HW 25 - Response to Sicko

I'm not that patriotic. But when it comes to the point of supporting my country, I'll go all out. I feel that America is the number one country in the whole world. We are the strongest, most united country and no other nation could ever bring us down. America is the land of the free, the home of the brave and this country takes very good care of it's people. However, Michael Moore's "Sicko" proves America definitly has some major gaps that need filling.

Apparently, United States healthcare is one of the worst in the wolrd, with just about FIFTY MILLION americans not having health insurance. WHAT?! It's sad but true, America is indeed struggling in the health department. There are many cases in which Americans don't get the treatment they need for themselves or loved ones, leading to unfortunate results.

A mother who was looking for treatment for her daughter was turned down due to her not having the proper insurance. Even in a serious state in which her daughter was in, the woman was still repeatly denied. After arguing back and forth, she brought her daughter to a hospital that would tend to her daughter, but it was too late, and the young girl died. Another disgraceful situation in where first responders from 9/11 are also turned down for needed treatments based uopn their lack of "proper healthcare".

This ridiculous way of health insurance has Ameircans having to change their lives just to survive mediacally. One woman traveled to Canada to "marry" her Canadian friend in order to get canadian healthcare(which is free) for her and her son. Another case sees a group of Americans being interviewed by film maker Michael Moore in France, where they permanently moved due to France also having beneficial healthcare.

After the release of "Sicko", Michael Moore and the film itself received huge negative reactions due to its apparent "screwing" of the U.S. However, thats only because whats in Moore's film is true. In fact, a father who was looking to get surgery for his daughters hearing, threatened his health insurance company and said he would exploit the company and its higher CEO. After some scary threats in the insurance company's eyes. they had a "change of heart" and decided to go ahead with the surgery, free of charge, how nice are they?

Overall, this movie had me pretty concerned about America and its healthcare system. This strong country, which I still proudly live in, is kind of letting me down on this topic. This is something that needs to get fixed right away because if not, I do believe that down the line, this could be a hypothetical reason in America having a hypothetical downfall.

HW 24 - Illness & Dying Book, Part 3

"Tuesdays with Morrie"
by Mitch Albom

This book to be honest, is the first book that I actually have been reading and interested in for a long time. I guess n=being that the general trending topic in the story is Death and being grateful for life, I mean, who wouldn't be interested (unless you are a seriously living under a rock). But anyways, i found this book to be a great read. The story is about Mitch, a middle aged sports writer who feels his life is kind of empty. He has fond memories of college and his old, unique professor, Morrie, who he referred to as "Coach". Believing this time in his life is nothing but a memory, Mitch goes on with life, with no intention of going back in time. meanwhile, his old professor, Morrie, has become very sick, dramatically changing physically, but not mentally. Morrie has become more mentally strong because of his sickness because he's in a position in which he sees and feels how much life really means and is to him. Morrie then has a chain of events that happen to him, which lead him to apper on a Nightline talkshow to talk about his Illness. That's how student and teacher reunite.

Over the next few months, Mitch the student reconnects with Morrie the teacher on a journey to the subject of Life. They talk about different topics every week, every TUESDAY, ranging from Death, Illness, Money, Power, Fear, etc. Morrie is in a situation where he sees Life in a different light, and is therefore able to somewhat open Mitch's eyes to what Life is really about. In this process, Mitch, who represents a pretty major portion of the worlds population, learns that Life shouldn't be taken for granted and that its much more than society has made it out to be, like making alot of money.

To me, i think the author's purpose was to get what happened to Mitch( who is the author) in the heads of alot of people, or at least those who read the book. After reading this book, I persobnally have learned alot of insight on what Life really is and how growing up in modern society may have blinded me from the truth at some points. Also, I like how the book explores the subject of death. On the matter of fear of death, there is a quote that will always be on my mind, which is "when you learn how to die, you learn how to live". This quote is saying that you can't spend many hours of your lifetime fearing death or not wanting it to happen because its going to happen regardless. Believe it or not, death is apart of life, so thats just more inspriration to go out into the wolrd, show people and yourself who you truly are and just try and accomplish as much as possible.

This book was quite honestly one of the greatest reads that I've had in a very long time. With that said, a book like this also teaches me a little something on the subject of reading, that being it could become more sucessful if the read text could connect in apositive, impactful way to the reader, making the reading experience that much sweeter. "Tuesdays with morrie" did just that for me, which is why i actually enjoyed reading the book based on multiple personal connections to it, rather than having to feel forced to read it as part of a school assignment.

