How Will We Fall?

As Americans, we are use to having things go our way. Whatever we want we tend to attain. This however could be ending very shortly due to us being on the brink of financial, natural, and social collapse. The U.S. has used up every inch, invitation, and dime it could possibly use and for this we must now suffer.

Talk about going bankrupt
The United States national debt is exactly $11,033,157,578,669.78 (that's in the trillions in case your wondering). as of March 2009. If we divide this evenly between every man, woman, and child in the U.S. it comes out to 36,000 per person. What in the world could we have possibly bought and how much of it that could have amounted to a debt like that? All the bailouts the government is giving out to banks, industries, and workers just adds to our deficit. The collapse is coming soon because by giving more bailouts, they are devaluing the U.S. dollar. Our money isn't going to be worth cents in other countries if we keep going in this path.

"Who needs trees? Not us. And by the way, global warming is a myth" the U.S. said
Like camping? Being in the beautiful outdoors, enjoying nature's amazing scenery? Too damn bad. The U.S. in 2005 had the seventh largest annual primary forest loss in the world. Global Warming is a myth? The way the weather is changing so drastically and fast, there is no other explanation but global warming. Other natural reasons for a collapse is the fact that we reached our oil peak almost 40 years ago. Yet the U.S. keeps pulling oil out of the earth but they're finding less and less. Have you noticed how the gas prices keep going up and up again? That is because they have to raise the price of the precious little oil we have left. It's not just gas though, it's everything we purchase that has some trace of oil lingering on it. If we've reached the oil peak already and soon we're going to run out what will we use in 10 years when the rest of the supply we have is gone?

Whose your daddy?
Soon the U.S. won't be anymore. We have always been very prideful of being the world's leading country. We take our job seriously and love to bully the other kids in the park (metaphorically of course). Once our financial collapse and natural collapse happen however we will need to depend on other countries and no longer have the upper hand. What will the once so glorious U.S. do when they are invaded and can no longer rule other countries? North Korea is just the beginning of defiance that will happen against the U.S. The only question left to ask is who will be the world's next daddy?


Other Resources

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/03/17/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry4872310.shtml

http://news.mongabay.com/2005/1115-forests.html

My Food, Your Food, Our Food

Food is a huge part of the American Way Of Life. People love to eat as a form of socializing, for emotional support, and of course as a necessity. As an American however, I feel like a lot about the food we eat is overlooked. Things like where the food comes from, how the food is made, how it's transferred, how we buy it, and then how we eat it. It comes as a surprise that so many people would ignore all these things about what they consume. This class has opened my eyes to a lot more about food than I've ever thought of. Now this can be seen as a bad or good thing. On the bright side, we see where, how, and what our food actually is but on the negative side we see where, how, and what our food ACTUALLY is. This unit was an eye opener I think we all needed because it helps us see another side to the food world.

While talking about our food ways in class, I came to notice that at school my friends and I have around the same diets. We eat fast food and junk during the day. When we go home however I see that our diets differ and some eat healthier than others. I wonder sometimes what are parents would think if they realized what we eat during the day. I know my father personally would not be very happy about my lunch or snacks. I eat like this though because this is basically all that is available to me around school. Which is a good marketing technique because there are a lot of schools around here and kids usually buy junk away from home. Restaurants know that so they like to build around schools.

The videos we watched in class or on our own brought a lot of attention to animal cruelty that I had not thought of before. I never thought about what the animal I was eating went through or how the meat actually got to me. Thinking about this showed me a whole new perspective to my opinion of food. Though I am not ready to turn vegetarian I have friends that haven't eaten meat since the unit began. Andy also taught us that their our such things as pasture raised eggs. I don't really know how much truth we could recieve from whoever we buy pasture raised things but at least it's a step closer to animal friendly food. I don't really think many Americans know how animals are treated and what they go through. It really is considered animal cruelty. Andy told us of some cultures who have rules against certain things done to animals like letting the animals see the knife. I think this is nicer to do towards the animals because they shouldn't be petrified before they die. I know understand why PETA tries to bring so much awareness to these factors.

I think Americans have to start putting more thought into the food they eat. This way we can do something about the poor animals that are suffering just for us to have something to eat. So think twice the next time you are eating meat and have a moment of silence for the animal who died to give you a full belly.

I'll Be At The Market....

In my family, we go to the supermarket every week. When my parents go to the supermarket, they buy tons of junk and snacks for us to munch on. We get a lot of vegetables just because when my parents do cook they like vegetables in their meals. We don't buy a lot of fruits usually but my stepmother has been having cravings for fruit so we've been buying more than usual. We buy lots and lots of pastas, bread, and rice. We make almost every type of pasta in the world. Overall I think we shop pretty much normal. We're all extremely picky in the house so my parents buy according to everyone's needs. Dinner is also made according to everyone's needs.

When I do accompany them though I noticed that supermarkets try to push the junk food a lot. An example of them doing this would be putting candy bars right by the register. They do this so that children can pester their parents right at the register for sugar. Supermarkets also put junk food in every aisle of the supermarket. Even if it is just at the beginning or end of the aisle. I think they do this so that children can constantly keep bringing up these bad foods to their parents and the parents eventually give in. My parents never really make me eat anything I don't like so they taught me to eat according to my taste buds. My favorite meal is pizza. I love pizza for some strange reason. My favorite home-cooked meal is arroz con fidellos and chuletas. I have no idea how to write that in English so just guess at what it is. I don't really have a eating plan. I eat when I'm hungry and I eat whatever I feel like eating.

Food Ways At Home, Food Ways Of Mainstream Americans

Now at home, I grew up with my mother eating homeade food most of the time. Rarely did we eat out from other places. I hated this because I saw my friends eating McDonalds and American-Chinese food for dinner and I was jealous. As my siblings and I got older however she changed our diets to mostly eating out. When we had homecooked meals I was extremely grateful because I hated eating out all the time. Now that I live with my father and stepmother, I noticed we eat out most of the time as well. At the beginning, I didn't mind it as much as I normally would have but then I started gaining weight and it became a big problem. Now I would rather eat homeade food again but no one in my house except my father whose working all the time likes to cook so we settle for takeout.

Many mainstream Americans probably eat like this as well. They eat homemade food occasionally and then takeout the rest of the time. It has become normal to see restaurants and fast food places packed at dinner time because so many people don't want to cook. Even I have grown accustomed to eating out even if I don't really like it.

At home even the takeout we usually eat together. We sit together and talk about our days or what needs to be done the rest of the week. We rarely watch tv while dinner is going on and we are not allowed to use our phones at the table. We must sit up with our legs on the floor. I think our meal is this strict because my father is in the restaurant business and expects us to have really good manners (which we do).

Most Americans may watch tv while they eat but this I don't know for sure. Most of the people I know eat at a table not watching television and with strict rules at the table like me. Then again, Americans have become so dependent on technology that if their "favorite show" is on I'm sure they go watch it.

My food ways are similar yet not similar to mainstream Americans.

International Worker's Day...

