Final Essay

**Please comment Andy**

The American Way of life is the only thing I have lived. I don't know any other way of living so I can't say that I would rather live any other way, but I do see flaws in the way that we live. We are extremely and increasingly ignorant. We place so much faith and parts of ourselves in the system and it's authority figures thinking that they will make everything "all better" instead of fixing it ourselves or fighting for something better for ourselves. We trust the government to solve our economic problems and our pollution problems so we do little to no work to fix it. The government has written in the constitution things that will lead us to believe that we have power in our country, but in reality it gives them the most power and enables them in turn to abuse it.

States can have their own laws as long as they do not contradict the constitution. We can prosecute people as we see fit, but if the government doesn't agree with what we choose they have the power to change it. We have a right to privacy, but we are subjected to random (or rather "RANDOM") police searches and if we refuse, we could be prosecuted. We have freedom of speech, but if we say something against our president or to contradict the country, we are shunned from society and thought of as "Un-American." We are told that we live in a great nation where anything is possible and we have most of the power, but in reality we have little to no power if we don't fight hard for it and we as Americans are to lazy to do so. This in turn lets authority figures like doctors and policemen to violate our privacy and tell us what we need to do instead of letting us decide, but we still think of them as heroes.

Doctors are seen as one of the biggest heroes in our society, but that is only because it's what we are raised to see and believe. We rarely know that doctors will prescribe medication like Pitocin without even asking the mother and this in turn causes the women more pain. AWOB is the only way of birth that we as Americans know and so we go through the process as planned without being told about any alternative ideas. Doctors put women in the most uncomfortable positions in order for them to be in control of the birthing process and in order to be able to tell the mother what to do instead of just letting the mother listen to her body and find what to do herself. Women have had births before in earlier times with less technology and they were fine birthing their child by themselves.

While AWOB sounds horrible, I feel that not all births of course are like this and that not all doctors are "evil." The technology that is used is the only technology on hand and the only thing that the doctors have learned hoe to use. Doctors are taught different methods of helping people and ways that they can best do their job. They want to help the woman the best way they know, but it is not always as effective as one would like to think, but women rarely have any other way to think because they aren't given an alternative choice. If they knew about home birth, it could be possible that they would feel less limitations and restrictions placed on them. Midwives are there to give their mothers options and to know that it is imperative that they follow what their body tells them to do. They know that they don't have to use medication or painkillers and can have a natural, beautiful birth at home.

Women that don't know that they have any alternatives just resort to the "normal and practical" hospital birth that is quick and "easy" and they "know what to expect." Doctors sometimes speed up the process in order to get more patients in and out. They schedule births for when THEY are ready (inducing labor and C-sections) which causes careless mistakes and/or women to get hurt. This makes things much more expensive for the mother and also causes a higher rate of unsafe births (C-sections). Mothers are not the only ones that suffer from these negative aspects of doctors. Any patient can and might suffer especially if they don't have enough money to pay the hospital.

People who can't pay their hospital bills are often times put in a cab and sent to any destination and dumped on the street. Sometimes these people still have open cuts, healing stitches, broken limbs etc. This of course shows us how our authority figures abuse their power, but for some reason these things mainly happen in America. In Europe (France, Denmark etc.) and Canada, people get free health care so these things don't happen to them. They have systems that ensure their people don't fall into poverty. In Denmark, people who are unemployed are paid by the government for a certain amount of time before they find a new job so that they can still afford essentials for survival. Their children go to school for free and if they decide to continue through college, the government pays for college as well. Health benefits and daycare benefits are given to the people of Denmark as well. The Government of Denmark seems to try anything in their power to help their people and they KNOW that they have these benefits.

Americans could possibly get a lot of help as well, but we don't know just how much help we can get because our authority figures who we have placed all our trust in will not show us all of our options. When we know some of our options we see that they are similar to Denmark, but not as helpful. We can get daycare services and food stamps, but rather than supporting us, the government gives us suggestions on places to work and this could be a problem if the person is ineligible for specific work and such. These are all really helpful for people who suffer from poverty, but not if they are not given all of their options.

Americans are known for being ignorant and staying ignorant. We don't always get or look for the information we need to help us better ourselves and therefore we become lazy. It has become such a trend that now we don't even know how our own food is processed and made. We place our trust in the authority or this category (farmers, factory workers etc.) and therefore we know nothing of our own food which is essential to surviving. As I have stated before, There are so many different opinions about what to eat if a person wants to go on a diet that the media can basically control a person's dietary habits. The media tells people what is and is not considered healthy and thus fools people into eating whatever they see fit. Americans worry so much about dieting and how many Carbs they are consuming, but rarely do they ever find out the actual ingredients that are in their food. This leads to people being misinformed about what is and is not healthy and therefore people don't get the nutrition they need. Countries like France and Italy eat healthy and might possibly consume as much as America, but they eat things in moderation and so they are healthier.

In America our conditions for producing food are terrible and they are unknown to us. We have been taught since childhood that cows and chicken are cute animals that live on a farm happy and living their life, but in fact this isn't true. The factory conditions for the animals are terrible, they get hooked up to machines and the cows have their tails cut off and the calfs also get taken away from their mothers and hooked to a machine that will feed them. Not only are these conditions terrible for the animals, but also for the workers. The machines go at a rate that is so fast that the factory workers can become injured. The factories themselves are also sometimes unsanitary. These things show us how ignorant America as a whole is.

If we keep ourselves in this cycle of ignorance and not learn about what is hurting our society, each of these topics will plummet and change our ways of life completely. These are all really drastic points, but they are very valid. There are things that I disagree with and I do think that some of these points are over-exaggerated and that people should be cautious of, but I think all of these people should know this so that they can properly decide for themselves what they think and feel about our world.

Collapse Assignment 2 - Short and Smart

There are people that are aware of our oil and energy problem and that oil is running out, but I wonder how many of these people are actually trying to find a solution. Unlike the people of Easter island, we know that our resources are running out and that we are the reason for this. The people of Easter island didn't know that their trying to please their God and their chief and to "survive" would lead to their demise. But even if they did, I wonder if they would have tried to do anything about it. If they had brought this idea of decreasing resources to their community, would people have followed them or would they have been shut out of their society.

There are scientists and business men who knew that this problem was approaching and now know more that it will happen, but what exactly is being done about it. They are informing people that this will greatly effect our community, but there are those who will constantly deny it which follows our common American ways of living. We deny things will happen to us, because we don't like to think about the negative aspect of things. There are people who are trying to find solutions to our oil problem like liquid coal, but these resources will produce more greenhouse gases and therefore pollute our other resources.

I feel that it could be possible that people know about the problem of oil and low energy, but they feel (like me) what can possibly be done? How can we fix this and what is the point if no one else will fix it with me? These things are restraining Americans from even trying to make a difference. Some people are by buying hybrid cars and such, but in order to stop peak oil we need to use less oil. If our peak oil problem continues, we will have problems like recession, large unemployment, inflation, economic trouble and much much larger problems.

We are not only limiting our oil and energy output, but we are also destroying our land. In order to get to some of the oil, we have to dig up land and use giant machines that pollute our society. This shows us what lengths we are going to in order to find oil, but we cannot find a better way of producing energy (?). This seems strange to me and I wonder if we will ever fix this problem. Other places like Kuwait can produce massive amounts of oil and have it at low prices so why can't we find a way to fix our problem? Saudi Arabia thinks that they can double their oil output and there are people who strongly disagree and think that this is ridiculous and that we cannot trust them, but this feels to me like the only plan we have.

We rely on oil for so much and this is a bad habit to fall into because now people won't believe that something like this could happen. If people keep on brushing issues aside how can we possibly fix this problem? We need to find a new thing to rely on or else we can't possibly sustain our way of life.

Collapse Assignment 1

Easter island was described as a culture with little to no "technology" of any kind yet they still seemed like a fairly civilized community. They were able to build statues and find food and make a living for themselves and their family without the many mechanical aids we have in our society today. It is interesting to me that this society relates to ours in the sense that we (although having some tools) didn't have the amount of technology that we do today and we still managed to be a fully functioning and working community. The people of Easter island created all the forms of technology that they might need and therefore were successful, in the beginning.

The people of Easter island began to become more and more industrialized and also started to domesticate animals and this is when everything in their community started to collapse. The more they felt the need to industrialize, the more resources were being used and wasted. They felt obligated to make their chief happy and in turn their God and in order to do so, they built giant statues which destroyed nature and their resources. The need to fulfill culture and religious "obligations" seemed to be greater than the need to preserve what these people needed to survive. None of the residents of Easter island realized that they were going to run out of resources. This, plus epidemics and kidnappings that lead to slavery all contributed to the loss of this society as a whole, but I personally believe it all stemmed from the waste of resources.

Americans, I feel are in a similar situation. People in America before us have worked hard to create a life for us to have now and as time goes by, we slowly use all of these resources given to us and they will slowly decline. We use fossil fuels which will not only become obsolete, but also pollute the land which in turn helps in the pollution of all of our other resources. If Americans continue to use these same methods, we might end up like the people of Easter island.

Final Food Assignment

In the story by James Agree, I feel that the mother can be easily connected to the people of America. In some sense, she was in denial of what happened when the cows were loaded into the train car and taken away. She was reluctant to tell her children the story of what happens to the other cows and she doesn't want to believe it happens herself so she ignores it and tries to tell her children to live their normal lives. Americans remain ignorant as to how their food is made and some would rather keep it this way. Other people know what goes on with their food, but decide to pretend it doesn't happen and ignore the fact that there are bad conditions in factories and that there are health hazards and all just so that these factories will be efficient. This ignorance and reluctancy to believe what actually happens leads people to create imaginary, ideal farms and ways of getting food that they then pass onto their children. Americans teach their children that industrialized food is the only way to obtain nourishment and then they think that farm like is the coolest thing they've ever seen. They don't know that farms are based off of fossil fuels or that the giant machines that they think are so cool, actually pollute the earth or cause soil to be unhealthy for growing other plants. They also don't know about the pesticides used that sometimes harm the food and the fact that some of the foods when picked are thrown on the ground to be sorted. The vegetables are not the only thing that people ignore the negatives of.

