DP 3: 5,6,7

5. The reason no one tried to help during the Countrywide situation was that there are simply too many cases. If the company were to see the humanity in every situation there would be many more situations than employees, and without customer service doing well the company would shut down. I don't think anything could be done in this case because if something had been done that situation would have more treatment than another case, destroying the equality in all cases. We have different moral responses whether we're in the system or not because we're all human and it's in our nature to react to situations.

6. About authority, this shows that anyone, nice or man will abuse their authority. About conformity this shows if given a role one will instantly conform to that role and play it out. About power, just like authority it will be abused. The things about systems that makes people become bad is the power behind them, no one knows how to control the power and it consumes them.

7. Rachel Barge co-founded the The Green Initative fund at UC Berkeley which would take $2 million over 10 year to create sustainable projects on the campus and help conserve energy. She was able to work against the self-interested system to do a common good because she knew what needed to be done. She knew if she didn't take care of this world no one would and without a world no one would live.

DP 3: Systems

Most systems that are supposed to be beneficial become self-serving because the head of the system does not know how to control the power. Once a person becomes the head of a system they think their intentions are pure will eventually become corrupted because, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Take former Philippine president Joseph Estrada for example, he was a man of the people and his slogan was, "Estrada for the poor," but when he became the president that quickly turned around, he became power hungry and he had a thirst for money, thus adding to the corruption in the Philippines, but he was impeached in 2001, 3 years after his election. There are many examples of power taking over the minds of the well-doers through out history, like in the French Revolution where Robespierre, also a man of the people, wanted to overthrow the king, then became worse than the king himself. From the words of Mr. Snyder quoting The Who, "Out with the old boss, in with the new boss, same as the old boss."

With in these "systems" power is usually centralized in one person. This condensed power allows other groups within the "system" to be casted out if these groups do not share the interests of the one in power. These outcasted groups become the oppressed of the "system". This will eventually corrupt the "system" because the one in power will control all of the power, with no checks and balances because all other opposition was previously casted out. This can make the nice guy go bad.

DP 3: Unmerciful Servant

1: I feel that the story is more about the king beacuse he forgave the servant once, but when the servant did not return that mercy to his fellow servant the first servant that was forgiven by the king ended up bbeing thrown in jail with his debt reinstated. Since the king had the servant thrown into jail i feel that he became hypocritical and became just like the servant he detested.

2. The king decides to forgive the debt because he does not want to be a cruel king. He knows that if the servant cannot pay that his debt will be passed down through the generations and that his family will always suffer. The king wanted to be merciful and rule with love rather than fear because that leads to revolt.

3. The servant decides not to follow the king's example because he is not as merciful as the king. Because the king forgave him, does not mean that he has to forgive those who are in debt to him. The servant is an aveage human being, and humans, by nature, are greedy.

4. If the Kingdom of God is like this parable we learn that it is a place of mercy. If one does not know mercy they will be rejected from the kingdom and tortured until they learn the meaning of mercy.

DP 2: Summaries

Section 3:
In section 3 it is stated that the Jews campaigned against the British two ways: diplomaticallay and the other through an illegal immigration effort. With time the campaigns against the British became very violent with shots being fired. By the end of 1946 the British pulled out of Palestine and turned the conflict over to the UN. The UN wanted to resurrect the plan of partitioning the land, but Palestinians refused to discuss the partition.

Section 4:
In 1967 the angry Palestinians launched geurilla attacks on Israel from Lebanon and Jordan. Before striking Egypt Isreal had to prove to President Lyndon Johnson that all diplomatic efforts had been exhausted. The strike happened on June 5, 1967 and killed one third of Egypts fighter pilots. On the third day of fighting Isreal seized Jerusalem. After the Six Day War was when the real struggle over the land began.

Section 5:
The Arabs struck the Israelis on Yom Kippur, one of their holy days, and took them very much by surprise. After being shaken the Israelis fought back much harder and did not give up their territories. The Yom Kippur War ended with the Israelis on top and the US gaining a central negotiating role in this conflict. Israel continued its control on the West Bank while warring with the PLO.

Section 6:
A traffic accident where an Israeli army truck hit a Palestinian van, killing four workers sparked more violence between the two parties. The next day Palestinian regugees threw stones at Israeli guads, ans the guards fired back killing a teenage boy. Israelis, presenting alternatives to the PLO allowed Islamists to run their own mosques and schools etc. The Olso agreement seemed like a solution but it would only last six years.

Section 7:
Olso did not succeed because of many reasons, one being the assassination of the Israeli prime minister and the Hamas suicide bombings. The new prime minister slowed the Jewish withdrawl and inreased the Jewish occupation in West Bank. Clinton held a negtiation at Camp David in 2000, but it failed and the second Intifada broke out afterward.

DP 2: Wicked Tenants as a Metaphor

If this parable were a metaphor, this metaphor would be explaining the situation that Jesus was in then and there, and since he used the parable against them Jesus would be like the vineyard, the crowds like the tenants, the guards like the servants, and the king like the landowner. Jesus could be seen as the vineyard because He is what is being disputed over, and like the grapes being what the tenants need to live; his words are what the crowd needs to live. The crowd would be like the tenants because they are defending Jesus, who is like their vineyard, giving them his words, enriching their lives, and knowing that if their vineyard would go away they would die, so they defend it with their lives because without it they have nothing to live for. The guards are like the servant because they are just hired hands that do whatever their employers tell them to, even if it is to exploit the poor. Finally the king is like the landowner because he can afford to live very far off from where the vineyard (Jesus) is and squash the problem using hired hands because he feels like the people respect him enough just to listen to his servants.