The Quest for Answers

This topic is very interesting to me because so many people  have very strong opinions about it. One night I couldn't sleep so I started watching an episode of 30 Days on Netflix. In this episode, an LDS woman went to live with a gay couple with 4 adopted children for 30 days. The LDS woman had very strong opinions that gay and lesbian couples should NOT be allowed to adopt. In the episode many points were brought up, like the fact that there are thousands of kids in foster care who need loving homes. Should those kids be kept in foster care simply to keep them away from having homosexual parents? 


Also, is it right to create a law making it so that gay and lesbian couples cannot adopt? They have their idea of what a family is like, and so do we. What if one day people tried to pass a law saying that heterosexual people couldn't adopt? I would try to fight a law like that, because I believe that I should be able to live the way I want. So does it make it right for us to try and create a law banning homosexual people from adopting? 


Many children are adopted and raised by same sex parents. If these kids weren't adopted by these people, they would most likely stay in foster care for the rest of their lives. On this episode of 30 days, the LDS woman visited two grown ups who had lived in foster care their whole lives. From what I've seen, foster care is not the ideal way to grow up. Is it better to have kids go from home to home and never have a real family, or to be adopted by same sex parents? 


I have my own opinion on the issue, but I would love to hear yours. Please comment so I can get some different perspectives! Thanks :)

Life experiences are like fingerprints: no two people have the same exact ones. This leads to the subject of this post. Can anyone really know what it's like to walk in someone else's shoes? 


Every day without out fail, we as humans get on our soap boxes and pass judgement on those around us. With how much reality television there is, it is easy to look at the portions of people's lives that we are shown and make judgements about the people being portrayed. Like reality television, in real life we don't see everything that goes on in people's lives. We don't know everything that has happened to the people around us. We are in no place to judge them for what they do, because we don't know what's going on in their lives. 


For example, I had a co-worker who was saying that our manager was being ornery and needed to stop being so negative. Little did they know, the manager's father had just had a heart attack and was therefore justified in being upset. The co-worker didn't know, but does that make it okay for them to judge? I had another experience where some people around me were making fun of a handicapped person. They said it was okay, because the handicapped person knew he was different so he didn't care. Little did these people know that I have a sister with disabilities and am extremely defensive and protective over her when it comes to how other people treat her. I wouldn't want someone making fun of my sister that way, and I know that handicapped boy wouldn't want to be treated that way. Those people thought the boy didn't care, but how would they know? They don't have disabilities. They don't know what he has to go through every day. People's lives are hard enough without us judging them or giving them labels. 


So here's my question once again: Can we really know what it's like to walk in someone else's shoes? 

The request has been made for a new post, so here I am, once again to ramble about the things that have been on my mind. It is the end of the semester, which has made me reflect back on the things I have learned or have had to pretend to be interested in. In my philosophy class we chose a subject at the very beginning of the semester that we would base all our papers off of. I chose media and the effect it has on adolescents. I already figured that media is such a big part of people's lives that it must have an astounding influence on people and their actions.


The evidence linking media to actions people make is mind BOGGLING. It's kind of freaky to think about the type of people that kids today are exposed to, and these are the role models for youth across the nation. On television, movies, you name it, people who do bad things are made to appear glamorous and appealing. Where should the line be drawn? Kids are exposed to all sorts of things in today's world that are really unnecessary. Being smart is made to seem uncool. Partying, being superficial, doing drugs, sex, drinking, etc. are all made to appear like the thing to do. It seems like because of the constitution granting freedom of speech we can't control what kids are exposed to. I'm not saying we should shelter kids in a little bubble and become amish. What I am saying is that the violence, sex, STUPIDITY, and so forth should be monitored because of how big an effect it is having on kids. 


People often say, "You can't control the media, but you can control your kids." Yeah right. You can teach kids what's right and wrong or how to make good decisions but that doesn't change the fact that the detrimental crap in the media is EVERYWHERE. There's no way on any planet I know of that can keep kids from seeing or hearing stuff they shouldn't. It's not even just the R rated movies I'm talking about. It's the little stuff. Music lyrics that objectify women, a billboard for Victoria's Secret, violent video games, blah blah blah the list goes on and on. I just think these kinds of things are inappropriate for young kids, yet they are exposed to it every day. No good judgement is going to keep them from that. 


