01/23/06

Our chance

This is our chance to start over. The time is now. Bin Laden just offered a truce. A TRUCE for God´s sake! That´s like giving up during the middle of a game when you´re a kid, or screaming "mercy" when you were losing. All we have to do is pull all our troops out of the Middle East, and thanks to our current president´s bang-up job, it shouldn´t take too much convincing to get the heck out of their. Yes, we would be letting Bin Laden get away with a heinous crime, but he is he really worth it? I mean we did give him a crap load of money in the early 90´s. You think 9/11 and 3,000 was bad, it could have been a whole lot worse. We as Americans don´t realize how lucky we are. Go to Israel for 3 days- where a suicide bomber could blow himself up at the mall, where some could drive a car bomb into your house, where soldiers and civilians roam the street with guns- go to Israel for 3 days. Tell me Bin Laden´s worth that.

Whatever happened to our first president´s, Gorge Washington´s, last signed act before he died? That act says stay isolated, and don´t get involved in foreign affairs. It´s been around awhile, I think it´s time we ought to test it out. God forbid we become like Canada, or the Netherlands where their biggest issue is dealing with real problems like health care and other internal concerns. This is our chance.

Call it an artistic evolution, revolution whatever, but with Brokeback Mountain and that movie TransAmerica winning all these awards, it´s a good sign of progress. Now, these movies aren´t my cup of tea, but when you can break barriers, stretch limits, side-step the boundaries and borders, and then back it up by winning awards and gaining credibility, that´s a good thing. I mean who cares who´s who or what someone looks like, everyone will fine their group, and we´ll go on. As Frank Boyle from "Everybody Loves Raymond" so eloquently put it: "You want to know the secret to life? Here it is, you´re born, you work, you die, that´s it." Whatever you believe in, we´re all going to end up in the same place, no matter what religion os right.

Speaking of religion, and this whole intelligent design vs. evolution thing- who cares?! I believe in intelligent design, but am I going to think less of someone because they believe in evolution? No. It´s so stpid. Let´s say it was intelligent design wins. Big woopity-doo-dah, now let´s move on. Evolution wins- ladi-fricken-da, I´m thirsty. I mean I hear these scientists fighting over a flagellum, and whether or not it´s evidence of I.D. or evolution. HELLO, McFLY, IT´S FRIGEN FLAGELLUM! Go watch a football game or something.

11/9/05

I found this statistical essay about the handicapped that I wrote in high school. It´s not the best written, but interesting nevertheless:

Have you ever violated handicap regulations? Unfortunately, the chances are that you have. You might say you never did, but you probably did, just unconsciously. The hardest part of living for a person in a wheelchair is not learning to adapt to the able– bodied society, or learning to maneuver and get around, it is learning to go on in life without themselves or their rights recognized. There´s a movie called the "Invisible Man" about a black man who lives his whole life and dies without even being noticed, now, the disabled community is the "Invisible Man". For example, handicapped people have trouble with the easiest of things, like finding a simple parking spot. Disabled people also have trouble with the simplest of things, like getting into a building, and if the building is on private property there´s a chance that that person will never get in the building. These problems are miniscule to the problem of unemployment with the disabled. How can somebody have something like the natural right to the pursuit of happiness if they don´t have a job or money? The disabled community has a large obstacle to overcome– being noticed and respected. Everyone in the disabled community has overcome and is overcoming an infinite amount of obstacles every day on their own, but to overcome the obstacle of being noticed and respected they´re going to need everybody´s help and cooperation.

Handicapped parking is designated for handicapped people only, yet some people think it´s okay to park in these designated spots. I see it everywhere- the mall, downtown, supermarkets, and at my very own school. The University of Warwick says that peak parking abuse levels in handicapped parking spots at supermarkets is 63% and the average abuse level is 34%. 2 out of 3 disabled drivers questioned were not able to park in a handicapped spot due to abuse, and 1 out of 3 disabled drivers had suffered verbal abuse from able-bodied drivers. The University of Warwick also said that in hospital parking lots peak abuse levels reached 57% and averaged 26%. The average should be 0%. The study also said that 47% of disabled drivers had been late for a doctor´s appointment due to parking abuse in hospital lots. 47%- that´s 25,380,000 disabled people, almost 5 times the city of Philadelphia.

Perhaps the most discouraging thing for a disabled person is when they can´t physically go somewhere their peers do go. The American Disability Act (also known as the ADA) was instituted by president George Bush Sr. in 1990 to give the disabled community the rights they deserved. In 1997 the Act was supposed to be in full force, and here we are 2002 and the Act hasn´t even reached half of it´s potential. One clause in the ADA calls for all buildings to have accessible accommodations. The thing you don´t know is this clause only applies for buildings built after January 1992. That´s only 10 years. That might seem like a lot, but most laws have been in affect for hundreds if not thousands of years. The ADA also says an inaccessible building does not have to be made accessible unless that building has construction and the handicap renovations do not exceed 20% of the costs of the primary construction. So, if Tommy´s Pizza restaurant added a second floor for $1 million, then they wouldn´t have to make ADA regulated renovations if the cost exceeded $200,000. The ADA says buildings have to remove structural barriers so that they are accessible if it is "readily achievable". Pretty fair right? Listen to the definition the ADA has for "readily achievable", "easily accomplishable and able to be carried out without much difficulty or expense."

