Legalization of Marijuana

Okay so I've held my opinion about this all semester about this green leafy substance. In my opinion sure why not legalize it but within small amounts? I've seen the good side and the ugly side of what marijuana can do, but is that up to the government to choose what we can and can't do? NO! I have lots of friends that smoke or eat this (brownies). In my opinion it is a recreational drug, or for some a medical need.

People make their own decisions in life and that's the way it should be, others may think using marijuana is endangering yourself but how could you? There has never been a report of someone overdosing on marijuana or poisoning themselves from this. As I was reading about how the poll on the legalization of marijuana has increased on legalizing this substance, and how most Americans support the use for medical purposes. Which if they could legalize for medical use on all states that would be a huge step. I know with these type of things it will be baby steps and especially with our very conservative state will probably be the last to legalize. I just feel like I did with the Abortion Law and that people can make their own decisions and if they decide to abuse it than they suffer the consequences. If the government thinks that cannabis  is so dangerous than they should make alcohol illegal as well, it causes more problems than cannabis. Alcohol causes liver damage, decreases humans cognitive thinking, addiction, wrecks, fights, and worst of all death.
I've also seen the ugly side of what marijuana can lead to I've seen my family member go from just smoking when we were in High school and now he/she is in and out of jail for dealing. I have seen it to where now this person has a full blown addiction but with cocaine or whatever they are taking now. Do I think that cannabis was the starter for it? Yes and No, only because yes he made the decision to start smoking and from there he made the decision to become a drug dealer. Now from that point on that is when it went downhill, but that was THEIR choice to start to sell it. From the point of selling cannabis and other drugs is when it all fell apart and they are at this point now. I didn't grow up in a nice quiet neighborhood, there was gang violence and shootouts which is another cause of drugs and gangs claiming their areas to sell, but this isn't just because marijuana it's cocaine, heroin, etc.

Legalizing this drug is not easy thinking of all these different arguments. For medical reasons I can see how it's important and for a small amount for whatever use. Either way people find outlets to escape from reality whether it be good or bad but the choice is up to them. Whether they make it into an addiction or just to relax how is this drug any different from the other drugs that the government approve of that have dangerous side effects?
 

Legalizing Gay Marriage

I was reading Crystal Reese's Blog and she brought up some good points. I never thought about how many gay couples we see everyday whether in school, or out in town, even in our own families, so why not just legalize it? The same sex couples are living together, adopting children just like they are married so why not just let them be married? You can't stop them from doing what they are going to do and if it's religion that's controlling that part or the government frankly it's nobodies business. I see a lot of people protesting against gay marriage yet if you were to ask them did god discriminate? because most of these people are religious that protest. Yes these individuals might be living in sin but they know that already and don't need reminding, plus even if they are "sinners" that doesn't make them who they are. People say that they influence others to do this well yes they do, it's a message to others to say that they can express who they are without having to hide behind closed doors.

Even though the government aren't letting these individuals get married, I think eventually most states will approve of it. It took us this long to legalize in some states but it will slowly grow. I really liked this Blog and made me think more about the legalization of gay marriages and how we see it all around us yet it isn't permanent like other marriages because they are the same sex.

Texas and Abortions

                 
The Texas clinics have stopped providing abortions after the court ruling in July and most clinics are beginning to shut down since they aren't making any money. Now I am pro life and I do believe there are options besides abortion and how other families are always seeking for a child that they might not be able to have. I also believe that there are things that happen besides unprotected sex that can lead to an unplanned pregnancy like rape and in that case what right does the woman have? Throughout a women's lifetime we have never had as many rights to do as we please compared to this century, and to take that option away it limits us to what we can do. To have a choice in the matter of our own bodies and what we want to do with it is our responsibility and our human right, and to have the court decide whether or not we can have an abortion or not is crazy to me. Yes just because there are so many risk in to having an abortion and there could be some side effects to doing certain procedures that is simply up to the woman and if she is willing to take that risk.
I was reading the health guide in the New York Times on abortion and how there are physical and emotional risk involved in all of this. Now I understand the physical part of the risk but the emotional? Even if the woman were to keep the child and/or give it up for adoption you would think that wouldn't involve emotional stress? To me it would be just as much distress if you would decide to go on with the pregnancy because even after the fact you would than carry the child, and could  resent he/she because you weren't able to accomplish your goals in life, which can also lead to child abuse where the mother resents or, even worse never wanted the child to begin with. Option two would be to put the baby up for adoption but even that leads to distress because than the mother has the mentality of that one annoying question, "what if?". I understand all of the options and I'm sure other women understand too but that doesn't give the court the right to make a decision for us. If the court could rule that contraception could be readily available to anyone I don't think abortion would be as high as it is either. There are so many things that play into this ruling that it makes you want to pull your hair out. I was born out of wedlock and my mother was a teen mom, I've always been grateful that she decided to keep me and am lucky to have found a father who treats me like I was his own. I am pro life like I said and I don't agree with abortion but when it comes to a point where a woman has no choice in the matter of her own body that's when there is a problem. Religion shouldn't have a choice in the matter and neither should the government period but unfortunately both do.

