Life of Sunshine: 2011

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

sociopaths.

I don't think there is such thing as a sociopath, maybe under some circumstances or for short period of time but I believe that at one point or another the person has some kind of understanding of what is socially considered right and wrong. I think that the people we call sociopaths choose to ignore those feelings, and if one chooses to ignore them and participate is henious, unforgiveable acts that damage or end human life, then yes, they should be locked up. I don't believe in forever, and I think that everyone can change. No matter what you've done, I think people are capable of changing.
I don't think, that a juvenile should ever get life in prison, because I believe everything is circumstantial. I don't think there is any driving force in anyone that just makes them want to kill people, something outside of that person has to fuel their hatred and anger to get them to the point of murder (which would be the only reason I would consider putting a juvenile in prison for life). Once you take away that outside factor, with time and reasoning, I feel like that individual would be able to reenter society. I also do not agree with the death penalty whatsoever for anyone. I don't think any human has any right to decide if someone lives or dies.
I think rehabilitation is good, and upon reentering society the juvenile or any other individual needs to be surrounded by other people that share the same vaules and goals as them as to make it easier for them to stay on track.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Prisons/Absolutes/Opinions

Before watching the Stanford Prison Experiment, I didn't have any absolutes. I said that everything was circumstantial and while I still do mostly believe that, I also do believe there are some absolutes. There may be things that are completely wrong no matter what the circumstances, but I don't think they're any specific acts in particular. I think that if when you look at the situation, whatever was done was done purely out of spite, and evil, and hatred then that should result in more severe punishment. I don't believe that acts themselves should be punishable, I think that it's the motivations and hatred that you should judge people on. For example, if someone robs a bank because they cannot control theyre greed, that is even more wrong then someone robbing a grocery store because they have no other way of feeding themselves or their children. Acts themselves are not wrong, people are.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Deviance.

I, personally, don't think there are any absolute truths to anything deviant or criminal. I believe that there's circumstances to anything and everything that change the severity and seriousness of the act. For example, stealing. Of course it's not morally okay, but when you're at the end of your resources and you have a child to feed you will do anything to feed them. If someone was stealing things like tvs, ipods, and recreational things are obviously not things you need. Another act of deviance is lying. While this isn't exactly something you get prison time for, it's still morally wrong. But sometimes people lie for the right the reasons, sometimes they have good intentions, sometimes it's to protect someone, sometimes it's to protect themselves. Even penalties for sincerely wrong, immoral acts are too harsh, in my opinion. People make mistakes. Good people make mistakes, but that doesn't make them bad people right?

Bucket List

1. Be succesful

2. Walk the enitre California coast.

3. Sleep in the desert.

4. Witness something lifechanging.

5. Buy a plane ticket to nowhere.

6. Fall in love there.

7. Open an art institute for troubled youth.

8. Save a life.

9. Read poetry at a coffee shop.

10. Die Happy.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Sex Ed Vs. Abstinence

In my opinion I think that schools should teach both sex education and abstinence. No matter what you tell teenagers, they're going to want to have sex, and they're going to do what they want. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of kids that feel strongly about not having sex until marriage or until they're in love or whatever else but there's also plenty that don't feel that way. If school's are only teachin abstinence, the kids that are pasrticipating in sexual acivities aren't going to hvae any idea about the precautions they should take, or the risks they're taking by having sex. Personally, my parents never told me anything about sex at all so if i was never in any ind of health class i would have no idea whatsoever except for what friends have told me. also, I think sex ed should be mandatory. most kids probably won't want to make the decision to take sex ed.

Aging Discrimination

I'm sure at come point everyone has been discriminated against becuase of their age. On different occasions I've been to resteraunts with friends of mine and the host or servers look annoyed. They expect us to make a mess, or be rude, and not tip. Because of that the server usually takes less care of you, stopping by maybe once throughout your meal to check to see if you need anything because they just don't expect a tip from you, so you're not worth it. On more than one occasion I've been to eat with my parents where the server hardly left our table. Also, I work at a fast food resteraunt. When teenagers, especially boys, order food I dread taking their order out because I expect them to be rude and make fun. At the same time, when older people come through, anyone is willing to take the orer out because most of them tip well.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Parenting Neglect

In my opinion these are cases of neglect but I think the state should be understand towards them. I think that the parents should be forced to get medical help for their children, but no penalties on the parents like the kids being taken away from them. I think it's neglect because the kids do in fact need the medical attention. The parents have to understand that even though it may be hard to go through some things they're children have to do it, and the state needs to understnad that the parents werent intentionally trying to harm their children they were trying to svae them from more grief.

Good Wife

I think the good wife article was really demeaning to women. It made women seem more like possession than actual people and it focused their lives on theis husbands instead of theirselves. They were more or less assisstants to the household oppossed to the other owner.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Sociologically Meaningful Music

Culture

One of my favorite tv shows is a new show on MTV called Skins. It's an remake, word for word, of the British series skins. It's your typical sitcom about highschool teenagers getting into trouble, dealing with relationships, and peer pressures that every other teenage kid goes through. Some may see it at controversial because of the sexual situations and drug use that occurs, but British teens say our show hardly hits home. Though the show is pretty muc ha scene for scene replica, most the nudity and raw sexual content has been edited out. British teens say that American Tv loves to exploit violence but skips out on the nudity. This is a hge different in culture. Skins airs a new episode every monday night at 10 o'clock. This is considered much too early in the evening, when children could be awake too see this. The censoring of tv is a huge difference in culture between Britian and the United States.

Race-Conflict Approach.

An important social-conflict approach in the race-conflict approach. It focuses on inequality and conflict between people of different racial and ethnic categories. Race conflict is a huge issue al over the world, which I feel like, is fueled by all different aspects of the media. Movies, for example, are a huge one. Just the other day I saw a show on a childrens network, Disney Channel, of two kids bullying another kid. Of course, the two children bullying were a latino child and an african-american child. I thought this was highly offensive to portray these to races as bullies, especially since they're already seen as violent. This relates back to my life because I've been in situations before where I've been looked at different because of my race, which has nothing to do with my personality. It's hard to look at someone who is judging you based on your skin color, when they have no idea the type of person you actualy are. Now when that happens, I partially blame the media for fueling these sterotypes.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

To Love or Not to Love

Sumshine loves: love, art, friends, staying up late, coffee, music, hottubs, bookstores, amusement parks, movies that make me cry, sleeping until noon, running, new car smell, voss water, swimming, long drives to nowhere, boys, writing, new shoes, bubble baths, shopping, pretty words, naps in the evening, parties, reading, all things that make me smile.

Sumshine does not love: liars, annoying people, the Ewells, stupid questions, donkeys, people who think theyre all that and a bag of chips, being cold, having no money, homework, jane eyre, bad table manners, snot, being sick, hypothetical converstions that would otherwise never take place, going to work, boring novels for english class, all things that make me not want to smile.