Journal

Watching documentaries and blogging about them was so flippin’ cool! Seriously, I think this setup was innovative and current, helps to educate and integrate students that aren’t as tech savvy, relate to the average young adult, encourage peer interaction and give insight into all kinds of different writing styles by reading our classmates pieces. Your documentary choices were superb, in that they were shocking, educational and broad enough that we were able to pull many different topics from the film. I’m thankful you chose the documentaries you did; we’re all walking away better people because of it. My only suggestion is that you give your students a free right at the beginning of class. I remember in ENC1101 you allowed us to do this through our journals. Maybe before peer critiques or documentaries we could hand write in our own journals. I don’t know, there’s just something about writing on paper and in a silent classroom that gives you the courage to string words together that you wouldn’t typically string. I also feel that my journal’s in 1101 were the reason I felt comfortable enough to share my work, because I had time to myself to explore me and write about anything. However, meeting Chris Gass made up for our lack of journals, so I’m O.K with it after all.

Medical Ethics Essay

Euthanasia

The only thing that’s certain in life is death. Some of us don’t think about it because there’s no sense in worrying about the inevitable. Most of us spend our entire lives thirsty for an answer; we search under rocks, inside religion and within ourselves.  Others become financial planners, invest in skyscrapers and collect plush Dalmatians and antique silverware. Then there are those who aren’t so fortunate. Those who grow sick and beat cancer, then they get sick again and are faced with X amount of time left to live. If you’ve ever been asked the question “How do you want to die?” then you know the feeling that comes with it. It’s not something you want to think about, and even more so, isn’t death supposed to just happen? For many that are terminally ill, the only certainty they have is death, and euthanasia is sometimes the only thing that gives them control.

 “Euthanasia” in Greek means “Good Death”, and is arguably the perfect combination of words to define it. It’s also known as the practice of intentionally ending one’s life in order to relieve pain and suffering. Euthanasia is illegal in the United States, but assisted suicide or “Physician Aid in Dying (PAD)” is legal in Washington, Oregon and Montana. PAD requires the patient to take the dosage themselves, where as euthanasia is given to the patient by a third party. However, there are many countries that do practice euthanasia. For example, The Netherlands offer a series of requirements that a Doctor must take into consideration before allowing someone to end their own life. The doctor must feel the request is volunteered and well thought out, that their suffering is unbearable, that all other life saving scenarios have been exhausted and the doctor has consulted at least one other physician(Haulussy). As you can see, euthanasia is a well thought out process and isn’t an acceptable treatment plan for just anyone. Still, many find themselves very passionate on both sides of the spectrum.  

The biggest argument surrounding euthanasia is whether it’s moral or immoral. 54 % of medical practitioners in the United States support it and 86% of the general public believes in it as well (Gallup Poll). What’s even more alarming is that 55 % of terminally ill patients die in pain each year in the United States. One of the main arguing points for those who are pro euthanasia is that we as people should have the decision whether or not we want to live. Our lives should not be in the hands of others, especially if we’re suffering and will never get better. Many say that it’s inhumane to keep people on life support or in a vegetative state. Then there are those whom fall powerless to conditions or diseases that will ultimately kill them, but have to continue on. Strokes and dementia cause people to strongly rely on others, losing their dignity along with their life. For some people, having that control subsides any fear and anxiety they may have, and gives them the freedom to be human again, just by allowing themselves to have  the decision on whether they want to live, or don’t.

When people believe euthanasia is immoral the majority fall back on the bible. People that are anti euthanasia closely correlate it to abortion, and the killing of innocent life. It’s said by Christians that God takes people as he pleases, and that it’s ultimately his decision when they die. Many believe that proponents of euthanasia will not be able to draw a line, and in return children with broken hearts may find themselves toying with the idea of seeking medical treatment to end one’s life. Basically, they feel that it’s opening a door to all walks of life, and that eventually it won’t just be limited to the terminally ill. Another consideration is that those who choose to end one’s life aren’t mentally stable, and therefore shouldn’t hold the reigns to a decision about themselves. A study in Great Britain showcased people who contemplated suicide, in which 93 % supposedly suffered from a mental disorder, and 24 % of them desired an assisted suicide (Karlovich). Apparently, all 24 % suffered from some sort of mental disorder. Many believe that terminally ill people aren’t sad because they want to die and can’t, but that they’re sad that they can’t keep on living.

