8. December 2009 by student.

<p>Who would have thought that something that seemed so fun and innocent could turn into a problem all around the globe. As you know, MySpace is just one of many social networking sites that helps keep friends and family intouch, maybe even make some new friends but many people seem to forget that there are creeps out there that will stalk you or cause you harm. Some people, mostly teens, do not realize that by putting up their personal information on these websites they are giving these creeps easy access to find them. Nowadays because of websites like MySpace, people don’t have to look far to find out where you live, where you go to school, or even who you hang out with because it’s all there with just one click of a mouse! Don’t get me wrong; I don’t have anything against the site. Matter of fact I have a MySpace, but I try not to give up too much information and I don’t add people that I don’t know. People get MySpaces and forget all about protecting themselves and that’s an issue.</p>

<p>For example there was reportedly a 13 year old girl who fell in love with a 19 year old young man but ont the internet he protrayed his self to be 15 years old. The mother did alll she could to keep her daughter away from the young man by switching schools, cutting off her internet, and cutting off her cell phone but none of it worked because the child still had sex with the boy. This goes to show that children aren’t protecting themseleves from predators and they are running right to them! Children and teens need to be more careful of who they think they know on MySpace and other social networking sites.</p>

<p>I believe this is a social problem because more and more teens are being harassed, commiting suicide over cyber bullying, and ending up kidnapped or raped just because of a website. My solution does not only include that parents monitor their childrens computer activity but teens, make sure you watch what you put on your MySpace. Each thing a teens adds to there page just adds to the list of making it easier for creeps to find them. Make sure that you dont put up information like your address or phone number. Also, if you set your page private, dont add every person that requests you. That defeats the whole purpose of making your page private! Adding all these random people that you don’t even know makes you even more vulnerable because now they have access to your information and pictures. At least try to screen the people you add. If you do make a new friend don’t try to go out and meet them without getting their information first and notifying someone or bringing someone along. The buddy system actually does work people!</p>

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8. December 2009 by student.

Robert Mitchell was a 16-year-old, learning disabled kid from Detroit. Robert died this past April at the hands of the Detroit police. He is only 5-2 110lbs and was killed almost instantly after being shot with a taser. Robert was unarmed and posed no threat to the police. However, the police consider the taser to be a non-lethal weapon, yet over 350 people have been killed after being shocked with a taser, including 50 so far this year, excuse my ignorance, but I must have missed the memo. When did non-lethal weapons start killing so many people?

The reason I chose to blog about this is because I was involved in an incident in which I watched a friend of mine get tasered in a very unjust situation. Police everywhere are abusing this weapon and the manner in which it is used needs to be drastically redesigned. Two weeks ago a 10-year-old kid was subdued by the use of a taser in Colorado, but this kid was armed with a stick, which is clearly a threat to full grown police officers. The use of a taser on a 10-year-old is vastly distrubing to me.  “Two prominent heart doctors have told an ongoing Canadian inquiry that there is no doubt that Taser stun guns can cause heart problems and even induce sudden and lethal cardiac arrest” (Watson1). Something is wrong here….

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8. December 2009 by student.

In my opinion I think the drinking age shouldn’t be 21. I think the drinking age should lower to either 18 or 19. I feel the kids of that age are going around and just finding a way to do that now, so why not just make it legal. Also I feel like if you can go serve are country at those young ages and put your life on the line, there is no reason why you can’t have a beer.  I feel like it would say a lot of people of people trouble. It would save the cops problems for having to deal with these kids that are going around doing under aged drinking. In a report done on high school seniors it was 58% which is more than half have been drunk before in that year. So that tells me to save the hassle and lower the drinking age. I’m sure some say that will cause more problems with younger kids drinking, but in Canada there drinking age is 19 and they don’t have any more problems than we do.  I just feel like if you can put your life on the line for your country you should be able to have a beer.

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8. December 2009 by student.

There is so much to cover when talking about abortion. Everyone has an opinion about it, and everyone thinks that they’re right. I’m not one of those people. I definitely have my opinion, but I know that I’m not right. It’s impossible to be correct in answering “Should abortion be legal?”. Each answer differs for every human being. Every person’s circumstance is different. There are so many factors that steer people from answering “yes” or “no”. Age, race, whether they were raped, their history, whether or not this is their first abortion. We don’t know why these things matter, but for some reason, they do. Whether a girl wants to have a child or not is up to her. The last thing she needs is someone else telling her what to do with her life. What gives others the right to judge when it doesn’t concern them? It is the females right to decide how she is going to live her life. To have a baby, or to not have a baby, now that is the question.