Who's going to care for the Baby Boomers?

I wanted to read a blog that I could relate to the field that I am going into which is nursing, and as I was flipping through peoples commentaries I found one that caught my eye. Who will care for you when you're sick and old? Now in this blog John Aravosis raises the question because of a recent ordeal that he is going through with his father who has oral cancer. He describes how his father has excellent insurance (or so he thought) and how we live in the best country in the world it wouldn't be that hard to find a health insurance company to care for his father. Yet when it came down to it his 84 year old mother was the caregiver for a while since it was so difficult to find someone that would take his fathers insurance and make sure it would cover all the expenses. Which in this blog Aravosis is still paying out of pocket for a in-home nurse. So as this is all happening to his parents Aravosis wonders who will take care of the next generation because he has no spouse, no children, and no retirement plan, and most of us say that it's our family or children that will be our caregivers. Now let's get real about this times have changed and roles have actually been switched at times where females are the main bread winners now. Aravosis discusses this issue and has evidence to support this issue and how the AARP report detailing how bad the coming problem might be. Since women are now a part of the workforce and families are decreasing in size who will be there to care for you? Mothers or daughters are the ones to care for others but what happens when they themselves get sick? Will the husband or male be the ones to care for them? If that is the only source of income left then they would lose 100% of the family income, let alone 50% when the women are the ones to cut down on hours to take care of their sick loved ones.
Now I get Aravosis point on this matter, and I know how insurance companies get be a real pain in the ass, but I don't see the evidentiary support on his besides a commentary from Michelle Singletary on the insurance issue, for me to actually believe that this is going to be a problem I would've liked to see some statistics or charts or something on this matter. Instead I only really saw just opinions from just his side of the story and what has happened to him with his situation. I understand that the GOP health insurance is complicated but I like numbers and I have to see the evidence for myself. Everyone has their opinions but can you support it with hard evidence?
With that being said I do believe he has a point and I do think that there is problem I mean its right in front of our faces right now with the government and congress acting like children and fighting over things that could be dealt with in a timely manner. Instead they chose a different route and now the debt has increased where I question where will that money be cut out from? So with that I do see Aravosis logic. I definitely will be wondering the same question 20-50 years from now since I will be one of the people caring for the baby boomers.

What to do about Obamacare?