This blog is a little rambly but I'm SUPER tired so I'm going to get down to it. How big of an effect do you think the media has on kids and the way they turn out or the things they do? Should something be done? What even CAN be done about it? Here's your chance to let out all your opinions on the media so ready......GO!

First of all, YAY to you people who have commented. This whole site would be useless without people commenting so thank you! Now on to the latest topic on my mind.

With all the war going on in the world, bad things happen. We civilians don't really see everything that happens, only the stuff that either happens to us personally or what is shown on the news. A lot of the time, we don't hear about the torture that goes on both by the U.S. and other countries. We know it goes on, but not the reasoning behind it or the outcome. Is torture ever justified?

Torture is never pretty. Sometimes someone holds valuable information and the country will be in peril without it. Is torture justified then? What about like on the movie "Taken" when the man's daughter is taken while in France and the dad tortures a man to get information about where she is? Is that justified?

Let's say that on 9/10/2001 the U.S. military had a man in custody who knew about the terrorist attack that was going to occur. If the military could find out the details, they could save tons of lives and prevent the trauma that happened to our country. Would the soldiers be justified to torture that man for answers? What if he was an inch from death after hours of torture and he still didn't tell? Is it justified for them to continue the torture until he's dead? Where is the stopping point? What about if the man tells the soldiers everything they want to know. What do the soldiers do after that? It's not like they can let him go. Do they keep him captive? Do they kill him? What do they do?

When, if ever, is torture okay?

Today I was walking on my University's campus trying to book it from the bus stop to my class. All along the way guys kept holding doors open for me. In one instance, one of the professors ( I think it was a professor, he was mid 30's I would guess) tried to hold two doors open at once for me! That was a first. But when I actually got to class, a guy elbowed me freaking hard when he took his jacket off, and didn't even say sorry. Is this whole chivalry thing a generational trait, or is it a randomly distributed trait through some select men?

What's so difficult about opening a door every once in a while? Without women, men wouldn't even exist. Women take care of men as mothers and wives, so what's so extremely hard about treating women with respect? Why is it that today's teenagers seem to get less and less respectful as the years go by? I don't know if it's lack of parent's discipline or simply kids "sticking it to the man" that makes chivalry start to go out the door. All I know is that at 8 in the morning trying to escape the freezing cold I really appreciated those guys opening my doors for me.

Some guys say, "You have hands, you can do it yourself." And while this is very observant (not) and true, there's nothing wrong with making a girl feel noticed. Everyone appreciates help every now and then.

So what do you think? Is chivalry dead, or is it going to make a comeback?

Living in "Happy Valley" Utah makes the brain go crazy at times. My mind is full of questions and there is little variety of people to get diverse answers or opinions from. Most people here either agree, agree just to agree, or just outright disagree on any given standpoint that it leaves little room for the in between arguments on topics. 


Stranded here among college freshman who are completely focused on missions or marriage makes it difficult to have an even semi-deep conversation about ANYTHING. I have created this blog in hopes of receiving some diverse answers and opinions on anything and everything. I look forward to anyone who wants to join in on this quest with me. I expect to learn a lot from anyone willing to comment :) 


-Some of the topics I am going to discuss are:
-What is the real reason why the world can never be entirely at peace like everyone hopes?
-Why are we as humans so eager to believe people in positions of power when they say they will help change when we know it isn't as easy as it sounds?
-How could anyone kill a child?
-What is it about certain kinds of music that appeal to us more than others?
-Does power really make people happy?
-How are some celebrities actually famous when they have no real talent?
-Why do people idolize famous people?
-Can anyone really know what it's like to be in someone else's shoes?


These are just a few among many of the questions floating around my mind. They might get more random depending on what happens during my days, so I guess we'll see how this goes.