Issue; Drilling for Oil

I think that this oil spill off the coast of Florida, while a horrible catastrophe, happened at the perfect time. Right when Obama was planning to fight for drilling right off the coast, a huge pump broke and is spilling out hundreds of thousands of gallons into the ocean daily. It will take weeks to drill a support tunnel and stop the flow. This spill will coat Florida's' and possibly some of the East Coat. I am, personally, extremely apposed to drilling for oil, anywhere. My more Democratic, Eco friendly side, wasn't the USA to break the addiction to oil, for the huge companies not to pay millions of dollars in taxes to foreign governments. We need to move forward, evolve. I understand that to drill would be a fiscally responsible move, for the present, but in the long run, breaking our oil addiction would work better. We need to create technology and be ready to lead countries like China into the "Green Revolution" , this will also be an fiscally responsible act. But rather than aiding us in this moment, it will secure the longevity of ourselves as a nation. Something that both parties are trying to insure.

Views on the Republican Party

While I dont usually associate myself with this party, there are definite positive factors along with the negative.

I find the fact that the party is united, fiscally responsible, and I agree with part of the Conservative theory. They move together, speak as one and have a singular position politically. This united front seems organized and strong compared to the disorganized, bad communication of the Democrats. While the Republicans have not been very responsible with money, they still have the reputation of being fiscally responsible. This, if it was true, would be hugely important and a wonderful trait of anyone. Something I strongly agree with, is the conservative views about institutions. The government is necessary for the development of people. Being self-centered is a natural part of human development and most people grow out of it. To grow out, education is necessary, and the government should provide that and any other necessary aids. In addition, people do not always make the best choices for themselves and their community: we can make disastrous choices that we do not see how it will effect the rest of society.

A negative is the lack of willingness to improve and evolve, they believe in "recapturing goodness", that we had the ideal once, and should work to get it back. I strongly feel that the only way to survive the situations that we have put ourselves in is to grow and change. Develop new technologies and change the way of thinking. I also strongly believe in things like the new health care bill, to which the Republicans are apposed. The way that Republicans favor large corporations also disturbs me. Corperations are not the future, and the administration under Republican presidents depend on them, and cater to them too much.

Veiws on the Democratic Party

While this is the party I usually associate myself with, there are positives as well as negatives, just as there are with any system.

A few factors of the Democratic party are; some of the liberal views in regards to institutions and government, the total lack of an organized front and the fiscal looseness. I have found that I believe that people, as a species, need a system or institution, to function smoothly in a highly dense and high pressure situations. The believe has translated to the idea that we need more institutions and bigger government, merely to give that support and nudge people down a more healthy path. While I do not agree that people are inherently bad, we do not always make the best decisions in regards to the future or others. (Might I direct your attention to things like Global warming, McDonald, and Cooperation) Democrats also have a reputation for being fiscally irresponsible, and while that is all bad, I seem to remember that it was the under a Republican administration that we went to two wars and decreased taxes. But, was it not under Clinton that are deficit was reduced? And now Obama trying to pull us out of an economic recession?

In regards to this party, I find more positives than negatives. This party tends to have a pro environment lean, a tendency to look forward and try to evolve, and many social ideas and freedoms that conservatives don't have, such as gay marriage and women's choice. I strongly believe that the Democratic attempts to increase awareness and develop new technology to preserve our earth is a necessity for the continuation of the human race. This spreading of awareness along with creating new, nontraditional solutions to problems especially when it comes to working to save our earth, is of huge importance. The issues of equality for all, things like gay marriage and stopping discrimination is also part of social evolution and is moving int he right direction. This kind of evolution is a key part to the adaption and continuation of humans as a species.

Under a President of this party this country has started to pull out of an economic recession, create more jobs and has strengthened its foregone relations. Obama has tried to takle this recession by making millions of new jobs instead of throwing money at huge corporations and waiting for it to trickle down. Our economy is staring to look up again, and he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, as encouragement and motivation in his negotiations with other countries.

First Experiance

I went to the orientation last Wednesday and I was shocked at how many people had shown up. The entire Mooney Family was there, along with other people I recognized. There was a short presentation in which the regional staff told us facts about the program and what to expect once we start working. There are a huge number of volunteers, hundreds of thousands, and over three million athletes world wide. It is sponsored by many major corporations, although we were not given their names. We were told that at first we would get very minor jobs from the head coach and once they found us reliable we would move up to jobs with more weight. It is apparently a huge growing experience for both you and the athletes and a wonderful place to become a life long friend and mentor. She quizzed us after and we turned in our paperwork, confirming that we read the Coaches Code of Conduct and took the quiz that's meant to protect the athletes against sexual abuse. I cant wait to get started and will be placed as soon as my security clearance comes back.

