Texting and Driving

Welcome back! Recently I came across a texting and driving speech and I thought what a great topic to rant about. I know many may be thinking, “This again?” and often find yourself constantly coming back to this topic. However I want to approach this topic in a different way. Today I want to talk about the witnesses of texting and driving. Those who acknowledge the unfortunate action being taken but either do or don’t say anything about it. According to RJD Associates, it says that 50 percent of people are scared of being a passenger of someone who texts and drives, however 31 percent of the passengers don’t say anything about someone texting and driving. With that, 49 percent of passengers don’t really care if the driver texts and drives and this is a major issue. Texting and driving can lead to accidents and even deaths for the most pointless reasons. It’s so unfortunate that texting and driving is more dangerous than drinking and driving. Someone who isn’t drunk or high, just addicted to their phone. When I often come to the conversation of texting and driving it’s so sad when people either say that they’re careful or that it won’t happen to them, this is such a terrible way to think. Whatever it is you believe, just looking at your phone for 5 seconds can cause an accident and maybe even a life. People need to be aware that someone’s life is way more valuable than a text or song change. If you know someone or are with someone who texts and drives let them know it can wait or take the phone and do whatever they were going to do whether it’s directions, social media, pictures, texting, or music. Unfortunately the only way to stop texting and driving is by telling drivers to commit to not using their phones while driving until they’re home or parked. You can do this by telling loved ones and friends and ensuring they’re aware of how serious this is.

Organ Donation

Welcome back! For today’s blog I want to talk about organ donations but specifically as to why people chose not to become a donor. In short, organ donation takes healthy organs and tissues from one person for transplantation into another. Recently I’ve been researching a lot of information on this topic and I wanted to write a post about this because I think a lot of people aren’t really educated and aware of many things regarding this.
To start off, I want to share with you guys mind blowing statistics on organ donation from the U.S. Government Information on Organ Donation and Transplantation, so that you can kind of see the problem we’re having with this. In August 2017, there were a total of 116,000 plus people on the national transplant waiting list. Along with this, 20 people die a day waiting on this list. With this being bad enough, every 10 minutes another person is being added to the list. Unfortunately, while 95% of adults claim to fully support organ donation only 54% are actually signed up as donors. And if you’re like me, you’re currently questioning how this is so. Well luckily for you guys I have done various research as to why people chose not to become donors and I’ll be glad to discuss a couple.
For various people, something that stopped them from becoming a donor was because of TV shows. Yes I said it, TV shows! In fact, according to Susan Morgan from Purdue University and Brian Quick from the University of Illinois, they state that the TV portrays negative portrayals of organ donation. Not to mention one of these shows being my ALL time favorite, Grey’s Anatomy. The reason for this is because in the show, it portrays doctors fighting to get first dibs on organs or even doctors giving the organs to friends who need it instead of others who were waiting for one. Now, because I am a viewer of the show, I understand why someone will only see the negative side of becoming a donor, however, people should take into consideration that it is just a TV show and that most things that are displayed aren’t really true events.
With that, I want to discuss one more reason and that is religion. While there are religions that fully support organ donation, others don’t allow it. For example, most Catholics don’t decide to become organ donors because they believe in the afterlife and maintaining the body for honesty, however, for Judaism it is the opposite. In fact, they encourage organ, eye, and tissue donation in order to save lives, as do I.
So, to end this blog, if you haven’t already, I want you guys to talk to your loved ones, as well as yourself, and figure out if you want to become an organ donor or not. Keep in mind that not only will you be saving a life, but you also won’t make much use of your organs in the afterlife. I also want to leave you guys with a quote by Albert Pine that says, “What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.”