HW 23 - Illness & Dying Book, Part 2

Continuing to read "Tuesdays with Morrie" gives me sources to expand my own ideas about the general topic of Death and Illness. At this point in the book, which is basically in the middle, topics are spoken about that quite honestly open my ears alot.

For example, on the subject of Death and how to deal with its unknown arrival, Morrie makes a point that is first surprising, but then understandable. He says " When you learn how to die, you leanrn how to live" (pg. 82). This to me is a very strong statment. At first thought, death could actually be a very scary thing. i know it was for me as I was younger. However, it's wrong to take a big chunk of your life to be scared of death. So, Morrie's point is that once you come to terms with death, which is its not that bad and its gonna happen reagradless, you should just accept it and be happy with your life until its over.

Another example, which is pretty similar to the first one, was morrie's insight on aging. Similar to death itself, aging to some people could be a fearful thought. Most people would probably like to stay young forever. However, Morrie states that this isn't the best way to go, and there is in fact great benefit from aging. " it's very simple. As you grow, you learn more. If you stayed at twenty-two, you'd be as ignorant as you were at twenty-two. Aging is not just decay, you know. it's growth"(pg. 118). This statment really doea alot for me. There's no doubt that there are times where I miss my childhood. But if i had an actual chance, there would be NO way I'd give up growing up just to stay young forever. Growing up to me is exciting, its fun.

A third topic that was disscussed in "Tuesdays with Morrie" was how money can't be a dependent substitute for happiness, for life. People may look as money as a way out. Its not just money, some people turn to drugs, alchohol, working too much, etc. There's always another way out in peoples minds, but their wrong. Love and tenderness, according to Morrie,l is the way to go. "Money is not a substitute for tenderness and power is not a substitute for tenderness. I can tell you, I'm sitting here dying, when you most need it, neither money nor powerwill give you the feeling you're looking for, no matter how much of them you have" (pg. 125). This quote to me, makes a huge point. People may take some of lifes "treasures" as the real treasures for the soul, but really, they're fakes. Love and tenderness, the real thing, from family, friends and significant others are the way to go. You may also have that one goal in life that you want to accomplish to badly, its all about the LOVE for it. This basically says that you can't take things for granted and shouldn't be fooled and that listening to your heart is the way to go.

HW 21b - Comments

Willie,

I liked your post overall. First, you picked out parts of the guest speakers speech that caught your attention and were significant to your own personal experiences. Then I also liked how you actually shared the persoanl experience of losing your grandfather. To me, who also lost family members including my grandfather too, its good to go through the same experience in order to really understand what people are talking about when referring to the topic of Death and illness

Larche,

I liked reading your post. You picked out parts of Beth's speech that personally interested you and then you gave your own personal insight on different topics she spoke about and expanded them into your own ideas. Good job.

HW 22 - Illness & Dying Book Part 1

In my opinion, whether you're reading a book, watching tv or just anything that involves someone OTHER than you, it's really easy NOT to be attentive to their situation. However, although it's not YOUR situation, if their situation somehow connects to yourself, you'd most likely then be interested in paying attention. This is exactly what happned to me as I started reading my new group book "Tuesdays with Morrie". I connected this book to death in my life, knowing how it felt to lose a loved one made it that much easier to get hooked on the story in this book.

So far in the book, one small part that really caught my attention was a point in which the main character, Mitch, was helping another character, Morrie, get into his chair. Once Mitch started to lift him, he described feeling the seeds of death at Morries touch. This to me is deep, because it shows that when it comes to death, the ones actually going through it aren't the only ones suffering, maybe they're suffering the most, but they're not the only ones.

his book so far has been a great read for me (which is saying something because im not much of reading books daily). So I look forward to see what other thoughts and ideas this book could have in store for me

HW 21 - Expert #1

It was truly an honor to have Beth come in as a class guest to talk about her pesonal experiences she went through with the sickness and passing of her husband. Most people usually aren't too comfortable talking about such a topic, so for that alone, i appreciate her courage and strength. In addition to this, it was an overall great experience to hear her story in order to get someones insight and personal experience with Illness and Death. Although I too went through having loved ones lost with Illness and Death, it was a good experience to hear someone else's story, points of view, etc.

