13. June 2009 by Mr. Andoscia.

Posts have been graded up to this point.  Much better with finding the social facts, even applying sociological terms like status symbol, etc. Now try to tie in some theories and perspectives.  Don’t be afraid. You can only gain points, not lose them.

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13. June 2009 by student.

 Yes, sex is a natural part of life, and a confronting reality for all children. Sex is everywhere in society today; on T.V, on the radio, in advertising, in music. Despite the efforts of many adults to keep children innocent and protect them from sex, the reality of it is that children are finding out about it sooner, and starting having it sooner than past generations.Our children are more independent that they were before, and are being faced with many decisions about themselves and the world they live in. One of those decisions is sex, and I believe that our greatest protection for our children is arming them with knowledge so that they can make the best decision for them.

Some people ask why should their have sex education in schools? Isn’t it the responsibility of the parents to provide this information for their children at a time that they judge to be correct? It’s a very divisive issue. From my own sex education at home, I would agree with that. My mum was great with discussing it, and she provided me with some books to read and a video for me to find out about reproduction and how the body functioned. However a lot of parents feel embarrassed to talk about this with their children. Some parents may not have correct information, or enough information, or the right information, to adequately inform their child.

This is where education in the school can be a very useful source. Every child hears all of the information so that they have all the facts and warnings they need. In schools the information would be complete, and in a setting that can reduce embarrassment. It would need to be ensured that it is free from religious prejudice, and political motivations. Preventing pregnancy must be stressed rather than termination, however it cannot be omitted altogether.What remains the right of the parent, in this issue, is to talk about the social and emotional side of sex; something that could never be adequately covered in a school sex education class. Schools should cover the technical and legal side of the issue and parents the relationship side.

Whatever children are told about sex, they will continue as they have in the past to make up their own mind and their own way, away from, and in spite of, those who try to tell them otherwise. As children grow up, and make their own decisions, the least we can do for them is to provide them with what they need to make an informed decision. Knowledge will light their way.

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13. June 2009 by student.

The death penalty has a long and popular basis in America. In the past, hangings would draw crowds, including children, by serving food and drinks. Although I don’t agree with this I certainly believe that the death penalty shouldn’t be abolished anytime soon.

                Some members of our society argue that the death penalty doesn’t deter crimes. The few states that allow for the death penalty don’t execute prisoners on death row very often. From 1973-1999, there was an average of 3.1 exonerations per year compared to 2000-2007 there was an average of 5 exonerations per year. Another reason against the penalty is that it supposedly is inhumane, but God himself implemented the death penalty. In Genesis 9:6 it says “whose sheddeth mans blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man”. Why would this be in the bible if God didn’t believe in the killing of people who take killing into their own hand? The media often tells stories of the prisoners and their sorrows portraying the prisoner as victims themselves. Murder occurs each and everyday, but you barely hear the stories of criminals who are released 20 years later for good behavior only to kill again. Ruby Longswort of Pasadena, Texas met prisoner Jeffrey Barney through a prison ministry. He was rehabilitated and was helped to get parole from a rape crime. Jeffrey Barney raped and sodomized, and then strangled her and shot her because she insulted him by calling him a bum.

If the death penalty was implanted on a daily basis it would be a major deterrent to capital crime. Statistics can be deceptive because America has more violent crimes then any other civilized country.

Want to cut back on repeat offenders….don’t give them a chance to be a repeat offender!

Our society’s crime continues to increase. If the death penalty was enforced I think the social facts prove that we would see decease in crime rate.

A.M.H

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13. June 2009 by student.

Immigration is one of the most talked about issues in our recent election. It can be debated of course that immigration should be stopped. Immigration in fact is a necessary requirement for continued economic growth in the U.S.

                Approximately 40% of immigrants stay in the U.S by overstaying their visas. Most pay taxes and are consumers. The U.S. faces shortcomings in high tech workers especially software programming, now being supplied largely by Asian and Indian immigrations. For example, the top ten high tech computer and software companies earned 31 billion dollars in revenue in 2002. In addition, most immigrants arrive in the prime years of productivity. More than 70% of immigrants are over the age of 18 on arrival. This means that over 17 million immigrants in the U.S. today were educated in their home countries and not in the U.S. Also, Illegal immigrants contribute about as much in taxes as they receive in benefits. In addition to contribution in labor and technology.