Up until yesterday, I had never even heard of this. This holiday also known as May Day is a day to celebrate all the achievements the international labor movement did. In most countries this day is celebrated with street demonstrations and marches but here in the U.S. we don't even know what it is. Now I am wondering why we don't hold demonstrations, marches, and/or parades for this day that brought so much glory in the older days? I think it's because our government has brainwashed us to forget about these holidays that mark such great achievements done by "the people" for "the people". Why else would most of my class, friends, and family members that I asked not know what May Day is? This holiday was something so big before and has become just another day in the American Way of Life.

What's In The Fridge?

In my fridge right now, we have:
*Ham
*Cheese
*Milk
*Juices
*Mayo
*Leftovers
*Water
*Fruit Juice Boxes
*Dressings
*Cookie Dough (my favorite)
*Eggs
*Turkey
*Turkey bacon
*Turkey hot dogs
*Tomatoes
*Onions
*Lettuce
*Peppers
*Ketchup
*Mustard
*Sauces

I think what this says about my food ways is that we eat a lot of little things too much. What's in the fridge is usually not for dinner except the vegetables and sauces, it's food that we snack on. Our fridge is never really packed because we are never really home. My father works during the weekdays all day, my sister and I go to school and get home late, and my stepmother is usually out running errands. When we are together on the weekends, rarely does anyone want to cook so we just go out for dinner or eat takeout. Many Americans probably do this when the whole family is together.

What I Ate and How I Ate It

I ate this food in this order from 4/28(dinner time)- 4/29(dinner time):

Pizza- I ate by myself because my family was in the hospital with my stepmother. I was doing homework while I was eating which I'm normally not allowed to do. I tried to eat the pizza really fast in order to finish my homework and do something that I would enjoy. I was also texting during this meal which I'm not allowed to do while I'm eating but my parents weren't there so it's ok. I had the pizza with Arizona Ice Tea. Price was $5.50.

Cinammon bun- This breakfast has so much sugar. I usually only eat this when my hypoglycemia starts to act up. I had it with water so I wouldn't be eating too much sugar in the morning. I got this from the little machines that stand outside the trains. It seems to be where a lot of people get their breakfast. It's fast and cheap, that's probably why. I munched on that for my 1st couple of classes. Price was $2.

Donut- That was a snack while I was eating my cinammon bun. It was chocalate which is suppose to make a person feel happier. I got the donut from my friend Paul and I noticed the whole class wanted junk food because they were all asking for donuts. Free.

Fruit Roll Up- My fast other snack. I ate too much sugar by this point because I wasn't feeling good at this point. I had so many snacks this day because I was menstrating. When I'm menstrating I tend to eat more because of the cravings I get. Free.

McDonalds- I had a Happy Meal with chicken nuggets and fries. The Happy Meal came with this rip off CD that had the 5 worst songs on it. I had a sprite with all this. I noticed how many calories I was eating at this point. I actually didn't pay anything because I had a gift card from McDonalds that I had gotten for Christmas from one of the kid's mothers that I interned with. It took me this long to eat it because I usually don't eat McDonalds. It's gross. After that, Cindy and I both got McSundaes. Felt stuffed and kind of sick which is usually how I feel when I eat there. We noticed how busy it was in there. People like putting this greasy food in their body. I was a typical American for lunch that day. Price on gift card was $6.something.

Subway- We ordered out because my stepmother wasn't feeling well. This was our dinner and we ate together. Asked about each pther's days during the mean. It was a prolonged meal because of how much talking we were doing. I drank Arizona Ice Tea. Price was $23.25.

Question, Answer, More questions....

What percentage of Americans are suffering from obesity? Why is that?

A study done found that 1/3 of American adults are obese in 2005-2006. In these statitistics 33.3% were men and 35.3% were women. People aged 40-59 were the highest age group suffering from obesity. Non-Hispanic Black women were among the ethnicity group that suffered the most with obesity at 53%. These rates are alarming. Childrens rates are 17% for children ages 12-19 and 19% for children ages 6-11.
http://obesityinamerica.org/statistics/index.cfm

Obesity is believed to be because of "genetic, metabolic, behavioral, psychological and environmental (social and cultural) factors." More research however has to be done in order to back this hypothesis.
http://obesity1.tempdomainname.com/subs/fastfacts/Obesity_Research.shtml


Additional info-
Obesity is the second leading cause of unnecessary death in the United States.
http://obesity1.tempdomainname.com/subs/fastfacts/obesity_what2.shtml

Additional questions-
Why is it that Americans do nothing to stop these growing trends?
Can obesity be stopped?
What do health insurance companies do about obesity?
Are Americans aware of the percentage of obesity in the U.S.?
What are some foods that should definitely be avoided?
What are the health effects of obesity?

My health care takes care of me.... Or not?!

I am covered by Child Health Plus. Now all I know about this insurance is that it is advertised to be a great, helpful health insurance to benefit all the beautiful children around them but fails to do so. Now I know many that have not had any problems with this health insurance but I also know many who have. For example, my brother, Jonathan. He was in daycare one day when the teacher noticed he was turning blue. SHe rushed him to the office where they called my mother and an ambulance, telling both that the child was having an asthma attack. My mother found this strange but rushed to the hospital nonetheless. Upon arriving my brother had started to breathing correctly again but was still exhausted and sick-looking. My mother was completely bewildered when the doctors told us that my brother had had an asthma attack because my brother did not have asthma. The doctors said they would check him out but first they needed for us to fill out papers to see if our insurance would cover all this. My mother was shocked that they would treat us like dirt when her only son had just stopped breathing. She waited however because there was nothing else she could do. While they were waiting for the insurance company to respond, my brother stopped breathing and began turning purple. My mother freaked out and started screaming at the top of her lungs for the doctors to save my brother. The docotrs were completely calm however and seemed in no rush to help her. My mother was not having any of their slowness and rushed right through the emergency doors and found a room with an oxygen mask, The docotrs then started to help my brother and soon after he regained consciousness. Now of course if we wouldn't have had insurance we would have probably been sued and denied further health care there but because we had it and the doctors received their money for all their "hard work", I think we were saved. What's so sad is that it wasn't like it was a cracked out man or a suicidal women they were trying to save, it was a 3 year old boy who had his whole life ahead of him and still this peice of plastic was more important to them then anything else at that moment. What is this country coming to when even children have to suffer at the expense of greedy assholes? From that day on I have never trusted hospitals and doctors and I don"t know if I ever will.

I would say that my experience compares to Micheal Moore's SICKO because those 9/11 survivors and the rest of those Americans were just trying to live their lives healthy and America denied them what they needed. And although my brother was not denied if it wasn't for my mother's courage adn speed, he might not be with us today.

P.S. My brother does not have asthma. We discovered after all that, that he was dehydrated. Smart ass doctors we got there?!

