Thursday, April 17, 2008

Don’t Judge A Book by Its Cover

I can honestly say that I try my hardest not to judge people on their appearance when I first meet them. I would be lying if I said that I did not. However, I catch myself when I do make the horrible mistake of judging individuals. The reality is that we live in a diverse country. America prides itself on being a melting pot of different cultures and races. Within those different cultures are different people such as homosexuals, women, Hispanic males, Asians, etc. Since we are a country of diversity, there is a sense of competition within us. We like to believe that our train of thinking is the best, which makes it harder to accept others for who they are if it goes against our train of thinking.

(This is an image of children holding a globe together. There are hands that represent all ethnicities and both genders. The one thing the share is the globe, which represents their home and future,)


The story of Johnny Lee is an excellent example for this point. “Korean society, as many will tell you, is generally not accepting of gays” (Lee, 879). This statement proves why it was so difficult for his family to accept his sexual orientation. Our stubbornness to always think that we are right has the power to blind us from accepting our loved ones. This is so bizarre to me. I’m not a parent, but I can imagine myself handling Johnny’s situation in the opposite manner. I am a strong believer in the Bible; I can say that I do not follow every word it says, but I do believe in its content. Perhaps since I have not read the scripture in the Bible that states being homosexual is sin may be the reason why it is so hard for me to grasp the fact that every homosexual will burn in hell. I agree with the last psychiatrist, Pastor Richards, when he says “’I don’t know why God would create gays and say that being gay is wrong’” (Lee, 878). This relates to back in the day when being black was viewed as something wrong. I’m pretty sure that non blacks would say that I and all blacks would go to hell. My African-American grandfather died when I was three. I would like to think that he is heaven because of his desire to help others and not in hell because he is black.

Maybe the correlation between slavery and homosexuality hits close to home is the reason why I have NEVER viewed homosexuals as devils or hoping that they burn in hell. I strongly feel that society is afraid of what they don’t know. Just like when we were kids and we did something bad; we would be frightened by the punishment that awaited us once our parents found out what we had done. Not being able to know the reason or future of something drives people crazy and allows them to draw to absurd conclusions such as “’You [can] be cured right away’” if a homosexual visits a “special doctor” (Lee, 877).

We all have the capability of accepting everyone we come in contact with. We will not always agree with the practices of others, but we should impose our views as right when confronted with different lifestyles from our own.

Not judging a book by its cover ties in nicely with Oleanna as well. The Professor, John, mistook Carol as an innocent student with desperate need of his help in understanding the course. In the words of Ryan Edwards “the stupid bitch” had her own hidden agenda for talking to her professor during office hours. He thought she was “an incredibly bright girl” with the capability of starting over and beginning on a clean slate (Mamet, 10). This one mistake by the Professor cost him his career and drastically changed his family.(This an image of Carol sitting in John's office. She looks timid and shy, but deep down inside there is another person waiting to come out.)


He let his personal problems consume him and allow the opportunity for a young woman to slip in overtake him during a vulnerable moment. Sexual harassment is a serious charge and will stick with a man for the rest of his life regardless if he’s guilty or not. We discussed this in depth in class so I don’t want to be repetitive, but this point cannot be stressed enough. The hugs I love to give people when I see them can be taken out of context if I was male. So where do you draw the line? Don’t touch at all. This is a sad point but I believe is the only a problem like this can be avoided. It is true that when the Professor touched Carol, it was to console and calm her down. But when looked at by crazy girls like Carol or when being provoked by outside sources, a simple hug or touch on the shoulder can do serious damage.

With the no touch rule, Professors don’t have to look at their students, females in particular, and determine if touching them will result in life changing outcome. After all when they would be looking at their students, judgment will be involved and as you can see the eye can be tricked by the front certain actresses or actors can pose.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Identity

"Our beautiful America was built by a nation of strangers. From a hundred different places or more they have poured forth into an empty land, joining and blending in one mighty and irresistible tide." (859C)

In our journey to find who we are, the first place to look is where you come from. The ethnicity you identify with, the culture you were raised in, the religion you were taught while growing up, and your sexuality can all be starting points for developing or evaluating who you are. Society has us divided by race; the most commonly acknowledged are Asian, African-American, Caucasian, and Hispanic. These four classifications are based solely on physical features, the darkness or brightness of your skin color, the shape of your nose, and the color of your eyes. These are features that most ethnicities have in common, which makes it easy to identify what ethnicity an individual is. Sometimes there are exceptions to the rules where someone appears to be a certain ethnicity but has features of another. For example, my great-grandmother has chocolate brown skin with beautiful blue eyes. Chocolate or brown skin is associated with an African-American and blue eyes typically belong to Caucasians.
(This is an image of a face that consists of several ethnicities. It illustrates how four individuals of a different gender and ethnicity can have something in common despite the fact that they don't look alike.)

Before we get to personally know someone, inferences can already be made just by looking at their physical appearance. This is how stereotypes are formed; once multiple individuals of one race associate themselves with the same task, others begin to associate the entire race with that task. For example, construction workers tend to be Hispanic. So when someone thinks of the job choices of a Hispanic, one of first things that comes to mind is that they are construction workers. These stereotypes tend to lead to misunderstandings and inflicts certain abilities to ethnicities. History plays a major role in where stereotypes were formed. Parents tend to pass down their beliefs onto their children, which can cause a negative stereotype to stay alive for many years.

