E110 FA19 Class Blog

by John Eichler

Anyone remember the great condom on the banana display? Or maybe it was a cucumber, depending on the phallic shaped produce that was on sale at your local farmers market that day. On a personal note in terms of my own health class, a condom was never even taken out of its packaging to be shown how to put it on, or even what it looked like. We talked about preventing STDs, pregnancy and even the steps of a penis ejaculating, but despite that lovely speaker telling me about my sperm count, I could still got the feeling that I was not fitting into these conversations.

I am a gay, gender questioning person, who never got a proper education on sexuality and identity, instead taking tests on the different kinds of contraception options and how marijuana is a gateway drug. I am not the only LGBTQ+ person to not receive a necessary inclusive education. GLSEN reported in 2017 that only 6.7% of Queer students received a sex education that properly represented them in its curriculum. This is extremely upsetting considering there are over three million LGBTQ+ youth in America, and of course growing.

You know why else this is super upsetting? There are a lot of reasons actually, so be prepared to be very disappointed. With so little representation of Queer identities in public education, all students are left ignorant of the complexity of the community. Being forced to only learn about heterosexual sex and not learning about other identity topics like gender in health class, youth will feel the need to conform to heteronormative and cisnormative ideals.

With this feeling of ostracization from their schooling, the feeling of wrongness continues with the treatment of students. The Trevor Project reported that about 71% of LGBTQ+ students had experienced discrimination, and a majority had experienced mental health issues, 39% having contemplated suicide.

Prejudice is learned in the absence of an inclusive and diverse education, and it continues in older ages. Six southern states adopted “No Promo Homo” laws that state schools cannot teach about the LGBTQ+ community. As long as ignorance can run rampant among people of all ages, the LGBTQ+ community will always be at risk.

Education is the key to ending prejudice and the systems of oppression that feed into it. According to a study put out by GLSEN, Planned Parenthood and other social justice groups, 85% of parents believe their children should be taught about sexuality and gender in high school, 78% of parents believe middle school children should. America and the world cannot progress without changing the way health education is structured and taught, and if more and more parents and students support it, the government should listen. Congress has definitely got a thing or two to learn themselves, otherwise they just keep finding new ways to fuck us and leave us unsatisfied.

The prices of prescription drugs are incredibly high, leaving elderly consumers, many crippled with illnesses that require them, in debt. Through examining current prescription drugs and their extremely high prices, it is clear that there must be some sort of policy reform in order to preserve the lives and health of the ever-growing senior citizen population. This reform will be explained through two options to affect current legislation: drug affordability review and drug transparency. High prices for prescription drugs are very impactful on seniors due to their fixed incomes. AARP’s data from 2015 shows that for one type of prescription drug its cost now is over $5,800 annually. According to statistics from AARP, for an older adult that takes 4.5 prescription drugs per month, its annual average price is up to $26,000- this is 80% of Americans.

Senior citizens have taken it into their own hands to combat these pricing issues. Across the nation, many have stopped taking their medicines, leading to health failure and a poor quality and longevity of life. Sadly, as the large population of baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) ages, the number of individuals with illness is likely to grow, leading to an increase in drug production and drug prices. This population is the largest in the United States.

There are two possible solutions to this issue. One option to reduce the prices of prescription drugs is a drug affordability review board. An affordability review board sets up a process for states to review drug costs through evaluating current costs. They then establish a ceiling on how much their state program will pay for drugs. The 2019 Prescription Drug Affordability Board Act shows that Maryland was the first state to pass a law. State legislation to require drug transparency would require drug manufacturers to report pricing data to the Department of Health and Human Services. This would ensure that drug manufacturers would be held accountable for price increases. Drug transparency can also help to put public pressure on drug manufacturers by posting their prices if they are raised over a certain amount or percentage in one year

As a new generation of voters arise, it’s important to exercise the right to impact these decisions. Laws like these are going to become an essential part of how your parents, grandparents, and many other loved one’s age. Imagine what life would be like if they had to choose between paying rent or taking a prescription they need in order to survive. Their healthcare should be affordable and accessible. It’s crucial to make a change. 

