Me Project (Pt1)

I believe that heredity has a big part in the development of a young child. It’s the one thing that we are actually born with and it’s completely out of our control. Some of these heredity traits include; skin color, eye color, hair color, and in some cases, even height, weight, and body build. All of these traits develop when a child grows up. Yes, some things like aptitudes develop with parental help, but mainly it is from the traits a child inherits from its mother or father. For me, when people see me alongside my family, there are very similar traits that you pick out. These include; blue eyes, brown hair, musically inclined, consistency of above average singers. But there are some traits that I believe I have that others in my family don’t that I have inherited from my grandparents or even more distant ancestors. I, myself happen to be a lot taller than most in my family, I happen to have a lot bigger body build than that of my family. So yeah, heredity is for sure something that goes from generation to generation, but I also think that some traits may skip a generation.

I believe that birth order is a very important factor, the book talks about how the oldest child is the most responsible whereas the last born isn’t as careful, more risky. I believe that this is true in most cases, but not my family. In my family, my oldest sister was the risk taker, she was the one who wasn’t very responsible, and she was the rebel of the family. When my middle sister was growing up, she was the responsible one, the one who was most likely to achieve, she was the smartest in the family. Then I was born. I believe that I am the more active in social relationships, and I do believe that I am much more affectionate and friendly than that of both my sisters at times. I also believe that I am more susceptible to take risks on things more than my middle sister, but not to my oldest sister. I believe the studies the book talk about are true in most cases but not all.

The next factor is parental characteristics. The book talks about how possibly ideas, thoughts or even age can affect a child when he is being raised.  Some of those ideas or thoughts include; belief in religion, level of education, cultural background, occupational background, and economic status. I believe that all of these influence me on how my parents decided how to raise me. I am very active with my religion, I strive to have a higher education, my parents want me to try for a good job, my parents want me to be economically stable, and they want me to keep my culture on how I raise my children.

The last factor would be cultural environment. This means that where you were raised, and the culture you were raised in affect you. I grew up in South Dakota, in the greatest country ever, the United States of America. I believe that with how the U.S is very competitiveness, and individualism in this fine country helped shaped me to be a strong and valiant young man.

I can’t just pick one factor. I would have to pick two of these and those two would have to be, parental characteristics, and cultural characteristics. I believe that these two things have the greatest impact on me because, your parents are what shape your ideas, and thoughts, while as the culture you live in also affects how you think. They influence you to follow the steps of those around you and mold you into one of their society.

veterans day blog

I know that it isn’t Veterans day, but I would still like to thank all those who lost their lives for freedom, and to all those who have served and or currently serving! I know many people who have served in wars, and I can’t thank them enough for what they have done or are currently doing.

A man, correction, a soldier by the name Lt. Clint Lorance who was sentenced twenty years for his unorderly conduct. He was given this because the judge said her violated the rule of releasing fire upon the public without convincing evidence and or hostile action with intent. Lt. Lorance ordered his men to fire at 3 men riding motorcycle as they were heading directly at them, with no intent to stop. Lt. Lorance was jailed, gave up all his pay, and the military had him released of his duties. All this for trying to protect not only himself, but his men also, protect them from danger, or even death. Dying happens, and it will no matter what. People are going to kill people, and soldiers are going to kill terrorists, and vice versa. Should it be murder if a soldier protects himself against someone who may try to kill, no. I believe that a soldier must do anything to protect himself, or his men, or his country. If I was in his position, I feel as though I would have done the same thing. Those soldiers are under so much pressure and have so many people telling them what they can or can’t do, or what’s right or what’s wrong.

“Citizen is a duty, not a privilege.” I agree, but yet I disagree. I believe that we shouldn’t take our rights as American citizens for granted, but we should also feel honored that we have them also. It is also my right, and everyone else’s right to fulfill those rights to the best of our ability. The troops that fight for us are the ones that help us keep those rights. Thank you to every soldier for helping me keep my rights.

Racsim. Can't We All Just Get Along?