American Way of Poverty

We all know that the economy is going downhill. More and more people are losing their jobs, homes, and prides. The unemployement rate is extremely high and even the basic necessities to live are hard to buy. The tax system in our country however does nothing to help the struggling lower classes. As we have been studying in class the "Sharing of the National Wealth" is extremely off balance. The chart shows us that poor people are gettibng less and less than they should be and the rich people are getting more and more. What is even more unbelievable is that the lower classes are most of the population. Our government is allowing all of this to continue even though, the majority of the population is struggling to live. To help us more understand the poverty in the U.S., we learned about taxes, did stimulations, research, and are now watching a movie.

Taxes-
There are a couple of different tax systems. We have effective, progressive, regressive, and flat taxes.
Flat tax- Everybody (poor, rich, middle) pays the same percent. An example of this would be sales tax.
Regressive tax- When poor people pay a higher percent than rich people pay. An example of this would be *
Progressive tax- This type of tax is when rich people pay a higher percent than poor people. An example of this would be *
Effective tax- This tax is how much you end up paying and what percent of your income that is. An example of this would be *
As you can see these taxes are mostly unfair because why should a rich person have to pay the same or less than someone who gets paid less than they do.

Stimulations-
We played musical chairs twice in class to show us different things about poverty. The first time it was to show us how the lower classes fight for oppurtunities that could better us. Everytime one more person did not get the seat symbolized the oppurtunity that was lost or taken. When people fought over the chairs, it showed how hard some people were willing to try and work for these oppurtunities more than others. The second stimulation with the musical chairs was to show us how as less and less chairs (oppurtunities) were available to poorer people, the richer people owned more and more of those chairs (oppurtunities). Andy was like the police who made sure that we wouldn't sit on the rich people's chairs which is how it is in real life. He also made sure we noticed that one chair would always be open for the poor class so that we could never say it was unfair and that the middle and lower class would blame themselves for not being able to get to that chair or oppurtunity.

Internet Research-
I did not get much work done with this but I found out that there are a lot of types of health cares and some are more expensive than others but they all have restrictions to them.

Health Questions....

How many people are officially mentally ill in the U.S.?

How many people in the U.S. do not have any type of health care?

What are the types of health care available in the U.S.?
There are 7 types of health care available in the U.S.:
*Fee for Service (Indemnity)- Doctors and hospitals are paid by patients who are insured. Either by the patients directly or their insurance companies.
*Managed Care- Insurance companies work with networks of doctors for cost effective treatments.
*Health Maintenance Organization- Like a pre-paid health plan. You pay monthly and sometimes small co-payments
What makes a person eligible for assisted health care?

How many children die a year from not having health care available to them?

Poster Paper

I did a poster for the American Way of Birth, the poster board is the only black one you have.

Reactions To Babies Coming Out Of Mommy's Tummies Draft #2

First off, GROSS!!!! That is definitely on my list of Nastiest Things I've Seen. Now that I have that out of the way I can begin discussing certain things I thought interesting.

In truth, humans are animals. We do a lot of things similar to them and childbirth was one of those things at one point in time. Until all the machines, video cameras, and doctors came into the picture. They took over the natural, peaceful, and beautiful time in a women's life and turned it into this lab experiment in which the women is the guinea pig. Watching these videos shows me the differences and similarities between a women giving birth and an animal giving birth.

The video of the giraffe giving birth was intense. We saw the giraffe walking around in what I'm guessing is an attempt to ease the pain. Humans are also told to do this once they arrive at the hospital because it helps them move along faster with the dialation process. The mother is just pacing around when the baby just plops out onto the floor. We see the fluid and all that released with the baby. She even starts to lick her baby in clean in contrast to a human mother who gives the baby up to the doctors so that she can recover. What I found more interesting is that just like a women giving birth in the hospital, a bunch of strangers were sitting there gawking at this event and then clapping when it came out. They sat there and videotaped something that it suppose to be private and secluded and turned it into this big event in which everyone should see just like a human birth.

Same thing happened with the dolphin. Only she was swimming around which can be seen as an equivalent to walking. I noticed that the fin of the baby came out first. In human births this is uncommon and is called a breech birth when it does happen. The head of the baby comes out first so it can have a fresh breath of air. The baby's first breath is also something that a baby dolphin and a human have in common. They must get that first breath in order to survive. I also noticed that the fluid comes out with the baby unlike in a human birth. In a human birth they must push out the amniotic sac after they are finished pushing the baby. Again I see that we are recording the marvelous moments of birth when that is not the way it was intended.

Now a human birth can be done in many ways. In this case we saw a vaginal birth. With all the doctors, nurses, other patients, and family members and/or loved ones, it can get very crowded. A hospital is alreaady chaotic when a prego about to burst walks in. Once she walks in she has to be given an epideral, starved, dilated, and exposed to about everyone on the floor. All the machines, drugs, and pressure that is put on and into women is just ridiculous. Before these machines came around, women used to still have kids. And then videotaping it for the world to see?! As if the child really wants to see coming out of the mom's belly and all the other things that come out. It amazes me how selfish and dramatic everyone is in a situation like this.

Another form of human birth is a cesarean section. This is when a women's stomach is cut open to release the baby. It is disgusting beyond belief but yet rising in popularity. A lot of women know want to have C-sections for no medical reason. Why would you want your stomach ripped open? I don't know but apparently people now want this. I haven't seen the video on C-sections so I cannot go into details but I can really justa imagine.

Reactions To Babies Coming Out of Mommy's Tummies Draft #1

First off, GROSS!!!! That is definitely on my list of Nastiest Things I've Seen. Now that I have that out of the way I can begin discussing certain things I thought interesting.

In truth, humans are animals. We do a lot of things similar to them and childbirth was one of those things at one point in time. Until all the machines, video cameras, and doctors came into the picture. They took over the natural, peaceful, and beautiful time in a women's life and turned it into this lab experiment in which the women is the guinea pig. Watching these videos shows me the differences and similarities between a women giving birth and an animal giving birth.

The video of the giraffe giving birth was intense. We saw the giraffe walking around in what I'm guessing is an attempt to ease the pain. Humans are also told to do this once they arrive at the hospital because it helps them move along faster with the dialation process. The mother is just pacing around when the baby just plops out onto the floor. We see the fluid and all that released with the baby. She even starts to lick her baby in clean in contrast to a human mother who gives the baby up to the doctors so that she can recover. What I found more interesting is that just like a women giving birth in the hospital, a bunch of strangers were sitting there gawking at this event and then clapping when it came out. They sat there and videotaped something that it suppose to be private and secluded and turned it into this big event in which everyone should see just like a human birth.

Same thing happened with the dolphin. Only she was swimming around which can be seen as an equivalent to walking. I noticed that the fin of the baby came out first. In human births this is uncommon and is called a breech birth when it does happen. The head of the baby comes out first so it can have a fresh breath of air. The baby's first breath is also something that a baby dolphin and a human have in common. They must get that first breath in order to survive. I also noticed that the fluid comes out with the baby unlike in a human birth. In a human birth they must push out the amniotic sac after they are finished pushing the baby. Again I see that we are recording the marvelous moments of birth when that is not the way it was intended.