                Immigrants are not only major contributors to our economic well being but are becoming an increasingly influential influence in our workforce in addition to major contribution to our tax base. Immigrants are beneficial to our society. The social facts show that we are indeed progressing economically because they are here.

                        A.M.H

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13. June 2009 by student.

Abortion has always been a controversial and debatable subject in our society. On one hand our society views abortion as murder; on the other hand it is a matter of necessity and mercy.
In times past, abortion was a shady operation, conducted in back streets and in secrecy. The church for banned abortion because they catorigorized it as a sin under the Ten Commandments. However, the women’s liberation movement in the 1960’s stressed more on a women’s right to be in control of her fate, eventually resulting in the Supreme Court ruling of roe v. wade. This ruling allowed for it to be a women’s choice to have a child or not; Otherwise, known as pro-choice. People for pro choice argue that we live in a free country so we have the right to carry a baby or not, and whatever choice a woman makes is her choice to make. Another argument is that abortion is an issue that needs to be debated in church and hospitals not in government. Others argue that abortion needs to be made available for women who are victims of rape and incest. Pregnancy that results from forced sex especially from incest will only harm the mother and child and will have medical complications for the child.
People for pro life argue that a child should not have to take the fall for the mistake of the parent. They say that the baby has a soul as soon as it is conceived, and God must have a plan for it so it should fully be given a chance to live. Another con for abortion is that it results in medical side effects and complications. The long term medical side effects that generally occur are: blocked fallopian tubes, weakened cervix, uterine scarring, and damage to the women’s reproductive system. Also there are emotional and mental effects on the entire family. Abortion can seem like a burden on the psychological part of the mind of the mother and father. To have abortion consent of the father is not required so if the father wants to keep the child and the mother doesn’t take his opinion into concern, he will never forget the burden of losing his child.
The issues with abortion will continue to be debatable and both states and communities continue to enact laws that reflect their own values. Our society is being affected with this issue everyday. If abortion gets out of control, then we may one day start seeing an increase in pregnancies because people will be less careful knowing they can just abort the baby. Our society is divided by this topic. How can there be an agreement? How can we find moral stability? Will there ever be one true solution?

A.M.H

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13. June 2009 by student.

