13. April 2010 by student.

We are always doubtful when we see that homeless person sitting on the corner at the red stop light on the busy corner in town. One side of us feels bad for them and what to do a little something to help them out like hand them a dollar bill or some change out the window of our cars, then there is the other side thinking where it that money really going to that they get? Is it drugs and alcohol or will he/her really go get a small meal off the dollar menu at McDonalds?

I remember watching television one day with a guy and he started watching this show Manswers, the episode consisted of a lot of guy things, something I defiantly wouldn’t watch on my own. Anyway one of the topics on the show was begging for money.  I was shocked that people would pretend to be homeless for job. I thought to myself how soulless people who would beg for a living are, when they are not actually poor in reality.

The show states the ugly truth of the positives and negatives of what they call, “professional can-handling”. A man Keith from Sacramento, CA was interviewed because of his trade of being a can-handler/windshield cleaner. The show stated the steps you most follow to become effective at begging. Step 1= Location, Location, Location. One must find a good location with a lot of people like a grocery store parking lot, because they are so big, or a off ramp with a long red light. Step 2= finding the right look. Seem desperate but not too desperate. People want to put their money to a good cause. Step 3=Getting a good sob story. The show found some good example of people who basically milk this profession, including a lady who pretended to have Tortes and a couple who brought their three children along to get sympathy. Bonuses also include, not having to pay taxes, you can be your own boss and work outdoor.

Manswers also included the downside, which would mostly be your shame and begging is illegal in some places. What bothered me about the clip was that they made it seem like begging when your not really poor is not a big deal, when in reality it is a terrible thing to do! It is soulless and heartless and it should make one think twice before giving money to a begger.  It is also sad when you take into account the people who actually need money and put it towards trying to better their lives.

The Manswers clip:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=25475798

Posted in Mr. Andoscia, Introduction to Sociology | 2 Comments »

13. April 2010 by student.

Many people do not realize the amount damage pollution really does effect our environment. In order to save our world, we should be stressing the education of protecting the environment. Addressing environmental pollution in the world will not only do good for the environment but also for the people that live in it. One of the biggest challenges of today’s world is the decrease in jobs. However, by trying to solve the problem of environmental pollution one would be creating more jobs. For example, environmental statistics at “http://unstats.un.org/unsd/environment/default.htm” show that it takes an average of 116 people to run a coal fired plant, which obviously produce a great deal of pollution. On the other hand, it would take 248 workers to run a solar thermal facility or 542 on a wind farm. Both of these solutions to the world’s energy problem not only produce energy, but also do it by methods that do not pollute the environment when compared to a coal-fired plan. They also in turn produce up to 4 times as many jobs for anyone looking for a job. By helping the environment in this way, one is not only helping the environment but also himself. As pollution has increased so has the damage it can cause. This is shown by acid rain, which is a product of pollution. Acid rain is powerful enough to cause corrosive damage to buildings, statues, and other structures. Since the damage must be repaired taxpayer’s money must be spent to repair the damage. This leads to billions of dollars of taxpayer’s money being spent to repair the statues, buildings, and monuments damaged by acid rain, which could have been spent on schools and other things in the community. This is how bad the issue of environmental pollution has gotten, a point where the people are loosing there hard earned money to pollution people create. But one of the more obvious and best reasons for trying to help solve the world’s pollution problem is for promoting better health for humans. With all of the pollution that exist the health of humans slowly decrease as seen by many people throughout the world developing respiratory problem such as asthma and possibly even the new disease SARS. With pollution being a probable cause for such diseases and ailments it can clearly be seen how serious environmental pollution is. All these are very significant reasons for concern in the area of environmental pollution. Yet, it can easily be solved with the help of a few considerate people who want to help the environment and themselves in the process. We need to take a stand and save our environment while we have to chance!