Curiosity killed the Cat

I chose the following questions to find answers for:

1) What percentage of infants are never born ?

This is every year-

• 1,995,840 pregnancy losses
• 600,000 women experience pregnancy loss through miscarriage
• 1,200,000 women experience pregnancy loss through termination
• 64,000 women experience pregnancy loss through ectopic pregnancy
• 6,000 women experience pregnancy loss through molar pregnancies
• 26,000 women experience pregnancy loss through stillbirth

http://www.americanpregnancy.org/main/statistics.html

2) What are reasons for women to get abortions? What are those statistics?

• Wants to postpone childbearing: 25.5%
• Wants no (more) children: 7.9%
• Cannot afford a baby: 21.3%
• Having a child will disrupt education or job: 10.8%
• Has relationship problem or partner does not want pregnancy: 14.1%
• Too young; parent(s) or other(s) object to pregnancy: 12.2%
• Risk to maternal health: 2.8%
• Risk to fetal health: 3.3%
• Other: 2.1%

http://www.abortiontv.com/Misc/AbortionStatistics.htm#United%20States

3) What is the percentage of teenage pregnancy?

• 468,988 babies are born to teenage mothers each year

http://www.americanpregnancy.org/main/statistics.html

4) How has this percentage changed in the last few years?

• The teenage pregnancy rate among those who ever had intercourse declined 28% between
  1990 and 2002.
• The teenage birthrate in 2002 was 30% lower than the peak rate of 61.8 births per 1,000
  women, reached in 1991.
• Between 1988 and 2000, teenage pregnancy rates declined in every state and in the
  District of Columbia.

http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/2006/09/12/USTPstats.pdf

5) What percentage of teens have abortions?

• Nearly 4 in 10 teen pregnancies end in abortion

http://www.bethany.org/A55798/bethanyWWW.nsf/0/4945A7A54204F6EE85256D1A004E526A

6) What is the percentage of women who die during child labor?

• Every year in the U.S more than 1000
  women die during pregnancy or shortly
  after.

http://health.state.ga.us/pdfs/epi/mch/CSTEPoster2005.pdf

7) How does the abortion process work?

• One procedure used is Dialation and vacuum curettage (suction). It is when they suck the baby out of you. There is also mini-vac aspiration which is done with a hand held syringe to take out what's in the uterine. This procedure is done up to 12 weeks. Surgery used for 12-14 weeks pregnancies is started by inserting a laminaria (dialator). This is used for longer pregnancies because the longer the pregnancy, the more the doctors need to dialate. After enough time has passed the laminaria will be removed and they will use the vacuum curretage to complete the abortion. For a non-surgical abortion there are qualifications. In order to get RU-486 = Mifeprex/Mifepristone (Abortion Pill), you need to be less than 9 weeks from your last period and less than 7 weeks from the time of conception. This pill works by blocking the hormone progesterone, which is needed for a body to keep an early pregnancy. As a result it causes the early pregnancy to detach from the uterine wall. Also used with this is Misoprostol which helps the uterus to contract and the cervix to dialate.

http://safestabortion.com/depoprovera.html

8) What is the percentage of men that get circumcised?

• 30% of men are circumcised worldwide, 68% of which are believed to be Muslims.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumcision

9) How often does the AWOB change? ex(C-Section, Midwife)

10) What percentage of women opt to have fancy sh-mancy birth test?

• Survey of sexually active women ages 18-44 result in 79% using pregnacy tests as soon as they realize they might be pregnant.

http://www.testaccurately.com/newsroom.html

11) Is aboriton frowned upon in other countries or accepted/tolerated similar to how it is in America?

• 60% of the world's people live in countries where abortion is used with a specific reason or not questioned at all.
• 26% of people live in countries where abortions are prohibited.

http://reproductiverights.org/en/document/world-abortion-laws-2008-factsheet

12) What percentage of C-sections are elective?

• Between 2000 and 2001 C-sections jumped 7%
• One in four babies is now delivered by C-section

http://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20030305/c-sections-necessity-choice-issue

13) What percentage of women squat?

14) What is the average age for women to have kids?

• 25.2 years old is the average age to become pregnat for first time mothers says a survey done in 2005.

http://www.babycenter.com/0_17-surprising-facts-about-birth-in-the-united-states_1372273.bc

15) What is the most common form of birth control?

Sidenote.

I found a website that says statistically childbirth is 9 times more dangerous to go through than abortions. Found that interesting.

http://safestabortion.com/surgical.html

Tuesday is the most popular day for babies to be born.

http://www.babycenter.com/0_17-surprising-facts-about-birth-in-the-united-states_1372273.bc

Group Vier/ How pregnancy occurs? Birth Control? Adoptions? Abortions?

These are the following questions Sandy, Sam, Kevin, Francesca, and I came up with:

1. What percentage of women get pregnant on purpose?
2. How available is birth control to people of all ages?
3. What is the percentage of teenage pregnancy?
4. How has this percentage changed in the last few years?
5. What are reasons for an abortion to occur?
6. How do different races compare and contrast in birth rates?
7. What is the average age of pregnancy?
8. What are some reasons for women to place their kids up for adoptions?
9. Is abortion or adoption more traumatizing for a women?
10. What is the most common form of birth control?
11. What percentage of men used condoms?
12. What could be reasons that men choose not to use condoms?
13. What percentage of men take responsibilitly when they get a girl pregnant?
14. How many types of birth control actually work?
15. What types of adoptions are there?
16. What are the most common forms of adoptions?

Amazing Journey Of Life

Mother A starts her pregnancy in her late teens. She works two jobs all through her pregnancy and still attends school. All through her pregnancy she was alone, scared, and troubled. At the time of her water breaking, she felt anxious and scared. "What was it going to be like bringing a child into this world? Could she take care of it? What would happen if she couldn't?" were just osme of the thoughts running through her mind. She went with her boyfriend's mother and uncle to the hospital after her water broke only to be sent back home. She asked the nurses at the hospital "How can you send me back home when a baby is about to pop out of me?" After arguing with the nurses she went back home. Upon arrival at the house her contractions began to be 7 minutes apart so she went back. They put her in a room and gave her ice chips to eat. (Note. Ice chips are disgusting.) When she was 10 centimeters dialated she began to push. The room was crowded with doctors and it was a very long birth. The DOL (duration of labor) was about 15 hours. After the birth she was happy and hopeful. She got to bond with the baby for about 10 minutes before they took it away. It was a natural birth and she was in the lithotomy position. She said it was definitely worth every second of it and that even though it hurt she would repeat the experience again.



