Or maybe just song of my day...
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Deaf People and students at Michigan State University need your help.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/DeafEd_MSU/?e
Go read this, then add your name to the list of people in support. I understand budget cuts need to happen somewhere, but not when it will isolate the deaf community in Michigan into an oral program. That isn't the way this should work!
Really, go read it.
To summarize, MSU is looking to make room in the budget by cutting deaf education and ASL classes at the university. That would leave only Eastern Michigan University as the only deaf education school, and a strictly oral one, at that (what is this? the 1950's? It's almost 2010, for christ sake.)
I am about 80% in to make the drive out there next friday for the rally. If you're in, let me know. I could use someone to split gas money with...It's not a short drive...
Go read this, then add your name to the list of people in support. I understand budget cuts need to happen somewhere, but not when it will isolate the deaf community in Michigan into an oral program. That isn't the way this should work!
Really, go read it.
To summarize, MSU is looking to make room in the budget by cutting deaf education and ASL classes at the university. That would leave only Eastern Michigan University as the only deaf education school, and a strictly oral one, at that (what is this? the 1950's? It's almost 2010, for christ sake.)
I am about 80% in to make the drive out there next friday for the rally. If you're in, let me know. I could use someone to split gas money with...It's not a short drive...
Monday, November 23, 2009
My English Comp Argumentative Paper.
Feel free, and please do, read this entry. Punch holes in my statements. Tell me what I messed up. I'd really appreciate that. It's a rough draft. Tell me what you think. It's not like we all don't have an extra 20 minutes that needs wasting on the line, is it?
Why on Earth Would We Have A Food Shortage in America? (working title)
On November 16th, 2009, Jason DeParle with the New York Times reported that, “The number of Americans who lived in households that lacked consistent access to adequate food soared last year, to 49 million...”. That statistic is a record number since the Department of Agriculture began tracking food insecurity 14 years ago. Food insecurity is defined by the World Health Organization as “having access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life” (Teems 209). An important point to deduce from that is food insecurity is not necessary the same as hunger. A person can gorge themselves on frozen pizzas and hotpockets, wash it down with can after can of Coca Cola and still not eat anything nutritious, healthy, or reasonably satiating. A large part of the food security equation is nutrition based. Food production is not the issue at hand. Researchers for Oklahoma State University reported that, in 2009, we as a country, are projected to produce 2.17 billion bushels of wheat, 12.1 billion bushels of corn, and 2.88 billion bushels of soybeans (2009). That is a large amount, quite literally, tons, of food being produced right here in our own country. That's not even counting the fruits and vegetables we grow here, nor the massive amount food we import from other countries. With this much food production going on in America, why do 14 million American citizens million have trouble with getting enough of the right food to eat?
There are a lot of factors involved in the issue of food security in America. Most Americans have a a budget they can't, or at least shouldn't, go over every month; families only have so much money available every month to cover expenses. Utilities, healthcare costs, rising fuel prices, and a weakened economy all play a factor in the costs associated with living, and also the amount of money families are able to be spend on food. The large amounts of greatly processed and unhealthy food available at our local supermarkets are certainly not helping American families make better choices about what they eat. It doesn't take a scientist to notice that Americans aren't making healthy choices at the checkout counter. It does, however, take a little more investigation to uncover just how much of our national food supply we're feeding to animals in an attempt to feed the country with calories from animal sources, and why that's an issue. In 1997, David Pimental reported for Cornell University that each year an estimated 41 million tons of plant protein is fed to U.S. livestock to produce an estimated 7 million tons of animal protein for human consumption. That's an aggregate loss of 34 MILLION tons of food that could be fed to hungry Americans every year. About 26 million tons of livestock feed comes from grains and another 15 million tons from forage crops. Those numbers are sure to have gone up in the decade since Mr. Pimental reported them. That is a gross misallocation of edible food that could be better used to feed the American public. Simply put, as consumers, the down-turned economy is putting the crunch on our pocketbooks. Healthcare and utility costs are rising, and the food we have ready access to isn't doing it's job to keep American citizens healthy and well nourished. The food that we eat plays a big role in our lives, affecting everything from availability of food, to healthcare and fuel costs.
