Me

There are different ways that determine the personality a person has. The four main ones are: birth order, heredity, parental characteristics, and cultural environment. Each is like an ingredient that is combined to make one big recipe. I guess I am a fruitcake after all. I am the middle child, or what some make call “the forgotten child.” The middle child as traits such as a peacemaker, independent, creative, attuned to others, and a “chameleon”. I guess I do like the feeling of being independent and not having people telling me how to do things. That’s one reason why I’m still single, I believe. I do try to help anyone who needs help, but I don’t see myself much as a peacemaker. If there’s any trouble or conflict, I try to stay out of it and walk away from it. I do believe I’m creative! I love writing because I feel like I can express myself better than actually talking. I like making stories and do a little drawing at times. I feel creativity is a big characteristic of mine and hopefully will help me find a job that will build on it more. As for being a social chameleon, yes and no. I will get along with anyone who gets along with me. I don’t care if you’re popular, unpopular, athletic, not athletic, purple or yellow, If you give me the time of day, I’ll do my best to give you mine. I have friends in different social circles and that’s okay.

            When it comes to heredity, I’m a mix of my parents. I’ve been told I look like my mom while others comment I look like my dad. I got my dad’s round face and eye color but other than that I see a lot of my mom’s traits, like hair color or how my eyes look. Both my parents are fairly average in height but short height is very common on both sides of the family and probably contributes to why I only stand 5’9’’. I was blessed with low metabolism that both my parents share but also blessed with good taste in food.

            As for parental characteristics; when I look at my mom and dad, I see some characteristics from my dad and more from my mom. My dad is an introvert which I identify as myself. He doesn’t really look for conversation unless he is approached. He will talk with you as long as you start talking. This is definitely me. He’s not very patient and neither am I. He’s not really good at comebacks or receiving what he dishes out and neither am I. Dad’s sense of humor is a hidden treasure, which I think I inherit some of it. As for my mom, I get her sensitivity, forgetfulness, care for others, able to perform in front of others, creativity, and able to know what’s right and what’s wrong. She also has a good sense of humor that is also embedded inside of me. If there is anyone who is feeling down or needs help cheering up, I will do anything just to make someone happy and smile. That is what my mom does best.

            And finally we have cultural environment. My mom is Catholic and has heavily influenced my religious beliefs. Ever since I was a baby, mom would take me and my sister to church. We didn’t have a cable when I was a toddler so my mom would read stories from the bible to me and teach me what Jesus was all about. By the age of five, I would be praying a rosary. Now that my dad converted to Catholicism, we are strict in a religious sense. Mom still makes sure we all get to church Sunday morning or even Saturday evening if we have to. Even though there are things I disagree with that the Catholic Church says, my mom thinks it’s all right. I believe that homosexuality is fine while she believes that gays go to hell. I asked her once what she’d say if I ever said I was gay and she would tell me to “get back in the closet.” As I grew up a boy, I was surrounded by mostly female. My dad worked a lot as a kid growing up so I hung out with my mom or my older sister. I was really close with my Grandma too! I feel that since I was around girls a lot as a youngster, I get along with a lot of girls. I’m not bragging because I get friend zoned by every single one, but I feel like I can relate to them easier than most guys could. I try to be nicer to them just because I know they can be a little more sensitive than boys. I remember if I made my mom cry when I was little, I would feel devastated and would try anything to cheer her up. I think moments like that really influenced how I help girls who are experiencing sadness.

            Out of all of these, which is most important? I think all of them are important. Each helps me shape who I am. It’s interesting how your personality is built on many different types of blocks. Many of it comes from your parents. I think it’s really important for parents to be there for their kids. I’m blessed to have great parents who took care of me properly and taught me good morals who made me…..me.