Mass Shootings

Welcome back! For today, I want to talk about mass shootings. Lately there has been an unfortunate amount of mass shootings. In fact, according to the Gun Violence Archive list, there have been a total of 307 mass shootings just in 2017. While I can go on and on with all the shootings that have occurred, today I just want to discuss about a couple that personally stuck with me.
So, to start off, on November 5, 2017, there was a mass shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas at a church by a 26 year old man by the name of Patrick Kelley. There were 26 people pronounced dead and about 20 wounded, from the age of 5 to 76. This shooting was even called the deadliest mass shooting in the state’s history by the governor. This horrific event stuck with me because when I think of a church, I think of a place where many people can feel safe, protected, or even feel at home. With this tragedy, I can only imagine what the residents of Sutherland Springs will feel like going anywhere in the small town. With only a population of 400, not only does the loss of many loved ones affect their family, it also affects many others in the town given that it is such a tight-knit town.
In addition to this, on October 1, 2017, the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history occurred in Las Vegas, Nevada. Here, a 64 year old gunman by the name of Stephen Paddock opened fire on a crowd who attended the Route 91 Harvest music festival. Paddock left 58 people dead and 546 injured. There was no motive found and he was found dead by shooting himself in his suite in Mandalay Bay hotel. The reason this stuck with me was because not only was it the deadliest modern mass shooting in the US, but it hit close to home. I had aunts and cousins who attended this concert and were fortunate enough to make it out okay. Like the church, it’s unfortunate to see that people don’t even feel safe doing something fun and to let lose like a concert.
With that, I want to end this blog with informing you all that whether you’re going to the movies, attending church, or even just going to the grocery store, be sure to keep an eye out for unusual events and be careful at any given time. Know that there are heartless people out there who do the cruelest of things for reasons many of us may not be aware of. Stay safe!

Technology (Pt. 2)

Welcome! For this blog, I’m going to be continuing on technology but focus more on how technology has impacted our communications skills. Now, with the last blog being about a negative effect of technology, for this week I want to touch up on something that is positive. Given that this is rare because my blog is about world problems, I believe this specific topic can be looked upon in both ways, positively and negatively.
It’s so interesting to look back in time and think about how people communicated before technology existed, a time where people talked to each other in classrooms and passed notes instead of sending texts. While many may argue that this isn’t something good to brag about, I think that there are many ways technology has greatly affected our communication skills, one being that we are now able to easily talk to loved ones or friends in other countries. There have been many cases where people feel so much more closer thanks to technology, specifically because of mobile devices. On The Guardian website, Claire Lilley, of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, stated, “My parents feel much more connected to their grandchildren because of Skype.” With video chatting now being found in many forms of mobile technology, you are able to see loved ones no matter where you are at any given time of the day. This being something you weren’t capable of doing before.
In addition to this, I interviewed Blaze, an avid gamer, and he states that online gaming has in fact helped him with forming friendships. In the interview he says that as a child he was very socially awkward and his only peers were those who he played sports with. However, with the help of online gaming, he was able to make friends whom he actually enjoyed talking to. Not only this, but he was also able to trust and grow great connections with these individuals all around the world. “It’s a way to further ourselves as people and talk to others around the world.”
With that, I think we can all come to the agreement that technology and how we communicate with others can be seen as a good thing or a bad thing. In this case, I personally find there being more positive effects than negative. So, how has technology impacted your communication with others along the years? Do you find there being more negative effects or positive?

Falsely Accused Crimes

Welcome back! For today, I wanted to write about falsely accused crimes since it is something that unfortunately occurs in our world. It didn’t come across my mind to discuss this topic however, recently in my journalism class we watched a documentary called Longshot regarding this. It was definitely an eye catcher so I thought it’d be great to discuss. If you haven’t seen this documentary, I suggest you don’t continue reading until you’ve watched it and I highly recommend you do. In short, this is how the documentary went. Juan Catalan, a Hispanic male, is arrested for the murder of a 16 year old girl, Martha Puebla, in which he states he never committed. Juan states he was at the dodger game the time and day of the murder and has his daughter to help support his claim. However, it was very hard to find other evidence to further the claim. Later on, Juan remembers that there were cameramen filming by where he was sitting. We soon come to find out that it was a recording for a new episode of the TV show Curb Your Enthusiasm. After reviewing the film, amazingly, it shows Juan and his daughter enjoying the dodger game locking in that he was not guilty.
We soon come to find that Martin Pinner, the detective that talked to Juan, used incriminating evidence against him to obtain an incriminating response, meaning that he tried to make Juan look guilty of doing the crime. We then find out that the other detective, Juan Rodriguez, tried tricking Juan by circling his picture, indicating he was guilty, which was a very dishonest move. Because of this Juan was able to receive $320,000 from a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles and the police department. As unfortunate as it may seem, both detectives weren’t removed from their job, they were both just transferred and removed from working homicide cases.
With all that was said, imagine if the TV show decided to shoot somewhere else, or wasn’t able to film Juan and his daughter. If this was the case, to this day, Juan would have been sitting in a jail cell for a crime he had nothing to do with. It’s so amazing to think how the littlest things like making a phone call or taking a picture of where you are can determine your fate. This documentary really makes you think about how many people get arrested for a crime they didn’t commit or how many people get accused for something they had nothing to do with. Not to mention how untrustworthy cops are and how manipulative they can be.