In factories where cattle are made into beef and pig are turned into pork and etc, the animals are kept in crowded pens and are mistreated as we saw in the "Meatrix" video. The cows tails are cut off and attached to machines to be milked. The babies are taken away from their mothers and also attached to machines that will feed them. After the cows are killed and in the actual factory, the workers work on conveyer belts that at times get so busy that they can lose fingers trying to cut the meat or hurt themselves in other ways. The blood and feces that drips off of the dead carcasses of the cattle, lad on other meats that are already ready to be packaged and this is also a medical hazard. I believe that things like this do happen and that the conditions for animals and workers are bad, but I feel that "The Meatrix" video over exaggerates things to make its point. Yes, these conditions are terrible and they do exist, but people are not purposefully trying to harm their workers and people are not trying to ignore the medical aspects that negatively effect society. People are poorly informed about the aspects of society that make us sick or harm us. Of course there are people in the world that try and only think about efficiency, but they (I believe) do not make up most of the population of factory owners. We also must keep in mind that there are inspectors whose job it is to check these factories and make sure they are up to code and clean. Of course like every job, there are people in this profession who do a bad job, but nothing is perfect. I also think another possibility for this "Meatrix" video is that people watch it because it is targeted to fans of a specific movie and they watch it because they want to see the similarities and differences in the movie and the "Parody." This being said, I think that people watching this video either some insight into food and how its made or get nothing at all. They laugh because of the jokes and they like the irony of the movies being the same. I personally didn't think differently about my food, i just eat the same as usual. This video is just another thing that Americans will watch and ignore the true meaning behind it. We are already know and are used to our food ways and I think few people are willing to change.

People maybe unwilling to change, but there are also people who care too much about what they eat. In the book "Omnivore's Dilemma" Pollan addresses this issue. I agree with Pollan 's argument becuase I feel like Americans pay so much attention to what they eat and that they care so much about carbs and what not, but not as much about what exactly is in the food. The constant need to check the percentage of carbs and fat and such drives people to read "proffesional's advice." There are so many different opinions about what to eat if a person wants to go on a diet that the media can basically control a person's dietary habbits. The media tells people what is and is not considered healthy and thus fools people into eating whatever they see fit. Americans worry so much about dieting and how many carbs they are consumng, but rarely do they ever find out the actual ingrdients that are in their food. This leads to people being misinformed about what is and is not healthy and therefore people don't get the nutrition they need. Countries like France and Italy eat healthy and might possibly consume as much as America, but they eat things in moderation and so they are healthier. In my family we don't ever follow what anyone considers healthy. We eat everything and anything we want, but as mentioned before, we eat everything in moderation. My mom usually cooks and she cooks healthy foods and then we snack on whatever we want. My family goes to the grocery store a lot considering the fact that we are a very hungry family of 5. When I go to the grocery store with my parents, I never really realized the marketing in a grocery store was so well thought out. When I went by myself, I noticed that on the higher levels (on about Kevin's level) there was the "Hungry Man feasts" that were frozen dinners advertised for men. On my level, I noticed that there was the "Kid Cuizine" and things advertised for younger kids. The same applied for the cereals. Again on Kevin's level, there was the "healthier" cereals and on my level, there were the cereals that came with prizes in the boxes and the junky cereals to market to kids. This is an interesting strategy because I notice that kids can see these things more easily and therefore want to ask for more from their parents. My family tries to eat as healthy as possible and to ensure this, my mother doesn't take us with her grocery shopping so we don't all get sidetracked. She asks us what we want before she leaves the house and then she goes to the store and gets what she needs to. My mom has always taught me everything is good in moderation. She allowed me to have things that I wanted to, but she taught me to have those things little by little and ever since I was a kid I just always really liked healthy fruits and vegetables so I never really had a problem with eating healthy. My younger sister is the same way, but my middle sister is so different which is weird because we were all raised the same way, yet she eats so much junk and she doesn't realize how bad it is for her even when her doctor says that she is not healthy and needs to start eating healthier. I think this just goes to show that it doesn't matter how you were raised, if a child decides to change their habits, they will and they'll do whatever they want.

Not only are food habits changed, but culture of food is changed as well. My family always eats together at the dinning room table. My mother insists on us eating as a family because we are all so busy that we rarely have time for each other. My mom makes dinner and my dad helps a lot of the time or they take turns cooking each night. At dinner we always talk about what went on in our day or what our plans are for the rest of the week. I feel that on T.V. and in the media, they send out two different messages about food and they way we eat. A lot of T.V. shows portray the same method of eating as a family bonding point in the day. People come together during meals to share their experiences and socialize, but another message that they send is that eating in a living room with T.V. trays and not really getting to know the other people at all.
I also noticed that people in America eat without even thinking. They eat at random times in the day and don't take much account for what exactly they put into their bodies. I follow this trend myself. Eating is a very common ritual that everyone follows for a number of different reasons. I find that people eat when they are sad and when there's nothing to do. We use food as a time for togetherness and when friends or family get together, they use food to bring each other together. No matter what culture or ethnic background I feel that food is important to bring people together.
I feel that in bringing people together with food, America has tried to bring other cultures into our world, but I feel that in doing so we have changed food to fit our unhealthy lifestyle. We have Americanized a lot of the food that we now have in our society and I feel that America's food is based off of 2 things. There is 1 extreme that is the unhealthy, fatty artificial foods. These people are the people that don't really care what they eat wether they are fat or not. They don't think about what they eat and just eat whenever they feel like. The 2nd extreme is when people obsess about what they eat and how many calories they consume or if what they eat in the day is healthy. Those who try to break away from the normal nonchalance of the American culture and try to create a "healthier" and different lifestyle for themselves are not really being to original or different. They are in fact falling into the other common group in America of those who are constantly watching what they eat or those who are vegetarian.
I think it’s interesting to go to other “cultural” restaurants that America has changed. I went to a Spanish restaurant called Sofrito. In this restaurant, there are actual Spanish dishes and music from South America and Puerto Rico and not Reggeton. There was also art all over the wall from Spanish artists. I think this was interesting to have because usually we only have Americanized Spanish foods and in this restaurant, they decided to bring their culture to America. The menu was also in Spanish which was interesting to see the actual names of all the food and to translate it in English and see the differences. Although this restaurant was Spanish based, there was still a small Americanized aspect of it. When someone was there on their birthday (like all American restaurants) they sang happy birthday. Even though they sang it in English and Spanish, I still felt like it was a very American thing to do in a restaurant and it snuck its way into the Spanish restaurant. When I looked up the answer to this question, I noticed that there is no real defined "American Food." Recipes came up for different French recipes and Mexican recipes. When I actually did find something that was "American Food," it was really not anything healthy. Reading an article called "10 foods that make America great" the author writes "Hamburgers. Apple pie. Potato chips. Foods that helped shape our nation." I really hate to think that these foods are what "shaped our nation" because I see this as an overdramatic statement that is really pathetic to think of. It is also pathetic to think that other countries have foods that are considered an art to make and are prepared carefully and with as much perfection as possible. Other cultures also have many spices and seasonings that they add and we as Americans have hamburgers and potato chips. Our food is simple and in a sense stolen from other cultures and we don't have our own cultural food. Our food is not our own and whenever we do adapt food from other cultures, we Americanize it and make it our own unhealthy version of what was an art.

Food # 8 - Industrial Food

I believe that things like this do happen and that the conditions for animals and workers are bad, but I feel that the videos (The Meatrix) over exaggerate things to make their point. Yes, these conditions are terrible and they do exist, but people are not purposefully trying to harm their workers and people are not trying to ignore the medical aspects that negatively effect society. People are poorly informed about the aspects of society that make us sick or harm us. Of course there are people in the world that try and only think about efficiency, but they (I believe) do not make up most of the population of factory owners. We also must keep in mind that there are inspectors whose job it is to check these factories and make sure they are up to code and clean. Of course like every job, there are people in this profession who do a bad job, but nothing is perfect. I also think another possibility for this "Meatrix" video is that people watch it because it is targeted to fans of a specific movie and they watch it because they want to see the similarities and differences in the movie and the "Parody." This being said, I think that people watching this video either some insight into food and how its made or get nothing at all. They laugh because of the jokes and they like the irony of the movies being the same. I personally didn't think differently about my food, i just eat the same as usual. This video is just another thing that Americans will watch and ignore the true meaning behind it. We are already know and are used to our food ways and I think few people are willing to change.

Food # 6 - Response to Pollan 1

I agree with Pollan 's argument becuase I feel like Americans pay so much attention to what they eat and that they care so much about carbs and what not, but not as much about what exactly is in the food. The constant need to check the percentage of carbs and fat and such drives people to read "proffesional's advice." There are so many different opinions about what to eat if a person wants to go on a diet that the media can basically control a person's dietary habbits. The media tells people what is and is not considered healthy and thus fools people into eating whatever they see fit. Americans worry so much about dieting and how many carbs they are consumng, but rarely do they ever find out the actual ingrdients that are in their food. This leads to people being misinformed about what is and is not healthy and therefore people don't get the nutrition they need. Countries like France and Italy eat healthy and might possibly consume as much as America, but they eat things in moderation and so they are healthier. In my family we don't ever follow what anyone considers healthy. We eat everything and anything we want, but as mentioned before, we eat everything in moderation. My mom usually cooks and she cooks healthy foods and then we snack on whatever we want.

Grocery Store and Habitual Foods

What I eat:

Fruits:
-Cucumbers
-Tomatoes
-Apples
-Grapes
-Watermelons
-Pears
-Peaches
-Raspberries
-Cherries

Vegetables:
-Broccoli
-Strawberries
-Carrots
-Corn
-Bean Sprouts
-Potatoes

Grains and Roots:
-Rice
-Peanuts
-Garlic
-Red Beans

My family goes to the grocery store a lot considering the fat that we are a very hungry family of 5. When I go to the grocery store with my parents, I never really realized the marketing in a grocery store was so well thought out. When I went by myself, I noticed that on the higher levels (on about Kevin's level) there was the "Hungry Man feasts" that were frozen dinners advertised for men. On my level, I noticed that there was the "Kid Cuizine" and things advertised for younger kids. The same applied for the cereals. Again on Kevin's level, there was the "healthier" cereals and on my level, there were the cereals that came with prizes in the boxes and the junky cereals to market to kids. This is an interesting strategy because I notice that kids can see these things more easily and therefore want to ask for more from their parents. My family tries to eat as healthy as possible and to ensure this, my mother doesn't take us with her grocery shopping so we don't all get sidetracked. She asks us what we want before she leaves the house and then she goes to the store and gets what she needs to. My mom has always taught me everything is good in moderation. She allowed me to have things that I wanted to, but she taught me to have those things little by little and ever since I was a kid I just always really liked healthy fruits and vegetables so I never really had a problem with eating healthy. My younger sister is the same way, but my middle sister is so different which is weird because we were all raised the same way, yet she eats so much junk and she doesn't realize how bad it is for her even when her doctor says that she is not healthy and needs to start eating healthier. I think this just goes to show that it doesn't matter how you were raised, if a child decides to change their habits, they will and they'll do whatever they want.