When we’re born into this world we only have one mind and it continues on that way until the day we die. After researching and placing myself within the shoes of those who believe in euthanasia, and those who don’t, I ultimately feel that it should be your own personal decision. It’s easy for people to become hungry for control and want to help people to do the right thing; but what’s right for you isn’t right for everyone else.  People become so passionate about pro life and pro choice topics because the idea of life is so intangible that it’s frightening. Many of us will walk miles searching for purpose and entertain ideas that litter our head; but no one person should have the right to tell someone else what their purpose is.

Works Cited

Gallup Poll, “Euthanasia Statistics” Date Verified July 27 2012 Accessed on April 30 2013, Retrieved from < http://www.statisticbrain.com/euthanasia-statistics/>

Haulussy, Glenn C. “Euthanasia” Alpha Universal: World Trade Lawyers, Accessed on April 30 2013, Retrieved from <http://www.alphauniversal.org/lermais_materias.php?cd_materias=83>

Karlovich, Erin “How to Argue Against Euthanasia without Resorting to ‘Because God Doesn’t Like It’” Ignitum Today: The Social Network of the New Evangelization Generation, Accessed on April 30 2013, Retrieved from < http://www.ignitumtoday.com/2012/10/08/how-to-argue-against-euthanasia-without-resorting-to-because-god-doesnt-like-it/>

Waiting For Superman

“A-B-C”

Maybe it was because I was the new kid on the block or it could’ve been my coke bottle glasses, but it probably was because my mother and I stuck out like sore thumbs in low income housing. When I attended the school in my district of Louisiana, the children were disobedient and acted out, teasing me mercilessly. I was the only white kid in an all African American school, which wouldn’t have been a problem, if I hadn’t been taunted for it. So, when I transferred to an ‘A’ school an hour and a half away that lay within an upper class neighborhood, I noticed the children stood taller, used manners and the teacher’s seemed to enjoy their jobs.  We caught two city buses just so I wouldn’t have to be a minority; I even learned how to tie my shoe laces on that bus. So I began to wonder, why was my poor yet beloved neighborhood home to a ‘D’ school, and the wealthier neighborhood an ‘A’? Could there have been any correlation; and was it a bad neighborhood that made a bad school, or a bad school that made a bad neighborhood?

At that age I didn’t notice a difference between skin tones; my collection of ethnically blended barbies all possessed a beauty of their own in my eyes. That was until the teachers and students of my ‘D’ school made it a point to shave back my eyelids, showing me the difference between black and white. Wodtke, a Ph.D. student states “Black children were about seven times more likely than white children to experience long-term residence in the most disadvantaged 20 percent of neighborhoods in the country ”(Swanbro). It’s upsetting to hear that African American’s are more inept to live in disadvantaged neighborhoods, and even more difficult knowing that these areas have poor schools, too. If anything, the ‘D’ school I had attended deserved better than the ‘A’ I transferred to, because the children worked harder for everything. Wodtke then states “Our results indicate that sustained exposure to disadvantaged neighborhoods has a much greater negative impact on the chances a child will graduate from high school than earlier research has suggested”. The ‘A’ school I attended was predominately white, but was the letter grade influenced by race, or was it the neighborhood? Did tumultuous home lives reap bad grades, and why were so many schools around me closing down?

With the United States education system currently improving, but still at a letter grade of a ‘C’, there’s plenty of room for improvement. So, what about violence? Did violence in neighborhoods have an effect on its public schools? It’s widely known that low income families are more inept to practice maltreatment. In our neighborhood of Baton Rouge, there was a child who threw rocks at our windows, would graffiti our front door and stole our beloved bicycles. When my mother went to the boys house to explain to his parent’s what he had done, his mom started beating him with a long stick in front of her, leaving the boy with large bruises on his body. My mom started crying, screaming at her to stop. After that she was afraid to speak up. Just over 3 million children were reported to child welfare in 2005, and 54 percent of students who report seeing violence at home end up having a violent history at school before the 8^th grade (American Humane Association). This research implies that a poor neighborhood does make a bad school, because students bring their personal problems to their desk each time the bell rings. But isn’t a school supposed to have the tools in place to help students? A poor neighborhood doesn’t make a bad school; careless and unmotivated teachers are the root of the problem. With states like Idaho that lack any kind of incentive for teachers whom earn national certification, it’s not surprising when they rank bottom for teaching profession with a grade of a ‘D’ minus (Wiegley & Sauter). So what can a good school do for a bad neighborhood?