When it comes to our physical features, we did not have control over which ones we were born with. Once you are older, some alterations can be made but for the most part your physical identity will not change. This makes me unable to understand why some individuals choose to mistreat others because of their physical features. I believe that God created us in the exact way he wanted. The different ethnicities and hair color allows our world to be diverse. No two people look exactly alike and that was for a specific reason. So, who is the judge for deciding the right way to look? There isn't one because there is no right and wrong way to look. Society has a tendency to negate someone or something that is different from the norm. Just because a person has blonde hair in a room full of red heads does not make the blonde haired person wrong, and it should not be the final component when determining the knowledge and abilities someone possess. When it is time to truly figure out who you are, the most important thing is to look on the inside because you have a choice of what goes on in the inside, your thoughts and feelings.

Nowadays, not only do individuals experience discrimination based on their race but now there is heavy tension on sexual preferences as well. In my opinion, sexual preference is not something you choose but just another feature you have no control over like race. "I never found a place where I fit in, where my identity wasn't qualified by my race-and later by my sexual orientation." (Ramirez, 838) This is a major fault in our society; the fact that we judge others according to a difference we see in them and not allow them to fell at home in our communities is something that needs to be changed. Some individuals that may share the same sexual orientation or race as you can also be judgmental if they feel you are not representing them enough. The essay by Anthony R. Luckett explains this idea. He was biracial and faced the from dilemma of fully being accepted by both sides. "To my Korean friends I always felt like the token black guy. To those two black men who passed me on 43rd Avenue one indelible night, I was a 'Chink.'" (Luckett, 865)(This image is a representation for the GLBT community. They have been fighting very hard to gain acceptance into the greater community.)

"Race matters. And it doesn't." (Luckett, 866) It is good to acknowledge your race because it provides you with a community inside our bigger community, the world. Each race has its strengths and weakness, but the strengths outweigh the negative aspects of each. It is good to acknowledge where you can from because it does play a role in who you are. In contrast, race does not define who you are. You can rise above the mistakes all races have inflicted on each other and learn from them. Race should not matter when you are looking for your soul mate or next friend. Sexual orientation does not define who you are and what you will accomplish in life. Once we are able to grasp the beauty of all races and sexual orientations, that is when we will be able to grow as individuals and understand the world we live in.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Compassion 2

The Chain Reaction

When I think of anything, I come to the conclusion that it is as a result of something happening previously. Anything that pops into my mind I can relate it to an action that happened before it. For example, a person can have a third degree burn because they touched a hot stove. A person can gain weight because they have high levels of stress and turn to food for comfort. I can feel excitement because neurons in my body sensed excitement when I received a phone call from a guy I really like. Whatever it is, every action causes another action; the reaction or second action can be good or bad.

Knowing about this chain reaction of things I began to think about how my present actions will affect my future. I have a tendency to brush my thoughts aside when I know that I am doing something bad but always seem to regret my decisions. I constantly ask myself “What was the point of doing that if you know it will not result in anything positive.” I believe it stems from the human being tendency to be ignorant and having to find out things the hard way. As I begin to grow, I am starting to realize that there is not much more room for ignorant mistakes because they can have major consequences. It seems like most mistakes children and teenagers make are overlooked and not giving too much thought; it is seen as a learning process. There is little room for error when a person becomes an adult.

(This is an image of the death row table where death row inmates receive their lethal injection. Some mistakes are irreversible and are not easily forgiven. Death row inmates commit the ultimate mistake with the worst consequence, death. How ever long it took them to commit their crime, which is sometimes a matter of just five minutes, has caused them to lose their life. Maybe if they would have thought about the results of actions they may not have to be subjected to capital punishment.)

Reading Medicine and Compassion I am learning various techniques doctors can use when dealing with patients, but the one that stands out to me is the necessity to fix yourself first, to show compassion towards yourself before you transfer that compassion to patients. “In order to guide someone else, you must have knowledge based on personal experience.” (Rinpoche and Shlim, 110) Basically before you try to teach someone or express compassion to them, you have to have previous experience of knowing how to show or personally receiving such emotions. This concept can be applied to many things in life. For example, before someone can be a physical trainer, they have to endure the many exercises or techniques they plan to teach their clients. A karate teacher has to complete several test before they become a black belt and with such high rank they are qualified to pass on their skills to others.

I am happy that this novel explores ways to soothe patients during a very emotional and traumatic time of their life. I am more interested in the ways of preventing that patient from being admitted into the hospital. I know they have an illness that is taking a dangerous toll on their life, but what if that could have been prevented. My biology class has taught me that some heart diseases are brought on by behavioral factors. For example, Coronary Artery Disease can be caused by bad diets.

More specifically I want to know if such practices like meditation and relaxation were taught at younger ages, would there be a decrease in the number of behavioral diseases. I wonder if we learned to let things go and stress less could we indeed live longer. Decades before this one individuals lived to old ages like ninety and eighty years old. I believe the difference between our generation and theirs is the fact we have a lot more meaningless things to do. There are just things we consume our lives around, and they have no real contribution to the good of us like constantly stalking celebrities. Yes, it is interesting to know what other dumb mistake Britney Spears has made, but her life has no effect on ours personally. I believe there is no real focus on the well being of ourselves mentally and physically, our body and our mind.

(This is an image of young children meditating. It is quite a site because children are normally running around getting into everything. This is outside the norm, which is what needs to happen for individuals to do something they are not use to. Furthermore, to train the mind to go to a relaxed, it needs to start early so it will eventually be done with out much thought.)


“So the obvious question is what method could reduce suffering, or bring about freedom from suffering altogether, for ourselves and others?” (Rinpoche and Shlim, 129) I do not believe all the world’s problems would be solved if we stressed less and focused more on our mind, but it would definitely help. The constant pressure for a desired result drives us crazy; we are in frenzy during the process of trying to produce a certain product and are frenzied when it does not come out as planned. Also, constantly thinking “Is this going to lead to bad health, or is this going to result in me dying in four years is stressful?” But if we thought more about the consequences of our actions, we would not have to rely on doctors to show us compassion when our bad mistakes have caught up to us.