The Shrinking Middle Class: Take Two (Extra Credit Response)

All the way back, before Spring Break, I went to a Deliberation about the Middle Class. (I wanted to go to the 50 Shades of Sexual Consent Deliberation, however it was postponed because of the weather, so sorry Dr. O’Hara for going to a debate about the exact same topic as my own, but let me say: this deliberation about the middle class went way better than our deliberation went!) This deliberation was a lot better than my own deliberation for many reasons. First of all it was in its own room, so there were no distracting noises. Second of all, a lot of people showed up (I think because it was one of the last deliberations that wasn’t postponed) so there were a lot of people outside of the class to discuss. Thirdly, they did not have Jim present, meaning no one was afraid to speak their opinions. The actual deliberation was set up very different as well. It didn’t seem like the whole class, or even half of the class was facilitating the deliberation, because only five students (rather than the 11 or so that we had) were there dressed up and talking. The way they worked was there was one person who introduced the deliberation and the rules, and each of the three topics was presented by one person and then the last person was in charge of the conclusion. Then the group of community members/student was split in half and each member visited each half to talk about their position while another member that was not busy took notes. A lot of information was covered in their deliberation that wasn’t covered in ours. For example, their point was that the middle class was shrinking and they wanted to know what should be done to fix it in three different realms of government systems. The first possible solution was changing the school systems (somehow) so that grades 1-12 were better taught, or changing the college system so that college was more affordable. There were so many things to discuss just in this topic alone. I could not tell if this was good because it gave people more to talk about, or if it was bad because there was no possible way we could ever finish discussing any of the three topics in twenty minutes. The other things that we talked about were getting rid of social security, and getting rid of some government assistance. Some people felt that some people just cheated the unemployment system and that there should be harsher regulations on the government giving out aid to people. They also mentioned raising income taxes, but they did not focus on it nearly as much as we did. They more talked about raising taxes on other things like investments. The other solution we had in common was raising minimum wage. Surprisingly almost everyone in my group agreed that minimum wage needed to be reevaluated. The deliberation as a whole was really good due to the fact that everyone could speak their mind. Unfortunately I think I spoke more times in this deliberation than I did in my own. I have learned that the key to group communication is to have an open environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing ideas, even if they are unsure how their idea will be received.

(Note, the first extra deliberation I went to was about Penn State Health Care and is tagged under Civic Issues.)

“The Great Debate” (Extra Credit Response)

“The Great Debate”: The Legalization of Recreational Marijuana vs. The Legalization of Only Medical Marijuana

Marijuana is a drug that can be used medicinally or recreationally. As the legalization of marijuana is becoming more prevalent in the United States, people across the nation are debating its uses. This year the econ department held a debate discussing this topic.

The debate began with each side having five minutes to give their main arguments and then the other side got two minutes for a rebuttal. The recreational side’s main claim was that marijuana can be a huge source of economic growth, while the medical side felt strongly that the power should be given to the doctors, not the politicians.

The first argument the recreational side was that marijuana being classified as a class one drug was that the crime associated with it is a waste of taxpayer money, inherently racist, and leads to unnecessary gang violence. However, the medical side came back with a quick rebuttal claiming that once recreational marijuana was legalized in DC that they actually had to employ a larger police force. Furthermore the pro medicinal side showed that Colorado didn’t make nearly as much money as they were expecting because as soon as the drug was legalized recreationally, the prices dropped and little profit could be made.

The next main point that the recreational side made was that the growing of hemp on American soil would also help the United States financially and it would be good for the environment. They mentioned that the only part of the hemp plant that was used to get high was the flowering part and the rest of the plant is useful for making other things like shirts, rope, parachutes, and paper. They claimed that it would save a lot of trees if hemp were to be used for paper, mentioning that our Declaration of Independence was made out of hemp. However, the medicinal side had a good rebuttal for this too, they reminded us that the hemp plant was totally out of context for the debate because only some varieties of hemp plants had psychoactive properties and that the plants used for this purpose and the ones used to make paper and stuff would likely not be the same.

