Speech: Sofi Tzouanakis

Persuasive Speech

Sofi Tzouanakis

Democracy is a topic still largely accepted and debated to this day in our free, but still troubled America.

Due to my interest and obligation to this country, I have researched how I, and how we all, can make a better government in the United States.

I've read from professionals and philosophers alike, and I've reached a conclusion.

Today I'll argue the idea of democracy and the fact it has systematic problems which are unfixable.

What is democracy? Democracy is  "government by the people; that form of government in which the sovereign power resides in the people as a whole, and is exercised either directly by them . . . or by officers elected by them.", as said by the Oxford English Dictionary.

Democracy is a pretty large form of argumentum ad populum: the thought that a government decision is best if the majority believes it to be so. This claim is easily dispelled after a bit of investigation. 

Lysander Spooner, a political theorist, claimed "the principle that the majority have a right to rule the minority, practically resolves all government into a mere contest between two bodies of men, as to which of them shall be masters, and which of them slaves." We are not slaves, but apply his words to modern sentiment and will find legitimacy in them. The fact is, majority rule often pushes the minority vote aside. I’m not sure if this can be subject to change either.

Many times, people will vote for the “lesser of two evils”, even if this isn’t in their best interests.

The philosopher Robert Nozick's "The Tale of the Slave" says that “even if a slave is given the right to vote over what days he works or what to have for dinner, he has not consented to slavery. Likewise, just because we vote to attempt to change our government does not mean we have consented to any of it.”

Another persistent problem is the inevitable fact of buying people of political power off with massive incentives. According to opensecrets.org, the average net worth of a U.S. Senator was 11.9 million dollars. In the house? 6.5 million.

A large problem which manifests within this is you cannot get incapable politicians out of office. With money they have the resources to be reelected 20 times over. Imagine there is a close, 51-49 election. All it takes is a little money and a bit of corporate backing to get the additional 1% and the entire election in the bag. Now, how much of a voice do you actually have?

And campaign finance reform won’t stop it.The incentive is still there even if the bill is everything they’d want and more. They’ll find a way.

Perhaps some are beginning to think that these things are flaws in representation.Maybe it would be remedied if we had direct democracy, where every issue was voted, majority rules, purely by the people?

Churchill said that "the best argument against democracy is a 5 minute conversation with the average voter." Maybe this answers your question, but I can talk about why this is.

Just look around you as I ask your peers this: how many of you know who our congressman is? Now for something a bit harder: how many of you know the last vote he made?

Politicians know this, and consequently vapid slogans like "we need to get this country back to work!" and “I want to preserve our American values” tend to go over well with the general populace. 

Citizens can also be very sensitive on politics. Political involvement is not only costly on time, but also on the emotional mind. 

Wedge issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage, terrorism, and others are many times viewed as a personal insult. It is not a difficult thing for the public to demonize candidates and proposals with wedge issues, and it has stood the test of time that voters will vote against their best interests at heart,  and instead on these. 

So what's the solution? 

Here are my thoughts: democracy has been the most successful system tried for running large and centralized government. Despite this,  it STILL leads to a lot of corruption, manipulation, and injustice. 

As far as what you can do today, you CAN have a major impact on your world, but if you continue to believe you can change it purely by voting, you’re wrong.

To fight suffering and the impoverished, volunteer. To regain privacy in an age of technology, use more cash and less plastic. To get people to stop smoking, do persuasive speeches. We can be equally as powerful as politics.

And when people begin to rely on themselves to implement change instead of government policy and voting, we can all regain some semblance of peace and control over our current society and more importantly, our destinies.

Citations

"SELECTED DEFINITIONS OF DEMOCRACY." SELECTED DEFINITIONS OF DEMOCRACY. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2013. <http://www.uiowa.edu/~c030142/DefinitionsOfDemocracy.html>.

"Personal Finances." Opensecrets RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2013. <http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/averages.php>.

Petrie, John. "John Petrie’s Collection of." The Greatest Winston Churchill Quotes. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2013. <http://jpetrie.myweb.uga.edu/bulldog.html>.

"No Treason, No. 1." Lysander Spooner: Lawyer, Abolitionist, Entrepreneur, and Legal Theorist. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2013. <http://lysanderspooner.org/node/44>.

Assignment 16 - Angela Tseng

My absolute favorite movie director has to be Hayao Miyazaki. Ever since I was a child I watched his animated films such as Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and Howl's Moving Castle, and even as I grew up I simply fell more in love with his movies and kept up with his new ones. The two movies that I'll be comparing for the sake of this assignment are Ponyo and Spirited Away. Despite the fact that I can still say that I enjoy all of Miyazaki's movies, Ponyo was one of my least favorite because, at least at the time that I watched it, it didn't seem to have much of a meaningful storyline to it and rather it was just a semi-random sequence of events. On the other hand, Spirited Away had a deep storyline that led to the development of the main character, Chihiro. However both of them have the linking factor of the being very fiction-ous. In Ponyo, one of the main characters, Ponyo herself, is a half human half fish hybrid whose mother rules the sea while in Spirited Away Chihiro runs across and is forced to work in a bath house for spirits to save her parents. 

Speech Alex Warren

Final Speech
Alex Warren
6th-Logsdon


Would you like to super size your combo today? That was the typical question asked by drive-thru attendants, before super sizing was discontinued. And the typical answer by the customer was yes. Fast food is a great buy because it is quick, cheap, and tastes good, but it is really just an economic advantage. Fast food is absolutely terrible for your body, so you should rarely eat it or just avoid it completely.


