Gay Rights Cont.

There are many stereotypes being held against homosexuals. One of largest is that if they become parents, they will affect the psychosocial development of the child. This in fact is not true based on studies that have taken place. One study from the American Physiological Association conducted by Dr. Charlotte Paterson said that, “The results of existing research comparing lesbian and gay parents to heterosexual parents and children of lesbian and gay parents to children of heterosexual parents are quite clear: Common stereotypes are not supported by the data…. In summary there is no evidence to suggest that lesbian women or gay men are unfit to be parents or psychosocial development among children of lesbian women or gay men is compromised relative to that among offspring of heterosexual parents. Not a single study has found children of lesbian or gay parents to be disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents.” This proves that children raised in homosexual households are not affected solely because they are being raised by same-sex parents. Judith Stacy of New York University states that, “The family type that is best for children is one that has responsibly, committed, stable parenting.” People do not want to believe this, but in fact it is the truth. Homosexuals should not be judged or denied the right to parent, because of their sexuality.

            In many situations, gays have been discriminated against when it comes to parenting. Many have been denied the right to adopt based solely on the fact that they are gay. This is completely unfair because a good parent is one that will stick by a child and help that child no matter what. Who are we to judge their parenting abilities; just because they are gay? There are many heterosexual parents who do not care for their child and take advantage of the privilege of having a child. “At the moment, three states- Florida, Mississippi and Utah-explicitly prohibit gay couples from adopting, and a similar law is being challenged in the Arkansas courts. Twenty-nine states, plus the District of Columbia, on the other hand, explicitly permit such adoptions, and the remainders have imprecise language in their adoption statues. The reason most often given by opponents of single-sex adoption is that children do best with a mother and a father,” (New York Times). Many people will argue that “stable family” is one that includes a mother and a father raising a child. This is a stereotype that has brainwashed the country for centuries. What is the definition of a stable family? Every family is different just like every person is different. Everyone deserves the chance to have equal opportunities to raise a family, no matter your sexuality.

            The opinions surrounding gay rights are very dynamic. Many people argue against granting homosexuals equal rights, but in reality why should they be treated any differently than heterosexuals? You can’t help who you love and no one should constitute your feelings. Homosexuals in America should not be denied their civil rights based upon their sexuality. 

Word Count: 508

Gay Rights

Gay Rights

Throughout history, many minorities have been discriminated against. The minority in this day and age being discriminated against are homosexuals. Like African-Americans and women in the past, homosexuals are being denied their civil rights. Homosexual citizens should have the same rights as heterosexual citizens.

Marriage is arguably the most controversial civil right when talking about homosexual couples. Out of fifty states, gay marriage is only legal in six. The reason for the controversy is the religious beliefs that politicians bring into it. What ever happened to the separation of Church and State?  In the United States of America, we have the separation of Church and State. By Congress taking it upon their “duty” to decide whether or not gays can marry, they are bringing into the government, the issue of religion. Religious beliefs should not be affecting what we are deciding in Washington D.C. The government shouldn’t be allowed to make decisions about how people feel and the feelings they have inside themselves. They should be focusing on issues that really affect the country, such as war and international relations. One prime example of how politicians bring their religious beliefs into homosexual civil rights is Republican Presidential hopeful, Rick Perry. In one of his campaign commercials he states, “I am not afraid to admit I am a Christian, but you don’t have to be in the pew every Sunday to know there is something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military… Faith made America strong; we can make it strong again.” This is a prime example because it openly states that he wants to bring religion into Congress. We feel strongly that Congress should not be allowed to make decisions on how people feel. That is when the issue of gay marriage and rights comes into play. You can’t make a law restricting someone’s feelings.


Word Count: 312

Gay Marriage

If there are un adopted children  without parents in foster homes, why should we exclude a certain percentage of adopters (gays) from the adoption system. ---MIZZAY

http://www.lifelongadoptions.com/about    LifeLong Adoptions
http://www.lifelongadoptions.com/gay-lesbian-adoption

They are an adoption service that facilitates adoptions. They "work with prospective gay and lesbian parents throughout the United States; however, the adoption process varies from state to state."

"Indeed, LifeLong Adoptions is a place where each client’s individuality, beliefs, religion, ethnicity, nationality, marital status, and sexual orientation are embraced and respected."

They believe:
- every child deserves a LifeLong family.
- each Adoptive Parent should receive the highest quality of service
MAINLY - believe that couples, singles and non-traditional families all have the right to adopt.

