Same-Sex Marriages

Marriages for same-sex couples are legally accepted in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusette, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Washington, D.C. In today's society in the U.S., same-sex marriage and abortion are the biggest and most sensitive issues. My church, unification Church, believes that original purpose of humans is to marry to opposite sex, give birth to children, and have a happy family, in where God can dwell. God created man and woman to become together but not man and man and woman and woman. If I just point a finger at gay people and say "you are wrong," I will be the one should be accused.

I have a friend, who exposed that he was a gay on facebook in the last summer. Because I strongly believe in my church's teaching about the unification of a man and woman, I felt so sorry to hear that he was a gay. I asked the friend, "How did you become a gay?" He said when he entered middle school, he became interested in same sex.

I asked my pastor about why some people became gay. He explained that the homosexuality has a long history. In Japan, many monks became gays after they started living in a temple on the top of the mountain with other male monks. Because the monks are also humans, who have sexual desires, but there are only males in the temple, they had sexual relationships with other male monks to satisfy their own desire.

I thought the homosexuality is the result of the today's immoral society, but the issue has a long history. Some researchers say that environment has strongly affects people to become gay. For example, if someone was sexually abused by his same-sex parent, he remembers the experience and desires to have sex only with same-sex. Other researcher says that it is a biological issue: Some people are born to be gay. I still have lack of knowledge about the homosexuality, so I will need more research on the issue.

It's very sad to see that many places in the U.S. accept the gay marriages. If what the researchers say about "the environment cause people to become gay" is true, then the U.S. has to try to make a better society, which encourages to have a healthy, moral family with no violence or abuse. Children need father and mother to receive love from both sides, but children cannot grow properly if the love from either father or mother is absent; therefore, the same-sex marriage should be discouraged in order to raise children in the right way and make moral and peaceful society.

Misusing of Facebook

When you open the wall on your facebook, you see a blank that says, "What's on your mind?" I write something on my wall only when I think that's good news or meaningful for my friends to read. For example, I posted two weeks ago, "Hey, I got three tickets for Marvericks' game on Friday for free from school. Does anybody wanna come with me?" Facebook is very convenient for me to ask or tell something important to my friends instead of calling them one by one. I understand that you can write anything comes in my mind if I know that my message will not hurt anybody's heart. Some people, however, intend to write something that hurt others' hearts. In other words, they use the facebook opportunity to attack somebody.

Spreading out a friend's untrue story on facebook caused the friend a huge trouble. One high shcool student in Japan wrote something about his friend on his facebook wall, "He brought a cheat sheet for the last history test." He wrote this after he fought with the friend. A day after the student posted the message on the wall, his high school teacher, who had a facebook account and was a friend of the student, who wrote the message, read this message and called the friend, who was suspected to bringing a cheat sheet for the history test, to the dean's office. The friend finally could convince both the dean and teacher that he never brought the cheat sheet, but since the guy posted false information, the friend have been called a "cheater" from his class mates. The friend, who was labeled "cheater," stopped going to school and started home schooling.

Only one short sentence caused the friend an incredible pain in his heart. The student, who wrote the message, will have to apologize to the friend until the friend says, "I forgive you."

Facebook is very useful to communicate with others, but it can also become dangerous weapon to attack others. I think facebook should become close some people's accounts, who try to attack others. And, facebook shouldn't put the message, "What's on your mind," in the blank on the wall because the message can imply to some immature people that they can write whatever they want to.
     

Christmas in Japan?

What's coming up after Thanksgiving? Christmas! The song, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," keeps playing in my head during Christmas season. Christmas has been my most favorite time every year. Santa Claus had been the biggest reason why I liked Christmas the best until when I was twelve. After finding out that my father was the Santa Claus, I was at first disappointed, but I celebrated the Jesus' birthday with offering a prayer of great appreciation to God and Jesus.

