Plague Post #1: Tell and Die or Don't tell and Die?

If you were a government official, would you warn the populace about an inevitable catastrophic event?

I thought the answer was obvious, but then I realized I wasn't so sure.  Would I really want to be given the opportunity to pin point when and how I would die? And more importantly, would I want to give that burden of knowledge to an entire body or country of people? Some might say that you owe that knowledge of a catastrophic event occurring to everyone so that their last days on earth can be pleasantly fulfilled.  I don’t think so. I wouldn't want the government to tell me that a meteorite is coming and is going to wipe out the entire planet in say, 1 week, 4 days, 17 hours, and 24 minutes from now. I believe that all things happen for a reason and inevitable events like the plague are so uncertain that it’s not fair to say everyone will die… NO, I take that back tell me about this plague but not about the world ending. Yeah, I’d tell the whole world about a plague if I were the president of the United States. Everyone won’t die in that case but in some time of apocalyptic event, keep those mouths closed.  Germs are controllable but meteorites aren't  It all depends on the event for this government official.

A note to Parents, not my own

Dear Parents,

Put your children first in everything you do. Parents/caretakers/guardians are the people that children interact with in life and being so, parents should be their number one support system.  Statistics show that the majority of children with rough upbringings, such as any forms of abuse and neglect, are more likely to be criminals than those children without the preventable hardships.  Talk to your children; allow them to feel comfortable around you and able to share anything and everything with you.  There is a middle ground between smothering the child and neglecting them.  You should know the best way to approach your child in any situation.  Down the road of their childhood, so many arguments, misunderstanding and heartaches can be prevented if parents cared and asked more questions about what’s going on.  Love and communication is a must if there is going to be mutual trust!

Sincerely,

A worried teen about where the future of parenthood is leading to…

Civic Duty: All People Should...

I laughed at the prompt in class of what annoys you.  That list goes on for days but when it came to what annoys me as it relates to society, I was a little stumped by the question. The first thing I wrote down was, "People that can not control their kids."  This is absolutely my biggest pet peeve with society.

I was watching Maury one day and the featured guests were three female preteens with their mothers and they were there because the mothers could not control there daughters' behavior.  One child, age 13, slept around with adults and smoked illegal substances and would beat her younger siblings whenever she was bothered by them. Child number two was 14 and she slept around with older teens and took naked photos of herself and widely distribute them.  The third child, a mere 12 year old, would beat her mother whenever she disagreed with her. These are prime examples of people who have clearly let there kids get loose and out of their parental realm of control.

This is a problem because if these children, these naïve, ignorant and immature beings, cannot respect the first adults they interact with in life, they surely won't be able to function appropriately in a society where mutual respect is expected.  It's our civic duty to treat people the way we would want to be treated and respect, nowadays, is not common sense.  People have to teach their kids right from wrong and definitely about respect. People who cannot control their kids risk the safety and integrity of the community with babies or young, young adults running around how ever they please.

I choose to live in Poverty

That’s ridiculous! You can’t choose poverty, poverty simply chooses you.  Whether it be your family that you were born into living below the line of I-can-provide-for-myself or whatever other circumstances that cause you not to apart of the middle class and wealthy, some things are out of your control.  Yes, some lucky few work their butts off to get out the ghettos and make something out of their lives, while some of the unlucky people start off at the top and dwindle their way down to nothing, but poverty will always exist and not by choice.  I think it is fair to say that everyone would like to live a life where they don’t have to worry about their next meal or where they’ll stay to have a peaceful sleep at night and sometimes living in poverty does not provide these luxuries.  The bottom line is poverty is not a choice.

Malcolm X and Integration

Malcolm X was a man that spoke highly of black pride.  He wanted Negroes, no, African Americans to understand that they were equal to any other ethnic group in the world.  He preached of separation.  After his pilgrimage to Mecca, he realized that the color of one’s skin did not matter as much the ability to accept and respect another person’s God given human rights, their ability to treat another person equally and to be able to work appropriately with one another.  He began to believe in integration because if all of humanity came together as one, then the world would be a more peaceful place.

We have definitely come a long way from our ancestors that were the enforcers and victims of the Jim Crow laws and from the segregation that continued up until almost 50 years ago.  Integration provides an atmosphere of diversity that separation or segregation cannot create.  Will we ever be able to truly integrate? Probably not, people will always find way to keep other separated within any type of grouping but I do believe that this is something that we should always strive for.

Malcolm X Part 1 Reflection

This is by far the best book I have ever had to read for school.  I know I said the same thing about “Siddhartha” just weeks ago but this book wins 100 times over.  I was actually pretty excited to get started reading “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” because I had seen the movie and was pretty moved by how different it was from the basics we get in school about Malcolm X.

So like Mr. McCarthy said, it was a pretty smart move for Malcolm X to use Alex Haley as his author, not only to get his book out there, but just the relation between two African American men who are deeply interested in their heritage proved this book worthy of reading.  The style of writing in this novel made this an exceptionally easy read. The thing that caught my attention from the first 12 chapters of the book was Malcolm interest to do new things all the time.  You can really see his life spiraling down the moment he enters the pool hall in Boston because he is so eager to grow up like the cool blacks of the city.  His new hobbies included smoking and drinking at the age of 16.  When he gets to Harlem things only get worse when he starts to gamble and steal.  He stays high and “wears his guns like ties.”  When his hyped up lifestyle finally gets him locked up, his willingness to try new things ultimately alters his life when he is told by his brother not to eat pork and not smoke.  His curiosity of this new suggestion leads him to his own revelations about whites and blacks.  If he didn’t have such an open approach to living he wouldn’t be the self-educated leader that he was in his life time.

King still King? (King, referring to Dr. Martin Luther King, of course.)

Moments before given this prompt, I was thinking about why we nationally observed this day in the first place.  There is no need for me to go into detail because everyone knows what he stood while he was alive and why we save this day every year to honor him but the question still stands, is the King still King?

Honestly, he was a darn good leader, like any great king should be but he never aimed to be king in terms of ruling over many people.  He had a strong belief that others held true to them too which led to all the change that continues to happen each and every day.  When you create a change as big as MLK’s then of course you deserved to be acknowledged for it.  What he has fought for will always be an issue in this country but those are obstacles that one man can not change in his lifetime.  The King is definitely still King because his legacy will always be remembered.