Mother B was feelling happy, tired, and emotional all throughout her pregnancy. Although she does not remember all the details from the day of birth, she remembers how much the contractions hurt. The worst part of her pregnancy was the morning sickness and the best part was her child. When I asked her if it was worth all the pain and embarassment she said "It definitley was." She had a natural birth and was in the lithotomy position. Her husband and her doctor and nurse were the only people in the room. She described the atmosphere as calm and relaxing. It helped that her husband was being really supportive and helping her through the contractions and actual birth. The DOL was about 2 hours. She got to hold her son for about 10 minutes after they cleaned him. He was wrapped in that famous hospital blanket that she still has for memories. After the birth she was happy, tired, and feeling emotional again. It kind of shows us that pregnancy is a cycle of feelings.
P.S. She was telling me all of this as she was screaming at her child. I'll let you think what you want about that.



Mother C says that at the beginning of her pregnancy she was overwhelmed with nerves. Towards the middle, she began to feel oversensitive. In the end it was painful and she was "shittin in her pants." Her birth story begins at her cousin's house where she was spending the night. Along with her was her neice who was thrilled and wanted to be with her aunt every step of the way. In the middle of the night she awakens to find herself in a wet bed. Knowing that she did not pee just leaves one possibility, her water broke. She wakens her cousin screaming about having to get to the hospital. Her cousin not having any kids of her own is confused and frantic. They call her sister-in-law to come get her so they can go to the hospital. Now during all this commotion her neice was still deep in sleep. When she arrived at the hospital she was extremely nervous. Her sister-in-law wouldn't let her sit down saying that she would dilate faster if she stood up. In pain and tired of carrying this weight around, she became cranky. When it was time to begin the process of birth, she learned that her doctor was a beginner. Her room was filled with doctors, nurses, and two supportive famly members. It was extremely stressful and embarassing to have so many people staring at her with her legs open. She was in the lithotomy position and it was a natural birth. Her DOL was 11 long hours. The worst part of the pregnancy were her contractions and the best part was getting to hold her child. When asked if it was worth all the pain, she said it definitely was. After all of this she felt depressed, confused, it was a big change (post partum depression). She got to hold him for like 5-10 minutes like Mother A and B.

Other Perspective of Mother C
I got to speak to someone who was in the delivery room of Mother C. She described to me her perspective of the birth and the atmosphere of the room. She stated it was the doctor's first delivery and that the doctor was confused and asking for advice the whole time. The birth went from beautiful to nastyin a matter of seconds. The baby was a nine pound child and the doctor couldn't manuever the baby's head or shoulders out of the vagina. The doctor did not perform an epiziotomy leaving the patient to tear naturally. It was an extremely blotchy birth. Since it was her first time delivering a baby it was also her first time stitching the vagina from the tear. It was extremely nasty and there was much more blood then their needed to be. She said it was very nasty and she wouldn't want to repeat the experience.

Mother D hated being pregnant. She felt miserable but excited at the same time. The experience was more stressful for her due to the fact that she was a high risk pregnancy. She had a brain tumor at the time and was therefore monitored even more than most women. The story of her pregnancy goes like this. She had just come home from Bennigans when she began to feel cramps. She started timing them and they were about 20 minutes apart. She called the doctor and the doctor said when they were about 5 minutes apart, she should head out to the hospital. Mother D replied that she was a high risk pregnancy and did not want to risk it. She went to the hospital and found out that she was dialated 5 centimeters. That is half of the required dialation. The doctor asked her to walk around in order to help move the birth futher along. Mother D walked around for about 2 1/2 hours and then became tired. She went to her room and the nurses broke her water. Due to the amount of screaming pregnant women in the hospital, she became nervous and decided to ask for the epideral which is not recommended when you are 7 centimeters dialated because you are almost done. She relaxed and slept. The doctor came in for one last checkup before she went home and found that Mother D's baby was already crowning. She hadn't felt the contractions because of the epideral. They induced her and had no time to get in gowns. She began to push. Her daughter was born in less than 10 minutes. They let her hold her for about 5 minutes then took her to the nursery to run all those tests. (Note. She was wrapped in a hospital blanket) The mother was not at all happy about the recovery room. It was just a bunch of mothers who had just given birth and "where all dirty and whiny". From there she could not see the baby for another 5 hours but she did get to go home early. She was in the lithotomy postition during the birth. The atmosphere was described as calm and private. Her DOL was 10 hours. The part of her labor that she wished had not happened was when blood was squirted all over the doctor's unmasked face. Can we say embarassing? All in all it was worth all the pain that she went through.
P.S. She was also screaming at her child to clean their room as this interview was in progress.
P.S.S After the baby was born, the tumor started to shrink and then disappeared. Til this day it has not reappeared.

Birth By Yazmin

Birth is a wonderful, amazing process. (I would know. I was born.) Although it hurts the female extremely and it is an awkward situation for some, the results are beautiful. I would like to be financially stable and be married before I have kids, but when I do have them I want a lot. I know it is going to hurt like crazy but my kids will hopefully be worth it. The birth of all my children will hopefully be natural and calm unlike those seen in television.

When having kids, I think people should be completely sure about bringing another life into this world. Having a sturdy relationship and enough money to bring a child into this world are some neccesties but I also think there are other things to think about. For example, why you are having a baby, being mentally stable, and making sure your partner is not some pedophile. Just some things I think should be in your check list when having kids.

Revised Big Paper

Essential Question-What is the American Way of Life?

Thesis
AWOL is an abbreviation for the American Way of Life. Now, one might say that they know what that is, but how can one person's definition be the true meaning to all of America. In order to better understand what the American Way of Life is my class had discussions, asked random people on the street as well as family members, and did multiple stimulations to see if we could get down to the bottom of the traditions and customs that form our lives. My results led me to believe this: The American Way of Life is based on principles that are laid out for us by the Constitution and such documents but not reachable in most circumstances because of the social classes in which we are born into.

Other Perspectives
To better understand certain things, you must of course gather sources and information on the matter. That is exactly what we did. We set out to the streets of New York (well more like 22nd-23rd, 1st ave to Park ave) and asked pedestrians what they thought the American Way of Life was. Now, I wanted to keep variety in people I asked so that I could get a variety of answers but I just couldn't bring myself to stop a girl so these are all men responses. I did however vary in men. I asked capitalist, rich, worker, poor, black, Hispanic, and white (Asians are hard to stop). There responses to me were broad and not well thought out except for this one guy who kept taking forever to answer but, came up with the same answers as the others. From the capitalist, I got the most outrageous response which is how I knew he was a capitalist. First off, I had asked the gentlemen he was with to answer my questions but, he told me he didn't have time and his friend responded "You just go, I'll do it." with a sigh. I brushed it off and immediately wrote down rich. I asked him what he thought the American Way of Life was. He responded it was health, happiness, and freedom. Straight from the Declaration itself. I then asked what he thought were the good and bad aspects of AWOL. He said a good aspect was that we had "the best criminal justice system in all the world". At this point, I was erasing rich and writing capitalist. When he answered to the bad aspects was that I was really appalled. He told me that the bad aspect of the American Way of Life was the TRAFFIC. What?! We are in a recession and this guy thinks traffic's bad? That has capitalism written all over it because evidently he is financially secure enough to talk about traffic when thousands of families are losing their homes everyday because they cannot pay their mortgages. I was in such shock that I just said thank you and walked away.