Happy Veteran's Day

First and foremost, I would just like to thank every veteran who have served their time in the military and courageously fighting to preserve our freedom. Without any of you, we wouldn't be the country we are today. Happy Veteran's Day!
Now onto the debate for today. Today's debate is brought you by the letter M. What are my thoughts on murder charges during a war? Lt. Clint Lorance was sentenced to twenty years for misconduct. He violated a rule of ceasing fire unless they have evidence of hostile action or intent. Clint ordered his band to open fire on three men on a motorcycle that was headed right toward them; not intending to stop. Not only did he get jail time, but his pay was forfeited and was dismissed from the military. Please free this man. All he was doing was protecting himself and his men from potential danger. Last time I checked, people die in wars all the time. Death is going to happen in a war. People are going to kill other people in the war. No, murder charges should not allowed in war situations. Protect yourself in any aspect before you get wrecked by your enemy. If were in Clint's situation at that moment, what would you do? Soldiers are under so much pressure during scenarios like that so it's their right to act upon whatever they might see as a threat. Honestly, I would probably tell my men to open fire if I felt as if they were intending to do harm on me. George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin because he thought he was a threat, but George was found innocent and is roaming the streets freely as we speak.
"Citizenship is a duty, not a privilege." Yes and no. We should be privileged to our liberties that we are all given, but it's not all fun and games. It is our duty to abide by the rules and try to keep good morals. We are obligated to do these things thanks to our troops. Hope everyone has a good Veteran's Day and God bless.

Racism

Racism is a man-made conception. It's an idea that we humans made up inside our minds to try to cover up our fears of different people by belittling them by calling them vulgar names or maybe even enslaving them to do their work. In the first article that was basically twenty paragraphs of intellectual insight, the author gives his view on racism and explain racism was an idea that man created when we started enslaving different races. Once the idea of slavery became a world-wide phenomenon, the idea of racism floated around into different parts of the world. Somewhere in his article he goes on to say how the concept of religion influenced the concept of racism. Religion is to believe in a set of deities and beliefs, which could be anything you want to believe. With the rise of Christianity, crusaders would go on to persecute the followers of Islam and try to conqueror the Jewish city of Jerusalem. Persecution is racism; it's the ill-treatment of a person, and in the case of racism it's the minorities. I could agree on the fact that religion helped shape the idea of racism because if you believed or practiced something different from the majority, you were persecuted. It's funny how religion is supposed to preach holiness and peace yet many wars and outbreaks of violence occurred due to religion.





In the second article, the author's main purpose is to tell us how racist America is. Our culture is made up of many racists. It just isn't prejudice against the blacks, but even Asians have been discriminated. Citizens of America are known to have passed laws that either ban or encourage discrimination against different races. In fact, we had to add Amendments to our Constitution just so we could attempt to keep everybody equal. Even though we have these Amendments, we are still a racist society. We are always putting unfair stereotypes on different races. I believe one of the reasons of this is how the media portrays them. Things like movies or the news can manipulate how we view people. It can also give people a fear that shouldn't even exist. For example, Blacks are unfairly stereotyped as thugs due to what television and movies show us. We looks at cases like the shooting of Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown and see young African American boys getting shot because the perpetrator had stereotypes in their mind about the media version of Blacks. You also see Islamic people being discriminated because a couple radicals who practice Islam decided to do unfortunate things on 9/11. We all now stereotype Muslims as terrorists due to this day. Just because a minority of a race do bad things doesn't mean the whole race should be oppressed. That's just how it is with every race.





The third and final article is basically what I hit on in the last paragraph. Media is always putting unfair stereotypes on different races. Media portraying different races wrongfully dates back from a long time ago. In fact, many movies and cartoons (yes, the things that young children watch) from the 30's, 40's and 50's displays many elements of racism. For example, a very popular cartoon that we've all seen and love is Tom and Jerry. Tom and Jerry was known to show many pieces of racism. The cartoon shows a black maid with a strong black dialect and showing low intelligence. Tom and Jerry also showed many scenes with "Blackface." Blackface was a popular thing back in the day that occurred in film and television. Blackface is when a performer puts on make-up to make them look black and then they act like the stereotypical black person. Around the 0:57 mark of this clip from Tom and Jerry, you can see an example of it. This is another good clip showing what Blackface was. Things have really changed as now we have evolved into a more politically correct state when it comes to what the media shows. Still, many of the things we see on television lead us to still believe in the stereotypes in races. We are shown African-Americans getting in trouble or illegal Latinos sneaking into America. The media brainwashes us into believing in these received ideas of races that we all fear and hate each other. Racism is the worst man-made conception to ever be made up and can easily destroy mankind.