Current events notwithstanding, the healthcare issue is a big factor right now. Let's start there. It might seem strange to start a discussion of nationwide hunger on the topic of health insurance costs, but, as we'll find out, healthcare costs make up a huge chunk of our individual annual budgets. Insurance premiums are rising every year. As of 2009, healthcare costs have risen 5% since 2008, and a whopping 131% since 1999. The average family health insurance policy costs is $13,375 annually (Fritze 2009). That's like buying a new subcompact car every year. You wouldn't even be stuck with buying the same car every year. At that price, the consumer would have options! As of the writing of this paper, you could buy one of 6 new cars annually for the same price as the average family health insurance policy in America. In case you're curious, those options would be a Toyota Yaris, a Smart car, a Chevy Aveo, a Kia Rio, a Nissan Versa, OR a Hyundai Accent (Gold 2009). Granted, those cars are fairly basic, but when you consider the extravagance that would be necessary to buy a new car every year the point is hard to ignore.
Why exactly are our healthcare costs on the rise? That's a question that can't be answered in entirety in this paper, but we can touch on it. A large part of the reason is that Americans are eating more calories per day than ever in our history. In fact, between 1970 and 2000, the average number of calories eaten every day by Americans has risen 24.5% (USDA Factbook 2003). It's quite plain to see that more food plus an increasingly sedentary lifestyle are making American's fatter and more unhealthy than they've ever been. Reporters in America are writing new articles about the obesity epidemic every few months, at least.The diets and activity levels of Americans have a large role in shaping, pun intended, our nations health. It's no longer the case that people die of old age; Americans can't continue to believe the myth that people routinely die simply from getting too old. Rather, people die of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, cancer and a whole slew of other medical conditions. According to the Washington Post, a study of more than 500,000 middle aged and elderly Americans discovered that eating approximately 4 ounces of red meat, about the size of a small hamburger, caused a 30% increase in likelihood of death during the next ten years, mostly from heart disease and cancer (Stein 2009). Furthermore, Rashmi Sinha of the National Cancer Institute said herself that, “The bottom line is we found an association between red meat and processed meat and an increased risk of mortality.” (2009). In that same article, Rob Stein reported that “After accounting for other variables that might confound the findings, such as smoking and physical activity, the researchers found that those who ate the most red meat -- about a quarter-pound a day -- were more likely to die of any reason, and from heart disease and cancer in particular, than those who ate the least -- the equivalent of a couple of slices of ham a day. Among women, those who ate the most red meat were 36 percent more likely to die for any reason, 20 percent more likely to die of cancer and 50 percent more likely to die of heart disease. Men who ate the most meat were 31 percent more likely to die for any reason, 22 percent more likely to die of cancer and 27 percent more likely to die of heart disease.”. Those aren't small numbers. Americans cannot ignore consumption of animals as a significant contributing factor in rising insurance costs. The evidence is there. Americans eat a lot of meat. Meat consumption is linked with higher rates of death and those that eat meat will have more medical problems than those that abstain from meat. Ilness, and the high percentage of unhealthy people in America is what is driving insurance costs up. A total lack of regard for the proper maintenance of the American body is the main cause of increase in insurance premiums. That rise in costs is directly related with how much money Americans get taken out of their checks to pay for healthcare costs and subsequently don't have available in their bank accounts for their grocery needs. The next large part of that is the misguided allocation of American resources.
As mentioned earlier, America produces an extremely large amount of grain every year. There is no reason we shouldn't be able to feed the hungry in our country, and quite possibly other countries, if we were just to rearrange how those grains are allocated. I will start this section off with two statistics from Jonathan Safron Foer's new book, Eating Animals. One, on average, Americans will each eat 21,000 complete animals over the course of their lifetime. And two, Americans are known to choose to eat less than 0.25% of the edible food grown on the planet. (2009). In addition to that, it takes, on average, 16 pounds of grain to produce one pound of edible animal flesh (PETA 2004). What those to statistics mean, taken together, is that the majority of Americans are eating in a manner that is inherently wasteful and inefficient. As of the year 2000, Americans were eating almost 200 pounds (199.99) of grain per capita, 195.2 pounds of meat and a whopping 593 pounds of dairy products (USDA 2003). If we take the statistic given early, 16 pounds of grains for one pound edible animal flesh, that means we feed 3,123.2 pounds of grain fed to animals PER PERSON to satisfy the American demand for meat. Another way to put this, as David Pimental did in 1997, is that "More than half the U.S. grain and nearly 40 percent of world grain is being fed to livestock rather than being consumed directly by humans.". He believes, that we would feed humans directly, instead of redirecting those calories to animals, we would be able to feed nearly 800 million people annually (1997).