From the working class, I received more sane answers. they told me that money was the main aspect of the American Way of Life and that corporations are always trying to take it all from the small guys. Some other responses were of course opportunity and freedom. One even said that smoking, drinking, and working were the American Way of Life. Who can deny that this is what a majority of Americans do? So is that what the American Way of Life is? I think not but if this is what people have in their heads then it must play a small part. They didn't really vary in what they said were the bad aspects of AWOL as most said war and related things. This just goes to show that AWOL is based on money, how we can get it, and what we can do with it.

My family has migrated from different parts of the country. I asked my father what it was like when he first came here from Mexico. He replied that it was extremely different. In Mexico it is based more on family values rather than money unlike here in the U.S. He told me his family moved here to live the American dream. Get a good job, make money, and live in happiness. What they found what they got here however was hardship and people that looked down upon them because of their ethnicity. They looked at them as immigrants that only deserved jobs that the regular Americans would not take. Because of their social class being the lowest of all (immigrants from Mexico) they did not get to live the American Dream that many immigrants want to live. Over the years, my family has struggled to work for what they have and although they tried not to Americanize themselves, the changing of generations has forced them too. Today we are seen as Mexican-Americans celebrating both Christmas and Three Kings.

Capitalism
One major aspect that are class studied was capitalism. Capitalism is an economic system in which the goods and services are produced, distributed, and consumed through the mechanism of a free market fixed deeply on the right to private property and the profit motive (says the dictionary). Andy's definition is that capitalism is an economic system in which the overwhelming majority toil for the profit of the tiny minority. In simpler words, "We work, they profit." In AWOL, we went over capitalism and tried to see if this was really the basis of the country we live in. If you think about it, it makes sense. For example, if you work in a clothing store. You work and put in the hours that can get you the type of money you need to survive, while the old, white man who owns the clothing store you work for, is sitting in his Malibu home sipping cocktails. I went into American Apparel (of course Americans must shop there as it is American). There was a very frustrated, opinionated saleswoman who started telling us what working in American Apparel was like. She said that in order to get a job there you must send in a picture of yourself with the application and was telling us how degrading and horrible the job was. My question was if the job was so horrible, why is she still working here? Simple question. She answered me simply with the answer "I do need to live." I was in shock that she would respond this way but in a way a totally understood. What else could she do but stick to the job that degraded her if she wanted to survive?! So here are thousands of Americans represented in this woman. We are not working hard and long for these corporations because we like our jobs, but are doing it so that when we go home we have enough money for the basic utilities. We work until we can no longer stand so that these rich families can go on vacation in Tahiti. However, we cannot do anything about it because that was how the American Way of Life was long ago created.

Critique of Capitalism
Karl Marx was a critic of capitalism. He came up with the ideas of alienation, labor theory of value, crashing capitalism and primitive accumulation of capitalism. The way that people started capitalism is the primitive accumulation of capitalism. Capitalist did this by enslaving, stealing, and genocide. The collecting of more and more capitalism leads to the capitalist of today. Alienation is something that was you but becomes not you. For example, doing something that you had once liked for a capitalism. The labor theory of value means that the source of all wealth comes from labor. Workers make less than the products they are making are worth. The surplus goes to the capitalists who build more capitalism from this money. Crashing capitalism is when the rate of return drops so low that people start to drop out. As people drop out, more people are left without jobs. The unemployement rate grows and in turn leads to a recession. This is the kind of United States we live in now. With so many people losing their jobs it is impossible to live a fulfilling American Way of Life that is promised to us in the Constitution. The Constitution gives us this fake sense of hope that we are able to accomplish many things because we have all these rights. In reality however, if you are not at the top of the economic ladder you do not get the same privileges as those on top.

Constitution
We also took time to go over the government. Stuff like the Constitution and how the powers are divided. This contributes to the American Way of Life because it divides us into our social classes. It is a base line for what is acceptable and what isn't. The government tells us the things we can do and what we can't but they trick us into believing they are doing it because we want them too. We elect our officials who are looking out for our best interest yet they are getting paid thousands with money that can be helping the working classes. This relates to AWOL because again we are working hard just in order to survive but we can't do much about it because after all it is the American Way of Life.

Karl Marx

Karl Marx was an analyst of critiicism. He went to the University of Berlin and became absorbed in Hagel's (one of the most important German philosophers of the time) beliefs. He wrote books about his beliefs and became famous for his ideas. He came up with the theory of base and superstructure, labor theory of value, the dialectic, crashing of capitalism, and alienation.

His theory of base and superstructure was about the basics of capitalism. He said that the most important part of any society was the relationship between the producers and the expropriators. From there we see the superstructure lead to wealth for the capitalist.

The labor theory of value is stating that labor is the source of all wealth. Marx said that capitalists suck the labor out of workers just like vampires suck the blood out of people. A worker works to make a product for a capitalist that ends up being worth more than what they actually work for. The surplus goes to the capitalist which in turn creates more capitalism. An example of this would be if you work at McDonald's. Your job is to make chicken nuggets that cost $1.50. You get $.75 for every order of chicken nuggets you make. The other $.75 go to the owner of that McDonald's. Not only does he get the surplus from your work but also the surplus from your coworkers. With all the money made from you guys he will eventually open another McDonald's and have to hire more people. This becomes capitalism.

The dialectic is the process of becoming. In simpler terms, it means that when you combine something with something else it becomes something greater. This was actually Halo's theory but Marx believed it too. For example, if there is a book club and a writing club. Both clubs read books and write stories according to that author's style. The book club however, doesn't share their stories out loud but discusses the books. The writing club doesn't discuss the books but share the stories. If these two clubs join together they would become a reading and writing club which would be a greater something because they would talk about both the books and the stories.

Crashing of capitalism happens when capitalists can no longer grow their capital. This happens when competitions lowers the rate of return which causes capitalist to have to lower their costs. In order to keep making money the capitalist have to make the workers work harder to make more products. What will happen sooner or later is that there will be too many supplies and not enough profit. When there is not enough profit people start to drop out. People dropping out leads to more people having no jobs. This in turn leads to a recession.

Alienation is when something that was you becomes not you. Like labor. If you are working at a job that yu hate but you are doing it in order to survive, you become alienated from your job. You are doing it because you have to and you having to just benefits the capitalists you are working for because they make money off of you.

Inaguration Day

On January 20, 2009, the United States of America named Barack Obama the first African-American president of the U.S. This was an extremely, important historical event for Americans everywhere. It signifies a new beginning for America as a whole. It opens up doors for minorities and shows them that they can achieve many great things even if they are at the bottom of the human chain when they are born and through their childhood. The Inaguration, also shows a sense of national unity that can be dangerous (as Andy said).

