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?