Veteran's Blog

I am supposed to be answering the question what are your thoughts on murder charges during war.  My thoughts are if we are going into war and then going to get charged on murder charges, then we should not even have guns when they go into war.  This makes me irate. Our men are willing going over there and fight for our country.  I would like to see all those office workers and people who don’t know what these men and women do for our country. They are risking their lives for us! Without weapons they would be exposed and wouldn’t have a chance.  I think if they are willing to go over there and fight for us then we shouldn’t be complaining and making charges like this on our soldiers. When it says citizenship is a duty, not a privilege, I think that is completely false. When you are born in the United State you automatically become a citizen. If you weren’t you take classes and become a citizen of the United States.  Yes we do have a duty to vote and get your word out on the elections, but that doesn’t mean it is a duty. I think that it is up to each person whether they want to vote or not.  Citizenship is a privilege.  We are very lucky in the United States that everyone has citizenship. In other countries those people are not as lucky as we are.  Yes I think that we need to keep up with our citizenship and put some back into the country.

Racism

             The first article that we had to read was titled “Is Racism a Western Idea?” In my eyes, racism has always been around; it just might not have always been called that. When we think of racism, we think of judging people by the color of their skin. Even by judging people by their skin is very wrong. But, in the western country not only did they judge people of their color of their skin but, their religion or anything they could find wrong with a person. They would punish or hurt anyone that was different. I know we are all humans and we all make mistakes. We all judge people at some points of our lives, whether you want to or not. We make think that we will never judge people, but we say that but we don’t even realize that that we are judging someone. We may say something that we don’t think is offensive or mean but, in reality, that could have crushed the other person you said it too. But, once you start thinking about what you had said, you realize that it was the worst thing you could have said to someone. This should make you feel terrible, and try not to do that again.

                The second article we had to read was “How Racist are We.” This article goes on talking about how everyone in the world today is racist, whether we like to think it or not. The one thing in this article that really caught my attention was the study of the preschoolers. Rebecca Bigler, the one who conducted this experiment, wanted to see if human bias was part of being racist. In her experiment, she gave some of the kids red shirts and some blue. As the days went on, kids from each group were comparing and picking out difference in each other. Kids from both the red and blue shirts thought that their group should be superior, and is better than the other group. This happened from kids wearing different shirts! How does this experiment show about our world today? We all think that whatever race you are is the best. Everyone wants to be the best at everything. This means doing whatever it takes to get there. That means hurting other peoples feeling because they are different than you, just because you want to be on top. This to me is just ridiculous! What is our world coming too? I don’t know how some people can be so bias. What has the other race done to you? If anything we should feel terrible on how we have treated other races. It goes back, from Native Americans, to Blacks, Chinese, and many others. We need to put an end to this right away.

The third and final article we read wad titled. “Cultural Bias for Racism.” In today’s world everyone has a source to get media, whether it’s by phone, computer, TV, or any other device. Today in our media everyone is very stereotypical. Not to just blacks or any other race too whites too. Our media is shaping the way we look at ourselves and at others too. You see commercials where the girls are all skinny and white. Then you start judging yourself, saying why I am not skinny. Then when we do see someone that is skinny deep down inside you are judging them. Thinking how did that person deserve to be skinny and I’m not? Our culture also is to blame for racism.  America tries to be the best at everything it does. Whether that’s helping other countries or just the way we run our country. I do think some people have changed now that we have a black president. Some people might have changed their mind on how if he can become president anyone can if you set your mind to it.  I think it was a great thing that we have a black president. But, on the other hand, some people oppose this. They think that the color of their skin is going to make the whole decision on whether they are good or bad, or smart or not.

Why is it that we judge others? I have been thinking of the question for a while. I got to thinking after reading these articles, that in the end we are all the same. No matter what, it doesn’t matter the color of your skin or the religion that you practice we are all the same. Why do some people have to be so cruel and evil towards others? Is there life so bad that they have to go around making other feel worse, so they can feel better about themselves?  To think of that it makes me sick. In my eyes we should not judge people on what they look like. What would happen if you put yourself in their shoes for a day? Say that would happen where you trades lives with an African American. You would probably get nasty stares and those secrets between people when you know they are talking about you. How would that make you feel? If I were in those shoes, I would feel absolutely terrible. I would think why does everyone hate me and judge me when I have done nothing wrong. We also are racist about religions. People think that Christianity has to be the number one religion. But, in the big picture, all religions are about one thing, God. So why go and punish someone for thinking other things than you. We also treat and say things about atheists. Like, they are going to hell and they will never make it to heaven. Well, that is wrong. God loves each and every one of us no matter what. So next time you go out, don’t think about judging or making comments. If everyone could just see everyone equal, we wouldn’t have to go through this entire feeling like you are not good enough or that your race is nothing and would rather be gone and forgotten. I think we all need to reflect back on ourselves and make a difference and stop racism.