 It’s easy, if you’re not directly affected by this problem, to ignore it or to believe that it’s supposed to be this way. They were taught to hate blacks and especially never to date one. Sometimes white people don’t even notice that they are playing favorites just by the things they say. They think it is normal to feel this type of way. This is why you should open your eyes to the judicial discrimination that has continued to go on even after years have past. It continues to look down on the black people of the world, like all blacks deserve to be put in jail.On August 24, 1955 he went to the store with a group of teenagers. He then was accused of whistling at the store clerk’s wife Carolyn Bryant, also being accused of grabbing her hand and flirting with her. Roy Bryant, the husband decided to take matters into his own hands.Years later after the child was dead for more than 50 years the women decide to come clean and tell the truth about the incident and how it was all a lie. The Central Park Five were five boys, (Raymond, Yusef, Antron, Kevin, and Korey) ranging from ages 14 to 16 years old were thrown in jail for the rape of a white women.  It took twelve years for them to have their names cleared. It took twelve years for people to stop calling them “rapist”. The women, Amber Guyger was coming home from a shift as a police officer mistaken went inside of the wrong apartment owned by a black man. When the white people get nothing in jail they get sent to mental institutions while blacks get prison time. Everyone needs to come together to try and beat judicial discrimination in the world. We need to come together as one than going back in time to segregation. We are all equal to each other no matter what color we are, we should be able to grow together. Continuing to better the world that we live and help generations after generations. 

On one hand, athletes are viewed and depicted as almost superior beings. People who possess superior levels of athleticism, ability, and people who live such perfectly glamorous lifestyles. On the other hand, there is reality. The fact that athletes are just like you and I. People who are susceptible to common forms of mental health issues, depression, anxiety, etc. After learning that, yes, athletes do battle mental health, I was curious to see what are common root causes of this…

In a study done by “Frontiers in Psychology”, British athletes were examined regarding mental health. The aim of this study was to examine the experiences of elite athletes who suffered from depression during their athletic career. This examination was carried out in the form of an interview. The interview started with a question about the participants “background”, which lead to questions on the three main areas of study, diagnosis, genesis, symptomatology. The diagnosis of participant one listed as, “depression, anxiety, and ADHD”. The genesis or “trigger” for this participant was listed as “bullying and mistreatment within a sport organization”. Symptomatology for this participant was listed as “aggressiveness, increased impulsivity, and isolating themselves from others.  The diagnosis for participant two was listed as, “depression”, and the “trigger” was listed as, “end of career injury”. Lastly, the symptomatology for this participant was listed as “aggressiveness, withdrawing behavior, and increased anxiety.”

My source above is only a small sample size of the research I found regarding the “triggers” of mental health issues in athletes. My final takeaway or analysis of the most common trigger for mental health issues in athletes is what I label as a “shock of reality”. A shock of reality that is basically telling the athlete that their career is over, and they just cannot play anymore. There are different scenarios for different athletes. Whether it is a career ending injury, constantly being traded, decreased level of play, etc. All leading to a decrease in confidence, which ultimately leads to depression.

Studying this topic has been very interesting to me, because of the reason I listed above. With the way that athletes are generally depicted, it is almost amazing with how frequent mental health occurs in athletes. Athletes such as Michael Phelps, NBA Legend Jerry West, Lou Williams, Kevin Love, etc. all have suffered. Then again, to contradict myself, when you look at how extreme fans and the media can be critical of professional athletes with social media, it is not that surprising. Mental health is a serious issue in sports, I hope that these athletes can find a way to win their respective battles.

My biggest concern for writing my paper consist of being repetitive. Although my topic is interesting to me, which makes the paper easier to write, a lot of my points correlate and tie into each other. I have a lot to say, but I don’t want to say a lot of the same things.

