of doing anything like that. The attacks in Boston were tragic, killing 3 people, and injuring 180 others. Any terrorist attack on American soil is a tragic event. The death toll was not as significant as 911, but nonetheless it should be treated the same. One thing that results from event like these is our country really unites as one and we all put our differences aside to come together and support each other. It shows how strong our country can be and how in bad times we come together to overcome it. It is still scary that this Boston situation may not be over yet. We caught the two kids we think are responsible, but we still have to get information out of them. We do not know how big their organization may be, and we do no know if they have more attacks planned. Until all the information is out there, it is going to be an uneasy few days.

Question: What stops men from asking if a girl was satisfied after sex?

I think there are some men out there that will ask if a woman was satisfied after sex, but that is very small percentage of men. A majority of us just usually finish and do not really think to ask. I think most of us just assume that if she does not say anything, then we must not have done anything wrong. After class on Tuesday it seems like this is something that men should not assume. The statistics given in class were very shocking and showed that almost three quarters of women do not experience an orgasm. I knew that it was not going to be a majority of women, but I did not think that the number was so small. When it comes to men who do not ask I think that there are two different types. The first type is the man that is very cocky and think that there was no way the girl was not satisfied. They think that they are the experts and that there is no need to ask, because they assume the answer is yes. Then the other type of men is the man that is embarrassed to ask. I think that this is the most common type. No man wants to be bad at sex, and if they are, they do not want to hear that they are. Men are afraid to ask, because they are afraid to hear the answer. They think that if the girl says that she was not satisfied, then the sex was probably really bad, and that can kill a man’s self-esteem. I think men do not have to be the best at sex, but they want to at least be good enough to satisfy the women. With this said, it is hard for a man to know if he did satisfy the woman. Sometimes he may think he did but can never be sure. For women it is easy to know they satisfied a man. I think that since it is an embarrassing thing to ask for men, the women should say something if they did not enjoy it or not. In class Sam said that a women does not always have to orgasm to be satisfied, so it is so confusing for men to know if they are satisfying the women that they are with or not. Women should let the men know if they really did not enjoy it, because without knowing if its good or not, men can not know if they have to change what they are doing. This is a very interesting topic and an issue that is very sensitive to both men and women. It something that partners should get comfortable asking each other, so they can both satisfy each other equally.

Question: What can we do to help the poorest people in this country?

When we think about poverty many of us think the urban settings where there are a lot of homeless people, but also very poor people that still have a place to live, just not a nice one. A lot of people do not think of the suburban and country settings where many poor people also live. These people live in trailers usually, and life can be even harder on these people, because work opportunities are so spread out and far away that its hard to find and hard to get to. Many of these poor people cannot afford cars, so they have to walk to work. In class we saw the example of Tammy who lived 10 miles away from her job with no car, so she had to walk there everyday. Many people from the outside look at the trailer park people and feel bad for them and want to do more to help them. They feel though that because they are not in a position of power, they really cannot do anything to help, but that is not true. In class Sam said what we could to do help is to just not pass judgment onto those people. Surprisingly some of the poor people living in trailer parks are happy with their situation, and do not need people from the outside looking down on them and feeling sorry for them. We saw that Tammy was proud of how she was living, because she had a job and a place to live. She did not think that she needed anything more in her life. When I see that people could be happy living this way I agree with Sam that by not passing judgment, it could help, but this still does not help those who are not happy and want to get out of the trailer park. Tammy’s son wanted to go to college and make a better life for himself. The problem is that living in these poor areas, it is hard to get a good education, and that makes it hard to get into a good college. Then trying to afford college is a whole other story. He will have to take out a lot of loans that will make it hard for him to pay off. These people need a more help then just not passing judgment. I know we cannot do significant things because we are not in powerful positions, but we can help by donating our stuff to poorer areas so they have nicer things. Also donate textbooks and education materials, so they can try to better themselves through education. Its hard to do something very impactful, but the little things can help these people out in certain ways to make their lives just a little better. Maybe by getting little things, it can boost their moral and get them motivated to go to school and move out of the situation that they are currently living in.

Question: What does it mean to be in the middle ground of the Native American issue?