For me, school was a place where I could change cliques like I changed socks, make up a new accent and beg to be teacher’s pet. I wasn’t guaranteed attention at home, or a hot meal; but school made up for all the short comings that assisted me at my not so humble abode. Charter, public or private, school is supposed to give you the pedals to ride until you find a purpose, whether or not you walk the halls of an ‘A’ or a ‘C’ school. Just because a school is tucked within a poor neighborhood doesn’t mean it will fall prey to the looming statistics. When you peel back the layers and pry into a violent or low income neighborhood, you can still find those who stick out like gold stars; trying to make a difference. Maybe these schools have sports teams that offer a sense of community pride. Or maybe these schools serve as a community hub for social activities, or it could be a major employer for people in the area. But no matter where you go, and no matter how dysfunctional a school may be, in every city lays at least a few educated adults who want to mentor and make a difference.

Usually when bad schools are placed within bad cities, they shut the schools down and pluck the kids up, dropping them into unfamiliar classes that are jammed pack, with too few teachers. The perpetual cycle of tossing children around from low income housing or bad neighborhoods will continue until our desire to help is stronger than our silence. With so many different factors such as violence, teachers, home life and neighborhoods contributing to our schools letter grades, it’s impossible to pin point one thing and eliminate any one problem. Instead of focusing on an intangible letter we should start adapting our schools to the needs of all walks of life, and making sure that everyone gets the same opportunity and education as everyone else.

Works Cited

American Humane Association “Child Abuse & Neglect Statistics” Accessed 22 April 2013, Retrieved from                                                      <http://www.americanhumane.org/children/stop-child-abuse/fact-sheets/child-abuse-and-neglect-statistics.html>

Renwick, Trudy. “Geographic Adjustments of Supplemental Poverty Measure Thresholds: Using the   American Community Survey Five-Year Data on Housing Costs”, July 2011. Accessed 22 April 2013.

Sauter, Micheal.  Weigley, Samuel. “The States with the Best and Worst Schools”, January 2013. Accessed 22 April 2013, Retrieved from < http://homes.yahoo.com/news/where-the-best-and-worst-schools-are-021737613.html>

Swanbro, Diane. “Growing up in bad neighborhoods has a ‘devastating’ impact: U-M Study”, October 2011. Accessed 22 April 2013, Retrieved from <http://www.sampler.isr.umich.edu/2011/research/growing-up-in-bad-neighborhoods-has-a-devastating-impact-u-m-study/>

Waiting for Superman Journa

 

 When I was seven and living in Baton Rouge Louisiana, my mother and I rode two city buses to a school in a different town so that I wouldn’t be a minority. It was a 1.5 hour bus ride each way. I learned how to tie my shoes on that bus. Being Caucasian in an all African American neighborhood wasn’t a problem for my mother considering she’s struggled with being a minority herself. My mother came out as a lesbian when she was 22. Sexuality is something difficult enough to be confused about, let alone to have the responsibility of being a single parent to two toddlers while in your twenties. But, when she  picked us up and whisked us away to  our new home that smelled of beignet’s and 90’s sweat, we stood face to face with a culture shock that was all our own. Maybe it was because I was the new kid on the block or it could’ve been my coke bottle glasses, but it probably was because we stuck out like sore thumbs in a low income housing shell of a box. The kids in the neighborhood threw rocks at our windows, graffiti our front door and stole our bicycles. When my mother went to the boys house to explain to his parent’s what he had done, his mom started beating him with a long stick in front of her, leaving the boy with large bruises on his body. My mom started crying, screaming at her to stop. After that she was afraid to speak up. That’s how it was in Baton Rouge in 1996. Surely, it wasn’t the 1800’s and none of us were picking cotton, but we weren’t purchasing Lisa Frank with our allowance’s either. When I went to my first day of school with the kids that stole my bike, I was completely oblivious. I didn’t know what skin color was. At six I couldn’t tell the difference between my friend and myself. But my teacher could.  I don’t remember this, but I was harassed by the teachers for being white. I was the only white child out of four hundred students. Not being able to afford to move to a neighborhood that had a school that was more eclectically mixed, we were forced to ride a bus 3 hours a day. Because of this, my mom worked less. And then we had to move back to Florida, to live with my grandma. I don’t know if schools make bad neighborhoods, or if good neighborhoods make good schools. But I’d think that bad schools are to blame. The kids who were mean to us weren’t bad kids, the grownups were bad people. They were being conditioned to behave a certain way. Like a mockingbird, they act as they saw and they did what they knew.