Dress codes often disproportionately target women, students of color, and LGBTQ+ students and reinforce stereotypes, as well as repress student expression.

The Afro was an important symbol of black culture and specifically the Black Power Movement in the 1960s and 70s. School dress codes banning the hairstyle are really banning blackness and black pride. Similarly, dress codes which dictate which clothes which genders can wear are banning any gender or sexuality expression other than cisgender and heterosexual.

When I got called out for breaking the dress code I felt ashamed, like I was somehow “inappropriate.” I was an Honor Roll student but all they saw were my exposed legs or an inch too much of my shoulder.

            There are always stories of women who wore the “wrong” thing to school and protested. Society has ingrained that their bodies are sexual objects and that they need to cover up. This carries the damaging implication that women are inviting rape because it is their fault for being too “provocative.” Instead of reinforcing the ideas behind rape culture, schools really need to be teaching young women to be confident and young men not to rape and harass women.

            Depression and anxiety disorders are at an all-time high for teenagers. Alternative classroom settings have been found to have positive impacts on students’ academic performance and mental health. The same approach should be used with dress codes: relaxing them so students feel more comfortable to wear what they want and not punishing them in extreme ways.

            LGBTQ+ feel the effects of gendered dress codes more than most students. When students already struggling with gender dysphoria and transphobia at home and in the real world encounter the same discrimination at school, it can be incredibly damaging to their mental health, instead of providing a safe place for them to explore their identities.

Schools are supposed to be preparing students for the “real world” but these dress codes reinforce institutional racism, as well as ideas that black people will always be “inappropriate” and that they need to become white in order to succeed. It shows the assumption that students don’t know how to dress for school . These dress codes also show that administrators don’t have trust in students’ parents to dress their children.

Saying that students need to focus on “what really counts” is a patronizing assumption that students and parents have the money to purchase uniforms year after year and that it is the fault of the students for turning to crime and not the institutions which reinforce the school-to-prison system. Schools should not be making it more difficult for low-income students to attend school.

A school in North Carolina refused to stop students from wearing the Confederate flag and argued that the flag wasn’t a form of hate speech and they were protecting students’ First Amendment rights. Dress codes are almost always biased towards white and higher-income students and for blacks, the Confederate flag represents a history of violent racism and oppression.

Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District was a landmark case for students’ rights. A school which represses students’ self-expression using either uniforms or incredibly strict dress codes can’t prepare them for a world in which creativity is encouraged.

Schools are designed to prepare students for the real world; they are meant to be safe spaces for children and teenagers to learn how the world works and to explore their identities and practice their expression. The next generation needs to be shown that sexism and misogyny, racism and ethnicism, homophobia and transphobia should not be tolerated, and many dress codes send the opposite message through their disproportionate targeting of women, minorities and LGBTQ+ students. These rules need to be opened up to allow for free expression and critical exploration at an important time in students’ lives but also to ensure that schools are safe and inclusive places for everyone.

My research paper looked at the environmental health crisis of agricultural runoff. This is a non-point source of water pollution since products, such as fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides, can arise from multiple inputs over a larger area. In addition, nutrients, waste, and bacteria from feedlots on farms contribute to the pollution. If land is managed sustainably, then agricultural runoff will be clean. Governmental regulations, environmental awareness, and safer agricultural products will allow for cleaner runoff.

“Impacts from agricultural activities on surface water and groundwater can be minimized by using management practices that are adapted to local conditions. These practices can also increase productivity and save farmers and ranchers money in the long run.” – United States Environmental Protection Agency

Non-point source pollution resulting from applying fertilizers and pesticides to farmers has been tagged as one of the greatest threats to water quality. Even though these products are beneficial on farms, they should not be leaking into land other than the farm. Once these products become runoff, they are extremely harmful. For instance, most of you have heard about the red tides occurring in Florida.