Given that meat is so wasteful, and that eating meat is being increasingly proven to cause a great number of medical issues, we could conclude rather simply that raising animals for eating meat is a large cause for the food shortage issues in America. This paper could stop there and I'd say that I have made valid points and the negatives outweigh the positive, but, as always, there's more to the story. David Pimental, mentioned early with Cornell University, also reported that animal protein production requires more than eight times as much fossil-fuel energy than production of plant protein. Pimentel also found broiler chickens to be the most efficient use of fossil energy, and beef, the least. Chicken meat production consumes energy in a 4:1 ratio to protein output; beef cattle production requires an energy input to protein output ratio of 54:1. Lamb meat production is nearly as inefficient at 50:1. Other ratios range from 13:1 for turkey meat and 14:1 for milk protein to 17:1 for pork and 26:1 for eggs (1997). So, when we also take into account the large amount of fossil fuels required to produce and transport animal flesh, we can also see that a large portion of the oil produced is allocated to that industry, thus removing it from the supply for our daily use in other industry or personal transportation, further raising prices at the pump, and on our heating bills. This is yet another knock to the pocketbook, leaving Americans with less money to spend on their nutrition and food.
We can even take that one further, with more help from Pimental, grain-fed beef production requires 100,000 liters of water for every kilogram of food. Raising broiler chickens takes 3,500 liters of water to make a kilogram of meat. In comparison, soybean production uses 2,000 liters for kilogram of food produced; rice, 1,912; wheat, 900; and potatoes, 500 liters (1997). That means, that the animal agriculture industry in America is very deserving of a large portion of blame for the water shortages in the southern and western states in America. If the Americans that live in that area of the country are bothered with water usage restrictions, they are able to voice that concern with their pocketbooks.
Writing checks to the companies that raise, feed and water these animals is a fantastic way to ensure that these abuses never stop. All of the citizens in this country have a voice in all of these matters. If Americans are concerned with the food shortages, water shortages, and rising fuel costs, they need to focus their energies and expenditures on the solution. Not being part of the problem is to be part of the solution. Americans can't continue to endorse the practices outlined in this paper if they are to live healthy and sustainable lives. While Americans may not emotionally or mentally endorse these practices, consumers are able to vote every time they make a purchase. Change doesn't need to happen only in the poll booths. One person can't change the world, but collectively, humans and societies have the power to do great things. Gandi had it right when he suggested that people “Be the change you want to see in the world”. Change starts on a personal level first. It's never to soon to change, but can often be too late.
DeParle, Jason. "Hunger in U.S. at a 14-Year High". NY Times. 11/16/09.
Foer, Jonathan Safran. Eating Animals. NY, NY: Little, Brown and Co, 2009.
Fritze, John. "Average Family Health Insurance premiums". Washington Post. 11/21/09.
Gold, Aaron. "Cheapest Cars of 2009". About.com. 11/21/09.
"World Wheat Report". OK State University. 11/20/09.
"Meat Means Misery for the Worlds Hungry". PETA. 11/20/09.
Pimental, David. "Eight Meaty Facts about Animal Food". Cornell University. 11/21/09.
Stein, Rob. "Daily Red Meat Raises Chances of Dying Early". Washington Post. 11/21/09.
Teems, Jennifer. "Hunger and Food Insecurity in America". The Faster Times. 11/20/09
USDA Factbook. U.S. Department of Agriculture. 2003
Why on Earth Would We Have A Food Shortage in America? (working title)
On November 16th, 2009, Jason DeParle with the New York Times reported that, “The number of Americans who lived in households that lacked consistent access to adequate food soared last year, to 49 million...”. That statistic is a record number since the Department of Agriculture began tracking food insecurity 14 years ago. Food insecurity is defined by the World Health Organization as “having access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life” (Teems 209). An important point to deduce from that is food insecurity is not necessary the same as hunger. A person can gorge themselves on frozen pizzas and hotpockets, wash it down with can after can of Coca Cola and still not eat anything nutritious, healthy, or reasonably satiating. A large part of the food security equation is nutrition based. Food production is not the issue at hand. Researchers for Oklahoma State University reported that, in 2009, we as a country, are projected to produce 2.17 billion bushels of wheat, 12.1 billion bushels of corn, and 2.88 billion bushels of soybeans (2009). That is a large amount, quite literally, tons, of food being produced right here in our own country. That's not even counting the fruits and vegetables we grow here, nor the massive amount food we import from other countries. With this much food production going on in America, why do 14 million American citizens million have trouble with getting enough of the right food to eat?