In 2009 Morgan Spurlock released, Super Size Me, a documentary about the harmful effects of eating fast food. His challenge was to eat three square meals a day from McDonalds in thirty days. He had to eat at least every item on the menu once in the time period, exercise as much as the average American, and he had to super size his order when he was asked. Once he finished he had gained twenty five pounds and had experienced multiple health problems. 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
Two problems that Spurlock dealt with were high Cholesterol and depression. In the average “Big Mac” from McDonalds there is 142 mg of cholesterol, which is 47% of the recommended daily intake. Thats one food item, that takes up half of the amount of cholesterol you are supposed to have in a day! Now that isn’t very healthy. Many people suffer from depression, so they look for an out to make them feel better. One of the most common choices is food, and not just any food, but food that tastes good (a.k.a. fast food). See this solution is a problem because eating fast food leads to weight gain, which in turn to lead to depression, and then vicious the cycle just continues. Spurlock didn’t experience major health problems because, he was healthy before his experiment and continued to be after. Major health problems he didn’t experience are Coronary Heart Disease and Diabetes. The American Heart Association stated that, “people who consume 4 or more fast food items a week are 80% more likely to die from coronary heart disease compared to those who avoid fast food.” They also stated that it, “increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 27%.” Diabetes is a serious condition! Imagine having to prick your finger to check your blood sugar, and injecting yourself with insulin multiple times a day, just because you chose the Big Mac over a salad.


People will also argue that fast food chains offer healthy options too, like a salad instead of a burger, but those aren’t as nutritious as the average salad. For example the Premium Southwest Salad with Crispy Chicken has 450 calories, 50 mg of cholesterol, and 850 mg of sodium. The average home-made salad has tremendously less than calories, cholesterol, and sodium.


Others will argue that McDonalds and other fast food chains have done away with the whole “super-size” option, once they realized that serving 1000 calorie burger, with half a pound of salt caked french fries, and a half gallon soda was a bad idea. Yes they now have smaller serving, but that doesn’t mean it is still good for you, the average Big Mac meal today has 1350 calories, 54 G of fat, 1410 mg of sodium, and 194g of carbs! That is way more than you should be getting in one meal. 
As you can see fast food may taste good, but it is a terrible diet choice. It should be eaten very rarely, or avoided completely. Going home and cooking your own food sounds a lot better than being hampered with diseases and being in bad physical condition for the rest of your life. Remember you can’t make a good thing quickly, it takes time, so slow down your food, sit down at home and enjoy a meal and most importantly eat healthy.




Sources:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120702210214.htm


http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/getnutrition/nutritionfacts.pdf


Spurlock, Morgan, dir. Super Size Me. Samuel Goldwyn 
Films, 2009. Film. 25 Jun 2013. 
<http://www.hulu.com/watch/63283>.

12 Alex Warren

Theres a couple of inanimate objects that would be cool to see “come alive”, one of which is a ottoman. Yeah I know an ottoman doesn’t sound that cool, but honestly it would be so funny to see an ottoman try and walk. The kind of ottomans we have at my house are either long and not very wide, or wide and not very long, just depending on how you look at them. they would have to waddler back and forth to walk, they wouldn’t fit through doorways, and it would be really funny to try and see them walk up or down steps. Another funny object would be a baseball bat, I think it would be funny to see a batter trying to hit the ball and every time he swings the bat just moves itself out of the way because it doesn’t want to get hit by the baseball.

assignment X Ben G

Apparently zombies have attacked. Boo hoo hoo. Whatever shall I do? Here's. The plan: 1) set up a small safe zone for friends and family 2) get transport to either the national guard armory or the bluegrass army depot 3) borrow a CH-47 Chinook heavy transport helicopter 4) rig outside of helo with drop tanks 5) return to safe zone via helo 6) load everyone in chopper, take all possible resources and weaponry 7) fly to Wright Patterson AFB 8) Assuming the base is secure, load everything possible, including helo, into a C-5. 9) fly to Dubai 10) offload supplies into helo 11) fly to a Persian gulf oil terminal 12) survive. Use the oil for the helo, use helo for resupply.

assignment 12 Ben G

my object--- my deskchair Oh, brother. He's home. Time for another 5 hours of squashing. Oh. Great. Today's Friday, so I'm gonna get a solid 8 to 11 hours of squashing in. Actually, I don't think I mind all that much. At least it keeps me fairly warm. That's a lot better than being Tommy's chair. He doesn't even use it. He just sits in bed. I guess. I don't have any room to complain. Never writing another blogpost from my kindle. Forgive the formatting, I had to write it in HTML.

Final (Countdown) - Haven

   (First post to not be in Verdana! Wait...)

   What did you have for lunch today? I myself rely on the chicken sandwiches the school serves regularly. I’m not entirely sure how the bird meat was pressed into the circular shape, nor what parts of meat were used if any, but a few words on a computer screen informed me one patty was more fats than anything else; about 60% in all. I also had an apple. I figured it came from a tree, and I learned though the fruit was quite sugary there were few if any number of fat percentages to speak of. It’s a  fair estimate a majority of students in Henry Clay share a similar meal everyday, and if a high school accurately reflects the diets of America, then I am not surprised our health and happiness is slowly declining.

Progress has been kind to the processed foods industry. From the first instance of canning foods in the 1700s to grain refinement a century later, these processes help to enhance their tastes and extend their shelf lives. The technology, unfortunately, didn’t stop there. Another hundred years passed and oil refinement was introduced, raising the percentage of unnatural oils and fats by an alarming 400 percent. Along with it a rise in degenerative conditions arrived, - obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease -  neatly reflecting the effects of diets consisting of processed foodstuffs. The most vile part is the health risks are either endorsed or hidden beneath empty words entirely. Many, many companies entice their consumers with words like local, natural, GMO and organic, when in reality the food contains more dyes and unnatural fats than true whole foods. Yet other companies don’t bother with hiding their products’ _______ - they put it on a pedestal, claiming their product is more convenient and cheap than the competition. And they work. More and more people turn to process foods to feed themselves, their families, and of course their schools.

The question become, then, what can whole foods bring to the table? Better yet, what defines a whole food?  Ideally they consist of one ingredient, though multi-ingredient foods still count as long as they’re refined as little as possible. Consuming whole foods rids dyes and additional sugars that are added in processed foods, as well as providing natural nutrients. Referring back to the patty and the apple, would you believe me if I told you the fruit was not only more nutritious but more filling with fewer calories? Perhaps the processed chicken tastes better, but with health as the essential concern an apple isn’t a bad trade-off. Of course, physical health isn’t the only benefit. By integrating nutrients  and eliminating excess fats you help fend of depression and promote energy more than a couple cups of coffee ever could.