Community Service Final Essay

Coaching Aquatics in the Special Olympics

The organization that I decided to donate my time to is the Special Olympics. This is a worldwide non-profit organization that is dedicated to creating an environment where disabled peoples can interact with the community, learn to believe in them and have fun, all in a safe and supportive environment. They provide cutting edge research for new legislation, health care for impoverished disabled peoples, and a sense of empowerment for all who participate. The Special Olympics operates in over 150 different countries and trains over three million athletes. This organization operates using hundreds of thousands of volunteers; because of this style of operation we are able to provide free training and competitions to all of the athletes year round.

Part I

The current status of this organization and the issues that they are working on and support can be described as spreading. The Special Olympics have many projects, all of which have dramatically improved and grown in the past forty years since the formation of the Special Olympics. The awareness and acceptance of people with intellectual disabilities is ever growing, in part thanks to this program. There is also an increasing support system, both regarding education programs and social communities. These things are important because these programs represent steps forward in accepting all peoples. The Special Olympics also provides basic health care to many impoverished and neglected intellectual disabled. They have provided more than 700,000 screenings in 92 counties and give checkups and medication as needed. Programs for training healthcare professionals have been started to teach them how to work with patients suffering from intellectual disabilities, that is then brought back to their home town and put into practice. This is important because what they have done is improved the health, or saved the lives of many people around the world, and by educating the doctors they are providing this care exponentially. Historically, people with mental disabilities have been hidden away in houses for the insane, and shunned from society with disgust. Accepting people who were born with disabilities or were involved in tragic accidents is a necessary step to achieve a world perspective. In earlier times, black people were discriminated against, women were discriminated against, homosexuals are still discriminated against, and people with mental disabilities are currently over coming those discrimination and challenges with the help of organizations like the Special Olympics.

As with most new ideas and changes, support varies by location. There is so much positive support for this program, although there are always those who are set in their beliefs and refuse to consider a new approach. The fact that hundreds of thousands of people volunteer for this organization and they have been accepted into over 150 different countries, even wars have stopped for the Games, shows how the power of this movement. In regards to the war that they overcame; the city of Beirut in Lebanon halted the civil war so that the athletes could compete on the streets safely. Also in 1999 Palestinians and Israelis competed side by side with no hint of anything but friendly competition. The fact that the Special Olympics has been so graciously accepted into so many countries signals that they opinions of many people are finally changing in most locations, the foreign government has allowed outsider specialists to come in to their country to teach their teachers, to help the education and social development of those with disabilities in their countries.

Part II

The Special Olympics influences the government greatly, it is the spearhead of research into intellectual disabilities and reports their findings to the heads of multiple programs. The provided information gave the basis for the U.S. Surgeon General’s report titled “Closing the Gap – a National Blueprint to Improve the Health Care for Persons with Mental Retardation”. This in turn led to the expansion of the Special Olympics Healthy Athletes program. The researchers that work for the Special Olympics report to high officials in various government sectors, including: Health care, education, nonprofit sectors and business sectors. In 2007 the Special Olympics gave a presentation on the Global Policy Summit on the Well-Being of People with Intellectual Disabilities to almost 70 representatives of major international organizations. The federal government has created many acts and bills regarding people with any number of disabilities, from laws regarding wheel chair accessibility to the mandatory minimum curriculum taught in special education class rooms. The state government helps by enforcing these laws in their specific jurisdiction while the local government gives support for programs and events through advertizing and land provision.

The two ways in which this project can relate to what we have been learning this year are; the process that the bill went through to be passed, and the structure of the Special Olympics’ organization itself, these relate back to government and economics, respectively. There are whole Administrations dedicated to peoples with various disabilities, for example; the Administration on Developmental Disabilities. These administrations had to be created by the president in a piece of legislature. Workers had to be hired and each piece of the bill had to be proposed by the House, and then passed in the Senate before going to the President for a final signature. The nonprofit organization ties in to our economics unit. This organization draws upon cooperate sponsors and volunteers time to continue operation. The corporations donate to make themselves more appealing to potential stock holders, just as many are now promoting aiding our environment and going green. The donations go into the program allowing free training and competitions to commence year round. The significance of the Games being free of charge for the athletes is it allows more people to compete, not to be rejected because of lack of funds. The sponsors also fund sending a few randomly chosen delegates to the world competitions every year, for example this year’s World Finals will be in Athens, Greece. Free health services also made possible because of these donations. In these ways the money that the corporations donate is, in a way, trickling down to the middle and lower class in unorthodox ways. The organization has very few paid staff, there are regional managers, two in northern California, who lead a heard of eager volunteers.

