Double Standards for Girls Today

So I am really sick of the world telling people how to look.  I’m so tired of young girls feeling that they have to show as much skin as possible to get anywhere in the world.  I’m also tired of absolutely beautiful young women feeling disgusting and useless because they are not a size 2.  I am not putting blame on these girls; I have been one of them.  I am not large but at the same time I have a shape.  I have rather large hips (and in the words of my mother “all the better for making beautiful babies.”) but that is hard to tell a young girl fighting with herself for not looking like girls at school.  I can relate all too well of leaving shopping trips crying because every piece of clothing I tried on was made for tiny little girls.  It’s depressing on the part of the young lady feeling that way and it is definitely uncalled for. 

The media is by far one of, if not, the largest factor that makes this awkward, uncomfortable time in the life of girls, just a little bit worse.  This week on American Idol was yet another example.  CNN News posted the story about 19 year old Ashley Coffman who bought tickets to American Idol with a group of her friends.  Ashley and her friends arrived to the show and went to their front row seats.  Soon after Ashley was informed that she was too big for the front row.  Ashley at 5 feet 2 inches, weighs 150 pounds, was forced to sit in the back row and give up her front row seats to one of the most controversial episodes of the season.

Seeing this story absolutely made me livid.  This is supposed to be a show that caters to the teenage population and then they have the right to tell people whether or not they are too big to sit in the front row, which could possibly be broadcasted on television.  This situation just makes American Idol look shallow.  They are ultimately going against what they supposedly stand for and it is so double sided.  I really never had a problem with American Idol before, but after this story, I’m not quite sure I can watch the show the same.

This is supposed to be a show that encourages people and now, they are telling people they must look a certain way to sit in the front row.  In the video attached, Ashley was a beautiful young lady and there is NO reason or excuse for what American Idol did to her.  It is distasteful and just plain rude.  So often today girls have extremely low self esteem and this story is just another reason for these girls to feel that way.  I wish I could change the stereotype of how girls should be.  I wish each girl would realize what makes her the way she is and that she would take pride in that thing.  It took a long time for me feel like that and I hope not every other girl has to go that long as well.  

Oh. I, um, fell down the stairs for the third time this week...NOT.

Fox News reported a story today of a mother who drove her van full of her 4 children into the Hudson River, killing herself and 3 of the 4 children.  Her four children were the ages of 10, 5, 2, and 11 months.  The 10 year old boy was able to break the window and swim through waters of 45 degrees about 25 feet to shore where he then ran to the local fire station to get help.   He suffered from mild hypothermia but was expected to be fine.  The reason why the mother did this is still under question.  But she had been described by a neighbor as “…a very good mom. (who) took care of her kids.” Police do know that 10 minutes prior to the accident, they received a domestic disturbance call to the family’s house and when they showed up, mother and children were gone. 

In the local newspaper in Sweetwater, Tennessee posted just today was an article titled “Drugs, domestic violence in Madisonville and Vonore.”  One man was arrested for threatening to kill his wife if she told cops that he was in possession of drugs.  The lady’s husband also told her she “would be dead before the police arrived.” 

According to domesticviolencestatistics.org, every 9 seconds in the US a women is assaulted or beaten.  Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women – more than car accidents, muggings, and rapes combined.  Studies suggest that up to 10 million children witness some form of domestic violence annually.  Every day in the US, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends. These are just a few statistics.

In 1983, Time Magazine published a cover story on domestic violence and even then, some of the statistics were shocking.  “A justice department survey counted 178,000 rapes during 1981, but for every woman who reported a rape to the police, perhaps nine or maybe 25 did not.”  The article also says, “The worst thing about family violence is its natural reproduction of itself, like a poisonous plant sending out spores. Most rapists were preyed upon sexually as children, and most violent criminals were raised in violent homes. Children of punched-out women, accustomed to seeing family business transacted with fists, are prone to become battered wives and battering husbands themselves. Worse, battered children grow up predisposed to batter their own offspring. Sexually abused boys often become pedophiles and rapists, while sexually victimized girls, perennial targets, are likelier to become battered wives.”  I could not have said this any better.

Domestic violence is something that so many women (and men) face on a daily basis and it’s just sick.  It’s pathetic that people feel the need to abuse their partners to the point that some are even killed.   Domestic violence towards women is significantly higher but there is still violence towards men at home as well.  All it takes is one time for a parent to freak out on another parent or the child and they could easily be doing the same thing as the young mother first mentioned, who took all by one of her children’s lives.  Hopefully, anyone who is a domestic abuse victim will stop it from happening in someone else’s and get it stopped within their own.  