The final argument that the pro medical use only side made was that it would be safer for everyone if marijuana only medicinal marijuana was legalized because not only would the people who could benefit from it get access to it, but the doctors will also gain the ability to study its effects on a small, controlled population before the entire population is given access. I don’t think that the recreational side had a real rebuttal to this other than the fact that they thought that limiting legalization was limiting American’s freedoms.

In the end, the recreational side won by a large margin. As far as rhetorical strategies go, the medical side pulled out all of the stops using logos and pathos (I am not sure if they used ethos). Unfortunately their efforts to convey their ideas were in vain because (due to the crowd being made up completely of college students) there was a bias present that they could not overcome.

Passion Blog and Civic Issues Blog Topic Announcement

My passion blog will be about art and ants. I will pretty much write about whatever I feel like about either or both topics each week. I just received a new assignment in my lab so I will also be learning a lot about parasites so maybe I’ll sprinkle in a few tidbits about them once in a while. I already have a topic for my first week that involves how people use ants to make art (it’s a video, pretty popular, many of you might already have seen it, but for those who haven’t, it will be exciting!). My Civic Issues blog will be about environmental issues, and cool new technologies and techniques that use renewable resources or save the planet in some way. I mentioned this last week but my first blog post will be about tiny houses, since I am obsessed with them right now.

P.S.  Try a tasty snack this week: ants on a log!

 Ants-on-a-log-with-Craisins-for-a-healthy-snack

 

“This I Believe” Rough Draft

I was on an errand to pick up a honey baked ham for Christmas dinner. But the evening felt void of all Christmas cheer. I was driving on route 100, my least favorite road. Mist blanketed the windshield. It obscured my view more and more with each passing second, until finally the wipers, pouncing like a praying feline forced the drops away. But the drops returned the next moment with a vengeance. So the wipers sprang again to clear the drops. All I could think was they were chasing a mouse they could never catch. Cars flew past me. I wondered, how can this many people be driving so carelessly while I am too afraid to overcome the speed limit by just one? My leg hurts. It’s that familiar pain. Right shin, right above my boot, low but not too low. Its aches and throbs, why does it have to be on my driving foot? Can’t my leg tell that I need to focus on driving? I know what the pain is. It’s a small mass in my shin, smaller than a pea. Nothing to worry about the doctor says, they are 99% sure it’s benign.  I finally make it home. With the weight of the ham in my arms, it presses against my chest weighing me down, it’s the worst kind of a prize for that drive. I take in my view from half a floor above: My mom and Tom are sitting down in the living room, TV blasting, fire crackling, I feel warm. I go sit down in my usual spot on the couch, when a cat suddenly jumps off her perch and into my lap to snuggle into the warmth. That’s when I realize, everything is fine. The tumor is gone, my leg doesn’t hurt; it was in fact benign. All that wallowing for a silly old hole in my bone that is completely filled with collagen now. I try to think back. Why did I ever feel so bad in the first place? I should be so grateful, to be home, to have a home, to have food, to have a Christmas ham, to have a mom, to have a step dad, to have my cats, to have my friends. I have it all. And that is when I realized, it is us who makes ourselves happy. Happiness hinges upon our own minds. It is under our control! We can do this. Though, not all of us can. I understand many diseases take this power away from us. Trust me, I work in a lab with zombie ants. Do you want to know why they are called zombie ants? Because a parasitic fungus infects their brain, it changes its host behavior so that it alone can survive. Yes, I said changes its behavior. The ant is not itself, its prey to the fungus. Now, lucky for most of us, we don’t have to worry about parasitic infections doing us in. For most of us it truly is ourselves that do us in. From my story you can see how easy it is for a little chore to go from driving in the rain to driving off a cliff into a miserable abyss of sadness. So that is why I believe that while we have control of our minds, we need to take advantage of it and use it to be happy. What is that old saying? There is no one in the way of you but yourself.

P.S. I know it sounds like I’m going to get in a car crash. I did not mean for it to sound like this. I will fix it at some point.