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7000 vs You

Cigarettes are a big problem in US and around the world. More than over 17% of the US smokes and cause over 480,000 deaths almost every year. That’s ridiculous and only to tell you that it starts with young teens.

Smoking has been around for a while now and has recently died down since 2005 by 3% but that's 17% percent that I was talked about before was filled with 15% of teens smoke under the age of 18. Now to me thatś crazy and I bet that some of you didn’t even know some of these things I just told you and probably won’t know the things I’m about to tell you. The reason why smoking is so bad is because it’s increase in risks of incurable diseases such as lung cancer.

Lung cancer. Smoking causes 80 to 90 percent of lung cancer cases in the US. This happens from all of the over 7000 chemicals in cigarettes and some of them give a more of a craving from flavored cigarettes appealing to the younger community and therefore increasing a higher death rate from cancer in young teens and all over the world setting a trend of how smoking is cool when it’s really is not at all.

A photo of only a few different chemicals in cigarettes. Check this image out for more information here

If you’re a smoker then technically you’re a murderer because second hand smoke kills 7,500 people per year . That is a problem because this consists of young children, elders and innocent people. It also messes up yours and others brain for the worst. It cause the brain to create extra receptors just to feel the sensation of nicotine in your system therefore giving you less money because you are craving something that is expensive. Every time  you buy a pack of cigarettes you lose up to $10. But back to the brian, cigarettes mess up the human brain sometimes causing brain damage due to nicotine withdrawal which comes from you losing nicotine which causes those extra brain receptors that you’ve built up to not receive nutrients then possibly some sort of brain trauma or making a person go crazy from lack of nicotine.

This picture shows how Nicotine builds those extra receptors in you brain

Those were just some facts about smoking and how bad it is but I want to tell you the reader a little story about my grandmother who smoked since she was 16 years of age and how that affected her life. My grandmother Linda was a lifetime smoker who enjoyed smoking and that ruined her life. Smoking made her crazy, poor and smell bad. Now I don’t like to speak on my grandmother that much because her addiction to nicotine has also affected my life for the worst as well. Smoking also gave her bronchitis which is a breathing disease in the bronchial glands and also gave a gum disease where she had rotten teeth that had to be removed. Now that sounds disgusting right? My grandmother is not a bad person, she is actually amazing but ever since she starting smoking or as it progressively gotten worse she gotten meaner in a since. Sometime she wouldn’t have the money to purchase cigarettes and would ask me. Most of the time I would pay for her addiction which I should´ve never done; But when I wouldn’t give her any money because either I didn’t have it or I didn’t want to give her the money she would get a really bad attitude and say things a grandmother shouldn’t say to her grandchild. What i’m trying to show you is that smoking changes people for the worse. It makes you very angry and upset and just not pleasant to be around.

Now speaking on the money issue with cigarettes, cigarette take up almost 80 million dollars  of the worlds pockets. Just like this picture shown here you’re basically burning your money away. Just imagine getting your check after a long week or 2 of work and cut it in half because that’s what your doing when you want to buy cigarettes that month. That is basically wasting money on suicide because every pack you smoke takes off 7-8 years

A diagram of everything that I talked about.                     BAD facts about smoking effects on lungs

Infographic of second hand death...I meant smoke on children from ages 3-11

A sensitive social issue in America is Transphobia. For clarification Transphobia is “intense dislike of or prejudice against transsexual or transgender people” by word of the dictionary. My goal in learning about this topic is to educate myself about a community I am surrounded by. The reason I leached to this social issue is because I am a Transgender male. I find this topic underrated and I want to open it up to the world more. Although my topic is centered to a specific group of people, it connects everyone in a different way. These people are apart of family, have friends, are someone’s coworker or partner. Events that occur to trans people effect others lives and emotions.

Ever since the precidency of Donald Trump sprung on the United States, hate towards groups of individuals has become more exposed due to the bravery our presdient gives to people who spill hate speech. In 2016 after Trump was elected the rate of hate crimes went up by 300. Since January 2017 at least twenty-five transgender individuals have been killed, 80% are transgender people of color, the most ever reported. The Trump administration has continued to put public attacks on the transgender community including his attempt to ban transgender people from the military.

The first reported transgender death of 2017 was on January 4th, Mesha Caldwell was a fourty-four year old African American woman who was a hair and makeup artist. She was shot to her death on a Mississippi road. Her murder is still being investigated to this very day but this is seems to be a trend among the other twenty-four deaths that have occured since 2017. Since the beginning of 2018 at least four trangender people have been shot or killed by any other violent means.  There is 1.6 million to 2.8 million homeless youth in the United states, twenty to forty precent of those children are trangender youth. More than 1 in 10 trandgender people are evicted from their homes. When seeking for a homeless shelter most do not have LGBT friendly communities and supplies. 22% of homeless transgender people are assulted while staying at shelters. The ignorance to the community has been recognized and several people have made their own shelter specifically for LGBTQ people and if not they are open to making theirs LGBTQ friendly. For example, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has promoted and created educational rescources for serving LGBTQ youth.

Sexual abuse is a big factor in most LGBTQ people’s lives. 47% of transgender people are sexually assualted during some point in their life. One in two transgender people are sexaully abused or assulted. Transgender youth and Transgender people are color are more commonly sexually abused than anyone. 13% of African American transgender people are sexually assaulted in their work place.  

My research has impacted my thoughts on this social situation because I always knew hate crimes occured but I never thought about how frequently they occur. Social actions to handle this problem occur all the time, including, awareness on social media, protests and contributing at local activist centers. Hate crimes transpire every day but its up to the youth to set a path of equality and freedom of speech for the generation after us. It’s up to you if you take part.

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