13. April 2010 by student.

Products such as cigarettes, alcohol, and gas have sin taxes on them. Since these products are harmful to us we pay more to use them. There is a recent discussion that fast food will now also have a sin tax. If someone is craving a fattening burger they are going to eat it regardless of how many calories it has. People eat fast food not only because it  is less expensive but also because of time management. If I am very hungry or if I have somewhere to be, I am not going to go sit down at a restaurant and wait half an hour to be served. Fast food takes approximately ten minutes and at the end of the meal I feel the same. Full.  Even if they decide to go through with it and put a “sin tax” on fast food, the chances are it will still be cheaper than a sit down restaurant. Not only is the sin tax going to raise prices when the economy is down but it is going to farther separate the classes. The upper class is now going to be skinnier and healthy just because they can afford to do so. The lower class, who already cannot afford health insurance are going to have more health issues because they cannot afford to eat healthy food. I understand that people who eat unhealthy food are more likely to develop conditions. There fore they will be paying more, in advance, for the healthcare they will eventually need. It is a fair argument and makes sense but with the way the economy is at the moment it will only cause stress to those who are already having miney issues. And then again, stress is also a contributor to diseases such as heart attack or asthma. There is a simple way to solve this issue. Make healthy food cheaper. I’m sure it is easier said then done. But it is certainly not impossible.

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13. April 2010 by student.

I gathered some information about what exactly is my impact on the earth in terms of the environment. I found this book titled “Our Ecological Footprint” by Wackernagel and Rees and the information I looked over was crazy! Here is some of the things I learned:

So who says that maybe a taking a small bit, or throwing a tiny little gum wrapper out the window of your car, won’t do anything? The truth of the matter is that you are doing harm. And that is the main focus in the first few chapters. We humans don’t realize that all of the stuff we take out, needs to be in some way shape or form, be out back in. And isn’t that one of our biggest problems as humans? Just take take take, I want my cheeseburger now now now, who cares if its doing damage, I’ll worry about that later. This is the basic mentality of the average thinking American. Greedy, inconsiderate, and straight up rude. Our ecosystems and everything that makes up our environment as a whole is extremely important. And with the fast way in which we are all living, it’s easy to forget this. These first few chapters remind me that maybe we need to slow down, think about the future and start thinking of ways to give back, rather than just take.

I have heard the term ecological footprint before but never really knew what it meant. Thanks to the teachings of this fine novel, an ecological footprint represents the land area that is necessary to support an even level of resource consumption and waste by the population without it becoming inundated. Ultimately, it is a measure of what is imposed by a given population on nature. An ecological footprint is measured in hectares, which as Reeds and Wackernagel put it, comes out to be that four hectares is equal to about three city blocks. And so, with this new vocabulary under my belt, I thought about how does it affect me? I came the conclusion that it does not affect me rather I affect it. It is me who has to take some responsibility for the damage I am doing, to put it lightly. When I speak of I, I really mean we. Its 2008 already, we humans need to be concerned with just how big our ecological footprint is, or is going to be for us later on in life and more importantly, our children, and their children

In the past few chapters, the authors of this book have made a reference to carrying capacity. When the carrying capacity goes down, the habitat destruction actually increases. The carrying capacity equals the maximum population of a species that can be sustained indefinitely in a given area. I thought about this for a moment. Living in Florida I would consider my environment very unique. Surely nowhere else in the country, even the world perhaps, has an ecosystem such as the everglades, right in their very own backyard. Literally. Aside from all the species in the everglades, there are other things that we have that not many other places in our nation have. We have palm trees, and lizards running all over the place. Not to mention some of the most immaculate, manicured landscape one will ever see. Back to carrying capacity. When I applied this term to me and how I live, it was easy to see that most ecosystems, (everglades) do not directly have an effect on me. No doubt that changes that happen will come to me eventually but for the most part, I am indirectly effected.

The book in its entirety talks about the amount of useable land that we humans have left on our Earth. The Earth’s surface has about forty eight billion hectares and only around fourteen billion of them happen to be land. And, as if this is not small enough, only ten hectares of Earth’s land is ecologically workable and useable and productive. When I learned this, it was so easy for me to think about how we as human beings only do so much to really adapt to our environment, in fact, it seems as though we change it more to what we need and want, rather than seeing what nature all ready has to offer, and applying it to our way of living. If this were the case, I think people would be a lot better off, and maybe they would be more in tune with how they badly we are all truly treating our environment.