____________________________________________________________________________

http://library.adoption.com/articles/gay-adoption.html

"New Jersey was the first state to specify that sexual orientation and marital status cannot be used to discriminate against couples who are seeking to adopt."

"According to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, on September 30, 1999, 127,000 children in the public child welfare system were waiting to be adopted. The median age of children in this group was 7.7 years, and many had spent more than 36 continuous months in foster care. That same year, 46,000 children were adopted from public child welfare agencies. Some were infants. Some were teenagers. Many were Latino. Many more were white or black. Adoptive parents were equally diverse-31% were single women, 2% were single men, and 1% were unmarried couples. Among these adoptive parents were gay and lesbian individuals and partners."

"A limited number of states, however, absolutely preclude gays and lesbians from adopting. Most notable among them is Florida, where a federal judge in August upheld the state's 1977 law banning gay adoption."

____________________________________________________________________________

http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/an-end-to-gay-adoption-bans/

"At the moment, three states — Florida, Mississippi and Utah — explicitly prohibit gay couples from adopting, and a similar law is being challenged in the Arkansas courts. Twenty-nine states, plus the District of Columbia, on the other hand, explicitly permit such adoptions, and the remainder have imprecise language in their adoption statutes. The reason most often given by opponents of single-sex adoption is that children do best with a mother and a father."

 "The University of Virginia and George Washington researchers studied preschoolers who were adopted at birth by 27 lesbian couples, 29 gay male couples and 50 heterosexual couples."
          "What did they find? That it’s the quality of the parenting that creates a psychologically healthy child, not the sexual orientation of the parents."

The Columbia Disaster

The space shuttle Columbia Disaster was a tragedy that could have been avoided, but occurred because of negligence by the engineers and NASA administration.

During the design of the space shuttles external fuel tank, one of the requirements was that the foam, which prevents icing, would not come off during launch. The foam shedding had been observed before, and did not alarm NASA Engineers at all. The foam struck a Reinforced Carbon Heat Shield panel on the left wing, and knocked it off. The next day during video review of the launch, the foam strike on the left wing was observed, but due to the low film quality, the extent of the damage could not be determined. While the Shuttle was in orbit, NASA’s Chief Thermal Protection System Engineer made a request for an astronaut to inspect the wing, but nobody ever responded. Other engineers requested that the Department of Defense image the shuttle in hopes of getting a better picture of the damage. NASA denied these requests, after they ran several simulations using damage simulating software. The results showed the possibility of damage, but they downplayed the results, claiming it exaggerates damage. As the shuttle reentered the atmosphere, it began to shed debris, and eventually broke apart and scattered debris across Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

One of the largest engineering oversights during this disaster was made by NASA management. After viewing the foam debris strike the left wing on video, they used damage prediction software to predict possible damage to the reinforced carbon-carbon shield, which alerted them of severe penetration of multiple tiles by the foam. NASA managers denied requests for astronaut inspection of the left wing from the Chief Thermal Protection System Engineer. Other NASA engineers made three separate requests for the Department of Defense to take satellite images of the shuttle while in orbit in order to get a clearer picture of the possible damages, despite these requests, NASA managers denied them, and stopped the Department of Defense from intervening.

Lessons learned from this incident included four main factors, the recency effect, conservatism, overconfidence, and selective perception. The recency effect consists of making decisions based off recent events. On previous flights, foam had been observed breaking off during liftoff, but those occasions never resulted in an accident. Therefore, NASA managers believed that this would not result in an accident either. We now know that this “recency effect” can cloud the real danger presented by the shedding of the foam. The second lesson was conservatism. It is when new information is either ignored or not given much attention. This was present when NASA managers downplayed results from the damage prediction software. The third lesson was overconfidence. NASA managers denied the need for satellite imagery of the shuttle because they were confident that there was no safety issue. The fourth lesson was a result of selective perception. The NASA management had shifted their view from an engineering focus to a management focus. They had the mindset of “better, faster, cheaper”, which forced responses to potential problems to be dominated by schedules and budgets rather than the principles of engineering and safety.

Word Count: 522

The Patriot vs. History

There are many similarities and differences between reality and the movie The Patriot. In some aspects, Hollywood did a great job replicating history exactly. But, in other areas, they could have made things more historically accurate. Despite this, The Patriot is still an all around awesome movie. It is probably in my top ten most favorite movies I have of all time.

