Our topic this week was national security and the question that stuck with me from our discussion was: would you rat someone out? If you witnessed a crime, would you report it to a proper authority? And I think the answer depends on the situation. If I saw or knew that one of my friends stole from a store--I would question them directly. Ask them, why'd you do it? Make them question their actions, and make me question my own judgment in befriending a thief. Was this a one time mistake, or a behavior flaw I just hadn't noticed?      In a situation where I witness physical violence, I would probably not go up to the attacker and, risking my own safety ask, "why are you hurting this innocent victim?" Rather, I might call the police to report the crime or wait until the attack was over to help the victim. Yet, I don't think many college students would do this. Would they really take the time to call the cops to report a crime, or would they just talk about how horrible the situation is as they walk right by? Would they even notice someone was being hurt? What would happen if you later learned that the person whom you walked by and talked about without helping was your roommate's sister or even your best friend--what would you do then? Why can't every victim be someone you know? Why would you treat someone you know differently then a stranger when in reality, they are both victims? 

More importantly than dealing with the victims, how can we prevent the crimes in the first place? On a campus as large as Penn State's it's a wonder that we don't have more security. Yes, there are campus police and borough police and state police patrolling the area. There are ID cards you have to swipe to get into buildings, and blue light emergency call boxes all around campus. Yet, we still have incidents of violence and disruptions. Currently, there is a streaker on the loose on campus--working his way into various dormitory buildings and exposing himself to students. Does our common courtesy to hold the door open allow exposure incidents to occur? Does it make us more secure to be rude and shut the door on the person behind us so that they have to swipe their card or call a friend to come let them in? If we do happen to let someone we don't recognize in to the building, are college students going to question them about where they're going and who they're going to see and then wait for the friend to come meet the guest? I don't know about you, but I have other things to do with my time than wait for people to meet their visitors. If I have an armful of books, it would be really nice for someone to hold the door for me. I think that our generation has become unaware of the seriousness of the potential situation to worry about what might happen if they do this or don't do that. But then again, should we always be living in a "what if" world? If we always worry about what might happen or the potential for this to occur, I think we forget to live our lives.

I really had no idea what to expect of this first class. After the orientation on Sunday, I got a little more comfortable with the idea of sitting in a room with 28 other students discussing topics such as national security or freedom of speech. Getting to know the other PLAers helped a bit as did some advice from the older class telling us to have an open mind and to not be afraid to stand up for our opinions even if they are about to get shut down. I am one of those students who has ideas but is afraid that those ideas may be wrong and I tend to not share them. Yet, inevitably someone else shares the exact same point of which I was thinking. It has taken me some time to work on getting over this fear of being wrong, or having my opinion challenged and I really think that this class will help with both. I am definitely going to have my opinion challenged--it is now my responsibility to defend my opinion while still having an open mind to the opinions of others.      

The end of class started an interesting conversation on what we think about the Islamic religious center being built down the street from where the World Trade Center once stood. The question that got me thinking was "would you ask the people who want to build this center to move to a different location or would you defend their right to let them stay where they are?" In class today I answered that I would ask them to move--a block from Ground Zero seems like a very odd place to have an Islamic religious center, especially when so many people are against the idea. But after thinking about it and listening to the views of other PLAers, asking the religious center to move seems like taking the easy way out. Asking them to move would not be the right thing to do because it would deny the founders of this center their Constitutional right to freedom of religion: the right to build religious buildings where they want. While many people are against it, I wonder why so many people are worrying about this issue. What do I care if an Islamic religious center is being built in New York? There is construction going on all around us--yet this is the building the media is focusing on because of 9/11. Why are we still letting that tragic event dictate our lives? Yes it was horrible and many innocent lives were lost that day. But it has been nine years since the attack. Nine years. In Israel, after a terrorist attack has occurred the Israelis work as quickly as possible to get their lives back together--they do not let the terrorism rule their lives. The attack may happen, and it is an event in their lives, but it does not define their lives. By continuing to question whether or not this religious center should be built, we are letting the events of September 11th and the terrorist who caused those attacks to define our lives. We can remember the event and memorialize it, but we do not need to let 9/11 affect the way we live the rest of our lives. If this building were to be built before 9/11, it would not matter, so why should it matter now?