Public Monuments

Welcome back! So recently I’ve been seeing a lot of controversy on my social media about public monuments and how some of them have been taken down and I also had a discussion about this topic around the beginning of the year in my journalism class. To specify, many of the monuments that are being or have been taken down are the confederate statues. While some people hate that these monuments are being taken down, others are glad something is being done given that these statues are a daily reminder of when slavery once roamed.
Because I can show many cases regarding public monuments and the many protests to take them down, today I just want to share with you guys a recent case that occurred regarding this. In the article Governor Cooper Calls for the Removal of Confederate Monuments by Jeffrey Billman, he talks about Governor Cooper and how he wants to remove all 100 confederate monuments in North Carolina. Cooper states that his reason for wanting to do this is simply because we shouldn’t continue to glorify a war in the defense of slavery. This being something I personally couldn’t agree more with. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that everything memorializing a confederate will be removed. A Southern Poverty Law Center’s publication “Whose Heritage?” talks about how it’s difficult to live in the South because there are schools, parks, streets, dams, and other public works named after a confederate. Given that this is so, I believe that removing 100 monuments is a great step towards the right direction and things should only improve.
Now, I want to refer back to the article regarding Governor Cooper. Here he mentions, “Unlike an African-American father, I’ll never have to explain to my daughters why there exists an exalted monument for those who wished to keep her and her ancestors in chains.” Upon reading this, I never really considered how these statues impacted the life of a colored person. In fact, in The U.S Capitol has at least three times as many statues of Confederate figures as it does of black people, by Christopher Ingraham, he talks about how in the National Statuary Hall Collection there are 3 times as many confederate soldiers as there are black. Taking in that information, I can only imagine what it would feel like to live in a selfish place where they glorified the tragedies that occurred to your ancestors.
With all considered, I want to leave you guys with a question. Put yourself in the shoes of a colored person, whether it is a grandparent, parent, or child. How would you feel?

Technology

Welcome back! For this week’s post I’m going to be talking about technology and specifically cover two topics regarding this. These being the reliability we have on it, as well as, how it has affected our communication skills. We have come so far in technology, from brick phones and large cd players, to it now being infused into one small pocket fitting device. Technology has grown onto us and has become a super reliable object. While many love the idea of now being able to do everything on their phone, there are many reasons as to why relying on your phone too much isn’t always best. To show this, I’m going to use an example that I see way too often, this being, parents giving their kids a form of technology to either calm them down or simply keep them out of their hairs. Whatever the occasion may be, if the child is bugging, whining, or just trying to get their parents attention, and the parents are busy, they’ll try solving the problem with a phone, tablet, or even a television. It’s as though the parents are reliant on these devices and are letting the technology do the work for them rather than communicating with their child and solving the problems together. Not only this, but according to Monica Anderson, a research associate focusing on technology, she shows some facts that I found very interesting. One of these being that 46% of smartphone owners say their smartphone is something “they couldn’t live without,” compared with 54% who say that their phone is “not always needed.” Even then, “not always needed” pretty much suggests that although they don’t always need their phone, they still do sometimes. With that, I’m going to end the first part of this blog with a question. If you were not able to have your mobile device or laptop, for a month, would it drastically change how you do things in your day to day life?