Other than the New Year, Christmas is the biggest day that is celebrated in Japan. Christmas decorations, music, and commercials, public places, stores, houses, and all the TV channels in Japan create the spirit of Christmas. Also, every Japanese family eats a roast chicken in Christmas.  I always enjoyed seeing the huge Christmas tree placed in front of the station in my hometown in Japan and listening to Christmas music in everywhere I went. But in a few years ago, I came up with questions, "Why do Japanese people celebrate Christmas? Aren't they either Buddhists or non-religious people?" I am one of a very few Japanese Christians, who celebrate the Jesus birthday. But how about other non-Christians? What do they celebrate for if they don't believe or know about Jesus?

I asked my friend from high school, whose father was a Buddhist, in Japan, "Why do you celebrate Christmas?"

"Well, I guess it's because my girlfriend always expects me to buy her a gift and do something special like going to the expensive restaurant on Christmas day." He said. I asked if he knew why we had Christmas on every December 25th, but he didn't know anything about the meaning of Christmas. He didn’t even know who Jesus was.

Japanese people, especially young people, become excited toward the end of the year because of the biggest events, Christmas and the New Year, happen during that time. Japanese people enjoy seeing westernized decorations, eating delicious food, and listening to Christmas music in English without knowing the significance of the December 25th.

I feel contradictory that these non-Christians celebrate Christmas for their happiness but not for Jesus. At the same time, I am so impressed that Jesus embraces everyone and makes them happy even those, who don’t even know him.

Why Turkey on Thanksgiving?

Yesterday, I had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner with other people from my church. Even though I don't like turkey because it  smells something, and live ones look quite awful, I enjoyed having the dinner with my church friends. During the dinner, I asked one of the friends, "Why do you guys eat turkey on Thanksgiving? Why not Sushi, beef steak, or other delicious foods instead of this smelly, ugly meat?"

"What? How dare you hate turkey!? This is delicious!" She raises her voice.

I, at first, said "sorry" to call her favorite turkey "smelly meat." But then, I asked her again, "Why do you guys always eat turkey on Thanksgiving? Are there any particular reasons?"

"I don't know. I don't care what the heck Thanksgiving means. I like Thanksgiving because I can eat delicious turkey." She said.

I thought if turkey is my favorite food, then, I wouldn't even care why people eat turkey on Thanksgiving. But because I hate turkey, I wanted to find the clear reason that could convince me why turkey became the Thanksgiving main dish but not beef steak. I don't like how other friend told me, "I don't care what Thanksgiving means. All I care is to have day off and have fun with friends." 

Thanksgiving is the day that Pilgrim Fathers "declared a three-day feast, starting on December 13, 1621, to thank God and to celebrate with their Indian friends" (ChristianAnswers). As Americans, I think it is very important to know this history. I, however, could not find the absolute reason people in America eat turkey on Thanksgiving. Does anybody know why?

Why is MLB's final called "World Series"?

In 2010, Texas Rangers became the champion of the American League for the first time ever in the history. Colby Lewis' outstanding pitch, which allowed only three hits and one score from NY Yankees, in the sixth game was the best part in the league championship. Many Japanese baseball fans also watched the sixth game to watch how well Lewis would do against NY. Lewis became very famous in Japan after he had played in one of the Japanese Professional Baseball, JPB, teams, Hiroshima Toyo Carp, in 2008 and 2009th seasons. Then, in 2010, he came back to Texas, which selected him as 38th overall player in 1999 MLB Draft, and played an active role in this season, especially, in the postseason.

After seeing Lewis' pitch in the sixth game, many Japanese news papers put the articles about his pitch. "Our Lewis represented Japan!" Since he is not a Japanese, the title was really not correct, but what the news paper tries to say is that "the level of JPB has grown so much." Since the  beginning of 2009, naming the championship of MLP "World Series" has been a debate in Japan since 2006, when Japan got the champion in World Baseball Classic, WBC while the U.S. lost before advancing to the final tournament. JPB side has argued that MLB's champion and JBP's champion should go against each other in World Series to decide the real "World Champion."

