Final Project and Presentation (Inspired Post 8)

When we originally picked topics for this project, I was pretty much open to any idea that wasn't super technical or very much based in science. I had no idea the depth of understanding that would be required, nor the amount of time that I would eventually put into the project. Our group put in more time on this single project than I have ever put in to a project in my life. For four weeks, every Sunday night, we met for two to three hours to work on the initial part of the project. Yet it wasn't until we were preparing for the presentation that we were actually able to put all of our ideas together and really gain an in-depth understanding of the issue at hand.

Today, we met at 4:00pm and it is 10:25pm and we are still going.

This is about how I feel after concentrating intently for over 6 hours....

I have never experienced such dedication to a project in my entire schooling career. Perhaps it is because it is an honors class, but I have drawn a separate conclusion. I believe that the intensity of having to give the presentation in front of a panel of judges initially led us to become completely invested in actually understanding as many facets of the problem as possible. This is rare--usually students (myself included) work to complete projects as fast as possible while covering their bases in the most efficient manner possible. This project was different in that we actually cared about understanding the ins and outs of the entire problem and wanted to become experts on it.

Coming into the project, the amount of knowledge I had on the Mexican drug cartels was nothing more than they were bad, dangerous and were making it so people thought twice about traveling to Mexico. I had no idea about the root of this issue, the programs we currently had in place, or how to best go about solving the problem. I didn't even consider Latin America, Europe or North Africa having an effect on the problem that I had previously associated as only being between the United States and Mexico. I now feel that I can confidently explain the problem to anyone and be able to hold up my end of a conversation about it. That is what this class is about--understanding the importance of being active in current events. Back in August, I said that I was hoping to get back into current events (I was heavily involved in Speech and Debate in high school) after feeling trapped in the bubble that Penn State has put me in. I can honestly say that this class has helped me pop that bubble and helped me become a more informed, educated citizen.

Aging Discussion (Bonus Blog)

Tonight, I went to a discussion on aging through the Distinguished Honors Faculty discussions through the Schreyer Honors College. I figured this would be particularly interesting after learning about the demographic issues that aging causes during our visit to CSIS. This discussion was from a Health Policy Administration professor who had a very differing perspective than the one we heard at CSIS simply because it was based more in the healthcare policies rather than general public policy.

It was incredible to learn how much we have spent on healthcare in the past year: 2.3 trillion dollars. This breaks down to 7,500 dollars per capita. The next highest per capita country is Switzerland, but they merely spend around 3,000 dollars for each citizen. Perhaps it was ignorant, but I had always assumed that the U.S. spent less on healthcare than other countries, considering all the debate it. One of the most interesting things about this is that the United States is one of the most unhealthy developed countries even though we spend so much. We have less doctors, lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality. If you want to read more about this, you can read this article because it touches on a lot of what we discussed tonight.

We also discussed how women use more healthcare than men. They live longer but eventually are sicker. It was fascinating that the professor made it seem so obvious when he drew a simple parallel when explaining why this occurs. He talked about males inability to ask for directions when they get lost driving; men also do not go to the doctor when they have a health problem. This inevitably leads to their death. Yet the single strongest predictor of male life expectancy is whether or not they are married. That nagging wife that makes her husband ask for directions or go to the doctor inevitably makes him live longer. Who woulda thunk? It was such a simple explanation for this difference, but in reality it made a lot of sense. I would like to have seen some statistical backup to such a claim, but I certainly wouldn't doubt it.

At the end of the talk, we talked about caregiving which is a pretty controversial issue. We watched a clip about elderly persons who could not take care of themselves whom needed 24/7 care. We discussed how this is a problem that we didn't have to face until recently because just 100 years ago, the most common reasons for death were things that killed us quickly--now we die slow deaths like cancer and it is super expensive to cover such caregiving.

The video showed people whos quality of life was so diminished that some of the people in the room thought they would rather be dead. Some said of course they would rather be spoon-fed and on bed rest for months on end because at least they would be alive. In all reality, I find it extremely difficult to have a true opinion on this matter because I haven't yet had to deal with the effects of long-term caregiving for a loved one, although I do expect that at some point in my lifetime, that will unfortunately occur many times.

This was a really interesting discussion and I hope to be able to attend the future talks next Spring that revolve around similar topics. I think that this is something we need to be talking about more because it is such a huge issue and such a difficult thing for people to really feel comfortable discussing.

UC Davis Pepper Spray (Inspired Post 7)

My Facebook was flooded with "shame on you"s and tons of posts about the UC Davis pepper spray incident. I had yet to see the actual video, but I had heard about it from lots of other people and had painted a picture of it in my head. And then this was posted to my Facebook newsfeed...

If you have time to watch it, it is certainly worth your time. This video gives a timeline of events through a video stream that shows the events of the Occupy Davis event from start to finish. It shows how the students not only were blocking the police from getting through but also threatening them as well. The students literally make a circle around the cops and tell them that they will only let them leave once they release the students who were previously arrested. It also captures the police explicitly asking the students ofer and over to move and telling them of the consequences if they don't. The students sort of laugh it off and don't take the police seriously. When the other cops run up and the students still won't move, they resort to pepper spray.

From this point of view, the police did everything in their power to avoid using painful tactics. They were more or less defenseless and had no other option.

This article explains the events by saying nothing about the events that occured beforehand but making it seem as if the police simply randomly started spraying a whole bunch of students with pepper spray. One girl even says, "I think UCD just got radicalized," Carla told the World Socialist Web Site. "We're going to meet back here next week... I feel like we have to understand that this system is not set up to protect us—we have a human response to say, 'that's completely unjust'."

When the media acts the way they do, it is so hard to ever find the truth within a story. Every story has at least two sides, and the media jumps right on the most flashy, interesting, emotional side they can grasp. I simply hope that the students at UC Davis are able to watch the video above, see the events unfold, and realize that the pepper spray usage may not hae been as "completely unjust" as they originally claimed. Lots of my friends go to UC Davis, so it will be interesting over Christmas break to ask them if they watched it. (Finally, something to talk about other than Sandusky and Joe Paterno!)