May Day Response

May Day is also known as national workers day. It is to celebrate the struggle of the working class over the years and is celebrated all over the world. In different countries, such as Greece and England, there are festivals held and May Day is celebrated like many other holidays, but not so much as in America. We acknowledge this holiday exists, but we don't really celebrate it. It used to be that Americans would make May Day baskets and leave them on someone's door step. They would then ring the doorbell and run away. This is the only way that early settlers celebrated May Day. Now, Americans don't really celebrate May Day. It is semi-ignored in our society. Us not celebrating May Day is another example of how Americans ignore important parts of society.
Americans are so wrapped up in their own lives that they don't appreciate those who work and have worked hard to keep our country running smoothly. People have worked really hard in every job that they have no matter how small and have struggled. Americans think nothing of those who have worked hard to help our community and just brush it off because they see workers everyday. Because these people are seen everyday, no one acknowledges what they do for society because it seems like their jobs are just done and no one appreciates what we have and what would happen if these jobs were not completed. May Day is also a form of communism and socialism. Americans of course were always taught that communism and socialism were a source of evil so of course this holiday would be forgotten by a society that was brainwashed into thinking communism was evil. Americans don't want to give other forms of ruling a country a chance. This makes us ignorant to the rest of the world.
Another point is my constant mention that America is known for stealing other cultures' holidays and traditions. America goes to other countries, takes over and at the same time steals traditions and makes those traditions our own like with food. Yet after we "stole" this holiday, we didn't pay it any mind after a while. Once we realized what is stood for, we ignored it because it wasn't part of our beliefs as "The Great Nation of America." This shows that Americans are lazy and never want to do things on their own, but when we do have a tradition we change it or ignore it to fit the American standard.

Food #4 Food Journal

Tuesday Night:
-Broccoli and Cheddar Noodles
- Grilled Chicken
-Peas and Carrots
-Diet Soda
-Root Beer Float
My family ate dinner together again and we ate for about 30 min. because my sister and I were in a rush to get to rehearsal. My mom cooked the meal and my dad helped by cooking the veggies. We are not allowed to watch T.V. or text at the table and of course whenever we try to text at the table we get in trouble. We all were made to wash our hands before dinner and we used forks. We all talked about our day and what happened. We talked about funny things that happened or memories we have. Before I ate, I was really really hungry and all I could think about was I cant wait to eat. Then while we were eating, I was thinking that I was really glad to be eating my favorite noodles, but I wished that I had more time to stay home and eat, but I had to leave. After eating dinner, I was still hungry but I didn't have time to eat anymore and by the time I got home, I wasn't that hungry anymore. Then when I came home, I had a root beer float and I had been craving it all day so when I finally had it I was really glad and I couldn't wait to taste it. After, I felt just tired because I had been filled from my eating.

Thursday:
-Corn Pops
-Bacon Cheese Burger
-Pepsi
-Chicken Wings
-Plantains
-Yellow rice and Sausages
-Watermelon
I got a bowl of Corn Pops this morning and I was so hungry. I put it in a bowl all by myself and used a spoon to eat it. All I was thinking before I ate was that I wish I could stay home and eat Corn Pops all day and sleep. After I ate my corn pops I was still hungry and I was still tired so I forced myself to get out of bed and get ready for school. When I got to school, during class all I could think of was what I was going to eat for lunch because I was still really hungry. Finally I had a bacon cheese burger and a pepsi and while I was eating it I was thinking about how happy I was to be eating it. I watched the guys in the corner store make it so I know it was ok. I ate lunch with my best friend Arianna and we talked about our memories and stories about my boyfriend and her girlfriend. After I ate, I was full and I wanted to go home. After my soccer game I was starving again and I rushed home to eat chicken wings, plantains and yellow rice with plantains. My mom cooked and we used forks. Before I ate it, I thought the same thing as the night before: I wish I could have enough time to stay home and eat more. During the meal, we had the same topics of conversation like soccer and other things that went on through out the day. While I was eating I was thinking about how I wished I could be eating the noodles I ate the day before. I also didn't really like the chicken wings, but I ate them anyway because I was really really hungry. After I ate, I was still hungry, but I had to rush to rehearsal. After rehearsal, I ate some watermelon and I was really happy because they're my favorite fruit. I was really happy that it was juicy and I felt full and sloshy afterwards.

Food #3 Food Cultures

My family always eats together at the dinning room table. My mother insists on us eating as a family because we are all so busy that we rarely have time for each other. My mom makes dinner and my dad helps a lot of the time or they take turns cooking each night. At dinner we always talk about what went on in our day or what our plans are for the rest of the week. I feel that on T.V. and in the media, they send out two different messages about food and they way we eat. A lot of T.V. shows portray the same method of eating as a family bonding point in the day. People come together during meals to share their experiences and socialize, but another message that they send is that eating in a living room with T.V. trays and not really getting to know the other people at all.
I also noticed that people in America eat without even thinking. They eat at random times in the day and don't take much account for what exactly they put into their bodies. I follow this trend myself. Eating is a very common ritual that everyone follows for a number of different reasons. I find that people eat when they are sad and when there's nothing to do. We use food as a time for togetherness and when friends or family get together, they use food to bring each other together. No matter what culture or ethnic background I feel that food is important to bring people together.
I feel that in bringing people together with food, America has tried to bring other cultures into our world, but I feel that in doing so we have changed food to fit our unhealthy lifestyle. We have Americanized a lot of the food that we now have in our society and I feel that America's food is based off of 2 things. There is 1 extreme that is the unhealthy, fatty artificial foods. These people are the people that don't really care what they eat wether they are fat or not. They don't think about what they eat and just eat whenever they feel like. The 2nd extreme is when people obsess about what they eat and how many calories they consume or if what they eat in the day is healthy. Those who try to break away from the normal nonchalance of the American culture and try to create a "healthier" and different lifestyle for themselves are not really being to original or different. They are in fact falling into the other common group in America of those who are constantly watching what they eat or those who are vegetarian.
I think it’s interesting to go to other “cultural” restaurants that America has changed. I went to a Spanish restaurant called Sofrito. In this restaurant, there are actual Spanish dishes and music from South America and Puerto Rico and not Reggeton. There was also art all over the wall from Spanish artists. I think this was interesting to have because usually we only have Americanized Spanish foods and in this restaurant, they decided to bring their culture to America. The menu was also in Spanish which was interesting to see the actual names of all the food and to translate it in English and see the differences. Although this restaurant was Spanish based, there was still a small Americanized aspect of it. When someone was there on their birthday (like all American restaurants) they sang happy birthday. Even though they sang it in English and Spanish, I still felt like it was a very American thing to do in a restaurant and it snuck its way into the Spanish restaurant.

Food #2 What Constitutes as "American Food"?

When I looked up the answer to this question, I noticed that there is no real defined "American Food." Recipes came up for different French recipes and Mexican recipes. When I actually did find something that was "American Food," it was really not anything healthy. Reading an article called "10 foods that make America great" the author writes "Hamburgers. Apple pie. Potato chips. Foods that helped shape our nation." I really hate to think that these foods are what "shaped our nation" because I see this as an overdramatic statement that is really pathetic to think of. It is also pathetic to think that other countries have foods that are considered an art to make and are prepared carefully and with as much perfection as possible. Other cultures also have many spices and seasonings that they add and we as Americans have hamburgers and potato chips. Our food is simple and in a sense stolen from other cultures and we don't have our own cultural food. Our food is not our own and whenever we do adapt food from other cultures, we Americanize it and make it our own unhealthy version of what was an art.

My Fridge

-Apples
-2 bottles of diet soda
-Pink lemonade
-Butter
-Jelly
-Salad dressing
-Tomatoes
-Capri Suns
-Various Vegetables
-Grapes
-Pickles
-Cold cuts
-Mayo
-Mustard
-Cream Cheese

I think my fridge is a typical "American" fridge. My family tries to eat healthy and tries to eat together. My mom makes my sister a sandwich everyday for lunch which I think is a pretty typical thing to do for an elementary school child. This shows me how much meat Americans actually consume. I also feel that Americans try and eat healthy, but end up just forgetting their "commitment" because I am really the only one in my family who eats the fruit. My mom buys a lot of it, but no one else really eats it and they eat other less healthy things. I think that Americans really don't care what they eat, they just care if it tastes good and if it'll help them to not be hungry because that's personally all I care about.

Health Care Paper

Health care in America is far from perfect. Based on the Information we learned in class, I conclude that our society is based on the priorities of those in power. Those who have the most money and most authority create the laws of our society and none of us really realize it. There are those people who realize what the government is doing and try and regain some form of power by means of populism (uniting people under the same topic to fight for an idea). People like Michael Moore feel the urge to unite people based on their needs for health care and the fact that it is so much better in many other circumstances. For example in Cuba, the doctors treat their patients with a lot more care than American doctors do. It was shown in that in America, people who cannot pay in hospitals are put into a taxi and taken wherever the doctor decides to send them. Often times the patients are not fully conscious or aware of what is going on and therefore have no idea where they are or where they are going. In an interview, Michael Moore discovered that sometimes patients are kicked out of hospitals with IV's still in their arms and in one particular case a woman still had unhealed stitches and broken bones when she was kicked out of the hospital.

This problem lives on while in Cuba, there is a pharmacy and/or hospital available on almost every block. The medication prescribed to Cuba's patients is much less expensive than the exact same medication would be were it have been bought in America. Moore talks about how people have problems with health care such as the 9/11 workers who now have lung problems and other physical and mental issues. These people have health care, but they are having difficulty paying for the doctors and the treatment they need or receiving approval for care from the doctors and health insurance companies. One of the woman that Moore brought with him to Cuba had extreme lung problems where she had a terrible cough and extremely inflamed lungs. In order to reduce inflammation and the overall status of her lungs, she had to purchase a certain asthma pump that would help to heal her lungs. In America she had had to pay around $120 per pump where as in Cuba she only had to pay 5 cents a pump. This was an extremely upsetting fact for the woman because she didn't understand why in a country that was supposed to be America's enemy, she was receiving better care than her own country would provide for her.

When we look at how the wealth is split in this country, we may be able to understand why there is such a difference in medication. For example, our simulation of wealth using chairs.When playing musical chairs, i feel that it was a little easier to understand what poverty is like. The 1st version of musical chairs was a normal version of musical chairs and although just a game, it gave me the perspective that in America, people have to fight each other to get what they need to survive. When they needed to get to a chair quickly, people would do anything possible to get to the chairs such as jump over them or push people out of the way in order to fend for themselves. This signifies how in the work place or in life in general, we have a system where the strong and "cunning" people who know how to play dirty and manipulate will prosper. Some people were very into the game, but they wanted to be sure they didn't hurt anyone by pushing them out of the way and even some of those people knew that they could not fight certain people for a seat because they would lose. This, to me, signifies how some people in the workplace try to play fair and worry about the well-being of others and this of course led them to get stepped on and thrown out of the game which can only tell us that niceties and fairness can only get you so far in America which turns out to be not that far at all. The last category of people were the people who were just too tired to take part in the game. These people either sat on the sides and watched or played the game, but walked really slowly around the circle and when it came to finding a seat, they would walk to the nearest seat and if they couldn't find one then they would just sit out. This represented those in America who are too lazy or just don't see the point in working so they give up which eventually leads to poverty. This isn't always the case of course. There are always people who are hurt and can't work or too old or something, but in this case we just had lazy people because no one was hurt or too old to play the game. Yet there are people who in the beginning of the game tried to say "my leg hurts" or "I cant play I'm sick" which then gives us an example of those who pretend to be sick in order to not do any work which happens a lot in America.

