"ME" Project

First of all, heredity affects me in the ways of athleticism and math I believe. Whenever it comes to doing anything with mathematics it has always come fairly easily to me if I just have someone explain the concepts to me I will catch on very quickly. Since my father is good with accounting and mother is a math teacher I think that has to be a reason that it is one of my strong suites because all three of her children were advanced in the subject. Also since both of them acquired degrees at 4 year colleges it makes sense that all three kids plan to follow in those same footsteps. As for athleticism sports has gone back all the way to my grandpa playing both basketball and football so I know that I have gotten some of the traits for being an athlete from heredity passed down through the generations.

Secondly, birth order influences me in many positive ways. My brother has always been a major part of my life because we shared a bedroom for about 15 years and he has been a great positive influence for me. Whatever his favorite teams were growing up I grew to like them just because he liked them and now I still continue to like all those teams. And I have always been more outgoing and social than my brother as most everybody can tell, but my sister is a different story because she is extremely outgoing and is also smart. I also like to believe that I am a risk taker because I like trying new things and to test the boundaries sometimes. I have learned a lot of my life skills just by watching my older brother and sister live their lives.

Thirdly, Parental characteristics have affected me because I was born when both my mother and father were in there mid-thirties and they had good discipline but they also had a good amount of freedoms too. They have pushed me to be religious in the Lutheran church body and have brought me to church for my entire life and enrolled me in Sunday school and confirmation. Both of my parents are in jobs that help people to better themselves and to grow people in different ways of knowledge, and both my brother and sister are going to school to try to help people. My parents have always pushed me to do my best in everything that I do, and if something does not come easy to me I have to try a little hard and push myself to succeed. They also did not force me to do anything that I absolutely did not like. And I can say that I was kind of babied as a child because I could bother my siblings and then I would cry or complain when they got me back and they would get in trouble with my parents. So you could say that I got my way a lot when it came to fights with siblings.

Lastly, the cultural environment that I have grown up in has been extremely friendly and accepting. Being citizen of Langford is like being in one giant family, because everyone knows who you are and you know who everyone else is. With an environment like this when you make a mistake or a bad decision everyone will know but on the other hand, if you do something good in or for the community you will get recognized by everyone in the community. So with all of that being said there is a lot of pressure to be good most of the time.

All of these are major factors to how a person grows up and what kind of person they will grow to be. All of these instances have different effects on everyone’s personality.

Vetrans Day Blog

What are my thoughts on murder charges during a war? I feel that unless you see something that could be a direct threat or see a sign or symbol that could be a threatening group seeking to do harm to you or your comrades, you have no right to harm someone. But on the other hand, people like me would not know how to react until we have been in there shoes or been there. Civilians cannot speak out about instants like this because they have no idea what this individuals have seen from gunfights to bombs blowing people to pieces right in front of them, all you are thinking about is survival.

When all of our servicemen come back from there will be people waiting to protest them because they want peace, when in reality, they have no idea what they are yelling about. They think they are doing well for countries and people, but in reality, this men and women just got done seeing some of the worst images that people could imagine. These people risked their lives to make sure other people of the earth are kept safe, the last thing they need or want is to be protested. This is where the quote "Citizenship is a duty, not a privilege" comes into play. The protesters or the American soldiers should be ashamed to protest our own troops. Our soldiers have given us freedom as citizens for over 200 years. If anything our troops need support coming back from war.

Racism

Article I

After reading the first article, and seeing all the main points on whether or not racism is a universal idea or a western idea, I have come to the conclusion that it became a larger controversy shortly before and during the periods or African slaves in America. Before in ancient cultures, all people of all colors could be slaves and there was no racism involved in the determining factor who was, or who became a slave. Slaves were used for trading, bargaining, and also sometimes used as a currency. The term racism evolved from the fact that Great Britain used slaves as a trading tool to America, and only the black people were slaves and no other races were. In my personal opinion I believe that racism is a western idea because it started with the African people being used as slaves. Based on their skin tone, which could be due to the evolution of cultures and people as a whole. As it stated in the article, the term “slave” is branched off of Slav which is a group of lighter skin toned people. Over the years random groups would be selected for slavery, and specifically in the most recent years the African people. People that think racism has always been in this world are semi-right, but it has been on small scale levels, there have always been races of people that are inferior to other races. There are certain traits of individuals and people in general that make it difficult to avoid being judgmental towards groups of people.

Article II

This article states that all people are racist, and even though we do not like to think we are, we all have a voice in the back of our head that judges people that look different from us. As much as I would like to deny this, I cannot. I feel terrible about it but there are stories that you hear about people getting beat to death in inner city ghettos, and I bet the first thing that come to you is a group of black gangsters. And when I would tell you there are illegal immigrants all over the place in the southern states of the America, at least 90% of people would think Mexicans right away, but there could be people of races trying to cross the border, it is just all of the prejudices that we create in our heads. And there are also positive prejudices in the United States too, or generalizations like white people can’t jump, or all Asian people are geniuses. Racism can also be contributed to isolation of different races. Like in larger cities there are black neighborhoods, China town, and suburbs which usually consist of white people. With the separation of people throughout the world and all the different division of people, racism will be around until all of the world become a melting pot and all people look the same because they have children together to make a one race society and you cannot tell the difference because everyone has the same skin tone.

