Clean It Up, Please

            I remember taking a group of fourth-graders and their parents on a hike in our local mountains.  It was in the spring of 2007; the snowpack had finally melted to point that made it possible to cross the river to get to the trailhead.  The previous winter had, unfortunately wiped out a large section of the trail, so after hiking for about an hour it was necessary to backtrack to lower ground.  But the day was still young and the kids were still wound up.  As the leader of this excursion I was bound and determined all would have a good time before we had to return to school.

            I decided to explore the forest up the creek a bit while people ate their lunches.  It was a bit tricky because the water was still rushing fast from the snowmelt.  Several trees had fallen into the path of water creating mini-waterfalls.  They had also formed a wonderfully deep swimming area, complete with a huge log you could walk out on that was perfect for facing off against an enemy as you tried to remain standing.   You truly did not want to be thrust into such cold water, so the competition was fierce, especially with the dads who had come up the creek and were trying to out-perform the other dads in front of the class.  It was a perfect place.  It was a perfect day.

            The next year I arranged another hike around the same area in hopes of a repeat of the fun experienced there before.  To my eternal dismay, that same poolside area up the creek was littered with beer bottles and trash.  There were so many cigarette butts scattered on the ground it is a wonder a fire hadn’t started.  I picked up as much trash as I could carry out and left that place knowing it would never be the same again. 

            It is a shame that some show such disregard for what most other people consider a basic right of humanity, like breathing fresh air.  I grew up in a smoker’s home and didn’t know what I was missing until I spent some serious time away from that environment.  Nowadays even the smallest whiff of tobacco smoke sends me into a distress mode that brings me close to removing the cigarette from its owner’s mouth or hand and snuffing it out by foot.  How dare that person subject me to the effects of second-hand smoke.

            I’ve come across recent news articles on the subject of tobacco in which I find the public at large, as well as government and health organizations, are feeling my pain and are trying to enact laws that extend the current smoking ban in workplaces, restaurants, and bars to outdoor arenas.  Scarborough, Maine now bans all tobacco use, including chew and snuff, from all town beaches.  Violators will be fined $100 to $500 (1).  This response is due to the high number of cigarette butts found at beach sites.   Cigarette butts are the #1 form of pollution of Canadian coastlines (2).  Sarasota, Florida and Greensboro, North Carolina are working towards banning smoking at all city parks as well as eliminating all designated smoking areas (3).  Many of these bans have to do with aesthetic values of the environment and are just. 

            But what about the health implications of second hand smoke?  Studies conducted by the Office of the Surgeon General and Centers for Disease Control estimates 1,700 non-smoking residents in North Carolina die each year of diseases associated to second-hand smoke (3).  The CDC tells us 443,000 people die prematurely from smoking or exposure to second-hand smoke each year; another 8.6 million live with serious illnesses caused by smoking.  54% of kids between 3-11 years old are exposed to second-hand smoke (4).  Why should we allow this to happen?

            Some say our “nanny” government is taking away personal freedom to make choices and that no one owns the air we breathe.  Others offer argument whether the sensitivities of a small minority of people should justify changing public policy (5).  I think these people must have a loose wire upstairs given the overwhelming statistics that point to the health problems that result from second-hand smoke.   If you want to kill yourself, go right ahead.  Just don’t take me with you, please.

(1)  http://www.pressherald.com/news/maine-Scarborough-beaches-Tobacco-ban.html

(2)  http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/269018

(3)  http://www.news-record.com/content/2011/04/24/article/smoking_ban_could_expand;

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110417/BREAKING/110419544

(4) http://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/resources/publications/AAG/osh.htm

(5)http://www.nycclash.com/OutdoorDebate.html

The Way of the Future

            I have to congratulate educators of our youth’s awareness of news media biases.  Kids these days pick up on the selling aspect of news broadcasting.  People enjoy watching conflicts and consider harmony boring, so news media delivers this product to its viewers with emphasis. Kids also understand the pictorial angle is important and that it can manipulate viewers.  Promotions with catchy tunes and coverage of daring reporters being filmed near the line of fire give stations an aura of ubiquitousness and foresight.  They also know journalists can sensationalize the most insignificant piece of news, creating controversy and drama.

            Let’s not forget to talk about the political biases we find in television and newspaper reporting.  News can never be reported in an unbiased manner because language itself can never be neutral.  So slants on words become a tool for news media to sublimely indoctrinate liberal or conservative views in the minds of their public.

            According to the Pew Research Center’s study which compared preferred news information sources in 2010, 65% of the population under 30 years of age cited the Internet as their main news outlet, a figure that has doubled since 2007.  One can hardly blame them for choosing the Internet as the favorite go-to place for news any more than one can criticize someone choosing to shop at Walmart rather than Macy’s.  One can find anything they need at Walmart; everything you want to know about is at your fingertips on the Internet.  You can personalize what news you want to watch and when you want to watch it, unlike television or newspaper news that airs at specific times during the day or goes to print at certain times at night.  Although all news sites have advertisements, they aren’t flung at you in such repetition as on TV and they don’t have to be manually sifted through to get to the rest of a story that might be buried somewhere in the second to last page of a section of a newspaper.  Perhaps the most salient feature that draws consumers to the Internet is the fact that it is free.

