Fight Global Warming for $1 a Day

Neighborhood by neighborhood and house by house Mike Tidwell of "Fight Global Warming for $1 a Day...and Still Live Comfortable" gives several ways in which we can make a difference in our world's climate by taking a stand in its cure with our own efforts to commit to adjusting our homes to survive on resources that takes away from the strain on our earth's surface.  He gives affordable advice on how we can accomplish a reduction in pollution.  He himself has obtained energy 'that comes from renewable, CO2-neutral sources. His energy arrive for photovoltaic panel on the roof, the heating form a potbellied stove that burn corn kernels, and the hot water from a separate roof top panel that converts sunlight to heat energy'.  Tidwell was very passionate about our effort to save our planet's climates.  I share his commitments and try to address this problem in my home by recycling.  I have a family of eight and my trash was overflowing on a regular basis.  I choose to take a stand by starting with recycling because my family contributes too much trash to the environment.  It is not always convenient to recycle but it is worth the commitment to global warning to be consistent with it.

Why We Crave Horror Movies

Stephen King in "Why We Crave Horror Movies" expresses the effects of horror movies on his viewing audience by taking a stand on the degrees of insanity that we all possess. Being one of the most renowned horror movies writers, he notes that one of his attracting features was how horror movies give a visual release to our negative emotions:  ‘daring the nightmare… that we are not afraid’.  His tone was moderately expressive and confidence in the emotional balance of fear in his viewing audience which has been millions of people of all ages. I feel that his efforts to produce the many horror films of his career has definitely released and realized the ‘morbidly unchained’ nature of people.

 Stephen King was once of my favorite writers when I was in my early teens and twenties and at that time in my life I didn’t have children which change my mind about the psychological effects of horror movies.  I agree that ‘by the time one turns 40 or 50, one’s appetite for double twist or 360-degree drops loops may be considerably depleted’.  With this in mind, I asked my 15 year old daughter how she felt to reminisce on those times. She said:

“It’s exciting and heart pounding without actually putting anyone at a real risk.  To many teens it is an intense experience, waiting for the next thing that might pop out and excite you.  Horror movies may also be funny. For an example people run and fall over obvious things just so the horrifying character can have more suspense in the movie. Another funny thing is that in most scary movies Caucasian people are always running towards the problem without anything to defend themselves, unlike in other horrors involving African Americans pick up something and take off running hoping to get as far as they can from the horrifying character of the movie.”

I guess todays viewing audience is still a part of the ‘sick joke or insanity’ of reasoning the Stephen King entertains.  Well he may even have a point, of course his pockets prove it, that horror movie I also provides a cathartic effect, offering you emotional release and escape from the real world of bills and mortgages, the economy and relationships.

No, to Budget Cuts in Higher Education

In these economic times of distress, why would anyone want to agree to budget cuts on higher education?  Elizabeth Medina acknowledges her concern about monies allotted for higher education in her writing, "No, to Budget Cuts in Higher Education." Being a student herself, I her tone was aggressive and she stated many examples to consider in determining the effect on society with budget cuts toward education. She addresses colleges, universities and governing official by indicating how budgets cuts would affect the student enrollment, faculty and staff in colleges and university, and the community as a whole where colleges are located. 

Medina resolution to this problem was to implement a tobacco tax increase.   I agree with her efforts to bring to point out the importance of higher education for I am also a returning student of six children.  My husband is currently supporting our family; however, I would like to continue to have the opportunity to contribute to my household income because my husband has to work sometimes over 60 hours a week to support our life style.  At this time, I am taking advantage of the Pell Grant and loans.  I am in the top fifteen percent of my class at Clayton State University and have been offered to become part of the Gold Key International Honor Society.  I feel that I should be given the opportunity to take advantage of the Hope scholarship program.  Hopefully, we can all make a stand by applying ourselves to the best of our ability and support writer like Medina in her effort to make a difference on higher education.



A Modest Proposal

Wow! Where do you start in commenting on such a morbid proposal to address the poverty in a kingdom? Jonathan Swift in "A Modest Proposal" presented a very radical approach to poverty by suggesting that the poor of Ireland would be better off if they raised their children to be killed and eaten.  Although his writing was intended to gather the attention of those in political power to address a serious problem in their society, he made serious detailed inferences on cannibalism and degraded the worthiness of the human existence.
I know Swift's reasoning woke up all of those who read it and challenge their duty to society to address the concerns of their poor for truly this was not the answer.

Why Schools Don't Educate

I was always fully aware of the obvious parameters that kept our children form healthy formal development. Time after time I continuously accused public television as the number one source of “rotting” our children’s brains from the inside out. In John Taylor Gatto’s Why Schools Don’t Educate, he dissects the average child’s day to day and breaks down the time they have for moral development. He concluded that the average child had approximately nine hours a week for private time. Nine hours for a child to reach their full cognitive potential is simply not enough. Gato also distinguishes between the class of child. He speaks about the more privilege kids intellectual plight, who’s private time, is probably spent on private lessons and commercial entertainments. To me that was interpreted as since the privilege child’s parents have more disposable income it is wasted on unnecessary luxuries of his/her choice instead of aiding the child’s mental mindset.