While playing the second simulation of musical chairs, people started playing like normal, but then we started to see a change when it came to our classmates owning the chairs. Everyone was playing like normal and then some people started to own chairs and the students who were in the "owned" chairs got kicked out of the game. As the amount of owned chairs increased, the people playing decreased. There were a few ways that people stopped playing the game. Some people tried really hard to stay in the game and get empty chairs which led to these few people fighting over the spots and those who played "dirtier" were able to get a chair and those who were fair and played to everyone's benefit got kicked out because they couldn't keep up with those around them. Once people understood how the game worked, there were people who just decided there was no point in trying because they knew that in the end, the owners of the chairs would just take them away. The people who knew they owned chairs walked around without a care and knew that they were safe and wouldn't have to worry about fighting anyone for a chair. It was to the point where some of the people walked around the circle texting and walking slowly because they knew that they wouldn't have to fight anyone because they owned so many chairs. In the end though, no one could win because the people who owned chairs would never give them up and there was never 1 chair left because all the owners of the chairs would always be able to sit.

Thinking about this, we can relate it to America perfectly. In terms of people giving up on the game, we see in America all the time how we just feel defeated and give up. We see things that are corrupt about our government and people and laws yet many of us just sit down and say this is our world there's nothing we can do to change it because what authority says goes. So we all just sit back and let those in power make living conditions worse for us because they don't know what it's like and frankly I feel they don't really care. They know that they have enough to support themselves and whatever family they have that they need to care for and that's it. We as Americans feel angry and upset, but we sit back and say there's nothing we can do and so nothing will ever get changed. The people who are on top and own everything sit back and don't do much because they know they don't have to and they let the "lesser people" fight over wealth and such. Those who see how the game is played give up and then if conditions are as bad as they truly seem end up in poverty. Yet there are those who see how the game is played and decide to try and fight the system. These people see those in charge and fight all they can to try and have conditions changed and sometimes it works and sometimes not.

From all of this information I can see that there is a valid argument in saying that there aren't enough chairs because it is true that there aren't and this isn't poor people's part because wealth is a lot of times inherited or stolen, but there are also ways to create your own wealth and it is hard, but it is the fault of those who don't even try that they are poor. If I think about the other chair simulation, I can see how the wealth is not evenly distributed. 1 person had a lot of chairs and then further down the line, the amount of chairs that people owned git significantly lower. Some people had to share chairs. Then towards the end of the line, people were piled up on 2-.5 chairs. On the last chair they were only allowed half of the chair yet there were still a lot of people for that half a chair. This signified how little wealth there is for the poorer people to share and this isn't the poor people's fault, but if they don't fight for it then it becomes there fault.

Amanda did an interesting thing that could be seen as a poor person fighting for wealth. When Andy was sitting across 4 chairs and he got up to talk, Amanda said "this is bullshit I'm gonna be the rich person" and took his chairs. Although it is NEVER this easy in real life, her actions were valid. When Andy got careless and left his chairs, Amanda took over which is essentially what happens a lot in our society even if it's not between the two extremes of really really rich and really really poor. Americans steal and fight their way to better possessions except for when it really matters because those people who were a lot more poor than Amanda didn't think to steal anyone else's chair. This makes it people's fault that they are poor.

Here we see that there isn't much wealth to split and those who have the wealth don't really pay attention to others to help them. Yet for some reason in other countries such as Denmark, their programs are a lot better and they actually want to help their people. America's welfare system is set up in a way in which people can get a lot of help, but the problem with this is that they don't always get every benefit they can have. People can go to the welfare office, go to the website or call in and speak with someone about their situation. They answer a series of questions such as where do you live, do you have a child, where do you work etc. Based on these answers, people are given a list of benefits they are eligible to receive. There are programs that enable people who are looking for a job to find work in various places to get them started. There are also benefits that allow single parents who have no one to help them care for their child find day care centers or send people to care for the child at the families home. Food stamps can help those on a tight budget. Not only does America have the welfare system, but we pay taxes. Americans pay taxes on clothes, food and annual taxes as well. These taxes depend on the income of the family and the amount of children a family might have. There are also health care benefits and social security etc. (to tell the truth I honestly know nothing about taxes and such).

In Denmark, there are some differences. Children go to school until about 10th grade and if they decide to continue school, they get paid to go to school (college) instead of paying to go to school. All education is free unless people decide to go to a private school. They also have specific cards that are given to people so they can show it to officials and those people don't have to pay taxes. The government helps their people as much as they can. There are health care benefits and daycare benefits where people can come to the families house and care for the children. Should a person be fired from their job, they would be given money by the government in order to help them live and get the essentials they need to survive. It seems to me that in Denmark, they try their hardest to make sure their people do not end up in poverty and homeless. The kids that spoke to us told us that there weren't that many poor people in Denmark and poverty wasn't big and those who did suffer from poverty were given a lot of help and it was not as visible as it is in New York.

In terms of having a "working" tax system, I think that a mixture of our system and the system in Denmark would work to benefit for everyone. If the government took care of its people like Denmark's government then we would have a better chance of decreasing the poverty rate, but I also think that it would be important to make the rich people pay more taxes than the poor people which we don't really do right now in America, but we do pay taxes. Taxes are good because it can help the government and the state, but I think if people are really poor then they should pay less taxes.

Break Homework

Our families experience with health care is currently a good one. But a few years back we had some problems. In the beginning, my mother and father had 2 separate health insurance policies because of both of their jobs, but my mother had several miscarriages and therefore some problems. Eventually she got pregnant with me and had to stop working in order to take care of herself and insure the safety of her baby. This caused a problem because she then lost her health insurance coverage from her job and the only had 1 health insurance plan. My father's health care plan was a union health care fund which at the time meant they could go through the union's clinics which were extremely far or they could pay at a doctor of their choice out of pocket and then submit for reimbursement. It would then be reviewed and the union would say how much they thought the visit was worth. This was a disadvantage because the union's fee scales seemed to be outdated and current fees were very much above what they were offering. They only offered a certain percentage of what the visit was actually worth. The doctors discovered my mother was high risk and said that she needed more care then what she was being offered. It was estimated that her pregnancy and birthing process would cost her $6,000 - $8,000 when the union was only willing to pay $1,200 - $1,900. They got lucky and found that there was a clinic in New York hospital that would accept whatever the union paid them and would give them the best possible treatment as long as they were willing to see a different doctor at each visit. Because they had miscarriages, my mother was considered a high risk case and therefor had to have many specialist work with her to find what was wrong. They paid for nearly everything however it still costs them $6,500 or more and by the time I was born the union coverage was a little better so I was able to see a pediatrician. The only problem was that my parents had to pay for vaccines because the union didn't cover well child care. This meant my parents had to pay for the vaccines out of pocket.

When I was 2 years old my mom was pregnant again and the insurance was a lot better and they only had to pay 20% of the obstetric care. Because she was still high risk, however, it still cost them around $2,000. The good thing was they only had to pay $20 every time they saw a doctor in addition to the $2,000. By now the union started to pay well child care, but they still had to pay 20% of doctor visits. This was better than what they ever had. They dropped the 20% charge when I was about 5, but through this time, my doctor told my family not to worry about payments, because she needed to see us and we needed our vaccines. We had had to stop coming for a while because we couldn't afford the vaccines until our doctor told us she would handle it. A few years later, health care was a lot better and my mother got pregnant again. This time she was under blue cross blue shield and still high risk, but it only cost them $15 a visit and there was no charge for specialists or tests. So they had my sister and by then well child care costs them nothing and sick visits were $10. This was 10 years ago. Presently now that the rates have gone up, we have to pay $15 co-pay as long as we went to a doctor through blue cross blue shield and there is no fee for well child care. Now my mother sees a hematologist and they are very happy to have health insurance because each visit is approximately $3,200 a visit. The insurance negotiates with the doctor's office and they pay approximately $900 - $1,000 a visit and she only has to pay $15 co-pay.

This is different if we compare it to the movie "Sicko" by:Michael Moore. In this movie, Michael Moore talks about people in America who have health care and yet still have problems with their physical illnesses. He talks about how people have problems such as the 9/11 workers who now have lung problems and nightmares. These people have health care, but they are having difficulty paying for the doctors and the treatment they need. There was a women who had a husband who was a fire fighter and he had a serious illness that even though they had health care was hard to treat because the health care company wouldn't okay the necessary treatment. In our case, there really wasn't any problem we were just dealing with the changing times of health care and we got really lucky and had a good health care program.

Understanding of Poverty

When playing musical chairs, i feel that it was a little easier to understand what poverty is like. The 1st version of musical chairs was a normal version of musical chairs and although just a game, it gave me the perspective that in America, people have to fight each other to get what they need to survive. When they needed to get to a chair quickly, people would do anything possible to get to the chairs such as jump over them or push people out of the way in order to fend for themselves. This signifies how in the work place or in life in general, we have a system where the strong and "cunning" people who know how to play dirty and manipulate will prosper. Some people were very into the game, but they wanted to be sure they didn't hurt anyone by pushing them out of the way and even some of those people knew that they could not fight certain people for a seat because they would lose. This, to me, signifies how some people in the workplace try to play fair and worry about the well-being of others and this of course led them to get stepped on and thrown out of the game which can only tell us that niceties and fairness can only get you so far in America which turns out to be not that far at all. The last category of people were the people who were just too tired to take part in the game. These people either sat on the sides and watched or played the game, but walked really slowly around the circle and when it came to finding a seat, they would walk to the nearest seat and if they couldn't find one then they would just sit out. This represented those in America who are too lazy or just don't see the point in working so they give up which eventually leads to poverty. This isn't always the case of course. There are always people who are hurt and can't work or too old or something, but in this case we just had lazy people because no one was hurt or too old to play the game. Yet there are people who in the beginning of the game tried to say "my leg hurts" or "I cant play I'm sick" which then gives us an example of those who pretend to be sick in order to not do any work which happens a lot in America.