Ever since you were taught right from wrong, you have been able to make your own choices. Should you have given in to peer pressure back in middle school, or skipped class to go get Subway, you made that choice. If the choices that you made happened to be the wrong ones, then you suffered the consequences. Some of us get lucky and don’t always have to suffer the consequences. Some of us didn’t get caught going to Subway and skipping class, so the school never called home, and we got what I like to call a “free pass”. Everyone deserves a free pass, and everyone appreciates them.

The right to get an abortion is a girl’s free pass. Yes, she may have made the mistake and had unprotected sex. Yes, she should have to suffer the consequence of having a baby, but when a women isn’t ready, then she just isn’t ready. Even with her free pass, she would still have to suffer the consequence. Going through the trauma of killing an innocent life, from what I can imagine, would be the worst consequence in the world. The feeling of guilt will haunt her for the rest of her life. But the decision is ultimately up to her. No person can decide for another whether or not they should be able to get an abortion. You were, and always will be able to choose the path that you’re going to take in life. You will always be able to make your own decisions. I believe that women should get the same treatment. If you are able to make decisions for yourself, then they are too.

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8. December 2009 by student.

College Campus Statistics, according to the American Association of University Women:

• 1 in 4 women will be sexually assaulted on a college campus.

• 84% of those raped knew their attacker.

• 57% of those raped happened while on dates

• 75% of male students and 55% of female students involved in date rape had been drinking or using drugs.

•  84% of those men who committed rape said that what they did was definitely not rape.

• 65% of these attacks go unreported

Florida Gulf Coast University to most people is considered a safe school. However, date rape does occur. Date rape is a social problem that goes unheard. The U.S. Justice Department estimates that 26% of all rape is reported. Only about 5% of date rapes are ever reported, which makes it harder to prosecute the attacker. I have heard of date rape cases on campus were the victims did not report the crime because they were scarred they will get hurt. By keeping their silence they are protecting the offender, a survey reported that over 50% of college men would rape a woman if they were certain that they would get away with it. Not doing anything about it leaves the door open to re-offend.

No one deserves to be raped, ever. There are many cases where the women blame themselves becasue they were drinking, wearing revealing clothes, or some other reason. However, no rape victim is ever “asking for it.” If you are the victim of a sexual assault, PLEASE understand that what happened was wrong and that it was not your fault.

In the majority of rape cases the rapist was not a stranger. Stranger rape is much less common than rape from someone you know. So, If your going on a date try to make it a double date or let someone know with who and where you are going to be. Most importantly follow your instinct, if you don’t feel comfortable leave!

Forced sexual intercourse is not the only kind of rape. You should know that ALL unwanted sexual contact is sexual violence, and it’s wrong. To help prevent any miss-communications, don’t mislead anyone to do something you don’t want to do. Also be assertive and set boundaries.

If you are a victim of rape, you should immediately get yourself to a safe place. Don’t be shy to call 911 if you are hurt or fear your attacker. Find a supportive person that can help you. Preserve all evidence including clothing. Cleaning yourself is a natural impulse, but resist the urge to take a shower. You will be washing away physical evidence that can help catch/prosecute the rapist. Get medical attention immediately! Prompt medical assistance reduces you chance of developing some STD and prevent a unwanted pregnancy. Get psychological counseling as soon as possible. Rape is a traumatic experience, and most women need help coping. Get the help you need! Most importantly report the assault to campus/city police. Many women choose not to do this, but if you were raped, consider reporting it, that bastard deserves to be punished

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8. December 2009 by student.

The problem of privacy kind of really bothers me. Knowing that fact that basically anywhere you go you are being watched. There are speculations that they can also tap into your phone conversations and listen to what your conversation is about. I think this is bad when you have no privacy. I think the technology can be used but in another way. They should only use on the people they are investigating or are high profile criminals. It shouldn’t be used on every single individual that they do it to. There has to be some other ways to do this type of stuff. Yes it might be a good way to stop some social problems but I still think there are other ways of doing this stuff. We have a right to our privacy and don’t need to be watched all day everyday.  