Posted in Social Problems | 1 Comment »

13. April 2010 by student.

The Argument For:

 The debate started in the 1970s, and has progressed and continues today. What age is it really safe to allow drinking, do three years really make things safer, or is it making things worse. When someone thinks of turning 18 what do they believe this entails for them. The age of 18 is a popular set point for most policies throughout the country, at 18 years old men and women receive the rights and responsibilities of adulthood, they are considered adults by law and in their hands they can cast decisions through voting, they can be called to serve on juries and take the decision of the execution of law into their hands, casting deciding opinion on a case along side peers. Any 18 year old out there can go ahead and get married, and no one can stop them, signing contracts, joining the military, now that’s a big one; joining the military  includes taking on the serious responsibilities of life and death, to fight and die for their country all at 18 years old. If at 18 you can be prosecuted as an adult, and in the eyes of the law you are an adult then why at the age of 18 is it so outrageous to be trusted to make decisions about alcohol consumption.

The way society is set up for the norms is unsafe for adolescence exposed to alcohol; a rational choice has been suppressed and bottled up till it bites back against an individual. When adolescents are not taught to drink in moderation, they end up binge drinking when they do consume alcohol. Then when someone drinks too much or has reached a dangerous blood-alcohol level the fear of being caught stops them or their friends from seeking help leading to death in most cases. It is better to teach the youth in society how to moderate behavior as is accustom in the typical American value system, to allow them to learn how to drink responsibly and draw on parents or administrators explaining to them how to handle problems should they arise, learn from information instead of a lived experience. The norms of society are people held responsible for their actions, so if the legal age was changed then the individual can be set in a system where they will still have authority ready to hold them accountable for their actions as we do with driving a car. Alcohol has a symbolic value; it’s cool to drink and the hype of drinking which increases the event of overconsumption is the “rule-breaker” idea, it isn’t legal so do it more at one point, don’t get caught and hide the side effects. Another norm in society is that underage drinking occurs anyway why put fear into someone holding them back from seeking help if the worst-case scenario takes place.

As I have mentioned before the act of prohibiting teens from drinking in bars, restaurants, and public locations has the effect of forcing them to drink in unsupervised places such as fraternity houses or house parties. Lowering the drinking age will allow teens to drink alcohol in regulated environments with supervision. And hell I’ll say it setting the drinking age to 21 from 18 is unconstitutional, it causes a discrimination against the particular age group of 18 to 20 year olds, blacks, whites, Latino, it doesn’t matter it is age discrimination. Drinking is again a symbol of maturity created by the standards of our society and the desire to drink from underage adolescence spans from the idea that if they drink they are acting more mature, and they drink to excess because of a lack of understanding. I’m not saying that no laws should be applied, I’m defiantly not saying such a thing on the contrary laws should be created; No drinking and driving is always good, maybe a curfew system, if under 21 years then no alcohol can be purchased past ten p.m., and 18 doesn’t need to be the new age 19 seems more subtle a change, and many can support such a change. The point is that the prohibition era of the 20’s wasn’t effective and it shows that people will resist federal totalitarian rule over some actions, that is the American way, the specific social construct to resist that which we don’t support and appeal it.   

 The Argument Against:

I will admit, in the sake of remaining un-bias and explaining both views I’ll cover the arguments against changing the law and maintaining the legal drinking age at 21.  Lower drinking ages to 18 can be viewed as inappropriate for the U.S. standards, the average of American teens generally start driving at earlier ages and drive more often than not, and because of this fact the average American teen is much more likely to drive under the influence of alcohol if the drinking age were lowered. I’m sure we can all agree or at least consider the point that an abuse of alcohol can take place because teens are simultaneously undergoing physical changes, growing into bodies they don’t understand and the mental constructs of the individual advance and change, they analyze more and more picking apart social values to understand why we do things. Society produces peer pressure, and new situations and urges from crowds and through all denominations, and the argument created from taking this idea into consideration is; allowing adolescence younger than 21 to consume alcohol can make them more vulnerable to drug and substance abuse, unplanned and unprotected sex, depression, violence, and other social issues factored from the daily occurrence of our American society.

The biggest and most hard-hitting argument against changing the age level is of course the children, people abuse substances from food to money, maybe drugs and again younger adults sex so from this learned behavior there is the chance that they will abuse alcohol as well. The earlier a person begins alcohol use, the greater the chances are of that person becoming an alcoholic later in life. When and if someone becomes addicted to alcohol they can suffer from many negative physical withdrawal symptoms when they have no access to booze, abuse of alcohol has been proven to effect brain development and if a younger individual, maybe 18 or 19 has such an addiction then they are harming their brain during its final levels of development. Of course, since teens that drink alcohol to excess have a much higher chance of academic failure, allowing (18-20) to drink will negatively affect more students’ academic performance, grades could suffer and college becomes out of reach leading to dead-end careers and there you have a job used only to supply the alcohol habit, scary little cycle isn’t it?  