Apple Juice or something a little stronger??

So I got on my computer earlier this week and my MSN Messenger came up on the screen with news stories.  MSNBC had posted a video from the Today Show dealing with drinking and texting while driving.  There is a new program out called “Every 15 minutes” and has recently started circulating in Maryland.  The school puts on a real life scenario of a drunk driving hitting a pedestrian and killing them.  It is cool that the some students in the skit are even related.  

According to the video “5100 teenage drivers were killed in alcohol or drug related accidents in 2009.”  The schools who choose to take part in “Every 15 minutes” use resources such as local law enforcement to help get the point across.  Every 15 minutes in these high schools the Grim Reaper walks around the school and pulls a student out of class, “Each one representing another classmate, another teammate, another friend who won’t be coming back.”  Then for the rest of the day (with the help of some costume makeup) these students walk to halls “dead.”  They cannot talk, receive phone calls or text for 24 hours to show what it would be like without having them around.  When the student is pulled from class, a police officer comes in a reads an obituary written by the “dead” student’s parents. 

So after watching this video, I decided to look up some statistics on my own.  I won’t personally take the time to discuss the entire page but AlcoholAlert! has some really great charts of so really interesting statistics.  I would really encourage you all to look at them.  The Century Council also has some shocking stuff on it.  It breaks it state down and the cases and has told us.  In 2009 there were 300 alcohol-impaired driving fatalities and 41 under 21 alcohol-impaired driving facilities.  72 % of alcohol-impaired driving fatalities involving high BAC drivers .  Of 12-20 years olds claimed in 2007-2008, 27% consumed alcohol and 18.4% admitted to binge drinking in the past month.  In 2009, 409 individuals under 18 were arrested for driving under the influence.  These statistics are absolutely crazy to even begin to think about. 

On www.buzzle.com they have an article about texting and driving.  One sentence states “The popular belief, that the number of teenagers texting while driving is more as compared to adults, got a major blow when the texting while driving statistics 2010 compiled by Pew Research Center revealed that 47 percent of the adults resort to texting as compared to 34 percent of the teenagers.”  I just thought that was a really interesting statistic.

I feel like texting and driving as well as drinking and driving are both problems that our society today faces.  I honestly can’t even think of a way to fix these problems.  It will be interesting over the next few years to finally see how these issues are dealt with.  

My vent for the week

So I’m definitely having a rant this week.  I cannot wait for April 22^nd to be here.  My boyfriend being gone has taken a really big toll on me emotionally.  A lot in the beginning and here lately, all I want to do is cry.  He was the one person who made everything right (besides my momma of course) but not having him here is tearing me up.

It also bothers me when girls put on Facebook all the time how they miss their boyfriend because they haven’t spoken in 12 hours.  It’s ridiculous.  It takes so much in me not to flip on them.  I’ve gone 73 days since I’ve gotten to talk him.  And what’s worse is it’s not just 73 days not talking to my boyfriend, it’s 73 days of not talking to my best friend.   I think that’s why it’s been so hard for me here lately.  I need my best friend to vent to and I haven’t had that, so I’ve bottled things up to the point it’s making me sick.

His family has been such a great support for me.  His dad was in the Army (and while the Marines are a lot different) he went through 2 tours of duty so his mom is familiar with what I’m dealing with, along with a few other people.  They frequently check on me and we go get ice cream and such, but it’s still not him.  I don’t have his hugs to make everything better.  I can’t curl up on the couch with them and watch scary movies and eat ice cream. 

Another reason I think things have been so much harder for me lately is that I haven’t gotten a letter from him in 19 days.  For those of you who don’t really know much about Marine boot camp (I sure didn’t when we 

started dating) but they go through 13 weeks of intense training and a week before graduation they go through the Crucible.  This is 54 hours of simulated combat.  If they can make it through that, they will become a Marine.  Well Chris was originally scheduled to leave April 26^th for boot camp.  On January 22^nd he found out he would be leaving January 24^th.  We had 2 days to say our goodbyes.  We went from planning movie nights for the next week, to figuring out what he needed to take with him.  It was such a shock for me; I grew up never really having anyone in my immediate family in the military.  I never knew that the military does things on their own time.  So he left me January 24^th.  Over the past 2 almost 3 months I’ve gotten 6 letters from him.  The last one I received was dated March 13^th.  I think that’s what is killing me the most.  The guys in his platoon (he is in San Diego so every recruit out there is male, unlike Parris Island, which is male and female) go through the Crucible next week.  And to ensure he will get my letters, the last ones I can mail will be this week. 