While playing the second simulation of musical chairs, people started playing like normal, but then we started to see a change when it came to our classmates owning the chairs. Everyone was playing like normal and then some people started to own chairs and the students who were in the "owned" chairs got kicked out of the game. As the amount of owned chairs increased, the people playing decreased. There were a few ways that people stopped playing the game. Some people tried really hard to stay in the game and get empty chairs which led to these few people fighting over the spots and those who played "dirtier" were able to get a chair and those who were fair and played to everyone's benefit got kicked out because they couldn't keep up with those around them. Once people understood how the game worked, there were people who just decided there was no point in trying because they knew that in the end, the owners of the chairs would just take them away. The people who knew they owned chairs walked around without a care and knew that they were safe and wouldn't have to worry about fighting anyone for a chair. It was to the point where some of the people walked around the circle texting and walking slowly because they knew that they wouldn't have to fight anyone because they owned so many chairs. In the end though, no one could win because the people who owned chairs would never give them up and there was never 1 chair left because all the owners of the chairs would always be able to sit.

Thinking about this, we can relate it to America perfectly. In terms of people giving up on the game, we see in America all the time how we just feel defeated and give up. We see things that are corrupt about our government and people and laws yet many of us just sit down and say this is our world there's nothing we can do to change it because what authority says goes. So we all just sit back and let those in power make living conditions worse for us because they don't know what it's like and frankly I feel they don't really care. They know that they have enough to support themselves and whatever family they have that they need to care for and that's it. We as Americans feel angry and upset, but we sit back and say there's nothing we can do and so nothing will ever get changed. The people who are on top and own everything sit back and don't do much because they know they don't have to and they let the "lesser people" fight over wealth and such. Those who see how the game is played give up and then if conditions are as bad as they truly seem end up in poverty. Yet there are those who see how the game is played and decide to try and fight the system. These people see those in charge and fight all they can to try and have conditions changed and sometimes it works and sometimes not.

From all of this information I can see that there is a valid argument in saying that there aren't enough chairs because it is true that there aren't and this isn't poor people's part because wealth is a lot of times inherited or stolen, but there are also ways to create your own wealth and it is hard, but it is the fault of those who don't even try that they are poor. If I think about the other chair simulation, I can see how the wealth is not evenly distributed. 1 person had a lot of chairs and then further down the line, the amount of chairs that people owned git significantly lower. Some people had to share chairs. Then towards the end of the line, people were piled up on 2-.5 chairs. On the last chair they were only allowed half of the chair yet there were still a lot of people for that half a chair. This signified how little wealth there is for the poorer people to share and this isn't the poor people's fault, but if they don't fight for it then it becomes there fault.

Amanda did an interesting thing that could be seen as a poor person fighting for wealth. When Andy was sitting across 4 chairs and he got up to talk, Amanda said "this is bullshit I'm gonna be the rich person" and took his chairs. Although it is NEVER this easy in real life, her actions were valid. When Andy got careless and left his chairs, Amanda took over which is essentially what happens a lot in our society even if it's not between the two extremes of really really rich and really really poor. Americans steal and fight their way to better possessions except for when it really matters because those people who were a lot more poor than Amanda didn't think to steal anyone else's chair. This makes it people's fault that they are poor.

Poverty: Questions and Answers

http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/FileLib/PDFs/nyhomelessness_factsheet_2008.pdf

1. What Percentage of Homeless people actually seek out help from shelters and such?
109,000 and the population of shelters has increased by 2/3.
2. How often do these people actually receive the help they need?
109,000 people resorted to shelters.
3. How often do people get discriminated against based on their race and not get the benefits they need to survive?

4. What is the percentage of homeless families?
15,884 families were recorded in homeless shelters.
5. Percentage of Homeless children?
Nov. 2008- around 16,000. Was extremely high, but then kept decreasing and increasing.

Denmark Taxes

America's welfare system is set up in a way in which people can get a lot of help, but the problem with this is that they don't always get every benefit they can have. People can go to the welfare office, go to the website or call in and speak with someone about their situation. They answer a series of questions such as where do you live, do you have a child, where do you work etc. Based on these answers, people are given a list of benefits they are eligible to receive. There are programs that enable people who are looking for a job to find work in various places to get them started. There are also benefits that allow single parents who have no one to help them care for their child find day care centers or send people to care for the child at the families home. Food stamps can help those on a tight budget. Not only does America have the welfare system, but we pay taxes. Americans pay taxes on clothes, food and annual taxes as well. These taxes depend on the income of the family and the amount of children a family might have. There are also health care benefits and social security etc. (to tell the truth I honestly know nothing about taxes and such).

In Denmark, there are some differences. Children go to school until about 10th grade and if they decide to continue school, they get paid to go to school (college) instead of paying to go to school. All education is free unless people decide to go to a private school. They also have specific cards that are given to people so they can show it to officials and those people don't have to pay taxes. The government helps their people as much as they can. There are health care benefits and daycare benefits where people can come to the families house and care for the children. Should a person be fired from their job, they would be given money by the government in order to help them live and get the essentials they need to survive. It seems to me that in Denmark, they try their hardest to make sure their people do not end up in poverty and homeless. The kids that spoke to us told us that there weren't that many poor people in Denmark and poverty wasn't big and those who did suffer from poverty were given a lot of help and it was not as visible as it is in New York.

In terms of having a "working" tax system, I think that a mixture of our system and the system in Denmark would work to benefit for everyone. If the government took care of its people like Denmark's government then we would have a better chance of decreasing the poverty rate, but I also think that it would be important to make the rich people pay more taxes than the poor people which we don't really do right now in America, but we do pay taxes. Taxes are good because it can help the government and the state, but I think if people are really poor then they should pay less taxes.

Natural vs. Normal Essay

Midwives are uneducated, unhygienic minorities who are unable to complete the proper procedures necessary for a successful birth. Yet doctors are overbearing, power-hungry people who want nothing more but to fill a hospital bed. These two harsh stereotypes have formed the foundation for women for years about how they would go about the birthing process. For years, men and women have debated over the advantages and disadvantages in “Normal” and “Natural” births. It is said that women rush to the hospital because they fear pain, but many people say that they choose midwives because the doctors in the hospital want to take over women’s bodies. Both of these are valid points so I feel that, women should all have a choice in how they decide to birth their child. Women own their bodies and have been through the birthing process many times over the course of years, but it is also important that a doctor who is properly educated in the birthing procedure is available should the mother want and or need medical assistance.
While watching the movie, I kind of got the sense that birth didn’t hurt as bad as everyone was saying because of the way that the women were acting in the movie. The women weren’t screaming as much as they would in a hospital and they seemed much more relaxed. This made me feel like maybe having a home birth wouldn’t be so bad. I don’t really think that the EHM is that helpful for the women because it kind of cripples the mother and disables her to do what her body is telling her to do. The movie said that “In the 1900’s, 95% births took place at home” and I wonder what changed this. If births were going so well and “everyone was doing it” I wonder why people switched.
When people went to the hospital, they were pumped full of chemicals and that, to me, seems wrong if the mother didn’t ask for those chemicals. Those chemicals also sometimes cause C-sections to become a necessary thing and that hurts women. People in the Netherlands lose fewer mothers and babies and have planned home births where things go perfectly fine but in America, we spend twice as much money on births and more negative side affects and deaths occur. Doctors rush the birthing process for their own personal gain and to “fill the hospital beds.” They rarely let the women decide and based on all of the guest speakers we have had come into our class, it seems that the women know what to do because their body tells them.
The women say that they are able to decipher when they have to push and when they have to move a certain way, which would be an extremely good idea if the doctors would just cater to the mother’s needs. In a specific case that we heard about when a guest speaker came in, the mother knew she needed to start pushing and she knew what was the most comfortable for her and she felt that what the doctors were trying to do was wrong for her body and she shouldn’t have to be put through this. The doctors however did what they pleased and didn’t listen to her wishes. This is a good example of how for years, men have been trying to take over the women’s birthing rights and have the power when labor is in process.
In the 1950’s women were strapped to their beds and forced to have certain chemicals injected into their bodies to “help them through labor.” There was really no alternative because those who resorted to home birth were seen as outcasts because midwives were being portrayed as horrible and abnormal. In the article that I read in class, it talked about how a woman was a gynecologist and she chose to have a home birth with a midwife even though she worked in the medical field. This was seen as abnormal to her colleagues because they were all working in a hospital and knew how the birthing process went. She decided to go through with the natural birth anyway because she knew that it was right for her. Through every woman that has experienced a birth, they have all said that they felt when things were right for them so again I say that the reason that I disagree with hospital births are because they leave little choice for the mother and what to do with her body.
This does not mean however that hospitals should never be used and I disagree with them completely. I feel as if hospitals are necessary in the event that a woman should experience a complication and her body responds the wrong way. Doctors have the experience necessary to help a mother in need, but they automatically decide that the woman cannot do things by herself before they even learn her specific case. They assume that the woman is in desperate need of medical attention right away and that’s where complications can sometimes stem from.
Hospitals can be extremely helpful should the mother or the child (or both) experience a complication during labor. In special cases, this occurs in women who have previously had a C-section and for their second birth want to have a vaginal birth. In the event that the woman’s uterus should rupture, the baby and the mother could both be facing fatal circumstances. This is where a doctor would not be such a bad idea. They are trained to do what is best for the mother and the baby and what will keep the two healthy and ultimately alive. It is also important to keep in mind the fact that midwives don’t have the proper tools in order to perform an emergency procedure in the event of a mishap.
It is also possible to have a normal birthing experience in a hospital. Hospital births can sometimes be quick and semi-painless. A woman in severe pain is asked if she’d like an epidural and in the event that she would like one, the doctors will administer it and the patient will be in less pain and can thereby try and understand what is needed from her from that point on to have a successful birth.
I feel that hospital births are something that we are exposed to from a very young age and this is why we all think that the proper way to have a child would be at a hospital. We as children ask where we were born and most of us receive the answer of a specific hospital. So from a very young age we believe that because our mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers have had their babies in a hospital that it is only normal for us to have our child in a hospital as well. This makes it hard for women to acknowledge the fact that they have other options and I think this is the reason why home birth rates have decreased. Women are many times automatically pushed to hospitals because they know nothing else.
For the women that do know about midwives and home birthing, I think it is important that they know they have a choice and why that choice is the best one for them. Women have undergone the birthing process since the beginning of time and never really had that much help from anyone so they should be able to choose to do things on their own and know what is best for their bodies. It is also important that should a women feel she is not capable of completing such a task as birthing a child, that she has experienced doctors on hand that are ready willing and able to help her. Sometimes women feel that their bodies aren’t strong enough to undergo such a giant feat as childbirth and this is where having a doctor comes into play. For those women who are afraid of the pain or are afraid that things might go wrong, it is a good thing that we have doctors that are able to work with the patient to let her know that she can do this, but at the same time, doctors also just want to fill hospital beds.