When it comes to the Native American issue in our country, the government must find a middle ground between solving the issue and completely ignoring the issue. Even though many people will think, “why don’t we just solve the issue completely?”, it can not just be that easy. If the government devotes a lot of time to helping the Native Americans, and helps them to a point where they are back on pace with the rest of this country financially, then other minority groups will start complaining, and wanting help for their people as well. In addition to this problem, the demands of the Native Americans may be impossible to fill now. If they want their land back that they lost, the government can not do that because most of their land now is turned into towns and cities where many people live. With all of this said, you cannot just completely ignore the problems that are going on in Indian Reservations. I never knew how bad it actually was until Sam showed us that video and talked about it in class. Half of the inhabitants live below the poverty line, and the unemployment rate is much higher then the national average. The average household income is only around $1000 dollars a year. This is by far the lowest income of any other minority group.
I am not really sure of what exactly led to this group of people to become so poor and to be living in such terrible conditions. Maybe it is the lack of help from the government, but how did they get to this point? For me the middle ground of helping these people is to give them job opportunities, and allow them to work to make some money and get themselves on pace with the rest of the country. I do not think that the government should just give them money directly, but I think they should create jobs and then have them work and give them money that way. This way they have to work if they want to be better off like every other American has to do. The answer is not to give them money. They may also want to at least fund a hospital in those reservations, because it doe not appear they have one, and maybe help with a school as well. This way they get an opportunity to get an education and get a better life. Our government spends a lot of money for aiding many countries around the world, but it seems that they have forgotten about this big problem inside their country. It’s a hard issue to solve, but one that requires some attention. They do not have to make it their main priority, but I think help is needed, and giving them some help, will improve their lives.

Question: How does affirmative action and nepotism affect the quality of jobs?

To understand how both of these things affect the quality of a job and work done for a job, you must first understand what both of these things are. They are both two different concepts, but are somewhat similar. Affirmative action is giving a person a job just based on the color of their skin. This does not mean that white people just get jobs because they are white; it actually is used for black people in most situations today. Companies that implement an affirmative action policy are usually doing it to become more diverse, and hire more minorities. The way affirmative action works is when there are two similar candidates and one is white and one is black, the black candidate will get the job. Nepotism is when a job position is given to a family member or close friend. Looking at both of these definitions, it can be easy to see that unqualified workers can be hired just because they are different. When this happens, the overall quality of work at a job place declines, because there are unqualified people handling the work. The best possible work can get done when you hire only the most qualified workers for your company. The problem is that sometimes a majority of these workers may only be white, which makes your company look somewhat racist. Affirmative action and nepotism are just two things that will continue to exist and not go away. In my opinion I think that both of these things may lower the quality of work in some situations, but not as much as I think others think it does. I will first start by talking about affirmative action. Yes employers are going to hire the person of color over the white person, but I believe that they only do this if both the candidates are equal in their capabilities. I think that affirmative action is used to decide between the tie. I do not think that employers will have two candidates where the white one is more qualified for the job and the black one lacks certain skills, but the give it to the black candidate because of affirmative action. This just does not make sense, because companies are always trying to look out for their best interests as well, and hiring unqualified people just does not make sense to do if there are more qualified candidates seeking the position. When it comes to nepotism, I believe that even though you are just hiring a family member or close friend, you will only give the person a job that you know they can do. You would not just hire the person for a position that you know is too challenging for them just because they are your family members. Usually the family member is at least qualified to handle the position given to them. I can use myself as an example. I will be working for my dads accounting firm this summer. I am going to school to study accounting and have basic business knowledge so my dad will give me work he knows I can do. My cousin that is working at my dads office is not a business major, so all she does there is pretty much shred papers. Overall I think that is affirmative action and nepotism are done the right way, the quality of work will not be hindered.

Questions: How have I benefited from being a white male?