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 1 Comment »

13. April 2010 by student.

Abortion:

               There are many social issues in the United States. One of the social issues that I would like to talk about is abortion. I believe that abortion should be legal. I think every woman should have the right and power to choose what they want to do to their bodies, not the government. “The US Supreme Court legalized abortion in the well known Roe v Wade decision in 1973, currently, there are about 1.2 million abortions are performed each year in the United States” (Abortion Overview). Abortion is one of the most controversial and legally active areas in medicine. If abortions are made legal, then it should not be understood as murder. So the slogan, "Abortion is murder!" is simply not true.

Soldiers in combat, police in the performance of their duties, and civilians in self-defense are cases in which the deliberate killing of a person is not only legal but honored.  If a soldier kills enough enemies, for example, he may be honored with medals and promotions. Many people in our society not only value but cherish human life, which is the way it should be, however abortion is a decision. Abortion is based on stability or instability. The mothers usually take into consideration if the baby would be born into a stable environment or not. This is why, in many cases, abortions are performed, because the mothers are not ready to take on the responsibility. Abortion is the decision if a woman should keep a human life or not, there are many different opinions when it is human life has actually initiated, so no one can decide except for you. The decision of having an abortion is a rational choice that many women have to make. Many people think of abortions as scary not only for the situation in itself, but the rational decision that will change their lives forever. People in society make difficult rational choices every day, all our actions are fundamentally 'rational' in character and that people. “We analyze the likely costs and benefits of any action before deciding what to do” (Scott).

In many cases the crime of rape is preformed and a woman does not want to keep the baby, therefore turning to abortion, not because she didn’t want the baby, but simply because it is the right thing to do. I think that abortion is viewed as more negatively than positively because our society values towards babies. They are the most vulnerable precious form of a human that make our society evolve everything that we do if, for the children. We take care of babies because they are our future. However, if a baby should not be brought into this world, due to unprepared parents, low income, or an unloving dangerous family environment, then I think the abortion should take place. This would only create more problems for the baby and everyone involved, when in reality the baby should be viewed as a blessing.

“Abortion Overview.” MedicineHealth. WebMD, Inc. Web. 4 Apr. 2010. <http://www.emedicinehealth.com/abortion/article_em.htm>.

Scott, John. “Rational Choice Theory.” Sage Publications, 2000. Web. 11 Apr. 2009. <http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~scottj/socscot7.htm>.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 1 Comment »

13. April 2010 by student.

Educational system:

            There are many social issues in the United States. One of the social issues that I would like to talk about is the educational system. I believe that a high school education should be enforced on every child in America. Unfortunately, I strongly think that the educational system today is nowhere near where it should. “The United States educational system required to give students about 12 years of education, depending on the state” (Palatiello). I have seen from experience that most students graduate between the ages of 17 and 18, but some will commonly remove themselves from enrollment without finishing their high school education. “In the United States approximately 7,000 high school students drop out of school each day, this calculates to about 1.2 million students per year” (Palatiello).                                                               If I could fix this problem, I would make it a law that every child needs to finish high school and receive a high school diploma. This way they would be more educated and have an easier time finding a job in the future. I would make it a law if you didn’t go to school and get your high school diploma, you will be imprisoned. It would be a simple yet effective punishment.                                                                             This issue is supported by social stability. This would give people an education to have a stable society to be able to read directions, laws, and give people the knowledge to follow to guidelines of our culture. The more education you receive the easier it will become for you to function in society. Our culture is evolved around technology which is advancing quickly every day, if you do not even have a high school education, it will be very difficult for you to keep up. Also, in our society, people have very strong morals and values which define them as people. In our society, people value education very highly because in our world people strive to have the best clothes, cars, and houses, but the only way you can achieve this is though an outstanding job. Usually those types of jobs give a hard time to even those people who have an outstanding education. Sometimes it can be viewed as a sick way of living, but it is how the world works, and that is why education should be enforced. 