Racism. What exactly is racism? Well, racism is “the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.” says dictionary.com. Now I don’t know about you, but that’s just not ok. Like it says in our United States Constitution, “ALL men are created EQUAL!” Yes, you did read that correctly, all men (and women) are created equally. Now I don’t want to get all religious, at least not for now, but I want to talk about the 3 articles that my teacher had us read about racism. We had recently watched a movie that was about racism, and how you don’t necessarily realize that racism is happening unless that you or another party step into another person’s shoes and take the criticism from the group or individual that is trying to force superiority upon your ethnic race.

The first article talks about how racism was a man made thought or an idea. It also says about how that in early western civilization, people then started to try and make themselves feel better and more superior than anyone else, first in the case of the pilgrims, then in slavery. In the beginning with the pilgrims, they had used their technological advancement of warfare to force the Native Americans out. They thought that since the Native Americans were a different skin color and did things differently than they did, that they were less of people. Same goes to when they started importing slaves. They were different colored, and had different customs than what the “Americans” had. So, what did they do? They enslaved them. Made them lesser than the white race. And when they started slavery, that’s when racism exploded. Racism then started to spread to all the corners of the world. The author of the article also stated that he believed that religion has a big part in racism too. And I also think it does. Everyone is religious, whether you are an atheist or Lutheran, catholic, Methodist, whatever you may be, you are religious. Because being religious means that you believe in a set of values/ beliefs or a god or gods. This is kind of weird, but today in church, my minister talked about racism in the world. She also related it back to biblical times to when Jesus’s followers were get persecuted for believing in him. They were treated horribly and some cases even killed. Why, you may ask? It was because they believed in something different. There’s that word again, different.  They didn’t do what society as a whole told them to do.

The second talks about racism in America. He talks about how the American society is kind of made up people who are racist. We as a society aren’t just racist towards African Americans, but to all minority groups. As an example, we stereotype African Americans to be bad people because of what a small percent of them do. Yes I understand that you have your bad people, but every racial group is going to have bad people. We stereotype people with Middle Eastern background. Ever since all the problems in the world with terrorists from that part of the world, everyone just associates everyone with the same ethnic background to be those bad terrorists. I was watching television today, and a show called “The George Lopez Show” talked about racism. He had a man working for his company (they build plane parts) who was from the Egypt, but, here’s the catch; he had taken flight lessons and knew how to fly a plane. Everyone that worked at that plant, freaked out because they stereotyped him to be racist, when in reality he was just a great guy. His bosses told him to fire this man, but he said that he wasn’t going to do it because this is America, and if he has to fire someone for stereotypical ideas of other people, he said he didn’t want to live in this country anymore because he was raised that no matter the color of your skin, the religion you were a part of, it doesn’t make you any less of a person. That hit me hard, because, I know that happens in the U.S. Good people get treated badly because they have the same color skin as a group of people who have done bad.

The third article talked about how the media affects the negative stereotypes in the world against different ethnic groups. He talks about how the progression of technology in media has had a major impact in the rising of racism in America and the world. It all started out in the papers, and then it went to the big screen. From there, it was movies, then it was TV, then it was cartoons, and now it’s on almost any channel there is, whether you realize it or not, it’s out there, right in front of your face. A few shows that I would like to use as an example of this; The Jetsons, have you ever realized that there are no minorities up in the clouds with all the white people? Go take a closer look next time! The next one id like to talk about is one of my child hood favorites, “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers”.  Now, the Yellow Ranger, she was Asian, the brains of the group, the Blue and Red Power Rangers were your average everyday white males. The Black Ranger, who was the lone ranger who always happened to be involved in trouble, or was getting in trouble. Then you have the Pink Ranger, she was the cute little perfect, white girl. Finally, the White Ranger, he was the one with all the skills, and he was the best of the best. Coincidence? I think not.

Now, I think the one word that works perfectly with racism, is “Different”. People are afraid of change, and when things change or aren’t what you are used to, those things, (people) are different being different from someone is not a bad thing! In fact, I encourage being different, being unique. People are saying that they want to put an end to racism. But do they really? On the inside we are all the same, so why judge someone by how they look? Like the saying goes, “Never judge a book by its cover”. I believe that racism will never end. Too many people are bull headed and stubborn to accept the fact that the one guy who is black, and the other guy who is Middle Eastern, may end up being your lifelong friends. It’s all about giving people a chance, a fair and equal chance. Finally, to wrap things up, I would like to quote one of my favorite movies. The quote comes from the movie "The Longest Yard" and the man who stated the quote was Mr. Caretaker (Chris Rock), "Stop it! Stop the violence! Can't we all just get along?!"