Our choices and preference in processed foods is not a mental illness. We can actively make choices to improve our personal health. The simplest answer is to replace more processed foods with whole ones. These can be found in farmer markets or, closer to home, around the perimeter of your average grocery stores. Do some independent research on specific items on your shopping list to help compare nutritional values and consider healthier replacements. If food’s origin is a major concern for you, garden it yourself! It is a time commitment, but with the right resources you can grant yourself a guilt free meal. It’s incredibly easy to convert to a wholesome diet, yet still many people fall back into the familiarity that is processed foods (are you sick of that phrase yet?). We must resist temptation, and do be prepared to spend a bit of extra money.

Processing our food has it’s benefits, but with today’s technology it becomes more harm than good. Luckily, unrefined foods are still an available and ready option, with more benefits than common alternatives. I’m asking all of you, and pledging myself, to incorporate more whole foods into your diet, be it once a week or once a meal. Do it for our health, and do it for our satisfaction.

Assignment 16: make up

Parker Carroll
#2- Odd Thomas
https://www.facebook.com/parker.carroll.754

Speech: Parker Carroll

Drug Smuggling

Parker Carroll

Good afternoon, thank you for allowing me a few minutes to speak to you today about a topic that I believe impacts us all. For years the consumption and distribution of illegal drugs in the United States has been on the rise. My focus today is how these drugs get into the United States. What I'm referring to is the illegal smuggling of drugs into the U.S.

Cartels have many different methods of smuggling their drugs into the country and they're coming up with new methods every day. Cartels come up with new and creative ways of smuggling their drugs in order to stay a step ahead of law enforcement. Some of the methods of smuggling used by cartels include: cigarette boats, semi-submersible devices, fully submersible devices, air transport, underground tunnels, human ingestion, and canine implants. (Ad-lib explanations)

Law enforcement has many programs that attempt to prevent the smuggling of illegal drugs into the U.S. While these programs have the best of intentions their effectiveness is questionable. Of all the drugs smuggled into the United States, only 10% are intercepted by law enforcement. The various programs used by law enforcement to prevent the smuggling of illegal drugs into the U.S. Include: DEA raids, naval task forces, border patrol officers, undercover officers, informants, and the coast guard. (Ad-lib explanations)

United States law enforcement is doing what they can to stop illegal drug smuggling. Unfortunately, it is apparent that “doing what they can” is not enough. It is time the war on drugs approached as just that, a war.

Thank you.

Speech: Grace Goulson

Our world is trashed. No, not in that way-- but literally trashed. Litter scattered along the highway, plastic bags floating in the ocean, heaps of trash waiting in landfills. We as humans continue to waste, to throw away, to get rid of. But are we really getting rid of what goes in our trash bins? What happens to our garbage once it is out of sight, once we’ve shifted the responsibility of dealing with it to someone else? We have so much stuff nowadays, which means that more things are getting tossed in the trash, and more waste exists that just can’t be broken down by natural processes. And this wastefulness is negatively impacting Earth’s beautiful landscapes, the water that comes from our kitchen sinks, and the very soil that we walk on. Something must be done about this horrible atrocity, and it is essential that we become better stewards of our planet, so that it may be for the betterment of all who inhabit this place that we call home. So I will talk about the ways in which it is affecting us already, the causes of this mindset, and finally, the steps we can take towards becoming more sustainable and less wasteful.

First let’s take a look at what the situation is. The average person generates around four and a half pounds of trash a day- that’s 1.5 tons per year, according to greenwaste.com. In the north pacific there is a swirling vortex of trash larger than the size of Texas; in the water there are six kilograms of plastic for every one kilogram of plankton. That means in the deep ocean there is more trash than life. The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that 1 million birds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die from ingesting plastic found in the ocean. As we see in the documentary Trashed, a garbage incinerator in Iceland releases dangerously high levels of poisonous dioxins which cause a farmer’s cows to fall ill. Dioxins from plastics are extremely dangerous to us and can cause many health issues, including the inability to reproduce. As Jeremy Irons in the documentary says, “This is not about what might happen in some distant future. The ground beneath our feet is already full of rubbish. The air is tainted with man-made chemicals. And our oceans are turning into a toxic soup of floating debris.”

So why are humans so inclined to be wasteful? It stems from a growing insensitivity toward the environment and a shrinking awareness of the rippling effect that our actions will have. It also doesn’t help that plastic is everywhere and that less of the stuff we produce can be broken down by nature. The packaging industry can also be blamed partially; so much of the waste found in the oceans is plastic packaging, and often much of these bags and boxes are unnecessary. We have also developed an attitude of “out of sight, out of mind” where we don’t consider what will become of our waste once it has left our realm. In an interview for an upcoming documentary, Ravi Gulati posits that the root of our issue is that “we are not looking at our relationship with nature in the right spirit.” Today’s society is so obsessed with living in the now that we fail to look toward the future or really anywhere else outside our own little worlds. Some may say to leave this issue to the next generation, or leave it to the government and corporations to take care of, but no. Now is the time to act, and every step toward less waste is a step in the right direction. It doesn’t matter that all you do is use cloth bags instead of plastic ones at the grocery store, or that you only drink out of reusable water bottles- anything that keeps trash out of the landfill or out of the ocean makes a difference.

And there are so many things we can do to reduce our individual waste. Just minor adjustments in our everday lives. I gather inspiration from Bea Johnson, a blogger and novelist who, along with her husband and two sons, generates just 1 quart of waste per year. Johnson claims that maintaining a zero-waste home is not only good for the environment, but also good for one’s overall quality of life. Now I’m not saying to go home and use an alum stone in place of deodorant, or collect water from your shower to be reused, but there are countless ways you can alter your lifestyle so that you produce less waste. You must always, always be conscious of what you are throwing away and what you can do to decrease your consumption. For Johnson, she follows the five R’s (as opposed to the just the three): refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, and rot-- and only in that order. Recycling should always be your last resort, before composting. First you have to refuse what you do not need; make it so that these goods are never produced in the first place. This means cancelling junk mail, not taking free pens at events, and refusing to pick up that handout that you really didn’t want or need but felt obligated to take. The smallest change in your life counts, and even though laws can be passed and funds can be raised, it all starts at the individual level.