Palatiello, John. “Alarming High School Dropout Rates: Virginia Is Not Immune.” Bacons Rebellion. WordPress, 16 June 2009. Web. 11 Apr. 2010. <http://baconsrebellion.com/2009/06/16/alarming-high-school-dropout-rates-virginia-is-not-immune/>.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 1 Comment »

13. April 2010 by student.

I believe everyone should not be allowed to have a gun. “Since the founding of the United States, when citizens were required to own guns in order to be prepared to participate in militia efforts, they have seen as the ownership of guns as right” (Children Injured and Killed By Gunfire). Since then, gun control has become a serious issue in the United States. I can argue that thousands of children who are shot to death each year should be reason enough to outlaw guns. As children, many boys are taught to be tough and play with guns which can lead them to think that it is okay to handle guns now and in the future.                            “Children and teenagers are killed by gunfire more than from cancer, pneumonia, and influenza combined. Statistics today shows that youth in the United States have a one in 1,339 chance of being killed by gunfire before the age of twenty. Children are also sixteen times more likely to be murdered by gunfire, nine times more likely to be accidentally killed by a gun than children in other industrialized countries, and eleven times more likely to commit suicide with a gun” (Children Injured and Killed By Gunfire). These statistics are more than enough for me to decide that guns should not be a right to own.             Our society is built around social stability. Allowing every person in the country the right to own a gun will only disturb the little peace we have in society, but place everyone in great danger. Not only would this encourage violence, but it would be teaching everyone to solve problems with guns and instead of going to authorities, to take matters into their own hands, creating social conflict. The interaction of people functioning in society would soar to a new level if guns were legalized. People would chose bullets instead of words to communicate. Also, most people value guns because we are manipulated to think they mean power, but when in reality all they do it bring about violence and increase already high mortality rates.

“Children Injured And Killed By Gunfire.” GUNS AND YOUTH. Web. 11 Apr. 2010. <http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/1779/Guns-Youth-CHILDREN-INJURED-KILLED-BY-GUNFIRE.html#ixzz0kpDTWQP5>.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 1 Comment »

13. April 2010 by student.

            I believe that same sex marriage should not be legalized in the United States. Growing up in a conservative home I was taught that girls liked boys and that’s the way it should be. I think that same sex marriages are a trend involved with people who want to corrupt the cycle of life. Today, the government makes it very difficult for same-sex marriages to have the same privileges as different sex marriages. The United States frowns upon same sex marriages, and I feel like that will never change. “As a result, partners in homosexual relationships often lack privileges, such as the right to inherit property and to medical, tax, and retirement benefits, that partners in traditional marriages enjoy”(Same-Sex Marriage).                     I think that same sex marriages have corrupted the idea of the social stability idea of finding an opposite sex partner, creating a family, and carrying on those traits to their children. Our society values marriage as a sacred promise from one sex to another, I feel that same sex marriages are making a mockery out of this special promise. Do you think same sex marriages have bring a positive mind set to society trying to follow the cycle of life? I strongly feel that gay marriage will change the foundation of society. If we adapt to new social norms every time they come into our society, the foundation of our moral values and beliefs will be soon be forgotten and questioned regularly. If we let gays marry, other absurd things will soon be legalized, making one bad decision after another creating social instability.                    In history, people were not brought up to follow the legacy that women marry men in order to reproduce and keep the civilization of humans alive; it is the natural thing to do. If we start questioning and experimenting with same sex marriages, there will no longer be social stability in society. If same sex marriage is legalized people will feel uncomfortable knowing that our own government is jeopardizing something our four fathers would have no tolerance for, and create major conflict in society. If same sex marriage was to be legalized, social change would take a turn for the worst bringing about negativity from people who believe otherwise with followers of the idea. The symbolism of the relationship between a man and a woman is viewed strongly in America. People do not think about what message gays send out to the public, they symbolize rebellion and corruption. This is something I think our society needs less of, or none at all.

“Same-Sex Marriage.” Http://socialissues.wiseto.com/Topics/SameSexMarriage/. The Gale Group, Inc., 2008. Web. 11 Apr. 2010.

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