BOBB extended (Paper Part)

B.O.B.B.
While watching the movie, I kind of got the sense that birth didn’t hurt as bad as everyone was saying because of the way that the women were acting in the movie. The women weren’t screaming as much as they would in a hospital and they seemed much more relaxed. This made me feel like maybe having a home birth wouldn’t be so bad. I don’t really think that the EHM is that helpful for the women because it kind of cripples the mother and disables her to do what her body is telling her to do. The movie said that in the 1900’s, 95% births took place at home and I wonder what changed this. If births were going so well and “everyone was doing it” I wonder why people switched. When people went to the hospital, they were pumped full of chemicals and that, to me, seems wrong if the mother didn’t ask for those chemicals. Those chemicals also sometimes cause C-sections to become a necessary thing and that hurts women. People in the Netherlands lose fewer mothers and babies and have planned home births where things go perfectly fine but in America, we spend twice as much money on births and more negative side affects and deaths occur. Doctors rush the birthing process for their own personal gain and to “fill the hospital beds.” They rarely let the women decide and based on all of the guest speakers we have had come into our class, it seems that the women know what to do because their body tells them. They say that they are able to decipher when they have to push and when they have to move a certain way, which would be an extremely good idea if the doctors would just cater to the mother’s needs. In a specific case that we heard about when a guest speaker came in, the mother knew she needed to start pushing and she knew what was the most comfortable for her and she felt that what the doctors were trying to do was wrong for her body and she shouldn’t have to be put through this. The doctors however did what they pleased and didn’t listen to her wishes. This is a good example of how for years, men have been trying to take over the women’s birthing rights and have the power when labor is in process. In the 1950’s women were strapped to their beds and forced to have certain chemicals injected into their bodies to “help them through labor.” There was really no alternative because those who resorted to home birth were seen as outcasts because midwives were being portrayed as horrible and abnormal. In the article that I read in class, it talked about how a woman was a gynecologist and she chose to have a home birth with a midwife even though she worked in the medical field. This was seen as abnormal to her colleagues because they were all working in a hospital and knew how the birthing process went. She decided to go through with the natural birth anyway because she knew that it was right for her. Through every woman that has experienced a birth, they have all said that they felt when things were right for them so again I say that the reason that I disagree with hospital births are because they leave little choice for the mother and what to do with her body. This does not mean however that hospitals should never be used and I disagree with them completely. I feel as if hospitals are necessary in the even that a woman should experience a complication and her body responds the wrong way. Doctors have the experience necessary to help a mother in need, but the automatically decide that the woman cannot do things herself before they even learn her specific case. They assume that the woman is in desperate need of medical attention right away and that’s where complications can sometimes stem from.

BOBB

While watching the movie, I kind of got the sense that birth didn’t hurt as bad as everyone was saying because of the way that the women were acting in the movie. The women weren’t screaming as much as they would in a hospital and they seemed much more relaxed. This made me feel like maybe having a home birth wouldn’t be so bad. I don’t really think that the EHM is that helpful for the women because it kind of cripples the mother and disables her to do what her body is telling her to do. The movie said that in the 1900’s, 95% births took place at home and I wonder what changed this. If births were going so well and “everyone was doing it” I wonder why people switched. When people went to the hospital, they were pumped full of chemicals and that, to me, seems wrong if the mother didn’t ask for those chemicals. Those chemicals also sometimes cause C-sections to become a necessary thing and that hurts women. People in the Netherlands lose fewer mothers and babies and have planned home births where things go perfectly fine but in America, we spend twice as much money on births and more negative side affects and deaths occur.

Video Reflection

Childbirth is known as one of the most "amazing" things in the world. When watching videos of animal birth and then looking at childbirth, we can see some significant difference. While watching the dolphin and giraffe birth, there are some similarities. In both animal births, it looks easy and painless.
The giraffe gives birth by walking around her "cage" and the baby just slowly but surely literally falls out. In this birthing process, there is no human intervention what so ever. The people witnessing the birth stand back and watch even if they are doctors because they want to give the animal space and not scare them. The giraffe also has another giraffe close by to help comfort her and make her feel safe almost like a midwife.
While the dolphin was giving birth, it was almost the same as the giraffe. The dolphin swam around its tank until the baby was born. Humans did not intervene and the dolphin was able to birth her baby without any interruption. In both animal situations, the baby is born and is in a sense independent. The giraffe baby can walk and the dolphin baby can swim by itself and they don't really need the mother to help it. Yet the mother, in both cases, stays close by the baby to make sure it is safe while at the same time letting them be independent.
During the actual child birth, the mother is in extreme pain and we can see and hear this. When the baby is born, it is not able to "fend for itself." The mother is also sometimes not able to hold her baby first unlike the animals that are allowed to clean their baby and help it. The mother in the C-section is in someways like the animals in the sense that she can supposedly not feel anything and the baby in a sense just "pops right out." In a human birth, there is a lot of intervention from other people which is good and bad. The mother can rely on a doctor and have someone "experienced" talk her through things, but at the same time, she can feel a little intimidated.
In all three births, it is common that a loved one or a "creature" that is close to the mother is around to keep the mother "calm" and reassure her things will be okay. It seems to me that in every culture and species, loved ones being present are important to keep the mother calm and also for the babies sake. Also in all the births, it seems that in some ways the mother doesn't want to let her baby go. The animal mothers stay close to their baby and try and clean them and make sure their okay and the human mother wants to be the first to see her baby and wants a chance to hold her baby.
I feel that all births are the same in the sense that it is important, "sacred," scary, happy and a thing that all loved ones should be present for. No matter what species or culture there are things that run the same and these things, i feel, are extremely important to have during a birth.

AWOB feelings

During our first actual in class discussion on the critique of the American way of birth, there was a lot that I didn’t really agree with. It seemed like, from what was being said that the doctors who aid in AWOB are “evil” and just want to take control over the entire situation. I, however, strongly disagree with this statement. The doctors (and all doctors in general) were all taught to do things in a certain way. The way they deal with childbirth is tradition in terms of practice. The methods used in the process of delivering of a child have been modified to keep up with the times and the changing technology and to try and help the women with their fear of pain. I do agree with the fact that fear of pain causes women to want an AWOB, but I don’t think a woman can be considered a coward at all because she is bringing a human life into the world in an extremely painful way. So no matter what she asks for (drugs, c-section, natural birth etc.) she still intends to bring a child into the world with some amount of “difficulty.”
Doctors put mothers in uncomfortable positions and tell them to push and all because they know that the mother is relying on the doctor to help her through labor. This (I highly doubt) makes the mother nervous and clench up because all that the mother really wants is the baby out of her so I really don’t think she cares whom she is exposed to or what is going on around her. The doctors put the mother in the “uncomfortable” position of lying down, not so the doctors can have total control, but because should the mother be standing and squatting or however, it would be hard to hold herself up and push at the same time while keeping herself stable. Another point that was brought up was that the word “rushes” would be preferred over “contractions” because “contracting,” means that the tube where the baby is exiting is getting smaller. It was mentioned that this made the mother feel uncomfortable because she imagines the space for the baby becoming smaller. I disagree that this would maker her uncomfortable. Contractions help push the baby out by creating a momentum in which the force will help the baby’s delivery. This (although painful) could only make a women feel ok that everything should be going well and that the contractions will help her push the baby out “easier.”

Birth Comparison Questions.

1. Birth in 2009 vs. Birth in 1950's
2. How do white people having more resources effect the way they give birth? (compared to black people)
3. Percentage of abortions in America vs. D.R.
4. Teen pregnancy vs. in the 1900's
5.Adoption vs. Abortion in America compared to Europe
6.Having a child under 20 vs. having a child over 35
7.How has the age of giving birth changed over the last 50 years?
8. percentage of single parent homes vs. 2 parent homes (now and 1950's)
9. How does the common way of giving birth in the US compare to the common way of giving birth in other countries?
10. What is the common age of pregnancy in the US vs. third world countries?
11. How does religion play different roles in birth and pregnancy in different countries?
12. What races around the world are known to be the most fertile? (average births each year)
13. How many babies are killed each year in the U.s vs third world countries ( babies thrown in garbage cans/rivers/etc)
14. How have technologies changed over the years?
12. 2009 vs. 1800's
13.black vs. white
14. american vs. african
15. america vs. china
16. % of death during pregnancy in america vs. haiti vs. europe
17. births vs. abortion
18. c sections vs. natural
19. What superstitions and "rituals" are similar and different in different culture?
20. abortions vs giving your baby up for adoption
21. miscarriage vs successful birth
22. c section rate now vs. 50 yrs ago
23. woman dying during birth now vs. 50 yrs ago

Group: Kati, Amanda, Aja, Jacara, Margaux

Birth Stories

Interviewing my mother about her three births was really interesting. She spoke about my birth first. I was the first child therefore she didn’t know what to expect. In her mind she had a set plan and she wanted everything to follow that plan. She didn’t want any drugs, little to no medical intervention and she wanted to be in control of the birth of the baby. She took classes in order to be ready, but when the time came, nothing really went according to plan. She had been having contractions all-day and arrived at the hospital extremely tired physically. The doctors found out that my mother was not dilating and would not dilate until her water broke. My mother kept asking the doctor to break her water because she had a really strong feeling that the baby was to be born that night, but the doctors refused. Finally, she forced a nurse to convince a doctor to break her water. Afterward she begged for drugs to calm her down, but not enough to numb her. She wanted the drugs to help her sleep for a little so that she would have the physical strength she needed to give birth. The pain came back at 5:00 and by 5:45, she was ready to start pushing and by 6:00 I was born. The worst part of the pregnancy for my mother, she said, was when she had to stop pushing so that the doctors could clean the baby’s face a little bit. Before the birth, she had a little bit of a hard time because the doctors had told her that her baby might be born with genetic mutations. She had the amniocentesis and the doctors told her that her baby was going to be mentally challenged and then when they did the test again, they found that they had misinformed her and the baby was fine. She said the one thing she will always remember is that while in the birthing room during her delivery she turned to my father and said “ I don’t want to do this anymore take me home. If you loved me you’d take me home.”

The second birth was a little easier she said. Again she knew before hand that the baby was coming, but no one believed her. Everyone kept on telling her that she was not due for another month. She had a normal day and then 2 days later, she went to the hospital only to find that she was going into labor. During this delivery, she had no drugs what so ever and she said that it was much easier. She felt that there was less stress and that was probably because she knew what to expect. During this pregnancy she also had amniocentesis done and found that there were defects yet when the test was redone, it was found that the doctors were wrong again.