We are racist because we are scared. We are scared of how different people can be. There is nothing wrong with being different but the fear of the unknown is what gets us hating on others. Racism is an idea. Just because your skin is a different color or your God is different from their God doesn't mean you should differentiate people. We are all humans! We all have feelings and ambitions! We all bleed red and are born only to die later and be covered in dirt! Even though we are all trying to end racism, how come we are still deeply promoting it? For example, when you have to circle in what ethnicity you are on a test or a form for employment. Does it really matter if your Asian or Latino trying to take the ACT or applying for a job or trying to get a driver's license? It shouldn't because the document that gave us freedom (Declaration of Independence) states in the second paragraph and I quote, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The only way we will stop racism is to stop viewing people as "black" or "white" or "Asian" or "Hispanic". Why can't we just look at the big picture and realize that we are all human. There are good and bad people in every race. We got to pull our heads out of our behinds and realize that sometimes we got to see the good in everybody. Not everyone will be a goody two-shoes and it's going to come with every race. Let's put our differences aside and finally realize that we are all humans and not judge people unfairly because that's what racism really is.




I would like to share this video of Morgan Freeman's solution to stop racism. Very intelligent man that I agree with completely. #Freeman2020

Welfare?

Eduardo Porter of the New York Times wrote an opinionated article about our welfare system in the States. In his article, he lists his opinions and beliefs about it. He believes that there's a lot of stereotypes about welfare. Some of the things included:

• Welfare encourages bad behavior
• Poor people only buy things like alcohol & drugs
• Reduces work
• Single mom are one group that are on it (Welfare Queens)
• The recipients are lazy 
• It only teaches that money can be handed to them easily
• It's not really effective
• It's easily taken advantage of

Reagan was against poor people using welfare programs to escape their poverty. He believed that they abused the programs and were just waiting for their check in the mail but never went out to try to find a source of income. Two presidents later Bill Clinton would go on to propose an act known as PRWORA (Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act) in 1996. This was a component added to the welfare legislation so it would encourage welfare recipients to go out and seek employment. Clinton said this was, "the end to welfare as we know it." Obviously, both these guys, even though they share many different views, tried to come up with solutions that would prevent many of the needy to stop using welfare as relief.


I agree with the views these men have on welfare. I can see where welfare could possibly be a victim of abuse. If people are only use welfare money just so they can go buy a pack of cigarettes or some alcohol, then they are not using it the way it was intended to be used. I agree that people who are applying for government assistance need to go through background checks or drug tests so we can find out if the recipient will actually use it for help or just to help it's habit for drugs or alcohol. I can also see where people will sign up for it just because they might be a little "lazy" to actually go find another job, but that could be a small portion of recipients. Some people actually do need the help in order to feed their kids or put clothes on their back, so the idea of assistance shouldn't be eliminated from society just because a small group of receivers of welfare take advantage of the system. We all need help and the people that really need help should get some!

Civilized or Savage?

Monsters do exist. There not the big, hairy creatures that hide under your kids' bed or maybe camps out in the closet and watches you slumber. The monsters that exist are the humans that are all around us and who we interact with everyday. Humans can be scarier and even more mean than any stereotypical monster. Every human being all have qualities that might scare other. Each human has differences that may make someone uncomfortable. It's kind of like going back to norms and stereotypes and how each stereotype group together because they are most comfortable with those qualities in a person. We can be mean to people who are different and only accept the ones who bring comfort. We are monsters. The monsters live within ourselves.