After she shared everything that she and her husband went through leading up to his unfortunate passing, I asked the first question, which asked if she felt that her views on sickness and death changed from before her husband's Illness compared to after his death. Her answer basically stated that overall, you just can't take life for granted. Not only your life, but you should appreciate others too. I liked how she mentioned how giving out a comment could truly make someones day ina bigger way than we could imagine. After thinking about it, I relaized she was right and that it's very important to be nice to those you come across in life, whether it'd be loved ones, strangers, etc.

Being that I can relate to Illness and Death from having dealt with multiple passings of loved ones, I can truly say that the experience truly made me feel like a stronger person, beyond the subject itself. It makes me realize that there is indeed a line between life and death, and that people should cherish everything they have AND could have. Not exactly, but in some way, Life is a race, and we just have to keep up, accomplish goals, love our loved ones, build and keep friendships, and just live life because sooner or later, it will truly be over.

HW 19 - Family Perspectives on Illness & Dying

When looking for different POV's on Illness and Dying, I thought of nothing other than the possible ideas coming from my family, the people I'm closest to. I'd figure with the ideas and beliefs I have personally, those of family members couldn't be any different. in fact, I figured their ideas would expand my own.

When asking my mother about her thoughts of Illness and Dying, she generally had this to say: "Illness and Dying in general, although sad and tragic, is just apart of Life. Death is indeed the end of Life, but the beginning of something new, something we don't know about, but will find out when we DO die".

When asking my sister about her thoughts on Illness and Dying, she had this to say: "It's scary, it affects not only the people who are sick, but their loved ones too. It sucked seeing Pop (our grandfather) get sick and when he passed, it was sad. When someone gets sick, even though that person gets the worst of it, those who care about that person get affected as well".

When asking my dad about his thoughts on Illness and Dying, he had this to say: "It's apart of life. You're born, go to school, work, maybe get married, have kids, retire, then eventually die. That's the basic cycle of Life".

Hearing these different POV's from my family, nothing really changes for me. it DOES however, make me think about Illness and Dying in general more. People are all going to have their own opinions about Illness and Death. I don't know about Illness, but in terms of Death, I believe you only find out the truth of course, when you die.

HW 18 - Health & Illness & Feasting

This years Thanksgiving, I wasn't able to experience the yearly tradition of being with family, and enjoying the traditional foods that the holiday is associated with. Instead, I ended up working on Thanksgiving night. I work as a concierge for a building on 72nd street. So i was constantly watching people arrive and leave, all in anticipation to spend time with their loved ones and the celebrate this special holiday. I wasn't entirely out of luck though, as i was working the same shift as my father, which in my eyes is better than nothing.

But being that I remember every other Thanksgiving I celebrated, I could state that I was heavily involved with the yearly tradition that the holiday brings to us with eating, being with family, etc. Also, i can most definitly connect this holiday to Death.

Although I heard from family members that this year was yet another great holiday, this year was kind of awkward and different from the rest. This year was the first year that 2 family members were absent due to them passing away lasy year, one of them, right around Thanksgiving. Because of this situation, it brings new meaning to tradition of the holidays, at least specfically my family. Thanksgiving is about being thankful for many things. In my family, family itself and Life are two things that were held especailly close this year, due to personal experience. It pretty much falls into place, because whether or not people have had deaths happen to loved ones, this holiday and other holidays pays tribute to togetherness, love and appreciation.

So while food is in fact one of the main topics Thanksgiving has to look at, not only is there other topics existing, there were alot more important topics that my family paid more attention to this year. So in a way, Thanksgiving is a blessing in itself, because a night of good food and being with family is the only excuse you need to be togtehr with loved ones and a symbolic way to say, "I'm thankful".

HW 10 - Food, Inc. Response

Similar to my reading group book, "Omnivore's Dilemma", the movie "Food Inc." was a way to show the public a behind the scenes look of what goes on within food industries and how they go about producing the food that we currently eat on a daily basis. This film took a look at different stories from people whose lives were strongly affected in a negative way by food. For example, a financially struggling family finds it hard to eat healthy when better foods are more expensive than that of junky, fast food. Another story comes from a woman who lost her young child due to tainted hamburger meat.