Her third birth was probably the most emotionally strenuous. After amniocentesis, it was found that the baby would possibly have defects such as spina bifida, severe mutations, she was possibly going to be disabled and might only live to the age of 5. The emotional stress that she had to go through (to me) seemed much worse than the actual birth of the child. The doctors and some family members told her that they would strongly suggest an abortion. Many people supported her choice to keep the baby as well. My grandmother finally said that God probably gave my mother my sister (Madison) because she was meant to prove everyone wrong. Religion played a major role in the pregnancy and birth of my sister. Thankfully the doctors did another test and found that my sister was actually fine and they were wrong (yet again). During the actual birth, my mother said that she was having really bad contractions and went to the hospital only to be sent home because the doctors said she was not ready to give birth. She went home and the contractions were worse so she went back to the hospital and they realized she was going into labor. During this delivery, she was in control, didn’t take any drugs at all and actually fell in and out of sleep during it. The thing that hurt the most, she said, was the episiotomy and after the birth when she was nursing hurt worse than actually giving birth. When the baby was born, the only thing that was wrong with her was her heart problems. She had a hole in her heart that the doctors were afraid wouldn’t close up. But after a year or so, the hole closed up and she’s perfect.

My Feelings on Birth

When I think about birth and being a mother and all, it kind of doesn’t have an effect on me because I would never want to give birth at a young age and I don’t think I will be for a while. But if I had to think about being a mother, I have mixed emotions. To me, it’s an exciting thought to be a mother and to be proud of the fact that you had a part in bringing a human being into the world, but at the same time, its kind of scary. I can’t even imagine the pain and effort that goes into birthing a child. It worries me a little bit because I kind of wonder if I have the strength it will take to go through with something like birthing a child. When I think about it, I’m excited for finding out that I’m pregnant and getting ready for the baby and finding out the babies gender but the birthing aspect of it really in a way scares me. But then again, when it really comes to it, I think maybe when I’m actually in the situation, I will gain courage from the fact that I cant let fear cripple me and make e afraid to do anything the doctors tell me. It’s actually really intriguing to me to think that something like birth is possible. When I look at my mom and realize that I came from her it’s kind of crazy to me…

Big Paper Draft 2

Intro:
Societies are molded based on ideals and values that differ based on where you go. It is essential a circle of influence between people and culture and beliefs. The influence then gives structure and a foundation for a society to grow. The rules of a place influence the way its people act which in turn effects their beliefs and so on. The American way of life in particular, is based on a number of dominant frameworks, which give America its "shape." Some of which include capitalism, the government, “great historic documents” and religion. Many people know of these aspects. They know information about each and live everyday lives knowing that they exist, but never paying close attention to them. Although these frameworks help shape our way of life, they mean nothing if we do not understand them. America otherwise known as “The Land of the Free and The Home of The Brave,” states that we have freedom and equality. To most, this is an extremely positive factor in how people perceive their way(s) of life and it fact it is. Without these things, Americans would have a whole different outlook on the way they live and run their lives. This leads us to wondering how Americans live their lives and if there is in fact a common structure or regulations we must follow. There may not be one definition of the American Way of Life (AWOL) or a set of guidelines for how to live it but, one thing is for certain:

Thesis: The American Way of Life is strongly based upon contradictions, false understandings and misinterpretations, ignorance and a false sense of values, which ultimately create a false sense of security and pride in our country.

Background – Capitalism (?):
Americans feel as if they understand the way our circle of influence works, but many aspects are very rarely FULLY understood. In order to grasp the reason we mistake aspects of our lives for other things, we must first interpret our dominant frameworks starting with capitalism. No one can really truly explain capitalism because only a select few fully comprehend it. When defined, we usually receive the answer that capitalism is an economic system in which goods and services are produced, distributed and consumed through the mechanism of free markets, based deeply on the right to public property and profit motive. This definition means nothing to us if we don’t understand certain aspects of capitalism such as profit motive and the ingredients for capitalism. Without land, labor and capital, capitalism wouldn’t be what it is today or be capable of giving us the things we need as a society to maintain our strong economy. The invisible hand gives us the land aspect of capitalism. The invisible hand is the “magic” aspect of capitalism, which creates the demand for workers and products to be produced. When someone wants to sell an item, there are always natural resources that just “appear” thanks to the invisible hand. The invisible hand also gives us labor because people of the world have a specific need for jobs and money, so the “rich people” will always have others to employ. Capital (which is the main word in capital-ism) is basically any resource or object that will aid one in the creation of their product. "A great part of the unprecedented wealth creation went into sanitation and more abundant food and later into the research necessary to produce vaccines and antibiotics." (Boaz) Thus proving how important Land, Labor and Capital truly are. Without the use and accumulation of Land, Labor and Capital, we would have never been able to find all the resources needed to advance our technology and aid the people of the world in becoming more aware and healthy. In the definition of capitalism we also see this concept of profit motive which is a concept in which provides “rich people” with some incentive as to where they can get the most profit for their product. But profit, as many people may think, is not the money that is received from selling products, it is the money left over after paying the workers and other business expenses. Depending on the consumer, the market and many other small aspects, profit may change due to Market price. Market price is the highest (or lowest) price the consumer is willing to buy and the seller is willing to sell. Depending on the supply (total amount of resources for sale at all prices) and demand (the total amount of resources that products will be bought at all prices) the market price will increase or decrease. "General stores don't close down because of big evil Wal-Mart. They close down because they can't compete. They can't deliver the quality good at the lowest price. The market mechanism dictates these losers be replaced with the firm that will best serve the public interest."(Bland) As described here, depending on the market price, supply and demand, low scale general stores will have to compete with bigger businesses and try and sell they’re products at a lowest price that the consumer is willing to pay for, but still make a profit. Once the store is unable to lower their prices anymore and still make profit, they are run out of business and lose their store. Large companies such as “Wal-Mart” do not force competitors to close, rather the demand for a reasonable Market price does. This leads to many other aspects of capitalism, which many do not fully grasp. These are the basics of economics. Although they may all not have been portrayed, these few will aid in the process of learning about the misinterpretations that occur.

Background – Government (?):
Another important aspect of AWOL that plays a major influential role in society is our Government. Our Government basically has full control over how AWOL is represented and lived and we as Americans sit idly by while the Government runs our lives. It starts off with “The Highest Law of the Land” or The Constitution. The Preamble states that people in America have the right to protection by the government and justice within the system. It states that the constitution was created in order to form a closer bond within America and its citizens, preserve liberty and ensure the safety and fairness that people deserve. The constitution itself, states that the government is split up between 2 houses that distribute the responsibilities and such equally between them. They balance each other and keep the rules “fair.” The Legislative branch is the only bicameral branch, consisting of “The House of Representatives” and “The Senate.” Although they reside in the same branch, both of these houses have semi-different responsibilities. The House of representatives, for example, is more closely related to the people of their state. The people elect them directly while members of the senate are chosen by state legislatures and there are only two senators elected. Both of these houses are responsible for keeping power equal within every branch as well as within every state. Senators ensure that larger states do not try to overpower smaller states. This branch (as well as the others) keeps a record of their own proceedings and determines laws for their own branch. Yet this house has the ability to create bills, which in turn may become laws. Other powers consist of collecting taxes, creating punishments for counterfeiting, determining the value of money, declaring war, laying claim to resources. They also have power over land and naval forces. The Executive branch consists of The President and The Vice President. The people do not directly elect a president, the legislatures from other houses have most of a say in the matter of a president. The president can be commander and chief of the army or navy should he decide to do so. The President mostly focuses on the states affairs with other countries and treaties and such. He may right pardons and reproves for army, navy or military officials should he feel the need. He may also make agreements and treaties with other countries. Although he is elected by the legislatures, the President elects members of the Supreme Court and has a right to change or add the number of justices on a Supreme Court council. Should a President do anything unlawful or unconstitutional, he can be impeached by the Congress. The president must be sworn into the White House and must abide by certain laws and rules. He may veto laws should he find them unacceptable or disagree with them yet he may be overthrown by the Congress in a case that 2/3rds majority disagrees. The Judicial Branch consists of members of the Supreme Court. The supreme court is only tends to cases that have to do with unconstitutional acts. The Supreme Court decides if a certain act is considered unconstitutional or not. They also deal with crimes having to do with treaties, treason or federal law. The Supreme Court makes sure that all states are at peace with each other and that they do not discriminate states based on their personal laws. The Supreme Court may rule an amendment or a law unconstitutional and may talk to congress so that they amend the law or amendment. The constitution is basically a giant list. It states that people have certain rights and that the government also has certain rights and powers and is written in a way that makes people believe it is the greatest document ever written. When we actually take a step back and look at the constitution we can see that it is basically a very craftily worded document that makes people feel powerful and important so that there are no rivalries in the system and ensures the security of the “rich people’s” power in society.

Argument – Alternate Views:
To comprehend the American Way of Life, it is important to learn other people’s views of it. While interviewing several people, I have found a general consensus as to what some aspects of AWOL may be. The points made were that in America, “People have the freedom to work hard and achieve their dreams whatever those may be.” Men like John Fanning (a principle at SOF) and Kate (a producer at the Play Company) agree that values of AWOL are family and making enough money to support themselves and their lives with their families. While everyone I interviewed agreed with this statement, there were many different answers when asked what influenced this ways of life and their thinking. An Employee at American Apparel (who claimed to be a Hispanic living in “the ghetto”) had this idea that “The only thing Americans value is money. Nobody can do shit in this country unless their rich. This whole damn country is a fucking hustle. All people want to do is get even because they hold grudges against the minorities. We can’t go to college or get good jobs because the cops are too busy putting our fucking people in jail. And we can’t fucking get jobs so we have to sell drugs in order to get money and then we get fucking thrown in jail because it’s cheaper to do that then send our boys to college.” In the meanwhile Lauren (another producer at The Play Company) suggests, “AWOL is now more than ever based on Materialism, Consumerism, easy answers and easy ways out. Americans are now expected to have their success and dreams handed to them. For example we have easy weight loss programs where you don’t have to do anything, college on the Internet and Internet dating. No one really has to do anything anymore.” While Lauren has a steady working job where she is, most likely, highly paid and held in high regard for what she does, The employee from American Apparel said she was struggling to put herself through college, to make enough money to support herself, she lives in “the hood” and she isn’t happy with her life. From all of this we can conclude that factors in one’s life such as financial status, social status and living environment greatly affect the category of AWOL they are placed under. Because Lauren is financially well off and has a good environment, her answers to the question of values and pros and cons were less cynical and angry for lack of a better word. The Employee from American Apparel shared that she was struggling and she was not financially secure and her environment left much to be desired so this influenced her to feel strongly about this topic and greatly desire change in America as a whole. From her cursing and gestures as she explained her harsh, cynical thoughts about how America is run we can see that harsh living arrangements and bad financial situations may drive people to be rebellious Americans who push for change, but never do anything about them. Although the employee from American Apparel leads this life, Isa Claudio-Abdul (My mother) led a very similar life and has different thoughts. Isa was born in Chicago moved to Puerto Rico and then moved to “the hood” in the Bronx. She was not financially stable, she had difficult family life and she, also had to deal with gangs and violence. She expressed that “AWOL is a myth. We as Americans have a right to grow up and be whatever we want, but we, as the ‘super society,’ know nothing of our culture. We glorify our society and cause immigrants to want to come here to lead a better life and when they get here, the Americans don’t feel like working and they get mad at the immigrants for taking jobs that they didn’t even want to do in the first place.” Living in Puerto Rico showed my mother how America was glorified and how people in Puerto Rico really wanted to be just like America. She expressed to me that in Puerto Rico, everyone wanted to sing the “American songs” and dress like kids in New York. The adults, (such as my Grandmother) wanted to move to America because they saw it as a better chance of “surviving.” She needed a job and money and she felt that moving to America would help her financial and environmental status. So, because my mother heard all of these good things about America in Puerto Rico, she inferred that other places in the world held America in extremely high regard and that we, to other countries, are –as she put it- “the super structure of the world.” In agreement with my mother, Linda (the third producer at The Play Company who also lived in Germany for sometime) spoke about the differences in society. “Europe used to think America was one of the greatest societies, but now they are becoming more and more fed up with us, yet they still are dependent on America. Some Germans admire the fact that in America, you can change your profession based on your dreams. This is extremely difficult in Germany due to finances. Although this is a positive aspect of America, a negative aspect is the fact that in America, politics and religion are combined more than they should be. Germany is less religious than America and while it is good that we get to express any religion, the Constitution states that church and state should be kept separate and this idea is getting more and more lost.” Living in other countries and states has shown these to women different views of America. They can see how America is glorified and, now that they have lived here for a while, what it actually is. While my mother spoke about ignorance and seemed more cynical towards ideas in America, Linda seemed more undecided because of the fact that she believed that you could only tell what the American way of life was if you compared it to something else. And of course if you compare America to a terrible regime, America will look wonderful. Not only is religion playing a big role in AWOL, but according to John Fanning, “Americans are being force fed a certain way of thinking and feeling about AWOL and being raised to think that they need to be patriotic and pass that down through the generations. The media is feeding people ideas of what AWOL should be and while the ideas like Family are good, they still don’t learn good aspects of America and the mistakes we’ve made. John has led an extremely interesting life, one in which he has seen Europe and the things that go on there and gotten to know what life is about. He explains negative aspects possibly because he knows what other countries think about America and he knows what America is actually like. This possibly makes it easier to see what things are good about America and what things are glorified and what needs to change.