By Elizabeth Severo

     Over the course of history, society has been plagued with numerous diseases, such as, yellow fever, small pox, cholera, typhoid, polio, among others and physicians and scientists have always seemed to come up with a cure or a vaccine to eliminate these health threats.  In 1913 the American Cancer Society was founded due to cancer claiming 75,000 lives (http://www.health.gov).  According to the Census bureau, the population of the United States in 1913 was 97,225,000, which declares that .0008% of the population died from cancer that year.  In 2008, the American Cancer Society estimated that 565,650 deaths would be taken by cancer.  On December 31, 2008, the U.S. population was 305,529,237(www.census.gov).  The percentage of cancer deaths based on those numbers for the year of 2008 is .0019% of the population.  The ACS was formed 96 years ago, so why is it that after 96 years of research and billions and billions of dollars in donations to one of the largest non-profit, cancer fighting organizations in the world, our deaths from cancer has increased?  Isn’t this a little suspicious?  The American Cancer Society is only one of the many cancer research institutions world-wide, so how much money has society actually dumped into this bottom-less pit of saving lives from cancer?  It never took this long to find cures and vaccines for the other diseases that have been eradicated.    James Bennett, professor of economics at George Mason University and recognized authority on charitable organizations is quoted in an article published by the Cancer Prevention Coalition as saying, “The American Cancer Society (ACS) is accumulating great wealth in its role as a “charity.  In 1988 the ACS held a fund balance of over $400 million with about $69 million of holdings in land, buildings, and equipment (1). Of that money, the ACS spent only $90 million— 26 percent of its budget— on medical research and programs. The rest covered “operating expenses,” including about 60 percent for generous salaries, pensions, executive benefits, and overhead. By 1989, the cash reserves of the ACS were worth more than $700 million (2). In 1991, Americans, believing they were contributing to fighting cancer, gave nearly $350 million to the ACS, 6 percent more than the previous year. Most of this money comes from public donations averaging $3,500, and high-profile fund-raising campaigns such
as the springtime daffodil sale and the May relay races. However, over the last two decades, an increasing proportion of the ACS budget comes from large corporations, including the pharmaceutical, investment, banking, and media industries.”        Guidestar, a leading source on US nonprofit organizations documents the ACS at the close of the Fiscal year of August 31, 2007 as having assets of $1,645,958,265 (Form 990) and an income of $467,585,343 (Form 990) (http://www.guidestar.org).     William Domhoff, a psychology and sociology research professor argues in his book, Who Rules America, the owners and top executives of the largest corporations, banks, investment firms, and agri-businesses come together as a corporate community. Their enormous economic resources give them the “structural economic power” that is the basis for dominating the federal government through lobbying, campaign finance, appointments to key government positions, and a policy-planning network made up of foundations, think tanks, and policy-discussion groups.”     The American Cancer Society is only one of the many cancer research organizations worldwide, and with numbers like these, why should they find a cure for cancer? The social and economic interdependence among these non-profit research institutions and the pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, physicians, and researchers is so complicated that many organizations would actually be forced to close their doors, if cancer were to be eradicated.  How would that affect the economy?  It is pretty obvious that Domhoff’s idea about who is running the show is accurate, while all the bleeding hearts who sincerely believe and want to fight for their dying relatives continue to donate.

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13. June 2009 by student.

I found this article on line which raise the argument that marijuana is not a gateway drug. This did not look like a good article at first then i read its entirety and learned a few interesting hypothesis about the study conducted.  Researchers from the university of Pittsburgh school of  Pharmacy rounded up roughly 214 boys between the ages of 10-12 years of age who eventually used legal and illegal drugs. After studying the kids behavior up to the age of 22 the researchers study found that marijuana was not the major causing factor which caused a drug  dependency disorder. After gathering a list of  variables the researchers concluded that environmental aspects can be the greatest causing factor for drug dependency for people. These aspects mention included poorer physical neighborhood environments, a high exposure to drugs in the neighborhood, and less parental involvement as  young children. I can agree with what the article is saying but i strongly reason that marijuana plus the bad environment is a formula for destruction. Everyone who smokes marijuana wont be affected in the same way; there will be some who knows how to control their substance use and others who will not be able to do so. Sadly there are too many individuals who look for that amazing high that they get when they smoked , but after a while the users run into a problem. the issue now was marijuana does not get them as high as it use to; time to add things in to it or move to the next drug to make sure that high is still there. That mistake turns into a constant cycle for some users but for many of them this causes users to look to other forms of drugs to get high.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 3 Comments »

13. June 2009 by student.

       Every day there are dozens of people around the country who are on trail and typically facing life sentences for their unforgivable criminal acts, this is how the legal system works in America. There has been in the past and continues to be many debates viewed on television on what steps should be taken to lessen the overcrowding of felons in the prison system. There are few experts who strongly feel that the states should just kill off the convicts’ execution style and be ridden of the existent s. There are other experts who want to continue holding these convicts in until their demise. When an individual is sentence to life, he has basically been sentence to die in a correctional institution to.

      The government of the United States has an endless number of inmates who are in their late twenties or early thirties who has receiving seventy plus years in prison. Why would the government want to house someone until they are old and crusty or even about to die, this is just wasting space to me. I agree strongly that these criminals should be punished for their crime, but not at the expense of the tax payers. Yes the states are trying to fix the crime issue at hand, yet at the same time causing another issue one flourish; because there are so many individuals that are being sentenced to life there is a max overflow of prisoners in the prisons.