“You can’t be what you can’t see”

In the first five minutes of viewing “Miss Representation” I was overwhelmed by the raw images that flooded my eyelids, and the Metric song that encapsulated the message that the deaf images couldn’t mirror. My attention had been bought and I was ready to walk away a changed woman. Enduring the hour and half documentary without getting off my feet and yelling in agreement with Miss Rachel Madow was a struggle in its self. This should be a clear indication of how close this film hit to home. I bet all of the women that walked out of the viewing space felt a lot more unionized and empowered, just as I did. Since the 18^th century and expansion of our country, women have taken a back seat to most anything and are assumed to fill their roles within a demanding patriarchal society. Although some fundamentally questionable ethics and morals of our society have finally started to withdraw, there is still so much in our magazines that targets the female youth that must be questioned and suppressed.

Miss Representation started with a voiceover of a woman by the name of Jennifer Newsom, the producer, whom suffered from depression, anorexia and low self esteem as a teenager. When she became pregnant with her daughter, she grew fearful of the unanswered questions that many mothers and daughters would undoubtedly have to face in their lifetime. She questioned why she had suffered such poor body image, and as a result, indulged in self destructive behavior as a child. As she began to look around her world, her new found lenses suggested that the media was to blame for this. In this context media should be confined to the terms of film, magazines, billboards and most importantly, our magazines.  Research has shown that continuous exposure to ideas and concepts can “shape and distort our perceptions of reality” (The Media Lies). With statistics like 78% of 17 year olds are unhappy with their body and 17% of them self injure; it seems reasonable to say that it’s expected for teenagers to battle with their body, and is a direct reflection of dissatisfaction due to an unattainable idealistic portrayal of beauty (Miss Representation). The concept of struggling with body image and having low self esteem has become a benchmark for teenagers to live by. Just as a girl is expected to hit puberty, it’s expected for them to struggle to love themselves and fight with the idea of what beauty truly is.

However, if we’re bound to fall prey to the media then we must understand why we’re so receptive, and why the audience is still buying. Sexualizing women at a young age is logistically, the smart thing to do for corporate businesses. These corporations are dedicated to cloning sheep and are there to hang portraits on the walls of prepubescent girls that depict a sexualized nation served with a side of butter. You get ‘em while they’re young, and the rest is sure to follow. Magazines like Cosmopolitan, which target the 12 to 26 year audience, are selling sex, paper bounded and glossy, with their favorite Disney star plastered on the front. When Cosmopolitan hits numbers like 3 million subscriptions, and an estimated 20 million subscribers, you’ve got to question why an overly sexualized magazine with every teenager’s idol on the front page, is the number one selling magazine in American college bookstores (Kite). But do we ask? Or do we just accept that now the social norm is to exploit our sexuality, one of the only things that belong to ourselves. At one point, the documentary shows a young girl asking when change will occur, and what will have to happen in order for people to finally pay attention. I wondered that, too.

If there wasn’t a demand then there wouldn’t be a product, and that’s most troubling. Until the arrival of photography in 1839, people were rarely exposed to “real life images of faces and bodies” and most people didn’t even own mirrors (Kite). Beauty was perceived by the eye of the beholder, and not the by the beholder of a periodical. However, some argue that because reading statistics have been going down for years, and that teenagers are the most likely to pick up a book, that it’s better to read something than nothing. However, I stand to blame magazines for the 55% literary reading decline (Moyer). If there wasn’t such a social stigma attached to beauty, then teenagers may be more prone picking up a piece of fiction than an article about belly fat.

Of course, magazines are not the only product at fault for what I’d call a body image epidemic. Television shows, billboards and celebrities are all a part of the circle that wants us to buy into the idea that we’re not as perfect as we could be. What I found to be the most implorable request of the documentary was when Ms. Newsom asked for women to be less judging of each other and more supportive. She raised the question of whether or not we as women truly felt like a lady could be president, and truthfully I hesitated for a few moments. This is when I realized that something does have to change, and that if our youth doubts even for a moment that we’re not just as human as man, then our gender is going to be silenced for years to come.

Works Cited

Boston’s Women’s Health Book Collective, excerpt from 2005 edition of “Our Bodies ourselves”. Retrieved from [http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org]

Kite, Lindsay. “Cosmo Magazine: The Best Seller that Sells Women Short”, Retrieved from http://www.beautyredefined.net/cosmo-magazine/, accessed 9 April, 2013.

Miss Representation. Dir. Jennifer Newsom. Girls Club Entertainment, 2011. Film.

Moyer, Jessica E. “Teens Today Don’t Read Books Anymore”, Retrieved from http://www.yalsa.ala.org/jrlya/2010/11/teens-today-dont-read-books-anymore-a-study-of-differences-in-interest-and-comprehension-based-on-reading-modalities-part-1-introduction-and-methodology/ Accessed 9 April, 2013.