But little does he know, I am going to his graduation.  I forgot to mention, his graduation falls on his 22^nd birthday.  He thinks I have tests and homework that week which would prevent me from being able to come.  He just thinks his parents and brother will be the only ones coming.  Well, I am going to go out with his family to see him graduate.  On top of that, his best friend and her husband are also going to be there to see it as well.  I write him every night before I go to bed and it’s so hard not to mention something about being out there.

I’ve just got to stay focused for 2 more weeks then I am home free.  He will get to come home for 10 days then he goes to 2 months of job training.  But I will be able to handle that because we will get to talk every weekend.  I will be sure to keep you all up to date about how graduation goes.  

Goodbye Jacksonville. I will miss you.

So for Spring Break this year I went to Jacksonville, Florida along with 12 other students from Southern, one student from Ozark Christian College, and two mentors on a mission trip.  This was the second year that I had went with the Koinonia Christian Campus Ministry and as amazing as last year was, I think this year was even better.  My week went like this. 

I woke up at like 5am Friday the 18^th so we could all meet at the Criminal Justice Building by 6 and we were on the road by 6:30am.  We took two 15 passenger vans, one belonging to the organization and the other borrowed from a local church.  I’m pretty sure we drove all day.  I can say the 7 (not counting the driver) of us in the van slept a substantial amount of the day.  We arrived in Tiftonia, Tennessee at like 7pm (we changed time zones) and we ate dinner and crashed.  We also woke up early the next morning to get back on the road.  By Saturday afternoon, we had made it to the North Florida Christian Service Camp in Keystone Heights, Florida.  This camp is absolutely beautiful.  It consisted of an office and recreation building that literally sat on the edge of a lake, as well as the Dottie Shaw worship building, cabins to sleep in, a pool and even a human foosball court.  We went and bought groceries and just spent that night getting settled at the camp.

On Sunday we woke up, had a small service on the beach of the lake and then went to the ocean!! We went to Little Talbott Island State Park and the beach was absolutely gorgeous.  We were there and I spent the entire time walking up and down the beach.  Between the people that went with me and myself, we found about 15 sand dollars that were over 85% intact.  I even got to touch a jellyfish.   That night we went to a seafood place not far from the beach (the chicken there was really good.)

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we spent working at the camp.  We were given 27 time consuming jobs and were not intended to finish all of them.  These jobs included painting the office, putting up porch spindles, cleaning the beach, raking leaves, clearing brush from the side of the road, putting up batton strips, dry walling the office, sheet rocking the office, fixing some plumbing and so on.  By Wednesday night, after working 9-5 days in the 90 degree Florida weather we completed every task we were given.  The director of the camp told us that the work we did in three days would’ve taken him several months.  At nights, we were allowed to enjoy the lake and just have some “us” time.

Then came Thursday.  This was my favorite day of the week.  We went into intercity Jacksonville and worked with their City Rescue Mission.  Any given night in Jacksonville there is at least 4,000 homeless people.  The  CRM’s goal is to help these homeless.  For some, they offer a Life-Building program where the person must be sober from whatever they are doing for 7 days before they can enter.  They are given a bed (for up to 900) and they are started in the program. The program is like almost every other except for 2 things: they do not take any government money and they teach about Jesus.  The program is cleaning the person up, showing them a new way of life, getting them back on their feet, and placing them in a stable job for at least 6 months before graduation.  It often takes 12-18 months to complete.  The success rate of nation organizations are about 25% and the CRM has a success rate of 87% and the one difference:  Jesus.  We were able to serve the entire day sorting clothes at the goodwill and serving food to homeless.  It was by far the most humbling experience in my entire life.

If anyone who reads this would like to join Koinonia Christian Campus Ministry, we meet on Tuesday nights in the Lions Den.  At 7:15pm we have a prayer time, 7:30pm – a free meal provided by an area church and at 8pm we start our worship.  It is one of the best things I could have ever gotten involved with on this campus.   

