Challenge

My lips were chapped to the point that they looked like white dust,  ready to blow away as soon as a gust of the warm air that was flowing out the car vent made contact with my lips.  I did not even bother to lick my lips, because the cold weather made me fear that my tongue would stick to my face.  My family and I were on our way home from my grandmothers house, during the cold winter months of December.  I loved Christmas and who wouldn’t when you are a 6 year old little boy that is destined to have Santa drop off about  600 pounds of toys in a few days.  As I thought about my future presents I looked out the car window and saw something I would never forget.  I saw a large red sliegh flying through the air, with a large man navigating  this airbound vehicle.  My belief in Santa was confirmed on Christmas because before I went to sleep there were “O” presents under our Christmas tree, but when I awoke the whole family room was filled with presents.

Pretty much my whole life, just about everything my parents told me came true,  so it was not hard to believe in fairy tales and mythical characters such as Santa, that my parents said were real.   My parents demanded respect and it was expected that I follow their requests without question, so its not a surprise that throughout my childhood I asked very few questions.   My parents were serious about respecting others especially adults and school work so it was not surprising that my bottom was often met by the loving hands of my parents when I veered off the course.

I don’t believe that my life is very different from the lives of many other people, so I think  people can relate to my personal expereinces.  Just like many other people I believed almost everything that I was told by my parents both fictional and factual things. I blindly accepted what was handed to me from my parents , close relatives and other adults because well…they were my parents and they taught that parents and other adults are people that I should said I should listen to and trust in.  They were the ones who taught me just about everything.  My other family members futher confirmed my trust in my parents because almost all my family and friends had the same belief systems, rituals, and they practiced the same religion. Trying to separate the fact from fiction was not a mental exercise that I frequently practiced.   I was taught not to challenge authority, which would have been the perception if I ever asked the validity of what I was being told by my parents and others.   Because of how I was raised I had limited abilities when it came to separating fact from fiction, determining reality, and other key analytic skills.

Of course like many people, as time passed  I learned that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the tooth fairy were not real.  Unfortunately I did not learn that these myths were ficticious on my own, I often learned it from a friend or relative.  I never learned to question reality or to question anything that was presented to me, I started to accept words from friends, family, and teachers as truth, without challenging their ideas.

But as I learned that certain myths were not real, I learned that the advice I received about the real world were subjective in nature.   There were several  periods in my life where I faced uncertainty, unemployment, and underemployment.  I started to learn things about the real world that were not real, like having to go to college to make nice money, or if you do graduate from college you’ll get a good paying job.  A common theme that made me realize that college graduation does not equal a great career and nice pay, were these letters I kept receiving from various businesses.  These letters were basically the same in nature, even though they came from different businesses.   The letters would always say something similar to this, “Unfortunately we are unable to hire you at this time.  We have found other candidates that better match the qualifications we were looking for.  We will keep your application on file in case a similar position opens up in the future.”  During these times of unemployment, I could not believe that I was not selected for the  hundreds of jobs I had applied for.  I did what my parents, mentors, and teachers told me but I still could not find a job and it  made me realize that times are changing, maybe the advice I was getting was outdated and that I should look for other reasons why I have been unemployed and underemployed.  I also realized that their are many parts of my life that I have to define or make sense of by myself and my parents and teachers will not be able to define my life experiences for me.

I challenge people to look at the things they do, the rituals they participate in, the religions they practice and find out the origins of those things and figure out why they do what they do.  Why is this important?  So that an individual can learn the history behind things they participate in and determine if what they do is really worth doing.  This process will allow a person to get a better understanding of their self and let them know if they are doing something because other people are doing it or because they choose to believe in it and participate in it.

End Times?

Marie like most women wanted to start a family however Marie is not like most women in the work force. The military delayed her ability to have children and start her family but this obstacle will soon be crossed. She survived two tours in Iraq and is now this Army veteran is going to hang up her military boots. But the one thing she has been waiting to do might be stopped by something that is much bigger than a bullet or IED. Marie Exley believes that she can’t start her family because we are in the “End Time”s and that the world started its demise on May 11, 2011. Marie is a part of a Christian group that believes the world is coming to an end and that she must spread the word that “Judgment Day Is Almost Here” to people across the United States and the world.  So instead of taking time to start her family she is going to drive around the US and tell people to get ready for “Judgment Day”.