If we can't separate our civilized self from our savage self, which one will take over? As human beings, we have the conscious mind to decide how we act. We can act well-mannered and what society accepts or you can act as a complete beast and follow your darkest desires that lie deep inside of you. We all want to do what we desire, but sometimes our desires are not acceptable. It all depends on what type of person you are. If you got desires within yourself that are more savage, then your savage side will most likely be more apparent. Hopefully there isn't feeling you have that would turn you into a beast, but sometimes people are not what they seem.

We can all be a savage at times. Bullying can be looked upon as an act of savagery. We don't rip our bullied apart physically but we rip them apart mentally, leaving them scarred emotionally. Like I said earlier, we as humans are all monsters. It's just a matter of time where civilization will be all types of screwed.  
        

28th Amendment

I, Sam Sanderson, would like to propose an amendment to our Constitution. This issue is argued all the time and is a huge issue in our society. This issue I am talking about is abortion. I believe that abortion is completely wrong no matter the circumstances. As an American citizen, I believe everybody deserves a chance to live even if you haven't been born yet. It's sad to think that unborn will never be able to breathe life due to abortion being legal. Abortion is murder! It's killing an innocent life form without it even knowing what a life is. If I stabbed somebody with a syringe of poison and stabbed someone with it, killing them, I would probably be labeled a murderer. That is what an abortion is.


Abortions effects the carrier physically and emotionally. Women tend to feel sick afterwards when they get an abortion. Symptoms include stomach pains, vomiting, nausea and bleeding. Women also tend to find their menstruation cycles inconsistent and not in a pattern like it should. It also tends to disappear on occasions for 4-6 weeks. Cervical and back pain is also felt. Not only does it affect the person who got the abortion physically but it also affects them emotionally and also the people around her. Many feel guilty and some suffer from PAS (Post-Abortion Syndrome). Studies show that some women get depressed and tend to starting drinking and doing drugs to get away from their guilt. Trauma, sleep problems, and eating disorders are also common. What is the point for all of this?


Abortion just isn't worth it. I know people can argue the case that people who have been victims of rape should get a pass, but I believe that even though rape is unfortunate, it should not give anyone the excuse to destroy the life of an unborn. The 14th amendment actually states that the woman has the right if she wants to bear a child or not, but the only choice that should made is life. This amendment should read as follows, " Abortion is murder and shall be considered illegal. The 14th Amendment statement that states that women have the choice is no longer valid. Abortion will be treated as murder and all abortions will be treated like murder at the court of law."


"Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." -Jeremiah 1:5

I Plead the 5th & 10th

The 5th gives rights to the accused. You do not have to testify against yourself and can't be tried twice for the same crime. This amendment is known for the one that gives you the right to remain silent. It also protects private property being taken by the government.You've probably heard people say "I plead the fifth" before. This amendment was introduced on the date of September 5, 1789 but the idea of the fifth amendment states back to 1215 document Magna Carta. The Founding Fathers created this amendment so all the accused has rights and protection, unlike how the British treated their way of crime and investigation. This amendment is still heavily used today because we still have a court system and people go to court everyday. People are not being tried two times for the same crime just because the government may want different results. This amendment is over 200 years old yet it is still very important.

Our 10th amendment is based of the concept of federalism. It states the Federal Government has powers that the constitution gives while the remaining powers remains with the states and the people. This would be the last of the Bill of Rights. It was ratified December 15, 1791. It was created to fend off anti-Federalists and their intellect and persistence. Just like any of the Bill of Rights, federalism is still used today. Our government is based off of a federalism platform.

BARNGA Q&A's

If you could describe the game in one word, what would it be? Frustrating

What did you expect at the beginning of the game? I expected a clean and fun game where we would all have fun and enjoy ourselves.

When did you realize that something was wrong? When people started pointing at things, looking all confused and infuriated.

How did you deal with it? I just did nothing and accepted the fact

How did not being able to speak contribute to what you were feeling? I felt frustrated and wanted to say what is wrong and what is right.

 Is my title above appropriate for the game of "culture."  Why or why not? Yes, because different cultures are hard to understand sometimes and we get confused and flabbergasted by them.