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13. April 2010 by student.

Media may be slowly degrading our  youths image of beauty but on the other hand obesity is linked to eating disorders as well, which again most people are unaware they have a problem. This is because they are fed processed, fast, cheaply made food from day one. This can be seen in none other than our public school system. The representation of food we give to our children lacks all nutrition; it’s simply feeding our kids what the capitalistic system banks off of, what they advertise to little children just to exploit their stomach and health. However, as they grow up and their bodies become less resilient to the immense amount of junk, they develop major health problems; diabetes, impaired liver and heart functions even cancer. Recently, Huntington WV was named the largest(in weight) population in America. Recently i caught the new show, Food Revolution, flaunting this town’s problem at large. Diving into the school system, homes, even the churches; all in order to help out with the obesity epidemic. So how do these individuals know they have an eating disorder if fast andprocessed food is not only supplied to their population from age 4 and up but advocated and accepted to the townspeople of Huntington? I have visited this town several times and being a healthy individual, I would nearly starve during my visit if it weren’t for the one grocery store in town and the healthiest option of eating out, Pita Pit. This sickens me, I thought Florida was bad in terms of health food supply and stores but when I visited West Virginia I realized there was no hope of even finding a single organic selection until you bridged the border of Ohio.While watching this show I was devastated to see that when a 1st grade class was asked to name some vegetables the only items from an entire table they could identify were broccoli and a potato. Furthermore,  the only nutrition the parents in America are informed of are the “slimming” diets advertised on TV, the media.  I feel this is an even bigger problem than media creating the ideal image we see today because we can choose to let the celebrity ideals rule our life but what happens when the only food we can choose to eat is processed.Huntington is leading in statistics of heart disease; obesity and fast food industry…go figure that correlation. These problems lead us to a larger system than the food industry that also generates and circulates money, healthcare. Since these people need not only medications but surgeries and assistance in order to save their lives, we need more money to fund these services. We’ve seen a lot of problems and instability rising within the costs of healthcare. This is not to say all the issues stem from obesity however an increasing amount of it in fact does. However, there is also hope to turn this around, prevent disease and     by the money spent on this aspect could possibly be eliminated if we just fed our bodies the right food in the first place. Yes, buying organic is more expensive, yes a meal for 5 dollars is a good deal on the other hand, I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t later on down the road, desire to spend THOUSANDS on medical care and procedures. This is a factor that can be mended within healthcare were providing today and shows potential for improving our stability.There is simply too many patients to be treated, of which happen to be obese not because of hereditary components but because customs inherited from their elders, their peers, their media, all in all OUR society. These power and money hungry companies exploit our health by serving grade D and E food in order to make a fortune. Now, were seeing the backlash in current health problems and danger zones of terrible eating habits and disorders exemplified but Huntington WV.  This learned behavior can either be change, diets improved in order for health risks and costs to decrease or America is going to be facing the same problems as these morbidly obese individuals, dying young from health complications or dying poor from spending millions on prolonging their life and preventing these complications.Marketing in the food industry is a main source of conflict within this epidemic. Marketing is a scary aspect of our society. Our cultural norms suggest that Ronald is every homes favorite dinner guest, this suggestion came from advertisements.  This is not new in the least bit since many of us were raised with Ronald McDonald as well. Only now it’s not just Ronald you see on television. Our kids are being brainwashed to buy processed, additive filled food from the grocery store with smiling faces, catchy jingles and bright colors.  This level of excessive demand and acceptance broke the barriers of stratification because everyone eats and everyone has seen these advertisements. Typically you can tell someone’s level of status from the products they buy; however the middle class shattered this buy the demand in food. As more food was demanded so was a cheaper, more “efficient” option, an option that comes nowhere close to the quality our body needs. Now with this source of cheap product so accessible, who wouldn’t rich or poor, save some money by spending five dollars on a meal in order to spend the rest of their money elsewhere.  This is usually inevitable however if this system were exposed and word of change were spread then we could really turn things around. If the food industry had more demand for healthy products then the force would be behind it to supply its people, therefore dropping the cost of the product. If this were the truth the agricultural organizations would be at the top of the food chain instead of the fast food and dieting companies.  In large in promoting a balanced diet you’re helping to develop a prosperous society by improving individuals stamina, moral, work ethic, self esteem, immune system, brain functions and most importantly sustaining  good health by preventing  disease.   