Article III

Racism still exists in the United States, and our country is still suffering from the fallout of slavery and the Jim Crow laws. The separation of races in our larger cities is more than noticeable. Our society has created racism and racial problems. One of the worst things for fueling racial problems has become the mass media. With the growth of the media, it is easier for people to hear heinous acts of terrorism due to racial difference. Like a white cop shooting a black teenager, even if the teenager was a major threat to the police officer. The major stories like this make it all the easier for people to become racist and form opinions on a race as a whole. The article states that all people should be judged on what kind of people they are and if it comes to a job setting, what kind of work they perform. That is the ideal way of thinking, but no matter what, there will always be racism. It is a part of vocabulary now, and as long as the media stays at the strength it is at its present state, racism will be around. It is so simple for people to turn on a television, or open up a computer and see a racially motivated story. Our society started out with racism since the beginning, and overtime the strength of it has grown and became a major downfall for our society.

Conclusion

I believe that racism is a Western concept because in times before there was slavery but it did not matter what your skin tone was or what you did, if you were a slave you were a slave and you would be sold and traded among people. Racism is a byproduct of the media. The media can blow up a racial story all over the country with the push of a button and all of the sudden it will start racial controversy all over the United States. Racism was started in Great Britain when they used African people to trade with and gain goods for their own benefit instead of selling slaves of their own people like it was done in ancient times, if it was not for the British racism may not have become as popular as it is today. I believe that because the mass media became such a major part of our society, it grew in every part of the world. Due to this reality, yes racism is everywhere because it makes top stories for news and it allows networks to receive the best rating and they could care less about the fallout that it could cause in towns like Ferguson where they twisted the story for dramatic effect and all of the people of the community were outraged and started to destroy the community because of the bad choices and actions of a couple individuals in on moment on one day.

Welfare

Truths	Myths
People live the same length of time	Children have improved nutrition
Welfare could make people lazy	Welfare makes people more motivated
Many democrats don’t support it	Democrats are the only supporters or welfare
Can’t afford shot or medical expenses	Long life because better medical care
People on welfare don’t have a lot of money	People with welfare have a lot of money
They are more likely to behave badly on welfare	They use the money for good
Could have a job but not enough income	Won’t have a job with welfare
People use it for what they want	People use it for necessities

 

Reagan claimed that the Government spending was out of control and without the lowering of government spending we will never progress as a country. He stated that is a necessity for American Economy to have a larger sum of money to create more opportunities to become prosperous. After a tax cut there was promising signs that it could be better in the future. Some of the decisions that he was making at the time to make it better in the future could be affecting the governmental flow. Because he believed that government spending was too high. Reagan cut down the budget which could possibly affect some of the roads or government lands because the budget is not as great.

I like Clinton’s bill because it limits the number of people that use the welfare program and do not work because it is free income. And it also limits the number of years you can receive money from welfare programs which will also save the government a good amount of money. And Clinton’s plan also states that you must have a job or be employed in order to receive government money. This prevents people from milking the system and helps people to get on their feet instead of just using that money.

Civilizations

2)      The savage will take over the civil part of us, because the nature of the human is to survive. If there is a threat or an opportunity to survive you will take it. Savagery is based on instincts and if you let your instincts take over, the savagery will overpower the civil nature and you would do things that you otherwise would not do. The savagery is in all of us and as soon as there are no laws are rules the savage will come out, instincts will kick in and you will do absolutely anything to stay alive and survive. The beast and savage is in all of us and we will not know what the feeling of going into survival mode would be until we are put in a situation when it would be necessary. It is impossible to know how the body and mind would react no matter who it is, and being on the island in Lord of the Flies you would have to factor in the thirst and hunger that these growing children were experiencing.

3)      I think that society controls people but in return people also control society, because without people there would be no society and it would be complete anarchy. Without the society to the people it would be reckless and no one would be able to control themselves or other people. There would be no morals or no way to know what is right or wrong. So for humans to survive we need society, it keeps everybody sane and in line. And without society it would be one big world of Lord of the Flies and eventually we would kill off our own race because we have such a jealous nature and always trying to be better than the next person.

28th Amendment

If you are convicted of 1^st or 2^nd degree Murder, you shall be put to death by firing squad. If you are convicted of 3^rd degree murder, life in prison with solitary confinement. If you are convicted of 4^th degree murder, 25 to life with chance of parole. If you are convicted of manslaughter or vehicular homicide, 10 to 25 years in federal prison.

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

What did you expect at the beginning of the game? It to be fun.

When did you realize that something was wrong? When Wendy was yelling at me.