 Is a universal language and set of customs necessary for world peace and harmony? Yes. We would all have to believe the same customs and speak the same way in order to keep peace with everyone. However, we are all different and raised differently therefore world peace is unlikely to be achieved.

 What can a simple card game teach us about our culture? We are only tolerable to customs the majority follows. We are impatient with differences and are hard to accept new norms. We must learn to be patient with one another if we ever want to achieve world peace.

Bacha Bazi a.k.a. "Boy Play"

You think you know a person, especially if their your allies in an ongoing war on terrorism. According to this article, the Afghan police force practices what is known as "bacha bazi" or translated in English as "boy play". The Afghan police officers or even army commanders take boys back to their base and sexually abuse them. Even though we Americans may find this barbaric and very risqué, it's only a normal practice in Afghanistan. Quite a different practice that their police or army demonstrate compared to ours. Even though many our soldiers would like to interfere and try to do something about it, they can't. In fact, our soldiers have been ordered not to intervene at all! Our soldiers are there to fight against terrorist groups like the Taliban and not some ribald issue.


In America, any type of child abuse is a huge issue. Of course as Americans when we hear a story like this we are appalled by this type of behavior the Afghan forces exercise. We are all probably wondering why we haven't tried to at least try to step in and stop such conduct. Even for me, I wonder how a soldier of the U.S. just doesn't do anything about it. Sure, they are following orders which is very important and shows great grit, but with an issue that has become more widespread in our motherland, how come we are just letting innocent children get abused? We are told not to intervene because that would mean we would come between the Afghanistan way of doing things. We would be disrupting something that the Afghan culture believe is the right thing to do. Our soldiers fight everyday to preserve our freedom and keep our way of life intact. If soldiers are trying to keep our way of life and everything we believe is right, why would they do that to our allies? It would be hypocritical of us otherwise. Don't get me wrong, I believe what the Afghan forces are doing to those kids is absolutely wrong in so many ways and do not agree with it. However, as an American citizen, I understand that it's acceptable in their culture and there's nothing I can really do about it.

Lord of the Flies

Dear Aunt,

I'm trapped with a bunch of English boys on a remote island. Our plane carrying us was shot down and now I'm trapped, but alive. There are some interesting kids on this island. The first boy I met on the island was Ralph. Ralph is fair-haired and seems to be the voice of reason and leadership on the island. I found a conch shell and Ralph blew into it and all the other kids came out from hiding. We now use the conch for calling all boys to order for a meeting or if there is food. During meetings, the one holding the conch gets to speak while the others have to stay silent and listen. Anyways, lines of choir boys and a kid named Jack protruded from hiding. Jack is a jerk and is always making fun of me for being overweight and having asthma. Jack seems to represent savagery and is responsible for gathering a team of boys to hunt for food and keep the signal fires going. Simon is a well-mannered kid and is very spiritual and peaceful. He tends to help the younger group of kids around the island.

Since we are trapped here for a questionable amount of time, we tried to set up a type of civilization. We elected Ralph as the leader to Jack's dismay. All Jack wants is power and is just savage. Both boys each have groups that follow their ways since both have different views on how to run a civilization. Ralph preaches on building shelter and finding what we can do with what we got. Jack on the other hand focuses on hunting and violence. Since his crew is the one's in charge of hunting, Jack vows that he will kill a pig that keeps escaping from him and his band of boys. We tried to start a fire on a mountain to signal for help. We reflected the hot sun's heat from one of my glasses lens and we had a fire. However, the fire did not last long. Fire tends to be a symbol of a start of civilization but we are using it as a distress signal. Nights tend to get scarier for the little ones. They keep thinking the vines on the trees are snakes, or "creepers". They are just frightened and their minds are deceiving them. Not only that, but now they are believing that their are beasts that live amongst us on the island. Maybe so, but maybe it's just us. Maybe we are the beasts that everyone is afraid of.