It’s disturbing how much waste we produce. We are trashing our planet. And that needs to stop. Now. Reducing our waste comes with a better understanding of how nature works, and a stronger awareness of the waste we are generating individually and the effect that humans can have on the earth. So go home, make a compost bin, reuse scrap paper, invest in a reusable water bottle. Do whatever it takes, but keep in mind that this is our planet, our home, and we have to take care of it.

Angela Maske--First Semester Speech

I come to you from a dangerous world. A world full of deception, lies, manipulation, and ruthless beings who will go to any lengths to secure their targets. I’m talking, of course, about high school. We Academy students are no strangers to cutthroat competition, and for many of us, every day is a challenge to juggle demanding classes and fifteen extracurricular activities while prepping for the ACT and doing community service work. The battle for higher test grades, higher GPAs, and a higher class rank consume us on a daily basis. Mental breakdowns are not unheard of...not even uncommon. So, what does all this drudgery promise us, besides the far off prospect of “success”? Dr. Christine Carter, a sociologist at the University of California at Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, pointed out that higher success actually correlates to lower levels of happiness and health in high school students. Overachievement has become an obsession, a fixation--and a perilous one at that. It has turned from a simple pursuit of personal success to a health crisis, and a contributor to a growing epidemic. So, how can we address this problem? We will start by examining the causes--why we push ourselves past our mental, physical, and emotional limits in order to reach higher goals. Then, discussing the implications that turbulent overachievement has on current adolescents as well as  generations to come.  Finally, we will consider some solutions to this issue, in order to bring achievement and competition back to a healthy level.
First--what motivates today’s teens to take such drastic measures to achieve success? While we may each point to our own individual influencers--Tiger Mom, anyone?--experts suggest a larger, overarching factor. The documentary film “Race to Nowhere” posits that the United States’ bigger-is-better, performance-driven mentality places overwhelming societal pressure on our generation to attain individual success. On a more basic level, psychologist Abraham Maslow attributes the inclination for all humans to achieve goals to the need for self-actualization--that is, the desire to fulfill one’s individual potential. Self-actualization is  indisputably beneficial, not to mention crucial to a functioning capitalist society. However, when extrinsic stimulating factors are taken in conjunction with it, as nearly always is the case, the pressure can prove to be too great. Coercion from our parents, rivalry among peers, and increasingly stringent educational standards only add to this pressure, and for many teens, it’s only a matter of time before that stress becomes too much to bear.
As it turns out, high achieving students experience a slew of negative effects under overwhelming amounts of pressure. We joke about school leaving us mentally unstable all the time, but it turns out that excessive stress can actually leave students with a mental disorder. The frequency of depression and anxiety in American youth has been rising for nearly the past century. The more stress that is placed upon teens, the more likely they are to develop one of these conditions.  In fact, a study conducted by Dr. Keith C. Herman at the University of Missouri indicates that the more academically competitive a school is, the more instances of depression occur. Skeptics note that, despite the increase in school work and consequential stress levels for high school students in recent years, academic performance remains stagnant. Many actually want to increase schools’ academic rigor in order to attempt to bring up the United States’ ailing math and reading scores. What they fail to recognize, though, is that placing higher standards on students ends up sacrificing something that should be at the very core of our education system--a love of learning. As expressed by Huffington Post teen blogger Reema Kakaday,  so-called “success” renders education meaningless. The rigid demands of schools and escalating competition for college admissions has put off many of the brightest, most gifted students and forced them to conform to conventional standards of academic measurement. What’s more, high pressure academic environments often overemphasize static educational objectives while ignoring the analytical and creative skills that many individuals have to offer. A teacher interviewed in “Race to Nowhere” noted that, “Our students are pressured to perform; they’re not necessarily pressured to learn deeply and conceptually.” If these conditions continue, we will end up with more generations of suffering students and an uninspired workforce.
What solutions can we offer to mitigate these pressing issues? Unfortunately, American education reform is slow moving, and what little progress we might see within the next fifty years is not likely to be radical. We can, however, take small steps ourselves within our school and local communities to prevent high achievement and academic competition from exerting such negative consequences. Class rank, for example, has been shown to foster unhealthy rivalries among peers. Many high schools have already done away with class rank; maybe it’s time we did too? I am by no means suggesting that we should all give up our work ethic and lose sight of our goals; each and every single one of you in this room have displayed your intellectual affinity and drive for success and you should never lose sight of that. But what we should do is aim for a more positive, synergetic environment, and keep in mind what is really important and what will ultimately matter more than a GPA or ACT score: our health and our happiness. In the same vein, we should also remember to make improvements on an individual level--assess your abilities, know your limits, and be true yourself. Strive for excellence, but maintain integrity. Don’t let stress rule your life, because it will inevitably take its toll.
We have examined the causes, the implications, and some proposed solutions to the crisis we are facing as students each and every day. I’d like you to consider the cliche, yet very relevant words of Winston Churchill: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” How many A’s you get,  how well you do on the PSAT, what colleges you get into...these factors reflect you, yes. But they do not define you, and they never will. What defines you is your drive, your wit, your charm, your passion, your honesty, your kindness, your optimism….your personality. So as you leave this classroom today and go on to cram for finals this weekend, there’s just one thing I’d like you to consider--what defines you?

Speech: Ethan Petraitis

So this is what I was SUPPOSED TO say. My bad for leaving my laptop at home and forgetting to print. Darn.

Alright, so how many of you guys have read The Omnivores Dilemma?
How many of you have watched the documentary Food inc.?
Now I only see one other person in Environmental science, and I know he didn’t, but how many of you have read the book (or seen the documentary) No Impact Man?
Okay, so I’m sure you all have an idea of what my topic is based on my questions, and I can guarantee that some of you just let out a silent groan since you don’t want to hear about another environmental or food related topic, I know this, but just hear me out.

Of the 3 works Omnivores dilemma, food inc, and No impact man. I actually found the no impact man to be the most interesting and the most persuasive. The story goes that there’s this guy in New York City that tries to have a net impact of zero on the environment. He convinces his wife to come aboard and they do without electricity, buy local food, and make as little trash as possible. Great stuff, right? Well the part that I found most interesting to me was that this family only ate food that came from less than 250 miles away. This may sound like a large distance and you may think that it wouldn’t have any impact on your life at all but 250 miles cannot even get you to Detroit, st Louis, or Chicago. AND that’s only one TENTH of the distance American food usually travels from farm to plate. That’s right, the food on your plate came from 2,500 miles away.