It took me a really long time to figure out what the heck to write about, being the person that I am and paying absolutely no attention to newspapers, politics, the news in general I was very clueless to what was really going on. To admit that I really did not understand what Obamacare was exactly is embarrassing to me because I know as a citizen of the U.S. I should be concerned about what we are having to do and what rules are being regulated over insurance.
As I began reading John Barrasso  story on "Beware Obamacare" it started to get me thinking... what is the big deal about this Obamacare? So I started to look into it and I know I still have a lot of reading to do about the entire situation but here is what I found first. Now I understand that there's many different opinions about Obamacare on the individual side as well as the business side but I only got to the individual side of things so bear with me. I read that Obamacare increases consumer protections, which these help to protect people like you and me from being dropped while sick, denied care due to lifetime limits, denied care for pre-existing conditions, and also offers Americans a better legal standing against health insurance companies. Obamacare also gives tens of millions of low-income and middle-income Americans access to quality health care by providing discounts through the health insurance marketplace. Now for a person like me who is still trying to understand all of this is also trying to figure out how this will benefit college students who aren't insured. So I went to healthcare.gov and wanted to see what the page was like and what exactly it said. Also, from my understanding that if you don't have insurance by Jan. 1, 2014 that you will get fined, so when I first thought about it my first thought was why wouldn't you get the insurance?! Your paying a higher cost if you don't get insurance because what if there's an emergency medical need to the point where you have to visit the emergency room? those medical bills start to add up real quick. Compared to having insurance where you wouldn't get fined and you would pay a co-pay and be done with it.
So as I was scanning the marketplace trying to find something on college students it said that the marketplace had 22 preventive services to keep college students healthy at no additional cost. So those check-ups or shots that are needed for school could be free instead of paying about $200 dollars for one single shot. Also, if you need help paying for coverage you could also qualify for lower costs. All this information I was reading into seemed to be helpful for students to get insurance. So I began to read Barrasso's side of the story about Obamacare and now I'm stuck in the middle. With Barrasso's argument he had four facts about the new healthcare system that should raise concerns on why Obamacare is not going to be affective 1.) Higher cost, 2.) Losing your doctor, 3.) Fraud and Identity theft,  and 4.) Customer service failures. In his paper he has very good arguments and substantial evidence to back up his arguments. In which he states that Obama said that cost of insurance will be lower than your cell phone bill. Which the average cell phone bill is about $71, now I would be really surprised if every person got a rate lower than that especially with families of low-income especially when rates are varying between states which Barrasso provides that evidence as well. The only argument of his that I didn't get was number three "Fraud and Identity theft" there is a lot of personal information that you will have to input in order to get a quote from an insurance company and yes that could cause identity theft but isn't it the same as signing up for financial aid and having to put personal information like social security and income? There are options to block and secure websites just like the others.
After reading and doing some research I was all for Obamacare because it seemed like it would help the majority. I do believe there still are flaws that could be fixed, after reading Barrasso's article there are things that I think the government still have to talk about and agree to something rather than just shutting down. His argument was very convincing and did steer to the "right" a little more but at the same time I would like family members to be able to be secure that are low-income and have children to think about. This guy definitely made me think and I still want to look into this more to see what is the right choice for all of us is.

Veteran confronts rape, suicide: 'I am angry that others are going through this'

In this article written by Moni Basu, he writes about "Veteran confronts rape, suicide", Where he introduces Veteran Jack Williams and his story of rape, and suicide attempts. He was 18 when he joined the military for Vietnam, and was not able to serve his country due to the injuries of his sexual assault. After 49 years he finally speaks out about the incident and is getting the proper medical treatment he needed so many years ago.

You always hear about the suicide rates within the military and how high those rates have always been. This article tells a more horrific side of why the suicide rates are so high, not only due to the war or post-traumatic symptoms, but also rape and sexual assaults. Now when you think about sexual assaults most people automatically think it has to do with women, in this case a lot of the rape victims are men as well. Most of these incidents are not being reported by the men because of embarrassment, "There's an assumption that rape doesn't happen to men, or they must have been weak and not strong enough to fight off" says Williams. Also Military has this persona of being "tough", and "Strong" so things like this are shrugged off.

This article introduces the stories of not only Jack Williams but of many men and women and how they weren't properly treated for rape, and/or medically diagnosed for their problems. Rape doesn't just harm the individual physically but also mentally and emotionally. A study by a former Airforce psychologist Craig Bryan found that military victims of violent assault or rape were six times more likely to attempt suicide than non-victims.

Many men and women are fighting back now to get people to hear their story by speaking out in documentaries like "The invisible War" and "Justice Denied". Brian Lewis, who was the first male rape survivor to testify before congress, is trying to get congress to pass legislation known as the STOP act that would take reporting, investigation, prosecution, and oversight of sexual assault cases out of chain of command and place it under the jurisdiction of an autonomous oversight committee.

I found this article very interesting, this article also hit close to home being a victim of sexual assault and not finding justice. I find it very frustrating on how military just "patches" up these problems or incidents by discharging or diagnosing military victims with a different problem. There are many links and many different stories on this subject which I found interesting especially with the statistics. I had no idea there were so many victims both being men and women and everyone should check it out.