Tattoos and Deviance

I read the article titled “Heavily Tattooed Students More Prone to Deviant Behaviors” by Thaddeus M. Baklinski. Just when looking at the title this makes me sick and it is so wrong on what they think of people who have tattoos. Just because you have tattoos, piercing s, or both, doesn’t make you a terrible person or deviant. I myself have two tattoos and nine piercings, so according to the study I’m going to express deviant behaviors. Do I think this article is fair to people with tattoos and piercings? No it is not. That when you have body art or piercings results in social deviance.  In the article it talks about people with many tattoos or piercings are more likely to drugs and have many sex partners. In my opinion they are judging by what they see on the outside and not getting to know why the person has the tattoo or piercing. Isn’t our goal in life is trying to not judge people on the outside actually try to get to know them. This article I think contradicts this goal. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes, would you like having someone tell you that a tattoo or piercing you have are not important and going to cause deviance. What the other people don’t know how important it is to you. Most people have tattoos that symbolize something that happened in their life or something very important to them. Tattoos are a way to express you. Don’t let others judge you on what you look like. Don’t listen to them when they say that tattoos and piercings make you a bad person.  Tattoos and piercings don’t make you deviant.

Me

Birth order in my case doesn’t really apply to me. As an only child, I possess some of the characteristics of the first born child.  Some of the same characteristics are; perfectionists, highly motivated to achieve success, leader, responsible, and center of attention.  I have to admit that I feel as I possess these characteristics. I am a perfectionist when it comes to the way projects are done. I have to plan all of the details out and they have to go as planned or I get very angry. In my life of course I want to achieve success on everything I do, but isn’t that true for everyone? I can be a leader in some of the activities I take part in. Truthfully I am terrified of death to be a leader and be in charge, but I now I know that I can overcome that. Now being the cheer captain that has broken the shell down. Yes I love to be the center of attention when I am at home mainly. In public I want to blend in and not stand out. Yes, I will speak my mind when necessary but otherwise I stay quiet.

                My parental characteristics are split down the middle on where I get them from either my mom or dad. My mom has passed down her caring and loving heart to help people, OCD on cleaning things, and a bad shopping habit. On the other hand, from my dad I get my anger issues, stubbornness and determination.  From these characteristics I have learned to become a well-rounded person.

                Where I have grown up, everybody knows everybody and if you need a helping hand your neighbor or community is right there to help you. I think that growing up in a small town has made me realize how lucky I am with my life. This had shaped me as a person where if someone is in need you help them out. Everybody knows your name and says hello to you when you see them. I think that is a great thing to grow up with, it shows support and love in the community. Not everyone is lucky enough to grow up in a small loving community.

                I think that heredity goes back to my parental characters. Each parent passes down certain traits and characteristics through genes, which in then we pass down to our kids if we have kids in our life.

                In conclusion, birth order to me doesn’t really matter. As an only child my life is different than others with siblings.  I tend to be a perfectionist and the center of attention of my family. These are ones that I feel that I possess the most as mentioned above. I get characteristics from both my parents and they are about equal but opposite.  I have learned to control my anger that I hold inside of me. By being a CNA I have noticed that my loving heart and caring has come out a lot more than usual. 

Veteran's Blog

I am supposed to be answering the question what are your thoughts on murder charges during war.  My thoughts are if we are going into war and then going to get charged on murder charges, then we should not even have guns when they go into war.  This makes me irate. Our men are willing going over there and fight for our country.  I would like to see all those office workers and people who don’t know what these men and women do for our country. They are risking their lives for us! Without weapons they would be exposed and wouldn’t have a chance.  I think if they are willing to go over there and fight for us then we shouldn’t be complaining and making charges like this on our soldiers. When it says citizenship is a duty, not a privilege, I think that is completely false. When you are born in the United State you automatically become a citizen. If you weren’t you take classes and become a citizen of the United States.  Yes we do have a duty to vote and get your word out on the elections, but that doesn’t mean it is a duty. I think that it is up to each person whether they want to vote or not.  Citizenship is a privilege.  We are very lucky in the United States that everyone has citizenship. In other countries those people are not as lucky as we are.  Yes I think that we need to keep up with our citizenship and put some back into the country.

Racism

             The first article that we had to read was titled “Is Racism a Western Idea?” In my eyes, racism has always been around; it just might not have always been called that. When we think of racism, we think of judging people by the color of their skin. Even by judging people by their skin is very wrong. But, in the western country not only did they judge people of their color of their skin but, their religion or anything they could find wrong with a person. They would punish or hurt anyone that was different. I know we are all humans and we all make mistakes. We all judge people at some points of our lives, whether you want to or not. We make think that we will never judge people, but we say that but we don’t even realize that that we are judging someone. We may say something that we don’t think is offensive or mean but, in reality, that could have crushed the other person you said it too. But, once you start thinking about what you had said, you realize that it was the worst thing you could have said to someone. This should make you feel terrible, and try not to do that again.