Part III

Different people and groups of people have different ideas as to how issues revolving around people with intellectual disabilities are to be handled. The first one that comes to mind is one that is highly controversial and is currently not regarded in a positive manner at all. It is the biological approach, which involves either IVF or genetic testing after the pregnancy has commenced. In the current time James Watson is the leader of this movement, he has made many great contributions to the scientific community, including revealing the double helix structure of DNA. This concept is using modern technology to extract gametes from both parents and fertilize the oocyte within a Petri dish, thus the Invetro name. When the mass is eight cells big one can me extracted and tested for a multitude of genetic problems, including Trisomy 21, Autism, predisposition to manic depression and a multitude of other abnormalities. If the post conception technique is used, he urges women to abort genetically abnormal children. This approach, instead of supporting and accepting humans with intellectual and other types of Disability, seeks to obliterate them. He wishes to drive them to extinction and erase them from our gene pool. This technique has been stated to merely be a technological version of Hitler’s extermination of non-Aryan Europeans and the Eugenics movement in the US’ earlier history. While the Eugenics movement does not hold a candle to the Holocaust, in both cases those who were deemed genetically or socially unfit were imprisoned, forcibly sterilized and killed. There is also another argument against Watsons theory’s, it is regarding where we stop. Do we stop at terminal genetic diseases, ones that will minimally hinder the child, or eye color? I personally do not find this a solution that we should pursue at this time. People with disabilities commonly can a huge positive influence on their society and can enjoy life, as much as any of us.

What I feel needs to be done, is for more people to gain knowledge about this movement. It is a huge force already, but it can always spread further. They have started to create schools, and give medical care to those all over the globe in impoverished and conveniently ignored rejoins of earth and this need to continue in increasing number. There is a great deal of legislation that has been created in regards to this subject and this is a great positive step. There should be more education, probably within the public school system about disabilities, and more opportunities for interaction and learning about those with disabilities. As of now, some have gone through our school, never having met many of the kinds who have been in our Special Education programs, even though Donathan is probably the nicest student at our school. There are people who have never heard of Lunch Buddies, and there are people who would cringe away from a person who was autistic. This relates to the triangle of ignorance, fear and hatred. If one is ignorant of disabilities, then when faced with a person who has one of those disablilites, the unknown threatens their previous knowledge of how every person looks and behaves, causing fear. If we could eliminate that ignorance, by educating and letting people get involved in this community, much energy put towards discrimination and fear could then turn to positive energy used to improve the lives of yourself and the people you surround yourself with. It comes down to providing more knowledge, so that those who were previously unaware can learn, change their ways, or get involved!

My community service hours have not yet started other than an orientation to the program. But already, by reading their site and blogging on this subject for the past few weeks have learned much in regards to my upcoming project. Because what I have chosen is a spring sport, the aquatics program started last week, and I am now just waiting on my security clearance to be sent back so I can be placed and start coaching. Before we could even sign up for the volunteering we were all required to complete an online test to protect the athletes from abuse, mainly of the sexual nature. We were also required to turn in a signed copy of the Coaches Code of Conduct, which was a very throughout lest of how to act and what not to do in any situation. I was told that I will be given small jobs at first then moved on to large responsibilities. I will get to know many athletes, who, I was surprised to find out, range from 5 to over 50, and many other volunteers. I might be asked to hang out with a few athletes or to lead part of a workout, either way; I am excited to start this process and to get on deck. Because my hours have not officially started yet, I will be extra careful in documenting them and in getting a signed letter from the head coach to prove that I did, in fact, complete my promises. From my research I have learned about the wonderful programs that the Special Olympics offers and the amount of good they do all over the world. I was surprised to find the sheer numbers of people involved in this project and just how large their sphere of influence is. I have learned the proper ways to refer to people; they have intellectual, or developmental disabilities, not merely mental disabilities, or problems. And I have learned how much many people donating a few hours each can do for a group of people. I look forward to learning more from the athletes and fellow volunteers in the weeks to come; I have been told it is a wonderful growing experience for both athlete and coach.

Genetic Soulution

In the history of many countries there has been a movement to use "genetics" to make the population better. In the US it was called Eugenics, in Germany it was called the Holocaust. Both were attempts to purify the gene pool and make the population better suited to life. While the Nazis took the cleansing a lot further, to the destruction of over 6 million non-arian persons. Here, while we did not kill many people, we locked them away in mental hospitals, some of which used the same gassing techniques as the Nazi, and we forced thousands of sterilizations on people the Eugenics movement found unfit. They made pedigrees of things feeble mindedness or bad temper, things that had no genetic basis. Now James Watson is promoting a new kind of genetic sorting. Using IVF, it is possible to take a cell from an eighth cell mass without any harm to the embryo and test its DNA for a multitude of genetic diseases or mutations. He urges that embryos with things like autism or down syndrome be passed up for "better" ones. Or if it is a test after pregnancy has started, he suggest abortions if any test comes up positive.

This new way of manipulating our population is very controversial. People think that we are going against god, that it is unnatural and that we do not know what we are doing. We are taking evolution into our own hands. But once we start manipulating genes, where do we stop? At genetic diseases, or at eye color? There is a slippery slope.
There is also the lives and contributions of those people who would have been terminated. There are many artists who were bipolar or manic depressive. Just because people have a problem, does not mean they are worthless.

Mental Health