Cons                                Good vs Bad                              Pros
Reduces work	Increases Work opportunities
It encourages bad behavior	Encourages people to get their act together
Poor people us it to buy drugs & alcohol	Poor people use it to buy the essentials
Teaches that they can expect to be handed money	Teaches them that they need to work for their own money
It can be very easily taken advantage of	It is hardly taken advantage of
It’s not effective	It is very effective
People who have welfare are lazy	People who have welfare

 

I am a little mixed with my opinion on this matter. Reagan was against welfare from the start. He believed that people who had little to no money were using it for the wrong reasons, one reason being them trying to use the money to escape poverty. He also believed that they cheated the system by feeding their drug and alcohol addictions with the money they received each week. He also stated that he thought these people were too lazy to get up off their butts, and actually go and try to get a job so they can support themselves and or their family.

Next, Bill Clinton proposed an act in 1996 called the (PRWORA) or Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. He proposed this act because he also felt that people need to get up off their butts and go get a job. Clinton thought that this would put an end to welfare. Both of these guys have similar ideas and yet they are somewhat different.

I agree with these two men. I do believe that there are certain people out there in this world that have been using welfare for other reasons.  I also believe that people who receive welfare must take drug and alcohol tests to make sure that they aren’t using the money they get on those things like drugs and alcohol.

Lord of the Flies questions

“Society knows perfectly well how to kill a man and has methods more subtle than death” Andre Gide. “What does this quote mean?” you may ask. I believe that this means that we a s people of American and other societies, know how easy it is to kill a certain person. All it takes is either one pull of a trigger, or one swing of a knife or sword, the list just goes on and on. But I feel that most people know that murdering another human being is just about the most cruel and unforgiveable thing you could ever do. Just the way some people are, they think that it is ok to kill people for their own gain, or sometimes in a more cruel and disgusting way like for their own personal pleasure. And because of these people, there are more and more ways being thought of and tried out on innocent people on how they can die due to certain physical, or even something as specific as like torturing someone by pulling their hair out and having them die due to the pain.

“If we can’t separate our civilized self from our savage self, which will take over and why” I believe that it would vary from person to person. Some people are actually quite smarter than others, and I feel that the smarter you are, the more likely you will be able to survive in a more civilized manner. People who might not be as mentally equipped as others, might tend to become more barbaric, ways such as war paints, rituals, ritualistic dancing, or other things of that manner to survive. Like in the book, the boys who were smarter and more “grown up”, tended to be the ones who acted more civilized, the younger boys and the ones that may not have been so smart, drifted towards more of a savage type of lifestyle.

28th amendment

I am about to propose to you my idea for the 28^th amendment. I believe that the 28^th amendment should state that “the legal age to be able to use tobacco shall be 21 years old. I feel that this needs to be approved because I’m sick and tired of seeing kids in our school “go to the bathroom” when in reality they are in there dipping, or putting a dip in or something else. I believe there is an immediate need for it because I for one don’t like tobacco use at all. Its gross, disgusting, and I don’t care for it. I just think that we need kids to realize that tobacco is bad. This amendment would just be straight up, and state “the use of tobacco shall not be used by any person under the age of 21 years old”. In my life, I have been around people using tobacco all the time, and to me I think it might help if we prevent kids from using tobacco in their younger years, they might be able to live their life longer and healthier.

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

What did you expect at the beginning of the game? I expected it to be confusing

When did you realize that something was wrong? right away when you gave us the game

How did you deal with it? I dealt with it with rage

How did not being able to speak contribute to what you were feeling? it was harder to communicate, which made me angrier

 Is my title above appropriate for the game of "culture."  Why or why not? life is just one big confusing game

 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? that even though we have one main culture, there are many different sub cultures underneath the one big main one

18th and 21st amendments

The 18^th amendment banned the sale and the consumption of alcohol in the United States. It took effect in 1919, and it was a major failure. It is also the only amendment to be repealed from the constitution.