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8. December 2009 by student.

My passion for this topic could interfere with my ability to think logically, but GIVE ME A BREAK! Sports help to build character, influence competitive nature, and challenge your mental toughness; all of which are vital to your success as an adult. My high school basketball coach taught me more about life than any teacher has ever been able to offer me, and challenged me in ways I had never been challenged in any classroom setting. I am extremely grateful for having the opportunity to play for him and he has my sincere gratitude. However, children in Ohio are being deprived of the things I experienced. Schools in Ohio have gone as far as completely suspending all sporting activities, which is absolutely insane if you ask me. “This community is going to die,” Grove City High football coach Matt Jordan said. I cant even begin to elaborate on how these kids are feeling, because I never had to experience something like this. This could eventually be reality in thousands of other schools across the nation if the economy doesnt improve. The community’s of schools who have lost their high school sports need to take immediate action and get these kids back on the field anyway they can. Fundraisers, donations, car washes, whatever…something needs to be done. Losing high school sports will be extremely detrimental to the future of our nation.

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8. December 2009 by student.

Over the past few years, the usage of cell phones and driving has become more popular, and more of an issue. States such as New Jersey and New York have even created laws that banned the use of a cell phone while behind the wheel. Some may say that talking on the phone and texting takes your focus off of the road, and leads to hundreds of car accidents a year. If this is true, then why aren’t more states taking part in the creation of laws to ban cell phones when driving?

Distractions come easy to drivers. They can range anywhere from changing the radio station, having the volume up a little too loud, having too many friends in the car, or even a billboard on the side of the road that catches the drivers attention. If all of these are taking the drivers focus off the road, then why aren’t their laws against them? Think about it, having a law against changing the radio station, or having friends in the car. A law against looking at a billboard. The reason we don’t make these laws is because they would be impossible to enforce. Why should the use of a cell phone be any different?

I do not believe that using a cell phone is any different of a distraction than those listed above. I agree that texting is dangerous, however, with my generation today, I believe that we are capable of the multitask. My generation was taught to be able to text message and do other things at once. For example, students at school text message and listen to teachers lecture. We text message and talk, text message and eat, there’s no reason why we wouldn’t be able to text message and drive. I get why it’s dangerous for older people, because they don’t understand technology. They have trouble driving let alone using a cell phone and being behind a wheel.

There are limits to using a phone when driving, but those limits are determined by the common sense of a driver. If you can’t focus on the road, then stay away from  your phone. Pull it out and check your text messages when you’re stopped at a red light, other than that, leave it alone. Another condition should be driving in the rain, snow, or fog. Obviously these conditions are dangerous, and you wouldn’t want to risk being put in any more danger than you’re already in. Other than these few situations, cell phones are good to go. 

Car accidents are bound to happen at any given time of the day. I understand that some states are trying to avoid car accidents at all costs, but banning cell phones isn’t going to lessen the chances of one happening. All those laws are doing are pissing people off. Either allow the use of cell phones while driving, or ban every distraction including cell phones, radios, friends, and billboards.

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8. December 2009 by student.

Overcrowded emergency rooms are presented by the media as a serious problem in the US health care system. Everyone in the world is affected by this problem. Most people believe that the majority of the patients that go to emergency rooms are the ones that lack health insurance because they know the staff has no choice but to evaluate them. But this belief is wrong, most people that go to an ER, is simply because of the convenience. If an admission to the hospital is necessary, it is far easier and faster to go through the ER than the actual hospital. To fix this problem and prevent it in the future, people should use ER’s more wisely and go to a walk-in clinic or an urgent care facility for less serious problems, that way we can save the space in the ER’s for the more life-threatening cases.

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8. December 2009 by student.

 Breast-feeding in public can offend many people and can gross them out. I think if mothers are going to breast-feed their child, they should have some type of blanket to cover themselves properly. Most do not want to watch a child breast-feed, especially in public, and if a mother does not want to cover up then she should go someplace where she cannot be seen, such as a room where no one else is. Breast-feeding is crucial to a baby’s health. There are many different vitamins and minerals that a child can only get from breast milk. Breast milk has been proven to lessen the likelihood of some of the most common diseases such as childhood leukemia or long-term cardiovascular health. Therefore breast-feeding is necessary for a child’s health, but it should be kept away from the public eye.

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