Kendra Pierce
Marriage and Family - 2400
Robert Banta
This course has been a great asset to what I am learning during my general education studies at Salt Lake Community College. This course has allowed me to think of everyday life situations in a completely different aspect and allowed me to expand on my thought to dig deeper into each issue. All of the material that was covered in this course in someway affects each one of us individually. There will be a time where everything that I have learned during this course will be applied to my life. Some of the material has helped me better understand things in the past, some has helped me with things in the present time and I know most of the material will help me understand and relate to things and situations I will encounter in the future.
This class was taken online and unlike most other classes I would highly recommend taking this course online. There was a lot of personal information and subjects covered such as religion, family issues, sex, gender identity, marriage, violence etc. that may be hard for some to open up to in a class room setting. Doing the assignments at home I felt much more comfortable with being honest with my self and truly expressing how I felt about each subject rather then saying what I think would be socially expectable to a class.
I chose to include a paper about ethics because it is something that effects everyone one large scale. Everyone can say they believe or have certain feelings on the outside but when it comes down to it feelings can be very different on the inside. Through this chapter as well as the rest of the course I was able to determine why people do what they do and how to be honest with ourselves about what we think and most importantly why we think that. Do we think that because that is what society tells us to think or because that is what we feel to be right? The second one I chose because the power that positive thoughts have is incredible. There is nothing that comes close to the importance of positive thinking. This is something that needs to continually be built upon. I included it as a constant reminder of the way I need to direct my thoughts. There is good in everything, it just needs to be found and acknowledged.
Kendra Pierce
September 6, 2013
Ch. 3 Ethics Family
FHE 2400-042
ETHICS FAMILY
I thought this assignment looked very interesting because it seems like most times everyone is asked to put their biases and opinions about others to the side and not acknowledge them for the sake of human decency. I have never been in a position that I have had to sit and think about what I truly think about other races. But I guess I will just be straightforward and to the point with my opinions.
I think that African Americans more specifically African American women hold some kind of hate against whites for what their pasts consists of. I think that they now have too much attitude because they feel like they are owed something for the mistakes our ancestors have made towards them. If I walk by and say Hi to an African American women she most likely would look at me with the expression on what gives you the right to talk to me? Yes I disagree completely with the things they had to go through, but that time is passed white people are trying to get over it just as much as blacks. Their attitudes aren’t helping anything.
Latinos are amazing people. I have nothing but positive things to say about Latinos. I think they are some of the hardest working people in the United States. I have met many Latinos that work two full time jobs (getting paid low wages) that go home to their families and do everything they can to have a good family life for them and their kids. I guess the one downfall I see is that they don’t know how to treat their women/wives. It seems like they are always degrading or demanding from them but that could how they know to behave from what they were shown in their cultural upbringing. They make due with what they have and the most important thing to me in the Latino culture is that they are happy. The kids are happy and the parents at least portray that they are happy. They make the best from what they have and they never complain about wanting more. Maybe us Americans should learn a thing or two from the people living our culture a lot better then we are. Another problem is they are crossing the border. I say let them over. If they are going to put their life on the line to come over and work there tails off and get paid hardly anything. Then I don’t see how that is affecting us the way we make it out to be. If I was in their situation and my family was suffering I would probably do the same thing. As a parent survival mode kicks in and most would do whatever is needed to provide food and shelter for their children.
As for Asian Americans I don’t really have an opinion for this Ethnic group, I have never had enough experience around them. I have spent the majority of my life living in Farmington UT I have moved around Davis County but for the most part it is strictly Caucasuions with a very few amount of Blacks and Hispanics. I have not had the exposure I need to have a personal stereotype towards Asian Americans.
Native Americans are a very interesting group of people. I love that they stay very true to their roots and their heritage. At any given time, I feel like I could walk up to a Native American and they could tell me many stories about their ancestors, traditions, beliefs etc. They always look very serious but I have noticed that for the most part they are happy they just show it in a different way then most. I assume most Native Americans drink heavily. This opinion comes solely off what I have seen in movies, read about in books, or heard stories of from others. This is the only opinion I have listed on this paper that is not a fair assumption. All of the others are my own opinions not factoring in what I hear from others or have seen through media. But for some reason Native Americans and heavy drinking have always correlated in my mind. I have some Cherokee blood in me somewhere along the lines and whenever I start talking to my Grandmother about it I hear nothing but bitterness toward them. I try not to let that influence my opinion because I have not had the same experiences she has.
And last but most important is European American. I could have easily written my whole paper on my opinion and biases towards my own race. I am proud to be an American cause at least I know I’m free. But sometimes I am disgraced by my “fellow European American” also known as Caucasian Americans. I am going to use the word “we” for the sake of this argument but in no way classify myself as participating in the culture I am about to describe. In my opinion we are lazy, close-minded, greedy, selfish, racist, immoral, psychopathic, narrow minded, destructive, media driven, liars. Who want nothing more then to live a materialistic life of misery because the majority of us will never have everything we want. Therefore we have to keep betraying or putting others down so we feel slightly good about ourselves. We spend money we don’t have to be able to “look good” to our fell European Americans. We donate money to charities to help “the little black kids” everywhere else in the world but turn our heads when we see one of our own standing on the corner holding a sign that reads “Homeless Disabled Vet”. Which one will get you a pat on the back from your peers, donating to a 3rd world charity or helping one of our own? You guessed it, donating to a 3rd world charity. We criticize the ones who don’t have it as well as we do but do absolutely nothing positive to help them. We use our power for evil. In my opinion we have no culture, we are to busy feeding off other peoples culture to create or maintain one of our own. My rants with European Americans could go on for hours but I see more biases with my own race then with others. My opinions are all based on things I have seen and experienced for myself so I consider them to be fair assumptions. We need to stop worrying about everyone else’s race and start focusing in on our own flaws and inequalities.
Kendra Pierce
September 27, 2013
Marriage and Family Relations
2400-042
Ch. 7 Positive Comments
I was thrilled to see this as one of our assignments. I am taking a class that we just finished reading a book call “What to say when you talk to yourself” by Shad Hemseletter. This book goes over the effects of negative and positive self-talk. After learning to identify them it taught us how to change negative thoughts into positive thoughts. I have been working on this quite a bit in the last week. Had I seen this assignment prior to this I would have a lot more negatives then I do now.
I did an assignment similar to this where I had to make note of negative comments. I was surprised to see find that I was using dramatically more negative comments and personal thoughts then I ever could have imagined. The negative way that we talk to each other has become so normal to each one of us that when something positive is said it almost makes the other person step back for a minute and analyze what just happened.
My husband and I have a great relationship. I thought this would be interesting to use him as my “test subject”. The things I would say to him that had become a natural part of the way we would talk emotionally hurt me. Of course I never went out of my way to make negative comments, in fact I thought he would be the one that had the least amount. Once I was able to identify the negative I was using then I was quickly able to change it around and start using positive comments and thoughts. When I started to implement this, incredible things started to happen. I could feel a different vibe flowing in our household. I felt much more connected to my husband then ever before. My husband eventually started to pick up on things and started watching for negative use as well. He has been working on improving as well. I can tell a dramatic difference in the way our kids are talking to each other and the way they are behaving as well. The change is amazing and I am going to do everything I can to continue to implement positive talk and positive self-talk in my life and the lives of those around me.