 

Who would even want to eat THAT food anyway though? Our food system, here in America, is SO corrupt, I would buy local for sheer peace of mind, and I want to make sure I’m not eating MONSANTO’s new “Soylent Green”. We, as Americans, need to have a better idea of what we are putting into our bodies. Food inc shows us that: “In 1972 the FDA conducted approximately 50,000 food safety inspections.  In 2008, the FDA conducted only 164.” This is more than a little alarming. The agency that is supposed to regulate our food isn’t doing their job. The USDA is allowed to tell you when your milk expires and the USDA is allowed to tell you your food is organic, yet the USDA is not permitted to shut down a contaminated meat packaging plant? 

If one of those plants actually does test positive for E.Coli or other contaminants, it would be a pretty big deal since the majority of beef is produced from a mere 13 factories in the US. It’s honestly surprising that Beef isn’t recalled more frequently since cows stand knee-deep in their own manure and do not even get cleaned before being skinned, cut and ground. Rather than washing the cows before butchering them, slaughterhouses now just cleanse the contaminated ground beef with an ammonia mixture. These huge meat-factories produce so much product and minimize all of the costs possible in order to maximize profits. This creates a complete lack of quality control. Isn’t it better to know where your meat comes from? Local farms and small ranches are much more humane and sanitary than these corner-cutting global operations. Maybe as a culture we need to move away from quantity over quality and resort to paying for the actual cost of our food.

 

The Food industry, honestly the industry that should be the most transparent, is shrouded in a sheet of mystery. Buying local foods and personally seeing how your food is handled and created is the only way to make sure that you are in fact eating what you think you are.

Speech on Christian Hypocrisy - Olivia Dixon

Who am I to stand before you all today and discuss a topic as controversial as religion, specifically hypocrisy within the Christian church? Who am I to examine those that claim to be Christian, yet carry on complete opposite lifestyles? I am…not perfect. I have lied, cheated, held grudges, gossiped, and even questioned the mere existence of God. I’m not perfect, but there’s no such thing as a perfect Christian. If I wasn’t the broken person I am, I wouldn’t need a Savior and I wouldn’t be standing before you today. I ask that you have patience and keep open minds. This message isn’t meant to be condescending or accusatory. The purpose is to clarify any preconceived notions, raise self-awareness, and encourage change.

There are several reasons why individuals abandon religion. A person may experience tragedy and assume since their situation is so horrible, there cannot possibly be a loving God. Perhaps people give up on religion because they are simply bored with the rules and restrictions. Isn’t it sad that one of the most prevalent reasons people disregard their beliefs is because they see others not practicing what they preach? How unfortunately ironic is it that one of the main causes of people abandoning religion, specifically Christianity, is other Christians?

A Christian hypocrite is much like a parent holding a beer and smoking a cigarette who admonishes their child for drinking and smoking. These hypocrites practice “selective morality,” where what they like, they grow accustomed to, and what they disagree with, they ignore. Revelation 3:15-16 addresses selective morality by stating, “You are neither cold nor hot. Because you are lukewarm…I will spit you out of my mouth.” In other words, living a lukewarm lifestyle doesn’t suffice. When you commit your life to Christ, you are admitting the need to change, and a desire to be more Christ-like in your endeavors. Whether you are aware of this or not, others are watching. It is up to you whether you decide to be a positive role model or a bad example.

You’ve all heard of the Crusades, which beginning in the 11^th century were Christian attempts to reclaim “Holy Land” in the Middle East. In the process, peaceful Muslims were forced to convert to Christianity. Cities were plundered and civilizations were massacred, all “for the glory of God.” The urgency which the Crusaders felt is understandable; however, their actions poorly reflect Christ’s persona. 1 John 4:8 declares that “God is love.” Colossians 3:12-17 states that, “as God’s chosen people, [we need to] clothe [ourselves] with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And [above] all [else], love.”

 For those of you who may either not be religious, or practice another religion, or struggle with your current faiths because of the actions of others, listen to what Robert Velarde, esteemed author of “Conversations with C.S. Lewis” and “The Heart of Narnia” has to say on the topic of hypocrisy: “Christianity does not stand or fall on the way Christians have acted throughout history or are acting today. Christianity stands or falls on the person of Jesus, and Jesus was not a hypocrite. He lived consistently with what He taught. Since Christianity depends on Jesus, it is incorrect to try to invalidate the Christian faith by pointing to horrible things done in the name of Christianity.”

As I mentioned before, there’s no such thing as a perfect Christian. Romans 3:23-24 acknowledges the fact that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” It is imperative to realize that one person does not embody the entire Christian faith. The church is like a classroom full of students working on a group project. In each group, there are hardworking individuals that stay on task and complete their part of the project; but, there is always that one individual in every group who decides they don’t want to do their part and so they fail to accomplish anything. When it comes time to present and the teacher calls on that individual to explain his or her group’s project, he or she does an inadequate job and poorly misrepresents the group’s overall effort. Much like the student who chose to not do their work, religious hypocrites misrepresent the Christian faith and sadly repel other potential followers.

For those of you who are not affiliated with the church or had preconceived notions about Christianity, my hope is that this speech helped to clarify the true intent of Christians and how those who aren’t fully committed, who don’t love and demonstrate compassion on a daily basis, do not accurately represent the Christian faith. For those of you who are believers, I want to end with this thought. Your life as a Christian should make non-believers question their disbelief in God.  Your every action should reflect the heart of Jesus. Thank you. 

Assignment 17 - Angela Tseng

Everyone knows that there are huge problems in our world that we simply can't solve overnight, or even in a single year. And when you thinks of the "huge problems" that we have we automatically think of the stereotypical ones such as global warming or racism, but little do we know that there are less well known problems out in the world that require just as much publicity and effort to be fixed.  One such a problem is the mass murdering of dolphins in Japan. The slaughtering of these dolphins is not only harmful to the ocean ecosystem but also to human health and needs to be resolved. However, it is only possible with the help of people all around the globe.