Algal blooms are the result of an excess of nutrients, such as those found in the products used in agricultural. When these nutrients are in waters and concentrate in large amounts, algae growth increases dramatically. As seen in the picture above, the algal blooms can discolor coastal waters. These blooms can deplete oxygen in the water and release toxins, which can cause harm to both humans and animals. For example, the algae in Florida’s blooms produce potent neurotoxins, which then cause human respiratory illness. Also, shellfish can become contaminated from the toxins, and if consumed by humans, cause Neurotoxic Shellfish Poisoning. Florida’s ecotourism is taking a hit as the red tides are causing widespread mortality of fish, turtles, birds, and marine mammals.

The Clean Water Act is a federal law which regulates the discharge of pollutants into the nation’s surface waters… but it doesn’t say anything about non-point sources of pollution. With inadequate laws and regulations in place, pollution will just keep occurring. Non-point source pollution represents the most significant source of pollution in America, yet the US government has decided to ignore it.

The environment needs your help. As runoff continues, more chemicals are infiltrating waterways, which are creating more harmful algal blooms. Biodiversity is being negatively impacted. The earth is losing its most precious species just so humans can benefit from genetically modified produce. Agricultural runoff is killing off aquatic species faster than we can implement solutions (because the government moves slower than a sloth). Before we know it, there will be little to no species left to save. The government needs to implement regulations of agricultural runoff before it is too late.

As cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Contacting local and national government agencies will be the most realistic way to get things done in a timely manner. Without a push from you and I, the government will just keep sitting around like we don’t have this environmental health crisis getting worse by the day.

By contacting governmental agencies, we are urging them to change their regulations. If they refuse, we will threaten our demand of the agricultural business, and they will have no other choice but to listen and implement regulations. Help stop agricultural runoff and save our environment.

The Special Olympics organization is an international program that aims to bring people of all capabilities together through physical and inclusive activities. The organization specifically aims to establish an environment that is fun, engaging, and inclusive for people with intellectual disabilities. People with and without intellectual disabilities are brought together and given the opportunity to create friendships based off inclusion and enjoyment. There is a dire need of additional monetary resources to implement Special Olympics programs into every school system across the United States. These essential programs are rapidly becoming more popular and are simply not provided with adequate resources to put on all of the amazing programs they currently offer.

Through the Special Olympics organization and Unified Sports communities are united, overall mental and physical health is improved, and joy is infectiously spread. To learn more about the wonderful activities and opportunities the Special Olympics has to offer, refer to https://www.specialolympics.org/

This research essay explores how the Special Olympics has a positive, beneficial effect on many aspects of the people both directly and indirectly involved in the opportunities the Special Olympics offers in order to demonstrate why there is an urgent need for increased governmental funding of the Special Olympics organization.

The Special Olympics organization and Unified Sports programs have tremendously positive effects on people with and without intellectual disabilities. The programs impact the well being and health of the athletes, the attitudes of people without intellectual disability towards the inclusion and acceptance of individuals with intellectual disabilities, and affect many other aspects in a positive way.

In order for a rapid increase in prevalence of the Special Olympics and Unified Sports programs nationwide, an increase in funding is absolutely essential. The Special Olympics organization excels at budgeting their income for the current amount of programs they fund and provide resources for. However, these programs are so crucial to the lives of so many people and there simply just is not enough money to provide every school system with adequate resources.

Special Olympics encourages people of all abilities to come together and just have fun, all while exercising their mind and body, and improving their overall health. The world should be an inclusive, welcoming, accepting place for everyone regardless of their appearance or capabilities and through the Special Olympics organization and Unified Sports, this fantasy world can truly become a reality.

There are ample opportunities for you to get involved with this organization and do your part to improve this amazing organization. The fastest, easiest way to make an impact in the lives of so many people would be to visit this link, https://www.specialolympics.org/get-involved/donate, and help to increase the funds provided to the Special Olympics organization so that they can implement their essential programs into every school system across the United States.