I disagree with the JPB because it's obvious that the level of MLB is much higher than JPB's. Then, why did the U.S. fail to advance to the final tournament in 2006 and got the fourth place on 2009 while Japan got the championships in the both WBCs? There are many reasons that both Japanese and American journalists mention why the U.S. didn't do well in WBC: Because the U.S. teams didn't prepare enough for the games and many American MLB's star players refused to participate WBC. To me, these reasons almost sound excuse, but I have a clear reason why MLB's level is much higher than JPB's. It's because MLB does not limit the number of non American baseball players while JPB allows each teams to have only four non Japanese players. More than half of players in MLB are non Americans and many of them have become successful and star players, such as Pedro Martinez, a Dominican and Albert Pujols, a Dominican.

Today, many top players from Japan and other countries, such as Korea, Ruperto Rico, Cuba, and Dominican Republic, have joined in the MLB teams and worked hard to become successful in the highest baseball league MLB. Getting the championship in MLB means to become the champion among these top players in the world. Therefore, MLB's World Series  are meant to decide the real "World Champion." If Japan still wants to argue about the topic of World Series', JPB, at first, should welcome unlimited number of foreign players to play in Japan. 

Dream Worlds

       What is an important tool to make music videos popular? Popular music videos include sexual contents, which stimulate viewers’ sexual desires. In Dreamworld 3, a film, Kenneth Burke introduces that women’s bodies are the product for selling music videos; music videos use women’s bodies to stimulate male viewers’ sexual desires. Especially, music videos of rap musicians often contain the images of women with bikini, under wear, or other tight close that fascinate male viewers to watch. These females dance, sing, or have a sexual relationship with males. By knowing that males’ desires are to see women’s naked bodies, music videos contain the scenes that women expose their bodies to encourage males viewers to repeatedly watch music videos. Burke points out that music videos include incongruous contents, which lead viewers to moral destruction. The film presents the strategies of construction of femininity, pornographic imagination, and masculinity and control in music videos.       

            In constructing femininity, Burke presents that the most important aspect of women is sexuality Dreamworlds. Women in the videos represent the creatures that always desire to have sex; therefore, they always need men as partners of having sex. If men are absent, these sexual maniac women need to have substitutions of men to satisfy their sexual desires. Once women are stimulated their sexual desires, they expose their bodies and approach to men even in public places, such as a public bathroom, parking lot, and office; they become careless about what appropriate places to expose their bodies once they are aroused their sexual desires. Women are representations of sexuality in music videos.

            Second, Burke explains that pornographic imaginations of women play major roles in Dreamworlds, especially in rap and hip hop. In the music videos, women face their hips to the camera and shake the hips in front of men’s faces. Men look and spank their hips. The images define men’s pornographic imaginations, thinking about women only as tools to satisfy men’s sexual desires. In a scene in music videos, a woman’s hips are used to swipe a credit card. The scene signifies that women allow having sex with men for money. Throwing money at lower half of women’s bodies describes the world of prostitution and strip. Men black males appear in the pornographic scenes and touch women’s bodies. The scenes create the wrong image that these black men are the representations of typical African American men in the real world. Pornographic imaginations are used in many rap and hip hop music videos and influence viewers’ senses of morality.

            Finally, Burke tells masculinity and control are a major title in Dreamworlds. In a music video, Justin Timberlake follows Britney Spears, breaks into her house, and watches the young woman takes a shower. The scene defines the stalking and domestic abuse in real world that men cannot accept women’s rejections and controls women to satisfy men’s desire. Carrying women like children, pushing them to the side, slamming them against the wall, holding them on the floor, spanking and slapping them, and pouring water and alcohol on their bodies, men in Dreamworlds approach women with their physical strengths. In Dreamworlds, women never say no to men’s sexual demand and welcome masculine aggression.        

            Women’s bodies are products to make music videos popular. Incongruous contents in music videos influence actual world. During Puerto Rican parade in NYC, Many women were sexually assaulted by the men in the parade. The men stripped the women’s clothes, touched their bodies, and poured water over their bodies. The scenes in the parade look familiar from music videos. The music videos let men think that all the women always desire to have sex and obey to men’s sexual demands; however, women in the real world are different. The women receive mental damage by being sexually abused. Music videos become the great source of the moral collapse in society.