Response to Brady

I disagree with Brady.  I believe everything about Greek Life is a productive way to grow as a person and make you a better man or woman.  Brady brings up the issue of “paying for your friends” but I completely disagree with this.  As a member of the Kappa Alpha Order I can guarantee that no one in the fraternity came into it with the idea of “buying” friends.  Joining KA I have made my closest friends for the rest of my life and this is not because I pay my dues.  If fraternities were free I still think people would still want to join them, but not everyone would be given the privilege to join them, the bid process would still be there and probably more complex since more people would rush.  I also know I have meet more people than I would have otherwise if I had not joined a fraternity.  With this I am expanding my circle and making new connections with people I probably would have not meet before.  My pledge brothers mean a lot to me and they are my best friends and they will be for the rest of my life, I will “marry them and bury them”.  Meaning I will be with them at probably the most important times in their lives.  I would not have an extra group of brothers like this if I had not joined KA.  Fraternities are so much more than just drinking clubs.  It looks like that is what it is from an outsider’s point of view, but in reality it is a system of people you know who love you and will make sacrifices for you when you are in a time of need.  Fraternities do a lot of philanthropy work.  Greek Life is a major contributor to charities and work very involved with charity work.  

Response to Tucker

Yes I agree a lot with what Tucker was saying.  Coming down to South Carolina from Ohio people are much more racist.  Many of my white friends are more than ok with saying the N-word in any form.  But for me saying the N-word is very vulgar I respect black people well enough to not use such a derogatory term for them.  This term is crude and should not be spoken by whites as the word has such a history of tense feelings attached to it.

I think that black people should be allowed to say it if they like.  Their ancestors went through the hardships and grew up being called this.  As black people get more used to hearing the term from one of their own, it desensitizes the crudeness of the word.  Which I think is very good as black people make this word more part of their society as a synonym for friend or brother, it shows pride in their heritage and where they came from. 

The thing that happened at Oklahoma University is very terrible, two guys were caught doing something I’m sure they did not realize was being videotaped.  This puts a very bad reputation on fraternities everyone and makes Greek Organizations get more heat than we already do for hazing and being thought of as arrogant.  Fraternities and sororities are known to some people as “buying your friends” I disagree with this because as joining KA I have gotten to be so close with all of my brothers and it’s not because they have to be friends with me because we all paid our dues.  But it’s because we are all gotten very close over the past year and we enjoy each of the others company.  The money we pay just goes to make our college experience more fun as we have formals and house parties, which we need money to make happen, and dues are just the most efficient way to collect money.  

Response to Daniel

I agree with Daniel, he makes some very good talking points in his blog.  I agree that it is just as much the responsibility of the man as it is the women to raise a child.  Yes, a lot of men are cowards and run from pregnancy and leave women with a child they can raise themselves, but that is just a terrible situation for mother and child.  Women should not go getting abortions they should in turn be careful when they are having sex.  If they would only have sex with men that are reliable and they think would not run if they make them pregnant.  Women are equally responsible in choosing a partner as in carrying the child.  If they do not want a child there are ways for a women to protect herself from becoming pregnant.  Being on birth control, making sure the man is wearing a condom, or just absence.  Two of these could be against the religion of the women but if the women is that religious I do not think they would be getting an abortion either. 

Rape is a different thing, but as Daniel said there are very few instances when a baby is produced from a rape.  And even if the mother of the child was raped she could eventually put the child up for adoption.  That is a very difficult thing for a mother to do and had major emotional and physical effects on women when they must leave their new born child.  But that’s why rape is such a terrible thing and should not be taken lightly.  Rape is a horrendous thing and I personally think any man who is capable of rape is so morally wrong they should be incarcerated for years, even the thought of rape disgust me.

Abortion is both the man and women’s responsibility.  Both parties need to be more careful.  If women are raped which as Dan said is a rarity for a child to be produced the women should try to keep the child but it is understandable if they do not want to.  And that one exception almost makes it legal to everyone to get an abortion because women would just claim rape if they did not want the child.

Response to Isaac

I agree with Isaac, I believe the school system is very sub-par.  Isaac makes many good points the thing that stood out the most to me was about how teachers who are not excited to teach.  This really does have a major effect on me as a student.  I have had some very monotone unenthusiastic teachers.  This surely effects how much effort I give in class.  My senior year in high school I had a very unenthusiastic physics teacher and I just gave no effort in class and would sleep every day.  This teacher acted like she cared at first but then eventually gave up on me and just left me alone during class.  I ended up getting a 70 in the class and less than a 50% on the final exam.  I would have been more willing to give effort is she made class interesting and if she was not so biased towards the other students. 