       To house a prisoner in an average states correctional facility is roughly 22,650 dollars a year for one individual; now imagine paying that same amount of money for the next thirty to fifty years. That thought is is pretty insane! The citizens of all the states pay for every one of the convicted felons convinces; the simple things like their food, transportation, utilities and accommodations. this is a huge problem but a 22, 650 a year cost is a better deal than what the cost for a capitol punishment expenditure. Florida, one of the top execution states in the country would save 51 million dollars each year by punishing first degree offenders with life sentences without parole. According to e-statements by the Palm Beach Post. Based on 44 executions carried out since 1976. Florida spent 32.2 million per execution from 1973 to 1988. If that is not a shocking figure than i don’t know what is. This wast full use of money in the state of Florida is not as bad as California. In this state according to the Los Angeles times the California death penalty cost tax payers more than 114 millions dollars a year. I wonder could the capitol punishment cost to the tax payers have played a major roll in leading up to the current economic conditions of California?

I found out some very interesting facts while doing some of this research on capitol punishment v. life sentences. The first thing i found out was something i already somewhat knew, basically in cases where the attorney general is seeking the death penalty the average cost of that is 620,932 about 8 times the amount then that of a federal murder case where the death penalty is not sought. The second thing I learned is that its not about how good a defendant’s lawyer is its how much funds they can put in to reduce the chances of receiving the death penalty. Those defendants whose representation costs were higher than $320,000 (the remaining 2/3 of federal capital trials) had only a 19% chance of being sentenced to death. where if you the defendant spent less then 320,000 they had a 44% chance of being sentence to death.

so what do you think we should do to help reduce the overflow of inmates in the prison. should we continue to pack them in like rats or kill them off either way the tax payers are the ones who carries the burden of paying the bill once it is all said and done.

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13. June 2009 by student.

For decades and even centuries, one of the most concerning issues to conservative people is the issue of single parenting. Ancient social philosophies have often linked single parenting to adventurism and liberation of people. The Catholic Church has always been the dominating mentor and guide of traditions, norms and living. The church is so adamant to advocate the sanctity of the sacrament of marriage of matrimony. That is why the procreation outside wedlock is strictly considered a ground for excommunication. It is one of the greatest sins, according to the Catholic Church, to engage in pre-marital sex.
As of 2000 stated of the U.S. Census Bureau 2000 an estimated 13.5 million single parents had custody of 21.7 million children under 21 years of age whose other parent lived somewhere else. The proportion of the population made up by married couples with children decreased from 40% in 1970 to 24% in 2000. One parent families numbered over 12 million in 2000. Single parent households increased from 9% in 1990 to %16 of all households by 2000. It has long been recognized that children growing up in lone-mother households are more likely to have emotional, academic, and financial problems and are more likely to engage in behavior associated with social exclusion, such as offending, teenage pregnancy, alcohol and drug abuse. Single parenting is already becoming a rapidly growing trend in the society. Studies show, that in the
US alone, there are four single parents to every ten parents and there are two single parents for every 10 adults. When raising a child it usually takes two to do it correctly. When there is an absent mother the love isn’t their usually. When the father is absent the discipline isn’t their. The majority of the single parents are women. These days women believe that they can do just as well as men and that play a part on some of there decisions. The media has portrayed men to be thought of as the “bread-winner”. To more or less support the family. This family type was atypical of the American family. This was called the “Traditional Nuclear Family.” This kind of ideology has existed for centuries (Thompson and Hickey 386). But of all family types, single parent families have made the most gains during the past few decades.

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13. June 2009 by student.

Women are completing high school and enrolling in college at slightly higher rates tan their male counterparts, according to a recent report from the Association of American College and Universities. Across colleges campus you most likely to find female students at higher rates than male.This is a solid informative and analysis of the status of women and people of color in U.S. higher education.Among all high school graduates age 18-24 regardless of date of graduation, enrollment rates for women who received a degree or its equivalent have increased across all racial or ethnic groups from 1985-2005.

For many years women have entered the teaching field in large numbers, according to Women’s Progress in Higher Education. and though they have made progress tails off as they strives to ascend to the highest levels of profession. In 2005, women accounted for 41 percent of the 675,600 full-time faculty members of all ranks in degree-granting institutions, up slightly 39 percent from previous year.

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