            Major news journalists will eventually have to find their niche on the cyber highway.  It doesn’t seem like it should be that difficult a task.  However, I don’t see this increasing the viewing of news in younger generations that much.  Our society leans very heavily on being visually entertained.  Reading for many is just too boring.  As the shift is made, as I believe it most certainly will to electronic news media, the potency of news broadcasting will diminish.  We will have later generations that don’t know what’s going on in the world from either a biased or unbiased point of view because reading the news won’t be the biggest reason for accessing the Internet.   And when it is, I fear that many will make judgments based on a single article that is read, without necessarily taking into account its sources or contradictory points of view.  Kind of the same scenario we have now, eh?

I'll Never Get It

            I am one of those that “just don’t get it.”  I do not understand how so many people continue to feel so disturbed over racial epithets.   I mean, isn’t the world much wiser now?  Can’t we recognize those that say these mean and hateful things are simply ignorant of the fact that we all are created equal?  Can’t we just inwardly refuse not to listen to these remarks? 

After some serious contemplation I have come to the conclusion that I can because I have never been the constant target of sexually perverse comments or racial epithets.  There has always been some sort of invisible force-field surrounding me.  I think it is called “being white and middle class.”  Yeah, I’m sure that is what has protected me from such verbal abuse.  As a member of the dominant group in American society I have unconsciously enjoyed this protection, all the while verbally denouncing the use of hate speech.  It kind of reminds me of the game Armchair Quarterback where you make the calls and assess the penalties of a football game broadcasted on television.  It’s easy to play the game in the comfort of your own living room, but put on a uniform and get down on the actual field and it’s a totally different story. 

Lakoff makes a relevant point when she mentions hate speech is only meaningful if its connotations have been maintained by repetition.  Perhaps this explains Naylor’s initial response to be called a “nigger.”  She had never heard someone being called this before and therefore could not make sense out of its meaning.  I distinctly remember being called a “PT” in high school and could not make sense of what it might have meant, even after my dad told me what the letters stood for.  “What’s a prick?” I had to ask.  It was a very embarrassing conversation, but at least I was aware of the term and how horrible it was to be called such a thing.  Obviously this term had endured over time as well.

I can’t help but disagree with the old saying “sticks and stones might break my bones, but words will never harm me” after reading our text this week.  The damage from verbal sexual assault and racial slurs goes far deeper than I could ever imagine; it is equivalent to wrongful physical actions and should be dealt with swiftly and punitively.

It is unfortunate that this sort of behavior has many of the same characteristics as a virus.  Somehow viruses find some point of penetration in the human body and invade cells to replicate over and over again.  There is no antibiotic available that effectively kills any virus that has been known to man.  And while our bodies wrestle with one virus, another is in the wings waiting to pounce.  I liken this battle to the problems of discrimination that our nation faces.  There will always be groups of individuals who value their culture or race more than others and make it known by words and actions.  We will try to combat the damage that comes with these attitudes, but we will never be completely free of them until we find a cure.  I just hope that we are seriously looking for one.

It's A No-Brainer, To Me

I have come to understand any conclusion regarding the debate about the value of happiness verses self-respect will vary depending at which stage of life one is currently in. 

When I was young, my self-respect was derived from the behavior of my parents as they modeled this quality in all aspects of their lives.  This gave me the courage and resilience to keep myself from participating in actions that might have forced me to lose my self-respect and the respect of my family and others.  I was expected to live by these standards, which at the time seemed just and necessary if I was to be trusted.

            Then I moved 200 miles away to college.  And I was 18 years old.  For many young girls this is a scenario ripe for chaos and I did not disappoint.  Temptation, plus the added amenity of freedom, all but overwhelmed me.  But boy, I was happy; infinitely happy.  My parents did not find out about my “happiness” until I decided to drop out of college; this after they had paid tuition and room and board for 3.5 years.  A couple years later, after being married to a man that I came to despise with all my heart because of his physical and emotional abuse, I finally came to my senses and began to repent.  Yes, repent, although I had no god at the time.  I repented in hopes of discovering another dimensions of self-respect now that the other form had been forfeited.  I needed to find contentment in whom I was as a person, and establish a goal to work towards.  One way I figured this could be accomplished was knowing that I was trying to be the best person I could be, not because my parents or anyone else was demanding it of me, but because it is what my soul desired.  I knew it was possible, but I wasn’t quite sure how to go about it.  After all, self-respect is not something you can pull out of a drawer or buy off the shelf; it is an inner state of being.

            Becoming a parent is the one exception to my belief that self-respect is better than happiness.  Just knowing I could create life brought a sense of power in an acute way.  Giving birth and watching my children mature has made me very happy indeed.  It has been the happiest period in my life, thus far.

            Now I am set to finish something I began in all earnest back in 1974: to get a degree in teaching.  I am nine weeks away from this mark. (Everyone say, “Upsilamba!”)  My completion of college is not only necessary to meet the demands of our economy, but to show appreciation for what support my parents gave me as I entered adulthood.

            I could continue this narrative about how self-respect has empowered me to face the conflicts that come with motherhood, moving into a new neighborhood with discrimination running rampant, or returning to college after a long, long drought of classroom and technological inexperience.  However, what I choose to emphasize at this point is the importance of standing on the side of truth and admitting to oneself and others when wrong.  Perhaps this is the most under-preformed and underrated behavior today.  Failure to do so impacts our most intimate interactions as well as the decisions that affect society as a whole.

Self-respect is something that will out-perform and outlast happiness if we allow it to be the anchor of our words and actions.  Happiness, which is temporal at best, will naturally follow if self-respect leads.