          Many people in the world probably aren't aware of the consumption of dolphin meat, much less the mass murder of dolphins in places such as Taiji, Japan where they herd migrating dolphins into a small cove, spear them to death and then sell them. While everyone already knows that this is wrong on a moral level, the fact that these dolphins are speared to death adds another level to the actions of the dolphin poachers as the dolphins rarely actually die instantly from the stabs, but rather they slowly bleed to death. These terrible occurrences lead to a decline of anywhere from 500 to 2,000 in the dolphin population a season. This loss of dolphins can create an imbalance in the food chain around the areas where these slaughterings occur as the dolphin population takes a dive several times a year. The human effects are just as hazardous, as the dolphin meat contains high levels of mercury - up to 20 times the acceptable standard - that have terrible effects on humans that range from skin discoloration to kidney dysfunction and can also cause  a higher chance of birth defects in newborns. "If you're eating dolphin meat, you're eating poison, and if you're eating a lot of dolphin meat, you're eating a lot of poison," Louie Psihoyos, the director of  'The Cove' a documentary that exploits the murders of dolphins in Taiji, Japan, once said.

          Yet, despite these problems, many people argue that this phenomenon is right and justified. Many claims about how these dolphin slaughterings have been going on for so long and are a Japanese custom have been made, and they've been used as a justification for the killing of hundreds of dolphins a year. But the fact that these slaughterings are 'Japanese Tradition' does not mitigate the negative effects of the mass murder and consumption of these innocent animals. Many tests for mercury poisoning were run in cities that participated in the herding and killing of the dolphins, and just as scientists expected, the levels of mercury in their bodies were much higher than the global average. Even though Tetsuya Endō, an associate professor of the Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, opposed these tests, claiming that they're inaccurate and damaged his reputation, his case to sue the people who exploited the dolphin slaughters in Japan did not result in his favor. If people around the world continue to support these crimes against dolphins and consume their meat, this problem will remain unresolved.

          At this point in time the International Whaling Commission, or IWC, only protects 9 of 80 known species of dolphins, leaving 71 species of these precious animals unprotected and vulnerable to the terrible slaughterings happening in Japan. So raising awareness and funds to help protect the innocent dolphins in the world would be a great way to start. Due to the film 'The Cove', many petitions have already risen up around the world and also protests, such as Global Day of Action For Dolphins, which was held in over 20 countries. Another way to help resolve this problem is by spreading word of these acts all over the world, even to Japan itself as many Japanese are unaware that much of the meat they consume is actually mislabeled dolphin meat and they're putting themselves at risk.

          In this day and age, we cannot allow the blatant murder of dolphins be ignored. The slaughtering of these dolphins is not only harmful to the ocean ecosystem but also to human health and needs to be resolved. Dropping dolphin populations and mercury poisoning are only two of the major problems caused by these merciless actions in Japan. We must end this mindless and useless killing. After all, if you wouldn't personally kill a dolphin, why continue to allow others to do so?

Speech- Cassadi Cordea

If you've ever walked across the beach shoreline, you'll notice that you leave footprints. They stand as a reminder that someone has been there, but nature eventually takes course and washes them away. But what if they weren't able to be removed? Imagine how different a beach would look. Certainly not as appealing as before. A permanent footprint would ruin the image of a beach. So what does that say about the rest of the world that we live in? A permanent footprint would tarnish the images of our world. In fact, our “footprints” are becoming permanent, due to the fact that we leave behind so much that nature cannot fix, without a second thought of the consequences. As the people who inhabit this planet, we should be working to take better care of it.  

Nature should be left alone to run its course, but the pollution we create prevents this from happening.For example, in the 20th century, the industrial air pollution actually suppressed some storms. The storms were at a level that was lower than what would have existed naturally. Recently there has been a higher frequency of storms, and this is a result of the attempts to reduce the pollution. The New York Times observed and recorded these changes.This is proof that if we can create a problem like this, we can fix it. [1]

So how do we fix it? The Beavens, a small family from New York City, are a great example of people who truly want to make a difference in our environment. The husband, Colin, and his family were filmed over the course of a year, and this was turned into a documentary titled “No-Impact Man.”  He along with his wife and young daughter pledged to leave absolutely no impact on the environment for a year. They produced no garbage and got rid of everything that required electricity. No TV, no eating out, and no car. The lights and heating in their apartment were even cut off. The Beavens admitted to struggling with their new way of life, and confessed to slipping up a few times.Who can really blame them? Their new lifestyle wasn't easy. But their determination to leave no carbon footprint on this earth gave them a new perspective. An appreciation for the things that most of us take for granted was gained, along with a knowledge of what those things can do. Even after the year was over, they continued to live with a new awareness for the effects of their actions. [2]

Leaders from all over the world came together this year to discuss what the future of our planet might be. They seek to inspire those who look up to them. They want others to want to leave a healthy planet to future generations. And we should. Who can really disagree with that? The big picture looks great, but the individual level is where it doesn't go so smoothly. Honestly, its unrealistic to ask everyone to give up anything that leaves a carbon footprint. Our lives are too intertwined with everything that creates pollution. So us, as individuals, have some choices to make. [3]

What can we choose to do? There’s recycling, turning off lights, walking or riding a bike, as opposed to riding in a car. The possibilities are really endless. If you want to cut off the power in your house like the Beavens did, then go for it.The point is for everyone to be contributing, no matter what it is. Doing something small is better than doing nothing, and if we are all doing something, then we are working for a better world, one that we can be proud to pass on.

1.Justin, Gills. N.p.. Web. 30 Jun 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/25/science/earth/air-pollution-may-have-suppressed-storms-research-suggests.html?ref=earth>.

2. No Impact Man: The Documentary. Dir. Laura Gabbert. Dir. Justin Schein. Oscilloscope Pictures, 2009. Film.

3.  

Mittermeier, Dr. Russell. N.p.. Web. 30 Jun 2013.  <http://www.conservation.org/FMG/Articles/Pages/The-Future-We-Need.asp&xgt;.

Assignment 17 - Caty Beth Gooding

You're stupid. You're ugly.  

These are obvious examples of bullying.

"Don’t tell anyone I told you this but so and so picks their nose."

This is not so obvious, but spreading rumors is still bullying.