Other points of view that are shared within the story are people within the food industry, such as farmers. I found one farmers thoughts and ideas to be very interesting. Joel Salatin, owner of Polyface Farm, an organic food market, had a lot to say defending his ways of preparing food the right way. Although animals get slaughtered either way, i have to agree with Joel Salatin when he says his way of going about slaughtering animals the "right way". His slaughterhouse is outdoors, exposed to fresh air. His animals get to run around in fresh, open space, opposed to cramped, crowded, stuffy slaughterhouses. I figure if the animals are going to be killed anyways, you might as well be humane about it and treat them good leading up to their death.

This whole situation about food really opened my eyes a lot more to what is going on behind the industry of food. I would've never really put serious thought about it before seeing this film. As far as the actual problems are concerned, I agreed with a person in the movie who compared the dilemma of food to that of the problem that used to exist with the Tobacco industry. Being that the tobacco industry no longer has a sick hold over buyers of productions like they used to, the same can happen with food after a fight takes place.

Did this film affect me in a big way? Yes, it did MENTALLY. Did it make me think about possibly changing my eating habits? No, because being that i have eaten the same basic way for my 18 years of life, why would I let other people's opinions within a film affect me in any way? I do however appreciate the goal this film had, which was to let people know what is really going on behind the scenes in food companies and how we the people could make positive change, like we did in the dilemma of the Tabacco industry.

HW 9 - Freakonomics Response

Watching the movie "Freakonomics", i didn't reallyknow what to expect out of the film. After watching it, I found it interesting that topics that seem irrelevant to the topic at hand actually connect to it altogether.

I really enjoyed the part of the movie where the film focused on the art of sumo wrestling. First off, I learned some new things in sumo itself. For example, I never knew that the referee's attire was religiously symbolic to the sumo wrestlers so that they would not cheat or do anything to disgrace the sport. This connects to the agenda of trying to find the truth of social practices because with these kind of rituals taking place daily in sumo matches, one would wonder if that would complelty stop the possibility of cheating or fixed matches.

Other examples that connected to finding the truth was offering to pay high school kids if they were able to get their grades up. As good a deal as this would seem to be, the test subjects still weren't able to maintain their side of the deal and still being lazy.

This movie really just opened my eyes to alot of topics that all connect to finding out the truth about everything. How do we know what is right or what is wrong? Is there really such thing as a cause and effect? We'll never really know, but its good to be able to think and discuss it.

HW 8 - Growing Our Own Food

I didn't personally take part in growing my own sprouts but looked on as my classmates did it. The mini project itself is actually quite interesting because it gives you a hands/eyes on experience in growing ones own food. Because our food comes from several middle men processed, its nice to grow your own food every once in a while because unlike the rest of the stuff we consume, we actually know where the sprouts have been. This was a pretty simple project and I'd be more than willing to participate in a similar experience in the future.

ODYR Reading Responses

CHAPTER 3

This chapter discussed the basic process of growing foods, transporting them, etc. They had a simple diagram that saw foods being grown from Photosynthesis, from rain and/or animal waste. Then it discussed being taken to factories to be officially processed and sent out to stores for the public to purchase and consume.This is interesting because it shows step by step how some foods are first grown, picked, transported, processed, sent out and eventually eaten by us. Something that happens 24/7, but not really thought about daily.

CHAPTER 4

Although I never knew it beforehand, it now makes sense why corn is so important and is demanded alot. Corn has its own way of being kept in its own area of process and it tends to be used for a lot of different reasons including for our own consumption, animal concumption, fuel, among other uses.

CHAPTER 5

This chapter was very interesting because it showed how corn was a big deal in the making of our MEAT. The author also discussed his own personal side project of purchasing a young calf so that he could follow it through the process of it being grown, grazing, bulked up, and eventually slaughtered and processed for its meat.That would be an interesting experience in my mind because this author got that actual opportunity to go along with his calf in the step by step process from when it's born to when a part of it is served on a plate in a restaurant. It truly is a "behind the scenes" experience.

HW 4 - Your Families' Foodways

When it comes to food, I most definitely believe that the people who raise you or the ones surrounding you as you grow have a huge impact on you, which includes your eating habits. From the moment you are born, you have no choice but to rely on your parents (or other adult figures) to help you out food wise for the first big chunk of your life. In some cases, whatever choices these adults make for you in childhood could become a permanent factor in your daily living for the rest of your life.