                The second article we had to read was “How Racist are We.” This article goes on talking about how everyone in the world today is racist, whether we like to think it or not. The one thing in this article that really caught my attention was the study of the preschoolers. Rebecca Bigler, the one who conducted this experiment, wanted to see if human bias was part of being racist. In her experiment, she gave some of the kids red shirts and some blue. As the days went on, kids from each group were comparing and picking out difference in each other. Kids from both the red and blue shirts thought that their group should be superior, and is better than the other group. This happened from kids wearing different shirts! How does this experiment show about our world today? We all think that whatever race you are is the best. Everyone wants to be the best at everything. This means doing whatever it takes to get there. That means hurting other peoples feeling because they are different than you, just because you want to be on top. This to me is just ridiculous! What is our world coming too? I don’t know how some people can be so bias. What has the other race done to you? If anything we should feel terrible on how we have treated other races. It goes back, from Native Americans, to Blacks, Chinese, and many others. We need to put an end to this right away.

The third and final article we read wad titled. “Cultural Bias for Racism.” In today’s world everyone has a source to get media, whether it’s by phone, computer, TV, or any other device. Today in our media everyone is very stereotypical. Not to just blacks or any other race too whites too. Our media is shaping the way we look at ourselves and at others too. You see commercials where the girls are all skinny and white. Then you start judging yourself, saying why I am not skinny. Then when we do see someone that is skinny deep down inside you are judging them. Thinking how did that person deserve to be skinny and I’m not? Our culture also is to blame for racism.  America tries to be the best at everything it does. Whether that’s helping other countries or just the way we run our country. I do think some people have changed now that we have a black president. Some people might have changed their mind on how if he can become president anyone can if you set your mind to it.  I think it was a great thing that we have a black president. But, on the other hand, some people oppose this. They think that the color of their skin is going to make the whole decision on whether they are good or bad, or smart or not.

Why is it that we judge others? I have been thinking of the question for a while. I got to thinking after reading these articles, that in the end we are all the same. No matter what, it doesn’t matter the color of your skin or the religion that you practice we are all the same. Why do some people have to be so cruel and evil towards others? Is there life so bad that they have to go around making other feel worse, so they can feel better about themselves?  To think of that it makes me sick. In my eyes we should not judge people on what they look like. What would happen if you put yourself in their shoes for a day? Say that would happen where you trades lives with an African American. You would probably get nasty stares and those secrets between people when you know they are talking about you. How would that make you feel? If I were in those shoes, I would feel absolutely terrible. I would think why does everyone hate me and judge me when I have done nothing wrong. We also are racist about religions. People think that Christianity has to be the number one religion. But, in the big picture, all religions are about one thing, God. So why go and punish someone for thinking other things than you. We also treat and say things about atheists. Like, they are going to hell and they will never make it to heaven. Well, that is wrong. God loves each and every one of us no matter what. So next time you go out, don’t think about judging or making comments. If everyone could just see everyone equal, we wouldn’t have to go through this entire feeling like you are not good enough or that your race is nothing and would rather be gone and forgotten. I think we all need to reflect back on ourselves and make a difference and stop racism.

Welfare

Welfare can be both a blessing and a curse. Welfare in my eyes causes great benefits. Welfare can help unborn children and young children.  The WIK office can help unborn children and their mothers. The WIK office will provide expecting mothers with credit cards with around fifty dollars to spend on groceries. I think this can be very beneficial because groceries can be very expensive. This helps the child grow and help their future as a young adult. Welfare also helps unemployed people get back on their feet. Bill Clinton doesn’t agree with welfare. I think that if we didn’t have welfare we would have even more unemployed people.  I think we need to keep welfare.  Bill Clinton thinks that if we keep welfare people will stay lazy and won’t want to work. I think that is not true. I think that is stereotypical of people on welfare.  When most people think of welfare, they think the people are lazy and don’t want to work. Well that is not true, some people on welfare cannot work.  We cannot punish these people just because they can’t work. They still need help and need money. We need to keep welfare around today.

Can You be Civil?

In Lord of the Flies, there are several kids stuck on an island, after their plane crashes. At first they are civil and everything is ok. But, Jack, the oldest and manlier, decides he doesn’t like the way Ralph is running the island. So he and some others take off to form another group. This is like society because some people do not like the way our government runs the country, so they try and set up their own group. As the book goes on, there is little to no structure going on.  Soon the boys turn on each other and the savages in you come out.  What would have happened if there would have been girls on the island when the plane crashed? I think if there would have been girls on the island when the plane crashed, they would have kept everyone in line and civil.  Girls have different wiring in their brains than guys. Guys think about the small things first not the big picture. Girls come up with a plan before they start a project. That Is why, if this would have been girls on the island, the book would have been completely opposite. The girls would have made sure everyone is in order and nothing gets out of line.  Girls try to stay as civil as possible and not start anything. I think that girls are more likely to stay civil than guys. Girls we can talk things out that aren’t going to plan, as guys they just resort to war and violence to solve their problems.  That is why our world is made up with girls and guys, because if it wasn’t for the girls keeping the boys in line, we would have mass chaos, just like the book. So in our life we need to stay civil not matter what.

28th Amendment

For my amendment, I would propose to add the 28^th amendment would be to lower the drinking age to 18. Our legal smoking age is 18 also so why not make the drinking age the same. 70 and 80 countries in the world right now have the legal drinking age at the age of 18. Eighteen is our legal age where you become an adult, so we should have the right to make decisions about drinking alcohol or not.  Most people who drink before 21 feel like rebels and want to break the law. This would diminish the thrill of breaking the law. When the repeal of alcohol by the 21^st amendment, allowed each state to set its own laws on alcohol; the Supreme Court made the states that lowered their drinking age to rise the age back to 21. I believe that we should lower the national drinking age to 18. This could possibly stop some of the breaking of the laws.