Argument 2 –Religion in Society:
To follow up on John’s idea of Americans being “Force Fed” ideas, we can look at the Inauguration as a key example. The Inauguration in and of itself is a giant effort to force feed Americans this idea that because a president is sworn in and swears to protect the integrity and liberty of America, that the President is the most important and nicest person in the world and will strive to so the very best he/she can to preserve the “beauty” of the American way which is not always true. President Obama also invited a Priest to speak at the Inauguration. If you pay close enough attention, you will hear that God was mentioned many times during the priest’s speech. Obama’s talk of God was acceptable because that’s what he believes in, and he is “sharing” his God with us and asking “his” God to bless America. Yet to have a priest come to the Inauguration and pray to God for EVERYONE in America seems, in a way, unfair. It’s almost as if the priest was pushing Christianity and Catechism onto everyone in America at that moment. He was telling everyone about God and how he is watching over everyone and how he was going to help fix America’s problems. He said the “Our Father,” which is of course a Jewish prayer, but is also said by people of both Catholic and Christian religious backgrounds. This in some ways excludes other religions yet no one really gives this any thought. We see here that a religion is taking control of an event which is meant to celebrate the induction of a person who will give “peace and order” to our country into The White House, but because Americans are being force fed these thoughts of “a better tomorrow” and a better future, people will just pretend like this is not happening. Although these are small things, they count for a lot in terms of religious freedom even in the constitution. The constitution states that there will be no test of religion required to be qualified to become part of office. This is placed in the constitution so that people in the state feel that it is safe to practice any religion within the United States and no one will be penalized for it, not even those running for office. The “Framers” of the constitution wanted to make the constitution seem as though it opened the state to everyone and everything no matter how different. Yet, they contradict themselves because they don’t count slaves as part of the population; they call them “Person[s] held to Service or Labor.” They constantly refer back to the Indians and treaties that were made with the “savages,” as though they don’t exist or don’t matter even though these “savages” were the 1st to reside in the land. They later state: “Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth.” We see that the “Framers” try and use religion in the constitution to make it “equal” for everyone, but obviously with the way they refer to slaves and Indians, they tried to use words that still give them the upper hand. They also say that the constitution was created “in the year of our Lord” meaning God. Although they say that religion won’t really matter, but then they “sneak” God into the constitution, although not a major part, still being biased and in a little way forcing Christianity into the lives of all who live under the constitution.

Argument 3 – False Dignity:
Another thing that is being forced into the minds of Americans is the false sense of pride and dignity in our country. When taking a step back and looking at the constitution, we can see that it shapes the basic emotions and look Americans have on their way of life. The constitution is written in a way that gives people a sense that they have a lot of power in the way their country is run. If asked what system of Government the United States is based upon, many people would proudly state “a Democracy.” This, however, is untrue because to the well informed, we know that the United States is a Republic. This little fact plays a big role in the American way of Life because everyone is pulled towards America because of our “Democracy,” but living under it shows people how unevenly balanced the power actually is. The constitution states that every state must have a representative (or 2) to help make decisions for that state. This gives and maintains the rich people’s power. American citizens don’t even get to directly elect their President. Although we vote, most of the decisions are based on the votes within the different branches of government. Our government tells people that they have certain rights that taking away will be unconstitutional. But the government uses excuses like protecting the country to break these laws without getting into trouble. They follow the constitution and penalize those that break it in order to maintain the rich people’s power and to make the “lesser people” feel as if they have some importance. Knowing that our country is run by a “great document” like the constitution, gives many citizens a sense of pride and dignity to be an American, yet no one ever really takes a step back and looks at exactly what the constitution says. They see that they have certain rights that cannot be taken away and that they have power to elect a senator and can vote for their President, but they don’t see that fact that the government states in the constitution that the Federal Government is the highest form of government and has the most power. If they find something not to their liking, they have the power to find it unconstitutional and find a way to put an end to whatever the “unlawful” act might have been. If the President finds that in the Supreme Court there is a case that he considers unconstitutional, he has the power to add as many justices as he likes and whomever he would like. He can elect a majority of people who agree with him thus making the Supreme Court rule a certain act as unconstitutional. This proves how easily rich people in power can manipulate the constitution and ultimately the lives of Americans. They can use power and the constitution to their advantage and not get in trouble for most things they do. They can simply do what ever they please and then turn their heads as if nothing happened and we as Americans still sit back with our false sense of pride and belief in the “liberty” of our country.

Not only do people force feed lies to other Americans, but the constitution also gives us a false sense of power. From Article 4 in Sections 2-3, we see that the “Framers” say that states must respect the rules and regulations of every other state. The states are allowed to have their own laws, but they cannot go against the constitution. It is also stated that the government has the only rights in creating a new state and the Congress has the power over which of their new states becomes part of the union. In Section 4 we see that the “Framers” wanted people to know that the government still has most of the power. Federal Government is said to be the most powerful government. It protects states from all “enemies” and ensures that people have a representative government. From this, we can contract that the “Framers” wanted people in every state to feel as though they have most of the power in how their lives were run. The states make their own rules and that’s ok and they will be respected, as long as they abide by the constitution. The government lets people deal with the prosecution of a criminal in their state and ensure that their laws are abided by, but should the government dislike the occurrences and find them unconstitutional, they are able to change what they disagree with. They give people rights, yet they still say that the Federal government no matter what, will be the most powerful government. They will create new states and decide who gets to join the union and should they feel that a state is “unworthy” they may deny them access to the union. This article shows how the government is afraid to give the people a lot of power because they want to ensure that the rich people stay in power and don’t lose their superiority. The government tricks the “lesser people,” saying that they can have rules and they can make up whatever type of laws they want for their state, but they MUST abide by the Governments “outlines.” This actually takes AWAY from the rights that the people have than adds to them.

Argument 4 – Freedom Being Challenged:
A leading component of our differences from other countries is our freedom and right to do as we please without any consequences. This however is another part of our Constitution that is constantly contradicted. For example, the 14th amendment states that: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." This means that no state may create a law that takes away a citizen’s right to be happy or to make decisions for them that will better their situation. This amendment strongly conflicts with certain rules that state that gay marriage is illegal and that abortion is illegal. The 14th amendment gives people the right to better their lives and make decisions that will make them happy. Should any state ban gay marriage, they are taking away a person’s “liberty” and the right to be happy. The conflicts in this amendment are great and can cause many issues. The amendment states that “we the people” have the right to choose what we need, want and will make us happy. Enforcing this amendment will be extremely hard because there are many, many different people with views that support and are against gay marriage, abortion and a female’s rights to her body so no one will ever agree on an amendment to this amendment. States will have their own laws because it is their constitutional right, but their laws may go against this amendment. It is stated in the constitution that the federal government has the most power over every government, yet the federal government can’t enforce this amendment because within the Federal Government, many people disagree with the idea that gay marriage and such should be legal.

Similarly, the 4th amendment states that people of the United States have the right to their privacy. They may not be searched or investigated unless the government has a warrant with a sufficient reason as to why they are searching this person and only a select few places may be checked. The 6th amendment states that should there be a criminal convicted who does not have a lawyer; one will be provided for them. This amendment is often contradicted because of the hunger for power. These amendments distort our society because they show us that the government promises us that we will have privacy and we can do what we please, but in actuality when we enter the subway station or an airport, we are randomly checked because the government is “trying to protect the country.” Police officers often discriminate who they check based on gender or race and possibly religion which goes against the 5th amendment. In terms of the 6th amendment, when criminals (or innocent people) are convicted of a crime and cannot supply their own lawyer, they are provided one. But if the court and police find the convicted guilty no matter what, they can provide the convicted a lawyer who is unhelpful. Although the Bill of Rights states that we have privacy and will be helped in a case where a person cannot help themselves, the government takes over these amendments and gives themselves power. They create it so that they control people’s fate in terms of trials and such by giving a person a bad lawyer and they control who and what is private in the lives of Americans and cover it up with the idea that they have to “protect the people from enemies.” This amendment gives people the right to their privacy; they may not be searched without just cause. Section 4 Article 4 of the constitution states that the government ensures the safety of the people of the United States from enemies. These 2 rules conflict with each other because it is not defined what is just cause to search a person. People are randomly searched in the U.S. all the time based on what they look like. The Government uses this excuse that they want to protect its people so that they have a “just cause” for searching whomever they please. Being able to randomly search through people’s belongings gives police and in turn the Government a sense of power because they write amendments and parts of the constitution that make people feel safe and free. They’re happy because they can have privacy and be protected by a strong government, but they don’t realize that they are stuck under a government which thirsts for power and obtains it by raiding peoples belongings for no just reason.