One of the similarities between the movie and the reality is the reasons for fighting. At the beginning Benjamin Martin and his family are being mistreated by the British. Benjamin Martin (aka Mel Gibson) is loosely tied to the Continental Army Officer Francis Marion. It follows history in that South Carolina voted to support the war. They also accurately portray the British capture of Charlestown.

In the movie Colonel William Tavington (Jason Issacs) is accurately portray as the real-life Sir Banastre Tarleton. He too in real life employed ruthless tactics as shown in the movie. Guerilla warfare was also employed in the movies, a historical tactic used by the Continental Army. At the end of the movie, the war ends at the battle of Yorktown with the help of the French, just like in history.

Some of the things that are not historically accurate are usually minute details throughout the film. One big thing is the way the slaves were treated. In the movie they were treated very well, and in reality they were almost never treated this well. Another detail was the cannonballs. In the movie, they exploded on impact, in history they did not, they would simply roll and basically destroy anything in its path. Another key difference is the Laws of War in the two settings. When Colonel Tavington finds a group of wounded soldiers (both British and Colonial) on the Martin’s Porch, he orders the colonial soldiers to be shot and the house burned. In reality, this would never happen because historically, both sides obeyed the Laws of War.

Bibliography:

"The Patriot (2000 Film)." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 14 Nov. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Patriot_(2000_film)>.

Word Count: 339

Eastern Spirit, Western Dreams

Jung, Woo Jin. Eastern Spirit, Western Dreams. Edina, MN: Beaver's Pond, 2004. Print. (222)

Eastern Spirit, Western Dreams is more than just an inspirational book to me. It means much more to me than any other book I have ever read. This is for two reasons, my Grandfather fought in the Korean War, and the author is my dad’s former boss. This book I could truly relate to myself unlike any other book. Woo Jin Jung’s story is one of devastating tragedies and miraculous triumphs. He proves that anything is possible if you are willing to work for it. It was because of his work, his determination to succeed, that he was able to overcome any challenge and any obstacle that came in his way. When he arrived in the United States he had just 35 dollars in his pocket. He fled Korea to get away from the war. He wanted to start a new life, one where he could be at peace, where he didn’t have to fear the ensuing North Koreans. When thinking of where he should go, he decided to move to America, the land of opportunity.

Through the practices of Tae Kwon Do, Jung is able to achieve the unachievable. This is where the book gets its name “Eastern Spirit Western Dreams”. The Eastern Spirit is the Tae Kwon Do, what he learned in Korea. The Western Dreams are the goals Jung had in America and how he achieved them.

The details of his life made this book so gripping. Some details are gruesome and horrible to think that they actually happened, but they just add to Jung’s greatness. I have never cried before while reading a book, but I did find myself tearing up while reading this. When Jung set out for America, for the land of opportunity, he completely fulfilled the term “land of opportunity”. Today Jung is an owner of numerous fitness clubs in both Iowa as well as North Carolina. He has named his chain of fitness clubs New Life Fitness World, a true testament Jung’s life. Through all of his inspiring hard work, Jung is now a multi-millionaire. I believe it is safe to say that he is living the American Dream.

Word Count: 371

Survival of the Sickest

Moalem, Sharon, and Jonathan Prince. Survival of the Sickest. 1st ed. New York: William Morrow, 2007. Print. (253)

The book Survival of the Sickest can be compared to myth busters of biology. It explores prominent diseases in today’s society and explains their history and journey through natural selection. It is a book that wonders why and asks why not. It’s about survival and creation. And it takes you on a magical medical mystery tour.

Survival of the Sickest was only possible because Dr. Moalem asked questions. This is the key to scientific discovery. You cannot assume how certain things work, or simply guess. You must break down each detail and ask how or why things work a certain way. An example from the book was when Dr. Moalem put together her grandfather’s love for giving blood with the relief it gave him. Dr. Moalem didn’t just acknowledge that this happened, he asked why it happens. Because he asked why, he was able to determine that his grandfather had a heredity condition called hemochromatosis. He didn’t stop there though, when his grandfather developed Alzheimer’s, he went even further to discover a link between hemochromatosis. There are multiple more examples like this throughout the book that require the same level of thought to formulate.

With that simplified background of the book one can understand the magnitude of thought needed to formulate this book. It was truly an eye opening experience reading this book. One can simply focus narrowly on the task at hand, much like looking down a hallway, but you can also look at the task at hand and relate it to other aspects of your work, much like looking at something outside in the wide open. This book gives you the ultimate big picture. It thinks of everything you didn’t think of. It was truly an eye opening and in-depth experience reading this book.

Word Count: 314