Crash

Crash was an interesting movie.  I had never watched it before so for me it was easy to see how much race had an impact in whoever made this movie.  Throughout the movie, different races were “hating” and mistreating other races just because they had one bad moment with one person from that race.  Often that is what happens.  For example, if a person from Asia robs you, you are going to literally hate everyone from Asia.  That is not right.  It goes back to labeling people.  You are putting on a label on a group of people, just because of their race and ethnicity.  And just because someone did something bad to you, don’t mean all of them will.  In the contrary, they probably will not.  What people need to realize is that they need to stop labeling.  Race is something we are not born into.  We don’t have a choice.  So since we are all born in point zero, with no choice, what is the difference between any races?  None.  We should stop hating on races and other people’s race, because inside we are all the SAME.

Monopoly

Monopoly is a fun game where the rich can buy whatever they want and the poor suffers a little bit.  However, usually everyone have the same amount of money to start with.  So if you got poor, it might have been your fault.  When we played monopoly in class, however, we all started with different amounts to show how life really is.  As a result, the rich got richer and the poor stayed poor.  As a fact, the person in my group who started with the most money, was the only one capable of making a lot more money.  Other people made little to no money and some lost money too.  I think this experience was a great way to show hoe life really is out there.  We have watched movies about it and we saw that “old money: will have money for a long time.  They were born into that money and will never give it up.  While people with no money will never get up in class.  They will most likely stay in poverty.  It’s sad that this is the reality.  People try hard to get better and more money and not a lot of them succeed because of different reasons.  And if you make there, you may not be accepted.  During the game, for example, I was the upper middle class.  I thought it would be easy to get up there with the richest person, but even that difference was so big that I was capable of make a couple of hundred dollars and that was it.  Clearly something is wrong with our system and it needs to be fixed.  We can’t have that big of a gap, and we can’t have people living in poverty.  It’s sad to see how bad people are living.  Something needs to be changed.

Community Service (5hrs)

Monday the 21^st of May, I went to finish my community service hours in Alden Long Grove Rehabilitation and Health Care Center.  Basically what Alden is, is a house of rehabilitation and a elderly care center.  It does many things from helping someone into rehab to taking care of those who can’t take care of themselves anymore.  The reason I went there was because a friend of mine works there and it would be nicer giving back for those who gave so much to us.  At first, I thought I was going to work with the older people and help them around.  I thought I would play games, keep them company, and do whatever they needed me to do.  I was fine with it, but later on I figured out I’d work in the rehab center.  Right away I got a little scared.  What would that be like?  What if I get attacked or something like that?  I got a little scared but I needed to help those people so I went for it.  When I got there I was told to go down the other side of the building because the other side was the rehab center.  I went and met with the nurses to figure what I needed to do.  They told me that basically I would help the patients with their medicine, talk to them a little, and do some activities they had planned.  It was a great experience.  I met this one guy named Mark who had a tough story with drugs.   Over all, I learned a lot that day.  It was an experience I will never forget and would like people to experience it to.. Mark’s story gave me many heads up to the future and taught me an important lesson about drugs.

It is jail time!

Last week we watched a movie about this guy who stayed 30 days in jail.  He didn’t do anything wrong.  He didn’t break the law.  He did his time to see how jails worked in the United States.  Throughout the movie, we met many different people who were in jail for different reasons.  A lot of them are there because of drugs issues and some because of mental issues.  It seemed like these people shouldn’t be in jail, but they should be in hospitals or in recovery center.  Society gave up on them long ago.  Instead of sending them for help, they sent them to a locked room and kept them there for the rest of their lives.  No second chance.  No nothing.  They were forced there.  As a result, many other people with same issues were getting in trouble because they were troubled themselves.  They didn’t know any better and did the things they did because they got no help from anyone. As a result a lot of jails are overcrowding over the years.  In my opinion I think real criminals should be in jail.  Not people whom we should be helping.  Another problem with jails in America is the system itself.  It is clearly a politic manipulation and it is not working.  2/3 of the people who get out of jail return to jail.  You have a higher chance of going back in there than staying clean and out of trouble.  That ties back to the social problem we have.  A lot of the people were sent there because of mental or drug problems.  They spend a long part of their lives locked up and once they get out, they don’t know how to live any other place.  They get in trouble and go right back in again.  Also, very little jails have an after jail programs that help ex-cons stay out of trouble.  I think, the way of salving the system problem is by starting a whole new system.  With less corruption and maybe helping those who are being punished now.

Social Class

            Most of us usually never hang out with people from different social class than us.  We stay around our whole lives or we move to different areas much like the area we live in now.  We don’t get an opportunity to see what is like to be different than our friends.  We don’t know what’s like to have a complete different life than the life we have now.  Most people that live around us earn more than the national income average.  We also don’t go out of our way to meet other people from a low-income family.  That makes people stay where they are in the social class.  People don’t try to move up because they don’t know how too.  My family however, took a different rout.  My grandpa did have a lot of money but my dad tried to make it on his own.  As a result, I didn’t grow in a great place like this.  I lived in many worst circumstances.  I used to hang out with people that literally had nothing.  They struggled so much just to get through the day.  I think that was a great experience to me.  I learned what it was like to have very little money.  I met people who wanted to build up like my dad did but had no opportunity to.  I believe if people didn’t care what social class they were on, and hung out with each other, there would be a great increase in the number of people who jumped out the bottom class to maybe middle class and higher.

