Cell Phone

So I know this is similar to a previous post, but right now it’s important to me. This last Saturday evening I received a phone call from my mom, telling me about a family emergency, I immediately left and drove home. While driving I realized just how important cell phones are to me. My mom lives in San Diego, my brother in Valencia and my boyfriend in Laramie, I talk to each of them on a daily basis while I go about my everyday business. While driving I just started thinking back to when phones didn’t exist, information would take months to be relayed whereas today it’s basically instant. Not only that far back, but thinking back to 20 years ago when you were trying to pass along information you would have to call and leave messages for the individual your were looking to reach, hoping they would get it in a timely manner.

I’m just very thankful for my cell phone and what it means to me . . .

State Bill Would Allow Guns on Campus

After reading an article published in the New York Times about a state bill in Arizona, it kind of makes me wonder what our world is coming to. The bill which proposed the right to these qualified to carry their concealed firearms on university campuses.
"Ms. Johnson, a Republican from Mesa, said she believed that the recent carnage at Northern Illinois University could have been prevented or limited if an armed student or professor had intercepted the gunman. The police, she said, respond too slowly to such incidents and, besides, who better than the people staring down the barrel to take action?" Originally Ms. Johnson wanted the bill to cover all aspects of education including kindergarten, it was later said to include only higher education. To my personal surprise Arizona is not the first state to propose this kind of legislation.
"The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a Washington nonprofit organization, said 15 states were considering legislation that would authorize or make it easier for people to carry guns on school or college campuses under certain conditions. Those states include Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Virginia, according to the center, but it considers the Arizona proposal particularly egregious because it would not only allow students and faculty to carry such weapons, but staff members as well."
This seems like a really bad idea to me, opening the door to the possibility of more violence by arming more people. Who's to say that people won't take matters into their own hands when dealing with personal problems and use this bill as a scapegoat? "The critics of such laws predict that they would cause more problems, including making it hard for the police to sort a dangerous gunman from a crowd of others with guns. They also argue that the guns would make it easier for people barely out of adolescence, or perhaps emotionally troubled, to respond lethally to typical campus frustrations like poor grades or failed romances."

A new drug?

While I was looking at Sign on San Diego.com, which is the website for the San Diego Union Tribune, a certain article caught my eye. It read; FDA approves drug to treat breast cancer, it described a newly approved drug (Avastin) that was passed mainly by the containment of cancer and not patient survival. It treats breast and colon cancer by cutting off the blood flow to the effected area. The controversy surrounding this drug is that the FDA is being careless and lowering medical standards, by passing a drug before they truly know its lasting effects. What’s also scary is that medical practices surrounding cancer and its treatment haven’t really changed since the 50’s, chemotherapy is still used. Cancer becomes more of a problem but a true and lasting solution still evades us.

History?

So as part of another class if mine, California at the Crossroads, one of the aspects of the class is to study the mission system. I'm not sure if every 4th grader gets to go on a field trip to a mission but i did, and the story they portray is completely different then what actually went on. It makes me so mad that the schools demonstrate this picturesque version of the truth. It's not only when dealing with the mission system but it's a lot of different aspects of history, why is the truth so hard to tell? Just because it might not be a positive aspect of history doesn't mean that you can bend the truth to make it look better.

Airport Madness

I had an interesting adventure to the San Jose Airport today, it seems like every time I go there it changes. I’m not going to lie it’s really frustrating! But that’s not what this rant is about, does it make any sense to anyone to post the warning level of security on the big construction signs? It’s that kind of like telling terrorist what day is best to attack oblivious travelers. I figure by now people know the drill when dealing with airport security so why do they feel the need to inform everyone of how high the stakes are!

Technology

As of Thursday evening I have been without a computer and can I just say that it sucks! I guess you never really appreciate something till it’s not there anymore, after having this epiphany I will have new love for my amazing laptop, as soon as I get it back. Before Thursday I never realized just how dependent our generation is on technology. What’s scary is that it’s becoming a more frequent occurrence to see 9 and 10 year olds chatting away on cell phones, but these aren’t normal cell phones anymore. You have access to the internet, your email, an mp3 player, can get directions and so much more all wrapped up to go pocket size. I’m just wondering where we’ll be in another 10 years. . .

If voting is key to maintaining this democracy then why do so many people give up their constitutional right to vote? Voting in its essence is having the ability to create change and maintaining that ensures that the government continues to cater to the needs of the people. I can understand that a lot of people believe that one vote doesn’t make a difference but what if half the state thought that way? Then you have the people that complain about how things are being run but don’t want to do anything about it. You also have the people that say they don’t have to time to stop by the polls and vote, that it’s too much of an inconvenience. Have they not heard of an absentee ballot? All you have to is fill it out and send it in, it’s as easy as that. So stop with all the excuses and make a difference, after all change is up to the people.