How did you deal with it? Threw cards at her

How did not being able to speak contribute to what you were feeling? It frustrated us even more

 Is my title above appropriate for the game of "culture."  Why or why not? Yes, because it shows what little communication and rules and laws are different.

 Is a universal language and set of customs necessary for world peace and harmony? Yes.

 What can a simple card game teach us about our culture? It is all different in many ways.

Afghanistan

I believe that what those soldiers are doing to those young boys in Afghanistan is completely unacceptable and it is completely unreasonable to continue to let it occur. For the American people nothing is more precious than the younger generation. If the troops overseas would put themselves in the position of the boys that have fallen victim to these heinous and vicious sexual acts being performed on them. And how would those boys react to hearing that armed troops knew it was going on and refused to do anything or even worse got orders to stay away from the situation? We are supposed to serve and protect all people and protecting the youth of the world is where we should start.

The sociological imagination I would like to see the boys saved from the situation and if it continues to happen and our own troops are attacked and killed for helping their country for the actions of the troops. If our troops start to fall victim to the Afghanistan troops, the American soldiers should be pulled out and returned home. If they want to keep their terroristic sexual actions, they should have their country punished for the traditions that have started and we shouldn’t risk the lives of our troops if it doesn’t affect Americans in any way.

Piggy's Letter to Aunt Sally

Dear Aunt Sally,
  
I have been trapped on a desert island with other kids my age and we have no means of escape. There have been appointed leaders and ranks. I have met many different characters of people, but none of them will listen to my ideas or plans.
    
The first boy I came into contact with goes by the name of Ralph. He is a fine, fair blonde-haired fellow. Our group appointed him leader and he used a few of my ideas to help set up the groups and organize the children accordingly. Ralph and I were the first to meet and eventually found the conch together. After blowing into the conch a couple times and hearing its loud booming tone, Ralph and I noticed that one by one other children approached the beach we had taken refuge on. When every living person was at the beach, they made the rule that whoever had the conch in his hands, had the right to speak.
    
After a while the Choir and there leader, Jack, found the beach that we had set up camp on. Jack was very confident and had a cocky edge to him and was a natural leader. But the group favored Ralph as the leader and Ralph appointed Jack and the choir as the hunter gathers. Or the Altos and Tenors. Like the game we played in class, they had to have the one thing (a part of the choir) and then another specific rule to split them into the two classes.
   
The Beast is the killer instinct inside all of us. And you either have to control it and learn how to harness it or it will destroy you and everything around you. Without rules or any type of control the beast will take over and anarchy will result. There has to be rules and punishment for breaking them, or the Beast will take over and destroy everything in its path. My dear aunt I hope it does not come to that point because when teamwork ceases, no one will make it and so many lives will be cut short. Simon has the understanding or the Beast and the fear or not surviving and he can grasp it and control it but I'm not sure about the rest of them.

I do not want to be on this island any longer, a life has already been lost in a terrible fire accident and who knows, maybe mine could be next.
      
                                                                            Love,
                                                                            Piggy.

Microsociology vs. Macrosociology

With microsociology, it shows how everything works as long as you have all the right parts of a machine in the right places, even the smallest little nut or screw falls out of a machine, another part could fall off and then another until the machine does not work anymore. It’s like a football team, it is good when every player is there and doing his job, but as soon as one guy gets hurt or needs a break, you might see a bit of a struggle, even if the individual is not always in the spotlight, his role might be important to the point where the individual is needed to have success.

But in terms of macrosociology, the same point can be made using the example of a football team, except as the team and not individuals. Like if there is a team that is very talented but they still lose just because the fact that the other team is better than them, or they made big plays when the game came down to the wire. It could be as simple as one guy making a mistake and it affects the outcome for the whole group, or it could be compounding mistakes and no one is more at fault then the next guy, or like I said, the other team is just simply better.

Sociological Mindfulness

I think all people have their own unique perspectives, opinions, and generalizations about certain races or groups of people. An example would be like how every town, except for Webster, thinks that Webster kids do nothing but party, when in reality that is only a small percentage of that age group. On September 11, 2001, there were large scale terrorist performed by Islamic/Muslim-extremist terrorist on United States soil. And the generalization started that every Muslim is a terrorist, but it was actually only one terrorist group, and the acts of that group ruined the reputation of an entire religion. I also believe that the opinions of people, especially in America, can be influenced by the National Media and how they always twist the truth so it seems like we are always the good guys, although it’s not always the truth. When there is a brutal war going on in a foreign country emotions can get to you if you are a soldier or a freedom fighter for Iraq, and you might perform an action that otherwise you would not. Even though the perspective of other nations, cultures, and religions are different from what the truth actually is, there are still good people all over the world. There are people in the Middle East that would help any person in a heartbeat and there are also Americans that would do the same for non-Americans. Lastly, I see myself fitting into the big picture of society, enforcing the law. Being a police officer and hopefully making the world a better, safer place. It would be an honor and a privilege to enforce the laws that were made by so many brilliant minds of the past, present, and future laws that we cannot even come close to predicting what they could possibly be.