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Speak up. Someone cares.

Posted by Victoria Odom in ENG1-003 on

The world is a place that we the people live in and is full of problems. For this project we were to pick a topic based on a worldly issues that we’d like to discuss.

 

My topic focuses in on teen suicide and depression because it is the leading cause of death. As you grow up, sometimes you hit unexpected events in your life that you can’t handle. Bullying, because of weight, looks, clothing, and or sex, is the main cause of suicide and depression. Even though I haven’t been through the act of bullying myself, I know someone who has.

 

When the act of suicide is successful its usually not the first time it was attempted, in fact researchers have found that plans for suicide are made by 1 in 6 teenagers. 20% of teenagers have thought about suicide itself even if they weren’t actually going to commit it. Depression is not only caused by bullying, but also by relationship problems, deaths with family and friends, stress for school, parental abuse or divorce. These struggles can cause angry emotional and physical abuse to themselves, sadness, loneliness, and lack of energy.

 

I wonder what others did who didn’t commit suicide to better themselves and help get through their’ deep state of sadness. I wonder if those who did commit suicide reached out to others for help or even had someone to talk to discuss their’ issues with.

 

I plan to do a lot more research about depression and suicide and talk to my loved one who has attempted suicide to share her feelings with. No one should have to go through this so you speak up because someone cares.

 

For more info visit:

http://www.teensuicide.us/articles6.html

http://www.teendepression.org/related/teen-suicide-statistics/

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/depression_teen.htm

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The Jasmine Revolution

Posted by Seamus Kirby in ENG1-003 on

    This is the first of five blog posts in a project called "You and the World." In this project we will be choosing a current topic or issue that we care about. Along with writing blogs, we will be debating over other people's issues, and writing a speech.

    I have chosen the revolts in the Middle East as my topic, because I think that it is one of the more important events of our time. It seems similar to the countries of Europe overthrowing their monarchies.

    The revolutions are called the Sidi Bouzid Revolt, or the Jasmine Revolution. It started in Tunisia when a street vender named Mohammed Buazizi set himself on fire, in a demonstration against the treatment he received from the government after they confiscated his scale, which he needed to support his family. this led to a series of protests that resulted in the Tunisian Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali stepping down from a post he held for 34 years. This eventually led to a similar series of protests in Egypt that led to their leader Hosni Mubarak stepping down, and an ongoing rebellion in Libya. I believe this is incredibly important, because for the first time, the people in the middle east are refusing to put up with the oppression they have lived with for so long. In interesting thing about these protests is that most of the protesters are very young, and it makes me wonder if our generation will continue to rebel against the things they see as wrong, like what has happened in the middle east.

    What I wonder about is whether or not this will lead to protests in other countries, and whether these protests (if they do happen) will be more or less peaceful, or a rebellion like in Libya.

    What I will explore in my next blog post is the protests in Egypt, and what factors caused the protests to be successful in Egypt and Tunisia.


Bibliography:

 - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/14/AR2011011405084.html

 - http://www.iar-gwu.org/node/257

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Bullying Can Lead to Horrible Things

Posted by Morgan Taylor in ENG1-003 on
     ​Over the years the world has been hearing about the deaths of innocent children and mostly teen. The people didn't doe because of an accident... they killed themselves. "What could make a person want to end their lives when they have so much to live for?' is one question that people immediately think of when they read the stories in the paper or see it on the news. Bullying can lead to many horrible things, it can make people do the unthinkable. I am interested in teen suicide and bullying because when I was in middle school I used to get bullied every day. I would come home and cry for hours because I felt so bad about myself, in my room I used to have to tell myself the good things in life I had to live for. Such as my family, my friends at church, sports teams and girl scouts. This would've lead up to suicide if I didn't have those things to live for.

     Suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15-24 years of age. Mostly because in the ages of 15-24 there might be a lot or even too much pressure/stress on that one person, with college and high school its hard to keep up. Bullying can also be a part of teen suicide, when somebody pushes someone to the edge to make themselves feel better it can result in suicidal attempts of actual suicide. There was a case where a teenage girl was interested in this boy, one day he sent her a message. She was so excited, after a week or so they were talking more frequently to each other than to their friends and family. He asked her out on a date and never showed up. The girl found out that it wasn't really the boy she liked it was a mother and daughter who lived down the street from her. That is when she decided to kill herself, and she did. Bullying and cyber bullying are a big part of teen suicide.
    
     I wonder if before the teen killed themselves, if the parents or friends saw anything off about the teen's behavior. I wonder if most of teen suicide is caused because of mostly teen suicide or stress. On the next blog I will be talking about the statistics of teen suicide and in what sates it happens most or if a certain gender commits suicide more.