            Also Isaac talked about the strong push towards math and not the humanities.  I do not like this push because I am extremely bad at math.  This type of learning problem solving can be taught through many other ways not just math and science.  I would say I am an average problem solver learning to become a better one, but I’m not learning through math and science, I am learning this through the humanities like political science classes and classes that teach me how to think critically.  

            So if the school system had super fun teachers that were excited about teaching, I think that students would be much more willing to learn.  And the fact that math and science are being taught more so than other areas of study.         

Response to Hana

                I was spanked as a child multiple times.  I was not a well behaved child, I was always told I have an “attitude” problem.  My mom used to spank me when I would whine or just not do what she told me.  Being spanked was a normal part of my childhood.  I never really learned from the spanking, I kept repeating whatever I did wrong.  My mom eventually figured out this was not working and stop spanking me. 

            I think spanking is very acceptable and it’s by the discretion of the parents to see how much they spank their children or if at all.  But there is a thin line between spanking and abusing your child.  Child abuse is very terrible and should never happen and spanking can lead to child abuse if a bad parent gets too eager to spank their children. 

Parents should spank because it instills respect for authority.  With authority comes responsibility, these authority figures need to learn how to spank effectively.  They need to instill the threat of spanking and try to reinforce the threat without actually spanking.  Parents that can spank and then remind the children of the threat of spanking to make them act respectful is the ideal way to discipline your child using corporal punishment.  Certain parents do not understand that they spank their child too much and it turns into child abuse. 

I think spanking is a very good thing and when it is used the proper way children will behave the correct way and respect authority.  Spanking is a tool that can be used properly to teach children how to behave.  I think I will definitely spank my children as a parent but only as a last resort and try and threaten spanking more than actually doing it.    

Response to Kat

I agree with Kat studying abroad is a very important.  I haven’t taken classes in another country but I have been a few places around the world and the experiences I've had were extremely fun, and memorable.  In 2010, I went to South Africa.  I spent tens days over my Easter break helping grow relationships with the underprivileged people of South Africa and created relationships and made experiences I will never forget.  Throughout the trip we built houses and planted gardens for the people to better their lives. 

I also went to Spain and Italy summer of my senior year.  We went to Barcelona and traveled all throughout Italy.  I went to all the famous land marks and enjoyed every second of it.  But that is not what I take back most from that trip.  I learned how to overcome language barriers with many Spanish and Italians, buying stamps could not be any more complicated.  But I also learned how to manage my money and not spend it all on the first thing I saw.  I learned how to barter with street venders and get the best deals on fake sunglasses. 

These two experiences have taught me a lot and I believe they have helped me discover who I really am, and helped me mature as a person and as a man.  These trips helped me and I would like to go study abroad sometime because I feel as though I would return with similar and hopefully better experiences.  Going abroad just would open my mind up to many new ways of thinking and new cultures, and I think that is very important especially for college students as they are discovering who they are themselves and what they want to be doing for the rest of their lives.        

Response to Jack

I disagree with Jack the money that these sports players make is something they have earned.  Yes it seems like they aren't working but being a NFL player is a year round job.  These player deserve the money they are making.  Their job is their body, they must maintain and workout everyday of every year.  They sacrifice their body for the entertainment of the people.  At any moment they could injure themselves, and live with a handicap for the rest of their lives.

            These athletes deserve a portion of the money of the entertainment industry.  Sports is the biggest entertainment industry, think of the jerseys and memorabilia that millions of people buy.  The spending on this merchandise is outrageous and the percentage of the total money made by the leagues is multiple times greater than the amount the athletes themselves are being paid.  The leagues are profiting of the name of big players with jersey sales and you want to watch the game to see how certain players perform. 

            Another fact is that yes these athletes are being paid millions by the leagues.  But where they make their real money is with endorsements.  Athlete’s endorsements are how they make a majority of their money.  To stop this athlete over-payment would also be impossible, once you stop paying the athletes you kill the sports industry.   The Super Bowl wouldn't be as competitive, the World Series wouldn't matter as much, and no one would watch the NBA Finals (not like many people do anyway).  But each of these events have millions of billions of dollars spent on advertising and hype up to the game.  I think that these athletes deserve a portion of this money that companies are spending/profiting off of when the athletes are performing or doing their job. 

            Athletes deserve the money they make because they are sacrificing their lives for the entertainment of the people.  The money they make is not just from the league and teams it is from the endorsements.  The reason they have so much money is because we are willing to pay them.  If you think athletes are being paid too much you need to make a movement to get everyone to stop watching sporting events.