Unemployment for the disabled is a huge concern. The National Council on Disability says that disabled people who work and filed a complaint against their employer- 96.7% of the time the employer won. The National Council on Disability also says that despite having a college degree, 55% of people with disabilities are still unemployed, compared to 14% of their college-educated counterparts without disabilities. 55%- that´s 30 million of 54 million people or 3.5 times the size of Vietnam who are unemployed. The sad thing about this is of those 30 million people 67% of them want to work. So, for disabled people what´s the point in getting an education for a future job if the chances of getting a job are as good as flipping a quarter?

Today, unfortunately, there are people who brake handicapped regulations, but there are also some people who aren´t even aware of what they are doing wrong. Regardless, both forms of violations lead to the same thing; disabled people and there rights not being recognized. The African American society was the "Invisible Man", now it is the disabled community´s turn to experience this plague of lack of recognition that doesn´t infect the healthy, good-looking, able-bodied, "supreme beings". The disabled community is very independent, but to overcome the obstacle of being noticed and respected they´re going to have to become a little more dependent.

11/8/05

I watched this documentary type thing on MSNBC with newscaster Brian Williams about hurricane Katrina and the devastation in New Orleans. I look at all these pictures, and I´m wondering "Where are all the white people?" Why is everyone suffering in squalor black?...Does this say something about our class system in American? I think so.

11/4/05

I don´t think this has anything to do with diversity [haha], it´s more political than anything. I guess it´s for democrats and republicans. But just let me say, every administration has its "bay of pigs" [i.e. Clinton had the Lewinski scandal], but our current administration has had like half a dozen "bay of pigs"…just an observation.

"Sometimes I just don´t understand the logic."

Sometimes I just don´t understand the logic.
Our parents and society think we won´t succeed without a college degree,
Meanwhile, there´s a genocide going on in the Sudan daily.

Sometimes I just don´t understand the logic.
Everyone´s so worried about these violent video games and movies picking up momentum,
But our government has us committing the same acts in real life for petroleum.
Sometimes I just don´t understand the logic.
All this money for defense, but there are still fears swarming,
You know, we do have this little problem called global warming.

Sometimes I just don´t understand the logic.
Our government´s debating censorship and steroids,
Is that what you´re doing with your time now a day, boys?

11/2/05

This week the Air Force football coach said something to the effect that the team needs to be more athletic by getting more black players. He said white players can athletically contribute, just the players who predominantly contribute athletically are black. The media got all in a frenzy, making this guy apologize publicly. Ummmm, hello? He´s exactly right. Anyone with half a brain would know that, unless they don´t watch sports or have been living under a tree for the last ohhhhhhhhhhhh 25 years. What´s the big deal, black players are more athletic. It doesn´t mean a white guy can´t thrive. Maybe the best, definitely one of the top 3, basketball players was Larry Bird; a slower white who couldn´t jump from French Lick, Indiana. I´m in a wheelchair- you don´t see me running 26 mile marathons.

I´m watching this thing on TV about my favorite musical artist Eminem. Again, GLAAD is using him as an escape goat for all their problems. GLAAD´s argument is, "How would you like it if someone said hurtful things about you because you were different?" Oh jese, I wouldn´t know anything about that… Oh wait… wait for it… um, yes, I would. I know what it´s like to be the only person in a room who is different, I know what it´s like to have hurtful things said about you by the mainstream. You know what I do? Swear at the TV or radio, and change the channel. I remember a black comic who did a comedy sketch called "handicapped man" or something and as I said, I just changed the channel. You can hurt artist or comedians more by not giving them your money, instead of causing some big hissy fit. Plus, think of all the black jokes thrown his way that he´s had to put up with… Oh yeah, Eminem, my favorite rapper, takes shots at Christopher Reeves all the time, and you don´t see me crying a river. So please just shut up.

11/1/05

So, this week senator Trent Lott said about the withdrawal of supreme court nominee, Harriet E. Myers, "By next month we´ll all forget about Harriet Meyers, and we´ll all move on. I´m sure president Bush will nominate the very best qualified male, woman, or minority."- Oh, you have to love those republicans. So black athletes aren´t good role models, but this shmuck is? Am I missing something? Really, can you help me because I just don´t know anymore?

So, I´m taking this class that is suppose to encourage diversity. I had this presentation for the class, though, and if you didn´t dress nice you lost points. I thought diversity was not judging people by what they looked like? "I´ll take "mixed signals" for 500, Alex."

I´m so excited I get to do an English essay I actually like. The essay is about the movie Crash and the song "Mathematics" by Mos Def. First of all, Crash should be mandatory for every high school student in America to watch. The movie virtually smashes every stereotype [except mine] that there is, while showing how class also affects our stereotypes of people. Basically, Crash makes you think twice about every decision you´ve ever made and every perception you´d ever had. The song "Mathematics" is an eye-opening hip-hop song that has the same effect as Crash, but instead of using drama to prove its point, the song uses storytelling and bare statistics to do so.

*The opinions expressed are the individual's views and not necessarily that of the university