Prison Life

In class this week, we watched an episode from the TV series 30 Days. The episode that we watched was 30 Days in Prison. Morgan Spurlock, the main person for the show, went behind bars to serve a 30 day sentence just to see what everything was like. He did the first part of the 30 days living around others with really no privacy. Then he spent 72 hours in solitary confinement. After solitary confinement, he went back to the normal prison and then finally went to a drug rehab center. He did not need any of this, but he spent time in many different parts of jail to see what it was like for people who go through it. The way that people acted throughout different parts of jail were really interesting to see. Morgan made many "friends" while there. Two of his better "friends" were his roommates George and Travis. Morgan spent a lot of time talking to both of them and learned a lot about their life and what they have gone through. George had been in jail several times, spending more time in jail than out of jail. Travis had been a heroin addict for ten years, since he was 15, and has literally been disowned from his family.

-

Many facts were brought up in the show; there were a lot of statistics given as well. One of the statistics given was that 2/3 of people who are released from jail, end up going back to prison. During the show, both George and Travis kept saying that this was the last time that they were going to be in jail and that they would clean up and get better because they never wanted to go back to jail again. However, shortly after being released, both Travis and George were arrested and stand trial once again. While watching this show, it makes people feel sympathetic for those who are in jail and say they want to get better. But after hearing that those people went back to jail, the sympathy goes away; it is almost as if they didn't even try to stay out.

-

Jails in America are overcrowded and the lengths of some sentences are ridiculous, but talking about getting clean and actually doing it are two very different things. This relates to sociology because a mind has to be set into motion instead of just lips moving in order to accomplish something.

Was He Really Mugged?

In class this week, Sal told us a story of a man named Julio Diaz that was mugged one night. This man did not even put up a fight, he just stood there and gave the kid, who had a knife, the thing that he wanted; the mugger wanted his wallet. After giving him his wallet, Julio offered the mugger his jacket since it was cold and the jacket was really warm. After offering the jacket away, he offered to take the guy out to dinner. The mugger decided to go with him and they ended up eating together. After eating, Julio told the mugger that he would have to pay though since he took his wallet; so, with that, Julio said that he would pay if the mugger gave him his wallet back along with the knife. This mugging story ended with a happy ending.

-

This is a story of a mugging gone good. This shows how someone can shape society to their likings if they try hard enough. Not only did Julio probably change someones mind but he also did also saved other people by taking to knife off of the streets. This lesson and story go along great with what we learned last week about Aikido. Only in this situation, Julio Diaz used his energy to control this persons (the muggers) mind. He acted off of the muggers bad energy and turned it to good energy in a few simple steps.

Viole... Aikido is the Answer

Why Aikido? Aikido is the form of using someone elses energy to win a dispute. This is not fighting though... this is simply defeating someone else while using none of your own energy in methods of self defense. This past week in class, Sal showed us what Aikido looked like. With a demonstration in class, he showed us exactly how it worked and how he used the other persons energy to his own advantage to take the fighter down.

-

Aikido shows that violence is not the answer. It is simply that way to get around violence when someone else wants to start it. Not fighting may show people that you are not as tough as everyone else, but with Aikido, you really are tough. It is not the "Tough Guise" that people display on the outside, it is the display of mental toughness on the inside. It can take years to learn the proper art of Aikido, but it can change the way how you respond in different situations, for the good.