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13. April 2010 by student.

An addiction is defined as a persistent behavioral pattern marked by physical and/or psychological dependency that causes significant disruption and negatively impacts the quality of life of an organism. Addiction is something that a person will always have. Even if they “kick” the addiction, the gene isn’t gone from their makeup. Recently a new craze has heated up using a sexual addiction as an excuse for celebrities to cheat on their spouses. Most recently Jesse James and before him, Tiger Woods. Neither of them planned to confess and their infidelities were reported by the media to the national public instead of behind closed doors. Now how do you explain this to your spouse? Of course! I have a sex addiction so I can’t help what I have done. I’m ill! If these two, and I’m sure many others, were so ill, why didn’t they fess up and seek help in the first place. Another celebrity, David Duchovny owned up to his addiction, did a stint in rehab, and is still happily together with his wife. James and Woods on the other hand tried to deny it like any other cheater would, then when women started coming out of the woodshed with proof of their raunchy escapades, they were backed into a corner. Enter the sex addiction excuse. Even Hugh Hefner scoffs at these two calling it a “cop out.” Now when the Godfather of Playboy shakes a finger at your for your sexual endeavors, you know you’ve slipped up. Now perhaps James and Woods truly do have sex addictions. If what they say is true and it isn’t a copout, then its a shame and they should be seek the proper care and rehab for it. Woods has already done time in rehab and continues to do so. If in fact they are just protecting their celebrity and assets and using addiction as a cover up then shame on them. I would hate to see any addiction be soiled and pushed aside so that when people with a legit problem come along, they can’t receive proper attention for it because two playboys with too much money and ego decided to have a little extra fun on the side.

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13. April 2010 by student.

Illegal immigration has been a problem for many years now. Immigrants have continued to out space the number of legal immigrant. This has been a trend that has remained stable for many years since the 1990’s. The majority of illegal aliens tend to concentrate in areas that already have large existing communities of Hispanic people. There is an estimated 13.9 million people who live in a household where either the head of the household or their spouse is an illegal immigrant. Another problem of illegal immigration is the fact that most illegal aliens tend to be much less educated than the United States population- 49% of illegal immigrants have not even completed high school.Someone can become an illegal alien by either entering without authorization of inspection, staying beyond their authorized time of legal entry, or by violating their terms of legal entry. About half of a million illegal entries occur in the U.S each year. A common way for immigrants to cross the border is for a person to hire a “professional” to smuggle illegal immigrants over the border for a certain amount of money. Another way is to use someone else’s security card.A method of preventing all of this illegal immigration is stricter enforcement of our border. One problem with this is that in the past, enforcement of the border has failed to reduce immigration and instead has promoted the flow of immigrants into more remote areas of the United States.Immigration has also cost the legal residents of the United States a lot of money. Every time an illegal alien is arrested, we as citizens of the U.S are required to pay the taxes on that arrest. A lot of large corporations have also been noted to have paid millions of dollars for unknowingly hiring illegal immigrants (due to the false social security cards.)Illegal immigration is a problem that has steadily been rising over the years and there definitely needs to be a solution put forth to dissolve this problem.

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13. April 2010 by student.

