North Korea...crazy

In the last mentor session. someone's discussion was about North and South Korea. He explained that North Korea supposedly sunk South Korea's ship. There is now a lot of tension between the two countries; well, more than there already was. The sinking of the ship was like a trigger and a big wake up call that North Korea is probably bad news. It was also said that the U.S. may have to assist South Korea if a war ever starts.

I think this is very nasty of North Korea. It's always been a known fact that North Korea wasn't a very dependable country. It is not a strong trading partner of the U.S. either, so I never really hear anything of North Korea. I strongly agree with South Korea to cut North Korea off from their waters. This will really hurt North Korea because it is their main way of trading. I think it was a smart move on South Korea's part.

Social Reconstruction

In Democracy class, we discussed the topic of social reconstruction. Professor Schuler went around the room and asked each person if they thought social reconstruction was possible. I was surprised that there was such a mix of yes' and no's. I believe that social reconstruction is possible. However, I guess if one goes under social reconstruction, they may always be hiding their true self. Either that or, someone could be changing and not even know it.

Someone could reconstruct themselves socially in many different ways. A suggestion in class was, that a person could start hanging out with different people. I think that is a major way to change someone because their friends could rub off on that person. Another way would be their class in society. If someone suddenly becomes wealthy or even poor, it can change their whole outlook on life and the way they act.

Money, Money, Money

Lately in class, we've been discussing the issue of money. In the world today, anything and everything is about money. There's no doubt about it; money matters and everything revolves around it. It's known fact that, without money, you can barely survive in this world. In class, we talked about how we as humans just give value to money. When in fact, money is just a piece of paper. When I think about that, I realize that it's right and it is just paper. However, money has become everything, and there's nothing that we can do about it.

The book "The Ascent of Money" by Niall Ferguson is a book about money. He confirms just how much money is essential to us humans in our world. Ferguson writes about the various countries in the world and their financial standing. The issues of wealth and poverty plays a big role the world economy. This book helps me understand how money works and how important it is. Money has become the foundation to life as a human being.

Portland Art Museum

We went to the Portland Art Museum for On Democracy class. It was a new experience for me because I've never been to an Art museum before. There were a bunch of really interesting paintings and sculptures that I stared at for a while. We got to see a glimpse of other cultures and what life was like many, many years ago. We were able to cover quite a lot of artwork while there.

My favorite part of the museum that we saw was probably the room with all of the Christian paintings. Since I'm writing my research paper about religion, specifically Christianity, these paintings really fascinated me. There were many paintings of women with babies in their arms. Also, there were many paintings of the Jesus' crucification on the cross. Those paintings really helped me imagine and relate to what I was writing in my paper. This also helped me with ideas for my visual aspect to go along with my research paper.

Abortion

For my ten minute presentation in mentor session, I decided to discuss the issue of abortion. It is and will continue to be a huge controversial issue in America. In my discussion, I posed the question, "Do you think women should have the right to an abortion? Or should be illegal because it's immoral?" This relates directly to democracy because women should have the freedom of making their own decisions.

My personal opinion on this issue is that women should have the right to an abortion. Although, sometimes it gets carried away with young teenage girls being dumb. There are times when abortion is okay, such as a rape. That is probably one of the only times I think an abortion is the best choice. When a mother might not be able to care for the child, there is also adoption.

POLICE!

In mentor session, we had a discussion about whether police are abusing their right to have a gun. It was a topic that I never really thought about until that day. The story that went along with this discussion was about a police man shooting someone who was just reaching for his wallet. Some people may say that the policeman was just using self-defense and assumed that the other person was reaching for a gun. However, others may say that this policeman should have waited for a visual instead of abusing his power.

I agree with the fact that he should have waited to see what the person was grabbing before shooting. This policeman took an innocent life; and he has to live with that. I'm sure that there are many incidents like this that happen pretty often; and there is always controversy among the public. When it comes down to it, I think that sometimes, shooting someone cannot be avoided..but, sometimes policeman can seem like they are abusing their power of possessing a gun.

Religions...

When thinking of my research topic for On Democracy, I was really stuck. Then I recalled how many times religion came up in class. Therefore, I decided to do a compare and contrast paper on two religions: Buddhism and Christianity. I grew up with Buddhism, but wasn't very serious about it and don't know much about it either. I also don't know much about Christianity or the word "religion" in general, so this paper will be a good learning experience for me as well.

I do know that they are two very different religions. Christians believe in God and he is the one everyone worships. Buddhism is more about being self-reliant, doing good things, and putting others before yourself. I'm sure there is a lot more to it, and I may be even wrong with what I just said. However, I'm sure that the Buddhist ways that I have learned have probably made me a better person. I will hopefully be able to learn much more about both of these religions and write a good essay.