There are a lot of factors involved in the issue of food security in America. Most Americans have a a budget they can't, or at least shouldn't, go over every month; families only have so much money available every month to cover expenses. Utilities, healthcare costs, rising fuel prices, and a weakened economy all play a factor in the costs associated with living, and also the amount of money families are able to be spend on food. The large amounts of greatly processed and unhealthy food available at our local supermarkets are certainly not helping American families make better choices about what they eat. It doesn't take a scientist to notice that Americans aren't making healthy choices at the checkout counter. It does, however, take a little more investigation to uncover just how much of our national food supply we're feeding to animals in an attempt to feed the country with calories from animal sources, and why that's an issue. In 1997, David Pimental reported for Cornell University that each year an estimated 41 million tons of plant protein is fed to U.S. livestock to produce an estimated 7 million tons of animal protein for human consumption. That's an aggregate loss of 34 MILLION tons of food that could be fed to hungry Americans every year. About 26 million tons of livestock feed comes from grains and another 15 million tons from forage crops. Those numbers are sure to have gone up in the decade since Mr. Pimental reported them. That is a gross misallocation of edible food that could be better used to feed the American public. Simply put, as consumers, the down-turned economy is putting the crunch on our pocketbooks. Healthcare and utility costs are rising, and the food we have ready access to isn't doing it's job to keep American citizens healthy and well nourished. The food that we eat plays a big role in our lives, affecting everything from availability of food, to healthcare and fuel costs.
Current events notwithstanding, the healthcare issue is a big factor right now. Let's start there. It might seem strange to start a discussion of nationwide hunger on the topic of health insurance costs, but, as we'll find out, healthcare costs make up a huge chunk of our individual annual budgets. Insurance premiums are rising every year. As of 2009, healthcare costs have risen 5% since 2008, and a whopping 131% since 1999. The average family health insurance policy costs is $13,375 annually (Fritze 2009). That's like buying a new subcompact car every year. You wouldn't even be stuck with buying the same car every year. At that price, the consumer would have options! As of the writing of this paper, you could buy one of 6 new cars annually for the same price as the average family health insurance policy in America. In case you're curious, those options would be a Toyota Yaris, a Smart car, a Chevy Aveo, a Kia Rio, a Nissan Versa, OR a Hyundai Accent (Gold 2009). Granted, those cars are fairly basic, but when you consider the extravagance that would be necessary to buy a new car every year the point is hard to ignore.
Why exactly are our healthcare costs on the rise? That's a question that can't be answered in entirety in this paper, but we can touch on it. A large part of the reason is that Americans are eating more calories per day than ever in our history. In fact, between 1970 and 2000, the average number of calories eaten every day by Americans has risen 24.5% (USDA Factbook 2003). It's quite plain to see that more food plus an increasingly sedentary lifestyle are making American's fatter and more unhealthy than they've ever been. Reporters in America are writing new articles about the obesity epidemic every few months, at least.The diets and activity levels of Americans have a large role in shaping, pun intended, our nations health. It's no longer the case that people die of old age; Americans can't continue to believe the myth that people routinely die simply from getting too old. Rather, people die of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, cancer and a whole slew of other medical conditions. According to the Washington Post, a study of more than 500,000 middle aged and elderly Americans discovered that eating approximately 4 ounces of red meat, about the size of a small hamburger, caused a 30% increase in likelihood of death during the next ten years, mostly from heart disease and cancer (Stein 2009). Furthermore, Rashmi Sinha of the National Cancer Institute said herself that, “The bottom line is we found an association between red meat and processed meat and an increased risk of mortality.” (2009). In that same article, Rob Stein reported that “After accounting for other variables that might confound the findings, such as smoking and physical activity, the researchers found that those who ate the most red meat -- about a quarter-pound a day -- were more likely to die of any reason, and from heart disease and cancer in particular, than those who ate the least -- the equivalent of a couple of slices of ham a day. Among women, those who ate the most red meat were 36 percent more likely to die for any reason, 20 percent more likely to die of cancer and 50 percent more likely to die of heart disease. Men who ate the most meat were 31 percent more likely to die for any reason, 22 percent more likely to die of cancer and 27 percent more likely to die of heart disease.”. Those aren't small numbers. Americans cannot ignore consumption of animals as a significant contributing factor in rising insurance costs. The evidence is there. Americans eat a lot of meat. Meat consumption is linked with higher rates of death and those that eat meat will have more medical problems than those that abstain from meat. Ilness, and the high percentage of unhealthy people in America is what is driving insurance costs up. A total lack of regard for the proper maintenance of the American body is the main cause of increase in insurance premiums. That rise in costs is directly related with how much money Americans get taken out of their checks to pay for healthcare costs and subsequently don't have available in their bank accounts for their grocery needs. The next large part of that is the misguided allocation of American resources.