Approved on September 28th of this year, RU-468, “the abortion pill”, became part of the American pharmaceutical arena. The Food and Drug Association, FDA, after years of consideration and testing, now permits practicing abortion providers to provide the abortion pill to their patients, with certain restrictions. By doing this government has allowed women more choices when pregnant, has removed some of the politics out of women’s reproductive decisions, and allocated them more privacy overall. The same day the FDA announced the legalization of the abortion pill the Associated Press pronounced that a 12 year battle had finally come to an end. Many people believe that the use of this emergency contraception method, or “plan B one step” is the same as RU-468. The two are very different, RU-468 is an early abortion option for women who are 7 weeks pregnant or less. It is a series of pills that a women takes that leads to abortion because of the combination of certain medications. Emergency Contraception, also known as the morning after pill or Plan B One-Step, is used to prevent pregnancy when taken within 5 days after unprotected intercourse. It will not harm an existing pregnancy. Many people believe that the use of Plan B will lower rates of having to use the abortion pill, or having an actual abortion procedure. There is so much controversy over women getting abortions, and trying to illegalize the procedure, but hasn’t been much media speculation about the actual abortion pill. If women are able to easily get and use the abortion pill, then overall, what is the actual difference about getting the procedure done? I believe that not only should a women be able to decide on whether to keep an existing pregnancy, but she should also be able to determine which method she uses whether it be the abortion pill, or the procedure.

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13. April 2010 by student.

A current social problem that seems to be overlooked by many people living here in the United States is the unequal funding of  our educational system. The U.S system of education is required by law until the students become 18 years old. It is funded and controlled by the state and local governments. Since the creation of the education department the federal governments’ control has been increasing in the United States. Each schools personal funding and overall conditioning is determined by the local government. In very wealthy communities the educational system is seemingly more funded and tends to be more effective. Communities that are less affluent generally have less funded educational systems. I feel that there should be many more programs initiated into our local governments to make sure that those less affluent communities are offered the same educational opportunities as those who are brought up in wealthier neighborhoods. The children shouldn’t be punished educationally for where they are being brought up. There definitely needs to be more concern for the inequality of our educational system. It goes as no surprise that people who are of lower socio economic status correlates with a lower education background.  This problem is not only affecting the students themselves, but it is also affecting future generations. History is bound to repeat itself if current problems such as this are not solved. Lamberty (1994) said; “The segregating nature of social class, ethnicity, and race may well reduce the variety of enriching experiences thought to be prerequisite for creating readiness to learn among children. Social class, ethnicity, and race entail a set of ‘contextual givens’ that dictate neighborhood, housing, and access to resources that affect enrichment or deprivation as well as the acquisition of specific value systems.”

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13. April 2010 by student.

Western media continuously bombards us with images -both obvious & otherwise- telling its’ viewers how to look, dress, and think. Possibly the most vulnerable to these ideas are adolescent girls. The unfortunate reality is that MTV perpetuate the viscous cycle of degrading the self esteem of young women by presenting unrealistic/unfit figures for them to idolize.

When this subject was first broached to me by my Comp.2 professor, I was utterly mind boggled. Questions began swarming through my head at the speed of light, and they weren’t always formed politely: “Who could suffer through THAT much MTV, anyways? Sure it’s a good pick me up when you’re feeling sorry for yourself – it could always be worse. I mean, at least you’re not one of the brave teen mothers who get filmed while being publicly ostracized. Still, between MTV’s bad taste in music and trashy celebrity appearances’, who wants it?” Well apparently, everyone… I feel ya, who knew. Since its’ birth in the 1980’s, MTV has embarked upon a tireless vendetta to invade the homes -as well as the minds- of adolescents. (”Media Family”) MTV is currently reaching over 350 million households (say it with me now: WOW) and the numbers show no hope of ceasing anytime soon. (”Media Family”) 82% of MTV viewers are 12 to 34 years old; more interestingly yet, 39% are under the age of eighteen. Experts at Media Family also say that the vast majority of “music videos are designed for teenagers between 12 and 19 years of age.” (Hmmm… so, basically, the Pussy Cat Dolls are shakin’ it for minors…? Is that even legal?)(Bell et al, 2007) An experiment was conducted in the UK by researchers at the University of Sussex. It was here that Beth T. Bell, Rebecca Lawton, and Helga Dittmar asked females between the ages of 16 and 19 to perform one of three activities: watch three music videos, listen to three contemporary songs, or learn a list of lyrics. Claiming that the study was a memory experiment, the team then proceeded to ask the participates a series of questions regarding body image. Results soon showed that the third of teen girls given the music video portion of the analysis reported strong feelings of body dissatisfaction.Presenting youth with ideal role models is a moral obligation to the public, not a legal one. Although obesity is a major problem in America, the reverse end of the spectrum (Anorexia Nervosa) offers an equally bleak outlook. On the upside, at least MTV can update their play book. Turns out sex isn’t the only thing that sells, people also love malnourished teens.  

