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.