Should we all be afraid that we are close to the end of time? Is America and the world falling apart? Is this world we live in getting worse? Are there signs out there that we all are living in the “End Times”? According to FEMA the number of Major Disasters Declarations, Emergency Declarations, and Fire Management Assistance Declarations have been on the rise since 1953. The 2004 Tsunami took the lives of over 300,000 people in Indonesia and in 2008 cyclones took the lives of over 138,000 people in Myanmar. Birth rates in the US are declining, continuing a 12 year trend according to the CDC. Since 1981, AIDS has claimed the lives of more than 25.2 million people and that number continues to rise. According to CNN Money, the poverty rate has been increasing since 2000 reaching 15.1% in 2011, which is close to the high in 1983 when it was 15.2%. Clearly these statistics are good enough to prove that we are living in bad times, right?
If one is going to look at the documented reports of natural disasters one must think of how technology has improved the accuracy of such reporting. I think  the number of disasters reported on FEMA’s website does not accurately reflect the correct number of disasters that happened in the past. In the past, I bet that states and counties may not have known what qualified as a reportable disaster, who to report it to, and how to accurately keep record of the disaster. With the improvements of technology it’s become much easier to report and disseminate disaster information than it was in the 50s or 60s.
Also just looking at the number of people killed in major natural disasters one will see something strange considering that the number of people in the world is increasing. Although the number of people killed in the Indonesia Tsunami and Myanmar cyclones was in the hundreds of thousands the China flood of 1931 took the lives of over 400,000 people and the China earthquake of 1976 took the lives of 700,000 people. So currently the world is more populated but the number of people killed in major disasters are smaller than the people killed in those major disasters that have happened in the past.
Well what about birth rates, death rates, and diseases? According to the CDC teen pregnancy rates are dropping and in 2010 the teen birth rates for all races saw a decrease, so we have less young women giving birth than in the past. The increase in the US population did more than just add more men and women to the streets of the US. This increase in women also increased the population of women that are not at child-bearing age, giving us more women that can’t have children yet. So we have more women that biologically can’t have children yet and a reduction of teen girls having children, thus slowing down the birth rate in the US.
There has been a decrease in diseases that cause death tolls to amass in millions in a short period of time. The last time that we saw a major epidemic that took the lives of at least 1 million people in a short period of time was the Asian Flu where 4 million lives were lost in two years, 1956-1958. As far as life expectancy people are living longer with a life expectancy of 78.5 years.
According to the FBI all crimes have been decreasing and continue to decrease over time. If our world is getting worse with time then why has crime been on the decline? According to the US Census, the United States population has continued to grow since the 1950’s. According to the US census bureau from 2000 to 2010 the United States experienced a 9.7% increase in overall citizen population. So, there are more people in the United States that are available to commit crimes but we are seeing crime decrease. One can’t argue that technology is affecting documentable crimes because technology has allowed us to better track crimes. Also because of technology more crimes should be able to be committed and caught by authorities. In 1984 approximately 8% of the population had one or more personal computers and in 2003 an estimated 62% of households had one or more computers. So now we have more people with an increased ability to commit crimes such as fraud but we still see a decrease in these types of crimes.

So, you make the determination, is this world as bad as we try to make it out to be? If you think that the world is getting worse please comment and provide evidence.

Sources

http://www.cdc.gov/teenpregnancy/

Click to access 12s0312.pdf

http://2010.census.gov/2010census/data/

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm
http://www.fema.gov/news/disaster_totals_annual.fema

http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/13/news/economy/poverty_rate_income/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_disasters_by_death_toll
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40885541/ns/us_news-life/t/end-days-may-believers-enter-final-stretch/

What Are We Going To Do?

 “You Don’t Belong In This Neighborhood!!!” were the words screamed in a once quiet neighborhood, in Pearland, TX on March 13, 2012.  One would expect that these words should be used towards suspected adult criminals in an attempt to get them to leave.  But of course this was not the case and the woman screaming , is doing nothing that would be considered appropriate. 

The woman that was doing the screaming is Deanna Johnson and she is screaming at several little kids.  But what she does before she starts screaming is what is most disturbing about Deanna’s behavior.  Before screaming at the children Deanna was driving her Jeep Cherokee when she saw three children in her neighborhood, one on a bike, two kids on a go kart.   When the children see the approaching vehicle, the children pull their go kart of the main road and onto the grassy edge of the neighborhood park, to avoid traffic. 

According to court documents obtained from the attorney of one of the children, state that Deanna Johnson decided to drive her vehicle off the main road towards the kids that were now off the main road.  It is said that Deanna ran over the curb onto the grassy area and rammed her Jeep Cherokee into the child’s go kart, head-on. 

According to Jules, one of the children involved in the incident, says:

 Johnson got out of her vehicle and confronted the boys in a hostile and threatening manner yelling “Where do you live? Who are your parents?” while shaking her finger at the kids. Jules goes on to say, “With all due respect, Ma’am, I live down the street,” to which Johnson allegedly tells him that she didn’t care and that she was calling the police.

The boys involved in the accident sustained neck and back injuries that were treated at a local hospital.  Police did question Deanna Johnson about her actions, where she admitted to driving her jeep off road towards some children.  Deanna Johnson was not drug tested, charged, or arrested after her admittance to her participation in this incident.  A Sheriff Captain that was on the scene during the questioning of Deanna Johnson consulted the District Attorney on how to proceed forward and the District Attorney told the police not to charge or arrest Deanna.

Now I did not bring up race about the people involved in this incident until now, because race should not influence how we are going to feel and react to an incident.  This is a tragic and unfortunate story no matter how you try to spin it regardless of race.  Deanna Johnson is a Caucasian woman and Jules one of the boys in the go kart is African American.  Also I am not claiming that Deanna Johnson is racist or did what she did because of race.  What is so curious to me is how time after time Whites and Hispanics that appear to be white are presumed innocent more than minorities especially African Americans. 

If police are supposed to use impartiality when they are assessing situations then why do they continue to arrest and charge African Americans at much higher rates than other races?  In this case we have a woman admitting to hitting children with her vehicle, admitting to it, but the police don’t think it’s important to do anything else further.  All one has to do is pull up statistics and you will see minorities are arrested and charged at higher rates than non-minorities.  Why do the police believe that nothing else needs to be done to Deanna Johnson? 

Are we going to just listen to read stories, listen to radio stations and watch television news broadcasts and shake our heads at the injustice we hear and see?  When will we tell police, media outlets, television stations, and radio stations that African Americans and other minorities need the same treatment and same presumption of innocence as other races?

When are we going to get together in our communities and open up discussions about what’s happening in our country and try to come up with solutions?  And when we gather together in our communities we don’t need to segregate our selves by race.  We need to gather all the races in the community and participate in positive activities together and show one another we all are more similar than different.  We have to change our injustices together because doing things separate has not been working.

Sources

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-768331