Cites I went to:
http://kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/behavior/suicide.html

http://medicalcenter.osu.edu/patientcare/healthcare_services/mental_health/mental_health_about/children/suicide/Pages/index.aspx

http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch?query=teen+suicide&srchst=cse
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Marijuana, a Path to Crime Reduction or Not

Posted by Jhonas Dunakin in ENG1-003 on
Ever since I learned about the affects of marijuana I immediately wanted to know more. In the sixth grade I was taught what it was in a classroom. I was taught that it was a bad and it should never be used. But there are facts and proof that show the exact opposite. In the Netherlands marijuana is tolerated and in result only 9.5% of young adults which is about 6.4 million people(ages 15-34) use it. In the United States where marijuana is only legal in some states for medicinal purposes has a consumption rate of 41.7% (according to http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/factsht/druguse/)  which is about 128.5 million people. 

These facts are interesting, in one place it is acceptable to smoke marijuana and have a less rate of consumption and in the other it is illegal and has a higher rate of consumption. The mission for the Dutch government is to 1) To prevent recreational drug user and treat the recreational drug users 2) To reduce harm to users  3) To diminish public nuisance by drug users (the disturbance of public order and safety) 4) To combat the production and trafficking of recreational drugs. In the United State we have something called the war on drugs. Which was issued by Richard Nixon in 1971, this created the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency). According to the U.S.  Bureau of Justice Statistics crime rates have sky rocketed ever since the war on drugs was declared. The job the DEA has is to reduce drug trafficking from the source, from the border, and inside the country. They also enforce drug policies that have been placed by the U.S., State, and Local governments which outlaw marijuana and other drugs/narcotics.
 
When prohibition came to affect in 1920 it created a black market for alcohol which made crime rates go up.If crime rates go up than there are more people in prison. More people in prison means more prisons built and more money spent to hire staff and basic necessities. Marijuana has been fought against ever since the proposal Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act in 1935 which was intended to safe guard ane regulate all narcotics including marijuana. Haven't we learned our lesson during prohibition?  Marijuana has more than just one purpose, it has another. It is a safe eco friendly alternative to paper. You can make paper from hemp which is from marijuana. It will can reduce CO2 emissions because it take less machinery and energy to cut marijuana than paper. It also gives the world more oxygen because of more trees being built which means habitats and more national parks. There are so much more facts and evidence that proves my point. You can't ignore these facts, you just can't.
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School District Budget Cuts: Cutting the Future

Posted by Michael Roth in ENG1-003 on
The Philadelphia School District budget cuts are devastating to public schools in Philadelphia. To Governor Tom Corbett (pictured below) these cuts may just be moving money from one place to another, but to us, the students of Philadelphia, they means lost teachers, supplies, our education and our future. At this point, the budget cuts will happen, and that's a given. That being said, there is still more we can do. We can all work hard to educate ourselves on the topic of budget cuts, and we can make efforts to change the budget cuts much less severe. There will be losses, but we should all do our part to try to minimize them. I've recently been doing some research myself. 

So far, I have discovered that 12% of all teaching positions might be cut, and at this point almost 400 teachers and planning on either retiring or resigning before next year. Although this is not the most teachers that retired in history, it is still a large amount. I, personally think that these budget cuts are a terrible idea. As you can see, it will have serious detrimental effects on the School District of Philadelphia, and part of the money he is taking from the School District he is using for prisons. 

Prisons are used for holding criminals, as we all know. What many of us may not realize is that a large cause of crime is due to an inability to get an education or go to school. While it is not the sole reason, it is still a huge factor and so, essentially, Corbett is building prisons for the future criminals: the students who's education he is taking away today. I wonder if our efforts to make the budget cuts less severe, such as going to Harrisburg and talking to senators, will have any effect on the end result of the cuts. Next time, I hope to research more about the severity of the budget cuts, and the effect it is having.

Governor




http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20110503_Nearly_400_Phila__teachers_plan_to_leave_as_school_year_ends.html

http://www.thenotebook.org/
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Government and Budget Crisis

Posted by Juan Rivera in ENG1-003 on
The government are now heading through a midlife crisis that is affecting all american's in the most harmful ways and affecting there citizen's lives and money. This is a hard time for people that are suffering because they do not have enough money to pay for things such as houses because prices have gone up, Gas for cars because they have to pay more and more to iraq in order to use and take oil from them and deport it over to the U.S for us too use.