Saints vs. roughnecks

This week, we read about saints and roughnecks.  Basically, Saints were students who always got good grades and were deeply involved in school activities who went out of their way to cause trouble.  Roughnecks, were the ones who were seen as trouble makers and usually were hardly punished by their rebel acts.  Saints were always excused from their bad acts, and were almost always ignored when it came to pay back what they had done. Roughnecks, were expected to cause trouble in school and outside of school.  No one was surprised.  It doesn't seem too fair.  In school, saints were benefited and usually got straight As and Bs.  Roughnecks got straight Cs usually.  Growing up, they always had the same label: Saints and Roughnecks.  That made them who they were.  At the end, almost all saints were incredibly successful in life, and roughnecks ended up in jail or in trouble.  But if you think about it, that makes a lot of sense.  If roughnecks never were labelled that way, no one would look at them differently and perhaps they would have a chance to do better throughout the years.  Saints had a huge advantage over them.  Just because they were always seen as good kids.  However, usually Saints rebel acts were the same or greater degree as roughnecks' acts.  They didn't get in much trouble.  No one expected them to get into trouble and when they did, it was an accident and it would never happen again.  They had more money, so they had cars to get out of their ways to cause trouble, drink, and use drugs.  Roughnecks, however, were poor and way less respected by the cops.  They had less money, so usually when they caused trouble it was around the town.  Also, they had a reputation of fighting a lot and always got into trouble with the police for gang activities.  I believe that if you are labelled something you are not, you turn into that label.  It doesn't really matter what you do or say, people judge and you will become what you are labelled.  That is the problem.  Imagine if all roughnecks were treated the same as saints.  Maybe they would do better and succeed too in their late life.  At least, they would have a better chance than what they did.  In our school too it happens.  I know people who do cause trouble but doesn't get into trouble because society respect them.  They have more money and can get away from trouble easily.  And of course, there are the less fortunate kids with less money, that cause trouble (as all teens do) and do get into major trouble.  It just ins't fair.  We fought for equality for many years, and still to this day, we find major inequality.  Just not fair. 

Men

As well as women the media also explores men. Men are seen as good looking, abnormally strong, and sexy.  Often, men are involved in violent sites and fighting with other men.  This week we saw Tough Men, that documentary showed how men are seen in the media and how they are used to promote a product.  According to the documentary, men are more violent because of the media.  They are responsible for most of violent actions that happen in America and all the schools shootings.  That is because people around them are often pressured by this idea of masculinity and harm others either physically and/ verbally.  That causes others to react.  To prove their masculinity and set a point.  Bad things happen as a result such as school shootings.  However, in my opinion don’t think all of it is true.  Yes, it is true that men provoked other men and that causes bad situations.  But do they do that because of the media?  I don’t believe so.  I was never influenced in that way by the media.  I never acted in a violent way because movies or toys or whatever it was.  I sometimes acted with violence because of other people attitude towards me.  Now did they do that to prove something?  Their masculinity?  I’m not sure, but the media didn’t and doesn’t play a big role in those aspects.   

Agents of socialization

We never think about it.  We do our things and hang out with our friends and groups, but we never realize that those people and groups are the ones who mostly influence us in our lives.  Every one of us is part of what we call “Agents of socialization.”  Family, friends, school, religion, sports, etc.  These are all groups we are part of and most influence us in our lives.  Think about it.  We dress the way we dress because of our friends.  Then we go play our sports and have fun.  They become your family. You are the same as your family and friends.  Of course that, within the family you can be different things: cousin, son, husband, dad, etc.  And those make you have different roles.  So as you change your roles, you change over time.  You are being influenced and influencing others throughout your whole life every single day.  I love my friends and family.  I would never change for anyone else because I am who I am and I’m in the groups I am for a reason.  I love them.  I do believe that some people don’t accept that.  They don’t think they belong in a group or think they are completely different than anyone else.  But chances are that if you are in a group for a long time, you are the same as they are.

Tuesday with Morrie

Tuesday with Morrie was a great example of how much one could influence one’s lives.  We don’t realize it, but things we do now are influencing people all around us.  Take Morrie as an example.  He was just a teacher.  Taught what he was required to taught in his own way and did things a bit different.  Many might not seem him as influential just as a teacher.  However, when Morrie was dying, there were so many people that wanted to thank him and listen to him for the stuff he taught.  He influenced the world in one way – his world.  Mitch, for example was someone who was greatly impacted by this man.  He tried his best to reconnect with his former professor.  Tried taking care of him every Tuesday – and in the beginning was hard because of his busy life- but then, he started to realize what life was all about.  He started to live in one way.  The whole movie was a great example how one person can influence one so much to the point where their whole life was changed.  Mitch would always ask for help, would always listen to Morrie talk and listen carefully.  He would always respect the man.  He learned so much from one person.  He learned how to value the things in life he never thought was important before.  It was a great change in his life.  I have never seen a thing like that before.  Sure in movies it happens, but I never seen it before.  Of course things like that aren’t expected.  And that’s when it happens.  Don’t expect things to happen.  Just live the life and let it happen.