I grew up in a wealthy neighborhood that is predominately white. There are very few families from other ethnic background. I’d say the second largest group of people behind white people would be Asians in my town. There are very little black or Hispanic families. Growing up and going through the school system their id have usually only a handful of black or Hispanic kids in my entire grade. My high school was shared with another town, but even that town was mostly white as well, so when I went to high school nothing really changed. There were still hardly any black kids in our school. Looking at this information, this is probably one way that I have benefitted from being white. My schools were all very good, and my high school was one of the best in the state academically. This means that I got a very good education just for living in my mostly white town. Black kids that grow up in less fortunate areas do not have access to the same kid of education that I got, which makes it difficult for them to advance on to a good college to further their education. My education allowed me to do well enough to get into Penn State, and my family can afford to pay for my school with no issue. I’m not saying that only black kids or minorities are subject to low education and not having the ability to pay for school, because many white families face the same issue. I’m just saying that me being white allowed me to comfortably fit into my mostly white town and mostly white school, which allowed me to get the education that I did. I have not yet entered the working world where I have to find a job and get promotions, nor have I had to apply for loans or anything like that yet, so I don’t know if being white will help me in those areas of life as well. From the things I have learned, it sounds like me being white will make doing these real world things a lot easier. Then me being a white male will make it just that much easier. I do not think that it is right that I will have an advantage over a black male or even a white female with the same credentials that I have. I would like to think that when I get a job and get a promotion, I actually earned it. I do not want to succeed in life because of my gender and skin color. Even though I have this slight advantage over others, I still work as hard as I can in school, and try to do the best that I can, because I want to know that everything I get in life I earned and that I was not handed anything.

Question: How has the fear of death affected me?

Death is something that is guaranteed in life. There are few things or events that will occur in ones life that will also occur in everyone else’s life on the planet, but death is one of these few things. Death does not discriminate against race or religion, it doesn’t pick and choose it just happens to everyone no matter what. The fear of dying is something that almost everyone has. We all live our lives as cautiously as we can without really thinking about it. We do things to try to avoid dying. I know for me like many others, the fear of dying has affected the way I live my life. I would love to prolong my life as long as possible. There is so much to experience and learn in this world and having your life cut short will stop you from experiencing this. I tend to stay away from things that are considered life threatening and extremely dangerous. I don’t like to live life on the edge. Things like skydiving do not appeal to me. I try to stay away from those activities, because I would rather be safe by not doing it, then try it and have something possibly go wrong. I take small risks sometimes, because if you live to cautiously you do not have fun. I have fun in life but I live more safely because of my fear of death.
When there is a fear of death, you have to find a way to cope with it, so this fear does not consume your life. I am catholic, and grew up catholic, so I believe in heaven, and use my religion to prepare for death. Using my religion and learning about heaven, is something that has helped comfort the idea of death. I do fear death but the fear is not so big that I think about it all the time. I know that if I live my life right and do the things I’m suppose to, then life after death is not going to be bad. People use their religions as a safety net to fall back on. Religion becomes very big as people start nearing the end of life and know it. When the fear of death starts to become a reality and you know that the end is near, you do all you can to cherish everyday, and usually you turn to your religion to help guide you to the end. The fear of death affects everyone in different ways. Some people do not fear death, and love to live life on the edge. Others fear death but embrace it knowing you cannot stop it, and then there are those to fear death so much that is consumes their lives. No matter how you feel about it, death will happen, and everyone will fear it at some point in his or her lives.

Question: What would you do or how would your life change if you found out God did not exist?

I grew up catholic and believing in the Christian God and in Jesus. My grandma was very religious and my mom now is pretty religious as well. My mom goes to church every day and gets very involved in the church. I’m not as religious as my mother or my grandmother. When I was growing up I used to go to church every Sunday, but now I only go for big holidays like Easter and Christmas. I may not be as religious but I still do believe in God and believe in my religion, because it is something that I grew up with. I went to catholic education classes when I was in elementary school, so I really learned everything about my religion. It is just something that I cannot stop believing in or change.
With that said, if one day the news came on and said that there was no God, it probably would not change my life or change my view of my religion too much. A lot of things claimed on the news cannot always be trusted and are not always accurate. Just cause news stations say there is no God, does not mean that people will start believing there is no God. There is no way for them to prove that there is or is not a God. Churches and all the other religious places in the world would continue to practice their religions despite what the news has told people. In addition to this, there is so many Gods out there that people believe in, that when the news says there is no God, people will just think that it is another religions God, not there God. Religious groups would be very angry at the news though and have something to say about it, but other then that things will continue to go on as usual I think after the news would die down. Religions are such big groups that have been around for so long, that even shocking news like this cannot bring them down. The news may change some people’s minds, because some people just listen to everything the news says and just believe what ever the news stations tell them. I don’t know how many people this would be. It may be a significant number it may be a small number. I know that I would not be one of those people who change their minds. The media is becoming more and more influencing on people today, so the news of no God may change a lot of people’s minds but I just do not think it would be a significant event that would change all religions. The religions are just too strong to be affected by news like this.