As mentioned earlier, America produces an extremely large amount of grain every year. There is no reason we shouldn't be able to feed the hungry in our country, and quite possibly other countries, if we were just to rearrange how those grains are allocated. I will start this section off with two statistics from Jonathan Safron Foer's new book, Eating Animals. One, on average, Americans will each eat 21,000 complete animals over the course of their lifetime. And two, Americans are known to choose to eat less than 0.25% of the edible food grown on the planet. (2009). In addition to that, it takes, on average, 16 pounds of grain to produce one pound of edible animal flesh (PETA 2004). What those to statistics mean, taken together, is that the majority of Americans are eating in a manner that is inherently wasteful and inefficient. As of the year 2000, Americans were eating almost 200 pounds (199.99) of grain per capita, 195.2 pounds of meat and a whopping 593 pounds of dairy products (USDA 2003). If we take the statistic given early, 16 pounds of grains for one pound edible animal flesh, that means we feed 3,123.2 pounds of grain fed to animals PER PERSON to satisfy the American demand for meat. Another way to put this, as David Pimental did in 1997, is that "More than half the U.S. grain and nearly 40 percent of world grain is being fed to livestock rather than being consumed directly by humans.". He believes, that we would feed humans directly, instead of redirecting those calories to animals, we would be able to feed nearly 800 million people annually (1997).
Given that meat is so wasteful, and that eating meat is being increasingly proven to cause a great number of medical issues, we could conclude rather simply that raising animals for eating meat is a large cause for the food shortage issues in America. This paper could stop there and I'd say that I have made valid points and the negatives outweigh the positive, but, as always, there's more to the story. David Pimental, mentioned early with Cornell University, also reported that animal protein production requires more than eight times as much fossil-fuel energy than production of plant protein. Pimentel also found broiler chickens to be the most efficient use of fossil energy, and beef, the least. Chicken meat production consumes energy in a 4:1 ratio to protein output; beef cattle production requires an energy input to protein output ratio of 54:1. Lamb meat production is nearly as inefficient at 50:1. Other ratios range from 13:1 for turkey meat and 14:1 for milk protein to 17:1 for pork and 26:1 for eggs (1997). So, when we also take into account the large amount of fossil fuels required to produce and transport animal flesh, we can also see that a large portion of the oil produced is allocated to that industry, thus removing it from the supply for our daily use in other industry or personal transportation, further raising prices at the pump, and on our heating bills. This is yet another knock to the pocketbook, leaving Americans with less money to spend on their nutrition and food.
We can even take that one further, with more help from Pimental, grain-fed beef production requires 100,000 liters of water for every kilogram of food. Raising broiler chickens takes 3,500 liters of water to make a kilogram of meat. In comparison, soybean production uses 2,000 liters for kilogram of food produced; rice, 1,912; wheat, 900; and potatoes, 500 liters (1997). That means, that the animal agriculture industry in America is very deserving of a large portion of blame for the water shortages in the southern and western states in America. If the Americans that live in that area of the country are bothered with water usage restrictions, they are able to voice that concern with their pocketbooks.
Writing checks to the companies that raise, feed and water these animals is a fantastic way to ensure that these abuses never stop. All of the citizens in this country have a voice in all of these matters. If Americans are concerned with the food shortages, water shortages, and rising fuel costs, they need to focus their energies and expenditures on the solution. Not being part of the problem is to be part of the solution. Americans can't continue to endorse the practices outlined in this paper if they are to live healthy and sustainable lives. While Americans may not emotionally or mentally endorse these practices, consumers are able to vote every time they make a purchase. Change doesn't need to happen only in the poll booths. One person can't change the world, but collectively, humans and societies have the power to do great things. Gandi had it right when he suggested that people “Be the change you want to see in the world”. Change starts on a personal level first. It's never to soon to change, but can often be too late.
DeParle, Jason. "Hunger in U.S. at a 14-Year High". NY Times. 11/16/09
Foer, Jonathan Safran. Eating Animals. NY, NY: Little, Brown and Co, 2009.