(To Be Continued…)

Obesity

For this week’s blog, I’m going to be talking about a BIG problem that’s been occurring in our world for quite some time now. In fact, it is so bad that now actually one third of the world is suffering from this problem. Yes, you guessed it, this week I’m going to be touching on obesity. For starters, obesity is a medical condition for too much body fat. If your BMI (body mass index) is over 30kg/m, from what your specific BMI is supposed to be, you’ll most likely be considered obese. Upon my time spent researching, it seems as though the causes of obesity narrow down to two things: spending too much time eating, and little time moving. When it comes to eating, many people don’t monitor or take precautions as to what they’re eating, such as calories. Normally, a person is supposed to consume no more than 2,000 calories a day. Now, while many people consume more than they should, others didn’t even know of how much they should be consuming. I asked my peers if they knew what the suggested amount of calories per day was and 5 out of 11 of them had no clue. With that information, I can only imagine how many others didn’t know of this and eat whatever they feel like eating. It is important for us to be aware of these things so that we don’t have to go through obesity and the conditions it comes with. To do this, you can write down your calories and keep track of them daily, or even put yourself on a strict diet like limiting your food portions. Another action is to get out and be active. This brings me to my next topic, how many of us today don’t do any physical activity. From having no time and being late to work, there are many ways to make excuses to talk yourself out of exercising. However, there are also many ways you can be active without changing your daily routine, such as, riding a bike to work, parking far and walking to your destination, or even walking to get lunch rather than driving. Even if you think five or ten minutes of being active will be no help, it most certainly is! So make some adjustments to your health, get active, and watch what you eat.

Natural Disasters

For today’s blog I’m going to be talking about the natural disasters we’re currently facing today and how it has affected us and the earth negatively. To show this, I’m going to be using some examples of what has currently happened this week, such as the earthquake and hurricanes. The main reason I personally think natural disasters are a problem is because they have been known to take the life away from many, especially when severe. We really have no control over these occurrences and many of us cannot do much in these situations but hope for the best. For example, recently on September 7th, there was an 8.2 earthquake in Mexico leaving about 58 people dead and maybe even more that they still haven’t found. As mentioned before, with these types of tragic events there is nothing we can do as people but try to stay safe from the severe damages that can cause life threatening situations. With that, another problem is the aftermath of these disasters. Not only do they result in a big mess, but they also require a lot of money to repair the damages of things like broken buildings. As devastating as this may already seem, they also wipe out things that have important meanings to us, things that cannot be replaced. This comes to my other problem, after a tragic disaster occurs, many are left homeless. For example, in just the recent hurricane that happened in Texas, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, roughly about 32,000 people went to a shelter because they had lost their home. In fact it was said that 49,000 homes were damaged with 1,000 completely destroyed. With disasters like these it’s as though they never end, once they hit they have a great affect then and in the future. I believe that during these occurrences the best thing we can do is to come together to help others and hope for the best.

Pollution

For this week’s blog, I’m going to be touching up on pollution that we suffer from every day and how we’re the main cause, as well as, including what we can do to help better this. First off, we humans are literally losing most of our clear air and this is something I think everyone needs to be aware of. I bet that before reading this no one knew that indoor air pollution is way more severe than outdoor air. According to the World Health Organization, it’s said that more than a billion people live in facilities that have the worst air quality. In fact, statistics show that roughly around 50,000 deaths occur every year because of pollution and there are expenses up to $40 billion from hospital visits due to the health care we need from pollution. The main reason our air is so polluted is basically because of us. Such as our transportation and the fumes it releases, the energy we use, and the fossil fuels we burn like coal or oil. However, there are many different things we can do to try to better the air, these being as simple as watching how we use our energy and finding ways to conserve it or limiting your driving and going for walks and carpooling. But this isn’t the only thing we’ve polluted. We have also managed to pollute our land greatly. It is said that Americans throw 1 million bushels of litter out their car every day. This isn’t including the amount of trash being thrown when we aren’t in the car. These numbers are incredibly insane, not only does it affect us but it also affects many of our animals and deforestation. There are many things we can do to try to reduce these numbers, one being to throw away your trash in the proper place or even recycling. Even the littlest of these can make a huge difference. We live here so let’s make the best of it while we still can!