Leadership

Leadership is a very important skill to learn while communicating in small groups and making critical decisions. Learning leadership is learning how to direct others and take initiative while in groups. This is a very important skill to learn that you will need for the rest of your life. It seems that in college it is a particularly imperative skill that needs to be learned early on to excel in a few key classes. It already seems to be a quite prevalent skill on today’s college campuses, however, there are some that are shy why don’t like taking the lead and desperately need to learn to do so.

Leadership is such an important skill to learn. In everyone’s life there will come a time when you need to take the lead in some kind task whether that task is planning a party or taking the lead on a project at work. Everyone needs to learn to stand up and take the lead and to not just follow blindly.     

Death Penalty

The death penalty can be regarded as inhumane however, in my opinion the death penalty should be enacted in all states. The death penalty seems to be a very effective deterrent in keeping most people from committing brutal crimes.

In a religious sense the death penalty does seem to contradict the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth by going against the belief that hate should not be returned with hate and evil with evil. Essentially this teaching has the same meaning as Gandhi’s teaching that “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”. If a person identifies strongly to a religious affiliation then I understand why they would not agree with the death penalty, however, I believe that this kind of circumstances is why church and state must be separated. It is not the duty or right of religious groups to decide the laws in which a country of many different religions is a part of.     

Impossibilities

In the story “Silver Blaze” Sherlock Holmes seems to be explaining to Watson that you have to look at things thorough uninfluenced senses, by this I mean that you have to look at things without judging them by what you have seen or felt before. In a way Holmes seemed to be talking about everything in life not just his case solving. It seems that Holmes would have really been able to take the expression, don’t judge a book by its cover to heart. In my own life Holmes’s thoughts about thinking of impossibilities and not just taking situations for what they seem would be very important lessons that I should have realized long ago. Like when I was little I wanted to be a vet even though I was always told by my family that it was too hard to do and they didn’t think I could do it. Currently I am at San Jose State pressuring a BS in biology, and when I get the degree I am going to go to Veterinary school. I didn’t listen to reason I took the impossibilities and am proving them to be false, and believe me it was hard I have thought of giving up and doing something much easier by then I wouldn’t prove them wrong and I need to prove them wrong.             

Communication Apprehension

In our reading, small group communication, communication apprehension is a major issue that is discussed. There are many shy people in the world and often their shyness makes them fear even the thought of talking in groups of people that they do not know.  There are clear disadvantages to having fear of communicating such as not participating meaning that you may lose points in a class or even loosing interest and possibly even respect in the workplace. There are things that a person can do to try to overcome these fears. One of these things that you can do is research the concept that you are going to discuss this can help by making you much more confident in what you are saying allowing you to speak from a more knowledgeable standpoint. I thought that this was a very helpful thing that people who are apprehensive to speak in groups should do. I myself do this because I have a slight fear of speaking in groups and when I know all about what is being discussed that fear seems to completely go away making me more social and making me get more points in classes and be a more resourceful at work.  

The Big Decision

In my life there have been many times where my personal feelings toward a certain thing have affected the relationships that I have had with people. In one case in particular it was very hard to make the decision that I had made. Right now my parents are going through a divorce and about a year ago I was talking to my dad about what would happen after we moved out of the house. I did not want to be moving out with my mom because of some problems she had and the rocky relationship that we shared, so I told my dad that I was going to live with him and my brother because I got along with both of them and it would be a much more stable environment to live in. Although, much to my surprise my mom came up to me asking where I wanted to live, not with who but which city I wanted to live with her. I was shocked at the accusation and when I told her I wasn’t going to live with her she cried and begged me to and even my brother thought I should live with her because he thought that she would go into a downward spiral if I did not. I made the hard decision not to live with her, for the first time in my life I can drive home and not sit in the car for a minute to prepare myself for what would happen when I open the door, and now my relationship with my mom is better than it has ever been.          

Barak Obama's Inconsistencies

Barak Obama has declared that he opposes same sex marriage which contradicts his views about the equality of all people. He also says that he agrees with the civil union of same sex couples. I believe that these opposing positions have to do with the fact that he is the president of the U.S. Obama is a public figure and to get in higher positions he must please more people so saying that he disagrees with same sex marriage he appeals to the majority of people who disagree while appealing to gay and lesbian people who wish to be treated equally and want to be in a civil union.

If Obama was presented with Nova and Dawidoff’s argument, I believe that he would say that civil union gives gay and lesbian couples the same rights as heterosexual couples. But I also think that he would say that the way he was raised made him think that marriage is suppose to be between a man and woman. Even though he says that he believes in the civil rights of gay and lesbian people he does not support them completely making his position on the matter extremely contradicts.