Fritze, John. "Average Family Health Insurance premiums". Washington Post. 11/21/09
Gold, Aaron. "Cheapest Cars of 2009". About.com. 11/21/09
"World Wheat Report". OK State University. 11/20/09
"Meat Means Misery for the Worlds Hungry". PETA. 11/20/09
Pimental, David. "Eight Meaty Facts about Animal Food". Cornell University. 11/21/09
Stein, Rob. "Daily Red Meat Raises Chances of Dying Early". Washington Post. 11/21/09
Teems, Jennifer. "Hunger and Food Insecurity in America". The Faster Times. 11/20/09
USDA Factbook. U.S. Department of Agriculture. 2003
Saturday, November 21, 2009
A Productive Saturday Morning, and an exciting Sunday in the works.
Today started out at a good rate of progress. I knew that I had a 7 page paper (double spaced-rough draft) due for my English Comp class on Tuesday. As of about 8 am this morning I hadn't put a word to paper, digital or analog. By noon, I'd had written my paper, and I think it's good, too! 11 different sources, a whole slew of statistics. Now I have a solid 3 weeks to rewrite and edit and expand upon information for the Final.
I'll try to post it up here if anyone cares to read it. It's about food insecurity (hunger, almost. Not exactly) in America. If you didn't know, we (as a country) are experiencing the highest rate of food insecurity since the USDA started trying to track it 14 years ago. It's pretty interesting.
So, yeah, if you're interested in reading an argumentative research paper on almost hunger, I'll probably post it tomorrow.
Tomorrow. I'm going to church. Crazy, huh? St. Francis Cabrini. I hear they have an interpreted service and I think it would be good to witness. So, the Holy Day is Holy once again...For the first time in probably 12 years or so...
Then, I'm meeting with an ASL study group at 1 for some good studying time (which will be great. Carol threw a TON of new signs at us on Thursday).
Maybe that's all. Just ASL heavy. That'll be awesome. I tricked you into thinking something actually exciting was happening, didn't I!
I'll try to post it up here if anyone cares to read it. It's about food insecurity (hunger, almost. Not exactly) in America. If you didn't know, we (as a country) are experiencing the highest rate of food insecurity since the USDA started trying to track it 14 years ago. It's pretty interesting.
So, yeah, if you're interested in reading an argumentative research paper on almost hunger, I'll probably post it tomorrow.
Tomorrow. I'm going to church. Crazy, huh? St. Francis Cabrini. I hear they have an interpreted service and I think it would be good to witness. So, the Holy Day is Holy once again...For the first time in probably 12 years or so...
Then, I'm meeting with an ASL study group at 1 for some good studying time (which will be great. Carol threw a TON of new signs at us on Thursday).
Maybe that's all. Just ASL heavy. That'll be awesome. I tricked you into thinking something actually exciting was happening, didn't I!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
I think I figured out a key difference between myself and others.
Just tonight it hit me. I was at my Deaf Culture class. We met at Charles Thompson Memorial Hall, or, the Deaf club, this evening. It was a really great experience to see it all, and listen to a Deaf panel discuss their thoughts, ideas and upbringings. It was a very valuable experience, and was a bit eye opening.
I think the main difference between me, and a lot of my peers, is that when I learn something about the world, I tend to not ignore it as readily. Maybe that's just my imagination, but, when considering that I acknowledge that smoking is bad, so I don't do it. I understand that animals suffer to create our (meat eaters) meals, I know that minority groups are discriminated against, I know that drinking regularly is not good for you, and so on. I think all of these things are common knowledge, but I also think that some people choose to ignore the facts (and the beliefs that they know to be true, but suppress). I have a very hard time suppressing my outrage at injustice. I know I'm not alone in that, and I know I'm not perfect. We all have to choose our battles, but it seems to me a lot of people aren't fighting at all.
Just an observation. Fight for something. It'll make you a stronger human. You just might like it.
I think the main difference between me, and a lot of my peers, is that when I learn something about the world, I tend to not ignore it as readily. Maybe that's just my imagination, but, when considering that I acknowledge that smoking is bad, so I don't do it. I understand that animals suffer to create our (meat eaters) meals, I know that minority groups are discriminated against, I know that drinking regularly is not good for you, and so on. I think all of these things are common knowledge, but I also think that some people choose to ignore the facts (and the beliefs that they know to be true, but suppress). I have a very hard time suppressing my outrage at injustice. I know I'm not alone in that, and I know I'm not perfect. We all have to choose our battles, but it seems to me a lot of people aren't fighting at all.