One reason why the 18^th came into effect was because religious groups who considered alcoholics and drunks a threat to the nation. The purpose of the amendment was stop the manufacturing, transporting and sale of all alcoholic beverages. Some of the effects were that it was difficult to enforce and it failed to eliminate crime rates, such as bootlegging became very popular.

Because of the 18^th, there were limitations put out on the consumption, manufacturing, transportation, and sales on alcohol.

One current issue that would involve this amendment would be drunk driving. I believe that if prohibition would have still been in place, I believe that there would be less drunk driving incidents. But I feel as though other things would rise, things like illegal use of drugs and alcohol.

The 21^st amendment of the constitution was used to repeal the 18^th amendment nationwide. It was ratified in 1933. It was set into place because there was getting to be such a problem with the illegal consumption, manufacturing, transportation, and sale of alcohol. People were doing things no matter how illegal they could be.

A reason why they created this amendment was because there was concern about the effects of drinking, and people that were drinkers, were starting to start their own societies. These groups became a very powerful political force, and they began to try and reinstate alcohol. The effects were that people were starting to get very angry with the government.

This amendment was made to put an end to riots on the government, put an end to bootlegging, and to just overall get rid of prohibition. Today this amendment means that people can legally consume, make, sell, and transport alcohol without getting sent to jail. An example of this would be people in bars, liquor stores, drunk driving, and underage drinking. I believe stores make it too easy for kids my age to illegally buy alcohol, I believe drunk driving is increasing along with underage drinking.

Bacha Bazi.....#NotMmk

Bacha bazi, also known as “boy play”. Say you are an American soldier and you are inside your military base, and lying in your bunk, when outside you hear an Afghan officer assaulting a young boy that he brought into camp. What do you do? Do you sit by and just listen to the young boy screaming for his life. Or do you step up and go outside and stop what is happening outside. American soldiers have been told to not do anything about this. Why you ask, because in the country of Afghanistan, in their culture, it is socially acceptable to do this. How do you fell about how our soldiers are there to put a stop to things like this, but they are told that they can’t cause any conflict.

I don’t know if what you would do, but I would most likely try to put a stop to the end of this atrocity. In America, child abuse, and the raping of children will put you in jail for more than likely ten plus years. Like of course that when people in America read this article about it, they freak out. But the government tries to keep these things quiet. But like I said above, this is acceptable in Afghan countries. I just do not approve of this; I think that this is very wrong, on many levels. Like, it’s just morally wrong to molest young children, and also, it’s in the bible that a man should not have any intimate relations with someone of the same sex. I don’t know, I just feel that it’s incorrect to have these soldiers just sit back and listen. If they feel that what is happening is wrong, I believe that they have the right to step in for their morals, since that is what we are doing is trying to make them a better country and to be rid of all that activity.