How will things be different when our generation is in power?

I think our country is moving more and more toward a lifestyle where race and sexuality is not going to be a huge issue like it was in the past. With the help of the Internet and other new sources of advanced researching, people are becoming more and more informed about other races and other types of people. This information has led to more comfort when in the presence of other types of people. Back in the day when our parents were children they did not have information available to them, but were also raised in a time where racism was more prevalent. This means that their racism was set in at a young age, so it is difficult to change their views. They based their information mostly on what they learned from their parents, which goes back even further, where racism was really bad. It was very traditional back then when there was no interracial dating and people in power were almost always white males. Over the past few years though, there has been changes to our culture. Now a days woman hold very powerful positions, and are CEOs of some very powerful companies. There are also people in power and in charge of powerful companies that are different races and religions. The biggest change came 4 years ago when a half black male became the President of the United States. President Barack Obama is the first person of color elected to run the country. In the same race a woman, Hilary Clinton, also attempted to run for president and almost beat President Obama for the Democratic nomination.
All these changes indicate that our country is changing and becoming more tolerant and more open to new things. A lot more open then our parent’s generation. I think within the next couple of years we will have a woman as President. With all of this said though I do think there will still be some racism and discrimination in this country. You cannot completely ever get rid of it. We are becoming more open but there will still be groups of people who do not have the same view. Very strong Christians will never be accepting of homosexuality, because it is written in the Bible as a sin, and the Bible will not change. We are slowly seeing some states start to allow for gay and lesbian weddings, but it will never be a truly accepting thing among all Christians. There are also still some members of the KKK still around. They may not be as strong as they once were but they do still exist, and their view will be passed on to their children. These things will still always be around, but overall things will change to be more open in the future. When our generation is in power I think people will be able to comfortably walk around in most places, just being who they are and not having to try to hide it.

Why I would not join the military.

Joining the military has just not been something that I have wanted to do even from a very young age. Some kids pretend to be in the military and shoot guns when they are young and I did do the same thing, but even then I knew that I never actually wanted to join. No one in my direct family is in the military and there was one uncle to use to be in the military but I am not close with him. Being in the military is just some thing that I never grew up around. It just was not some thing that someone told me I had to do or could do when I was growing up. I think because of this I grew up not seeing the military as something that great. Another factor that came into play is the fact that I am not a very violent person. I do not know if I would ever be able to kill a man when it came down to it. It is just not something that I could handle doing. I do not even like to get into fights with people so killing a person would be though. The third and final factor that comes into play with me not joining the military is the fact that I do not want to die. When you’re in the military the chances of dying do increase and that’s just something that I do not want to have happen. I love life too much to have it cut short.
With all of this said, I do appreciate all the things that the military does for this country and think that they are very brave for putting their life on the lines everyday to protect our freedom. Living in America would not be the same and I would not have the lifestyle I do if it was not for the solders out there fighting. I have a good friend that was in ROTC here at Penn State up until just recently when he decided to drop out and enlist to become a Ranger. For him the military was just something he was set on doing, and there was nothing else that he wanted to do. I respected his decision to enlist because I knew it was what he wanted. Even though I do not really agree with the decision, because I felt like he should have stayed in college and finished. I do not disagree with his decision to join the military just to not finish college. I cannot really say anything to him just because I do not know how it feels to want to serve that bad. Serving your country is something that is really honorable and respectful, and I respect all those that do it. It is just something that I would never personally see myself doing.