Just an observation. Fight for something. It'll make you a stronger human. You just might like it.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
This seems appropriate
Gorilla Biscuits - Two Sides lyrics
Some people think they're always right and right is all they'll ever be.
Well there's two sides and ego's divide.
And we're so concerned with who's right.
These people are so quick to judge.
Let's get the judgment straight.
It's not who's wrong it's how we get along.
And I'm not too sure that we do yet.
TRUTH is a word that you're sure of.
Or so you've said,
But I'd love to see you give someone else a chance.
Open up, It's not so hard.
Is hard what you want to be? to kick some ass.
It's a sure bet you'll get your way with no friends left.
Don't say you don't.
For God's sake give me a fucking break
you don't even know my name.
TRUTH is a word that you're sure of.
Or so you've said
but I'd love to see you give someone else a chance.
I listen to the things you say, I've weighed the facts out in my head.
Can you do the same...No, then don't waste my time.
TRUTH is a word that you're of.
It's all you said
but I'd love to see you give someone else a chance.
This time my mind is set.
My side you'll never get.
What I say.
What did you say.
We can both be right just not in the same way.
You think we could reach some common ground...No...no way
I don't think I need to add much else to that. There is a reason this is my favorite band.
Went to the Bike Race Today
Didn't take any pictures (I really need a camera that isn't my phone. It was really great to watch a bike race again, and also really great to see a lot of friends I hadn't seen in a while. I was surprised that people I didn't think would really notice my absence saying hi. It was pretty awesome. I'll be back. Not a full time amateur bike racer, but I'll be around on occasion. It'll be good. I'm excited for it.
Congratulations/Good Job's are in order to Smithers and Patty first and foremost. I only caught the 1/2 race, so I don't know how the others went, but I heard everyone had fun and liked the course.
I'm excited to go pedal in circles next summer at the velodrome again. That'll be fun.
Thanks y'all. It was nice to see you. (Taylor and Frye, where'd you two disappear to? I missed you both...)
Congratulations/Good Job's are in order to Smithers and Patty first and foremost. I only caught the 1/2 race, so I don't know how the others went, but I heard everyone had fun and liked the course.
I'm excited to go pedal in circles next summer at the velodrome again. That'll be fun.
Thanks y'all. It was nice to see you. (Taylor and Frye, where'd you two disappear to? I missed you both...)
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Bicyclists VS. Drivers.
So, I was just perusing Amazon.com for a safety razor to buy when my Schick Quattro runs out of blades when I came across this discussion http://www.amazon.com/tag/health/forum/ref=cm_cd_search_res_ti?_encoding=UTF8&cdMsgNo=69&cdPage=3&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=Tx1KQF3WY5W3NQ2&cdMsgID=MxZPVVEPQDSXL9#MxZPVVEPQDSXL9. If you're a bike rider, you don't need to read it, you know what it's about. Mostly drivers saying how much they hate bikes, and relish the days when they hear about bicyclists being struck by cars, and then the cyclists crying over how their transportation choice is better because it uses less natural resources, and so on and so forth. It's quite clear to me that this discussion is lacking a very particular mentality.
Why is it that whenever we, as humans, are doing whatever it is that we do to occupy our time, or get around, or whathaveyou, we always think that we are doing the right thing and that everyone else can fuck off (so to speak). I know I do it. When I'm on my bike, I want everyone to accommodate me and pay me no mind so I can do what I want to do when I want to do it. When I'm in a car, I'll speed if I want to, I'll roll through stop signs when I want to (I never want to do that, for the record) I'll get angry if someone is going slow or otherwise stupid.
Or, for example, like yesterday, I'll gladly move over in my lane on a one way street to make room for a car that is mistakenly (I hope) turned the wrong way down that street.
The thing that I, and we, all forget is that whether we are bikes inconveniencing drivers, or drivers inconveniencing bikes (which I tend to have no leeway for) is that we're all human. It's almost as though the drivers that wish death upon cyclists for running reds, or stop signs only see a bicycle, and cannot see the human perched upon it. Can they seriously wish death upon another human being for something as trivial as a minor inconvenience? Is it really worth getting really angry, to the point of vehement over a few seconds lost? Is life really worth that little? Can't you make up those few extra seconds by using an ATM instead of going inside the bank, or a restaurant drive through? When did our spare seconds become so precious? Or, is there more to it than that? I guess I don't have the answers. I just wanted to bring the human quotient into the equation. I'm not trying to raise anyone's blood pressure any higher, just bringing a different perspective. The lack of tolerance that drivers have for cyclists is really quite unfortunate.