Dear Auntie.....Piggy's letter

Dear Auntie,

I just want you to know that I'm stuck on an island and I have no idea where it's at. I was on the plane and just all of a sudden, boom, all I know is that I'm in the ocean swimming towards this island. I was walking along the beach when I met this boy named Ralph. He was a quite a fine fair haired fellow. He and I got to talking and we both realized that there weren’t any grownups anywhere that we could see. He asked me my name, so I told he could call me anything he liked, except for Piggy. He laughed just like everyone else does back home. We were walking around when we found this lagoon by the sea. Ralph just took all his clothes off and jumped in right away, but I was a little shyer than to just jump in like that. I just slowly eased my way in. I wish you could have felt how warm the water was Auntie! But then I found this shell just like neighbors have! It was almost exactly like the conch shell they have! So I told Ralph about it, and then he had a thought. What if we weren’t the only boys on the island? So he tried and tried to blow into the conch shell, but he just couldn’t get a good sound out of it. So he asked me to do it, but you know just as well as I do that I couldn’t do that because of my asthma! But then he tried again, but this time it worked great! He blew on the conch time after time, and wouldn’t you know it, but kids starting coming left and right out of the jungle! Ralph told me when kids started showing up that it was my job to keep their names. Finally this strange group of boys came out. The boy in front that led them, I didn’t like him, not one bit. He was tall and older than some of the kids, but he was very mean and very cocky, his name was Jack. He even had one boy pass out and he got mad at the boy. His name was Simon, and I like him. Anyway, Jack and Ralph wanted to go see if we were really on an island or if we were just separated from all the grownups. They took Simon with and I really wanted to go with too but Ralph said I had to stay back.     When they got back, they told us we were on an island all by ourselves, and kids got scared and were asking questions about the creepers, and beasties, and the beast. But Simon said that none of those were true, he said it was all of our imagination. Simon is just so smart auntie! But then Jack butted in saying that he should be our leader, but I stood up for Ralph, because I know that Ralph would be a good leader. So we had a vote to say who was in charge. Ralph won over Jack. So Ralph went on to say how whoever held the conch during the meetings got to talk while everyone stayed quiet, and we all ruled that it was very fair. Ralph also said that when he blows the conch, it means we are having a meeting, or we are going to eat. Then Jack said he wanted to be in charge of something, so Ralph told him to take his choir and make them hunters and gatherers. Jack seemed to be ok with that. I had some good ideas, like how we need to build shelter and build a fire so people know that we are here, but no one listens to me. But the second Ralph says the exact same thing; it’s all fine and dandy. So they went to the top of the mountain to build a big fire. And it worked really well right away. But then it started to die out and they started getting careless with the fire and started a great big fire in the forest. Kids were scared, but when everything settled down again, we did a head count. But I have to tell you Auntie, there was a little boy by the fire when this happened, and we think he was burned to death. That’s so sad that we haven’t even been here very long and someone has already died. I’m just really scared Auntie, and I want to come home. So please, when you get this letter, come find me and all the other boys before things get to out of control.

Love, forever and always

            Your dear, little Piggy <3

Micro vs Macro

Microsociology versus Macrosociology, otherwise known as the big picture, compared to the little picture. How do I perceive these two things? Well microsociology would be like, how I am right now; in high school, in a small town. Then macrosociology would be like, the state, or the country or even the world. Now for a comparison to the boat project we did in class, the little picture would be every individual on the boat itself, and the big picture would be everyone on the boat. So, to try and tie things together, being on the boat, you have to try to fit in or be likeable amongst the people on the boat. So like in life, we try so hard to fit in, and try to be liked. We want to be able to see ourselves in the big picture, the picture where nothing is wrong, everyone likes us, and we are doing well in life. Now the big picture doesn’t show us the people that are struggling or failing in life (or the people who were kicked out of the boat). When you look at the real scheme of things, it’s so easy to just keep looking at the little picture, like we only want to look at the things that are right in front of us. We as a person need to start looking at both the big picture and little picture. The boat activity really made me think about how in microsociology; we just tend to protect ourselves from the world. But, in macrosociology; we tend to be more outgoing. So I believe that a way I can fit into both the big picture and the little picture is to try and take chances in life, and to never regret the chances I take.

Sociologic Perspective #1

Yesterday in my sociology class, we watched a video or “Ted Talk” by a man named Sam Richards. His video was all about how we as people need to use empathy. Empathy being that we need to step out of our own shoes, and step into another person’s  shoes, and just try to see things from their point of view. We as people tend to be self-centered, selfish, and not care about other people. To kind of give an example of this, Richards talked about the people in Iraq and their oil. He talked about how we as Americans, didn’t say anything about when the terrorists were terrorizing their country’s people. But the second that oil became a thing, we sent troops over by the thousands. But to the people in Iraq, we aren’t there for just oil. We’re there to force Christianity upon them, and get rid of the Muslim religion. How would we feel as Americans if we stepped into the Iraqis shoes and saw their point of view about us Americans. The media plays a big part in this. The media is very notorious for saying the things that we want to hear, and not saying what we should hear. So what I’m trying to say is that I agree with what Richards was saying. I believe that we need to step out of our shoes, and consider how other people may perceive different situations.

My teacher also had us look at how we see ourselves fit into society. Well, I see myself fitting into the big picture of society as a regular, hardworking middle class American. I do hope that I do something memorable in life, but I’ll be just fine with my life no matter what happens. I plan to go to college, get my education, and live my life out as a physical therapist, and or athletic trainer. But if that’s not what I’m going to be able to do, then that is just fine. I’ll live my life out no matter what happens.