All of these iniquities create, as Gato would like to call it, “dependent” human beings, and not just any dependent human beings, the type that can’t even have a plausible format for their own future. He calls this dependency and aimlessness a national’s disease. Gato names a list of things that are killing us as a nation, he writes:

“..drugs, brainless competition, recreational sex, the pornography of violence, gambling, alcohol, and the worst pornography of all- lives devoted to buying things-..” J.T. Gato

These things are all accumulations of dependent personalities. Taking away all our children’s time is effecting he way that they grow up. He states that no school that doesn’t attack these specific “diseases” will be nothing more than deceptive.

Girls Will Be Girls. Unfortunately

Ellen Goodman, a nationally syndicated columnist, in “Girls Will Be Girls. Unfortunately"(2002) argues a major concern and a new headliner that society has to face every day: the hurtful gossip and nasty conversation that is meant to destroy the reputation of other girls and women. She gives an example by using a series called Ally McBeal which illustrates that "In the final episode of the series, everybody's favorite neurotic was driven out of town by a pack of 10-year old girls. Ally gave up her job, her friends, and her apartment to rescue her daughter Maddie--product of a college egg donation--who was being tormented by classmates otherwise known as the RMGs: the really mean girls." Goodman wanted to spell out the importance of acknowledging the serious behaviors of girls to be just as harsh as the bulling boys in order to display the overall effects it has on women and girls. She approaches a common issue as being a parent herself and addresses the parents of the word and all adults in general to be aware of the female oral aggressive behaviors.

Goodman’s uses of the TV series Ally McBeal to shows how the female choices of words can affect our everyday life. She shows how the parents have to jeopardize their income, social acquaintances, and stability in order to face off with the effects those girls inflicted by bullied her child. I agree with her acknowledgement of this issue because I have four girls myself:  ages 6, 7, 8, and 15.  All of my girls have already had to face off with the verbal abuse and threats of girls in their little societies.  Goodman was very concern about the schoolgirl cultural issue that she compared it to the Columbine killings of schoolboys.  I was surprised that she used this comparison because of its level of violence; however, the long term effects and the number of things that can be affected by this issue truly need to be considered.  I was enlightened by Goodman’s use of various authors and experts to explain how and why girls act the way they do during in our adolescent society. It gave an inside interpretation of what could have effected their way of thinking and how girls want or need to fit in for various reasons.

Goodman uses Carol Gilligan, a psychologist, that mentions that girls “experience a similar initiation into womanhood … manifest in the often vicious case of inclusion and exclusion” and compares them to “sheepdogs” noting that “when one moves out of the pack, they herd her back in line”(177).  With is this quote she explains how ‘girls are forced to toe the line, especially in sexual behavior and appearances’.  Goodman’s use of the President of the Ms. Foundation, Marie Wilson, noted “that girls turn on each other just as the boy-girl thing clicks in” (177).  Of adolescent girls want to express the boys so they tend to competent in inappropriate way to get attention. One of these ways would include the use of forming clichés to encourage each other’s behaviors, as Goodman put it “cliques are to girls as bullies are to boys” (177).  One girl in mention to Oprah that being shunned was “meaner” than getting hit (177). In all of her examples, she clearly wanted adult to understand what is going on with our youth today and be aware of how we influence our own children through our past experiences. And ultimately, Goodman wants us to ‘stand and fight’ through our challenges to get positive behaviors from our children.

A Deadly Education

Should smoking be prohibited at school? T. Maxwell who is a student at Clayton State University wrote a very compelling essay on effect of smoking and the exposure to second hand smoke: "A Deadly Education". She illustrated that CSU and other colleges have not shown keen interest or put this matter into perspective, even though CSU has designated areas for smoking students non-smoking students are not protected from second hand smoke. I agree with T. Leigh Maxwell CSU should ban smoking entirely because non-smoking students health could be at risk. Maxwell said “students should never have to choose between compromising their health and getting a good education”.  She deliberate briefly on personal rights but truly focus her attention on the danger of second hand smoke and that smokers believe that a few seconds of exposure to second hand smoke is harmless.  She said “the center for Disease Control (CDC) has warned that breathing drifting tobacco smoke for as little as thirty minutes can raise a nonsmoker’s risk of suffering a fatal heart attack to that of a smoker”.  In Georgia State smoking in all restaurants and government facilities are prohibited.

               In her article Maxwell stress on the danger of second hand smoke along with toxin, chemicals and ammonia that contains in cigarettes.  One must agrees that smoking is dangerous not only to non-smokers but to smokers as well, according to T. Maxwell.  "In fact, the very smoke so flagrantly exhaled by professors and students alike in the common area of CSU is presently degrading the health of every students at the university”. (pg 170)  We all have amendment’s rights, people who smoke have rights but what about non-smokers rights.  Is it fair that non-smokers rights of a clean environment should be violated by smokers who are polluting the environment with their toxins and chemicals?  Board of Directors at CSU should take this matter very seriously and prohibit smoking at the university because students attend CSU to get a higher learning education not to get lung cancer or any type of disease that you can get with second hand smoke. We all have our point of view on smoking, but its not right that non-smoking students should inhale while smoking students exhale.