We all know that bullying is a major problem. If we all took a survey about how we felt about bullying, I would bet serious money that most, if not all, of us would say it is wrong.

The problem isn't in recognizing that bullying is wrong. The problem is in how we react to bullying.

Right now, there are few programs in place that are effective in bully prevention at Henry Clay. The Fayette County Public School system doesn’t even have a set program for bully prevention. The biggest thing in their arsenal is bully prevention week, and I'm sure you all can tell me exactly how effective that was.

The thing is, at least in high school, the biggest way of preventing bullying in this moment , is to talk about it: teachers inform students why it's wrong, what can happen to those who are bullied, and what sort of actions will be taken against the bully. It's the same spiel every year: "Don’t do it. People get hurt. You wouldn't want someone to treat you that way. DON’T DO IT"

But we need to do more than just talk about it.

How many times do teachers talk and talk without any of us listening? Or maybe we do listen, but the information goes in one ear and out the other?

I don’t know about all of you, but I know I learn better when I'm involved.

If we could create a program that encourages students to become involved in the bully prevention process, we could get more students to realize the effects their actions have on other students. We could ensure that students are listening and paying attention, not just sitting there waiting for someone to stop talking.

We could implement an anti-bullying pledge. Each student could sign a pledge, if they chose, to show that they will not stoop to bullying, and when they see someone being bullied, they will do something about it, that they won't just ignore the situation and walk away.

We could offer a raffle -- like the devil dollars-- to students who make the pledge. Or we could have a program available where a teacher or student could nominate someone who stood up to a bully, for themselves or another person, or who went to the proper authority when they saw a situation arising. Their names would be recognized school-wide and they could be put into a drawing for a prize.

But even if Henry Clay put this policy in place, there are always going to be victims. On ascd.org, it states that only about 36% of victims actually report incidents of being bullied. Maybe it's because the victim feels like their bully will find out and bully them even more. But maybe not. According to Dan Olweus, a bullying researcher, victims generally see themselves as "failures, and feel stupid, ashamed, and unattractive." If we don’t have a no judgment policy, these victims will keep feeling like failures, and keep feeling stupid and ashamed.

The problem of bullying is not going to be solved overnight. It won't be easy to do, and we can't be rid of it altogether. But bullying can be greatly reduced if, as the Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perez said, "everybody works together."

Talking is the first step to preventing bullying, but it shouldn’t be the only step.

Speech Maranda Gaines

          93% of the American population consumes meat as part of their every day diet. Only 5% of Americans are vegetarians and another 2% are completely vegan. Rather than labeling these people as critical, preaching hippies who need to get over this “fad” or “diet,” the underlying facts for their life changing decisions should be considered. Eating an excess of animal products creates threats to our environment and takes a toll on our bodies, not to mention the harm done to the animals themselves. By reducing our meat and dairy intakes, we can lower or even eliminate the dangers associated with a meat- eating lifestyle.

When evaluating the decisions of a vegetarian or vegan, the environmental hazards are not usually the first reasons thought of. However, a meat-centered diet greatly affects the environment, while a non-meat centered diet has a lesser effect.  Livestock alone are responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions. On top of that, pollution is increased by meat eaters, as 3 times the amount of fossil fuel is needed to produce their diet in comparison to one without meat. This pollution includes the transportation of livestock feed, the transportation to slaughterhouses, and the fuels needed to power the slaughterhouses themselves. Eliminating or simply reducing the consumption of animal products could significantly shrink the human footprint on our world. This means, the earth could better provide for its inhabitants since the amount of fossil fuels guzzled up would be smaller. Using the land more productively reduces the impact of the human footprint as well. In fact, on one acre, 40,000 pounds of potatoes can be produced while only 250 pounds of beef can be produced. 70% of previously forested land in the Amazon, cleared for farm land, holds only livestock. No grains or vegetables are grown here. Instead, the land is used to produce meat where a far larger amount of a healthy food could have been produced. The meals we eat have a great impact not only on our bodies, but in affecting our available resources and land.

Often times, the most commonly known reason for veganism is the treatment of the animals.  Raising their offspring, digging in the grass, rolling around in the dirt and mud, basking in the morning sun, even eating and drinking at their own free will. Unfortunately, this pretty picture is only a fantasy to never be outlived by the majority of livestock animals. When we eat meat and other animal products, we are supporting the meat industry and what they represent. The animals on factory farms will never see the sun or feel the grass. Instead, the innocent animals are crammed with thousands of others in filthy crates and cages, unfamiliar to their natural habitat. Actually, these are not animals, but rather machine made objects, produced for maximum output and profit. Would so many of us support their suffering by eating their flesh if we knew the quality of their living? The guilty consumer resorts to an alternative- organic animal product. But what does organic really mean? The animals at organic farms are under strikingly similar conditions if not the same as the “oh-so-cruel” and inhumane factory farms. Castration, dehorning, and other medical procedures take place at both farms, without pain killers. An animal will qualify as “organic” as long as the feed is organic. The “organic” animals, along with the industrial factory farm animals, are still drugged from the moment they are born, to grow at the fastest rates possible. They will often die before they reach the slaughterhouse due to the strain on their bodies.  The “lucky” animals that make it to the slaughterhouse often have their necks slit while still conscious. Some are even conscious as their bodies are skinned. The unsanitary farms and slaughterhouses greet the presence of parasites and diseases. We put into our bodies what is put into theirs. By eating their meat, we’re almost embracing the torturous and short-lived lives of these animals.