Hopefully we will be found soon before everything becomes chaotic. Ralph and Jack's differences are becoming more apparent and are straining how we work together. In fact, we already lost a kid and it seems like I'm the only one that cared. We all shrugged this off as if it never happened. Nobody takes me seriously. I'm making you proud Aunt, I'm always saying words of wisdom that you say but nobody listens to me. It seems to me I'm the weakest link. I just hope I make it out alive.

                                                                                                 Sincerely,                                 
                                                                                                              Piggy

Micro/Macrosociology & Lifeboats

We did a little experiment in our Sociology class regarding who would live and who would parish if there was a group of twenty people and you could only save nine. A majority of us decided to keep the youngest of the bunch or females. Our society values youth and anything appealing to a gender. In this case, since most of our class is made up of the male species, many good-looking women on the list of people were saved. I believe that if our class was more female dominated it would be the other way around.

Microsociology is looking at the small picture of sociology. It mainly focuses on human beings, the roles they play and how they interact. This includes how they interact with other people, conditions and the environment. Macrosociology, on the other hand, focuses on bigger things. This not only includes human interaction but war, poverty, and distress in other human fields are also looked at. Both of these branches of sociology help us understand more about how humans function as an individual or as a unit in our big world.

How does this stuff tie with the lifeboat. I guess it all comes down to being judgmental as a human race. There are so many stereotypes and cliques that we are all caught up into that everyone has a different opinion on who should leave and who should die. As humans, we only interact with the people they make feel comfortable and not to the people that we believe may pose as a threat to our stereotypical minds. In this case, if we are not aware of their background and personal life, we started judging the cover instead of reading the whole story. We judge the people, and we make our decisions based on what our censorious minds tell us to do.

Empathy & Sociology

We watched a video of Sociologist Sam Richards preaching about stepping into other people's shoes and feeling empathy for others. Sometimes we are too selfish and only care about how we perceive things and not step into the shoes of the other person's point of view. An example Mr. Richards gave is a couple of Iraqis who were captured by the American Army during the Iraqi War. The two Iraqi men were captured for retaliating against our forces. As Americans, we probably think, "Yeah, that's good that we captured those radicals! They deserve it everything given to them." Now take off your 100% Patriotic shoes and step into the shoes of an Iraqi citizen. How do you feel now? You probably think, "They tried fighting for what they believed in and that trying to retain our independence. What brave men." They have the same viewpoint that we Americans have of our Armed Forces. There really isn't a difference. It really made me think.




We look into the big picture and we all try to figure out how we fit into it. The world is like one big sociological puzzle. We are one small piece out of seven billion. When are we going to step out of our shoes and figure out what is our purpose in our society? In my short time I have spent alive, I really never pondered that question. You learn about many figures in History class and how they all impacted others with their leadership; for example MLK or Roosevelt. Could we ever achieve a special legacy like these historical figures engraved in history? The chances of everyone to leave such an impact on the lives of millions is slim, but sometimes you don't need to be a revolutionary or president to leave a great significance behind. You could be a doctor or a teacher and one day when you're gone, people might still recollect about how great of person he/she was and how they touched the lives of the people they worked with or how great they were at their profession. If you leave a positive mark on the people you got to share the circle of life with, you will leave a legacy worth cherishing. It all starts by showing some empathy.


There's a few instances in my life that I have put on other peoples' shoes. Every time someone tells me a problem they might have or when someone is having troubles and they come to me, I open my ears and listen to them. I try to put myself in their shoes and try to feel where they are coming from. Sometimes when you show empathy to others who are sad or mad, it makes you feel good about yourself and knowing you're doing a really good thing. One of the best feelings I could ever feel is cheering up someone and putting them in a good mood when they were feeling down. Not only does it make someone happy, but you also feel happy you made someone's day.




I see myself fitting into the big picture of society as a regular citizen of the United States who will hopefully someday be remembered in a positive way by the people I was grateful to share my life with. I could be a teacher or a journalist, maybe a business mogul or garbage man. Heck, I could be a bum on the street, but I just hope someday when I'm gone, I will be remembered as an optimistic light, as an empathetic individual. That really matters to me.