My issue is the economy and how it is affecting the people in the U.S very badly, i am interested in this topic because it is the #1 story going on in the U.S, everyday you hear people say that the gasoline prices have gone up $0.11 and continues to go up, but that is not the only story out. There are stories that the U.S might have to cut off sports in the U.S because of the budget so that means that come 2012 me might no longer have any sports to watch, and that would mean that the men and women playing the sports will have no job and will go into debt with there houses and bills. 


I have discovered that this has been the first time the economy has gone bad since the year of the Great Depression in 1930, and not only the economy is affecting the U.S but it is also affecting people around the world such as in China, Mexico, Etc. 


I wonder what things the government are attempting or planning to change and do in order to try and make the economy better than it is, and if there is any ways possible to improve the economy. I also wonder why don't the government help the people in poverty and help them get jobs and homes to live in. My next move is to find out percentages and the amount of people in poverty from one year and how it has changed during a time period, if it has increased or decreased after a long time period. 
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Poverty In America Oh My!

Posted by Laura De Jesus in ENG1-003 on

For our English project we are doing a project called "You and The World", we basically had to pick a topic and research about it. I picked Poverty.

I chose Poverty, as my topic because I think everyone deserves to have a shelter, food and the need assets to life. But many of us don't have them all. The main question is why? So I am here trying to figure that out for myself but for also the people who care.

Poverty - is the lack of basic human needs, such as food, water, shelter, clothes, education and health care. There are three types of poverty:

* Poverty

* Absolute Poverty
Destitution

* Relative Poverty 
The condition of having fewer resources or less income than others within society or country compared to the worldwide averages. 

 

More than 1.7 billion people suffer from Absolute Poverty. Not everyone sees poverty as a problem in the world but more as a lifestyle they chose themselves to live. On a given night an estimated 672,00 people experiment homelessness. Meaning 22 out of every 10,000 people are homeless. 42% of those 672,000 are unsheltered. 58% live in shelters. 37% of the homeless people are in family units. 63% are individual adults. The rate goes up every year.

 

I wonder why people don’t take an action and help them. Why is it that it takes a killing or robbery for people to pay attention to what is going on un the world? Is the poverty rate different for different races?

 

For my next blog I will talk about the level of education and what poverty endures. So stay tuned!

These websites are great for information!


These websites are a great source!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty
http://www.irp.wisc.edu/faqs/faq1.htm#use
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Gay Rights

Posted by Ayoola Hooks-Gibbs in ENG1-003 on

​​

   Gay rights has been an issue since 1924.  I’ve seen shows with a gay person being bullied or beat up because of there sexuality. I thought that Gay rights would be a great topic for me to blog about. I’ve discovered a lot of websites about Gay Rights , mostly about marriages , and organizations. I wanted to learn more about the gay rights and what gay/lesbians and even trans gender teens go through.


   I wonder why people have hatred for people who are attracted to the same sex. How does that bother other people? There are probably a lot of topics about gay rights , but it seems to be that there are a lot of websites about the organizations for gay rights , and same sex marriages. I honestly want to focus on how Gays are treated by people who dislike Gays. I wonder if this will go on for the rest of our lives , can we prevent from Gays getting hurt because of there sexuality?


Tags: English 9, Dunn, You and the World

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The life of a Pregnant Teen.

Posted by Danielle Little in ENG1-003 on
    We are the World is a project that was created from 9th graders at Science Leadership Academy. Each student chose 1 issue that is an world world wide issue. Our assignment is to share our topic with others. The topic vary from child abuse to gangs in the army.
    My issue is teen pregnancy. This topic interests me because teen pregnancy doesn't just affect one or two people but families and communities. People are so judgmental in the world, I want to get deeper into what the pregnant teen or a couple true feelings are really about.
    To truly collect research about teen pregnancies, I watched many episodes of Teen Mom or 16 and Pregnant. In these two shows they explained and shown the real side of a teen pregnancy, not showing the fault of a couple. I learned that not only is it a fault of being  pregnant but it could also be a blessing. It gives the couple great opportunity and new chances to start over.
    My research only shows so much in that it is too much to share about teen pregnancy. It doesn't show what happens after 8 months after the child's born. I want to collect hands on research, such as interviewing the couple or mother, just to find out what really happens and not just what happens in Hollywood's view. I wonder what happens to a family after a couple of years?
    I'm hoping to interview families that's been through a teen pregnancy, to find the true meaning of what's happening in the household. To allow people's voices to be heard, not just from Hollywood's perspective.


To research more blogs on Teen Pregnancy's. Click Here
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