Not only are the animals themselves suffering, but our bodies are under attack as well. “[A vegan or vegetarian diet] can prevent and even reverse 70% to 80% of existing symptomatic disease.” (Professor T.Collin Campbell) What is put into the animals’ bodies is essentially put into our bodies. The growth hormones, which can lead to disease and infection in the animals, can be no better for our bodies. The high levels of saturated fat and cholesterol in animal products are associated with heart disease and high blood pressure. The risk of an average American male of dying of a heart attack is 50%. However, if the average American male was a vegetarian, that risk would be 15% and 4% if he were vegan. The greatest concern of those considering a meat-free diet is the question of “where would my protein come from?” 90% of protein is actually being wasted by cycling grain through livestock. The quality of protein is more important for our bodies than the quantity but instead, a majority of our quality protein is put towards producing a diseased and toxin filled protein found in animal products. High protein diets with an unbalance of other key nutrients found in a plant based diet are linked to cancer. The “recommended” increase in our protein consumptions actually come from the US Department of Agriculture. Coincidence? I think not. According to Yale and Harvard research groups, high consumptions of dairy are associated with common bone fractures and osteoporosis. “Plant-based eating, done well, is associated with reduced risk of all chronic disease, and more vitality. Specifically the literature suggests reduced risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and obesity. An optimal plant-based diet is very powerful medicine indeed.” (Dr. David Katz, director of Yale University Prevention Center)

It is time now for a change in the outlook of this “hippie” lifestyle. Eating meat and other animal products does not make proper use of the world and resources around us. The suffering of the animals isn’t worth the damage done to both their bodies and ours. It is time to make the decision for yourselves. Does the ephemeral taste of meat, consuming an excess amount of disease causing protein, outweigh the negative impacts on the environment and the health of your own body? The risks are unquestionably high for only a simple taste. Cutting back and eventually eliminating the meat and dairy from your diet could save the environment, the animals’ lives, and your own life.

Ben G's speech

It hurts; someone, help me!”

While the Earth may not be able to vocalize these words, you can see evidence of them everywhere. Pollution. Deforestation. The classic appeals, heard across the world. However, as we move into the future, our planet faces new challenges- things like the end of cheap oil. All kinds of bad news. But what if we could head off this disaster waiting to happen? Where would we look? How about… the west coast? Or Europe? Why don’t we use the emissions laws of California and the EU as a model for nation-wide legislation?

California Certified Clean Idle. It is a fairly commonly seen sticker, usually found on the side of a semi truck on the highway. Any idea what it means? According to the Department of Energy, this sticker certifies that the engine of that vehicle has met specific emissions requirements, and has a built in off switch, kicking in after idling for 5 minutes. School busses have similar rules, preventing them from idling at a school or bus stop, and prohibit idling for more than 5 minutes anywhere else.

One would think that these rules would make it hard on the auto manufacturers. Due to it being only a state law, it cannot be enforced by law enforcement in other states, which would cut profits. However, the major auto manufacturers have decided to make all vehicles they sell comply with the law. By making these cars and trucks in this manner, they are allowed to sell in California, AND contribute less to air pollution. Seeing as this worked out so well for the west coast, how about we take it a step higher: make it a federal law, enforceable in all 50 states. There is no real reason not to, as the majority of the cars on the road are already compliant. Besides- think of the gas money saved.

The European Union. Its formation has brought together Western Europe economy, politics, and… environment. As many of the member nations signed the Kyoto protocol, unlike the US, they are obligated to reduce emissions to in international standard, which they have since met. In addition to these requirements, they EU passed laws requiring all new vehicles to have fuel efficiency data available for a potential customer, CO2 emissions data available on demand, and tax breaks for those who purchase new, fuel efficient vehicles.

This probably sounds like an awful lot to change. It really isn’t; the majority of these are already in effect. How many car ads are there that don’t proclaim the car’s fuel stats? How many cars on the road don’t comply with the California standards? Couldn’t you go online and look up a car’s CO2 stats? Really, all we must do it make this knowledge more available.

Speech on Physician-Assisted Suicide

by David Stevens

        To begin, I’m going to create an image, so please close your eyes if you want to. Now picture this: you’re in a hospital bed, recovering overnight from a recent chemotherapy treatment. You have Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a common kind of cancer. You were diagnosed a couple of years ago, and you’ve been in and out of chemotherapy. The only thing is, all the radiation and chemo and medication have stopped really working. The tumors have spread elsewhere, and your doctor has told you that there’s nothing they can really do. In fact, he told you that you have about three, maybe four months to live. You now face the end of your life, which will follow a long, painful deterioration in your physical condition as the cancer multiplies. This is the last thing anybody wants to suffer through, but for people in this situation, an option called physician-assisted suicide, or PAS, can help. This is when a patient takes a lethal prescription to die with dignity and to avoid the crushing pain of a terminal illness. Physician-assisted suicide should be legalized in the United States, with a few limitations, because it provides relief from inevitable pain and suffering.

         There are currently about four states in which physician-assisted suicide is legal: Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana. Oregon was the first to legalize the practice with the Death with Dignity Act in 1994. Under this law, [quote] "An adult who is capable, is a resident of Oregon, and has been determined by the attending physician and consulting physician to be suffering from a terminal disease, and who has voluntarily expressed his or her wish to die, may make a written request for medication for the purpose of ending his or her life in a humane and dignified manner” [end quote]. Basically, this law allows PAS, but with a number of limitations. For example, patients must self-administer the medication; they have to be physically capable of taking the drug on their own. Patients must receive a prescription from a licensed doctor. Also, patients need more than one prognosis predicting that they have fewer than six months until their expected death. And there are more rules. These safeguards help protect against abuses of the law, and they mirror those in the other states with a law allowing physician-assisted suicide.

         The arguments against assisted suicide fall into two main categories. First, many people worry that legalizing PAS will allow doctors to take it too far and possibly kill patients against their will. A famous case on this subject is that of Dr. Jack Kevorkian. He helped over 130 people commit suicide in the 1990s, some of whom were not terminally ill. Kevorkian was convicted of second-degree murder and served eight years in prison. This would still be illegal with proper assisted-suicide laws, however, because of self-administration and the terminal illness requirement. As long as sensible restrictions are in place, this won’t happen, not legally. Another view posits that PAS contradicts a doctor’s oath to “do no harm,” and that suicide is always wrong. But isn’t it the patient’s choice whether or not to live through months of inevitable pain and suffering? Patients should be allowed the option of physician-assisted suicide because, in the long run, that may end up doing the least harm possible.

         All things considered, suicide is a terrible thing. But some things can be worse that death. That’s why states should allow physician-assisted suicide: people should have the choice to die with dignity if they are terminally ill. I don’t encourage this practice in excess, only with strict and nuanced regulations. But in the end, the decision is not mine to make. More states should follow the model of Oregon and others because it’s not the state’s decision; it’s not the doctor’s decision; it’s the patient’s decision.