Bell, Beth, Rebecca Lawton , and Helga Dittmar. ” The impact of thin models in music videos on adolescent girls’ body dissatisfaction .” Body Image 4.2 (2007): 137-45. Web. 19 Mar 2010.“MTV Media Wise.org.” Media Family. National Institute on Media and the Family., 14/Aug/ 2001. Web. 21 Mar 2010.

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13. April 2010 by student.

About 3,329,000 students were expected to graduate in 2008/2009 school year, this only includes recipients of high school diplomas, not of equivilancy credentials.  The projected number for the 2009/2010 school year is lower than the 2008/2009 school year.  Between 1988  and 2008 the dropout rate declined from 12.9% to 8%.  Although the dropout rate declined for both blacks and hispanics during this time, their rates in 2008 remained higher than the rate for whites.  Why is this?  Is this due to possibly some of the kids coming from other countries and not learning the English language?  It is very strange to me as I see all people as being equal and should be treated that way.  If others come from another country they should have some kind of assistance in learning the English language.  The percentage of dropouts among 16-24 year olds has decreased over the past 20 years as well.  According to President Obama, 1.2 million students dropout each year before graduating from high school.  This is something that has to change, its not like many years ago when one could dropout and find a blue-collar job to pay the bills and help support your family.  These days its hard to get a job even with a associates degree, let alone just a high school diploma.  It is almost absolutely necessary to have a college degree, sometimes at least a bachelors degree.  All children need to be educated at home by the parents of the importance to graduate high school.  Then again, this is some of the problem also, some parents just don’t care so the kids don’t care.  In many cases there are broken homes, single parent homes, and other situation that make it hard for kids to keep up with school and have the ambition to do so also.  I believe that teachers and many school officials can make a big impact on children and assist them in obtaining their diploma.  Growing up with just my mom raising me, I saw how hard it was for her and did not want that for myself.  Now I stress the same for my children.  Parents need to stay involved in their kids education, attend all school conferences and stay in contact with the teachers redarding their progress.

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13. April 2010 by student.

In the past two decades technology and gaming have revolutionized the way our children relate to the world, interact with each other and learn. But is there a chance that the video games our children play directly affect whether our children handle a situation with violence or not? I do not believe that gaming is a direct link to child behavior. Violence is in fact a product and part of the real life environment and is an inherit human trait.There is a lot of speculation about this topic. Having played many of the games that have come out, I cannot deny the amount of violent action that takes place, but I grew up on video games such as Grand Theft Auto, Mario Bothers, and Prince of Persia. Of the three titles I just listed many people would probably look at the second title and wouldn’t think twice about it being a violent game, but in reality the bright, cartoon colors don’t hide the fact that Mario is stomping on turtles. In essence most video games DO include violence, even a classic like Mario Brothers. Although, in our society video games are not the only way to introduce violence to our children. News reports, movies, TV and books are equally as detrimental. It even comes down to the most basic of influences: the parents. A child is more likely to pick up a violent habit from watching a parent than they are from a video game.Some may argue that violence in youth is on the rise, but according to federal crime statistics the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United States is at a 30-year low. If there was a direct correlation between video games and violent youth, then the statistics would undoubtedly show it, especially since there has been an increase in video game production.What’s interesting about the games being produced is the age that they are targeting. In the past it has been the common misconception that video games target children, but looking at the games that have come out in recent years that notion is not supported. The gaming market has actually shifted to a more mature audience. More and more games are coming out with a rating of “M” for mature. The rating is not just assigned to the amount of violence in the game; it also applies to use of language, sexual interpretations and scenarios. The “M” rating is there to protect children from having access to such games. At places like Walmart, you must be 17 or older to buy a rated “R” film and the same goes for the mature games they sell. Parents who are concerned with how much violence their child sees should watch what they buy as well as monitor what their kids watch and hear. If children are becoming violent from playing video games, it’s because their parents are buying them.Violent game content may contribute to some violence in children, but by no means is it the main cause. Kids learn by example, so maybe parents should set a better one.

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