I personally grew up within a family that eats good overall. I wasn't really exposed to too much junk food growing up. In fact, my mom tells me how she used to feed me spinach and scrambled eggs as a baby. Where I'm at in my life now, I feel nothing but thankful for the way I was brought up with my eating habits because I feel that I pay very good attention to my food choices and choose them according to health and overall goodness.

It should be a parents top priority to push their kids to a more healthy, eating styled life. We usually think back to our parents "blabbing" about how eating fruits and vegetables and drinking all our milk will make us grow up big and strong. Well they're RIGHT! Whatever you eat could make a big difference in how you go about your life. For example, I have eaten Mcdonalds before, who hasn't? I consider myself an active person, i enjoy exercising and playing sports. Now if I were to eat Mcdonalds surrounding this, I could eventually feel to sluggish and tired to want to do anything physical. Now if I were to eat more healthy, not necessarily strict, but just good, I would feel very good and energized and have no problem getting up and going to the gym or for a run.

Food is the fuel for our bodies. Its what our bodies depend on to operate on a daily basis. Because of this, it's our choice to choose the foods not only to eat, but also the foods in which will have an impact on how we act and live day by day.

HW 3 - Food - Fast Food Insights and Green Market Realizations

When we went out to observe different settings involving food, I didn't think I'd expect much, or at least anything new. But once we specifically stepped into a Mcdonalds and were asked to take notes on the different aspects of the fast food restaurant, I surprisingly had a lot to say.

First off, Mcdonalds to me seemed plain, yet colorful at the same time. I guess the design of it indoors had a purpose of attracting customers into coming and purchasing food. When looking at the people themselves, they seemed kind of sad, some were in a hurry and just wanted to come in and out, some stayed even after they were finished eating, as if this fast food joint had become their new SANCTUARY.

We then went to a Green market and it seemed somewhat different in my eyes. it was located outside, on what was a beautiful, sunny morning. There were many types of foods like fruits, vegetables, goodies, anything you could possibly think of. It was pretty packed with people looking around for something they'd think they enjoy eating. To me, I believe the setting of it being outside was what separated the Green market from that of the mood of setting of Mcdonalds.

This experience alone showed that food has a lot more affect on us than we think. People can either be happy and enjoy themselves with their different kinds of food outside, or they can become isolated indoors with food that quite frankly is a mystery in terms of where it has been.

HW 2 - Food - Initial Thoughts

Although it is a very big part of our lives, it is pretty much certain that not many people really think about what food is to us. Yes, we obviously need food and water to keep living, but what about food do we tend to go after? There is ALOT of types of food in the world, too many to even round a number on. The main question that was discussed in class was what about food do we make our choices to consume on a daily basis?

I personally choose to eat healthy food, in which also tastes good at times. There are times in which my peers think i'm weird for eating things that they don't eat. For example, I'm looked at as the only person in the world to have eaten tuna fish directly from the pouch. Does it taste DELICIOUS? Not really. But i eat it because it's healthy and full of the protein I need for my body. However, not everything I eat is as weird as plain tuna fish. I'm not really a picky eater, I just choose to eat more on the healthy side. Things such as cold cuts, peanut butter, chicken, steak, wheat bread, fruit ad vegetables, the list goes on. Now I'm not an extreme dieter. I'll have a slice of pizza or a cheeseburger from time to time, but not in a daily routine. I also enjoy eating protein bars and drinking as much water as I can.

In my mind, people choose what they eat using mostly their senses. Their sense of smell and taste plays a role of satisfaction while eating their choice of foods. Their use of sight would initially attract them to certain foods that look good. And similar to my thinking, people use their mind and choose foods because they know its good for them. Now beforehand without really thinking about it, one would think you just eat food for no reason, period. But when you think about it, there are actually a few factors that help you decide what you would like to consume day by day.

Because food is a big part of our lives, we use senses in order to decide what we eat, In fact, there's a saying which pretty much holds true. The saying "You are what you eat" expresses how what you put into your body could make you the person you are daily. There's the semi strict dieter eats healthy foods, then there's the "who cares" type person who makes pizza night every night. Thinking about this, eating could be the first set in multiple life paths of a person. A person who eats healthy may be more likely to exercise daily vs the person who likes to eat less healthy. There's plenty of more examples but the point is food is alot more important to us than we usually give it credit for.