What the Inaguration shows us about the American Way of Life is that it can be altered to change with the coming generations of American citizens but, it cannot be changed entirely. For example, our president is African American now compared to the white presidents we have had in the past, due to the fact that our coming generations are more open minded to change then the past generations. This shows we can handle some change but as President Obama said we will not change it indefinitely. His Inaguration speech speaks much of America as this high power in the world. How we must lead into this and that. For example, he says "America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace." when he is speaking of all the war going on in different parts of the world. You can find the words to the speech at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/obama_inauguration/7840646.stm.
How can we possibly play a role in ushering other countries to peace when we are in a state of chaos as our economy collapses and our men and women die overseas? This shows that Americans are stubborn and want to remain on top of the world no matter what may be going on inside of our country. Politicians want to make us puppets for their little plays of how perfect and well put together America is. To show what I am talking about I chose this passage from his speech. "Know that America is a friend to every nation, and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future with peace and dignity, and we are ready to lead once more." Here we see him acting as if we have it all together when in truth we are falling apart. This also shows us that Americans are determined to not be dominated by a higher power.

The Rest of My Winter Holidays...

Let me continue on about what I did for the holidays. So for New Years, I stayed at home by myself. Kind of sad, I know. It was okay because it was my choice. I've had a rough year so I thought ending it by myself might help the healing process. I came home from work and took a shower, then watched a movie until the ball dropped. I got plenty of phone calls with people asking me if I was okay and making sure that I wasn't committing suicide, I guess. It was quiet and enjoyable. 

I don't think my New Years was an example of a typical American Way of Life. Most Americans went out to parties, drunk, and smoked all night. My evening was quieter and less eventful. I think how other people spent it shows that the American Way of Life involves drinking, partying, and enjoying holiday seasons with their loved ones. My evening may show that there is also a quieter type of American Way of Life because I am sure I wasn't the only American at home alone. It may show that Americans also have a side that includes sensitivity and self-reflection. Although most Americans do not show it, I think that this side does exist.

Big Paper that is going to take forever...

AWOL is an abbreviation for the American Way of Life. Now, one might say that they know what that is, but how can one person's definition be the true meaning to all of America. In order to better understand what the American Way of Life is my class had discussions, asked random people on the street as well as family members, and did multiple stimulations to see if we could get down to the bottom of the traditions and customs that form our lives.



To better understand certain things, you must of course gather sources and information on the matter. That is exactly what we did. We set out to the streets of New York (well more like 22nd-23rd, 1st ave to Park ave) and asked pedestrians what they thought the American Way of Life was. Now, I wanted to keep variety in people I asked so that I could get a variety of answers but I just couldn't bring myself to stop a girl so these are all men responses. I did however vary in men. I asked capitalist, rich, worker, poor, black, hispanic, and white (Asians are hard to stop). There responses to me were broad and not well thought out except for this one guy who kept taking forever to answer but, came up with the same answers as the others. From the capitalist, I got the most outrageous response which is how I knew he was a capitalist. First off, I had asked the gentlemen he was with to answer my questions but, he told me he didn't have time and his friend responded "You just go, I'll do it." with a sigh. I brushed it off and immediately wrote down rich. I asked him what he thought the American Way of Llife was. He responded it was health, happiness, and freedom. Straight from the Declaration itself. I then asked what he thought were the good and bad aspects of AWOL. He said a good aspect was that we had "the best criminal justice system in all the world". At this point, I was erasing rich and writing capitalist. When he answered to the bad aspects was that I was really appalled. He told me that the bad aspect of the American Way of Life was the TRAFFIC. What?! We are in a recession and this guy thinks traffic's bad? That has capitalism written all over it because evidently he is financially secure enough to talk about traffic when thousands of families are losing their homes everyday because they cannot pay their mortgages. I was in such shock that I just said thank you and walked away.



From the working class, I recieved more sane answers. they told me that money was the main aspect of the American Way of Life and that corporations are always trying to take it all from the small guys. Some other responses were of course oppurtunity and freedom. One even said that smoking, drinking, and working were the American Way of Life. Who can deny that this is what a majority of Americans do? So is that what the American Way of Life is? I think not but if this is what people have in their heads then it must play a small part. They didn"t really vary in what they said were the bad aspects of AWOL as most said war and related things. This just goes to show that AWOL is based on money, how we can get it, and what we can do with it.



One major aspect that are class studied was capitalism. Capitalism is an economic system in which the goods and services are procuded, distributed, and consumed through the mechanism of a free market fixed deeply on the right to private property and the profit motive (says the dictionary). Andy's definition is that capitalism is an economic system in which the overwhelming majority toil for the profit of the tiny minority. In simpler words, "We work, they profit." In AWOL, we went over capitalism and tried to see if this was really the basis of the country we live in. If you think about it, it makes sense. For example, if you work in a clothing store. You work and put in the hours that can get you the type of money you need to survive, while the old, white man who owns the clothing store you work for, is sitting in his Malibu home sipping cocktails. I went into American Apparel (of course Americans must shop there as it is American). There was a very frustrated, opinionated saleswoman who started telling us what working in American Apparel was like. She said that in order to get a job there you must send in a picture of yourself with the application and was telling us how degrading and horrible the job was. My question was if the job was so horrble, why is she still working here? Simple question. She answered me simply with the answer "I do need to live." I was in shock that she would respond this way but in a way a totally understood. What else could she do but stick to the job that degraded her if she wanted to survive?! So here are thousands of Americans represented in this woman. We are not working hard and long for these corporations because we like our jobs, but are doing it so that when we go home we have enough money for the basic utilities. We work until we can no longer stand so that these rich families can go on vacation in Tahiti. However, we cannot do anything about it because that was how the American Way of Life was long ago created.



We also took time to go over the government. Stuff like the Constitution and how the powers are divided. This contributes to the American Way of Life because it divides us into our social classes. It is a base line for what is acceptable and what isn't. The government tells us the things we can do and what we can't but they trick us into believing they are doing it because we want them too. We elect our officials who are looking out for our best interest yet they are getting paid thousands with money that can be helping the working classes. This relates to AWOL because again we are working hard just in order to survive but we can't do much about it because after all it is the American Way of Life.

Parte D de La Constitution

Amending the Constitution would be a huge responsibility that is definitely not at the top of my Christmas list. This question could be answered in many different forms and I'm sure it already has been. I don't think that amending the whole Constitutiion would be the answer to all of our problems but here are some suggestions that might help the average citizen and the big legislators maybe find a compromise. One thing that I would amend if I had that power would be how the Constitution refers to African Americans. They use terms such as "indentured servants, 3/5 of slaves". Terms that are extremely offensive and for no reason need to be put in the Constitution as are all equals to each other. I would also change some other terms that may cause people confusion. Like the first three words, "We, the people". We the people who? Who exactly are the people that our founding fathers were talking about? It then goes on to say "of the United States of America" but what exact people are they describing if people like the African Americans and Indians were part of the U.S. and they weren't given those rights that the Constitution insures to it's people. Things like that are what find us confusion and fighting because they are not exactly clear.