Putting a Flag at Half-Mast

So I was on Facebook Monday and my friend posted a status saying “thoughts on having flags at half-mast for Japan today?” and I knew this would be my blog for the week.  I waited until the day today to post my blog just so I could see how people responded.  Well, first of all, I just want to make it clear that the flags were NOT at half-mast on Monday due to the disasters in Japan, they were at half-mast to honor the passing of the World War I veteran, Frank W. Buckles.  And I found that on the Missouri Office of Administration’s website http://oa.mo.gov/fmdc/flagnotifications.htm  But some of the responses to this friend’s status include “What are we supposed to think about it? There are thousands of people dead and thousands more missing, we should be in mourning as human beings” or “I was wondering why they were like that today. I think it's good. People loving and caring for other people... the way the world was meant to be” along with “I also didn't mean to suggest that I don't care about the people involved in this disaster. I'm not at all saying that showing compassion for other human beings is bad. All I'm saying is that it sets a precedent. Anytime any country has a national disaster or war or really any kind of humanitarian crisis the U.S. should fly the flag at half-mast. To do otherwise would leave us open to accusations of favoritism” or even “it’s called the AMERICAN flag...not the world flag.”  The reason I chose this is I would like to see how people respond.  How do you feel (if it were the case) that America put their flags at half-mast for a disaster in another country???

My first thought, no.  I do not feel that putting an AMERICAN flag at half-mast would mean anything to the Japanese or any other country for that matter.  I mean, I totally understand wanting to honor and respect someone injured or lost but personally, I feel that doing something like that should be for Americans.

I know, I know, this really makes me sound like I’m some cocky, insensitive American girl who only thinks about her country and not others.  But here is the deal.  I feel like we need to invent a different way to acknowledge crises in other countries but still be able to have our own acknowledgement for Americans.  I am not saying that we should not acknowledge others but I feel like every country should have their own special way to acknowledge their country members and then a way to acknowledge those from other countries.   I feel like if we use the flag at half-mast for our citizens, that there be another form of recognition for people from other countries.  I’m not sure if it would be feasible or not but I think it is really something to consider.  

Nuclear Reactors

So it is no question that the earthquake in Japan is a big deal, but at the moment I really think their nuclear reactors are definitely a bigger deal.  When I first heard about these, I didn’t even know what a nuclear reactor was.  According the World Nuclear Association, “a nuclear reactor produces and controls the release of energy from splitting the atoms of certain elements…the energy released is used as heat to make steam to generate electricity.”  Components of a nuclear reactor include fuel, moderator, control rods, coolant, pressure vessel or pressure tubes, steam generator, and containment. 

ABC News posted an article titled “Emergencies at 5 Japanese Nuclear Reactors; Radiation Levels Spike at Most-Affected Site.”  According to the article, these reactors exploded after the earthquake which caused the cooling system to lose power.  Because of this, the level of radiation in the air was over 1,000 times what it normally was.  “Officials declared a ‘nuclear emergency’ at the plant (Fukushima Daiichi), about 200 miles northeast of Toyko, amid the cooling system failure after the No. 1 reactor lost power and automatically shut down.  Later, officials announced cooling ability also had been compromised at the second reactor at the site and in three of four reactors at the nearby Fukushima Daini plant.” 

Because of the dangers of these nuclear reactors, workers have been evacuated from the plants in fear of the amounts of radiation that has been released in such a short time.  Yahoo News reported “The level of radiation at the plant surged to 1,000 millisieverts early Wednesday before coming down to 800-600 millisieverts…Experts say exposure of around 1,000 millisieverts is enough to cause radiation sickness.”  Anywhere from 30-70 percent of the reactors at each of the plants have been damaged by the earthquake and tsunami.  The idea of this is absolutely terrifying.

Why do people rely so much on nuclear power plants to supply energy? There are definitely other sources out there that could and might possibly actually be better for people and the environment.  For instance, we could use solar power.  EHow explains solar power as “Solar panels create power in direct relation to their size, latitude and weather.  These panels convert sun into power and store it in batteries that can be used at anytime.”  We could also place windows and doors in proper places around houses and businesses that would help to heat and cool that location according to the temperature at the given time.  Another option is wind power.  Wind turbines generate the power.  The other option (also from EHow) is geothermal power that uses” water heated deep in the earth to the surface and utilizing the steam to power a generator.” 

Now, granted, I am no expert on the use of nuclear power plants as opposed to solar, wind or geothermal power.  I’ve done some research but I do not know a crazy whole lot about the situation.  But these are other options.  And with the situation that the Japanese are facing at the moment, it will interesting to see what happens to the future of these plants.