Be safe out there, whether in car, riding a bicycle, on your feet, whatever you may choose.
-Jason
Why is it that whenever we, as humans, are doing whatever it is that we do to occupy our time, or get around, or whathaveyou, we always think that we are doing the right thing and that everyone else can fuck off (so to speak). I know I do it. When I'm on my bike, I want everyone to accommodate me and pay me no mind so I can do what I want to do when I want to do it. When I'm in a car, I'll speed if I want to, I'll roll through stop signs when I want to (I never want to do that, for the record) I'll get angry if someone is going slow or otherwise stupid.
Or, for example, like yesterday, I'll gladly move over in my lane on a one way street to make room for a car that is mistakenly (I hope) turned the wrong way down that street.
The thing that I, and we, all forget is that whether we are bikes inconveniencing drivers, or drivers inconveniencing bikes (which I tend to have no leeway for) is that we're all human. It's almost as though the drivers that wish death upon cyclists for running reds, or stop signs only see a bicycle, and cannot see the human perched upon it. Can they seriously wish death upon another human being for something as trivial as a minor inconvenience? Is it really worth getting really angry, to the point of vehement over a few seconds lost? Is life really worth that little? Can't you make up those few extra seconds by using an ATM instead of going inside the bank, or a restaurant drive through? When did our spare seconds become so precious? Or, is there more to it than that? I guess I don't have the answers. I just wanted to bring the human quotient into the equation. I'm not trying to raise anyone's blood pressure any higher, just bringing a different perspective. The lack of tolerance that drivers have for cyclists is really quite unfortunate.
Be safe out there, whether in car, riding a bicycle, on your feet, whatever you may choose.
-Jason
I'm back!
Hello. I wonder if anyone missed me. Who knows, I'm not too concerned.
What's new? I'm still working at the Blood Center (which needs donors right now, so please consider giving the gift of life this holiday season).
The biggest news is that Margaret and I kinda separated. It's a really long story and not really internet friendly, but the gist of it is that we're going to attempt living apart and seeing less of each other as a way to reignite the respect and desire we once had for each other. Wish us luck!
I'm a full time American Sign Language Student currently facing the dilemma of where to focus my studies. Learn to interpret or other? Any insight?
I've been taking dance lessons. I feel that if I'm going to try to be a gentleman, I should know how to dance. Seems obvious, right?
I haven't ridden my bike in months, much less trained for anything. I'm happy with that. I had a good time with it, and I'm (at least temporarily) over it. I'm sure I'll be back on it as soon as it gets nice out. I just have other more important things going on in my life to spend the time and money I have spent in the past on racing bikes.
Not much else new. We'll see where this blog re-imagining takes us. Follow it if you care to. It's going to be much more life aware than majority focused on bicycles. I hope to keep it relevant.
Oh, another important thing. Upon last checkup I'm still cancer free. Which is great news. I still haven't gotten the Petscan that oncologist really suggests I get (because Health Partners doesn't think it's essential and therefore won't pay for it) but so far, things are as good as I could hope for them to be. Even went to the dermatologist a few weeks ago and didn't get cut open or stabbed. It was nice.
What's new? I'm still working at the Blood Center (which needs donors right now, so please consider giving the gift of life this holiday season).
The biggest news is that Margaret and I kinda separated. It's a really long story and not really internet friendly, but the gist of it is that we're going to attempt living apart and seeing less of each other as a way to reignite the respect and desire we once had for each other. Wish us luck!
I'm a full time American Sign Language Student currently facing the dilemma of where to focus my studies. Learn to interpret or other? Any insight?
I've been taking dance lessons. I feel that if I'm going to try to be a gentleman, I should know how to dance. Seems obvious, right?
I haven't ridden my bike in months, much less trained for anything. I'm happy with that. I had a good time with it, and I'm (at least temporarily) over it. I'm sure I'll be back on it as soon as it gets nice out. I just have other more important things going on in my life to spend the time and money I have spent in the past on racing bikes.
Not much else new. We'll see where this blog re-imagining takes us. Follow it if you care to. It's going to be much more life aware than majority focused on bicycles. I hope to keep it relevant.
Oh, another important thing. Upon last checkup I'm still cancer free. Which is great news. I still haven't gotten the Petscan that oncologist really suggests I get (because Health Partners doesn't think it's essential and therefore won't pay for it) but so far, things are as good as I could hope for them to be. Even went to the dermatologist a few weeks ago and didn't get cut open or stabbed. It was nice.
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