I would also use my power to revise Article 4 which is about how states have their own rights and the federal government leaves certain rights up to them. One of these rights I would think is gay marriage. Now it first begins with saying that all the states may make their own rights and that all other states have to abide the other states laws. So say if you are gay and get married in Conneticut, your marriage is legal in California but not honored. What that means I have no idea because if it isn't honored doesn't that make it illegal? The Article then goes on to say that citzens have the same rights everywhere in the U.S. Wouldn't that be contradicting the first Section of Article 4? I would change the wording to not make it so confusing. Say exactly what kind of rights are up to the state and what are the same everywhere.





The tendency of the Constitution is to be fair (but not too fair) and stern. I say this because our beloved founding fathers use the pronciple of the division of powers in order to start the Constitution (after the lovely preamble of course). They make it so that not one branch or people in that branch get too much power and decide to rule the government. I think this was a good idea and our founding fathers did this so that the same thing that happened in England would not happen here. If they had done it for this reason then it would have been completely fair. Now if one looks at it from a negative point of view (like Andy's) they may say they did it so that they could keep the power within the rich and so that nothing would ultimately get done because it has to go through so many stages. If it was done so that this could be accomplished, well then let's be serious, it would not be fair at all to the average citizen. Which is why I say that there are some fair points of views and some that aren't so fair. Another example of this would be how the House of Representatives and Senate are set up. Now the Constitution says that the House of Representatives is more the people's voices because they change so frequently and they are due to population. Why though? Why could it not have just been the Senate where there are two Senators from each state? Wouldn't that have made it easier? That to me is unfair because ultimately the state's with more population usually get more say because they have their number in the H.O.R. and the Senate. Yet it can also be seen as fair because if there are more people living in the bigger states then shouldn't they have more say in what goes on?!

The Constitution is also stern. It does this by making everything in order to change it so difficult which disables you from doing so which then makes it that much more of a powerful document. For example, say you want to amend something. You must propose a bill to the H.O.R. who must then vote on it. When one side has the majority they then vote on it. It goes on to the Senate, who can ignore it or vote on it. From the Senate it goes to the president himself, who then can veto it, pass it to become a law, or ignore it completely. This prolonged task could take months or maybe years to finally make it's way into the "book of laws" (informally speaking). With it taking so long, most people may give up or just forget about it. Which makes it a problem for the average citizen to really get their voice in. Thus, making the Constitution much more vigorous then it actually needs to be. By making it more vigorous it becomes strict and forceful.





How the Constitution relates to the American Way of Life is really quite simple. The Constitution can be seen as the foundation to the American Way of Life. They are both formed around the same beliefs. Beliefs known as freedom, happiness, social classes, and oppurtunity. The Constitution plays into all those but adds the rules that our society must play by. If you don't believe me, just think about the Constitution and how it affects your life. As Andy has said the Constitution does not make the rules that affect your lives it affect the rules that affect your lives. I see this as true because most of us are not directly affected by what requirements there are in order to become a Senator but, we are however limited to the people we can vote for by these requirements.

If you think about common things that people would say when you ask them what the American Way of Life guarantees them it includes oppurtunity. Oppurtunity to work, go to school, and better your future all together. The Constitution gives us these oppurtunities. It makes sure there is no discriminating in race, gender, ethnicity, etc. The 10th amendment gives us the right to an education and because of amendments that abolish slavery and make sure all are treated as equal, we have the oppurtunities to work and get an education. Happiness is also a big answer that people say the American Way of Life guarantees them. You can be happy with your job, the money you are making, the fact that you cannot be denied things (according to the law not certain people) because of race, gender, etc. The Constitution gives us the basis of things to be happy with by making sure that everyone has somewhat of a fair share.

Freedom to certain things are given to us in the 1st amendment. We as Americans believe we have the right to do anything. The Constitution gives us this idea that because "we, the people of the United States..." are the people that run the government we have the right to do as we please. This of course is wrong as murder is illegal but, it's being broad. Social classes are most definitely an important part of the American Way of Life because they determine where you are placed on the human food chain. They are what people look at when they see you, how you are judged, and how you are treated (and I don't care what anyone says this is true). Social classes where developed even further when the Constitution was made because it put these old, white men on top and they decided how the chain formed from there. So take a look at the facts and compare the Constitution with the American Way of Life and eat your results.

Black Friday otra ves...

As custom in the American Way of Life the day after Thanksgiving is a day in which stores have these huge sales and all Americans must go out and buy tons of items that they need and start Christmas shopping. Black Friday for 2009 was cliche in the fact that Americans went out and bought a whole load of new things to satisfy their greedy llittle needs but the sales (if that's what you call them) were ridiculous. Sales were no different then they would have been on a regular day and yet Americans were tricked by the big corporations into thinking that it was this big break for us. As a result of this day I have realized that Americans, from the richest to the poorest, are selfish and need material things to make themselves feel worthy. The poor are very gullible into thinking that corporations care about the struggling that they are going through. Who could blame them though? These big names with these big companies, of course they care. Not. Americans are all looking out for themselves and what is in their best interest. I have learned this from watching tv and seeing it first hand. Can we really blame Americans however? Who else is going to look out for them if not themselves? This is how Americans have been taught to live. This is the American Way of Life. Look out for yourself and buy pretty, shiny things.

Thanksgiving Over Again...

I guess I'll start where I left off. Thanksgiving is a day that Americans spend with their loved ones in this big, joyful, food-filled, celebration. We eat and give thanks to all the blessings that have been recieved and just enjoy this beautiful holiday season. But, when was the last time you stopped and asked how did this beautiful holiday really begin?! Who started? We have all heard the stories about the Pilgrims and the Indians and how they came together that wonderful day. However, my first time hearing what really happened was in Andy"s class. The Indians of course shared their meal with the poor, poor Pilgrims. They had this great meal and celebrated that both races could live happily. Or so they thought. The Pilgrims however were planning on how they could kill the Indians the fastest. Of course they didn"t do it the same day, that would have been rude but shortly after they began killling and spreading diseases so that they could all die off and the wondeful, grateful Pilgrims could have all their land and teach those savages how to live. Now of course me wanting to inform my family of what we were celebrating told my family me new discovery and was quickly shut down by my stepmother who felt offended. I shrugged it off because let"s be real, it wasn"t that serious but this showed me something about Americans. We do not like to be told that what we are doing is wrong. Celebrating what we believe should be up to us because even if it has a horrible meaning, it after all is the American Way of Life to celebrate it. Americans also do not like to be proven wrong, because as my stepmother came up with excuses defending the Pilgrims she became frustrated that I was not agreeing with her. My question is how are Americans celebrating this holiday when it has such a miserable past (for the Indians at least)? Do most Americans know? It dawned on me though that most must not know because they don"t teach us that in first grade when we go over the Mayflower and alll those things. Do teachers see that as a tiny, unimportant detail in American History? Then I realized even though I knew what it meant I still celebrated it. I still ate until I was about to burst. What does this say about Americans. That we are selfish and not at all interested in the horrible past that are Native American friends had to endure. We concentrate on things that will make us happy and deny the things that will take that joy away from us. But then again, we're just living the American Way of Life.